Mao Zedong 18931976

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Mao Zedong (1893-1976)

• History 106
• April 24, 2009

2
Reminder

• Readings for this week (Week Four) Bentley and
  Ziegler, second part of chapter 35, pp.990-1002
  Benito Mussolini, What is Fascism? Mao Dun,
  Spring Silkworms. The Mussolini and Mao Dun
  readings will be discussion in sections April
  27-28.
• Midterm exam is Wednesday, May 6. Exam
  instructions will be available online soon.

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Some Websites of Interest

• Not directly related to the course, but a Peace
  Corps recruiter has asked me to publicize
  Upcoming Peace Corps Events at UO.
• Mao Zedong writings and a biographical sketch
• Propaganda posters with images of Mao
• BBC report on fifty years of Chinese Communism
• Documentary on the Long Marchlink is to first
  section of 6 in Part One there are four sections
  in Part Two.

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Mao Zedong delivers lecture at entrance to Yanan
cave.
Journalist Edgar Snow on his way to Yanan caves,
1936
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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The Long March
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Long March Crossing Snow-Covered Mountains
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China Qing Dynasty in Decline

• Semi-Colonialism Opium Wars, Unequal Treaties,
  Extraterritoriality, Suppression of Boxer
  Rebellion
• Failed or limited reforms
• Overseas Chinese spur republican movement

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Mao Zedong was born in Hunan Province in
south-central China in 1893
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Mao Youth and Education

• Born to a successful peasant in south-central
  China (Hunan province) in 1893
• In conflicts with his father, When I defended my
  rights by open rebellion, my father relented, but
  when I remained meek and submissive he only
  cursed and beat me the more.
• Scholarly interests, growing political concern

12
1911 Revolution

• Sun Yat Sen Three Principles
• Nationalism and an end to imperial control
• Constitutional democracy
• Peoples livelihoodsocial welfare or socialism
• Chinas descent into warlord conflict

13
Down with the House of ConfuciusGrowing
Chinese Radicalism

• Foreign study and Great War experiences
• Nationalist and reform movements
• Guomintang (KMT)Nationalist Party led by Sun Yat
  Sen
• May 4 MovementOpposition to Japanese imperialism
• Chinese Communist Party, founded 1921
• Mao Zedong was an early member but not a major
  figure in its early years.

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The Communists and the Guomintang

• Cooperation and conflict with the Nationalist
  Party (Guomintang) in the 1920s.
• After Sun Yat-Sens death in 1925, Chiang
  Kai-Shek becomes leader of Guomintang.
• 1926 Northern Expedition Guomintang and
  Communists join in military campaign against
  warlords.
• Mao develops ideas of peasant revolution, opposes
  Communist cooperation with Guomintang.
• 1927 Chiang turns against Communists.
• 1927-34 Nationalists attack Communist enclaves
  in southern China. Meanwhile (1931), Japan
  occupies Manchuria and some other parts of
  northern China.

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Mao and Peasant Revolution

• In a rural, agricultural society, Mao revised
  orthodox Marxism.
• Peasants, not industrial workers, would be the
  ones to make a revolution in China
• In the 1920s and 1930s, Mao studied conditions of
  peasant life closely.
• Revolution would not come peacefully Political
  power comes out of the barrel of a gun.

Drawing of Mao teaching peasants in 1926.
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Mao Reports on the Peasantry, 1927

• The present upsurge of the peasant movement is a
  colossal event. In a very short time, in China's
  central, southern and northern provinces, several
  hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty
  storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and
  violent that no power, however great, will be
  able to hold it back. They will sweep all the
  imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local
  tyrants and evil gentry into their graves. There
  are three alternatives for the Communists. To
  march at their head and lead them? To trail
  behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or to
  stand in their way and oppose them?

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War against Japan, 1937-1945

• After occupying Manchuria in 1931, Japan invaded
  the heart of China in 1937.
• Japanese troops massacred Chinese soldiers and
  civilians in Nanjing in 1937

Mass grave in the Rape of Nanking.
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War against Japan 1937-1945

• Communists and Guomintang in unstable alliance
  against Japanese invaders through 1945.
• Both sides prepare to resume civil war after
  Japans defeat.

Mao and Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of the
Guomintang, toast the defeat of Japan. Allies
during World War II, they were enemies before and
afterwards.
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Communist Revolution Victorious 1949
Communists enter Beijing in triumph, 1949
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Mao as Ruler

• Growth of a cult of personality
• Maos 1945 poem implies hes greater than all
  past emperors
• The great emperors
• All are past and gone!
• For men of vision
• We must seek among the present generation.

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Mao as Ruler

• A Soviet model of economic development
• Liberating and oppressing the masses
• Utopian dreams and disasters
• Great Leap Forward 1958-61
• Cultural Revolution 1966-mid 1970s
• Maos death, 1976

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1967 Cultural Revolution poster Caption reads
Smash the Old World/Establish a New World.
Worker is crushing a Buddha, a crucifix and
classical Chinese texts.
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Chinas Revolutions Today
Chairman Mao for saleor is he just taking a
break from a busy day of souvenir hunting at the
market?
From a market in Beijing figurines of
revolutionaries on the left, peasants on the
right. The revolutionaries are humiliating an
apparent enemy of the people.