Foreword: Fifty years later, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to talk about the hunger and death in 1960. Many of you who are young might think that it must be just a story. No, as a reporter for a provincial newspaper, I experienced that terrible, even horrible history firsthand, and it is my duty to record it faithfully. To show my respect for history, even in the details are not embellished, and all the characters have their real names and surnames. An article written by Yin Shusheng, the secretary of Wang Zhao, the former secretary of the Qinghai provincial party committee and governor, published in Yankuang Chunqiu, No. 10, 2009, also provides strong circumstantial evidence for the authenticity of this article again. “
In March of 1959, I voluntarily enrolled in Qinghai from the Central People’s Broadcasting Station and was assigned to the Qinghai Daily News. At that Time I was not yet 22 years old, although the natural conditions there are relatively poor, the supply of materials with my original Beijing can not be compared, but I did not have the slightest feeling of suffering, my mind is filled with only the word “career”. I remember reporting in April, and in June I went to “the first city of the Yellow River” in Tsimshatsui County to cover the interview, in that distant little town that almost no one knows, I rode a horse for the first time, rode a sheepskin raft in the huge Yellow River for the first time, ate in the people’s commune canteen for the first time, walked into the Tibetan compatriots’ tent for the first time, saw for the first time from the county party secretary to the The first time I saw how the commune members, from the secretary of the county party committee to the production captain, led the commune members to “open up the wasteland and do agriculture”, how to insert the word “high-yielding field” and “productive party” on the whole piece of forest and pasture, which was a The word is two meters square large wooden sign …… at that time, my whole body and mind are immersed in the young people will have the kind of fresh and excited pleasure, youthful passion in the body bursting, I work day and night to write interviews, almost every day there are articles sent to the newspaper, in my heart, really feel how bright Life, work how beautiful, “the situation is great”. “The situation is very good”!
But within a year, the situation began to change drastically, each person had to wait in line to buy two taels of oil, half a catty of meat and a few taels of soybean products each month, and other foodstuffs, such as sweets and pastries, had become extinct in the market. “The most serious thing was that the monthly Food ration was drastically reduced (note: from 28 kg to 22 kg, and then one kg was saved to “support” the victims, which was actually 21 kg. Later, it was reduced to less than 20 pounds, and flour was reduced from “85 flour” to “88 flour” and even “95 flour”), so what “chlorella “, “food substitutes”, “incremental method” …… I do not know who invented all kinds of new strange and bizarre things designed to solve the problem of the stomach like The “panacea” like in various places and departments quickly spread and promote, my unit is naturally no exception. I remember one day in 1960, the provincial party committee organs canteen (the newspaper also dined here) posted a bulletin, saying that “according to the leadership instructions, from July 1 (this date is purely coincidental, not my intention to compile, so I remember it well), food rationing meal variable amount”. All the people are both puzzled and curious, the central nervous system is even a little excited. Who invented this? Who is so wise and talented ah? Many good people, who had no oil in their stomachs for a long time, thought and hoped that, after all, from now on, their stomachs would not feel empty after each meal, and they would not have to eat all their meal tickets in ten days.
Finally, the great July 1 came. Early in the morning, the entrance to the cafeteria was crowded with hungry people waiting for the door to open, and the only topic of conversation was how the breakfast that was about to come to the mouth would look like. As soon as the doors opened, people poured in like a tidal wave. I’m afraid that even the dark humor of the crowd may not be able to imagine the excitement and hilarity of this “free belly meal”: only to see the lobby tables placed around a large jar, the jar is chopped cabbage and green skin and a very small amount of noodles cooked on the “thin paste” –in fact, not much different from the Soup. However, the provincial party committee’s small “public servants” (cadres are opened in a separate stove and small stove) and newspaper reporters and editors are still very happy, someone this meal even filled three big pots: almost more than a washbasin! (I later learned that this went on to a large number of swelling and other diseases, and some lost their lives as a result.)
At this time, I had two incidents that are still engraved in my mind: one is “eating buns”, and the other is “eating human flesh”. The two events were less than a year apart.
Let’s start with the buns.
