Chapter 10 Wrote the sequel "Before and After "Early Spring""

While the whole country was discussing "early spring", Fei Xiaotong was not seen in Beijing, and Fei Xiaotong's articles were not seen in the newspapers. Where did Fei Xiaotong go? As he stated: "Leaving Beijing on April 17th, going to the countryside on the 24th, and returning to Suzhou on May 15th. It is not easy to see Beijing and Shanghai newspapers on the road and in the countryside. Only sit down and read them when you are in the city. In the stack of old newspapers, there are many references to the article "Early Spring Weather" that I published in the "People's Daily" on March 24th..." ①

It turned out that he went to the countryside!This "township" is Kaixian bow.He has not been to this small village for 21 years. When he came to Suzhou, he still asked his sister Fei Dasheng to accompany him to Kaixian Gong.At this time, Fei Dasheng was already the deputy director of Jiangsu Silk Industry Bureau.They still took a small boat, facing the spring breeze, the small boat sailed to the small village to open the bow.The appearance there is very different from that of twenty-one years ago.After land reform and agricultural cooperation, Kaixian Gong has become a new scene.

Fei Xiaotong immersed himself in social investigations.After more than 20 days of investigation, he obtained a wealth of new materials. He wrote three articles "Revisiting Jiangcun" and sent two of them to Beijing's "New Observation" magazine ("New Observation").Because of the anti-rightist movement, the third article died prematurely.The second issue of "New Observation" in 1984 published Yu Guangtong's "Fei Xiaotong and His Sister Fei Dasheng", supplementing the scene of Fei Xiaotong's revisit of Kaixiangong). After Fei Xiaotong saw many articles about "weather" in the newspapers in Suzhou, he elicited some thoughts and wrote the sequel of that article—"Before and After "Early Spring", Fei Xiaotong talked about it in detail. The process of writing an article by myself.Looking at it today, this text has become a rare and precious historical material:

When I returned to Beijing from the Southwest in early February, the Central Committee of the Democratic League asked me to give an oral report on what I had seen in various places related to intellectuals during my six months away from Beijing.I mentioned the words of two lids: "A Hundred Schools of Thought" lifted a lid.As soon as the lid was lifted, the enthusiasm of intellectuals rose, indicating that there was still a lid to be lifted by mutual supervision in terms of requirements for scientific research.Once the cover is lifted, what is revealed is the political enthusiasm of intellectuals, and they will change the negative sentiment that they did not care much about national affairs in the past.However, I went on to say that the first lid has not been opened wide enough, and many leading comrades are not very enthusiastic.The second cover seems to have not been lifted yet, with an air of wanting to.I am in favor of taking off the lid, because the lid always has to be taken off, it is better to take it off sooner than later, it is better to take it off a little, and it is better to take it off than to take it off.

About a week later, the Cultural and Educational Committee of the Democratic League held another symposium. Based on my report, I hope to make a more comprehensive estimate of the current situation of intellectuals.At this meeting, I used the word "spring cold".But after discussion, I feel that the word "chunhan" is still inappropriate, because saying this does not convey the enthusiasm of intellectuals.Spring is the main thing, adding the word "cold" is inevitable.So I thought of the word "early spring". "Morning" is a positive word, which matches with the past dusk thoughts, and it just points out this turning point.

Some people feel chills from my article and think it is a cold wind. In fact, if you look carefully, I have used my thoughts on this temperature issue.For example, at first I wanted to quote Li Qingzhao's phrase "warm at first, then cold", but later I thought that this phrase is basically cold, and warm is empty.Therefore, instead of quoting directly, I changed one word and wrote it as "warm at first and then cold at the same time". This change of one word raised the status of Nuan.At that time, I also repeatedly uttered the sentence "The garden is full of spring scenery and cannot be closed", and I always felt that it was still useless.

Later, some people said that warm and cold are different feelings of the same weather, so they brought out the physical problems of the person who felt it. If the feeling of cold and warm can be used as a thermometer to test the degree of progress and backwardness.I didn't think so deeply at the time, and the inference didn't say so.All I can think of is the contradiction between the two lids "covering" and "uncovering".In fact, it is the problem of "receiving" and "releasing" that everyone is used to now. When "receiving" and "releasing" are applied to "weather", it becomes "cold" and "warm".

Recalling the period of February and March, the two characters "at first" can indeed be inserted in "close, put", "cover, uncover", "cold and warm".Not to mention anything else, but I have "collected and released" this article several times. The two meetings of the Democratic League encouraged me to speak for intellectuals, so I decided to write this article.In mid-February, the first draft had been written, but the questions raised in the article were not light, and I didn't have the courage to send it out.I revised it several times, and copied several copies, and distributed it to friends of the Democratic League for research and comments.Around the end of February, when I was about to publish the article, a friend came and said to me: "The weather is not right, you should wait a little longer. I am afraid it is not appropriate to release it like this." In the policy report, it was said that Chairman Mao criticized Wang Meng's novel "The New Young People from the Organization Department" and agreed with Chen Qitong's short essay. He added: "I think the situation is about to be closed." Mr. Pan Guangdan lived Next door to me, as soon as he heard what my friend told me, he said: "This is strange. I also heard someone in the city say that Chairman Mao called a talk, not to close, but to let go." For a moment we were confused.

