After the outbreak of the full-scale war against Japan, the CCP took the opportunity to develop and strengthen itself under the guise of resisting Japan, and never forgot to oppose Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang. In addition to the many measures taken militarily, politically and economically, ideologically, Mao Zedong personally launched and led the Yan’an Rectification Movement and initially established his absolute leadership authority.
About the Yan’an Rectification Movement, “How the Red Sun Rises: The History of the Yan’an Rectification Movement” (hereinafter referred to as “Red Sun”) written by Professor Gao Hua of the Department of History of Nanjing University in 2000 and “Notes on Party History” written by He Fang, an expert in Party history of the Communist Party, have already given a detailed account and analysis. This article refers to the research results of both of them.
Origin of the Rectification Movement
The Rectification Movement originated from Mao Zedong’s report “Transforming Our Learning” given at a meeting of cadres in Yan’an in May 1941. In September of the same year, the CPC Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo and decided to launch a Party-wide ideological revolution and to solve the problem of combining theory and practice.
On February 1, 1942, Mao gave a report on “Rectifying the Party Style” at the opening ceremony of the Central Party School in Yan’an, followed by a report on “Opposing the Eight Party Stances” at the Yan’an cadres’ meeting, and the rectification campaign of the CPC officially began. on April 3, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee issued a decision on discussing the Central Committee’s decision and Comrade Mao Zedong’s report on rectifying the three styles in Yan’an.
In the spring of 1943, the review of cadres was transferred to the stage of the rectification campaign, which was basically completed in the summer of the same year in the Shaanxi-Ganjiang-Ningxia border area and the liberated areas in North and Central China, where the rectification campaign was mostly combined with the review of cadres. in the summer of 1943, the rectification campaign was initially completed.
According to He Fang, the “Rectification” was in fact an attempt to turn Yan’an and all Party cadres into tame tools of leader worship. This was also true, as Mao wanted to establish his own ideological system through the campaign, i.e., to establish a “practical first” viewpoint, and all Marxist-Leninist books that did not help the CCP to seize power were called “dogmas”. To purge the influence of the ideology of freedom, democracy and emancipation of individuality among the intellectuals in the Party, and to establish the concepts of “supremacy of the leader”, “supremacy of the collective” and “insignificance of the individual”. Establish the concept that “the peasants are the main force of the Chinese revolution”. Using both probationary and violent means to cultivate loyal CCP members and organizations.
Mao’s rogue tactics in the Rectification Movement
In order to achieve his own goals, Mao did his best in the Rectification Movement, and even used some rogue tactics, such as blatantly falsifying the Party’s history, deleting words that tarnished his image, such as those praising “Chairman Jiang”; using rogue language to criticize other CCP leaders and intellectuals, such as Wang Ming and Zhang Wentian, who had stayed in the Soviet Union, calling them “fools worse than pigs”.
Mao’s “luring snakes out of holes” without regard to political ethics was used again and again in later campaigns. The so-called “lure the snake out of the hole” is to encourage people to express their opinions, and then knock them down. For example, during the Rectification Movement, Wang Shimi published “Wild Lilies”, in which he criticized the hierarchy in Yan’an, such as “clothes are divided into three colors and Food is divided into five classes”; in addition, Wang Shimi also pointed the finger at his top boss, Luo Mai, the leader of the Institute, and wrote “My Criticism of Comrade Luo Mai’s Speech at the Mobilization Meeting for Rectification and Inspection of Workers” and “Two Rules of Zero Feeling The article was not anonymous.
Wang Shimi’s articles were a sensation in Yan’an, and he was soon characterized as a “counter-revolutionary Trotskyist spy”, a “member of the anti-Party Five”, and a “covert Kuomintang agent”. He was persecuted during the “interrogation” process. Writer Xiao Jun had asked Mao to send Wang Shiwei to jail lightly, but Mao did not let him care, saying that his “problem is complex and not a general ideological error.
On April 1, 1943, Kang Sheng, who was in charge of the “interrogation of the cadres”, ordered Wang Shimi’s formal arrest, and in 1946, when the CCP rehabilitated most of those criticized during the “interrogation of the cadres” campaign, the final conclusion against Wang Shimi was still “In 1947, Wang Shimi was secretly killed and buried in a dry well. In later campaigns such as the “Anti-Rightist” campaign, none of those who were as frankly critical of the CCP as Wang Shimi ended up well.
