Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was born in a poor peasant family, since young Mao had to work hard and life is concerned. Although later on her family's economic situation improved, but the misery in childhood that affect his life much later. As a child, Mao sent to study in elementary school. Childhood education also includes the teachings of the Confucian classics. But at age 13, his father told him to stop going to school and told him to work in the fields.


Mao's rebellious and determined to finish his education so he is desperate to run away from home and continue their education elsewhere.

In 1905, he followed the state exam at the time it began to remove the old Confucian ideologies; replaced by Western-style education. This marks the beginning of an intellectual uncertainty in China.

In 1911, Mao was involved in the Xinhai Revolution which is a revolution against the Qing Dynasty, which resulted in the collapse of imperial China who had ruled over 2000 years since 221 BC. In 1912, the Republic of China was proclaimed by Sun Yat-sen and China officially entered the era of the republic. Mao then continues her schooling and learn many things such as western culture. In 1918 he graduated and then studied at Beijing University. There he will meet with the founders of the CCP's Marxist-leaning.

Mao and the party
Mao in Yan'an in 1946

the party was founded in 1921 Mao and Mao's increasingly vocal. Between the years 1934 - 1935 he held the lead role and led the Chinese Red Army undergoing "Length Mars." Then since 1937 he participated to help Dai Nippon combat troops that occupied much of China's territory. Finally, World War II ended and civil war flared again. In the war against the nationalists of this, Mao became the leader of the Reds and he finally won in 1949. On October 1, 1949, People's Republic of China was proclaimed and the Chinese nationalist leader, Chiang Kai Shek fled to Taiwan.

In the CCP Mao himself since 1943 is chairman of the party secretariat and the Politburo, but he actually control the entire party until his death in 1976. Leadership may not be vulgar like Stalin's cruel but its policy of violence and conduct that arbitrarily brought the Chinese people themselves collapsed into ruin and misery are extraordinary.

Mao's Philosophy
Mao Zedong in 1936

Mao was not an original philosopher. His ideas on socialism fathers such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin and Stalin. But he thought a lot about dialectical materialism is the basis of socialism and the application of these ideas in practice such original work can be said of Mao. Mao could also be said of a Chinese philosopher whose influence is greatest in this 20th Century.

Mao's most important philosophical concept is the conflict. He said: "Conflicts are universal and absolute; it is in the process of development of all goods and possess all the process from beginning to end." Karl Marx's historical model is also based on the principles of conflict: the oppressed classes and oppressed classes, capital and jobs are in a eternal conflict. At some point this will lead to a crisis and the workers will win. In the end this new situation will lead to a crisis again, but eventually all the processes logically according to Mao, will bring us to a stable and harmonious balance. Mao be argued that all conflicts are universal and absolute, so in other words are immortal. Mao's concept of conflict is no resemblance to the philosophical concept of yin-yang. It all sounds like a dogma of faith. The following are a sample of his thinking about the conflict.

In all of science is divided on the basis of certain conflicts inherent to the objects of their research. Conflicts have been the basic form of discipline than anything scientific. Here can be presented a few examples: positive and negative numbers in mathematics, action and reaction in mechanics, electricity positive and negative in physics, the attraction and repulsion in chemistry, class conflict in the social sciences, attack and defense in the science war, idealism and materialism and dialectical perspective in the science of metaphysics and philosophy and so on. These are all objects of research disciplines of science different because each discipline has a specific conflict and the essence or gist of each.

The examples given by Mao Zedong on 'conflict' in different disciplines taken from Lenin. Some analogy does fit but others do not. Negative numbers and positive is a bad example of the dialectics of Marxism because of their differences is not dynamic: there are only numbers negative and positive just emerging. Opinion Mao into doubt when he says that 'conflict' “conflict' this is the 'essence' rather than knowledge of the relevant disciplines. Positive and negative numbers is not the essence of mathematics, as well as metaphysics and dialectics is not the essence of philosophy. Mao is one of high learning and understanding-understanding that one can be explained from because he was obsessed with the concept of this conflict. This obsession also influence political decisions such as will be explained below later.
The concept of Yin Yang affects the philosophical views of Mao Zedong.

