Why did Mao Zedong launch the Hundred Flowers Campaign, and what was the relationship between it and the Anti-Rightist Campaign?
Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956 to 1957, the subsequent Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957 to 1958 led by Deng Xiaoping, the destruction of the intellectual class, and the consequences for the trajectory of CCP policy
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on the Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns. The May 1956 Lu Dingyi speech, Mao's February 1957 On the Correct Handling of Contradictions, the May 1957 criticism eruption, the 8 June 1957 reversal, Deng Xiaoping's Anti-Rightist Campaign, and 552,877 to 1.2 million Rightists labelled.
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What this dot point is asking
NESA expects you to explain the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Anti-Rightist Campaign as a single episode. Strong answers integrate the international context (de-Stalinisation, Hungary), Mao's theoretical reframing of contradictions, the spring 1957 invitation to criticism, the June 1957 reversal, the Deng Xiaoping-led Anti-Rightist Campaign, and the long consequence: the silencing of a generation of intellectuals and the political space for the Great Leap Forward.
The answer
Context: de-Stalinisation, 1956
Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" at the 20th CPSU Congress of 25 February 1956 denounced Stalin's cult of personality and the Great Terror. The text reached Mao via the Polish translation and shook the international communist movement. Polish workers rose at Poznan in June 1956; the Hungarian Revolution broke out on 23 October 1956 and was crushed by Soviet tanks on 4 November.
Mao drew two conclusions. First, that the alienation of intellectuals could destabilise a socialist state and that loyal criticism was needed. Second, that the Stalin model required modification but that the cult of personality, in his case, was justified by his contribution to the revolution. The Eighth Party Congress (September 1956), the only normal CCP congress between 1945 and 1969, removed "Mao Zedong Thought" from the Party Constitution at Liu Shaoqi's instigation. Mao was annoyed.
The Hundred Flowers, 1956 to early 1957
Propaganda chief Lu Dingyi gave the formulation in a speech on 26 May 1956: "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend" (baihua qifang, baijia zhengming). The phrase was a literary borrowing from the Warring States period. The Party invited criticism on three areas: bureaucratism (guanliao zhuyi), sectarianism (zongpai zhuyi), and subjectivism (zhuguan zhuyi).
The first response was muted. Intellectuals remembered the persecutions of the early 1950s (Hu Feng was jailed in 1955 and the Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique campaign targeted around 2,100 writers). Premier Zhou Enlai's report on intellectuals (January 1956) had partially rehabilitated the bourgeois-origin intelligentsia.
Mao's February 1957 speech and the May invitation
On 27 February 1957 Mao addressed the Supreme State Conference with the speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" (Guanyu zhengque chuli renmin neibu maodun de wenti). Mao distinguished:
- Antagonistic contradictions (with class enemies): to be resolved by dictatorship.
- Non-antagonistic contradictions (within the people): to be resolved by persuasion, criticism, and discussion.
Mao invited public criticism on this basis. The speech was not published until June, in a substantially revised form. From early May 1957 the press and universities filled with criticism. Big Character Posters (dazibao) appeared at Peking University in May. Democratic League leader Luo Longji proposed a "rehabilitation committee" for political victims. Zhang Bojun proposed a "political design institute" for non-CCP input. Editor Chu Anping of Guangming Daily wrote of "the Party empire" (dangtianxia). Students at Wuhan and Peking criticised CCP privilege.
The Polish poet Stanislaw Lem-like quality of the moment was very brief, perhaps five weeks. Whether Mao had intended a genuine opening that he reversed when shocked by its scope, or whether the invitation was always a trap to "lure the snakes from their holes" (yin she chu dong), is debated. Roderick MacFarquhar (The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 1, 1974) treats the reversal as genuine; Zhu Zheng's research and the Mao Zedong's Manuscripts since the Founding of the State suggest the trap reading is at least partly correct from late May.
The 8 June 1957 reversal
A People's Daily editorial of 8 June 1957, "What is This For?" (Zhe shi weishenme?), drafted by Mao, announced that criticism had revealed "bourgeois rightists" attempting to overthrow socialism. The Anti-Rightist Campaign (Fanyou yundong) was launched.
