How reliable are Mao's post-1957 works?

[heiss93]

Selected Works Volume 1-4 were published by the CPC during Mao's lifetime. They cover Mao's writings up to 1949. Volume 5 was published by Hua Guofeng in 1977 and brings it up to 1957.

As for all works 1957-1976, they were never published by the CPC but by either US government sources or sinologists. One of the main sources is Schram's Chairman Mao talks to the people. Schram is generably a reliably source but he admits that he got his manuscript from the KMT government in Taiwan. In addition even if we assume that the translators are all legit, the manuscripts themselves are unofficial. They come from Red Guard booklets called "Long Live Mao Zedong Thought". Can we rely on the Red Guards having access to top state documents? These are important questions since many established Maoist Parties have frequently quoted from post-1957 Mao writings to justify their views. Indeed it is precisely post-1957 writings which are most relevant to them. Just on the theoretical level, Mao's controversial denial of the Negation of the Negation comes from Schram's book.

Certain Indian Maoists published future volumes of selected works taking it all the way up to volume ix. But as far as I can tell their translations are based entirely on the western sources I mentioned.

[Dimentio]

We need to find the one true scripture so that we will be able to smash the bourgeois paper tigers with our spiritual atom bomb!

:thumbup:

[Clark]

The real question is - how reliable are any of his works?

[Queercommie Girl]

We need to find the one true scripture so that we will be able to smash the bourgeois paper tigers with our spiritual atom bomb!

:thumbup:

Dogmatists exist in every political tendency, and certainly not just among Maoists.

I'm a "semi-Maoist" who see some value in a lot of his ideas.

[Dimentio]

Dogmatists exist in every political tendency, and certainly not just among Maoists.

I'm a "semi-Maoist" who see some value in a lot of his ideas.

Oh yes. But a lot of maoists have made some of the most funny and hilariously dogmatic statements ever, especially those active in the West between 1968 and 1976.

[Marxach-Léinínach]

Selected Works Volume 1-4 were published by the CPC during Mao's lifetime. They cover Mao's writings up to 1949. Volume 5 was published by Hua Guofeng in 1977 and brings it up to 1957.

As for all works 1957-1976, they were never published by the CPC but by either US government sources or sinologists. One of the main sources is Schram's Chairman Mao talks to the people. Schram is generably a reliably source but he admits that he got his manuscript from the KMT government in Taiwan. In addition even if we assume that the translators are all legit, the manuscripts themselves are unofficial. They come from Red Guard booklets called "Long Live Mao Zedong Thought". Can we rely on the Red Guards having access to top state documents? These are important questions since many established Maoist Parties have frequently quoted from post-1957 Mao writings to justify their views. Indeed it is precisely post-1957 writings which are most relevant to them. Just on the theoretical level, Mao's controversial denial of the Negation of the Negation comes from Schram's book.

Certain Indian Maoists published future volumes of selected works taking it all the way up to volume ix. But as far as I can tell their translations are based entirely on the western sources I mentioned.

Not just post-1957. Volume 5 can't be relied on too much either. Apparently there are striking differences between some of the essays in it and their "unofficial" equivalents from during the Cultural Revolution.

[heiss93]

For those interested here are the publisher's notes from the Indian volumes I mentioned.

"Subsequent volumes published in India by Kranti Publications,
Secunderabad, and Sramikavarga Prachuranalu, Hyderabad."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

An authentic compilation of Mao's Collected works is long over due. Especially now, its need is all the more great and urgent. But there is very little hope of such a publication being brought out officially by the CPC. However, several writings of Mao, not covered by the CPC's official publication i.e., Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung Volumes 1 to 5 -are available elsewhere. All these lie scattered in a number of english editions by western scholars and in some remote research journals etc. We do realise that even if all these are put together it will not be the collected - works nor will even be a good substitute. Yet we hope their presentation at one place, chronologically arranged, will certainly facilitate easy and ready reference, further stimulating the study of Mao's works. Hence this venture.
Many more works might have certainly remained in Chinese and even some available in English may have remained out of our reach. To come to the works included in this volume, we have neither the means nor the competence to vouch safe about their authenticity and completeness. We appeal to the readers to bear these inevitable limitations in mind while, using this book. Due to these and other reasons if any errors crept into this publication, we earnestly hope to rectify them in future editions. We fondly hope that much more additional material could come to light enabling us to substantially improve on this.
As far as possible all these writings are arranged strictly chronologically. Except indicating the primary source quoted in the originals, no attempt is made to annotate or edit the texts in any respect or in any manner.
We mention our sincere thanks and acknowledgements to all the pioneers who translated, edited and published these works in different forms earlier. We whole heartedly extend our thanks to all these comrades-- the respected scholars and loving friends -- whose unstinted co-operation and painstaking efforts contributed in a big way to the success of this venture.
We feel very happy that this volume could be brought out despite many odds. We hope to bring out the other volumes also soon. We fondly hope our effort will be well rewarded by the warm and enthusiastic response of our esteemed readers.
PUBLISHERS.



Note to the Reader

We are glad to bring out another compilation of the writings of Mao Tse-tung.
This volume covers the period 1949 to 1957.
We request the reader to note that "(Excerpt)" below a title indicates that the document was excerpted from a larger document by the original publisher (Source) [See for example the article "Speech at Banquet Commemorating the Liberation of Romania" p.90] and wherever the excerpting was done by others, from a larger document presenting more interesting or significant portions of the original, the title is followed by "[Excerpts]" (see for example the article "Conversation with Zhai Zuojun" p. 166). As a rule parentheses ( ) indicates editorial remarks in the original, whereas brackets [ ] enclose the editorial remarks of the editors of those texts (other than the editors of the original source).
We once again extend our sincere thanks and acknowledgments to all those pioneers who translated, edited and published these works in different forms earlier. We whole heartedly extend our thanks to all these comrades — the respected scholars and loving friends — whose unstinted cooperation and painstaking efforts contributed in a big way in the success of this venture.
We hope to bring out some more volumes in the near future. It is our fond hope that our effort will be well rewarded by the warm and enthusiastic response of the esteemed readers.
PUBLISHERS

[heiss93]

Not just post-1957. Volume 5 can't be relied on too much either. Apparently there are striking differences between some of the essays in it and their "unofficial" equivalents from during the Cultural Revolution.

I think any changes to Volume V were made by omission and subtraction not addition. I don't believe there to be any outright modification of Mao's words, but it is true the Hua Guofeng chose to emphasize Mao's more "pragmatic" side.

[gorillafuck]

We need to find the one true scripture so that we will be able to smash the bourgeois paper tigers with our spiritual atom bomb!

:thumbup:Paper tiger is a chinese phrase. I don't see how it's funny.