Chapter 20 Section 2 Wang Dongxing and "Two Whatevers"

After criticizing Wang Dongxing by name, the facts about the "two whatevers" and the standard of truth can be clarified more clearly.Wang Dongxing is indeed a very important key figure in such matters.If you don't point him out, you won't be able to explain the origin of many things. Things should start shortly after crushing the "Gang of Four". November 18, 1976 (the 17th is recorded in my notebook, and the 18th was mentioned in the joint speech of Yang Xiguang, Zeng Tao, Hua Nan, Wang Huide, Yu Guangyuan, and Hu Jiwei at the theoretical retreat in 1979), the supervisor Wang Dongxing, who works in propaganda, said at the national propaganda conference that "the propaganda work will be liberated only by defeating the 'Gang of Four'" and "taking back the right to propaganda".People hope that there will be a fundamental change in the party's propaganda work in the future, but in this speech, after he talked about the "Gang of Four" for a while, he turned to talk about Deng Xiaoping's "problems."He said:

"After October last year (referring to 1975), Chairman Mao discovered Deng Xiaoping's mistakes, and the mistakes were serious, so he did the same thing. Seeing that Deng couldn't do it, Chairman Mao found another Hua Guofeng, and Deng Xiaoping's serious mistakes continued until Tiananmen Incident." Then Wang Dongxing said: "If the Tiananmen incident is to commemorate Premier Zhou, what's wrong? What's wrong? But they were used by counter-revolutionaries. When criticizing Deng Xiaoping's mistakes, counter-revolutionaries used this thing to form riot."

Then, after Wang talked about what the "Gang of Four" did by using the "Tiananmen Incident", he went back to talking about "criticizing Deng".He said that to criticize Deng, "Chairman Mao already has a No. 4 document. The No. 4 document is always correct no matter what, and it is Chairman Mao's instructions."Wang said in this speech: "The spearhead of the current struggle is the 'Gang of Four', but it is necessary to approve a paragraph on Deng's question." Then he said: "Now there are rumors that Deng has returned to work."

He wanted people to pay attention to Deng Xiaoping, "Chairman Mao once said 'reserve party membership to see later effects'!" Wang Dongxing said: "Deng is far worse than Hua Guofeng! I tried Deng Xiaoping, and it didn't work!" "I still don't understand the Cultural Revolution, and the three correct treatment is not good. Veteran comrades should pay attention to this issue. Attention both young and old." Regarding Deng Xiaoping, Wang also said in this speech: "Now the Deng Xiaoping issue is not classified as a conflict between the enemy and ourselves. Who did it? He still 'sees the aftermath'."

Throughout his speech, Wang used the spirit of "two whatevers" to hinder Deng Xiaoping's intention to work, expressing it very clearly and resolutely. About half a month later, at the third meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress on November 30, 1976, Wang also said that it was wrong to oppose the "Gang of Four" in the "Tiananmen Incident", "At that time they (referring to the 'Gang of Four') It is still the leadership of the central government, which is splitting the central government." Wang also said, "We must combine criticism of the 'Gang of Four' with criticism of Deng."

It was at this meeting that the first version of the "Two Whatevers" appeared--Wu De said in his speech at this meeting: "Everything Chairman Mao instructed and Chairman Mao affirmed, we must work hard to do it, and work hard to do it." it is good." Regarding the fact that the "Gang of Four" was still on stage when the "Tiananmen Incident" occurred, what Wang Dongxing said in his speech on November 18 was not the same as what he said on November 30.That time when he talked about people opposing the "Gang of Four" in Tiananmen Square, he said:

"At that time, the 'Gang of Four' was still on the stage, you hated it in your heart, angered your face, and wrote it on the wreath, how could you tell the difference! They are stupid to do this, you can raise your opinion on the 'Gang of Four', Don't get involved with the counter-revolution." In that speech, Wang Dongxing did not label these people as "split the Central Committee" as he did 12 days later. More than two months later, that is, in February 1977, the "Red Flag" magazine published articles criticizing Zhang Chunqiao's "On the Total Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie" and Yao Wenyuan's "On the Social Foundation of Lin Biao's Anti-Party Clique." Wang Dongxing instructed:

"These two articles (referring to the two articles written by Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan) have been read by the central government and the great leader Chairman Mao, and we can only criticize the erroneous viewpoints in the article without naming names." By saying this, Wang is actually saying that these two articles should not be criticized by name. On February 7, 1977, two newspapers and one magazine published an editorial "Learn Documents Well and Grasp the Outline".This editorial is the second edition of "Two Whatevers".This editorial stated, "We will firmly uphold all the decisions made by Chairman Mao, and we will unswervingly follow all Chairman Mao's instructions."This is the standard version of the "two whatevers".The "two whatevers" that people talk about now generally refers to these two "whatevers".

How did this editorial come about?After criticizing Wang Dongxing by name, people found out that Wang Dongxing had such a "comment" in the editorial copy of "People's Daily": "This article has been discussed and revised by Comrade Li Xin and the comrades in the theoretical study group many times. I think it can be used." He decided to publish two newspapers and one editorial.At that time, Geng Biao was in charge of the central propaganda department.This editorial was sent to the Central Propaganda Office, and when Geng Biao discussed with several comrades at the Propaganda Office, he said:

"Publishing this article means that the 'Gang of Four' has not been smashed. If we follow the 'two whatevers' of this article, nothing can be done." But this editorial was issued by Wang Dongxing in the name of the central government, and the newspapers could only reproduce it, and Geng Biao had no choice. On May 11, 1978, "Guangming Daily" published an article on the standard of truth.In less than a week, on May 17, Wang Dongxing spoke at a group meeting: "Theoretical issues must be cautious, especially the two articles "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth" and "Implementing the Socialist Principle of Distribution According to Work". Chairman Mao's thought. Our party newspaper can't do this. Which central government's opinion is this?!...We must uphold and defend Mao Zedong Thought. The Daily must have party spirit, and the Central Propaganda Department must take care of this.”

Wang Dongxing was fully aware of the origin of the Guangming Daily article.He knew what Deng Xiaoping said on this issue, and he also knew that it was written under the guidance and guidance of Hu Yaobang.But he used the language of "which central government's opinion is this" to object. I have a very clear understanding of the circumstances surrounding the article "Implementing the Socialist Principle of Distribution According to Work".It was written on the basis of many speeches in the "Symposium on Distribution According to Work" that had a great impact in 1977 and 1978. In July and August of 1977, the "People's Daily" published the article "Refuting Yao Wenyuan's Fallacy that Distribution According to Work Creates the Bourgeoisie" co-written by Su Shaozhi and Feng Lanrui.After Deng Xiaoping saw this article, he sent a letter to the State Council Research Office, saying that the viewpoint of this article was correct, but the author's mind was not liberated enough, so he proposed that the State Council Research Office write another big article.So it was arranged by the Research Office of the State Council, led by Lin Jianqing, organized Feng Lanrui and others to participate, and also invited salary experts from other units to participate, and established a writing group.After it was written, it was sent to Deng Xiaoping for review, and according to Deng Xiaoping's opinions, it was revised and finalized. The specific process of writing this article may not be clear to Wang Dongxing, but Deng Xiaoping has talked about the issue of distribution according to work many times in the central meeting.Deng Xiaoping was not unaware of the fact that this article was written. It can be said that he knew it very clearly.So what he said was completely aimed at Deng Xiaoping and against Deng Xiaoping.But he was somewhat concerned.Therefore, he said something like "it is good for active thinking", but he used the words "point the finger at the chairman" to suppress people. His intention was very obvious. Another month later, on June 15th, Wang Dongxing held a small propaganda meeting in the Xinjiang Hall of the Great Hall of the People. The participants included Politburo member Wu Lanfu, the head and deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, and Xiong Fu, Zeng Tao, Yang Xiguang, Hu Jiwei, and Wang Shu, who had been in charge of the "Red Flag" magazine, had been transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.In his speech, Wang Dongxing criticized at the beginning: “Nowadays, newspapers and periodicals are not very party-oriented, and their personalities are not subservient to the party spirit. Some people were attacked during the Cultural Revolution, and in a fit of anger, they dismissed the Cultural Revolution as worthless, and finally pointed the finger at Chairman Mao.” He said: "Now it is useless to say that the Cultural Revolution launched by Chairman Mao is useless, and when criticizing the 'Gang of Four', criticize Chairman Mao as well." Wang Dongxing said: "The propaganda in the newspaper is not good, and enemies at home and abroad will take advantage of it. They will provoke the relationship between the Politburo Standing Committee members, and the relationship between Chairman Mao and Chairman Hua. It is a big thing if the control is not tight." After saying these few words, he made specific criticisms one by one. First, he criticized several articles written by a special commentator of "People's Daily" on the implementation of cadre policies; second, he criticized "People's Daily" Yu Huanchun's speech at the Political Association The third is to criticize that there is a headline in the "People's Daily", which only writes that Deng Xiaoping brilliantly clarified Mao Zedong Thought, but does not write that Chairman Hua brilliantly clarifies Mao Zedong Thought; "The description is wrong; the fifth is to criticize a sentence in the "Changjiang Daily": "Extreme 'Left' is the main manifestation of the counter-revolutionary line of the 'Gang of Four'." He said that Hua Guofeng did not make such a speech; " said that Comrades Kang Sheng and Xie Fuzhi were the "Gang of Four", which had an impact on the unity of the party; the seventh was to criticize the speech made by Du Runzhi of the Academy of Social Sciences at the Political Association, saying that he translated the "February Outline" and "May 16 Notice", saying that "the entire Cultural Revolution is about to be overturned".He also criticized Wu Shichang's proposal to set up a "Tiananmen Injustice Committee" at the CPPCC meeting. In the group meeting of the Central Working Conference, people who knew the situation truthfully exposed such things, which made people understand why some people so confidently resisted the discussion of the standard of truth, and some people set a forbidden area for the discussion of the standard of truth, Some people, such as Zhang Yaoci, deputy director of the General Office of the Central Committee, dared to say to Hu Yaobang, then head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee at the convener of the National Work Conference on Complaints and Calls, "Any false statement, no matter when, no matter what Under such circumstances, no matter which level of organization or who decides or approves it, it must be corrected in a realistic manner” to make unreasonable accusations and insist on deleting it from the document.Zhang Yaoci said: "Now someone wants to overturn the Tiananmen Square case. Isn't this suppressing the central government again?" He also said: "Some articles do have problems, and some of them are more serious. The spearhead is directed at Chairman Mao. There is an article called "Practice Is the Only Criteria for Testing Truth." Some of the words in it are problematic. Very well, one by one. Of course, a hundred schools of thought can contend, but some people use Chairman Mao's words to criticize the chairman.... Some are not only aimed at Chairman Mao, but also against Chairman Hua... This trend is very strong. Is it necessary to resist it? Easy. I said to Zhang Pinghua, you are the Minister of Propaganda, you have to control the direction. Some people say that you must understand Mao Zedong Thought comprehensively and accurately, but it’s not like that.” This was said on October 3, 37 days before the Central Work Conference.The tone of Wang Dongxing's deputy is really extraordinary. He can criticize Deng Xiaoping almost by name; he can speak to Zhang Pinghua, the head of the Central Propaganda Department. Zhang Yaoci also attended the Central Working Conference.Yang Xiguang and I exposed this matter at the group meeting of the Northwest Group.Everyone thinks that Wang Dongxing's influence can also be seen from Zhang Yaoci, and it can be understood that what he said was Wang Dongxing's words.Zhang Yaoci was in the southwest group and was with Hu Jiwei. Hu Jiwei criticized him face to face, and Zhang Yaoci was of course indisputable. As for the revelation of Wang Dongxing at the meeting, he did not explain any of the statements that were inconsistent with the facts at the time.He is a powerful person. If what others say is not completely in line with the facts, he can fully explain it.But nothing could be said that was not true.What others say has time, place, and specific content, and it can be seen from this that his thoughts and actions are consistent.This cannot help but make people think that these revelations are very powerful.