Chapter 59 8. Answer questions from reporters

Reporter: When we are about to enter the gate of the new century, we have ushered in the 20th anniversary of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party.The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee ushered in a new period in the history of the party since the founding of the People's Republic of China. "Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Look Ahead in Unity" is the first manifesto to emancipate the mind and seek truth from facts in the new era.As far as we know, you participated in the drafting of this important speech by Comrade Deng Xiaoping.Please combine your feelings and experience over the past 20 years to talk about the great historical and practical significance of this important speech.

Yu Guangyuan: The great significance of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party lies in the word "turning point".Marked by the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee, the history since the founding of the People's Republic of China was divided into two stages. After that, our country entered the reform stage in the primary stage of socialism.Before the Third Plenary Session, the Central Work Conference was held, and this meeting made full preparations for the Third Plenary Session.Deng Xiaoping's "Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Look Ahead in Unity" was his speech at the closing meeting of the Central Work Conference.The Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began by asking the delegates to spend a whole day reading the speeches of Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, and Deng Xiaoping at the closing meeting of the Central Work Conference. There was no keynote report.However, because the content of Deng Xiaoping's speech was comprehensive, profound, and very incisive, it actually played the role of a keynote report at the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee.

The Central Work Conference was opened on November 10, 1978. After 20 days, Deng Xiaoping personally wrote a three-page outline in order to prepare for the speech at the closing meeting in early December, and asked me to organize the force to draft the speech for him.I assigned Lin Jianqing from the Research Office of the State Council to write the draft.Since Deng Xiaoping had considered very maturely what he was going to say at the closing ceremony of this conference, it was not difficult to write it down.After the draft was written, Deng Xiaoping finalized it himself.When the draft was finalized, besides the writer, Hu Yaobang and I were present.The process of drafting the speech shows that the guiding ideology and important viewpoints of the "speech" were put forward by Deng Xiaoping himself.Hu Yaobang and I, who participated in this work, of course also said something, but nothing particularly commendable.

People talked a lot about Deng Xiaoping’s speech. The 15th National Congress of the Communist Party held last year called it a manifesto for creating a new theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, or as you said, it was the first manifesto to emancipate the mind and seek truth from facts. Book.On the occasion of commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, I revisited his speech and deeply felt that the basic idea put forward in this speech is: "emancipate the mind and seek truth from facts" is not outdated at all, not only is it not outdated, but it is especially suitable for today .Because there are indeed still some phenomena that are inconsistent with the spirit of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, do not respect facts, do not reason, and set up restricted areas and draw boxes to restrict people's thinking.Especially now that the history of the world has crossed the threshold of entering the new century, the times are advancing, and the new era calls for a new emancipation of the mind.Today we must pay attention to the historical significance of Deng Xiaoping's speech, and we need to emphasize its practical significance.

The title of Deng Xiaoping's speech was "Emancipate the Mind, Seek the Truth from Facts, and Look Ahead in Unity." In his speech, after "Emancipate the Mind," there were the words "use your brains."When deciding on the topic, I wanted to link "emancipate the mind" and "seek truth from facts" so that the two became a couplet. At the same time, because the topic was kept short, "use your brain" was not included.But the words "use your brain" are still very important.Because emancipating the mind requires using the brain and asking why when something happens.Only by asking a few more whys can we reduce blindness and enhance self-awareness.

Reporter: In this speech, Comrade Deng Xiaoping proposed for the first time that some regions, some enterprises, and some workers and peasants should be allowed to get rich first, and pointed out that this is a big policy. Please talk about this in light of the reality of the past 20 years The impact of major policies on the development of the national economy and the improvement of people's living standards.Some people think that the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the current society is caused by this big policy. What do you think about this? Yu Guangyuan: This question is very good.During the Central Work Conference, when Deng Xiaoping told us that we should allow some people to get rich first, he said many times that we should allow some enterprises, regions, employees, and commune members to get rich first.During the Central Working Conference, there were many meetings where the Standing Committee listened to the reports of each group.At one such meeting, he talked about this idea at length, and put it and giving more power to the lower levels as two major policies.He also calculated that if 5% of the counties and 5% of the population were relatively rich, there would be 100 counties and 40 million people in the whole country, equivalent to a large country.If there are 10% of the counties and population, it is a big country.He talked about the areas that are expected to get rich first, and pointed out the conditions for these areas to get rich first.I remember that Shenzhen was the first of those areas he proposed. He believed that the condition for Shenzhen to become rich first was to facilitate the development of foreign trade.This is what I wrote down in my notebook while listening to the presentation.Another time I heard it with my own ears in early December 1978, it was his conversation with Hu Yaobang and me.

