To Rebel Is Justified: The Cultural Revolution and the End of Mao, 1962–1976

Central interpretation

Between 1962 and 1976 Mao Zedong turned the revolution against the party that had made it. Convinced after the famine that Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and the "organization men" were steering China toward Soviet-style revisionism, he went around the party: through a small group of loyalists that answered to him alone, through millions of teenage Red Guards licensed to rebel, and through a cult of personality that Lin Biao built in the army. The first phase, 1966–1968, destroyed the party leadership, closed the schools, and ended in factional warfare that only the army could stop. The second phase restored order by force: the Red Guards were sent to the villages, army-led revolutionary committees replaced the party, and the deadliest killing of the whole decade took place in their campaigns of 1968–1971. Lin Biao's death in 1971 broke the spell of the cult. The deaths of Zhou Enlai and Mao in 1976, with the Tangshan earthquake between them, opened the way for Hua Guofeng to arrest the Gang of Four and, within two years, for Deng Xiaoping to take power and begin undoing much of what Mao had built.

The story in three parts, matching Review Questions 10, 11 and 12, plus the Pierian Spring

Mao Turns on His Party (Q10): Liu and Deng after the famine, the Hai Rui play, the Small Group, the Red Guards and the rallies, the little red book, the "four olds," and the fall of Liu Shaoqi.
Order Under the Army (Q11): power seizures and factional war, Wuhan, the end of the Red Guards and the sent-down youth, the revolutionary committees, the model operas, and the death of Lin Biao.
1976 (Q12): Nixon in Beijing and Deng's return, the death of Zhou and the Tiananmen mourning, Tangshan, the death of Mao, the arrest of the Gang of Four, and China in 1976.
Pierian Spring (depth for Q10 and Q12): the Red Guard poster in the textbook's Documents box, the party's 1981 verdict on Mao, and Ebrey's comparison of Mao with Zhu Yuanzhang.

How to use this essay

This essay is the background behind the deck To Rebel Is Justified (FA26), the last of the three Chapter 27 lectures and the last lecture of the course. Like Lectures 1 and 2, the deck is built for online independent study: the Open Study Buddy button (or the N key) shows each slide's Study Buddy notes on the slide, and each segment ends with an ungraded click-to-reveal self-check before its Review Question. Slide letters refer to the permanent IDs in the lower-left corner of the deck. The slides teach the corrected history wherever Ebrey's details on pp. 484–489 need it; the student notes do not flag the discrepancies, and this essay's last section lists every one, with its source. There is no primary-source assignment for this chapter; the Pierian Spring uses the poster printed in the textbook's own Documents box. Two slides (x and z) use AI-generated illustrations of the mourning of 1976, approved 2026-10-27, because no freely licensed photographs of those scenes exist; every other image is a real photograph or painting, and two Ming portraits are reused from the Chapter 14 deck.

Part I: Mao Turns on His Party (Review Question 10)

Textbook anchor: Ebrey, p. 484 (Q10: "In cities large and small...").

The lecture opens where Lecture 2 ended, with the famine, the split with Moscow and Mao's fear of "revisionism" (slide c). Slide e sets up the conflict. Liu Shaoqi had replaced Mao as head of state in April 1959, and with Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun and Zhou Enlai he led the recovery of 1961–1965 with private plots, rural markets and material incentives. Mao, by Ebrey's account "more and more isolated," read the recovery as the road back to capitalism, and when Liu and Deng softened the directives of his Socialist Education campaign in 1964–1965 he concluded that the revisionists were inside the leadership itself (p. 484).

