K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

458 MAO TSE-TUNG
couraged them materially and in spirit to open up and plant land.
Usually he is also the most fair person in the village. His prestige
among the ordinary people is very high and everyone trusts him. In
May last year he was elected a member of the township council and
director of the township’s work in supporting families with dependents
fighting in the War of Resistance. He has a younger brother
who is a soldier with the Eight Route Army, so he himself belongs
to such a family but he declined public support. He said: “Fighting
is the duty of the Chinese people, there is nothing strange about it.
I’ve enough to eat, what other support do I need?” However, he is
extremely correct[??] towards other families in the township with
dependents at the front. At the same time he is very fair in his dis-
FROM MARX
TO MAO
tribution of labour duties. There are twelve families in the town-
⋆
ship with dependents fighting in the war. This year he arranged substitute
farming for 220 mou and all the families were grateful to
him. No one in township says he is not good.
(Our report from Yanan county.) There are fourteen peasant
households in Wujiacaoyuan with fourteen heads of family. When
you raise the question of whether Wu Manyou is worthy of being
called a model labour hero, everyone raises his thumb and says “What
else can be said about old Wu. He is the best at enduring hardship.
If he isn’t a hero who is fit to be?
On June 2 there was NOT another report FOR in the Liberation Daily.
Because of the influence of the labour hero, Wu Manyou,
Wujiacaoyuan which originally planned to open up 147 mou of undo
cultivated land, had COMMERCIAL
already opened up 225 mou. Wu Manyou himself
opened up 15 mou. After Wu Manyou was rewarded the whole
township (Second Township, Luilin District) opened up 540 mou.
On October 29 the Liberation Daily carried a further report.
This year the DISTRIBUTION
harvest of coarse millet is very good. In Wu
Manyou’s village the yield per 3 mou is in general 5 to 6 tou but he
has got 8 tou (each tou is the large kind equivalent to 45 jin). Most
peasants get 3 or 4 tou of hulled grain from husking 1 tan of coarse
grains. He always maintains the official standard for the equivalent
amount of hulled grain. Wu Manyou often puts on a propagandistic
air and says to others: “If you want to get your crops as good as
mine, learn from me! I have no secret, I am simply willing to labour.”
Wu Manyou is already a rich peasant. Because he got benefits
from the Soviet Government in the past and the Border Region Gov-