Words From Chairman Mao

The name Mao Tse-Tung conjures comparisons with Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot. But, who was this man? I will admit that until recently I had never delved into learning who he was.
 
My reading repertoire is not filled with your run-of-the-mill books. I prefer Dostoyevsky to Danielle Steele and Sogyal Rinpoche to A.J. Finn. So, I guess it was no surprise when I chose to read Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, more commonly known in the west as The Little Red Book.
 
Born in 1893 to a wealthy farmer, Mao developed a Chinese Nationalist and anti-imperialist view early in life. While studying at Peking University he gained a liking to the Marxist-Leninist ideology. He then founded and became leader of the Communist Party of China. In 1849 when The Chinese Red Army defeated the Nationalists in a Civil War, he proclaimed the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China.
 
In 1958, the Chairman initiated what is known as the “Great Leap Forward,” which aimed to transform the country from an agrarian to industrialized nation. The farming became collectivized and most of the workers were moved to construction projects. In spite of favorable weather, most of the harvest was left to rot due to lack of labor. During the period from '58 to '62 it is estimated that between 18 to 55 million people died, mostly from famine. Over two million were either beaten or tortured to death, and 1 to 3 million committed suicide.
 
In an effort to reduce inequality, about 13 million landlords were killed in an effort to redistribute land to peasants and working class. Many were beaten to death at mass meetings. It is estimated that 2 to 5 million counter-revolutionaries were executed, which included former officials of the opposition party, as well as those whose loyalty was suspect. He defended these killings as necessary in order to secure peace.
 
Despite the atrocious losses that came during the Great Leap Forward, Mao Tse-Tung is revered by many and credited for modernizing China. It is through him that China became a world power, promoted the status of woman, improved education and healthcare, and increased life-expectancy.
 
Mao Tse-Tung also fought a war on drugs. In an attempt to eradicate the production of opium he sent 10 million addicts to treatment and executed the dealers, replanting the fields with new crops.
 

Mao Tse-Tung.

Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung was published in 1964 as a booklet containing various inspirational and military ideas. It was used as propaganda to influence Chinese thought. As over a billion copies have been printed (making it #2 of all time), the goal of the Chinese government was to have it read by 99.9% of all its citizens.
 
The Little Red Book even made its way to the United States during the cultural revolution when the anti-Nixon and anti-Vietnam crowd could be found with a copy in their back pocket.
 
With all that hype, I decided I had better buy my own Little Red Book. There have been several versions of the book in publication and I believe that mine must be a condensed version as there are only five chapters and twenty-six pages.
 
There are certain themes that tend to run through the chairman's quotes. Above all, to have faith in the Communist Party. Most other themes are typical of Communist ideology such as the elimination of classes, anti-capitalism, and pro-science. He speaks of opposing imperialism and suppressing counter-revolutionaries.
 
Interestingly, he is anti-war. But he also believes it is necessary to have war to end war.
 
I also found it interesting that much of the same dogma preached by Mao is also believed and promulgated by politicians and activists of today. Especially in light of the protests, riots and revolutionary spirit among the youth, I see among them similarities with Communist ideology.
 

Chinese propaganda.

What follows is a small sample of quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung:
 
“The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism.”
 
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined , so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
 
“We should support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports.”
 
“[Communism] is different than any other ideological and social system, and is the most complete, progressive, revolutionary and rational system in human history. . . The ideological and social system of capitalism has become a museum piece in one part of the world, while in other countries it resembles 'a dying person who is sinking fast, like the sun setting beyond the western hills,' and will soon be relegated to the museum. The Communist ideological and social system alone is full of youth and vitality, sweeping the world with the momentum of an avalanche and the force of a thunderbolt.”
 
“Apart from their other characteristics, the outstanding thing about China's 600 million people is that they are 'poor and blank.' This may seem a bad thing, but in reality it is a good thing. Poverty gives rise to the desire for change, the desire for action and the desire for revolution. On a blank sheet of paper free from any mark, the freshest and most beautiful characters can be written, the freshest and most beautiful pictures painted.”
 
