Nie Yuanzi
Chinese Red Guards leader (1921–2019)
Nie Yuanzi (5 April 1921 – 28 August 2019) was a Chinese academic administrator at Peking University, known for writing a big-character poster criticising the university for being controlled by the bourgeoisie, which is considered to have been the opening shot of the Cultural Revolution. She became a top leader of the Red Guards in Beijing, and was sentenced to 17 years in prison after the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Early life
Nie was born in 1921 into a wealthy family in Hua County, Henan, the youngest of four siblings. Her eldest brother, Nie Zhen (聂真), was a founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cell in the county. He was married to Wang Qian, a senior CCP member and the ex-wife of then President Liu Shaoqi.
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, Nie, then sixteen years old, joined the Communist resistance in Shanxi, which was supported by warlord Yan Xishan. She received military training at the National Teachers' College in Taiyuan and joined the CCP in 1938. In the 1940s, Nie moved to the Communist base in Yan'an, where she met Kang Sheng and his wife Cao Yi'ou.
After the surrender of Japan, Nie was sent to the formerly Japanese-occupied Northeast China in 1946, where she worked in the government of Qiqihar. A year later, she was appointed Director of the Theory Section of the Propaganda Department of Harbin.
The public source identifies “Nie Yuanzi” as chinese Red Guards leader (1921–2019). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Yuanzi, Chinese and Guards.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q463089. VIAF identifies the subject as 72917524. The Library of Congress control number is n87862993. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 2019, 1937 and 1938.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nie Yuanzi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.