What do you think?
Rate this book
The Private Life of Chairman Mao
“The most revealing book ever published on Mao, perhaps on any dictator in history.”—Professor Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia University
From 1954 until Mao Zedong's death twenty-two years later, Dr. Li Zhisui was the Chinese ruler's personal physician, which put him in daily—and increasingly intimate—contact with Mao and his inner circle. in The Private Life of Chairman Mao , Dr. Li vividly reconstructs his extraordinary experience at the center of Mao's decadent imperial court.
Dr. Li clarifies numerous long-standing puzzles, such as the true nature of Mao's feelings toward the United States and the Soviet Union. He describes Mao's deliberate rudeness toward Khrushchev and reveals the actual catalyst of Nixon's historic visit. Here are also surprising details of Mao's personal depravity (we see him dependent on barbiturates and refusing to wash, dress, or brush his teeth) and the sexual politics of his court. To millions of Chinese, Mao was more god than man, but for Dr. Li, he was all too human. Dr. Li's intimate account of this lecherous, paranoid tyrant, callously indifferent to the suffering of his people, will forever alter our view of Chairman Mao and of China under his rule.
Praise for The Private Life of Chairman Mao
“From now one no one will be able to pretend to understand Chairman Mao's place in history without reference to this revealing account.” —Professor Lucian Pye, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Dr. Li does for Mao what the physician Lord Moran's memoir did for Winston Churchill—turns him into a human being. Here is Mao eccentric, demanding, suspicious, unregretful, lascivious, and unfailingly fascinating. Our view of Mao will never be the same again.” —Ross Terrill, author of China in Our Time
“An extraordinarily intimate portrait of Mao. [Dr. Li] portrays [Mao's imperial court] as a place of boundless decadence, licentiousness, selfishness, relentless toadying and cutthroat political intrigue.” —Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
“One of the most provocative books on Mao to appear since the publication of Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China. ” —Paul G. Pickowicz, The Wall Street Journal
From 1954 until Mao Zedong's death twenty-two years later, Dr. Li Zhisui was the Chinese ruler's personal physician, which put him in daily—and increasingly intimate—contact with Mao and his inner circle. in The Private Life of Chairman Mao , Dr. Li vividly reconstructs his extraordinary experience at the center of Mao's decadent imperial court.
Dr. Li clarifies numerous long-standing puzzles, such as the true nature of Mao's feelings toward the United States and the Soviet Union. He describes Mao's deliberate rudeness toward Khrushchev and reveals the actual catalyst of Nixon's historic visit. Here are also surprising details of Mao's personal depravity (we see him dependent on barbiturates and refusing to wash, dress, or brush his teeth) and the sexual politics of his court. To millions of Chinese, Mao was more god than man, but for Dr. Li, he was all too human. Dr. Li's intimate account of this lecherous, paranoid tyrant, callously indifferent to the suffering of his people, will forever alter our view of Chairman Mao and of China under his rule.
Praise for The Private Life of Chairman Mao
“From now one no one will be able to pretend to understand Chairman Mao's place in history without reference to this revealing account.” —Professor Lucian Pye, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Dr. Li does for Mao what the physician Lord Moran's memoir did for Winston Churchill—turns him into a human being. Here is Mao eccentric, demanding, suspicious, unregretful, lascivious, and unfailingly fascinating. Our view of Mao will never be the same again.” —Ross Terrill, author of China in Our Time
“An extraordinarily intimate portrait of Mao. [Dr. Li] portrays [Mao's imperial court] as a place of boundless decadence, licentiousness, selfishness, relentless toadying and cutthroat political intrigue.” —Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
“One of the most provocative books on Mao to appear since the publication of Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China. ” —Paul G. Pickowicz, The Wall Street Journal
736 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
383 people are currently reading
4410 people want to read
About the author
Li Zhisui
2 books9 followersChinese physician who was the personal physician & confidant of Chairman Mao Zedong. Li received his medical degree from the West Union University Medical School in Sichuan province in 1945 & five years later was named director of the private medical facility that treated China’s top leaders. Beginning in 1954, when Mao chose Li as his personal physician, the two men began to develop a close relationship that lasted until Mao’s death in 1976. During those years, Li compiled a series of diaries. Following Mao’s death, Li held several medical posts before joining his two sons in the USA in 1988. Li’s biography of Mao honored the memory of his late wife, who had urged her husband to share his knowledge with the rest of the world. Relying partly on memory (some 40 diaries were deliberately destroyed during the perilous Cultural Revolution), Li set forth a detailed account of the man he had served for 22 years. The book, which was banned in China as slanderous but became a best-seller in English & several other languages, also provided important details, previously unknown, about many of Mao’s colleagues & of pivotal events that occurred during Mao’s rule
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews
November 12, 2024
Mao’s private doctor wrote and published this book in 1994 before his death in 1995. It about his experiences with one of the most important figures in modern world history. All readers should question if it is accurate and unbiased. I did as well. My answer is that I just don’t know. However Li was certainly Mao’s doctor during the years presented (1954-1976), and on a high level of the inner circle. His photos and intimate experiences convey little doubt (at least to me) of his close access to Mao. Whatever Li's personal or political motives were to write this book are beyond my ability to discern.
Born in Beijing 1919, Dr. Li was with Mao for over 22 years. They shared meals and details of their personal lives. It’s probably one of the closest pictures of the Chairman you can get without having been there yourself. Undoubtedly there are other accounts written in Chinese I cannot access. For Mao anecdotes, conversations, travel accommodations, sexual habits and hygiene, addictions to cigarettes and sleeping pills it is a convincing primary source. Mao was a rebel and Li was a true believer from initial employment with Mao until his gradual disillusionment. Li trained in Australia and later emigrated to the USA.
Although Mao espoused Chinese traditional medicine he chose western trained doctors for his personal care. Li produced a clear portrait of his former employer from a few years after Mao’s ascension until his death. If you are interested in Mao as a man you cannot forego reading this. It is exciting as well as terrifying. From Mao’s disastrous economic Great Leap Forward in agriculture and industry (’58-62) to his manipulation of fourth wife Jiang Qing to attack foes during the Cultural Revolution (’66-76), this is strong material. You will also learn how Mao liked his food cooked (spicy, Hunan style...mm mm good).
So why did Li write this book? It is said that Mao's wife Jiang accused Li of poisoning her in 1968, a scary predicament. It is known Li left for the USA in 1979 shortly after Mao died. He helped to preserve Mao’s body which is still displayed in a mausoleum on Tiananmen Square. Li was an early convert to communism but later changed his mind based on the events around him. He came to be frightened by his proximity to Mao's absolute power and ruthlessness and burned his notebooks during the later years. It's an important account that will continue to be referenced by authors in the future as it has been in the past.
Born in Beijing 1919, Dr. Li was with Mao for over 22 years. They shared meals and details of their personal lives. It’s probably one of the closest pictures of the Chairman you can get without having been there yourself. Undoubtedly there are other accounts written in Chinese I cannot access. For Mao anecdotes, conversations, travel accommodations, sexual habits and hygiene, addictions to cigarettes and sleeping pills it is a convincing primary source. Mao was a rebel and Li was a true believer from initial employment with Mao until his gradual disillusionment. Li trained in Australia and later emigrated to the USA.
Although Mao espoused Chinese traditional medicine he chose western trained doctors for his personal care. Li produced a clear portrait of his former employer from a few years after Mao’s ascension until his death. If you are interested in Mao as a man you cannot forego reading this. It is exciting as well as terrifying. From Mao’s disastrous economic Great Leap Forward in agriculture and industry (’58-62) to his manipulation of fourth wife Jiang Qing to attack foes during the Cultural Revolution (’66-76), this is strong material. You will also learn how Mao liked his food cooked (spicy, Hunan style...mm mm good).
So why did Li write this book? It is said that Mao's wife Jiang accused Li of poisoning her in 1968, a scary predicament. It is known Li left for the USA in 1979 shortly after Mao died. He helped to preserve Mao’s body which is still displayed in a mausoleum on Tiananmen Square. Li was an early convert to communism but later changed his mind based on the events around him. He came to be frightened by his proximity to Mao's absolute power and ruthlessness and burned his notebooks during the later years. It's an important account that will continue to be referenced by authors in the future as it has been in the past.
June 20, 2017
Li Zhisui served as a personal physician to Mao Zedong for twenty-two years. And yet he doesn’t have much to say in his 700-odd page memoir that could be considered worthwhile.
Zhisui in fact warns the reader in the introduction about his political naivety, so there's that. And it also doesn’t help that he wrote this memoir entirely by recollecting the incidents from memory.
Zhisui actually comes-off as a reluctant memoirist, which I consider unforgivably oxymoronic. For example, he finds sex to be a really offensive subject and so, he shies away from it as much as he can at every turn. He says that he was never interested in politics, but then he rants endlessly about the piddling conflicts perennially happening between Mao’s bodyguards and nurses. What he should have said – for accuracy’s sake - was that he was not interested in state politics. He was all for inconsequential office politics. In other words, he was apathetic to things that mattered, but not to those that did not, which makes this book as interesting as a 700-page long doctor’s prescription, where he dedicates more than half of the pages to write about men of Mao’s inner security circle and their petty politics to earn Mao’s favor, or in most cases, to avoid his wrath.
Though, he begins the first chapter interestingly enough with Mao’s death. Zhisui candidly talks about his lack of knowledge about the embalming process, and how, due to that, at one time Mao’s face becomes bloated to almost double its size due to the injection of excessive embalming fluid. At the least, that is one little, interesting tidbit you won’t find anywhere else except in Zhisui’s book.
What little I did learn from this book was - that Mao was some sort of “half-nudist” (he seldom wore enough clothes), who never washed, never brushed his teeth (Zhisui used to remove layers of plaque from his teeth twice a year) or left his bed for a considerable amount of time. He also liked to seduce young and innocent girls and knowingly used to infect them with a venereal disease he carried. He only used to take sponge baths, occasionally. Only time he ever got himself immersed fully in water was when he decided to swim in a river for hours on end to show his “manliness” (no wonder the river dolphins went extinct).
But what I consider his biggest mistake is that he missed a really good opportunity to provide us a peek into the mind of one of the worst dictators the world has ever seen. You see, Mao liked Li. And so he used to talk with Li frequently from midnight till dawn. Only if Zhisui would have been kind enough to tell us what actually they talked about. Not once does he feels inclined enough to recount any of the countless conversations he had had with Mao. He would just say something like, “We talked till dawn and then I returned to my whatever.”
