This book is the memoir of Chinese economist's Yang Xiaokai. It tells the stories of more than two dozen characters he met while imprisoned in Changsha during the Cultural Revolution. Published in 1994, it was reprinted in 1997 and 2016. The English version is titled *Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution*, published by Stanford University Press in 1997.
On August 8, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the "Sixteen Articles" of the Cultural Revolution. Soon after, Liu Wenhui, a young mechanic in Shanghai who had been labeled as a "rightist" in 1957, wrote pamphlets and leaflets clearly opposing the Cultural Revolution, the "Sixteen Articles", and authoritarianism and tyranny. He was arrested on November 26 of that year. Four months later, he was executed for "counter-revolutionary crimes." Liu Wenhui became the first person known to have been publicly shot for opposing the Cultural Revolution. The author of this book, Liu Wenzhong, was Liu Wenhui's co-defendant and survived thirteen years in prison. In this book, Liu Wenzhong describes in detail his brother Liu Wenhui's ideology as well as how he was killed by the tyrannical government.
This book is a complete record of the entire process of the forceful clearing of Tiananmen Square in 1989, which began at noon on June 3, 1989, and ended at 10:00 a.m. on June 4th. The author, Wu Renhua, who experienced the June Fourth Incident, describes some of the important events and characters in the book. For example, how Liu Xiaobo, Hou Dejian and other "Four Gentlemen" contacted and negotiated with the PLA martial law forces; how the tanks of the six departments chased and crushed the evacuating students; and how the medical staff put their own lives at risk to save the wounded in the rain of bullets and bullets. The first draft of this book was completed in May 1990, according to Wu Renhua's own account. He fled the mainland in 1992. In May 2007, he published *Inside the Bloody Clearance of Tiananmen Square* in Los Angeles. This was his first monograph on June Fourth. The book has since been updated and reprinted several times.
On August 8, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the "Sixteen Articles" of the Cultural Revolution. Soon after, Liu Wenhui, a young mechanic in Shanghai who had been labeled as a Rightist in 1957, wrote pamphlets and leaflets clearly opposing the Cultural Revolution, the "Sixteen Articles," authoritarianism, and tyranny. Liu was arrested on November 26 of that year. Four months later, he was executed for "counter-revolutionary crimes." Liu Wenhui became the first person known to have been publicly shot for opposing the Cultural Revolution. The author of this book, Liu Wenzhong, was Liu Wenhui's co-defendant and survived thirteen years in prison. In this autobiography, Liu Wenzhong describes in detail not only Liu Wenhui's ideology but also how he was killed by the tyrannical government.
The author was a key member of the 1989 pro-democracy movement when he was teaching at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law. After the June 4 massacre, he went into exile. Currently, he has settled in Taiwan, where he teaches a course on the truth of the June Fourth Incident at Soochow University and National Chung Cheng University. Wu Renhua has published several books related to the June Fourth Incident. With a master's degree in Classical Literature from Peking University, he has written a book on June 4 that emphasizes the reliability of the sources of information. This book records the major events that happened every day during the June 4 period (April 15th to June 9th).
When the Cultural Revolution broke out, Yang Xiaokai was a senior high school student at No. 1 Middle School in Changsha. On January 12, 1968, he published an article entitled "Where is China Going?" which systematically put forward the ideas of the "ultra-leftist" Red Guards, criticized the privileged bureaucratic class in China, and advocated for the establishment of a Chinese People's Commune based on the principles of the Paris Commune. Yang Xiaokai recalled that his parents were beaten because they sympathized with Liu Shaoqi's and Peng Dehuai's views, and that he was discriminated against at school and could not join the Red Guards. As a result, he joined the rebel faction to oppose the theory of descent. Yang Xiaokai was later sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for this article. Yang Xiaokai died in 2004. This article is a retrospective of his life.