Chapter 49 Section Four: The Death of the Poet Mu Dan

The cause of the incident was that at the symposium criticizing "Yu Pingbo's research" held by the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of Nankai University, several professors of the Department of Foreign Languages, headed by Wu Ningkun and Li Tiansheng, criticized Yu Pingbo's erroneous ideas according to the regulations, and the topic gradually turned to the leaders of the Department of Foreign Languages , criticized the arbitrary and undemocratic style of the department leaders and the low academic level, and at the same time put forward critical opinions and suggestions on how to improve the teaching work of Nankai University.At that time, Mu Dan also prepared a speech, but as soon as he said a word, he was interrupted sharply by the meeting convener who had already filled his heart and angered his dantian, and forbade him to continue speaking.Seeing the ferocious approach, Mu Dan picked up his speech and got up and left the venue.Wu Ningkun and other professors were very dissatisfied with the convener for being so rude and arrogant, accusing him of "this approach is wrong, we must let everyone finish their speech."The convener saw that some scholars dared to confront him with disrespect, and even turned against him. He was so angry that he slammed the table with his fist and scolded Wu Ningkun and others, then got up and left his seat, and kicked the table over. Turn around and leave.Wu Ningkun and the other professors were stunned at first, but after slowly recovering, they went home dejectedly one by one.That night, Nankai University designated Wu Ningkun and other professors who spoke at the meeting as "anti-Party cliques."Although Mu Dan was interrupted and left the venue after only saying a word, he was still accused of being close to Wu Ningkun and others and "preparing to speak" with malicious intentions. middle. ——This is the "foreign language department incident" that caused a sensation in Nankai University.

The consequences of this incident are: Wu Ningkun and Li Tiansheng were quarantined for review, while Mu Dan, who quit halfway, was under review, the history of participating in the "Chinese Expeditionary Force" during the Anti-Japanese War was rediscovered, and it was used as a kind of against the sky. Serious crimes became the object of "suppressing counter-revolutionaries".At that time, Mu Dan escaped from the wilderness mountain jungle after a narrow escape. Unexpectedly, ten years later, under the light and shadow of the wilderness mountain, he fell into another invisible, intangible, and inescapable deep mountain giant. Ze.As the "censorship" continued to deepen, Mu Dan was promoted from a "pseudo-officer" of the Kuomintang Expeditionary Army and an "English translator of the Chiang Bandits" to a "double counter-revolutionary element" in history and in the present. When the "counter-revolutionary group" movement was on the rise, the Nankai Academy of Arts held a meeting of more than 100 faculty and staff. group" leader.After the host's voice fell, Wu Ningkun and Mu Dan were dragged from the crowd to the "Ghost Fighting Stage" to accept criticism.Just as a group of activists swarmed up, grabbing Wu Ningkun, Mu Dan and others by the necks and dragging the chaos to the "Ghost Fighting Stage", another group of activists jumped onto the podium and announced that behind this group, there was still hidden danger. A group of "counter-revolutionaries" must also be brought out together.Amidst the aggressive posture and screaming, a Russian lecturer surnamed Yu, who was the translator of the puppet Emperor Puyi of Manchukuo, was so frightened that he passed out on the spot, foaming at the mouth and unconscious, and was carried out and thrown to the venue In addition, it is dealt with by "playing dead" as a backward element.

After this operation, Mu Dan and Wu Ningkun were "promoted" as "American secret agents" because of their study experience at the University of Chicago. The next step was to search for murder weapons and secret radio stations.Regarding this experience, both Zhou Yuliang and Wu Ningkun have recollections handed down to the world. According to Wu’s recollection, just after the criticism meeting of the Russian lecturer surnamed Yu who was the translator of Puyi, the emperor of the Puppet Manchukuo, passed out on the spot, he just When they got home, three men and one woman broke in, claiming to be police officers, and showing a "search warrant".The woman actually searched Li Yikai, the wife of Wu Ningkun, who was pregnant, and her old stepmother, who had suffered from diabetes for many years.

