--- Notes

Comments on the Draft of Several Instructions from the Central Committee Concerning Current Rural Work [1] and Other Documents (October 30, 1961) 1. Forward this immediately to Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Chen, Lin, and Deng [2] for their review; thereafter, hand it over to Yang Shangkun for issuance.
As for Part [3] of Mao’s remarks dated the 30th, comrades may choose not to read it.

2. All these materials may be circulated further [4]. Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript, October 30.

Notes [1] Refers to the draft of Several Instructions from the Central Committee Concerning Current Rural Work, submitted for review on October 30, 1961, by Yang Shangkun, Alternate Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.
The draft stated: “Current rural work is arduous, and all localities must concentrate their efforts on grain procurement and purchase, the acquisition of agricultural and sideline products, autumn harvest and wheat sowing, and disaster relief production, among other tasks.
Therefore, with regard to changing production teams into basic accounting units, we should, for the time being, follow the Central Committee’s instructions of October 7 and confine ourselves to conducting investigations and pilot projects, refraining from widespread implementation.
As for adopting the ‘large-package contracting’ method of distribution, except in a few areas where leaders at all levels already have direct experience and cadres and the masses are mentally prepared, so that its implementation can genuinely promote current work, such areas may proceed in stages.
In most other regions, however, pilot programs should first be carried out to gain experience, after which implementation can be undertaken in phases.”
“In order to avoid too broad an impact, post-autumn and year-end distributions throughout the country should, as a general rule, be conducted according to the originally determined distribution plans, without making changes lightly.”
On the same day, the CPC Central Committee issued this directive. [2] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi; Zhou, to Zhou Enlai; Zhu, to Zhu De; Chen, to Chen Yun; Lin, to Lin Biao—each of whom at that time served as Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.
Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at the time was General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. [3] Refers to four additional documents that Yang Shangkun had submitted along with the draft of the Central Committee’s instructions on current rural work: 1. A telephone report dated October 26, 1961, from the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee concerning the implementation of the large-package contracting method in the three northeastern provinces. 2. A report dated October 23 from the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to the Central Committee, discussing issues such as the basic accounting unit of rural people’s communes. 3. A request-report dated October 24 from the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC to the Central Committee and the East China Bureau regarding the implementation of the large-package contracting policy. 4. A report dated October 18 from the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC to the Central Committee, to Mao Zedong, and to the South-Central Bureau, concerning the question of adopting production teams as the basic accounting units. [4] On October 30, 1961, the CPC Central Committee forwarded these four documents, which Yang Shangkun had enclosed for Mao Zedong, to all central bureaus and party committees of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, under the title “The Central Committee Circulates Four Documents Concerning the Adoption of Production Teams as Basic Accounting Units and the Implementation of the Large-Package Contracting Method.”