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Nie Yuanzi (5 April 1921 – 28 August 2019) was a Chinese academic administrator at Peking University, known for writing a big-character poster criticising the university for being controlled by the bourgeoisie, which is considered to have been the opening shot of the Cultural Revolution. She became a top leader of the Red Guards in Beijing, and was sentenced to 17 years in prison after the end of the Cultural Revolution.
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, Nie, then sixteen years old, joined the Communist resistance in Shanxi, which was supported by warlord Yan Xishan. She received military training at the National Teachers' College in Taiyuan and joined the CCP in 1938. In the 1940s, Nie moved to the Communist base in Yan'an, where she met Kang Sheng and his wife .
After the surrender of Japan, Nie was sent to the formerly Japanese-occupied Northeast China in 1946, where she worked in the government of Qiqihar. A year later, she was appointed Director of the Theory Section of the Propaganda Department of Harbin. In 1959, she divorced her first husband Wu Hongyi (), with whom she had two children, after he was denounced as a "rightist" during the Anti-Rightist Campaign.
In 1963, Nie was transferred to Peking University, a turning point of her life. She served as Vice Chair of the Department of Economics and was appointed CCP Committee Secretary of the Department of Philosophy a year later. In early 1966, she married , an official in the powerful Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and a peer of the radical leader Kang Sheng. Many thought that she married him to further her own career.
"To hold meetings and to post big-character posters are mass militant methods of the best kind. But you 'lead' the masses by preventing them from holding meetings and putting up posters. You have manufactured various taboos and regulations. By so doing, have you not suppressed, forbidden, and opposed the mass revolution? We absolutely will not allow you to do so!A week later, Mao Zedong ordered the poster to be read on the Central People's Broadcasting Station and published in the People's Daily, accompanied by official commentaries. Two months later, Mao declared her poster as the "first Chinese Marxist-Leninist big-character poster". Mao's approval encouraged attacks on authorities and inspired students at other universities to write posters, most of which expressed support for the "revolutionary action" of Nie.
You shout about 'strengthening the leadership and standing fast at one's post.' You still want to 'stand fast' at your 'posts' in order to sabotage the Cultural Revolution. We warn you that a mantis cannot stop the wheels of a cart, and mayflies cannot topple a giant tree. You are daydreaming!Now is the time for all revolutionary intellectuals to go into battle! Let us unite and hold high the great red banner of Mao Zedong's thought . resolutely, thoroughly, totally, and completely wipe out all monsters and demons and all counterrevolutionary revisionists of the Khrushchev type, and carry the socialist revolution through to the end."
Nie initially supported the persecution of other academics, but later disagreed on the course the Cultural Revolution was taking and tried to quit her position in the Red Guards. She controlled revolutionary activities at Peking University, along with her colleagues, protected by her status as a celebrated rebel. She became widely known as one of the top five leaders of Red Guards in the capital.
Nie was made an alternate member of the 9th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. In December 1969, she was sent to labour at Peking University's farm in Liyuzhou (), Jiangxi. She returned to Beijing in 1970 to recuperate from an illness.
In 1971, Nie was subjected to examination and her movements were restricted. In 1973, she was sent to work in the Xinhua Printing House, where she lived, ate and slept in the factory. She moved to a factory that made apparatuses for Peking University in 1975.
In 1998, Ji Xianlin published his memoir Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, recounting his persecution during the period. Nie had condemned Ji during the Cultural Revolution as a "hidden counterrevolutionary". In the book, Ji strongly condemned Nie Yuanzi for her capriciousness, cruelty and arrogance.
Nie was critical of the post-Mao Chinese government and expressed a desire for greater freedom of opinion. In 2005, her memoirs were published in Hong Kong.
Nie died on 28 August 2019, aged 98.
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