Chapter 2 Chinese History

For thousands of years, questions regarding the origin of the heavens, the earth and man have puzzled people all over the world. In western countries, the Judaic tradition taught that "God created the heaven and the earth and created man in his own image." While in China, myths such as that of Pangu creating the heavens and the earth and Nuwa creating man.

As a very advanced civilization, Chinese civilization is probably not the oldest one, but the only one of the ancient cultures that has survived until today: "5000 years of history, and 7000 years of culture"

The Myth of Origin of the earth

In China, the human fossils found in Wushan in the county of Chongqing were over 3,000,000 years old and are believed to be the remnants of the earliest humankind that lived in China. Also, large quantities of fossils have been found widely spread over a number of other sites in China. Known as Yuanmou Man, Lantian Man, Peking Man, and Upper Cave Man (Shandingdong Man), these provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the fact that China was one of man's birthplaces as well as ancient Africa.

Yuanmou Ren Lantian Ren Beijing Ren

Heroical archer Yi 羿 who shot down eight of the nine existing suns to prevent the soil from burning out.

There is also a large group of inventors like Suiren (Sui Ren) 燧人 , who first used the fire;

Hou Ji (Houji) "Lord of Millet" 后稷

Shen Nong (Shennong) 神農 the "Holy Peasant" - persons that introduced agriculture and the use of medical herbs;

minister Cang Jie (Cangjie) 倉頡 , who invented writing

Chang E (Chang'e 嫦娥 ) who ascended to the moon and transformed into a toad

The Yellow Emperor 黃帝

Yu the Great 大禹

divided the into the nine provinces (jiuzhou 九州 ) and characterized the soil of every province, only become prominent during the Spring and Autumn period.

The first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty started in 2070 BC. It was in this period that slave society appeared and the next two dynasties, Shang (1600-1046 BC) and Western Zhou (1046-771 BC), saw it develop further. This era was followed by the Spring and Autumn (770-476 BC) and Warring States (475-221 BC) periods, characterized by the decline in power of the ruling house and power struggles between regional powers, marking the transition from slave to feudal society.

Productive Force:

The force and ability to make use of, change the nature and to produce materials.

Production Relations:

man

tools

Productive force is the decisive factor of the development of human society.

The different economic relations formed in the whole process of material production. It includes 4 phases as production, distribution, exchange, consumption.

Production relations is the most basic relations in the human society.

Dynasties Sub-dynasties Year

Xia 夏   22nd century – 17th century BC

Shang 商   17th century – 11th century BC

Zhou 周

Western Zhou 西周  11th century – 771 BC

Eastern Zhou 东周 770 – 256 BC

Spring-Autumn Period 春秋 772 – 481 BC

Warring States Period 战国 475 – 221 BC

Qin 秦   221 – 206 BC

Han 汉Western Han 西汉 206 BC – AD 25

Eastern Han 东汉 25 – 220

Three Kingdoms 三国

Wei 魏 220 – 265

Shu 蜀 221 – 263

Wu 吴 222 – 280

Western Jin 西晋   265 – 420

Eastern Jin 东晋   317 – 420

Southern Dynasties 南朝

Song 宋 420 – 479

Qi 齐 479 – 502

Liang 梁 502 – 557

Chen 陈 557 –589

Northern Dynasties 北朝

Northern Wei 北魏 386 – 534

Eastern Wei 东魏 534 – 550

Northern Qi 北齐 550 – 577

Western Qi 西齐 535 – 556

Northern Zhou 北周 557 – 581

Sui 隋   581 – 618

Tang 唐   618 – 907

Five Dynasties 五代

Later Liang 后梁 907 – 923

Later Tang 后唐 923 – 936

Later Jin 后晋 936 – 947

Later Han 后汉 947 – 950

Later Zhou 后周 951 – 960

Song 宋

Northern Song 北宋 960 – 1127

Southern Song 南宋 1127 – 1279

Yuan 元   1206 – 1368

Ming 明   1368 – 1644

Qing 清   1616 – 1911

Republic of China    中华民国

  1912 – 1949

People’s Republic of China 中华人民共和国

  1949 – 

The written history of China begins with the Shang Dynasty(ca. 1600 BC - ca. 1100 BC) Turtle shells with ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to as early as 1500 BC. The origins of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy, developed during the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC to 256 BC) that followed the Shang. It was the longest lasting dynasty and spans the period in which the written script evolved from ancient oracle script to the beginnings of modern Chinese writing.

