This book is entitled 'mao zedong xuanji' or 'Selected Works of Mao Zedong' was second to Quotations in terms of number of copies distributed during the Cultural Revolution. It was first produced by the central authorities in the early 1950s to educate the masses on Marxist-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, in a bid to strengthen the ideological foundations of the country. Selected Works comprises four volumes and includes important articles Mao had written in different periods of the Chinese revolution. The first volume covers the period from 1924 to 1937, when civil war was fought against the Nationalist or Guomindang forces. The second and third volumes cover the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945) while the last volume spans the later period of civil war against the Guomindang (1945–1949).
