Recently, netizens revealed two rare events that have occurred recently. One is the relocation of the Li Zicheng statue that has been standing for 30 years at the West Gate Roundabout in Changping District, Beijing. It is said that the statue will be moved to the “Rebel King Village” scenic area in Shannan County, Shangluo City, Li Zicheng’s hometown in Shaanxi Province. It is said that Li Zicheng’s statue was facing towards the Forbidden City in Beijing. The other event is the removal of the Taiping Army Spirit sculpture, which was built in the 1990s and located in the Tianxin Pavilion Scenic Area in Changsha City, Hunan Province. The central figure of the sculpture was Xiao Chaogui, who died in battle when attacking Changsha.
These two events happening in the north and south are by no means coincidental. The main figures in the two sculptures, Li Zicheng and Xiao Chaogui, have always been praised as peasant leaders by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Li Zicheng was a peasant leader at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty flourished under the rule of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming. However, the corruption of the late Ming government led to widespread uprisings due to unbearable living conditions and the outbreak of famine. Li Zicheng joined a group led by Gao Yingxiang, who called themselves the “Rebel King,” and gained a great reputation for his brave actions. After Gao Yingxiang was captured and executed, Li Zicheng inherited the title of “Rebel King” and continued to lead the rebel army in battles against the Ming army. He gained widespread support for helping the people and implementing benevolent governance.
Under the siege of the Ming army, most of the uprising forces, including the thirteen families and seventy-two battalions, either perished or surrendered, leaving only Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, with Li Zicheng being the most powerful. In 1644, on the first day of the first month of the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor’s reign, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself king in Xi’an, establishing the “Great Shun” dynasty, and later captured Beijing in the same year. Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty committed suicide on Jingshan Hill behind the Forbidden City, leading to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
Due to the advance of the Qing army, Li Zicheng, who had occupied Beijing, soon retreated from the capital. In the subsequent Battle of Shanhai Pass, Li Zicheng was defeated by Wu Sangui and the Qing army coalition, leading to his decline until his eventual downfall.
The CCP leader Mao Zedong, who claimed to be a descendant of peasant armies, always admired Li Zicheng and was said to have a strong “Li Zicheng complex.” In October 1935, under siege by the Nationalist army, Mao led the Red Army on the “Long March” to escape to northern Shaanxi, where he emphasized the study of Li Zicheng and the peasant uprisings he led. Mao once said, “This place in northern Shaanxi has a revolutionary tradition in history. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong started the revolution here. Although this place is poor, it breeds ideas for change, and when people are poor, they revolt.” “Our historical rebel leaders all eventually corrupted after becoming emperors, but Li Zicheng has always been good. The common people praise him because he represented the interests of the peasants in rebelling against the landlord class.”
In December 1939, Mao warmly praised the Chinese peasant movement in the article “Chinese Revolution and Chinese Communist Party”, calling it the “true driving force of historical development.” He affirmed leaders of the peasant movement, including Li Zicheng. Mao also expressed his views on the novel “Yongchang Romance” written by the folk writer Li Jianhou about Li Zicheng, and he highly praised the novel “Li Zicheng” written from the perspective of “class struggle” by Yao Xueyin.
Mao’s views on Li Zicheng also became the CCP’s views because the CCP’s development and growth mainly relied on peasants. Mao and the CCP’s affirmation of peasant leaders like Li Zicheng actually affirmed their own seizure of power as so-called justice.
Similarly, Mao gave a high evaluation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from the perspective of Marxist class struggle, stating that “The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is different from any peasant uprising in Chinese history. Not only was it the largest in scale, but it occurred under the conditions of China entering a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, hence it possessed the characteristics of a bourgeois democratic revolution; Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, differs from leaders of previous peasant uprisings. He not only led the anti-feudal struggle but also led the anti-imperialist struggle.”
It is because of Mao and the CCP’s attitude that statues and sculptures of Li Zicheng, Xiao Chaogui, and the Taiping Army appear so prominently on the mainland, as Mao and the CCP believe that these peasant movements and leaders in history provided them with great inspiration. Their “spirit of resisting despotism” was also a propaganda content that helped the CCP win popular support before seizing power.
However, compared to historical peasant movements and leaders, the evil deeds of Mao and the CCP, who deceived and exploited peasants to seize power, led to the complete abandonment of the peasants, resulting in tens of millions of deaths and the continued backwardness and poverty in rural areas to this day.
Now, with the economic downturn and surging public grievances, Chinese society has entered an unprecedented period of turmoil. The CCP is extremely afraid of new uprisings, fearing that statues of Li Zicheng, the Taiping Army, standing in public places will inspire the people, and thus, has ordered their removal. When people are no longer afraid of death, who knows if the cry “Better to be a beheaded hero than a servile official” will resurface? Has the time come for the weak CCP to fall?