The feudal Zhou Dynasty eventually broke apart into individual city states, creating the Warring States period.

The conventional view of Chinese history is that of a country alternating between periods of political unity and disunity and occasionally becoming dominated by foreign peoples, most of whom were assimilated into the Han Chinese population. Cultural and political influences from many parts of Asia, carried by successive waves of immigration, expansion, and assimilation, merged to create modern Chinese culture.

Bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty

In the 8th century BC, power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn Period, named after the influential Spring and Autumn Annals. In this period, local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert their power and vie for hegemony. The situation was aggravated by the invasion of other peoples from the northwest, such as the Qin, forcing the Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang.

This marks the second large phase of the Zhou dynasty: the Eastern Zhou. In each of the hundreds of states that eventually arose, local strongmen held most of the political power and continued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only. Local leaders for instance started using royal titles for themselves. The Hundred Schools of Thought ( 諸子百家 / 诸子百家 ) of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism ( 儒家 ), Taoism ( 道家 ), Legalism ( 法家 ) and Monism ( 墨家 ) were founded, partly in response to the changing political world. The Spring and Autumn Period is marked by a falling apart of the central Zhou power. China now consists of hundreds of states, some only as large as a village with a fort

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang united the various warring kingdoms and created the first Chinese empire. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the Emperor of China to directly control the vast territories.

After further political consolidation, seven prominent states remained by the end of 5th century BC, and the years in which these few states battled each other are known as the Warring States Period. Though there remained a nominal Zhou king until 256 BC, he was largely a figurehead and held little real power. As neighboring territories of these warring states, including areas of modern Sichuan and After further political consolidation, seven prominent states remained by the end of 5th century BC, and the years in which these few states battled each other are known as the Warring States Period. Though there remained a nominal Zhou king until 256 BC, he was largely a figurehead and held little real power. As neighboring territories of these warring states, including areas of modern Sichuan and Liaoning, were annexed, they were governed under the new local administrative system of commandery and prefecture ( 郡縣 / 郡县 ).

This system had been in use since the Spring and Autumn Period and parts can still be seen in the modern system of Sheng & Xian (province and county, 省縣 / 省县 ). The final expansion in this period began during the reign of Ying Zheng ( 嬴政 ), the king of Qin. His unification of the other six powers, and further annexations in the modern regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi in 214 BC enabled him to proclaim himself the First Emperor ,

The Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang.

The Han Dynasty emerged in 206 BC. It was the first dynasty to embrace the philosophy of Confucianism, which became the ideological underpinning of all regimes until the end of imperial China. Under the Han Dynasty, China made great advances in many areas of the arts and sciences. Emperor Wu (Han Wudi 漢武帝 / 汉武帝 ) consolidated and extended the Chinese empire by pushing back the Xiongnu (sometimes identified with the Huns) into the steppes of modern Inner Mongolia, wresting from them the modern areas of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. This enabled the first opening of trading connections between China and the West, the Silk Road.Nevertheless, land acquisitions by elite families gradually drained the tax base. In AD 9, the usurper Wang Mang ( 王莽 ) founded the short-lived Xin ("New") Dynasty ( 新朝 ) and started an extensive program of land and other economic reforms. These programs, however, were never supported by the land-holding families, for they favored the peasants. The instability brought about chaos and uprisings.Emperor Guangwu ( 光武帝 ) reinstated the Han Dynasty with the support of land-holding and merchant families at Luoyang, east of Xi'an. This new era would be termed the Eastern Han Dynasty. Han power declined again amidst land acquisitions, invasions, and feuding between consort clans and eunuchs. The Yellow Turban Rebellion ( 黃巾之亂 / 黄巾之乱 ) broke out in 184, ushering in an era of warlords. In the ensuing turmoil, three states tried to gain predominance in the Period of the Three Kingdoms. This time period has been greatly romanticized in works such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - 907) A Chinese Tang Dynasty tri-colored glaze porcelain horse (ca. 700 AD).

