Chapter 6 Chapter Five Life in the Labor Reform Team

The "Socialist Education Movement" of the Economic Research Institute was not completely over. All members of the Institute went to Zhoukoudian Commune in the rural suburbs of Beijing, and some teachers and students from Beijing University of Technology formed the Zhoukoudian Branch of the Beijing "Four Cleansing" Working Group to carry out "Rural Socialist Education Movement".Wu Jinglian served as the office director of the sub-group, and was responsible for handling business tasks such as writing briefings and preparing case approval materials for the sub-group, and he was extremely busy. The "Four Clean-ups" were in the final stage, and the new leaders of the communes, brigades, and production teams had just started working. The work group suddenly received an order from the Beijing Municipal Party Committee to withdraw to the city to concentrate on studying.It turned out that the "unprecedented Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" had begun.

In May 1966, marked by the defeat of Peng Zhen, Lu Dingyi, Luo Ruiqing, and Yang Shangkun, the "Cultural Revolution" broke out. For the Chinese people, the next ten years will be an unbearable "lost decade".This great nation with thousands of years of secular rationality has fallen into a collective frenzy. People are fighting each other to "defend" the same leader and beliefs. Paranoid ideology full of lies controls everything. The national economy is completely paralyzed. Tendency to self-destruct.In the beginning, only a very small number of sober people were thinking rationally, and then more and more people woke up from suffering, but all of them were still suppressed under the powerful political machine.For Wu Jinglian, the best period of his life will be wasted together with this era, and at the same time, he has completed another "Phoenix Nirvana" on the road of life.

Like the vast majority of people at that time, he once enthusiastically threw himself into the torrent of the "Cultural Revolution". From the very beginning of the movement, Deng's house on Nanchang Street suffered catastrophe. Red Guards rushed into the house, criticized the old "rightists" Deng Jixing and Chen Mingde, and smashed things to pieces.Zhou Nan was the director of the kindergarten at Beijing Normal University at this time, so she became the "power in power" and was hit before Wu Jinglian. She was "rebelled" and became a cleaner who cleaned the house every day. Wu Xiaolian, who was 10 years old, was painted with ink on her face because she was a "dog boy" and turned into a cat.Once, the Red Guards were ransacking his home on Nanchang Street. Zhou Nan went to visit the old man. He was caught immediately, grabbed his hair, and shaved his head into a yin and yang.In those days, some people in the main building of Beijing Normal University committed suicide by jumping off the building because they could not bear the humiliation.Zhou Nan later said, "I had the urge to die, but fortunately, my longing for this family kept me here."When she was walking in the courtyard of the Normal University to and from get off work, she would encounter ignorant children who would hit her with stones, and her back was blackened several times.After returning home at night, Wu Jinglian rubbed her with alcohol. He was afraid that his wife would be overwhelmed, so he took out "Quotations from Chairman Mao" and said to her: "Chairman Mao taught us, 'Revolution is not about treating guests to dinner, writing articles, or painting. Embroidery...'" Wu Jinglian read it once, and asked Zhou Nan to read it with him.Relying on her husband's warmth and this method of "reading quotations", Zhou Nan's depression was slightly resolved.

Although his mother, stepfather, wife and daughter were all subjected to such humiliating shocks, Wu Jinglian still believed in his heart that revolution was necessary. He recalled in his oral history, "When the movement started, I thought it was a revolution in the soul, criticizing Revisionism is necessary, and people like us should be thoroughly reformed."Based on this understanding, he accepted the transformation with a peaceful mind. At the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", the Institute of Economics established a "Cultural Revolution Preparatory Committee" composed of young researchers who were the first to rebel and "root Zheng Miaohong" to lead the movement.Wu Jinglian was a member of the party committee of the "Four Cleanups" work sub-group and academic secretary of the political economy research group, so he was declared a "gang member" and even a "bourgeois academic authority". free time.Soon, the "preparatory committee" was declared to be a product of Liu (Liu Shaoqi) and Deng (Deng Xiaoping's) "bourgeois reactionary line" and became a "reactionary organization."Wu Jinglian posted a big-character poster at the entrance of the economic office, announcing "self-liberation", which was the first catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution".Later, he and Zhou Shulian, Zhang Zhuoyuan, Huang Fanzhang and others who were also the academic secretaries of the research group devoted themselves to the "great revolution that touched people's souls".

The Institute of Economics is affiliated to the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (referred to as the "Faculty"). Unlike other departments of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences has not been affiliated to the Academy of Sciences since 1958, but has been directly led by the Central Propaganda Department. After the "Cultural Revolution" broke out, the academic department was divided into two mass factions, one was the "School Red Guard Wing" (referred to as "the Wing"), and the other was the "School Red Guard Corps" (abbreviated as "corps"). Between life and death, the fight is inextricably linked.

