Chapter 58 Letter to the Standing Committee of the Central Committee

(September 29, 1961) Members of the Standing Committee and relevant comrades: Send a letter from Geng Changsuo from Wugong Commune in Shenxian County, Hebei [1], a copy of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee’s March 1961 symposium on conflicts between large and small brigades [2], Hubei Provincial Party Committee September 25 A copy of the report[3], a copy of the minutes of the Handan discussion on September 27[4], and a batch of materials from Hebei[5], please read them and study them with your assistants.Then we gather to discuss it once.These materials show that the problem of serious egalitarianism in agriculture has not been completely resolved so far, and there is still a problem left.According to the peasants, this article is missing in the Sixty Articles[6].What is this one? It is the production right in the small team, but the distribution right in the brigade, which is the so-called "three guarantees and one prize" [7].If this problem is not resolved, the large-scale development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline and fishery will still be constrained, and the enthusiasm of the masses for production will still be affected.If we want to achieve a relatively large increase in agriculture in 1962 compared with 1961, we should solve this problem at the work conference[8] in December this year.My opinion is "three-level ownership, team-based", that is, the basic accounting unit is the team rather than the brigade.The so-called "unified leadership" of the brigade must set boundaries, and Comrade Hebei stipulated nine [9].If no such regulations were made, many of the brigade's eight powers[10] would be vacant, and they would still be captured by the brigade.On this issue, at the Guangzhou Conference [11] in March this year, I published a material in Shandong that exposed this serious contradiction.They also printed a material on some kind of commune in Guangdong that entrusted dead-end tasks [12], and approved a few words on this material: Can it be implemented throughout the country.The result was not passed.After you have read the materials of Hubei, Shandong, Guangdong, and Hebei, and we have discussed them together, I suggest: send these materials together with a letter from the Central Committee[13], and invite all central bureaus, provinces, cities, and districts Party committees, district committees, and county committees went down in person, and sent powerful investigation and research teams to do investigation work for two to three weeks, and held several forums with representatives of counties, communes, brigades, brigades, and commune members to see what could be done well.Is it better for the brigade to implement the "three guarantees and one prize" or to use the brigade as the basis? We must mobilize the enthusiasm of the masses for collective production, and in the next year and the next few years, we must increase the production of grain, cotton, oil, hemp, silk, tea, Sugar, vegetables, tobacco, fruit, medicine, miscellaneous products, as well as pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and other products, I think this is the only way to go.On this issue, we have been muddled for six years (since 1956, when the Senior Society was established), and we should wake up in the seventh year.I don't know who invented this stupid method of "three guarantees and one prize", which caused big and small teams and cadres to quarrel several times a year. As a result, the property was concealed and the quarrel was never clear. .According to some comrades, the so-called "three guarantees and one prize" has never been really implemented.It is a serious lesson indeed.

Mao Zedong September 29, 1961 at 8:00 am Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Refers to a letter dated December 30, 1960 from Geng Changsuo, head of Wugong Commune in Shen County, Hebei Province, to Tan Zhenlin, Vice Premier of the State Council.The letter stated that in 1960, Wugong Commune’s production decreased by more than 50% compared to 1959. In addition to natural disasters, there were also human-made reasons: First, it violated the principle of adapting measures to local conditions and not violating the farming season.The second is that the party's policies have not been conscientiously implemented, and the procurement tasks have continued to increase, and the ration indicators of members have declined, which has caused the masses to be depressed in production and the quality of farm work has generally declined.As for how to strive for a bumper harvest next year and live a good life, the following opinions are put forward: 1. Change the purchase policy based on land evaluation to the average purchase policy based on standard mu.If there is a lot of production, there will be no more requisition, and if there is less production, there will be more requisition. Man-made losses will not reduce the task, and special disaster situations will be taken care of individually.The production team can adopt the method of "four guarantees and one reward" for the small teams. Generally, there is no adjustment between the teams.2. Resolutely implement the working method of adapting measures to local conditions and the mass line, trust the masses, and do more research and research.3. Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, and the specific work of Bacon's foundation should be strengthened.4. The exchange of livestock should be promoted, and restrictions on livestock leaving the country should be abolished.

[2] Refers to the Discussion Opinions on Conflicts Between Large and Small Brigades in the Rural People's Commune System by the Rural Work Department of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.This material said: In the past few years, there have been serious problems such as concealment of production and private distribution, and members' inactivity in production. There is a large difference in how much, but the income is distributed uniformly by the production team, thus resulting in egalitarianism.The solution must be the unification of the "four rights", that is, the unification of ownership and use of means of production, and the unification of production and distribution rights.According to the principle of unification of the "four powers", the accounting unit should be the direct production unit.The size of the accounting unit should not be too large.

