Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology Author(s): Rene Goldman Source: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 41, No.

4 (Winter, 1968-1969), pp. 560-574 Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2754566 . Accessed: 11/02/2014 03:39
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Mao, Maoismand Mao-ology

A ReviewArticle
The Party twin brothers andLenin-ofthose Which doesMother treasure most? History We say-Lenin,and mean-theParty, and mean-Lenin. We say-theParty, Vladimir (Vladimir Mayakovsky, lhich Lenin) of the WRITTEN SOME FORTY YEARS AGO in dedicationto the founder to fitthe theselinesmerely state, requirea name substitution IVTVTSoviet founder the more prosaic of the ChinesePeople's Republicand paraphrase Party"and slogans"without ChairmanMao therewould be no Communist "withoutthe CommunistPartytherewould be no New China," so often it was Mao's reheard in China in recentyears.For in many respects, of Marxconstruction of theCommunist Partyafter I935 and his adaptation of ism-Leninism to the conditions of China whichmade possiblethe victory a pattern Mao created of revolutheChineseCommunist revolution. Further, areas of the tion whichclaims applicability to all of the non-industrialized world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this sense, Mao Tse-tung may be considered the Lenin of China and the Lenin of our age. But this statement characterization of the constitutes only a partialand a superficial man and his achievements. The contemporary has engulfedthe field of growthof specializations and with it the studyof the Chinese Communist modernChinese history has made its appearancein recent A whole literature but movement. years, fromthe and careercan be dissociated since no study of Mao's personality is whichhe shaped,much of thisliterature of the revolution broad context of and sheds lighton hitherto obscurefactsin the history not redundant not only on conclusions the Chinese Communist Party.The authorsdiffer and problems but also in approaches, areasof concentration considered. to make Mao Tse-tung's When Edgar Snow, the first Westernreporter met him in the caves of Paoan in I936, the Red Armyhad acquaintance, theepic Long March; the Communist revolutionaries had just accomplished bases in the South,as well as thebulk of theirarmy.In losttheirterritorial the remotefastness of Northern Shensi,Mao was summingup the experience of the revolution, in preparation of a new start.We owe to Snow's resourcefulness a remarkably livelystory of Mao's life,narrated journalistic doctrinal accretions and by Mao himself, and yetunmarred by subsequent 560

WX

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology revisions. Through Red StarOver China, theworldat largeforthefirst leaders were.At the timelearned who theChinese Communists and their a uniquely timeit was a sensational revelation and to thisdayit remains of Chinese Commuentrancing historical record, inspiring in thestudent was"simnism a certain nostalgia for those remote days when therevolution ple"and"pure." A revised and enlarged edition of Red StarOverChina' has now aperrors ofpasteditions peared. Although thebulkofthetext remains intact, of the have beencorrected and minor adjustments made forthe benefit a chrocontemporary reader. The important changes are in theadditions: valuable nology of i9thand 20thcentury Chinese history, a bibliography, and new documents, such as further interviews with biographical notes, Mao in I936, which edition. didnot find a place inthe original thefirst edition we find of Red StarOverChina, Threedecades after on Mao Tse-tung, mostof them of works in presence ourselves of a score Thereare scholarly articles,2 biographical chappublished in recent years. and various in Chinaand in theWest.Furthermore, ters3 books published time and again in variousforms, Mao's writings have been published disseminated. Thereare thefour in many and widely translated languages in Peking,4 individual works volumes of Mao's Selected published Works ofMao'spoetry,5 in theform andtopical ofbrochures anthologies published or writings on military matters.7 on culture` Last,but not least, writings

Political Libof theChinese People's prepared bytheGeneral Department and widely distributed in i966 as thebreviary of eration Army, published Revolution.8 theCultural
I
2

Mao Tse-tung, first red book" Quotations there is the"little fromChairman

New York: GrovePress,I968. "Mao at Seventy," China Quarterly, i6, I963. excellent article, e.g. Howard L. Boorman's 3 e.g. Donald W. Klein, ed., Men and Politics in Communist China,New York: Columbia i960 (mimeo). University, 4 International New York, produced a 5-volume edition of Mao's Selected Publishers, in the years1954 to I956 a London,produced endingin 1949; Lawrenceand Wishart, Works, 3 of the first containing the material edition of the SelectedWorksof Mao Tse-tung, 4-volume of theChineseedition. volumes 5 Mao Tse-tung: NineteenPoems (Peking: ForeignLanguagesPress,I958). 6 Mao Tse-tung (Peking:ForeignLanguagesPress,I960). on Artand Literature 7 Mao Tse-tung, Basic Tactics.Translated with an introduction by StuartR. Schram,with A. Praeger, Jr. (New York: Frederick Samuel B. Griffith, a foreword by Brigadier-General of Mao Tse-tung(Peking: ForeignLanguagesPress, Writings I966); see also SelectedMilitary I 966). 8 In i967 alone China printed several 350 millioncopiesof the "littlered book," including millionsin scoresof languagesreleasedby the ForeignLanguagesPressin Pekingfordistribuin I967, 86,400,000 setsof theSelected Works of Mao China also printed tionin 148 countries. in the i5 yearsbefore totalprinted the Cultural sevenand a halftimesthe aggregate Tse-tung, to incomplete statistics, 845 unaccording Revolution (Peking Review,I, I968). In addition, in 55 of Mao's worksin 65 languageshave been published translations and editions authorized of the "Quotations" 8o2 editions (PekingReview,49, I967). including countries,

