Mao Zedong citations
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Mao Zedong est un homme d'État et chef militaire chinois né le 26 décembre 1893 à Shaoshan et mort le 9 septembre 1976 à Pékin. Fondateur de la république populaire de Chine, il a été son principal dirigeant de 1949 à sa mort.

Fils de paysans aisés, il est l'un des membres historiques du Parti communiste chinois , parvenant progressivement à s’en faire reconnaître comme le dirigeant suprême, notamment lors de l’épisode de la Longue Marche, entre 1934 et 1935. Après de longues années de guérilla contre les nationalistes du Kuomintang dirigés par Tchang Kaï-chek, ainsi que contre l’envahisseur japonais pendant la guerre sino-japonaise , Mao sortit vainqueur de l’ultime phase de la guerre civile chinoise, avec la victoire de l’Armée populaire de libération . Il proclame la république populaire de Chine, le 1er octobre 1949 à Pékin ; il sera d'ailleurs le premier à occuper la fonction de président de 1954 à 1959. Ses principaux postes, qu’il occupa jusqu’à sa mort en 1976 et qui lui permirent de rester le numéro un du régime, étaient ceux de président du Parti communiste chinois et de président de la Commission militaire centrale, le premier lui garantissant la maîtrise du Parti, et le second celle de l'Armée populaire de libération.

Mao Zedong impose à la population le collectivisme communiste et la dictature du parti unique, en suivant de très près le modèle soviétique dans un premier temps. Au nom de la définition d’une « voie chinoise vers le socialisme », il se démarque ensuite progressivement de l’URSS et sera l’inspirateur direct du Grand Bond en avant, responsable de famines de masse et de la mort d'environ 45 millions de personnes. Après avoir été mis à l'écart par ses collaborateurs et laissé la présidence de la république à Liu Shaoqi, il soulève les étudiants chinois contre la direction du Parti pour reprendre le pouvoir, livrant les villes à la violence des gardes rouges au cours de la révolution culturelle, entre 1966 et 1969. Il s'appuie dans un premier temps sur Lin Biao, puis ce dernier est à son tour évincé. Ayant éliminé ses rivaux et rétabli l’ordre à son profit, il fait l’objet d’un culte de la personnalité et rapproche alors le plus la république populaire de Chine d’un État de type totalitaire de 1969 à 1976.

Sa politique internationale des années 1970 marque un rapprochement avec l’Occident, qui permet la réintégration de la Chine dans le concert mondial . En 1975, Mao laisse son Premier ministre Zhou Enlai décréter un nouveau programme de réformes, les « Quatre Modernisations ». Celui que l’on surnomme « le Grand Timonier » meurt en 1976 sans avoir désigné de successeur. La Chine réhabilite peu après un certain nombre de ses victimes, tout en continuant l’ouverture à une certaine forme d’économie de marché entamée en 1975.

Dès les années suivant sa mort, alors que ses proches et principaux partisans sont progressivement écartés ou arrêtés, le Parti communiste chinois véhicule une vision contrastée du personnage, exaltant le penseur politique et le chef de guerre libérateur tout en déplorant les « erreurs » du dirigeant, à savoir le Grand Bond en avant et la révolution culturelle. Il reste néanmoins la principale figure du roman national chinois et connaît des hommages récurrents de la part des cadres et dirigeants du parti, bien que la politique actuelle du régime n'ait que peu de rapports avec la vision de son fondateur, en particulier sur le plan économique. Ses écrits théoriques et sa pratique politique ont donné naissance à un courant marxiste-léniniste connu sous le nom de maoïsme. Wikipedia  

✵ 26. décembre 1893 – 9. septembre 1976
Mao Zedong photo
Mao Zedong: 183   citations 0   J'aime

Mao Zedong Citations

“En ce monde, les choses sont complexes et beaucoup de facteurs les déterminent. Il faut examiner un problème sous ses différents aspects et non sous un seul.”

