Editing Wan Li (section)

==Post-Cultural Revolution==
During the [[Cultural Revolution]], like many of his contemporaries, Wan was purged and sent into solitary interrogation, and then took part in "[[re-education through labour]]".

Wan was restored to his Beijing posts in May 1973. He was named Minister of Railways in January 1975 (to April 1976) and 1st Vice Minister of Light Industry in 1977. In May of the same year, he took over [[Anhui]] Province as CCP 1st Secretary (i.e., provincial party leader) and Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee (i.e., government).<ref name="WW"/>

In Anhui, Wan Li was responsible for the earliest post-Mao [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] reform.  He instituted the [[household-responsibility system]] whereby farmers divided [[People's commune|communal]] lands and assigned them to individual farmers.  Wan faced resistance from conservatives in Beijing who criticized his reforms as not sufficiently socialist or ineffective.  Nevertheless, he pressed on with the reforms.  His six guidelines (the ''Anhui liu tiao'') relaxed controls on trading as well, permitting farmers to sell surplus produce independently. Peasants were allowed to grow vegetables on 3/10th of a ''mu'' and did not have to pay taxes on wheat and oil-bearing plants grown on private plots.<ref>Becker, Jasper, ''Hungry Ghosts: China's Secret Famine,'' John Murray (London: 1996), p. 261.</ref>

The Anhui agricultural reforms were heralded as brilliant innovations by the central government. The system implemented by Wan was followed up with reform programs led by [[Zhao Ziyang]] in Sichuan province.  Along with [[Xi Zhongxun]], [[Hu Yaobang]], and other reformists in charge of implementing wide-ranging reforms, Wan was seen as a pioneer who made significant contributions to the national reform programmes in the 1980s, winning praise from paramount leader [[Deng Xiaoping]]. Wan Li was immortalised by the folk saying "If you want to eat rice, look for Wan Li."{{efn|The original phrase in Chinese was "if you want to eat grains, look for [Zhao] Ziyang, if you want to eat rice, look for Wan Li," (要吃粮，找紫阳；要吃米，找万里)}}