Four Olds
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The Four Olds (Template:Zh) refer to categories used by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution to characterize elements of Chinese culture prior to the Chinese Communist Revolution that they were attempting to destroy. The Four Olds were 'old ideas', 'old culture', 'old customs', and 'old habits'.Template:Efn<ref name="Spence">Template:Cite book</ref> During the Red August of 1966, shortly after the onset of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards' campaign to destroy the Four Olds began amid the massacres being carried out in Beijing.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Law">Template:Cite book</ref>
TerminologyEdit
The term "Four Olds" first appeared on 1 June 1966, in Chen Boda's People's Daily editorial, "Sweep Away All Cow Demons and Snake Spirits", where the Old Things were described as anti-proletarian, "fostered by the exploiting classes, [and to] have poisoned the minds of the people for thousands of years".<ref name="Li">Template:Cite book</ref> However, which customs, cultures, habits, and ideas specifically constituted the "Four Olds" were never clearly defined.<ref name="Lu" />
On 8 August, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party used the term at its 8th National Congress. The term was endorsed on 18 August by Lin Biao at a mass rally, and from there it spread to Red Flag magazine, as well as to Red Guard publications.<ref name="Lu">Template:Cite book</ref>
Calls to destroy the "Four Olds" usually did not appear in isolation, but were contrasted with the hope of building the "Four News" (new customs, new culture, new habits, new ideas).<ref name="Lu"/> Newborn socialist things were said to struggle against the Four Olds.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The idea that Chinese culture was responsible for China's economic backwardness and needed to be reformed had some precedent in the May Fourth Movement (1919), and was also encouraged by colonial authorities during the Second Sino-Japanese War.<ref name="Gao">Template:Cite book</ref>
Campaign to destroy the Four OldsEdit
The campaign to Destroy the Four Olds and Cultivate the Four News (Template:Zh) began in Beijing on 19 August during the "Red August".<ref name="Li"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Academic Alessandro Russo writes that the destruction of the Four Olds was an ambiguous campaign from the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party.<ref name=":0" /> He argues that in a time of increasing political pluralization, the Party sought to channel student activism towards obvious class enemies and less relevant objectives to make it easier for the Party to contain the situation.<ref name=":0" />
The "re-naming" campaignEdit
Across China, signs bearing old road names were vandalized.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal Template:Creative Commons text attribution notice</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> The first things to change were the names of streets and stores: "Blue Sky Clothes Store" to "Defending Mao Zedong Clothes Store", "Cai E Road" to "Red Guards Road", and so forth.
In Beijing, the name of the road where the embassy of the Soviet Union was stationed was changed to "Anti-revisionism Road."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The Peking Union Medical College Hospital, founded in 1921 by the Rockefeller Foundation, was renamed "Anti-Imperialist Hospital".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In Huangpu district of Shanghai, the city's commercial center, Red Guards tore down 93 percent of shop signboards (2,166 of 2,328), and renamed restaurants, schools and hospitals.<ref name=":1" /> Red Guards also took Nanjing Road as their revolutionary headquarters in Shanghai, renaming it the "Anti-Imperialism Street".<ref name=":1" />
Many people across China also changed their given names to revolutionary slogans, such as Zhihong ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "Determined Red"), Jige ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "Following the Revolution") and Weidong (卫东, "Safeguard the Orient or Protect Mao").<ref name="Lu" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Public sitesEdit
