Chapter 8 The second thought breakout

One winter day in 1976, Yu Guangyuan approached Wu Jinglian and Zhou Shulian and said, we should do something. At this time, Yu Guangyuan was unemployed at home.After the "April 5th Tiananmen Incident", Deng Xiaoping was overthrown again, and the State Council Research Office was disbanded. Hu Qiaomu, Deng Liqun, and Yu Guangyuan, who had the closest relationship with Deng, became "cadres to be assigned" and could only visit one person a day. There is nothing left to do in a dedicated office to look at documents.It was in this office that Yu Guangyuan and others decided to launch a "surprise campaign" in the field of economic theory - to hold a seminar on distribution according to work.

After the "Gang of Four" was overthrown, the "ultra-left" trend of thought that intensified after 1956 and reached its acme in the "Cultural Revolution" was far from being eliminated.Due to the influence of the ideology of "completely abolishing bourgeois legal rights", absolute egalitarianism prevailed in factories.At that time, Hua Guofeng insisted on the "two whatevers" policy, and it was very difficult to bring order to the "ultra-left" line.More critically, Deng Xiaoping's comeback still faces various obstacles.Therefore, it is very important to be able to create a "ready to come out" theoretical atmosphere for his comeback.In the future, Yu Guangyuan and others chose distribution according to work—rather than the law of value—this proposition as a breakthrough is very subtle.

First of all, distribution according to work is a common-sense principle in economics, which can be easily demonstrated and gained people's consensus and resonance.Secondly, among the many theories of the "ultra-leftists", the economic line that rejects any assessment system and takes egalitarianism as the criterion is the most unpopular. The phenomenon of "doing the same thing" is deeply abhorred.Furthermore, distribution according to work has a strong correlation with the law of value. Once a breakthrough is made, it will be a matter of course to advance further. At that time, Yu Guangyuan called Feng Lanrui, Wu Jinglian, Zhou Shulian and other four people to secretly plan and discuss in the office day and night. Later they jokingly called it "conspiracy in the dark room".According to Wu Jinglian's recollection, Yu Guangyuan was the leader, Deng Liqun sometimes participated in the discussion, and Hu Qiaomu did not intervene.Once, when they were having a heated discussion, Hu Qiaomu opened the door and came in and asked, "What are you doing?" Yu Guangyuan explained his intention and invited him to join, but Hu shook his head and said sadly, "When we talk about Allotment brings back bad memories for me," and left.Wu Jinglian was puzzled, so Yu Guangyuan talked about the past. In 1958, Shanghai's "Liberation Daily" published Zhang Chunqiao's long article "Abolishing the Thought of Bourgeois Legal Rights", criticizing distribution according to work as a bourgeois legal thought and advocating the implementation of a "communist supply system."Hu Qiaomu, who was Mao Zedong's political secretary and then in charge of the "People's Daily" at the time, saw this statement as absurd, and instructed Lin Wei, director of the Theory Department of the "People's Daily", to organize articles to criticize.Unexpectedly, after Mao Zedong read Zhang's article, he greatly appreciated it and asked the "People's Daily" to reprint it, and personally wrote an editor's note②.This made Hu's situation extremely difficult. He passed the test by writing self-criticism many times, but he has since lost his favor.Therefore, as soon as Hu heard the words "distribute according to his work", he avoided it.

The political situation at that time can be described as undercurrents surging, cloudy and sunny. Just over half a month after People's Daily and other newspapers put forward the "two whatevers" policy on February 7, on February 25, Yu Guangyuan organized personnel to hold an academic seminar on distribution according to work in the Beijing area.Because he does not have a formal official position, the meeting is a non-governmental action. The location and convening of the meeting are informal, and even the collection of speeches is printed at his own expense.The Institute of Economics of the State Planning Commission, the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the State Administration of Labor, Peking University, Beijing Normal University and other units all sent representatives to attend the meeting, but none of them were the sponsors.Newspapers across the country hardly reported it, only the theory section of the "People's Daily" issued an inconspicuous newsletter.Yet despite this, the symposium had an earthquake-like effect.At this conference, Wu Jinglian, Zhou Shulian and others were the main paper submitters and speakers.

From March 10th to 22nd, at the working conference held by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Hua Guofeng continued to use some erroneous formulations in the "Cultural Revolution" in his speech, and still believed that the "Tiananmen Incident" was a "counter-revolutionary incident" and believed that It is correct to "criticize Lin and criticize Deng, and fight back against the right-leaning trend of overturning verdicts" and prevent Deng Xiaoping from coming out to work. In April, Yu Guangyuan and others continued to deepen the discussion on distribution according to work.They organized and held the first national symposium on distribution according to work. More than 30 units and more than 100 theoretical workers participated, and more than ten speakers at the conference.Wu Jinglian, Zhou Shulian and Wang Haibo jointly submitted two papers, one was to criticize the "Leftist" thinking of the "Gang of Four" in distribution according to work, and the other was to positively demonstrate the necessity of restoring the bonus system.

