1973-1976 A Study Of The "Blank Paper Incident" In Press Reviews

The “hand in blank paper event” was deliberately created by the Gang of Four in the late period of the Cultural Revolution to attack the practice of cultural examination in college enrollment.The occurrence of “hand in blank paper event”was closely related to the struggle between “rectifying lefties” and “anti-rectifying lefties ”in the late period of“Cultural Revolution” and the policy of resuming cultural examination for college entrance in 1973.In June 1973,Zhang Tiesheng,a student from Liaoning province,wrote a letter accusing the cultural test on the back of the physical and chemical examination paper after he had almost handed in a “blank”paper.Mao Yuanxin and others were so precious that they attempted to use this as a“sharp sword” to counter Zhou Enlai's “left-wing correction” and to stop the process of“left-wing correction”.So they ordered Liaoning Daily to delete the letter and publish it in the form of “editor's note”.After the publication of the letter by Liaoning Daily,Wenhui Daily,People's Daily and other newspapers reprinted and spread,the“hand in blank paper event” gradually spread across the country.In addition to reprinting “hand in blank paper event” one after another,major newspapers and periodicals of the country also actively organized discussions in the newspapers and periodicals,and published a large number of comments.The main contents of these newspaper reviews generally include four aspects:one is that “handing in the blank paper” is the reflection of countering the “return tide of revisionist education line”;Second,call for learning from Zhang Tiesheng's “anti tide” spirit;The third is to publish a small number of questions and newspapers' responses to the “handed over paper” articles;Fourth,affirmation “hand in blank paper event” promoted “education revolution”.However,on the qualitative restoration of cultural examination for college entrance,some people have expressed two different opinions.Some of the contributions believe that the cultural examination in 1973 was actually the “return tide” of the“revisionist education route” represented by the “old college entrance examination”.Other contributions criticized the practice of “hand in the blank paper”,arguing that it was necessary to use cultural examination as the main admission criteria,suggesting that cultural examination was not a“revisionist return”,and that Zhang Tiesheng's “handing in the blank paper” and opposing the results of cultural examination as the admission criteria were the embodiment of “extreme left ideological trend”.In response to these different views,some newspapers and magazines have also published a response article: that we should look at the “blank paper” from the point of view of the line struggle,according to the cultural test admission is unreasonable,college enrollment mainly depends on the cultural test results is “revisionist return”,Zhang Tiesheng's behavior is not“extreme left”.Many comments published by newspapers and periodicals about the “handing over the white paper” were distorted or divorced from the facts to varying degrees,and almost “one-sided” supported Zhang Tiesheng's “handing over the white paper”.Reviews of newspapers and periodicals guided the formation of public opinion against cultural examination,and created strong public opinion pressure for preventing the implementation of cultural examination in university enrollment,especially for breaking the “left-righting” process led by Zhou Enlai after September13 Incident.At the same time,the negation of knowledge and the propaganda of the spirit of going against the trend objectively promoted the “educational revolution”instigated repeatedly by the gang of four,interfered with the normal teaching order in colleges,primary and secondary schools to varying degrees,and seriously damaged the development of contemporary education in China.