Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Young People Studying Economics

In mid-April 1949, under the arrangement of Xia Yan, head of the Hong Kong Working Committee of the Communist Party of China, Wu Jinglian followed his mother back from Hong Kong to Peiping, which had been peacefully liberated.During their stay in Hong Kong, Chen Mingde, Deng Jixing and Zhao Chaogou carefully planned how to reorganize the "Xinmin Daily" in order to "make a comeback" in New China. They once asked Xia Yan whether the Communist Party allows private newspapers?The answer is: of course.In the early days of liberation, Deng Jixing served as a member of the Southwest Military and Political Committee, and then gradually marginalized.Later, the ending of the "Xinmin Daily" series was as follows: in April 1950, the Chengdu edition was closed; in January 1952, the Chongqing edition was closed; Beijing Daily; at the beginning of 1953, the Shanghai edition implemented a public-private partnership and changed its name to "Xinmin Evening News".Chen Deng's career as a journalist ended thereafter. In 1953, they were respectively appointed as deputy directors of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Urban Services and deputy directors of the Civil Affairs Bureau.Deng Jixing recalled that the most important job she had done was presiding over the construction of the first crematorium in Beijing.

The marginalization of his parents obviously did not affect Wu Jinglian's enthusiasm for the new society.As soon as he arrived in Beiping, he was admitted to the city branch of the Xiangshan Lung Disease Sanatorium in Yangrou Hutong.By the spring of 1950, his body had recovered, and Wu Jinglian returned to Jinling University in Nanjing to start his university studies in economics.Soon, he joined the New Democratic Youth League. In the summer of 1950, he began to serve as the secretary of the Youth League branch of the Department of Economics and the Youth League teacher of the school Youth League Committee.

This kind of student life of "learning to build a new democratic society" lasted only one semester, and then the political movement to resist US aggression and aid Korea began. On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out.With the Korean People's Army occupying most of South Korea, on September 15, the U.S.-led United Nations troops landed in Incheon, in the middle of the Korean peninsula, approaching Pyongyang. On October 19, the Chinese People's Volunteers entered North Korea to fight. In mid-November, an incident occurred in which American professors from Jinling Women’s University and Jinling University slandered North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. The school’s party and league organizations seized the opportunity and set off an “anti-insult, anti-defamation, and anti-US imperialism accusation movement” that affected the whole country , mobilize the masses' hatred of the United States, and clear away ideological obstacles for the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.Motivated by the patriotism inspired by the accusation movement, Wu Jinglian actively participated in the movement.After the denunciation campaign ended, the Youth League Committee of the school held an exhibition titled "Exposing America's crimes of using cultural and educational institutions to carry out aggression activities and promoting Western bourgeois values ​​and lifestyles." Wu Jinglian was one of the persons in charge of preparing the exhibition , he is busy all day, tireless. In February 1951, the Chinese government took over church schools in various places, and Jinling University and Jinling Women's University merged to form the public Jinling University.

Soon, English was removed from the curriculum, and Western economics treatises were completely abolished.After the "readjustment of departments" in 1952, the economics courses in colleges and universities only offered Marxist political economics and "Das Kapital", all of which were textbooks compiled by Soviet experts. In the eyes of young Wu Jinglian, these are all taken for granted.He wrote in a later article, “When I was in college, except for a few modern economics courses in the first year, the theories and methods I learned were basically transplanted from the Soviet Union. At that time, I thought that mastering With this set of theories and methods, we can quickly realize the industrialization of the country along the road of the Soviet Union and establish a powerful socialist country" ("Selected Works of Wu Jinglian: Author's Autobiography"), "I am convinced of these theoretical viewpoints. , not various factual materials about the socialist economy of the Soviet Union, but a certain belief in socialism. This belief was strengthened by the achievements of our country under the new democratic economic system in the first half of the 1950s. This kind of thinking Only those who experienced the situation in the first half of the 1950s will find it completely reasonable." ("The revitalization of China's economy depends on market-oriented reforms") In the oral history, he went further and said: "Because of opposing the Kuomintang, So you have to get close to the Communist Party, support the Communist Party, and learn the theory of the Communist Party. In fact, when you think about it now, you didn’t understand it at all, and you didn’t understand many things.”

