If we count from 1966, more than fifty years have passed since the Cultural Revolution. Some of the things that happened decades ago are beginning to blur in my memory and are fading away as I grow older. Beijing University was the place where the Cultural Revolution was fanned, and it could be said that it was the model for the whole country to carry out the movement, where cadres and intellectuals were persecuted, innocent people were purged upside down, and countless lives were charred, and it was one of the most horrible disaster areas in the country. As a second-generation teacher of Peking University, I would like to record a few short stories that I personally experienced to arouse more people’s attention to that period of history.
One, two trips to Peking University “Jinggang Mountain”
On June 1, 1966, the Central People’s Broadcasting Station broadcasted the large-character poster of Nie Yuanzi of Peking University supported by the Great Leader, which opened the prelude of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, Peking University entered a period of madness that people cannot understand now, I was less than 13 years old at that time, in the sixth grade of Peking University Primary School, just after the graduation examination, one more examination to fill in the volunteer to enter secondary school, but since then the road to school came to a halt. All the normal order of life and study was disrupted, people and demons were turned upside down, right and wrong were confused, neighbors, uncles and aunts became capitalists, cattle and snakes, reactionary academic authorities, traitors, spies and counter-revolutionaries overnight.
In 1967, Nie Yuanzi held an exhibition of the Red Guard rebellion at Peking University, and 40 elementary school students were drawn from the attached elementary school to be docents, and I was one of them. I was one of them. It was a new thing to be a docent because classes were suspended and school was no longer in session.
I remember clearly that I was assigned to the fourth pavilion of the exhibition, and the theme was “Paris Commune style election”. Under the guidance of the university students, we had to receive one group of Red Guard students from all over the country every day, and carefully explain according to the narration. During this time, as we became familiar with the university students who were guiding us, we would occasionally hear them whispering about the authenticity of the pictures and the falsity of the elections, all of which was completely contrary to the narration in the introduction. The more time passed, the more I heard, they said that Nie Yuanzi was a flighty and domineering person, who, thanks to the leader and the Central Cultural Revolution as a backstage, was powerful, arbitrary, cracking down and rejecting dissidents, brutally persecuting cadres and intellectuals, and was a bad person with bad qualities. At that time, these college students wanted to set up their own organization: “New Peking University Jinggangshan”, so I made up my mind not to be a lecturer anymore, and I didn’t even want the commemorative badge of New Peking University that was issued to me the next day, so I immediately followed them to “Jinggangshan”.
After I got home, I linked up with a few of my close neighbors: G, B, G and Z. G and B were in fifth grade, and G and Z were only in third grade. I told them what I had heard and seen at the fair, and asked them if they were willing and dared to go with me to “Jinggang Mountain” to fight against Nie (at that time, in Peking University, fighting against Nie was a counter-revolution). I can’t remember what I said back then, but the mobilization was very strong, and they nodded their heads without hesitation, quite a bit of bravado that they were not afraid of. Just a few years ago, G’s mother, Aunt X, recalled this incident and said that one day G ran home and seriously told her, “Mom, I’m going to go to ‘Jinggang Mountain’ with Jiang Fan tomorrow to do the revolution!” Although we were not very old at that time, we had already made up our minds to stick to the truth.
We went to the headquarters of Jinggangshan on the 28th floor and asked to join Jinggangshan to fight against Nie Yuanzi. The university students looked at us as a group of innocent and childish children, and at first they probably thought we were fooling around and left us alone. I was the oldest, and I was the one who came up with the idea of going to “Jinggang Mountain”, so when I saw that my goal was going to be defeated, I stayed there and pestered the college students regardless, showing our determination to support “Jinggang Mountain” and oppose Nie Yuanzi. We said, “We will do whatever we are needed to do! As long as there is any task given to us, we promise to complete it. Moreover, we said we would keep it a secret. At that time, the head of the headquarters is Niu Huilin, and Wei Xiufen, are older brothers and sisters, see we are very determined to fight with them, the spirit is also quite praiseworthy, with the idea of trying really left us, but also allocated a room on the top floor of the 28th floor to do printing room, the task assigned to us is to print leaflets, spread leaflets. The task was to print and distribute leaflets. We were so happy that we were recognized for our work.
Back then, the 28th floor was a dormitory for international students, and each room had a large closet, a desk and other furniture, all of which were used by us. When we worked every day, we had to lift the closet and use it as the top door to prevent the New Taipei University Commune from copying us. I engraved steel plates, two boys were responsible for oil printing, and the girls played the role of turning over the pieces, and when we were tired, we took turns with each other. At first, I could not grasp the strength of the wax paper, a wax paper can print 200 pages, a leak of oil will be ruined and have to carve again, the boys push the roller strength also makes too big. Later, we improved technology, operation more and more skilled, a piece of wax paper to print a 1000 sheets is no problem, very high efficiency. Printed flyers first dry up, and then the ink dried, and then the printed flyers are stacked up one by one code. Two boys using the printing press, rubbed everywhere with ink, often like a singing opera face, when the break, we looked at each other joking, too funny! Just like going to work, every morning after breakfast, we walked together in pairs to the 28th floor, first to the head of the headquarters to receive the articles to be engraved, and then nervous and orderly to take their positions to start work. The afternoon printed a large number of flyers, each person to a large pile, into their satchels, to the large-printed newspaper mat shed where the most people to disperse flyers. A leaflet is like a loaded cannonball that explodes in the magic cave controlled by Nie Yuanzi at Peking University and spreads to all parts of the country. “We were often praised and encouraged by our brothers and sisters at the Jinggang Mountain headquarters, and at that time we felt that we had joined the revolution, and were very sacred and happy! Of course, there are many hiccups, in order to share more leaflets, the boys and girls also quarrel with each other, I often have to say and coax. There is also a boy foolishly saved a sack of leaflets, want to spread more pain, the result of course, has long expired, was found by his brother was scolded. Little Z from the small leg disability, every day to and from the University of North, more than we suffer, but she is always happy, now think about it is really not easy.
The struggle is never cruel, and the time when the wind and waves are calm soon passes. Nie Yuanzi, who could not tolerate the forces opposing her, began a brutal crackdown on mass organizations such as the Jinggang Mountains and the Red Alliance Army around the end of 66 to the beginning of 67, seizing the “Jinggang Mountains The “Jinggang Mountain” and the “Red League Army” were seized and arrested, and more than 200 people were arrested, including more than 100 teachers and students from the “Jinggang Mountain” who were branded as counter-revolutionaries. Sister Wei Xiufen, whom we usually saw, was taken to the street overnight on a big truck with her arms twisted backwards and a sign with a forked name around her neck. Our printing room was also sealed. At one time, the wind was cranky, a white terror, the tannoy is full of hoarse beat down counter-revolutionaries x x x x! Down with the counter-revolutionaries! The sound of barking. Yesterday, we were “Jinggang Mountain” brothers and sisters, but today we were escorted to the counter-revolution in a big truck on the campus, which made our hearts thumping wildly as elementary school students experiencing the word “revolution” for the first time.
In the winter, the campus of Peking University, the cold wind was raging, and the cold current of politics was even more stern and frightening. I can not remember how many days home cat, every day from the tannoy is the old Buddha Nie Yuanzi unbeatable arrogance. At that time, the political persecution of the “Jinggangshan” people in various departments of Peking University also reached the point of outrageous, imprisonment, criticism, coercion, beatings, torture, and “Jinggangshan” people defied the violence, organized, held a 10,000 people in the May Fourth Movement Field of Peking University to complain about the General Assembly. To expose Nie Yuanzi’s atrocities against the masses. Under pressure from above, Nie Yuanzi released some of the Jinggang Mountain students, and the power of the Jinggang Mountains returned. So, there was our second trip to “Jinggang Mountain”.
The building is still the same building, the room is still the same room. Second on the “Jinggang Mountain” we, but more a point of vigilance and resourcefulness. Usually, the five young friends who often love to laugh and play, work more seriously. When we returned to the headquarters on the 28th floor, we watched for people following us and watched out for tailgaters. We would pretend to be the ones going for the leaflets when we scattered them so as not to be noticed by the bad guys. Seeing the cruelty of the political struggle and the death struggle with our own eyes, we could not help but admire our brothers and sisters around us who were not afraid to sacrifice and stick to the truth, and we also felt proud to be able to do our little bit for the “Jinggang Mountains”. I am proud of myself. Because of our direct contact with the printing of leaflets, we were the first readers of the propaganda content of the “Jinggang Mountains” organization and got to know more about what Nie Yuanzi did at Peking University.
During the Cultural Revolution, Nie Yuanzi was the director of the Peking University Revolutionary Committee, and the pro-army she had in her hands was the New Peking University Commune, who had the wind in their hands and the rain in their hands, and the whole university’s tweeters were under their control. One day, we heard that the headquarters had a mission at night, we were very excited, it turned out to be “Jinggang Mountain” to seize the communal tweeters over, change the line, for the “Jinggang Mountain” service. Think about it, there are hundreds of talented elites in Peking University, radio department, physics department, biology department, chemistry department, so it’s easy to change the loudspeaker of the new Peking University Commune! Taking advantage of the cover of night, we acted as sentry, helping the “Jinggang Mountain” older brothers and sisters unknowingly, killing almost half of the new North University Commune’s tannoy. The next morning at 6:00 a.m., the tannoy that was supposed to broadcast the call from the New North Commune suddenly became the call from the “Jinggang Mountain” radio station. We couldn’t help but listen to the exciting and high-pitched voice of the “Jinggangshan” broadcasting station.
When the winter of 1967 came, the primary and secondary schools in Beijing resumed classes. Wang××, the head of the revolutionary committee of the Beida Elementary School at that time and Nie Yuanzi’s spokesman, called my father to the school and admonished him for not educating his children well and for joining the Jinggangshan organization, which Nie Yuanzi had characterized as counter-revolutionary, saying that I was a little counter-revolutionary. After a short period of resuming classes at the attached elementary school, I was assigned with my classmates to enroll in Tsinghua Park High School, and from then on I escaped from the campus of Peking University, which was controlled by Nie Yuanzi.
The reason why “Jinggangshan”, a mass organization of Peking University during the Cultural Revolution, was like a weed that could not be burned out after a hundred deaths under Nie Yuanzi’s iron-fisted and high-handed control, and could be rekindled instantly as long as a little spark was preserved, shows that human thoughts cannot be suppressed, and the deeper the oppression, the stronger the resistance. In Peking University, if there was no “Jinggang Mountain”, no righteous force that risked its life to expose Nie Yuanzi, no warriors who swore not to surrender in prison, Nie Yuanzi would have been even more crazy and arrogant on stage. Although the Cultural Revolution has long since ended and history has turned the page, the blood debt owed by the Cultural Revolution has not been settled, and there has been too little reflection on the Cultural Revolution.
Second, I met Sister Shen Dafei
The first time I left “Jinggang Mountain” because of the White Terror, I didn’t stay idle and found a Red Guard reception station at Peking University to volunteer my services, which is now a volunteer. At that time, Red Guards from all over the country flocked to Peking University, one group came and one group left, like a constant stream. I helped new foreign students at the reception station to exchange meal stamps, buy stamps, send letters, show the way, whatever the students needed, I went to do. During my busy work, I received a group of students from Shanghai, including a beautiful sister, slim, with two long braids, superb temperament, and every time I saw her, I could not help but want to look at her more, and the melancholy that came out of her eyes always remained in my heart and curious. Finally, I learned from her partner that she is the sister of the Chinese student Shen Dali, named Shen Dafei, who was persecuted to death by Nie Yuanzi at Peking University, and came to Peking University to ask Nie Yuanzi for an explanation, that is, to petition.
Who is Shen Dali? Why did she die? This of course has something to do with Nie Yuanzi and the new Peking University Commune. Shen Dali was a student enrolled in the language class of the Chinese Department of Peking University in 1962. She was smart, cheerful, and a familiar public figure to the Chinese faculty and students, often appearing in front of everyone as the host of the Chinese Department’s parties, leaving a deep impression. She was purged by Nie Yuanzi and his new Peking University Commune because she was an anti-Nie member of the Red Union Army, and because her boyfriend copied their love letters during the struggle and used them to humiliate her at the struggle meeting (cited in Huaxia Digest, Supplement No. 762, Bo Yada, “Zhou Peiyuan and Nie Yuanzi. (Ten Years of Wind and Flames in Yan Yuan Yuan). Shen Dali was so humiliated that she fought to the death to preserve her dignity as a human being. Shen Dali’s death was the result of the atrocities committed by Nie Yuanzi and his gang, and Nie Yuanzi was an unforgivable executioner. Knowing the truth, I went home and relayed it to my parents, and my father immediately asked me to invite sister Shen Dafei to come home as a guest when she had time. Although my parents had never known the Shen family, they wanted to warm and support my sister and her family in distress with the heart of a conscientious teacher and loving parent at Peking University.
