Chapter 31 Chapter 30 The Man Who Has His Eyes on the Truth

Wu Jinglian's life is only related to two words - "save the country". In the past 80 years, his theme of "saving the country" has undergone three turning points: before the age of 20, he was a hopeless "science and technology fan" and believed in "saving the country by science" and "saving the country by industry"; before the age of 35, he believed in "Revolution to save the country", he believes that the socialist planned economy will help his country get rid of poverty and become extremely powerful, "The Soviet Union today is our tomorrow"; before the age of 60, he believed in "economic system to save the country", and firmly believed that the market economy would be The ultimate goal of China's reform; after that, he discovered that only by establishing a social system of democracy and the rule of law can the goal of modernization be achieved, and he became an advocate of "saving the country by the rule of law".

Even amidst the worries and anxiety in his later years, Wu Jinglian did not lose his essential hope. From Gu Zhun, Sun Yefang to Wu Jinglian's generation, they were deeply influenced by materialism and revolutionary idealism. The "victim" Gu Zhun wrote in his reading notes: "I believe that people can solve all the problems of truth, goodness and beauty by themselves, and there is no need to ask God for a solution to any problem." Therefore, he went on to say, "There is nothing in history that can opposing".That being the case, people must reject any form of transcendentalism, and must admit that the evolution of any social or economic model is the product of a combination of factors—including necessity and chance.Gu Zhun’s thoughts also influenced Wu Jinglian, making him epistemologically convinced that human beings have the ability to understand and transform the world, and that people and a country can get rid of confusion and finally choose a rational and optimal path.

Wu Jinglian's personality traits seem to be described as follows: he is a mixture of critical spirit and constructive personality. In his more than 50 years of career as an economist, he has striven to maintain the independence of thought and freedom of spirit, which seems to him to be the most important thing.In an interview, the reporter asked: "Are you proud of being a think tank at the decision-making level?" He immediately replied: "It doesn't matter whether a think tank is a think tank or not. The primary duty of an economist is to study science and discover the truth." , be an independent observer." His daughter Wu Xiaolian also commented on his father: "The public may think that my father is very close to the decision-making level, but I don't think he thinks so, he just puts himself Position yourself as a scholar and put forward as correct suggestions as possible to decision makers. As for being rejected, that is another matter.” Wu Jinglian is not a combative person by nature, he is fighting against the “planners” He fought and argued fiercely with some scholars—sometimes including old friends for many years. In his later years, he was "at odds" with some radical netizens. Attitude paid the price.However, he thinks it's all necessary.

At the same time, he always thinks about all problems from a constructive perspective. Even in the most difficult situations, he still hopes to find a possible way out.Since the beginning of the 20th century, China's intellectual class has formed a "sad complex" that is good at subverting and destroying. It is either "ultra-left" or "ultra-right". Hold moral contempt, which actually caused many repetitions and wanderings in China's modernization.Wu Jinglian's academic life is undoubtedly incompatible with these two kinds of extremism.In public opinion and academia, Wu Jinglian is often "misunderstood".Some people believe that he is a market fundamentalist because of the name of "Wu Market", who advocates throwing everything to the market; biggest supporter.Both views seem to be biased.

Wu Jinglian's economic theory is much more complicated. Compared with indulging any party, he seems to believe in "limitation"-limited government, limited market, limited interests and limited justice.Even for the free market economic system that he is fond of, it is a kind of "secondary option" when there is no other choice.Therefore, he always repeats to others a sentence imitating Churchill's words on democratic systems that he learned from his colleagues in Eastern Europe at the "International Symposium on Reform Economics" in Vienna in 1988: "The market economy is a bad system, but it is in It is the least bad system among the possible human beings.” In the past 30 years, China’s social change has shown a gradual and improved feature, although until today, it still has not reached the real end, However, it has indeed blazed a curved road amid doubts and swings.And this can be described as Wu Jinglian's victory.

