Introduction: The Study of Mao Zedong's Philosophical Thought in Contemporary China

Abstract

Analysis of the study of Mao Zedong's philosophical thought in contemporary China is significant for a number of reasons. First, such a project has considerable relevance for Mao studies in the West. Since the early 1980s, Mao scholars in China have pursued their own research in an atmosphere more amenable to academic investigation and judgement than was previously possible. An important consequence of this has been that a number of the documentary and empirical revelations contained in Mao scholarship in China have added considerably to what is known in the West about the development of Mao's thought; indeed, in some instances, the publication of hitherto unknown writings on philosophy by Mao and commentaries on them suggest that earlier debates amongst Western Mao scholars should be reopened and judgements perhaps revised.1 Moreover, the debates amongst Chinese Mao scholars have quite frequently cut across areas of contention amongst Mao scholars in the West, and a considerable number of fresh perspectives have emerged which are of wider interest.2