Q: There is a great debate in the Cultural Revolution research community about the status and role of Zhou Enlai himself in the Cultural Revolution, and I would like to hear your opinion today.
A: This is indeed an issue that has sparked a lot of controversy. I think the main two schools of thought can be drawn from a statement by Deng Xiaoping to the effect that without Premier Zhou, the Cultural Revolution would not have been what it was, and that without Premier Zhou, the Cultural Revolution would not have lasted so long. I think Deng’s remark was to say that some of the losses in the Cultural Revolution were reduced because of Zhou’s efforts, but equally because some of Zhou’s actions contributed to Mao’s arbitrary actions and made the Cultural Revolution more vicious. Regarding Zhou’s position and role in the Cultural Revolution, there is a school of thought that Zhou was the one who saved the day and stopped the car from falling off the cliff, and another school of thought that Zhou aided and abetted the evil in the Cultural Revolution in order to save himself. In fact, from the historical facts, both schools of thought have evidence to judge, the key is to look at specific examples. To evaluate a historical figure, it is best to have detailed archival materials, real records of oneself, such as diaries, work notes, writings, etc. But Zhou was in that meat grinder of the Chinese Communist Party, and he would never have come clean about what was really in his mind. The communist system has this ability to make what happened yesterday a mystery today.
Q: But in recent years, after all, some materials have come out, and a large number of people have talked about their personal experiences, so it is still possible to make some judgments, right?
A: Of course, there have been quite significant works written overseas about Zhou’s journey through the Cultural Revolution, such as Gao Wenqian’s Zhou Enlai in his later years, which is a very high quality work with solid materials, solid arguments and reasonable analysis. I feel a little sorry that Mr. Gao is a generous person, and his writing is quite generous, so he does not show mercy to Zhou, and does not analyze Zhou’s dark psychology of aiding and abetting the enemy more sharply and painfully. I think on the issue of knocking down Liu Shaoqi, Zhou used his extraordinary ability to handle matters to help Mao do what he wanted to do but could not. As we all know, Mao wrote “Cannonballing the Commander-in-Chief – A Large Character Poster of Mine” on August 5, 66, and the day before, on August 4, Mao urgently convened the Politburo Standing Committee, and at this meeting, Mao cursed “bullies, ghosts, snakes and gods, there are some here”, and insulted Liu Shaoqi to his face. And humiliate Liu Shaoqi to his face, so Liu Shaoqi could not control his emotions and Mao on the spot, said five not afraid, not afraid of dismissal, not afraid of demotion, not afraid of expulsion from the party, not afraid of divorce, not afraid of jail and kill the head. The reason why Mao face to face Liu, because July 31, Zhou Enlai and Kuai Dafu met twice, talking in detail for six hours, let Kuai Liu Shaoqi, Wang Guangmei sent a working group into Tsinghua, suppressing the rebellious students of the matter originally told a thorough. Zhou took detailed notes and reported to Mao, giving Mao the verbal evidence to defeat Liu Shaoqi. The first of these is the “new” version of the “new” version. And only Zhou Enlai is the most suitable, his findings no one can doubt, not only to suppress the masses, to suppress the old marshals and patriarchs, but also to suppress Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.
Q: Zhou later became the head of the Liu Shaoqi task force, to sign the investigation report.
A: Yes, so strictly speaking, he is Liu Shaoqi, the false case of his own hands to create. The scariest thing is that he was fully aware that it was a false case. From Zhou’s behavior, we can deeply perceive the complete moral degradation of a Leninist political party. Within this organizational system, there is no truth and personal inner moral conflict, only blind obedience, cruelty, and lies. Zhou, a man who gives a perfect and refined outward appearance, is not afraid to have blood on his hands when he needs to strike hard. This is not to say that Zhou himself is a natural villain, but because he is dedicated to a faith, which is itself anti-human. Mr. Gao Wenqian always said that Zhou “tolerated the party”, which is true, but it is more important to point out that the “party” is in fact the dictator himself, and Zhou only found an excuse for losing his conscience, and justified all his brutal acts by his party nature. We analyzed this issue last Time, and Zhou’s actions are a good example. If we were to summarize Zhou’s attitude toward the Cultural Revolution, we could say that it was passively initiated and actively engaged. We only have to read a great deal of Zhou’s speeches during the Cultural Revolution to see that he basically went along with Mao. As long as Mao wanted to do something, no matter how damaging it was, Zhou could find a way to make it come to fruition. Even He Long and Chen Yi, who were close to him, he always followed Mao as soon as he wanted to fix them. His favorite phrase was “keep the late season”. The most important thing is that it is an extremely selfish pursuit that puts the world at risk. Compared with what Peng Dehuai said “I advocate for the people and call”, to selfish, snobbish much. So at the Lushan Conference, Peng said to his face that Zhou was “cunning and cunning”.
