🏫 Education
The long-term cost was a lost generation. When universities began to reopen in the early 1970s, students were still chosen for their politics, not by exam.
The Cultural Revolution and Its Impact, 1965-76 » The Impact of the Cultural Revolution on China and on Mao
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B4, Key topic 4
- How disorder spread in 1967 and how the army restored control
- What happened to young people, education, culture and the economy
- How Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping fell, and what the Lin Biao affair showed
- How the whole period 1949-76 fits together
The Cultural Revolution began as an attack on Mao's rivals. Its effects were felt by almost everyone in China. This lesson looks at those effects and at what they did to Mao's own position.
Key terms:
- People's Liberation Army (PLA): the army of the Chinese Communist Party and of China.
- Revolutionary committee: a new local government body of 1967-68, usually led by army officers, that replaced the old Party and city leaders.
- Down to the Countryside Movement: the policy, strongest from 1968, of sending young people from the cities to live and work in villages.
🔒 Unlock Full Course Content
Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseDisorder and the army
In 1967 the Red Guards split into rival groups, each claiming to be the true follower of Mao. Factions fought each other in the streets, and some seized power in cities such as Shanghai. Factories stopped, trains ran late and in some places there were gun battles. Local Party leaders had been removed, so nobody was clearly in charge.
Mao turned to the People's Liberation Army, led by his ally Lin Biao. Soldiers took over factories, schools and local government. New revolutionary committees were set up, and army officers held many of the top posts. In 1968 Mao ordered the Red Guards to be disbanded, and the army made sure they obeyed. The army, not the Party, now ran much of China.
Young people sent to the countryside
Millions of former Red Guards were now out of school and out of work. From late 1968 the Down to the Countryside Movement sent them to villages to be “re-educated” by the peasants. The Party said this would teach them about real life. It also removed a dangerous, unruly group from the cities. More than ten million young people were sent, many far from home, and often to hard farm work with little food or comfort. Many missed years of schooling and could not go home for a long time.
Damage to education, culture and the economy
🎭 Culture
Many writers, teachers and scientists were humiliated, jailed or killed. Estimates of the deaths vary widely, from hundreds of thousands to more than a million.
🏭 Economy
Strikes, fighting and broken transport cut industrial output in 1967 and 1968. It recovered in the 1970s, but skilled managers and engineers had been sent away or removed, and progress was slower than it could have been.
The effect on Mao's position
Mao removed his main rivals. Liu Shaoqi, the head of state, was branded a traitor and “capitalist roader”. He was thrown out of the Party in 1968 and died in 1969, after being badly treated. Deng Xiaoping lost all his posts, and in 1969 was sent to work in a factory in Jiangxi province.
In April 1969 the Ninth Party Congress declared the Cultural Revolution a success and named Lin Biao as Mao's successor. But Mao soon began to fear that Lin was too powerful. In September 1971 Lin Biao died in a plane crash in Mongolia. The Party said he had plotted against Mao and was fleeing, though many details have never been clear. This Lin Biao affair shocked many people. Mao's chosen heir had turned out to be his enemy, and some began to doubt the Cultural Revolution.
Even so, Mao stayed supreme until his death on 9 September 1976. No one could openly challenge him. Later, in 1981, the Party said that the Cultural Revolution had been a disaster and that Mao bore the main blame.
Change and continuity, 1949-76
The five themes of this study help to pull the period together.
- Order and disorder: the CCP won the civil war in 1949 and brought order. The Cultural Revolution brought disorder again, until the army stepped in.
- External influences: Soviet help shaped the 1950s. After the split of 1960, China relied on itself.
- Economic change: land reform (from 1950, land taken from landlords and shared out among peasants), collectives, the Great Leap Forward and its famine, then the damage of 1967-68.
- Social change: the Marriage Law of 1950 changed women's lives, but the Cultural Revolution closed universities and sent youth to villages.
- Leadership: the Party stayed in charge and Mao remained the key figure throughout, even when he stepped back.
Common mistakes
Common mistakes
- Saying the army ended the Cultural Revolution. It restored order in 1968, but the Cultural Revolution is dated 1966-76.
- Writing that Mao lost power. He kept it until 1976, even after the Lin Biao affair.
- Giving one effect only. Questions ask for several, such as disorder, lost education and a shaken economy.
- Writing a list with no judgement. Say how far things changed, and what stayed the same.
Exam-style question
How far did the Cultural Revolution change the lives of ordinary Chinese people in the years 1949-76? Explain your answer. [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
- the Down to the Countryside Movement
- land reform
You must also use information of your own.
Model answer
The Cultural Revolution changed ordinary lives a great deal, especially those of the young and educated, but it was not the only major change. My test is how deeply and how widely each change affected people.
For urban young people the Cultural Revolution was a huge change. After the Red Guards were disbanded in 1968, the Down to the Countryside Movement sent more than ten million of them to villages for hard farm work. Schools closed, and universities stayed shut for years, so a generation lost its education. Teachers, writers and scientists were attacked, and many were jailed or killed. In 1967 and 1968 fighting between factions and strikes disrupted cities and cut industrial output, until the army took control.
However, land reform affected far more people. Under the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950, which began land reform, about 300 million peasants received land, and the landlords lost their power. This changed village life completely. The Marriage Law of 1950 also changed life for women, by ending arranged marriages and giving them the right to divorce.
Another change was the Great Leap Forward. The communes of 1958, huge farming units where land and meals were shared, took away the peasants' land, and the great famine of 1959-61 killed millions, with estimates from about 15 million to 45 million. In terms of deaths, this was worse than the Cultural Revolution.
The Cultural Revolution also had long-term effects on ordinary people. Those sent to the villages often returned years later with little schooling, and the shortage of trained managers and engineers held back the economy in the 1970s. Yet most peasants still farmed in communes, as they had since 1958, so daily village life changed less than city life did.
There was also continuity. The Party kept firm control of what people said and did throughout, from Thought Reform, the campaigns to change people's ideas in the early 1950s, to the revolutionary committees of 1968. Mao stayed the key leader until 1976.
In conclusion, the Cultural Revolution changed lives sharply for the educated and the young, and it brought disorder to the cities. But land reform and the Great Leap Forward changed the lives of far more people, and more deeply. So it changed lives greatly, but only for some groups.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers several aspects (young people, land reform, the Great Leap Forward, continuity), weighs both sides and reaches a judgement against a stated test.
Exam tip
In a “how far” question, name your test in the first paragraph and use it again in the conclusion. Cover the whole date range, not only the event in the question.
Recap
- Rival Red Guard groups caused disorder in 1967, and the army under Lin Biao restored control.
- Over ten million young people were sent to the countryside from 1968.
- Education, culture and the economy were all damaged.
- Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping fell, and Lin Biao died in 1971, yet Mao stayed supreme until 1976.
- Across 1949-76 there was great change in land, industry and society, but the Party and Mao stayed in control.