Chapter 22 See the sky one day Feng Yue

This is a set of comic strips that were supposed to be published in 1979, but 26 years later, it was the first time that it really faced the public. In the rotunda on the first floor of the National Art Museum of China, a boy with yellow hair dyed and looking like a student looked at the paintings in the showcase and asked his companion suspiciously: "Who is Zhang Zhixin?" The scenes that appear on the screen may be completely unfamiliar to his life experience: overwhelming posters, fighting, crazy crowd holding "Red Book", people with high hats on their heads and bricks hanging on their chests Parade, the words "current counter-revolutionary criminals"...

If we say that a comic book also has a destiny, how to describe its destiny?It should have been circulated by millions of people, put by people's pillows, put in schoolbags, rummaged through in the library, wet with tears, arousing the anger and sorrow in people's chest... But now, it is put away Placed in the spacious and bright exhibition hall of the National Art Museum, people walk past it quietly. During the 26 years of time and space changes, the audience and the society are no longer what they used to be. The first author Liu Yulian died of illness in 1997. Even the protagonist "Zhang Zhixin" of this series of comics has become a A noun that needs explanation.

"The one who should be judged is brave thinking or the imprisonment of thought" On August 23, 2005, at the exhibition of Liu Yulian's works at the National Art Museum of China, this group of 14 comic strips "Zhang Zhixin" was not placed in a particularly conspicuous position.As far as the author is concerned, his later works "Yellow River", "Nine-Colored Deer" and the early works, are far more famous and influential than this group of "Zhang Zhixin", which has never been published. However, many viewers still slowed down in front of this group of works, stopped, and carefully read this little poem in the showcase. This is the text description Liu Yulian made for the comic book "Zhang Zhixin"——

You have been passionate, devoted to the unprecedented years Warm and sincere, like the boiling whole of China but you you doubt... You cry for the unprecedented catastrophe Anyone can have several choices, either to fight or to follow or to vote Or silent rage, deathly silence You chose the truth that shouted Facing the whole country to discuss, the whole party to punish In the prison of the people, the sons and daughters of the people are imprisoned Because of you, speaking the brave truth Under the banner of democracy, the voice of democracy is stifled Because you recognize the false "exaltation"

What should be judged is brave thinking or the imprisonment of thoughts Really guilty, is it you or modern feudalism You persevered and endured the oppression and humiliation of darkness You insisted on facing the evil forces of two thousand years of modern slave owners Want a revolution? You should be strong. To be a revolution you have to be strong cowardly and brutal strangulation The voice of the strong cannot be silenced This is not your humiliation, but the humiliation of our nation's history This is your glory, the tragic glory of our nation You fell under the bloody red flag

You fell in a pool of blood as red as a flag You sacrificed on the altar of new China Tomorrow's Communism On May 25, 1979, "People's Daily" published a long report entitled "Dare to Fight for the Truth", introducing Zhang Zhixin's deeds.Afterwards, "Guangming Daily" published "A Report Written in Blood", "Footprints Toward Eternal Life", "She Is A Veritable Powerhouse" and so on for more than three months starting from June 5 The report revealed that Zhang Zhixin was convicted because of her thoughts and the inhuman treatment she received in prison, including the details of cutting her throat before execution because she was afraid of her shouting "reactionary slogans".For a moment, the whole country was shocked, and "Zhang Zhixin" became synonymous with upholding the truth and resisting power in people's hearts.

Poets wrote floods of poems in memory of her: she put the bloody head put on the balance of life let all the survivors All lost - weight ——Han Han "Weight" the law how to become so pale pale as waste paper justice how to become so weak Too weak to stretch! ——Lei Shuyan "The Grass Is Singing" A gun of the dictatorship of the proletariat Aim at the chest of a female Communist Party member! ... The conscience of China, how can it endure such a shame and humiliation? Qingming rain, when it is not clean and clear ambition replaces conscience beast instead of human

power kills law Tyranny strangles liberty... ——Xiong Guangjiong's "Guns Aim at China's Conscience" Just when the wave of commemoration was just surging, when many details had not yet appeared in the newspapers and were widely known, Liu Yulian, Li Bin, and Chen Yimin had already received an invitation from the editorial department of "Lianhuan Pictorial" magazine, and set off from Harbin to Investigation and interview of Panjin Prison in Liaoning where Zhang Zhixin was detained. On July 24, 1979, Li Bin mentioned in a letter to his friend Shen Jiawei that "Zhang Zhixin" was being created: "We initially planned to paint 14 pieces, most of which used the method of combining historical photos and paintings in an attempt to arouse memories and Thinking." "This time the pressure is much greater than the last two sets, and the manuscript must be submitted before August 20, because the color pages are scheduled to be distributed in the October issue."

