Contemporary Chinese Economist Academic Biography · Mao Yuxiang

Author: Cen Ke
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-04-01
Features: Started learning economics at the age of 46 but became a nationally renowned economist with numerous works; at 72, he wrote a public letter about the high prices at the capital airport, which shocked the National Development and Reform Commission and forced the airport to strengthen price supervision; due to his deep humanistic care for the grassroots and relentless pursuit of truth, he was known as the "Marxist of Economics" and was praised by the madman scholar Zhang Wucai as "above me." He is Professor Mao Yuxiang.
Mao Yuxiang was born on January 14, 1929, in Nanjing to a scholarly family. His father was Mao Yixin, a renowned railway mechanical expert who had studied abroad early in his career, while his uncle was Mao Yisheng, a bridge expert. Because of this, in 1946, he was admitted to the Mechanical Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, specializing in railway locomotives. In 1950, after graduation, he abandoned the prosperity of Shanghai and voluntarily went to the Qiqihar Railway Bureau in the far north, where his first job was a train driver. From then on, he began to ponder a question: how to drive the locomotive to minimize fuel consumption while maintaining punctuality. Over the following years, he studied mathematics in depth and, through hard thinking, arrived at the important result of optimal allocation. Due to his diligence, dedication, and hard work, he was quickly promoted to a technician and engineer. In 1955, he was transferred to the Beijing Railway Science Research Institute as an assistant researcher, where he conducted research on the performance of locomotives and rolling stock.
In 1958, Mao Yuxiang was labeled a rightist and sent to rural Shandong for labor. During the nationwide famine that followed, he experienced hunger and even had the unique experience of eating grasshoppers. During the Cultural Revolution, he was again persecuted, had his home searched, was criticized and beaten, and was eventually sent to rural Shanxi for labor reform. He was not exonerated until 1978.
Mao Yuxiang, who enjoyed Tai Chi, took the 12 years of hardship in stride—"Dialectically speaking, the 12 years lost opportunities to pursue his career but also gave him a deep understanding of rural China and a profound connection with the farmers." After 12 years of labor and dedicated research, he derived the principle of optimal allocation in 1979. In 1981, he attended a seminar in Beijing by the American economist Klein, where he formally encountered modern economics and extensively read Western economic works, refining his ideas. In 1985, he wrote "The Principle of Optimal Allocation—Economics and Its Mathematical Foundations," a work that was hailed as reconstructing the entire microeconomics and established his position as an economist.
"I have a strong desire to make our country prosperous. Later, I realized that our country needed economics more, so I began to shift my focus." In the early 1980s, Mao Yuxiang applied to transfer to the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, but was rejected because he was not an economics major. In 1985, he was finally transferred to the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he focused on the U.S. economy and the Chinese economy. He considered the 10 years at the Institute of American Studies as a decade of significant growth.
As China's market economy accelerated and deepened, Mao Yuxiang felt that the Chinese people lacked economic knowledge and began writing essays and articles to popularize economics to the public. In 1986, as a scholar funded by the Ford Foundation, he conducted a one-year visiting research at Harvard University. He continuously observed and reflected on issues from an economist's perspective, some of which were reflected in his book "Economics in Life—Examinations of the U.S. Market," published in 1993. This book aimed to guide readers to think for themselves and discover the economics they could master, becoming immensely popular and widely acclaimed. Subsequently, books such as "Who Is Hindering Our Prosperity," "The Moral Prospects of the Chinese People," and "Frontiers of Modern Economics" followed, and he became unstoppable.
In 1993, Mao Yuxiang retired from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and, together with four other economists, founded the Tianze Economic Research Institute, serving as its first director. "Tianze" is derived from the Book of Songs "Heaven was born with the people, with things and with rules," meaning "institutional rules that align with the natural way." The institute regularly held academic seminars, inviting innovative scholars and experts from China and abroad to give lectures and engage in realistic discussions and critiques, with open and free exchanges of ideas. Today, the Tianze Institute has gathered a group of top-tier economists such as Zhang Shuguang, Sheng Hong, Fan Gang, and Wang Dingding, and has "already paved a path for academic research conducted by civil society."