Editor's note: Between 1987 and 1997, Wu Lengxi wrote a memoir of great value for the study of contemporary history, "Remembering Chairman Mao - Fragments of Several Major Historical Events I Personally Experienced" (Xinhua Publishing House, 1995) and "Ten Years of Controversy - Memoirs of Sino-Soviet Relations" of hundreds of thousands of words.
The book "Remembering Chairman Mao" focuses on the speeches of Chairman Mao that Wu Lengxi heard during the "Great Leap Forward" from 1958 to 1959, including Chairman Mao's special conversation with him.
Through detailed historical recollection, Wu Lengxi enables readers to truly see Chairman Mao's basic ideas in the process of the "Great Leap Forward," and provides valuable first-hand information for the analysis and thinking of later generations.
Wu Lengxi, editor-in-chief of the People's Daily at the time, recalled in his later years-
Chairman Mao said: Now newspaper propaganda and reporting should be readjusted, not to sing high-pitched songs, to compress the air; this is not to pour cold water on it, but not to preach unrealistically high targets, to ask everyone to act in accordance with actual conditions, and to leave room for raising slogans and setting targets.
Although I heard these words of Chairman Mao, I was overwhelmed by the extensive discussion on emancipating the mind, improving style, daring to make innovations, and so on mentioned above, and therefore did not attach enough importance to them. With the arrival of the climax of the Great Leap Forward, it also washed away the mind. Chairman Mao made the following remarks:
1, the recent newspaper propaganda reflects the actual is not enough, but there are also inaccuracies, such as indicators, plans are overstated. Now to adjust it, compressed air. Speak with encouragement, but not flashy.
2, now all localities have proposed this "transformation" and that "transformation" a lot. "Transformation" means to change and reflect the aspirations of the masses. The slogan of "transformation" is loud and can mobilize the masses. But newspapers should be cautious when it comes to propaganda. For example, greening, can not say that planting some trees is greening, to live, into a piece, into a forest, like on the plane to see Shonan, Guangdong as lush as green.
Another example is water conservancy, some say that it will be realized in one year, some say that it will be realized in three years, in fact, it cannot be called "transformation", but it only changes some appearance. Another example is the "four nothings," which should be believed to be achievable, but not in one or two years or three or five years. A "transformation", a "none", do not casually publicize that it has been achieved. Even if we talk about planning and raising slogans, we must leave room for life in time and space.
3, newspaper propaganda should be in-depth, down-to-earth, and meticulous. We talk about the principle of how fast and how to save a province, and the newspapers cannot only talk about how fast and not talk about good provinces. We're going to be good at it. Big and reactive, in fact, not big but good small. To be untrue is to return without merit.
4, now the country has a climax, there are many new things, but also mixed, mud and sand. Journalists and editors should raise their political and ideological level, be able to make political judgments on the colorful phenomena in front of them, and have far-sightedness.
5, the problem of newspapers is universal, not only the People's Daily exists, but also the provincial newspaper. This summer, a meeting of editors-in-chief of national newspapers will be convened to discuss how to improve news propaganda.
The Nanning conference was a strong anti-"rightist" one, and the main theme of the Chengdu conference and the Wuchang conference was to summon up all the energy, although it also talked about leaving room or compressing the air, but the voice was weak, and by the second meeting of the Eighth National Congress in May, the call to emancipate the mind and dare to think and dare to do was overwhelming.
I presided over the propaganda of the People's Daily and the Xinhua News Agency, but because of Chairman Mao's repeated dings, I was still cautious at first, but in June, the agricultural production "satellite" began to be released, followed by steel "satellites" and coal "satellites", and the Great Leap Forward formed a climax, and the exaggeration was rampant.
At first, the people's communes were limited to typical reports, but later, from the communalization of Henan Province, a communist wind blew up. Although it cannot be said that the People's Daily and the Xinhua News Agency were primarily responsible for the pompous and communist style of 1958, I still feel deeply guilty about the bad influence caused by the propaganda work of these two units during this period.
