The Chinese Communist victory under Mao Tse-Tung in 1949 signified a modern political exploitation of a traditional social factor in Chinese history: the agitation and sporadic uprising of an oppressed peasantry. In this book, one of the first of a new series devoted to historical developments all too often ignored in Europe, Jean Chesneaux first examines the role of the secret societies of Imperial China in guiding peasant movements, and highlights the growing economic distress and political oppression of the peasantry in the twentieth century. The activity of the Peasant Associations, the peasantry's growing links with the Chinese Communist Party, its part in the struggle against the Kuomintang and, above all, its central position in the resistance to the Japanese between 1937 and 1945, form the core of Professor Chesneaux's book. He provides a succinct analysis of Maoism, emphasizing its discovery of the immense revolutionary potential of the peasantry and its relationship to revolutionary theory. The result is a book which is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex pattern of modern Chinese history and Chinese society today. Jean Chesneaux is Professor of Far Eastern History at the Sorbonne.
Jean Chesneaux (2 octobre 1922 – 23 juillet 2007) est un historien spécialiste de l'Asie orientale, notamment du Viêt Nam et de la Chine où il séjourne pour la première fois en 1948, et militant politique et associatif.
Jean Chesneaux a été professeur à l'Université Paris Diderot et à l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Plusieurs publications témoignent de son activité d'universitaire, comme son étude sur Sun Yat-sen, considéré comme le « père de la Chine moderne », écrite en 1959 et rééditée en 1982.