Wu Jinglian was in the center of the whirlpool of the "Cultural Revolution" in the academic department, and "accidentally" saw many abnormal phenomena. When the wave of rebellion just broke out, the department where the Institute of Economics was located was actually one of the places where the storm started, and the core force of the "unit" of the department was composed of personnel from the Institute of Philosophy. Guan Feng, a member of the "Central Cultural Revolution", came from the Institute of Philosophy.Wu Chuanqi, Lin Yushi, and Zhou Jingfang, the leading members of the "United Team" of the Institute of Philosophy, have a very close relationship with the "Central Cultural Revolution Group", so the Faculty has become a "front-line command post", a special place known as "Central Cultural Revolution at every turn" .Wu Jinglian recalled: "Being in a command center that has a special relationship with the 'Central Cultural Revolution' in the Faculty of Education. It is easier for us to find that in the actions under the banner of the beautiful revolution time and time again, there is a black hand with ulterior motives. Through the transfer station of the Ministry of Education, some people in schools and institutions who don't know the truth or have personal ambitions are incited and directed to act as thugs and take chestnuts for them."

The important event that allowed Wu Jinglian and others to recognize this fact was the "anti-February countercurrent" incident in February 1967.This month, Zhou Enlai presided over the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the meeting of the Military Commission at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai.At the meeting, military veterans such as Tan Zhenlin, Chen Yi, Li Xiannian, and Ye Jianying strongly criticized the wrong approach of the "Central Cultural Revolution". Their actions were severely criticized by Mao Zedong and characterized as "February countercurrent".Then, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng and others took advantage of this situation to try to overthrow the "conservatives" in the party headed by Zhou Enlai in one fell swoop. Therefore, the "United Team" of the Academic Department came forward and followed the "Down with Tan Zhenlin, bombarded Chen Yi and Li Xiannian, The strategy of isolating Zhou Enlai" instigated the Red Guards in some schools, and set off a massive "anti-February countercurrent movement".

Wu Jinglian recalled the scene at that time and said: "At that time, what disgusted me the most was the so-called 'anti-February countercurrent'. The people in the academic department could clearly see that the Red Guards' attack on some old leaders was completely in accordance with the deployment of the above. Yes. They contacted the rebel organizations in universities and government agencies through the 'wing', turned this deployment into 'demands from the masses', and then made a statement from above to 'support the just demands of the revolutionary masses'. For example, they Tan Zhenlin's tone was to 'defeat', and he was really overthrown in two days. Chen Yi was 'bombed' and was really bombarded. This was not a mass movement at all, but a manipulation and movement of the masses. At that time, we did not dare to doubt that Jiang Qing Who do you suspect, the rest of the 'Central Cultural Revolution' people, especially Kang Sheng." So, Wu Jinglian and his friends joined the third faction of the "African Federation and the General Assembly" that split from the "United Team" in early 1967 Mass organization: "Revolutionary Great Criticism Headquarters" (referred to as "Big Group Department"), whose main members are "intermediate elements" and academic backbones in economic institutes.

Not long after the "anti-February countercurrent", the school and Wu Jinglian were soon involved in a bigger and more dangerous political vortex - the "May 16 incident". At the beginning of May 1967, there appeared suddenly on the streets of Beijing a group of people with the titles "Find out the general backstage of the February black wind——Zhou Enlai", "The key point of Zhou Enlai and his like is to betray the "May 16 Notice", "Zhou Enlai is a Maoist The Shameful Traitor of the People's Republic of China" leaflets and large slogans, signed "Capital May 16 Red Guard Regiment".The masses in Beijing expressed great indignation at this act. Some members of the "Da Da Da Department" believe that "May 16" may have something to do with Wu Chuanqi, Lin Yushi and others.Wu Jinglian, together with Zhao Renwei from the Institute of Economics, hid in the fortress of the "big batch of departments" - the Institute of Modern Chinese History in Dongchang Hutong to collect and sort out materials. He believed that the "May 16th" He is the same as the leader of the "wing" of the academic department.

By September, after the failure of the "ultra-left" forces of the "Cultural Revolution" to "counter Zhou" and "pull out a small number of people in the army", Mao Zedong pointed out that the organizer and manipulator of "May 16" was a The slogan "Appears to be ultra-left, but is actually ultra-right" has blown up the evil trend of "doubting everything", and the "conspiratorial counter-revolutionary group that bombarded the proletarian headquarters" should be thoroughly exposed. At this time, it was found out that those who put up these leaflets and slogans were a small "ultra-left" student organization in Beijing Iron and Steel Institute.However, Jiang Qing and others took advantage of the topic and defined "May 16th" as "cannoning the 'Three Reds' (Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, and the 'Central Cultural Revolution')" and launched a nationwide "investigation of the 'May 16th' counter-revolutionary conspiracy " campaign, to fight against the opposition, and deliberately amplified the liquidation campaign.

