The Criticize Lin Biao, Criticize Confucius campaign was launched in 1973 by Mao, and actively supported by his wife Jiang Qing. By this time, Lin Biao was already dead, officially killed in a plane crash while escaping China after his aborted coup attempt against Mao. But Beyond Confucius' name it was prime minister Zhou Enlai who was targeted by the cultural revolution's last zealots. After the death of Lin Biao, Zhou has become the main political rival for the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing and her clique). But their campaign failed to achieve its goals. It was the last successful battle for Zhou Enlai, as he died of cancer soon after.
The Confucian school was a reactionary school that defended declining noblemen and slave owners. The Legalists formed a progressive school, representing the interests of the up-and-coming landlord class. The thorough repudiation of the ideology that respects Confucians and opposes Legalists will represent a significant struggle in the ideological field (Red Flag, september 1973).
