Wake up（241）

 

Chapter 44 Farce

 

241

 

When Chai Jianhua returned home, he chatted with his wife Han Erniang about Wu Tianying accompanying him to visit the "Tianying Martial Arts Hall" and the stories of the Cultural Revolution told him by martial arts coach Sheng Yaoqiang.

Han Erniang said that during the Cultural Revolution, not only Sheng Yaoqiang was a bitch, but I was also a bitch. Pan Guangfu was also discriminated against by his classmates everywhere because he was a son of a bitch. When he was 14 years old, he was denounced by his classmates and reprimanded by his teacher for spreading Confucianism among his classmates. The teacher summoned his father, Pan Renshu, to the school to humiliate him in public.

Han Erniang said to Chai Jianhua: Do you still remember the protracted "suspension of classes to cause revolution"?

Chai Jianhua said: I know about this incident, but I don't care about the details. In my impression, this seems to have happened when the large series of Red Guards was stopped.

Han Erniang said:

The so-called "resumption of classes to cause revolution" and "suspension of classes to cause revolution" are actually only one letter difference. This is not a "revolution", but a farce created by Mao Zedong to fool the people.

After more than half a century, the Cultural Revolution has been downplayed or even alienated in some people's minds. But as those who have experienced it, you will still remember the details of the truth.

Han Erniang, who worked as a middle school teacher, recalled: Before June 1966, the teaching order in middle schools was fairly normal. At that time, I was a teacher in the second grade of junior high school, and the school's subjects were also normal. Mathematics (subdivided into algebra, geometry), Chinese, physics, foreign languages. At that time, foreign languages were divided into main courses such as Russian classes and English classes.

In fact, from the end of 1965, the learning atmosphere changed. Newspapers such as "Youth Daily" and "Middle School Students", which are widely circulated among middle school students, kept reprinting People's Daily editorials and other articles critical of "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" and "feudal capitalist ideology." However, the courses of various subjects in the school have become more and more "marginalized", and the study of politics has begun to increase rapidly. During class time, the whole school listens to the radio, editorials, important articles, and conveys documents from time to time.

Beginning on June 1, 1966, the People's Daily published editorials or comments almost every day, such as "Sweeping All Ghosts and Snakes", "The Great Revolution That Touched People's Souls", "A Big Character Poster Hailing Peking University", "Seizing the Historic Position Occupied by the Bourgeoisie" ", "The New Victory of Mao Zedong Thought", "Tear off the fig leaf of bourgeois freedom, equality, and fraternity", "To be a proletarian revolutionist or a bourgeois royalist?" ", "We Are the Critics of the Old World" and so on, etc., are numerous, continuous, high-density, high-frequency.

On June 4, 1966, newspapers and broadcasts announced the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to reorganize the Beijing Municipal Committee. At the same time, the decision of the new Beijing Municipal Party Committee was announced to reorganize the Party Committee of Peking University and send a working group to lead the "Cultural Revolution". This incident has a great impact on the campus, and universities are the first to bear the brunt, and middle schools are no exception.

Since the publication of "A Big-Character Poster Cheering to Peking University", big-character posters have also begun to appear on high school campuses.

Han Erniang recalled: At that time, all newspapers subscribed at public expense in the school were collected in designated places for unified processing after being circulated among the classes. At first, the school asked the General Affairs Office to take out the accumulated old newspapers and asked teachers and students to write big-character posters. The contents of the big-character posters are stereotyped "big-character posters supporting Peking University", "supporting the central government's decision to reorganize the Beijing Municipal Committee", and "hailing the birth of the new party committee of Peking University".

The big-character posters in the early days of the Cultural Revolution were subject to a "real-name system", which could be done by a single person, or in "groups", with one person writing and each signing.

The school’s management of big-character posters is very specific: the written big-character posters are handed over to the designated office, and the teachers and staff designated by the school are posted on the walls of the campus; someone specially registers the author, title, date and place of the poster; Reaching the "retention period" refers to keeping a certain number of days or a week, and it will not be overwritten; there are also special personnel responsible for transcribing and preserving the contents of the big-character posters. Such "management methods" were probably formed and summed up during the anti-rightist struggle in 1957.

Some junior high school students around the age of 15 were not far behind. They ran all over the campus after class, read the big-character posters written by high school students and teachers, and soon "picked up pens, made knives and guns" and devoted themselves to the "revolutionary movement".