The horror of the Rectification Movement
How horrible was the Rectification Movement? The book “Red Sun” reveals many materials. Just a few paragraphs are selected.
“In December 1942, the autumn night in Yan’an was already a bit chilly, but the kiln was brightly lit. …… Batches of young foreign intellectuals were being rescued …… Subjects of suspicion, with slightly complicated histories and unclear social connections, were being gathered up one by one and sent to the anti-trial organs for examination… …After April 10, 1943, the interrogation of stem from internal to open, a mass confession campaign …… secret agents were found out one by one, it can be said to have reached the point of grass. And comrades from the field also gradually everyone is in danger …… Some units rescued more than 90% of their members, leaving normal work at a standstill ……”
“Under the influence of Kang Sheng’s report on rescuing the lost …… began the phenomenon of serious forced confessions and a wide range of means. Means one: subjective assumptions, referring to deer as horses; means two, deception and intimidation, fraudulent confessions; means three, torture, torture to extract confessions …… According to the minutes of an expanded meeting of the county party committee, the county party secretary and the district party secretary have beaten people. The county party secretary beat people about 17 times, 91 people who had been beaten by county and district leaders, and 29 people who were privately imprisoned. …… According to the recollection of Comrade Chen Yuanfang, who was the United Front Work Minister of Jingbian County at the Time, ‘There were mental and physical forced confessions. The mental and physical torture sometimes crossed over and sometimes went hand in hand. The mental one was to talk to the censored person, exert all kinds of pressure, threaten, and even induce a confession. For example, they admit that they can wear big red flowers, eat good food, retain their party membership, etc. The physical ones are wheel warfare, sitting on a small stool, five flowers tied up, fake shooting, etc. …….'”
“According to the statistics of a county in the Guanzhong sub-district, they have used twenty-four kinds of physical torture such as wheel warfare, pressing the bar, slapping, lifting the air to fall to the ground. The Yan’an Youth Theater tied and hung and tortured alive to death in order to force a man driving a large cart to admit he was a secret agent …… 50 or 60 people died by suicide in Yan’an alone ……”
“According to the then Liberation Daily, more than 160 people in the Sui Division had come to their senses and repented, more than 280 people had confessed automatically at the conference, and more than 190 people had been denounced. …… Northwest Public School more than 500 people, only 20 people were not rescued, 96% of them were spies …… rescue campaign caused great harm …… normal work order was disrupted …… caused a large number of unjust and false cases …… some people could not stand the torture of wrongdoing and committed suicide …… caused mutual suspicion and everyone was in danger, which left deep trauma in the spirit ……”
It is said that at that time, the large Yan’an city, at night not a sound can be heard, completely into a horror, silence.
The Rectification Movement Accumulates Experience of Communist Party Rectification
Through the Rectification Movement, people who disagreed with Mao, such as Zhang Wentian and Wang Ming, were purged and Mao initially established his authority.
In addition, the Rectification Movement also resulted in a large number of wrongful killings of innocent people for which no exact statistics are available to date. Wang Ming, who later fled to the Soviet Union, in his book Fifty Years of Communist Party, referred to the Yan’an Rectification Movement as a “rehearsal” for the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966. However, the difference between the two is that the Cultural Revolution was a peaceful period free from external and internal troubles, while the Yan’an rectification was a time of national resistance and national survival. The reason why the Chinese Communist Party had the audacity to rectify the situation and to create injustice at a time of national calamity was, in the final analysis, because it did not resist the war and was the result of false resistance.
In addition to the initial establishment of his authority, Mao also accumulated nasty experience for later control of the state, cadres and people, such as control of the media, control of the people’s thinking; control of cadres to make them obey the leader; construction of a complete pattern of political campaigns, such as “luring snakes out of holes”, “starting another stove”, and taking drastic measures to apologize after achieving the goal.
All of these tactics and experiences have been used continuously, and even more so, in the more than 60 years of the CCP’s authoritarian rule. But what is even more tragic is that the CCP’s oppressive rule and foolish propaganda have made the Chinese people more and more numb and unaware of their miserable situation.
