Hai Rui Dismissed from Office

Hai Rui Dismissed from Office (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade–Giles: Hai³ Jui⁴ Pa⁴-kuan¹) is a theatre play notable for its involvement in Chinese politics during the Cultural Revolution.

Wu Han, who wrote the play, was a historian (and a municipal politician in Beijing) who focused on the Ming Dynasty. In 1959, Wu Han became interested in the life of Hai Rui, a Ming minister who was imprisoned for criticizing the emperor. Wu Han wrote several articles on his life and his fearless criticism of the emperor. Wu then wrote a play for Peking Opera titled "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office", which he revised several times before the final version of 1961.

The play is a tragedy in which an honest official carries the complaints of the people to the emperor at the expense of his career. It portrays Hai as an efficient magistrate who requests an audience with the emperor. Hai then criticizes the Emperor directly for tolerating the corruption and abuses perpetuated by other officials in the imperial government. The emperor is so offended by Hai's criticism that he dismisses Hai from office. Hai is restored to office after the emperor dies.

The play was published under Wu's pen name, Liu Mianzhi, the name of a Song dynasty scholar and a supporter of Yue Fei. The play enjoyed great success, and was initially praised by Mao Zedong. With a changing political climate, the play later came under severe criticism.

After the play's initial performance, critics began to interpret it as an allegory for Peng Dehuai's criticism of Mao during the 1959 Lushan Conference, in which Peng's criticism of Mao's Great Leap Forward led Mao to purge Peng. According to this interpretation, Hai Rui is Peng, and the Ming Emperor is Mao. Peng himself agreed with this interpretation, and stated "I want to be a Hai Rui!" in a 1962 letter to Mao requesting his return to politics.

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