Yao Wenyuan
姚文元
1931–2005
- Member of the CCP Politburo
- Member of the Gang of Four
- Cultural Revolution ideological enforcer
Biography
Origins as a Literary Critic
Yao Wenyuan was born in Zhejiang in 1931; his father, Yao Pengzi, was a left-wing writer. Yao made his name in the 1950s and 1960s as a radical literary critic, writing politically charged attacks on dissident writers and establishing a reputation as an ideological enforcer in Shanghai cultural circles. In 1965, his article attacking the historical drama Hai Rui Dismissed from Office is widely regarded as one of the opening salvoes of the Cultural Revolution, and it was this piece that propelled him onto the national political stage.
Ideological Role during the Cultural Revolution
During the Cultural Revolution, Yao oversaw ideology and media and entered the Politburo in 1969. He controlled the censorship of national newspapers and publications, serving as a central operator of the Party's propaganda apparatus. Within the Gang of Four, his role was primarily as an ideological mouthpiece; he exercised less independent political weight than Jiang Qing or Zhang Chunqiao.
Trial and Later Years
Arrested on 6 October 1976, Yao was tried in 1980–1981 and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Released in 1996, he settled in Shanghai and lived in obscurity, rarely making public appearances. He died in 2005 at the age of seventy-three.