One day later, I met another reporter from a magazine and talked about another friend who was interviewing in other places.He said: "The article sent back has a wrong caliber and exposed too much. It is not allowed to write like this now, and the consequences must be considered. There is a problem with the contention of a hundred schools of thought." Because I have this article that may go wrong, I Very concerned.Ask him: "Who said it!" The answer is: "It was passed down." Although this gust of cold wind was unfounded, it was a gust of wind, but it froze me. A few friends who read my manuscript and were sure not to accept it, but to release it, encouraged me to send it out again and again, and even resorted to aggressive methods.I was caught between the cold and the warm, and I wanted to say it, and I couldn’t stop it. In the end, I changed it from the beginning again. In this mood, rewriting is actually grinding corners.Some people say that my writing is too reserved, and those who don't understand poetry should stop pretending to be polite.I had no choice but to smile wryly.

On the morning when Chairman Mao spoke at the enlarged Supreme State Council, I sent it out.That day, because foreign guests came to visit and asked me to receive them, I didn't know that Chairman Mao was going to speak, so I didn't go to the city for the meeting.In the evening, Mr. Pan Guangdan came back after listening to the speech, and came to me excitedly to solve the mystery. The next morning, I got up early and took out the manuscript, and rewrote the second half of the article.From the sending of the revised manuscript to the publication of the article, it took another two weeks.The reason is said to be squeezed out by the CPPCC speeches.In any case, when this article on collection and release was published, early spring was indeed out of date.

Some friends felt sorry for me, saying that it was too timely to publish it a month earlier, and the weather has changed. Isn’t it an afterthought?Some of them congratulated me, saying that the spring was leaked a month earlier, and they were afraid that they would not be able to bear it, and they might be besieged for a while.I don't think it's accidental that it's not accidental. It reflects both the weather and my physique. I was originally an ordinary intellectual in this era of great change. I want to say what I want to say, and my courage is limited. ... Fei Xiaotong said: "Words are what you want to say, but courage is limited." This not only outlines his mentality, but also outlines the mentality of a large number of Chinese intellectuals.It is precisely based on this mentality that he constantly "grinds the corners" of the article and keeps "retracting and releasing".He knew that this was an "article that might go wrong"! However, when Fei Xiaotong wrote "Before and After "Early Spring", this article on China's political climate had not yet had "problems", but there were already signs.The up and down debates have raised many rather sharp questions.Fei Xiaotong summarized these problems into three in "Early Spring": The first question is "Is the weather right?" Somebody raised a rhetorical question that made Fei Xiaotong nervous: "It was already spring when the intellectuals were liberated. If the weather was still early spring in the last six months, what was the weather like in the past few years? Isn't this an explicit insinuation that thought remolding is winter?" Isn’t this intentionally negating the achievements of thought remolding?” From "early spring" to "winter", and then to extend "winter", this "problem" becomes serious. The second problem is that the flowers can't bloom, complaining "Is it the sky, or the grass?" Opponents questioned Fei Xiaotong like this: "Since liberation, the weather has been clear and warm. The party's policy on intellectuals has long been determined and has been implemented. The clear weather does not allow flowers to bloom." If it comes out, it is natural that there is something wrong with the vegetation, it is rotten, and it is corroded. I am useless, and I have to blame the sky!" The third question is, is it guaranteed that the flowers will bloom in early spring? The question turns to "flowers and trees" themselves.Some people think that the "one room, two books, and doing homework quietly" mentioned by Fei Xiaotong in the book is supporting "keep your ears off world affairs" and "emphasize business and despise politics". It seems that this series of "problems" just means that it is an "article that may go wrong"! After Fei Xiaotong's "Before and After "Early Spring" was published, it once again attracted the attention of Taiwan. On June 18 and 19, 1957, Hong Kong's Kuomintang newspaper "Hong Kong Times" published an article by Hu Xi entitled "Weather, Articles and the Face of the Communist Party - Written by Fei Xiaotong and ""Early Spring "Before and After". Hu Xi's article, of course, is from the standpoint of the Kuomintang, commenting on the political situation in mainland China, which makes the article even more "troublesome": "...Actually, he (quote's note: referring to Fei Xiaotong) exposed the anguish of mainland intellectuals in "Before and After "Early Spring". Afterwards, I dare not publish suddenly, I must look at the 'recent climate change' again, and the 'climate' of the Communist Party is often blown with no direction, so the article must be revised again and again..." In this way, in the spring of 1957 (this spring was later called the "unusual spring") Fei Xiaotong's article could be said to have caused a "sensational effect"—talking about "weather" up and down, discussing every aspect ...