Three Main Rules of Discipline, Eight Points for Attention

Revolutionary discipline for the unification of the People's Liberation Army.

Mao Zedong put forward and continuously enriched these instructions in the practice of leading the revolutionary struggle.

In September 1927, when Mao Zedong led the Autumn Harvest Uprising in the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Region, he asked the officers and soldiers to treat the people with kindness, fairness in trading, no lavishness, no beating and no cursing. In late October of the same year, in Suichuan County, Jiangxi Province, Jingzhu Mountain mobilization of troops to Jinggang Mountain, Mao Zedong prescribed three disciplines: obeying command in action, not taking even a potato from the masses, and attacking local tyrants to return to the public.

In January 1928, when the troops were stationed in Suichuan County and dispersed to the rural areas around the county to mobilize the masses, Mao Zedong put forward six points of attention: door-to-door board, baling and laying grass, speaking peacefully, trading fairly, repaying borrowed goods and repaying damaged goods. At the end of March of the same year, the army troops arrived at Shatian Town, Guidong County, Hunan Province. In early April, Mao Zedong officially announced to all officers and soldiers the three major disciplines and six points of attention, replacing “listen to the commanders in action, do not take anything from the workers and peasants, and fight the landlords to return to the public.”

The three major disciplines were: Listen to the commanders in action, do not take anything from the workers and peasants, and fight the landlords to return to the public. Six points of attention were: door-to-door board, baling and laying grass, speaking peacefully, trading fairly, repaying borrowed goods and repaying damaged goods. Thus laid the foundation for the unified discipline of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.

At the beginning of 1929, when the main force of the Red Army marched towards southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, two items of "avoiding women in the bath" and "not searching for prisoners’ pockets" were added to the six items of attention, thus becoming the three major disciplines and eight items of attention. These rules were also implemented by the Red Army in various places, but the specific content varied slightly from one army to another.

On October 10, 1947, Mao Zedong drafted the "Instruction of the General-Headquarters of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the Reissue of Three Rules and Eight Points for Attention”, which unified the contents of "Three Great Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention" that the Chinese People's Liberation Army now implements and sings as a song, and asked the troops to educate deeply and implement it strictly.

The three major disciplines were: Listen to command in all actions, do not take a needle and thread from the masses, and return all seizures to the public. Eight points for attention were: Speak kindly, buy and sell fairly, borrow things to return, damage things to pay, do not beat and curse, do not damage crops, do not molest women, do not abuse prisoners.

"Three Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention" was an important guarantee for the army to carry out the Party's line, principles, policies and to accomplish various tasks, and it was also an important factor in the army's combat effectiveness, embodying the essence of the people's army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and played an important role in guaranteeing that the army will thoroughly carry out the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly and will always be the "people's sons and daughters", and in strengthening the army's construction, bringing the military and the people closer together, enhancing the unity of officers and soldiers, and winning the revolutionary war.