Chapter 28 Amendments to the Land Reform Report[1]

(June 4, 1950) one Comrade Shaoqi: I have read this [2], it is very good and useful.Some revisions, please consider again.The part about rich peasants is too long, but it is not clear, and some of them are not quite appropriate, so a large part has been deleted.In addition to a period of experience after 1946, it is used to correct the illusion that some comrades have already had, saying that the "Left" errors in the past were the result of the "Outline of Land Law" [3] on October 10, 1947. The reasons for the confiscation of surplus land and property of rich peasants were stipulated.This illusion cannot be corrected without this description.

The so-called productivity refers to two parts: laborers and means of production (also known as means of production).The so-called means of production, in rural areas, firstly land, followed by farm implements, livestock, houses[4] and so on.Grain is the means of subsistence produced by farmers using the means of production.It is also possible for us to list the grain confiscated from the landlords together with other confiscated things as means of production, because this grain has the nature of funds.The so-called production relationship refers to the ownership relationship of people to the means of production, that is, the ownership relationship of property.The use of means of production, such as farmers using (renting) the landlord’s land, is only the result of the landlord’s ownership relationship with the land. This ownership relationship is expressed as the subordination relationship between the tenant farmers and the landlord (the relationship between people), that is, the production relationship.In the past, many comrades made the mistake of dualism (or even pluralism) on this issue. They juxtaposed the relationship of production with the relationship of use, and also juxtaposed the means of production with the means of subsistence as the criterion for classifying classes. The class composition of many people.In the winter of 1947, Qiao Mu[5] wrote a document titled "Regulations on the Social Classes and Their Treatment in China"[6], the first two chapters of which were written by me. See.

Mao Zedong two In the afternoon of June 4th, except for a very small number of landlords who committed serious crimes, that is, the heinous local tyrants and evil gentry and criminals who resolutely resisted the land reform, the court should sentence them to death or imprisonment. Ownership is to abolish their social class, not their bodies. During the period from July 1946 to October 1947, the peasant masses and our rural workers in many areas in North China, Shandong and Northeast China failed to implement the land reform in accordance with the principles set forth by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The directive issued on May 4, 1946, basically immobilized the land and property of the rich peasants, but acted according to their own will, confiscating the land and property of the rich peasants just like the landlords.This is understandable.Because this period was the most intense and cruel period of struggle between the Chinese people and the Kuomintang reactionaries.Deviations occurred in the land reform, and this period was the most frequent, infringing on the interests of some middle peasants, destroying some rural industries and commerce, and indiscriminate killings occurred in some places.The reasons for these phenomena were mainly due to the tense political and military situation at that time, and also because most of our rural workers had no experience in land reform, so they did not know how to correctly classify the class composition in the countryside, so they made a mistake. Due to the class composition of some people, some rich peasants are regarded as landlords, and some middle peasants are regarded as rich peasants.In view of this situation, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China promulgated the "Outline of Land Law" on October 10, 1947, which distinguished rich peasants from landlords, but allowed the expropriation of excess land and property from rich peasants.In the winter of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a document on the classification of rural classes, Chairman Mao issued a statement "On the Current Situation and Tasks"[7], and Comrade Ren Bishi also delivered a speech on land reform[8].From then on, certain disturbances in the countryside ceased, and land reform came into the right track.In order to prevent our comrades from repeating the mistakes of the past in carrying out land reform work in the newly liberated areas in the future, it is necessary to point out the experience of the past.We are now in a completely new situation, and it is absolutely necessary that the land reform law we propose adopts the policy of abolishing the feudal system and preserving the rich peasant economy.

The leadership of peasant associations at all levels should be pure, and the masses should be mobilized for re-election in impure places.The so-called purity here does not mean adopting an attitude of closing the door to peasant laborers, poor peasants, and middle peasants who have committed certain mistakes and refusing them to join the association.Instead, they should be welcomed, educated, and united.The so-called purity here means that landlords, rich peasants and their agents should not be allowed to join the peasant association, let alone serve as the leaders of the peasant association.

Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] The first part of this article is Mao Zedong’s letter to Liu Shaoqi about the revision of the report on land reform; the second part is three paragraphs of text that Mao Zedong added when reviewing the draft report. [2] Refers to the draft "Report on Land Reform" prepared by Liu Shaoqi at the Second Session of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. [3] The "Outline of Land Law", that is, the "Outline of China's Land Law", was adopted by the National Land Conference of the Communist Party of China on September 13, 1947, and was promulgated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on October 10 of the same year.

[4] The "house" here refers to the house as the means of production.As a house for people's living, Mao Zedong listed it as a means of living.He once pointed out in the first chapter of "The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Regulations on the Division and Treatment of Social Classes in Land Reform": "In order to live, people must produce means of living, such as food, clothes, houses, fuel, utensils, etc. etc. In order to produce the means of subsistence, people need the means of production, such as land, raw materials, livestock, tools, workshops, etc.”

[5] Qiao Mu, that is, Hu Qiaomu (1912-1992), was born in Yancheng, Jiangsu.He was Mao Zedong's secretary at the time. [6] The full name of this document is "The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning the Division and Treatment of Social Classes in Land Reform".The first two chapters have been compiled into the fifth volume of this book, entitled "China's Socioeconomic Formation, Class Relations, and the People's Democratic Revolution". [7] That is, "The Current Situation and Our Tasks" (Volume IV of Selected Works of Mao Zedong, People's Publishing House, 1991 edition, pp. 1243-1260).

[8] Refers to the speech "Several Issues in Land Reform" delivered by Ren Bishi, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, at the Enlarged Meeting of the Frontline Committee of the Northwest Field Army on January 12, 1948 ("Selected Works of Ren Bishi", People's Publishing House 1987 edition, pp. 413-437).