Chairman: Today is the Spring Festival, and we’re holding a symposium to discuss international and domestic issues…

Do you think our country will collapse? Imperialism and revisionism have joined forces and reached our borders. Are democratic personages afraid of atomic bombs? If atomic bombs are dropped, it simply means going back to Yan’an. At that time, the entire Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region had a population of 1.5 million, and Yan’an city had 30,000 people. It’s good for people to be criticized so they can respond openly. The Kuomintang was clever for a while, not criticizing openly but issuing a document, the "Measures for Restricting Alien Parties," to restrict the Communist Party. Did you know about this?

Zhang Shizhao: I didn’t know.

Chairman: Your sources are not well-informed. In January 1941, the Kuomintang launched the Southern Anhui Incident, and we lost over 17,000 people. After that, they instigated several anti-communist upsurges, which taught the Party a lesson. Chiang Kai-shek is not a good man; whenever he gets a chance, he tries to crush us. After the War of Resistance, he talked about peace and invited me to Chongqing for negotiations, but each side issued its own orders. During the negotiations, they fought the Shangdang Campaign and wiped out three divisions under Gao Shuxun.

×××: Gao has already joined the Party. People can change.

Kang Sheng: Emperor Xuantong has come to offer New Year greetings (at the CPPCC).

Chairman: Emperor Xuantong should be properly united with. Guangxu and Xuantong were both my direct superiors. Xuantong’s salary of just over 100 yuan is too low; he’s an emperor, after all.

Zhang Shizhao: Xuantong’s uncle, Zaitao, is living in hardship.

Chairman: Zaitao was a Minister of the Army and studied in France. I know of him but am not familiar with him. Could you help him through your connections to improve his living conditions? If he has no fish to eat and stays home, at least help him improve his livelihood.

Being a lackey is not easy. Nehru is utterly useless. Imperialism and revisionism are running out of steam. Revisionism hits walls everywhere—in Romania they hit a wall, Poland doesn’t listen, and Cuba listens half the time and half the time not. Listening half the time is out of helplessness, as they produce no oil and no weapons. The imperialists are also having a hard time. Japan opposes the U.S., and it’s not just the Japanese Communist Party and the Japanese people; even big capitalists do. Not long ago, the Kitasaku Ironworks refused a U.S. investigation. De Gaulle’s opposition to the U.S. also stems from bourgeois demands. Establishing diplomatic relations with China was also their initiative. China opposes the U.S.—in the past, there was the Shen Chong incident in Beijing, and the whole nation opposed U.S. imperialism. Khrushchev’s revisionism calls us sectarian and pseudo-revolutionary—good criticism. Not long ago, the CPSU Central Committee sent a letter to the CPC Central Committee proposing four points: 1. Stop the open polemics; 2. Send experts again; 3. Negotiate the Sino-Soviet border; 4. Expand trade. The border can be negotiated; negotiations start on February 25. Trade can be done a little, but not too much. Soviet goods are bulky, expensive, and they always hold something back.

Kang Sheng: And the quality is poor.

Chairman: First bulky, second expensive, third poor quality, fourth holding back—it’s easier to deal with the French bourgeoisie; they at least have some business ethics.

There were mistakes in past work: first, blind commandism; second, excessive grain procurement, which has now been corrected. Now we’ve gone to the opposite extreme, from blind commandism to no direction at all, and that leads to a lack of drive. So we must learn from the People’s Liberation Army and the Daqing Oilfield under the Ministry of Petroleum. The Daqing Oilfield, with investment of over ××, took three years to build an oilfield with a capacity of ×× ten-thousand tons and a refinery of ×× ten-thousand tons—low investment, short time, high efficiency. Wen Haisu’s poems are worth reading.

Every ministry should learn from the Ministry of Petroleum and the PLA, develop a set of good practices, serve as a combat team against the enemy and a work team for ourselves. College students should also learn from the PLA. We must promote achievements, set up models, praise more, while also criticizing mistakes. Focus on praise, with criticism as a supplement. In our cause, there are many good people and many good examples that need to be praised.