At the beginning of 1968, the Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Team of the Capital Workers (referred to as the Worker Propaganda Team) and the Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Team of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (referred to as the Military Propaganda Team) successively entered the Economic Institute and announced that they would arrest the "May 16 Counter-revolutionaries" here.It is ridiculous and ironic that in that age of rational disorder, anyone could be a "counter-revolutionary".In the beginning, the Military Propaganda Team joined forces with the "corps" and "a large number of departments" to turn almost all the backbones of the "wing" who had been in power for more than a year after 1967 into "May 16th elements" and delegated all members of the academic department to The "May 7th Cadre School" accepts re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants.Wu Jinglian recalled: "Whoever they want to beat down, they will definitely be able to beat down, and there is evidence. For example, they believe that you have filled out the form to join the 'May 16th Counter-Revolutionary Organization', how can you 'voluntarily admit'? There are 3 forms in front of you, you point to one, and if the one you point to does not meet their requirements, you type it; then point to another one until you hit the one they think." Seeing that the investigation of "May 16th" turned into another movement to attack dissidents and incite the masses to fight against the masses, Wu Jinglian became the "happy faction" of the "Cultural Revolution".Exhausted physically and mentally, he was very pessimistic about the reality, so he simply dropped his major in economics, turned around and became obsessed with installing transistor radios, until he installed 8 tubes. He even bought components and planned to install a TV set by himself.He held the electric soldering iron every day, and didn't stop until meal time. Zhou Nan had to feed him dry steamed buns.At this time, Zhou Nan had a simple idea: the country will not go on like this forever, after all, it needs intellectuals and learning.She persuaded Wu Jinglian to stop these handicrafts.At this time, in October 1969, Lin Biao, who presided over the work of the Military Commission, issued the "Order No. 1" to prepare for war.Then, the Military Propaganda Team of the Academic Division announced that all the staff of the Academic Division, regardless of age, would be transferred to the "May 7th Cadre School" in Xinyang, Henan Province. The "May 7th Cadre School" first emerged locally. After the spring of 1968, with the defeat of Liu Shaoqi and others becoming a foregone conclusion, the political struggle within the party came to an end, and all the powers that should be seized were taken away. How to deal with it? In May, Heilongjiang Province sent a large number of cadres to work in the countryside, and opened a farm in Liuhe, Qing'an County, named "May 7th Cadre School." It was quickly recognized as a good experience, and party and government organizations all over the country followed suit In response, a "May 7th Cadre School" was set up in the countryside, and a large number of people were sent to the countryside to participate in manual labor.The ministries and commissions affiliated to the central government alone successively established 106 "May 7th Cadre Schools" and repatriated more than 100,000 decentralized cadres and 35,000 family members. In order to get into the "May 7th Cadre School", the military propaganda team changed the academic department into an army company and platoon organization, the literature department was the fifth company, and the economics department was the seventh company. On November 16, 1969, these two companies served as "advanced troops" and went to Xixian County to do basic construction.Among the "Fifth Company Warriors" to which literature belongs, there are famous literary masters Yu Pingbo, Qian Zhongshu and others.Yang Jiang, Mrs. Qian, recorded the scene at that time in the article "Six Records of the Cadre School. Farewell", "On the day of the departure of the two companies, the school beat gongs and drums, and we all dismissed from school. The decentralized personnel came out in a whole team, and the red flag opened , Mr. Yu Ping and Mrs. Yu lead the team, the old people who are over seventy years old, still lined up like school-age children, went to the cadre school to study, I couldn't bear it, I pulled out and retreated..." Xi County belongs to the Xinyang area of ​​Henan Province. In the late 1950s and early 1960s in China, Xinyang was the synonym of absurdity and tragedy. During the "Great Leap Forward" period in 1958, it was the Chaya Mountain Satellite Collective Farm in Suiping County, Xinyang Prefecture, which announced