Mao Zedong and Religion
By Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD
‘Knowledge is a matter of science, and no dishonesty or conceit whatsoever is permissible. What is required is definitely the reverse – honesty and modesty.’
Author’s Note: There are a number of supposed ‘quotes’ wafting around the internet that are ascribed to Mao Zedong, but were never said by him. These quotes often portray an unfeeling monster of a man, and although obviously ahistorical and false, are shared just as enthusiastically by the political left as the political right! Both use this US-fabricated ‘ogre’ of Mao to their own nefarious ends. Then there are the ‘racist’ Trotskyite ‘leftists’ who accuse Socialist China of being capitalist, with the only evidence being ‘that they said it’. All this rubbish must be clearly identified and thrown away. Mao Zedong spoke about ‘love’ a number of times in his authentic writings. As a human-being, he was a very ‘loving’ person. Indeed, I would go as far as to say he was a very ‘spiritual’ man in the Chinese and Marxist-Leninist sense. The following text should either reaffirm your correct thoughts about Mao Zedong, or clear away the old and incorrect thoughts about Mao Zedong!
ACW (10.9.2020)
Author’s Note: There are a number of supposed ‘quotes’ wafting around the internet that are ascribed to Mao Zedong, but were never said by him. These quotes often portray an unfeeling monster of a man, and although obviously ahistorical and false, are shared just as enthusiastically by the political left as the political right! Both use this US-fabricated ‘ogre’ of Mao to their own nefarious ends. Then there are the ‘racist’ Trotskyite ‘leftists’ who accuse Socialist China of being capitalist, with the only evidence being ‘that they said it’. All this rubbish must be clearly identified and thrown away. Mao Zedong spoke about ‘love’ a number of times in his authentic writings. As a human-being, he was a very ‘loving’ person. Indeed, I would go as far as to say he was a very ‘spiritual’ man in the Chinese and Marxist-Leninist sense. The following text should either reaffirm your correct thoughts about Mao Zedong, or clear away the old and incorrect thoughts about Mao Zedong!
ACW (10.9.2020)
Mao Zedong: On Practice (July 1937) - Selected Works Vol. I. P. 300
‘This is Maitreya Buddha and his belly is big so that he can accommodate the entire universe. We are not enlightened like the Buddha, and do not possess the ability to accommodate and tolerate the universe as he is able to do.’
Mao Zedong: Selected Works of the Life of Mao Zedong by Wei Yang Zong [1918-1986] Edited by Cui Rong Bo (translated from the original Chinese into English)
Mao Zedong was a prominent member of the Communist Party of China, who was highly influential between 1921 –1949 and the winning of State power, and who retained a primary presence until his death in 1976. He was one of millions of Chinese people who dedicated their lives to freeing China from the brutality of Eurocentric imperialism, and the Chinese people from the ignorance of thousands of years of illiterate feudal rule! As he is non-White, the US (capitalist) ideologues routinely make use of racist stereotypes when misrepresenting his memory in the West. Just as US anti-intellectualism likes to misrepresent Joseph Stalin as Adolf Hitler – it also likes to turn Mao Zedong into yet another ‘mass killer’! At various points in this false narrative, Mao has killed more people than who live in China, despite the fact that there is no objective evidence of any massacres taking place (outside of the Western imagination), and no one alive in China who can remember any such episodes happening! Reality, however, does not interfere with racism, which has a momentum all of its own. Mao – or so the US racists say – is of the wrong race and obviously acts like a barbarian! This is the illogical trail of reasoning that has led to Mao Zedong being another ‘Hitler’... In China things are very different, and Mao Zedong is still idealised today as the founder of the modern nation! He was a Marxist-Leninist who managed to apply that European ideology so that it could operate in a relevant manner within China, and be meaningful to the mind and body of the average Chinese person.
Mao Zedong fully understood that the ‘old’ China had to go, and the ‘new’ China had to arrive if China was not to be dominated by the European invaders that had caused endless problems since their arrival. There had to be a complete break with the past, if Socialist freedom was to be achieved, followed by a re-engagement with tradition so that it could be preserved into the modern era but without its more ignorant aspects. As a modern thinker, Mao was ‘free’ of China’s past, but as he was ‘Chinese’ by birth, he possessed an innate understanding of what it is to be ‘Chinese’. All Chinese people had to throw-off the reactionary past of China, and develop a ‘new’ Socialist China here and now. Chinese religion had to find a new place in a ‘new’ China. People of religious rank could no longer bully the populace and keep them ensnared in a web of ignorance. The foreign Protestant and Catholic Churches were expelled for being vehicles of Western racism and imperialism, with the small populations of converts they had forcibly made given their own ‘Chinese-controlled’ and Chinese-administered Protestant and Catholic Churches. This necessarily ‘cut’ ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK and the Vatican in Rome. This was a small price to pay for China’s cultural independence! Of course, the Western (capitalist) response was to package this loss of direct exploitative power in China as being a product of China’s backward development and Mao Zedong’s bloodthirsty appetite – all fictional but typical of the West’s use of ‘racism at a distance’!
