Chapter 20 Part 2 Part 1 (10) - Stepping into the "Peach Blossom Land"

Leaving many of the same kind, I was assigned to the second brigade along with more than 20 hated rightists who had nominally obtained the title of agricultural workers.It has already been explained in the previous article: the first brigade in the southern area is the prison area-there are big walls and power grids.Soldiers stood on the watchtower with guns; the Second Brigade of the North District was an orchard. We were assigned to different squadrons of the Second Brigade.Lao You, who was assigned to the No. 1 Squadron at the same time as me (the reason why he still calls himself Lao You here is that the Lao You who was imprisoned in the big wall did not obtain citizenship because he took off his hat--we will gradually talk about it later), there is Lu Fengnian , that is, the man who escaped from the palace of the king of hell because of cooking poisonous snakes and epilepsy moths written in the first part; and He Qun from a central ministry, both of them are from Shanghai.Later, Liu Jingxiang, a physical education teacher from the former Neiwubu Street Middle School, and another teacher (can't remember the school) Zhang Yumin came one after another.I don't know whether it was because of the convenience of the squadron's management, or because of a coincidence, these old rightists were all assigned to work in Taoyuan.

It was spring, and there were more than 200 acres of peach orchards.More than 2,000 peach trees have just begun to bloom.After a spring rain, peach blossoms bloom into a sea of ​​flowers. Nature has no boundaries, and what it gives us is also full of vitality, which makes me feel refreshed when I first come here.In particular, it is adjacent to the free world outside. Standing on the edge of Taoyuan, you can see the continuous flow of pedestrians on the road.In any case, in this world of flowers, the air is filled with the fragrance of flowers that Chadian has never experienced before; although I sweat a lot from working in the trees every day, I really feel like I am in a "Peach Blossom Land".

I remember that a few days after arriving in Taoyuan, when I was planting strawberries under the tree (strawberries are planted under the long rows of peach trees), there were a few peach blossoms falling slowly in the wind. A few lines of extremely sloppy poems in "Flowers": spring peach blossoms like a sea Thousands of flowers bloom in the wind flowers falling from the tree people come from flowers Touching the scene vividly reminded Zhang Hu who was still in Chadian, and the wonderful scenery was immediately chilled.She wrote to me that among the few rightists among them, only one old rightist took off her hat (Ma Minxing—Tang Da’s nephew), and she and the other old rightists stayed where they were.I am very sad, no matter what aspect, Zhang Hu should take off her hat before me - she came from a revolutionary family, and I came from a landlord family; she is an underground party in Shanghai, and she almost lost her head in 1947 before liberation; At that time, I was still a student who knew nothing.The reason why the contrast is so big is because I came to Tuanhe and met Dong Weisen who loves talents very much. The problem is as simple as that.

Coincidentally, due to the volatile political situation in China, I came to Taoyuan not long ago, probably because of the thawing of the old right, and it also came to an end. Dong Weisen was transferred from the rightist team to our squadron as an instructor.As soon as he arrived at the agricultural and industrial squadron, I was appointed as the deputy squad leader of the Taoyuan squad.A few peach blossoms flew down beside me, so it aroused my romantic longing, which was closely related to my various situations at that time.In this state of mind, the first stupid thing I did was to send my doodled novel "Caifeng Dalei" to the "Chinese Women" magazine when I returned to Beijing for a rest on Sunday—of course I had to To state clearly that I have taken off the iron cap of a rightist is tantamount to asking for directions.At the same time, I wrote to the Chinese Writers Association that I no longer belonged to the old right—although I was expelled from public office by the "Beijing Daily";To this day, I have not figured out the reason. One day, Dong Weisen handed me a letter sent by the Writers Association to Tuanhe Farm.Although the labor reform team routinely checked the letter, Dong Weisen handed me a ticket for a movie show that was sent in the letter.

I asked Dong with my eyes, how to deal with it.Because of things like this, there is no second thing in the whole group of river farms. Dong smiled and said: "Is this a good thing? The squadron will give you a day off. After I got the letter, I looked at it. The movie party is on Thursday, not on the weekend; the squadron will still let you go. All we can do is count on that day." You go to work." I'm a bit swayed, but I haven't completely lost my self-knowledge.I said: "This is not appropriate, I wonder if there is such a precedent in the past?" Dong's answer is something I will never forget: "There has never been any management of rightists here in the past. It doesn't matter if there is no precedent, we can set a precedent. You go!"

I remember the day I went back to Beijing to watch a movie, it was a continuation of my dream.The family received a letter from "Chinese Women" magazine, saying that my novel was about to be published.The editor asked about my current work unit and asked me to write back to her immediately (her surname is Qin, but I can't remember her name).I truthfully informed the lady of my situation, and then went to the movie party.At that time, the Writers Association Club was in an auditorium on the east side of Wangfujing North Street, a few miles away from my home. For me who had been working for several years, this distance could be replaced by a bus with my feet.But when I approached the Writers Association Club, my steps slowed down unconsciously: I will definitely meet acquaintances there, and I will inevitably meet some people who have criticized me. What kind of attitude will I take? Facing the inevitable embarrassment?I want to see some of my old friends, what should I say to them?After much deliberation, it is better for me to enter the market later, because I don't want to lose my proper self-esteem too much.

Probably the movie had already started, so I entered.Although I avoided the eyes of my colleagues in the literary world, Kang Zhuo was the first to discover me.He greeted me softly: "Cong Weixi, you...you..." He stuttered because of surprise, "Come on, sit here." I took the seat next to him.Without waiting for him to ask me again, I explained everything to him in the simplest language.During the anti-rightist period, when he criticized Liu Shaotang, although he named me, those insincere words seemed to me to be a last resort.He is said to be known as Hunan hot pepper to the writers of the same age, but he is still very generous to the younger generation of literature - I got to know him as early as 1953 when he worked in the literature workshop, before the first national youth writing conference, He was the one who introduced me to the Writers Guild.Out of conscience, I can't show any disrespect to him.After hearing my situation, he said a few words of encouragement to me, asking me to work hard to reform my thinking and so on.

I remember the movie I watched that day was a Japanese movie titled "The Revenge of the Pearl Queen".Because of the many nude scenes, Kang Zhuo shook his head again and again.The reason for this is that he took his son to watch the movie that day, and he was afraid that the scenes would be offensive and have a bad impact on the child's physical and mental health.I felt that it was a real lifting of the ban, because in that era of withering flowers, I learned about the trend of world movies-even though I was not used to the excessive flesh-colored rendering in the film, I still felt that it was not in vain.What is particularly memorable to me is that at the end of the show, I saw Liu Houming, an old classmate who worked in Beijing People's Art, and he was very concerned about my situation.There are few pedestrians on the road, and he and I wandered on the street for a long time.I told him my feelings without reservation, and he immediately asked me if I would like to work at the Northeast Federation of Literary and Art Circles.I was in prison at the time, and I was still thinking about the Northeast and Northwest. I said I would go anywhere—as long as it allowed me to write.

A ridiculous dream! I didn't dream of "Peach Blossom Spring" until 1964. I received a letter from "Chinese Women" magazine that the novel could not be published for some reason.What the word "so" is, of course, is because of politics.When I came to Beijing, I paid a visit to Houming. Houming said that the unit in the Northeast had already agreed to take you, but...but...he didn't tell me what the "but" was at the time (it wasn't until I was rehabilitated and returned to Beijing in 1979 that Houming told me I and he were accused of unclear boundaries for my affairs. When the Federation of Literary and Art Circles in a certain city in the northeast went to my original unit for consultation, the original unit not only did not support it, but thought that Houming’s matchmaking was unclear. position issue).During the past six months or so, I went to Shaotang’s home many times. He said, don’t forget about class struggle, he has regained the dominant position in the party, and he and Yanxiang no longer have the freedom to publish their works. The school has taught for a period of time, and has been transferred to Xinjiang.He also cited that Peng Dehuai was repeatedly criticized by Mao Zedong and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at the Lushan Conference.What is particularly harsh is that I learned from Shao Tang that Jiang Qing, as the chairman's wife, came forward for the first time to organize criticism of the ghost drama "Li Huiniang".That day, Shaotang and I both drank a lot of wine, deeply feeling that the liberation of Lao You had turned into an auspicious cloud drifting away in the sky of China.In the Spring Festival of 1964, when I went to visit Shaotang at his home, he showed me a section he copied by hand—a section of Mao Zedong’s instructions to the literary and art circles at the end of 1963.I copied it down, and the meaning at the time was to warn myself to let go of my fantasy and stop dreaming of returning to the literary and art team.It has been preserved to this day and has become a true portrayal of the cultural circle in that historical period.

Mao Zedong's approval is as follows: Various art forms - drama, quyi.music.Art, dance.Movie.There are many problems in poetry and literature, etc., and the number of people involved is very large. Socialist transformation has so far achieved little success in many departments. In the summer of 1964, when Shaotang went to visit my mother and children at my house on a rainy night, he told me even worse news.It was Mao Zedong's instructions that later became the part that everyone in the literary and art circles felt intimidated by.Hu Sheng wrote it in the book "Seventy Years of the Communist Party of China":

Mao Zedong read the "Report on the Rectification of the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Associations" (draft), and made the following comments: "These associations and most of the publications they have (it is said that a few are good), in the past fifteen years, basically The government (not everyone) does not implement the party's policies, acts as an official and a lord, does not get close to workers, peasants and soldiers, and does not reflect the socialist revolution and construction. In recent years, they have fallen to the brink of revisionism.  … At this point, my dream has been reduced to pieces.Although my status in the labor reform farm was humble, I did not have endless entanglements in the literary field. This was not only self-consolation, but also the reality at the time—I had nowhere to go but to settle down and work in the “Peach Blossom Spring”—when I gardener. At that time, I was rated as a second-level worker, with a monthly salary of 36 yuan and 2 cents. Excluding the monthly food expenses of more than 20 yuan and smoking low-grade and low-quality tobacco, there was not much left; but every weekend, I could have a happy gathering with my mother and son. This is very precious to my mother and young children.Over the past year or so, my son has expressed dissatisfaction with me, saying that I don’t always play with him at home on Sundays. The little man doesn’t know his father yet, and he is struggling to change his bad luck.After all this came to naught, I took him, who was already 7 years old, into the zoo for the first time.This is the first time for my son to see tigers, lions and various animals in nature. Of course, the child is very happy, but I am very sensitive to the cages that look like grids. It is also unimaginable that at this time his father is saying to himself emotionally - I am not a tiger, nor a lion. I used to be like a shy rabbit, but the iron cage of the dictatorship treats all living beings as their own. If it is a ferocious tiger and lion. Beginning with the burning of books and burying Confucianism by Emperor Qin Huang, the history of Chinese literary inquisition has already begun.Sima Qian's torture can be regarded as a record in ancient times; the later progress is just that there are no more tattoos on his face or any traces of civil prisons on his body-at this moment, I can blend in among tourists, looking like a leisurely person Walking in the courtyard, of course, can also be regarded as an extension of "freedom" in China in the 1960s...