Report on a Survey of the Peasant Movement in Hunan

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Report on a Survey of the Peasant Movement in Hunan has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 1, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 2, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, 1994.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an article written by Comrade Mao Zedong in Changsha, Hunan, China between the 16th and 18th of February, 1927. It was first published in the Zhanshi, Nos. 35/36, 38, and 39 (5th of March to 3rd of April, 1927).

The article was written as a reply to the carping criticisms both inside and outside the Communist Party of China then being leveled at the peasants' revolutionary struggle. Comrade Mao Zedong spent 32 days in Hunan Province making an investigation and wrote this report in order to answer these criticisms. The Right-wing opportunists in the Party, headed by Chen Duxiu, would not accept his views and stuck to their own wrong ideas. Their chief error was that, frightened by the reactionary trend in the Nationalist Party of China, they dared not support the great revolutionary struggles of the peasants which had erupted or were erupting. To appease the Nationalist Party, they preferred to desert the peasantry, the chief ally in the revolution, and thus left the working class and the Communist Party isolated and without help. It was mainly because it was able to exploit this weakness within the Communist Party that the Nationalist Party dared to betray the revolution, launch its «party purge», and make war on the people in the summer of 1927.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#REPORT ON A SURVEY OF THE PEASANT MOVEMENT IN HUNAN

#Mao Zedong

#16th to 18th of February, 1927

#★

#1. THE RURAL REVOLUTION

#1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PEASANT PROBLEM

During my recent visit to Hunan,¹ I made a first-hand investigation of conditions in the five counties of Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan, Liling, and Changsha. In the 32 days from the 4th of January to the 5th of February, I called together fact-finding conferences in villages and county towns, which were attended by experienced peasants and by comrades working in the peasant movement, and I listened attentively to their reports and collected a great deal of material. Many of the hows and whys of the peasant movement were the exact opposite of what the gentry in Hankou and Changsha are saying. I saw and heard of many strange things of which I had until then been unaware. I believe the same is true of many other places, too. All talk directed against the peasant movement must be speedily set right. All the wrong measures taken by the revolutionary authorities concerning the peasant movement must be speedily changed. Only thus can the future of the revolution be benefited. For the present upsurge of the peasant movement is a colossal event. In a very short time, in China's central, southern, and northern provinces, several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back. They will smash all the trammels that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will sweep all the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants, and evil gentry into their graves. Every revolutionary political party and every revolutionary comrade will be put to the test, to be accepted or rejected as they decide. There are three alternatives. To march at their head and lead them? To trail behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or to stand in their way and oppose them? Every Chinese is free to choose, but events will force you to make the choice quickly. Here, I have written up my investigations and opinions in several sections, for the reference of revolutionary comrades.

#1.2. GET ORGANIZED!

The development of the peasant movement in Hunan may be divided roughly into two periods with respect to the counties in the province's central and southern parts where the movement has already made much headway. The first, from January to September of last year, was one of organization. In this period, January to June was a time of underground activity, and July to September, when the revolutionary army was driving out Zhao Hengti,² one of open activity. During this period, the membership of the peasant associations did not exceed 300'000 to 400'000, the masses directly under their leadership numbered little more than 1'000'000, there was as yet hardly any struggle in the rural areas, and, consequently, there was very little criticism of the associations in other circles. Since its members served as guides, scouts, and carriers of the Northern Expeditionary Army, even some of the officers had a good word to say for the peasant associations. The second period, from last October to January of this year, was one of revolutionary action. The membership of the associations jumped to 2'000'000 and the masses directly under their leadership increased to 1'000'000. Since the peasants generally enter only one name for the whole family on joining a peasant association, a membership of 2'000'000 means a mass following of about 10'000'000. Almost half the peasants in Hunan are now organized. In counties like Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Liuyang, Changsha, Liling, Ningxiang, Pingjiang, Xiangyin, Hengshan, Hengyang, Leiyang, Chenxian, and Anhua, nearly all the peasants have combined in the peasant associations or have come under their leadership. It was on the strength of their extensive organization that the peasants went into action and within four months brought about a great revolution in the countryside, a revolution without parallel in history.

#1.3. DOWN WITH THE LOCAL TYRANTS AND EVIL GENTRY! ALL POWER TO THE PEASANT ASSOCIATIONS!

Now that the peasants have got themselves organized, they are beginning to take action. The main targets of their attack are the local tyrants, the evil gentry, and the lawless feudal lords, but, in passing, they also hit out against paternalist ideas and institutions, against the corrupt officials in the cities, and against bad practices and customs in the rural areas. In force and momentum, the attack is tempestuous; those who bow before it survive, and those who resist perish. As a result, the privileges which the feudal landlords enjoyed for thousands of years are being shattered to pieces. Every bit of the dignity and prestige built up by the feudal lords is being swept into the dust. With the collapse of the power of the feudal lords, the peasant associations have now become the sole bodies of authority, and the popular slogan, «All power to the peasant associations!», has become a reality. Even trifles, such as a quarrel between spouses, are brought to the peasant association. Nothing can be settled unless someone from the peasant association is present. Whatever nonsense the people from the peasant associations talk at meetings, that, too, is sacred. The association actually dictates all rural affairs, and, quite literally, «whatever it says, goes». Those who are outside the associations can only speak well of them and cannot say anything against them. The local tyrants, evil gentry, and lawless feudal lords have been deprived of all right to speak, and none of them dares even mutter dissent. In the face of the peasant associations' power and pressure, the top local tyrants and evil gentry have fled to Shanghai, those of the second rank to Hankou, those of the third to Changsha, and those of the fourth to the county towns, while the fifth rank and the still lesser fry surrender to the peasant associations in the villages.

«Here's ten yuan. Please let me join the peasant association», one of the smaller of the evil gentry will say.

«Ugh! Who wants your filthy money?», the peasants reply.

Many middle and small feudal lords and rich peasants, and even some middle peasants, who were all formerly opposed to the peasant associations, are now vainly seeking admission. Visiting various places, I often came across such people who pleaded with me: «Mr. Committee Member from the provincial capital, please be my sponsor!»

In the Qing Dynasty, the household census compiled by the local authorities consisted of a regular register and «the other» register, the former for honest people and the latter for burglars, bandits, and similar undesirables. In some places, the peasants now use this method to scare those who formerly opposed the associations. They say: «Put their names down in the other register!»

Afraid of being entered in the other register, such people try various devices to gain admission into the peasant associations, on which their minds are so set that they do not feel safe until their names are entered. But, more often than not, they are turned down flat, and so they are always on tenterhooks; with the doors of the association barred to them, they are like tramps without a home or, in rural parlance, «mere trash». In short, what was looked down upon four months ago as a «gang of peasants» has now become a most honourable institution. Those who formerly prostrated themselves before the power of the gentry now bow before the power of the peasants. No matter what their identity, all admit that the world since last October is a different one.

#1.4. «IT'S TERRIBLE!» OR «IT'S GREAT!»

The peasants' revolt disturbed the gentry's sweet dreams. When the news from the countryside reached the cities, it caused immediate uproar among the gentry. Soon after my arrival in Changsha, I met all sorts of people and picked up a good deal of gossip. From the middle social strata upward to the Nationalist Right-wingers, there was not a single person who did not sum up the whole business in the phrase: «It's terrible!» Under the impact of the views of the «It's terrible!» school then flooding the city, even quite revolutionary minded people became downhearted as they pictured the events in the countryside in their mind's eye; and they were unable to deny the word «terrible». Even quite progressive people said: «Though terrible, it is inevitable in a revolution.» In short, nobody could altogether deny the word «terrible». But, as already mentioned, the fact is that the great peasant masses have risen to fulfil their historic mission and that the forces of rural democracy have risen to overthrow the forces of rural feudalism. The paternalist-feudal class of local tyrants, evil gentry, and lawless feudal lords has formed the basis of autocratic government for thousands of years, and is the cornerstone of imperialism, warlordism, and corrupt officialdom. To overthrow these feudal forces is the real objective of the national revolution. In a few months, the peasants have accomplished what Dr. Sun Yixian wanted, but failed, to accomplish in the 40 years he devoted to the national revolution. The paternal-feudal class of local tyrants, evil gentry, and lawless landlords has formed the basis of autocratic government for thousands of years, and is the cornerstone of imperialism, warlordism, and corrupt officialdom. This is a marvelous feat never before achieved, not just in 40, but in thousands of years. It's great. It is not «terrible» at all. It is anything but «terrible». To give credit where credit is due, if we allot ten points to the accomplishments of the democratic revolution, then the achievements of the city-dwellers and the military rate only three points, while the remaining seven points should go to the achievements of the peasants in their rural revolution. «It's terrible!» is obviously a theory for combating the rise of the peasants in the interests of the feudal lords; it is obviously a theory of the feudal class for preserving the old order of feudalism and obstructing the establishment of the new order of democracy; it is obviously a counter-revolutionary theory. No revolutionary comrade should echo this nonsense. If your revolutionary standpoint is firmly established, and if you have been to the villages and looked around, you will undoubtedly feel thrilled as never before. Countless thousands of the enslaved — the peasants — are striking down the enemies who battened on their flesh. What the peasants are doing is absolutely right; what they are doing is great! «It's great!» is the theory of the peasants and of all other revolutionaries. Every revolutionary comrade should know that the national revolution requires a great change in the countryside. The Revolution of 1911³ did not bring about this change, hence its failure. This change is now taking place, and it is an important factor for the completion of the revolution. Every revolutionary comrade must support it, or they will be taking the stand of counter-revolution.

