何新：论毛泽东（中英文对照）

论毛泽东（中英文对照）

何  新

He Xin: On Mao Zedong

（Chinese-English bilingual Version）

1

毋庸置疑，毛泽东是人类历史上最伟大的革命家、军事家和政治家。毛泽东是几千年不世出的旷世天才。

Undoubtedly, Mao Zedong has been the greatest revolutionist, strategist and statesman throughout all the epochs of human history as well as a peerless genius in several thousands of years.

通观人类历史，可以论定毛泽东是一位旷世绝伦，无与类比的人物。毛泽东唤醒了整个东方人类和新兴世界。20世纪30年代以后的中国历史(无论其正面或者负面)，几乎都是毛泽东所一手铸成。而20世纪的世界历史，如果没有毛泽东，也必是完全不同的另一面貌。

Take a panoramic view of the human history, we could draw the conclusion that Mao Zedong has been an unparalleled great figure without rivals. He awakened all the Eastern peoples and the newly-established world. China’s history after the 1930s (whether the positive or negative side) has taken shape almost all under Mao Zedong’s hand; while the world’s history in the twentieth century must have been a completely different one without Mao Zedong.

毛泽东去世后，他生前反对过的南斯拉夫强人铁托说：“毛泽东是站在巨人之上的超级巨人”。而西德总理勃兰特说：“对一部分人来说，毛泽东是希望，对另一部分人来说，他是永久的挑战。两种情况都将继续下去，以后一直会如此”。信然!

After Mao Zedong’s demise, the Yugoslavian strongman President Tito whom Mao used to oppose acclaimed the late Mao: “Mao Zedong is the super giant in one giant.” Willy Brandt, Chancellor of West Germany, said: “For some people, Mao Zedong is their hope; while for some others, he is a permanent challenge. These two situations shall both continue, and shall always be.” It’s indeed the truth!

毛泽东天姿英发，文韬武略，倜傥风流，胆识过人。所有的亲历者都指出毛泽东的人格魅力是无穷的。任何走近他的人，都不能不被其言谈举止所震撼或者融化(包括他的对手如蒋介石、尼克松、赫鲁晓夫和基辛格)。在毛泽东面前，巨人显得渺小。

Mao Zedong, bearing both an inborn heroic spirit and a dignified and charming deportment, was one versed in both literature and military affairs and one exceeding the rest in both bravery and wisdom. All history witnesses have pointed out that Mao Zedong possessed indefinite personal charisma. And he had never failed to, with his speech and deportment, shock or overwhelm anyone who walked near him (including his opponents Chiang Kai Shek, Nixon, Khrushchev and Kissinger). The giant even looked smaller in front of Mao Zedong.

以毛泽东出身之卑微，早年所受教育之狭蹙，社会背景之孤陋，以及所掌握资源之匮乏——而竟能白手起家，自力更生，缔造出一个雄伟的新生中华之国!

With such humble origins, such parochial early education, such ordinary social background and such scanty resources, Mao Zedong could start empty-handed, blaze a trail by self-dependence and finally build up the magnificent New China!

回溯中古时代以来的历史1000年、黑铁时代以来的历史3000年、青铜时代以来的历史5000年，以至智人诞生以来的历史四百万年———毛泽东现象都可以断论是绝无仅有，浑然天成!

While looking retrospectively at the history dating back to the medieval times one thousand years ago, the Iron Age three thousand years ago, the Bronze Age five thousand years ago, or even the homo sapien period four million years ago, we could definitely tell that the Mao Zedong phenomenon has been the only one of its kind and has been one as natural as nature itself!

2

毛泽东对于历史是一个奇迹!他的平生业绩令当世之人目瞪口呆，令后世之人难以置信!毛泽东的故事宛若一个神话。

Mao Zedong is a miracle for history itself. His lifelong achievements have not only astonished people of the present-day world, but shall also appear equally incredible to people of later generations. The story of Mao Zedong is just like a legend.

世界历史上从来没有第二位政治家，能够凭借几乎一无所有、两手空空的经济和政治资源，在短短的二十八年之间，审时度势，谋形造势，纵横捭阖，横扫强敌，缔造出全世界人数最多的第一政党(“中国共产党”)，建立了一只装备简陋而几乎战无不胜的钢铁之军队(“中国人民解放军”)，一个基础赤贫然而精神无比强大的新兴共和国————中华人民共和国。而毛泽东自身，则于1949年成为世界上这个人口最多的国家之至高无上的圣人、导师和领袖。

In the world’s history, there has never been a second statesman, who had, starting from a foundation with barely no economic or political resources at all, in a short period of twenty-eight years, accurately judged the hour and sized up the situation, maneuvered among various political groupings, and swept all the powerful enemies and finally successfully set up the largest party in the world (“the Communist Party of China”), built up a poorly-equipped yet almost all-conquering iron army (“the Chinese People’s Liberation Army”), and established a new republic with a destitute foundation yet of an uplifting spirit -- the People’s Republic of China. Mao Zedong himself has also, in 1949, become the supreme saint, mentor and leader of the country which had the largest population in the world.

自从地理大发现的近500年以来，世界上没有任何一个国家之领袖，敢于如毛泽东那样地以一国而对抗世界，那样地蔑视世界殖民主义的西方列强和20世纪的美、苏两霸，如此地蔑视西方所谓的“世界新秩序”。

Ever since the Great Geographical Discovery about five hundred years ago, no leader of any other country in the world had been as dauntless as Mao Zedong, who dared to lead China to confront against the entire world, to show contempt to the Western colonial powers as well as the Soviet-American hegemony in the twentieth century, and to despise the so-called “new world order” set by the West.

