Chen Ling
At present, there is a serious imbalance in the volume of Xia Yan's letters, that is, there are very few letters reflecting xia Yan's working and living conditions during the revolutionary war years and the early days of the founding of New China, and the vast majority of them are after 1975. Of course, there are many reasons behind this situation, but it is always a major shortcoming, and I hope that in the future, the collection and collation of Xia Yan's letters can make more breakthroughs in this regard. With the passage of time, Xia Yan's people and events and the era to which they belong will gradually move towards the depths of history. However, the process of "historicization" of Xia Yan's research from an academic point of view is on the way. In this necessary "historicization" process to promote Xia Yan's research towards deepening, Xia Yan's letters undoubtedly occupy an important position, and their privateness will slowly fade, and their academic publicity will become increasingly prominent. Xia Yan's life, with complex and diverse identities, a wide range of fields, a long time span, and a wide range of contacts, coupled with his literary temperament, can be said to be an important way to understand the history of the development of China's modern and contemporary literary and artistic undertakings and even the history of the Communist Party of China. At the same time, this also means that the uncollected letters about Xia Yan must exist in large quantities and need to be further excavated.
The author recently discovered a new letter from Xia Yan to Zhou Fu, using a letter paper for the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, although the number of words is small, but it involves many characters and is very readable. After comparison, this letter does not appear in the diary of the epistles of the Complete Works of Xia Yan and the Sages Who Passed Away in Spring and Autumn: Letters of Xia Yan, nor is it mentioned in a special article, as a brief of Xia Yan. The letter is reproduced as follows:
Comrade Zhou Erfu:
On the question of Ren Baitao, when I went to Beijing this time, Comrade Chen Jiakang told the premier in person for his opinion:
I. Ren Baitao's published books and manuscripts, please ask the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee to send a comrade to look at it and open a catalog (this matter was originally handled by comrades Ouyang Wenbin and Yang Chongguang of the Municipal Propaganda Department, and now Ouyang has transferred out and Yang Chongguang is recuperating due to illness, and there is no one to connect, please contact Comrade Yao Qin, please ask the designated person of the Municipal Propaganda To do it).
Second, on the question of where Ren Baitao's ashes will be buried, after asking Deng Jianyun to decide, the United Front Work Department will pay for it to assist him in handling it.
Third, the problem of Deng Jianyun's work will be resolved by the United Front Work Department after Comrade Deng Yingchao writes a letter.
Please deal with this matter as a feeling!
□ (suspected to be "urgent") ceremony
Xia Yan
February 19
The content of the letter was about the handling of Ren Baitao's aftermath, and it was after Xia Yan arrived in Beijing that Chen Jiakang relayed to him three instructions from Premier Zhou Enlai in person: First, he asked the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee to properly handle the manuscript left by Ren Baitao; second, he asked the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee to assist in handling the burial of Ren Baitao's ashes; and third, he asked the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee to help solve the work of Deng Jianyun, Ren Baitao's widow. So, who is Ren Baitao, and how could his death alarm Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao?
Ren Baitao statue
Ren Baitao, who used the pen names Leng Gong and Yibi, was a native of Nanyang, Henan. In 1916, he traveled east to Japan and entered the Department of Political Economy at Waseda University. Because of his passion for journalism, he participated in the inaugural membership of the Great Japan Journalism Society, where he studied journalism and accumulated materials and wrote. In 1917, Zhou Enlai was also studying in Tokyo, when these progressive students in Japan often went to the place where Wang Gongbi lived on weekends to meet and talk, and Ren and Zhou made friends and had a strong friendship. After Ren Baitao returned to China, he had no fixed residence and a difficult life, and devoted all his energy to the research and writing of journalism. In the autumn of 1929, he married Deng Jianyun, a former female journalist for the South China News Agency, in Shanghai. He spent a lot of effort to write "Applied Journalism" and "Comprehensive Journalism" and other works, which effectively promoted the scientific and systematic process of modern Chinese journalism. At the same time, Ren Baitao paid attention to linking his personal research writings with the dangers of the country. In the spring of 1939, Ren Baitao and his wife went to Chongqing, went to find Zhou Enlai, and expressed their desire to use their knowledge to serve the propaganda of the Anti-Japanese War news. Soon after, Zhou Enlai was introduced to the Third Department of the Political Department of the Kuomintang Military Commission chaired by Guo Moruo to engage in propaganda against the enemy. At that time, when Chongqing was bombed by Japanese aircraft, Ren obtained Zhou's consent to store the manuscript materials in Zengjiayan, and whenever the air raid alarm sounded, the staff of the Chongqing Office of the CPC Delegation moved the manuscript materials into the air raid shelter, and then took them out again after the alarm was lifted, because it was easy to be damp and moldy in the air raid shelter for a long time. After that, with the change of the situation, Ren Baitao successively served as the editor-in-chief of the New Hubei Daily, the staff officer of the Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Theater, and the senator of the Hubei Provincial Government, until he returned to Chongqing after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and worked in the editorial department of the Xinhua Daily. In July 1946, Ren Baitao and his wife left Chongqing and came to Nanjing, where they went to meiyuan Xincun where the CPC delegation was located, and learned that the manuscript materials stored in Zeng Jiayan had been transported by the CCP delegation to Shanghai by the special plane of the CPC delegation and stored in the Zhou Mansion on Mas South Road (now Sinan Road) (that is, the office of the CPC delegation in Shanghai). Soon, Ren Baitao and his wife also settled in Shanghai, still relying on literary work to make a living. In the spring of 1952, Zhou Enlai learned of Ren Baitao's life and work conditions, and asked the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee to send condolences and call to invite Ren to work in Beijing. In mid-July, Ren Baitao was ready, and on the eve of going north, he suddenly suffered a stroke and died on August 31, 2017.
