What was the purpose of destroying cultural and historical treasures during the Chinese Cultural Revolution?
It was their version of cutting ties with the past. Completely and irrevocably. Also a symbolic destruction of the old system so that there would be no conflict with the new system. I dont think it was really necessary for Mao to do this. I’m not sure he even approved of it before it happened. After the fact he had to approve it so as not to lose credibility with “The People”. If you look closely at the red guards who perpetrated this cultural horror they were mostly ignorant peasants who found themselves suddenly in power and had some serious grudges to work out. Remember that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. These were people getting their revenge on 1,000 years of percieved wrongs commited on them. Was this necessary? Probably not. It was probably more destructive to the party than it was to the memory of the past. After the passing of Mao and his red guards and a lightening up on the cultural past there was an absolutely mind boggling amount of cultural and hi