#1.5. THE QUESTION OF «GOING TOO FAR»

Then, there is another section of people who say: «Yes, peasant associations are necessary, but they are going rather too far.» This is the opinion of the Centrists. But what is the actual situation? True, the peasants are in a sense «unruly» in the countryside. Supreme in authority, the peasant association allows the feudal lord no say and sweeps away their prestige. This amounts to striking the feudal lord down to the dust and keeping them there. They coined the phrase: «If someone has land, they must be a tyrant, and all gentry are evil.» In some of the places, even those who own 50 mu [33 1/3 km²] of fields are called local tyrants, and those who wear long gowns are called evil gentry. The peasants threaten: «We will put you in the other register!» They fine the local tyrants and evil gentry, they demand contributions from them, and they smash their sedan-chairs. People swarm into the houses of local tyrants and evil gentry who are against the peasant association, slaughter their pigs, and consume their grain. They even rape the young ladies in the households of the local tyrants and evil gentry on their ivory-inlaid beds. At the slightest provocation, they make arrests, crown the arrested with tall paper hats, and parade them through the villages, saying: «You dirty feudal lords, now you know who we are!» Doing whatever they like and turning everything upside down, they have created a kind of terror in the countryside. This is what some people call «going too far», or «exceeding the proper limits in righting a wrong», or «really too much». Such talk may seem plausible, but, in fact, it is wrong. First, the local tyrants, evil gentry, and lawless feudal lords have themselves driven the peasants to this. For ages they have used their power to tyrannize over the peasants and trample them underfoot; that is why the peasants have reacted so strongly. The most violent revolts and the most serious disorders have invariably occurred in places where the local tyrants, evil gentry, and lawless feudal lords perpetrated the worst outrages. The peasants are clear-sighted. Who is bad and who is not, who is the worst and who is not quite so vicious, who deserves severe punishment and who deserves to be let off lightly — the peasants keep clear accounts, and very seldom has the punishment exceeded the crime. Therefore, even Mr. Tang Mengxiao said: «The peasants are arresting the local tyrants and evil gentry; 9/10 of those arrested deserve it.» Secondly, a revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and magnanimous.⁴ A revolution is an uprising, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. A rural revolution is a revolution by which the peasantry overthrows the power of the feudal landlord class. Without using the greatest force, the peasants cannot possibly overthrow the deep-rooted authority of the feudal lords, which has lasted for thousands of years. The rural areas need a mighty revolutionary upsurge, for it alone can mobilize the people in their millions to become a powerful force. All the actions mentioned here which have been labelled as «going too far» flow from the power of the peasants, which has been called forth by the mighty revolutionary upsurge in the countryside. It was highly necessary for such things to be done in the second period of the peasant movement, the period of revolutionary action. In this period, it was necessary to establish the absolute authority of the peasants. It was necessary to forbid malicious criticism of the peasant associations. It was necessary to overthrow the whole authority of the gentry, to strike them to the ground, and to keep them there. There is revolutionary significance in all the actions which were labelled as «going too far» in this period. To put it bluntly, it is necessary to create terror for a while in every rural area, or otherwise it would be impossible to suppress the activities of the counter-revolutionaries in the countryside or overthrow the authority of the gentry. Proper limits have to be exceeded in order to right a wrong, or else the wrong cannot be righted.⁵ Those who talk about the peasants «going too far» seem at first sight to be different from those who say «It's terrible!» as mentioned earlier, but, in essence, they proceed from the same standpoint and likewise voice a feudal theory that upholds the interests of the privileged classes. Since this theory impedes the rise of the peasant movement and so disrupts the revolution, we must firmly oppose it.

#2. OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTORS TO THE REVOLUTION

#2.1. THE «MOVEMENT OF THE RIFFRAFF»

The Right wing of the Nationalist Party says: «The peasant movement is a movement of the riffraff, of the lazy peasants.» This view is current in Changsha. When I was in the countryside, I heard the gentry say: «It is all right to set up peasant associations, but the people now running them are no good. They ought to be replaced!» This opinion comes to the same thing as what the Right-wingers are saying; according to both, it is all right to have a peasant movement (the movement is already in being and no one dare say otherwise), but they say that the people running it are no good and they particularly hate those in charge of the associations at the lower levels, calling them «riffraff». Those people in the countryside who used to go around in worn-out leather shoes, carry broken umbrellas, wear green gowns, and gamble — in short, all those whom the gentry had despised, those whom they had trodden into the dirt, people with no place in society, people with no right to speak — have now audaciously lifted up their heads. They have not only lifted up their heads, but taken power into their hands. They are now running the township peasant associations (at the lowest level), which they have turned into something fierce and formidable. They have raised their rough, work-soiled hands and laid them on the gentry. They tether the evil gentry with ropes, crown them with tall paper-hats, and parade them through the villages. (In Xiangtan and Xiangxiang, they call this «parading through the township», and, in Liling, «parading through the fields».) Not a day passes but they drum some harsh, pitiless words of denunciation into these gentry's ears. They are issuing orders and are running every thing. Those who used to rank lowest now rank above everybody else; and so this is called «turning things upside down».

#2.2. VANGUARDS OF THE REVOLUTION

Where there are two opposite approaches to things and people, two opposite views emerge. «It's terrible!» and «It's great!», «riffraff» and «vanguards of the revolution» — here are apt examples.

We said above that the peasants have accomplished a revolutionary task which had been left unaccomplished for many years and have done an important job for the national revolution. But has this great revolutionary task, this important revolutionary work, been performed by all the peasants? No. There are three kinds of peasants: the rich, the middle, and the poor peasants. The three live in different circumstances, and so have different views about the revolution. In the first period, what appealed to the rich peasants (that is, those who have surplus money and grain) was the talk about the Northern Expeditionary Army's sustaining a crushing defeat in Jiangxi, about Jiang Jieshi's being wounded in the leg⁶ and flying back to Guangdong,⁷ and about Wu Peifu's⁸ recapturing Yuezhou. The peasant associations would certainly not last and the «Three People's Principles»⁹ could never prevail, because they had never been heard of before. Thus, an official of the township peasant association (generally one of the «riffraff» type) would walk into the house of a rich peasant, register in hand, and say: «Will you please join the peasant association?» How would the rich peasant answer? A tolerably well-behaved one would say: «Peasant association? I have lived here for decades, tilling my land. I never heard of such a thing before, yet I've managed to live all right. I advise you to give it up!» A really vicious rich peasant would say: «Peasant association! Nonsense! Association for getting your head chopped off! Don't get people into trouble!» Yet, surprisingly enough, the peasant associations have now been established several months, and have even dared to stand up to the gentry. The gentry of the neighbourhood who refused to surrender their opium pipes were arrested by the associations and paraded through the villages. In the county towns, moreover, some big feudal lords were put to death, like Yan Rongqiu of Xiangtan and Wang Zhize of Ningxiang. On the anniversary of the November Revolution, at the time of the anti-British rally, and of the great celebrations of the victory of the Northern Expedition, tens of thousands of peasants in every township, holding high their banners, big and small, along with their carrying poles and hoes, demonstrated in massive, streaming columns. It was only then that the rich peasants began to get perplexed and alarmed. During the great victory celebrations of the Northern Expedition, they learned that Jiujiang had been taken, that Jiang Jieshi had not been wounded in the leg, and that Wu Peifu had been defeated after all. What is more, they saw such slogans as «Long live the ‹Three People's Principles!›», «Long live the peasant associations!», and «Long live the peasants!» clearly written on the «red and green proclamations». «What?», wondered the rich peasants, greatly perplexed and alarmed: «‹Long live the peasants!› Are these people now to be regarded as emperors?»¹⁰ So, the peasant associations are putting on grand airs. People from the associations say to the rich peasants: «We'll enter you in the other register», or, «In another month, the admission fee will be ten yuan a head!» Only under the impact of all this are the rich peasants joining the associations in a delayed way,¹¹ some paying 50 cents or 1 yuan for admission (the regular fee being a mere 10 coppers), some securing admission only after asking other people to put in a good word for them. But there are quite a number of Far Right elements, who have not joined to this day. When the rich peasants join the associations, they generally enter the name of some 60- or 70-year-old member of the family, for they are in constant dread of «conscription». After joining, the rich peasants are not keen on doing any work for the associations. They remain inactive throughout.