Mao's second important concept is the concept of knowledge which he also took from Marxism. Mao believes that knowledge is a continuation of the experience in the physical nature and that the experience was the same as engagement.

If you seek knowledge and you have to engage with the state of changed circumstances. If you want to know how it feels a pink, then pink it should be changed in a way to eat it. If you want to know the atomic structure, then you have to do experiments in physics and chemistry to change the status of these atoms. If you want to know the theory and method revolution, then you must follow. All true knowledge comes from direct experience.


Only after a person gain experience, then he could just jump to the front. After that knowledge practiced again that makes a person gain more experience and so on. Here shown that Mao's Marxism was not only familiar but also understand neo-Confucianism as proposed by Wang Yangmin who lived in the 15th century to the 16th century.

Mao and political policy

Mao distinguish two types of conflict, conflict antagonists and non-antagonistic conflicts. Antagonistic conflict can only be solved according to a just battle, while non-antagonistic conflict can be resolved by a discussion. According to Mao conflict between the workers and workers with the capitalists is an antagonistic conflict while the conflict between the Chinese people with the Party is a non-antagonistic conflict.

In 1956 Mao introduced a new policy in which the intellectuals can issue their opinion as a compromise against the party who pressed it because they want to avoid the cruel oppression is accompanied by the motto: "Let a hundred flowers and a hundred different thoughts compete." But ironically policy This political failure: the intellectuals were not satisfied and release much criticism. Mao himself argued that he had been betrayed by them and his revenge. About 700,000 members of the intelligentsia that he catches and forcibly made to work in rural areas.

Mao believed in the eternal nature of a revolution. He also believes that any revolution would result in the counter-revolutionary. Therefore, he regularly and eradicate what he considered arresting political opponents and the traitors or the counter-revolutionary. Event of the most dramatic and tragic events is the heart of the Cultural Revolution that occurred in 1966. In the 1960s the students in the whole world is on the happy-happy rebel against what they consider the Establishment or the ruling. Similarly, in China. The difference in China they are supported by their teachers and dignitaries of the Party including Mao himself. The students and faculty establish what is called the Red Guard, a paramilitary unit. Armed with Mao's Red Book, they attacked the lackeys of capitalism and Western influences and the other counter-revolutionary. As an example of their fanaticism, they are among others refused to stop on the highway when the red light because they suggest that the color red, a symbol of socialism might mean something not quit. So the members of the Red Guards in 1966 is very indiscriminate in combating the counter-revolutionary China in a state so that the country is very precarious and almost destroyed; his economic has no prospect. Finally, Mao was forced to reduce the PLA to overcome them and block their fanaticism. The result is a new civil war which ended in 1968.

Failure Mao

In 1958 Mao launched what he called the Great Leap Forward in which rural areas are totally reorganized. Everywhere established association’s villages (communes). Economically this was all failed. These communes into units that is too large and not able to be solved. It is estimated that approximately nearly 20 million people have died in China at that time in vain

Mao Zedong and the UN
Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.

People's Republic of China since Mao proclaimed in 1949 not recognized by the United States. United States still recognizes the Nationalist Republic of China since 1949, only controlled the island of Formosa or Taiwan and surrounding areas. China since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 has become a permanent Security Council members along with the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union (Russia) as the winner of World War II, still represented too. Just who is representing the nationalist government that ruled Taiwan is now only just. This is a strange because the mainland Chinese who was then a population of approximately 800 million people are not represented at the United Nations, which represents only Taiwan has a population of just who was then probably no more than 10 million people.

So at the end of the 1960s the United States president, Richard Nixon, began to approach the People's Republic of China and finally with the approval of the Soviet Union became China's UN Security Council members began in 1972 and replaced Taiwan.


The legacy of Mao and the People's Republic of China at this time

In 1976 Mao Zedong died. After the People's Republic of China becomes more independent. Normalization of diplomatic relations with Indonesia are also materialized in 1992. At this moment China appears as a giant that just woke from his sleep and rapid economic growth. Even China could surpass Russia in its development. It is contested now is whether this can all be achieved thanks to Mao's merits or because the effect is already thin.

Ref: http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong