How the Red Sun Rose

The Origin and Development of the Yan'an Rectification Movement, 1930–1945

Gao Hua

• Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• eBook ISBN:
  9789629968229
• Year: 2018

This work offers the most comprehensive account of the origin and consequences of the Yan'an Rectification Movement from 1942 to 1945. The author argues that this campaign emancipated the Chinese Communist Party from Soviet-influenced dogmatism and unified the Party, preparing it for the final victory against the Nationalist Party in 1949. More importantly, this monograph shows in great detail how Mao Zedong established his leadership through this party-wide political movement by means of aggressive intraparty purges, thought control, coercive cadre examinations, and total reorganizations of the Party's upper structure. The result of this movement not only set up the foundation for Mao's new China, but also deeply influenced the Chinese political structure today.The Chinese version ofHow the Red Sun Rosewas published in 2000, and has had twenty-two printings since then.~~~~~~"This lucid translation of Gao Hua's seminal study of the Yan'an rectification movement and the rise of Mao Zedong to paramount leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is a major contribution to international scholarship. The Chinese edition of How the Red Sun Rose set the standard for truly scholarly studies of Party history among PRC scholars ever since the first edition came out in 2000, and it still has not been surpassed. International scholars of modern China and of comparative politics will benefit from this authoritative translation and its many explanatory notes. General readers will enjoy Professor Gao's engaging writing."—Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia "This forceful account of Mao Zedong's rise to pre-eminence displays extraordinary insight into the nature of power in the Chinese Communist Party. It provides a detailed narrative of the personal conflicts, purges, ideological struggle, and structural reorganization that enabled Mao to defeat his Sovietbacked rival, Wang Ming. The climax of the book comes in an eye-opening account of the Rectification Movement in Yan'an in 1942–44, which is a tour de force of prodigious research, meticulous analysis, and deep reflection."—S. A. Smith, University of Oxford "Finally available in a superb English translation, How the Red Sun Rose is the master work of the esteemed, independent, and controversial historian Gao Hua who was based at Nanjing University before his tragic death in 2012. Banned in China, this book is must reading for all who want to understand the trademark strategies deployed by Mao Zedong to achieve, maintain, and expand his political control both within the Communist Party and throughout Chinese society."—Paul G. Pickowicz, University of California, San Diego "A monumental and path-breaking study of Mao's rise in the party, a product of prodigious research in a vast range of documents, memoirs, and published archival sources, this book is the best account we have of the deep historical roots of the rectification campaign in the 1940s."—Joseph W. Esherick, University of California, San Diego

Table of contents

• Half Title Page
• Full Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Preface to Second Printing
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• 1. The Origins of the Disagreementsbetween Mao and the Central Leadershipof the Chinese Communist Party
• 2. The Expansion of Mao’s Power after theZunyi Conference and Moscow’s PoliticalInterference
• 3. Power Struggles and Reorganization of theParty Leadership after Wang Ming’s Returnto China
• 4. Mao’s Great Victory over Wang Ming
• 5. Seizing the Power of Ideological“Interpretation”
• 6. The Internal and External Environmentsof the Chinese Communist Party and Mao’sAdvantageous Position on the Eve of theRectification Movement
• 7. Revolution Begins at the Top:Mao and Wang Ming Cross Swords
• 8. The Revolution Shifts Downward:The Launch of the Full-scale RectificationMovement
• 9. From the “Yan’an Spring” tothe Attack on Wang Shiwei
• 10. The Revolution Deepens:Reconstructing the Apparatus for Propagandaand Cadre Education
• 11. Forging the “New Man”:From Rectification to Cadre Examination
• 12. The Revolution Hits Its Peak:The Cadre Examination, Anti-spy, andEmergency Rescue Campaigns
• 13. Yan’an and the Base Areas during theEmergency Rescue Campaign
• 14. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back :The Retreat of the Emergency RescueCampaign
• 15. “Long Live Chairman Mao”:The Culmination of the Yan’an RectificationMovement
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index