First formed at Tsinghua Middle School in Beijing on May 21, 1966,
the Red Guard movement quickly took hold in middle schools, high schools,
and universities in Beijing and all across the country. The big character
poster raised at Beijing University calling for the dismissal of the university
president on May 25 marked the first official endorsement of the Red Guards
by Chairman Mao himself. For the time being the movement was contained
to educational institutions in Beijing where students criticized and humiliated
teachers and school authorities by violent and psychological means.
Mao exhibited a poster which said, “Bombard the Headquarters” to inspire
students to rebel, and he wanted educational reform that would change from
abstract old teachings that were “divorced from reality” to studies in
his Thought and of class struggle (Chen 225). His influence
on the Red Guards would firmly take hold in August of the same year.
 At
Tiananmen Square, wide eyed and breath taken, millions of young adults
wearing red armbands emblazoned with the words Han Wei Bing (Red Guard),
anxiously gathered, awaiting their leader Chairman Mao Zedong on August
18, 1966. As the sun rose dramatically in the east Mao’s leaders
Chen Boda and Lin Biao praised the Chairman as the “Great leader, Great
teacher, Great helmsman, and Great commander” to a crowd exploding with
excitement (Short 542). The culminating moment of the rally was when
a young girl fastened the red armband to Mao’s sleeve, officially symbolizing
his support for the movement. Mao and his leaders would continue
by commanding youth to go out and strike down all “demons and ghosts” and
destroy the Four Olds (ideas, culture, customs, and habits) through revolutionary
action.
The Red Guards, who would carry out this action, consisted of youth
from 12 to 30 years old, the majority of which were students between the
ages of 12 and 17 years of age (Lin 4). Initially comprised of members
of the peasant Red Class, the Red Guard went on to include members of the
upper class. These Red Guards instantly became the loyal cult of Mao, marching
with posters of his face, studying the “Thought of Mao Zedong,” and creating
a sea of red at rallies where they waved their Little Red Books containing
their creed.
Following instructions from the Chairman and his Thought, this
massive group of teens was first urged to “conduct a reign of terror” that
would destroy anything and everything representing capitalism or the Four
Olds in the city if Beijing, including stores, street signs, monuments,
private homes, and people who were deemed bourgeois. The People’s Daily
newspaper of Beijing readily commended the Red Guards for their revolutionary
action and quoted Mao as saying that “to rebel is justified" (Rice 257).
During September and August alone 4,992 of the 6,843 classical historical
monuments in Beijing were destroyed, numerous books and art pieces were
burnt, and 84,222 homes were attacked, many of which were completely destroyed
(Barnouin 98). Revolutionary action was not only taking place in
the capital but also all over China including cities such as Shanghai and
Canton. School was not in session so that youth would be able to
join the Red Guard and dedicate their time to revolutionary action.
During the first phase of the movement from September 1966 to the end
of that year to “Take Beijing to China” was Mao’s demand that resulted
in Red Guards participating in revolutionary exchanges in the 29 provinces
of the country (The Red Guards10334). The red armband and school
identification card served as a free pass for travel, food, and lodging
for Mao’s cult of revolutionary youth. This widespread travel resulted
in millions of youth partaking in the Red Guard movement from cities to
communes to rural areas all over the country and many others simply took
advantage of the opportunity to travel and not necessarily remaining committed
to the goals of the Red Guard. This was a violent time in which many
intellectuals, suspected bourgeois, educators, and innocent people lost
their lives, such as the noted novelist Lau Shaw who was beaten to death
when Red Guards invaded his home in Beijing (Rice 258). As Red Guards
were unleashed into the countryside through the opportunity of free travel,
they spread Mao’s Thought, organized class struggle meetings, learned
from workers and peasants, and continued on their mission to bring disorder
in revolutionary form.
To inspire youth from the Provinces and to continue to indoctrinating
all Red Guards, Mao and his leaders conducted between eight and ten rallies
in Beijing similar to the initial rally in August, the last of which was
held on November 25 and 26, 1966 (Rice 258). Because of the economic problems
associated with the clogging of the railways that the extensive travel
of Red Guards had created, Mao ordered students to go back to their home
locations and stop coming to Beijing or going to other Provinces.
By December, the red armband no longer served as a free pass on trains
but the Red Guard movement was far from over (The Red Guards 1035).
The second stage of the Red Guards, from 1967 on, was far more political
than the first, and aimed at bringing down opposing Party leaders or those
taking the “capitalist road.” This stage was met with factioning
along class lines within the Red Guards between those of peasant and working
class parents who had no previous voice in politics and those who were
of the upper class, and also between the rebels and the conservatives.
