Abstract
Mao Zedong referred to himself as “Marx plus the First Emperor of Qin (Qinshihuang)”. As the founder of Maoist Marxism (Maoism) he used ideology like a religious doctrine and ruled post-revolutionary China with charismatic authority. This religious-like authority was a major factor in stabilizing Chinese society even during huge disasters like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. At the same time, he established a power structure similar to that of the First Emperor of Qin, which formed the governance principles of the Communist Party as well as the Chinese nation and continues to this day. Mao is still revered as a great figure in China, but can he truly be considered great given the enormous sacrifices he brought upon China? This chapter will look back on Mao’s thoughts and policies and provide my comprehensive evaluation of Mao Zedong.
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Notes
- 1.
A Sovietologist says that it is a myth that the Russian Revolution was a workers’ revolution. This is because the proletariat constituted only 2% of the population, and the revolution was mainly enacted by soldiers from revolutionary peasant backgrounds (Shimotomai 2017, p. 40).
- 2.
The current China’s Constitution extols the “Xi Jinping thought” as a great theory that, along with Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory, links the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with Chinese practice.
- 3.
For example, neither the Russian Revolution nor the Chinese Revolution was not born out of a contradiction between productive forces and production relations.
- 4.
To use a joke once popular in Eastern Europe, real socialism was a system of “long transitional periods from capitalism to capitalism.”
- 5.
Shimotomai Nobuo aptly notes that the Soviet Communist Party during Stalin’s time “was, in effect, a church by a founding atheist” (Shimotomai 2017, p. 79).
- 6.
Drawing on Keynes and Weber, Inoki Takenori points out that “socialism was seen as a religion of twentieth century intellectuals who believed in reason and equality” (Inoki 1983). In fact, the “socialist” ideology was essentially tinged with such religious coloration. Unlike Lenin and Mao, however, intellectuals did not see the usefulness of such religiosity in developing a major revolutionary political movement.
- 7.
Needless to say, the reference to Mao Zedong as a guru is only a metaphor for illustrative purposes, and Maoism is not an actual religion. It is important to note, however, that many people did not doubt him, even in a situation of near-extreme desperation. Qian Liqun sees the Great Leap Forward of 1958 as having a kind of “religious fanaticism” (Qian 2012a, Vol. 2, p. 330; Qian 2012b, Vol. 2, p. 256).
- 8.
The question then becomes why Mao was able to maintain control over the military. The fact that he had Peng Dehuai, the Minister of National Defense, ousted at the Lushan Conference and replaced him with Lin Biao, a staunch Maoist, may have had a positive effect on Mao surviving the Cultural Revolution.
- 9.
Re-quoted from Tang (2003). Originally from Liu Zhinan, “Jiuda zhi Jiujie Erzhong Quanhui Qianxi Mao Zedong yu Lin Biao de Fenqi he Maodun (The Divergence and Contradictions between Mao Zedong and Lin Biao on the Eve of the Ninth National Congress and the Ninth Central Committee Plenary Session),” Journal of Contemporary Chinese History, 1997, No. 3.
- 10.
Let us recall that Zhang Bojun told his daughter, “It is a fool’s logic to call [Mao Zedong’s] Marxism a doctrine of class and class struggle” (see Chap. 4).
- 11.
Even today, criticism of Mao Zedong remains taboo in China. Although it has weakened compared to the past, Maoism has effectively become the “state religion” in China.
- 12.
However, he continued to keep the leadership as the President of the Military Commission for some time.
- 13.
Socialist thought included a faith in “planning by reason” (Inoki 1983). Elitism is also derived from that faith.
- 14.
The elitism of today’s Communist Party is much more “sophisticated” than in the Mao era, and when making decisions, leaders do not practice Mao’s style of “one person alone has the say (yiyantang),” but also listen to the opinions of many “expert groups” (elites) both inside and outside the Party.
- 15.
Certainly, Gorbachev’s attempt to introduce “glasnost’” (free speech) was also significant during the 1980s. This system is antithetical to elitism, resulting in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- 16.
In the record of a conversation with Yu Qiuli, then Minister of Petroleum Industry, sent by Chen Boda to Mao Zedong in December 1964, it was stated that “we should follow the Chairman’s thought” (Hu 2008, p. 63, Hu’s emphasis.). Mao had this printed and distributed to the Political Bureau and the Vice Premier of the State Council.
- 17.
Mao had decided to get rid of Lin Biao even before that. See Gao (2007, Vol. 2), for more information on the history of this period.
- 18.
The Chinese government abruptly abandoned its previous “zero-corona policy” in December 2022 and switched to a policy of coexistence with coronaviruses, claiming that its previous infection control measures, including mandatory movement restrictions, had been effective.
- 19.
According to Pei Yiran, “The young laborer Yu Luoke wrote a ‘theory of origin,’ the ideological source of which was the Western humanist philosophy of equality, freedom, etc.” (Pei 2017).
- 20.
At the time, Yang Shangkun was the director of the Party’s Central Secretariat, but was ousted during the Cultural Revolution. After the reform and opening-up, he served as President of the State.
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Nakagane, K. (2024). How Should We Evaluate Mao Zedong?: Mao Zedong and Contemporary China. In: Mao Zedong and Contemporary China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1761-3_10
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