Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

== 1966: Outbreak ==
{{anchor|Beginning}}
The Cultural Revolution can be divided into two main periods:

* spring 1966 to summer 1968 (when most of the key events took place)
* a tailing period that lasted until fall 1976<ref name="Russo-2020a">{{Cite book |last=Russo |first=Alessandro |title=Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-4780-1218-4 |location=Durham, NC |page=148}}</ref>

The early phase was characterized by mass movement and political pluralization. Virtually anyone could create a political organization, even without party approval. Known as Red Guards, these organizations originally arose in schools and universities and later in factories and other institutions. After 1968, most of these organizations ceased to exist, although their legacies were a topic of controversy later.<ref name="Russo-2020a" />

=== Notification ===
{{Main|16 May Notification}}
[[File:人民日报516.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.13|The 16 May Notification]]
In May 1966, an expanded session of the [[Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party|Politburo]] was called in Beijing. The conference was laden with Maoist political rhetoric on [[class struggle]] and filled with meticulously prepared 'indictments' of recently ousted leaders such as Peng Zhen and [[Luo Ruiqing]]. One of these documents, distributed on 16 May, was prepared with Mao's personal supervision and was particularly damning:{{r|Mac|pp=39–40}}

<blockquote>Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army, and various spheres of culture are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of them we have already seen through; others we have not. Some are still trusted by us and are being trained as our successors, persons like Khrushchev for example, who are still nestling beside us.{{r|Mac|p=47}}</blockquote>

Later known as the "16 May Notification", this document summarized Mao's ideological justification for CR.{{r|Mac|p=40}} Initially kept secret, distributed only among high-ranking party members, it was later declassified and published in ''[[People's Daily]]'' on 17 May 1967.{{r|Mac|p=41}} Effectively it implied that enemies of the Communist cause could be found within the Party: class enemies who "wave the red flag to oppose the red flag." The only way to identify these people was through "the telescope and microscope of [[Mao Zedong Thought]]."{{r|Mac|p=46}} While the party leadership was relatively united in approving Mao's agenda, many Politburo members were not enthusiastic, or simply confused about the direction.<ref name="Nianyi">{{cite book |last=Wang |first=Nianyi |script-title=zh:大动乱的年代：1949–1989 年的中国 |trans-title=Great age of turmoil, a history of China 1949–89 |language=zh |year=1989 |publisher=Henan People's Publishing House}}</ref>{{rp|13}} The charges against party leaders such as Peng disturbed China's intellectual community and the [[United Front (China)|eight non-Communist parties]].{{r|Mac|p=41}}

=== 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}}

===''Bombard the Headquarters'' (July)===
{{multiple image
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| footer = In 1966, Mao broke with [[Liu Shaoqi]] (right), then serving as [[President of the People's Republic of China|President]], over the work-teams issue. Mao's polemic ''[[Bombard the Headquarters]]'' was widely recognized as targeting Liu, the purported "bourgeois" party headquarters
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[[File:1966-10 1966年毛泽东游长江2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.04|Mao waves to the crowd on the banks of the Yangtze before his swim across, July 1966]]
In July, Mao, in Wuhan, crossed the Yangtze River, showing his vigor. He then returned from Wuhan to Beijing and criticized party leadership for its handling of the work-teams issue. Mao accused the work teams of undermining the student movement, calling for their full withdrawal on 24 July. Several days later a rally was held at the [[Great Hall of the People]] to announce the decision and reveal the tone of the movement to teachers and students. At the rally, Party leaders encouraged the masses to 'not be afraid' and take charge of the movement, free of Party interference.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|81–84}}

The work-teams issue marked a decisive defeat for Liu; it also signaled that disagreement over how to handle the CR's unfolding events would irreversibly split Mao from the party leadership. On 1 August, the Eleventh Plenum of the [[8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|8th Central Committee]] was convened to advance Mao's radical agenda. At the plenum, Mao showed disdain for Liu, repeatedly interrupting him as he delivered his opening day speech.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|94}}{{multiple image
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|footer = From left: (1) Students at [[Beijing Normal University]] making big-character posters denouncing [[Liu Shaoqi]]; (2) Big-characters posted at [[Peking University]]; (3) Students at No. 23 Middle School in Beijing reading ''[[People's Daily]]'' during the "Resume Classes" campaign}}

