When I sat in front of Mr. Yan Changgui and listened to his calmly recounting the story of more than 30 years ago, I could not have imagined that such a sincere, bookish scholar had been Jiang Qing’s first secretary, and was later sent to Qincheng prison for 8 years, and then exiled to a farm for 5 years after his release. “What a wonderful combination of history! To be secretary to Jiang Qing, the First Lady of China, is something I never dreamed of. The ‘Cultural Revolution‘ actually made this dream, which I had never dreamed of, a reality, and it was really like I had experienced a nightmare!” Hearing Mr. Yan’s true voice, I thought I should write this history out.
Mr. Yan Changgui’s ancestors were poor peasants, and after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, he had the opportunity to go to school, thus he himself was a genuine student, and after graduating from high school in 1956, he was admitted to the philosophy department of Renmin University of China to study dialectical materialism and historical materialism with excellent grades. He was assigned to work for the Red Banner magazine (now the magazine Quyi). However, Mr. Yan did not work as an editor, but studied the history of Chinese philosophy under the tutelage of Guan Feng, a historian of Chinese philosophy. He wrote an article called “Never Walk, Never Fall” based on Mr. Hua Junwu’s cartoon “Untitled”, which was published in the China Youth Daily on September 22, 1962. The article was included in the “Selected Newspaper Reviews” published in 1963, and others wrote articles to evaluate and analyze the article. It was not until the beginning of the Cultural Revolution that Mr. Yan was told by Qi Benyu that Chairman Mao had praised and commended your article “Never Walk, Never Wrestle” and had given him instructions to do so, and 30 years later he read in a compilation of documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Chairman Mao’s comments on the article The approval: “Issue it to all comrades for study. If you make a mistake, it will be all right if you correct it seriously.” The fact that the article received Chairman Mao’s approval was a very big deal at that Time. This undoubtedly played a great role in his later development.
After doing academic research for more than two years, Mr. Yan joined the writing group “Philosophy Against Revisionism” of the Red Flag magazine in the autumn of 1963, which was headed by Guan Feng. Before the articles criticizing revisionism were written, the “Four Clean-ups” campaign began, and soon the “Cultural Revolution” broke out. At this point, Mr. Yan Changgui’s academic research was terminated. In June 1966, Yan Changgui was transferred by Qi Benyu to the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In June 1966, Yan Changgui was transferred by Qi Benyu to the Secretary Bureau of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee to work on letters and visits, and a month later he was transferred to the Briefing Group of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and lived in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where he was assigned to be responsible for Jiang Qing’s letters to the public. At this time, Yan Changgui was no longer an ordinary college student who had just graduated a few years ago, he was getting closer to the most central power institutions in China at that time, and at the same time, he was stepping into a door that would later bring him the ultimate disaster.
“Before the Cultural Revolution, no one wrote to Jiang Qing except for personal letters, and Jiang Qing did not have a full-time secretary, but after the Cultural Revolution began, Jiang Qing became the deputy head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and some people wrote to her, at first dozens of letters a day, and in 1966 On August 31, 1966, Jiang Qing hosted Chairman Mao’s second meeting with the Red Guards in Tiananmen, and the number of letters from the masses increased dramatically, hundreds and thousands of letters, and then the letters received every day were packed in sacks, so seven or eight people could not handle them. Yan selected seven, eight or ten “important” letters every day and sent them to Jiang Qing with a summary in front, while most of the rest were forwarded to the relevant departments: the State Council, provincial and municipal committees and ministries, and those exposing and criticizing Jiang Qing were forwarded to the Ministry of Public Security as “counter-revolutionary letters”. The Ministry of Public Security.
One day at the end of 1966, Qi Benyu said to Yan Changgui, “Jiang Qing asked me to be her secretary, but I can’t do it, I’m too thick, I think you are more detailed, you go.” One night after half a month, Qi Benyu formally said to Yan Changgui, “Come with me, now you go to the 11th floor!” At that time, Jiang Qing was living on the 11th floor of Diaoyutai, and Qi Benyu’s meaning was clear: he wanted Yan Changgui to be Jiang Qing’s secretary. In fact, the selection of Yan Changgui to Jiang Qing as secretary is not so simple, there were several candidates, but finally selected the most junior, the youngest Yan Changgui may have several factors: First, he comes from a good social relations simple, have some ability to work, the articles written by the praise of Chairman Mao; Second, Yan Changgui at that time and Jiang Qing’s daughter Li Ne more contact, very talkative, Li Ne to Yan’s good impression, she may The most important thing was the recommendation of Qi Benyu, who was trusted by Jiang Qing more than Yao Wenyuan, not to mention Wang Li and Guan Feng.