I very much agree with his proposition.Because different regions, different companies, and different individuals have very different subjective and objective conditions for getting rich. If people who already have the conditions are not allowed to get rich first, they are required to seek wealth from regions, companies, and countries that do not have the subjective and objective conditions. Personal parity, that is, he is poor and I am poor.Break out of this stupid and absurd policy that everyone is poor and the situation is very different.Not long after Deng Xiaoping's speech at the Central Work Conference, it was in Shenzhen, the first area Deng Xiaoping spoke of, that a modern city could be said to have been established on flat ground.The unbalanced development of things is absolute, and it is absolutely undesirable to "look at the poor".

Here you asked such a question: "Some people think that the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the current society is caused by this big policy." Maybe everyone is poor, and the gap may be smaller, but we are willing to accept the reality that the gap is smaller ?If the gap widens, it means that if you get better, I will get better too, but you get better sooner and more, and I get better later and less. This is what Deng Xiaoping talked about at the Central Work Conference. Right homes can get rich relatively quickly.If so, what's wrong with having a bigger gap in a certain period?To put it badly, it is the idea of ​​egalitarianism at work. The situation in the past 20 years is basically such a situation, and it is indeed this big policy that is working.I think that in the past 20 years, we have been on the road of common prosperity. Those with good conditions will get rich faster and more, while those with poor conditions will get rich slower and less.If common prosperity is not a reality but a goal, I do not agree with the view that common prosperity means equal prosperity or narrowing the gap.Prosperity for all is to encourage prosperity in general, and to encourage people to get rich first and then help each other get rich later.Not so with equal affluence.With regard to narrowing the gap, it can also be understood in this way, that is, the regions that get rich first have to slow down their development speed to wait for the regions that are not rich.It is definitely wrong to do this, and Deng Xiaoping never mentioned this policy.As for the government's financial policy, that's another matter, because some areas get rich first does not mean that the state has to give them more construction funds, on the contrary, it can also support the later rich areas by paying more profits and taxes.I am aware of the fact that "some people think" in the question, and I think it is precisely because some people think that way that we should learn from Deng Xiaoping's teachings.

Reporter: Comrade Deng Xiaoping regards studying new situations and solving new problems as a concrete manifestation of implementing the ideological line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts in his work.So, under our historical conditions today, for theoretical workers, what is the special meaning of studying new situations and solving new problems? Yu Guangyuan: I think now is the time to study new situations and solve new problems.forward As I said above, we are now on the threshold of entering the 21st century, and there are less than 400 days left before the morning bell of the 21st century New Year's Day rings.I think the new situation that theoretical workers are studying now is not the general situation after a few years.We must have a sense of the new century, and we must study how to best adapt to the era after mankind enters the new century.

The phrase "fitting most fully to one's own time" was copied by me from a novel titled "We Called Him The General."This is a biographical novel, and the protagonist of the novel is Engels, Marx's close comrade-in-arms.The novel describes a conversation between Engels and his friend Oswald on the Rhine in 1848 (this conversation was not included in the anthology of Mann).In this talk, Engels said that only the philosophy that most fully adapts to its own time and to the concept of world science in this century can be called a true philosophy.He said: Such a philosophy is the crystallization of the spirit of the times and the living soul of the culture of the times.Times have changed, and such a philosophical system will change accordingly, both in content and in form.Such a philosophy can go deep into the hearts of contemporary people, fill their hearts with love and hatred, and affect the contemporary real world.Their philosophy will become the philosophy of the world, and the world will become the world of philosophy.Due to the large number of books in the family and the small space in the book collection, I couldn't find this novel for a while. The above is just written from my own memory.Fortunately, I am not citing it as a classic, but just want to show that I have been inspired by these words.Here, Engels not only asked to adapt to the times, but also asked to adapt to the times to the fullest.There are always several different kinds of people in the world. Some are nostalgic for the old era and try to hinder the growth and development of new things; some people adapt to the new era with the trend; era, and promote the real world.The times call for the last kind of people.

