Mao Zedong's father, Mao Shunsheng, resolutely opposed young Mao Zedong to read "casual books" and "miscellaneous books", but he allowed Mao Zedong to read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Mao Shunsheng himself was deeply impressed by this book and thought that his son could read it.
Father sent Mao Zedong to Shaoshan Jingwan to study in Mao Yuju's private school, and allowed Mao Zedong to take this book with him. After class, Mao Zedong was deeply attracted by this book. He couldn't put it down and even peeked in class. He is a complete fan of the Three Kingdoms.
1928, Mao Zedong led his troops to Jinggangshan with few books. Mao Zedong, who likes reading, asked the Red Army to bring back all the books and newspapers when he was fighting against local tyrants and evil gentry. He also specifically mentioned going to the local tyrants' home to see if there was a romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Soon, I got a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was found in Tan's library when Red Army soldiers attacked Tan's hometown in Chaling County near Jinggangshan in the late Qing Dynasty. Mao Zedong got the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and couldn't put it down, so he had time to study it.
Although I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms many times in my early years, I can read it again now, but there is nothing new, and I can learn a lot from it. Therefore, Mao Zedong once said, "It is really a pleasure to see the sky through the clouds."
According to He Zizhen's later recollection, reading was Mao Zedong's greatest pleasure in the hard life of Jinggangshan around 1929. He often puts the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in his pocket and reads it several times. He has a good memory, remembers all the books he has read clearly, and is good at absorbing useful things and applying what he has learned.
During the Central Soviet Area, Mao Zedong often quoted Romance of the Three Kingdoms to guide practical work. In May 1930, he wrote a survey about Wu, and made statistics on people who can see the Three Kingdoms: 5%.
1after the Gannan conference in June, 932, Mao Zedong was labeled as "opportunism" and "narrow empiricism" by "left" elements, and became seriously ill again. He took He Zizhen and 13 guard to Donghua Mountain, twenty or thirty miles east of Ruijin, and stayed in an ancient temple for 50 days. He is immersed in reading here, mainly the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In the Central Soviet Area, Mao Zedong's love of reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms is widely known, and even the temporary central leaders who entered the Central Soviet Area in 1932 knew about it. Deprived of Mao Zedong's military command, they often criticized Mao Zedong in publications such as Revolution and War, criticized Mao Zedong for reading The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and alluded to attacking Mao Zedong, "unconditionally treating the ancient Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a modern tactic; The ancient art of war is unconditionally regarded as a modern strategy; There are many well-read comrades who regard Zeng Guofan half a century ago as a treasure of the art of war. "
On this matter, Mao Zedong said at his birthday (1960 65438+February 25th) that I was fined three times. "At that time, I had nothing to do. I sat on a stretcher while walking. What should I do? I read! He was carrying a stretcher and I was reading a book. They criticized me again, saying that I used the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Art of War to direct the war. In fact, I didn't read Sun Tzu's Art of War at that time, and I also read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms several times, but who still remembers the Romance of the Three Kingdoms when directing operations? I completely forgot. "
In the early 1960s, when he talked about this matter again, he said: "Around 1935, some comrades in the Party said that my methods of fighting were not brilliant. I typed according to two books, one was Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the other was The Art of War. In fact, how can we follow the rules? At that time, I only read one of the two books-Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I didn't read the Art of War at that time. The comrade insisted that I had seen it. I asked him how many articles there were in The Art of War. What is the title of the first article? He can't answer. Actually, he hasn't seen it either. Since then, it has forced me to read the Art of War. "
During the Yan 'an period, Mao Zedong still maintained a keen interest in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He once said to the person in charge of cadre work: comrades who do cadre work should read the romance of the three kingdoms, from which I benefited a lot.
Mao Zedong not only spends time reading this book over and over again, but also enjoys watching the Three Kingdoms Opera.
From June 65438 to June 0944, Yan 'an Pingju Institute rehearsed some dramas with ancient themes, among which the favorite dramas were Gu Chenghui, Grass Boat Borrowing Arrows, Catch and Release Cao Cao and Dingjun Mountain. Whenever he watches these plays, he is absorbed, watching from beginning to end, commenting while watching, and laughing in his heart.