This book should be re-titled “The Petty Internal Politics of Chairman Mao’s Bodyguards”.
March 5, 2008
Wow. This man is insane. Forget the failed economic policies. Forget 30 million people killed (some say 60 million and I've even heard 90 million) as a result of his tyranny. Forget the underground city he built. This man's private life is more insane. His insanity seemed quite contagious as the book starts out with the author in charge of preserving the man's corpse with pressure from other high officials. This was immediately hilarious as you read about Mao's face falling off and his body becoming bloated. Preserving a leader's corpse for further senseless worship is just the beginning to the book's hilarity. Don't expect any 20th century Chinese history as the author in this book was not in a position to learn about what was going on throughout the country except through Mao who was a horrible source for that sort of information. For example, the author was surprised when Mao told him, "Good news, we liberated our brothers in Tibet." This may fall under the category of sick humor if you have read anything about the brutal Chinese takeover of Tibet. It's harder to find a book more insightful to the potential madness power can create. Also, this book satisfies curiousity of those who know of Mao's policy and want to know what the hell were officials thinking, or how someone could be so heartless as well as stupid to implement these plans. The author exposes the inner politics of Beijing and the political logic of Mao. Last, this book shows how people became so obsessed with this figure. I don't think there is another book that digs as deep and exposes so much of a historical figure. Maybe Mao's rule is less a product of political ideology but more of Chinese culture. Mao, according to The Private Life, modeled himself after Chinese emperors especially the nut Qin Shi Huang, who ordered the construction of the beginning of the great wall and the terracotta warriors.
March 7, 2011
This is one of the best China books I've read and I've read about 50 of them. It's long and very involved, but written in a clear and fluid style. It is, quite simply, fascinating; brimful with interesting episodes and tidbits impossible to find anywhere else. Details about Mao's illnesses, drug addictions, sex life, and death are particularly salient, while figures and topics you can find in nearly any China book (Jiang Qing, Lin Biao, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, etc.) are presented in a whole new light.
Penned by an erudite and Western-educated man who saw and spoke with the chairman nearly every day he was in power, the Private Life of Chairman Mao is more engaging than most "standard" Mao biographies, which is, of course, because it is a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account. It may take you a while to get through it, and you may wish to supplement it with one of those "standard" biographies, but if you've got a bit of mental stamina or consider yourself a serious China watcher, this narrative is a must.
Penned by an erudite and Western-educated man who saw and spoke with the chairman nearly every day he was in power, the Private Life of Chairman Mao is more engaging than most "standard" Mao biographies, which is, of course, because it is a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account. It may take you a while to get through it, and you may wish to supplement it with one of those "standard" biographies, but if you've got a bit of mental stamina or consider yourself a serious China watcher, this narrative is a must.
March 28, 2024
It’s hard to know what exactly to rate this book, but given the incredibly rare behind-the-scenes access to observing the personality, behavior, and often perversions of one of modern history’s most divisive (as well as tyrannical) dictators, I’d have to say that this nearly 700-page recollection is invaluable.
Given the fact that there’s never been a more detailed memoir published by a figure with such an intimate relationship to any other dictatorial/totalitarian/authoritarian leader (as the foreword to the book states, Albert Speer knew Hitler well, but their common interests didn’t extend beyond public works and war. Stalin’s daughter rarely saw her father, and diaries written by Hitler’s and Napoleon’s physicians remained solely clinical) Dr. Li Zhisui was able, as author Ross Terrill puts it, to ”turn him into a human being. Here is Mao unveiled: eccentric, demanding, suspicious, unregretful, lascivious, and unfailingly fascinating.” For this intensive piece of history, five stars is well-warranted.
I have seen reviews calling Dr. Li a “reluctant memoirist”, and while this is undoubtedly true (he admits to only writing the book after promising his wife he’d do so while she was in her deathbed) I believe this actually makes his recollection of events much more believable. If someone is out to make money or to achieve prestige from book sales, they’re naturally going to want to exaggerate or embellish the parts they can, as sensationalism and sex sells.
However, you don’t find this in Dr. Li’s memoir. While some people seem to be disappointed in not getting more information on Mao’s insatiable sex life, I was grateful, honestly, that the doctor was repulsed by it and spared us the most intimate of details. I believe the information he provided was more than adequate to understand Mao, yet didn’t go so far as to border on crude.
I think this gem from p. 363-364 was more than enough to satiate my (relatively minor) appetite:
”With so much sexual activity, venereal disease was practically inevitable…once one of Mao’s partners became infected, he quickly contracted the disease as well, and soon it had spread. He sent the infected women to me for treatment.
The young women were proud to be infected. The illness, transmitted by Mao, was a badge of honor, testimony to their close relationship with the Chairman…
But treating Mao’s women did not solve the problem. Because Mao was the carrier, the epidemic could only be stopped if he received treatment himself. I wanted him to halt all sexual activities until the drugs had done their work.
The Chairman scoffed at my suggestion, saying that doctors always exaggerate things. I explained that he was a carrier of the disease, passing it on to others, even though he himself was experiencing no ill effects. ”If it’s not hurting me,” he said, “then it doesn’t matter. Why are you getting so excited about it?”
…I suggested that he should at least allow himself to be washed and cleaned. Mao still received only nightly rubdowns with hot towels. He never actually bathed. His genitals were never cleaned. But Mao refused to bathe. ”I wash myself inside the bodies of my women,” he retorted.
I was nauseated. Mao’s sexual indulgences, his Daoist delusions, his sullying of so many naive and innocent young women, were almost more than I could bear.”
Does anyone really need to hear more? We know there were orgies after “dance parties” in the great hall (really an excuse for Mao to scope out attractive young peasant women to lure back to his bedchamber). I think your imagination can fill in the rest.
Another issue people seemed to take with Dr. Li was that “in spite of claiming to resentful of petty political squabbles and inner court politics, he certainly spends a lot of time discussing the detailed conversations he either overheard or were told to him.”
Considering how quickly power changed hands in this absurd and intellectually-adversed political climate, it was imperative to know who currently held favor with the Chairman, who was at risk of being scrutinized, and who had lost favor. If one person didn’t like you for some absurd reason (or even just an imagined slight) it could result in a very bad outcome for you and your family if that person were to gain considerable power.
Therefore, considering his very survival was dependent upon this trivial matters, they weren’t so trivial once real-life consequences set in. Obviously, while this isn’t much to be concerned about in a democratic system, these matters hold a lot more significance in a government formed on the basis of absolute power in one individual.
It’s also imperative to keep in mind that he’s not, and never aspired to be, a politician. He came from a long lineage of esteemed doctors, with his great-grandfather once having served the Imperial Court. He desperately wanted to further his career as a physician, eventually working his way into neurology and neurosurgery. It’s only natural that due to his apathy for politics and after twenty-two years of forcibly serving at Mao’s side, he would be reluctant to recall these memories and relive these dismal days.
Imagine being an intelligent, driven physician, and being subjected to hearing arguments and “opinions” on factual matters seemingly coming from six-year-olds, rather than top government leaders and the Chairman himself (although, the majority of the Politburo had a primary school education at best, so I suppose the comparison is fair). I can’t imagine having to hear nonsense such as the following for over two decades:
p. 108: ”Then one day Mao called me into his room. “How many days do you think there are in a year?” he asked. It was another of his unorthodox questions. “Three hundred and sixty-five, of course.” Mao: “Well, for me there are only two hundred days, because I get so little sleep,” he said.
I was puzzled until I realized that he was talking about the number of cycles of waking and sleeping he went through in any given year. “If you count your days by your waking hours, Chairman, you have more than four hundred days in your year. If you look at it this way, your life is like the immortal described in the poem – ‘there are no sun and moon in the hills, a thousand years slip by unnoticed.’”
Mao roared with laughter. “If you are right, then insomnia would be a means to longevity!”
p. 158: ”We floated down the Pearl River for nearly two hours, covering some six or seven miles. Then we took showers and had lunch on board the well-equipped yacht, joined by Jiang Qing, who had been observing our swim from the deck.
Mao was elated as if he’d just won a war. ‘You people told me that Dr. Li said this water was too dirty,’ he said to Luo Ruiqing.
‘Yes,’ I interjected. ‘I saw human waste floating by.’
Mao laughed heartily. ‘If we tried to follow the standards of you physicians, we wouldn’t be able to live. Don’t all living things need air and water and soil? Tell me which of these things is pure? I don’t believe there is any pure air, pure water, pure soil. Everything has some impurities, some dirt. If you put a fish into distilled water, how long do you think it would live?’
I was silent. Mao was clearly not going to accept my views on sanitation.”
p. 177: ”Mao looked at me and shook his head. ‘That’s just doctor talk,’ he said. ‘When rural folk get sick, they do nothing. Even when they are seriously ill, they often don’t see a doctor. Medicine is good for curable diseases, not for incurable ones. Is your medicine really good for everything? Take cancer, for instance. Can a doctor cure cancer? I don’t think so.’
I explained that cancer could be cured in its early stages if it had not metastasized. I argued for the benefits of surgery. ‘But without a checkup, cancer in its early stages cannot be detected,’ I continued.
Mao then asked for some examples.
Most of the top communist leaders were relatively young and healthy then. None of them could serve as an example…Mao smiled. I had just proved his point.”
Also, in Mao’s “opinion”, bronchitis was treatable, pneumonia was fatal. If Mao believed he had contracted something fatal/incurable, it would be impossible to get him to agree to the necessary medications, treatments, or surgeries that really would solve his health issue. So when three physicians determined he had pneumonia, Dr. Li had to find a way around this “problem” they’d unwittingly created:
”Mao’s paranoia was in full bloom, and he suspected a plot. Lin Biao, he was convinced, wanted him dead. Mao’s understanding of medicine had not greatly improved under my tutelage, and he was convinced that pneumonia was inevitably fatal, the result of hopelessly rotten lungs. Mao thought Lin Biao was behind the three doctors who told him he had pneumonia and therefore did not believe them.
Mao did have pneumonia. The X rays left no doubt. But I could not tell him that. If I told him that he had pneumonia, I would be accused of being a member of the Lin Biao-Wang Dongxing clique. So I told him it was his old problem - acute bronchitis, nothing too serious. A few shots of antibiotics and he would be fine.
