(I)
At the beginning of the fall of 1959, as we entered our senior year, our roommate, Xu Bangzhi, was suddenly arrested for “counterrevolution.
After beating up eight rightists in 1957 and 1958, our class – the 1956 class of the Chinese Department of Shandong University – beat up Xu Bangzhi’s “counterrevolution” in 1959. “. Recently (2010) I heard from Zhang Yuxi, a classmate in Beijing, that Xu Bangzhi had also left, more than a year ago, after an acute heart attack, when he suddenly collapsed while going to the bank to withdraw money. I felt sudden. When there is no disaster, people’s psychological Time accelerates and turns quickly. These years I was too busy taking care of my partner and myself with lung cancer to take care of this good old classmate who suffered more misfortune than me perhaps. About two years ago, I was entrusted to ask for his phone number for a classmate, found it, said a few words, and learned that he retired in Wuxi – Wuxi County newspaper, I think there is still a chance to meet, and when the south, to Wuxi to get off, see him, catch up with the old days, where I did not know that he had gone ahead of me. People to the 70s and 80s, want to do things, such as travel, meeting friends, writing ……, can not be delayed, to do it quickly, or regret too late.
Xu Bangzhi and I were both classmates who entered the Chinese Department of Shandong University in 1956. From the beginning of school, Xu Bangzhi and I were in a small class (more than 30 people, one-third of the grade), a group, a dormitory, so we interacted more and got along better. In 1958, I was a rightist, but I was still in contact with him, but I avoided it. When I returned to my dorm room one day after breakfast, I suddenly saw Xu Bangzhi’s bedding and books being hurriedly tipped over and tied by some students. I was surprised and asked, “What? What?” A classmate sidled up to me and whispered, “It’s been taken away by the security section.” Although I had heard a few days earlier that something had happened to him and there had been a criticism meeting, but it was a careless scribbling, which was far-fetched and added to the charges, and I guessed that as long as it was explained clearly, there should be nothing wrong, but I did not expect this. Only three of us out of eight rightists were sent to reeducation through labor, so how could he have handled it so badly? This is really a bolt from the blue, but it is not surprising, for several years this kind of story even in Shanda encountered heard too much, bulletin boards, expulsion, arrest, re-Education through labor, sentencing students is not every now and then the routine?
(2) The “counter-revolution” painted with graffiti
For fifty years, the unjust case of Xu Bangzhi has been a topic of concern among students. As far as I know, there are at least three versions of the story, with different contextual details, but the common denominator is that the words he scribbled in his handwriting were strung together as a counter-label “Mao Zedong pig” and convicted.
Of the three versions, the one written by Ling Nanshin, “The encounter of Xu Bangzhi” (manuscript), is probably the closest to the truth, so it is recorded as follows.
One day in the early 1980s, I had a chance meeting with Comrade Li Wenchang, Director of the Security Office of Shanda University, on campus and chatted about what happened to Xu Bangzhi in 1960. He said that he had handled the case of Xu Bangzhi, who was then the head of the security department of Shanda University.
He said that in 1959, when Xu Bangzhi was studying Chairman Mao’s call to “raise his pigs” in a group study session, he scribbled on the cover of a magazine called “China Youth”. From the words he wrote, we can see that there are five words “Chairman Mao raises pigs”, but the last two words are not exactly in a straight line with the first three words, where the word “raise” is slightly smaller and somewhat blurred. Shanda will send the magazine to the relevant departments for identification. The Appraisal concluded that the word “foster” was deliberately blurred, thus creating a “counter-revolutionary” slogan. I told Comrade Li Wenchang: Xu Bangzhi and I were in a study group, studying Chairman Mao’s call, and Xu was a little distracted, writing something in a magazine. I remember that he used a red and blue pencil, the kind without an eraser tip. As soon as the group meeting was over, he left with a shake of his hand. At that time, he did not have the so-called “crime” conditions, “deliberately blurred” handwriting that is purely subjective.
