Mao Zedong and the famine of 1959-1960: A study in wilfulness

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 186, 2006, Pages 421-445

  Bernstein, Thomas P ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FAMINE; FOOD POLICY; HISTORY; IDEOLOGY; STARVATION;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 33745962105     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0305741006000221     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. For an overview see Carl Riskin, "Seven questions about the Chinese famine of 1959-61," China Economic Review, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1998), pp. 111-124.
2. Dali Yang, Calamity and Reform in China (Stanford: University of California Press, 1996), p. 38;
3. Roderick MacFarquhar, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Vol. 3, The Coming of the Cataclysm, 1961-66 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 3.
4. Alfred Chan, Mao's Crusade: Politics and Policy Implementation in China's Great Leap Forward (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 141-46.
5. For the role of mess halls in creating a wasteful "tragedy of the commons," thereby causing famine, see Yang, Calamity, especially ch. 2.
6. Ralph Thaxton's ground-breaking research in Anhui and Henan is shedding new light on the brutal struggle over subsistence and of the cruel treatment of peasants, which Thaxton believes significantly raised the death rate.
7. Roderick MacFarquhar, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Vol. 2: The Great Leap Forward (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983);
8. MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 3;
9. Frederick C. Teiwes with Warren Sun, China's Road to Disaster (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999);
10. Yang, Calamity;
11. Chan, Mao's Crusade; and Resolution on CPC History, 1949-1981 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981), pp. 28-29.
12. Teiwes with Sun, China's Road to Disaster, p. xix
13. and Frederick C.Teiwes, Politics and Purges in China (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), 2nd ed., chs. 7-8.
14. Published by Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiu shi (eds.) (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiu shi, 1987 ff). For an analysis of this collection, see Frederick C. Teiwes, "Mao texts and the Mao of the 1950s," Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 33 (1995), pp. 128-149.
15. The first of the three collections was published by Renmin chubanshe, Beijing, 1998; the second by Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, Beijing, Vols. 12 and 13 in 1996 and Vol. 14 in 1997; and the third, by Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe in 1993.
16. Peng Xianzhi and Jin Chongji (eds.), Mao Zedong zhuan, 1949-1956, 2 volumes (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2003) I am indebted to Professor Roderick MacFarquhar for informing me about this source.
17. Chan, Mao's Crusade, pp. 140-41
18. and Mao wengao, Vol. 7, p. 436.
19. Mao wengao, Vol. 7, pp. 530-31.
20. Ibid pp. 584-86
21. and Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 7, pp. 451-472.
22. Compare Mao zhuan, pp. 904-905 with the two preceding documents.
23. See nn. 13 and 14.
24. Mao zhuan, p. 905;
25. Mao wengao, Vol. 7, pp. 584-85.
26. See Mao nianpu, p. 446,
27. Mao speaks of 5 million people suffering from edema (500 wanren hai fuzhong). In Mao Zedong sixiang wansui (Long Live Mao Zedong Thought) (Taibei: Zhonghua minguo guoji guanxi yanjiusuo, 1974), Mao says that "there will certainly be X ten thousands of cases (yiding yao X wan ren (defu) zhongbing)," p. 278.
28. Mao zhuan, p. 943
29. and Mao wengao, Vol. 8, p. 209.
30. Mao zhuan, pp. 943-44;
31. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, p. 226.
32. For a full scale account, see MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 2, Part 2.
33. Chinese Law and Government, Winter 1976-77, pp. 12-13.
34. Mao zhuan, pp. 915-17.
35. Mao zhuan, pp. 917 and 922.
36. Mao zhuan, pp. 920-21. The term "bombshell" is quoted from the diary of Wang Renzhong, then Hubei's first Party secretary.
37. Mao zhuan, p. 944.
38. Mao zhuan, p. 945. The version in Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 243 242, does not include exhortations to disobey higher levels.
39. Teiwes with Sun, China's Road, p. 210.
40. See MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 2, ch. 10
41. and Teiwes with Sun, China's Road, Epilogue 1.
42. Mao wengao, pp. 331-32. Mao added Party unity to the Lushan agenda.
43. Mao zhuan, pp. 965-96.
44. Mao wengao, p. 966. Some participants strongly opposed these views.
45. Mao wengao, p. 342.
46. Ibid.
47. Mao zhuan, p. 971;
48. MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 2, p. 203.
49. Mao zhuan, pp. 975-76.
50. see also Li Rui, Lushan huiyi shilu (Record of the Lushan Conference) (Beijing: Chunqiu chubanshe), p. 72.
51. For a detailed analysis of the relations between Mao and Peng, see MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 2, ch.10, "High noon at Lushan."
52. Mao zhuan, pp. 977-78.
53. See Li Rui, Record of the Lushan Conference, p. 133.
54. Ibid. p. 141
55. and Mao zhuan, p. 981.