They rummaged through boxes and chests, throwing things all over the floor, and asked Wu Ningkun if he had pistols, other weapons, transceivers, etc.The visitor struggled for a long time, but was disappointed to find no physical evidence related to "secret activities", so he took all Wu's letters, address book, notebooks, manuscripts, etc. away.Before going out, one person even kicked Wu Ningkun, warning him to be honest and not to cut himself off from the people. At this time, although Mu Dan's wife, Zhou Yuliang, also had the experience of studying at the University of Chicago, she usually did not show her talents at school, so there was really no reason to catch her.More importantly, the huge family whose mainstay was her father, who was the deputy mayor of Tianjin at the time, had not yet collapsed, and belonged to the glorious "revolutionary family". This can be seen in Zhou Yiliang’s recollection: “Most of our family didn’t know enough about his past (southern press: referring to Mu Dan), so every time he came to our house, when everyone (six out of ten brothers and sisters) Party members, two democratic parties) gathered around his parents happily, talking eloquently, he often sat alone in the corner, unhappy. I have been to Tianjin for many years, and I remember only going to his house once. Looking back now, that time, that We treated him very unfairly and feel very guilty."

This memory not only revealed that the "revolutionary family" of the Zhou family at that time had super strength in Tianjin, but also explained what Mu Dan said in his letter to Ba Jin's wife Xiao Shan before that "this is a dull period" and "all friends So suspicious of each other" and "Life is like this, let it end soon" has found a historical footnote.Zhou Yiliang's "confession" is a superficial thing he had to do under the double pressure of his inner conscience and cultural conscience, but it still implies the projection of excuses for himself.Not to mention other people, Zhou Jueliang and Mu Dan are not only classmates and friends of Tsinghua University and Southwest Associated University, but also alumni of the University of Chicago, and at the same time they are invisible matchmakers and witnesses of the love between Mu Dan and Zhou Yuliang. How can someone who "doesn't know enough about the past" justify it?This is true for relatives, but what about ordinary classmates, colleagues, and friends?It is really "there are no more tears in the world".

Although Zhou Yuliang behaves cautiously in the world and has such a family background, she is Mu Dan's wife after all, so she is inseparable from her husband.Therefore, the school ordered her to stop classes and "help" her husband "reflect" and write "confession materials" at home. In fact, she has been internally controlled and monitored as a "female spy" lurking back to the mainland.During this period, the wife of a Russian lecturer across the door from Mu Dan and a husband who was boarding at his home both hanged themselves because of the "movement".Then came the news that professors from other departments in Nankai committed suicide. All of these suicides were said to be "resistance to the movement and self-denial from the people."And said: "The party and the people will never be intimidated by their criminal actions."

In mid-May 1956, the school personnel office notified Wu Ningkun that he was about to be transferred to a college in Beijing that trained confidential foreign language talents for the Party Central Committee to teach. His wife Li Yikai was also going to work in the college. In mid-June, the Wu couple took their old stepmother and five-month-old son Wu Yiding to Beijing to teach. Iron Blood Demon Palm.At this time, Wu Ningkun didn't know that what awaited him in the future would be even more severe personality humiliation and physical and mental persecution. His good friend Wu Ningkun left, and the "anti-party clique" of the year also fell apart under the impact of the political storm, and Mu Dan fell into the loneliest and most difficult period of his life. In 1957, the turmoil returned, and Mu Dan, who had just risen politically, fell into the trap again inexplicably. He published "Ninety-Nine Schools Controversy" in the "People's Daily", and was once again placed under residential surveillance and isolated for review.Previously, the "counter-revolutionaries" who were designated as "counter-revolutionaries" seemed to be limited to the "internal designation" by the leaders orally and in the criticism venue, but this time it has to be implemented in official documents and actual actions. In December 1958, as a "satellite" released by Nankai University's "Anti-Rightist Movement", Mu Dan's history of participating in the expeditionary force and serving as the "English translator of the Lieutenant Colonel" became the "iron proof" of counter-revolution again, and was recognized by Tianjin's middle-level people. The court sentenced him to three years of labor reform on the charge of "historical counter-revolutionaries" and "under the supervision of the authorities."When the court sent people to the school to read the verdict, Mu Dan was expelled from the classroom, demoted from his position and salary, and forced to accept supervision and labor supervision in the library and bathhouse of Nankai University.

