Page 260 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume I.indd

254 MAO TSE-TUNG
35
The regions referred to here are those inhabited by the Tibetans in Sikang and
the Hui people in Kansu, Chinghai and Sinkiang Provinces.
36
The “eight-legged essay” was the prescribed form in the imperial competitive
examinations in feudal China from the 15th to the 19th century. The main body of
the essay was made up of the inceptive paragraph, the middle paragraph, the rear
paragraph and the concluding paragraph, with each paragraph comprising two parts.
Here Comrade Mao Tse-tung is using the development of the theme in this kind of
essay as a metaphor to illustrate the development of the revolution through its various
stages. However, Comrade Mao Tse-tung generally uses the term “eight-legged essay”
to ridicule dogmatism.
37
In November 1933, under the influence of the people’s anti-Japanese upsurge
throughout China, the leaders of the Kuomintang’s 19th Route Army, in alliance
with the Kuomintang forces under Li Chi-shen, publicly renounced Chiang Kai-shek
and established the “People’s Revolutionary Government of the Republic of China”
in Fukien, concluding an agreement with the Red Army to attack Chiang Kai-shek
and resist Japan. This episode was referred to as the Fukien Incident. The 19th Route
Army and Fukien People’s Government, however, collapsed under the attacks of
Chiang Kai-shek’s troops.