56. Li Rui, Record of the Lushan Conference, pp. 138-140.
57. Mao zhuan, p. 983.
58. Ibid. pp. 984-88.
59. Ibid. p. 1010.
60. Neibu cankao, No. 2848, 16 August 1959.
61. Neibu cankao, No. 2854, 25 August 1959.
62. Neibu cankao, No. 2851, 21 August 1959.
63. Neibu cankao, No. 2866, 9 September 1959.
64. Neibu cankao, No. 2852, 28 August 1959
65. MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 3, pp. 61, 179 and 206-207.
66. Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 7, p. 273. Mao's explanation cannot of course stand up to scrutiny, if only because a veritable media blitz of anti-rightist agitation blanketed the country after Lushan.
67. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 415-16.
68. Ibid. pp. 431-33.
69. Ibid. pp. 554-55.
70. Ibid. pp. 639-640.
71. For Henan's struggle see ibid pp. 606-607.
72. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, p. 425. Mao received numerous provincial reports on the anti-rightist campaign from various provinces in late summer and autumn 1959, which he usually praised.
73. Mao zhuan, p. 1019. The book notes that this formulation was the origin of the Cultural Revolution concept of "grasping revolution and grasping production."
74. Ibid p. 1050.
75. Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 12, p. 469.
76. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 479-480 and 495-94.
77. Ibid pp. 529-530
78. A Critique of Soviet Political Economy by Mao Tse-tung (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977), pp. 88-89.
79. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 606-607.
80. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 625-26.
81. Mao Zedong sixiang wansui, pp. 431-32. In early 1961, Zhongyao xuanbian carried a document on the excess purchases. See Vol. 14, pp. 67ff.
82. For procurement and output statistics, see Carl Riskin, China's Political Economy: The Quest for Development (New York: Columbia University Press), p. 137, table 6.7.
83. Mao zhuan, p. 1081.
84. Miscellany of Mao Tse-tung Thought, p. 173.
85. Mao zhuan, pp. 1019-1020;
86. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 585-86 and 615.
87. Mao wengao, Vol. 8, pp. 628-29.
88. Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 13, pp. 80 and 86-88. Mao clung to the widely detested mess halls until spring 1961.
89. Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 44-46;
90. Mao zhuan, pp. 1057-58,
91. and Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 13, pp. 43-51 and 80-89.
92. Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp 52-53.
93. Ibid. pp. 52-53.
94. Mao zhuan, p. 1080;
95. Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 13, pp. 29-31.
96. Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 13, pp. 45-51, especially p. 47.
97. Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 32-44,
98. and Mao zhuan, pp. 1053-57.
99. Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 13, pp. 32-44;
100. Mao zhuan, p. 1056.
101. Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 98-102.
102. Mao zhuan, p. 1056.
103. Ibid p. 1056.
104. Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 62-63.
105. See ibid. pp. 98-102 for Mao's comment and a summary of the Shandong report.
106. Shen Liqi et al. (eds.), Zhou Enlai nianpu, 1949-1976 (Chronicle of Zhou Enlai) (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1992), Vol. 2, p. 299.
107. Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 118-19.
108. For Shanxi, see Zhongyao xuanbian, Vol. 13, pp. 238-251
109. and Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 134-36;
110. for remarks on Jiangsu, see Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 125-26.
111. Mao zhuan, p. 1069.
112. Mao zhuan, pp. 1071-72.
113. MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 3, p. 3.
114. Mao zhuan, pp. 1072-73.
115. Only in January 1961 did Mao call for intensive village-level investigations.
116. Mao zhuan, pp. 1073 and 1081.
117. Mao zhuan, p. 1087.
118. Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 8, p. 274.
119. Mao zhuan, pp. 1097-98.
120. See Macfarquhar, Origins, Vol. 3, Parts 1 and 2.
121. MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 2, pp. 293 and 335.
122. Mao zhuan, p. 1073.
123. Ibid. p. 1014.
124. Ibid. p. 1019.
125. Mao wengao, Vol. 9, pp. 64-65.
126. Mao zhuan, p. 1070.
127. Mao zhuan,Ibid p. 1097.
128. MacFarquhar, Origins, Vol. 2, p. 333.
129. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005).
130. Ibid. p. 457.
131. Ibid. p. 446.
132. Ibid p. 458.
133. "Zai Wuchang huiyi shang de jianghua" (speech at Wuchang conference), Center for Chinese Research Materials (Oakton, VA, nd.), Vol. 13, pp. 203-204.
134. Mao wengao, Vol. 7, p. 201.
135. "Liuzhong quanhui jianghua" (speech to the Sixth Plenum), 9 December 1958, in Center for Chinese Research Materials, Vol. 11-B, p. 148.
136. Chang and Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story, p. 457.