Letter to Zhou Shizhao [1] (December 26, 1961) Comrade Shizhao: I have received your kind letter and apologize for my late reply. I very much agree with your views. Please continue to strive hard. I am doing quite well; I am in good health and free from illness, which should be reassuring to you. “Autumn winds sweep across the land of hibiscus, while evening mists and morning clouds shroud the village of wisteria.” [2] “From the southwest, clouds gather at Mount Heng; day and night the river’s roar descends upon Dongting Lake.” [3] Comrade, to find yourself in such an environment—how delightful it must be! Mao Zedong December 26, 1961 Printed according to The Selected Letters of Mao Zedong. (With manuscript.) Notes [1] Zhou Shizhao was then Vice Governor of Hunan Province. [2] See Tan Yongzhi’s “An Autumn Night by the Xiang River in the Rain” (Volume 764 of The Complete Tang Poems); the original second line reads: “Evening mists over a thousand villages entwined with wisteria.” [3] This is a couplet hanging in the Wangxiang Pavilion at Yunlu Palace on Yuelu Mountain in Changsha, Hunan. It is taken from the seven-character regular-verse poem “Reclimbing Yuelu Mountain” by Huang Daorang, a poet of the late Qing dynasty (from Volume 6 of Snow Bamboo Studio Poetry Manuscripts). The original first line reads: “From the southwest, clouds part to reveal Mount Heng.”