2018 Reprint of 1966 Edition. Mao's work was originally compiled by an office of the PLA Daily (People's Liberation Army Daily) as an inspirational political and military document. In it Mao covers 33 topics in separate chapters, in all containing several hundred selected quotations from the works and speeches of Mao. The book's phenomenal popularity may be because it was essentially an unofficial requirement for every Chinese citizen to own, to read, and to carry it always during the latter half of Mao's rule, especially during the Cultural Revolution.