Mao Zedong, a Biography. Volume 1. 1893–1949 (Chief Editors Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji)

Mao Zedong, a Biography. Volume 1. 1893–1949
Author	Chief Editors Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji
Translated by	Foreign Languages Press
Publisher	CCCPC Party Literature Research Office
Type	Book

Leaving Home

An age- old legend tells us that 5,000 years ago Emperor Shun, while on an inspection tour of southern China, came to the Xiang river. There, while resting on a hilltop, the emperor ordered the playing of a tune called Shao Yue (Melody of Shao). The music is said to have attracted a flock of phoenixes that danced to its lilt. From this, people began to call the hill Shaoshan (Mount Shao), and to call the narrow valley it embraces Shaoshan Chong (Shaoshan Valley), located in what is now Xiangtan County of Hunan Province.

In this same Shaoshan Valley, on 26 December 1893 (19th day of the 11th lunar month in the 19th year of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu), a boy was born to the family of peasant Mao Yichang. The child was named Zedong, also to be known as Yongzhi and later as Runzhi. Two babies preceding this child had died in infancy and, fearing a likely recurrence, the mother took her new-born son to a small temple of the Stone Statue of the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin, or Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit). There, she bowed her head to the ground and asked the great rock to be the child’s adoptive mother, so the boy acquired the pet name of Shi San Yazi (Third Kid of the Rock).

This Mao family of Shaoshan was originally from Jiangxi Province. In the early years of the Mind Dynasty, the family moved to settle in Xiangxiang Country, Hunan Province. Two sons moved to Shaoshan Valley, where, in a place some 40 kilometers west from the middle reaches of the Xiang River, three Hunan counties -Xiangtan, Ningxiang and Xiangxiang – come together. It is a narrow valley, surrounded by hills, where inhabitants have lived largely by agriculture, so the Mao family engaged mainly in land reclamation and farming. Some 500 years elapsed before Mao Zedong, the twentieth generation after Mao Taihua, was born.

Despite the lovely legend of its name, the valley’s conditions when Mao Zedong was born were much as in other poor, secluded areas of later imperial China. In Shaoshan Valley were more than 600 households, one being that of Mao Enpu, Mao Zedong’s grandfather, an honest kind-hearted peasant. As he became increasingly hard-up, he had to pawn some of his ancestral lands to sustain the family. He had only one son, Mao Zedong’s father; and when he passed away, Mao Zedong was only 10 years old.

Mao Zedong’s father, Mao Yinchang, also known as Mao Shunsheng or Mao Liangbi, began to help manage household affairs when he was only 17 years old. Pressed by family debts, he had to leave his home village to join the local army of Hunan Province. This broadened his vision and gave him the chance to save some money. When he returned home, Mao Shunsheng first redeemed the farmland pawned by his father. Then he bought a little more land so that his holdings totaled 22 mu (about 1.5 hectares) that yielded about 80 dan (about 4 tons) of grain annually. Mao Shunsheng then turned to buying, selling and transporting rice and livestock to the markets of Xiangtan Country. In this way, his wealth grew gradually to about 2-3,000 Chinese silver dollars. With this accumulated capital, he even once issued a kind of local paper money in the name of ‘Mao Yishun & Co.’, so in his little valley he would have been reckoned a moneybags.

In late imperial China, peasants, who managed to rid themselves of poverty were invariably hardworking, frugal, cleaver, and resolute. These characteristics of the father naturally had an important influence on Mao Zedong from his childhood. Like most peasants, Mao Shunsheng attempted to mould his sons after his own life experience, starting with household chores and field labour. From the time he was 6 years old, Mao Zedong began to do such things as weeding paddy fields, herding cattle, collecting animal dung as organic manure, chopping firewood, and the like. Later, after he learned to read, Mao Zedong began to help keep family accounts. For two years, when he was 14-15, Mao Zedong was ordered to work all day long in the fields with hired farm labourers. His father’s severity made a long-lasting impression on him. Recalling those years, Mao later [in 1936] told the visiting American journalist Edgar Snow that his father was a ‘severe taskmaster who, if he saw me idle or with no account-keeping to do, ordered me to do farm work. He had a hot temper and often beat me and my two younger brothers.’ Mao also recollected: ‘His stern attitude did me good in that I had to do farm work diligently and do the accounts with great care as to avoid his beating or criticizing me.’ In this way, Mao learned the skills of local farm work, including ploughing and levelling paddy fields, rice-transplanting, cutting and harvesting paddy rice, and the like. The young Mao Zedong even offered to compete with hired farm labourers to take on challenging jobs. He thus acquired the finer qualities of mountain peasants: enduring hardships. Defying difficulties, and having an assiduous and down-to-earth style of work. At the same he began to acquire a fairly deep understanding of the sufferings peasants faced.

Mao Shunsheng wanted his sons to become as accomplished at moneymaking as himself, and, seeing that his sons were not quite following his footsteps, he resorted to high-handed disciplinary measures. This led to inevitable confrontations between father and sons, which, for Mao Zedong, served to nurture rebelliousness from his early youth.

On the winter solstice in 1906, Mao Shunsheng hosted a banquet for his fellow businessmen. The father ordered his 13-year-old-son, Mao Zedong, to wait on the guests, but the latter was loath to do so. Angry, his father scolded young Mao for being lazy and good-for-nothing, and lacking filial piety. To this, young Mao Zedong retorted in front of all the guests, ‘A father’s kindness and his son’s filial obedience go hand-in-hand’ – meaning that only when ‘the father is kind’ can there be a ‘filial son’. Enraged, and raising his fist, Mao’s father threatened to beat him, whereupon Mao Zedong ran off to the edge of a huge pond and threatened to jump in should his father come any closer. Through his mother’s good offices, the episode ended peacefully.

However, from this experience, Mao Zedong perceived that to yield meekly under pressure would merely invite more scolding or beating, and that only by resisting resolutely could one protect oneself.

To his father, Mao Zedong’s most striking example of ‘unfilial’ behavior was his refusal to accept his father’s single-handed arrangement of marriage of the 14-year-old Mao Zedong to the 18-year-old daughter of a family named Luo, primarily for the purpose of adding another pair of hands to work in the household. Mao Zedong never accepted that arranged marriage and never lived with the girl as her husband. The father was helpless to do anything more about it than to enter the Luo girl’s name in the formal record of the family tree only as ‘Mao, nee Luo’.

Compared to his father, Mao Zedong’s mother, Wen Suqin, left a much greater impact on him. His mother was the seventh sister in the Wen family and her pet name was Qimei (Seventh Sister). Her parents’ home was in Tangjiatuo, later called Tangguige, in Xiangxiang County on the other side of the mountain and about 10 li (5 km,) from Shaoshan Valley. The Wen family, also peasants, was well-off. At the age of 18m Wen Qimei was married to Mao Shunsheng, to whom she bore five boys and two girls. Four of the children died in fancy, and three brothers survived: Mao Zedong, Mao Zemin, and Mao Zetan.

Like many other country women, Mao’s mother spent her time quietly attending to household chores and bringing up children. She was gentle, kindhearted, and had a strong sense of sympathy. In years of famine, she would send rice to the starving without the knowledge of her husband. She also would often go to Buddhist temples to pray and worship Buddha piously. She instilled her children with beliefs in ‘accumulating virtue and doing good’ and ‘karma and retribution’. Once, when Mao Zedong was about 9 years old, he even discussed earnestly with her how to persuade his father to believe in Buddha. When his mother fell ill, the 15-year-old Mao made a special trip to the holy temple on Mount Heng to pray for his mother’s speedy recovery. This shows the impact that his mother’s teaching by example had in the teenaged Mao, who then had not much understanding of Buddhist doctrines.

Indeed, his mother’s teaching by words and deeds helped make Mao Zedong, from his early youth, sympathetic towards the poor and weak in their sufferings, and willing to help others in times of need.

Once, a nearby peasant, also surnamed Mao, had received from Mao Zedong’s father a deposit of money to buy some pigs at an agreed price. Later, when Mao Zedong was sent by his father to collect the pigs, the price for the pigs had gone up considerably. The peasant sighed repeatedly, blaming his own ill fate, and opined that several silver dollars were nothing to a well-off-man, but that it was a big loss to a poor fellow’s household. Upon hearing this, Mao Zedong cancelled his father’s deal for the pigs.

On another occasion, when Mao was 11, his father wanted to buy 7 mu (about 1 acre) of farmland from cousin Mao Jusheng, who depended on that land for a living and was then faced with great difficulties. Both Mao Zedong and his mother agreed the right thing to do was to help Mao Jusheng ride out his difficulties instead of seizing the chance to buy his only bit of farmland. Mao’s father thought otherwise, insisting it was perfectly all right to buy the land with a cash payment. Efforts at dissuasion by Mao and his mother were to no avail, but the incident left a deep impression. Decades later, when recalling this on various occasions after the founding of the People’s Republic, Mao Zedong told Mao Zelian (son of Mao Jusheng): ‘The private ownership system in old China made brothers and cousins forget fraternity, to such an extent that father refused to listen to any persuasion, insisted on buying the 7 mu of land, and cared only for making money’.

Mao Zedong had a deep affection for mother. In the summer of 1918, on the eve of leaving Changsha for Beijing, Mao was so worried about his mother, who was recuperating from illness at his maternal grandmother’s home, that he obtained a medical prescription and then entrusted his uncle to carry it to his mother. The following spring, after returning to Changsha, Mao brought his mother to the provincial capital for medical treatment. She died on 85 October 1919, at age 52, from scrofula, then customarily referred to simply as ‘herniated neck’. One hearing the sad news, Mao sped back to Shaoshan to keep vigil beside the coffin. On that occasion, Mao Zedong wrong an affectionate ‘Elegy for Mother’ in four-character lines:

Mother’s virtues are many, and

Outstanding is her universal love.

She extended to so many,

Whether acquainted with her or not,

Her kind and sympathetic heart,

That folks are deeply moved.

Her affection is powerful

As it originated in sincerity.

She never boasted, and

Never attempted to

Cheat…. Held in high

esteem

Her integrity is untainted.

In a letter to Zou Yunzhen, a schoolmate, Mao at that time wrote: ‘There are three kinds of people in the world, those who harm others to benefit themselves, those who benefit themselves without harming others, and those who benefit others at the cost of their own losses; and my mother is one of the third kind.’ Indeed, Mao’s mother’s influence on him was keenly felt throughout his life.

After his mother’s passing, Mao Zedong invited his father, Mao Shunsheng, to stay with him for a time in Changsha. His father no longer interfered with his life, but agreed to continued financial support for his schooling. For this Mao Zedong was grateful to his father, who died from acute typhoid at age of 50, on 23 January 1920.

While parental education usually has a great bearing on a child’s growth, schooling invariably has an impact on a child’s future course of development. Mao Zedong spent much of his early childhood at his maternal grandmother’s home in Tangjiatuo in Xiangxiang County, where his maternal grandfather was engaged in farming. His mother’s brother ran an old-style private school and taught local children. Mao often attended classes at that school until 1902, when he was 8 years old and was brought back to Shaoshan Valley, where he began learning at a nearby old-style private school. In the eight years that ensued, excepting the two years when he was required by his father to work at farming the family’s land, Mao attended six different private schools in the nearby localities of Nan’an, Guangongqiao, Qiaotouwan, Zhongjiawan, Jingwanli, Wuguijing and Dongmaotang. In retrospect, Mao summed up those years as ‘six years of reading Confucian books’. Even then, he still helped with farming, collecting animal dung in the early morning and late afternoon, and joining in the work at harvest time.

By that time, the imperial examination system had in the main been abolished, and modern schools had begun to emerge. Introducing Western literature and going abroad to Japan for studies were in vogue. By the time Mao Zedong began to receive elementary schooling, the two people he admired – Yang Changji, who was to become his teacher, and the great man of letters Lu Xun (Zhou Shuren) – had left for Japan for advanced studies. In Shaoshan Valley, the old-style private schools were then still the only choice for local children’s schooling. By sending Mao to school, his father cherished no high hopes beyond his son’s acquiring enough literacy to keep family accounts and to be prepared for lawsuits if necessary. Following the custom of the time, Mao Zedong began with popular readings of traditional Confucian literature, such as San Zi Jing (The 3-Character Classic), Bai Jia Xing (The Hundred Surnames, in rhythmic arrangement – actually totaling more than 500 surnames), Zengguang Xianwen (Wise Sayings to Broaden One’s Horizon) and Youxue Qionglin (Selected Readings for Children). After these Mao began to study the Si Shu (Four Books) and Wu Jing (Five Classics). The original copies of The Book of Songs and The Analects of Confucius that Mao read are today on display at the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall in Shaoshan.

Though Mao did not find the difficult classical works to his liking, he had an extraordinary memory and comprehension, and was able to learn them well and by heart. Indeed, once committed to memory, what one has learnt in childhood cannot be erased from one’s mind. That is why Mao could apply these works easily long after he grew to manhood. Mao also studied the Zuo Zhuan (Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals), and that led to his great interest in studying history. His six-year education in Confucian culture helped cultivate his enthusiasm for ‘taking history as a clue to the present’, and it also helped develop his later approach of ‘making the past serve the present’.

In his yearly youth Mao Zedong did believe in the exhortations of Confucius and Mencius but the old-style, private school teachers’ stereotyped way of instruction had little in it to attract him. In 1908, when attending the private school at Jingwanli, he had a particular interest in reading what the teachers branded as ‘frivolous books; or ‘trash books’ -such famous novels as The Water Margin, Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Biography of Yue Fei (the patriotic general) and Romances of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. As the teacher did not approve of reading these books, he had to read them on the sly, putting a text-book over them as a cover-up when he was in school. At home, since his father did not allow him to reach such books, Mao Zedong had to cover up his window so that his father could not see the lamp light inside his son’s room.

Once he had read these novels and romances, Mao Zedong would recount the stories to other children or to the elderly folks of the village. Much later, in retrospect, Mao told Edgar Snow [in 1936]: ‘It occurred to me one day that there was one peculiar thing about those stories – the absence of peasants who tilled the land. All the characters in those stories were warriors, officials, or scholars; never was there a peasant hero.’ As a peasant’s son, Mao Zedong felt puzzled for some time, and he began to analyse those novels and concluded that the heroes in them ‘did not have to work the land because they owned and controlled the land and evidently made the peasants work it for them’. Mao felt that this was a case of inequality.

Peasants were naturally opposed to such inequality, and the rebellious figures depicted in The Water Margin became real heroes in Mao’s mind. The influence of this notion was meaningful and far-reaching. Later, in the long years of hardship in his revolutionary life, The Water Margin was a book he always kept handy for reading.

The incidents in these novels attracted Mao Zedong’s attention were reflected in events that occurred in real life. A rebellion staged by a starving mob erupted in Changsha in April 1910. It was a year of famine in which food prices soared unusually high, and whose families committed suicide. A large number of hungry people gathered at the gate to the governor’s office to present petitions, but they were shot at, and fourteen of the petitioners were killed instantly, with many more wounded. Such an act of suppression was too much for the masses to tolerate, and they set fire to the governor’s office and smashed the offices of some foreign firms, shipping companies and customs board. The Qing government sent in more troops to suppress the rioters, killing so many that the Shiziling area outside the Liuyang Gate of provincial capital was drenched with blood. (Shiziling was also the place where, twenty years later, Yang Kaihui, wife of Mao Zedong, was executed). Many of the rioters were beheaded, and their heads were displayed over the southern gate of the city as a sort of warning to future rebels.

Several small-time peddlers who had seen the tragedy and managed to escape the shooting spread the news of the hungry mob’s rebellion to Shaoshan Valley, and this evoked much discussion and indignation for several days thereafter. As days went by, and many people began to forget the incident, Mao Zedong continued to be very much distressed at heart, and it took him a long time to calm down. He felt that those who joined in the rebellion were good, ordinary people who had been driven by starvation and had no choice but to revolt. All those innocent people murdered in cold blood! How distressing! Decades later, he said emotionally that that incident’ affected my life’.

In the following year, famine struck Shaoshan Valley. The hungry peasants organized themselves and staged a chi-da-hu (seizure and eating of food in the houses of landowners), and in the process seized a lot of rice that Mao Zedong’s father had prepared for delivery to the country seat for sale. His father was immensely enraged. Mao Zedong did not sympathize with his father, but ‘also thought that the ways employed by the villagers were not right’.

About that time, Mao Zedong learned that Li Shuqing, a teacher of the reformist school, had returned to Shaoshan Valley. Mao thought highly of his teacher, and often called on him to learn about new developments outside his home town, and especially about the constitutional reform in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. It was about this time that Mao Zedong happened to read the book Shengshi weiyan (Words of Warning to a Prosperous Age), written by Zheng Guanying and published some ten years before. Mao particularly liked the book’s idea that society needed reformation. He became acquainted with some major current events in China outside his native village, and he began to feel that China should not remain what it had been.

Nor was Mao Zedong to remain what he had been. Up to the age of 17, he had not gone beyond the area between Shaoshan Valley and Tangjiatuo, his maternal grandmother’s village. He developed a strong urge to continue schooling somewhere outside the secluded area, though his father originally wanted him to be apprenticed to a rice merchant in Xiangtan County. At this point in his life, Mao was told by his cousin Wen Yongchang that modern knowledge was being taught at the Dongshan School, run by the county authorities of Xiangxiang, some 50 li (25km) from Shaoshan Valley. Eager to attend school there, Mao Zedong managed to convince several of his relatives – his mother’s brother, Wen Yuqing, his father’s cousin Mao Luzhong, and his cousin Wang Jifan – to persuade his father to approve such a move. His father finally agreed, thinking there might be some benefit to be gained.

In the autumn of 1910, Mao Zedong left the secluded Shaoshan area and headed for the wider world outside his home town. That was the first turning point in his life. Naturally, he felt excited. On the eve of his journey, and in that mood, he composed a short poem in an old pattern and stuck the poem into the family accounts book that his father examined daily.

Your son has decided to leave home to study

And will not return until he is accomplished.

One needn’t die only in one’s home town,

For there’s good burying ground

Anywhere along the road of life

The Dongshan School was at the foot of Mount Dongtai outside the Xiangxiang Country seat. In addition to teaching traditional classics, like other private schools, the school had new subjects, such as Natural Sciences, Geography and the English language. It was at this school that Mao learned that the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi had both died, and that the Xuantong Emperor had already been on the throne for two years. At that time, Mao still felt the emperor and most officials were good, intelligent men, who needed only the help of reformists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. Mao had read works on reform, written mostly by Kang and Liang, and had a particular liking for Liang’s impassioned style of writing. He held Kang and Liang in rather high esteem at the time, and he was not aware that Sun Yat-sen’s advocacy of overthrowing the Qing regime with a revolution had become the mainstream of thought, replacing the idea of reformist constitutional monarchy advocated by Kang and Liang. The revolutionists focused their attention on building liaisons among revolutionary elements and on leading armed uprisings, and paid little attention to raising public awareness. Their publications were banned from circulation in the interior provinces. On the other hand, after the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, the journal Xinmin congbao (New People’s Miscellany), edited and published by Liang Qichao in Japan, which introduced Western bourgeois literature and political thinking, was then widely read in China. Moreover, Hunan Province had been an important base for the reformists, and Liang Qichao had once been chief lecturer at the School of Contemporary Affairs in Changsha. It was quite natural that Mao Zedong received his rudimentary political education from the reformists. The Xinmin congbao had stopped publication in 1907. However, Mao managed to borrow a bound volume of the journal from his cousin Wen Yongchang, which he read and re-read, and he was able to commit to memory many of its articles. While reading that bound volume, he would write notes or comments. About the essay ‘Thoughts on the State’, in Section 6 of Volume 4 of the journal, Mao wrote:

A formally established state is a constitutional state, whose constitution is formulated by the people, and whose monarch enjoys popular support. On the other hand, a state not formally established is an autocracy whose laws are drawn up by the monarch who enjoys no popular support. Countries like Britain and Japan today fall under the former category, while all the monarchs who had usurped power in the dynasties spanning several thousand years in China fall under the latter category.

