Chapter 22 Chapter 6 "Ultra-Left Thoughts Must Be Criticized!"—Leading the Struggle to Criticize Ultra-Left Thoughts

As early as the launching stage of the "Cultural Revolution", some healthy forces among the party and the people began to struggle in various forms and limitedly against certain "Left" errors and the extreme practices of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing.However, due to various reasons, these struggles were defeated, resulting in the proliferation of ultra-left thoughts, and the disaster of the "Cultural Revolution" was quickly pushed across the country. In the autumn of 1971, the fifth year after the launch of the "Cultural Revolution", the "September 13" Lin Biao incident, which shocked China and the world, occurred, causing a series of profound changes in China's domestic political situation.These changes had a major impact on the struggle under extremely difficult conditions, and became a historical opportunity for the struggle to criticize the ultra-left ideological trend led by Zhou Enlai around 1972.

The occurrence of the "September 13th" incident greatly shocked the party and the people.The direct manifestation of this vibration is a series of changes in people's thinking and understanding.During the criticism of Lin Biao and the rectification movement, people gradually recognized Lin Biao's true colors as a double-faced and conspirator through a large amount of material and evidence issued by the Party Central Committee, and aroused strong righteous indignation for his crimes of instigating an armed coup and murdering Chairman Mao Zedong; , People feel even more painful the ruthless ridicule and great humiliation given by history.The sudden Lin Biao incident became a turning point in many people's understanding. After that, people were more convinced by the facts, rather than the slogan-style preaching that had been prevalent since the "Cultural Revolution".

The harsh fact of Lin Biao’s self-explosion has broken the stereotypes that have been formed in people’s minds for a long time, especially since the “Cultural Revolution”. . The "Cultural Revolution"—the "top priority" of "anti-revisionism and prevention of revisionism"-has actually begun to shake in people's minds like never before. The Criticism and Rectification Movement under the unified leadership of the Party Central Committee played an important role in exposing and criticizing Lin Biao and his gang.However, because this critical movement avoided the fundamental mistakes of Mao Zedong and the "Cultural Revolution" he unleashed, it could not correctly explain the past history and answer a large number of questions in people's minds.In particular, the propaganda has repeatedly attributed the smashing of the Lin Biao clique to the "great victory" of the "Cultural Revolution", thus covering up the fact that this clique and the ultra-left ideological trend it instigates are the products of the "Cultural Revolution".The sharp opposition between this conclusion and the facts has caused many inextricable contradictions in people's actual thinking and actions.The continuous thinking of trying to correctly answer these contradictions has promoted the further development and deepening of people's understanding that has begun to change.

The occurrence of the Lin Biao incident was also unexpected by Mao Zedong himself. During the "Cultural Revolution", it is true that Mao Zedong was dissatisfied with some extreme remarks and actions of Lin Biao (such as some implicit criticisms of Lin Biao), but it is also true that he reused Lin Biao and his group.As a result, Mao Zedong had to reconsider the correctness of some of the practices he had taken in the past because of his trust in Lin Biao, and then made limited adjustments to certain policies since the "Cultural Revolution". Before the "September 13th" incident, that is, during the Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Party in 1970, Mao Zedong began to expose and criticize Chen Boda, and began to criticize the mistakes of Lin Biao and his group.Afterwards, Mao Zedong expressed that he was "disgusted" by the cult of personality, and that he was "dissatisfied" with the widespread lying and abuse of "captives" during the "Cultural Revolution", which showed that Mao Zedong was already aware of some mistakes in the "Cultural Revolution". As we know, there is a "precursor" of looseness.After the Lin Biao incident, from October 1971 to the beginning of the following year, Mao Zedong focused on criticizing Lin Biao in a series of speeches, and at the same time affirmed the old comrades who were attacked and persecuted by Lin Biao and his gang.

On October 4, 1971, when he received members of the Military Commission’s office meeting, he criticized Lin Biao’s formalism and the so-called “three criteria” for selecting cadres. "Give prominence to politics", and these practices were also affirmed by Mao Zedong himself in the past.Later, Mao expressed objection to Lin Biao's advocacy and the "closely follow" and other formulations that were popular during the "Cultural Revolution".On November 14 of the same year, Mao Zedong personally rehabilitated the so-called "February Adverse Current", arguing that the nature of "February Adverse Current" was that the old comrades "dealed with Lin Biao, Chen Boda, Wang, Guan, and Qi". At the beginning of January 1972, Mao Zedong further denied the so-called "February countercurrent" in his conversation with Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying, and personally attended Chen Yi's memorial service.In this way, Mao Zedong showed not only internally, but also publicly that he corrected certain mistakes in the "Cultural Revolution".

The "relaxation" that Mao Zedong made in the short few months after the Lin Biao incident was actually an informal answer to the various questions that existed in people's minds due to the Lin Biao incident.However, it should be pointed out that, just as Mao Zedong corrected some specific mistakes in the "Great Leap Forward" from the winter of 1958 to the spring of 1959, but did not fundamentally correct the guiding ideology of the "Left", although Mao Zedong corrected some of the "Cultural Revolution" He was wrong, but he did not really give up the guiding ideology of the "Cultural Revolution", and even to some extent believed more firmly in the necessity of a "Great Revolution" such as "taking class struggle as the key link" and carrying out anti-revision and prevention of revisionism.

