Comrade Zhang Pinghua: Your letter [2] may be distributed to the Party committees of all prefectures, cities, counties, and communes throughout Hunan Province for study and for handling in like manner.
In all cases, we must resolutely follow the mass line; all problems must be discussed with the masses, and then decisions must be made jointly and implemented as policy.
Party committees at all levels are not permitted to refrain from conducting investigation and research work.
It is absolutely forbidden for a minority within a Party committee to refrain from investigation, refrain from consulting with the masses, shut themselves up in a room, and concoct subjectivist so-called policies that are deadly harmful.
Mao Zedong
May 14, 1961, in Tianjin

Published based on the *Selected Letters of Mao Zedong*, People's Publishing House, 1983 edition.

Notes
[1] Zhang Pinghua, born in 1907, a native of Ling County (now Yanling), Hunan Province. At the time, he was serving as First Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
[2] Refers to Zhang Pinghua’s letter to Mao Zedong dated May 13, 1961. The letter reported on his investigation in a production brigade, where he consulted with the masses to resolve problems concerning distribution according to work and management operations.