3

1950年新中国立国之初，毛泽东力排众议而出军朝鲜，以小米加步枪，公然抗衡联合国17国(美、英、法、韩国以及荷兰、新西兰、加拿大、澳大利亚、菲律宾、土耳其、泰国、南非、希腊、比利时、卢森堡、哥伦比亚、埃塞俄比亚)的强大联军，并且战而胜之!而此战，美国所派出的是其全部陆军的三分之一，空军的五分之一，海军的二分之一。

In 1950, shortly after the establishment of New China, Mao Zedong overrode all objections and sent the PLA of China to North Korea. Relying on millet plus rifles, the Chinese army fought openly against the powerful allied forces of the seventeen countries (the United States, Britain, France, South Korea, Holland, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Philippines, Turkey, Thailand, South Africa, Greece, Belgium, Luxemburg, Columbia, Ethiopia) and finally triumphed over them. During that war, the United States had dispatched one-third of its land force, one-fifth of its air force, and half of its navy into the battlefield.

面对这样强大的军事阵容，只要敢于迎战，即使战败也不失为英雄。然而毛泽东于万里之外遥控战局，羽扇纶巾谈笑间，强虏灰飞烟灭——竟然将二战中克胜日本天皇百万大军、威名盖世的美军统帅麦克阿瑟打得丢盔卸甲，弃印而去。

Confronted with such powerful military forces, one should be regarded as a hero even in defeat as long as one had the courage to fight. However, Mao Zedong, mapping out military strategies in a leisurely and unhurried manner thousands of miles away from the battlefield, commanded his army to completely vanquish the American Supreme Commander MacArthur, who had the awe-inspiring reputation of defeating the millions of troops of the Japanese emperor in the past.

此后面对整个西方世界的报复、封锁和堵截，较量几十年，最终毛泽东迫使西方世界不仅向他低头，而且不得不为他喝彩。甚至连超强之敌酋也不得不对他输诚俯首!(可参看二战之英军统帅蒙巴顿将军关于毛泽东的回忆录以及尼克松、基辛格的回忆录。)

Since then, Mao Zedong has begun to fight a decades-long contest with the revenges, blockade and interceptions from the West, while he had finally forced the Western world succumb to him or even acclaim to him. What’s more, even his strongest opponents had to capitulate to him! (See reference to WWII British Commander General Louis Mountbatten’s memoirs about Mao Zedong and the Memoirs of Nixon and Kissinger.)

事实上，1950年爆发的朝鲜战争的终局，并不是结束在1953年7月板门店的谈判桌上，而是结束在1972年2月北京中南海毛泽东住处的游泳池边，就是美国总统尼克松俯首下心而向毛泽东折节输诚的那个时刻。

In fact, the outcome of the Korean War that broke out in 1950 was not from the negotiating table in Panmunjom in July 1953, but from the edge of the swimming pool outside Mao Zedong’s Beijing Zhongnanhai abode in February 1972, and from the moment when the American President Nixon bowed wholeheartedly to express his sincerity to Mao Zedong.

毛泽东蔑视联合国。但是当1971年10月中国使团骄傲地带着毛泽东著作和中国式的理念走进纽约联合国大厦的时候，中国人所得到的却是全世界的欢呼和掌声!

Mao Zedong had never taken the United Nations seriously. Nevertheless, when the Chinese mission taking Mao Zedong’s works and the Chinese-styled ideas entered the UN headquarters in New York in October 1971, the Chinese people won the cheers and applause from all over the world!

毛泽东现象是世界历史中绝无仅有，而几乎不可思议的神话。

In the world’s history, Mao Zedong has been a unique phenomenon as well as an incredible legend.

4

哲人尼采说：战争是净化历史的洗涤剂。黑格尔说：战争推动历史前进。

Philosopher Nietzsche said: war is the detergent that purifies the history. Hegel said: war pushes forward the progress of history.

毛泽东出身一介布衣，早年不过是一介寒儒卑微书生。平生智计魁梧奇伟，至见其图，弱冠状貌，腼腆羞涩如温润好女。

Born as a commoner, Mao Zedong had merely been a poor and humble scholar in his early years. Despite his great sagacity and resourcefulness, seeing his photo, one would find that he appeared as a boy in his twenties, both shy and bashful, and as muted as a young lady.

然而毛泽东之大半生在马背上度过。更不可思议的是，毛泽东身经百战，却几乎手不触枪。自1928秋收起义后兵败落草上山，到1949年席卷全中国的辽沈、淮海、平津、渡江四大战役，毛泽东以数百人的一支落魄残军起家，数十年中竟锻造出一只战无不胜而意气如虹的钢铁之军。

However, Mao Zedong spent most of his life on horseback. What’s more unbelievable, as battle-seasoned as he was, Mao Zedong had scarcely touched a gun himself. Since the defeat in the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1928, to the four major campaigns of Liao-Shen, Huai-Hai, Beiping-Tianjin, and Jing-Hu-Hang in 1949 that swept the whole country, Mao Zedong started his great cause from a broken army of several hundreds of soldiers and gradually hammered out an all-conquering iron army of indestructible spirit.

二十一年的三次国内革命战争中，毛泽东所指挥的游击战、反围剿、运动战以及大歼灭战，以对战双方投入兵力之数量，战争之规模，覆盖地域之广阔论，均超过了人类历史上一切战争和经典战役。毛泽东生平取得的战绩足以压倒全部西方战史上的一切统帅和名将。

During the three revolutionary civil wars in twenty-one years, Mao Zedong had commanded numerous guerrilla wars, counter-campaigns, mobile wars, as well as wars of annihilation. The number of armed forces put into wars by both sides, the scale of wars and of the war-stricken areas, have surpassed all wars and classical battles in the human history. The military successes that Mao Zedong had accomplished during his lifetime have exceeded those made by all military commanders and famous generals in the Western military history.

毛泽东御军四十余年，览传统之法术，纲马列之宏教，运筹远谋，算无遗策。鞭挞宇内，临危制变。明哲识才，知人善用，席卷千军，战天斗地。

Mao Zedong took command of the PLA of China for forty years, during which time he not only gave full play to the traditional Chinese military strategies, but also made ingeniously applications of the Marxism-Leninism tenets, and in this way, he seldom made misjudgment and had all the situations well in hand. Leading armies to fight battles throughout the entire country, he could always maintain his flexibility and maneuverability in the face of danger. In addition, possessing the great wisdom of distinguishing and using talents, Mao Zedong guided his troops, defeated the powerful enemies and won triumphs one after another in the universe.

毛泽东的军事指挥艺术出神入化，精妙绝伦，磅礴云天。相形之下，西方之那些名将战局不过如同小丘而已。所谓运筹帷幄之中，决胜千里之外，不足以状毛泽东兵法之神妙。毛泽东用兵包括政治、军事、宣传动员、谍报用间，战略、战术整体配合之运用，其高明超过了人类历史上一切伟大的军事家和战争组织者。

Mao Zedong’s military commanding art has attained such an acme of superb perfection that, compared with him, those famous generals and battles in the West all seemed totally unworthy of being mentioned. Even the so-called compliment of “devising strategies within a command to win a victory thousands miles away” could not fully depict how marvelously ingenious Mao Zedong’s military strategies are. While commanding armies, Mao Zedong made such clever application of the overall collaborated means of politics, military forces, propaganda and mobilization, intelligence work, military strategies and tactics that his military wisdom has surpassed all great militarists and war organizers in the human history.

毛泽东兵学天下无敌。只要这个世界上仍然有战争，毛泽东战争学术就当之无愧地名列人类战史之首篇。

Mao Zedong’s military science has been invincible all over the world. As long as there are wars in this world, Mao Zedong’s military science shall fully deserve to be ranked in the first place in the military history of mankind.

毛泽东是军事史中一位战功彪炳，值得一切军事家景仰和研究的战神。

In the military history, Mao Zedong is a god of war who had accomplished outstanding military exploits and thus deserves the admiration and study of all militarists.

5

毛泽东智慧而诡谲，是一位玄机难测的伟大政治谋略家。毛泽东驾驭历史操纵人类的能力，非学而成，似乎来自天赋。

Both sagacious and wily, Mao Zedong is a mysterious and unpredictable great political strategist. It seems that Mao Zedong’s ability of manipulating history and people has been an inborn talent rather than something gained from later acquisition.

毛泽东生前斗倒了他的一切内外强敌。毛泽东蔑视一切对手，说大人则渺之，所谓战略上藐视之而战术上重视之，又极乎辩证。

During his lifetime, Mao Zedong defeated all his foes both inside and outside of China. He held a contemptuous attitude towards all of his opponents, saying that a grand person should despise all his enemies. While his talking of “strategically despising all the enemies, but tactically taking them all seriously” fully demonstrates his dialectical thoughts.

但是，毛泽东始终关注人民百姓之“大多数”。他永远在世界上穷苦大众、“弱势群体”即贱民们，那些被侮辱与被损害者的那一边。

However, Mao Zedong has always cherished deep concerns for the ordinary people, who represented “the great majority”. He has forever taken his side with the impoverished and “the disadvantaged groups” in the world, that is, the so-called “untouchables”, the humiliated and the injured and hurt.

毛泽东使一个东亚病夫的散沙混乱之国，实现大统一，而奠基克成华夏民族复兴之初业。

Under the guidance of Mao Zedong, the chaotic and disunited Chinese nation whose people used to bear the disgraceful name of “sick men of East Asia” has finally reached its great unification and thus laid the initial foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

毛泽东的个性和人格魅力是无穷的。他具有超人的艺术天赋、深刻的直觉灵思和极其广博的人文知识。

Mao Zedong’s personal charisma is of infinite charm. He has superb artistic talent, acute intuition, profound inspirations and extremely extensive humanistic knowledge.

动则讲武策，静则思经传。登高必赋，手不释卷。以诗明志，一任肺腑。被之管弦，皆成乐章。抒情古直，婉约豪放，洞彻人情，悲劲苍凉。

In commanding the troops, he could always cited lines freely from the military classics; in staying alone peacefully, he always meditated over the classical works. Never seen without a book in hand, he must compose a poem whenever ascending a height. Those poems, telling his great aspirations with words from the bottom of his heart, are all so well-rhymed that once recited with background music, they will all turn into great musical melodies. Whether lyrical or narrative, whether graceful and implicit or bold and unconstrained, those poems convey a sense of forcefulness and bleakness, demonstrating Mao Zedong’s deep insights into the human nature.

在私生活中，毛泽东胸怀宽大，感情丰富，幽默诙谐，仁慈宽厚。

In his private life, Mao Zedong was a broad-minded and humorous person with rich emotions and a magnanimous personality.

毛泽东知道世上没有不散的筵席，“万岁”不过是欺人的空话，“四个伟大”只是阿谀奉承——“我才不信那一套”!

Mao Zedong knew that there was no never-ending feast in the world, that “a long life of ten thousand years” was but a deceptive empty talk, and that people’s compliments of him, “the four great -- great leader, great mentor, great helmsman, great commander”, were only flattering words, thus he said: “I don’t believe that!”

“为了打鬼借助钟馗”，毛泽东敢于嘲笑自己既有“虎气”也有“猴气”。他知道，总有一天他的偶像也会被打得粉碎——“那有什么了不起?不过粉碎而已。”

“In order to exorcise demons, we need to seek help from Zhong Kui, the superstitious god.” Mao Zedong dared to ridicule himself as bearing both “the disposition of a tiger”, which referred to his stubborn fortitude and indomitable spirit, and “the disposition of a monkey”, which referred to his rich emotions, humorous optimism, poetic temperament and idealism. He knew that one day his idol would also be smashed, but he said: “What’s the big deal? It’s only smashing!”

但是在政治斗争中，毛泽东铁面无私冷酷无情。只要斗争需要，他就毅然斩断一切旧日情缘、粉粹任何障碍———不论其是旧日袍泽还是多年战友，文化大革命中尤甚!

Whereas, Mao Zedong was impartial, incorruptible and unrelentingly indifferent in political struggles. As long as it’s needed by the struggles, he would resolutely cut off all the erstwhile relations and grinding all the obstacles, whether his old fellow officers or comrades for many years, especially in the Great Cultural Revolution.

马基雅弗利的《君主论》说：“领袖既是狮子也是狐狸。为了胜利必须审时度势运用机锋”。拿破仑说“如果需要冷酷无情，那就冷酷无情!”毛泽东早年研究过马基雅弗利，暮年仍然好读拿破仑。

Machiavelli wrote in his The Prince: “A ruler is both a lion and a fox. It’s necessary to size up the situation or even adopt evil means in order to win triumph.” Napoleon also said: “If ruthlessness is necessary, then ruthlessness it is!” Mao Zedong used to conduct research on Machiavelli in his youth, and was still a loyal reader of Napoleon in his late years.

在政治权谋上，毛泽东是一位政治谋略艺术的成功运用者。但是毛泽东的政绩非凡卓越，德泽后世!

In politics, Mao Zedong has been such a successful user of the art of political strategies. While his remarkable political achievements have brought blessing and benefits to all the later generations!

6

毛泽东作为一位开国及治国者，其生平最伟大的成就之一，是他成功地领导了中国国民经济的快速工业化进程，从而使得中国由一个一穷二白的农民国家，在20多年之间通过自力更生，而初步建立起一个门类齐全的工业化基础。

As the founding father as well as the early ruler of the New China, Mao Zedong accomplished numerous achievements during his lifetime, and one of his greatest achievements is, under his guidance, China has successfully accomplished the rapid industrialization of its national economy, which allowed China, an agricultural country used to be in the state of “poverty and blankness”, to initially set up its industrial system complete in range through only decades of independent efforts.

美国历史学者莫里斯·迈斯纳论中国经济的现代化历程时指出：

Maurice Jerome Meisner, an American historian, pointed out the following view while commenting on the modernization course of the Chinese economy:

“——尽管曾经存在所有的失败和挫折，但是毛泽东时代却是中国的现代工业革命的时期，这一结论是不可避免的。曾经长期被西方蔑视为“亚洲病夫”的中国，20世纪50年代初期以小于比利时工业规模的工业为开始，而在毛泽东的时代结束时，却以世界上6个最大工业国之一的姿态出现于世界之前。

“Despite all the past failures and setbacks, it’s still unavoidable to draw the conclusion that the Mao Zedong Era was China’s modern industrial revolution period. China, which used to be despised as “sick man of East Asia “by the West for a long period of time, started in the early 1950s with an industry whose scale was even smaller than that of Belgium; but at the end of the Mao Zedong Era, it came in front of the world as one of the world’s six largest industrial countries.”

中国的国民收入在1952年——1978年的25年间增加了4倍，即从1952年的600亿元增加到1978年的3000亿元，而工业在增加的国民收入中所占的比例最大。人均国民收入指数(以不变价格计算)从1949年的100(1952年的160)增加到1957年的217和1978年的440。

During the quarter from 1952 to 1978, China’s national income increased by four times, that is, from 60 billion in 1952 to 300 billion in 1978, with its industrial income accounting for the biggest share in the increased income. And the index of China’s per capita national income (by fixed prices) increased from 100 in 1949 (160 in 1952) to 217 in 1957 and then to 440 in 1978.

在毛泽东时代的最后20年间(这是毛泽东的后继者们评价不高的一个时期)，而且连大跃进的经济灾难也估计在内，中国的国民收入在1957年至1975年期间翻了一番多——人均增加63%。

Over the last two decades in the Mao Zedong Era (which is also the period receiving not so high evaluation from Mao Zedong’s successors), even including the economic disasters brought about by the Great Leap Forward, China’s national income more than doubled from 1957 to 1975, with an increase of 63% per capita.

———无论人们将毛泽东时代作何种评价，正是这个中国现代工业革命时期为中国现代经济发展奠定了根本的基础，使中国从一个完全的农业国家变成了一个以工业为主的国家。1952年，工业占国民生产总值的30%，农业产值占64%;而到1975年，这个比率颠倒过来了，工业占国家经济生产的72%，农业则仅占28%了。

-- No matter how people will evaluate the Mao Zedong Era, it is this modern industrial revolution period of China that had laid the fundamental basis for the development of the country’s modern economy and had transformed China from a complete agricultural country to a country with industry as its economic cornerstone. In 1952, the total industrial output value only accounted for 30% in Chin’s Gross National Product (GNP), and the total agricultural output value occupied a proportion of 64%; yet by the year of 1975, this ratio had reversed, the industrial output value accounted for 72% in Chin’s GNP, while the percentage of the agricultural output value dropped to 28%.

其实毛泽东的那个时代远非是现在普遍传闻中所谓的经济停滞时代。而是世界历史上最伟大的现代化时代之一，与德国、日本等几个现代工业舞台上的主要后起之秀的工业化过程中最快速时期相比毫不逊色。”

In fact, the Mao Zedong Era has far from been the so-called period of economic stagnation which is widely rumored now. Being one of the greatest modernization eras in the world, the Mao Zedong Era was no less splendid even compared with the quickest industrialization periods in the several promising young industrial powers, such as Germany and Japan, in the modern industrial arena of the world.

所以，当之无愧地可以论定，毛泽东，他乃是现代中国的工业化之父。

Therefore, there is no doubt that Mao Zedong fully deserves to be called the father of industrialization of the modern China.

7

黑格尔说：“婢仆眼中无英雄。但那并非因为英雄不是英雄，而是因为婢仆只是婢仆!”

Hegel said: “There exists no hero in the eyes of servants. But it’s not because the hero is not a hero, but because the servants are only servants!”

英雄也有错误以至荒谬，伟人也有弱点以至隐私。耶稣佛陀都是肉身之人。哪个伟人不是肉骨凡胎之身?所以马克思说：“人性具有的一切我都具有!”

Heroes may get wrong or even absurd sometimes, and great men may also have weaknesses and privacy. Just as Jesus and Buddha are both flesh and blood, all great man are just mortal beings. That’s why Marx said: “I have all what humanity has!”

但是，伟人之所以是伟人，是因其所创造的伟大功勋及业绩恒在。

However, the reason for a great man being great is because his outstandingly meritorious deeds and achievement shall last forever.

伟人就是伟人!不会因为有众多宵小、庸才、妾婢(如张戎一类)、洋奴以及生前敌人的任何蔑骂、诋毁而贬落丝毫!

A great man is great indeed! And his radiance shall not eclipse even the slightest iota due to any abuse, slander, or degeneration from those many gangsters and the like, the mediocre, servants and concubines (as Zhang Rong and the like), flunkeys of imperialism as well as his enemies.

托尔斯泰蔑视当时人对拿破仑的攻击说：“他们都以为自己是道德完人。但是道德完美的庸夫只是庸夫，一个遍体鳞伤的英雄仍然是英雄。”“鹰有时飞得比鸡还低，但是鸡永远无法飞得象鹰那么高!”

Tolstoy showed his contempt for those who attacked Napoleon: “They all think that they were morally perfect. But a morally perfect mediocre person is but a mediocre person, and a hero covered all over with cuts and bruises is still a hero.” “Sometimes the eagle flies lower than the chicken, but the chicken can never fly as high as the eagle!”

英雄功业在，光芒日月长，不知群儿愚，哪用故谤伤?蚍蜉撼大树，可笑不自量。不过如此而已。

The glory of the hero’s great feat shall last as perpetual as the sun and moon, and how foolish the crowds are to pile their libelous words on the hero! Such silly ones are no better than a tiny insect trying to shake a mighty tree but being ludicrously ignorant of its own weakness.

历史从不完美。历史永远曲折。全部人类历史所昭示的，就是人类是一种永远不断犯错误的宇宙低等动物。

Instead of being perfect all the time, history is forever full of twists and turns. As is manifested by all human history, human beings are merely a kind of lowly creatures who will always make mistakes in the universe.

天地不仁，以万物为刍狗。个人会犯错误，人群会犯错误，政党会犯错误，国家也会犯错误。这个意义上的所谓历史，不过是无数代人无数错误的叠加而已。一部人类历史就是后来者不断继续犯错和试图改错，也仍然难免越改越错的历史。

Leaving the concerns of benevolence and preference out of account, the universe treats all things as equally as it treats its own sacrificial offerings. Individuals make mistakes, crowds make mistakes, a party makes mistakes, and a country also makes mistakes. In this sense, the so-called history is but the overlapping of countless mistakes made by countless generations of people, and a certain part of the future human history is but the mistakes made by people and the deeds of correcting these mistakes by the latecomers. So sometimes the changes will inevitably lead to an increasingly wrong history.

迄今为止，历史多有黑暗，历史并不公正，历史只为胜利者而写。苦辛多于幸福，罪恶多于光明。什么自由、民主、博爱之类普世价值，不过都是说得好听而难以实践的欺人之谈。

So far, the human history has been dark and unfair and only a record of the winners. In it, one would find more bitterness than happiness, and more sins than brightness. Freedom, democracy, humanity, the so-called universal values are but deceptive empty talks pleasant to the ear yet hard to be put into practice.

幸亏历史中不定期地会出现伟人，如流星一样短暂而照彻黑暗。但在伟人存在的时代中，历史出现了瞬间光明。毛泽东把一个历经百年战乱、分崩离析、遍体鳞伤的华夏民族带上世界舞台的中心，在瞬间迸发出灿烂耀眼的光芒，从而使这个民族摆脱卑贱与卑劣，摆脱庸俗。

Fortunately, history has generated great men from time to time, who would temporarily illuminate the thick darkness with their dazzling meteoric light. In the ages when these great men lived, a flash of light appeared in history. The Chinese nation used to be disintegrate and torn by dissension and covered all over with cuts and bruises after the century-long chaotic wars. But Mao Zedong brought it onto the center of the world stage. After that, it instantly emitted a brilliant and dazzling light, making the nation get rid of its lowliness, humbleness and vulgarity in the past.

