Was Cultural Revolution an Enlightenment?--A Critical Reading of a Rebel's Dissertation on the Cultural Revolution

문화대혁명은 사상계몽운동이었는가? 린웨이란은 문혁이 비록 종국에는 사산되었지만 ‘오사’에 버금가는 사상계몽운동이었다고 주장한다. 그에 따르면 문혁은 인민대중이 주체가 된 3년간의 사상계몽운동으로, 인민군중은 구계급이론에 의해 동원되었으나, 각성을 거쳐 자발적으로 신계급이론을 만들어냈다. 또한 이들 중 일부, 특히 문혁 시기의 홍위병 청년, 노동자들은 혁명의 경험을 기반으로 성장하여 1978-1982년의 민주운동의 주역으로 활동하였다. 다만 민주운동은 신계급이론을 심화시키지도, 광범위한 인민대중운동으로 성장하지 못하였다. 이로써 문혁으로부터 시작된 사상계몽운동은 사산되고 말았다. 그럼에도 린웨이란이 문혁을 사상계몽운동이라 주장하는 것은 신시기 이후 문혁을 '혼란'으로 규정하는 중국 관방이데올로기에 대해 비판하는 의의가 있다. 그는 오히려 개혁개방 후 시장경제에서 ‘혼란’함을 문제화하고, 문혁을 재사유하여 그로부터 도덕적, 정신적 지주를 찾을 것을 제안한다.

In recent years, Korean researchers of Chinese Modern Literature have increasingly questioned the validity of Chinese New Era’s enlightenment discourse which has been dominantly influential since the 1980s in Korea. In order to overcome the narrative of Enlightenment, they started to focus on the ideological aspect of the Cultural Revolution (CR), which is naturally contributable to the redefinition of enlightenment that has been exclusively related to the May Forth so far. This paper reviews Lin Weiran’s Ph.D. dissertation An Abortive Chinese Enlightenment: The Cultural Revolution and Class Theory (1996). First, Lin Weiran (1996) describes the CR as ideological movement led and engaged in by the mass (renmin qunzhong), and the movement was characterized by political activities such as intense debates in everyday life. In this sense, Lin claims the CR as nothing less than Chinese enlightenment. Lin’s work helps Korean researchers secure specific and prolific historical resources to redefine the CR as an ideological revolution, consequently resolving the problem of integrating enlightenment and Mao’s mass line. Second, Lin highlights the role of the former Rebels in the Democracy Wall Movement (1978-1982). The Red Guard radicalism--‘theory of a new class’, which is reguarded as the core of ‘new intellectual trend’ (xin sichao) by Lin, criticizes a new bureaucratic class or the speical privileged class in PRC. Lin argues that ‘theory of a new class’ is an important starting point in explaining the Democracy Wall Movement activists’ democratic arguments. Last but not least, Lin overlooks radical innovations of system during the CR. As a result, Lin fails to address or account for Mao’s dilemma between revolutionizing and governing the country.