China Pictorial 1966/11-12, p.54

The spring wind blows amid ten thousand willow branches,
Six hundred million in this Sacred Land all equal Yao and Shun*.

In our great era, the brilliant thought of Mao Tse-tung lights up the earth and a new generation of communists is rapidly emerging. Not long ago there appeared in China a hero who, like Ouyang Hai and Wang Chieh, gave up his life for the safety of the people. He was Liu Ying-chun, a fighter in an artillery company of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

On the morning of March 15 this year, Liu Ying-chun and his comrades were on foot guiding three horse-drawn gun-carriages along a highway in a city suburb. There were people coming and going in the street-children were on their way to school and workers headed for factories and shops. Liu Ying-chun's shaft horse was startled by the horn of a bus at a nearby stop. It panicked and bolted.

Liu Ying-chun, with great presence of mind, shouldered the frightened horse into a side road to prevent it from running into them. The horse rushed madly on. Liu Ying-chun, pulling desperately at the reins, was dragged along the road. People shouted to him to let go the reins. Catching sight of six panicstricken children in mortal danger ahead of him, Liu Ying-chun wound the reins about his arm and pulled with all his might. The horse reared. With no thought for his own safety, Liu Ying-chun quickly seized the carriage shaft and, thrusting both legs under it, gave the horse's hind legs a vigorous kick. The horse fell, overturning the carriage. Liu Ying-chun was pinned under the cart and seriouly injured, but the six children were out of danger.

People standing by were deeply moved by this selfless act of heroism. They rushed over to him and hurried to the nearest hospital with him. In no time hundreds of soldiers and civilians had gathered outside the hospital and were volunteering to donate blood to save the hero. They earnestly begged the doctors to save him. "We will provide anything that is needed. Save him at all costs!" However, his injuries were too grave, and all their efforts were of no avail. Comrade Liu Ying-chun died a glorious death.

Liu Ying-chun was born to a poor peasant family living on the outskirts of Changchun in Kirin Province. He was only 21 years old when he died. With a deep hatred of the class enemy in his heart he joined the P.L.A. in the summer of 1962, at the time when the Chiang Kai-shek brigands were making a raucous clamour about invading the mainland. His love for the Communist Party and Chairman Mao and for socialism was unbounded. In the army, he studied Chairman Mao's works conscientiously and applied what he learned creatively. Nurtured on the thought of Mao Tse-tung he cultivated the proletarian world outlook of one who is a revolutionary both of his own country and of the world, who believes that "Revolution calls for struggle and struggle is happiness", and who wants to. "Live a revolutionary life, and die a revolutionary death".

He was a model in taking Chairman Mao's writings as the supreme guide in all he did. He actively propagated Mao Tse-tung's thought and enlarged the positions it held. He bravely defended it and struggled resolutely against all words and actions contrary to it. He took Lei Feng and Wang Chieh as his models and did whatever Chairman Mao said. He devoted himself utterly to others without any thought of self and served the people heart and soul. He did his best to dedicate his life to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat. He dearly loved the people and performed many services for the workers and his neighbours. But few whom he helped knew his name until after his death when they saw his picture in newspaper.

Liu Ying-chun's short life was one of studying, carrying out, disseminating and defending Mao Tse-tung's thought; of complete service to the people with all his heart and soul. It was the glorious, great and militant life of a proletarian fighter. Like the great communist fighter Lei Feng and other heroic figures, Liu Ying-chun is an outstanding representative of China's younger generation maturing under the thought of Mao Tse-tung. He is a good soldier of Chairman Mao and a good son of the people. He laid down his life, but his spirit will live forever in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people in China, and in the cause of communism!

At present, a movement to learn from Comrade Liu Ying-chun is sweeping the country. It originated in the P.L.A., which is a highly proletarianized army with a powerfully developed fighting spirit, an army formed by Chairman Mao personally. The broad masses of young people, old people, people of various trades and housewives are taking part. They are determined to follow Chairman Mao's teachings in all their actions, as Comrade Liu Ying-chun did.

Study Mao Tse-tung's thought conscientiously, loyally carry it. out, enthusiastically disseminate it and courageously defend it! Always be loyal to the Party, to the people, to Chairman Mao and to the thought of Mao Tse-tung! Make new contributions to the fight against imperialism, modem revisionism and the reactionaries of various countries!

*Lines from a poem entitled Farewell to the God of Plague by Mao Tse-tung. Yao and Shun were two ancient sage kings.