Source: Beijing Daily, Beijing Literature: Wonderful Reading
Author: Liang Heng (former deputy editor-in-chief of People's Daily)
The success of a great undertaking has always consisted of two aspects: experience and lessons; The correct thinking of a political party has always been born in the process of overcoming mistakes.
Engels said that an apple is not an apple if it is cut in half. A century-old party would not have been able to come to this point without making mistakes and correcting them. When we celebrate today's glory, how can we forget those who paid the price for correcting the party's mistakes, and even gave their lives. One of the representatives is Zhang Wentian. (Attached video at the end of the article "Zhang Wentian: A Character Obscured by History")
A key to the history of the party
Zhang Wentian was the general secretary of the Communist Party of China. On April 16, 1964, Mao Zedong said that there were five secretaries of the Chinese dynasties before him: Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai, Xiang Zhongfa (the actual work was Li Lisan), Bogu, and Zhang Wentian. Mao Zedong called Zhang Wentian a "Ming Jun" and jokingly called Zhang's wife Liu Ying a "mother" (Mao was still the "matchmaker" who married Zhang and Liu during the Long March). After the Zunyi Conference in January 1935, Zhang succeeded Bogu as general secretary, and he was really "entrusted with the defeat of the army and ordered to be in danger". In 1938, the Comintern explicitly supported Mao as the leader, and Zhang served as general secretary for 4 years; In March 1943, the Politburo of the Central Committee officially presumed Mao as the chairman, and the organizational replacement was completed, and Zhang served as general secretary for 8 years. Whether it is four years or eight years, the "Fifth Dynasty" group led by Zhang is an important turning point in the fate of the CPC and the Chinese nation. Because the CCP only took 28 years from the founding of the party in 1921 to the time it took power in 1949. Looking back now, Zhang did three major things that affected Chinese history during his tenure as the fifth general secretary. The first is to put Mao Zedong in the position of leader and achieve a great man. Second, the Xi'an Incident was correctly handled, and the second KMT-CPC cooperation was realized by seizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the Communist Party was given a rare respite and grew stronger day by day.
Third, through arduous work, the Communist Party achieved the transformation of the civil war into a national war of resistance against Japanese aggression, and the Communist Party won the leadership of the War of Resistance behind enemy lines, won the hearts and minds of the people, and gained momentum step by step until it gained political power.
Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Wentian (first from right) in the Red Army
Both Zhang Wentian and Mao Zedong had strong revolutionary ideals and a spirit of sacrifice, but their backgrounds, experiences, knowledge structures and personalities were very different. Mao Zedong and Zhang Wentian (Luo Fu) had a honeymoon of cooperation, that is, after the Zunyi Conference in 1935 and before the Yan'an rectification in 1943. This is also the period when Zhang made three major contributions to the founding of the party. According to Mr. He Fang's research, from the Red Army's Long March to northern Shaanxi in October 1935 and the Sixth Plenary Session of the Central Committee in September 1938, there were 286 telegrams jointly sent by the two (signed "Luo and Mao"). During this period, they put the interests of the nation first, cooperated carefully, and respected each other. For example, as soon as the Xi'an incident came out, Mao advocated "judging Jiang", Zhang advocated peaceful handling, and Mao immediately agreed; In which direction did the Red Army develop after arriving in northern Shaanxi, Zhang wanted to go north, and Mao wanted to cross eastward, and later Zhang agreed with Mao's opinion, and led the central organs to accompany the army to "drive and march in person". The cooperation between "Ming Jun" and "capable ministers" has always been a great fortune for the country in history, and there will be a rising period of the political situation, and this honeymoon period of cooperation between Zhang and Mao is also the rising period of the political situation of the whole party. Zhang Wentian has a gentle personality, a modest style, and never loves power. After he became general secretary, he offered to abdicate on three occasions. The first time was that after the Zunyi Conference, the party needed to send someone to Shanghai to resume work in the white zone, which was of course dangerous, and he said, "I'll go." The central government did not agree, and as a result, Chen Yun was sent. The second time was Zhang Guotao's separatism, asking for power from the Central Committee, for the unity of the party, Zhang said, "Give him my general secretary", Mao said no, the result was that Zhou Enlai gave up the post of general political commissar of the Red Army.
The third time was the Sixth Plenum of the Central Committee in 1938, before which Wang Jiaxiang clearly conveyed the opinion of the Comintern in support of Mao as leader, and Zhang immediately wanted to give up the position of general secretary to Mao. Because Wang Ming was still fighting with Mao for power at that time, Mao's absolute authority had not yet been established, and Zhang was still needed to top the secretary, so Mao said that he would not discuss this issue this time.
In 1938, the front row from left: Kang Sheng, Mao Zedong, Wang Jiaxiang, Zhu De, Xiang Ying, Wang Ming, back row from left: Chen Yun, Bogu, Peng Dehuai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Wentian
20 years of patience
After Japan's surrender in 1945, Zhang, as a member of the Politburo, asked to go to Northeast China to open up work (just as he asked to open up work in Shanghai). He has served as the secretary of the provincial party committee of two small provinces, and this use is obviously demeaningful, but Zhang doesn't care, as long as he has a job to do. As early as the investigation in the northwest of Shanxi Province and the northern part of Shaanxi, Zhang became extremely interested in economic work. Now that he has his own political power, he is eager to explore a way for the people to develop the economy and become prosperous. And being diligent in thinking and enthusiastically researching new problems is almost Zhang's natural nature. After the "Xi'an Incident" in December 1936, he and his comrades-in-arms successfully facilitated the transition from a civil war to a national war, and this time he also longed for the party to complete the transformation from war to construction. He enthusiastically instructed the rural cooperatives, pointing out that there should be no urgency, and that they should first "cooperate in supply and marketing" and then "in cooperative production." What is a cooperative, if it can't increase its income, what is a cooperative? New China is about to be founded, and he summed up six economic forms in the future, and even proposed Sino-foreign joint ventures. Most of these ideas were absorbed into the report of the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of Mao Zedong. The Northeast period was the most comfortable time for him to work.
