Wake up（127）

 

127

 

Xiaohe, what a beautiful picture. The river is long and winding. A gust of wind blew by, and the small river rippled. Like the wrinkles on the brows of an old man, weaving into a trembling and wonderful net. The wind died down, and the small river was like a mirror. The reflections of poplars and willows in the water were ingenious and charming. The heads of the trees were facing downwards, and the trunks were growing upwards. The world in the water was upside down.

Looking at this upside-down world of waterscapes, the topic of the two old men, Pan Guangfu and Chai Jianhua, was still about the old things about the Anti-Rightist Movement. That brutal political movement had turned their perception of society upside down.

A small clear river, the fish in the water are swimming freely, and the green aquatic plants are rippling in the waves. In the cool water of the small river, fat and lively fish are playing and having fun, splashing circles of associations. The river was only half a foot deep, but still, it was crystal clear. Groups of small fish are only as long as fingers, some are red and some are black. Red with red, black with black. A group of more than a dozen of them sometimes advances side by side, sometimes files, sometimes swims slowly, sometimes swims fast, and sometimes flees as soon as it sees a figure. The fish come and go quickly. But Pan Guangfu and Chai Jianhua's minds are still stuck in memories at this time, which is a painful memory about democracy.

Speaking of the Anti-Rightist Movement, it is natural to talk about the incident of people from the democratic parties. People from democratic parties have higher demands for democracy than ordinary intellectuals. Criticizing the "party world", thinking that "a layman cannot lead an expert", "small intellectuals cannot lead a big intellectual", and even demanded that "take turns in the office" and so on to challenge the leadership authority of Mao Zedong and the Communist Party. Mao Zedong's personal will was diverted, and the unexpected situation greatly stimulated Mao's nerves.

On July 14, 1957, the People's Daily reported that Zhang Bojun said in a speech at a public meeting: "This rectification movement requires people outside the party to provide opinions. I think Mao Gong estimated the consequences. Democracy Party factions have always been polite in giving opinions, but they underestimated and did not estimate that the party would make so many mistakes. Now the problems have greatly exceeded estimates, and it is really "overfulfilling the task", which makes them lose their minds and fail to accept. , it’s not good to let it go.”

At this time, Mao Zedong made a comment in the "Summary of the Situation": "Once released, all classes will show up and their true colors will be revealed. The Communist Party has not been in power for eight years, and there are more than 300,000 opinions, mistakes, and crimes. Should the Communist Party step down? Then my surname Mao is not going to return to Jinggangshan!"

Mao Zedong was so surprised, but as "Marx plus Qin Shihuang" and the most powerful strategist in Chinese history, he did not "get lost" as Zhang Bojun expected, but came with an emergency brake and a 180-degree turntable, He did not hesitate to break the promise of "the speaker is innocent" and called for "repelling the attack of the bourgeois right"!

Anti-Rightist movement is the continuation of Mao Zedong's fear and suppression of democratic intellectuals. Mao was born as a peasant, and what he led was essentially a peasant revolution. Therefore, it is not ruled out that there is a "Li Zicheng complex" in his subconscious: firstly, Li Zicheng's lessons learned from the past, he is afraid that cadres will be corrupted and lose his country, so he wants to rectify; He said: Qin Shihuang cheated 400 Confucians and suffered a loss. Zhang Liang and Chen Ping were not defeated. Han Gaozu used it, which means "the suppression of rebellion is not thorough." Therefore, in his view, it is only natural that the Anti-Rightist campaign resulted in the harm of 550,000 innocent intellectuals. Anti-Rightism is also the beginning of Mao Zedong's "continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat", which is what he put forward in his "Summer Situation 1957" in July 1957: "The great society on the political and ideological fronts socialist revolution."

How should we evaluate the historical significance of the people's participation in the rectification campaign?

Pan Guangfu said to Chai Jianhua: "When I was a reporter in the Hong Kong media, I used to conduct follow-up interviews on the anti-rightist movement. In fact, I was not interested in politics at the time. The main reason was to understand why my father was labeled as a rightist back then. , I, a child of the right, have always been concerned about this movement.”

Pan Guangfu said: The rectification movement in 1957 was a political movement initiated by the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong, but it turned against the right and went to the opposite of its original aspirations. Examining and evaluating from the standpoint of the people and democratic constitutionalism, the 1957 campaign was actually an appeal for democratic constitutionalism by intellectual elites, a people’s spontaneous democratic movement that violated the original intention of its initiators. The masses helped the party to rectify the wind and speak out loudly. It should be said that it was a mass democratic movement in which the people exercised the right to supervise the ruling party, freedom of speech, and the right to criticize and suggest. . Criticism by the masses against grassroots party committees or just party branches and individual party members is certainly a right of citizens to monitor the ruling party; Actions that have not been mobilized and organized, in terms of the principle of the rule of law, are not "immediately and presently dangerous" speech, but in a truly democratic country, they fall within the scope of freedom of speech, and the speaker should be innocent.

This movement takes intellectuals with social conscience and pursuit of democracy and freedom as the main body, and takes the "three evils" (bureaucracy, sectarianism, and subjectivism) of the ruling party as the objects of criticism and supervision, and party organizations and organizations with these "three evils" Party members and cadres are targeted. It is a major outbreak of social discontent accumulated due to grievances, discrimination or unfair treatment in the previous political movements in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is also a public protest of people who have been oppressed by the supremacy of party power, uniform public opinion, bureaucracy, and sectarianism for many years. ; It was an attempt by Chinese liberal intellectuals to break free from the control of the ruling party's dogmatism under the influence of the Soviet Union's International Communist Movement's criticism of Stalin's party dictatorship. The big-character posters created by the masses during the release also inherited the democratic tradition of the student movement before liberation, and were a democratic means for citizens to participate in politics, break through official blockades, and oppose bureaucratic rule. It was only later that it was taken over by the official royal forces during the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution, and turned into a dictatorship tool to attack progressive forces. the

As Lu Xun said: "Since ancient times, we have had people who worked hard, some who worked hard, some who pleaded for the people, and some who sacrificed their lives to seek the law... This is the backbone of China." In order to realize the democratic and constitutional government in China, those intellectual elites with "independent spirit and free thinking" stood up in the midst of the release. Advocating for state rights and criticizing the ruling party, and being reduced to "flesh on the ground", and being labeled as a "rightist" and suffering, can be regarded as the "necessary" price to pay for fighting for democracy and freedom. Although they were suppressed and failed, history was fair to them. Their lofty banner of democracy and freedom and their maverick spirit are worthy of the admiration of future generations. People don't have to feel sorry for them by "being cheated". Even though Ming Fang was a trap set by Mao Zedong, with the spirit of "If I don't go to hell, whoever goes to hell" and the spirit of adhering to the truth and rushing to be the first of the people, they have produced democracy fighters like Lin Zhao and Lin Xiling. They (he) represent The spirit of this democratic struggle is shocking, weeping ghosts and gods. It should be "retaining pictures to reflect history".

A gust of wind blows from time to time by the small river, and as far as the eye can see, there are fish scale-like ripples on the billowing river surface, shimmering under the sun.

Suddenly, a few ducks and geese also came to join in the fun, and saw them "plop, plop" jump into the water, and the river suddenly became lively. Occasionally, a few ducks swam from not far away, leaving ripples, and the duck feathers fell on the water, like small white sailboats driving on the water. At this moment, there were a few small fishes playing games, some of them were playing hide-and-seek, some of them were spitting bubbles, suddenly, the fish saw some ducks and geese swimming towards them, as if they saw the enemy, Drilled into the aquatic plants and disappeared.

Looking at the changes in the river surface, Pan Guangfu said to Chai Jianhua:

Regarding the "anti-rightist" back then, I think it should not be treated as a historical "unjust case"; and for those who were classified as "rightists" and young students, we should not just stop at treating them as innocent victims. Instead, it should be evaluated from a historical perspective: this is a peak and a setback in the constitutional movement that the Chinese people have pursued for democracy and freedom for more than a century.

Of course, for the majority of activists inside and outside the party and ordinary citizens who originally supported the current system, but also suffered for responding to the party's call, they were really "deceived" and a tragedy.

Pan Guangfu sighed: On the contrary, as the "victor" of the anti-rightist struggle, Mao Zedong successfully restored his absolute authority inside and outside the party through the anti-rightist struggle, and pushed it to the peak of "one person has the final say"; But from the perspective of history, it was the "great victory" of the anti-rightist movement that made him more arrogant and arbitrary. The absolute authority of "wise and correct" actually goes to the opposite. This may be said to be his personal tragedy.

Pan Guangfu sighed again: Mao Zedong is gone, but Mao Zedong seems to be back now. Mao Zedong is not the only one who wants "one person to have the final say".

The blood-red glow of the eastern sky has not yet disappeared. The dazzling light from the sun, waving the magic pen, blends red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, and purple into one, dyeing it on the river water, and the clear river water immediately Reflecting the sunset-like colors, flowing through the cool breeze, it merges into a gorgeous brocade, which is to give back to the sun. It seems that a new Mao Zedong era without Mao Zedong has ushered in.

Faced with these strange changes, Chai Jianhua still responded with silence.