To be distributed to all comrades for reference.
Please have Comrade Peng Zhen[1] handle this.
Mao Zedong
October 7, 1:00 a.m.

Attached are the record of the forum convened by Comrade Mao Zedong with department and bureau officials[2] and five documents from Hebei Province, along with the report from the Hubei Provincial Party Committee dated September 25 on this matter and the two attached documents[3]; two documents from Shandong Province[4] and one document from Guangdong Province[5] are also provided for your reference. Judging from these documents, in the majority of cases, it is relatively better to take the production team as the basic accounting unit.

[1] Peng Zhen, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.
[2] The record of the forum with department and bureau officials refers to the notes taken by Mao Zedong at the forum held in Handan on September 27, 1961.
[3] Refers to the report of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee dated September 25 on this matter and the two attached documents.
[4] The two documents from Shandong Province refer to the "Opinions from the Forum on the System of Rural People's Communes" by the Rural Work Department of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee (originally published in *Rural Work Conditions*, No. 5, compiled and printed by the General Office of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee on March 17, 1961, and reprinted in *Briefing on Conditions* compiled and printed by the General Office of the Central Committee) and the report of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee dated October 5 on the issue of the "three guarantees and one reward" system. The report of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee dated October 5 stated: Regarding the issue of the "three guarantees and one reward" system, we took the opportunity of the meeting of the first secretaries of various prefectural and municipal party committees in the province to hold a special forum. Everyone reported that since the Guangzhou Conference this spring, in the process of implementing the Sixty Articles on Agriculture and opposing egalitarianism, a prominent problem has emerged. Specifically, when implementing the method of taking the production brigade as the basic accounting unit and applying the "three guarantees and one reward" system to the production teams, certain contradictions have arisen. The main issue is that, due to the unified distribution by the brigade, there exists a certain degree of egalitarianism among the production teams, resulting in the concealment of output and private distribution. The "three guarantees" are essentially ineffective, and the efforts of the brigade are largely futile. To resolve this contradiction, various localities have explored some methods, with many different names but similar in nature, essentially transferring the distribution rights to the production teams. During the forum, except for the Yantai area, which insisted on implementing the "three guarantees and one reward" system, the other eight areas all believed that it was imperative to delegate the basic accounting unit to the production teams. They believed the advantages of doing so were: (1) Cadres and commune members are all very pleased, and production enthusiasm has increased, especially the enthusiasm for collective production has been further mobilized. (2) Brigade cadres have been relieved of many unnecessary troubles, and only three or four people are needed. (3) Commune members have a clear understanding of distribution, truly achieving "knowing the year in advance," overcoming egalitarianism between teams, and completely resolving the problem of concealing output and private distribution. (4) It can increase the commodity volume of grain and various cash crops. (5) It is beneficial for protecting and increasing livestock and farm tools and for restoring agricultural production. At the same time, everyone also noted that after changing to the production team as the basic accounting unit, there are some specific issues that need attention and resolution.
[5] The one document from Guangdong Province refers to the report of the investigation team of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee in March 1961 on the situation after the trial implementation of the method of fixed quotas for delivery by the production teams (small teams) in Lixi Brigade, Dali Commune, Nanhai County.