Chapter 113 "Wen Wei Po" "boss" Xu Zhucheng fights

Newspapers are known as "mouthpieces".The press and publishing industry has always been "a battleground for military strategists". In 1957, party newspapers at all levels were given instructions from within the CCP and knew of the "overlord conspiracy", so they sat firmly on the Diaoyutai amid the big talk.There are also real political jokes in it: "China Youth Daily" reprinted the article "Wen Wei Po's bourgeois direction should be criticized", and even put the key sentence, that is, "Some people say that this is a conspiracy. We say, This is a conspiracy", printed as "We say, this is a conspiracy"!This is because the night shift editor of "China Youth Daily" had never heard of the word "Yangmou", thought it was a typo, and changed it to "conspiracy", making a "serious political mistake". The "China Youth Daily" had to conduct a review...

Those who were fooled in the "Yangmou" were those "non-governmental newspapers", namely "Wen Wei Po", "Guangming Daily" and Shanghai's "Xin Min Bao". "Wen Wei Po" was the first to bear the brunt, because Mao Zedong wrote two articles for "People's Daily", "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Orientation in a Time Period" and "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Orientation Should Be Criticized", both came for "Wen Wei Po". In the "Wen Wei Po" agency, in addition to the "capable female general" Pu Xixiu named by Mao Zedong in the article "Wen Wei Po's bourgeois direction should be criticized", the biggest target is Xu Zhucheng, the president and editor-in-chief of "Wen Wei Po".

However, on June 14, 1957, when "People's Daily" published the article "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction in a Time Period" drafted by Mao Zedong, Xu Zhucheng still stated there that "we must draw a clear line with the rightists." "Woolen cloth!The next day, Wen Wei Po published this report: "The Democratic League Wen Wei Po branch reprimands Zhang Bojun and others and asks the Democratic League Central Committee to show its attitude Xu Zhucheng and others sternly point out that they must draw a clear line with the rightists" The report wrote and Xu Zhucheng's speech:

Xu Zhucheng said: "We will absolutely not tolerate the absurd remarks of some people from the Central Committee of the Democratic League and the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Democratic League, such as Zhang Bojun, Luo Longji, Chu Anping, Chen Xingui, Chen Renbing, etc. From Comrade Shi Liang's speech, we can see that, Some people are ghosting behind the scenes, and I don’t know what kind of conspiracy is going on. I completely agree with Comrade Shi Liang’s speech, asking the Central Committee of the Democratic League to draw a clear line from the rightists, and at the same time asking the Municipal Committee of the Democratic League to denounce the fallacies of the rightists. We participate in the Democratic League The League organization is asking for self-improvement, resolutely follow the party, and move towards socialism.”

Xu Zhucheng also inspected the serious mistakes made by "Wen Wei Po" during this period. He said: ""Wen Wei Po" has always been a people's newspaper that grew and developed under the leadership of the party. In the past period , due to my bourgeois news views, the newspaper made a mistake in the direction. The articles of the editorial department of "People's Daily" and the articles of "Liberation Daily" and "News Daily" gave me a lot of help and deeply impressed me. I realized that to run a newspaper, you must correct your stance and views, and if you break away from the leadership of the party ideologically, you will make serious mistakes.”

At this time, Xu Zhucheng looked relaxed.The internal reason is that Xu Zhucheng served as the head of the delegation of Chinese journalists to visit the Soviet Union for forty-four days during the period of Da Ming Da Fang, and the first deputy editor-in-chief of Wen Wei Po was in charge of Qin Benli, a member of the Communist Party of China, so Xu Zhucheng only checked his "assets" Class News Point of View" That's all! Gradually, the firepower to criticize Xu Zhucheng intensified.On July 1, Wen Wei Po published a report: "Staff of this newspaper cites facts to expose Xu Zhucheng's wrong words and deeds against the party's leadership and adheres to the bourgeois policy of running a newspaper"

Although Xu Zhucheng's "wrong" words and deeds were "revealed" a lot, but after all, he paid attention to the difference between "the newspaper's rightist Pu Xixiu" in his writing. However, on this day, Mao Zedong's "Wen Wei Po's Bourgeois Direction Should Be Criticized" was published in the "People's Daily", which dealt a fatal blow to Xu Zhucheng.On July 4th, the editorial department of "Wen Wei Po" published a section in the "Preliminary Inspection" to criticize Xu Zhucheng: "Xu Zhucheng resists the party's leadership in everything and competes with Chu Anping who is more right".

Xu Zhucheng has fallen to the point of being compared with Chu Anping! However, the critic meeting at that time still had a difference in referring to Pu Xixiu and Xu Zhucheng: for Pu Xixiu, it said "criticize Pu Xixiu's anti-party crimes", while for Xu Zhucheng, it mentioned "criticize Xu Zhucheng's wrong words and deeds". .That is to say, Pu Xixiu has become a "target of defeat", while Xu Zhucheng is still in the stage of "burning"... Xu Zhucheng is a well-known old newspaperman in Shanghai.He is from Yixing, Jiangsu.In 1926, at the age of nineteen, he was admitted to Tsinghua University in Beijing.By chance, he came across a call for essays in Tianjin "Yong Bao", asking for novels: either longer than 5,000 words, but the shorter the story takes place, the better; or shorter than 500 words, but the longer the story takes place the better.

