On the document
“Shanxi Province’s Peasant Training Institutes Are Doing a Fine Job”
Notes by Chuan
(June 7, 1965)
Jiang Qing has reviewed it. There are four items in total. Item 121: If you are feeling well, you might take a look.
Mao Zedong
June 7th
[l]
These notes were written on the material titled “Shanxi Province’s Peasant Training Institutes Are Doing a Fine Job,” which appeared in Issue 173 of the “Briefing on Current Affairs” compiled and printed by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on May 29, 1965. The material stated that from last winter through this spring, in order to arm the broad masses of poor and lower-middle peasants with Mao Zedong Thought, further raise their class consciousness and revolutionary self-awareness, and identify and cultivate active participants in the three major revolutionary movements in the countryside as well as core cadres for grassroots organizations, peasant training institutes were widely established in counties across Shanxi Province. It now appears that holding such institutes has yielded very good results. A total of 97 counties (and county-level cities) within the province have successively organized these institutes. By the end of March this year, they had trained 92,901 students, with each session lasting about twenty days. The curriculum was based on twelve key texts, including Chairman Mao’s “Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society,” “In Memory of Norman Bethune,” “The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains,” “Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?” and the five criteria concerning successors to the proletarian revolutionary cause as outlined in the “Nine Commentaries.” After the Spring Festival, study of the “Twenty-Three Articles” was also universally added. The teaching method proceeded from the actual ideological conditions of the students and the current realities of class struggle, conducting ideological campaigns. The entire campaign was divided into five stages: First, a report was given on the current domestic and international situation, clarifying the purpose of study, dispelling ideological doubts, and stimulating learning enthusiasm; Second, in conjunction with the study of materials related to classes and class struggle,

on the document “Shanxi Province’s Peasant Training Institutes Are Doing a Fine Job”
a campaign was launched to encourage students to recall their hardships, recount the three histories (family history, village history, and commune history), discuss these histories, thereby sharpening their class perspective and arousing class sentiment; Third, in connection with documents concerning the socialist nature of society and establishing the dominant position of the poor and lower-middle peasants, participants exposed the subversive activities and harmful effects of capitalist forces in the countryside, clearly demarcated the dividing line between the socialist and capitalist paths, clarified the Party’s class line in rural areas, enhanced understanding, and bolstered confidence; Fourth, drawing on materials about the revolutionization of thought and the cultivation of revolutionary successors, students engaged in self-reflection, identified gaps, criticized bourgeois individualism, and heightened their sense of responsibility and initiative in striving to become revolutionary successors; Fifth, they summarized their learning outcomes, conducted group evaluations, and consolidated and expanded the fruits of their studies. The students were mainly poor and lower-middle peasants, with those from other middle-peasant backgrounds accounting for approximately 2 percent. Such institutes were generally led at the county level by a member of the Standing Committee of the County Party Committee, whose main focus lay in two key areas: selecting the right students and ensuring that the teaching staff themselves were thoroughly revolutionized. Following these courses, the students’ class consciousness and revolutionary self-awareness were significantly enhanced across the board, with over 90 percent becoming active participants in the three major revolutionary movements and vigorous promoters and disseminators of Mao Zedong Thought.
[2]
Apart from the aforementioned item, the other three remain unspecified.

Now We Must Prepare for War [1]
(June 9, 1965)
I, too, once worked as a journalist, ran a newspaper, and taught elementary school—but I never learned how to fight; I never attended a military academy. Who taught me to fight? Chiang Kai-shek forced us, by means of murder, to pick up our guns and go to war against them, and that is how I learned to fight. People say I am a “warmonger,” and there is indeed some truth to that: I fought in wars for twenty-two years. Even now, I still want to go to war—though not to go out and attack, but rather to have the enemy come in.
We must now prepare for war. If we prepare, perhaps no war will break out; but if we do not prepare, we shall be caught off guard when war does come. This point must be publicized among the people. It seems that imperialism is indeed preparing for war; otherwise, the arms dealers would not be making their fortunes. They believe they will win, whereas in reality, if a war were to occur, it would actually be to our advantage—they are certain to fail, though they have failed to calculate this. The Second World War gave birth to China and many socialist countries, as well as Indonesia and dozens of nationalist states. Should a third world war break out, imperialism would cease to exist. Throughout history, those without weapons have always defeated those with weapons, and during such conflicts, the unarmed side often manages to establish independent land, sea, and air forces.
[l]
This is part of a conversation Mao Zedong had with Arudji Katavijana, Speaker of the Indonesian Cooperative Parliament, and his wife.