in a high-profile manner that it had achieved a wheat yield of 3,520 catties per mu. Report—this is the first time that the high-yield term "satellite launch" appeared in the media, which kicked off a high-yield race full of falsehoods and disastrous consequences. The enthusiasm for the "Great Leap Forward" directly led to the Great Famine in the following three years.When a tragedy happened, the place where the satellites were most active was the place where the scene was the most tragic. Henan had the most satellites in the country, and Henan's Xinyang area, where the "Chaya Mountain Satellite" was located, was the most dazzling. In the past 3 years, the number of abnormal deaths in Henan has exceeded 2 million, more than 740,000 livestock have died, and more than 4.4 million mu of barren land has become the worst province in the country. There were more than 10,000 people, and many villages had no food or households. The edema disease spread in a large area, and a large number of farmers fled or starved to death. The "Xinyang Incident" shocked the whole country.The Henan Provincial Party Committee also stated in its review to the Central Committee that during this period Xinyang "formed a world of terror and darkness for a while". Xi County is located in the Great Plains and is rich in wheat and rice. ", but by the late 1960s, this place had become a barren and barren land. During the "Great Leap Forward" period, Wu Jinglian went to Fuling, Sichuan Province for a short-term investigation. Although some abnormal phenomena were observed, he did not experience any serious pain.It was in Xi County that he witnessed the astonishing bitterness of improper policies, which was still a "secret" that no one dared to touch at the time.In the oral history, he said: "When I arrived at the cadre school, I became suspicious first. In the Xinyang area where most of the cadre schools of the central state organs are located, there are no villages for dozens of miles away. This place is Zhongzhou, and the Chinese nation multiplied from here. It came out, it has been civilized for thousands of years, how could there be such a large amount of wasteland? The locals "remember the bitterness and think about the sweetness", what they cried and said was not what happened before liberation, but all about those 3 years ( 1959~1961), the things he talked about were terrible, because the tragedy "human cannibalism" mentioned by Liu Shaoqi really happened. After a person starved to death, although his relatives had no strength, they still tried to get rid of it. He buried it very deep, but if you buried it shallow, people dug it out and ate it. This kind of story makes us truly understand why the consequences of the 'Great Leap Forward' and the People's Commune happened, which has never happened before in history. Woolen cloth?" It is in the face of the tragic facts, and in the bitter questioning caused by it, that the hard shell of ideology begins to peel off cruelly, and new flesh dripping with blood grows out one by one. Let Wu Jinglian get a new life of soul. The philosopher said that suffering is the greatest wealth in life, but this sentence actually varies from person to person.No one will take the initiative to pursue and embrace suffering, but when it comes, it will wash away different backgrounds. Some people are depressed, some are numb, some are betrayed, some go with the flow, and some are vigilant and sublimated from then on.Wu Jinglian's life changed completely in the "May 7th Cadre School" and later in the labor reform team. He began to learn to observe independently. Learned to think independently and freely in suffering. Fortunately for Wu Jinglian, he "reunited" with Gu Zhun during the cadre school. Wu Jinglian left a deep impression on Gu Zhun, an old "rightist" who was "familiar but unfamiliar". At that time, the staff of the Faculty were gathered in the compound, and Gu Zhun asked the military propaganda team: "Where is my wife, Wang Bi?" up.Gu Zhun loved his wife dearly all his life. Hearing this, he stood in a daze for a while, then buried his head on a lunch box and howled, like an orphaned dog.Colleagues stood aside, looking at each other sadly, and no one could say a word. After arriving in Xixian County, the Fifth Company was divided into four platoons. The original political economics group and the editorial department of "Economic Research" were organized into two platoons. Wu Jinglian and Gu Zhun were divided into the same platoon. They worked and lived together. At the beginning, Quanlian lived in a cotton warehouse in the county seat. Gu Zhun recorded the scene in his diary: "The cotton warehouse has a shelf, more than half of the people sleep on high bunks, and the rest sleep on the bed boards, in the middle. The trunk cages are placed under the racks. This