Chapter 52 1. Some situations on the eve of the Central Work Conference

The eve I mentioned refers to the period from the end of the State Council retreat in early September 1978 to late October.The Central Work Conference was held on November 10th. I can’t remember when the notice of the meeting was sent out, and I couldn’t find it in the “pile of old papers”. At the same time, I still don’t have any information.However, according to the general practice of handling affairs, to hold such a large-scale national meeting and invite people from all over the country to Beijing, the central government will make a decision and prepare a notice to be issued by late October at the latest.I'm not sure about this, but it's easy to find out if you go to the archives. Maybe the party history researchers have already found out.

The first thing I learned during this time was Ye Jianying's offer to call a theoretical retreat.Regarding Ye Shuai's proposal to hold a theoretical retreat, I heard it shortly before the opening of the Central Work Conference.One day I met Hu Yaobang, and he told me that there was a meeting of the Central Standing Committee before the Central Working Conference. Ye Jianying learned that after the article "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth" was published, discussed and reported in newspapers, not only the theoretical circles reacted strongly, but all The "princes" of Lu also reacted strongly, and there were reflections in society and even abroad. At the same time, there were different opinions within the party. At this time, Ye Shuai proposed to hold a theoretical retreat.At that time, I didn’t feel that the exposure and criticism at the ongoing Central Work Conference had the nature of a theoretical retreat.I don't know if there will be a special retreat in the future.

A few days later, when the meeting was coming to an end, the conveners of each group reported to the Standing Committee that although everyone had spoken a lot on the issue of truth standards at the Central Work Conference, the theoretical retreat still had to be held specially. .In his speech at the closing meeting on December 13, Hua Guofeng also talked about the theoretical retreat.He made a total of two paragraphs on this matter. A paragraph is after explaining that his exposure to practice is the process of discussing the standard of truth: "Later, there were many articles on this topic in the newspapers, and there were many reflections at home and abroad. Considering that the retreat meeting of the State Council was held very well, Ye Shuai suggested that the comrades engaged in theoretical work be called together to hold a retreat. Everyone Put forward different opinions, unify understanding on the basis of full democratic discussion, and solve this problem. Comrades on the Standing Committee of the Central Committee are in favor of this approach.”

There is also a passage where he specifically talks about holding a theoretical retreat: "At this meeting, the comrades presented many situations, raised many questions, and raised many criticisms on the issue of 'practice is the only criterion for testing truth', which created a great opportunity for holding a theoretical retreat. Favorable conditions. Due to the many topics and limited time of this Central Work Conference, it is impossible to spend a lot of time to solve this problem. The opinion of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee is still in accordance with Ye Shuai's proposal. After the Plenary Session, a special theoretical retreat was held to further solve this problem. The Central Committee believes that with the guidance of this Central Work Conference and the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, this problem will be resolved. The Central Committee hopes that, Comrades on the theoretical front and the propaganda front, on the basis of distinguishing right from wrong and unifying their thinking, further unite, closely follow the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee, and strive to do a good job in propaganda theory in order to shift the focus of the party's work to socialist modernization. Work and play a bigger role."

Ye Jianying's suggestion was made when the central government listened to the report of the State Council's retreat.At the State Council retreat, Li Xiannian's concluding speech was made on September 9th, and this report will probably be held in mid-September at the earliest.Not long after the theoretical retreat was held on January 19, 1979, in the names of Yang Xiguang, Zeng Tao, Hua Nan, Wang Huide, Yu Guangyuan, and Hu Jiwei, the joint speech given by Hu Jiwei added another plot. It was in September that "Red Flag" drafted an article entitled "Revisiting "On Practice".After the draft of the article was sent to the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other units for comments, the General Party Branch of the Institute of Philosophy raised six different opinions. The editorial department of "Red Flag" magazine sent this article to the central government for review, at which time Ye Jianying made the above suggestion.

During the Central Working Conference and Theoretical Retreat, I only knew this about Ye Jianying’s proposal to hold a theoretical retreat, and I didn’t think much about it at the time. Recently, I found a record of the conversation between Deng Xiaoping and Wei Guoqing on October 14, 1978 in my "old paper pile".It is not a detailed record, just talking points. The first part of this material is that Wei Guoqing reported to Deng Xiaoping that the General Political Bureau was about to issue an instruction, requiring all military cadres to study and discuss "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth" and asked Deng Xiaoping to make instructions.Deng Xiaoping said:

"Ye Shuai proposed to hold a theoretical retreat, so that we can simply talk about it, so as not to talk about it behind our backs. Think about your factory, how can the production team realize this modernization problem! This is what Chairman Mao said to emancipate the mind, start the machine, and not be rigid in the mind. Without emancipating the mind, problems cannot be raised or solved, and production cannot If we go, the productivity will not increase. Ye Shuai said that this article (press: refers to "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth") should be printed and distributed throughout the country."

When Deng Xiaoping said this, of course, he was not only agreeing to the directive issued by the General Political Department, but also expressing one of his propositions. How about "let's talk"?This is a face-to-face confrontation with those who insist on the "two whatevers" and resist the discussion of the standard of truth.On the eve of the Central Conference, Deng Xiaoping's idea was actually to start a discussion at the Central Work Conference, presenting facts and reasoning. In September, shortly before October 14, when Deng Xiaoping was listening to a report from Jilin Province, he said: The issues before us are also political issues, ideological issues, and our realization of the four modernizations. I am afraid that the key is to seek truth from facts. Combining with reality, everything starts from reality.

