This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #37, Sept. 9,
1966, pp. 5-9. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.
IN the afternoon of August 31, in Peking’s magnificent Tien An Men Square, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the great supreme commander of the great proletarian cultural revolution and our great teacher, great leader and great helmsman, together with other leading comrades of the Party centre, received half a million Red Guards and revolutionary teachers and students from various parts of the country and from the capital.
Chairman Mao, his close comrade-in-arms Comrade Lin Piao, and other leaders of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party: Chou En-lai, Tao Chu, Teng Hsiao-ping, Kang Sheng, Liu Shao-chi, Chu Teh. Li Fu-chun, Chen Yun, Tung Pi-wu, Chen Yi, Ho Lung, Li Hsien-nien, Tan Chen-lin, Nieh Jung-chen, Yeh Chien-ying, Ulanfu, Po I-po, Li Hsueh-feng and Hsieh Fu-chih had their warm meeting with the young revolutionary fighters at a time when China’s great proletarian cultural revolution is surging to a new high tide and this tremendously inspired the soaring fighting will of the young people. The Red Guards and revolutionary teachers and students who came to Peking from all corners of the country gave their solemn pledge to the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman Mao: We will resolutely follow Chairman Mao’s teachings, and we are resolved to follow the example of the People’s Liberation Army, do everything according to the 16-point decision adopted by the Party’s Central Committee and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end!
On that day, countless red flags waved in the breeze in Tien An Men Square. Tens of thousands of Red Guards wearing red arm bands and carrying copies of red-covered Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-tung sang with gusto Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman and other revolutionary songs. The whole square became a surging ocean of red.
At 5:40 in the afternoon, our most respected and beloved leader Chairman Mao, his close comrade-in-arms Comrade Lin Piao, and Comrade Ho Lung arrived in an open car at the Tien An Men Square and drove slowly into the midst of the masses of Red Guards and revolutionary teachers and students. They were accompanied by Comrades Hsieh Fu-chih and Yang Cheng-wu. A mighty, jubilant wave of cheers rose up from the square. Everyone turned to Chairman Mao; people cheered and jumped in their excitement. As Chairman Mao’s car drove slowly around the square, thousands of pairs of eyes filled with deep feelings were turned on him; thousands of revolutionary red hearts turned to the red sun. Cheers of “Long live Chairman Mao” and “Long live, long live Chairman Mao” shook the skies.
Chairman Mao wore an olive-green army uniform. Radiant with vigour and in buoyant spirits, he kept waving to the Red Guards and revolutionary teachers and students.
Following close behind Chairman Mao’s car were Comrades Chou En-lai, Tao Chu, Nieh Jung-chen and Chiang Ching riding in the second car; Comrades Teng Hsiao-ping, Kang Sheng, Liu Shao-chi and Chen Yi in the third car; Comrades Chu Teh, Li Fu-chun, Chen Yun and Tung Pi-wu in the fourth car; and Comrades Yeh Chien-ying, Hsiao Hua, Wang Jen-chung, Liu Chih-chien and Chang Chun-chiao in the fifth car. Comrades Yang Yung, Liao Han-sheng, Fu Chung-pi, Wu Teh, Chou Jung-hsin and Yu Sang rode in the car that served as the guide for Chairman Mao and the other leading comrades of the Party centre.
After driving around the square, Chairman Mao and other leading comrades of the Party centre mounted the Tien An Men rostrum to the sound of a band playing The East Is Red. More than 300 young revolutionary fighters from various parts of the country and Peking who had already gathered there by invitation enthusiastically cheered Chairman Mao and wished him long life. They also put a red scarf and a red arm band of the Red Guards on Chairman Mao.
At 6:40 the rally to receive the revolutionary teachers and students from all parts of the country was declared open by Comrade Chiang Ching, first deputy leader of the group in charge of the cultural revolution under the Party’s Central Committee. Greeting all present on behalf of the cultural revolution group under the Party’s Central Committee, she said: We welcome you warmly and give you revolutionary greetings.
There was prolonged, enthusiastic applause when Comrade Lin Piao began to speak.
CHAIRMAN MAO SAYS:
“You should pay attention to state affairs and carry the
great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end!”
—Speaking on August 10 to Peking’s revolutionary masses celebrating the Party Central Committee’s Decision Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
Chou En-lai spoke next
Speaking at the rally, the revolutionary students of Peking extended an enthusiastic welcome to their revolutionary comrades-in-arms from all parts of the country.
Revolutionary students from east, northeast, north, central-south, southwest and northwest China also spoke at the rally. They declared:
“We feel boundlessly happy now that we stand by the side of our respected and beloved leader Chairman Mao. We are here to learn from the Red Guards of the capital. We are here to learn successful experience. We are determined to carry back with us the dauntless revolutionary spirit of Peking’s Red Guards, the spirit of daring to think, to speak out, to do, to break through and to make revolution so that all of China will be set ablaze by the revolutionary flame of Mao Tse-tung’s thought.”
These revolutionary students said:
“With the great helmsman Chairman Mao steering for us and with the brilliant Mao Tse-tung’s thought lighting our way of advance, we are dauntless. We are fully confident and resolved to create a completely new world with our own hands. Through this great proletarian cultural revolution, we shall eradicate the roots of revisionism in our country so that our beloved motherland will for ever keep its bright red colour!”
“The banner and arm band of the Red Guard fighters are a bright red, and so are our hearts. Completely loyal, we’ll follow the Party and Chairman Mao for ever to make revolution and carry it through to the end!”
“We Red Guards follow Chairman Mao’s teachings most faithfully. We’ll work hard to learn from the People’s Liberation Army. We’ll seriously study the 16 Points, know them well and apply them. We’ll persist in carrying on the struggle by reasoning and not by coercion or force. And we pledge to carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end.”
