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After Chen Boda was released from prison, he only accepted Ye Yonglie's visit, and in many contacts with Ye Yonglie, the relationship between the two became more and more harmonious, as if they had forgotten their friendship.
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Chen Boda treated Ye Yonglie as an old friend, and the conversation with him gradually deepened and touched the heart.
When looking back on his life, Chen Boda commented on his life to Ye Yonglie:
"I am a man who has committed a great sin, my whole life has been a tragedy, I am a tragic figure and I hope that people will learn from my tragedy"
"I am just a villain, the old saying can make up for it, and the gentleman is also willing to criticize myself forever, in order to be able to make up for my past sins a little." 」
Chen Boda is a literati who is very serious about writing, so in his interview with Ye Yonglie, he repeatedly stressed the need to record truthfully, not to miss anything, and not to deviate.
"It's been a long time, I'm old again, the memory of the elderly is not good, and it is often easy to protect their own shortcomings, if my memories can provide some historical materials for everyone, I will talk about some slowly"
"However, I want to make it clear again and again that human memories are often unreliable, and you have to check my memories with those of others, especially with the records, articles, and archives of the time. If my memory is inaccurate, I will refer to the written record at that time."
The reason why Ye Yonglie deliberately visited Chen Boda at that time was because this person, who had been prominent in the 1950s and 1960s, witnessed many important historical stages, and his memories were very precious materials for those who had personally experienced it.
In his later years, Chen Boda
At that time, Chen Boda's health was already deteriorating, and if he died, it would be a loss for historical research.
Talking about his past memories, Chen Boda commented on himself: "I am a sinner, and my memories are only the memories of a sinner."
This is what he thinks of himself, so how do other people, those who have worked with him and have been in contact with him, evaluate him?
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There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people, different people, in different angles and positions, so the evaluation of Chen Boda is also different.
For Chen Boda, a relatively intricate figure, the multi-angle and multi-faceted evaluation may be able to see it more clearly.
Zeng Yanxiu (former editor-in-chief of the People's Publishing House) commented:
"He is a very intelligent and talented person, and the impression he gave me can be described in twelve words: "It is better to learn, to learn is better than to be virtuous, and to be destroyed by virtue."
And his comment in the following paragraph, I personally think it is a very pertinent comment:
"He's not a politician, he doesn't want to be a politician, to be a politician is to move around, to run around, to speak everywhere; he's not good at that, and if you let him speak formally, it's difficult for five minutes; I think he just wants to be a political commentator, and he just wants one of his articles to be written and get the attention of the whole country."
Chen Boda in the late 1950s
Mu Junsheng, who began to be Chen Boda's secretary in the 1960s until Chen Boda was imprisoned, can be said to have witnessed the whole process of this leader from glory to collapse.
For this leader, his evaluation is more related to the article and personal life.
"He works seriously, works very strictly in writing, and is very serious about punctuation. If you make a mistake, he will correct you, once or twice it is fine, and if you make more times, he will lose his temper. ”
"In life, he lived a very simple life, not talking about eating, not talking about wearing, not smoking, not drinking. Go out also do not like to hug before and after, there is a period of time when he goes out, do not let the driver follow; personal hygiene, he is a frequent bath, do not wash his hair, almost every night to take a bath, after the water is put away, he will go in and grunt and come out, and do not rub ah; washing hair is generally not washed, he uses the kind of grate used by rural people, combing back and forth is finished. ”
"He reads and writes all day long. He had a little tape recorder, and he said there, and after recording, he sorted it out as an article. ”
For this leader, Mu Junsheng's overall impression and evaluation is still very recognized, he said that Chen Boda's temper is very easy-going, never angry with him, but he also played a temper with his leader once, and afterwards the leader came to apologize to him.
On that occasion, Chen Boda asked Mu Junsheng to call the newspaper and verbally relay a manuscript of only about 100 words.
"Have you read it all?"
In the face of Chen Boda's inquiry, Mu Junsheng replied: "After reading it three times, I read it clearly."
Chen Boda still felt something was wrong in his heart, and then demanded: "You say it again."
Hearing this, Mu Junsheng did not know where the nameless fire came from, but after all, in the face of his own leadership, there was no fire that could not be attacked, and he could only reply with a slight dissatisfaction in tone:
"I won't say it, I'll say it again, people should say that the secretary of Chen Boda's office is sick."
Chen Boda listened to this response, his face skipped a trace of displeasure, when the weather was relatively hot, Chen Boda ran over wearing a large pants, personally called the past, and read it again before putting his mind at ease.
Distant view of Chen Boda's former residence
Maybe it's the sweltering weather, which makes people's tempers worse.
