Childhood Made Mao Insecure, China Scholar Tells Audience

Mao Zedong was a "man of great pugnacity and great determination, combined with great pride and ambition," Dick Wilson, editor of The China Quarterly, told a Coolidge Hall audience yesterday.

Addressing a small group of about 25, Wilson said Mao "didn't know how to implement his grand design, but didn't want to stand still and let others implement it." The result, Wilson added, was often violence.

Wilson authored a forthcoming biography of Mao entitled 'The People's Emperor," which he described as "mid-level, between an academic and a popular work," because it draws from a variety of already published sources.

Wilson said Mao's childhood experiences laid the basis for later actions. Mao entered primary school three years late, and as the largest child in the class, was often ridiculed, the biographer said, adding that the late chairman's rivalry with his younger brother intensified his feelings of rejection that continued throughout his life. Mao died in 1977.

Later, when he traveled to Peking in search of a job as a librarian, scholars laughed at his southern (Hunan) dialect. In this respect, Wilson said, Mao resembles leaders, all of whom came from outlying provinces, such as Napolean, a Corsican, Hitler, an Austrian, and Stalin, a Georgian.

Wilson said these factors may account for Mao's "biggest drawback" his distrust for his lieutenants. "The Chairman was jealous and vindictive toward his colleagues, bearing grudges for 30 years," he added.

However, Wilson also praised Mao's ingenuity, resourcefulness, and determination. Mao implemented many programs, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, without the support of his colleagues, Wilson said, adding that while some worked, others failed miserably.

Despite these failures, Wilson said Mao did great things for China when it was faced with "a new situation: The old regime was obsolete, yet he didn't want to follow the Western model."

In summary, Wilson described Mao as a "humane man who couldn't achieve his reforms without killing some people." He quoted one of Mao's early statements: "In order to form a country, one must be hard on oneself, and must victimize a part of the population."