On May 7, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China officially approved the upgrading of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Hu Qiaomu was appointed as the dean, and Deng Liqun and Yu Guangyuan were the vice deans.With the re-emergence of these three, Deng Xiaoping's imminent comeback has become a "secret" known to everyone. In June, Yu Guangyuan, who had just assumed his new post, held the second national symposium on distribution according to work. This time, there were as many as 100 participating units and more than 400 participants.The atmosphere of the symposium was obviously much more active than the previous two times. More than 20 people were arranged to speak at the meeting.The topic Wu Jinglian chose for his speech was "material stimulation", which was a "theoretical forbidden zone" during the "Cultural Revolution" period.Wu Jinglian argued that historical materialism believes that all social actions are driven by material reasons in the final analysis, and that production relations expressed as material interests determine all social relations.Therefore, the approach of the "Gang of Four" to regard "material stimulus" as a scourge is obviously reactionary.Under their suppression, not only did people lose their motivation to work, but even economics, which studies material interests, lost its premise of existence.His speech broke through the scope of specific issues such as salary and bonus, which aroused great interest from the participants.

Just one month after this meeting was held, in July, at the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, due to the insistence of Chen Yun, Marshal Ye Jianying and others, Deng Xiaoping was elected as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission , Vice Premier of the State Council and Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.At the Eleventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China on August 12, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed a resolution announcing the official end of the 10-year-long "Cultural Revolution".

At the end of October, the third national symposium on distribution according to work was held in Beijing, and the number of participants increased again. In addition to 135 units and more than 500 experts and officials in Beijing, there were more than 130 units from 23 provinces and cities , More than 300 people came to participate in the discussion, and there were as many as 100 speakers at the meeting.The paper submitted by Zhou Shulian, Wu Jinglian and Wang Haibo was "On Socialist Wages and Its Specific Forms", which proposed to "rehabilitate the reputation" of socialist wages and bonuses.If it is said that the speeches of many participants were "statements", then the views of Wu Jinglian and others are obviously more operable.

The seminars on distribution according to work initiated by Guangyuan were undoubtedly the most important event in the field of economic theory in China in 1977. It broke the gloomy situation since 1964, and sounded the clarion call for the future ideological emancipation. For the Chinese intellectual world, the real turning point occurred on May 11, 1978.On the same day, "Guangming Daily" published an article by a special commentator entitled "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth", which was reposted by Xinhua News Agency on the same day, and reprinted in full by People's Daily the next day.This can be regarded as the most important political declaration of the year in China.In the article, the author boldly declares: "Wherever there is a 'forbidden zone' that transcends practice and regards itself as absolute, there will be no science, no real Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, but only obscurantism, idealism, and cultural tyranny. doctrine."

The publication of the article aroused great repercussions in the dull and suffocating Chinese society at that time.Soon, a nationwide discussion was launched around the "truth test standard", which profoundly affected the entire process of China's reform.On the ideological basis, it completely destroyed the "two whatevers" political principle and advocated a brand-new practical theory.In the process of economic reform, it tried to establish a brand-new ideological foundation and business ethics, established a practical ideological foundation with an unquestionable attitude, and became the first ideological cornerstone of China's economic and social reform.It became the origin of the pragmatism and even utilitarian thought that would guide China's reform in the future.