warehouse is very long and has ten rooms, and the result of this arrangement is that the interior is a spectacle." After settling down, they began to remove the bricks and build houses.Wu Jinglian was first assigned to be a bricklayer.He soon became a senior technician, responsible for building gables, starting work at dawn and finishing work at night.In August 1970, after building 7 dormitories and a grain warehouse in a row, Wu Jinglian became an electrician. He studied the "Code of Electricians" and laid wires to every corner safely.In addition, he also taught himself carpentry with He Juhuang, a young economist in the same platoon.The highest craft of carpentry is not to build furniture, but to make wood tools—saws and planes.A saw is relatively simple, just three pieces of wood plus a saw blade, but a plane is more difficult, the groove must be dug flat, and the slit of the knife must have an appropriate angle. Only in this way can the shavings come out smoothly and not get stuck in the groove of the planer.Wu Jinglian exerted his strength to study, and He Juhuang summed up a set of procedures for making planes. Not only is the quality good, but the speed is also very fast. He can even make one in a day. He gained a little fame in the cadre school.In this way, from bricklayer, electrician to carpentry.This person who liked science and engineering since he was a child did not expect that he would actually realize his "ideal" in his forties. In addition to physical labor, the rest of the time is almost entirely used for eating and sleeping.The Xinyang area belongs to the Huaihe River Basin, and is rich in soft-shelled turtles and eels, but the farmers are too poor to eat them. The cadre school produces its own grain, so the food is also very good.At that time, reading other books was not allowed except the "Red Treasure Book" ("Mao Zedong Quotations") and six explanatory pamphlets of classic works.Even the "People's Daily" is only allowed to "read", not "read".Therefore, when it got dark, I turned off the lights and went to bed.Wu Jinglian, who was always sick, got better day by day. However, this period of silence did not last long, and was interrupted because of "deep digging on May 16". Jiang Qing and others seized on the banner of "investigating May 16th" to make a fuss, personally grasped the models, issued circulars, demanded "deep digging", and fanned the flames of persecution again and again.The Military Propaganda Team of the Ministry of Education acted according to the instructions above. After the "May 16" crimes committed by the backbone of the "United Team" were turned into an "iron case", the focus of the investigation turned to the former Allied Army who investigated the "May 16" , Today's "5.162 sets of teams" - "a large number of departments". In April 1971, the Cadre School of the Faculty was ordered to move to Minggang Town, 50 miles away from Xixian County, and lived in an abandoned military camp. , Minggang is more like a "concentration camp". The theme of the movement is still to expose and criticize the "May 16th elements".With the "deepening" of the struggle, more and more bad elements were dug out, so that one-third of the more than 100 accounts in the Economic Institute became "May 16 elements."Wu Jinglian was even more unlucky. Someone revealed that he once asked Wu Jinglian to repair the radio. After the radio was repaired, he turned it on and listened to it. enemy platform".He will be criticized almost every three to five times, and sometimes he will be criticized three or four times a day.He was "isolated and reviewed", and most people in the company were afraid to associate with him.Among the members of the "large number of departments" in the Faculty, many were forced to submit, and some committed suicide because of the humiliation and indignation.Wu Jinglian refused to admit it, so he was criticized for this, and most of the time, he would be criticized three times a day.He recalled that the head of the Military Propaganda Team of the Economic Institute seemed to have a "natural" aversion to intellectuals. Every time there was a criticism meeting, the first sentence the instructor yelled at him was often: "Take off your broken glasses for me." !” He was also forced to confess his “accomplice”.Liu Hong wrote in the book "Wu Jinglian": "One point is particularly worth mentioning. When the author visited Wu Jinglian's colleagues, they all said that during the 'Cultural Revolution', when forced confessions were used, Wu Jinglian always Speak honestly and honestly, never bite others randomly, and don’t make things out of nothing.” However, all these encounters were indifferent to Wu Jinglian.His friend Zhou Shulian wrote down such a scene in a memoir article, "I walked out of the small room and looked at the row of houses behind. Wu