赵鼎新评魏昂德《毛泽东治下的中国：一场革命脱了轨》

P.S. 国庆假前，心有骚动，译文一发，今天刊出。

Zhao, Dingxin. “China under Mao: A Revolution Derailed.” Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 45, no. 5 (September1, 2016): 664–65. doi:10.1177/0094306116664524aaa.

China under Mao: A Revolution Derailed, by Andrew G. Walder Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 2015. 413 pp. $49.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780674058156.

魏昂德：《毛泽东治下的中国：一场革命脱了轨》，哈佛大学出版社，2015。


在《China under Mao》第1章里，魏昂德解释了中国共产主义革命的成功。他看到中日战争（1937-1945）的重要性，因为这场战争为CCP提供了机会以大大扩展其控制的军队与领土，并且予以关键的时间去建设高度纪律化的列宁式组织（Leninistorganization）（第2章）。这个观点可能对于一些受过教育的中国人来说并不新鲜，但是它确不同于同类研究的英文学界早期学术作品。魏昂德此书的其它部分，涵盖了从1949到1976年的Mao中国的历史，包括很多有洞见的观察以及有趣的主张，但是其意旨可总结如下：

在CCP统治的早些年头里，中国的发展或多或少是延着斯大林风格的社会革命（Soviet-stylesocial revolution）进行的。在新制度（regime）“接管”中国的头六七年里，启动了很多转型性的项目（transformativeprojects）：土地改革和农业集体化；反对“反革命”的运动（Anti-Counterrevolutionarycampaign）；压制秘密宗教、秘密结社以及城市帮会；限制知识分子自由；开展户口登记制度，以及CCP控制的诸联合会、街道委员会；采取了计划经济和工分制等等。（第3—5章）。这些国家项目摧毁了那些锁闭了国家力量向地方社会渗透的旧制度（oldregime），并建立了支持新制度的坚实基础，以及转变了中国经济与社会的本质，使之能够较易地看出其为具有斯大林风格的社会主义体制（theSoviet-style socialist system.）的某个变种。
 

但是，中国很快就接连遇到了两个灾难：theGreat Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution。魏昂德认为，国际和国内的发展于此带来了去斯大林化（de-Stalinization）的后果，并且这一后果与“百花齐放运动”之失败汇聚在一起——这个运动最初意图可能是将群众参与式民主（massparticipatory democracy）加以制度化，但是它却以整肃那些说真话的知识分子的“Anti-Rightist Campaign”（第7章）而告终。这样的汇聚推使毛泽东采取一种新的经济系统，以较少地依赖计划与官僚制，而是更多依赖于动员与群众参与（mobilizationand mass participation）。这个新经济政策造成了众所周知的“the Great LeapForward”这场全面的运动。从the Great Leap Forward一开始，很多问题就接踵而来，但是Mao拒绝承认其错误，以致其态度和政府政策延续并强化了那些问题，导致了死亡达3000万人的1959-1961年大饥荒。（第8章）对这场饥荒的政治回应是导致the CulturalRevolution 兴起的主要因素(第9章)——这场“革命”，这场灾难是产生于非意图的诸后果（unintendedconsequences），以致Mao不得不去应对直至他于1976年过世（第10—13章）。

魏昂德的书是按时序（chronologically）来安排的，（所以）读起来像本历史书。一些社会学者可能对于会失望，因为它并不是标准的社会学作品。然而，这本书从头到尾包含了一种理论讯息（theoreticalmessage）：在CCP与民族主义者们（Nationalists）的纠缠过程中，发展出了三种制度性特征（institutionalfeatures）：严酷的列宁式组织（Leninist organization）、Mao的卡里斯玛权威（charismaticauthority）以及通过群众动员（mass mobilization）来做工作的倾向。这些制度性特征对于CCP的成功十分重要，但是他们又是中国在Maoistera走向灾难的关键因素。


《Chinaunder Mao》一书是基于魏昂德多年的教学、研究、一手数据的收集以及反思的成果。它的叙事与分析总是能够很好地加以脉络化。这样的书当然只能是出自“大智者”之手。就这本书来看，可能魏昂德开展了一场新种的社会学叙事（a new kindof sociological narrative）之冒险。他的叙事风格并不是由诸制度性特征和诸机制（mechanisms）来决定，而是力图将诸制度性特征、诸机制和异质性的诸发生（heterogeneoushappenings）去共塑（co-shape）历史的动力（the dynamics of history）。在这一点上，魏昂德完成了一项出色的工作。

