Knowledge (XXG)

16 May Notification

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have never thought that the pamphlets I have written had such magic power. Now that he has taken to inflating them, the whole country will follow suit. It seems exactly like the scene of the marrow-monger wife Wang who boasts of the quality of her goods". "They flatter me by praising me to the stars, things turn to their contrary: the higher one is driven, the harder his fall. I am prepared to fall, shattering all my flesh and bones. It does not matter; matter is not destroyed, it only falls to pieces". Mao agreed to the Central Committee circulating Lin's speech as an official document and commented in his July 1966 letter, "This is the first time in my life that, on an important point, I have given way to another against my better judgment; let us say independently of my will". Mao's assent to the circulation of Lin's speech would ultimately help result in his 1970–71 political battle against Lin.
224:"does its best to lead the movement toward the right". The February Outline had adopted "a confused, contradictory, and hypocritical language obfuscating the bitter class struggle that is being waged in culture and ideology". It also criticized Peng Zhen's promotion of the bourgeois standard of creating art for art's sake, rather than art in service to politics: "The objective of this great struggle is to criticize and repudiate Wu Han and numerous other representatives of the anti-Party and anti-Socialist bourgeoise [ 31: 1342: 296:
Immediately following the notification, Lin Biao gave a speech in which communicated his view that the 16 May Notification was intended to "forestall a counterrevolutionary plot" and to establish the absolute authority of Mao's "thought". Academic Alessandro Russo interprets Lin's speech as prompted
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This implied that there were enemies of the Communist cause within the Party itself: class enemies who "wave the red flag to oppose the red flag". Although relatively few details are known about the meeting where the notification was issued, this paragraph made an enormous impression particularly on
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The representatives of the bourgeois who have infiltrated the Party, the government, the army, and various cultural sectors are a group of counterrevolutionary revisionists. Once the conditions are ripe, they will seize power and transform the proletarian dictatorship into a bourgeois dictatorship.
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to restrict the terms of the debate over the play to censor any argument of contemporary political implications. At his direction, the Group of Five drafted a formal disciplinary code, the "Outline Report on the Current Academic Discussion", also known as the "February Outline"—intended to restrict
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In a July letter to Jiang Qing, circulated publicly only after Lin's death, Mao described Lin's speech as containing "deeply disturbing" ideas. Mao's emphasis on a "struggle against revisionism" did not refer to the risk of a coup, but rather the "peaceful restoration" of capitalism. Mao wrote, "I
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and Mao made major revisions to it, including the addition of the "sleep by our side" paragraph. Mao also wrote the sentence stating, "The objective of this great struggle is to criticize and repudiate Wu Han and numerous other representatives of the anti-Party and anti-Socialist bourgeoisie" Mao
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Mao opposed the February Outline, describing those who "prevent the publication of left-wing essays" as "great scholar-tyrants": a series of top-level party meetings from mid-March to mid-May addressed the controversy following the Outline and Mao response . In late April, the Central Committee
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By voiding the February Outline and dissolving the Group of Five, The 16 May Notification removed the leadership of the party's cultural apparatus and reversed its last political machination. It discussed Peng Zhen's political errors in detail, stating that he had defended Wu Han and prevented
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the terms of the argument and thereby stop further articles comparing the play to contemporary political issues. The February Outline openly threatened the "obstinate Left" with discipline, urging that it bear in mind its "long-term behavior".
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by the institutional uncertainty raised by Mao's warning of secret rightists in the party who are "like Khrushchev", and that Lin was relying on Mao's personal authority to make up for the institutional uncertainty.
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The notification formalized the decisions that had been reached in late April. It was the first major political declaration of the Cultural Revolution and summarized Mao's justifications for the Cultural Revolution.
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by dissolving the top level of the party's cultural apparatus and encouraging mass political movement to oppose rightists within the party. The result was a political victory for
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attempted to protect the author of the play, his subordinate and Beijing Vice Mayor Wu Han, by preventing republication of Yao's critical article. When the intervention of
