People who have experienced the Cultural Revolution know that there are many familiar words about the Cultural Revolution. One of them is: “The Cultural Revolution is a great revolution that touches people’s souls”. This famous quote from Lin Biao indeed tells the sweet and sour story of people facing the “Cultural Revolution”. In mainland China, all people, from leaders of the Party and the State to officials at all levels, from intellectuals of all walks of life to students of primary and secondary schools, from officers and soldiers of the army to police officers, from workers of large state-run enterprises to peasants in the poor countryside, all people, no matter what they were, no matter where they were, were involved in the process of the Cultural Revolution without exception. “All of them, no matter where they were, were involved in the process of the Cultural Revolution and had to show their own ways of responding to it, thus showing their political personality, moral taste, sentiment, joy, anger and sorrow to the greatest extent. As the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences was the most high-class research base in China, it gathered a large number of cultural and intellectual elites at that time, and their wonderful performances of a thousand people during the Cultural Revolution painted the “history of Confucianism” in mainland China in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since most of the leaders of the academic department had university or even foreign educational backgrounds, they are also included here in the ranks of intellectuals.
Pan Zinian, Guan Shanfu, Liu Guosheng, Zhang Youyu, Yang Shu, Jiang Junchen, Zhang Wentian and Yang Xianzhen, who were deposed and placed in the academy, as well as the main leaders of the research institutes, all had university or even foreign educational backgrounds. Therefore, on the one hand, they were senior cadres who had long experienced the struggle within the Party, and on the other hand, they still had the qualities of intellectuals. Their performance during the Cultural Revolution, although mainly showing the seriousness and composure of old revolutionary cadres, sometimes also revealed the intellectual character of being good at thinking and outspoken. However, due to the “unprecedented” nature of the Cultural Revolution, their previous experience in the struggle within the Party could not cope with the Cultural Revolution well, so “As soon as the Cultural Revolution started, they were all dumbfounded, confused, and at a loss as to what to do, and were trapped in a passive position. Because they were basically the leaders, controllers and rectifiers of all the movements in the past, they suddenly became the rectified. Now they suddenly became the ones to be rectified, so it was hard to adapt for a while. However, after all, they had rich experience in the struggle within the Party, so they were able to adjust their mindset quickly and try to follow as closely as possible while being careful with their words. When being criticized, they were able to “treat the mass movement correctly” and never confronted it forcefully, but accepted criticism and questioning submissively, answered questions decently, and admitted mistakes selectively. Most of them were able to respond calmly to the battle and rarely panicked. When Pan Zinian was dragged back to the academic department for criticism, he clasped his hands in front of his chest and answered all questions calmly and slowly, rejecting all slanderous and untrue statements. Zhang Youyu not only accepted the criticism submissively, but also patiently admonished his wife to “treat the mass movement correctly”. Yang Shu was even more submissive to the criticism of the masses. However, once they saw that the situation was favorable, they were able to make their views clear without losing time. For example, Liu Guosheng proved conclusively that Pan Zinian and he had “no line of disagreement” and that Pan was responsible for the problems and responsibilities of the academic department. He Qifang dared to stand up and fight against the activists who were investigating the May 16 Movement, and Liu Danian did not praise the May 16 Movement. They were convinced by historical experience that the Cultural Revolution would end one day and that the Party would implement the right policies for them. In fact, their general tendency was to oppose the “Cultural Revolution” and to abhor the rebels, and they would not be lenient when they had the opportunity to punish them. That’s why most of them actively supported the “May 16” campaign, and those who had the conditions actively participated in it. Their revenge mentality was nakedly displayed. There were also some old cadres who had been wrongly disciplined in the previous movement, and they took it lightly and adopted a game of life attitude toward the movement. For example, Gao Quanpu of the History Institute, faced with criticism and went to prison, did not care, did not fear to enter, did not like to leave, everything does not matter. Because he had already seen through the movement, which was like a daily routine. This shows that they have enough experience, wisdom and ability to cope with the movement. According to the saying of the “Four Clean-ups” movement, they are the “red-haired rabbits and old foxes” type of characters.
