Editor's Introduction

Abstract

This long essay by Liu Guokai, entitled A Brief Analysis of the Cultural Revolution, is the first available comprehensive analysis of those three turbulent years1 published within China. Although a dissident writing a document of protest, Liu Guokai nonetheless has sought to maintain enough emotional distance to give the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong a reasonably objective analysis. While recounting the convoluted chronology of the Cultural Revolution, he attempts to identify the various social forces, the different kinds of actors, their motivations, and the dynamics that led to the formation and shifting of alliances, both horizontally and vertically. Liu's aim, as stated in his preface, was to provide the Cultural Revolution with a social analysis.