Beginning in December 1951, in order to clean up the intensified corruption after entering the city and to combat capitalist industry and commerce, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China launched the "Three Antis and Five Antis" campaign. As an activist among students, Wu Jinglian participated in the investigation of corruption and waste in the school. activity.For example, participating in the "Tiger Fighting" ("tiger", referring to the key target of struggle) conference held in the auditorium of the Central University system in the city.This kind of meeting is a combination of large and small meetings. At the meeting, all schools compete to report their "records" and "implement" the leniency policy on the spot, and then each school holds a small meeting separately to "attack the mind" and force the opponents to confess.This kind of activity does not use loudspeakers, but relies on the young people's voice like a high-pitched trumpet. They often "beat" for days and nights, and they will not stop until the target is reached.

After the so-called "struggle phase" ended, Wu Jinglian was transferred to the school's production increase and conservation office to close the case.To his great surprise, none of the embezzlement cases that were so convincing in the movement could be finalized. While Wu Jinglian actively participated in "tiger fighting" in college, Deng Jixing and Chen Mingde became "tigers" who were beaten in Beijing.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Deng Jixing funded the construction of a three-story garden house on Nanchang Street in Beijing. Now, this private house is believed to have been built with money embezzled from "Xin Min Bao". The employees came to criticize and force them to confess.Of course Deng Jixing was very angry: "I am the boss of the newspaper, who am I embezzling?" What made them even more sad was that some old friends committed suicide during the movement, including Deng Jixing's teacher and friend, a generation of Sichuan ship tycoon Lu Zuofu .This is an entrepreneur with high social prestige and patriotism, and also a colleague of the Southwest Military and Political Committee.His suicide made Deng Jixing very shocked and incomprehensible. According to Wu Jinglian's recollection, his mother never discussed with him her views on the "Three Antis and Five Antis" movement, but he could see her confusion.For Wu Jinglian at the time, such a campaign was of course necessary, even if his parents were hit, it was because of the need to transform his worldview.

After finishing the "Three Antis and Five Antis", the next step was the "Intellectuals Thought Reform Movement", commonly known as the "Bathing" Movement.The targets of reform are university professors, and the reformers are "revolutionary youths" like Wu Jinglian.Being active, he became the "general student representative" of the Faculty of Arts.Sometimes when I was in class, I found that the teacher's teaching was contrary to the theory of "Das Kapital", so I would go to the stage and launch a big criticism.He later recalled: "That was really ignorant, arrogant, and unreasonable!"

In this way, after being busy for a long time in the storm of revolution, Wu Jinglian suffered another lung disease and had to be admitted to the school's nursing home again.Here, he met a petite and delicate female patient named Zhou Nan. Zhou Nan is from Yunnan. He is the same age as Wu Jinglian and 9 months younger than him. He is studying preschool education in the Department of Education of Jinling Women's University.Their eldest daughter Wu Xiaolian described the love affair of the young people in the book "My Father Wu Jinglian" in this way-at that time, both of them were students of Jinling University.When college students went to the countryside to participate in the "land reform", Wu Jinglian was unable to go because of illness, and after Zhou Nan returned from participating in the "land reform", he was also admitted to a nursing home due to fever.Zhou Nan kept having a fever in the nursing home, and her pneumonia turned into pleurisy. Wu Jinglian often went to comfort her and said, "Don't worry, I'll sing for you."Zhou Nan heard from his classmates in the Department of Economics that Wu Jinglian was very good at studying and had an extraordinary memory. It is said that he could memorize the entire "Das Kapital" by heart. This made Zhou Nan admire Wu Jinglian very much.One of Zhou Nan's best friends persuaded her, "Look at Wu Jinglian's sickly appearance, do you want to be a widow in the future?" Zhou Nan said, "I still like him, I just think he is very talented."

