A Reinvention of Mao: Plato, Confucius, and Nationalism

This article examines the leading Chinese Straussian Liu Xiaofeng’s talk on Mao in 2013 and his other related writings. It holds that, in his eclectic selections of various sources, Liu creates in Mao a hybrid philosophical and political figure as a “Confucian sagely ruler,” a “Platonic philosopher-king,” and a “revolutionary” and thus presents Mao as a timeless figure in a nationalist temporality, connecting the present and the remote past and also directing it toward a promised future. Nationalism is defined in this article as a set of discourses of searching or affirming a common descent through allegiance to the power of nation-state and advocating or implementing cultural and political homogeneity. It is discussed in this article as a neutral term based on culture, not on race.