It turns out that a word misunderstanding caused an unjust case, resulting in the injustice suffered by brother Bonzie, it is deplorable.
In the early summer of 1962, when he finished his “reform through labor”, he returned to Shanda University to ask for a solution to his job problem. The director of the Chinese Department, Mr. Zhang, met with him and told him to return to school immediately and be assigned to a job with the new graduates. According to the recollection of Brother Hou Shanben, who worked in the School Affairs Office of Shanda University, the promise of Director Zhang was approved by the Ministry of Education. This is actually a complete “vindication” for Brother Bangji. Xu asked for another year of study, so he was assigned to Shanxi Province in 1963, to work as a middle school teacher in Changzhi, Shanxi. He was later transferred back to work in Jiangsu, returning to the Yangtze River where he had been absent for many years.
This version of the story is probably the closest to the truth, because it comes from the head of the security section of Shandong University, who was the sole manager at the time, and although it is recalled twenty years later, it is not too outrageous and matches the impressions I have heard. The unjust case of Xu Bangzhi was caused by the scribbling of the word “Chairman Mao” together with another unrelated word “pig”, which was interpreted as a “counterscript”. The word “pig” was interpreted as a “counterscript”, and was imprisoned for counterrevolutionary crimes.
Since I was close to Xu Bangzhi during his school years, I was “corrected” and he was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution, and he sent me many letters from Handan Second High School and Wuxi County Newspaper.
Regarding Xu Bangzhi’s return to school, the reason may be that he was referred to one of the methods of dealing with rightists, “retaining schooling and reeducation through labor” for three years, which was the method of dealing with Wang Changting, a rightist in our grade, and thus he resumed his studies. In addition, we can’t rule out the fact that there are sympathetic people in the school’s department who have reservations about the kind of treatment that is so convincing and incriminating, rather than stating that “Director Zhang’s promise was approved by the Ministry of Education. This is actually a complete ‘vindication’ for Brother Bang Zhixue”, because he later petitioned Beijing for vindication, and finally Shanda officially announced the vindication. Besides, this matter may not need to be approved by the Ministry of Education.
(III) Great and terrible historical inertia
Xu Bangzhi had a habit: good doodling. Whenever he had a meeting, he would scribble on the edges of the newspapers and magazines at hand, writing subconsciously, mostly with familiar words and phrases that were popular nowadays, and then discarding them without packing them away. I never take it for granted, but the writers do not want to see the intention, see in the eyes, suspicious in the heart. The person who discovered and reported Xu Bangzhi is said to be a deceased classmate of the same dormitory. As a lesson in history, whether this student is alive or not, we should always pursue a little cause it.
Mao Zedong’s great historical feat was the creation of a Chinese Communist characteristic that differed from the Soviet Union’s reliance on the dictatorial organs to purge the opposition: the combination of Party leadership and mass movement to purge and suppress the opposition. This model of widely mobilizing the masses to purge and suppress anti-corruption was first created in the Jiangxi Soviet Union, inherited from the Yan’an “rescue campaign”, and carried forward after the liberation, forming a historical inertia. From the beginning of the anti-revolt, after the anti-Hufeng, purge, anti-right political movement, people’s political vigilance is getting higher and higher, more and more tense class struggle of the nerve of the string, what they see, what they hear, everywhere may be keen to smell the new trend of the class struggle, every person around themselves, may be potential class enemies. But there are still a few people who have really reached this level. This student, whom we spent a lot of time with in the dormitory, saw himself as a student of good birth and politics, and was indeed a very left-leaning student with a higher sense of smell and hearing and vision than the average student. He became a person with a mind to check and identify the scribbles left by Xu Bangzhi, from which he put together a “counter mark”, exercise Zhou Na, woven into the crime. And accepted his report of the staff, departments, rather left than right, rather believe it, not believe it, even though there may be honest people, at least expressed some suspicion, but for the “suspect” to justify that is the loss of the proletariat position of principle. Besides, at that time, there was a presumption of guilt, and there was no such thing as a “suspect”. First convict, then collect and organize the materials. In the end, the secretary of the party branch of our grade, a person who was not soft-hearted and not soft-hearted, was also sent to the labor camp.
