After the “Cultural Revolution” of the country, especially the Shanghai people, when it comes to the former Shanghai Municipal Party Secretary “Xu Laosan” (that is, after the first secretary Zhang Chunqiao, second secretary Yao Wenyuan), I believe we will not be unfamiliar. And Zhang, Yao long years in the central, “Xu Laosan” has become a veritable hand in Shanghai.
This “Xu Laosan” is Xu Jingxian.
A year before the “Cultural Revolution”, I was a teenager in the Shanghai Children’s Palace, listened to Xu Jingxian’s literary lectures. At that time, he was elegant and spoke slowly; he wrote the newsletter “Mu Hanxiang, the son of the Party”, the play “The Young Generation” and the essay “Life as Fire”. In my heart, he is a man of culture.
There is a good saying: A good system can turn bad people into good people, or at least restrict bad people more effectively; a bad system can turn good people into bad people, or make good people help to do bad things against their will. The unprecedented “Cultural Revolution” proved this point.
The initiators called on people to revolt and seize power, and staged a series of farces in which “you sing and I appear”. Xu Jingxian, a cultural figure with a strong sense of “party organization,” also rushed out from the city government to respond to the rebellion.
I remember it was the summer of 1967. Because of the early revolutionary alliance, my high school became a typical example of the “resumption of classes and revolution” in the city. Xu Jingxian spoke in the school auditorium on behalf of the city leaders. In my eyes, he was still thin and white, but he raised his voice, waved his hands, and spoke one revolutionary word after another; at the end, he raised his arms and shouted, “Revolutionaries, the final victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution belongs to us, don’t you think so?” A deafening response then resounded throughout the room. It was at this point that I saw that this cultural figure had already been smeared with the deep marks of the rebels.
A year later, I boarded a train to settle in the brigade in an atmosphere of cold wind and loud cries. At that time, the master of the work propaganda team excitedly informed the car windows that the city leaders, Comrade Xu Jingxian and Comrade Ma Tianshui, were coming to send off the revolutionary general! I sat in the carriage speechless, the sadness of being away from relatives is brewing inside, which have the leisure to pay attention to Xu Jingxian?
When Xu Jingxian “infinite scenery in the peak” in the seizure of power, I and the youth “sitting on the ground day travel 80,000 miles” of the battle of heaven and earth, just like “two strands of the car running on the road”, irrelevant.
Later, the trial of the “Gang of Four”, only to regain attention to Xu Jingxian. At that time, it was not easy to see TV in the university. It so happens that the dormitory room Wen Liang in the veterinary college next door to the University of Ji know people, and run over to watch every night. Although there are not a few shots, but still let me see him standing on the trial bench: compared with ten years ago, no more glowing, more full of obscurity.
After that, Xu Jingxian disappeared from my life.
Sometimes things in this world are just coincidental. 20 years later, at a dinner party with friends, surprisingly, and Xu Jingxian at the same table, the seat next to each other.
At this time, Xu Jingxian, hunched back, completely lost the original upright (later learned that the original 1.8 meters, shrunk to 1.6 meters); walking a stumble, is a serious arthritis caused by; eyes sunken deep, elongated the whole face looks thin and deflated. However, he was enthusiastic, full of smiles, although he was over seventy years old, but his voice was clear and quick thinking. When he knew I was in real estate, he asked many questions about house construction and sales. I had brought a planning booklet that I had written, so I gave it to him. But in my heart I was thinking: he was just playing around, looking for something to say, and the possibility of being interested in planning and such was almost non-existent.
A couple of days later, Seo Kyung Hyun called me and told me he had finished reading the booklet. Then he asked, “I’d like to ask a question, what is the main basis for judging whether a house is worth its price?” I said, “It’s the location, that is, a house with high land value, on that one core and key indicator that determines the basic value of the property.”
“Oh, it’s like buying a digital camera and first asking about pixels, buying a diamond and first asking about how many carats, buying a stereo and paying attention to the maximum undistorted power ……” He said so many figurative and popular analogies in a row, worthy of being a learned man.
Finally he modestly said, “Your planning book is very literary and gave me a refresher course on construction marketing.”
And so, a small booklet made my second third contact with him. Although he used to hold a party job, after all, he was in the big Shanghai where industry and commerce were developed, and because of his intelligence and good learning, he had his own ideas about urban planning, environment creation up to architectural styles and citizens’ needs. Therefore, he and I have a lot of common language.
Although we had a common language, after all, he had a history of rebellion and the stain of 18 years in prison. Therefore, I did not want to get too close. His family lives in Tianping Road, I passed by many times, but did not visit the door. Once he asked me to go upstairs for a cup of tea, but I didn’t go up. In fact, at that time he was already a citizen, I wear this colored glasses is not very unreasonable?
Because of the ten-year “Cultural Revolution”, for me is a painful memory. However, to this day, the true face of the Cultural Revolution has not yet been fully revealed to the public, so this part of history cannot be closed in my heart.
