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Zhang Chunqiao Thought [1] [2] [3] , also known as Chunqiao Thought [4] , refers to the political ideas of Zhang Chunqiao, a member of the Gang of Four.
"Zhang Chunqiao Thought" emerged in the period between January and February 1976, after the death of Zhou Enlai. On February 8, 1976, the document Speeches by Jiang Qing and Others at Tsinghua and Peking Universities (Summary Draft) proclaimed that "Zhang Chunqiao Thought" had surpassed Leninism, developed Mao Zedong Thought, and was the "fourth milestone" after Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong Thought. Several provincial and municipal leaders urged Zhang Chunqiao to succeed Zhou as Premier of the State Council.
The main arguments of On the Elimination of Bourgeois Rights stressed equality between soldiers and civilians, officers and soldiers, and superiors and subordinates, as practiced in the Jinggangshan base and later the broader liberated areas. It opposed the eight-grade wage system implemented after the founding of the PRC. Mao Zedong praised the article, and the People’s Daily reprinted it in full. On the All-Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie, published in issue 4 of Red Flag in 1975, advocated the superiority of the people’s communes, criticized "bourgeois trends," and emphasized the struggle against revisionism.
Theoretical groups at Tianjin Normal College argued that the essence of Zhang Chunqiao Thought was Trotskyism. [5]
The official critique of "Zhang Chunqiao Thought" was part of the post-Cultural Revolution condemnation of the Gang of Four and carried a strongly pejorative sense. The focus was mainly on two representative writings: the 1958 On the Elimination of Bourgeois Rights, which rejected the principle of distribution according to labor and hierarchical social divisions, and the 1975 On the All-Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie , which argued for democracy but in a qualified sense. Unlike the other three members of the Gang of Four, who were seen primarily as pursuing power and personal gain through flattery of Mao, Zhang stood out for his firm belief in socialism. His theoretical interpretations received both support and criticism, but the CCP officially defined them as "leftist" erroneous thinking.