A Decade of Upheaval: The Cultural Revolution in Rural China

240 Pages·2021·8.108 MB·English

by  Andrew G. Walder, Dong Guoqiang

a de cade of upheaval
prince ton studies in
cont emporary china
Yu Xie, Series Editor
A De cade of Upheaval: The Cultural Revolution in Rural China, Dong Guoqiang
and Andrew G. Walder
Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs, Slum Clearance, and the
War on Air Pollution, Xuefei Ren
China’s Urban Champions: The Politics of Spatial Development, Kyle A. Jaros
The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China,
Ya- Wen Lei
A De cade of Upheaval
the cultural revolution
in rural china
Dong Guoqiang
Andrew G. Walder
prince ton university press
princet on & oxford
Copyright © 2021 by Prince ton University Press
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contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
1 Prologue 1
2 Factions 19
3 Enter the Army 41
4 Escalation 59
5 Beijing Intervenes 81
6 Forging Order 109
7 Backlash 137
8 The Final Strug gle 156
9 Troubled De cade 177
Chronology 189
Glossary of Names 197
Bibliography 203
Index 219
v

illustrations
Figures
Figure 1. Military command structure of the Xuhai region 17
Figure 2. Command structure of PLA “support the left”
military units 45
Figure 3. Alliances between military units and mass factions 57
Figure 4. Central study classes, 1968–1969 85
Maps
Map 1. China’s Eastern Seaboard 8
Map 2. Jiangsu Province and surroundings 11
Map 3. The Xuhai region 46
Map 4. Feng County and surroundings 90
Photos
Photo graph 1. Zhang Liansheng as a Paolian leader, in Tian anmen
Square, 1968 24
Photo graph 2. Shao Wen, chairman of Feng County Revolutionary
Committee, September 1969 42
Photo graph 3. Rally to celebrate Feng County Revolutionary
Committee, September 1969 112
Photo graph 4. Parade to celebrate founding of Feng County
Revolutionary Committee, September 1969 114
Photo graph 5. Memorial meeting for Mao Zedong, September 18,
1976 168
Photo graph 6. Zhang Liansheng as a medical student, Nanjing, 1979 175
vii
viii illustrations
Tables
Table 1. Standing Committee, Feng County Party Committee (in
rank order), May 1966 14
Table 2. Standing Committee, Feng County Revolutionary
Committee (in rank order), September 1969 112
preface
this book, the first sustained analys is of po litic al conflict during the Cultural
Revolution in a rural Chinese county, yields a number of novel observations.
First, despite its remote and marginal location on the border of several prov-
inces, and despite being one of the poorest and least urbanized places in the
country, Feng County suffered from deep and enduring factional divisions and
violent civil strife. Second, these conflicts survived beyond the imposition of
military control and suppression of rebel organi zations, and factional animosi-
ties endured throughout the Cultural Revolution, to be extinguished only a fter
the death of Mao. Third, military intervention, long understood to have reim-
posed order across China, instead was a catalyst for the formation of factional
warfare and actually served to perpetuate it. Fourth, each twist and turn in
national politics emanating from Beijing over the de cade had a large impact
on the balance of po liti cal forces in the county. Had we thought that these
upheavals were largely concentrated in cities and nearby suburbs, and had we
supposed that the upheavals were limited to the first few years of this de cade,
Feng County’s history challenges what we thought we knew.
The decade-l ong po litic al strugg le that we portray in this book draws on an
unusual level of evidentiary detail. Through contacts cultivated in de pend ently
with networks of now- retired former activists, local officials, and soldiers, and
local collectors of Cultural Revolution memorabilia, we have gained access to
an unusually wide array of documentary sources, as well as interviews with
key participants in the events of the period. The documentary sources include
the flow of directives and notices from authorities in Beijing throughout the
de cade, along with similar directives from Jiangsu provincial authorities in
Nanjing and the prefectural authorities in Xuzhou. In addition, we draw on an
extensive collection of documents and directives from Feng County authori-
ties, beginning with its party committee during the last months before its col-
lapse, and the Feng County Revolutionary Committee a fter its establishment
in 1969. We also draw on internal bulletins and documents issued by a range
ix
x preface
of interim authorities in the county during the long period that it remained
under some form of military control— March 1967 to September 1969.
We supplement t hese streams of official documents with unofficial materi-
als issued by each of the county’s two po liti cal factions. These include hand-
bills and wall posters, selected copies of periodicals, and chronologies of
events. We also draw on a collection of confessions and self- criticisms written
by individuals and by leaders of factions, and several unpublished memoirs
and book drafts compiled by individuals who w ere involved in t hese events or
who w ere tasked by the county’s post- Mao government to compile a chronicle
of the de cade.
Also impor tant are interviews with sixteen former activists and leaders of
both factions, among them students, workers, and cadres. Even more essential
than t hese oral testimonies, however, are the work notebooks and diaries kept
by six individuals who w ere deeply involved in the events of the period. Th ese
detailed notes w ere kept at the time t hese events occurred. Especially valuable
were notes taken during conferences, study classes, and other meetings. Un-
like official documents and materials issued by factions, t hese notebooks and
diaries take us inside some of the most impor tant but other wise inaccessible
meetings of factions, government officials, and military units. They w ere kept
by leaders of both civilian factions, by military officers assigned to the county,
and by individuals who conducted investigations on behalf of the county’s
Revolutionary Committee a fter it was formed in 1969. Preserved over the years
and shared with us, these written sources are even more valuable than oral
reminiscences of the kind that can be elicited in interviews conducted de cades
after the fact. They give accurate chronologies of event sequences, and they
pre sent the words and sentiments of actors as they were originally recorded,
not as they were recalled or reconstructed long afterward. Th ese work note-
books and diaries are useful anchors for interviews with participants, and they
provide interviewees with an opportunity to clarify gaps or ambiguities in the
written rec ord.
All of the sources that we cite in this account are recorded in the list of
primary sources in the bibliography, following a standard alphabetized list of
secondary sources. As a guide to readers in evaluating this documentation, we
have arrayed in chronological order all of the primary materials that we cite in
footnotes. The backgrounds of the individuals who sat for interviews, and
those whose notebooks we draw upon, are listed separately, in alphabetical
order. Interviewees who are listed by name consented to be identified in this
publication; those who did not are listed by number. We also provide a glos-