Red Guards
The Red Guards were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.
According to a Red Guard leader, the movement's aims were as follows:
Despite meeting with resistance early on, the Red Guards received personal support from Mao, and the movement rapidly grew. The movement in Beijing culminated during the Red August of 1966, which later spread to other areas in mainland China. Mao made use of the group as propaganda and to accomplish goals such as seizing power and destroying symbols of China's pre-communist past, including ancient artifacts and gravesites of notable Chinese figures. Moreover, the government was very permissive of the Red Guards, and even allowed the Red Guards to inflict bodily harm on people viewed as dissidents. The movement quickly grew out of control. Factions within the Red Guards frequently criticized one another showing that divisions amongst each other was a defining feature of the movements development.. The Red Guard had frequently come into conflict with authority and threatening public security until the government made efforts to rein the youths in, with even Mao himself finding the leftist students to have become too radical... The Red Guard groups also suffered from in-fighting as factions developed among them. By the end of 1968, the group as a formal movement had dissolved with many of the red guards sent to rural areas and country side due to the Down to the Countryside Movement.
Origins
The first students to call themselves "Red Guards" in China were from the Tsinghua University High School. The students used the name to sign two big-character posters issued on 25 May – 2 June 1966. The students believed that the criticism of the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office was a political issue and needed greater attention. The group of students – led by Zhang Chengzhi at Tsinghua Middle School and Nie Yuanzi at Peking University – originally wrote the posters as a constructive criticism of Tsinghua University and Peking University's administrations, who were accused of harbouring intellectual elitism and bourgeois tendencies. Most of the early Red Guards came from the Five Red Categories.The Red Guards were denounced as counter-revolutionaries and radicals by the school administration and by fellow students and were forced to secretly meet amongst the ruins of the Old Summer Palace. Nevertheless, Chairman Mao Zedong ordered that the manifesto of the Red Guards be broadcast on national radio and published in the People's Daily newspaper. This action gave the Red Guards political legitimacy, and student groups quickly began to appear across China. By the end of August 1966, almost every Chinese city and a majority of counties had Red Guard activity. Eighty-five percent of counties had local Red Guard activity by October 1966. According to sociologist Andrew G. Walder, "These figures represent a remarkable level of popular political mobilization. At no point in the previous history of the regime were ordinary citizens permitted, much less encouraged, to form independent political organizations."
Due to the factionalism already emerging in the Red Guard movement, President Liu Shaoqi made the decision in early June 1966 to send in Chinese Communist Party work teams. These workgroups were led by Zhang Chunqiao, head of China's Propaganda Department, in an attempt by the Party to keep the movement under control. Rival Red Guard groups led by the sons and daughters of cadres were formed by these work teams to deflect attacks from those in positions of power towards bourgeois elements in society, mainly intellectuals. In addition, these Party-backed rebel groups also attacked students with 'bad' class backgrounds, including children of former landlords and capitalists. These actions were all attempts by the CCP to preserve the existing state government and apparatus.
Mao, concerned that these work teams were hindering the course of the Cultural Revolution, dispatched Chen Boda, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, and others to join the Red Guards and combat the work teams. In July 1966, Mao ordered the removal of the remaining work teams and condemned their 'Fifty Days of White Terror', a label referencing the period of time the work teams were active. The Red Guards were then free to organize without the restrictions of the Party and, within a few weeks, on the encouragement of Mao's supporters, Red Guard groups had appeared in almost every school in China.
Mao had multiple reasons for supporting the Red Guards' activities, with the primary one being his wish to undermine Liu Shaoqi, with whom he grew increasingly distrustful. Furthermore, Mao intended to make the revolutionary ideals more ingrained in the Chinese youth, as a way to harden their spirit and combat traditional scholarly education.
Chiang Kai-Shek believed Mao lost trust in CCP officials and members, Communist Youth League of China members, and even workers, peasants and soldiers, so he had put faith in the students, and made use of the Red Guards to preserve his authority, Chiang also believed Mao started the massive purge among knowledgeable and contributive CCP officials and members and CYLC members in the name of Maoism, let Red Guards replace them to inherit the party.
