Chapter 51 Concluding Remarks The historical turning point I witnessed

Above I described the historical turning point that I experienced in 1978. Finally, I would like to write such a conclusion to summarize this turning point. When making this summary, I have to cite the "Resolution on Certain Issues Concerning the History of the Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic" made at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party in 1981.It is the first official document to evaluate the historical significance of the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China—I still want to be more precise about "the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee that was fully prepared for it by the Central Work Conference held before the meeting". , should be given the necessary attention and researched.

In Section 26 of this Resolution it is written: "The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee held in December 1978 was a great turning point in the history of our party since the founding of the People's Republic of China." From the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to 1978, the Communist Party of China has experienced a full 30-year history, during which many major events have occurred. The "Resolution" only points out that this time is a great turning point with far-reaching significance in the history of the party. .This evaluation is very high. This judgment is made only two years after the closing of the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It can be seen that this historical turning point is completely correct. At the same time, it can also enable us to understand the significance of that historical turning point in a deeper and deeper Thorough, of course, more specific and richer.We can and should say more about that historical turning point today.

I have a basic view like this: First, I think that when we talk about that turning point, we can’t just say it’s a historical turning point for the Chinese Communist Party, but also a historical turning point for Chinese society.Although the Communist Party of China is already a ruling party in China, leading the cause of striving for social progress in China, the history of the Communist Party of China and the history of Chinese society are synchronized and consistent. The sentence in the "Resolution" should be admitted to be correct.I think it is not so good, because the history of the party and the history of Chinese society are, after all, two different concepts.Only a great turning point in the history of Chinese social progress can be called a great historical turning point.

Second, the historical turning point we discussed was a turning point from one historical stage to another.The significance of this turning point is determined by the historical stages of the society before and after the two conferences in 1978.For a major event with historical turning point, such as a meeting, its historical significance cannot be explained thoroughly only from its own perspective. The 1981 "Resolution", from its description and evaluation of historical facts before and after the Third Plenary Session, provided materials to demonstrate the above two points. The lack of in-depth consideration of the consistency between the history of the Communist Party of China and the study of Chinese social history made the "Resolution" use the words "profound" and "great" for that historical turning point at that time, but it still seemed to be insufficient. The height of the theory is not strong enough.

Here I have to mention the event that happened in 1979, which is called "stage storm" by the theoretical circles.Regarding the stage of social development after the proletariat seized power, the first theoretical questions raised after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee were the papers submitted by Su Shaozhi and Feng Lanrui to the 1979 Theoretical Work Retreat.This paper argues that the current Chinese society can only be described as an "underdeveloped socialist society" and has not reached the first stage of communism as Marx said in "Critique of the Gotha Program". Lenin said in "State and Revolution" Call it the level of a socialist society.After this paper was published in the "Economic Research" magazine, some comrades thought that these two people denied that our country was a socialist society, which caused a storm.I don't want to comment on the turmoil here.The reason why I have to mention this matter here is because Hu Qiaomu, the main author of the "Resolution", not only did not consider the turning point in the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the history of Chinese society at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978. Consistency in turning points, attaching great importance to the issues raised by Su and Feng's scientific papers, and supporting academic discussions on the stage of socialist development, but criticizing and raising the issue of the stage of socialist development after the victory of China's democratic revolution in the "Resolution" two scholars. The "Resolution" did not fully describe that historical turning point, and it is closely related to Hu Qiaomu's thought.

The language that China is in the primary stage of socialism was written into the "Resolution", which is the result of my debate with Hu Qiaomu.I stand on the side of the two scholars, Su and Feng, and oppose writing in the "Resolution" the language that criticizes the stage problems they raised.However, I think that our country is in the "primary stage of socialism" rather than "underdeveloped socialism". I advocate that the Party Central Committee should affirm that China is still in the primary stage of socialist society.I think it is necessary to recognize the significance of discussing this issue of the stage of socialist development.

It was only after sharp debate that the following sentence was written in verse 33: "Although our socialist system is still in its infancy, there is no doubt that our country has established a socialist system and entered a socialist society. Any point of view that denies this basic fact is wrong." Finally, the reference to "the primary stage of Chinese socialism" appeared for the first time in the documents of the Party Central Committee. The "Resolution" stated that our socialist system is still in the "infancy stage", but I am still not satisfied with this.Because in the "Resolution" there is the word "despite", and the "primary stage" is written as a foil for criticizing anyone who denies "undoubtedly" that China has entered a socialist society.To call China a socialist society during the 22 years from 1956 to 1978, when the economy was stagnant, politically turbulent, culturally desolate, and people were impoverished, is a reluctance for me, and it is not "unquestionable".

