Another example of Cultural Revolution printing errors

The first proper post I ever wrote on this blog dealt with printing errors in Cultural Revolution publications. Browsing through my books yesterday, I unexpectedly came across another, much more egregious, example of an error-prone publication. The book is Study Materials for the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius Campaign, published in February 1974 in Shayang County, Hubei Province. The lack of any reference code or publishing information suggests that this title was issued in a low print run, perhaps with minimal editorial supervision:

  

All in all, the book contains 35 errors, helpfully outlined on a paper insert tucked inside the book:

   
 Of particular importance is that in two cases (the bold characters) a quote from Mao was printed incorrectly: in one case, a period has been printed instead of a comma; in the other, three characters have been ommitted. My impression is that this book was compiled hastily with the typsetter under pressure to cull materials from national and provincial newspapers and magazines.

Very Heroic Little Red Guards

Today’s blog post is being composed in limited circumstances in a plane over the Pacific. As I have been doing over the past few days, here is another translation of a children’s song from towards the end of the Cultural Revolution. To see other songs, check out posts from previous days!

红小兵多豪迈

小笔杆拿起来，红小兵多豪迈，嘿，多豪迈。

批林批孔齐上阵，口诛笔伐好气派。

大字报呀，一排排呀，好象重炮射出来，射出来。

批判封资修反动思想，教育革命鲜花开，鲜花开，鲜花开！朝前迈！

大红旗举起来，红小兵多豪迈，嘿，多豪迈。

坚持真理学马列，毛主席教导记心怀。

敢斗争呀，反潮流呀，革命熔炉里炼成材，炼成材。

学习工农兵好榜样，继续革命朝前迈，朝前迈，鲜花开！朝前迈！

Very Heroic Little Red Guards

Picking up their pens, the Little Red Guards are very heroic, hey, very heroic.

Everyone joins the battle to Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius, with word and pen criticising in an imposing manner.

Oh big-character posters, row upon row like heavy artillery firing, firing away.

Criticise feudalism, capitalism and revisionism, three reactionary ideologies. The education revolution blooms like a flower, blooms like a flower, blooms like a flower. Advance ever forwards!

Raising the giant Red Flag, the Little Red Guards are very heroic, hey, very heroic.

Uphold the truth and study Marxism-Leninism, keep Chairman Mao’s teachings in your heart.

Dare to struggle! Go against the tide! Grow, grow in the furnace of revolution.

Learn from the glorious example of workers, peasants and soldiers, continue revolution and advance ever forwards, advance ever forwards! The revolution blossoms like a flower, advance ever forewards!

Strike two poisonous snakes at once

Although all the songs in “Selected Songs for Young Children Volume 5” are highly political in content, they are not always  and uniform in tone and subject. Take, for example, the two songs I have chosen to translate for today:

  

两条毒蛇一齐打

红小兵（嘿）斗志昂，立志革命开红花，批林批孔冲在前，孔孟之道踩脚下。

两条毒蛇一齐打，反修防修决心大，两条毒蛇一齐打，反修防修决心大，铲毒草，肥庄稼，红色江山飞彩霞。

Strike two poisonous snakes at once

The Little Red Guards (hey) have a strong will to fight, devoting ourselves to revolution we become red flowers.  Take the lead in criticising Lin Biao and Confucius, tread the Way of Confucius and Mencius underfoot.

Strike two poisonous snakes at once, oppose and prevent revisionism with a resolute heart. Strike two poisonous snakes at once, oppose and prevent revisionism with a resolute heart. Cleanse poisonous weeds, nourish the crops, create a glorious red Jiangshan.

  
一代更比一代强

我们这一代，青春似朝阳，文化大革命把我们锻炼成钢。

敢于反潮流，永远跟着党，筑起反修防修的铁壁铜墙。

千百万小将来接班，一代更比一代强，一代更比一代强。

Each generation is stronger than the last

We of this generation are China’s glorious youth. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has forged us into steel.

Dare to go against the tide, follow the Party forever, become a solid wall to oppose and prevent revisionism.

We are one thousand million little generals ready to inherit the revolution. Each generation is stronger than the last, each generation is stronger than the last.

Little Red Guards lead the charge

   
 Following on from yesterday’s post, here are two more translated songs from “Selected Songs for Young Children Volume 5”, published by People’s Literature Publishing House in June 1974 (full reference: 《少年儿童歌曲选》（第五集），人民文学出版社，1974年). The translation is a little crude – unfortunately, there is no way to capture the rhythm of the original Chinese.