On 28 July, [[Red Guards|Red Guard]] representatives wrote to Mao, calling for rebellion and upheaval to safeguard the revolution. Mao then responded to the letters by writing his own big-character poster entitled ''[[Bombard the Headquarters]]'', rallying people to target the "command centre (i.e., Headquarters) of counterrevolution." Mao wrote that despite having undergone a communist revolution, a "bourgeois" elite was still thriving in "positions of authority" in the government and Party.<ref name="Tang">{{Cite book |last=Tsou |first=Tang |author-link=Tsou Tang |title=The Cultural Revolution and post-Mao reforms: a historical perspective |year=1988 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0-226-81514-5}}</ref>

This statement has been interpreted as a direct indictment of the party establishment under Liu and Deng—the purported "bourgeois headquarters" of China. The personnel changes at the Plenum reflected a radical re-design of the party hierarchy. Liu and Deng kept their seats on the Politburo Standing Committee, but were sidelined from day-to-day party affairs. Lin Biao was elevated to become the CCP's number-two; Liu's rank went from second to eighth and was no longer Mao's heir apparent.<ref name="Tang"/>

[[File:Guangmei cultural revolution.jpg|thumb|A [[struggle session]] targeting Liu Shaoqi's wife [[Wang Guangmei]]]]
Along with the top leadership losing power the entire national Party bureaucracy was purged. The extensive [[Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party|Organization Department]], in charge of party personnel, virtually ceased to exist. The top officials in the Propaganda Department were sacked, with many of its functions folded into the CRG.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|96}}

=== Red August and the Sixteen Points ===
{{Main|Red August}}
[[File:1966-11 1966年毛泽东林彪与红卫兵.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Mao and [[Lin Biao]] surrounded by rallying Red Guards in Beijing, December 1966]]

''[[Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung]]'' led the Red Guards to commit to their objective as China's future.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|107}} By December 1967, 350 million copies had been printed.<ref name="Lu">{{cite book |last=Lu |first=Xing |title=Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication |publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1570035432 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv10tq3n6 |jstor=j.ctv10tq3n6}}</ref>{{rp|61–64}}

During the Red August of Beijing, on 8 August 1966, the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|party's General Committee]] passed its "Decision Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution," later to be known as the "Sixteen Points". This decision defined the Cultural Revolution as "a great revolution that touches people to their very souls and constitutes a new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country:"<ref>{{cite web |title=Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution |url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/peking-review/1966/PR1966-33g.htm |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |publisher=[[Peking Review]] |access-date=5 March 2024}}</ref><ref name=Mac/>{{rp|92–93}}<blockquote>

Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds and endeavour to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do the exact opposite: it must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie&nbsp;... to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic "authorities" and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure not in correspondence with the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system.</blockquote>
The implications of the Sixteen Points were far-reaching. It elevated what was previously a student movement to a nationwide mass campaign that would galvanize workers, farmers, soldiers and lower-level party functionaries to rise, challenge authority, and re-shape the [[Superstructure (Marxism)|superstructure]] of society.

[[File:1966-11 1966年9月15日天安门游行-八届十一中.jpg|thumb|Tiananmen Square on 15 September 1966, the occasion of Chairman Mao's third of eight mass rallies with Red Guards in 1966.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.cri.cn/gb/9223/2006/04/19/1266@1007752_1.htm |script-title=zh:毛泽东八次接见红卫兵始末(上) |trans-title=Mao Zedong’s Eight Receptions With the Red Guards (Part 1) |script-work=zh:新闻午报 |date=April 19, 2006 |language=zh |access-date=2 March 2019 |archive-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043233/http://news.cri.cn/gb/9223/2006/04/19/1266@1007752_1.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref>]]
On 18 August in Beijing, over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in and around [[Tiananmen Square]] for an audience with the chairman.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|106–107}} Mao mingled with Red Guards and encouraged them, donning a Red Guard armband. Lin also took centre stage, denouncing perceived enemies in society that were impeding the "progress of the revolution".<ref name=Nianyi/>{{rp|66}} Subsequently, violence escalated in Beijing and quickly spread.<ref name="Wang-2001" /><ref name="Jian-2006">{{Cite book |last1=Jian |first1=Guo |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=T5-4zOdHKOIC |page=237}} |title=Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution |last2=Song |first2=Yongyi |last3=Zhou |first3=Yuan |year=2006 |publisher=Scarecrow |isbn=978-0-8108-6491-7 |author-link2=Song Yongyi}}</ref>{{rp|xvi}} The 18 August rally was filmed and shown to approximately 100 million people in its first month of release.<ref name="Li2023">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Jie |title=Cinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-231-20627-3 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|53}}