Chairman Mao also went out of his way to tell me that the People's Daily and the Xinhua News Agency make reports and make arguments every day, and in particular, they must pay attention to keeping a cool head. We must be a promoter, but we must be a calm promoter, and we must not be a rash promoter.
Chairman Mao also said that he still had some opinions on the propaganda of the newspapers.
(November 22, 1958) In the evening, Chairman Mao sent me and Tian Jiaying to talk, mainly on the issue of compressed air and seeking truth from facts in propaganda. He particularly reminded me: Those who run newspapers and journalists must have an analysis in everything they do and adopt a correct attitude of seeking truth from facts.
It seems that Chairman Mao was very touched by the afternoon meeting, and he was still in a state of agitation when he talked to us. Chairman Mao originally wanted to discuss with the leaders of the major regional groups to reduce the production targets for 1959, first of all, the steel targets. The original indicator was determined by the Beidaihe Conference in August 1958.
Chairman Mao envisaged whether the target for steel production could be reduced from 30 million to 18 million tons. He tried to persuade them, but instead the leaders tried to persuade Chairman Mao to maintain the original target.
Chairman Mao said that they all wanted to open up my thinking, but I couldn't think straight, because they lacked a basis. Some of their regions will triple their steel production next year, some provinces will increase it fourfold, some provinces will increase it by more than ten times, and some provinces will increase it by thirty times. How can this be believed?
Chairman Mao also said that 12 ministers of the Central Committee have written reports, and the targets are frighteningly high, as if they want to make a military order. But if I don't finish reading it, don't kill your head. The Minister of Railways said that 20,000 kilometers of railways would be built in 1959. Premier Zhou presided over the draft of the second five-year plan, stipulating that 20,000 kilometers should be repaired in five years. If it's really done, I'm willing to be an opportunist.
Chairman Mao also said that in fact, the target of 18 million tons of steel is not opportunism, and whether it can be completed is still a problem, because of the steel output of more than 10 million tons expected to be smelted this year (1958), only 8.5 million tons of good steel are good.
In 1958, the doubling of steel caused 60 million people to go up the mountain, causing chaos in the world. How's it going to double or even double it next year?"
Chairman Mao explained that he had come to us to quickly tell the reporters and editors of the People's Daily and xinhua news agencies about the spirit of compressed air. He said that now propaganda should be compressed, no more false energy, real strength, do not have a hot head, let alone encourage others to be hot-headed."
Chairman Mao said: Journalists and editors who do news and propaganda work should look at problems in a comprehensive manner. To see the front, you have to see the side. To see the main aspects, but also to see the secondary aspects. To see the results, but also to see the shortcomings. This is called dialectics, the two-point theory.
Now there is a bad atmosphere, that is, we are not allowed to talk about shortcomings, not to talk about strange things, and not to talk about bad things. There are two sides to everything. Good things are not all good, there is also a bad side, on the contrary, bad things are not all bad, there is also a good side, but the primary and secondary are different, hear people say good, you have to ask if there is no harm at all? When you hear people say it's bad, you have to ask if there's no benefit at all? The Great Leap Forward is certainly a good thing, but it is not good to be exaggerated.
Chairman Mao asked us, do you think it is better to make false reports or to conceal production? He replied himself: I think it is better to conceal the property than to falsely report it. You didn't hit so much grain, you were fat, you falsely reported the yield, and as a result, the state requisitioned according to the reported output, purchased more grain, and the victims were the peasants. Concealing production and underreporting is certainly not good, but I am sympathetic.
When the grain harvest is bumper, cadres must report it in practice, and the peasants want to report less, but they want to keep more and eat more. For many years, Chinese farmers have not been able to feed themselves, and it is not a crime to want to eat more. Concealed grain production is still there, falsely reported that there is no grain. Exaggeration is very harmful.
