Mao Zedong

Introduction

• (1893 - 1976)

• led china’s communist revolution in the 1920s and 1930s

• was chairman (chief of state) in 1949 until 1959

Profile

• Born December 26, 1893 into a peasant family in the village of shaoshan, hunan province

• frequently rebelled against his father’s strict diciplinarian ways

• earliest education was confucian classics of chinese history, literature, and philosophy

  • was also exposed to progressive confucian reformers like K’ang Yu-wei

• served as a soldier in the republican army, breifly, after moving to changsha

• influenced by progressive newspapers like ‘new youth’, founded by revolutionary leader chen duxiu

• obtained a job at the beijing library and joined Li’s (head librarian) study group that explored marxist political and social thought

  • became an avid reader of marxist writings

• published articles criticizing the traditional values of confucianism during the may fourth movement of 1919

• died of parkinson’s disease on september 9, 1976

Timeline

• 1920 — returned to changsha, attempted to organize a democratic government for hunan province but failed

• 1921 — was present at the founding meeting of the chinese communist party (CCP) which was also attended by Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu

  • founded a CCP branch in hunan and organized worker strikes throughout the province

• 1923 — KMT allied with CCP, mao joined KMT and served on its central committee while still retaining his CCP membership

  • to fight the warlords of northern china

• 1925 — organized peasant unions of his hometown

• 1926 — was named director of both the CCP and KMT peasant commision

• 1927 — wrote paper “report on an investigation of the peasant movement in hunan”

  • declared peasants would be the main force in the revolution

• KMT broke with the CCP in the same year after leader Chaing Kai-shek took over and launched a violent purge against the the communists

• led a small peasant army in hunan against local landlords and the KMT during the autumn harvest uprising

• 1929 — was defeated, moved south, and formed a base area called jiangxi soviet

  • experimented with rural land reform and recruited troops known as the red army

  • developed guerilla warfare tactics that drew the KMT forces deep into the hostile countryside

• 1934 — chiang intensified his extermination campaign surrounding the jiangxi soviet

  • long march began (9.6k km / 6k mi) to the remote village of yan’an in northern china

    • stopped at zunyi — top communist officials met to discuss the CCPs future

    • conference became known as a crucial turning point in mao’s ascendence to CCP leadership

  • led communist resistance against the japanese who invaded manchuria in 1931 and china in 1937

  • CCP temporarily allied with the KMT again to fight against Japanese in northern china

• 1942 — would consolidate his leadership by launching a ‘rectification’ campaign against the CCP members who disagreed with him

  • “returned bolshevik” wang ming, studied union of soviet socialist republics, was one of the many who disagreed

  • others included writers wang shiwei and ding ling

• 1945 — shortly after japan surrendered in WWII, civil war broke out between the CCP and KMT troops

• 1949 — CCP defeats KMT and on oct 1, mao declared the founding of the people’s republic of China in tiananmen square in beijing

• mao ordered redistribution of land, elimination of landlords in the countryside, and establishment of heavy industry in the cities

• 1950 - 1957 — US became mao’s enemy in the korean war (1950-1953) which approx one million chinese soldiers died fighting for north korea, including his son

  • lauched several mass campaigns:

    • suppression of the counterrevolutions

    • three-anti

    • five-anti

• mid 1950s — advocated the rapid formation of agricultural communes

  • energy of the people could help china achieve a high tide of communist development

• 1957 — hundred flowers movement — encouraged intellectuals to criticize the CCP believing it would be minor

  • when failed — launched anti-rightist campaign which turned those who had spoken out into rightist and imprisoning / exiling them

• 1958 — great leap forward called upon all chinese to engage in zealous physical labor to transform the economy and over the west in industrial and agricultural production

  • caused massive famine and the deaths of millions

  • those who criticized mao’s failed policies were humiliated, purged from office, and muted because the educated elite remembered the turmoil of the ‘hundred flowers’ and ‘anti-rightist’ campaigns in 1957

• 1966 — tensions between mao’s relationships were amongst the underlying causes of the cultural revolution

• mao’s writing were elevated to a infallible philosophical system called the “mao zedong thought”

• 1976 — mao zedong dies of parkinson’s

• 1977 — the CCP declared the cultural revolution officially ended

• praised for his contributions in the resistance against japan but criticized for his mistakes in the great leap forward and cultural revolution