Slide f follows the first shot. Wu Han, the historian and vice-mayor of Beijing, wrote Hai Rui Dismissed from Office in 1960–1961 at a time when Mao himself had praised the Ming official's courage; the deck links back to Hai Rui in the Chapter 14 lecture. On 10 November 1965 Yao Wenyuan's article in a Shanghai paper, prepared with Jiang Qing, charged that the play defended Peng Dehuai. The Beijing mayor Peng Zhen tried to keep the dispute academic and was purged in May 1966. On 25 May Nie Yuanzi and other radicals put up their big-character poster against the leaders of Peking University, which Mao had broadcast nationally on 1 June.¹

Slide g corrects Ebrey on the Cultural Revolution Small Group: it was formed in May 1966 with Chen Boda, Mao's former secretary, as head, Kang Sheng as adviser and Jiang Qing as first deputy; she became acting head only from late August. Liu and Deng, left in charge in Beijing in June and July, sent work teams into the schools as the party had done in 1957; Mao returned in July, called the work teams "suppression," and at the Eleventh Plenum in August had Liu demoted and Lin Biao made his sole vice-chairman. Slide h presents the Red Guards: classes were suspended in June 1966; between 18 August and 26 November Mao reviewed about twelve million young people at eight rallies in Tiananmen Square; free rail travel carried the movement across the country. The slogan "to rebel is justified" came from a 1939 speech of Mao's that he endorsed in his letter of 1 August 1966 to the Red Guards of the middle school attached to Tsinghua University; "Bombard the Headquarters" was Mao's own big-character poster of 5 August. Ebrey compresses both into words spoken at the rallies, where Mao in fact said very little; the slide says he reviewed them in uniform and that the slogan was everywhere.

Slide i treats the little red book. Lin Biao's General Political Department compiled Quotations from Chairman Mao for the army in 1964; more than a billion copies were printed by the early 1970s, and the Ninth Party Congress of April 1969 wrote Lin into the party constitution as Mao's successor. Slide j covers the "Four Olds" campaign launched in August 1966 and the violence of the "Red August" in Beijing, where about 1,770 people were killed in some six weeks; the deck describes the humiliation and suicides in general terms and shows no atrocity images. Slide k follows Liu Shaoqi: named the "number one capitalist roader," seized in 1967 after rebels besieged the leadership compound at Zhongnanhai, struggled and beaten, expelled from the party in October 1968, and dead of untreated illness in Kaifeng in November 1969. His wife Wang Guangmei was held in Qincheng prison from 1967 to the end of 1978. Deng, struggled but protected by Mao, was sent in 1969 to work in a tractor-repair plant in Jiangxi (p. 486).²

Part II: Order Under the Army (Review Question 11)

Textbook anchor: Ebrey, p. 487 (Q11: "By the summer of 1968, Mao had no choice..."). The anchor was changed from the SU26 reading guide, which pointed students to an earlier sentence.

Slide o takes the movement into the workplaces. In Shanghai rebel workers led by Wang Hongwen seized power from the municipal party in January 1967, the "January Storm," and power seizures spread. Rival rebel coalitions denounced each other's seizures as fake, and when the army was ordered to "support the left," it often backed conservative groups. In Wuhan in July 1967 the conservative "Million Heroes," with local military backing, seized the envoys Wang Li and Xie Fuzhi; the radicals answered by calling on rebels to arm themselves, and in August Red Guards burned the British mission in Beijing (pp. 486–487).

Slide p carries the Q11 anchor. Faced with what amounted to local civil wars, Mao summoned the Beijing Red Guard leaders on 28 July 1968 and told them the movement was over; worker and army "Mao Zedong Thought propaganda teams" occupied the campuses. In December 1968 he endorsed the call for educated youth to go "up to the mountains and down to the villages." Ebrey's figure of 17 million is for the whole program, 1968–1980.³

Slide q is where the deck departs most from Ebrey's proportions. Ebrey puts the killing in "the first, violent phase." Walder and Su, using county gazetteers, estimate 750,000 to 1.5 million deaths in rural China alone and show that most occurred after the revolutionary committees were set up, in 1968–1971, in the campaigns to "cleanse the class ranks" and against "May 16 elements," carried out by the state rather than by rebels. The slide says the worst killing came under the committees; the notes give Walder and Su's estimate, with no images. The beat on officials uses Ebrey's figure of 3 million removed from their jobs.⁴ Slide r covers culture: the eight model works sponsored by Jiang Qing, including The Red Detachment of Women, which the deck shows in the 1972 performance staged for President Nixon.

