Li Xin: Wei Junyi's "Thoughts and Pains"

Regarding Hu Qiaomu's criticism of Zhou Yang on humanitarian and alienation issues, I have always thought that Mrs. Wei followed Qiaomu closely, because the friendship between the two of them for half a century was too deep. In fact, even when the publishing house congress mobilized us to criticize the "humanitarianism and alienation theory", she herself had a scale in her heart. It's just that as a social leader, she also has some unavoidable, and some can't help herself. I only realized this after I became the editor-in-chief myself.

It is recorded in the "Record of Pain" that when Zhou Yang was criticized, Mrs. Wei went to visit her, and Zhou Yang asked her how to view the current theoretical dispute between herself and Hu Qiaomu, and Mrs. Wei prevaricated with the four words of "do not understand philosophy". This answer made Zhou Yang sad, and he later told people that Wei Junyi was good at everything else, that is, "right and wrong are not distinguished." When Mrs. Wei heard Zhou Yang evaluate her like this, she was stimulated, she reflected on and repented of her cowardice at that time, and spoke out her heart's words, it turned out that she had supported Zhou Yang's views from the beginning! These, if she hadn't written it down, we would never have known.

As for her caution and timidity in publishing, it is difficult to make up her mind by taking Huang Qiuyun's "Wind and Rain Years" to weigh it, and I also found the answer from "Si Pain Record". Mrs. Wei and Huang Qiuyun embarked on the revolutionary road together when they were students at Tsinghua University in the 1930s, and in the 1950s, they founded the magazine "Literature and Art Study" together with the China Writers Association. In 1957, the journal they co-edited was clearly "right-leaning" in "Big Bang". The journal published works by Liu Binyan, Liu Shaotang, and other rightists, especially Wang Meng's "New Young People from the Organization Department", which caused an uproar and was called "a world war in Beijing" by the supreme leader, and later "Study of Literature and Art" was suspended for this reason. At that time, Mrs. Wei and Huang Qiuyun were "criticized together, and they told each other in relative secrecy every day about the bitterness and resentment that could not be told", and they covered for each other and survived the difficulties together. Both were nearly classified as rightists during the movement, but both were also punished by the party and sent to the countryside. Even in this case, Mrs. Wei was still very affectionate, and she did not forget to protect her subordinates.

Coincidentally, Mao Chengzhi, the responsible editor of this "Years of Wind and Rain", was the head of our editorial office in the 1980s, and he was the editor of "Literary and Art Studies" during the anti-rightist movement, and it was Mrs. Wei's subordinates. He was also "restless" at that time; not only did he edit and publish the works of the rightist Liu Shaotang and participated in the great discussion on Wang Meng's "The New Young Man from the Organization Department," but at the beginning of the rectification, he himself risked the world's great disobedience to give advice to the Party Central Committee and made some "extreme rightist" remarks, which were well known to everyone. It is reasonable to say that under the circumstance that three of the seven editorial board members of "Literary and Art Studies" have become rightists, editors like Mao Chengzhi who have run into trouble cannot escape no matter what.

However, according to the description of the "Record of Pain", Mrs. Wei classified him as an "honest person" and only gave him a party punishment and did not let him wear a hat. Mao Chengzhi has been grateful for this ever since. Therefore, I think that Mrs. Wei's cautious handling of "The Stormy Years" at this time must be out of consideration for the protection of Huang Qiuyun, as a friend of the suffering and the common, in the complicated situation of the ideological struggle in the early eighties, she was afraid that Huang Qiuyun would make political mistakes again, and of course, she was afraid that Mao Chengzhi would be implicated again, so she handled it carefully, which is exactly where her love lies.

After reading "The Record of Pain", I found that I needed to re-understand Mrs. Wei. The mystery I was going to guess is all solved here. I understood Mrs. Wei's simple heart, felt her fiery emotions, and saw her selfless and fearless spiritual realm, as well as her sober thinking about history and reality. She is a true warrior and a true wise man. She had a great understanding. Her "thoughts" and confessions show a sincerity of conscience.