(Above; Mao Zedong and his son Mao Anying at Xiangshan in 1949)
Published on the marxwin.cn website 2022-05-28 22:47:10
Author: Mao Anying
(Translator’s preface: I have translated this from the
Chinese website Marxist Victory Network (毛岸英写给表舅的信 | 马克思主义必胜网 (marxwin.cn) ). Mao
Anying was the eldest son of Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui. His mother was a
revolutionary martyr, executed by the Guomindang in 1930. Mao Anying lost his
life fighting against US imperialism in the War to Aid Korea, on November 25,
1950. Although this letter does not have the year in which it was written, it
would appear that it was in 1949, just after Liberation. Mao Zedong was approached
on a number of occasions by family members seeking special favours, and his
replies, rejecting these can be seen in Vol 7 of his Selected Works [Selected
Works of Mao Tse-tung: Vol. VII (marxists.org) ]. There you will find, p. 8, a letter by Mao
himself to his brother-in-law, telling him not to come to Beijing, but to wait
for a work assignment in Hunan. “Please do not put the government on the spot,”
he wrote on October 9. Mao Anying must have discussed this with his
father, for he wrote to his cousin, Yang Kaizhi’s son, on October 24.)
Comrade Sanli.
I have received your letter. I am very happy that you have
joined the revolutionary work. The day before you left the Sanfu Hotel, I
called you, but you were not at home, and when I called again the next day, the
hotel staff said you had moved out. Later, I received a letter from Comrade Lin
Ting, which did not mention your "whereabouts". I wanted to get back
to him and ask where you were, but I lost his address along with the letter (it
was burned by mistake). If you know his full address, please let me know.
I am very ashamed of my uncle's "wish to have a
position as director in Changsha", as mentioned in my letter.[1]
In this new era, this kind of thinking of "making it to the top" is
already extremely backward, and it is especially unacceptable to think that one
can "get into office" through my father.
What makes New China different from Old China, the Communist
Party different from the Guomindang Party, Mao Zedong different from Chiang
Kai-shek, and Mao's children's wives and uncles different from Chiang Kai-shek's
children's wives and uncles, apart from other more fundamental reasons, is
this: the time when the imperial relatives became rich and powerful and when
the few ruled the many has gone. The time has come to live by one's own labour
and talent. In this respect, the Chinese people have won a fundamental victory.
I am afraid that my uncle has not yet realised this. I hope he will come to his
senses slowly, otherwise it will be difficult for him to continue working in
the new China.
The turnaround is the turnaround of the masses, not the
turnaround of a few special people. The problems of life must be solved as a
whole, not individually. The interests of the masses should be taken into
account first and foremost. Individualism is not an option. I am going to write
a letter to tell my uncle and the others frankly about these circumstances.
The reactionaries often scold the Communist Party for
speaking of human feelings but having no human feelings, but if they are
referring to the human feelings of helping relatives, friends and colleagues to
become rich and powerful, then we in the Communist Party have no such
"human feelings" and do not speak of such "human feelings".
What the Communist Party has is another kind of human affection, that is, an
infinite love for the people, for the toiling masses, including one's own
parents, children and relatives.
Of course, the Communists have a special affection for their
close relatives, their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, wives, uncles,
brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, a deep affection for those who are related
to them by blood and family. The Communist Party not only does not deny this
special feeling, but also consolidates it and strives to promote it in the
right way for the benefit of the people, in line with their interests. But if
this special feeling goes beyond the personal sphere and contradicts the
interests of the people, the Communist Party will stand firmly on the side of
the latter, that is, it will not hesitate to "destroy the family".
I love my grandmother, I have a deep and indescribable
affection for her, but she may now be calling me "ungrateful" for not
looking after the Yang family and the Xiang family[2],
and I have to live with that, and I can never and will never act against my
principles. I myself am a very ordinary and small screw in a great machine, and
I have no "power", no "capital", and no
"ambition" to do such things to help my relatives rise to the top. As
for my father, he is the most staunch opponent of this approach, because this approach
is incompatible with communist ideology and Mao Zedong Thought, it is
incompatible with the interests of the people, it is extremely unfair, and it
is extremely unreasonable.
The contradiction between proletarian collectivism - the
view of the masses - and bourgeois individualism - the view of the individual -
is the essence of the difference of opinion between us and our uncle. These two
ideas are still in a sharp struggle even in our heads, only the former
prevails. In my uncle's head, and in the heads of many others like him, the
latter still prevails overwhelmingly, or all of them, although he himself may
not necessarily be bad in nature.
The letter is already long, and I will not go on with it. I
hope you will forgive any indiscretions.
I wish you well!
Anying on 24 October
[1] The uncle is Yang Kaizhi, brother of
Mao’s second wife, the revolutionary martyr Yang Kaihui. Before Liberation, he successively served as the
director of the Changde Mountain Forestry Bureau under the jurisdiction of the
Hunan Provincial Construction Department, the technician and administrator of
the Niushou Mountain Forest Farm of the Central Forestry District Administration,
the technician of the Hunan Provincial Construction Department, the technician
of the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Improvement Institute, the chief
technician and tea master of the China Tea Company, and the director of the
technical director and research office of the Hunan Provincial Department of
Agriculture. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he
successively served as the deputy manager of Hunan Tea Industry Company and the
deputy director of Hunan Tea Business Department. After 1959, he was
recuperating from illness for a long time. He was a member of the Fifth
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
(1978-1983) and a member of the Third and Fourth Hunan Provincial Committee of
the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (later elected as the
vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference).
[2] Yang
Kaihui’s parents were Yang Changji (father) and Xiang Zhenxi (mother).
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