Slogans are as old as history. No doubt our caveman ancestors urged each other forward with such morale-builders as "Get That Dinosaur!" and "There's No Sabretooth Like A Dead Sabretooth". The ancient Greeks had a fine collection of slogans, not to mention the Trojans and their Helen. At about the same time they were coining some of their best ones, Confucius was laying down a whole system of living in brief and biting aphorisms. Modern times have echoed with such slogans as "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity;" "Remember Pearl Harbor!"; and "Counterattack, National Recovery, and Mainland Reconstruction." Every country and ruling regime has its slogans, as does every ideology.
But never has sloganism been developed so grandiloquently as on the Chinese main land under the Communists. Peiping, in fact, has more slogans than performance or to put it another way, the words come much easier than their fulfillment. Many of these slogans, terms, and phrases are widely used in the rest of the world to describe Communist programs, but often without explanation. Some of slogans may not, therefore, be clearly understood.
This article will examine some better known slogans—specially those which are commonly used in the West—and give some indication of their history and meaning. Chinese characters and the romanization thereof follow the English language translation of the slogan.
"General Line" (Tsung-Lu-Hsien)
Expressed completely, this is the "General Line of Socialist Construction". As coined by Mao Tse-tung, it was designed to urge the people to work harder in order to catch up and surpass the United Kingdom in industrial production within 15 years. At the same time, it became virtually a promise of such accomplishment. The Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party at Peiping in May, 1958, said socialism was to be built by pressing forward for "greater, faster, better, and more economical results". The "General Line" is heard of infrequently these days. High Peiping sources have admitted that the Chinese Communists are not about to catch up with the U.K. in a decade and half or even in this century.
"Big Leap Forward" (Ta-Yo-Tsin)
Liu Shao-chi used this widely known slogan in his report to the Congress of the CCP in May, 1958. He was referring to claims of huge industrial progress in the 1956-58 period. This was just before the Communist paid for industrial gains with an agricultural collapse that almost wrecked the regime. The "Big Leap" led to the backyard steelmaking efforts that still haunt the Communists as one of the most stupid exercises of anti-intellectualism they ever undertook. Not much is heard of the "Big Leap" in this era of "Cultural Rectification"—in fact the Reds have almost stopped talking about even the "Little Leap" that was supposed to begin with 1966's new five-year plan.
"Three Red Flags" (San-Mien Hung-Ch'i)
In Peiping's symbolism, a Red flag is identified with victory in anything. The "Three Red Flags" were the "General Line", "Big Leap Forward", and "People's Commune". The first two flopped, and so essentially-have the communes. After the communes proved unwieldy and virtually unmanageable, the Communists tried the Production Brigade and today are falling back on the still smaller Production Team. Communes exist in name and—to some extent—administratively. But the commune of pure Communism envisaged by Mao is no more.
"East Wind Prevails Over West Wind" (Tung-Feng-Ya- Tao-Si-Feng)
The Chinese Communists are stronger and will prevail over the Western democracies. Mao first used this phrase in a speech to Chinese students at Moscow in November of 1957.
"Class Line" (Chiai-Chi-Lu-Hsien)
To the Chinese Communists, the class struggle is the ultimate secret of society. Party cadres are told to rely on poor and lower-middle class peasants, and to unite middle-class peasants. Anyone above that level is suspect and a target for liquidation. The upper classes never can be truly reformed.
"Democratic Centralism" (Min-Chu-Tsi-Chung-Chih)
This is another good example of Chinese Communist double-talk. It is the "democracy" attained under the centralized leader ship of the Chinese Communist Party; thus the two words of the slogan are diametrically opposed to each other.
"Politics Take Command" (Chen-Chih-Kua-Shai)
Politics here is synonymous with the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. In other words, the Party commands every thing and everybody. A similar expression is "Politics Is the Soul and Commander".
"Rectification Campaign" (Cheng Feng-Yun-Tung)
Communists use "criticism and self criticism" to lead the strays back to the fold and purge those who have gone too far. The Communist Party has been "rectifying" since 1942 and is going at it hammer-and-tongs currently in the "cultural revolution" that is striking down many high-ranking cadres.
"Contending and Blooming" (Ming-Fang)
This is the short way of expressing the idea of "Let one hundred schools of thought contend and one hundred flowers bloom". In 1956, Mao Tse-tung thought he had effective control of the mainland. Either in naivete or with deliberate intent to trick malcontents, he said that the regime wanted the people to speak out frankly with any criticisms of the region. The response was overwhelming. Millions of critical flowers bloomed all over the place, each with plenty of thorns to prick the Communists. The Red response was quick and vicious. Hundreds of thousands were liquidated or punished, and the flowers have never bloomed again.