毛泽东不是任何外人强加给中国人的。历史选择了毛泽东。而这是中华民族最明智、最伟大的选择。在那个时代，华夏民族因为有毛泽东而充满自信和自豪!

Mao Zedong has not been someone imposed onto the Chinese people by outsiders, but the choice made by history itself, as well as the greatest and most sensible choice made by the Chinese nation. At that time, because of Mao Zedong, the Chinese nation was once again replete with confidence and pride!

8

20世纪是人类历史上充满传奇戏剧性的世纪。伟人代出，灿若群星，从右翼的丘吉尔、罗斯福、戴高乐，到左翼的列宁、斯大林、铁托、卡斯特罗和毛泽东，都是非凡的杰出领袖。

A legendary and dramatic century in the human history, the twentieth century has witnessed a galaxy of great men. From the right-wing Churchill, Roosevelt, and De Gaulle to the left-wing Lenin, Stalin, Tito, Castro and Mao Zedong, they were all extraordinary and distinguished leaders.

但是，20世纪并非一个光明的太平世纪。这个世纪是战争的世纪、乱离而动荡的世纪，是充满血与火，发生过南京大屠杀，杀人如麻，人命贱如草的世纪。是威斯康辛集中营与古拉格群岛并存的世纪。

But the twentieth century was far from being a bright and peaceful century. On the contrary, it’s a century of war, division and turmoil, a century full of blood and fire; it’s a century when the Nanjing massacre took place and when numerous human beings were slaughtered as cheap as dirt; it’s the century when the Wisconsin concentration camp coexisted with the Gulag archipelago.

这个世纪之所以并非纯粹的黑暗世纪，唯一的光明就在于这个世纪也是勇者抗争与奋斗的世纪。20世纪中，被压迫的第三世界贱民们不断起而造反。对于中国人来说，这个世纪是追随毛泽东暴动的世纪，反抗的世纪，革命的世纪，是华夏民族鏖战图强的一个伟大世纪。

The reason why this century has not been reduced to a completely dark age is because it’s also the century of the fighting and struggles of the brave ones, who brought to people the only brightness in the dark. In the middle of the twentieth century, the oppressed in the third world made continuously rebellions against the oppressors. For the Chinese people, this was the century of uprising, rebellion and revolution under the guidance of Mao Zedong, this was the great century when the Chinese nation strove to become stronger.

这个世纪以第一次世界大战开始，随之爆发1917年苏维埃革命，在60年代末以中国的文化大革命而掀起一个震撼全球资本主义体系的大革命狂潮。

The twentieth century began with the First World War, and shortly after that, the Soviet revolution broke out in 1917. Then China’s Cultural Revolution at the end of the 1960s set off a revolutionary tide that shocked the global capitalist system.

文化大革命失败后，革命意识形态崩解，导致九十年代全球社会主义体制的解体，世界转向新资本主义和新帝国主义的全球化运动。世袭的罗氏家族、摩根家族、洛克菲勒金融家族主掌全球金权而企图控制人类。

After the failure of the Great Cultural Revolution, the revolutionary ideologies fell apart, leading to the disintegration of socialist systems throughout the globe in the 1990s. At the same time, the globalization movements of new capitalism and neo-imperialism have emerged as new world’s trends. The hereditary Rothschild family, Morgan family, and Rockefeller financial family which had the global financial power in their hands were attempting to take all mankind under their control.

人类未来所将面临的并不是什么光明千禧，而将是千年黑暗。在一个罪恶的计划中，地球的2/3多余人口被垃圾化、边缘化，可能将被转基因、毒疫苗、艾滋病或其他人工病毒和化学毒食物链无声灭绝……

What confronted mankind was a bright millennium, but a thousand years of darkness. In an evil plan, two-thirds of populations on the earth would be marginalized or treated as rubbish, or they might silently die from genetic modification, toxic vaccines, AIDS or other artificial viruses and food chain poisoned by chemicals...

这一切本来是15世纪地理发现和全球化运动以来，金融资本主义向全球帝国主义秩序演化所设定的宿命。

All of this had been the fate settled for mankind by the financial capitalism’s evolution towards global imperialism since the Great Geographical Discovery in the fifteenth century and the globalization movement.

仅仅因为毛泽东的出现，历史在20 世纪改道而行。

Merely because of the appearance of Mao Zedong, history has changed its course in the twentieth century.

毛泽东是20世纪率领亿万贱民造反的领袖，是率领奴隶粉碎锁链的英雄。毛泽东是大革命中诞生的角斗士，是现代的斯巴达克斯。他用精神和物质的原子弹摧毁了西方自由石匠(“Free and Accepted Masons")的铁幕。至少在那个短暂的时代，全世界被压迫的贱民和奴隶们看到了阳光与蓝天。

Mao Zedong was the leader who led hundreds of millions of “untouchables” to rise in rebellions, the hero who commanded the slaves to smash the shackles and chains. Mao Zedong was the gladiator born in the great revolutions, the modern Spartacus. He destroyed the iron screen of “the Free and Accepted Masons” in the West with his material and spiritual atomic bomb. At least in a short period of time, all poor slaves and oppressed people throughout the world saw the bright sunshine and blue skies.

