my tear china

introduction

This article was not originally intended to be written. When I saw "My Eight Chinas" written by Mr. Liang Qizhi and the N China topic initiative, I felt that the idea was very good, especially as Mr. Liang wrote:

China is so big, who is qualified to say that he understands it? It is better to take a step back and let everyone admit that their understanding is one-sided. But if everyone took out a small piece of themselves, maybe something could be pieced together.

Everyone has come to admit that their understanding is one-sided.

This starting point is important because when everyone is willing to admit that our understanding is always limited, a lot of disputes can be avoided. When people have different understandings of China, it can be accepted that we are only touching different parts of the same elephant, and we do not have to convince or even overthrow the other party.

In the chaos of online discourse in recent days, this is an opinion that I particularly agree with. In terms of willingness, I have always wanted and felt it was necessary to start a discussion about the country. However, in the original writing plan, it came later. In addition, my writing is slow, I guess I can't keep up with Mr. Liang's activities.

However, as I had a hunch when I read Mr. Liang's article, Mr. Liang's rather peaceful article also caused some controversy in the community, once again confirming the tearing of the Chinese public discussion space. Regarding this situation, I feel that there are a lot of things that should be discussed and should be discussed, so I will temporarily put aside the original plan and try to write about it. (Because of the main purpose of this article, it should still be titled: My tearing apart China, which is not suitable for the "N China" activity initiative. It should only be regarded as a kind of participation in Mr. Liang's article and controversial discussions.)

from the giant river

The local China, classical China, and discrete China written by Mr. Liang reminded me of Mr. Bai Xianyong's "Taipei People" and Mr. Qi Bangyuan's "Giant River". In addition to the recognition and advocacy of freedom and democracy from the bottom of my heart, in terms of my personal impression, it is closer to "The Giant Stream" as a whole. I would like to talk about some personal feelings in conjunction with this epic work.

"Giant Liuhe" I read the Taiwan version. Before this, I had seen some fragments of letters between Qi Bangyuan and the pilots of the Flying Tigers, Captain Zhang Dafei, and works such as Bai Xianyong's A Hand of Green. I have a hunch that I will once again be deeply moved by the irresistible blessings and misfortunes of people in that special era.

But when I really read it carefully, I realized that what I expected was still too simple.

In "Giant River", there are too many people, too many turbulent years and hardships. With both magnificent and subtle words and detailed records, Qi Bangyuan has slowly opened up many forgotten folds in the corners of history, and brought the unspeakable joys and sorrows of the fate of that generation to the light of day.

From the beginning of his life in the northeast of the Qi family, his father, Mr. Qi Shiying, fought and prospered all his life. He once followed General Guo Songling and opposed the civil war between domestic warlords. After the mutiny was defeated, he contacted the Northeast righteous people to fight against Japan, and ran for the education of the exiled youth in the Northeast. Even after the withdrawal from Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek was expelled from the Kuomintang because of his dissent, but he never gave up the promotion of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.

Because of his father's study and work, Qi's mother, Jiang Yuzhen (later renamed Junyi), had to bear and raise children by herself for a long time. In the midst of war, she even took her children to flee. She even faced the loss of her youngest child and daughter alone. Grief. Even so, she devoted her whole life to taking care of everything in the family, and she led the family in the midst of war and chaos, and still showed special care to all the family members of her compatriots, whether in exile or in difficulty.

It must be specially mentioned that, in today's era, I am used to the complex and treacherous political figures, but I can still see such noble people as Qi Bangyuan's parents, which makes people's minds clear.

For the memory of her parents, Qi Bangyuan wrote in "Giant River":

It was an easy task to organize their belongings, my mother had not had a single piece of jewelry in her life, nor a single thing of value. There is a small broken suitcase in her closet, which contains some old photos from Nanjing to Chongqing, demobilized back to Peiping and then to Taiwan (I didn't have a single photo from my childhood), and there are eight beds on the top floor. Quilts, I know that after she moved to Neihu, she often went to a traditional quilt shop in Changsha Street, Taipei, and ordered all kinds of thick and thin quilts. She said: "Now I have my own home, and guests can come and take a good time. I’ve entertained.” In fact, all the people she entertained were gone, the revolutionary, the anti-Japanese, the Shanhaiguan guards, the Taierzhuang people, the people fighting the Yunnan-Myanmar Road, the villagers who fled, the homeless youth… all passed by. I left her two quilts and built them for more than ten years in the winter of Lishui Street, and the era of traditional hand-bombed quilts has passed.