It is the essence of Chinese Culture to put stones under the well. When the central government rectified Gao Gang, rectified Peng Dehuai, rectified Liu Shaoqi, those high cadres, high cadres, their comrades, most of them are also scrambling to throw stones, when criticizing Xu Bangzhi, students do not see it, do not know what it is, no one has seen the “anti-banner” in kind, so, later no one can say The “case”, but because the party branch is also a call to smash stones, everyone add bricks and tiles, the daily words of Xu Bangzhi on the line to add guilt, more proof that Xu Bangzhi is “counter-revolutionary”.
That era, that atmosphere, everyone becomes an obligatory informer, everyone becomes a glorious informer! Is it scary? Have we said goodbye to such an era? “There are ears on the wall”, “more words will be lost”, “trouble comes out of the mouth”, “know the face of the person does not know the heart” these old sayings Have they all died? Is the inertia of history disguised as the noble customers in restaurants with suits or bare arms?
(4) Young people, hot hearts
The year 1956 is an important point on the wheel of our memory. The Party Central Committee earnestly warned the nation that with the arrival of the climax of economic construction, there would inevitably be a climax of cultural construction. Mao Zedong proposed the policy of blossoming a hundred flowers and contending a hundred schools of thought for the prosperity of art and science, and called on the whole Party to “march on modern science”!
In 1956, the university expanded, and the student population was insufficient for enrollment. We, the young intellectuals who joined the workforce at the beginning of the liberation, had only junior high school or high school education, and were not too old at that time, and the delay was only a few years in terms of studying in the university, so how could we not be excited to try such a good opportunity? This is the reason that two-thirds of our 108 students in that grade were transfer students.
Our 108 students came from five provinces and one city in East China, with ages ranging from 17 to 30 years old, and the transfer students came from the party, government, military and academia, industry, agriculture, economics and literature, all walks of Life, with varying levels. Some students have set the ambition of being writers, poets, dramatists, literary theorists and aestheticians before they entered the school, and they have done a good job in business paving, so the big volunteer, the big direction and the big purpose of striving for knowledge and advancement are generally the same. If we were in an inclusive learning environment and did not engage in endless class struggle, it would not be difficult for students to establish a harmonious relationship of mutual understanding and tolerance, and to produce complementary effects to promote the healthy growth of talents.
At that time, education in Shandong was still backward, and high school students were not enough for college admissions, so there were a large number of southern students. Xu Bangzhi was originally from Nanjing and worked as an editor of Shanghai Youth Newspaper, so he came from Shanghai, while my Family was in Shanghai, but worked in the Logistics Department of Nanjing Military District, so he came from Nanjing.
Xu Bangzhi was the secretary of the league branch, I was a member of the branch, so there were many meetings with Xu Bangzhi, and I was most impressed by the discussion of several applications for financial assistance for recent high school graduates from rural areas, where the full grant was 12 yuan and the maximum living allowance was 4 yuan, which could solve the minimum living needs. It was always with deep sympathy that we suggested the department to give the highest amount of subsidy.
The reason why we enrolled in the Chinese Department of Shandong University, besides the summer resort of Qingdao and the historical reputation of Shandong University, was that there were two “little people”, Li Xifan and Lan Ling, who were praised by Mao Zedong and were appreciated by the great leader for criticizing the study of the Dream of the Red Chamber written by an old Peking University professor, Yu Pingbo. They became the most popular figures in the country. They became famous for their writings, and their fame spread to the students. Many young people became their “fans”. A talented female student from Renmin University of China, Cheng Haiguo, took the pen name “Lin Xiling”, combining two words from their names and the surname of Marxist literary theorist Lin Mohan. Unfortunately, Lin Xiling later became the most famous rightist among university students, and Lan Ling herself became a rightist. This is an afterthought.