Deng Xiaoping and the Anti-Rightist Campaign
Deng Xiaoping, General Secretary of the CCP Secretariat from September 1956, was placed in operational charge of the Anti-Rightist Campaign under Mao's overall direction. The campaign ran through 1957 to early 1958, with continuing "supplementary" rounds into 1959.
Methods were familiar from Yan'an: criticism meetings (pidou hui), forced confessions, struggle sessions. Quotas of around 5 percent of intellectuals and cadres in each unit were applied. Many units exceeded the quota to demonstrate vigilance. The democratic parties were broken: the China Democratic League lost most of its leadership; the Jiusan Society and Peasants and Workers Party were silenced.
Numbers and victims
Official PRC figures (released in 1980) gave 552,877 Rightists labelled. Mao's confidential remarks suggested over 800,000. Modern Chinese researchers (Ding Shu, Yang Kuisong) and Western specialists give about 1 to 1.2 million when secondary categories ("centre rightists", "anti-Party elements", local equivalents) are included. The Rightist label was hereditary in practice, attaching to children and spouses. About 90 percent of the official 552,877 were rehabilitated in 1978 to 1980 by Hu Yaobang under Deng Xiaoping; the rehabilitation excluded a token small number, including Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji as the "head bourgeois rightists".
Suicides during the campaign were widespread; the writer Lao She drowned himself in Taiping Lake on 24 August 1966 (early Cultural Revolution, but his persecution arc began with the Anti-Rightist Campaign).
Consequences
Silenced intelligentsia. A generation of intellectuals, including senior natural scientists, engineers, and the Western-trained returnee scholars, was removed from public life or sent to labour reform. The First Five-Year Plan's technical achievements had drawn on these people; the Great Leap Forward's amateurism would suffer their absence.
Mao re-ascendant. Mao's authority within the elite was restored after the Eighth Congress demotion of his Thought. He moved within months to launch the Great Leap Forward.
Deng Xiaoping marked. Deng's prominent role in the Anti-Rightist Campaign was held against him in the early reform period and apologised for in his 1978 to 1980 rehabilitation of the Rightists.
Timeline
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Feb 1956 | Khrushchev's Secret Speech | De-Stalinisation |
| 26 May 1956 | Lu Dingyi's speech | Hundred Flowers slogan |
| Sep 1956 | Eighth Congress | Mao Thought demoted |
| 23 Oct 1956 | Hungarian Revolution | Risk of socialist crisis |
| 27 Feb 1957 | On the Correct Handling | Invitation to criticism |
| May 1957 | Big Character Posters peak | Criticism flood |
| 8 Jun 1957 | What is This For? | Reversal |
| 1957 to 1958 | Anti-Rightist Campaign | 552,877 to 1.2 million labelled |
| 1978 to 1980 | Rehabilitation | About 90 percent restored |
Historiography
Roderick MacFarquhar (The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 1: Contradictions Among the People 1956 to 1957, 1974) gave the canonical chronology and treats the reversal as genuine.
Merle Goldman (Literary Dissent in Communist China, 1967; China's Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent, 1981) documented the intellectual victims.
Zhu Zheng, in 1957 nianxia shaohuan (1998) and other Chinese works, used PRC archives to argue the trap reading.
Frank Dikoetter (The Tragedy of Liberation, 2013) treats the Anti-Rightist Campaign as continuous with the early-1950s terror, with about 1.5 million victims when including secondary categories.
Maurice Meisner treats the campaigns as the destruction of the May Fourth liberal-intellectual tradition that had survived 1949.
Common exam traps
Treating Hundred Flowers as a sincere liberalisation. Even on the most charitable reading it was bounded; on the most sceptical it was a trap. The reversal was decisive.
Forgetting Deng Xiaoping. Deng's operational leadership of the Anti-Rightist Campaign is essential and is often quietly omitted.