The Communist Party of China took control of Mainland China in 1949, and following a rapid process of consultation and widespread reform, declared a ‘new’ Socialist Constitution in 1956! Contrary to US anti-China propaganda, this Constitution mirrored the Soviet Constitution and granted each individual living in China freedom to hold any (or ‘no’) religious belief, and recognised ‘atheism’ as a legitimate opinion and mode of expression. As with the United States and the USSR, China declared the Church separate from the State, and Classroom separate from the Church. Whilst the United States practices exactly the same legal arrangement between the political establishment and religion, it has always taken the anti-intellectual position that Socialist countries ‘do not really practice religious freedom’, despite no evidence to support this allegation, and ample evidence to the contrary. The real reason behind this bizarre US stance is that Socialist countries do not allow the Vatican or St Paul’s Cathedral (in London) to exercise direct control over Catholic and Protestant Christian populations. This is because the Christian Church (in both guises) has worked enthusiastically with the colonial powers, and spread domination, oppression, poverty, genocide and cultural destruction alongside the brain-washing of non-White populations, as a means to spread their particular religious dogmas, faith systems and theologies. As a consequence, other than during the period of ‘Unequal Treaties’, Christianity has had only a very brief influence with a relatively brief interlude in China. Although Nestorian Christianity (mixed with Buddhism and Daoism) existed briefly during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), those converted by the over-zealous Christian missionaries in the last four-hundred years, their numbers were always small, and the nature of the conversion ‘suspicious’ to say the least. Many Christian Churches controlled by White priests, would buy-up all the rice in a local area, and then only give the rice to those who came to the Church and stated they were Christian. This led to widespread famine, social unrest and starvation on a terrible scale. Although this social unrest was caused by the invading Europeans, the Eurocentric-racism in effect would blame the Chinese, stating that this was a sure sign of god punishing them for their barbaric culture, etc.
Today, there are relatively small populations of Christians in China, who have their religious practice protected by law, and administered by Chinese government departments qualified to oversee such gatherings. Mao Zedong’s mother, however, was a devout Buddhist, and as a child, Mao was taken to a number of Buddhist temples and was familiar with the Buddhist religion.
Mao Zedong: A lifetime of Respecting the Buddhist Temple
‘This is Maitreya Buddha and his belly is big so that he can accommodate the entire universe. We are not enlightened like the Buddha, and do not possess the ability to accommodate and tolerate the universe as he is able to do.’
Mao Zedong: Selected Works of the Life of Mao Zedong by Wei Yang Zong [1918-1986] Edited by Cui Rong Bo (translated from the original Chinese into English)
Mao Zedong was a prominent member of the Communist Party of China, who was highly influential between 1921 –1949 and the winning of State power, and who retained a primary presence until his death in 1976. He was one of millions of Chinese people who dedicated their lives to freeing China from the brutality of Eurocentric imperialism, and the Chinese people from the ignorance of thousands of years of illiterate feudal rule! As he is non-White, the US (capitalist) ideologues routinely make use of racist stereotypes when misrepresenting his memory in the West. Just as US anti-intellectualism likes to misrepresent Joseph Stalin as Adolf Hitler – it also likes to turn Mao Zedong into yet another ‘mass killer’! At various points in this false narrative, Mao has killed more people than who live in China, despite the fact that there is no objective evidence of any massacres taking place (outside of the Western imagination), and no one alive in China who can remember any such episodes happening! Reality, however, does not interfere with racism, which has a momentum all of its own. Mao – or so the US racists say – is of the wrong race and obviously acts like a barbarian! This is the illogical trail of reasoning that has led to Mao Zedong being another ‘Hitler’... In China things are very different, and Mao Zedong is still idealised today as the founder of the modern nation! He was a Marxist-Leninist who managed to apply that European ideology so that it could operate in a relevant manner within China, and be meaningful to the mind and body of the average Chinese person.
Mao Zedong fully understood that the ‘old’ China had to go, and the ‘new’ China had to arrive if China was not to be dominated by the European invaders that had caused endless problems since their arrival. There had to be a complete break with the past, if Socialist freedom was to be achieved, followed by a re-engagement with tradition so that it could be preserved into the modern era but without its more ignorant aspects. As a modern thinker, Mao was ‘free’ of China’s past, but as he was ‘Chinese’ by birth, he possessed an innate understanding of what it is to be ‘Chinese’. All Chinese people had to throw-off the reactionary past of China, and develop a ‘new’ Socialist China here and now. Chinese religion had to find a new place in a ‘new’ China. People of religious rank could no longer bully the populace and keep them ensnared in a web of ignorance. The foreign Protestant and Catholic Churches were expelled for being vehicles of Western racism and imperialism, with the small populations of converts they had forcibly made given their own ‘Chinese-controlled’ and Chinese-administered Protestant and Catholic Churches. This necessarily ‘cut’ ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK and the Vatican in Rome. This was a small price to pay for China’s cultural independence! Of course, the Western (capitalist) response was to package this loss of direct exploitative power in China as being a product of China’s backward development and Mao Zedong’s bloodthirsty appetite – all fictional but typical of the West’s use of ‘racism at a distance’!
The Communist Party of China took control of Mainland China in 1949, and following a rapid process of consultation and widespread reform, declared a ‘new’ Socialist Constitution in 1956! Contrary to US anti-China propaganda, this Constitution mirrored the Soviet Constitution and granted each individual living in China freedom to hold any (or ‘no’) religious belief, and recognised ‘atheism’ as a legitimate opinion and mode of expression. As with the United States and the USSR, China declared the Church separate from the State, and Classroom separate from the Church. Whilst the United States practices exactly the same legal arrangement between the political establishment and religion, it has always taken the anti-intellectual position that Socialist countries ‘do not really practice religious freedom’, despite no evidence to support this allegation, and ample evidence to the contrary. The real reason behind this bizarre US stance is that Socialist countries do not allow the Vatican or St Paul’s Cathedral (in London) to exercise direct control over Catholic and Protestant Christian populations. This is because the Christian Church (in both guises) has worked enthusiastically with the colonial powers, and spread domination, oppression, poverty, genocide and cultural destruction alongside the brain-washing of non-White populations, as a means to spread their particular religious dogmas, faith systems and theologies. As a consequence, other than during the period of ‘Unequal Treaties’, Christianity has had only a very brief influence with a relatively brief interlude in China. Although Nestorian Christianity (mixed with Buddhism and Daoism) existed briefly during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), those converted by the over-zealous Christian missionaries in the last four-hundred years, their numbers were always small, and the nature of the conversion ‘suspicious’ to say the least. Many Christian Churches controlled by White priests, would buy-up all the rice in a local area, and then only give the rice to those who came to the Church and stated they were Christian. This led to widespread famine, social unrest and starvation on a terrible scale. Although this social unrest was caused by the invading Europeans, the Eurocentric-racism in effect would blame the Chinese, stating that this was a sure sign of god punishing them for their barbaric culture, etc.
