The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 15. The People's Republic, Part 2: Revolutions Within the Chinese Revolution, 1966-1982. Edited by Roderick Mac Farquhar and John K. Fairbank. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. 1,108 pp., including maps, tables, bibliographical essays, bibliography, and glossary-index.
Volume 15 of The Cambridge History of China completes yet another important multivolume set in the well-known series of Cambridge histories. These highly respected publications are compiled under the guidance of volume editors who invite noted specialists to contribute individual chapters. The Cambridge histories were initiated at the be ginning of the twentieth century with the first edition of The Cambridge Modern History, published in sixteen volumes from 1902 to 1912. This latest set, and the first on Chinese history, was not even planned until 1966, more than half a century later.
Given the formidable length of China's history and the complex characteristics of Chinese history-writing, the task was especially daunting. The original plan modestly called for six volumes. But over the quarter century it has taken to complete this set, the number of volumes has expanded to fifteen—six devoted to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries alone, and two of these to the period since 1949.
Do these sidewalk entrepreneurs pose a potential political problem? A free market for goods requires a free market for ideas, and economic initiatives need channels for political participation.
Although this pioneering work took a long time to complete, any future editions of these volumes are likely to be produced much more expeditiously. The study of Chinese history in the West has blossomed since the mid-sixties, and academic cooperation with Chinese scholars has also improved markedly. There is already an urgent need for new and expanded editions of these volumes because of the striking advances that have been made in our analysis of Chinese history.
This is especially true of this last volume. Vital information and new insights have recently become available that alter significantly our understanding of events during the Cultural Revolution and the years preceding it. Moreover, particularly dramatic events and changes have transpired in the years since 1982, and they should be included in an expanded edition. The revolutions within the Chinese revolution have continued.
Such needs, however, take nothing away from this impressive volume, which can take its place with pride in the overall set; it is an appropriate finale for such an important work of basic reference. The quality of the scholarship is high, as was to be expected of the distinguished editors—and of the fine scholars they assembled to produce this rich study. However, especially for the political and economic dimensions of the text, the interpretations given here should be viewed as a snapshot of Western views that have already become somewhat dated by more recent scholarship.
The preceding volume (entitled The People's Republic) brought the story of China's modem history up to the eve of the Cultural Revolution in 1965. The present volume, in turn, is necessarily absorbed with the Cultural Revolution and its consequences, although it covers the beginning of the reforms that would characterize the years following that catastrophic period.
Volume 15 opens with a thoughtful 100-page essay entitled "Mao Tse-tung's Thought from 1949 to 1976," written by Stuart Schram, undoubtedly the best informed Western scholar on the topic. Using a combination of thematic and chronological approaches, Schram discusses the complex record of Mao's efforts to grapple with vexing issues over these years. These include a host of contradictions: between Marxism and Chinese tradition, proletarian party and peasant constituency, modernization and revolutionary war, salvation through virtue and salvation through technology, autocracy and mass democracy.
There is now more to read than Mao's Little Red Book. But books promote a diversity of opinion that can challenge the unity of views, policies, planning, and action so cherished by mainland Chinese leaders.
Schram holds that "the second half of 1957 constituted a great climacteric in Mao's life marked by changes in outlook and personality that were to cast their shadow over the whole of his last nineteen years." He acknowledges, however, that "some key ideas of Mao's later years did not even emerge until well after 1957."
The heart of this volume, divided into five major parts, follows Schram's essay. Part I consists of two chapters under the rubric "The Cultural Revolution: China in Turmoil, 1966-1969." Harry Harding ably discusses the crisis of the Chinese state during this early period of intense struggle. Thomas Robinson writes knowledgeably of China's confrontation with the Soviet Union, focusing on warfare and diplomacy on China's Inner Asian frontiers during the period.
These are well-written, trenchant analyses, but much of what is written must be recast in the light of what we are learning about the Third Front program that took place during much of the 1960s and early 1970s. This vast construction program moved sizable blocs of industry and trained personnel from coastal and other large cities deep into the hinterland. Amazingly, this tremendous program had long been kept secret because it was basically seen as a national security strategy. The program is now known to have been extremely wasteful of resources.
Let a hundred flowers bloom—again. Literature and the arts on the mainland have suffered repeated onslaughts over the decades. Once again, the government is allowing artists to focus on other goals besides "serving the people."
The problem for this volume is that the Third Front program was a phenomenon no less important than the Cultural Revolution itself, and no less jarring in its impact on the Chinese people. Hence, it must be taken into account, even for the Cultural Revolution itself to be seen in appropriate perspective. The natural question to be addressed is what relationship did the Third Front have to the Cultural Revolution in Mao's mind? This issue surely has ramifications for Schram's essay as well.
Moreover, which phenomenon had the greater impact on China? How can one distinguish between the two catastrophes in terms of such impact? These are among the obvious questions that deserve scholarly attention. Thanks to the awesome secrecy surrounding the program, the West did not begin to learn about the massive Third Front until well after 1982, the date that marks the chronological end point of this study. But such information was coming to light well before the date of publication in 1991, nine years later. Nevertheless, the Third Front is not even mentioned, although economist Barry Naughton's important initial article on the subject in 1988 is listed in the bibliography.