大革命并未因毛泽东的死亡而终结。毛泽东所留下的精神和政治遗产，包括文化革命留下的遗产和问题，仍会被后人们不断地思索和研究下去。

The great revolution shall not end with the demise of Mao Zedong. The spiritual and political legacies left by Mao Zedong, including the legacy and problems left from the Great Cultural Revolution, shall continue to be meditated and studied by the future generations.

当然，正如一切伟人一样，永远会有人继续诋毁和诅咒他。死去的毛泽东，也还是世界资产阶级心目中一个可怕而难以消除的魔咒。

Naturally, just like what happened to all great men, there will always be some people continuing to disparage and curse him. Nevertheless, Mao Zedong, even after his death, still remains as a formidable spell difficult to be removed in the heart of the world’s capitalist class.

9

伟人必是悲剧。毛泽东的一生是悲剧。他的晚期生活更是一部壮烈的悲剧。毛泽东的悲剧在于他过于伟大，伟大得令人难以理解、难以置信。

A great man’s life is doomed to be a tragedy. So the life of Mao Zedong was also a tragedy, and his later years were even more tragic. Mao Zedong led a tragic life in that he was overwhelmingly great, too great to be understood and believed by others.

晚年毛泽东的根本悲剧在于，他在60年代终于发现他一生奋斗所营造成功的大厦——恰恰是他当初的革命初衷所欲摧毁的那个资本主义和官僚制度的大厦。于是，毛泽东毅然以耄耋之年再一次发动奋力攻击，试图摧毁一切而重新来过。但是蓦然回首，却已经是孤家寡人和残病之躯，而脚下躺满了昔日战友的尸体。

The fundamental tragedy of Mao Zedong in his old age is, in the 1960s, he finally found that the grand mansion he had exhausted his lifelong endeavors to build turned out to be the tall building of capitalism and bureaucracy that he intended to destroy from the very beginning. Hence, at such an old age, Mao Zedong once again took upon himself to launch hard attacks, attempting to destroy everything and start all over again. But when he suddenly turned around, he found himself being a weak, solitary old man without followers, and the bodies of his erstwhile comrades lying under his feet.

“天意从来高难问，况人情老易悲难诉!”“时来天地皆同力，运去英雄不自由。”“风雷帐下英雄在，鼓角灯前老泪多。”这些诗句就是毛泽东晚年自况之心曲。

“The thoughts of Heaven have always been hard to speculate; to whom we could confess our sadness which is a frequent visitor in the old age!” “With luck, the entire universe is by your side; without luck, even the hero could not act freely.” “Under the tent in gale and thunder was the then hero in his prime, before the lamp in drums and horns is the now old man shedding his tears.” These poetic lines are a confession of Mao Zedong in his old age.

时无英雄，遂使竖子成名。他那四个追随者无一不是猥琐渺小的卑劣之徒，辜负了他的信托。“播下龙种，收获跳蚤”——“这场文化大革命，赞成的不多，反对的不少”，终于，巨人毛泽东不得不面对和承认失败。晚年毛泽东，悲凉心境宛如现代版的李尔王(KingLear)。

The time begetting no heroes, Mao Zedong then expected some great deeds from his young followers. While all the four followers of his turned out to be worthless and despicable characters, who failed to live up to his trust and expectations. “Sowing the descendants of a dragon, while only reaping some fleas” -- “this Great Cultural Revolution, few were in favor of it, and a lot were against it”. At last, Mao Zedong the giant had to face and admit his defeat. The forlorn and dismal state of Mao Zedong in his later years was but a modern version of King Lear.

The time begetting no heroes, Mao Zedong then expected some great deeds from his young followers. While all the four followers of his turned out to be worthless and despicable characters, who failed to live up to his trust and expectations. “Sowing the descendants of a dragon, while only reaping some fleas” -- “this Great Cultural Revolution, few were in favor of it, and a lot were against it”. At last, Mao Zedong the giant had to face and admit his defeat. The forlorn and dismal state of Mao Zedong in his later years was but a modern version of King Lear.

晚年毛泽东身患运动神经元病(MND,motorneurondisease),失去自主行动能力

Suffering from motor neuron disease (MND) in his later years, Mao Zedong lost his ability of autonomous movements.

10

但是时来运转，历史证明，毛泽东仍然是对的!

However, with the luck turning in his favor, history has proved that Mao Zedong is correct!

现实中的“社会主义”制度，并非所理想和当初他试图营造的那个平等、公平、没有阶级存在的社会——这个社会内部仍存在着极其深刻复杂的阶级矛盾、冲突、对抗和斗争。

The real “socialist system”, instead of being as ideal as a fair and equitable society without classes and being the society that he had determined to establish, was in fact a society in which there were extremely profound and complicated class conflicts, confrontations and struggle.

毛泽东生前曾经说，社会革命不会终结，一万年后还有斗争!历史永不终结，矛盾和斗争永不终结。

Mao Zedong once said, the social revolutions would never end and that there would be struggles in ten thousand years! History shall never end, neither shall conflicts and struggles.

毛泽东曾经预言，如果未来中国出现右派当权而以“自由主义”为名义的内外资产阶级和买办势力的联合专政，那将是多数人民的灾难。但是，工人阶级和贫苦大众的反抗运动，就一定会前仆后继地发生。毛泽东对此曾经诅咒说：“中国如果发生反共的右派政变，我断定他们是不得安宁的。”

Mao Zedong has also predicted, if China’s right parties should come to the power in the future, or if there should appear the joint dictatorship of the domestic and foreign capitalist classes and comprador classes in China, the majority of Chinese people would be living in disasters. However, in that case, there would also be wave upon wave of rebellions from the working class and the poor. Mao Zedong used to curse: “If there should be coups from the anti-communist right-wing parties in China, I am sure they will be never at peace.”