I consulted with the three doctors, explaining why we could not let Mao know he had pneumonia, trying to assure them that what was most important was to make certain he received appropriate treatment. They agreed, but the director of the Zhongnanhai Clinic was not happy… Mao, though, was delighted when I told him that the doctors now agreed that he had bronchitis rather than pneumonia. He credited me with saving his life and invited me to dinner as his honored guest.”
It was at this point in time that Mao decided he needed Dr. Li around full-time, and given Dr. Li was out in the countryside doing backbreaking manual labor to “learn from the working/poorer classes”, he escaped from that miserable routine while many other men in Mao’s inner political circle did not. He also was able to finally reunite with his wife and two children after nearly a year apart.
Mao was also quite contradictory. He’d tell Dr. Li that “he actually preferred rightists (the ones denounced during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution as counterrevolutionaries) because “at least they told you how they actually felt, whereas leftists “said one thing while really meaning another.”
Yet anytime Mao would actually pretend to be interested in differing views of top Politburo members, it was merely a ploy to see which ones would criticize the Party, worse, his policies, and worst of all, Mao/any challenge to his one-man leadership status: ”In the next few days, as local leaders and newspaper editors learned of the coming counterattack, newspapers were encouraged to continue publishing criticisms of the party while allowing defenses of the party and attacks against the ‘rightists’ to be published, too.”
This was Mao’s tried and true test of loyalty among his party: ”We want to coax the snakes out of their holes. Then we will strike. My strategy is to let the poisonous weeds grow first and then destroy them one by one. Let them become fertilizer.”
The “lucky” ones whom he felt were just “a bit mixed up” yet still loyal often received job demotions, to be called back into the higher ranked positions they were fired from when he suspected yet another official(s) of plotting to oust him.
The not so lucky ones that Mao saw as irredeemably rightist, power hungry, or disloyal, would be the ones to be shipped off to backbreaking hard labor camps in the countryside. They’d either die out there under such grueling conditions, extreme heat/cold, and malnutrition, Mao’s bodyguards simply “got rid of them” for good, I’m sure.
Li wasn’t always privy to the ultimate fate of colleagues or friends, although some news would sometimes make it back to him (like his close friend committing suicide before he was to be “struggled against”). In my opinion, Li truly did suffer from essentially having served as Mao’s slave - a privileged one with an abundance of food to eat, for certain - but a slave nonetheless.
He was never free to spend a night with his wife and children as Mao kept very odd hours and would send for him at 3 AM, often just to chat about opera, history, or have Dr. Li provide him with English lessons.
However, I’m sure as he saw his colleagues being purged from the party, heard of their suicides, heard of the millions of deaths from starvation outside his sequestered world in Zhongnanhai (the huge palatial complex where Mao, his wife, concubines, and inner circle resided) he likely didn’t feel comfortable complaining about his own position in life.
I believe that and just the overall monotony of his day-to-day life is what contributes to his very detached recollection of the events, though they are still incredibly unbelievable as Mao’s complete disregard for human lives and inability to feel empathy was on display for all of those well-acquainted with him to clearly see.
A must-read if you’re looking to form your own judgment on what made Mao… well, Mao. Sorry the review is so incredibly long! 😂 I’ve been working on making my reviews shorter and more to the point lately, but this was just such a long book and packed with so many good quotes!
Given the fact that there’s never been a more detailed memoir published by a figure with such an intimate relationship to any other dictatorial/totalitarian/authoritarian leader (as the foreword to the book states, Albert Speer knew Hitler well, but their common interests didn’t extend beyond public works and war. Stalin’s daughter rarely saw her father, and diaries written by Hitler’s and Napoleon’s physicians remained solely clinical) Dr. Li Zhisui was able, as author Ross Terrill puts it, to ”turn him into a human being. Here is Mao unveiled: eccentric, demanding, suspicious, unregretful, lascivious, and unfailingly fascinating.” For this intensive piece of history, five stars is well-warranted.
I have seen reviews calling Dr. Li a “reluctant memoirist”, and while this is undoubtedly true (he admits to only writing the book after promising his wife he’d do so while she was in her deathbed) I believe this actually makes his recollection of events much more believable. If someone is out to make money or to achieve prestige from book sales, they’re naturally going to want to exaggerate or embellish the parts they can, as sensationalism and sex sells.
However, you don’t find this in Dr. Li’s memoir. While some people seem to be disappointed in not getting more information on Mao’s insatiable sex life, I was grateful, honestly, that the doctor was repulsed by it and spared us the most intimate of details. I believe the information he provided was more than adequate to understand Mao, yet didn’t go so far as to border on crude.
I think this gem from p. 363-364 was more than enough to satiate my (relatively minor) appetite:
”With so much sexual activity, venereal disease was practically inevitable…once one of Mao’s partners became infected, he quickly contracted the disease as well, and soon it had spread. He sent the infected women to me for treatment.
The young women were proud to be infected. The illness, transmitted by Mao, was a badge of honor, testimony to their close relationship with the Chairman…
But treating Mao’s women did not solve the problem. Because Mao was the carrier, the epidemic could only be stopped if he received treatment himself. I wanted him to halt all sexual activities until the drugs had done their work.
The Chairman scoffed at my suggestion, saying that doctors always exaggerate things. I explained that he was a carrier of the disease, passing it on to others, even though he himself was experiencing no ill effects. ”If it’s not hurting me,” he said, “then it doesn’t matter. Why are you getting so excited about it?”
…I suggested that he should at least allow himself to be washed and cleaned. Mao still received only nightly rubdowns with hot towels. He never actually bathed. His genitals were never cleaned. But Mao refused to bathe. ”I wash myself inside the bodies of my women,” he retorted.
I was nauseated. Mao’s sexual indulgences, his Daoist delusions, his sullying of so many naive and innocent young women, were almost more than I could bear.”
Does anyone really need to hear more? We know there were orgies after “dance parties” in the great hall (really an excuse for Mao to scope out attractive young peasant women to lure back to his bedchamber). I think your imagination can fill in the rest.
Another issue people seemed to take with Dr. Li was that “in spite of claiming to resentful of petty political squabbles and inner court politics, he certainly spends a lot of time discussing the detailed conversations he either overheard or were told to him.”
Considering how quickly power changed hands in this absurd and intellectually-adversed political climate, it was imperative to know who currently held favor with the Chairman, who was at risk of being scrutinized, and who had lost favor. If one person didn’t like you for some absurd reason (or even just an imagined slight) it could result in a very bad outcome for you and your family if that person were to gain considerable power.
Therefore, considering his very survival was dependent upon this trivial matters, they weren’t so trivial once real-life consequences set in. Obviously, while this isn’t much to be concerned about in a democratic system, these matters hold a lot more significance in a government formed on the basis of absolute power in one individual.
It’s also imperative to keep in mind that he’s not, and never aspired to be, a politician. He came from a long lineage of esteemed doctors, with his great-grandfather once having served the Imperial Court. He desperately wanted to further his career as a physician, eventually working his way into neurology and neurosurgery. It’s only natural that due to his apathy for politics and after twenty-two years of forcibly serving at Mao’s side, he would be reluctant to recall these memories and relive these dismal days.
Imagine being an intelligent, driven physician, and being subjected to hearing arguments and “opinions” on factual matters seemingly coming from six-year-olds, rather than top government leaders and the Chairman himself (although, the majority of the Politburo had a primary school education at best, so I suppose the comparison is fair). I can’t imagine having to hear nonsense such as the following for over two decades:
p. 108: ”Then one day Mao called me into his room. “How many days do you think there are in a year?” he asked. It was another of his unorthodox questions. “Three hundred and sixty-five, of course.” Mao: “Well, for me there are only two hundred days, because I get so little sleep,” he said.
I was puzzled until I realized that he was talking about the number of cycles of waking and sleeping he went through in any given year. “If you count your days by your waking hours, Chairman, you have more than four hundred days in your year. If you look at it this way, your life is like the immortal described in the poem – ‘there are no sun and moon in the hills, a thousand years slip by unnoticed.’”
Mao roared with laughter. “If you are right, then insomnia would be a means to longevity!”
p. 158: ”We floated down the Pearl River for nearly two hours, covering some six or seven miles. Then we took showers and had lunch on board the well-equipped yacht, joined by Jiang Qing, who had been observing our swim from the deck.
Mao was elated as if he’d just won a war. ‘You people told me that Dr. Li said this water was too dirty,’ he said to Luo Ruiqing.
‘Yes,’ I interjected. ‘I saw human waste floating by.’
Mao laughed heartily. ‘If we tried to follow the standards of you physicians, we wouldn’t be able to live. Don’t all living things need air and water and soil? Tell me which of these things is pure? I don’t believe there is any pure air, pure water, pure soil. Everything has some impurities, some dirt. If you put a fish into distilled water, how long do you think it would live?’
I was silent. Mao was clearly not going to accept my views on sanitation.”
p. 177: ”Mao looked at me and shook his head. ‘That’s just doctor talk,’ he said. ‘When rural folk get sick, they do nothing. Even when they are seriously ill, they often don’t see a doctor. Medicine is good for curable diseases, not for incurable ones. Is your medicine really good for everything? Take cancer, for instance. Can a doctor cure cancer? I don’t think so.’
I explained that cancer could be cured in its early stages if it had not metastasized. I argued for the benefits of surgery. ‘But without a checkup, cancer in its early stages cannot be detected,’ I continued.
Mao then asked for some examples.
Most of the top communist leaders were relatively young and healthy then. None of them could serve as an example…Mao smiled. I had just proved his point.”
Also, in Mao’s “opinion”, bronchitis was treatable, pneumonia was fatal. If Mao believed he had contracted something fatal/incurable, it would be impossible to get him to agree to the necessary medications, treatments, or surgeries that really would solve his health issue. So when three physicians determined he had pneumonia, Dr. Li had to find a way around this “problem” they’d unwittingly created:
”Mao’s paranoia was in full bloom, and he suspected a plot. Lin Biao, he was convinced, wanted him dead. Mao’s understanding of medicine had not greatly improved under my tutelage, and he was convinced that pneumonia was inevitably fatal, the result of hopelessly rotten lungs. Mao thought Lin Biao was behind the three doctors who told him he had pneumonia and therefore did not believe them.