Role in the Cultural Revolution
Red August
Mao Zedong expressed personal approval and support for the Red Guards in a letter to the Tsinghua University Red Guards on 1 August 1966. During the Red August of Beijing, Mao gave the movement a public boost at a massive rally on 18 August at Tiananmen Square. Mao appeared atop Tiananmen wearing an olive green military uniform, the type favored by Red Guards, but which he had not worn in many years. He personally greeted 1,500 Red Guards and waved to 800,000 Red Guards and onlookers below.The rally was led by Chen Boda and Lin Biao gave a keynote speech. Red Guard leaders, led by Nie Yuanzi, also gave speeches. A high school Red Guard leader, Song Binbin, placed a red armband inscribed with the characters for "Red Guard" on the chairman, who stood for six hours. The 8-18 Rally, as it was known, was the first of eight receptions the Chairman gave to Red Guards in Tiananmen in the fall of 1966. It was this rally that signified the beginning of the Red Guards' involvement in implementing the aims of the Cultural Revolution.
A second rally, held on 31 August, was led by Kang Sheng and Marshal Lin Biao also donned a red arm band. The last rally was held on 26 November 1966. In all, the chairman greeted eleven to twelve million Red Guards, most of whom traveled from afar to attend the rallies including one held on National Day 1966, which included the usual civil-military parade.
During Red August, large number of members of "Five Black Categories" were persecuted and even killed. Mao had originally instructed the People's Liberation Army not to interfere against the Red Guards' violence, by vaguely ordering the army to 'support the left'.
Attacks upon the "Four Olds"
In August 1966, the 11th Plenum of the CCP Central Committee had ratified the 'Sixteen Articles', a document that stated the aims of the Cultural Revolution and the role students would be asked to play in the movement. After the 18 August rally, the Cultural Revolution Group directed the Red Guards to attack the 'Four Olds' of Chinese society. For the rest of the year, Red Guards marched across China in a campaign to eradicate the 'Four Olds'. Old books and art were destroyed, museums were ransacked, and streets were renamed with new revolutionary names, adorned with pictures and the sayings of Mao. Many famous temples, shrines, and other heritage sites in Beijing were attacked. In addition to the destruction of cultural symbols, The Red Guards engaged in physical altercations held against teachers, intellectuals and many others that were labeled as their "enemies". Escalation of this violence began as early as August 1966 and primary records indicate the escalation being reported with the first reported death on the 5th of August 1966..The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked in November 1966 by a team of Red Guards from Beijing Normal University, led by Tan Houlan. The corpse of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng was removed from its grave and hung naked from a tree in front of the palace during the desecration of the cemetery.
Attacks on other cultural and historic sites occurred between 1966 and 1967. One of the greater damages was to the Ming Dynasty Tomb of the Wanli Emperor in which his and the empress' corpses, along with a variety of artifacts from the tomb, were destroyed by student members of the Red Guard. During the assault on Confucius' tombs alone, more than 6,618 historic Chinese artifacts were destroyed in the desire to achieve the goals of the Cultural Revolution.
Individual property was also targeted by Red Guard members if it was considered to represent one of the Four Olds. Commonly, religious texts and figures would be confiscated and burned. In other instances, items of historic importance would be left in place, but defaced, with examples such as Qin Dynasty scrolls having their writings partially removed, and stone and wood carvings having the faces and words carved out of them.
Re-education came alongside the destruction of previous culture and history; throughout the Cultural Revolution schools were a target of Red Guard groups to teach both the new ideas of the Cultural Revolution as well as to point out what ideas represented the previous era idealizing the Four Olds. For example, one student, Mo Bo, described a variety of the Red Guards activities taken to teach the next generation what was no longer the norms. This was done according to Bo with wall posters lining the walls of schools pointing out workers who undertook "bourgeois" lifestyles. These actions inspired other students across China to join the Red Guard as well. One of these very people, Rae Yang, described how these actions inspired students. Through authority figures, such as teachers, using their positions as a form of absolute command rather than as educators, gave students a reason to believe Red Guard messages. In Yang's case it is exemplified through a teacher using a poorly phrased statement as an excuse to shame a student to legitimize the teacher's own position.