Directive on Rural Socialist Education
(May 10, 1963)

To all Central Bureaus, and the Party Committees of all provinces, municipalities, and regions:

Comrade Song Renqiong's report¹ and the Henan Provincial Party Committee's report² are hereby issued to you for study and reference. The Henan report shows that before the Central Committee's February Conference, they either failed to earnestly carry out socialist education work in accordance with the spirit of the instructions of the Tenth Plenary Session, or failed to grasp the key points of the issue and adopt appropriate methods. After the February Conference, they took up this work, grasped the key points of the issue, and adopted appropriate methods. In the first step, they trained over 150,000 cadres in just over twenty days. In the second step, they will train an additional 1.5 million cadres and activists from the poor and lower-middle peasants, after which the work will be rolled out comprehensively as the third step. During the first two steps, pilot projects were also conducted. This method of carrying out the work step by step and conducting pilot projects is correct. The other policies mentioned in the report are also correct. In short, it is essential to unite the overwhelming majority (over ninety percent) of cadres and the masses, appropriately resolve contradictions among the people—that is, resolve the problem of abnormal cadre-mass relations to varying degrees—and form a vast contingent of cadres and masses under leadership, so as to unite against the enemy. There must also be analysis when dealing with bad people and bad deeds. The severity varies, and the methods of handling them also differ. Education must be the primary approach, with punishment as a supplement. Those who truly need to be punished are only a very small minority whom both the masses and the leadership deem absolutely necessary to punish. The method Comrade Song Renqiong described—educating young people by recounting the histories of villages, families, cooperatives, and factories—is universally applicable. Socialist education is a major undertaking. Please examine your own understanding and work in this regard, check whether you have grasped the key points and whether the methods adopted are appropriate, and investigate whether there are still many prefectures, counties, and communes that have not taken up this work. If there are (and it seems there certainly are), it should be taken up during gaps in the busy farming season, under conditions that do not disrupt production. If it cannot be completed in the first half of the year, it can be done in the second half. If it cannot be completed this year, it can be done next year. Special attention must be paid to the method of proceeding step by step, the method of conducting pilot projects, and the policy of uniting the majority while isolating an extreme minority.

The Central Committee
May 10, 1963

¹ The main contents of the report on two issues concerning rural socialist education, submitted by Comrade Song Renqiong, First Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee on April 10, 1963, are: First, in the rural socialist education in the Northeast, the policy of focusing on positive education was upheld, and the method of mass self-education was relatively widely adopted. Second, during this rural socialist education, it was deeply felt that class education for young people must be consciously carried out. Educating young people with village histories, histories of cooperativization, factory histories, and the family histories of poor and lower-middle peasants and veteran workers; studying the deeds of advanced figures like Lei Feng; exhibiting physical objects from revolutionary struggles and class struggles; and reading red books—all can achieve very good results.

² The report on the current situation of the rural socialist education movement, submitted by the CPC Henan Provincial Party Committee to the Central Committee, Mao Zedong, and the Central-South Bureau on April 15, 1963, states: After the Central Work Conference, an enlarged meeting of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee was convened, and the province-wide socialist education movement was deployed in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee and the Chairman. The entire movement is divided into three steps: The first step is to properly conduct the county-level three-level cadre meetings; the second step is to properly conduct the commune (district)-level three-level cadre meetings—both steps are for training cadres and forming a contingent of cadres; the third step is to carry out socialist education among the masses, forming a class contingent and striking at the enemy through rooting and linking. At present, the movement has been underway for over twenty days. The first step has basically concluded, with over 150,000 cadres at the brigade level and above trained; the second step is in progress, with over 1.5 million cadres at the production team level and above and poor-peasant activists undergoing training; pilot projects for the third step have already begun and initial experience has been gained. The report states that the key to victory in the socialist education movement lies in forming a powerful class contingent. The most effective method for mobilizing the masses and organizing the class contingent is rooting and linking, recalling and contrasting, conducting grievance telling, arousing class consciousness, and mobilizing class sentiment. The mobilization of the poor and lower-middle peasants does not mean the class contingent has been fully formed; the issue of the relationship between cadres and the masses must also be resolved. Resolving the relationship between cadres and the masses should be carried out under the slogan of uniting against the enemy. The problems in cadre-mass relations are largely contradictions among the people in nature. Except for an extremely small number of degenerated and corrupt elements, they should all be resolved using methods for handling contradictions among the people. Cadres who have shortcomings or errors must sincerely engage in self-criticism, thoroughly examine themselves before the masses, resolutely correct their errors, actively make restitution, and match their words with deeds. Economic restitution should be handled in the spirit of leniency for the past and strictness for the future, strict ideological criticism and lenient economic handling, ensuring both that the masses can accept it and that the cadres can maintain their livelihood. In launching the struggle against the enemy, policy boundaries must be clearly delineated, different situations must be treated differently, and tactics must be emphasized.