In the field of economic theory, there is no economic proposition that more intuitively reflects the truth of "tested by practice" than "distribution according to work". On October 25 of this year, Beijing held the Fourth National Symposium on Distribution According to Work, which was not only a further study of this proposition, but also a response to the raging "discussion on the standard of truth".As more and more people participated, the conference was divided into three groups to discuss the principle of distribution according to work and material benefits, the form of labor remuneration, and the issue of distribution according to work and its form in rural areas.The thesis submitted by three persons including Wu Jinglian was titled "Several Issues in Thoroughly Implementing the Principle of Distribution According to Work", which raised two issues closely related to the management system of the enterprise: one is how to make the income level of laborers and the operation of the enterprise The second is to suggest the implementation of a material reward system for enterprise leaders. In this paper, they put forward the principle of "self-responsibility for profits and losses" - under the premise of complying with national policies, the enterprise completes the national plan, especially after completing the profit plan, the collective labor of the enterprise should share a part of the enterprise's profits, otherwise, Enterprise workers collectively should also bear certain material responsibilities. This point of view has aroused great interest in high-level and theoretical circles.It directly advances the principle of distribution according to work from the correspondence between the enterprise and employees to the level of the state and the enterprise, that is, the interest distribution relationship between property rights owners and managers. One of the main propositions of the reform.It embodies a mainstream exploration proposition of China's enterprise reform, that is: whether it is possible to increase the enthusiasm of operators through the adjustment of profit distribution without changing the relationship of property rights.What we are about to see is that the theoretical circles will continue to debate on this proposition for as long as 20 years. History is still moving forward firmly. On December 18, 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing.At this congress, a central leadership group with Deng Xiaoping as the core was formed.The plenary session made a decision to shift the focus of the party's work to socialist construction.And just before and after the plenum, the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China announced that the "Fourth Five-Year Movement" (Tiananmen Incident) was a completely revolutionary action.At the same time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China rehabilitated and held a memorial service for Peng Dehuai, Tao Zhu and other politicians who had been wronged during the "Cultural Revolution".In the following two years, more than 3 million cadres and masses across the country were rehabilitated, and 550,000 "rightists" were corrected. Among them, Gu Zhun was "rehabilitated and completely rehabilitated" on February 9, 1980. Part of the ashes of him and his wife Wang Bi It was buried in the tomb of Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. At the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the central government put forward the proposition of economic system reform. The resolution of the plenary session stated: "A serious shortcoming of my country's economic management system is that power is too concentrated. It should be led boldly to decentralize, so that local and Under the guidance of the national unified plan, industrial and agricultural enterprises have more autonomy in operation and management.” Based on this consensus, expanding enterprise autonomy has become the starting point for the reform of state-owned enterprises.Soon after, the State Council announced that eight large state-owned enterprises, including the Capital Iron and Steel Company, Tianjin Bicycle Factory, and Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory, took the lead in experimenting with expanding corporate autonomy. Five documents including "Fixed Asset Tax", "Increasing the Depreciation Rate and Improving the Use of Depreciation Expenses", and "Implementing Full Credit for Working Capital" were released together, and the reform measures of Shougang and other enterprises have become the focus of national attention. During that time, Wu Jinglian seemed to have returned to more than 10 years ago, diligent and full of passion. Many of his articles are co-written with Zhou Shulian and Wang Haibo. They are classmates in Fudan University. They have known each other for more than 20 years. They have similar temperaments and similar views.Especially Zhou Shulian, who is his best friend.His daughter Wu Xiaolian recalled in "My Father Wu Jinglian and Me": Zhou Shulian lived in the courtyard of the Ministry of Education, which was very close to Wu Jinglian's mother's house. When Wu Jinglian went to her mother's house on weekends, he often came to discuss with them.My sister and I are naturally very familiar with this Uncle Zhou, but we don't remember him ever talking to us.In my impression, he was a more nerdy person than my father, and his mind was only on economics. When he entered our house, he went to Dad's room without squinting, and started talking after sitting down.The two of them talked on the phone when they were not talking face-to-face. At that time, there were very few telephones at home, and Wu Jinglian only used the phone there when he was at his mother's house, and talked with Zhou Shulian about their manuscript for a long time.Decades later, Uncle Zhou told me that he was talking to Wu Jinglian in the office of his wife Peng Yunqian.There was no one in the office on weekends, so he could just discuss with Wu Jinglian for a few hours. Wu Xiaolian also recalled the cramped situation of her father's writing at that time——Wu Jinglian's writing was mostly carried out at our home in Beijing Normal University.At that time, our family of four lived in a 14-square-meter room in the Datongzi Building. All the belongings in the room were: the double bed for my parents, the bunk beds for my sister and me, a desk, a dining table, and a room between the two tables. There is a piano between them, a chest of drawers, two wooden stools, two folding stools, a chair and a small mat beside the shop. After 1976, my sister and I began to study culture!That wasn't necessarily something exciting for us, but I'll tell you that we've "occupied" two desks at home since then when we got home from school every day.The fixed place for Dad to write is the bedside of the double bed. He put a plywood chess board on the bed, and put the manuscript paper on it. According to the standards of this article, it is a very in-depth article, and it also writes about serious cervical spondylosis.Grandma loved