When night fell, the Tien An Men tower and buildings on all sides of the square were brightly lit by a myriad lights. Chairman Mao walked to the east and then to the west end of the rostrum amid cheers from the crowd and waved to them once again. Shouts of “Long live the great proletarian cultural revolution!” “Long live the Communist Party of China!” “Long live the invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung!” and “Long live Chairman Mao!” shook the night skies over the capital.
Jacques Grippa, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Belgian Communist Party, and his wife Madeleine Grippa, who are currently visiting China, also attended the rally by invitation. Chairman Mao greeted them cordially on the Tien An Men rostrum.
Also present at the rally were leaders of the Party and state and leading members of various departments and of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army including: Liu Ning-I, Tsai Chang, Teng Ying-chao. Liao Cheng-chih, Chang Ting-cheng, Hsiao Ching-kuang, Su Yu, Teng Tzu-hui, Chang Yun-yi, Hu Chiao-mu, Yang Hsiu-feng, Wu Hsiu-chuan, Chien Ying, Hsu Kuang-ta, Wang Chen, Tseng Shan, Lu Cheng-tsao. Wang Shu-sheng, Li Tao, Chen Chi-han, Li Chih-min, Su Chen-hua, Chang Lin-chih, Hsu Ping, Sung Shih-lun, Chung Chi-kuang, Chen Cheng-jen, Tao Lu-chia, Kung Yuan, Fang Yi, Sun Chih-yuan, Chang Ai-ping, Yao Yi-lin. Li Tien-yu, Wang Hsin-ting, Hsu Li-ching, Yuan Tzu-chin, Chou Shih-ti, Chu Liang-tsai, Chiu Hui-tso, Chang Chih-ming, Wu Fa-hsien, Yu Li-chin, Li Chu-kuei, Chung Chih-ping, Lo Shun-chu, Wu Ke-hua, Chen Jen-chi, Huang Chih-yung, Chen Shih-chu, Tan Fu-jen, Tsui Tien-min, Tsai Shun-li, Kung Shih-chuan, Li Tso-peng, Chiang Wen, Chen Ho-chiao, Wang Shao-nan, Huang Tso-chen, Hsieh Tang-chung, Wang Li, Kuan Feng, Chi Pen-yu, Mu Hsin, Yao Wen-yuan, Kuo Mo-jo, Yang Ming-hsuan, Cheng Chien, Chang Chih-chung, Chou Chien-jen, Yu Chiu-li, Ku Mu, Lu Tung, Tuan Chun-yi, Liu Chieh, Wang Cheng, Fang Chiang, Wang Ping-chang, Li Ssu-kuang, Lai Chi-fa, Chiang Kuang-nai, Sun Ta-kuang, Chu Hsueh-fan, Fu Tso-yi, Yuan Pao-hua, Sha Chien-li, Lin Hai-yun, Hsu Teh-heng, Hsiao Wang-tung, Ho Wei, Chang Hsi-jo, Kang Shih-en, Yang Chi-ching, Wang Tung-hsing, Yung Wen-tao, Hsiung Fu, Tang Ping-chu, Tung Hsiao-peng, Tseng Ti, Hsieh Yu-fa, Wang Ping, Ma Chun-ku, Wang Tao-yi, Kao Chung-min, Tsai Ting-kai, Shen Yen-ping, Hsieh Hsueh-kung, Su Chien-yi and Ma Li.
Chairman Mao’s Heart Is One With the Hearts Of the Revolutionary Masses
The good news of Chairman Mao’s reception in the capital of the Red Guards and revolutionary teachers and students from all parts of China spread swiftly to every corner of the country. It was greeted enthusiastically by the Red Guards, revolutionary teachers and students and the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers of Canton, Wuhan, Shenyang, Tientsin, Chengtu, Nanking, Urumchi, Kunming and other places. It was greeted as the greatest support and encouragement given by Chairman Mao to the revolutionary masses throughout the country, and giving tremendous fresh impetus to the current great proletarian cultural revolution. They took to the streets and held parades or celebration meetings. With revolutionary fervour, they declared: We will resolutely follow Chairman Mao’s teachings, respond to the calls given out in the speeches of Comrades Lin Piao and Chou En-lai, take Mao Tse-tung’s thought as our compass, learn with zealous enthusiasm from the People’s Liberation Army, and carry out the 16 Points seriously, fully, thoroughly and without reservation. We will persist in carrying on the struggle by reasoning: we will smash those in authority who are taking the capitalist road and all ghosts and monsters, pull them down and completely discredit them. We will win a complete victory for the great proletarian cultural revolution.
The revolutionary masses everywhere exulted: The situation in the great cultural revolution is excellent! What the young revolutionary fighters are doing is fine! We support the revolutionary actions of the Red Guards most resolutely; we salute them, shall learn from them, and vow to stand four-square behind them. They declared: the 16 Points represent the latest development of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. Acting in accordance with this great programme, we shall be able to win complete victory in the great cultural revolution.
Young Red Guard fighters in various parts of the country said: This news has further strengthened our determination to carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end. Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts; he is our great supreme commander. We will absolutely follow his teachings, do what the great supreme commander has taught us to do, and temper the Red Guards into a fighting detachment truly armed with Mao Tse-tung’s thought, a highly organized and disciplined fighting detachment with a high level of political consciousness. We will successfully fulfil the great and glorious tasks of struggling against and crushing those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, criticizing and repudiating reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes, and transforming education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base. We will sweep away all pests and let Mao Tse-tung’s thought illuminate all of China and the whole world!
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