Nie Yuanzi

Nie Yuanzi (Chinese: 聂元梓; pinyin: Niè Yuánzǐ; born April 5, 1921) is a Chinese academic who taught philosophy at Peking University. She is primarily known for writing a big-character poster criticising the university for being controlled by the bourgeoisie, which has been credited with launching the Cultural Revolution.

Nie joined the Communist Party of China in 1938 as a middle school student.

Nie's big-character poster was put up on 25 May, 1966. In it, she criticised Song Shuo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal University Bureau, Lu Ping, the President of Peking University and head of its Communist Party committee, and Peng Peiyun, an official in the Beijing Municipal University Bureau. Although Nie's main criticism was the control of Peking University by the bourgeoisie, the aim of the campaign was to legitimise the purge of the Beijing municipal party chief Peng Zhen, by exposing his crime of supporting a bourgeoise reactionary education line. This was pushed by members of the radical clique surround Mao Zedong, including Kang Sheng and Cao Yi'ou. This inspired students at other universities to write posters, most of which expressed support for the 'revolutionary action' of Nie Yuanzi.

When she published the poster, Nie was one of Peking University's top 30 officials on the Party committee. She was married to an official in the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and, along with her husband, Nie often socialised with ministerial-level officials.

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