The beginning of the worship of Mao
Along with the establishment of Mao’s authority, shouting long live Mao in Yan’an, putting various titles on Mao’s head, and singing the newly adapted “The East is Red” became a ritual that had to be observed and performed even though it was not explicitly stated, and eventually even reached the level of religious fanaticism.
According to Li Xuefeng’s recollection, Peng Zhen was the first person to shout “long live” to Mao in Yan’an. This is entirely possible in light of Peng Zhen’s position at the time and his subsequent promotion. At that time, Peng Zhen presided over the Central Party School, concentrating one-sixth of the cadres in Yan’an, including a large number of senior cadres and cultural people, as long as Peng Zhen’s arm a call, the organs of the school is bound to follow suit. The few who did not agree to shout Mao “long live” such as Peng Dehuai, Zhang Wentian, etc., naturally incurred Mao’s grudge. There is an example to show that not shouting or shouting “long live” less is also a sin. For example, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Wang Zhen of the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation and Chen Manyuan fought a war of big-character posters, and Wang Zhen criticized that one of Chen Manyuan’s sins was that he seldom or even did not shout “long live Mao” in meetings, while he did so frequently.
At the same time as shouting “long live”, there are various titles for Mao Zedong. Such as “the great revolutionary helmsman”, “not only the greatest revolutionary and statesman, but also the greatest theoretician and scientist that China has ever had”, “the Chinese people have their own greatest leader that they have not had since ancient times”, “the greatest leader that the Chinese people have ever had”. The Chinese people have the greatest leader they have ever had since ancient times”, and “the three words Mao Zedong have become the banner not only for the Chinese people but also for the liberation of all the peoples in the East”, etc. Mao accepted them all frankly. Compared with Lin Biao’s “Four Greatnesses” during the Cultural Revolution, the top officials of the Communist Party at this time were no less fulsome in their compliments to Mao.
The tune of “The East is Red” is a folk song from northern Shaanxi
In addition to shouting “long live” and sticking meaty words on Mao’s head, this was also the time when “Dongfang Hong” became a household name. In fact, the tune of “Dongfang Hong” is based on the northern Shaanxi love song “Riding the White Horse,” which was adapted from the century-old folk song “Sesame Oil” from northwest Shanxi.
The lyrics of “Sesame Oil” consist of six stanzas, the main meaning of which is: Sesame oil, cabbage heart, to eat bean curd twitching, three days without seeing a person, Hul Hi Yo, my three brothers ah …… In 1938, a literary person named An Bo of the Red Army Drama Society of the Communist Party of China changed it into a love song of the war, the main meaning of which is: riding a white horse, running the beach, you do not have a wife and aunt ah I No man, we are bundled into a dozen garlic, hoo-er hi-yo, born in the earth to rot in the earth. The third brother has eaten the food of the Eight Route Army, he wants to go Home to see the girl, and he can’t even care about fighting The Japanese!
It is obvious that neither “Sesame Oil” nor “Riding the White Horse” is divorced from the vernacular background of the time, but the emergence of “The East is Red” is closely linked to the personal worship of Mao.
In the first half of 1943, during the Rectification Period, a teacher named Li Jinqi, who taught in an elementary school, refilled three stanzas of “Riding the White Horse” and renamed it “Dongfang Hong”, and in 1944 the poet Gongmu adapted the second and third stanzas to their present form.
Promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, “Dongfang Hong” reached its peak after 1949: not only did a large dance epic “Dongfang Hong” appear, but the whole country was “red” during the Cultural Revolution. Ironically, after 1949, when the CCP’s literary and art groups performed abroad, they often sang “The East is Red” first and “The International Anthem” last; they sang that Mao was the Red Sun, “the great savior of the people,” and then sang, “There has never been any savior, it’s all up to you to save yourself. ” Such self-contradiction, but the Chinese Communist Party is decades never feel embarrassed.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, the Yan’an Rectification Movement not only established Mao’s ideological authority, but also accumulated more experience for the CCP in rectifying people, and its means were repeatedly used in the campaigns launched by the CCP later. The “East is Red”, a folk ditty, continues to poison the world even after the death of the “Red Sun”, which had brutalized countless Chinese people, and has not yet stopped.
Recent Comments