It can be seen that Ren Baitao is a well-known journalist and can be described as a former friend of Zhou Enlai. Although he and Zhou Enlai each took a different path in life, they were in common in their fists and patriotic hearts to serve the country. Striving for the great national righteousness can be said to be a solid foundation for renzhou friendship. Most of Ren Baitao's interest in life was to immerse himself in writing books and sayings, and the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan profoundly affected and educated him, prompting him to make his own contribution to the progressive cause of journalism and propaganda. Zhou Enlai not only approved and supported this choice of his friend, but also paid more attention to his journalism research work, which can be confirmed from the fact that Zeng Jiayan's manuscript materials can always be intact. After the founding of New China, Ren Baitao was still willing to live a poor literary career and did not deliberately publicize it, while Zhou Enlai, as the premier of a big country at this time, still did not forget to understand Ren's life and work situation, and also invited him to work in Beijing. Unfortunately, Ren was about to make his trip, and he died of illness suddenly, and the news reached Beijing, presumably Zhou Enlai's heart was deeply sorry for it. Finally, the attentive Zhou Enlai also remembered how to properly handle Ren Baitao's posthumous affairs, and gave instructions on Ren's manuscripts, the burial of ashes, and the care of his widow's life. For the sake of Deng Jianyun's work, Deng Yingchao also wrote a special letter. It can be seen from this that Xia Yan's Tongjian has a high historical documentary value, which is not only a powerful witness to the half-life friendship between Ren Zhou, but also provides a clue for understanding Ren's subsequent affairs.
Ren Baitao died in 1952, so the specific year of Xia Yan's letter can also be determined, that is, 1953. According to Shen Yun's Compilation of the Chronology of Xia Shengping (Fourth Draft), around May 1952, Xia Yan was dismissed from the post of Propaganda Director of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and appointed deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau. In a letter from Xia Yan to Zhou Yang on May 4, 1952, it was also mentioned that "I am now working in Huaxuan every morning." In addition, on May 19, 1953, Xia Yan's letter to Chen Liting had an epigraph: "I am now working in the East China Bureau, address: Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau, No. 421 Changde Road." This confirms that Xia Yan's identity at the time of his reply to Zhou Er was deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau. Extrapolating from the beginning of the letter, Xia Yan had been to Beijing around February 1953, and then Chen Jiakang relayed Zhou Enlai's opinion to him in person. Chen Jiakang went to Shanghai in the winter of 1933 to join the revolution, and after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was transferred to the secretary of the Yangtze River Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in January 1938, and in March he was appointed as the secretary and English translator of Zhou Enlai, the head of the Yangtze River Bureau. In April 1944, he was transferred back to Yan'an to participate in the reception of a delegation of Chinese and foreign journalists. Since 1950, he has been deputy director and acting director of the Asia Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presiding over the work of the Asia Division. In 1952, he became the director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated in the formulation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, drafted important documents such as the Statement on the Taiwan Issue, and participated in the Sino-Indian and Sino-Burmese border negotiations. This shows that Chen Jiakang was deeply trusted and reused by Zhou Enlai. At the same time, Chen Jiakang and Xia Yan should be very familiar with each other, they have been engaged in foreign affairs under Zhou Enlai for many years, and it was Xia Yan who was appointed director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1950, but did not arrive. In addition, in a letter from Xia Yan to Dong Hui and Pan Hannian on February 4, 1954, he talked about the issue of where his future work would go, and hoped that Pan Hannian and his wife would provide advice. The letter specifically said that the reply letter "can be transferred to me by Comrade Chen Jiakang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Therefore, it was natural for Chen Jiakang to relay Zhou Enlai's instructions to Xia Yan.
