Source 6: The Dixie Mission commander Colonel David D. Barrett and Mao Zedong in Yenan, 1944.
The Dixie Mission
The Dixie Mission was an American information gathering expedition on the Chinese Communist Party. The delegation, led by Colonel David Barrett was received by Mao Zedong between 1944-1947.
Anon.
Wikimedia Commons
1944
Source 5: The Yan’an Conference on Art and Literature Wu Yinxian (1942)
The Yan'an Conference on Art and Literature
During the Yan'an Conference on Art and Literature, Mao made the following speech:
Literature and art have been an important and highly effective part of the cultural front since the May Fourth [Movement]. During the Civil War the revolutionary literature and art movement showed great development, and in its overall direction was consistent with the Red Army’s struggle of that period, although in actual work the two were fighting in isolation, owing to the separation of the two fraternal armies by the reactionaries. Since the War of Resistance, a great number of revolutionary literature and art workers have come to Yan’an and every other anti-Japanese base. This is a very good thing. However, merely coming to these bases is not the same as identifying oneself with the people’s movement in the bases. If we are to push the revolutionary work forward, we will have to make these two become completely identify with each other.
The purpose of our meeting today is to make literature and art become a constructive part of the whole revolutionary machine; to use them as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for crushing and destroying the enemy, as well as to help the people wage the struggle against the enemy with one heart and one mind. What are some of the problems which must be solved in order to achieve this aim? They are the problems of standpoint, attitude, audience, work, and study.”
Source: Saich, T. (1996) The rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1123.
Wu Yinxian
Google images
1942
Source 4: The Rectification Movement Luo Gongliu (1941-1945) Mao’s Speech at the Yan’an Rectification Movement
Yan'an Rectification Movement
This painting depicts Mao Zedong addressing citizens of Yan'an during the rectification movement where Mao purged any elements who questioned his leadership. The artist depicts Mao standing in front of portraits of both Marx and Lenin. hence inscribing him into a lineage of communist thinkers and leaders whilst also conveying a great amount of power and independence. The workers in the audience are dutifully attentive to his speech and even making notes.
Luo Gongliu
The Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution
Source 3: Quotations from Mao Zedong Written in Yan’an on the mass line
This is a compilation of quotations written by Mao Zedong about the principle of the mass line. On the one hand, Mao viewed the masses as the 'real heroes' but in another quotation he describes certain members of the masses as 'relatively backward' requiring organisation from leaders.
The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.
"On Coalition Government" (April 24, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 257.
The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding, it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge.
"Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys" (March and April 1941), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 12.
For over twenty years our Party has carried on mass work every day, and for the past dozen years it has talked about the mass line every day. We have always maintained that the revolution must rely on the masses of the people, on everybody's taking a hand, and have opposed relying merely on a few persons issuing orders. The mass line, however, is still not being thoroughly carried out in the work of some comrades; they still rely solely on a handful of people working in solitude. One reason is that, whatever they do, they are always reluctant to explain it to the people they lead and that they do not understand why or how to give play to the initiative and creative energy of those they lead. Subjectively, they too want everyone to take a hand in the work, but they do not let other people know what is to be done or how to do it. That being the case, how can everyone be expected to get moving and how can anything be done well? To solve this problem the basic thing is, of course, to carry out ideological education on the mass line, but at the same time we must teach these comrades many concrete methods of work.
"A Talk to the Editorial Staff of the Shansi-Suiyuan Daily" (April 2, 1948), Selected Works, Vol. IV, pp. 241-42. *
We should go to the masses and learn from them, synthesize their experience into better, articulated principles and methods, then do propaganda among the masses, and call upon them to put these principles and methods into practice so as to solve their problems and help them achieve liberation and happiness.
"Get Organized!" (November 29, 1943), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 158.
There are people in our leading organs in some places that think that it is enough for the leaders alone to know the Party's policies and that there is no need to let the masses know them. This is one of the basic reasons why some of our work cannot be done well.
"A Talk to the Editorial Staff of the Shansi-Suiyuan Daily" (April 2, 1948), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 241.
The masses in any given place are generally composed of three parts, the relatively active, the intermediate and the relatively backward. The leaders must therefore be skilled in uniting the small number of active elements around the leadership and must rely on them to raise the level of the intermediate elements and to win over the backward elements.
"Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership" (June 1, 1943), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 118.
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.
"Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership" (June 1, 1943), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 118.
Mao Zedong
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch11.htm
Source 2: Mao Zedong thought
Mao Zedong Thought
This is a concise summary of some of the key elements of Mao's thought which separates Marxism from Chinese Communism. Here the author has positioned the rise of the bourgeoise as a specifically Chinese characteristic but this is something also explained by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto. Other than that the source is a useful summary.
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/share.nanjing-school.com/dist/d/75/files/2013/02/Maos-ideology-r8s23s.pdf
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/share.nanjing-school.com/dist/d/75/files/2013/02/Maos-ideology-r8s23s.pdf
Source 1: The Long March 1934-1935 Swiftly Taking Luding Bridge (Poster)
The Long March
This is a propaganda poster commemorating the Battle of Luding bridge where twenty soldiers, under grenade fire, fought against the odds to secure the bridge allowing for the sage passage of other soldiers. The composition of this propaganda is clearly emotive, with brushstrokes used to convey elements of fire and smoke as well as the dilapidated state of the bridge. The soldiers look forward unperturbed, despite the long drop down to the river below.
Anon.
https://chineseposters.net/themes/luding-bridge.php