Wu Xiaolian later asked Zhou Nan: "You just heard people say that, have you tested him personally to see if he can really memorize it?" Zhou Nan replied: "No. I haven't read "Das Kapital." Wu Xiaolian was in My book said with emotion that in that era, a book of "Das Kapital" could touch a woman's heart.But what is interesting is that in his later years, when Wu Jinglian confirmed in his oral history whether he could recite Das Kapital, he said: "No: this is a rumor, exaggerated." Although being able to memorize the entire "Das Kapital" is an "exaggerated" rumor, Wu Jinglian's radical thinking, excellent grades, considerate personality, and of course his handsome appearance have obviously deeply moved the girl Zhou Nan. Heart.

On September 3, 1952, Wu Jinglian, a 22-year-old revolutionary youth, joined the Communist Party of China. Soon, universities across the country carried out a large-scale adjustment of departments, and the Department of Economics of Jinling University where Wu Jinglian worked was merged into Fudan University in Shanghai.Here, his second-year political economy class was taught by Jiang Xuemo, a teacher who had just been trained by Soviet experts from the Renmin University of the Communist Party of China.Jiang later became the most famous professor of socialist political economy in the country at that time. The "Textbook of Political Economy" compiled by him has been used for decades, and it is said that more than 18 million copies have been issued successively.Jiang Xuemo was very impressed with Wu Jinglian when he was a student. In a gathering decades later, he pointed to Wu Jinglian and said in a strong Ningbo accent, "He is my good student."Also in Fudan's class, Wu Jinglian hit it off with a classmate named Zhou Shulian, and this fate lasted for a lifetime.