Main article: Tang DynastyOn June 18, 618, Gaozu ( 唐高祖 ) took the throne, and the Tang Dynasty ( 唐朝 ) was established, opening a new age of prosperity and innovations in arts and technology. Buddhism, which had gradually been established in China from the first century, became the predominant religion and was adopted by the imperial family and many of the common people.Chang’an( 長安 / 长安 ) (modern Xi'an 西安 ), the national capital, is thought to have been the world's largest city at the time. The Tang and the Han are often referred to as the most prosperous periods of Chinese history.The Tang, like the Han, kept the trade routes open to the west and south and there was extensive trade with distant foreign countries and many foreign merchants settled in China.

               A Chinese Tang Dynasty tri-colored glaze porcelain horse (ca. 700 AD).

The Tang introduced a new system into the Chinese government, called the "Equal Field System" （均田制） .This system gave families land grants from the Emperor based on their needs, not their wealth.From about 860 the Tang Dynasty began to decline due to a series of rebellions within China itself, and in the previously subject Kingdom of Nanzhao ( 南詔 / 南诏 ) to the south. One of the warlords, Huang Chao ( 黃巢 ), captured Guangzhou in 879, killing most of the 200,000 inhabitants including most of the large colony of foreign merchant families there. In late 880 Luoyang surrendered to him and on 5 January, 881 he conquered Chang'an. The emperor ( 唐僖宗 ) fled to Chengdu and Huang established a new temporary regime, which was eventually destroyed by Tang forces. but another time of political chaos followed.

Yuan Dynasty

During the 13th Century a great leader, Temujin, was to emerge from among the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian steppes. These tribesmen occupied the area between the northern Daxing'an Mountains and the eastern bank of the Argun River. As skilled horsemen, they were to become a formidable fighting force once the tribes had united under Temujin's leadership. In 1206 Temujin was formally elected as ruler over Greater Mongolia, encompassing the Mongolian Plateau and the Gobi Desert, and he adopted the name and title of Genghis Khan. The newly elected Khan set about extending his empire and set his sights on China. In 1227 he defeated the Western Xia and in 1234 he defeated the Jin. This was to open the way to unify the whole of China for the first time under a non-Chinese regime, a people who eventually were to become a ethnic group.

Following Genghis' death, his grandson succeeded him and as Kublai Khan, the new leader established the Yuan Dynasty in 1271, with his capital city at Dadu (present day Beijing). Kublai, who was known as Emperor Shizu continued to annex Chinese territory and in 1279 the Yuan forces captured Hangzhou, the capital city of the Southern Song (1127 -1279). The Song Emperor Gong, together with his mother the Empress Xie was taken into captivity. Three years later in 1279, the Yuan engaged in a maritime war in Yashan and crushed the "New Song" which had been formed by exiled officials and survivors from the Southern Song. With their dynasty now firmly established in the Chinese empire, the Yuan found themselves rulers of a complex group of peoples who inhabited the largest land based empire ever to exist, stretching from what is now Korea and western Russia in the north and from Burma to Iraq in the south. But they were rulers with no experience of administration. Consequently, they adopted Chinese political and cultural models.