The main body of intellectuals in the academic department were professional researchers, among whom there were more people from non-working families, more non-party members, more academic authorities, and more business leaders. The various forms of life they displayed in response to the Cultural Revolution constitute the most bizarre picture of the intellectuals in the academy. These people can be divided into various categories.
The first type is the fierce type who fought with death. Most of these people were fierce, pure and innocent, vengeful and persistent in their beliefs, and had no room for sand in their eyes. They absolutely believe that the Communist Party is a glorious, great and correct party, and that the officials at all levels of the Communist Party are as clear as water and as clean as a mirror. They believed that the Cultural Revolution movement would not spare a bad person nor wrong a good person, as the Communist Party had repeatedly declared. However, the reality was not as good as they imagined. When trumped up charges were thrown at them, when dirty water was poured on them for no reason, and when the shrine of their faith collapsed, they fought to the death in order to prove their innocence. Yang Chao of the Institute of History, although he came from a capitalist family in Shanghai, has been following the Communist Party unconditionally after liberation, clinging to his profession, and resolutely donating the 50,000 yuan cash left to him by his mother to the state in his own not-so-rich condition. The result was a “May 16” hat that he didn’t even know what it was. He drank dichlorvos and committed suicide after despairing over everything. The note in his jacket pocket reads, “I am not May 16, and I don’t know who is May 16. Philosophy has a young man surnamed Zhu, in his 20s, introverted and good at business. “Soon after the start of the Cultural Revolution, he was inclined to the rebels and had worked in the data group of the joint team. As the head of the data group, I saw that in the days of the “Cultural Revolution”, he hardly participated in our discussions and hardly spoke to me, but only silently completed the work I gave him. During the “May 16” campaign, he also became the target of the investigation, and in the face of this unprovoked disaster, he chose to commit suicide by lying down on the rail. The tragic situation was unbearable. Gan Qingyuan, a young man from the Institute of World Economics, was the backbone of our faction and a top businessman. After he was falsely accused of being a “May 16” activist, he flew down from the sixth floor shouting the slogan “Long live Chairman Mao” to prove his innocence, and his brain collapsed.
These strong-minded people, who proved their innocence by their own tragic actions, were worthy of being heroes who defended their character. However, were they worth the sacrifice? I doubt it! You face, neither the Japs gendarmerie, nor the Kuomintang’s Central Committee and Military Intelligence spies, but the workers and military propaganda team holding the red-headed document, the ruling team of the Communist Party, you are determined to die to defend the truth, they will not give you a “fear of suicide, self-extermination of the Party and the people”, even if you are a noble hand, definitely will not recognize you as What hero. Your death can only bring loss and pain to yourself and your family, it is really not worth it. However, their deaths are still worthy of reverence because they have demonstrated the inhumanity of the system and the absurdity of the Cultural Revolution by their own tragic deaths.
The second type of death is the type of desperate struggle against death. For example, Yin Shide of the Institute of Modern History was a graduate student in the same class as me, and a key member of our school, who was extremely good in business. “During the Cultural Revolution, he collected a part of Mao’s unpublished works with his unbridled admiration for him, edited and printed them into a book, and gave and sold thousands of copies to meet everyone’s study needs, and I also kept a copy. However, since there were different versions of Mao’s writings circulating in the society, the texts were not the same. Yin Shide made some changes to individual texts when editing. When our faction collapsed, he was arrested and imprisoned by the General Department of Law and forced to confess to being “anti-Maoist”. This was a big crime at that time. This was naturally unacceptable to a young man who was infinitely loyal to Mao Zedong’s thought. In order to prove his innocence, he escaped from the prison of the Institute of Law and ran to a construction site, where he hanged himself with a rope on a barbed wire fence. Zhao Guohua, a graduate of the Department of Oriental Languages at Peking University, was one of Ji’s favorite students. After being falsely accused of being a “May 16” activist, he hanged himself, but fortunately, he was rescued in time and recovered his life with three stitches in his throat. One of the top businessmen of the Foreign Language Institute, who had both legs paralyzed, also hanged himself in his room after being falsely accused of being a “May 16” activist. He put the crutches he was using across the middle of two cabinets and put a rope on it, and easily went to the point of no return.
