# red book **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769 "2003-05-03T01:25:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![captainQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/1 "2003-05-03T01:25:21Z")
can someone plaease give me more information about Mao Zedung’s red book? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/2 "2003-05-03T01:36:46Z")
It is written in Chinese. What do you want to know about it? I have it on-line here: [http://zhongwen.com/mao.htm](http://zhongwen.com/mao.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/3 "2003-05-03T02:10:07Z")
Do you mean The Red Book of Longmarch? ---
**Author:** ![captainQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/4 "2003-05-03T02:17:50Z")
no, qadgop, I’m talking about the communist red book. ---
**Author:** ![ooga\_booga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@ooga\_booga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ooga_booga)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/5 "2003-05-03T02:56:29Z")
Its full title in English is ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung’. Someone’s created an online version of the English translation, available [here](http://art-bin.com/art/omaotoc.html) (and now that I’ve typed this message, I see it’s also linked from the page **DrFidelus** mentioned). I picked up a copy on a visit to China and it is, to say the least, fairly dry reading on the whole. A typical quote: > [@](#): > > If there is to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party. Without a revolutionary party, without a party built on the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and in the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary style, it is impossible to lead the working class and the broad masses of the people in defeating imperialism and its running dogs. IMHO, much more interesting (and bizarre) are the [Poems of Mao Tse-Tung](http://www.maoism.org/msw/poems/index.htm). He was apparently something of the Weird Al Yankovic of his time, taking the forms of classic Chinese poems and giving them lyrics of a more revolutionary bent. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/6 "2003-05-03T03:32:42Z")
Remember _National Lampoon_’s satire on the Beatles albums that were never released? One of them showed the Beatles on the cover wearing Mao jackets and carrying a red flag to the top of a hill, just like in Communist propaganda art. The title was, of course, _The Little Red Album_. It had songs like “Happiness Proceeds from the Barrel of a Warm Gun.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/7 "2003-05-03T22:39:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by captainQwark \* > \*\*no, qadgop, I’m talking about the communist red book. \*\* Sorry, I was being overly subtle. Mao came up with a lot of material for his “red book” while on the “long march” in 1934 and 1935, as he and his army retreated and marched over 6000 miles, harassed by General Chiang’s forces. [Mao ZeDong and the Long March](http://www.carpenoctem.tv/military/mao.html) Hence the name “The Red Book of Longmarch”, a parody of the (currently) more popular “Red Book of Westmarch”. Sometimes I tell jokes that only I get. It’s a character defect, I know. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/8 "2003-05-03T22:51:57Z")
I got your joke! It was a good one! You ought to submit it to the massive Tolkien parody thread. It isn’t big enough yet. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-book/172769/9 "2003-05-03T23:06:22Z")
**jomo** , if you get my jokes you should probably try to get out more. 😃