"His prodigious reputation had survived the disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution and until his death he remained the object of a quasi-religious cult which still makes it difficult to assess his achievements clearly." 1
On the basis of this, it is essential to research Mao Tse-tung from a number of texts in order to form a broad idea and valid opinion. Also, some texts will passionately stress his achievements while others will blame him for irreparable damage to Chinese society and spirit. Both types leave out or skim over certain facts, which is possibly dependent on the author's political leaning or sources. If you were to believe the negative reports, you would need to question how it was that Mao was able to motivate the masses whilst overcoming internal party struggles and external influences to remain the leader of China for 25 years. He did not use brute force as a means of gaining and keeping power as Hitler did in his 'reign of terror'. He gained great respect through his ideology and his relationship with his people: the people of China.
Mao believed that the party should relate itself to the masses. He stated that it was advantageous only to tyrant leaders for the people to remain ignorant. He believed it was the Party's vocation to educate the people so that they would become the decision-makers, mastering and carrying out the policies themselves. This concept was a fundamental part of his ideology and belief in Socialism. The basis of Socialism is an economic and political theory of social organisation which espouses that, as a whole, the community should own and control the mechanism of production, distribution and exchange. Emphasis on the importance of the people and of Socialism originated from his own background and upbringing.
Mao was born on December 26 of 1893 in the village of Shaoshan, not far south of Ch'angsha--an ancient city and the capital of the Hunan Province. Hunan lies in the heart of China and was once the centre of the southern kingdom of Ch'u, which struggled against the northern kingdom of Ch'in for the absolute control of all China, and since then has never been able to accept inescapable northern rule. The land is rich and fertile and not so prone to drought and flood as those on the northern plains.
Mao's father was a 'middle peasant' (as Mao would have later described him). This reference was for those peasants who owned land but worked it themselves, without expoitation of others. A middle peasant does not possess much capital, yet lives withour fear of hunger, His father was neither rich nor poor, with the ability to employ some labour on his farm, as well as education for his son. He was a hard-worker, stern, ambitious for his son and very conservative. He hoped to see his family prosper through savings and through his son's education: "the envied status of literacy."2 Mao's mother was a devout Buddhist and there were no rebellious or revolutionary circumstances in the family home.
The decline of the dynasty was obvious during his childhood. As a boy, Mao was an avid reader of old Chinese historic novels which dealt with struggles against oppressive governments. (The Tale of the Three Kingdoms: Shuittu Ch'uan, or The Story of the Marsh). The latter descibes military operations on guerilla-type warfare. Mao pointed out that the stories frequently make heroes of the ordinary people. These people had injustice and oppression from the government in common. Mao also said that the heroes lacked a common ideology, therefore they were unable to achieve lasting gains.
When he was 18, Mao enlisted for a few months in the revolutionary army during the Revolution of 1911-12 to overthrow the Manchus. Following this, he attended the Teacher's Training School which was a development of the young Republic. This typified the new spirit of reform. One of Mao's teachers there was Yang Ch'ang-chi, who strongly believed in democracy, reform, modernisation and the recent revolution but he and many others were becoming disillusioned with the Revolution's outcome.
In 1920, Mao returned to Changsa as head of a primary school. His attempts to organise mass education were suppressed and he thus turned to politics. In 1921, he helped form the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.) in Shanghai, becoming a full-time Party worker in 1923, when the Communists allied with the Nationalist Party against fueding local warlords. In early 1927, he wrote 'Report of...the Peasant Movement in Hunan', after having witnessed a rising of underprivileged peasants in his home province. Mao believed that "peasant discontent was a major force in China and deserved Communist support".3 This ideology formed the foundation of Mao's consolidation of power.
Mao consolidated his power through peasant mobilisation and education, as the peasants made up the vast majority of the Chinese population and had suffered through oppression and exploitation, thereby fuelling a desire for change. In 1927, he led the remains of the 'Autumn Harvest' uprising of peasants, which was suppressed by the Kuomintang (K.M.T.), to the hostile, mountainous region of Kiangsi. Here, he bagan to evolve a new strategy of revolution. Previously, in both Europe and China it had been the approach in Communist risings to capture the cities first--the only tactic of revolution understood by Moscow. Stalin believed that control of the countryside would automatically follow the taking of the cities. Mao reversed this strategy because, for China, the majority population was in the countryside.
