Abstract: At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Tao Zhu, the then First Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of Guangdong Province, was promoted to key positions including the head of the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, the executive secretary of the CCP’s Central Committee, and subsequently the advisor of the CCP on the Cultural Revolution. This made Tao the rising star in China’s politics. However, in less than six months, Tao, the then Politburo Standing Committee member and the “No. 4 in Command” in the party hierarchy, was sagged by Mao’s “proletariat headquarter” and persecuted to death. What explains this drastic change? This article uncovers the myths of the “Tao Zhu Incident” based on the author’s analysis of historical archives from various sources. It argues that while many factors were at force, Mao Zedong was the ultimate reason for Tao’s fall, and Zhou Enlai also played a disgraceful role behind the scenes.