Chapters 17-21｜All quotations cited on this page are tagged with chapter numbers; click a chapter name to return to the original.
Five chapters on one subject
Chapter 17 Serve the people, 18 Patriotism and internationalism, 19 Revolutionary heroism, 20 Build the country through thrift, 21 Self-reliance, hard struggle. Forty-four entries together state the code of conduct the editors wanted readers to form: for whom to work, with what attitude, at what cost.
Of these five, three short essays - 'Serve the people', 'In memory of Norman Bethune', 'The foolish old man who removed the mountains' - were reprinted alone for decades afterwards and became the main carriers of this code.
Serve the people: from a eulogy
Chapter 17's first entry is from the 8 Sept 1944 eulogy for Zhang Side, a guard who died when a charcoal kiln collapsed in northern Shaanxi. The speech is very short; its core is that to die for the people's interests is a different kind of significance.
The book expands this into a whole set of demands: complete and thorough, not half-hearted. Chapters 19 and 20 then answer the two concrete questions 'fear death or not' and 'spend or not'.
Bethune and the Foolish Old Man: two uses of models
Chapter 18 quotes 'In memory of Norman Bethune'. Bethune was the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, who died of a surgical infection in Hebei in 1939. The book uses him to show that 'internationalism' is not an abstraction but the concrete act of a concrete person.
Chapters 21 and 19 use the fable 'The foolish old man who removed the mountains'. The book's reading: a goal may exceed one generation, but sustained effort bit by bit can change the conditions. The fable is used as a way of arguing for 'sustained effort'.
Thrift and self-reliance: the constraint of material conditions
Chapter 20's eight entries are on thrift: oppose extravagance, save all that can be saved. Chapter 21's thirteen are on self-reliance: base the policy on one's own strength, do not refuse aid but do not depend on it.
Chapter 21 was missing entire in the first traditional printing - the file had only the chapter title and all thirteen entries were lost. This site's traditional layer is regenerated from the simplified base, and the chapter is restored.
How to read this code of conduct
These five chapters are the closest to a rule-book and the easiest to quote as slogans. Two suggestions when reading: first, return to the source for the full context of the original speech; second, note the counter-demands the book states at the same time - Chapter 19, while speaking of heroism, also opposes individual heroism; Chapter 20, while speaking of saving, also opposes not spending what should be spent.
In other words, the editors give a paired set of boundaries, not a one-way slogan. This site keeps the original and the source so the reader can see both sides.
Serve the people.
Our army is wholly dedicated to the emancipation of the people and works entirely in their interests.
A person's ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit he is a noble-minded person.
Key chronology
- 1939'In Memory of Norman Bethune' praises selfless devotion to others
- 1944Eulogy at Zhang Side's funeral: 'Serve the People'
- 1945Closing address to the 7th Congress restates 'The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains'
- 1956'Strengthen Party Unity, Carry On the Party's Traditions' on thrift
These character demands are a set of 'paired boundaries'
Chapters 17 to 21 come closest to a code of conduct in the whole book, and are the easiest to lift out of context as slogans. But almost everything the editors give is paired: Chapter 19 preaches revolutionary heroism yet opposes individual heroism; Chapter 20 preaches economy yet opposes not spending what should be spent; Chapter 21 preaches self-reliance yet says foreign aid is not refused.
In other words, the book offers not one-way exhortations but a set of bounded standards. This site keeps the original text and its sources precisely so readers see both sides, not only half.
Three exemplars, three uses
Zhang Side (Ch.17) shows the value ranking of 'dying for the people's interests'; Bethune (Ch.18) shows that 'internationalism' is a concrete person's concrete act, not an abstraction; the Foolish Old Man (Ch.19, 21) is an allegorical figure used to argue for 'sustained effort' - a goal may outlast one generation, but if effort continues across generations the conditions can be gradually changed.
The three exemplars answer three different argumentative needs - 'value', 'action', 'persistence' - and should be read with an eye to which part of the argument each carries.