In his later years, Wu Jinglian was criticized for various remarks, but he saw more and more clearly the importance of reformism to China.In a reading note titled "Both "Left" and "Right" Extremism Will Bring Disaster", he systematically thought about it, and at the same time compared it with Gu Zhun and him exactly 40 years ago. The question that had been pondering over and over again in the cowshed - "What will happen when Nora leaves" - was linked together. He wrote in words full of sense of history that China’s thousands of years of history seem to have repeatedly raised the question of “what will happen after Nora leaves”, tyranny—rebellion—new dynasty—new tyranny—rebellion, Again and again.When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, many of us believed that the problem had been completely solved and that the "law of cycles" of history would not repeat itself.But things backfired. When Gu Zhun, who "had also believed" that the revolution would bring China a "heaven on earth," witnessed with his own eyes in 1967, 18 years after the victory of the Chinese revolution, "people, in the name of martyrs, put revolutionary idealism When it turned into a conservative and reactionary despotism", the question of "what to do after Nora leaves" was raised again.Gu Zhun's answer was: "I am resolutely taking the position of thorough empiricism and pluralism, and I will fight to the end to oppose this kind of authoritarianism!"

"Why did the radical revolutionary road fail to bring about the welfare of the people and the progress of the society, but turned into a new despotism instead?" Wu Jinglian's thinking answer is—whether it is "left" extremism or "right" extremism Doctrine will bring disaster to society.In major social change, the ideal model is a combination of moderates on both sides of the political divide.If this is not the case, as long as there are extremists on one side, the other side will inevitably split its own extremists. If the moderates on both sides cannot control the situation and are gradually marginalized, society will be torn apart and tend to extremes. Between shocks, "I will never turn back until I reach a dead end."

From this conclusion, Wu Jinglian deduced his thoughts on China’s modernization—— Fortunately for contemporary Chinese people, after the end of the "Cultural Revolution", people of insight in China's political, academic, and business circles have learned from the painful experience. On the basis of the basic consensus of building a wealthy, democratic, and civilized country, Market-oriented reforms began.Reforms have fueled China's rapid economic growth.However, China is still a long way from the goal of becoming a wealthy, democratic and civilized country.Especially in recent years, some social contradictions have become acute due to the sluggish reform in some important economic and political fields.Due to differences in social background and values, people often make different interpretations of the origin of these contradictions and propose different solutions.At this moment when social contradictions are prominent and debates between different political demands tend to be intensified, how to prevent various extremist trends of thought from tearing apart the society, creating antagonism between two ends, and avoiding the historical trap of "never turn back until you reach a dead end", It has become a big issue related to the destiny of the nation.The key to preventing such tragedies is that people of different political orientations adopt a realistic attitude when discussing the various problems China faces.

Wu Jinglian went on to say that some people believe that it is the fate of Chinese history to choose between tyrants and tyrants, one to govern and one to chaos, and they can only be left alone and cannot be escaped.I think this conclusion is untenable, because reincarnation in Chinese history is a product of the old social structure, not immutable.Changes in modern economic and social structures have made it possible for intermediate forces to dominate social development trends.In the stage of modern economic development, the role of technical professionals and business professionals has become indispensable, and the number is also increasing.The new middle class has become the backbone of the pursuit of freedom, equality and social harmony.China is also currently involved in this process.The new middle class mainly composed of professionals, including all kinds of scientific research personnel and school teachers, engineering and technical personnel and technicians, middle and high-level managers and general company employees, medical personnel and civil servants is growing rapidly.Although the self-awareness and civic awareness of the new middle class in our country still need to be improved, they are part of the working class who have more knowledge of modern culture and technology, and they are pursuing the stability and improvement of economic life and political environment. They share common interests, so they are a force that can and must be relied upon to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized, and harmonious China.

