1
In recent years, for a variety of reasons, even people of status and seemingly knowledge have openly denied the existence of the “Great Famine”. I, myself, am a hundred percent witness to the “Great Famine”; not only have I witnessed the existence of the Great Famine in society, but I have also witnessed the most horrible, cruel and unnatural “cannibalism”.
What is particularly shocking is that this “cannibalism” did not take place in the grieving countryside, but in the city, in the center of the city, just a few hundred meters from the district government, the impact on society is not small. More than half a century later, I still have a vivid memory of the incident; not only do I remember the identity and name of the person concerned, but even his face and voice, I still remember it vividly.
This is because the person in question was the father of one of my classmates (in both junior high and high school), and also a neighbor who lived in the same alley dozens of meters away from each other. When I go to school from home, if I go through the old school gate, I must pass through his house. If I go to the street from the school, whether I go through the new gate or the old gate, I always pass by his house. It was like a “see you, see you, see you” kind of acquaintance.
At that time, there were two famous high schools in Zigong. One was Zigong No. 1 High School, which Mr. Hu Jiwei had attended. The other was Zigong No. 2 Middle School (now Shiguang Middle School), which Mr. Xie Tao had attended and where Mr. Li Shenzhi had been a teacher. Zigong No. 1 Middle School was formerly known as Pei De Girls’ High School, which was founded by Canadian missionaries in the early years of the Republic of China. It was renamed Zigong First Middle School after the Communist takeover, and then the nondescript “Bu Xi Middle School” during the “Great Leap Forward”. The name was later restored to Zigong No. 1 Middle School, which has been in existence ever since. Zigong No. 2 Middle School was built by Mr. Zhang Bo-ling, president of Nankai University, on the basis of the original Zigong private Shuguang Junior High School during the war, and is said to be modeled after the famous Nankai Middle School in Tianjin. After the Chinese Communist Party took over in the 1950s, it was changed to Zigong No. 2 Middle School, and then once again reverted to the school name of “Shuguang Middle School,” which it still is today.
At that time, Zigong No. 1 Middle School had two gates, the old and the new. The entire campus was built on the top of a hill in the city, and to enter the old gate you had to climb 20 steps of very steep stone steps. It is only after the steps are finished that the school gate is opened. The old gate was an ancient Chinese gatehouse that has long since been demolished, and its ruins are nowhere to be found. The new gate is along the alley to the west, where the old school was built.
In front of the steps of a western-style villa that is shared by the Gun Newspaper and the city’s radio station, take a 90-degree turn and head north a few dozen meters. The new school gate is barely accessible by car without climbing a stone ladder. Although the old gate had many steep stone stairs, it was much closer to the school and the street, and many students preferred to take the old gate.
My classmate’s house is right in front of the old gate of the First Middle School. Not exactly, but the alley was about a meter or two to the west. Said home, in fact, is quite shabby, but is built on the alley wall of a few humble tile house. Because they did not dare to occupy more passageways in the alley, the depth of the house was estimated to be at most two meters, maybe even less. Anyone passing through the alley, the house and the inside of the dilapidated phase of movement can be seen. These old houses, probably the Republic of China has, and in the alley, after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, but also did not because of its unsightly school and demolition. In fact, at that time, the entire city population, with the exception of a few large families in the past who were not confiscated after the establishment of the regime, and a small number of nouveaux riches, lived in the same style.
I entered Zigong First Middle School in 1956, in the 6th class of the 59th grade. At that time, I was in six of the eight classes in the first junior high school, probably because the school arranged all the classes according to my home address for the convenience of the administration. The first time I was in the classroom, I was in the middle of the first class. At home, we could even hear the bell ringing at the end of class. The eldest son of this client, who lived in the old gate of the First Middle School, became my classmate.