Issue à l'origine de : Mao Zedong, « Sur les négociations de Tchongking » (17 octobre 1945), dans Œuvres choisies de Mao Tsé-toung, tome IV.
Le Petit Livre rouge : Citations du président Mao Tsé-toung

“Nous devons être modestes et prudents, nous garder de toute présomption et de toute précipitation, et servir le peuple chinois de tout notre cœur…”

Issue à l'origine de : Mao Zedong, « Les Deux Destins de la Chine » (23 avril 1945), dans Œuvres choisies de Mao Tsé-toung, tome III.
Le Petit Livre rouge : Citations du président Mao Tsé-toung

Mao Zedong: Citations en anglais

“All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.”

Chapter 6 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch06.htm, originally published in Talk with the American Correspondent Anna Louise Strong (August 1946), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 100.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)

“This new-democratic republic will be different from the old European-American form of capitalist republic under bourgeois dictatorship, which is the old democratic form and already out of date. On the other hand, it will also be different from the socialist republic of the Soviet type under the dictatorship of the proletariat which is already flourishing in the U. S. S. R., and which, moreover, will be established in all the capitalist countries and will undoubtedly become the dominant form of state and governmental structure in all the industrially advanced countries. However, for a certain historical period, this form is not suitable for the revolutions in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. During this period, therefore, a third form of state must be adopted in the revolutions of all colonial and semi-colonial countries, namely, the new-democratic republic. This form suits a certain historical period and is therefore transitional; nevertheless, it is a form which is necessary and cannot be dispensed with.”

On New Democracy (1940)
Original: (zh-CN) 这种新民主主义共和国,一方面和旧形式的、欧美式的、资产阶级专政的、资本主义的共和国相区别,那是旧民主主义的共和国,那种共和国已经过时了;另一方面,也和苏联式的、无产阶级专政的、社会主义的共和国相区别,那种社会主义的共和国已经在苏联兴盛起来,并且还要在各资本主义国家建立起来,无疑将成为一切工业先进国家的国家构成和政权构成的统治形式;但是那种共和国,在一定的历史时期中,还不适用于殖民地半殖民地国家的革命。因此,一切殖民地半殖民地国家的革命,在一定历史时期中所采取的国家形式,只能是第三种形式,这就是所谓新民主主义共和国。这是一定历史时期的形式,因而是过渡的形式,但是不可移易的必要的形式。

“[Our purpose is] to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help the people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind.”

Chapter 32 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch32.htm, originally published in Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art (May 1942), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 84.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)

“It's always darkest before it's totally black.”

This is a humorous misattribution that US Senator John McCain has sometimes used since at least January 2000, but there is no indication that Mao actually ever made such a comment, which is a joke referencing the common English proverb "It's always darkest before the dawn." It has also been humorously misattributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The quote may be derived from the US television show The A-Team, in which it was uttered in a 1983 episode ("The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas") by protagonist John "Hannibal" Smith. A similar quotation is attributed to actor Paul Newman in 2003.
Misattributed

“This democratic method of resolving contradictions among the people was epitomized in 1942 in the formula “unity, criticism, unity”. To elaborate, it means starting from the desire for unity, resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle and arriving at a new unity on a new basis. In our experience this is the correct method of resolving contradictions among the people.”

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 在一九四二年,我们曾经把解决人民内部矛盾的这种民主的方法,具体化为一个公式,叫做“团结——批评——团结”。讲详细一点,就是从团结的愿望出发,经过批评或者斗争使矛盾得到解决,从而在新的基础上达到新的团结。按照我们的经验,这是解决人民内部矛盾的一个正确的方法。

“It can therefore be said the politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”

On Protracted Warfare (1938)
Variante: Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.
Contexte: "War is the continuation of politics." In this sense war is politics and war itself is a political action; since ancient times there has never been a war that did not have a political character... But war has its own particular characteristics and in this sense it cannot be equated with politics in general. "War is the continuation of politics by other means."When politics develops to a certain stage beyond which it cannot proceed by usual means, ware breaks out to sweep the obstacles from the way. When the obstacle is removed and our political aim attained the war will stop. But if the obstacle is not completely swept away, the war will have to continue till the aim is fully accomplished.... It can therefore be said the politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

“All contradictory things are interconnected; not only do they coexist in a single entity in given conditions, but in other given conditions, they also transform themselves into each other. This is the full meaning of the identity of opposites. This is what Lenin meant when he discussed "how they happen to be (how they become) identical--under what conditions they are identical, transforming themselves into one another."”

