Destruction of Cultural Relics
The ruination of cultural relics is an important part of the CCP�s destruction of traditional culture. In the �Casting Away of the Four Olds,� many one-of-a-kind books, calligraphies and paintings that had been collected by intellectuals were committed to flames or shredded into paper pulp. Zhang Bojun [55] had a family collection of over 10,000 books. The Red Guard leaders used them to make a fire to warm themselves. What was left was sent to paper mills and shredded into paper pulp.
The calligraphy and painting mounting specialist, Hong Qiusheng, was an elderly man known as the �miracle doctor� for ancient calligraphy and paintings. He has mounted countless world-class masterpieces, such as Song Emperor Huizong�s [56] painting of scenery, Su Dongpo�s [57] painting of bamboo, and the paintings of Wen Zhengming [58] and Tang Bohu [59]. Over several decades, most of the hundreds of ancient calligraphy and paintings that he had rescued had become a first class national collection. The calligraphy and paintings that he had spared no pains in collecting were labeled as �Four Olds� and were committed to flames. Afterwards, Mr. Hong said in tears, �Over 100 jin [60] (50 kilograms) of calligraphy and paintings; it took such a long time to burn them!�[61]
�While worldly matters come and go,
Ancient, modern, to and fro,
Rivers and mountains are changeless in their glory
And still to be witnessed from this trail. �� [62]
If today�s Chinese people were still to remember some of their history, they would probably feel differently when they recite this poem by Meng Haoran. The famous mountain and river historical sites have been ruined and have disappeared in the storm of the �Casting Away the Four Olds.� Not only was the Orchid Pavilion, where Wang Xizhi [63] wrote the famous �Prologue to the Collection of Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion,� [64] destroyed, Wang Xizhi�s own grave was ruined as well. Wu Cheng�en�s [65] former residence in Jiangsu Province was demolished, Wu Jingzi�s [66] former residence in Anhui Province was smashed, the stone tablet that had Su Dongpo�s handwritten article The Roadside Hut of the Old Drunkard [67] was pushed over by the �young revolutionists,� [68] and the characters on the stone tablet were scraped off.
The essence of Chinese culture has been inherited and accumulated over several thousand years. Once destroyed, it cannot be restored. Yet the CCP has barbarously destroyed it in the name of �revolution� without sorrow or shame. When we sighed over the Old Summer Palace, which is known as the �palace of palaces,� being burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces, when we sighed over the monumental work of the Yongle Encyclopedia [69] being destroyed by invader�s flames of war, how could we have anticipated that the destruction caused by the CCP would be so much more widespread, long lasting and thorough than that caused by any invaders?
Destruction of Spiritual Beliefs
In addition to destroying the physical forms of religion and culture, the CCP has also used its utmost capacity to destroy people�s spiritual identity formed by faith and culture.
Take the CCP�s treatment of ethnic beliefs for example. The CCP considered the traditions of the Hui Muslim group to be one of the �Four Olds��old thought, culture, tradition, habit. Therefore, it forced the Hui people to eat pork. Muslim peasants and mosques were required to raise pigs, and each household had to furnish two pigs to the country every year. The Red Guards even forced the second highest Tibetan living Buddha, the Panchen Lama, to eat human excrement. They ordered three monks from Temple of Bliss located in Harbin city, Heilongjiang Province, which is the biggest Buddhist temple built in modern times (1921), to hold a poster board that said, �The hell with sutras�they are full of shit.�
In 1971, Lin Biao [70], the Vice Chairman of the CCP�s central committee, attempted to escape China but was killed when his plane crashed in Undurkhan, Mongolia. Later, in Lin�s Beijing residence at Maojiawan, some Confucian quotations were found. The CCP then started a frantic movement of �Criticizing Confucius.� A writer pen-named Liang Xiao [71] published an article in The Red Flag, the CCP�s banner magazine, entitled �Who is Confucius?� The article described Confucius as a �madman who wanted to turn history backward,� and a �deceptive and shrewd demagogue.� A series of cartoons and songs followed, demonizing Confucius.
In this way, the dignity and sacredness of religion and culture were annihilated.
Endless Destruction
In ancient China, the central government only extended its rule to the county level, below which patriarchal clans maintained autonomous control. So in Chinese history, the destruction, such as the �burning of books and the burying of Confucian scholars� by Emperor Qin Shi Huang [72] in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) and the four campaigns to eliminate Buddhism between the fifth and tenth century by the �Three Wus and One Zong,� all were imposed from the top down, and could not possibly eradicate the culture. Confucian and Buddhist classics and ideas continued to survive in the vast spaces of society. In contrast, the campaign of �Casting Away the Four Olds� by teenage students incited by the CCP was a nationwide grass-roots movement with �spontaneous enthusiasm.� The CCP�s extension to every village through village-level Party branches controlled the society so tightly that the CCP�s �revolutionary� movement extended without end and affected every person on every inch of land in China.
Never in history had any emperor eradicated from people�s minds what they considered to be the most beautiful and the most sacred, using slanderous and insulting propaganda in addition to violence, as the CCP has. Elimination of belief can often be more effective and long-lasting than physical destruction alone.
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