2
This student’s last name was Luo Mouxiang, and he was the oldest student in the class. He was two or three years older than me, and he was a tall, strong, strong fighter and a strong worker, which made him somewhat attractive in the class. The boy classmates ridiculed him as “a slut” and jokingly called his face “a bunker”, which earned him the nickname “Luo Bao”. In the future, the habit became natural, and as long as it was an informal occasion, I almost shouted a response.
When I graduated from junior high school, it was 1959, and the Great Leap Forward was in full swing. Many new junior colleges had been established in Sichuan, and most of the students were shunted out, with the few older students with the poorest grades going to city cadet schools. But only a few of them went on to high school. I don’t know for what reason, Luo didn’t report to a junior college, nor did he go to a cadet school, but he chose to go to high school, which is not good enough for him to go to college after three years of high school.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services, including a full range of products and services, and a wide range of products and services. The “support workers” worked a lot, often going to the countryside and factories, working all week, or even leaving school for the whole month. The “labor committee” was one of the few class cadres in the class, and was elected for several terms. He was one of the few cadres in the class. He was occasionally proud of himself and spoke with his classmates in a leadership manner. The problem was that his test scores never improved, and he didn’t dare to be too proud for fear that people would beat him up.
Our three years of high school, from the second half of 1959 to the second half of 1962, were the peak years of the nationwide famine. Although it was in the city, and although it was in a high school with relatively good conditions, the shadow of the famine was everywhere.
Four elderly people died in my family in those three years: my grandmother, my third grandmother, my grandmother, and an orphaned “Chen Xiaoling” who had been living in my house for decades without a family.
My family used to be a large one, but after the sale of the house in the mid-1950s, my third grandmother, who had no children, and “Chen Mishu,” who had no means of support, moved with my blind grandmother to a new home in an alley near First Middle School, where my parents provided for her. Soon afterwards, my grandmother, who had no one to rely on in her old age, also moved in with me. There were then four elderly people in my family. Of course, it cannot be said that they all starved to death during the famine, because they were all city dwellers and received a meager monthly ration. But what is certain is that they all died of malnutrition. At that time, city dwellers were provided with 22 jin of food per month, but later on they “voluntarily” saved one jin for the state, which was only 21 jin, an average of 7 taels per day. And the real to mouth is not so much.
The reason was that the Great Leap Forward was engaged in the “urban people’s commune”, and the neighborhood committees had set up “public canteens”, so that all the supplies could not go directly to the households to the people. As a result, what the residents can really eat in their stomachs has been discounted. Originally, it was stipulated that those over 60 years old could buy their own rations and cook their own meals at home without having to go to the “public canteen. But the power is in the hands of the director of the neighborhood association, and if the director doesn’t authorize the note, you won’t be able to buy rations at the food store with your food card.
I have witnessed my grandmother, who is over 60 years old, being scolded by the director of the neighborhood committee when her plea to buy her own rations and cook at home, as required by the government, was not granted. Of course, that ration could not be replaced by the same amount of food stamps (which is why they were more valuable than banknotes). This was the most extreme form of social control in Mao’s time. Even for city dwellers, you couldn’t leave your place of residence, and you certainly couldn’t oppose anyone, or you would die. Neighborhood committee heads, who were not official officials at the time, and even group representatives (i.e., resident group leaders) seemed to hold the power of life and death over the residents. It was against this social background that the four elderly members of my family passed away one after another. They were at least indirect victims of the Great Famine.
And then there are the schools. Thanks to the grace of the authorities, the food policy was very generous to the students, especially the few high school students. The monthly ration for high school students was initially 32 pounds, but later became 31 pounds by “voluntarily” saving 1 pound from the state. In any case, there was a daily supply of 1 kilogram. In the school cafeteria, except for a period of time each year when the Ipomoea is served, steamed Ipomoea is eaten every day, usually in the form of rice (with a few broken grains in it). The routine was to eat three, four, three, that is, three taels for breakfast, four taels for lunch, and three taels for dinner.
