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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
The rural people's communes, launched in the summer and autumn of 1958, purported to be a grand new social, political and economic organisation. They were supposed to be like “a fine horse, which having shaken off its bridle, is galloping courageously directly towards the highway of Communism.” An organisation had been created where collective living was actively promoted and the “Five-togethers” practised, where women were “freed from the drudgery of home life” and Idrawn into full time participation in the commune production, where labour could be shifted from area to area or even occupation to occupation according to needs and requirements, where the rural areas were not only the scene of agricultural production, but were also new centres of workshops producing steel and machine tools, and where the previous village, township and even county administration was now merged into the new commune administration, which thus undertook multifarious activities.
1 Kiangsi Daily, Nan Ch'ang, 11 26, 1959, p. 3.Google Scholar
2 The “five-togethers” were working together, eating together, living together, studying together and drilling together.
3 For a background to the formation of the communes, the changes that were introduced, the adverse effects they had on the peasantry, and the details of the 1958 resolution, see the author's article, “The Rural People's Communes of China,” International Studies, New Delhi, Vol. III, No. 1, 07 1961, pp. 45–64.Google Scholar
4 Ti-li hsüeh-pao, Vol. XXV, No. 1, 02 1959.Google Scholar
5 Ibid.
6 Article by I-tung, Liai, Ti-li chih-shih, No. 9, 1959, pp. 390–392.Google Scholar
7 The Communist Party issued directives in February 1959 as well as in August 1959 regarding “readjustments.”
8 Nan-fang Daily, 09 15, 1959.Google Scholar
9 People's Daily, 10 1, 1959.Google Scholar
10 Red Flag, No. 20, 1959Google Scholar, Peking Review, 12 1, 1959, p. 6Google Scholar
11 People's Daily, 10 19, 1959.Google Scholar
12 Kiangsi Daily, 08 20, 1959.Google Scholar
13 Ibid. Editorial, November 24, 1959.
14 People's Daily, 08 6, 1959.Google Scholar
15 Kiangsi Daily, 11 29, 1959, p. 3.Google Scholar
16 ibid. October 24, 1959, p. 2.
17 People's Daily, 10 1, 1959.Google Scholar
18 Ibid.Red Flag, No. 20, 1959.
19 Kiangsi Daily, Editorial, 11 24, 1959, p. 1.Google Scholar
20 Mobilisation of the poor peasantry and concentration on development of poor brigades and teams to meet the challenge of the “rightists” was an insistent note in the Communist Party writings during this time.
21 Red Flag, No. 1, 1960Google Scholar; Peking Review, No. 1, 01 5, 1960, p. 9.Google Scholar
22 Press communiqué on the growth of China's economy, January 22, 1960, Peking Review, No. 4, 01 26, 1960, p. 10.Google Scholar
23 Li Fu-chun, op. cit.
24 See for instance, Chou En-lai's speech at an anniversary reception on September 30, 1962. Peking Review, No. 4, 10 5, 1962, p. 6.Google Scholar
25 For a full text of the December 1958 Resolution see the pamphlet entitled Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1958, pp. 12–49.Google Scholar
26 See, for instance, the example of Ever Green People's Commune lauded by the People's Daily, 08 14, 1959.Google Scholar
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid. June 16, 1960.
29 Ibid. June 29, 1960.
30 Ibid. October 21, 1960.
31 Ibid. July 3, 1960.
32 Ibid.Editorial, August 25, 1960.
33 Lord Montgomery's article in The Sunday Times, Magazine Section, 10 15, 1961.Google Scholar
34 How serious the crisis has been can be seen from the fact that the authorities have yet to release production figures for the last three years.
35 See the resolution of the Ninth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, January 14–18, 1961. Peking Review, No. 4, 01 27, 1961, PP. 5–7.Google Scholar
36 NCNA reported on December 29, 1960, that in that year one-half of the total arable land, or 900 million mow (60 million hectares) were affected and that the damage was heaviest on 20–27 million hectares).