During the 1340's and 1350's, internal political cohesion disintegrated due to rivalry between various factions at court, rampant corruption and a succession of natural calamities. These elements all fuelled the fires of rebellion. Mutinying workers, pirates, smugglers and rebel peasants ultimately were victorious in their fight with Mongol troops and the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown. The last Yuan Emperor together with his court fled from the country while many of the Mongols were content to remain and become integrated with the Chinese population. The man who led the final onslaught against the Yuan was Zhu Yuanzhang and he was to become the first Ming (1368 - 1644) Emperor. The Mongols were so weakened that it was not until the 15th Century that they gained sufficient strength under a leader known as Dayan Qaghan to attack the Empire's frontiers once again. The Manchu emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911) accepted the final submission of the Mongol rulers and thus Mongolia became a part of China.The Yuan Dynasty lasted ninety-eight years with eleven emperors. From then on, Beijing gradually ascended as the political, economic, and cultural center of China.

The Significance of the Yuan Dynasty

The traditional view of Chinese historians was that the Mongol conquest was a disaster. They devised a system of economic exploitation and practiced racial discrimination which so antagonized the Chinese people that it was inevitable that they should eventually be driven from the country. It is also held that the Mongol occupation proved to be a setback to the development of Chinese society due to the ending of the progress achieved during the Song period. This led to the fact that the succeeding Ming dynasty became an introverted and non competitive state. It has also been suggested that the Mongol rule introduced a level of brutality into government that had not previously existed. This in turn was to affect the subsequent behavior of Ming emperors, the first of whom ordered the public flogging of ministers who offended him.An important aspect of the Yuan period was that it brought about the reunification of the country and that despite the adverse criticism by the Ming rulers, the Mongols may have been more humane than the Song (960 - 1279) and that the Han (206 BC - 220 AD) people had actually flourished during their reign.

The Decline and Fall

Despite the act that the Mongolian emperors sought to emulate much of the Chinese style of rule they continued to be regarded by the Chinese as unwelcome invaders and this may well have been the cause of their eventual failure as rulers. There is evidence of the declining ability of the Mongolian rulers to exercise control. The court was beset by intrigue which undermined the administration. Toghon Temur, the last Yuan ruler relied heavily on his councilors. When he dismissed the Mongolian Toghto his action precipitated the disintegration of the government.

The Decline and Fall

Despite the act that the Mongolian emperors sought to emulate much of the Chinese style of rule they continued to be regarded by the Chinese as unwelcome invaders and this may well have been the cause of their eventual failure as rulers. There is evidence of the declining ability of the Mongolian rulers to exercise control. The court was beset by intrigue which undermined the administration. Toghon Temur, the last Yuan ruler relied heavily on his councilors. When he dismissed the Mongolian Toghto his action precipitated the disintegration of the government.

In many respects the Mongolian occupation of China is seen as unproductive but there were important developments in literature and drama. The other important feature concerns the military establishment. Prior to the Yuan period the concept of conscription was tantamount. This could only work efficiently under a strong and effective central government. The Tang abandoned this idea and relied upon mercenaries, a practice followed also by the Song. The Yuan instituted a system of hereditary military families and this was to be continued by the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911).

Among the populace there were strong feelings against the rule of "the foreigners", which finally led to a peasant revolt that pushed the Yuan dynasty back to the Mongolian steppes and established the Ming Dynasty in 1368. This dynasty started out as a time of renewed cultural blossom: arts, especially the porcelain industry, reached an unprecedented height; Chinese merchants explored all of the Indian Ocean, reaching Africa with the voyages of Zheng He. A vast navy was built, including 4 masted ships displacing 1,500 tons; there was a standing army of 1 million troops. Over 100,000 tons of iron per year were produced in North China. Many books were printed using movable type. Some would argue that Early Ming China was the most advanced nation on Earth.

Travels of Marco Polo

Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy in the year 1254. He had an education of different skills in accounting, foreign languages, and knowledge of the Christian Church. His background in business and culture and his love for nature made Marco Polo very observant of humans, animals, and plants.