The food was even worse, with single-variety, oil-poor pot dishes at lunch and dinner, and a half-small spoonful of moldy bak choy sauce per person for breakfast. I remember that during those three years in high school, besides attending classes and dealing with exams, everyone’s main focus was on food. Both boys and girls had good appetites and could eat.
A typical example of this was when I worked as a support worker in a factory, and the factory was unable to provide me with lunch. So the school cafeteria came up with a trick, and the lunch was steamed and distributed to every student along with the breakfast. The students were allowed to take the lunch with them and eat cold rice at the construction site for lunch. Some students found it too much trouble to bring their lunch with them and could not resist the temptation of hot rice, so they simply ate both portions together. I have witnessed not only boys but also girls in my class doing this. It must be hard for people today to imagine a 16- or 17-year-old girl with a quiet appearance eating two servings of rice (7 servings of rice in total) without making a sound with a small spoonful of a very moldy bakery sauce. The two portions of raw steamed rice together were quite large. Then you go back to work for a whole day.
I also tried this method once, eating two portions of rice at a time for breakfast, which of course was very pleasant and enjoyable. But at noon, and especially throughout the afternoon, it was really hard to work on an empty stomach. I was so dizzy with hunger that I almost fainted. After this lesson, I didn’t dare to eat my lunch together for breakfast on labor day. On another occasion, I also had to work as a support worker in a factory, but the construction site was at the mouth of a well or something in the field. There was no house or shed around, so I had to wrap my lunch in a handkerchief and put it on the edge of a field. When I took a break for lunch, I opened it and saw that it was densely covered with ants, a big black one. Even though I was numb and a bit nauseous, I was heartbroken about the rice and was reluctant to throw it away (throwing it away would make me hungry all afternoon, and I had to work), so I had to remove the ants from the rice bit by bit. I had to remove the ants from the rice bit by bit. Again, it was the kind of steamed rice in a can, where the grains of rice stuck together and the ants got in, so it was hard to remove them. That noon, I ate the cold rice as if my eyes were closed, and ate it cleanly, with no ants left. In the meantime, I must have swallowed a lot of ants that were not removed from the rice. Those who have never experienced that kind of famine can’t understand the almost perverted psychological feelings people had about the so-called “food” back then.
There were often unpleasant surprises among students over “food,” and even blushes and fights over it. In short, “eating” became the whole subject of concern at that time.
It was against this background that the “flesh-eating” incident occurred. With this kind of social background, when cannibalism happens, future generations will also have a deeper understanding of the context.
My classmate’s father, a big fat man, was in his 50’s. What he did before (in the Republican era) is unknown. What he used to do in the past (Republican era), I don’t know. But he was not a capitalist or a socially acceptable person. If not, he would have had the burden of being from a bad family and would not have been a class committee member or class officer. In general, his family background is not like that either. He was probably a small businessman, but when we were in middle school, he didn’t seem to have a formal job. When we were in middle school, he didn’t seem to have a formal job, but he looked like he had a big heart and a fat body. When he has nothing to do, it is common for him to sit idly on a chair in front of his house, drinking tea and watching people walking by in the alley with smiles on their faces. The neighbors called him “Master Luo. We high school students occasionally pass by, also called him this, he also smiled and nodded, everyone’s impression of him, in general, not bad. It’s also a good idea to use the “human flesh-eating” method, which is a horrible way to sound.
3
On the day of the incident, we were working as “support workers” at the factory. During the lunch break, a male classmate came rushing to us and shouted, “Let’s go, let’s see! The old man (meaning father in the local dialect) of Loburg cooked the baby and was arrested by the police!”
The students were amazed, and then they ran away. The location was at the foothills of Fu-tai Mountain on the south bank of Bu-xi River, on the mid-level slope above Zhangjiatuo Pier. It was once a deserted slope. A short distance away on the other side of the river was the district government building.
