Jiang Qing:

I am sending you two copies of the Beijing document (3). Please study it and see if there are any revisions to be made. I have already asked Comrades Kang Sheng and Bo Da to go to Shanghai either today or tomorrow to discuss it once with you. After that, Comrades Kang Sheng and Bo Da will come here on the night of the 16th to report, and then a final decision will be made.

Mao Zedong
8:30 a.m., April 14

Comrades Enlai, Xiaoping, and Peng Zhen:

I have received and read your letter of April 12 and its attachments.

Please ask Comrades Kang Sheng, Bo Da, and other comrades from the drafting group who can go to Shanghai to go there today (the 14th) or tomorrow to discuss the document with the Shanghai comrades. Then, Comrades Kang Sheng and Bo Da should come here on the night of the 16th or the morning of the 17th.

You may come here on the 16th.

As for whether people from the various central bureaus should come, please decide at your discretion.

Mao Zedong
9:00 a.m., April 14, 1966

[1] Enlai refers to Zhou Enlai. Xiaoping refers to Deng Xiaoping, who was then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

There are some revisions; please consider them carefully. Send to Comrades Enlai, Xiaoping, Peng Zhen, and Kang Sheng.

Mao Zedong
Morning of April 14

IV

Noted.
Return to Kang Sheng for handling.

V

The Central Committee has decided to revoke the "Outline Report on the Current Academic Discussion by the Five-Person Cultural Revolution Group," which was approved and forwarded on February 12, 1966, to dissolve the original "Five-Person Cultural Revolution Group" and its working bodies, and to re-establish a Cultural Revolution Group, subordinate to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau.

[1] This comment was written on the draft notice of the CPC Central Committee submitted on April 12, 1966. Mao Zedong later made multiple revisions to this draft notice; see sections V to XI below.

[2] This is a comment on the revised draft notice submitted by Kang Sheng on April 18, 1966. In his report to Mao Zedong, Kang Sheng stated: "The final sentence of Article 7 on page 4 of the 'Notice' has been revised according to the Chairman's instructions. Please review it."

[3] On May 28, 1966, the CPC Central Committee announced the list of the re-established Central Cultural Revolution Group, with Chen Boda as its head, Kang Sheng as advisor, Jiang Qing, Wang Renzhong, Liu Zhijian, and Zhang Chunqiao as deputy heads, and members including Xie Jianzhong, Yin Da, Wang Li, Guan Feng, Qi Benyu, Mu Xin, and Yao Wenyuan.

VI

This is the crux of the matter. Confused, self-contradictory, and hypocritical phrases obscure the sharp class struggle currently unfolding on the cultural and ideological front, and in particular, they obscure the fact that the aim of this great struggle is to criticize Wu Han and a large number of other bourgeois representatives who oppose the Party and socialism (such bourgeois representatives exist in the central government and its various organs, as well as in every province, municipality, and autonomous region). This outline fails to mention the key point repeatedly emphasized by Chairman Mao—that the crux of Wu Han's "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" is the issue of dismissal from office—and thus conceals the serious political nature of this struggle.

VII

In the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the truth of Marxism and the fallacies of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes, either the East Wind prevails over the West Wind or the West Wind prevails over the East Wind; there is absolutely no question of so-called equality. Can equality possibly be permitted on such fundamental issues as the proletariat's struggle against the bourgeoisie, the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, the dictatorship of the proletariat in the superstructure, including all spheres of culture, and the proletariat's continued efforts to purge bourgeois representatives who have infiltrated the Communist Party and wave red flags to oppose the red flag? For decades, the old social democrats and, for over a decade, the modern revisionists have never permitted any equality between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. They fundamentally deny that the history of mankind over thousands of years is a history of class struggle; they fundamentally deny the proletariat's class struggle against the bourgeoisie; they fundamentally deny the proletarian revolution against the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, they are loyal lackeys of the bourgeoisie and imperialism, and together with the bourgeoisie and imperialism, they cling to the bourgeois ideology of oppression and exploitation of the proletariat and to the capitalist social system, while opposing the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the socialist social system. They are a gang of counter-revolutionaries opposed to communism and the people. Their struggle against us is a life-and-death struggle, with no question whatsoever of equality. Therefore, our struggle against them can only be a life-and-death struggle, and our relationship with them is absolutely not one of equality, but one of one class oppressing another, that is, a relationship of dictatorship or autocracy exercised by the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, and cannot be any other kind of relationship, such as so-called relations of equality, peaceful coexistence between the exploited and exploiting classes, or relations of benevolence, righteousness, and morality.