How about the middle peasants? (That is, those who do not have any surplus money and rice, are not in debt, and are able to assure themselves of clothing, food, and shelter every year.) Theirs is a vacillating attitude. They think that the revolution will not bring them much good. They have rice cooking in their pots and no creditors knocking on their doors at midnight. They, too, judging a thing by whether it ever existed before, knit their brows and think to themselves: «Can the peasant association really last?» «Can the ‹Three People's Principles› prevail?» Their conclusion is: «Afraid not!» They imagine it all depends on the will of Heaven and think: «A peasant association? Who knows if Heaven wills it or not?» In the first period, people from the association would call on a middle peasant, register in hand, and say: «Will you please join the peasant association?» The middle peasant would reply: «There's no hurry!» It was not until the second period, when the peasant associations were already exercising great power, that the middle peasants came in. They show up better in the associations than the rich peasants, but are not as yet very enthusiastic and retain their vacillating attitude; they still want to wait and see. It is essential for the peasant associations to get the middle peasants to join and to do a good deal more explanatory work among them.

The poor peasants have always been the main force in the bitter fight in the countryside. They have fought militantly through the two periods of underground work and of aboveground activity. As for organization, it is they who are organizing things there, and as for the revolution, it is they who are making revolution there. They are the most responsive to Communist Party leadership. They alone are deadly enemies of the camp of the local tyrants and evil gentry and attack it without the slightest hesitation. They alone are capable of carrying out the work of destruction. «We joined the peasant association long ago», they say to the rich peasants, «why are you still hesitating?» The rich peasants answer mockingly: «What is there to keep you from joining? You people have neither a tile over your heads nor a speck of land under your feet!» It is true, the poor peasants are not afraid of losing anything. Many of them really have «neither a tile over their heads nor a speck of land under their feet». What, indeed, is there to keep them from joining the associations? According to the survey of Changsha County, the poor peasants comprise 70%, the middle peasants 20%, and the feudal lords and the rich peasants 10% of the population in the rural areas. The 70%, the poor peasants, may be sub-divided into two categories: the utterly destitute and the less destitute. The utterly destitute,¹² comprising 20%, are the completely dispossessed, that is, people who have neither land nor money, are without any means of livelihood, and are forced to leave home and become mercenaries or hired labourers or wandering beggars, or to commit crimes and become robbers and thieves. The less destitute,¹³ the other 50%, are the partially dispossessed, that is, people with just a little land or a little money who eat up more than they earn and live in toil and distress the year round, such as the handicraftspeople, the tenant-peasants (not including the rich tenant-peasants), and the semi-owner-peasants. This great mass of poor peasants, or altogether 70% of the rural population (the number of poor peasants in other counties may be smaller than in Changsha, but there should not be a big discrepancy), are the backbone of the peasant associations, the vanguard in the overthrow of the feudal forces, and the heroes who have performed the great revolutionary task, which for long years was left undone. Without the poor-peasant class (the «riffraff», as the gentry call them), it would have been impossible to bring about the present revolutionary situation in the countryside, or to overthrow the local tyrants and evil gentry and complete the democratic revolution. The poor peasants, being the most revolutionary group, have gained the leadership of the peasant associations. In both the first and second periods, almost all the chairpersons and committee members in the peasant associations at the lowest level (that is, the township associations) were poor peasants (of the officials in the township associations in Hengshan County, the utterly destitute comprise 50%, the less destitute 40%, and poverty-stricken intellectuals 10%). Leadership by the poor peasants is absolutely necessary. Without the poor peasants, there would be no revolution. To deny their role is to deny the revolution. To attack them is to attack the revolution. They have never been wrong on the general direction of the revolution. They have discredited the local tyrants and evil gentry. They have beaten down the local tyrants and evil gentry, big and small, and kept them underfoot. Many of their deeds in the period of revolutionary action, which were labelled as «going too far», were in fact the very things the revolution required. Some county governments, county headquarters of the Nationalist Party, and county peasant associations in Hunan have already made a number of mistakes; some have even sent soldiers to arrest officials of the lower level associations at the feudal lords' request. A good many chairpersons and committee members of township associations in Hengshan and Xiangxiang Counties have been thrown in jail. This mistake is very serious and feeds the arrogance of the reactionaries, whether intentionally or not. To judge whether or not it is a mistake, you have only to see how joyful the lawless feudal lords become and how reactionary sentiments grow, wherever the chairpersons or committee members of local peasant associations are arrested. We must combat the counter-revolutionary talk of a «movement of riffraff» and a «movement of lazy peasants», and must be especially careful not to commit the error of helping the local tyrants and evil gentry in their attacks on the poor peasant class, however unintentionally. Though a few of the poor peasant leaders undoubtedly did have shortcomings, most of them have changed by now. They themselves are energetically prohibiting gambling and suppressing banditry. Where the peasant association is powerful, gambling has stopped altogether and banditry has vanished. In some places it is literally true that people do not take any articles left by the wayside and that doors are not bolted at night. According to the Hengshan survey, 85% of the poor peasant leaders have made great progress and have proved themselves capable and hard-working. Only 15% retain some bad habits. The most one can call these is «an unhealthy minority», and we must not echo the local tyrants and evil gentry in indiscriminately condemning them as «riffraff». This problem of the «unhealthy minority» can be tackled only under the peasant associations' own slogan of «strengthen discipline», by carrying on propaganda among the masses, by educating the «unhealthy minority», and by tightening the associations' discipline; in no circumstances should soldiers be arbitrarily sent to make such arrests as would damage the prestige of the poor peasants and feed the arrogance of the local tyrants and evil gentry. This point requires particular attention.

#3. 14 GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS

Most critics of the peasant associations allege that they have done a great many bad things. I have already pointed out that the peasants' attack on the local tyrants and evil gentry is entirely revolutionary behaviour and in no way blameworthy. The peasants have done a great many things, and, in order to answer people's criticism, we must closely examine all their activities, one by one, to see what they have actually done. I have classified and summed up their activities of the last few months; in all, the peasants under the leadership of the peasant associations have the following 14 great achievements to their credit.

#3.1. ORGANIZING THE PEASANTS INTO PEASANT ASSOCIATIONS

This is the first great achievement of the peasants. In counties like Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, and Hengshan, nearly all the peasants are organized and there is hardly a remote corner where they are not on the move, these are the best places. In some counties, like Yiyang and Huarong, the bulk of the peasants are organized, with only a small section remaining unorganized; these places are in the second grade. In other counties, like Chengpu and Lingling, while a small section is organized, the bulk of the peasants remain unorganized; these places are in the third grade. Western Hunan, which is under the control of Yuan Zuming,¹⁴ has not yet been reached by the associations' propaganda, and in many of its counties the peasants are completely unorganized; these form a fourth grade. Roughly speaking, the counties in central Hunan, with Changsha as the centre, are the most advanced, those in southern Hunan come second, and western Hunan is only just beginning to organize. According to the figures compiled by the provincial peasant association last November, organizations with a total membership of 1'367'727 have been set up in 37 of the province's 75 counties. Of these members, about 1'000'000 were organized during October and November, when the power of the associations rose high, while, up to September, the membership had only been 300'000 to 400'000. Then came the two months of December and January, and the peasant movement continued its brisk growth. By the end of January, the membership must have reached at least 2'000'000. As a family generally enters only one name when joining and has an average of five members, the mass following must be about 10'000'000. This astonishing and accelerating rate of expansion explains why the local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials have been isolated, why the public has been amazed at how completely the world has changed since the peasant movement, and why a great revolution has been wrought in the countryside. This is the first great achievement of the peasants under the leadership of their associations.