Although at that time we did not know the classic saying “a soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier”, which was full of bourgeois personal struggle, our wish to be Li Xifan and Lan Ling was hidden in our hearts when we entered the Chinese Department of Shanda University.
At that time, we could almost say that we all had a “bourgeois individualistic” ambition in our hearts, that is, the ideal of becoming famous and a family. Therefore, after enrolling in school, we were all “thinking in one place and making efforts in one place”, and we had no time and no interest in wasting our time. Although we have differences in age, region, origin, experience, etc., but this has the advantage of complementarity in the pursuit of knowledge, forming a united, loving, tolerant, harmonious team, no pulling and tugging between each other, the shortcomings of the long story. Who had the heart to observe, report, expose, and frame fellow students in the same class, group, or room?
Xu Bangzhi, as a “senior” editor of the most popular youth newspaper at that time, already had good writing skills, and entered the Chinese department to study that was full of ambition, like a fish in water, as desired.
(5) Life is a pleasure
Xu Bangzhi originally worked as an editor of Youth Daily, the organ of East China Youth League Working Committee and Shanghai Youth League Working Committee, and was the backbone of the staff. Because he insisted on further study, the leaders had to let him go. After he entered the school, it was time to adjust his salary. The newspaper gave him a transfer one level higher, to level 20, to the school. This shows that the leadership and colleagues value him, people have left, tea is still hot. The transfer grant is a combination of 4 levels according to the original level into one level. 17-20 is a level, 21-24 is a level. This transfer raised his transfer grant by one level, with an extra 4 yuan per month, to 29 yuan. There were only a few transfer students in our class who could enjoy this level of scholarship, so he suddenly became a “high” level among the transfer students. At that time, it cost 4.7 yuan to buy a hardcover copy of Dream of the Red Chamber and 1.1 yuan for a paperback copy of Guan Hanqing’s Selected Operas. Xu Bangzhi had both the financial means and the interest in extensive knowledge, so he bought literary masterpieces whenever he came across them. When he was arrested, his book collection was packed with several boxes.
Xu Bangzhi’s original grade 21 was higher than the salary of a university graduate, and grade 20 was two or three levels higher than the salary of a university graduate, which was enviable at that time. I said you’ve studied in college for nothing. He said: “Money, this thing, life does not bring, death does not take away. But knowledge cannot be bought. The two levels of salary is nothing.”
That weekend, we a few southern classmates dinner, Food money is still AA system, 1 yuan per person, wine money Xu Bangzhi out. We congratulated him on his promotion, toasting each other, encouraging each other: never waste time, to be worthy of the four years ah! One of the students raised his glass and recited a poem by Li Bai: “Life must be happy, don’t make the golden bottle empty to the moon”.
In the evening, we paced back to school along the trestle bridge waterfront, the fog filled the sky, the streetlights flickered in the mist, we could hear the gentle waves lapping against the rocky shore, and the low and mysterious whimpering of the “sea cow” came from the hazy depths of Jiaozhou Bay. Although it is said to be a weather device built by the Germans, Qingdao people have made it a special sight of the city, with the manatee bellowing, the magpie making noise and the god of wealth arriving, symbolizing good luck. We were all immersed in a beautiful reverie. Qingdao’s waterfront has eternal charm, especially here and now!
(F) Xu Bangzhi has the Perception of a journalist
Because Xu Bangzhi came from “Youth Newspaper”, I have a different kind of affinity.
I joined the Youth League in November 1949 and read the Youth Newspaper right after I joined. In early 1950, I secretly submitted an article to Youth Daily, and luckily, my “debut” was published. For a junior high school student, it was a great comfort and inspiration to have my name on a 300-400 word piece of writing and to have it in print!