He also specifically asked: "This time we use the method of cutting and pasting photos, and we need to wash them into brown, blue, red, green and other colors. I wonder if Shenyang can buy medicine for washing blue, green, and red? If it is good, buy two of each." The bag arrived quickly." Several of them were painting friends of the Heilongjiang Corps. At that time, they were engaged in creations in the Heilongjiang Provincial Artists Association, Harbin Artists Association and Shenyang Military Region. This letter is included in the newly published "Liu Yulian Wen Cong".However, to this day, neither Li Bin nor Shen Jiawei could remember whether or not Shen Jiawei bought the needed potions.

Before setting off, Li Bin went to the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee to open a letter of introduction under the banner of a creative member of the Provincial Artists Association, but he was stunned. He made it very clear: "We don't care about this kind of thing." Angry, he asked loudly, "Is this how you serve party members?" As a result, as soon as he returned to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, someone in the office kindly reminded him: "Why did you go to the Propaganda Department for your rebellion?" According to Chen Yimin's recollection, the issue of the letter of introduction was later resolved by the editorial department of "Lianhuan Pictorial" from the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and introduced the three of them to "collect creative materials".

Prior to this, the comic strips created by Liu Yulian, Li Bin, and Chen Yimin based on Lu Xinhua's novels had already aroused great repercussions.And they didn't know that the collaboration between the three of them, which would be published in the August issue of "Lianhuan Pictorial", would cause even greater repercussions and an uproar, making this magazine with a circulation of more than one million copies at that time almost Facing a catastrophe. "If we don't draw these, if we don't breathe out the breath in our own chest, I'm afraid we will be suffocated to death." With the letter of introduction from the Central Propaganda Department, they were transferred to the letter of introduction from the Provincial Public Security Bureau to Panjin Prison in Liaoning. "The Panjin Prison at that time was like the Fushun War Criminals Management Center that was opened later. The cell where Zhang Zhixin was detained was opened up, and there were special personnel to receive it." Li Bin still remembers that there were several groups of people who visited with them at that time. "I remember that the room was not too big. There was a row of kangs against the wall, and the roof was so high that you could only see a small window when you looked up. People felt suffocated inside." Li Bin recalled.What they saw was Zhang Zhixin's cell when he was locked up with other prisoners. They were not allowed to visit the small room where she was held in solitary confinement. On the screen, Zhang Zhixin was beaten by a group of inmates in the cell, the lines are thick and messy.The foreground is the back view of a policewoman in a public security uniform standing with her hands crossed outside the prison door, quietly watching. The content of this picture comes from the administrator's confirmation that Zhang Zhixin was indeed beaten in prison, and his hair was almost pulled out. According to the administrator, on the day Zhang Zhixin got the divorce agreement in prison, he cried all night.This detail later became another one in this group of paintings: the background is real Zhang Zhixin’s family photos and life photos, and the main body is she crying in shackles and prison uniform. "She is not only a hero, but also a mother and wife. We are consciously looking for such human nature, but ravaged and devastated content." Not all details and stories are suitable for painting, but they are unforgettable. The night before he was shot, in early April, it was still very cold in the Northeast, and the prisoners were still wearing cotton-padded clothes and trousers.Zhang Zhixin proposed to relieve her, and the prisoner who was guarding her asked the administrator for instructions, and the answer was: "Let her pee in her pants." "Think about what kind of person she is. She was born in a musical family, joined the volunteer army, went to university, joined the party at the age of 25, and is a secretary of the provincial party committee's propaganda department. Her image is so perfect. For her, , what a shame." Because it has been too long, in Li Bin's description, some memories only have images, but he can't remember the specific time and place.He remembered seeing Zhang Zhixin's prison uniform, which was a large size, like a man's clothes. What impressed him the most was the collar and a large area of ​​the chest, all of which were wet with blood. They saw a photo of Zhang Zhixin before his execution.She was kneeling on the ground, tied up, her face was distorted, and there was a sign around her neck that read "Current Counter-Revolutionary Criminal Zhang Zhixin Sentenced to Death and Immediate Execution". This photo was quickly sketched by Li Bin with charcoal at that time, and the one in the comic strip that shows this plot is almost a copy of this photo. "It's just," Li Bin said, her throat had been cut at that time, and her face was so distorted that she didn't have a human shape at all. "I did some processing during the painting, it's not as tragic as the photo." There, the three of them also met Professor Wu Biduan from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.Professor Wu told them that he also saw a photo of Zhang Zhixin after his execution. The bullet shot out from the back of his head through one eye, and half of his face was shattered, which was even more horrible. Zhang Zhixin is not the first prisoner