The Growth of Anarchy and The Use Of Terror

Question 1

How did, following Mao’s demand to ‘Smash the Four Olds’, the Red Guard her out of hand?

Answer 1

Attacked figures of authority:
(self denunciations at struggle meetings)
(Tortured/murdered)

‘BLACK ELEMENTS’— at fist, bourgeois young people couldn’t join the Red Guards.
— this restriction was lifted, they were desperate to prove their revolutionary credentials
— Committed brutal crimes to prove loyalty

“The Terror”^^

Question 2

What motivated “The Terror”?

Answer 2

Not just ideology

Young people also violent because of peer pressure
Others wanted to remove rivals for career advancement

Question 3

Why did the “Smash the Four Olds” campaign result in anarchy?

Answer 3

Rival bands of Red Guards from different schools/colleges
COMPETED:
Prove that THEY were the most ideologically committed

Red Guards from working-class families 
Fought
Red Guards that were middle-class 

Factories might have 2 different Red Guard factions.

Question 4

How do we know the anarchy threatened to get out of hand?

Answer 4

“January Storm” 1967
Red Guards seized power from the CCP and set up a government modelled on the 1871 Paris Commune
——> step tooooo far for Mao: PLA used to close it down

Question 5

What did the PLA do, on account of fearing that chaos would spread into its own ranks?

How did Mao react to this?

Answer 5

Acted to crush radicals across China

Sided with the radicals
Denounced the crackdown as the “February Adverse Current”
Encouraged the radicals to greater violence

Question 6

What did Mao do just as a full-scale civil war seemed likely?

Answer 6

Realised that the chaos meant China might be vulnerable to attack from foreign nations

Used the PLA to once again restore order

Question 7

What opportunities did the revolution offer to youths?

Answer 7

• anyone wearing the armband denoting them a member of the Red Guards: could hoard a train for free— traveled to Beijing to cheer on Mao at rallies, visit the places he had lived whilst fighting the civil war
• years of control and repression—> took chance to travel. Curiosity&Freedom > revolutionary zeal

Question 8

Why did young people join the Red Guards?

Answer 8

Some committed enough to torture & intimidate ‘class enemies’

Some just chanted slogans & attended the rallies out of peer pressure

Question 9

List the examples of cultural destruction during the revolution.

(Cultural objects related to the ‘Four Olds’ attacked by hordes of Red Guards)

Answer 9

1) sculptures, statues, artefacts: defaced and desecrated
2) libraries (Western books/Traditional Literature) burns
3) Temples (ie. Confucius in Shandong) ransacked— priceless Cultural relics destroyed
4) Buddhist relics attacked: in Tibet, any aspect of Buddhist culture destroyed
5) 19thC- Wu Xun- had his corpse exhumed by middle-school students: walked with it into public square, broke it into pieces, burned it
6) ZHOU ENLAI sent the PLA to protect the treasures of the Forbidden City from Red Guards