Later, in July 1951, I returned to Shanghai as a representative of the cadets of the East China Military Region Logistics Cadet School to do a report on their propaganda work. At a press conference, a reporter from the Youth Daily took a picture of my speech and immediately rushed out to me. Probably because I had worked as a newspaper correspondent in Shanghai and in the military, I spoke more in line with the characteristics of the news, so the reporter had a special fondness for me. My speech was published in the first article, plus a striking reminder. The photographer also took pictures of me, which I have kept to this day. Since the press conference was held on the 22nd floor of the Shanghai Building, the photographer set up a darkroom in the bathroom, so the film was quickly developed and the photos printed. As a result, I became more familiar with the Youth Daily and more friendly to it. So I had a little more to talk about with Xu Bangzhi.
Moreover, at that time, the secretary of the East China Youth League Committee was Li Chang, who was the main leader of the “January 29” student movement and a native of Sichuan. He called the cadres of my high school to a meeting, so I had the opportunity to meet him up close. He was the highest-ranking cadre I had met directly before joining the army, and I had the impression that he was a very kind, simple, kind and enthusiastic cadre with a lot of energy. Xu Bangzhi certainly had more opportunities to meet Li Chang, and I also heard him praise Li Chang, saying that he was very democratic, followed everything well, reasoned and discussed, and did not easily criticize his subordinates.
At that time, the Youth Daily newspaper had only a dozen people, a lean team, working on the fourth floor of the Liberation Daily and eating from a single pot. Therefore, Xu Bangzhi knew more about the inside of the press and often told us some inside stories.
I was a student correspondent of the Jiefang Daily and wrote small articles on tofu blocks, so I was more interested in the newspaper than other students. According to Xu Bangzhi, the first and second copies of the newspaper printed every day by the Jiefang Daily were immediately sent to the secretary of the municipal party committee and the editor-in-chief. They first read the front page headlines, if there is a political error, even if it is just a word, but a thousand miles, then they will immediately phone instructions to stop printing, all the newspapers have been printed out all scrapped, sent out immediately recovered and destroyed. This kind of thing, hundreds of thousands of newspapers scrapped things, more than once, it is incredible to say. I was the first to listen to these stories, and I was almost dumbfounded.
Xu Bangzhi is working in such an environment for six or seven years, with his unique professional sensitivity to journalism, with a far higher than our political comprehension perception, some news, he read to see what we have not seen, read the meaning of the strings, outside the picture, while I can only read from the book. In those years, political movements one after another, to our school, Mao Zedong but uncharacteristically, advocating the Double Hundred policy, the whole wind and sound release, I think a grievance can be vented. It turned out that in the purge campaign, I became the first head of a small group named by the Logistics Department of the East China Military Region. I wrote a personal letter to the only member of my clique, Gu He Bao – the so-called clique, in fact, the two of us – to vent my grievances. This “living treasure” dude, in turn, showed my letter to his friend Jin Ke, who in turn passed it on to others, creating an impact. As a result, Gu and Bao were transferred, and Huang Jinke was beaten to the right and sent to the North Wilderness for labor reform. I was also beaten up as a rightist mainly because of this letter.
Xu Bangzhi said to me: “You, you, why are you so confused? Do you think Hu Feng will not use the letter to fix people afterwards? You’re just being clever. Now that you’re done venting your anger, you’ve had your fun! Look, a certain person in our class, purge was rectified, did not complain about injustice, but also thanked the party, how did it turn out? Small intolerance, chaos. You still want to become famous and become a family. This is really self-inflicted!” In the days of the great release, Xu Bangzhi let the wind and waves rise, concentrating on his studies, in addition to going with the flow, echoing a few sentences, almost did not publish any high opinion, attention, so it is safe to pass.
In the anti-right, the press dangled a big fish, many famous journalists and newspaper people hit the right, some of whom he knew very well and admired, and suddenly became rightists overnight. He said that it was a fluke that he did not fight the right wing, when he was determined to leave the newspaper, but did not think so far ahead, just want to read more, to be a learned person, now it seems that this road did not go wrong. He was most fortunate that he entered the university, escaping a catastrophe, and therefore he was paralyzed and targeted.
