Chapter 68 Letter to Fan Wenlan[1] on Confucian classics

(September 5, 1940) Comrade Wen Lan: I am very happy to have read the Outline [2]. If I can write it out, it will be of great benefit, because this is the first time that Marxism has been used to liquidate Confucian classics, because the retro-revolutionary reaction of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie is rampant at present, and the current ideological struggle is the first The task is to oppose this reaction.The continuation of your historical work must have a great influence on this struggle.I did not hear the third lecture due to illness. I wonder if there was any criticism of the wrong side of Kang, Liang, Zhang, and Hu[3]? I wonder if it involved Liao Ping, Wu Yu, Ye Dehui[4] and others? The more people criticize, the more it can have an impact in the academic world.

I have no research on history at all. It would be a great blessing if I could learn a little from your research.Regards! Mao Zedong september 5 Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Fan Wenlan (1893-1969), born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang.At that time, he was the director of the History Research Office of Yan'an Marxist-Leninist College. [2] Refers to the outline of Fan Wenlan's speech on the brief history of Chinese Confucian classics at the annual meeting of the Yan'an New Philosophy Society in 1940.This outline was compiled and published consecutively in the same year in the second and third issues of the second volume of "Chinese Culture" in Yan'an, entitled "The Evolution of the History of Chinese Confucianism".

[3] Kang, Liang, Zhang, and Hu refer to Kang Youwei (1858-1927, native of Nanhai, Guangdong), Liang Qichao, Zhang Binglin, and Hu Shi.They are all scholars with great influence in the history of modern Chinese Confucian classics and thought. [4] Liao Ping (1852-1932), a native of Jingyan, Sichuan, a modern Chinese Confucianist.Wu Yu (1871-1949), a native of Xinfan (now Xindu), Sichuan, wrote articles before and after the May 4th Movement to criticize the old Confucianism, but rarely published new ideas later.Ye Dehui (1864-1927), born in Xiangtan, Hunan, was a scholar of ancient literature who defended feudal rule.