Chapter 7 Chapter Six: The Death of Gu Zhun

On the train back to Beijing from Minggang, the person in charge of the 7th company and the 2nd row talked to Wu Jinglian and announced that he was still "under review" and could only stay in the academic compound and was not allowed to go home.There are 69 "May 16 counter-revolutionaries" who have not been liberated in the entire faculty, and he is one of them. At this time, Zhou Nan, who had been separated from her husband for nearly three years, showed her bravery.She approached the Political Commissar of the Seventh Company's Military Propaganda Team and asked, "What's wrong with Wu Jinglian? Is he a 'counter-revolutionary'? If he is, I can draw a line with him, but you have to show proof. The two children have to move, please let him go home." The political commissar was speechless.The next day, Wu Jinglian declared "self-liberation" and went home.The leader of the military propaganda team was very angry and said at the meeting of the academic department that this was a new trend of class struggle.However, the political environment has changed drastically after all, and no one really tried to arrest Wu Jinglian.

Despite returning to Beijing, the normal work of the Economic Institute has not resumed, and it is still a mess.Wu Jinglian returned to the study of social history. In order to study English, he began to read the English version of "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", 10 volumes, 500 pages each, and 50 pages a day. Poor Gu Zhun is homeless, and his children have drawn a clear boundary with him, agreeing to "see each other again in life and never in death".What is even more tragic is that his mother is over ninety years old and has not seen her for more than ten years. Although she is in the same city and close at hand, she still cannot see her.He can only live in a small room in the courtyard of the Faculty. Every morning, he carries a military schoolbag with two cold steamed buns in it, goes to the Beijing library to study, and returns at dusk to light a single lamp to continue the night battle.He often coughed violently, with blood in the sputum, but he didn't care.He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the writing of "Greek City-State System".This is a great work written for drawers. Gu Zhun doesn't even know if it will be published. The motivation for his work comes from a mysterious call from heaven and earth.With tens of thousands of words, he profoundly analyzed the difference between the city-state system and "Oriental despotism" and "explored the trajectory of the development of human society on the basis of a comprehensive comparison of Chinese and Western civilizations."

According to Wu Jinglian, when Gu Zhun pondered the question of "what to do after Nora leaves" in his later years, the most important conclusion he drew was that "revolutionary idealism" would be transformed into "conservative and reactionary idealism" through a certain path. despotism". In the history of modern world politics, this path is "1789 (French Revolution) - 1870 (Paris Commune) - 1917 (Russian October Revolution)".In Gu Zhun's view, a revolution is a destruction of the status quo. It cannot gain empirical support. It can only mobilize the society through the imagination of the future perfection and the desire for utopia, so as to attract the participation of the masses. Therefore, revolutionary idealists " Only by insisting that ideals are materialistic, well-founded, and absolutely correct can they feel at ease. Only by insisting that truth is good can they move forward in a consistent manner in theory and practice.”For the masses, "the purpose of the revolution is to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth—to establish a society without alienation and without contradictions."This is of course very motivating. "During the period of great revolution, flying the flag is indispensable. Therefore, although idealism is not scientific, its appearance and function are scientific."In the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and the October Revolution, the "ultimate purpose" was a powerful basis for revolutionary mobilization.

However, Gu Zhun later discovered that, as an indispensable tool for revolution, the setting of the "ultimate goal" is dangerous.Because - "ultimate goal" is monistic, logically contains authoritarianism and despotism.The revolutionaries think they have the truth, shoulder the heavy responsibility of "establishing the kingdom of heaven", regard the "ultimate goal" as the highest goal at present, and reject or deny any other goals for this reason, and regard all intermediate links and short-term goals as means to cleanse All so-called "heresy" that may be competitive, wantonly destroys daily life, tramples on civil rights, and implements dictatorship. "Stalin was brutal, but maybe he wasn't 100% for personal power, but believed it was necessary for the public good, the 'ultimate end'".There is no objective standard for who grasps the "ultimate goal", and it can only be judged by the degree of power, which can easily lead to leader superstition and personality worship, and shape a specific person into a god who understands the secrets of history and embodies the overall will.Based on such logic, the following conclusions can be drawn: the "ultimate goal" must be transformed into a goal through means. It was conceived to mobilize the revolution and lead the masses, but due to its monistic exclusiveness, it evolved into True to purpose, revolutionaries go paranoid.

