On The Equality Though Of Mao Zedong

The idea of equality has a long history, both in the east and in the west. However, equality as a core value of modernity did not rise until the early modern bourgeois revolution, in which freedom, equality and philanthropy were advocated for the first time and expressed the demands of the time and bourgeois’ appeal to equality of human rights. But the modern thought of human equality was only an abstract form of humanity, dealing with the form of equality and leaving the problem of the content of equality unsolved. It is Karl Marx that united the form and content of equality and through his theory of world history, Marx explicated proletariats’ idea of equality and human liberation. In the process of localization of Marxism in China, Mao Zedong integrated Marxists’ idea of equality with the reality of China and the Chinese traditional thought of equality, and expressed systematically and thoroughly the understanding and practice of equality on the part of Chinese Communists. Undoubtedly, the idea of equality is of great significance in Mao Zedong’s philosophy. Mao’s thought on equality does not only inherit the scientific thought of equality of human liberation of Marxism, but also enriches its content. This dissertation aims to discuss Mao’s thought on equality in terms of its formation and development, its theoretical construction, its content and methodology.To pursue social equality and justice in China and to establish a free and equal country in which the massive majority rule was the noble goal to which Mao devoted his whole life, so his thought on equality was the main thread that ran through his course of thought. As a result of inheriting and transcending the Chinese traditional thought on equality, reflecting on and criticizing the early modern thoughts on equality in the west and in China, and absorbing and innovating Marx’s theory on human existence and liberation, Mao gradually reached his own thought on equality which was featured by its distinct class consciousness, practicability and spirit of time. Mao’s idea was the typical product of localization of Marxist Sinicization. Mao’s thought on equality had three fundamental concepts, namely, labor, rights and liberation, and their interrelationship constitutes the main content of Mao’s theory of equality and developed into a scientific system of localized Marxism in China. Firstly, the theory of labor value was the theoretical basis of Mao’s thought on equality. For Mao, labor was the main measure to differentiate classes, and also furnished the basis to analyze the issue of equality. Labor was also the essential means to remold people’s mind and solve the problem of inequality. Laborers were the main subject of revolution and construction, as well as the real driving force in establishing an equal society. Secondly, the fulfillment of basic rights was the central part of Mao’s thought on equality. Mao believed that the realization of human rights was not merely the center of Chinese revolution, but also the practical way to realize the ideal of equality of Marxism. Rights were not the end, but the means to achieve human liberation. While revolution in reality should strive to get equal rights for people, the ideal was to pursue human liberation. The tension between reality and ideal, manifest in Mao’s system on equality, enriched his thought on liberation.Thirdly, Mao’s idea of liberation mainly included three levels, that is, liberation of productivity, liberation of Chinese people and liberation of human kind. It is impossible to fulfill social equality and human liberation without great advancement of productivity. Liberation of Chinese people was the main part of Mao’s thought on equality. And in Mao’s times, liberation of Chinese people meant in essence to pursue rights of existence and development on the part of Chinese people. To get the rights was the precondition of achieving liberation. Human liberation, the highest goal of Marxism, was also the ultimate concern of Mao’s thought on equality. While inheriting some ideas of human liberation from Marxism, Mao’s thought on equality had its own characteristics, which pointed directly to the dominant task of saving the nation from invaders’ hands and realizing the great revival of the nation in the20th century. Mao’s thought on equality also included pursuing and safeguarding state sovereignty, establishing equal diplomatic relationships, in order to realize the liberation for the nation, and promoting the status of ordinary people in order to realize the liberation of Chinese people, and advocating internationalism and world harmony and advancing world peace, in order to achieve the complete liberation of humankind.Mao’s promotion of political equality, economic equality and social equality all aimed to realize the complete liberation of the mass body of proletariats. This was the fundamental value orientation of Mao’s thought of human liberation and equality.In terms of political equality, Mao demonstrated strong appeal to political equality since his youth. After he was converted into a Marxist, he was committed to establishing systems and institutions which promoted equal political expression and participation and political democracy. He intended to promote equal political expression through realizing the rights of speech for ordinary people and advancing their ability of political expression. He also intended to promote equal political participation through democratic elections, state management and political movement. He explored the possibility of systematic guarantee of political equality by the institution of democracy and concentration, political consultation and "Great Democracy". On the way to realize political equality, Mao attached great importance to revolution, which could be employed for both destructing unequal political system and abolishing political oppression and bringing forth new equal political system. On the guarantee of equality, Mao’s theory laid solid foundation for the Chinese socialistic democracy system with Chinese characteristics, though there was tension between institutional construction and revolution.In terms of economic equality, Mao was devoted to realizing equality of possession, equality of distribution and equality of development on the part of the whole proletariats. And for equality of possession, he experimented with the means of land reforms, the practice of cooperation, and the movement of People’s Communes. For equality of distribution, he experimented with supply system, and also with the planning and complementing of the principle of distribution according to work. For equality of development, he explored the means of taking into equal account the public and private interests, balancing the urban and rural interests, and the principle of national autonomy. In terms of social equality, Mao was devoted to undermining the privileges of government officials and elites in the traditional Chinese society. He sought to establish a new relationship between officials and ordinary people by campaigning against privileged classes and bureaucracy and advocating officials should join and merge with proletarians. He also sought to raise the status of lower class people and reform intellectuals in order to get rid of elites in traditional Chinese culture and recreate a relationship between manual workers and intellectuals. He also promoted equality of human rights, gender equality and equal relationship so as to abolish "differentiation pattern" in the traditional Chinese society and establish a new type of personal relationship.In Mao’s thought on equality, his methodology showed both the influence of materialistic dialectics of Marxism and the typical Chinese characteristics. His methodology had an internal structure, which was made up of "one main body" and "two wings"."One main body" meant that everything could be divided into two. Mao believed that everything could be infinitely divided up into two, and between the divided two parts existed always differences, which meant conflicts, therefore balance or equality was only temporary and imbalance and inequality was absolute. Such a way of dividing up things indicated the eternal conflict between equality and inequality and was the theoretical pivot point of Mao’s thought in observing, analyzing and addressing the issue of equality."Two wings" included "self reliance" and "independence" in the positive sense and "continuous revolution" in the negative sense."Self-reliance" and "independence" was meant to strengthen the subject by tempering one’s will and independent thinking and then to earn rights and liberation."Continuous revolution" was meant to demolish inequality through complete revolution in order to earn liberation. Since everything could be divided into two, so there was no end to "self-reliance","independence" and "continuous revolution" and human society was always on its way in pursuit for inequality and liberation.Mao contributed greatly with his thought on equality. He almost finished the theoretical construction of equality in modern China, drove Chinese society forward to justice and equality and furthered the popularization of equality awareness. However, his thought on equality showed a tendency to moralize, the pattern of two extremes and military preferences, which caused his bias and mistakes in both theory and practice. Mao’s thought on equality and his practice reveal to us that it is necessary to have a right awareness of the value of equality, of the meaning of equality, the relationship between equality and freedom, equality and efficiency, and the ideal of equality and the means of implementation.