These desperate suicides are the ones who cannot bear the sudden disaster and are pessimistic about the future, seeking relief from the extreme pain. Most of these people were weak and uneducated, not having gone through the great political storms, and could not withstand the setbacks. The death of such a weak person highlights the cruelty and ruthlessness of the system: forcing a person who has no ability to harm others to choose death is so cruel and ruthless!
The third type is the resolute resistance type who insists on the truth, insists on seeking truth from facts, and is indefatigable. They are strong-willed, will not bend, in the face of power and threats, in the face of false accusations and all kinds of persecution, determined that “people do not do anything wrong, not afraid of the ghost in the middle of the night to call the door”. Fearless, dare to fight. Sun Yefang, director of the Institute of Economics, was first criticized by name in 1964 for advocating the law of value. Then in 1968, he was sent to Qincheng prison for seven years. However, he “did not admit his guilt” and “did not change his mind”, and continued to study his own economic theory. Mr. Wei Mingjing of the Institute of History, who was nearly 60 years old, was falsely accused of being a “historical counter-revolutionary” when he was cleaning up the class ranks, but he argued his case and insisted that his participation in the Northern Expedition in 1928 was a “revolutionary action”. Fu Chonglan of the Institute of History was arrested and imprisoned, and his hands were handcuffed behind his back for as long as one month, and his arms were bruised and battered due to the difficulty of blood flow. Wang Zhen of the Institute of History was falsely accused of being a “May 16” activist and was imprisoned for a long time, but never admitted to the false accusations. In the face of the activists who criticized him for his “May 16” crimes, he called them out on the spot and asked them to produce evidence! The Institute of History’s Bu Jinzhi, Shen Dingping, Jiang Zhongxin, and Xiang Xianghai also resisted the pressure and refused to acknowledge the “May 16” stigma. Xu Huiqi of the Institute of Modern History was a tough guy, who went through seven days and seven nights of non-stop wheel-to-wheel combat, resisting persecution that almost exceeded his physical limits, and not stigmatizing himself as a “May 16” activist. Guo Yongcai, also from the Institute of Modern History, was falsely accused of being a “May 16” activist, and at the criticism meeting, he struggled with the members of the labor propaganda team and the activists who had beaten him up. The most desperate was Zhou Ruoyu of the Language Institute, who not only refused to admit that he was a “May 16” activist, but also pointed out that he was a “May 16” activist and testified on the spot that he was a “May 16” activist. Those who were forced to defame themselves were not “May 16” elements, but were forced to do so. These people were few and far between in the movement, and they were heroes who had withstood the severe test. Faced with them, the special investigators and the purge activists were at their wits’ end.
These people paid a heavy price for adhering to the truth and the principle of seeking truth from facts, which is the only reason why they became the highlight of the Cultural Revolution.
