Mao Zedong: A Life (Jonathan Spence) 

#Quotes

Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are “the best of kings.” … Seen as they were, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.

– William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear’s Play

Mao's beginnings were commonplace, his education episodic, his talents unexceptional; yet he possessed a relentless energy and a ruthless self-confidence that led him to become one of the world's most powerful rulers. He was one of the toughest and strangest in China's long tradition of formidable rulers who wielded extraordinary powers neither wisely nor well, and yet were able to silence effective criticism for years or even decades by the force of their own character and the strength of their acolytes and guards. … It was his rhetoric and his inflexible will that led to the mobilization of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens, who — even when they wished to — could find no way to halt the cataract of energy swirling around them.

The immediate lesson that Mao absorbed in these tumultuous events was the transient nature of fame and success. The two men who had done the most to bring the revolution to Changsha … were killed in a sudden mutiny by the very troops they were leading.

Reading remarks:

• If this is your first introduction to Mao’s rule, there may be some digging you will need to do on your own to understand some points that Spence glosses over.