Chapter 62 Chapter 4 (1) - Dreaming in Jinling

In the early 1980s, Mr. Tang Ren wrote a multi-volume novel "Jinling Spring Dream".The novel mainly describes the rise and fall of the Jiang family dynasty, and finally ends with the sunset of the Nanjing dynasty—the disintegration of the Kuomintang. After I returned to the literary world in 1979, I have never forgotten another gray dream that happened in Jinling: it had nothing to do with the fall of the Jiang family dynasty, and it happened entirely in the history of New China. One winter day in 1970 during the "Cultural Revolution", Du Gao, a young playwright from the former China Youth Art Theater who was repatriated from the labor reform team to Nanjing, went to the street to buy vegetables with a basket on his shoulders, and saw a notice on the street to execute counter-revolutionaries.I don’t know if I don’t see it, but I was scared into a cold sweat when I saw it: because the four people who were executed were all intellectuals who slept on the same kang of the labor camp—their names were: Sun Benqiao, Yao Zuyi, Wang Tongzhu, Lu Lushan.

In 1979, Du Gao returned to Beijing after being rehabilitated.During his tenure as the director of the Drama Publishing House, he was once neighbors to the Writer Publishing House that I presided over; in addition, we were fellow sufferers with Kang, so naturally we often talked about some past events.He was still amazed when he told me about that winter morning.He witnessed with his own eyes the prison van that executed these former classmates rumbled past him; the scene left a very sad dream in my heart and his heart.Of course, the deciphering of this dream is not only the wish of the two of us—it has attracted the attention of a generation of suffering intellectuals.

According to the memories of friends, Sun Benqiao was originally a student of Beijing Institute of Technology, and he was extremely intelligent.Zhang Yongxian, a teacher who worked with him as an intern at Qinghe Woolen Factory, told me: Sun loves learning, and he was paid 16 yuan a month during his internship in the factory. He spent more than 6 yuan to buy a set, and studied hard after the internship.At present, Yang Lu, who is the director of the Institute of Mathematics at the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, said after learning about Sun: Sun is a mathematical genius. It is possible to draw conclusions unambiguously.

Wang Tongzhu used to be the Russian translator of the Marxist-Leninist Compilation Bureau. He remembers that in the labor reform team, he once recited a long poem by the motherland emotionally at the National Day cultural performance.Lu Lushan used to be a student of Beijing Institute of Agricultural Machinery, and he was the healthiest of the four. When the political atmosphere was relatively relaxed, he and I were members of the same basketball team in the reform-through-labor team.In my memory, he and I also have one thing in common—he and I are both only children, and both lost their fathers at an early age—we were brought up by our widowed mothers.

As for Yao Zuyi, before entering the labor reform team, he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and his English is very good. He seems to be a student of the old Yenching.His father is an overseas Chinese businessman, so he has been studying in mission schools since he was a child. That's all we can remember.Of course, we have not seen each other since we broke up in 1963 (due to the re-division of the labor camp); but why, after 7 years, have we all become death row prisoners who must be beheaded? !We once had this assumption: If they can live to this day, they will all be useful talents in the construction of the four modernizations.

Time has passed for 27 years, and their spirit and flesh have already become the smoke and dust between the universe.But this leaves an indecipherable dream in the hearts of the survivors who have walked through the wind and frost post road!At the time when the "Jinling Evening News" asked the author for a manuscript, there was an opportunity to seek dreams in Jinling. But what needs to be explained here is that, after all, we have had seven years of separation between Lao and Yan. During these seven years, intellectuals have undergone qualitative changes—becoming hooligans, murderers, and robbers. In that chaotic and turbulent era, the changes of people are like the infinite variables in mathematics, and it does not rule out the eventuality hidden in ten thousand.But if it is compared to 10,000, it is a tiny decimal after all-how can an accurate verification be obtained.

Since what I'm looking for is the dream of seeking, I hope that those who knew it back then can give me and some of my former friends an answer to dream analysis.I and the intellectuals of our generation will pay deep respect to you!