Xu Zhucheng became interested in this call for essays with unusual requirements, wrote a story with only 450 characters and a long time span and sent it, and won the first place!Since then, he has developed a strong interest in writing. At first, he started as a trainee reporter in the newspaper office, and later became the editor-in-chief of "Ta Kung Pao" and the president and editor-in-chief of "Wen Wei Po". He was a literary "general" who came from the "army"... Originally, Xu Zhucheng was quick-witted, and he relied on horses to write news reports.However, in 1957, when he was writing inspections, he often smoked two packs of cigarettes every night, and still couldn't write a single word!

He once recalled the scene of the fight: In the middle of the night, I had no choice but to compose the outline by myself and write it together (quote's note: referring to the writing check).When I fell asleep on the bed, I tossed and turned insomnia, and I broke out in cold sweat every night, and my sweatshirt was soaked through.Falling asleep is only two hours at most.My mouth feels greasy, I can't eat, and the food gets stuck in my throat... At that time (in Beijing) there were two main battlegrounds. One was the Guangzhou Group of the National People’s Congress (I was a representative elected from Guangdong), and the other was the meeting convened by the National “New Association” (quote’s note: the Journalists’ Association).At the People's Congress group in the morning, the "firepower" was not great, and many representatives just "expressed their views" as usual.The main battlefield is in the "Xinxie", and there is one meeting every afternoon, and after each criticism, the person in charge of the meeting must say: "This time the confession is not honest, and the criticism will continue tomorrow. Pu Xixiu and Xu Zhucheng must correct their attitudes and confess honestly and thoroughly. .”

The "protracted war" of criticizing and fighting for more than a month did not end until the end of July, and Comrade Deng Tuo, who was the chairman of the "Xinxie", did not participate even once.I returned to Shanghai by car on July 31.Comrade Deng Tuo also told Comrade Tang Hai to accompany me all the way, probably because he was afraid that I would commit suicide. Back to Shanghai on the evening of August 1st.Soon, the Shanghai "Xinxie" came forward to hold a meeting, and launched fatigue tactics, asking me to explain the "crime" and check the root cause. About four meetings were held, and the chairperson said three times that they did not touch on political issues. , The attitude is dishonest.By the time of the fourth confession, I wrote down all the criticisms and hints they raised, and I was probably considered "honest", and I stopped chasing after meetings. ① After such struggles, Xu Zhucheng finally wrote the inspection. On August 22, 1957, "Wen Wei Po" published Xu Zhucheng's long inspection "My Anti-Party Crime", and the editor directly called "Xu Zhucheng, a rightist" in the commentary! The editor of Wen Wei Po added a series of subtitles to Xu Zhucheng's long inspection.List the subtitles, and you can know the general idea—— 1. Serious anti-Party crimes after resumption of publication, especially after May: The formation of the rightist system of the Democratic League "Wen Wei Po"; Slander party members for trying to become kings independently; Resolutely resist the instructions of the municipal party committee and exclude party members and progressive comrades; Undermining the collective leadership of the editorial committee, dispatching troops to set fires everywhere. 2. The historical roots of reactionary thinking: Having close contacts with reactionaries, viciously slandering the people's revolutionary cause; Shamelessly claiming to be a "progressive person", fighting for status and getting emotional; Carry out one's own reactionary intentions and avenge the party's kindness. 3. Relationship with Zhang Luo and other rightists of the NLD: Accept the instructions of Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji to formulate an anti-Party propaganda program; Colluded with the right-wing leader of the NLD Municipal Party Committee to attack three non-Party newspapers; Collaborated with Song Yunbin to make a big fuss by taking advantage of the Longquan incident; Confidentially discuss many issues with Fu Lei; Delusion to become an authority in the public opinion circles and overthrow the party's leadership. Just when Xu Zhucheng was labeled as a "rightist", a piece of news that hadn't been published in the newspapers spread like wildfire, which shocked the "Wen Wei Po" agency and shocked Shanghai! That was when criticizing Xu Zhucheng, someone said: "Xu Zhucheng has also become a 'rightist', I can't figure it out!" After saying that, this person was immediately besieged.He was so angry that he walked out of the venue, ran up to the roof, jumped down, and died instantly! His name is Mei Huanzao, secretary of the office of the president of Wen Wei Po.Mei Huanzao is very good at English and has been a reporter for Ta Kung Pao in India for a long time.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the secretary of Hu Zhengzhi, the general manager of "Ta Kung Pao".Since Ta Kung Pao later moved from Shanghai to Beijing, he still hoped to stay and work in Shanghai.At the request of Xu Zhucheng, he was appointed as the secretary of the office of the president of "Wen Wei Po". Xu Zhucheng was included in the first batch of decapitation lists in 1959, which can be regarded as "a great honor". However, as a "rightist who took off his hat", he was criticized again during the "Cultural Revolution". During the "Cultural Revolution", "People's Daily", "Liberation Army Daily" and "Red Flag" magazine, the "two newspapers and one magazine", mentioned Xu Zhucheng's name twice, saying that "Wen Wei Po, controlled by the great rightist Xu Zhucheng, is a Chinese Khrushchev newspaper. Favorite newspaper." It was not until 1980 that Xu Zhucheng was finally rehabilitated. Xu Zhucheng entered his old age and still kept writing.He once said: "As an old reporter, if you put down your pen and stop 'recording', you will become an 'old man'!" He could no longer dedicate news to his readers, so he wrote "old news" and wrote more than ten books in one breath, with more than three million words. On December 23, 1991, Xu Zhucheng died of illness in Shanghai at the age of eighty-five.