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PacificAflairs The period hassuffered ofMao'syouth the andformation is theonethat greatest amount of doctoring at the handsof orthodox interpreters in Peking today. Thesetend tomakeMao appear somewhat likethelegendary Lao Tzu, emerging from thewombalready witha beardand fullof wisdom.Thus,theofficial historian Hua Kang makesMao appearas one of theleaders oftheMayFourth Movement in i9i9.9 In viewofthis, laymen and scholars alike are indebted to Stuart Schram's painstaking efforts at reconstruction oftherealMao Tse-tung. Mr. Schram has accomplished the arduous taskof collating present editions ofMao's works withtheoriginal texts andsome ofhisrevelations arestartling.
The SelectedWorkspublished in Pekingin Chinesebeginning in i95i and then translated intovarious languages, includeonlyabouthalfof Mao's writings.... Moreover the texts includedin the SelectedWorkshave been subjected to such numerous and profound changesby the authorthatone cannoteven accepta singlesentence as beingidentical with what Mao had actually written without checking it againstthe original version.10

thology of His Writings,"because of heruncritical reproduction of texts the Maoistreconthe SelectedWorks. from John Rue further analyzes Mao'srevision struction ofparty history andspeculates on thereasons for of hiswriting.'2 He notes that thepublication oftheSelected Works began after in I950, andexpresses Mao'sreturn from thebelief that Moscow Mao wanted as muchto establish his ownversion of theCCP as to conof thehistory ciliate fortheblunders of Stalin, by exonerating Stalinfrom responsibility hisfollowers, likeCh'iiCh'iu-pai, WangMingandothers. Mr. Schram, the mostprolific writer on Mao Tse-tung, the displays of Mao's personality and thought. most penetrating Of understanding Mao Tse-tung13-the latter is an extensive whiletheformer is biography, an compendium from of substantial selections Mao's writings ungrouped der topical and Working chapters (suchas "theBourgeoisie," "Peasantry
Shih (Historyof the May FourthMovement) (Shanghai, 9Hua Kang, Wu-su Yfintung '954). 10 StuartR. Schram,The PoliticalTsoughtof Mao Tse-tung(New York: Praeger,I966), 11A Mentor I963). Library, Book (New York:New American University JohnE. Rue, Mao Tse-tungin Opposition:1927-1935 (Stanford:Stanford Press, I966), pp. 6-7. 18 Pelican Books ("PoliticalLeaders of the Twentieth London, 1966. Century"),
12

"greatteacher, greatleader, greatsupreme and greathelmsman." commander Mao Tse-tung:An AnThis leaves but littlevalue to Anne Fremantle's

critical reconstruction and Although, as faras I know,no systematic publication of Mao's SelectedWorksis being undertaken (outsideof Mr. Schram's wordsconstitute China,naturally) at the present a time, from the wisdomof the to all who desire to drawquotations warning

his two books in English-The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tungand

p. 92.

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology

Class Leadership," "Revolution, etc ... ) and and Liberty," Dictatorship preceded bya lengthy introduction, in which an outline of Mao's lifeand is presented thought against thebackground ofcontemporary In my events. view,Schram's arrangement of the textselections in the latter book appears to be ofquestionable value.It might witha haveprovided thereader clearer outlook on Mao's thought if suchimportant as On Practice, essays and in chronological order) to theintroduction, notes and prologue, instead ofbeing arbitrarily fragmented, in order tofit-not always smoothly-under different topical headings. The difficulties which thisarrangement imposes upon thereader are further aggravated by the absence of an index.Mr. Schram's book Mao Tse-toung14 is the Frenchversion of the Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung. In it, the author uses theofficial Communist pinyin system of transcription of Chinese names, whichis commendable inview ofthe vagaries ofthe French transliteration system. Schram's most valuable contribution is hisdocumentation of thegenesis and maturation of Mao's thought. His basicsources are Mao's own narrationto Edgar Snow and the reminiscences of his childhood friends, the Hsiao brothers, especially thecharming bookof Hsiao Yu, Mao Tse-tung and I WereBeggars.15 In hisPoliticalThought. . . , Schram quotes hitherto virtually unknown earlywritings of Mao Tse-tung, whichhe translated himself. Mostimportant amongthese is Mao's essay on theimportance of physical culture, which Schram has elsewhere translated in itsentirety into French and annotated and partially intoEnglish in thebook discussed here.Schram drawsa vividpanorama of thecurrents of ideas,whichaffected themind ofyoung Mao andpartly reappeared in his"Sinicized Marxism"of laterdays.At thetimeof theMay Fourth Movement, Mao Tsehadjustgraduated tung from Teachers' College in Ch'angsha andwent for thefirst time toPeking, then theMeccaoftheNew Culture movement. His mindat thetimewas stilla patchwork of Western and Chinese ideas,"a mixture of liberalism, democratic reformism and utopian socialism," as he toldSnow.Schram further characterizes himas a vigorous individualist and a fervent nationalist, who did notfind it contradictory to identify himself simultaneously withthepopular rebels in Chinese history and their suppressors, whether Emperor Wu of theHan dynasty or TsengKuo-fan of the mid-nineteenth century.
14 Collection U, Armand Colin (Paris,I963). Philippe Devillers has recently a book published entitled Ce que Mao a vraiment dit (Stock,Paris,I968), whichapparently also analyzesselections of Mao's writings in theirhistorical context(Le Monde, weeklyedition,June 13-19, I968), but unfortunately the book is not at present availableto the reviewer. 15 (Syracuse:SyracuseUniversity Press, 1959); Emi Siao, Mao Tse-tung, His Childhood and Youth (Bombay:People'sPublishing House, 1953). 16 Stuart Schram.Une etudede le'ducation physique(Serie: "Materiaux pour l'setude de la Chinemoderne et contemporaine," Paris: Mouton,1962).