Back to "Yuan Dynasty" Chronology

His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were merchants who began their first eastern journey in 1260. They visited Constantinople and made their way to the domain of the Great Kublai Khan, ruler of China. The Emperor became interested in stories of the native land of the merchants; thus, he sent the Polos back to the Pope as his ambassadors with messages of peace and interest in converting areas of China to Christianity.

The merchants remained in Venice for two years and decided to keep their promise of return to Kublai Khan. Large profits from trade with these distant parts also prompted the brothers to return. On this journey, they took the seventeen year old Marco Polo with them. After three and a half years of travel, the ambassadors humbly appeared before the Emperor.

China had matured in the arts, both fine and practical, beyond anything found in Europe. Literature was greatly respected. Paper had already been invented; books of philosophy, religion, and politics could be found and a large Encyclopedia had been printed under the supervision of the Emperor. Mechanical devices were not lacking and paper money was the accepted currency in many sections of the empire. It was in this world of advanced wonders that Marco Polo resided for many years.

Upon his return to Italy, Marco Polo told of his findings of jade, porcelain, silk, ivory, and other riches of Asia. He described the festival of the Emperor's birthday in which everything from clothing to ornaments were laced in gold. He also explained how he saw people using black stones for fuel (later known as coal). Unfortunately, all his stories and details of the unimaginable were rejected, and Marco Polo became the "man of a million lies."

After he retrieved his notes from China, Marco Polo transformed his travels into manuscript form. His work has been criticized because he did not include fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall. He was frank, unpoetic in imagination and vision, and constantly spoke of trade, money, risks, and profits (as an ordinary business man/merchant would do). However, he wrote in incredible detail of the birds animals, plants, and other aspects of nature.

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Italy. He believed that the world could be traveled around, and he wanted to travel the sea to support his idea. Although most people of Columbus’s time knew that the Earth is round, not many believed that it was possible to get all the way around it by boat. At that time, businessmen were looking for a new way to Asia. It was a large business area, but it was very difficult to reach by traveling east across land (Crusade). Columbus believed that it would be possible to reach Asia by traveling west across the sea. Columbus asked for support from many people to help him travel the sea. Finally, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain accepted his idea, and gave him the money for the trip

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and ninety men set sail on the Santa Maria along with two other ships, the Nina and the Pinta. The sailing was hard and many men got sick and tired. On October 11, they finally saw land. Since Columbus thought they had reached India in Asia, he expected to see people that were Indian. Even when they found out that they were not in Asia, they were happy to have found a new place. Columbus continued to travel the New World and made several other sailing trips.Today, Columbus Day is celebrated in the United States on the second Monday in October. People honor2 the great man who is believed to be the first European to have discovered the New World of the Americas.

Emperor Yongle in Ming Dynasty In 1404,Emperor Yongle decided to move the capital to Beijing.While building the new capital,he had carried on two major issues with great and historical significance.He called up more than 2000 scholars to compile a set of "Yongle Statue". Meanwhile,Emperor Yongle organized the sailing team,sent Zhen He to the West Ocean for seven times,successively visited about 50 countires and regions,which have become in the ranks of the person who pays tribute in the lump. He make China's maritime trade expand to such countries as the coastal area,the Indian south coastal area and west Asia,east African,etc.Except Vietnam,Siam,etc.Hall wood and abansodor in Africa coastal state ever came to China for four times,Bangladeshies for 11 times,the kings of Sumatera and Ceylon are sent to China.These navigation achievements have reflected prosperity and power of this emperor.