In 1962, Mu Dan was finally lifted from the "control", but the school still refused to let him go to the classroom, and continued to stay in the library to "supervise the use" to see the aftermath.Its main job is to clean the toilets and bathrooms every day.Although he is still "supervising the use" and his basic rights as a citizen have not yet been restored, the fire of literature and the desire to pour out dormant in Mu Dan's heart burst out again at this time, and he started the biggest work project in his life-translating English The long narrative poem "Don Giovanni" by the great Romantic poet George Gordon Byron in the early 19th century.Engage in heavy physical labor and endless thought reports during the day, and return home with exhausted body and mind at night, close the door after dinner and work secretly at the desk.After three years of hard work, by the end of 1965, the first draft of this 16,000-line masterpiece was finally translated.When he was about to take a breather, the "Cultural Revolution" storm broke out, and Mu Dan was the first to bear the brunt. The rebel Red Guards pulled him out to criticize him, and then ransacked his home and smashed it.Subsequently, Mu Dan was placed in the "cowshed" and accepted the supervision of the rebels for reform through labor.At that time, Mu Dan's family lived in a one-story house with three rooms in No. 70, East Village. Due to the convenience of access, the Red Guards confiscated the house one after another, and some books and manuscripts were removed, torn up, or simply thrown away. The fire burned, and even the household utensils, bedding, and clothes were all looted.This heart-pounding scene left a deep memory on Mu Dan's children. According to the memories of several brothers and sisters, "I remember that one night in August of that year, a bunch of raging fires illuminated the front of our house brightly. The slogan "Down" was posted on the wall, and several Red Guards threw a pile of books and manuscript paper into the fire. It was very late, and my father, who had been taken away by the Red Guards since the morning, had not returned... until midnight, my father When he came back, his face was ugly, and his hair was shaved into the "yin-yang head" which was popular at that time. He saw his mother and us were still waiting for him, and comforted us by saying: "It's okay, it's just a fight and an explanation of the "problem". The Red Guards are right. I didn't go too far... Mother brought steamed buns and hot water for him to eat quickly. At this moment, he looked at the shredded papers all over the floor, the books with torn book jackets and scattered manuscripts, his face was livid, and he didn't say a word...Suddenly , he ran to a bookcase whose lid had been thrown aside, took out a stack of thick manuscript paper from the bookcase, and held it tightly in trembling hands. It was the crystallization of his painstaking efforts "Tang The translation of "Huang". Fortunately, the Red Guards only messed it up and did not burn it." Lying on the bed, Mu Dan looked at the dark night outside the window, listening to the noise and the sound of "knock down" coming from outside. , The last refrain of the "Praise" poem written many years ago suddenly flooded into his mind: "A nation has risen!" Thinking of this, he actually showed a rare smile.The children watched and, for some reason, thought it was their father who was losing his mind.

In June 1968, Mu Dan’s house was forcibly seized by He, an employee of the Department of Biology, relying on the power of the Red Guards. The family was swept out of the house, and the leftover clothes in the house were brutally thrown out of the house on the open ground.Zhou Yuliang, who had nowhere to go, was allowed to move into Room 337, 3rd Floor, Dormitory 13, Nankai University after repeated negotiations with the school’s “Worker Propaganda Team”, a west-facing room with only 17 square meters. five years. One wave is not flat, and another wave rises again. In the second half of 1968, Zhou Yuliang was targeted by the rebels again during the "cleaning up class ranks".At that time, the Tianjin Zhou family was born as a national capitalist, and had already collapsed with the rise of the "Cultural Revolution".Zhou Shutao, the first non-Party deputy mayor in Tianjin, was dismissed and investigated. Then there were fights, criticisms, house raids, and confessions. His house was seized by a Red Guard organization.Several other sons and daughters, such as Zhou Yiliang and other professors who served in the education field, were all imprisoned in the "cowshed" and became the targets of the revolutionaries' dictatorship.Against this political background, Zhou Yuliang was designated as a suspected spy by Nankai University, and was taken away from his home on December 3, and detained in a room facing north on the second floor of the teaching building of the Department of Biology for "isolation and review". , Forced to write "explained materials".Because Mu Dan has entered the "cowshed" where he is concentratedly detained in the school, Zhou Yuliang's four children (the oldest is 14 years old and the youngest is 7 years old) besides relying on each other, have to cook and deliver meals for their mother every day.Of course, the children were not allowed to see their mothers, and the food delivered was inspected by guards from the "Worker Propaganda Team" to confirm that there was no intelligence before passing it on to Zhou Yuliang who was in isolation.One day, Mu Dan's eldest son, Cha Ying, sent his mother a box of porridge with a piece of soy bean curd under the meal. The guards of the "Workers Propaganda Team" found out and detained them immediately, and announced at the teacher-student meeting of the Department of Biology that this A piece of tofu is Zhou Yuliang's usual secret code for collusion with the outside world and secret agents. It is Mu Dan's instruction to Zhou Yuliang to "stick to the end, resist and don't explain."Because of the sauced tofu, Zhou Yuliang and Mu Dan were persecuted and tortured more severely. They were interrogated for several days and nights, until they were knocked down and unable to speak in their respective isolation places. .