The fourth type is the one who submitted to pressure but was ready to overturn the case in time. “The largest number of people in the Cultural Revolution were in this category. For example, Mr. He Zhaowu of the Institute of History was forced to admit that he was “anti-Party, anti-socialist and anti-Mao Zedong Thought” because he said a few words about Jiang Qing, and he was designated as a “current counter-revolutionary”. But he knew that the charge was fictitious after all, and that when the time came, the case would be overturned. During the “May 16” campaign, most of those falsely accused admitted that they were “May 16” elements and confessed their so-called crimes as required by the induced confessions. These people, who were either weak in nerves or in health, accepted the false accusations with the self-preservation purpose of “a bachelor doesn’t eat his own loss”. Although these people were later acquitted, they all felt indebted to others afterwards, because they had implicated other innocent people while defiling themselves. I myself was one of those who were defiled and defamed myself, and was forced to admit to the title of “May 16” political commissar and a series of charges they had given me in a wheel war. After I was rehabilitated, I felt ashamed to face my former colleagues and friends. The self-stigmatization of such people is, in a sense, a survival technique. A friend at Beijing Medical College told me that the Party Secretary of Beijing Medical College was the wife of Zhang Yan, the Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the State Council. She was falsely accused of being a “traitor” by the rebels during the Cultural Revolution, because according to the logic of the Cultural Revolution, to be arrested is to be a traitor, to work and study in the National Unification Area is to be a secret agent, and to study or visit abroad is to be a traitor. She was forced, confessed and believed to be a “traitor”. Afterwards, it was found that she was not a traitor. The special investigator was furious and asked her, “If you are not a traitor, why did you admit it?” The old woman replied, “I am not a traitor, so why are you forcing me to admit to being a traitor? I admit the charges you have put on me because I want to live and continue to work with Chairman Mao in the revolution!” The special investigator was speechless.
The fifth type is the all-compliant type. These people are the most popular among those who run the movement, as they obediently admit to all charges, whether true or false, with little or no defense and even less confrontation. Among these people, there are two broad categories. The first is a real crime and problem, such as being a traitor, the history of the Institute of Xie Guozhen, Gao Zhixin, Xie Jia, Wang Zhulou that belongs to this category. Those who joined the Kuomintang and the Three Youths’ League during the Kuomintang rule and worked as officials are qualified as “historical counter-revolutionaries”. For example, those who were branded as rightists in 1957. These people understand that they will always be a different category and belong to the dictatorship, so they must honestly accept the reformation in order to fight for a better way out. Second, there was nothing wrong with them, but a “reactionary academic authority” was put on their heads, and the professorial researchers accepted it submissively. For example, Mr. Gu Jegang of the Institute of History had a hard time accepting the title at first, then reluctantly accepted it, then accepted it with peace of mind, and finally felt that the title was also a kind of status, and those who could not match him academically should not be given the title.
The emergence of all submissive people shows how far the system has transformed this type of people!
The sixth type is the cynical, game of life type. Although these people are in the minority, they are particularly prominent and bright, making the rulers laugh and cry. Gao Quan Park of the Institute of History is considered a typical of such people. Probably because he had been through many battles, he was able to handle all scenes calmly. For example, in 1942, when he was rescued as a “secret agent” during the rectification of the wind, he wrote down all his revolutionary work as secret agent activities. At the criticism session of the Institute of History, he answered the questions with astonishing honesty and “confessed” to the crime of “attacking the flag-bearer. Only when pressed about his “reactionary purpose” was he speechless for a moment, and after a moment’s consideration, he quickly replied, “I want to influence young people to follow me.” The reason he made up was ridiculous: think about it, at that time Jiang Qing was in the red, and the rebel faction was shouting the slogan “defend Comrade Jiang Qing to the death”, so the young people dared to follow those who “attacked the flag bearer”? Afterwards, he said to me, I did not make up any material about Jiang Qing, what I said was the truth, is this also considered an attack? In Qincheng prison, he ate well and slept well, and after his release, he appeared to be fat and healthy. During the “May 16” campaign, some of those who were falsely accused of being “May 16” elements deliberately confessed that the clearance activists were “May 16”, so that the workers and military propaganda team and the clearance activists were confused. The most cynical thing that history has ever seen. The biggest cynical type in history would be Wang Enyu, who showed a very obvious rogue proletarian temperament and cared nothing about anything. He told me personally that after entering Qincheng prison, he actually fell asleep during one of his interrogations, causing the interrogators to be furious. A source said that he had issued a list of more than 300 “May 16” elements in the prison. The list he drew up had a very bad effect on the investigation of the May 16 Movement, but he himself benefited from his own masterpiece: he made a big joke of the Movement! After his release from prison, he was still full of concern. When examining his own mistakes, Fu Chonglan was more measured and did not beg for understanding by scolding himself and deliberately giving himself a big hat. He described himself as an unforgivable “counter-revolutionary”. Once, he said to me privately, Fu Chonglan always defends himself, they are naturally unhappy. So what if you describe yourself as a “counter-revolutionary”? Does it really make you a counter-revolutionary? In the end, he didn’t get any understanding for his self-stigmatization, but was still designated as one of the “three kinds of people” and was expelled from the Party. He should not have signed and admitted to such a severe punishment, but he did so obediently. His cynicism brought him the evil consequence of never being able to turn over a new leaf.