On January 9, 1967, Yan Changgui officially became Jiang Qing’s secretary, and only then did Jiang Qing have his first full-time secretary. Although Yan often saw Jiang Qing before he became the secretary, Jiang Qing also greeted him politely, but after Yan became the secretary, Jiang Qing did not see him for a long time, met with the answer also ignored, the documents sent to Jiang Qing were delivered through the security guards. He was told that this was called the probationary period, and it was only after 20 days that Jiang Qing first talked to Yan. The reason was that there were two factions in the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, one supported by Wang Dongxing and one supported by Qi Benyu, who thought that the faction he supported was under pressure and wanted Jiang Qing to speak for this faction. Qi Benyu sent Yan to “investigate” and then write a report. When Yan returned from his “investigation”, he wrote a letter to Jiang Qing and Qi Benyu, addressed to “Comrade Benyu and Comrade Jiang Qing”, which of course was sympathetic to the faction Qi Benyu supported. After reading the letter, Qi Benyu said: I don’t care about this! Yan immediately argued: “investigation” is you let go, how do you do not care about it? Qi Benyu then said: Do you dare to send this letter to Jiang Qing? Yan was so young and exuberant that he casually said, “What’s so daring about that? So Yan removed Qi Benyu’s name, recopied the letter, and sent it to Jiang Qing through his security guard. The next day, Jiang Qing went to Yan and told him: I have read your letter, but this matter you do not care, from now on you will work in my place, except for what I sent you to do, anyone sent you the task you will no longer accept (Yan felt that Jiang Qing obviously saw this matter is someone else asked him to do), you have to be responsible to me, to the party. In addition, also told some of the discipline of being a secretary. After this incident, Yan began to deliver documents directly to Jiang Qing every day, handle letters, and do some business work. Jiang Qing once said to Yan: I am a completely politicized person, I don’t even know what day of the week it is, except for work. Therefore, when Yan delivered the documents every day, he had to attach a note, which said that today was the day of the week on a certain month.
“Before the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing seldom lived in Beijing for long periods of time; she was like a migratory bird, going to the south in winter and living in the north in summer. Mr. Yan said, “Only in 1967, when I was her secretary, Jiang Qing did not leave Beijing for a single day. So I didn’t take a special train or a special plane.” This was the year when Jiang Qing was trying to climb up the ladder and gave people the impression that she was totally devoted to the Cultural Revolution. Yan Changgui worked carefully with Jiang Qing, and Jiang Qing generally did not make things difficult for him. The first thing is that the first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good idea of what you are doing. The first time I saw the film, I was able to see it. Jiang Qing was so conceited that she did not want her secretary to write the script, probably because she wanted to show herself, but also because she was influenced by Mao Zedong, who “did not want his secretary to do it for her”.
The first thing that happened was a letter, and one day in the winter of 1967, Jiang Qing did not find Yan when she rang the bell, and when someone told him, he immediately ran to him, and Jiang Qing lost his temper with Yan: “I can’t afford to use you, a great intellectual, and now you’re here with me, I’m under a lot of pressure! You are still ignorant, I don’t believe anything others say about you, why do you believe everything others say about me.” Yan couldn’t understand her words, but the phrase “I don’t believe anything people say about you” was clear to Yan, that is, after the fall of Guan Feng in August 1967, because of the teacher-student relationship with Guan Feng, Yan was under some attacks, “Red Flag” magazine and some units, someone also posted Yan’s large-character posters saying: Guan Feng is a counter-revolutionary, Yan Changgui is also a counter-revolutionary. The reason is that Yan Changgui is a student of Guan Feng. We are not comfortable with Yan Changgui around Comrade Jiang Qing, and so on. At that time, there were many such reflections in the Central Cultural Revolution Group’s “Express” newspaper, and Yan reported them to Jiang Qing, who said, “Being with Guan Feng, Guan Feng’s students are not necessarily bad people.”
One day at the end of 1967, Jiang Qing called Yan Changgui, Qi Benyu and Yao Wenyuan were also present, she slammed a letter on the table and said to Yan: “Why did you send this letter to me? What is the purpose? You are ignorant, ignorance will make mistakes, will commit crimes. You don’t know that I haven’t moved my nest since I arrived in Yan’an!” Yan was stunned, not knowing what was going on, and raised his eyes to look at the letter on the table, which was written by an actress from the Beijing Film Studio to Jiang Qing. A few days ago, Yan saw this letter, in which the actress said that her name had been Jiang Qing before liberation, and that she was now under attack, and that, in addition, she was willing to hand over a sum of savings as party dues, and so on. The actress’ intention was clear: she wanted Jiang Qing to say something for her so that she would not be hit again. The letter was very long and Yan did not finish reading it, but he mistakenly thought that the actress had some personal relationship with Jiang Qing and felt that it was not good to deal with it, in fact, he was afraid of taking responsibility for it, so he wrote a note asking Jiang Qing for advice. This stirred up a hornet’s nest! In fact, the actress had no relationship with Jiang Qing. In the conclusion given to Yan Changgui in 1975, the verdict was set because of this letter: “Delusional attempt to frame the comrade in charge of the Central Committee with false materials.” What a big hat! The sore point of Jiang Qing’s Life was that she had been an actress in the 1930s, and anyone who worked with her or knew her details at that time was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. For Jiang Qing, Yan Changgui, a minor character, was also in danger, and Yan Changgui’s bad luck started from then on.