"People's Democratic Dictatorship"(Jen-Min-Min-Chu-Chuan-Cheng)
How can a dictatorship be democratic? Under Chinese Communism, it's easy. The "people" have democracy, of course—as long as they are of the proletariat—and they dictate only to those who are their enemies.
"People's Enemy" (Jen-Min-Ti-Jen)
The enemy is to be defined as "bureaucratic capitalists, feudal landlords, counter revolutionaries, and criminals. Today's biggest external enemy is Uncle Sam. The biggest internal foe is either an underground representative of the Republic of China or a revisionist.
"Bourgeois Intellectuals" (Tzu-Ch'an-Chiai-Chi-Chi-Shih-Fen-Tzu)
Those who were born in middle-class families (before the Communist "liberation") or who received middle-class educations are presumed to have imbibed "bourgeois ideas" and will ever remain suspect and untrusted by the Communists. Only those from the lower peasant classes are considered "true Communists"—and this is one important reason why Communism has failed so dismally economically.
"Walking on Two Legs" (Liang-T'iao-T'ui-Ch'o-Lu)
This is Mao's policy of combining the modern with the primitive to increase production. It has rarely worked—as in the in stance of backyard steelmaking—but the regime goes right on trying to walk on two legs.
"Three Big Mountains" (San-Tso-Ta-Shan)
These are "Imperialism, Feudalism, and Bureaucratic Capitalism", which are said to have prevented progress as surely as towering mountains.
"Correction Through Labor" (Lao-Tung-Kai-Tsao)
This is a way of punishing those who do not accept Communism 100 per cent. Invariably, the labor is in the fields, and for more serious offenders, the fields are in the remote hinterlands.
"Paper Tiger" (Chih-Lao-Hu)
To Mao, the United States is the principal "Paper Tiger"—fierce outwardly but weak inwardly. However, the Soviet Union and all revisionists are also "Paper Tigers".
"Five Loves" (Wu-Ai)
These are for the Communist regime, the people, labor, science, and public property.
"Five Guarantees" (Wu-Pao)
When the Communists established the cooperatives, they pledged food, clothing, fuel, education, and burial services to those who were herded into a collective way of life.
"Shock Brigade" (T'u-Chi-Tui)
These are workers who are commandeered or who "volunteer" for arduous or unpleasant tasks.
"Red and Expert" (Hung-Yu-Chuan)
In Red China, an experts first must be Communists, otherwise they cannot be trusted. Expertise thus is a commodity of short supply, because intellectuals are too open-minded and questing to make good Communists.
"Right Deviationists" (Yu-Ch'ing-Feng-Tzu)
These are the conservatives-those who think Chinese Communist policies are too radical.
"Left Deviationists" (Tso-Ch'ing-Feng-Tzn)
These are the radicals, who believe the Chinese Communists are too conservative.
"Three Histories" (San-Shih)
The histories are of families, villages, and communes in the case of peasants. For workers, they are of families, factories or mines, and revolutionary struggle. Histories are instruments of propaganda to demonstrate the suffering of people before "liberation" and their good life since. Such "histories" are taught in the schools.
"Class Analysis" (Chiai-Chi-Fen-Hsi)
Chinese Communism locks people into classes, and there is no interchange. Of course, only the proletariat matters — but "analysis" tells the masses they must not complain when food and consumer goods are in short supply, because they are still better off than they were before.
"Three Elders" (San-Lao)
Elderly peasants, Communist Party members, and cadres tell of the "old oppressions and the new freedoms". Invariably, they denounce the landlords and the rich peasants of old.
"Remember Bitterness and Think of Sweetness" (I-Ku-Szu-Tien)
Another claim that Communism has led the people from enslavement to a paradise on earth.
"Spit Bitter Water" (Tu-Ku-Shui)
Airing personal or family grievances, usually at a public gathering. The water is often put in mouths to be spat at those the Communists wish to denigrate.
"Class Education" (Chiai-Chi-Chiao-Yu)
Taught from the first grade, this supposedly indoctrinates youth in class struggle and analysis.
"Divide One Into Two" (I-Fen-Wei-Erh)
According to this Marxist method of dialectical analysis, two can never become one. The tendency is always in the opposite direction—that is, the struggle goes on. Thus the capitalists were done away with only to have the revisionists take their place. "Divide One Into Two" has played a role in the re cent mainland purges. The Communists also say that the struggle results in progress—for "Mao-think", naturally.
"Learn and Apply With Full Vigor" (Huo-Hsueh-Huo-Yung)
This applies especially to "Mao-think", which is now put forward to solve every problem that besets the mainland. "Mao-think" can kill flies or build nuclear bombs, although no one has explained just how it works. To learn and apply Maoism, the people must organize for study on the job and in the home.
