毛泽东 [Mao Zedong] - 最高指示 [Supreme Directive ; = Little Red Book]

毛泽东 [Mao Zedong] - 最高指示 [Supreme Directive ; = Little Red Book] - [China] - 无产阶级文化大革命以来发表的 - 一九六八年十一月 [November 1968] - [Reprint] - [6], [282] pp - Softcover - 8 x 10, 5 cm.

Condition: Good - with some wear. A reading ribbon (presumably once present) is missing.

Mini booklet, original 1960s state edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao. With his frontispiece portrait in colour. Text in Chinese, printed on thin-print paper. Bound in red plastic cover with small medallion of the Great Leader on the front.

¶ Chinese politician Mao Zedong (also known as Mao Tse-tung, 1893-1976) was the face of the People's Republic of China for decades from 1935 as leader of the Communist Party (CCP). The Little Red Book (1st edition in April 1964) was required reading. Anyone who could not immediately produce the booklet at the request of the Red Guards had to expect a beating or even a prison sentence.

Translations have been published in sixty-five countries and, with an estimated circulation of five to six billion copies, it is the most printed book in the world after the Bible and the Koran. Fred Bijsmans wrote a blog (in Dutch) about it.