The Deep Mechanisms of the Cultural Revolution Tragedy and Reflections on Civilization 文化大革命悲剧的深层机制与文明反思

The Cultural Revolution was one of the most destructive social and political events in Chinese history. Its tragic outcomes stem not merely from political struggles but from the complex interplay of personal philosophical psychology, power desire, institutional imbalance, and cultural dependence. This paper analyzes the deep mechanisms of the Cultural Revolution from four dimensions: ideology, psychology, culture, and institutional structure, revealing the cyclical nature of historical tragedies. First, it examines how philosophical influences, such as Wang Yangming’s “unity of knowledge and action” and Zhang Zai’s “establishing the mind for Heaven and Earth,” shaped Mao Zedong’s personal will, allowing him to treat his subjective judgment as the ultimate historical truth; it further explores how Confucian hierarchical ethics and loyalty culture reinforced societal obedience, providing the basis for extreme policies. Second, the paper analyzes the interaction between Mao’s desire for power and institutional conditions, exposing the societal disasters caused by the Great Leap Forward, the Three-anti and Five-anti campaigns, the paralysis of the educational system, and mass mobilization. Third, it evaluates how institutional imbalance, marginalization of independent critique, and cultural-psychological suppression eroded civilization’s self-correcting capacity, proposing a tragedy cycle model of institution-culture-psychology resonance. Finally, from the perspectives of natural civilization theory and scientific-philosophical critique, the paper outlines conditions for healthy civilizational development: constrained power, rationalized culture, protection of intellectual independence, and dynamic feedback mechanisms. This study aims to provide a systematic, critical framework for preventing historical tragedies and promoting rational, sustainable development in modern civilization.