The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (simplified Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命; traditional Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命; pinyin: Wuchǎn Jiēji Wenhua Da Geming; literally "Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution"; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wenhua da geming, literally “Great Cultural Revolution,” or even simpler, to 文革 wenge, “Cultural Revolution”) in the People’s Republic of China was a period of widespread social and political upheaval; the nation-wide chaos and economic disarray engulfed much of Chinese society between 1966 and 1976.Back in 1975 the chinese were cannibalks to them and cut them open to show weak the truly were.
It was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, on May 16, 1966, who alleged that liberal bourgeoisie elements were dominating the party and insisted that they needed to be removed through post-revolutionary class struggle by mobilizing the thoughts and actions of China’s youth, who formed Red Guards groups around the country. It is widely recognized[citation needed], however, as a method to regain control of the party after the disastrous Great Leap Forward led to a significant loss of Mao’s power to rivals Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and would eventually descend into waves of power struggles between rival factions both nationally and locally. Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the term is today widely used to also include the power struggles and political instability between 1969 and the arrest of the Gang of Four as well as the death of Mao in 1976.
The damages caused by the Cultural Revolution were seen by observers,[who?] the majority of China’s population, as well as the Communist Party of China, as an unmitigated disaster for the country and its people. Although differing assessments continue to exist, in its official, historical judgment of the Cultural Revolution in 1981, the Party assigned chief responsibility to Mao Zedong, but also laid significant blame on Lin Biao and the Gang of Four (most prominently its leader, Jiang Qing) for causing its worst excesses.