After many years of lonely and painful study and thinking, Gu Zhun firmly wrote this text: "I have pondered this question for a long time, and my conclusion is that it is impossible to build a kingdom of heaven on earth, and the kingdom of heaven is a complete fantasy. There will always be contradictions." Later researchers believe that it was in this dialectical and rational thinking that Gu Zhun ended the so-called "ultimate goal" and thus liberated the three principles.The first is the scientific spirit, the main purpose is to admit that people's understanding of nature and human society is endless, "there is no 'ultimate goal', there is only progress."Secondly, the scientific spirit is another way of saying pluralism, which denies absolute truth, denies any "first cause" and "ultimate purpose", and respects all kinds of thoughts as a stage of history and a certain aspect of human cognition. From materialism to idealism, from empiricism to idealism, all have contributed to changing the human condition, but none of them is supreme and ultimate, and their fate depends on the results of their respective confrontations and struggles.The third is political democracy. Philosophical monism corresponds to political dogmatism and authoritarianism; pluralism corresponds to democracy and freedom, and it gives everyone the right to express their will. "Democracy is associated with continuous progress, not with an end."

These thoughts of Gu Zhun are undoubtedly an important event in the history of contemporary Chinese thought. It is not only a realistic reflection on the ongoing "Cultural Revolution", but also a final accusation against the feudal autocratic system that has been passed down for more than two thousand years. , even after many years, it still exudes a compelling light.Historian Zhu Xueqin therefore believes that "Chinese liberalism has gradually disappeared after 1949, and its reputation has been discredited. However, Gu Zhun once again carried the banner of liberalism on his own, and helped liberalism 'squeeze' out" in contemporary China. a crack in the door."The idealist who believed in the communist revolution in his early years was reborn after a catastrophe, and returned to a rational empiricist who believed in gradual reform. In one dark and sleepless night after another, he cast his lifelong pursuit and ups and downs. Became a bloody text.What Gu Zhun didn't know was that almost at the same time he was immersed in his work, the Hungarian economist Janos Kornai was writing his masterpiece "Shortage Economics" (1980), which criticized the Soviet model, and The British economist Hayek who wrote "The Road to Serfdom" has become the most famous economist in the West because of his defense of the free market economy. In the global ideological circle, the reform of the rigid planned economic system The curtain has been drawn.

Wu Jinglian and Gu Zhun met every one or two weeks to exchange their experiences and knowledge. Their small circle was also quietly expanding, and Zhao Renwei, Zhou Shulian and Zhang Shuguang all joined in.Wu Jinglian's research on Western economic history and intellectual history has extended to the middle ages and modern times. Comparing ancient and modern times, he feels more and more stubborn of feudal absolutism.He said in his oral history: "In Xixian County and Minggang, our discussions were still relatively rough, mainly about the Greek and Roman systems, as well as the dispute between Confucianism and Legalism, etc. Then after returning to Beijing, it became more realistic. We found that There are two major trends of thought in the world's modern society, one is the British-style empiricism and reformist road; the other is the revolutionary dictatorship-style direct democracy, which can easily form a new kind of despotism. The answer is almost ready to come out. It is a pity that Gu Zhun died later, and I continued to move forward."

At the same time, they also had the opportunity to get in touch with the new development trend of European and American economics, thanks to Zong Jingtao, the director of the library of the Institute of Economics - until more than 30 years later when he was doing oral history, Wu Jinglian was still able to report his name. During the "Cultural Revolution", the Chinese academic circles were completely cut off from their international peers, and they completely cut off contact with each other. However, this sect administrator used a little foreign exchange allocated to him by his superiors every year to subscribe to foreign economics academic journals, such as American Economic Review, etc. It's like accidentally digging an inconspicuous little hole in an iron wall. In the early 1970s, affected by the oil crisis, the western economy fluctuated abnormally, and academic thoughts also changed drastically. Some keen scholars in the Institute of Economics have already noticed this phenomenon from the publications.

