How does Mao Zedong, preface and notes to the Hu Feng materials (1955); CPC Central Committee rehabilitation notice (29 September 1980, as quoted by Wan Tonglin) characterize Hu Feng Case?

The official verdict changed fundamentally. In 1955 Mao called Hu and his associates "counter-revolutionaries in disguise", whose core consisted of "agents of imperialism and the Kuomintang", Trotskyites, reactionary officers and Party renegades, with the "task of overthrowing the People's Republic", and said the case should be used to "raise class vigilance". In 1980 the Central Committee acknowledged that the case had "confused two different kinds of contradictions" and was "a wrongly decided case", rehabilitating those involved but still describing Hu's group as having "the nature of a small clique" engaged in "factional activities" that "resisted the Party's leadership of literary work"; in 1988 the General Office of the Central Committee issued a supplementary notice "further rehabilitating" Hu Feng.

How does Ruth Y. Y. Hung, Hu Feng: A Marxist Intellectual in a Communist State, 1930–1955 (SUNY Press, 2020; publisher's description) characterize Hu Feng Case?

Hung presents Hu as having "become a representative persecuted intellectual soon after 1949", and describes the 1955 "Hu Feng Case" — "more than a decade before the Cultural Revolution" — as "a significant, large-scale campaign of intellectual persecution". She examines Hu as a literary critic, analysing how the first generation of modern Chinese critics adopted Marxism as the measure of their critical position while negotiating their relations with party-state power.

How does Shu Wu's own account (interview in Xinwenxue shiliao, 1990, no. 1, as quoted by Guo Tiecheng); recollection of He Manzi (as quoted by Wan Tonglin) characterize Hu Feng Case?

Shu Wu, who handed over the letters, later said that the People's Daily editor who had commissioned his article asked to "borrow" Hu's letters, and he thought "the editors probably wanted to check the letters quoted in the article, so I very 'obediently' handed over all of Hu Feng's letters", not expecting them to reach Lin Mohan at the Propaganda Department; the critic Guo Tiecheng counters that quoting private letters in a public denunciation was "impermissible by scholarly norms and damaging to scholarly ethics". He Manzi, a friend of Hu's who was implicated, recalled: "When friends talk it over, almost every family, relative, student, and anyone with the slightest connection was implicated to a greater or lesser degree; it radiated outwards, and those affected cannot be counted."

1955-05-13

Hu Feng Case

In 1954 the literary theorist Hu Feng submitted a "300,000-character memorial" to the CPC Central Committee criticising the leadership of literary work. From May 1955 the People's Daily published three batches of material, drawing on private letters handed over by Shu Wu, with editor's notes by Mao Zedong; Hu and his associates were relabelled from an "anti-Party clique" to a "counter-revolutionary clique". Hu was arrested, the nationwide purge touched 2,100 people, and it led into a broader campaign against hidden counter-revolutionaries. Hu was sentenced to 14 years in 1965 and to life during the Cultural Revolution. In 1980 the Central Committee declared the case wrongly decided and rehabilitated those involved, with further rehabilitation in 1988.

The "Three-Hundred-Thousand-Character Memorial"

Hu Feng (1902–1985), a literary theorist, poet and editor active on the left-wing literary scene from the 1930s, had long differed with mainstream positions on literary theory. On 22 July 1954 Hu, then a deputy to the National People's Congress and a council member of the Chinese Writers' Association, submitted to the CPC Central Committee, through Xi Zhongxun, head of the Central Culture and Education Committee, a "Report on the State of Literary Practice in Recent Years" — the "300,000-character memorial" — criticising the one-sided stress on writers' world outlook, worker-peasant-soldier life, thought reform, national forms and subject matter as "five theoretical knives" held over readers and writers. According to the scholar Wan Tonglin, Mao Zedong decided in January 1955 to publish the report and instructed Zhou Yang and other Propaganda Department leaders to organise criticism; on 20 January the department reported that Hu's ideas were "bourgeois idealist" and his activities "the activities of a sectarian small clique".

From "Anti-Party Clique" to "Counter-revolutionary Clique"

The writer Shu Wu, once close to Hu, quoted Hu's private letters in an article criticising him and then handed the letters to a People's Daily editor, after which they reached the Propaganda Department. From 13 May 1955 the People's Daily published three batches of "material on the Hu Feng anti-Party clique", with Hu's "My Self-Criticism" attached and editor's notes written by Mao; on 10 June the third batch and an editorial designated Hu and his associates a "counter-revolutionary clique". In the preface to the collected volume Mao changed "anti-Party clique" in the first two titles to "counter-revolutionary clique", describing its "basic ranks" as agents of imperialism and the Kuomintang, Trotskyites, reactionary officers and Party renegades forming "an underground independent kingdom".

Hu Feng was arrested by the Ministry of Public Security in mid-May (on 16 May by one account, on 18 May with the approval of the NPC Standing Committee by another), and the NPC Standing Committee stripped him of his deputy's status. A five-member central group headed by Propaganda Minister Lu Dingyi, with Minister of Public Security Luo Ruiqing as deputy, was set up to handle the case.

The Purge and the Campaign against Hidden Counter-revolutionaries

According to a 1980 review report by the Party groups of the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court, the nationwide hunt for the "Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique" touched 2,100 people: 92 were arrested, 62 isolated and 73 suspended for self-examination; by the end of 1956 most had been cleared, with 78 formally designated members of the clique (32 of them Party members) and 23 classed as core members. On 1 July the Central Committee issued a directive on eliminating hidden counter-revolutionaries; its directive of 25 August said that, "building on the struggle to eliminate the Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique", a campaign against all hidden counter-revolutionaries (the sufan campaign) had begun, and that "using the Hu Feng incident to mobilise the masses with great fanfare" was correct. In "On the Ten Major Relationships" (1956) Mao said that "people like Hu Feng, Pan Hannian and Rao Shushi will not be executed" — "not because they have committed no capital crimes, but because executing them would do no good".

Sentence, Rehabilitation and Aftermath

After ten years in custody, Hu was sentenced on 26 November 1965 by the Beijing Higher People's Court to 14 years; during the Cultural Revolution, in January 1970, the Sichuan Revolutionary Committee added a life sentence, without appeal, for "writing reactionary poems". He was released in 1978. On 29 September 1980 the Central Committee issued a notice declaring that the case had "confused two different kinds of contradictions", designating "comrades with mistaken words and factional activities" as counter-revolutionaries — "a wrongly decided case" — and rehabilitating them, while still describing Hu's group as having "the nature of a small clique" engaged in "factional activities". Hu died of illness in Beijing on 8 June 1985. The Ministry of Public Security later withdrew its reservations about his "historical problems", and on 18 June 1988 the General Office of the Central Committee issued a supplementary notice "further rehabilitating Comrade Hu Feng". Wan Tonglin notes that Hu's rehabilitation "took three stages to complete" and argues that the case had "an extremely profound impact" on generations of intellectuals.

Narrative Comparison

Source	Narrative
Mao Zedong, preface and notes to the Hu Feng materials (1955); CPC Central Committee rehabilitation notice (29 September 1980, as quoted by Wan Tonglin)	The official verdict changed fundamentally. In 1955 Mao called Hu and his associates "counter-revolutionaries in disguise", whose core consisted of "agents of imperialism and the Kuomintang", Trotskyites, reactionary officers and Party renegades, with the "task of overthrowing the People's Republic", and said the case should be used to "raise class vigilance". In 1980 the Central Committee acknowledged that the case had "confused two different kinds of contradictions" and was "a wrongly decided case", rehabilitating those involved but still describing Hu's group as having "the nature of a small clique" engaged in "factional activities" that "resisted the Party's leadership of literary work"; in 1988 the General Office of the Central Committee issued a supplementary notice "further rehabilitating" Hu Feng.
Ruth Y. Y. Hung, Hu Feng: A Marxist Intellectual in a Communist State, 1930–1955 (SUNY Press, 2020; publisher's description)	Hung presents Hu as having "become a representative persecuted intellectual soon after 1949", and describes the 1955 "Hu Feng Case" — "more than a decade before the Cultural Revolution" — as "a significant, large-scale campaign of intellectual persecution". She examines Hu as a literary critic, analysing how the first generation of modern Chinese critics adopted Marxism as the measure of their critical position while negotiating their relations with party-state power.
Shu Wu's own account (interview in Xinwenxue shiliao, 1990, no. 1, as quoted by Guo Tiecheng); recollection of He Manzi (as quoted by Wan Tonglin)	Shu Wu, who handed over the letters, later said that the People's Daily editor who had commissioned his article asked to "borrow" Hu's letters, and he thought "the editors probably wanted to check the letters quoted in the article, so I very 'obediently' handed over all of Hu Feng's letters", not expecting them to reach Lin Mohan at the Propaganda Department; the critic Guo Tiecheng counters that quoting private letters in a public denunciation was "impermissible by scholarly norms and damaging to scholarly ethics". He Manzi, a friend of Hu's who was implicated, recalled: "When friends talk it over, almost every family, relative, student, and anyone with the slightest connection was implicated to a greater or lesser degree; it radiated outwards, and those affected cannot be counted."

Key Milestones

1954-07-22
Hu Feng submits his memorial
Hu Feng submits his report on literary practice to the Central Committee through Xi Zhongxun.
1955-05-13
First batch of material published
The People's Daily publishes the first batch of material on the "Hu Feng anti-Party clique", with Hu's self-criticism and editor's notes by Mao.
1955-06-10
Designated a "counter-revolutionary clique"
The third batch of material and an editorial designate Hu Feng and his associates a "counter-revolutionary clique".
1955-07-01
Central directive on hidden counter-revolutionaries
The Central Committee issues a directive launching the campaign against hidden counter-revolutionaries.
1965-11-26
Hu Feng sentenced to 14 years
The Beijing Higher People's Court sentences Hu Feng to 14 years.
1980-09-29
Central Committee rehabilitation notice
The Central Committee declares the "Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique" a wrongly decided case and rehabilitates those involved.
1985-06-08
Hu Feng dies
Hu Feng dies of illness in Beijing.
1988-06-18
Supplementary rehabilitation notice
The General Office of the Central Committee issues a supplementary notice further rehabilitating Hu Feng.

Last verified: 2026-10-22