Letter to Zhou Enlai
(December 27, 1966)

Comrade Enlai:

Recently, many revolutionary teachers and students and revolutionary masses coming to Beijing have written to me asking whether putting tall hats on, painting faces, and parading through the streets those in power taking the capitalist road and the monsters and demons can be considered violent struggle. I believe: this kind of practice should be considered a form of violent struggle. This kind of practice is not good. This kind of practice cannot achieve the goal of educating the people. Here I emphasize that in struggle, we must adhere to struggle by reasoning, not by coercion, because struggle by coercion can only touch people's bodies, not their souls. Only by adhering to struggle by reasoning, not by coercion, presenting the facts, reasoning things out, and convincing people with reason, can we struggle to a high level and truly achieve the goal of educating the people. It should be analyzed that the vast majority of violent struggles are instigated by a small number of bourgeois reactionaries with ulterior motives. They deliberately sabotage the Party's policies, sabotage the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and lower the Party's prestige. Anyone who lays a hand on someone should be dealt with according to the law.

Please convey this to the revolutionary teachers and students and revolutionary masses coming to Beijing.

Mao Zedong
December 27, 1966