Mao Zedong and Contemporary China : Exploring the World Where Truth Falls From the Heavens

What did Mao Zedong bring to China? Mao Zedong, a rare leader who is still regarded as a great hero on the Chinese continent, despite the large number of victims caused by the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. He called himself "Qin Shi Huang (First Emperor of Qin)plus Marx". It can be said that he is an entity that combines the power of the emperor and the authority of Marx into one person. This book analyzes the features of Mao Zedong’s thought and philosophy, his understanding of Marxism and class struggle, in particular, his peculiar attitude toward intellectuals, his actions leading to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which he initiated and involved the entire nation, as well as the analysis of the mechanisms that caused such catastrophes and tragedies. Finally, through these analyses, this book attempts to evaluate Mao Zedong with diverse personalities and his behavior, positive and negative, whether in political, social, economic, or philosophical areas. Preface Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Figures List of Tables List of Photos 1 Mao Zedong’s Philosophy and Thought: Pitfalls of His “Contradiction” and “Practice” Theories 1 The Structure of “On Contradiction” and “On Practice” 2 Practicality of Mao’s Philosophy 3 Evaluation of Mao’s Philosophy and Thought 4 Tricks and Pitfalls of Mao’s Philosophy: My Interpretation 2 Mao Zedong and Lu Xun: What If Lu Xun Had Survived the Revolution? 1 Mao Zedong’s Fury with Liang Shuming 2 The Hu Feng Incident 3 Lu Xun and Mao Zedong 3 Class Struggle Theory and the Mass Line: “Marxism” According to Mao Zedong 1 Revolutionary Struggle and Class: Characteristics of Mao’s Early Concept of Class 2 Changes in the Concept of Class after the Founding of the Country 3 Land Reform and Class Distinction 4 Masses, People, and the Mass Line 5 Class Struggle and Violence 4 The Development of the Anti-Rightist Struggle and Its Aftermath: Turning Point of the Chinese Politics during the Mao Era 1 Prehistory of the Anti-Rightist Struggle: A Hundred Flowers Blossom, a Hundred Schools of Thought 2 The Start of the Struggle 3 The Aftermath of the Struggle 4 The Reality of the Anti-Rightist Struggle: My Interpretation 5 The Great Leap Forward, the People’s Commune, and the Great Famine: Mao Zedong’s Fantasy with Disastrous Results 1 The Birth of the Great Leap Forward Policy 2 Development of the People’s Commune Policy 3 Famine and Starvation: Its Reality and Number of Victims 4 The Great Famine and Starvation: The Mechanism 5 What Was the Great Leap Forward?: My Hypothetical View 6 The Tragedy of Peng Dehuai: The Lushan Conference and Its Aftermath 1 The Reversal of the Great Leap Forward Policy 2 The Lushan Conference: Peng Dehuai’s Opinion Letter 3 Mao’s Criticism of Peng Dehuai 4 The Tragic End of Peng Dehuai 5 The Tragedy of Peng Dehuai: My Interpretation 7 Mao Zedong’s “Political Economy”: An Anatomy of His “Economics of Contradiction” 1 Characteristics of Mao’s Political Economics 2 Mao’s Economic Goals 3 Deng Xiaoping’s Economics 4 How to Evaluate Mao’s “Political Economics” 8 The Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong: The Outcome of a Revolution without Revolution 1 The Seven Thousand Cadres Conference 2 The Socialist Education Campaign 3 Launching and Expanding the Cultural Revolution: Its Mechanisms 3.1 The Cultural Revolution as a Sweeping Political Movement 3.2 The Mechanism of the CR Expansion: A Hypothetical Model 4 The Tragedy of the Cultural Revolution: Its Scale and Brutality 5 Evaluating the Cultural Revolution: What Was the Cultural Revolution? 9 Emperor Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai: A Brief Analysis of the Mao-Zhou Relationship 1 The Mao-Zhou Relationship during the Revolutionary Struggle 2 Mao-Zhou Relationships after the Founding of the Country 3 How to Evaluate Zhou Enlai: My Own View and Hypothesis 10 How Should We Evaluate Mao Zedong?: Mao Zedong and Contemporary China 1 Marxism as Religion, Mao as Guru 2 The Charisma of Mao Zedong 3 Mao’s Legacies to Contemporary China 4 The Character of Mao Zedong 5 An Evaluation of Mao Zedong: My Tentative View Epilogue: Living in an Ah Q-Like World References Index