中共 100년의 마오와 마오이즘 — 기원, 해석, 전유 —

Abstract

This article explores the origins, interpretations, and appropriations of Maoism over the past 100 years of CCP history. As the concept and reality of Maoism has produced wide-ranging associations, any attempt to formulate a definition of it may unavoidably fall prey to the danger of simplification and bias. To gain a comprehensive understanding of Maoism, this article focuses firstly on the historical context of the Communist revolution in which Mao Zedong's thought was formed and evolved, and on the series of appropriations of this thought. Specifically, it examines the conditions of an underdeveloped agrarian society, the overwhelming of the Guomindang's forces, the inner-Party power struggles in Jiangxi and Yan’an, the discourse of class struggle under Mao’s rule, the phenomenon of ‘Mao Zedong-ism’ during the Cultural Revolution, and the official stance of ‘seeking truth from facts’ which was in tension with the non-official Maoist Left’s egalitarianism, which developed in the post-Mao era. Secondly, the paper looks at the orientation of Maoism. Mao Zedong's thought in its formative stage displayed an inward orientation, with an emphasis on the Chinese national character and Chinese communists’ own practice of Marxism-Leninism. At the end of the 1950s this changed as Mao focused more on the reality of socialism, and a focus on China becoming a self-proclaimed ‘bastion of socialism’ in contrast to Soviet ‘revisionism’. The Cultural Revolution was a milestone for this conception of universally applicable Maoism, with both the First World and the Third World’s revolutionary movements becoming deeply inspired by this model. Post-Mao China largely reverted to its own nation-specific form of socialism through the concept of ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’. Thirdly, the status of Maoism relative to Marxism-Leninism is discussed. Fierce debates over the originality and voluntarism of Maoism illustrate the various interpretations and appropriations produced by Western academia in the era of Mao. While a minority of researchers focused on the continuity of Maoism in relation to Marxist theory, and its development of the theory, the dominant strain of scholarship emphasized the ‘break’ and ‘deviation’ of Maoism from Marxist orthodoxy, based on textual comparisons. In a different vein, some ‘radical’ or ‘critical’ leftwing scholars paid attention to Maoist revolutionary objectives with the aim of shedding light on the liberatory potential of Maoism in the midst of what they viewed as the anarchy of the capitalist world. In light of the diverse interpretations and appropriations of Maoism, this paper does not limit itself to Mao’s thought, theories, and orientations as evidenced in his works, but includes his revolutionary praxis and policies, the governance system of his era, and the explicit and implicit symbols embedded in all these facets of the era. Today’s continuing appropriations of Mao and Maoism implies that the thought and practice of Mao Zedong has a fertile afterlife. In that today’s Maoism is becoming both an alternative to capitalism and a competitive means of capitalist achievement, Maoism has not ceased to expand its range of associations and applications. On its centenary, though the CCP is an integral part of global capitalism and an advocate of free trade, the resilience of the unitary Party-state is likely related to the party's flexible appropriation of Mao and Maoism.