Chapter 22 21 An Unforgettable Interview

Premier Zhou Enlai has always attached great importance to the development of the machinery manufacturing industry, and has given great concern to how my country's machinery industry can better play its role in the national economy. In 1966, my country was about to enter the construction period of the third five-year plan. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the third five-year plan, two national seminars on improving design work were held. One is about capital construction, and the center of discussion is "Where does the correct design come from?" It aims to improve capital construction design; the other is to meet the needs of capital construction, about "revolution in mechanical product design, catch up with and surpass world advanced level".

Especially during the second symposium in November 1965, when Premier Zhou met with some of the representatives present at the symposium, I always kept in mind the earnest teachings he gave to the scientific and technological workers. At that time, it had been 15 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China.The development of mechanical design in our country has both successful experiences and lessons from failures.To build a new factory, you must first have the correct capital construction design documents, and then you must have a complete set of mechanical equipment for the process, and the two must be coordinated.Advanced industries must have advanced technology and equipment; advanced technology and equipment need a large set of procedures of research, testing, design, manufacture, installation, use, and maintenance to complete.At that time, many of our comrades did not understand this mutual relationship, and blindly insisted on being advanced. It happened that the infrastructure department put forward the request late, urgently, and increased, so that the manufacturing department was struggling to deal with it, fell into a passive position, complained to each other, and "generalized" each other. .

In November 1964, Comrade Mao Zedong issued a call to launch a mass design revolution movement, and the "People's Daily" opened a column "Where does the correct design come from?", and launched a nationwide discussion on the design revolution.At the same time, the mechanical equipment manufacturing department also urgently puts forward the requirements for improving the design.Under the leadership of the State Economic Commission, the "Mechanical Product Design Revolutionary Committee" was established. After half a year of preparation, the National Mechanical Product Design Work Conference was officially held in November 1965.There were 800 representatives from machinery, agricultural machinery, metallurgy, chemical industry, petroleum, coal, railway, textile, agriculture, forestry, light industry and other systems participating in the meeting.Extensive exchanges of experience were made at the meeting, warmly responded to Chairman Mao's call for a design revolution, and learned from Premier Zhou's statement in the report of the third session of the National People's To carry out scientific experiments” and further understand “going downstairs to leave the hospital and relying on the masses”, implement the four methods of going to the scene, establish the practical significance of new regulations, and correctly understand the dialectical relationship between self-reliance and learning from the world’s advanced experience.

On November 24th, when the National Mechanical Product Design Work Conference was about to end, Premier Zhou met with the heads of relevant ministries and commissions to meet some of the representatives attending the conference. This was an unforgettable meeting. On the day of the interview, Gao Yangwen and I led some representatives, and there were 80 people in attendance, including factory directors, chief engineers of major factories, and heads of local economic committees. When Premier Zhou heard from my introduction that there was only one engineer who was a worker at the meeting today, he said: If there are fewer workers, you cannot represent the three combinations. I have held four cotton meetings and invited cotton farmers to come.It's your first time, so it's no wonder that you didn't expect it, but this is a shortcoming.

Then I introduced the labor productivity of my country's major industries and the comparison gap with foreign countries.which mentions: Steel, the world's advanced level is the annual output of each worker is 100-150 tons, my country's is 30 tons; heavy machinery, the world's advanced level is 7-20 tons per person per year, my country's is more than 1 ton; automobiles, the world's advanced level The annual output of tractors is 6-12 per person, compared with 1 in my country; the world advanced level of tractors is 10-28 per person per year, compared with 1 in my country. ...

When reporting to Premier Zhou, I explained that these labor productivity cannot be completely compared, there are many other factors, and the backwardness of machinery and equipment is also an important factor. Premier Zhou said that this is a very meaningful comparison, so we must build up confidence and aspirations, catch up with and surpass the world's advanced level, and build our country into a socialist modernized power in a not too long historical period .We have also built the atomic bomb, nothing special. When it is reported that there are too few designers in our large factories, they only account for 2% of the total number of employees, compared with the advanced countries in the world, they account for about 5-7%.Moreover, according to our statistics, designers are placed together with non-production personnel, and when some factories regard design personnel as the object of streamlining, Premier Zhou said: Designers cannot be counted as non-production personnel. What about new products?This is the first process, dissecting, analyzing and researching other people's finished products, and then imitating, improving and recreating.In this way, we can discover, invent, create, and advance.It is inappropriate to say that designers are non-production personnel. This classification is inappropriate. The Ministry of Labor and the Bureau of Statistics have to be notified. We have decided here: designers should be production personnel, and they are required to follow suit.Then it focused on the fact that the design should proceed from reality, emphasizing the importance of linking theory with practice.And said to me: Shen Hong, can you build that hydraulic machine by yourself?It's not about finding other technicians and workers to work together.Don't just count full-time designers, but include skilled workers (both young and old), who may not be able to explain the truth, but have accumulated experience, can find out where the problem is, have tricks, and can solve the problem.From here designers can be spawned in large numbers.But don’t just raise the target to 5% or 7% as soon as I call and respond, and send many old workers to the design department of the research institute. As a result, they have nothing to do and sit on the bench, that would be a miserable death.Wisdom comes from labor, and it is good to take them as the main ones, so as not to be divorced from reality.It is not necessary to bring the old workers to the department, but the other way around, to bring the technicians to the field.Chen Yongkang is a rice expert, and he can't do it without the rice fields.It is necessary to admit that old workers have the ability to design, and all wisdom comes from the masses.Chairman Mao said that a person who is good at leadership is one who gathers the wisdom of the masses, perseveres, insists on the truth and corrects mistakes.Wisdom is the result of labor.Theory must be connected with practice, and good technicians cannot be divorced from labor practice, so that physical labor and mental labor can be combined.If engineers want to really produce something, they must participate in labor practice and combine with workers.We are all intellectuals, and it is not easy to realize this truth.