By the time we arrived, the news that “someone was cooking a baby” had already spread. A small road leading to the hillside, as well as the area along the river dock, were full of people who came to see what was going on and find out what was going on. The specific site of the incident was halfway up the slope of the path, next to a lime kiln. On that hillside, since two years earlier, probably with the approval of the authorities, someone had been taking stones and burning lime there. The small lime kiln was visible on the other side of the river. When we arrived, the person involved in the case and the evidence of the crime, a large iron cauldron, had already been taken away by the police. There was nothing on the barren slope except for a lime kiln, which was still smoking white smoke. There was no one at the kiln. All that was there was the general public, like us, who rushed to see what was going on.
The story from the alleged eyewitnesses is roughly as follows.
The first time I saw this, I thought it would be a good idea for me to go back to my home. So he was here for three meals a day. It’s not unusual for him to build a fire and set up a stove next to it to cook some food and boil some water. The hillside was usually deserted, and there were few passers-by on the path, which made it convenient for him to dare to “cook the baby” here in a tripod pot. However, the fact that he dared to do this in broad daylight was somewhat surprising.
His eventual murder that day was due to an oversight, an overconfident carelessness. He had been waiting by the cooking pot, keeping a close watch, so that no one could see the secrets of his pot. It was noon, and what was boiling was cooked and ready to eat. But he had to go to a place down the slope to fetch food. After thinking for a while, he saw that there was no one on the slope and no one on the path, so he got lucky and thought that he would go back quickly and no accident would happen. So I briefly left the cauldron I had been guarding.
He deserved what happened that day. Just a few minutes after he left, a worker was passing by the lime kiln (supposedly to pee on the slope) and saw something “delicious” simmering in a large, steaming pot on the stove. In those days, people were instinctively interested in food, and if they couldn’t eat it themselves, it was good to take a look. Out of curiosity, he took a few extra steps to the stove, opened the lid quietly and took a peek while the owner was away.
Inside the cauldron, in the boiling water, a complete baby was stewing!
“Oh no! Someone cook the baby!” The man was so frightened that he dropped the lid of the pot and ran up the slope, shouting all the way. The news that “someone cooked the baby to eat”, spread. The public security and related departments got the news and rushed to the scene, where they caught and took away the person and his belongings. I was a student when I arrived, only to see the lime kiln, as well as cooked things that simple fire stove is still there.
Even though it was a time of famine, the “eating of human flesh” was also a big surprise, the number one news of the day. In addition, in the densely populated city center, the news could not be concealed, and the story was known to everyone. Gradually, people were concerned about two things. One, where did the baby come from? Did he kill you? Secondly, will this Luo Mouzhang “Master Luo” be “knocked on the sand pot” (a local dialect, which means sentenced to death, but at the time of the execution, he was hit on the head with a gun)?
Later, it became clear that “Master Luo” was cooking and eating a dead baby. It was buried the night it was discovered by him and exhumed overnight. The next day, he wanted to cook the food and it happened. It is also the case that the final outcome of the case confirms this statement. Luo Mouzhang was not sentenced to death for a crime so heinous that it would not be sufficient for the public to be outraged, but was instead sentenced to an unspecified number of years in prison, with hard labor. Soon after, he was released on medical parole and returned home.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers. It’s not just a matter of time, it’s also a matter of time before you have a chance to get to know each other. When he was starving and could not find anything to eat, he had no choice but to try the “dead baby” idea. Otherwise, he would have to starve to death with puffy eyes.
After this incident, Luo was once a bit embarrassed in the classroom, and became more quiet and low-key. After all, his father had been involved in such a serious case, and it was such a terrible and disgraceful thing to do. He was also afraid that the boys in his class would take advantage of the incident to attack him often and make mean jokes about him. However, everyone seemed to know what was going on.
As far as I can remember, no one ever touched his “wound” or made mean jokes about his dad’s “human flesh incident”. No one made fun of him or made fun of his dad’s “human incident”, including the most mischievous and mischievous boy in the class. There seemed to be some vague talk from some of his classmates that it was all society’s fault, the fault of the times.
