DYLAN JOHN (Y9)
This article placed 3rd in the WBGS Fuller Research Prize Competition 2022.
Childhood and Family
Mao Zedong (毛泽东), was born in December 1893 in a small town named Shaoshan village. His father was called Mao Yichang and was a former peasant who had become one of the richest and most successful farmers in the area. Whilst growing up in this area, his father had taught Zedong discipline and was noted to harshly beat his children for just the slightest of mistakes. Mao also had a strict Buddhist upbringing mainly due to his mother, Wen Qimei, who was a devoted Buddhist. However, these teachings did not last for long: in his mid-teen years, Zedong completely abandoned the religion.
A small-time later, in 1911, Zedong joined the middle school in the city of Changsha. At the time, this was a risky move for Mao as the city was on the brinks of revolution. There was a strong hostility towards Emperor Puyi and his absolute monarchy, and most people were leaning towards republicanism. These republicans’ idol was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led the Tongmenghui society. Mao, who was influenced by Sun, called for him to be president in a school essay. It was these events and the actions and words of Sun that sparked the Xinhai revolution.
During this, Mao joined the rebel army as a soldier, but he was not involved in any of the main fighting. Whilst the emperor kept most of the Northern provinces in the attempt of trying to avoid a full out war, he forfeited most of the central and southern parts to Sun, who was proclaimed “provisional president”. Soon after the revolution, in 1912, Mao resigned from the army, after only 6 months as a soldier. It was around this time that the first signs of Socialism showed in Mao, after he discovered the concept after reading an article and following pamphlets by Jiang Janghu, the student founder of the Chinese Socialist Party. However, whilst he was interested by the idea, he wasn’t ever convinced by the idea at the time.
After this, Mao joined and dropped out of many schools like a police academy, a soap-opera production school, a law school and an economics school, as well as the government-run school Changsha Middle School. Whilst he was at the latter, he mainly studied independently, making good use of Changsha’s massive library. Soon after Mao left Changsha, he joined the First Normal School of Hunan, which was arguably the best school in Hunan. It was here he started reading a radical new newspaper, named “New Youth”, after it was recommended to him by a friend. It mainly argued that China should look to the west in order to develop economically, as well as socially.
Later on in his life at Hunan, Mao was a very popular student, as was elected the secretary of the Students Society. He organized protests against the school rules, in the newly founded “Association for Student Self-Government”, in which he had a very high rank. He also joined another group, who focused on the study of Wang Fuzhi, an older Chinese philosopher. It was in this group he developed knowledge of war tactics, and it was this that led him to take a particular interest in the recently ended World War 1, and especially the tactics used.
After graduation, Mao moved to Beijing. It was here that his mentor, Yang Changji, got him a job as a librarian. At his job, he would work as an assistant to Li Dazhao, librarian at Peking University and early Chinese Communist. Whilst working here, Mao read many more articles from the “New Youth” magazine, and he learnt about the recent Russian Revolution (which occurred in October of the previous year), as well as the beliefs of Lenin – the socio-political theory of Marxism. After Li, his master, converted to the Socialist beliefs of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Zedong joined him.
Mao lived for a while in a Cramped room with several other students from Hunan whilst attending the University, and was often picked on for his strong rural Hunan accent. Whilst living here, he learnt more about Socialism and other Communist theories with Li, whilst also working at the library in his free time. He was lucky that by working there he had access to many new books – Peking university was very prestigious and therefore it had very good funding and a large and up to date library.
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Rise to Power
It was in 1921 that the famous CCP (Chinese Communist Party) was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao (Mao’s master at the library). Mao set up the branch of the party situated in Changsha, around the area in which he grew up. By early 1922, these small branches of the CCP existed in many major areas, cities and districts such as Beijing, Changsha (Zedong’s district), Wuhan, Guangzhou and Jinan. However, their main meeting place was a small hall situated in Shanghai, where the leaders of each branch would meet and discuss political topics, new ideologies, and other such matters.
