''On Class Origins'' (), alternatively translated as ''On Family Background'', ''Theory of Class Pedigree'', is an article by Yu Luoke and published in January 1967 in the ''Journal of Middle-School Cultural Revolution''. In this article, he challenged the " blood lineage theory" propagated by the

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

of senior

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

officials. At that time, this theory was widely circulated in Chinese society and caused serious adverse effects. Yu Luoke was accused of being a

counter-revolutionary A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution has occurred, in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "c ...

and sentenced to death for his famous treatise ''On Class Origins''. Yu Luoke's article echoed the Central Cultural Revolution Group's critique of the "blood lineage theory", which caused a huge reaction throughout China. In April 1967, the article was labeled a "big poisonous weed". On January 5, 1968, Yu was arrested and imprisoned, and on March 5, 1970, he was executed.

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Some Chinese experts and

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

s describe ''On Class Origins'' as China's Manifesto of Human Rights.

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Song Yongyi considers ''On Class Origins'' to be a "human rights declaration in the dark". ''On Class Origins'' marked the first independent thinking in China in the 1960s that broke through the ideological framework 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 ...

, focusing not on the so-called "political line" that dominated students during the Cultural Revolution, but on real social problems. Yu Luoke's thoughts were advanced at that time, and were criticized not only by the

Red Guard The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

s who advocated the "blood lineage theory", but also criticized by many rebel student organizations.

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External links

* One English translation: {{Cultural Revolution 1967 works Censorship in China Cultural Revolution Academic journal articles

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References

External links