Quotations From Chairman Mao - Publication Process

Publication Process

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung was originally compiled by an office of the PLA Daily (People's Liberation Army Daily) as an inspirational political and military document. The initial publication covered 23 topics with 200 selected quotations by the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and was entitled 200 Quotations from Chairman Mao. It was first given to delegates of a conference on 5 January 1964 who were asked to comment on it. In response to the views of the deputies and compilers of the book, the work was expanded to address 25 topics with 267 quotations, and the title was changed simply to Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. On 10 January, the work was re-issued to the delegates and sent to select units of the People's Liberation Army who received their advance copies for educating troops as well as for their comments. In May 1964, the PLA General Political Department (Chinese: 总政治部), the chief political organ under Central Military Commission, revised Quotations, 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 revolutionary hero Lei Feng. This version was issued "for internal use" to the military leaders. Following discussions that expanded the book twice more — finally closing on 33 topics and 427 quotations by Mao — the commission began publishing the definitive version in May 1965.

By this time, the Chinese Red Army and the entire nation were clamouring to read Mao's words. The initial demand for Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung was enormous. At the end of 1965, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China officially approved the book for publication by the People's Publishing House and for distribution within China by the Xinhua Bookstore.

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. 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.

As the Cultural Revolution and the personality cult of Mao Zedong was approaching its apogee in February 1967, only two others works were officially authorized for wide publication and distribution: Vladimir Lenin's, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism, and Friedrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. During the subsequent three years, no other major works on Marxism-Leninism were printed in China. 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”.

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 astronomical 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.