Mao Zedong A Captivating Guide to the Life of a Chairman of the Communist Party of China, the Cultural Revolution and the Political Theory of Maoism
1/5
()
About this ebook
Explore the Captivating Life of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong is recognized alongside Chiang Kai-Shek and Sun Yat-Sen as one of the most influential figures of modern Chinese history. His political control of the nation waned during his later years, but he remained the Chairman of the Community Party of China since it was established in 1949 to the day he died (September 9, 1976). As the founding father of the People's Republic of China and the centerpiece of one of the world's most intense personality cults, the extent of his influence is difficult to understate.
Today, Mao's legacy can inspire slavish devotion, outright condemnation, as well as a hesitance to look too closely at the negative aspects of his legacy. The fact that his influence spanned over nearly three decades also makes it difficult to arrive at a holistic understanding of his impact on China. The official line from the Community Party of China, which was popularized by Deng Xiaoping, is that Mao was "70 percent correct and 30 percent wrong".
This biography will detail Mao's remarkable journey, from being the son of a peasant to one of modern history's greatest – and highly polarizing – leaders. It aims to provide a better understanding of Mao as a person and to try to unpack the personality traits and personal experiences that shaped his worldview and actions.
Some of the topics covered in this book include:
- Early Life
- Political Awakenings
- Beijing
- May Fourth and the New Culture Movement
- The Communist Party of China's Growing Pains
- The Northern Expedition
- Communists at Large
- The Long March
- The People's Republic of China
- The Great Leap Forward
- The Cultural Revolution
- What Did Maoism Stand For?
- And much more!
Read more from Captivating History
Ancient China: A Captivating Guide to the Ancient History of China and the Chinese Civilization Starting from the Shang Dynasty to the Fall of the Han Dynasty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Maurya Empire: A Captivating Guide to the Most Expansive Empire in Ancient India Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTitanic: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Unsinkable Ship RMS Titanic, Including Survivor Stories and a Real Romance Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinston Churchill: A Captivating Guide to the Life of Winston S. Churchill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaitian Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the Abolition of Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African American History: A Captivating Guide to the People and Events that Shaped the History of the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSumerians: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Sumerian History, Sumerian Mythology and the Mesopotamian Empire of the Sumer Civilization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAncient Rome: A Captivating Introduction to the Roman Republic, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and The Byzantine Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAztec History: A Captivating Guide to the Aztec Empire, Mythology, and Civilization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAztec: A Captivating Guide to Aztec History and the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUr: A Captivating Guide to One of the Most Important Sumerian City-States in Ancient Mesopotamia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAncient Greece: A Captivating Guide to Greek History Starting from the Greek Dark Ages to the End of Antiquity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Mao Zedong A Captivating Guide to the Life of a Chairman of the Communist Party of China, the Cultural Revolution and the Political Theory of Maoism
Related ebooks
Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mao: The Real Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birth of Two Nations: the Republic of China and the People’S Republic of China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOut of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Lenin to Malenkov: The History of World Communism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnderstanding China [3rd Edition]: A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Political Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKorean War: A Captivating Guide to Korean War History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam War: A Captivating Guide to the Second Indochina War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Ethics and History: Essays and Letters of Zhang Xuecheng Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSun Yat Sen and the birth of modern China: 20th Century China: Volume One Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Martin Van Buren: A Captivating Guide to the Man Who Served as the Eighth President of the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsXi Jinping's Governance and the Future of China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prince Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExplaining The Russian Revolution: A Student's Guide: Your Guide To The Ten Toughest Exam Questions on the Revolutions of 1917 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAncient Rome: A Captivating Introduction to the Roman Republic, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and The Byzantine Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5China’s Renaissance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cult of Mao Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegends of the Middle Ages: The Life and Legacy of Genghis Khan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarx's 'Das Kapital' For Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Problem of China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBurying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping - Updated Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Party Forever: Inside China's Modern Communist Elite Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Red Sun Rising: Japan, China and the West: 1894-1941 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Political Ideologies For You
The Anarchist Cookbook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Communist Manifesto: Original Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The January 6th Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Mao Zedong A Captivating Guide to the Life of a Chairman of the Communist Party of China, the Cultural Revolution and the Political Theory of Maoism
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5he was a poet.....how sweet....I read half of the first paragraph and almost threw up...what sick degenerate mind could sing the praise of one of the most bloodthirsty satanists to walk the earth! This book should be burned in the gehenna fire along with its author!
