(1964)
In Tong County, it is said that professors are not as good as assistant instructors, and assistant instructors are not as good as students. The more books one reads, the more stupid one becomes.
Studying documents for over forty days, engaging in scholastic philosophy. I have always opposed studying this way. I see this as a superstition, and we must hold a big meeting to struggle against it.
We must not get entangled in documents. In the past when we fought wars, we would just pull up and fight, winning some battles and losing some battles. There were no books whatsoever. Some say we relied on *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* to fight wars. Who can fight a war by following a book? Whether it was Lin Biao, He Long, or Luo Ronghuan, were they experts from the very beginning? Or did they learn through fighting? Whether expert or layman, one must fight in order to learn. If you do not fight, but solely study there, how can you learn? One must always fight to learn; without fighting, one cannot learn.
(When mentioning that some comrades studied documents for two months before entering the village)
The more you study, the more stupid you become! At the Whampoa Military Academy, there was a five-month induction period and four months of formal officer training, studying the four major courses. I do not believe these work. Drill a bit, practice a bit, and then graduate. Upon coming out, they still could not fight wars. Lin Biao told me that when he first came out as a company commander, he could not fight wars. Whatever the squad leader told him to do, he did, because the squad leader had experience, so he had no choice but to listen to the squad leader. After fighting a few times, he learned how to fight.
Article Twenty is too long, too complicated. If a book is too thick, no one will read it; if an article is too long, no one will look at it. Do not engage in scholastic philosophy.

(1964)
In speeches, there has never been a need for applause; people should be allowed to doze off and rest their minds. In the past, when I studied, I would read novels. When the teacher checked, I would just place the textbook over the novel. This may be my flaw, or perhaps the teacher was wrong, and it was better to read novels. Later, I invented the method of dozing off. Do not say that I, this person, have no creativity; I do have some. In this way, it dealt with those who engage in lecturing rather than conversational teaching. Once there are lecture notes, there is no need to speak further.

Photographic image
On July 2, 1964, Mao Zedong received the cast of *Ten Thousand Rivers and a Thousand Mountains*.