Shaoyang County Massacre

The Shaoyang County Massacre (simplified Chinese: 邵阳县大屠杀; traditional Chinese:邵陽縣大屠殺), also known as the "Black Killing Wind" Incident (simplified Chinese: 黑杀风事件; traditional Chinese: 黑殺風事件), was a massacre in Shaoyang County of Hunan Province during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] From July to September of 1968, according to the official statistics in 1974, a total of 11,177 people were arrested during the "Black Killing Wind" Incident with 7,781 jailed and 113 permanently disabled, while the death toll was 991 including 699 who were forced to commit suicides.[4] But some scholars have pointed out that thousands of people were killed in reality.[1][4][8] The methods of slaughter in the massacre included live burial, stoning, drowning, suffocating, boiling, burning, splitting into pieces and so on; many women were tortured and sexually abused before death.[1][5][7] A large number of corpses were floating down along the Zi River and some of the dead bodies even blocked the water pumps in local water purification plant, making local citizens too scared to drink tap water for half a month.[1][3][4][5][9]

During the Cultural Revolution, peasants in Dao County of Hunan Province created the phrase "Black Killing Team", meaning that 21 types of people including members of the Five Black Categories as well as their relatives were united under such team in order to retaliate against the peasants and local officials.[1][4][7][5][9][10] In 1967, the Daoxian Massacre took place, targeting members of the Black Killing Team and killing over 9,000 people.[11][12] The Daoxian Massacre directly influenced the Shaoyang Massacre in 1968, which grew out of control in August but eventually ended thanks to the multiple interventions from the 47th Group of the People's Liberation Army.[4]

After the Cultural Revolution, victims of the massacre were partially rehabilitated during or after the "Boluan Fanzheng" period.[1][4][5] In 1980s, 134 cases of homicides were investigated by local authorities and a number of perpetrators received criminal charges, disciplinary reprimands or were expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC).[5] Families of the victims received certain amount of financial support and restitution.[5]

History
An armory constructed in Shaoyang in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution.

In May 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in China. In 1967, peasants in Dao County of Hunan Province created the phrase "Black Killing Team", which consisted of 21 types of people such as the members of the Five Black Categories as well as their relatives.[1][4][5] The team was believed to retaliate against the peasants and local officials. As a result, from August to October, 1967, Daoxian Massacre took place, targeting the members of the Black Killing team. A total of 7,696 people were killed and another 1,397 were forced to commit suicides.[2][4][13]

The Daoxian Massacre had a direct impact on the massacre in Shaoyang County, which is also in Hunan Province.[1][4][5] Since July 1968, the movement to catch and kill members of "Black Killing Team" had begun. The movement turned into a violent massacre on August 4, when the entire family of Deng Baomin, son of a landlord, was wiped out.[5]

The massacre was carried out by local peasants in Shaoyang county and was led by local militia and production brigade.[1][4][5] Since late August, 1968, the 47th Group of the People's Liberation Army had made multiple inventions which gradually brought an end to the massacre.[5]

Methods of killing

In Shaoyang County Massacre, the methods used for slaughter included live burial, stoning, burning, drowning in rivers and tanks, beating with hoes or rods, splitting bodies into pieces using multiple bamboo trees, and so on.[1][4][5][7] Many women were tortured and sexually abused before death, with nipples or genitals removed or nipples pierced by iron wires.[1][4][5][7]

Perpetrators usually chose not to cover the corpses, and did not allow the relatives of the victims to collect the corpses.[5] With the corpses piling up rapidly, however, many of the dead bodies were disposed into the Zi River and floated down along the river.[1][4][5] A large number of local citizens watched the floating bodies on the river banks. Some of the bodies even blocked the water pumps in local water purification plants, and, as a result, local citizens refused to drink tap water for around half a month.[1][4][5][7]

When the authorities of Shaoyang City ordered the local public security bureau to bury the corpses in the river, the latter asked for volunteers from the rural areas of Shaoyang to remove the floating bodies from the river and bury them, offering 10 Yuan as rewards.[1][4][5][7]

Death toll

According to the official statistics in 1974, a total of 11,177 people were arrested during the "Black Killing Wind" Incident with 7,781 jailed and 113 permanently disabled, while the death toll was 991 including 699 who were forced to commit suicides.[4] In addition, 702 private jails and 1,587 private handcuffs were made in the incident.[4]

Some scholars have pointed out that thousands of people were killed in reality.[1][4][8] But the Annals of Shaoyang County (1993 edition) only recognized that 295 people were killed and 277 people were forced to commit suicide during the massacre, making a total of 572 victims.[2][8]

See also

References
  1. "Articles by He Qinglian (何清涟): The thousands of forgotten innocent victims—the massacre of Shaoyang County, Hunan 1968". Articles by He Qinglian (何清涟). Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  2. Song, Yongyi. "Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)". SciencePo. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  3. He, Qinglian (2012). "为了中国不再沦为修罗场-介绍谭合成《血的神话》等"文革"研究". Voice of America (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  4. He, Qinglian. "一九六八年湖南邵阳县的大屠杀". 胡耀邦史料信息网 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  5. Lin, Qishan. ""文革"时期湖南省邵阳县"黑杀风"事件始末". Modern China Studies (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  6. Song, Yongyi. ""文革"中的暴力与大屠杀". Chinese University of Hong Kong (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  7. He, Qinglian. ""文革"中的邵阳大屠杀". 华夏文摘 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  8. He, Qinglian. "一份"文革"时期的人权纪录 ——介绍《文革四十周年祭：特殊年代回忆录》". 华夏报 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  9. Zhu, Jianguo (1999). 不与水合作: 现代化与伪现代化的文化冲突 (in Chinese). 文化艺术出版社. ISBN 978-7-5039-1846-9.
  10. He, Qinglian. ""文革"杀人案开审与追索国家之罪". Boxun (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  11. "The killing wind : a Chinese county's descent into madness during the cultural revolution / by Tan Hecheng ; translated by Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  12. Lu, Xing (2004). Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-543-2.
  13. Tan, Hecheng (2017). The Killing Wind: A Chinese County's Descent Into Madness During the Cultural Revolution. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-062252-7.

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