VIII

Chairman Mao often says, "There is no construction without destruction." Destruction means criticism, it means revolution. Destruction involves reasoning things out, and reasoning things out is construction. Put destruction first, and in the process, construction is inherent.

IX

The spearhead of the outline's opposition is directed against the proletarian Left, clearly intended to pin the label of "academician" on Marxist-Leninists and, conversely, to support the genuine bourgeois academicians and maintain their crumbling monopoly in academic circles. In fact, those capitalist-roaders in power within the Party who support the bourgeois academic overlords, and those bourgeois representatives who have infiltrated the Party to protect the bourgeois academic overlords, are the very people who do not read books, do not read newspapers, have no contact with the masses, possess no learning whatsoever, and rely solely on "arbitrariness and browbeating" while usurping the name of the Party—they are the big Party overlords.

X

Just as the proletariat is launching a new and fierce struggle on the ideological front against bourgeois representatives, and when in many areas and many places the struggle has not yet even begun, or, though begun, the leadership of the vast majority of Party committees remains very uncomprehending, very unserious, and very ineffective regarding this great struggle, the outline repeatedly stresses the need for so-called "leadership," "caution," "prudence," and "approval by the relevant leading bodies" in the struggle. All this is intended to impose numerous restrictions and taboos on the proletarian Left, to bind their hands and feet, and to place numerous obstacles in the way of the proletarian cultural revolution. In a word, it is an impatient rush to apply the brakes and launch a counter-attack to reverse the verdict. The authors of the outline harbor extreme hatred for the already published articles in which the proletarian Left counter-attacks the bourgeois reactionary "authorities," and they suppress those not yet published. Meanwhile, they give free rein to all monsters and demons, who for years have filled our newspapers, radio broadcasts, periodicals, books, textbooks, lectures, literary and artistic works, films, dramas, folk arts, fine arts, music, dance, and so on, never advocating that these should be subject to proletarian leadership and never requiring any approval. This contrast reveals the true position of the outline's authors.

XI

Party committees at all levels must immediately cease implementing the "Outline Report on the Current Academic Discussion by the Five-Person Cultural Revolution Group." The entire Party must follow Comrade Mao Zedong's instructions, hold high the banner of the proletarian cultural revolution, thoroughly expose the bourgeois reactionary stand of those so-called "academic authorities" who oppose the Party and socialism, thoroughly criticize bourgeois reactionary ideas in academic, educational, journalistic, literary, artistic, and publishing circles, and seize leadership in these cultural spheres. To achieve this, it is necessary at the same time to criticize the bourgeois representatives who have infiltrated the Party, the government, the army, and various cultural circles, to purge these people, and in some cases to transfer them from their posts. In particular, such people cannot be trusted to lead the work of the cultural revolution, yet in the past and even now, many such people are indeed doing this work, which is extremely dangerous.

The bourgeois representatives who have infiltrated the Party, the government, the army, and various cultural circles are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once the time is ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of these people have already been seen through by us, while others have not. Some are currently trusted by us and are being groomed as our successors, like Khrushchev-type figures who are now sleeping right beside us. Party committees at all levels must pay full attention to this.

This notice, together with the erroneous document issued by the Central Committee on February 12 this year, may be distributed to county Party committees, Party committees of cultural institutions, and Party committees at the regimental level in the army, and they should be asked to discuss which document is erroneous and which is correct, what their own understanding is, what achievements have been made, and what mistakes have been committed.

[1] Khrushchev, formerly First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, was removed from his leadership posts in October 1964.