Chapter 8 Chapter Seven: Visiting the Chen Family

Chen Boda's bedroom is about 10 square meters, neat and simple. He is still a scholar, reading and reading newspapers is his greatest pleasure. His mind did not dwell on constant self-condemnation or decadent depression.He cast his eyes from the tall building to the distance. Time and time again, I have visited the little-known Chen Boda House. His home has a living area of ​​60 to 70 square meters, including a living room, study room, his bedroom, the bedrooms of his son and daughter-in-law, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Chen Xiaonong, who has entered his forties, is easy-going and sincere.His wife Xiao Zhang is virtuous and simple.They took good care of Chen Boda.

Chen Boda's bedroom is about 10 square meters, neat and simple.A single bed three and a half feet wide, hard board, covered with blue and white checked sheets, and a huge duck down pillow.Beside the bed was a bedside table, two glass bookcases, and a chest of drawers by the window.The floor is carpeted. I noticed two small details: In cold weather, there was a woolen cover on the toilet seat.It goes without saying that this is due to the fact that Chen Boda is getting older and is particularly afraid of the cold; Chen Boda's pillows are particularly big and soft.Obviously, this is to let the elderly "peace of mind".These two small details reflect the meticulous care of Chen Boda by his son and daughter-in-law.The "regular visitor" in the house is his grandson who is seven years old and in the second grade of primary school.His little grandson brought him joy and comfort.

He has good eyesight and hearing.Every night on the TV news, he's a must-see.If the TV station broadcasts Peking opera or costume feature films, he likes to watch them.Generally, he doesn't watch much modern dramas, but he likes to watch TV dramas based on famous novels.He doesn't watch TV shows about young people falling in love. His greatest interest is reading books and newspapers.He reads "People's Daily", "Reference News", and "Beijing Evening News", paying close attention to the situation at home and abroad.Also carefully read those articles related to the "Cultural Revolution".His neighbors are nice.If no one in the Chen family went downstairs to pick up the newspaper, the neighbor would bring the newspaper and stick it on the doorknob of his house.

He kept asking his son to buy him books.Chen Boda used to be a "thousand-volume household".His personal collection of books far exceeds 10,000 volumes.He used to live in a courtyard house, where several rooms were used to store books.Most of Chen Boda's wages and royalties are used to buy books.Since 1958, Chen Boda himself proposed not to receive manuscript fees in order to support national construction.Since then, he has not received any royalties.After Chen Boda was released on medical parole, he received 100 yuan a month for living expenses.According to the author's understanding of the situation of Wu Faxian, Li Zuopeng, etc., they were also receiving 100 yuan a month for living expenses at that time, just like Chen Boda.Chen Boda's monthly living expenses are 100 yuan, 1/3 of which is used to buy books.Of course, the book purchase fee of more than 30 yuan was far from enough for Chen Boda.Therefore, in addition to buying books by himself, he had to ask his old friends to borrow some books from relevant departments.From February 1983, Chen Boda's living expenses increased to 200 yuan per month.At this time, Chen Boda had a little more money to buy books.The living expenses of Wu Faxian, Li Zuopeng, etc. also increased to 200 yuan per month.Chen Boda really hoped that the relevant departments could return his many books, but they failed to return them for a long time.On November 16, 1981, relevant departments returned some daily necessities such as bedding to Chen Boda.Chen Boda hoped to find some books, but he only found a few pocket copies of Selected Works of Mao Zedong and Quotations of Mao Zedong!It was not until 1995, after relevant departments consulted Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, that they returned Chen Boda's collection of books. At this time, Chen Boda had passed away for 6 years!Even for the returned books, only a small part was found, only 1270 volumes!Because of this, I found that many of the books in Chen Boda's bookcase were new books published in recent years, even new editions republished by People's Literature Publishing House.

He has a wide range of reading interests, with a particular emphasis on reading those highly academic works. Chen Xiaonong told the author that his father, Chen Boda, liked literary masterpieces in his later years and asked him to buy works by Shakespeare and Tolstoy.Books are like a sea.The books he picked up from the sea of ​​books that interested him reflected Chen Boda's spiritual world in his later years. He is still a scholar, reading and reading newspapers is his greatest pleasure.His thought machine was still running. He was thinking.The tall building is quiet and there is almost no noise—only the sweet singing of a famous female singer who lives in this building is occasionally heard when she is practicing singing.

He kept condensing his thoughts into words.Fortunately, his hands were not trembling or trembling, and he was still able to hold Wen.Although he was serving his sentence and could not publish his manuscripts, he still wrote there. Some of his manuscripts were sent up and received the attention of the relevant central departments. They were printed and distributed within a certain range.Except for the name of the author Chen Boda, these printed articles did not indicate which unit was printed, nor did they indicate the number of prints and the scope of distribution.However, it was printed on high-quality Daolin paper, 16-mo, large characters typesetting in imitation Song style, it can be seen that it was not printed by ordinary institutions, but was distributed at a very high political level.

I carefully read these unpublished manuscripts of his, and listed the titles and writing dates of several manuscripts, so that readers can understand what he was thinking when he was alone in the tall building. January 1981, "A Discussion on Japan's "Productivity Movement""; March 1982, "The Rivalry of Monopoly Capital between the United States and Japan and the "Spiritual Crisis" in the Two Countries"; May 22, 1982, "Knowledge Disaster"; June 22, 1982, "The Gradual Change and Sudden Change of Cognition——A Look at the Sudden and Gradient Schools in Chinese Buddhism from the 'Tanjing'"; August 4, 1982, "Hegel Against the Absolute..." (Reading Notes); September 18, 1982, "Confucianism and Legalism Are Actually Brothers" (Comment on Gang of Four Miscellaneous Notes)"; December 22, 1982, "Things Divide into Two (Three Reading Notes)" ;March 23, 1983, "The Open and Secret War of the "Electronics Revolution""; 1983, "A Public Case in "The Story of the Stone"—About the Marriage of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai"; 1983 September, "Trying to Talk about Some Problems in Socialist Agriculture"; early December 1983, "Struggling with Painful Changes-Miscellaneous Issues of the Electronics Revolution"; June 26, 1984, "Comment on Two American Books Book——"Megatrend" and "The Third Wave"";...

He also wrote reminiscences of some historical events. He usually writes the draft first.From his drafts, it can be seen that there are ticks, deletions, revisions, and various revision marks.After the revision, he neatly copied it again.Maintain the previous writing habits. He used a blue ballpoint pen to write on the kind of green grid 400-character manuscript paper available in the Beijing market.The date signed at the end of the document generally refers to the date of completion, and does not mean that it was written on this day.Some articles have thousands of words, and many articles have tens of thousands of words.His handwriting is clear and easy to read, with many traditional Chinese characters mixed with simplified Chinese characters.

These new works of Chen Boda seem to lack the aura and sharp prose of his works in the 1940s, quoting too many classic works, but as an 80-year-old man, his thinking is quite smooth and his views are quite insightful.His manuscripts disclosed above were all written after he stepped down from the dock of the Supreme Court.His mind did not dwell on constant self-condemnation or decadent depression.He cast his eyes from the tall building to the distance.Because of this, he even discussed and commented on the new American books "Megatrend" and "The Third Wave". What are Chen Boda's recent works?I selected two relatively short ones from his numerous manuscripts, one is "Difficulty in Seeking Knowledge" and the other is "A Public Case in "Story of the Stone"—About the Marriage of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai)" .