The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains

We have held a very good congress. We have done three things: First, we decided the Party's line — to set the masses in motion with a free hand, build up the people's strength and, under the leadership of our Party, defeat the Japanese aggressors, liberate the people of the whole country, and build a new-democratic China. Second, we adopted a new Party constitution. Third, we elected the Party's leading organ — the Central Committee. The task from now on is to lead the whole Party in carrying out the Party's line. We have held a victorious congress, a congress of unity. The delegates expressed very good opinions on the three reports⑴. Many comrades made self-criticism: setting out from the goal of unity and passing through self-criticism, they arrived at unity. This congress was a model of unity, a model of self-criticism, and a model of inner-party democracy.

When the congress closes, many comrades will return to their posts of work and set out for the different battle fronts. In going to all parts of the country, comrades, you must propagate the line of the congress, and through all the comrades of the Party explain it widely to the people.

To propagate the line of the congress is to build in the whole Party and the whole nation one conviction: that the revolution will surely be victorious. First we must bring the vanguard to awakening, so that it resolves, fears no sacrifice, casts aside every difficulty and fights for victory. But this is not enough; we must also bring the broad masses of the people of the whole country to awakening, so that they willingly struggle together with us and fight for victory. The people of the whole country must come to hold this faith: China belongs to the Chinese people, not to the reactionaries. There is an ancient Chinese fable called “The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains.” It tells of an old man of ancient times who lived in North China, known as the Foolish Old Man of the North Mountain. Two great mountains barred the way out from his house, which faced south: one called Taihang, one called Wangwu. The Foolish Old Man resolved to lead his sons in digging away these two mountains with hoes. An old fellow named the Wise Old Man saw it and laughed: what you are doing is foolish past words — that a handful of fathers and sons should dig away two such mountains is utterly impossible. The Foolish Old Man replied: when I die, there are my sons; when my sons die, there are grandsons; sons and grandsons without end. High as these two mountains are, they can grow no higher; dig away a little and there is that much less — why should they not be levelled? The Foolish Old Man refuted the Wise Old Man's wrong thinking, wavered not at all, and went on digging at the mountains every day. God was moved by this and sent down two immortals, who carried the two mountains away on their backs⑵. Today two great mountains likewise press upon the heads of the Chinese people: one is called imperialism, the other feudalism. The Communist Party of China resolved long ago to dig these two mountains away. We must persevere, we must work on without pause, and we too shall move God. This God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people. When the masses of the whole country rise as one and dig these two mountains together with us, what could fail to be levelled?

Yesterday two Americans were about to return to the United States, and I said to them: that the government of the United States should work to sabotage us is not to be permitted. We oppose the US government's policy of backing Chiang and fighting the Communists. But first we must distinguish the American people from their government, and second we must distinguish those who decide policy in the American government from the ordinary staff below them. I said to these two Americans: tell those who decide policy in your government that the liberated areas are barred to them, because their policy is to back Chiang and fight the Communists, and we cannot trust them. If you come to fight Japan, you may enter the liberated areas — but a treaty must first be concluded. If you go sneaking about everywhere, that will not be permitted. Hurley has openly declared that he will not cooperate with the Communist Party of China⑶; that being so, why should he come roaming about our liberated areas?

The US government's policy of backing Chiang and fighting the Communists shows how wanton the American reactionaries are. But every attempt of the reactionaries, Chinese or foreign, to prevent the Chinese people from winning victory is doomed to fail. In the world of today democracy is the main current, and the anti-democratic reaction is only a counter-current. At present the reactionary counter-current tries to overwhelm the main current of national independence and people's democracy, but a counter-current will never become the main current. It is still as Stalin said long ago: the old world has three great contradictions — first, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the imperialist countries; second, the contradiction among the imperialist countries themselves; third, the contradiction between the colonial and semi-colonial countries and the imperialist metropoles⑷. These contradictions not only still exist, but have grown sharper and wider. Because they exist and develop, the counter-current of anti-Soviet, anti-communist and anti-democratic reaction, though it exists, will one day be overcome.

