The campaign of the 1950s to eliminate the four evils is still fresh in the minds of many old people!

But all the old people over 60 years old, should have experienced this sensational national campaign, men and women, old and young, whether in the countryside or in the city, are "rats, flies, mosquitoes, sparrows" as the people's public enemy, the patriotic health campaign of the nation, once rose to the level of The whole country is in a state of war in the field of health.

January 1956, the authoritative media editorial "in addition to the four evils", calling on the people of the country to take action to eliminate rats, mosquitoes, sparrows and flies, April 10, 1960, the National People's Congress adopted the "1956 to 1967 National Agricultural Development Program," the "in addition to the four evils" content is clearly listed. "

The content of the program is listed among them.

In order to win this battle, adults and children, the elderly and women and children were all mobilized to shoot mosquitoes, catch sparrows, rats, flies, first from the environment to block the source, the 666 powder, fly swatters, insecticides, as well as the then more advanced tools were distributed, shoveling weeds to fill puddles, a clear division of labor.

Catching sparrows. The children were the ones who went up the tree to pull out the bird's nest, and the old and the weak were holding sticks, gongs and drums, and basins to make the noise, so that the sparrows who flew in the air in panic did not have a foothold, and under the united action, the sparrows were exhausted and fell down from the air, and in order to show the results, there were special statisticians who reported the number of sparrows eliminated every day, and the most outstanding results were in Henan Province, where the total number of sparrows eliminated was about 1,000.


To show the results, there are special statisticians to report the daily number of sparrows, the most outstanding results is the Henan Province, the total *** eliminated 120 million sparrows, followed by Liaoning and Shenyang.

The slogan put forward at the time to eliminate sparrows was that catching a sparrow was equivalent to saving 7 pounds of grain a year. Who knows that later there agricultural scientists to put forward the opinion that the sparrow is a master of eating bugs, which was saved from the fate of extinction, as one of the four pests of the sparrow was replaced by cockroaches.

Compared to sparrows, flies and mosquitoes have a certain seasonality, small target is not easy to be found, in 1958, a Canadian international friends came to China, saw the railroad side of a teenage girl, holding a piece of cloth in his hands suddenly east and west sometimes stopping and running wildly, it turned out that she was chasing a fly.

The Canadian diary wrote: "I was in China for a month, I did not see a sparrow, see a fly or two less than 10 times, he did not understand is, why the Chinese people want to be the enemy of these weak animals?"

In the 1950s of the 20th century, the timetable for eliminating the four pests was repeatedly revised and commands for doing so were set up one after the other, with Beijing setting two years in 1958 for the complete eradication of the four pests, Shanghai, a major city, three to five years, Henan three years, Jiangsu four years, and the following cities, counties and districts setting their goals at one year or a few months.

In the beginning, the aim of eliminating the four pests was to focus on people's health, but it gradually evolved into a political task that had to be accomplished, and it has been extended from the four pests to the seven pests, with some places where it was three years to eliminate the four pests, it has become three years to eliminate the seven pests.

Catching rats. There are many different ways to exterminate rats, all over the world are original, not only to take poison, digging holes, flooding and other traditional methods, but also invented a rat trap, rat cage and other highly artisanal tools, but if you want to eradicate or make it extinct, the difficulty is not generally big.

A elementary school student in Beijing thought of a wonderful method, is caught the rat, with a few grains of soybean stuffed into the rat's anus, and then sewed with a needle and thread, was released the rat drilled back into the hole, due to the inability to defecate and become crazy, so that the same nest of rats will be bitten to death, and then the method was promoted by the whole country, and greatly accelerated the pace of the extermination of rats. To this day this method is still used by children in rural areas.

Exterminating flies. Relative to flies, mostly biochemical plus environmental management methods, distributed 666 powder and insecticides get the application, due to the flies have a strong seasonal, this task is completed everywhere very smoothly, this is also the Canadians to China, after just ten times and flies have the opportunity to meet.

December 1958, the higher authorities and issued the "on the elimination of four pests and hygiene instructions", so that the four pests across the country exploded to the climax of the activities, followed by frenzy. A reporter based on archival statistics found that from December 1957 to April 1958, the country eliminated 135 million rats, sparrows 139 million, more than 180,000 city pounds of flies.

Thankfully, the nation hunted sparrows for five years before they were called off, as agricultural scientists discovered that the fields became infested with bugs after they lost their natural enemies. And sparrows are now listed on the National Wildlife Register by the State Forestry Administration.

In fact, from 1957 across the country has been carried out than, learn, catch up, help, exceed the big movement boom, the year's Minister of Health Li Dequan outstanding performance of Zhengzhou, Henan, Dengfeng, Beijing, Shanghai, Gansu and other cities to praise and commendation.

Then the more typical propaganda teams around the time is not willing to lag behind, compiled into a fast-paced to inspire, I believe that many people who have experienced this movement now, or will sing a couple of lines: there is a reconnaissance, there are ambush, in all directions to the siege, the day and night does not stop. It is said that the Henan Daily also published a song "everyone to get rid of the four pests", the lyrics are to the effect that: "you also come, I also come, everyone to get rid of the four pests, sparrows and rats to be killed, flies and mosquitoes to be eliminated, free of the four pests, and hygiene, not sick all year round."

"In addition to the four pests" movement is only the tip of the iceberg after the founding of the country's successive campaigns, until the beginning of the anti-rightist movement, up to ten years of the Cultural Revolution only kicked off, compared to the promotion of patriotic health campaigns, ten years of the Cultural Revolution, so that the economy was almost stagnant until after the crushing of the Gang of Four, the practice is the only criterion for the test of truth! Launch a big discussion, people only gradually from a variety of fanaticism to wake up, this time in a trance has come to 1984, and at this time the southern border is the time of smoke and mirrors.