Starting from the outside of the fruit: (i) what actions did Mao take? [352] His work gave rise to a new form of Chinese calligraphy called "Mao-style" or Maoti, which has gained increasing popularity since his death. What type of family was Mao born in? Some of his best known poems are "Changsha" (1925), "The Double Ninth" (October 1929), "Loushan Pass" (1935), "The Long March" (1935), "Snow" (February 1936), "The PLA Captures Nanjing" (1949), "Reply to Li Shuyi" (11 May 1957), and "Ode to the Plum Blossom" (December 1961). The Chinese system he overthrew was backward and corrupt; few would argue the fact that he dragged China into the 20th century. After a few years there would be 2.7 billion people again.". Mao's revolution improved life for those who survived it, bringing the economic development, education, and modernization on which subsequent progress was built. Mao believed that a revolution of culture would unseat and unsettle the "ruling class" and keep China in a state of "continuous revolution" that, theoretically, would serve the interests of the majority, rather than a tiny and privileged elite. How Mao Zedong Reshaped Global Politics And Continues To Today He also writes: "In a chilling precursor of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, villagers in Qingshui and Gansu called these projects the 'killing fields. ", "Every communist must grasp the truth, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. That way you can lessen our burdens. [258] He suffered two major heart attacks, one in March and another in July, then a third on 5 September, rendering him an invalid. [353], As did most Chinese intellectuals of his generation, Mao's education began with Chinese classical literature. Jackson forcibly moved Native Americans through the Trail of Tears, resulting in thousands of deaths, while Mao was at the helm during the violent years of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward.[304][d]. In the mountainous area they were unable to grow enough crops to feed everyone, leading to food shortages throughout the winter. Contrastingly, Zhu complied, and led his armies away. [96][97] That May, tens of thousands of Communists and those suspected of being communists were killed, and the CCP lost approximately 15,000 of its 25,000 members. He abandoned many orthodox communist doctrines and attempted to incorporate elements of the free . [210] Jasper Becker explains: "The most vulnerable section of China's population, around five percent, were those whom Mao called 'enemies of the people'. Mao decided to soften his stance on Chinese intelligentsia and allow them to express their social dissatisfaction and criticisms of the errors of the government. "[291] In a similar vein, journalist Liu Binyan has described Mao as "both monster and a genius. [159] In the end of the mission, the contacts which the U.S. developed with the Chinese Communist Party led to very little. Revised question: How long did Mao Zedong rule in China? [106][109] The Central Committee again ordered Mao to march to south Hunan, but he refused, and remained at his base. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in the twentieth century. Eternal rebel, refusing to be bound by the laws of God or man, nature or Marxism, he led his people for three decades in pursuit of a vision initially noble, which turned increasingly into a mirage, and then into a nightmare. Now receiving a large income, he married Yang Kaihui, daughter of Yang Changji, in the winter of 1920. [145][146] He Zizhen was reportedly "dispatched to a mental asylum in Moscow to make room" for Qing. Chen Yun, a leading Chinese Communist Party official under Mao and Deng Xiaoping[281], In mainland China, Mao is revered by many members and supporters of the Chinese Communist Party and respected by a great number of the general population. 25 years. "[291] In the book China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know published in 2010, Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom of the University of California, Irvine compares China's relationship to Mao to Americans' remembrance of Andrew Jackson; both countries regard the leaders in a positive light, despite their respective roles in devastating policies. [18]:55, His policies resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people in China during his 27-year reign, more than any other 20th-century leader; estimates of the number of people who died under his regime range from 40 million to as many as 80 million,[273][274] done through starvation, persecution, prison labour in laogai, and mass executions. [173] He defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power. [63] Mao found that his articles had achieved a level of fame among the revolutionary movement, and set about soliciting support in overthrowing Zhang. [129] The 100,000 who escaped headed to southern Hunan, first crossing the Xiang River after heavy fighting,[130] and then the Wu River, in Guizhou where they took Zunyi in January 1935. "[241] When Mao offered 10 million women, Kissinger replied by saying that Mao was "improving his offer". Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward? The movement led to the persecution of at least 550,000 people, mostly intellectuals and dissidents. Ideologically a MarxistLeninist, his theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism. [133] Marching through the mountain ranges around Ma'anshan,[134] in Moukung, Western Sichuan, they encountered the 50,000-strong CCP Fourth Front Army of Zhang Guotao, and together proceeded to Maoerhkai and then Gansu. I say that if the worst came to the worst and one-half dies, there will still be one-half left, but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist. [191] This period marked the beginning of China's rapid industrialisation and it resulted in an enormous success. "It stinks," Mao said. Mao Zedong, the Communist leader, had earlier . [323], Mao also has a presence in China and around the world in popular culture, where his face adorns everything from T-shirts to coffee cups. "[341], Sinologist Stuart R. Schram emphasised Mao's ruthlessness but also noted that he showed no sign of taking pleasure in torture or killing in the revolutionary cause. [268][269] He is also known as a political intellect, theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary. [189][273] Mao rarely gave direct instruction for peoples' physical elimination. [68] They nevertheless adopted three policies he had long championed: the immediate formation of Workers' councils, the confiscation of all land without exemption, and the rejection of the KMT. This convinced him of the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, an idea advocated by the KMT leftists but not the Communists. The resulting treaty reflected Stalin's dominance and his willingness to help Mao. "[291] Some historians argue that Mao was "one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century", and a dictator comparable to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin,[292][293] with a death toll surpassing both. Party members were encouraged to carry a copy with them, and possession was almost mandatory as a criterion for membership. However, it was unclear if Mao's stance played a crucial role, if any role, in Khrushchev's decision to invade Hungary. Meanwhile, Mao recovered from tuberculosis. Becker says that "Mao believed that the bomb was a 'paper tiger', declaring to Khrushchev that it would not matter if China lost 300 million people in a nuclear war: the other half of the population would survive to ensure victory". The first session of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was attended by 13 delegates, Mao included. "[212], At a large Communist Party conference in Beijing in January 1962, dubbed the "Seven Thousand Cadres Conference", State Chairman Liu Shaoqi denounced the Great Leap Forward, attributing the project to widespread famine in China. Numerous posters, badges, and musical compositions referenced Mao in the phrase "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts" (; Mo Zhx Sh Wmen Xnzhng De Hng Tiyng)[322] and a "Savior of the people" (; Rnmn De D Jixng). Two of the sons and both daughters died young, leaving the three brothers Mao Zedong, Mao Zemin, and Mao Zetan. [36], Mao desired to become a teacher and enrolled at the Fourth Normal School of Changsha, which soon merged with the First Normal School of Hunan, widely seen as the best in Hunan. In November, it proclaimed Jiangxi to be the Soviet Republic of China, an independent Communist-governed state. Only Albania openly sided with China, thereby forming an alliance between the two countries which would last until after Mao's death in 1976. "[238] In August and September 1966, there were a reported 1,772 people murdered by the Red Guards in Beijing alone. [165] Mao went to Moscow for long talks in the winter of 194950. Mao Zedong's and the CCP's Long March (1934-1935) With KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek occupied with dealing with Japanese incursions into China, the CCP Red Army, under the leadership of Mao and Zhou Enlai, were able to make huge territorial gains. However, Mao's government was responsible for vast numbers of deaths, with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims due to starvation, persecution, prison labour, and mass executions, which drew criticism for being considered totalitarian rule. In November 1935, he was named chairman of the Military Commission. [351] His calligraphy can be seen today throughout mainland China. Learning the value systems of Confucianism, he later admitted that he did not enjoy the classical Chinese texts preaching Confucian morals, instead favouring classic novels like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. [115][116] Both Li and Mao saw the Chinese revolution as the key to world revolution, believing that a CCP victory would spark the overthrow of global imperialism and capitalism. [37] Befriending Mao, professor Yang Changji urged him to read a radical newspaper, New Youth (Xin qingnian), the creation of his friend Chen Duxiu, a dean at Peking University. [121] Facing internal problems, members of the Jiangxi Soviet accused him of being too moderate, and hence anti-revolutionary. By early 1949 the war between the Nationalists and the Communists in China was nearing its end. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, all the kings of Europe, Napoleon, Bismarck, Leninno predecessor can equal Mao Tse-tung's scope of accomplishment, for no other country was ever so ancient and so big as China. The CCP Central Committee, hiding in Shanghai, expelled Mao from their ranks and from the Hunan Provincial Committee, as punishment for his "military opportunism", for his focus on rural activity, and for being too lenient with "bad gentry". [23], In 1911, Mao began middle school in Changsha. The old imperial capital of Peking surrendered to the Communists at the end of January after a month's siege. [206] Li writes that upon learning of the extent of the starvation, Mao vowed to stop eating meat, an action followed by his staff. The western calendar was adopted and Beijing was to be the regime's capital. The Messed Up Truth Of Mao Zedong - Grunge [136] Finally reaching Shaanxi, they fought off both the KMT and an Islamic cavalry militia before crossing the Min Mountains and Mount Liupan and reaching the Shenshi Soviet; only 7,0008000 had survived. '"[301] Regarding the large-scale irrigation projects, Diktter stresses that, in spite of Mao being in a good position to see the human cost, they continued unabated for several years, and ultimately claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of exhausted villagers. [80] At the First KMT Congress, held in Guangzhou in early 1924, Mao was elected an alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee, and put forward four resolutions to decentralise power to urban and rural bureaus. While there, they developed links with local communities, redistributed and farmed the land, offered medical treatment, and began literacy programs. [229]:100, The secretive Third Front construction involved massive projects including extensive railroad infrastructure like the ChengduKunming line,[228]:153164 aerospace industry including satellite launch facilities,[228]:218-219 and steel production industry including Panzhihua Iron and Steel. [57], In Changsha, Mao had begun teaching history at the Xiuye Primary School[58] and organising protests against the pro-Duan Governor of Hunan Province, Zhang Jingyao, popularly known as "Zhang the Venomous" due to his corrupt and violent rule. Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. [228]:4,54 Although other key leaders did not initially support the idea, the August 2, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident increased fears of a potential invasion by the United States and crystallized support for Mao's industrialization proposal, which came to be known as the Third Front. Hua Guofeng concluded the service with a 20-minute-long eulogy atop Tiananmen Gate. December 26, 1893 China Died: September 9, 1976 (aged 82) Beijing China Title / Office: head of state (1949-1959), China Political Affiliation: Chinese Communist Party Nationalist Party Notable Family Members: spouse Jiang Qing See all related content Top Questions Who was Mao Zedong? That these adventures were failures colossal in scope, and that they took an enormous human toll, cannot and should not be forgotten. "[211], According to official Chinese statistics for Second Five-Year Plan (19581962):"industrial output value value had doubled; the gross value of agricultural products increased by 35 percent; steel production in 1962 was between 10.6 million tons or 12 million tons; investment in capital construction rose to 40 percent from 35 percent in the First Five-Year Plan period; the investment in capital construction was doubled; and the average income of workers and farmers increased by up to 30 percent. [154][155] In August 1938, the Red Army formed the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army, which were nominally under the command of Chiang's National Revolutionary Army. Trapped inside, morale among the Red Army dropped as food and medicine became scarce. The USSR had a network of Communist parties it supported; China now created its own rival network to battle it out for local control of the left in numerous countries. 1556332. [240], Despite being considered a feminist figure by some and a supporter of women's rights, documents released by the US Department of State in 2008 show that Mao declared women to be a "nonsense" in 1973, in conversation with Henry Kissinger, joking that "China is a very poor country. It also reunified China and made the country a force to be reckoned with in the world. A battalion led by General Zhu De was ordered to take the city of Nanchang on 1 August 1927, in what became known as the Nanchang Uprising. [285] When a video of Bi Fujian, a television host, insulting Mao at a private dinner in 2015 went viral, Bi garnered the support of Weibo users, with 80% of them saying in a poll that Bi should not apologize amidst backlash from state affiliates. Also approved was the new 'common programme', which declared that the era of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism in China had ended, to be replaced by 'the people's democratic dictatorship', which would guarantee freedom of thought and speech, and equal rights for women, and transform China from an agricultural into an industrial country. Only a fifth of the 200,000 marchers survived the ordeal that began in 1934, when the Red Armies had to leave their bases in southern China - where Mao Zedong had been the leader of a short-lived . [41] He joined the Society for the Study of Wang Fuzhi (Chuan-shan Hseh-she), a revolutionary group founded by Changsha literati who wished to emulate the philosopher Wang Fuzhi. Mao had a total of ten children,[331] including: Mao's first and second daughters were left to local villagers because it was too dangerous to raise them while fighting the Kuomintang and later the Japanese. [147] Mao moved into a cave-house and spent much of his time reading, tending his garden and theorising. [276] Short stated that landlord class were not exterminated as a