Part II, "The Cultural Revolution: The Struggle for the Succession, 1969-1982," is composed of two important chapters. One is by volume co-editor Roderick Mac Farquhar, who provides a fascinating ac count of the ins and outs of the intense domestic power politics during these eventful years. Silence regarding the Third Front is also a problem here. The account of Lin Piao's fall, for example, which seems to accept a great deal of the official line, may have to be revised as Third Front politics are considered in reference to Lin's actions or to the behavior of others toward him.
Jonathan Pollack gives a good account of the especially important break through diplomacy represented in the opening to America that distinguished both ends of the 1970s. While both the United States and China could appeal to compelling global strategic interests to justify coming to an accommodation on each occasion, it appears that Washington made the more tangible concessions. For example, with regard to the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué, the author says that "the Chinese felt they had won a singular victory in the negotiations."
People, people, everywhere—Today's mainland politicians have a fundamental problem: how to maintain the unity of over a billion persons while allowing them enough social, political, and economic freedom to make them prosper.
Also, in the December 15, 1978 joint communiqué announcing the imminent formal diplomatic recognition (on January 1, 1979), Pollack notes that with regard to Taiwan, "the somewhat equivocal language of the Shanghai Communiqué had been supplanted by a much more vigorous endorsement of the Chinese position." The author's useful review of this normalization process does not mention the tactless short shrift given authorities in Taiwan by Washington at these historic junctures, or the impact of these momentous decisions for Taiwan. He does indicate the presumed effect of the subsequent Taiwan Relations Act for mainland politics, especially for Teng Hsiao-ping.
Part III deals with the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, with chapters by Dwight Perkins on the economy, Suzanne Pepper on education, and Douwe Fokkema on creativity and politics. Again, the Third Front specter hangs over these otherwise fine discussions, especially so with regard to the assessment of the economy during this chaotic period on the mainland. The economy, of course, cannot be understood without taking into account the tremendous upheaval represented by the large-scale rearrangement of industry and research institutes throughout the country, especially as this was apparently undertaken with little regard for cost and other strictly economic considerations.
Part IV provides particularly note worthy coverage on life and letters under communism for the fuller period beginning in 1949, with insightful chapters by Richard Madsen on the countryside, Martin King Whyte on urban life, and Cyril Birch on literature. The latter chapter contains an interesting section on writing in Taiwan. Birch notes the irony of history on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, pointing out that "precisely the years during which literary creation was most rigidly fettered on the mainland were a time of the most vigorous new activity in Taiwan." He devotes several pages to the new fiction and the new poetry that graced Taiwan letters over the years, covering the work of residents as well as of such prominent overseas Chinese as Chang Ai-ling (Eileen Chang), Pai Hsien-yung, and poet Yu Kuang-chung.
Part V, entitled "The Separated Province," consists of only one chapter, entitled "Taiwan Under Nationalist Rule, 1949-1982." Author Ralph Clough uses only sixty-two pages (out of more than eleven hundred pages in the volume) to present developments on Taiwan over this lengthy period, and he does so exceptionally well. As with the previous three chapters, the extended time frame compensates for the immediately preceding volume's omission. Clough also briefly mentions key subsequent developments occurring as late as 1988. This projection forward enhances the value of the piece, even as it raises the question why such updating might not have been done in other chapters as well. In any case, this is one of the best such brief presentations on Taiwan available any where in the West, and the treatment accorded the island and its remarkable experience in this prestigious work is as objective and fair as it is compactly comprehensive and inclusive.
Clough sees two main strands in Taiwan's history since 1949: "Externally, the struggle for survival in the face of a massive threat; and internally, the modernization of an agrarian society." Of course, Taiwan not only survived, it prospered, and Clough methodically takes into account the unique (probably impossible to replicate) blend of elements that explain the island's success. The author expects that the process of democratization is unlikely to be reversed and that Taiwanese will continue moving into top positions in the KMT and the government. He also considers it likely that Taiwan's ambiguous status as a de facto independent political entity will continue along with further increases in trade and other forms of interaction with the mainland.
Volume 15 concludes with a short epilogue by co-editor MacFarquhar, who muses on the "Onus of Unity." Here, he alludes to the introduction that he and John Fairbank had provided for the final two volumes of this set (in Volume 14), entitled "The Reunification of China." Recollection of the theme here provides a touch of continuity and symmetry to this grand historical undertaking. After making a singularly apt updating reference to the progressively more severe instances of crackdowns on dissent in 1983-84, 1986-87, and 1989 (all in the post-1982 Teng Hsiao-ping era), the author sensibly asserts that neither Mao nor Teng "was able to square the Chinese circle, preserving unity while simultaneously permitting freedoms...In the last analysis, unity, and the disciplined order of which it is the basis, have always seemed more important, and freedom, and the loss of control that it spawns, too dangerous to China's leaders."
MacFarquhar concludes that "the onus of unity assumed by China's leaders is increasingly an incubus for the Chinese people." Thus, "If there is one historic lesson to be drawn from the four decades of the People's Republic, it is that there has to be fundamental change in the political system which over the centuries welded the Chinese people together. If not, the pressures of an increasingly self-confident developing society will finally grow so powerful that the system will burst asunder." The last sentence of the essay and of the volume, and of this invaluable set-makes a prediction about China's future: "In the 1990s and beyond, unity will be preserved only by diversity."—Dr. Stephen Uhalley, Jr., is a professor of Chinese history and chairman of the department of history at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. •