Chapter 53 2. On the "Two Whatevers" and "Against the Two Whatevers"

There are three versions of "Two Whatevers": On November 30, 1976, Wu De said at the third meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress that "everything Chairman Mao instructed and whatever Chairman Mao decided, we must work hard and do our best to do it well."This is the first version. On February 7, 1977, "People's Daily", "Red Flag" magazine, and "Liberation Army Daily" editorial "Learn the Documents and Grasp the Guidelines" wrote "We will firmly uphold all the decisions made by Chairman Mao; we will firmly uphold all the instructions of Chairman Mao. will always be followed.”This is the second version.

Hua Guofeng said at the Central Work Conference in March 1977 that "all decisions made by Chairman Mao must be upheld, and all words and deeds that damage Chairman Mao's image must be stopped."This is the third version. The three versions are similar, and the second version is considered the standard one. "Against the two whatevers" means not agreeing with the proposition of the "two whatevers." We must seek truth from facts and look at issues from reality, and propose that "practice is the only criterion for testing truth" and oppose taking Mao Zedong's words and decisions as standard of truth.

"Two whatevers" and "against the two whatevers" have clear and unambiguous meanings in terms of principle. But since the "two whatevers" were put forward, the meanings of "two whatevers" and "against the two whatevers" have specific content.Since their scope of application is not expressly determined, their principled meanings can all work.In practice, however, their use was limited to the period of the "Cultural Revolution", especially for the instructions of Mao Zedong, who was in a serious state of illness. At that time, Mao Zedong was old and weak, seriously ill, unable to think and work normally.During this period, Mao Zedong made many important decisions, such as the decision to "criticize Deng and fight back against the Rightist style of overturning verdicts"; for example, after the "Tiananmen Incident", he decided to remove Deng Xiaoping from all positions inside and outside the party and retain his party membership. , to observe the aftereffect and so on.Hua Guofeng was the successor chosen by Mao Zedong who was in a state of serious illness. After smashing the "Gang of Four", Hua Guofeng needed to emphasize such "two whatevers" to maintain his position, while the majority of cadres and the masses demanded that Rehabilitation of the "Tiananmen incident" wrongly judged by Mao Zedong.

Redressing unjust, false and wrongly decided cases and correcting Mao Zedong's wrong guiding ideology during the "Cultural Revolution" meant opposing the "two whatevers" proposed at that time.At the closing meeting of the Central Work Conference, Hua Guofeng admitted that he had made mistakes and assumed responsibility. This is the specific content of the "two whatevers" he said at this time. I divide Mao Zedong's life into three periods: first, Mao Zedong in his youth—that is, the immature Mao Zedong; second, mature Mao Zedong in a normal state; third, Mao Zedong in a serious illness.The period at both ends is relatively short, and the period in the middle is relatively long. The period in the middle can be divided into several periods. At the same time, when the third period started, I am currently researching.

What did Mao Zedong look like when he was seriously ill? After the "Tiananmen Incident", it was reported that Mao Yuanxin, Mao Zedong's nephew, made notes during the "Tiananmen Incident".At that time, Mao Yuanxin was a "liaison officer" of Mao Zedong. If Mao Zedong wanted to know the situation outside, or wanted to say something to others, he did it through Mao Yuanxin.Mao Yuanxin's notes on April 7, 1976 were not kept secret at the time, because the "Gang of Four" was willing to spread such materials so that people would believe that the decision to characterize the "Tiananmen Incident" was made by Mao Zedong.So I got it without much difficulty, and copied it in my notebook.It can be seen from the notes that Mao Zedong expressed his position on such an important issue completely based on Mao Yuanxin's report at this time, and most of them only used "good", "yes", "yes", "quick", and "um". One word, or the two words "yes", "no", "published in the newspaper", and three words such as "drive out". There are not many sentences, and the utterances in 70 minutes are less than 100 words.According to the materials I read written by Zhang Yufeng, Mao Zedong had no idea what was going on outside before and after the Ching Ming Festival, and the people around Mao Zedong also knew nothing about the situation outside.

Regarding Mao Zedong’s physical condition during this period, Zhang Yufeng, who took care of Mao Zedong by his side, wrote: After August 1975, the chairman’s health became worse and worse, his mood was very irritable, he was unwilling to speak, and he did not see people. I fed them mouthful by mouthful, and I could still eat one or two taels of rice every day, but in April and May of 1976, I could only eat one or two spoonfuls per meal.And often due to poor swallowing, choking and coughing, that is, during this period, the chairman said many times meaningfully: "I am an idol for exhibition." Once, the chairman suffered from peribronchitis and coughed badly. The nurse gave him a try As a result, the chairman coughed and ate half of the thermometer and swallowed the mercury. Three days later, the chairman took out half of the thermometer.

What was opposed in 1978 was enshrining such Mao Zedong's words as gods and implementing the "two whatevers" to them.At that time, the Central Work Conference opposed the "two whatevers" resolutely and without any scruples, but it did not resolutely oppose Mao Zedong's other words and deeds.For example, the implementation of household contracting of production in rural areas was clearly and firmly opposed by Mao Zedong many times. Therefore, in the regulations on the work of rural people's communes and the decision on accelerating agricultural development issued by the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee, it was also written that "production contracting is not allowed." There are two "nos" such as "to households" and "do not divide the fields and do it alone".

At that time, everyone was afraid of damaging Mao Zedong's image, and they did not dare to object to the idea of ​​holding high Mao Zedong's banner. They only talked to this extent: whether to repeat Chairman Mao's words over and over again is to hold high, or to admit that Mao Zedong also had some mistakes. hold high.After a period of time after the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong's views were judged to be correct or incorrect according to "practice is the only criterion for testing truth" within a relatively wide range.