Mao's original belief that the support for the Communist Party would come from the industrial workers of the cities, was in accordance with Marx's own theories. His aim now was to gain control of the countryside because it was the majority peasants who were to form the strongest support base. His strategy involved organising the peasants into rural soviets and then encircling the cities from the country. His military tactic was guerrilla warfare, which he summed up in four sentences:
"When the enemy advances, we retreat.
When he camps, we harrass.
When he tires, we attack.
When he retreats, we pursue."4
In Kiangsi, he formed an army by allying himself with two bandit chiefs and seeking to re-educate their men. Mao's tactics included disciplining his troops to live with the peasants rather than live off them, which had been the traditional manner.
In 1931, Mao was elected First Chairman of the new Soviet Republic. He defied the urban-oriented Communist Central Committee to initiate modern land reform. Thus he continued to spread Communist influence over the peasants and gain respect. In the same year, Japan invaded Manchuria and, in 1932, invaded north-eastern China. The Kuomintang's failure to deal with the Japanese invasion was another factor in Mao's rise to power.
Mao had been training the peasant militia and Red Army in guerilla warfare and educating the peasants. His tactics were drawing the K.M.T. forces into the hostile countryside, where they were harassed and destroyed. As a result of this, Chiang Kai-shek, as leader of the K.M.T., organised a blockade around the Communist bases. Mao broke through this and began the Long March of 9600 kilometres (6000 miles), in 1934, north-west to Shaanxi. Here they set up new bases.
In 1936, Mao was the unquestioned leader of the Communist Party. Chiang again allied with the C.C.P., although reluctantly, as a result of the Japanese invasion. The Communists implemented Nationalist reforms in the form of land rents, fair taxes and representative village government, which relinquished revolutionary policies during World War Two. As a result of these reforms and in reaction to Japanese brutality, the Red Army and militia increased.
In 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The K.M.T. were unable to restore pre-war control.. Chiang Kai-Shek had made disastrous military mistakes. By 1946, the C.C.P. was identified with the interests of the peasant majority. Mao had become a national leader. The C.C.P.'s successful guerilla tactics against the Japanese contrasted with the Nationalist's retreat to south-western China. This, coupled with his land reforms, increased his and the popularity of the Chinese Communist Party. He later consolidated his power through economic reforms, socialist policies and the mobilisation of youth.
During his years as head of state, the concept of Mao's power base always being in the countryside, continued. For example, Mao placed more emphasis on agricultural land and rural development. In contrast, Stalin stressed industrial development. Even so, under Mao's leadership, industrial production increased dramatically in China.
In his first years following the 1949 victory, Mao closely followed Russian models and, by1958, the Communist government had made several accomplishments. These included progress with education; the countryside saw the restoration of a subsistent level of nourishment; a Chinese state planning apparatus was underway based on Russian experience and under Russian guidance; and the production of one successful Five Year Plan, with another underway.
In November of 1957, Mao led a delegation to the Fortieth Anniversary of the Russian revolution, at which time Kruschev was in a stronger position with technological advances in missiles and satellites. The idea of a peaceful transition to socialism was being promoted with Czechoslavakia as an example. The Chinese draft opposed this idea but conveyed support for Kruschev's relations with the United States. Kruschev was enraged at this opposition.
Mao was not optimisitic following the Moscow visit. It only confirmed an urgency for China: to accelerate her development "in the full expectation of having to go it alone; accelerate her own independent nuclear deterrent. Mao now foresaw that the time might come when the USSR would 'exert pressure' on China."5
As a result, the Great Leap Forward took place from 1958 -1959. Following the Moscow visit, there were many debates about the Leap and about continuing disputes with the USSR. "Though misjudged for many years, few today will disagree that China's development, her autarkic self-reliance, her prosperity, are due to the broad lines of the Great Leap Forward."5 Mao had the enthusiasm of the masses on his side.