After half a year, Zhou Yuliang was released from isolation and sent home.Not long after, Mu Dan was also released from the "cowshed". The couple and a group of "ox ghosts and snake spirits" from Nankai University were sent to Wanxian County, Baoding Prefecture, Hebei Province for labor reform.Zhou and Liang were sent to Wanggezhuang in Wanxian County, while Mu Dan was "isolated" in another village in another commune dozens of miles away, without any communication with each other.When the Spring Festival in 1969 was approaching, Mu Dan became anxious. Except for Zhou Yuliang, who had not heard from each other, the four children who stayed in Tianjin were also dead or alive.On a snowy winter day, Mu Dan took the opportunity of not being able to go to work, quietly slipped out of his residence, and ran to Wanggezhuang against the heavy snow.After more than two hours, I finally saw my beloved wife who had been separated for half a year.Zhou Yuliang saw that her husband was thin and weak, with a sallow complexion, panting heavily, sweat mixed with snow water flowing down his forehead, and white smoke rising from the top of his head, without saying a word, Tears welled up in his eyes.When Mu Dan learned that his wife hadn't heard from the children for a long time, a burst of sadness swept over his heart, and he quickly suppressed tears and comforted Zhou Yuliang in a calm tone, saying: "The children are all well." Then he said: " Things will always clear up, be patient and don't worry about your children." Then he said over and over again with guilt: "I am the culprit. It's not because of me, the whole family will not be like this." Zhou Yuliang looked at her husband Tears welled up in his eyes, and he choked up several times, so he comforted him, "I'm also a spy, so I should be punished." Seeing that his wife's mood was calming down, Mu Dan wanted to leave.Turning around and turning around suddenly, he took out a small bag of peanuts and a few candies that cost a penny from his pocket, and took his wife's hand and gently put them down.When Zhou and Liang saw each other, tears welled up in their eyes again, and they refused to accept it.Mu Dan held his wife's hand even tighter, insisting on staying, and said, "You're dizzy, you'd be better off eating a piece of candy." Zhou Yuliang shook his head and said, "Your health is fine, and I don't want to eat snacks." Mu Dan Dan still insisted on asking his wife to keep the candy, and finally said "pay more attention to your body", turned around and disappeared into the boundless snowstorm.Zhou Yuliang followed him all the way to the entrance of the village. Looking at Mu Dan's disappearing figure, Zhou Yuliang was full of emotion. At only 53 years old, he was already a frail old man who was faltering.