It is even easier to clean up my father's belongings. After he left the Kuomintang in 1954, he was kept in custody. Before and after Uncle Lei Zhen was arrested in 1960, he burned all correspondence and manuscripts so as not to harm his friends. He did not leave any letters for many years in the years to come. In his desk drawer, I only saw a few letters from Zhang Qun to cut diplomatic relations with Japan, letters from Aso and Zixie, the daughter of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who went to Japan to express condolences to my father; there was also a wooden box. It was packed with a red wrapping scarf from Yoshida's funeral with four lines of Chinese poems on it; birthday cards sent by the grandchildren to their kittens and bears; a diary found in the bedroom; a "Philosophy Series" he bought from Germany Twenty volumes (hardcover, 1920 edition); the complete set of twenty-four histories, which was purchased and refined in Shanghai that year, has always been on his bookshelf. After my mother died, we didn't know if we should go to show him the book. At this time, it was devoured by termites and devastated. Only the first half page and the cover were left. The wooden box was broken at the tentacles and only burned.

After both my parents passed away, I struggled and struggled, unable to swim in his tears. My blood inherited his wandering tears.

In Qi Bangyuan's life, she had a short childhood memory in the Northeast. After that, she went to Nanjing with her mother and brother to reunite with her father, but she didn't know that leaving her hometown was almost the beginning of her life.

She used to live in a nursing home at a young age and had an awareness of death. Later, because of the situation, he and his family moved to Peiping, Tianjin and Nanjing many times. Shortly after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the teachers and students of the Northeast Zhongshan Middle School, who were close to his father, fled together. Fleeing Nanjing 20 days before the Nanjing Massacre, the road was bumpy, from Wuhu, Hankou, to Xiangxiang, Changsha, Guilin, then to Huaiyuan, into Sichuan, to Chongqing. On the way, she heard people who fell on the train, saw people who were squeezed off the ferry, and her sister who died on the way, as well as teachers and students who were caught or injured and died. When she was in middle school and high school, she was very familiar with the alarms that might come at any time and everything she needed to do to avoid air strikes.

At that time, she met her brother's classmate, Zhang Dafei, who was also from the Northeast, but his family was broken. Zhang Dafei was determined to apply for the flight school during the escape. He was grateful for the care of the Qi family and kept a letter to her. He was the first person to talk to her about his soul. After Qi Bangyuan was admitted to Wuhan University in Leshan during the war, their relationship continued to deepen, but Zhang Dafei had been in the air all day to fight, knowing that he was "mortal", did not dare to love her again, and gradually became estranged. He finally died a few months before the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

Qi Bangyuan did not love politics. In 1947, in the political chaos after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, she graduated from university and went to Taiwan, which was far away from the chaos at that time. Unexpectedly, in 1949, when relatives and friends retreated to Taiwan, they were busy picking up the ship, and they also witnessed the annihilation of the fully loaded Taiping Wheel. After that, he devoted almost his whole life to the education and research of English, literature, and Chinese-English translation.

In many details throughout the book, my various emotions seem to have been slightly burned by the little flame of Qi Bangyuan's life, rising with the heat and permeating my mind. Tears poured in, making me seem to be closer and more real to that distant and vague age.

The work "Giant Flowing River" is so moving, but there are still some things that make me confused.

For example, it is mentioned many times in the book that Zhang Xueliang was ignorant of the general situation and lacked ability, which caused the Xi'an Incident and "damaged the overall situation". As I understand it, this is about the consensus of Qi Bangyuan and Qi Shiying - the Xi'an Incident was an important reason for Chiang Kai-shek's distrust of the Northeast people after the war, and the officials who took over the Northeast after the war were not officials who knew about the Northeast at all, and they eventually easily lost the Northeast. , lost three major battles and so on.