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decided to revoke the February Outline, disband the Group of Five, disband the Beijing Party Committee which Peng Zhen led, and disavow his handling of the
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meant it was no longer politically feasible to prevent its publication, Peng Zhen used his leading role in the party's cultural apparatus via the
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The notification also ambiguously criticized unspecified rightists in the party who "sleep by our side", and comparing them explicitly to
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found the statement "extremely disturbing", and Zhang Chunqiao said that at the time he did not know who this referred to.
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had distorted the historical record and that the aspect of reversing unjust land verdicts provided a focal point for "
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Some of them we have already identified, but not others. Others, for example individuals like Khruschev [
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Following the ouster of Peng Zhen and his allies, Chen Boda and Jiang Qing became the center of a new
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Political figure and literary critic Yao Wenyuan began a scholarly and political debate about
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Beginning in 1965 and into spring 1966, a political dispute arose within the
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when he wrote an article critical of it at the request of close Mao allies
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Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world: a concise history
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and to restore the criminal rule of the landlords and rich peasants".
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Hunan Provincial Proletarian Revolutionary Great Alliance Committee
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Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend
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chose the deliberately understated name for the document.
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Mao's China and after: a history of the People's Republic
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The play depicts an honest official of the 8: 1013:Sweep Away All Cow Demons and Snake Spirits 27:Document initiating the Cultural Revolution 581: 567: 559: 418:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( 364:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( 283:The notification was initially drafted by 379: 377: 375: 1318:3rd Plenum of the 11th Central Committee 463: 461: 459: 457: 455: 453: 451: 449: 171:opposition" who wanted "to demolish the 84:Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party 447: 445: 443: 441: 439: 437: 435: 433: 431: 429: 317: 261: 505: 503: 411: 357: 7: 712:Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius 271:; 'they sleep by our side' 25: 124:regarding the Beijing Opera play 1341: 1340: 1276:Mao Zedong's cult of personality 1122:Learn from Dazhai in agriculture 652:Down to the Countryside Movement 624:Seven Thousand Cadres Conference 292:Interpretations and consequences 1006:Six Articles of Public Security 1245:Worker-Peasant-Soldier student 1205:Central Case Examination Group 687:One Strike-Three Anti Campaign 330:MacFarquhar, Roderick (2006). 74: 69: 56: 47: 1: 1255:Xiang River Storm and Thunder 1117:Learn from Daqing in industry 992:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 214:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 197:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 153:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 126:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 116:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 93:Hai Rui Dismissed from Office 1072:Continuous Revolution Theory 1062:Cow demons and snake spirits 985:Quotations from Chairman Mao 629:Socialist Education Movement 384:Meisner, Maurice J. 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(2010). 306:Cultural Revolution Group 268: 216:and thereby obscured the 1250:May Seventh Cadre School 1042:Newborn socialist things 978:Bombard the Headquarters 788:Shaoyang County Massacre 722:1975 Banqiao Dam failure 553:Full text in HTML format 1387:May 1966 events in Asia 1220:Revolutionary committee 770:Inner Mongolia incident 737:1976 Tiananmen Incident 707:Black Painting incident 672:February Countercurrent 212:political criticism of 34:The 16 May Notification 1190:May Sixteenth elements 604:Anti-Rightist Campaign 253:Mao's closest allies: 250: 35: 1225:8341 Special Regiment 1132:Five Black Categories 798:Zhao Jianmin Spy Case 732:1976 Nanjing incident 518:Duke University Press 476:Duke University Press 333:Mao's last revolution 33: 1158:Conservative Faction 1087:One Divides into Two 1057:Big-character poster 609:Great Chinese Famine 1372:Cultural Revolution 1137:Five Red Categories 999:May 16 Notification 702:10th Party Congress 590:Cultural Revolution 80:Cultural Revolution 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Index

May 16 Notification

Chinese
pinyin
Cultural Revolution
Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party
Beijing Opera
Hai Rui Dismissed from Office
Mao Zedong
People's Daily
Hai Rui Dismissed from Office
People's Republic of China
Ming Dynasty
Hai Rui
Peng Dehuai
Great Leap Forward
Lushan Conference
Jiang Qing
Zhang Chunqiao
Wu Han
bourgeois
people's communes
Peng Zhen
Zhou Enlai
Group of Five
class struggle
sic
Nikita Khrushchev
sic
Lin Biao

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