people due to Mao's belief in redemption through thought reform,[276] and compared Mao with 19th-century Chinese reformers who challenged China's traditional beliefs in the era of China's clashes with Western colonial powers. [144], On the Long March, Mao's wife He Zizen had been injured by a shrapnel wound to the head. And all of them shared an ideology in which the end justified the means. Mao launched more than a dozen campaigns during his rule, which began when he founded Communist China in 1949 and . Like Yang Kaihui, both Mao Zemin and Mao Zetan were killed in warfare during Mao Zedong's lifetime. Short writes that "Mao's tragedy and his grandeur were that he remained to the end in thrall to his own revolutionary dreams. [350] Mao is the attributed author of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, known in the West as the "Little Red Book" and in Cultural Revolution China as the "Red Treasure Book" (). [79], At the Third Congress of the Communist Party in Shanghai in June 1923, the delegates reaffirmed their commitment to working with the KMT. [278][279] Mao's revolutionary tactics continue to be used by insurgents, and his political ideology continues to be embraced by many Communist organisations around the world.[280]. Chiang flew into the area to lead his armies against Mao, but the Communists outmanoeuvred him and crossed the Jinsha River. Mao stayed on his rostrum until ten o'clock that night, as fireworks exploded above the heads of the spectators. They will create disasters. A talented Chinese politician, an historian, a poet and philosopher, an all-powerful dictator and energetic organizer, a skillful diplomat and utopian socialist, the head of the most populous state, resting on his laurels, but at the same time an indefatigable revolutionary who sincerely attempted to refashion the way of life and consciousness of millions of people, a hero of national revolution and a bloody social reformerthis is how Mao goes down in history. [45] Mao graduated in June 1919, ranked third in the year. As the Communists awaited Chiang's arrival, he loosed the White Terror, massacring 5000 with the aid of the Green Gang. [126] As a result of the KMT's change of focus to the defence of China against Japanese expansionism, the Red Army was able to expand its area of control, eventually encompassing a population of 3 million. Fifty years of Chinese Propaganda Posters", Chapter 5: "Mao Badges Visual Imagery and Inscriptions", "Shoshn shng q yngyun b lu de hng tiyng", "Poll: Millennials desperately need to bone up on the history of communism", "Poll Finds Young Americans More Open to Socialist Ideas", "Opinion: Why Millennials are embracing socialism", "Kong Dongmei, Granddaughter Of Mao Zedong, Appears On China Rich List", "Mao's granddaughter accused over China rich list", "Mao's grandson, promoted to major general, faces ridicule", "Zhang Hanzhi, Mao's English Tutor, Dies at 72", "Jim mozdng wishme xu yngy:"Zh sh duzhng de xyo", "Actor famous for playing Mao Zedong dies of miocardial infarction", "Actors expect prosperity of Chinese culture", ChineseMao.com: Extensive resources about Mao Zedong, Collected Works of Mao at the Maoist Internationalist Movement, Collected Works of Mao Tse-tung (19171949), Mao Zedong Reference Archive at marxists.org, Oxford Companion to World Politics: Mao Zedong, Bio of Mao at the official Communist Party of China web site. Mao Zedong was born in 1893 and he died in 1976. . [6] France - President Valry Giscard d'Estaing said, "He (Mao) has freed China from the humiliation of the past and restored China's central position given to her by history. Who rules over man's destiny? After all, Stalin had made Mao use a toilet. In the following years he solidified his control through the land reform campaign against landlords, the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, the "Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns", and through a truce in the Korean War, which altogether resulted in the deaths of several million Chinese. Furthermore, he is associated with some of the worst purges during Mao Zedong's rule; for instance, he ordered an army crackdown on a Muslim village in Yunnan which resulted in the deaths of 1,600 people, including . Zhang and Mao disagreed over what to do; the latter wished to proceed to Shaanxi, while Zhang wanted to retreat west to Tibet or Sikkim, far from the KMT threat. [64] Coming across newly translated Marxist literature by Thomas Kirkup, Karl Kautsky, and Marx and Engelsnotably The Communist Manifestohe came under their increasing influence, but was still eclectic in his views. She travelled to Moscow for medical treatment; Mao proceeded to divorce her and marry an actress, Jiang Qing. [b][275] According to biographer Philip Short, the overwhelming majority of those killed by Mao's policies were unintended casualties of famine, while the other three or four million, in Mao's view, were the necessary victim's in the struggle to transform China. Mao's lost children | China | The Guardian Due to its recognizability, the spelling was used widely, even by PRC's foreign ministry after Hanyu Pinyin became the PRC's official romanisation system for Mandarin Chinese in 1958; the well-known booklet of Mao's political statements, The Little Red Book, was officially entitled Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung in English translations. He left an indelible mark on history. [111][112], In