Mao did have pneumonia. The X rays left no doubt. But I could not tell him that. If I told him that he had pneumonia, I would be accused of being a member of the Lin Biao-Wang Dongxing clique. So I told him it was his old problem - acute bronchitis, nothing too serious. A few shots of antibiotics and he would be fine.
I consulted with the three doctors, explaining why we could not let Mao know he had pneumonia, trying to assure them that what was most important was to make certain he received appropriate treatment. They agreed, but the director of the Zhongnanhai Clinic was not happy… Mao, though, was delighted when I told him that the doctors now agreed that he had bronchitis rather than pneumonia. He credited me with saving his life and invited me to dinner as his honored guest.”
It was at this point in time that Mao decided he needed Dr. Li around full-time, and given Dr. Li was out in the countryside doing backbreaking manual labor to “learn from the working/poorer classes”, he escaped from that miserable routine while many other men in Mao’s inner political circle did not. He also was able to finally reunite with his wife and two children after nearly a year apart.
Mao was also quite contradictory. He’d tell Dr. Li that “he actually preferred rightists (the ones denounced during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution as counterrevolutionaries) because “at least they told you how they actually felt, whereas leftists “said one thing while really meaning another.”
Yet anytime Mao would actually pretend to be interested in differing views of top Politburo members, it was merely a ploy to see which ones would criticize the Party, worse, his policies, and worst of all, Mao/any challenge to his one-man leadership status: ”In the next few days, as local leaders and newspaper editors learned of the coming counterattack, newspapers were encouraged to continue publishing criticisms of the party while allowing defenses of the party and attacks against the ‘rightists’ to be published, too.”
This was Mao’s tried and true test of loyalty among his party: ”We want to coax the snakes out of their holes. Then we will strike. My strategy is to let the poisonous weeds grow first and then destroy them one by one. Let them become fertilizer.”
The “lucky” ones whom he felt were just “a bit mixed up” yet still loyal often received job demotions, to be called back into the higher ranked positions they were fired from when he suspected yet another official(s) of plotting to oust him.
The not so lucky ones that Mao saw as irredeemably rightist, power hungry, or disloyal, would be the ones to be shipped off to backbreaking hard labor camps in the countryside. They’d either die out there under such grueling conditions, extreme heat/cold, and malnutrition, Mao’s bodyguards simply “got rid of them” for good, I’m sure.
Li wasn’t always privy to the ultimate fate of colleagues or friends, although some news would sometimes make it back to him (like his close friend committing suicide before he was to be “struggled against”). In my opinion, Li truly did suffer from essentially having served as Mao’s slave - a privileged one with an abundance of food to eat, for certain - but a slave nonetheless.
He was never free to spend a night with his wife and children as Mao kept very odd hours and would send for him at 3 AM, often just to chat about opera, history, or have Dr. Li provide him with English lessons.
However, I’m sure as he saw his colleagues being purged from the party, heard of their suicides, heard of the millions of deaths from starvation outside his sequestered world in Zhongnanhai (the huge palatial complex where Mao, his wife, concubines, and inner circle resided) he likely didn’t feel comfortable complaining about his own position in life.
I believe that and just the overall monotony of his day-to-day life is what contributes to his very detached recollection of the events, though they are still incredibly unbelievable as Mao’s complete disregard for human lives and inability to feel empathy was on display for all of those well-acquainted with him to clearly see.
A must-read if you’re looking to form your own judgment on what made Mao… well, Mao. Sorry the review is so incredibly long! 😂 I’ve been working on making my reviews shorter and more to the point lately, but this was just such a long book and packed with so many good quotes!
January 7, 2025
خوندن زندگی رهبران دیکتاتور (این کتاب از نوع کمونیست) برام جذاب و ملموسه. بینش سیاسی و اجتماعی دقیقی از شرایط کشوری میده که بهجای دموکراسی به بیراهه کمونیستی رفتن. بهشت کمونیستی که تبدیل به دیکتاتوری شد و الگوگرفته از استالین و شوروی بود.
نویسنده این کتاب پزشک مخصوص مائو بوده که دسترسی بینهایتش به مائو بیش از هر فرد سیاسی و مهم دیگهای بوده و بالاخره تصمیم گرفته اطلاعاتش رو درباره لایه زیرین و حقیقی مائو به چاپ برسونه که دنیا رو آگاه کنه که در زمان رهبری مائو چه بر سر چین و مردم گذشته (حتی یک قحطی بزرگ رو از سر گذروندن که تا 30 میلیون نفر از مردم جانشون رو از دست دادن).
مترجم هم مترجم دکترای چینشناسی از دانشگاه پکن داره و حتی در جریان تجمع مردم در میدان تین آن حضور داشته و عکسهایی که گرفته رو در انتهای کتاب ضمیمه کرده.
اینجور کتابا جوری واسهم ملموسه که خاطره ذهنی مشابهی در ذهنم شکل میگرفت و این خیلی تلخه. حتی در مواردی شرایط بدتر تجربهشده رو هم به ذهنم میآورد.
یکی از نکات جالب دیکتاتوریهای کمونیستی اینه که حتی اگه بلندپایهترین مقام مثل رئیسجمهورشون دچار اقدامی ضد ارزشهاشون بشه، بیدرنگ مجازات میشه و حتی این مقامات هم ورای قانون هرچند اشتباه کمونیستیشون نیستن.
مثلا یکی از دلایل اعتراضات دانشجویانشون این بوده که 5 سال قبلش همسر رئیسجمهورشون در دیدار با رئیسجمهور اندونزی از لباس رنگین سنتی و گلوبند مروارید استفاده کرده که این نشانه شیوه زندگی اشرافی و غیرانقلابیه، حتی 5 سال بعدش اعتراضات دانشجویی برای این موضوع شکل گرفته.
در نهایت این رئیسجمهورشون به شهری تبعید شده و در حصر خانگی دچار بیماری شدید شده و پس از دو ماه بر اثر نرسیدن غذا و دارو، درگذشته.
و این یعنی در این نوع از دیکتاتوری حداقل همه به یک اندازه و بهاندازه مردم در برابر همون قانون (چه غلط چه درست) به یک شکل دیده میشن و مقام بالا مانع مجازاتشون نمیشه و حسرتی که من حس کردم که چقدر تفاوته بین رعایت قانون در اونجا و اینجا و مایی که قانون فقط واسه ضعیفانه نه بزرگان!
درنهایت اینکه هیچ دیکتاتوری به هر نامی و به هر شکلی و در قالب رهبر، رئیسجمهور و هر اسم دیگهای نمیتونه پایدار بمونه. هرچند اثرات زیانبارش نسلها رو تحت تاثیر مخرب خودش قرار میده اما خودش هم پایدار نمیمونه و هرچقدر هم تعظیم و ستایش افراد دستچین اطرافیانش رو داشته باشه نام ننگش بالاخره در تاریخ ثبت میشه و آیندگان حقیقت رو میفهمن.
اینجور کتابا باید خونده شن تا از تاریخ درس گرفته شه.
نویسنده این کتاب پزشک مخصوص مائو بوده که دسترسی بینهایتش به مائو بیش از هر فرد سیاسی و مهم دیگهای بوده و بالاخره تصمیم گرفته اطلاعاتش رو درباره لایه زیرین و حقیقی مائو به چاپ برسونه که دنیا رو آگاه کنه که در زمان رهبری مائو چه بر سر چین و مردم گذشته (حتی یک قحطی بزرگ رو از سر گذروندن که تا 30 میلیون نفر از مردم جانشون رو از دست دادن).
مترجم هم مترجم دکترای چینشناسی از دانشگاه پکن داره و حتی در جریان تجمع مردم در میدان تین آن حضور داشته و عکسهایی که گرفته رو در انتهای کتاب ضمیمه کرده.
اینجور کتابا جوری واسهم ملموسه که خاطره ذهنی مشابهی در ذهنم شکل میگرفت و این خیلی تلخه. حتی در مواردی شرایط بدتر تجربهشده رو هم به ذهنم میآورد.
یکی از نکات جالب دیکتاتوریهای کمونیستی اینه که حتی اگه بلندپایهترین مقام مثل رئیسجمهورشون دچار اقدامی ضد ارزشهاشون بشه، بیدرنگ مجازات میشه و حتی این مقامات هم ورای قانون هرچند اشتباه کمونیستیشون نیستن.
مثلا یکی از دلایل اعتراضات دانشجویانشون این بوده که 5 سال قبلش همسر رئیسجمهورشون در دیدار با رئیسجمهور اندونزی از لباس رنگین سنتی و گلوبند مروارید استفاده کرده که این نشانه شیوه زندگی اشرافی و غیرانقلابیه، حتی 5 سال بعدش اعتراضات دانشجویی برای این موضوع شکل گرفته.
در نهایت این رئیسجمهورشون به شهری تبعید شده و در حصر خانگی دچار بیماری شدید شده و پس از دو ماه بر اثر نرسیدن غذا و دارو، درگذشته.
و این یعنی در این نوع از دیکتاتوری حداقل همه به یک اندازه و بهاندازه مردم در برابر همون قانون (چه غلط چه درست) به یک شکل دیده میشن و مقام بالا مانع مجازاتشون نمیشه و حسرتی که من حس کردم که چقدر تفاوته بین رعایت قانون در اونجا و اینجا و مایی که قانون فقط واسه ضعیفانه نه بزرگان!
درنهایت اینکه هیچ دیکتاتوری به هر نامی و به هر شکلی و در قالب رهبر، رئیسجمهور و هر اسم دیگهای نمیتونه پایدار بمونه. هرچند اثرات زیانبارش نسلها رو تحت تاثیر مخرب خودش قرار میده اما خودش هم پایدار نمیمونه و هرچقدر هم تعظیم و ستایش افراد دستچین اطرافیانش رو داشته باشه نام ننگش بالاخره در تاریخ ثبت میشه و آیندگان حقیقت رو میفهمن.
اینجور کتابا باید خونده شن تا از تاریخ درس گرفته شه.
June 24, 2017
I "borrowed" this book from a hotel library in Playa del Carmen last summer. I just finished it today. I relished it. I see so many of the behaviors described here reenacted in our current cultural wars, especially among my liberal brethren. The same obsession with ideological purity, the same appetite for purges, for branding as a "counterrevolutionary" whoever does not toe the line. The word has changed, though, and been substituted by many others. I'll leave it to you, kind reader, to figure out which ones I mean.
