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Cultural Revolution in China - Coggle Diagram
Cultural Revolution in China
Causes of the CR
Personal Slights
Mao felt that he was being ignored and treated as a dead ancestor
The idea of Mao Zedong Thought was not supposed to surpass Marxism Leninism according to the Party leaders and Mao had very little power of policy
Ideological divisions
Mao's policies were no longer being used and he had become jealous as these policies had been far more successful
Pragmatism was now dominating the party as both Liu, Deng and Zhao were all pragmatists and no longer following Mao's ideological policies
The Party bureaucracy
Mao believed that the party was no longer a force for revolution but instead had become bureaucratised
He instead demanded a permeant revolution that meant that officials were constantly replaced to prevent them from becoming too comfortable and prevent them from taking advantage of their authority
Opponents
Wanted to remove oppositions in the Party particularly Liu, Deng and Zhou
He felt that the others in the party were no longer committed properly to communism and the party had been infiltrated by capitalists roaders and bourgeois elements
Reformation of culture
Culture needed to be reformed with new ideology, culture and customs and habits those of the proletariat because the bourgeoise was using the old culture to exploit people
The Cultural Revolution Group
The group was created to direct the Cultural revolution
It was a 17 member sub committee of the Politburo that was supposed to be answerable to the Politburo but in reality just ferment criticism against the top Party people
Dominated by Ideologues
Chen Boda
Mao's propaganda chief and was a key creator of Mao Zedong thought
Yao Wenyuan
The writer of the article attacking Wu Han and the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office that was the initial attack on the pragmatists
Zang Chunqiao
Party secretary of Shanghai
Jiang Qing
Characteristics of the Cultural revolution
The Red Guards
Who were they and why did they join the cultural rrevolution
They were totally loyal to Mao and so when they were told to attack they obeyed
Why
They were ideologically committed to the cause as they revered Mao
They were given an opportunity for revolutionary glory which they had been told about by their paretns
Aspiring students could also remove senior party members giving themselves the opportunity to rise in the party
The children of the 5 black elements were originally not allowed to join but were later on and these gave them the opportunity to show their ideological commitment and often became the most determined to overcompensate
The Red Guard armband allowed anyone wearing it to board a train and so some took the opportunity to travel the country out of curisoirty and years of repressions
They were young people who had been indoctrinated through the education system which had taught them Mao was like a God
The Mass Rallies of 1966
There were 8 mass rallies that were organised in the Tianamen Square and Beijing
Students were encouraged to go to Beijing to attend the rallies t
They were whipped into revoluntiary fervour by Mao and Lin Bao. They worshipped Mao and his ideas
The PLA helped in transporting the Red Guards to the rallies
The Four olds campaign (August 1966)
The Purpose was to destroy:
Old ideas
Old culture
Old habits
Old customs
The effect
Cultural destruction
Any traditional aspects of Chinese Culture were attacked
7 Millions books were destroyed and 1/3 of all the libraries in China were closed
Priceless antiquities were destroyed and Confucian texts burnt
Homes with traditional gardens, western books, classical music instruments, records of old-fashined music were ransacked
The Confucius Temple
The Confucius temple in Shadong which was a priceless relic and resting place of Confucius was attacked by 200 teachers and students that proclaimed Confucius thought was bad and produced cowardly bastards that exploited and oppressed others
They destroyed 6618 registered artefacts and defaced 2000 graves
Hai Rui and Wu Xun
Hai Rui's (the subject of the play that started CR) resting place was defaced
Wu Xun who was a 19th century cultural hero was dug up and cut up into little piece and burnt for not challenging the imperialist system
Tibet
Culture was particularly targeted
The destruction was very targeted with soldiers being sent in to take artifacts and precious metals as well as statures and scroll paintings before the masses got to them and traditional jewellery was handed over to the Chinese state bank
The Cultural revolution was a greedy attempt to eradicate the Tibetan way of life
The Red Terror (Autumn and Winter in 1966)
The red guards spiralled into further brutal violence and became known as the Red Terror
Many were targeted including party members, former businessmen and landlords
The Campaign became brutal with class enemies being sent for re-education in labour camps and intellectuals were targeted with some being killed and other kidnapped
Anarchy
There was lots of infighting between red guard factions like between the red Guards from a working class background a and the Red Guards from from non-WC backgrounds
Radical groups sprang up that attacked each other and caused anarchy
Red guards fought each other
Farmers also battled the red guards in anger of demands from red guards for food and lodging
The country was on the brink of civil war which Mao appeared to not mind about
The January Storm (1967)
Radical rebel Red Guards in Shanghai rose up and destroyed the party establishment and instituted their own form of government based on the Paris Commune of 1871
They initially had the support of Mao
The February Adverse Current
There were protests from leaders of the communist party about Mao encouraging chaos
Mao dismissed these claims as the February adverse current and continued the policy
Further Violence (April 1967)
Mao continued to encourage violence and said that the more chaos the better
This led to the Red guards clashing with the PLA for example in Wuhan