  

红小兵批林批孔打冲锋

战鼓响咚咚，怒火烧在胸，我们红小兵齐呀齐行动。

批判会，大字报，口诛笔伐猛进攻。

反复辟，反倒退，红小兵批林批孔打冲锋。

嘿！嘿！

红小兵呀，齐行动，批林批孔打冲锋。

反复辟，反倒退，红小兵批林批孔打冲锋。

In the fight to Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius, Little Red Guards lead the charge

The drums of battle ring “dong”, “dong”, the fire of fury burns in our chests. We Little Red Guards, together, together we strike.

Criticism meetings, big-character posters,  ferocious assaults with word and pen.

Oppose reversal, oppose restoration, in the fight to Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius, Little Red Guards lead the charge.

Hey! Hey!

We Little Red Guards act together, leading the attack on Lin Biao and Confucius.

Oppose reversal, oppose restoration, in the fight to Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius, Little Red Guards lead the charge.

   
 

要做教育革命小闯将

红旗在校园飘扬，阳光照亮了课堂，我们红小兵立场坚定，要为教育革命贡献力量。

不做 “小绵羊”，要当小闯将，流毒要肃清，思想要解放。

批判修正主义教育路线，坚持无产阶级政治方向。

沿着毛主席的革命路线，我们好好学习天天向上。

我们好好学习天天向上。

我们奔向农村工厂，嘹亮歌声传遍了四方，我们红小兵朝气蓬勃，要为教育革命贡献力量。

开门办学校，社会做课堂，学习有方向，心红斗志昂。

学习工农兵的光辉榜样，树立为人民服务的崇高思想。

沿着毛主席的革命路线，我们好好学习天天向上。

我们好好学习天天向上。

Take the lead in the education revolution

The Red Flag flutters in campuses, the sun brightens the classrooms. We Little Red Guards are resolute: we must commit our strength to the education revolution.

Don’t be hesitant, be in the vanguard. Get rid of pernicious remnants and liberate your thoughts!

Criticise the revisionist line in education, uphold the way of proleterian politics.

Following Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, we study to improve every day.

We study to improve every day.

We rush to the countryside and to the factories, spreading our loud and clear message in all directions. We Little Red Guards are full of youthful spirit: we must commit our strength to the education revolution.

Study for all, society as a classroom, study with a purpose, with red hearts and a will to fight.

Learn from the glorious example of workers, peasants and soldiers, and make serving the people take root.

Following Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, we study to improve every day.

We study to improve every day.

Smash the stronghold of Confucianism!

There were many faces to the 1974-1976 Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius campaign including high level political struggle, score-settling at the grassroots, new research on Chinese history and a new lease of life for Chinese archaeology. The campaign also represented a chance to get youth involved once again in making revolution, leading to the publication of dozens of books devoted to revolutionising children and teenagers. Here is a photograph of one such example – “Selected Songs for Young Children Volume 5”, published by People’s Literature Publishing House in June 1974 (full reference: 《少年儿童歌曲选》（第五集），人民文学出版社，1974年).

  
At its time of publication, the Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius movement was running at full speed throughout China, a fact reflected in its front cover:

  
Two revolutionary children hold a rolled sheet of paper, perhaps a big-character poster, bodies arched towards the presumed target of their denunciation. Notice the absence of weaponry; here, as in many other images from the campaign, the weapon of criticism is pen and paper. The outstretched arms of the young girl and the body language of both children is mirrored in an illustration accompanying the first song in the compilation, entitled “Criticise Lin and criticise Confucius with the will to fight” and to be sung “resolutely, with force and with a little speed”:

   
 
What follows is a transcription of the lyrics and a rough translation.
战鼓咚咚敲，军号达达响，红小兵斗志高，斗志高。

批林批孔当闯将，革命烈火胸中烧。

砸烂孔家店！

批臭贼林彪！

反对倒退，反对复辟，掀起革命高潮！

The drums of battle go ‘dong’, ‘dong’, the bugles go ‘da’, ‘da’. The Little Red Guards have the will to fight.

We are the vanguard of the Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius campaign, with the fires of revolution burning in our hearts.

Smash the stronghold of Confucianism!

Criticise the dirty traitor Lin Biao!

Oppose reversal, oppose restoration, start a revolutionary tidal wave!

***

Over the next few days, I will post some more translations of songs from this book, if only to show the enormous variety of subjects these songs could cover.

A Rhyming Dictionary from the Cultural Revolution, 1975

Literati scholars in the Ming dynasty used to go out to parties armed with rhyming dictionaries, an indespensable tool when the time came to engage in poetry composition bouts with fellow party-goers. These manuals grouped characters together by sound, allowing users to quickly identify characters that fit a particular rhyming scheme.

