Appreciation of Mao Zedong's Poetry - Revised Edition 2

Author: Can Kehua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-15
Features: In 1990, when the first edition of Appreciation of Mao Zedong's Poems was published, it was based on Selected Poems of Mao Zedong published by the People's Literature Publishing House. Mao Zedong's 50 poems were collected in chronological order, and the chief editor Can Kehua invited top experts at the time to provide artistic appreciation for each poem. The book later won several awards, including the "China Book Award," the "National Golden Key Book Award," the "National Bestselling Book Award," and the "Young Chinese Excellent Book Award." In 1996, with the addition of 6 more poems by Mao Zedong, a revised edition of Appreciation of Mao Zedong's Poems was published. In 2003, based on Collected Poems of Mao Zedong published by the Central Publishing House, Henan Literature and Art Publishing House specially released the second revised edition of Appreciation of Mao Zedong's Poems. This edition increased the total number of Mao Zedong's poems and corresponding appreciation articles to 67, rigorously corrected and revised the original book's content and editing quality, and redesigned the cover and layout. At the age of 98, the chief editor Can Kehua wrote a new preface for the second revised edition, making the book more complete in content, authoritative in academia, and precise in editing! On February 6, 2004, Can Kehua, who was 99 years old, passed away, and the book became his last spiritual legacy on the appreciation of Mao Zedong's poems. His preface for the second revised edition became the final chapter of his decades-long literary career. In 2005, coinciding with the centennial of Can Kehua's birth, Henan Literature and Art Publishing House launched a hardcover edition of the book to express the deep longing of readers for both Mao Zedong and Can Kehua, two renowned poets.
Mao Zedong was not only a great revolutionary but also a great poet. His poems enjoy an extremely high reputation in the world literary arena. An foreigner once said of Mao Zedong, "A poet won a new China." Mao Zedong's poems are not only highly artistic but also full of revolutionary passion, the product of his decades of revolutionary practice. His poems are also a poetic history of China's 20th-century revolution. For example, in his poem "To Comrade Peng Dehuai," he wrote:
"Mountains high, roads far, pits deep,
The great army gallops across the land.
Who dares to wield the sword and stand firm?
Only Comrade Peng, the great general!"
This poem vividly depicts the battle at the time and reflects his high praise for Peng Dehuai, especially the last two lines, which are full of heroic passion and noble spirit.
This Appreciation is unique—it is not the voice of one person but the collective insights of dozens of authors. These many writers share their personal reflections, with some essays exceeding 10,000 words and others only a few thousand, each with its own style and varying levels of expertise. Some are more lyrical, while most focus on researching facts and providing context, helping readers clearly understand the meaning and emotion of the poems. Another feature is its lack of rigid frameworks—it evaluates the poems based on their essence. Appreciation of Mao Zedong's Poems includes interpretations and appreciations of Mao Zedong's poems by authors such as Zhang Aiping, Tang Tao, Bi Ye, Guo Feng, Zhou Zhenfu, Zhao Puchu, Feng Mu, and others, comprehensively and completely showcasing the artistic style of Mao Zedong's poems.