The Ming Dynasty Tombs are located some 50 kilometers due North of Beijing at a specially selected site. The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle (1402 - 1424), who moved the capital of China from Nanjing to the present location of northwest Beijing.  The Ming tombs of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty were located on the southern slope of Mount Taishou  (originally Mount Huangtu).    He is credited with envisioning the layout of the ancient city of  Beijing as  well as a number of  landmarks and monuments located therein. After  the construction  of  the  Imperial  Palace  (the Forbidden City)  in  1420,  the  Yongle Emperor selected his burial site and creating his own mausoleum.  From the Yongle  Emperor onwards,  13  Ming  Dynasty  Emperors were buried in this area. The tombs of the first two Ming Emperors are  located near  Nanjing  (the capital city during their reigns). Emperor Jingtai was also not  buried  here as the Emperor Tianshun had denied Jingtai an imperial burial but was instead buried west of Beijing. The last Chongzhen Emperor who hanged himself in April, 1644 was the last to be buried here, named Si Ling by the Qing emperor but on a much smaller scale than his predecessors. During the Ming dynasty, the tombs  were off  limits to commoners  but in 1644 Li Zicheng's army ransacked and set many of the tombs on fire before advancing and capturing Beijing in April of that year.

In the same period, Zheng Chenggong waged a tit-for-tat struggle against the Dutch colonists who occupied the Chinese territory Taiwan. In April, 1661, prevailing upon all dissenters, Zheng sailed across the Taiwan Strait to drive away the Dutch invaders. With the close cooperation of the Taiwan people, Zheng forced the Dutch invaders to sign a treaty of surrender on February 1, 1662. As a result, Taiwan returned to the embrace of the motherland. Since then, as a pioneer in developing Taiwan, Zheng adopted a series of measures and policies to promote the development of Taiwan and the national unity. Zheng’s recovery of Taiwan maintained the independence and integrity of China’s territorial sovereignty. It was the first great victory in Chinese people’s struggle against the western colonists, and will be remembered as a glorious page in the development of the Chinese history.

Zheng lived a life of a great patriot. His patriotic ideas of resolutely fighting against national oppression and foreign invasion, his heroic spirit of indomitability and unrelentingness in the struggle and his spirit to overcome all any difficulties will be respected by the Chinese people forever and will encourage the people from either side of the Strait to strive shoulder to shoulder for the prosperity and unity of the motherland.

Zheng Chenggong and Taiwan

Zheng He (1371-1435), or Cheng Ho, is arguably China's most famous navigator. Starting from the beginning of the 15th century, he traveled to the West in seven epic voyages collectively referred to as the "Eunuch Sanbao to the Western Ocean" from 1405 to 1433. For 28 years, he traveled more than 50,000km and visited over 30 countries, throughout South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and distant Africa. Columbus sailed to America in St. Maria in 1492, some 80 years after Zheng's voyages. Life magazine ranked Zheng the 14th most important person of the last millennium.

In 1839 the Qing government, after a decade of unsuccessful anti-opium campaigns, adopted drastic prohibitory laws against the opium trade. The emperor dispatched a commissioner, Lin Zexu ( 1785-1850), to Guangzhou to suppress illicit opium traffic.　　 Lin seized illegal stocks of opium owned by Chinese dealers and then detained the entire foreign community and confiscated and destroyed some 20,000 chests of illicit British opium. The British retaliated with a punitive expedition, thus initiating the first Anglo-Chinese war, better known as the Opium War (1839-42). 　　 Unprepared for war and grossly underestimating the capabilities of the enemy, the Chinese were disastrously defeated, and their image of their own imperial power was tarnished beyond repair. The Treaty of Nanjing (1842), signed on board a British warship by two Manchu imperial commissioners and the British plenipotentiary, was the first of a series of agreements with the Western trading nations later called by the Chinese the "unequal treaties.".

