‘In Agriculture, Learn from Dazhai’: Mao Zedong's revolutionary model village and the battle against nature
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01426390701231564
ISSN1469-9710
Autores Tópico(s)Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
ResumoAbstract When after 1968, millions of Chinese citizens were driven into the countryside in order to participate in agriculture as part of the Cultural Revolution, Dazhai was the model of what the countryside should be, not just socially, but also physically. In 1964 it came to prominence for its spirit of self-reliance, hard struggle and collectivism, and in this Dazhai came to embody the battle against nature and the hegemony of mankind. It was therefore not the natural features that were valued in the landscape, but the evidence of human endeavour. On heavily eroded mountainsides, terraces—an age-old way of cultivation—were re-invented and were re-presented as features of the modern age and evidence of the communist revolution. Similarly Dazhai village was promoted as a model of communal living. Key words: Chinese communismcollectivismself-relianceagriculturedesigned landscapenature Notes 1 Mao, Zedong. ‘Mao Zedong zai 1940 nian Yan'an ziran kexue yanjiuhui chenglihui shangde jianghua’ [The speech delivered in the conference of the founding of Yan'an Natural Science Research Institute in 1940] 1940 . New China . (March 15, Citation1940). Translation quoted from China: a geographical sketch. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1974), 109. 2 Buchanan, Keith. The transformation of the Chinese earth: aspects of the evaluation of the Chinese earth from earliest times to Mao Tse-tung. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd, Citation1970), 152 – 153; Editorial Board of Dazhai Geography of Xiyang County . Dazhai Dili[Dazhai Geography] . (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, Citation1975), 19 – 24; The Scientific Research Group of the Tachai Production Brigade. ‘Taichai field – Its reconstruction and its fertility characteristics’. Scientia Sinica, Vol. XIX, No. 1 (Citation1976): pp. 8 – 9; Maxwell, Neville, ed. China's Road to Development. (Oxford: Pergamon, Citation1979), 41 – 42, 55. In Keith Buchanan's description, there is an error in timing in which the terraces were said to be built after 1963; Christopher L. Salter also noted in 1977, ‘Although the story of the landscape modification programs in Ta-chai from the middle 1950s on is available in part in Maxwell's article and in works by Tannebaum (1974) and other authors, there still remains to be written the earth and stone technology account of the transformation of the landscape. Such a work will not come from one-day or three-day visits, but rather from a residential opportunity which will someday be a reality’. In Salter, Christopher L. ‘Ta-chai beyond Ta-chai: some unsuspected lessons for the USA from a Chinese campaign’. The China Geographer, No. 7 (Spring, Citation1977), 60 – 61. His paper in 1978 did not address the issues comprehensively. See Salter, Christopher L. ‘The Enigma of Ta-chai: Landscapes and Lore’. The China Geographer, No. 9 (Winter, Citation1978): pp. 43 – 62. 3 Maxwell, Neville, ed. China's Road to Development. (Oxford: Pergamon, Citation1979), 51. 4 Wang, Haisong, and Li Su . ‘Shandi fanghong yu cunluo xingtai: Shanxi sheng Dazhai cun kaocha’ [Flood control in mountainous region and village form: investigation of Dazhai village in Shanxi Province] . Architect , No. 72 (Citation1996): pp. 64 – 66. 5 Sun, Jianxuan . ‘Dazhai Daba Yudi Jingyan’ [The experience of building embankments and cultivated fields in Dazhai] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 32 (Citation1964), 6. 6 The highest altitude was 1166 metres, and the lowest 909 metres. 7 The seven gullies, successively from east to west, were Xiaobeiyu, Houdi, Baituo (White Camel), Laofen, Zhaobeiyu, Langwozhang (Wolf Den), and Mahuang (Ephedra). The ridges in between connected to the north slopes of the Tigerhead Mountain. 8 Sun, Jianxuan . ‘Dazhai Daba Yudi Jingyan’ [The experience of building embankments and cultivated fields in Dazhai] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 32 (Citation1964), 6. 9 Traditionally, the autumn-harvested grain crops in Dazhai included millet, sweetcorn, kaoliang and wheat. Some others included barley, pea, mung bean, soybean, black soya bean, red bean, cowpea and potato. Oil-bearing crops included castor-oil plant and sesame. Vegetables included leaf mustard, fresh kidney beans, pumpkin, radish and green Chinese onion. See Wang, Junshan , ed. Dazhai Cun Zhi[Dazhai village records] . (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, Citation2003), 67 – 68. 10 Editorial Board of Dazhai Geography of Xiyang County . Dazhai Dili[Dazhai Geography] . (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, Citation1975), 15. 11 Upon the liberation, class divisions were based on the people's economic conditions, such as the amount of privately owned properties. In Dazhai, people were classified into six categories: poor peasant, lower-middle peasant, middle peasant, rich-middle peasant, rich peasant and landlord. 12 Of China's 540 million population, there were 480 million peasants at the time of the founding of the socialist China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949. 13 At the beginning of the Ten-year Plan, local livestock in Dazhai included 7 farm cattle, 8 donkeys, 70 goats, 19 pigs and 310 chickens. Dazhai began to have mules in 1956 and horses in 1957. See, ‘Shanxisheng Xiyangxian Dazhai dadui jiben shuzi’ [Statistical Figures of Dazhai Brigade of Xiyang County in Shanxi Province] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 36 (Citation1964), 11. It was noteworthy that in 1975 Dazhai had 450 pigs and fulfilled the target of ‘a pig per person’ for every co-operative rural unit. See Wang, Junshan , ed. Dazhai Cun Zhi[Dazhai village records] . (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, Citation2003), 88. 14 For full details of the story, see Qin, Huailu. Ninth Heaven to Ninth hell: the History of a Noble Chinese Experiment. (New York: Barricade Books), Citation1995, 92; Ying, Quan . Chen Yonggui Zhuan[Biography of Chen Yonggui] . (Wuhan: Changjiang Wenyi Chubanshe, Citation1996), 90; Tan, Chengjian . Dazhai: Zhongguo Mingcun Jishi[Dazhai: Report of a Famous Village in China] . (Zhengzhou: Zhongyuan Nongmin Chubanshe, 1998), 31; Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 185. 15 Buchanan, Keith. The transformation of the Chinese earth: aspects of the evaluation of the Chinese earth from earliest times to Mao Tse-tung. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd, Citation1970), 153; Editorial Board of Dazhai Geography of Xiyang County . Dazhai Dili[Dazhai Geography] . (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, Citation1975), 22; The Scientific Research Group of the Tachai Production Brigade. ‘Taichai field – Its reconstruction and its fertility characteristics’. Scientia Sinica, Vol. XIX, No. 1 (Citation1976): pp. 9; Maxwell, Neville, ed. China's Road to Development. (Oxford: Pergamon, Citation1979), 41, 55. 16 ‘Shanxisheng Xiyangxian Dazhai dadui jiben shuzi’ [Statistical Figures of Dazhai Brigade of Xiyang County in Shanxi Province] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 36 (Citation1964), 28. 17 The Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the CCP in May 1958 proposed the General Line for the GLF, ‘Go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism’. 18 This policy was made on 10 December 1958 in the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party with the adopted Resolution on Several Issues of the People's Communes. The translation of ‘National Landscaping and Gardening Movement’ was quoted in Editorial Board of Chinese Agricultural Encyclopedia, Gardening Volume Chinese Agricultural Encyclopedia, Gardening Volume (Beijing: Nongye Chubanshe, Citation1996), 58. 19 ‘Shanxisheng Xiyangxian Dazhai dadui jiben shuzi’ [Statistical Figures of Dazhai Brigade of Xiyang County in Shanxi Province] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 36 (Citation1964), 28. 20 ‘Nongtian jiben jianshe shi Dazhai dadui nongye wenchan gaochan de jichu’ [Farmland Capital Construction is the Foundation of Agricultural Production for Dazhai Brigade] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 33 (Citation1964), 80. 21 Mao proposed that China should catch up with Britain within seven years and the United States within eight to ten years in steel making, and the policy of ‘Take Steel as the Key Link, Leap Forward in an All-round Way’ was advocated. 22 People's Communes comprised ‘industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and education, and people's militia so as to formulate a basic unit’ of society. And in Mao's own words, ‘The People's Commune is good. First it is big. Second it is of public nature’. See Tang, Zongli, and Bing Zuo. Maoism and Chinese culture. (New York: Nova Science Publishers, Citation1996), 390. 23 Accounts about this famine abound. One of the latest estimated number of the people who died is 32.5 million. See, Cao, Shuji Dajihuang: 1959 – 1961 nian de zhongguo renkou[Great Famine: Chinese population 1959 – 1961] : 1959 – 1961 . (Hongkong: Hongkong shidai guoji chuban youxian gongsi, Citation2005). 24 Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 138. 25 See: Chen, Yonggui . ‘Yongyuan jingen Maozhuxi, gaoju hongqi xiangqianjin’ [Follow Chairman Mao closely forever and hold high the red banner forward] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 75 (Citation1969), 17; Ying, Quan . Chen Yonggui Zhuan[Biography of Chen Yonggui] . (Wuhan: Changjiang Wenyi Chubanshe, Citation1996), 141; Tan, Chengjian . Dazhai: Zhongguo Mingcun Jishi[Dazhai: Report of a Famous Village in China] . (Zhengzhou: Zhongyuan Nongmin Chubanshe, 1998), 61; Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 135 – 140. 26 Ying, Quan . Chen Yonggui Zhuan[Biography of Chen Yonggui] . (Wuhan: Changjiang Wenyi Chubanshe, Citation1996), 142. 27 This was a slogan to supplement the catchword ‘destroying the four olds and establishing the four news’ in the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). 28 Translation quoted in Editorial Board of Tachai Picture Album of Shanxi Province. Tachai: Pacesetter in China's Agriculture. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1978), 1. 29 Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 169. 30 Hsin, Hua-wen, and Chao Feng-nien. Tachai: standard bearer in China's agriculture. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1972), 9. 31 Kuo, Feng-lien. ‘Persist in Vigorously Criticizing Capitalism and Building Socialism’. In Hua, Guofeng. Let the whole party mobilize for a vast effort to develop agriculture and build Tachai-type counties throughout the country: summing-up report at the National Conference on Learning from Tachai in Agriculture (October 15, 1975). (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1975), 41. 32 Hua, Guofeng. Let the whole party mobilize for a vast effort to develop agriculture and build Tachai-type counties throughout the country: summing-up report at the National Conference on Learning from Tachai in Agriculture (October 15, 1975). (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1975), 20 – 21. 33 The highest harvest yield before 1964 was 774 jin/mu (5.81 tons/ha) in 1962, while that of 1964 was 809 jin/mu (6.1 tons/ha). The figure of 1964 even ‘crossed the Changjiang River’, as it was called, since the production target set for the area south of the Changjiang River was 800 jin/mu (6 tons/ha) in the 1956 National Programme for Agricultural Development. 34 Wang, Junshan , ed. Dazhai Cun Zhi[Dazhai village records] . (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, Citation2003), 90. This Plan appeared to have been devised to coincide with the National Programme for Agricultural Development (1956 – 1967), revised on 25 October 1957, and finally adopted by the Second Session of the Second National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on 10 April 1960, in which the development of forestry was planned within a twelve-year period. See National Programme for Agricultural Development (1956 – 1967). (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1960), 18. The numbers of tree planting required in urban areas were the official policy for one to three trees in urban areas, stipulated at the First National Urban Landscaping and Gardening Working Conference held in Beijing in 1958. It was not specified for rural areas, and the Dazhai villagers just followed the policies but probably opted for larger numbers since they had more ground available. See Liu, Shanghua . Zhongguo Fengjing Yuanlin Dangdai Wushinian: 1949 – 1999[The Fifty Years of Chinese Landscape Architecture: 1949 – 1999] : 1949 – 1999. (Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe, Citation1999), 5, 21. 35 Agriculture and Forestry Bureau of Xiyang County . ‘Zongjie lishi jingyan, zuzhi linye shengchan xin gaochao’ [Summarizing historical experiences and greeting the new high tide of afforestation] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.2, Vol. 15 (Citation1965), 18. 36 Agriculture and Forestry Bureau of Xiyang County . ‘Zongjie lishi jingyan, zuzhi linye shengchan xin gaochao’ [Summarizing historical experiences and greeting the new high tide of afforestation] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.2, Vol. 15 (Citation1965), 18. 37 Chairman Mao praised the People's Commune for its large size and public nature in 1958. See: Song, Liansheng . Zongluxian, Dayuejin, Renmingongshehua Yundong Shimo[General Line, Great Leap Forward, The Beginning and End of People's Commune Movement] . (Kunming: Yunnan Renmin Chubanshe, Citation2002), 173. 38 See Ying, Quan . Chen Yonggui Zhuan[Biography of Chen Yonggui] . (Wuhan: Changjiang Wenyi Chubanshe, Citation1996), 52. 39 See Chen, Yonggui . ‘Yongyuan jingen Maozhuxi, gaoju hongqi xiangqianjin’ [Follow Chairman Mao closely forever and hold high the red banner forward] . Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 75 (Citation1969), 2; Hsin, Hua-wen, and Chao Feng-nien. Tachai: standard bearer in China's agriculture. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1972), 14; Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 96. 40 Maxwell, Neville, ed. China's Road to Development. (Oxford: Pergamon, Citation1979), 51. 