On Class Origins

On Class Origins^[1] (Chinese: 出身论; pinyin: Chūshēn lùn), alternatively translated as On Family Background,^[2] Theory of Class Pedigree,^[3] is an article by Yu Luoke^[4] and published in January 1967 in the Journal of Middle-School Cultural Revolution.^[5] In this article, he challenged the "blood lineage theory"^[6] propagated by the children of senior Chinese Communist Party officials.^[7] At that time, this theory was widely circulated in Chinese society and caused serious adverse effects.

On Class Origins

Chinese	出身论
Author	Yu Luoke
Published	January 1967
Main idea	Challenged the "blood lineage theory"

Yu Luoke was accused of being a counter-revolutionary and sentenced to death for his famous treatise On Class Origins.^[8]

Yu Luoke's article echoed the Central Cultural Revolution Group's critique of the "blood lineage theory", which caused a huge reaction throughout China.^[9] In April 1967, the article was labeled a "big poisonous weed".^[10] On January 5, 1968, Yu was arrested and imprisoned, and on March 5, 1970, he was executed.^[11]

Evaluations

Some Chinese experts and scholars describe On Class Origins as China's Manifesto of Human Rights.^[12]

Chinese-American historian Song Yongyi considers On Class Origins to be a "human rights declaration in the dark".^[13]

On Class Origins marked the first independent thinking in China in the 1960s that broke through the ideological framework of the Cultural Revolution, focusing not on the so-called "political line" that dominated students during the Cultural Revolution, but on real social problems. Yu Luoke's thoughts were advanced at that time, and were criticized not only by the Red Guards who advocated the "blood lineage theory", but also criticized by many rebel student organizations.^[14]

See also

• Cultural Revolution

References

1. Yiching Wu (16 June 2014). The Cultural Revolution at the Margins. Harvard University Press. pp. 332–. ISBN 978-0-674-72879-0.
2. Guo Jian; Yongyi Song; Yuan Zhou (23 July 2015). Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 404–. ISBN 978-1-4422-5172-4.
3. Philip F. Williams; Yenna Wu (17 August 2004). The Great Wall of Confinement: The Chinese Prison Camp through Contemporary Fiction and Reportage. University of California Press. pp. 162–. ISBN 978-0-520-93855-7.
4. Sujian Guo; Baogang Guo (2008). China in Search of a Harmonious Society. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-2623-3.
5. Andrew G. Walder (5 March 2012). Fractured Rebellion: The Beijing Red Guard Movement. Harvard University Press. pp. 338–. ISBN 978-0-674-26818-0.
6. Guo Jian; Yongyi Song; Yuan Zhou (17 September 2009). The A to Z of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Scarecrow Press. pp. 206–. ISBN 978-0-8108-7033-8.
7. Guo And Guo (15 August 2008). China in Search of a Harmonious Society. Lexington Books. pp. 167–. ISBN 978-0-7391-3042-1.
8. Daniel Leese; Puck Engman (25 June 2018). Victims, Perpetrators, and the Role of Law in Maoist China: A Case-Study Approach. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 46–. ISBN 978-3-11-053365-1.
9. "Looking Back at the Cultural Revolution (21): Theories of Blood Lineage and Family Background". Voice of America. 2007-04-06. Archived from the original on 2010-11-25.
10. "Qi Benyu and the Central Cultural Revolution Group". Radio Free Asia. 2016-07-06.
11. Henry He (22 July 2016). Dictionary of the Political Thought of the People's Republic of China. Routledge. pp. 595–. ISBN 978-1-315-50043-0.
12. "A new book release of the brother of Yu Luoke". Radio Free Asia. 2010-03-11.
13. S. Jiang (16 June 2015). Citizen Publications in China Before the Internet. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 216–. ISBN 978-1-137-49208-1.
14. Liu Qingfeng (1996). The Cultural Revolution: Evidence and Analysis. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. pp. 273–. ISBN 978-962-201-763-4.

External links

• One English translation: Yu, Luoke (July 2001). "On Family Background: Editor's Note". Contemporary Chinese Thought. 32 (4): 17–36. doi:10.2753/CSP1097-1467320417. ISSN 1097-1467. Retrieved 4 May 2024.