Mao, like Fidel, like Hitler, like Franco, like Mussolini, was a big child coddled by childish and frightened masses. And as incompetent, self-indulgent, megalomaniac, and arrogant as the rest of them. Dr Zhisui narrates the gradually unfolding nightmare of a 1984'ish totalitarian dystopia where dissent, in deed, word, and thought, was proscribed, and where friendships, casual support, and tenuous social ties were minutely tallied and recorded to better recompense, or punish, members of the party. A scenario of crippling claustrophobia that reached its climax during the hysterical Cultural Revolution.
Lady Macbeth is a nun in a convent compared to the stifling, ambitious, venomous Jiang Qing, a character that will stay with me against my will, like one of those terrible songs that play in a loop in your brain and slowly drive you insane.
Next up, Jung Chang's Mao: The Untold Story.
Mao, like Fidel, like Hitler, like Franco, like Mussolini, was a big child coddled by childish and frightened masses. And as incompetent, self-indulgent, megalomaniac, and arrogant as the rest of them. Dr Zhisui narrates the gradually unfolding nightmare of a 1984'ish totalitarian dystopia where dissent, in deed, word, and thought, was proscribed, and where friendships, casual support, and tenuous social ties were minutely tallied and recorded to better recompense, or punish, members of the party. A scenario of crippling claustrophobia that reached its climax during the hysterical Cultural Revolution.
Lady Macbeth is a nun in a convent compared to the stifling, ambitious, venomous Jiang Qing, a character that will stay with me against my will, like one of those terrible songs that play in a loop in your brain and slowly drive you insane.
Next up, Jung Chang's Mao: The Untold Story.
December 17, 2012
This book is flawed in many respects. First, its author is an admitted naif as re politics, history, psychology etc. Although he delves into such perspectives, he doesn't get much beyond the surface. Second, as he also admits, his class background was bourgeois, his exposure to the lives of ordinary Chinese only coming late in his career. Third, he only entered the scene late, after the revolution. Fourth, having burned his original notes, his memoir is based on memory.
All of those considerations notwithstanding, I found this lengthy account a page-turner. While only skimming the major events of the period of the late forties to the mid-seventies, it did serve as a welcome refresher. The medical details are, of course, invaluable, given the author's expertise and privileged position. The personal details about the Chinese leadership and the politics of their "court" were intriguing. The whole thing came across, for me at least, as a meditation about how power can corrupt.
Although publicity for this book seems to emphasize Mao's sex life, Dr. Li really doesn't offer any purient detail. He found it more offensive than interesting.
All of those considerations notwithstanding, I found this lengthy account a page-turner. While only skimming the major events of the period of the late forties to the mid-seventies, it did serve as a welcome refresher. The medical details are, of course, invaluable, given the author's expertise and privileged position. The personal details about the Chinese leadership and the politics of their "court" were intriguing. The whole thing came across, for me at least, as a meditation about how power can corrupt.
Although publicity for this book seems to emphasize Mao's sex life, Dr. Li really doesn't offer any purient detail. He found it more offensive than interesting.
June 29, 2016
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Dictator!
I liked House of Cards, but I love this book! Breathtaking power struggles filled to the brim.
It would not be a cake walk for a non-Chinese to fully appreciate this book, but it should definitely be no harder to read than the Lord of the Rings. Only the traitors more traitorous and monsters more monstrous. And upon finishing this book, the reader would finally truly fully understand why the Ring, or Power in this book, is so PRECIOUS.
It's easy to take the moral high ground and pass judgement on Mao here, but I think I could easily have done worse had I had held the Ring myself.
I liked House of Cards, but I love this book! Breathtaking power struggles filled to the brim.
It would not be a cake walk for a non-Chinese to fully appreciate this book, but it should definitely be no harder to read than the Lord of the Rings. Only the traitors more traitorous and monsters more monstrous. And upon finishing this book, the reader would finally truly fully understand why the Ring, or Power in this book, is so PRECIOUS.
It's easy to take the moral high ground and pass judgement on Mao here, but I think I could easily have done worse had I had held the Ring myself.
May 12, 2025
*cracks knuckles*
Ik wil graag beginnen met te zeggen dat de enige reden dat ik dit KLOTE boek nog 2 sterren geef is omdat het tenminste vlot leest als je het ziet als historische fictie.
By God, Li Zhisui opent zijn boek door 20 pagina's lang te zeggen dat hij dit boek in de jaren '90 schrijft, gebaseerd op zijn herinneringen van zijn tijd als Mao's lijfarts -- records, dagboeken, verslagen etc. heeft hij allemaal niet, want die verbrandde hij in de Culturele Revolutie (jaren '60-'70). Dit brengt bij mezelf, en hopelijk ook bij jullie, meteen de vraag met zich mee hoe je in godsnaam een oude moet geloven, die geëmigreerd is naar de VS uit wrok voor de CCP, en niet kan stoppen met herhalen hoe Mao en de Partij zijn leven verwoest hebben? En ik bedoel dit niet op een "omg Mao en de CCP zijn perfect"-manier, maar simpelweg op een manier dat Li Zhisui duidelijk ZO veel wrok naar hen toe koestert dat het bijna onmogelijk wordt om een objectief boek te schrijven.
Daarbij komt ook de factor dat Li Zhisui alles als zijnde "levensecht" vertelt. Dit valt moeilijk te begrijpen aangezien hij gebeurtenissen, gesprekken, zelfs ziektes van 20 tot 40(!) jaar ervoor vertelt. Hij speelt een heel moeilijk spelletje, waarin hij balanceert tussen enerzijds zelf toegeven dat hij niks schriftelijk bewaard heeft "en al oud geworden is, ver verwijderd van China", maar dan ook verbatim gesprekken met grote politieke implicaties neerpent. En daarbij ook 80% van het boek op de een of andere manier het slachtoffer weet te worden. Sure, sucks om temidden alle politieke spelletjes te zitten en te vrezen voor je veiligheid, maar als je weet hoeveel tientallen miljoenen Chinezen verhongerd zijn onder Mao's presidentschap of gestorven door ontbering door alle harde labeur, dan denk ik dat ons doktertje het toch niet zo slecht had daar met Mao in zijn ivoren paleis. Man echt waar ook gewoon het superioriteitscomplex dat deze man had, altijd de schijnheilige uithangen in zijn boek alsof hij nooit fouten zou gemaakt hebben.
Ik vind hem een hypocriete zak à la carte als het nog niet duidelijk was! Rant out
(maar wel veel dank aan mijn liefje om het te kopen voor mijn verjaardag het was een fantastisch cadeau <3)
Ik wil graag beginnen met te zeggen dat de enige reden dat ik dit KLOTE boek nog 2 sterren geef is omdat het tenminste vlot leest als je het ziet als historische fictie.
By God, Li Zhisui opent zijn boek door 20 pagina's lang te zeggen dat hij dit boek in de jaren '90 schrijft, gebaseerd op zijn herinneringen van zijn tijd als Mao's lijfarts -- records, dagboeken, verslagen etc. heeft hij allemaal niet, want die verbrandde hij in de Culturele Revolutie (jaren '60-'70). Dit brengt bij mezelf, en hopelijk ook bij jullie, meteen de vraag met zich mee hoe je in godsnaam een oude moet geloven, die geëmigreerd is naar de VS uit wrok voor de CCP, en niet kan stoppen met herhalen hoe Mao en de Partij zijn leven verwoest hebben? En ik bedoel dit niet op een "omg Mao en de CCP zijn perfect"-manier, maar simpelweg op een manier dat Li Zhisui duidelijk ZO veel wrok naar hen toe koestert dat het bijna onmogelijk wordt om een objectief boek te schrijven.
Daarbij komt ook de factor dat Li Zhisui alles als zijnde "levensecht" vertelt. Dit valt moeilijk te begrijpen aangezien hij gebeurtenissen, gesprekken, zelfs ziektes van 20 tot 40(!) jaar ervoor vertelt. Hij speelt een heel moeilijk spelletje, waarin hij balanceert tussen enerzijds zelf toegeven dat hij niks schriftelijk bewaard heeft "en al oud geworden is, ver verwijderd van China", maar dan ook verbatim gesprekken met grote politieke implicaties neerpent. En daarbij ook 80% van het boek op de een of andere manier het slachtoffer weet te worden. Sure, sucks om temidden alle politieke spelletjes te zitten en te vrezen voor je veiligheid, maar als je weet hoeveel tientallen miljoenen Chinezen verhongerd zijn onder Mao's presidentschap of gestorven door ontbering door alle harde labeur, dan denk ik dat ons doktertje het toch niet zo slecht had daar met Mao in zijn ivoren paleis. Man echt waar ook gewoon het superioriteitscomplex dat deze man had, altijd de schijnheilige uithangen in zijn boek alsof hij nooit fouten zou gemaakt hebben.
Ik vind hem een hypocriete zak à la carte als het nog niet duidelijk was! Rant out
(maar wel veel dank aan mijn liefje om het te kopen voor mijn verjaardag het was een fantastisch cadeau <3)
May 28, 2013
This doctor could have had a comfortable and fulfilling life but chose to join the spirit of the new China. He, like so many idealistic youth, went back to China (as some went to Russia after its revolution) to join the "new society" only to be buried in a world created by the revolutionaries in whom they had put their trust.
Dr. Li's suffering was made meaningful in his writing this book. This may be the world's first up close portrait of a national dictator/cult leader. Some of the things that were most striking to me are:
· First, when Dr. Li accompanies Mao to his hometown, Mao tells him how his father, a minor but comfortable landowner, beat him and his brothers so badly that he would run away. Recently I had read how Fidel Castro, was humiliated by living in the workers' homes on the property where his father lived in the "big house" with his legal wife and family. Years ago I had read of Stalin's abuse at the hand of his stepfather. These bright, talented and unwanted sons turned their anger, resentment and hostility on millions of victims.
· Second is that revolutionary warriors had no time for education and their resentment for those that had it ran deep. The facts of the Great Leap Forward imply ignorance, but Dr. Li defines the know-it-all way it got started, grew, got implemented and institutionalized. With science meaningless, Mao's medical treatment was a political decision, and the doctor knew he would suffer when death eventually came.
