[Cicero]

Mao Tse Tung was not typical of most Chinese emperors, prescisely for the reason that he was a Communist and therefore worse than any emperor.

There were good emperors and bad emperors, even good dynasties and bad dynasties, but for the most part the Chinese emperors ruled in remarkably enlightened fashion, with a system based on Confucianism and an educated bureaucracy. Although it was an aristocratic system, intelligent youths could get ahead through a system of examinations.

By contrast, Mao was a brutal barbarian.

[Mr. Mulliner]

When Mao was leading the long march, it was noted by some of his aides that he had virtually no communist writings among the many books that traveled with him. He read, instead, from the many writings by and about the emperors.

After some comments about this, he did manage to stock his shelves with some Marx, Engels, and Lenin, but apparently he never took too much interest in them.

I think Mao was very much like a Chinese emperor and not that much of a communist theorist.