NOBODY really knows precisely what is happening in China. But it is journalism's job to find out as much as possible about one of the great stories of the decade, if not the century. That is why Mao Tse-tung is on our cover this week.

Day after day the noises out of Red China sounded increasingly explosive. By week's end, they had reached a crescendo. This obviously was another climax in the unfolding spectacle of China's chaos, and the story that had been developing all week grew into a cover story. TIME correspondents in the Far East (where it was Sunday morning) and elsewhere were asked to update their reports. Writer Jason McManus and Editor Edward Jamieson, assisted by Researcher Sara Collins, went to work on a new version.

Covering the vast, hostile, sealed-off country, as we have noted before in this space, is an exercise akin to wartime intelligence work. With only one North American correspondent (Canadian David Oancia) and a handful of Western reporters at work in China, it is necessary to monitor radio broadcasts, meticulously follow the Chinese press, interview diplomats and businessmen who have recently emerged from inside. Hong Kong is the main center for this activity, but other busy China-watching posts include Tokyo, Washington, London, Paris, Vienna, and the Communist capitals of Eastern Europe. The most startling sources of news are the huge wall posters that all week continued to pop up in the big cities, calling for or recounting mass purges (unreported in the Chinese press) and naming the latest leaders to fall into disfavor.

The principal members of this embattled cast of characters have appeared on our covers before (this is our 15th on China since the Communists seized power in 1949). Some were shown collectively three years ago, riding a Chinese dragon boat. Individually, it is the fourth time for Mao, followed by Premier Chou En-lai (three times), President Liu Shao-chi and Foreign Minister Chen Yi, all three of whom are now under attack. Our last China cover reported the rise of Defense Minister Lin Piao, who so far seems untouched in the power struggle. The story analyzed the phenomenon of the Red Guards, whose "raucous voices could well be the death rattle of a revolution," and concluded: "Like all revolutions, China's has reached a point of critical decision."

The continuing drama of that decision is the subject of this week's cover. Without question, history is being written on Peking's posters.

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