Chapter 4 traitor

Could it be that Mao Zedong, who has been in Shaoshan for 16 years, is already a full-fledged rebel? Because of his moral values ​​(mainly from his mother) and the social awareness brought to him by books, Mao Zedong became a person who challenged old habits in the environment of rigid school and authoritarian family. Mao Shunsheng is an annoying person.He often beat and scolded Zedong, humiliated him in front of others, mocked his thirst for knowledge; declared that Zedong was "lazy" and "useless", and went out of his way to shame him for it. According to the traditional concept, even if the father is a villain, the son must obey.Zedong expressed contempt for this.Yet the resemblance between the son and the father is striking in other ways.Unlike other young rebels at the time, Mao Zedong did not forget his family, he kept in touch with them and received their help in many ways.He said his family were "normal people" who faced the same gross injustice as he did. [twenty three]

What Mao Zedong did when he was at home did not go to extremes either.He often compromised with his father, he accepted the painful "wedding", he did not leave his farm work to attend the Gelaohui, he believed in Buddhism most of the time in Shaoshan, and when he left Shaoshan, he was still loyal to the court. Not far to the east of Shaoshan Mountain was another young man named Zhang Guotao[24]. He grew up at the same time as Mao Zedong, and later became a member of the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party.The young Zhang Guotao got on well with his wealthy and well-educated father, yet he also became a rebel. [25]

In Mao Zedong's life, his family and the private school in Nan'an were not oppressive cages that he encountered by chance. They were just microcosms of the strict hierarchy of the larger Chinese society. Yes, Mao Zedong hated Confucianism since he was 8 years old.He once recalled: "My 'most classmates' hate these classics." [26] This 16-year-old youth became a typical Chinese rebel during the special period of historical change.He was not a psycho, and he lashed out more at the social system his father represented than at his father himself.His path of rebellion was weighed.

As far as the Chinese customs of that era were concerned, Mao Shunsheng's demands on his son were not all excessive.The reason why Mao Zedong resisted was because he felt that the authority represented by his father was abhorrent and was on the verge of decline.If Chinese families and villages are like this, how can China be saved? If this kind of patriarchal patriarchy in Shaoshan is the orthodox norm in China, then what will be the fate of women? Mao Zedong's "personal character" as a rebel catered to the "characteristics of the times" when the wave of rebellion was rising across the country at that time.He himself also incorporated the struggle of the individual into the struggle of the whole society. [27] He said: "The first capitalist I fought was my father."

The tension between Tse-tung and his father had both a social and a psychological aspect.His father's oppression cannot be fully attributed to the "oppression" of society.None of Mao Zedong's younger brothers was at odds with his father as he was. It is said that both of them were well educated because of their father's permission, which Mao Zedong did not get. Out of deep pride in his heart, Chairman Mao exaggerated his father's selfishness and domineering. * * Some authors say, "I learned to hate him"—a strange line from a Chinese boy in the early 20th century—was omitted from the Chinese version of Snow's biography of Mao Zedong.However, this sentence is found in various Chinese materials collected in the Harvard-Yenching Library.

Just like his mother's gentleness and kindness, his father's rough discipline—although it was not his purpose—also deeply affected Mao Zedong's life.Although psychologically, Zedong is closer to his mother, but he doesn't have many of her mother's character traits.The birth of the other three children distracted the mother's attention. At the same time, the mother also thought that Zedong had learned some strange ideas. After that, the relationship between mother and child began to be estranged. When he left Shaoshan, Mao secretly vowed that he would prove himself in the eyes of his father and in the process of achieving a more worthy goal.He wants to live a fuller and better life than his father.

Behind Tse-tung's hatred of his father, there is an unrecognized resemblance between father and son; he becomes as authoritative as his father, but on a larger scale. Mao Shunsheng didn't know his son very well.Tse-tung, who despises his father, deals with him strategically rather than aggressively, with great success.However, the "virtue" that Mao Shunsheng tried to cultivate in a brutal way was indeed deeply implanted in the depths of Mao Zedong's heart.He soon said to others: "The sloth is the grave of life." It was like a reappearance of his father. [28]

His mother's influence on him is more simple and direct: the kindness and patience of his mother who believed in Buddhism left a deep impression on him.When he returned to Shaoshan many years later, he could still point out to his entourage where there used to be a Buddhist temple, and said that his mother often burned incense there, and when he was sick, his mother would use incense ash to heal him.He once chatted with a guard and discovered that the young man preferred his kind mother to his bad-tempered father.Mao Zedong said to him: "The more you tell me about your family, the closer I feel to you." "Your mother must be a Buddhist."The guard asked Mao Zedong how he knew.He said: "You said she was a kind-hearted person. All Buddhist believers are warm-hearted." [29] Of course, Mao Zedong was thinking of his own mother.

Neither of his parents had introduced Mao Tse-tung to the idea of ​​social revolution, and it was almost natural for the educated people of his generation to have a sense of revolution.The success of his subsequent revolution and the type of revolutionary leader he became can be traced back to his youth in Shaoshan.The new trends of thought and the social conditions of old China made him a rebel; the tempering of family life in Shaoshan made him more steadfast than others. In the spring of 1919, Mao Zedong took a group photo with his mother Wen Qimei, younger brothers Mao Zemin (second from left) and Mao Zetan (first from left) in Changsha.