李怡，1936年生，香港知名時事評論家、作家。1970年曾創辦雜誌《七十年代》，1984年更名《九十年代》，直至1998年停刊。後在《蘋果日報》撰寫專欄，筆耕不輟半世紀。著有文集《放逐》、《思緒》、《對應》等十數本。正在Matters連載首部自傳《失敗者回憶錄》：「我一生所主張所推動的事情，社會總是向相反趨向發展，無論是閱讀，獨立思考或民主自由都如是。這就是我所指的失敗的人生。」

Memoirs of a Loser 83: Criticizing Ultra-Left Thought

Nov 4, 2021

Because too many people do not understand the turbulent political situation, they need to find the answer. The long article provides background information that is unknown or at least not followed up for a long time, explaining the reasons and prospects for the sudden change in the situation. This is a demand that radio, television, and newspapers can hardly meet. Only magazines can do it.

Short articles are fashionable these days, and if there are long articles on the Internet, they will warn "long articles with caution", but more than 40 years ago, "1970s" relied on long articles to attract readers, and the longer the article, the higher the sales. Because too many people do not understand the turbulent political situation, they need to find the answer. The long article provides background information that is unknown or at least not followed up for a long time, explaining the reasons and prospects for the sudden change in the situation. This is a demand that radio, television, and newspapers can hardly meet. Only magazines can do it.

Entering 1977, people are concerned about the changes in the top personnel of the CCP after the smashing of the Gang of Four, especially whether Deng Xiaoping, who was overthrown by Mao Jiang in 1976, will make a comeback. The March 1977 issue of "The Seventies" published a 20,000- to 30,000-word "Deng Xiaoping's political ups and downs", which described Deng Xiaoping's three ups and downs at the top of the CCP. He returned to work in the middle of the Cultural Revolution and replaced the sick Zhou Enlai in charge of state affairs. His political achievements, and what happened to the "three poisonous weeds" and "strange talk" that he was attacked by the Cultural Revolution faction, whether he has a chance to come back, when he will come back, etc. At the end of July, more than four months after the article was published, the CCP held the Third Plenary Session to announce Deng Xiaoping's comeback. At that time, I saw from internal documents that this article was reprinted in the "Reference Materials" within the CCP. It is very likely that the CCP's "returning dynasty" used our article to create public opinion among mainland cadres for Deng Xiaoping's comeback, because a year ago, cadres at all levels carried out extensive "criticism of Deng" studies, and now they have suddenly turned a corner, and it may be difficult to adapt to it. . This is another kind of "outside-inside processing".

At that time Hu Yaobang was the Minister of Organization, and he "liberated" the old cadres who had been overthrown. Throughout the year, veteran cadres at all levels who "returned to the dynasty" and cadres in the Cultural Revolution were purged, and there were news of personnel changes every day. At the same time, the social consciousness steeped in the ultra-leftist thinking of the Cultural Revolution must also jump out of the original concept. If all Mao Zedong's words are still regarded as "bible", many policies will not be turned around.

"The Seventies" in 1977 focused on the personnel changes at the top of the CCP, and the power struggle between the Hui Dynasty faction and the Cultural Revolution faction. We have also noticed that in Hong Kong and overseas, leftists who have been influenced by extreme leftism for many years still cannot change their ideology. In the May 1977 issue, under the pseudonym Yu Congzhe, I wrote an article "Reflections after the Gang of Four Incident", questioning many of the ideas that were unshakable during the Cultural Revolution. For example, "follow the Party Central Committee closely", "implement what you understand, and implement what you don't understand." The article specifically mentioned that "People's Pictorial" altered the photos at Mao Zedong's memorial meeting, so that the Gang of Four disappeared in the photos. The photos appeared false and ridiculous, and they believed that this was not a correct attitude towards facts and history. At that time, it was reported that leftist labor unions and schools in Hong Kong were quite opposed to this article.

In 1978, Qi Xin's comments focused on criticizing the ultra-leftist trend. Every article of nearly 20,000 words written in that year included "breaking the myth that Mao Zedong is never wrong", and "Exploring the CCP's Leftist Thought Trend" published in three issues, all of which aroused discussions in Hong Kong and abroad. Xu Zhucheng, a veteran of Chinese newspapers, told me in 1980 that at that time in the mainland, these articles were also reposted internally and reversed the extreme left thinking of many people.

It may be difficult for people today to understand the ideology of the leftists at that time. Here is an excerpt from a divorce verdict during the Cultural Revolution in 1968 that was reprinted on a Chinese website a few years ago, which may help people today understand how the leftists thought about things back then.

The highest instruction is to fight for selfishness and approve repairs!
Beijing Higher People's Court Civil Judgment (68) Gao Min Jian Zi No. 177 Appellant: Shi Dehong, male, 38 years old, a cadre of XXX in the west of Beijing. Respondent: Pan Xiulan, female, 35 years old, cadre of the XX Prefectural Party Committee of Hubei Province.
Reason: Shi Dehong and Pan Xiulan married independently in 1952. In recent years, Pan Xiulan's thinking has changed, and bourgeois thinking on marriage and family issues once prevailed. In 1964, Pan Xiulan asked for a divorce from Shi Dehong on the grounds that she had no feelings. In June 1965, the People's Court of Mentougou District, Beijing decreed that both parties divorced. Shi Dehong refused to accept the appeal. In November 1967, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court upheld the original judgment. Shi Dehong appealed to this court.
This court believes that Pan Xiulan's reference to "no emotion" is entirely the result of her bourgeois ideological development. This is a fierce ideological struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the socialist marriage family. Bourgeois ideology must be criticized and resisted from all aspects, and it must not be allowed to spread freely, and must not be allowed to undermine the socialist marriage and family system.
As long as Pan Xiulan takes "fighting selfishness and criticizing repairs" as the key link, and uses the great Mao Zedong Thought to criticize and overcome his bourgeois thoughts and behaviors on family issues, the marriage and family relationship between the two parties can be completely improved and consolidated.
The verdicts of the two Beijing courts approving the divorce eschewed the class struggle between the two ideologies and was the product of Khrushchev's bourgeois "emotionalism" in China. Both judgments were erroneous and should be set aside.
The judgment of this court is as follows: 1. Revocation of the two judgments. Second, Pan Xiulan and Shi Dehong are not allowed to divorce.
June 28, 1968

Mainland netizens described it as "too funny" (too funny). Don't be ridiculous, because history repeats itself. When politics interferes with the judiciary, to the extreme, there will be such courts and such rulings. It’s not funny that People’s Pictorial painted out the Gang of Four on its photos. Last year, didn’t the American left even remove the statues of Jefferson, the drafter of the American Declaration of Independence, and Washington, the father of the nation?

(Original post on November 3)