Chapter 26 4. A slim majority—3:2

Check again, check what?Where to check? For Ding Ling, the historical issues were investigated first, and then the "anti-Party clique" issue. On June 6, 1957, at the enlarged meeting of the party group of the Chinese Writers Association to re-discuss the issue of Ding and Chen, Liu Baiyu made a speech and said: The way to check and deal with the issue of Ding and Chen is: first review history, and then clarify ideological issues.The schedule is that from August 1955 to October 1956, Ding Ling's historical issues were reviewed; after mid-November 1956, the facts of the "anti-Party clique" were checked, and the facts were sorted out in January 1957.It took 14 months to review Ding Ling's history, and the conclusions were revised five times.

Li Zhilian said: "On the review of Ding Ling's history, Premier Zhou Enlai once gave instructions. He said: 'Due to the deep prejudice between Zhou Yang and Ding Ling, direct contact between Zhou Yang and Ding Ling should be avoided during the review to avoid confrontation. It is helpful to clarify right and wrong.' During the review process, Zhang Jichun, the team leader, seriously implemented this instruction. When the special team talked with Ding Ling herself, Zhou Yang was not involved." go through") On May 9, 2001, the author interviewed Comrade Li Zhilian about Zhou Enlai's "instruction" and asked under what circumstances the instruction was made.Li Zhilian said that once, he reported to Premier Zhou alone to review Ding Ling's work. Premier Zhou said: You handle Ding Ling's meeting, don't let Zhou Yang participate, lest they argue when they meet.Li Zhilian also said: This reminded me a lot. After I came back, I didn't tell Lu Dingyi that Minister Lu didn't listen to other people's opinions on some issues.

On December 3, 1955, Zhou Enlai wrote in Lu Dingyi's letter reviewing Ding Ling's history, saying: "Review Ding Ling's task force and talks, and suggest that Zhou Yang should not participate, and Dingyi should directly control it." The two can interact with each other. confirmed. Li Zhilian continued to write: "The review team conducted a lot of investigations before and after the conversation with Ding Ling, and also consulted the files left by the Kuomintang. No matter from the files or the testimony of witnesses, it was found that Ding Ling was arrested or kidnapped. Afterwards, there was evidence of defection or surrender, defection, defection to the enemy, and anti-communism. The investigation materials are consistent with Ding Ling's own account: in May 1933, she was arrested in Shanghai and sent to Nanjing. The enemy did not put her in prison, Intentionally arranged for her to continue living with her husband Feng Da, who had been arrested and rebelled, in order to win her to run publications for the enemy. Ding Ling said that she would no longer engage in social activities in the future, and would like to go home to adopt her mother and refused to serve the enemy. Later, the enemy saw her With her negative attitude, she gradually relaxed her surveillance. Using various clues, she first went to Beiping to find Li Da, but failed to solve the problem, and then wrote a letter to Shanghai through Cao Jinghua... After getting in touch with the party's underground organization, Feng Xuefeng and other comrades Under the arrangement of the Communist Party of China, in September 1936, they sent someone to pick her up from Nanjing and transferred her to the security guard in northern Shaanxi, where the central government is located... The special team followed the spirit of the party's document on dealing with the arrest and surrender of party members, etc. After the debate, the question of Ding Ling's arrest was considered as "political error" because of treacherous behavior. As for her return from Nanjing to the northern Shaanxi base area, the conclusion was: it was realized with the help of the party." This ruled out Ding Ling was sent by the Kuomintang to ask questions in northern Shaanxi.Later, in the fall of 1978, Jiang Zuhui and Luo Lan approached Zhou Yang about Ding Ling's redress. Zhou said that Ding Ling's 40-year performance could eliminate doubts, but not stains.

Zhang Jichun didn't know Ding Ling well at first, but during the review, he heard her describe the situation after her arrest.When Ding Ling talked about those days of grief, indignation and pain, her voice was often choked up, her tears flowed, and she couldn't continue.After the conversation, Zhang Jichun said with emotion to Li Zhilian and others: "It seems that it is really not easy! A woman, not yet thirty years old!" Ding Ling's fate was understood by Zhang Jichun, which directly affected Zhang Jichun's future career attitude in handling the incident. In July 1956, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Conclusion of the Examination of Comrade Ding Ling's Historical Issues", saying that Ding Ling escaped from the enemy's grasp and returned to the revolutionary ranks, "with the help of the party organization to realize this wish"; Her husband, Feng Da, who had defected to the enemy, lived together and wrote a statement to the enemy, "actually a traitorous act"; Ding Ling's "wrong nature was an act of making a political mistake in front of the enemy." On July 20, the Central Propaganda Department held a meeting to discuss and revise it.Since then, it has been revised many times, but until the sixth draft, this qualitative opinion has not changed.

Li Zhilian said, "This conclusion is the product of a compromise within the special group. Because during the review process, the opinions were very inconsistent. Some people insisted on the definition of 'surrender, betrayal', but Zhang Jichun, myself, Zhang Hai and others believed that this was groundless and could not Established. After endless debates, it was changed to 'made a political mistake'. Only in this way can it be finally approved. Seven drafts of the conclusion document were discussed and revised, and they were revised and approved word by word." Li Zhilian said that "opinions are very inconsistent" within the group, and there are "endless debates".So, who is inconsistent with whom?There are five members in the group, Zhou Yang and Liu Baiyu must have the same opinion, Zhang Jichun and Li Zhilian disagree with them, the key lies in the fifth person.Who is this fifth person?Obviously, Li Zhilian couldn't remember clearly. He first listed the members of the group as "Zhang Jichun, Zhou Yang, Liu Baiyu, me, and a comrade from the General Party Branch of the Writers Association", that is to say, the fifth person was "a member of the Writers Association Comrades from the general party branch", followed by "Zhang Jichun and I, Zhang Hai, etc. think...", that is to say, the fifth person is Zhang Hai, who is the director of the cadre division of the Central Propaganda Department and concurrently serves as the deputy secretary of the party committee of the organization .If the fifth person is a "comrade from the General Party Branch of the Writers' Association", he must be on the side of Zhou and Liu, then Zhou and Liu will have the upper hand, so this possibility should be ruled out.In this way, Zhang Jichun, Li Zhilian, and Zhang Hai accounted for a weak majority in the group with 3:2.

One of the disagreements within the group was that some people suggested that Ding Ling's party membership for the three years after her arrest should be deducted.Li Zhilian disagreed, explaining that the central government had stipulated that the method of deducting party membership should not be taken, but all of them should be restored, or they could rejoin the party without restoring their previous party membership.His explanation is in line with the spirit of the Central Committee's "Instructions on the Party Membership, Work, and Party Age Issues of Leaving Party Members" in November 1949.Later, in the 1958 rectification and anti-rightist make-up classes, Li Zhilian was designated as an extreme rightist, which also became one of the crimes he used to protect Ding Ling.

The review conclusion of Ding Ling's history was finally passed in October 1956 after discussion by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the party group of the Chinese Writers Association. When she met with me in December, Ding Ling expressed her "basic agreement" and made some comments.At the end of the year, the Central Propaganda Department submitted this conclusion together with Ding Ling's opinion to the Central Organization Department.