The Origins of the Cultural Revolution: The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960

Why did Mao Tse-tung launch the cultural revolution which almost destroyed all that he had worked so long and so hard to create? The Origins of the Cultural Revolution: The Great Leap Forward 1958-1960 is the second volume in a trilogy which examines the politics, economics, culture, and international relations of China from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s in order to answer that question. This volume tells the story of the Great Leap Forward. Mao's utopian attempt to propel China economically and socially into the twenty-first century by mobilizing his nation's greatest asset: its disciplined manpower. The effect produced economic disaster and political dissension, and helped to precipitate the Sino-Soviet split. Today's leaders point to it as the beginning of two decades of national trauma which ended only after the death Mao and the purge of the "gang of four". Those leaders have recently authorized the release of a mass of new documentation in the form of political reminiscences, economic statistics, and leaders' speeches. This volume is the first scholarly work to use the new material comprehensively, weaving it into the narrative along with the contemporary record and the revelations published in Red Guard newspapers during the cultural revolution. The result is the most detailed account and analysis to date of what went wrong and why. This is the final volume in a trilogy that examines the politics, personalities, economics, culture, and international relations of China from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. It seeks to answer the central question: Why did Chairman Mao Zedong launch the Cultural Revolution (1966--76), which plunged China into chaos and almost destroyed its Communist Party? The Coming of the Cataclysm starts with the great famine of the early 1960s, which resulted in tens of millions of deaths and set in train a series of emergency measures that increasingly divided Mao from his comrades-in-arms. His anger that they were prepared to adopt "capitalist" methods to rescue the country was sharpened by his belief that Moscow had actually gone capitalist and sold out to the "imperialist" West. From 1961 to 1966, the period covered by this volume, the increasingly urgent question for Mao was how to prevent a similar revolutionary degeneration in China. The Cultural Revolution was his answer.Drawing upon new evidence from Party documents, personal interviews, books, and journals, MacFarquhar details the growing rift between Mao and his colleagues as they attempted to cope with domestic privation and an increasingly hostile international environment -- until the Chairman finally decided to smash the unity of the Yan'an Round Table by unleashing society against the party-state Contents Illustrations Preface Abbreviations Chinese Names Introduction Part One: Charge 1 Mao in Moscow 2 The Politburo Tours China 3 The Chengtu Conference 4 The Leap Is Launched 5 The Coming of the Communes 6 High Tide Part Two: Retreat 7 Withdrawal at Wuhan 8 Mao Veers Right 9 Chairman Liu Appendix 1: A Rectification of Names: terminological turbulence in the communes Part Three: Clash 10 High Noon at Lushan Part Four: Defeat 11 The Sino-Soviet Split Emerges 12 The End of the Leap Conclusions Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Chapter 2. The Politburo Tours China 3. The Chengtu conference Chapter 4. The leap is launched Chapter 5. The coming of the communes Chapter 6. High tide Chapter 7. Withdrawal at Wuhan Chapter 8. Mao Veers Right Chapter 9. Chairman Liu PART THREE: CLASH Chapter 10. High Noon at Lushan Chapter 11. The Sino-Soviet split emerges Chapter 12. The end of the leap Conclusions Index The second volume in a trilogy which examines the politics, economics, culture and international relations of Chines from the mid-1950s to he mid-1960s, this volume tells the story of the Great Leap Forward -Maos utopian attempt to propel China economically and socially into the twenty-fist century by mobilizing his nations greatest asset: its disciplined, manpower. Why did Mao Zedong launch the cultural revolution that almost destroyed all that he had worked so long and so hard to create? In his highly praised study-now a classic-Roderick MacFarquhar seeks to answer that question by examining the politics, economics, culture, and international relations of China from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. 1. Contradictions among the people, 1956-1957 2. The great leap forward, 1958-1960 3. The coming of the cataclysm, 1961-1966. Reason began to prevail in the summer of 1960 as a gloomily pensive Mao realized the enormity of what he had perpetrated. Roderick Macfarquhar. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [436]-446) And Index.