The above passage is the earliest political commentary in Mao Zedong’s writing discovered so far. It shows his understanding, at that time, of constitutional monarchy and feudal autocracy. From following Confucian classics to admiring the reformist leaders Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, from Zhen Guanying’s Words of Warning to a Prosperous Age to approving of conditional monarchy, with Britain and Japan as models – all this marked the first stage of Mao’s ideological development in his youth. More importantly, Liang Qichao’s Xinmin shuo (On the New People) penetratingly analysed the constituent core of national culture and advocated ‘changing the character of the people’. This way of thinking was the forerunner of the May Fourth Movement that advocated restricting the national spirit, and it had a lasting effect on Mao Zedong. It is quite likely that the title of Liang’s work could be the origin of the name of Xinmin xuehui (New People’s Study Society) – that first organization set up by Mao, later in Changsha.

By that time, Mao had begun to notice events outside China. From a returned student who had studied in Japan and was then a school teacher, Mao learned how Japan had become a strong country through its Meiji Restoration, and he was impressed. Then, after reading a book titles Great Heroes of the World, borrowed from a classmate named Xiao Zizhang (who later became the famous poet known as Xia San), Mao was greatly inspired by the heroes depicted in this book, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Boneparte, Peter the Great and others. Upon returning the book to Xiao San, Mao said, ‘China should produce such great personalities. We in China should lay stress on making the country prosper and the military strong… Every Chinese must do his utmost.’

In the spring of 1911, Mao’s teacher, He Langang, who received an appointment to teach at the Provincial Xiangxiang Middle School in Changsha, was ready to take Mao along with him because of the latter’s excellence in learning. Mao travelled for the first time by river streamer to Changsha, where he successfully passed the entrance examination to the Provincial Middle School. Changsha was the provincial capital of Hunan. On the eve of the 1911 Revolution, it was also the hub of Hunan revolutionary activity, and it seethed with propaganda against the feudal Qing Dynasty. The new military forces garrisoning the provincial capital were increasingly leaning to the side of the revolutionaries. On arriving in Changsha, the 18-year-old Mao immediately felt his vision was broadened and the social atmosphere was vastly different from that in the countryside. For the first time, he had access to Minli bao (People’s Journal), run by the revolutionists, and he became an ardent reader of the journal. From it, he became acquainted with a lot of revolutionary vies and statements. When he read the report in the journal of Huanghuagang Uprising in Guangzhou, led by Huang Xing, it had a great impact on his thinking. Later, in the Xiangjiang pinglun (Xiang River Review), he wrote: ‘The Guangzhou Uprising led by Huang Xing on the 19^th of the third month of Emperor Xuantong’s reign [27 April 1911] shook the whole of China. When the news spread to Hunan, the revolution-inclined students were very much eager to have a try.’

Mao was one of those ‘eager to have a try’. This led him, one day, to write an article that he posted on a wall of the school campus. It expressed support for the revolutionists’ programmed to overthrow the Qing Dynasty so as to establish a republic in China. In his article, Mao proposed that Sun Yat-sen be invited back from abroad to serve as president of the republic, Kang Youwei be appointed prime minister, and Liang Qichao foreign minister. Mao sounded rather naïve at that time, not yet capable of discerning the differences in political programmes between Syn Yat-sen, and Kang and Liang. That was the first public expression, however, of Mao’s political views.

As a demonstration of determination to break with the corrupt Qing regime, Mao advocated and took the lead in cutting the queue (the long, single braid of hair worn by mature men by order of the Qing Dynasty). He and some other activists launched a ‘surprise attack’ to cut the queues of a dozen or so schoolmates who had promised to cut theirs but showed reluctance to do the deed. This incident illustrated Mao’s style of saying what he meant and being resolute in taking action.

On 10 October 1911, the historic Wuchang Uprising broke out. The new revolutionary government of Hubei Province soon sent representatives to Changsha, to ask revolutionaries in Hunan to rise up in response to the uprising. A representative, who came to the Provincial Middle School to brief the students on the Wuchang Uprising, made an impassioned speech at the students’ assembly. More than twenty years later, this incident was still quite fresh in Mao’s memory: ‘Seven or eight students rose in the assembly and supported the representative with vigorous denunciations of the Qing regime and calls for actions to establish a republic.’ Mao was then even more excited, and believed that the ongoing acute struggles against the feudal regime needed more reinforcements from the people, so he decided to cast aside his pen to join the army. He was about to leave for Wuhan to join the ranks of the revolutionary armies there, when the revolutionaries in Changsha launched an armed uprising on 24 October 1911 and established a revolutionary military government in Hunan. Mao Zedong immediately joined the new army in Changsha. Disinclined to join its student detachment, Mao joined the regular army as a private in the left platoon of the First Battalion, 25^th Brigade, of the Hunan New Army.

In his army life, Mao had a monthly salary of 7 Chinese silver dollars, and, apart from receiving military training, he would spend most of his time reading newspapers and journals and books, which he managed to subscribe to or purchase with his salary. He became an avid reader of such newspapers and journals, where he followed new political developments in China, and reading newspapers carefully became a habit of his. One day, in reading an article in the Xianghan xinwen (Xianghan News), he happened on his first acquaintance with the term ‘socialism’. It was, in fact, an article advocating social reformism, written by Jiang Kanghu. However, quite interested by what he had read, Mao discussed the subject with his fellow soldiers, and he wrote to several of his former schoolmates, proposing that the subject was worth studying. There was however, little enthusiasm for his suggestion – only one of them responded in agreement.

The revolution developed rapidly. Barely two months after the Wuchang Uprising of 10 October 1991 most of China’s provinces had declared independence from the Qing regime. Then, through a peace arrangement, Yuan Shikai usurped the fruits of victory of the revolution to become provisional president of the republic. Following the abdication of the last Qing Dynasty emperor, people rejoiced, thinking that the revolution had ended successfully. Feeling that his own aims in joining the army had been met, Mao began reconsidering his next course of action, and decided to leave the army in order to continue schooling. By then, he had served in the army for a little over half a year.

Mao began scrutinizing student recruitment advertisements in newspapers. He was for some time unable to decide on a profession, so he registered for the entrance examinations of the police academy, the soap-making technical school, the politics and law institute, and the public high school. By the found none of these to his liking. Finally, after ranking first in the entrance exam, Mao was admitted to the Hunan Provincial Senior Middle School (later called the Number One Provincial Middle School).

Mao Zedong stayed in this Senior Middle School for only half a year, and left behind an essay that Liu Qian, his teacher of classical Chinese, praised as a ‘realistic analysis of society’. The topic was ‘How Shang Yang Established Confidence by the Moving of the Pole’. The essay started with very candid comments:

‘Having read history up to the point at which Shang Yang shifted the pole to establish credibility, I could not help but lament the folly of the nation’s people at that time, lament the painstaking effort of those at the helm of state, lament the lack of enlightenment of the people over several thousand years, and lament the nation’s survival crisis.’

This essay shows that, on the question of national salvation, Mao Zedong was continuing to advocate developing people’s awareness to mould a new generation, as advocated by Liang Qichao. This is the first complete essay we have from Mao’s youth. Totaling only 600 Chinese characters, it won a 150-character comment from his teacher, who wrote that the writer of the essay ‘possesses outstanding intellect that suggests a very promising future’, and ‘the accomplished writing style indicates a quality of future greatness, and with continuous effort he may attain heights beyond imagination’. The teacher asked that the essay be circulated among Mao’s classmates.

Not long after, Mao became dissatisfied with the rigid regulations and limited scope of the high school’s curriculum. Liu Qian had lent to Mao the complete set of 116 volumes of the Imperially Approved and Edited Mirror of Successive Dynasties (Yupi lidai tongjian jilan). Mao read the chronicles and comments assiduously. From this, he felt he benefited greatly, and concluded it was much better for him to read and study on his own than to continue with schooling. Once he made up his mind, Mao was capable of taking steps that would astonish others. Resolutely, he left the Provincial Senior Middle School and took lodgings at the Xiangxiang Guild Hall in Changsha’s Xin’an Lane. From there, he would walk 3 li (1.5 km) daily to the Provincial Library outside the Liuyang Gate for self-study.

Mao Zedong then drew up for himself a comprehensive plan for self-education. He delved into the books pertinent to his study, by both Chinese and foreign authors, and studied them as avidly as a hungry cow let into a vegetable garden eats everything in sight. He took great interest in and benefited much from the then-available Western works of the eighteen and nineteenth centuries on bourgeois democracy and modern sciences. They included such works as Rousseau’s Social Contract, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Yan Fu’s translation of Adam’ Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in particular, Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, Thomas Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics, Herbert Spencer’s The Study of Sociology, and the like. It could be said, then, that Mao had a fairly systematic self-education in modern Western thought and culture. It was also at the Provincial Library that he saw for the first time a huge world map hanging on the walls of the entrance hall, which paused to study daily. It was there that he realized that the world was so big, that China was only a small part of it, and that Xiangtan, his home town was not even on the map. How exciting the discovery must have been to a young student who had left home barely one and a half years earlier!

Thus passed another half-year.

That period of self-education, though ‘very rewarding’ to Mao, as he later told Edgar Snow, was not to last. Firstly, his father refused to give financial support to what seemed to him an aimless way of learning. Second, the Xiangxiang Guild House where he was staying became occupied by disbanded army men from Xiangxiang, who often resorted to fist-fighting, which made it impossible for Mao to stay on longer.

Under such circumstances, Mao had to plan his future course more realistically, though he still hesitated about what to do next. By then, he had become a young man, nearly 20 years old, who had read a lot and was not altogether without experience.

The College Student

Mao Zedong made up his mind to go back to school and resume his studies. A newspaper advertisement recruiting students for the Hunan Provincial Fourth Teachers’ Training College caught his eye. It offered waiving tuition fees, nominal charges for room and board, and a teaching post for each graduate. The year before, when he took the essay-writing test for the entrance examination to the Provincial Senior Middle School, applicants were asked to write on the subject ‘Just at the birth of the republic, when all neglected tasks remain to be done, which is more important, education or industrialization?’ In his essay, Mao had employed the theme of ‘let education be in control’. As advocated by Liang Qichao. After careful consideration, Mao felt he was most suited to being a teacher. In the spring of 1913, Mao passed the entrance examination and enrolled in the five-year programme of the Fourth Teachers’ Training College. The following spring, when this college was merged with the Hunan Provincial First Teachers’ Training College, Mao Zedong became a member of the eighth entering class. He actually spent five and a half years in the college. The Fourth Teachers College enrolled students in the spring term, but the First Teachers College did so in the autumn term. In consequence, as the colleges adjusted their respective curriculum schedules, Mao had to repeat in the autumn courses he had taken in the spring, and so he did not graduate until the summer of 1918. The college campus faced the northward rush of the Xian River, at the foot of the Miaogao Peak, to the south of Changsha’s southern city gate. East of the campus was the Hankou-Guangzhou rail line, to the west, beyond the river, the lush green of Mount Yuelu could be seen. The natural environment of the campus was indeed beautiful. The rumble of trains that raced by the campus brought to it the breath of a new era.

Formally established in 1903, the First Teachers College was called the Hunan Provincial Normal School in its early years. Its earliest predecessor was the Chengnan Shuyuan (City-south Classics Academy), where renewed Confucian rationalist philosophers, such as Zhang Yue of the Southern Son Dynasty had lectured. The academy was neighbour to another renowned academy on the other side of the Xian River, the Yuelu Classics Academy, where the great scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200) had lectured. Since 1912, the Hunan Provincial Normal School had been called the First Hunan Provincial Teachers’ Training College. Its size and equipment and the academic levels of the teaching staff dwarfed all the other schools Mao Zedong had attended before. According to the educational policy expressed in the college charter, ‘in addition to the objectives of the Ministry of Education, the college adopts an up-to-date educational approach’ that placed great emphasis on ‘cultivation of virtue’, ‘physical activity’ and ‘living in society’, as well as ‘every sort of instruction that should encourage initiative’.  This was very much in keeping with the thorough nurturing of moral character and scholarship. The college consistently engaged a teaching facility noted for the breadth and depth of their knowledge, progressive outlook and fine moral character. The faculty included such important scholars as Yang Changji, Xu Teli, Fang Weixia, Wang Jifan, and Li Jinxi. During Mao’s stint in the college, a number of enthusiastic and progressive young men were also enrolled there, such as Cai Hesen, Zhang Kundi, Chen Zhangfu, Luo Xuezan, Zhou Shizhao, Li Weihan, Xiao Zisheng, and Xiao Zizhang. He Shuheng who was seventeen years Mao’s senior and had earlier passed the imperial examination at the county level, was also enrolled in the college at the same time. The first Teachers College was then rightly regarded as a cradle of progressive youth.

The college undoubtedly exerted a great influence on Mao Zedong’s development. He not only acquired a good foundation of knowledge at the school. It was also there, in the context of China’s evolving situation, that he began to develop his own way of thinking and political views, gained initial experience of social action, and befriended quite a few like-minded people.

When Mao entered the Teachers College, China was undergoing a period pf perplexity and depression that was difficult for people to endure. A republic had replaced the imperial dynasty, yet China had not gained a new life. The hope for national independence, democracy and social progress, cherished by people before the 1911 Revolution, was not realized. Instead, in 1915, Japan forced the Beiyang government to accept its so-called ’21 demands’ for domination of China; the warlord Yuan Shikai restored an imperial regime, followed by the farce of an imperial restoration staged by the warlord Zhang Xun, and the entire country then descended into incessant internecine wars among separatist warlord regimes. In the cultural arena, Confucianism opposed and blocked revolutionary thinking. Deep frustration replaced high hope among the people. The harsh realities, however, did not stop a young generation from searching for a way out.

Having become a full-time student, what objectives did Mao Zedong set for his school years?

Young people love to talk about their aspirations and career goals, such as their hopes to become military strategists or educators. Mao Zedong though that his aspirations should concentrate on searching for the truth. Otherwise, he would merely imitate those who had gone before. He was convinced that genuine aspiration required searching for the truth, and then following its lead. As he wrote to his teacher Li Jinxi, in 1917, ‘If in a decade one fails to get at the truth, it is ten years to no purpose; and if not found in a life time, it is a waste of a life.’ Earlier, in a letter to his good friend and classmate Xiao Zisheng, dated September 1915, Mao proposed ‘to study for the sake of others’, or ‘to study for the sake of the people of our country’, or ‘to study for the sake of the people of the world’. Slightly before this, when writing to the same friend, he had said: ‘to be ready to die a most cruel death for the interests of the nation and the masses is indeed an aspiration for a benevolent gentleman’.

Thus, it may be seen that Mao, then learning to be a teacher, had set for himself a course of action that had Chinese society always at heart and tempered willpower with an assiduous quest for knowledge.

In the First Teachers College, the teacher who influenced Mao the most was his teacher of ethics, Yang Changji, Yang, also known as Yang Huasheng, came from Bancang Village near the city of Changsha. He had been brought up under strong, traditional cultural influences, and he was particularly interested in neo-Confucian ideas advocated by Cheng Yi (1033-1107) and Zhu Xi (1130-1200). When he went to Japan for advanced study, Yang gave himself a new first name – Huaizhong, which meant that, while studying abroad, China was in his heart. After he completed six years of study in Japan, Yang went to England for three more years as a student and then he toured Germany and Switzerland before returning to his homeland. After returning to China, Yang declined several offers of jobs in official posts and turned instead to teaching, since he looked on nurturing the younger generations as his duty. Being a man of much learning and great integrity, he drew students to him like a magnet.

In lecturing on the cultivation of moral character, Yang urged students ‘to set lofty life goals, and once set, both words and deeds should be in keeping with these goals’. He further exhorted them to be ‘hard-working’, full of vigour’, ‘able to think independently’ and to ‘take a firm stand’. In addition, he advised his students to be ‘meticulous’ in everything they might do, for ‘a small negligence could spoil a whole undertaking’. He also advocated that, in pursuing knowledge, one should strive for ‘a thorough grasp of both the past and the present and an effective fusion of Chinese and Western ideas’, and develop an analytical and critical spirit. Above all, he spared no effort to encourage his students to cultivate themselves into men of integrity who could be useful to society.

Mao Zedong enjoyed Yang Changji’s lectures immensely and would often go to his home to discuss issues. During vacations, Mao would frequently seek further enlightenment from Yang by calling on him at his home in Banchang. About this experience, Mao himself noted: ‘I’ve made some progress in recent years, not so much from reading books but much more from analysing problems and seeking enlightenment through discussion.’ In 1914, when Mao and his schoolmates organized a study group on philosophy, they invited Yang to be their advisor. Mao recalled the deep affection that developed between the students and their teacher. In a letter to a friend dated July 1915, Mao wrote: ‘In my view, Mr Yang is a great and learned man of very high attainment, far beyond the reach of my ability.’ This indicates that the influence Yang had on young Mao’s character was both subtle and indelible.

Of the thousands of students he taught at Changsha, Mr Yang liked Mao Zedong and Cai Hesen best. He wrote the following in his diary for 5 April 1915:

My student Mao Zedong told me he comes from a secluded area at the border of Xiangtan and Xiangxiang counties… He’s from a peasant family; his father had been a peasant, though he is now engaged in rice trade; his brothers are still farming; and his mother comes from a peasant family. Too, in Xiangxiang. Yet Mao Zedong is very bright and intelligent: This is something quite extraordinary. I have, therefore, always encouraged him, saying that many exceptional people come from peasant families, citing Zeng Guofan and Liang Qichao as examples. Mao Zedong worked as a peasant for two years, and before coming to the college he served in the army for half a year at the time of the republican revolution, which is quite interesting history for this outstanding student.

Clearly, Mr Yang saw Mao as an ‘exceptional’ person

In addition to his frequent visits to Mr Yang, Mao often called on other teachers, including Xu Teli, Li Jinxi and Fang Weixia, at their homes to seek enlightenment. This, too, is recorded in various passages of Li’s diary, where he notes that issues discussed on such occasions included ‘methods of study’, ‘ways and means to study science in school’ and ‘problems of reforming society’.

Mao Zedong called at Li Jinxi’s home as many as twenty times between April and August of 1915. In September, Li Jinxi was summoned to Beijing by the Ministry of Education to serve as a special editor of college textbooks. Mao continued to maintain friendly correspondence with him. Mao had left a deep impression on Li, who wrote in his journal for 31 July: ‘I read Mao’s diary at his place. I found it very practical. His command of written language is superior to that of Zhangfu, though they are equally earnest in performance and both are quite promising young men.’

Among the courses at the First Teachers College, Mao concentrated on cultivation of moral character, philosophy, Chinese literature, history and geography. He did not devote much energy to mathematics or drawing classes. In July 1915, he wrote to a friend:

Heretofore, I did not have a correct approach, studied courses haphazardly, and did not care for the pedantic and trivial details of classroom teaching. I’ve now grown a little older and have made some progress. I’ve decided on a method of study: to read extensively before intensive study” to read Chinese materials before Western materials on the same subject; and to read the relevant books on fundamentals before taking up specialized works on a given subject.