In the third part of the report of the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1982, the following sentence was written in the section "Strive to Build a Highly Socialist Spiritual Civilization": "Our country's socialist society is still in the primary stage of development, and material civilization is still underdeveloped." This part was written into such a sentence because of my proposal and the result of Hu Yaobang's consent. There was no dispute at that time.At this time, it has taken a step forward and is no longer a foil, but it is still not placed in a very important position.It was not until the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee in 1986 that it was written into the party's resolution as a theoretical point of view to guide the solution of practical problems.

Now I try to use the viewpoint of the primary stage of Chinese socialism to discuss that historical turning point. When I proposed the concept of the primary stage of Chinese socialism in 1981, I felt that it was really difficult to name the Chinese society after the three major transformations were announced prematurely in 1956.After thinking about it again and again, I think it is impossible to name it, so I have to call it a socialist society.But what kind of socialist society is that?The level of productivity is so low, and the level of production is not really advanced, it can only be regarded as a premature child of socialism born immature and deficient in the mother's womb.A premature baby can grow into a healthier child if it is given special care.However, its care has been extremely inappropriate since then.The Eighth National Congress of the Party was always held fairly well, but the line of the Eighth National Congress was abandoned after only about a year of implementation, and the anti-rightist political struggle began in the summer of 1957.Instead of intensive care for this premature baby, that is, instead of construction, a socialist revolution is proposed on the political and ideological fronts.

In those years, this premature baby took one dose after another of tiger wolf medicine, and fierce political campaigns followed one after another. In 1958, the "three red flags" of the general line, the "Great Leap Forward", and the people's communes were implemented, completely disregarding subjective and objective forces, and disregarding the laws of social development, which caused great losses to the Chinese people. The Lushan Conference in 1959 set off the struggle against Peng Dehuai again. After he left the mountain, he fought against "Right opportunism".Then there was a large-scale so-called "socialist education movement" in the countryside and in various fields. The Great Class Cultural Revolution".