1922 was the year that the CCP began to be recognized in China as a non-ironic political party. Mao, who had ascended in position to the secretary for the Hunan region branch of the party, studied many philosophers and lots of phycology in his final time at university in order to allow him to grow the party. On top of all of this, he joined some radical new movements spreading across China from the west such as the YMCA Mass Education Movement in order to help fight illiteracy – he saw that more educated people would mean more people that he could coordinate his views to.
During his time as minister for Hunan, he organized many strikes for underpaid workers under the rule of the Governors and Emperor of China. During this time period, the CCP had its first and second political rallies. Mao attended the first, but not the second after he claimed to have “Misplaced the address”. In 1923, at their 3rd congress, the delegates confirmed their commitment to working with the KMT. In the following years from 1924 – 1927, the CCP and the KMT had many joint congresses, some in Shanghai near the headquarters of the CCP and others at KMT headquarters in Guangzhou.
During this time, the CCP appointed party leader Sun Yat-sen died, and he was succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek, a radical young man who moved to marginalize the left-KMT and the CCP. Nevertheless, Mao still took the side of Kai-shek, and supported his National Revolutionary army greatly. It was Kai-shek who coordinated the Northern Expedition attack in 1926 – Peasants rose up with the help of the party, overthrowing their rich and unjust landowners. Most of these wealthy businessmen were killed, creating Zedong’s first official success.
However, soon after this success, Chiang, who was a nationalist by heart, turned on the Communists, who had grown massively throughout China. He ignored orders from the CCP and left the KMT government, and marched on Shanghai, which was mainly controlled by Communist militias. The full might of the KMT party was released that day on the communists of Shanghai, and around 20,000 CCP members and supporters were suspected to have been lost. Whilst the CCP continued to support the Wuhan branch of the KMT, they had rivaled the main section.
Later on, a few months after the fighting, The CCP Central Committee (Hiding from the Nationalists who have taken over China) were hiding in Shanghai, when they decided to formally expel Zedong from their ranks, as punishment for his “military opportunism”, as well as some other factors. However, even after he left the party, they still adopted 3 of his policies: the immediate formation of Workers’ Councils, the confiscation of all land without exemption and the rejection of the KMT – after the fighting Mao had very much changed his view on the party.
This large advancement, however, did not phase Zedong whatsoever – he left and established a b
ase in Jinggangshan City, an area in the Jingang mountains. Here he continued to educate people about his beliefs and created another peasant uprising. Some of these overthrown landlords were “re-educated”, and the others were simply executed. During his time here, Mao built an army of around 1,800 troops. He was a good governor to these people, disciplining them well. His army was a strong and efficient fighting force.
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It was later in 1930 that Mao created the Southwest Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Government, which gave control of the entire region to him. During these years his health began to slip as well – he suffered emotional trauma after his second wife and sister were captured by the KMT and then beheaded. This led to him developing Tuberculosis. Later on in the year, the members of the Government tried to overthrow Zedong, which resulted in the Futian incident. During this, Mao’s loyalists fought for him, capturing and torturing over 2500 of his dissenters.
After the events of Futian, the CCP moved its headquarters to Jiangxi, believing it was safe, and declaring the area the Soviet Republic of China. Although Mao was then proclaimed Chairman of the “Council of People’s Commissars”, His power was diminished and his control of the Red Army was given to Zhou Enlai. This was apparently strategic – Zedong was still recovering from his case of tuberculosis.
War broke out between the KMT and the Red armies in 1934. The KMT adopted a policy of annihilation. Severely outnumbered, Mao recommended to use Guerilla tactics as used by Sun Tzu, but Zhou, who controlled the army, decided to use a policy of open confrontation and more classic, conventional warfare. The only problem was, the red army was surrounded from every side, and the tiny number of troops didn’t stand a chance – or did they?
