The Cultural Revolution which started in Beijing, China
in Aug. 8, 1966 had been coming to surface since the failure of the Great
Leap forward in 1959. The Cultural Revolution was to achieve greater, better,
faster and more economic results. A well known Chinese Political figure
Mao Zedong masterminded the Cultural Revolution.
Mao was born in a rich peasant family on Dec. 26, 1893.
In 1936 Mao was elected as the Chairman of the Communist party. In the early
1956 there was a sign of strain within the Peking leadership coming from
the conflict of ideas of how to speed up the pace of industrialization,
modernization and increasing agricultural production. Mao then decided to
work out a plan which he knew would work. First of all Mao wanted for his
country what their Communist fore-founder Russia had for theirs, that was
industrial development. Mao knew that in order to achieve this, he could
not do as the Russian fore-founders advised him to, or to go against them
either. He knew the only way was to cleanse the ranks and bring in fresh
blood. Thus meaning was to get rid of the old and bring in the new. A new
breed which he could put his ideas into, and they would carry them out for
him devotedly, because of their freshness and eagerness to be involved in
something that promised a future for them. Thus was the start of the Cultural
Revolution and the beginning of the Red Guards.
The Red Guards was a large group of young revolutionaries
brought together by Mao to change the country. They were very good at starting
revolts, torturing, and causing destruction to those who opposed Mao's thought.
The Red Guards would even go to the point of torturing or killing their
own family, because of their great devotion to Mao. The Red Guards believed
the Cultural Revolution was their Revolution, The Revolution of youth, and
Mao was an inspirer. No one could go against Mao without the Red Guards
launching an attack on them. They were solid protectors of Mao and his ideas.
During the Cultural Revolution the Red Guards ravaged the cities and the
countryside. wherever one happened to look, the Red Guards would be present,
promoting their cause and they were very effective in doing so. In a three
year span they totally turned the country of China over especially in Peking.
Without the power of the Red Guards, Mao's vision of the Cultural Revolution
would have been just that, a vision. With Mao's congregation of the masses
of youth (the Red Guards) Mao's vision became reality.
Throughout the Cultural Revolution all Red Guards kept
up their hopes by constantly reading and quoting from the Red Book. What
was this Red Book? The Red Book was a work written by Mao Zedong to cover
every situation, problem, or event that comes to pass in life. The book
was mainly written for any man whose involved in the Cultural Revolution
on Mao's side. The book was the very form of control for the Cultural Revolution.
It is very thorough in its teaching and is very valued by those with Mao
and the Cultural Revolution. To the Red Guards it is held as a bible and
caressed to the heart, the words when they read are as nectar to them. As
one can see the affect the Red Book had on the Red Guards was great, it
was the best tool Mao can ever comes up with to control the masses and combine
their efforts against those defying of the Revolution. The information of
the book was first hand from Mao talking of the successes and failures in
his life. Mao made them into lessons, this was a quote taken from the Red
Book and the Great Wall by Alberto Moravia. "To guide man in his daily
life and at the same time to remind men that daily life is not, and must
not be , any other than political life." Needless to say, Mao's life
was the basis for the Red Book, for Mao had seen and been through everything
in the political world of China.
A topic Mao wrote about in the Red Book was the four
olds. What was the four olds? The four olds were the early stages of politics,
basically this. Still trying to use old ideas, culture, customs, and habits
of the exploiting classes. These old ideas, culture, customs, and habits
were the religions and such that Chinese people had practice for thousand
of years. Mao believed that this is why his country could not achieve industrial
development. He then promoted the Red Guards to destroy those four odls.
So the country could advance forward instead of falling backward, but to
destroy the four olds would not be easy. Many Chinese were comfortable with
their lives and didn't want change and therefore would not support the Revolution.
What happen to those people?
People who didn't support Mao or the Culture Revolution
of that time were abused. They were the focus of public humiliation and
tortured, the extreme went all the way to being brutally murdered. Violent
and horrible killing of peasants and Red Guards could be seen on an everyday
basis. Such weapons like knives, swords, machine guns, and artillery were
used to conduct this violence. From the start of the Cultural Revolution
in mid 1966 until 1969, many people had died violent deaths and many more
suffered from the damage wreaked from all involved. Today a whole country,
the largest in the world, China, is still feeling the effects from the Cultural
Revolution.
Khamthone Vorakoumane
Mclane High School
5-28-98 9:10
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Robertson, John R. China From Manchu To Mao.Canada:
McClellanel, 1976 < pg. 126-134
Snow, Edgar. The Long Revolution.New York: Random
House, 1971- 1972 pg. 124-126
Archer, Jules. China In The 20th Century.New
York: Macmillan, pg. 157-163.
Dernberger, Robert F. "The Cultural Revolution."
World Book Encyclopedia,Vol.3.Chicago: World
Book inc., 1979 pg. 510-512