whose throat was cut before execution.The method used in the past was to strangle the prisoner's tongue and mouth with wire. Later, a doctor invented the method of cutting the trachea. Li Bin recalled that Zhang Zhixin was the 41st one introduced by the administrator. "The feeling at that time was that if we didn't draw these, if we didn't breathe out the breath in our own chest, I'm afraid we would be suffocated to death." Li Bin said. Two days later, on the train back to Harbin, they began to discuss how to arrange and present the pictures. The reason why we decided to use the combination of historical photos and paintings is mainly because of the reality of the subject matter.Although the previous sum also has a strong realistic color, it is adapted from a novel after all.Zhang Zhixin is completely different, from the character image to the specific content, it is 100% true.Photos can emphasize realism even more.This method is a bit similar to the collage in Western pop art. In China at that time, when there was no computer and multimedia technology, it was still a very fresh and unique idea. "This surprise really almost killed us!" Thinking about it now, Li Bin still complained. "We know what we're doing" It is not difficult to collect information photos. As painters, it is their professional habit to pay attention to pictures. Moreover, the "Cultural Revolution" was not long after the end of the "Cultural Revolution", and there were many sources in newspapers and periodicals.The trouble is the production process.They had to collage the selected photos and then retake them. After making the photos in the darkroom, they pasted them on plywood, and then painted the main image with gouache on the background of the photos. The darkroom was stuffy and damp, and each negative had to be exposed several times, and some people's heads were only a little bigger, which was difficult to grasp.The position, light and shade of different characters and elements in the photo often have to be done many times before it is suitable.Sometimes I feel that the photos are not good when I am half done, so I will find and change them again.It was so easy to complete the photo part, and if there was a slight mistake in the painting, the whole thing had to be redone. Due to the tight deadlines, they worked almost continuously in those days, doing the darkroom part at night and painting during the day. "I was so sleepy. But we knew what we were doing." Li Bin said, the strength that supported them at that time was just thinking, compared with Zhang Zhixin's experience, this is nothing! When Liu Yulian, Li Bin, and Chen Yimin were rushing to work on "Zhang Zhixin" day and night in Harbin, the editorial department of Beijing "Lianhuan Pictorial" suddenly had a storm. Just three days after the August 1979 issue of "Lianhuan Pictorial" was issued, it was ordered by the Publishing Bureau of the Ministry of Culture to stop publishing and to investigate responsibility.This is almost the heaviest punishment in the publishing industry.The reason is that the works published in this issue have "bad political influence". This group of works was later evaluated as "breaking through the forbidden zone of literature and art" and won the first prize of the National Art Exhibition of the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China. The reasons for the controversy and criticism at the time seem a bit absurd now. One of them is: They did not vilify It vividly portrays the images of Lin Biao, Jiang Qing and other "negative characters".In Li Bin's words, all they wanted to do was "return to normality," which was considered abnormal at the time. Wu Zhaoxiu, who was the deputy director of the editorial department of "Lianhuan Pictorial" at the time, still remembers that the publication of Lianhuan Pictorial was discussed and approved by the editorial department, and not many manuscripts received this kind of "treatment".Everyone agrees that this is a good thing, and they also think that there may be risks, but in the general environment of "putting things right" they still feel very confident. "Besides, if such a good thing cannot be released, it would be dereliction of duty for the editor." After the ban came down, the editorial department held a meeting and decided that it was unacceptable, and decided to leapfrog the appeal and directly wrote to the Central Propaganda Department to explain the situation.Soon, Wu Zhaoxiu and four other editors were summoned to the Central Propaganda Department for a meeting.At the meeting, Wu Zhaoxiu said that if there is a problem with the work, you can express different opinions and "can criticize", but it is not advisable to prohibit the publication or replace it and republish it.Moreover, Wu Zhaoxiu also pointed out that the image of the "villain" in the painting is still treated with a certain cool tone. In the end, his fate was safe and sound.Later, at the request of readers, an additional 100,000 copies of this issue of "Lianhuan Pictorial" were printed after publication.Among them, the picture of a young life dying under the "Longevity without Borders" placard is still often mentioned today. However, what happened to "Zhang Zhixin" was not so lucky.Due to the change of political wind, the publicity and reports on Zhang Zhixin came to an abrupt end.The completed comics will never have the chance to be published. Twenty-six years later, even from today's perspective, some pictures are still shocking. There is a background cut-and-paste of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's document "Several Regulations on Strengthening Public Security Work During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", in which two lines of descriptions measuring "current counter-revolutionary behavior" just happened to seal the mouth of Zhang Zhixin's portrait. [Note: On January 13, 