Speaking of this, Chairman Mao again told the story, saying that if there is truth in the world, there must be some falsehood. Exaggerations have been made for a long time. In the Battle of Chibi, Cao Ying claimed 830,000 horses, but in fact, there were only 200,000 or 300,000, and they were not familiar with water, and they were defeated by Sun Quan's men, not only because Kong Ming borrowed the East Wind. Anhui has a slogan, saying: "Pick up Chao Lake as a water scoop, where there is a shortage of water, where to pour", that is to do poetry, water conservancy projects can not be so romantic.
Chairman Mao also said that some of the false reports in the Great Leap Forward were suppressed by the tasks pressed from above, and the danger of the problem lies in the fact that we have completely believed the following reports. A county party secretary forced the peasants to water the wheat and ordered a bitter battle for three days and nights, and as a result, the peasants hung lanterns on the ground at night, let the children put up the sentry, and the adults slept. When the county party secretary saw the lantern lit, he thought he had already poured wheat. In view of the prevalence of exaggeration and fraud, we cannot fully believe the report sent below, and if we want to discount it, I am afraid that we will have to beat it three points of falsehood, which is relatively stable. Otherwise, it is dangerous to plan production according to false figures, and it is even more dangerous to plan supply.
Chairman Mao stressed: In doing news work, whether a reporter or an editor, we must keep a cool head and seek truth from facts. Go down to the interview, don't let people say what you report. Think for yourself, whether it is true or not, whether it is reasonable.
Chairman Mao said: According to some provincial party committees, the People's Daily carried out reporting methods such as the schedule of the completion of water conservancy projects (such as the schedule for the completion of soil and stone projects) and the release of "satellites" (high-yield "satellites" for grain and steel) during the Great Leap Forward, which put great pressure on various localities. This is a cautionary tale. ”
After Chairman Mao said the above, he summed them up in three points. He said: First, we must seek truth from facts and find out the truth when reporting. Doesn't the news have to be true? We must find out whether it is false and real, whether it is exaggeration or falsehood or truth and certainty. News reporting is not poetry and fiction, it cannot be imaginary, and it cannot be romantic.
Second, it is time to make alum clear and clarify the confused thinking. I heard that the People's Daily had an editorial about shortening the time when the people's communes transitioned from collective ownership to ownership by the whole people, saying that it would be enough to take three or four years and five or six years, and not to use the half sentence "or longer" written on the Beidaihe resolution.
Chairman Mao said that I had deliberately added that half sentence, and at that time the idea was to be cautious. It still seems too urgent. You are even more anxious to delete that half sentence, and I don't know which Politburo member's opinion you listened to.
Chairman Mao said that in the past six months, everyone's minds have been hot, including mine, so we must give alum, we must compress the air, and it is okay to pour some cold water, but we must pay attention to protecting the enthusiasm of cadres and the masses. Taking responsibility for the wrong leadership is, don't blame the following.
Third, international implications need to be taken into account. This year, we have blown too much propaganda, which not only makes everyone dizzy at home, but also has a bad impact on the world.
Chairman Mao said: As I said at the Chengdu Conference, we should not resort to real disasters in the name of a vain, and there is this danger now. Dulles scolds us every day, indicating that he is panicked and afraid that we will soon become stronger.
Americans wonder if they are waging a preventive war against China. This is not good for us. Why do you have to shoot the head bird like that? Besides, there is an element of exaggeration in our achievements? Even if there are really so many achievements, don't brag about it, it's better to be modest.
China is a big country, but a big poor country. This year's Great Leap Forward, but even according to the figures reported now, the average annual income of farmers in the country is only about 70 yuan, and the average monthly wage of workers in the country is only about 60 yuan.
At present, some county party committees do not know the height of the sky, saying that after three years of hard fighting, they can transition to communism. Isn't that stupid nonsense? Speaking of the "poor transition", where did Ma, En, Lenin, and Si say that communist society is still very poor? They all say that the necessary condition for the transition to a communist society is that the products are extremely abundant, otherwise how can it be distributed according to needs? Some comrades want to "transition to poverty," but what advantages and attractions does such "poor communism" have?