Last year, Hebei suffered a major disaster, and the south had a drought. Originally the harvest was good, but heavy rains caused a loss of 20 billion jin of grain. Overall, last year’s output still increased by over 10 billion jin, and this year we must do even better. Now we are learning from the PLA, the Ministry of Petroleum, and model cases in cities, villages, factories, schools, and institutions, overcoming mistakes in work, and striving to do better this year.

Today we’re holding a symposium to discuss international issues. Domestic issues are fundamental; if things aren’t done well at home, it’s hard to talk about international matters. Now some countries want to establish diplomatic relations with us, such as the Congo—Lumumba’s Congo started guerrilla warfare, without any new-style weapons, just Guan Yu’s Green Dragon Crescent Blade and Zhang Fei’s ten-foot spear.

×××: And Huang Zhong’s arrows.

Chairman: Nothing but the weapons of Guan, Zhang, Zhao, Ma, and Huang—no new-style weapons. We didn’t have any in the past either. During the Nanchang Uprising, two regiments were lost. ××, Chen Yi, and Lin Biao led the remnants up Jinggangshan. I didn’t know how to fight at all. In 1918, I was at Peking University Library, earning eight silver dollars a month, with no control over food, clothing, housing, or travel. Zhang Shizhao refused to serve as an official under Yuan Shikai, who wanted him to be the president of Peking University, but he went there to run a newspaper instead. Huang Yanpei, Elder Huang, were you a constitutionalist?

Huang Yanpei: I was a revolutionary, not a constitutionalist; I joined the Tongmenghui.

Zhang Shizhao: He was a revolutionary.

Chairman: Chen Xulao, you were in the Research Clique. Zhang Shizhao took part in the Second Revolution and became a minister in 1925. Now you’re all with us, participating in the socialist construction of New China. This year, we aim to do our work even better—not only is this the hope of the central authorities, but also your hope. Xu Deheng, are you with the Ministry of Industry?

×××: His ministry has great prospects.

Chairman: Elder Huang, your family is like a microcosm of all parties and factions—the Democratic League, the Democratic Progressive Party, the Communist Youth League. Your son Huang Wanli wrote the lyric "He Xinlang" very well; I appreciate it. One person in the Jiusan Society writes excellent poetry; I appreciate that too. You have over ten children I don’t know well; you’re like Guo Ziyi.

Chairman Mao: All departments must learn from the PLA, establish political departments, and strengthen political work. We must promote achievements, set up models, praise more, and also criticize mistakes. Focus on praise, with criticism as a supplement. In our cause, there are many good people and good deeds that need to be praised.

Today I’d like to talk about education. Now that industry has made progress, I think education must also be reformed. It’s still not adequate. I believe the educational line and principles are correct, but the methods are wrong and need to change. Today we have comrades from the central authorities, Party members, non-Party comrades, and comrades from the Academy of Sciences. Now, let Comrade ××× speak.

×××: A pressing issue in education now is the length of the school system; it’s too long. Currently, children start school at age seven: six years of primary school, six years of secondary school, and university programs of six or generally five years, totaling 17 or 18 years. They don’t graduate from university until 24 or 25, then do one year of labor and one year of internship, leaving them at 26 or 27—two or three years older than in the Soviet Union, where primary and secondary schools take ten years and university takes four or five, entering the workforce at 23 or 24. Being older isn’t a big issue for liberal arts students, but for those studying natural sciences, it’s excessively long. Especially for those in atomic energy or cutting-edge sciences, they graduate at too late an age. Based on experiences worldwide, people in natural sciences can make contributions by 24 or 25. For example, in the U.S. and the Soviet Union, those who achieve results in natural sciences or atomic energy are generally 24 or 25—the best age for mental agility—while our students are still in university and haven’t entered the workforce. Starting work at 26 or 27 is unfavorable for scientific development. The school system is particularly long; we should consider this issue.

Chairman Mao: Can we shorten it a bit?

×××: Recently, Comrade ×× suggested five years for primary school and four for secondary school, so students finish secondary school by 16. If primary school is six years, they finish secondary school at 17. The problem is inadequate facilities; universities only admit 120,000 to 150,000 students each year. Others could start working at 16. After secondary school, two years of vocational education would allow them to enter factories or rural areas for work at 18, which is relatively appropriate. Alternatively, two years of preparatory education could link them to university, enabling them to work by 24 or 25. In short, it should be shortened. The central authorities are now specifically studying the school system and have set up a small group led by Comrade ××. Adopting such ideas to complete national education, students could generally graduate by 15 or 16. There’s just one issue: military service, as they’re not old enough, but they can serve as reserve soldiers.

