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Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
Some Interjections At A Briefing
The State Planning Commission
Leading GroupMay 11, 1964
[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.]
1. In formulating the plan it is necessary to include certain needs of North Korea and North Vietnam. I hear North Vietnam is in need of XX thousand tons of oil.
2. It is not certain that we shall have a population of 720 millions in 1965. There will be 800 millions in 1970? This is serious.
3. Intellectuals are quite important; [we] cannot do without them. They are needed in the realm of theory; theory cannot do without them. However, they still need to sum up the things indicated below.
4. There are two fists and one rear end in the national economy. Basic industry is one fist, national defense industry is the other, and agriculture is the rear end.A.
5. The Soviet Union today is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, a dictatorship of the grand bourgeoisie, a fascist German dictatorship, and a Hitlerite dictatorship. They are a bunch of rascals worse than De Gaulle.
6. Class identifications should be drawn in all units, factories, streets, schools, and official organs.
7. The wage question. It is difficult to further reduce wages at the upper levels. From now on, we will stabilize wages at the upper levels and raise them gradually at the lower levels.
8. Whom is Industry to serve? It should be made to serve agriculture. Of course, there is the question of interrelationship between sectors of heavy industry, but the whole spectrum of industry should be made to serve agriculture.
9. Stable-yield output and high-yield output are relative. Last year Hopeh Province had torrential rains. This downpour was willed by the Lord in Heaven! It couldn’t be helped! It is hard to be Lord in Heaven. Too much rain isn’t good; too little isn’t good either.
10. Do as much as one’s strength allows. Don’t let any individual decide on this. “I am old and about to die, but before I die, I want to accomplish. . .?” This isn’t right.
11. I want to finish reading The Twenty-four Histories. The Old Book of T’ang History is better than The New Book of T’ang History. The Southern History and The Northern History are still better than The Old Book of T’ang History. The most unsatisfactory is the History of Ming Dynasty.
12. The purpose of drawing class identifications in factories is to expose the 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 percent of the workers. Among the workers 8 to15 percent do not have a working class origin.
A. Note on translation: Some Chinsese versions of this work transpose portions of this sentence, declaring basic industry as one "fist" and agriculture as the "rear," to wit:
"两个拳头，一个屁股。基础工业是一个拳头，国防是一个拳头。要使拳头有劲，屁股就要坐稳。屁股就是农业。"
The translation presented in Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, vol. IX printed by Sramikavarga Prachuranalu in Hyderabad in 1994 is consistent with the English version provided above.