Central Directive Transmitting the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee’s Report on the Prohibition of the Yiguandao Sect

(January 24, 1951)

To all Central Bureaus, and through them to their subordinate sub-bureaus and provincial, municipal, and district Party committees:

Regarding the prohibition of the Yiguandao, Shanxi’s experience is the most complete, the most correct, and the most thorough. The summary by the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee (Secretary Lai Ruoyu) [1] is also very well written. It is hereby transmitted to you for study. All localities may follow this example, with the aim of systematically and thoroughly prohibiting the Yiguandao and all other superstitious sects, and eliminating the important counter-revolutionary elements within them.

As in warfare, do not fight a battle unprepared, and do not fight a battle without assurance of victory. The Shanxi Provincial Party Committee achieved this in preparing for and carrying out the large-scale struggle to prohibit the Yiguandao; hence, the results were very great, and this merits study by the entire Party.

Central Committee
January 24

Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

Note

--- Notes

[1] Refers to the report on the situation regarding the prohibition of the Yiguandao, submitted by the CPC Shanxi Provincial Party Committee to the North China Bureau and reported to the Central Committee on January 9, 1951. The report states that the work of prohibiting the Yiguandao in Shanxi Province began in the winter of 1949. After a year of preparation, the comprehensive prohibition was launched across the entire province in mid-November 1950. These preparations included: (1) infiltration and reconnaissance to accurately grasp the overall situation of the Yiguandao; (2) selecting key areas for trials to gain concrete experience; (3) continuously carrying out propaganda and exposure, organizing propaganda offensives; (4) through rectification campaigns and Party member training classes, criticizing apathetic attitudes and rectifying policy thinking; (5) resolving issues left over from history and plugging loopholes in the work. All of this prepared the conditions for the comprehensive prohibition work. Province-wide arrests began simultaneously on November 12. Within ten days, all localities had basically completed their tasks according to the pre-prepared arrest lists. The prohibition work was divided into three steps. The first step: arresting professional sect leaders, destroying their leading organs, and paralyzing their entire organization. The second step: educating and training minor sect leaders, ordering them to register and repent, and placing them under surveillance according to individual circumstances. The third step: through in-depth exposure work, organizing sect followers to voice grievances and lodge accusations, and launching a movement to withdraw from the sect on the basis of raised consciousness.