China Red Guard Flag with Lin Biao Slogan.
This red flag with a Chinese inscription in golden yellow characters that reads: "Sailing the seas, we rely on the helmsman, making revolution; we rely on Mao Zedong thought. - Lin Biao". The text was well-known in the Cultural Revolution, during which a decade of turmoil in Communist China was seen as the Chinese Communist Party brought the nation close to civil war as it sought to revitalize itself.
The words appear in songs of loyalty to Mao that people regularly sang. The flag features fine calligraphy and great irony: Defense Minister Lin Biao was a key figure in pushing the cult of Mao to extravagant lengths in the military but (for unclear reasons, possibly although not necessarily a planned coup by Lin or his son) Mao turned on Lin, who fled the country in September 1971, only to die as his plane crashed in Mongolia.
Provenance: Acquired in 2007 by purchase in China.
ZFC Important Flag
Sources:
Flag Translation by Prof. Benjamin L. Read, Politics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz letter of 17 February 2012, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.
Cultural Revolution, Wikipedia, 11 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
Lin Biao, Wikipedia, 11 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