· Third is the no-win situation everyone was in. The people setting the dynamics had not only the education of third graders, they had the emotional maturity of them too. Slights and unwanted facts create temper tantrums and grudges lethal to the inhabitants of Zhongnanhai and disastrous for China.
· Fourth, was how Dr. Li was expected to know about everything from water quality, to the poisons in food to dentistry and given no opportunities for professional development. When convenient this knowledge was used, but never applauded.
· It's interesting how Mao maintained power even as he lost his eyesight and speech. I'd be interested in some views why/how this happened.
· It's amazing that this book is free of acrimony and sensationalism. For all his troubles Dr. Li was banished to the countryside 3 times and often intentionally separated from his family.
It must have been both painful and cathartic to write this book. I'm curious how his sons got to the US.
This is a must read for anyone interested in 20th century China.
Dr. Li's suffering was made meaningful in his writing this book. This may be the world's first up close portrait of a national dictator/cult leader. Some of the things that were most striking to me are:
· First, when Dr. Li accompanies Mao to his hometown, Mao tells him how his father, a minor but comfortable landowner, beat him and his brothers so badly that he would run away. Recently I had read how Fidel Castro, was humiliated by living in the workers' homes on the property where his father lived in the "big house" with his legal wife and family. Years ago I had read of Stalin's abuse at the hand of his stepfather. These bright, talented and unwanted sons turned their anger, resentment and hostility on millions of victims.
· Second is that revolutionary warriors had no time for education and their resentment for those that had it ran deep. The facts of the Great Leap Forward imply ignorance, but Dr. Li defines the know-it-all way it got started, grew, got implemented and institutionalized. With science meaningless, Mao's medical treatment was a political decision, and the doctor knew he would suffer when death eventually came.
· Third is the no-win situation everyone was in. The people setting the dynamics had not only the education of third graders, they had the emotional maturity of them too. Slights and unwanted facts create temper tantrums and grudges lethal to the inhabitants of Zhongnanhai and disastrous for China.
· Fourth, was how Dr. Li was expected to know about everything from water quality, to the poisons in food to dentistry and given no opportunities for professional development. When convenient this knowledge was used, but never applauded.
· It's interesting how Mao maintained power even as he lost his eyesight and speech. I'd be interested in some views why/how this happened.
· It's amazing that this book is free of acrimony and sensationalism. For all his troubles Dr. Li was banished to the countryside 3 times and often intentionally separated from his family.
It must have been both painful and cathartic to write this book. I'm curious how his sons got to the US.
This is a must read for anyone interested in 20th century China.
May 21, 2020
If Mao were still alive, this book would have cost the author his life. But Mao died in 1976, this book was published in 1994, and the author himself died a year later.
During Mao’s reign an estimated 50 million Chinese perished from persecution, hunger and disease. He was a bad leader in that sense, but is still revered in China (at least officially) for he is considered the founding father of modern China, no matter how much death and suffering he had caused to his own people.
The author was Mao’s personal physician for 22 years. This is a tell-all memoir of his life as such and here he revealed all the vileness of the Chairman, his lust for power, his paranoia, lack of empathy and his general wicked nature. Indeed, Mao’s only virtue, if one may consider it as a virtue, was his ability to acquire and keep power. That was his “greatness.” All the rest belongs to the sewer.
One can indeed already get a hint of what kind of person he was by the fact that his very own personal physician, who enjoyed his favour for man-years, and who was bound by secrecy under the doctor-patient privilege, would write this 600-plus page exposition of things Mao had kept top secret during his lifetime. Things like that he never, EVER, took a bath; that his genitals were never washed; that he never brushed his rotting teeth; and that he was so sexually promiscuous, with preference over young handsome men and women, that he would take them all to bed simultaneously in an orgy.
It was a life well-live, by the standards of dictators.
During Mao’s reign an estimated 50 million Chinese perished from persecution, hunger and disease. He was a bad leader in that sense, but is still revered in China (at least officially) for he is considered the founding father of modern China, no matter how much death and suffering he had caused to his own people.
The author was Mao’s personal physician for 22 years. This is a tell-all memoir of his life as such and here he revealed all the vileness of the Chairman, his lust for power, his paranoia, lack of empathy and his general wicked nature. Indeed, Mao’s only virtue, if one may consider it as a virtue, was his ability to acquire and keep power. That was his “greatness.” All the rest belongs to the sewer.
One can indeed already get a hint of what kind of person he was by the fact that his very own personal physician, who enjoyed his favour for man-years, and who was bound by secrecy under the doctor-patient privilege, would write this 600-plus page exposition of things Mao had kept top secret during his lifetime. Things like that he never, EVER, took a bath; that his genitals were never washed; that he never brushed his rotting teeth; and that he was so sexually promiscuous, with preference over young handsome men and women, that he would take them all to bed simultaneously in an orgy.
It was a life well-live, by the standards of dictators.
August 8, 2014
Interesting read - I'd recommend this.
One anecdote that stood out to me is how when Mao traveled by train during the famine, the local governments moved all the crops in the fields and put them near the train tracks so it seemed like they were having a plentiful harvest. In the process, they basically killed the few crops they had left. Overall, pretty crazy reading about how detached from reality he was.
Also, having your personal doctor write a novel about you must be pretty devastating. Definitely a few TMI moments here.
One anecdote that stood out to me is how when Mao traveled by train during the famine, the local governments moved all the crops in the fields and put them near the train tracks so it seemed like they were having a plentiful harvest. In the process, they basically killed the few crops they had left. Overall, pretty crazy reading about how detached from reality he was.
Also, having your personal doctor write a novel about you must be pretty devastating. Definitely a few TMI moments here.
November 3, 2020
This is a view from somebody who saw Mao all the time and knew his habits. There are many books on Mao that focus on his affect on China's, and even world history, which was profound. But this book shatters the myths. Spoiler alert - even in private, he wasn't a very nice man.
December 5, 2018
Excellent. Well-written. Fascinating.
October 28, 2020
As it was written by an insider, it is the ideal window into Mao's life and personality. While many deride him as the worst dictator ever, most in China view him as the heroic founder of their nation.
While he outwitted both Nationalist leader Jiang Kaishek during the Chinese Civil War, and tricked General MacArthur during the Korean War, he also presided over the Great Leap Forward and promoted a personality cult which started the Cultural Revolution. He started that because he was in a bad mood with the rest of the politburo, therefore it unleashed chaos during which many literally tore each other into pieces. Furthermore, there is a chapter in my book about the effect that it still has on the general population of China.
How could one leader have instituted such policies, which were either clever or disastrous? What was he doing both openly and behind closed doors which made him think of such things?
The Private Life of Chairman Mao describes in fine detail the private life of someone who was previously a complete mystery. My view of him has since been better balanced.
While he outwitted both Nationalist leader Jiang Kaishek during the Chinese Civil War, and tricked General MacArthur during the Korean War, he also presided over the Great Leap Forward and promoted a personality cult which started the Cultural Revolution. He started that because he was in a bad mood with the rest of the politburo, therefore it unleashed chaos during which many literally tore each other into pieces. Furthermore, there is a chapter in my book about the effect that it still has on the general population of China.
How could one leader have instituted such policies, which were either clever or disastrous? What was he doing both openly and behind closed doors which made him think of such things?
The Private Life of Chairman Mao describes in fine detail the private life of someone who was previously a complete mystery. My view of him has since been better balanced.
August 13, 2016
看完了李先生写的书，感觉还不错，还原出一个生性多疑，极其贪恋权力的大独裁者，土皇帝形象，所有处于他身边的人都战战兢兢，因为不知何时灾难就降临在自己头上，这个人也是给中国人以极其沉痛灾难的人，可以说名列千古罪人并不为过，因为很多人说他为革命作出了巨大贡献所以他还是很正面的，我认为他所谓的巨大贡献只是对于共产党人来说是巨大贡献，没有了他的共产党他的中华人民共和国，中国照样是那个伟大的国家，照样可以崛起，可以现代化，不同的是，没有了他，没有了他的共产党，中国会少死很多人，会保留很多文物，会少了很多灾难，会迎来民主与自由而不是一个极权主义的共产党，压迫着广大的中国人民。
July 21, 2022
The situation at Chairman Mao's court was so tense that this reads like a novel
August 28, 2020
كتاب نسبتأ خوبي براي آشنايي با حزب كمونيست و سياست هايشان كه آثار آن در دنياي امروز هم مشاهده ميشود. كتاب از قول پزشك مائو كه ٢٢ سال در كنار او بوده نقل شده است. لازم به ذكر است كه مترجم كتابي ٧٠٠ صفحه اي رو به چكيده اي ٢٤٠ صفحه اي تبديل كرده كه خب طبيعتأ ساختار همگن كتاب رو از بين برده است. نكته مهم در مورد آن اين است كه اين كتاب خارج از چين و بعد از مرگ مائو به چاپ ميرسد و به همين دليل از تيغ سانسور در امان مانده است. اگر راست گرا باشي طبيعتأ از خوانش اين كتاب لذت بيشتري خواهي برد تا چپ گرا. بخش اصلي روايت كتاب به زندگي شخصي مائو ميپردازد تا اينكه نوع مناسبات هيئت حاكمه را بررسي كند و خصوصأ از نيمه هاي كتاب نگاه سطحي نگرانه تري به خود ميگيرد. شخصأ من از كتاب توقع بيشتري داشتم و انتظار داشتم كه تمام فجايعي كه كمونيسم در دهه ١٩٥٠ تا ٧٠ بر سر مردم كشورش آورده است را موشكافانه تر بررسي كند ولي در مجموع ميتوان گفت كه كتاب نمره قبولي ميگيرد و ارزش يكبار خواندن را دارد.
December 21, 2020
I came to this book looking for a credible, respectable, fly-on-the-wall account of Mao Zedong's life. It ended up only partially meeting one of those three basic criteria; it was neither respectable nor was the source very credible, and for large portions (especially the later years, when Dr. Li had admittedly fallen out of favor with Mao) we did not even get eyewitness accounts.