In 1953, Wu Jinglian and Zhou Nan University graduated.Zhou Nan from Nanjing stayed at the school as a teaching assistant, and Wu Jinglian from Shanghai lost his "chain" again. He was found to have unhealed lung disease and could not be assigned work, so he had to stay in the school's rehabilitation building and recuperate for another year. Concurrently serving as Secretary of the Youth League Branch of the Rehabilitation Building.Given his physical condition at the time, it was really hard to imagine that later, when he was 80 years old, he could still stand on the podium and give lectures for 3 hours. In 1954, Wu Jinglian finally got his diploma.He was assigned to the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, which was the number one center for economics research in China at the time.Of course, there is another person who is happier than Wu Jinglian, and that is Deng Jixing, because the precious son has returned to her side.However, Wu Jinglian at this time has made her feel more and more "strange".Once, Wu Jinglian said to his mother: "You don't want to sit on the sofa in the future." Deng asked: "Why?" "A person should not have more than two shirts".Both Deng Jixing and Chen Mingde, who were used to living a prosperous life, were dumbfounded and didn't know how to respond. After entering the Institute of Economics, Wu Jinglian was still an activist, and he became the first secretary of the Youth League branch. At that time, there were less than 50 people in the Institute of Economics. According to Wu Jinglian's recollection, "there were no Marxist economists."Its predecessor was the Social Research Institute of the Academia Sinica during the Nationalist Government. The founding director, Tao Menghe, was a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics. He was engaged in research on modern economic history and political systems. Later, he brought the whole institute from Nanjing to Beijing. After the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he was promoted to vice president.Wu Baosan, acting as the agent, is a doctor of economics from Harvard University in the United States, and is engaged in research on the history of economic thought; Yan Zhongping, the deputy director, graduated from the Department of Economics of Tsinghua University, and later studied in the UK. He is an expert in the history of modern textiles. Obviously, their The knowledge background and structure have been unable to meet the theoretical needs of the planned economy. When Wu Jinglian went to report for duty, the acting director was Di Chaobai. He was an old party member who joined the party in the 1930s. He was engaged in the research of political economy in his early years. The only one who knows some Marxist economic theory is Hu Ruiliang. He taught "Das Kapital" in Chiang Ching-kuo's training class for cadres in southern Jiangxi in his early years.Perhaps it is for this reason that the party organization needs to inject young blood here urgently. Since 1953, some newcomers have entered the Economic Research Institute one after another, and Zhou Shulian was assigned to the Economic Research Institute in this year. In 1954, eight college graduates were assigned to the Institute of Economics together with Wu Jinglian, including Zhang Zhuoyuan, Li Guangan, Huang Fanzhang, Liu Houcheng and others. Wu Jinglian was one of the two party members.In the second year, another Soviet deputy doctor named Liu Guoguang returned from the National Economic Planning Department of the Moscow School of Economics—he was sent to study by the Social Survey Institute in 1951.In this way, a new economic research team was gradually built up, and these people will become the pillars of the Chinese economics circle in the future. In 1955, Wu Jinglian and another young research intern, Wu Jiapei, were sent to work as assistants to the Soviet economist A Bierman to study state finance and corporate finance. Scholars get up close and personal.Bierman was teaching at Renmin University of China at the time and was the main financial expert in the Soviet Advisory Group.The Finance of Various Departments of the National Economy of the Soviet Union (published in 1953) created by him is the first textbook of this subject approved and recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Soviet Union.During his stay in China, he helped to establish the Soviet-style financial management model. Until around 2000, the financial operation system in many fields in China, such as the transportation industry and the material circulation industry, was still designed by Bierman. During that time, Wu Jinglian and Wu Jiapei went to the financial departments of various economic departments of the State Council every day to copy the financial statements of the past years, and what he learned from Mr. Bierman was the theory of "ruble supervision". The so-called "ruble supervision" is to strengthen the economic accounting system, set prices for raw materials and finished products, and use currency for assessment.Strengthening ruble supervision was the first signal sent by the Soviet Union's economic reform after Stalin's death in 1953.During the days of copying financial statements day after day, Wu Jinglian felt vague confusion for the first time, because he found that the actual economic operation was quite different from the brilliant pictures in Soviet textbooks. difference. The ideal and design of "planning and proportioning" seems very mature, but in real life, conflicts and conflicts of interests between regions, departments, production units, and various social groups are everywhere , the various proportions are often out of balance.It seems that this situation cannot be reconciled and resolved under the planning system. Even his teacher Bierman had his own reflections on the Soviet-style management.Bo Yibo recorded such a story in his memoir "A Review of Several Major Decisions and Events": At