The Party's Documents published an article entitled "The origin of the slogan 'Long Live Chairman Mao'" which clarified the fact that the slogan was not proposed by Mao Zedong himself. The article also verified that labor heroes including Wu Manyou first shouted the slogan at a meeting to award labor heroes in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border region in November, 1943.

Recently, the author found a new document related to the slogan while consulting files relating to the cultural movement in Yan'an.

On July 20, 1939 the China Women's University held an opening ceremony attended by Central Political Bureau leading comrades in Yan'an. On July 25, a CPC Central Committee newspaper reported details of the meeting in which it recorded the crowd as having shouted "Long Live Comrade Mao Zedong". Mao made a brief speech and concluded with a significant sentence, "the day the women of this nation stand up will be the day of the Chinese revolution's victory", which received warm applause and shouting of "Long Live China Women's University" and "Long Live Comrade Mao Zedong".

This report mentioning the slogan was one of the earliest the author discovered while checking newspapers. It provided some worthy information: First, the slogan of "Long Live Comrade Mao Zedong" appeared at the latest in July, 1939. Second, this slogan was shouted at a formal opening ceremony attended by leading comrades and more than 10,000 people, and as the slogan is hard to say spontaneously, it is assumed someone planned its use prior to the occasion. Third, after the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC held in 1938, Mao Zedong's actual position and prestige was far more than others. So it seems the slogan of "Long Live Comrade Mao Zedong" shouted at the opening ceremony of China Women's University was not spontaneous.

Edited by Zhang Ruoqiong