Mu Dan's sudden visit was quickly learned by the team leader in charge of supervision. The leaders brought Zhou Yuliang to the team headquarters and asked him to "tell the truth" about the "information" they had passed on. At the same time, they sent people into Zhou Yuliang's residence to search Fortunately, the small bag of peanuts and a few pieces of candy were not found, and they were finally released under the condition of "no evidence".And Mu Dan, who was trotting all the way back, was captured by "activists" sent by the supervisor as soon as he arrived at the village entrance, followed by censorship and coercion to explain the process of "collusion and intelligence", and held a denunciation meeting.This result was already in Mu Dan's mind when he went out. Now that fifteen years of misery and misfortune have been overcome, tears have been shed, heart has hardened, and spirit has become stronger, what is this storm?Moreover, he was able to meet the wife whom he missed day and night, even if he was put to death for this, he would have no regrets.It was with such a tragic and determined state of mind that Mu Dan left without hesitation, and dared to swallow the bitter fruit brought about by it. In 1971, Zhou Yuliang returned to Tianjin, while Mu Dan was sent from the village of Wan County to the "May 7th Cadre School" of Nankai University to continue labor reform.This cadre school is located in Dasuzhuang in the suburbs of Tianjin, which was originally a labor camp for prisoners.This is the fruit specially rewarded by the school for Mu Dan's "crime" and "attitude". In 1972, as the political climate improved, Mu Dan ended his life in a labor camp and returned to work as a staff member in the Nankai University library. In addition to being "used by internal control" to sort out books, he also took on the task of cleaning toilets.Since 1973, Mu Dan resumed his habit of translating at night, and began to quietly revise the translation of "Don Juan" that had been put on hold for seven years in the dead of night.Then began to translate the works of Shelley, Keats, Eliot, Auden and other poets. In 1975, on the eve of the end of the "Cultural Revolution", as the political turmoil subsided, Mu Dan, who had stopped writing for many years, was spurred out of his long-simmering poetry in the troubled times, and he wrote "Song of Wisdom" in one breath , "After the Blackout", and nearly 30 works, among which "The Metamorphosis of God" in the form of "poetic drama", through the dramatic conflict of the four characters "God, Demon, Power, and Human", shows an allegorical human being. Tragic comedy, full of bitter wisdom, expresses "the tormented and tortured mood of Chinese intellectuals". This poetic drama is his review and summary of life and destiny in his later years. "The setting sun is infinitely good, but it's just near dusk." Unfortunately, the last glory is too short.Due to the long-term physical and mental torture and torture, his body was extremely weak. One night in early 1976, Mu Dan rode a bicycle to the Decaili residential area outside Nankai University to find someone to inquire about the recruitment of "educated youth" in order to find a way out for his children. It's good to "earn a bowl of rice to eat".When he came back, there was no street light, and unfortunately he broke into a deep hole in the dark. Mu Dan fell from the car and fractured his right thigh, and he has been bedridden ever since.While waiting in line for treatment at the hospital, he continued to retranslate Pushkin's poems in pain.When the pain was unbearable, he asked the children to burn a brick and apply hot compresses to relieve the pain. After the pain subsided slightly, he picked up the translation pen and continued to work.It was postponed to February 24, 1977. After Mu Dan finished transcribing the revised manuscript of "Eugen Onegin", he was admitted to Tianjin General Hospital and was ready to receive surgery for his injured leg.At this time, he was exhausted and felt that death was approaching him. However, since 1954, he had painstakingly translated nearly a dozen translations, but there was still no hope of publication.For this reason, before he was admitted to the hospital for surgery, he had finished copying the revised version of "Eugen Onegin", and put it neatly in a small canvas suitcase together with the translated version of "Pushkin's Lyrics". , handed it to the youngest daughter Chapin, and said, "You are the youngest, I hope you keep these translations well. Maybe you can publish them when you are old."When I said this, I felt very sad, and it made people feel sad. On the second day after Mu Dan was admitted to the hospital, he returned home abnormally to change his clothes, arranged the manuscript again, and met his sister who came to Tianjin.After lunch, he suffered a heart attack. The electrocardiogram of Nankai University Hospital diagnosed him as "extensive necrosis of the anterior heart wall", and he was rushed to Tianjin First Central Hospital for emergency treatment.The doctor had no choice but to return to heaven, and died unjustly at 3 am on February 26 at the age of 60. Before his death, Mu Dan reviewed the history of his life, especially reflected on the gains and losses of participating in the Chinese Expeditionary Force and being convicted of crimes, and revisited "The Charm of the Forest-Sacrifice to the Bones on the Hukang River Valley" This magnificent poem.When he read "Welcome to come, take off all your flesh and blood", he suddenly felt that his sentence was no longer a line of poetry in the ordinary sense, but a prophecy.Later, Mu Dan, as a scholar and poet who was about to come to the end of his life, wrote a new poem "Meditation" on his sickbed, expressing his life's insights: Why are we, the spirits of all things, not as good as a small tree? Today you shake it and smile superiorly, tomorrow it will be the soil under the roots. Why are these words written by hand longer and stronger than this hand? They will throw away their rotten hands and live silently on a piece of torn paper. And so I have lived proudly for decades, as if I had been the director of all things, while for a moment I was only a small actor in their eternal order. But now, facing the tomb suddenly, I look back at the past with cold eyes, only to see that the sorrows and joys watered by its twists and turns have disappeared in an ancient desert, and only then do I know that all my efforts have only completed ordinary life. In fact, even "ordinary life" has not been peaceful and smooth.According to Lai Xinxia, ​​a former friend of Mu Dan, a professor at Nankai University, and a famous historian, in the twenty years since Mu Dan returned to the motherland from the United States, "There was hardly a single day of comfort. The contrast between subjective yearning and objective feedback was too great. No matter how you interpret it, Mu Dan is a tragic figure after all.” What Lai said coincides with the natural tragedy of Haining's characters summed up by Mu Dan's brother Jin Yong.God?Fate?Or is it a misfortune? However, as a talented poet and translator, Mu Dan left the rich cultural heritage to the world, which will become more and more precious as time goes by and will be constantly remembered, perhaps just like Mu Dan’s confidant critic Xie Mian The emotion he expressed: "The creativity of his poetry creation, his superb cultivation and strength in at least English and Russian, as a poet and translator, he has no time to show, or he is not allowed to show. Genius. A comet burns and then disappears, but Mu Dan is not, he is a star that is always covered by dark clouds. We only feel his far-reaching brilliance from the occasional light in the gaps in the thick clouds."