Chairman Mao said that the supply system now practiced by the people's communes is not distribution according to needs, but egalitarianism. Chinese peasants have long had egalitarian ideas, and the "Taiping Dao" carried out by Zhang Lu at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was also called "Wudou Rice Road", and peasants who handed five buckets of rice into the Dao could eat enough every day. This is probably the earliest peasant fantasy socialism in China. We now have comrades who are anxious to make a transition to communism, which is very dangerous. The Beidaihe Conference laid down five conditions for the transition to communism, none of which could be less, and no one could be missing from the transition to communism.
Chairman Mao said very emotionally, anyway, I am not ready to rush to the transition. I'm 65 years old, and I don't rush to make the transition even when I'm dying in the future.
Chairman Mao stressed that the transition must have material, spiritual, and international conditions, and it is useless to announce the transition without the conditions. Two lines should be drawn: one line is the difference between collective ownership and ownership by the whole people, and the other is the difference between socialist society and communist society. Do not easily declare the transition to ownership by the whole people, still less easily declare the transition to communist society.
Chairman Mao also said that our Great Leap Forward and the communization of the people frightened not only Dulles but also Khrushchev. However, it seems that Khrushchev is still more cautious, and he is only talking about the conditions for the transition to communism within 12 years, and does not say that the transition will be made when the time comes.
Some of our comrades are hot-headed and want to make a transition ahead of the Soviet Union, which is very bad. Comrades in the Soviet Union have been building socialism for 41 years, and we have only been doing it for 9 years, so we want to be the vanguard. People have young and middle-aged, and the water has streams, rivers, lakes and seas. Things have a certain degree of measurement, there is a relative prescriptiveness, from quantitative change to qualitative change there must be a process, can not arbitrarily think of the transition on the transition.
Chairman Mao said: Reporters and editors of the Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily should keep a calm head, use their own brains more, think independently, and not follow the crowd and echo the crowd. Investigate, get to the bottom of it. It is necessary to compare, compare with the surroundings, compare with the front and back, and compare with the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries.
There was a Taishou in the Tang Dynasty who tried the case, not asking the plaintiff and the defendant first, but first understanding the people and environment around the plaintiff and the defendant, and then interrogating the plaintiff and the defendant after the investigation was done. This is called the hook method, which is also known as the comparative method. Journalists and editors should learn this method of investigation and research, which is actually a method of thinking and seeking truth from facts.
At this time, Chairman Mao pointed at me and said,,—— "People like you must be sober-minded and seek truth from facts."
Chairman Mao and I had a very frank conversation with Tian Jiaying, and sometimes even quite excited. It seems that after the afternoon conversations with the leaders of the major districts, the thoughts were quite active, and they talked endlessly, all the way to the middle of the night.
Finally, Chairman Mao asked me to tell this spirit to the reporter as soon as possible and asked me what method I could use to hurry up. I told him that Xinhua News Agency was holding a national branch meeting in Beijing, and the chairman's opinion could be conveyed to the meeting. Chairman Mao first proposed whether the meeting could be moved to Wuhan, and then took into account the inconvenience of temporary arrangements, and the Central Committee would hold the Sixth Plenary Session after the enlarged meeting of the Politburo, and many people would come.
Tian Jiaying proposed that the General Office of the CPC Central Committee has special planes to and from Beijing and Han every day, and can go back tomorrow to convey the news, and come back to hold a meeting the day after tomorrow. I think it is feasible, and Chairman Mao agrees to do so.
From 1957 to the summer of 1966, Wu Lengxi served as the editor-in-chief of the People's Daily and the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee. In 1975, he was appointed as a leading member of the Political Research Office of the State Council and the Mao Xuan Materials Group