Bombard the Headquarters

Text: Created and expanded Content section, expanded impact section, editing for concise/grammar. Content in this edit is copied from big-character poster; see that article's history for attribution.

← Previous revision Revision as of 02:58, 16 April 2026 Line 19: Line 19: {{quote|China's first [[Marxist-Leninist]] big-character poster and Commentator's article on it in ''[[People's Daily]]'' are indeed superbly written! [[Comrade]]s, please read them again. But in the last fifty days or so some leading comrades from the central down to the local levels have acted in a diametrically opposite way. Adopting the [[reactionary]] stand of the bourgeoisie, they have enforced a bourgeois dictatorship and struck down the surging movement of the Great Cultural Revolution of the proletariat. They have stood facts on their head and juggled black and white, encircled and suppressed revolutionaries, stifled opinions differing from their own, imposed a [[White Terror (mainland China)|white terror]], and felt very pleased with themselves. They have puffed up the arrogance of the bourgeoisie and deflated the morale of the proletariat. How poisonous! Viewed in connection with the Right deviation in 1962 and the wrong tendency of 1964 which was 'Left' in form but Right in essence, shouldn't this make one wide awake?|source="Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung Volume IX"<ref>{{Cite book|title=Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung|last=Mao|first=Tse-tung|url=https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/B05-Mao-Tsetung-Volume-9-2nd-Printing.pdf|publisher=Foreign Languages Press|year=2021|isbn=9782491182489|pages=282|language=en}}</ref>}} {{quote|China's first [[Marxist-Leninist]] big-character poster and Commentator's article on it in ''[[People's Daily]]'' are indeed superbly written! [[Comrade]]s, please read them again. But in the last fifty days or so some leading comrades from the central down to the local levels have acted in a diametrically opposite way. Adopting the [[reactionary]] stand of the bourgeoisie, they have enforced a bourgeois dictatorship and struck down the surging movement of the Great Cultural Revolution of the proletariat. They have stood facts on their head and juggled black and white, encircled and suppressed revolutionaries, stifled opinions differing from their own, imposed a [[White Terror (mainland China)|white terror]], and felt very pleased with themselves. They have puffed up the arrogance of the bourgeoisie and deflated the morale of the proletariat. How poisonous! Viewed in connection with the Right deviation in 1962 and the wrong tendency of 1964 which was 'Left' in form but Right in essence, shouldn't this make one wide awake?|source="Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung Volume IX"<ref>{{Cite book|title=Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung|last=Mao|first=Tse-tung|url=https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/B05-Mao-Tsetung-Volume-9-2nd-Printing.pdf|publisher=Foreign Languages Press|year=2021|isbn=9782491182489|pages=282|language=en}}</ref>}}

=== Content === The "first Marxist-Leninist big-character poster" Mao makes mention of was [[Big-character poster#"What are Song Shuo, Lu Ping, and Peng Peiyun up to in the Cultural Revolution"|the 25 May 1966 poster]] created and displayed by [[Peking University]] radicals, [[Nie Yuanzi]] among them, which was a key trigger of the Cultural Revolution.

Though the poster only vaguely targeted "some leading comrades" who had "enforced a bourgeois dictatorship and struck down the surging movement of the great Cultural Revolution of the proletariat", everyone at the time knew that the person under attack was Liu Shaoqi.<ref name=":31">{{Cite book |last=毛 |first=泽东 |title=Highlights of Da-Zi-Bao during the Cultural Revolution |publisher=Mirror Books |year=1996 |location=Flushing, NY |pages=28 |language=Chinese |chapter=炮打司令部——我的一张大字报 |trans-chapter=Bombard the headquarters—my big-character poster}}</ref> ⚫ Mao's reference to "[[Right-wing politics|Right]] [[Deviationism#Maoism|deviation]] in 1962" refers to Liu Shaoqi's statements, made during the [[Seven Thousand Cadres Conference]], that the [[Great Leap Forward#Famine|Great Leap Forward famine]] was caused majorly by human error. Mao's reference to "the wrong tendency of 1964" refers to Liu Shaoqi's leadership of the [[Four Cleanups]], and the [[Taoyuan Experience]] report, during which Mao and Liu came to be divided.<ref name=":0" />
⚫ Mao's reference to "[[Right-wing politics|Right]] [[Deviationism#Maoism|deviation]] in 1962" refers to Liu Shaoqi's statements during the [[Seven Thousand Cadres Conference]] that the [[Great Leap Forward#Famine|Great Leap Forward famine]] was caused predominantly by human error. Mao's reference to "the wrong tendency of 1964" refers to Liu Shaoqi's leadership of the [[Socialist Education Movement]], and the [[Taoyuan Experience]] report, during which Mao and Liu came to be divided.<ref name=":0" />

== Impact == == Impact == The poster ignited the [[Red Guards]] movement and further deteriorated relations between Mao and Liu, who was then Mao's ostensible successor. [[Zhou Enlai]] promoted the poster and was recalled by [[Wu Faxian]] to have stated, "Liu Shaoqi can no longer be in charge of the Central Committee's work, because he has disappointed the Chairman's hopes. The Central Committee has now decided to bring comrade [[Lin Biao]] to Beijing to take over from Liu Shaoqi."<ref name=":0" /> The poster gave fuel to the [[Red Guards]] movement and more posters criticizing Liu Shaoqi were created by radicals at [[Tsinghua University]] and in Beijing.<ref>Leijonhufvud, Göran (1989). ''Going Against the Tide: On Dissent and Big Character Posters in China''. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. p. 65.</ref><ref>Wang, Tuo (2014). ''The Cultural Revolution and Overacting: Dynamics Between Politics and Performance''. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 35.</ref> Relations further deteriorated between Mao and Liu, who was then still Mao's ostensible successor; the publication of the poster caused some surprise that Mao would attack his successor so openly. [[Zhou Enlai]] promoted the poster, and [[Wu Faxian]] recalled that Zhou stated, "Liu Shaoqi can no longer be in charge of the Central Committee's work, because he has disappointed the Chairman's hopes. The Central Committee has now decided to bring comrade [[Lin Biao]] to Beijing to take over from Liu Shaoqi."<ref name=":0" />

==See also== ==See also== * [[Cultural Revolution]] * [[Cultural Revolution]] * [[Socialist Education Movement]] * [[History of the Chinese Communist Party]] * [[History of the Chinese Communist Party]] * [[Red Guards]] * [[Red Guards]] * [[Propaganda in the People's Republic of China]] * [[Propaganda in the People's Republic of China]] * [[Big-character poster#Big-Character posters during the Cultural Revolution|Big-character posters during the Cultural Revolution]]

==References== ==References==