Yao Wenyuan was born in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province in 1931. His father, Yao Pengzi, was once a left-wing writer. He joined the Communist Party in 1927 and later defected to Chiang Kai-shek . When Yao Wenyuan was in college, he always boasted about his father to others. One thing he often said was: "My father is a comrade of Lu Xun. Qu Qiubai, Feng Xuefeng, and Hu Feng are all his good friends and frequent visitors to our house." Some people couldn't stand his appearance, so they brought up the past of his father's rebellion, which made Yao Wenyuan very embarrassed.
After graduating from college, Yao Wenyuan worked in the Propaganda Department of Luwan District, Shanghai, and lived in a government dormitory. At that time, Yao Wenyuan was rather slovenly and unsociable, and he liked to be alone. He was wearing a blue cotton cadre uniform, which had been worn for several winters without being washed, and was already very shiny. He wore it correctly, and his colleagues nicknamed him "the fried dough sticks vendor." In the dormitory, Yao Wenyuan was the last one to get up and never participated in morning exercises. His hobbies at that time were also very simple, which were reading and writing manuscripts.
In 1954, Hu Feng was criticized and arrested and imprisoned. Yao Wenyuan, who had once been proud that Hu Feng was a "frequent guest" in his family, turned back and published an article in newspapers and periodicals titled "Distinguish Right from Wrong, Draw Clear Boundaries", lashing out at Hu Feng. At that time, Zhang Chunqiao was serving as the president and editor-in-chief of "Liberation Daily". He praised Yao Wenyuan greatly after seeing this article. With Zhang Chunqiao's strong recommendation, Yao Wenyuan became a member of the leading party group of the Shanghai Writers Association.
In November 1965, under the instruction of Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan concocted the article " Review of the New Historical Drama "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" ", which had a very bad impact. After the "Cultural Revolution" began, Yao Wenyuan rose through the ranks, first serving as deputy director of the Shanghai "Revolutionary Committee" and second secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, and then was elected as a member of the Central Committee and a member of the "Central Cultural Revolution" leading group. In 1973, Yao Wenyuan went a step further and served as a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee.
At this time, Yao Wenyuan also moved his home from Shanghai to Beijing. He was not satisfied with the residence arranged for him by the relevant departments. He chose a compound next to Beijing No. 8 Middle School . This compound has a total of 125 houses and was once the residence of a prince in the Qing Dynasty. Yao Wenyuan's family has 5 people, but they occupy 125 houses. To ensure his safety, the original surrounding walls were torn down and rebuilt, with barbed wire erected on them. Yao Wenyuan likes silence. In order not to be disturbed, he does not allow the teachers and students of Beijing No. 8 Middle School to do radio exercises on the playground next to his home, and the chainsaws in the school-run factory are not allowed to make any noise. It can be seen how inflated Yao Wenyuan was at that time.
Winter in Beijing is relatively cold. Yao Wenyuan’s room has water heating, which was originally heated by coal. But he felt that burning coal smelled bad, so he asked him to switch to light diesel. Calculating, the heating bill for a day was more than 200 yuan. The heating bill alone costs nearly 20,000 yuan in one winter. The heating bill for his family of five is equivalent to four times the heating bill spent by the more than 2,000 teachers and students of Beijing No. 8 Middle School! During the "Cultural Revolution", Yao Wenyuan teamed up with Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao and others to do many bad things and persecuted many veteran cadres. After Chairman Mao died of illness, the "Gang of Four" attempted to launch a conspiracy, but it was crushed in one fell swoop. Yao Wenyuan was first isolated and examined, and then imprisoned in Qincheng Prison.
In prison, Yao Wenyuan insisted on reading and reading newspapers every day, and sometimes wrote some philosophical articles. Once, when Yao Wenyuan was reading the newspaper, he found this paragraph: "Nowadays, people all over the country are living a prosperous life. Many people eat rice and white flour during the Chinese New Year." He immediately frowned and said to the prison guard: "This is not okay. If you keep doing this for a few years, you will have no food to eat, and you will have to issue a ticket to impose restrictions. Please tell me this to the comrades of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee as soon as possible on my behalf."
This ridiculous suggestion was scolded by the prison guard: "China is not the time when you are in power. The life of the people has been much better. You'd better reform yourself!" Yao Wenyuan lowered his head in shame. In 1996, Yao Wenyuan was released from prison. At that time, he had a monthly pension of 4,000 yuan and lived a worry-free life. In his later years, Yao Wenyuan had a wish: he hoped to rejoin the party.But his request was not approved, and Yao Wenyuan passed away with this regret in 2005 at the age of 74.
