Mao Tse-tung: The Long March and the Cult of Mao

Introduction: Mao as Political and Spiritual Leader

Mao Tse-tung became both the political and spiritual leader of China, and the Cult of Mao developed as he led the Chinese people first through the Chinese Revolution and then in building a new China after 1949. The Chinese have a long history of mythologizing their heroes and making them into near-gods, and Mao both benefited from this tendency and deliberately used it to solidify his position and expand his power.

Early Revolutionary Thought and the May Fourth Movement

Mao's thought developed during the early years of the decade prior to 1920, a period of great turmoil marked by growing conflict between traditional Chinese thought and new ideas arriving from the West. Mao became an active local leader in the May Fourth Movement of 1919 and retained his revolutionary fervor. However, he also became convinced that mass enthusiasm alone was insufficient — what was also required was an organization of dedicated revolutionaries. The Russian Revolution served as a model, and Mao attended the founding of the CCP in Shanghai in 1921 and organized its Hunan branch.

Two parties developed in the 1920s: the CCP and the KMT (Kuomintang). The KMT-CCP United Front had formed first and then divided into two separate entities. Mao had encouraged peasant activities against landlords, and this had hastened the split. The KMT was allied with the warlords and was thus stronger militarily than the CCP, leaving the CCP struggling in the rural areas. This was one of the principal reasons for Mao's developing a rural strategy for the Chinese revolution — one that involved more than surrounding the cities from the countryside. It became instead a complex and interdependent synthesis of military, political, and economic elements, utilizing techniques of guerrilla warfare (Townsend and Womack 11–12). One measure of the effectiveness of Mao's thought is the degree to which it served to resolve the intellectual conflict underlying it:

"The importance of the May Fourth Movement should by now be apparent. Intellectually, the Chinese Revolution originated in the challenging of China's cultural heritage by Western civilization. May Fourth was the culmination of that challenge: the brutal, wholesale repudiation of Confucianism, the symbol of Chinese culture and Chinese history" (Bianco 28).

Mao made use of the changes involved in this movement and built his own base of leadership upon it.

The Maoist Model of Governance

J. E. Wills emphasizes that China was never a country that could be held together by force alone. Mao fulfilled a genuine need:

"By 1920 many were groping for new ways to control the military and reunite the country. Among the pieces of a solution were discipline of troops and their indoctrination in one form or another of nationalism and public spirit; mobilization of ordinary tradespeople, farmers, and workers as active participants in politics; and new ways of disciplining and indoctrinating a civil and bureaucratic elite." (Wills 335)

Mao's form of Communism was one of the answers offered, and his ideas mobilized the people in ways that other doctrines had not.

The Long March and the Birth of the Cult

Mao became the heart of the CCP at the Tsunyi Conference in 1935. This was the culmination of the split between the CCP and the KMT. The political structures of China developed after this time in keeping with certain traditional Chinese ideas alongside imports from the Soviet model. The Chinese model as scholars have identified it is really a Maoist model built around several key elements.

First, the model aimed at national independence and self-reliance. Second, it sought all-around development with an emphasis on the agricultural sector, in keeping with Mao's rural policies, and it favored decentralization to stimulate local growth, initiative, and the transfer of resources. Third, the model emphasized mass mobilization and participation as techniques for achieving social, economic, and political goals — the so-called "mass line" approach. Fourth, the model insisted on the continuation of revolution, arguing that repeated and possibly violent struggles were necessary to prevent the restoration of capitalism, with such tendencies seen as arising even within the Communist Party itself. The key to revolutionary success for Mao was absolute ideological commitment to a collectivist, egalitarian, and participatory society, to be practiced in daily life as well as through all the institutions of society (Townsend and Womack 23).

The Long March was a key element in both the rise to power of Mao and the Communists and in the mythologizing of Mao himself. Beginning in October 1935, Mao led what remained of his First Front Army — much depleted by fighting — into Shensi Province, a remote and sparsely settled area in the northwest where Communist revolutionaries from many provinces would find refuge. From there he could establish a new base and begin the revolution afresh. Some 100,000 men and 50 women embarked with Mao from Kiangsi, and only about 8,000 survived to arrive in Shensi.

The Long March is cited as a great human accomplishment and a major example of heroism and human drama. Born out of political and military failure, it nonetheless instilled in its survivors a new sense of mission. The Long March had a strong psychological effect and thus served as the prelude to the victorious period of the Chinese Revolution. Politically, Mao achieved firm control of the Chinese Communist Party and could now follow his revolutionary impulse in his own way. The Long March also bolstered Mao's conviction that "men with the proper will, spirit, and revolutionary consciousness could conquer all material obstacles and mold historical reality in accordance with their spirit and ideals" (Meisner 34).

The Long March and the legendary tales that emerged from it provided a needed sense of hope and confidence. Those who survived experienced what became known as "the Yenan spirit": "The survivors' consciousness that they had lived while so many had perished lent a sacred character to their revolutionary mission and gave rise to an almost religious sense of dedication" (Meisner 35). Mao now had further reason to see himself as a man of destiny. The march had a profound psychological effect on both Mao and his followers, serving as proof of the value of their mission and the soundness of their leader's policies:

"Indeed, the cult of Mao Tse-tung, it seems not improbable to suggest, was born out of the Long March, for Mao was the prophet who led the survivors through the wilderness. . . . As early as 1937 Edgar Snow reported that Mao had acquired the reputation of 'a charmed life.'" (Meisner 35)