GC主义学英语之为人民服务（兼纪念伟人127周年诞辰）_风闻

为人民服务

Serve the people

September 8, 1944

[This speech was delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at a memorial meeting for Comrade Zhang Side, held by departments directly under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.]

We, the Communist Party, and the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies led by the Party, is a team for revolution. Our team is fully dedicated to the liberation of the people, and we only work for the interests of the people. Comrade Zhang Side is one of our comrades in this team.

Sooner or later, everyone will die. But they die in different ways. A historian in ancient China called Sima Qian once said, “Though death befalls all men alike, sometimes it is weightier than the mountains, sometimes lighter than a feather. " Dying for the people is weightier than the maintains. The death of someone who works for fascism, dying for those who exploit and oppress the people, is lighter than a feather. Comrade Zhang Side died for the people. His death is weightier than the mountains.

We don’t fear criticism. We accept them when people point out our shortcomings, for we are a team that serves the people. We welcome criticisms from everyone, no matter who. As long as you are right, we correct our mistakes. As long as your way does people good, we do it your way. The idea of “fitter troops with simpler administration” came from Mr. Li Dingming, who is not a member of our Party. It’s a good idea and it does good to the people. So we adopted it. As long as we keep do things this way, as long as we stick on the good things for the people and correct the bad ones, our team will definitely grow strong.

We come from all parts of the country. We came together for one common goal. We are walking on the same path that we will walk together with most of the Chinese people in the future. As of today, we are already leading Base Areas that include 91 million people. But it’s not enough, not big enough. We have to enlarge them in order to liberate the whole nation.

Comrades, when you are in difficulties, try think about the achievements we’ve made so far. A brighter future is ahead of us. So be brave. The people of China live in misery. We have the duty to fight our lives to save them. When we fight our lives, we may die. It happens a lot, actually. But when we think about the interests of the people, and the pain that most of them are going through, we have the reason to believe that our deaths mean something, for we die for the people.

And of course, we must do our best to avoid unnecessary sacrifices. Our cadres should look after every soldier. Everyone in our revolutionary team should help each other, love and take care of each other.

From now on, whoever in our team dies, be them a cook or a soldier, as long as they have done something good for us, we should hold a funeral and a memorial meeting for them. It should become a convention, and not only among us, but introduced to the people as well. When someone dies in a village, let a memorial meeting be held. In this way we express our mourning for the dead and unite the people.