Chinese Leaders and Their Impact The events of history are largely influenced by the people who lived during that time. Leaders like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping helped shape China’s current government through their many fails and successes. Philosophers such as Confucius helped to form the ideas and practices of Chinese society. China’s economic and political history has been greatly impacted by political leaders and great philosophers alike. Mao Zedong was China’s communist leader who pushed many initiatives in hopes of creating a better China for himself. While he did lead with communist ideas and called himself a communist, he was not a true marxist. He reached his spot of power by helping the peasants. He redistributed land to citizens …show more content…
This plan involved setting up small communes. These communes were created by grouping people together to produce goods such as food and steel. Mao urged the citizens of China to make a superhuman effort in their communes in order to increase farm and industrial output. Backyard industries were also created which produced goods which were usually produced by skilled workers, such as steel. This plan, however, was not successful for many reasons. The backyard industries turned out poor quality products, causing approximately 55 million Chinese to starve to death. The poor quality was caused by both bad weather and the lack of incentives. If people made less goods than what was required they would get punished, but if they made more they would gain nothing. This limited the production of these communes, ultimately leading to this plan's demise. Furthermore, Mao built dams and factories throughout China to further increase their economic income. The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s other initiative, where he encouraged students to revolt against the nationalists and the bourgeois. Mao went to great lengths to give the youth a chance to revolt, going as far …show more content…
A philosophy is a system of ideas that is concerned with worldly goals, especially those ensuring social order and good government. Confucius did not focus on religious matters. Instead, he concentrated on worldly matters such as social order and the government. He also taught an idea very similar to the Golden Rule. He believed that you should treat others with the respect you would want shown to you. Confucius also believed that there are five types of relationships in life, and that if they are obeyed and a person knows their place in life they will be in harmony with the world. These relationships are ruler to subject, parent to child, husband to wife, elder brother to younger brother, and friend to friend. The first in all of these relationships is the one who is superior to the other. The only exception is friend to friend, in which both people are of equal authority. Yin and Yang were a huge part of Confucius’s philosophies as well. According to him, the two are opposite forces which are present in every instance in life. Yin, the black swirl, represents darkness, earth, and femininity. The white swirl, yang, represents light, heaven, and masculinity. The symbol shows how there’s good in everything bad, light in the dark, and earth in heaven, and vice versa. Another major idea of confucius was filial piety. Filial Piety means to show