In 1978, all party members and cadres across the country were required to strictly implement the "two whatevers", a seemingly stable directive, but in practice it limited the ideological innovation of cadres.
Song Ping
In the context of Chinese politics in 1978, with the implementation of the "two whatevers" policy, the problems brought about by it gradually became an open topic.
This policy was originally intended to maintain political stability, but in the actual implementation process, due to its overly rigid nature, especially in the context of promoting ideological emancipation throughout the country, it appeared too outdated and could not meet the new development needs, but instead became an important obstacle to social development.
Against this backdrop, some forward-looking leading cadres began to express opposition to this policy, among which the first three provincial party secretaries - Song Ping, Ren Zhongyi and Yang Yichen - their actions were particularly conspicuous.
Song Ping was serving as the first secretary of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee in this year.
His background was very rich, from his participation in revolutionary work in the spring of 1936, to his formal entry into the Communist Party of China in December 1937, and then to his long-term work in the northwest region, Song Ping accumulated a great deal of political and management experience.
In 1978, as the first secretary of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, Song Ping was faced with the policy of "two whatevers," and he believed that continuing to implement such a policy would not only shackle the thinking of local cadres, but might also have a greater negative impact on the ongoing work of bringing order out of chaos throughout the country.
To this end, he organized several internal meetings of the provincial party committee to discuss the rationality of this policy with local cadres.
At these meetings, Song Ping was not in a hurry to draw conclusions, but encouraged the participating cadres to speak freely and fully express the specific problems they encountered in their practical work.
Some cadres, out of respect for the "two whatevers," still believe that this policy is an important guarantee for maintaining stability; However, some cadres pointed out that in the practical work of economic construction and ideological emancipation, this policy has indeed brought many obstacles.
Through these in-depth discussions and researches, Song Ping gradually formed his own views.
He believes that this kind of blindly rigid implementation method is very likely to play a counterproductive role in the process of putting things in order and hinder the in-depth development of reform.
In order to better verify his judgment, Song Ping arranged a series of research activities to go deep into various regions of Gansu Province and visit cadres and ordinary people at all levels on the spot to understand their real thoughts and practical difficulties in their work.
In the course of the investigation, Song Ping came into contact with many grassroots cadres, and their feedback further confirmed his view: in specific work practice, cadres do not dare to put forward new ideas for fear of violating the "two whatevers" policy, and this way of thinking has seriously restricted local development.
After summarizing the results of these investigations, Song Ping convened a meeting of the provincial party committee again to report the investigation to cadres at all levels in detail.
He made it clear that in the face of problems, we cannot avoid them, nor can we blindly stick to the rules.
In the end, he decided to take the lead in expressing his views to the central authorities, proposing to re-examine the rationality of the "two whatevers" policy and suggesting necessary adjustments.
Ren Zhongyi
Ren Zhongyi was born in 1914, three years older than Song Ping, and embarked on the revolutionary road at an early age.
In the "12·9" movement that shook the whole country in 1935, Ren Zhongyi, who was only 21 years old, actively participated in it.
In 1936, Ren Zhongyi officially joined the Communist Party of China and began his revolutionary career.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Ren Zhongyi's work experience was extremely rich, he served as the secretary general of the anti-Japanese guerrilla headquarters, Ren Zhongyi's leadership ability was fully reflected in this period, he shuttled through the enemy-occupied areas with the team, not only planned many successful guerrilla warfare, but also contributed to the construction of the guerrilla cadre team.
In addition, Ren Zhongyi also served as a teacher at the cadre school.
In that era of scarcity of materials and difficult conditions, the education of cadres was particularly important, and Ren Zhongyi's task was to train more revolutionary backbones for the anti-Japanese base areas.
After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Ren Zhongyi continued to work in major military regions, especially in the early days after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and his work was still inseparable from the army.
In the northeast, southwest, and other regions, he was responsible for organizing and managing the affairs of local military districts, and helped the new China's armed forces gradually transition to the development path of regularization and modernization.
During Ren Zhongyi's tenure as the first secretary of Liaoning Province, in the face of the implementation of the "two whatevers" policy, Ren Zhongyi used theoretical analysis to openly put forward his own opinions.
He made full use of his political experience and theoretical knowledge accumulated over the years to systematically write an article entitled "Theoretically Fundamental Rectification of Chaos."
In the article, Ren Zhongyi further pointed out the theoretical limitations of the "two whatevers" approach.
In his view, this kind of policy is not theoretically flexible enough, it ignores the actual needs of social development, and runs counter to the principle of seeking truth from facts.
In practice, this approach has exposed many problems.
Ren Zhongyi enumerated the specific difficulties encountered by Liaoning Province in the process of implementing the "two whatevers," especially in the areas of economic reform and ideological emancipation.
