Mao Considered Himself a Counter-Confucianist

Mao Considered Himself a Counter-Confucianist: By Crystal Swetz

"There are not a few people who are irresponsible in their work, preferring the light to the heavy, shoving the heavy loads on to others and choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of themselves before others. When they make some small contribution, they swell with pride and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel no warmth towards comrades and the people are cold, indifferent and apathetic. In fact such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted as true Communists." -Mao Zedong

In a certain ideal society, the part is inferior to the whole. The direct needs or desires of the individual are less important than the needs of others. Humankind’s obligation in life is fulfilling duties to society. An acceptable life is exemplified through leadership partnered with such ethics. In fact, these rulers attain such a position because it is his or her destiny mandated by Heaven. Furthermore, in this society, there is a certain reverence for authority figures; respect is expected to be given, unreciprocated, by younger, less experienced individuals. This ideal insists that one must compromise his or her own comfort, safety, or even life in the name of filial piety. Finally, this model system embraces a certain cultivation of self in which learning to be a proper human being consists of becoming a gentleman with “inner integrity, righteousness, loyalty, altruism or reciprocity, and above all love. Such a gentleman should be aesthetically refined, morally excellent, and religiously profound.”

The most studious scholar of Chinese culture would recognize these aforementioned qualities as Confucian principles. Alas, it may come as a surprise to this intellectual that Confucianist ideology was not the intended aim at all. Instead, the aim upon which will be expounded upon lies within the psyche of Mao Zedong. While he claimed himself a counter-Confucianist, the philosophies that were entrenched in Mao Zedong’s mind were in fact very Confucian in nature. In line with Confucian beliefs “Mao Zedong believed that right thinking was integral to right conduct. He therefore gave enormous emphasis to matters of ideology and to the importance of ideological education to the people.”

Confucius lived during China’s Warring States period as a self-educated philosopher. He traveled around China, preaching his philosophy that he claimed would provide structure and success in society. Confucius was also a great teacher and theorist whose ideas have permeated all of eastern Asia. From this influence, Mao took Confucian ideals and distorted them to fit his own political agenda. He used collectivism to perpetuate his own self-glorification. Furthermore, Mao took advantage of collectivist-minded peasants as observed in the disastrous Great Leap Forward. Next, as demonstrated by the Red Guards, he inverted the idea of respecting parents to mean, instead, obedience to the motherland and the fathers of the Communist Party. Finally, through mass movements, rather than self-cultivation and education, Mao sought to eradicate old ways of thinking, including Confucianism. He lived his own life in hypocrisy when he told others to live humbly, while he accumulated wealth and materialism. If Mao Zedong’s ideas were a mirror, Confucius would see a disfigured, unrecognizable image staring back at him.

Mao sought unity in bringing up a Communist-minded society in which he achieved a god-like status. Instead of serving the people, Mao’s self-glorification allowed him to wield great power as an individual. This strictly goes against the Confucian idea of sacrificing the self. In addition, because leadership is mandated in heaven, he who is given power can be subject to criticism. However, his own superiority led to the same self-righteous attitude that Mao warned the Communist party about. In his speech to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he cautioned “with victory, certain moods may grow within the Party—arrogance, the airs of a self-styled hero, inertia and unwillingness to make progress, love of pleasure and distaste for continued hard living.” Mao, became so arrogant that he eventually regarded his own opinion above all others, including concerned doctors worried about his well-being. Mao enjoyed a status where his book of quotations was treated like a bible. In fact, people developed religious rituals around his picture and red book. The Communist Party persuaded people to “regard Mao as virtually a god—and by 1971, Chinese citizens typically bowed three times before Mao’s picture each morning and evening, ‘reporting’ the day’s events and their thoughts to the Chairman at each evening ablution.” On Mao’s behalf, how advantageous it was for him to have an entire nation ready to do whatever he requested! Mao manipulated Confucian principals of self-sacrifice, viewing people as disposable beings. In order to achieve his agenda, Mao “demonstrated his commitment to revolution, his skill in mobilizing the Chinese against each other, and his readiness to sacrifice the lives of large numbers of people.” He showed a lack of concern for others, just so long as his desires were carried out.