the beginning of 1956, China implemented a system of unified purchase and marketing of agricultural products in rural areas. During a conversation, Biermann expressed an opinion He believes that China should not learn from the Soviet Union in dealing with the relationship between the state and farmers.He said that the funds mobilized by the Soviet Union through taxes were less than 10% of the budget revenue, which was mainly accumulated through price extortion from farmers.Although doing so is politically beautiful, it brings about many problems economically.Now in China, "comrades in business departments have a tendency to blindly follow the path traveled by the Soviet Union. This may lead to detours and cause losses."In the mid-1950s, Soviet experts openly questioned their own economic model, a rarity at the time. At the same time, domestic economic circles and theoretical circles raised many criticisms against the newly established centralized planning economic system.Among them, the most famous ones are Sun Yefang, who will become the acting director of the Institute of Economics a year later, who put forward the idea of ​​"based planning on the basis of price laws", and another researcher Gu Zhun who will have a close relationship with Wu Jinglian in the future. Deep Sources - A more radical view advanced by him that a socialist economy could be regulated by spontaneously fluctuating market prices. At the end of 1956, Wu Jinglian participated in the national system survey led by the State Economic Commission.He later wrote: "At this stage, I felt more and more that there were some fundamental flaws in my country's economic management system, mainly manifested in one-sided reliance on administrative orders to manage the economy, without giving full play to the law of value and related issues. The role of economic leverage has made economic management too concentrated and rigid, and the enthusiasm and creativity of production units and employees cannot be brought into play." ("Wu Jinglian Selected Works Autobiography of the Author") However, for Wu Jinglian at the end of 1956 and the beginning of 1957, the confusion in his heart about Stalin's model was like a small cloud in the clear sky. 1958), the "Great Leap Forward" and the "People's Commune" movement (1958) disappeared. One night in June 1956, Wu Jinglian suddenly said to Zhou Nan: "We will get married the day after tomorrow." In the previous two years, following Wu Jinglian's entry into Beijing, Zhou Nan was also selected to study early childhood education at Beijing Normal University. Although at this time, the two had already "privately booked for life" in their regular dates every weekend, Zhou Nan decided on Wu Jinglian. The wedding was going to be held the day after tomorrow still felt very sudden, she asked: "How did you have time to prepare?" Wu Jinglian's reason was, "Otherwise I will have to go on a business trip again". In order to get married before Wu Jinglian's business trip, relatives and friends were very busy.Wu Xiaolian described it like this: "The next day, Zhou Nan's classmates mobilized together. Some went to the street to buy candy, and some accompanied her to buy bed sheets. Nanchang Street No. 1 was also very busy. My grandma took out the The Baizitu quilt at the bottom of the box, quickly find someone to sew the quilt, the second aunt is in charge of buying wine and soda, the second aunt sent a new bed cover, and lent my mother a pair of beautiful leather shoes. Fortunately, there is no need to make a dress for my mother, because she I have already made a silk cheongsam for the day when I will be a bride, but I can't save my hair and hair, so I was so busy that I almost didn't even have time to register for the marriage certificate." "Wu Jinglian himself is probably the least busy person. He is very revolutionary. He doesn't wear special clothes when he gets married, just a cloth uniform. Just take it out the day before and wash it and dry it. However, look at their wedding photos , Wu Jinglian's light-colored cloth uniform is quite energetic, and my mother's floral silk cheongsam is also very beautiful." Judging from the remaining wedding photos, the newlyweds are strikingly young and pure, and they are indeed an admirable, talented couple.Wu Xiaolian said with emotion: "I have always regarded this photo as a poster of a pair of typical intellectuals in China in the 1950s." But at that time, what happened to Wu Jinglian was much more complicated than the simplicity and joy shown in the photos.It was during that time that he and his young colleagues fell into a maelstrom and encountered the first major twists and turns in their lives. At the beginning of 1956, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a conference on intellectual issues. Premier Zhou Enlai put forward the slogan of "March to Modern Science".Several years of work experience have made this group of talented and intelligent people feel inexplicable confusion just like Wu Jinglian, and they yearn for free thinking. At this time, Wu Jinglian had already served as the organization officer of the party branch of the Institute, and he was in charge of contacting the Youth League branch. The Secretary of the Youth League branch was succeeded by Wu Jiapei, who joined the Institute a year later and was also an assistant to Biermann.After several heated discussions, the Youth League branch wrote a report to the party branch, proposing that youth league members should respond to the call of the Party Central Committee, march towards science, and strive to reach the "associate doctoral level" within a few years.Acting director Di Chaobai and members of the party branch saw it, and immediately became furious. They believed that young people should "do what they are called to do, do what they are told to do, and learn what they do." backward thinking" is the "bourgeois direction" of "not accepting the leadership of the