A bizarre warning comes in the very introduction when Dr. Li, who has just given a thorough explanation of his journaling practices (ostensibly to support the credentials of the ensuing account), then explains how he eventually burned all his notes but still remembers verbatim conversations with Mao almost 20 years later "(b)ecause Mao's language was so colorful and vivid and deeply etched in my brain" and, "My survival and that of my family had always depended on Mao's words; I could not forget them." (p.xvii) My thoughts after reading that passage went something like this: "Oh, okay, that sounds reasonable enou--- waaait a second. . . does that. . . umm. . . yeah. . . so that means he kept notes but didn't use them for this and just relied on his seventy-something year-old memory for events that happened 20-30 years ago?. . .okaaaaayyy. . . that actually sounds like complete bullshit."
Credibility, meet your undoing.
Dr. Li's credibility is further damaged by the way he narrates certain events. His accounts are conspicuous for their absence of meaningful self-criticism. Sure he occasionally says he should have done something differently, but he doesn't ever seem sincere. Here's an example:
The respectability of the proceedings runs into problems when Dr. Li spends an inordinate amount of time speaking of the sexual and physical characteristics of his subjects. On p.100 he needlessly describes how he masturbated Mao, and later on in the book he commits what to me seems a pretty huge transgression when he uses a patient's reaction to physical crisis to comment on his lack of courage. This came across as both unethical and immoral, regardless of whether the then-patient is currently living or not.
Finally, the scope of the book was disappointing in that it was not quite as advertised. A good portion of the book, maybe half, doesn't have to do much with Mao's "private life" at all, but rather deals with the situation in China as a whole and its effect on Dr. Li. Perhaps it could have been more accurately called "The Private Life of Dr. Li Who Occasionally Glimpsed the Private Life of Chairman Mao." Especially in the later years, as I already mentioned, Dr. Li wasn't even really around Mao, so he (somewhat self-consciously, it appears) has to fill up pages with minor details about Politburo factions and in-fighting. He doesn't necessarily seem to be glorifying his role in the proceedings, but a more cynical person than myself might read it that way (I'm told such people exist but have not yet confirmed it). Also, the book gets repetitive and tedious at times.
Overall, I did learn much about Mao the man and his era in Chinese history. I now want to rewatch the movie "To Live" to see again the sumptuous recreation of the Cultural Revolution. I just wish Dr. Li would have kept the focus of the book tighter and maintained more professional discipline in what he chose to divulge. I also wish he wouldn't have passed it off as perfectly-recreated dialogue even after burning his notes, as that just defies belief.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
A bizarre warning comes in the very introduction when Dr. Li, who has just given a thorough explanation of his journaling practices (ostensibly to support the credentials of the ensuing account), then explains how he eventually burned all his notes but still remembers verbatim conversations with Mao almost 20 years later "(b)ecause Mao's language was so colorful and vivid and deeply etched in my brain" and, "My survival and that of my family had always depended on Mao's words; I could not forget them." (p.xvii) My thoughts after reading that passage went something like this: "Oh, okay, that sounds reasonable enou--- waaait a second. . . does that. . . umm. . . yeah. . . so that means he kept notes but didn't use them for this and just relied on his seventy-something year-old memory for events that happened 20-30 years ago?. . .okaaaaayyy. . . that actually sounds like complete bullshit."
Credibility, meet your undoing.
Dr. Li's credibility is further damaged by the way he narrates certain events. His accounts are conspicuous for their absence of meaningful self-criticism. Sure he occasionally says he should have done something differently, but he doesn't ever seem sincere. Here's an example:
I am grateful that I did not understand Mao at the time, did not know how widespread his purges were, how horribly my fellow intellectuals were suffering, how many people were dying. I had tried to escape from Mao's circle so many times, and always Mao had pulled me back. Now I was trapped, with no hope of leaving. There was much that I could have seen then but did not. What if I really had known clearly what was happening outside my protective cocoon? What if I really had understood the depth and extent of the purges? I could never have accepted it, but I would have been powerless to do anything, either. I would not have been able to leave the circle and I would not have been able to live within it.So to sum up: Excuse, excuse, justification, excuse, rationalization and half-hearted self-criticism. The overwhelming takeaway from a passage such as this is Dr. Li's timidity and conventionality. And of course how much can we really trust the account of such a person? Are we to just assume from the absence in his memoir that he did not actively participate in any of the persecutions, that his actions did not result in the "purging" or condemnation of anyone else? He depicts himself a little too cleanly to really believe. And just from reading the passage above you would never guess that the "so many" escape attempts were really just him asking a superior to transfer him to another post. It's sort of an insult to people who actually were courageous at that time and committed much more drastic actions.
The Chinese have an expression, nande hutu, which means that it is difficult to be muddle-headed -- but lucky. It is an expression reserved for situations like mine. Looking back, I know that I was muddle-headed during those years. I had to be. It was the only way to survive.
The respectability of the proceedings runs into problems when Dr. Li spends an inordinate amount of time speaking of the sexual and physical characteristics of his subjects. On p.100 he needlessly describes how he masturbated Mao, and later on in the book he commits what to me seems a pretty huge transgression when he uses a patient's reaction to physical crisis to comment on his lack of courage. This came across as both unethical and immoral, regardless of whether the then-patient is currently living or not.
Finally, the scope of the book was disappointing in that it was not quite as advertised. A good portion of the book, maybe half, doesn't have to do much with Mao's "private life" at all, but rather deals with the situation in China as a whole and its effect on Dr. Li. Perhaps it could have been more accurately called "The Private Life of Dr. Li Who Occasionally Glimpsed the Private Life of Chairman Mao." Especially in the later years, as I already mentioned, Dr. Li wasn't even really around Mao, so he (somewhat self-consciously, it appears) has to fill up pages with minor details about Politburo factions and in-fighting. He doesn't necessarily seem to be glorifying his role in the proceedings, but a more cynical person than myself might read it that way (I'm told such people exist but have not yet confirmed it). Also, the book gets repetitive and tedious at times.
Overall, I did learn much about Mao the man and his era in Chinese history. I now want to rewatch the movie "To Live" to see again the sumptuous recreation of the Cultural Revolution. I just wish Dr. Li would have kept the focus of the book tighter and maintained more professional discipline in what he chose to divulge. I also wish he wouldn't have passed it off as perfectly-recreated dialogue even after burning his notes, as that just defies belief.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
July 11, 2018
As the recommendation from jayalalitha (former CM of TN,India) to her doctor, i came to know about this book. Most of the time when i read this book, i can correlate the incident to her life also.
Mao is really a giant himself, whose mood can rejig the the vast nation china. Though he made many mistakes, his way of politics - Keep the balance in second rung leader- always keep them in clash among them self- is greatly helped him to sustain the power for long period.
Mao is really a giant himself, whose mood can rejig the the vast nation china. Though he made many mistakes, his way of politics - Keep the balance in second rung leader- always keep them in clash among them self- is greatly helped him to sustain the power for long period.
November 13, 2019
Was very insightful in the elements of power and ego within a leadership group.
August 20, 2017
This is a must-read book for all those who are curious about Mao, China, socialism, communism et al. The myth is revealed in its fullest, most shocking detail. The myth about Mao's greatness and the utopia that has eluded and will continue to elude all those who sincerely believe in the basic tenets of collective governance.
Mao was a monster, a debauch, a hypocrite and filthy even in the literal sense. For example, he never brushed his teeth (which were covered by green and black plaque) and he never bathed (though he sometimes swam).
Here are a few snapshots:
- Once when Mao fell seriously ill, news about it reached Zhou En Lai while he was in the midst of a party meeting. Zhou literally shat in his pants in front of all those senior party members who were attending the conference - he was so fearful of the factional aftermath.
- The same Zhou En Lai was down with multiple cancers and needed urgent surgery but he could not be operated upon because Mao's prior permission was required. and Mao would not permit. He died not much thereafter.
- The "Great Leap Forward" was a massive failure and led to unprecedented cover ups. 30 million peasants died of starvation due to a combination of famine and dogged mismanagement. And when the "emperor" travelled precious paddy plants were uprooted from wherever they could be found and replanted on the barren lands that lined Mao's route!
- To prove the rapid strides that 'industrialization' was taking (as whimsically ordered by Mao), the most ridiculous subterfuge was indulged in. False steel outputs were reported by melting spoons and knives all over the Chinese country-sides (in the back yards of peasants' dwelling places) to 'manufacture' knives and spoons!!
- The 'Cultural Revolution' was used only to banish and kill dissidents whether true or imagined. Its a wonder to me that that no mayhem followed Mao's ultimate death and China did not balkanize, there was so much factionalism and so many swings in power centers.
- The author fled from China to the U.S. immediately after Mao's death - and he wrote this book there. After its release he announced that he had even more to reveal which he planned to do through his second book. But he died soon after reportedly under mysterious circumstances.
The book is longish but quite unputdownable.
Mao was a monster, a debauch, a hypocrite and filthy even in the literal sense. For example, he never brushed his teeth (which were covered by green and black plaque) and he never bathed (though he sometimes swam).
Here are a few snapshots:
- Once when Mao fell seriously ill, news about it reached Zhou En Lai while he was in the midst of a party meeting. Zhou literally shat in his pants in front of all those senior party members who were attending the conference - he was so fearful of the factional aftermath.
- The same Zhou En Lai was down with multiple cancers and needed urgent surgery but he could not be operated upon because Mao's prior permission was required. and Mao would not permit. He died not much thereafter.
- The "Great Leap Forward" was a massive failure and led to unprecedented cover ups. 30 million peasants died of starvation due to a combination of famine and dogged mismanagement. And when the "emperor" travelled precious paddy plants were uprooted from wherever they could be found and replanted on the barren lands that lined Mao's route!
- To prove the rapid strides that 'industrialization' was taking (as whimsically ordered by Mao), the most ridiculous subterfuge was indulged in. False steel outputs were reported by melting spoons and knives all over the Chinese country-sides (in the back yards of peasants' dwelling places) to 'manufacture' knives and spoons!!
- The 'Cultural Revolution' was used only to banish and kill dissidents whether true or imagined. Its a wonder to me that that no mayhem followed Mao's ultimate death and China did not balkanize, there was so much factionalism and so many swings in power centers.
- The author fled from China to the U.S. immediately after Mao's death - and he wrote this book there. After its release he announced that he had even more to reveal which he planned to do through his second book. But he died soon after reportedly under mysterious circumstances.
The book is longish but quite unputdownable.
