1. The Cultural Revolution developed into a reign of terror because students and radical teachers, influenced by Lin Biao, began attacking the education system and its divergence from the revolutionary path. This chaos spiraled out of control so much that Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi were sent to contain the trouble. As a result of this issue and the fact that there was conflict between party factions and those who wanted to contain this trouble and wanted it to spread, violence began to increase and students took positions as 'Red Guards', inflicting terror in the streets.
2. Mao's Yangzi swim was so significant because it was a great symbolic gesture that excited all of China; in Chinese tradition the river was thought of as a life force and Mao swimming in it showed that he, a 73 year old, was very much alive and in control of events. Mao took advantage of his spectacular return and its impact on the people's thoughts and tightened his grip on the government and party, summoning a meeting of the Central Committee where he condemned revisionist tendencies.
3. The August rally was so significant in the history of the Cultural Revolution because it demonstrated that Mao had enough supporters that were very enthusiastic about him and his leadership, demonstrating that the cult of Mao had been developed so much Lin Biao and Chen Boda were able to assemble masses last minute of his supporters, which is exactly what he did; a large number of supporters were there, with their Little Red Books, screaming and praising their idol, who they referred to as the 'red sun rising in the east'.
4. Mao identified the following as targets for the attack (these were known as the 'Four Olds');
- Old ideas
- Old culture
- Old customs
- Old habits.
5. Mao's motives for subjecting his people to the Cultural Revolution was that it was to be his method for enforcing himself on the people of China, establishing power, and his way of asserting his authority on the CCP. Additionally, Mao wanted to prevent revisionism (which he accused the USSR and the West of), and he wished to renew the CCP's revolutionary spirit (he wanted a new generation of party members to be inspired to replace the old).
6. Mao's concern about younger members of the CCP was that they had not undergone the rigors and legendary experiences of the CCP (White Terror, Long March, anti-Japanese war, struggle against the GMD). He believed they needed hardening in the crucible of revolutionary struggle if they were ever going to be able to withstand a military attack from the West.
7. Mao intended to preserve the peasant character of the revolution and he held that as a class, the peasants were the main revolutionary force in China, although he often expressed contempt for them. He built his revolution on them, and this is why he made sure that affairs would not be run by bureaucrats and intellectuals in the cities.
8. Deng and Liu were attacked because they were accused of being the 'spearheads of the erroneous line'. Mao granted them the opportunity to correct their mistakes at first, but 2 months later at a Red Guard demonstration in Beijing, they were accused of being 'revisionists' and told they had adopted a 'bourgeois reactionary line' and they were dismissed from their positions in the government. He complained they treated him like their 'dead parent at a funeral'. Both men were denounced for their betrayal of Maoist thought. Liu and his wife were beaten by a mob and Deng's son was thrown out of a window by Red Guards.
9. China's young people proved so willingly to follow Mao's lead because students had been taught to see themselves as pioneers under Mao in the advancement of internal proletarian revolution. Additionally, the educational environment in China became increasingly influenced by revolutionary ideas and Maoist ways of thinking. The young were made to feel that they had a special role to play, not only in the regeneration of the nation but the creation of a new socialist world order.
10. Methods that the Red Guards used to terrify the population were a result of the fact that Mao said there was no moral restriction on what could be done in the name of the revolution. Students were taught to insult their elders, which was very significant in this society where traditionally, the young were taught to respect their elders (this is an example of Mao's wish to denounce old habits and customs). Anything that represented the past was labeled under the term 'Confucius and Co' and could be smashed or torn up. Temples, shrines, works of art etc. became targets. Many treasures of Chinese tradition and history were destroyed as well.
11. Several tactics were used to break the will of those who were arrested. They could be manhandled and publicly humiliated, and those who were denounced as 'bad elements' (schoolteachers, university staff, writers, and even doctors) were forced to publicly confess to their crimes. These tactics were used to provoke and stimulate guilt. The victims were also made to study Mao's writings followed by periods of self-criticism and confession, and the first confession was never accepted. Another tactic used was forcing the accused to adopt the 'aeroplane' position (head thrust down, knees bent, etc) and confess, and those who did not were kicked and beaten.
12. The statistic that demonstrates the destruction of China's ancient culture is that the Red Guards and other government-based groups flattened 4922 of Beijing's 6843 'places of cultural or historical interest'. Additionally, a group of Beijing University students and teachers went out and committed several acts of vandalism over a four-week period in November 1966, including the destruction of 929 paintings, 2700 books, 1000 statues and monuments, and 2000 graves.
13. The role that the PLA played in the Cultural Revolution is that it claimed a special relationship with Chairman Mao and with the Chinese people, which gave it the authority to tak over the Cultural Revolution. The PLA wanted credit for the Revolution and wanted to be seen as the driving force behind it. They took over from the Red Guards in hunting down and terrorizing 'counter-revolutionaries'.
14. The energies of the Red Guards were diverted in another direction because they were sent to the countryside to live as peasants in order to become closer to the Chinese people and become accustomed to a different way of life. This was supposed to have meant to deepen their understanding of the lives of 80% of the Chinese people and what they went through, but in reality it was carried out to rid the cities of troublesome youths.
15. The experience of the young people in the countryside reshaped their opinions of Mao in a bad way. Seeing that the people they were around, the peasants, had little food or opportunities and that they themselves were starving, they began to feel lied to by Mao. They began to feel as if they had been used by Mao and if everything they had stood for before was a lie. The students were homesick and very starving.
16. The ferocity of the Cultural Revolution was maintained by the PLA, who were in some ways more ferocious than the Red Guards. The CCRG, with Jiang Qing's Gang of Four playing a dominant role, began carrying out something that became known as 'cleansing the class ranks'. Their goal was to 'eradicate any sign of capitalism'. The result was killing and destruction more ferocious than what the Red Guards had done.
17. All of the blame attaches to Mao for what was done. Even though he himself jokingly stated that the Cultural Revolution had gone further than he initially intended and that some were more Maoist than he even was, everything was still done in his name, even if he had sat back and let the actions all unfold in front of him. He cannot be absolved from the blame just because he did not carry out every bad action with his own two hands.
18. The Lin Biao affair was a turning point in the Cultural Revolution to a significant extent because he had been becoming more influential in China and was named as the successor to Mao, and he even began to plot against Mao in secret.
19. The plot was to be an assassination of Mao.
20. The consequences that followed Lin Biao's disgrace were that people began to question if they could even trust the government ever again. It seemed ironic to many that Lin would have hatched a plot to kill Mao when he was the one who compiled the Little Red Book and distributed it, therefore he had increased Mao's popularity significantly. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to many people and they began to wonder if everything the government did or said was a lie. Lin was accused of being a Soviet spy and the greatest traitor to the nation, thus people did not know what to believe.
21. The intensity of the Cultural Revolution lessened after 1972 because of;
- A general uncertainty in the party about the ailing Mao's true intentions
- The affect of the Lin Biao affair which led to a rethink in the CCP about how severe its policies should be
- An unacknowledged recognition by the party that the points made by critics such as Tu Deyong were an accurate description of the effects of the Cultural Revolution
- The wish to impress the USA, whose president Richard Nixon visited China in 1972
22. Lin Biao's fall benefits for Zhou and Deng were the enhancement of Zhou Enlai's position in the government and party, and Deng Xiaoping regaining his place as Party Secretary.
23. What the Cultural Revolution indicates about Mao's personal character is that he was a very paranoid person, as much of the idea behind the Cultural Revolution came from internalized hatred.
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