Gang of Four Play

China’s Xinhua is reporting the last of China’s “Gang of Four,” Yao Wenyuan, died on Dec. 23, of complications from diabetes. He was 74.

The other three who instrumented the persecution, beatings and death of hundreds of thousands of intellectuals, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Madame Mao (Jiang Qing) died between 1991 and May 2005.

Xinhua said Yao’s death brings to a close the tragic, 10-year period of Cultural Revolution that tore China apart between 1966 and 1976.

But the state-run news agency said it also opens the opportunity for the government to start profiting from their demise. Already in the works are a 2-DVD boxed set called “The Gang of Four’s Greatest Hits,” featuring film clips of Red Guards tossing rich people out of windows and interviews from beaten intellectuals, all set to the tunes of revolutionary Peking Opera.

Included will be a previously unreleased track of a young Jiang Qing, who tried - unsuccessfully - to capitalize on her marriage to Mao Tse-tung by founding a communist rock group called “Jiang Qing and the Mao Maos.” Their only single - unpublished before now - was called “All Scum-Sucking Landholders Deserve To Die.” Urban legend has it that Madame Mao touched off the Cultural Revolution when a local record label heard the song and declined to sign the Mao Maos.

In a fit of pique she and her band burned down the studio and urged students to “rise up and overthrow the old capitalist culture.” The influence spread across the nation. Limited edition Gang of Four toilet paper will be in stores soon, made from the collected works of the four revolutionaries.