Attacks on Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and ancestor worship

Religious attacks

Religious persecution

Part of the destruction of the Four Olds was religious persecution. Religious and historical sites were destroyed as religion was seen as an instrument used by the elite to control the masses and as part of foreign infiltration. They were also depicted as superstitions.

Cemeteries, churches, monasteries, mosques and temples were raided and destroyed. The clergy, nuns and monks were arrested and sent to re-education camps.

Glossary of Terms

Cultural Revolution

A sociopolitical movement in China launched by Mao Tse-tung from 1966-1976

Red Guards

A paramilitary social movement comprised of Chinese students from universities and colleges who rebelled against their anti-revolutionary teachers

Zhishi Qingnian

Translated as sent-down youths, they were educated youth who were sent to rural areas to do agrarian chores as part of re-education

Gang of Four

The group comprised of Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan and had a political struggle in 1973 with Zhou and Deng's group

Dazibao

Translated as 'big character poster', a poster mounted on a wall usually used to issue complaints against the government or local officials

Religious Persecution

Mistreatment of a group of people with regards to their religious beliefs caused by political factors or bigotry

Triangular Diplomacy

A US foreign policy developed by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to improve American diplomatic relations with the USSR and China

Shanghai People's Commune

A radical and socialist revolutionary group composed of Red Guards and patterned after the Paris Commune

Down to the Countryside Movement

A policy instituted in the PRC that sent certain privileged urban youth to mountainous areas or farming villages to learn from the workers and farmers there

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