THE mass assault on the authorities and state institutions that swept China three decades ago has few parallels in this century. Its impact on the Chinese society and polity has been profound, and its causes are still debated by both Chinese and Western scholars. Depending on one's level of analysis and source of information, the Cultural Revolution can be viewed as a Chinese great purge masterminded by Mao Zedong; a showdown between Mao's romantic revolutionary ideals and Liu Shaoqi's strict organizational control; a life-and-death power struggle among various political factions, including Lin Biao's military, Zhou Enlai's government apparatus, and the radical group headed by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing; or a social movement that included the Red Guard rebellion and workers' revolts. This chapter takes as the main issue the institutional destruction and rebuilding during the Cultural Revolution. It discusses the unprecedented assault on the Chinese state institutions in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Mao's failed attempts to establish alternative ways of reorganizing China, and the role of the military and mass campaigns.