Chairman Mao: That’s not a problem. Even if they’re not old enough for military service, they can still experience military life—not just boys, but girls too, forming Red Detachments of Women. Sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girls can undergo six months to a year of military life, and they can enlist at 17.

×××: This doesn’t pose a big problem for liberal arts schools, but it’s more of an issue for science and engineering programs. Universities could offer one or two years of preparatory courses; after secondary school, students could advance to university prep or attend vocational training schools for two years of education, then enter factories or rural areas for production at 18, which is relatively appropriate. For those taking science and engineering exams, working by 23 or 24 after graduation is also relatively suitable.

Chairman Mao: Now, reading too many books is deadly. The curriculum is too heavy, the workload too burdensome, keeping secondary and college students in a constant state of tension. Nearsightedness among primary and secondary students has multiplied—this absolutely must be changed.

×××: The curriculum is excessive and onerous. Teachers assign too much work; students can’t cope and are incredibly tense, with no time for extracurricular activities or reading.

Chairman Mao: The curriculum can be cut in half. Students need time for recreation, swimming, ball games, and free extracurricular reading. Confucius taught only six subjects: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. Even so, he produced great scholars like Yan Hui, Zengzi… and Mencius—four major sages. If students just study all day, without cultural entertainment, sports, swimming, or being able to run and jump, and without reading extracurricular materials… that won’t do.

×××: Students are incredibly tense. When I was at home, my child said getting top marks in every subject is useless.

Chairman Mao: Historically, top scholars in the imperial examinations rarely achieved distinction. Famous Tang Dynasty poets like Li Bai and Du Fu were neither jinshi (advanced scholars) nor members of the Hanlin Academy. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan were only second-rank jinshi. Wang Shifu, Guan Hanqing, Luo Guanzhong, Pu Songling, and Cao Xueqin were also not jinshi or Hanlin Academicians. Pu Songling was a promoted xiucai (licentiate), one rank higher, but still not a juren (successful candidate in the provincial exams). Those who became jinshi or Hanlin Academicians were all unsuccessful. In the Ming Dynasty, only two emperors did well—Ming Taizu and Ming Chengzu: one was illiterate, the other not very literate. Later, when intellectuals took power under Emperor Jiajing, things went wrong and internal chaos erupted. Emperor Wu of Han and Li Houzhu were highly cultured yet lost their kingdoms. This shows that reading too many books can be deadly. Liu Xiu was a university student, but Liu Bang was a roughneck.

×××: With so many courses and so much homework, students can’t think independently. The current examination methods…

Chairman Mao: The current examination methods are methods for dealing with enemies, not with the people. Implementing surprise attacks, setting tricky or bizarre questions—this is still testing the Eight-Legged Essay style. I don’t approve; it must be thoroughly reformed. I advocate openly announcing exam questions to students, letting them study on their own, research on their own, and answer based on their reading. For example, give 20 questions on Dream of the Red Chamber: if a student answers half, but some answers are brilliantly creative, they can get 100 points. Another student might answer all 20 questions by rote memorization from textbooks, as the teacher taught, with no creativity—then they can only get 50 or 60 points. During exams, students can discuss openly, even impersonate someone else. Impersonation is just copying someone else’s work; if I don’t know it, you write it, and I copy it—some understanding might be gained. We can pilot this, making it more lively, not deadly rigid. When teachers lecture verbosely, students should be allowed to doze off. If you lecture poorly and still force people to listen, it’s better to let them sleep and rest their minds rather than sit with eyes wide open listening to something boring. They don’t have to listen; let them take it easy and rest their brains.

×××: If the school system is shortened, time can be freed up for labor or military service. We could consider allowing outstanding students to skip grades; they shouldn’t be held back indefinitely. My child’s classmate who was originally a top student later skipped a grade and remained a top student, so grade-skipping is clearly possible. Regarding the school system issue, I request that Comrade ×× form a special study group.