On Contradiction or On New Democracyhad been appended (verbatim

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Pacific Affairs
At Peking University, Li Ta-chao,who the father of ChineseMarxism, saw China and otherAsian nationsas proletarianized nations, oppressed by a handfulof capitalist nations, propagated among his students the populist call to intellectuals to go amongthepeople,especially among the peasantry, in orderto raise it fromobscurantism and oppression and awaken it to its collective creative potential. Li believedthat the salvationof China lay in theemancipation ofitspeasantry.17 A case can clearlybe made that,fromthe May Fourth Movementon, Li Ta-chao's teachingwas the singlemost important influence in shaping Mao's ideologicaldevelopment. Li not only impressed Mao by his appeal to the intellectuals "to go into the masses" but also deepenedhis nationalism,makingit possibleforhim to be botha Marxist-Leninist and a Chinese nationalist, and strengthening thisvoluntaristic inclination, whichwas to become so strikingly characteristic of Mao's approachto problems-an approachamounting in effect to a beliefthat"the subjective can createthe objective."18 Following Li Ta-chao, Mao rejectedboth Confucianconservatismand "all-outWesternization." Instead,he applied critical discriminationwithin bothChineseand Western culture, including Marxism:
"In his intellectual development, he leapeddirectly fromtradition-oriented nationalism to revolutionary nationalism, without everpassingthrough the intermediate stage of radicalWesternization. This is one of thetraits thatfitted him fortheleadership of the Chineserevolution; conversely, men like ChGen Tu-hsiu, insufficiently nationalistic in outlook, had little chanceof prevailing in thestruggle forpower."19

In Mao's eyes,as in Li's, the teachings of Marx and Engels wereof little to China, becausetheytendedto make man the passiveobjectof relevance blindhistorical forces:China's tragedy was that,unlessrevolutionary action consciously accelerated therotation of thewheel of history, the nationcould not surviveand be regenerated. Mao was understandably more attracted to Lenin, who like himself, was essentially a man of action,concernedprimarilywith revolutionary strategy and the conquestof power.Lenin had furthermore discarded thetraditional Marxist bias againstthepeasantry and recognizedthat in Asia the peasantry would constitute the chiefforceof therevolution. In I926-27 Mao Tse-tungbegan his activity among the peasantry of his nativeHunan and producedhis Analysisof Classesin ChineseSocietyand Reporton an Investigation of the Peasant Movementin Hunan Province. These are possiblythe most revisedof all the essaysincluded in the SelectedWorks.Oddly enough,theearlyand immature whichthe"Huessay, nan Report"is, became the centerof a controversy on Mao's originality.
17 See Maurice Li Ta-chao and the Originsof ChineseMarxism (Cambridge: Meissner, HarvardUniversity Press,i967). 18 Schram, PoliticalThought. . . , p. 8o. 19Ibid.,p. 76.

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology Dr. KarlA. Wittfogel it to deny ofthought Mao all originality quoted and makehimappearas a mereparrot of Lenin.20 Schram quotessubstantial extracts of theoriginal of the"Hunan Report" version and theseclearly showthatin I927 Mao had notyetfully mastered Leninist He concepts. attributed to thepeasantry a degree in the direction of initiative of the revolution, which neither LeninnorStalin He was still couldhaveaccepted. ideologically eclectic, butas a social he was in disagreement radical with the CCP leadership, because ofitsirresoluteness toward the agrarian revolution. In hisother book, Mao Tse-tung, Schram datesthebeginning of Mao's assimilation ofbasicMarxist-Leninist principles as lateas theWayaopao conference of thePolitburo CCP in I935, at which timehe madea report on the tactics offighting Japanese imperialism. On theother Mao's early withorganizational hand, preoccupation techniques and emphasis on theprimacy is evidence ofwhatSchram ofpolitics, calls "natural Leninism." Schramconsiders the "Hunan Report"as essentially "a-Marxist" and aptly sumsup Mao's debtto Lenin:theidea that political consciousness doesnotmanifest itself in theproletarspontaneously iat,thetheory ofimperialism, theideaofpolitical alliance between theproletariat and certain classes. other Buthe alsopoints outthat Mao hastransformed these into"something borrowings whichis notonlydifferent, but has itsowncharacteristic unity," goingbeyond Leninin making it possible fortheparty to substitute itself foran almost in nonexistent proletariat a revolution: leading
"Leninwas a Europeanprimarily interested in worldrevolution. . . . Mao, on the other hand,is an Asianforwhomnationalism is not a necessary evil,but an authentic valuein itself...."21

