Chapter 30 Chapter 29 Criticism of the "Bourgeois Reactionary Line"

After suggestions from the "scholars" of the "Central Cultural Revolution" and Mao Zedong's approval, the new slogan of "thoroughly criticizing the bourgeois reactionary line" was put forward as the "great strategic deployment" of the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". Originally, whether to send a working group was at best a matter of working methods.Since it became a "line"—this "line" was not only "bourgeois" but also "reactionary", it immediately escalated the "mistakes" of Liu and Deng.

※ ※ ※ The order to launch a general attack on Liu and Deng was issued by Lin Biao on October 1, 1966. Since the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong received Red Guards again and again.Tiananmen Square has become a "red ocean".Every time he met, Mao Zedong wore a military uniform, only "waving his giant hand" on the Tiananmen Gate, and did not make a speech.He has been named "Great Teacher, Great Leader, Great Commander, and Great Helmsman", and he became the "Supreme Instructor" as soon as he opened his mouth.Therefore, in public, only the weak "deputy commander-in-chief" Lin Biao who stood closely beside him made speeches with a shrill voice.Lin Biao's speech became a "study document" for the people of the whole country at that time.

On October 1, 1966, Lin Biao delivered a keynote speech at the celebration of the 17th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China held in Tiananmen Square. Usually, when Lin Biao delivered a speech at various meetings, he just asked the secretary to "draw a note" in advance—to write an outline and prepare materials. He liked to speak casually, and even put the outline aside.However, on such a solemn and grand occasion, Lin Biao could only "according to the scriptures" and read the speeches prepared for him by the "scholars". This time, Lin Biao's speech was drafted by Chen Boda and Zhang Chunqiao together.

On the Tiananmen Gate tower, when Lin Biao gave a speech, he stood to the right of Mao Zedong, while Liu Shaoqi stood to the left of Mao Zedong.According to cloud, this is the location that Zhou Enlai painstakingly arranged.Because Liu Shaoqi is the president of the country, and October 1st is the National Day, how can Liu Shaoqi be squeezed into an unobtrusive position?However, placing Liu Shaoqi next to Mao Zedong will inevitably arouse fierce opposition from the "Central Cultural Revolution".Zhou Enlai arranged Soong Ching Ling and Dong Biwu next to Liu Shaoqi. Both Soong Ching Ling and Dong Biwu were Vice Presidents of the People's Republic of China.In this way, the "Central Cultural Revolution" couldn't fault it, and Mao Zedong and Lin Biao also agreed.

The speech read by Lin Biao fiercely attacked Liu Shaoqi who stood on the other side of Mao Zedong.Lin Biao said: "During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the struggle between the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao and the bourgeoisie's opposition to the revolutionary line continued." "The bourgeoisie opposes the revolutionary line" is obviously synonymous with "Liu Shaoqi's line." In order to come up with such a new synonym, Chen Boda and the "scholars" of the "Central Cultural Revolution" took great pains.

Since Mao Zedong wrote "Bombarding the Headquarters", Jiang Qing has made "comments".She said: "Beijing has two headquarters, one representing the proletariat and the other representing the bourgeoisie." Guan Feng also "played" Jiang Qing's words: "The headquarters of the proletariat is the headquarters of Chairman Mao. The headquarters of the bourgeoisie is the headquarters of certain leading comrades in the central government." It goes without saying that Guan Feng The "certain central leadership comrades" referred to are Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

At the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Yao Wenyuan wrote a big-character poster titled "Always Follow Chairman Mao Forward", mentioning the line issue: "What do you mean by bombarding the headquarters? It means bombarding with Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and destroying all bourgeois reactionary ideas and reactionary lines in the headquarters." However, Yao Wenyuan's big-character poster did not make it very clear. As the struggle against the working group deepened, time and time again the struggle between the "two headquarters", the "proletarian headquarters" and the "bourgeois headquarters," was mentioned.

The "struggle between the two lines" was also proposed by the "scholars". One of the "two lines" has long been published in the press, that is, "Chairman Mao's Proletarian Revolutionary Line."So, what is the opposite line called? According to the principle of "duality", Chen Boda drew up a "new term", that is, "bourgeois counter-revolutionary line". When drafting the National Day speech for Lin Biao, Chen Boda included a "new term" in the speech, and Mao Zedong and Lin Biao drew a circle on the speech to indicate that the speech was available.

