Yao Wenyuan is the main member of the "Gang of Four". In his early years, he was appreciated by Zhang Chunqiao and served as the first deputy director of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee. In 1970, after Chen Boda was reviewed at the Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Yao Wenyuan was transferred to Beijing and replaced Chen Boda in charge of the "propaganda" work.
However, during his work in Beijing, Yao Wenyuan formed a "Gang of Four" with Wang Hongwen and others, and did many bad things that harmed the country and the people. In 1976, leaders such as Hua Guofeng attacked, arrested Yao Wenyuan and others, and smashed the "Gang of Four". It is worth mentioning that after Yao Wenyuan was detained, he tried his best to show that he was drawing a clear line with the "Gang of Four" and wrote reflection materials carefully every day. For this reason, he became the lightest sentencing person among the main members of the "Gang of Four".
In fact, before the arrest of the "Gang of Four", Yao Wenyuan had different ideas from Wang Hongwen and others. For example, in 1976, he received two strange letters, but after thinking, he did not hand them over to Wang Hongwen and others. The reason why Yao Wenyuan did this was because he was afraid that if he handed it to Wang Hongwen and others, they would pursue these two letters, which would be detrimental to him in the future. So, what are the letters Yao Wenyuan received?
The first strange letter is related to " People's Daily ". On April 12, 1976, the editorial department of the People's Daily received an anonymous letter. The envelope of the letter reads "People's Daily" received it, and the back reads "Please edit Goebbels receive it." After opening the anonymous letter, the staff found that it was a People's Daily published on April 8. The newspaper also wrote in big black words "Down with Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, and Yao Wenyuan". The person in charge of
was shocked after reading it and quickly handed the anonymous letter to Lu Ying, the person in charge of the People's Daily. Lu Ying was also shocked after reading it. After careful thinking, he decided to hand over the anonymous letter to Yao Wenyuan. Yao Wenyuan was in charge of the "propaganda" work at that time, and the People's Daily was also under the jurisdiction of Yao Wenyuan. Yao Wenyuan responded the same as Lu Ying when he saw the anonymous letter. He asked Lu Ying and another person who had read the anonymous letter to keep the matter secret. After thinking about it, Yao Wenyuan locked the letter in his drawer and did not hand it over to Wang Hongwen and others.
In July 1976, Yao Wenyuan received another strange letter. The letter was handed over to Yao Wenyuan by Xie Lifu, the head of Xinhua News Agency, and the letter was written by a reporter from the Henan Branch of Xinhua News Agency. In this letter, the reporter wrote some rumors he had heard, which mainly revolved around some things after Chairman Mao’s death, including the words that declared Zhang Chunqiao a traitor.
After seeing the content of this letter, Yao Wenyuan was no less surprised than the previous strange letter. The first thing he considered was whether to hand the letter to Chairman Mao? Considering that Chairman Mao was seriously ill at that time, Yao Wenyuan gave up this idea, and then he considered whether to hand it over to Wang Hongwen and others. After some thought, Yao Wenyuan also gave up this idea and did not hand the letter to Wang Hongwen and others, but continued to lock it up.
On October 6, 1976, after Yao Wenyuan was arrested, the reviewers asked him why he did not hand over these two letters to Wang Hongwen and others? Yao Wenyuan's reply was as follows: If you hand over the letter to Wang Hongwen and others, it would be equivalent to binding himself and Wang Hongwen and others, and Wang Hongwen and others would likely be liquidated in the future and they did not want to take risks with them.
In addition, Yao Wenyuan also thought that if Wang Hongwen and others collapsed, he would hand over these two letters to Hua Guofeng, so that Hua Guofeng would distinguish him from Wang Hongwen and others. However, Yao Wenyuan's idea was that he was willing to do it himself. The crimes he committed when he colluded with the "Gang of Four" in the past were numerous. On October 6, 1976, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen and others were arrested on the same day. What awaited him would be severe punishment from the law.