Today, there are relatively small populations of Christians in China, who have their religious practice protected by law, and administered by Chinese government departments qualified to oversee such gatherings. Mao Zedong’s mother, however, was a devout Buddhist, and as a child, Mao was taken to a number of Buddhist temples and was familiar with the Buddhist religion.
Mao Zedong: A lifetime of Respecting the Buddhist Temple
As he grew-up and matured into a Marxist-Leninist, he was well aware of Master Xu Yun (1840-1959) who lived into his 120th year. Indeed, whilst the US propaganda machine accused the Chinese Communists of brutality due to their alleged ‘atheism’, many of the leading members of the Communist Party of China were well-known Buddhists attached to various temples and often taught by very competent Buddhist teachers. Zhou Enlai, for instance, (known as Mao’s right-hand man), was a disciple of Master Xu Yun, and there is a conversation in the Chinese language archives of Mao speaking with respect about this master, and considering becoming a disciple:
Master Xu Yun, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai
The US government brainwashed its own population by controlling the media and the education system. The image of Mao Zedong in the West is racist and designed to cause the greatest offense to Chinese people. This ‘Mao’ is an irreligious mass-murderer who only achieved power through being a psychopath! In China, of course, and amongst those who are better educated, it is understood that this is nothing but a mockery of a great man who cared deeply about the Chinese people. Religion in China today assists the government in the building of Socialism, just as religions in the West assists the reactionary governments to maintain the predatory capitalism that already exists. The US anti-intellectuals are continuously broadcasting their message that the Socialism of Marxist-Leninism is exactly the same as the ‘Nationalism’ of National Socialism as invented by Adolf Hitler – when in fact historical records clearly state that Hitler disagreed with this conclusion. Hitler was surprisingly popular amongst the Western bourgeoisie prior to 1939, and was often interviewed by the Western media. He denied any connection between ‘Marxism’ (which Hitler said had distorted Socialism into a ‘tolerant’ and left-wing aberration), whilst his brand of fascism (which he claimed was premised upon totem worship) was the product of hierarchical (and racially ‘pure’) ancient Germanic cultures. Mao Zedong was an ‘Internationalist’, as all Mainland Chinese people are today. This is the exact opposite to being a ‘racist’, or a ‘Nazi’. Despite the US lies to the contrary, Mao Zedong has never committed any atrocities, and always pursued the path best suited for the development of the Chinese.
‘In the political life of our people, how should right be distinguished from wrong in one’s words and actions? On the basis of the principles of our Constitution, the will of the overwhelming majority of our people and the common political positions which have been proclaimed on various occasions by our political parties and groups, we consider that, broadly speaking, the criteria should be as follows:
(1) Words and actions should help to unite, and not divide, the people of our nationalities.
(2) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to socialist transformation and socialist construction.
(3) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, the people’s democratic dictatorship.
(4) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, democratic centralism.
(5) They should help to strengthen, and not discard or weaken, the leadership of the Communist Party.
(6) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to international socialist unity and the unity of the peace-loving people of the world.
Of these six criteria, the most important are the Socialist path and the leadership of the Party.’
Mao Zedong: On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Amongst the People (27.2.1957) - 1st Pocket Edition – P. 57-58
Many so-called ‘experts’ on China in the West often write with a combination of smug racism and self-righteous indignation when attempting build ‘foreign’ narratives of Mainland China. These attitudes have mainstreamed in such a manner, so that the racism employed is now so common that it takes on the guise of ‘informed opinion’, and is beyond any serious reproach. China now represents the negative or ‘demonic’ side of the Western psyche, and it is through this Judeo-Christian filter that virtually all Western narratives are fed. The reality in China is quite different, and if the average Westerner understood just how good life is in Socialist China for the average person, they might start asking serious questions about the state of their own countries, and whether predatory capitalism is the best way for society to develop and progress. China has rapidly developed from a backward and feudal Wasteland into an advanced first-world country through the development of science and technology! China’s military is now formidable, and its Space Programme will soon be landing Cosmonauts on the Moon and then Mars. By way of contrast, all the Americans can do with their boom and bust capitalism is commission NASA to make animated programmes about fictional trips into outer space! This rapid modernisation of China has been built upon the foundation developed by Mao Zedong and the transformation of the Chinese people into ‘Socialist’ humanity!
‘Wherever there is struggle there is sacrifice, and death is a common occurrence. But we have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart, and when we die for the people it is a worthy death. Nevertheless, we should do our best to avoid unnecessary sacrifices.’
Mao Zedong: Serve the People (8.9.1944) - Selected Works Vol. III – P 228
In and of itself, religion is not a major problem within society. Religion is only a problem if it is controlled by the bourgeoisie – that is the most ‘reactionary’ class. Marxist-Leninism does not seek to eradicate religion (and neither does Maoism), but rather to ‘strip’ religion from its bourgeois influence. This is often a difficult task that takes time and a number of different reforms and educational campaigns. As this transition has been successful in China, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism all now fully support the Socialist System and view this trajectory as quite normal and unforced. This is the same for the Hui (Arab) and Uyghur (Turkic) populations of Muslims in China. Like Tibet (with its Buddhist population), these areas were very primitive and poverty-stricken in Old China, but in a short-time the transformation has been impressive. New temples and mosques adorn the landscape, all ultra-modern and designed to support and protect the faithful populations that regularly use them. This situation is also true for the small Christian populations in China. After the Revolution in 1949, many Christian groups approached Mao Zedong and asked for ‘self-determination’ free of Western interference, which he immediately granted. The CPC took-over the financing and upkeep of these Churches and cared for the populations of Christians that used them. A similar situation exists for China’s Muslim populations who perceive themselves as ‘Chinese’ first and Muslim second, and for this loyalty to the Chinese State, the CPC fully acknowledges their religion and grants them free travel to Mekkah, and other holy places. Xinjiang, the home of the Uyghur people has seen massive and costly reconstruction that has turned a desert into a thriving and modern urban setting which has all the modern conveniences for a first-world population! The CPC, however, along with religious advisors, is also committed to protecting the environment and is always interested in balancing progression with nature. Chinese Socialism allows for the ‘spirit’ of nature to ‘shine through’ with each new and modern development. This is why even ancient religions can have their place within Socialist reconstruction!