From the perspective of the Qi family, I fully understand her emotional identification with anti-communism, especially many of her respected and beloved teachers and friends, such as Zhu Guangqian, Mr. Wu Bi, etc., like countless Chinese intellectuals who deserve to be respected, suffered during the Cultural Revolution. The encounter was embarrassing. Her family's ancestral tomb in the northeast has been ploughed into farmland, and there is no root to pay tribute to and reminisce.

However, if Zhang Xueliang hadn't "made a big mistake" in the Xi'an Incident, he would have followed Jiang's order and resolutely "suppressed the Communist Party".

I think first, since the CCP seized power, from the land reform, the Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine, to the Cultural Revolution, student protests, Xinjiang concentration camps and other evil acts, is it just the CCP’s cause? etc., not being responsible for it, is still worth discussing.

Second, the groups to be eliminated by "suppressing the CCP" are of course political leaders, heroes and careerists, but there may be a large number of idealists who are attracted by pure political ideas, or who are simply "killed devils and defended their families". Ordinary people and their families who are embraced by such a pure and good vision of the country.

They—actually the same as Mr. Qi wrote, the children asked "Why is Dad's head on the city wall?" The righteous people and their families, the difference is very limited.

When Qi Bangyuan was in college, a senior who was cared about her turned to slander and attacked her repeatedly because she was no longer willing to go to the "forward" gatherings of the intellectual leftists and sang Dongfanghong, Mao Zedong, etc. . Let her begin to understand the alienation of people from political struggles. She wrote that this was the beginning of her reluctance to intervene in political affairs for the rest of her life.

She did so, she went to Taiwan early. After becoming famous, when he was in charge of the "Republic of China PEN Quarterly", he soon resigned when he encountered a meeting in the form of officials and bureaucrats.

But such a strange woman seems unable to escape, the influence of politics on the Chinese people in this era. For example, she will bluntly say that when Mao Zedong participated in the National Political Council in Chongqing, he declared that he would obey the leadership of President Jiang, which was one of the biggest lies heard in this life. But even after Jiang retired to Taiwan, there was a period of white terror, and there is no evaluation of Jiang in the book. In the second half of the book, although she is devoted to the study of Chinese and English studies, in some literary affairs, she will come into contact with the works of the mainland, or the pen associations of mainland writers, and even have some disputes with each other. In the end, it is inevitable that there will be a very obvious sense of oppositional differentiation. (This kind of differentiation, when I read Mr. Liang’s article, also felt that there was some, in fact, when I wrote about Hong Kong myself, I think it was also there.)

I can really understand it. After all, if a person is not closer to the relatives and friends he loves and respects, who can he be with? But in addition to this understanding, I still feel confused and melancholy - "China", "Mainland/Mainland", "Taiwan", "Hong Kong", "Overseas Chinese", maybe each of these words, they are all related to each other. It's very different . But what is behind this difference, and where will it go?

China and Mu Qiang

What is China today? If we only talk about it politically, it is a country that believes in communism/socialism, or learns from the Soviet red autocracy, there are many things that don't make sense.

For example, communism/socialism should generally care about the general public, and especially respect the lower classes of society . In fact, China can oppress and manipulate the lower classes of society at will. This is not difficult to see from Beijing's violent expulsion of low-end populations, mass demolitions, urban management violence, and suppression of rights defenders.

If it is like the Soviet-style red autocracy, when there is still a dream of fully achieving communism, it will hope and help the proletarians and laborers all over the world to unite. For example, in the establishment and early activities of the CCP, until the 1950s when a large number of Soviet Union aided construction, a lot of funding, theory and talent support were provided by the Soviet Union. However, since the 1990s, China has gradually entered the global economic system. Governments and officials at all levels across the country have been constantly attracting investment (motivated by political achievements and self-interest), and it has become a big company that only goes for money. In addition to the friendly and favorable policies, labor is cheap, easy to manage, generally not afraid to seek employment and other low-human rights advantages. It is also a major reason for the large number of Hong Kong and Taiwan businessmen at first, and then global capital is willing to invest and build factories in China. reason.