"Four the-Sames" (Szu-Ke-I-Yang)
Everybody is to work hard and efficiently by day or night, in good or bad weather, with or without supervision, and regardless of whether the results are to be examined.
"Battle Ground" (Chen-Ti)
Because the Communists insist that life is struggle, the locale of all life must be a "Battle Ground". Everybody must fight constantly for the triumph of Communism, which never runs out of enemies.
"There Is Sky Beyond the Sky" (Tien-Wai-Huan-Yu-Tien)
Everyone is urged to remember tomorrow and next year. Thus the peasant must not sit on his hands after a good harvest, but get busy to see that the next one is even better. The phrase is purposely simple, so that peasants will understand.
"Red Flag Unit" (Hung-Chi-Tan-Wei)
"Red" is always good, so this means a Commune or factory production team that has excelled in output.
"Fragrant Breeze" (Hsiang-Feng)
It sounds pleasant, but the Communists don't mean it that way. The "Fragrant Breeze" is the bourgeois way of life, and to day most of it blows from Hongkong. Communist rail against Hongkong fashions, make up, hair styles (of both men and women), and any other attributes of luxury. Interestingly, however, the British crown colony is the largest export market for the Chinese Communists. Many of the goods sold to Hongkong are considered luxuries on the mainland.
"Hoist a Red Flag" (Ch'a-Hung-Chi)
This signals victory or an advance on any front. When People's Daily says some unit hoisted a red flag, that is high praise, indeed.
"Learn From Wang Chieh" (Hsueh-Wang-Chieh)
Wang Chieh was a model soldier, per haps mythical, who threw himself on exploding dynamite to save 12 others—and left a diary of noble Communist thoughts and deeds. There are several other "Learn From" slogans, all bearing close similarity. The heroes have every attribute of sainthood and spout Mao-think on every page of their sup posed diaries.
"Give Prominence to Politics" (T'u-Ch'u-Cheng-Chih)
Another way of saying that spare time is to be spent studying Mao-think. This magic bullet from the Chinese Communist deity can do anything.
"Three Antis" (San-Fan)
These are anti-corruption, anti-waste, and anti-bureaucracy. They date to a 1952 campaign against such evils. The Communists are fond of slogans involving a stipulated number of either loves or hates.
"Struggle Between Two Roads" (Liang-T'iao-Tao-Lu- Ti-Tou-Cheng)
Socialism versus capitalism. This slogan was extensively used during the anti-rightist campaign of 1957.
"Black Line" (Heh-Hsien)
Those who follow the "black line" are against the Communist Party and Mao-think. This phrase has been used in the current cultural revolutionary purges of "black liners".
"Class Struggle" (Chiai-Chi-Tou-Cheng)
As indicated previously, the Chinese Communists maintain there is no end to the class struggle, that tendencies of bourgeois capitalism will continue to emerge and do battle with socialism. Marxian synthesis must always give way to a new antithesis, and so on and on.
"People's Commune" (Jen-Min-Kung-She)
The commune movement, begun in 1958, was Peiping's startling and wholly unsuccessful attempt to move into pure communism. The average size of a commune was 5,000 households. Under this system, the mainland economy virtually fell apart. In reality, the communes have been abandoned, but the Communists continue to give them lip service. Possibly the Mao old guard hopes that communes can be reimposed.
"Four Pests" (Szu-Hai)
As launched in 1956, the campaign was to exterminate flies, mosquitoes, rats, and sparrows. Later it was decided that sparrows should not be considered a pest, so bedbugs have taken their place.
Slogans set forth in this article constitute only a small fraction of those under which the Chinese of the mainland are compelled to live. Scarcely anything is done, and no movement is ever started, without a slogan to provide impetus and supposed inspiration. Everyone must be familiar with these slogans, lest their ignorance stamp them as being among the "antis".
The Republic of China has only a few slogans. One of them is "Remember Chu!" It was coined by President Chiang Kai-shek, and is engraved on a huge rock on the offshore island of Kinmen, to recall a Chinese national recovery of 2,200 years ago. The people of invaded Ch'i rallied at two cities—Chimo and Chu—and refused to surrender. They fought on for years and eventually recovered their beloved land despite obstacles that had seemed to be immovable.
If free Chinese are able to emulate the people of Ch'i, the remembrance of Chu will bring a quick termination of mainland sloganism. That is the devout hope of most Chinese. True Chinese feelings can be summed up in the most influential slogan of modern China-Dr. Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People: Nationalism, Democracy, and the People's Livelihood".
The Chinese say: Chen Chin Pu P'a Huo "Genuine gold fears no fire."
Western equivalent: "An honest person does not fear detection."