# Secrets of Red China (3)



## xlwoo (May 30, 2015)

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Chapter 3 What is great cultural revolution?[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]I. Background of so-called cultural revolution[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]D[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]uring the so-called natural calamity, as three hundred millions of people were starved to death, the national economy got worse and worse. Therefore, Mao was forced to recede to the background on the political power stage, and Liu Shaoqi stepped into the foreground, helped by Deng, the secretary general of the central committee of the communist Party. Of course, such a very ambitious person as Mao would never, of his own accord, give up the political power he had enjoyed so far and now stand backstage watching others perform on the political stage right under his nose. No, he would never allow it. This was the reason of the occurrence of the cultural revolution he was scheming in his great mind.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]In January, 1962, at a meeting of 7,000 people, Mao criticized himself for the mistakes he had committed, having made a mess of the national economy. Liu said then that it was three-tenth natural disaster and seven-tenth human error. But in August of the same year, on the meeting at Beidai River, Mao insisted in his theory of class fight, which was the main danger of the present society as he defined it. Mao thought that there was still the possibility of revisionism taking the upper hand, which meant the revival of capitalism according to his theory. In the later development of the events, one could see that Mao laid a time bomb in theory to turn the table for his benefits. This was his basic theory to wage the cultural revolution in future. Liu and Deng could never see the red lights—the approaching danger. Both were no equal rivals to Mao. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]The cultural revolution was certainly unprecedented in the history of China, also in the history of the world. If Mao had his IQ tested, it should be very high. If his scheme for the movement went a bit amiss, the result would be different. He might never retrieve his power, or the whole country might be in civil war. His scheme was accurate in his arrangement, though he never cared how many people would die in the cultural revolution. He was a person cruel at heart. When his third wife, Yang Kaihui, had been arrested by [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Chiang Kai-shek[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]'s government and killed later, he didn't do anything to rescue her, but married another woman. He sent his son to the Korean War, who died there. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]In February, 1963, the central committee of CPC decided on another political movement, proposed by Mao, imaginably. This was, indeed, Mao's strategy to retrieve his lost power. No one could see through him at the time. Liu, the chairman of the nation then, was of course the leader of the movement. As usual, Liu sent out work teams to the countryside for the movement. Liu thought that the target of this movement was still the common people as the previous movements did. The work teams made a mess there as they really had no idea whom they should target.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]In December, 1964, at a meeting of the central committee of CPC, Mao said that it was wrong to aim at the common people. The target (this time) should be the cadres. Of course, Mao meant more than that. No one could understand at the time what he really pointed at. So Liu made self-criticism. A trap Mao set for him to fall in. Then in January, 1965, the central committee agreed with Mao that the target of this movement should be those in power within the Party, who were persisting in going the capitalist road. At that time, no one could guess who were those targeted in power and who were those insisting in going the capitalist road. But Mao had a certain goal in his mind. Another theoretical trap. It was based on this theory that Mao was the right person going the socialist road, and any other persons who held different opinions from Mao should be those going on the capitalist road. The worst thing was that all other leaders of CPC agreed to this theory, making Mao always standing on the summit of correctness. Mao could never be wrong theoretically. It was called the fight between the two roads: the socialist road and the capitalist road. As Mao declared himself and was also accepted as the representative of going the socialist road, Liu was, of course, deemed the representative of going the capitalist road. Going on capitalist road was wrong, according to Mao's theory, which was accepted by others. Liu already lost there. His tragic end was sealed even before the beginning of the cultural revolution since others were all got confused by Mao's theory and did not know how to contradict him. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]However, Mao still let Liu lead this movement, as a Chinese saying goes, “If you want to get, you must give first.” Mao had read a lot of Chinese history books and was versed in all the stratagems in power redemption. Liu, as usual, sent out work teams again. Statistics showed that in the region of Changde Town, in HuNan province, 331 persons were criticized, among whom 21 were beaten, 65 bound hand and foot, 3 hung up, and 42 forced to kneel on the ground. In a suburb of Beijing, 40 people committed suicide. Only this time, the target was the lowest cadres in the countryside, not common people any more as Mao had planned to use common people as his chessmen. Pawns are powerful when getting in a certain position. The red guards were his chessmen too. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Meantime, Mao traveled all over the country. He talked secretly with some important generals and wanted to get their support. He always believed in gun. If he could get those holding the gun to support him, he could go on with his plan. Otherwise, he would stay backstage for the rest of his life. From the Chinese history, a conclusion is true: the wise can always gain the upper hand of the fool. Mao, the wise. Liu, the fool. Among all the generals, two of them were the most important ones, Lin Biao, minister of defense ministry then, and Xu Shiyou, commander of the army covering the area of Nanking and Shanghai. With their support, Mao was sure of his final victory. However, the procedures of the process must be taken very carefully. He could not have a step amiss. [/FONT]


