Comments and Revisions on the Draft Central Instruction Concerning the Basic Accounting Units in Rural Areas [1] (October 7, 1961) I. This is to be circulated to all comrades as it stands.
Printed from Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.
II.
To be handled by Comrade Peng Zhen [3]. Mao Zedong, October 7, 1:00 a.m., printed from the handwritten draft.
III.
Enclosed are the minutes of the Handan Talks convened by Comrade Mao Zedong [4], together with five documents from Hebei Province [], a report dated September 25 by the Hubei Provincial Party Committee on this matter and its two accompanying documents [], two documents from Shandong Province [7], and one document from Guangdong Province []. Please refer to these materials.
Judging from them, for the majority of cases, taking the production team as the basic accounting unit is preferable.

Printed according to Mao Zedong’s revised version.
Notes [1] “In order to further stimulate the enthusiasm of the peasant masses for collective production, there is a pressing need to study whether it is better to take the production brigade or the production team (formerly the production sub-team) as the basic accounting unit.
This question was briefly considered at the Guangzhou Conference in March of this year and should now be re-examined.”
“For the majority of cases, taking the production team as the basic accounting unit is preferable.
Its greatest advantage lies in rectifying the unreasonable situation where the basic unit of production is the production team, while the unified distribution unit remains the production brigade, thereby resolving the long-standing contradiction within the collective economy between production and distribution.
All Central Bureaus, provincial, municipal, and autonomous regional party committees, as well as local and county party committees, are requested to carefully study this issue during the latter half of October and the first half of November.
Relevant leading officials at all levels of the party must personally go down to the countryside and dispatch capable working groups to extensively solicit the opinions of the masses and conduct in-depth investigations.
Counties may also select one or two production brigades for pilot trials to gain experience, but widespread implementation should be deferred for the time being.
During the trial phase, special attention must be paid to ensuring that means of production, particularly draught animals and farm implements, suffer no losses.
The Central Committee intends to make a decision on this matter at its December meeting this year.
All Central Bureaus and provincial, municipal, and autonomous regional party committees are requested to submit their findings and views on this investigation to the Central Committee before the end of November.”
On October 7, 1961, the CPC Central Committee issued this instruction. [2]

Text One was written on a handwritten copy of this instruction; Mao Zedong titled it “Central Instruction (Draft, For Discussion).” Text Two was written on a typeset copy of the same instruction, with Mao changing the title to “Central Instructions to All Central Bureaus and Provincial, Municipal, and Regional Party Committees Regarding the Issue of Basic Accounting Units in Rural Areas.”
Text Three consists of Mao Zedong’s revisions made on both drafts, with text in Song typeface representing additions by Mao.

[3] Peng Zhen, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat.

[4] The minutes of the Handan Talks can be found on pages 62–5 of this volume.

[ ] Five documents from Hebei Province are referenced in note [ ] on page —5 of this volume.

[ ] The report dated September 25 by the Hubei Provincial Party Committee on this matter, along with its two attached documents, are cited in note [3] on page 67–5 of this volume.

[7] The two documents from Shandong Province comprise the “Opinions Expressed at a Symposium on the System of People’s Communes in the Countryside” prepared by the Rural Work Department of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee (originally published in No. 5 of “Rural Work Situation,” compiled and distributed by the General Office of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee on March 17, 1961, and subsequently reprinted in the Central Office’s “Briefing on the Situation”; see note [ ] on page 60–4 of this volume), together with the Shandong Provincial Party Committee’s October 5 report on the “Three Guarantees and One Reward” policy.

The October 5 report states that, taking advantage of a provincial-level meeting attended by first secretaries of various cities and counties, a special symposium was held on this issue.
Participants noted that since the Guangzhou Conference in the spring of this year and the subsequent implementation of the Sixty Articles on Agriculture and the campaign against egalitarianism, a prominent problem had emerged: when adopting the practice of using the production brigade as the basic accounting unit while applying the “Three Guarantees and One Reward” system to production teams, certain contradictions arose—mainly because, under the brigade’s unified distribution, a degree of egalitarianism persisted among the teams, leading to concealed reporting of output and private appropriation.
In effect, the “Three Guarantees” failed to hold, and the brigade-level arrangements amounted to largely futile labor.
Localities have explored various approaches to resolving this contradiction, though they differ only in name and are essentially similar, all tending toward transferring distribution authority to the production teams.
At the symposium, with the exception of the Yantai region, which continued to uphold the “Three Guarantees and One Reward” system, the other eight regions unanimously agreed that it was imperative to lower the basic accounting unit to the level of the production team.
They believed that doing so would bring several benefits: (1) Both cadres and commune members were pleased, and overall production enthusiasm increased, especially the collective spirit. (2) Brigade-level cadres were relieved of much unnecessary trouble, requiring only three or four personnel. (3) Commune members had clear expectations regarding distribution, achieving genuine “advance knowledge” for the year ahead, thereby overcoming inter-team egalitarianism and completely eliminating the problems of concealed output and private division. (4) It would be possible to increase the commercial output of grain and various cash crops. (5) This arrangement would help protect and expand livestock and farm tools, thus facilitating the recovery of agricultural production.
At the same time, participants also pointed out that after switching to the production team as the basic accounting unit, certain specific issues still needed careful attention and resolution.

[8] The single document from Guangdong Province refers to a March 1961 report by an investigative team of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee on the trial implementation of a production team–level contracting system in the Lixi Brigade of the Dali Commune in Nanhai County.
See note [1] on page 45 of this volume.