The following table gives the membership of the peasant associations in all the counties of Hunan Province as of last November:

#COMPARATIVE TABLE OF PEASANT ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP BY COUNTY

#3.2. HITTING THE FEUDAL LORDS POLITICALLY

Once the peasants have their organization, the first thing they do is to smash the political prestige and power of the feudal class, and especially of the local tyrants and evil gentry, that is, to pull down feudal authority and build up peasant authority in rural society. This is a most serious and vital struggle. It is the pivotal struggle in the second period, the period of revolutionary action. Without victory in this struggle, no victory is possible in the economic struggle to reduce rent and interest, to secure land and other means of production, and so on. In many places in Hunan, like Xiangxiang, Hengshan, and Xiangtan Counties, this is of course no problem, since the authority of the feudal lords has been overturned and the peasants constitute the sole authority. But, in counties like Liling, there are still some places (such as Liling's western and southern districts) where the authority of the feudal lords seems weaker than that of the peasants, but, because the political struggle has not been sharp, is in fact surreptitiously competing with it. In such places, it is still too early to say that the peasants have gained political victory; they must wage the political struggle more vigorously until the feudal lords' authority is completely smashed. All in all, the methods used by the peasants to hit the feudal lords politically are as follows:

#3.2.1. CHECKING THE ACCOUNTS

More often than not, the local tyrants and evil gentry have helped themselves to public money passing through their hands, and their books are not in order. Now the peasants are using the checking of accounts as an occasion to bring down a great many of the local tyrants and evil gentry. In many places, committees for checking accounts have been established for the express purpose of settling financial scores with them, and the first sign of such a committee makes them shudder. Campaigns of this kind have been carried out in all the counties where the peasant movement is active; they are important, not so much for recovering money as for publicizing the crimes of the local tyrants and evil gentry and for knocking them down from their political and social positions.

#3.2.2. IMPOSING FINES

The peasants work out fines for such offences as irregularities revealed by the checking of accounts, past outrages against the peasants, current activities which undermine the peasant associations, violations of the ban on gambling, and refusal to surrender opium pipes. This local tyrant must pay so much, that member of the evil gentry so much, the sums ranging from tens to thousands of yuan. Naturally, a person who has been fined by the peasants completely loses face.

#3.2.3. LEVYING CONTRIBUTIONS

The unscrupulous rich feudal lords are made to contribute for poor relief, for the organization of cooperatives or peasant credit societies, or for other purposes. Though milder than fines, these contributions are also a form of punishment. To avoid trouble, quite a number of feudal lords make voluntary contributions to the peasant associations.

#3.2.4. MINOR PROTESTS

When someone harms a peasant association by word or deed and the offence is a minor one, the peasants collect in a crowd and swarm into the offender's house to remonstrate with them. They are usually let off after writing a pledge to «cease and desist», in which they explicitly undertake to stop defaming the peasant association in the future.

#3.2.5. MAJOR DEMONSTRATIONS

A big crowd is rallied to demonstrate against a local tyrant or one of the evil gentry who is an enemy of the association. The demonstrators eat at the offender's house, slaughtering their pigs and consuming their grain as a matter of course. Quite a few such cases have occurred. There was a case recently at Majiahe, Xiangtan County, where a crowd of 15'000 peasants went to the houses of six of the evil gentry and demonstrated; the whole affair lasted four days, during which more than 130 pigs were killed and eaten. After such demonstrations, the peasants usually impose fines.

#3.2.6. «CROWNING» THE FEUDAL LORDS AND PARADING THEM THROUGH THE VILLAGES

This sort of thing is very common. A tall paper-hat is stuck on the head of one of the local tyrants or evil gentry, bearing the words «Local tyrant so-and-so» or «So-and-so of the evil gentry». They are led by a rope and escorted with big crowds in front and behind. Sometimes, brass gongs are beaten and flags waved to attract people's attention. This form of punishment more than any other makes the local tyrants and evil gentry tremble. Anyone who has once been crowned with a tall paper-hat loses face altogether and can never again hold up their head. Hence, many of the rich prefer being fined to wearing the tall hat. But wear it they must, if the peasants insist. One ingenious township peasant association arrested an obnoxious member of the gentry and announced that he was to be crowned that very day. The man turned blue with fear. Then the association decided not to crown him that day. They argued that, if he were crowned right away, he would become case-hardened and no longer afraid, and that it would be better to let him go home and crown him some other day. Not knowing when he would be crowned, the man was in daily suspense, unable to sit down or sleep at ease.

#3.2.7. LOCKING UP THE FEUDAL LORDS IN THE COUNTY JAIL

This is a heavier punishment than wearing the tall paper-hat. A local tyrant or one of the evil gentry is arrested and sent to the county jail; they are locked up, and the county magistrate has to try them and punish them. Today, the people who are locked up are no longer the same. Formerly, it was the gentry who sent peasants to be locked up; now, it is the other way around.

#3.2.8. «BANISHMENT»

The peasants have no desire to banish the most notorious criminals among the local tyrants and evil gentry, but would rather arrest or execute them. Afraid of being arrested or executed, they run away. In counties where the peasant movement is well developed, almost all the important local tyrants and evil gentry have fled, and this amounts to banishment. Among them, the top ones have fled to Shanghai, those of the second rank to Hankou, those of the third to Changsha, and of the fourth to the county towns. Of all the fugitive local tyrants and evil gentry, those who have fled to Shanghai are the safest. Some of those who fled to Hankou, like the three from Huarong, were eventually captured and brought back. Those who fled to Changsha are in still greater danger of being seized at any moment by students in the provincial capital who hail from their counties; I myself saw two captured in Changsha. Those who have taken refuge in the county towns are only of the fourth rank, and the peasantry, having many eyes and ears, can easily track them down. The financial authorities once explained the difficulties encountered by the Hunan Provincial Government in raising money by the fact that the peasants were banishing the well-to-do, which gives some idea of the extent to which the local tyrants and evil gentry are not tolerated in their home villages.

#3.2.9. EXECUTION

This is confined to the worst local tyrants and evil gentry, and is carried out by the peasants jointly with other sections of the people. For instance, Wang Zhize of Ningxiang, Zhou Jiagan of Yueyang, and Fu Daonan and Sun Bozhu of Huarong were shot by the government authorities at the insistence of the peasants and other sections of the people. In the case of Yan Rongqiu of Xiangtan, the peasants and other sections of the people compelled the magistrate to agree to hand him over, and the peasants themselves executed him. Liu Shao of Ningxiang was killed by the peasants. The execution of Peng Zhifan of Liling and Zhou Tianjue and Cao Yun of Yiyang is pending, subject to the decision of the «Special Tribunal for Trying Local Tyrants and Evil Gentry». The execution of one such big feudal lord reverberates through a whole county and is very effective in eradicating the remaining evils of feudalism. Every county has these major tyrants, some as many as several dozen and others at least a few, and the only effective way of suppressing the reactionaries is to execute at least a few in each county who are guilty of the most heinous crimes. When the local tyrants and evil gentry were at the height of their power, they literally slaughtered peasants without batting an eyelid. He Maiquan, for ten years head of the defence corps in the town of Xinkang, Changsha County, was personally responsible for killing almost 1'000 poverty-stricken peasants, which he euphemistically described as «executing bandits». In my native county of Xiangtan, Tang Junyan and Luo Shulin, who headed the defence corps in the town of Yintian, have killed more than 50 people and buried four alive in the 14 years since 1913. Of the more than 50 they murdered, the first two were perfectly innocent beggars. Tang Junyan said, «Let me make a start by killing a couple of beggars!», and so these two lives were snuffed out. Such was the cruelty of the local tyrants and evil gentry in former days, such was the White terror they created in the countryside, and, now that the peasants have risen and shot a few and created just a little terror in suppressing the counter-revolutionaries, is there any reason for saying they should not do so?

#3.3. HITTING THE FEUDAL LORDS ECONOMICALLY

#3.3.1. PROHIBITION ON SENDING GRAIN OUT OF THE AREA, FORCING UP GRAIN PRICES, AND HOARDING AND CORNERING

This is one of the great events of recent months in the economic struggle of the Hunan peasants. Since last October, the poor peasants have prevented the outflow of the grain of the feudal lords and rich peasants and have banned the forcing up of grain prices and hoarding and cornering. As a result, the poor peasants have fully achieved their objective; the ban on the outflow of grain is watertight, grain prices have fallen considerably, and hoarding and cornering have disappeared. This has outraged the landlords, rich peasants, merchants, and even the government, but this is done by the broad masses of the peasants, who make up 70% of the population. In terms of their immediate interests, they think that it should be this way. The political-economic explanation of this matter I shall take up again later.