‘However active the leading group may be, its activity will amount to fruitless effort by a handful of people unless combined with the activity of the masses. On the other hand, if the masses alone are active without a strong leading group to organize their activity properly, such activity cannot be sustained for long, or carried forward in the right direction, or raised to a high level.’
Mao Zedong: Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership (1.6.1941) Selected Works Vol. III - P. 118
During the Revolutionary War (1921-1949), The Communist Party of China (and the People’s Liberation Army), often found themselves cut-off, stranded or lost in remote and unfamiliar places in the Chinese mountains and elsewhere in that vast country. On a number of occasions, officials would find a Buddhist temple hidden in the countryside and after announcing who they were, were granted shelter, food and protection. Mao Zedong has written elsewhere that this confirmed the ‘Revolutionary’ nature that lies at the heart of Buddhism, and explains why Mao Zedong listened with respect to Master Xu Yun in the early 1950s, when he advised that the Vinaya Discipline (that is the hundreds of rules followed by Buddhist monks and nuns) be integrated into China’s Criminal Code so that it became a legal requirement for Buddhist monks and nuns to keep their vows. This means that to knowingly and deliberately break these vows becomes a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment and defrocking, etc. This simple development raised the level of purity in the Buddhist Sangha virtually over-night! Master Xu Yun harshly rejected the Japanese example of ‘exempting’ Buddhist monks and nuns from following the Vinaya Discipline and remaining celibate and vegetarian. Master Xu Yun explained to Mao Zedong that the engaging in meat-eating and sexuality sullied the mind of a monk and nun and are incompatible activities for a genuine Buddhist monastic. For a Buddhist monastic, the mind, body and speech must be kept ‘free’ of all manifestations of ‘greed’, ‘hatred’ and ‘delusion’.
‘We hail from all corners of the country and have joined together for a common revolutionary objective... Our cadres must show concern for every soldier, and all the people in the revolutionary ranks must care for each other, must love and help each other.’
Mao Zedong: Speech at the Reception Given by the Central Committee of the Party for Model Study Delegates from the Rear Army Detachments (18.9.1944)
The various national branches of the bourgeoisie in the West all took power from the aristocracy at different times and in different places, but one attribute shared by all these historical transformations is the ‘violent’ nature of their machinations. Bloody and destructive civil wars removed old regimes (and monarchs) from power and radically altered the everyday culture. These changes must have been shocking for the vast populations of illiterate peasants subject to the change. Those who took power had no intention of giving-up what had been costly in human life to acquire. Just as the aristocracy lost its power, society lost its feudal system. Great uncertainty and suffering then followed for the masses. The Church often supported this change of ownership in an attempt to retain some of its political power, until the Church became the target of this change (as in England during the 16th century under King Henry VIII). Even then, the forces of established religion adapted and took the side not of the masses who filled their Churches every Sunday, but the new pay-masters who now controlled the political process. Out of this milieu, the bourgeoisie developed the modern capitalist system. This system, with its inherent racism and injustice was eventually inflicted upon the populations of other countries – including China! The Chinese people had to deal with their own oppressive feudalism (enforced by the ‘foreign’ Manchu Qing Dynasty), and the bloody oppression of the imperialism inflicted by the West. As Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism habitually supported the Chinese people, the Western imperialists had to try and ‘convert’ everyone living in China to modern Christianity controlled from the West. If this change could be forced upon the Chinese people, then the Churches could be used to enforce a Western presence and Western power amongst the Chinese people. As religion is an important component of Western imperialist domination, it is important to break the ‘independence’ that Socialism has given China. Once this ‘self-determination’ is broken, then the vultures of Western imperialism will strike! A central bank controlled by the US will be supported by the Vatican and the Church and England, which will make sure its missionaries ‘swamp’ the entirety of China (as they have done in Taiwan and South Korea). By stripping the Chinese people of their ethnicity, they are simultaneously stripped of their ability to ‘protect’ themselves from the attack of Western imperialist. By converting the Chinese people to Christianity, it makes them easier to be exploited by Western predatory capitalism. This is how the West uses religion – as a form of pro-capitalist brain-washing. This is why the Western offensive against China must never be allowed to prevail!
‘We often speak of the “new superseding the old.” The suppression of the old by the new is a general, eternal, and inviolable law of the universe. The transformation of one thing into another, through leaps or different forms in accordance with its essence and external contradictions – this is the process of the new superseding the old. In each thing there is a contradiction between its old and new aspects, and this gives rise to series of struggles with many twists and turns. As a result of these struggles, the new aspect changes from being minor to major and rises to predominance, while the old aspect changes from being major to being minor and gradually dies out.’
Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 254 – Tradition
Here, there is an indication of two distinct schemata at work. One is Hegels theory of thesis, antithesis and synthesis (as explained by Marx), whilst the other is the ancient Chinese yin-yang ideal of energy interaction. Just as Hegel suggests, the extreme of ‘yin’ (dark, cold, soft, etc), given the right conditions, can transition into its opposite of ‘yang’ (light, warm, hard, etc) - in a continuous and observable interplay of phenomena. It just so happens that the foundation of Classical Marxism as envisioned by Marx and Engels, is premised upon a foundation of modified Hegel which strongly resembles the ancient Chinese notion of yin-yang interaction – an idea that dates back to around 300 BCE and which once represented a separate and distinct school of Chinese thought – until its ideas mainstreamed throughout Chinese culture (although the famous ‘double fish’ roundel associated with neo-Confucianism [known as the ‘Taiji tu’ or ‘Grand Ridgepole Diagram’] dates to the mid-12th century of the Song Dynasty, despite rumours of older versions associated with Daoism). In a very real sense, this direct association between Classical Marxism and ancient Chinese thought links the two systems together in a manner which is well-known throughout China, but hardly understood (or recognised) in the West. This suggests that ‘New’ China is a dialectical recombination of ‘Old’ China – a modern and entirely ‘fresh’ codification of one of the world’s oldest and continuous cultures. The Chinese people chose to ‘modernise’ under their own terms, and the model they chose was Marxist-Leninism – which is a type of Westernisation, but only in the sense that such designations lose their descriptive power once voiced, as Marxism is ‘Internationalist’ in essence, and does not entertain any notion of one-sided, bourgeois duality. China is now ‘free’ because its population has chosen to inhabit a new psycho-physical space. The Chinese people have collectively achieved this through successfully mastering all dialectical change of physical matter within society, and as a consequence changed their country entirely!
‘Changes in society are due chiefly to the development of the internal contradictions in society, that is, the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of productions, the contradiction between classes and the contradictions between the old and the new; it is the development of these contradictions that pushes society forward and gives the impetus for the suppression of the old society by the new.’
Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 240 – Society
Dialectical change has been part of Chinese scientific and spiritual thought for centuries, to the point where it is difficult to discern any real difference between the two modes of human thought. Perhaps the most obvious example of this phenomenon lies in the ancient texts that comprise the Zhouyi (Changes of Zhou), also more commonly known as the ‘Yijing’ or ‘Change Classic’. This is known in the West as the ‘Book of Changes’ (I Ching), with Richard Wilhelm’s early translation being the most well-known. Although considered a book of divination, its sixty-four hexagram are an ingenious binary device that represents what seems very much like an early computer, containing a manually-operated ‘random access memory’. The earliest manifestations of this book date back around three-thousand years as it was used by the Zhou Kings of old to help answer questions concerning the governing of the State. Here, is seen the ‘thesis’, ‘antithesis’ and ‘synthesis’ of Hegel and Marx, and ultimately Lenin at work! It is as if an early scientific form of computer knowledge in ancient China prepared the Chinese people for the radical ideology of Marx and Engels, and of Lenin!
‘All contradictory things are interconnected; not only do they coexist in a single entity in given conditions, but in other given conditions, they also transform themselves into each other. This is the full meaning of the identity of opposites.’
Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 199 – Reality
One element of US anti-intellectualist thought is that China (and the Chinese people) are ‘racist’. The implication here, is that although the Europeans inflicted the most brutal and vile racism upon the Chinese people, it is actually not as bad as it sounds, as the Chinese people hold equally racist views toward non-Chinese people. This is a corrupt theory straight out of the pages of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’, and is a mode of thought held only by the far-right on the political spectrum. The mainstream of US politics uses this racist rhetoric to justify its own deployment of anti-China racist ideology which assumes the Chinese people ‘are an inferior race’, and ‘possess an inferior culture and political system’. This is the foundation and the key to deciphering the US racist attitude toward China. It assumes (and suggests) that the Chinese people ‘were racist’ prior to their contact with Europeans, and that the interaction between the East and the West is really a battle between different types of racism. This is exactly the same ‘flawed’ approach the US used against the Imperial Japanese and the Soviet Russians, (not to mention the Native American Indians, Mexicans and Philippines, etc). This insight exposes that the only racism that really exists emanates from the minds of the Americans and is enforced upon its victims through a barrel of a gun. White racism, in whatever guise, has killed millions around the globe and continues to do so today. Indeed, whilst the US ‘invents’ imaginary massacres for the Communist regimes of the former USSR and China, etc, a recent academic report states that since 1945, the US military has killed between 20-30 million people around the world, whilst pursuing its mission of enforcing Eurocentric dominance and predatory capitalism!
‘In the final analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle. Among the whites in the United States it is only the reactionary ruling circles who oppress the black people. They can in no way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority of the white people.’
Mao Zedong: Statement Supporting the American Negroes in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Discrimination by US Imperialism (8.8.1963) - People of the World Unite and Defeat the US Aggressors and All Their Lackeys – 2nd Ed. Pages 3-4
China has developed its economy through the model of Marxist-Leninism. China has developed rapidly through this model, and its people have become enriched as a consequence. It is the guiding light of Socialism which has brought about this reality. As this is a shocking development for the capitalist ideologues (whose boom and bust methodology foundered decades ago), they have had to desperately counter this dramatic improvement throughout Chinese society. Obviously, the mouthpieces of US capitalism cannot honestly admit that the Socialist ideology has performed a transformative miracle in China under the guidance of the CPC, and so must search around in the dust to find a way of denigrating this magnificent achievement! Taking the deceptive (and delusional) capitalist-supporting ideology of the Trotskyites as its guiding light, the forces of US anti-intellectualism can only meekly manifest laughable allegations that ‘China is capitalist’ - but this makes no sense. Within capitalist countries, a large proportion of the workers who produce the immense wealth are often unemployed, starving, ill or suffering all three maladies simultaneously. This despicable situation does not exist in Socialist countries such as Cuba, China and North Korea. It is only in exploitative countries such as the US that a person can die of starvation surrounded by food, die of the cold surrounded by warmth and die of illness or injury surrounded by well-stocked and high professional hospitals. This disrespect for humanity does not exist within Socialist societies, but yet again the US anti-intellectuals would have you believe that economic development in China is somehow a contradiction to the thinking of Mao Zedong:
‘As for imperialist countries, we should unite with their people and strive to coexist peacefully with those countries, do business with them and prevent any possible war, but under no circumstance should we harbour any unrealistic notions about them.’
