"Monk hitting umbrella - no hair and no law" is a Chinese folk afterword, because the word "hair" and "law" are pronounced the same, also known as "monk hitting umbrella - lawless".
In 1936, American journalist Edgar Snow took a classic Red Star Hat photograph of Mao Zedong at the security guard
Mao quoted this on December 18, 1970, during a meeting with the American journalist Edgar Snow, an old friend of Chinese. He said: "I am not afraid of saying the wrong thing, I am lawless, called 'monk umbrella', no hair (Law) no law, no hair, no sky." He may not have thought at the beginning that a joke at that time would be interpreted and even misinterpreted in various ways with the changes of history.
Nowadays, some articles and interviews often use this as a basis, or conclude that "Mao Zedong despised the rule of law" because he "claimed to be a monk who beat an umbrella and was lawless" and proposed that "Mao Zedong still ruled by man"; or that "Mao Zedong admired 'monks playing umbrellas, unable to (develop) lawlessness', did not approve of governing the country according to law, worried about being bound by the law, and advocated that 'policy is the law'"; or pointed out that Mao Zedong "said that he was 'a monk playing umbrella and lawlessness', indicating that he was essentially unwilling to be bound by the legal system.". Is this really the case? Can we conclude that Mao Zedong "despised the rule of law" because he said that he was "a monk with an umbrella and lawlessness"? I'm afraid I can't say that!
It is worth pointing out that this specious view has long caused many vague and confusing perceptions in society and academia. Whenever we look back at the history of the legal system in the thirty years before the reform and opening up, many books often neither make a specific analysis nor expand on it, but adopt an extremely arbitrary attitude -- in short, summarize it as an era of "monks hitting umbrellas, lawlessness", and the legal system has disappeared.
What the hell is going on? We have to go back to that conversation more than forty years ago and read carefully the original meaning of Mao Zedong's words.
On that day, he was extremely happy to face his long-lost old friend Snow. The talks lasted nearly five hours, from 9 a.m. to 1:50 p.m., and when it came to the cult of personality during the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong showed a sober mind and a frank attitude, criticizing the kind of personality cult of slogans, portraits, plaster portraits, and offering to cool down the cult of personality. He also asked Snow, did Mr. Coffran and Adler (an American expert working in China) talk to you about this? Snow replied, "Talked a bit, but they weren't as candid as you are." Mao Zedong then said: "That is, they are a little superstitious, and they are a little afraid, afraid of saying the wrong thing." I am not afraid to say the wrong thing, I am lawless, called 'monk umbrella', no hair (Law) no law, no hair, no sky. Here Mao Zedong said, "I am lawless," which is obviously aimed at the situation of "superstition," "fear," and "fear of saying the wrong thing." He wanted to say that he had no rules and regulations in his mind, no superstition, and was not afraid of saying the wrong thing, but also to dispel the ideological concerns of many people on the issue of personality cult and to treat this problem realistically. This is his consistent thinking, and it does not involve the meaning of the rule of law.
On October 1, 1970, Mao Zedong and Mr. and Mrs. Snow took a group photo at Tiananmen Square
The matter is very clear, Mao Zedong originally said this sentence has no special intention, just an analogy casually played by old friends when they talk cordially, more for the vivid and appropriate expression, which is very in line with the expression habits of Chinese. Moreover, the term "lawlessness" has also appeared many times in the famous Chinese literary masterpiece "Dream of the Red Chamber", for example, the thirty-third time in the book says: "If you don't read at home, how can you do these lawless things?" He said for the fifty-eighth time, "After a few days of going out of the door, you will be lawless, and there will be no one in your eyes." Mao Zedong was familiar with "Dream of the Red Chamber", and the literary language in it was easy to use everywhere. Here, the "lawlessness" he blurted out was not originally quoted in the language of "Dream of the Red Chamber"? In addition, does Cao Xueqin's "lawlessness" in "Dream of the Red Chamber" contain anti-feudal meaning in Mao Zedong's view (the "law" here should refer to feudal patriarchy, which is completely different from the current concept of rule of law and constitution), so as to get his internal approval and cite it? There is a possibility. But in any case, this is the same situation as Mao Zedong's frequent use of allusions and colloquialisms to clarify the truth, and there is nothing special about it.
