The 4 Olds, Cultural destruction and descent into anarchy
May 1966 – Mao called to young people to ‘Dare to rebel against authority
called to rise up against cadres, teachers, Party authorities etc.
1966 Mass Rallies
5th August Mao called to ‘Bombard the headquarters’
A blank cheque to attack Mao’s opposition
Mid August – late November there were rallies in Tiananmen Square. Train transport was free and Mao announced ‘Let the rest of the country come to Beijing’
The Cultural Revolution Timeline
1965 – November – Mao has the negative review of ‘Hai Rui dismissed from office’
1966 – March – ‘The Cultural Revolution Group’ is established
Autumn - Deng Xiaoping revises it before issuing the ‘Later 10 points’
July – Mao swims in the Yangtze
1963 – Mao drafts his 10 points including the 4 clean ups
August – November – Mass rallies
December – The workers join in.
1967 – September – There’s a fear that anarchy might challenge the legitimacy of the party
1968 – Restoration of order by the PLA
April – 1969 – 9th Party Congress – Lin Biao is confirmed as Mao’s successor.
The attack on the four olds
Old Habits
Old Customs
Old Culture
Old ideas
Because the Party Central Committee announced that these were still being used by the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses.
Red Guards were told to put ‘daring above everything else’
Many ignored the instruction to allow anyone who had made ‘mistakes’ to turn over a new leaf. Places and objects representing old ideas were attacked.
Actions
Owning a pet bird was seen as a traditional past-time representing old ideas.
Surgeons cancelled operations out of fear that if the operation went badly they might be accused of ‘class revenge’.
Old feudal shop signs were changed to ‘Defend Mao Zedong’ or ‘permanent revolution’
Visitors to restaurants were forced to complete questionnaires declaring their class origin before they were served.
Children's names were changed to ‘Red Glory’ or ‘Face the East’
Cultural Destruction
Temples were desecrated
Sculptures, statues and artefacts were defaced and burned
Confucian texts were burned
Zhou sent the PLA to protect the treasures of the forbidden city
1100 libraries had been closed and more than 7 million library books were lost stolen or destroyed
The use of terror
Autumn and winter of 1966 the violence spilled out of control. It became known as the Red Terror.
Some victims were targeted numerous times by rival red guard factions.
Party members, former businessmen and landlords were subjected to denunciation and intimidation.
developed into brutality
The growth of anarchy
Rival groups of red guards began to fight and denounce each other.
Groups from working class backgrounds would fight those including the children of intellectual
Everywhere was split into factions