Abstract
Regardless of one’s personal view of Mao, no one can deny that he is an historical figure of great importance. Indeed, Mao’s significance in the history of modern China, and hence of the world, is almost self-evident. But on the other hand, Mao was, and still is, a sign of contradiction. To some, he is a god, a great leader and a teacher; to others, he is a devil, a cruel dictator and deceiver. In short, there is no universally accepted ‘verdict’ of Mao, because different people interpret him and his thought differently.
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Established in 1644, the Qing (the last dynasty) took a century to consolidate and develop its empire. By the mid-eighteenth century, it had made tremendous achievements and, had thus reached its height of glory. At home, the country enjoyed peace and prosperity; great works were produced in literature, art and history. Abroad, the Qing government also succeeded in expanding its frontiers even farther than those of earlier ages. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Qing dynasty began to show signs of deterioration and moral decay in every form set in. Eventually, with the overthrow of the Qing in 1911, the full dynastic cycle came to an end. Cf. Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1970 ), pp. 19–52.
John K. Fairbank, The United States and China ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972 ), p. 142.
The Chinese people’s realization of the inevitable collapse of the Qing dynasty came slowly and painfully. Ever since the Opium War, confronted and humiliated by the Western powers, the Chinese began to search, in vain, for an effective means to revive the imperial system. First, there was the Self- Strengthening or Restoration Movement led by two scholar-officials, Zeng Quofan and LiHongjang. Later, there was the (Constitutional) Reform Movement led by two prominent intellectuals Kang Youwei and Liang Qiqiao. Both efforts failed. Thus the modern history of China seemed to move by its own forces on to its next period, a period of revolutions. Cf. Li Chien-nung, The Political History of China: 1840–1928, trans, by Teng Ssu-yu and Jeremy Ingalls ( Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1956 ), pp. 142–63.
Fairbank, op.cit., pp. 189–92.
Mao was born in December 1893 and died in September 1976. His life covers the most critical period of China in her modern history. In fact, to understand modern China (especially in the twentieth century), one must understand Mao and his life. Even though several biographies of Mao exist, there is no one definitive biography. However, among the many biographies of Mao, the most illuminating ones are: (a) Jerome Ch’en, Mao and the Chinese Revolution (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), (b) Stuart R. Schram, Mao Tse-tung (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1970), and (c) Han Suyin, The Morning Deluge: Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution: 1893–1954 (Boston: Little Brown, 1972).
Mao Tse-tung, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung I (Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1967), p. 271. There are five volumes of Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung and hereafter, it will be abbreviated as Mao I, Mao II, Mao III, Mao IV and Mao V respectively.
Mao III, pp. 243, 263.
Mao II, pp. 31–33; 197–98.
Mao II, pp. 337–38.
Mao I, pp. 110–11; and Mao IV p. 236.
Mao IV, pp. 207, 418.
Mao’s idea of democratic centralism comes, of course, from Lenin who used this term to explain the guiding operating principle of the (Soviet) Communist Party. Mao seemed to expand the principle of democratic centralism as a guide to all political decision-making processes both within the Chinese Communist Party and the Government (i.e., political system). In its implementation, there are two parallel movements: democratic and centralized. It is democratic in the sense that the masses should participate in discussion of any given issue and forward their opinions to their leaders. It is centralized in the sense that after receiving all information and opinions from the masses, the leaders should formulate decisions and policies. Once these decisions and policies are formulated, both the leaders and the masses should accept them, abide by them and make every effort to carry them out.
Ideally, the relationship between democratic and centralized movements should not constitute any contradiction. Rather they are two ongoing processes of decision-making and therefore, they supposedly complement each other. But in practice, the balance is not all that easy to maintain.
Cf. Mao II, pp. 17, 58, 428; and Mao IV, 417.
Mao II, pp. 352, 408, 409, 129; and Mao IV, pp. 16, 418, 419.
Mao II, pp. 352, 429.
Mao II, pp. 369, 381; and Mao III, pp. 177, 178.
Mao II, pp. 369, 370, 380–82; and Mao IV, p. 92.
Here, Mao’s concept of morality is based on Chinese Marxism. It involves the following important tenets: (a) firm dedication to the cause of the Chinese revolution, (b) the spirit of ‘serve the people’, (c) the spirit of co-operation or teamwork, (d) selflessness orientation, and (e) strict discipline. Cf. Mao II, pp. 197, 198, 337, 338; and Mao III, pp. 177, 178, 153–60, 271–73.
Charles A. Moore, The Chinese Mind ( Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1968 ), p. 310.
A good balanced discussion of China’s major political and economic policies and programs is given by Harold C. Hinton in his book, An Introduction to Chinese Politics ( New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973 ), pp. 27–87.
It is interesting to note the paradoxical fact that Mao fought fiercely against elitism and bureaucratic evils in China while being, to some extent, responsible for the ‘personal cult’ and one-party system (i.e., Chinese Communist Party). However, Mao seemed always conscious of this problem. Therefore, when he perceived the emergence of elite classes, he was determined to fight this perennial problem of social inequality at all costs, as was manifested during the Cultural Revolution.
Hinton, op. cit.,pp. 27–87.
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Soo, F. (1982). Mao’s Vision for China. In: Adelmann, F.J. (eds) Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. Boston College Studies in Philosophy, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7689-4_3
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