He was diligent and wasted not even a minute. He would get up before dawn to start reading and would read by dim light of street lamps after the ‘lights out’ bugle call in the dormitory. He read conscientiously a large number and a great range of books, including works of famous ancient figures from before the Qin Dynasty right down to thinkers of the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the Histories of Twenty-four Dynasties (Ershisi shi) to Sima Guang’s Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government (Zizhi tongjian), from the Selections of Refined Literature (Zhaoming wenxuan) to the Complete Works of Han Yu (Han Changli quanji), and from the Geographic Annotations on the Study of Chinese History (Dushi fangyu jiyao) by Gu Zhuyu to the local gazetteers of the counties in his home province. In a letter to his good friend Xiao Zisheng, Mao listed seventy-seven ancient classics, histories and philosophical works and collections of writings, and asserted ‘if one wishes to pursue knowledge, these are the works that one must study.

In 1929 when his kinfolk at home heard that Guomindang (GMD) warlord He Jian was to send troops to ransack the home, his family set fire to all the books, notebooks and journals saved by Mao Zedong. A local private school teacher managed to snatch one notebook and two textbooks from the huge heap of burning paper.

The notebook thus saved is a traditional writing page with nine vertical lines on each page. In the first half of the notebook are two great poems by Qu Yuan, Li Sao (Song of Sorrow) and Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), hand-copied by Mao. In the second half of the notebook, headed by the title ‘Classroom Notes’ in Mao’s own handwriting are mainly Mao’s notes on classroom lectures on moral character and the Chinese language, followed by, between October and December 1913, notes he jotted down while reading books.

As a native of Hunan Province, Mao’s selection and study of traditional Chinese culture reflects the prevailing cultural trends of the times in Hunan. The province had a very long tradition of building academies and centres of learning. Many renowned scholars had lectured at Yuelu and Chengnam academies. Both the rationalist Confucian school, which laid stress on the cultivation of moral character, and the practical Confucian school. Which emphasized the art of ruling, had strong influence on the scholars of Hunan. From the centuries of scholarly tradition and constant elucidation, down to the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there emerged a school of thought in Hunan that valued rationalist ethics by stressing practical application and matching words with deeds. Under the influence of this prevailing thought, the students and teachers of Hunan developed great interest in social issues and became enthusiastic participants in political activities. A large number of influential statesmen, military leaders, thinkers and revolutionaries came out of Hunan, making it one of the most dynamic provinces of China in modern history. Before and shortly after the Opium War of 1840, Hunan produced a larger group of noted people such as He Changling, Tao Shu and Wei Yuan, who advocated reforms in both academia and government. Later, Hunan produced staunch advocates for a constitutional monarchy, such as Tan Sitong, Tang Caichang and Xiong Xiling. At the time of the 1911 Revolution, Hunan produced such leaders as Huang Xing, Cai E, Chen Tianhua, Song Jiaoren and Yu Zhimo. Most of these had their schooling in the aforementioned Yuelu Academy.

Earlier, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the noted scholar Wang Fuzhi strongly influenced cultural thought in Hunan. A native of Hunan’s Hengyang County, Wang attended the Yuelu Academy before becoming a renowned scholar and then living as a recluse on Shichuan Mountain. A prolific author, Wang Fuzhi succeeded in developing his own school of thought characterized by a critical approach. He stressed practical application of knowledge, advocating the guidance of ‘rational knowledge by a practical sprit’. He stressed the importance of ‘doing’ in the process of learning, and this was quite an innovative approach.

Yet another renowned figure in the history of modern China came out of Hunan: Zeng Guofan. He and a group of ‘resurgent-China generals and ministers’ that he represented, including Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang, Luo Zenan and Zeng Guoquan were all schooled at one or the other of the two (Changsha) academies. They held to the rationalist Confucian school, but followed Wang Fuzhi’s emphasis on the practical application of knowledge. Zeng Guofan had himself spent much energy in disseminating the Literary Legacy of Wang Fuzhi, and in advocating the integration of the two Confucian schools on cultivation of moral character and the art of government. In suppressing the Taiping Uprising, Zeng Guofan raised the banner of ‘preserving the right doctrine’, and he was very strict in strengthening the discipline of troops and improving the efficiency of administration. Zeng was also one of the early representatives of the movement to adapt things from abroad (within the framework of the imperial regime of the Qing dynasty), and he left no small impact.

In his determination to pursue knowledge, Mao Zedong was continually influenced by this cultural environment. Once admitted to the First Teachers College, he was impressed by the atmosphere. He was very impressed at the student assembly, during which they would sing the lines of the school song:

To the west of Hengshan

And the east of Yuelu

Our school is the heart of Hunan. As metal may be melted

So people are moulded.

Fine minds and noble character nurtured here

Have spawned men of achievement through the ages.

Give it your best, young men! Become heroes in our time!

Yang Changji was a graduate of the Yuelu Academy, and under his guidance the research into Wang Fuzhi’s philosophy became popular in the First Teachers College. Mao devoted considerable energy to this school of thought. He often attended lectures at the Chuanshan Academic Society, which was named after Wang Fuzhi and founded by Liu Renxi, a close friend of Yang. Mao also studied the works of Zeng Guofan, including Family Correspondence of Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guofan’s Diary. In his Classroom Notes, Mao jotted down a fair number of Zeng Guofan’s remarks. Some of them, quoted from Zeng’s diary, were to this effect: ‘The diary of Disheng [Zeng Guofan’s style name]: A righteous man aiming at reforming society should attach great importance to the two principles of magnanimity and practicality. To be magnanimous rules out the jealousy of others; to be practical means to refrain from boasting, from seeking undeserved fame, from ostentation, and from high-sounding words that are not practical.’ From this, it seems that Mao favoured a sure-footed, down-to-earth approach to life. At this time, Mao regarded Zeng Guofan as a great man, capable of both ‘spreading enlightenment’ and ‘getting things done’. In a letter to Li Jinxi, Mao listed Zeng Guofan, Kang Youwei, Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai as ‘men of the hour’, adding that among them he held Zeng Guofan in particularly high esteem.

The Hunan way of emphasizing application, manifested as a mode of thought, was simply to reason from fact (shishi qiushi).

This concept (shishi qiushi) is first found in the chapter Life of Prince Xian’ in History of the Han Dynasty written by Ban Gu (32-92). Its original meaning was that only if true facts are emphasized as the basis for research and knowledge can one reach accurate and reliable conclusions. In 1916, the chancellor of the Yuelu Classics Academy erected above the academy’s main gate a large horizontal board with four Chinese characters inscribed on it. Mao Zedong, who during two school vacations attended lectures at the academy at the recommendation of Professor Yang Changji, was deeply impressed by those four characters at the entrance to the school. Twenty years later, Mao gave the phrase a new interpretation and had the same four-character inscription hung up at the entrance to the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Yan’an.

One of the 'Guidelines for Educating Students' of the First Teachers College stated that education  should emphasize a practical approach so that students might understand major events of the contemporary world correctly, and so that they might gain sound knowledge of the actual conditions  of society. In following this approach, Mao studied the fine works of Chinese cultural heritage and was much impressed by the works and views of a number of great  thinkers. These included: Gu Yanwu of the Qing Dynasty, who advocated 'practical studies' in place of 'rational studies'; Wang Fuzhi, who initiated the idea of 'practice first, then knowledge'; and Yan Yuan, who advised 'having a myriad  abstract thoughts and discussions is not equal to doing one righteous act'. In his Classroom Notes, Mao jotted down a number of sayings and comments  in this vein. These included: 'Whatever you do, do it in earnest; whatever you study, put your whole mind to it; . . . The  right learning process since ancient times is to practise what one has learned;  ... It is useless to study behind closed doors; one should integrate one's book­ learning with relevant affairs of state and a multitude of things and issues in the world.' Mao particularly singled out Gu Yanwu for praise: 'He carefully relied on experience to analyse important matters one by one, so as to get at the root causes of the conditions  of people's lives and the nation's fate. He travelled widely to see things for himself, and relied on actual conditions  to get a good grasp of the land, the sufferings and hardships, and the good and the bad together.'

Clearly influenced by these great thinkers and having absorbed the essence of such a fine heritage in his jotted notes, Mao believed in the crucial importance of studying the actual conditions of society. He often told his school­ mates that they should not only study 'books with words', but also 'books without words' - by which he meant the real conditions of society.

In the summer vacation of 1917, Mao Zedong invited his good friend Xiao Zisheng, who had just graduated from the First Teachers College and was teaching in Chuyi Elementary School, to go with  him on a field trip. Each carried only an umbrella, a bag of simple clothes, and a writing case. In the local parlance of Hunan, to take such a 'field trip' was referred to as 'to raise the autumn wind'. The penniless scholars relied on composing poetry and writing a few lines for the local gentry in exchange for coins to buy food at each stop, very much  as if they were beggars. They travelled in this way for more than a month and covered more than 900 li (450 km). They observed the social life of the many towns and villages in the five counties of Changsha, Ningxiang, Anima, Yiyang and Yuanjiang. On their journey they got acquainted with and chatted with all sorts of people, such as peasants, boatmen, local gentry, county magistrates, an elderly member of the Hanlin Academy, a director of an education publicity centre, and abbots of Buddhist and Daoist temples and shrines; and they took many notes. After he returned to the First Teachers College, Mao Zedong's classmates read the notes of his field trip, and they referred to him as 'one who travelled with no money but the fate of the nation in his heart'. To have a memento of this study tour' Mao invited Xiao to have a photo taken at a photo studio, with both of them wearing the same straw sandals and shorts they had worn on the tour. Later, Mao made more such field trips. He made a second tour with Cai Hesen in the spring vacation of the following year. That tour, which lasted for more than a fortnight, covered several other counties along the southern and eastern banks of Dongting Lake, including Xiangyin, Yueuang, Pingjiang, and Liuyang counties. This was the beginning of what was to become Mao Zedong's way of concentrating on investigation and study in his later life.

Chinese society was at that time in the midst of great upheaval and turbulence. Mao felt this keenly, and he spent about one-third of his college allowance (more than 160 Chinese silver dollars during five years of schooling) in subscribing to journals and buying books. He read the journals and newspapers daily, and often consulted maps or reference works and jotted down notes. Thus, when discussing current events with his school mates, he was able to analyse events and issues rationally and logically, and he would offer his comments with conviction, so he was given the nickname 'expert on current events'. This, in turn, further enhanced his sense of duty to Chinese society.

Nor were the college classrooms tranquil.

In January 1915, the Japanese government tempted Yuan Shikai with 'support for ascending the throne' and then put to him the '21 demands'. They issued ultimatums to Yuan on 7 May, and on 9 May Yuan's government replied indicating a basic willingness to accept the demands. The whole nation was indignant at the revelation of Yuan Shikai's move. The students of the First Teachers College compiled and printed a collection of statements and articles condemning the imminent acceptance of a treaty of national betrayal. They titled it Essays on the Sense of Shame, and on its cover Mao Zedong wrote a four-line Pledge:

The seventh of May,

The Republic suffered

extraordinary shame;

How to achieve

revenge?

Through our

generation!

About this time, Yi Yongqi, Mao's close friend and classmate' died of illness. On 23 May, for the memorial service held by the students' association, Mao Zedong wrote a long elegy in classical poetic style' which contained the following lines:

Deeply grieved, I intone this elegy

By the hills, lush and green,

And one day I'll take up the spear.

To the east lies an aggressive island nation

And to our north, those who owe us debts of blood.

We people are destined to wipe out national

humiliation, Though we come from humble stock!

This elegy is Mao's first work in the old forty-line five-character style, and it is the oldest surviving piece of poetry in Mao Zedong's own hand. The elegy, together with his inscription on Essays on the Sense of Shame, indicates the young Mao's heavy heart at a time when the nation was in misery and danger, and it also shows his desire to avenge the nation's honour.

National crises imposed from abroad were invariably linked to internal politics of old China. Yuan Shikai launched frenzied covert activities to restore an imperial regime. To that purpose, his assistant Yang Du began recruiting prominent figures for a 'preparatory committee for national security'. In Hunan, it was rumoured that Professor Li Jinxi, Mao Zedong's former teacher, then seeking a job in Beijing, had been dragooned into that preparatory committee. On hearing this, Mao wrote to Li on 9 November 1915: 'Evil forces are increasingly rampant and justice is being suppressed. At this critical juncture, righteous men should refrain from being dragged into the evil forces, and wait for the moment to take proper action. It is advisable not to seek a job just now.' He further advised Li to quit Beijing, 'that stinking, rotten place', and hurry home without delay'. Later on, however, when the rumour about Li proved groundless, Mao felt relieved and instantly wrote a letter of apology to Professor Li.

The waves of protest against Yuan Shikai's attempt to restore an imperial regime surged so high across the country that even Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and Tang Hualong, who had been prominent advocates of constitutional monarchy before the 1911 Revolution, joined the protests against Yuan. Mao Zedong, who was then secretary of the students' association, took the lead to compile the statements of protest by the three noted statesmen into a pamphlet entitled Penetrating Statements on the National Situation by Tang, Kang and Liang and to circulate the pamphlet among the students. One of his schoolmates, Chen Chang, who had just graduated from the college, wrote in his diary of 28 April 1916: 'Received a letter from Runzhi (Mao Zedong) at 8:00 this morning. It contained a copy of Penetrating Statements on the National Situation by Tang, Kang and Liang, which Mao kindly gave to me.'

Yuan Shikai died on 6 June 1916, only eighty-three days after his proclamation as 'Emperor'. He was succeeded as president by Li Yuanhong, who proclaimed restoration of the provisional constitution of the first year of the republic. Duan Qirui became prime minister and assumed political authority in Beijing. Fearing that prolonged confrontation could induce a revolution, Liang Qichao, who had helped organize the 'battles against Yuan in defence of the republic', began to advocate reconciliation between the warlord regime in northern China and the forces in southern China. Mao Zedong who was staunchly opposed to Yuan's restoration of the imperial regime, did not then see the true colours of the northern warlords, who had Yuan's blessing and on whom Yuan had relied, so at that time Mao favoured Liang's strategy of reconciliation. At the end of June, Mao hurried back to Shaoshan to visit his ailing mother, but he was not able to reach his hometown because of disturbance caused by some southern troops. He felt all the more that the political situation should not remain unsettled any longer.

On 18 and 25 July, Mao wrote twice to Xiao Zisheng, his former school-mate, giving his views on the current situation. In the letters, Mao analysed the situation:

Following resolution of the three major issues of the constitution, parliament and the cabinet on 30 June, the southern provinces have rescinded their earlier proclamations of independence and abolished military councils. The national situation seems to be moving towards reconciliation. This I attribute to the wisdom of the revolutionary southern leaders having the nation's larger interests at heart, to the crucial role of the good offices of Duan, and to the sincerity of His Excellency Li, who has made exceptional contributions... These measures taken by the central authorities are praiseworthy.

One can see that Mao then put Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong on a par with the southern provincial parliamentary leaders in his esteem.

The people of Hunan then expelled Tang Xiangming, the provincial inspector-general appointed by Yuan Shikai. In his letters to Xiao mentioned above, Mao reported some of the adverse circumstances that followed Tang's expulsion. These included: 'opportunistic revenge by violent mobs', 'presumptious appointments', defying central authorities, and the like. [He further noted:] 'These mishaps in Hunan surpass those following the 1911 Revolution . . . Once killing begins, the vicious cycle of revenge will continue. Though the terror following the French Revolution was dreadful, these mishap have unfortunately occured here in this province.' From these letters it appears that Mao's views on state and government were still in tentative evolution, and that there was in his views an ingredient of the 'bloodless revolution' that he favoured for a while.

It was also around this time that the chinese press published reports of an imminent reshuffle of the Japanese cabinet headed by Okuma Shigenobu. Since Okuma was the arch-criminal who had crafted the '21 demands', many people hoped that with Okuma stepping down Japan might improve its policy towards China. Mao Zedong thought otherwise. In a letter to Xiao Zisheng on 25 July 1916, Mao stated:

'No matter who takes over the post of Japanese prime minister, there will be no change in Japan's China policy. Pondering the matter repeatedly, I cannot but think that Japan is our nation's menacing aggressor.' Mao went on to say that, between China and lapan, 'within 20 years, war cannot be avoided, and we will have to fight against their aggression for national survival, yet our people are not awakened to the danger and pay little attention to the Japanese moves. To my mind, we must steel ourselves to face Japan if we wish to protect future generations.'

The Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1937. The words of the 24-year-old teacher-training student were right on the mark.

If we view Mao Zedong's education at the First Teachers College as being in two stages, the year 1916 was the turning point. In the first stage, he focused more on studying classical works; and in the second, he laid greater stress on studying philospphy and ethics, together with more experience gained in closer contact with society. The purpose of his study remained a search for truth to address national crises, but the content of his learning changed.

This change had a relationship to the evolving situation in the nation's intellectual world of that time.

The distressing experiences in the few years following the 1911 Revolution had a salutary effect on China's progressives. If the old ways no longer worked, new paths had to be discovered. Yuan Shikai's proclaiming himself emperor and Zhang Xun's attempt to restore an imperial regime served to awaken many people. A good number came to realize that the crucial reason why a republican system could not be realized and consolidated lay in the lack of a thorough criticism of the feudal old ideology, old culture and old ethical code; and that another key reason for the repeated failures of the struggles for national salvation waged by the nation's progressives was that the Chinese people looked at the incidents 'as if watching a fire from across the river, looking on with indifference'. Progressive elements of the nation began to shift their attention to ideology and culture, and to advocate fundamental transformation of the national mentality. It was in this context that Chen Duxiu, who had been general secretary of the Anhui provincial government at the time of the 1911 Revolution, in September 1915 launched the publication of Youth magazine (renamed New Youth one year later). Chen wrote in the journal, 'Ethical consciousness is our ultimate awakening.'

That marked the origin of the early stages of the New Culture Movement. It was not long before a large number of progressive young people rallied arround New Youth. The journal and its contributing writers helped foster the political convictions and moral character of a new generation - young people distinct from the old-style scholar-officials who had been brought up under the old feudal culture.

In those days, Mao Zedong was one of the many readers and followers of New Youth, which his teacher Yang Changji had recommended to his students and to which Professor Yang contributed articles for publication. As his friend and classmate Zhou Shizhao recalled, once Mao began to read New Youth regularly, 'he showed less interest in classical works such as Han Yu's essays and Du Fu' s poems'. Later, Mao Zedong himself said, 'I first began to read that journal when i was a student at the First Teachers College I very much appreciated its articles written by Dr Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu.. For a while they became my role models.'

Mao accordingly began an exploration along the lines of the early stages of the New Culture Movement. He felt 'the Chinese people are weighed down by the ills of feudal culture, their thoughts outdated, their moral character eroded'. To change such an attitude, people had to 'Begin with reformation of philosophy and ethics through studying philosophy and ethics, and then use them to bring about a fundamental change in national ideology.' He felt that philosophy would encourage the sudy and exchange of of ideas, and that ethics would contribute to cultivating moral character, for 'thought rules the mind, but virtue regulates action'. In this way, reform of philosophical thinking and ethical codes was closely linked to reforming the country and society. Such a view was quite common among the intelligentsia of that period.

