#maozhou

“These answers from Quora question "Why did Zhou Enlai promote Mao Zedong to the apex of power in the Communist Party instead of taking such role himself?"

// "In summary, Zhou was the ultimate diplomat, a smooth operator, handled people appropriately, organisationally immaculate with an eye on detail, and flexible in approach whereas Mao was a person with immense talent, militarily a genius, politically a maestro like puppet master and possessed of incredible guile. He was not interested in quotidian details of running an organisation and knew he had to rely on Zhou. Yet he always knew he had to look over the shoulder at Zhou because as the other CCP leaders told Zhou, Zhou was the only person ever who could take over from Mao. It was like a kind of love hate relationship between two brothers entrusted with the task of establishing and managing a country."

// "Back to the question itself, I have to say the peronality of Zhou En-lai was almost a saint. He didn’t raise, or just somehow got rid of any personal dislike and jealousy towards Mao. I feel that Zhou’s judgement is completely follows the objective fact. His eager for ideal overcame personal emotion. Since he found that Mao is the gifted one and his work could benefit the revolutionary ideal the most, Zhou simply put all other factors out of consideration and uttermostly supported the man he think could push the revolutionary career forward. Zhou En-lai was unusually humble, selfless and resolute. For more than half a century, he was the key adhesive of the Party. Zhou kept the walking god could stay with mortals, and he pacified the factional conflicts within the party in a wisdom and fair way. His work as prime minister and intelligence chief could be done by someone else, but the role as mediator was definately irreplaceable. CCP would be impossible to obtain victory without Mao’s lead. Without Zhou, well, the party may implode long ago. Using this traditional idiom is quite improper, for the metaphor violated their lifetime goal of equity. However, this is the best one to conclude their relationship. Mao Zedong and Zhou En-lai were exemplar of “君臣相得”, which literally means “A right correspondence of a right emperor and a right chancellor”. They happened to occur in that time, in same time. It’s one of the greatest grace of destiny for Chinese civilization."

// These passages from a Zhou biography:

// "Tsunyi was the watershed, the great divide. Here began Mao Dzedong's supremacy. Here too began the bond between Zhou Enlai and Mao Dzedong, an indissoluble linkage, until their deaths. Not an easy alliance. Deep entente, and profound discord. Devotion and loyalty, but also resentment. The two men exercised upon each other a mutual fascination, because they were so utterly different, in character, mentality, physical build. [...] Greatness, in China, not only lies in personal achievement but is also organically linked to the discovery of talent and genius in others. Zhou had discovered Mao Dzedong. Discovered genius, an amplitude, a breadth of vision, in which his own passion for China could recognize itself. The tragedy of this bond would come later, much later. When Mao, betrayed by the power lust of all around him, feared and envied Zhou Enlai, the only man who had never betrayed him, who had never wanted to wrest power from him, because he had never needed power to assert himself. Robert Frost has a line of poetry: "The heart knows no devotion, greater than the shore for the ocean." Zhou was the shore to Mao's ocean, forever stemming the transcending waves, yet inseparable from them. A Chinese scholar has another view. "Zhou Enlai knew Mao was a tiger. He, Zhou, thought he could ride that tiger.""