Chapter 23 Chapter 22 "Cheers" Nie Yuanzi's big-character poster

On June 1, Chen Boda lit an evil fire in the "People's Daily".On the same day, Kang Sheng and Chen Boda sang "Shuanghuang" and ignited an evil fire on the Central People's Broadcasting Station... According to what Lu Ping told the author, on June 1, he held a meeting at the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. When the meeting was adjourned, Wu De informed Lu Ping: "The big-character posters of Nie Yuanzi and others will be broadcast tonight, and will appear in the newspapers tomorrow." Lu Ping's heart shook.This big-character poster slandering evil is worthy of being broadcast to the whole of China by the Central People's Broadcasting Station!At 8 o'clock that night, when Lu Ping listened to the news program of China Central People's Broadcasting Station, sure enough, the headline news was the big-character poster by Nie Yuanzi and others!

Lu Ping learned afterwards that it was Kang Sheng who was playing tricks behind his back... Why did Kang Sheng join Peking University? At the beginning of 1967, when Cao Yiou was bombarded, Kang Sheng received representatives of the masses on January 22 and made the following confession: "About my wife Cao Yiou, some people say that she is the deputy head of the Peking University working group. This is wrong. Five people including my wife once formed an investigation team and went to Peking University in May 1966. The purpose was to investigate Peng Zhen's activities there. It has nothing to do with the working group to mobilize the leftists to write articles. Nie Yuanzi’s big-character poster was written at the urging of my lover.”

Kang Sheng is "too modest"!Cao Yiou's role in that big-character poster was not only to "promote", but also to be the director behind the scenes. After the big-character poster was posted on the afternoon of May 25, 1966, at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai, who presided over the work of the Central Committee in Beijing, sent the heads of the North China Bureau, the Foreign Affairs Office of the State Council, and the Higher Education Bureau to Peking University to reiterate the principle of distinction between inside and outside. , criticizing the big-character posters posted by Nie Yuanzi and others.

Kang Sheng got the big-character posters of Nie Yuanzi and others from Cao Yiou, quietly transferred them to Hangzhou, and sent them directly to Mao Zedong.After reading it, Mao Zedong called Kang Sheng and Chen Boda and decided to broadcast the poster. On the afternoon of June 1, Kang Sheng announced as if he had won a big battle: "With the approval of Chairman Mao, the big-character posters of Nie Yuanzi and others will be broadcast tonight, and will appear in the newspapers tomorrow!" When Chen Boda received a call from Mao Zedong, he immediately posted the big-character posters of Nie Yuanzi and others, planning to publish them tomorrow.Chen Boda was also planning to go to Peking University to take a look in person and consider whether to distribute a commentary for the poster.Wang Li and Guan Feng volunteered to go to Peking University, leaving Chen Boda to stay in the "People's Daily" office to preside over the work.In the evening, after Wang Li and Guan Feng returned from Peking University, they said that "the revolutionary situation is very good" at Peking University.So, I rushed to write the commentator's article "A Big Character Poster Hailing Peking University" overnight, which was signed by Chen Boda and spelled on the first page.

Also on the evening of June 1, Zhang Chengxian, the former secretary of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China in charge of culture and education, was appointed as the leader of the working group and was rushed to Peking University. Mr. Shi Youren, one of the first members of the former Peking University working group, wrote to the author from Beijing on March 28, 1996, recalling the scene of that year: I myself was the first batch of members of the working group, and I entered Peking University with Comrade Zhang Chengxian on the evening of June 1, and withdrew until the beginning of August.

At that time, I was working in the Department of Teaching of the Ministry of Higher Education. After listening to the big-character posters of Nie Yuanzi and others on the Central Radio Station at home at 7:00 p.m. After the arrangement, I immediately went back to the office building with the people who came here. Minister Jiang Nanxiang announced to me and several other comrades that the central government decided to send a working group to Peking University in the name of the Beijing New Municipal Party Committee that afternoon. The team leader was Zhang Chengxian, and the deputy team leader was Liu Yangqiao (Vice Minister of the Ministry of Higher Education at the time), all members were cadres of the Ministry of Higher Education, a total of 4 people, namely Yang Huiwen, Huang Shenghua, Bai Jing and me, and asked us to set off immediately to Peking University to report to comrades Zhang Chengxian and Liu Yangqiao.I left without even being able to say hello to my family.After arriving at Peking University, a school-wide cadre meeting was held in the auditorium that night to announce the decision of the new Beijing Municipal Party Committee.Immediately afterwards, the central government dispatched a large number of personnel from the ministries and commissions of the State Council, various provinces and cities, and the leading agencies of the naval aviation to join the working group, forming two-level institutions at the school and department levels.