1967, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council promulgated "Several Regulations on Strengthening Public Security Work in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (referred to as "Public Security 6"), stipulating that anyone who "attacks and slanders the great leader Chairman Mao and others Comrade Lin Biao’s close comrade-in-arms are all current counter-revolutionary acts and should be punished according to law.”In the future, this article was actually extended to anyone who was slightly dissatisfied with Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, Chen Boda, etc., and was punished as an active counter-revolutionary crime.This provision was one of the important reasons for the large number of unjust, false, and wrong cases during the "Cultural Revolution." ] In another picture, the interrogator with the red collar and Zhang Zhixin being interrogated are the back view of a policeman in white uniform.There are frontal photos of Cixi, Yuan Shikai, Chiang Kai-shek and other rulers of the old era in the background photos, a photo of Lushan Fairy Cave taken by Jiang Qing, and a couplet photo of "people can learn from it, but not know it", implying that the rulers of the past dynasties are inherited in one continuous line authoritarian nature. The conception of the picture showing the scene of "cutting the throat" is also unique.The faces of the executor and the victim are hidden, and the black silhouette seems to tell the audience that this is a shady business.Someone nearby looked down, silently watching the crime take place.Further up in the background are pictures of mass gatherings during the Tomb-sweeping Day on the majestic Tiananmen Square.The center of the picture seems to be blank, but if you look closely, it is Zhang Zhixin's face looking up to the sky and asking questions.It seems to imply that "one voice is stifled, and thousands of roars sound". Therefore, Shen Jiawei, a painter living in Australia, commented in the introduction to "Liu Yulian's Painting Collection" that "this set of less than 20 comic strips has many excellent works. From what I have seen, it is the most profound criticism of the 'Cultural Revolution' at home and abroad so far. The sharpest work of painting." "Things that can touch the national memory will always be alive" History cannot be assumed.No one knows what kind of mark it will leave in that period of history if this set of "Zhang Zhixin" can be released in the future?Rather than what Professor Wang Hongyi from the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University lamented: "Due to social transformation and the erosion of time, the criticality in it has lost its obvious purpose." In retrospect, when he knew that he could not publish it, Li Bin said, "I didn't seem to feel much about it." So much so that the original work was given to Shen Jiawei for preservation.For them, what they want to express is already in the painting, and the breath that is stagnant in their chest can be regarded as spit out.For them, comic strips were not their job.After "Zhang Zhixin", the comic book creation group of the three of them was disbanded, and the three authors have developed in different directions since then. Gao Minglu believes in the book "Chinese Contemporary Art History 1985-1986", "Whether it is the 'Scar Painting' or the 'Star Painting Club', the understanding of the reality that is criticized has superficial and narrow aspects. The significance of criticism is only to attribute the results to certain people or people's environment and atmosphere (this kind of recognition is inevitable and inevitable). These objects of blame are only the surface layer of culture, and their roots lie in the deep invisible culture, while This intangible culture is jointly created by a nation in a cultural circle, and its honor and disgrace are inseparable from the whole nation, including itself. Therefore, the real reality lies in oneself, in self-criticism, introspection, and self-explanation, not just accusations and sorrows. " Shen Jiawei said that if "Zhang Zhixin" could be published at that time, maybe Gao Minglu would revise this conclusion. In one of "Zhang Zhixin", there are countless confused or contemplative people behind Zhang Zhixin, and the self-portraits of the three authors are in the front.In the 1980 oil painting "Willing to be Cut" by Li Bin and Chen Yimin, the images of the three of them can also be seen in the main position among the Red Guards besieging Peng Dehuai.In Shen Jiawei's view, "the depth and courage of self-criticism expressed in this kind of thinking" were rare both at that time and now. "It's natural, we were Red Guards at the time," Li Bin said.Part of this self-examination attitude comes from Zhang Zhixin - when most people believe that "800 million Chinese people only need one thought", she dares to fight, think and express with the spirit of moths throwing themselves into the fire own opinion.The power of this independent personality has a particularly strong impact on their generation. As the preserver of this set of works for more than 20 years, Shen Jiawei has always firmly believed that "things that can touch national memory will always have vitality." He said that at that time, he wrapped the 14 paintings in paper and put them in a box "I just believe that this set of things will see the light of day one day." For the author Li Bin, the fate of the comic book "Zhang Zhixin" touched him the most: the most important thing is to draw it.The artist's life is quickly gone, but the work stays.He said: "It was impossible to publish 26 years ago, but it can be published today. If we had no paintings at that time, we would have nothing today. Some things need to be done first, and then we can consider others." At present, the National Art Museum of China has decided to collect this set of "Zhang Zhixin".