Chapter 36 14. Deep-rooted Right Deviation

In February 1964, the school organized students to go to the countryside to write village history and family history. Our grade went to Pinggu County, where I lived in Fuxing Village for a few days.This is the first time I have had close contact with farmers, and it feels very fresh.In the northern village in winter, with earthen walls, dead trees, and occasional dogs barking, it is quiet.The farmer is simple and enthusiastic, handing you the dry pipe, you must take a sip.A young farmer presented me with a five-character poem, and I happily responded and returned it.Sometimes I can't help but make jokes. When I first saw a farmer, it was like meeting a foreigner. I thought they looked the same, and I couldn't judge their age. When I met a farmer who was about my age, I called him uncle.The biggest joke was in the implementation of this mission to the countryside.I was in charge of writing the family history of an old farmhand. He was a long-term laborer for the landlord before liberation. Under my guidance, he complained about his sufferings.However, in the end I finally understood that what he was complaining about was the hardships of the three difficult years.I asked him how his life was when he was doing long-term work, his expression suddenly relaxed, and he said that it was good then, he had enough food, and the work was not heavy.Of course, this family history cannot be written.

Going to Pinggu is just a small prelude to going to the countryside.Beginning in 1964, personnel from party and government agencies across the country, including teachers and students in colleges and universities, organized into work teams and went to the countryside in stages to participate in the socialist education movement, also known as the Four Cleansing Movement.Throughout the third year of university, we carried out the Four Clean-ups in Chengguan Commune of Shunyi County.It was originally announced that we would only participate in this session. However, when it was time for the fourth grade, the Beijing Municipal Committee conducted a pilot school social education in the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, and the Department of Philosophy was closed. They arranged for us to go to Shougang to work for a month first, and then to Qifenglong Commune in Huairou County. Participated in the second phase of the Four Cleanups.

In Shunyi, I was assigned to a production team in the Chengguan brigade.The working group was composed of six people from different schools. The team leader was a female teacher from Beijing Institute of Light Industry.A farmhouse that doubled as a boys dormitory and office, where we endlessly studied and held meetings.The room was full of smoke all day long, which made me a loyal smoker.I couldn't resist the temptation of the scent of flue-cured tobacco. At first I rolled the trumpet and smoked it for fun, and then I bought cigarettes myself. I transitioned from green leaves that cost eight cents a pack to golden leaves that cost two cents a pack.There were often disputes about issues in the production team. Xiao Fu and I were always "rightists", and Xiao Yan was always a high-profile "leftist".Xiao Fu is a male teacher of the Light Industry College. He has a moving voice and is easy-going.Xiao Yan is a male teacher at the University of Science and Technology, and serves as the deputy team leader. He is trying to join the party, and he has a serious face all day long.I found that the difference between "rightists" and "leftists" lies in whether they respect common sense, and those who do not respect common sense often have a very strong sense of utilitarianism.Liu Diancai, accountant of the brigade, was in our production team, so he became the key object of investigation by our working group.This person is very shrewd and can speak well, no matter how he tries to attack his heart and check the accounts, he is helpless.In the end, he had no choice but to investigate his life style, and he happily explained how many times he had a relationship with a young woman in the village.He said that the young woman was voluntary, and the young woman said that she was forced to do so. The working group interrogated the two respectively, but nothing happened.I am in charge of the youth work in the team. This work is pure and pleasant. Those young men and women all like me, a college student who is about their age, and their parents also regard me as a role model for their children.

Huairou has now become a leisure resort for Beijingers to spend their weekends, but it was known for its poor mountains and bad waters back then.I was assigned to the Xitaizi Brigade of Qifenglong Commune, and the instructor of the work team was a soldier.Different from the large corps battles in the first phase, this phase has fewer personnel, and the whole team is only a few people, and there will be no divisions.There are also two Peking University students in the same team, both majoring in Spanish. One is transferred from the Central Security Corps and serves as the captain of the work. He feels very good about himself. One was a scholar who was clumsier than me, and became a doormat that was often scolded by the instructor.The right tendency in me is deeply rooted. The thing I remember most clearly is that there was an old man in the team who was a "bad element". , he insisted on rehabilitating him, but was criticized as an unstable class position.I also sympathized with a rich peasant's daughter. She was a beautiful and docile girl, but she had to attend meetings for the children of rich peasants and listen to insulting instructions.It was during the Four Cleanups Movement that I learned how harsh the hierarchical system in rural China was at that time. Although the so-called four types of people were deprived of their personal freedom, their descendants were actually made into inferior pariahs.I can't help comparing my heart to my heart, imagining how miserable, hopeless, and unfair the situation would be if I were reborn in such a family.

At that time, the farmers in the Huairou Mountains were really poor.Grain is still the key link in the big rocky mountains, so we had to blow up the rocky mountains and build dam steps along the slopes to create small pieces of Susukida.After the field was built, in order to solve the water source, it was necessary to dig stones and open canals.In the middle of winter, I often swung picks on the hillside with farmers and experienced the hard work of fighting against stubborn rocks.However, production remains extremely low.We ate rice pies, except for the four types of members and special needy households, the whole family ate for a day.People try to take out the best at home, but it is just apricot leaf buns and the like.In the village, people with dementia caused by intermarriage of close relatives are common. There is also an old lady suffering from syphilis. Her nose, hands, and feet are rotten, and she prostrates herself on the ground in the yard every day.The production team leader is a recently demobilized soldier. He is very decent. He is always frowning because of his own stomach problems and the backwardness of the villagers.I slept on a kang with an old man who raised cattle, and I got lice all over my body. A brown sweater turned light gray because it was full of lice eggs.I started to feel itchy, nauseous, and there were bugs crawling all over my body, and it became numb after a long time.Once, I went alone to a distant village to make a transfer, and it took me a long time to trek through the mountain roads before I arrived.After the investigation, it was already dark, and the people from the local work team asked me to live with them, and I was very hesitant.I'm ashamed of my lice, and if I live I'll pass it on to them.If you want to go back on the same day, you can only take a shortcut and turn over a big mountain. There are wild animals on the mountain, and you are almost bound to get lost.I ended up staying with a guilty conscience.

Later facts showed that the goal of the social education movement was to rectify the "capitalist establishment within the party", which would lead directly to the Cultural Revolution two years after its launch.At the time, though, I was as ignorant as most people.During the movement, I was also surprised by the changeable spirit of the superiors. For example, at the beginning, I promoted Wang Guangmei's experience in Taoyuan, and later criticized it as the left side and the right side, but it was just strange, and I didn't think deeply about it. On the night of June 1, 1966, China Central Radio broadcasted a big-character poster by Nie Yuanzi and other seven people attacking the principal Lu Ping and the school party committee. The next day, all newspapers across the country carried it on the front page.Nie Yuanzi is the Party branch secretary of the Department of Philosophy, and the other six are also faculty members of the Department of Philosophy. I was naturally shocked when I heard the news.A few days later, the instructor announced that after being notified by their superiors, Peking University students will return to school immediately, and the Siqing test will not be done, and everyone will make a test for themselves during the Cultural Revolution.