(7) Xu Bangzhi was extremely impressed by Mr. Gao Heng’s talent
The Chinese Department of Shandong University is known for its strong professors. In the history of ancient Chinese literature, there were five nationally renowned scholars, including Lu Kanru, Feng Yuanjun, Gao Heng, Xiao Jiefei, and Huang Gongzhu, known as the “Five Mountains”. At that time, Lu and Feng were a couple, second-class professors, and the last three were third-class professors. For us, the most fortunate thing was that we caught the last train and listened to these master professors giving us basic classes, and from then on they only taught assistant professors and graduate students.
I don’t think there was a title of “master” at that time, but we did regard them as our idols. A “master” is a person who is highly respected for his or her academic or artistic achievements. We were fortunate to listen to the lectures of Mr. Gao Heng and Mr. Huang Gongzhu, and they were truly extraordinary, a charismatic teaching that is difficult to describe with words. It turns out that a master is a master, different. If you go to college, but never heard the master lecture, it should be said that it is difficult to make up for the major shortcomings. Lu Kanru first because when the vice president, and later played the right wing, no class. Feng Xiao, because of the great steel-making labor, students writing literary history, etc., only fed us a few compressed cookies. Nonetheless, the lectures of the two Gao and Huang benefited us greatly and will always be remembered in our hearts. It was a pleasure to listen to their lectures!
In our first academic year, we studied the history of pre-Qin literature, and Mr. Gao Heng was the lecturer. At first, we didn’t know where Mr. Gao came from, but we were instantly impressed just by his confident and imposing style. It turned out that Mr. Gao Heng graduated from the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University, where Wu Mi was the director, and studied under Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei, two of the most unprecedented and irreproachable masters of Chinese studies. Famous masters make high apprentices. Mr. Gao’s research in the study of pre-Qin nationalism is astonishing. He was familiar with the pre-Qin canonical texts, and could recite them backwards and forwards, plus the golden text and oracle bones, the commentary, the exegetical version, etc., so we were overwhelmed, like falling into the clouds. His best skill is to speak to the important point, a “according to my testimony” on the pause, the two eyes behind the lens, looking at us, the right hand holding the chalk pointing at us, set up a few seconds of suspense, after that, he will talk about “according to my testimony” of the The results. The poem that aroused our greatest curiosity was the love poem “Shi Jing – Chen Feng – Moonrise”, which has been established as a love poem in ancient and modern times. But after Gao Fuzi’s “according to my examination”, it becomes a cruel oppression of slaves by slave masters: on a dark and windy night with torches shining brightly, “the ruler of the state of Chen killed a handsome man. The author witnessed this tragic scene and sang this short song to mourn the murdered man.”
Mr. Gao admits that commentators throughout the ages have considered this to be a love poem, but “according to my examination,” the words “佼人僚兮” and “佼人燎兮” “The word “bureaucrat” and “prairie” are not used to describe a woman’s beauty, but are used to describe a slave who is “bound and entangled”. “The word “blaze” means to burn the “best people”. He said that this poem is a living proof of class oppression in the slave society. We, the first time students of the Poetic Edda, were so impressed by this high opinion. He said, “Do you want to enter my hall and enter my room? OK, I will give you a bibliography and read it for 10 years first. The dragon of the good dragon!
Xu Bangzhi was extremely impressed by Mr. Gao Heng’s talent, but he did not follow it blindly. Some of his classmates compared the various claims and debated. Xu Bangzhi, however, was able to hit the nail on the head. He said, “This is vulgar sociology. One sentence subdued us. But he said that Mr. Gao Heng was also different in making fallacious arguments. He is so talented. Although he was a hard-headed man, who could learn from him that he might not be straightforward, but he was majestic?
The Book of Psalms was our first semester class after entering school. Many of our students had no idea what “vulgar sociology” was. In terms of knowledge preparation, the students in our grade were from all over the world, from all three religions. The transfer students had strong social knowledge, such as Xu Bangzhi, who had been working in journalism and had more knowledge of literature and politics, so he could say something like “vulgar sociology” as a specialized term.