Havingsaid thisand abundantly documented elsewhere the synthesis of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinesetradition performed by Mao, Schram's conclusions tobeperplexing, appear ifnotcontradictory:
Everything considered, it is perhapsbest not to use the term"Maoism,"for althoughMao's workforover the pastquarter of a century contains original elements, Mao has neverdrawnthose raw materials together in a complete synthesis thatdeserves a name of its own. He personifies a synthesis between Marxism-Leninism and traditionalChina; he has produced no intellectual synthesis on the same scale-thoughhe maydo so yet....22

Nor is it quiteclearexactly whatSchram meanswhenhe writes: "His limitation liesin thefact that he hasnotproduced a realsynthesis ofMarxistandChinese "23 ideas, butmerely anamalgam.
20 See Karl A. "The Legendof Maoism,"China Quarterly, Wittfogel, I, 1960; and Benjamin "The Legendof theLegendof Maoism,"ChinaQuarter-ly, Schwartz, 2, 1960. 21 Schram, PoliticalThought... , p. 79. 22 Ibid.,p. 8i. 23Mao Tse-tung, p. 325.

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PacificAffairs
Some otherfeatures in Mao's subsequentwritings, should also be regarded as "non-Marxist." Whereas,forinstance, Marx and Engels in true Hegelian fashion, of a finality conceived to the dialectical processof the development of society, which would be communism, Mao assertsthat contradiction is eternal, albeitvarying in form.In his utterances on the eve of the CulturalRevolution, he quoted Lenin to justify his novel beliefthat, even long after the establishment of a socialist society, capitalism can be restoredbecause of the persistence in men's minds of "bourgeois"ideas. In otherwords,Mao has further "revised"Marxismby adding to it the possibilityof historical regression. With the passing of years the voluntaristic element in Mao's ideology has increased. Gone is thesanguineconfidence of the i950s thatsocialismand even communism will be realisedin the near future: Mao's optimism has now takenon a long-range dimension of almost Buddhistproportions, while in the shortrange his recentstatements that the world revolutionary struggle progresses in waves, ratherthan in unilinear fashion,seem to carrysomethingof the yin-yang fatalism.This long-range cosmicoptimism is manifest in the almostlight-hearted way in whichMao envisages thatout of the cataclysm of atomicwar the surviving a better peoplesof the worldwould build on the ruinsof imperialism and more beautifulcivilization.Mao's imperviousness to the realitiesof the present of the worldoutside age is intensified by his considerable ignorance of China and particularly his inability to comprehend the situation in the industrialized nations of the West, which he (in Schram's apt phrase) "interprets . . . in terms of a combination of Marxist-Leninist and stereotypes the anti-foreign It could also be prejudicesof a Hunanese nationalist." argued thatthe Thought of Mao Tse-tungdoes not providea sensiblesolutionforChina's needs of todayeither, that (again in Schram'sperceptive words) the "mythof the Long March" has become "as irrelevant . . . as the . . . mythof the lone frontiersman to the contemporary United States." (It is interesting to speculate, whether Schramwould have alteredhis conhad he been writingafterthe launchingof the CulturalRevoluclusions, tion.) Three otherbiographies of Mao Tse-tunghave been publishedor reprintedin recentyears.One, by George Paloczi-Horvath, Mao Tse-tung: Emperorof theBlue Ants,24 is not devoidof interest and contains valuable information on the relationships between Stalin and the Chinese Communists in the yearsI945-I953, but on the whole the book shows what pitfallsawait even the mostcompetent "Kremlinologist" when he attempts to apply his craftto the studyof Chinese Communismwithoutany deeper knowledgeof the Chinesemilieu.Paloczi-Horvath's appraisalof Mao Tsetung is shallow,and he displaysscantunderstanding of the internal mechanisms of Chinese Communism.Robert Payne's Mao Tse-tung re-ap24

London: Seckerand Warburg, i962.

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology peared in i966 in a newedition of several including theaddition pagesto theconcluding chapter.25 UnlikePaloczi-Horvath, Payneis sympathetic to theobject of hisstudy, buthisundeniable talent doesnotcompenliterary sateforhisignorance ofMarxism-Leninism. In theaddedpagesMr.Payne perceptively remarks that Mao'smind, keenand malleable," onceso "elastic, Chinese peoplea stultifying dogma. But from there Paynegoeson to say that Mao is no longer capable of improvising, he has lostcontact withhis peopleand seemsuninterested in their fate. wouldtendto Recent events refute this, and it remains to be seenhow history will treat final Payne's conclusion that "whenMao dies,thedictatorship must die with necessarily him." The thirdand mostimportant of the biographies is Jerome Ch'en's
has in the i96os become closed to all outsideideas and imposedupon the

