Mao ZeDong Leadership During Chinese Revolution - Research Paper Example

College: Mao ZeDong: his leadership during Chinese revolution Introduction China is one of the countries in the world with a rich history of religions, the main religions are Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Catholicism and Protestantism .Religion in China forms plays a significant role in the lives of the Chinese people. Religion of creation has been enjoyed in most parts of the country; with the freedom to choose and express ones own religious belief, the religion one can say that the Chinese have to some extend enjoyed the religion of creation which is characterized with the belief in God as source of divine power, cultivation of good relationship with enemies, belief in God as the supreme leader among others1. For example Buddhism which presents the highest number of followers, it bases it major beliefs in Sila2 , Samadhi3 and Prajna4, which are integrated in the religion of creation. However, the Chinese people have also witnessed the religion of creation during the prolonged reign of Mao ZeDong’s communism. The religion of empire is characterized by the rule of a powerful and single entity with hierarchical patronage, urban megalopolis, and differentiation of people into social classes, existence of a human god, destruction of enemies, suspicion and persecution among others5. The empire of Mao ZeDong reign saw China operate under the religion of empire ,as a communists leader and the founder of the Republic of China ,Mao ensured that he controlled China with disastrous policies such ass the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the ‘Cultural Revolution’. I strongly Ward that religion should be a binding force that brings joy forth and not sorrow6 .However, relating the manner in which Mao ZeDong imposed rule on his people curtailing the freedom to exercise the religion of creation but suffer under his empire, learning about the, economic and political and social activities under his rule will give me a clear picture of understanding the impact that that the religion of empire had on the Chinese People under his rule. To find accurate answers ,there are questions that I will seek to answer, briefly understanding the religions practiced in china, finding out about Mao Zedong himself, his policies like the ‘The Great Leap Forward’,’ The long March’ ‘Hundred flower campaign” Political and social movements, like the Kuomintang (KMT), Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese Revolution and Cultural Revolution. These are the tenets that yielded to Mao Zedong’s exercise the religion of empire overriding the religion of creation that the Chinese people had earlier enjoyed and continued practicing during the Post Mao Zedong regime. About Mao Deng Born on 26th December 1893 into a peasant family based in Hunan province central China, Mao started illustrating leadership qualities at an early age. After training as a teacher, he moved to Beijing and started working in the Library and engrossed himself with reading Marxist literature. Marxism is a social political and economic view that habours political ideology that spells out on how to improve a society7.According to the Encarta Reference Library, Marxism can be described as “a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies.” The concept of Marxism was the main force that led Mao to enforce a religion of empire that would enable him accumulate wealth, through private ownership and the practice of capitalism by dominating the means of production, distribution and exchange .In the year 1921, he formed the CCP and set up a branch in Hunan, after three year, CCP together with the Kuomintang (KMT) worked together and defeated the war lords that had occupied most parts of northern China. Mao ZeDong ruled the Republic of China 27 years from 1949-1976.He died on September 1776 after suffering form a number of age related illness. Although Mao ZeDong was the greatest and most influential leader in China, he was one of the cruelest leaders of all time. His rule saw the rights of his own citizens deprived, thousands killed and maimed and any opposition against him suppressed among other evil deeds. His rule resembles that of a religion of empire. As a leader he used his power to control the economic structure of the country to earn as much s he possibly could, he was ruthless and directed his soldiers to take part in dangerous missions like walking for more than 6000 miles to fight without adequate weapons, food and aid, he did not allow his followers to freely exercise their rights such as the right to gain knowledge, right to speech, for economic prosperity among others. His use of communism to substitute the traditional religion through the use of his own imagery illustrates the religion of empire8. Mao desire to be treated as a god was displayed through the excessive use of his image in almost every aspect of life .His image is symbolic not only in China but also in communist communities. His glorified image became manifested in to a personality cult that had influence in every aspect of Chinese life. His image is an indication of leadership against imperialism, capitalism and feudalism which had widely been experienced in China before 1949 since the Opium war. In fact, Chinese believe that Mao’s image had the power to expel bad luck and evil spirit. This is a clear indication of the religion of empire where a leader exemplifies himself as a god and with supreme powers. During his attempt to educate the peasants in resisting the temptation of feudalism in 1962, large numbers of politicized art carrying his portrait were largely distributed. The art ranged from posters, to musical composition, to badges glorifying his prowess and policies. Some of the phrases and lyrics read “Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts “ and “Savior of the People”. Mao succeeded in idolizing himself before the Chinese people, up to date all the youth raised under his regime view him positively despite the disastrous things he had done, more over his images are displayed on Ren minbi as an appreciation9. The Political and Cultural Influence during Mao Zedong’ era. After moving to Shanghai to form the Chinese Communists