Five Stresses, Four Graces and Three Loves

It refers to the forms of activities for promoting socialist ideological and ethical progress created by the Chinese people in socialist construction in the 1980s and strongly advocated by the Party and the state. Stress civilization, politeness, hygiene, order, and morality; beauty in soul, language, behavior, and environment; love the motherland, love socialism, and love the Communist Party. In June 1980, the central leadership fully affirmed the experience of Wuxi No.34 Middle School in carrying out aesthetic education activities on language, appearance, and behavioral beauty, and pointed out that there should be “five stresses” in ideology, politics and social atmosphere. In February 1981, through the synthesis and processing of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, a proposal of nine units to develop civic ethics and courtesy campaigns with “five stresses and four points of beauty” as the main content was formed. In February 1983, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council proposed to launch the “National Civic Ethics and Courtesy Month” campaign, which added the content of “three loves” on the basis of “five stresses and four points of beauty”.

Since then, the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued a notice requesting propaganda, culture, education, and public security departments at all levels to actively support the civic ethics and courtesy campaigns advocated by various people’s organizations and take it seriously as a part of promoting socialist ideological and ethical progress. At the same time, the combination of “five stresses and four points of beauty” and “three loves” formed the classic slogan of “five stresses, four points of beauty and three loves”. On March 7, 1985, Deng Xiaoping pointed out in his speech at the National Science and Technology Work Conference: “When we are building a socialist society with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to promoting both material progress and ideological and ethical progress, adhere to ‘five stresses, four points of beauty and three loves’, and educate people across the country to be ideal, ethical, educated and disciplined”. “Five stresses” and “three loves” have always been the main content of socialist moral education and promoting socialist ideological and ethical progress. The concept of “Four points of Grace” summarizes the new creation of the masses as they are ipromoting socialist ideological and ethical progress.

The Grace of the soul means, to pay attention to the cultivation of thought, morality and sentiment, safeguard the Party’s leadership and the socialist system, be “patriotic, upright, and honest”, never do things that degrade national morality and personality, never gain at the expense of others, and never practice fraud; the beauty of language means, to use and promote polite language, be “gentle and humble”, never speak vulgar language, and never use harsh words to hurt others; the beauty of behavior, means to be a person who is beneficial to the people and society, and be “diligent, friendly, and respectful”, never harm collective interests, destroy public property, and endanger social order; the beauty of environment means, to improve the hygiene of individuals, families, workplaces, and public places, and achieve being “hygiene, cleanliness, and greening”, no spitting, no littering of peels, paper scraps, and no damage to trees, flowers and plants. The “five stresses, four points of grace and three loves” campaign aimed to raise the moral standards of the people, improve the social atmosphere in urban and rural areas, and promote socialist ideological and ethical progress. The campaign included visualizes, and popularizes the ideals, morals, disciplines of the revolution, and the requirements of the entire civic ethics and courtesy campaigns in popular language and the customary expression of the Chinese nation. In terms of content, it reflects the people's demands and desires for the spiritual life of ideological, cultural, and technological learning under the new situation; in terms of activity methods, it overcomes the rigid preaching methods, and advocates the methods of self-education, and integrating education into cultural entertainment and public welfare construction activities. This is a creation of the massification of the Party's ideological and political work under the new historical conditions.