The teacher responsible for posting the big-character posters is from the General Affairs Office. He also has another registration book for receiving white newspapers. The original old newspapers are used up soon, so the original white papers are used, which is called "white newspapers" " register.

Flipping through the register, you can see who wrote the most big-character posters, and the top ones became the "idols" in the minds of the students.

On June 13, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council approved and forwarded the "Report on the Reform of Enrollment Methods for Senior High Schools" issued by the Party Group of the Ministry of Education. Recommendation and selection must highlight politics and implement the party’s class line.”

On the same day, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Notice on Reforming the Enrollment and Examination Methods for Colleges and Universities". The notice stated: “Given the current Cultural Revolution in junior colleges and senior high schools is on the rise, it is impossible to thoroughly understand this movement without a certain amount of time.” Moreover, the admissions examination methods for colleges and universities “basically do not go beyond bourgeois examinations. The framework of the system is not conducive to the implementation of the education policy proposed by the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, and it is not conducive to absorbing more revolutionary youth of workers, peasants and soldiers into colleges and universities. This kind of examination system must be completely reformed.”

The "Notice" stated that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council "decided to postpone the work of enrolling new students in colleges and universities in 1966 for half a year."

On June 18, 1966, the People's Daily published the full text of this decision and published an editorial titled "Throughly Carrying Out the Cultural Revolution and Thoroughly Reforming the Educational System."

The editorial said that the reform of the admissions examination system is "a breakthrough to completely destroy the bourgeois education line. We will start from here and carry out a thorough revolution on the entire old education system." You can learn more quotations from Chairman Mao and "Three Old Articles". Middle schools can learn "Selected Readings of Mao Zedong's Works" and related articles. Universities can learn "Selected Works of Mao Zedong." He also said: "The vast number of workers, peasants and soldiers, revolutionary cadres and revolutionary Intellectuals, I have made up my mind to expose all the monsters and ghosts who collaborate and instigate those anti-Party and anti-socialist bourgeois "experts" and "professors" who spread bourgeois and revisionist poisons in large quantities, and expose your old roots. Dig them all out, destroy all your "prestige" and smash all your bourgeois heirlooms."

These "educational reform" measures shocked the world. Examination methods for university admissions and high school admissions will be abolished! The education system is about to be completely revolutionized! The campus has to "boil" up.

According to the editorial of People's Daily on June 18, 1966, "Middle schools can learn "Selected Readings of Mao Zedong's Works" and related articles"; according to the understanding of the document on June 13, 1966, the existing curriculum needs to be changed, and the current examination no more. In fact, the suspension of classes and the revolution began.

Unexpectedly "released" from the tension of schoolwork and exams, students, especially junior high school students, were at a loss for a while, but some high school students seemed to have grown up suddenly, and began to post the teacher's big-character posters, aiming at the daily requirements A teacher who is stricter with students. Following the tone of the People's Daily editorial, they denounced those teachers as "monsters and monsters who spread the poison of the bourgeoisie and revisionism", and vowed to "dug out all your old roots, destroy all your 'prestige', and destroy your The heirlooms of the bourgeoisie were all smashed to pieces."

At that time, the teachers could only smile at the students and say that they welcome their opinions. me either. In fact, not only was the teacher's dignity and gentleness swept away, but the teacher was also scolded and criticized. As for the "Red Guards" who appeared on the stage of "rebellion is justified" in August, the experience of the teachers was even worse.

Han Erniang recalled: There are more and more big-character posters, and they are protected by the "reservation period". The walls in the campus are not enough, so the three classrooms on the ground floor that bear the brunt after entering the school are designated as big-character poster posting points. . In these three classrooms, several ropes were drawn, with a distance of about one meter. In this way, in addition to pasting big-character posters on the classroom walls, big-character posters can also be hung on the ropes, thus greatly improving the utilization of space.

On August 5, 1966, the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China announced that all universities and middle schools in the city would "suspend classes to cause revolution."

In fact, it is precisely because the dates of school suspensions in various places are "uneven" and the practices are different, so the announcement of "uniform" suspension of classes is supplemented. In fact, some middle schools announced the beginning of the Cultural Revolution as early as June 15, and suspended classes to start the revolution.

It was in such a year without natural disasters and wars that the unprecedented class suspension and revolution began. As for the prediction of "education reform" such as "the work of recruiting new students in colleges and universities was postponed for half a year in 1966", it was quickly "reformed". The raging fire" engulfed...!

Therefore, it can also be said that the beginning of the farce of "Suspension of Classes to Cause Revolution" took place in June 1966.