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Authors: Jonathan Spence
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Manifesto to any of his November correspondents, so it is unlikely that he had seen it yet or had any hand in drafting it. To a woman student friend from Changsha, who was then in France, Mao expressed his pessimism over the Hunanese people’s capacity for change, but added philosophically, “Education is my profession, and I have made up my mind to stay in Hunan for two years.” Mao was also clearly thinking deeply about his relationship with Yang Kaihui, struggling to avoid the entanglements and hypocrisies of what in an unusually frank letter he called the “capitalist” type of marriage in which fear and “legalized rape” were combined. The loftier goal must always be to develop a meaningful union based on “that most reasonable thing, free love,” wrote Mao to another friend on November 26. He added: “I have long since declared that I would not join this rape brigade. If you don’t agree with me, please put into writing your opposing views.”
The November 1920 Chinese Communist Manifesto—as if echoing its Comintern origins—was a formulaic document couched at the theoretical level, with no roots of any kind in the realities of Chinese society. The ideals of the Party were stated as being the “social and common ownership and use of the means of production,” abolition of the state, and formation of a classless society. The goals were to overthrow capitalism through class struggle. The immediate task of the Communist Party was to strengthen the anticapitalist forces and “organize and concentrate” the forces of class struggle: workers, peasants, soldiers, sailors, and students were singled out as the troops to be mobilized, and a “general federation of industrial associations” was seen as a central tool of this process. A final general strike would lead to the overthrow of the capitalists and the formation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, under whose leadership the class struggle would continue against “the residual forces of capitalism.”
Though the language was vague, the issues here were major, and we know that even before he saw the Manifesto, Mao was beginning to discuss such revolutionary issues through correspondence with several of his Changsha friends, who were now in France on the work-study program. In two especially long and detailed letters, one of December 1, 1920, and another of January 21, 1921, Mao wrestled with the two differing views on China’s future that the Chinese students in France had divided over. One group pushed for the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the need for violent class struggle. Anarchism, they felt, would not work, the forces of reaction were just too strong. A strong Communist Party, they argued, must be the “initiator, propagandist, vanguard, and operational headquarters of the revolutionary movement.” The other group wanted “a moderate revolution,” on evolutionary principles, driven by education, focusing on the people’s welfare, and using trade unions and cooperatives as its means. Mao was torn: “In principle I agree with the ideas to seek the welfare of all by peaceful means, but I do not believe they will work in reality.” Mao had listened to Bertrand Russell when the British philosopher came to Changsha on November 1, 1920, and argued for Communism but against “war and bloody revolutions”; Mao had strenuous arguments about the lecture with his friends and concluded, “This is all very well in theory; in reality it can’t be done.” A Russian-style revolution was certainly a “last resort” for China, but maybe it was coming to that.
The same issues were being constantly discussed at the Changsha meetings of the New People’s Study Society, where the members were overwhelmingly involved in education. Of those who attended regularly in December 1920, according to another of Mao’s neat and meticulous reports, besides himself there were three teachers at the Zhounan women’s school, three working
The November 1920 Chinese Communist Manifesto—as if echoing its Comintern origins—was a formulaic document couched at the theoretical level, with no roots of any kind in the realities of Chinese society. The ideals of the Party were stated as being the “social and common ownership and use of the means of production,” abolition of the state, and formation of a classless society. The goals were to overthrow capitalism through class struggle. The immediate task of the Communist Party was to strengthen the anticapitalist forces and “organize and concentrate” the forces of class struggle: workers, peasants, soldiers, sailors, and students were singled out as the troops to be mobilized, and a “general federation of industrial associations” was seen as a central tool of this process. A final general strike would lead to the overthrow of the capitalists and the formation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, under whose leadership the class struggle would continue against “the residual forces of capitalism.”
Though the language was vague, the issues here were major, and we know that even before he saw the Manifesto, Mao was beginning to discuss such revolutionary issues through correspondence with several of his Changsha friends, who were now in France on the work-study program. In two especially long and detailed letters, one of December 1, 1920, and another of January 21, 1921, Mao wrestled with the two differing views on China’s future that the Chinese students in France had divided over. One group pushed for the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the need for violent class struggle. Anarchism, they felt, would not work, the forces of reaction were just too strong. A strong Communist Party, they argued, must be the “initiator, propagandist, vanguard, and operational headquarters of the revolutionary movement.” The other group wanted “a moderate revolution,” on evolutionary principles, driven by education, focusing on the people’s welfare, and using trade unions and cooperatives as its means. Mao was torn: “In principle I agree with the ideas to seek the welfare of all by peaceful means, but I do not believe they will work in reality.” Mao had listened to Bertrand Russell when the British philosopher came to Changsha on November 1, 1920, and argued for Communism but against “war and bloody revolutions”; Mao had strenuous arguments about the lecture with his friends and concluded, “This is all very well in theory; in reality it can’t be done.” A Russian-style revolution was certainly a “last resort” for China, but maybe it was coming to that.
The same issues were being constantly discussed at the Changsha meetings of the New People’s Study Society, where the members were overwhelmingly involved in education. Of those who attended regularly in December 1920, according to another of Mao’s neat and meticulous reports, besides himself there were three teachers at the Zhounan women’s school, three working
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