He Jingzhi, the poet minister who "grew up with small rice": I have saved my soul

On September 8, 2015, He Jingzhi was at his home in Beijing. Photo/Xinhua

Poet Minister He Jingzhi

Reporter/Song Chundan

He Jingzhi is 96 years old. Li Zhengzhong, a subordinate who has known him for more than 40 years, feels that today, his belief and care for "Old Yan'an" and the romance and innocence of the poet are becoming more and more obvious.

So far, when He Jingzhi meets with new and old friends, he must first talk about national and world events, including the news of Putin, Trump and others, and then discuss the current situation of the literary and art circles, what new creations, performances, new articles, and controversies have occurred... Interest was high.

After He Jingzhi retired, at the discussion meeting of Jia Man's "Poet He Jingzhi", the old subordinate Yan Gang said that he was loyal and persistent, but he was miserable, and he laughed when he learned about it.

He once said in an interview that Lu Xun had said that revolution is painful, and that there must be filth and blood in it, and that it is by no means as interesting and perfect as the poet imagines. So for many years, no matter what adversity the individual was in, he always habitually reminded himself that he should have a little self-confidence and self-encouragement for people who "feed me to grow up with small rice".

"The emancipation of the mind is too much"

In January 1976, the Shandong poet Ji Yu was invited by the Poetry Journal to Beijing to revise the manuscript, led by the poetry critic Yin Zaiqin, to visit the He Jing Home. At that time, He Jingzhi lived in the People's Daily dormitory at No. 2 Cinder Hutong in Beijing, an old and small high-rise building without an elevator, and He Jingzhi and Ke Yan were eating in a small hall with simple meals and two wine glasses. He Jingzhi was delegating supervision to the Shijingshan Iron and Steel Factory at that time, and could only return home on Saturdays, and he would return on Sunday night.

Ji Yu felt that unlike the impassioned lyrical tone in political lyrics, He Jingzhi was very peaceful in life, his voice was not high, and his face was always smiling.

Soon after, the "Gang of Four" was smashed, and He Jingzhi created masterpieces such as "October of China" and "Song of August 1". Ji Yu was very pleased and wrote a poem "Calling Poetry", hoping that He Jingzhi would create more poems.

However, after that, He Jingzhi rarely wrote important poems, because he soon stepped into a leadership position, and once he entered the eunuch field, he was as deep as the sea.

In 1977, He Jingzhi joined the Ministry of Culture and joined the core group of the Ministry of Culture, in charge of the Arts Bureau, the Department of Art Education and the Policy Research Office.

At a meeting, Li Zhengzhong met He Jingzhi. He Jingzhi has long admired the great name.

In the 1960s, when he studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music, he knew that the script of the opera "The White-Haired Girl" was written by He Jingzhi. Once, the famous performance artist Dong Xingji came to give an art lecture and recited He Jingzhi's "Sanmenxia Song - Dresser", and his charm and use of the classics deeply touched Li Zhengzhong. After listening to the lecture, he immediately went to find the full text of the poem and began to contact a series of works such as He Jingzhi's "Singing Aloud" and left a deep impression.

After becoming familiar, Li Zhengzhong found that He Jingzhi would be particularly insistent on the problems he identified, and even if his views were different from everyone's, it was difficult to shake. It is less sensitive to human sophistication, including some specific administrative work.

In 1977, Hu Yaobang was appointed head of the Central Organization Department, and almost at the same time, the Central Committee decided to reorganize the leadership team of the Ministry of Culture, abolish the original core group, and appoint the general diplomat Huang Zhen as deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department and minister of culture. He Jingzhi was appointed as one of the four deputy ministers of the Ministry of Culture, and remains in charge of the Arts Bureau and the Policy Research Office.