Regarding the characteristics of the current era, I put forward a point of view in my speech at an international academic conference held by the China Pacific Society in 1995: that is, the second half of the 20th century has entered a period of great adjustment in world history.After adjustment, capitalism has regained its vitality, and the economy and culture have improved.At the same time, the socialist countries were addicted to the vested victories, their thinking became rigid, and the level of economic and cultural development began to decline.The stark contrast between up and down led to the crustal changes that occurred in the early 1990s: the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe.Socialism also has to be adjusted, which is the socialist system reform.So world history has entered a historical period of comprehensive adjustment.I think it is very likely that the entire 21st century is still in this period of great adjustment in world history.After this major historical adjustment, the capitalist countries are no longer the capitalist countries they were before; the socialist countries are no longer the socialist countries they were before; and the international relations are no longer the same.The changes in the world are very huge and profound. Reporter: What do you mean to say that when we are about to ring the morning bell of the new century, the characteristics of the times become the basic standpoint for us to study all problems. Only in the process of fully adapting to the new era can we study and solve all problems Encountered new situations and new problems.So what aspects do you think should be used to study the problems of the times? Yu Guangyuan: I think we should study the issues of the times from two aspects: productivity and production relations, economic base and superstructure.The theories of historical materialism on productivity and production relations, economic base and superstructure are not only suitable for the study of problems in a country or a region, but also can be used to study world and global problems. Looking at the times from the perspective of productivity or industrial structure, there are many discussions at home and abroad on this issue.In recent years, it originated in the United States and put forward a concept of "knowledge economy era".After some deliberation, I basically accepted this formulation and started researching and thinking.It seems that at some point in the 21st century, the world is likely to enter this era.The era viewed from the perspective of social production relations and superstructure is closely related to the era viewed from the perspective of productive forces.In this way, the research on the issue of the times becomes more complicated.If we want to adapt to our times to the fullest, a prerequisite is that we must conduct in-depth research on the problems of the times. It is not a new issue to look at the times from the perspectives of productivity, production relations, and superstructure.Looking at the times from the perspective of productivity, in ancient times there were the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. There was an era where hunting was the mainstay of gathering and hunting, and there was an era when agriculture and animal husbandry were the mainstay. Handicrafts were separated from agriculture. There is the age of factory handicrafts, the age of large-scale machine industry, and so on.From the perspective of production relations and superstructure, there are primitive commune society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and so on.The times viewed from two perspectives have been related since ancient times.Now we just want to study the problems of our times in the light of the situation of the 21st century. I think the main problem at present is to conduct serious research and discuss the issues of the times, that is to say, focus on improving and popularizing issues.Now our research is too weak.With regard to the issues of the times raised from the perspective of productivity, the current situation can be said to be a brief introduction of what foreigners have said.Although a lot of books have been published, some of them have the taste of "jumping in a hurry".Inevitably, there are inaccuracies in the content, and overall, there are still two problems of messiness and superficiality.As for looking at the issue of the times from the perspective of socio-economic politics and looking at the relationship between the two different perspectives, it can be said that in our country even the necessary attention is still lacking.It is difficult to ask people to adapt to their own times as fully as possible while not enough research is done.Therefore, in order to fully adapt to the times, it is necessary to thoroughly study the characteristics of the times, new situations and new problems that may arise in the new era.This is a work of "improvement", and only by "improvement" can it be popularized, so the theoretical workers in our country bear a very important responsibility. It is not easy to thoroughly study the problems of the times.The problem is very complicated. There is not much experience in researching this problem, and the materials are not sufficient. Therefore, it needs to use a lot of force and take a lot of time to carry out, and there will definitely be disputes of different opinions. Can be solved.But at the same time, we must also see that there is another aspect that is relatively easy, that is, we can reach a consensus on the "general direction" issue, and reserve some difficult problems as topics for long-term research and discussion.This is also the policy of "seeking common ground while reserving differences" that we often say. Here I would like to quote a passage on "popular" issues written by Marx in a letter to a friend.This paragraph is about his "Das Kapital".In his letter, Marx told his friends that the first few chapters of the first volume of his "Das Kapital" are very unpopular, and the latter chapters are easier to read.But once the scientific foundation is laid, popularization becomes easier.What we have to do now is to lay a scientific foundation for the views on the problems of the times. In the future, we can put forward propositions that are in line with the actual situation in our country, and use corresponding colors and pens to expound this topic in a popular way, so as to mobilize the vast economic work. Writers, cultural workers, and social workers can effectively catch up with the pace of the times and better build socialism with Chinese characteristics.