Maiya Lanham Michael Volz Chinese Civilization 2310 November 11, 2022 Mao Essay I believe Mao was just like any other emperor. An emperor is responsible for ruling their empire, leading their men into battle, and monitoring and approving everything that goes on in their empire, and that’s what Mao did. Mao shaped China into what it is today as a result of his accomplishments as leader from 1949-1976. When someone becomes emperor, it’s normally through inheritance, typically the oldest born son in the family, or selectivity, being chosen by either a past emperor or by the people. Most leaders before Mao were also chosen and were also considered emperors, so why wouldn’t Mao be considered an emperor like the rest of them? Leaders and past emperors of China like Chiang Kai-Shek and Lin Sen became leaders of China earned their way to this position or by being chosen by their people. Mao considerably earned his way to the top to become a leader/emperor of China. After the inevitable end to Chiang Kai-Shek’s rule in China, Mao declared the establishment of the People’s Republic of China as well as become Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Long March, marking the beginning of his reign in China. As the official new ruler of China, Mao had established goals for China, some of which being to build a strong and industrial China as well as to get rid of things like inequality and prostitution. Mao also had plans to improve China’s economic and political systems as well as establish the cultural revolution and the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward was a five-year plan and a campaign led by the CCP in hopes to “accelerate China’s economic development and speed the advance toward socialism” (Schirokauer, 333). They essentially established communes all over in different cities that provided a number of different resources for people like daycare services, police functions, banking services, ran schools and hospitals, and so much more. This was an attempt at creating large-scale communities, but they turned out to be too large. This led to a decrease in usage in the communes and many of the communes began to lose most of their functions. The failure of the communes was overlooked despite the growing success, but they were extremely inflated and a main cause of the demise of the Great Leap Forward was in agriculture. Although the end to the Great Leap Forward was tragic and quite possibly the worst strategy to improving their economic and agriculture aspects. Much like many other emperors and leaders of China, Mao implemented a lot of policies, The Great Leap Forward, the Third Front Program, and the cultural revolution being some of them, to improve the economic and agricultural aspects of China. Another policy that Mao implemented to help China was the cultural revolution and the third front program. This was intended to change the thinking of Chinese people and was very political. The cultural revolution essentially further expanded their economic value, allowing them to benefit from resources like medical care and education. The third front program was designed to expand their resources so they were ready for war when the time came. There was also land equalization and collectivization. This was established to allow peasants to combine peasants’ land and tools to increase agricultural production. This allowed for the agricultural, social, and economic developments of China to flourish. The plan for collectivization was nearly fully completed within a single year and the production of resources like iron, coal, and steel were doubled within that year. Mao isn’t considered an emperor to some people simply because it wasn’t hereditary, but as I aforementioned, there were many leaders of China who earned their position as leader or emperor by establishing various policies and strategies to improve the life of China. There’s more to an emperor than hereditary rule. Past Chinese leaders like Feng Guozhang and Yuan Shikai were born into poor families, similar to Mao, and eventually rose to power to declare themselves as emperors. A common way some Chinese men became a leader was through the military and someone who takes charge. Something that Mao and these two emperors have in common is that they joined the military and managed to take control of things like economic developments, like Yuan handling the national budgets, or taking control of the military and establishing strategies to improve China like Mao did. Sources OKAMOTO Takashi, P. (2022, August 10). Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai-shek, Xi Jinping... A Chinese system that creates "emperors" - discuss Japan. Discuss Japan -. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/diplomacy/pt2022081010061312327.html Schram, Stuart Reynolds. "Mao Zedong". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mao-Zedong. Accessed 7 December 2022. Schirokauer, C., & Brown, M. (2013). A brief history of Chinese civilization (4th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.