#3.3.2 PROHIBITION ON INCREASING RENTS AND DEPOSITS,¹⁵ AND AGITATION FOR REDUCED RENTS AND DEPOSITS

Last July and August, when the peasant associations were still weak, the feudal lords, following their long established practice of maximum exploitation, served notice one after another on their tenants that rents and deposits would be increased. But, by October, when the peasant associations had grown considerably in strength and had all come out against the raising of rents and deposits, the feudal lords dared not breathe another word on the subject. From November onward, as the peasants have gained ascendancy over the feudal lords, they have taken the further step of agitating for reduced rents and deposits. What a pity, they say, that the peasant associations were not strong enough when rents were being paid last autumn, or we could have reduced them then. The peasants are doing extensive propaganda for rent reduction in the coming autumn, and the feudal lords are asking how the reductions are to be carried out. It is absolutely impossible for them to oppose this. As for the reduction of deposits, this is already under way in Hengshan and other counties.

#3.3.3. PROHIBITION ON CANCELING TENANCIES

In July and August of last year, there were still many instances of feudal lords canceling tenancies and reletting the land. But, after October, nobody dared cancel a tenancy. Today, the canceling of tenancies and the reletting of land are quite out of the question; all that remains as something of a problem is whether a tenancy can be canceled if the feudal lord wants to cultivate the land themself. In some places, even this is not allowed by the peasants. In others, the canceling of a tenancy may be permitted if the feudal lord wants to cultivate the land themself, but then the problem of unemployment among the tenant-peasants arises. There is as yet no uniform way of solving this problem.

#3.3.4. REDUCTION OF INTEREST

Interest has been generally reduced in Anhua, and there have been reductions in other counties, too. But wherever the peasant associations are powerful, rural money-lending has virtually disappeared, the feudal lords having completely «stopped lending» for fear that the money will be «communized». This is a big problem in the rural areas; it will be discussed in some detail later. What is currently called reduction of interest is confined to old loans. Not only is the interest on such old loans reduced, but the creditor is actually forbidden to press for the repayment of the principal. The poor peasant replies: «Don't blame me. The year is nearly over. I'll pay you back next year.»

#3.4. OVERTHROWING THE FEUDAL RULE OF THE LOCAL TYRANTS AND EVIL GENTRY, AND SMASHING THE DISTRICT AND THE TOWNSHIP¹⁶

The old bodies of political power in the district and the township, and especially at the district level, just below the county level, used to be almost exclusively in the hands of the local tyrants and evil gentry. The district had jurisdiction over a population of from 10'000 to 50'000 or 60'000 people, and had its own armed forces, such as the township defence corps, its own fiscal powers, such as the power to levy taxes per mu¹⁷ (2/3 of 1 km²) of land, and its own judicial powers, such as the power to arrest, imprison, try, and punish the peasants at will. The evil gentry who ran these bodies of rural administration were virtual monarchs of the countryside. Comparatively speaking, the peasants were not so much concerned with the president of the Republic, the provincial military governor,¹⁸ or the county magistrate; their real «bosses» were these rural monarchs. A mere snort from these people, and the peasants knew they had to watch their step. As a consequence of the present revolt in the countryside, the authority of the feudal class has generally been struck down, and the bodies of rural administration dominated by the local tyrants and evil gentry have naturally collapsed in its wake. The heads of the district and the township all steer clear of the people, dare not show their faces, and push all local matters on to the peasant associations. They put people off with the remark: «It is none of my business!»

Whenever their conversation turns to the heads of the district and the township, the peasants say angrily: «That bunch! They are finished!»

Yes, the term «finished» truly describes the state of the old bodies of rural administration wherever the storm of revolution has raged.

#3.5. OVERTHROWING THE ARMED FORCES OF THE FEUDAL LORDS AND ESTABLISHING THOSE OF THE PEASANTS

The armed forces of the feudal class were smaller in central Hunan than in the western and southern parts of the province. An average of 600 rifles for each county would make a total of 45'000 rifles for all the 75 counties; there may, in fact, be more. In the southern and central parts, where the peasant movement is well developed, the feudal class cannot hold its own, because of the tremendous momentum with which the peasants have risen, and its armed forces have largely capitulated to the peasant associations and taken the side of the peasants; examples of this are to be found in such counties as Ningxiang, Pingjiang, Liuyang, Changsha, Liling, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Anhua, Hengshan, and Hengyang. In some counties, such as Baojing, a small number of the feudal lords' armed forces are taking a neutral stand, though with a tendency to capitulate. Another small section are opposing the peasant associations, but the peasants are attacking them and may wipe them out before long, as, for example, in such counties as Yizhang, Linwu, and Jiahe. The armed forces thus taken over from the reactionary feudal lords are all being reorganized into a «standing household militia»¹⁹ and placed under the new bodies of rural self-government, which are bodies of the political power of the peasantry. Taking over these old armed forces is one way in which the peasants are building up their own armed forces. Even though some of them are still struggling, the various counties in southern and central Hunan have no problems anymore. There are some problems only in western Hunan. A new way is through the setting up of spear corps under the peasant associations. The spears have pointed, double-edged blades mounted on long shafts, and there are now 100'000 of these weapons in the county of Xiangxiang alone. Other counties, like Xiangtan, Hengshan, Liling, and Changsha have 70'000 to 80'000, or 50'000 to 60'000, or 30'000 to 40'000 each. Every county where there is a peasant movement has a rapidly growing spear corps. These peasants thus armed form an «irregular household militia». This multitude equipped with spears, which is larger than the old armed forces mentioned above, is a new-born armed power, the mere sight of which makes the local tyrants and evil gentry tremble. The revolutionary authorities in Hunan should see to it that it is built up on a really extensive scale among the more than 20'000'000 peasants in the 75 counties of the province, that every peasant, whether young or in their prime, possesses a spear, and that no restrictions are imposed as though a spear were something dreadful. Anyone who is scared at the sight of the spear corps is indeed a weakling! Only the local tyrants and evil gentry are frightened of them, but no revolutionaries should take fright.

#3.6. OVERTHROWING THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE COUNTY MAGISTRATE AND THEIR BAILIFFS

That county government cannot be clean until the peasants rise up was proved some time ago in Haifeng, Guangdong Province. Now, we have added proof, particularly in Hunan. In a county where power is in the hands of the local tyrants and evil gentry, the magistrate, whoever they may be, is almost invariably a corrupt official. In a county where the peasants have risen up, there is clean government, whoever the magistrate. In the counties I visited, the magistrates had to consult the peasant associations on everything in advance. In counties where the peasant power was very strong, the word of the peasant association worked miracles. If it demanded the arrest of a local tyrant in the morning, the magistrate dared not delay until noon; if it demanded arrest by noon, they dared not delay until the afternoon. When the power of the peasants was just beginning to make itself felt in the countryside, the magistrate worked in league with the local tyrants and evil gentry against the peasants. When the peasants' power grew until it matched that of the feudal lords, the magistrate took the stand of trying to accommodate both the feudal lords and the peasants, accepting some of the peasant association's suggestions while rejecting others. The remark that the word of the peasant association «works miracles» applies only when the power of the feudal lords has been completely beaten down by that of the peasants. At present, the political situation in such counties as Xiangxiang, Xiangtan, Liling, and Hengshan is as follows:

#3.6.1. ALL DECISIONS ARE MADE BY A JOINT COUNCIL CONSISTING OF THE MAGISTRATE AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MASS ORGANIZATIONS

The council is convened by the magistrate and meets in their office. In some counties, it is called the «Joint Council of Public Bodies and the Local Government», and, in others, the «Council of County Affairs». Besides the magistrate themself,, the people attending are the representatives of the county peasant association, trade-union council, merchant association, women's association, school staff association, student association, and Nationalist Party headquarters.²⁰ At such council meetings, the magistrate is influenced by the views of the public organizations and invariably does their bidding. The adoption of a democratic committee system of county government should not, therefore, present much of a problem in Hunan. The present county governments are already quite democratic both in form and substance. This situation has been brought about only in the last two or three months, that is, since the peasants have risen up all over the countryside and overthrown the power of the local tyrants and evil gentry. It has now come about that the magistrates, seeing their old props collapse and needing other props to retain their posts, have begun to curry favour with the public organizations.

#3.6.2. THE JUDICIAL ASSISTANT HAS SCARCELY ANY CASES TO HANDLE

The judicial system in Hunan remains one in which the county magistrate is concurrently in charge of judicial affairs, with an assistant to help them in handling cases. To get rich, the magistrate and their underlings used to rely entirely on collecting taxes and levies, procuring troops and provisions for the armed forces, and extorting money in civil and criminal lawsuits by confounding right and wrong, the last being the most regular and reliable source of income. In the last few months, with the downfall of the local tyrants and evil gentry, all the legal pettifoggers have disappeared. What is more, the peasants' problems, big and small, are now all settled in the peasant associations at the various levels. Thus the county judicial assistant simply has nothing to do. The one in Xiangxiang told me: «When there were no peasant associations, an average of 60 civil or criminal suits were brought to the county government each day; now, it receives an average of only four or five a day.» So it is that the purses of the magistrates and their underlings perforce remain empty.

