[1][2] The term originated during the Yuan dynasty where the Mongol conquerors identified ten "castes" of Chinese: bureaucrats, officials, Buddhist monks, Taoist priests, physicians, workers, hunters, prostitutes, (ninth) Confucian scholars and finally beggars, with only beggars at a status below the intellectuals.
[15][16] During the Cultural Revolution, intellectuals were called the "Stinking Old Ninth" and were subjected to condemnation, purge, imprisonment and even execution.
[9][11][15][17] On May 3, 1975, Mao made the following comments at his meeting with members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party:[18][19]In the fields of education, science, literature and art, and medicine, where intellectuals are concentrated, there are some good [people], and there are a few Marxist-Leninists.
You two are stinking intellectuals, you should admit this, being the stinking old ninth category, the old ninth category cannot [just] walk away.After the Cultural Revolution, in August 1977, Deng Xiaoping mentioned in a meeting that it was the Gang of Four who came up with the phrase and that Mao himself saw intellectuals as still having some value in society.
[20] A few days later, Hua Guofeng also attributed the invention of the term "Stinking Old Ninth" to the Gang of Four in his talk at the 11th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.