Party (CCP), Mao was able to form allies with Kuomintang (KMT) which was under the rule of Sun Yat-Sen. However after his death in 1925, Chiang Kai-Shek took over the leadership of KMT. In 1933, Kuomintang launched an attack on CCP, to evade this attack Mao ZeDong initiated a historical journey that was to cover 6,000 miles, this journey was happened between (October 1934 –October 1935) and it was regarded to as the Long March. The march was heavily surrounded by Chiang Kai-Shek army, with a magnitude of 80,000 soldiers, only 8,000-9,000 of them survived the long trek. Despite the huge loss that the CCP had undergone, their leader went ahead ad launched a new Communist base in Yan’an. How would a human being celebrate so much about a mission that has led close to 70,000 people dead unless he is filled with greed for power and total authority? After the end of the march, Mao Zedong described it as a manifesto, propaganda force and seeding machine “The long March is also a seeding machine .In eleven provinces it has sown many seeds which will sprout, leaf, blossom, and bear fruit, and will yield a harvest in future”10 . Having to send an army to war without adequate food and weapons, referring to them as a seeding machine regardless of the number of deaths, leaving them to walk on their own without giving them support as their leader, sending them without any channels of communication and one can only describe such a leader as one who practices the religion of empire. His actions illustrated a leader with zest to grab and keep everything to himself “it has sown many seeds which will sprout, leaf, blossom, and bear fruit, and will yield a harvest in future”11. In pretense, Mao Zedong’s CCP joined hands with Kuomintang to repel attacks that were being planned by the Japanese army, this occurred in 1937. The unity between the two parties saw the Japanese army surrender, instead of appreciating Chiang assistance; Mao ZeDong waged war on him leading him to escape to Taiwan. Having achieved what he wanted, Mao ZeDong formed a communist Republic of China in 194812. After becoming the official leader of the People’s Republic of China, he immediately took control of the media which was widely used to promote him as the image of communism. During this tie, any from of opposition was suppressed, everyone was supposed to fully co-operate with the Communists part failure to which he /she would be persecuted. The control over the media to exalt him puts him at a higher level than others and his basic political ideology recognizes him as the supreme god, he exercised injustice by punishing those with different views from his. In a society practicing religion of creation, god alone would be the ruler, all people would be the same before his eyes and everyone would have he freedom of expression. Clearly, Mao Zedong exemplified the religion of empire immediately after taking over the leader of the country 13. To fool the people on his dictatorial leadership styles, Mao Zedong introduced the five anti five campaigns claiming that he will get rid of waste, corruption and bureaucracy. Any business man, landlords and former employees of Western companies were executed under his orders. Any leader, who easily executes his followers, has great tendencies of practicing a religion of empire. The Hundred Flower Campaign The hundred flower campaign was a movement that started in 1956 within the Communists government to put to an end the restrictions imposed against the intellectuals in China to allow for the freedom of speech and thought .Mao ZeDong and his officers a gave a lee way to intellectuals and other critics to comment about this regime whether they were giving positive remarks or not. In the beginning, commentators were careful when giving their views; hundreds of letters were received by the government and son it became known to the Mao that many people were against his regime14. He quickly changed his earlier decision and after intellectuals began to spill out of the campaign. Mao reason for bring the earlier campaign to an end was that the government was threatened and that all criticism against the government would be clean up. The Hundred Flower Campaign led to the formation of anti rights movement whose responsibilities were to sabotage the freedom of speech, movement, thought and obtaining of information15. The anti rights movement openly practiced the religion of empire, prosecuting more than 500,000 rightist, executing some of the government officials who showed mistrust such as Lin Zhao and Zhang Zhixin, curtailing the reading o f special books or listening to specific radio stations somehow heightened the regime of this form of religion, a religion that knows no mercy even to its followers, a religion that suspects everybody and is ready and in a position to destroy any foreigners that is those against the Mao ZeDong regime16. A society that according to Marxism, should have social classes and the chosen ones and all others is one that has no justice nor concern for the less privileged .In Mao’s case all the others were excluded from the city through executions. His dictatorial tendencies and injustice and prejudice are all forms of the religion of empire 17 The Great Leap Forward In the religion of creation, the basic economic structure is characterized with collaboration amidst abundance, exchange of gifts between people and practice of barter trade. In Mao’s economic policies, the only driving force to work is money, enrichment, competition amidst scarcity and imposing of heavy taxes. Through the implementation of ‘The Great Leap Forward’, Mao ZeDong established an urban centered rule, to achieve pure communism, he decentralized the entire economy. China was divided into, 24,000 communes that had to practice pure agriculture working tirelessly to produce farm produce mainly rice. After achieving was he had aspired for, triple GDP, he introduced the second “Great Leap Forward” all rural officials were to compulsory deliver a given quota of grains on collective farms whether it left the laborers with food or not. According to Bernstein, the compulsory fulfillment led to a wide spread famine between 1932 and 1933 that extended all through to 1947. The laborers were indebted to deliver