China publishes anthology of Mao's thoughts

China has published a collection of commentaries by the country's founder Mao Zedong on a wide variety of subjects including Chinese emperors, historical figures and literary works.
The new collection titled 'Twenty-Four Histories' released yesterday records photo-print versions of Mao's annotations and comments on books, as well as historical remarks from letters, speeches, private conversations and his annotations on other ancient works, the China's Central Archives said.
Mao's analysis on ancient Chinese emperors, historical figures, academic classics and literary works is also published in the collection, which has a total of 91 volumes.
"Mao's annotations and comments on the book were precious spiritual fortunes that he left for later generations, and they have provided good study and research materials for scholars," state-run Xinhua quoted Yang Dongquan, curator of the archives as saying.

Though much of his hard-line Marxist ideology has been diluted by three decades of reforms, Mao continues to be revered by the ruling Communist Party of China, (CPC) as was the founder leader of the country.
The 'Twenty-Four Histories,' 470-million-word biographical records of China up to the Ming Dynasty (1644-1911), was translated from classical language to modern Chinese in 2004.
The latest edition, with more than 600 million Chinese characters, is the first complete translation of the "Twenty-Four Histories" into modern Chinese, the report said.