The Cultural Revolution

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The origins:

The response within the CCP to the great leap forward and the famine -

This led to Mao taking a less prominent place in politics, a decision he came to regret when he saw Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi, the ministers he had entrusted with ending the famine, growing increasingly popular within the party.

Mao convinced himself that Deng and Liu were using their position within the party to mount a challenge.

Supporters of Liu and Deng took over the local government and began to reverse the collectivisation programme.

But the majority of the provincial leaders appear to have remained loyal to Mao.

Mao turned to Lin Biao, a field marshal of the PLA and had been defense minister since 1959. His reverence for Mao and his leadership of the PLA made him an invaluable ally.

The Cult of Mao -

It was Lin Biao who in the early 1960s collaborated with Chen Boda in compiling the 'Little Red Book'. A collection of the thoughts and sayings of Mao since the 1920s. It was the secular bible of China, the source of all truth.

Mao's slogan 'learn from the PLA' was a way of saying that China's army represented the true revolutionary spirit and was, therefore, the model for all people to copy.

750 million copies of the little red book were distributed across China.

Throughout China it became a social necessity to have a copy with oneself at all times; it was the required text, used to define all issues and settle all arguments.

The Wu Han Affair -

'The dismissal of Hai Rui from office', written by Wu Han. This work performed between 1961 and 1965, was set in the days of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and told the story of Hai Rui; a court official, who was demoted and punished after bravely defying the orders of the cruel emperor.

Since Wu Han belonged to a group of writers thought to be critical of Mao Zedong, it thus provided Lin Biao with pretext for moving against the anti-Maoist elements in the communist party. Beginning in 1965, a series of attacks were made on Wu Han, charging him with blackening Mao's good name and undermining Marxism-Leninism. A broken man, Wu Han committed suicide 4 years later.

Divisions in the CCP -

The Wu Han affiar depended on the divisions that had already begun to develop within the CCP and between the CCP and PLA.

Jiang Qing was Mao's wife and therefore she had an influence that was dangerous to challenge. A fierce hardliner, Jiang denounced the reactionaries' and revisionists' on the right of the party. She also aimed to undermine the group of five, whose essential objective was to work as peacemakers to prevent party splits widening.

The Shanghai Forum and the Gang of Four -

Jiang Qing was the dominant figure in the Shanghai forum, a set of Maoists who represented the most hard line element in the CCP. The forum itself was dominated by a group of particularly uncompromising individuals, known as the gang of four. They were the extreme wing of an extreme movement. The 3 men in the group, who were feared for their ruthlessness, had risen to prominence in the Shanghai section of the CCP and had become members of the politburo.

Jiang urged that steps be urgently taken to remove Liu Shaoqi and Den Xiaoping from their positions in the CCP.

The Shanghai forum identified the counter-revolutionaries who must be struggled against and destroyed.

The Central Cultural Revolution Group -

Setting up in May 1966 (CCRG)

This body, which was dominated by the gang of four, was the instrument through which Mao would run the Cultural Revolution.

Such was the influence of the CCRG that by early summer 1966, Lin Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping found themselves being out maneuvered and undermined.

Mao's words were, in effect, an announcement that China had entered that tumultuous and terrifying period of political and social history known as the Cultural revolution.

The Consequences and the Death of Mao:

Zhou Enlai died in January 1967 (died from lung cancer). In April, the memorial service for Zhou was held in the Great Hall Of The People facing Tiananmen Square. This became the occasion for a large-scale demonstration in favor of the policies that Zhou had advocated.

Fearing that teh demonstration might get out of hand, the mayor of Beijing ordered riot police to disperse the crowds. When some demonstrators resisted the police used force.

The politburo condemned this 'Tiananmen incident' as the work of rightist agitators and laid a large part of the blame on Deng Xiaoping, whom they dismissed from his position as party secretary.

Deng chose not to risk defending himself; instead he removed himself from the political scene by hastily leaving Beijing for Guangdong province, from where he would wait on events.

Mao's doctor, Li Zhisui, subsequently revealed that, during the final three years of his life, Mao was sustained only by massive injections of drugs that left him comatose for much of the time.

Yet, even though he was incapacitated his power still remained. In an odd way, it was actually increased. Since he was so often enfeebled, it became difficult to know exactly what his ideas and instructions actually were. This had two conflicting consequences:

It paralysed the fearful into inaction since they were frightened of taking steps that Mao would later condemn in one of his rational moments.

It encouraged those who believed that Mao would never recover to try to maneuver themselves into a position from which they could subsequently seize power.

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