The rebels were ‘battering against Party, government, and military organs”
and taking advantage of the opportunity to vent their opinions, while the
conservatives maintained cautious attitudes towards Party leaders (Barnouin
107).
Mao intensified a campaign against the Party leaders Liu Shaoqui and
Deng Xiaoping because they were considered to be denying the communist
cause. This campaign resulted in the torture of Liu Shaoqui by Red
Guards, in which they forced the seventy-year-old man to kneel before Red
Guard posters while pulling his hair and smashing his head into the ground.
This torture forced him to resign as Head of State (Short 569). By
the beginning of January 1967, Mao and his revolutionary rebels established
that they no longer recognized the authority of the Party and that the
rebels would assume responsibilities for day-to-day affairs. Power
was seized from the Party in seven other cities and Provinces across the
country (Short 556). The rift between conservative and radical forces
grew larger and larger causing more violence and chaos.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which had not previously been involved
in the Cultural Revolution, was now authorized to intervene to help control
radicals and violence. The PLA secretly supported the conservative
faction of the Red Guards, which contributed to even more hostility between
factions and created a civil war-like atmosphere for the next two years.
Both sides were engaged in armed conflict across the country. A revolution
that was supposed to focus primarily on culture, education, and Party institutions
now deeply involved bringing down “capitalist roaders” in the army ( Barnouin
124). Because such violence resulted, Mao discouraged the radicals’ attacks
on the PLA and tried to calm the fighting. At the end of July, Mao
had to send 30,000 workers and PLA men to Tsinghua University (where the
Red Guard movement began) to stop fighting where rebels refused to put
down arms (Short 576).
To show his support for the PLA and for the worker teams in ending
the fighting, Mao sent them symbolic gift of mangoes, a tradition that
dated back to the fifth century BC (Short 576). The years to come
would consist of a cool off period in which Red Guards were dispersed across
the countryside to learn from peasants and workers and do manual labor.
This met its own host of problems due to resistance of the peasants to
accept these new students and students’ resistance to changing their whole
urban lifestyle to live in the countryside.
The nearly two years of mass chaos that Mao wished for did take place
and consisted of many fascinating, complicated events that leave people
wondering today about how young school students became so committed to
violent, revolutionary action which would change the course of history.
It is also a wonder how Mao’s teaching and influence seeped into millions
of people who would come to worship him as a deity and how his guidance
served as fuel for the fire that was the Red Guard movement.
While the student Red Guard movement may have emerged spontaneously,
Mao Zedong undoubtedly had everything to do with its growth and impact.
The first question is: why did Mao call the youth to be the catalysts for
the carrying out of the revolution? According to Jing Lin, author of The
Red Guard’s Path to Violence, impressionable young school students had
no previous political experience and were bombarded with Mao’s Thought
from such an early age that they readily embraced his teachings as their
way of life and looked up to and worshipped him as a noble leader who had
called them to duty (135).
Revolution was not a new concept for Mao who had led the Communist Revolution.
The parallels between the early stages of the Chinese Communist Revolution
and the Cultural Revolution are apparent. According to Philip Short,
a biographer of Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution was, in part, a chance
for Mao and his young followers to attempt to recreate the glory days of
when he himself rose to power (547). Being the revolutionary that
he was, Mao would employ his experience and ideologies to guide the vulnerable
youth of China for almost two years.
Despite the parallels between the two revolutions, there is one severe
difference in what Mao was fighting for in his youth and what the Red Guards
in essence were doing under Mao. In his youth, Mao was fighting for
liberation from the “straightjacket of Confucian orthodoxy,” while the
Red Guards were actually imposing Maoist orthodoxy and extremely limiting
freedoms of society (Short 549). Because Mao’s goal was to extinguish
the “Four Olds” the vacuum had to be filled with “Four News” that were
all in reference to Mao’s thought. This situation would put him on a level
to be worshipped, which in many cases involved people bowing every morning
before a portrait of Mao, praying for his forgiveness when they had done
wrong, and claiming that he had cured them of illnesses. The loyalty
to Mao was similar to the way that Mao himself bowed to a portrait of Confucius
every morning in his own youth. Mao seems to have in this aspect
created exactly what he previously rebelled against (Short 550).
Now that the chronology and general facts of the Red Guard movement
have been established, it is important to evaluate Mao’s role and his influence
on the movement. The first appearance of the infiltration of Mao’s
“thought” into the youth is found when Kang Sheng, the Chinese Communist
Party Secretary in Chief was entrusted with the covert operation of creating
youth groups devoted to the study of the Thought of Mao Zedong (Rice 250).