When Mu Junsheng saw that the leader did not believe in himself so much, he was also angry in his heart, sitting on a rattan chair in the doorway, sulking, and complaining in his heart: Such a big leader, why do you not believe in people so much.
When Chen Boda returned from the phone call, he saw Mu Junsheng sitting on a wicker chair, and the expression on his face was still indignant.
He walked over and said, "Don't get angry."
When the leader said this, Mu Junsheng was embarrassed, and he thought in his heart, if this matter were left to other big leaders, the scolding would be light, and it would be difficult to be directly transferred.
People have two sides, the above are more sunny and positive evaluations, followed by the other side of life evaluation.
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Yang Bo, in the 1950s, once served as Chen Boda's deputy, and he had a lot of work contacts between the two, and for Chen Boda, he also wrote a book called "Chen Boda I Know".
In Yang Bo's eyes, although Chen Boda has always said that he is a "small common man", in his bones he has put himself in such a position, that is, under one person, above ten thousand people.
"He's self-absorbed, no one can afford to offend him, but he likes to put on a very open face."
When he first came into contact with Chen Boda, Yang Bo felt that this person was very easy-going, so when the research meeting was held, Chen Boda asked him what other opinions he needed to expound after speaking.
Yang Bo was more straightforward and quick-talking, so he said some different opinions in his heart after the end.
Chen Boda didn't say anything on his face, but after several times, Yang Bo reacted, that is, no matter what you say, what opinions you put forward, whether it is reasonable or not, he will not consider it.
In the end, it was still implemented according to the ideas he put forward, so that later, when Chen Boda asked Yang Bo's opinion again, Yang Bo no longer expressed his position.
"Later, I stopped making any comments, and he also knew that I was not a very manipulative person, so he was slowly a little jealous of me and guarded against me."
Classical literature researcher Qian Bocheng, his evaluation of Chen Boda, I personally think it seems to be more pertinent.
"His people are left behind, accustomed to being a single household, not popular, especially not by the integrity of the talent group"
However, he was very sure of Chen Boda's talent, and he believed that Chen Boda's title of "theoretician" was not a waste of time.
"He can often see what people have never seen, what people have never seen, and can grasp the key points from people's inadvertent places, extract synthesis, and inspire people to think"
In his book "The Fate of Chen Boda", he also told an interesting story that was not known.
Chen Boda's modern poems signed as "Chen Shangyou"
Wang Guowei once used these three poems to describe the three realms of governance: "Last night the west wind withered the green tree", "The belt gradually widened and there was no regret", and "the crowd looked for him for a thousand hundred degrees".
When Chen Boda was a teacher, he quoted Wang Guowei's words many times to encourage young people to also have this spirit of governance.
"Since then, the theory of the Three Realms of Governance has been widely practiced in the world, but people only know that this theory comes from Wang Guowei, but they do not know that Chen Boda also has a little work of advocating."
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Compared with the above evaluations, Mr. Qian Jiaju's evaluation of Chen Boda is very profound and harsh.
"This man who calls himself a little common man, this once invincible figure, is actually a big ambitionist."
"His one sentence (so-and-so is not a good person or so-and-so is not a group of us) can kill people"
"He climbed up to the top by chance, and as a result, he fell to pieces."
These evaluations do seem to be deep into the bone marrow, more profound.
When Ye Yonglie visited Chen Boda for the last time, he did not think that in the past week alone, Chen Boda had died of illness, and this visit would become the last meeting between the two.
When Ye Yonglie was leaving during the visit, Chen Boda personally inscribed the inscription "Those who go to the past cannot be advised, but those who come can still be traced" and gave it to him, which became Chen Boda's last word.
For this absolute inscription, Qian Jiaju believes that the big mistake has been cast, and once it is lost, it has become a thousand ancient hatreds, and it has been a hundred years since it turned back.
"It's too late to regret it, and there's no time to chase it"
Chen Boda's brilliant inscription
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At the end of the article, let's take a look at how Chen Xiaonong, as Chen Boda's son, views his father.
In the eyes of his son, his father was a relatively weak literati, and his mother Yu Wenfei (Chen's second wife) once said to him: "Your father is an honest spirit."
Liu Shuyan (Chen's third wife) also believes that Chen Boda's character is too cowardly, but sometimes at key moments, on some important issues, he can also stand out and be very stubborn.
When Chen Boda was 21 years old, he wrote a novel "Cold Sky", which is also the only novel in his life, Chen Xiaonong quoted such a passage in the novel to describe his father and his portrayal of his later years:
"I am now like the battle-hardened soldier who has lost the battle every time, covered in wounds, lying down in the desolate grass of the twilight, looking at the remnants of the western mountains and breathing heavily."