Mr. Yin Shusheng’s book “How Zeng Xisheng Covered Up the Severe Famine. (Literary and Historical Column 2020-10-27), is an informative and informative article about how the Anhui Provincial Party Committee, headed by Zeng Xisheng, caused a large number of people, mainly peasants, to die of starvation during the Great Leap Forward famine in Anhui due to the extreme leftist line and the rampant communist wind. After the disaster, how did Zeng Xisheng’s people hide the disaster, fabricate the facts and deceive the central government many times, which caused the disaster to spread for a long Time, and tens of millions of people in Anhui were struggling to survive.
The famine that occurred in Anhui from 1958 to 1962 was one of the hardest hit areas in the country, and topped the list in terms of the ratio of deaths to the total population of the province. It was a great catastrophe for the people of Anhui, and a pain that the people of the province could never forget!
Mr. Yin Shusheng, with the compassionate sentiment of revering history and Life, has published many such important articles in important media such as “Yanhuang Chunqiu” over the years, and has made outstanding contributions to the disclosure of that painful period of national history, which is highly respected by all walks of life! The author has also quoted data from Mr. Yin’s writings on several occasions. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Yin.
Mr. Yin’s article is based on his usual simple style of not being afraid to take risks and to take responsibility for the real historical truths and to tell them all in their original form. It is a true record of how Zeng Xisheng’s people deceived the main leaders of the country from the Politburo Standing Committee down to the State Supervisory Commission, the High Court, the High Prosecutor, the Ministry of Public Security, and many other authorities. The details of the deceptions, which were blatantly false in broad daylight, and which were told without redness of heart, are still outrageous to read today. This group of city foxes and social rats is really abominable and will surely be judged by history.
Another important contribution of Mr. Yin’s article is that it introduces the most important informant of the Anhui famine, Zhang Shaobai, the director of the office of Fengyang County Committee Office, under the alias of Shi Quming, who sent a letter to the central government about the Anhui famine in a more factual way. The original text of the letter reads as follows
Central Committee and President: I dismissed the idea of personal gains and losses and established that the gains and losses of the Party and the people are important before I resolved to reflect the massive death of the population in Fengyang County last winter and this spring, which is quite alarming according to my knowledge of the death of the population of four Zhuangzi in three communes. One death accounted for 5%, one accounted for 11% strong, one accounted for 15%, one accounted for more than 20% …… at the time of the worst death, some villages died 5 to 6 people a day, some villages almost no one, run, die. I saw with my own eyes, in our Linhuai Pass on the recruitment (shelter) up the abandoned children about three to four hundred people, dead there are about a hundred ……
Shi Qiuming in Linhuai in Duangyang in 1960
As to how this important report letter reached the central government, Yin explained: “Shi Quming, whose real name is Zhang Shaobai, was the director of the Fengyang County Party Committee office at that time, and was a person who had deep feelings for the people. At that time, when writing such letters from the people in Anhui, they were found to be investigated and punished as counter-revolutionary letters, and the letter writers had to take the risk of sitting in a classroom. In order not to be found out, he wrote the letters in reverse order, not in the order of strokes, and wrote two letters in total, sending a small civil servant to Bengbu to send them out, giving him a few pounds of Food stamps and a few dollars as payment. One letter was put into the Linhuai Pass post office by itself. The letter sent from Bengbu was detained by the Public Security Bureau, and the letter sent from the Linhuaiguan post office was issued without incident.”
It should be said that Yin Wen so account, is generally accurate, but there are inaccuracies, that is, Zhang Shaobai alias Shi Quming letter to the central government, not two letters is three, the first two letters in Linhuaiguan and Bengbu, were intercepted by the relevant departments in Anhui. Only the third letter brought to Shanghai was sent to the central government.
Written two three letters may not be a big mistake, but where to put, how can be safely sent to the central, is a very big thing. It is not only about the personal safety of the letter Writer, but also about the life and death of millions of people in the disaster area. People read Yin’s article and saw that “the letter sent from Bengbu was detained by the Public Security Bureau, and the letter sent from Linhuaiguan Post Office was sent out smoothly.” One cannot help but ask why the letter from Bengbu was detained, but the letter from Linhuai Pass was sent out.
The truth is that Anhui was extremely strict in blocking and checking letters, because that was an important part of Zeng Xisheng’s efforts to conceal the disaster from the central government, and almost all letters sent to the central government in Anhui province could not have been omitted. Even control to neighboring provinces and counties.