Around 1917, Mao Zedong read manyworks on philosophy and ethics. Of the two, he took greater interest in ethics. In his view, 'Ethics is a science which determines one's life goals and also provides the means for attaining those objectives.' In his diary for 26 September 1917, Luo Xuezan noted: 'I have just finished reading the seven books on Western ethics that I borrowed from Mao Zedong in the sixth month of the old lunar calendar'. In fact, these were the History of Western Ethics, as translated by Yang Changji, and Mao Zedong had hand-copied the whole thing. In the second half of 1917, Yang Changji lectured to students on ethics, and the text he used was A system of Ethics by Paulsen, who belonged to the school of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. That textbook, totalling about 100'000 Chinese characters, was translated from the Japanese by Professor Cai Yuanpei, and published by the Commercial Press in 1913. Mao Zedong not only listened attentively to Professor Yang's lectures, but also studied the textbook assiduously. He used the colours red and black to put in symbols such as circles, triangles and crosses, as well as underlining and double-underlining for emphasis. Moreover, Mao wrote a lot of comments and marginal notes, totalling more than 12,000 Chinese characters. These mainly Mao’s own philosophical thinking, his own concept of history, and his outlook on life, as well as his interpretations and criticisms of the original work. Only a small portion of these notes were comments of approval or terse summaries or gists of chapters or sections of the book. This very copy of the book was later borrowed from Mao by one of his schoolmates, who did not return it until 1950 via Zhou Shizhao.

Why did he spend so much time and energy studying this book? When he got the book back from Zhou Shizhao, Mao explained:

The views expounded in the book were not quite correct, not pure materialism but rather a dualism of mind and matter. Since what we had been reading up to that time were all works of idealism, once we came into contact with materialist works we found them to be new and original and also quite reasonable, and the more we read the more we were intriqued by them. It inspired me to criticize other books I had read earlier and to analyse problems I came across at that time.

The basic views contained in his marginal notes and comments on A System of Ethics seem to be philosophical dualism. He noted clearly:

Human life and death are based on the conservation of spirit and conservation of matter (spirit and matter are not absolutely two separate things, but actually one thing, two coexisting as one)." He felt that some things occured naturally and others were fashioned by man. In later years, he said that in his early youth he had once believed in Kant’s duality of mind and matter, and he was doubtless then referring to these early views.

Dualism tries to reconcile idealism and materialism. In his earl youth, Mao’s inclination towards materialism found expression largely in his outlook on nature, so he then noted: “All natural laws are inexorable laws.... Human beings, as part of nature, are governed by laws of nature ... Our minds are based on nature, so they are limited in scope and there is little room for originality. This was the bridge whereby he moved gradually away from his previously accepted idealism towards accepting Marxist dialectical materialism. Yet the usual shortcomings of dualism creep into the domain of history because ideal explanations are convenient. Mao Zedong was no exception. He noted: ‘In reality, the history of world civilization has been governed by perceptions; ... perceptions created civilization; true; very true.’

It was not merely accidental that the young Mao Zedong stressed so much the role of subjective perceptions. At a time when intellectual circles were embracing revolutionary ideas, it was only natural that the role of consciousness was exaggerated and that the subjective ability to reform was overemphasized. This also had something to do with Mao's fairly long exposure to the works of Confucius and Mencius, and to those of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren of the neo-Confucian school and to works of neo-Kantian and neo-Hegelian schools of philosophy. Mao’s teacher Yang Changji, in commenting on his use of A System of Ethics as his textbook, also noted: ‘While teaching this course, I did not confine myself to ethical theories of the West, but associated these with the teachings of China’s ancient masters, including Confucius, Mencius, and the neo-Confucians such as Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai, Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming) and Wang Fuzhi. Yang's lectures particularly highlighted the role of subjective intitiative advocated earlier by Lu Jingyuan and Wang Shouren. All of this influenced young Mao Zedong, who discussed the philosophical thought of the Song and Ming dynasties at length with schoolmates Cai Hesen and Zhang Kundi. Mao had also studied the works of Zhu Xi, including his Reflections on Things at hand (Jin silu), Annotations to the Four Books and Sayings of Master Zhu etc. Mao held both Zhu Xi and Wang Shouren, the noted neo-Confucianists, in high esteem. Mao often made comparisons, and his comments include : 'Whereas Mencius emphasizes inner righteousness, Wang Shouren rationalism as the core of perception, and both stem from intuitionism;.... the theories of our scholars of the Song Dynasty are similar to those advanced by Immanuel Kant of Germany.'

At that time, Chinese society was in the course of great change. The old traditional order was collapsing; foreign aggression and internal fighting were recurrent; and the nation’s political scene was fraught with turmoil. This led to an important trend of seeking a way out by 'taking action' and 'effecting change’. Such a feature of the times was also reflected in Mao's efforts, blended with a touch of dialectics.

In 1917, he asserted: ‘The universe has always been active.' In his marginal notes to A System of Ethics, he wrote: ‘The world is filled with innumerable changes.’ He further applied this to human history, noting that history is a process whereby order and disorder have occurred alternately, and added that he was particularly fond of the times of 'hundreds of changes and outstanding people’ as in the eras of the seven contending powers of the Warring States (475-221 BC), the strife between Chu and Han (about 206 BC) and the Three Kingdoms (200-80). He considered: ‘It is not because I live discorder, but leisure and tranquility cannot last long and they are not life’s purpose, and human beings seem inclined to rapid change.’ He likewise applied this viewpoint to the national situation of China at that time, and wrote: “The country is changing, and this is essential for national renewal and social progress.’ With respect to Chinese society, he meant 'We must reconstruct’, and the method of reconstruction was ‘to create from destruction, as a child breaks away from his mother’s womb’. He further added: “We people want such destruction, for only by the destruction of the old world can a new world be constructed.’ In these words, one can see his optimism and strong passion for transforming society. This seems to be an early indication of his later concept of achieving great order by overcoming great disorder.

What, then, was the inherent basis for this search for change and renewal in ‘action’? At this stage, Mao particularly emphasized two concepts. One was ‘difference’. He wrote: “Everything in the human world is manifested by difference and comparison’, such as yin and yang, up and down, large and small, good and bad, beauty and ugliness, right and wrong, positive and negative, brightness and darkness, victory and defeat, and so on. “Without such differences and comparisons, historical life is devoid of content. Evolution is the explanation of the conditions of successive change.’ The other concept was ‘resistance’, namely the stress and resistance brought about by differences. Mao Zedong particularly endorsed Paulsen’s perspective that all human endeavour and civilization ‘can come about only through decisive victory over resistance’, and praised Paulsen’s assertion that ‘without resistance there is no dynamic’ as ‘most true’ and ‘most thorough’. Mao wrote emotionally in his marginal notes: 'The Yellow River, having rushed through Tongguan and confronting the resistance of Mount Hua, gathers greater momentum and flows on furiously. The wind, having reached the Three Gorges and being blocked by Mount Wu, reinforces itself and roars on with added rage’; “A sage is one who gains success through resisting major evils.’ By that time, a great change from his earlier aspiration for ‘great harmony’ was apparent. He felt that, even if human society were in a state of ‘great harmony’, there still would be various ‘waves of competition and resistance, making it impossible for people to rest at ease in the great harmony’. Moreover, linking the concepts of ‘difference’ and ‘resistance’ with his advocacy of ‘action’, ‘change’ and ‘creation from destruction’ reveals Mao Zedong’s world-perception as evolving towards the dialectical viewpoints of contradictions and transformation of contradictions, and that he was beginning to integrate these concepts with his analysis of historical developments in society. This could be seen as the beginnings of his later theory enunciating the universality of contradictions.

‘The most outstanding fundamental point in Mao Zedong’s thinking in the period just before the May Fourth Movement of 1919 was that of grasping the ‘essence’ or the ‘fundamental and essential elements’. His idea was that, when faced by all sorts of objects and events, one should proceed from the overall context and strive to grasp the essence; and, that once the essence was grasped, non-essential issues could readily be solved. Later, he also stressed the importance of grasping the main points, grasping the main contradictions, ‘focusing on the key link so everything else falls into place’, and that ‘minor principles must be subordinated to larger ones’. However, what he regarded then as ‘essence’ or ‘essential elements’ seems to be similar to concepts advanced by philosophers of objective idealism, ideas such as ‘dao’ (Lao Zi), ‘rational form’ (Plato) or ‘absolute essence’ (Hegel), as basic principles of universal creation and development. In the same vein, Zhu Xi stressed that all events and things have their origin in ‘one source’, and ‘if the essence is not established, then the specifics cannot be accurate’. When lecturing on ethics, Yang Changji emphasized: ‘All phenomena in the universe originate in an essential law, and we must devote all of our attention to grasp it; this is what is meant by having a thorough knowledge of the essence.’

In a long letter of 23 August 1917 to Li Jinxi, Mao Zedong elaborated on his views on ‘essence’. In plain language, Mao described ‘the essence’ as ‘the law governing the universe’ and said he felt that it also governs the historical development of society. He went on in the letter to say that he felt that national salvation must begin with seeking to grasp the essence of the problem, and that for some time to come he would ‘concentrate on exploring the essence of the problem, and once the essence is grasped, other issues may be readily addressed’.

In the same letter, Mao also wrote down his prescription for national salvation:

Up to now, reform measures have all been intended to deal with non-essential issues such as those relating to parliament, the constitution, the presidency of the republic, the cabinet, military affairs, industrialization, education and the like. Not that these are inconsequential, but rather that efforts should be made to trace the essence and origin [of all of them]. If we do not grasp the essence, these measures are merely cumbersome, incoherent, fragmented and piecemeal.

He added emphatically, ‘If we awaken the people with the essence of the problem, wouldn't their hearts be moved? If their hearts are all moved, wouldn’t the issues be solved? If the issues are thus properly solved, wouldn’t our country become strong, prosperous and a happy place to live?’

This letter is a precious informational relic about Mao Zedong’s early thought. When he got the letter, Li Jinxi wrote in his diary on 31 August: ‘Have just received a letter from Runzhi [Mao Zedong], which contains some bright ideas; he is truly out of the common run.’

Linking the ‘essence’ with ‘the hearts of the people’ reflected Mao’s outlook on life, his sense of values, and his advocacy of moral and ethical cultivation. In his marginal notes to Paulsen’s A System of Ethics, Mao summed up his approach at that time as having two aspects: one was ‘individualism in spirit’, and the other was 'realism'.

Quite probably influenced by Professor Yang Changji, who taught taught them ethics and self-development, these progressive young people liked to discuss the topics of virtue and character development. In August 1915, Mao mailed an essay he had written in his diary, titled ‘Self-criticism’, to Xiao Zisheng, who was known for his bombastic style of declamation. The essay was written in succinct classical Chinese, which could be interpreted as follows:

One day a friend of mine came, and asked if I knew a kind of wild gourd which grows sturdy like wild grasses, and catches little attention. But when autumn falls, it produces rich fruit. A sharp contrast to this are the fragile garden plants like peonies, which vie with each other for beauty in springtime, when their brilliant blossoms attract people’s attention and appreciation. But when the cold wind blows in autumn, they wither and their petals and leaves are all blown away by the wind. Nothing is left on them then. 'As a student, my dear Mao’, he asked me, ‘on which of them will you model your conduct?’ I answered, ‘Naturally, I want to be the gourd, because it leaves behind much fruit' But my friend said frankly: Your deeds don't match your words at all. I find you are very eager to show off once you've achieved something. And you love to assemble people and be their leader. As to your style of work, I find you hanker a lot after fame and publicity, instead of remaining indifferent to what others think of you. You are strong in appearance but weak in reality. And you are quite complacent. Aren’t you just like a peony? If you go on like this will you score any concrete achievement in the end? Just now you said you wanted to model your conduct on that of the gourd. Isn’t that dishonest? Isn’t that an insult to the gourd?’ To this criticism, I could find no reply. It put me to shame, and I felt very uncomfortable. I left in an agony of embrassment.

No one knows whether Mao did have such a bosom friend who once had this serious talk with him, or whether Mao himself fabricated the incident for the sake of self-criticism. But one thing is sure: Mao’s act of strictly, even relentlessly, examining his own shortcomings, and honestly informing his friend is a typical example of how Mao and his group of progressive youth pursued ‘a bright and positive’ personality. It’s hard to imagine that a person who pays little attention to tempering his or her own outlook on life will be able to chart a course in life towards the ideal of communism, and work to turn himself or herself into a selfless and devoted proletarian revolutionary. It was a brilliant, lifelong characteristic of Mao Zedong to undertake constant self-examination and pursue lofty morals. In the early days of party building, Mao wrote a sincere letter to mediate between two members of the New People’s Study Society, in which he examined his own strong points and shortcomings, as well as those of his two friends. Even in his late years, Mao time and again mentioned that he appreciated Lu Xun’s way of criticizing himself more deeply than others.

As an antithesis to the feudal shackles of the ‘three cardinal guides’ and the ‘five constant virtues’, advocating ‘individualism’ was at that time quite prevalent and had positive implications. As Mao Zedong noted: ‘Heretofore, I was inclined to self-abnegation, feeling that the universe is there, with or without my presence; now, I tend to think otherwise, and feel that the universe and I are at one.' He felt that the aim of mankind was self-realization. However, by linking ‘spirit’ with ‘individualism’ he added his own special characteristics to the concept. His sort of individualism stressed ‘giving full play to both mental and physical capabilities’ in order to attain the highest possible selfdevelopment to ensure that ‘both inner contemplation and overt actions are on the right track’. By ‘right track’, he meant not mere ‘self-benefit’ but rather the realizing of ideal and moral values. For instance, [he wrote that] when considering loved ones in critical difficulties: ‘It is better to die one’s self than to let your loved ones die; and only in this way can I express my affection and have peace of mind.’ Otherwise, one’s life will be flawed, and then one ‘cannot be on the right track’. Accordingly, he praised ‘all those in both ancient and modern times, the dutiful sons, upright women, loyal statesmen, chivalrous friends, those who are self-sacrificing, patriots, those who love the world, and those who are dedicated to their beliefs, who value the spirit’. Mao even went as far as writing: ‘For humans, it is the spiritual life, not the corporeal flesh, that lives on.’ His view went beyond the original implications of individualism advocated by the bourgeoisie of the modern Western world, and contained rudiments of a new sense of morality.

With respect to ‘realism’, Mao felt that, given the shortness of life, one should not stray from reality to seek illusory ideals or abstract values, but rather should strive to realize achievable goals within the limited lifespan. He wrote: ‘We must be practical and realistic. Once we take a course of action that is practical and achievable, we must pursue it with all our might. Once committed to a course which is appropriately formulated after careful consideration, we must put it into practice, leaving no stone unturned.’ On the one hand, he was opposed to empty talk, saying ‘Whatever one has set one’s mind to, one should be committed to carrying it out.’ On the other hand, he laid great stress on subjecting all actions to the guidance of correct thinking, adding that he was opposed to acting blindly.

Mao Zedong wrote: ‘I am a lofty man, and at the same time I am a lowly man.’ ‘Lofty’ meant seeking independence and freedom from bondage. ‘Lowly’ indicates that, after all, we ‘cannot transcend our own world to the least degree’. Mao did, therefore, perceive a contradiction, but he did not then provide an explanation.

Mao Zedong wondered about, and explored, the realms of philosophy and ethics. He drew on both the Chinese and foreign cultural heritages, and sprinkled them with his personal sparks of wisdom that emanated from his own independent analysis and judgement. At that time, it was, of course, impossible for him to get at ‘the truth governing the universe’. Indeed, idealism’s characteristic of over-rating the power of the mind or spirit still had a fairly important place in his thinking. It was at that time he wrote an essay titled ‘Power of the Mind’, which won high commendation from Yang Changji, and it was given a mark of‘100’.

However, Mao Zedong’s ideology had not yet formed. While reading A System of Ethics, he wrote a letter to Li Jinxi, in which he said: ‘I do not believe I have achieved my life’s goal. I have not yet arrived at a conclusion as to how to perceive the universe, life, the state, and matters relating to education.’ Since he had ‘not yet arrived at a conclusion’, Mao had to explore further, which was a common phenomenon among the young intellectuals of the time. Thanks to his sticking to the line of taking national salvation and transforming society as his points of departure, the positive aspects of his thinking evolved in line with the progress of the times, and they gradually gained the upper hand. Moreover, thanks to his lifelong style of matching words with deeds and of seeking steady progress, he was able to pay great attention to his own ideological and moral cultivation as he continued his theoretical explorations.

Mao had felt that reading ‘books without words’ was more important than reading ‘books with words’. Perhaps the record of his extra-curricular activities may be more expressive of his personal characteristics and youthful vigour than the few still-surviving essays he had then written. They seem to have had greater bearing on the later development of his thinking [than ‘books with words’].

It is interesting that the very first published essay by Mao Zedong, who later became a great revolutionary, statesman and thinker known to the whole world, was on the topic of physical culture. The essay was ‘A Study of Physical Education’, and it appeared in the 1 April 1917 issue of New Youth. It consisted of approximately 7,000 characters, and Mao used the pen-name ‘28-Stroke Student’ for ‘Mao Zedong’. The essay was recommended to Chen Duxiu by Yang Changji.

At the beginning of the essay, Mao linked physical education with national strength, saying: ‘It is disquieting to note that the physique of the Chinese people gets increasingly weak, that martial arts are neglected, and that the nation’s strength is diminishing.’ He went on to say ‘One’s body is the carrier of knowledge and moral values’, and that from middle school onwards, equal stress should be laid on the cultivation of moral character, intellect and a strong physique. Furthermore, against the then-prevailing trend of overemphasizing knowledge from books and belittling physical training, Mao said emphatically in the essay: ‘To attain intellectual refinement, one must first train oneself to acquire a body as strong as that of a barbarian.’ This is because physical training has the benefit of strengthening one’s muscles, widening one’s scope of knowledge, regulating one’s feelings and tempering one’s willpower. And ‘willpower is a prerequisite for attaining success in one’s career’. It can thus be seen that this essay, though titled ‘A Study of Physical Education’, is not a study of the forms of physical culture. Rather, the essay seems aimed at advocating a valorous spirit in one’s outlook on life.

It was about this time that Mao wrote the following words in his diary, words that later became very popular: ‘There is boundless pleasure in struggling against adverse elements, whether of nature, of the land, or of men.’

In ‘A Study of Physical Education’, Mao recommended to his readers a set of gymnastic exercises he had choreographed. He also listed the various kinds of physical training he was practising at the time: sun-bathing, wind-bathing, rain-bathing, taking cold showers, swimming, mountain climbing, camping, long-distance walking, gymnastics and shadow boxing.

With regard to the ‘wind-bathing’, Zhang Kundi (one of Mao’s classmates) had this to say in his diary of 23 September 1917:

Early this morning, Cai [Hesen], Mao [Zedong], and I climbed Mount Yuelu. We went on along the ridge until we reached the slope behind the academy. A strong wind came up, and the air smelled exceptionally cool and fresh. We were all taking a cool-air bath and a wind-bath, and felt so refreshed, as if we were remote from the hustle and bustle of the vulgar world.

With respect to the ‘rain-bathing’, Mao once climbed alone to the top of Mount Yuelu on a summer night when a rain storm ran wild with thunder and lightning. He said he then experienced the delight of ‘ascending to a lofty mountain without losing his bearings despite a thunder storm’, as depicted in Book of History. Of all physical exercises, young Mao liked swimming best. As was known to many people later, it remained his favourite exercise until the last years of his life. In those days, the Xiang River, known for its width and depth at that point, served as a natural swimming pool, where Mao would often swim with several of his friends. He organized a college swimming club of almost 100 schoolmates for evening swims in the Xiang River. Luo Xuezan, one of his classmates, wrote in his diary of 22 September 1917:

Today we swam in the Xiang River towards Shuiluzhou inlet. Though some said the north wind was too strong and the weather too cold, we didn’t mind. We didn’t feel the cold once we got into the river, and we did not catch cold after the swim. In fact, we benefitted a lot from the physical exercise; it made our skin tougher, promoted blood circulation, strengthened the lungs and other internal organs, and increased our energy and stamina. This is the best among all sports. Is other people’s saying trustworthy?

