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

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

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

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

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

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

Mao's propaganda chief and was a key creator of Mao Zedong thought

The writer of the article attacking Wu Han and the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office that was the initial attack on the pragmatists

They were totally loyal to Mao and so when they were told to attack they obeyed

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

They were young people who had been indoctrinated through the education system which had taught them Mao was like a God

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 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

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 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'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

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 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

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

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

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

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

Mao continued to encourage violence and said that the more chaos the better

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

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

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

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

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