Chairman Mao: Let ×× and ××× both join this group. Currently, we’ve made things too rigid—too many courses, too rigid exams. I don’t approve. The present educational methods destroy talent and wreck young people. I don’t approve of reading so many books. The examination methods are for dealing with enemies—deadly harmful—and must be stopped.

×××: The provincial education commissioners are currently in a meeting, with two issues to study: first, students’ excessive workload, with homework for every subject; second, three sets of educational methods: one from Confucius, one from the Soviet Union, and one from Dewey.

Chairman Mao: Confucius wasn’t like this. We’ve discarded the mainstream of Confucius—he only had six subjects: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. (Chairman Mao asked ×××: Is "shu" calligraphy or history?)

×××: It’s calligraphy, I think.

Chairman Mao: It’s probably history, like the Book of Documents and the Book of Han.

×××: Now primary and secondary schools take progressing to the next level as their sole goal; after graduation, students are unwilling to do labor. This is a big problem and needs to be addressed. We must integrate education with productive labor and also walk on two legs. Last year, Hebei Province experienced severe flooding, and the Education Department was very anxious; many buildings collapsed. After much thought, they established simple schools, and unexpectedly, primary and secondary enrollment actually increased.

Chairman Mao: The floods washed away dogmatism—both foreign dogmas and local dogmas must be swept away.

XXX: Other regions are pursuing standardization and single-form teaching, refusing to adopt multi-grade teaching. As a result, student numbers have dropped, the number of poor and lower-middle peasants has declined, and a great many poor and lower-middle peasants are out of school. Hebei Province has gained some good experience. Xinhui County in Guangdong Province surveyed over a dozen agricultural middle schools and regular middle schools. To train a student in a regular middle school, the state spends 120 yuan a year; to train a student in an agricultural middle school, it costs only 6 yuan and 80 jiao a year. Graduates of agricultural middle schools have no problem finding employment, whereas graduates of regular middle schools who fail the college entrance exam face great difficulty in finding jobs. Therefore, both primary and secondary schools must walk on two legs, while at the same time paying attention to improving quality. Previously, we simply followed the Soviet set of methods. In 1958 there was an impact, with a bit too much labor, and learning was neglected—once that was corrected, things improved. It is the same with literature and art: now the standard is relatively high, but without 1958, there would not be the current standard.

Chairman Mao: We must drive the opera singers, poets, writers, and dramatists out of the cities, send them all down. They must all go in stages and batches to the countryside and to the factories. Don't let writers reside in government offices. If they don't go down, they won't write anything; whoever does not go down will not be given meals—only after they go down will meals be provided.

XXX: Currently, about two percent or so of primary and secondary school teachers are bad elements, and there are also notorious bad elements in primary and secondary schools.

Chairman Mao: That's not serious; they can be transferred to other jobs.

XXX: Now the worst students enter normal schools, while good students go into science and engineering. In the future, we may consider having liberal arts departments in normal schools not directly recruit high school graduates, but instead recruit students who have done one or two years of labor after high school. Students of natural sciences must also go down. The Harbin XX School has experience: teachers were sent down for one or two years; those who were originally not so good all turned out quite well after returning from labor and became backbone cadres.

Chairman Mao: They should go down. Now some people do not attach importance to rural labor. In the Ming dynasty, Li Shizhen ran about everywhere, climbing mountains to gather medicinal herbs. Zu Chongzhi never attended middle school or university. Confucius came from a poor peasant family, herded sheep, and never went to middle school or university; he was a trumpeter and drummer—he did all kinds of things. When someone died, he would play and drum for them. He might also have worked as an accountant, could play the zither and drive a carriage, ride a horse and shoot a bow. "Yu" meant driving a carriage—that is, being a chauffeur. He taught 72 worthies like Yan Hui and Zengzi, and had three thousand disciples. From childhood, he came from the masses and understood some of the people's hardships. Later, he became an official in the state of Lu, though not a very high-ranking one. Lu had a population of over a million, but people looked down on him for a long time. When he traveled through the various states, people cursed him, saying he liked to speak plain truths, that he could not endure hardship or bear being cursed. Later, Zilu became Confucius's personal attendant and bodyguard, and he forbade anyone from speaking ill of Confucius; whoever did, he would beat them. From then on, ill words no longer reached his ears, but the masses dared not approach him. Discard the tradition of Confucius; we don't want it. Our policy is correct, but the methods are wrong. The current school system, curricula, teaching methods, and examination methods all have many problems. This whole set must be changed. It is destroying people.