The most representative example is Mao Zedong's explanation of "February countercurrent".In judging the nature of this major incident, he only talked about the fact that the old comrades were fighting against Lin Biao and his gang, but did not mention the fact that the old comrades were fighting against Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao and others at the same time. The fundamental nature of this struggle against the "Cultural Revolution".Regarding this incident, the Twelfth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party and the Ninth National Congress of the Party defined it as "opposing the decision of the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee, opposing the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and opposing Chairman Mao as the leader and Vice-Chairman Lin as the vice-chairman." The Proletarian Headquarters", "overturn the verdict on the bourgeois headquarters headed by Liu Shaoqi who has been overthrown, and overturn the verdict on the bourgeois reactionary line that has been criticized by the masses."Therefore, if we truly rehabilitate the "February Adverse Current", that is, affirm the correctness of this struggle, then we also need to make a resolution at the official party meeting to overturn the wrong conclusions made in the past.It is a pity that it was impossible for Mao Zedong to understand it in this way at the time. Until his death, the Party Central Committee never made any resolution to officially rehabilitate the so-called "February Adverse Current".

Historical development shows that Mao Zedong’s cognition of always insisting that the “Cultural Revolution” was basically correct (that is, the so-called “seven points of achievement, three points of error”) brought an extremely important and irresistible negative impact on the later struggles of the party and the people. As early as the "Cultural Revolution" was launched, the Jiang Qing and Lin Biao groups began to collude. After the "Cultural Revolution" was launched, these two groups strengthened their respective forces in the turmoil of "overthrowing everything and all-out civil war", and set out to achieve the same goal of usurping the supreme power of the party and the state.It is also true that apart from the side of collusion and utilization among them, there must also be another side of contradiction and struggle.

The demise of Lin Biao's group undoubtedly removed a direct threat to Jiang Qing's clique, and its power will inevitably be strengthened by taking the opportunity, but this is only one aspect of the problem.The subsequent criticism of Lin Biao created a new threat to the Jiang Qing clique.For this reason, during the Criticism and Rectification Movement (although this movement avoided the "Cultural Revolution" and Mao Zedong's mistakes), Jiang Qing and his gang swept away the prestige of the former "Central Cultural Revolution Group" and began to "retreat" quietly.This is because Jiang Qing and his gang were unable to erase a large number of facts that they colluded with and used the Lin Biao clique during the "Cultural Revolution", and they were even more unable to theoretically distinguish their "very similar" ultra-left features and consistent tactics from Lin Biao's and his clique. .In particular, the common nature of these two groups made it necessary for them to place themselves in opposition to the party and the people.The more the Party and the people criticized Lin Biao and his gang for their crimes during the "Cultural Revolution," the more clearly the reactionary features of Jiang Qing and his gang were exposed.

People have seen that the main members of the Jiang Qing clique, who started their careers by fanning the flames and rebelling against revolutionary public opinion, suddenly seldom showed up for a long time after the Lin Biao incident, let alone an article like the early stage of the "Cultural Revolution" criticizing the so-called Menacing chunks of "gangsters," "black lines."Jiang Qing, the leading figure of this group, also tried her best to express her "struggle" with Lin Biao on some occasions after "September 13", pretending to be a victim of Lin Biao's gang and a "hero" against Lin Biao.These extraordinary performances of the Jiang Qing clique not only revealed that they shared the same reactionary nature as the Lin Biao clique, but also reflected from one aspect the denial and impact of the Lin Biao incident on the "Cultural Revolution".

Zhou Enlai was in a difficult situation during the "Cultural Revolution": he had to maintain and express support for the "Cultural Revolution" launched by Mao Zedong in general, but also correct many extreme practices of the "Cultural Revolution" in practical work, and strive to reduce "Left" loss due to error.During the movement, because a large number of party, government, and military leaders were overthrown or sidelined, and the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing cliques, which started their careers in the "Cultural Revolution", took advantage of Mao Zedong's mistakes to usurp more and more power. The healthy forces within the party are even weaker. The demise of the Lin Biao Group brought about significant changes in the political situation: Mao Zedong adjusted his policies within a limited range, and the Jiang Qing Group also had to restrain itself.What is especially important is that the broad masses of the people have begun to wake up after suffering from the turmoil. The hearts of the party and the people are eager for stability and unity, eager to increase production and improve their lives. It was against this background that Zhou Enlai appeared in front of hundreds of millions of people with a new look.If it is said that in the Lin Biao incident, people were deeply grateful for Mao Zedong because he was spared from being murdered by Lin Biao, then, for Zhou Enlai, it was more of a spontaneous respect and gratitude.In people's minds, Zhou Enlai's image is taller than ever before.His loyalty to the leader is not in his words, but in his actions.People have seen that at an important historical juncture that determines the fate of the party and the country, only Zhou Enlai can truly assist and protect Mao Zedong.In contrast, Jiang Qing and his gang, who called themselves "anti-Lin heroes," did nothing. Mao Zedong naturally saw this more clearly than anyone else. After "September 13th", he decided that Zhou Enlai would preside over the daily work of the Party Central Committee, and hand over the important power of the party, government and army to Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying and others.In this way, the most important change occurred in the balance of forces at the top of the party since the "Cultural Revolution", and the healthy forces within the party were greatly strengthened, making it possible for Zhou Enlai and others to openly and actively correct the "Left "A basic condition of the error. In short, the series of changes in the domestic political situation after the "September 13th" incident are an inevitable reflection of the objective failure of the "Cultural Revolution" theory and practice.The healthy forces within the party represented by Zhou Enlai began to correct the mistakes in the "Cultural Revolution" and put forward criticism of the ultra-left trend of thought, which was not only the trend of the times, but also the aspiration of the people.The difficult and tortuous struggle between the Party and the people during the "Cultural Revolution" opened a new chapter.