“Class struggle, the struggle for production, and scientific experiment are the three great revolutionary movements for building a mighty socialist country. These movements are a sure guarantee that Communists will be free from bureaucracy and immune against revisionism and dogmatism, and will for ever remain invincible.”
 
“It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”
 
“All wars that are progressive are just, and all wars that impede progress are unjust.”
 
“The guns of the Russian Communist Party created socialism. We shall create a democratic republic. Experience in the class struggle in the era of imperialism teaches us that it is only by the power of the gun that the working class and the laboring masses can defeat the armed bourgeoisie and landlords, in this sense we may say that only with guns can the whole world be transformed.”
 
“We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.”
 
“Our country and all the other socialist countries want peace; so do the peoples of all the countries of the world. The only ones who crave war and do not want peace are certain monopoly capitalist groups in a handful of imperialist countries which depend on aggression for their profits.”
 
“When human society advances to the point where classes and states are eliminated, there will be no more wars, counter-revolutionary or revolutionary, unjust or just; that will be the era of perpetual peace for mankind.” ♠

Cahokia Mounds

Visiting Cahokia was a new experience for me. I grew up in the American Southwest with Anasazi ruins in the canyons, on the mesas and literally in the backyard of my childhood home. Ancient pottery could be found abundantly on the desert floor, and occasionally an arrowhead. They pecked out images on rocks of big horned sheep and divine figures.
 
Cahokia, on the other hand, was on a lush marshland near the Mississippi River. Nothing above the surface now exists to prove their existence, other than several dozen mounds covered in grass. Some are large while others a mere lift in the ground.
 

Human effigy pipe.

Yet a grand civilization once existed here. In it's prime, archeologists surmise that Cahokia was the largest settlement in the Americas north of Mexico, with estimates ranging from 5,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. It became a central hub, which once covered nearly six square miles.
 
Cahokia is located east of modern-day St. Louis, in the state of Illinois. The skyline of the Gateway City can be seen from the top of Monks Mound. Jenelle and I took a detour from our trip and spent a couple hours poking around the site.
 
So, who were the Cahokian people? They were part of the Mississippian Culture, which is a catch-all term to include several societies with similar behavior and beliefs along the Mississippi River. Some of these behaviors included the building of platform mounds around a central plaza. 
 

Monks Mound.

By far the most imposing earthwork at Cahokia is Monks Mound. The base covers an area of over 14 acres and it is 100 feet high. Nearly 22 million cubic feet of dirt make up the mound, and it is conjectured that they were carried in baskets. Construction of the mound began around 950 AD and was enlarged several times until roughly 1250 AD.
 
Excavations of the upper level show evidence of a structure. Archeologists believe this probably served as a temple, and a residence for the chief leader. This interpretation is aided by historical accounts of the Natchez, who are the cultural heirs of the Mississippians.
 

Looking south from Monks mound.

Also of interest is an account of Hernanado de Soto, probably the first European to venture into this area. Sometime between 1539 and 1547, he visited several towns and villages of Native Americans. Although Cahokia was no longer functioning, many of their traditions may have continued. De Soto's men spoke of Indian villages dominated by man-made hills.
 
He records: “Then on top of these places they construct flat surfaces which are capable of holding ten, twelve, fifteen or twenty dwellings of the lord and his family and the people of his service, who vary according to the power and grandeur of the state.”
 

Profile view of Monks Mound.

Monks Mound was not—as far as we know—a burial mound.  Only small portions have been excavated. That's not to say, however, that it hasn't been used from time to time to bury the dead.
 
In the 1730's a group of French missionaries built a chapel on the west end of the mound. Several of them were buried near the chapel. A century later Amos Hill built his farm on the third terrace of the mound. He is buried on the northwest corner of the fourth terrace.
 
It is called Monks Mound because a group of French Trappist Monks lived on a nearby mound from 1809 to 1813 and used “Monks Mound” to plant gardens and grow fruit trees.
 

Mound 72.

Certainly not the most eye-catching earthwork at Cahokia, but probably the most fascinating is Mound 72. To the untrained eye, Mound 72 appears to be nothing more than a small rise in the ground. Yet excavations have proved it to be a mass burial site. Located less than a mile south of Monks Mound, it was created in stages and contains several “sub” mounds which were eventually covered over to create a single heap.
 