According to Wu Jinglian’s recollection, the person who was most sensitive to this situation at the time was Wu Baosan, a former deputy director of Harvard University with a Ph.D. Economics has encountered a second crisis. Neo-liberalism represented by Hayek is emerging. People like us don’t know what this means, but Wu Baosan seems to know.”Wu Baosan often recommended some new books and articles to Gu Zhun. Gu organized translations by Wu Jinglian, Zhao Renwei and others. Among them, Wu translated Mrs. Joan Robinson's "The Second Crisis of Economics", and Gu translated "Joan Robinson Essays in Economics.Mrs. Robinson is a scholar of left-wing Keynesianism, known as the "New Cambridge School" at the time. She, Hayek's neoliberalism, and American Keynesianism represented by Samuelson were a big school at that time. For China at that time To scholars, her ideas seem to be more acceptable.Looking at it in the future, the translation work of Gu Zhun and others was the first time since the 1950s that the Chinese economics circle beckoned to the "reactionary" Western economics.

In the autumn of 1974, amidst the deciduous depression, Gu Zhun's life came to an end. For more than two years, he had been coughing up blood frequently and had a low-grade fever, but doctors had been treating the symptoms as bronchiectasis. One day in October, Wu Jinglian accompanied him to the anti-imperialist hospital (Peking Union Medical College Hospital) to see the results of sputum culture. As soon as the test sheet and X-rays came out, it turned out that he was in the advanced stage of lung cancer. Because Gu Zhun was an old "rightist" wearing a hat, the hospital didn't dare to admit him, so they just put him in the corridor outside the emergency room.Luo Gengmo, Gu’s old comrade-in-arms of the New Fourth Army and also working in the Economics Institute, was very anxious when he heard the news. " identity, but he still struggled to get out of the house, rushed to the hospital along the corner, and found Yang Chun, the party secretary of the headquarters - a "red kid" who had worked under him and Gu Zhun back then. Into the ward.

