Li Wenzhong

Boundlessly loyal to Chairman Mao, unstoppable by raging winds and ferocious waves..., 1968

Boundlessly loyal to Chairman Mao, unstoppable by raging winds and ferocious waves..., 1968

Li Wenzhong (李文忠, 1942-1967) was born in rural Shandong Province. A Party member and soldier, he rose to national prominence after he and his fellow Fourth Platoon members saved a number of Red Guards from drowning and died in the process. He was made a national model in December 1967 for “helping the Left and cherishing the people".

Like the heroic Fourth Platoon and Comrade Li Wenzhong, apply Chairman Mao’s latest instructions ..., 1968

Like the heroic Fourth Platoon and Comrade Li Wenzhong, apply Chairman Mao’s latest instructions ..., 1968

The Li Wenzhong campaign was noteworthy as is was the first instance in which the slogan “Boundlessly loyal to Chairman Mao" was used. This phrase would later set the tone in the Three Loyalties Campaign that unfolded after March 1968.

Learn from the left-supporting, people-loving model Fourth Platoon, Learn from the left-supporting, people-loving model Li Wenzhong, 1967

Learn from the left-supporting, people-loving model Fourth Platoon, Learn from the left-supporting, people-loving model Li Wenzhong, 1967

Julia Kwong, Cultural Revolution in China’s Schools May 1966 - April 1969 (Stanford: Hoover Press, 1988)

Daniel Leese, Mao Cult - Rhetoric and Ritual in China’s Cultural Revolution (Cambridge, etc.: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Helen Wang, Chairman Mao Badges - Symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution (London: The British Museum, 2008) available online external link