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## escorial (May 30, 2015)

i can say..after reading all 3 i know more about China than i ever did..cool


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## xlwoo (Jun 3, 2015)

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]II. The cultural revolution did begin in the cultural field[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]1) Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, made public appearance[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]At that time, most of those in power in local governments were supporters of Liu and Deng. How to seize power from them was a problem. If most of the local government leaders supported Mao, he had no need to start the cultural revolution. Since the situation was otherwise, Mao had to get his ball rolling. However, Mao plotted wisely and nicely. Mao liked to control consensus first so that he could say anything using public opinion against his political enemies. So he commenced his plot in that field.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Mao wanted his wife, Jiang Qing, to help him. Mao married Jiang Qing while he still had his legal wife, He Zizhen, sister of Marshal He Long. At that time Mao's legal wife was in the Soviet Union for the treatment of presumed mental disease. Mao and Jiang held a banquet in a big cave in YanAn. It was the twenty-first of December, 1938. Jiang was twenty-four years old then, twenty-one years younger than Mao. The original name of Jiang Qing had been called Li Yunhe, and her stage name was Lanping. She changed her name to Jiang Qing when she went to YanAn. She had been married before to Tanner. A story went at that time about three couples who had their simple wedding ceremony held under the moonlight before the Liuhe Pagoda, in Hangzhou. The three couples were Jiang Qing and Tanner, Ye Luqian and Zhao Dan, Du Xiaojuan and Gu Eryi. All were movie stars. The witness to their marriage was Shen Junru, a man of letters. After their wedding, Jiang Qing always quarreled with Tanner. Their bad relationship developed and once Tanner wanted to kill himself by drink poison. It happened only sixty days after their marriage. In 1937, Jiang Qing lived together with Zhang Ming, the director of the movie. Then she put a notice on the newspapers to declare that she had separated with Tanner. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Jiang Qing went to YanAn. Later Tanner went to Paris, France and married Anna in 1952. He died in 1988 there. Later some of her former fellow movie stars explained that why Jiang (meaning River) Qing (meaning clear) wanted to change her name to the present one was because her dirty sex history with so many men could only be washed clear in river water. [/FONT]

  [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Jiang Qing had been also an actress of Beijing opera before she had gone to YanAn and married Mao. She originally lived in Shandong Province. There she was enrolled in Shandong Beijing Opera Institute. Later when she took part in some activities against Japan, she caught the attention of the local government and had to escape secretly to Shanghai. She joined the Left-Wing Drama Union, acting in some plays for revolution. It was said that when she acted in dramas she was okay, but when she was in movies, she was no good. When she was the wife of Mao, she was ashamed of her history as a star and did not want people aware of it, particularly talking of it. In the cultural revolution, most of the stars who had worked with Jiang Qing were put into prison as Jiang Qing feared that they would spread her former history as a third class movie star, which, in her opinion, would make her lose face. Luckily for Tanner, he lived in France at that time. Anyone who mentioned or even hinted at it would be put in prison, too. That was why many people, besides famous actors and actresses who had worked with her before, were persecuted during the movement and many of them died in prison. [/FONT]

  [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]As Jiang Qing had learned to sing Beijing opera, she began in the area of Beijing opera reform, which happened between 1964 and 1966, after she published an article “Talk on Revolution of Beijing Opera.” It gave her a bridge over which she could take part in the political movements later. When she had married Mao, CPC had made a decision that she had been forbidden to be involved in politics. The opera reform only involved culture. That's why, maybe, the revolution called cultural revolution, an actual political revolution in disguise. So none in CPC had any objection. Generally Beijing opera was about old stories. The reform made it into modern stories. The ones known in China were “Red Lantern”, etc. Ballet was reformed, too. The famous ones were the “[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Red Detachment of Women[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]” and the “White-haired Girl”. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]On the 10[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day of November, 1965, Mao let his wife, Jiang Qing, instruct Yao Wenyuan in Shanghai to write an article criticizing the new historical play “Dismissal of Hairui from Office”. The article was published in [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]_Wenhui Daily _[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]on the 30[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day of November, [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]1965[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]. It was because nothing could appear in newspapers in Beijing at the time. All officials there were Liu's men. The article said that the play wanted to redress the case of Peng Dehuai, because Hairui was the defense minister in Ming Dynasty equivalent to Peng before his dismissal. This play was written by Wu Han, who was a vice mayor of Beijing at the time. He became the first official Mao wanted to get rid of, which would be a breakthrough into Liu's circle. [/FONT]


