The Five Man Group (; also known as the Group of Five, bearing in mind the gendered English translation of 'Five Man' is ungendered in Chinese) was an informal committee established in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

in early 1965 to explore the potential for a "cultural revolution" in China. The group was led by

Peng Zhen Peng Zhen (pronounced ; October 12, 1902 – April 26, 1997) was a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party. He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was ...

(the mayor of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

), the fifth most senior member of the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contracti ...

. The Group was said to be tasked with studying popular trends in China's arts and cultural realms. In 1965 the Group commissioned a study of the play ''

Hai Rui Dismissed from Office ''Hai Rui Dismissed from Office'' () is a theatre play notable for its involvement in Chinese politics during the Cultural Revolution. The play itself focused on a Ming Dynasty minister named Hai Rui, who was portrayed as a savior to passive peasa ...

'', written by Vice-Mayor Wu Han, which came under suspicion for being an anti-Mao allegory. The Group then released the ''February Outline'', a document arguing that the play was not of a political nature. Mao became offended by the ''Outline'' and dissolved the group in May 1966, when it was replaced by the

Cultural Revolution Group The (Central) Cultural Revolution Group (CRG or CCRG; ) was formed in May 1966 as a replacement organisation to the Central Committee Secretariat and the "Five Man Group", and was initially directly responsible to the Standing Committee of the Po ...

. Mao argued that

Yao Wenyuan Yao Wenyuan (January 12, 1931 – December 23, 2005) was a Chinese literary critic, a politician, and a member of the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution. Biography Yao Wenyuan was born in Zhuji, Zhejiang, to an intellectual f ...

hadn't focused on the word 'dismissed' in the title of the play, which, according to Mao, was the crucial word since the play had been written not long after Marshal Peng Dehuai had been dismissed. Peng Zhen still argued that the play was not political since Wu Han had no organisational ties with Peng Dehuai. Peng Zhen was subsequently purged.

Origins

Throughout the 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong had become increasingly concerned with the prevailing bourgeois culture and attitudes of Communist China. Mao viewed these attitudes as symptomatic of fundamental problems in Chinese society – problems which needed to be resolved. At a meeting of the Politburo in January 1965, Mao called on his

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featu ...

colleagues to initiate a revolution in China's culture, and the meeting established the Five Man Group under Peng Zhen (the fifth most senior member of the Politburo) to oversee and co-ordinate this planned revolution. Of the five members of the group, only

Kang Sheng Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolu ...

could be considered to be a firm supporter of Mao. The other members were

Lu Dingyi Lu Dingyi (; June 9, 1906 – May 9, 1996) was a leader of the Chinese Communist Party. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China and before the Cultural Revolution, he was credited as one of the top officials in socialist cult ...

, the head of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...

's Propaganda Department, Wu Lengxi, the editor of the

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...

, and Zhou Yang.MacFarquhar & Schoenhals, p. 27 and 28

Role in the build-up to the Cultural Revolution

From January to November 1965, the Five Man Group was essentially dormant, playing little part in the events that were to precede the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

.Meisner, p. 331 However, the publication of

's criticism of Wu Han's play ''

Hai Rui Dismissed From Office ''Hai Rui Dismissed from Office'' () is a theatre play notable for its involvement in Chinese politics during the Cultural Revolution. The play itself focused on a Ming Dynasty minister named Hai Rui, who was portrayed as a savior to passive peasa ...

'' spurred the group into action. Technically, the Five Man Group had to be consulted before attacks on senior figures like Wu Han were made, and Yao's failure to do this displeased Peng. He was not prepared to allow the academic criticism of Wu Han's play to develop into a political debate, and so he moved to block the distribution of Yao Wenyuan's politically motivated article. In February 1966, Peng attacked Yao and other Maoist writers for "treating a purely academic question in political terms", and by spring 1966 the group had successfully managed to keep the debate over ''Hai Rui Dismissed From Office'' as purely an academic one. Concerned that the group was stifling the development of the Cultural Revolution, Mao engineered the dissolution of the Five Man Group in the May 16th Circular. The same document condemned Peng Zhen for obstructing the Cultural Revolution, and replaced the group with the

, an organisation of Maoist supporters that would bring a significantly more radical thrust to the Cultural Revolution.Meisner, p. 332MacFarquhar & Schoenhals, p. 33 In the subsequent months, Peng and his supporters were dismissed from their offices, with the mayor of Beijing becoming the first major casualty of the movement. Lu Dingyi, the head of the party's propaganda department, was also purged.

Notes

References

* MacFarquhar, R and Schoenhals, M; ''Mao's Last Revolution''; Belknap Harvard (2006) * Meisner, M; ''Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic Since 1949''; Free Press (1986) {{Cultural Revolution Organizations in Cultural Revolution Organizations established in 1964