---
title: '史太林說「學而時習之，不亦樂乎！」 (Stalin Says: "To Study and Practise in Due Time, Is That Not a Pleasure?"), U.S. cartoon poster'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stalin-says-study-and-practise-usia-cartoon-1952/
description: A Chinese-language cartoon headed 'Stalin says'. A Soviet-uniformed figure with a red-star collar tab and hammer-and-sickle armband lounges in a chair…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Derisive caricature of Mao Zedong as a footstool for a Stalin figure. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![史太林說「學而時習之，不亦樂乎！」 (Stalin Says: "To Study and Practise in Due Time, Is That Not a Pleasure?"), U.S. cartoon poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stalin-says-study-and-practise-usia-cartoon-1952.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stalin-says-study-and-practise-usia-cartoon-1952.jpg)

# 史太林說「學而時習之，不亦樂乎！」 (Stalin Says: "To Study and Practise in Due Time, Is That Not a Pleasure?"), U.S. cartoon poster

A Chinese-language cartoon headed 'Stalin says'. A Soviet-uniformed figure with a red-star collar tab and hammer-and-sickle armband lounges in a chair whose seat is the back of a bent, grimacing Mao figure in a green uniform, while a gaunt patched peasant in a cap props the chair from behind. Over it runs the Confucian line 'To study and practise in due time, is that not a pleasure?'. The loaded picture (leader as footstool, people as prop) and the borrowed saying do the labelling in place of any argument (name-calling).

## Text on the object

Original (Chinese (traditional characters)) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
史太林說
「學而時習之，不亦樂乎！」
共
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Stalin says
"To study and at due times practise it, is that not a pleasure?"
[Gong] ('Communist'/'together')
```

The saying is lettered in two rows read in columns, right to left, top to bottom. One or two glyphs on the peasant's patched shirt are read only as 共 and the rest is illegible; a small artist's mark near the central figure's shoe is illegible. Translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Guard Your Freedom (Ilocano poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/guard-your-freedom-ilocano-1952/) [Việt-Minh luôn-luôn kêu-gọi chúng ta noi gương Trung-Cộng (The Vietminh Are Against Religion) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vietminh-are-against-religion-1952/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)