From Cultural Revolution to Cultural Evolution

I. Introduction

The Cultural Revolution in the Peoples Republic of China –PRC– (1966-1977) is now a matter of history and has been recorder as a horrifying decade-long turmoil that had wrought havoc on PRC as a whole. In retrospect criticisms have also been leveled against the theoretical premises of the Cultural Revolution and many critics have gone so far as to dub it as a Maoist Fantasy.

This article, however, looks upon the concept of the Cultural Revolution from an unconventional perspective and emphasizes that so far as the basic concept is concerned, Cultural Revolution has special relevance for the modern society and it may be conceived as a collective endeavour to ensure uplift of human mind and psychic modes as a whole. In fact, in this article, our purpose is to relate the concept of the Cultural Revolution to two almost similar ways to go into the depth of the causes of maladies afflicting human society from time immemorial. Both of them, although presented in two apparently different formats, are in essence the same as of them endeavour to highlight human psyche as the root cause of all maladies afflicting human society. One such view has been put forward by the moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith who divides human sentiments into two major categories, viz. nobler elements and baser elements and attributes all maladies of human society to the later group of sentiments. The second view corresponds to the ancient Indian Sankhya Philosophy [1] according to which human modes of living are of three categories, viz. tamasika, rajasika and satvika. Human maladies according to Sankhya aphorisms arise from tamasika and rajasika modes of living. For long term solution of basic problems of human society on the basis of Smithian view, the baser human sentiments are to be replaced by nobler sentiments; and according to Sankhya view, sustainable removal of maladies calls for transition of tamasika and rajasika modes to satvika mode. In fact, both the approaches come down to the same endeavour. Smithian baser sentiments are nothing but manifestations of tamasika and rajasika modes. Unfortunately, neither Smith nor Sankhya philosophy has provided any efficacious guidelines for efficacious transition of human psyche required by them for uplift of human society. Here comes the relevance of the concept of the Cultural Revolution. The concept, interpreted from a radically different standpoint from Marxian or Maoist interpretation, may provide us the viable transition of human values and psychic from both the Smithian and the Sankhya standpoints.

Before venturing into this endeavour towards reinterpretation and revaluation of the concept of the Cultural Revolution in order to resolve the basic problems of human society through psychic uplift of human society, let us first have a glimpse of the turbulent Maoist Cultural Revolution, its theoretical and ideological premises, and its horrible impacts on the socio-political and economic framework of the PRC.

II. Mao’s Cultural Revolution

Marx failed to realize that causes of poverty, inequality, exploitation and similar maladies do not lie in private property, family relations, the state or any other visible phenomenon, but it lies deep in human nature, in the unethical elements like greed, pride, jealousy. So, eradication of the maladies, if at all possible, is to be accomplished by some process that would reduce the prevalence of these basic vices in human mind. Apparently it appears that through the Cultural Revolution, Mao wanted to fight against these basic vices of human mind that are likely to be responsible for the maladies in the material world. However, many factors make it dubious whether Mao’s Cultural Revolution targeted at eradication of the primordial vices inherent in human mind. Let us have a deeper look into Mao’s Cultural Revolution and examine what exactly had its real objective been.

The following developments prompted Mao to hastily resort to the Cultural Revolution:

Increase in power in the Communist Party of the pragmatic group. This group was strongly opposed to the Maoist radicals like Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife; Lin Biao, the Defence Minister; Chen Boda; Kang Sheng and Wang Donxing.

The liberal leaders –like Deng Xiaopinging, Liu Shaoqui, and the premier Zhou Enlai–. Opposing Maoist Radical Views had realized from China’s experience with socialism in course of a decade –especially the horrible outcomes of the so called “Great Leap Forward”– that Mao’s experiments would be disastrous for China’s economic development and there was no way out but to undertake drastic reforms and adoption of the capitalistic or bourgeois path of economic development.

The Great Leap Forward

Mao wanted to adopt radical policies to jump directly from a semi-feudal economy to a socialist economy in a short span of time.

