"When I think back on the scene at the time, I shiver…"

Interviewer: Hello! Thank you for accepting my interview.

Interviewer: First, could you please tell me the decade of your birth?

[I was born in] 1936.

Interviewer: OK. Then, where did you live in China?

In Jinan, Shandong [province].

Interviewer: Since you were born in the 1930s, you must have a lot of memories of the Cultural Revolution.

Interviewer: But if I give you 10 minutes, could you speak with us about your deepest impressions of the Cultural Revolution?

OK. There are a lot of things from the Cultural Revolution that I haven't forgotten to this day.

However, I already cannot clearly remember dates and the names of colleagues who participated.

Thinking about it now, I have a deep impression of two incidents.

One incident [happened] in early June 1966, after the Cultural Revolution started.

Responding to the central authorities' call, Shandong's Electric Power Bureau started a five-person "work group," with one person as group leader, and entered our school.

After they entered the school, they announced, "From today forward, all teachers must stay away from students,...

...and may not have any contact with students. Also, teachers may not communicate with one another."

Then, [they] put all of the teachers and staff members in a bunch of classrooms, based on their departments and work units, and [made them] study together.

From this day on, the school completely stopped having classes, and the department only maintained the necessary functioning of the Cultural Revolution, doing some simple office work.

After the "work group" came in and concentrated us into these classrooms,...

...[we] mainly studied "the two newspapers and a magazine," articles concerning the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group [CCRSG]'s critiques of society,...

...and the CCRSG's articles concerning the Cultural Revolution.

After the CCRSG announced this [decision]—oh, no, it was after the “work group” came to the school and announced it,...

...[they] began inciting students to write "big-character posters" about teachers and leadership cadres,...

...especially about the so-called "cow-demons and snake-spirits"-- they proceeded to expose them.

[They] exposed teachers' so-called bourgeois remarks, views that didn't conform to Mao Zedong Thought.

Among us teachers, the "work group" also organized a so-called left faction.

After it was organized, [it] concentrated on writing and hanging "big-character posters" about all of the “problematic” teachers and staff members.

From this point on, the school started the "free airing of views," hanging up "big-character posters."

As for us teachers and staff members, besides studying documents, we were sent to the exhibition area of the school to read the "big-character posters."

After a period of time, based on students' exposures, and teachers' mutual exposures of [other teachers'] issues on the "big-character posters,"...

...the work group identified several [typical] problems.

It was required that when every group was studying, criticism of these issues would be carried out, along with next-level exposure.

This was the so-called "braiding."

Interviewer: What?

"Braiding," [as in] women's braids.

Interviewer: "Braiding."

[As in], “using the wooden comb to braid,” “braiding”-- this kind of movement.

What gave me the greatest impression were two teachers. One was teacher of politics.

When the Cultural Revolution started, during the Four Cleans campaign, [this teacher] had said during class,...

..."Chairman Mao has already said, ‘The essence of Marxism is one sentence: “to rebel is justified.”’"

At the time, the people of the "work group" didn't know where this [statement], "To rebel is justified," had come from.

They just criticized [this teacher], saying "You've called on everyone to rebel -- who are you rebelling against?...

...Today it's the leadership of the Communist Party. You call on everyone to rebel -- what are you up to?"

Thus, they called upon the teachers and administrators to learn and criticize [him] over this issue.

But after a time, this teacher said, "This statement wasn't made by me...

...It's what Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong, said at Yan'an in commemoration of an anniversary of Joseph Stalin's birth -- I forget [how many years' anniversary]."

"

published an article [about it]," [he said]. "Chairman Mao said it, not me."

At this point, the "work group" told us to check. In the end, I checked an old

Based on that teacher's directions, I found the article.

Indeed, it was Chairman Mao commemorating an anniversary of Stalin's birthday, an article issued from Yan'an.

In the end, after the matter was checked out, the "work group" was in an awkward position.

But they set the tone again, saying, "That's also wrong: at that time, when Chairman Mao wrote 'rebel,'...

...he meant rebel against the Kuomintang [Nationalists] and reactionary factions...

...Today, you're still calling for rebellion -- your motive is not the same; the movement is different."

As a result, this teacher of politics kept being criticized by us.

Accepting the criticism, he was also powerless, and he had gotten nowhere fighting it.

This affair left me with a really deep impression.

Another matter at this time was that we were told to criticize another teacher.

She was an old revolutionary, an old worker at Yan'an, who had gone to Yan'an to study at the Lu Art Institute.

After Liberation, [she] followed the army from Shijiazhuang to establish its presence in Beijing. Later, [she] came to work in our school.

This teacher could teach math as well as language and literature.

