Welcome to Gaia! ::

Topic: Mao Ze Dong & the long march

Today we mark the death, in 1976, of Mao Ze Dong. At the time of his death, Mao was the leader of the People's Republic of China and the Chairman of its Communist party. He had held power for an impressive 27 years and billions of Chinese had read his thoughts in the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse Tung.

Today we come not to quote Mao but to look at a phrase he helped popularize decades earlier: the long march. The figurative long march names a bitter or difficult period of trial from which an individual or instituation emerges stronger and ready to assume power. Long march can also be used for any long and daring journey.

The literal long march was indeed a long and audacious journey. In October 1934, then-General Mao and the soldiers of the Red Army evacuated their base camp in southeast China in order to escape a blockade by the Nationalist Army, their enemies in the Chinese Civil War. Initially, Mao's group had no direction but just kept walking. Over the next year, they crossed 18 mountain ranges and 24 rivers, traveled roughly 5,000 miles, lost an estimated 1/2 to 4/5ths of the original group, and eventually reached their new home base in Shensi province. By then, Mao was the clear leader of the hardened, tough, and unified Communist Party.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

the Boers in South Africa also had a long trek.