In Wuhan there was huge clash between the red guards and the PLA who had sided with the local government and groups of students and workers fought each other and the PLA all claiming to defend Mao Zedong thought
In august of 1967 rebels seized power over the foreign ministry in Beijing for two weeks and declared the creation of proletarian internationalism
Only the PLA stopped rebels from seizing military facilities were the hydrogen bombs were being developed
Revolutionary Committees (September 1967)
Mao did not want the anarchy to lead to a challenge of the party itself
he created the Revolutionary committee that would be implemeted in provinces
The committees were based on a three way alliance which merged the roles of party, state and army. Radicals and mass organisations were represented but held no control and the party held most of the control
Many previous personnel who had been purged recently remerged to take power again
Restoration of order (1968)
Mao realised that he needed to end the violence out of fear that foreign nations would take advantage and attack
He ordered the PLA to crush the red guards and re-establish the power of the central party which they did brutally and with great violence
Cleansing of the class ranks
A campaign ordered by the CRG (dominated by Jiang) to remove any signs of captalism
There was a huge of wave of terror led by the PLA where they used surveillance ,struggle meetings and mass rallies
1.84 million people were arrested and thousands were beaten to death or took their own lives
The Violent phase ended in April 1969 when Lin Biao was announced as Mao's successor
The fall of Lin Biao
He had been appointed as successor to Mao but Mao saw the power of the PLA and the influence that Lin Biao had over the nation
When Lin disagreed with Mao about reinstating the role of Head of State Mao became concerned about Lin
Lin's plane crashed and he and his son were killed and he was accused of being a traitor and plotting a coup against the regime
impact
The victims of the CR
Liu Shaoqi
Had been a moderate and helped to rebuild China after the disastrous Great Leap forward
he had become very popular and had been supporting sending in work teams to curb violence of the CR during the student attacks
He was the main target of the Cultural Revolution
He was subjected to constant struggle meetings where he was beaten and abused. His family was targeted as well and he was held in solitary confinement for years
In Octobr 1968 Jiang Qing presented flimsy evidnece of treachery and betraying the party and he was stripped of all posts
He died of pneumonia in 1969 when he was refused treatment by Mao
Deng Xiaoping
Another central target of the CR
Like Liu he had been a pragmatist and had not cared about the ideological implications of policies
he disappeared from public sight and was sent to a tractor factory in Jiangxi to work
The party
At regional and provisional levels 70-80% of all party cadres were purged and 60-70% in the organs of central government
4 out of 6 regional party first secretaries were removed
only 9 out of the 23 politburo members survived the purges
2/3 of the central committee was deposed
3 million bureaucrats and cadres were exiled to the countryside
others were beaten and tortured
Half a million Chinese were killed
Capitalists and foreigners
Embassies and diplomats became targets of the regime
embassies of Burma, Indonesia and India were all attacked by red guards
The Dutch charge d'affaires was imprisoned by a mod inside the embassy for nearly six months
A mob with loudspeakers blaring Maoist slogans laided siege to embassies of France USSR and Yugoslavia
Shops, restaurants and hotels had signs saying soviets would not be served
Crowds trapped ambassadors in their cars for hours
The French trade councillor was confronted and forced to stand outside the embassy in the freezing cold while being denounced for seven hours
Staff at the British embassy were beaten and manhandled and the embassy was set on fire
Individuals were also targeted
Sidney Rittenberg
An avowed communist that took part in struggle meeting was sent to re-education
A barfish reporter was put in solitary confinement for 26 months in retaliation for an arrest of a Chinese journalists for encouraging anti-imperialist riots in Hong Kong
Winners
Jiang Qing and the Gang of four
Lin Biao
Mao
The Red Guards and Young people
The Red Guards and people suffered as a result of the Cultural Revolution as they were sent for re-education in the Countryside
Up to the mountains and down to the villages
Eighteen million red guards were sent to remote areas of the countryside to learn from the peasants
In reality they had been sent to cool off and were discarded as they had served their purpose for Mao
They became disillusioned with the party and no longer believed the propaganda
Industry
Production had fallen by 13% in 1967 and fell further in 1968 but recovered quickly and resumed the same growth level by 1971
Transport had ground to a halt
Ultimately there was not a great impact on the economy of China
Education
Education had been seriously disrupted
Teachers and educators were the first to be targeted and many were killed
Universities and schools were closed in 1966 and did not reopen for 2 years
Young People were then sent to the countryside which meant were unable to continue education for several years
This led to many having their prospects ruined and so many were very angry at the party
After the CR the education system placed a much greater emphasis on manual labour
Agriculture
Agriculture fell during 1967 and 1968 but recovered by 1969 and continued to rise
Cultural Impact
China became a cultural desert
Writers, scholars and intellectuals were all persecuted and Jiang Qing had set herself up as supreme authority on everything cultural in the country
theatres and films were only to put on revolutionary plays and there were only 8 leaving the theatre dry
Only arts that served as propaganda were allowed
libraries and museums were closed and traditional books and foriegn literature was banned