"In an era without heroes, I just wanted to be one person."
This is the story of Yu Luoke
In 1980, Kitajima wrote this "Proclamation" dedicated to a young man who died defending the truth, Yu Luoke.
Today, many young people may ask, who is Yu Luoke?
He was a martyr of a special era, and his short life was accompanied by a series of era disasters, and he was finally executed for a "Theory of Origin", and his life was fixed at the age of 27.
As a child, Yu Luoke with his mother and sister
Born in Nanjing in 1942, Yu Luoke moved with his family to a hutong on Dongsi North Avenue in Beijing at the age of 7. It is said that he was intelligent and studious from an early age, and achieved excellent results. But because his parents were wrongly classified as rightists, he was turned away from college three times, and has been shrouded in the shadow of his family's origins. After graduating from high school, Yu Luoke joined the team and worked as a temporary worker, and before his arrest, he was an apprentice at the Beijing People's Machinery Factory.
Family portrait of Yu Roque (back row, second from left).
In 1965, Yao Wenyuan's "Commenting on the New Compilation of Historical Dramas" set off the prelude to the Cultural Revolution. At that time, the "Black Five" children like Yu Luoke, even if they did not speak, their situation was already very difficult. But he wrote an article refuting Yao Wenyuan's misinterpretation of history and reality, and published it in Wen Wei Po, proposing that the time has come to fight against this "mechanical materialism"! At the same time, he encouraged himself in his diary: "Speak to others who dare not speak, and dare not speak to others... Let those who know me know that life has not brought me down. ”
Yao Wenyuan published an article entitled "Commenting on the Newly Edited Historical Drama" that year
In July 1966, Yu Luoke completed the first draft of "The Theory of Origin", refuting the "theory of descent" that was very popular at that time, and analyzing a couplet that was widely circulated in society, "Lao Tzu's heroes are good men, Lao Tzu's reactionary bastards", pointing out the absurdity of the theory of descent.
On January 18, 1967, "The Theory of Origin" was published in the first issue of the "Cultural Revolution Newspaper of Middle Schools", signed as "Research Group on Family Origin". The original 30,000 copies of the newspaper were sold out on the streets of Beijing, and 60,000 copies had to be temporarily printed. In the article, Yu Luoke exposed the various injustices that determined the fate of individuals because of their family origins over the years, and pointed out the persecution of the so-called "black five categories" of children by the Red Guards after the cultural revolution began, writing: "We do not recognize any power that cannot be achieved through personal efforts." ”
"The Theory of Origin" published in the first issue of the "Middle School Cultural Revolution Newspaper"
Subsequently, he published five consecutive articles in the "Middle School Cultural Revolution Newspaper", such as "Talking about "Purity"" and "What the Riots of "Linkage" Explained", which caused a great sensation. Letters from readers were sent to the editorial office like snowflakes, and they had to go to the North Taipingzhuang Post Office by tricycle every day to retrieve the three or four thousand letters. As the wildfire intensified, "Origin" was quickly set as a "big poisonous weed" in the whirlpool of the Cultural Revolution. On January 5, 1968, Yu Luoke went to work at the machine factory with his lunch box as usual, and it was there that he was arrested.
The Mimeograph Edition of The Theory of Origins in that year
Zhang Langlang said that Yu Luoke seemed to be a natural fire robber, "He regarded imprisonment as an inevitable result, and he naturally became the spiritual leader, forerunner, and martyr of the many people who were insulted and damaged at that time." ”
In 1968, Zhang Langlang, who had been convicted of his words, met Yu Luoke in a detention center, locked up in a room, and later moved to the same death penalty number. Zhang Langlang was one year younger than Yu Luoke, born in the Yan'an cave dwelling, grew up in the cradle of horseback, followed the army that fought all the way into Beijing, and witnessed the establishment of new China. His father, Zhang Tong, was a famous red artist since the Yan'an period.
A photo of Zhang Langlang in college before he was imprisoned
In the 1960s, the two most active underground literary and art salons in Beijing were the "X Society" formed by Guo Shiying, the son of Guo Moruo, and the "Sun Column" initiated by Zhang Langlang. In his youth, Zhang Langlang believed that "poets are born rebels." Compared with Yu Luoke, Zhang Langlang was far away from the cruelty of social and current affairs, and in a relatively vacuum environment, he became a literary and artistic youth who advocated creative freedom. However, various underground literary and artistic activities and exchanges with foreign students finally became taboos in that era, and zhang Langlang was finally arrested for speech.
A group photo of the young Zhang Langlang with his father Zhang Tong and his sister Qiao Qiao, Zhang Tong was hailed as a great artist in 20th century China
Everyone in the detention center was miserable, but Yu Luoke smiled and took the initiative to greet Zhang Langlang. In Zhang Langlang's memory, Yu Luoke is one meter and seven meters tall, a little hunchbacked, long hands and feet; deep myopia wears yellow-rimmed glasses, the back of the head is very large, from the side, like a parallelogram or a large winter melon; his thinking and gaze are as sharp as his eyes, but it is a calm and slow temperament, with a humorous and elegant attitude to introduce himself: "My surname is Yu, the fool who moves the mountain, remove the heart word below, and then add a walk, Luo Xiao mountain range (where the Jinggang Mountain base is located), overcome the difficult ke. ”
The last photo taken by Yu Luoke before he was imprisoned
The composition of the people in prison is complex, and Zhang Langlang is one of the few college students. Yu Luoke took the initiative to talk to him, and at first both of them were vigilant, speaking like diplomatic rhetoric. When Yu Luoke talks about some problems, he always says, "According to my experience and knowledge, this problem is not like this." As the issue of pedigree was heard, the defenses between them began to freeze.
Yu Luoke originally thought that Zhang Langlang, who was "rooted in Miao Hong", must be a supporter of the "theory of descent", and Lang Lang took the example of the German film "Professor Mamen" and pointed out that there is no difference between the theory of descent and anti-Semitism in essence. Gradually, two young people with completely different backgrounds ended up together, from mutual vigilance to mutual curiosity to pushing hearts. They began to talk about Marxism-Leninism, existentialism, literature and thought, and even secretly wrote a collection of poems together, singing the Soviet song "Glorious Sacrifice" over and over again...
Zhang Langlang was in prison, using red and blue pencils and red and blue ballpoint pens to create "Past Events" and "Confused" respectively.
The two agreed to take turns choosing a topic they were familiar with during their daily breaks to tell each other. Zhang Langlang will talk about the history of Modern and Contemporary Western art, abstraction and Impressionism, and Yu Luoke can memorize them all after listening to it. He told Zhang Langlang about world cinema, and the analysis of various terms and current situations was the tao. Later, Zhang Langlang learned that these were all learned by Yu Luoke in prison and others, and while explaining to him, they were used as a review.
Zhang Langlang said that Yu Luoke was an idealist and Marxist-Leninist who was more orthodox than himself, and a person who did not lose the function of smiling when he went to hell. In the death penalty, he always maintained a stable mood, and he did not mess up at the end of the day. As he vowed in his diary: "Start strong, and be strong at the end." ”
In 1999, Yu Luoke: His Writings and Memories was published by the China Federation of Literary and Literary Publishing Houses, which included his articles and diaries
At that time, this group of young people in prison added up all the most serious crimes imaginable, and they did not expect that they and each other would actually be sentenced to death. But in 1970, at the height of the "one dozen, three antis" movement, on the morning of March 5, they got up early to be named, and they knew in their hearts that it was not good. Zhang Langlang was not called by name, but Yu Luoke was called. Zhang Langlang heard his last "uh-huh" sound, which was a natural reaction to his neck being strangled by a thin rope.
Yu Luoke was taken to the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium for his final sentencing, wearing a worn-out dress. The family had been living on a shoes-to-do basis since his parents had been branded rightist, and before his execution, he left a brand-new white vest sent from home for his younger brothers. There are also a few poems left, one of which is: "Qingming may not be born a strong ghost, and Qiankun holds me heavy." ”
Beijing Workers' Gymnasium in the 1970s
Zhang Langlang later wrote in his memoirs: Objectively speaking, Yu Luoke did not need to die at all, he actually volunteered to die, he had the psychology of a fire stealer, and felt that people like them who were so-called from bad origins lacked the courage to sacrifice, and he wanted to set such a precedent.
When the Cultural Revolution came to an end, the unjust, false and wrongly decided cases in the absurd era began to be rehabilitated one by one. In November 1979, the Beijing Municipal Intermediate People's Court rendered a retrial verdict and acquitted Yu Luoke. In 1980, Guangming Daily published a 20,000-word article comparing Yu Luoke to a "meteor that broke through the night", which was published by various media outlets across the country.
Guangming Daily published an article on Yu Luoke's rehabilitation and reported on his deeds
Yu Luoke's deeds caused great repercussions throughout the country, indirectly promoting the process of redressing unjust cases at that time, making the name of "Yu Luoke" also become a symbol of that period. In 1980, the poet Kitajima wrote two poems, "The End or the Beginning" and "The Proclamation", dedicated to Yu Luoke. After many years, he said that the two poems were also written to himself at that time.
As a survivor of that era, Zhang Langlang picked up the paintbrush after experiencing various waves, leaving behind the ideals, innocence and beauty in his heart
Zhang Langlang, who accompanied the court in that year, but spent the rest of his life after the disaster, became a writer and painter. He has painted Yu Luoke more than once, slowly changing from the realism of portraits to the realism of memory, which is a memory of the "light chaser", a weak young man, although in the shadows, but facing the direction of light, his face is a tranquility.
As Kitajima wrote to him: "In the age of no heroes, I just want to be a person." ”
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Kitajima, manuscript "Proclamation – Dedicated to Yu Luoke", 2020
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