Mao Zedong (Hanzi: 毛澤東) (lahir di Shaoshan, Hunan, 26 Desember 1893 – meninggal di Beijing, 9 September 1976 pada umur 82 tahun), adalah seorang tokoh filsuf dan pendiri negara Republik Rakyat Tiongkok. Ia adalah salah satu tokoh terpenting dalam sejarah modern Tiongkok. Lahir di sebuah keluarga petani miskin, sejak kecil Mao harus bekerja keras dan hidup prihatin. Meskipun di kemudian hari keadaan ekonomi keluarganya meningkat, tetapi kesengsaraan di masa kecil itu banyak memengaruhi kehidupannya kelak.Ketika kecil, Mao dikirim untuk belajar di sekolah dasar. Pendidikannya sewaktu kecil juga mencakup ajaran-ajaran klasik Konfusianisme. Tetapi pada usia 13 tahun, ayahnya menyuruhnya berhenti bersekolah dan menyuruhnya bekerja di ladang-ladang. Mao memberontak dan bertekad ingin menyelesaikan pendidikannya sehingga ia nekat kabur dari rumah dan melanjutkan pendidikannya di tempat lain. Pada tahun 1905, ia mengikuti ujian negara yang pada saat itu mulai menghapus paham-paham konfusianisme lama; digantikan oleh pendidikan gaya Barat. Hal ini menandakan permulaan ketidakpastian intelektual di Tiongkok.
Pada tahun 1911, Mao terlibat dalam Revolusi Xinhai yang merupakan revolusi melawan Dinasti Qing yang berakibat kepada runtuhnya kekaisaran Tiongkok yang sudah berkuasa lebih 2000 tahun sejak tahun 221 SM. Tahun 1912, Republik Tiongkok diproklamasikan oleh Sun Yat-sen dan Tiongkok dengan resmi masuk ke zaman republik. Mao lalu melanjutkan sekolahnya dan mempelajari banyak hal antara lain budaya barat. Pada tahun 1918 ia lulus dan lalu kuliah di Universitas Beijing. Di sana ia akan berjumpa dengan para pendiri PKT yang berhaluan Marxis.
Mao Zedong (/ˈmaʊ zəˈdʊŋ, dzə-/), also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung (About this sound listen (help·info)) and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His Marxist-Leninist theories, military strategies and political policies are collectively known as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (often shortened to Maoism) or Mao Zedong (Tse-Tung) Thought.
Born the son of a wealthy farmer in Shaoshan, Hunan, Mao adopted a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist outlook in early life, particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. Mao converted to Marxism-Leninism while working at Peking University and became a founding member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927. During the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CPC, Mao helped to found the Red Army, led the Jiangxi Soviet's radical land policies and ultimately became head of the CPC during the Long March. Although the CPC temporarily allied with the KMT under the United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), after Japan's defeat China's civil war resumed and in 1949 Mao's forces defeated the Nationalists who withdrew to Taiwan.
On October 1, 1949 Mao proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a single-party state controlled by the CPC. In the following years Mao solidified his control through land reforms and through a psychological victory in the Korean War, and through campaigns against landlords, people he termed "counter-revolutionaries", and other perceived enemies of the state. In 1957 he launched a campaign known as the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China's economy from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history. In 1966, he initiated the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a program to remove "counter-revolutionary" elements of Chinese society that lasted 10 years and which was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artefacts and unprecedented elevation of Mao's personality cult and which is officially regarded as a "severe setback" for the PRC.
In 1972, Chairman Mao Zedong welcomed US president Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling a policy of opening China, which was furthered under Deng Xiaoping's rule in China. A controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important individuals in modern world history. Mao is officially held in high regard in the People's Republic of China. Supporters regard him as a great leader and credit him with accomplishments including modernising China and building it into a world power, promoting the status of women, improving education and health care, providing universal housing, and increasing life expectancy as China's population grew from around 550 to over 900 million during the period of his leadership.[3][4] Maoists furthermore promote his role as theorist, statesman, poet, and visionary.[5] In contrast, critics and historians have characterised him as a dictator who oversaw systematic human rights abuses, and whose rule is estimated to have contributed to the deaths of 40–70 million people through starvation, forced labour and executions, ranking his tenure as the top incidence of democide in human history.
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