The seventh type is the one who doesn’t care about himself and hangs on high; the one who looks coldly at the ocean and is free. This faction is more and more numerous in the Cultural Revolution. The backbone of this faction was the non-worker-peasant, Gekang origin of the professionals, who generally read more and did better in their studies, and were identified by the Party members and those who actively leaned on the Party organization as those who took the path of “white specialization”. In the movement, they neither revolted nor protected the old. They never showed their position clearly, and followed the activities of that faction when it was in power. In the factional struggle, some speculative characters were always in a state of “endless delusion, endless queues, endless reviews, endless tears”, but they did not have such troubles, because they were always silent when the general situation was not certain. They are always silent when the situation is not fixed, and take a stand when the situation is fixed, and never show impassioned and righteousness. This group of people was despised by the rebel activists and royalist activists, who thought they did not care about national affairs and classified them as backward people. In fact, these people were the most intelligent and sensible group, and the group that suffered the least during the Cultural Revolution. They realized the absurdity of the Cultural Revolution from the very beginning, were cool-headed, refused to be fanatical, resolutely did not go into the muddy water, and took the valuable policy of protecting themselves. There are several levels of these people. After being criticized for a while, some of the senior researchers easily joined the group and went with the flow, continuing their studies and learning as they saw fit. A small group of young and middle-aged people, making full use of the opportunity of others “doing revolution” while they have much spare time, hide in a small building into a unified, regardless of spring, summer and autumn and winter! They studied seriously, thought deeply, and worked diligently on their studies, and soon after the Cultural Revolution, they made their mark in the academic world. There are also some people who deliberately run a small home, playing furniture, shopping in the market, acquiring cultural relics, will live a small life nourishing. After the movement, those people who were desperately involved in the Cultural Revolution, especially the rebel faction, suddenly realized: the smartest ones were the free faction, and the stupidest ones were the “rebel faction”, because they got nothing but bruises!
There are a few typical figures in the history of the free school.
Yang Xiangkui, Zhang Zhenglong, Hu Houxuan, He Changqun, Xie Guozhen, Wang Yuquan, and Wei Mingjing are the representatives of this level. Although they were subjected to different degrees of impact as “reactionary academic authorities” during the movement, and were criticized several times at conferences and meetings, as well as paraded once or twice in the Academy compound wearing hats, they were soon in a state of relaxation and idleness, and their personal freedom was basically unrestricted, allowing them to read what they wanted to read and think about what they were interested in thinking about. “After the end of the Cultural Revolution, except for those who died prematurely, many people made progress in their business and published a number of monographs.
Among the young and middle-aged prolific writers, Li Xueqin, Zhang Dazhi, Chen Gaohua and Wang Zengyu are the representatives. Although they came from non-working people’s families, they belonged to the university students trained by the state after the liberation and had been valued as top businessmen. They were basically unshocked; they neither rectified nor were rectified, and maintained a relationship with the two factions as if they were not. Apart from participating in the necessary activities, they devoted their main energy to reading and seriously studying business. Compared with those who were actively involved in the movement, they basically did not waste their studies. As a result, they distanced themselves from their peers in business. “After the end of the Cultural Revolution, they soon became leaders in their respective fields, published a number of significant academic works, published a considerable number of influential papers, and became renowned scholars in China and abroad with their impressive performance. Although Mr. He Zhaowu was killed in a private conversation with a friend, he basically belonged to the free school. Except for the humiliation he suffered during the disaster, he was able to spend most of his time behind closed doors, reading and thinking. After the Cultural Revolution, he experienced a brilliant period of his life and won the praise of the academic community in China and abroad for his many high-quality treatises.
