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The Criticize Lin (Biao), Criticize Confucius Campaign (; also called the Anti-Lin Biao, Anti-Confucius campaign) was a political and intellectual campaign started by
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
and his wife,
Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and political figure. She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the Communis ...
, the leader of the
Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...
. It lasted from 1973 until the end of the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
, in 1976. The campaign continued in several phases, beginning as an academic attempt to interpret Chinese history according to Mao's political theories. In 1974 the campaign was joined with another, pre-existent campaign to criticise
Lin Biao Lin Biao ( zh, 林彪; 5 December 1907 – 13 September 1971) was a Chinese politician and Marshal of the People's Republic of China who was pivotal in the Chinese Communist Party, Communist Chinese Communist Revolution, victory during the Chines ...
, who had allegedly attempted to assassinate Mao in a failed coup before his death in 1971. In early 1975 the campaign was modified to indirectly criticise China's Premier,
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
, and other senior Chinese leaders. In mid-1975 the Gang of Four introduced debate on '' Water Margin'' as a tool for criticism of their opponents. The campaign ended in 1976, when the Gang of Four were arrested.


Stages of the campaign

The events that occurred during the "Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius" campaign were "complex and often confusing", but can be identified as occurring through four main phases. The first phase of the campaign began after the 1st Plenary Session of the 10th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, in 1973. Following this session, Mao encouraged public discussions focused on criticizing
Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...
and
Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...
, and on interpreting aspects of historical Chinese society within a
Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...
theoretical perspective. These initial debates focused on interpreting the issues of slavery, feudalism, and the relationship between Confucianism and Legalism according to the
social theories Social theories are analytical frameworks, or paradigms, that are used to study and interpret social phenomenon, social phenomena.Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons. A tool used by social scientists, s ...
published by Mao and
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
. Confucius himself was condemned as a defender of slavery and a denigrator of women who had hindered China's development by resisting historical progress. In late 1973 to early 1974 the second phase of the campaign began, when the Chinese public were encouraged to adopt criticism of Confucius in a great "study campaign". The universities were mobilized to deliver special courses to workers and peasants, State propaganda photographs depicted Chinese farmers supposedly carrying on "intense debates". The criticisms of Confucius merged with a pre-existent campaign to criticize Lin Biao, who was condemned as a " capitalist roader" by his enemies among a radical faction of the Party led by
Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and political figure. She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the Communis ...
. With the deployment of the campaign it became clear that "criticism of Lin Biao and Confucius" was directed not so much against the "enemies of the past," as against the "enemies of today." During this phase, Mao's image was identified with that of China's first emperor,
Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...
(glossed as an anti-Confucian Legalist). Praise was given to Qin based on his popular association with Mao. Mao described Lin as a "closet Confucianist", "bourgeois careerist", conspirator, and "ultra rightist". The revolutionary operas were used as an ideological tool during the campaign, and their promotion through official state channels surged in 1974. The third phase began after Zhou Enlai reorganized the State Council during the
4th National People's Congress The 4th National People's Congress (NPC) was in session from 1975 to 1978. It held only one session, in January 1975, despite the Constitution mandating a session be held each year. There were 2864 deputies to this Congress. Seat distribution ...
, in January 1975. At the People's Congress, Zhou brought many cadres back to work who had been forced out of power during the 1966–1969 phase of the Cultural Revolution. In comparison with the first stage of the Cultural Revolution, the rehabilitated leaders led by Zhou were able to exercise significant influence. Feeling strong support from his supporters on 31 January 1974 at the enlarged meeting of the Politburo, Zhou was able to strongly request not to involve the armed forces in a campaign for "four great freedoms", namely, writing, free expression of opinions and extensive discussion, and general criticism.
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
, who was among those rehabilitated under Zhou, sought to turn the campaign back against the radical faction by linking Confucius to resistance to modernisation and better education – goals that Deng was pursuing at the time, against the radicals' opposition. Because they had supported the purging of many career Communist Party veterans during the early Cultural Revolution, the radical faction, now dominated by the
Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...
, opposed Zhou's efforts and began to subtly criticize him and his policies.Hsiung 638 In particular, they used the ongoing anti-Confucius campaign to attack the 12th century BC
Duke of Zhou Dan, Duke Wen of Zhou, commonly known as the Duke of Zhou, was a member of the royal family of the early Zhou dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu. He was renowned for acting as ...
, a major figure in Confucianism, whose name recalled that of Zhou Enlai. The fourth and final phase of the campaign coincided with Zhou's illness and hospitalization. After 1974, the campaign against Lin Biao and Confucius reached its climax, and soon subsided. However, beginning in the summer of 1975 the Gang of Four started a new campaign, introducing public debates on ''The Water Margin'' and the "war on empiricism" as a tool to criticise Zhou and their other enemies, notably Deng, which sidelined "criticism of Confucius." Deng Xiaoping then took many of Zhou's responsibilities, acting as premier in Zhou's absence until Deng was again forced out of power, in 1976. After Mao died, the Gang of Four also directed a campaign against
Hua Guofeng Hua Guofeng (born Su Zhu (); 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008) was a Chinese politician who served as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the 2nd premier of China. The designated successor of Mao Zedong, Hua held the top offices of t ...
, who was named Mao's successor. The campaign ended with Hua's arrest of the Gang of Four, in October 1976. The Anti-Lin, Anti-Confucius campaign was the last campaign of the Maoist era, and with the demise of the Gang of Four, such campaigns were largely abandoned as a feature of Chinese politics.