Treating the numbers as small. 552,877 is the official figure; modern estimates are about 1 to 1.2 million, with family members carrying the label.
In one sentence
Mao Zedong's Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956 to 1957, theorised in "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" of 27 February 1957 and opened in May 1957, produced a five-week eruption of intellectual criticism that Mao reversed with the People's Daily editorial of 8 June 1957, after which Deng Xiaoping led the Anti-Rightist Campaign that labelled around 552,877 to 1.2 million Rightists, silenced the May Fourth liberal-intellectual generation, restored Mao's pre-eminence after the Eighth Party Congress demotion, and cleared the political space for the Great Leap Forward.
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past NESA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Practice (NESA)8 marksExplain the aims and outcomes of Mao Zedong's Hundred Flowers Campaign and the subsequent Anti-Rightist Campaign.Show worked answer →
An 8-mark "explain" needs aims and outcomes with evidence.
Context. The 20th CPSU Congress of February 1956 (Khrushchev's Secret Speech denouncing Stalin) and the Polish and Hungarian uprisings of October to November 1956 raised the question of socialist legitimacy. Mao judged that loyal criticism from intellectuals could strengthen, not weaken, the regime.
Lu Dingyi, the propaganda chief, gave the formulation "Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend" (baihua qifang, baijia zhengming) in a speech on 26 May 1956. The campaign was hesitant through 1956.
Mao's February 1957 speech. On 27 February 1957 Mao addressed the Supreme State Conference with "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" (Guanyu zhengque chuli renmin neibu maodun de wenti), distinguishing antagonistic (with the enemy) and non-antagonistic (within the people) contradictions and inviting criticism.
The May 1957 explosion. Criticism poured forth. The Big Character Posters (dazibao) at universities, the editorials in Guangming Daily, and the contributions of the democratic parties (notably Luo Longji, Zhang Bojun, Chu Anping) attacked the Party for monopolising power.
The 8 June 1957 reversal. A People's Daily editorial "What is This For?" (drafted by Mao) reversed the line and announced the Anti-Rightist Campaign (Fanyou yundong).
Deng Xiaoping as General Secretary of the Secretariat led the campaign. Quotas of about 5 percent of cadres and intellectuals were issued.
Outcomes. Officially about 552,877 Rightists; later PRC investigations and Western estimates give about 1 to 1.2 million. Around 90 percent were rehabilitated in 1978 to 1980 under Deng Xiaoping's reform leadership.
Markers reward Lu Dingyi 1956, On the Correct Handling 1957, Luo and Zhang, 8 June reversal, and Deng's role.
Related dot points
- Mao's establishment of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1953, including the consolidation of CCP power, the Common Program of 1949, land reform, the campaigns against counter-revolutionaries, the Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns, the 1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty, and the First Five-Year Plan from 1953
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Mao's establishment of the PRC. The 1949 proclamation, the Common Program, the 1950 to 1952 nationwide land reform, the Campaign to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries (1950 to 1951), the Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns of 1951 to 1952, the February 1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty, and the First Five-Year Plan.
- Mao's Great Leap Forward of 1958 to 1962, including the People's Communes, the Backyard Furnaces, the Lushan Conference of 1959, the dismissal of Peng Dehuai, and the Great Famine in which an estimated 15 to 45 million people died
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Mao's Great Leap Forward. The May 1958 Eighth Congress Second Session, the People's Communes, the Backyard Furnaces, the Lushan Conference of 1959 and the purge of Peng Dehuai, the Great Famine of 1959 to 1962 with $15$ to $45$ million deaths, and the 1962 Seven Thousand Cadres Conference.
- Mao's Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976, including the May 16 Notice, the Red Guards, the persecution of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, the rise of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four, the Down to the Countryside Movement, and the long political and human consequences
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Mao's Cultural Revolution. The May 16 Notice of 1966, the Red Guard movement and the eight Tiananmen rallies, the persecution of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, the 1971 Lin Biao incident, the Gang of Four, the Down to the Countryside Movement, and 1.5 to 3 million deaths.