After Xia Yan returned to Shanghai, he wrote a letter to Zhou Erfu to inform him. Zhou and Xia are similar, both are in important positions in the party but quite a literati temperament, like to write and create between work, and his masterpiece "Morning in Shanghai" was written in his spare time. After the liberation of Shanghai, Zhou Erfu has been engaged in united front work. According to the records of the Shanghai Municipal Chronicle on United Front Work and the accounts of Zhou Erfu's own memoirs, on June 1, 1949, the East China Bureau established the United Front Work Department in Shanghai, which was also in charge of the United Front Work in Shanghai, with Chen Yi concurrently serving as minister, Pan Hannian concurrently serving as vice minister, and Zhou Erfu as secretary general. In March 1950, after the establishment of the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, Zhou was appointed deputy director of the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. On July 14, 1952, at a forum of democratic parties held by the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee, Vice Minister Zhou Erfu also conveyed the spirit of the Central United Front Work Conference. Around November 1954, on the eve of Zhou Erfu's visit to India as deputy head of the cultural delegation, he learned that he had been dismissed from the post of deputy director of the United Front Work Department. Therefore, when Xia Yan sent a letter to Zhou, Zhou's position should be deputy director of the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee. It is also reasonable for him to come forward to solve Ren Baitao's posthumous affairs.
Xia Yan also confessed in the letter that the directory of Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript had originally been handled by Ouyang Wenbin and Yang Chongguang of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee, but Ouyang transferred out, Yang Chongguang was recuperating due to illness, and no one was connected, so he was asked to contact Yao Qin to designate someone to do it. Regarding Ouyang Wenbin's transfer, it was because in the autumn of 1952, the Shanghai press circles carried out ideological reform and study. Xia Yan is the director of the Learning Committee. Ouyang was transferred from the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee to the Ideological Reform and Study Office, where he served as a liaison officer for the Xinmin Evening News and Wen Wei Po, working under the direct leadership of Xia Yan. It was during this period that the famous tabloid Yi Bao merged with the Xinmin Evening News. Xia Yan told Ouyang Wenbin that Tang Dalang's oil poems and Feng Xiaoxiu's ball comments of Yi Bao were very popular with readers, and they could continue to play a role in the socialist evening newspaper in the future. At the beginning of 1953, when the Xinmin Evening News was in a public-private partnership, Ouyang was transferred to work. In order to help the Evening News compile a good cultural edition, Xia Yan and Ouyang met at any time to remind her of what she could report and publicize, and when she thought of any idea, she wrote a note for the messenger to send. Ouyang Wenbin herself was able to grow into a well-known literary critic, which was inseparable from Xia Yan's earnest teachings to her. Regarding Yang Chongguang, it is worth mentioning that in 1951, it was through his efforts that he found the site of the "big" meeting of the CPC in Shanghai. As for Yao Qin, he was supposed to be the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee at that time, and he was deeply valued by Xia Yan. From September 1949 to February 1950, Yao Qin served as the deputy chief of the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau, and then became the director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, and in November of the same year, he was appointed deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. However, Xia Yan's attitude is very clear, believing that the matter in Shanghai is "probably still necessary for Yao to be his deputy, otherwise the following situation will not be understood." The "deputy" mentioned in the letter refers to the post of deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee.
Ren Baitao worked on the case
After clarifying the background of Xia Yan's reply and the relationship between the characters, look at the progress of the follow-up processing.
