The Criticize Lin Criticize Confucius Campaign (also called the Anti-Lin Biao, Anti-Confucius campaign) was a political campaign

Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...

 started by Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

's third wife, Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing was the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Communist Party of China power figure. She went by the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life...

, which lasted from 1973 to 1974. It was an extension of the then-current anti-Lin Biao

Lin Biao

Lin Biao was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China...

 campaign, and was used to indirectly attack the then-Premier Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...

.

Academics such as Yang Rongguo

Yang Rongguo

Yang Rongguo was a Chinese academic and philosopher who was involved in the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius campaign of the Cultural Revolution....

 connected Lin Biao and other ousted leaders to Confucian policies, accusing them of following his philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. Lin Biao's alleged treason was linked to its ancient supposed moral equivalent. Confucius

Confucius

Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....

's alleged attempt to roll back the tide of history by upholding the values of the Slave Society of Western Zhou was an allegorical attack on Premier Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...

's policies that potentially undermined the legacy of the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

. It was part of a series of campaigns in the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

.