Jinglian in the second row was washing clothes about 50 meters away from me. He looked up and saw me. He opened his mouth and sang a model play: I want to learn from the green pine on the top of Mount Tai. At that time, many people admitted that they were "May 16". In the end, Wu Jinglian was identified as a "May 16 counter-revolutionary with the hat in the hands of the people" because of his "stubbornness", and was sent to the reform-through-labor team with more difficult conditions. In this team, there are not only young and middle-aged "counter-revolutionaries" like him, but also many veteran "counter-revolutionaries", some of whom have even criticized him in the past.Wu Jinglian was very lonely. In the team, he and the old "rightist" Gu Zhun got together.In the past period of time, even though he and Gu Zhun both worked in the Economics Institute and even worked in the same group, they didn't have much contact with each other.Wu Jinglian, who pursues progress and calls himself a "revolutionary", has no closeness to this predecessor who twice wore the title of "rightist", and they are also completely different in economic thinking.But now, the situation is stronger than others, and everything seems to have undergone fundamental changes. Now Wu Jinglian has also become a "counter-revolutionary" who has been reformed through labor. His social status is also "low" to the level of "untouchables" like Gu Zhun. . In the high-intensity physical labor, Wu Jinglian, who was sick since childhood, was far inferior to Gu Zhun, who was 15 years older than him, and could only act as Gu Zhun's helper, and the two got closer and closer.Wu Jinglian's academic skills and intelligence left a deep impression on Gu Zhun.Once, everyone was working as an electrician, and He Juhuang, who was in the same group, brought a copy of "Advanced Mathematics". Wu Jinglian flipped through a few pages and found a problem in the logical derivation. As he said, Wu's mathematical foundation surprised everyone.Gu Zhun also recorded such an incident in his diary. Once, he and Wu Jinglian went to install tiles in Xinyang City. They took the opportunity to observe the city's industry with the eyes of economists and evaluate its economic development. When passing a thermal power station, the locals introduced that it has a power generation capacity of 16,000 kilowatts. Based on his familiarity with industrial technology, Wu Jinglian deduced from the appearance and scale that the designed installed capacity of this power station should be 100,000 kilowatts. Wu Jinglian also had a new understanding of Gu Zhun.Once, the labor reform team criticized Gu Zhun, accusing him of "stealing, raping and playing tricks". Gu Zhun, who was over fifty years old and weak, refused to bow his head. People from the military propaganda team began to beat him, and Gu Zhun stormed like rain Still holding his head high with his fists stubbornly, he shouted: "I just don't accept it!" Another time, someone came to Gu Zhun to investigate Tan Zhenlin's problems. Even his dismissal had something to do with Tan. However, when someone asked him to confirm that Tan was a "traitor", he firmly said "no". It’s not that it’s not.” If you call again, you still say “no.”Another researcher surnamed Qin was Sun Yefang's fellow Wuxi fellow and Gu Zhun's old colleague in East China.At this time, he was also overthrown. The "revolutionary masses" discovered that during the Anti-Japanese War, Qin had worked as a political counselor in a junior college of the KMT's Guangxi clique in Guilin, Guangxi, and was criticized as an "anti-communist veteran".But Gu Zhun came to the special case team and said, you people have no knowledge of history.This school is directly controlled by Li Kenong, and has done a lot of work for the underground party. How can working here be called an "anti-communist veteran"? Wu Jinglian admired Gu Zhun's integrity and "reality".Once, in a private conversation, referring to the factional struggle among the Red Guards in the past few years, Gu Zhun said to Wu Jinglian: "They fight all day long, and they are very proud of themselves. They think they are doing a revolutionary cause, but in fact they are just The pawns on other people's chessboards, it is better to use this time to read some books, which is more beneficial to the country and the people." This remark made Wu Jinglian feel the same way. He began to reflect on himself, reflecting on the theories he believed in in the past one by one, and also made a new look at the theory of the law of value advocated by Sun Yefang and Gu Zhun, who had once criticized them with all their strength.Gu Zhun, who has been suffering for more than ten years, obviously sees deeper and farther than him. He said that the crux of the problem is actually what to do after Nora leaves. Nora is a