cultural revolution Flashcards
1962
7000 cadres meeting: Mao appalled by Liu’s speech accepting responsibility for mistakes
1962 (later)
Socialist Education Movement (to return China to communism)
Feb 1963
Early Ten Points: mobilise the masses to criticise corrupt Party cadres
Autumn 1963
Later Ten Points: Deng called to keep disruption to a minimum, de-emphasised class struggle
1964
Little Red Book circulated to the PLA (a book of the sayings of Mao)
1965
Liu Shaoqi re-elected as President, talk of hanging his picture alongside or instead of Mao’s on the Gate of Heavenly Peace
Nov 1965
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
Feb 1966
Peng Zhen, mayor of Beijing (Liu’s ally) dismissed as he forbidded reprinting of the negative review in Beijing (dismissed as a revisionist)
Mar 1966
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
16th May 1966
Central Committee circulated a memo warning of ‘counter-revolutionary’ elements in the party
18th May 1966
- 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
July 1966
Mao swims in the Yangtze River, proves he is fit and strong and so he was able to re-establish power
August 1966
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.
18 Aug 1966
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)
Aug-Dec 1966
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’
Nov 1966
Factory and office workers began to form Red Guard units.
Last of the 8 rallies held.
Dec 1966
Mao encourages civil war
Jan 1967
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
Feb 1967
February Adverse Current, where Mao criticised the leaders of the establishment who protested against his policy of encouraging chaos
April 1967
Mao encouraged further violence as he told the Red Guards ‘Have no fear of chaos’
Summer 1967
Red Guards fought PLA in Wuhan - violence out of control
September 1967
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.
1968
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’
April 1969
Ninth Party Congress, Lin Biao was named as Mao’s number 2, and the violent phase of the Cultural Revolution ended.
political consequences for mao’s opponents
- 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’
political consequences for mao’s supporters
- 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
political consequences for the CCP
- 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)
political consequences for foreigners
- 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
social consequences on education
- 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
impacts on artefacts
- 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
impacts on the new culture
- 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
impacts on religion
- public worship was essentially destroyed as temples and statues were all destroyed (Confucian, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim)
- beliefs still persisted
