Four Wonders: Inscription for Women Militia in Mao Zedong
A heroic five-foot gun shines on the battlefield at dawn.
Chinese children are so curious, they don't like red clothes, and they love armed forces.
Translation:
It's dawn, and the sun has just shone on the military training ground. The female militia is handsome, brave and agile, armed with a five-foot gun and full of spirits. Chinese sons and daughters have extraordinary ambitions. They don't like gorgeous clothes, but they love the revolutionary armed forces.
Mao Zedong wrote a seven-character quatrain poem in 196 1 for a personal photo of a staff member who participated in militia training. By outlining the military training of women militia, the poem depicts the unprecedented heroism of women in China, praises their heroic spirit of "saving women from men", and praises the brand-new spirit of the times and the extraordinary ambition of women in New China to defend the motherland at any time.
This poem was written for a confidential woman named Li who worked around in those days. One morning, the mysterious woman surnamed Li went to Juxiang Bookstore to deliver documents. When she was leaving, Mao Zedong asked her if she had joined the militia. She answered yes, and took out a photo of herself holding a gun from her notebook and showed it to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was very happy to read it. After thinking for a moment, he picked up a pamphlet introducing geographical knowledge he had read, turned to the blank, wrote this poem in pencil, gave it to a female confidential officer, and said to her, "You young people should be ambitious, not like Lin Daiyu, but like Mulan, like Mu Guiying!"