August 15, 2021
Li Zhisui, the attending physician to Mao for 22 yrs, gives 1st-person account of Mao and the high-level officials in Group One. He gave insight into perhaps one of the most influential person in world history, such as: Mao's personal hygiene (not brushing his teeth/but just rinse his mouth with tea; not bathing); his sexual needs (young women, multiple women); his health (not being treated for STD, traditional vs. Western medicine); his rule of China.
There were times when to determine what /if a medical procedure (eg, type of cataract surgery) should be done on Mao. To do this, they would be tested out on Chinese patients beforehand.
Perhaps Li summarized best when he said, "Even today, the Communist party continues to demand that people attack the innocent. It requires people to pledge public support for polices with which they do not agree. Survival in China, then and now, depends on constantly betraying one's conscience."
There were times when to determine what /if a medical procedure (eg, type of cataract surgery) should be done on Mao. To do this, they would be tested out on Chinese patients beforehand.
Perhaps Li summarized best when he said, "Even today, the Communist party continues to demand that people attack the innocent. It requires people to pledge public support for polices with which they do not agree. Survival in China, then and now, depends on constantly betraying one's conscience."
August 31, 2011
The most memorable part of this biography which I remember to this day are the salacious details of the ballroom dances organized for Mao's benefit with poor innocent country girls, whose parents were only too happy to make whatever contribution they could for the benefit of Chairman Mao. Refusing treatment for his VDs, Li (his personal doctor) would have to prescribe antibiotics to all the girls that he slept with. Who would have thought even someone like Chairman Mao? Pretty sure this one wasn't in the communist party doctrine anywhere.
July 26, 2023
据说一本毛医录拯救一个行业（港台政治秘史类出版物），不愧是让阅读变成get hooked体验的大成之作。权力让人回春（毛/林/江），政治使人变性（周/江）。
February 12, 2024
Well idk why I wanted to know about his sexual life, ew.
Read
November 23, 2024zhou enlai shit himself when he found out that mao almost died and that will make its way into my history ia <3
February 26, 2023
* 500 pages: interminable list of different named cadres looking embarrassed, scared, or nonplussed, with no characterisation or distinguishing marks given. (There's a glossary, use it.)
* 200 pages: the exact change in volume of Mao's piss. Li hiding from Jiang in a militarised textile factory for 3 months, not seeing his family / sent to Jiangxi to do hard labour for a year.
* 63 pages: invaluable historical documentation of vice, ignorance, cowardice, brutality, and goofiness. The worst of the emperors, which is saying a lot.
Mao spent much of his time in bed or lounging by the side of a private pool, not dressing for days at a time. He... rinsed his mouth with tea [instead of brushing], and slept with country girls... He did not bathe, preferring a rubdown with hot towels, although this made it hard for Dr. Li to stop the spread of venereal infections among his female companions...
I cautioned him that herpes was contagious and could spread through sexual contact, but he ignored my warnings. He did not think the problem was so bad... The illness, transmitted by Mao, was a badge of honor, testimony to their close relations with the chairman... "a harem of three thousand concubines"... When I told Mao about the veneration being accorded his mango, he laughed. He had no problem with the mango worship and seemed delighted by the story... He followed no schedule except on May Day and National Day and on the rare occasions when he received foreign visitors. Then he had to dress, taking barbiturates to control his anxiety.
[The "cultural work troupe"] provided entertainment not only for the Central Garrison Corps but also for Mao. The troupe contained a pool of young women, selected for their looks, their artistic talent, and their political reliability. Over time, the role of these dancing parties, and of some of the young women who participated in them, became too obvious for me to ignore.
[Mao's concubine] had become Mao’s gatekeeper... One day in June 1976, when Hua Guofeng had come to see Mao, Zhang Yufeng had been napping and the attendants on duty were afraid to rouse her. Two hours later, when Zhang had still not gotten up, Hua, second in command only to Mao, finally left without seeing his superior...
There's enough of Li's own resentments and grudges and worry for his family to make it feel authentic.
In 1958–59, the food shortage hit, causing further hardship for my mother. Lillian still ate in the dining hall at Zhongnanhai, and I joined her when I was there. There was no meat[!]
...I devoted my professional life to Mao and China, but now I am stateless and homeless, unwelcome in my own country
His great-grandfather was physician to the Chinese emperor. He died just after publishing this.
Peng Dehuai is one of the only people to come out of this looking good. Conversely, Deng mostly just keeps his mouth shut for 30 years, biding time.
What difference can really there be among "left" and "right" Maoists, who all agree that what Mao says is law? Left Maoism: "Socialist weeds are better than capitalist wheat".
Everyone was dressing like soldiers then, including Jiang Qing.
One odd thing: he keeps on insisting that the psychotic Jiang Qing was out to get him / to hurt Wang's faction by getting rid of him. But the factions are constantly mixing and she retains him as her physician. (Maybe just looking for an opportunity.)
Jiang Qing left Mao’s room triumphant and invited us to join her to celebrate with maotai, peanuts, and roast pork. “We are victorious,” she said, offering a toast. “Bottoms up. I will become a bludgeon, ready to strike.” It was an unpleasant experience, and I was very upset.
The original Maoists are a weird bunch, not at all simple thugs. Much of their evil was routed through passive aggression, perverting evidence, falsifying testimonies: a legalistic modus operandi. The foreword suggests that cowardice is the wrong way to interpret the silence and complicity of the top cadres: Mao was instead "relying on the Confucian unwillingness of those around him to confront their superior". An amusing ideological victory for the old patriarch.
I was also surprised by some of the lifespans involved. Wang lived to 99, and the great monster managed 84 despite chain-smoking, being riddled with VD, and antiquated medicine. 1974:
Shortly before midnight on September 8, 1976, the doctors had administered an intravenous injection of shengmai san, a traditional Chinese herbal concoction... during episodic emergencies we relied on the American-made respirator that Henry Kissinger had sent in 1971 after his secret mission to China... I touched the gums lightly and some pus oozed out. He had never complained of discomfort, even though an infection of that sort ordinarily causes considerable pain. I suspect that Mao had a high tolerance of discomfort and so hated doctors and illness that he often endured his pain in silence
Li shows Mao as having barely a single noble impulse over twenty two years. All the same, you can see what people liked about him: in contrast to his writing and his policies, he was pretty earthy and informal and pragmatic and scruffy, and (as in his writing) he was actually idealistic and stoic.
when I told Mao the story of my friend’s encouragement to offer Yan a bribe, Mao laughed uproariously. “You bookworm,” he chided me. “Why are you so stingy? You don’t understand human relations. Pure water can’t support fish. What’s so strange about giving someone a present? Didn’t Guo Moruo give me a watch during the Chongqing negotiations...
Mao continued to talk excitedly about the latest production statistics. He had become curious about the works of the Soviet economist Leontief, wanting to compare economic organization in the Soviet Union with the new economic structures in China, and asked Chen Boda, Tian Jiaying, and Deng Liqun to join him in Guangzhou to study Leontief’s book on political economy.
The United States has also trained many skilled technicians for China,” Mao continued, a remark that would have been unthinkable for ordinary Chinese. The United States was still publicly reviled as China’s Enemy Number One and to praise it was counterrevolutionary. “So all of you belong to the British-American school,” Mao said. “I like people trained in England and the United States"
He is an extraordinary lesson in what happens when you operate on the level of social reality (what people think, manipulating animal spirits) and float free of reality.
What he learned during his visit was conclusive. High-quality steel can be produced only in huge modern factories using reliable fuel, like coal. But he gave no order to halt the backyard steel furnaces. The horrible waste of manpower and materials, the useless output from the homemade furnaces, was not his main concern. Mao still did not want to do anything to dampen the enthusiasm of the masses
I think this is one of the only laudable emotions we see:
[They were looking for the Buddhist] shrine his mother used to visit when he was sick, where she burned incense and fed the ashes to her son, certain of their curative powers. The tiny shrine, like the tombstone, had disappeared, torn down only months before with the establishment of the commune. The bricks were needed to build the backyard steel furnaces, and the wood had been used as fuel. Mao had fallen silent on our walk. The destruction of the shrine had saddened him
It's pretty crazy how much of policy was based off unrecorded offhand remarks. The end of the Great Leap, immediately after the shrine moment:
if you cannot produce good steel, you might as well quit.” With these words, Shaoshan probably became the first village in the country to abolish the public dining halls, halt its water conservancy project, and begin dismantling the backyard steel furnaces. Mao’s comments were never publicly released, but they spread quickly through word of mouth. Soon many areas were dismantling their projects
And of course he lost control of the Red Guards almost immediately after setting them off:
Liu Shaoqi was being “struggled against” outside the State Council auditorium. I ran there immediately... [he and his wife were] pushed and kicked and beaten by staff members from the Bureau of Secretaries. Liu’s shirt had already been torn open, and a couple of buttons were missing, and people were jerking his head around by the hair…Finally, they forced him down and pushed his face toward the ground until it was nearly touching the dirt, kicking him and slapping him in the face... Liu Shaoqi was already an old man by then, almost seventy, and he was our head of state...
Wang was in a difficult position. He could not inform Mao directly of the violence in Zhongnanhai. To make such a report would be to oppose a decision of the increasingly powerful Central Cultural Revolution Small Group, and no one would dare risk criticizing the rising leftists... "They just don’t listen to me,” [Mao] complained when I had finished, referring to the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group, which included his wife
His authority evaporated completely at the moment of his death, with the factions bickering in the room with his body, and his written instructions to be cremated completely ignored - at the same time as his name became a holy relic of rectitude, still finding service today.
Altogether we injected a total of twenty-two liters, some six more than the formula called for, hoping that the extra would provide some additional guarantee... The results were shocking. Mao's face was bloated, as round as a ball, and his neck was now the width of his
head. His skin was shiny, and the formaldehyde oozed from his pores like perspiration. His ears were swollen, too, sticking out from his head at right angles. Somehow we had to restore Mao to his original appearance, but there was no way to remove the formaldehyde. “It’s all right if his body stays bloated,” I said. “His clothes will cover it. But we had better try to fix his face and neck.” “Maybe if we massage them we can squeeze some of the liquid back into the body,” Zhang suggested. The team started working on Mao’s face with a towel and cotton balls, trying to force the liquid down into the body. When Chen pressed a little too hard, a piece of skin on Mao’s right cheek broke off
Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews