16 May Notification

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The 16 May Notification, also called the Circular of 16 May, was the first major political statement of China’s Cultural Revolution. Issued in May 1966 at a Politburo meeting, it ended a public fight inside the Communist Party over the Beijing Opera Hai Rui Dismissed from Office and set the course for the new movement.

Background in brief
- The opera Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, about a loyal Ming official who helps peasants, was read by many as a critique of Mao Zedong’s policies, especially the Great Leap Forward. This sparked a political dispute in the CCP.
- Yao Wenyuan, a Beijing critic close to Mao’s allies, wrote a polemic against the play, arguing it reflected “bourgeois opposition” and aimed to undermine people’s communes.
- Peng Zhen, then head of Beijing’s Party Committee, tried to protect Wu Han (the play’s author) and block further debate. Zhou Enlai intervened, making continued discussion politically unavoidable.
- To control the debate, Peng Zhen’s allies pushed the “February Outline” (the February Outline) through the Party apparatus. It tried to limit discussion of contemporary politics and warned leftists to tone down their criticism. Mao opposed this move, calling some critics “great scholar-tyrants.”

Break with the February Outline
- In late April, the Central Committee revoked the February Outline, disbanded the Group of Five (a powerful interior circle), and dissolved Peng Zhen’s Beijing Party Committee. The party rejected Peng Zhen’s handling of the Hai Rui controversy.
- These decisions set the stage for a broader political movement. The 16 May Notification then codified what had been decided and explained Mao’s thinking behind the Cultural Revolution.

What the 16 May Notification said
- It argued that the party, government, and army needed to defeat bourgeois “representatives” who had infiltrated them.
- It criticized the February Outline for steering the movement toward the right and for vague, mixed language that hid a real class struggle.
- It attacked the idea of “art for art’s sake” and emphasized that culture should serve politics, not stand apart from it.
- It warned that there were inside enemies who could undermine the revolution, comparing some to Khrushchev and suggesting that some people within the party would eventually try to restore old, “bourgeois” rule.

Drafting and impact
- The document was drafted by Chen Boda, with Mao making major revisions, including the famous line about enemies who “sleep by our side.”
- Lin Biao gave a speech praising the move as a way to prevent counterrevolution and to establish Mao’s leadership over the movement.
- The 16 May Notification marked a turning point, helping to concentrate power around Mao and the new Cultural Revolution leadership. It is widely regarded as the launching moment of the Cultural Revolution.