At that time, the primary task of the new team of the Ministry of Culture was to rectify unjust, false and wrongly decided cases and implement policies. The poet Zhou Liangpei recalled that after smashing the "Gang of Four", he was still reforming the labor camp because of the rightist problem, and when he was screened and rehabilitated, he found that he was beaten into a rightist without any materials, no organizational conclusions and no documents, which meant that he was not an "official" rightist and was not included in this correction. When He Jingzhi learned of this, he said: "People have suffered all the sins of being a rightist, so why did the rightists have some benefits and pull him away?" First transfer him back to Beijing according to the policy toward the rightists! ”

Zhou Liangpei's fate has since completely changed. 30 years later, his compilation of "Selected Poems of He Jingzhi" was published by the People's Literature Publishing House, and the collection of poems he brought with him during his visit to Italy was this version.

At the suggestion of He Jingzhi, the Ministry of Culture set up a policy research office, with He Jingzhi as the director, and recommended Feng Mu as the deputy director in charge of the work.

During that period, He Jingzhi cooperated closely with Feng Mu. More than two years after its establishment, the Policy Research Office was commissioned to investigate such issues as the resurgence of "model plays" and "black lines in literature and art," and promoted the rehabilitation of many unjust, false and wrongly decided cases in the literary and art circles, including the "anti-party novel" Liu Zhidan.

Zheng Bernong, a member of the theoretical group of the Policy Research Office, said that Most of He Jingzhi's speeches were impromptu speeches, which were compiled by the staff after the meeting, and after he reviewed and finalized the draft, his personal style was very distinct.

Zheng Bonong remembered that before the central authorities rehabilitated the "Fourth Five-Year Movement," He Jingzhi read the script of the Shanghai drama "In the Silent Place" and proposed to transfer the crew to Beijing to perform. Before the central authorities made a decision to correct the rightists, He Jingzhi talked to the responsible persons concerned and suggested that the personnel who were wrongly classified as rightists be rehabilitated without leaving their tails. For this reason, he was once considered to be "too ideologically emancipated" and "to criticize the 'left' with the right."

In April 1977, Zheng Bernong wrote an article to Guangming Daily, proposing that the "theory of total dictatorship" was the theoretical basis of the "Gang of Four" cultural authoritarianism and must be torn down. Wang Dongxing, who was in charge of ideology at the time, instructed the Academy of Social Sciences to issue a briefing note, believing that this was affirmed by Mao Zedong, because He Jingzhi and Feng Mu carried the matter and did not hold Zheng Bonong accountable.

"Left and right"

In February 1980, He Jingzhi was appointed vice minister of culture and director of the Literary and Art Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department, and in September of the same year, he was transferred out of the Ministry of Culture and served as the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, beginning a decade of turmoil in the Central Propaganda Department.

When He Jing first arrived at the Central Propaganda Department, he was faced with the problem of dealing with the movie "Bitter Love" and the reportage "Between the Demons".

He Jingzhi believes that the "abstract humanitarian" tendency expressed in "Bitter Love" should be criticized, but the film can be revised and released, which has not been adopted.

Published in 1979 in People's Literature, "Between the Demons" was the first anti-corruption reportage in the new era that caused great repercussions. Through the development process of Heilongjiang embezzler Wang Shouxin, the work reflects on the deep causes of the "Cultural Revolution". Some leaders of Heilongjiang Province believed that the work smeared Heilongjiang and wrote a letter to the central authorities, which demanded that the matter be clarified, and Wang Renzhong, director of the Central Propaganda Department, and Zhou Yang, vice minister of the Central Propaganda Department, handed the matter over to He Jingzhi for handling.

He Jingzhi sent a five-member investigation team to Heilongjiang to investigate anonymously, including Zhou Ming, the responsible editor of "Between the Demons". Zhou Ming told China News Weekly that after the investigation team returned to Beijing, He Jingzhi held a report meeting at the Central Propaganda Department, and responsible persons of the literary and art departments of various newspapers and periodicals in Beijing and responsible persons in charge of literature of various newspapers and periodicals attended the meeting. He Jingzhi immediately made a decision, "Between the Demons" has no major problems, does not need to do organizational processing, the details are untrue can be modified, the work has positive significance, it is recommended that the author make changes and participate in the National Excellent Reportage Award.

