Lesson 4-What were the main reasons for the launch of the Cultural Revolution? Flashcards
Neo-Capitalism
A return to the corrupt bourgeois system based on greed, individualism and profit-making.
Where does Mao’s imagery of “Monkeys to disrupt the palace” come from?
Drawn from the practice in the imperial court of having monkeys as pets
Corrective labour
Communist theory of imprisonment that allowed a prisoner to see the error of his ways
Red Guards
Radical students whose name derived from the red armbands they were given by Lin Biao
What does the term “hare-brained economic schemes” refer to?
Khrushchev’s unsuccessful attempts to reform Soviet agriculture and industry during 1956-64
Who were spearheads of the erroneous line?
Leaders who had tried to persuade the party to follow policies that ran counter to Mao’s wishes
January Storm and February Adverse Current.
Instances during the Cultural Revolution when Mao at first sided with the PLA in cracking down on the Red Guards then turned against them to side with the radicals.
What was Cleansing of the Ranks campaign?
Purge of the CCP membership and government carried out by the PLA from 1968.
How many arrests did the Cleansing of the Ranks campaign lead to?
1.84 million
Who were the CCRG?
Central Cultural Revolution Group
A group within the Politburo which believed the party had been bureaucratised and a campaign was needed to purge these elements.
What did Lin Biao launch in May 1966?
Wall Poster campaign
Where did Lin launch his Wall Poster Campaign?
Universities
What did Lin’s Wall Poster Campaign aim to do?
Encourage young people, radical and students to attack the education system and those in authority.
What did a typical Red Guard look like?
Wore Red Guard armband
Carried Mao’s Little Red Book
The Red Guards only consisted of males.
True or false?
False-mixture of boys and girls
What was the official starting date of the Cultural Revolution?
May 1966
What did Mao announce at the start of the CR?
A purge of the CCP party
What brought the beginning of the CR to public attention?
Mass rally in Tiananmen Square on 18th August
Who organised the purge of the CCP party?
CCRG
Why did Lin Biao attack the education system for his Wall Poster campaign?
Attacked it for its divergence from the revolutionary path.
How did the Wall Poster campaign cause unrest?
Students attacked teachers
How did the CCP react to students attacking teachers for the Wall Poster Campaign?
Liu and Deng sent special work teams to the campuses in an attempt to contain the trouble
Between what party factions, did Zhou Enlai try to keep the peace between?
Those who wanted to restore order.
AND
The Maoist elements who were eager for the disruption to spread.
What happened to the work teams sent to control students by Liu and Deng?
Attacked by students who began to take to the streets as Red Guards intent on creating a reign of terror.
What was the first battle of the play over?
A play
Hai Rui Dismissed from Office
Who was Hair Rui Dismissed from Office written by?
Wu Han
Deputy Mayor of Beiijing
What was Hair Rui Dismissed from Office about?
Set during days of Ming dynasty.
Its central character, Hai Rui, was dismissed from office for criticising the cruel policies of the emperor
What was Hai Rui Dismissed from Office seen as reflecting?
The purge of Peng Dehuai following his criticisms of the Great Leap Forward
What did Hai Rui Dismissed from Office give Mao an ideal avenue to do?
`Attack Liu Shaoqi
Why did Hai Rui Dismissed from Office give Mao a chance to attack Liu Shaoqi?
Peng Zhen was Wu Han’s boss.
Peng Zhen was one of Liu Shaoqi’s greatest allies
By blaming Peng Zhen for not dealing with his deputy, Mao could discredit Liu by association.
When did Mao make his return after he stepped down from his duties as Head of State in 1959?
July 1966
How did Mao make his public reappearance?
Was seen swimming across the Yangtze River at Wuhan
What was Wuhan the scene of?
1911 revolution against the Qing dynasty
What had Mao proved by swimming across the Yangtze River?
He was still alive and therefore still in control.
What did John Fairbank, an American scholar, suggest could be thought of, in order to understand the impact of Mao’s swimming across the Yangtze River on the Chinese imagination?
Said one needs to think of the reaction there would be in Britain to the news, ‘Queen Elizabeth II had swum the Channel’
Why did Mao summon a special meeting of the CCP’s Central Committee in August the year he returned?
Condemned the revisionist tendencies in the party and called on members to rededicate themselves to unwavering class struggle
Whose downgrading and elevation did Mao announce in the meeting of the CCP’s Central Committee in August 1966?
Announced downgrading of Liu and elevation of Lin to second in command
What did Mao nominate Biao as in the August 1966 CCP Central Committee meeting?
His successor
Why was Mao unhappy with the work Liu and Deng had done when he was gone?
He was an ideologue so was unhappy with efforts taken to reverse his GLF.
Their work was viewed as revisionism and he began to accuse them of taking the Capitalist road.
Although the member of the ruling class had lost their political power, what was Mao still concerned about?
That their attitudes still lived on in the assumptions and behaviours of people in general.