Xu Bangzhi admired Mr. Huang Gongzhu’s literary temperament. He said, Mr. Huang himself is the embodiment of Wei Jin style. You go to his house to see it, poems and songs, qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, all day long in their own little world, two ears do not hear outside the window, even (Shandong University) he did not recognize the deputy secretary of the room, really rare. He became Tao Yuanming, “Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely looking at the southern mountains”, the great hidden in the city. Art has become his life. What Xu Bangzhi pursued was a life of transcendence, indifference, dash, freedom, and unrestrainedness. His good graffiti also originated from this character.
(H) Eight thousand miles of clouds and the moon
After his release from prison, Xu Bangzhi finished his last year of study at Shanda University and went to Handan, Hebei Province, not to Changzhi, Shanxi Province, but to work as a teacher in Handan Second Middle School, which would have been in 1963. Three years later, the Cultural Revolution broke out.
I now have the seven letters he sent me from 1982-1986.
From his first letter to me on June 5, 1982, it seems that I wrote to him first and he wrote back to me soon after. After more than twenty years of separation, we have experienced changes, and we are full of emotions and despair. After we were “rehabilitated” and “corrected”, we were both eager to leave our original place. So the theme was to seek a transfer, and there were many situations where it was difficult to transfer. He said: “I learned from the newspaper that there are many talented people among my classmates, (Li) Yitao, (She) Shusen, Zhu Di, (Pan) Renshan, (Mou) Shi Jin, (Wang) Xingzhi’s generation have become famous in the literary world, and their works are abundant, but now I have turned gray at the temples, and my past ambitions have become a passing cloud! The past has become empty, and it is still like a dream.
In a letter dated June 5, 1983, he said, “At present, the national wind of reform is quite strong, and the situation of intellectuals is getting better and better, but there is not much time left for us, but we cannot serve our country.
In a letter dated March 12, 1984, he wrote: “My situation is just as you said, and nothing has changed so far. The control of my movement is so tightly blocked that if I do not have connections, I can only sigh in disbelief. …… I look forward to the opportunity to meet with you, then talk, also a pleasure!”
January 22, 1985 letter: “Yesterday I returned from Wuxi, Wuxi County Personnel Bureau transfer orders, agreed to accept me to report to the Wuxi County newspaper. The newspaper is located in the city, less people, the size of the county newspaper, but because of the proximity to Nanjing, so I also determined.”
Letter dated May 6, 1985: “I came to Wuxi with my lover and children in late April, my lover was assigned to work at the county hospital, and my two children were studying in the city’s high school. I work in the newspaper news team, because the situation is not familiar, at present mainly at Home to edit the manuscript, rarely go down to interview. …… If you come to Shanda, please say hello when you see your old classmates. I hope to tell you where your brother Jiang Wei is in Changshu, so that you can have the opportunity to visit. If you go south, I hope you will come to me.”
Letter dated January 1, 1986: “Newspaper work is easier than education. In the past six months, I have sent several articles to the public, and five of them were published in the central-level newspapers, but I only feel that my writing power is not strong and I have written a lot of scraps.”
June 2, 1986 letter – by this time I had been transferred to Shandong University High School – said: “I have come to Wuxi for nearly a year, work is okay, but the small newspaper, limited to a county, coupled with housing has not been resolved, so the situation and brother Compared to brother, still slightly inferior. …… Qi Lu old friends think they are okay. Time is running out, my peers are into the old age, and it is not easy to meet again, to my place in tin, Jiangsu alumni also have more than ten people, but also failed to meet. We’ll see what happens.”
Excerpts of Xu Bangzhi’s letter called me to look back on decades of life. We went from being teenagers who “joined the revolution” to suddenly becoming revolutionary targets, either rightists or counter-revolutionaries, “through the storms of the revolution, seeing the world of struggle”, through hardships, nine deaths, and finally became survivors. An old poem came to my mind: “8,000 miles of clouds and the moon.”