Gu Zhun didn't know much about the condition at the beginning. Once, the doctor made a ward round and said the word "cancer" in English, and he knew that the end was coming. At that time, the "Cultural Revolution catastrophe" did not seem to have any signs of ending.In the bleak autumn wind, Gu Zhun called the 44-year-old Wu Jinglian to the ward, and said calmly: "I will die soon, and soon I will be speechless due to tracheal blockage, so I have to speak while I can." I will have a long talk with you at the time, and you won’t use it in the future.” During this long talk, Gu Zhun believed that China’s “shenwu boom” would definitely come, but he didn’t know when it would come, so he sent He gave Wu Jinglian four words—"Standby and punctuality." He said, "If the time is not up, it is useless for you to serve the country. There is no such possibility. We must continue our research and study China's problems clearly, so that we can Useful advice for the country". He also mentioned Sun Yefang who was in prison, saying, "I won't see him anymore, but I know what he is like, and he will never be a traitor. So as long as he is not punished to death, he will come out. When he comes out , You help me to greet him." Gu Zhun also made a will.He divided his posthumous manuscript into two parts, of which "the part about the history of Greece was handed over to Comrade Wu Jinglian".This can be seen as the passing of the mantle from one thinker to another. On December 2, Wu Jinglian went to the hospital to accompany Gu Zhun.At eight or nine o'clock in the evening, Gu Zhun's breathing was extremely difficult, his trachea was almost completely blocked, and he tried his best to take every breath of oxygen, and the veins on his forehead and neck were all over the place.Seeing that he was really in pain, the doctor was forced to give him sleeping pills, and then he calmed down a little.Wu Jinglian has been sitting beside him, holding his hand.It was about 11 o'clock, Wu Jinglian was already a little dazed, Gu Zhun woke up suddenly, he struggled and said in a barely audible voice, "Open the camp bed and rest". These were the last words Gu Zhun said in his lifetime.Not long after Wu Jinglian opened the camp bed and lay down, he heard a loud commotion, the nurses were in a mess, and the doctor was giving Gu Zhun a heart massage, but Gu Zhun didn't wake up again. A few hours later, Wu Jinglian and a nurse personally pushed Gu Zhun into the cold mortuary.He later recalled: "This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed a living life die quietly. And what disappeared was such a life full of love, talent, and brilliance. ... On the way home, I just felt very, very cold. I felt that it was a cold world. Gu Zhun was like a little bit of warm light, but he left, but I think he still left us with light. " According to Zhou Nan's recollection, after Wu Jinglian returned home by bicycle in the early morning, his face was extremely pale. He didn't say a word at first, and then wept loudly for a long time.Zhou Nan had been with him for more than half a century, and this was the first time Wu Jinglian cried bitterly. Eight days after Gu Zhun's death, on December 10, 1974, Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in Stockholm, Sweden. At this time, the "Cultural Revolution" was drawing to a close. On April 10, 1975, Sun Yefang, who had been in Qincheng Prison for seven years, was suddenly announced to be "released".He asked the warden, "Why was I arrested at that time?" The answer: "I don't know. We only care about the prisoner, not the case." He asked again: "Why did you let me go today?" The answer: "I don't know. We don't care about the reason, just follow the order. " Sun Yefang returned to the Institute of Economics. As soon as he got out of the car, he stood by the car door and said to the people who came to greet him: "I will not change my aspirations, I will not change my career, and I will not change my views." At that time, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Philosophy and Social Sciences The leader of the Ministry is still Chi Qun, Jiang Qing's confidant, but Sun doesn't care.The superior asked him to write self-reflection materials. He swiped his pen and said, "I never care about personal grievances. I must clarify the theoretical right and wrong, and I will never give up any viewpoints that are in line with the truth." After Sun Yefang was released from prison, Wu Jinglian went to see him.Wu said: "On behalf of Zhou Shulian and the others, I apologize to you. We participated in the criticism of you at that time, but you were right and we were completely wrong." Sun Yi waved his hand and said, "Don't mention this matter again, everyone There are mistakes." Wu Jinglian conveyed Gu Zhun's compliments to him, but Sun Yefang was silent for a long time.For Gu Zhun, Sun not only has strong personal feelings for his old comrade-in-arms, but also sees the abnormal life in the party from the perspective of his life's suffering.At that time, his good friend Wang Daohan, who also came from East China and was "expelled and retained", often brought a small wine bottle to have dinner with Sun Yefang at noon.One day, the two talked about their old friend Gu Zhun.Wang said that Lao Gu himself is not without flaws, he is arrogant, and people with a good temper like Mr. Chen Yi would quarrel with him.Sun Yefang didn't think so, blushed, and had a big debate with Wang Daohan. At this time, Sun Yefang was extremely weak, his movements were sluggish, and he was seriously ill in the liver area. However, he was still immersed in research, carefully reading the classics of Marxism every day, trying to make a breakthrough.His Russian is very good, but in order to understand the original, he even started to learn German. The greatest wish in his heart is to complete the "aborted" "Socialist Economic Theory" in his lifetime.He said that he had typed the