• disagree - went through peak and dip in intensity due to mao achieving his aims of regaining control/destroying all his enemies and thereby pushing back against the violence that he instigated
• initial period focused on anti confucian values and the 4 olds - the destruction of confucianist properties + tradition, burning bourgoisie books, forcing people to chaing bourgoisie clothing and shaving their hair. renaming = an attempt to make thinsg less “fuedal”, as fuedalism = old culture, one of the 4 olds (old culture, ideas, habits and customs)
• from 1966 (start of cr/mass rallies, beginning of ccrg) till 1967, there was a gradfual ascent in revolutionary fevour and violence whipped up by both the red guards and maos personal instigations - initially started as building up of maos cult, as the dismissal of “cpitalist roaders” such as wu han and peng zhen, but as mao further radicalised the red guard and legitimised their violent acts (song binbin put maos bandana on him at first mass rally in 1966, mao told her to change her name to yanhua for “violence” and told the people to “dare to challange authority”), mao’s writings were auctioned off in mass events for “treasure items”, rg focused on changing the names of stuff initially - childrens names to red glory,shop names from ‘fuedal’ normal to “defend mao zedong” or “permanent revolution”, zhou had to stop them from renaming shanghai to “the east is red” or changing the red traffic lights to mean go! loyalty dance before going on trains, a factory where members had to ask a picture of mao for advice at the start of the work dqay and report to him at the end - cr was initially the building and cementing of maos personality cult before anything else more drastic.
• Early phase focused more on cementing Mao’s authority and cult than on violence alone
• what was initially struggle meetings and intimidation gave way to violence: by 1966, 1 person had died before mass rally, by during 67 red august (subset of red terror) an estimated 10000 people were murdered in that month alone, to the point where schools had to be shut down because teachers kept getting persecuted. hit its peak from 67 to 69, as red guards started storming government buildings, took over a foreign embassy for two weeks, “January storm” of 67 as 10000 red guards defeated 20000 scarlet guards somehow??, factionism in red guard led to anarchy as red guards were fighting against one another for “taking advantage of their position”, and now that teh red guard was such an important, powerful organisation backed by mao himself, Radical groups sprang up in anarchic and unco-ordinated attempts to join the violent struggle - in shanxi, a party cadre local leader joined the red guard specifically to be given the authority to personally “dispatch” of his political opponents. in tibet during the anarchy, the red guard were the most organised they had ever been, systematically destroying the tibetan way of like and ransacking their monastaries whenever possible. similar events occured to confucian temples and qing archways/ rtifacts - an estimated 6600 cultural artifacts were lost when 200 teachers and students stormed a confucian temple, ransacking and desecrating it
• according to official documents, they destroyed two-thirds of the 7,000 places of historical and cultural importance in Beijing, where they also broke into over 100,000 homes in search of ‘old’ artefacts - their previously harmless habits not so harmless anymore
• had to be stopped by zhou enlai from destroying “the forbidden city”
• peak of violence is when intensity is highest, most mindless destruction and killings
• between 68 to 76, however, there was a winding down of cr intensity, as mao cracked down on red guard antics now that 4/5 of his opponents were either dead or in excile (especially after main one, liu shaoqi, head of prc, disposed of). pla used to crcxk down on the most radical, as antics could open china up to foreign enemies - 7000 killed in yunnan as part of “enforced suicide”. the red guard complained about a black hand stifling their movements, and mao acknowledged the fact that he was “the black hand”, signifying that the same violence he cultivated and encouraged despiet the opposition of everyone else (february adverse current, flowing against the tide of revolutionary upheval) was what he now wanted to quell since he got his way. “up to the mountains down to the villiages campaign” saw the forced relocation of 18 million red guards to the countryside against their will, and from then on there was very low intensity within the cr, as it mostly focused on gang of fours disparaging of politicl opponents - 1973 cfonfucian campaign for example saw the replacing of shrines with pictures by red gurd and an increase in the red guards role again, but it was used as a means too an end (to criticise lin biao and later zhou enlai of being capitalist roaders) rather than violence for the sake of violence - much more controlled, much less intense
• (Post-1969 phase (especially 1973 Confucian campaign) saw continued Red Guard use, but in a more targeted and politically instrumental way (e.g. attacking Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai), not generalised violence—far less intense and far more controlled.)

chat gpt organised