Ideology and Social Movements in Mao’s China Essay

Introduction

The importance of ideas of a leader is drawn from his personal life and his process of maturity. Ideas assume greater importance in case of politics. All societies possess a “political culture” that helps in shaping the attitude, beliefs, and values of an individual which construct their ideas regarding “political life or objects” that one possesses (Johnston, p. 11). Ideology refers to the political culture that is developed by different intellectual influences over an individual. Ideology is defined by Johnston as:

An ideology is a more or less consistent set of beliefs about the nature of the society in which individuals live, and about the proper role of the state in establishing or maintaining that society (Johnston, p. 14).

Given this definition, we see that there were many different ideologies that influenced Mao Tse-tung. Moreover, Chinese Renaissance, a movement similar to the Western concept of intellectual stimulus took place during the May fourth Movement of 1919 (Bianco and Bell). With his interest to read on varied subjects especially political philosophies, ideologies and history, Mao admitted of being influenced by many like Chung Kuang-yin, Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, Kang Yu-wei, Ch’en Tu-hsiu, Karl Marx, et al. (Snow). Even though he discarded many of the philosophies as his own political view became stronger, he still admits to have been influenced by the above mentioned intellectuals in developing his ideologies.

Thus, we see that well known intellectuals shaped the Chinese leadership in order to form the Chinese politics and statehood as we see today. With strong Western influence and the intellectual influence the Chinese politics and society rejected the symbol of Chinese culture and history i.e. Confucianism, which reached a climax on May Fourth. In this paper, we discuss a few of the intellectual influences on Mao which shaped the political culture of China. For this purpose, we discuss Chung Kuang-yin, Ch’en Tu-hsiu, and Karl Marx.

Chung Kuang-yin

As a child in primary school, Mao enjoyed reading works other than the Chinese Classics (Snow). He read Sheng-shih Weiyen [Word of Warning] written by Chung Kuang-ying when in primary school. Chung promoted many ideologies related to democratic reforms of the imperialist monarchy in China, including parliamentary government and modern methods of education and communications. Snow accounts Chung’s “book had a wide influence when published in 1898, the year of the ill-fated Hundred Days Reform” (Snow, pp. 134-135).

Chung was a comprador merchant from Canton. He was knowledgeable about the West and advocated in his book that the parliament was responsible for consolidating the relationship between the monarch and the common people and the decisions should be taken in a democratic manner with consent of many people:

Accordingly, he [Chung] suggested that members of the lower house, the organ responsible for legislation, be selected by the people, following a method based on the traditional selection system and complemented by the Western voting system. This was the first reference in Ch’ing times to popular elections (Min, Kuhn and Brook, p. 117).

According to Min et al. Chung presented the idea of the parliamentary system to transform the government and supported the popular idea of the early revolution of 1989 – chun-min kungchu meaning joint governance of the monarch and the people (Min, Kuhn and Brook).

Mao was especially attracted to Chung’s support for Westernization. As he describes in his biography about Chung’s ideologies as:

The author, one of a number of old reformist scholars, thought that the weakness of China lay in her lack of Western appliances – railways, telephone, telegraphs, and steamships – and wanted to have them introduced in the country (Snow, p. 134).

Ch’en Tu-hsiu

In his youthhood, Marx was influenced by Ch’en Tu-hsiu who was the founder and editor of Hsin Ch’ing-nien [New Youth] which spread the revolution among the youth of China (Snow). Ch’en was a pro-Western radical and harbored tremendous dislike for the Chinese tradition (Bianco and Bell). According to Ch’en the real problem that China faced was “centuries of stagnation” (Bianco and Bell, p. 35).

Ch’en envisioned a movement formulated and enacted by the youths: “P’o-chiu li-hsin! Down with the old, up with the new!” (Bianco and Bell 37) Thus, Ch’en believed in the youth and attacked the traditional. He preached six principles to the youths viz. independent, progressive, practical, and scientific. This clearly abandoned the Chinese classical thought which taught, “respect for the aged and for tradition, submission to codes and rituals, restraint and obedience” (Bianco and Bell 38) thus there was a major transformation of the Chinese society that took place due to the spread of Ch’en’s ideologies which shattered the three sacred bonds of the Confucianism which formed the basis of Chinese social organization – the subordination of subject to monarch, of son to father and of wife to husband. Thus, this brought about the equality of the sexes in China which was an extremely masculine society. He too emphasized the importance of Western civilization in rejuvenating China and bringing about democracy and sciences to the country.

Ch’en was instrumental in developing Mao’s interest in Marxism and he was deeply influenced by his ideologies: “I had discussed with Ch’en, on my second visit to Shanghai, the Marxist books that I had read, and Ch’en’s own assertions of belief had deeply impressed me at what was probably a critical period of my life.” (Snow, p. 157).

In 1918, when Mao graduates from Hunan First Normal School at the age of 25, he joins the Marxist Society founded by Li Ta-chao and Ch’en Tu-hsiu (Snow). The three of them later together find the Chinese Communist Party. Ch’en further believed that democracy should not be attached to any eligibility factor. Anyone irrespective of his gender, caste, class, education, etc. could vote

Ch’en was an ardent advocate of socialism and believed that socialism was not applicable in a country which was not industrialized (Chan). Further, it is believed that Ch’en called his “social goal” as “true democracy”. He equated democracy with “dictatorship of the proletariat” (Chan 55). Even though Ch’en was an advocate of Westernization he pointed out that, the political system of the United States and Great Britain were not democracy but capitalism. Thus, he believed that the Chinese social organization had to be constructed from below and that it required common man as volunteers to initiate the government. He opposed the European concept of enforcing freedom and liberty of people by law which he believed should be produced in a true democratic style.