[3] Refers to the report of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on September 25, 1961 regarding the trial implementation of the production team as the basic accounting unit to the Central South Bureau and report to the Central Committee and Mao Zedong.According to the report, in the process of implementing the work regulations of the rural people's communes, some commune members and grassroots cadres pointed out that if the production brigade is used as the basic accounting unit, egalitarianism among the production teams is the contradiction between the poor team and the rich team. problem, it is difficult to solve.The Xiaogan Prefectural Party Committee and the Jingmen County Party Committee conducted a pilot project with the production team as the basic accounting unit. The method is: cancel the "three guarantees and one award". , and the rest will be allocated by the production team.Experimental experience has proved that this method solves the contradiction between production in teams and distribution in brigades, and can fundamentally overcome egalitarianism among production teams.Under the current circumstances, taking the production team as the basic accounting unit may be more conducive to the development of production.The Provincial Party Committee believes that it is reasonable to advocate taking the production team as the basic accounting unit, and requests permission to further carry out the pilot project.

[4] Refers to the record made by Mao Zedong at the talk meeting held in Handan on September 27, 1961.It is mentioned in the records: "Three Guarantees and One Prize System is a 'cumbersome philosophy'. You see, there are 37 processes, 49 percentages, 1,128 accounts, and the quota alone is more than 400 indivual." [5] A batch of materials from Hebei Province, a total of five pieces.The first is the report to the provincial party committee on August 17, 1961, by the Working Group of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on the investigation and distribution of large-scale labor contracts in the Baoding area.The second is the report of the Baoding Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China on September 8, 1961, on the issue of assigning large contracts to the Hebei Provincial Committee.The third is a brief explanation on August 18, 1961, by the Working Group of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, about the implementation of the large-scale labor contract for the Zhangxiankou Production Brigade of Donglong Commune in Tang County.The fourth is the report of the Zhangjiakou Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China to Liu Zihou, acting first secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, on August 25, 1961, on the situation of the rural people's communes' trial implementation of large-scale income distribution.The above four items affirmed the implementation of the distribution contract.The fifth is the "Three Guarantees and One Prize" grain contract in 1961 formulated by the Liangcun Production Brigade of Gangshang Commune, Gaocheng County, Hebei Province.

[6] Sixty articles, referring to the "Regulations on the Work of Rural People's Commune (Amendment Draft)", a total of sixty articles. [7] "Three Guarantees and One Award" is an abbreviation for labor contract, production contract, cost package and over-production reward. [8] This Central Working Conference was later held in Beijing from December 20, 1961 to January 10, 1962. [9] Refers to the "things that the brigade should manage" (nine items) in the records of the Handan talk meeting: 1. Purchase; etc.; 3. Schools (primary schools); 4. Necessary infrastructure, such as water conservancy; 5. Necessary relief; 6. Necessary subsidies; Work, political and ideological work.

[10] Refers to Article 29 of the Regulations on the Work of Rural People’s Communes (Draft Amendment), the production team’s autonomy in managing its own production. There are eight articles in total: the right to plant according to the location and time; the right to arrange farm work; The right to decide measures to increase production; the right to select and manage the seeds of the team; the right to adjust the labor quota of the team; the right to work within the scope of the team, provided that it does not hinder water and soil conservation and does not damage forests, grasslands and pastures. , Reclaim wasteland, manage barren hills and make full use of all possible land; have the right to use the slack time to operate various sideline productions.

[11] Refers to the Working Conference of the CPC Central Committee held in Guangzhou from March 15th to 23rd, 1961. [12] Refers to Tao Zhu, the first secretary of the Central South Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the first secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, on March 15, 1961, about the task of raising the contractual responsibility for the trial production team (team) of the Lixi Brigade, Dali Commune, Nanhai County investigation materials.According to the investigation materials, in order to solve the egalitarian problem among the production teams, the Lexi Brigade implemented the "three guarantees" and "four fixes" on the basis of the principle of unified distribution throughout the brigade, and fixed the death of each production team against each other. The brigade is responsible for the upward adjustment task. After the upward adjustment task is completed, the overproduction part shall be handled by the production team itself.After the implementation of this method, the production enthusiasm of the cadres and members of the production teams was further mobilized.Mao Zedong issued an instruction on the material on March 16: "Print and distribute to all comrades. All groups are invited to discuss whether this method can be promoted in various places."

[13] Refers to the instructions issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on October 7, 1961 to the central bureaus and party committees of provinces and municipalities regarding the basic accounting units of rural people's communes.The central government requires party committees at all levels to carefully investigate and study whether it is better to use the production brigade as the basic accounting unit or the production team (that is, the original production team) as the basic accounting unit, so that the party central committee can make a decision.On February 13 of the following year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Instructions on Changing the Basic Accounting Unit of Rural People's Commune", deciding that rural people's communes generally take the production team (equivalent to the size of a primary cooperative) as the basic accounting unit.