Today, it seems that Mao Zedong's original use of the phrase "monks play umbrellas, lawlessness" not only did not help Snow understand his own meaning (Snow even translated it as "a lone monk who traveled the world with a broken umbrella cloud", which caused an interesting story in the history of translation), but was later taken by some people to paint Mao Zedong's portrait and called it "contempt for the rule of law", which is probably unexpected by both sides of the conversation. We should adopt a responsible attitude toward history, and it is obviously very imprudent and unrealistic to study history and treat the founding leader Mao Zedong in this way of labeling, hatping, and beating sticks.
Saying that Mao Zedong "despised the rule of law" is also untenable in history. Take, for example, the first Constitution of New China in 1954, which Mao Zedong personally presided over the drafting and formulation. In order to draft this constitution, Mao Zedong devoted a lot of painstaking efforts, he read and studied all kinds of constitutions and related materials in the world extensively, and at the same time asked the members of the Politburo of the Central Committee who participated in the discussion of the draft constitution to do the same, and specially listed a detailed legal reading list. In almost seven months, the Constitution Drafting Group chaired by Mao Zedong formed a total of one or two dozen drafts, and the Constitution Drafting Committee held nine plenary meetings to discuss the first draft chapter by chapter. At the same time, more than 8,000 people from the CPPCC National Committee, the party and government organs of various provinces and municipalities, the leading organs of the armed forces, and the local organizations of various democratic parties and people's organizations spent more than two months discussing the first draft of the Constitution and proposing more than 5,900 amendments. After the draft Constitution was promulgated, it was solemnly handed over to the people of the whole country for discussion and solicitation of opinions, and more than 150 million people from all walks of life in the country participated in the discussion of the draft constitution. After the constitutional vote, Mao Zedong said: "This is a relatively complete constitution. First it was drafted by the CPC Central Committee, then discussed by more than 500 senior cadres in Beijing, discussed by more than 8,000 people across the country, and then discussed by the people of the whole country for three months, and this time by more than 1,000 deputies to the National People's Congress. The drafting of the Constitution is prudent, and every article and every word is seriously carried out. "The 1954 Constitution is the first socialist constitution in China's history and occupies an extremely important historical position in the development of China's legal system. The fundamental political system of New China, including the system of people's congresses, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy, were all formally established in this Constitution. Mao Zedong made important contributions to the building of the legal system in New China.
Mao Zedong attached great importance to the role of the Constitution, and when talking about the significance of the Constitution, he said: "A group must have a charter, a country must also have a charter, and the Constitution is a general charter and a fundamental law." By fixing the principles of people's democracy and socialism in the form of the Constitution, which is a fundamental law, so that the people of the whole country have a clear track and the people of the whole country feel that there is a clear, clear, and correct path to follow, we can enhance the enthusiasm of the people of the whole country. Judging from the actual situation of historical development, it is unreasonable to say that Mao Zedong "despised the rule of law."
Mao Zedong's 1970 conversation did not mean to belittle the rule of law in the slightest, a fact that was originally simple and clear, but it was later falsely rumored and given a completely different meaning. The reason for this is worth pondering. The clarification of the real situation of history will help us to think about this issue comprehensively and objectively, so as not to draw rash and vague judgments, and we should pay more attention to identification and independent analysis and judgment of those remarks and viewpoints that really reverse right and wrong and confuse the public opinion.
In today's Chinese society, nearly a hundred years after the slogan "Democracy and Science" was proposed, it is inferred from Mao Zedong's sentence "I am a monk who plays umbrella and is lawless" that he "despises the rule of law." Views and practices such as those that do not respect the facts, look forward to the righteousness of the text, and zhang guan and Li Dai, and even directly apply them to the leaders of the party and the people, should be put to rest!
Source: Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China