Xia Yan's letter to CiJifu was written on February 19. On February 23, Zhou Erfu gave instructions to the effect that Yao Qin read and handled the first item, and Zhou Rongguang did the other two items (press: Because the original handwriting is vague, it can only be judged in combination with the context). Zhou Rongguang should be a cadre of the United Front Work Department. On February 25, Yao Qin gave instructions: Please ask the Cultural Affairs Department to send a comrade to handle it. On the same day, Zhou Rongguang replied: Deng Jianyun's living problems will be temporarily resolved by the United Front Work Department, and the work problems will be decided after consulting Vice Mayor Pan Hannian. On February 27, the cadre in charge of handling the matter that Yao Qin claimed was also replied to the effect that according to Ouyang Wenbin, there was not much value in Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript, and Yang Chongguang also went to see it, first asking Yang Chongguang to write a simple and concise material out, and then studying it (Press: Because the original handwriting is vague, it is impossible to confirm who the cadre of the Cultural Affairs Department really is). On February 28, the Cultural Affairs Department submitted a report to Yao Qin on how to deal with Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript, which reads as follows:
minister:
On the issue of Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript, after we contacted the original contacts, Ouyang Wenbin and Yang Chongguang, it is said that there are not many people with high value in Ren's posthumous manuscript, only some materials related to news issues, and □ (suspected to be "also") do not apply. In addition, most of them are fragments of criticism of certain press releases, but this category is said to have a lot of cut-and-paste eyebrow criticism and other materials, a total of □ (suspected to be "about") there are one or two dozen packages. According to Comrade Ouyang Wenbin's opinion, it is not particularly difficult to sort out a catalog from such scattered materials, but it is necessary to use considerable manpower and time. She therefore proposed whether consideration could be given to asking her family members to do the preliminary tidying up work first, and then we would send someone to assist them in tidying up and improving. If we can, we should first explain the situation through the United Front Work Department and its family members, get in touch, and then gradually take over; otherwise, according to Comrade Ouyang's understanding, if we take over this sorting work in obscurity, we are bound to fall into a very passive position.
Please indicate whether the above opinions are not. Sincerely
salute!
Cultural Division
February 28
On the same day, Yao Qin gave instructions: If you agree with this opinion, please contact the United Front Work Department immediately to handle it, and Comrade Shu Yuqiu will inform Minister Xia of the situation by telephone.
The above is the preliminary handling of the issue of Ren Baitao's aftermath by the Propaganda Department and the United Front Work Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee. The United Front Work Department temporarily solved Deng Jianyun's living problems, and his work problems were also to be consulted by Pan Hannian. Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript was mainly based on the opinions of Ouyang Wenbin and Yang Chongguang, and the family members first made a preliminary arrangement, and then the Propaganda Department took over. The document does not show where Ren Baitao's ashes were buried. Because Ren's hometown is Nanyang, Henan, families generally choose between Shanghai or Nanyang. The author prefers the former option, because considering that his family will still settle in Shanghai in the future, it is convenient to bury the ashes in Shanghai to facilitate tomb sweeping. Due to the relatively limited information revealed in the archival materials, there is actually still room for examination on the handling of Ren Baitao's subsequent affairs. The first is the problem of Deng Jianyun's work, how exactly was Pan Hannian arranged? Xia Yan said in a letter to Zhou Erfu that Deng Yingchao would write a letter specifically to the Shanghai side for this matter. The second is Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript, is it true that "there are not many people with system and high value" as stated in the report? Where did the manuscript end up?
Regarding Deng Jianyun's subsequent work and life, according to the "Directory of Librarians of Shanghai Municipal Museum of Culture and History" compiled in 1988, she was born in 1904 and entered the Shanghai Municipal Museum of Culture and History in May 1962 and served as a teacher. In addition, there is a more detailed introduction on the website of the Shanghai Municipal Research Museum of Literature and History: alias Lin Ping, Guangdong Gao Heren, the department of journalism Mrs. Ren Baitao, who once served as a teacher of Nanyang Wendong and Zhonghua Girls' School, Guangdong Heshan Peiqing School, and the principal of Guangdong Taishan No. 12 Primary School. After marriage, he assisted her husband in work and housework for a long time. In October 1949, he joined the Chinese Women's Association and worked as a propaganda and education worker in the Xuhui District Women's Federation, and in 1953 he was assigned to be a staff member of the library, and in 1962 he became a librarian. From this, we can see the specific arrangements for the work of the United Front Work Department of the Municipal Party Committee after Ren Baitao's death. The predecessor of the Shanghai Municipal Museum of Culture and History, officially established in June 1953, is an honorary united front work institution under the leadership of the government, and the first director is Zhang Yuanji. Being a librarian of the Museum of Culture and History is not only a social honor, but also a financial care. The proposed librarians are mainly non-party figures, who are not less than sixty years old, and most of them have high academic attainments and artistic achievements, or have certain representativeness, greater social influence and higher popularity. Deng Jianyun was initially taken care of as a staff member in the museum, but when he became a librarian in 1962, he was just sixty years old, which was also the younger group of librarians. Behind this is the special concern of the United Front Work Department of the Municipal Party Committee for her.
