Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the most prominent Chinese strategist, statesman, philosopher, theoretician, poet and calligrapher in 20th century, is the founder of the People’s Republic of China.

The son of a peasant farmer, Mao Zedong was born on December 26th, 1893 in Shaoshan, Hunan Province. He was trained in Chinese classics and later received a modern education in his early years. At age 8 he began studying at the village primary school, but left school at 13 to work on the family farm. He later left the farm to continue his studies at a secondary school in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.

When the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing Dynasty broke out in 1911 he joined the Revolutionary Army in Hunan. The war ended in the spring of 1912. The Republic of China was founded and Mao left the army. He returned to school, and in 1918 graduated from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan.

He became a Marxist while working as a library assistant at Peking University. Inspired by the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was established in Shanghai by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in June 1921. He observed oppressive social conditions, becoming one of the original members of the Chinese Communist party. He organized Kuomintang-sponsored peasant and industrial unions in 1920s and directed the Kuomintang's Peasant Movement Training Institute in 1926. After the Kuomintang-Communist split in 1927, he led the disastrous “Autumn Harvest Uprising” in Hunan, leading to his ouster from the central committee of the party.
From 1928 until 1931 Mao Zedong, with Zhu De and others, established rural soviets in the hinterlands, and built the Red Army. In 1931 he was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Jiangxi Province.
After withstanding five encirclement campaigns launched by Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong led the Red Army on the Long March (12, 500 km) from Jiangxi north to Yan’an in Shaanxi Province from 1934 to 1935, emerging as the most important Communist leader. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) the Communists and the Kuomintang joined hands to battle against the Japanese invaders.

The civil war resumed after beating the Japan in 1945. In 1949, after the Communists overthrew Chiang Kai-Shek and had taken almost all of mainland China, Mao Zedong became chairman of the Central Government Council of the newly established People’s Republic of China. He was reelected to the post in 1954. In an attempt to break with the Russian model of Communism and to imbue the Chinese people with renewed revolutionary vigor, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958.

Mao Zedong passed away on September 9, 1976. His embalmed body is displayed in Mao Zedong Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

When people talk about the development and flourish of today’s China, a time limit is often settled, which is “since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted in late 1970s”. Certainly, it is not wrong. Late 1970s was a very critical period for China’s fate. Thanks to it, China began to take off.
However, as an old Chinese saying goes, “When you are drinking clean water, you should not forget people who have dug the well.” China’s development during the three decades before 1978 laid basis for the reform and opening-up. Mao Zedong’s economic theory and practice were nothing but successful. Totally poor and blank, it was in Mao Zedong’s period that China not only gained political independence, but also economic independence, setting up a modern industrial system with a complete range of production. In his period, economic growth rate was the higher than any other periods of the PRC. He gave Chinese nation the backbone to stand up as a big country again.
Only after paddling one’s own canoe can he compete with others. No castles can be built in the air. If there were no such basis, there would not be any essential distinction between today’s China and China in the 19th century, and China would not be an equal participator who can guard its national interests through integration.
Mao Zedong, to some extent is a romantic and ideal statesman. It may have something to do with his identity as philosopher, poet and calligrapher. Born as a son of peasant, who composes 90% of the total Chinese population, he knew very well the hardship and injustice Chinese peasants had suffered for thousands of years. Truly loving his people from the bottom of his heart, Mao Zedong pursued a fair and just society throughout his whole life. In his governing period, the gap between the rich and poor was the smallest, the corruption and crime rate were the lowest throughout Chinese history.

All of Mao Zedong’s poems are all in the traditional Chinese verse style. His poems, most of which are romantic ones are generally considered well-written and of high literary and artistic quality. As did most Chinese intellectuals of his generation, Mao Zedong received rigorous education in Chinese classical literature. His style was deeply influenced by the great Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai and Li He.
The 68 published poems written by Mao Zedong embrace the Chinese revolution through half a century and possess profound ideological meanings. His poems extolled the heroic revolutionary life led by the proletariat, reflected a great revolutionary's lofty ideals, remarkable vision and courage, and expressed friendship and love under revolutionary conditions.

Mao Zedong's poetry exhibits a spirit of boldness and power, weaving together history, reality and commitment, and going beyond the limitations of time and space. When writing about history, he kept his sights on reality and lets history encompass the sequence of events. When writing about reality, he posited the possibility of a better world in the future. When writing about ideology, he based it on facts and deployed myth and imagination within a framework of realism. Mao Zedong advocated a method of literary composition that combines revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, and his poetry was a synthesis of his theory and practice.
Bold transformation of myth and literary quotations are a distinct feature of Mao Zedong’s poetry. His poetry also radiates sweeping and colorful derivation, like in “Spring in a Pleasure Garden·Snow”, which described grand and beautiful imagery, and “The Moon over the Qin Bower·the Loushan Pass”, which was meant to portray a brutal battle scene. What people garner from the poem, however, is a fig with deep colors and elegant structure. The use of colors in poems not only made tangible the poet’s feelings but also deepened the reader’s grasp of the poem. Mao was good at using simile and "evocation" in his poetry, as when he compared a hawk’s acumen and vigor to a revolutionary's keen insight and generosity, or, a plum blossom to the common people’s nobility.
In his early works, Mao showed the influence of Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1127) poets. On his “Walk across the Middle Kingdom” he recorded its modern history and used the mystical past to illuminate the present. In several poems he depicted the first battles of the peasant army and national events. After 1949 the poems became more meditative. Some of his most well-known poems are “Changsha” (1925), “The Double Ninth” (1929.10), “Loushan Pass” (1935), “The Long March” (1935), “Snow” (1936.02), “The PLA Captures Nanjing” (1949.04), “Bei Dai River” (1954), “Swim” (1956), “Reply to Li Shuyi” (1957.05.11), and “Ode to the Plum Blossom” (1961.12).
Many of Mao Zedong’s poems are still very popular in China. They are frequently quoted in popular culture, literature and daily conversations. Mao Zedong's poetry has been translated into English, Russian, French, German, Japanese, Indian and Greek, etc., exerting a far-reaching influence in the world.