In 2003, Li Ruihuan stepped down as chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. At the closing ceremony of the last CPPCC National Committee presided over by him, he was quite calm.
His life history can be described as ups and downs. When his family was poor, he worked in the fields every day; in his youth, he became a carpenter and was named a "model worker". Starting from the head of the factory team, he gradually grew into a leading cadre of the party and the state.
Li Ruihuan will also lament his luck. Before him, the chairmen of the CPPCC were all big figures such as Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai, and Comrade Deng Xiaoping, and the first half of his life was spent at the grassroots level of society. How could he gain such trust from the state?
In his outgoing speech, he said: "Metabolism is an objective law of nature and human society. "He has studied philosophical theories in depth, and he has never had a heavy gain or loss.
Because he has no desires, it is always difficult to guess his thoughts. Many people want to know, what kind of retirement life does such a prominent person have?
Li Ruihuan's indifferent life after leaving office: love to write book summaries, full-time Peking Opera adaptation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > collection of essays, the style of writing is now party style</h1>
After retirement, Li Ruihuan is still busy. He had more time to think, to think about philosophy, to think about the economy, to think about society, to think about culture... He published many anthologies expressing his views and claims.
However, for officials large and small in the official arena, his views on politics and the way of being an official are the most eye-catching and have the most sobering significance.
Chen Yulu, president of Chinese Min University, once held a study forum for his "Opinions and Sayings," at which he called it "the Zizhi Tongjian of leading cadres, an encyclopedia of party and government work." ”
When Li Ruihuan first became mayor of Tianjin, some people did not look up to him very much. One Hong Kong newspaper even published an article that even said, "The mayor of Tianjin came from a humble background and never shied away from it." He came from a carpentry background, but he never felt inferior because of it."
"Labor creates the world, labor creates people, and I feel that people who look down on working people are the most ignorant and least reasonable people."
These words were uttered when Li Ruihuan was the secretary and mayor of Tianjin Municipal CPC Committee when he held a forum with representatives of outstanding sanitation workers in Tianjin. The leader, who was born into an ordinary peasant family, said earnestly: "I used to be a carpenter, and now I am the mayor by mistake, but we are completely equal."
Li Ruihuan was particularly vigilant against the phenomenon of belittling and despising the working people in society, and this kind of thinking was particularly unacceptable to public officials. In Li Ruihuan's view, to be an official is to "serve" and provide services to all the masses.
At the New Year tea party of Tianjin commercial staff representatives, Li Ruihuan once again affirmed his concept of "service" and further interpreted "service".
"A comrade who works in the bath told me that their industry is very hard, and they have to serve people every day." Li Ruihuan said, "I asked him, how many people do you have to serve in a day?" He said at least twenty, and I said you can't do this, I have to serve eight million people a day. ”
He said, I'm bitter. I said you weren't bitter enough, I had to talk to two groups of people when I was eating, and I couldn't calm down and go to sleep until three o'clock at night. ”
He did not give this example to ask for credit, but only to state a truth: everyone is serving each other, just because we serve others, but also serve others, so we can not despise any industry, the whole society is an organic whole.
Because he was born at the grassroots level, Li Ruihuan also attached special importance to the style of hard work. He stressed: Cadres must demand that they be really pragmatic in doing things, talk about misleading the country, and do solid work in a new state.
"Some of our comrades are tainted with bad habits, always sitting in the room talking loudly and making bold remarks, which sounds like they have great determination, but in fact they only sing and do not do. The mouth has traveled thousands of miles, and the ass is still in the house. ”
Li Ruihuan was particularly opposed to the inefficiency brought about by high-minded talk: "Some comrades always say that this is not right or that it is not right, that is, they do not say clearly how to be right. Always saying that this person can't do it, that person can't do it, that is, not saying that you can't do it. These people misbehave, misunderstand the country, mislead others, and mislead themselves. ”
Such remarks are his "opinions" and even more his "views". In more than thirty years of political experience, he summed up many experiences, all of which were recorded in his writings.
His writing style is simple and there are no flowery words. His writing style is hard, and every word carries a lot of weight. Sometimes he is like a kind old man, admonishing the reader in a serious tone; sometimes he is fierce and fierce in criticism.
Reading his books, you can see the party style from the style of writing. Uniting the masses, being bright and upright, seeking truth and being pragmatic, these are all manifestations of him, the principle of an old Communist Party.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > love Peking Opera, inheritance and development</h1>
After Li Ruihuan retired, he was finally able to get out of the busy government affairs and develop his spare hobbies. He has two hobbies, one is philosophy and the other is Peking Opera.
In order to continue his philosophical studies, he published the book "Philosophy for Philosophy" to disseminate philosophical ideas. In order to develop Peking Opera, he immersed himself in the study of the repertoire and revised and adapted it.
In fact, as early as when Li Ruihuan was still the mayor of Tianjin, he liked to adapt the Peking Opera script in his spare time, and this hobby lasted for more than twenty years. In 2012, he also published the book "Li Ruihuan on the Art of Peking Opera".
