THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA, 1966–1976 term paper

To consolidate his power, Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), initiated in 1966 a series of reforms that launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, an event that shook the very foundations of China between 1966 and 1976. In addition, Mao tightened his grip on the CCP by pushing aside his designated successor, Liu Shaoqi. This indicated that Lin Biao, head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was now second in command. Lin used the PLA to support the Cultural Revolution. He also proved his loyalty to Mao by publishing Quotations from Chairman Mao, a collection of Mao’s aphorisms and sayings. This “little red book” became the bible of the Cultural Revolution.

Lin Biao urged teenagers to organize Red Guard units and become the vanguard of Mao’s revolution. The Red Guards were ordered to attack the “four olds” (old customs, old habits, old culture, and old thinking). By 1967 Red Guard units had achieved striking success, particularly in the cities, where they both verbally and physically attacked “capitalist roaders,” that is, enemies of Mao in the CCP, in the schools and universities, and in the government bureaucracies, driving millions from the cities into the countryside. Soon 16 million people had been forced to seek “reeducation” as laborers in rural China. Holding high their “little red books” and chanting quotations from Mao Zedong, the Red Guards attacked all symbols of authority, even units of the PLA.

Taking full advantage of the chaos and upheaval, Mao Zedong purged the CCP and for three years used the Red Guards to attack real or imagined enemies. But by 1969 the revolution was out of control. It had spread too far and destroyed too much. Urged on by his third wife, Jiang Qing, Mao moved to oust Lin Biao, who died in a failed coup against Mao in 1971. By this date, however, more than 100 million Chinese had been affected; perhaps 1 million had died from the violence and starvation accompanying the rampages of the Red Guards. Only Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 finally ended the Cultural Revolution.

For China the years 1966–1976 were truly a lost decade. Its economy was in shambles, its 800 million people had suffered immense hardships, and an entire generation of children had missed secondary and university education. Not until 1978, when Deng Xiaoping finally overcame the opposition of Jiang Qing and the “Gang of Four,” who ruled China after Mao’s death, was China able to begin to recover from the Cultural Revolution.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Read selections from Quotations from Chairman Mao (see Suggested Sources) and write a one-act play featuring dialogue between a member of the Red Guards and a history teacher.
2. Why did Mao Zedong ask teenagers and not their elders to form the Red Guards? What was the role of the Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution?
3. During the early years of the Cultural Revolution, Lin Biao was one of the most powerful men in China. By 1971, however, he was in disgrace and was reported to have died trying to flee China. Assess his role in the Cultural Revolution.
4. The Cultural Revolution relied heavily on propaganda to energize China, especially the Red Guards. Analyze parts of Quotations from Chairman Mao and estimate their propaganda value for the Cultural Revolution.
5. Jiang Qing, Mao’s third wife, was the most powerful woman in China during the Cultural Revolution. How did she come to wield such power and influence during this period?
6. Deng Xiaoping, once a close ally of Mao, was attacked and stripped of power during the Cultural Revolution. Investigate the means he used to survive the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and his highly important contributions to recovery in the post– Cultural Revolution period.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “Mao Zedong and the Long March, 1934–1935” (#25), “The Victory of the Chinese Communist Party, 1949” (#46), “The Sino-Soviet Split, 1959–1969” (#60), and “The Chinese Economy at the End of the Twentieth Century” (#100).

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Chen, Jerome. Mao Papers, Anthology and Bibliography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. A solid collection of Mao’s thoughts on the Cultural Revolution. Gao, Yuan. Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987. A readable account of the chaos inflicted on China.

Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro. Son of the Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1983. A graphic “I was there” account of the chaos during this period.

Mao Tse-tung. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Edited by Stuart R. Schram. New York: Praeger, 1967. This is the starting point for understanding Mao’s influence in this episode.

Secondary Sources

Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. New York: Anchor Books, 1991. Her chapter entitled “Father Is Close, Mother Is Close but Neither Is as Close as Chairman Mao” suggests the nightmare the Cultural Revolution was for Chinese children.

Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution, 1800–1985. New York: Harper and Row, 1986. A concise, readable summary based on a lifetime’s study of China.

Jin, Qui. The Culture of Power: The Lin Biao Incident in the Cultural Revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. The most authoritative study of the mystery surrounding Lin Biao.

MacFarquhar, Roderick. The Origins of the Cultural Revolution. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974–1983. The best scholarly treatment to date.

Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990. His chapter on the episode and his critical bibliography remain the best starting point.

White, Lynn. Policies of Chaos: The Organizational Causes of Violence in China’s Cultural Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. Good bibliographical leads for all aspects of the Cultural Revolution.

Witke, Roxane. Comrade Chiang Ch’ing. Boston: Little, Brown, 1977. Flattering but accessible biography of Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch’ing).

Yang, Benjamin. Deng: A Political Biography. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. A reliable study of this reformer.

World Wide Web

“The National Security Archive.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv. Good links to Cold War perspectives on the Cultural Revolution.