In 1966, Mao Zedong had a problem.

1966 年時，毛澤東遇到了一個問題。

The Chinese leader who had led a peasant army to victory in the Chinese Civil War, and established the communist People's Republic of China in 1949, was getting old.

這個領導農民軍在國共內戰中取得勝利、並在 1949 年創立中國人民共和國的領導人，正逐漸老去。

Worse, his radical policies had devastated the country, and triggered the deadliest famine known to human history.

更糟的是，他激進的政策破壞了中國，並導致了人類史上最嚴重飢荒的發生。

By the early 1960s, Mao's once-great influence and public presence were at an all-time low, and there were rumors that he was dying, or even dead already.

到了 1960 年代早期，毛澤東曾經龐大的影響力與存在感都達到最低，甚至有謠言傳出他快死了，或是已經死了。

He needed to find a way to seal his legacy as the face of Chinese communism.

他需要一個方法，讓他成中國共產主義的傳奇臉孔。

And a new revolution to lead.

再領導一場新的革命。

It started in a river.

一切都從一條河流開始。

-The Great Leap Forward was a disaster. [Chapter one: Mao loses his grip.]

-大躍進是場災難。[第一章：毛失去控制權]

It was Mao's 1958 plan to quickly industrialize China by working its massive peasant population nonstop.

大躍進是毛澤東於 1958 年施行的計畫，不間斷運用大量農民人力來加速中國的工業化。

He promises to transform the People's Republic into an instant paradise through the sheer force of numbers.

他承諾要將人民共和國變為天堂，僅靠著大量的人力。

Forcing workers in the countryside to farm crops on government-run communes.

運用人民公社，迫使農工植種作物。

And millions more to manufacture crude steel in homemade blast furnaces.

還有數百萬計的人使用自製熔爐來製造粗鋼。

And even though Mao told the world that the plan was succeeding…

而即使毛澤東昭告世界，說計畫很成功...

Everywhere, the communists report, production records are being broken.

共產黨報告，不管哪裡的製造都破紀錄。

The truth was much more desperate.

但實際的情況嚴重多了。

They flood the fields, exhaust the soil, and farm production instead of going up, goes down.

他們水淹農地、消耗土壤，農產品產量沒有上升，反而下降了。

The Chinese people were being forced to work tirelessly on land they once owned themselves and they were starting to lose morale.

中國人被迫不斷地在自己曾經擁有的土地上工作，他們的開始失去鬥志。

And despite reports of widespread famine, with millions of people starving to death, Mao kept production quotas high.

儘管有廣泛的飢荒發生，數百萬人要餓死了，毛澤東仍將生產定額定得很高。

The pace grows more frantic.

一切變得更加狂亂。

Ceaselessly, without rest, one observer writes.

不間斷地工作，沒有休息，一名觀察家如此寫道。

"The countryside is in convulsion.".

「整個鄉村人仰馬翻。」

Mao's Great Leap Forward ended in 1962.

毛澤東的大躍進於 1962 年結束。

By that time somewhere between 23 and 55 million people had died in the famine.

當時，介於 2,300 萬至 5,500 萬的人民死於飢荒。

Over in the Soviet Union, a different political upheaval was happening.

在當時的蘇聯，一場不同政治動盪正在發生。

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who Mao modeled himself after, was dead.

毛澤東的偶像，蘇聯的領袖史達林，死了。

And Mao watched as Nikita Krushchev, Stalin's successor, implemented a period known as "de-Stalinization.".

而毛澤東看到了史達林的繼任者，赫魯雪夫施行了「去史達林化」。

Where Krushchev set out to reverse many of Stalin's policies and dismantle the personality cult that had formed around him.

赫魯雪夫推翻了許多史達林的政策，並逐漸取消掉此前集中於史達林本人的崇拜。

Mao saw his own legacy potentially suffering the same fate.

毛澤東看見他的未來也可能會是如此。

His communist revolution was long over, and his ideas weren't taken as seriously after the disaster of the Great Leap Forward.

他的共產革命早就結束了，而且他的點子在大躍進失敗後就不再那麼有份量。

It was starting to look like Mao's place in the pantheon of powerful communist figures, like Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, was in peril.

看起來，如果有個共產代表人物的萬神殿，如列寧與馬克思等，那毛澤東的位置可能不保了。

This is where the river comes in. [Chapter two: the swim.]

這就是那條河出場的時候了。[第二章：游泳]

Mao had a reputation for being a strong swimmer.

毛澤東出名了地會游泳。

And even used it as a symbol of his ideology.

這甚至成了他意識形態的一部分。

In 1956, he swam across China's biggest river, the Yangtze, in three highly-publicized swims.

1956 年，毛澤東三次在公開游泳活動中，泳渡中國最大的河流——長江。

To demonstrate that big things, like U.S. imperialism, didn't intimidate him.

他以此來展現如美國帝國主義般的事情嚇不了他。

10 years later, Mao took on the Yangtze again, to dispel rumors of his failing health.

十年後，毛澤東再度上長江，驅散關於他病危的謠言。

This time with cheering crowds swimming alongside him.

這次，有無數為他歡呼的群眾與他共游。

He brought his personal photographer, who snapped this photo of the aging dictator in the river.