Before the Cultural Revolution, she taught language and literature.

According to a student's "big-character poster" exposing her, when she was marking students' essays, this student had used a lot of

For example, [the essay] contained one part: “Chairman Mao once said, ‘Measure the body then tailor the suit; eat according to the dish [act according to the circumstances].’”

[It] also mentioned something Mao had written in an essay: "The whip cannot reach [something is too far away to influence]."

In writing the essay, this student had used

inappropriately, used them in the wrong way.

So, the teacher wrote comments: "Illogical; doesn't make sense."

In another place, [she] crossed out a line from

the student had used.

As a result, during the Cultural Revolution, this student exposed [the teacher].

What's more, [the student said that] in explaining the idiom "The whip cannot reach," this teacher had said,...

..."Chairman Mao is the most wise; Mao Zedong Thought is the mightiest,...

...but there are still places [Chairman Mao's directives] have not yet gone, have not yet been implemented."

The student said this was rejecting Mao Zedong Thought, slandering Mao Zedong Thought.

Therefore, the "work group" made us carry out criticism of this teacher; [we] criticized [her] for a long time.

That teacher of politics [mentioned] earlier had been a criticized a few times, but hadn't yet suffered a great attack.

But this language and literature teacher was continually put in the ranks of the "cow-demons and snake-spirits,"...

...and was locked up by the Red Guards' "guard duty faction." She wasn't let out until much later on.

This situation of criticism [persisted] up until the second time the central authorities released a document, withdrawing the "work groups."

These "work groups" were set up by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

Up until that point in time, the criticism was left unsettled. It was never resolved.

This is the first matter that gave me a deep impression -- these two teachers.

After the Cultural Revolution, the first teacher [I mentioned] became a professor at Shandong University.

The second teacher kept teaching along with me, up until retirement. This is one thing.

Another thing is that on August 8 [18], 1966, Chairman Mao received Beijing's Red Guards in Beijing for the first time.

Our school had several students who went to network in Beijing, and attended Chairman Mao's first reception of the Red Guards on August 18.

When [they] came back to school, Red Guard organizations started appearing in the school.

All different kinds of organizations were established.

But at the time, among the teaching ranks, there was still caution. There were very few who established combat teams.

There were just a few [people], who had previously worked within the Communist Party, who set up a combat team.

Later on, this combat team was [critically] called “Royalists.”

Interviewer: What was it called? What were the Royalists?

Royalists, that is, the conservative faction -- defending "capitalist-roaders," since they had worked with "capitalist-roaders."

The staffers subordinate to school leadership were all Communist Party members.

In the beginning, they opposed "seizing power," opposed "kicking out the Party committee to make revolution,"...

...so later, they established an organization called the Red Boatmen.

Interviewer: The Red Boatmen.

They wrote "big-character posters" opposing "seizing power" and "kicking out the Party committee to make revolution."

So, later, they were referred to as the Royalists.

After the students returned from Beijing, the school formally began "kicking out the Party committee to make revolution."

[They] established Red Guard combat teams, started putting "cow-demons and snake-spirits" into custody,...

...[and carried out] Destroy the Four Olds -- these large-scale movements.

Within these movements, because of [these things that happened] in the Cultural Revolution, the files of those teachers who had "problematic histories" were opened.

The Red Guards started seizing and struggling against these comrades.

Besides the former Party committee party branch secretary being given the "capitalist-roader" [label],...

...there were others who had "problematic histories."

There was one general affairs branch Party member, a vice section chief of infrastructure,...

...who had a "problematic history" and was seized and struggled against.

Among the teachers was the language and literature teacher I just spoke about.

There was also a female accountant from the general affairs division who had a "problematic history" as well.

After this female accountant was seized and struggled against by the Red Guards, she was locked up by the "guard duty faction" and abused.

It was said that they beat her buttocks until they were blue.

There was nothing to be done; they had to release her for treatment.

Our language and literature teacher was continually held by the "guard duty faction."

Because [she] couldn't tolerate their abuse, one time, she seized the chance to go to the second floor restroom, and jumped out the window.

Because the area outside the window was just mud, she didn't die.

She was captured and taken in by the Red Guards once again, and beaten up.

So, these two affairs, the [things] they suffered, left a very deep impression on me.

There was another colleague whose house was searched and possessions confiscated by the Red Guards during Destroy the Four Olds.

In the evening, they went to one of our female staff members' homes to search it and confiscate possessions.

Because this female staffer had some so-called issues in her history, had had some contact with the upper level of the old society, [she] had been exposed.

The Red Guards made her a target for a search,...

...believing that her home certainly had some counter-revolutionary things in it, very old things.