He also said: Now people at home and abroad are in favor of holding high the great banner of Chairman Mao.What is exaltation?How to exalt it?We all know that there was a discussion in the past, isn't the "two whatevers" very famous?Nothing that Chairman Mao has circled or said can be moved, and nothing that Chairman Mao has done or said can be changed.Is this called "holding high the great banner of Chairman Mao"?no!If it is not done well, Chairman Mao will be harmed. When Deng Xiaoping was listening to the report of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee, he said: I proposed a complete and accurate understanding of Mao Zedong's ideological system, which is for the "two whatevers". "Two whatevers" are harmful to Mao Zedong Thought.Deng Xiaoping's speeches in Northeast China in September had a great impact at the time, played a major role, and were very famous. This speech directly affected the Central Work Conference.

The second question Wei Guoqing asked Deng Xiaoping for instructions was whether to print and distribute the Northeast speech.Deng Xiaoping replied to this question: You can talk about it among a small number of cadres first, and wait for the retreat meeting to send a notice to the troops. From what Deng Xiaoping said, it can be seen that the theoretical retreat in Deng Xiaoping's mind is a meeting that will be held soon.In fact, the later Central Work Conference played the role of the theoretical retreat in his mind.After Deng Xiaoping finished speaking this sentence, he went on to say that when talking about this matter to army cadres, we must not catch braids, beat sticks, and wear hats, the "three nos".Let everyone speak with an open mind, and they can put forward any opinions, which is very good.Practice is the only criterion for testing truth, and it is common sense. Some people disagree with it. What's the matter?This is originally a question of the basic principles of Marxism, but some people disagree with it.Some people even say that distribution according to work is wrong.Different opinions should be allowed to be expressed, and the "three no's" should be truly practiced.Any opinion can be raised, and the tendency to talk based on the weather and the wind direction should be changed.It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake in your speech, don’t be afraid, it’s inevitable, and it doesn’t matter.Rigid thinking is unacceptable. In the past, we did not always follow the unified policy of the central government in all base areas, seek truth from facts, proceed from reality, analyze and solve problems, and the results were all done well.If you don't emancipate your mind, don't start the machine, and don't think independently, then you must collapse.

After reading the record of the conversation between Deng Xiaoping and Wei Guoqing, and my experience of participating in the Central Work Conference, I realized that Deng Xiaoping's requirement of "simply laying it out so as not to talk about it behind the scenes" was indeed met at the Central Work Conference. Ye Jianying asked everyone to put forward their opinions and "full democratic comments".After the debate at the Central Work Conference, the facts were explained more clearly, and the truth was explained more thoroughly.In the end, Deng Xiaoping made a scientific conclusion to this discussion in his speech.From the perspective of the discussion of the standard of truth, the Central Work Conference was indeed a decisive battle, and it was victorious, which means that this problem has been solved.Therefore, I think that Hua Guofeng's speech at the closing meeting said that this meeting created favorable conditions for the convening of the theoretical retreat, and that the statement that "this problem should be further resolved at the theoretical retreat" is against the Central Work Conference. Achievement is underestimated and the requirements for theory retreats are not as appropriate.Such a view did not exist at that time, but today I have such a new understanding in my mind. Some of these circumstances were written in a six-person joint presentation at a theoretical retreat on January 19, 1979.That is (we only quote materials after September 1976 here): 1. At the beginning of September, the first issue of "China Youth" magazine was published, but Comrade Wang Dongxing immediately thought that there was something wrong with Han Zhixiong, the hero of the "Tiananmen Incident", and published The Tiananmen poems compiled by Tong Huaizhou were used as an excuse, and they were not allowed to be published. 2. Comrade Lin Hujia said at the Central Work Conference: On September 18, Comrade Wang Dongxing once criticized Comrade Jia Tingsan, asking him to deal with problems according to the book, making it difficult to solve a series of problems in Beijing.Comrade Lin Hujia said: "The masses proposed to solve the issue of the 'Tiananmen Incident', the issue of 17 years, the issue of the Peng (Zhen) and Liu (Ren) counter-revolutionary group cases, etc. We must consider Comrade Dongxing during the process. Criticism is in a dilemma." 3. On October 3, Comrade Zhang Yaoci, deputy director of the General Office of the Central Committee, told Comrade Hu Yaobang at the convener of the National Work Conference on Complaints and Calls that "all false statements, no matter when, under any circumstances, no matter what The higher-level organization, whoever decides and approves it, must be corrected in a realistic manner.” He made an unreasonable criticism and insisted on deleting it from the document.He said: "Someone is now trying to overturn the Tiananmen case. Isn't this suppressing the central government?" He also said: "Some articles do have problems, and some problems are more serious. The finger is directed at Chairman Mao. There is an article called "" Practice Is the Only Criteria for Testing Truth", some words in it are problematic. Some people do not agree to publish, some people say that it is very good, and it is published one by one. Of course, a hundred schools of thought can argue, but some people use the chairman's words to criticize the chairman... Not only against Chairman Mao, but also against Chairman Hua. Some forced the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee to express their views. Yang Yichen from Heilongjiang said he was not afraid, right. The wind is very strong, and it is not easy to withstand it. It is the Minister of Propaganda, you have to grasp the direction. Some people say that you must understand Mao Zedong Thought comprehensively and accurately, but it is not like that.” In short, the debate between the two viewpoints is very sharp as the Central Work Conference is approaching.