Sister Duffy came to our house twice, and brought one of her companions with her. Each time, my mother cooked a delicious meal for them with her own hands, and once she made northern dumplings. The open space next to my house was the place where we played badminton together. Sister Duffy’s light running, dexterous body, the dash of swinging the racket freely, all these are still deeply imprinted in my mind although more than 50 years have passed.
In the era when Nie Yuanzi was the only one who could not be reasoned with, where could Sister Duffy get any argument? After day after day of waiting, there was no result. It was with anger and sadness that she left BYU. More than fifty years have passed, I wonder, does anyone still remember Sister Shen Dali? Is her lonely soul still wandering around the shores of Lake Wiming? If there was no Cultural Revolution, Sister Dali, a talented woman, would have been a learned professor. Woo hoo! The Cultural Revolution was the goblet of the Chinese nation and brought us into the abyss of doom!
Third, stand up to protect the family, the absurd farce finally ended
From August 1966, the wind of copying families in Peking University was prevalent. No matter what the reason was, the Red Guards from Peking University surrounded the family, and the room was immediately filled with heckling, scolding, and smashing sounds. My father wanted to talk to me several times, but hesitated to talk. Finally one day he looked at me seriously and told me, “What if,” my father aggravated his tone, “if mom and dad made a mistake, and it was quite serious, what would you do?” I didn’t believe it at all, I said, my mom and dad are good people, I don’t believe you guys made a mistake, I’m the one who protects my dad and mom, I’m hardcore! Dad shook his head and said nothing more (I learned later that after the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, my mother was beaten as a member of the anti-party clique in the psychological institute and was fought every day, and the psychological institute rebels pulled my maternal grandparents, who were temporarily living in the dormitory, to be criticized and copied, and forcibly driven back to their original home in Henan. In 1918, my maternal grandfather was admitted to the Gengzi Compensation Fund and went to study at Yale University in the United States. He graduated with a master’s degree in 1925 and returned to China to serve as a professor and head of the College of Agriculture at Henan University, a professor at the College of Agriculture at Peking University, a professor at Beijing Forestry College, and a professor at Henan Agricultural College. (Both maternal grandparents were persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution).
The day of the raid came suddenly. One afternoon, a dozen or 20 Red Guards from the Economics Department of Peking University burst into my yard, and along the way, many good Samaritans were also present, trampling down a large section of the fence made of bamboo and roses. The leader of the Red Guards shouted, “Jiang Yichun, the landlady, get out!” “Down with the landlady Jiang Yichun!” The visitors were furious, shouting. Grandma, who was 79 years old and already extremely timid, was terrified by the sudden roar and sat on her buttocks in a chair, trembling and unable to speak. Ignoring them was not an option, I couldn’t think of anything else, so I rushed out in a single stride, rolled up my sleeves, crossed my arms and stood in the middle of the courtyard, and blurted out a loud shout “Fuck! I’m a Red Guard! Who dares to take another step forward!” (I’m not a Red Guard, I’m just a tiger skin in a hurry.) The leader probably didn’t expect to meet such a strong youngster, so he softened a bit and asked, “Who is Jiang Yichuan?” “It’s my grandmother!” The visitor said, “Your grandmother is a landlady, we want to impose the dictatorship of the proletariat, hand over your grandmother!” I must have had the nerve to point my finger at him and shout, “Who said my grandmother was a landlady? I also said your grandmother is a landlady! Check it out, there is no landlady in my family! If you are not blind, go back and check your files again!” After my scolding, the leader was a bit confused, and I further said, “My family has not had a rural household for several generations, so how could it be classified in the rural area? How can you be a landlord if you don’t have a composition? At this point, some of the people came to feel bored, whispering that they might have been wrong, and slipped outside the courtyard, some people are still not quite willing, cursing, but also no longer just come when the mighty. So the stalemate for a while, I think the time passed especially slow, especially long. I can’t help but say that the head of the Red Guard still has some policy ideas, or I’m a little girl who can resist it. I don’t know how long it took, but the Red Guards withdrew. Many of the children onlookers in their asses “Oh – Oh” to coax, I oozed cold sweat on my palms, all limp. I am an only child, since childhood, my parents are very strict discipline, how dare open mouth cursing? This is the first time in my life that I swear. This is the end of a farce, can be treated as a baptism of the Cultural Revolution?