Among Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscripts, systematic and the most valuable is the manuscript of "Comprehensive Journalism". With 1.3 million words and six volumes, Comprehensive Journalism can be described as the culmination of Ren's journalism research. The first draft of the book was completed as early as the spring of 1938 and was handed over to the Commercial Press for publication. In July 1941, the first and second volumes were published in Hong Kong, and the remaining two volumes, which had not yet been printed, were burned due to the outbreak of the Pacific War and the fall of Hong Kong. At the same time, the two volumes that have been published have not been corrected, and there are many errors, and Ren Baitao has discussed with the publisher to republish the edition, but he cannot get the gist, because it is easy to make up the manuscript and difficult to supplement the picture. After returning to Shanghai after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, it was unexpectedly found that there was still a paper shape in Shanghai. But since the plates— especially those of the next two volumes — had been destroyed, efforts had to be made to supplement them, and the manuscript itself had to be revised and supplemented. So Ren Baitao and the business merchants made up the repair method, and it took many years of work to complete it. In mid-May 1948, after the completion of the manuscript, Ren Baitao urged the business to quickly copy the edition. However, due to the loss of the war, the upheaval of the economy, and even the fact that there were supposedly 4,000 books waiting to be reprinted, the business could not immediately accept his request. Finally, on July 15, Ren Baitao negotiated with the commercial publisher and terminated the publishing contract. The publication was thus delayed. At that time, it was the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the publishing environment was not good, and the Commercial Press had to consider the cost and market sales issues, and it was normal for large academic books like "Comprehensive Journalism" to be shelved. Ouyang Wenbin and Yang Chongguang and others may not have understood the above situation, plus they are also busy with their own work, and it is estimated that they did not have time to carefully study Ren Baitao's manuscript before they could say this.
So, where is the final destination of Ren Baitao's posthumous manuscript? In Ren Jiayao's short biography of Ren Baitao, it is only given that all the manuscript materials of Ren are handed over to the relevant state departments for preservation, and the specific unit names are not indicated. Another theory is that his manuscripts and the materials accumulated during his lifetime were handed over to the Shanghai Museum by his wife Deng Jianyun for storage. In December 1952, the Shanghai Museum was officially opened, so this statement is also reasonable. In addition, according to Wang Gongbi's own chronicle, he recorded under the entry in 1954 (sixty-eight years old): "I have been convinced that my best friend Ren Baitao died of illness in his Shanghai apartment last year. Deeply sad! He fell ill on the eve of his work at the State Council. Dozens of manuscripts and precious reference materials of his works were reviewed by Premier Zhou Enlai and sorted out by me, and then they were fought over by the Shanghai History Museum. "Obviously, there is a time error in the chronology, and if you can believe that Ren died of illness last year, it should be recorded under the 1953 entry. In fact, Wang Gongbi only began to compile his own chronology in 1963, and it was normal for him to be weak and weak, and his memory was wrong. But what he claimed that Zhou Enlai asked him to help sort out Ren's manuscript should have a basis, and presumably it would not be fabricated. However, the reality is that Wang Gongbi was the deputy director of the Henan Provincial Library at the time, he was very busy with work and study, he was old, and the two places in Shanghai and Henan were far apart, so it was not easy to really practice. As a result, it was fought over by the "Shanghai History Museum". Wang Gongbi's "Shanghai History Museum" may also refer to the Shanghai Museum. Another "Shanghai Museum of History and Construction" is still in the planning stage. However, according to the book "Manuscripts of Chinese Cultural Celebrities in the Shanghai Library", Ren Baitao's most cherished manuscript of "Comprehensive Journalism" is currently in the Shanghai Library, which includes the first chapter of the first volume to the sixth chapter of the sixth volume. Compared with the existing catalogue of Integrated Journalism, the seventh chapter of volume VI is missing. As can be seen from the illustrations in the book, Ren has revised the manuscript many times with black pen, red pen and pencil, which confirms his attitude of excellence. Then, if the manuscript materials of the original appointment were handed over to the Shanghai Museum, how did they later go to the Shanghai Library? The author and the staff of the Shanghai Library also discussed this, and there is a possibility that, considering the division of labor between the two companies, the Shanghai Museum is mainly based on the collection of cultural relics, and Ren Baitao, as a journalist, is more appropriate for his manuscript materials to be kept by the Shanghai Library, so the transfer was made later between the two units. But in any case, the exact whereabouts of Ren's most important manuscripts are now known. It is expected that it will be published one day.
The Shanghai Library holds the manuscript of "Comprehensive Journalism"
(Ren Baitao's personal photo of this article, precious and reliable, was originally provided by his descendants to Li Ping, a cultural reporter of Nanyang Daily.) The author contacted Ms. Li Ping to indicate her intentions, and she immediately sent a few photos at hand. In addition, after Li Ping's inquiry, Mr. Ren Baitao may be buried in Xujiahui, Shanghai. Thank you together! ）
Editor-in-Charge: Yu Shujuan