–Mao Zedong, Spring 1964 Apes and men once bowed and took their leave;A few stones ground, our infancy weave.Furnaces flared with copper and steel’s bright sheen –When dawned that age? No guess is keen,But a thousand winters and summers green.
–Mao Zedong, December 26, 1962 Snow weighs on winter clouds; white downflakes fly,Myriad blooms fade fast, now rare and shy.High heaven’s icy currents roll and roar,Yet earth breathes soft warm winds, hope’s gentle core.
–Mao Zedong, June 1959 Faint dreams of old days curse time’s swift flowing tide,My homeland’s scenes recall thirty-two years’ pride.Red flags unfurl; serf’s halberds rise far and wide,Black hands hold high tyrant’s whips, cruel and applied.
–Mao Zedong, February 1936 Behold the northern land’s grand view:A thousand leagues locked in ice and frost,Ten thousand leagues where snowflakes lostIn whirling flight the sky bestrew.Great Wall stretches far, beyond and near;One vast white waste alone appears.The Yellow River’s mighty tideFrom source to sea is stilled, dried.Mountains like silver serpents glide;Plains like waxen…
The Ming Dynasty novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms exists in many different editions. When Mao Zonggang and his father revised and commented on Romance of the Three Kingdoms during the Qing Dynasty, they placed the poem “Lin Jiang Xian” by the Ming Dynasty poet Yang Shen at the beginning of the novel as…