After reading the speech, Tao Zhu felt that the words "bourgeois counter-revolutionary line" were too harsh, and it was easy to equate those who implemented the "bourgeois counter-revolutionary line" with "counter-revolutionaries" to expand the scope of attack. He suggested to Mao Zedong to add the word "right" to change into "the bourgeoisie against the revolutionary line".Mao Zedong agreed. After Lin Biao read this "new term" on the Tiananmen Gate, that night, when Mao Zedong and his "headquarters" assembled in the Beijing Hall of the Great Hall of the People, Zhang Chunqiao proposed to Mao Zedong: " 'The bourgeoisie opposes the revolutionary line' is grammatically incomprehensible and difficult to pronounce." Mao Zedong replied: "From now on we will mention 'thoroughly criticize the bourgeois reactionary line'."

According to Guan Feng told the author, it was he who proposed to change to the "bourgeois reactionary line", which was approved by Mao Zedong.He interpreted the phrase "from the standpoint of the reactionary bourgeoisie" in Mao Zedong's "Bombarding the Headquarters", which was naturally adopted by Mao Zedong. According to Wang Li's recollection, Zhou Enlai was not there at the time and did not know.Zhou Enlai once raised objections to Mao Zedong for the term "bourgeois reactionary line".Wang Li recalled: The Prime Minister clearly expressed his disapproval of the "reactionary bourgeois line", so he approached the Chairman.Afterwards he told me that he proposed it to the chairman: "Is the term 'reactionary bourgeois line' appropriate? The party has always mentioned left-leaning and right-leaning when it comes to line issues, and there is no such term as reactionary line. ?"

The Chairman replied in English, saying that the Counter-revolutionary Line was originally used, but it was later changed to the Anti-revolutionary Line (against the Revolutionary Line), and that it was better to use the Reactionary Line in the end. Knowing that this was the chairman's proposition, the prime minister said, "I understand." The Prime Minister found Guan Feng again, and Guan Feng explained to him for half an hour.The Premier said that Guan Feng and him mainly talked about the fact that the formulation of the line should be different during the period of the democratic revolution and during the period of the socialist revolution. Afterwards, the Prime Minister spoke according to the chairman's caliber. In fact, the Prime Minister reserved his own different opinions.Under the circumstances at that time, it was impossible for the prime minister to refute the chairman and Guan Feng. After suggestions from the "scholars" of the "Central Cultural Revolution", Mao Zedong approved the "thoroughly criticize the right opportunist line", and according to Mao Zedong's opinion on the evening of October 1, it was changed to "thoroughly criticize the bourgeois reactionary line" as a new slogan. The "great strategic deployment" of the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" was put forward. On October 3rd, the third day after Lin Biao's speech, the editorial of the thirteenth issue of "Red Flag" magazine "Advancing on the Broad Road of Mao Zedong Thought" was published.This editorial was written by Wang Li and Guan Feng, discussed the "Central Cultural Revolution", reviewed by Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, and Zhang Chunqiao, and finalized by Chen Boda. The title was drafted by Chen Boda himself.According to Wang Li's recollection, the first draft of the editorial used "thoroughly criticize the bourgeois reactionary line."For this reason, the editorial was postponed until the evening of October 3 before it was broadcast by the Central People's Broadcasting Station, and it appeared in newspapers on October 4.This editorial issued a new mobilization order to the whole country: "The bourgeois reactionary line must be thoroughly criticized." "Whether or not to criticize the bourgeois reactionary line is the key to whether we can implement the 16 points of the Cultural Revolution and whether we can correctly carry out extensive struggle, criticism and reform. Here, we cannot adopt eclecticism." Just after the editorial was published, on October 6, the "Third Headquarters of the Capital Red Guards" with Kuai Dafu as its "commander" convened 100,000 people to hold the "National Pledge Meeting of Revolutionary Teachers and Students in Beijing to Fiercely Fire Against the Bourgeois Reactionary Line."Originally, whether to send a working group was at best a matter of working methods.Since becoming a "line" --- this "line" is not only "bourgeois" but also "reactionary", it has escalated Liu and Deng's "mistakes" all at once. The slogan of "thoroughly criticize the bourgeois reactionary line" sounded throughout China, and Liu and Deng were facing the crisis of being completely defeated.