The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also known as the Hundred Flowers Movement (Chinese: 百花齊放; pinyin: Bǎihuā Qífàng) and the Double Hundred Movement (雙百方針; Shuāngbǎi Fāngzhēn), was a period from 1956 to 1957 in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, proposed to "let a hundred flowers bloom in social science and arts and let one hundred points of view be expressed in the field of science." The movement was in part a response to tensions between the CCP and Chinese intellectuals. It encouraged citizens to offer criticism and advice to the government and the party. From the Maoist perspective, the campaign was intended to serve an anti-bureaucratic purpose. The campaign was a relaxation in ideological and cultural policy, and it resulted in an increase of advice and criticism directed at the Party and its policies by those outside its rank.
As criticism increased, the Communist Party began to view it as a threat. A subsequent suppression of criticism developed into the Anti-Rightist Campaign, re-imposing Maoist orthodoxy in public expression.
The campaign
The Hundred Flowers campaign was a period of relaxation in PRC ideological and cultural policy. Mao Zedong proposed to "let one hundred flowers bloom in social science and arts and let one hundred points of view be expressed in the field of science."
The campaign allowed citizens to offer criticism and advice to the government and the party; hence it was intended to serve an antibureaucratic purpose, at least on the Maoists' part. The campaign resulted in a groundswell of criticism aimed at the Party and its policies by those outside its ranks.
Naming
The name of the movement consists two parts. The first part, "Let a hundred flowers bloom," is from the Qing-era novel Flowers in the Mirror by Li Ruzhen; the second part, "Let a hundred schools of thought contend," comes from Treatise on Literature of the Book of Han authored by the Chinese historian Ban Gu:
百花齊放，百家爭鳴
(Bǎihuā qífàng, bǎijiā zhēngmíng)
Translation:
Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.
In the context of the campaign, the origin of the phrase "let a hundred flowers bloom" has been traced to Ministry of Culture figure Zhou Yang who used it in 1951; he may have picked up the phrase from a discussion on Peking opera.
In April 1956, Mao stated that "let a hundred flowers bloom" would be the policy for all arts and sciences. The name was used to arouse the interest of China's intellectuals, referring to the Warring States period when numerous schools of thought competed for ideological, not military, supremacy. Historically, Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism and Taoism had gained prominence, and socialism would now face its test. At the time, the movement was opposed by even some of Mao's most devout followers, as well as some within the academic circle, most notably, Guo Moruo.
Along with the idea of a hundred flowers blooming, other recurring metaphors in newspapers, essays, poetry, and big-character posters included "fragrant flowers", "poisonous weeds", "light wind and fine rain", and others.
Popular slogans in the campaign included "the speaker has no guilt" and "tell all, leave nothing unsaid."
Background
In March 1951, the Peking Opera Research Institute was considered to be expanded and established as the Chinese Opera Research Institute. Mao was invited to inscribe a dedication for the institute. Meanwhile, half of the people argued that Peking Opera is outdated and that revolutionary opera should be promoted. In late March, Mao inscribed a dedication for the establishment of the Chinese Opera Research Institute: "Let a hundred flowers bloom; weed through the old to bring forth the new." Various parties began to use the phrase after its became popular in the context of opera reform; many of these parties used the phrase to call for a pluralistic policy across other artistic fields.
In 1953, Boda Chen, who was in charge of the Committee for the Study of Chinese Historical Issues, sought Mao's guidance on the work principles, to which Chairman Mao responded with four characters: "Let a hundred schools of thought contend."
Until April 1956, in a speech at an expanded meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong said:
In the arts, "a hundred flowers bloom together"; in science, "a hundred schools contend" - the hundred schools contending of the Spring and Autumn [period] and the Warring States -- this should be our policy, this is the opinion of the people from 2,000 years ago.
Throughout the first half of the 1950s, Chinese intellectuals had been treated as one of the "black classes", hostile or at best lukewarm to the Chinese Communist Revolution. There were targeted attacks on intellectuals and their works and efforts were made by the communists to bring them into line. Mao, during a Central Government meeting, even ridiculed liberal thinker Liang Shuming as a "reactionary" and an "ambitious schemer" after Liang dared to criticize the communists for the heavy taxation of peasants. In the second half of 1955, when prominent Marxist writer and literary theorist Hu Feng expressed opposition to the Party's rigid, state-controlled policies on literature and art, a political purge was launched which resulted in the implication and imprisonment of dozens of Chinese intellectuals.
It is suggested that the launching of the campaign was delayed by the shocking impact of the speech denouncing Stalin at the Twentieth Soviet Party Congress in February 1956 delivered by Nikita Khrushchev.
The movement was in part a response to tensions between the CCP and Chinese intellectuals.
