The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains 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 edition published in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Volume 3, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is the closing address delivered by Mao Zedong at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 11th of June, 1945. It was first published in the Minutes of the Congress in 1945.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#THE FOOLISH OLD MAN WHO REMOVED THE MOUNTAINS

#CLOSING ADDRESS AT THE SEVENTH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#11th of June, 1945

#★

We have had a very successful congress. We have done three things. First, we have decided on the line of our Party, which is boldly to mobilize the masses and expand the people's forces, so that, under the leadership of our Party, they will defeat the Japanese aggressors, liberate the whole people, and build a new-democratic China. Second, we have adopted the new Party Constitution. Third, we have elected the leading body of the Party — the Central Committee. From now on, our task is to lead the whole membership in carrying out the Party line. Ours has been a congress of victory, a congress of unity. The delegates have made excellent comments on the three reports. Many comrades have undertaken self-criticism; with unity as the objective, unity has been achieved through self-criticism. This Congress is a model of unity, of self-criticism, and of inner-Party democracy.

When the Congress closes, many comrades will be leaving for their posts and the various war fronts. Comrades, wherever you go, you should propagate the line of the Congress and, through the members of the Party, explain it to the broad masses.

Our aim in propagating the line of the Congress is to build up the confidence of the whole Party and the entire people in the certain triumph of the revolution. We must first raise the political consciousness of the vanguard, so that, resolute and unafraid of sacrifice, they will surmount every difficulty to win victory. But this is not enough; we must also awaken the political consciousness of the entire people, so that they may willingly and gladly fight together with us for victory. We should fire the whole people with the conviction that China belongs not to the reactionaries, but to the Chinese people. There is an ancient Chinese fable called The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains. It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. His house faced south, and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way. He called his children, and, hoe in hand, they began to dig up these mountains with great determination. Another greybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively: «How silly of you to do this! It is quite impossible for you few to dig up these two huge mountains.» The Foolish Old Man replied: «When I die, my children will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandchildren, and then their children and grandchildren, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can't we clear them away?» Having refuted the Wise Old Man's wrong view, he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction. God was moved by this, and sent down two angels, who carried the mountains away on their backs. Today, two big mountains lie like a dead weight on the Chinese people. One is imperialism, the other is feudalism. The Communist Party of China has long made up its mind to dig them up. We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God's heart. Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people. If they stand up and dig together with us, why can't these two mountains be cleared away?

Yesterday, in a talk with two Americans who were leaving for the United States, I said that the US government was trying to undermine us and this would not be permitted. We oppose the US government's policy of supporting Jiang Jieshi against the Communists. But we must draw a distinction, firstly, between the people of the United States and their government, and, secondly, within the US government, between the policymakers and their subordinates. I said to these two Americans: «Tell the policymakers in your government that we forbid you Americans to enter the Liberated Areas because your policy is to support Jiang Jieshi against the Communists, and we have to be on our guard. You can come to the Liberated Areas if your purpose is to fight Japan, but there must first be an agreement. We will not permit you to nose around everywhere. Since Patrick J. Hurley¹ has publicly declared against cooperation with the Communist Party of China, why do you still want to come and prowl around in our Liberated Areas?»

The US government's policy of supporting Jiang Jieshi against the Communists shows the brazenness of the US reactionaries. But all the scheming of the reactionaries, whether Chinese or foreign, to prevent the Chinese people from achieving victory is doomed to failure. The democratic forces are the main current in the world today, while reaction is only a counter-current. The reactionary counter-current is trying to swamp the main current of national independence and people's democracy, but it can never become the main current. Today, there are still three major contradictions in the old world, as Stalin pointed out long ago: firstly, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the imperialist countries; secondly, the contradiction between the various imperialist powers; and, thirdly, the contradiction between the colonial and semi-colonial countries and the imperialist metropolitan countries.² Not only do these three contradictions continue to exist, but they are becoming more sharp and widespread. Because of their existence and growth, the time will come when the reactionary anti-Soviet, anti-Communist, and anti-democratic counter-current still in existence today will be swept away.

At this moment, two congresses are being held in China, the Sixth National Congress of the Nationalist Party and the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party. They have completely different aims: the aim of one is to liquidate the Communist Party and all the other democratic forces in China and thus to plunge China into darkness; the aim of the other is to overthrow Japanese imperialism and its lackeys, the Chinese feudal forces, and build a new-democratic China, and thus to lead China to light. These two lines are in conflict with each other. We firmly believe that, led by the Communist Party of China and guided by the line of its Seventh Congress, the Chinese people will achieve complete victory, while the Nationalist Party's counter-revolutionary line will inevitably fail.