| How the Communist Party Sabotages Traditional Chinese Culture |
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| Evil CCP - Destroy tradition | |
| Written by Quit CCP Service Center | |
| Saturday, 02 August 2008 02:57 | |
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China is the only country in the world whose ancient civilization has been passed down continuously for over 5,000 years. Destruction of its traditional culture is an unforgivable crime.
How the Communist Party Sabotages Traditional Culture 1. Simultaneously Extinguishing the Three Religions The traditional Chinese culture is rooted in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Starting in August 1966, the raging fire of the 'Casting Away the Four Olds' i.e., old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits, burned the entire land of China. Regarded as objects of 'feudalism, capitalism, and revisionism,' the Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, Buddha statues, historical and scenic sites, calligraphy, paintings, and antiques became the main targets for destruction by the Red Guards. Take the Buddha statues for example. There are 1000 colored, glazed Buddha statues in relief on the top of Longevity Hill in the Summer Palace in Beijing. After the 'Casting Away the Four Olds,' they were all damaged. None of them has a complete set of the five sensory organs any more. 2. A Special Way to Destroy Religion In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Buddha Shakyamuni predicted that after his nirvana, demons would be reincarnated as monks, nuns, and male and female lay Buddhists to subvert the Dharma. The CCP's destruction of Buddhism indeed started with forming a 'united front' with some Buddhists. They even sent some underground communist party members to infiltrate the religion directly and subvert it from within. In a criticism meeting during the Cultural Revolution, someone questioned Zhao Puchu, vice president of the Chinese Buddhists Association at the time, 'You are a Communist Party member, why do you believe in Buddhism?' In 1952, the CCP sent representatives to attend the inaugural meeting of the Chinese Buddhists Association. At the meeting, many Buddhists in the association proposed to abolish the Buddhist precepts. They claimed that these disciplines had caused the death of many young men and women. Some people even advocated that people should be free to believe in any religion. There should also be freedom for the monks and nuns to get married, to drink alcohol, and to eat meat. Nobody should interfere with these. The Chinese Buddhists Association founded in 1952 and the Chinese Taoist Association founded in 1957, both clearly declared in their founding statements that they would be 'under the leadership of the People's government.' In reality, they would be under the leadership of the atheistic CCP. Both associations indicated that they would actively participate in production and construction activities, and implement government policies. They were transformed into completely secular organizations. Yet the Buddhists and Taoists who were devoted and abided by the precepts were labeled as counter-revolutionaries or members of superstitious sects and secret societies. Under the revolutionary slogan of 'purifying the Buddhists and Taoists,' they were imprisoned, forced to reform through labor, or even executed. Even religions spread from the West, such as Christianity and Catholicism were not spared. 3. 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. 4. Destruction of Spiritual Beliefs 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.' 5. 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 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. 6. Reforming Intellectuals The CCP’s persecution of intellectuals started with various forms of accusations, ranging from the 1951 criticism of Wu Xun for “running schools with begged money” to Mao Zedong’s personal attack, in 1955, on writer Hu Feng as a counter-revolutionary. In the beginning, the intellectuals were not categorized as a reactionary class, but by 1957, after several major religious groups had surrendered through the “unified front” movement, the CCP could focus its energy on the intellectuals. The “Anti-Rightist” movement was thus launched. Chinese tradition has it that “scholars can be killed but cannot be humiliated.” The CCP was capable of humiliating intellectuals by denying their right to survive and even incriminating their families unless they accepted humiliation. Many intellectuals did surrender. During the course, some of them told on others to save themselves, which broke many people’s hearts. Those who did not submit to humiliation were killed—serving as examples to terrorize other intellectuals. The traditional “scholarly class,” exemplars of social morality, was thus obliterated. 7. Creating the Appearance of Culture by Keeping the Semblance of Tradition but Replacing the Contents After the CCP adopted economic reform and an open-door policy, it renovated many churches as well as Buddhist and Taoist temples. It also organized some temple fairs in China as well as cultural fairs overseas. This was the last effort of the CCP to utilize and destroy the remaining traditional culture. There were two reasons for the CCP to do so. On the one hand, the kindness inherent in human nature, which the CCP could not possibly eradicate, will lead to the destruction of the “Party culture.” On the other hand, the CCP intended to use traditional culture to apply cosmetics to their [true] face in order to cover up their evil nature of “deceit, wickedness and violence.” The essence of culture is its inner moral meaning, while the superficial forms have only entertainment value. The CCP restored the superficial elements of culture, which entertain, to cover up its purpose of destroying morality. No matter how many art and calligraphy exhibits the CCP has organized, how many culture festivals with dragon and lion dances it has staged, how many food festivals it has hosted, or how much classical architecture it has built, the Party is simply restoring the superficial appearance, but not the essence, of the culture. In the meantime, the CCP promoted its cultural showpieces both inside and outside of China basically for the sole purpose of maintaining political power. Once again, temples are an example. Temples are meant to be places for people to cultivate, hearing bells in the morning and drums at sunset, worshiping Buddha under burning oil lamps. People in ordinary human society can also confess and worship there. Cultivation requires a pure heart that pursues nothing. Confession and worship also require a serious and solemn environment. However, temples have been turned into tourist resorts for the sake of economic profits. The Party Culture
- Excerpt from 'part 6, On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture', Nine Commentaries
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