Red August

Red August
Part of the Cultural Revolution in China
On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with student Red Guards on Tiananmen, triggering a wave of mass killings in Beijing.
Native name红八月
LocationBeijing, China
Date1966
August – September 1966
TargetTeachers, intellectuals, members of the "Five Black Categories" (Landlords, wealthy peasants, bad influences/elements and right wingers), local political leaders and perceived political enemies of Mao Zedong
Attack type
Politicide, politically motivated violence
Deaths10,275 (deaths)
85,196 (families displaced)
Victimslandlords, property owners, political dissidents, “class enemies”
PerpetratorsChinese Communist Party, Cultural Revolution Group (Chen Boda, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Li, Xie Fuzhi) and student Red Guards incited by Mao Zedong
MotiveDestruction of the "Four Olds (Old cultures, old customs, old habits and ideas) and Five Black Categories (Landlords, wealthy peasants, bad influences/elements and “right wingers”)

Red August (simplified Chinese: 红八月; traditional Chinese: 紅八月; pinyin: Hóng Bāyuè) is a term used to indicate a period of political violence and massacres in Beijing beginning in August 1966, during the Cultural Revolution.[1][2][3] According to official statistics published in 1980 after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards in Beijing killed a total of 1,772 people during Red August, while 33,695 homes were ransacked and 85,196 families were forcibly displaced.[1][4][5] However, according to official statistics published in November 1985, the number of deaths in Beijing during Red August was 10,275.[5][6][7]

On August 18, 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin, a leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen.[8][9] This event instigated a wave of violence and mass killings in the city by the Red Guards, who also started a campaign to destroy the "Four Olds".[1][4][9][10] The killings by the Red Guards also impacted several rural districts in Beijing, such as in the Daxing Massacre, in which 325 people were killed from August 27 to September 1 in the Daxing District of Beijing.[11][12][13] Meanwhile, a number of people, including notable writers Lao She, Zhou Zuoren and Chen Mengjia, committed suicide or attempted suicide after being persecuted.[1][11][14][15] During the massacres, Mao Zedong publicly opposed any governmental intervention against the student movement, and Xie Fuzhi, the Minister of Ministry of Public Security, instructed police and public security organizations to protect the Red Guards instead of arresting them.[10][16][17][18][19] However, the situation had begun to spiral out of control by the end of August 1966, forcing the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese government to take multiple interventions which gradually brought the massacres to an end.[18][20]

Red August is considered the origin of the Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution.[1][10][21][22][23] It has also been compared with Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht,[24][25][26][27][28][29] as well as with the Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War.[27][28][29][30][31]

  1. ^ a b c d e Wang, Youqin (2001). "Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966" (PDF). The University of Chicago. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-04-17.
  2. ^ Phillips, Tom (2016-05-11). "The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  3. ^ Dong, Yifu (13 September 2016). "My Grandfather Survived China's Cultural Revolution. Why Does He Still Love Mao?". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 2019-12-24. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Song, Yongyi (2011-10-11). "文革中"非正常死亡"了多少人？ ---- 读苏扬的《文革中中国农村的集体屠杀》" [How many people "died unnaturally" during the Cultural Revolution?]. China News Digest (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2022-04-17. 有关北京市文革的受害者人数，目下最流行的大都引用文革初期北京市公安局对"红色恐怖"中死亡数的统计：1,772 人。另有33,695户被抄家，85,196个家庭被驱逐出北京。其实，1985年11月5日北京市核查工作会议的工作报告"加强领导，再接再厉，全面做好二期整党的核查工作"有过新的调查和统计。其中死亡数为10,275 （增长率580%）；被抄家为92,000户 (增长率273%)，被驱逐出北京的家庭为125,000 (增长率147%) 。从官方矛盾的陈述中可以清楚地看到：公开的数字被大大地缩小了。
  6. ^ Peng, Xiaoming (2013-03-02). "记下老红卫兵的血债" [On the "bloody debt" of the "Old" Red Guards]. Beijing Spring (北京之春) (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2013-05-09. Retrieved 2019-12-10. 1966红八月打人死亡数为10,275人 ；被抄家为92,000户 ，被驱逐出北京的家庭为125,000户，《1985年11月5日北京市核查工作会议的工作报告"加强领导，再接再厉，全面做好二期整党的核查工作"》（《动向》2011年9月号）
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  8. ^ Wang, Youqin. "Victim of the Cultural Revolution——An Investigative Account of Persecution, Imprisonment and Murder" (PDF). The University of Chicago (in Chinese). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-10-12.
  9. ^ a b Yu, Luowen. "文革时期北京大兴县大屠杀调查" [An investigation of the Daxing Massacre in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution]. Chinese University of Hong Kong (in Chinese). Lecture Room. Archived from the original on 2019-06-09. Retrieved 2019-12-10. 婴儿往往是被劈成两半。有的孩子被孤零零地留在家里，打手们到各家搜，见到小孩就扔到门口的马车上，多数孩子被活活摔死了。死人都被埋在村北边的苇塘里，后来人们管那里叫"万人坑"。有的小孩没被摔死，从"万人坑"里还想往外爬，打手们上去就是一铁锹，再把他打回去。
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  13. ^ Southerl, Daniel (1994-07-18). "A NIGHTMARE LEAVES SCARS, QUESTIONS". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2019-12-24.
  14. ^ Brady, Paul (1974). "Death and the Nobel-On Lao She's "Suicide"" (PDF). Chinese University of Hong Kong. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-12-27.
  15. ^ "PKU Today in History - May 6: Passing of Zhou Zuoren". Peking University. Archived from the original on 2024-04-30. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference :33 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Sun, Yancheng (2012). "血统论和大兴"八三一"事件" [Bloodline theory and the Daxing Massacre]. Phoenix New Media (in Chinese). Yanhuang Chunqiu. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10.
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  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference :12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference :16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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