When the comrades of Tangshan Vehicle Factory reported in detail that they had absorbed old workers, tool workers, and quota staff to participate in the design, Premier Zhou said: You only have 7 designers, but more than 30 people participated in the design, several times more, our design should be this way.It is necessary to mobilize the strength of all employees and give full play to their wisdom. This is the superiority of our socialist system.According to your 20% figure, how many college students can be allocated in a year?This will not catch up in 10 or 20 years.According to the calculation of Tangshan Factory, 15 years will be enough, and a large number of designers will be trained by 1980, which will change the appearance of mechanical product design.

When it was reported that we translated and adopted a large number of Soviet designs, Premier Zhou said: Some things from the Soviet Union are also outdated, and not all of them are suitable for us. If we copy the design department, it will become a translation department.In the past, I met some people in research institutes who had graduated from university for more than ten years and hadn't been to the scene. They were either painting or copying.He went on to say: It's good to go down first, but to create a culture, it's shameful not to go down, it's backward if you don't go down, it's hard not to go down.If you want to design a product, how can you do it without going to the site?

When reporting on the rules and regulations, Premier Zhou said: The cumbersome philosophy comes from idealism and metaphysics, and learned from the dogmatism of the Soviet Union.But we also have our own way, and the Soviet Union cannot be blamed.Our official documents are not learned from the Soviet Union. To send a document, five or six ministers must draw a circle before it can go out.Learning from the Soviet Union was mainly during the period of the first five-year plan, and less during the period of the second five-year plan.We were a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in the past, and many red tapes in feudal society also affected us, as well as the force of habit, we dare not change, and there is no revolutionary spirit.It is also impossible to have no rules and regulations at all. We must create, adapt measures to local conditions, seek truth from facts, and develop them slowly and bit by bit. We do not require all of them.

Then Premier Zhou talked about the success or failure of the design revolution, the key lies in leadership.He said that leadership requires revolution and leads by example.Leadership is irresponsible without revolution.Ministers, bureau chiefs, and section chiefs are all chiefs. "First" refers to the brain, as the name implies, it means to use the brain, to lead with thought, and to take the lead in practice.It is not easy to just say no to action, you have to do it yourself, you must first ask the masses for advice, and it is not easy to be a leader. Take the lead in investigating mistakes and mobilize everyone's enthusiasm.Why can't the designers close the door and come out?This is learned from you (referring to the heads of the ministries and commissions present here), and the designers cannot be blamed.Blame you guys.Our State Council did not advocate it in the past, and we have to review it.Leaders must dare to speak up and deny wrong things when they see it. I hope that all ministers will do the same.Please Qiuli, on behalf of the State Council and me, first admits the mistakes, did not catch them in the past, and did not bring out everyone's wisdom, and then make demands.

In the end, Premier Zhou encouraged everyone to say: this meeting is over, the design revolution has developed, new things have been created, and a new product exhibition will be held next year to promote it.When you go back, you must mobilize mass discussions, integrate with the masses through practice, and follow the mass line.On this basis, it is very promising to engage in three-in-one combination and revolutionize product design. It will not take long to catch up with the world's advanced level. How long it will take depends on your efforts. After being interviewed by Premier Zhou, the representatives were greatly encouraged and believed that the design work of mechanical products in the future would be more clear in terms of ideology, method and organization.After half a year, when the vast number of scientific and technological personnel on the mechanical front were making efforts for our country to catch up with the world's advanced level, the "Cultural Revolution" began, and many accomplished scientific and technological personnel and experienced old technicians were put on the "white road". , "Technology in command" hat, the newly emerging design revolution died!This is very unfortunate.If there is no such interference, let the masses participate in the technological revolution and continue to develop, and sum up once every three to five years, it is possible to change from gradual change to sudden change, then the achievements of my country's mechanical design will be far from today's level.Even so, the vast number of scientific and technological personnel in my country's machinery industry did not live up to Premier Zhou's ardent expectations. Even in the ten-year catastrophe that was easily blamed, they still adhered to the principles of self-reliance, hard work, and socialist cooperation to achieve the socialist modernization of the motherland. made its own contribution.