Q: But Zhou still rescued some people during the Cultural Revolution, and after the end of the Cultural Revolution, someone wrote an article praising Zhou as “a big tree to protect Ying Hua”.
A: Yes, there is such an expression. But it must not be forgotten that who Zhou rescued and who he abandoned depended on Mao’s eyes. For example, Zhang Shizhao, he has a kindness to Mao, so he was shocked, wrote to Mao for help, Mao instructions “sent to the Prime Minister’s discretion, should be protected”, this week only to give a helping hand. It is likely that Zhou wanted to rescue more people in his heart, but to reach out or not to reach out, Zhou was completely guessing Mao’s mind. For those people whom Mao was determined to deal with severely, he did not pretend to color. Mr. Gao Wenqian had contact with some special case materials handled by Zhou himself, and he said “they all have Zhou’s signature or instructions, and some of them have been approved for many times, and have written large paragraphs of criticism, and the tone is very severe, and the writing has quite a legacy of Shaoxing master. In fact, we do not have to imagine that within the Leninist party will have a normal conscience of God, right and wrong and such things. We know that Zhou was scared to death of Mao and was always reviewing his Life. He was terrified of any hint from Mao. He was so cautious of Mao, so afraid of not serving him well, that he was able to kneel on the ground and explain to Mao the route of the Red Guards. The premier of a country, a letter to Mao, but also asked Mao’s woman Zhang Yufeng to read to Mao when Mao is in good spirits, the tone of humble almost low, so people can not bear to read. The relationship between superiors and subordinates within the CCP is not as good as the relationship between The Emperor and his courtiers. There is no famous minister in Chinese history who does not dare to offend his face. With Zhou’s talent, he could have been a person like Ouyang Xiu or Fan Zhongyan in ancient times, but within the Communist system, he was even worse than a lackey.
Q: But even though Zhou was careful and obedient to Mao, Mao still couldn’t let him go.
A: That’s true. During the Cultural Revolution, Zhou followed Mao closely, but Mao never really trusted him. Of course, Mao was a paranoid and delusional personality, and I am afraid he never trusted anyone in his life. Looking at the Cultural Revolution from a psychological perspective, the catastrophe was the onset of a paranoid delusional patient with unlimited power. In psychology, the main symptoms of paranoia are perpetual suspicion, extreme selfishness, cruelty and cunning, and the pleasure he gets from devising cruel acts. He often imagines that he has been harmed by others and seeks revenge. A paranoid delusional maniac in the power arena is extremely keen on power games, in which he feels secure. The ancient Roman emperors Caligula and Nero, and the contemporary Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong are all typical paranoid and delusional personalities. Mao’s callousness can be seen in his persecution and torture of Zhou. From time to time, he had to bring out the fact that Zhou had opposed him in the 1930s to intimidate him, so that Zhou kept reviewing, and the so-called “Wu Hao incident” was hanging there, not to issue, so that Zhou’s head was always hanging a sword of Damocles. The most vicious thing is that after Zhou was found to have early bladder cancer, he was forbidden to treat Zhou with four prohibitions. When Zhou’s condition worsened, he used the commentary on the law to criticize Confucianism and the Water Margin to put political pressure on Zhou that he could not bear. The only purpose was to let Zhou die before him so that he would not settle his score after the autumn. Despite the fact that Zhou had reviewed his life and helped Mao in the Cultural Revolution, and even aided and abetted him, Mao did not let him go in the end. When he was young, Zhou was also an ambitious and passionate man, and I still remember his poem: “To face the wall for ten years to break the wall, it is difficult to pay for the sea is also a hero”, but once he got into the Communist Party’s boat, he “missed his life”. I think if he had followed President Chiang as the director of the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy, he would not have lived such a hard life.
Q: However, the failure of the Cultural Revolution and the beginning of the rebellion against the Gang of Four had something to do with Zhou.
A: Yes, this is really what Hegel called “the cunning of history”. There is a kind of “natural justice” in the hearts of the people. I still remember the death of Zhou, a group of our friends drinking and crying, not to forget the four or five Tiananmen Square, a sea of people, wreaths like a mountain of scenes. The people did not know how the relationship between Zhou and Mao was, but they could feel that Mao was bullying Zhou, and Zhou was aggrieved. The notes in Tiananmen Square that pointed out that Mao was the Qin Shi Huang, and that Zhou was wronged, did not reflect Zhou’s real position in the Cultural Revolution, but they used Zhou’s image to convey the people’s anger against Mao and the Cultural Revolution. This was also a success for Zhou.
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