Mao Zedong: On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (27.2.1957) - 1st Pocket Ed. P. 75
Deng Xiaoping mirrored Mao Zedong when he said:
‘Capitalism already has a history of several hundred years, and we have to learn from the peoples of the capitalist countries. We must make use of the science and technology they have developed and of those elements in their accumulated knowledge and experience which can be adapted to our own use. While we will import advanced technology and other things useful to us from the capitalist countries – selectively and according to plan – we will never learn from or import the capitalist system itself, nor anything repellent or decadent.’
Deng Xiaoping: Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 54 - Economics
©opyright: Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao) 2020.
Master Xu Yun, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai
The US government brainwashed its own population by controlling the media and the education system. The image of Mao Zedong in the West is racist and designed to cause the greatest offense to Chinese people. This ‘Mao’ is an irreligious mass-murderer who only achieved power through being a psychopath! In China, of course, and amongst those who are better educated, it is understood that this is nothing but a mockery of a great man who cared deeply about the Chinese people. Religion in China today assists the government in the building of Socialism, just as religions in the West assists the reactionary governments to maintain the predatory capitalism that already exists. The US anti-intellectuals are continuously broadcasting their message that the Socialism of Marxist-Leninism is exactly the same as the ‘Nationalism’ of National Socialism as invented by Adolf Hitler – when in fact historical records clearly state that Hitler disagreed with this conclusion. Hitler was surprisingly popular amongst the Western bourgeoisie prior to 1939, and was often interviewed by the Western media. He denied any connection between ‘Marxism’ (which Hitler said had distorted Socialism into a ‘tolerant’ and left-wing aberration), whilst his brand of fascism (which he claimed was premised upon totem worship) was the product of hierarchical (and racially ‘pure’) ancient Germanic cultures. Mao Zedong was an ‘Internationalist’, as all Mainland Chinese people are today. This is the exact opposite to being a ‘racist’, or a ‘Nazi’. Despite the US lies to the contrary, Mao Zedong has never committed any atrocities, and always pursued the path best suited for the development of the Chinese.
‘In the political life of our people, how should right be distinguished from wrong in one’s words and actions? On the basis of the principles of our Constitution, the will of the overwhelming majority of our people and the common political positions which have been proclaimed on various occasions by our political parties and groups, we consider that, broadly speaking, the criteria should be as follows:
(1) Words and actions should help to unite, and not divide, the people of our nationalities.
(2) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to socialist transformation and socialist construction.
(3) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, the people’s democratic dictatorship.
(4) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, democratic centralism.
(5) They should help to strengthen, and not discard or weaken, the leadership of the Communist Party.
(6) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to international socialist unity and the unity of the peace-loving people of the world.
Of these six criteria, the most important are the Socialist path and the leadership of the Party.’
Mao Zedong: On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Amongst the People (27.2.1957) - 1st Pocket Edition – P. 57-58
Many so-called ‘experts’ on China in the West often write with a combination of smug racism and self-righteous indignation when attempting build ‘foreign’ narratives of Mainland China. These attitudes have mainstreamed in such a manner, so that the racism employed is now so common that it takes on the guise of ‘informed opinion’, and is beyond any serious reproach. China now represents the negative or ‘demonic’ side of the Western psyche, and it is through this Judeo-Christian filter that virtually all Western narratives are fed. The reality in China is quite different, and if the average Westerner understood just how good life is in Socialist China for the average person, they might start asking serious questions about the state of their own countries, and whether predatory capitalism is the best way for society to develop and progress. China has rapidly developed from a backward and feudal Wasteland into an advanced first-world country through the development of science and technology! China’s military is now formidable, and its Space Programme will soon be landing Cosmonauts on the Moon and then Mars. By way of contrast, all the Americans can do with their boom and bust capitalism is commission NASA to make animated programmes about fictional trips into outer space! This rapid modernisation of China has been built upon the foundation developed by Mao Zedong and the transformation of the Chinese people into ‘Socialist’ humanity!
‘Wherever there is struggle there is sacrifice, and death is a common occurrence. But we have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart, and when we die for the people it is a worthy death. Nevertheless, we should do our best to avoid unnecessary sacrifices.’
Mao Zedong: Serve the People (8.9.1944) - Selected Works Vol. III – P 228
In and of itself, religion is not a major problem within society. Religion is only a problem if it is controlled by the bourgeoisie – that is the most ‘reactionary’ class. Marxist-Leninism does not seek to eradicate religion (and neither does Maoism), but rather to ‘strip’ religion from its bourgeois influence. This is often a difficult task that takes time and a number of different reforms and educational campaigns. As this transition has been successful in China, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism all now fully support the Socialist System and view this trajectory as quite normal and unforced. This is the same for the Hui (Arab) and Uyghur (Turkic) populations of Muslims in China. Like Tibet (with its Buddhist population), these areas were very primitive and poverty-stricken in Old China, but in a short-time the transformation has been impressive. New temples and mosques adorn the landscape, all ultra-modern and designed to support and protect the faithful populations that regularly use them. This situation is also true for the small Christian populations in China. After the Revolution in 1949, many Christian groups approached Mao Zedong and asked for ‘self-determination’ free of Western interference, which he immediately granted. The CPC took-over the financing and upkeep of these Churches and cared for the populations of Christians that used them. A similar situation exists for China’s Muslim populations who perceive themselves as ‘Chinese’ first and Muslim second, and for this loyalty to the Chinese State, the CPC fully acknowledges their religion and grants them free travel to Mekkah, and other holy places. Xinjiang, the home of the Uyghur people has seen massive and costly reconstruction that has turned a desert into a thriving and modern urban setting which has all the modern conveniences for a first-world population! The CPC, however, along with religious advisors, is also committed to protecting the environment and is always interested in balancing progression with nature. Chinese Socialism allows for the ‘spirit’ of nature to ‘shine through’ with each new and modern development. This is why even ancient religions can have their place within Socialist reconstruction!