#3.6.3. THE ARMED GUARDS, THE POLICE, AND THE BAILIFFS ALL KEEP OUT OF THE WAY AND DARE NOT GO NEAR THE VILLAGES TO PRACTISE THEIR EXTORTIONS

In the past, the villagers were afraid of the townspeople, but, now, the townspeople are afraid of the villagers. In particular, the vicious curs kept by the county government — the police, the armed guards, and the bailiffs — are afraid of going to the villages, or, if they do so, they no longer dare to practise their extortions. They tremble at the sight of the peasants' spears.

#3.7. OVERTHROWING THE CLAN AUTHORITY OF THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLES AND CLAN ELDERS, THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY OF TOWN AND VILLAGE GODS, AND THE PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY OF HUSBANDS

A man in China is usually subjected to the domination of three systems of authority:

• First, the State system (political authority), ranging from the national, provincial, and county government down to that of the township.
• Second, the clan system (clan authority), ranging from the central ancestral temple and its branch temples down to the head of the household.
• Third, the supernatural system (religious authority), ranging from the King of Hell down to the town and village gods belonging to the nether world, and from the Emperor of Heaven down to all the various gods and spirits belonging to the celestial world.

As for women, in addition to being dominated by these three systems of authority, they are also dominated by the men (the authority of the husband). These four authorities — political, clan, religious, and patriarchal — are the embodiment of the whole feudal-paternalist system and ideology, and are the four thick ropes binding the Chinese people, particularly the peasants. How the peasants have overthrown the political authority of the feudal lords in the countryside has been described above. The political authority of the feudal lords is the backbone of all the other systems of authority. With that overturned, the clan authority, the religious authority, and the authority of the husband all begin to totter.

Where the peasant association is powerful, the clan elders and administrators of temple funds no longer dare oppress those lower in the clan hierarchy or embezzle clan funds. The worst clan elders and administrators, being local tyrants, have been thrown out. No one any longer dares to practise the cruel corporal and capital punishments that used to be inflicted in the ancestral temples, such as flogging, drowning, and burying alive. The old rule barring women and poor people from the banquets in the ancestral temples has also been broken. The women of Baiguo in Hengshan County gathered in force and swarmed into their ancestral temple, firmly planted their backsides in the seats, and joined in the eating and drinking, while the venerable clan bigwigs had willy-nilly to let them do as they pleased. At another place, where poor peasants had been excluded from temple banquets, a group of them flocked in and ate and drank their fill, while the local tyrants and evil gentry and other long-gowned gentlemen all took to their heels in fright.

Everywhere, religious authority totters as the peasant movement develops. In many places, the peasant associations have taken over the temples of the gods as their offices. Everywhere, they advocate the appropriation of temple property in order to start peasant schools and to defray the expenses of the associations, calling it «public revenue from superstition». In Liling County, prohibiting superstitious practices and smashing idols have become quite the vogue. In its northern districts, the peasants have prohibited the incense-burning processions to propitiate the God of Plague. There were many idols in the Daoist temple at Fubo Hill in Lukou, but, when extra room was needed for the district headquarters of the Nationalist Party, they were all piled up in a corner, big and small together, and no peasant raised any objection. Since then, sacrifices to the gods, the performance of religious rites, and the offering of sacred lamps have rarely been practised when a death occurs in a family. Because the initiative in this matter was taken by the chairperson of the peasant association, Sun Xiaoshan, he is hated by the local Daoist priests. In the Longfeng Nunnery in the Northern Third District, the peasants and primary-school teachers chopped up the wooden idols and actually used the wood to cook meat. More than 30 idols in the Dongfu Monastery in the Southern District were burned by the students and peasants together, and only two small images of Lord Bao²¹ were snatched up by an old peasant, who said: «Don't commit a sin!» In places where the power of the peasants is predominant, only the older peasants and the women still believe in the gods, the younger peasants no longer doing so. Since the latter control the associations, the overthrow of religious authority and the eradication of superstition are going on everywhere.

As to the authority of the husband, this has always been weaker among the poor peasants, because, out of economic necessity, their women have to do more manual labour than the women of the richer classes, and therefore have more say and greater power of decision in family matters. In sexual matters, they also have relatively more freedom. Among the poor peasants in the countryside, polyamory is almost universal. With the increasing bankruptcy of the rural economy in recent years, the basis for men's domination over women has already been weakened. With the rise of the peasant movement, the women in many places have now begun to organize rural women's associations; the opportunity has come for them to lift up their heads, and the authority of the husband is getting shakier every day.

In a word, the whole feudal-paternal system and ideology is tottering with the growth of the peasants' power. At the present time, however, the peasants are concentrating on destroying the feudal lords' political authority. Wherever it has been wholly destroyed, they are beginning to press their attack in the three other spheres of the clan, the gods, and patriarchy. But such attacks have only just begun, and there can be no thorough overthrow of all three until the peasants have won complete victory in the economic struggle. Therefore, our present task is to lead the peasants to put their greatest efforts into the political struggle, so that the feudal lords' authority is entirely overthrown. The economic struggle should follow immediately, so that the land problem and the other economic problems of the poor peasants may be fundamentally solved. As for the clan system, superstition, and gender inequality, their abolition will follow as a natural consequence of victory in the political and economic struggles. If too much of an effort is made, arbitrarily and prematurely, to abolish these things, the local tyrants and evil gentry will seize the pretext to put about such counter-revolutionary propaganda as «the peasant association has no piety toward ancestors», «the peasant association is blasphemous and is destroying religion», and «the peasant association stands for the communization of wives», all for the purpose of undermining the peasant movement. A case in point is the recent events at Xiangxiang in Hunan and Yangxin in Hubei, where the feudal lords exploited the opposition of some peasants to smashing idols. It is the peasants who made the idols, and, when the time comes, they will cast the idols aside with their own hands; there is no need for anyone else to do it for them prematurely. The Communist Party's propaganda policy in such matters should be: «Draw the bow without shooting, just indicate the motions.»²² It is for the peasants themselves to cast aside the idols, pull down the temples to the martyred virgins and the arches to the chaste and faithful widows; it is wrong for anybody else to do it for them.

While I was in the countryside, I did some propaganda against superstition among the peasants. I said:

If you believe in the «Eight Characters»,²³ you hope for good luck; if you believe in geomancy,²⁴ you hope to benefit from the location of your ancestral graves. This year, within the space of a few months, the local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials have all toppled from their pedestals. Is it possible that, until a few months ago, they all had good luck and enjoyed the benefit of well-sited ancestral graves, while suddenly, in the last few months, their luck has turned and their ancestral graves have ceased to exert a beneficial influence? The local tyrants and evil gentry jeer at your peasant association and say: «How odd! Today, the world is a world of committee-members. Look, you can't even go to pass water without bumping into a committee-member!» Quite true, the towns and the villages, the trade unions and the peasant associations, the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party, all without exception have their executive committee members — it is indeed a world of committee-members. But is this due to the «Eight Characters» and the location of the ancestral graves? How strange! The «Eight Characters» of all the poor wretches in the countryside have suddenly turned auspicious! And their ancestral graves have suddenly started exerting beneficial influences! The gods? Worship them by all means. But if you had only Lord Guan²⁵ and the Goddess of Mercy and no peasant association, could you have overthrown the local tyrants and evil gentry? The gods and goddesses are indeed miserable objects. You have worshiped them for centuries, and they have not overthrown a single one of the local tyrants or evil gentry for you! Now, you want to have your rent reduced. Let me ask, how will you go about it? Will you believe in the gods or in the peasant association?

My words made the peasants roar with laughter.

#3.8. SPREADING POLITICAL PROPAGANDA

Even if 10'000 schools of law and political science had been opened, could they have brought as much political education to the people, regardless of age and gender, all the way into the remotest corners of the countryside, as the peasant associations have done in so short a time? I don't think they could. «Down with imperialism!» «Down with the warlords!» «Down with the corrupt officials!» «Down with the local tyrants and evil gentry!» — these political slogans have grown wings, they have found their way to the young, the middle-aged, and the old, to the women and children in countless villages, they have penetrated into their minds, and are on their lips. For instance, watch a group of children at play. If one gets angry with another, if they glare, stamps their foot, and shake their fist, you will then immediately hear from the other the shrill cry of «Down with imperialism!».

