The Four Olds refer to categories used by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution to characterize elements of Chinese culture prior to the Chinese Communist Revolution that they were attempting to destroy. The Four Olds were 'old ideas', 'old culture', 'old customs', and 'old habits'. During the Red August of 1966, shortly after the onset of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards' campaign to destroy the Four Olds began amid the massacres being carried out in Beijing.
The remains of the Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620) at the Ming dynasty tombs. Red Guards dragged the remains of the emperor and of his empresses to the front of the tomb, where they denounced and burned them.
The Forbidden City in Beijing was renamed the "Palace of Blood and Tear".
This statue of the Yongle Emperor was originally carved in stone, and was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution; a metal replica is in its place
The remains of the 8th century Buddhist monk Huineng were attacked during the Cultural Revolution
The Red Guards were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolishment in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.
Red Guards on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. They were holding the "Little Red Book" containing quotations from Mao Zedong.
Political slogan by Red Guards on the campus of Fudan University, Shanghai, China says "Defend Central Committee with (our) blood and life! Defend Chairman Mao with (our) blood and life!"
Red Guards in 1966
A public appearance of Chairman Mao and Lin Biao among Red Guards, in Beijing, during the Cultural Revolution (November 1966)