When Zhou Ming was in charge of reportage literature in People's Literature, he would sometimes discuss articles with Ke Yan, who was engaged in reportage creation, at Ke Yan's home, and He Jingzhi generally did not intervene. Ke Yan said: "He was his minister, and I wrote my stuff. ”

In the 1980s, the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Culture was merged into the China Federation of Literary and Literary Circles and renamed the Theoretical Research Office of the China Federation of Literary and Literary Associations. Li Zhengzhong is the head of the research room journal group. The research room is located in Prince Gong's mansion, and the working atmosphere is very relaxed. At that time, the title of "boss" was prevalent in society, and some staff members privately called Zhou Yang, He Jingzhi and Feng Mu "big boss", "second boss" and "third boss".

Deng Liqun, then secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, decided to create the Institute of Marxist Literary and Art Theory, founded a Marxist literary and art theory journal, and established the Chinese Marxist Literary and Art Theory Research Association (later named "China Socialist Literature and Art Society"), which belonged to the Ministry of Culture and entrusted the management of the China Art Research Institute. He Jingzhi was very concerned about the work of this institute, periodical, and association, and put forward many opinions and suggestions.

At that time, the Chinese cultural and ideological circles were in turmoil. He Jingzhi once recalled to Li Xiangdong in "Answers to Questions from The Wind and Rain" that at that time there was a tendency in the literary and art circles to always divide the influential and relatively active literary and art circles in the literary and art circles, especially those who were considered "upper-class" figures, into conservatives and ideological emancipators. He Jingzhi said that he often felt "left and right" in his own hands.

He said: From his personal experience, from the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978 to the Second Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee in October 1983, from the complete criticism of the "Left", to the main criticism of the "Left" and the simultaneous defense of the Right, and then to the main criticism of the Right and the simultaneous vigilance against the "Left", this is the main line of the central spirit embodied in Deng Xiaoping's successive speeches.

Yan Gang, then editor-in-chief of the China Culture Newspaper, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, told China News Weekly that after He Jingzhi became deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, "a poet fell, a bureaucrat stood up" and even said that He Jingzhi was the "Left King." He Jingzhi did not agree with these statements. At that time, the political situation was extremely complicated, and He Jingzhi always wanted to unify the upper and lower levels when the upper and lower situations were reached, but he often could not unify them, so he was often caught in difficulties and troubles.

After the "Four Congresses of the Writers' Association" at the end of 1984, a central leader in charge of ideological work suggested: "Now that the literary and art circles are in chaos and the Central Propaganda Department is no longer able to exercise leadership, can we consider changing a vice minister in charge of literature and art?" ”

This year, He Jingzhi was 60 years old. Before his 60th birthday, he had applied to the leaders of the Central Propaganda Department for leave. But while waiting for the retreat, he thought: At least there will be an explanation, right?

Someone came to visit and said that he had been ordered to "learn the scriptures" from him in order to take over the work. But soon, a new team of the Central Propaganda Department was formed, and his name was still in it. This made him inexplicably think of a sentence by Su Dongpo: When using the house, the line is hidden in me. However, during this time, he was actually in a semi-idle state.

In 1986, He Jingzhi was diagnosed with lung disease. He reported to the Central Committee asking for retirement and obtained preliminary consent. In 1987, he turned 63 and crossed the line. On December 16, the Central Committee officially issued a document removing him from his post as deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department. But he was still elected a member of the Central Committee at the 13th Party Congress that year.

In 1987, he returned to his hometown of Shandong, Dengtai Mountain, Qufu, Zaozhuang, and Jiaodong. Just climbing Mount Taishan, he wrote 9 short poems. He wrote: In the past few years, I have seen joy and sorrow, and my mood has been troubled, especially this one.

In August 1989, He Jingzhi and Ke Yan went to Beidaihe to write together. He believed that it wouldn't be long before he could pick up his old business and "write something big."

However, the calm of the writer's life was soon broken.

One day, he was excitedly telling Ke Yan about the idea of a poem, when he suddenly received a long distance from Beijing, and it was Gao Zhanxiang, executive vice minister of the Ministry of Culture, who approached him and told him that the Central Committee had decided to transfer him to the post of secretary of the party leading group and minister of the Ministry of Culture, saying that it was decided at a Politburo meeting presided over by the newly elected general secretary. The next day, Wang Renzhi, director of the Central Propaganda Department, called again, told him the same thing, and informed him that the central leading comrades wanted to talk to him and asked him to return to Beijing immediately.

He Jingzhi felt very sudden. According to the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee, the ideological front needs to make some adjustments, but he did not expect it to fall on his head. He will turn 65 in three months, and he wants to concentrate on his creation, and these years of literary and artistic leadership have made him feel overwhelmed, and it is conceivable that the situation is more complicated and the task is more arduous. In the telephone, he clearly put forward the request and reason for not wanting to be ordered, and rushed to write a letter to the central authorities overnight.

But his request was not accepted by the central authorities. On September 6, 1989, the Central Committee officially issued a document appointing him as the secretary of the party group and acting minister of the Ministry of Culture, and reappointed him as the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department.

It is said that after He Jingzhi took office at the Ministry of Culture, he did not make a speech as usual, but only said six words: "Let's study!" ”

However, this time in office, he felt that the struggle between left and right was even worse. In April 1991, he fell ill and submitted his resignation to the Central Committee, which was not approved. It was not until after the 14th Party Congress in October 1992 that he was approved to resign from both ministries.

In 1996, He Jingzhi published the Collected Poems of He Jingzhi. He became famous for his unrestrained new poems, but in his later years he turned to deep and condensed old style poetry. The Collected Poems brings together nearly 200 of his old poems, all but seven written in 1962 and the rest in the New Era.

In his preface, he writes that these poems more or less reflect some of his own experiences over the years, especially in the past decade, and more or less show the refraction of the times in this period of great historical change. More consciously than ever, he now notices not only joy but also sorrow; not only this, but also the other. Looking back now, he said, he still feels that "there is nothing wrong with thinking, and there is no doubt about faith."

"Teacher"

Ji Yu called all the other Venerables "Sir", but He Jingzhi was called "Teacher".

After the reform and opening up, Ji Yu and He Jingzhi had more and more contacts. When he traveled from Qingdao to Beijing on business, he often visited the Hejing Home in Nanshagou. He Jingzhi and Ke Yan also went to Qingdao many times.

Ji Yu and He Jingzhi drank wine many times. He Jingzhi likes to drink, and he thinks that Guo Xiaochuan's "Toast Song" is "written": and drinking, do not stop the cup! Three glasses of wine, three glasses of joyful tears; five glasses of wine, pride is like the water of the Yangtze River.

In 1998, He Jingzhi, Ke Yan, Ji Yu and Cui Daoyi won the Mondello International Literary Prize in Italy. Because the relevant personnel of the Ministry of Culture made mistakes in their work, they did not catch up with the time to receive the award, and the award was canceled. The Ministry of Culture later paid for them to travel to Italy with five interpreters. They went to Rome, Florence, Venice and other cities, accompanied by the Cultural Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Italy.

In Italy, if you eat in a Chinese restaurant, He Jingzhi likes to drink a little liquor and loves to drink a little bamboo leaf green in Shanxi. He also brought with him some of his and Ke Yan's new books, including Selected Poems of He Jing, which had been planned to be given to friends in Italy, but were shunned, and these books had to be brought back to China.

Ding Yi, vice president of the China Mao Zedong Poetry Research Association, told China News Weekly that in August 1996, at the first international academic symposium on Mao Zedong's poetry held at the Beijing International Hotel, because he had the same name as the other author of "The White-Haired Girl", the first president, He Jingzhi, noticed him, and the two have known each other ever since.

Ding Yi said: He Jingzhi was very unimpressed by some new trends of thought in the literary circles in the new period, and was very disgusted with the "new aesthetic principles" put forward by Xie Mian, Li Zehou's "theory of farewell to revolution," and the "lower body" poetic school.

Wang Baoda implicitly questioned the slogan of "Man Will Triumph over Heaven" in his poetry collection "Rushing Bixi", and He Jingzhi called him after seeing it, saying that he should not deny the victory of man over heaven.

Every time the Chinese Mao Zedong Poetry Research Society held a meeting, He Jingzhi would ask his secretary to invite Wu Huanzhang to chat and talk about the situation in the literary and art circles.

As early as 1963, He Jingzhi and Guo Xiaochuan visited Fudan University and recited their poems in the auditorium, and Wu Huanzhang, then an assistant teacher of the Department of Chinese, was responsible for the reception on behalf of the school. The auditorium was crowded with people, Guo Xiaochuan recited "Marching Toward Difficulties", and He Jingzhi recited the "Song of Lei Feng", which he had just created, and the scene was very warm. At that time, He Jingzhi often published long poems one page after another in the "China Youth Daily", which had a great influence, Wu Huanzhang admired him very much, and when they first met, they were nervous and restrained, but He Jingzhi's personality was bold and enthusiastic, and after a few minutes the two became familiar.

He Jingzhi always told Wu Huanzhang: "The literary and art circles are very active, but the ideological trends are very complicated, and you must distinguish between true and false, dare to speak for the truth, observe problems in accordance with Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, keep a clear head, and not forget the revolutionary tradition." He Jingzhi believes that a hundred flowers can bloom, but realism and revolutionary romanticism should be the mainstream.

He Jingzhi loved Mao Zedong's poetry. Wu Huanzhang said that Mao Zedong also made mistakes, and He Jingzhi said that Mao Zedong's mistakes were mistakes made by great people. He recited a poem by Du Fu: "Ercao's body and name are destroyed, and the rivers and rivers are not wasted." He Jingzhi once inscribed his own poem "Dengwudang Mountain" and gave it to Wu Huanzhang. Shi Yun: Seventy-two peaks facing the heavenly pillar, once heard a peak alone said no. I climbed Wudang to see the stubborn peak, with my back held high in the clouds.

In 2001, the Mao Zedong Poetry Research Society held a five-day seminar in Nanjing. On the last day of visiting Nanjing, the writers Wang Jianhu and He Jingzhi went to Wangjiang Tower together and met a group of primary school students unexpectedly. When the primary school students heard that this old man was He Jingzhi, they all gathered around in an instant and recited "Back to Yan'an" together. He Jingzhi was very happy, saying that that moment was his happiest moment in many years.

"Yanhezi"

In 1993, He Huoren prepared to write the "Commentary on He Jingzhi" and contacted He Jingzhi. He Jingzhi said: "It is very difficult to write my commentary, I am a controversial figure, some people are disgusted with me, you are ready to sit on the cold bench." However, if you have any difficulties, you can come to me, and you can ask me any questions. How you write, opinion I do not interfere. ”

For more than two months after that, He Huoren went to He Jingzhi's home in Sanlihe every few days to interview and listen to He Jingzhi's life.

He Jingzhi was cautious in his words, never talked much about politics or leaders, only involved in the literary world, did not easily discuss the length of people, and only discussed things. He responded to He Huoren's interview request. He has lost his eyesight and calls himself "short-sighted", but he is always focused, smiling and answering questions from time to time when talking to people.

In March 2020, "Commentary on He Jingzhi" was published by the Social Science Literature Publishing House, and the chapter "Ups and Downs in the Wind and Rain of Ten Years" in the original manuscript deleted the section from the removal of spiritual pollution to anti-bourgeois liberalization when it was submitted for trial.

