Editor's preface. It is unusual for The China Quarterly to publish anything in unfinished form, but the provenance of this piece by Jack Gray is equally unusual. In the second half of the 20th century, Jack was one of the UK's more important figures in contemporary Chinese studies, perhaps most noted for the text he produced in retirement, Rebellions and Revolutions: China from the 1800s to 2000. What follows here is an extracted version of a set of ideas he set down in 2003–04 for a manuscript on Mao Zedong, still in note form at the time of his passing in late 2004. It forms the core of a mini-symposium on reconsidering Mao on the 30-year anniversary of his death in September 1976. Mark Selden, Chris Bramall and Rebecca Karl offer responses to Jack Gray's views, and to the question of Mao's legacy in general.