From these words of Wu Jinglian, we can clearly read the shadows of Liang Qichao, Deng Xiaoke, Deng Jixing, and Gu Zhun.This young man who eavesdropped on the Yan'an broadcast on his hospital bed, this middle-aged man who was thinking silently in the labor camp, this old man who fought alone in Zhongnanhai Qinzheng Hall, this intellectual who stood on the podium for decades, Finally found an intellectual home in the great reformist tradition.Like those before him, he opposed violence, believed in basic human integrity, and believed in the power of progress. October 1, 2009 is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.In Caijing magazine at the end of September, Wu Jinglian published a 30,000-word long article "Sixty Years of China's Economy", reviewing the reform process, and once again appealing that "reform has entered a deep-water area, and its process cannot be delayed. While making great achievements, we are facing great challenges.”

As one of the eyewitnesses, participants and policy planners of the 60-year economic reform, Wu Jinglian concluded: “In the course of China’s reform, various reform measures at different stages are interspersed with each other. It contains some germinations of the main reform measures of the latter stage; the reforms implemented in the latter stage often retain some legacy of the previous stage of reform.” After affirming that “China’s economic reform has made considerable progress”, he went on to talk about And, at the beginning of the new century, "due to the slowdown of reforms, new changes have taken place in the situation of social contradictions".In his view, there are three main problems. First, when the reform of the state-owned economy was changed to state-owned monopoly enterprises in important industries such as energy, telecommunications, oil, and finance, the pace of reform slowed down significantly.In recent years, debates about whether state-owned enterprises should "advance" or "retire" in important industries have arisen again, and a phenomenon called "re-nationalization" or "new nationalization" by the media has emerged in society.There are two main manifestations of this "resurgence" trend: one is that in some fields, after issuing "permits" to private enterprises, they shrink back and prevent private enterprises from continuing to operate; the other is that some wholly state-owned enterprises The acquisitions and mergers of private small and medium-sized enterprises by state-owned and state-owned companies have further strengthened the monopoly position of such enterprises. Second, the government's administrative intervention in the microeconomic activities of enterprises has been strengthened under the name of "macro-control".Since 2004, "macro-control should be dominated by administrative regulation" has become a formal guideline. Government departments at all levels have strengthened the intervention and control of micro-economy in the name of "macro-control", so that the administrative power can allocate resources. and means are greatly strengthened, while the fundamental role of the market in allocating resources is weakened.Lord Acton of the United Kingdom said: "Power is easy to lead to corruption, and absolute power will lead to absolute corruption." The expansion of administrative power has led to the expansion of the institutional basis for rent-seeking activities, making corruption increasingly prevalent. Third, political reform lags behind. The 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1997 put forward the slogan of building a socialist country ruled by law, and the 16th National Congress reiterated this idea, and also raised the issue of building democratic politics and improving political civilization.However, progress has been very slow in the past 10 years. It took 13 years for the basic laws of the market economy such as the "Property Law" and "Anti-Monopoly Law" to be promulgated.For a modern market economy where the so-called "impersonal exchange" plays a dominant role, without laws that conform to the generally recognized basic justice and an independent and impartial judiciary, it is difficult to effectively guarantee the execution of contracts.In this case, in order to ensure the safety of their own property, participants in economic activities have no choice but to "make friends with the government."Thus, a “new impetus” for rent-seeking emerged. When analyzing the essence of the above-mentioned three major problems, Wu Jinglian mercilessly believed that "the root causes of all kinds of elite capitalism existing in our society are the interference of unfettered power in economic activities and economic resources. domination".He warned: "The longer the reform is delayed, the more contradictions will accumulate between the old and new systems; the more vested interests accumulate, the more incentives they will have to obstruct reforms that may affect their own interests. Further reforms. All kinds of contradictions in society, especially the unfair facts related to economic issues, are rooted in incomplete reforms, not reforms themselves.” In this way, Wu Jinglian once again beat the drum of reform.The soldier is already old, but it seems that he still has the courage to fight again. On October 30, Wu Jinglian