Chapter 11 Section 4 Issues Concerning Agricultural Issues

Agriculture was the first of three topics Hua Guofeng raised in his speech.This was a common concern of those present.Local cadres are very familiar with the actual situation of agriculture and know that the agricultural problems in our country were very serious at that time. my country's agriculture has always had a big shortcoming: the emphasis on agriculture has lost or even destroyed forestry, animal husbandry, sideline, fishery and rural industrial transportation.Food is emphasized in agriculture, and cash crops such as cotton, oil, and sugar are lost or even destroyed.Even the food production itself is also unable to get ahead because of "one big and two public", "cutting the tail of capitalism", "struggling against private interests and criticizing repairs", criticizing "productivity-only theory", and making blind orders.But they refuse to sum up experience in a realistic manner.If it is not done well, it will be attributed to natural disasters, China's large population and other reasons. In the two years since the crushing of the "Gang of Four", the situation has not improved significantly.In terms of rural work, people's minds are still severely constrained. Everyone is not satisfied with the two documents prepared at the meeting and the explanation given by Ji Dengkui.At the meeting, not only the local "princess", but also comrades from the army and central government agencies (many of whom were also in charge of local or concurrently in charge of agriculture), talked about agricultural issues with worry and eloquence.From the briefing, the situation is the same in all groups.

As far as our discussions in the Northwest Group are concerned, speaking on agricultural issues is common.Among them, the ones that are more systematic, the ones I remember are: (1) Li Dengying (in 1956 when formulating the 12-year scientific long-term plan, he participated in the 10-member scientific planning group under the charge of Fan Changjiang and me in the name of the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Office of the State Council. work), he is an old agricultural worker.Views on agricultural issues were comprehensively presented at the group meetings. (2) Jiang Yizhen, before becoming the Minister of Health, he served as the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee in Hebei Province, and he is very familiar with agricultural issues.

(3) Xiao Hua, I don’t know why, maybe because he was in the Lanzhou Military Region and had contact with rural areas in several provinces and autonomous regions in the Northwest, and he is very familiar with the agricultural situation. A very thoughtful analysis. (4) Li Renjun, deputy director of the State Planning Commission, made comments on agricultural documents from the perspective of the Planning Commission. In addition, "princess" from all walks of life, such as Shaojing frog in Ningxia, Li Ruishan and Wang Renzhong in Shaanxi, Song Ping in Gansu, Zhao Haifeng in Qinghai, Liu Zhen and Guo Linxiang in the Xinjiang Military Region, Song Zhihe in Xinjiang, etc. Circumstances made comments on the agricultural paper.

It should be said that the "princes" from all walks of life have made speeches on agricultural issues, but I can't remember what they all said.I have also participated in the drafting of agricultural documents many times in the past, and I have a lot of views on agricultural issues, and I have also spoken a lot.Everyone was dissatisfied with the two documents sent to everyone for discussion at the meeting, and believed that they could not solve the agricultural problems at that time. Hu Yaobang was particularly concerned about agricultural issues.In his speech at the Northwest Group, he believed that agriculture is the biggest practical problem in our current work, and the accelerated development of agriculture is a decisive link in accelerating the modernization process.He said that the key to the problem that the document cannot solve is that one is that the problem has not been thoroughly understood, and the other is that there are still limitations in thinking.He believes that some rural systems such as "unity of government and society" should be changed.He believes that the "Cultural Revolution" has seriously damaged our vitality, and the physical fitness and enthusiasm of the labor force have deteriorated.He believes that the development of agriculture mainly depends on the enthusiasm of farmers and grassroots cadres.He said that the enthusiasm of workers always comes first, and that Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" dealt a devastating blow to the enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of peasants and millions of cadres.He believes that collectively speaking is good, which is an abstract method of analysis. If the collective economy is not well managed, it will not be able to give full play to the enthusiasm of farmers, and there is no advantage at all.