It was on October 14th 1934 that by miracle the Red Army broke through the KMT line. Their 85,000 soldiers had cleared a route out through the south west corner of Jiangxi, and they proceeded through, along with 15,000 party cadres. It was on this day, they began what would be known as the imag
inatively named “Long march”, which took just a few days over a year. The strategy was this: in order to escape successfully, the wounded and ill, along with vulnerable people like women and children would be left with a group of Guerrilla fighters who later massacred the entire KMT army with the ancient and brilliant tactics of Tzu. This was a huge victory for Zedong..png)
After Zunyi, Mao led the rest of the Red army through Lushan Pass, where they won another battle. Chiang of the KMT flew into the area and led his armies against the Reds, but Mao was successful in outmaneuvering him, and thus they crossed the Jinsha River. They then were faced with the challenge of crossing the Tatu river, but they fought and Mao’s brilliant tactics brought them through in order to take Luding. From Here they went through Ma’anshan in Moukung, Gansu. They went hundreds of miles north, until finally hitting the Min Mountains, which they were forced to cross in order to be safe. At this point, so many men were dead or had been injured and left in small towns to recover that only 7,000 – 8,000 remained. However, they were in Shenshi Soviet – Mao and the remaining members of the red army were safe, and many others were recovering in conquered towns across China. By this point, Mao was the CCP’s undisputed leader.
Skip ahead to 1940 and the country has been running smoothly. Mostly. The only problem had been Japan – they had been constantly pestering and even successfully invading bits of China, like Shanghai, until Mao had annihilated them in the Nanking Massacre, which Mao did not speak of his entire life as it was such an atrocious act. This event pushed the Kuomintang government back all the way to Chungking. In retaliation, the Japanese led Chinese people to fight against their own government - from 50,000 to 500,000 in around 3 months.
Back in 1940 now the Red Army had just created the Hundred Regiments Campaign, in which 400,000 of their new troops used Zedong’s brilliant tactics to defeat the Japanese, even though they were outnumbered by around 100,000. The way his troops were so well educated about tactics was that Mao would create reading lists for each regiment, teaching them about different warfare tactics as well as ideas of Marxism and other books like “New Democracy”, which gave a clear idea of China’s future. This short civil war was another victory for Zedong.
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In 1948, the ties between the KMT and the People's Liberation Army (The new name given to the Red Army by Mao) were becoming very tense, and things began to escalate as the PLA cut off fresh food and water supply to the JMT bases occupying Changchun. Around 160,000 civilians are believed to have been killed in the single-sided conflict.
The entire siege was documented in a book named “White Snow, Red Blood” by Zhang Zhenglu, in which it was compared to Hiroshima – The nuclear bomb took 9 seconds to kill as many people as the siege, which took 5 months. Finally on December 10th , 1949, the last remnants of the KMT were driven out of the Chinese mainland – the 25 year long Civil war had come to a close, with Mao’s epic strategies and carefully thought out plans bringing the CCP their biggest victory yet. At this point, however many people Zedong had ruthlessly murdered and tortured, he was still considered a tactical genius.
Time as Leader
Mao was leader. He proclaimed the People’s Republic of China from the Tiananmen Gate of Heavenly Peace on the 1st of October 1949. Later he declared that “The Chinese people have stood up”. Mao organized campaigns in order to “Reform Society”, and created the People’s volunteer army to intervene in the Korean war, and spread communism – it was partly this that later resulted in North Korea. The United States were very against this – they tried to spread Capitalism and Westernism, and this was how South Korea’s prosperous life began. Japan was no longer bothering China – after the Nuclear war between the US and Japan, the island nation was Westernized and “Modernized” according to the Whitehouse.
Moving forward to 1958, Mao launched his 5 year plan, which became known as the Great Leap Forward. This was the Industrial Revolution of China, which paved the way for today’s vast factories, power plants, etc. They used the Soviet Model, which focused on heavy industry which was advocated by many others in the CCP. However, this plan, which should have been genius, did not work for China.