毛泽东留下了极其丰富的政治遗产。重要的是，他的革命精神和意识形态已经深深地熔铸进了这个民族的政治文化中!

Mao Zedong has left to the latecomers rich political legacies. More importantly, his revolutionary spirit and ideologies have deeply incorporated into the political culture of this nation!

11

英国史家罗斯在总论拿破仑毕生事业时指出：

The British historian Ross once said the following lines while commenting on the lifelong great cause of Napoleon:

“尽管遭受了惨重的失败，他在治理国家，焕发人民才智和运用战争艺术等方面，完全是超群绝伦，伟大之极。他的伟大，不但在于他那些最出色的业绩具有永恒的重要性，而更在于他的始创性，以至在完成所有这些业绩中投入了雄伟非凡的力量!

“Despite his heavy losses, he was still incomparably superior and extremely great in managing the country, mobilizing his people’s intelligence and applying the art of war. His greatness has not only dwelled in the eternal importance of his most outstanding exploits, but also dwelled in his ingenuity as well as the magnificent and extraordinary power that he had devoted to accomplishing all these achievements!

——这种力量，使得遍布他后半生征途上的那些巍然屹立的纪念碑，虽然饱受狂风暴雨的摧残，却还是宏奇壮丽!屈处于奴役之下的民族不可能有这样的成就。

-- This power has made the towering monuments, which could be found everywhere along the journey of his later years and which had suffered so much from the tempestuous weather, still remain magnificent and glorious! A nation bending over to slavery could never make such achievement.

人类毕竟不以最高的荣誉授予那些谨小慎微、知难而退、毫无建树传于后世的庸碌之辈，而是把它授予胸怀大志、敢作敢为、功勋卓着，甚至在自己和千百万人同遭大祸之际还主宰着千万人之心的人。”

After all, mankind, instead of granting its highest honor to those timorous and mediocre ones shrinking back from difficulties and leaving nothing noteworthy to the later generations, always grants its highest honor to those ambitious ones daring to do everything and accomplishing notable exploits, to those who could dominate the hearts of hundreds of millions of people even when they themselves were confronted with the same peril as the rest.”

毛泽东的伟大，当然无可比拟地超过19世纪的法兰西皇帝波拿巴·拿破仑!

Mao Zedong’s greatness is naturally and unquestionably beyond that of Napoléon Bonaparte, the French Emperor in the nineteenth century.

毛泽东!——这个驾驭中国革命而改造了中国之人性和社会生活的人，

Mao Zedong! -- The man who commanded the Chinese revolution and transformed the human nature of the Chinese people and social life of the Chinese nation;

这个以人民战争的形式领导了20世纪历史中时间最长、规模最大、席卷人口最多的伟大国内战争和革命群众运动的人;

The man who led, in the form of people’s war, the longest and largest civil war and people’s revolutionary movement that swept the largest population in the twentieth century;

这个动员十亿人民，在九百六十万平方公里的土地上，以超人之伟力，试图营造一个没有阶级、没有剥削、没有私有制的乌托邦的人;

The man who mobilized, with his superhuman power, one billion people to build on the territory of nine million and six hundred thousand square kilometers a Utopia where there is no class, nor exploitation, nor private ownership;

这个打破了雅尔塔三强瓜分世界协议、打破了冷战的两极格局，从而使中国巍然崛起而起成为世界之第三极的人;

The man who broke the Yalta agreements which allowed the three big powers to carve up the world, who smashed the bipolar structure resulting from the Cold War, who made China rise imposingly to be the third pole in the world;

这个导致20世纪后半期的全球帝国主义地缘政治结构发生根本改变的人;

The man who brought about fundamental changes to the geopolitical structure of global imperialism in the latter half of the twentieth century;

这个发起了十字军东征以来最伟大的群众行动、使西方势力被逐出于东方的人;

The man who has launched the greatest mass movement ever since the Crusades conquer and thus driven the Western powers out of the Eastern land;

这个最终把亿万人的思念引向天安门前那块孤独耸立的岩石背后的方形大厦的人;

The man who directs the lament and missing of hundreds of millions of people to the square mansion standing behind the lonely rock in the Tian’anmen Square;

——必将永远屹立于人类历史上千古不朽者的最前列!!!

Shall always stand towering in the forefront of immortals in the human history!!!

［2003年12月初稿 。2017年1月8日最后改定，何新］

First draft finished in December 2003; final draft finished in January 8, 2017, by He Xin.

【附注】

[Note]

《毛泽东传》的作者特里尔说：“事情总是这么奇怪，五十、六十年代诋毁他最多的政府，1976年却对他的赞辞最多。有些领导人说他是人类历史上一千年才会出现一个的天才。

Ross Terrill, the author of Mao: A Biography, said: “Things have always been so strange. The governments who disparaged him the most in the 1950s or 1960s gave him the most encomiums in 1976. Some rulers said that he was a genius who appeared only once in a thousand years in the human history.”

美国《新闻周刊》在毛泽东逝世的当天发表的社论标题是《历史上最后一位巨人》。社论说：“ 没有任何崇拜者会比他生前的对手和敌人，更知道毛泽东存在的意义和份量。”

On the same day of Mao Zedong’s death, the American magazine “News Week” published an editorial titled “The Last Giant in History”, which wrote, “No admirer knows better the meaning and weight of Mao Zedong’s existence than his adversaries and enemies.”

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