Chapter 16 Chapter 15 Mao Zedong Summoned Five "Scholars"

At the end of April 1965, Chen Boda left Beijing for Changsha. Mao Zedong lived in Changsha --- No. 3, the reception office on the west side of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee compound, and summoned five people there.Besides Chen Boda, there were also Ai Siqi, Hu Sheng, Guan Feng, and Tian Jiaying. These 5 people are all pens. Ai Siqi is a philosopher, 17 years younger than Mao Zedong.Ai Siqi, formerly known as Li Shengxuan, was born in Tengchong, Yunnan. He wrote the book "Popular Philosophy" in his early years, which was quite influential. In 1935, 25-year-old Ai Siqi joined the Communist Party of China.The author interviewed Mrs. Wang Dan of Ai Siqi, and according to her, there are three origins of the pseudonym "Ai Siqi": one is the meaning of "love" and "Siqi", which means to like to think uniquely; the other is the meaning of loving Marxism-Leninism "Thinking" means Marx, "Qi" means Yili and "Qi" (that is, Lenin); third, he is not afraid of the cold, and wears very little winter clothes, so he has the nickname "Eskimo".Ai Siqi is a homonym of "Eski".

In October 1937, Ai Siqi came to Yan'an and worked as a teacher at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. Although Ai Siqi was much younger than Mao Zedong, he was deeply respected by Mao Zedong.The extant short letter from Mao Zedong to Ai Siqi at the end of 1937 is enough to show how much Mao Zedong valued this talented young philosopher. Comrade Siqi: Your "Philosophy and Life" (citer's note: Ai Siqi's other work after "Popular Philosophy") is the most profound book in your works. I have read it and benefited a lot. I have copied some and sent it to you. See if there are any mistakes in copying. One of the questions is suspicious (not fundamentally different). I ask you to think again and tell me the details in person.When you are free today, I will come to see you.

One month before Ai Siqi arrived in Yan'an——in September 1937, Mao Zedong wrote "Excerpts from Ai's Philosophy and Life" by himself.After Ai Siqi came to Yan'an, Mao Zedong visited him again to discuss philosophical issues with him.Since then, Mao Zedong has attached great importance to this "talented talent". Hu Sheng is also a veteran "scholar".As early as July 1949, when the Chinese Social Science Workers Representative Conference held a founder meeting in Beiping, he was elected as a standing committee member. In 1956, when the Central Historical Issues Research Committee was established, he was one of the 11 members.According to Guan Feng's recollection, among the "talented talents", everyone used to call him "Master Hu".

As for Guan Feng, his original name was Zhou Zhufeng, also known as Xiushan. In July 1919, he was born in Qingyun County at the junction of Shandong Province and Hebei Province, so he used "Qingyun" as his pen name. In 1933, at the age of 14, he joined the Communist Party of China. In 1938, he served as Secretary of the CPC Shandong Leling County Committee. He changed his name to Guan Feng in 1939... He only went to middle school, not university. In 1950, he served as Director of Theoretical Propaganda Division of the Propaganda Department of the Shandong Branch of the Communist Party of China.Two years later, he became the principal of Shandong Political School. In 1955, the Fourth Intermediate Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was established in Shandong, with Xia Zhengnong as the principal and Guan Feng as the vice-principal.For Guan Feng's promotion, 1956 was a crucial step: he was seconded to the Central Political Research Office and entered the capital from Shandong.This laboratory is located in an inconspicuous small building on Wanshou Road in Beijing, but it is a place where "hidden dragons and crouching tigers" exist.He worked there with Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, and Hu Sheng.

After the publication of "Red Flag", Chen Boda transferred Guan Feng there.However, the task assigned to him at first seemed to have nothing to do with the business of "Red Flag" itself --- he was asked to compile "Ideological and Theoretical Trends".The first reader of this internal publication is Mao Zedong!Although editing this internal journal gave Guan Feng the opportunity to serve Mao Zedong directly, Guan Feng found it boring, and after working for half a year, he became the editorial board member of "Red Flag". According to Guan Feng told the author, even he himself never thought that he attracted Mao Zedong's attention because he published an article "The Research Direction of the History of Chinese Philosophy" in "Guangming Daily". Study the history of Chinese philosophy.Mao Zedong had always been interested in the history of Chinese philosophy, so he read Guan Feng's article and liked it so much that he wrote a comment.Therefore, Guan Feng's pen was favored by Mao Zedong.

Mao Zedong brought Chen Boda, Ai Siqi, Hu Sheng, Guan Feng, and Tian Jiaying together to discuss and implement a task: in 1963, Mao Zedong proposed that the entire party should study the "Communist Manifesto", "National 6 classic works of Marxism-Leninism including "Revolution and Revolution".This time, he suggested writing a preface for the Chinese edition of these six books.He summoned 5 people, including himself a total of 6 people, and each of them happened to write a preface to a book.He volunteered to write the preface to The Communist Manifesto. In Changsha, though, they were just doing the preparatory work.Mao Zedong called them together to read a passage and discuss a passage in order to gather everyone's wisdom in order to write a good preface.

At this time, Chen Boda saw Mao Zedong's "Quotations from Chairman Mao" compiled and printed by the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (this book was republished at the end of 1966, and Lin Biao wrote the "Preface to the reprint"). "It's being made up for me!" Mao Zedong jokingly pointed to the quotation book and said to Chen Boda, "I heard that the Central Propaganda Department is also making up this thing." Chen Boda was taken aback.As the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, he didn't know that someone in the Central Propaganda Department was compiling "Quotations from Chairman Mao".

In Chen Boda's view, neither the General Political Department of the PLA nor the Central Propaganda Department was qualified to compile Quotations from Chairman Mao, and he was the most authoritative editor of course.What's more, whoever compiles "Quotations from Chairman Mao" means that whoever holds the banner of propagating Mao Zedong Thought in his hand, how can Chen Boda give up this banner to others! After returning to Beijing, Chen Boda immediately found someone to compile the most authoritative "Quotations from Chairman Mao"—— The "theoretician" likes to follow the wave most, and his attention has shifted from the "electronic center theory" to the newly compiled "Quotations from Chairman Mao".

However, while his editing of "Quotations from Chairman Mao" was still in progress, he was interrupted by the shocking news from Shanghai, so that he no longer had the mind to finish compiling the new "Quotations from Chairman Mao"... On November 10, 1965, Shanghai's "Wen Wei Po" suddenly published a long and eloquent article "Comment on the New Historical Drama "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office"", signed by Yao Wenyuan. As soon as the newspaper arrived in Beijing, Beijing was shocked! Peng Zhen, the first secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the mayor of Beijing, responded:

"Criticize a deputy mayor for not saying hello to the municipal party committee. What are they trying to do? Isn't this a surprise attack on comrades? Yao Wenyuan's article is simply nonsense! It's purely imitating the tone!" Liu Shaoqi carefully read Yao Wenyuan's article word by word.Peng Zhen called Liu Shaoqi and asked his opinion on this article.Wang Guangmei answered the call. After answering the phone, Wang Guangmei said to Liu Shaoqi: "Comrade Peng Zhen called and wanted to ask for your opinion on criticizing Wu Han's "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office." I am very familiar with it, so it is difficult to express any opinions. Look, is this answer okay?"

Liu Shaoqi made a clear response: "Now I can only answer this way. Chairman Mao supported the publication of Yao Wenyuan's article in Wen Wei Po. Therefore, you must be extra cautious when speaking to outsiders. However, let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, this article is not well written and lacks the truth-seeking Analysis relies on overwhelming others, which I do not agree with."