Wake up（128）

 

Chapter 24

128

 

Pan Guangfu and Chai Jianhua left the small river, and when they returned home, they saw He Jiafu and his little grandson Nanshanyun who were waiting for him. Another guest is an old fairy who has never met.

He Jiafu smiled and said: "This is an old fairy, a friend I met with Yunshan earlier on the road. It is a great honor for him to meet you."

Chai Jianhua smiled and said, "Sit, sit. Today we can chat for a while. This is my friend Pan Guangfu from Hong Kong."

Three elderly people in their nineties and Pan Guangfu in his seventies sat at the table, drinking tea and chatting.

Nanshan Yun was busy making tea.

He Jiafu asked Chai Jianhua, "Where did you two go just now?"

Chai Jianhua smiled and said, "I went to the small river for a walk. I was listening to Mr. Pan Guangfu talk about the anti-rightist incident."

The old god smiled: "Oh, Mr. Guangfu has research on the anti-rightist movement?"

Pan Guangfu said: "When I was a reporter in the Hong Kong media, I interviewed some parties, because my father was also labeled as a rightist."

The old god smiled and said: "Mr. Guangfu, you have another interviewee today. You don't know. I was labeled as a rightist when I was young. I was rehabilitated later, but it became more and more rightist. I am a bit weird by nature. He is notoriously a troublemaker. Now he is obsessed with the study of Yin-Yang, Eight Diagrams and modern Yi-ology." The old god still looks stable and elegant, full of demeanor.

The life experience of the old fairy is completely different from that of the local old farmers.

The old god's real name is Wu Qiankun. He once served as an interpreter for the "Flying Tigers" of the U.S. Air Force's aid to China during the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Later, he went to study in the United States, majoring in English literature. In 1951, at the kind invitation of New China, Wu Qiankun returned to the mainland to serve as a university professor with a heart of serving the country. But within two years, he was the target of criticism in one campaign after another. He was labeled as a rightist in 1957 and was persecuted for more than 20 years until he was "corrected" in 1979.

Wu Qiankun said to Pan Guangfu and Chai Jianhua: "When I was criticized, those people accused me of promoting Western culture and being a Western wizard. But now people call me an old god. After more than half a century of tossing, I have to believe It’s evil. Now it’s the Year of the Pig and Rat, the gods are sad about the Year of the Pig and Rat, man-made disasters and plagues are so dangerous.”

Chai Jianhua asked: "Mr. Wu, you said that you were once labeled as a rightist. What is going on with this anti-rightist movement?"

Wu Qiankun told Chai Jianhua:

At the beginning, Lao Mao mainly wanted to realize military industrialization as soon as possible. When Lao Mao first launched this plan in 1953, he set the realization time as "ten to fifteen years", which was later shortened to eight, seven, five or even three years. As the tone of the Great Leap Forward became higher and higher, Lao Mao saw the "great situation" that was echoed by everyone and the country was hot, and it seemed that it would be no problem to rule the world through the Great Leap Forward. But the so-called Great Leap Forward messed up the economy. Some intellectuals expressed dissatisfaction, and even General Peng couldn't stand it anymore, and wrote a letter of ten thousand words. As a result, Lao Mao was angered, so the anti-rightist struggle began. Anyone who opposed the Great Leap Forward became a rightist. Hundreds of millions of Chinese pay homage to the emperor's new clothes and run naked with all their might. The great scientist Qian Xuesen, who is well-known both in China and the West, actually "scientifically demonstrated" three times that the yield per mu is not a problem. Just because I said a few words that mocked Qian Xuesen, I was labeled as a rightist and played a buffoon in the absurd farce of the "anti-rightist movement" in 1957.

When Wu Qiankun was narrating, there was a sound of cicadas chirping outside the window, and the troubles and resentments of the past were hidden in the green shade, and when the wind blows, his mind is messed up.

Wu Qiankun was still talking with the three old people, but the topic and content of the conversation made people feel psychologically depressed. The past days were really boring and chilling.

Wu Qiankun, who is called the old fairy by the locals, is already in his early 90s. He is thin and tall, with gray temples and a few wrinkles on his forehead, but his piercing eyes seem to be able to see through the heart of this society. Although he is ninety years old, he still walks like flying, and speaks with enthusiasm and radiance. His voice is magnetic and infectious.

What Wu Qiankun said attracted Pan Guangfu and Chai Jianhua, and he talked about the past of Mingfang during the anti-rightist period. He had treated some rightists back then, so he often talked about the anti-rightist thing, maybe it was a sympathy for each other. He talked about what the Peking University rightists had told him.

Wu Qiankun said that Peking University and Renmin University students are much higher than Tsinghua University in terms of democratic awareness and political thought.

Wu Qiankun said: I have a copy of "Peking University Chronicle (1898-1997)". According to the records on January 31, 1958, during the "Anti-Rightist Movement" in 1957 and the "Anti-Rightist Supplementary Classes" that lasted for three months until the end of January 1958, Peking University had 587 students and 110 faculty members, a total of 699 People are classified as "rightists".

