Word: oneness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...titular if not still the actual ruler of one-fifth of humankind; yet China's Mao Tse-tung remains the most shadowy figure among the leaders of 20th century Communism. There seems to be almost no middle ground between his reverential propagandists and his vituperative critics. As a result, the man who has altered the destiny of China -and the world-almost invariably appears two-dimensional. In the '30s and '40s, a few foreigners, notably the American journalist Edgar Snow, captured some titillating glimpses of Mao. But after the Communists gained power in 1949, Peking...
...Khrushchev, he likes to draw on folk tales and proverbs to contrive devastating metaphors against his opponents. He is also fond of quoting from classical Chinese literature. In a 1959 meeting, he cited a Han Dynasty poet to belabor his colleagues for their laziness and love of luxury: "When one travels in a carriage or sedan chair, the body begins to decay. Women with pearly teeth and false eyebrows are the axes that cut down the body's vitality. Delicious meats and fatty foods are the 'medicines' that corrode the intestines...
...occasionally balances gibes at his comrades by poking fun at himself. In a secret speech at Lushaa in 1959, he discussed the need to go slower during the Great Leap Forward: "One can't be rash. There must be a step-by-step process. In eating meat, one can only consume one piece at a time. One can never hope to become a fatso at one stroke." After a pause, Mao continued: "The commander in chief [Marshal Chu Teh] and I didn't get fat in a single...
...building backyard steel foundries. Citing Confucius' Analects to the effect that the man who initiates something evil will be severely punished by God, Mao revealed that he had been struck down by the very punishment prescribed by the sage-the loss of his sons. He disclosed that one of his two sons had died in battle (presumably in Korea) and the other had gone insane. Then, in a cry approaching agony, he asked his audience: "Because of my guilt, should I be deprived of my posterity...
Though Mao is well educated, he retains a country boy's contempt for intellectuals, for learning and for city ways. "The more one reads, the more foolish one becomes" is one of his favorite adages. "Being an unpolished man," he says, not without pride, "I am not too cultivated." Doctors are a frequent butt: "Medical education needs reforming. There is altogether no need to read so many books. How long did it take Hua T'o [the father of Chinese medicine] to learn what he knew?" Mao, who has succeeded in destroying the Chinese educational system in order...