Historical Figure
Mao Zedong
d. 1976
Leader of China from 1949 to 1976
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Biography
Mao Zedong, also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, writer, political theorist and the founder of the People's Republic of China. He led China primarily as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from its establishment in October 1949 until his death in September 1976. His theories, which he advocated as a Chinese adaptation of Marxism–Leninism, are known as Maoism.
In Their Own Words (5)
党内不同思想的对立和斗争是经常发生的,这是社会的阶级矛盾和新旧事物的矛盾在党内的反映。党内如果没有矛盾和解决矛盾的思想斗争,党的生命也就停止了。
Opposition and struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occur within the Party; this is a reflection within the Party of contradictions between classes and between the new and the old in society. If there were no contradictions in the Party and no ideological struggles to resolve them, the Party's life would come to an end. , 1937
茫茫九派流中国,沉沉一线穿南北。烟雨莽苍苍,龟蛇锁大江。黄鹤知何去?剩有游人处。把酒酹滔滔,心潮逐浪高!
Wide, wide flow the nine streams through the land,Dark, dark threads the line from south to north.Blurred in the thick haze of the misty rainTortoise and Snake hold the great river locked.The yellow crane is gone, who knows whither?Only this tower remains a haunt for visitors.I pledge my wine to the surging torrent,The tide of my heart swells with the waves. , 1927
独立寒秋,湘江北去,橘子洲头。看万山红遍,层林尽染;漫江碧透,百舸争流。鹰击长空,鱼翔浅底,万类霜天竞自由。怅寥廓,问苍茫大地,谁主沉浮?
Alone I stand in the autumn cold On the tip of Orange Island, Xiang flowing northward; I see a thousand hills crimsoned through By their serried woods deep-dyed, And a hundred barges vying Over crystal blue waters. Eagles cleave the air, Fish glide under the shallow water; Under freezing skies a million creatures contend in freedom. Brooding over this immensity, I ask, on this bondless land Who rules over man's destiny? , 1925
一切矛盾着的东西,互相联系着,不但在一定条件之下共处于一个统一体中,而且在一定条件之下互相转化,这就是矛盾的同一性的全部意义。列宁所谓“怎样成为同一的(怎样变成同一的),——在怎样的条件之下它们互相转化,成为同一的”,就是这个意思。
All contradictory things are interconnected; not only do they coexist in a single entity in given conditions, but in other given conditions, they also transform themselves into each other. This is the full meaning of the identity of opposites. This is what Lenin meant when he discussed "how they happen to be (how they become) identical--under what conditions they are identical, transforming themselves into one another". , 1937
通过实践而发现真理,又通过实践而证实真理和发展真理。从感性认识而能动地发展到理性认识,又从理性认识而能动地指导革命实践,改造主观世界和客观世界。实践、认识、再实践、再认识,这种形式,循环往复以至无穷,而实践和认识之每一循环的内容,都比较地进到了高一级的程度。这就是辩证唯物论的全部认识论,这就是辩证唯物论的知行统一观。
Discover the truth through practice, and again through practice verify and develop the truth. Start from perceptual knowledge and actively develop it into rational knowledge; then start from rational knowledge and actively guide revolutionary practice to change both the subjective and the objective world. Practice, knowledge, again practice, and again knowledge. This form repeats itself in endless cycles, and with each cycle the content of practice and knowledge rises to a higher level. Such is the whole of the dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge, and such is the dialectical-materialist theory of the unity of knowing and doing. , 1937
Timeline
The story of Mao Zedong, told in moments.
Attends the founding meeting of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai. Thirteen delegates meet in a girls' school on a street in the French Concession. A stranger walks in and the meeting is moved to a boat on South Lake. Mao is 27. He is not the leader. He takes notes.
The Long March begins. The Red Army, facing annihilation by Chiang Kai-shek's forces, breaks through the Nationalist encirclement and retreats west and north. 86,000 people set out. They march 6,000 miles over 370 days through some of the harshest terrain in China. Roughly 8,000 survive to reach Shaanxi. Mao emerges from the march as the undisputed leader of the party.
Stands at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing and proclaims the People's Republic of China. "The Chinese people have stood up," he declares. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government has fled to Taiwan. Mao is 55. The civil war that began in 1927 is over.
Launches the Hundred Flowers Campaign, inviting intellectuals to criticize the Communist Party openly. "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend." Thousands speak up. Then the Anti-Rightist Campaign begins. 550,000 people are labeled rightists and purged. Many are sent to labor camps.
Launches the Great Leap Forward, ordering the country to surpass Britain in steel production within 15 years. Peasants are forced to melt their farm tools in backyard furnaces. The steel is worthless. Meanwhile, grain rots in the fields. The resulting famine kills between 15 and 55 million people over the next four years. It is the deadliest famine in human history.
Launches the Cultural Revolution. Red Guards, many of them teenagers, are unleashed to purge "bourgeois" elements from Chinese society. Teachers are beaten by their students. Temples are demolished. Books are burned. Intellectuals are sent to labor camps. The decade of chaos kills an estimated 500,000 to 2 million people. Mao uses it to destroy his political rivals.
Dies in Beijing at 82. He has been in declining health for years, suffering from motor neurone disease and congestive heart failure. His personal physician later writes that he had been "ruler of a quarter of the world's population for 27 years." A million people file past his body in the Great Hall of the People. His embalmed remains are placed in a crystal coffin in a mausoleum on Tiananmen Square.
The Communist Party officially reassesses Mao's legacy. The verdict: 70% correct, 30% wrong. The Cultural Revolution is declared a catastrophe. The Great Leap Forward is acknowledged as a disaster. His portrait stays on Tiananmen Square. His face stays on the money. The party he founded still rules China.
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