A perfect example of Mao’s attitude was represented in the Great Leap Forward. He took the collectivist ideology to an extreme to bring about mass production. Mao viewed this movement as enabling the peasants to be the backbone of the nation’s agricultural and industrial output. China wanted to emulate Soviet Russia’s strategy, in which Stalin saw fast industrial growth among the poor rural areas. The government assembled “people’s communes” in hope of organizing successful party-run production units. This new system was embraced by the people with a new vigor, which blinded everyone to its shortcomings. Such an enthusiasm was expected to be met with great success. Therefore, grain output was exaggerated by government officials in order to seem more flourishing. As a result, officials even wanted to leave one-third of the arable land fallow to curb the supposed excessive amount of production by the communes. The results were disastrous and all came at the expense of the disposable peasants. About 30 million peasants died of starvation. Instead of welcoming criticism, as a Confucian-minded leader would do in an attempt to rectify a failed policy or leadership, Mao purged government officials who spoke against him. He even claimed that if the entire party turned against him, he would “take to the hills, raise another army, and overthrow the CCP!” Needless to say, Mao’s threat was sufficient for the officials to side with him and punish the outliers.

Mao Zedong’s boundless power also became evident among China’s young people in a twisted practice of filial piety. In a Confucian society, children must pay respect to elders through obedience, loyalty, prayer to ancestors, have sons to carry on the family name, and do whatever means necessary to show reverence to their authority. Mao expected the same pious devotion from Communist Party members. In Confucianism, looking towards the future was ambiguous and untrustworthy because the greatest wisdom is gained from ancient knowledge. However, Mao saw looking backwards as resisting progress. The Red Guards became his pious sons and daughters and were the hands and feet of his Communist agenda. They “took to the street, in the slogan of the day, ‘to destroy the four olds.’ This translated into destroying old culture by raiding houses, burning books and antiques, beating and humiliating people who seemed not to be in the spirit of things, and killing those who tried to resist.” Mao did nothing to stop the mobilization of violence and the sudden power beholden to these young radicals. In his mind, people were working as a collective whole to overcome the evils of old society. Anyone working in the name of Communism, young or old, rich or poor, was considered equal. Mao even stated that “All our cadres, whatever their rank, are servants of the people, and whatever we do is serve the people.” This not only undermined the concept of filial piety by eliminating hierarchies, but also emphasized serving the Party before the family. Mao demanded “the unthinkable in Confucianism: that youths rebel against their elders…stressed activism and rejection of the old (one of his favorite slogans was, ‘Smash the old, establish the new’).” This idea runs directly contrary to Confucianist ideals.

Mao’s commission of mass movements entirely countered the Confucian principals of human cultivation and restraint. In his eyes, radical revolutions were the only way to make progress. He did not believe that people should stand aside and passively allow themselves to be ruled. Mao “abhorred the Confucian notion that rulers know what to do because of their mastery of the classical doctrine and that therefore the poorly educated masses must simply obey their superiors. This idea produced…just the opposite of the activist society and dynamic leadership that [he] believed were critical to the success of the revolution.” Mao employed brainwashing strategies, borrowed from the Soviets, which would be conducive to the creation of a like-minded Communist population. It began by being divided into study groups, in which people were given reading materials. Next, they had to apply the doctrines to his or her own life and find self-criticism from within. The brainwashing would be complete when the individuals wrote a confession that was accepted by the rest of the group. Such practices targeted the Chinese values of “saving face, protecting one’s innermost thinking, and above all, identifying with a group.”

While cleansing the mind was one important way of controlling the cultivation of self, physical force was used when necessary as evident in the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957. Mao commanded that anyone who may get in the way of “establishing the new” had to be purged. As a result, children turned against parents, students condemned teachers and intellectuals, and the general populous rebelled against authority. In fact, the “school-age generation of China in the mid-1960s had been taught to demonize and dehumanize whole classes of people and to tolerate and celebrate gross violence, even sadism, against them.” Some people’s ideas were supposedly dangerous because they countered Party ideology. Heaven forbid if anyone tries to interfere with the agenda of Mao Zedong! While people condemned as anti-rightist were executed in the streets, still shouting “long live Mao Zedong,” the Chairman did not practice the same modesty and self-sacrifice for the greater good of society that he preached to his fellow countrymen. In reality, Mao did not restrain himself. Even though he “stressed the importance of simple living…Mao made extensive use of lavish residences built for his exclusive pleasure around the country.” If Mao’s most basic principals do not reflect the quintessential doctrines he teaches, then he can only expect the same amount of corruption to emanate from a monster of his own creation.

Confucianist ideals certainly influenced Mao Zedong’s own Communist philosophy. The old, fundamental doctrines emphasizing the individual benefitting the whole society, filial piety, and cultivation of self were corrupted to fit Mao’s new and progressive agendas. The problem arose when Mao’s ideals attempted to redefine traditional values that have been engrained in a society for thousands of years. A bad seed cannot produce good fruit. Rooted in Confucianism, Mao’s bad seed infested China’s natural, flourishing roots. He created a new, insidious species that disguised itself with Confucian morals, only to later suffocate society with its unyielding strength.