January 1929, Mao and Zhu evacuated the base with 2,000 men and a further 800 provided by Peng, and took their armies south, to the area around Tonggu and Xinfeng in Jiangxi. [243], In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over, although various historians in and outside of China mark the end of the Cultural Revolutionas a whole or in partin 1976, following Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four. Had Mao died in 1956, his achievements would have been immortal. He is widely considered one of the most prominent communist theoreticians. [184], The Mao government is credited with eradicating both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using unrestrained repression and social reform. He ensured that no massacres took place in the region, and pursued a more lenient approach than that advocated by the Central Committee. Mao had four wives who gave birth to a total of 10 children, among them: Mao's parents altogether had five sons and two daughters. They shouted, 'Long Live Chairman Mao Zedong!' Mao Zedong becomes Chinese Head of State | History Today The successful and famous Anyuan coal mines strikes[zh] (contrary to later Party historians) depended on both "proletarian" and "bourgeois" strategies. [349] The main repository of his pre-1949 writings is the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, published in four volumes by the People's Publishing House since 1951. Biography of Mao Zedong, Father of Modern China - ThoughtCo [137] The Long March cemented Mao's status as the dominant figure in the party. [28], Inspired by Sun's republicanism, the army rose up across southern China, sparking the Xinhai Revolution. [205], The extent of Mao's knowledge of the severity of the situation has been disputed. His final public appearanceand the last known photograph of him alivehad been on 27 May 1976, when he met the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was also unclear if China was forced to conform to the Soviet position due to economic concerns and China's poor power projections compared to the USSR. Senior officials who reported the truth of the famine to Mao were branded as "right opportunists. Stuart R. Schram, The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung (1989)[267], Mao remains a controversial figure and there is little agreement over his legacy both in China and abroad. At least 160,000 civilians are believed to have perished during the siege, which lasted from June until October. Millions of lives were ruined during this period, as the Cultural Revolution pierced into every part of Chinese life, depicted by such Chinese films as To Live, The Blue Kite and Farewell My Concubine. [335] Both he and Kong have written books about their grandfather. [339] Ross Terrill wrote Mao was a "son of the soil rural and unsophisticated" in origins,[340] while Clare Hollingworth said that Mao was proud of his "peasant ways and manners", having a strong Hunanese accent and providing "earthy" comments on sexual matters. [76] Although Mao and Yang were not the originators of this political organizing method of combining labor organizing among male workers with a focus on women's rights issues in their communities, they were among the most effective at using this method. [11] His father, Mao Yichang, was a formerly impoverished peasant who had become one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan. [195] Li Zhisui, Mao's physician, suggested that Mao had initially seen the policy as a way of weakening opposition to him within the party and that he was surprised by the extent of criticism and the fact that it came to be directed at his own leadership. On 25 December 2008, China opened the Mao Zedong Square to visitors in his home town of central Hunan Province to mark the 115th anniversary of his birth.[289]. He freed China from the straitjacket of its Confucian past, but the bright Red future he promised turned out to be a sterile purgatory. In his first school year, Mao befriended an older student, Xiao Zisheng; together they went on a walking tour of Hunan, begging and writing literary couplets to obtain food. "[224], The split resulted from Khrushchev's more moderate Soviet leadership after the death of Stalin in March 1953. Officials in Moscow desired greater control over the CCP and removed Li from power by calling him to Russia for an inquest into his errors. Ng, Yong-sang (1963). More Mao Zedong facts. They reached Hunan, where they were attacked by the KMT and fled after heavy losses. [101] He established a base in Jinggangshan City, an area of the Jinggang Mountains, where he united five villages as a self-governing state, and supported the confiscation of land from rich landlords, who were "re-educated" and sometimes executed. [272] It is said in China that Mao was 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong, though there is no official statement on this. He accepted that there was great variation in revolutionary enthusiasm across the country, and that a flexible policy of land redistribution was necessary. [151] Although Chiang intended to ignore Mao's message and continue the civil war, he was arrested by one of his own generals, Zhang Xueliang, in Xi'an, leading to the Xi'an Incident; Zhang forced Chiang to discuss the issue with the Communists, resulting in the formation of a United Front with concessions on both sides on 25 December 1937.
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