This started the ball rolling in what would later become a very important
aspect of the Red Guard movement: education, which was at the heart of
motivating students to follow Mao and regard his Thought as their way of
life.
Throughout their education, adolescents were made to believe themselves
to be part of an important, vital social force that would make them the
“Masters of New China" (Lin 149). National school curricula was constructed
in order to “raise students’ socialist consciousness, nurture their enthusiasm
for Communist ideals, and foster obedience to the party and Chairman Mao
(Lin 82).” In nursery schools, by the tender age of three years children
were familiar with the portrait of Mao and began learning that they should
love and respect him. The first Chinese characters that children
learned in primary school included “long live the People’s Republic of
China, long live the Chinese Communist Party, and long live Chairman Mao"
(Lin 86.) These early influences began the brainwashing of children than
led to attachment to the ideology of Mao. For those the age of the Red
Guards the Cultural Revolution was a chance for them to express their discomfort
and their opinions violently, with no threat of consequence.
In addition to education, obedience was also a key factor in Red Guards’
loyalty to Mao. At a very young age children are taught to obey their parents,
elders, and in China’s case, this generation was taught to pay obedience
to Mao, affirming the slogan “we will march to wherever the Chairman points
us" (Lin 155). One would think that an individual could receive the
ideologies and ideas of Mao and choose whether to embrace or reject them,
but these children were brainwashed about the greatness of Mao and were
not given the opportunity to question his authority or political views
because they had no other option. For them, Mao was the one who would
bring the goodness of a new society and they were so obedient to him that
he acquired the status of a god. The Red Guards thought: “How can
Chairman Mao be wrong" (Lin 156). This sentiment expresses that they did
not regard Mao as a human being, but rather as an infallible supreme being.
The environment created at the time influenced Red Guards to think that
it was their responsibility to be cruel and violent to any perceived enemy.
Brainwashing ran so deep that Red Guards felt that the proletariat
represented justice and that everyone else was a “class enemy.” Red
Guards were the “Masters of China” and acquired their power from Mao.
It was the fashion of the time to be accepted by Mao as a Red Guard, and
the upper class people who were considered class enemies were trying to
get in because Red Guards held so much power in society. To
gain power one had to be loyal to Mao and what he stood for (Lin 55).
Since Mao was the Red Guards’ main influence, their guide was “Mao Zedong’s
Quotations,” which contained his Thought known as the Little Red
Book, which all Red Guards religiously carried and abided by. When
one wonders how youth were driven to violent methods, the foundation can
be easily uncovered in Mao’s Thoughts. The most important thing Mao
taught was the necessity for class struggle, which readily divided society
into good and evil and which called on the Red Guards to stamp out all
evil. Mao characterized class struggle and revolution in this way:
Revolution is not like inviting guests
to dinner, is not like writing articles, painting pictures or sowing flowers;
Revolution cannot be that graceful, that calm and easy, that modest and
tolerant. Revolution is violence. It is violent action of one
class overthrowing the other (Lin 33).
Young students embraced these thoughts and acted on them with Mao’s encouragement.
When the violence got to an extreme point, Mao did not express much concern
and held that “excesses are inevitable" (Short 547).
The indoctrination of Mao’s Thought took place on peoples’ own time,
but more importantly, at eight to ten rallies which were all held by the
end of November 1966. At these events Mao “received over eleven
million revolutionary students, teachers and Red Guards" (Rice 258).
The idea of the radicals’ devotion to Mao was very real as one young Red
Guard describes her first rally experience after praising the Chairman
and participating in the Maoist anthem “The East is Red” by reporting:
Let me tell you the great news-news
greater than heaven…I saw our most, most, most, most dearly beloved leader,
Chairman Mao! Today I am so happy my heart is about to burst…After seeing
the Red Sun in Our Hearts I just ran around like crazy all over Beijing…Today,
I started a new life! (Rice 259)
Although Mao declared in September 1968 that “the entire country is Red”
after having crushed all old customs, ideas, habits, and culture “he had
nothing to put in their place but empty, Red rhetoric" (Short 577, 583).
While the Chairman never admitted that the Cultural Revolution had fallen
short of its original plan to create successors of the of the proletarian
revolutionary cause, even his selected successor Lin Biao dismissed it
as a “cultureless Revolution" (Short 583). Proletarian culture was
not flourishing, Mao’s Thought dominated a strict society that was
not at peace; in short, Mao failed to reinvent the culture of China.
|