He didn't laugh at Zhang Fei in Gu Chenghui and Lu Su in Grass Boat Borrowing Arrows, but laughed heartily. When Zhang Fei boasted about his proud expression "How smart I am, Lao Zhang", he laughed loudly.
1in August, 945, on the eve of Mao Zedong's negotiation in Chongqing, the staff prepared a batch of books for him, but he only chose Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc. In Chongqing, Mao Zedong picked up the Romance of the Three Kingdoms after busy business.
1947 or so, in the days of hard struggle in northern Shaanxi, Mao Zedong often used the gap between marching and fighting to read Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He also said to the soldiers: you have difficulty reading theoretical books now. You can read novels first to arouse your interest in reading, and then slowly read theoretical books when the culture improves. Then, Mao Zedong told the soldiers the story in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was lively and interesting.
1949, during the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, North China Peking Opera Troupe performed in Xibaipo. Mao Zedong watched Lost in Space for two consecutive days (that is, Lost in the Street Pavilion, Empty City Plan and Chopping Ma Su).
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Mao Zedong still loved The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and often asked his staff and companions questions about the Three Kingdoms.
According to Tan, the former director of Wuhou Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan Province,/Kloc-0 visited Wuhou Temple during a meeting in Chengdu in 1958, and asked the commentator such a question: "Do you know how many times Zhuge Liang took a bus and rode a horse in his life?" This shows that Mao Zedong read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms very carefully, and he also noticed the details that were often overlooked.
The 1950s was a more frequent and extensive period for Mao Zedong to read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At that time, he studied almost every day, reaching the level of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In order to have a broader understanding of the situation in the Three Kingdoms period and analyze the characters in the Three Kingdoms, he paid special attention to studying the new achievements of the Three Kingdoms.
About that time, he read the reflection of the three kingdoms by Lu Bi. Lu Bi's book is highly praised by domestic cultural circles, but Mao Zedong often questions and even criticizes it.
Around 1952, Mao Zedong bought a large-character edition of The Twenty-four History of Wuyingtang during the Qing Dynasty. Among them, Mao Zedong read and reread the History of the Three Kingdoms, and compared it with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he circled many books. When he goes abroad, he always brings a lot of books he likes or often reads, including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, History of the Three Kingdoms, History of Han Dynasty and History of the Later Han Dynasty.
During the Great Leap Forward from 65438 to 0958, Mao Zedong read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and History of the Three Kingdoms more frequently, and expanded to read biographies of relevant figures. He also recommended some biographies to all party cadres.
He read the Biography of Zhang Lu several times on the train, spoke a lot on the topic of Zhang Lu at the Zhengzhou meeting, wrote thousands of words of comment on writing, and some of them were sent to senior cadres as red-headed documents.
At that time, he also asked cadres to read the biography of Liu Ye, and specifically instructed in a document: "This biography can be read. Long-distance fishing, from Ye Liu. "
He introduced everyone to read Guo's biography, and said in an instruction: "This man is resourceful, helped Cao Cao to conquer the south and hit the north, and put forward many good ideas, which are worth learning." He hopes that leading cadres at all levels will do more.
He encouraged cadres to read The Biography of Monroe and praised "Monroe's courage and resourcefulness". "Now, 80% of our senior officers started at the grassroots level and studied culture before participating in the revolution. They have to read The Three Kingdoms of Monroe. "
He read Lu Su's biography and made some textual research on Lu Su's hometown and garrison.
There is a saying in China that "people don't read the Three Kingdoms", but Mao Zedong's interest in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms did not decrease in his later years.
In 1970s, Mao Zedong suffered from senile cataract, and the nurse limited the number of words he read and read aloud. However, in his limited reading, Mao Zedong devoted a large part to The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
He often reads various versions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the bedroom of the study and swimming pool, both paperback and wired. He also read historical biographies about the Three Kingdoms, such as Biography of Yang Hucheng and Biography of Du Yu in the Book of Jin. In the last few years of his life, he often leafed through these two different versions of Three Kingdoms books with great interest in his study.
According to research, Mao Zedong read The Romance of The Three Kingdoms for at least 70 years from his youth to his later years. This is rare in his life's reading experience.