Bibliographical essays

Summary

MAO TSE-TUNG'S THOUGHT FROM 1949 TO 1976

This essay continues the bibliographical essay on Mao's thought to 1949 published in Volume 14 of The Cambridge History of China in 1987. The study of Mao Tse-tung's thought for the period after 1949 has long been impeded by the fact that many writings of crucial importance were not available at all, and those issued in China had often been so extensively revised as to constitute an unreliable guide as to what he originally said. Although large numbers of previously unpublished documents were put into circulation in the early years of the Cultural Revolution, there is, even today, no comprehensive edition of the Chinese texts of Mao's post-1949 writings comparable to the twenty-volume compilation for the earlier period produced in Japan. (For details regarding this edition of the pre-1949 works, supervised by Takeuchi Minoru, see the bibliographic essay on Mao Tse-tung Thought to 1949 in Volume 13, and the entry below in the Bibliography under Mao Tse-tung chi.)