Rethinking Mao: Explorations in Mao Zedong's Thought

摘要

For better or worse, in the western scholarship of Mao Zedong, the "Chairman" often arrives as one of two similar but different tragic archetypes: Adam or Macbeth. With both, Mao begins nobly, well-intentioned and dedicated to progressive change; but due to his own shortcomings and the tiresome meddling of his wife, he ends in either lethal tyranny or mortal disrepute. For scholars emphasizing his redeeming qualities, or equating Liberation with salvation, or speaking fondly of the modern nation he helped establish, Mao is at worst the fallen Adam.