‘However active the leading group may be, its activity will amount to fruitless effort by a handful of people unless combined with the activity of the masses. On the other hand, if the masses alone are active without a strong leading group to organize their activity properly, such activity cannot be sustained for long, or carried forward in the right direction, or raised to a high level.’
Mao Zedong: Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership (1.6.1941) Selected Works Vol. III - P. 118
During the Revolutionary War (1921-1949), The Communist Party of China (and the People’s Liberation Army), often found themselves cut-off, stranded or lost in remote and unfamiliar places in the Chinese mountains and elsewhere in that vast country. On a number of occasions, officials would find a Buddhist temple hidden in the countryside and after announcing who they were, were granted shelter, food and protection. Mao Zedong has written elsewhere that this confirmed the ‘Revolutionary’ nature that lies at the heart of Buddhism, and explains why Mao Zedong listened with respect to Master Xu Yun in the early 1950s, when he advised that the Vinaya Discipline (that is the hundreds of rules followed by Buddhist monks and nuns) be integrated into China’s Criminal Code so that it became a legal requirement for Buddhist monks and nuns to keep their vows. This means that to knowingly and deliberately break these vows becomes a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment and defrocking, etc. This simple development raised the level of purity in the Buddhist Sangha virtually over-night! Master Xu Yun harshly rejected the Japanese example of ‘exempting’ Buddhist monks and nuns from following the Vinaya Discipline and remaining celibate and vegetarian. Master Xu Yun explained to Mao Zedong that the engaging in meat-eating and sexuality sullied the mind of a monk and nun and are incompatible activities for a genuine Buddhist monastic. For a Buddhist monastic, the mind, body and speech must be kept ‘free’ of all manifestations of ‘greed’, ‘hatred’ and ‘delusion’.
‘We hail from all corners of the country and have joined together for a common revolutionary objective... Our cadres must show concern for every soldier, and all the people in the revolutionary ranks must care for each other, must love and help each other.’
Mao Zedong: Speech at the Reception Given by the Central Committee of the Party for Model Study Delegates from the Rear Army Detachments (18.9.1944)
The various national branches of the bourgeoisie in the West all took power from the aristocracy at different times and in different places, but one attribute shared by all these historical transformations is the ‘violent’ nature of their machinations. Bloody and destructive civil wars removed old regimes (and monarchs) from power and radically altered the everyday culture. These changes must have been shocking for the vast populations of illiterate peasants subject to the change. Those who took power had no intention of giving-up what had been costly in human life to acquire. Just as the aristocracy lost its power, society lost its feudal system. Great uncertainty and suffering then followed for the masses. The Church often supported this change of ownership in an attempt to retain some of its political power, until the Church became the target of this change (as in England during the 16th century under King Henry VIII). Even then, the forces of established religion adapted and took the side not of the masses who filled their Churches every Sunday, but the new pay-masters who now controlled the political process. Out of this milieu, the bourgeoisie developed the modern capitalist system. This system, with its inherent racism and injustice was eventually inflicted upon the populations of other countries – including China! The Chinese people had to deal with their own oppressive feudalism (enforced by the ‘foreign’ Manchu Qing Dynasty), and the bloody oppression of the imperialism inflicted by the West. As Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism habitually supported the Chinese people, the Western imperialists had to try and ‘convert’ everyone living in China to modern Christianity controlled from the West. If this change could be forced upon the Chinese people, then the Churches could be used to enforce a Western presence and Western power amongst the Chinese people. As religion is an important component of Western imperialist domination, it is important to break the ‘independence’ that Socialism has given China. Once this ‘self-determination’ is broken, then the vultures of Western imperialism will strike! A central bank controlled by the US will be supported by the Vatican and the Church and England, which will make sure its missionaries ‘swamp’ the entirety of China (as they have done in Taiwan and South Korea). By stripping the Chinese people of their ethnicity, they are simultaneously stripped of their ability to ‘protect’ themselves from the attack of Western imperialist. By converting the Chinese people to Christianity, it makes them easier to be exploited by Western predatory capitalism. This is how the West uses religion – as a form of pro-capitalist brain-washing. This is why the Western offensive against China must never be allowed to prevail!
‘We often speak of the “new superseding the old.” The suppression of the old by the new is a general, eternal, and inviolable law of the universe. The transformation of one thing into another, through leaps or different forms in accordance with its essence and external contradictions – this is the process of the new superseding the old. In each thing there is a contradiction between its old and new aspects, and this gives rise to series of struggles with many twists and turns. As a result of these struggles, the new aspect changes from being minor to major and rises to predominance, while the old aspect changes from being major to being minor and gradually dies out.’
Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 254 – Tradition
Here, there is an indication of two distinct schemata at work. One is Hegels theory of thesis, antithesis and synthesis (as explained by Marx), whilst the other is the ancient Chinese yin-yang ideal of energy interaction. Just as Hegel suggests, the extreme of ‘yin’ (dark, cold, soft, etc), given the right conditions, can transition into its opposite of ‘yang’ (light, warm, hard, etc) - in a continuous and observable interplay of phenomena. It just so happens that the foundation of Classical Marxism as envisioned by Marx and Engels, is premised upon a foundation of modified Hegel which strongly resembles the ancient Chinese notion of yin-yang interaction – an idea that dates back to around 300 BCE and which once represented a separate and distinct school of Chinese thought – until its ideas mainstreamed throughout Chinese culture (although the famous ‘double fish’ roundel associated with neo-Confucianism [known as the ‘Taiji tu’ or ‘Grand Ridgepole Diagram’] dates to the mid-12th century of the Song Dynasty, despite rumours of older versions associated with Daoism). In a very real sense, this direct association between Classical Marxism and ancient Chinese thought links the two systems together in a manner which is well-known throughout China, but hardly understood (or recognised) in the West. This suggests that ‘New’ China is a dialectical recombination of ‘Old’ China – a modern and entirely ‘fresh’ codification of one of the world’s oldest and continuous cultures. The Chinese people chose to ‘modernise’ under their own terms, and the model they chose was Marxist-Leninism – which is a type of Westernisation, but only in the sense that such designations lose their descriptive power once voiced, as Marxism is ‘Internationalist’ in essence, and does not entertain any notion of one-sided, bourgeois duality. China is now ‘free’ because its population has chosen to inhabit a new psycho-physical space. The Chinese people have collectively achieved this through successfully mastering all dialectical change of physical matter within society, and as a consequence changed their country entirely!
