Evening star., 1950-10-11
The Little Peasant From Shoo Shan
By Belmont Fories


A HUMAN PEASANT-a poet, a scholar
n and convinced Marxist-to-
day is the undisputed master of China.
He is, perhaps with good reason, no
friend of the United States. BY ordering
his Red Army into Korea, he can drag
us into costly, meaningless war we do
not want to fight and could never really
win
What sort of man is this Mao Tse-
tung? How did he reach a position of
greater power than any Chinese en-
pelor? At least in broad outline, these
questions are answered in a biography
by Robert Payne (Mao Tse-tung: Ruler
of Red China. Schuman; $500 pub
lished today.
Mao is the 57-year-o son Of tight
listed, hot-tempered peasant who made
some money in the rice trade. His
mother was a devout Buddhist who be-
lieved in giving rice to the poor. Mao
sided with her in bitter family quarrels.
After one of his fathers outbursts he
fled to the woods and hid for three
days, returning home only when it oc-
CURED to him that he had left his
mother with no one to defend her.
Physically frail as boy. he disliked
Gllc WOlh III dIlu SptllG DIS
time as possible in reading. At IA he
lett home to go to middle school, carry
ing all his possessions, few books and
some ragged clothes, in two packages
Slung from pole over his shoulder
The dirty little peasant from Shao
Shan" as some of his wealthier class
mates described him, soon stood at the
head of his class, but he won no popu-
larity with the less ambitious.
A book on Great Heroes of the World"
fired him with admiration for George
Washington. Somewhere he ran across
the theory that the naked body could
soak Up energy from the sun. Soon he
and friend, clad only in blue drawers,
wele wandering barefoot over the Human
hills. in danger of arrest by the Manchu
police, who were always suspicious of
eccentr:city
Mao was at Changsha Junior College
when the final revolution against the
Mancnus broke out in 1911 He joined
the army to march on Peking, and found
himself on garrison duty at Changsha,
serving as an orderly for junior officers.
He hated the aimless, brutal army life
and Was glad to get out the next sum-
mer.
The next six years he spent as a stu
de1.t at Changsha Teachers College,
often leading at library desk for as
much as 10 hours without break. In
1918 che death of his mother cut his last
home ties. He set out for Peking, the
intellectual center of China.
He got menial job in the university
library, where he could read as much
as he wished. He decided he was a So
clallst. then an anarchist. In 1921 he
was one OF the small group that founded
the Chinese Communist Party.
In the period of Communist Coop
Grafton with the Kuomintang, Mao be-
came an influential political figure,
meeting the aged Sun Yat-sen and the
rising Chang Kai-shek. But overwork
led to Illness and in the winter of 1924
he retired to mis- native village.
The Chinese Communists were ded-
icated to the overthrow of the govern
ment by Lenlns methods-the proletar-
lat would take over in the large cities,
under the leadership of the party's dis
ciplinad intellectuals. Back among his
own people, however, Mao became con-
WINGED that the seeds of revolution Law
not in Canton and Shanghai but In the
millions Of small villages like Shao Shan.
Soon he was busy organizing the peas
ants. Soldiers were sent to hunt down
the TALL thin man in a sun helmet who
looked so much like land agent. They
never quite caught up with him.
Early in 1927 the Human peasants re-
Volted against the landlords, but troops
OF the local war lord massacred them in
Changsha. In the fall after the Kuomin-
tang had expelled the Communists, Mao
organized another Changsha uprising
without Communist Party sanction. It
was quickly put down. With / 900 men
and less than 200 rifles, he retreated to
Chingkanshan Mountain on the Human
Kiangsi border. The student, at this
point, had turned soldier.
Mao was Joined the next year on his
mountain by Chu Teh, who was to be his
loyal partner through many years of
struggle. Early in 1929 they moved into
Kiangsi, and for the first time Mao was
able to put his land reform program into
effect. Land was divided equally amons
the peasants not forgetting a share for
the landlord. A group of village soviets
was organized.
In Kiangsi, Mao demonstrated military
skill of a high order in beating off four
of Chiang's "annihilation campaigns"
By Turing the enemy far from his bases
he was aDle TO 90 uOSC OF Cne ann1nllaC-
ing. But after fifth campaign it was
obvious that the Communists could no
longer maintain themselves in the south.
The Long March began late in 1884.
The Red Army moved west almost to the
border of Tibet and then north to Shensi,
fighting off attacks and struggling over
mountains and across rivers and swamps
for 5000 miles.
Macs second wife-his first had been
executed by. Kuomintang general in
1928-was seriously wounded when
Chiang's planes bombed the column.
Three of his children were left behind
with friendly peasants, but he was never
able to find them again.
The strain of the march showed on the
leader in the faded blue uniform, pock
cts stuffed with books, who found relax
alton in writing poems in the classical