(ix) Thirty years of fame, dust and dirt
In the summer of 1986, Xu Bangzhi and I invited Jiang Wei’s family to Changshu for a get-together. I went from Shanghai and Xu Bangzhi went from Wuxi, and we went back and forth on the same day. We were in the same class at the beginning of the school year, and we got along quite well. The three of us, who survived the disaster, were able to get together, which was a great blessing in life.
Jiang Wei had already become a member of the county CPPCC, joined the party, and was a key cadre in his work. Changshu was originally a town of fish and rice, where Shajiabang was located, and at this time it was among the top 5 of the top 100 counties in the country, and the people were so rich that they generally enjoyed the fruits of reform. Some of Jiang Wei’s old colleagues have been in high positions in the county, he himself can also belong to the “senior generation” of cadres in the county, so the network is very wide, do some private matters are also very bright. His daughter is the secretary of the league committee in Suzhou University. He is a bit full of ambition and fat. Jiang Wei is no longer the lean and thin young man. Jiang Wei is very satisfied with his return to Changshu, pay great attention to research diet, for each of the dishes served to us, fish, shrimp and crab meat, from the selection of materials to cooking, can tell the name, the wife of the pot is also very good, he became a gourmet, we enjoyed a beautiful meal of authentic Changshu flavor cuisine.
With the wine in full swing, Xu Bangzhi told us some of his experiences. During the Cultural Revolution, he was beaten to death by students and had his fingers broken, and his family was thrown to the bottom of the classroom stairs. In order to be rehabilitated, he went to Beijing to petition, and slept in the waiting room of the train station at night with his newspaper spread out. After being rehabilitated, he was finally transferred to the Wuxi County Newspaper after a few twists and turns. Wuxi is one of the top 100 counties in China and has a good economic situation, so there is still room for journalistic talents. However, it had been 30 years since he left journalism, and the social situation and interpersonal relations had changed greatly. The target audience of the county newspaper and the youth newspaper was also very different, so it took him more than a year to get familiar with it. He later met his earlier colleagues in Shanghai, who were already leaders of the Jiefang Daily and Wen Wei Po, and naturally welcomed him to go, but it was not easy to rearrange the work of his family, schooling for his children, and housing, and he was already over 50 years old, so he gave up the temptation to go back to Shanghai, and lived his remaining life in mediocrity.
Speaking of mediocrity, Jiang Wei said, “We have been in Shanda for 30 years now. Did you think of today? These 30 years, we are not just mediocre? We study Paul’s words, how to spend one’s life, but people who are really comfortable with mediocrity can be peaceful, just like the proletarians in the Cultural Revolution. Most of the people who do not want to be mediocre have met with misfortune, and with a few words, you will be put into some kind of hat and sent to hell, and this is called a revolution? What is such a revolution? In the past 30 years, I started to learn to be a bully and a snake, on the one hand, I was a teacher in human form, on the other hand, I was a rightist in a lowly manner. Now it seems to have returned to the human world, but the golden age has gone down the drain!
I said, “Jiang Wei, don’t be ungrateful. How many people hit the right after the wife divorce, lovers blow the lights. Wang Yinxian and you do not blow and do not give up, it is rare.
I invited Jiang’s wife to come over and toast to her and their happiness together!
Jiang Wei said, you two are also considered happy. How many people have been left alone after their families have been broken. Yin Xian, come on, let’s bless them too!
Xu Bangzhi said, “Although thirty years of work and fame are dust and dirt, but we have finally survived and have a family. Let’s all give our blessings!
I said, Jiang Wei, a promise you made thirty years ago is not fulfilled today?
He opened his red eyes wide and asked, “What? What did I promise?
I said, at that time, you always bragged that there was a chicken in Changshu, how famous and delicious it was, and you wanted to invite me to taste it. Forget it, right?
Ah, ah, really forget, the next time, leave room for it.
After the meal, we also went to the photo studio to take photos to commemorate the occasion, and then happily said goodbye. But unfortunately we did not have the next time. Jiang Wei also died of a heart attack.
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