37 Chou En-lai in his speech on the 13th anniversary admitted that the agricultural difficulties were caused both by serious natural disasters and “shortcomings and mistakes in our work.” Peking Review, No. 40, 10 5, 1962, p. 6.Google Scholar
38 Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien, No. 8, 04 1961.Google Scholar
39 Ibid.
40 Red Flag, No. 3–4, 02 1, 1961, pp. 26–32.Google Scholar
41 Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien, No. 8, 04 1961.Google Scholar
42 People's Duly, 09 1961Google Scholar, September 13, 1961 and March 22, 1962.
43 Article by Shih-chi, Kung and Wu-chien, , Jen-min Jih-pao, 05 20, 1961, p. 7.Google Scholar
44 See, for instance, an article on “Some Problems of Procurement of Agricultural Products.” People's Daily, 10 26, 1961, p. 7.Google Scholar
45 People's Daily, 05 20, 1961, p. 7.Google Scholar
46 Red Flag, Nos. 3–4, 02 1, 1961, pp. 26–32.Google Scholar
47 Ibid.
48 See the report of Tung-Ying brigade of Lu Pu commune in Kiangsu province. People's Daily, 05 20, 1961, p. 2.Google Scholar
49 See, for instance, the report on the Min-Chi commune in Ma-Cheng hsieh, Hopei province, People's Daily, 06 30, 1961, p. 4.Google Scholar
50 People's Daily, 07 26, 1961.Google Scholar
51 Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien, No. 8, 04 1961.Google Scholar
52 Article by Rang, Liu, People's Daily, 08 4, 1961, p. 7.Google Scholar
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid. August 19, 1961, p. 5.
55 Ta Rung Pao, 03 20, 1961.Google Scholar
56 People's Daily, 04 25, 1962.Google Scholar
57 Ibid. June 30, 1961, p. 4.
58 ibid.
59 For the régime's new approach towards private plots see article by Fang-yu, Yao in Ta Kong Pao, 06 12, 1961.Google Scholar
60 According to an instance quoted in People's Daily in one production brigade the income from sideline occupations constituted 14·7 per cent, of the total per capita income of the brigades, People's Daily, 02 2, 1961.Google Scholar
61 See, for instance, People's Daily, 06 2, 1961Google Scholar, June 21, 1961, July 18, 1961, August 17, 1961, and March 9, 1962.
62 People's Daily, 08 16, 1961, p. 2.Google Scholar
63 Ibid.
64 People's Daily, 08 17, 1961, p. 3.Google Scholar
65 Ibid. June 21, 1961, p. 2.
66 Article by Ta-t'ang, Kuan, People's Daily, 03 9, 1962.Google Scholar
67 Ibid.
68 Red Flag, No. 5, 03 1, 1961.Google Scholar
69 People's Daily, 08 23, 1961, p. 1.Google Scholar
70 Ibid.
71 People's Daily, 07 15, 1961, p. 3.Google Scholar
72 Ibid. June 20, 1961, p. 2.
73 Article by Hsun-ho, Liu, People'sGoogle ScholarDaffy, , 11 15, 1961, p. 5.Google Scholar
74 People's Daily, 09 15, 1961, p. 2.Google Scholar
75 People's Daily, Editorial, 01 18, 1962.Google Scholar
76 Ibid. Editorial, November 23, 1961.
77 Ibid.
78 Ibid. Editorial, April 22, 1961, p. 7.
79 Ibid. April 28, 1961, p. 4.
80 People's Daily, 05 4, 1961, p. 4.Google Scholar
81 Ibid. April 28, 1961, p. 4.
82 Ibid. March 29, 1961, p. 4.
83 Ibid. May 20, 1961, p. 2.
84 Ibid. April 29, 1961, p. 7.
85 Ibid. April 4, 1961, p. 7.
86 Ibid. October 27, 1961, p. 7, Reproduction of the Editorial of Front Line, No. 20, 1961.Google Scholar
87 People's Daily, 12 14, 1961.Google Scholar
