Chapter 62 "Wen Wei Po" "Apology to the People"

Leaving aside Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji for the time being, let’s talk about the Shanghai “Wen Wei Po” that “Wen Wei Po’s Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized” pointed at. At that time, Shanghai was under the leadership of Ke Qingshi.Ke Qingshi has the "reputation" of "Chairman Mao's good student".In fact, after careful research, his original "reputation" is not this "halo".After Ke Qingshi passed away on April 9, 1965, the obituary issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China the following day spoke highly of Ke Qingshi: "Comrade Ke Qingshi is an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a loyal soldier of the Chinese people, and a close comrade-in-arms of Comrade Mao Zedong."①

This "close comrade-in-arms of Comrade Mao Zedong" is a very high evaluation of Ke Qingshi. Reluctantly, after the "Cultural Revolution" began, "Comrade Mao Zedong's close comrade-in-arms" became Lin Biao's "patent", so he no longer referred to Ke Qingshi as "Comrade Mao Zedong's close comrade-in-arms", but "downgraded" one level, saying It is called "Chairman Mao's good student".Since then, when mentioning "Mao Zedong's good student", people used to know that it meant Ke Qingshi. After the "Cultural Revolution", people jokingly called it "that good student in Shanghai"-everyone knew it was Ke Qingshi.

Knowing that Mao Zedong had written "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized", Ke Qingshi naturally "followed up" and launched a fierce offensive against "Wen Wei Po" in Shanghai. On July 1, a reporter from People's Daily sent the following telegram from Shanghai②: The "People's Daily" editorial "Wen Wei Po's bourgeois direction should be criticized" brought a huge impetus to the Shanghai press. Five newspapers in Shanghai reprinted this editorial in full today, and the staff of each newspaper rushed to read it, thinking that this article taught all journalists in Shanghai a timely and profound lesson.

"Wen Wei Po" reprinted the editorial of "People's Daily" in a prominent position on the first page today, and published two news articles, exposing the activities of the newspaper's deputy editor-in-chief Pu Xixiu against the leadership of the Communist Party, and the newspaper's president and editor-in-chief Xu Zhucheng wrong words and deeds.The editorial department of Wen Wei Po added a note after the news. "Wen Wei Po" published a report on July 1st, "The staff of this newspaper cited facts to expose Xu Zhucheng's wrong words and deeds against the party's leadership and adhere to the bourgeois policy of running newspapers."At the end of the article, the following editor's note is published in boldface:

Editorial Note: When this manuscript was published, the People's Daily editorial "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized" reached the editorial department.The comrades on the night shift of this newspaper were the first to read this editorial.All comrades unanimously and unreservedly fully support this editorial's serious criticism of this newspaper, and are determined to thoroughly expose within the shortest period of time all conspiracy activities of rightists inside and outside the newspaper who use this newspaper to attack the party madly, and resolutely draw a clean line. We should correct the serious political mistakes made by this newspaper, and answer the serious criticism of "People's Daily" with this practical action.

"Wen Wei Po" used a series of bold headlines in its report criticizing its president and editor-in-chief Xu Zhucheng: Xu Zhucheng supports Pu Xixiu's use of the "contention among a hundred schools of thought" to organize inflammatory reports and articles, and insists on posting reactionary reports on the "Peking University Democracy Wall"; Xu Zhucheng opposed the "two-point theory" and said not to counter-criticize; Xu Zhucheng does not agree to criticize Ge Peiqi's fallacy; Xu Zhucheng has always resisted the leadership of the party, and he also said that he would play against the tune and compete with Chu Anping;

Xu Zhucheng also said, don't be an "echo person" of "People's Daily"; Xu Zhucheng believes that the real reliance is on the Democratic League organization; Xu Zhucheng spread speeches against the party leadership. Inside, there is this paragraph: Editorial board member Huang Liwen said: "After the People's Daily editorial "Why Is This?" was published, Xu Zhucheng said at the pre-editorial meeting: Intellectuals are a bunch of rats, and they escaped with great difficulty. Xu Zhucheng also said: "People's Daily" is the 'snake head', and all the newspapers follow. If the 'snake head' makes a few turns, our 'snake tail' will collapse."

On the day that "People's Daily" published "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized", Shanghai's "Wen Wei Po" published a report criticizing Xu Zhucheng.In fact, before the publication of Mao Zedong's article "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Orientation Should Be Criticized", Deng Tuo, the president and editor-in-chief of "People's Daily", had already called Qin Benli, deputy editor-in-chief of "Wen Wei Po".Qin Benli is the Secretary of the CPC Leading Group of Wen Wei Po.Deng Tuo leaked the news to Qin Benli, asking Wen Wei Po to "strive for the initiative" and asking Xu Zhucheng to conduct a self-examination first.

Xu Zhucheng once said: "I can't figure it out, I don't know how to write?" "Wen Wei Po" published an editorial on July 2, and the title was tearful: "Apology to the People"! The editorial said that in the past few months, the "Wen Wei Po" has indeed become the mouthpiece of the "Zhang Luo Alliance" to attack the proletariat rampantly. Please note: Mao Zedong used the term "Zhangluo League", and "Wen Wei Po" used the term "Zhangluo League". Why did "Wen Wei Po" use a term different from that of Mao Zedong?

