毛澤東生前先後欽定了兩位接班人，一位是劉少奇，一位就是林彪。林彪在抗戰期間遭到槍傷，神經機能受損，他怕光、怕風、也怕水。中共建國後，林退居幕後，長期養病。林的多病之軀，根本無法處理繁瑣的國政大計。以毛的睿智，不會不知情。不過劉的前車之鑑，令毛深深感受到功高震主的威脅。有鑑於此，毛必須找出一個人來取代劉，而這個人不能像劉一樣活力充沛，雄心勃勃，處處攬權。這種背景下，林的病情與退隱，反而成為林的最大政治資本，毛的確是慧眼獨具。 問題的關鍵在於，毛是否真心地培植林為他的接班人，答案恐怕是否定的。在中國這種歷史悠久的大國，有那一朝代雄才大略的開國君主會刻意選擇一個弱不禁風的病夫來繼承大統？所以唯一合理的解釋應是，毛根本從未打算以林作為他的真正接班人。換句話說，林只是個有名無實的接班人。 姑不論林是否心中有數，不過林深知毛反覆無常、出爾反爾的作風，更瞭解伴君如伴虎的險惡。林明哲保身之道，主要是兩面性作為。在有為的部分，林也不是出自主動，在確認毛的本意後，林才會出手，例如〈軍委八條〉、〈軍委十條〉及〈第一個號令〉。至於無為的部分，林則盡量往後退，事無巨細全都推給毛決定。林坐上第二把交椅後，當然瞭解高處不勝寒的道理，他的確是戰戰兢兢，唯恐動輒得咎，獲罪於毛，而招致大禍。

Mao Zedong designated two successors during his lifetime, of whom one was Liu Shaoqi and the other Lin Biao. During military action against the Japanese Invasion, Lin's nervous system was severely injured by a bullet. As a result, he was sensitive to light, wind and water. Lin resigned from his political career for long-term recuperation after People's Republic of China had been established. With his declining health, Lin was unable to deal with the many issues of national affairs. Being a wise person himself, Mao was not unaware of this. Liu's success had established his status which made Mao felt threatened, based on this, Mao felt it was necessary to seek out someone to replace Liu, someone who wouldn't be as enthusiastic, active and ambitious as Liu was. Under such circumastances, Lin's illness and withdrawal had unexpectedly become his biggest political advantage. Indeed, Mao was astute because he alone could foresee it. The question is whether Mao genuinely intended to train Lin to become his successor and it could be an adversarial answer. Never in its long-standing history has China had a supreme leader who purposely designated a weak individual to be his successor. So the only reasonable explanation is that Mao never intended to train Lin to become his successor. In other words, Lin was just a puppet in Mao's reality world. Although it is uncertain whether Lin was aware of Mao's ulterior motive, he was definitely aware of Mao's unpredictability and caprice. Even more, Lin was well aware that to be in such position was putting himself in great danger. Lin protected his position mainly by dealing with the issues in two different ways. One of them was to actually deal with the issues. However, Lin did not do so of his own accord, but rather waited until Mao's intention became clear before taking any action, for example “The Eight-Point Order from the Central Military Committee”, “The Ten-Point Order from the Central Military Committee”, “Order Number One”. The other way was that Lin remained indifferent or disinterested and left all decisions up to Mao. Lin was clearly aware that his position of senior leadership was associated with many disadvantages. Lin took extra precaustions to ensure that he did not offend Mao to prevent serious consequences.