Two great congresses are sitting in China at this moment: one is the Sixth Congress of the Kuomintang, the other the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party. The two congresses have wholly different aims: one would destroy the Communist Party and the democratic forces of China and lead China into darkness; the other would overthrow Japanese imperialism and its running dog, the feudal forces of China, and build a new-democratic China, leading China into the light. These two lines are struggling against each other. We firmly believe that, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and under the line of its Seventh Congress, the Chinese people will win complete victory, while the Kuomintang's counter-revolutionary line must certainly fail.

〔1〕 This refers to the political report delivered by Mao Zedong, the military report delivered by Zhu De, and the report on the revision of the Party constitution delivered by Liu Shaoqi at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

〔2〕 The story of the Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains is in the “Tang Wen” chapter of the Book of Liezi, where the original reads: “Taihang and Wangwu are two mountains, seven hundred li square and ten thousand fathoms high; they stood south of Jizhou, north of Heyang. The Foolish Old Man of the North Mountain, close to ninety, lived facing them. Grieved that the barrier to the north made his going out and coming in roundabout, he gathered his household for counsel: ‘Let us spend all our strength levelling the perilous ground, so that a road runs straight to southern Yu and reaches the south bank of the Han — what say you?’ They approved with one voice. His wife raised a doubt: ‘With your strength, sir, you could not level the mound of Kuifu; what of Taihang and Wangwu? And where would you put the earth and stone?’ They answered: ‘Cast it at the edge of the Bohai Sea, north of the hidden land.’ So he led three sons and grandsons able to bear loads, chiselling stone and breaking soil, carrying it in baskets to the edge of the Bohai. The widow of a neighbour of the Jingcheng family had a boy just out of the cradle who came skipping to help. The seasons passed from cold to heat before they made one round trip. The Wise Old Man of Hequ, laughing, stopped him: ‘How wanting in wisdom you are! With your remaining years and your failing strength you could not destroy so much as a hair of the mountain — what of its earth and stone?’ The Foolish Old Man of the North Mountain sighed long and said: ‘Your heart is so hardened it cannot be pierced; you are not the equal of the widow's little son. Though I die, my sons survive me; my sons beget grandsons, my grandsons beget sons; sons have sons, sons have grandsons; sons and grandsons are without end, yet the mountain grows no greater — why fear it will not be levelled?’ The Wise Old Man of Hequ had no answer. The god who held the snake heard of it and, fearing the old man would not stop, reported him to the Emperor of Heaven, who was moved by his sincerity and commanded the two sons of Kua'e to carry the two mountains away on their backs, one set east of Shuo, one south of Yong. From that time on, south of Ji and by the south bank of the Han, no ridge has stood between.”

〔3〕 Hurley (1883–1963) was a member of the Republican Party of the United States. Appointed American ambassador to China at the end of November 1944, he met the resolute opposition of the Chinese people for his support of Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist policy, and in November 1945 was forced to announce his recall. In a statement at a State Department press conference in Washington on 2 April 1945 he openly declared that he would not cooperate with the Communist Party of China. See “Hurley and Chiang Kai-shek's Double Act Has Bankrupted” and “The Danger of Hurley's Policy” in the present volume.

〔4〕 See Stalin, “The Foundations of Leninism,” part one, “The Historical Roots of Leninism” (Selected Works of Stalin, vol. 1, People's Publishing House, 1979 edition, pp. 186–187).

(This was the closing speech delivered by Mao Zedong at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China.)

The base text is the Wikisource version, sixteen paragraphs, with four editor's notes: the referents of the three reports, the source of the Foolish Old Man story, Hurley's remarks, and the three contradictions of the old world Stalin described. The notes are listed separately from the body and not mixed with it.

The parable in this piece is from the 'Tang Wen' chapter of the Liezi; a note on the same page gives the original. The text matches the two mountains Taihang and Wangwu with the two great mountains above, and calls the God the Chinese Communist Party would move the common people of all China.

After the fifth paragraph the speech turns to the US government's policy of aiding Chiang and opposing the Communists, drawing three distinctions: the American people and the American government; the policy-deciding men in the government and the ordinary staff below; and whether one may operate in the liberated areas. These three distinctions constitute this piece's way of handling Sino-American relations.