Mao himself also recollected the experience later, when he wrote in 1958:

In those years, most of our schoolmates had just started to learn to swim, and because of the rising water level in summer a few were drowned. However, a lot of us persevered and kept swimming in the Xiang River even into the late winter. Once we chanted a poem, which I have by now almost forgotten except for these two lines, ‘believing that one can live up to 200 years old, we should swim no less than 3,000 li (1,500 km) in a lifetime’.

Swimming strengthened not only his body, but also his confidence and will.

Mao Zedong always stressed that one should have strong willpower. In his Classroom Notes, for example, he wrote: ‘If one remains steadfast and grasps the essentials, one is sure to succeed’; ‘If one is not perplexed by fame, one will remain sure-footed, and if one refrains from chasing what is fashionable, one will maintain one’s integrity’; ‘Lu Xiangshan [of the thirteenth century] said: “One should always press forwards, breaking all shackles, clearing a path overgrown with brambles, and sweeping away the filth and mire [so one can remain open and above-board]”.’ Mao’s later life testified to his extraordinary willpower, which kept defying obstacles and hardships. Basing his willpower on the solid ground of‘grasping the essentials’ seems to have been an important factor that contributed to his achievements in his lifetime.

While at school, Mao often told his friends that a real man should in a sense be eccentric - reading unusual books, making unusual friends, doing unusual things, and being an unusual man. His schoolmates nicknamed him ‘Odd Mao’ (pronounced ‘Mao-ki’ locally), which was taken as a homonym for the famous Prussian strategist and general Moltke. In June 1917, the First Teachers (College held an all-round contest among the students, covering altogether some twenty items in three areas: morality, intellect and physical culture.

About 400 students participated, and there were 34 prize-winners. Mao won the highest number of votes in the contest, winning ‘votes of commendation’ in all three categories. He was the only one who also won positive votes for ‘courage’, and received the citation: ‘courageous and enterprising, fully aware and observant, and quick to perceive and to act’.

Mao Zedong’s courage found singular expression in an incident that occurred half a year later, of which all his schoolmates thought very highly.

The civil war in November 1917 was fought by the southern provinces to defend the constitution against troops of the northern warlords. The northern troops were suffering defeats and had to withdraw northwards along the railroad from the Hengbao area in southern Hunan, towards Changsha. The inhabitants of Changsha were in a panic. The First Teachers College, located in the southern suburbs of Changsha, was close to the railroad, so the retreating troops of the northern warlords would probably come to it and perhaps loot it. The college authorities were thinking of temporarily dispersing the students to areas east of Changsha. Mao Zedong, who was then director of general affairs of the students’ association, proposed that the schoolmates who were then undergoing military training could be mobilized to form a volunteer corps to defend the campus. The proposal won the approval of the college authorities, and detachments of the volunteer corps were formed to stand guard. The stragglers of the retreating troops loitering nearby did not dare to intrude into the campus. On 18 November, however, a battalion of some 3,000, who had little knowledge of the military deployment of the Changsha garrison, were hanging about the Houzishi area to the south of Changsha. Mao organized several hundred students into three detachments, armed mainly with wooden rifles used in training, and they took up positions on hilltops in the Houzishi area. An arrangement had been made with the local police force, so that at a signal the police would fire live ammunition and shout loudly, while the student detachments would light strings of fire crackers. The retreating troops, who were already demoralized and edgy, were taken completely by surprise and were incapable of firing back. Mao then sent some armed volunteers to have the troops disarmed, thus saving Changsha from the scourge of looting by the troops.

This could be regarded as the very first military engagement of Mao’s life. Thereafter, he was praised as being ‘an embodiment of valour’. His valour, however, was not reckless and not mere boldness. It was based on his prior, indepth analysis of the specific situation and on his careful planning, and on refraining from taking action until completion of the planning. He was actually asked by his schoolmate Zou Yunzhen: ‘Wasn’t there a big risk the troops would fire back?’ To this, Mao replied, ‘If the troops had really meant to loot the provincial capital, they would have forced their way into the city the very first evening they approached Changsha. They did not dare to do so, but kept loitering about instead, thereby revealing fatigue and demoralization. Such a situation dictated their surrender in response to our order following our surprise attack.

The First Teachers College paid much attention to its students’ extracurricular life. Mao Zedong’s social activities increased steadily. In October 1917, following an annual election among the students’ association, Mao was elected director of general affairs and concurrently director of the association’s education and research department, both posts previously filled by teachers of the college. The acting chairman of the students’ association was Fang Weixia, the college’s supervisor of education, but it was Mao Zedong who specifically organized its activities. The association sponsored many events such as exhibitions, speech contests, debates, sports meets and the like. In the first half of 1917, the college started an evening school for workers, to whom the college teachers gave lectures, but the effort was unsuccessful, and the evening school had to close down before the end of the semester. Should the evening school be continued? Who should run the evening school? For a time, there were divergent views on these issues. Mao, who saw the evening school for workers as an important means to maintain contact with society, supported continuing and running it well. Fang Weixia agreed with Mao. He proposed that the evening school should be run by the third- and fourth-year students of the college, and that the education and research department of the students’ association should undertake the practical responsibility.

On 30 October 1917, Mao drafted a ‘Public Announcement Inviting Students to the Workers’ Evening School’, using ordinary language understandable to most workers and expressing readiness to share in the difficulties of illiterate workers:

For anyone who will listen, I have a few words to say. What is your greatest disadvantage?

Have you ever thought about this? To put it simply: You can’t write down what you say; you can’t read what is written by others; and you can’t calculate numbers. All of us are human beings, but if we can’t do these things, we might as well be bits of wood and stone! So everyone should learn something - to write a few words, to read a few words, to calculate some figures. Now that would be to everyone’s advantage.

But, you are workers and must work all day, and you have no one to teach you, so how can you learn these things? It’s not an easy matter, is it?

Now, there is a good way to do it. Our college has just started an evening school ... teaching you to read, write and calculate, all things that are useful to you every day. We will provide the teaching materials free to you. The classes are in the evening, so they will not affect your work during the day ... Come and sign up, and do it right away!

Copies of the notice were posted in the streets with the help of some cooperative police. The result, however, was not as good as hoped for. Why? As usual, when faced with a problem, Mao Zedong relied on research and study to take stock of the situation. He called a meeting of the students involved to analyse the matter. Mao and the others began to understand that: first, the workers did not believe there could be schooling without fees; second, since they were illiterate, workers would not read the notices in the streets; and third, the fact that it was policemen who posted the notices could not but raise suspicions or even fears in the workers’ minds. Once they discovered the reasons for the poor response from the workers, Mao and his schoolmates determined to improve their method of work. They organized themselves into small groups, armed themselves with clear copies of the notice, and went to workers in their dormitories and poorer residential areas, where they showed them the notice and carefully explained it to them. This method worked. Within five days, more than 100 workers went to the First Teachers College to enrol in the evening school. In the Evening School Journal, Mao recorded the experience this way: ‘The workers were very eager to have some schooling, almost “like nestlings crying for food from the bill of a mother bird”. They welcomed the students who went to see them enthusiastically, vying with each other in asking questions, and then shouting together, “Let’s go to the evening school right away!”’ Indeed, all this seemed to make Mao realize, as a first experience, that when doing grassroots work among the masses, one cannot be too careful or too considerate. By and by, a group of progressive young people gathered around Mao. They were like-minded youths, aspiring for social progress, and were mostly Mao’s schoolmates or other graduates from the same teachers’ college. Most had attended the lectures of Yang Changji. Among them were also students of senior middle schools in the provincial capital, such as Luo Zhanglong and others who were attending Changsha’s Changjun Senior Middle School, and who got acquainted with Mao after reading his posted advertisement ‘Searching for Like-minded Friends’. These young people were mostly from the countryside, and they were aware of the sufferings of the peasants. Without the ostentation that characterized the sons of the rich, these young people were honest, vigorous, and filled with a sense of their duty to contribute to national salvation. On weekends and holidays, they would assemble at nearby scenic spots - such as Mount Yuelu, Juzizhou and Pinglanggong - to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of historical figures or current events, or to chant poems on hilltops, or to compete in poetry composition. It was understood, however, that they were not to engage in trivial chat or discuss personal matters. As Mao later described it:

I was there with a throng of companions;

Vivid yet are those crowded months and years.

Young men we were. Our lives all flowering, Filled with student enthusiasm. Boldly, we cast restraint aside, Pointed to our rivers and hills, And set them afire with our words. The mighty lords of the time

Were to us no more than muck and mud.

From the beginning of 1916, their discussions concentrated on ‘how to develop progress in the lives of individuals and of people as a whole’. [As Mao recorded it:] ‘Some 15 of us discussed this issue regularly. Whenever we got together, we would continue talking about it. We were quite serious, and we must have had more than 100 sessions on it.’ Gradually, they came to the decision ‘to assemble more comrades and like-minded people to create a new environment and to act in concert’. At the same time, they began to feel the strong impact of the New Culture Movement, and a radical change took place in their thinking: ‘We realized it is wrong to lead a life detached from society, and our thinking took a sudden turn to longing for a life of action, and a collective life at that.’ Naturally, Mao was one of those who experienced this ‘sudden turn’ in thinking. In the winter of 1917, when Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng and others began to discuss the idea of setting up an organization, others responded favourably to the idea.

To establish an organization requires a charter at the outset. In March 1918, Mao Zedong and Zou Dingcheng began drafting a charter for this purpose. Xiao San’s diary contains these entries:

March 31st: My second elder brother [Xiao Zisheng] came and stayed quite a while. He showed me the constitution of the society as drafted by Mao. He agreed that the new organization be named New People’s Study Society ... April 8th: Received a letter from my elder brother, who strongly recommended that I should go abroad for study. He also enclosed in the letter a copy of the constitution of the New People’s Study Society, as rewritten by Mao ... April 13th: In the evening, Mao came by and told me that the inaugural meeting of the New People’s Study Society would be held tomorrow.

On Sunday 14 April 1918, the inaugural meeting of the New People’s Study Society was formally convened at the house of Cai Hesen in the Liujiataizi District at the foot of Mount Yuelu. Present were Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng, He Shuheng, Xiao San, Zhang Kundi, Chen Shunong, Zou Dingcheng, Luo Zhanglong and four others. Not at the meeting but joining later were Li Hesheng (Weihan), Zhou Shizhao, and others. Thus, the founding members were more than a score of students. After some discussion, they adopted a constitution, voted to name the organization ‘Xinmin’ (New People), and set its purposes as ‘to reform learning, sharpen moral behaviour, and reform the customs of the people’. The charter also included several regulations: 1. No hypocrisy; 2. No indolence; 3. No extravagance; 4. No gambling; and 5. No whoring.’ It seems to have been a very disciplined organization. The inaugural meeting elected Xiao Zisheng as the society’s director-general, and elected Mao Zedong and Chen Shunong as directors. Soon afterwards, when Xiao Zisheng went to France for advanced study, Mao was elected to replace him as director-general of the society.

The New People’s Study Society was the earliest newly formed society of the May Fourth Movement era. Its constitution stressed cultivation of good individual qualities, though it was lukewarm politically, which certainly reflected the slow-to-develop ideological formation of Mao and his friends at the time, who were clearly influenced by Yang Changji. The society’s constitution seemed to have fallen short of Mao’s expectations. As he wrote later:

The draft constitution prepared by Zou Dingcheng and Mao Zedong covered more ground. In the discussion, Xiao Zisheng did not approve of including sections on activities which could not be carried out immediately, and proposed that they be deleted. Since most of those attending the meeting agreed with Xiao, and after voting to agree to his deletions, the agreed-upon constitution is as follows.

As became apparent later, Xiao Zisheng was not inclined to support radical changes and instead favoured moderate reform. The sections he coonsidered ‘could not be carried out immediately’ and proposed to ‘be deleted’ seem to have been sections reflecting Mao’s more ambitious objectives at the time. Three months later, Mao Zedong and Cai Hesen began to think beyond the framework of the society’s constitution. On 26 July 1918, Mao wrote a fairly long letter on the society’s activities to Cai. The latter wrote back: ‘Despite Professor Yang Changji’s hard work over the past ten years, he could only teach from books, and what else has he achieved!’ He added,

In the society’s affairs, I completely agree with your statesmanship and experience of the world in the draft constitution and your interest in the main essentials since the founding of the society; furthermore, you have not even avoided the suspicion of standing between the political party or society party on the one hand and the timid non-partisan figures on the other. I think the non-partisans are hopeless, and, likewise, those whose hearts are not pure are incapable, so unless those like us exert every effort, who will do anything? This relatively trivial notion seems somehow enlightening.

Cai Hesen also stated: ‘Within three years, we should make our society a force Io be reckoned in China.’ It seems that they were no longer satisfied with Professor Yang Changji’s path of devoting one’s whole energy to teaching and academic learning. Nor did they avoid political involvement to remain ‘in the clean stream’. Thus, Mao and the other members of the New People’s Study Society continued to seek for a way out for China before the birth of the (Communist Party of China.

By this time, most of the society’s members had graduated, or were graduating, from college. The question of what professions could fulfil their aspirations, which was discussed at the inaugural meeting of the society, continued to occupy their attention. Many of the society members were unwilling ‘to concentrate’ in one place, Hunan, and wanted to disperse throughout China or go abroad for more learning or study tours. Mao favoured this idea, saying that such dispersion would allow every member to open up a new area of activity, and this would be good for future developments. ‘Reach out for development’ became the consensus of the New People’s Study Society membership.

Two months later, Mao graduated from the Hunan Provincial First Teachers’ Training College, ending five and a half years as a student learning Io be a teacher. He was now 25 years old.

By then, a political hurricane was looming over China.

Baptized by the Great Tide of the May Fourth Movement

On 15 August 1918, Mao Zedong and twenty-three other young people, including Xiao Zisheng, Zhang Kundi, Li Weihan and Luo Zhanglong, left Changsha by train for Beijing, a place they were looking forward to living in. It was their first trip outside Hunan Province.

Why did Mao want to go to Beijing at that time? It had to do with organizing a work-study programme for Chinese students in France. When Mao graduated from the Hunan First Teachers’ Training College, and he and other graduates were faced with the question of what to do with their futures, France was offering to recruit young workers from China. Cai Yuanpei (chancellor of Peking University), Li Shizeng and others in Beijing set up the Sino-French Education Association to launch a work-study programme in France. Yang Changji, Mao’s former teacher at the Teachers College, had gone to Beijing earlier and was teaching in the philosophy department of Peking University, and he had communicated the news of the work-study programme to Changsha. The political situation in Hunan at that time was a mess as the provincial government was changing frequently, and the educational system was so damaged by this that it was impossible to study. Against this background, Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen and Xiao Zisheng concluded that the workstudy programme could be a good solution and that members of the New People’s Study Society should be mobilized to join it. They first sent Cai Hesen to Beijing as their advance man. After talking with Yang Changji, and at his recommendation, Cai Hesen called on Chancellor Cai Yuanpei. Cai Hesen then wrote twice to Mao Zedong and the others, urging those who had volunteered to join the work-study programme to proceed to Beijing as soon as possible. In one of his letters, Cai also conveyed a message from Yang: ‘Professor Yang earnestly hopes that you can enter Peking University’ so as to ‘develop a good and lasting foundation’.

Mao Zedong and the others arrived in Beijing on 19 August 1918, and joined Cai Hesen in devoting their energies to preparing for the work-study programme in France.

By that time, more than fifty young people from Hunan had arrived in Beijing for the programme, the largest number from any province. When Mao and the others set out on this venture, they had no idea they would run into so many difficulties. After they reached Beijing, ‘the members of our society suffered lots of vilification and met with many difficulties, but no one lost heart’. Through diverse contacts, officers of the Sino-French Education Association arranged classes so the students bound for France could brush up on their French, and accepted the young people from Hunan as students. The classes were held in various places such as Peking University, Yude Middle School in Baoding, Buli Village in Hebei Province’s Li County, and Changxindian in suburban Beijing. Mao drafted a plan for the Hunan students going to France, coordinated it for approval with those concerned, and ran about from place to place mobilizing financial support for the students. In a letter to his family, Luo Xuezan had this to say: ‘Mao Zedong has put forth a lot of effort to mobilize students from Changsha to come to Beijing and to organize preparatory classes for them.’

After his friends began attending the preparatory classes in their various locations, Mao stayed on in Beijing. He did not, however, apply for admission to Peking University, contrary to Yang Changji’s hopes, and despite the fact that his companion from Hunan, Luo Zhanglong, did pass the entrance examination. Mao’s unwillingness to attend the university could be attributed to his lack of financial resources, but also to his consistent preference for self-study. Moreover, there was then a Ministry of Education regulation that graduates of teacher training colleges should not go to universities for advanced study until they had first served in the educational field for a few years.

Since he did not enter university, Mao had to find a job to cover daily expenses. In October, with Yang Changji’s recommendation, Mao made the acquaintance of Li Dazhao, who was the director of Peking University Library. He arranged for Mao to be appointed as an assistant librarian there. Mao’s assignment was to work in the Second Reading Room, to register and keep in order the fifteen Chinese and foreign newspapers and journals as they came in, to keep the reading room neat and tidy, and to register the names of all those who came to borrow and read the newspapers and magazines. The salary then for professors at Peking University ranged from 200 to 300 Chinese silver dollars per month, but Mao’s monthly salary was barely 8 silver dollars. The job was quite satisfactory to Mao, however, as it allowed him convenient access to read various newly published books and journals and to become acquainted with visitors to the reading room, including noted scholars and young progressives.

Beijing was the national centre of the New Culture Movement, and Peking University, a focal point for outstanding scholarship and talent, was the birthplace of the Movement. The university’s chancellor, Cai Yuanpei, practised the ‘principles of letting ideas flow freely and incorporating diverse academic and philosophical views’, so that all schools of thought were blooming and interacting there, and this pushed the New Culture Movement to great heights. Mao Zedong, who had never experienced such an atmosphere in Hunan, was naturally filled with excitement. He read many new books and journals, and met with many noted people, none of which he had ever encountered before. It was there, too, that Mao began active participation in two academic associations. One was the Journalism Society, founded on 14 October 1918 by Shao Piaoping, Chief Editor of the Jing Bao (Capital Daily), who offered lectures on the practical knowledge of running newspapers. This was helpful to Mao’s later undertaking in launching and running the Xiang River Review. The other research society was the Philosophy Society, which was established in January 1919, and was organized by Yang Changji and Liang Shuming, together with Hu Shi, Chen Gongbo and others. Its aim was to study various schools of thought of Eastern and Western philosophers so as to inspire pursuit of new knowledge.

Mao Zedong was thus able to be an eye-witness to the activities of noted advocates of the New Culture Movement and to make the acquaintance of a number of renowned scholars. Having read their works when he was a student at the Hunan First Teachers’ Training College, Mao naturally would not miss the chance to learn from them in person. He organized the dozen or so members of the New People’s Study Society in Beijing to attend discussions with Chancellor Cai Yuanpei, Dr Hu Shi and others. ‘The discussions were largely in question-and-answer form, with the New People’s Study Society members asking questions and the noted scholars giving their answers. The questions were mostly about academic issues and outlooks on life.’ At that time, Mao held Chen Duxiu in high esteem, and felt that ‘He is the Commander-in-Chief of the May Fourth Movement, since he is really the leader of the whole movement.’ Mao later recalled that, during his first stay in Beijing, he got acquainted with Chen Duxiu, and was greatly impressed by him.

Since he was working in Peking University Library under the direct supervision of Li Dazhao, Mao was directly influenced by Li’s words and deeds. At that time, the new theories of Marxism and socialism were beginning to get a lot of attention in Chinese society, and Li Dazhao was the first person in the ancient country of China to sing the praises of the Russian October Revolution. In November 1918, Mao went to Tian’anmen to listen to a speech entitled ‘Victory of the Common Man’ delivered by Li Dazhao. Later, that speech and Li’s article ‘Victory of Bolshevism’ were published in the journal New Youth. They both helped Mao begin to understand the October Revolution and Marxism.