The ideologies of Ch’en influenced Mao and shaped his ideas regarding Marxism, socialism, and democratic reform (Snow). From this he was initiated towards the study of Marxism.

Karl Marx

Mao’s philosophies are an articulation of Chinese Marxism, an amalgamation of Chinese and Marxian thoughts (Dirlik). Marx had laid the foundation of Chinese communism within the framework of Marxist ideologies but infused with Chinese culture. In a way, Mao had recreated Marxism while reforming China. Mao translated the Marxist concepts into a Chinese idiom and read the Chinese historical experience in Chinese language (Dirlik).

Marx saw socialism as an ultimate outcome of the “material factors, the product of economic and social transformations embedded within the nature of capitalist society” (Johnston, p. 64). Marx advocated equality in community which emphasized on the fundamental equality of humans. Marx’s ideologies also disdained social classes that bestowed economic and social importance a few while others remained deprived. Thus, they manifested that individuals were all placed in a social structure on basis of which economic or political terms. This class segregation was criticized and done away by the Marxists. He advocated the establishment of socialism which put all on the same stead, thus creating a society that treated individuals equally and prevents subjugation of the less privileged classes of the society. In treating everyone equally the Marxists wanted to end capitalism completely this was believed to be the root of all evils.

Mao’s Marxism was the pronouncement of the socialist and nationalist goals of China. Mao thus unionized the universal principles of Marxism with the Chinese Revolution. One foremost deviation as Mao envisioned was globalization of China instead of closing the economy as Marx envisioned. But Marxism helped define Mao’s vision of China as a new state. Further, a deep understanding of China’s internal requirements helped Mao interpret Marxism in the Chinese way retaining its distinct characters and not merging it into Chinese nationalism.

In discussing Mao-fication of Marxism, it is important to note that Mao, when introduced to Marxism was already influenced by various Chinese traditional philosophies which had created his environmental discourse as well as his personal discourse which influenced his understanding of Marx. Thus, we see that there were direct interactions with Marxism and Chinese Revolution. Thus what Mao did was:

What made Mao’s Marxism authentically radical (and not just as excuse for nationalism) was his insistence on integrating Marxism into the language of the Chinese masses which he believed should reconstitute China as a nation; in other words, localizing it within the nation at the level of everyday life (Dirlik, p. 141).

This emphasis on vernacularization of Marxism coincided with the guerilla strategy in Chinese warfare (Dirlik). Thus, Mao upheld the ideals of Marxism by manifesting the abolition of class struggle in China and bringing about equality among all. Thus, he states regarding socialism:

The socialist system will eventually replace the capitalist system; this is an objective law independent of man’s will. However much the reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, sooner or later revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph. (Tse-Tung)¹

Conclusion

Thus, we see from the narrations of Mao’s early life in his biography, that Mao’s principles regarding politics were framed by different and varied philosophies. He being a voracious reader absorbed ideas and thoughts which he felt could lead China to break the shackles of imperialism. Mao’s ideas and the social construct of the present day China had been developed by the classical ideologies in the form of Confucianism and then been molded by different philosophers during the first revolution who brought in the first idea of Westernization of China. Further radicalizations of Chinese youths led to the fight against the traditional views and establish a new socialist and democratic China. At its core, the Chinese revolution was a youth’s revolution against the traditionalists.

But Mao’s ideologies started to contradict his own ideals which he used to manifest the communist party, for according to scholars it became extremely left. Thus, it is argued “the Chinese assessment that Mao was 70 per cent right and 30 per cent wrong” is not completely true as “he is viewed as 100 per cent right for 70 per cent of his career and close to 100 per cent wrong in 30 per cent of his career” (Womack, p. 23).

But many US anthropologists believe that Mao used Marxism as a tool to further his political hopes and desires: “They saw Marxian social theory as simultaneously a theoretical resource for anthropology, a governing ideology in the PRC, and a source of their own political hopes. The failures of Maoist governance, particularly its inability to replace their own political assumptions and to seek out new ways for understanding the dynamics of power in general.” (Kipnis, p. 278). Thus, we see that Mao’s ideologies were primarily developed through the erstwhile Chinese traditional culture as well as modern western philosophies, but in the last lapse of his reign, he renounced all and developed his own ideals. This has also been supported by Helen F. Siu who wrote, “I went to China with Marxist hopes; but I left with Max Weber’s worst fears. Writing this ethnography has been a self-reflective endeavor.”

Bibliography

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2. Chan, Adrian. Chinese Marxism. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003.
3. Dirlik, Arif. “Mao Zedong and “Chinese Marxism”.” Makdisi, Saree, Cesare Casarino and Rebecca E. Karl. Marxism Beyond Marxism. New York: Routledge, 1996. 119-148.
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8. Snow, Edgar. Red Star Over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism. New York: Grove Press, 1994.
9. Tse-Tung, Mao. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung. San Fransisco: China Books, 1990.
10. Womack, Brantly. “Where Mao Went Wrong: Epistemology and Ideology in Mao’s Leftist Politics.” The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 16 (1986): 23-40.

Footnotes

1 “Speech at the Meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in celebration of the 40^th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution”, 1957.