On April 15, after the news of Hu Yaobang's death spread, teachers and students in many colleges and universities spontaneously held mourning activities. That night, dozens of elegiac couplets, slogans, and posters appeared at Peking University. Elegiac couplets read "Comrade Yaobang is immortal", "Heroic spirits live on forever", and so on. At the same time, there were also many slogans directed at Deng Xiaoping. Examples included "The one who should not have died is dead; the one who deserves to die is not dead"; "Yaobang has now died, the left is glorious, remind the nation's people, forget not the struggle." Another couplet wrote: "Xiaoping still alive at 84, Yaobang died first at 73, the ups and downs of politics, no life is guaranteed. Democracy incomplete after 70 years, China not arisen after 40 years, watching the rise and fall of all the world, Peking University also grieves."
In particular, a big-character poster titled "Appeal" made three demands:
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Prepare the funeral of Comrade Yaobang according to the highest standard
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Publish the works of Comrade Yaobang as soon as possible
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Publicly clarify the untrue remarks that have been made regarding Comrade Yaobang
The poster was signed "Some of the Teachers, Students and Alumni of Peking University".
References: "The Big Bang of History: A Complete Record of the June 4th Incident"; "The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited"; "A Tiananmen Journal"; "The Memoirs of Wang Dan — From June 4th to Exile"