It was also in this period that Mao became acquainted with people like Tan Pingshan, Wang Guangqi, Chen Gongbo and Zhang Guotao, who later became noted personages in China. Mao also established a firm friendship with Deng Zhongxia, a Hunanese progressive student in the department of Chinese literature at Peking University. Mao’s interest in political matters was growing and he was becoming more radical in his thinking. He was noticeably impressed with pamphlets on anarchism that he read. Another student of Peking University, Zhu Qianzhi, who represented the anarchist school of thought and who was six years younger than Mao, often called on Mao to discuss anarchism and its prospects in China, and the two of them would exchange views amicably.

In Beijing, Mao Zedong at first lodged with Mr Yang Changji in his home al No. 9 Doufuchi Hutong, behind the Drum Tower. Other members of the New People’s Study Society stayed at the Hunan Guild Hall. This made it inconvenient for them to meet. Before long, Mao and seven others, including Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng and Luo Zhanglong, moved into three small rooms in a local resident’s courtyard, near Jingshan Road East, at No. 7 Ji’an East Lane, known for its ‘Three-eyed Well’. Each room had a single kang (earthen bed), and since there were more people than kang, they had to sleep side-by-side. Their quilts were too big to spread on the kang, so they could only use them as covers. This is why Mao later said, ‘On the high and narrow kang, we slept under one quilt.’ Although their material lives were then rather difficult, the multitude of scenic spots in the ancient city of Beijing were a compensation. Mao also developed a singular affection for Miss Yang Kaihui, the daughter of Yang Changji. When Mao was a student at the Teachers’ College, Yang Kaihui was only a 14-year-old girl, but in Beijing she was an attractive young woman of 18. Since he was a frequent visitor at Yang’s home, Mao gradually developed a close relationship with her. They would stroll together along the tree-lined moats of the Forbidden City or in Beihai Park, and would together enjoy the blossoming of snow-white plum flowers or the drooping willow branches along the lake, weighed down with countless tiny icicles. In the dead of winter, when Mao was in the mood for some excitement, he wanted to go to have a look at the sea. He invited Xiao Zisheng and Luo Zhanglong to take the train with him to Tianjin. They walked to the Dagu estuary, where they saw little but ice and snow, but were nonetheless satisfied. He also went to investigate the locomotive plant at Changxindian. All of these things left a deep impression on him.

In the spring of 1919, Mao had to go back to Hunan. This was mainly because his mother was seriously ill, and he had to go back home ‘to tend to my mother’. It was also because the first batch of his young friends had completed their half-year of preparation for their work-study in France, and were about to go abroad. On 12 March, Mao left Beijing for Shanghai to see off Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng and the other Hunan youths who were bound for France.

At that time, Mao had mixed feelings. While in Beijing, a colourful new world had been unfolded to him suddenly, and he could not quite absorb it all immediately. He had come into contact with several schools of thought that would take some time to analyse and digest. Nevertheless, this had served to broaden his horizons greatly, and it was the first step in his advance from Hunan to China as a whole.

Though he had been an organizer in mobilizing progressive Hunanese young men to leave for France for the work-study programme, Mao did not go abroad with them. Many of the New People’s Study Society members had pressed Mao to join them in going to France. After they got there, some wrote to Mao, and urged him to go abroad. Among them, Luo Xuezan wrote to Mao very sincerely:

I expect that your future achievements will be great, and I appeal to you to study abroad now. If you delay, then with the passage of time and as your work load increases, you may not be able to find the time to study abroad ... Dear Runzhi, you are a person with lofty hopes, and your companions hold you in high esteem. How much we hope you will take the lead in advanced studies abroad! Lately, I have been thinking that if only you and others could study abroad, too, for eight or 10 years before returning to the motherland, ... then, by applying what we have learned abroad to our country, we can act as advocates to awaken our society.

Nevertheless, Mao remained in China. We have no idea how he explained to others about this, but later in a letter he did gave a fairly clear explanation, in which he said there was much merit to remaining in China to continue exploration and study. First, ‘to read the Chinese translations of Western works saves time’; and, far from impeding absorption of Western knowledge, the Chinese translations could facilitate ‘acquiring more knowledge in a shorter period of time’. Second,

world civilization has two main streams that originate in the East and the West respectively, and the Eastern civilization accounts for half of the world’s cultural heritage. In a sense, the Eastern civilization stems from Chinese civilization. We must, therefore, study and grasp the essential contents and features of China’s past and present great works and schools of thought before going abroad for study, so that comparisons may be made usefully.

Third,

if we hope to contribute to the contemporary world, we cannot depart from this land called ‘China’. We must know her actual conditions from on-the-spot investigation and study. If one were to delay this essential effort until one’s return from studying abroad, it would be hard to catch up, given the competing engagements and other matters of daily life. It seems better to do this investigation and study in China now.

Mao Zedong was, however, all for going abroad and for absorbing Western knowledge. In the aforementioned letter, he also called himself ‘an advocate of a general policy for sending people abroad for study'. Earlier, when working on founding the New People’s Study Society, Mao had thought about studying in Japan. Later, in September 1921, he was still intending to prepare himself in China for three or four years and then ‘to go abroad for at least five years of study, and the place will be Russia’.

None of these plans materialized. This was partly because Mao was soon engaged in a succession of political activities that he felt he could not avoid. It was also because of his basic views on Chinese and Western civilizations, as noted above. At a time when going abroad was much in vogue, Mao stuck to his notion that one should first gain deep understanding of China’s actual conditions, so that to study and learn from foreign countries could be more useful; and he felt that one should maintain an analytical attitude towards both Western civilization and Chinese civilization. This was also an indication of his disinclination to ‘follow fashion’. It seems to have been a critical juncture that later enabled him to give Marxism a Chinese twist.

On 6 April 1919, Mao returned to Changsha, carrying with him the new thoughts and new experiences he had gained in Beijing. Upon his return, he stayed at the Xiuye Primary School, where his former classmate Zhou Shizhao served as a teacher, and where, through Zhou’s recommendation, Mao was offered a job teaching history for six hours a week. The salary was low, but for Mao it was a good arrangement, since it allowed him time to meet with members of the New People’s Study Society and to participate in social and political activities.

One month later, the May Fourth Movement sprang up.

In World War I, China was one of the victor countries; but, ignoring China’s justified demands for the restoration of privileges and interests snatched from China earlier by the aggressor country, Germany, the Paris Peace Treaty transferred those privileges and interests to Japan. Enraged by the news, the students of Beijing took the lead. On 4 May 1919, they staged a series of large-scale protest demonstrations and mass rallies that shook the whole of China. The indignation of the Chinese people at the aggression of the imperialists and betrayal by the Chinese authorities, an indignation that had hitherto been suppressed, burst forth vehemently like a volcanic eruption!

On 9 May, Hunan newspapers defied a news embargo imposed by the provincial military governor, Zhang Jingyao, and began wide coverage of the Beijing students’ patriotic movement. In mid-May, dispatched by the Beijing Students’ Federation, Deng Zhongxia arrived in Changsha, and he briefed Mao Zedong, He Shuheng and others on developments in the Beijing student movement. He discussed with them how to reorganize the Hunan Students’ Federation so as to mobilize the students there to support the patriotic movement that was spreading in Beijing. Jiang Zhuru, a member of the New People’s Study Society, has written about this in his memoir:

On the evening of 23 May 1919, while I was reviewing my lessons in the classroom of Class 13 of the First Teachers’ Training College, Comrade Mao Zedong came and asked me to come out. Then he told me that Beijing had just sent two representatives here ... We should now discuss how to respond to the Beijing patriotic student movement. Then, Mao asked me, Chen Shulong, Zhang Guoji and a few others to go to the college sports ground, where we discussed the matter by moonlight. After some discussion, we decided that we should start our activities through our fellow members of the New People’s Study Society. Each school was to select two or three representatives to attend a meeting to be held on 25 May at the Chuyi Primary School. The following day we acted accordingly and notified the schools to send their representatives to the meeting.

On 25 May 1919, student representatives from more than twenty schools, including Zhang Guoji, Yi Lirong and Peng Huang, assembled at the Chuyi Primary School. Mao Zedong introduced Deng Zhongxia to them, and he briefed them on the Beijing student movement. The meeting decided to establish a new Hunan Students’ Federation, and to organize a general strike of Changsha students in early June. Three days later, the Hunan Students’ Federation was formally established. It organized a city-wide students’ strike of the more than twenty schools in Changsha, and telegraphed to the government in Beijing six demands, including that the government repudiate the Paris Peace Treaty and abrogate all unequal treaties.

The new Students’ Federation was located at the Hunan Commercial Training School. An activist at the school, Peng Huang, who was also a member of the New People’s Study Society, was elected chairman of the new federation. Most of its office holders were also members of the New People’s Study Society. Mao Zedong’s Xiuye Primary School was very close to the Commercial Training School, and Mao sometimes stayed the night at the Training School to provide guidance. It could be said that he was actually the leader of this very militant students’ organization.’

On 9 July, prompted by the Hunan Students’ Federation, the Hunan Federation of All Circles was established. Using the ‘National Salvation Group of Ten’ as a basis for grassroots organization, this new Federation grew quickly and set up more than 400 branches within the month. This very probably influenced Mao’s later advocacy of the idea of ‘The Great Union of the Popular Masses’.

The May Fourth Movement of 1919 caused progressive people with unresolved questions lingering in their minds to think more deeply. They strove earnestly to study and to introduce all kinds of new ideas. Across the country, journals sowing new concepts proliferated. The schools and colleges in Hunan likewise brought out a dozen or so journals, including Xin Hunan (New Hunan), Nüjie Zhong (Women’s Tocsin) and Yuelu Zhoukan (Yuelu Weekly), but they had little public impact. Following Mao Zedong’s suggestion, the Hunan Students’ Federation decided to publish the journal Xiangjiang Pinglun (Xiang River Review), and engaged Mao to be its editor-in-chief and principal contributor. After ten days’ preparation, Mao Zedong published the first issue of Xiang River Review on 14 July 1919. In that issue, the journal made clear that its objective was ‘to publicize new thinking and new trends’, and that its regular features would include ‘Accounts of and Comments on Major Events in the East’, ‘Accounts of and Comments on Major Events in the West’, ‘Xiangjiang Commentaries’, ‘Comments on World Affairs’, ‘Free Expressions’, ‘New Literature and Art’, and the like, all to be written in the vernacular language [rather than in the literary style]. In all, five issues were published.

The 25-year-old Mao Zedong threw himself into the work of editing the Xiang River Review. When other contributors failed to send in their articles, Mao wrote on their behalf. It was a sweltering hot summer with swarms of mosquitoes that most people found unbearable, and Mao was drenched in sweat, writing far into the night. One morning, when the sun was already well up, his friend from the Commercial Training School, Yi Lirong, came looking lor him, and found him still fast asleep. When Yi Lirong parted the mosquito net, he was startled to find that he had stirred up a host of bedbugs. ‘They were swarming all over the yellowed paperback books he [Mao] was using to pillow his head, and each bedbug’s swollen belly was obviously gorged with blood.’ Such a condition was clearly not the work of just one night. In a little more than a month, Mao wrote some forty articles for the Xiang River Review. He then did the editing, type-setting and proofreading himself, and sometimes he even had to hawk copies of the journal on the street. His salary from the Xiuye Primary School left very little after paying for his daily meals. His belongings were an old mosquito net, an old quilt, an old woven bamboo sleeping mat, a rather worn-out long grey cotton gown, and a pair of white, cotton trousers for daily wear. Though he was living in difficult conditions, Mao entered a new period in which his inquisitive mind became still more active than ever before.

Moments of abrupt change in the tide of history shock people and change their thinking more widely and deeply than do times of peace and tranquillity.

The ‘Manifesto on the Founding’ that Mao Zedong wrote for the Xiang River Review very much reflected his thoughts at the time. He passionately declared:

Now is the time! A worldwide tide is running high! The sluicegates of Dongting Lake are raised and open! A mighty current of new thoughts surges vigorously between the banks of the Xiang River! Those who go with the flow of thoughts will survive; those who try to swim against the current will perish. How do we deal with these new thoughts? How shall we spread them, study them, use them? These are major and most pressing issues for us, the people of Hunan. They are also the most incisive and most important tasks demanding publication of the Xiang River Review.

How did Mao go about studying and spreading the new ideas? He summed up the modern social changes in one statement: ‘To put it simply, all revolutions mean “strengths bringing freedom”. The basic doctrine for combatting the strong is “populism”.’ The keynote of the times was to use populism to overthrow the mighty forces of power politics.

Prior to this, Mao had focused on exploring the ‘essential laws of the universe’ in an effort to explain all phenomena. He had paid little attention to the material basis which would determine cognition and concepts. Thanks to the overwhelming impact of the May Fourth Movement and the broadening of his own horizons, he began to change. To use his own words: ‘With the great clamour for “worldwide revolution” and the surging movement for “the liberation of humanity”, we must correct old views: The assumptions we did not doubt, the methods we would not accept, and the words we dared not say; we must doubt the indubitable, accept the unacceptable, and speak the unspeakable.’ He began to turn his attention to practical issues, and shifted his focus to comprehensive social transformation.

He became conscious of several things: ‘What is the world’s most significant issue? The food question is the greatest’; ‘The crux of social order is the economic system.’ What nobles, capitalists and the mighty ‘use to maintain their special interests and to exploit the majority’ are none other than ‘knowledge’, ‘money’ and ‘armed force’. Apparently, Mao Zedong’s thinking had taken a big step, and he had moved towards historical materialism and was beginning to use it to analyse social history. He indicated that, henceforth, ‘I will base my statements on the realities of human life’, and I will study reality and truth.’

The most important essay written and published by Mao in the Xiang River Review was ‘The Great Union of the Popular Masses’, carried in three instalments, in issues 2, 3 and 4. In this essay, for the first time in his life, Mao publicly paid tribute to the October Revolution in Russia and its impact. He wrote: ‘Russia has overthrown the nobility and driven out the rich; her workers and peasants have allied to establish government run by committee; the Red Army has, sweeping westward, mopped up countless enemies; and this has changed the configuration of the Entente, and shaken the whole world.’

Prior to this point, Mao had focused his attention on education. He thought highly of the role of sages in history, and he hoped to see ‘great philosophers’ and ‘great moralists’ emerge to lead a reform of human attitudes that would transform the world. He thought the time was ripe for ‘a thorough change’. Inspired by the historical events of the October Revolution in Russia and the ensuing May Fourth Movement, he began to see the enormous latent energy of the masses of people, which he had not heretofore appreciated. He began to realize that, although ‘there had been much education, it had not come to much’. Therefore, he clearly advocated that for realistic transformalion of society, ‘the fundamental way must be through a great union of the popular masses’, ‘for the popular masses in a country far outnumber the nobles, capitalists and other powerful figures’; moreover, ‘any significant movement in history invariably stemmed from the union of the popular masses, and a great movement would call for a correspondingly greater union’. What was to be the foundation for such a union of the popular masses? It would come from their ‘common interest’ in resisting oppression. This is why his article called for the peasants who made up the largest part of the Chinese population to form a union to fight for reduction of land rent and taxes and resolve the problem of ensuring an ample supply of food for all; and it called on students, teachers, women and people in all walks of life to unite in their own self-interests, to realize a great alliance of the people. In this essay, the subject of his sentences was no longer ‘I’, but rather ‘we’. The change in diction was a reflection of the enormous ideological transformation he was undergoing.

From that moment, Mao no longer stressed mere individual effort, but put himself in the company of the masses, and emphasized relying on a great union of the people to realize the lofty ideal of national and popular salvation. It was a significant shift in his thinking.

As to what this great union of the popular masses should do, Mao said it could be found in two points of view. One was the radical school headed by Karl Marx; the other, the moderate line of Peter Alexievich Kropotkin. There was a discernible contradiction in Mao’s thinking at the time between his praise for the Russian October Revolution on the one hand, and his disinclination to employ violent revolution to overthrow an oppressive regime. This was evident in his thinking of that time, for in his ‘First Issue Manifesto’ he took as his call to action: ‘We stand for an alliance of the people to launch a sustained “movement of admonition”, to effect “a revolution through appeal” - for bread, for freedom, for equality - “a bloodless revolution”.’ He did not support violent revolution because he sought to avoid ‘great chaos in society’. He felt that those in power are also human beings, and if one were to overthrow by power, by means of might, the outcome would still be mere power.

For one’s fundamental ideology to change, it often requires a complex process leading up to a qualitative leap, not merely a step or two. The approach Mao still chose at this time was moderate reform, feeling that ‘the ideology of this group was wider and deeper’.

Nevertheless, the reality under warlord rule was anything but ‘moderate’. In mid-August 1919, just as the Xiang River Review published its fifth issue, the military governor of Hunan, Zhang Jingyao, banned the journal for the ‘crime’ of ‘advocating excessive radicalism’. The Hunan Students’ Federation was also forced to disband. Though the Xiang River Review existed for only a little more than a month, it had a significant influence in Hunan. The first issue’s first run of 2,000 copies was sold out, and a prompt second run of another 2,000 copies was not enough to meet the demand. Quite a few young progressives, including Ren Bishi, Guo Liang and Xiao Jinguang, began to be politically aware under the direct influence of the Xiang River Review. The journal also caught the eye of people outside Hunan. Periodicals in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu all republished its articles. An article titled ‘Introducing New Publications’ in the thirty-sixth issue of the Beijing Meizhou Pinglun (Weekly Review) stated, ‘Among the many new journals and mini-newspapers nowadays, ... we would like to introduce two of our younger brothers, Xiang River Review published in Changsha, and Xingqiri [Sunday] published in Chengdu’; ‘The strength of the Xiang River Review lies in its commentaries ... The article “The Great Union of the Popular Masses”, carried in issues 2, 3 and 4, contains farsighted and forthright comments, and is indeed an article of great timely importance.’ The Chief Editor of the Weekly Review, and author of that introductory article, was none other than Hu Shi.

At that time there was an ongoing debate in the Weekly Review on 'Problems and -Isms’, with both Hu Shi and Li Dazhao writing articles from each side of the issue. This debate marked the beginning of a split in the May Fourth Movement within the New Culture Movement. Mao Zedong held the chief proponents on each side of the debate in great esteem. For a while, it seemed as if Mao did not understand the essence of the debate. Basically, he had throughout stressed the importance of exploring the ‘origin’ and ‘essential elements’, instead of engaging in the solution of non-essential issues. He had written, ‘The study of problems must be based on sound theory, so before studying problems, it is necessary to study various doctrines (-isms).’ He also stressed reality, so he certainly didn’t neglect the study of concrete social problems.

Mao had heard Hu Shi’s lectures on experimentalism, and listed experimentalism as one of the modern schools of ideological transformation. He had planned to establish a society for the studying of problems, and drafted a charter which he mailed to various places in China. His friend Deng Zhongxia, a student leader at Peking University, carried the charter in the university’s journal. The charter listed seventy-one items for study, including problems in the political, economic, historical, international and technological fields. At this juncture, a female student named Zhao Wuzhen, enormously unhappy at her parents’ arbitrary arrangement of her marriage, committed suicide by cutting her own throat while being carried in the wedding sedan chair, an event that shocked the whole society. When he learned of this incident, Mao sent Li Si’an, a female student at the Hunan Girls Senior Middle School, who had just joined the New People’s Study Society, to investigate and report on the incident. From 16 to 28 November, Mao wrote nine articles in succession, which were published in the Dagongbao. Those articles, which were based on meticulous investigation and study of the system for marrying women and of issues related to women’s liberation, called people to come forward and fight against the oppression of feudal society.