‘Changes in society are due chiefly to the development of the internal contradictions in society, that is, the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of productions, the contradiction between classes and the contradictions between the old and the new; it is the development of these contradictions that pushes society forward and gives the impetus for the suppression of the old society by the new.’
Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 240 – Society
Dialectical change has been part of Chinese scientific and spiritual thought for centuries, to the point where it is difficult to discern any real difference between the two modes of human thought. Perhaps the most obvious example of this phenomenon lies in the ancient texts that comprise the Zhouyi (Changes of Zhou), also more commonly known as the ‘Yijing’ or ‘Change Classic’. This is known in the West as the ‘Book of Changes’ (I Ching), with Richard Wilhelm’s early translation being the most well-known. Although considered a book of divination, its sixty-four hexagram are an ingenious binary device that represents what seems very much like an early computer, containing a manually-operated ‘random access memory’. The earliest manifestations of this book date back around three-thousand years as it was used by the Zhou Kings of old to help answer questions concerning the governing of the State. Here, is seen the ‘thesis’, ‘antithesis’ and ‘synthesis’ of Hegel and Marx, and ultimately Lenin at work! It is as if an early scientific form of computer knowledge in ancient China prepared the Chinese people for the radical ideology of Marx and Engels, and of Lenin!
‘All contradictory things are interconnected; not only do they coexist in a single entity in given conditions, but in other given conditions, they also transform themselves into each other. This is the full meaning of the identity of opposites.’
Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 199 – Reality
One element of US anti-intellectualist thought is that China (and the Chinese people) are ‘racist’. The implication here, is that although the Europeans inflicted the most brutal and vile racism upon the Chinese people, it is actually not as bad as it sounds, as the Chinese people hold equally racist views toward non-Chinese people. This is a corrupt theory straight out of the pages of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’, and is a mode of thought held only by the far-right on the political spectrum. The mainstream of US politics uses this racist rhetoric to justify its own deployment of anti-China racist ideology which assumes the Chinese people ‘are an inferior race’, and ‘possess an inferior culture and political system’. This is the foundation and the key to deciphering the US racist attitude toward China. It assumes (and suggests) that the Chinese people ‘were racist’ prior to their contact with Europeans, and that the interaction between the East and the West is really a battle between different types of racism. This is exactly the same ‘flawed’ approach the US used against the Imperial Japanese and the Soviet Russians, (not to mention the Native American Indians, Mexicans and Philippines, etc). This insight exposes that the only racism that really exists emanates from the minds of the Americans and is enforced upon its victims through a barrel of a gun. White racism, in whatever guise, has killed millions around the globe and continues to do so today. Indeed, whilst the US ‘invents’ imaginary massacres for the Communist regimes of the former USSR and China, etc, a recent academic report states that since 1945, the US military has killed between 20-30 million people around the world, whilst pursuing its mission of enforcing Eurocentric dominance and predatory capitalism!
‘In the final analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle. Among the whites in the United States it is only the reactionary ruling circles who oppress the black people. They can in no way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority of the white people.’
Mao Zedong: Statement Supporting the American Negroes in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Discrimination by US Imperialism (8.8.1963) - People of the World Unite and Defeat the US Aggressors and All Their Lackeys – 2nd Ed. Pages 3-4
China has developed its economy through the model of Marxist-Leninism. China has developed rapidly through this model, and its people have become enriched as a consequence. It is the guiding light of Socialism which has brought about this reality. As this is a shocking development for the capitalist ideologues (whose boom and bust methodology foundered decades ago), they have had to desperately counter this dramatic improvement throughout Chinese society. Obviously, the mouthpieces of US capitalism cannot honestly admit that the Socialist ideology has performed a transformative miracle in China under the guidance of the CPC, and so must search around in the dust to find a way of denigrating this magnificent achievement! Taking the deceptive (and delusional) capitalist-supporting ideology of the Trotskyites as its guiding light, the forces of US anti-intellectualism can only meekly manifest laughable allegations that ‘China is capitalist’ - but this makes no sense. Within capitalist countries, a large proportion of the workers who produce the immense wealth are often unemployed, starving, ill or suffering all three maladies simultaneously. This despicable situation does not exist in Socialist countries such as Cuba, China and North Korea. It is only in exploitative countries such as the US that a person can die of starvation surrounded by food, die of the cold surrounded by warmth and die of illness or injury surrounded by well-stocked and high professional hospitals. This disrespect for humanity does not exist within Socialist societies, but yet again the US anti-intellectuals would have you believe that economic development in China is somehow a contradiction to the thinking of Mao Zedong:
‘As for imperialist countries, we should unite with their people and strive to coexist peacefully with those countries, do business with them and prevent any possible war, but under no circumstance should we harbour any unrealistic notions about them.’
Mao Zedong: On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (27.2.1957) - 1st Pocket Ed. P. 75
Deng Xiaoping mirrored Mao Zedong when he said:
‘Capitalism already has a history of several hundred years, and we have to learn from the peoples of the capitalist countries. We must make use of the science and technology they have developed and of those elements in their accumulated knowledge and experience which can be adapted to our own use. While we will import advanced technology and other things useful to us from the capitalist countries – selectively and according to plan – we will never learn from or import the capitalist system itself, nor anything repellent or decadent.’
Deng Xiaoping: Liang Congjie: The Great Thoughts of China – 3,000 Years of Wisdom that Shaped a Civilisation, Wiley, (1996), Page 54 - Economics
©opyright: Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao) 2020.