--- title: Jiang Qing url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/jiang-qing/ description: 8 verified quotes from Jiang Qing, Wife of Mao Zedong; First Deputy Head of the Cultural Revolution Group; Politburo member; adviser on cultural work to… section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a Cold War intelligence-dossier collage dominated by a distressed world map with connecting routes, coordinates and highlighted regions.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-map-heavy.jpg) [Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · China # Jiang Qing ![Jiang Qing at the Red Detachment of Women performance, Beijing, 22 February 1972](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/peoples-republic-of-china-mao/jiang-qing.jpg) [Photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Richard_Nixon_Seated_with_Jiang_Qing_(Madam_Mao)_during_a_Revolutionary_Opera_Performance_-_DPLA_-_9dc9cbd4848d1dcf7487eeb101fc47e1.tiff): White House Photo Office (President Nixon), U.S. National Archives (via Digital Public Library of America), Public domain (U.S. federal government work) Wife of Mao Zedong; First Deputy Head of the Cultural Revolution Group; Politburo member; adviser on cultural work to the PLA; named by the post-1976 leadership as leader of the "Gang of Four" · China On the regime page: [People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/peoples-republic-of-china-mao/#jiang-qing) 8 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=jiang-qing). 1. > “Our operatic stage is occupied by emperors princes, generals, ministers, scholars, and beauties, and, on top of these, ghosts and monsters.” — English: Foreign Languages Press, Peking (On the Revolution of Peking Opera, 1968, pp. 1-7). Original-language text not found. — July 1964 · Speech · Peking, forum of theatrical workers at the Festival of Peking Opera on Contemporary Themes — Talk at a state-sponsored festival of operas on modern revolutionary themes, setting out the case for replacing traditional stage subjects with stories of workers, peasants and soldiers. — "On the Revolution of Peking Opera", talk at the forum of theatrical workers participating in the Festival of Peking Opera on Contemporary Themes, July 1964; Chiang Ching, On the Revolution of Peking Opera (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1968), pp. 1-7 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1964/july/0001.htm) 2. > “there are over 600 million workers, peasants, and soldiers in our country, whereas there is only a handful of landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, bad elements, Rightists, and bourgeois elements. Shall we serve this handful, or the 600 million?” — English: Foreign Languages Press, Peking (On the Revolution of Peking Opera, 1968, pp. 1-7). Original-language text not found. — July 1964 · Speech · Peking, forum of theatrical workers at the Festival of Peking Opera on Contemporary Themes — Her second set of figures in the talk, set against the count of opera companies staging traditional themes. — "On the Revolution of Peking Opera", July 1964, in Chiang Ching, On the Revolution of Peking Opera (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1968), pp. 1-7 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1964/july/0001.htm) 3. > “I am a sort of roving sentry in the field of culture and education. What I have been doing is to subscribe to some magazines and newspapers, to leaf through them, and to pick out materials which I think noteworthy, including positive and negative materials. I finally submit them to Chairman Mao for reference.” — English: Issues and Studies (Taipei), vol. 6, no. 10 (July 1970), in part. Original-language text not found. — April 12, 1967 · Speech · Peking, enlarged meeting of the Party Military Affairs Committee — Jiang describes her own role as a cultural overseer reporting to Mao, at a meeting where she also discussed the criticism of cultural figures. Carried over from the regime page's quotes. — Speech at the enlarged meeting of the Party Military Affairs Committee, 12 April 1967, English translation (in part) in Issues and Studies (Taipei), vol. 6, no. 10 (July 1970) [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1967/april/12.htm) 4. **Content note:** Discusses armed struggle during factional violence. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “Comrades, I am not in favor of armed struggle, and you must not think that I like it, because I am firmly opposed to it. I resolutely support Chairman Mao's call for "peaceful struggle, not armed struggle." What I mean is: when the class enemies attack us, how can we afford not to have an inch of iron in our hands?” — English: Union Research Institute, Hong Kong (CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967, 1968, pp. 520-534). Original-language text not found. — September 5, 1967 · Speech · Peking, meeting with representatives from Anhui — Talk during the armed factional fighting of 1967. The same speech discusses the slogan "attack by words and defend by force", which she says must not be separated from its class content, and was later circulated as an official