By Dong Jia, Vision Times
“Endless falling leaves rustle down; the Yangtze flows on without cease,” reads an ancient poem from China’s affluent Tang Dynasty. Yet in China today, since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power in 1949, everything has been subordinated to the needs of authoritarian rule. To seize, maintain, and consolidate its grip, the Party replaced its own rich history with rigid party loyalty, while replacing China’s traditional culture with a culture of “falsehood, brutality, and struggle.”
This destruction went far beyond the visible demolition of historical relics, monuments, and ancient texts. It reshaped behavior, thought, and daily life, systematically eroding traditional values, ethics, and worldviews.
At the same time, the regime preserved only superficial cultural symbols deemed politically harmless, repackaging them as “essence” while hollowing out their meaning and replacing it with Party ideology. All of this was done under the banner of “inheriting and developing traditional Chinese culture,” deceiving both the Chinese people and the international community.
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Ancient relics destroyed
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What follows is a non-exhaustive list, compiled from online sources and not subject to formal verification, documenting the widespread destruction of cultural heritage during the Cultural Revolution. Though incomplete, it offers a stark glimpse into the magnitude of the devastation.
Ancient texts destroyed
Beyond monuments, the destruction of books, artworks, and private collections was even more catastrophic, including:
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