In this unprecedented "Cultural Revolution", the real Marxist theory and practice became "counter-revolutionary revisionism"; active production became "shocking" proletarian politics, and a hat was specially created - "theory of only productive forces" ; distribution according to work is believed to produce a new bourgeoisie; old party members who have been loyally fighting for the Chinese revolution and socialist construction for decades were branded as "people in power taking the capitalist road" and were knocked down on the ground and stepped on a The president of the country, the general secretary of the Party Central Committee, and many vice-premiers of the State Council, vice-chairmen of the Military Commission, people with the rank of marshal and generals, and those who served as members of the Central Standing Committee were also persecuted, and some even died; some were not criticized but could not Normal work, in the situation of "quasi-knock down", or being left out in the cold; careerists Lin Biao, Kang Sheng, and the "Gang of Four" control the power of the Party Central Committee and act recklessly. For 20 years after 1957, many former scum in the society rebelled, and together with a very small number of opportunists in the party, they ran amok everywhere.The implementation of such a line and policy has caused my country's economic, political and social crises to be pervasive, and the leadership of the Party Central Committee is still deepening this crisis.At that time, the general and senior cadres in the society and even within the party did not know that the person who held the power of the party and the state was old, frail, seriously ill and unable to work normally, and was actually manipulated and controlled by the "Gang of Four" Is the supreme leader of "an idol for exhibition".At this time, China's fate is in danger, and it is truly on the road of subjugation of the country and the party. If we say that the Chinese society was still a socialist society in the 20 years from the anti-rightist movement in 1957 to the crushing of the "Gang of Four" on October 6, 1976, it was a society of economic stagnation, political turmoil, cultural decline, and people's poverty. "Socialist society".I call this stage the "initial stage" of the primary stage of Chinese socialism, and it is a stage with very special regulations.At that time, it is no longer enough to say that it is a socialist premature baby. The premature baby only explains its condition before birth, but does not explain its "growth".In those 20 years it had become a socialist freak.And it was a deformed child who was very weak and faced with premature death. In October 1976, Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying and others took decisive action to smash the "Gang of Four" in one fell swoop. The smashing of the "Gang of Four" was a great event in Chinese history, and it brought about a new turning point for our country.During the two years from the crushing of the "Gang of Four" to the convening of the Central Work Conference, the "Gang of Four" and its minions were exposed and criticized. A large number of veteran cadres who were persecuted and repressed during the "Cultural Revolution" returned to work, and construction work began. On track.However, the problem has not been resolved. China's wrong guiding ideology in the 20 years from 1957 to 1976 is far from being completely corrected.The documents of the Party Central Committee and the speeches of the leaders are still emphasizing the necessity of the "Cultural Revolution" published by Mao Zedong and his remarks about "continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat".In response to calls to correct the mistakes of the "Cultural Revolution" and correct the wrong decisions made during the "Cultural Revolution", the Party Central Committee at that time also required cadres and the masses to "treat the 'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution' correctly."In the view of the majority of cadres and the masses, "correctly treat the 'Cultural Revolution'" should be a critical attitude towards the "Cultural Revolution".But at that time, because of this, more and more people truly treated the "Cultural Revolution" correctly, so the Party Central Committee at that time asked everyone to "treat the 'Cultural Revolution' correctly" from the standpoint of affirming the "Cultural Revolution", saying that it was only in that way. is the right attitude.But at that time, people no longer listened to what was written in the document, not to mention that the document had declared that the "Cultural Revolution" had ended victoriously! Even so, Party documents—such as the report of the 11th Party Congress—continued to affirm the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” cannot be ignored.Because these words can be used by those who insist on the "Cultural Revolution" to encourage them to resist and set things right.At a symposium on distribution according to work, some people objected to my famous refutation of the "Gang of Four" and quoted the report of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.Moreover, these practices may give "theoretical" arms to those who want to start another "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution".Therefore, the two years from October 6, 1976 to December 1978 can be regarded as the first stage (starting stage) of the primary stage of socialism and the second stage (reform stage) of the primary stage of socialism. transitional stage between the two.From 1979 after the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the primary stage of socialism in China entered the "reform stage". The two conferences in 1978 were, if we say more recent, a turning point from this transitional stage to the second stage, and if we put it further, they were a turning point from the first stage to the second stage. More than 20 years have passed since 1978.The longer it is before the closing of the Third Plenary Session, the more obvious the significance of the Third Plenary Session as a great historical turning point. I wrote above that reform issues were not discussed much at the Central Work Conference. The hot spot of the Central Work Conference was to use "practice as the only criterion for testing truth" to oppose the "two whatevers" politically and ideologically. The nature of the “rehabilitation of the Tiananmen incident” was to correct the major unjust, false and wrongly convicted of several important senior cadres in the party, and to demand improvement of the party’s central leadership, etc. These were issues that had to be resolved quickly at that time.At the same time, the influence of the ideological and political lines determined by the Third Plenary Session will last for a long time. For more than 20 years, China's reform and opening up has been pushed forward step by step, and China's economy and culture have achieved greater and greater development.I remember that in early 1978 I met a delegation of social scientists from Japan at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.I told them that China has made great progress ideologically and politically. You can't see this progress now when you walk on the streets of Beijing, but you can see this change in ten or eight years.I said that we are all scientists advocating rationality, and that things that cannot be perceived by perceptual knowledge can be recognized first by reason.I seem to have seen this progress in China with my own eyes, and I have full confidence.I asked them if they could accept my point of view, and if they knew as much as I did.The professors agreed with me. If so, after the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China's construction has developed rapidly, and the streets of Beijing have changed very quickly.As for some places where the reform and opening up are at the forefront, the changes are even greater.For example, the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong.Especially Shenzhen, it was the first place that Deng Xiaoping mentioned in a meeting where the Standing Committee listened to the reports of the conveners of various groups during the Central Work Conference, and discussed that it can get better first.Shenzhen, on the other hand, built a modern city from plain ground shortly after the Third Plenary Session. A lot of things have happened in the 20 years after the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee. I don’t want to talk about these issues in the conclusion of this book. I just want to briefly write about China’s reform and development in the past 20 years.Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee until the 15th National Congress of the Party, I have attended all the previous party congresses and plenary sessions of the Central Committee (I was a participant at the 12th National Congress, and all the Central Committee meetings after the 14th and 15th National Congresses) I will no longer attend the plenary session, and I will attend the 15th National Congress as a non-voting delegate), I just want to describe the reform and development in the second stage of the primary stage of socialism in China by writing a few sentences to each congress. The Twelfth National Congress in 1982 was a meeting summarizing the six-year historic victory after the smashing of the "Gang of Four" in 1976.The mission of this meeting is to further eliminate the factors left over from the "Cultural Revolution" and create a new situation in socialist modernization in an all-round way.The meeting proposed the goal of quadrupling the national industrial and agricultural output value from 1981 to the end of this century, which played a huge role in promoting my country's economic development.In terms of reform, the development of various economic forms has been affirmed.Before the Twelfth National Congress, the Party Central Committee had affirmed the socialist nature of the household production contract responsibility system implemented in rural areas. After the Twelfth National Congress, the central government issued several documents affirming the reform of the household production contract responsibility system.The report of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized the policy of giving priority to the planned economy and supplementing the market economy, but the proposal of developing a socialist commodity economy put forward by the academic circles was not adopted.The document only allows the production and circulation of some products to be regulated by the market. In 1984, the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee adopted a decision on economic system reform, which believed that the development of the commodity economy was an insurmountable stage for our country, and it was a big step forward on the road to a market economy. The central task of the Thirteenth National Congress in 1987 was to speed up and deepen reforms, to further define the basic policies for future economic and political reforms, and to fully discuss that China was in the primary stage of socialism, and to take it as our formulation The fundamental basis for correct line and policy.The 13th National Congress stated that in the primary stage of socialism, our party's construction has the basic line of socialism with Chinese characteristics.According to China's national conditions, the 13th National Congress emphasized that the full development of the commodity economy is an indispensable condition for realizing the socialization and modernization of production.The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed productivity standards: "Everything that is conducive to the development of productive forces is in line with the fundamental interests of the people, so it is required by socialism or allowed by socialism. Everything that is not conducive to the development of productive forces is against scientific socialism and is Socialism does not allow it." pointed out: "Deviating from the standard of productivity and judging life with abstract principles and utopian models can only tarnish the reputation of Marxism." Compared with 1978 and the Third Plenary Session, the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China took a big step forward in expounding Deng Xiaoping's thought of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and establishing the guiding ideology of my country's reform and opening up. Then came the 14th National Congress of the Party in 1992.The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held after Deng Xiaoping's speech on the southern tour.The greatest contribution of the 14th National Congress was to propose the establishment of a socialist market economy system, which in principle solved one of the most important and fundamental problems in my country's economic system.Taking this step is not easy.As stated in the report of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, according to the traditional concept, the market economy is something unique to capitalism, and the planned economy is the basic feature of a socialist economy.Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour Speech aimed at this traditional concept, pointing out that a planned economy is not equal to socialism, capitalism also has planning, a market economy is not equal to capitalism, and socialism also has a market.The 14th National Congress believes that the development of practice and the deepening of understanding require us to clearly state that the goal of my country's economic system reform is to establish a socialist market economic system in order to further liberate and develop productive forces.Making such a decision is a substantial breakthrough for my country's economic system reform. The 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in 1997 made another breakthrough in the socialist ownership economy, affirming that public ownership is the main body and multiple ownership economies develop together, which is the basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism. The significance of the Third Plenary Session as a turning point in history has been demonstrated and carried forward through the course of more than 20 years. For the historical turning point of the Third Plenary Session, we can also talk about it in terms of three "30 years".It happened by coincidence: from the "May 4th Movement" in 1919 to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it was exactly 30 years.This is 30 years since the victory of the Chinese democratic revolution, and this is the first 30 years.From 1949 to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, no more and no less than 30 years.This is the 30 years since China has made zigzag progress on the road to socialism and finally realized that it must carry out socialist system reform.I expect and hope that there will be a third "30 years": from 1979 to 2008, the reform of the socialist economic system will be basically completed, and the first post-reform constitution will be enacted in 2008. From the beginning of the reform in 1979 to the 14th National Congress in 1992, it has been 14 years (nearly half of the 30 years).The reform goal of establishing a socialist market economic system was established at the party congress, and a consensus was reached on the market economy in theory and practice. This was a major, perhaps decisive, victory in economic reform. There are still two major issues in the reform of the economic system, one is to solve the problem of ownership structure, and the other is to solve the problem of distribution.Regarding these two issues, the 15th and 14th National Congresses and even the earlier 13th and 12th National Congresses have touched on these two issues, but they have not been solved fundamentally and need to be further discussed. I think there are still 10 years between now and 2008. These two major problems can and should be solved, and it is possible to basically complete the reform of my country's