In the Xiangtan area, when the children who pasture the cattle get into a fight, one will act as Tang Shengzhi, and the other as Ye Kaixin;²⁶ when one is defeated and runs away, with the other chasing them, it is the pursuer who is Tang Shengzhi and the pursued Ye Kaixin. As to the song, Down with the Imperialist Powers!, of course almost every child in the towns can sing it, and now many village children can sing it, too.

Some of the peasants can also recite Dr. Sun Yixian's Testament. They pick out the terms «freedom», «equality», «Three People's Principles», and «unequal treaties» and apply them, if rather crudely, in their daily life. When somebody who looks like one of the gentry encounters a peasant and stands on their dignity, refusing to make way along a pathway, the peasant will say angrily: «Hey, you local tyrant, don't you know the ‹Three People's Principles›?» Formerly, when the peasants from the vegetable farms on the outskirts of Changsha entered the city to sell their produce, they used to be pushed around by the police. Now, they have found a weapon, which is none other than the «Three People's Principles». When a police officer strikes or swears at a peasant selling vegetables, the peasant immediately answers back by invoking the «Three People's Principles», and that shuts the police officer up. Once, in Xiangtan, when a district peasant association and a township peasant association could not see eye to eye, the chairman of the township association declared: «Down with the district peasant association's unequal treaties!»

The spread of political propaganda throughout the rural areas is entirely an achievement of the Communist Party and the peasant associations. Simple slogans, cartoons, and speeches have produced such a widespread and speedy effect among the peasants that every one of them seems to have been through a political school. According to the reports of comrades engaged in rural work, political propaganda was very extensive at the time of the three great mass rallies: the anti-British demonstration, the celebration of the November Revolution, and the victory celebration for the Northern Expedition. On these occasions, political propaganda was conducted extensively wherever there were peasant associations, mobilizing the whole countryside with tremendous effect. From now on, care should be taken to use every opportunity gradually to enrich the content and clarify the meaning of those simple slogans.

#3.9. PEASANT BANS AND PROHIBITIONS

When the peasant associations, under Communist Party leadership, establish their authority in the countryside, the peasants begin to prohibit or restrict the things they dislike. Gaming, gambling, and opium-smoking are the three things that are most strictly forbidden.

#3.9.1. GAMING

Where the peasant association is powerful, mahjong, dominoes, and card games are completely banned.

The peasant association in the 14th District of Xiangxiang burned two basketfuls of mahjong sets.

If you go to the countryside, you will find none of these games played; anyone who violates the ban is promptly and strictly punished.

#3.9.2. GAMBLING

Former hardened gamblers are now themselves suppressing gambling; this abuse, too, has been swept away in places where the peasant association is powerful.

#3.9.3. OPIUM-SMOKING

The prohibition is extremely strict. When the peasant association orders the surrender of opium pipes, no one dares to raise the least objection. In Liling County, one of the evil gentry who did not surrender his pipes was arrested and paraded through the villages.

The peasants' campaign to «disarm the opium-smokers» is no less impressive than the disarming of the troops of Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang²⁷ by the Northern Expeditionary Army. Quite a number of venerable fathers of officers in the revolutionary army, old men who were opium-addicts and inseparable from their pipes, have been disarmed by the «emperors» (as the peasants are called derisively by the evil gentry). The «emperors» have banned, not only the growing and smoking of opium, but also trafficking in it. A great deal of the opium transported from Guizhou to Jiangxi via the counties of Baojing, Xiangxiang, Yuxian, and Liling has been intercepted on the way and burned. This has affected government revenues. As a result, out of consideration for the army's need for funds in the Northern Expedition, the provincial peasant association ordered the associations at the lower levels «temporarily to postpone the ban on opium traffic». This, however, has upset and displeased the peasants.

#★ ★ ★

There are many other things besides these three which the peasants have prohibited or restricted, the following being some examples:

#3.9.4. PORNOGRAPHY

Vulgar performances, such as the Flower Drum, are forbidden in many places.

#3.9.5. SEDAN-CHAIRS

In many counties, especially Xiangxiang, there have been cases of smashing sedan-chairs. A prohibition on taking sedan-chairs has become a vogue. The only people who can take sedan-chairs are the peasant movement officials; otherwise, they will be smashed. The peasants, detesting the people who use this conveyance, are always ready to smash the chairs, but the peasant associations forbid them to do so. Association officials tell the peasants: «If you smash the chairs, you only save the rich money and lose the carriers their jobs. Will that not hurt our own people?» Seeing the point, the peasants agree, and they have worked out a new tactic — considerably to increase the fares charged by the chair carriers, so as to penalize the rich.

#3.9.6. DISTILLING AND SUGAR-MAKING

The use of grain for distilling spirits and making sugar is everywhere prohibited, and the distillers and sugar-refiners are constantly complaining. Distilling is not banned in Futianpu, Hengshan County, but prices are fixed very low, and the wine and spirits dealers, seeing no prospect of profit, have had to stop it.

#3.9.7. PIGS

The number of pigs a family can keep is limited, for pigs consume grain.

#3.9.8. CHICKENS AND DUCKS

In Xiangxiang County, the raising of chickens and ducks is prohibited, but the women object. In Hengshan County, each family in Yangtang is allowed to keep only three, and in Futianpu five. In many places, the raising of ducks is completely banned, for ducks not only consume grain, but also ruin the rice plants, and so are worse than chickens.

#3.9.9. FEASTS

Sumptuous feasts are generally forbidden. In Shaoshan, Xiangtan County, it has been decided that guests are to be served with only three kinds of animal food, namely, chicken, fish, and pork. It is also forbidden to serve bamboo shoots, kelp, and lentil noodles. In Hengshan County, it has been resolved that eight dishes and no more may be served at a banquet.²⁸ Only five dishes are allowed in the Eastern Third District in Liling County, and only three meat and three vegetable dishes in the Northern Second District, while, in the Western Third District, New Year feasts are forbidden entirely. In Xiangxiang County, there is a ban on all «egg-cake feasts», which are by no means sumptuous. When a family in the Second District of Xiangxiang gave an «egg-cake feast» at a son's wedding, the peasants, seeing the ban violated, swarmed into the house and broke up the celebration. In the town of Jiamo, Xiangxiang County, the people have refrained from eating expensive foods and use only fruit when offering ancestral sacrifices.

#3.9.10. OXEN

Oxen are a treasured possession of the peasants. «Slaughter an ox in this life, and you will be an ox in the next» has become almost a religious tenet; oxen must never be killed. Before the peasants had power, they could only appeal to religious taboo in opposing the slaughter of cattle, and had no means of banning it. People in the cities always want to eat beef, and therefore people in the cities always want to kill cattle. Since the rise of the peasant associations, their jurisdiction has extended even to the cattle, and they have prohibited the slaughter of cattle in the towns. Of the six butcheries in the county town of Xiangtan, five are now closed, and the remaining one slaughters only enfeebled or disabled animals. The slaughter of cattle is totally prohibited throughout the county of Hengshan. No one in the county town dares slaughter either. A peasant, whose ox fell from a high place, broke a leg, and is now disabled, consulted the peasant association and got its permission before he dared kill it. When the Chamber of Commerce of Zhuzhou rashly slaughtered a cow, the peasants came into town and demanded an explanation, and the chamber, besides paying a fine, had to let off firecrackers by way of apology.

#3.9.11. TRAMPS AND VAGABONDS

A resolution passed in Liling County prohibited the drumming of New Year greetings or the chanting of praises to the local deities or the singing of lotus rhymes. Various other counties have similar prohibitions, or these practices have disappeared of themselves, as no one observes them any more. The «beggar-bullies» or «vagabonds», who used to be extremely aggressive, now have no alternative but to submit to the peasant associations. In Shaoshan, Xiangtan County, the vagabonds used to make the temple of the God of Rain their regular haunt and feared nobody, but, since the rise of the associations, they have stolen away. The peasant association in Huti Township in the same county caught three such tramps and made them carry clay for the brick kilns. Resolutions have been passed prohibiting the wasteful customs associated with New Year calls and gifts.

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Besides these, many other minor prohibitions have been introduced in various places, such as the Liling prohibitions on incense-burning processions to propitiate the God of Plague, on buying preserves and fruit for ritual presents, burning ritual paper garments during the Festival of Spirits, and pasting up good-luck posters at the New Year. At Gushui in Xiangxiang County, there is a prohibition even on smoking water-pipes. In the Second District, letting off fire crackers and ceremonial guns is forbidden, with a fine of 1,20 yuan for the former and 2,40 yuan for the latter. Religious rites for the dead are prohibited in the Seventh and 20th Districts. In the 18th District, it is forbidden to make funeral gifts of money. Things like these, which defy enumeration, may be generally called peasant bans and prohibitions.

