Chapter 27 5. Li Zhilian and Lin Mohan

From then on, Li Zhilian, secretary-general of the Central Propaganda Department and secretary of the party committee of the agency, as a member of the five-person team of the Central Propaganda Department to review Ding Ling's history, formally intervened in the review of the case of "Ding and Chen Anti-Party Group". An important role in a tragic drama.The deeper he got involved, the more clearly he could see right and wrong in China, the more sympathy he had for Ding Ling, and the bigger differences he had with Zhou Yang and others.After Ding Ling was classified as a rightist in 1958, together with Li Xin, Zhang Hai, and Cui Yi, he was labeled as an "anti-party group" for "favoring" Ding Ling, which became the epilogue of the "Ding and Chen" tragedy.

Originally, Li Zhilian was only responsible for reviewing Ding Ling's historical issues.But when he and Zhang Hai talked to Ding Ling, Ding Ling asked to talk about her "anti-Party" mistakes, saying that many of the criticisms of her at the enlarged party group meeting of the Chinese Writers Association in 1955 were not true, and that she had feelings for Zhou Yang. Lots of opinions.Li Zhilian has worked in the organization department for many years, and handles affairs carefully. He said, I did not attend the 1955 meeting, and I don't know the situation. We just talked to you about historical issues, and we didn't talk to you about the wrong tasks of the "anti-Party group". You have an opinion , You can talk to ministers Lu Dingyi and Zhang Jichun.Ding Ling said that it was not easy to find them, and she didn't expect that it would be so difficult to report her opinions to the higher authorities, so she burst into tears.Li Zhilian said: "If you find it difficult to talk to leading comrades, please write down your opinions and we can pass them on for you."

Ding Ling, who had nowhere to complain, naturally fell in love with Li Zhilian, who was serious and fair, who expressed sympathy and help to her.He is the secretary of the party committee of the agency and a main member of the 15-member "research team", so it is justifiable to intervene in this matter.Therefore, starting from June 1956, many of Ding Ling's letters and complaint materials were sent directly to Li Zhilian.During the contact, she gradually deepened her trust in Li Zhilian, thinking that he is a comrade who is trustworthy and can be trusted sincerely. After seeing her historical conclusion in December, Ding Ling even asked Li Zhilian Come and help her make up her mind.

Li Zhilian and Ding Ling were not familiar with each other at first, but they only met once in Yan'an.It was in 1940 that after Li Zhilian returned to Yan'an from the Jinchaji front line, he studied at the Military and Political Academy of the Eighth Route Army. He wrote a poem "Cleaning the Battlefield" and submitted it to the "Liberation Daily" where it was published.Later, when Ding Ling, editor-in-chief of the literature and art edition, called some contributors to a symposium, she also encouraged this poem. In December 1954, Li Zhilian was transferred from the Organization Department of the Central Committee to the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He first served as the deputy secretary-general and secretary of the party committee of the agency, and was soon promoted to secretary-general and secretary of the party committee of the agency.

Later, as Li Zhilian, Zhang Hai, and Cui Yi got more and more involved in the case of Ding and Chen, their differences with the party group of the Chinese Writers Association became more and more serious.Guo Xiaochuan said in a review book during the "Cultural Revolution" that after August 1956, he discussed the Ding Chen issue with Liu and Lin. Ambiguous', often talking with Ding Chen, actually supporting and favoring Ding Chen. "Liu" is Liu Baiyu, and "Lin" is Lin Mohan. After the "June 28" meeting, apart from Li Zhilian, another important figure in the Central Propaganda Department involved in Ding Chen's case was Lin Mohan, who was on the side of Zhou Yang and Liu Baiyu.

Lin Mohan is the director of literature and art of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and a cadre whom Zhou Yang values ​​highly.In the early 1940s, during the "Wen Kang" in Yan'an, Liu Baiyu was the secretary of the branch, and Lin Mohan was the member of the branch.In his long memoir "Journey of the Soul", Liu Baiyu recalled Lin Mohan at that time and said, "Lin Mohan was a handsome and typical Fujianese. He was called Lin Bin at the time, and the name had a little tropical flavor. His Marxist theory He is well-educated, and as Ai Siqi's assistant, he edited "Chinese Culture". Chairman Mao's "On New Democracy" was published in the first issue. For this reason, "Chinese Culture" has a special prestige in the hearts of Yan'an people. Lin He is a meticulous, conscientious and responsible person. He carefully reviewed "On New Democracy" three times. This style has become his style for decades." In 1959, Lin Mohan and Ding Ling were transferred from Hu Qiaomu to the Central Propaganda Department as the deputy director of the Literature and Art Department, and later succeeded Ding Ling as the director.

From then until May 1957, Lin Mohan participated in the trial of the "Ding and Chen Anti-Party Clique".At the end of the 1990s, he wrote "Several Major Events on the Literary and Art Front in the Seventeen Years", which was a separate topic for criticizing "The Biography of Wu Xun", criticizing idealism in research, and criticizing Hu Feng, etc., with more explanations, But when it comes to the incident between Ding and Chen, there are only a few short sentences, and it is placed at the end of the section "Criticism of Hu Feng in 1955": "When criticizing Hu Feng, the question of Ding Ling was raised, because Ding Ling was the same Hu Feng had a close relationship. After liberation, Ding Ling and Chen Qixia were more active together. The party group of the Writers Association met to criticize and review Ding and Chen. After criticizing Ding and Chen in 1955, the Central Propaganda Department wrote a report to the Central Committee, stating that They were an anti-Party clique and were not punished. Now it seems that although Ding and Chen made mistakes at the time, it was wrong to define them as an anti-Party clique. At the end of 1956 and the beginning of 1957, people’s views on the Ding and Chen issues changed. They believed that the criticism in 1955 was too severe, so they began to review and planned to remove the label of anti-party group. Since the beginning of 1957, Ding and Chen themselves have appealed many times. This kind of appeal was later regarded as an activity to reverse the case. Remember 1957 At the beginning of July, when I returned to Beijing from Nanning, Ding and Chen had already been designated as rightists, and the problem became even more serious."

The Eighth National Congress of the Party was held in September 1956. Li Zhilian was the representative. When discussing the list of candidates for the Central Committee, he gave comments to Zhou Yang, a candidate for the Central Committee. up. Later, during the 1958 rectification and anti-rightist remedial classes, Li Zhilian was designated as an "extreme rightist", expelled from the party, and revoked all positions inside and outside the party. The party group’s instructions on the report of the Ding Ling and Chen Qixia anti-party cliques instigated Ding Ling and Chen Qixia’s anti-party cliques to attack the party, negate the anti-revolutionary movement, and implement vicious policies of protecting bad people and cracking down on activists.”Li Zhilian himself said that his "two major crimes" are: "When reviewing Ding Ling's historical issues, I added to the first draft of the conclusion: after Ding Ling was arrested, she fought against the enemy in various ways and finally returned to the party. Huaibao and other words were said to be "beautifying traitors"; and because Ding Ling's complaint to the party committee was not submitted to the review team for discussion when examining Ding Ling's "anti-party" issue, and her defense was consistent with the results of the investigation, It was determined that Ding Ling and I 'conspired to overturn the case'."