On 22 August, a central directive was issued to prevent police intervention in Red Guard activities, and those in the police force who defied this notice were labeled counter-revolutionaries. Central officials lifted restraints on violent behavior. [[Xie Fuzhi]], the national police chief, often pardoned Red Guards for their "crimes".<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|124–126}}

The campaign included incidents of torture, murder, and public humiliation. Many people who were indicted as counter-revolutionaries died by suicide. During Red August, 1,772 people were murdered in Beijing; many of the victims were teachers who were attacked or killed by their own students.<ref name="Wang-2001" /> In September, Shanghai experienced 704 suicides and 534 deaths; in Wuhan, 62 suicides and 32 murders occurred during the same period.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|124}} Peng Dehuai was brought to Beijing to be publicly ridiculed.

=== Destruction of the Four Olds (August–November) ===
{{main|Four Olds}}
{{See also|Great Exchange of Revolutionary Experience}}
[[File:Wanlitod.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The remains of [[Wanli Emperor]] at the Ming tombs. Red Guards dragged the remains of the Wanli Emperor and Empresses to the front of the tomb, where they were posthumously "denounced" and burned<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/arts/08iht-wanli08.html?_r=0 |title=China's reluctant Emperor |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=7 September 2011 |access-date=15 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006175341/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/arts/08iht-wanli08.html?_r=0 |archive-date=6 October 2016 |url-status=live |last1=Melvin |first1=Shelia}}</ref>]]

Between August and November 1966, eight mass rallies were held, drawing in 12&nbsp;million people, most of whom were Red Guards.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|106}} To aid Red Guards in traveling, the [[Great Exchange of Revolutionary Experience]] program, which lasted from September 1966 to early 1967, gave them free food and lodging throughout the country.<ref name="Singer">{{cite book |last=Singer |first=Martin |date=1971 |title=Educated Youth and the Cultural Revolution in China |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.19144.5 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |doi=10.3998/mpub.19144 |jstor=10.3998/mpub.19144 |isbn=978-0-472-03814-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wemheuer |first=Felix |date=2019 |title=A Social History of Maoist China |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=199 |isbn=978-1-107-56550-0 |quote=Red Guards from Beijing played a key role in spreading the Cultural Revolution to other cities, traveling across the country to exchange revolutionary experiences in a process known as "the big link-up" (''da chuanlian'').}}</ref><ref name=Mac/>{{rp|110–113}}

At the rallies, Lin called for the destruction of the Four Olds; namely, old customs, culture, habits, and ideas.<ref name=Nianyi/>{{rp|66}}<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=146}} Some changes associated with the Four Olds campaign were mainly benign, such as assigning new names to city streets, places, and even people; millions of babies were born with "revolutionary" names.<ref>{{cite web |last=Shi |first=Gang |year=2004 |script-title=zh:红卫兵 "破四旧" 的文化与政治 |url=http://ww2.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/PaperCollection/Details.aspx?id=5436 |access-date=10 June 2020 |website=Chinese University of Hong Kong |language=zh}}</ref>

Other aspects were more destructive, particularly in the realms of culture and religion. Historical sites throughout the country were destroyed. The damage was particularly pronounced in the capital, Beijing. Red Guards laid siege to the [[Temple of Confucius, Qufu|Temple of Confucius]] in [[Qufu]],<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|119}} and other historically significant tombs and artifacts.<ref name="Asiaweek, Volume 10" />

Libraries of historical and foreign texts were destroyed; books were burned. Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and cemeteries were closed and sometimes converted to other uses, or looted and destroyed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/publications/e_public/Case%20Studies_Asia/tourchin/tourchin.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051225041328/http://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/publications/e_public/Case%20Studies_Asia/tourchin/tourchin.htm |url-status=dead |title=murdoch edu |archive-date=December 25, 2005}}</ref> Marxist propaganda depicted [[Buddhism]] as superstition, and religion was looked upon as a means of hostile foreign infiltration, as well as an instrument of the ruling class.<ref name="Dan Smyer 2007">{{Cite book |last=Smyer |first=Dan |title=The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780203803431 |isbn=978-1-136-63375-1}}</ref> Clergy were arrested and sent to camps; many [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan Buddhists]] were forced to participate in the destruction of their monasteries at gunpoint.<ref name="Dan Smyer 2007" />

