https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/226950.html
“What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Let one thousand flowers bloom’?
Let a thousand flowers bloom is a common misquotation of Chairman Mao Zedong’s “Let a hundred flowers blossom”. This slogan was used during the period of approximately six weeks in the summer of 1957 when the Chinese intelligentsia were invited to criticize the political system then obtaining in Communist China.
The full quotation, taken from a speech of Mao’s in Peking in February 1957, is:
“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land.”
It is sometimes suggested that the initiative was a deliberate attempt to flush out dissidents by encouraging them to show themselves as critical of the regime. Whether or not it was a deliberate trap isn’t clear but it is the case that many of those who put forward views that were unwelcome to Mao were executed.”
>> Let a thousand flowers bloom is a common misquotation of Chairman Mao Zedong <<
I’m not persuaded by this article.
A literal, word-by-word translation of the actual Chinese characters might say something like, “Thousand flower let bloom.”
But then when a translator tried to put the quote in context, he might render it as any of the following:
“To let one thousand flowers bloom is . . . .”
(Using the whole prepositional phrase as the subject of a sentence.)
Or:
“Letting a thousand flowers blossom is . . . .”
(Using the the whole gerundic phrase as a sentence’s subject.)
Or:
“Let a thousand flowers bloom.”
(An imperative sentence.)
And there might be other renderings.
In any event, you’d need to study the original Chinese characters to make a good judgment.
(I can’t do so, because I have forgotten most of the characters — and looking them up in a dictionary would take far too much time for me.)