Annotations on the Speech Manuscript
(November 4 and 7, 1966)
The terms “thought” and “consciousness” should not be used together.
I agree with this revision. l. There are also some minor changes to individual words and sentences 131; please make your own decision.
Mao Zedong
Morning of November 4


Removing eleven characters would be beneficial.
Four


These were added by Comrade Chen Boda; I merely approved their inclusion.
Five


I had no involvement in the criticism of Feng Ding (4J).
/\


Comrade Lin Biao:
I agree with this revision bl. On pages 6 and 10, I made a few minor adjustments lcall; please consider them.
Mao Zedong
6:30 p.m. on November 7
[I]
Mao Zedong’s annotations for Lin Biao (who was re-elected as a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee at the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee and soon thereafter designated as Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee)
The draft of Lin Biao’s speech delivered at the Central Work Conference on October 25, 1966, bears numerous annotations and revisions by Mao Zedong. Items 1 and 2 here are annotations he wrote on the revised version submitted for review by Lin Biao on the night of November 3; items 3 through 6 are annotations on the final draft submitted before printing.
On January 9, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee distributed this speech manuscript down to the county and regimental levels.
[2]

--- Notes



The revised speech manuscript that Lin Biao submitted for review on the night of November 3, 1966, had been modified by Chen Boda, head of the CPC Central Committee’s Cultural Revolution Group, according to Mao Zedong’s instructions. The most significant change was the addition, on page 12, of the following two paragraphs: “In class society, every person belongs to a specific class—either to this class, to a particular stratum or group within it, or to that class, to a different stratum or group therein. There is no such thing as an abstract, detached individual. To think only of oneself is purely a bourgeois worldview. Bourgeois individualism means exploiting others for one’s own gain. In their pursuit of personal wealth and profit, they will not hesitate to ruin millions of families. Viewing the world from the standpoint of self-interest is to see it through a bourgeois lens rather than a proletarian one.” “What we need is to cultivate people who act for the public good. However, even ‘the public’ has class characteristics. By ‘public,’ we mean the interests of the people, of the proletariat, of socialism and communism.” In his report to Lin Biao on the revised draft, Chen Boda stated: “Following the Chairman’s instructions, major revisions were made on page 12. Please review it and then report back to the Chairman.” When submitting the manuscript to Mao Zedong, Lin Biao wrote: “Your instructions are excellent and entirely agreeable. I am now forwarding Comrade Boda’s revised draft for your further review and guidance.” Mao Zedong’s remark referred specifically to these two newly added passages.
[3]


In the revised speech manuscript that Lin Biao submitted for review on the night of November 3, 1966, the phrase “thought and consciousness” appeared frequently. During his review, Mao Zedong consistently revised it, sometimes replacing it with “ideology,” other times with “sphere of thought,” and in several instances simply deleting the word “consciousness.” He also penned a separate annotation regarding this, which is item 2 here. Other textual changes he made to the manuscript included: on page 11, altering “Communism is selflessness” to “Communism is acting for the public interest”; on page 13, changing “Chairman Mao created a new type of state” to “Chairman Mao led us in creating a new type of state”; on page 14, modifying the sentence “Whether in practical experience, in Marxist–Leninist theory, or in innate talent, Chairman Mao is not only superior to us but also stands alone in the world today” by replacing “stands alone in the world today” with “also exerts considerable influence”; and on page 15, removing the phrase “Chairman Mao’s line has already triumphed.” In addition, there were several other minor textual adjustments.
[4]


Feng Ding was nominated by Mao Zedong in 1957 to be transferred from Shanghai to serve as Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee and Professor of Philosophy at Peking University, but he was subjected to unjust criticism in 1964.
[5]


Before the final printing, Lin Biao’s revised speech manuscript was once again submitted to Mao Zedong for review. In addition to incorporating the revisions Mao had made on November 4, 1966, further textual modifications were introduced. Mao expressed his agreement with these changes.
[6]


Page 6 of Lin Biao’s revised speech read: “In March of this year, Chairman Mao revised the minutes of the symposium on military literary and artistic work convened at our request by Comrade Jiang Qing, stating that all class struggle is political struggle, thereby reaffirming this classic tenet of Marxism–Leninism and elevating it to a matter of state importance, a political issue.” During his review, Mao deleted the eleven characters “at our request by Comrade Jiang Qing” and wrote an annotation, which is item 4 here. He also added the word “agree” before the phrase “stating that all class struggle is political struggle” and appended another annotation, which is item 5. On page 10, where the text mentioned “the recent criticisms of Yang Xianzhen and Feng Ding,” Mao removed Feng Ding’s name and wrote an annotation, which is item 6.