therefore lution, significantly endingits narration of Mao's lifein I949, whereas Schram stresses Mao'spersonality and theevolution ofhisthought. Schram's and Ch'en'sbooksare complementary in certain areas.Ch'en's book, though published onlyshortly before Schram's works, cametooearly to drawupon the interesting material thatappearsin the reminiscences ofrevolutionary veterans published after i960. A serious weakness is Ch'en's over-reliance on Chinese Communist publications, especially Mao's Selected as edited after theCommunist victory. A different weakness is his Works, clumsy footnote system which makes thetracing of every reference a timeconsuming and often frustrating endeavour; thisis especially unfortunate since Ch'enlists a more abundant bibliography that Schram doesin Political Schram's well-documented aboutthereliability scepticism oftheSelected naturally causes himto disagree with Ch'enas to what policies Mao Works, actually supported on various occasions. An interesting example is thedispute withinthe leadership of the CCP in the yearsI937 to I939 as to the nature oftheir "United Front" with theKuomintang in theWar ofResistanceto Japan. Ch'ensupports theorthodox version, to which according the Stalinist WangMingadvocated a second "alliance from within" whileMao advocated an "alliance from without" in order to preserve theautonomy of theCCP and its armedforces. Now Schram indicates thatMao actually advocated an "Alliance from within."27 It is unfortunate thatSchram does notprovide more and convincing substantial evidence forthisreversal of a hitherto viewwhich accepted tallied so wellwith Mao'soverall record. Ch'en and Schram do agree, however, thatMao's revolutionary strategy did not mature until thelateI930s, that at thetime ofhis"HunanReport" he was
25 New York: Pyramid Books,i966. 28London,New York,Toronto:Oxford University Press,i965. 27 Schram, Mao Tse-tung, p. 202.

Mao and the ChineseRevolution.26 It focusses on theMaoistpattern of revo-

Thoughtof Mao Tse-tung(his secondbook,Mao Tse-tung, listsnone).

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Pacific Affairs
last point,which coincideswith the orthodox versionof the history of the CCP, is now generally accepted. In his brilliant and the Rise of pioneering work Chinese Communism Mao28first published some fifteen yearsago, BenjaminSchwartzconcluded thatthe transfer of the CentralCommittee fromShanghai to the Central Soviet territory of Kiangsi in I932 markedthe finalpassing of power in the CCP intothe hands of Mao. This conclusion was disputedby Professor Hsiao Tso-liang in his analysisof the Ch'en Ch'eng collectionof early ChineseCommunist Documents.29 Hsiao's outlinehas now been developed into a full-fledged interesting monograph by JohnE. Rue, Mao Tse-tung in Opposition:I927-I935,30 which, as thetitle indicates, demonstrates that Mao notonlywas not in control of theChineseCommunist movement when the ChineseSovietterritories were established, but was degradedand rendered powerless by the "Leftist" CentralCommittee headed by Wang Ming and Ch'in Pang-hsien, which condemnedhim for excessiveleniencytoward the rich peasantsand for advocacyof guerillatacticsinsteadof positional This view is cautiously warfare. qualifiedby Schramwho believesthatMao in determining was alloweda certain autonomy agrarianpolicies.Thus, the "Land verification movement" of I933 bore a characteristic Maoist imprint thepeasantsin an acute the i950 Land Reform and pre-figured by involving with the landlords." Nevertheless, on the whole,as Schramindistruggle
Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press,reprint, i964. PowerRelations the ChineseCommunist Hsiao Tso-liang, Within Movement: 1930-1934A Studyof Documents(Seattle: University of Washington in a Press,i96i). Prof.Schwartz, his own earlierconclusions thatMao achievedleadership of the CCP 1958 preface, questioned in I931. 30 Stanford: Stanford University Press,i966. 31 Schram. Mao Tse-tung, muchmoreextensively) docp. i66. Schramand Rue (the latter radicalism in the Chingkang of Mao's land policiesfromextreme umentthe evolution Mountainsto a morepragmatic policyof even tolerating richpeasantsin Kiangsi.But, whereasRue all land was imposedupon Mao by radicalpolicyof confiscating holds the view thatthe earlier the Partycenteragainsthis own better judgment(this is also the orthodox version),Schram much more radicalthan he now pretends to have been. As writesthatMao thenwas himself of factSchram'sview thatMao in I928 stillwas moreradicalthan the Partycenter a matter seemsplausible;so is his conclusion thatin the following and the Comintern year,afterthe loss of the Chingkangbase, practicalconsiderations caused Mao to adopt more liberal land policieswhileMoscow,on the otherhand, now adopteda much moreradicalstand,following of land collectivization in the Soviet Union. of Bukharinand the initiation the denunciation so as to in abeyance, Rue also showsthatLi Li-san,by his decisionto hold land redistribution beforethe citieswere readyand avoid a premature revolutionary upsurgein the countryside was his primary held an even more "rightist" while the anti-imperialist struggle consideration, to Hsiao Tso-liang'sview that "richpeasantline" thanMao. This would lend partialsupport in agreement withMoscowagainstLi Li-sanin 1930. Rue withabundant Mao was temporarily linksdevelopments withinthe ChineseCommunist movement to what was hapdocumentation whichStalin was transforming peningat thattimein the Comintern, into an obedient tool of leaderswithhis own yes-men. Sovietforeign policyby replacing original
28 29

still only groping toward Marxism-Leninism andthat he didnotbecome the supreme leaderof the CCP untilafter the Tsunyi Conference This (I935).