Unfortunately, those who are qualified to speak about the Cultural Revolution have left few words for future generations and then passed away. Xu Jingxian said, he counted on his fingers, and no one could take up the burden of writing. So he reflected and repented: he confessed his mistakes to the playwrights and actors; he apologized to the ordinary citizens and young students; he was not afraid to touch the forbidden areas, and he wanted to recall the real “Cultural Revolution” he knew in its entirety, which was a baptism for his soul. After several years of preparation, he wrote a memoir: “A Dream of Ten Years”.
In this book, he analyzed his life of “foolish loyalty” and let his “head grow on his own shoulders” again.
I have read “A Dream of Ten Years” twice. Since it is the author’s memories alone, it has its limitations; but the author’s spirit of reflection is refreshing. I began to pay attention to and get closer to Xu Jingxian.
The ten-year “Cultural Revolution” was pushing a nation into the abyss of barbarism: it was a total regression of material productivity and humanistic spirit. During this period, Shanghai’s “Xu Laosan” had also written a declaration of rebellion, and had organized armed militias to “defend the Party Central Committee to the death”. As the saying goes: those who are close to the vermilion are red, those who are close to the ink are black. This is true in China and abroad. God calls people to be noble, but the devil tempts people to be dirty.
Indeed, Xu Jingxian did a lot of “dirty” things during the Cultural Revolution, but he also showed “noble” behavior.
During the “Cultural Revolution”, he alone “achieved”, but his family and friends did not “ascend”. Even his own only brother in Yunnan for a number of years, he did not let transfer back to Shanghai; relatives want to join the army, he did not give the back door; parents in the dilapidated Shikumen to pour the toilet for decades, no gas sanitation, he never improved the housing conditions of his parents.
A casual conversation. Writer Cheng Nai Shan told me 40 years ago an incident: one of her colleagues riding a bike to work in the morning, unexpectedly the body rubbed the rear wheel part of the car driving next to the colleague hurriedly braked the car, fortunately people did not fall. At this time, from the minivan down Xu Jingxian, as the municipal party secretary, he bent down to see the bicyclist’s legs were not injured, and apologize …… on such a small matter, so that we have a little respect for Xu Jingxian.
There are also what I have seen with my own eyes. A dinner party, in front of the restaurant next to the garbage cans, scattered several plastic bottles, the first to Xu Jingxian bent over and strained to pick up a plastic bottle to throw it into the garbage can. A small action let me see his good quality.
Because of the crimes committed during the Cultural Revolution, Xu Jingxian was arrested in October 1976. But because of his clear confession and active attitude, especially his adherence to the “organizational principle” of “obeying the Central Committee”, he was arrested in October 1976. The Central Committee originally estimated that the takeover of Shanghai “will be a very complicated struggle, the task will be very difficult”, for this reason formed a strong lineup of 17 provincial ministries, 58 departments and bureaus; but the actual process of the takeover was very smooth and smooth. The role of the obedience and cooperation of Xu Jingxian and others cannot be dismissed in this.
The court was prepared to grant him leniency without prosecution; sentencing Ma Tianshui to 18 years in prison as the first offender in Shanghai. But Ma Tianshui had a mental illness and could not be sentenced. However, Shanghai was the main town of the Gang of Four, and a heavy sentence was required to implement a first offender. At that time, there was a female secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee Wang Xiuzhen, originally a worker, limited literacy, so she could not act as the first offender. So the first offender’s hat fell on the head of Xu Jingxian, who was originally not prosecuted: 18 years.
Xu Jingxian was imprisoned in Shanghai’s Tilanqiao Prison. He repeatedly said: if it were not for the warmth of his family, he would not have survived the long prison life; and his family, under unimaginable pressure, just to return to the reunion after 18 years of imprisonment. Mrs. Ge Yunfang knew that he liked to read, and she went around to borrow books from him, and then she carried a heavy bag of books from Xujiahui to Yangshupu by three buses, twice a month without interruption. It was the books that quenched his thirst and the strength of his affection that supported a strong pillar in his mind.
Yes, he always felt sorry for his wife and daughters. His wife Ge Yunfang was the first secretary of Xia Yan, also a veteran cadres; but now by her husband’s implication, jerked off the party membership, retirement is not according to the treatment of retired cadres; daughters are just secondary school graduates, the father’s imprisonment, so they can not hope to go to college, can only be assigned to the worst positions such as catering stores; although handsome, but no one dare to marry. It was not until the early nineties that his two daughters started a family one after another. He said that when he learned in prison that his two daughters had started a family, and when he saw the picture of his little nephew, he described himself as: like drinking a big bowl of ice-cold soda in the heat of June.