In the later stage of the May Fourth Movement, socialism gradually emerged as a mainstream line of thought among Chinese progressives. However, their understanding of socialism at the time included not only Marxism, but also other doctrines, such as anarchism, Kropotkin’s mutual aid, the doctrine of building new villages advocated by Mushanokoji Saneatsu of Japan, the Russian Tolstoy’s creed of non-violence, the work-and-learn theory then prevailing in North America, and the like. These were a mixture of utopian socialism and a petit-bourgeois mentality. All were then undergoing discussion and experimentation, and Mao was also exploring and comparing these doctrines. At that time, anarchism was dominant among the various trends of thought. It seemed to have a broad social base among the vast sea of petit bourgeoisie in China, and it had also arrived in China earlier than Marxism. Among the early Chinese communists, many were for some time inclined towards anarchism.

Anarchism was Mao Zedong’s stepping stone on his way to scientific socialism.

A year earlier, in June 1918, shortly after graduation from the First Teachers’ Training College, when he was at the Yuelu Academy’s preparatory office for setting up a Hunan University, he got together with Cai Hesen, Zhang Kundi and others to visit the villages in the vicinity of Mount Yuelu, with the intention of setting up a new work-study village based on equality and fraternity. Then, staying together at an experimental village formed in this way, they continued with self-education and discussion of social reforms as they also did their own daily chores: preparing their daily meals, fetching drinking water, collecting firewood, and cooking rice with broad beans. This experiment ended as they became heavily engaged in organizing Hunanese students to join in the work-study programme in France.

After he got to Beijing, Mao came across and read many anarchist pamphlets. About that time, Zhou Zuoren published an essay in the March 1919 issue of New Youth on ‘New Villages in Japan’, which advocated new villages as ‘both feasible and an ideal prospect’. Wang Guangqi and others at Peking University began organizing three ‘work-and-learn mutual-aid corps’ in the form of‘new villages’, in an attempt to use a peaceful and demonstrative approach to establish a new life and a new society. All these had wide influence on young people. From the moment of his arrival in Beijing, Mao Zedong also felt their impact.

After his return to Hunan from Beijing, although he was very busy with the student movement and the running of the Xiang River Review, Mao drafted a fairly detailed construction plan for ‘new villages’ as a concept in social reform. He had one of the chapters of his plan, ‘The Work of the Students’, published in the Hunan Education Monthly issue for 1 December 1919.

Mao Zedong drew up his blueprint for an ideal society in this way to construct new schools to carry out a different kind of education, allowing students in the farming villages to study part-time and work part-time; to organize these new students into new family units, and to combine the family units into a new sort of society; to establish in this new society made up of public kindergartens, public homes for bereaved elderly people, public schools, public libraries, public banks, public farms, public factories, public theatres and public clinics, in addition to parks, museums and the like; after which, to join these individual social units so that the nation would gradually and fundamentally be transformed into a big new ideal village. In this article, he further elaborated: ‘At the moment, we do not venture to use the terms “model country”, “model city” or “model region”; but the concept of a “model village” is not so high-sounding and seems simpler and more feasible.’ This sort of view was in the same vein as the ‘bloodless revolution’ he had advocated earlier in the Xiang River Review. Mao felt that the area around Mount Yuelu was most suitable for the location of ‘new villages’. His aim in publishing ‘The Work of the Students’ was that he hoped to attract the attention of society to the idea.

However, no sooner had the experiment with the aim of establishing new villages begun than it was interrupted by the turmoil of very urgent struggle in real life against the despotic military governor Zhang Jingyao. The political environment forced the issue.

Zhang Jingyao was a warlord of the Anhui faction, who, in March 1918, led troops of the northern warlords into Hunan Province, and seized the post of military governor of Hunan. Since then, he had done a lot of harm by abusing the power he wielded. He connived in the frequent looting of the populace by his troops; he recklessly issued provincial bank notes without restraint; he unlawfully seized and mortgaged state mines; he forced peasants to plant opium; he arbitrarily suppressed public opinion; he wantonly levied extra taxes in cash and kind to finance his military payroll; he staged farcical elections; and he did other similar things. Following the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, Zhang’s hostility towards the patriotic movement among the people worsened. In consequence, the indignation of the people of Hunan at Zhang’s wickedness grew stronger, giving rise to the cry that ‘Hunan will be hopeless if Zhang’s evils are not wiped out.’

Mao Zedong, then engaged in educational and publication work, knew that Zhang, the military governor, had not only wantonly destroyed the educational infrastructure of the province, but also ordered the banning and closing of the Xiang River Review. With all this, Mao could no longer remain calm and detached. When, in mid-August, Zhang arbitrarily ordered the disbanding of the Hunan Students’ Federation, Mao began contemplating serious plans to drive Zhang out of Hunan. In mid-September, Mao analysed the Zhang issue with cadres of the former Hunan Students’ Federation, and he suggested that the internal strife between the Anhui and Zhili factions of the northern warlords was intensifying, and it was opportune to expel Zhang from Hunan, and that Hunan students must be the main driving force in the Zhang expulsion movement, and they should make the greatest possible effort to stir up teachers and journalists to help. He clearly indicated that the movement to drive out Zhang was a continuation and deepening of the earlier patriotic movements.

On 2 December, the re-established Hunan Students’ Federation, in league with representatives of people from all walks of life, rallied a second time to set fire to Japanese goods in protest against Japanese aggression in China, but the rally was suppressed by Zhang Jingyao’s troops. This incident further enraged the people of Hunan. For two consecutive days, Mao attended meetings of teachers, students and people from all the different groups in Changsha. On 6 December, the Students’ Federation published a declaration on ‘Driving Out Zhang Jingyao’, and decided on a general students’ strike of all the middle schools and colleges in the city.

Thus began the large-scale movement to drive Zhang Jingyao from Hunan. This was the first political movement with broad social impact initiated by Mao Zedong. As a school teacher, he was a principal leader of the movement. On the day of the general strike of Changsha schools, it was further decided to send delegations to Beijing, Hengyang, Changde, Chenzhou, Guangzhou and Shanghai to garner support for the effort to drive out Zhang Jingyao.

On 18 December 1919, Mao Zedong arrived in Beijing as leader of one of the delegations. He stayed in Fuyou Temple, a lamaist monastery on Beichang Street.

This was his second visit to Beijing.

After he arrived in the city, through many and varied contacts and discussions, he set up an ‘Association of Hunanese Residents in Beijing’ and a ‘Hunanese Beijing Residents’ Committee to Expel Zhang Jingyao from Hunan’. He stressed the power of the media and set up a Common People’s News Agency, served as its managing director, drafted items on expelling Zhang - such as feature articles, telegrams and a declaration - and sent them for publication to newspapers in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Hankou.

Seeking the dismissal and punishment of Zhang Jingyao, the delegation presented seven petitions in Beijing. As leader of the petitioning delegation, Mao solemnly presented them to Jin Yunpeng, prime minister of the northern warlords’ government.

Mao Zedong’s name appeared frequently in the telegrams and in the news items carried by various newspapers and journals. His ability to organize social actions and his talent for politics began to draw the attention of a wide spectrum of people. Yang Changji, then seriously ill, wrote to Zhang Shizhao, Secretary-General to the Guangzhou military government and representative to the North-South Negotiations for Reconciliation, to recommend Mao Zedong and Cai Hesen, saying: I earnestly recommend to you two quite promising young talents of our nation with great futures ahead of them. If you’re not for national salvation, then never mind, but if you are, you should treasure these two young fellows.’

Unfortunately, Mao Zedong’s beloved professor died of illness not long after. Mao visited Yang many times in the hospital during his last days, and he joined Mr Yang’s son, Yang Kaizhi, and daughter, Yang Kaihui, in keeping vigil beside Mr Yang’s coffin at the Fayuan Temple. He also raised donations for Mr Yang’s funeral arrangements and for the support of his bereaved family. On 22 January 1920, Mao joined Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Shizhao and Yang Du in publishing Professor Yang Changji’s obituary and brief biography in the Peking University Journal.

The movement to oust Zhang began to bear fruit. Zhang Jingyao’s evil doings were bared to the public. Under mounting outcry from all sides, his situation became more and more difficult. However, the ultimate force that compelled Zhang to steal out of Hunan was the threat against him from troops of the northern warlords’ Zhili faction and the local Hunan forces. Tan Yankai, who had just joined the GMD, led local Hunan forces into Changsha under the banner of the South China government. That was in June 1920.

On 6 June, Yi Lirong, a member of the New People’s Study Society, wrote to Mao from Wuchang, saying, ‘The past two years of activity’, including the ouster of Zhang, ‘did not seem to have achieved much’, and that, henceforth, ‘we must gather great strength’ and ‘train a contingent of good comrades’ before their aims could be realized. When he received the letter, Mao wrote a comment in the top margin, expressing his own reflections on the movement to drive Zhang out of Hunan: ‘The movement may have been merely to oust Zhang Jingyao, a powerful figure whose despotism had become infernal’, but the Zhang ouster ‘was at least one step towards fundamental reform’.

The second visit to Beijing was actually for the purpose of expelling Zhang. However, Mao put the Zhang ouster in the context of overall social reform. How should Hunan be reformed? How should China be reformed? In which direction should the New People’s Study Society go? These were questions that he turned over and over again in his mind.

Mao still retained a certain enthusiasm for reform through new villages. After arriving in Beijing, he got in touch with and formally joined the Young Chinese Society that had been launched by Wang Guangqi and others. In February 1920, after he visited the work-study mutual-aid corps for women sponsored by Wang Guangqi, Mao wrote to the Changsha office of the New People’s Study Society to brief them on the women’s mutual-aid corps: I think it is quite interesting! But what about its future? We have to wait and see what its strength and moral character will be, and it might fail completely (for a similar mutual-aid corps for men can already be said to be a failure).’

The issue of whether or not a theory is correct ultimately depended on the test of practice. Mao seemed both pleased and perplexed by the work-study mutual-aid movement, feeling that he had to continue examining it to see its practical effects. He went to call on Professor Zhou Zuoren, advocate of establishing new villages in China. There are no extant records of the discussion Mao had with Zhou on that occasion, but it is likely that the ‘new villages’ was a main topic of their talk.

On the issue of how to reconstruct Hunan after the ouster of Zhang, Mao drafted an article titled ‘Deliberations on Conditions for Reconstruction of Hunan’, which on 12 March 1920 he mailed to Professor Li Jinxi in Beijing, expressing the view that these suggestions were ‘piecemeal, like looking for left-over bits of meat in a tiger’s mouth’, and were not a ‘fundamental solution’, but, in China, if one were to fail to take even these measures, ‘it would really be a shame’.

What would the young progressives of like mind do in Hunan after the expulsion of Zhang? Mao thought that he would himself invite several people to join him in renting a house, manage a self-education college, and try ‘to carry on a communist way of life’

At that time, Mao kept in close touch with Li Dazhao. They discussed the issue of studying in Russia and of women going abroad for study. Later, before Mao entered Beijing in 1949, when he was still at Xibaipo (then the site of the CPC Central Committee), he spoke of Li Dazhao in these words: ‘It was with his help that I became a Marxist-Leninist.’ It was due to Li Dazhao’s influence that Mao developed a growing interest in Bolshevism, and he paid more and more attention to articles on Marxism published in journals and newspapers. He also searched out the Chinese editions of books on Marxism, though few were then available. Mao’s close friends Deng Zhongxia, He Mengxing and Luo Zhanglong set up a small study room that they named ‘Kang-mu-yi Study’ (the Communism Study-room). There, they mimeographed many copies of the Chinese edition of The Communist Manifesto that had been translated by Liu Renjing. Li Jinxi, who called on Mao on the afternoon of 4 January 1920, at the latter’s office of the Common People’s News Agency, saw one of those copies of The Communist Manifesto on Mao’s desk, along with a pile of newly published books and journals on socialism. In this connection, Mao wrote in February 1920 to Tao Yi, one of his friends in Hunan, ‘For myself, I feel that I’ve been rather hazy in my thinking, have achieved little, and studied too little. On this visit, I have observed various situations, met with many people, and pondered some matters, and I feel that these sorts of issues warrant our serious study.’ On the afternoon of 10 March, Mao again called on Li Jinxi at his home, and they talked far into the night about which kind of socialism should be chosen to reform China, and Li Jinxi agreed that China’s problems called for a ‘fundamental solution’.

A major change was taking place in Mao Zedong’s thinking, but he was not the sort to pass judgement on an issue easily, without having pondered it deeply and studied it thoroughly himself. This applied especially to issues of great importance. He felt that he had ‘not yet acquired a thorough understanding of various -isms and theories’. From the practical experience of the movement to oust Zhang, and with an increasing understanding of Marxism, Mao began to realize: ‘Though many people talk about reform, they are mostly speaking of a rather abstract goal. Few have studied in a very detailed way such issues as where precisely reform should be going (its ultimate aim), and what methods should be employed to achieve its objectives.’ He felt that he himself had not yet made the requisite detailed study, so he was also still ‘unawakened’.

Nonetheless, Mao at that time was not inclined to engage in an in-depth study of issues discussed in books. He was not one to rely solely on books in his search for the truth, and just then he was feeling that he did not have ‘a tranquil mind’, and he was also thinking of doing some more practical work. On 1 April 1920, the ‘Association for Promoting Reform of Hunan’ was formed in Shanghai. It was a mass political organization to explore ways and means to reform and reconstruct Hunan. Initiated by Peng Huang, Mao Zedong and other members of the New People’s Study Society, the association included among its organizing members Hunanese journalists and educators then in Shanghai. Mao decided to go to Shanghai to join Peng Huang - who had earlier led the ousting-Zhang delegation to Shanghai - and the others to talk about plans for the next steps. Also, at the same time, Xiao San and the second batch of students for the work-study programme in France were to leave Shanghai, so he could see them off there.

Mao left Beijing for Shanghai on 11 April 1920. En route, he left the train lor a special detour to visit Qufu - the birthplace of Confucius - and to enjoy a climb of Mount Tai. Mao still cherished a special affection for Confucius, the great exemplar of Chinese national tradition and culture.

Twenty-five days later, on 5 May, Mao reached Shanghai. He stayed at No. 29 Minhou South Lane (No. 63 Anyi Road today), off Hatong Road. Twelve members of the New People’s Study Society had arrived in Shanghai from Beijing, Changsha and Tianjin. On 8 May, Mao Zedong chaired a day-long meeting at Bansongyuan Garden to bid farewell to those friends bound for France and to discuss future work of the New People’s Study Society. The meeting reached these main conclusions: ‘The society’s posture: be latently practical, do not be ostentatious, and do not seek the limelight ... Runzhi stressed ... each member should strive to open up a new held of work.’

At the time of the May Fourth Movement, many young progressives often gobbled up new terminology and phrases, tended to spout them off precipitously, and were inclined to boast. That the New People’s Study Society discussion should stress being ‘latently practical was therefore appropriate. The meeting also agreed on four conditions for admitting new members: honesty, sincerity, determination to struggle, and devoted service to truth. ‘The farewell gathering turned into a discussion meeting. The hour grew late and the meeting continued by lamplight. Yet everyone still felt there was much more to be said.’

On 11 May in Shanghai, the society members bade farewell to Xiao San and five others. Mao Zedong was still keen to have a try at life in a mutual-aid, work-study group, so he, Peng Huang, Zhang Wenliang and some others rented a few rooms on Minhou South Lane to experiment with the concept. They shared chores, studying, meals and clothing. Mao Zedong took on the tasks of washing clothes and delivering the newspapers. After some first-hand experience, he quickly found that collective life had its drawbacks, and he promptly wrote to Li Jinxi in Beijing: ‘The work-study group was so untenable that we’ve aborted it.’

The purpose for this trip to Shanghai was to discuss the issue of reconstructing Hunan. After discussions with Peng Huang and others, he drafted a ‘Hunan People’s Declaration of Self-determination’ and published it in Shanghai’s Tian Wen weekly and Shishi Xinbao (New Chronicle). On 11 June, the people of Hunan ousted the hated Zhang Jingyao, and the Hunan political situation changed markedly. The issue of how to establish popular governance quickly rose to confront the people of Hunan. On 14 June, Mao had his ‘Declaration on the Occasion of the Founding of the Association for Promoting Reform in Hunan’ published in the Shanghai Shen bao. In the same month, to elaborate on his position, Mao published ‘The People of Hunan Must Take Another Step Forward’, ‘The People of Hunan Are Fighting for Their Moral Character’, ‘Reply to Zen Yi from the Association for Promoting Reform in Hunan’ and some other articles in the Shanghai Shishi xinbao. Mao felt deeply that, though Zhang Jingyao had been expelled, new Zhang Jingyaos would stage a come-back. The most effective way to prevent this would be to eliminate the dujun (military governorship), reduce troop strength so as to ‘overthrow’ the rule of ‘military force’, and, through such measures as citizen management of banks, independent education, establishment and protection of citizen rights and interests through self-rule, to attain the goal of ‘popular governance’. The precondition for doing this was that ‘Hunan affairs should be decided by all the Hunanese people.’ He felt that each province should find its own solution to its problems, and then, through joining together in the future, the problems of the nation could be solved.

Chen Duxiu was then in Shanghai with Li Da, Li Hanjun and others, organizing the Shanghai Communist Group. Mao Zedong briefed Chen Duxiu on plans of the ‘Association for Facilitating Hunan Reform’, about which he sought advice. Their conversations naturally turned to issues of Marxism. Mao later recalled: ‘His influence on me was perhaps greater than that of anyone else ... Chen Duxiu’s words about his own convictions, at what was probably a critical period of my life, had a very profound influence on my development.’

It could be said that having detailed conversations with two of China’s ideological giants of the time, Chen Duxiu in the south and Li Dazhao in the north, were the great achievements of Mao’s second trip outside Hunan. He wanted to return again to Hunan. He felt his career was still there.

By 26 June 1920, troops of the former military governor Zhang Jingyao had been compelled to leave Hunan. The Hunanese who had gone outside the province to mobilize support for Zhang’s expulsion were returning to Changsha. Mao returned to Changsha on 7 July, by way of Wuhan. He was then engaged to be the headmaster of the primary school attached to the First Teachers’ Training College, and, before long, he was named instructor in Chinese classics at the First Teachers’ Training College. He was quite happy with that.

After returning to Hunan, Mao took up two major undertakings, one of an immediate nature, and the other long-term.

On the long-term matter, Mao focused on publicizing new culture, especially Marxism, to turn people’s attention chiefly to Russia. While in Beijing, Mao twice wrote to members of the New People’s Study Society in Changsha indicating that he himself was not inclined to join the work-study programme in France, but was planning to ‘go to Russia later on’; ‘He Shuheng was thinking of going to France to study, but I advised him not to go to France, but to Russia instead.’ He planned to organize, two or three years thereafter, a ‘group to study in Russia’. In this connection, he said: I am delighted and full of hope for the prospects of studying in Russia, so I am sharing my thoughts with you. Why did he want to study in Russia? Because ‘Russia is the world’s first civilized country.’