The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked in November 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, when it was visited and vandalized by a team of Red Guards from Beijing Normal University, led by Tan Houlan.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Asiaweek, Volume 10</ref> The corpse of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng (a descendant of Confucius) was removed from its grave and hung naked from a tree in front of the palace during the desecration of the cemetery in the Cultural Revolution.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Chinese government stopped short of endorsing the physical destruction of products. In fact, the government protected significant archaeological discoveries made during the Cultural Revolution, such as the Mawangdui, the Leshan Giant Buddha and the Terracotta Army.<ref name="Gao" /> Upon learning that Red Guards were approaching the Forbidden City, Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the gates shut immediately and deployed the People's Liberation Army against the Red Guards. After this incident, Zhou attempted to create a more peaceful code of conduct for the Red Guards, with the support of cadres Tao Zhu, Li Fuchuan, and Chen Yi. This plan was foiled by the ultra-leftists Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, and Zhang Chunqiao. Although many of Zhou's other initiatives to stem the destruction failed because of their or Mao's own opposition, he did succeed in preventing Beijing from being renamed "East Is Red City" and the Chinese guardian lions in front of Tian'anmen Square from being replaced with statues of Mao.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In later stages of the campaign, examples of Chinese architecture were destroyed, classical literature and Chinese paintings were torn apart, and Chinese temples were desecrated.<ref name="Lu" />
Personal harassment and private propertiesEdit
Other manifestations of the Red Guard campaign included giving speeches, posting big-character posters, and harassment of people, such as intellectuals,<ref name="Wen">Wen, Chihua. Madsen, Richard P. [1995] (1995). The Red Mirror: Children of China's Cultural Revolution. Westview Press. Template:ISBN</ref> who defiantly demonstrated the Four Olds.<ref name="Li" /> This escalated from accosting people in the streets due to their dress or hairstyle, to widespread murder, assault, arbitrary detention and the ransacking of private homes.<ref name=":1" /> Red Guards broke into the homes of the wealthy and destroyed paintings, books, and furniture; all were items that they viewed as part of the Four Olds.<ref name="Kort">Template:Cite book</ref>
Many artists and other cultural professionals were persecuted by vigilantes, although some cultural advances came about because of the period, including the integration of "new" western instruments and ballet into Peking opera.Template:Citation needed
Attacks on ethnic minorities and book burningsEdit
Languages and customs of ethnic minorities in China were labeled as part of the Four Olds and texts in ethnic languages were burned.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Bilingual education was suppressed.<ref name=":4" />
GalleryEdit
- Statue of Emperor - Ming Tombs.jpg
This statue of the Yongle Emperor was originally carved in stone, and was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution; a metal replica is in its place
- Huineng.jpg
The remains of the 8th century Buddhist monk Huineng were attacked during the Cultural Revolution
- Kong Yanjin - looking north - P1060200.JPG
The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked by Red Guards in November 1966<ref name="Asiaweek, Volume 10">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Jeni Hung">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
- SuzhouGardenFrieze.jpg
A frieze damaged during the Cultural Revolution, originally from a garden house of a rich imperial official in Suzhou
- 北平「協和醫院」被「紅衛兵」改為「反帝醫院」.jpg
The Peking Union Medical College Hospital was renamed "Anti-Imperialist Hospital" by Red Guards
- Trip to Ningxia and Gansu.jpg
A damaged statue of the Buddha
AftermathEdit
Appraisal of damageEdit
No official statistics have ever been produced by the Communist party in terms of reporting the actual cost of damage. By 1978, many stories of death and destruction caused by the Cultural Revolution had leaked out of China and became known worldwide.<ref>Roberts, Richard H. [1995] (1995). Religion and the Transformations of Capitalism. Routledge publishing. Template:ISBN</ref>
PreservationEdit
During and after the Cultural Revolution, efforts were made to protect Chinese cultural artifacts. Shanghai officials intervened in Red Guard house searches, relocating items to safety and documenting those that couldn't be moved for future restoration.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Post-Cultural Revolution, there was a renewed effort to preserve cultural heritage, with initiatives like the Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Program and the establishment of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to protect and manage historical sites and artifacts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
- 1989 Mao portrait vandalism incident, vandalism of the portrait of Mao Zedong
- Burning of books and burying of scholars, 3rd century BC China
- Destruction of the Goddess of Democracy, as part of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
- List of campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Template:Marxist & Communist phraseology Template:Religious persecution Template:Cultural RevolutionTemplate:Mao ZedongTemplate:Destroyed heritage