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## escorial (Jun 3, 2015)

I so like the way you have so much detail/facts and you manage to move around effortlessly without making the write feel clogged up..excellent


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## escorial (Jun 4, 2015)

Just watched a programme on BBC4...The Art of China..because of your posts..thanks


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## xlwoo (Jun 5, 2015)

Chinese arts, Chinese culture, Chinese food, have their own special beauty, but Chinese politics specially ugly.


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## escorial (Jun 5, 2015)

It did touch on the cultural revolution and I watched in horror.....


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## Kevin (Jun 5, 2015)

It seems to be 'size appropriate' and considering the great age or length there is a certain sense of 'who are you to judge' (toward relative upstarts) attitude.


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## xlwoo (Jun 6, 2015)

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]2) The so-called February coup d'etat[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Mao wanted Yao's article to be published in all the newspapers in Beijing. But Peng Zhen, the mayor of Beijing then, thought that such an article was not suitable to come out in Beijing's newspapers, and so refused to do it. Besides, the writer of the play, Wu Han, was a vice mayor of Beijing. To support Wu Han, Peng Zhen organized a “five-person cultural revolution group”, approved by Liu, Deng and Zhou Enlai, the premier of the State Council, intending to limit the criticism within the culture, not into politics. And Peng Zhen wanted to protect Wu Han, too. He did not realize the plan of Mao. But Mao would not allow it. So he wanted to get rid of Peng as well. As a Chinese saying goes, if a man of power wants to accuse anyone of any crime, he can easily find a reason whatsoever for the person, no matter if the reason sounds right or ridiculous. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Yao's article connected the play with the dismissal of Peng Dehuai, which smelled of political attack. Mayor Peng thought the criticism of a play was in the field of culture, and should not connect it with a political event. On the 13[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day of February, Mayor Peng summoned a meeting of the five-person group, and criticized Yao for his connection of his article with a political event, intending to limit the criticism within the scope of culture. All the attenders supported him except Kang Sheng, a secretary of the central secretariat of CPC, who insisted in the rightness of the article. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Anyway, the five-person group drafted a report called “February Outline”, saying that any discussion in the field of culture must be based on facts, and respect facts, which meant the connection of the article with the dismissal of Peng Dehuai did not respect truth. On the 8[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day of February, Mayor Peng, Kang Sheng and Lu Dingyi, the head of the propaganda department of CPC, went to see Mao and gave him the “February Outline.” Mao pointed out that the gist of the play was the “dismissal” and so had the connection with the dismissal of Peng Dehuai. Mao wanted to use this as a reason to rid of Wu Han, and further of Peng Zhen. 


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]From the 17[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day to the 20[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day of March, at a meeting of the political bureau of CPC, Mao made a speech: Who controlling the newspapers, magazines and publishing presses is very important; those capitalist authorities in culture must be criticized; the magazine “Frontline” controlled by Wu Han and his supporters is anti-Party and anti-socialism; a cultural revolution must be waged in the areas of literature, history, philosophy, law, and economical theory; how much of Marxism-Leninism is in those areas? So the February Outline of the five-person group was also criticized. Mayor Peng and his supporters were all removed from office and were defined as an anti-Party clique. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]It looked that Mayor Peng and his supporters only had different opinion from Mao. How could they plot a coup d'etat? On the 27[/FONT][SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]th[/FONT][/SUP][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] day of July, 1966, Kang Sheng said on a public meeting in Beijing Normal University that Peng Zhen planned to have coup d'etat because he had a battalion of soldiers in every university. The crowds believed him as he was a party leader. But that was not the truth. The fact was that in February, 1966, the central military committee decided to strengthen the local military forces and maneuvered a regiment into Beijing for training purpose. The regiment of soldiers was planned to lodge in some empty rooms of some universities. But afterwards, the soldiers found elsewhere to lodge and didn't sleep in any universities. However, the fact was distorted to become a crime of Peng Zhen and his supporters.[/FONT]
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