Mao Zedong Xuan Ji / Bian Yin Jinchaji Ri Bao She. [Selections, 1944]

Title

Mao Zedong Xuan Ji / Bian Yin Jinchaji Ri Bao She. [Selections, 1944]

Reference Number

DS778.M3A251944

Creator

Date

1944

Format

Description

Mao Zedong xuanji 毛泽东选集 [Selected Works of Mao Zedong]. Yan’an : Jin-Cha-Ji ribao, 1944. Gift from the Mrs. Faye Domke, from the collection of her husband Mr. Paul Domke.

This is the earliest and the first genuine collection of Mao’s writings, which provides documentary background for a better understanding of the rich contents of Mao Zedong’s thought and the course of its development.

The collection consists of 29 literary works, containing approximately 460 thousand Chinese characters. The works were selected from writings, lectures and recorded speeches of Mao Zedong written between the outbreak of Sino-Japanese War to June 1944, a few years before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

This earliest edition of Mao Zedong xuanji, a hardcover with five-volumes bound in one, was published in 1944 by the Jin-Cha-Ji ribao晋察冀日报, a New China Daily News Agency, in the Shanxi-Chahaer-Hebei (山西, 察哈尔, 河北) base area. It costs 300 yuan in bianbi, currency notes issued by various border region governments during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation.

The print shop of the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily News was located in a remote small village called Malan Cun 马兰村 in Hebei Province, where supplies were scarce and transportation was extremely difficult. The print shop established its own paper mill to make papers manually using rice straw and hemp rope. The printer selected whiter and better quality papers to print this book.

This copy with Mao’s autograph is a gift from Mrs. Faye Domke and comes from the collection of her husband Mr. Paul Domke.

In 1944 Mr. Paul Domke was a member of the US Army Observer Group, better known as the Dixie Mission, which was sent to the headquarters of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Yan’an, a remote town in northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province. This was the first official contact between the US government and the Chinese Communists, who were united at the time in the war against Japan. Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and many other leaders met and had long discussions with Mr. Domke and other mission members in Yan’an. Mr. Domke was presented this autographed copy of Mao’s collected works soon before his departure from Yan’an in 1945.

Extent (Pages, Duration, Dimensions)

5 volumes

Is Part Of

Asia - China Collection, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library

Page Location

83