Abstract: The People’s Daily published an editorial entitled “On the Issue of the Participation of Primary and Secondary School Graduates in Agricultural Production” on April 8, 1957. It pointed out that in 1957, only a small portion of high level primary school students (grade 5 and grade 6 students) and junior high school graduates could be admitted to a school of higher level while the vast majority were rejected. The main way out for the rejected was to participate in agricultural production in the countryside, which aroused widespread concern and discussion from all works of life. Taking the editorial as the departure of discussion, the paper attempts to present the historical and practical course of the CPC’s dedication in general education in primary and secondary schools and their adaptation to the needs of national governance in the early period of People’s Republic of China (PRC) by discussing the issue of mobilizing primary and secondary school graduates to participate in agricultural production in 1957. A prevalent view at the time held that the participation of primary and secondary school graduates in agricultural labor was an important issue on the agenda of “fostering the first generation of educated farmers in New China”. In view of this, how to make an epochal response to labor, especially manual labor, becomes the key to understanding this historical issue.

Key words:  the April 8th Editorial, labor, “Three Major Differences”, social history of education