Book preview
Mao Zedong A Captivating Guide to the Life of a Chairman of the Communist Party of China, the Cultural Revolution and the Political Theory of Maoism - Captivating History
Introduction
Mao Zedong – was known as Chairman Mao
to millions of Chinese citizens – is recognized alongside Chiang Kai-Shek and Sun Yat-Sen as one of the most influential figures of modern Chinese history. His political control of the nation waned during his later years, but he remained the Chairman of the Communist Party of China since it was established in 1949 to the day he died (September 9, 1976). As the founding father of the People’s Republic of China and the centerpiece of one of the world’s most intense personality cults, the extent of his influence is difficult to understate[1].
Mao was not just a communist revolutionary or a political leader. He was also a poet, a political theorist, and a brilliant orator. His similarly influential successor Deng Xiaoping[2], who served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 until his retirement in 1989, is acknowledged worldwide for steering the nation towards economic growth. His legacy can be judged by the physical markers of economic development: infrastructure in the form of roads, highways, buildings, factories, skyscrapers, cities, gross domestic output, etc.
While Mao is credited for catalyzing China’s transition from a mostly agrarian nation into a modern industrial powerhouse, his legacy cannot be confined to economics alone. Deng’s pragmatism and emphasis on individual self-interest may prevail in contemporary China, but Mao still inspires widespread devotion. Some prominent pictures and statues of Mao in the country have been quietly removed, but his portrait still figures prominently in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. He joins the ranks of some of the world’s most famous community cult-of-personality leaders in having his corpse being on public display: Russia’s Vladimir Lenin, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh and North Korea's Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il. His embalmed corpse lies in a crystal cabinet within a stately Soviet-inspired memorial hall in the middle of Tiananmen Square, attracting long lines of visitors.
His legacy as a political leader is marked by significant successes and catastrophic failures – a historical reality that remains controversial in contemporary China’s censor-prone, one-party state. His contributions to the nation as a political genius and ideological visionary – raising its average life expectancy, championing gender equality, improving popular literacy, promoting the collectivization of agriculture, ensuring accessibility to medical services, ushering in a period of unity and stability after decades of civil war and foreign invasion, restoring its sense of pride, dignity and confidence after a Century of Humiliation
and positioning it towards the world economic and military power it is today – were magnified and glorified during his reign.
His theories, clever military strategies, and political policies (which are collectively known as Maoism) inspired anti-capitalism and anti-imperialist sentiments. Mao’s charisma and force of personality gained him widespread approval, respect, admiration, and devotion in his home country. He was also able to charm Western intellectuals and political leaders like the American journalist Robert Snow (who wrote his first biography), Harvard professor John K. Fairbank, feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, and French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre[3].
Mao’s image as a benevolent protector of the people and his humble origins from the peasant class made it easier to suppress the brutal realities of his authoritarian rule. His grandiose ambitions for China to become a military superpower lead to a disastrous nation-wide diversion from agriculture to industrial arms-making. As a result, an estimated 45 million people starved to death during The Great Famine from 1958 to 1961. Historian R. J. Rummel has pointed out that all the major global wars from 1900 – 1987 – World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the Mexican and Russian Revolutions – amounted to a death count of over 34 million people[4].
Under his Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), Chinese culture and intellectual life suffered tremendously. Chinese classics of literature, poetry, and philosophy were burned across the nation. Foreign works of art, literature, and culture were banned for being counterrevolutionary.
Respected artisans and intellectuals were stripped of their respect, dignity, and professions.
Today, Mao’s legacy can inspire slavish devotion, outright condemnation, as well as a hesitance to look too closely at the negative aspects of his legacy. The fact that his influence spanned over nearly three decades also makes it difficult to arrive at a holistic understanding of his impact on China. The official line from the Community Party of China, which was popularized by Deng Xiaoping, is that Mao was 70 percent correct and 30 percent wrong
[5]. This biography will detail Mao’s remarkable journey, from being the son of a peasant to one of modern history’s greatest – and highly polarizing – leaders. It aims to provide a better understanding of Mao as a person and to try to unpack the personality traits and personal experiences that shaped his worldview and actions.
Chapter 1 – Early Life
Mao was not born into political or intellectual privilege, but he was not born into poverty either. He was born on December 26, 1893, in the remote village of Shaoshan in the Hunan province. His father, Mao Yi-chang, was unlike the average Chinese peasant who toiled in poverty. Despite only possessing two years of formal schooling, he had improved his status and wealth through hard work, frugality, and shrewdness[6]. As a rich grain dealer and land-owning farmer, he expected his son to gain knowledge of the Confucian classics, accounting and bookkeeping, and to contribute to his business when he became older. To him, the pursuit of knowledge was for purely utilitarian ends. Mao would recount one of his father’s