On June 2, the second "People's Daily" published after Chen Boda "taken over", the smell of gunpowder was stronger than that on June 1. On this day, a big-character poster by Nie Yuanzi and others was published on the front page, with a sensational headline "Big-Character Poster Exposing a Big Conspiracy" and a commentator's article distributed.In addition, an editorial "The Great Revolution That Touched People's Souls" was published that sang "Left" tunes.Various expressions of the "Cultural Revolution" since then, such as "touch the soul hard", "revolution broke out in the depths of the soul", etc., originated from this editorial.

"People's Daily" published the big-character posters of Nie Yuanzi and others, tantamount to naming the names of Song Shuo, Lu Ping, and Peng Yuyun in the official newspaper of the Party Central Committee. The Peking University Party Committee and the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China were immediately and violently attacked. On the afternoon of June 2, when he rushed to Peking University, Chen Boda smiled triumphantly when he saw many big-character posters expressing "warm cheers" to the "People's Daily" that day. Kang Sheng seemed extremely active.He said: "The big-character posters were broadcast, and I saw the newspapers. I felt liberated!" On the evening of June 3, Chen Boda went to Peking University again and saw a batch of big-character posters attacking Nie Yuanzi.Chen Boda said angrily: "Royalists! Now there are royalists!"

The "People's Daily" on June 4 was filled with gunpowder again.The headline on the front page contained shocking news: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has decided to reorganize the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. Li Xuefeng, the first secretary of the North China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, will also be the first secretary of the municipal party committee, and the first secretary of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China will be appointed as the second secretary of the municipal party committee.The work of the "Cultural Revolution" in Beijing was led by the new Municipal Party Committee.The new municipal party committee made three new decisions: (1) Send a working group headed by Zhang Chengxian to Peking University to lead the "Cultural Revolution"; ) During the reorganization of the Party Committee of Peking University, the working group will act on behalf of the Party Committee.

On the front page, according to Chen Boda's order, an editorial "New Victory of Mao Zedong Thought" was distributed, "hailing" the reorganization of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the stationing of the working group in Peking University. On this day, Chen Boda also issued the editorial "Tear off the fig leaf of the bourgeoisie's "freedom, equality, and fraternity"", publicly revealing the content of the "May 16 Notice". On June 5, based on the spirit of Chen Boda’s talks after his two trips to Peking University, the People’s Daily published an editorial titled “Being a Proletarian Revolutionary or a Bourgeois Royalist?” ".Chen Boda bestowed the title of "royalist" on those who supported the former Beijing Municipal Party Committee headed by Peng Zhen and the former Peking University Party Committee headed by Lu Ping.Since then, the term "Royalists" has been widely used in the "Cultural Revolution", and a large number of comrades who insisted on revolutionary truth and opposed the "Cultural Revolution" were denounced as "Royalists" and "Bao".

The five editorials of "People's Daily" published under the chairmanship of Chen Boda were printed as loose-leaf anthologies and widely disseminated, and became "study documents" that everyone must read: "Sweeping All Ghosts and Snakes", "The Great Revolution That Touched People's Souls", "The New Victory of Mao Zedong Thought", "Tearing off the fig leaf of the bourgeoisie's "freedom, equality, and fraternity", "To be a proletarian revolutionist or a bourgeois royalist?" ". These five editorials played a great role in bewitching and instigating, and the fire of the "Cultural Revolution" ignited blazingly in the land of China. Nie Yuanzi and other big-character posters published in "People's Daily" set up "models" of "rebellion" throughout the country.Tens of thousands of Nie Yuanzi rose up, and tens of thousands of "rebellious" posters were posted.