Chapter 28 27. Tiananmen Square: The Origin of the Wind

Tiananmen Square is one of the most powerful landmarks in Chinese history.It has also played an important role more than once in the 60-year history of the People's Republic of China.The Fourth Fifth Movement in Tiananmen Square in 1976 was undoubtedly the key trigger for the fall of the Gang of Four, Deng Xiaoping's resignation, and a series of subsequent changes.Since Mao Zedong announced on the Tiananmen Gate in 1949 that the Chinese people will stand up, the changes in the square above and below the gate are a weather vane for the changes in China as a whole.The Tiananmen Gate Tower is the main gate of the courts of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, facing Chang'an Street.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government expanded Tiananmen Square under the city tower, making this square the largest People's Square in the world at that time. In November 1987, the Tiananmen Gate Tower was officially opened to tourists.

"At about eight o'clock, a publicity vehicle of the Municipal Public Security Bureau was smashed, the car was overturned to the ground, and the body and horn were smashed. After nine o'clock, more than 10,000 people surrounded the Great Hall of the People. People in the square At the peak, it was estimated to be close to 100,000 people. Except for a very small number of bad guys who caused troubles, most of them were passers-by and onlookers. Some people were around the monument, and most of them were concentrated on the west side of the square, at the east gate of the Great Hall of the People. A dozen or so youths were besieged by rioters. They all had several big blood bags on their heads, and their faces were swollen and bleeding. The rioters shouted: "Kill him! Kill him!" A guard The soldiers came out to dissuade them, but they were immediately ripped off by the rioters, their collar badges and badges, their clothes were ripped open, and their faces were covered with blood. These villains even said wildly, "Who can control this scene, and no one in the central government can control it." Hold on, if he comes today, he won’t be able to go back today!’ The counter-revolutionary arrogance is extremely arrogant. Hundreds of workers’ militiamen, in order to defend the Great Hall of the People, lined up on the corridor of the Great Hall of the People, and were divided into several sections by the rioters. The bad guys kept chanting reactionary slogans. Whoever opposed them in the crowd was beaten violently by these guys. Some people were beaten and dragged to kneel in front of the monument to 'confess'. In the afternoon of the same day, the sabotage activities of this small group of counter-revolutionaries became even more rampant. They burned down four cars in total that brought water and food to the workers' militiamen on duty and the public security department. Around five o'clock, this group of bad guys stormed into the barracks again , took away and beat the guards at the door, smashed open the windows and doors on the ground floor, and ransacked the house. Radios, quilts, bed sheets, clothes, books, etc. were all thrown into the fire by these counter-revolutionaries. Dozens of bicycles belonging to the workers' militiamen in the capital were burned and smashed. Black smoke rose into the sky, and there was a clamor of counter-revolutionaries. Almost all the glass in the barracks was smashed, and then they set fire to the barracks. The counter-revolutionary political events are extremely hateful. But this small group of villains triumphantly said: 'This is the power of the masses.'”

The mirror image of history is often confusing, such as the description of a political event we saw above.The techniques used (selective descriptions and distortions of facts, the use of brightly colored tone and method of description) and the words used ("counter-revolutionary arrogance", "a handful of counter-revolutionaries", "sabotage", "rampant", "Hustle") we are still familiar with today. This is after the death of Zhou Enlai in 1976, People's Daily published on April 8 reported that people spontaneously gathered in Tiananmen Square to express their condolences to the deceased political leader.The commemorative event eventually turned into a large-scale parade.The death of Zhou Enlai became the fuse of the open confrontation between the two forces within the Communist Party of China, and also became the opening for the vague "people" to express their dissatisfaction.

Not long after the respected Premier of the Republic passed away, on January 9, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a notice to hold a farewell event for Zhou Enlai's body on the 10th and 11th, hold a condolence ceremony from the 12th to the 14th, and hold a memorial service on the 15th During the meeting, national flags were lowered at half-staff, and entertainment activities were suspended for one day.In the middle school Chinese textbooks in the 1990s, there is still an article titled "The Prime Minister on the Ten-mile Long Street". Millions of "people" spontaneously gathered on the ten-mile long street leading to Babaoshan, crying bitterly. snot.

Almost everyone who came into contact with him was overwhelmed by Zhou Enlai's charm.He is personable and upright, giving people the image of a virtuous man who "helps the building to collapse".Those who are impressed by him include the US Secretary of State Kissinger, the famous reporter and writer Bai Xiude and many other people who are well-known for their personal fame and judgment.In everyone's description, Zhou Enlai appeared almost as a perfect man.He conjures images of sage statesmen who have recurred at times throughout China's long history.He is the hope of a country in jeopardy, and it is always wishful thinking that as long as he is around, things will never go so badly beyond repair.As if he was trying his best to hold on to a train heading towards a cliff, he held onto this falling country in the prime minister's position.For the past ten years, he has given that impression.

