1967 Workers' Congress City Map of Beijing during the Cultural Revolution

This is a 1967 Workers' Congress city plan or map of Beijing, China published at the height the Cultural Revolution. Black text labels streets while red text identifies buildings and landmarks, including the National Stadium, the Palace Museum, the National Assembly Hall, and Beijing Station. A list directly above the map provides the new street names next to the old ones (renaming streets was part of the Cultural Revolution), and a text above the map exhorts the Red Guards to action. A quote from Mao in the upper left (next to his portrait) states, 'You must be concerned about major national affairs and carry out the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to the end!'

Verso Content

Four transit maps are printed on the verso. From top left to bottom right these depict Beijing tram routes, Beijing bus routes, suburban bus routes, and long distance bus routes from Beijing.

The Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution was a Chinese sociopolitical movement launched by Mao Zedong in 1966. The movement's stated goal was to preserve Chinese Communism and purge all remnants of capitalism and traditionalism from Chinese society. Mao claimed that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the Communist Party and Chinese society at large and needed to be cleansed. Millions of people were persecuted and suffered in the ensuing waves of violence. Although Mao declared that the Cultural Revolution over in 1969, the movement continued in force until Mao's death in 1971, and even then, it was not until reformers led by Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1976 that policies associated with the Cultural Revolution began to be dismantled. The Party declared in 1981 that the Cultural Revolution was 'responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic'.

The Red Guards

The Red Guards was a paramilitary social movement led by students and guided by Mao Zedong during the first phase of the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 through 1967. The first Red Guards were students from Tsinghua University Middle School who believed criticism of the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office to be political and that it deserved greater attention. Despite being labeled as 'counterrevolutionaries and radicals', their manifesto caught the attention of Chairman Mao Zedong, who ordered it published nationally. This publicity lent credibility to the student group, and it expanded across China. As 1966 progressed, the group continued to gain legitimacy and power. They began violently attacking the 'Four Olds' of Chinese society: old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Museums were ransacked, books and art were destroyed, and streets were renamed with revolutionary jargon. Temples, shrines, and other historic sites in Beijing and across China were attacked. Even the venerated Cemetery of Confucius was desecrated. These cultural attacks extended to private property, and, not long afterward, to individuals. In August and September 1966, 1,722 people were murdered in Beijing. Teachers, school officials, and other intellectuals often bore the brunt of the violence. As chaos spread across China, the Red Guards became more and more radicalized. By February 1967, the decision was made to suppress the Red Guards, leading to violent clashes between the Red Guards and the People's Liberation Army. It was not until mid-1968 that the Red Guards were completely suppressed.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by the Map Publishing House of the Workers' Congress in 1967. This map is not cataloged in OCLC and we have been unable to locate any other cataloged examples. It is highly likely that examples of this map are in Chinese collections that have not been digitized.