Chapter 18 Section 5 A matter that occurred outside the meeting and was reflected in the meeting

On the afternoon of November 25, immediately after the third meeting, Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, and Wang Dongxing listened to the report of "Tiananmen incident" "The reaction of the masses after the redress.After the report, the Central Standing Committee delivered an important speech in the name of the collective.Among them there is such a passage: We must hold high the great banner of Chairman Mao.Chairman Mao's banner is the banner of the united revolution of the whole party, the army and the people of all nationalities in the country, and it is also the banner of the international communist movement.Now, some people have raised some historical issues, and some historical issues need to be resolved. If they are not resolved, many people will be burdened and unable to move forward lightly.Some historical problems cannot be resolved within a certain period of time.Some things cannot be solved by our generation, let the next generation solve them, the more time goes by, the clearer it becomes.Some issues can be clarified clearly, but some issues are not easy to be clarified all at once, and insisting on talking about them will distract the attention of the party and the people, which is not in the fundamental interests of the country and the people.On some issues, especially the issue of the "Cultural Revolution", Chairman Mao has already proposed to correct the mistake of "overthrowing everything and all-out civil war".We are now rehabilitating unjust, wrong, and false cases to solve this problem.And we believe that if Chairman Mao is still alive, these problems will be solved step by step.We must understand Mao Zedong Thought accurately and comprehensively, and hold high the great banner of Chairman Mao.Of course, "no gold is pure, no man is perfect".Some problems always need a process of exposure and understanding.For some specific problems, we must seek truth from facts and solve them in accordance with the principle that "practice is the only criterion for testing truth."Now the newspaper discusses the standard of truth, and the discussion is very good, and the thinking is very lively. It cannot be said that those articles are aimed at Chairman Mao, otherwise it will be difficult for others to speak.But when talking about problems, we must pay attention to the appropriateness and the consequences.There are certain things that Chairman Mao cannot and should not be mentioned, because it would be disadvantageous to mention them.Newspapers have to be very careful.One step further and truth becomes false.Chairman Mao's great feats are indelible.Chinese history proves that Chen Duxiu, Wang Ming, Li Lisan... can't do it. Only Chairman Mao can lead us to victory.Without Chairman Mao, there would be no new China.Chairman Mao's greatness cannot be overstated, it cannot be described in words.Chairman Mao is not without faults and mistakes, but they are insignificant compared with his great achievements.We cannot require great leaders, great figures, and thinkers to be free from shortcomings and mistakes. Such a requirement would not be a Marxist.Chairman Mao said that when Marx and Lenin wrote articles, they often revised them by themselves.We cannot demand that every sentence of Chairman Mao is correct. Isn't Lin Biao's "theory of genius" correct?Foreigners asked me (Vice-Chairman Deng), can I evaluate Chairman Mao in the same way as I evaluated Stalin?I (Vice Chairman Deng) answered in the affirmative, it cannot be said that way.The Party Central Committee and the Chinese people will never do what Khrushchev did.

This speech was not formally conveyed at the meeting, but the meeting issued the "Key Points of Spiritual Records of Instructions of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" as a meeting document to the meeting attendees.This document was not sent to us quickly, and it will probably take a few days to sort out this conversation.When the document was read, it was no longer the time to focus on criticizing the "two whatevers", so the reaction of the meeting attendees was not very strong. Those who paid attention to this document thought it was an official statement from the Central Committee on the discussion of the standard of truth.On November 25, Hua Guofeng only talked about a few specific issues such as the "Tiananmen incident" and did not respond to the discussion of the "two whatevers" and the standard of truth. "For some specific issues, we must seek truth from facts and solve them according to the principle that practice is the only criterion for testing truth. The issue of the criterion of truth is being discussed in the newspapers. The discussions are very good and the thinking is very lively. It cannot be said that those articles are aimed at Chairman Mao. Yes, then it will be difficult for others to speak.” Such a passage can be regarded as a formal statement of the discussion on the article "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth" and the question of the criterion of truth.

But since this incident happened outside the meeting, since it was not communicated to the meeting, many people, including me, did not speak about it.However, I saw from the briefing that Zhang Pinghua, who was in the Southwest Group, talked about the report of the Central Standing Committee.When comrades from the Northeast Group criticized Zhang Pinghua as head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee for taking a negative attitude towards the discussion of truth standards, Zhang Pinghua defended that it was because the central government did not formally express its position, and it was difficult for him to express his position.He said that the situation is different now, and after the Central Standing Committee made its statement on the afternoon of November 25, he will not be like this.It can be seen from his speech that he participated in the report meeting, so he knew the content of the Central Standing Committee's speech that day before the document was sent to the meeting.

I first learned about the speech of the Central Standing Committee on the afternoon of November 25 from the briefing of the Southwest Group.This is something that happened outside the meeting and had a big impact on our meeting.I don't remember the situation of the other groups. I don't know who other than Zhang Pinghua mentioned the instructions of the Central Standing Committee at the report meeting on the afternoon of the 25th.