cultural revolution

Question 1

1962

Answer 1

7000 cadres meeting: Mao appalled by Liu’s speech accepting responsibility for mistakes

Question 2

1962 (later)

Answer 2

Socialist Education Movement (to return China to communism)

Question 3

Feb 1963

Answer 3

Early Ten Points: mobilise the masses to criticise corrupt Party cadres

Question 4

Autumn 1963

Answer 4

Later Ten Points: Deng called to keep disruption to a minimum, de-emphasised class struggle

Question 5

1964

Answer 5

Little Red Book circulated to the PLA (a book of the sayings of Mao)

Question 6

1965

Answer 6

Liu Shaoqi re-elected as President, talk of hanging his picture alongside or instead of Mao’s on the Gate of Heavenly Peace

Question 7

Nov 1965

Answer 7

Negative review of ‘Hai Rui Dismissed from Office’ published (written by Yao Wenyuan) as the play had parallels to Mao’s treatment of Peng Dehuai

Question 8

Feb 1966

Answer 8

Peng Zhen, mayor of Beijing (Liu’s ally) dismissed as he forbidded reprinting of the negative review in Beijing (dismissed as a revisionist)

Question 9

Mar 1966

Answer 9

Formation of Cultural Revolution Group (CRG), included Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao. They controlled media and propaganda to target counter-revolutionaries

Question 10

16th May 1966

Answer 10

Central Committee circulated a memo warning of ‘counter-revolutionary’ elements in the party

Question 11

18th May 1966

Answer 11

• Lin Biao made a speech encouraging action of young people.
• Also poster campaign at Beijing University (first one of the Cultural Revolution) made by 7 students on 25 May which criticised the president of the university Lu Ping for being a capitalist.
• Term ‘Red Guards’ coined by the end of the month

Question 12

July 1966

Answer 12

Mao swims in the Yangtze River, proves he is fit and strong and so he was able to re-establish power

Question 13

August 1966

Answer 13

Announced 16 point directive on the Cultural Revolution, called for new stage in the socialist revolution. Also announced ‘Four Olds’ campaign to destroy old culture, old ideas, old customs and old habits to create a new culture.

Question 14

18 Aug 1966

Answer 14

Huge rally of 1mil Red Guards in Tiananmen Square, first of 8 rallies in 1966. Chaos and violence spread in the following days as the Red Guards began to ‘smash the four olds’ (following Lin Biao’s orders)

Question 15

Aug-Dec 1966

Answer 15

Red Guards attacked figures of authority in struggle meetings, tortured and murdered them. Bourgeois children (‘black elements’) were even more desperate to prove loyalty to Mao, and many were violent due to peer pressure or for career advancement. Mao said ‘it is right to rebel’ and ‘Bombard the headquarters’

Question 16

Nov 1966

Answer 16

Factory and office workers began to form Red Guard units.
Last of the 8 rallies held.

Question 17

Dec 1966

Answer 17

Mao encourages civil war

Question 18

Jan 1967

Answer 18

January Storm, where Red Guards seized power from the CCP and modeled their power on direct democracy which was based on the 1871 Paris Commune, which was too far for Mao and he used the PLA to crush this. There was also infighting between different Red Guard factions in Shanghai

Question 19

Feb 1967

Answer 19

February Adverse Current, where Mao criticised the leaders of the establishment who protested against his policy of encouraging chaos

Question 20

April 1967

Answer 20

Mao encouraged further violence as he told the Red Guards ‘Have no fear of chaos’

Question 21

Summer 1967

Answer 21

Red Guards fought PLA in Wuhan - violence out of control

Question 22

September 1967

Answer 22

Mao called for Revolutionary Committees to be created, which was a 3 way alliance between the army, state and party. This lead to the Party being more dominant and their power being re-established, and the radicals only had token representation.

Question 23

1968

Answer 23

Mao called for the PLA to systematically crush the Red Guards as he was afraid of the violence and anarchy being used by foreign nations to take control of China. Jiang Qing launched the ‘cleansing of the ranks’ campaign which was led by the PLA, which arrested 1.84mil for being ‘bad elements’ or ‘counter-revolutionary’. For example in Yunan 6979 died due to ‘enforced suicide’

Question 24

April 1969

Answer 24

Ninth Party Congress, Lin Biao was named as Mao’s number 2, and the violent phase of the Cultural Revolution ended.

Question 25

political consequences for mao’s opponents

Answer 25

• Liu Shaoqi was purged as he was the main target of the Cultural Revolution due to his popularity and the fact that he sent work teams to control the violence. He and his wife were subject to struggle meetings. He was imprisoned and sent to exile in Kaifeng and died on 12 Nov 1969.
• Deng Xiaoping was exiled to a tractor farm in rural Jiangxi and his son was paralysed as he was allegedly pushed from a window by the Red Guards. He returned later on as Mao called him back, and although the Gang of Four got him removed again in 1973 in the ‘Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius’ campaign, he again returned and became the Paramount Leader of China, undermining Hua and leading China to the ‘capitalist road’

Question 26

political consequences for mao’s supporters

Answer 26

• Lin Biao initially positioned himself for success as he replaced Peng Dehuai as Minister of Defence and published the Little Red Book which made Mao impressed, but later on he died as Mao believed Lin was plotting to use the PLA to seize power, so he died in a plane crash in 1971 (not enough fuel). People began doubting Mao for the first time
• the Gang of Four were also all tried and arrested (Oct 1976) under Hua Guofeng’s orders despite their initial success from the Cultural Revolution. Jiang Qing hung herself in 1991

Question 27

political consequences for the CCP

Answer 27

• rectification campaign
• new personnel as so many were replaced e.g. 2/3 of the Central Committee were replaced by younger, more radical members, and 70-80% of the Party at regional membership were purged
• many sent for indoctrination and hard labour in May Seventh Cadres Schools (around 3 million bureaucrats sent)

Question 28

political consequences for foreigners

Answer 28

• foreigners especially those from capitalist or imperialist nations were attacked e.g. a mob of Red Guards stormed the British embassy in Beijing, or the families of Western embassy staff were denied visas to leave China
• Anthony Grey, a British journalist, was put into solitary confinement for 26 months and the Red Guards even killed his cat

Question 29

social consequences on education

Answer 29

• schools remained closed from 1966-69 as the Red Guards were all involved in the violence and anarchy
• the ‘lost generation’ as even after the violent phase ended the ‘Up to the mountains and down to the villages’ campaign meant that 18mil Red Guards were sent to the countryside to understand the importance of manual labour, but this meant many young people became disillusioned with Mao, and only those with Party connections could leave the countryside and return to the cities

Question 30

impacts on artefacts

Answer 30

• Hai Rui’s grave defaced
• 19th century hero Wu Xun’s corpse was taken to a public square by middle schoolers and broken up into little pieces and burnt
• ancient Qing archway destroyed
• sculptures, artefacts, statues defaced and desecrated
• Confucius Temple in Shandong ransacked and destoyed

Question 31

impacts on the new culture

Answer 31

• Jiang Qing only allowed 8 operas as the rest were banned for not being revolutionary. Strict censorship occured and all bourgeois storylines and characters like emperors or ministers were removed
• worship of Mao and his personality cult - he was seen as a God and there were loyalty dances and songs about him, people also reported their thoughts to Mao daily

Question 32

impacts on religion

Answer 32

• public worship was essentially destroyed as temples and statues were all destroyed (Confucian, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim)
• beliefs still persisted