In the process of introducing capital in China, it voluntarily released a large number of low-human rights labor force to the world. As a result, the proletarians of the world as imagined by Marx have been completely divided, and there is no need to talk about uniting.

Perry Anderson, in an exclusive interview with Shanghai Book Review, said:

By the late twentieth century, the classic working class as conceived by Marx had been “outflanked” by capital—to use a term used by Michael Mann—when capital had acquired near-complete geographic mobility. To put it bluntly, workers are fixed in space, and capital can now move around, wherever the cost is lowest and the profit is highest. This has led to massive deindustrialization in the rich countries of the first world, outsourcing production to cheap labor areas on the fringes of the system. As a result, the global workforce has been reorganized in a very negative sense. Not that the working class has disappeared, but today it is atomized, demoralized, and divided in an unprecedented way.

A government that claims to have inherited Marxism has become the most enthusiastic participant in the " differentiation " of the working class, and even became a "world factory" for a time. If Marx is resurrected, what should you think?

Qi Bangyuan said in "Giant River" that the Kuomintang, which her father once joined, is a revolutionary party with a fresh image. What happened later, we all know from history.

I think that the Communist Party in mainland China has a "fresh image" time. However, in the course of historical changes, the lost ideal may not be recovered by "not forgetting the original intention".

During the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution, and even the 1989 student movement, there were still many middle- and high-level Communist Party members who, whether oppressed or shattered by their ideals, would fight or die in depression or even choose to commit suicide. But in the Wenchuan earthquake, so many human-caused tofu slag teaching buildings took the lives of countless children, and middle and high-level officials feel uneasy? In this pandemic that has afflicted the world, there are many politicians around the world who have taken the blame, reviewed, resigned and even committed suicide. How can such people still be seen in the middle and high levels of the Communist Party?

Mr. Qin Hui, a former professor of Tsinghua University, said that after the merger of East and West Germany, the development of East Germany was not as good as that of West Germany, and there were many complaints from all walks of life. He made an assumption:

The Berlin Wall is still there, and the government can still grab the land of anyone who wants to grab it. If it wants to expel the workers, it will directly expel the workers; the peasant peasant associations and the labor unions of the workers cannot bargain ; the government provides the West with what no democratic country can provide. The most favorable investment promotion policy.

This way, there will be no worries that there is no manufacturing industry in East Germany now, because all the capitalists in West Germany will rush to move factories to East Germany, turning the whole East Germany into a huge sweatshop, and turning all East Germans into peasants workers, and then produced large quantities of goods to cover the West German market.

At this time, the so-called deindustrialization and the so-called unemployment problems will not appear in East Germany, but will appear in West Germany. Then the West Germans would complain that we now have no manufacturing, no jobs.

The most important thing is that the whole set of so-called social market economy represented by high welfare and strong trade unions established in West Germany after the war is impossible to maintain. Because the capitalists have run away, who are your workers going to negotiate with? What bargaining power does your union have? There are no capitalists and no tax base. How can you maintain your high taxes and high welfare? There will be a serious crisis as a whole.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for East Germany to unify West Germany, but once a major chaos occurs in West Germany and an uncontrollable state occurs, it is not unthinkable for East Germany to use abnormal means to unify West Germany.

In this regard, Professor Qin Hui concluded:

But can it be said that socialism defeated capitalism, and can it be said that Confucian civilization gave birth to Western civilization? As I say, this is exactly 18th century capitalism defeating 21st century capitalism, and sweatshops defeating the welfare state .

Professor Qin Hui's hypothesis did not take place in East Germany, but I think anyone who has carefully experienced China's economic development in the past 30 years knows where it came from.

And I want to combine what the two wise men Qi Bangyuan and Qin Hui saw. Since the Revolution of 1911, the Kuomintang has retreated from Taiwan, and then to the current situation in China. Can it be said that a revolutionary party with a fresh image has defeated another revolutionary party that has declined? Can it be said that Marx and communism defeated the Three People's Principles and capitalism? Can it be said that it is because of the unique red system that it has brought unprecedented liberation to the Chinese nation and created an unprecedented great renaissance?

To me, this is nothing more than a group of rebels who defeated another group of former rebels. After sitting in the country, they finally had a period of time without tossing and recuperating for the people, and then used all the achievements that came from the blood and sweat of the subjects and the people, crazy. To decorate your own facade, you want to be a stepping stone to your fame.

How different is this from those dynasties in China's thousands of years of history?

In China today, the society with low human rights in essence, the great development of the sweat industry, and the propaganda of serving the people and red ideas are completely contradictory and contradictory. Peeling off the ridiculous skin, Mu Qiang is a very prominent point among its true characteristics.

The hot words of discourse in recent years, such as rapid economic growth, core competitiveness, outlet industry, traffic, financial master/party A father, big infrastructure, the rise of a big country, national rejuvenation, powerful my country, road confidence, international discourse power, Wolf Warrior, a community with a shared future for mankind proposed (led) by China, even talent introduction, talent bonus, practical talent training, etc.

Then there are the attitudes of the domestic public towards many things, such as their longing for “great unification”; they look down on and disdain to truly understand many regions where the global economic development is not strong and unhappy; a high sense of national pride and identity; Questioning public power, democratic processes, human rights claims and a series of things that may bring about "chaos" and detrimental to "stability" and a strong situation, a large number of people will not really like it, nor are they interested in in-depth understanding.

All of the above, as well as the phenomenon that Mr. Liang's article wrote about the worship of official power on the mainland side, and the obvious difference in power, are in essence, not unrelated to Mu Qiang.

In the article "I Still Want to Grab Sand" , I talked about the "strong" desire of the mainland government.

It seems that the CCP system has always been like this. No matter what kind of strife and struggle, no matter how hurtful it is, just like the June Fourth Movement, they will never admit their mistakes. Fan.

What puzzles me is that this attitude, which is never easy to say wrong, is more in essence, is it really tough, or is it extremely weak inside? This is not even a simple sternness, but a kind of gentleness and compliance on the surface, but in fact it is as hard as an iron curtain, and it is extremely difficult to change; as for whether it is really strong and self-confidence on the inside, or full of timidity, always worried about losing the correctness , it is impossible to know.

This kind of operation, which is not uncommon, seems to reveal the chaos, clumsiness and even stupidity of the ruling party. But at the same time, it seems that there is an unbelievable intention behind them - they may think that they have found the possibility of reconciliation, iron curtain, self-confidence, fear, and even inferiority and grandeur, all of which can be brought together in one furnace.

Whether they are worried or fearful, they have long been superstitious about power, tough stances, and powerful intervening governments. Just like in 1998, while working on the 985 project to build a so-called world-class university, it also began to build an Internet wall and constantly build a barrier to information isolation. This kind of policy, which Peter Hessler called Americans incomprehensible - "educational enlightenment and strict control and control go hand in hand and are implemented simultaneously", in fact, it seems that the effect is very good now, and it is very much in line with the government's expectations.

Since the 1989 student protests, colleges and students have once become the enemy of governance and stability. Nowadays, many students of the new generation feel that they are not patriotic enough to talk about "Mr. De" and "Mr. Sai". , is also a big deal.

Education is a microcosm of society. Under various powerful interventions, the "confidential troubles" of each government in the country have been "properly handled", and these obvious results will make them inextricably obsessed with the taste of power.

In addition to the government, the mainland society is also deeply immersed in the Muqiang complex. This has its origins in Chinese history and culture.