After leaving office, Li Ruihuan had more time to participate in the adaptation of Peking Opera repertoire. He adapted classic plays such as "Life and Death Hate", "Xi Xiang Ji", and "Chu Gong Hate", which made great contributions to the development of Peking Opera.
During a repertoire show, he humorously said: "When I started talking about holding this show, I felt a little hesitant. I'm already an obsolete person, and I'm seventy-five years old. I set myself the goal of living to be ninety years old and to enjoy the remaining five thousand four hundred days. So just now some comrades want me to change a few more scripts, I have no such plan. ”
"People who haven't changed the script don't know that this job is very painful, more difficult than writing a new book."
Li Ruihuan claims to be a fan of Peking Opera, but he is not an expert. "It's okay for me to write a speech, it's okay to adapt a script. I changed the script entirely because of my love of Peking Opera. ”
He paid attention to making Peking Opera fit with the development of the times and the needs of the audience, and the Peking Opera he adapted was almost all reduced from the original lengthy of four hours to about two hours.
Although it seems to be bold, Li Ruihuan pays more attention to inheritance than development. He never changed the repertoire at will, but carefully revised and sorted it out, retaining all the classic singing segments. An old opera fan praised his adaptation after watching the repertoire: "Compared with the content I have seen before, the structure after the adaptation is clean and clear, and most of the time is reserved for wonderful singing segments, which is very enjoyable!"
He has always advocated the importance of inheritance, demanding that inheritance be carried out first and then developed, and that inheritance and development be unified. "If we don't talk about development on the basis of inheritance, what is development?" Even the genes are gone, so it can only be called a change of profession, a variant. ”
Just as when adapting "Life and Death Hate", the "spinning" section is a classic Song section of Mei Pai, and Li Ruihuan attaches great importance to it. But it takes four hours to watch the whole play, so how long does the audience have patience? In order to adapt this play, Li Ruihuan spent two years and repeatedly revised ten drafts, while greatly shortening the length of time, while retaining the "spinning" section to the greatest extent.
Another typical example is the Peking opera "Peacock Flying Southeast". Before Li Ruihuan's adaptation, this drama had been depressed in popularity and had not been performed for a long time. Li Ruihuan carefully studied the original play and found that its play was too scattered, and the main singing section was missing in the back part, so it was difficult to attract the audience.
After Li Ruihuan thought about it, he added two new songs to this drama, "Officials and Officials Must Not Be Discouraged and Give Up on Themselves" and "Listen to the Drums of the Lou Drum and Urge Three Sounds", and now these two excerpts have become famous singing segments.
He often said: "Peking Opera is a treasure of Chinese national culture, and no matter what, it cannot be lost or damaged in our generation." ”
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" philosophy of >, philosophy</h1>
Born poor and only intermittently attended primary school, Li Ruihuan is famous for his love of reading. When he was working, he often worked and studied half-time, using his spare time to make up for knowledge, so he completed the courses of junior high school and high school and university by himself, and also learned cultural knowledge, architectural expertise and social science theoretical knowledge.
"The hardships I have put in my studies, the difficulties I have encountered in my studies, are unimaginable to many people."
Not only did he insist on reading, but he also demanded that leading cadres should read books. He loved philosophy and, especially Marxism. He felt that not studying Marxist theory was the biggest threat to the party.
At a work conference held in 1987, Li Ruihuan shared his reading experience with everyone: "I think the most important point of reading is to read hard and grit your teeth. ”
"Just like when you read poetry in ancient times, memorize it first, and then understand his meaning." Li Ruihuan said: "Is it bitter to do this? Of course it is bitter, how can reading not be bitter? There has always been a saying that 'plum blossom fragrance comes from bitter cold', as long as you persist in it without wavering, with the spirit of 'the belt is gradually widening and never regretting', you can have a new situation of 'looking back'. ”
Of course, blindly immersing himself in hard reading is something he does not approve of, and he advocates being diligent in thinking and good at thinking. "Thinking activity is the expression of human subjective initiative and is also an indispensable condition for obtaining rational understanding." In saying this, he showed the rigor and objectivity that only a philosophical lover could possess.
His reading secret is to understand the content of the book in connection with reality, and to think about the common and well-known things in life and the truth in the book.
At the same time, he also attaches great importance to the importance of writing articles. He didn't specifically learn the art of writing articles, but he could write good articles, in his opinion. This is inseparable from his life experience.
"I can't say that I can write articles now, but because I have done some practical things and studied and dealt with some problems on my own, I have my own understanding of life practice, so that I can write accurate, vivid and vivid articles."
If there is no in-depth study of the actual problem, the article written must be nothing, purely disease-free groaning. Li Ruihuan feels that the reason why some articles are not good enough is not because the vocabulary is not rich enough, or the sentences are not gorgeous enough, but precisely because the author spends too much effort on tinkering with words and spends too little time on studying facts.
Some leading cadres are accustomed to quoting an ancient poem in their articles, which is a finishing touch, and Li Ruihua does not object. But he was opposed to the excessive pursuit of beauty and spent too much time looking for excerpts.
"Everybody has their own job, and it's good for leaders to like to do some literature, but if it affects their job, it becomes a bad thing."