Literally speaking, there seems to be no big difference between "alliance" and "alliance".Of course, upon careful consideration, there is also a little difference: "Alliance" is independent and united, while "Alliance" goes a step further, "joint alliance". However, Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji are both the vice-chairmen of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League. This "Zhang Luo League" is easy to make people associate with the "China Democratic League", which brings great political pressure to the China Democratic League.In order to avoid this "side effect", some people proposed to change the name to "Zhangluo League" in order to distinguish "Zhangluo" from the China Democratic League.

As for who is this "someone"?yet to be verified. According to investigation, it was Hu Yuzhi, secretary-general of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, who first proposed the term "Zhangluo League".The basis for this is the July 4th "People's Daily" report on the July 3rd China Democratic League Central Committee Rectification Symposium. "question. However, the term "Zhangluo Union" appeared in the "Wen Wei Po" on July 2 before Hu Yuzhi. It should be said that "Wen Wei Po" was the first to use the term "Zhang Luo Union". If we go back further, long before Mao Zedong denounced the "Zhang-Luo League", some people in the Central Committee of the China Democratic League accused Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji of establishing an "anti-party alliance". Mao Zedong obviously noticed the movement of criticism from the China Democratic League.He called the "anti-Party alliance" of Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji the "Zhang Luo alliance". Considering the side effects of the word "League" in "Zhang Luo League", China Democratic League changed the name of "Zhang Luo League" to "Zhang Luo League". . Since then, the term "Zhangluo League" has been commonly used in newspapers and periodicals, but sometimes the term "Zhangluo League" is also used.In particular, Mao Zedong used the term "Zhangluo League" from beginning to end.Therefore, since then, the terms "Zhangluo League" and "Zhangluo League" have been mixed in newspapers and periodicals. The editorial of "Wen Wei Po" said that "Wen Wei Po" will do what the rightists say.How Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji beat the gongs and drums, Xu Zhucheng and Pu Xixiu sang. The editorial said that "Wen Wei Po" had a party organization, but it did not play the role that the party organization should play. They were frightened by Xu Zhucheng's mace of "replacing the government with the party", and the struggle against Xu Zhucheng was weak. Editorials praised Mao Zedong as a "lighthouse."The editorial reads: "The lighthouse has once again issued a danger signal. If we don't keep the rudder right, the ship will hit the rocks." At the end of the editorial, amidst the somber tone, a high-pitched voice: "Use our pens to fight to the death with the rightists." On July 3, "Wen Wei Po" published an editorial "Painfully Reforming Myself", expressing the "extremely painful" feelings of "all the staff of our newspaper" after reading the article "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized". Also on July 2 and July 3, Wen Wei Po successively published long articles "Our Preliminary Inspection" in the name of the editorial department. The following is the subheading of this "Our Preliminary Inspection", from which we can see the overview of the full text: Selling bourgeois ideas as soon as it resumes publication; Propagating Luo Longji's fallacies before the rectification movement started, sending a signal to attack the party; Attack the party rampantly under the guise of the rectification movement; Fearing that the world will not be chaotic, send people to set fires everywhere; Provoking party-mass relations and inciting party members to rebel against the party; Use sensational headlines to exaggerate and incite things; Deliberately publishing Chairman Mao's important speeches in an extremely inconspicuous manner; Emphasis on Chu Anping's fallacies, while ignoring He Xiangning's just words; Pu Xixiu followed Zhang and Luo Yi to implement the rightist line in Wenhuibao; Xu Zhucheng resisted the party's leadership in everything, and competed with Chu Anping to see who was more right; Many editors and journalists have such serious bourgeois ideology that they are captured by rightists. This lengthy inspection of Wen Wei Po was written entirely in accordance with the tone set by Mao Zedong in "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized".So, the check admits like this: "Wen Wei Po has indeed made unforgivable political mistakes in the past short period of time, and has become a powerful tool for rightist careerists Luo Longji and Zhang Bojun to oppose the party, the people, and socialism. This painful fact, The pursuit of the root cause is inseparable from the fact that Pu Xixiu, deputy editor-in-chief and director of the Beijing office of this newspaper, and the reactionary alliance of rightist careerists Luo Longji and Zhang Bojun are inseparable. This is exactly what the July 1 editorial of "People's Daily" said Mentioned: Luo Longji-Pu Xixiu-"Wen Wei Po" editorial department has usurped the political direction of "Wen Wei Po"." Mao Zedong was very proud of the "pleading guilty" and "inspection" of "Wen Wei Po".Later, on October 13, 1957, at the Thirteenth Session of the Supreme State Council, he gave a speech entitled "Firmly Believe in the Majority of the Masses", in which he said: "We don't need to close a journal like Poland. We only need to publish one or two editorials in the party newspaper. For Wen Wei Po, we wrote two editorials to criticize it. The first one was not thorough and didn't explain the problem thoroughly, and then we published the second one. editorial, it will change itself.”①