manuscript 85 times in Qincheng Prison. At this time, Wu Jinglian was being sent to Dazhai to write a book called "The Political Economy of Dazhai". Dazhai is a production brigade in Xiyang County, Shanxi Province. It was originally a poor mountain village. Under the leadership of the village branch secretary Chen Yonggui, the members dug slopes and built terraced fields, which increased the grain production per mu by 7 times and became a national village. Advanced model of the countryside. In February 1964, Mao Zedong successively proposed "learning from Daqing in industry" and "learning from Dazhai in agriculture", setting up two banners in the economic field.Chen Yonggui, who likes to wear a white sheep belly turban on his head and has a face full of dimples, has become a new political star attracting the attention of the whole country, all the way to the high position of vice premier of the State Council. In 1974, Chen Yonggui, through his son, Chen Mingzhu, head of the Propaganda Department of the Xiyang County Party Committee, invited Nankai University to write a book called Dazhai Political Economy.Nankai's writing team worked in Xiyang for several months, but they couldn't get basic materials, and they didn't know how to start writing a book, so they turned to the State Council Research Office for help.This laboratory was newly established after Deng Xiaoping came back, and its members include Hu Qiaomu, Deng Liqun, Yu Guangyuan, Hu Sheng, Wu Lengxi and others.Yu Guangyuan transferred this task to the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, so three people including Wu Jinglian, Sha Jicai and Yang Changfu were sent to Shanxi to join the editorial team of Dazhai Political Economy. This is the first time for Wu Jinglian to walk into the "No. 1 Village in China" surrounded by light.They were arranged to live in the second guest house in the county seat.The reason why they did not live in Dazhai, where they were going to investigate, was not because they were afraid that these scholars from the city would not be able to adapt to life in the village (the writing team directly under Chen Yonggui lived in the guest house in Dazhai), but because they were not allowed to interact with Dazhai people. Contact, "so as not to interfere with their labor and rest."For this reason, Chen Mingzhu, the head of propaganda of the county party committee, announced three "disciplines" to the editorial team: first, not to participate in labor in Dazhai; As soon as the "Three Do's" were announced, the editorial team was cut off from Dazhai, so how should the book be written?The answer is that it can only be written based on the propaganda articles published in the current newspapers.Even the newspapers that published Chen Yonggui's past speeches are kept in the Dazhai reference room, and outsiders are not allowed to borrow them.At that time, Dazhai was an unquestionable political benchmark. Since it became famous more than ten years ago, 7.1 million people have come to visit and study, and national agricultural conferences have been held here many times. If you don’t learn from Dazhai, you will engage in crooked ways.” This is almost a political consensus.However, Wu Jinglian, who had no way to enter, saw the shadow of "myth" from what he saw and heard. First of all, Dazhai has a very serious pan-politicization tendency.Guo Fenglian, secretary of the party branch, attributed the experience of Dazhai to the tight grasp of class struggle, which is called "fighting one step, one step; fighting ten steps, making ten steps; step by step, advancing all the way."Chen Yonggui organized a "everyday learning group" in Dazhai, requiring farmers to study the leader's quotations every day, declaring that "it doesn't matter if it doesn't rain, Mao Zedong Thought is rain."According to the experience reports in the newspapers, the brilliance of Chairman Mao's thoughts can not only illuminate collective actions, but also penetrate deep into the peasant's family and even the human body.For example, when a commune member got sick, he recited Chairman Mao's book "In memory of Bethune" in the study group when he was suffering from a disease. He claimed to be uneducated, but he was already proficient in expressing the most revolutionary artificial thought with a lot of simple words. , He said, "Thousands of medicines and ten thousand medicines can't save my life, but Chairman Mao's precious book cured my disease."The most important thing to strengthen political and ideological work is to be consistent with the party branch. Wu Jinglian and others heard a story not long after they arrived in Xiyang, saying that Xinhua News Agency reporter Feng Dongshu was expelled because he suspected that the measurement of Dazhai’s land was not true.Therefore, the creators who compiled various works promoting Dazhai in Xiyang reminded each other not to touch Chen Yonggui's "rebellion". Wu Jinglian lived in Xiyang for a long time, and he became acquainted with the local people, and gradually heard some comments about Chen Yonggui. One of the most discussed matters is that Chen Yonggui reversed the case of his second wife's ex-husband, a principal who raped a female student, and promoted the former principal's brother from a commune secretary to a provincial party committee within a few years vice secretary.His son, Chen Mingzhu, is even less famous, known as "Chen Ya Nei". Even when he speaks at a meeting, even if he reads it from the script, it often makes people confused and don't know what to say.It is said that when the Chen family was very popular, more than a hundred of his relatives and friends turned into officials. Another category that has been discussed a lot is Chen Yonggui's proficient skills in political struggle.He ruthlessly suppressed the opponents in the "Cultural Revolution" faction and those who opposed him. He even used some political movement incidents to drive Xie