Comments and revisions on the investigative report and the editor’s note in People’s Daily
“We have incorporated your latest instructions. It is now submitted for your review, revision, and approval!” Sent for review by Chen Boda and Yao Wenyuan

The original text of the “latest instruction” quoted in the editor’s note of People’s Daily read as follows:
“Science and engineering universities still need to be run, but the length of study should be shortened, education must undergo revolution, proletarian politics must take the lead, and we should follow the path pioneered by the Shanghai Machine Tool Factory—cultivating technical personnel from among the workers. Students should be selected from among workers and peasants who already have practical experience; after studying at school for a few years, they should return to production practice.” When Mao Zedong reviewed it, he changed “Science and engineering universities still need to be run” to “Universities still need to be run; what I am mainly referring to here is that science and engineering universities also need to be run.”

This document consists of three parts: First, comments on the investigative report and the editor’s note submitted for review by Chen Boda and Yao Wenyuan; Second, a marginal note added in parentheses following the statement in the investigative report about a university graduate who, upon first entering the factory, “spent all day clutching a book on foreign thread-grinding machines”; Third, a revision made to a sentence in the investigative report, with the newly added text typeset in Song typeface. In addition, Mao Zedong revised the phrase in the editor’s note from “We earnestly advise those few individuals suffering from shortsightedness who are not yet capitalist-roaders to broaden their horizons” to “We earnestly advise those suffering from shortsightedness but who are not yet hopelessly entrenched capitalist-roaders to broaden their horizons.” He also changed “breaking free from rigid frameworks” in the investigative report to “breaking free from unsuitable frameworks,” and altered the sentence “It would be appropriate for grassroots units to select high- and middle-school graduates with sound political thinking and two to three years of work experience to attend colleges and universities” to “It would be appropriate for grassroots units to select high- and middle-school graduates with sound political thinking and two to three or four to five years of work experience to attend colleges and universities.” Both the investigative report and the editor’s note were published in the July 22 issue of People’s Daily.