Mao Zedong Vocabulary

Pu Yi

Last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and puppet emperor of the Japanese-controlled state of Manchukuo

Yuan Shikai

Chinese army leader and reformist minister in the twilight of the Qing dynasty (until 1911) and then the first president of the Republic of China (1912–16)

Guomindang

Founded in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen; helped topple the Qing dynasty and promoted modernization along Western lines; failed to achieve complete control

Chinese Communist Party

Founding and sole ruling party in the People’s Republic of China

Sun Yat Sen

Overthrew the Qing Dynasty and set up the People’s Republic of China

Chang Kai Shek

General who led the Republic of China from 1928-1975

Mao Zedong

Founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and led the country from its establishment until his death in 1976

Zhou Enlai

Served as premier of the People’s Republic of China; survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution

Lin Biao

Vice Chairman of the CCP Central Military; at the time of his death he was the highest-ranking military man in the PRC

Deng Xiaoping

Mao Zedong’s successor, he led China away from a command economy and Maoist domga

Liu Shaoqi

Ranked First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party; focused on party organizational and theoretical affairs. After his downfall, he was considered “a criminal traitor, enemy agent and scab in the service of the imperialists, modern revisionists and the Kuomintang reactionaries.” He died in prison

Dalai Lama

Revoked Tibet's Seventeen Point Agreement with China and initially supported the Tibetan independence movement in 1959.

President Nixon

Established relations with the PRC after years of US diplomatic policy that favored the Republic of China in Taiwan

Chinese Revolution

1910

A revolt against the Qing Dynasty, establishing in its place the Republic of China

May Fourth Movement

1919

Protesters rallied around the principles of science, democracy, and nationalism and called for a complete overhaul of Chinese society

First United Front

1923-1927

Meant to end Warlordism

White Terror

Political Repression of Taiwanese civilians and political deserters

Shanghai Massacre

The violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporting General Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang

Long March

Resulted in the relocation of the communist revolutionary base from southeastern to northwestern China and in the emergence of Mao Zedong as the undisputed party leader

Jiangxi Soviet

A soviet area that existed between 1931 and 1934, governed by the Chinese Communist Party. It was the largest component of the Chinese Soviet Republic and home to its capital, Ruijin.

Yan’an Soviet

A soviet governed by the Chinese Communist Party during the 1930s and 1940s. In October 1936 it became the final destination of the Long March, and served as the CCP's main base until after the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Marxism

Belief that if the working class makes itself the ruling class, and destroys the basis for class society, there will be a "classless society." In a this society, no social classes are in conflict, and there is no government anymore.

6 Principles of the Red Army

Principles that made the army not be perceived as a threat;; lead to a big increase in the number of people who wanted to join the Red Army

Chinese Civil War

A military struggle waged between the Nationalists and the Communists. It was won by the CCP

People’s Liberation Army

Won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People's Republic of China in 1949. It then underwent a drastic reorganization, with the establishment of the Air Force leadership structure in November 1949, followed by the Navy leadership structure the following April.

Mao becomes Chairman of the PRC

Oct 1949

Led to land redistribution and industrialisation campaigns, suppressed political opponents, intervened in the Korean War, and began the ideological Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns.

Suppression of the Counter-revolutionaries

1950

Highlighted Mao's beliefs of class struggle through the revolutionary class. The ensuing repression and mass executions also paved the way for a subsequent series campaigns against class enemies, such as the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution that resulted in failure and more tragedies.

Maoism

a variety of Marxism–Leninism; developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Republic of China.

Rectification Campaign

1942-1943

Purpose was to give a basic grounding in the Marxist theory and Leninist principles of party organization to the thousands of new members who had joined the CCP during its expansion after 1937.

PRC introduces Constitution

China becomes a one-party state 1943

Thought Reform Movement

1951

A campaign of the Chinese Communist Party to reform the thinking of Chinese citizens into accepting Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought from 1951 to 1952.

Reunification Campaigns

1949-1950

Mao wanted to reunite China so that the CCP could have total control

Little Red Book

Collection of quoted taken from Mao’s Speeches and books; it was essentially an unofficial requirement for every Chinese citizen to own, to read, and to carry it at all times during the latter half of Mao's rule, especially during the Cultural Revolution.

Hundred Flowers Campaign

1956

it was meant to allow for citizens to offer criticism and advice to the gov and the party, it backfired. Massively

Anti-Rightist Campaign

1957

a political campaign to purge alleged "Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party and the country as a whole.

Struggle Sessions

Violent public spectacles in Maoist China where people were accused of being class enemies and humiliated, beaten and tortured to death, often by people they were close to.