female character created by the Norwegian dramatist Ibsen in "A Doll's House". She comes from a middle-class family. She was her father's doll since she was a child, and her husband's doll after she got married. For their happiness, she At the expense of herself, after experiencing a family accident, Nora resolutely slammed the door and ran away.Before and after the "May 4th Movement", the youth thought leader Hu Shi put forward the "Ibsen Doctrine". Nora, who ran away, became a typical example of self-rebellion and self-awakening among Chinese youth. She was identified as "Angel of Revolution, Alarm Bell of Society".In December 1923, when Lu Xun gave a speech at Beiping Women's Normal University, he raised a sobering doubt—what would happen after Nora left?This is a profound question - Nora leaving means abandoning the old system, old order, and old culture; but what to do after leaving means how to build a "new" after the "old" is changed. No matter how thorough the revolution is, it cannot be said that the revolution has succeeded.Lu Xun said in his speech: Due to the lack of independent economic status, after Nora left, "or there are really only two paths: either degenerate or come back." Half a century after Lu Xun raised this question, the confusion of "what to do after Nora leaves" is still unresolved, and it was even covered up for a long time.It was on the barren plain of Xi County that Gu Zhun picked it up again.He pointedly asked: Why did the "comprehensive dictatorship" over almost everyone happen in China 20 years after the successful revolution to overthrow the Kuomintang's autocratic rule—that is, "after Nora left"?Why did the planned economy fail to make the Chinese rich?What kind of economic and political system should China establish in order to truly realize modernization? Gu Zhun's question was like thunder to Wu Jinglian's ears. It was as dangerous as "poison" but full of freshness. He pointed out the core problem that Wu Jinglian had been thinking about for several years but had no idea.Because they were completely isolated from the outside world, what they didn't know was that at this moment, rethinking the Soviet system had become the most important proposition in the global political and ideological circles.In Western intellectual circles, neo-liberal scholars such as British economist Friedrich Hayek and philosopher Karl Popper successively wrote "The Road to Serfdom", "The Open Society and Its Enemies" and many other works. The book excavates and criticizes the origins of the planned economic system and modern totalitarianism from the perspectives of philosophy, economics, and sociology.Even in the Soviet Union, after entering the mid-1960s, some economists questioned the Soviet economic system. Wu Jinglian’s teacher Bierman became one of the important critics of the planned economic model at this time. In 1967, he In the article "Inevitability", he wrote: "Why do the staff of the State Planning Commission do this? Why are they able to do this? All of these do not depend on the consciousness and conscience of the staff of a certain competent department, but on the economic The system determines ... The most terrible curse of the national economy, the activism of voluntarism in the economy, has its roots not in the habits of certain workers, nor in their rigidity and conservatism, but in the creation of Soviet society. Adapt to its economic system." In the history of Soviet economic reform, Bierman was one of the earliest doubters of the planned economic system. Of course, Gu Zhun and Wu Jinglian knew nothing about these thoughts. They were completely in a dark "box", starting from the origin of the question to find the answer.A very surprising fact is that Gu Zhun at that time had already given up the work of "perfecting" the planned economic system, and even decided to go directly to the root of the problem from outside the economic system.He believes that in order to understand China's affairs, one must first study world cultural history, economic history, political history, and religious history, sort out the entire history of mankind, and then go back and analyze China's problems. Be clear.Such a level of thinking was obviously beyond the reach of Wu Jinglian back then, and even exceeded the limitations of all Chinese intellectuals at that time.For example, in the field of economics, Sun Yefang, Xue Muqiao, Yu Guangyuan and others broke through the frame of the planned economy in their later years, but they still thought within the scope of the economic system.As the above-mentioned economists of the same generation, Gu Zhun had already realized the deeper problems as early as the early 1970s.Because of this, after many years, he was greatly respected by people. So, where should such a long and arduous "ideological long march" start