Cadres are afraid to innovate for fear of violating policies, which has led to stagnation in local economic development, and many problems that need to be solved urgently have not been dealt with for a long time because of policy constraints.
In his article, Ren Zhongyi explicitly called for rational adjustment and reform of the existing political policy to meet the new requirements of social development.
Ren Zhongyi stressed: Continuing to adhere to the "two whatevers" is tantamount to making the country miss the best opportunity for reform, and only by boldly carrying out ideological emancipation and economic reform can the country embark on the road of real modernization.
After the article was published in 1978 through Guangming Daily, it immediately attracted wide attention in society.
At that time, it took great courage to dare to openly criticize such a sensitive policy as "two whatevers."
It is precisely because leading cadres like Ren Zhongyi have the courage to speak out and criticize at critical moments that China's reforms have been carried out smoothly and society has gradually prospered.
Yang Yichen
Yang Yichen showed strong patriotic enthusiasm when he was a student and actively participated in many revolutionary movements.
As early as the thirties of the twentieth century, when the student movement was surging, Yang Yichen, as a young student, stood at the forefront of the movement many times, participating in organizing and mobilizing the struggle against imperialism and feudalism.
With the development of the revolutionary situation, Yang Yichen soon joined the Communist Party of China and officially embarked on the road of a professional revolutionary.
After joining the party, he was sent to Yan'an, where he received a systematic education in Marxism-Leninism.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Yichen actively participated in the front line of the Anti-Japanese War. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yang Yichen was sent to the northeast and began to engage in local economic and political construction.
During his tenure as secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee, Yang Yichen insisted that the "two whatevers" policy would only lead cadres into ideological shackles and could not solve practical problems in accordance with the principle of seeking truth from facts.
At the provincial party committee meeting, Yang Yichen often directly pointed out the problem of "two whatevers".
In light of the actual situation in Heilongjiang Province, he clearly pointed out that the rigid implementation of such policies will lead to the shelving of many problems that should be solved, affecting the development of the local economy.
Cadres have become conservative for fear of violating policies, and they are afraid to come up with new ideas, let alone try to innovate in their actual work.
Yang Yichen also publicly stated that if such a policy is continued, Heilongjiang's development will stagnate or even regress.
He was adamant at the meeting that he would rather sacrifice his position than see the organization make a bigger mistake by sticking to the wrong policies.
Yang Yichen's courageous and realistic work attitude has won the support of more and more cadres.
Many grassroots cadres in Heilongjiang Province have begun to lay down their ideological baggage and take an active part in various aspects of local economic reform.
Under the guidance of Yang Yichen, they gradually found a way to carry out their work under the new situation, no longer shackled by the "two whatevers" framework, and began to proceed from local realities and put forward suggestions that are more in line with Heilongjiang's economic development.
The older generation of revolutionaries commemorated the first anniversary of Chairman Mao's death
Regarding the theory of "two whatevers", in addition to the above three provincial party secretaries, as early as the first anniversary of Chairman Mao's death, many revolutionaries of the older generation also expressed their views on the theory while issuing articles to commemorate it, including Nie Rongzhen, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Yun and Zhang Dingcheng.
In his article, Nie Rongzhen specifically pointed out that the core of Chairman Mao's thought lies in practice.
He stressed that any correct thinking must eventually be derived from practice and must also be returned to practice to be tested.
This viewpoint was in line with the questioning of the "two whatevers" policy by many cadres at that time, holding that we should not blindly stick to the instructions of the past, but should adjust our work ideas according to the experience in practice and the actual situation.
Chen Yun expressed a similar sentiment in his commemorative article.
Chen Yun believes that the core of Marxism is to proceed from reality, and only through the attitude of seeking truth from facts can we correctly implement and apply Chairman Mao Thought.
Xu Xiangqian and Zhang Dingcheng also emphasized the importance of combining practice and theory, believing that only through specific practical tests can we truly understand and correctly apply Chairman Mao's thought.
This emphasis on practice was in stark contrast to the rigid implementation of policies by many cadres at the time.
These views of Nie Rongzhen, Chen Yun, Xu Xiangqian, and Zhang Dingcheng eventually had an important impact on the emancipation of the mind nationwide.
After 1978, with the advancement of reform and opening up, more and more cadres realized that only through practice and testing could they formulate policies that met actual needs.
The spirit of "seeking truth from facts" emphasized by the revolutionaries of the older generation has become the ideological source of promoting this process and has helped China embark on a new path of development.
Resources:
Wang Yisheng. A Brief Discussion on the People's Nature of the New "Two Whatevers" Embodying the Party's Governing Concept", Journal of the Party School of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee