The Origin, Essence and Connotation of "Maoism" Discourse: A Brief Review of Benjamin I. Schwartz's The China' s Communist Movement and the Rise of Mao Zedong

Benjamin I. Schwartz, late professor with Harvard University, was a renowned scholar on modem China issues. His work The China' s Communist Movement and Rise of Mao Zedong was his doctoral dissertation, which made a name for himself. In this work, Schwartz was first to put forward academic pattern of , and made an initial study of its origin, essence and connotation. He stressed that was obviously different from Stalinism. Maoism was the revolution conducted by peasants, which was more than the revolution by peasants but only for them. The former stressed that peasants themselves were main body, essence and drive of revolution, while latter only regarded peasants' interests as one of important goals of revolution. It is obvious that these two are essentially different. Schwartz' s viewpoints have much influenced study of Mao Zedong in Western countries, and thus brought out many disputes.