Before the Long March of the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, did Mao Zedong ever read The Art of War by Sun Tzu? For a while, this matter became a public case within the CCP. Mao Zedong himself said that he hadn't, and some people thought it was an angry remark to "Left" leaders, and they may have read it.
The cause of the incident was a passage in which Kaifeng attacked Mao Zedong during the Zunyi meeting. Regarding this cause, Mao Zedong mentioned it many times in the 1950s and 1960s.
After four years of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, Mao Zedong used flexible strategies and tactics to win three successive anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations, and created a revolutionary base centered on Ruijin. He creatively proposed the use of "sixteen characters". The Red Army’s operational principles with the main content of "tactics" and "inducing the enemy to deepen".
But when the Party Central Committee in Shanghai moved to the Soviet area, the leaders of the "Left" line at that time disliked Mao Zedong's combat principles on the left and right.
They published a series of articles in "Revolution and War" and other journals, alluding to Mao Zedong "taking the ancient Romance of the Three Kingdoms as unconditional modern tactics; the ancient Sun Tzu art of war unconditionally as modern strategies; more There are a lot of comrades who have seen Zeng Guofan as a treasure of warfare."
They asserted: "These things that are out of sync with the times-"Sun Tzu Art of War", "Zeng, Hu, Zuo Zhibing Motto", only let our enemy- Chiang Kai-shek is exclusive.”
Mao Zedong could only laugh at these shallow remarks at the time, and it was not easy to refute, because they were only insinuations and did not mention Mao Zedong’s name. It wasn't until the Zunyi meeting that Kaifeng pointed to Mao Zedong's nose and said that Mao Zedong was commanding operations based on the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Art of War by Sun Tzu," Mao Zedong furiously refuted.
In May 1957, Mao Zedong said in a conversation with Wu Lengxi, the president of Xinhua News Agency, that when he talked about the sixteen-character tactics of fighting guerrilla warfare, he had not read "The Art of War".
Later 王明 The leader of the "Left" leaning line ridiculed that the sixteen-character tactic came from the outdated "Art of War", and the fight against "encirclement and suppression" was modern war. Only then did he find "The Art of War" to watch.
Lenin's "State and Revolution" was also watched at this time. At that time, he was dismissed from the post of commanding the Central Red Army, and used his free time to read many books from the county where the Red Army had walked.
He also said that when he started fighting, he hadn’t read much art of war, not to mention relying on "The Art of War" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as some people say. "The command is mainly based on the experience accumulated in the long-term revolutionary war practice.
On December 26, 1960, Mao Zedong's 57th birthday. On the 25th, he said in a conversation with his relatives who wished his birthday and the staff around him that in the 1930s, when he was free, he had nothing to do and just read.
"Walking on a stretcher, he carried his stretcher, I read my book. They criticized me again, saying that I was commanded by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. In fact, the Art of War by Sun Tzu was at the time I have not read it; I have watched "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" several times, but when commanding operations, who remembers the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and forgot all of them. I asked them: Since you said I was commanding in accordance with the "Art of War" Fighters, you must be familiar with it, so I would like to ask: How many chapters are there in "The Art of War"? What is the beginning of the first chapter? They are speechless. So they have not read it at all.
"Later in northern Shaanxi, I read eight books, "Sun Tzu's Art of War", Clausewitz's book, Japanese military codes, and Soviet strategy , Books on the cooperation of several types of arms, etc. At that time, I looked at these things to write about the strategic issues of the revolutionary war and to sum up the experience of the revolutionary war. ”
In March 1961, Mao Zedong also talked about this matter at the Guangzhou Central Working Conference. The basic meaning is similar.
Of course, it is said that Mao Zedong was a little bit before the Long March. It’s difficult to establish Sun Tzu's Art of War, at least in Qing Dynasty.In years, he read it indirectly.
In Yan'an, Mao Zedong once told Guo Huaruo that when he was a student, he liked to read books about wars and famous battles that changed dynasties and read books about the success and failure of peasant wars. He has read "Reading History and Fang Yu Ji Lu," which records the battle for strategic points in the wars of the past. In reading these books, it seems that he will inevitably come into contact with the speech and thoughts of "Sun Tzu's Art of War".
The most direct evidence is that in his reading and class notes "Lecture Hall Records" from October to December 1913, there are several paragraphs of "The Art of War" written by predecessors.
Such as: "Sun Wuzi used soldiers as a last resort, he used long battles to kill more arbitrarily, and he was ashamed of his magnificent feats. How could he talk about the ancestors of soldiers, and restrain the generals and stand for gentlemen." This passage is Huang Chang (1212- 1280) The general idea of the section "The Book of War" in "Huang's Japanese Notes".
"A hundred battles are victorious, but the good is not good; the soldier who fails to fight without fighting, the good is also the good. Therefore, the good use of the soldier, no wise name, no brave merit Mao Zedong also stated that it was from "Sun Wu's "Mou Gong (attack)"." In fact, the first two sentences are from "Sun Tzu·Mou Gong Pian", and the last few sentences are from "Sun Tzu·Xing Pian".
The above notes indicate that Mao Zedong knew something about "The Art of War" in his youth, at least he had read it indirectly, because his ambitions and ambitions at the time were not in the military, maybe he didn’t leave an impression even after reading it. Not to mention research. Only after arriving in northern Shaanxi did Mao Zedong spend considerable time studying military works such as Sun Tzu's Art of War.
In April 1959, Mao Zedong recalled at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Shanghai: “Left” dogmatists said that he followed the words of Sun Tzu's War I read Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and also read Clausewitz’s, Japan’s "Combat Outline", read "Combined Arms" translated by Comrade Liu Bocheng, read the "Combat Regulations", and read some of the bourgeoisie In short, it inspired me to study the military.',
From this, Mao Zedong became a military strategist, not only driven by the situation, but also by the “Left” dogmatists.