Laogai

a criminal justice system involving the use of penal labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China

literal meaning: reform through labor

Laojiao

Re-education through labor

Mao Crosses the Yangtze River

Set the stage for the launch of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Politburo

The principal policymaking committee of a communist party

Cadres

A small group of people specifically train for a particular purpose or profession

New Currency “Renminbi”

1950

People’s Currency; appeared with the foundation of the People’s Bank of China

Agrarian Land Law

1950

The property of rural landlords was confiscated and redistributed, which fulfilled a promise to the farmers and smashed a class identified as feudal or semifeudal

Purge of Landlords

Mao insisted that the people themselves, not the public security organs, should become involved in enacting the Land Reform Law and killing the landlords who had oppressed them, in contrast to the Soviet practice of dekulakization.

First Five Year Plan

1953-1957

the beginning of the country's centrally planned economic development and industrialization; production more than doubled; numerous factories, roads, and dams were built; 97% of land was collectivized

Collectivization

village elites were ousted and replaced with new village leaders who showed support for the movement

Communes

the basic unit of Chinese society made up of and ruled by the working class

Great Leap Forward/ Second Five Year Plan

1958-1962

a five-year plan of forced agricultural collectivization and rural industrialization that was instituted by the Chinese Communist Party in 1958

Great Famine

1958-1961

Caused by the policies of the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962) and people's communes

The Four Pest Control

an effort to eliminate flies, mosquitoes, rats, and sparrows to improve human hygiene and increase agricultural output.

Man must conquer nature

Marriage Law

1950

Aimed at correcting many of the practices of the previous feudal society. It prohibited concubinage, child betrothal, and interference with the remarriage of widows and emphasized free choice of partners, monogamy, equal rights of both sexes, respect for the old, and care of the young.

Three Antis Campaign`

1951

Anti-corruption, anti-waste, anti-bureaucratism

Five Antis Campaign

1952

a key campaign in the Communist Party's effort to eliminate private property. It both extracted funds from the private sector to support China's involvement in the war and further restrained the power of Chinese capitalists.

Cultural Revolution

1966-1967

a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China. There was disruption of governance and significant loss of life. Resulted in economic turmoil and stagnation as the focus shifted from economic development to political struggle. Social structures were disrupted, families were torn apart, and traditional values were suppressed.

Barefoot doctors

in charge of public health care which was 'prevention-oriented' and primary health care in health centers in the countryside.

Patriotic Health Movement

1950

carried out in urban cities and rural villages across China to get rid of the diseases that plagued people

Danwei

the name given to a place of employment in the People's Republic of China

Hukou

a system of household registration used in the People's Republic of China

Destruction of the “Four Olds”

Hundreds of Red Guards and revolutionary students and teachers of the Tibetan Normal School and the Lhasa Middle School took to the streets in a vigorous offensive

Yangbanxi (Revolutionary Opera)

Hailed as the pinnacle of socialist artistic production

State atheism

Religion was a target in the campaign to eliminate the four olds; All religious activities were banned, and religious personnel were persecuted

Tibetan Uprising

1959

Resulted in thousands of Tibetan monks were executed or arrested, and monasteries and temples around the city were looted or destroyed

Oppression of Uyghurs

“Break their lineage, break their roots”

multi-faceted and systematic. Core strategies of the campaign include identity-based persecution, mass detention, surveillance, enforced sterilizations, forced labor, and forced assimilation.

Cultural Unity

Mao wanted to brainwash the people to have a desire for unity so that they would join his cult

Socialist Education Movement

1962

purify politics, purify economics, purify the organization, and purify thought" in opposition to revisionism

Pinyin

the most widely-used system of writing Mandarin Chinese that uses the Latin alphabet

Increases Literacy

Empowers and Liberates people

Agricultural Middle Schools

The régime decided that the only realistic course to follow in pursuing its goals was to assign the major part of the task of establishing and running schools in the vast rural areas to the basic socio-economic units in those areas, mainly, in other words, to the agricultural cooperatives. Accordingly, the late winter and early spring of 1958 were marked by the announcement of the rapid establishment of great numbers of min-pan hsüek-hsiao, or “schools run by the people.”

Red Guard

Student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Mao

“Up the Mountain and Down the Countryside” Movement

A method for Mao to handle population growth by sending people to the countryside.

Chinese Communist Youth Movement (CYL)

a people's organization of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the Chinese Communist Party.

Youth Pioneers

A mass youth organization for children aged six to fourteen in the Republic of China

Comintern

a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism

2nd Sino-Japanese War

1937-1945

China began a full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory

2nd United Front “Resist America & Aid Korea” Campaign

1950-1953

This gave the Yanan Soviet a reprieve from GMD attacks, aided the further development and growth of the Red Army and won the propaganda war for the communists

Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship

1950

provided China with security guarantees, and increased the scope for economic cooperation between the two countries

China attacks USSR’s policy of “Peaceful Coexistence”

Sino-Soviet debates about the interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the Soviet Union's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc, which Chinese leader Mao Zedong decried as revisionism.

China produces atomic bomb

1964

A part of the “Two Bombs, One Satellite” Program

It had a yield of 22 kilotons, comparable to the Soviet Union's first nuclear bomb RDS-1 in 1949 and the American Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945