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The 'Yan'an Rectification Movement' (Chinese: 整风运动, ''Zhèngfēng yùndòng'') also known as the 'Rectification Movement' (Chinese: 延安整風), 'Zheng Feng' or 'Cheng Feng' was the first deceptive ideology movement initiated by the Communist Party of China. It was initially presented as a positive "rectification" opportunity.^[1][2] It soon transformed into a campaign against intellectuals replacing the May Fourth Movement culture with that of Communist culture.^[3] The end result declared the need for a Communist party through intimidation tactics. The campaign eventually lined up the leaderships behind Mao, and forced the parties legitimacy onto its people. More than 10,000 people were killed in the rectification process.^[4]

Contents

Views presented by CPC

Campaign based on common info

Background

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Campaign based on new findings

Background

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

See also

Notes

References

External links

Views presented by CPC

According to the Communist Party of China, the purpose of the program was to give a basic grounding in Marxist theory, and Leninist principles of party organization to the thousands of new members who had joined the CPC during its expansion since 1937. A second, equally important aspect of the movement was the elimination of blind imitation of Soviet experience and obedience to Soviet directives, comintern and empiricism. Mao emphasized that the campaign aimed at "rectifying mistaken ideas" and not the people who held them.^[5]

Campaign based on common info

Background

During the 1930s, Yan'an was at a remote location that did not have the hostilities found in other mainland territories. Situated in northwest China, the remote area was difficult to attack. The CPC members mostly got there after the Long March. The area was known as a territory of camaraderie without corruption, though the Rectification movement essentially changed everything.^[6] It is important to note that most sources cite multiple phases. Most phases do not have consistent names or exact start and end times.

Phase I

From May 1941 to Feb 1942, it was a preparation phase. The campaign began on February 1, 1942 under Mao Zedong with his speech ''"Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature''".² A book entitled ''"Documents of the Rectification Campaign''" was published and circulated internally. It included essays such as Mao's ''"Combat Liberalism''" and Liu Shaoqi's ''"How to be a Good Communist''".²
In July and Aug of the same year the CPC issued the decisions on ''"Research and Analysis"'', ''"Improvement of Party Membership"''. The leading team for the campaign was set up with Mao as director and Wang Jiaxiang deputy director. Up until this point, the CPC had 800,000 members, of which only a few of the 150 members usually made the major decisions.⁵

Phase II

From Feb 1942 to Oct 1943, the campaign was at its peak. Mao gave the lecture ''"Improving the Party workstyle and Thought"'' in the opening ceremony at the Central Party School / CPC Central Committee Party School (中共中央黨校).^[7] The lecture ''"Against Party Stereotype-Writing''" in the cadre party of Yan'an in Feb 1942 interpreted the aim and policy of the movement in full detail. The event included thousands of cadres from the party.⁷
:'Mao Zedong noted:'
:

Phase III

The third phase lasted from Oct 1943 to 1944 or Apr 1945 depending on sources. It is generally known as ''"Summing up party history"'' phase.⁷ Senior leaders restudied party history and attempt to reach agreements on major issues by admitting to ''"errors"''.⁷ The 1943 portion of the campaign included a retribution called 'Rescue Campaign'. Members would write about their own confessions, often pointing fingers at other members to save themselves from other people's fake allegations toward them.² It soon became a circular cycle of false guilt and fake reenactments sending many innocent people to death.
One of the member crucial to carrying out the movement was the secret police boss Kang Sheng.² Wang Ming was one of the main member singled out and forced to confess to having "errors".⁵ He was also setup by his former friend Bo Gu, who coincidentally was later condemned to having "erroneous leftist line" in Jiangxi. Other members like Zhang Wentian also made self criticisms.⁵ Wang Shiwei became a well known victim.

Campaign based on new findings

Background

With more and more research work done by both Chinese and foreign historians, especially the convictive interpretation of professor Gao Hua and his work ''"How Did The Red Sun Rise: The Cause And Effect Of Zheng feng In Yanan"'', there is another take on this movement. According to the new findings, the movement was mostly initiated by Mao to ensure his status as paramount leader and dictator of the CPC.

Phase I

Although Mao took charge of the leadership CPC after the Zunyi Conference, he was not in a dominate position as later described in the book. Even when he won the power struggle with Zhang Guotao, he was still one of the senior leaders with Zhou Enlai, Wang Ming and Zhang Mintian. Furthermore, his contribution to the revolution in rural area and status as senior leader had been doubted by other members such as Xiang Zhongfa, Zhang Guotao, Li Lisan; and intellectuals such as Zhou Enlai, Qu Qiubai and 28 Bolsheviks. At the same time, unlike Wang Ming, Mao was unrecognizable in Comintern.
After Zunyi Conference the three-men military command team was formed. Mao had paved his way to power using political tricks to take the daily run of military command from Zhou and Wang, who were the other two members of three-men team. With support from his old subordinates in the year of Jiangxi, such as Lin Biao, Peng Dehuai, Mao succeeded in keeping Wang, who had spent most of the years studyin abroad and had no power base in military at all. Conversely Zhou had major health problems from the period of the Long March and had no energy for military command anymore. Moreover, as the General Secretary of CPC at that time, Zhang Mintian was the nominal supreme leader of the CPC, but he was an intellectual rather than a revolutionist. He also had little ambition for power. Thus Mao exploited Zhang’s modesty and took control of the daily run of CPC center step by step. Especially when Long March ended with Mao leading the Red Army to Yanan, he was considered a paramount leader to some degree. At the same time, Liu Shaoqi, who was head of Northern China Division of CPC, aroused a big argument by claiming the incorrectness of past political routs, which was in harmony with Mao’s thought and future plan. Furthermore, Mao found a reliable associate for his future movement.
During the later years, Mao used his skills in power struggle to consolidate his power base and break up the alliance of his opponents such as Zhang Guotao and members of the 28 Bolsheviks one by one. In the 6th Plenum Meeting of 6th National Congress of CPC held in 1938, Mao’s status as paramount leader both in party and military was legalized in some degree. In order to strengthen his power, Mao carried out a series of reform and reshuffle of CPC political routes, among which was the mastermind of 28 Bolsheviks, Wang Ming, who just returned from Moscow. With support from Liu and his associates such as Peng Zhen, Bo Yibo, Mao won the power struggle again by using dirty tricks and successfully breaking up Wang’ alliance with Zhou and other senior leaders. In 1941 in the Extending Meeting of Politburo, Mao won an overwhelming victory over his archrival Wang.

Phase II

The Rectification movement was officially launched in 1942. Since the 4th Plenum Meeting of 6th National Congress of CPC, the 28 Bolsheviks began to take control of the CPC with the help of the Comintern. To make a clear distinction Mao labeled his rivals as comrades who were supporting the wrong cause. First this made himself superior both politically and mentally. Secondly his rivals or potential rivals were categorized into two groups. One group was labeled as "dogmatism", the members included Wang Ming, and his fellows of 28 Bolsheviks, and those who studied abroad and were deeply influenced by foreign theories, inclusive of Liu Bocheng, Zuo Quan, Zhu Rui and other prominent leaders. The other group was labeled as "empiricism", the members included Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Peng Dehuai, Chen Yi, Li Weihan, Dengfa and other senior leaders in support of Wang Ming. Mao forced these leaders to criticize each other and self-criticize in rounds of meeting. Everyone of them wrote reports of confession and apologies for their mistakes. These dirty materials became weapons which Mao later used to persecute old comrades.
Mao despised the imported theory of orthodox Marxism and Leninism, replacing it with his pragmatism. He branded these theories and their advocates as dogmatism and dogmatist, under which Chinese revolution suffered great loss. The true reason for this betrayal of orthodox Marxism and Leninism might be Mao's preference for his thoughts instead of any other theories set as the guideline of the CPC.
Mao set up the Central General Study Committee to be in charge of the movement, which consist of his close ally Kang Sheng, Li Fuchun, Peng Zhen, Gao Gang and later inclusive of Liu Shaoqi. This temporary structure replaced the politburo and secretariat, running daily operation for the CPC, making it one of the most powerful group at that time. The group gave Mao the ability to exercise in a total authoritarian style rather than being hindered by elections and terms. Moreover, the regular collective decision-making system of CPC center was abandoned, and Mao turned Yan'an into his own empire and the dictatorship of Mao was finally shaped.

Phase III

As the movement went on among senior leaders, the propaganda and culture societies was in charge by Zhang Mintian, Bo Gu and their "dogmatism" camp. When Mao sent his favorite Lu Dingyi (Chinese: 陆定一) to carry out the Rectification, who urged the staffs to criticize the bureaucracy and hierarchy of the CPC. This was a bait tactic to see who was dissatisfied with the CPC rule.
Some of the members thought Mao would accept criticism and spoke out their true feeling of anger over hierarchy and inequality in Yan'an. The most famous criticism came from Wang Shiwei, a freelancer who was advocate of democracy and science. His essay denounced the true face of hierarchy and bureaucracy in Yan'an in a frank way, which irritated Mao greatly. Wang was labeled a Trotskyist and arrested by the Central Social Department, which was a copycat of Soviet Union OGPU⁴. Wang was executed in 1947.
Under the leadership of Peng Zhen, the Central Political School of CPC began to carry out the Rectification movement among its students. Massive number of party members were forced to write reports of confession and self-criticism.² The Central General Study Committee ordered people to report their daily lives and speeches. This stage was known as Salvation Stage. This stage was the extension of anti-Trotskyists movement and censorship of those new-comers from the areas governed by Kuomintang. The Central Social Department took control of the movement and turned it into mass persecution in 1943.
Kang Sheng, Peng Zhen and Li Kenong would never waste this precious opportunity to show off their power as the movement changed into a witch-hunt. Thousands of people especially those new members who came from areas governed by KMT were purged, kept in custody, censored from time to time, tortured from both mental and body, even executed. Many of them were labeled as "spy of Kuomintang" or "anti party activists". Not only themselves were humiliated, but also their family members involved and relatives too. The only way for them to be released from this persecution was to make confession of crimes they never committed and then turn others in.

See also

★ List of campaigns of the Communist Party of China

★ Cultural Revolution

★ Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

★ Canidrome massacre

Notes

1. Borthwick, Mark. [1998](1998). Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia. Westview Press. ISBN 0813334713
2. Apter, David Ernest. [1994] (1994). Revolutionary Discourse in Mao's Republic. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674767802
3. Twitchett, Denis. Fairbank, John K. The Cambridge history of China. ISBN 052124336x
4. US Joint Publication research service. [1979] (1979). China Report: Political, Socialogical and Military Affairs. Foreign Broadcast information Service. No ISBN digitized text March 5, 2007
5. Short, Philip. Mao: a Life. ISBN 0805066381
6. Chang, Jung. [2003] (2003). Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Simon & Schuster publishing. ISBN 0743246985
7. Garver, John W. [1988] (1988). Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937-1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism. Oxford university. ISBN 0195054326

References

★ Gao Hua.'' How Did The Red Sun Rise:The Cause And Effect Of Zheng feng In Yanan'' The Chinese University Press 2000

★ Wang Ming.'' CPC of 50 Years'' Orient Press 2004

External links

★ Rectification in Yan’an—Creating the Most Fearsome Methods in Persecution, ''"The rectification movement in Yan’an was the largest, darkest and most ferocious power game ever played out in the human world"''