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology Mao's success in extending theRed Army and bringing cates, sizableterrithework tories under itscontrol around ofhisundoing: I930 wasthesource he had begunin theChingkang in I927 was destroyed Mountains by the Party leadership in I934 and theRed Army was forced outon itsepicbut costly LongMarch. The Long Marchand Mao's rolein it is besttoldby Jerome Ch'en,32 who dwells, of Mao's military muchmorethanSchram, on the details campaigns. "SelfPlacingMao in the framework of the i9th century Strengthening" movement as wellas in thelineage ofChina's great historical rebellions, Ch'en supplies extremely interesting details aboutthe political situation in Hunan in Mao's youth and thebroadpicture of thecomplex situation in Chinaat thetimeof theKiangsiSoviet and theLong March. Ch'enalsoremarks that Mao'sdevelopment ofrevolutionary in thevast bases hinterland during theAnti-Japanese War constitutes in fact an extension of the Leninist theory of the weakest link in the imperialist chain.Like Schram, he concludes thatthevictory of theChinese Communists was ultimately madepossible as muchbyMao's direction of themovement as by theweaknesses and blunders ofitsenemies, theJapanese aggression providing the indispensable opportunity to create the necessary conditions for sucha victory. Mao's victory and original was followed by his consecration as a great Marxist thinker, butthecanonization had begun in Yenan. process already Schram shows how,at thetime oftheRectification Campaign of I942, Mao launched hisownpersonality cultbypromoting thestudy of hiswritings; thecultblossomed forth at theseventh Congress oftheCCP in I945, when Liu Shao-ch'i (irony of history!) enshrined theThought of Mao Tse-tung as theguide oftheParty. Yet thebulkofMao's writings is devoted to practical matters-to problemsof strategy and policy. He wrote fewphilosophical essays and these aregenerally nothighly regarded outside China.Even so,Mao's essays On and On Contradiction Practice appeartoosophisticated to certain Western authorities for them tobelieve that Mao couldpossibly havewritten them as earlyas I937, especially sincein I940 he wrote a rather clumsy pieceon dialectical materialism not considered worthy by its author of beingincluded in hisSelected Thisviewis heldnotonlybyDennisDoolin Works. andPeter Golas,3' butalsobyArthur Cohen, whose bookThe Communism of Mao Tse-tunge4 is devoted to analyzing the various aspects of Mao's
32 For intimate glimpses of Mao on theLong March,see the reminiscences of his bodyguard, Ch'en Chang-feng, On the Long MarchWithChairman Mao (Peking: ForeignLanguagePress,

Vsevolod Holubnychy, "Mao Tse-tung'sMaterialistic Dialectics,"China Quarterly, i9, July-September, i964; also Dennis J. Doolin and Peter J. Golas, "'On Contradictions' in the Lightof Mao Tse-tung's Essayon 'Dialectical Materialism,'" ibid.
'4 Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, i964.

I959). 33

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Pacific Affairs
thought in relation to the classicsof Marxism-Leninism and contemporary Sovietwritings. Cohen drastically pares down the claims forMao's originality, consigning it almost solelyto the realm of revolutionary practice.Accordingto him,Mao's onlyclaim to distinction is thatof a revolutionary strategist and he had attainedno real distinction. practician. As a theorist As a Marxist thinkerhis originality is virtually limited to his differentiation between primaryand secondarycontradictions or the thesisof the principaland secondary aspectof a contradiction. Otherwise, his philosophical essaysare unoriginal;even the theoryof the non-antagonistic contradictions in socialismare paraphrases of Lenin and Soviet theoreticians of the I930s. In Mao's discussionof contradictions his originality again is limitedto the practical politicalside of admitting the possibility of conflict betweenleaders and led in socialism, and actingin consequence. It does indeed appear thatin theformulation of puretheory Mao mayhave been inferior to Lenin, but Cohen seemsto exaggerate his distinction betweentheory and practice, and his findings are therefore not veryoriginal, forSchramhas clearlyinAn dicated the strictly practicalorientation of Mao Tse-tung'swritings. example of over-statement of his case can be seen in what Cohen writes about Mao's resuscitation of the slogan of "uninterrupted revolution" in 1958, when he called for a "Great Leap Forward" in productionby and agricul"walking on two legs" (simultaneously developingindustry ture). Cohen remarks that therewas a novel aspect to Mao's use of this slogan-its applicationto internalsocio-political transformations afterthe seizureof power; Mao used it drastically to accelerate the pace of collectivization of agriculture beforemodernmachinery became available,thus the order of priorities reversing establishedby Lenin and Stalin. True enough,this theorywas quietlyburied in i960, when Mao reversedyet anotherorder of priorities established by Lenin and Stalin-giving priin the conorityto agricultural development instead of heavy industry struction of socialism.A seriousweaknessof Cohen's studyis that it is fromthe in almosttotalabstraction based on comparative strictly Marxism, fromthe value of CoChinese culturaltradition. detracts What further hen'sstudyis thenarrowAmericanset of valuesfromwhichhe approaches his subject,characterized by an almostfetishist worshipof "freedom-andnot abdemocracy." Since, to Mao, democracy-and-freedom are "relative, Not too long concludesCohen,his positionis thatof a reactionary! solute," of Cohen's work,the upheavalof the "CulturalRevothe publication after such as that Mao has lution" has refuted some of his hastyconclusions fromhis I956-57innovation the existence of contradicwithdrawn positing of small and thetoleration tionsbetween leadersand led undercommunism strikes. betweenthe Schram has publisheda valuable studyof the connection 570