gave the last lecture to the CEIBS 2008 EMBA class, and the students stood up and applauded.A student presented a poem on behalf of everyone, saying: "The great voice hopes to hear Hong Zhong, but the elephant can see the true face without seeing it. The spring and autumn of the 80s have written a magnificent chapter, and the century-old jokes are in the air." Wu Jinglian is one of the earliest Chinese professors at CEIBS. As early as 1984, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the European Community Management Education Foundation jointly opened classes in Beijing to teach senior managers of Chinese companies. Wu Jinglian is the only Chinese member of the Academic Committee . In 1993, CEIBS wanted to move its school base to the south. Wu Jinglian called on Wang Daohan, the old mayor of Shanghai, and Xu Kuangdi, the then deputy mayor, to facilitate this.In the past 10 years, as one of the founders of CEIBS and a professor of economics at Baosteel, he used "Contemporary China's Economic Reform" as a textbook to teach each class 30 hours. The course name is "Chinese Economy" , which is CEIBS' flagship course and the most popular course among students.Despite his advanced age, he still has no intention of saying goodbye to the podium, which for him is his "battlefield".In one lecture, he said to more than 300 entrepreneur students who attended the lecture: "I hope that my life will end on the podium." In the last two months of 2009, he traveled all over the world, participated in the China-Europe Management Annual Conference, the "Pujiang Innovation Forum" in Shanghai, the "Yangtze River Delta Forum" in Zhejiang, etc., and discussed and exchanged ideas with officials and entrepreneurs from all over the world. point of view, to discuss reform.He still maintains a calm and rational sharpness of thought. By January 24, 2010, Wu Jinglian will celebrate his 80th birthday.For China's most famous economist, these 80 years have been 80 years of staggering forward with his country's pursuit of prosperity. In a business age where materialism is paramount and mediocrity, Wu Jinglian's story is like the last idealistic kite. In the dark sky, it always maintains an untimely posture, which makes people have a different kind of courage in looking up. Like flowers and beautiful couples, like water, a limited life cannot exhaust all the secrets of the times, even for someone as smart and hard-working as Wu Jinglian, it is inevitable.The history of China is too long. Since Qin Shihuang unified China in 211 BC, the tradition of centralized authoritarianism has almost become an innate part of the national character. Its nobility is as deep as stubbornness. Break it, easier said than done.Compared with the length of change, life is too short. Perhaps it is in this sense that Wu Jinglian claimed to be a "pessimistic idealist" in his oral history - "idealists often become Very pessimistic." But then he added, "I don't think China's modernization path will be interrupted, it will definitely move forward in twists and turns." During August and September 2009, he also spared time to complete a long oral history narration of more than 20 hours.His memory is surprisingly good. Although he is 80 years old, he can still clearly remember the name of the librarian of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1972.In that narration, gratitude for life, gratitude and memory for all friends run through the whole narrative, fate smears so many encounters and conflicts on a person, and makes a gentle person grow into a brave warrior , let life bloom in such a difficult and pure way. What kind of person is Wu Jinglian?This thin biography may only show so much.To answer this question, it seems to go back to a scene more than two thousand years ago. It was an early morning with blue sky, in the rippling spring breeze of the Aegean Sea, Socrates had a wise dialogue with his student Plato.Although 2,400 years have passed, the radiance of that thought is still like the silver-like sunlight sparkling on the sea, forever and ever, always in the sight of future generations. These voices were later compiled in a book called "What is a Philosopher" chapter, there is a dialogue like this - Bo: If curiosity can be regarded as love of wisdom, then you will find that many absurd characters can be called philosophers.All who love to see love to learn, and there are not a few who love to listen--those who never see them taking part in any serious debate, serious study; yet, it seems as if they have rented their ears out to the chorus It seems that when the Dionysian Festival comes, they run around, no matter in the city or in the country, as long as there is a chorus, they will come.Shall we call these people, and those with similar interests, philosophers? Sue: Never.They're just kind of like philosophers. Bo: So, who are the real philosophers? SOCRATES: Those whose eyes are on the truth. In the time of Socrates and Plato, there were no such titles as "intellectual" or "economist", and in fact, the object of their refutation was not far from the life interest of the protagonist of this book. Over the past 80 years, this Chinese economist named Wu Jinglian has used his life to prove that he is a "person with eyes fixed on the truth".