Zhen, the first secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, out of Shanxi.These are by no means what an honest farmer with a farming background can do.Chen Yonggui's various behaviors reminded Wu Jinglian of Zhu Yuanzhang described by Wu Han. His evaluation of Chen was, "If he was born 200 years earlier, this person could be the emperor." In order to find historical materials of Dazhai, Wu Jinglian managed to borrow past newspaper clippings from the writing group of "Red Flag of Dazhai" directly under Chen Yonggui.In the process of reading, a chart fell out, which was the income distribution list of Dazhai in 1973 and 1974. According to the above records, only 40% of Dazhai’s income in this year came from grain, and 40% came from two vehicles. Another 20% of the profit from truck transportation comes from other sideline businesses.This discovery is very surprising, because according to the propaganda of Chen Yonggui and others, Dazhai has always only grown grain, never engaged in transportation, and does not engage in industry and commerce. They call this "crop disrupting business is taking the road of capitalism." , however, the distribution list shows that this is clearly not the case. What is particularly surprising is that after the Spring Festival in 1976, Chen Yonggui's political attitude became extremely clear.In the struggle between the Jiang Qing Group and Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yonggui unequivocally sided with Jiang Qing.In order to publicly demonstrate this new political attitude, he set up a writing group in Xiyang for the "Thirty Years of Class Struggle History of Dazhai" and ordered the history of Dazhai's development to be rewritten within half a year.From the compiling outline of this book, it can be seen that not only does it not mention Zhou Enlai, whom Chen Yonggui always said he loved most, but it also praises Jiang Qing and criticizes Deng Xiaoping's "right-leaning style of overturning verdicts".In addition, it is nothing to say that "Jia Jin is talented and virtuous three times", while Jia Chengrang is said to be a "right-leaning conservative". In the spring of 1976, the Department of Philosophy sent another editorial team to write a propaganda book called Dazhai Philosophy. Many people in the editorial team, such as sociologist Lu Xueyi, were old acquaintances of Wu Jinglian.When introducing his own experience to the staff of the Institute of Philosophy, Wu Jinglian said that some slogans put forward by Dazhai should be treated with caution, such as "disturbing crops is taking the road of capitalism." Dazhai himself may not follow this slogan. .He described what was on the allotment list. This time, he poked a big hornet's nest.The political background at that time was really dangerous. On January 8 of this year, Premier Zhou Enlai passed away. During the period from late March to the Qingming Festival, crowds spontaneously mourned Zhou Enlai in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.The people's resentment against the ultra-leftist line was greatly vented here, and an anonymous poem quickly became popular all over the country-"If you want to be sad and hear ghosts screaming, I will cry and laugh at jackals. She shed tears to sacrifice to heroes, and raise your eyebrows and draw your sword out of its sheath." Sharp, pointing directly at the "anti-Zhou" Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao and others.This mass action was classified as the "Tiananmen counter-revolutionary incident", and Deng Xiaoping, who had been back for three years, became the "master behind the scenes" and was defeated again.At that time, the Xiyang County Party Committee took the stance of resolutely fighting the "rightist overturning the verdict" to the end, and the suspicion of the "Dazhai Red Flag" was simply outrageous.After the "April-Five Tiananmen Incident", Chen Mingzhu denounced at a meeting to lecture dozens of members of the "writing team" and "filming team" in Xiyang: "We are not peaceful here, and the class struggle is also fierce. There is someone who specifically finds out about Dazhai’s problems and attacks Dazhai, which headquarters sent him?” After the mass meeting and militia armed parade in Xiyang County "supporting the decision to abolish Deng Xiaoping's all positions inside and outside the party", the editorial team of "Dazhai Political Economy" was "gifted" out of Xiyang. Judging from the available materials, Wu Jinglian was the first economist to openly doubt Dazhai's experience.After more than 10 years of suffering and tempering, he "nearly escaped" from the labor camp, and he obviously had a different kind of courage. The bold questioning of Dazhai's propaganda actually confirmed his previous research and torture on Eastern despotism. After leaving Xiyang and returning to Beijing, Wu Jinglian felt relaxed.At this time, China was on the eve of drastic changes. On July 6, Zhu De, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, passed away. On September 9, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, passed away. On October 6, Hua Guofeng, Chairman Mao's designated successor, cooperated with Ye Jianying and other military veterans to conduct quarantine inspections on Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan, known as the "Gang of Four."The comprehensive liquidation of this "ultra-left group" is a very important political event in the history of the Republic, and it is also a sign of a major turning point in the national development strategy. Wu Jinglian learned of the arrest of the "Gang of Four" on the streets of Sanlihe, Beijing.He was riding a bicycle when he bumped into Hu Ruiliang from the economic office. Hu Ruiliang grabbed him and said in a trembling voice into his ear: "The worst people in China have already collapsed! "The two couldn't help but hug each other on the street. At this time, Wu Jinglian was nearly 47 years old.