Mao Zedong livre On Contradiction

Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tse-Tung, pp. 121
On Contradiction (1937)
Original: (zh-CN) 一切矛盾着的东西,互相联系着,不但在一定条件之下共处于一个统一体中,而且在一定条件之下互相转化,这就是矛盾的同一性的全部意义。列宁所谓“怎样成为同一的(怎样变成同一的),——在怎样的条件之下它们互相转化,成为同一的”,就是这个意思。

“百花齐放,百家争鸣 (Simplified Chinese), 百花齊放,百家爭鳴 (Traditional Chinese), bǎihuāqífàng, bǎijiāzhēngmíng”

Pinyin
"Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend" is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land.
Slogan used at the start of the Hundred Flowers Campaign of open criticism of the communist government that began in late 1956 and ended in July 1957.

“There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent.”

See e.g. Nigel Holden, Snejina Michailova, Susanne Tietze (editors). The Routledge Companion to Cross-Cultural Management. Routledge 2015.
Attributed

“Marxism comprises many principles, but in the final analysis they can all be brought back to a single sentence: it is right to rebel.”

Original: (zh-CN) 马克思主义的道理千条万绪,归根结底就是一句话:“造反有理。
Source: Speech marking the 60th birthday of Stalin (20 December 1939), later revised as "It is right to rebel against reactionaries."

“A dangerous tendency has shown itself of late among many of our personnel -- an unwillingness to share weal and woe with the masses, a concern for personal fame and gain. This is very bad. One way of overcoming it is to streamline our organizations in the course of our campaign to increase production and practice economy, and to transfer cadres to lower levels so that a considerable number will return to productive work. We must see to it that all our cadres and all our people constantly bear in mind that ours is a large socialist country but an economically backward and poor one, and that this is a very big contradiction. To make China prosperous and strong needs several decades of hard struggle, which means, among other things, pursuing the policy of building up our country through diligence and thrift, that is, practicing strict economy and fighting waste.”

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 在我们的许多工作人员中间,现在滋长着一种不愿意和群众同甘苦,喜欢计较个人名利的危险倾向,这是很不好的。我们在增产节约运动中要求精简机关,下放干部,使相当大的一批干部回到生产中去,就是克服这种危险倾向的一个方法。要使全体干部和全体人民经常想到我国是一个社会主义的大国,但又是一个经济落后的穷国,这是一个很大的矛盾。要使我国富强起来,需要几十年艰苦奋斗的时间,其中包括执行厉行节约、反对浪费这样一个勤俭建国的方针。

“Throughout history new and correct ideas have often failed at the outset to win recognition from the majority of people and have to develop by twists and turns in struggle. Often correct and good things have first been regarded not as fragrant flowers but poisonous weeds.”

VII: On "Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Content" and "Long Term Coexistence and Mutual Supervision"
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People

“Within the ranks of the people, democracy is correlative with centralism and freedom with discipline. They are the two opposites of a single entity, contradictory as well as united, and we should not one-sidedly emphasize one to the denial of the other. Within the ranks of the people, we cannot do without freedom, nor can we do without discipline; we cannot do without democracy, nor can we do without centralism. This unity of democracy and centralism, of freedom and discipline, constitutes our democratic centralism. Under this system, the people enjoy extensive democracy and freedom, but at the same time they have to keep within the bounds of socialist discipline.”