41 Translated in Salter, Christopher L. ‘In memoriam: selected landscape poetry of Mao Tse-Tung’. The China Geographer, No. 5 (Fall, Citation1976), 62. The printed Chinese sentences were ‘’. 42 The printed Chinese text was ‘’. 43 The printed Chinese text was 44 Shapiro, Judith. Mao's War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. (New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Citation2001), 101. 45 Shapiro, Judith. Mao's War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. (New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Citation2001), 106 – 107. 46 See for example: Myrdal, Jan. Report from a Chinese Village. (London: Heinemann, 1965). 47 Liang, Heng, and Judith Shapiro. ‘In Agriculture, Don't Learn from Dazhai’. In Return to China: a survivor of the Cultural Revolution reports on China today. (London: Chatto & Windus, Citation1987), pp. 213 – 226. 48 Qin, Huailu, edited by William Hinton. Ninth heaven to ninth hell: the history of a noble Chinese experiment. (New York: Barricade Books, Citation1995), 649. 49 Leys, Simon. Chinese Shadows. (Harmondsworth (etc.): Penguin, Citation1978), 74; Maxwell, Neville, ed. China's Road to Development. (Oxford: Pergamon, Citation1979), 42, 69; Shapiro, Judith. Mao's War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. (New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Citation2001), 98, 100, 106, 237. In all these listed criticisms, the labour provided by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was mentioned, which should be those in Dazhai's irrigation works. But the help was on the PLA's own initiative and was spur-of-the-moment and irregular, which had nothing to do with Dazhai's adherence to self-reliance. This detailed investigation was provided in Qin, Huailu, edited by William Hinton. Ninth heaven to ninth hell: the history of a noble Chinese experiment. (New York: Barricade Books, Citation1995), 542 – 545. 50 See Qin, Huailu, edited by William Hinton. Ninth heaven to ninth hell: the history of a noble Chinese experiment. (New York: Barricade Books, Citation1995), 539 – 560. 51 Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 16. 52 Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 17. 53 Qin, Huailu, edited by William Hinton. Ninth heaven to ninth hell: the history of a noble Chinese experiment. (New York: Barricade Books, Citation1995), 652. 54 Maxwell, Neville, ed. China's Road to Development. (Oxford: Pergamon, Citation1979), 78. 55 Hua, Guofeng. Let the whole party mobilize for a vast effort to develop agriculture and build Tachai-type counties throughout the country: summing-up report at the National Conference on Learning from Tachai in Agriculture (October 15, 1975). (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1975), 41. 56 See Hua, Guofeng. Let the whole party mobilize for a vast effort to develop agriculture and build Tachai-type counties throughout the country: summing-up report at the National Conference on Learning from Tachai in Agriculture (October 15, 1975). (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, Citation1975), 39 – 40; Joint Editorial Board of Dazhai Exhibition Hall of Xiyang County and Historical Relic Committee of Shanxi Province . Historical Relic: Monograph of Dazhai Revolutionary Historical Relic . (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, Citation1976), 16; Wang, Junshan , ed. Dazhai Cun Zhi[Dazhai village records] . (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, Citation2003), 41. 57 Shang, Yuli, and Xiao Yaozhang . Dazhai Chashang Jinchibang[Dazhai with golden wings] . (Beijing: Nongye Chubanshe, Citation1977), 34. 58 Feng, Dongshu . ‘Jizhe yanli nage zhenshi de Chen Yonggui’ [The real Chen Yonggui in the eyes of a reporter] . Jinri Mingliu[Contemporary Celebrities] , No. 4 (Citation1998), 32. 59 Editorial Board of Dazhai Geography of Xiyang County . Dazhai Dili[Dazhai Geography] . (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, Citation1975), 46. 60 Duan, Cunzhang . Wo zai Dazhai shisan nian: yiwei dangbao jizhe yanzhong de Dazhai ren[My Thirteen Years in Dazhai: the Dazhai People in the Eyes of a Reporter of Party Newspaper] (Beijing: Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe, Citation2003), 196. 61 Editorial Board of Dazhai Geography of Xiyang County . Dazhai Dili[Dazhai Geography] . (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, Citation1975), 46. 62 Wang, Junshan , ed. Dazhai Cun Zhi[Dazhai village records] . (Taiyuan: Shanxi Renmin Shubanshe, Citation2003), 91. 63 Party Branch of Dazhai Brigade . ‘Women shi zenyang lühua hutoushan de?’ [How have we turned the Tigerhead Mountain green?] Dazhai Archives. No. 1.1, Vol. 102 (Citation1973), 109; Liu, Shenyuan . ‘Dazhai: yibu lüse jingdian’ [Dazhai: a green model] . Zhongguo Lüse Shibao , 06-08-Citation2001. 64 Christopher L. Salter ‘The enigma of Tachai: landscapes and lore’, The China Geographer, No. 9 (Citation1978), 43.
Referência(s)