Comment on Printing Large-Character Editions of Classical Works [I]
(August 14, 1963)

Comrade Zhou Yang:
I agree to the method of using photographic enlargement and offset printing. However, please note that the covers should not use hard paper; large books (for example, *Materialism and Empirio-Criticism* and *Anti-Dühring*) were previously customarily made into one volume or two volumes, but now they should be divided and bound into four volumes or eight volumes, so that the weight of each volume is reduced.

Mao Zedong
August 14

[I]
This comment was written on the request for instructions report submitted by Zhou Yang, Vice Minister of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, to Mao Zedong. Zhou Yang’s report stated that the issue of stipulating a book list for cadres to read the classical works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin had already been discussed once at a meeting convened and presided over by Comrade Lu Dingyi, and a preliminary book list had been drawn up, which had now been sent to Chen Boda for review, and would be reported to the Chairman after final discussion and decision. Regarding the matter of printing large-character editions of classical works, the comrades in the publishing field were of the opinion that it would be best to adopt photographic enlargement and offset printing.