However, when "Wen Wei Po" published on March 5 of this year published a draft of Xinhua News Agency, Zhou Enlai's inscription on learning from Lei Feng was completely deleted; The faction is still going, we will fight him" in the article, Zhou Enlai is classified as a capitalist roader in the party, "Confucian Lao Er wants to 'prosper and destroy the country, continue the peerless world, and raise the people', the capitalist roader in the party The overthrown capitalist-roaders who have refused to repent so far must be brought to power."These two articles thoroughly exposed the disputes and divisions within the Communist Party. Deng Xiaoping, who gave the eulogy at Zhou Enlai's memorial service, was clearly accused of being Zhou Enlai's successor.Zhou Enlai's death may have been an opportunity to completely change the balance of power within the Communist Party, and finally put an end to this division, which must have ended in the victory of one faction and the defeat of the other.

But the devastation of the country over the past decade, and the enormous disregard for people, has clearly made it very clear. Slogans of "Protect Zhou Enlai" and "Down with Zhang Chunqiao" appeared everywhere, and people in Beijing, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Zunyi, Kunming, Chongqing, Qingdao, Tianjin, and Changsha were all agitated by the same emotion.Its climax was the Tiananmen Square April 5th Movement.People recite poems that have been widely circulated, "If you want to be sad and hear ghosts, I cry and laugh. She shed tears to sacrifice to heroes, and raises eyebrows and swords out of sheath"; Goblins come out of the red wall" These poems were later widely circulated in the form of hand-copied "Tiananmen Poems".

Its climax and eventual tipping point that changed the dynamics of all expectations occurred in Tiananmen Square on April 5th.Since April 4th, crowds have been pouring into the square. It is said that the crowd in Tiananmen Square on that day has reached 2 million people, with more than 2,000 wreaths; On the day of Qingming Festival, more people will continue to flock to the square, and more wreaths will be placed on the square and in front of the Monument to the People's Heroes. The "clearance" took place in the early morning of April 5. The crowd was dispersed, all wreaths, slogans, and poems were destroyed, and 57 people who spontaneously guarded the wreaths were arrested.But things didn't end there.On the morning of the Ching Ming Festival, crowds began to flock to the square again, this time the crowd came prepared, they put up the slogan "Return my wreath, return my comrades in arms", and a car was burned.The counterattack in return was doubled suppression, tens of thousands of militiamen, 3,000 policemen, and 5 battalions of garrison troops joined a new round of clearing. The report of "People's Daily" can basically be regarded as a tonal conclusion of the April 5 incident, "counter-revolutionary incident".

But this incident also changed the entire balance of power within the party, or at least it was an important factor in bringing about this change in balance. Later, when describing 1976, Chinese people always had mixed emotions.Many things that happened in this year, if placed in other years, are enough to change the trend of contemporary Chinese history, or enough to make the whole country tremble.In this year, three important figures passed away. They were Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Zhou Enlai among the founding brothers.Mao is recognized as the founding father of the country, Zhu De is the founder of the army, and Zhou Enlai is the most outstanding diplomat and master of all kinds of difficult problems.On July 28 of this year, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Tangshan. It was later reported that its destructive power was equivalent to 400 light-guided atomic bombs, causing 242,000 deaths and 16.4 serious injuries (in 2006 People began to commemorate the great earthquake with great grief. Books and reports about the Tangshan earthquake were flooded in bookstores and major newspapers and magazines, but people did not expect that only two years later, a Kanhe and Tangshan earthquake occurred in China. Another major earthquake disaster on the subject).When in October—Mao Zedong passed away on September 9, the struggle within the party began to distinguish the winner.Mao Zedong's designated successor, Hua Guofeng, finally made up his mind. Together with Ye Jianying, the most prestigious military commander who was still alive and survived the Cultural Revolution, he issued an order to arrest the Gang of Four.

The April 5 incident that took place in Tiananmen was later rehabilitated in 1978.Those who opposed it had been defeated in a party struggle; those who supported it had gradually moved to the front row of the country's political arena.But its psychological shock to Chinese politicians and people may not be eliminated.A similar move on a larger scale later took place in the same place, but to this day it is still not recognized as positive, or, at least, justified.Then another massive mass opportunity of a religious nature occurred.It's just that none of them were able to create a chain reaction like the April 5th Movement and change the country.

Anything that happens in this particular region is capable of attracting national attention. On the tower of Tiananmen is a symbol of power.Any person who can appear on the Tiananmen Rostrum at a specific moment has a pivotal position in this country; and the changes of the characters that appear herald the changes of this country. The sequence of events heralded drastic power changes within the party, when Snow appeared next to Mao Zedong, it heralded that Mao Zedong and the whole country began to show friendliness to the United States, and when Li Ka-shing appeared on the Tiananmen Rostrum, it meant that the whole country began to show friendliness to the United States. and business advancement manifests a thirst. The square under the city tower is the area of ​​expression.The function of the square is to gather and express, not just an open area to show off martial arts.This has driven more and more people who want to express themselves to choose to express themselves here. At the same time, it has also attracted more people to pay attention to what happened in Tiananmen Square, making politicians and the police even more nervous.And the square, because of its openness, is the origin of the wind.The wind blows over the square and the people in it, and blows in all directions.Just like the spread of a concept, a slogan or a change.