Slide s tells the official story of Lin Biao as Ebrey gives it: an alleged plot, exposure by his daughter Lin Liheng (Doudou), flight on 13 September 1971 and the crash at Öndörkhaan in Mongolia. The notes quote Ebrey's "whatever the truth of this bizarre story"; the official account remains the only documented one, and much is still disputed. The photograph of the wreck shows no bodies. Ebrey's "kept out of the press for a year" is close: the public was told in mid-1972, about ten months later.⁵

Part III: 1976 (Review Question 12)

Textbook anchor: Ebrey, p. 488 (Q12: "After a month of national mourning...").

Slide w sets the stage with Ebrey's two factions. The border clashes of 1969 made the Soviet Union the main threat, and Nixon's visit in February 1972 followed. Deng was brought back in 1973 and by 1975, as first vice-premier, ran the government for the dying Zhou. Slide x covers the Qingming mourning: Zhou died on 8 January 1976; by 4 April Ebrey's estimated 2 million people had brought wreaths and poems to the Monument to the People's Heroes; on the night of 4–5 April the wreaths were removed and on 5 April militia and police cleared the square. The Politburo, with Mao's approval, stripped Deng of his posts on 7 April and named Hua Guofeng first vice-chairman and premier. The slide's picture is an AI-generated illustration of the wreaths at the Monument to the People's Heroes; the carvings on the monument are invented. Slide y covers Tangshan, 3:42 a.m. on 28 July, with the official toll of 242,419 and the refusal of foreign aid; the notes explain the old belief that disasters warn of a dynasty's end. Slide z: Mao died just after midnight on 9 September; about a million people attended the memorial meeting in the square on 18 September; the memorial hall opened in 1977. The note "With you in charge, I am at ease" (30 April 1976) was Hua's main claim to succession. The slide's picture is an AI-generated illustration of factory workers mourning in silence, with black armbands and white paper flowers.

Slide aa carries the Q12 anchor and corrects Ebrey's "the pragmatists won out." On 6 October 1976 Hua, Marshal Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing, whose Unit 8341 guarded the leadership, had Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan arrested at a meeting in Zhongnanhai and Jiang Qing seized at her residence. Deng was out of office until July 1977; he took effective power from Hua at the Third Plenum of December 1978. The four were tried in 1980–1981; Jiang Qing's death sentence was suspended and commuted.⁶ Slide dd presents Ebrey's balance sheet from the chapter Summary (pp. 488–489): independence, schooling, life expectancy and secure jobs on one side; no free press, peasants tied to the village, and a habit of mutual distrust on the other. Slide ee points forward to the course wrap-up.

Pierian Spring: Red Guard Words and Judging Mao

Slide gg uses the Documents box on p. 485, so students meet a primary source without a separate assignment. Ebrey says the poster was written by Red Guards at a Beijing high school and selected by Red Flag in November 1966; it is the first of the Tsinghua middle school posters "Long Live the Revolutionary Rebel Spirit of the Proletariat," which the journal reprinted in 1966. The slide says "in 1966" and quotes the opening lines; the notes give the Monkey King passage and Ebrey's two discussion questions. Slide hh treats the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party adopted by the Sixth Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee on 27 June 1981, which assigned Mao "chief responsibility" for the Cultural Revolution while holding that his merits were primary; the notes quote Ebrey's paragraph on the erosion of Mao's standing and the worry that demonizing him excuses everyone else. Slide ii gives Ebrey's comparison with Zhu Yuanzhang and links back to the purges in the Chapter 14 deck.⁷

Corrections and Sources Behind the Slide Notes

The student notes in this deck are written entirely for students and do not flag disagreements with the textbook. The slides teach the corrected history; this list records each correction, the page, the slide, and the source.