During the Great Leap Forward, Mao and other leaders of China ordered the implementation of a selection of strange and uncommon agricultural techniques in the newly created communes. But this plan was a complete shambles. The effect of the combined diversion of labor between steel production and infrastructure projects, as well as many natural hazards led to a drop of around ten percent in grain production in 1959 alone, as well as a ten percent decline in the following year. The same fate would even follow for 1961.
However, in order for the governors not to be purged and scolded by their higher ups, they falsely exaggerated the amount of grain produced under their rule. This created unintentional propaganda, and disproportionately high results – one must remember that this pattern was increasing geometrically, and the exponents made it seem as if the grain numbers were suddenly rising abnormally rapidly under the new communist regime.
The death count in rural areas which relied on these crops spiraled out of control, and famines became more common. The country – in sight of growing their economy – exported more food than they could healthily afford to, leading to around thirty-million deaths between 1959 and 1962. On top of this, more children became malnourished and died after the great leap forward had ended. There have been many debates about whether the severity of the situation caused by Mao’s 5 year plan was actually related to him, however, this was still one of Mao’s biggest losses in his career. There were always the ones who knew about what was really happening, but, blinded by his success, Mao branded them “Right Opportunists” and most of them were executed. But nothing changed the truth – China was left in dire straits. The country was in debts totaling 1.973 billion Yuan, exports had increased by almost 50%, and China was forced to pay debts to other Communist regimes such as North Korea, North Vietnam and Albania, who all received grain free of charge.
After the Cold War, Khrushchev was not in a position to stay in ties with China, thus lighting the Sino-Soviet split, in which China was withdrawn from the Soviet Union. The split isolated China, not to mention how it helped set the course for the Second Vietnam War, as well as playing a key role in the second Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and even the Sino-American rapprochement. It was also said to have altered Khrushchev’s leadership style. However, this split had shown the two sides of Communism – there was the USSR with its rival of supported communist parties, and there was China’s own rival network.
Towards the end of his life, Zedong became more and more concerned with the nature and course of post-1960 China. He thought that the revolution as well as the two 5 year plans replaced the old ways of the elite ruling with new communist ways, and he was concerned that something such as a cultural overthrow would unsettle the “ruling class”. And, as with everything, Mao had a strong and ruthless plan to combat it, even if it did mean he needed to mislead his own citizens.
The cultural revolution was a gargantuan, sociopolitical movement. The idea was to destroy China’s older culture of social class and alike, and replace it with the basic beliefs of Communism in order
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The young people of China responded and formed the Red Guards as well as Rebel Groups all across the country, who ‘grabbed’ power out of the hands of the CCP branches. They led denunciation rallies against revisionists, and by 1967 they had established revolutionary committees. All tumbled out of control, however, when these committees split into factions, and fought in small but deadly fights known as “violent struggles for power”. It was to this that the Army restored order.
Death and Legacy
The revolution was declared over in 1969, however, it was still active for another two years, until the leader of the Botched Coup (the name of the party who was against Zedong), named Lin Biao, fled the country but died in a plane crash. In 1972, the Gang of Four rose to power, and the Cultural Revolution was officially continued, and this time it continued until the year of Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, when the Gang of Four was arrested, and the second Cultural Revolution was automatically declared over.
There were no written accounts of how many people died after the Cultural Revolution, and the last Census was taken too long after the end in order for anyone to have counted, but historians estimate anything from one million to twenty million people perished. There were also a massive number of massacres, beginning with the Red August of Beijing, continuing with the Guangxi Massacre, in which large amounts of cannibalism occurred, the Inner Mongolia Incident, the Guangdong massacre, the Tunnan Massacres, and the Hunan Massacres. During the second revolution, there was also the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure, one of the world’s largest technical failures, which resulted in huge deaths and flooding.
Mao’s death was mainly caused by his declining health – he was very unhealthy, eating lots,
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