About the head of 1960, I followed the provincial party committee in charge of agriculture, Chen Sigong, deputy secretary of the countryside “investigation and research”. Is in Huanzhong County, a mountain village. Huanzhong County is the birthplace of the world-famous yellow religion. The glorious Tar Temple looks more and more charming in the brilliant sunshine. Our party, including rural work minister, policy research office director, deputy director of the office, secretary, etc., in the county, commune and brigade three levels of cadres accompanied by the first into a “respect for the elderly hospital”, lift the snow-white curtain, only to see the house side by side five beds are the same snow-white sheets snow-white quilt, five old people are motionless towards the sky The five old people were lying motionlessly facing the sky, without a sound. No exaggeration, at that time I really had a feeling of walking into a morgue, of course, I did not dare to have half flow half sloppy. Secretary Chen kindly said to one of the elderly, “How are you doing?” A cadre stepped forward: “Three meals a day, according to Chairman Mao’s instructions, two diluted a dry, there are special people to serve ……” Secretary Chen obviously did not want to continue to listen to his nagging, asked the old man in front of him: “Is not ah? ” The old man did not move, his eyes still staring at the ceiling, as if nodding his head. When everyone saw Secretary Chen turn around, the people behind him exited the room first, and I heard the secretary say, “Not bad!”
Then came the “inspection” of the village canteen. I followed closely behind the secretary, fearing that I might miss important instructions. What a coincidence, as soon as we stepped into the kitchen, we heard a shout: “Yes!” In the midst of the steaming heat, we saw the buns coming out of the cage on the pot. The secretary walked over and before he could say anything, the master in snow-white overalls handed over a bun and said, “Taste it while it’s hot.” The clerk smiled graciously and broke half of it, turning sideways and pulling the other half to me. It is 85 flour or 88 flour, cabbage and pork filling, flour although not as fine and clean as I once saw in the provincial party committee small stove, but realistically speaking, the taste is good, at least not worse than the provincial party committee canteen. At this time only to hear the secretary again casually said: “Not bad!” The cadre took the secretary’s words and said, this bun, we canteen in January at least have to eat so three times. Another dressed more cadre-like said, the whole commune teams are not far from (local dialect, meaning similar). The secretary said: “the province’s natural disasters, food production, you can arrange so well, it is not easy, to seriously sum up the experience, but still pay attention to saving, to the long flow of water, to dry with thin, mobilize the masses to collect food, to fully exploit the potential, ah?” The surrounding people nodded their heads, and a person who always followed the secretary said repeatedly, please rest assured that the leader (or Secretary Chen), we must be modest and cautious to avoid arrogance, never let down the provincial party committee on our expectations. From that tone of voice, I concluded that he is the largest head of the county no doubt.
Our party also “research” a few “points”, and finally held a “briefing” in the commune, first “listen to “report, and then the leader made some “important instructions”, the first point of the second point of the third point, the participants are buried in notes, not a sound, and finally, Secretary Chen asked: “What else do we have to say?” At this point, the “everyone” in the highest position of the one very respectfully and humbly replied, “No, no more.” The whole investigation and research is of course over, the rest of the summary of ah, the report to the provincial party committee ah, and the provincial leadership of the “instructions” to quickly reach “every corner of the province” ah, that is the secretary and reporter’s business. Such a style of work and operation for decades, until today in the twenty-first century, you do not see the leaders at all levels across the country is still so in the rules, no one dares to cross the thunderbolt step.
Honestly, at that time I could see the adulterated fake, I also believe that all people will know that this is a prearranged drama. However, my thought at the time was, who does not want the higher-ups to say a few words of praise? Who wouldn’t want to put their best side in front of everyone? Or maybe, the masses here are not so good but really quite okay? It was only after I had been in and out of prison, especially during the Cultural Revolution, that I realized how naive I had been. Think about it, in 1959 or 1960, when the Republic was founded only 10 years ago, many people were already so familiar with falsification and so emboldened (of course, compared to those who came later, they were still only small), because they were doing it for their own leaders, and they only had to be responsible for their own leaders. They need that kind of leadership, and that kind of leadership naturally needs them. But they can conceal and cheat for a while, but can they conceal and cheat for good? They can cheat the leaders, but can they cheat the stomachs of millions of people? This comes to the matter of eating human flesh. This sounds very frightening, but it is true, I saw it with my own eyes.
Here, I first have to explain a little background.
The population of Qinghai is relatively small, so compared to Anhui, Henan and Gansu provinces, the famine appeared and spread a little later, in 1960, some places have been very serious, but Qinghai did not show tension for a while, about the second half of the year, the situation of hunger became more and more obvious. At that time, it can be said that almost all people really feel the “seriousness” of the state of hunger “unbearable” and “terrible”, so also further realize the feeding of the stomach “importance” “necessity” and “urgency”. At this time, the provincial leadership department has a new document: cadres after work must “collect all the food substitutes that can be collected” (the document also lists a number of species, such as ash strips, bitter vegetables, etc.), the good thing is that at that time almost every unit has its own farm, in addition to picking in the suburbs of the field in a small way, can send “A few units with “strength” even had their own “fishing teams” and could go to Qinghai Lake to cast nets and shoot fish (unlike what we are talking about now). The newspaper I work for is part of the provincial government. Although my newspaper is under the jurisdiction of the provincial party committee, but mainly in the political and ideological “gatekeeper”, it is impossible to do “every detail” on the issue of food, the provincial party committee organs than we are better off, of course, we are better off than the general organs, not to mention the people. But many people still could not escape the swelling, I remember that the whole newspaper had swelling of about 30 percent. I was fortunate enough to escape a disaster because my mother’s second sister back Home saved a little bit of national food stamps to send me from time to time. The editor-in-chief at that time was called Qiao Qian, who was an old revolutionary who ran a newspaper in 1938 in Qingliang Mountain, “38 style”, and naturally ate “small stove” (Note: Division level eat medium stove, small stove must be departmental level, I was fortunate enough to witness the small stove in a morning when I sent in the review of manuscripts) “The most impressive thing is the snow-white round cute little steamed buns, that is the first time I saw so white so white so small so small steamed buns.) He said a famous line (I dare say, back then, the Qinghai newspaper people, no one will forget), which is like this: “swollen people, can not go out to interview, disgrace of socialism!” He also said with conviction, “Puffiness, mainly a matter of thought, how some comrades are not puffy, how am I not puffy?” He also had a wonderful classic quote about running a newspaper: “Put powder on your face, not on your ass.” I don’t know if they were his original words, but I still feel that they are undoubtedly of general guidance to all proletarian journalists, and, to use a common phrase in the media nowadays, they are called “both of great practical significance and far-reaching historical significance “.
Back to the issue of food. As the situation becomes more and more serious, stealing bun tickets and even stealing canteen buns happens repeatedly, although the canteen duty day and night also seems to have little effect. Our unit is both my old classmate and my old colleague or the Family of the “Sun reporter”, once out late back, he went straight to the back of the lobby to buy food, coincidentally no one, they took a steamed bun in the cage drawer, really bad luck, before going out was caught, this is bad: ” The propaganda also do such a disgraceful thing?” “The provincial party committee organs, even the people are worse (this is said, the people are worse than the cadres?)” Poor this family has been criticized three times in a row, not to mention the censorship, and finally even the “Chinese Communist Youth League” ticket also lost. Our department’s old leader Wu Zhongxuan is a very kind person, he repeatedly guarantee, so that the 1958 Peking University graduates did not sweep the door. I naturally also spoke, nothing more than degrading what, there may not be any excessive words, I was thinking, one is not intentional, two after all is too little steamed bun tickets, too hungry, plus we do not see each other, why suffer for a bun to make everyone lose face. I remember that the Russian Nekrasov wrote a poem about a tramp who was beaten up for stealing bread as a thief, and I always seemed to sympathize with the tramp when I read it. In fact, at that time, the people who do not have a hard time, a friend of mine in the middle school teaching “difficult times” to the farm labor, once back to the provincial capital, just off the bus, in the Department of Education to call me, the trembling voice sounded a bit wrong: “Lao Sun, I am so-and-so ah, you can find a way to Can you find a way to get something to eat? The best is ghee, white sugar …… I can not.” When he returned to his long “decentralized” home in the countryside, he learned that a son had died of starvation, and another daughter born soon after, because no one at home to take care of, but fell into the bed and burned alive, which is what tragedy ah!
After a roundabout way, it is now easy to understand the matter of eating human flesh.
The eastern agricultural region of Qinghai has a county called “Minhe”, the Yellow River flows from its south, the quiet Huangshui from the north to separate it and Gansu’s Yongdeng County. Here the climate is the province’s best, here the land is the province’s most fertile, here the traffic is the province’s most developed, to the vast western extension of the Lanzhou-Qingdao railroad and highway, where it is the first big station to rest. Historically, this has been the “granary” of Qinghai, producing wheat, barley, corn, and even rice, and I am afraid that the variety of fruits is unbelievable to people who first arrived. I was in Qinghai 28 years, to this place to cover the number of trips to say the least, there are more than a dozen times.
This time, I went to a production team in a shallow mountain (local name, i.e. half mountain) area. This year, the central authorities have recommended not to promote the “people’s commune public canteen”, and in fact, the canteens around the countryside have long been broken up, “eat without money” dream like sorghum as a laughing matter. Now, when the peasants have the right to eat freely, there is no possibility of eating freely: they are completely deprived of everything, not even pots and pans, and really have to start from “another stove”. I have been in the countryside many times, after all, I still know the situation in the countryside, before I set out, I was prepared mentally: “natural disasters” has been three years in a row, the city cadres are not easy to live, the farmers in poor areas must be even more difficult, plus it is the green and yellow, I am afraid that the difficulties can not be imagined, where the farming activities are still normal Are the farming activities there still going on normally? Do the members there still have food at home? Do they still have “socialist labor motivation”? How is the security situation there? What about the health and survival of the peasants there? …… I envisioned many, many questions, but I never imagined that I would encounter this man-eating incident, which amazed me inexplicably. When I told a few close friends, they invariably cautioned me: do not tell others, not to mention the leadership of the report …… more confusing is that such historical truth, still covered tightly, they are intended to let future generations in forgetting to erase this bloody history, or an attempt to escape the trial of history? This is what a heavy a sad ah, I often because of it and can not restrain the heart of indignation and fury! When will the souls of these hungry ghosts be able to rest in peace?
As soon as I arrived at the village, I felt something strange. In the past, when I went to the village to interview, after I found the branch secretary or the captain (now the village head), I usually arranged to stay in the house first, which is also the house for dinner, but this time, I was arranged to stay with a breeder. The musty smell of the house and the smell of livestock urine and feces was overwhelming. After the captain led me there, he said, “I’ll just eat with Lao Mu (or maybe “Mu” or simply “Mu”, a somewhat stooped old man with a black face), and give him the food stamps and expenses (food expenses). Just to turn around, and then said, the food stamps are actually not much use, the countryside and no food stores, do not give also OK, give a few more dollars. He lifted his feet just to go out and added that tomorrow, if you participate in the team labor, there are two or two fried noodles at noon. After saying that, he left. I suspect that there is a problem with the ears, there is “fried noodles”? Later, I learned that it was a wild oat straw ground into powder, fried and cooked can be eaten with boiling water into a paste. I tried to eat that “food”, can not swallow, so rough that it seems to pierce your throat. But for this two “fried noodles”, people will still take a bowl or a cloth bag, to line up, to wait. I wanted to shed tears watching that scene.
At night, in the same old Mu talk, only to know that the hardship here is not we can imagine, the village outside the village, can eat, eat up, first wild vegetables, elm bark, that is good, later, as long as the ground grows on the ground are eaten, and then, digging rat holes, can eat can not eat all eat, see what to eat, even “Guanyin soil” also ate, top hungry ah, but that stuff up stomach, can not shit …… village, ah, not a few deaths, the first is the age of the old, which is not a problem, the King of Hell called him a few years ago, always have to go, the most pathetic is the baby, crying and crying to eat, what to eat ah? The good thing is that no one has had a baby in the village for several years, is born, where there is milk ah, or a death?
“Then how do you live?” He replied, “Well, I was the only one in my life, the team took care of me, and always remembered what was good to eat. This is not, there are still a few livestock here, have to worry about day and night. In the first half of the year, someone stabbed the livestock, the commune came to be treated as “active counter-revolutionary”, if you ask me, you can’t blame the kid, he was starving, he was thinking, the livestock died, not also can share a few taels of meat? This kid can forget that hundreds of people, all counting on these few livestock, without livestock, you say, the crop people have what to expect?
The next day, I walked randomly in the village, interview experience tells me, often inadvertently may catch something very valuable. I walked past a village outline and saw the gate down on one side, so I walked in. This is not a small courtyard, the north room is relatively large, at least five, the east and west rooms seem to be only three, if a family living, it must be a three-generation everyone. In the courtyard, no one was visible, a few farming tools were piled up haphazardly at the root of the wall, and there was a bit of firewood on the southwest corner, I shouted: “Is anyone there? No echo. I took a closer look and found that most of the doors and windows of the east and west rooms had fallen to the east and west, and my heart was stunned. Old Mu said that some people have died to extinction, Murphy is …… I dare not think down. I pushed the door into the north room as if there were still people living there, and immediately smelled a somewhat strange smell, I walked towards the pot stand, the pot was smoking hot, I casually uncovered the lid, the scene before me stunned: clearly a child’s arm!
I can’t remember how long I stayed there, maybe a minute, three minutes, or a little longer? Suddenly, a middle-aged man flopped down at my feet, leaving me more and more frightened. I rushed to help him up, but he bowed and kowtowed to me, as if he was begging me for something, but I didn’t understand how. I had to say to him over and over again, I am not a cadre of the county, I did not see anything, I do not know anything …….
However, what I never expected was that the middle-aged man had thrown himself into the water that night. Old Mu told me that it was fortunate that he was found and saved. Old Mu said that he was lucky (local language, referring to the ability to turn good fortune into good fortune also means to live long), just in time for someone to go to the mine (not far from a lead-zinc mine) to steal food, otherwise, is not more than a ghost of unjust death? Who will mourn for him? He was the only one in the family, there was no one else.
I left the village in a hurry like the plague, perhaps even more worried about not causing more trouble, or perhaps simply my own fragile nerves could no longer withstand this hellish horror and cruelty ……
The newspapers at that time, from the provincial newspapers to the central newspapers, were still “the situation is good”, still “the class struggle as the platform”, whoever said something like hunger or even famine, it must be “against the three red flags Anyone who says something about hunger or even famine must be “opposed to the three red flags”, must be a “spokesman” for the “rich, the rich, the bad and the right”, or at least has “problems with his ideological approach”, and “sees only one finger but not nine. Only see one finger but not nine fingers” and so on. At that time, the peasants had a particularly graphic and wonderful saying: “The words in the newspaper (referring to the big headlines) are getting bigger and bigger, and the paste in the bowl is getting clearer (thinner).” In another place, I heard a slightly different version: “The clear soup in the bowl shines on the words on the ceiling (rural areas mostly use newspaper paste on the ceiling), and it is getting brighter (clearer in the sense of) miles.”
Decades later, unofficially published information said that more than 43 million people died unnaturally during the three-year “natural disaster,” 40 million of whom were farmers (according to the second issue of “Together in the Boat” in 2004), and the top provinces were Henan, Gansu, Qinghai, etc. If calculated in proportion to the total population, then Qinghai should be ranked first. If calculated by total population, Qinghai should be ranked first. But what kind of proportion is it? In the end, how many people died of hunger, this may be a mystery forever. Sometimes I think how the life of each individual life is so inscrutable and unpredictable, the fate of life is so perverse, blind and ruthless that it is difficult to explain, but who would have thought that the “liberation” and “turnaround” of thousands of innocent people would But who would have thought that thousands of innocent people who were “liberated” and “turned over” would fall so tragically on the land of the socialist motherland in the 1960s, in the arms of such a cold “mother”, and that God would bear the blame for the truth that has been kept alive and dead!
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