Roughly 272 people have been interred at Mound 72, many of the bodies mutilated. One pit within the mound contains the remains of 24 women. Another portion includes the bodies of four young men laid out, arms interlocking, with the hands and skulls cut off. Another pit near the four men holds the skeletons of 53 women between the ages of 15 and 30, most showing evidence of strangulation. They are stacked in two layers, separated by matting.
 

One of the "Twin Mounds."

Yet another pit within Mound 72 contains the corpses of 39 men and women, all of whom succumbed to a violent death. Fractured skulls and jawsbones, decapitations and arrowheads in the back all point toward a malicious end. Some, it is speculated, were buried alive, as their hands and bodies are postured in such a manner that appears they are trying to crawl out of the pit. Atop this pit are 15 elites, laid on litters of cedar poles and cane matting.
 
Also buried in Mound 72 is another elite personage now known as the Birdman. He was laid on an elevated platform with his feet facing northwest, resting on a bed of over 20,000 marine-shell disc beads in the shape of a falcon. Below him was another man buried face-down. The Birdman was buried with an extensive collection of minerals, arrowheads, a copper-covered chunkey stick, and several chunkey stones. Chunkey was a game played by the Cahokian people. These grave-goods had been collected from a variety of places across the eastern United States.
 

Tablet of a Birdman, found during excavations at Monks Mound.

From what I understand, about two-thirds of Mound 72 has been excavated and that is how we know so much. The bodies were found under ground-level. The dirt above ground-level served as a monument. Although all the excavated dirt was replaced to resemble the original mound, all the bodies have been removed and are at a museum or University somewhere in Illinois. (All this was according to a professor there giving college students a tour. I find it interesting that if you were to do the same thing as a private citizen, you would be facing jail time and labeled as a grave-robber.)
 
Our visit to Cahokia lasted a couple hours, but I could have spent much longer had we not needed to catch an afternoon flight. There are several more mounds on the site, as well as walking trails. The museum is very helpful, recreating many scenes of what Cahokia may have looked like during its prime. Many artifacts are on display, including pottery and several effigies.
 

Artist's recreation of Cahokia, with "Woodhenge" in the foreground.

Cahokia began to decline around 1250 to 1300 AD. There is a great deal of speculation and mystery surrounding their disappearance. Did they over-exploit their resources? Was there conflict from within, or without? Could disease have decimated the population? Whatever the reason, within a couple hundred years, Cahokia was a ghost town.
 
For me, this comes full circle. The Anasazi disappeared around the exact same time. There is also a great deal of mystery associated with their disappearance. Most likely, they left because of drought. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the southwest, their dwellings upon the cliffs were also nothing more than ghost towns. ♠

St. Louis, Missouri as seen from the top of Monks Mound.

Snake Gulch

In 1881 the Orderville United Order, a cooperative company north of Kanab, operated an alfalfa farm near the head of Snake Gulch.  There are many relics from that era, some obvious and others subtle: remains of an old stone home, a corral, and a faint inscription made in grease or tar dating 1889.

Further down-canyon is a more ancient mystery.  Hundreds of ghost-like figures are painted on the walls.  Additionally, dozens of big-horned sheep and stick-figures of men are pecked into the rock.  Who were these people, when did they live here and why did they leave?

Most of the figures are of a divine nature and are painted in red, yellow or both.  They feature ceremonial dress, many of them similar.  Who were they trying to portray in their paintings?  What were their ceremonial dances and songs?

Archeologists surmise that these images were painted by people of the Basketmaker culture between the years 1,500 BC and AD 500.  Perhaps they were Anasazi.  There are a handful of crumbled granaries throughout the canyon.  Was there only one group that lived here, or were there several over the years?  How long did they live here?

Some of the pictographs are conspicuously high on the canyon walls, much higher than arm can reach.  How did they paint them?  What did they use to create their paint?  Did they use ladders to reach those great heights, or was there once a ledge?

The only serpent we saw on our 12-mile hike was a black king snake with white rings.  We passed a small group of cowboys on horses and who had seen two rattlers.  We were always on our toes.  Between the tall green grass and spirits of the dead looming the canyon, you can never be too careful in a place called Snake Gulch. ♠