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Topic: Mao Zedong

Today we mark the birth, in 1893, of Mao Zedong.

Mao was a soldier, a speaker, a theorist, and the author of Quotations of Chairman Mao—a book carried and read by millions of Chinese citizens throughout the three-decade-long reign of that leader of the People's Republic of China. The Little Red Book, as it was dubbed in the West, contains some 427 quotations; what is not included is the oft-repeated line let a thousand flowers bloom.

In fact, what Mao actually said, in his speech in the summer of nineteen-fifty-seven, was this: "Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend." That speech (and that language) was viewed as an invitation to share diverse opinions about the political system, and, for a brief period, that was precisely the response elicited by his words.

But the bloom was soon off the rose. That period of openness was followed by the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when those suspected of not fully subscribing to the thoughts of Mao were humiliated, imprisoned, or killed.

But the phrasing let a hundred flowers bloom lives on, both as a wholehearted acknowledgment of myriad opinions being welcomed and also as a wry recognition that a group does not share a single viewpoint on a controversial matter.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

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