party and attacking the party".Wu Jiapei, secretary of the Communist Youth League, "made a wrong line" and was the first to be disqualified as a representative of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Be harshly critical. Wu Jinglian, who is also young, has his own views on this. At a meeting of the party branch committee, Wu Jinglian was taking notes while listening to people from the party branch criticizing Wu Jiapei. You are responding to the call of the Party Central Committee." As soon as the words fell, Di Chaobai and others immediately pointed their fingers at him and shouted in unison: "So you are the backstage!" Wu Jinglian was naturally dissatisfied, and simply said a long paragraph, pouring out all the usual troubles of young people. For example, Huang Fanzhang loves English. Huang had to read English as a spare time, and was criticized for disobeying the organization's arrangements and failing to "do what the party tells him to do."Di Chaobai and others discovered that Wu Jinglian was actually a more "dangerous" person than Wu Jiapei, so the criticism quickly turned to him. Wu Jinglian looks quiet and weak, but he is actually a very stubborn person in his heart, which is exactly like his mother Deng Jixing.Wu Xiaolian once jokingly compared the mother and child to a "spear" and a "shield".He immediately wrote a letter to the Science Division of the Central Propaganda Department to reflect the dispute that took place in the Economic Institute.Soon, the Science Department sent people to investigate, and then reported the situation to the League Central Committee (the then Secretary of the League Central Committee was Hu Yaobang).After receiving this situation, the "China Youth" affiliated to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League immediately sent reporters to the institute to interview. Under the guidance of Xiang Nan, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and Sun Yiqing, Minister of Propaganda, an article was published in the July 1956 issue of the magazine In the news investigation draft titled "Why Crack Down on Youth's Enthusiasm to March into Science", in the August issue of the magazine, Di Chaobai wrote an article "Discussion on Encouraging Youth's Enthusiasm", defending the Party branch's approach, youth People put forward counter-criticism, and Wu Jinglian and Zhang Zhuoyuan co-wrote "Is the Accusation Too Severe?" ", Zhang Liangyou and Zhou Shulian wrote "Three "Crimes"". "China Youth" was a newspaper sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League with the largest circulation at that time. As soon as this group of reports came out, the "turmoil in the teacup" in the economic institute was known all over the country. With the atmosphere of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending" at that time, and with the support of the League Central Committee and the Science Division of the Central Propaganda Department, the Party Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to criticize the brutal practices of the Party Branch of the Institute of Economics. Wu Jinglian and others won the debate, and the young people felt proud.However, the good times did not last long. After entering 1957, with the development of the "anti-rightist" movement, according to the logic of "anti-party committee is anti-party", the words and deeds of Wu Jinglian and others immediately became the target of the "anti-rightist" struggle.All the young people who participated in the debate were investigated. People from the party branch first labeled Zhang Liangyou, who was away on a business trip and did not participate in the "Ming Fang", as a "rightist" based on his self-examination materials of "confessing his heart to the party", and then reported to the party. The "Anti-Rightist Five-member Group" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences submitted materials, requesting that Wu Jinglian, the leader, be classified as a "rightist".In the end, Wu was identified as a "central right" and received a severe warning from the party.The most bizarre thing is that Di Chaobai and others who wanted to label him as a "rightist" were soon labeled as "rightists" and "anti-party elements" according to the logic of "anti-party committees are anti-party". The turmoil that happened before and after Wu Jinglian's marriage is very intriguing in the future.It is a collective struggle of a group of young people who believe in socialist theory and have certain academic accomplishments in pursuit of "freedom of thought". seed. Different from the "firm belief" shown during the "Three Antis and Five Antis" movement, after experiencing the "Anti-Rightist Movement", Wu Jinglian began to doubt himself painfully.He originally thought that he was born to be a member of the revolutionary team, and that the blood flowing in his veins was the galloping, revolutionary blood. But at this moment, he repeatedly reviewed himself. At best, he was just a "fellow traveler" of the Communist Party in the democratic revolution, or Called "Democratic Revolutionaries".He wrote later: "During this political storm and subsequent critical campaigns, with a pious desire to cleanse intellectuals and 'bourgeois-democratic revolutionaries' of the 'original sin', I tried to convince myself: All kinds of views that do not violate the principles of socialism are actually the fallacies of "revisionism". I was completely wrong yesterday, and I will return to the correct path in the future. The right and wrong of all academic views must be based on whether it is beneficial or not. Proletarian political service' is the ultimate criterion." ("Wu Jinglian Selected Works, Author's Autobiography") In this way, from the radical youth who worshiped the revolution in 1946 to the academic youth full of self-blame in 1956, Wu Jinglian has gone through 10 years.From self-doubt to the age of doubt, the future Wu Jinglian still has 10 years to go.