However, the good times did not last long, and in 1951 he was transferred to the Soviet Union as ambassador, which obviously meant to be released. Because a Politburo member is an ambassador to a foreign country, this is obviously a high position and a low allocation.
In 1951, Zhang Wentian went to the Soviet Union to serve as ambassador to the Soviet Union
He told Chen Yun that he hoped to return to China and change his career to do economic work. At that time, Zhou Enlai was too busy with the work of the foreign minister, and the above agreed with Zhou's suggestion to transfer him back to serve as executive deputy minister, but the foreign affairs activities did not allow him to come out more.
At the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1956, he was not allowed to make a diplomatic speech as an alternate member of the Politburo engaged in diplomatic work. Although far from the center of power, as a bystander, Zhang Wentian has shown surprisingly calm on many major matters. In 1957, he tried his best to resist and protect a group of people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the Great Leap Forward in 1958, the whole country was in a kind of dry heat, and exaggerated winds were everywhere. Although he did not care about the economy, he vigorously ignored public opinion, criticized brute force everywhere, and spoke boldly at Politburo meetings. The Beidaihe Conference in August 1958 was a symbol, proposing to double steel production and establish people's communes across the country. In October, when he inspected the northeast and saw the blast furnaces blooming everywhere, he told the local leaders that this would not work. When he returned to Beijing, he saw that a small blast furnace had also been built in his own Ministry of Foreign Affairs compound. He said it was nonsense and demanded to be dismounted immediately. The image left by Zhang Wentian in the party is that he has made mistakes, cannot be used, and is dispensable. For Zhang, in the past 20 years, how much power has been given, how much work has been done, forbearance for the party, and efforts for the country, as long as he can work. However, he is also a diligent thinker, who spends his days at the grassroots level conducting investigations and studies, contacts with the masses of workers and peasants, works himself, and has a solid theoretical foundation, so he naturally has many ideas. No matter how we look at him and treat him, for the party, for the country, for the people, and for the truth, he still has to tell the truth.
A controversy on Lushan is inevitable.
In 1955, from left: Zhang Wentian, Mao Zedong, Song Qingling, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi broke through the fog of Lushan Mountain in mid-June 1959, Zhang Wentian had just undergone an operation, and on July 2, the Central Committee held a meeting in Lushan, he could not have go, but when he saw that the topic was "summing up experience and correcting mistakes", he decided to go. At this time, Peng Dehuai had just returned from a trip to eight countries, and he was very tired and did not prepare to go up the mountain, so he strongly persuaded Peng to go, saying that when he summed up his experience and corrected his mistakes, he had to go, even if he listened to it. didn't want this persuasion, but it caused a lifelong disaster for the two. In 1959, just ten years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the cadres of the Communist Party still retained a lot of war mentality, marched forward bravely, regardless of the cost, did not allow discouragement, and did not allow to shake the morale of the military. There are also some people who blindly wave their flags and shout, such as Ke Qingshi and Zhang Chunqiao in Shanghai. During this period, Peng Dehuai's erroneous letter criticizing the "Great Leap Forward" and the "People's Communization Movement" stirred up a thousand waves with one stone, and the meeting turned to a large number of rightists. This also reflected that the whole party was not familiar with the laws governing economic construction at that time. Zhang Wentian had something to say for a long time, and he didn't vomit or be unhappy, and he wrote four or five sheets of 32 open white paper with a ballpoint pen, and circled them with a red pen. When Tian Jiaying heard that he was going to speak, he hurriedly called him and told him not to talk about the "big steel smelting" again. He put down the phone and muttered for a moment, then said to the secretary, "Leave it alone!" Hu Qiaomu also felt that the mountain rain was coming, and called on the morning of the 21st, persuading him not to say it at this time, and to be sure to talk about the shortcomings.
Zhang said: I have made up my mind.
In 1959, Zhang Wentian was in Lushan
On the afternoon of the 21st, Zhang walked from Villa 177 to the venue of the East China Group with the outline of the speech he had written in the past few days. Another bomb will explode in Lushan. Different from Peng Dehuai's letter, Zhang's speech not only focused on facts, but also paid more attention to finding reasons and analyzing things from the perspective of economics and philosophy. In response to the statement that he was not allowed to talk about his shortcomings at the meeting and was afraid of being discouraged, he said that his shortcomings must be explained thoroughly in order to accept the lesson; Only when the void qi is discharged can the solid qi rise. Summing up lessons should not just be done by saying that we lack experience, so that we will make mistakes next time, but we should find the reasons from our viewpoint, method, and style. If the communist wind blows, it is necessary to find out the reasons from the ownership system and distribution according to work. He said that it is okay to rejoice in great achievements, but the subjectivity and objectivity must be consistent; It is okay to be in charge of politics, but we must act in accordance with the laws of the economy. Bad things can become good things, which means that we have been taught a lesson, and bad things are not good things in themselves, and we should try not to do bad things. He particularly talked about the party's style and said that we should not listen to different opinions. Finally, he mentioned the letter of Mr. Peng, who was most sensitive. Knowing that Mao had already expressed his position at this time, Peng was in a situation where the wall was falling down and everyone was pushing