from?Gu Zhun's answer was actually: Greece. The reason is that the Soviet historical materialism textbooks and history books that Gu and Wu learned before said that the communal democracy in the primitive communist society of Greece and Rome was directly inherited. It seems that the public ownership system is always connected with the democratic system. A communist society is nothing but a return to primitive communism.Accordingly, Gu and Wu tried to start thinking from the premise of this theory—where did the Greek city-state democracy system come from, and how did it evolve? This kind of ideological exploration continued secretly and tenaciously for four years until Gu Zhun passed away, completely changing Wu Jinglian's values ​​and academic standpoint.Before that, there were two different "bloods" flowing in his body, one was the revolutionary ideas from the reformist family, and the other was the radicalism inspired by the revolutionary years. They were incompatible and conflicted with each other. The fierce conflict in the body, which is gentle and stubborn by nature, often makes it trapped and distressed.At this time, the turmoil of the country, the coming of suffering, and the appearance of Gu Zhun brought a new force of rationalism into it.We will see in the future that compared with his contemporary economists, Wu Jinglian has deeper humanistic feelings, is better at philosophical thinking, and is more inclined to rebuild the social legal order from the standpoint of independent criticism. Undoubtedly, his personality traits are closely related to his growth process. In his oral history in his later years, Wu Jinglian seldom talked about the hardships of life in the labor camp. His optimism is certainly due to his stubborn personality, but more importantly, it is because his soul has long been flying in the world of thought. From Xixian County to Minggang, he and Gu Zhun secretly pondered the question of "after Nora left" and read every book he could find.According to the discipline at that time, the "soldiers" of the "May 7th Cadre School" except for the six Marxist-Leninist classics and their annotations and explanations , it is strictly forbidden to read any books, but they turn a deaf ear to it.Wu Jinglian recalled that they had such "privileges" not because of the "extrajudicial grace" of the military propaganda team, but because of Gu Zhun's ingenious struggle. 顾准有一本中英文对照的《圣经》，还是国民党年代为了纪念蒋介石寿辰所印的老版本，有一天他在翻阅时被军宣队的一位参谋发现了，便被狠狠地训诫了一顿，参谋严肃地批判他说：“马克思早就说过宗教是人民的鸦片，你怎么能看这样的书？！”过了几天，当着很多人的面，顾准拿了一本列宁的《共产主义运动中的“左派”幼稚病》解说一书，去问这位参谋：“列宁说修正主义者'为了一碗红豆汤出卖了长子权'，是什么意思？”参谋当然答不上来，顾准乘机大大地教训了他一顿，说，“这个典故出自《圣经》，你不读《圣经》，就根本读不懂列宁”。从此，军宣队的人领教了顾准的厉害，凡看到顾准在读书，就绕着走，以免彼此尴尬。跟在顾准旁边的吴敬琏也因此大沾其光，他们得以读到不少所谓的“禁书”。 这时候的顾准，早已经不是过去的那个会计学教授、上海市财税局长，苦难让这个人的灵魂变得更加纯净，而思维的深度更是让他超越了所有的同时代人。他带着吴敬琏一起，由希腊的城邦制度溯源而下，进而研究中世纪以来的法国革命史、欧美经济变革史，试图搞清楚人类在追求民主制度时所面临的种种抉择与思考方式。同时，他们也研究先秦的韩非子、荀子，在中西思想的对比中寻找异同。 这种富有穿透力和强大时空坐标感的钻研，让顾准的思考力变得愈加尖利，他对诸多寻常事件的看法已信手拈来，皆成智珠。某次，一位棚友购得一本《天演论》，视为宝物，顾准拿来“粗读一过，颇多感触”，他的感触是，“（此书）归根到底，无非强调'人定胜天'一语，而于政治则为舍己为群，一反利己即利人之说，持其论，可以破民主个人主义，而归于集体英雄主义，此集体英雄主义锋芒所向。并非人事，特为自然。循是推论，则凡违此义者，都与人类本身之目的不合，而为人类之异己分子，阶级斗争不可废，且永不可废，根据悉在此”。吴敬琏日后感慨道，在“文革”后期，《天演论》被重新推荐，从没有人以这样的角度来解构此中真意，顾准却从中尖锐地看出了植根于国民精神深处的对专制的膜拜。 1971年8月，顾准以《十年来的苏联经济》为题写道：“他们的经济是有发展的，但是，这仍是备战经济体制的发展，而且是一种极其笨拙的、悉索敝赋的以供军备的那种发展，一句话，斯大林主义的经济体制，对他们已经积重难返，成了不治之症了。”他进而说：“本因为如此，所以，他们的经济体制本质上是一种浪费和窒息的制度，用在军费与基本工业扩展上的比例很大，用于增加消费基金的数额，永远跟不上工资的增加……我想，在看得见的将来，这个看来都难受的体制还是会歪歪斜斜地向前走，但是会有一种力量来推翻这个令人窒息的制度。” 在顾准的引领下，吴敬琏的思想也日趋理性和深广。他在研究希腊时发现，希腊在小亚细亚的殖民地推行民主制，竟先于本土，并且这些殖民地的社会结构与千年后的北美英属殖民地很有类似之处。于是他提出了一个假说：当初小亚细亚殖民地的希腊人多半是逃债者或者被放逐者，因此他们原有的等级从属关系的绳索被切断了，面对着强大的异族势力，不得不以独立平等的成员身份组成共同体。这种情况，是城邦民主制度发展成为政治制度的起源之一。顾准对这一解释非常欣赏，认为颇有创见。吴敬琏对当时倡导的“崇法批儒”十分不以为然，他在研读了《荀子》、《韩非子》及郭沫若的《十批判书》后，看到了“儒表法里”的专制主义在中国千年政治思想中的源远流长。 在一个又一个黯淡而漫长的劳改队之夜，被专制的淤泥堵塞住的思想隧道一寸一寸地打通了，尽管距离找到答案的时刻还如此遥远，但是他们似乎已经摸索到了前行的方向。顾准曾经跟人说，与吴敬琏聊天是一种享受。吴敬琏则更是珍惜那段难忘的时光，他在后来的回忆文章中写道，“已经有很长时间没有参与这种能够启发人思想的自由讨论了，这种机会居然在被打成'反革命'的情况下得到，真是一种奇缘”。 由于手头资料的极端缺乏，顾准和吴敬琏的研究看上去显得非常不“专业”，也因此，后世学界对他们的这次思想探索有着不同的评价。 一些西方的华裔学者对此的学术价值表示怀疑，德国波鸿大学教授仲维光认为：“在学术思想领域中，顾准的那本书（指顾创作的《希腊城邦制度》一书）应该说基本上是没有什么价值的。如果把顾准的书翻译成西方文字，会让这里的学界哭笑不得。他从概念到对材料的运用都是非常有问题的。如果真的研究例如希腊城邦制，那就要去读有关的原始文献，和这方面专家的研究。顾准涉及的文献都不过通俗读物，对于治史和作学术研究的人，如果限于这些资料，那么只能说明自己还没有完全进门。” 而与之截然相反的是，国内思想界则评价非常之高。历史学家、上海大学教授朱学勤认为仲维光的评论是“以自己在海外所接触的所谓西方'学术链'为标准，贬低国内思想前驱的历史地位”，是一种“知识傲慢”。他指出，顾准当年“是在思想的隧道中单兵掘进到与当代自由主义思想可以对话的程度”，这是不容后人所任意“轻薄”的；而顾准所得的“知识”是“鼓面上的常识”，是“思想的常识”，它比经“学术训练”而写出来的“学术知识”更有价值和生命力。 从经学济世的角度来看，朱论显然更为公允。而对于吴敬琏来说，与顾准的这段朝夕推研，无疑有着清明开窍般的意义。 1971年9月13日，“文化大革命”中取代刘少奇成为党的第二号人物的林彪乘飞机出逃，摔死在蒙古国境内。他的一批下属相继被捕。10月，第二十六届联合国大会通过决议，恢复中华人民共和国在联合国的合法权利，这意味着中国在时隔22年之后重新回到了国际大家庭。1972年2月21日，美国总统尼克松抵达北京访问，一周后，《中美联合公报》在上海发表，长期尖锐敌对的中美关系开始走向正常化。经过了几年“文化大革命”的大折腾，国民经济陷入了极度低迷的状态，商品供应极度贫乏，极左的江青、张春桥及王洪文等人只搞政治运动，完全不抓经济，于是，被打倒的中央领导干部们又被陆续召了回来。 随着国内外政治形势的突变，吴敬琏们的劳改队生涯也行将结束。到7月，在周恩来总理的直接干预下，整个学部从明港回到北京。