It is almost 40 years since Mao Zedong unleashed the Cultural Revolution. Debate still rages as to why he set in motion a chain of events that still leaves deep scars on Chinese society.
Was Mao motivated largely by a "lust for power" as Jung Chang and Jon Halliday argued in their blockbuster biography, Mao: the Unknown Story, an 814-page demolition of the Chinese leader? Or was he acting out of some warped ideological vision to root out "revisionism"?
While Mao was the guiding force behind the Cultural Revolution, the present Chinese authorities have found it convenient to blame the upheaval of that episode on the Gang of Four, who directed the purge of moderate party officials and intellectuals.
The Gang of Four consisted of Mao's third wife, Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, and Yao Wenyuan.
Described as "the killer with pen", Yao was the group's propagandist and Xinhua, the official news agency, today reported that he had died of diabetes, at the age of 74, on December 23. He was the last survivor of the quartet, and deserves more than a footnote in the history books.
A former propaganda official and Shanghai journalist, Yao wrote the article in 1966 that signalled the start of the Cultural Revolution. During the revolution, hundreds of thousands of people died, many of them committing suicide after being harassed by Mao's Red Guards, the shock troops of the revolution.
A month after Mao's death in 1976, the Gang of Four was arrested, marking the end of the Cultural Revolution. Yao was convicted of trying to gain power by persecuting officials and members of the public and spent 20 years in prison.
As for the others, Jiang reportedly committed suicide in jail in 1991, Wang died in 1992 and Zhang died in May last year.
As it happens, this year marks the 30th anniversary of Mao's death. It will be interesting to see whether the authorities will allow a thorough and extensive re-examination of a period that traumatised China.