Here is a reference example of the great famine in Anhui Province, Xuancheng County was also a top priority. According to the research results of researcher Wang Weizhi of the Third Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. He said that in those years, 11 counties in Anhui Province had a mortality rate of more than 10%, and the top six in order were 18.23% in Wuwei County, 17.479% in Taihe County, 16.31% in Xuancheng County, 16.238% in Bo County, 14.432% in Suxian County, and 13.604% in Fengyang County. This figure, although different from other data, is related to the number of years of statistics, some of which are three years and some of which are five years. However, it shows that the disaster situation in Xuancheng County is also very serious. Xuancheng, the water town in the south of the Yangtze River, has been an anointed land with no worries about water and drought since the Three Kingdoms era, more than 1700 years ago, when history was recorded. Not only their own food and clothing without worry, but also a strong material basis for the stability of China. A clear example is the eight kings of the Western Jin Dynasty during the Yongjia rebellion, when the lives and souls were in ruins, but only Jiangnan can still live in peace. “In Yongjia, the world was in disaster, but Jiangnan, still Kangping”. “The Yongjia era, Kyushu is empty, the remaining Wu land, Sheng and abundant.” Only after the eight northern surnames in the south, creating an unprecedented population migration and cultural exchange in Chinese history.
Who would have thought that during the Great Leap Forward famine, there were starving corpses here, white bones everywhere in the field, no chicken cries for a hundred miles. The ruler of Xuancheng, the first secretary of the county party committee and the second secretary of the county party committee, opened a husband and wife store in Tian, Yang. Like Zeng Xisheng, they are trying to hide the disaster and are also doing everything they can to intercept letters sent to the central government.
The county committee of Xuancheng has an honest person like Zhang Shaobai, who is also the director of the office, named Xu Yingqin, who wrote a letter to the central government. Xu knew that it could not be sent from within Anhui Province. He walked to the post office in Gaoyou County, Jiangsu Province, to send it. The result was still intercepted by the politically vigilant Secretary Tian.
As you can imagine, Xu Yingqin did not have such a good life as Zhang Shaobai in Fengyang County. The author is in Wuhu, but Wuhu and Xuancheng administrative offices are separated, and my hospital was once the Xuancheng regional hospital, so I know more about the situation in Xuancheng. After the reform and opening up, I was told that Xu Yingqin was still alive, but his spirit was not quite normal.
Back to the matter of Zhang Shaobai, how I learned that Zhang Shaobai has a third letter of the matter. Please see a recent exchange of weibo messages between me and someone who knows.
When I sent Mr. Yin’s article to Ms. Jiang Nian, who was far away in Colombia, I received a reply from Ms. Jiang.
Jiang Nian: Zhang Shaobai himself told me about that history. He used his left hand and wrote every word from bottom to top and from right to left, and the handwriting experts from the central and provincial public security departments could not find the person who wrote the letter.
Zhang Shaobai was then the director of the Fengyang County Party Committee office, or the director of the county government office, they have a Shanghai office, Zhang asked him if he wanted to go Home, want to give him a trip home, travel expenses reimbursed. Before the trip, Zhang gave him three letters with stamps, said to him Anhui and then thrown into the mailbox. The man felt that the task entrusted to the leadership to be attentive, sent a letter in Linhuai Pass, to Bengbu transfer and sent a letter. The last one was sent after arriving in Shanghai. The one sent from Shanghai went to the center. The letters from Bengbu and Linhuai Pass fell into the hands of Zeng Xisheng. The provincial public security department checked the handwriting of all the people who can write in Fengyang County, left and right hand can not be found. Later the central investigation team came, Zhang confessed himself.
Zhang often came to our house to cook for my father, he often bragged to me in the back of the kitchen. Also taught me how to write so that people can not find out. Zhang had the most ideas, how could I learn?
Yin Shusheng has not been working in Anhui, you can write something to correct him. Also Shan Jingzhi is a deputy in Bengbu. In Huangshan sanatorium I was quite familiar with his Family. Later officialdom is not pleased, but has been left. You see I am the latter science students, a look at Yin’s article are so many mistakes, see the difficulty of writing some history
Or contact Yin and change it. Yin seems to have returned to Anhui only after he was old.
Mao: The article you sent is extremely important, it is about the disclosure of the historical facts of the Great Famine in Anhui, and you are a witness of the historical importance. I will write an article about it, please write the facts in as much detail as possible, when did Zhang help your family cook, how did he and your father meet.
Jiang; Zhang Shaobai was my dad’s secretary at the Chu County Executive Office.
My father was the commissioner of the executive branch, he was the secretary of the office of the executive branch. And my father has a very good relationship, my father always said that Zhang Shaobai one person in charge of the Executive Office is enough. Always give him all the work, he went to Luangwa Mountain Luangwa Temple and abbot Chaoran chat. The place where Ouyang Xiu wrote the Drunken Master’s Tale.
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into. I remember it was the “Jiepa Commune” in Tianchang County, and he managed it like a paradise. The father often went to live there. Dad wrote a poem there, you will find it later to read.
You have not seen him? He was a small man. His wife is a kindergarten teacher in the executive office, tall and beautiful. Two children after the college entrance examination reform the first batch of college students, when Zhang was in prison, my father contributed to the political trial. One went to Beijing Polytechnic University, after returning from studying in the United States, and now the University of Science and Technology of China, as Dean of the College of Science, astrophysicist; one entered the Guangzhou Sun Yat-sen Medical University. They probably don’t know that Dad helped out.
You haven’t met him?
Cooking in our house is also more than once, he came to Hefei, met our Aunt Cai left, no one to cook, he stayed down to cook. Bragging with a few of us kids.
Mao: did not the head of the central government said to protect Zhang? Why was he still in jail when the college entrance examination was resumed? How was Zhang’s later years?
Jiang: His children are quite successful. Our college entrance examination was in 1977, admission was also the end of 77. He was in jail because of Song Peizhang. Sentenced to a few years do not know. But in our home cooking is 78 to 82 years, I was in Anhui Agricultural College for a while. He was not dedicated to cooking, he was hardworking and capable, and he did it whenever he could.
When he died, I had already left the country.
After the famine, Zhang Shaobai was transferred from Fengyang County to Chu County Executive Office, under Li Baohua, and was indeed protected. At that time the Chu County Executive Office Commissioner my dad, the secretary is Li Bin (later transferred to the HIT) were good to him. Song Peizhang was a straw man, and Zhang Shaobai was convicted for his words and sentenced.
My father wanted to protect him, but could not fight Song Peizhang.
A brief introduction to the people involved in this circular.
He was a veteran cadre who joined the revolution in the 1930s and served as secretary of the county party committee of Jiashan County in Anhui in 1949, chairman of the Anhui Federation of Trade Unions in 1952, deputy secretary of the Hefei municipal party committee and mayor of Hefei in 1954, and director of the Anhui Labor Bureau and secretary of the party group in 1957. In 1965, he became the director of the Anhui Provincial Government Construction Committee, and in 1968, Jiang Cheng was the first group of veteran cadres to join the Anhui Provincial Revolutionary Committee. After retirement, he became a standing committee member of the provincial CPPCC and editor-in-chief of Anhui Provincial Local History. He is a poet and has “Jiangcheng Poetry Manuscript”.
The author graduated from Hefei Medical School in 1955 and was directly assigned by the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee to serve in the creation of Huangshan Sanatorium. Jiang Cheng was admitted to the sanatorium in 1957 for recuperation, and the author was Jiang’s responsible doctor. When the anti-right movement started, Jiang and the author were both killed. Since then, I have had decades of contact with two generations of Jiang’s family. During the Cultural Revolution, the hospital where I was working stopped its medical services, and I stayed at Jiang’s house for nearly a year. I participated in some of the activities of the ‘Anhui Province and Hefei City Cadre Rebellion Command’ formed by Jiangcheng.
Song Peizhang: Former deputy political commissar of the 12th Army, he was with Li Desheng, the army commander and political commissar, in 1968 to control Anhui. Later, when Li Desheng was transferred to the central government, Song Peizhang became the director of Anhui Provincial Revolutionary Committee, pursuing an extreme leftist line. He has been in power for nearly eight years, but has made no achievements, and Anhui has been poor and backward. In 1976, Song Peizhang was dismissed as one of three types of people after the Gang of Four was crushed.
After Wanli ruled Anhui, he went deep into the countryside to investigate and learned that Anhui was so poor that teenage girls had no pants to wear and couldn’t get up, shocking! Then he took the lead in the country and set off the climax of rural reform. ‘To eat rice, look for Wanli. The two provinces that suffered the most from the Great Leap Forward famine were the first to realize that they had left behind their extreme leftist ways and embarked on the path of reform and opening up.
Jiang Nian: Daughter of Jiang Cheng, born in 1956, entered Anhui Agricultural College in 1978. Later, she studied in Colombia, South America, and settled here. Later career is mainly on-site Spanish with direct Chinese translation. She is also an enthusiastic spreader of traditional Chinese Culture. He is currently working with his daughter, Ms. Zhang Hanwen, who teaches at the University of Chile, to translate into Spanish the famous book “Notes from the Cottage of Reading Weeds” by Ji Xiaolan of the Qing Dynasty.
This article is only a small addition and correction to Mr. Yin’s great work. As for what Zeng Xisheng did during the great famine in Anhui, especially the causes and consequences of the repeated concealment of the disaster from the central government, I will discuss them in another article.
Recent Comments