He spoke to such an extent that I heard that he was talking about the necessity of contracting production to households. Although he didn't say it clearly, the four words were ready to come out, and it seemed that there was only a thin piece of window paper left. It breaks easily. In this speech, Hu Yaobang also gave a profound insight into the basic concept of "agriculture".He disagrees with some people who comfort themselves by saying that China feeds one-fifth of the world's population with less than seven percent of the world's arable land.He said that "support" has all kinds of support.Half a year's grain of bran vegetables is "feeding", and ample food and clothing, adequate nutrition, and good physical fitness are also "feeding".He believes that the current level of farmers in our country to support themselves is too low.At the same time, he believes that the area of ​​cultivated land in our country is much larger than the statistics, and he believes that there is a great potential for increasing agricultural production after the enthusiasm of farmers is raised.

I think his words are aimed at those who cover up the most serious problems that exist in agriculture.I have always disapproved of that kind of whitewashing and self-comfort, and I am very disgusted with this attitude.So I think he speaks very well.When talking about the concept of "eating", he told an interesting story. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he once visited the Soviet Union with an old comrade.The leaders of the Soviet Party invited them to eat Western food.When the waiter brought out the first dish, the comrade didn’t eat it, and wanted to wait for the “rice” to be served before eating. Unexpectedly, the waiter saw that he didn’t eat the dish that was served, and thought he didn’t want to eat it. , took the first course away.As a result, the dishes were served one by one, and they were taken away one by one.He waited for the meal to come, but in the end there was no meal and he was hungry.

I still remember the joke Hu Yaobang told in the Northwest Group.He used this story to illustrate that due to isolation, many people also have a narrow understanding of the concept of "eating". Due to one-sided understanding of the concept of "food", some people think that the only way to solve the problem of "food" is to grow and eat food, and they don't know the importance of developing a variety of food.However, the problem he mentioned was not only not resolved by the Central Work Conference, but also did not let go of the saying "take food as the key link", and it seems that it has not been completely resolved until today.Today we still have the idea of ​​equating food with food.The United Nations FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) was translated as "United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization" when the Kuomintang ruled the mainland, and it has not changed since the founding of the country 50 years ago.The two issues raised by Hu Yaobang in his speech are both key issues in agriculture.

Regarding "grain", there is also the issue of importing some grain to ease China's food shortage at that time.Yao Yilin has a good insight on this issue.Yao Yilin said in his speech at the Northwest Group that in 1978, 12 million tons of grain were imported, 1 million tons were re-exported, and 11 million tons were supplied to the domestic market, which could ease the agricultural situation.He advocated importing 18 million tons in 1979.In this way, the production of cotton, oilseeds and sugar can be resumed, and the problem of feed can be solved. When discussing agricultural issues, the comrades in the Northwest Group talked a lot and had many opinions. On November 19, the Northwest Group recommended five people, Hu Yaobang, Wang Renzhong, Jiang Yizhen, Li Dengying, and Yu Guangyuan, to form a group to propose a written revision to the two agricultural documents based on the discussion at the group meeting.This written opinion was written and sent to the Central Committee four days later.But how it was sorted out, I can't remember at all.I remember that this kind of work was uniformly arranged by the meeting, and each group had such a task.

Above I only talked about the situation of the Northwest Group. From the briefing, I can see that the other groups are generally the same.Especially in the southwest group, Zhao Ziyang spoke a lot on agricultural issues.The keynotes of the speeches of each group were similar. Generally speaking, in the speeches of each group meeting, the two documents originally proposed by the meeting generally believed that they did not solve the problem, but the proposals that could really solve the problem, such as the implementation of household contracting in rural areas He didn't dare to raise his proposition publicly at the meeting, and it probably wouldn't pass if he raised it publicly.So the document is difficult to produce.

It was reflected in the Standing Committee of the Central Committee. At a meeting of the Standing Committee members listening to the reports of various groups before the meeting on November 25, Hua Guofeng made a speech. He said that it is feasible to talk about the agricultural documents, but only a few people think so; Most of the people said that major changes are needed, and now each group is writing (in addition to the opinion of the Northwest Group that I participated in writing, I saw that Lin Hujia of the North China Group also wrote a very long opinion); the third said to write another , There are also some comrades who advocate so.This kind of discussion caused Hua Guofeng to shake.

