Image: Mao Zedong, 1959. (Wikimedia Commons.)
On this day in history, September 18, 1976, over one million people gathered together at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for the memorial service of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the People’s Republic of China since 1949.
Over an eight-day grieving period following his demise, over a million people paid their respects as Mao’s body lay in a flag-draped coffin. At the beginning of the public memorial in Tiananmen Square, a three-minute moment of silence was witnessed in tribute to the leader, with rumors that almost all of China’s 800 million citizens stood in silent honor.
The service consisted of music played, a funeral march by an army band, China’s national anthem, and the Communist “Internationale,” televised live to the nation, a first for China. Foreign leaders were disallowed from attending the ceremony or the grieving period.
Hua Guofeng, China’s premier, and Communist party’s first vice chairman, Mao’s immediate successor, presented the eulogy. “It was under Chairman Mao’s leadership that the disaster-plagued Chinese nation rose to its feet,” he stated. “The Chinese people love, trust, and esteem Chairman Mao from the bottom of their hearts.”
Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893, to wealthy farmers in Shaoshan, Hunan Province, China. He learned Confucian classics at the local school for five years but departed at age 13 to help out on the family farm. In 1907, Mao’s father planned a marriage for his 14-year-old son. Mao rejected his 20-year-old bride, even after she began living in the family home.
From 1913 to 1918, Mao took classes at the Teachers’ Training School in Changsha, where he started incorporating additional revolutionary concepts. He was captivated by the 1917 Russian Revolution and the 4th century BCE Chinese philosophy called Legalism. In 1920 Mao read The Communist Manifesto and developed into a staunch Marxist.
In 1926, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, slaughtered over 5,000 communists in Shanghai. This act was the beginning of China’s Civil War. Mao led the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha late that year against the Kuomintang (KMT). The KMT defeated Mao’s peasant army, killing most of them, and they pushed the remaining fighters into the rural areas, where they gathered more peasants for their cause. In 1928, the KMT conquered Beijing and was established as the legitimate government of China by foreign countries.
In 1931, Mao was elected leader of the Soviet Republic of China in Jiangxi Province. Mao brought a reign of terror against landlords; perhaps more than 200,000 were persecuted and murdered. His Red Army, consisting primarily of inadequately armed but zealous peasants, numbered more than 45,000.
The Long March reinforced Mao Zedong’s status as head of the Chinese communists. He was able to gather the troops necessary despite their desperate position.
In 1937, Japan occupied China. The Chinese Communists and the KMT terminated their civil war to fight this common enemy through Japan’s defeat in World War II.
In 1938, Mao divorced his latest wife, He Zizhen, and married the actress Jiang Qing, later known as “Madame Mao.”
Even as he led the fight against the Japanese, Mao plotted to grasp power from his allies, the KMT. In 1944, the Americans sent the Dixie Mission to meet Mao and the communists; the United States found the communists better organized and less corrupt than the KMT, which had been receiving American assistance.
After World War II, the Chinese armies began to fight each other again. The Red Army, now called the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), defeated the Kuomintang’s army in Changchun, Jilin Province, at the 1948 Siege of Changchun. This was a pivotal moment in the struggle for Communist dominance in China.
On October 1, 1949, Mao felt assured enough to declare the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On December 10, Chiang Kai-shek and other KMT representatives fled mainland China for Taiwan.
Mao guided revolutionary changes in China from his new home base near the Forbidden City. Landlords were killed, as many as 2-5 million across the country, and their land was given to impoverished peasants. Mao’s “Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries” took an additional 800,000 lives, primarily former KMT members, intellectuals, and businessmen.
From 1953 to 1958, Mao unveiled the First Five-Year Plan to make China an industrial power. Lifted by his preliminary achievements, Chairman Mao introduced the Second Five-Year Plan, the “Great Leap Forward,” in January 1958. He encouraged farmers to smelt iron on their properties instead of tending their crops. The results were devastating; a projected 30-40 million Chinese people perished during the Great Famine of 1958-1960.
Soon after Mao took control in China, he threw the People’s Volunteer Army” into the Korean War to fight beside the North Koreans versus the South Koreans and the United Nations armies. The PVA prevented Kim IL-Sung’s army from being besieged, causing a deadlock that persists to this day.
Mao sent the PLA into Tibet in 1951 to unshackle it from the Dalai Lama’s rule.
By 1959, China’s association with the Soviet Union had weakened significantly. The two communist nations clashed on the judgment of the Great Leap Forward—China’s nuclear aspirations and the looming Sino-Indian War (1962). In 1962, China and the USSR cut off communication in the Sino-Soviet Split.
Mao operated only as a nominal head of the Chinese government for several years. During that time, he plotted a return to power and revenge on those who had ousted him. Mao would use the threat of capitalism among the mighty and the power and naivety of young people to take control once again.
In 1969, Mao proclaimed the Cultural Revolution completed, although it continued until after he died in 1976. Subsequent stages were overseen by Jiang Qing (Madame Mao) and her accomplices, better known as the “Gang of Four.”
All through the 1970s, Mao’s health progressively worsened. He may have been experiencing Parkinson’s disease or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and heart and lung difficulty created through smoking his entire life.
By mid-1976, when the country was dealing with the Great Tangshan Earthquake, the 82-year-old Mao was restricted to a hospital in Beijing. He endured two heart attacks early in September and died September 9, 1976, after being taken off life support.
Subscribe to History Daily with Francis Chappell Black to receive daily updates:
Help us with our endeavors to keep History alive. With our daily Blog posts and our publishing program we hope to inform people in a comfortable and easy-going manner. This is my full-time job so any support you can give would be greatly appreciated.
ON SALE NOW!!!
History Daily: 365 Fascinating Happenings Volume 1 – VOLUME 2 NOW AVAILABLE
In the United States:
In Canada:
History Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider making a donation.
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 
Leave a comment