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The Culture of Power: The Lin Biao Incident in the Cultural Revolution

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The mists that surround the Lin Biao incident have not been completely cleared even in the increasingly open Chinese society. Scholars who have tried to tackle this issue have run into the roadblocks of the CCP, keeping them from garnering valuable insight into the matter. However, Dr. Jin has succeeded where others have failed. The daughter of Wu Faxian, one of Lin Biao's trusted generals, Jin not only sheds new light into the Lin Biao incident but also illuminates the lives and court intrigues of those around Biao. The reader will quickly see that the ancient intrigues that surrounded the dynastic struggles of Old China did not pass away with the Qing dynasty but were alive and well in the era of Mao Zedong, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. Using a mixture of primary resources and personal interviews Jin weaves a masterful tale of just how and why Lin Biao fell from Mao's grace and ultimately died in a mysterious plane crash. We learn of the role of Lin's children and his wife, a subject that few scholars have devoted as much effort to uncovering. Jin's closeness to some of the major players in the incident in no way affects her objectivity, but gives the entire affair a new dimension. She examines the incident with the careful lens of a historian, piecing together the factual with the circumstantial. This book belongs on the shelves of every China scholar, and those who are interested in the fascinating stories of these men and women, many of whom rose from peasants to the pinnacle of power within the "new" China.

Having read a number of the books available on this topic, and studied modern Chinese history extensively, I can say that this is one of the best books for a reader with interest in either the "Incident" specifically, or with more general interest in the high-level intrigues in China during the Cultural Revolution.

One of the many joys of this book is Jin's broad use of sources to achieve a tight and focused view of her topic. Dr. Jin has successfully captured the elements that are necessary to tell how Lin became Mao's successor, and then how he fell from grace just as Peng Dehuai and Liu Shaoqi did before him. But she has delved deep, drawing from hundreds of diverse elements such as personal interviews with her father (one of Lin's generals) and other involved persons, to the official documents of the Chinese Communist Party and the trial of the "Gang of Four." This reach has enabled her to carefully reconstruct not only the narrow time frame of the "Incident," but also the intrigues and power struggles at the highest level of government that enabled the Cultural Revolution to engulf the entire nation.

In doing so, Jin has not only drawn a clear picture of Lin Biao, but also of Mao Zedong. Mao emerges as a complicated human in her portrait; he is ruthless in his paranoid persecutions, but also compassionate towards the peasants of China (but, as is clear from the book, this compassion is not towards individual peasants, but towards the peasant class as a whole). It is a compelling, human portrait that emerges, and one that dovetails nicely with recent scholarship on Mao in his later years.

Finally, Dr. Jin extensively uses Western ideas of historiography and political psychology. She artfully blends traditional Chinese analysis and values with the latest Western trends. The analysis of this slice of Chinese history that results is unique in the study of modern China.

Qiu Jin's book on the Lin Biao incident is an intriguing look behind the scenes of one of communist China's remaining mysteries. Why did Lin turn on Mao? What role did his subordinates play? What effect did it have on China? Some of these questions are not answered, but others are. Most interesting in this book is the role of Lin's family, including his ambitious son and strong wife. The reader with a sense of Chinese history will see that the intrigues of Communist China did not differ much from Imperial China. Jin does a great job and illustrating this. Although she does say some things that are troubling, such as calling Mao "compassionate," overall her treatment of the subject is valuable for the insider perspective that she brings to the subject. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I hope Jin follows up in the future.

Early in the book we learn that the author is no ordinary scholar, but is instead the daughter of Wu Faxian, one of Lin Biao's principle generals and insider into the entire affair. However, it should be noted that the author's closeness to some of the actors involved does not interfere with her giving a balanced treatment of the subject, and she tells a riveting story that is enlightening and informative. Besides the Lin Biao incident, the book gives remarkable insight into the origins of the Cultural Revolution, as well as the cult of personality surrounding Mao Zedong. In the end, we learn intimate details about those around Lin Biao, his family, and his friends, all of who seemed to have played an integral role in Lin's downfall, maybe a larger role than any scholarly treatment of the subject has discovered thus far. This book is a valuable tool for those who wish to understand the Lin Biao incident. But more than that it is a book for the student of the Cultural Revolution and those interested in the personal dynamics that surrounded the lives of those who rose from peasantry to the pinnacle of power in the new China, as well as their ultimate corruption and downfall.

if you were looking for a "scoop" on the incident, it is not here! This stays almost entirely at the level of speculation, and the dipping into familial "history" is sheer gossip in this book. Too bad, this is an important topic. So its a bit of a bummer to see would-be scholars rely on stupid spy-novel or orientalist "palace intrigue" crap to "explain" an event.