I’ve heard people say, “Master Luo has been released again,” after about a year, or two (some say less than a year). It’s not just a matter of time, but also a matter of time before you get to the point where you’ll be able to do anything you want. It was said that because of his old age and serious illness, he was afraid of dying in the labor camps, so his family arranged “medical parole” for him.
It is the most important thing to do when you’re in a position to get the most out of your money.
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you’re looking for. It’s not just a matter of time, it’s also a matter of time before you have a chance to get to know the people. I’ve seen him once before, in front of his house in the alley. At that time, I had graduated from a high school, high school entrance exams for some reason failed, out of school at home to stay unemployed. That day, I passed by in the alley and saw Master Luo sitting in the doorway sunbathing from afar. The sitting posture is even exactly the same as in the past, but the person is a big circle of skinny. The original a big fat man, now body skeleton is still in, but the demeanor is very different from before. The face is still wide, but the eye sockets are deep and concave, the cheeks and mouth have collapsed, and the cheekbones are prominent, the nose and chin are also prominent, and the appearance is somewhat grotesque. In particular, his eyes were dull, and his face seemed to have an air of dreadful haze. It was a bit scary.
I was already in front of it and could not retreat. I could not retreat. I had to scalp, bow my head and pretend not to see him, take a few quick steps, and hurry past him. In the past, the broad-hearted, fat, smiling, sitting on a chair in the alleyway, drinking tea, and sometimes greeting him happily, “Master Luo” no longer exists. Now in reality, it is a zombie-like character who is old and decrepit, with a lifeless body and a cold deathly air on his face.
4
Although Master Luo was released from prison shortly afterwards, saving him from a long prison sentence, his final outcome was also tragic. Soon after his release from prison, he left home and lived alone.
In the past, there was a big market on top of the Zhang Jia Tuo dock, called the “Yuan Yuan Jing Market”, which was the largest distribution center for vegetables and foodstuffs in Zigong. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do that, but I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do that, so I’m going to be able to do that. He lived and ate here all day long, making it his “home. Some say that he was kicked out by his family. Some say that he moved out voluntarily to live alone, so as not to drag his family into trouble. It is not known what the truth is. I have never heard of Luo’s classmates either.
As for the source of his livelihood, it is a problem. A candle-studded old man living in a shack with no shelter from the wind and rain until the end of his life is in a very bad situation. It is not an exaggeration to say that his old age was bleak and miserable.
A few years after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, I occasionally went to the market and never saw the rotten shed again. When I asked, I was told that he was “dead.
This “flesh-eating incident” was halted by chance, when outsiders discovered it. The “thing” had been cooked but not yet eaten, which can be called an “attempt”. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services, including a full range of products and services, including a full range of products and services.
The first thing I noticed was that there was a lot of people who were not in a position to know what to expect. I don’t know where it came from. There was a small courtyard about twenty steps down the stone tablet. One of the residents, surnamed Zhao, was a blacksmith. He knew Luo well and was on good terms with him because he was a neighbor. It was said that before the incident, Luo had asked Zhao to make a very long iron claw for him. Zhao asked, “What are you making such a long iron claw for?” Luo replied, “For catching meat.” Blacksmith Zhao was stunned. In times of famine, where could one catch meat? And it’s so long, how big a piece of meat can you grab? It was only after the incident that I learned that Luo was specially built for fishing and catching human flesh with this long iron claw.
The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the newest version of the newest version. It’s not just a matter of time, but also a matter of time before you have to get out of the house. The father only said it was meat, not what kind of meat it was. It was only after the incident that I suspected that the “stew” might have come from the same source. If this is true, it means that he had already done something similar before the incident.
This is also doubtful, of course. The reason is that Luo may have deliberately exaggerated or fabricated the facts to show his classmates that his experience was “extraordinary. This kind of “boasting” and “making up stories” was common among classmates at that time.
This is the first time I’ve ever been to a school, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a school, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a school, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a school.
The first time I saw it was in early October 2013.
Memory, December 31, 2013.
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