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 民主自由都是相对的,不是绝对的,都是在历史上发生和发展的。在人民内部,民主是对集中而言,自由是对纪律而言。这些都是一个统一体的两个矛盾着的侧面,它们是矛盾的,又是统一的,我们不应当片面地强调某一个侧面而否定另一个侧面。在人民内部,不可以没有自由,也不可以没有纪律;不可以没有民主,也不可以没有集中。这种民主和集中的统一,自由和纪律的统一,就是我们的民主集中制。在这个制度下,人民享受着广泛的民主和自由;同时又必须用社会主义的纪律约束自己。这些道理,广大人民群众是懂得的。

“History shows hat wars are divided into two kinds, just and unjust. All wars that are progressive are just, and all wars that impede progress are unjust. We Communists oppose all unjust wars that impede progress, but we do not oppose progressive, just wars. Not only do we Communists not oppose just wars, we actively participate in them. As for unjust wars, World War I is an instance in which both sides fought for imperialist interests; therefore the Communists of the whole world firmly opposed that war. The way to oppose a war of this kind is to do everything possible to prevent it before it breaks out and, once it breaks out, to oppose war with war, to oppose unjust war with just war, whenever possible.”

On Protracted Warfare (1938)
Original: (zh-CN) 历史上的战争分为两类,一类是正义的,一类是非正义的。一切进步的战争都是正义的,一切阻碍进步的战争都是非正义的。我们共产党人反对一切阻碍进步的非正义的战争,但是不反对进步的正义的战争。对于后一类战争,我们共产党人不但不反对,而且积极地参加。前一类战争,例如第一次世界大战,双方都是为着帝国主义利益而战,所以全世界的共产党人坚决地反对那一次战争。反对的方法,在战争未爆发前,极力阻止其爆发;既爆发后,只要有可能,就用战争反对战争,用正义战争反对非正义战争。

“What should our policy be towards non-Marxist ideas? As far as unmistakable counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs of the socialist cause are concerned, the matter is easy, we simply deprive them of their freedom of speech. But incorrect ideas among the people are quite a different matter. Will it do to ban such ideas and deny them any opportunity for expression? Certainly not. It is not only futile but very harmful to use crude methods in dealing with ideological questions among the people, with questions about man's mental world. You may ban the expression of wrong ideas, but the ideas will still be there. On the other hand, if correct ideas are pampered in hothouses and never exposed to the elements and immunized against disease, they will not win out against erroneous ones. Therefore, it is only by employing the method of discussion, criticism and reasoning that we can really foster correct ideas and overcome wrong ones, and that we can really settle issues.”

" VIII. ON "LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOSSOM LET A HUNDRED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT CONTEND" AND "LONG-TERM COEXISTENCE AND MUTUAL SUPERVISION" "
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 对于非马克思主义的思想,应该采取什么方针呢?对于明显的反革命分子,破坏社会主义事业的分子,事情好办,剥夺他们的言论自由就行了。对于人民内部的错误思想,情形就不相同。禁止这些思想,不允许这些思想有任何发表的机会,行不行呢?当然不行。对待人民内部的思想问题,对待精神世界的问题,用简单的方法去处理,不但不会收效,而且非常有害。不让发表错误意见,结果错误意见还是存在着。而正确的意见如果是在温室里培养出来的,如果没有见过风雨,没有取得免疫力,遇到错误意见就不能打胜仗。因此,只有采取讨论的方法,批评的方法,说理的方法,才能真正发展正确的意见,克服错误的意见,才能真正解决问题。

“If a man wants to succeed in his work, that is, to achieve the anticipated results, he must bring his ideas into correspondence with the laws of the objective external world; if they do not correspond, he will fail in his practice. After he fails, he draws his lessons, corrects his ideas to make them correspond to the laws of the external world, and can thus turn failure into success; this is what is meant by “failure is the mother of success” and “a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.”

On Practice (1937)
Original: (zh-CN) 人们要想得到工作的胜利即得到预想的结果,一定要使自己的思想合于客观外界的规律性,如果不合,就会在实践中失败。人们经过失败之后,也就从失败取得教训,改正自己的思想使之适合于外界的规律性,人们就能变失败为胜利,所谓“失败者成功之母”,“吃一堑长一智”,就是这个道理。

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