It is superficial to think that all diseases can be cured by relying solely on institutional transformation. Faith is the first cause of the system.
- Yang Xiaokai
▌ Little Kai made me wake up like a dream
I have known Yang Xiaokai for a long time. As early as the 60s, Changsha's "Yang Xiguang" (later Yang Xiaokai) was already famous.
Therefore, I must read any big-character newspaper related to Yang Xiguang and admire his insights. Later, Yang Xiaokai's article "Where is China Going" caused a sensation in the country.
Kang Sheng even believes that this article can never be written by a 19-year-old young man, and there must be a "black hand" behind it. Then came the news that Yang Xiguang had been sentenced to ten years in prison.
In 1968, we young people came to the lower land one after another, facing the loess again and "repairing" the earth with our backs to the heavens and the earth, and we were extremely depressed.
One day, the head of our brigade brought a leaflet and mysteriously called a dozen of us together for us to pass on. When I looked, isn't this Yang Xiguang's "Where Is China Going"?
I read it with eagerness. There is nothing "vicious" and "reactionary" in the article, it does not attack anyone throughout, it is talking objectively and calmly from beginning to end, and the analysis of the situation and political relations is pretentious, meticulous and profound, far beyond the simple minds of those of us who are being moved, everything is so rational and assertive, revealing hidden substantive intentions from under the surface slogans.
After reading this article, I woke up like a dream, deeply ashamed of my previous lack of brains and only passion, thinking when can I also have my own opinions and analysis like Yang Xiguang, instead of being led by the nose? I am the same age as Yang Xiguang, why can he do it, I didn't even think about it?
Since then, I have consciously embarked on a path of no return of self-education, self-enrichment and self-training. I began to read all the theoretical books I could find seriously, and in the long rural life and hard agricultural labor, I squeezed out every bit of free time to strengthen my theoretical cultivation, in order to build a mind of my own.
The change in attitude was decisive, and I suddenly felt that my eyes were suddenly brightened, my thoughts became profound, and I was able to find some kind of unspeakable hidden purpose under the superficial propaganda slogans of the time.
After 10 years of hard self-study, in 1979, I was admitted to the Department of Philosophy of Wuhan University as a junior high school graduate, specializing in Western philosophy, and stayed on to teach with excellent grades. But I didn't forget for a moment the fate that I had never met with Yang Xiguang.
▌ The golden time when he lived by the lake with Xiao Kai
In 1982, I graduated with a master's degree and stayed in the Department of Philosophy of Wuhan University as a teacher, living in a lakeside community allocated by the university. Later, when I learned that Yang Xiaokai was also hired by President Liu Daoyu to come to Wuhan University and lived in the same lakeside community as me, how excited I was! I couldn't wait to visit him with my friends.
We can say that as soon as we meet, we have become friends, in addition to playing badminton with Xiao Kai from time to time, it is naturally essential to exchange ideas and learning.
I remember that I only asked him one question, and I said, "You now believe so much that economic problems can be solved by mathematics, and you are committed to studying mathematical (econometric) economics, but can it really have a role in China's economic life?" He pondered for a long time and said, "I believe it will be useful in the future." ”
I think my question may have hit him to the nail on the head. At present, there are no such rigorous statistics as econometrics require, and it is still infinitely far from the kind of "law" he envisioned.
Of course, I do not deny that mathematical economics is a science with extensive practical value in developed countries in Europe and the United States, but I know that Xiao Kai's ambition is not only to be a world-recognized economist, but to design a blueprint for the future of China's economic and social development. In his bones, he is a traditional Chinese intellectual determined to serve the country and revitalize the nation.
Naturally, we also talked about his unfortunate experience. Xiao Kai said that after he was released from prison, he had two kinds of knowledge in his head, one is mathematics and economic knowledge that can be quantified, which is a highly specialized scientific knowledge; The other is the knowledge of human nature, including philosophy, ethics, literature, religious studies, and social history, which he believes is popular knowledge that anyone can master without professional training.
Of course, I disagree with his division, because I think that knowledge like philosophy also requires long-term professional training, such as training in the history of philosophy. Other humanities and social sciences cannot be trained without methodology, and not anyone can enter the door without training. Literary creation requires genius even more.
This division may reflect a prejudice that he does not look down on the academic nature of the humanities, and that he thinks that he can easily become a good philosopher or literary scholar if he wants to. Later facts confirmed this speculation of mine.
Around the winter of 1983, through the famous Chinese-American economist Zou Zhizhuang, he completed the procedures to study for a doctorate in economics at Princeton University. Whether to let Xiao Kai go to the United States caused an uproar in Wuhan University.
In the end, it was the principal Liu Daoyuli who lined up the crowd and released the people. This incident later became a "crime" of Principal Liu, but in the eyes of the teachers in the school, it established a high prestige for Principal Liu.
After Xiao Kai went abroad, we still maintained correspondence, and when he returned to Wuhan University again, we were already in the mid-90s. In '92, I moved to a new 60-square-meter three-bedroom house built by the school, and it was in the living room of this house that Kay first came back to see us.
We sat on the couch and chatted as he received his Ph.D., was hired as a professor at a prestigious Australian university, and later elected a member of the Australian Academy of Sciences.
I saw that his face was red, he was often engaged in physical exercise, his body was stronger than before, and I thought that life abroad was different from that at home. We are all sincerely happy about his success.
But what puzzles us is that such an accomplished economist abroad can only be received by the dean of the School of Economics at private expense for such an accomplished economist who has achieved great success abroad to visit Wuhan University, and the official refuses to come forward.
Moreover, the school authorities continued to treat him as a dangerous person, not only forbidding him to give lectures, but also sending security personnel to the guest house to monitor his activities day and night.
You know, in the 90s, Xiao Kai often published research and commentary articles on China's domestic economic development in some Chinese-language journals, which were highly praised by the economics community and were often cited.
I think that even if his economic views are not adopted by the government, his heart to serve the country should always be respected! I think if Liu Daoyu were still the principal, this would never have happened.
▲ Yang Xiaokai and Nobel Prize winner Buchanan
▌The century of where to go
In 2004, I was shocked to learn of Kai's death. Jealous of talent, Kay Jr. was probably the first of my most talented peers to leave us.
In 05, I was still saddened by Xiao Kai's early death with Mengmeng and Zhiyang at Hainan University, who knew that Mengmeng also suddenly left the next year, and also had lung cancer. Their fathers all lived to be eighty or ninety years old, but perhaps it was because they were too good to be able to tolerate this mediocre world.
Xiao Kai's wife Wu Xiaojuan brought her young son to Wuhan University at the end of 04 and lived in our house. At that time, I happened to go to the Southwest University of Political Science and Law to give a lecture, but I was regretted that I could not see it.
▲1987, Monash University, Yang Xiaokai and his family
When she came to Wuhan University, the first person she visited was Mr. Liu Daoyu, the old principal. It is precisely because of President Liu that the fate of Xiao Kai's family has taken a decisive turn, and the Chinese world has another outstanding economist, whose achievements, according to industry evaluations, are enough to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
But principals like Liu Daoyu have also disappeared in China, and every time I meet him on campus, I feel like a world away.
I miss living by the lake with Kai, a golden age, an era of hope, although materially poor, but how full my heart is!
Our generation is now old, we have suffered the suffering of the nation, but we have this glorious experience, we saved ourselves on our own, we did not suffer in vain.
As for how the newcomers will shape China's destiny, that is no longer the business of our generation. We leave them with a lifetime of experience and wisdom, but it is up to them to answer and solve the century's question of "where is China going?"
I believe that generations of Chinese intellectuals will pass on Xiao Kai's problem like a baton.