When [Red Guards] searched her house to confiscate possessions,...

...[they saw that] one wall of her home had a very nice piece of white paper, about 30 centimeters square.

On it she'd pasted a portrait of Chairman Mao. She'd just hung it in her living room.

At the beginning [of the Cultural Revolution] there weren't that many portraits of Chairman Mao.

So, when the Red Guards searched her house to confiscate possessions, [they said], "Does a person like you deserve to hang a portrait of Chairman Mao?!"

They took the [Chairman Mao portrait] she had made and took it down.

As soon as they took it down, they realized the back of that piece of paper was paper used for target shooting, air gun target shooting.

This was very serious.

One Red Guard hurried to notify the school, notify the Red Guard general headquarters, "Teacher so-and-so is plotting against Chairman Mao...

...She has put Chairman Mao on target shooting paper, and is plotting to assassinate him."

This was extremely serious.

That very evening, the Red Guards arrived at this female staffer's house, dragged her down from the second floor,...

...and made her walk about 200 meters to the school's auditorium.

They struggled against her on the stage of the auditorium.

At the time, I watched that scene from the back of the auditorium.

That scene...now I can't bear to recall it.

That female staffer's hair was grabbed. She knelt on the stage. Her clothes were torn.

There are some things I can't even say...

The students were all below, shouting slogans, struggling against her, saying she was an active counter-revolutionary.

They said she was plotting against Chairman Mao, was going to murder Chairman Mao.

They [said] to her, "According to your ‘[problematic] history,’ you indeed are an active counter-revolutionary. Did you do anything criminal in the past?"

They asked if she had ever murdered anyone.

She didn't say anything at first. She had never murdered anyone.

She had never done [anything criminal].

The Red Guards below the stage chanted slogans and [said], "You most certainly are an active counter-revolutionary!...

...Have you murdered anyone? Have you hurt anyone?"

When it first started, she didn't say anything.

But since [she] really couldn't endure the students' abuse of her,...

...she said, "I killed someone. I used to work at the electricity bureau, and I killed two people."

They asked her to say who, and she said she'd killed so-and-so. [They] struggled against her like this for one evening.

At the time, our school's Party chief branch secretary was in front of the stage, but he couldn't do anything.

He watched until he really couldn't watch anymore, and finally said, "OK, students, hand her over to me."

Like this, they took her and locked her up in the "guard duty faction"'s room, the Red Guards’ room, and that evening was considered concluded.

In reality, why had this teacher pasted Chairman Mao's [portrait] on target shooting paper?

It was because her husband really liked shooting, was a person who was really into sports.

At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, when writing “big-character posters,” it was just impossible to find a good [quality] piece of paper.

Writing “big-character posters” had used up all of the newspaper.

Her husband often went target shooting.

Target shooting paper was really good, very white, very thick.

Without really thinking about it, she just turned [the paper] over and pasted Chairman Mao[’s portrait] onto it.

She just put it up in her living room. That was the situation.

She never even thought it would bring about this [consequence].

Later, when she told the facts of the matter, we finally knew it was this situation.

When I think back on the scene at the time, I shiver…

Destroy the Four Olds, seizing and struggling against “cow-demons and snake-spirits” affected a lot of people,...

...including our former vice principal, a democratic figure who had participated in the Big Swords Society in Dezhou district, northern Shandong.

[He] had participated in that revolutionary work. But he had a “problematic history,” and later might’ve left the Party.

He was our school’s vice principal, a democratic figure, a high-level cadre, and was taken into custody as a “cow-demon and snake-spirit.”

Every morning, seven or eight people had to report to the Red Guards’ "guard duty faction" at a certain time.

The Red Guards would lead them in doing manual labor.

The Red Guards would be to the side, supervising them. At meal time, they would stand in line.

They could not eat until the [other] teaching and administrative staff had finished eating.

At meal time, they had to first face Chairman Mao[’s portrait] and say that they were going to eat, do this kind of thing, before they could eat.

This activity persisted for a long time, all the way up until even after “resume classes to make revolution.”

These people were not “liberated” [rehabilitated] until much later, during the latter part of the Cultural Revolution, during the seizing and struggling against May 16 elements.

These are the things I remember deeply from the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore, they’re things I saw myself, that happened at our school.

The Cultural Revolution happened more than 40 years ago, but there are things in my mind that I will not forget for my entire lifetime.

But with the passage of time, I remember the incidents clearly,...

but I can’t remember exact dates or the names of many colleagues, some of whom have passed away.

I’ll only speak about these two incidents.

Interviewer: OK. Thank you. Thank you for accepting my interview.