Mao Zedong

Early life
Mao Zedong

Chairman of the Communist Party of China
In office
1945 – 1976
Preceded by Chen Duxiu
Succeeded by Hua Guofeng
Born 26 December 1893

Died 9 September 1976

Political party Communist Party of China

1st President of the PRC
In office
1954 – 1959
Preceded by none
Succeeded by Liu Shaoqi
The eldest child of a moderate family, Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 in a village called Shaoshan in Xiangtan county (湘潭縣), Hunan province, and thus spoke Xiang rather than Mandarin. His ancestors had migrated from Jiangxi province during the Ming Dynasty, married indigenous women, and had settled there as farmers for generations.

During the 1911 Revolution, Mao served for months in a local regiment in Hunan. However, having felt unaccustomed to a life of military service, he returned to school in Changsha, where he realized the importance of both health and knowledge.

Having graduated from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan in 1918, Mao traveled with Professor Yang Changji, his high school teacher, also his future father-in-law, to Beijing during the May Fourth Movement in 1919.

Professor Yang held a faculty position at National Peking University. Because of Yang's recommendation, Mao worked as an assistant librarian at the University with Li Dazhao as curator of the library. At the same time, Mao registered as a part-time student at Beijing University and audited many lectures and seminars by some famous intellectuals, such as Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Qian Xuantong, etc. Over his stay in Beijing, he read as much as possible, which introduced him for the first time to Communist theories. In the meantime, he married Yang Kaihui, Professor Yang Changji's daughter and also his fellow student, despite an existing marriage arranged by his father at home. Mao had never acknowledged this marriage.

Later, Mao turned down an opportunity to study in France because of poverty. Later he claimed that it was because he firmly believed that China's problems could be studied and resolved only within China. As distinct from his contemporaries, Mao went the opposite direction, studying the peasant majority of China's population where he began his life as a professional revolutionist.

On July 23, 1921, Mao, at the age of 27, attended the first session of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai . Two years later, he was elected one of the five commissars of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China during the third session of the Congress.

Mao stayed for a while in Shanghai, an important city that the CPC emphasised for the Revolution. But after the Party had encountered major difficulties in organizing labor union movements, and relations with its nationalist ally, the Kuomintang had become poor, Mao was disillusioned at the revolution there and moved back to his home village of Shaoshan. During his stay at home, Mao rekindled his interest in the revolution, having been informed of the 1925 uprisings in Shanghai and Guangzhou. He then went to Guangdong, the base of the Kuomintang, as a return of his political ambitions. During his stay there, Mao took part in the preparations for the second session of the National Congress of Kuomintang.

In early 1927, Mao returned to Hunan where, in an urgent meeting held by the Communist Party of China, he made a report based upon his investigations and study of the recent peasant uprisings in the wake of the Northern Expedition. This report is considered the initial and decisive step toward the successful application of Mao's revolutionary theories in China.


Political ideas
Main article: Maoism
It was in the heart of Beijing, before he was married to Yang Kaihui, that Mao was introduced to Marxism. "There were three books that left great impressions on my mind", Mao recollected, "They helped build up my solid faith in Marxism".[citation needed] Among the three important books was Manifesto of the Communist Party.

Nevertheless, it was a gradual process for Mao to become a Marxist. During 1920 in Hunan, Mao contributed a number of essays to the newspapers advocating the autonomy of Hunan Province as he firmly believed that the provincial autonomy was a prelude to the success of local prosperity, which, in turn, would add to the existence of a stronger and more prosperous China in the world.

In 1920, Mao had developed his theory of violent revolution, which he adopted from the experience of the Russian revolutions, and which could probably be attributed to his early reading experience of Outlaws of the Marsh, one of the four masterpieces of Chinese ancient literature.

Mao's theory of violent revolution seeks to subvert the alliance of imperialism and feudalism in China. As a rather strategic communist, Mao had not ignored those Chinese nationalists, whom he thought to be both economically and politically vulnerable. Mao concluded that the violent revolution he favored could by no means be steered by the nationalists, and that such violent revolution should be conducted by the proletariat with the help from the Chinese nationalists, and certainly under the supervision of a communist party.

In the 1920s, Mao helped to conduct many labor struggles based upon his study, propagation, and organization of the contemporary labor movements. However, these struggles were subdued by the government. And Mao fled Changsha after he was labeled a radical activist there. Later, Mao recollected the failures over which he pondered seriously and carefully. Mao finally realized that Chinese labor workers were not able to lead the revolution because they made up just a relatively small portion of China's population, and that unarmed labor struggles could not resolve the problems.

Mao began to depend on Chinese peasants who later became staunch supporters of his theory of violent revolution, which eventually distinguished Mao from all his predecessors and contemporaries. Mao himself was from a peasant family and with his natural relationship with the farmers and peasants at home, he developed his reputation among them. And most importantly, he introduced them to marxism, certainly with his own adjustments and modifications.


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