him the most, and she told me at the time: "Your father climbed the grid all day long, and his neck was about to break." Even though the research conditions are so embarrassing, Wu Jinglian who "writes on the edge of the bed" still shows courage and academic ability beyond the times.From the existing written materials, it can be seen that from the very beginning, Wu Jinglian thought about and explored the path of China's modernization in two directions. One is the transformation of the economic system, and the other is the transformation of the social system. Stronger ideological and philosophical significance, and this style is undoubtedly influenced by Gu Zhun. In 1977, shortly after the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, it decided to establish an Institute of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. Hu Qiaomu and Yu Guangyuan recruited three backbones with different business directions from the whole academy to make preliminary preparations, including the Institute of Philosophy. Xing Bensi (later vice president of the Central Party School), Ding Shouhe of the Institute of Modern Chinese History (later president of the Chinese Society of Modern Culture) and Wu Jinglian of the Economic Research Institute.At a theoretical symposium, Wu Jinglian and Zhou Shulian made a speech on the topic of "The Feudal Essence of the Gang of Four".Their basic point of view is that Chinese society has developed to this stage, and something has gone wrong. The main problem is the revival of feudal despotism. The emergence of the "Gang of Four" in China is not an accidental phenomenon. to reflect.China is a centralized country with thousands of years of feudal autocratic history, and the consciousness of agricultural socialism is deeply rooted. If there is no thorough transformation and acceptance of modern socialist scientific theories, the ideal of socialism may be distorted and vilified, and it will become Marx and Engels criticized the "feudal socialism" in the "Communist Manifesto". Their speech was well received by the participants and the leaders of the Academy of Social Sciences. On January 18, 1979, shortly after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a theoretical retreat. Invited to the meeting.At this meeting, Wu Jinglian made a long speech, describing his observation and thinking about Dazhai in the past few years, and practically exposing all kinds of false phenomena.His speech caused a great shock. This is the first time that a Chinese scholar lifted the "lid" of Dazhai at such a high-end conference. The fact is also that the theoretical retreats of the central government are held in conjunction with the theoretical retreats of the provinces. When the news of the disclosure of the competition's problems at the Beijing retreat reached Taiyuan, the Shanxi retreat immediately started to boil.At that time, Chen Yonggui was still in the position of deputy prime minister, and many people were sweating for Wu Jinglian.In his oral history in his later years, Wu Jinglian said, "I was not worried at the time, because the 'lid' of the Dazhai issue would be lifted sooner or later." Another time, in 1981, when Wu Jinglian went to Nanjing for research, the local officials invited him to visit a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom exhibition held at the former site of Tianwangfu.The next day, an old classmate of Jinling University invited him to give a speech in the auditorium of Nanjing University. He started impromptuly from the visit the day before yesterday. When the army surrounded Nanjing, there were countless hungry people in the city, and the situation was unprecedentedly severe. However, more than 100 palaces were built in the Kingdom of Heaven, where the princes craved extravagance.He therefore deduced that the development of agricultural socialism must be feudal socialism. His remarks quickly caused a bit of trouble.After returning to Beijing, he wrote an article entitled "The Struggle Between Scientific Socialism and Non-Scientific Socialism", saying: "The Communist Party has long been engaged in the democratic revolutionary struggle in the rural environment to attack the local tyrants and divide the land. There are a considerable number of peasants in the ranks of the Communist Party of China, and they easily confuse egalitarianism with socialism. This is why "Left" deviations such as "one leveling and two adjustments" and "communist wind" have repeatedly occurred in the process of socialist construction in our country. An important reason for this. Agricultural socialism and feudalism are always the exterior and interior of each other." This article was submitted to "Economic Research". The fourth issue of "Economic Research" in 1981 had just been printed in the printing factory, and news of "an accident" in Nanjing came from the department of the Academy of Social Sciences.It turned out that two faculty members of Nanjing University wrote an article criticizing agricultural socialism and published it in the "Journal of Nanjing University". As a result, they were severely criticized by Beijing, and the editor-in-chief of the journal was dismissed as a result.According to the two authors of Nantah University, they wrote that manuscript because they were influenced by Wu's speech in the Nantah University auditorium.One day, a deputy director of the Institute of Economics talked to Wu Jinglian: firstly, the institute wanted to destroy this issue of "Economic Research", and secondly, persuaded him to write an article to participate in the criticism of the South University newspaper article.Wu's answer was, "Destruction is the magazine's right, and I can't interfere. I can't obey orders to write articles to criticize."This matter was embarrassingly screwed up. In the end, the director Xu Dixin insisted that the magazine had already been printed, and it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to destroy it.That's how the turmoil ended. In his oral history, Wu Jinglian recalled his research work in the early days of the reform and said that at that time, his two-way thinking about the economic system and the social system were parallel, and he even thought more about the latter.However, due to the difficulties of economic reform and the emergence of many practical and technical problems, he and almost all economists gradually focused on the former, and the discussion on absolutism and feudal socialism basically stagnated.From an ideological point of view, opposing feudal despotism was once the most important theoretical weapon for the new rulers when liquidating the "Gang of Four", but once the task was completed, it was shelved.There is a very serious defect in China's national character, that is, when people resist a tyranny, they often end in overthrowing it, but rarely think and design from the system, how to prevent it from happening again, which causes A cycle of national tragedies repeats itself. It was in 2001, more than 20 years later, that Wu Jinglian returned to this topic cautiously.