There were many failures within the Leap caused for a number of different reasons, i.e. inflated grain figures given by the cadres, climatic disasters, internal and external conflicts, and too much decentralisation resulting in the disorganised planning and designing of plants. Other problems included soil alkalinity caused by hastily built irrigation systems and insects which increased in numbers, destroying crops in middle China, after birds were destroyed in the Spring of 1958. Mao admitted that he should not have doubled the target for steel and that he had not considered how the iron and coal was to be transported.
As in the Great Leap Forward, Mao's aim for the Cultural Revolution of 1966-69, was to solidify Party ideology and as an attack on bureaucracy. After the Leap, Communist leaders returned to the East-European socialist theory where autonomy was given to large undertakings with small industry suppressed. They also tolerated leadership by an educated elite. Mao was fighting again for the ideal that maximum participation was the fastest route to Socialism. He was able to mobilise the masses, which in this case was mostly youth, into the Red Guard to attack the Party establishment. After major rioting and the near ruin of the party, he allowed the army to restore order and the party to be rebuilt.
Mao believed that any human being could be changed and that they would be willing to once they knew the truth. He believed that opposing ideology was a disease and that this could be cured through patient teaching, fault-finding, self-criticism and persuasion. He taught and practised this method for Party unity. This, as well as his authority, earned him respect as did his intolerance of slander, back-stabbing and harsh and cruel treatment towards comrades.
This concept and his belief in Socialism formed the basis of his belief systems, adapted to suit the country and the people of China. Mao studied the writings of Marx, Lenin and Stalin and wrote theoretical and controversial works of his own. It was taught that revolutions began in the industrial cities but Mao's career was realised in the countryside where rebellions had already begun. He was never a member of the Western university elite, knew no foreign languages and had no direct knowledge of the world outside China but he had more sympathy with and knowledge of Chinese popular culture than many of his contemporaries. Although Mao had made vast mistakes in underestimating the result of his policies in the Great Leap and the Cultural Revolution, Mao's aim was always for the good of the people of China.
In conclusion, it was a remarkable achievement for Mao to introduce and impose radical changes in Chinese ideology, superceding values held for centuries. The thoughts of Mao have become a "source of inspiration and guidance in matters social, political and, moral."...."no Chinese thinker in the period since Confucius has attained the degree of acceptance and authority which Mao has acquired."2 He was responsible for fundamental internal changes, ranking him, by comparison, above the efforts of George Washington. He is also believed to be ranked ahead of Napolean, Hitler and Alexander the Great in the belief that his long-term influence will be greater than theirs. "In those twenty-five years the People's Republic of China had become a giant poised for prosperity and power, an acknowledged miracle. She had confounded all predictions, accomplished what had been deemed impossible. She aroused hope and fervour in the breasts of millions of the dispossessed, and the name Mao Tse-tung was known throughout the world."5
References
The Heart of the Dragon, Alasdaire Clayre, Dragonbook ApS, 1985, pg. 31.
Mao Tse-tung and China, C.P.Fitzgerald, Hodder and Stoughton, 1976, pg. 10 and pg. 7.
Microsoft (R) Encarta (R) Encyclopedia, contributed by Jack Gray. 1993-95, Microsoft.
HIstory of the World: The Last Five Hundred Years, General Editor: Desmond Wright, Viscount Books, 1984, pg. 641.
Wind in the Tower, Han Suyin, Jonathon Cape Ltd., 1976, pgs. 123, 124, and 4.
Bibliography
The Heart of the Dragon, Alasdaire Clayre, Dragonbook ApS, 1985.
Mao Tse-tung and China, C.P.Fitzgerald, Hodder and Stoughton, 1976.
Microsoft (R) Encarta (R) Encyclopedia, contributed by Jack Gray. 1993-95, Microsoft.
History of the World: The Last Five Hundred Years, General Editor: Desmond Wright, Viscount Books, 1984.
Wind in the Tower, Han Suyin, Jonathon Cape Ltd., 1976.
The Rise of Modern China, Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, Oxford University Press, 1995.
The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China, C. Mackerras and A. Yorke, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Michael H. Hart, Vantage House, 1978.
My China Years, Helen Foster Snow, Harrap Ltd., 1984.
