(July 18, 1965)
To Comrades Ding Yi, Kang Sheng, Enlai, Shaoqi, Xiaoping, and Peng Zhen:
This matter should be changed. Drawing nude models of men, women, and children is an essential basic skill for painting and sculpture; it cannot be dispensed with. To prohibit it on the grounds of feudal thinking is inappropriate. Even if some undesirable consequences arise, that is no great concern. For the sake of the arts disciplines, we can afford to make a small sacrifice. Please deliberate and decide accordingly.
Mao Zedong
July 18, 1965
As for flowers and trees, artists like Qi Baishi and Chen Banding are still inferior to certain painters of the late Qing dynasty.
Among Chinese painters whom I have seen, only Xu Beihong has left behind any figure sketches. The others—Qi Baishi, Chen Banding, and their ilk—none of them could even draw a human figure. Xu Beihong had studied Western painting techniques. There was also another artist named Liu Haisu.
Chuan
This first passage is a marginal note written by Mao Zedong on a letter dated May 12, 1965, from teachers Wen Lipeng, Wang Shiguang, and Li Huaji of the Central Academy of Fine Arts to Jiang Qing concerning the use of live models in art institutions. This second passage is Mao

The Complete Works of Mao Zedong
Volume 48
Zedong’s marginal note on the last page of this same letter. The letter states: Regarding the issue of using models, we, coming from the oil-painting department, would like to offer a few points of view: First, the bourgeois system of art education must be thoroughly criticized. Life drawing from models lies at the very core of the technical training component within that system. Therefore, given the specific circumstances at the time, the fundamental revolutionary spirit underlying the decision to abolish the model system is understandable. Second, under the guidance of the Party’s policy on literary and artistic education,
we must gradually perfect a proletarian system of art education and establish a new set of technical training methods suited to it. Life drawing from models, as an initial method for mastering the fundamentals of fine art, may be critically inherited. Third, artistic creation should primarily focus on depicting the struggle and daily life of workers, peasants, and soldiers, as well as portraying human figures. Drawing from real persons (models) is an important means of training these fundamental skills. It not only develops one’s ability to render figures but also helps to grasp the general principles of sketching. In the new system of technical training, we should neither outright reject figure drawing nor classroom exercises, nor should we exclude a limited amount of nude figure drawing. Both male and female nudes ought to constitute a small proportion of the technical curriculum.
Fourth, since the abolition of the model system, we have encountered quite a few difficulties in our teaching activities,
and the quality of graduating students’ work may well be affected as a result. As far as we know, many teachers and students at the Academy are likewise concerned about this. Accordingly, we propose that during the fourth phase of the “Four Cleansings” campaign at the Academy, we mobilize the masses, guided by Mao Zedong Thought and a truly thoroughgoing revolutionary spirit—one that breaks decisively with old traditions—to conduct a democratic discussion on the question of using models, so as to reach an appropriate solution and steadily establish and complete the new system of art education.
(2)
Ding Yi refers to Lu Dingyi, who at that time served as Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Head of the Central Cultural and Educational Leading Group, and Vice Premier of the State Council. Kang Sheng was then a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Deputy Head of the Central Cultural and Educational Leading Group. Enlai is Zhou Enlai. Shaoqi is Liu Shaoqi. Xiaoping is Deng Xiaoping, who at the time held the posts of General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Peng Zhen was a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, First Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, and concurrently Mayor of Beijing.
(3)
Model, an English word, is often translated into Chinese as “model.”
(4)
Qi Baishi was a painter who, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, served as Honorary President of the Beijing Academy of Chinese Painting and Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association. Chen Banding was also a painter who, at that time, held the position of Vice President of the Chinese Painting Academy.
(5)
Xu Beihong was a painter who, following the establishment of the PRC, served as President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
(6)
Liu Haisu was a painter who, at that time, held the post of President of the Nanjing Academy of the Arts.