Reflections Of Maurice Meisner's Ideology On Mao Zedong's And Deng Xiaoping's Socialism Viewpoints

Since Marxism had been introduced into China and applied to China's practice, two theoretical achievements made their appearance: Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory, whose far-reaching influences have gained universal attention and interest among people both at home and abroad.Sinology at abroad had witnessed a long period of nearly seventy years ever since "Red star over China" written by Edger Snow, during which a great number of experts in this field emerged. However, for a long time, academic circles in China only focused on the study of a few scholars: John king Fairbank, Stuart R. Schram and Benjamin Schwartz, etc. Maurice Meisner, one of the most famous representatives in this field, has not been given adequate attention, and furthermore the study on Meisner in China is only restricted to the introduction of his ideas and no systematic achievements have been made. Based on enough materials available and interdisciplinary knowledge on politics, sociology and philosophy, the paper attempts to make a thorough analysis on Meisner's academic ideology on Mao Zedong's and Deng Xiaoping's socialism viewpoints, in the hope of offering enlightenment for Chinese scholars in this field.The paper falls naturally into six parts:The first part makes a brief review on the study of Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory at abroad, and is based on sequence of historical development while taking into consideration of situation changes at home and abroad, which reflects the unity between history and logic.The second part concentrates on different opinions among scholars at abroad in this field. Firstly the paper seeks to define socialism viewpoint. Secondly the study of Deng Xiaoping's socialism viewpoint at abroad can be classified into " Marxism with Chinese characteristics", "National Communism", "Post-socialism", while different interpreta-tion on Mao Zedong's socialism viewpoint gave rise to four famous debates. Lastly, the paper states the deep influence of Meisner's ideology on Mao Zedong's andDeng Xiaoping's socialism viewpoints, which clearly shows the importance of the present research.The third part attempts to present systematically Meisner's ideology on Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping's socialism viewpoints.The fourth part, the key part of the paper, reflects Meisner's ideology on Mao Zedong's and Deng Xiaoping's socialism viewpoints.The fifth part probes into following reasons that result in Meisner's dilemma, including theoretical, social, cultural and methodological reasons.The last part by reflecting Meisner's ideology summarizes enlightenment for the Chinese scholars who study Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory.