Chapter 30 8. "My Opinions on Comrade Zhou Yang"

The full name of this opinion written by Ding Ling on August 17, 1956 is "My Opinions on Comrade Zhou Yang's Work from 1949 to 1952", with about 10,000 words. Zhou Yang is eloquent and good at giving big reports. He doesn't use manuscripts, but he is very organized and level. Sometimes his speech is emotional and easily agitated.The relationship between Zhou Yang and Ding Ling has not always been tense. They have worked together for a long time and have many similarities in personal experience. Both Ding Ling and Zhou Yang are from Hunan, and they are very close fellow villagers.Ding Ling's hometown is Changde, west of Dongting Lake, and Zhou Yang's hometown is Yiyang, Hunan Province of Dongting.Ding Ling is four years older than Zhou Yang.In the 1920s, they came to Shanghai to study one after another, and they all embarked on the revolutionary road, joined the Left League and the Communist Party of China.They had a good relationship during the Left League period, and often held meetings at Zhou Yang's home.Zhou Yang had two children, one named Ai Ruo and the other named Michael. When Ding Ling wrote "To the Children" in 1931, both of these names were included in her novel. She said that they were both the sons of colleagues. , is it fun!Later, Ding Ling edited the Zuolian official publication "Beidou". After "Beidou" was discontinued by the Kuomintang, the Leftist Federation established a new official publication "Literature Monthly", edited by Zhou Yanglai. In the second half of 1932, Ding Ling served as the party secretary of the Left League. After she was arrested in May 1933, Zhou Yang succeeded her in this position.Zhou Yang followed in Ding Ling's footsteps.Later, during the dispute over the two slogans, Lu Xun criticized the "four men" and so on. Ding Ling had already been escorted to Nanjing by the Kuomintang.It was precisely these contradictions that gradually developed into sectarian struggles within the left-wing cultural movement.Therefore, when the dispute first started, Ding Ling did not intervene.

When in Yan'an, Ding Ling was in Wenkang, Zhou Yang was in Luyi, and there were also conflicts within the literary and art circles in Yan'an, mainly brought about from the period of the Shanghai Leftist League.Several of Ding Ling's best friends, such as Feng Xuefeng, Ke Zhongping, Xiao San, etc., all had opinions on Zhou Yang, and their opinions influenced Ding Ling.Later, Ding Ling gradually had some opinions on Zhou Yang from her direct personal experience. After the War of Liberation came to North China, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Propaganda Department held a symposium on literature and art in Nanzhuang, Fuping City, and decided to continue publishing the monthly literary magazine "The Great Wall", edited by Xiao San.Zhou Yang asked Ding Ling to be the editor-in-chief, and Ding Ling said that she was writing a novel.After Xiao San started working, he asked for a technical editor to be transferred, but he couldn't be transferred for more than half a year. He was the only editor, and Zhou Yang was close at hand, but he didn't care about it.Half a year later, Zhou Yang talked with Ding Ling and felt that there was no need to run a literary magazine in Shangougou, the base area.Ding Ling thought about it, if she felt it was unnecessary, she shouldn't have made the decision.Now that it is decided to do it, but does not send cadres, only asks, does not support, what kind of leadership is this?How to ask the cadres below to work?She thought: "If Comrade Zhou Yang is not satisfied with this person doing this job, then even if you are asked to do it, you will not support it."

After the whole country was liberated, Zhou Yang was the leader and Ding Ling was the subordinate. Zhou Yang attached great importance to Ding Ling when selecting cadres.Zhou Yang praised Ding Ling, and Ding Ling also valued Zhou Yang's praise to her, and she was very happy to tell her family when she returned home.In fact, their ideas and views on literature and art are the same, and they all firmly believe in and implement the instructions of the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong.They also had a good personal relationship. Zhou Yang often came to Ding Ling's house to talk about work, and sometimes left a meal.When Ding Ling heard that others had opinions on Zhou Yang, she sometimes explained it.In this "Opinion", she said: "In 1949, the party decided that I should stay in Beijing. I made up my mind to support Comrade Zhou Yang and was willing to improve the relationship. I talked with some comrades. The army has a commander. The literary and art circles should also have commanders, and Comrade Zhou Yang is more suitable. I also cited an example—this is what I heard when I was in Jinchaji, saying that many cadres reported to Comrade Shaoqi that they had opinions on Comrade Nie Rongzhen. Withdrew from Zhangjiakou, but Comrade Shaoqi asked back, who do you think is better, who can replace him? But everyone stopped talking. This example is very good. I think there is no one else in the literary and art circles who is more suitable than him. Entrusted to him, we party members should support him. I have talked about it in front of Ke Zhongping, Feng Xuefeng, and Chen Qixia. And I have said good things about him in front of more comrades."

Ding Ling could frankly put forward any opinions on Zhou Yang, and even talked with him about Zhou Yang's private life, sometimes in party meetings, sometimes in private.All in all, their relationship is pretty normal. But among the colleagues, Ding Ling also gradually discovered some other problems of Zhou Yang. Zhou Yang has a distinction between cadres and comrades. He always keeps a distance and is indifferent to those comrades who have opinions on him. He even has guard against some comrades (such as Feng Xuefeng, Ke Zhongping, Xiao San).When studying the documents of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, Zhou Yang came to Ding Ling’s house before the meeting. Ding Ling suggested to him: You should unite with comrades who have had opinions on you, and don’t let them always worry about making mistakes and being caught by you, such as Feng Xuefeng wrote the article reviewing Xiao Yemu's "Between Our Husband and Wife" under the pseudonym Li Dingzhong. He didn't want to keep it secret, but he told Chen Qixia not to say that he wrote it because he heard you go around saying that "Literary News" was biased.Zhou Yang admitted that he did not take the initiative to unite, and he was indeed wary of these old comrades.

Ding Ling herself also had some concerns about Zhou Yang.She said: "When I was in charge of the "Literary News" and the Institute of Literature, Comrade Zhou Yang was very tolerant to me and often reported to him. I am enthusiastic about leading these tasks, but feel that he is too busy and can only care about the administrative work of the Ministry of Culture, but I always think that this is his trust in me, but whenever the "Literary News" makes a mistake, Comrade Zhou Yang is not vigorous and decisive. It is to publicize everywhere, such as the discussion of "Song of the Red Flag" in "Literary News". (Comrade Zhou Yang also said at the party group meeting last year: "To hit "Red Flag Song" is to hit us." I still can't understand this). But Comrade Zhou Yang hurriedly held a meeting to discuss. The criticism of "Golden Lock" only involved After killing Comrade Zhao Shuli, Comrade Zhou Yang held a meeting immediately and decided that he could not do this again (the actual manuscripts were all reviewed by him. At last year's enlarged meeting of the party group, Comrade Zhou Yang also said that this was "to beat Zhao Shuli, to beat Zhao Shuli, to beat Zhao Shuli We." These words are also incomprehensible.) For example, the same is true for Li Dingzhong's articles. After these few times, I am often afraid of making mistakes, thinking that if I really make mistakes, I don't know what to do. I have With this kind of thinking, I really want to get out of the leading circle of literary and art circles and focus on creation. (Of course, I want to focus on creation, not just for this reason.) This kind of thinking is of course wrong, and I often criticize myself in my heart. Such apprehensions, fear of making mistakes, and the mood of focusing on creation cannot but be revealed among the comrades who work together.”

Zhou Yang is very courteous, Ding Ling is more transparent, Zhou Yang hides but does not reveal, Ding Ling speaks out loud.Normally, he would keep his composure, but at a critical moment, he would attack suddenly, stab a bullet, and hit the nail on the head—this is Zhou Yang's strength!Ding Ling couldn't defend herself, knowing that she was no match, she gradually developed a mentality of avoiding it. What annoyed Ding Ling the most was Zhou Yang's attitude at the enlarged party group meeting of the Chinese Writers Association, which was held under Zhou Yang's leadership.It never occurred to Ding Ling that Zhou Yang behaved so fiercely at the meeting and made her so ruthless that he wanted to kill her.He has worked together for many years, how could he do it!Ding Ling wrote: "Last year's enlarged party group meeting gave me a new impression, which made me have to have opinions on Comrade Zhou Yang. I would also like to take this opportunity to disclose everything to the party. Last year's enlarged party group meeting fought against me. Many people at the meeting Comrade Zhou Yang's speech, I thought that as long as the facts were clearly stated, I didn't have many opinions. But for Comrade Zhou Yang, I don't think it should be. The meeting was directly led and controlled by him. I am in Beijing and work under his direct leadership Nearly four years. During my working period, he had no opinion. He said that I was correct, general knowledge, and strengthened party spirit. After I left work for more than two years (I was often away from Beijing in the past two years, and I was writing) how did he comment on my work? Suddenly it increased, and it was so serious that I was accused of being anti-Party, anti-central, anti-policy, double-dealing, undermining unity, and high-ranking in the literary and art circles. The outside world knows it. The other responsible comrades present at the meeting are not fully aware of the truth. Could it be that Comrade Zhou Yang, who has been entrusted by the Party Central Committee and has directly led my work for a long time, is not aware at all? So what did he say when he praised me in the past? What about it? I always believe that his words are sincere. Since he said that, why did he change his words casually last year and took the lead in accusing me of these serious crimes? People who are truly responsible to the party and love comrades (even if this Comrades have shortcomings and mistakes) is this the way to do things and treat lower-level comrades like this?"