Mr. Xu Zhuoyun mentioned in "Eternal Rivers" that since the late Zhou Dynasty, after the feudal system of feudal lords and fiefs disintegrated, during the Warring States Period, countries reorganized the national order and formed the system of households and the people. He wrote:

Individuals in the Qimin system of registering households in Chinese history were not citizens of ancient Greek city-states, nor citizens of today's sovereign states. Qimin, rather, are many commoners of the same status. Under the rule of the ruling class, they have a certain status. Their rights are protected by state law, and they must also undertake the obligation to pay taxes and serve. Qimin is a commoner who is subordinate to the state governing body and is a member of this huge community, but cannot share the sovereignty of the community . Sovereignty belongs to the ruling class, and does not belong to the common people and subjects of Qimin. From the Warring States Period to today, in the more than 2,000 years of Chinese history, the system of registering Qimin as a household has actually not changed much.

It can be seen that historically, the Chinese are accustomed to believing in this huge community and are willing to respect concepts such as "nation under heaven". Even if a young child sits on the throne, most people, regardless of their strength, talent and financial resources, will bow down to the emperor. In addition to the person on the throne, what he worships is a fictional giant that is commonly recognized by the Chinese society as the "nation of the world". This kind of psychology of worshipping the huge community is the continual fire of "Mu Qiang".

To this day, most of the pragmatic and timid Chinese people are afraid, powerless, and not very interested in fighting for the so-called rights of citizens. What they are used to, and are allowed to hope for, is a strong government. If the country is stable and prosperous, then their life, relatively speaking, will most likely be easier. Even if there are always people who will be bullied and oppressed by the power, no matter how many Chinese people are, the probability is not high after all.

I would like to take Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, as an example again. Because he is really a typical person, from his interviews, newspaper running experience, and the elaboration of his usual views, it can be seen that, unlike those stupid and bad bureaucrats, he is a capable and intellectual. people. So, how did he become such an outstanding party media mouthpiece?

It can be seen in the text of his mourning for his deceased father in early May that his family was also hit hard during the war years and the Cultural Revolution. His father was a talented and romantic man, but he was lonely and unknown all his life, and could not even communicate with his children cordially. Hu Xijin can understand that his father, like countless Chinese people, lived in distortion. Distortion is a serious spiritual unfreedom.

That is combined with Hu Xijin's consistent actions, especially the recent rhetoric calling for the expansion of nuclear weapons. He grieves for this twist of Chinese life, and what is the way out - it is abundant and powerful force . Just like he was missing his father and wrote that other comrades in arms were "leaders" and had "cars". He hopes to study hard and work hard, and he will no longer be mediocre. It seems that once you have power, money, or status, those distortions and unfreedoms don't matter anymore, they can all be covered. This is completely consistent with his placing China's international destiny on the expansion of nuclear weapons.

Hu Xijin's mentality of tying the dignity and beauty of life to power and power is, to some extent, a portrayal of the Chinese people.

In the midst of an ever more tragic global outbreak, China has a wealth of information, schadenfreude, reporting on the rest of the world. In diplomacy and online discourse, there are wolves all over the place again, showing extreme aggressiveness to all kinds of doubts and criticisms of concealing and delaying the epidemic.

Many people think these performances are grand and bizarre. But in fact, they are in the same vein as China's domestic response to universal values, freedom and democracy over the years.

A large number of people in the country, who come across universal values, freedom, democracy, and legal system, will feel that the other party is condescending, as if they have been reprimanded as if they have been enlightened and educated, and their dignity has been attacked. Furthermore, in order to regain their sense of superiority, many people will ridicule and criticize when they encounter incidents such as human rights violations in Western countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and they are quite gloating.

It is under this general emotional trend that in the past 10 years, the "public knowledge" groups in China that advocate ideas such as freedom, democracy, and the legal system have been thoroughly stigmatized, and values such as democracy are often written as "democratic." This mentality of going against universal values is already very serious.

There are many reasons for this general emotional state, and it comes from psychological rebellion. The so-called-indulgence of schadenfreude is often due to the dullness and sadness of life. Just like the eagerness to appear aggressive, it is inevitable that it stems from inner cowardice . But among them, the factor that the society generally admires strong is also not to be underestimated.

Just like "I would rather be a dog of peace than a person in a chaotic world", what they think in their hearts is: willing to be a strong country, not a person in a chaotic world. The "people" here, just as Xu Zhuoyun said, are neither citizens nor citizens, but "people's subjects" who "organize households together with the people".