<gallery>
File:Kong Yanjin - looking north - P1060200.JPG|The [[cemetery of Confucius]] was attacked by Red Guards in November 1966.<ref name="Asiaweek, Volume 10">{{cite book |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=dIMMAQAAMAAJ}} |title=Asiaweek, Volume 10 |year=1984}}</ref><ref name="Jeni Hung">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200304/ai_n9228762 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321075615/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200304/ai_n9228762 |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 March 2006 |title=Children of Confucius |author=Jeni Hung |magazine=The Spectator |access-date=4 March 2007 |date=5 April 2003}}</ref>
File:Statue of Emperor - Ming Tombs.jpg|This statue of the [[Yongle Emperor]] was originally carved in stone, and was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. A metal replica is in its place.
File:Huineng.jpg|The remains of the 8th century Buddhist monk [[Huineng]] were attacked during the Cultural Revolution.
File:SuzhouGardenFrieze.jpg|A frieze damaged during the Cultural Revolution, originally from a garden house of a rich imperial official in Suzhou.
</gallery>In September 1966, central Party authorities under Zhou Enlai issued the ''Instructions on Grasping Revolution, Promoting Production'', which directed that "one must grasp revolution on one hand and promote production on the other hand.<ref name=":02222">{{Cite book |last=Hirata |first=Koji |title=Making Mao's Steelworks: Industrial Manchuria and the Transnational Origins of Chinese Socialism |date=2024 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-38227-4 |series=Cambridge Studies in the History of the People's Republic of China series |location=New York, NY |doi=10.1017/9781009382281}}</ref>{{Rp|page=251}}

=== Central Work Conference (October) ===
In October 1966, Mao convened a Central Work Conference, mostly to enlist party leaders who had not yet adopted the latest ideology. Liu and Deng were prosecuted and begrudgingly offered self-criticism.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|137}} After the conference, Liu, once a powerful moderate pundit, was placed under house arrest, then sent to a detention camp, where he was denied medical treatment and died in 1969. Deng was sent away for a period of re-education three times and was eventually sent to work in an engine factory in [[Jiangxi]]. Rebellion by [[Cadre system of the Chinese Communist Party|party cadres]] accelerated after the conference.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walder |first=Andrew G. |year=2016 |title=Rebellion of the Cadres: The 1967 Implosion of the Chinese Party-State |journal=The China Journal |volume=75 |page=119 |doi=10.1086/683125 |s2cid=146977237 |issn=1324-9347}}</ref>

=== End of the year ===
On 5 October, the [[Central Military Commission (China)|Central Military Commission]] and the PLA's Department of General Political Tasks directed military academies to dismiss their classes to allow cadets to become more involved in the Cultural Revolution.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Xiaobing |title=The Cold War in East Asia |date=2018 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-138-65179-1 |location=Abingdon, Oxon}}</ref>{{Rp|page=147}} In doing so, they were acting on Lin Biao's 23 August 1966 for "three month turmoil" in the PLA.<ref name=":022" />{{Rp|page=147}}

In [[Portuguese Macau|Macau]], rioting broke out during the [[12-3 incident]].<ref name="Simpson2023">{{Cite book |last=Simpson |first=Tim |title=Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China's Consumer Revolution |year=2023 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |isbn=978-1-5179-0031-1 |series=Globalization and Community series |location=Minneapolis}}</ref>{{rp|84}} The event was prompted by the colonial government's delays in approving a new wing for a CCP elementary school in [[Taipa]].<ref name="Simpson2023" />{{rp|84}} The school board illegally began construction, but the colonial government sent police to stop the workers. Several people were injured in the resulting [[melee]]. On December 3, 1966, two days of rioting occurred in which hundreds were injured and six to eight were killed, leading to a total clampdown by the Portuguese government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mendes |first=Carmen Amado |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=kebmyB-5-IYC |page=34}} |title=Portugal, China and the Macau Negotiations, 1986–1999 |year=2013 |publisher=[[Hong Kong University Press]] |isbn=978-988-8139-00-2 |page=34}}</ref> The event set in motion Portugal's de facto abdication of control over Macau, putting Macau on the path to eventual absorption by China.<ref name="Simpson2023" />{{rp|84–85}}

By the beginning of 1967, a wide variety of grassroots political organizations had formed. Beyond Red Guard and student rebel groups, these included poor peasant associations, workers' pickets, and Mao Zedong Thought study societies, among others. Communist Party leaders encouraged these groups to "join up", and these groups joined various coalitions and held various cross-group congresses and assemblies.<ref name="Thornton2019" />{{rp|60}}