Chapter 36 The second section is about Ye Jianying's speech at the closing meeting

I haven't heard Comrade Ye Jianying speak for about 20 years.I have always missed when Ye Jianying took the military vehicle from Guilin to Chongqing in 1939 and passed through Loushanguan in Guizhou. Scenarios at work and in struggle.I was very happy to hear his voice this time. Like Deng Xiaoping, in his speech he spoke highly of this Central Work Conference, saying: "The implementation of such full democracy at this meeting is indeed a good start, and we have taken the lead. We must persist and carry forward forever." Indeed, at this meeting, there are no restrictions on the speaking time, number of speeches, and the scope of speeches, and it is truly possible to speak freely.Of course, it will be held for 36 days. It is impossible for all central meetings to do this. It was a specific phenomenon that occurred under the specific historical conditions at that time.But at that time, everyone hoped that the spirit of democracy would be fully carried forward at the meeting, as Ye Jianying said in this speech, and it would be perpetuated forever.

In this speech he talked about three issues, the first is the issue of the leadership team.This is a question of particular concern to everyone at the end of this meeting. By 1978, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and Mao Zedong had passed away one after another.Among them, Liu Shaoqi was brutally persecuted to death, and the rest died of illness.Zhu De died in 1976 at the age of 90.He is 11 years older than Ye Jianying.Zhou Enlai, who was one year younger than Ye Jianying, also passed away three years ago.Mao Zedong was four years older than Ye Jianying and also died two years ago. The 81-year-old Ye Jianying expressed emotion naturally:

"We veteran cadres and comrades have spent more than half a century in the South and North for China's revolutionary cause. Now, we are very old. The laws of nature cannot be violated." Of course, everyone desperately hopes that Deng Xiaoping (he is 7 years younger than Ye Jianying) will come out and preside over the work of the Central Committee. If the Zunyi Conference in 1935 actually established Mao Zedong's leadership in the Party Central Committee, then Deng Xiaoping's leadership in the Party Central Committee was established in the 1978 Central Work Conference and the Third Plenary Session, and it was more important than the Zunyi Conference. In the end, Mao Zedong gained a more secure position.After the Zunyi Conference, Mao Zedong's status was finally firmly established after the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Party in 1938, the Yan'an Rectification Movement, and the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee.Deng Xiaoping no longer had such a process.Deng Xiaoping gained such a status, of course, mainly due to his own character, ability and the love of the cadres and the masses, but the support of the respected Ye Jianying is also an important factor.At the same time, Hu Yaobang, as his successor, gradually matured in public opinion at that time.Ye Jianying said in this speech that we should pay great attention to cultivating successors to the revolutionary cause. Those of us at the meeting could understand his intentions after hearing it.

The second question he talked about was about promoting democracy and strengthening the legal system.But he not only talked about this issue in the second section of his speech. In the introduction part of this speech, when he spoke highly of the meeting, he said: In this meeting, everyone spoke freely, fully discussed, and criticized, and some made mistakes. Comrades have also made self-criticism to varying degrees, which is a sign of our party's prosperity.In the part of "Promoting Democracy and Strengthening the Legal System", Ye Jianying said that if we want to realize socialist modernization, we must earnestly implement democratic centralism.Then he said three things in one breath, "only when democracy is fully developed":

"Only by fully promoting democracy can we mobilize the enthusiasm of the cadres and the masses to the greatest extent, pool their wisdom, and work together to build socialism. Only by fully promoting democracy can we open up talents, discover our party's outstanding talents in a timely manner, and ensure that the majority of cadres are The people and the masses have the right to supervise and criticize the leaders, so that it is possible to discover and expose conspirators, careerists, and double-dealers like Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" in a timely manner, so as to consolidate our political power and make our socialist modernization drive a success. A real guarantee."

