The important role played by Ye Qun
When examining Lin Biao after the 1950s, one cannot ignore the important role played by his wife Ye Qun in Lin Biao’s political life. Ye Qun was one of the many revolutionary women who went to Yan’an after the outbreak of the War of Resistance and served as the head of the group teaching section at the Chinese Women’s University in Yan’an. During Lin Biao’s order to go to Chongqing, Ye Qun was rectified during the rescue campaign and “urinated and defecated in the washbasin” during the time of censorship, and from then on, she clung to Lin Biao as a big tree and passed through all the party struggles and political campaigns after the founding of the country. In the 1950s, Ye Qun was an extroverted person who knew Russian, was educated, well read and had a high level of understanding. In the 1950s, Ye Qun accompanied her husband for ten years, and the couple both studied “court science” and urged Lin Biao to support Mao.
Ye Qun and Jiang Qing had something in common: they were both ambitious and educated. Ye Qun was originally more “humane” than Jiang Qing and had a better attitude towards his subordinates and the staff of the “Lin Office”, but after getting involved in high-level politics during the Cultural Revolution, he became as arbitrary as Jiang Qing, both full of ideological rhetoric and full of “ideological rhetoric”. She was full of ideological rhetoric and had the attitude of a peasant revolutionary “lady of the village”. Jiang Qing called herself “mother” and Ye Qun called herself “aunt”. The difference with Jiang Qing is that Jiang Qing cannot be Mao’s family, but only Mao’s tool; Ye Qun can be Lin Biao’s family to a considerable extent. Although Ye Qun was often reprimanded by Lin Biao, her self-esteem was greatly hurt, and she had resentment toward Lin Biao, but common interests had bound her and Lin Biao together. Lin Biao had become accustomed to relying on Ye Qun during his ten years of idleness, and also believed in the accuracy of Ye Qun’s judgment ability from her years of experience. Lin Biao’s poor health and mental fatigue required Ye Qun to take care of internal and external affairs.
During the Cultural Revolution Ye Qun basically appeared on major occasions as Lin Biao’s representative, while in reality the role she played was even more important: (a) controlling Lin Biao’s contacts with
(a) Controlling the information that Lin Biao contacted.
(2) To “gatekeep” Lin Biao’s opinions and instructions, and to urge Lin Biao to promote Mao and Jiang Qing.
(3) On behalf of Lin Biao, she directed important personnel matters in the army, and was the “woman in charge” of the Military Affairs Committee.
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Mao made a careful layout of the leadership of the army. In early 1966, Mao ordered Ye Jianying to replace Luo Ruiqing as secretary general of the military commission, a position Ye held until March 1967. In the summer of 1967, when Mao went to the south, Jiang Qing, Lin Biao and Ye Qun suggested the establishment of the “Military Commission”. On September 23, Mao returned to Beijing and nominated Yang Chengwu to join the “guard group”. “In March 1968, the “Yang, Yu and Fu Incident” broke out, and the “Military Commission Office Group” was reorganized. In March 1968, the “Yang, Yu and Fu Incident” broke out, and the “Military Commission Office Group” was reorganized, with Huang Yongsheng in charge and Ye Qun as a member, who hardly attended the meetings of the office group, but still played a key role in it. Mao understood Ye Qun’s role in the Military Commission Office Group, and Ye Qun’s participation in the Military Commission Office Group was Mao’s opinion. Mao did not stop Ye Qun from taking power, but he treated Ye Qun as Lin Biao’s understudy.
The CCP revolution was male-centered, and it was perverse that Ye Qun, who was only a colonel in the army, could participate in the work of the army’s highest leadership body because she was Lin Biao’s wife. However, during the Mao era, especially during the special period of the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1971, it was common for “high cadre wives” to be deeply involved in politics. Because the revolution was gender-neutral, and because of the need for secrecy, the wives of the chiefs were considered politically reliable, so from Jiang Qing on down to provincial military and political leaders, wives serving as secretaries to their husbands were common. The system of having cadres’ wives serve as their husbands’ secretaries or office directors opened the door for cadres’ wives to interfere in politics, and it was up to the chiefs to control the extent of it. This system was still a local phenomenon before the Cultural Revolution (Wang Guangmei once jumped into the political foreground as a special case with serious consequences), and was controlled by Liu, Deng, and Peng Zhen with party discipline, but during the Cultural Revolution, especially after the implementation of national military control in early 1967, it had gotten out of control, and it was not an isolated phenomenon for the wives of top cadres in the army above the level of military regions to participate in politics. Why did Mao not intervene?
The possible reason is: Mao let Jiang Qing out of the mountain, entrusted with important responsibilities, it is no longer good to criticize subordinates to let his wife do the office of the director, Lin Biao is not good health is a fact, can only let Ye Qun on behalf of Lin Biao to participate in the meeting, and Ye Qun is good at reading words, very good at talking, so Mao to Ye Qun has always been not averse to, was Mao called “eight mason”. The woman’s participation in politics is controlled, the nature of the head of the appendage, good or bad are to take the husband is to ask, or the dogs and chickens rise to heaven, or together with the frying pan.
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