As long a these ideas were embedded in society, China could not advance
Mao was determined to eradicate people who held what?
Capitalist attitudes
When did the divide between ideologues and pragmatists become more apparent?
Following Mao’s call for the 7000 cadres conference in Jan 1962
What did the 7000 cadres conference aim to gather?
Support against any further drift away from Socialist ideals
At what conference did Mao withdraw from public life?
7000 cadres conference
What did Deng, Liu and economic planners, Chen Yun and Bo Yibo, believe was needed for China to advance?
Economic compromise.
Believed technical experts should be in charge of economy and more conciliatory (peacemaking) foreign policy should be taken.
Why did Deng, Liu and the 2 economic planners want there to be more conciliatory foreign policies?
Wanted to avoid any confrontation with the USA over Taiwan
What did Mao believe about Deng, Liu and the 2 economic planners belief about the economic change needed for China to advance?
It was ideologically wrong
How did Mao continue to fight back against the pragmatists?
Launched SEM in 1963
What did the SEM preach and aim to do?
Importance of collective economic approach and aimed to root out corruption in rural cadres.
What did Mao want the peasants to mass mobilise and do for the SEM?
Root out, identify and attack corrupt party officials
Under Liu’s direction, how was the SEM controlled?
Centrally
What happened to those who, during the SEM, committed economic crimes?
Thousands were executed
Why was Mao unhappy with the SEM despite thousands of people being executed for economic crimes?
Unhappy that it lacked the element of class struggle he envisioned
What was the key thing which allowed Mao to launch the Cultural Revolution?
His ability to manipulate the public opinion and behaviour of the young
Overall aim of the CR.
To create a new type of Chinese society.
At what university did Mao present students with a banner?
Qinghai University
When did Mao present the students of Qinghai University with a banner?
August 1966
What did the banner Mao presented to the students of Qinghai University say?
‘Bombard the headquarters’
What was the banner Mao presented to the university students his way of encouraging them to do?
Attack those idea and those members in the party he wanted to remove
[QUOTE] What did Mao say in regards to his last minute decision to exploit the young?
‘We have to depend on them, the young, to start a rebellion, a revolution; otherwise we may not be able to overthrow the demons and monsters. We must liberate the little devils. We need more monkeys to disrupt the palace’
What did the young have to attack as identified by Biao in Mao’s name?
Four olds
What were the Four olds?
- Old ideas
- Old culture
- Old customs
- Old habits
How did the young react to Mao’s bidding to attack the four olds?
Rushed with a terrifying intensity and ferocity
Remote areas were left untouched by the young.
True or false?
False-were attacked
Between August-November 1966, how many rallies were held in Tiananmen Square?
8
Between what dates were the 8 mass rallies held in Tiananmen Square?
August-November 1966
Mao did not attend all the rallies.
True or false?
True
Did Biao attend all the rallies in Tiananmen Square?
No-only on occasions
What did Jiang Qing use the rallies to do?
Excite the crowds
How did Lin present Mao at the Tiananmen Square mass rallies?
As the outstanding revolutionary genius of the age who was ‘remoulding the souls of the people.’
What would remoulding the people give the Cultural Revolution?
Its destructive character
Why was Mao willing to plunge his nation into renewed turmoil (the Cultural Revolution) when it had only just emerged from decades of foreign occupation, Civil War and famine?
Cultural Revolution was to be the means by which Mao, conscious at the age of 73 of his mortality, would reassert his authority over China and the CCP.
Mao’s 5 interlocking objectives for the Cultural Revolution.
- To preserve himself in power for the rest of his life by removing all possible sources of opposition
- To obliterate the damaging record of the failure of the Great Leap Forward
- To ensure that his concept of revolution would continue after his death by remoulding Chinese society and culture in such a way that they could never be changed back
- To prevent China making the same mistakes as the revisionist USSR
- To break the power of the China’s Communist revolution
Why did Mao believe that the revolution which had led to victory in 1949 was betrayed from within?
Convinced many in the upper echelons (ranks) of the CCP were infected by neo-Capitalism and a desire for personal power that robbed them of their revolutionary purpose.
Full title of Cultural Revolution.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Why was Mao interested in mass mobilisation as a method of preventing a slide back into to Capitalist ideas and revisionism?
Believed if Chinese Rev stood still, it would cease to be a genuine movement.
What did Mao believe could happen to the CCP if he did not create a permanent revolution?
Feared after him they would simply become a self-justifying bureaucracy that would destroy all that had been achieved by the PRC since 1949
[QUOTE] What memorable paradox did Mao use to describe the process of a permanent revolution?
‘Great disorder across the land leading to great order.’
What did Mao’s paradox about the revolution mean?
Only by a policy of deliberate disruption could the forces of reaction be exposed and destroyed
In the late 1950s, what had Mao interpreted the Soviet attack on Stalin’s cult of personality as?