The living room of He Jing House is spacious and bright, with calligraphy and paper cuts hanging on the walls. In addition to his own bust, there is also a Yan'an Pagoda. He has an idle seal "Yanhezi", which is often used when writing.

After lunch, He Jingzhi usually sleeps from about 1:30 to 5:00 p.m., during which time he generally does not answer the phone and does not have guests. If he had the energy, he would also write poetry, practice calligraphy, organize his old works, and sometimes attend some events in the poetry world.

He is still concerned about current affairs and major events at home and abroad, cares about the development of the country, has been paying attention to the literary world, reading a lot of literary newspapers and new books sent by friends every day, and discussing the current creation with visitors from time to time.

So far, Zhou Ming has always called He Jingzhi "Lao He" and has never called him "Minister". He felt that He Jingzhi was a frank person and a man of temperament.

He Jingzhi would sometimes call Ji Yu and say that he just remembered him and wanted to say a few words, but there was nothing specific about it. He Jingzhi said that there are many problems in the current poetry world, and the people are not satisfied with poetry, and the main reason is that poetry tends to be "de-revolutionarized" and vulgar, leaving politics and overemphasizing one's own knowledge.

He Jingzhi, who is over 90 years old, is very interested in WeChat and likes to see links shared by WeChat friends, which is an important channel for him to obtain information from the outside world. Li Zhengzhong would often share a few pieces of information that he thought was important to him, and sometimes he would relay a few gossip news and passages for his entertainment and remind him that these were fake.

On average, the old secretary Zhao Tiexin visited He Jingzhi once in more than a month, and each time he talked about literary and artistic issues for an hour or two.

Zhao Tiexin remembers that in 1985, when he accompanied He Jingzhi on a business trip to Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, a middle-aged man came after him on a motorcycle and asked him to sign the "Selected Poems of He Jingzhi", saying that three generations of the family read He Jingzhi's poems. Before his death, his father confessed that if he could see He Jingzhi, he would bow respectfully to him on his behalf. In the 1990s, a farmer in the old revolutionary area of Fuping County, Hebei Province, carried a basket filled with red dates and other local specialties to the Communication Office of the Ministry of Culture, saying that the white-haired woman was a Fuping person and wanted to pay tribute to He Jingzhi on behalf of the whole county. He Jingzhi told Zhao Tiexin that the red dates could be collected, but they had to give money, and others could not be collected.

He Jingzhi has always been concerned about the lives of "Yang Bailao" and "Xi'er". After the reform and opening up, the Ministry of Culture often received letters from the masses reflecting the serious polarization, and He Jingzhi told Li Zhengzhong many times that if all the people who became rich were party members and cadres and their children, there would be problems.

Yan Gang remembered that in 1982, Zhou Yang decided to formulate a new "Ten Articles of Literature and Art", which was later transferred to he Jingzhi, and Yan Gang was summoned to participate in the discussion, a total of 10 people, one responsible for drafting an article. One rainy day, He Jingzhi participated in the discussion, emphasizing the adherence to the revolutionary tradition of the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum, and repeatedly reminding writers to be a revolutionary first. When referring to The Issues of Ba Jin's "Telling the Truth" and his "Man will die, his words are good," He Jingzhi said: "Ba Jin can only be regarded as a fellow traveler of the Party. He also told Yan Gang that as a Communist Party member, he must carry out the instructions and speeches of the central leadership, otherwise he will not be tolerated by the Party spirit of a Communist Party member, even if he is accused or even insulted by many people in the process.

He Jing later told Li Xiangdong, the author of the "Answers to Questions from The Wind and Rain," that when he said these words today, some young people may not understand them, and may even be ridiculed as "insincere words" and "false emptiness," but he did think so, and he never doubted it, because it was what he saw and experienced with his own eyes, and he was not deceived by anyone or deceived others, so he never thought of changing his original intention, let alone "repenting" to whom.

He often quoted Marx's words to his relatives and friends: "I have said that I have saved my soul." ”