Langdan F’s Record of the Talk
The “Three Guarantees and One Reward” system is “cumbersome philosophy”: Look, there are thirty-seven procedures, forty-nine percentages, and a total of one hundred twenty-eight accounts. Just the quotas alone number over four hundred.
Opposing views:
(1) It would revert to primary-level cooperatives;
(2) It is detrimental to infrastructure development;
(3) There are too many requisition targets;
(4) Some disaster-stricken teams find it difficult to provide support;
(5) It hinders the move toward mechanization;
(6) Too many difficulties arise when changes are needed. In fact, all six of these objections can be addressed.
Tang County tlr Commune in Baoding Prefecture, Hebei Province:
Eleven production brigades.
All operate under the household responsibility system.
Nominally, they follow the “three guarantees and one reward” policy both at the county and district levels, but in reality, they practice the household responsibility system. Despite being labeled as “right-leaning,” they refuse to change. The masses support this approach. Grain yields have increased year after year. The livestock numbers are comparable to those of 1957 and are quite healthy, while pig populations remain at the 1957 level. State requisitions have grown annually, with each brigade making unified deliveries—strictly enforced from top to bottom.
Four types of people:
(1) Speculators;
(2) Those enthusiastic about private plots and small-scale land reclamation, yet reluctant to actively participate in collective production;
(3) Slackers;
(4) Vagrants. The masses deeply resent these four categories and seek ways to control them.
Matters that brigades should manage:
(1) Requisitioning;
(2) Directly affiliated enterprises (such as blacksmith shops and brick/tile kilns), artesian wells, rice and flour processing plants, etc.;
(3) Schools (primary schools);
(4) Necessary infrastructure projects, such as water conservancy;
(5) Essential relief efforts;
(6) Necessary subsidies;
(7) Self-defense forces and public security;
(8) Crop planning and management;
(9) Party work and political-ideological education.
On September 28, 1961, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticós, and Martínez Sánchez, a member of the Political Bureau of the United Revolutionary Organizations of Cuba, held talks.

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In September 1961, Mao Zedong visited the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse to return the courtesy call to Cuban President Dorticós. Photo provided.
Letter to the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee
(September 29, 1961)
To the members of the Standing Committee and relevant comrades:
Enclosed is a letter from Geng Changsuo of Wugong Commune in Shen County, Hebei Province11, along with twelve copies of materials from the Shandong Provincial Party Committee’s March 1961 symposium on conflicts between large and small production teams12. Also included are documents from the Hubei Provincial Party Committee dated September 20th.
[1]
1. Change the current policy of assessing and requisitioning grain based on individual plots to a standardized per-mu average requisition system. Those who produce more will not face higher requisition quotas, and those who produce less will not have their quotas reduced. Artificial losses should not affect the targets, and special cases due to extraordinary disasters should be handled individually. Production teams may adopt the “four guarantees and one reward” approach for smaller units, without transferring surpluses or deficits between teams—those who produce more benefit more, and those who produce less benefit less. 2. Firmly adhere to the working methods of adapting to local conditions and following the mass line, trusting the masses and conducting extensive investigations and studies. 3. Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, so concrete efforts to consolidate its foundations must be strengthened. 4. Promote the exchange of livestock and lift restrictions that prevent animals from leaving certain regions.
[2]

--- Notes

Refers to a letter dated December 30, 1960, written by Geng Changsuo, head of Wugong Commune in Shen County, Hebei Province, to Tan Zhenlin, Vice Premier of the State Council. In the letter, Geng states that Wugong Commune experienced a yield reduction of more than 50% in 1960 compared to 1959. Besides natural disasters, human factors also played a role: first, the principle of adapting to local conditions and following the farming seasons was violated; second, Party policies were not earnestly implemented. Requisition targets kept increasing while individual food rations decreased, leading to low morale among the commune members and a general decline in the quality of agricultural work. Regarding how to achieve a bumper harvest next year and improve living standards, he offers the following suggestions:

Refers to the “Opinions from the Symposium on Conflicts Between Large and Small Teams within Rural People’s Communes” compiled by the Rural Work Department of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the CPC. This document notes that in recent years, serious issues such as concealing production and privately dividing crops, as well as lack of enthusiasm among commune members, have been widespread. The root cause lies in the economic imbalances between small teams within the same accounting unit, where differences in productivity and income are significant, yet profits are uniformly distributed by the larger production team, giving rise to egalitarianism. To resolve this, it is necessary to unify the “four rights”—namely, unifying ownership and usage rights of means of production, as well as production and distribution rights. Based on the principle of unifying these four rights, the accounting unit should be a direct production unit, and its size should not be excessively large.