Volume 5 of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" is a collection of Mao Zedong's works from 1949 to 1957. The editing and publishing of the book took nearly ten years, spanning the entire Cultural Revolution. Published in 1977, it was the main basis for Hua Guofeng's "grasping the key link and governing the country".
The original plan for this book was to select Mao Zedong's works from 1949 to 1962. There was a draft of the book in 1962; however, Mao Zedong believed that the works after the founding of the People's Republic of China had not been tested like the works before 1949, and was unwilling to publish them immediately [Note 1]. In 1964, "Selected Readings of Mao Zedong's Works" A and B editions, selected some works after 1949.
