Issuance of Annotations on Several Poems Published in the Guangming Daily [1] (December 29, 1961) 1. These poems are good; please circulate them to all comrades [2]. Mao Zedong, December 29

2. Comrade Xu Yefu [3]: Please have these poems immediately printed and distributed to all comrades [2]. Mao Zedong, morning of the 29th.

Printed from the manuscript. Notes [1] Refers to several poems published on page four of the December 28, 1961 issue of the Guangming Daily: First, “Admiring Chrysanthemums” by the renowned educator Wu Yanin: “Unbidden, the Frost Maiden dares to deceive; In the old garden, new branches vie to display their wonders. Autumn’s hues are as lovely as spring’s— O west wind, do not rashly shake the eastern fence! Tender reds and deep purples fill countless pots, Twisted and entwined like coiling dragons, each with its own roots. To attest that next year’s blooms will be even more brilliant, I inscribe these lines, to be revisited again.” Second, two seven-character regulated verse poems by Qian Changzhao, a deputy to the National People’s Congress. The first is “Lutai Farm”: “Wheat seedlings thrive, grain is brought to market—who would have believed that once this was but a desolate wasteland? With complete irrigation and drainage systems and sound crop rotation, Lutai has today become a granary.” The second is “Rural Life in Gaocheng”: “Sweet potatoes dry upon the walls, vegetables hang from the eaves; Cotton fields stretch out in endless swathes, while wheat seems boundless. Amid the lively songs of the countryside, young men and women in green and red linger in the evening glow.” [2] Refers to the comrades who attended the Central Committee Work Conference of the CPC held in Beijing from December 20, 1961, to January 10, 1962. [3] Xu Yefu was at that time Mao Zedong’s confidential secretary.