他帶了自己的私人攝影師，拍下了這張在河中的年邁獨裁者。

And another one showing Mao waving to his fellow swimmers, with the landmark Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge behind him.

另一張照片，毛澤東對著一起游泳的群眾揮手，背景是地標武漢長江大橋。

An iconic architectural achievement of the communist government, and proof that he was at the Yangtze.

一個共產政府的亮眼建築成就，更是毛澤東真的到了長江的證據。

The swim made the front page of China's state newspaper, reporting that Mao swam around 15 kilometers, a little more than 9 miles, in a span of 65 minutes.

此次游泳登上了中國的國家報紙，上頭提到毛澤東僅花 65 分鐘，便游了 15 公里，比 9 英里稍微多一些。

Which meant the 72-year-old would have shattered world speed records.

這代表，這 72 歲的老人粉碎了世界泳速紀錄。

A lot of people outside of China laughed at the outlandish story, but some saw the swim for what it was: a sinister sign.

許多中國外的人對這個荒謬的故事感到好笑，但有些人則視這場游泳為一個不祥的徵兆。

Pointing out that Mao's swims from a decade earlier preceded the catastrophic Great Leap Forward.

他們指出，毛澤東十年前也做過一樣的事，就在如災難般的大躍進之前。

Experts feared that Mao was on the verge of kicking off another disastrous period of turmoil in China.

有專家擔心毛澤東又要在中國開起另一段混亂的時期。

They were right.

他們是對的。

Two months before the swim, Mao had announced the beginning of his Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. -[Chapter three: the cultural revolution.]

在那場游泳發生前兩個月，毛澤東已經宣布文化大革命開始。[第三章：文化大革命]

A call to hunt down and eliminate the "bourgeoisie who had sneaked into the party.".

呼籲要獵殺、消滅那些「潛入黨的資產階級」。

Basically to purge the government of anyone who strayed from principles of Maoism.

基本上就是肅清政府內路線偏離毛主義的人。

And it kicked into high gear after his historic swim.

而在他歷史性的游泳後，一切進入高潮。

Which prompted a craze for swimming in China, but more importantly, a craze for Mao.

全中國開始瘋游泳，更重要的是，瘋毛澤東。

Especially among the group that Mao wanted to influence the most: China's youth.

尤其是毛澤東最想影響的族群，中國青年。

Writer Liang Heng recalled that seeing Mao as "human flesh and blood" after the Yangtze swim resolved him to "serve him with all his heart.".

作家梁衡稱「親身看見」毛澤東游泳，讓他「決心服侍他」。

Millions of Chinese youth organized into the fanatical Red Guards, a paramilitary force concentrated mostly in Chinese cities.

數百萬中國青年組織了狂熱的紅衛兵，一個於中國各城市活動的準軍事部隊。

And, with Mao's blessing, they wreaked havoc in the name of Cultural Revolution.

並且，在毛澤東的同意下，他們以文化大革命之名大搞破壞。

Their mission was to destroy the Four Olds.

他們的任務是破四舊。

Old culture.

舊文化。

Old ideology.

舊思想。

Old customs.

舊風俗。

Old traditions—all of the olds must be destroyed.

與舊習慣，這四舊都得摧毀。

The idea was basically to tear down the vestiges of imperial China and rewrite history centered around Mao Zedong.

中心思想基本上就是摧毀古代皇帝世代的中國，並以毛澤東為中心重寫歷史。

Renaming buildings and streets, destroying cultural sites, and violently humiliating, and often torturing and murdering, anyone they accused of opposing Mao's ideas.

重新命名建築與街道，摧毀歷史遺跡，暴力羞辱、折磨甚至謀殺任何不支持毛思想的人。

Which they plastered all over the cities.

他們在各城市貼滿了海報。

And carried in their pockets in the form of Mao's Little Red Book, a collection of his sayings and principles.

並在口袋裡隨身攜帶「小紅書」，裡頭都是毛澤東的語錄與信條。

And although the violent Red Guards were basically dissolved by 1969, the Cultural Revolution is considered to have continued until Mao's death in 1976.

雖然暴力的紅衛兵可說是在 1969 年被解散了，但文化大革命持續到了 1976 年，毛澤東死亡當年，才真正結束。

Ending a decade of destruction that had elevated the leader to god-like levels.

十年的破壞年代終於結束，這將領導捧得像神一般的年代。

And resulted in over one million people dead.

致使超過一百萬人喪生。

The chaos of the Cultural Revolution scarred China for generations.

文革的混亂為中國留下數代的傷痕。

But Mao basically got what he wanted.

但毛澤東可說是達成了他的目的。

Even though the Chinese Communist Party condemned the Cultural Revolution in 1981, and Chinese communism diverted away from Maoism, they didn't denounce Mao himself.

雖然中國共產黨於 1981 年否定了文革，也將道路駛離了毛思想，但他們並沒有貶低毛澤東本人。

The Cultural Revolution solidified Mao's cult of personality, and that influence has lasted.

文化大革命開啟了以毛澤東為中心的邪教，而該影響現仍存在。

Mao's swim, which is still commemorated each year in China, was more than a display of strength.

毛澤東的游泳事蹟，在中國仍每年被讚揚，這象徵了他的力量。

It was a message: to get behind Mao as he began his last revolution.

這是一條訊息：在毛澤東開始最後一次革命時，全力支持他。