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology and theacceleration ofthe revolution" revived slogan ofthe"uninterrupted in China.35 thatMao never He indicates publicly pace of therevolution inspired byhim; it is nevertheless clearly raised theslogan butthat himself, in which articles andtheoretical ofthespeeches he alsoprovides translations this slogan is discussed. there is no reason to believe that theessays On PracSchram argues that werebeingtranssincethiswas thetimewhenimportant Soviet writings Marxist latedin Yenan,inspiring a spurt of production philosby Chinese he nowhad since couldnotremain silent, especially ophers; Mao,as leader, ofsumming up and was tackling theproblem theleisure to readand write Marxism-Leninism" therecent to "Sinicize experience of theCCP in order inpreparation for a newstart. of someevaluation of is complete without No study Mao's personality much common is more among writing his poeticachievements. Poetry forMao's distinction evenso, theclaims Chinese thanamong Westerners; esHe has written in classical meters, in thisfieldappearindisputable. meter. His in thetz'u lyric and theregulated seven-character pecially form and a fleeting of thegrandeur of nature poetry manifests an appreciation an which hand, it exudes yet, on theother sentimentality arequiteclassic; poety. Both uncommon in traditional Chinese energy and a self-confidence conCh'enand Schram and devote forMao's poetry have a highregard siderable comprising to Ch'en'sbookis a section attention to it.Appended andMichael and amply annotated byhimself 37 ofMao'spoems, translated Bullock. the overalltextof his Schram quotesMao's poemsthroughout an article devoted solely toMao'spoetry.3" biography andhasalsopublished and also ofMao'spoems-inPeking,37 (Therehavebeenother translations *8 Ch'enand Bullock abroad and others) byRobert Payne, Ng Yong-sang and remark of Mao's poemsweretoo smooth thatprevious translations almost violent, reflect "that vigorous, gentle in rhythm anddidnottherefore anddistinctly which onewouldexpect from sucha forceful staccato quality, and combative of theirexcellent personality as Mao's." By the terseness Schram's haveindeed retained thisquality; translation, Ch'enand Bullock
35 Stuart R. Schram, La "R~volution Permanente" en Chine. Ideologie dialectique et dialectique du reel (Paris: Mouton, I963). A more ample book by Enrica Collotti-Pischel,La re'volution ininterrompue (Paris: Julliard, I964) deals with China's ideological positions in relation to her internal problems and her dispute with the Soviet Union. 36 Stuart R. Schram, "Mao as a Poet," Problems of Communism, September-October x964, pp. 38-45. 7Mao Tse-tung, Nineteen Poems (Peking: Foreign Language Press, i958); also Chinese Literature (Peking), i, i963. 88 Ng Yong-sang, "The Poetry of Mao Tse-tung," China Quarterly (Special Survey of Chinese Communist Literature), I3, January-March, I963, pp. 60-73. Mr. Ng's rendering in my opinion is too wordy. See also Ho Ping-ti, "Two Major Poems by Mao Tse-tung," Queen's Quarterly (Kingston, Ontario), LXV, 2, 1958, p. 257.

were not written at the claimed date of I937, tice and On Contradiction

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Affairs Pacific
withLenin. Mao Tse-tung is to compare impulse analytical One's first of "Thought thatthe have now proclaimed The ChineseCommunists refute to tends which ofourday, is theMarxism-Leninism Mao Tse-tung" the "pure" (Marxist-Lenbetween distinction recent Franz Schurmann's of Mao Tse-tung).39 (theThought ideology" and "practical inist)doctrine of to fittherealities Marxism (notto say"revised") Just as Leninadjusted so Mao has attempted or "imperialism," capitalism" theage of "monopoly As Lin to ourepoch. of Marxism-Leninism legacy to adaptthetheoretical in arms")putsit: "Mao Tsecomrade to be his"closest Piao (nowdecreed is of theera in whichimperialism is Marxism-Leninism Thought tung's victo world-wide is advancing and socialism fortotalcollapse, heading Rusbackward to economically relevant Leninin hisdaymadeMarxism whichSchramaptlycalls the "De-Eurothe process, sia, thusinitiating by forward carried was consciously This process of Marxism."'" peization of to the conditions who has adaptedMarxism-Leninism Mao Tse-tung, in forrevolutions was themodel hisrevolution that Chinaand hasclaimed ofthe world.42 areas the non-European yetMao is of revolution, models twodifferent Leninand Mao fathered nowfor to chance had the he has of China: the Lenin survive, morethan reto the revolutionary of and guide seizure power the decades, almost two Stalin. under a which Russia experienced process ofhiscountry, construction were SomeofMao's policies Mao and Stalin. between alsoexists A parallel "cult and the and culture the arts of regimentation byStalin-the inspired be however, The cannot, parallels to nameonlytwo. of thepersonality," "Culeve of the until the at least far. Mao's"personality cult," drawn very
tory."40

imaginative.