document. — Talk at a conference of representatives of Anhui who have come to Beijing, 5 September 1967 (circulated by the CCP Central Committee General Office), in CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1968), pp. 520-534 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1967/september/05.htm) 5. > “This "attack by words and defend by force" must not be deprived of its class content; it must not be viewed in isolation from definite circumstances and conditions.” — English: Union Research Institute, Hong Kong (CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967, 1968, pp. 520-534). Original-language text not found. — September 5, 1967 · Speech · Peking, meeting with representatives from Anhui — Talk during the armed factional fighting of 1967, a few sentences after she says she opposes armed struggle but that class enemies cannot be met without 'an inch of iron'. She is explaining the slogan 'attack by words and defend by force'. — Talk at a conference of representatives of Anhui who have come to Beijing, 5 September 1967 (circulated by the CCP Central Committee General Office), in CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1968), pp. 520-534 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1967/september/05.htm) 6. > “After I saw the movie last evening, I felt uneasy. Is it possible for you to make some supplementary filming? If it is shown in the whole country as it is now, those workers, peasants and soldiers who have not seen these operas before would not be able to understand them; for they, unlike us, are not familiar with these operas.” — English: Union Research Institute, Hong Kong (CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967, 1968, pp. 595-602). Original-language text not found. — November 9, 1967 · Speech · Peking Forum on Literature and Art — Her notes on a film of the "model operas" that she sponsored, showing how she directed the content and presentation of officially approved works. Carried over from the regime page's quotes. — Talk at the Peking Forum on Literature and Art, 9 and 12 November 1967, on a documentary film of the model Peking operas, in CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1968), pp. 595-602 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1967/november/09.htm) 7. **Content note:** Denunciation of a named artist at a time of political attacks on artists. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “I don't like Pan Tianshou's paintings. They are so gloomy. Those bald eagles he paints are really ugly. Gloomy and hideous.” — English: Michael Schoenhals (ed.), China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party (M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 197-201. Original-language text not found. — May 19, 1968 · Private-remark · Peking, meeting with members of the Zhejiang Provincial Revolutionary Committee — Jiang's remark on the painter Pan Tianshou, then the subject of criticism in Zhejiang. Yao Wenyuan interjects that the paintings reflect Pan being a "special agent". — "Reforming the Fine Arts", tape-recorded meeting of Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan and Chen Boda with members of the Zhejiang Provincial Revolutionary Committee, 19 May 1968, abridged translation in Schoenhals (ed.), China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 197-201, from a Hangzhou University students' compilation of July 1968 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1968/may/19.htm) 8. > “If there is no disorder in the world, the reactionary class can maintain the situation in which it can squeeze and exploit the working people relentlessly and insatiably.” — English: Classified Chinese Communist Documents: A Selection (Taipei: Institute of International Relations, 1978), pp. 537-545. Original-language text not found. — March 1975 · Speech · Peking, address to diplomatic cadres Verified (secondary source) — Talk on world affairs given as relations with the United States developed after Nixon's 1972 visit. She goes on to discuss Kissinger and Nixon. The translation comes from a Taiwan-published collection of internal Chinese documents. — Address to diplomatic cadres, March 1975, in Classified Chinese Communist Documents: A Selection (Taipei: Institute of International Relations, 1978), pp. 537-545 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1975/march/00001.htm) ## Often attributed, not verified These words circulate under Jiang Qing’s name but could not be traced to a source. They are listed so readers can check them, not as Jiang Qing’s words. - > “I was Chairman Mao's dog. Whomever he told me to bite, I bit.” — Unverifiable Usually said to come from: Statement by Jiang Qing at her trial, November 1980 to January 1981 — Widely quoted in news and academic accounts of the Gang of Four trial, with varying wording (for example 'Whoever he asked me to bite, I bit'). No transcript or primary record of the trial was accessible for this check (the official English trial volume 'A Great Trial in Chinese History' (New World Press, 1981) was available only as a restricted loan copy on the Internet Archive), so the wording cannot be given as a verified quotation.