In the 1990s, he was imprisoned with the “Gang of Four” leaders, the dead, the released, only Xu Jingxian dragged serious arthritis still in prison to serve his sentence. Ge Yunfang had the courage to write to the leaders of the two municipal committees before and after, but they were all dead.
Ge Yunfang still remembers that in 1972, Deng Yingchao came to the family home of the municipal party committee leaders on Kangping Road, and went to Yao Wenyuan’s house, Wang Hongwen’s house, and Xu Jingxian’s house (but not Zhang Chunqiao’s house, because Zhang’s wife Wenjing was said to have problems in history). Deng sister shook Ge Yunfang’s hand and said, “Ge ah, Comrade Jingxian closely follow the President to do revolution, you can support Comrade Jingxian, together with him, well follow the President his old man to do revolution ah!”
Although Secretary Deng Yingchao and Ge Yunfang were only one-sided friends, she was not snobbish and had compassion. She took advantage of the brief lucidity of the sick sister Deng to tell her about Xu Jingxian’s situation, and Deng immediately wrote the words “please handle at the discretion of the Shanghai Municipal Committee”. It is this few words, within a few days let Xu Jingxian parole, that is, in June 1992. In May 1995, he was released after completing his sentence, and his civil and political rights were restored in 1999.
After the completion of his sentence, no unit, he had another headache: where the relationship fell? Who will pay for the pension? The same case of Wang Xiuzhen was a factory worker, after release from prison fell in the original unit of the State Cotton Thirty-one Factory, issued by the factory pension; and Xu Jingxian was a municipal party committee leader, how can still occupy the cadres of the establishment after the completion of the sentence? Finally had to land in the city government under the Ruijin Hotel, as a warehouse manager retired to receive a pension. At first only a few hundred yuan, and later added to a thousand dollars, but still not enough to cover expenses. He likes to read books and newspapers, these two alone take up most of the pension.
In order to subsidize the family, Xu Jingxian and his partner can only live with their daughters, vacant house rented out. Once Xu Jingxian quietly told me: his daughter’s health is not good, and his son-in-law just quit his job, can you do him a favor and introduce a job for his son-in-law? I saw that he really had difficulties, although at that time was not sure, but still agreed.
Later, his son-in-law worked in a friend of mine’s company, and because of his excellent work, he was promoted to the position of general manager in a short time. Mr. and Mrs. Xu Jingxian were very grateful to me. I jokingly said: “Mr. Xu is the former municipal party secretary position, that is the ministerial title ah. I don’t even know where the door is if I wanted to help back then. Now become friends, face to face without the distance things are better instead.”
Everyone, rich or poor, regardless of nobility, God is a “life” exhibition of all his works, and then a “death” word to be taken back. It is clean and sharp.
In the morning of October 31, 2007, Xu Jingxian went out alone to meet his friends; he also celebrated with them over lunch. He came home at 2 p.m., slept for half an hour, and then read a book on the sofa. Mrs. Ge Yunfang was in the kitchen when she heard a strange shout outside and rushed out to see that Xu Jingxian had fallen unconscious on the sofa, and he never woke up despite his wife’s loud calls. In his hand, he was still holding the book he loved to read. He was not able to wait for his 75th birthday a month later.
He passed away, and his relatives donated his body to the medical profession in accordance with his last wish.
It was the perfect way to go, even though it was the most graceful way to end his life. But he still has a lot of regrets.
I remember Xu Jingxian once told me: “Ten Years a Dream” only wrote 60% of the facts, there are still 40% in the stomach. I understand why he couldn’t write it out completely. I asked Xu Jingxian: Many of the things you did at that time had instructions from above, especially the “January Revolution”, the whole process of seizing power was personally deployed and directly directed from above, you were just an executor. You were just an executor.” He replied, “Who made the executors lose their spirit?” He lowered his tone and said to himself, “Back then, because the spirit was lost, that’s why so many wrong things were done ……”
I read his words. This spirit is a noble spirit: the spirit of Qu Yuan, who pursued the spirit of “rather for jade than for tile”, and the spirit of Tao Yuanming, who held fast to the spirit of “not for five buckets of rice”. The philosopher Dewey said the characteristics of intellectuals: “One is independent thinking, refusing to take others’ ears, eyes, and brain power as their own; the second is that individuals are fully responsible for the results of their own ideological beliefs, not afraid of authority, not afraid to imprison and kill, and only recognize the truth, not personal interests.”
A “Cultural Revolution” made all these spirits lost, and our intellectuals and our nation were sunk. What a great role this environmental factor played!
Having lived in the environment of the Cultural Revolution, shouldn’t we all reflect on it?
Xu Jingxian, who witnessed the “Cultural Revolution”, has gone. His reflections leave us with too many deep thoughts.
Looking back, we cannot let the whole nation forget the Cultural Revolution.
In order to make the dirty “Cultural Revolution” extinct on the Chinese land, the Chinese nation, with its noble traditional spirit: refuse to forget!
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