Theoretical focus

A main theoretical focus of the campaign was to advance the principle articulated by Mao that the masses are the motive force of history. Although the campaign was used as a political tool by the Gang of Four, it did produce a genuine attempt to interpret historical Chinese society within the context of Mao's political theories. Maoist theorists attempted to use what they knew about the stone-age Dawenkou culture to produce evidence that a slave society had existed in Chinese history, just as Mao had described. These Maoist theorists used the recurrent patterns of peasant revolts, which have occurred throughout Chinese history, as evidence that the common people had consistently rejected both feudalism and the Confucian ideology that supported it. After their vitriolic denunciations of Confucianism, radical theorists attempted to interpret all of Chinese history as a long episode of conflict between the forces of Confucianism and Legalism, and attempted to identify themselves as modern Legalists. During the campaign, critique groups formed at
Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...
and
Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...
; they produced commentaries under the name "Liang Xiao," a pseudonym that sounds like a person's name but which is a
homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
for "two schools." The campaign was an intense moment in 20th Century Chinese intellectual history, combining both specialist scholarship and with an openness to mass study. There was a spike in new political economy texts produced for a lay audience (as opposed to party members or university students), and mass dissemination of information made thousands of documents and articles available to ordinary Chinese, including worker-formed study "groups for theory" in factories. Workers writing groups also collaborated with specialists on drafting texts, such as the 1976 ''Political Economy in Front of the Smelting Furnace'' (炼钢炉前的政治经济学) by the theory group of Shanghai Number 5 Steel Factory and the Fudan University philosophy and economics departments. The campaign resulted in reprints and new editions of classic Legalist writings as well as historical reconstructions of their debates with the Confucians. It also provided the impetus for archeological excavations.


Local level

Ordinary people in China generally viewed the campaign as an attack on elitism in China's Confucian tradition, particularly given the campaign's denunciation of the Confucian principle that it is a general rule that the elites are respectable and the ordinary people are stupid. During the campaign, some dormant radicals on the local level resumed political activities, one such example was the Hangzhou incident of 1975, which was put down with a massive deployment of troops.


See also

*
List of campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party This is a list of political campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the founding of the party in 1921, in the aftermath of World War I. List of campaigns See also * History of China * History of the Republic of China * History ...
* Yang Rongguo


References


Bibliography

*Hsiung, James C
"'Lin Biao and the Gang of Four' by Tien-wei Wu"
''The China Quarterly''. No.99, Sept.1984. pp. 637–638. Retrieved December 15, 2011. {{Cultural Revolution 1970s in China Cultural Revolution Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party Anti-Confucianism History of Confucianism