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Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
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Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
Quotations from Chairman Mao (simplified Chinese: 毛主席语录; traditional Chinese: 毛主席語錄; pinyin: Máo Zhǔxí Yǔlù, commonly known as the "红宝书" pinyin: hóng bǎo shū during the Cultural Revolution), colloquially referred to in the English-speaking world as the Little Red Book, is a compilation book of quotations from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong (formerly romanized as Mao Tse-tung), the former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, published from 1964 to 1979 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung was originally compiled by an office of the PLA Daily (People's Liberation Army Daily) as an ideological handbook. It developed out of Lin Biao's practice of incorporating the study of Mao's texts and model soldiers like Lei Feng into daily drills. Lin's approach became known as the "lively study, lively application" of Mao Zedong Thought. In 1961, Lin had required PLA Daily to publish a Mao quote each day to emphasise the central theme of the day's editorial. To facilitate this, PLA Daily editors used a Tianjin Daily index of Mao's quotes arranged by topic. The daily Mao quote became a popular feature and PLA Daily's use of the Tianjin Daily index became the core of Quotations from Chairman Mao.
In December 1963, a deputy editor-in-chief of the PLA Daily proposed compiling a selection of Mao's quotations in a book for use by the PLA. The response at a General Political Department work conference was strongly positive, and the initial draft was prepared as 200 Quotations from Chairman Mao. It was revised several times over the next few months based on input from conference participants and PLA units that piloted the study of the text.
In May 1964, the General Political Department released the internal publication Quotations from Chairman Mao, adding a half title page with the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" (全世界无产者，联合起来！) in bold red letters, and endorsement leaves written by Lin Biao, Mao's chosen successor, that included three lines from the diary of model Lei Feng. This version had 30 topics under which 355 quotations were grouped. Following discussions that expanded the book twice more. The definitive 1965 version contained 33 thematic chapters of 427 total quotations excerpted from Mao's speeches and writing over the period 1929–1964. As of August 1965, new copies of the book had their distinct red vinyl covers (as opposed to the previously used white paper binding) to increase durability for fieldwork.
Demand for the book increased sharply including for use outside the military and in August 1966 People's Publishing House took over the work of printing Quotations. It was made available to the public through Xinhua Bookstores.
The Ministry of Culture held special study meetings to develop a production and distribution plan. It sought assurances that the book would receive publishing priority and that there would be sufficient paper, ink, and printing presses available. The goal was for "ninety-nine percent (of the population of China to) read Chairman Mao's book", according to a catalogue of publication records of the People's Publishing House.[citation needed] Provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across China were ordered to build hundreds of new printing houses to publish the Quotations during the second half of 1966, which pushed the limits of the Chinese printing industry.[citation needed]
This disrupted plans for publishing any new volumes of The Complete Works of Marx and Engels that was already in progress. It also halted distribution of other ideological works. As late as 1970, more than 8 million copies of the 4-volume set of Selected Works of Marx and Engels that had already been printed (both in cloth hardcover and paperback) remained undistributed in storage warehouses on the grounds that other works "should not interfere with learning Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung".[citation needed]
On the other hand, several other works by Mao had very large printings during the same period, even though these editions were not produced in the large numbers of Quotations from Chairman Mao. These include Selected Works of Mao Zedong (in four volumes, 2.875 million copies in 14 languages), Selected Articles of Mao Zedong (various editions totalling 252 million copies), single article books, and works of poetry.
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Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
Quotations from Chairman Mao (simplified Chinese: 毛主席语录; traditional Chinese: 毛主席語錄; pinyin: Máo Zhǔxí Yǔlù, commonly known as the "红宝书" pinyin: hóng bǎo shū during the Cultural Revolution), colloquially referred to in the English-speaking world as the Little Red Book, is a compilation book of quotations from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong (formerly romanized as Mao Tse-tung), the former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, published from 1964 to 1979 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung was originally compiled by an office of the PLA Daily (People's Liberation Army Daily) as an ideological handbook. It developed out of Lin Biao's practice of incorporating the study of Mao's texts and model soldiers like Lei Feng into daily drills. Lin's approach became known as the "lively study, lively application" of Mao Zedong Thought. In 1961, Lin had required PLA Daily to publish a Mao quote each day to emphasise the central theme of the day's editorial. To facilitate this, PLA Daily editors used a Tianjin Daily index of Mao's quotes arranged by topic. The daily Mao quote became a popular feature and PLA Daily's use of the Tianjin Daily index became the core of Quotations from Chairman Mao.
In December 1963, a deputy editor-in-chief of the PLA Daily proposed compiling a selection of Mao's quotations in a book for use by the PLA. The response at a General Political Department work conference was strongly positive, and the initial draft was prepared as 200 Quotations from Chairman Mao. It was revised several times over the next few months based on input from conference participants and PLA units that piloted the study of the text.
In May 1964, the General Political Department released the internal publication Quotations from Chairman Mao, adding a half title page with the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" (全世界无产者，联合起来！) in bold red letters, and endorsement leaves written by Lin Biao, Mao's chosen successor, that included three lines from the diary of model Lei Feng. This version had 30 topics under which 355 quotations were grouped. Following discussions that expanded the book twice more. The definitive 1965 version contained 33 thematic chapters of 427 total quotations excerpted from Mao's speeches and writing over the period 1929–1964. As of August 1965, new copies of the book had their distinct red vinyl covers (as opposed to the previously used white paper binding) to increase durability for fieldwork.
Demand for the book increased sharply including for use outside the military and in August 1966 People's Publishing House took over the work of printing Quotations. It was made available to the public through Xinhua Bookstores.
The Ministry of Culture held special study meetings to develop a production and distribution plan. It sought assurances that the book would receive publishing priority and that there would be sufficient paper, ink, and printing presses available. The goal was for "ninety-nine percent (of the population of China to) read Chairman Mao's book", according to a catalogue of publication records of the People's Publishing House.[citation needed] Provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across China were ordered to build hundreds of new printing houses to publish the Quotations during the second half of 1966, which pushed the limits of the Chinese printing industry.[citation needed]
This disrupted plans for publishing any new volumes of The Complete Works of Marx and Engels that was already in progress. It also halted distribution of other ideological works. As late as 1970, more than 8 million copies of the 4-volume set of Selected Works of Marx and Engels that had already been printed (both in cloth hardcover and paperback) remained undistributed in storage warehouses on the grounds that other works "should not interfere with learning Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung".[citation needed]
On the other hand, several other works by Mao had very large printings during the same period, even though these editions were not produced in the large numbers of Quotations from Chairman Mao. These include Selected Works of Mao Zedong (in four volumes, 2.875 million copies in 14 languages), Selected Articles of Mao Zedong (various editions totalling 252 million copies), single article books, and works of poetry.