The Second Five Year Plan (1958-63) was chosen as the starting point of that ‘great leap forward’. Drastic economic policies in line with Maoist Principles and aggressive foreign policy were adopted as ingredients of this radical step. But the disastrous consequences were felt as early as 1959. Soviet Union, which was declared by Mao as revisionist, withdrew economic and technical support, enmity developed with India and the USA, production in agriculture and industry fell drastically.

These combined with natural disasters resulted in death of nearly 20 million people during 1959-60. By 1961 the Maoist policy was abandoned and moderates like Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Chou Enlai reverted Maoist approach. Mao was held responsible for the disaster and he resigned from the position of head of the state (although retained the position of Party chairmanship). The three moderates had restricted Mao’s power but by the ordinary Chinese people he was still seen as the leader of the revolution and the Father of Nation. He wanted to use his mass popularity resurrect his authority at the expense of the moderates. So he planned to launch the so-called Cultural Revolution –CR–. [2]

The Cultural Revolution

The basic goal of the Cultural Revolution, Mao declared, would be the removal of the Capitalistic roaders –the liberals– from power in the communist party and restore the Marxist path of class struggle. The following extracts from Mao’s directives are evidence of this approach of the Cultural Revolution.

1. “The old Social Democrats in the past decades, and modern revisionists in the past dozen years or so have formed a group of anti-communist, anti-people, and counter-revolutionary elements against whom we are waging a life-and-death struggle. There is no equality between us and them. Therefore the fight against them is a fight for our preservation and their extinction. The relationship between us and them can never be one of equality; it is a relationship of one class oppressing another, i.e. proletarian dictatorship over the bourgeoisie. The day when the people are happy will be the day when the counter-revolutionaries begin their misery”. (Mao, 2004, dt. 10-6-68)

2. “The basic contradiction the great proletarian Cultural Revolution is trying to resolve is the one between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the proletarian and bourgeois roads. The main point of the movement is to struggle against the capitalist roaders in authority in the party”. (Ibid. dt. 24-9-1966)

3. “The basic problem of a revolution is the problem of political power. The possession of political power means the possession of everything, the loss of it means the loss of everything”. (Ibid. dt. 13-8-67)

To fight the opponents Mao wanted to take help of the students and the masses who could be easily moved by emotional and idealistic preaching. Red Guards formed mostly of young students were directed to attack Mao’s opponents.

1. “The revolutionary red guards and revolutionary student organizations must form a grand alliance. As long as they are revolutionary mass organizations, they must form a great alliance according to revolutionary principles.” (Ibid. dt. 1-10-67)

Mao also realized that without control over the military force it would not be possible to combat and corner the opponents.

To win the support of the military force, especially the Peoples Liberation Army –PLA– he forged an alliance with Lin Biao, the Defence Minister with the assurance that he would be the successor of Mao. Mao put forward the following guidelines for Lin Biao and the Army in a letter to Lin Biao:

“You must dispatch troops to support the broad left-wing revolutionary masses. Later on, whenever true revolutionaries need support from the PLA, you should do likewise. The so called ‘non-interference’ is untrue. [The PLA] has been involved for some time. I think on this matter you should issue new orders; the old ones should be cancelled.” (Ibid. dt. 23-1-67)

Now as regards the first and foremost task of the pro-Cultural Revolution student-mass-army alliance, Mao issued the directive:

“Bombard The Headquarters – My First Big-Character Poster” (Ibid. dt. 5-8-66)

So it becomes clear that in contrast to the common belief, Mao’s Cultural Revolution had nothing to do with moralistic development of human society. It was simply an endeavour to restore and strengthen the erroneous path of class struggle, which ultimately degenerated into a struggle for power within the Communist Party of China.

Consequences

The consequences of the Cultural Revolution was simply devastating – chaos, anarchy, civil war, arson, looting, wanton damage of property and productive resources, killings, in brief, the Cultural Revolution left China in a condition experienced by a land gripped under a horrible cyclone.