and morebrilliant butperhaps is also accurate, in comparison, translation,

rule as autocratic of unbridled was not the manifestation turalRevolution," of a need,traditionally the gratification was the case withStalin,but rather symbolizingthe felt by many Chinese,for some kind of father-figure, of at by the leadership were arrived while decisions re-unification, country's Khrushchev as life" such of norm "Leninist Party the CCP collectively-a in theCPSU in I956. wantedto restore of Stalin in i956, not Khruschev's resented "unmasking" Mao strongly cult" but also attackedMao's own "personality only because it implicitly
39Franz Schurmann, Ideology and Indoctrination in Communist China (Berkeley: University of California Press, I966), p. 23. 40 Lin Piao, Foreword to the 2nd Edition of Quotations of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, i6 December I966. (Paris: 41 Stuart Schram and Helene Carrere d'Encausse, Le Marxisme et I'Asie: 1853-1964 Armand Colin, I965). 42 See Liu Shao-ch'i's interestingstatementsin Anna Louise Strong's report, "The Thought of Mao Tse-tung," Amerasia, XI, 6 (June 1947), p. i6i.

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Mao, Maoism and Mao-ology an issuecrucial Communist because to theentire international movement had beendecided uponbytheleaders of theCPSU without the consulting "fraternal parties," whoseprestige and survival werethussuddenly jeopardizedin theeyes ofthepeoples overwhich reruled. Mao had always they sented CPSU domination overtheworld Communist movement forit had causedgreat harmto theChinese felt as longas the CP. He clearly that, prestigious Stalin headed theSoviet this butnow party, had tobe tolerated, that obscure Russian apparatchiks, whohad beenterrorized accomplices of thecrimes forwhichthey intended to now denounced their late master, perpetuate thisdomination, thetimehad comeforMao, who had every reason to consider the himself as worthier thanKhrushchev, to rearrange relationships between Communist parties on a new basis.In I957 he was tosupport willing butin Soviet leadership as longas it did notmeandiktat, i960 he demanded autonomy and equality of all parties. Today he advocates Chinese leadership. On thewhole, Mao is a vastly different bothLenin from personality and Stalin.Every revolutionary is a product of theculture and tradition against whichhe rises in revolt. This is especially trueof revolutionaries, who, likeStalin andMao,for all practical purposes never left thecountry of their birth, never experienced thechallenging and enriching confrontation ofa different tradition or milieu. Bornand reared in theconservative provinceofHunan,Mao hasspent most ofhislifeawayfrom theWesternized, urban centers ofChinaand is intensely Chinese. Thereis in hispersonality a touch of boththeeclecticism of theChinese scholar and theearthy sense ofhumour oftheChinese peasant; we find in hima deephueofrevolutionaryromanticism and a versatility, which eventheelevation of his thought as official dogmacannot completely hide.His old rivalChangKuo-t'ao, now retired in Hong Kong,toldan American reporter in i965 that"increasingly Mao seemsto havebecome a revolutionary romantic, who has lost touch with therealities ofsociety." Mao's voluntarism has become evenmore extreme withage. In thelate he affirmed 1920S, thatit was possible, by intensive political training, to transform bandits and various other rural elements declassls intothevanguardoftheproletariat, thuscasting to thewinds all Marxian admonitions theLumpenproletariat. against His unorthodox practices constantly sethim at loggerheads withtheleadership which Moscow imposed upontheearly CCP. EvenwhenMoscowaccepted hisguerilla tactics, it merely regarded these as a holding action, therevolutionary pending upsurge in thecities andtheconsequent reassertion of"proletarian leadership." Butfor Mao these tactics constituted thestart of an entirely new strategy fortherevolution, withthedevelopment of rural basesas itskey.Todaymorethanever, he believes that thesubjective can create theobjective, that there is no miracle that a peoplearmed withrevolutionary enthusiasm cannot accomplish and 573

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Pacific Affairs
ideas"in theminds of "bourgeois handthepersistence thaton theother the last economic long after of capitalism, abouta restoration can bring and Soviet Western many For this, havedisappeared. ofcapitalism vestiges socialand political afraid ofthepossible havechided himfor being authors a "Yenancommanifesting and therefore of modernization consequences world (whichby his uncertain froma changing, refuge plex,"seeking withglory.43 in a pastfilled he is notable to comprehend) parochialism to be theentire it willprove butwhether in this, oftruth Thereis a grain itsverdict. reserves History living. Mao isstill for tobeseen, truth remains i968 August Columbia, ofBritish University
RENE GOLDMAN

43 See forexamplethe attackon Mao Tse-tung in the October4, 7967, issue of published accusesMao Defianceof Scientific Socialism."The article "A Voluntaristic Izvestiaand entitled forthe correct by of contempt path indicated of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, of ignorance chauof great-power of the SovietUnion,of petty-bourgeois ideology, the historical experience vinism.

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