He asked himself the question: "Should we do this document at this meeting?" He said that he had originally intended not to do so. He asked Yaobang, and Yaobang advocated doing so, saying: "If it doesn't work out, if we don't hold a general meeting to make a decision, it will be detrimental to the big work. This way, we can unify the caliber and solicit opinions widely, which is good for the big work next year." Everyone talked about this issue, whether to write a decision or to write a draft is still not finalized.It seems that it can be implemented as a draft, or only as a draft.I finally agreed to write something to unify my thinking and ask for opinions. Everyone is welcome to give their opinions.Regarding the issue of the unity of government and society, whether to change it this time is a big question.How to change the law.The division of labor cannot but be carried out on this basis.That huge set of institutions will not work either, and the rural economy must be managed with genuine economic methods. Li Xiannian also said at the meeting of the Standing Committee to listen to the report that he convened a meeting of thirteen people regarding the agricultural documents, one line (the original document is feasible), two revisions (require major revisions), and three revisions (rewrites), but he did not express his position It is best not to say much at the meeting, but to say that the revolution has not yet succeeded, and comrades still have to work hard. After the report meeting, at the conference on November 25, Hua Guofeng said something like this about this issue: "With regard to the "Decision on Accelerating Agricultural Development", some comrades advocate minor revisions, some comrades advocate major revisions, and some comrades advocate rewriting. The central government's opinion is that it is better to come up with a draft." The situation mentioned by the Standing Committee and the incident that I personally came into contact with happened to match the caliber.I know that Hu Yaobang actively advocated a good agricultural document at this meeting from the very beginning.One afternoon before and after the Standing Committee's report, he brought Hu Qiaomu and me together to discuss the issue of agricultural documents.He talked about the need to complete the agricultural document, and hoped that Hu Qiaomu would preside over the drafting of this document.Hu Qiaomu disapproved of Hu Yaobang's opinion, and said that he was unwilling to do this job either.There was a fight between the erhus, but no one convinced the other.But Hu Yaobang still insisted that Hu Qiaomu presided over the writing of the document.Because of Hu Yaobang's insistence, Hu Qiaomu finally reluctantly accepted the task. According to the usual situation, I can remember the content of the debate between different views between the erhus relatively clearly, but I don’t know why this time I just can’t remember it.I only have the impression that the two of them don't quite agree on how to solve agricultural problems.In order to help Hu Qiaomu, the Research Office of the State Council transferred two comrades to the Jingxi Hotel with a young assistant, but I was busy with other things and did not get to know the work of Hu Qiaomu and these two comrades. In terms of research on agricultural issues, a lot of energy and time were invested during the Central Work Conference.Although I didn't participate in the drafting of agricultural documents, and devoted my energy to other aspects of work, I still heard and saw a lot of things.I know that apart from Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang played an important role in drafting this document, and Hu Qiaomu praised Zhao Ziyang more than once in front of me.I also know that several comrades did not express their real opinions in the group meeting. In front of me, they also complained about the comrades who were responsible for drafting the documents, and also said that they knew that there were insurmountable difficulties in writing agricultural documents that solved the problems. difficulty. In my conversations with these comrades I saw that it was impossible to produce a satisfactory agricultural document at this conference.However, because some like-minded people from various "princes" got together and exchanged their own ideas, they knew that they had a better idea of ​​what to do when they went back in the future, and what the final agricultural documents looked like was to them Instead, it became unimportant.They told me that no matter how the documents are written, they will follow the established guidelines after returning home.That is to say, if the documents are unsatisfactory (it seems that this has become a helpless thing), they will proceed from the local reality and adopt solutions that can solve the problem, and let practice test right and wrong. The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Issues Concerning Accelerating Agricultural Development (Draft)" and the "Regulations on the Work of Rural People's Commune (Trial Draft)", which were revised by the Central Work Conference, submitted to the Third Plenum for discussion and approved in principle, are not difficult to find , I think there is no need to quote them further, because their basic content can be seen from a paragraph about agriculture in the communiqué of the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.What is written in that passage about the structure of rural ownership is only: "The ownership