In 1966, after the beginning of the special period of the ten years, there were three extremely active people in the propaganda world, namely Wang Li, Guan Feng and Qi Benyu. These three people are also called "Wang, Guan, and Qi".

1966, after the beginning of the special period of ten years, there were three extremely active people in the propaganda world, namely Wang Li, Guan Feng and Qi Benyu. These three people are also called "Wang, Guan, and Qi". "Wang, Guan, Qi" made many mistakes during that special historical period and persecuted many revolutionary cadres. In 1967, after the Wuhan July 20 incident, "Wang, Guan, Qi" were successively isolated and investigated and detained.

Today we are going to talk about is one of the three people "Wang, Guan, and Qi". His name is Qi Benyu, and he is also called "Master Qi". After the founding of New China, Qi Benyu entered Zhongnanhai , mainly engaged in confidential work , and later served as deputy editor-in-chief of "Red Flag" and acting director of the General Office of the Central Committee. So, what is the story of Qi Benyu?

Qi Benyu was born in 1931 and is from Weihai, Shandong. In his early years, he mainly studied in his hometown. Later, he participated in revolutionary work and joined our party in 1949. Shortly after joining the party, Qi Benyu was transferred to Zhongnanhai and mainly engaged in confidential work. However, in 1958, during the anti-rightist movement at that time, Qi Benyu was criticized. He took the initiative to find Chairman Mao while he was walking in Zhongnanhai and shouted for justice to Chairman Mao. After that, Chairman Mao ordered Tian Jiaying to investigate Qi Benyu's incident, and Qi Benyu was also rehabilitated and resumed his work.

Qi Benyu is a relatively smart person, which can be seen from his initiative to stop Chairman Mao from calling for justice. After restoring work, Qi Benyu learned that Chairman Mao liked history, so he began to study historical content in order to attract Chairman Mao's attention. Qi Benyu is still at a certain level. In 1963, he published an article about Li Xiucheng on Taiping Heavenly Kingdom , pointing out that Li Xiucheng is a traitor.

The famous historian Jian Bozan once criticized this article by Qi Benyu, saying that Li Xiucheng was a celebrity of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and a positive person. Qi Benyu's views do not match the mainstream views. However, Chairman Mao admired Qi Benyu's article, which has since attracted the attention of the historical community, and Qi Benyu gradually became a celebrity.

Qi Benyu is a little vengeful. After becoming famous, he also published an article criticizing Jian Bozan, which was considered avenge for a single arrow back then. What really made Qi Benyu on the stage of history was the ten-year special period that began in 1966. In 1966, Qi Benyu was not only appointed as the acting director of the General Office of the Central Committee, but also entered that special group and became one of the group members, working with Jiang Qing and others on Diaoyutai .

However, as he was in a high position, Qi Benyu made many mistakes and persecuted many cadres. For example, Qi Benyu had persecuted Wang Guangmei. On January 12, 1967, Qi Benyu held a meeting on the 16th floor of Diaoyutai. Under Qi Benyu's instigation, that night, seventy or eighty people from the Secretariat broke into the residence of Liu Shaoqi and Wang Guangmei and began to criticize and fight against Wang Guangmei.

In addition, in the Tsinghua University criticized Wang Guangmei, Qi Benyu was also one of the behind-the-scenes envoys. This criticism and struggle also greatly damaged Wang Guangmei's body and mind. In addition to Wang Guangmei, a group of founding fathers such as Peng Dehuai and Tao Zhu were persecuted by Qi Benyu. Qi Benyu can be said to have committed many crimes. For this reason, in 1967, after the July 20 incident, the central government began to investigate "Wang, Guan, and Qi". Wang Li and Guan Feng were first detained. In January 1968, Qi Benyu was also imprisoned in Qincheng Prison. In 1983, Qi Benyu was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

1986, Qi Benyu was released from prison (the sentence has been calculated since 1968) . After being released from prison, he was placed in Shanghai and became an ordinary librarian. In his later years, Qi Benyu mainly wrote memoirs and occasionally participated in social activities. He eventually died of illness in 2016. It is worth mentioning that in the month of Qi Benyu's death, his memoirs were also published.

However, Qi Benyu's memoirs caused great controversy. The main reason is that Qi Benyu beautified Jiang Qing in his memoirs, shirked his responsibilities, and said that many of the wrong things that happened during that special period were not his own responsibility.In his memoirs, Qi Benyu was not only correct, but also made contributions, including Jiang Qing. Because of this reason, Qi Benyu's memoirs have been criticized by many people.