Chapter 7 The early spring scene of "grass looks far away but not near"

Fei Xiaotong's "Early Spring Weather of Intellectuals" was once said to be "a signal flare for the attack of the bourgeois right". Regarding this article that became the target of public criticism, Zhou Enlai once said some pertinent and praiseworthy words. It was a whole month after "Early Spring Weather of Intellectuals" appeared in the newspapers—on April 24, 1957, Zhou Enlai gave a speech entitled "Long-term Coexistence and Mutual Supervision" at the enlarged meeting of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.This speech was later included in the book "Selected Works of Zhou Enlai's United Front" published by People's Publishing House in 1984.Zhou Enlai said: "I came to Hangzhou once, and when I returned, I read Fei Xiaotong's article "The Early Spring Weather of Intellectuals" on the plane, and expressed some thoughts deep in the hearts of intellectuals. The Communist Party also has many capable An intellectual who writes articles, but I don’t think such articles can be written, even if he has this kind of thinking, he will not write.”

Fei Xiaotong's article is Zhou Enlai's "feedback" to his report on intellectual issues, and Zhou Enlai's above passage is his "feedback" to Fei Xiaotong's article.Such back-and-forth "feedback", some of them just treat each other with sincerity and sincerity, without the slightest sense of gunpowder of "offensive" or "counterattack". Thirty years after the anti-rightist gunpowder dissipated, I re-read Fei Xiaotong's "Early Spring of Intellectuals", and found that this "signal flare" actually only expressed the aspirations of intellectuals.

Fei Xiaotong's article mainly talks about the views of intellectuals on two issues, one is marching towards science, and the other is contention among a hundred schools of thought.Regarding marching to science, Fei Xiaotong was nothing more than worried that " marching to science is really like a gust of wind, which only 'wrinkles a pool of spring water', that's all, and his opinion is not very sharp. Regarding the contention of a hundred schools of thought, Fei Xiaotong's words express the spirit of early spring The chill: "The contention of a hundred schools of thought has really hit the hearts of many intellectuals. It's great... From the perspective of intellectuals: they are enthusiastic about the contention of a hundred schools of thought; If you want to stand out on your own, you have to wait and see. We will not be the first in the world. According to the scope of my contact, people who are unwilling to open up and expose their thoughts still account for the majority. This year, the situation has improved. On certain occasions, some people are willing to confide in some intimate words, but they are still quite shy. Marching into science can be done behind closed doors, but a hundred schools of thought must be spoken out in public, and if they are shy, they will fail.

"What are you worried about? Of course there are still people who don't understand the policy of contention among a hundred schools of thought. I'm afraid it's a trap, so I can collect some thoughts and conditions, and I can take care of myself when another movement takes place... Face is a very realistic thing. Take ( Wearing the hat of a "backward element" will be cast into the sidelines, which will always affect the material foundation, because this is "virtue", salary evaluation, study abroad, even falling in love, finding a lover will be affected... Intellectuals who have not completely eliminated the idea of ​​"being wise and protecting one's life" and "don't suffer immediate losses"...thought that it's okay not to sing, and if you sing, you might ask for trouble, but in the end, why bother to speak.

"On the other hand, do the people who lead the work of intellectuals understand all the principles of contention among a hundred schools of thought? Not all of them are. Some people are a little worried when they come up... When they get up, they smell some idealism. Some people sounded the alarm: 'idealism is rampant', 'bourgeois ideology has risen again'. It is very easy to suppress the demon, and once the stone is uncovered, it will rush out again and cause trouble in the world. Although there are not many people who resist this policy, there seem to be quite a few people who are not enthusiastic about this policy and wait and see."

Therefore, Fei Xiaotong borrowed a poem from Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty to describe the mentality of intellectuals: "'The grass looks far away but there is nothing'—this is the scenery that should be in early spring."