In the 1982 part of the same book, it was stated that at that time "rightists" returned to school for "correction", that is, the original punishment was revoked, and Peking University demarcated 716 rightists during the anti-rightist movement. The difference between the two numbers is because 17 people were "supplemented" later. The previous figure is quoted here because it shows the number of "rightists" among the students and teaching staff respectively. In addition, according to the "People's Daily" after the Cultural Revolution: Peking University designated 715 "rightists", and 842 people who did not wear the "rightist hat" and received various punishments. Because the list of all the people who were "marked" has not been released, it is not clear how the difference between 715 and 716 came about.

At that time, the number of students in Peking University was 8,983, and the number of faculty members was 1,399. 7% of the total number of Peking University students were classified as "rightists". The proportion of "rightists" among the teaching staff is higher than that of the students, close to 10%. The proportion among professors is even higher.

On July 9, 1957, Mao Zedong said in a speech at the Shanghai cadre meeting: "There are only a very small number of rightists. Like the Peking University just mentioned, there are only one, two, and three percent. This is about students. When it comes to professors and associate professors, That’s different, there are about 10% rightists.” After the Cultural Revolution, this speech was printed and published in the fifth volume of Selected Works of Mao Zedong, entitled “Repelling the Attack of the Bourgeois Rightists”.

Comparing Mao Zedong's speech with what actually happened at Peking University, it can be seen very clearly that the large-scale "rightist" action was carried out under Mao Zedong's specific instructions. It is very frightening that he set percentages to demarcate rightists. In other words, no matter what, a certain predetermined number of people must be captured from the population to be attacked as "class enemies". Moreover, this percentage was decided by him alone, rather arbitrarily.

Wu Qiankun continued: "The Anti-Rightist Movement" has greatly changed the social punishment mechanism. First of all, it is the authorities who make speeches a crime, "cap" a large number of people and impose various punishments, even though these people have not violated the law or harmed others. Second, the highest punishment that the school can do is to expel students from school or dismiss faculty members. If the students and teachers of the school commit criminal offenses, only the judicial system can try them. The school authorities classified more than 700 teachers and students as "class enemies", which is unprecedented in the history of human schools. Third, not only is punishment imposed, but there is no set limit to punishment. A group of students were directly sent to "re-education through labor" by the school without a deadline, so that they lost their personal freedom for nearly 20 years. Even being a "capped rightist" is still a bad identity.

Wu Qiankun talked about what happened to these rightists during the Cultural Revolution:

During the Cultural Revolution, Peking University's new authority, the "Peking University Cultural Revolution Committee", had a level of power higher than that of the original CPC Peking University Party Committee. In the "reform through labor" in the school, their hair was shaved, and half of the hair of the women was shaved off. There is a special term called "Yin Yang head", and they were ordered to hang red crosses on their chests with crimes and their own paintings brand. Later, a prison with hundreds of people was built on the campus, which is commonly known as the "cowshed", because the people imprisoned there are called "ghosts and ghosts". In the "cowshed", detainees lose their personal freedom and are often beaten, humiliated, and psychologically abused. Among the 63 victims of the Cultural Revolution at Peking University, four were beaten to death by Red Guard students with sticks and copper-headed belts. There were no "revolutionary procedures" such as "exposing", "criticizing", and "qualifying". Brutality reached new heights.

"Rightists" had been persecuted for nine years before the Cultural Revolution, plus ten years after the Cultural Revolution, and two years after the end of the Cultural Revolution before they were "removed" and "corrected", a total of 21 years. One victim said that he was not a "rightist", but he sympathized with "rightists". He used a term called "rightist expression", which means that people who have been "rightists" have a special expression on their faces. It was formed after being persecuted and suppressed for a long time, so obvious that people can perceive it, and it still exists even after the hat is removed or "corrected".

This "rightist face" expression was formed after 21 years of physical and mental persecution. Such expressions may have been overlooked because of commonplace attitudes toward suffering, and much of the persecution has been kept out of officially sanctioned publication.

When Wu Qiankun and Pan Guangfu, Chai Jianhua, and He Jiafu talked about the anti-rightist affairs, they were obviously very dissatisfied and full of resentment.

Night rises from the earth, covering the bright sky. The meaning that the stars and the moon exist in the dark night is because the stars and the moon are the only light in the darkness. In fact, the night is never black. In the dark night, the hollyhock flowers are still red, and the fuzzy wisteria flowers are still purple and white. The night can cover up all color changes, but cover up the essence of all things. The sky gave us a pair of black eyes, that is to let us use them to find the light in the dark night.

Wu Qiankun said confidently, I have been challenging the night all my life, and I believe that light will definitely defeat darkness. Time will flow, times will change, and now the night has been lifted, and the truth covered by the shady curtain has been seen by more and more people.