The Opium War

Sun Yat-sen and the Republic of China

Sun Yat-sen was born in 1867 and died in 1925. Sun was a nationalist revolutionary who believed that the only way for China to move forward in the early 1900's was for the country to become a republic and adopt western ways in industry, agriculture etc. Unless China did this, Sun was convinced that she was doomed to remain backward by western standards. Sun Yat-sen was born into a peasant family in Kwantang Province. His father was a peasant farmer. Sun's brother was a successful merchant and he paid for Sun to receive a good education. Sun was educated at an English speaking school in Honolulu, Hawaii, and later at the New College of Medicine in Hong Kong where he qualified as a doctor in 1892.  Sun did not become a doctor. Instead, by the time of his graduation, he had become convinced that the Manchu dynasty was corrupt and that while it existed, China would remain backward.

He became a professional revolutionary. He toured Europe and America raising funds for the "Save China League". Despite the danger, he also ventured back to China in an effort to start a revolution against the Manchu's. These all failed and in 1895, Sun fled to London for his own safety. Here, he was kidnapped by staff from the Chinese embassy, and held a prisoner to be sent back to China for almost certain execution. He was only saved by vigorous protests by the British government who got his release. Sun continued with his work and espoused his "Three Principles" - Nationalism, Democracy and Socialism. These beliefs formed the background to the League of Common Alliance" which Sun founded in 1898. This party was to become the Guomindang in later years.

Mao zedong and Communist Party

Mao was born in Chaochan in Hunan province. He came from a peasant family. As with all peasants living in Nineteenth Century China, his upbringing was hard and he experienced no luxuries. He first encountered Marxism while he worked as a library assistant at Peking University. In 1921, he co-founded the Chinese Communist Party. Mao gave a geographic slant to Marxism as he felt that within an Asiatic society, communists had to concentrate on the countryside rather than the industrial towns. In reality, this was a logical belief as China had very little industry but many millions involved with agriculture. Mao believed that a revolutionary elite would only be found in the peasantry and not among those who worked in towns. With Zhou Enlai, Mao established a revolutionary base on the border of Hunan. In 1931, Mao set up a Chinese Soviet republic in Kiangsi.

This lasted until 1934 when Mao and his followers were forced to leave Kiangsi and head for Shensi in the legendary Long March which lasted to 1935. Here they were relatively safe from the Kuomintang lead by Chiang Kai-shek but far removed from the real seat of power in China – Peking (Beijing). From 1937 to 1945, the enmity between the KMT and the Communists was put to one side as both concentrated their resources on the Japanese who had launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937. It was during this time that Mao developed his knowledge about guerrilla warfare that he was to use with great effect in the civil war against the KMT once the war with Japan had ended in 1945. By the spring of 1948, Mao switched from guerrilla attacks to full-scale battles. The KMT had been effectively broken by the skill of Mao’s guerrilla tactics and defeat was not long in coming. In October 1949, Mao was appointed Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. He governed a country that was many years behind the world’s post-war powers. China’s problems were huge and Mao decided to introduce radical solutions for China’s domestic weaknesses rather than rely on conservative ones. From 1950 on Mao introduced land reforms and the first Five Year Plan started in 1953. Peasant co-operatives were set up. In 1958, the Great Leap Forward was introduced as were the first land communes.

Though he used the term "Five Year Plan", Mao did not accept the theory that all ideas had to start with Russia and China would have to follow. In fact, Mao remained very independent of Russia and publicly criticised the rule of Khrushchev when he became leader of Russia. In 1959, Mao gave up the position of head of state. This went to Liu Shao-chi. He did remain party chairman and concentrated his efforts on ideological changes. From 1960 to 1965, a struggle took place between Liu and Mao over who were the more important - the industrial workers or the peasants. Mao still placed his faith in the peasants. Liu favoured the urban workers. This clash formed the background to the Cultural Revolution of 1966 when Mao openly and successfully sided with the peasants. Mao had sheer numbers on his side as China was still an agricultural nation despite exploding an atomic bomb in 1964. From 1966 on, some essays by Mao entitled "Thoughts" became all but compulsory reading for Chinese people – especially the young who Mao actively courted. This was to become Mao’s famous "Little Red Book".