Launch (early 1956 – early 1957)
In the opening stage of the movement, issues discussed were relatively minor and unimportant in the grand scheme. Emphasis was placed on a distinction being drawn between "friend and foe". Intellectuals approached the campaign with suspicion, due to a lack of guidelines on what speech was acceptable; few also had suspicions about whether the campaign was bait, and whether disallowed speech would get them in trouble. As a result, the Central Government did not receive much criticism, although there was a significant rise in letters of conservative advice. Premier Zhou Enlai received some of these letters, and once again realized that, although the campaign had gained notable publicity, it was not progressing as had been hoped. Zhou approached Mao about the situation, stating that more encouragement was needed from the central bureaucracy to lead the intellectuals into further discussion. Mao Zedong found the concept interesting and superseded Zhou to take control. Guo Moruo declared that the contending of diverse schools should be guided by the central aim of building a socialist society.
The idea was to have intellectuals discuss the country's problems to promote new forms of arts and new cultural institutions. Mao also saw this as the chance to promote socialism, believing that after discussion it would be apparent that socialist ideology was the dominant ideology over capitalism, even amongst non-communist Chinese, and would thus propel the development and spread of the goals of socialism. To this end, in an attempt to reduce hesitancy, intellectuals were invited to forums in which they were allowed to ask exploratory questions, slowly discovering what was deemed acceptable speech. During this time, criticisms were often indirect and lauded the Hundred Flowers campaign itself. In Lekner's research, it is stated that the conventional understanding of communication and power is inverted during the campaign since the right to speak up and be heard was not the right reserved for those in powers, but the right to keep one's voice out of the unfolding campaign. In other words, students were pressured by teachers to speak out; inferiors were asked to speak by superiors. Within Chinese society, there were visible relaxation of restrictions on traditional Chinese clothing and Western music.
Criticisms became more specific in May 1956, citing the regimentation of education, thought reforms in previous years that were described as "painful", and the lack of employment prospects for those who went to American and British scholars. Additionally, some recanted their self-criticism and confessions from previous years.
A wave of literary journals were launched or re-launched during the campaign, including the PRC's first state-supported poetry journal, Stars.
There were also opposition to liberalization, as conservative elements in the Party and Army were outraged at the resurgence of traditional literary forms at the expense of socialist realism and that the principle of art serving politics was being breached by the liberalization. However, Mao was unbothered by the criticisms, and even told a Party conference in January 1957 that writings hostile to Marxism should be openly published in order to find ways to refute it, a comment he later backtracked. Mao declared that it was "wrong to quarantine things" and that it was better to "vaccinate" the masses by exposing them to harmful ideas, comments that underwhelmed the delegates who were responsible for managing the fallout.
At the close of the January 1957 conference (which was held for municipal, autonomous region, and provincial party secretaries), Mao stated:
It is the fragrant flower that must contend fiercely for the position of leadership; overturning all that stinks is no good. There's no harm in poisonous weeds occupying a secondary position. It's like the CPC is primary and the Democratic League is secondary. It's like atoms and electrons. The atom, though small, is very heavy; to split the atom one requires the power of many locomotives. The electrons surrounding the nucleus, on the other hand, are very light, they are liberal, but without the atom there is nothing. This is unity through opposition.
In his 27 February 1957 On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People, Mao suggested that the Communist Party should be open to criticism from those outside its ranks. Mao wrote that even ideas that are initially viewed as "poisonous weeds" by society may ultimately be found correct:
To determine whether something is right or wrong frequently takes a trial period. In history, new and correct things often could not win recognition from the majority of people at the start, and they had to move forward by twists and turns in struggle. People tend to deny correct things, good things, as fragrant flowers from the outset; instead they regard them as poisonous weeds. Copernicus' theory of the solar system and Darwin's theory of evolution were both regarded at one time as erroneous, and both experienced bitter struggle.
Politically contested literary works of the Hundred Flowers period included Wang Meng's A Newcomer at the Organizational Department and Liu Shahe's Pieces on Plants. Mao referenced both pieces throughout his speeches in February and March 1957. Mao stated that Pieces on Plants was a "poisonous weed" that should be criticized, but that "even with a hundred Pieces on Plants there would be no chaos."
Escalation of criticism (Spring 1957)
By the spring of 1957, Mao had announced that criticism was "preferred" and had begun to mount pressure on those who did not turn in healthy criticism on policy to the Central Government. However, lower and middle-ranked party officials were initially hostile to the anti-bureaucrat campaign and Mao had to dissuade Party officials' concerns by stating that the "blooming and contending" would not be permitted to produce "disorganization and confusion". Mao then mounted a persuasion campaign to convince non-communist intellectuals, promising that they would be given genuine positions of authority and power in order to harness their expertise to help build a stronger socialist China. The reception was immediate with intellectuals, who began voicing concerns without any taboo and against their better judgements. In the period from 1 May to 7 June that year, millions of letters were pouring into the Premier's Office and other authorities. Local Party officials were also under pressure to ensure the campaign was a success.
From May to June 1957, newspapers published a huge range of critical articles. The majority of these critiques argued that the Party had become less revolutionary and more bureaucratic, which had resulted in the monopolization of power and privilege and alienated from the masses. There were also criticisms of the Party's mistreatment of intellectuals that resulted in self-censorship. Nonetheless, most of the commentary was premised on complete acceptance of socialism and the legitimacy of the Communist Party and focused on making the existing socialist system work better.