the required quota of grains. Mao Zedong and his officials enriched themselves and pleased foreigners through the farmers sweat while leaving the laborers hungry, tired, devastated, indebted and poor18. But what could have stopped the workers from protesting against this dictatorial and inhuman behavior of their leaders, how could they work tirelessly to grow grain ad submit all the harvest? What inflicted fear in them to such an extend? One would only understand after learning about the tenets behind the religion of empire. To confirm that the religion of empire is short-lived, the second GLF was a total failure. According to Waldon, the infiltration of Marxism and desire for industrialization into Mao ZeDong’s head did not contribute to this exploitation of the farmers; rather he wanted to import weapons that would be used to defend his religion of empire across China19. The failure of the GLF reprieved Mao of his authority; he retreated to ponder over his actions and concluded that it was a conservative nature of the communist that led to the failure. To restructure his country, he formed the Cultural Revolution. Cultural Revolution Determined to regain the power that was slowly slipping away from his hands some members of his party, Mao ZeDong started the Cultural Revolution that was witnessed from 1965-1968. This revolution was started by a speech by Lin Piao who called for the university and college students to get back to the revolutionary days, to openly criticize liberally within the Communist party dismissing educational establishment as elists. Mao believed that professional in the country were progressing at his expense, he claimed that these classes of people did not understand the lifestyles of a simple Chinese20. No elite was safe from the criticism that run day in day out and any person who challenged Mao’s regime was considered an enemy by the Red Guards. The euphoria almost turned China to a social turmoil, foreign embassies and foreigners were attacked, and different groups of Red Guards turned against one another. The revolution was getting out of hand when Zhou Enlai called for normalcy .In 1968 Liu Shao –chi was expelled from the part and this marked the end of this revolution. The Cultural Revolution is a common strategy used by the religion of empire to scuttle the enemy and cause confusion among followers to blind them from seeing the truth 21 Conclusion The religion of Empire has widely been implicated during the reign of Mao ZeDong in China. Even though there were instances where the religion of creation were exercised, for instance during the GLF, Mao’s clashed at Lushan with PengDehuai, who criticized the GLF was sent to jail and not executed. However there are so many instances that qualifies Mao ZeDong’s rule as a religion of Empire. From the sending of troops to a 6 mile journey without food, mode of communication, aid, weapons or motor vehicles, to banishing of his own general, to abolishing and freedom of expression, movement and executing all those that challenged his rule, to pleasing foreigners at the expense of hard working laborers, leaving farmers hungry and in deplorable situations in a bid to enrich himself, creating social and power classes and placing himself before the people as a divine power and imagery among others. It is evident that the religion of empire is the worst kind of religion any given society would experience in the world. Before his rule, the people China enjoyed the freedom of worship, where the people would practice it in tables of fellowship, mountains depending on their religious affiliations. The basic social structure was in the rural, there was love for neighbors and foreigners and trust between the ruling parties. Before the introduction of the Great Leap forward, the people were never hungry but had plenty to share and trade with their neighbors22. As Benton, 2005 asserts, the religion of empire does not last long, and so after the fall of Mao ZeDong, the people republic of China renewed its practice of the religion of reaction which saw the introduction of foreign religions such as Catholicism and Protestantism23. Works Cited Bernstein, Thomas P. "Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959-1960: A Study in Wilfulness." China Quarterly 186 (2006): 421-445. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 June 2010 Bernstein, Thomas P. "Stalinism, Famine, and Chinese peasants: Grain Procurements during the Great Leap Forward." Theory & Society 13.3 (1984): 339-377. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 June 2010. Chau,Yuet, A. Religion in contemporary China ; revitalizing and Innovation. New York: Milton Park,2011. Cliff, Tony. "China: The Hundred Flowers Wilt." Socialist Review May 1959: 236-41. Web. 6 Jun 2010. . Frost, Bob. "Chairman Mao: Picture of a dictator." Biography 2.8 (1998): 88. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 June 2010. "On How the Chinese Communist Party Is an Evil Cult." Epoch Times (2004): n. pag. Web. 7 Jun 2010. . "Great Leap Forward." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2009): 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 June 2010. Richard, Solomon. Mao’s revolution and the Chinese political culture. Michigan .Ann arbor: Centre of Chinese Studues, 1998. Simkin, John. "Spartacus Educational." spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.N.p.,n.d. Web. 6 Jun 2010. . Tang Tsou. [1986] (1986). The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective. University of Chicago Press Tai Sung, An Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution. Pegasus: Indiapolis, 1972. Vroomen,Boris de. China The Great Leap Forward. New York: FilmmakersLibrary.1998. Waldron, Arthur.  "Mao Lives. " Commentary 1 Oct. 2005: ProQuest Religion, ProQuest. Web.  6 Jun. 2010 Ward, Keith. Religion and Human fulfillment. London: SCM Press, 2008. Ward, Keith, Is Religion Dangerous? Mich: Grand Rapids, 2007. Zhang, Chunhou. Vaughan, C. Edwin. (2002). Mao Zedong as Poet and Revolutionary Leader: Social and Historical Perspectives. Lexington books ZeDong, Mao. The Writings of Mao ZeDong,1949-1976. New York: Armonk, 1992. ZeDong, Mao. Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung. New York: Oxxford, 1977. Read More