In the end, Ye Jianying said in a nutshell that a sentence from Lenin can be used here: "victorious socialism cannot maintain its victories without the exercise of full democracy." What Lenin said was indeed very good. In this speech, Ye Jianying criticized Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" for creating an illusion that the implementation of democracy is equal to the restoration of capitalism.The strange talks they spread on the issue of democracy have confused the thinking of some of our comrades, and made some of our comrades very nervous when they heard about democracy.Ye Jianying pointed out: Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" pretended to be socialism with feudalism, saying that they were using socialism to oppose capitalism.They label any opinions that differ from theirs as "bourgeois" and "capitalist", which confuses our thinking and makes it difficult to distinguish what is feudalism, what is capitalism, and what is real. of socialism.China has experienced a feudal society for more than two thousand years, and capitalism has not been fully developed in our country.Our socialism began to be built on the basis of a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.Therefore, one of the important tasks for us to emancipate our minds is to pay attention to overcoming the influence of the remnants of feudalism.Lenin said: "It is necessary not only to propagate the idea of ​​scientific socialism, but also to propagate the idea of ​​democracy." We must break the spiritual superstition caused by feudal superstition and liberate our minds from imprisonment.

Ye Jianying's words touched on the essence of the matter, and they were very profound.I was very excited when I heard it, and when I revisited his education more than 20 years later, I still feel very kind and meaningful. Ye Jianying went on to talk about it, saying that leading cadres must have the spirit of listening to the opinions of the masses with an open mind and the courage to criticize themselves if they want to promote democracy.He criticized some comrades: "They also shouted to criticize themselves every day, to be humble and cautious, but when they made some sharp comments, their faces immediately stretched out. They only criticize others, never criticize themselves, and they can't touch the tiger's buttocks. "

In her speech, Ye Jianying also said a few words about the inner-Party democracy that was fully promoted at the Central Work Conference and the social democracy that was manifested outside the meeting.These few sentences were later deleted in the final draft, but they also left a deep impression on everyone.On December 15, after his speech, at the group meeting of the Northwest Group, when everyone talked about their experience after listening to the speeches of several comrades of the Standing Committee at the closing meeting, the joint speech of Wang Huide, Yu Guangyuan, and Yang Xiguang and the Northwest Group In the comprehensive briefing written in the name of the whole group, they especially expressed their support for these few words in Ye Jianying's speech.

The third question he talked about was "study hard and emancipate the mind".He believes that diligent study and emancipating the mind are two interrelated aspects. The better the study and the richer the knowledge, the more conducive to emancipating the mind.We carry out socialist modernization, not only to greatly increase social productivity, but also to carry out a profound social revolution from the economic base to the superstructure.Are our comrades fully mentally prepared for such a revolution?He thinks many people are still underprepared.Some comrades are still afraid of wolves and tigers in the future, stick to the old rules, follow the old ways, just don't emancipate their minds, and dare not take a step forward.What are you afraid of?Is it because you are afraid that people will say that you have "restored capitalism", that you will be caught, labeled, beaten with a stick, or lost your black hat?He said, if they are afraid, why are they not afraid that the handicraft production method left over from more than two thousand years will continue to be preserved, that China is poor and backward, and that the Chinese people will not accept this status quo?

How well Ye Jianying delivered this speech!Having lived in the party for decades, it is rare to see such a thorough explanation of the promotion of democracy in the party's literature.Since others can't see it, but I heard it with my own ears, and I still have written materials in hand, I wanted to quote as many original words as possible.And after quoting these words, I feel that there is really not much to say. There is a division of labor between Ye Jianying's speech and Deng Xiaoping's speech.It did not cover all aspects of the work of the Party, but it addressed these three important issues with earnestness and earnestness.I don’t know why the “Since the Third Plenary Session” edited by the Central Literature Research Office in 1982—whether it is “Selected Edition” or “Compilation” did not include Ye Jianying’s speech.

Ye Jianying made great contributions in the struggle to smash the "Gang of Four". After the "Gang of Four" was smashed, the Party Central Committee notified the whole party of Ye Jianying's contribution in this major historic action.After the Party's Eleventh National Congress, including the Central Work Conference and the Third Plenary Session, Ye Jianying ranked first among the four vice-chairmen of the Party Central Committee.Before the Central Working Conference, he proposed to hold a theoretical retreat. At the closing of the Central Working Conference, besides Hua Guofeng, he spoke with Deng Xiaoping, and the content of the speech was very important.I really can't think of any reason not to include Ye Jianying's speech.