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Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
Down With The Prince Of Hell, Liberate
The Little Devil – A Talk With Such
Comrades As K’ang ShengFebruary 28, 1966
[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.]
Wu Han[1] has made public so many essays. They never had to be made known. They never had to be approved. So why do the essays of Yao Wen-yuan[2] have to be made known? Do you mean to say that the decisions of the central government are of no consequence? People who confiscate and suppress the manuscripts of the leftists and protect the rightists are of the university clique. The Central Ministry of Propaganda is the palace of the prince of Hell. It is necessary to overthrow the palace of the Prince of Hell and liberate the Little Devil. I have always advocated that whenever the central organs do something wrong, it is necessary to call upon the local authorities to rebel and attack the central government. The local areas must produce several more Sun Wu-k’ung[3] to vigorously create a disturbance at the palace of the king of heaven. If P’eng Chen, the Peking Municipal Party Committee, and the Central Ministry of Propaganda again protect the bad people, then it will be necessary to dissolve the Peking Municipal Committee, and it will be necessary to dissolve the Five-Man Group.[4] Last September, I asked some of the comrades what should be done if revisionism emerged in the central government? This is very possible, and it is also the most dangerous situation: to protect rightists, cultivate the ranks of the rightists in the course of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
Notes
[1.] Wu Han, see note 1 of p 229 of this volume.
[2.] Yao Wen-yuan, see note 8 on p 231 of this volume.
[3.] Sun Wu-kung, is the monkey king in the Chinese novel Hsi Yu Chi (Pilgrimage to the West) written in the 16th century.
[4.] Peng Chen, the then Mayor of Peking and a Polit Bureau member. He was a close confidant of Liu Shao-Chi. The ‘Group of Five’ was set up in early 1966, under the leadership of P’eng Chen, and produced a report dated 7 February which sought to orient the Cultural Revolution in the direction of academic and ideological debate rather than ‘class struggle’. This was revoked by a circular of the Central Committee dated 16 May, drawn up under Mao’s personal guidance, which also dissolved the ‘Group of Five’ and set up the new ‘Cultural Revolution Group’ directly under the Standing Committee of the Politburo. The circular is given below:
Circular of the CC of the CPC on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution