The first squatting person on the left in the back row is Hu Ping. Taken when he was a youth in the suburbs of Panzhihua City (formerly Dukou City), Sichuan Province, Yao Ge is the fifth from the left in the back row.
I have a friend named Hu Ping who told me about his experiences during the “movement to the mountains and the countryside” decades ago, and I couldn’t resist writing it down to share with you.
Hu Ping grew up in Chengdu, Sichuan province. He was the best student in his primary and secondary school, always topping his homework, and topping the city’s junior high school graduation exams, serving as captain and captain of his elementary school’s pioneer squad and as head of his secondary school’s student council.
In March 1969, Hu Ping, together with more than 800 students from Chengdu Nineteenth Middle School, “went to the mountains to the countryside” and came to the suburbs of Dukou City (now Panzhihua City), the southernmost part of Sichuan, where he was assigned to the Third Team of the General Development Brigade of the General Development People’s Commune. The village’s twenty intellectual youths went to the countryside, twelve boys and eight girls.
Teacher Tang, who escorted the students to the countryside, introduced Hu Ping to the production leader as the smartest and best student in the school. At the same time, the school work propaganda team (workers Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Team) also handed over the student’s file to the political work group of the commune, and highlighted Hu Ping’s bad family background and ideological speech problems. The cadres of the commune were immediately alerted to the “new trend of class struggle”.
The so-called family origin problem was this. Hu Ping was born in 1947 in Beiping (Beijing), where his father was an ordinary civilian officer in the Kuomintang army, and in 1949, the army commander led an uprising in Jinkou, Hubei, and was incorporated into the Chinese Communist Liberation Army, where each man was given a certificate of “uprising glory. After the founding of the Communist Party of China, the army commander Zhang Zhen was given a high official position and enjoyed “United Front” treatment. The Hu family’s front door was also decorated with a mahogany plaque that read “Glorious Military Family”.
In 1952, the People’s Liberation Army was integrated and repatriated the old uprising soldiers, and his father returned to his hometown of Cai Zhuang in Xuchang, Henan Province. Unfortunately, the “anti-counter-revolutionary campaign” (suppression of counter-revolution) was launched throughout the country, and according to the highest instructions, the public security departments of all regions had to “kill and imprison a group of people”.
It was not until 1983, thirty-one years later, that Hu Ping’s mother received a certificate of vindication from the Xuchang court. At that time, there were many wrongful, mistaken and indiscriminate killings, which were explained as “historical reasons”, and the culprit was still offered as a god, so naturally no one took the blame, let alone any compensation. This is an afterthought.
Once in the countryside, the youth immediately found that the class division here is extremely clear, the former landlords, former rich peasants and various class enemies, together with their “educable children”, are mercilessly trampled underfoot, suffering under the “dictatorship of the proletariat”. Under the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, they were discriminated against, enslaved and ravaged in name only.
In those years, Hu Ping was the highest-ranking member of the “kill, shut down, and control”, “the rich, the poor, the anti, the bad, and the right”, and was found to have “a hatred of killing his father with the Communist Party”. As you can imagine, he became a live target of the class struggle from the very beginning of his stay in the countryside. What’s even more terrible is that he was well-read, concerned about current affairs, had more ideological activities, and often made some remarks. The biggest crime in those days was “ideological reaction”, and if there was thought, there was reaction, and if there was speech, there was death.
In the late fall and early winter of 1970, the public security officers of Chengdu city went to the countryside to investigate a murder case, focusing on those youths who were not well-born. On November 12, the leaders of the commune personally hosted a meeting to criticize Hu Ping, whose main crime was his family origin and reactionary ideas. At the meeting, he was denounced for reading and talking about Hegel and other Western reactionary books, and for spreading reactionary remarks such as “grasping revolution and promoting rest”. (Chairman Mao’s quotation: “Grasp the revolution and promote production.”)
At the criticism meeting, some members waved their fists and shouted slogans, but they were just putting on a show, and some young people said they would draw a clear line, but Hu Ping did not care, except for a few good friends for many years, none of them dared to stand up and fight, which made him very sad.
That night Hu Ping had trouble sleeping, and began to realize that his situation was beyond the help of anyone, no longer blaming his friends, he also had a feeling that there would be a bigger disaster waiting for him. He suppressed his resentment and wrote a “self-criticism review” the next day, in case the political work group caught on and continued to dig deeper. This was the only time in his life that he “bowed his head and admitted his guilt”.
“Take the class struggle as the outline, the outline should be lifted up.” This is the primary task of any party organization, and Hu Ping’s remediation could only increase, and he began to be classified as a different category, ordered to work with the rich, and under severe surveillance, Hu Ping was already under semi-labor control.
Hu Ping felt that his father’s shadow was becoming more and more closely linked to his fate. In the past, the concept of fatherhood was very vague to Hu Ping, and his mother never mentioned his father, which was the most taboo topic for the whole family. It was only when he was facing high school graduation and applying for college that his sister blew him some cold wind. The sister graduated from high school with excellent results in the college entrance examination, but because of the family origin problem, the volunteer universities are afraid to admit.
The family’s misfortune and social injustice made him feel the pain of the “red years” of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, where the absurdity, madness and brutality intensified and the whole continent sank to the most dire times in history. The most urgent task is to get out of the fire first.
Yao Ge, who lived in the same house as Hu Ping, was his best friend, a classmate of the old senior class of the nineteenth high school, and an old comrade of the same rebel group in school. Yao Ge came from a good background, and the production team trained him to be a veterinarian. Before and after Hu Ping was criticized, cadres from the brigade and commune repeatedly talked to Yao Ge, warning him that he must stand firm on his class position. Yao Ge did not dare to get close to Hu Ping in public, but secretly they still exchanged words from the bottom of their hearts.
Late one night, Hu Ping quietly poured out his heartfelt grief and anger to Yao Ge. In the face of the impending disaster, Hu Ping said categorically, “Long pain is better than short pain! Yao Ge listened with alarm, he knew that Hu Ping would fall deeper and deeper in the countryside, and there was only this bloody way to escape. Fortunately, there was still human kindness left in that day when God had lost all justice, Yao Ge was so righteous that he was willing to help his friend with tears.
Mao Zedong’s campaign to expel urban youths to the countryside to receive re-education from the poor peasants was met with discontent and resistance from the public at the beginning. The government has allowed the youth to return to the city for “sick retirement” and “disability retirement”. Although the policy allows, but Hu Ping and so is sick, is also in the robbery, must pay the maximum price. Hu Ping first thought of lifting cement poles when the leg will be smashed, but the implementation is difficult to grasp the proportion, the use of legs is too big, really can not give up. Hesitation to, hesitation to go, envisaged a lot of programs, several times determined, the matter came to a head and gave up. Tossing and turning the whole body, finally decided to sacrifice the left hand, compared to the easy to operate, as long as the left hand in the rolling grass, a little more forward, at once a great success. However, the most difficult thing is to do it seamlessly, and must have a credible eyewitness as a witness.
Hu Ping and Yao Ge analyzed the political situation at that time and thought that they had to space out the criticism sessions first, in case they were accused of premeditating the “going to the mountains and going to the countryside”. From the end of 1970 to September 1971, he bided his time by burying his head in the sand.
On September 12, 1971, it was a weekend when Mei Yaonong, a representative of the advanced youth of the 19th Middle School, came to the village after a meeting in the district. Before he went to the countryside, he was the deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee of the Nineteenth Middle School (the director was always a representative of the Labor Propaganda Team). He came from the Red Five and was so active in the countryside that he was set up as a typical example of a glorious and exemplary youth from Sichuan Province who went to the countryside.
Hu Ping looked at Mei Yaonong jumping steps, suddenly realized the heavenly opportunity, to give a hint, Yao Ge understand, kindly pull Mei Yaonong, want him to “a night” before going back.
At eight o’clock in the evening, Hu Ping was chopping wood and burning a fire, Yao Ge scooped boiling water to fill the hot water bottle, when Mei Yaonong and the other two were not paying attention, deliberately splashed hot water on Hu Ping’s right arm, Hu Ping hurriedly used a machete to cut on the left hand, first cut a knife, not hard enough, and then two consecutive cuts, and then shouted, Hu Ping’s left hand was suddenly a mass of blood, Mei Yaonong and the other two students rushed around, do not know what to do, Yao Ge immediately pulled Yao Ge immediately pulled Hu Ping outside, shouting to send the dry school infirmary.
Out of the kitchen courtyard, Hu Ping clutched his cut left thumb and said, “Oh, no, it’s not cut off, it needs to be mended!”
Yao Ge ran back to the housing, hastily found the gelding scalpel, put it in his pocket, and immediately ran after Hu Ping to the cadre school.
The village entrance was dark and there was no one around. When he passed by the aqueduct, Hu Ping squatted down and put his left hand on a big stone, saying, “We have to mend, we have to mend, we have to mend a knife!” Yao Ge pulled out a knife to stand in the water, and picked up a stone, the knife pressed on the cut finger, with a stone down. The first smash is very light, Yao Ge still can not down this ruthless, the second smash is not strong enough. Hu Ping was a little anxious: “No, again! Harder!”
The third stone smashed, thumb up a jump. Because the lower boulder is not flat, so there is a little skin attached. More blood came out, and Hu Ping said with satisfaction, “This is done.”
Yao Ge washed the blood off the boulder with water and put away the scalpel. The knife was stained with the blood of friends, ten fingers connected to the heart, the heart like a knife stirring.
After crossing the bridge to the “May 7” cadre school. The doctor wrapped the broken finger with gauze and said urgently, “Call a car and send it to Dahe Hospital immediately!”
The cadre school sent a jeep, Hu Ping and Yao Ge sat in the back, a cadre and the driver in front. The driver had to take a shortcut through a small river, usually a step on the gas, but at this time it slipped in the center of the river, took more than an hour. Hu Ping clenched his teeth, a twist, but also need to spread the news.
Cadres to find some nearby folks, finally pushed the car out of the creek.
In the emergency room of the Dahe District Hospital, a surgeon surnamed Wang on duty, Dr. Wang fat northerners, carefully wipe clean the injured finger, sighing, “Only amputation.”
Hu Ping secretly happy, but cried and said, “Doctor, you suffer, can not give the connection ah?”
Dr. Wang said, “I understand your feelings, I tell you the truth, this kind of broken finger re-colonization surgery, we do not have a successful case of this kind of hospital.”
Hu Ping said sadly, “Doctor, it’s broken anyway, so you can do what you want.”
Dr. Wang lifted Hu Ping’s left hand, gently squeezed it again and again, and said, “You are a youth, right, so young, what a pity, let me try, your bone is still soft.”
Another anesthesiologist named Zhao, a lively Tianjin native, came and gave Hu Ping’s arm a shot of anesthetic. Hu Ping lay down solidly on the surgical bed, the painful strategy he had been planning for months would finally be completed. He turned his face sideways and saw the doctor put a long nail from the top of his thumb downward, and soon passed out.
After being sent to the ward, Hu Ping half awake, looking at the wrapped left hand, a mixture of sadness and joy, it seems to look up is the shore. But at dawn, the left hand suddenly severe pain, unbearable, a moment of regret ……
On the third day, the doctor came to check the room, the doctor opened the gauze and looked at Hu Ping’s finger, smiling and said, “Ah, there is no inflammation, hey, probably connected.”
The nurse called Dr. Wang, who didn’t seem convinced, held Hu Ping’s left hand, looked at it carefully, touched it again and again, and finally shouted excitedly, “It’s alive, it’s alive, it’s definitely alive!” The others also excitedly congratulated the first case of successful re-colonization of a severed finger!
This poured a pot of ice water on Hu Ping. He was lying on the bed, secretly calculating, this is not a foregone conclusion, in vain suffered a crop of crime. He wanted to sabotage the success of the operation several times, but once he saw the loving and joyful eyes of the doctors and nurses, he could no longer lay down this ruthless heart.
God’s will cannot be disobeyed. He thought about it, or the whole body for the top, after discharge from the hospital, said the broken limb reattached, tendons and veins can not move the thumb, who does not have sympathy for the heart?
Dr. Wang ran into the female Zhiqing Chen Xiaoling at the hospital and excitedly recounted the success of Hu Ping’s surgery. Chen Xiaoling’s mother happened to be Liu Fuchun, a language teacher in the 19th Middle School, who had been badly beaten up during the Cultural Revolution. In November 1966, Hu Ping was the first one to post a big-character poster calling for the rehabilitation of all teachers who had been beaten as “cow devils and snake gods” and conspired with Mr. Hao, the class teacher in the cattle shed, to get all the teachers who had been put in the cattle shed liberated in one fell swoop. With the encouragement of Hu Ping, the “cow devils and snake gods” wrote a “Declaration of Rebellion” and justifiably launched a “revolutionary action” to disband the cowshed. What a perceptive and brave feat it was at that time.
In those days, from Zhongnanhai to the small streets, which “unit” did not have a “cowshed”? The “cowshed” could abuse and torture at will, calling it the “dictatorship of the masses”, which was “unprecedented”. The “cowshed” could be abused and tortured at will, called the “dictatorship of the masses”, an “unprecedented” innovation. There were not many people in the country who dared to propose the liberation of the “cowshed”.
Chen Xiaoling strongly praised Hu Ping and asked Dr. Wang to take more care of him. She also hoped that Dr. Wang would issue a certificate to Hu Ping so that he could go back to the city for “disability retirement”. Dr. Wang agreed.
Chen Xiaoling found Hu Ping’s ward, sorrowfully took his hand and said quietly, “You are going to be blessed by the disaster.”
After a few days, Chen Xiaoling came to visit again and said anxiously, “The hospital may have heard something from your commune, and Dr. Wang changed his mind, saying that there were instructions from above not to give certificates to the youth.”
After staying in the hospital for a week and returning to the production team, Hu Ping took leave to go home to recuperate, and the captain lamented, “The mouth hurts the body.”
When he returned to Chengdu, the Xicheng Orthopedic Hospital was across the street from his home, and there happened to be doctors in the hospital who were familiar with his family, and they were very enthusiastic about Hu Ping’s medical treatment, but when he asked for a certificate, they were stumped. In China, it is quite common to issue fake certificates, but it is not easy to give Hu Ping a real certificate.
The sky is the limit. He found a surgeon at the Sichuan Provincial Hospital, who quickly wrote in small, clear letters, “Loss of palm function, not suitable for heavy work.”
With the certificate from the provincial hospital, he went to the orthopedic hospital, where the doctor carefully examined the certificate from the provincial hospital, dispelled his worries and gave Hu Ping a certificate as well.
Hu Ping knew his special status, must be more than a few proof to be sure. He went back to the Dahe District Hospital and happened to run into the young anesthesiologist surnamed Zhao, who was sympathetic and mercurial, treating illnesses and saving lives, and on a whim issued a third certificate, meaningfully saying in a Tianjin accent, “The eagle strikes the long sky, and the fish flies in the shallows.” Hu Ping was given another shot of motivation.
Half a year of efforts, Hu Ping get provincial hospitals, specialist hospitals, district-level local hospital finger disability certificate, has been impeccable. The first hurdle, first to find the production team, Captain Huang is a fifty-year-old farmer, seems to have a good idea: “can not do heavy work, let herd sheep.”
Hu Ping said, “Sheep can, but after the work, life is also very difficult for a person to take care of ah.” Captain Huang is also kind-hearted, but agreed to let him go.
The second hurdle is difficult, the brigade party branch secretary Lao Qu, is the whole Hu Ping one of the fiercest, immediately replied: “Do not!” Later to find him again, simply closed his eyes and did not answer. In his case, a whole year dragged.
During this period, the district several times to recruit secondary school teachers, Hu Ping’s conditions are the best, but because of the origin of the problem, no one has dared to do. The village’s small schools are short of teachers, watching the children of farmers who are still poor miss school, and definitely can not let Hu Ping to substitute.
A year is more than 360 days and nights ah, Hu Ping grinding to grind, and finally the old Qu also know can not stop, reluctantly stamped a chapter.
After the team had to go to the commune, it was hard to get past the commune, but finally it was planted in the youth office of Dukou City. The director of the Intellectual Youth Office, Qian Dahu, is shrewd and sophisticated party spirit, he said nothing about the reason, is deliberately pressed not to do.
“The first thing you need to do is to get into the circle of 10,000 mountains, a mountain to let go of a mountain to stop”. At that time, more and more young people returned to the city, has been the general trend, but only in Hu Ping’s head, one by one, have to slightly show loyalty, and give him more “re-education”. Hu Ping has a unique advantage, no wonder it is unusual.
Fortunately, Hu Ping’s sister’s husband’s colleague’s relative, Lao Deng, is the person in charge of the demobilized soldiers’ resettlement office in Dukou City, the demobilization office and the youth office in the same courtyard office, head up, head down, Lao Deng asked why the director of money pressure Hu Ping not approved? Money bearded reasoning is very simple: “Hu Ping’s family problems are very complex.” Old Deng spared no effort, the bearded man finally raised his hand.
Good things, weeping and laughing, leaching blood and humiliating pain for more than two years, in October 1973, Hu Ping only to get “back to the city card”. At this time, the other intellectual youths in the village who had gone to the mountains and the countryside had all left long ago. A stubby finger, looking around, rising early and returning late, a lonely shadow, Hu Ping also went down to the mountains.
It was painted around 1972. Back then, when the youths were in the army, some students were transferred to work, and everyone gave them a farewell. Author Hu Ping.
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