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