CHAPTER 4
Mao’s Continuous Revolution
THE ADVENT OF a new dynasty in China had, over the
millennia, developed a distinct rhythm. The old dynasty would begin
to be perceived as failing in its mission of protecting the
security of the Chinese population or fulfilling its fundamental
aspirations. Rarely as the result of a single catastrophe, most
frequently through the cumulative impact of a series of disasters,
the ruling dynasty would, in the view of the Chinese people, lose
the Mandate of Heaven. The new dynasty would be seen as having
achieved it, in part by the mere fact of having established
itself.
This kind of upheaval
had happened many times in China’s dramatic history. But no new
ruler had ever proposed to overthrow the value system of the entire
society. Previous claimants to the Mandate of Heaven—even, and
perhaps especially, foreign conquerors—had legitimized themselves
by affirming the ancient values of the society they took over and
governing by its maxims. They maintained the bureaucracy they
inherited, if only to be able to govern a country more populous and
richer than any other. This tradition was the mechanism of the
process of Sinification. It established Confucianism as the
governing doctrine of China.
At the head of the
new dynasty that, in 1949, poured out of the countryside to take
over the cities stood a colossus: Mao Zedong. Domineering and
overwhelming in his influence, ruthless and aloof, poet and
warrior, prophet and scourge, he unified China and launched it on a
journey that nearly wrecked its civil society. By the end of this
searing process, China stood as one of the world’s major powers and
the only Communist country except Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam
whose political structure survived the collapse of Communism
everywhere else.