Ming historian and Beijing vice-mayor whose play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office became the fuse of the Cultural Revolution
A Ming historian from Zhejiang and a student of Hu Shih, he was active in the Democratic League in the 1940s and after 1949 served as vice-mayor of Beijing for culture and education. His 1961 play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, written at Mao’s own suggestion, told of an upright official dismissed by the emperor; in November 1965 Yao Wenyuan’s attack on it as a “poisonous weed” defending Peng Dehuai was the opening shot of the Cultural Revolution. Arrested in 1966, he died in prison in 1969; his wife and daughter also died in the persecution. He was rehabilitated in 1979.
Career Timeline
- 1949–1966Vice-Mayor of Beijing