Chapter 41 Jiang Qing’s first report on the success of the propaganda model opera 1964

Journalist: “You asked Jiang Qing to work on the Beijing opera prototype successful?

Mao: “Yes, in the fall of 1964, Jiang Qing changed the play ‘Lutang Fire’ to ‘Shajiabin’ and the play ‘Someone Must Come Later’ to ‘The Red Lantern,’ fetishizing the play and completely ignoring the original artists and performing units.

I led all the members of the central government to watch the performance, and after watching the performance, ‘the sea sails by the helmsman’ was played, singing my praises, and I and the central government members went on stage to take a photo with the actors, and Zhou Enlai, who was interested in holding Jiang Qing, told Jiang Qing to stand beside me, saying that the propaganda model opera was credited to Jiang Qing. This is the beginning of Jiang Qing’s 8 propaganda model operas.”

Journalist: “After you watched Jiang Qing’s propaganda model opera, you began to plan a conspiracy in the southern tour again?”

Mao: “Yes, I since January 1962 seven thousand people in the General Assembly Liu Shaoqi dare to openly confront me in the General Assembly ‘9 fingers is good,’ said 7 points of human disaster, from then on, I concluded that he and I are not the same mind, determined to rectify him, after 2 years of planning, I put up the class struggle banner, the spearhead against revisionism, but I do not know But I do not know who the revisionism is, let everyone guess, this southern tour, is a tour of the mountains and play with women, while summoning the major military leaders, to blow the wind to them, asking them to show their loyalty to me, I want to be ready for the siege of Liu Shaoqi in 1965.”

Journalist: “What did you say to the Party Central Committee before you left Beijing on your southern tour?”

Mao: “Every time I left the capital to conspire in the south, I pretended to be infirm while convalescing and investigating, putting out smoke, no ambition, depressed and grey, in order to paralyze them, I went to Nanjing – Shanghai – Hangzhou – Guangzhou – Nanjing, summoned the major army chiefs. Finally, I spent a month in Nanjing, summoning the secretaries of the five provinces in the central and southern regions, then went north to Wuhan, and by late December, returned to Beijing.”