Mao Zedong: An Ultimate Influence

The influence of Mao Zedong (1893-1976) can be linked to his unorthodox choice to use peasants, not workers, in his Communist Revolution. China, an unindustrialized country in the mid eighteenth century, did not have the working class required by Marxist theory to overthrow the state and begin Communism. That said, a large peasant and student population grasped to Mao’s leadership and started a new style of communist revolution. The creation of a cult of personality in which Mao Zedong was idealized as a supreme leader (and in some cases even a godlike emperor) enabled him to rule absolutely and extend his influence. After the Chinese Civil War (1927-1936), Mao and other Communist Party leaders moved to carry through a Marxist social revolution. However, Communism was expected to emerge out of the most industrialized stages of capitalism as a result of class struggle between worker and factory owner. That said, in China, factories and factory workers were not in abundance. Even so, Mao Zedong saw the revolutionary potential of peasants. In his report on the peasant movement in Hunan he stated, “The fact is that the broad peasant masses have risen to fulfill their historical mission, and that the democratic forces in the country side have risen to overthrow the forces of feudalism…” In another doctrine he remarks that the communist party must recognize the peasantry as a revolutionary body that before had not seen success only because the lack of an educated leadership. This idea would become the basis for the Communist Revolution in China.
Starting with land redistribution and quickly moving to the promotion of collectivized farming, Mao was setting up his Communist state hastily. Soon after his first five-year plan, in 1953, came the attempt to catch up to modernized nations known as The Great Leap Forward. That said, not even a year after it’s beginning, shortages were becoming apparent. The failures of this modernization attempt were highly criticized by fellow party leaders. Eventually these criticisms lead Mao to his last campaign, The Great Proletariat Revolution. Mao soon had a following of radical young students who he encouraged to take to the streets and promote the Maoist vision of revolution. These students and the peasantry became the catalyst for revolution in China, revolting against positions of power and bourgeois characters in the name of Mao.
The power behind Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution (the call for peasants and students to overthrow the class system and officials such as teacher, party leaders, etc.) stems from the cult of personality created around him. As a farmer, Zhang Yuxi (1984), states in a collection of interview years after Mao’s death, “He was better than an emperor. No emperor ever saved the poor. Chairman Mao was the savior of the poor from the moment he was born.” Mao targeted class in China with the new concept that peasants struggled under wealthy landowners and high-class citizens. The purpose of the movement was to liberate the peasantry and equalize society. That said, the idealization of Mao goes even further when considering the student population. Rae Yang recounts her experience of seeing Mao for the first time, “My blood was boiling inside me. I jumped and shouted and cried in unison with a million people in the square. At that moment, I forgot myself; all barriers that existed between me and others broke down.” This extreme reverence toward Mao heightened the strength of every statement he made. His word became undoubted law that was to be carried out by everyone. This cult of personality became so strong, young students took drastic measure in the name of Mao Zedong “thought” and revolution.
As Chairman Mao called for uprising against education and capitalist roaders, his young Red Guards (students who wore red arm bands and traveled the country making revolution) followed every command with zeal. What first started with dazibao posters, (public criticisms of teachers, or those thought to be capitalists) quickly moved toward struggle meetings and violence. “I saw a teacher in the fountain… Blood was streaming down his head as a number of students were throwing bricks at him.” In Rae Yang’s memoir she recounts multiple acts of violence similar to this one with two people actually being killed, “The sticks fell like rain. In a few minutes, the man dropped to the ground… He did not move. He did not breath. The man was dead!” The notion that student age children could be brought to the level of murder in order to fulfill Mao’s goals exemplifies the intensity in which he was revered. Chairman Mao’s principles and call to revolution were so absolute for the revolutionaries that killing, although not a direct goal, coincided with the suppression of capitalists.
Chairman Mao’s influence during the Cultural Revolution was undeniable. His little red book, Chairman Mao badges, and Mao portraits, are examples of how his reputation and being became a cultural pillar. That said, the destruction of schools, defacing of teachers and political leaders, as well as the brutal beating and murder of those thought to support capitalism, show the extent to which his reverence was taken. Maoist revolution and Mao Zedong “thought” became absolute laws for everyday life and those who disobeyed these laws deserved drastic punishment. The Mao cult of personality pushed children to commit acts of violence in the name of revolution and allowed Mao to extend his influence indefinitely.

1 Holcumbe, Charles. A History of East Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 315.
2 Mao Zedong, “Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” in Mao Zedong and China’s Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Timothy Cheek (Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2002), 45.
3 Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., Sources of East Asian Tradition, Vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 730 (The Communist Revolution).
4 Holcumbe, Charles. A History of East Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 315-319.
5 Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye, eds., Chinese Lives (New York: Pantheon, 1987), 117.
6 Rae YANG, Spider Eaters (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 123.
7 Ibid, 118.
8 Ibid, 138.