economic system.Of course, to solve these two problems in 10 years, the time is also very tight.Moreover, due to the lack of in-depth theoretical research on these two issues, there are still different views in the theoretical circles, and there is no timetable for the complete resolution of these two issues.But I just said that the reform of the economic system has been basically completed, and I did not say that the reform of the entire socialist system has been completed.In other words, I did not say that socialist reforms in the political system, cultural education, and other social systems should also be completed during this period.Even with respect to the reform of the economic system, I only mean that it has been basically completed, not completely completed.Since the socialist political, cultural, educational and other system reforms have not been completed, the economic system reform cannot be said to have been fully completed.That is to say, I leave a lot of room for the third "30 years", and it may take a fourth 30 years to complete this reform and formulate a second reformed constitution . The second stage of the primary stage of socialism that began after the Third Plenary Session may itself be regarded as a transitional stage.Perhaps at some point in the future, there will be a new twist.That turning point and the turning point at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee are completely different things in another stage of Chinese social and historical development, and they are completely different from what we are talking about now.Of course it is not discussed here. Above I have described the 43-day process of the Central Working Conference and the Third Plenary Session (including two days of rest in between) in roughly chronological order.Among them, the writing on the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee was very simple, using only three short sections. There are three reasons for this. The first reason is that the Third Plenary Session was held for a very short period of time, only 5 days from December 18th to 22nd.On the first day of these five days, December 18, the meeting was scheduled for the entire day. Delegates—mainly members of the Central Committee and alternate members who did not attend the Central Work Conference—read the three central leaders at the closing meeting of the Central Work Conference speech. On the evening of the 18th a general meeting was called, not counting the opening ceremony.Because reading the speeches of the three central leaders at the closing meeting of the Central Work Conference is an important official agenda of the Third Plenary Session.At the meeting, Hua Guofeng simply told the comrades present how the meeting would be held, which was not considered a keynote report. There was no briefing for the meeting on December 18. On the 19th, group discussions began and briefings began.The speeches at the group meetings, no matter what I heard in the Northwest group or saw in the briefings of each group, there is nothing beyond what was said at the Central Work Conference.At the group meeting of the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, I did not make any further speeches.Due to my status at the meeting, it is not convenient for me to speak at the meeting, and I have no desire to speak.What is worth writing about at the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee is the discussion and adoption of the Communiqué (most of the communiqué’s main content was discussed at the Central Work Conference) and the election of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.Although I also want to write more about the Third Plenary Session, I think there is not much that can and needs to be written. I wrote this book mainly from my memory.I also took some notes, but my notebook was messed up and became something that only I could understand, and even I couldn't fully understand it.I am a person who generally remembers things that I care about clearly.Some people say that my memory is good, but there are also some things that should be remembered clearly.In order to write this postscript, I also asked some comrades to help me recall it.I really hope that the relevant units will publish a copy of the materials of the Central Work Conference. There is nothing that needs to be kept secret about what happened more than 20 years ago.If the information at that time is made public, it is possible to tell the history of that period more accurately. Recently, I found that although more than 20 years is not a long time, many people today are not so clear about what happened more than 20 years ago.For example, many people only know that the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee was a turning point in Chinese history, and they don’t know anything about the specific situation. They don’t even know about the 36-day Central Work Conference held before the Third Plenary Session.At the closing meeting, Ye Jianying said earnestly that the spirit of fully promoting democracy at the Central Work Conference must be persevered forever, but if one does not understand the situation of this Central Work Conference and does not read relevant documents, how can one persevere forever. When I write this postscript, I also hope to see more materials, and I also feel that it is difficult. I only have one convenient condition, that is, I am a person involved, and I have a lot of first-hand materials. First-hand materials, self-confidence and judgment, can make substantive statements and judgments on relevant facts. In this postscript, I write down my observations at that time at any time, and I do not and do not intend to make superficial and purely objective narrations.I thought that since I was a person who actively participated in that turning point, my thoughts, feelings, and actions at that time also belonged to the category of historical truth, and writing them in was also necessary for seeking truth and seeking truth. But I am still not so satisfied with this postscript.First, the first-hand information I can grasp is, after all, a little less.Second, a person's memory will always have certain errors and incompleteness.Third, there are some things I didn't know at the time, but I should try to grasp them in order to make a more complete narrative.Another point is that I started this work too late, and I didn't have enough time to write, so I was in a hurry.Therefore, I hope to have the opportunity to make some additions and revisions to it in the future. First of all, I hope that the comrade who read this postscript finds that there is something inconsistent with the facts, or that my opinion is inappropriate, and tell me unceremoniously.At the same time, I also plan to continue to collect materials and find some comrades to recall together.I learned that not a few people who participated in the Central Work Conference are still alive, and they will remember a lot of things.Now I don't have time to ask them for advice, and I plan to continue to do it in the future. I think I can do this job better than now.At the same time, I am too old after all, and there is a problem of powerlessness.I hope that as many old comrades as possible will be engaged in this work, and I am sure they will remember many things that I myself do not know or have forgotten. Although many of the people who participated in the Central Work Conference and the Third Plenary Session were older than me, I hoped that they would write something according to their ability, or accept interviews from young people and provide information orally. In short, memory depends on old people, but historical research cannot rely entirely or even mainly on old people.Now there are a group of young party history researchers who can use scientific methods, work tirelessly to collect data, and work hard. I fully believe that they can achieve great achievements.Those of us who are older should do our social responsibility and give them some help.