Little Red Book

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The “little red book” was a Western nickname for the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, a collection of Mao Zedong’s (1893–1976) quotations published in 1964 under the auspices of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). It is most commonly referred to in China as a “little treasure book.” This pocket-sized quotation book contained more than four hundred select quotations from Mao’s speeches and writings. It was widely circulated in China and around the world during the infamous Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). By the time the Chinese Communist Party finally ordered a halt to the printing of the book in February 1979, at least one billion official copies had already been printed. Some estimates put the total as high as five billion copies worldwide. This impressive number made the little red book one of the most popular publications in the world in the twentieth century.

The little red book was born during a campaign to study Mao’s political thought that was initiated in 1959 by General Lin Biao (1907–1971). Hoping to further his own political ambitions, Lin Biao asked the staff of the People’s Liberation Army Daily to compile a small collection of Mao’s quotations in 1964. Its original compiler was Xian Xiaoguang, an editor who worked for the newspaper. Once the book was approved, it immediately became popular among PLA soldiers, since most of them had little education and found it difficult to read Mao’s original writings. Lin ordered that a free copy be issued to every soldier.

When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Mao’s personality cult had reached its peak and demand for the quotation book hit an all-time high. After several revisions, the 88,000-word book was finally made available to the public. It soon became a political bible and a source of spiritual inspiration. Every person in China had at least one copy, and its reading and recital became a daily ritual. People would carry the little red book everywhere and studied it religiously; they could get into trouble for showing disrespect for the book or for misquoting it. The little red book was carried by millions of Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, and it became a symbol of China’s rebellious and revolutionary youth.

The influence of this publication was tremendous. Mao’s formal writing was too difficult for ordinary peasants and workers to read, and this quotation book quickly became a useful literacy reader. It also provided a simplified version of Mao’s basic ideas and served as a central tool for the widespread political indoctrination of Communist ideology. The little red book socialized an entire generation of Chinese, and some of its passages remain in use today. Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party later denounced the book, and blamed it for its harmful effect on the holistic understanding of Mao’s thought.

The downfall of Lin Biao and the end of the Cultural Revolution brought an abrupt end to the worship of Mao and his quotation book. In recent years, the little red book has become a popular collectable item. But as a political reader, it has lost its old status.

SEE ALSO Communism; Mao Zedong; Maoism

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fang, Houshu. 1966. Dangdai zhongguo chubanshi shang teshu de yiye (A Special Page in the History of Chinese Printing). http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2004-07/13/content_1595006.htm.

MacFarquhar, Roderick, ed. 1993. The Politics of China: 1949–1989. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Baogang Guo