Philip Short was for thirty years a foreign correspondent for the BBC, based in Washington, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing. He lived and worked in China for two decades in the 1970s and 1980s, and has returned regularly to the country ever since. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Mitterrand, A Study in Ambiguity (2013) and Pol Pot, Anatomy of a Nightmare (2006).

• Acknowledgements List of Maps List of Illustrations Note on Spelling and Pronunciation Chinese Views of Mao: Preface to the New Revised Edition Prologue 1. A Confucian Childhood 2. Revolution 3. Lords of Misrule 4. A Ferment of ‘Isms’ 5. The Comintern Takes Charge 6. Events Leading to the Horse Day Incident and its Bloody Aftermath 7. Out of the Barrel of a Gun 8. Futian: Loss of Innocence 9. Chairman of the Republic 10. In Search of the Grey Dragon: The Long March North 11. Yan’an Interlude: The Philosopher is King 12. Paper Tigers 13. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 14. Musings on Immortality 15. Cataclysm 16. Things Fall Apart Epilogue Afterword Dramatis Personae Notes Index

Philip Short was for thirty years a foreign correspondent for the BBC, based in Washington, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing. He lived and worked in China for two decades in the 1970s and 1980s, and has returned regularly to the country ever since. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Mitterrand, A Study in Ambiguity (2013) and Pol Pot, Anatomy of a Nightmare (2006).

• Acknowledgements List of Maps List of Illustrations Note on Spelling and Pronunciation Chinese Views of Mao: Preface to the New Revised Edition Prologue 1. A Confucian Childhood 2. Revolution 3. Lords of Misrule 4. A Ferment of ‘Isms’ 5. The Comintern Takes Charge 6. Events Leading to the Horse Day Incident and its Bloody Aftermath 7. Out of the Barrel of a Gun 8. Futian: Loss of Innocence 9. Chairman of the Republic 10. In Search of the Grey Dragon: The Long March North 11. Yan’an Interlude: The Philosopher is King 12. Paper Tigers 13. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 14. Musings on Immortality 15. Cataclysm 16. Things Fall Apart Epilogue Afterword Dramatis Personae Notes Index

Philip Short was for thirty years a foreign correspondent for the BBC, based in Washington, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing. He lived and worked in China for two decades in the 1970s and 1980s, and has returned regularly to the country ever since. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Mitterrand, A Study in Ambiguity (2013) and Pol Pot, Anatomy of a Nightmare (2006).

• Acknowledgements List of Maps List of Illustrations Note on Spelling and Pronunciation Chinese Views of Mao: Preface to the New Revised Edition Prologue 1. A Confucian Childhood 2. Revolution 3. Lords of Misrule 4. A Ferment of ‘Isms’ 5. The Comintern Takes Charge 6. Events Leading to the Horse Day Incident and its Bloody Aftermath 7. Out of the Barrel of a Gun 8. Futian: Loss of Innocence 9. Chairman of the Republic 10. In Search of the Grey Dragon: The Long March North 11. Yan’an Interlude: The Philosopher is King 12. Paper Tigers 13. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 14. Musings on Immortality 15. Cataclysm 16. Things Fall Apart Epilogue Afterword Dramatis Personae Notes Index