Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

=== Mass rallies (May–June) ===
[[File:1966-08_1966年横扫一切牛鬼蛇神.jpg|thumb|right|"[[Sweep Away All Cow Demons and Snake Spirits]]", an editorial published on the front page of ''[[People's Daily]]'' on 1 June 1966, calling for the proletariat to "completely eradicate" the "[[Four Olds]] [...] that have poisoned the people of China for thousands of years, fostered by the exploiting classes".<ref name="Gao1987">{{cite book |last1=Gao |first1=Yuan |title=Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=OrN_UGo9S0UC |page=50}} |year=1987 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-6589-3}}</ref>{{rp|50}}]]
After the purge of Peng Zhen, the Beijing Party Committee effectively ceased to function, paving the way for disorder in the capital. On 25 May, under the guidance of {{Interlanguage link|Cao Yi'ou|lt=|zh|曹轶欧|WD=}}—wife of Mao loyalist Kang Sheng—[[Nie Yuanzi]], a philosophy lecturer at [[Peking University]], authored a [[big-character poster]] along with other leftists and posted it to a public bulletin. Nie attacked the university's party administration and its leader Lu Ping. Nie insinuated that the university leadership, much like Peng, were trying to contain revolutionary fervor in a "sinister" attempt to oppose the party and advance revisionism.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|56–58}}

Mao promptly endorsed Nie's poster as "the first Marxist big-character poster in China". Approved by Mao, the poster rippled across educational institutions. Students began to revolt against their school's party establishments. Classes were cancelled in Beijing primary and secondary schools, followed by a decision on 13 June to expand the class suspension nationwide. By early June, throngs of young demonstrators lined the capital's major thoroughfares holding giant portraits of Mao, beating drums, and shouting slogans.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|59–61}}

When the dismissal of Peng and the municipal party leadership became public in early June, confusion was widespread. The public and foreign missions were kept in the dark on the reason for Peng's ousting. Top Party leadership was caught off guard by the sudden protest wave and struggled with how to respond. After seeking Mao's guidance in [[Hangzhou]], [[Liu Shaoqi]] and [[Deng Xiaoping]] decided to send in 'work teams'—effectively 'ideological guidance' squads of cadres—to the city's schools and ''People's Daily'' to restore some semblance of order and re-establish party control.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|62–64}}

The work teams had a poor understanding of student sentiment. Unlike the political movement of the 1950s that squarely targeted intellectuals, the new movement was focused on established party cadres, many of whom were part of the work teams. As a result, the work teams came under increasing suspicion as thwarting revolutionary fervor.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|71}} Party leadership subsequently became divided over whether or not work teams should continue. Liu Shaoqi insisted on continuing work-team involvement and suppressing the movement's most radical elements, fearing that the movement would spin out of control.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|75}}