Fastforward to Shanghai in 2015. One sunday, I was browsing at the popular 文庙 book fair (a frequent haunt of PRC historians) and found a floppy, green plastic bound rhyming dictionary about the same size as a standard copy of Quotations of Chairman Mao. The full title of the book is “Contemporary Rhyming Dictionary”, published in a run of 300,000 copies by the Guangxi People’s Publishing House in January 1975 (full reference: 《现代诗韵》，秦似编著，广西人民出版社，1975年7月). At the time, the book was relatively cheap, costing only 6 mao.

   
   
The dictionary was compiled by Qin Si (1917-1986), a writer and scholar of linguistics who was also a prominent public intellectual. Although the rhyming dictionary is primarily an achievement of linguistics, from my perspective its most interesting feature is its introduction. At the time the dictionary was published, the Criticize Lin, Criticise Confucius campaign was still being played out in the academic and educational sphere, and the preface clearly reflects the campaign’s radical critique of the past. As page 1 opines, citing the Huainanzi, “the followers of Confucius and Mencius have long claimed that…it was the ‘sage’ Cang Jie who invented Chinese characters. This is all rediculous falsehood.” Citing a quote from Mao that “the people decide the course of history”, the preface places credit for the development of the Chinese writing system, music and poetry firmly with the historical masses.

But once the political messages are out the way, the preface (and indeed the entire book) becomes highly educative. This reflects a trend that I have come to see in publications on Chinese history and culture from the 1970s. Strip away the radical opening sections of the “Contemporary Rhyming Dictionary”, and you are left with a very useful guide to studying Chinese language and culture. In the same vein, turn a blind eye to the radical commentary found in the 1974 officially released version of the Analects and you have a perfectly usable guide to Confucius’ teaching. I have even used the Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius campaign edition of the Analects extensively in my pre-1911 Chinese history seminars!

This rhyming dictionary forms one small part of the huge upsurge in the release of publications and thinking about the past that accompanied the last years of the Cultural Revolution, an upsurge that I hope to investigate further for my Ph.D dissertation. As research from Denise Ho, Dahpon Ho and others has shown, the Cultural Revolution was never entirely about the destruction of all things old. The destruction was at times selective, at times met with opposition, and at times did not happen at all. And after the excitement of “smash the four olds” had dwindled, into the 1970s and the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius campaign, knowledge of ancient China could be a key revolutionary asset.

   
 

Printing errors in two Cultural Revolution books from the 1970s

Despite the complications that ensue when the time comes to cram everything into my travel suitcase, I have a real passion for book collecting. This summer, secondhand book markets in Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai have yielded all kinds of tomes that have interesting and unexpected features. Here are two:
  
On the left is an English language textbook published by the Shanghai Primary and Middle School Teaching Materials Compilation Group (上海市中小学教材编写组) in 1972, while on the right we have a selection of stories featuring individuals in Chinese history who criticised Confucius and Confucianism. The latter was published in a run of 100,000 copies in 1975 by Tianjin People’s Publishing House, and was brought out to coincide with the ongoing movement to Criticise Lin Biao, Criticise Confucius (批林批孔).

Both books were originally sold with a small “erratum” slip of paper inserted inside the front cover. In the case of the English textbook, the publisher failed to notice before printing that the characters for “leader” in the phrase “great leader Chairman Mao” were in the wrong order, i.e. “袖领” instead of “领袖”: 

 
Tianjin People’s Publishing House’s affront to the Chairman was even more serious, in that it printed a book containing an incomplete Mao quote. As the erratum slip points out, the quote is missing the word “历史” (history/historical): 

 
 Seeing this brought to mind that most famous of misprints, the textual error in the very first 1964 edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao, and of course the calligraphy error found in the Lin Biao’s preface to the same edition.

Two questions come to mind that I cannot (at the moment) answer: 1) how and why did these errors, especially the incorrect quote, slip through in the first place?; 2) what, if any, were the repercussions? My impression of the Cultural Revolution has always been that Mao’s words and image were so sacrosanct that anything seen as defiling the Chairman or his Thought would be destroyed. Yet, in both these cases, publishers felt it sufficient to just point out and apologise for the errors. This may well be linked to the cooling off of the Mao cult over the course of the early 1970s. I have never found or heard of any printed books from the late 1960s that contain errors involving Mao and his quotes (if you know of any I would love to hear from you), perhaps a reflection of stricter publishing rules when the Mao cult was at its zenith.