Four Olds

The remains of the Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620) at the Ming dynasty tombs. Red Guards dragged the remains of the emperor and of his empresses to the front of the tomb, where they denounced and burned them.[1]

The Four Olds (simplified Chinese: 四旧; traditional Chinese: 四舊; pinyin: sì jiù) refer to categories used by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution to characterize elements of Chinese culture prior to the Chinese Communist Revolution that they were attempting to destroy. The Four Olds were 'old ideas', 'old culture', 'old customs', and 'old habits'.[a][2] During the Red August of 1966, shortly after the onset of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards' campaign to destroy the Four Olds began amid the massacres being carried out in Beijing.[3][4]

  1. ^ Melville, Sheila (7 September 2011). "China's Reluctant Emperor". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  2. ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) [1990]. The Search for Modern China (2nd ill. ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. p. 575. ISBN 978-0-393-97351-8.
  3. ^ Wang, Youqin (2001). "Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966" (PDF). University of Chicago. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 April 2020.
  4. ^ Law, Kam-yee, ed. (2003). The Chinese cultural revolution reconsidered: beyond purge and holocaust. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-73835-1.


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