Mao Zedong’s first major project after returning to Changsha was to set up the Wenhua shushe (Cultural Book Society) in collaboration with Yi Lirong and some others. In the 31 July 1920 issue of the Hunan Dagongbao, Mao published an article on ‘The Founding of the Cultural Book Society’ and in it he asserted: ‘The brain-hunger of the Hunanese now exceeds their stomachhunger, and young people especially are crying out for sustenance. The Cultural Book Society is ready to introduce the latest foreign and Chinese books and journals in the simplest and most expeditious manner, to provide material on new thinking for the youths and all people of Hunan.’ The targeted clientele of the Cultural Book Society included a much broader spectrum of people than the earlier experimental ‘new villages’ or ‘self-study college’. His ‘new thinking’ and ‘new culture’ in this case were no longer in the general sense of ‘new cultural trends’. He wrote: ‘Not only Hunan, but the whole of China is in want of new culture, as is the world at large. The branching out of a new culture is budding on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Russia.’ From this, we can see that Mao was beginning to pin the hopes of China and the world on the model of the Russian October Revolution, guided by Marxism.

Three rooms were rented in the Xiangya Medical School on Changsha’s Chaozong Street, to serve as the offices of the Cultural Book Society, and the group asked the new military governor of Hunan, Tan Yankai, for permission to write the large Chinese characters for its signboard. In his capacity as the book society’s ‘special negotiator’, Mao canvassed widely for its financial support and expanded its business connections to some sixty or seventy entities in and outside of Hunan. The books and journals of the Cultural Book Society, such as A Study of the New Russia, Worker-Peasant Government and China, An Introduction to Marx’s Das Kapital, A History of Socialism and also Laodongjie (Workers’ World), the journal of the Shanghai Communist Group, were all symbolic of Mao’s ray of hope in pursuit of a ‘new culture’. The books and journals sold well, and supply fell short of demand, reflecting Hunan society’s crying need for publications introducing new ideas. Later, the offices of the Wenhua Bookshop served as the underground liaison office of the Hunan Communist Group.

After setting up the Cultural Book Society, Mao, Fang Weixia, Peng Huang, He Shuheng and others planned and organized a Hunan Russian Studies Society. They held its preparatory meeting in the office-compound of the Changsha County magistrate, and decided ‘to make the study of all aspects of Russia the aim of the research society’. Specific projects included the publication of a ‘Russia Series’, sending some people to Russia for on-site study, and promoting a work-study programme in Russia. On 15 September 1920, the Hunan Russian Studies Society held its inaugural meeting, and Mao Zedong was chosen as its executive secretary. At his recommendation, the Hunan Dagongbao republished a series of important articles from Gongchandang (Communist Party), a monthly magazine published in Shanghai. These included ‘History of the Russian Communist Party’, 'Biography of Lenin’ and ‘Study of the Worker-Peasant System’, and they were widely influential among the young people of Hunan. The Hunan Russian Studies Society recommended Liu Shaoqi, Ren Bishi, Xiao Jinguang and thirteen other young progressives for Russian-language study at the Shanghai Foreign Languages School before going to study in Russia.

Mao’s immediate or short-term undertaking had to do with the issue of self-government for Hunan in the wake of former military governor Zhang’s expulsion. It was the second major issue to which Mao devoted himself after returning to Changsha.

In China at that time, the corrupt and imperious northern warlord government, under the slogan of‘unification through military force’, had in successive years launched punitive expeditionary wars against the south. People naturally were pinning their hopes on provincial self-government or on alliances of autonomous provinces. Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu approved of this. Li Dazhao even went as far as saying: In my view, there can be no reformation of China without creating alliances.’ These prevailing political views had no small effect on Mao Zedong. When he was in Beijing, in talking with Luo Zhanglong, he had thought of making Hunan Province into an advanced region of China, rather like Sparta in ancient Greece, or Germany’s Prussia. After he returned to Hunan from Shanghai, although he was rapidly moving towards Marxism, he still placed some hope in stages of reform. Without first putting them to the test, one does not easily or lightly discard one’s chosen ideological weapons.

In a 9 July letter to Hu Shi, after his return to Hunan, Mao Zedong enthusiastically wrote: ‘There is a new spirit in Hunan since Zhang’s departure, and the educational world has taken on a new flourish.’ On 22 July, the new military governor of Hunan, Tan Yankai, issued a policy professing eventual adoption of ‘Hunan self-government’ and ‘return of political authority to the people’, and it was hailed as the ‘opening telegram’ to spearhead the provincial autonomy movement. His purpose was to gain people’s support to maintain his as yet uncertain authority, and to ward off fresh advances by the northern warlord government. Tan Yankai was openly opposed to the northern warlords, and all circles of Hunan society had suffered bitterly under them in the Zhang period, and since he was showing an enlightened posture and had taken up the widely touted notion of Hunan self-governance put forward by Mao Zedong and others, many people placed great hope in Tan’s promises. Many associations, organizations and members of the intelligentsia began to issue statements advocating ‘governance by the people’ or ‘Hunan self-rule’.

When Tan Yankai issued his ‘opening telegram’, Mao was taking leave in his home village of Shaoshan. He hurried back to Changsha on 1 September 1920 and immediately joined the discussions on Hunan autonomy. Within a little more than a month, he had published in the Changsha Dagongbao and in Shanghai newspapers some fourteen feature articles that fairly systematically elaborated various issues related to Hunan’s autonomy.

When Tan Yankai proclaimed Hunanese autonomy he intentionally confused ‘Hunan government by Hunanese’ with ‘Hunanese people’s self-government’. His hidden agenda was essentially to take advantage of the provincialist mentality of Hunan people and to enable a monopoly of power in the hands of Hunanese bureaucrats and politicians under the slogan of ‘Hunan government by Hunanese’. Mao Zedong pointed out that what the people of Hunan had demanded was not ‘Hunan government by Hunanese’, but ‘self-government by the people of Hunan’. This was because ‘Hunan government by Hunanese would turn a few privileged Hunanese into rulers and the majority of the populace into the ruled; it would make the rulers masters and turn the ruled into slaves.’ He demanded that ‘self-government by the people of Hunan’ should be a political movement from the bottom up. The model in his mind was Russia, and he noted: ‘Political affairs in Russia are all managed by the Russian workers and peasants.’

What form should be adopted for realizing ‘self-government by the people of Hunan’? Mao’s notion was to have a ‘Hunan republic’. He said that those who advocated a ‘Hunan republic’ were not interested in a mere change of nomenclature, and ‘only “full autonomy”, not mere “semi-autonomy”, would be enough to satisfy the demand’. He felt that a nationwide reconstruction was still quite unlikely for some time to come, so ‘some provinces might as well undertake reconstruction individually’, first to be detached from the chaos of 'greater China’, then to wait a decade or two until ‘individual reconstructions’ had been completed, and finally to undertake ‘a thoroughgoing revolution’: ‘This actually is a crucial stage in achieving a comprehensive, nationwide solution.’

Mao called on Hunan to take the lead, to establish ‘a Hunan republic’. He felt that, in the wake of the Zhang ouster and ridding themselves of rule by the northern warlords, Hunan had an opportunity to sieze the initiative. His idea was that, in such a republic, warlord rule would be abolished, and a genuine government of the people would be set up to run banks, develop industries, supervise education, establish and improve self-government at the county and village levels, set up trade unions and peasant associations, and to ensure the people’s freedom of association, assembly, speech, publication and the like.

This idea, which was shocking to some, was a utopian one. To some extent, it reflected contradictions then in his own mind: taking the lead to establish a 'Hunan republic’ was actually a sort of enlarged idea of his ‘new villages’; and the uniting of all social organizations and circles to marshal public opinion to push the new governor into practising Hunanese autonomy was rather like the earlier concept of ‘a revolution through appeals’ that he had advocated in his 'First Issue’ article for the Xiang River Review. Whenever he had the opportunity, he liked to try out his ideas.

As public calls for autonomy in Hunan gained momentum, Mao hoped to use the opportunity to drive a practical social movement. However, fearing that the assertion of public opinion would get out of hand, Tan Yankai hastily convened a ‘Conference on Autonomy’ on 13 September 1920, and decided that his provincial government and the provincial legislative council should select a number of people to serve on a ‘Hunanese Autonomy Council’ to draft a ‘provincial constitution’, following which they would inaugurate a ‘provincial constituent assembly’. Mao Zedong, naturally, could not keep his hands off this. As the situation developed, he became more and more deeply involved in the actual movement.

No sooner had Tan Yankai published his programme on officially managed autonomy, than Mao Zedong, Peng Huang and Dagongbao editor Long Jiangong began to formulate a document on popularly managed autonomy. The completed draft was titled ‘Proposal that the “Hunan Revolutionary Government” Convene a “Hunan People’s Constitutional Convention to Enact a ‘Hunan Constitution’ in Order to Build a ‘New Hunan””. The document tactfully made use of Tan Yankai’s original enlightened attitude by recognizing Tan’s earlier claim that the new provincial government he headed was a ‘truly revolutionary government’, and it went on to state that, ‘at this rare moment of opportunity’, it would be fairly realistic for the provincial government to convene a constitutional assembly of the people of Hunan. It also pointed out:

The delegates to the constitutional assembly must truly be elected in a fair and direct election, in which every 50,000 people should elect one deputy to represent them. Once the constitution had been formulated by the people’s constitutional assembly, then in accordance with that constitution, they could formally establish a Hunan legislature, a Hunan government and autonomous organs of government at the county, district and village levels.

When this was done, ‘a new Hunan will have been constructed’.

The document, signed by 377 people, was published in full in two instalments in the Changsha Dagongbao on 5-6 October, and it was announced a few days later that the number of signatories had increased to 436. Mao was busy running around contacting people and organizing meetings to implement the document. On 7 October, he attended a joint meeting of representatives from various Changsha people’s organizations and newspapers, convened by the Hunan Students’ Federation. The meeting decided to stage a petition demonstration on 10 October, and asked Mao Zedong and Long Jiangong to draft a ‘Petition for the Hunan Self-Government Movement’. On 8 October, Mao attended the ‘Second Liaison Meeting of Representatives of All Circles to Prepare for the Self-government Movement’, convened by the Provincial Education Association. The meeting of 436 delegates chaired by Mao discussed in detail issues relating to the proposed constitutional assembly of the people and the main elements of a draft law to organize government departments. The meeting decided that Fang Weixia and some others should present the outcome of the deliberations to the provincial government.

On 10 October, despite heavy rain, 20,000 people staged a mammoth protest rally. When they arrived at the gate of the governor’s office, Peng Huang handed to Governor Tan Yankai the petition that had been drafted by Mao, which demanded the convening of a constitutional assembly of the people without delay. When the demonstration reached the entrance to the provincial legislative council, some demonstrators tore down the flag of that council, out of indignation at the government-sponsored ‘constitutionmaking’ plot.

Though Tan Yankai received the petition, he later flatly rejected its demands. By the end of November, Tan Yankai was replaced as commander of the Hunan Army by Zhao Hengti, who simply cast aside the camouflage of enlightenment. The Hunan Army under Zhao Hengti knew Mao Zedong was a crucial figure in the demonstration, so they began to spread rumours that Mao himself had torn down the provincial legislative council’s flag, and that he intended to smash the legislative council itself. The provincial police department summoned Mao for interrogation to create a high-handed atmosphere of terror. Mao Zedong had no alternative but to publish in the Dagongbao a ‘Letter Refuting Unjust Accusations’, in which he stated solemnly: ‘No one whatsoever should attempt any offence against my person or any damage to my reputation.’

Though the police took no further steps, the peaceful petition turned out to be like ‘asking a tiger for his skin’, and it was unable to recover from the setback.

These harsh realities gave Mao pause. He seemed then to be exhausted, mentally and physically. He told one of his friends, ‘My life is too troubled.’

Towards the end of November, he decided to leave the provincial capital for a few days’ rest, and went to Pingxiang in Jiangxi Province.

There in Pingxiang, Mao once again turned to pondering, after days of hectic activity. Since his contemplated course seemed unlikely to succeed, a new course of action had to be explored. He was adept at drawing lessons from setbacks and failures, and good at discarding, in the course of exploration, those elements in his thinking that were not practical.

On a single day, 25 November 1920, he wrote five letters to five members of the New People’s Study Society: Xiang Jingyu, Ouyang Ze, Luo ers of the New People’s Study Society: Xiang Jingyu, Ouyang Ze, Luo Zhanglong, Li Si’an and Zhang Guoji. Three of those letters dealt mainly with summarizing lessons learned from the failure of the movement for Hunan self-government.

His letter to Xiang Jingyu said, ‘Events of the last few months have enabled me to see through things.’ Drawing a lesson from the failure, he added, ‘The path of political reformation seems to be a blind alley. We must discard it complelely, blaze a new trail, and create a new environment and another way.’

In his letter to Li Si’an, he said, ‘[We must] create a new environment, prepare for the long term, and make meticulous plans. When our strength is built up, positive results can be achieved. There is no need to contend with them for a day’s superiority.’ By ‘them’, he meant Tan Yankai, Zhao Hengti and their ilk.

In the letter to Luo Zhanglong, he wrote: ‘We should create a new atmosphere.’ The New People’s Study Society ‘had better adopt a doctrine. A doctrine is like a banner. Once it is hoisted, our members will have clear expectations and know the goal to be attained.’

As usual, Mao was steadily treading his own path of progress. This was yet another opportunity to conduct a self-examination and discard the dross. The lessons learned from harsh reality made him cast aside the last vestiges of illusion regarding a reformist approach, and to embark firmly on a revolutionary road. It was not easy for him to reach this decision, but once it had been made, he never backtracked.

By the end of November, Mao had completed another significant project. He had collected correspondence exchanged between members of the New People’s Study Society and had compiled it into two volumes, along with summaries or comments on some of it. He had these printed in December. It was a review of the evolution of his and other society members’ ideological views over the course of two years.

On a letter in this collection, about the movement to oust the despotic governor Zhang Jingyao and the movement for Hunan autonomy, Mao wrote significantly: ‘These two movements are merely expedients to cope with current circumstances and are by no means our fundamental stand. Our proposition goes far beyond them.’

What was the ‘proposition’ that went far beyond these movements? Mao held that the New People’s Study Society should ‘plan and organize for fundamental reform, and stand firmly on a base for that reform, such as the Communist Party as proposed by Cai Hesen’

Cai Hesen was in France at that time. Since the society members’ day-long meeting at Bansongyuan Garden in Shanghai on 8 May 1920, they had been concentrated in two places, France and Changsha. By the early Winter of 1920, there were eighteen of the society’s members in the French work-study programme. Cai Hesen and others of the first contingent, who were able to read books and journals in French, were ‘busy reading and translating into Chinese’ several dozen revolutionary publications. This allowed them to accept Marxism and Leninism slightly earlier than did Mao Zedong, and to have a slightly deeper understanding of them. Since they had agreed at the Bansongyuan Garden meeting that the society’s members in France should meet regularly to hold discussions, Xiao San of the second contingent communicated this upon his arrival, to Cai Hesen and the others already in France. On 5-10 July 1920, fifteen of the society’s members held a meeting at Mouton-Duvernet in southern Paris. They adopted for the society the guiding principle of ‘reform China and the world’. Differences cropped up between a radical group headed by Cai Hesen and a moderate group headed by Xiao Zisheng. The meeting asked Cai and Xiao to write to Mao and other society members in China to inform them of the two differing views.

Xiao Zisheng’s letter, written in early August, indicated that he ‘did not quite think the Russian (Marxist) type of revolution was justified’, and that he was ‘inclined to an anarchist (non-violent) new-style revolution’ and that such a revolution should start with education and ‘use education as a means’. The other letter, from Cai Hesen, was written on 13 August. In the letter, Cai stated clearly that China should take the road of socialism, and that ‘class struggle -proletarian dictatorship’ was the ‘necessary means to realize socialism’; that the Party, trade unions, cooperatives and soviets were ‘the four weapons of the proletarian revolution’; and that, among them, the Party served as ‘initiator, propagator, vanguard and operational headquarters of the revolutionary movement’. Cai further stated that, in the light of China’s conditions, 'I believe that we must first organize a party - the Communist Party’, and he hoped that Mao Zedong would ‘prepare for it as soon as possible in China’.

As the two letters were en route to China, Mao was busy with the movement for self-government by the people of Hunan. He did not get them until November, and by that time he had already cast aside the illusion of Hunan self-government. After deeply pondering and carefully considering things, Mao wrote, on 1 December, a long letter of 4,000 characters in reply, addressed to Cai, Xiao and other society members in France, expressing his own opinions on the differing views. He stated: 'I do not agree with the positions of Xiao Zisheng and He Sheng (Li Weihan); however, I earnestly endorse that of Cai Hesen.' He explained why he favoured the revolutionary road: because, though the moderate reformist measures ‘sound good in theory, they cannot work in practice’; ‘History shows that all autocratic rulers, imperialists, or militarists must be overthrown, since they never quit the stage of their own accord.’

‘The Russian revolution points the way to change following the failure of all other paths; and this is not a matter of choosing this approach while discarding a better one.’ This was his conclusion, drawn from the harsh reality of life.

Xiao Zisheng, who returned to China at the end of December 1920, carried a long letter to Mao that had been written by Cai Hesen on 16 September. In his letter, Cai elaborated on the necessity for founding the Communist Party and its international liaison organ, and he advocated ‘openly establishing the Communist Party of China’. On 21 January 1921, Mao wrote a brief reply in which he said, ‘Historical materialism is the philosophical basis for our Party’; and ‘Your views are quite appropriate, and there is not a word of your proposition with which I disagree.’

Mao Zedong’s reply to Cai Hesen marked his belief in Marxism and communism. [As noted above,] he had earlier referred to this conviction as the final choice, ‘following the failures of all other paths’, and this indicated what a tortuous path he had followed mentally for the previous two years. Forty years later, when meeting with Field Marshal Montgomery from Britain, Mao recollected this part of his experience in the following way: ‘Revolution is not something that one wishes to pursue or not to pursue somewhere. In the early years, I had not thought of going in for revolution. I was then a school teacher. It was dictated by the situation that I had to go in for revolution.

When he wrote to Cai Hesen to express his attitude, Mao was still a young man who had just celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday.

Man of Action in the Early Years of Party Building

The 27-year-old Mao Zedong experienced a change in his life. In the winter of 1920, he married Yang Kaihui.

Born on 6 November 1901, Yang Kaihui was eight years younger than Mao. She spent her childhood with her mother in the countryside of Banchang District of Changsha. After her father, Yang Changji, returned from study abroad, they lived in the city of Changsha. In 1918, she accompanied her father in his move to Beijing. After her lather’s demise, she and her brother, in February 1920, accompanied his coffin back to Changsha. Not long thereafter, she entered the Xiangfu Girls Preparatory Middle School. After Mao’s return to Changsha from Shanghai, she began doing publicity work for the Hunan Students’ Federation.

Yang Kaihui and Mao Zedong fell in love with each other during Mao’s two stays in Beijing. As she later recalled, ‘I began to love Mao when I began to learn a lot about him and after reading his diary and many of his articles.’ Mao often wrote to her of his love for her, and on one occasion wrote her a poem in classical style to the tune of Yu Mei Ren, the first half of which was:

On my pillow, melancholy surged like rolling waves in the sea.

The long night delays daybreak.

Helpless, I sit up with a thin quilt shawled over me.

It is likely that only an affectionate man, deeply in love, would compose verses that sound so tender and moving in Chinese.

Yang Kaihui also reflected: 'I have seen his heart, and he mine ... I had not expected to have the good luck to know him as the one I love ... From this I have a new feeling. I feel that I live not only for the sake of my mother, but also for him. If, one day, Mom passes away and should he be arrested, I would want to share his fate together with him.’

The above reflections were written by Yang Kaihui on 20 June 1929, and she tucked them into the crevice of a wall in her countryside house in Banchang Disirict, shortly before she was arrested and executed by the GMD. These words, in Yang’s own handwriting, were not discovered until 1983. Since their discovery, they have been told and retold in the story of their love.-pg 78

---