Date: Thu, 13 Apr 95 07:55:20 BST From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org> Subject: Re: Mao's doctor's book Lisa has candidly raised, without axe-grinding, the truth of "Mao's Doctor's Book" and Louis has replied in a non-sectarian way. I would love to give a more considered reply, but a day is a long time on this list and unless I catch the moment it will have gone. I presume we are all talking about "The Private Life of Chairman Mao: The inside story of the man who made modern China", by Zhisui Li published 1994. I have a hard back English edition by Chatto and Windus, London and it is claimed to be a best seller in London's best bookshop. For me the book is an absolute must. It is tragic, and hilarious. And it provides invaluable source material on one of the noblest struggles for socialism this century among the largest cultural group on this planet, now numbering 1000 million, in this planet's oldest civilisation which among other things had dialectics as part of its culture. Oh and its not Eurocentric. If this list cannot discuss China more, and more intelligently, it is not discussing Marxism. And it is not discussing concrete reality, but living in an abstracted idealist world. Besides as Louis pointed out, other media, eg also New Left Review, are discussing China. > On Wed, 12 Apr 1995, Lisa Rogers wrote: > > > Are the contents of Mao's doctor's book factually innacurate? Although I think the introduction is propaganda, having read the later sections of the book I would grasp the nettle and say it is invaluable source material by an able and very conscientious doctor. I read it on the assumption that a) everything he writes has a high probability of being factually accurate b) everything he writes is from his point of view. That point of view is both extremely well informed and blinkered at the same time. There is an amazing insight on how to survive in the hot-house atmosphere of a highly political court. How people go up or down in social standing - and therefore fortune through little gestures and understandings will be familiar to anyone who has any experience of institutional politics. [Let me ask half the subscribers to this list, are you on reasonably friendly terms with a person who is on friendly terms with the head of your department? Do you know if that person will put in a word for you to cover your back if you appear to be in a bit of trouble, will she or he help you get the next grant allocation? - why after all is this book a best seller, if in a strangely different world, almost as different as a science fiction novel, it does not describe something all too familiar] But science fiction at times it appears. The last stages before the fall of the "Gang of Four" include tests like how to respond to a request from Jiang Qing to join an apple-picking party with her in the grounds of the imperial palace? (Each response has extreme dangers). Hilarity: The scene in which for reasons of group psychology disastrously bungled through the political power struggles, the Politbureau order a last minute change of policy and require poor doctor Zhisui Li to preserve the body at the last minute by pumping 20 litres of formaldehyde into the corpse until it starts to look like a barrage balloon and then starts oozing: would make any reader a materialist for life. Coupled with the drama that if Zhisui cannot stop the oozing he is highly likely to be accused of having killed Mao himself. My impressions are the author is somewhat embittered from having lived in a very privileged position and having fallen from grace. It is in some degree a self-vindicating portrait of a conscientious courtier who has fallen on hard times. Furthermore as the English saying goes, no officer can be a hero to his batman. Zhisui knew everything about Mao without Mao knowing that it would all be published. There are even two references in the index to Mao's genitals. Gripping stuff! Sex: It would appear that Mao enjoyed sex as much as John Kennedy, that other benefactor of the cult of the individual, and he was as cynically protected by those in the know, as was Kennedy. Zhisui has some interesting observations about how the power relations though one sided, did not always go Mao's way, and the great man, did not always understand how other people saw him. I have not yet picked up evidence of any of his partners committing suicide. My impression though is that the pre-occupation with sex and his body was the polarised other side of the coin to his abstract idealism. When there was a political crisis, he would get ill and retire to his bed for weeks. I look forward to reading the whole book. My impressions are that Mao is confirmed for all his peasant ways as an infinitely more civilised man than Stalin and the Chinese revolution as a more complex and perhaps even a more important social event, including its highly problematic phases. Which are not yet over.... Zhisui stayed neutral from all political analysis so has nothing to say about the merits or demerits of trying to keep socialism fresh by criticising tendencies to revert to capitalist practices (although his evidence suggests that the Chinese way of doing it in the third quarter of this centry was open to disastrous distortions). Psychologically, he reports that following Lin Biao's defection (from my reading, clearly the fault of poor group dynamics) Mao sank into a depression, from which he never recovered, but he did start setting right the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. I feel the fact that he took this turn rather than a crudely paranoid turn, which I would imagine of Stalin, is in indicator of greater humanity and depth. The bit a find most serious, and I have not yet read in full the handling of the amazing idealist Great Leap forward, is as follows: "So far as I could tell, despite his initial friendliness at first meetings, Mao was devoid of human feeling, incapable of love, friendship, or warmth. Once, in Shanghai, I was sitting next to the Chairman during a performance when a young acrobat - a child - suddenly slipped and was seriously injured. The crowd was aghast, transfixed by the tragedy, and the child's mother was inconsolable. But Mao continued talking and laughing without concern, as though nothing had happened. Nor, to my knowledge, did he ever inquire about the fate of the young performer. "I never understood his apparent callousness, Perhaps he had seen so many people die that he had become inured to human suffering. His first wife, Yang Kaihui, had been executed by the Guomindang, and so had his two brothers. His elder son had been killed during the Korean War. Several other children had been lost during the Long March in the mid-1930's and never found. But I never saw him express any emotion over those losses. The fact that he had lived while so many others died seemed only to confirm his belief that his life would be long. As for those who had died, he would simply say that 'lives have to be sacrificed for the cause of revolution' " Dr Zhisui was of course not a psychiatrist but I think the passage gives some insight. The day when leaders of a revolution can safely discuss their vulnerability with a psychiatrist or a psychotherapist is perhaps not yet here, and would imply a wholely different sort of revolution. The most tender passage, for me of course, is the description of Mao meeting his second wife again in 1961: "He Zizhen was elderly by then. Her hair was silver-gray and she walked with the unsteady gait of the aged. But her pallid face burst with deilight as soon as she saw Mao. "Mao rose immediately and walked toward her, taking her hands into his, and escorting her to a chair as He Zhizhen's eyes filled with tears. "He gave her a little hug and said with a smile, 'Did you get my letter? Did you receive the money?' He was good to her, as gentle and kind as I had ever seen him. " 'Yes, I received your letter and also the money,'she said. "Mao wanted to know more about her life and about the medical treatment she was receiving. Her voice was barely audible, and after the brief flash of recognition her words became incoherent. She seemed flushed with excitement, but her face had gone blank. Mao invited her to have dinner with him, but she refused. " 'All right,' Mao said soothingly. 'We have seen each other now, but you haven't talked much, have you? After you go back, listen to your doctor and take good care of yourself. We'll see each other again.' "And then she was gone. "For a long while after she left, I remained with Mao as he sat silently, smoking cigarette after cigarette, overcome with what I took to be melancholy. I had never seen him in such a mood. I sensed in him a great sorrow over He Zhizhen. "Finally, he spoke. He was barely audible. 'She is so old. And so sick.' "He turned to me. 'This Dr Su Zonghua, the one who treated Jiang Qing last ime in Guangzhou, is he the same doctor who has been treating He Zhizhen?' "I said that he was. " 'And whas is her illness called after all?' " 'It is called schizophrenia.' "'What is schizophrenia?' " 'It is a condition in which the mind cannot corectly relate to reality. Its cause is not yet clearly understood, and the drugs used to treat it have proven very effective.' " 'Is it the same illness that Mao Anqing has?' _________________________________ Yes Lisa, I would suggest it is better to assume that Mao's doctor has tried to be factually accurate, as he saw things. Let the interpretation start.... Chris Burford, psychiatrist, working mainly with schizophrenia, London. --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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