Speaking of the fierceness, Li Ruihuan will also take the case of Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, to warn everyone. Li Yu was a famous poet who wrote poems that flowed for hundreds of years, but he later died in the country and himself was captured by the enemy.
"I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with leading cadres memorizing poems, but I think the time of leaders is very limited, so it's also precious, and there are more important things than memorizing poems!"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" > holds a good idea and does not leave a name for the study</h1>
Some people have been critical of his life after retirement, thinking that the former chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference relied on fame to write books for his own benefit, and Li Ruihuan never defended this, but in places where the world could not see, he anonymously sponsored nearly 150 poor college students.
Since 1996, Li Ruihuan has dedicated his writing fees and bonuses to the cause of student assistance. In ten years, he anonymously donated 5.55 million yuan to poor students, helping 19 colleges and universities in Tianjin and 148 college students from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous prefectures across the country.
He also founded the Sangzi Scholarship Foundation, which provides financial assistance to special hardship college students with excellent academic qualities, and personally raised 7 million yuan in donations, plus his own 1 million manuscript fees. He auctioned the famous paintings he had treasured for 30 years and raised 27 million yuan in bursaries for the foundation.
Li Ruihuan's old subordinates recalled that when Li Ruihuan returned to Tianjin to visit his relatives in 1996, he suddenly said to him: "You help me to do something, you take a part of my writing fee every year and give it to the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee Education and Health Work Committee, so that they can distribute it to college students with family difficulties." But definitely don't spread the word, the fewer people who know about it, the better. ”
A total of 12 students who received funding that year suddenly got a sum of money and they were confused. Who gave the money? School? Or the Education Commission?
The problems came back layer by layer, and the ministry went down to seek Li Ruihuan's opinion. Li Ruihuan still refused to disclose his identity: "If you really can't push it, you can say that you are an old Communist Party member." ”
"An old Communist Party member" donated for ten years, more and more students were sponsored by him, and the mood of wanting to meet with him himself became stronger and stronger, and the person in charge of the Education and Health Work Committee could only ask him again and again.
By 2005, Li Ruihuan really couldn't get away with it, and in addition, he had retired and didn't have as many scruples as he did when he was in office, which exposed the true face of the "old Communist Party member.".
Asked why he was obsessed with the career of poor college students, Li Ruihuan smiled and said: "I do this because I have some special feelings about schooling, education and talents. ”
Li Ruihuan only attended primary school for six years, but he liked to read very much. He looked for books everywhere in the countryside, books from relatives, books from neighbors, and he had to find ways to borrow them, and he was hungry for knowledge in books.
One year, his mother asked him to go to the city to sell sorghum stubble, change a few fritters and go home to make dumplings for the New Year. After selling the sorghum stubble, Li Ruihuan was attracted to the attention of the old man selling books on the street. The book was called "Coincidence", and Li Ruihuan had heard of it for a long time, so he bought it with a longing and went home full of joy.
It wasn't until his mother asked him where the fritters were that he suddenly remembered it. His mother was so angry that he wanted to beat him, and he ran outside barefoot, and on the thirtieth night of the cold moon, only a teenager stubbornly held the book and refused to go home.
Later, my mother came out to find him, took his hand and cried, "My mother knows that you like to read, but where is the money in our family to buy you books?"
It was a night that deeply touched him, and his desire to read was so unforgettable that it became the regret of his life.
In order not to let more children have regrets, he began a donation program and insisted on not stopping for more than ten years.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="71" > conclusion</h1>
Compared with Li Ruihuan's magnificent political career, his life after retirement can be described as very leisurely. He no longer has to worry about government affairs, every day is to write books, watch dramas, leisurely and indifferent.
But really understanding what he does every day, you will find that even though he has retired from the political arena, he has never let go of the responsibility on his shoulders.
Recording his own political experience, warning his younger generations, and carefully analyzing and adapting the words and sentences of Peking Opera are all ways for him to exert his residual heat.
From Li Ruihuan's life experience, we can learn a lot. For example, people who are born poor and do not take it lightly, such as drinking water and not forgetting to dig wells. Or maybe we can learn from his consistent sobriety.
No matter what he did, he never hung up on his mouth to show off, but looked down and did things silently. As he said: "Talk less about empty words and do more practical things, empty words can not even deceive wild boars, let alone people?" ”
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="77" > references</h1>
Jin Xuan. Li Ruihuan's adaptation of the screen show was a complete success[J]. Chinese Peking Opera, 2009(6):62-62.
Zhong Chengxiang. The Dialectical Discourse of Scientific Views: A Study of Li Ruihuan's New Book "Opinions and Sayings" on The Incisive Exposition notes on Literature and Art[J]. Art Hundred, 2013(6):1-3,18. DOI:10.3969/j.issn.1003-9104.2013.06.001.
[3] Li Ruihuan: The selection of people mainly depends on political achievements[J]. Hongqi Manuscript, 2010(11):39.
Li Ruihuan. Li Ruihuan recalls his half-work and half-study career[J]. People's Digest, 2010(8):6-7.
ZHANG Jiankui. Li Ruihuan on how to be an official[J]. Decision and Information(I1),2013(7):40-45.