When I got home, I asked my father, “What did my grandfather do? How could our family be landlords? My father told me that my grandfather’s parents died early in his childhood, and he trekked from Pingjiang to Changsha to enter the Hunan High School (predecessor of Hunan University) to study, and after graduation, he followed Tang Shengzhi, a patriotic general in Hunan, and was relied on and promoted. Due to the factional struggle within the Kuomintang, he and Tang Shengzhi were wanted by Chiang Kai-shek in the 1920s and fled to Japan, where he studied economics at Waseda University. After returning to China, he worked for the Hunan Provincial Construction Department, and was the director of Hunan Provincial Machinery Factory, Hanyang Arsenal Factory, Wuchang Mint Factory, and Shuikoushan Mine. I wondered how this hooked up with the landlord. My father said that after grandfather became a success, he purchased a field in his old home in Pingjiang and donated it to the Jiang Ancestral Hall to start education. My father had filled out a form to write down the landlord’s composition for this purpose (for fear of deceiving the organization and hiding the composition), but then wrote to the local commune in Pingjiang for confirmation, and the commune issued a certificate to prove that the Jiang family had no land in the countryside during the land reform and had not been classified as a member.
When I came home from school one day at noon in 1968, my grandmother told me in a panic that my father, who was very sick and bedridden, had suddenly been taken away by the new Peking University Commune in the morning, under the pretext of cleaning up the class ranks. I ran to the 37th floor to look for my father, but no one paid any attention to me. Then I had a plan and found a room with many people in the office on the second floor and kicked the door, “Tom! Tom! Tom!” The loud noise alarmed many people, someone recognized me and quietly told me the room where my father was being held, I ran up to the fifth floor in one breath. When I saw my father and the people who were guarding him in that room, I didn’t feel the least bit afraid, but frankly, all that was buried in my heart was hate. They forced my father to write an examination, saying that our whole family is “Jinggang Mountain” counterrevolutionary, even the little children are black, a black, but also cited the department × × × × × new North Commune cadres are the whole family red. The department organized students to take turns to criticize my father, even my father to the school hospital to get medicine by two people to guard. I ran to the 37th floor every day to see my father, although I could not speak, but I knew I had made a vow to “protect my father and mother with a hardcore” finally be able to fulfill. My father did not make it to the end of the Cultural Revolution and died in early 1974. In 1989, my uncle came back to visit his family for the first time since he left China in 1949, but unfortunately both my grandmother and father had passed away. I was saddened to hear about what happened to my family during the Cultural Revolution, and sighed that his mother and brother had a good granddaughter and daughter to protect them during the Cultural Revolution.
Postscript
- 23 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, that is, in 1999, my son was admitted to Peking University, and I sent him to the dormitory, which was actually on the 28th floor. When I came to the place where I had “fought”, I had a lot of thoughts. The two factions that existed at Peking University back then: “New Peking University Commune” and “Jinggang Mountain”, both originated from the criminal Cultural Revolution and were products of the Cultural Revolution. My personal experience reveals the disasters brought to the faculty and staff of Peking University by the 10-year catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution from a small side, and also gives people some insight into the darkness, complexity and cruelty under the rule of Nie Yuanzi in the Cultural Revolution of Peking University. Now the 28th floor has been torn down, but it will always be preserved in my memory.
- I would like to thank my hairdressers (I omitted their names in the article) for that trust they had in me back then and for staying with me during the white terror that existed at all times. To this day, we are still like family.
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