这本书的文字明晰、易于阅读，是现代中国历史导论课程的理论教材。对于想要了解Mao时代的中国政治和社会的普遍读者来说，这本书也易于掌握，更可能是近来最好的一本书了。

向魏昂德所完成的重要成就表示祝贺！

Andrew Walder’s China under Mao begins with a chapter explaining thesuccess of the Chinese Communist Revolution. He sees the Sino-Japanese War(1937–1945) as the key because it had provided opportunities for the ChineseCommunist Party (CCP) to greatly expand the armies and territories under itscontrol and it had given the CCP time crucial to building a highly disciplinedLeninist organization (Chapter 2). This argument may not be new to someeducated Chinese, but it is quite different from the earlier scholarly writingson the same topic published in English sources. The rest of Walder’s book,covering the history of Maoist China between 1949 and 1976, contains many insightfulobservations and interesting assertions, but the gist can be summarized asfollows.

In the early years of CCP rule, China’s development was more or less in linewith a Soviet-style social revolution. The new regime had launched numeroustransformative projects in the first six or seven years after it took overChina: land reform and collectivization of agriculture; theAnti-Counterrevolutionary campaign; the suppression of religious sects, secretsocieties, and urban gangs; the restriction of intellectual freedom; theinstallation of a household registration system, CCP-controlled unions, andneighborhood committees; the adoption of a planned economy and work-unitsystem; and so on (Chapters 3 to 5). Brutal as many of these state projectswere, they destroyed many of the structures of the old regime that had blockedthe state’s power to penetrate into local societies, established firm bases ofsupport for the new regime, and transformed the nature of the Chinese economyand society to the extent that it could be easily identified as a variant ofthe Soviet-style socialist system.

But China soon ran into two consecutive disasters known as the Great LeapForward and the Cultural Revolution. Here, Walder argues that international anddomestic developments in the aftermath of de-Stalinization in conjunction withthe failure of the Hundred Flowers Campaign—the campaign’s initial intentionwas perhaps to institutionalize a mass participatory democracy, but it endedwith the purge of frankly speaking intellectuals during the so-calledAnti-Rightist Campaign (Chapter 7)—pushed Mao to adopt a new economic systemrelying less on planning and bureaucracy than on mobilization and massparticipation. This new economic policy unfolded into a full-scale campaign knownas the Great Leap Forward. The Leap ran into numerous problems as soon as itstarted, but Mao refused to accept it as a mistake. Mao’s attitude and ensuinggovernment policies prolonged and intensified the problems and induced thegreat famine between 1959 and 1961, during which close to 30 million peopledied prematurely (Chapter 8). The political repercussions of the famine becamea major factor that contributed to the rise of the Cultural Revolution (Chapter9), a “revolution” that created unintended consequences and calamities that Maohad to cope with until his death in 1976 (Chapters 10 to 13).

Walder’s book is chronologically arranged and reads like a history book. Somesociologists might be disappointed that it was not written as a standard sociologicalpiece. Yet, the book does contain a theoretical message that runs through theentire manuscript: the CCP developed three institutional features in itsstruggle with the Nationalists, namely, a draconian Leninist organization,Mao’s charismatic authority, and a penchant for getting work done through massmobilization. These institutional features were crucial to the CCP’s success,but they were also the key factors that led China into disasters during theMaoist era.

China under Mao is based on many years of teaching, research, firsthand datacollection, and rethinking, and its narrative and analysis are always wellcontextualized. This is a book that can only be accomplished by a man of greatwisdom. Perhaps, with this book, Walder has ventured into a new kind ofsociological narrative, a narrative style that does not allow institutionalfeatures and mechanisms to determine but compels institutional features,mechanisms, and heterogeneous happenings to co-shape the dynamics of history.On this count, Walder has done an excellent job.
Lucidly written, this book is an easy read. It is an ideal textbook forintroductory courses on the history of modern China. It is also easilyaccessible to general readers and is perhaps the best recent book for generalreaders who want to understand Chinese politics and society under Mao. Icongratulate Walder for this great achievement.


（译/高行云）

（Sociological理论大缸第33期）