CNU4

• Mao's motives for the Cultural Revolution

  • Rarely seen in public after 1962 - withdrawal allowed him to sidestep blame for failures of Great Leap Forward and famine
  • Observed actions of CCP leaders including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping with increasing disapproval
  • Ready to return to active politics and save revolution from being destroyed by 'revisionists'
  • Began preparations for steering revolution in China in new and extremely radical direction
  • Ensure revolution was continuous and that there was no slipping back into capitalist ideas and behaviors
  • Desire for permanent revolution
  • Determined that revolution should not fail; make sure old attitudes and behaviours do not undo changes introduced by CCP since 1949
  • Convinced this was what happened in Soviet Union under Khrushchev; prevent same thing happening in China
  • Believed strength of CCP came from years of struggle; from Long March; war against Japan and civil war
  • Believed it was necessary for young people to struggle to identify with revolution — Cultural Revolution would allow them to become 'true revolutionaries'
  • Opposed measures adopted in China after failure of Great Leap Forward
  • Deeply suspicious that Liu and Deng had encouraged private trade and ownership because they were capitalist sympathizers
  • Believed revisionists were to be found in all areas of art, education and culture — needed to be removed to save revolution
  • Believed communist China was being run by bureaucrats not interested in revolution but motivated by power and social and economic benefits
  • Feared they would grow into new class of mandarins
  • Feared he had opponents within CCP leadership who were seeking to remove him
  • Cultural Revolution offered ideal opportunity to destroy this opposition
• First sign Mao was ready to start Cultural Revolution


  1. 1965 - Mao forced Wu Han to resign

  2. 1966 - Established Central Cultural Revolution Group under Chen Boda

  3. July 16 1966 - Launched Cultural Revolution with his much-advertised swim across Yangtze River
• Key features of the Cultural Revolution

  • Mass mobilisation and role of young people
  • Attack on 'four olds' - old habits, old culture, old ideas, old customs
  • Red Guards and violence
  • Cult of Mao, Little Red Book
  • Impact on education
• Young people were mobilised to carry out ideas behind Cultural Revolution
• 5/8/1966 - Big character poster written by Mao published calling upon young to attack revisionists in CCP in 'bombard the headquarters' campaign
• Young people encouraged to attack authority and to regard rebellion as positive force for good
• Aug-Nov 1966 - Tiananmen Square 8 mass rallies with over a million young people arriving in Beijing to see Mao
• Encouraged to attack not only leaders of CCP who had adopted revisionist ideas, but also all aspects of China's culture that could be regarded as 'old'
• Campaign against 'four olds' carried out with great enthusiasm
• Attacked churches and cultural sites and invaded people's homes to seize possessions associated with old bourgeoisie
• Only presence of PLA prevented them from destroying Forbidden Palace
• Red Guards


  • Students and schoolchildren formed units to carry out Mao's instructions to attack opponents
  • Fanatically loyal to Mao and thoroughly indoctrinated in Mao Zedong thought
  • Children of party officials from elite middle schools could claim excellent class background
  • Soon young people from 'bad-class' background allowed to join
  • Often most violent because they wanted to prove loyalty to Mao
  • Allowed to travel for free on railways
• Red Guards were responsible for most violent phase of Cultural Revolution
• Carried out 'struggle sessions' - victims forced onto knees with arms held back and made to confess crimes, beaten if they resisted
• Mao wouldn't call end to violence as long as it was effective in removing opponents
• Beijing and Shanghai saw worst of violence, but nowhere was safe; in 1966-76 more than 67,000 people were killed in Guangxi province alone
• Cult of Mao

  • Gave Mao special status and involved worship of Mao
  • Pictures, busts and statues of Mao appeared everywhere
  • Young people were given task of saving revolution from revisionists, and they devoted themselves to task with unquestioning obedience
  • Mao regarded as 'red sun rising in the east'
  • Teachings regarded as absolute truth
• Little Red Book

  • 1964 - Lin Biao organized publication of collection of Mao's sayings for PLA
  • Soon became vital element of Cultural Revolution
  • Red Guards all had one and used it as guidance for behavior
  • Believed to almost have religious power
  • Accounts printed of miracles performed by the book
• Production of Mao souvenirs became huge business, no home was complete without portrait or model of Mao
• Impact on education

  • Intellectuals identified as enemies in attack on 'four olds'
  • Children turned against their teachers as reactionaries
  • Revolution began in Qinghua, red guard units first formed there in May 1966
  • By end of year, all schools were closed so children could take part in revolutionary struggle
  • Many teachers tortured and beaten to death, others committed suicide
• End of violence

  1. Jan 1967 - China had fallen into near-anarchy, red guards turned against one another

  2. PLA worried continued radicalism would turn against them

  3. 1968 - Mao ordered military to destroy red guards and regain control

  4. PLA closed down red guard newspapers and reopened schools
• 'Up to the mountains and down to the villages'


  • Mao wanted to end violent behavior, encouraged new revolutionary experience for young people - head for countryside and learn about peasant life
  • Reasons: reduce unemployment in cities, send to areas where they would do less damage, teach urban youth about rural life, increase military control over young people on farms controlled by PLA
  • Most young people didn't enjoy the life - work was difficult and standards of living were low, peasants didn't welcome the extra mouths to feed
• Red Guards

  Attacked party cadres, who were accused of acting more like capitalists than communists
• More than 70% of provincials and regional party officials and 60% of highest-level officials in national party had been removed and replaced by members of PLA who were very powerful in CCP and fanatically devoted to Mao
• Liu Shaoqi


  Criticised and forced to confess to betraying revolution, attacked in press as a 'big scab' and traitor, arrested and imprisoned, died of pneumonia in unheated prison cell in 1969 as Mao refused to treat him in hospital