Where the deck departs from Ebrey, and why

Who headed the Cultural Revolution Small Group (p. 484). Ebrey: "Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, formed a Cultural Revolution Small Group." Chen Boda headed it, with Kang Sheng as adviser; Jiang Qing was first deputy and became acting head only from 30 August 1966. Slide g. (MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, 2006.)
"To rebel is justified" and "bombard the headquarters" (p. 484). Ebrey has Mao telling the students both at the rallies. Mao barely spoke at the rallies. He endorsed "to rebel is justified" in his letter of 1 August 1966 to the Tsinghua middle school Red Guards, and "Bombard the Headquarters" was his own big-character poster of 5 August 1966. Slide h. (MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, 2006.)
How Liu Shaoqi was seized (p. 484). Ebrey: Red Guards "seized" Liu. He was struggled at meetings organized by rebels after they besieged Zhongnanhai in 1967, then held under guard until his death in 1969. Slide k. (MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, 2006.)
Wang Guangmei's imprisonment (p. 484). Ebrey: "ten years in solitary confinement." She was held from September 1967 to December 1978, about twelve years, in Qincheng prison. The slide gives "from 1967 to 1978." Slide k. (MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, 2006.)
When the killing peaked (p. 487). Ebrey: "as many as half a million people were killed or committed suicide" in the first, violent phase. Walder and Su estimate 0.75 to 1.5 million deaths in rural areas alone, most of them in 1968–1971, after the army-led revolutionary committees took over. The slide says the worst killing came under the committees. Slide q. (Walder and Su, 2003.)
The Lin Biao news (p. 487). Ebrey: "kept out of the press for a year." The public was told in mid-1972, about ten months later; the slide says "about a year." Slide s.
Who arrested the Gang of Four (p. 488). Ebrey: "the pragmatists won out in the end," with Deng named as their leader. Hua Guofeng arrested them on 6 October 1976 with Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing. Deng had been stripped of his posts on 7 April 1976 and returned only in July 1977. Slide aa. (MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, 2006; Teiwes and Sun, 2007.)
The 1981 verdict on Mao (p. 488). Ebrey: the party "assigned him much of the blame for everything that went wrong from 1956 on." The Resolution praises the years to 1956 and dates Mao's serious errors from the broadening of the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957 and the Great Leap of 1958. The slide says "the errors of his later years." Slide hh. (Resolution of 27 June 1981.)
The poster's date in Red Flag (p. 485). Ebrey: November 1966. The Tsinghua middle school posters were reprinted in Red Flag in 1966; the slide gives only the year. Slide gg.
The Review Question 11 anchor. The reading guide's Q11 anchor now points to p. 487, "By the summer of 1968, Mao had no choice...," the sentence that opens the restoration of order. Slide p.

Notes

Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, Mao's Last Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 14–51. ↩
MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, Mao's Last Revolution, 102–131, 273–284. On Red August, Wang Youqin, "Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966," Issues & Studies 37, no. 2 (2001): 29–79. ↩
Michel Bonnin, The Lost Generation: The Sent-Down Movement in China, 1968–1980 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2013). ↩
Andrew G. Walder and Yang Su, "The Cultural Revolution in the Countryside: Scope, Timing and Human Impact," The China Quarterly 173 (2003): 74–99; Andrew G. Walder, Agents of Disorder: Inside China's Cultural Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019). ↩
Frederick C. Teiwes and Warren Sun, The Tragedy of Lin Biao: Riding the Tiger during the Cultural Revolution, 1966–1971 (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996). ↩
MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, Mao's Last Revolution, 431–449; Frederick C. Teiwes and Warren Sun, The End of the Maoist Era: Chinese Politics during the Twilight of the Cultural Revolution, 1972–1976 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2007). ↩
"Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China," adopted 27 June 1981 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981). ↩