During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, those who really had vision, could hold their own, and to a certain extent grasped their own destiny were these liberals. With their rationality, wisdom, diligence and persistence, they proved that they were the masters of their own destiny!
The eighth kind is digging the whole professional type of people. This group of people mostly have the title of party members, with outstanding performance in previous campaigns, they have a special preference for sports and obsession, as if born for sports, live for sports, a sports, that is, such as spring water overflowing pond when the frog, clucking and chirping, excited. They are particularly keen on sports, good at keeping pace with their superiors in sports, can creatively make people whole, make a case out of nothing. In the investigation of the “May 16” campaign, these people’s talents and wisdom were given full play. They made the Ministry of Education, which did not have a single soldier or a single soldier in the May 16 Movement, into the manipulator, organizer, black stronghold, and base camp of the May 16 Movement, and made the weak and literate students concoct plans to carry out a “counter-revolutionary coup. The “counter-revolutionary coup” was planned and they became the commando team to attack Zhongnanhai and kidnap Chairman Mao. When the truth had been revealed to the world, they still seized on the innocent and insisted on adding several unfounded crimes to the innocent out of thin air. They know that they are creating injustice, but they still create it with a clear conscience. His famous saying is: “What is true or false, putting a hat on you is true!”
The ninth type is the chameleon type who is centered on personal interests, watching the wind, observing the movement, and changing his position and changing the door at any time. Such characters are few and far between, but they are a small group of the most active people in the movement. When the rebel faction is out of power, they follow the faction in power, jumping up and down, and fighting against the persecuted. In the criticism meeting, hissing, frothing at the mouth, on the line, the tone is afraid of not high, hat is afraid of not big, must want to put the rebel faction to death and then fast, so to the powers that be to offer their loyalty, the purpose is to get benefits from the powers that be. When the rebels turned over, they turned around as fast as they could and lost their loyalty to the rebels, saying they were also persecuted by the powers that be and had been secretly on the side of the rebels. In the meeting to criticize the capitalists and reactionary academic authorities, they were equally vociferous, frothing at the mouth, on the line, and even slapped the person being criticized with their hands. Although the rebels understood their character, they recognized his enthusiasm and gave him the opportunity to work and play his role. However, the good times did not last long as the situation turned around and the rebels lost their power again. They were the quickest to change again, killing back and striking back, drawing a clear line with the rebels. However, it was quite difficult for him to gain the favor of the power faction again, but he was not discouraged and had patience, and kept contributing materials about the crimes of the rebel faction, which was used by the power faction again. When the “May 16” investigation is completed, they will not be spared either. In order to get out of the predicament as soon as possible, they will be the first to confess, not only to admit that they are “May 16” elements, but also to reveal a large number of “May 16” crimes, and to fabricate the “May 16” myth of the sky and night. They not only admitted that they were “May 16” elements, but also denounced a large number of “May 16” crimes and fabricated the myth of “May 16”, and became the archetype of policy implementation, and were the first to obtain liberation and improve their situation. Such people have no sense of decency and are profit-oriented, and their actions are like the bats in Aesop’s fables, constantly switching categories among birds and animals. The evil, the bad, the mean, the despicable, the pitiful and the ridiculous of human nature that they display are typical of what Engels called “this one”.
“The Cultural Revolution was a big stage for the display of human nature, and almost everyone could not escape the display. In this sense, the so-called “Revolution that touches the soul” is close to it.
From Meng Xiangcai, “A Personal Account of the Cultural Revolution in the Academic Department,” China Cultural Revolution History Press, December 2019
Recent Comments