Editing Mao Zedong (section)

== Writings and calligraphy ==
[[File:Baidi Mao.jpg|thumb|upright|Mao's [[calligraphy]]: a bronze plaque of a poem by [[Li Bai]]. (Chinese: 白帝城毛澤東手書李白詩銅匾 )]]
{{quote box
| quote = <poem>{{lang|zh-Hant|鷹擊長空，
魚翔淺底，
萬類霜天競自由。
悵寥廓，
問蒼茫大地，
誰主沉浮
|size = 110%}}</poem>

<poem>Eagles cleave the air,
Fish glide in the limpid deep;
Under freezing skies a million creatures contend in freedom.
Brooding over this immensity,
I ask, on this boundless land
Who rules over man's destiny?</poem>
| source = —Excerpt from Mao's poem "Changsha", September 1927{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=64}}
| align = right
| width = 25em
| bgcolor = #ACE1AF
}}
Mao was a prolific writer of political and philosophical literature.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chineseposters.net/themes/mao-thought.php |title=Mao Zedong Thought – Part 1 |access-date=30 April 2011 }}</ref> The main repository of his pre-1949 writings is the [[Selected Works of Mao Zedong]]. A fifth volume, which brought the timeline up to 1957, was briefly issued, but subsequently withdrawn from circulation for its perceived ideological errors. There has never been an official "Complete Works of Mao Zedong".<ref>Wilkinson, Endymion (2018). ''Chinese History: A New Manual'' (5th paperback ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center. {{ISBN|978-0998888309}}.</ref> Mao is the attributed author of ''[[Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung]]'', known in the West as the "Little Red Book" and in Cultural Revolution China as the "Red Treasure Book" ({{lang|zh-hant|紅寶書}}). First published in January 1964, this is a collection of short extracts from his many speeches and articles (most found in the Selected Works), edited by [[Lin Biao]], and ordered topically. ''The Little Red Book'' contains some of Mao's most widely known quotes.{{efn|Among them are:
{{blockquote|War is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions, when they have developed to a certain stage, between classes, nations, states, or political groups, and it has existed ever since the emergence of private property and of classes.|source="Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War" (December 1936), ''Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung'', '''I''', p. 180.}}
{{blockquote|Every communist must grasp the truth, '[[Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun]].{{'"}}|source=1938, ''Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung'', '''II''', pp. 224–225.}}
{{blockquote|Taken as a whole, the Chinese revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party embraces two stages, i.e., the democratic and the socialist revolutions, which are two essentially different revolutionary processes, and the second process can be carried through only after the first has been completed. The democratic revolution is the necessary preparation for the socialist revolution, and the socialist revolution is the inevitable sequel to the democratic revolution. The ultimate aim for which all communists strive is to bring about a socialist and communist society."|source="The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party" (December 1939), ''Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung'', '''II'', pp. 330–331.}}
{{blockquote|All reactionaries are [[paper tiger]]s. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.|source=Mao Zedong (July 1956), "U.S. Imperialism Is a Paper Tiger".}}}}

Mao wrote prolifically on political strategy, commentary, and philosophy both before and after he assumed power.{{efn|The most influential of these include:
* ''[[Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《湖南农民运动考察报告》}}); March 1927
* ''[[On Guerrilla Warfare]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《游擊戰》}}); 1937
* ''[[On Practice]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《實踐論》}}); 1937
* ''[[On Contradiction]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《矛盾論》}}); 1937
* ''[[On Protracted War]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《論持久戰》}}); 1938
* ''[[Norman Bethune#Legacy|In Memory of Norman Bethune]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《紀念白求恩》}}); 1939
* ''On [[New Democracy]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《新民主主義論》}}); 1940
* ''[[Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《在延安文藝座談會上的講話》}}); 1942
* ''[[Serve the People]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《為人民服務》}}); 1944
* ''The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains'' ({{lang|zh|《愚公移山》}}); 1945
* ''On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《正確處理人民內部矛盾問題》}}); 1957}} Mao was also a skilled [[Chinese calligrapher]] with a highly personal style.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asiawind.com/art/callig/modern.htm#Contemporary%20Chinese%20Calligraphy |title=100 years |website=Asia Wind |access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref> His calligraphy can be seen today throughout mainland China.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yen |first=Yuehping |title=Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?visbn=0415317533 |page=2}}</ref> His work gave rise to a new form of Chinese calligraphy called "Mao-style" or ''Maoti'', which has gained increasing popularity since his death. There exist various competitions specialising in Mao-style calligraphy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://art.people.com.cn/GB/41132/41137/4802132.html |work=People |script-title=zh:首屆毛體書法邀請賽精品紛呈 |title=Shǒujiè máo tǐ shūfǎ yāoqǐngsài jīngpǐn fēnchéng |trans-title=The First Mao Ti Calligraphy Invitational Contest |date=11 September 2006 |language=zh |access-date=1 April 2007 |archive-date=26 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061126185030/http://art.people.com.cn/GB/41132/41137/4802132.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Literary works ===
{{main|Poetry of Mao Zedong}}
Mao's education began with [[Chinese classics|Chinese classical literature]]. Mao told Edgar Snow in 1936 that he had started the study of the Confucian [[Analects]] and the [[Four Books and Five Classics|Four Books]] at a village school when he was eight, but that the books he most enjoyed reading were ''[[Water Margin]]'', ''[[Journey to the West]]'', the ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' and ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]''.<ref name="Barnstone">Barnstone, Willis (1972; rpr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1SCD3xwYwJ0C&pg=PP1 The Poems of Mao Zedong]''. pp. 3–4. {{ISBN|0520935004}}.</ref> Mao published poems in classical forms starting in his youth and his abilities as a poet contributed to his image in China after he came to power in 1949. His style was influenced by the great [[Tang dynasty]] poets [[Li Bai]] and [[Li He]].<ref>Ng, Yong-sang (1963). "The Poetry of Mao Tse-tung". ''The China Quarterly'' '''13''': 60–73. {{doi|10.1017/S0305741000009711}}.</ref>

Some of his best known poems are "[[Changsha (poem)|Changsha]]" (1925), "[[The Double Ninth]]" (October 1929), "[[Loushan Pass]]" (1935), "The Long March" (1935), "[[Snow (1936 poetry)|Snow]]" (February 1936), "[[The PLA Captures Nanjing]]" (1949), "[[Reply to Li Shuyi]]" (11 May 1957), and "Ode to the Plum Blossom" (December 1961).