They are of great significance in two respects. First, they represent a revolt against bad social customs, such as gaming, gambling, and opium-smoking. These customs arose out of the rotten political environment of the feudal class and are swept away once its authority is overthrown. Second, the prohibitions are a form of self-defence against exploitation by city merchants; such are the prohibitions on feasts and on buying preserves and fruit for ritual presents. Manufactured commodities are extremely expensive and agricultural products are extremely cheap, the peasants are impoverished and ruthlessly exploited by the merchants, and they must therefore encourage frugality to protect themselves. As for the ban on sending grain out of the area, it is imposed to prevent the price from rising, because the poor peasants have not enough to feed themselves and have to buy grain on the market. The reason for all this is the peasants' poverty and the contradictions between city and countryside; it is not a matter of their rejecting manufactured commodities or trade between city and countryside in order to uphold the so-called Doctrine of Eastern Culture.²⁹ To protect themselves economically, the peasants must organize consumers' cooperatives for the collective buying of commodities. It is also necessary for the government to help the peasant associations establish credit (loan) cooperatives. If these things were done, the peasants would naturally find it unnecessary to ban the outflow of grain as a method of keeping down the price, nor would they have to prohibit the inflow of certain manufactured commodities in economic self-defence.

#3.10. ELIMINATING BANDITRY

In my opinion, no ruler in any dynasty from Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu down to the Qing emperors and the presidents of the Republic has ever shown as much prowess in eliminating banditry as have the peasant associations today. Wherever the peasant associations are powerful, there is not a trace of banditry. Surprisingly enough, in many places, even the pilfering of vegetables has disappeared. In other places, there are still some pilferers. But, in the counties I visited, even including those that were formerly bandit-ridden, there was no trace of bandits. The reasons are:

• First, the members of the peasant associations are everywhere spread out over the hills and valleys, spear or cudgel in hand, ready to go into action in their hundreds, so that the bandits have nowhere to hide.
• Second, since the rise of the peasant movement, the price of grain has dropped — it was 6 yuan a picul [50 kilograms] last spring, but only 2 yuan last winter — and the poor peasants can buy more grain with less money. Thus, the problem of food has become less serious for the people.
• Third, members of the secret societies³⁰ have joined the peasant associations, in which they can openly and legally play the hero and vent their grievances, so that there is no further need for the secret «Mountain», «Lodge», «Shrine», and «River» forms of organization.³¹ In killing the pigs and sheep of the local tyrants and evil gentry and imposing heavy levies and fines, they have adequate outlets for their feelings against those who oppressed them.
• Fourth, the armies are recruiting large numbers of soldiers, and many of the «unruly» have joined up.

Thus, the evil of banditry has ended with the rise of the peasant movement. On this point, even the well-to-do approve of the peasant associations. Their comment is: «The peasant associations? Well, to be fair, there is also something to be said for them.»

In prohibiting gaming, gambling, and opium-smoking, and in eliminating banditry, the peasant associations have won general approval.

#3.11. ABOLISHING EXORBITANT LEVIES

As the country is not yet unified and the authority of the imperialists and the warlords has not been overthrown, there is as yet no way of removing the heavy burden of government taxes and levies on the peasants or, more explicitly, of removing the burden of expenditure for the revolutionary army. However, the exorbitant levies imposed on the peasants when the local tyrants and evil gentry dominated rural administration, for example, the surcharge on each mu of land, have been abolished or at least reduced with the rise of the peasant movement and the downfall of the local tyrants and evil gentry. This, too, should be counted among the achievements of the peasant associations.

#3.12. THE MOVEMENT FOR EDUCATION

In China, education has always been the exclusive preserve of the feudal lords, and the peasants have had no access to it. But feudal culture is created by the peasants, for its sole source is the peasants' sweat and blood. In China, 90% of the people have had no education, and, of these, the overwhelming majority are peasants. The moment the power of the feudal lords was overthrown in the rural areas, the peasants' movement for education began. See how the peasants, who until then detested the schools, are today zealously setting up evening classes! They always disliked the «foreign-style school». In my student days, when I went back to the village and saw that the peasants were against the «foreign-style school», I, too, used to identify myself with the general run of «foreign-style students and teachers» and stand up for it, feeling that the peasants were somehow wrong. It was not until 1925, when I lived in the countryside for six months, was already a Communist, and had acquired the Marxist standpoint, that I realized I had been wrong and the peasants right. The texts used in the rural primary schools were entirely about urban things and unsuited to rural needs. Besides, the attitude of the primary-school teachers towards the peasants was very bad and, far from being helpful to the peasants, they became objects of dislike. Hence the peasants preferred the old-style schools («Chinese classes», as they called them) to the modern schools (which they called «foreign classes») and the old-style teachers to the ones in the primary schools. Now, the peasants are enthusiastically establishing evening classes, which they call peasant schools. Some have already been opened, others are being organized, and, on the average, there is one school per township peasant association. The peasants are very enthusiastic about these schools, and regard them, and only them, as their own. The funds for the evening schools come from the «public revenue from superstition», from ancestral temple funds, and from other idle public funds or property. The county education boards wanted to use this money to establish primary schools, that is, «foreign-style schools» not suited to the needs of the peasants, while the latter wanted to use it for peasant schools, and the outcome of the dispute was that both got some of the money, though there are places where the peasants got it all. The development of the peasant movement has resulted in a rapid rise in their cultural level. Before long, tens of thousands of schools will have sprung up in the villages throughout the province; this is quite different from the empty talk about «universal education», which the intellectuals and the so-called «educationalists» have been bandying back and forth, and which, after all this time, remains an empty phrase.

#3.13. THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT

The peasants really need cooperatives, and especially consumers', marketing, and credit cooperatives. When they buy commodities, the merchants exploit them; when they sell their farm produce, the merchants cheat them; when they borrow money or rice, they are fleeced by the usurers; and they are eager to find a solution to these three problems. During the fighting in the Yangzi River valley last winter, when trade routes were cut and the price of salt went up in Hunan, many peasants organized cooperatives to purchase salt. When the feudal lords deliberately stopped lending, there were many attempts by the peasants to organize credit agencies, because they needed to borrow money. A major problem is the absence of detailed, standard rules of organization. As these spontaneously organized peasant cooperatives often fail to conform to cooperative principles, the comrades working among the peasants are always eagerly inquiring about «rules and regulations». Given proper guidance, the cooperative movement can spread everywhere along with the growth of the peasant associations. Because the term «cooperative» is not at all familiar to the peasants, the idea could also be rendered as «joint-commodity shop».

#3.14. BUILDING ROADS AND REPAIRING EMBANKMENTS

This, too, is one of the achievements of the peasant associations. Before there were peasant associations, the roads in the countryside were terrible. Roads cannot be repaired without money, and, as the wealthy were unwilling to dip into their purses, the roads were left in a bad state. If there was any road work done at all, it was done as an act of charity; a little money was collected from families «wishing to gain merit in the next world», and a few narrow, skimpily paved roads were built. With the rise of the peasant associations, orders have been given specifying the required width — three, five, seven, or ten feet, according to the requirements of the different routes — and each feudal lord along a road has been ordered to build a section. Once the order is given, who dares to disobey? In a short time, many good roads have appeared. This is no work of charity but the result of compulsion, and a little compulsion of this kind is not at all a bad thing. The same is true of the embankments. The ruthless feudal lords were always out to take what they could from the tenant-peasants and would never spend even a few coppers on embankment repairs; they would leave the ponds to dry up and the tenant-peasants to starve, caring about nothing but the rent. Now that there are peasant associations, the feudal lords can be bluntly ordered to repair the embankments. When a feudal lord refuses, the association will tell them politely: «Very well! If you won't do the repairs, you will contribute grain, 1 dou [10 litres] for each workday.» As this is a bad bargain for the feudal lord, they hasten to do the repairs. Consequently, many defective embankments have been turned into good ones.

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All the 14 deeds enumerated above have been accomplished by the peasants under the leadership of the peasant associations. Would the reader please think it over and say whether any of them is bad in its fundamental spirit and revolutionary significance? Only the local tyrants and evil gentry, I think, will call them bad. Curiously enough, it is reported from Nanchang³² that Jiang Jieshi, Zhang Jingjiang,³³ and other such «excellencies» do not altogether approve of the activities of the Hunan peasants. This opinion is shared by Liu Yuezhi³⁴ and other Right-wing leaders in Hunan, all of whom say: «They have simply gone Red.» But where would the national revolution be without this bit of Red? To talk about «mobilizing the masses of the people» day in and day out, and then to be scared to death when the masses do rise up — what difference is there between this and Lord She's love of dragons?³⁵