A criticism of his own leadership of China
In 1964, why did the news of the fall from power of Soviet leader, Khrushchev, give Mao further concern?
Official reason, given by Soviet authorities, for dismissal of K was he had engaged in ‘hare-brained’ economic schemes.
Although, nobody in China had openly dared use such a term against Mao’s policies, the parallel between the 2 countries political situation was too close for comfort.
What did Mao observe about the USSR’s Communist party?
Was a party, originally pure in revolutionary spirit, corrupted by its own exercise of power into a self-satisfied elite.
What did Mao view Khrushchev as guilty of?
Viewed K and his successors as guilty of betraying the revolution, encouraging revisionism and by detente with the West.
What was Mao determined to do during the CR in regards to what was happening in the SU?
Determined that such developments e.g., de-stalinisation and detente, would not happen in China after him.
Who did Mao believe was being seduced by the privileges of power?
CCP and government officials
Who had Mao convinced himself had lost their revolutionary fervour (passion)?
Old revolutionaries who had defeated Nationalists
Who would Mao wage war against in order to save his revolution?
Communist Party hierarchy
For his revolution, what did Mao need to replace the old members?
A new generation of party members
What had Mao realised about the younger members of the party?
Had yet to be tested
Why did the younger members of the party still have to be tested?
Had not undergone the rigours and hardships of the legendary experiences of he CCP
Give some examples of the experiences of older CCP members, the younger members had not faced the rigours of.
The White Terror
The Long March
The anti-Japanese war
Struggle against GMD
Why did Mao believe the young needed hardening in the severe trials of revolutionary struggle?
Only then would it be certain that they were strong enough to withstand a concerted military attack from the West-an eventuality which Mao continued to believe throughout the 1960s.
What type of movement was Mao determine to preserve the Cultural Revolution as?
Peasant movement
How did Mao feel about peasants as individuals?
Did not have a high regard for them and often expressed his contempt (disrespect) for them
Despite Mao not liking peasants, why did he want the Chinese revolution to be a peasant movement?
Held that as a class, the peasants were the main revolutionary force in China.
He had built his revolution on them.
Since Mao had built his revolution on peasants, who did he not want affairs to be run by?
Bureaucrats and intellectuals in cities
With who, in particular, had Mao developed tensions with?
Urban intellectuals
Why had Mao developed tensions with urban intellectuals?
It was them who had criticised the GLF
Why could Mao be described as an intellectual?
Judging by his writings and poetry
Rather than an intellectual, what did Mao regard himself as?
A man of action
Since Mao regarded himself as a man of action, what type of political thinker did he distrust?
The type who was more interest in theory than action
How is it possible to interpret Mao’s assault on the intellectuals in the CR?
As an action of revenge on a class which he felt had always despised him.
Who was there a division between in the CCP?
Mao’s supporters and opponents
Who were Mao’s main supporters?
Lin Biao
Jiang Qing
Kang Sheng
Chen Boda
Who were Mao’s policies mainly opposed by?
Liu Shaoqi
Deng Xiaoping
Chen Yun
Bo Yibo
Following what event did Mao openly criticise Liu as taking the Capitalist road?
7000 cadres conference of 1962
What did Mao accuse of Deng allegedly doing?
Trying to run an independent kingdom
Why did Mao begin attacking Liu and Deng indirectly (through Hai Rui affair) rather than head on?
They had too much support in the Politburo
When did Mao feel confident to make an open move on Liu Shaoqi?
March 1966-took advantage of Liu’s absence from the Politburo on a foreign visit
Who supported Mao’s proposal to remove Peng Zhen from office?
Lin Biao
Kang Sheng
Chen Boda
When were the CCRG set up?
May 1966
Whose task was it to launch the Cultural Revolution?
CCRG
Who was the CCRG dominated by?
Gang of Four
Who agreed a proposal to attack counter-revolutionaries within party?
Politburo
In order to stir students into action of Cultural Revolution, what did Kang Sheng introduce?
Wall poster campaign in Beijing university
What did Liu and Deng do in relation to Kang’s wall poster campaign?
Attempted to moderate (weaken) protests by sending work teams to try to direct the students towards specific individuals
When did the CR officially start?
May 1966
With what task did the CR start?
Mao announcing the beginning of a party purge to be organised by the CCRG
When and where did the CR come to the attention of the world?
At a mass rally in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on 18th August 1966
How many people came to Tiananmen Square on 18th August 1966?
Over a million
What was the age range of those who came to Tiananmen Square on 18th August 1966?
Majority in teens and twenties
After introduction of CR, what did Mao do in July 1966?
Made his dramatic public reappearance by swimming in Yangtze River
[QUOTE] What did those who came to Tiananmen Square on 18th August 1966 chant upon seeing Mao?
‘Chairman Mao, may you live for a thousand years! And Mao Zedong is the red rising in the east.’
How long did the demonstration on 18th August 1966 in Tiananmen Square last?
A day
