Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.

Responsive image

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）
  7. ^ Sai, Hongqiu. "毛泽东大笑谈杀人" [Mao Zedong talked about killing people with laughter]. Boxun (in Chinese). 北京周末诗会. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10.
  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。
  10. ^ a b c Song, Yongyi (2011-08-25). "Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976)". Sciences Po. Archived from the original on 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  11. ^ a b "A Massacre in Daxing County During the Cultural Revolution". Chinese Law & Government. 14 (3): 70–71. 2014-12-07. doi:10.2753/CLG0009-4609140370.
  12. ^ Jian, Guo; Song, Yongyi; Zhou, Yuan (2015-07-23). Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-5172-4.
  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.
  18. ^ a b Feng, Xiang (2014). "王晶垚: "我，没有忘记历史"" [Wang Jingyao: I, have not forgotten history]. Phoenix New Media (in Chinese). Southern Weekly. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  19. ^ "对红卫兵组织失去信任 毛泽东决定下放知青始末" [Losing faith in the Red Guards organizations, Mao Zedong decided to "send the youths to the countryside"]. Phoenix New Media (in Chinese). People's Net. 2009-12-14. Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  20. ^ Wang, Nianyi (2006-06-13). "《亲历重庆大武斗》序". China News Digest (华夏文摘) (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  21. ^ Lasseter, Tom. "Chinese haunted by bloody 'Red August'". Austin American-Statesman. Archived from the original on 2020-06-12. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference :12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference :14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Ma, Sheng-Mei (1987-01-01). "Contrasting Two Survival Literatures: On the Jewish Holocaust and the Chinese Cultural Revolution". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 2 (1): 81–93. doi:10.1093/hgs/2.1.81. ISSN 8756-6583.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference :16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ "王容芬经历的"8·18"" [Wang Rongfang's experience on "August 18"]. Deutsche Welle (in Chinese). 2011-08-19. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  27. ^ a b Wang, Chuanye. "沉重的回忆（41）"文革"风暴到来的时候" [Heavy memories (41): when the storm of "Cultural Revolution" arrived]. Chinese University of Hong Kong (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2020-03-24.
  28. ^ a b Xi, Ligong (2012). "也说"老红卫兵"" [On the "Old" Red Guards]. Boxun (in Chinese). Consensus Net. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  29. ^ a b Lang, Jun (2012). "伫视王晶垚－宋彬彬对簿历史的公堂——《宋彬彬谈话纪要》的解读及其它（下）" [Looking at the court of history between Wang Jinyao and Song Binbin]. China News Digest (华夏文摘) (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2019-12-11.
  30. ^ Luo Ri, Yu Deng (2018-12-13). "建構文化創傷——從南京大屠殺與「文革」說起" [Constructing cultural tramas——beginning from the Nanjing Massacre and the Cultural Revolution]. Initium Media. Archived from the original on 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  31. ^ Ma, Jian (2016). "谁敢把皇帝拉下马？----文革五十周年反思" [Who dares to drag the Emperor down from the horse: reflection written on the fiftieth anniversary of the Cultural Revolution]. Independent Chinese PEN Center (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2020-06-28. Retrieved 2019-12-10.

Previous Page Next Page






Rudý srpen Czech Roter August German Agosto rojo Spanish Août rouge French Agustus Merah ID Agosto rosso Italian 赤い八月 Japanese 붉은 8월 Korean Agosto Vermelho Portuguese Rdeči avgust SL

Responsive image

Responsive image