and autonomy of the people's communes, production brigades, and production teams must be effectively protected by national laws; free use and possession of labor, funds, products, and materials of production teams are not allowed; economic organizations at all levels in communes must conscientiously implement distribution according to work. Socialist principles based on the principle of socialism, calculating remuneration according to the quantity and quality of labor, overcoming egalitarianism; private plots, family sidelines, and market trade are necessary supplementary parts of the socialist economy, and no one is allowed to interfere indiscriminately; the people's communes must resolutely implement three-level All and team-based systems are stable and unchanged; organizations at all levels of people's communes must resolutely implement democratic management, cadre elections, and open accounts." Most of the provisions in this paragraph are good, but they are just some general principles. Even if they are implemented, they can only play a good role, and cannot really improve the enthusiasm of farmers.However, the words "the people's communes must resolutely implement the three-level ownership and team-based system, which is stable and unchanged" are very conservative and lack the spirit of reform. Of course, the communiqué did not include all the content of the two agricultural documents. For example, if the two documents contained the "two prohibitions", that is, "no contracting production to households" and "no splitting the fields to work alone", the communiqué would not It is not written.At that time, what could really improve farmers' labor enthusiasm was the implementation of household contracting, which I guess would be impossible to include. Before the document was finalized, one day I heard that in the agricultural document drafted by Hu Qiaomu, not only did it not include the possibility of household contracting of production, but on the contrary, the "two prohibitions" were "not allowed to divide the fields and work alone", "not allowed to contract production to households" "Written like that.After I learned about this situation, I was not surprised, so I don't want to blame Hu Qiaomu and other comrades who were in charge of drafting the agricultural documents.Because I knew at that time that even those who insisted on abandoning the "two whatevers" could do nothing but oppose Mao Zedong's instructions in the last few years of his life and make it "Tiananmen Incident" in nature. Rehabilitation, solving the problems left over from the "Cultural Revolution", and at the same time paying great attention to maintaining Mao Zedong's prestige, so as not to cause a greater ideological shock in the party and society. I don't want to oppose Mao Zedong's mistakes before the "Cultural Revolution". It is something that Mao Zedong has repeatedly opposed since the 1950s. He dared not ask for the implementation of household contracting in agricultural production to be included in agricultural documents. Of course, I don't think it is necessary to write those two "not allowed" from the negative side, even if it is a superficial article.At that time, it might not pass without writing, but I think it is possible to do it just by asking not to write. In this regard, I am still a little dissatisfied with the drafting of documents.But looking back, I think it doesn't matter if you write this kind of words, it's nothing special.I know that the Chinese have many ways to deal with the Chinese.In ancient fables, there are stories of "three in the morning and four in the evening" and "four in the evening and three in the evening".Household production contracting is not allowed, and the use of language such as "production contracting to the group, responsibility to the household" or "responsibility to the individual" can be said to have not violated the "two prohibitions".I think after the "Cultural Revolution", everyone is much "smarter" than before. One thing worth noting is that the slogan "Learn from Dazhai in agriculture" is no longer mentioned, and the editorial "Learn Documents and Grasp the Outlines" that is famous for writing "Two Whatevers" in two newspapers and one magazine says that you must learn documents well. One of them was Hua Guofeng's speech at the Second National Conference on Learning from Agriculture in Dazhai.The agricultural documents finalized during the Central Work Conference and passed at the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee are still a considerable improvement compared with the documents issued at the beginning of the work conference. From the situation of the agricultural documents I introduced at that time above, it can be seen that the Third Plenary Session was only the beginning of reform and opening up. After the Third Plenary Session, there were still many difficulties in the cause of reform and opening up in our country, which had to be resolved one by one. As for the relationship between agriculture and rural industry and transportation, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline fishery, and grain and economic crops in agriculture, the communiqué stated that "the simultaneous implementation of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline fishery and 'food as the key link, comprehensive development, The sixteen words "adapting measures to local conditions and properly concentrating" had already become old sayings before the Central Work Conference.