It was a coincidence that Yang Yinlu, who worked with Yan as his secretary a little later than Yan, had a critically ill father, and when he received the telegram, Jiang Qing was already asleep. When Yang returned a week later, Yan led him to Jiang Qing, who was furious with Yan: “He’s here, why are you still here?” That very night, Chen Bo Da and Wang Dong Xing talked to Yan, and Chen Bo Da said: You’d better go back to your written work! Wang Dongxing said: We need to review the routine procedures, Yan was taken from Diaoyutai Building 11 to a house of the Diaoyutai North Gate Security Company and temporarily locked up. The day happened to be January 9, 1968, and Yan said, “I have been Jiang Qing’s secretary for a whole year, not one day more, not one day less.” At that time Yan was very frank and did not think of things so seriously, carrying with him a few philosophy and history books.
Three days later, Chen Boda and Yao Wenyuan came, Chen Boda asked Yan: What are you doing? Yan said: read a book. Chen Boda said coldly: you still read what books wow! Wang, Guan and Qi are all bad people. Yao Wenyuan then added: you are Wang, Guan, Qi planted in the head of the nail. At this point Yan felt that the matter was serious. Another week later in the evening, Chen Boda, Xie Fuzhi, Yang Chengwu, Yao Wenyuan together to talk to Yan. This is what kind of a show! Yan Changgui smiled and talked about the incident: I, a small cadre of grade 22, had surprised the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau (the No. 4 person after Premier Zhou Enlai at that time), the Vice Premier of the State Council and Minister of Public Security, the Acting Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and the author of the “Review of the New Historical Drama ‘Hai Rui Strike Off the Officials'”, which opened the “Cultural Revolution”. The first person who started the “Cultural Revolution” was Jiang Qing. What is shown here is Jiang Qing’s “grandeur” and “prestige” at that time. Yan really felt that there was nothing trivial around Jiang Qing! The next day, Yan was imprisoned in Qincheng prison and became a real prisoner. The next day, Yan was imprisoned in Qincheng prison and became a real prisoner. It is really “accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger”, and Yan Changgui, whose life was hanging by a thread, paid a heavy price for his momentary negligence. Many years later, Mr. Yan wrote in the foreword of an anthology he published: “If you ask the reason? I can only say, to add to the crime, what trouble! It was common and ordinary at that time for Communists to be imprisoned in the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
Yan’s code name in prison is 6820, meaning prisoner number 20 in 1968. He had been in prison for more than two years, with no arraignment, no books, no newspapers, no paper and pencils, and no tools for human and social contact and communication, except for three meals a day to keep him alive at a minimum. He was like forgotten by the world, no one paid attention to him except the guards, Yan became completely isolated from the world, he almost became deaf and mute. Yan looked forward to the arraignment because he could talk to people, he was like a trapped beast in prison, even looking for a fight with the guards, in order to open his mouth to talk. In order not to degrade the function of speech, he memorized poems and self-made jingles every day. In order to force himself not to think, he sat in front of his bed every day and counted the mesh on the heating hood, over and over again, in a cycle, and once he stopped counting, he started thinking again, and this pain made him suffer. At that time, Yan’s thought was, “As long as I’m allowed out, I’ll do anything.
More than two years later, the first arraignment did not come until the spring of 1970, Yan said: At that time in Qincheng prison even arraignment is a kind of enjoyment, because you can talk to people. Later, the situation improved a little, you can read “Mao” and read the newspaper. For several years, he read every article in Mao’s Selected Works dozens of times, including “On the Protracted War” hundreds of times. I saw this book, which Mr. Yan has preserved to this day, was a gift from Lin Biao, and the cover was so torn that it was almost impossible to pick up. In order to have something to read in writing, he did not let the guards take away the newspapers he read every day, and read them again and again to spend time and increase knowledge. Mr. Yan said: 8 years if used to learn foreign languages, at least one can be proficient ah.
In May 1975, Yan was announced to be released and sent directly to work in Hunan’s Xidongting Farm to await the conclusion. In October 1975, the superiors announced the conclusion to Mr. Yan Changgui: he was trying to frame the central government with false materials. The comrade in charge (of course, the comrade in charge refers to Jiang Qing). He was put on probation for one year. After working for more than a year, Yan was transferred to a farm high school as a teacher, teaching mathematics at first, then politics, and then becoming the principal of the high school, and after a year he was transferred to the propaganda department of the farm as a theory officer.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, a large number of wrongful cases were vindicated, and Mr. Yan Changgui was also completely vindicated in September 1979, and in March 1980, Mr. Yan returned to Beijing and returned to the Red Flag magazine, which he had left for 14 years, and became an editor again.
When I asked Mr. Yan what he thought of the Cultural Revolution, he said out of the blue: “The Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and a disaster, there is no doubt about it, and it should never be repeated in the future. But why did the Cultural Revolution happen? How to avoid the ‘Cultural Revolution’? This is a big question worth studying and thinking about. And now there is still this or that taboo on the study of the ‘Cultural Revolution’, which is really unwarranted.”
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