XXX: Five-year primary school is feasible with certainty.

Chairman Mao: Primary school should not be too long either. Gorky only attended two years of primary school; his learning was entirely self-taught. Benjamin Franklin from America started out selling newspapers and invented electricity. Watt was a worker who invented the steam engine. In ancient and modern times, in China and abroad, many scientists achieved success through self-study in practice.

XX: After the educational reform in the future school system, it would be acceptable for students to enter work positions at the age of 23 or 24. Starting school at seven is too late; it can be moved to age six, but there are building issues. Changing primary school to five years can resolve some of the housing problems. Four years for middle school, one or two years of preparatory courses, and because university disciplines vary in nature, they can be diversified. Universities admit 140,000 to 150,000 students each year; one- or two-year preparatory courses can be set up.

XXX: Before entering university, a period of time can be set aside to go to factories and to the countryside to perform labor.

Chairman Mao: Also to the army for tempering.

XX: That works for liberal arts, but science has issues with mathematics, physics, and chemistry—after two years of labor, they might be forgotten.

XX: In the Soviet Union, after graduating from middle school, students do two years of labor and then enter physics and chemistry programs, which leads to a disconnect.

XX: Apart from a few individual schools, universities can adopt three types of academic systems: six years mainly for medicine, five-year systems for science and engineering, and four-year systems for liberal arts. Four years will do for most universities. In the future, the school system should take diversified forms, with multiple academic systems. Urban middle schools should run two types: one for students aiming for university, and another for those entering specialized colleges and graduating in two years.

Chairman Mao: Correct, it must be diversified.

XX: The curriculum problem is mainly a lack of focus, and there's the problem studied before: many courses are repeated several times. In middle school, there are eight or nine subjects per semester, with many exams, and it's very intense.

Chairman Mao: Now, first, there are too many courses; second, there are too many books. The pressure is too heavy. Some courses don't necessarily need exams. For example, learning some logic and grammar in high school—don't have exams. Truly understanding requires gradual comprehension through work; it's enough to know what grammar is, what logic is.

XX: Now it's all cramming, rote memorization, and learning by rote.

XXX: Now there are two schools of opinion: one advocates explaining thoroughly and deeply in class; the other advocates that students can comprehend, learn, but learn a bit less in class. Currently, many schools follow the former. The former is not something that cannot be done, but insisting on doing it that way rigidifies thinking.

Chairman Mao: This is scholastic philosophy. The annotations to the Four Books and the Five Classics are very scholastic and now cannot be digested at all. Scholastic philosophy is always doomed to perish. For instance, classical studies produced so many annotations, and now they've all been wiped out. I think students taught by such methods, whether in China, America, or the Soviet Union, all are headed for elimination and will turn into their own opposites. Take Buddhist scriptures: there are so many; the Diamond Sutra as collated by Xuanzang of the Tang dynasty is relatively simplified, only around a thousand characters long, and still exists today. Another version, collated by Kumarajiva, has far too many characters and has perished. Didn't the Five Classics and the Thirteen Classics also become impractical? Heavily annotated, in the end no one reads them. In the 14th and 15th centuries, scholastic philosophy flourished; it was only in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries that we entered the age of enlightenment, and the Renaissance emerged. Books must not be read in excess. Marxist books must be read, but not too many—reading a dozen or so is enough. Reading too much leads to the opposite, turning one into a bookworm, into dogmatism and revisionism. In Confucius's books, there is no agricultural knowledge, so his students never engaged in physical labor and couldn't tell the five grains apart. On this front, we must think of ways.

XXX: There's also the issue of politics and student meals, which need improving. They currently eat 12.5 yuan per month; more spending would require an additional 40 million yuan.

Chairman Mao: Spending an extra 40 million yuan is also acceptable.

XXX: Increase by an additional two to four yuan.

Chairman Mao: Reading too much leads to death by study. Emperor Wu of Liang was quite good in his early years, but later, after reading too much, he became useless and starved to death in Taicheng.