However, what they said in their mouths could evolve into "I would rather be a strong countryman than a weak countryman". It can't be won anyway. Even if those weak and small countries have citizenship and human rights, what can they expect? Might as well just be a little bit, put on a "I'm not rare" attitude.

In reality, if this mentality goes further, it will be transformed into - "I would rather be a subject of a strong country than a free man in the world". At this time, there is another layer of expectations. That is, I hope that the country's strength, influence the world, and export China's model can compete with the so-called Western universal value of the right to speak. At this moment, it seems that my life is no longer sad because of the lack of human rights and freedom, but because of the strength of this country, which adds luster.

This kind of "self-improvement" transformed from the weak individual "Muqiang" is not unique to today's China. Many frustrated white Americans especially liked Trump's "Make American Great Again"; the German people, who suffered from the bitter consequences of defeat in World War I, also particularly loved Hitler's grand plan; Ah Q also had the dream of being a grandfather.

But this kind of psychology has indeed given many Chinese people a rare confidence and psychological comfort. Originally influenced by the strong propaganda of universal values in Western civilization, especially in the face of those who can pursue freedom and rights, their shame and injured dignity can be recovered through this kind of "improvement and self-improvement".

Mu Qiang and Chongyou, Japan and the May Fourth Movement

In addition to tradition, Mu Qiang is actually closely related to the changes in modern China.

China has been in decline since the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the nation was on the verge of extinction for a time. At that time, there was no one who did not want the country to cheer up and get rid of the situation of being slaughtered by others. The simple expectations of "a strong youth will make China strong" and "reading for the rise of China" are still very appealing to this day.

Beginning with the Westernization and Reform Movement, and then to the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement, Chinese intellectuals worked very hard, hoping to obtain the secrets of prosperity from all kinds of knowledge of advanced Western civilization. This is well known to the public. But due to historical reasons, we tend to ignore the huge influence from Japan in this process.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan became the most powerful country in Asia, and defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. It was the yellow-skinned Asian who had defeated a Western power for the first time in a modern war. At that time, the Qing government claimed to be neutral, but in fact it was secretly helping the Japanese side in an organized way. When the victory or defeat came, many Chinese admired from the bottom of their hearts that Japan, such a "small country" in the impression, has become strong since the constitutional reform.

In the New Culture and May Fourth Movement in the 1910s, among the leaders such as Hu Shi, Cai Yuanpei, Liang Qichao, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, Qian Xuantong, and Li Dazhao, the last four all had studied in Japan. At that time, Liang Qichao failed to reform the reform and went into exile in Japan, which was deeply affected. Some of his articles that have been passed down to the present, such as "Juvenile China" and "Biography of Six Gentlemen of Wuxu", were all written during his time in Japan.

Later, the familiar "Mr. De" and "Mr. Sai" were actually Chen Duxiu's use of the Japanese hiragana language in "New Youth" magazine, transliterating Democracy and Science as "Democracy" and "Sains" ", and then referred to as Mr. In addition, Chen Wangdao, who was the first to translate Marx's "The Communist Manifesto" into Chinese, first met Dai Jitao, who provided the Japanese translation he purchased in Japan, and then combined with Chen Duxiu's loan of "The Communist Manifesto" from the Peking University Library through Li Dazhao. English translation, contrast translation.

At that time, Mr. Hu Shi, who had studied in the United States, and Mr. Lu Xun, both put forward clear reflections and criticisms on the inferiority of the nation. Hu Shi once called for:

We must admit that we are inferior to people in everything, not only materially and mechanically, not only in the political system, but also in morals, knowledge, literature, music, art, and health.

This kind of reflection and the "national character transformation" originated in the Meiji period, in order to learn from the West, Japan carried out national character reflection. Fukuzawa Yukichi, an important enlightenment thinker in modern Japan, made a very similar criticism earlier.

Since ancient times, the Japanese have not paid attention to their own status. They only know how to follow the trend and seek power by relying on others. Otherwise, they will replace them and follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. Spiritually, there is a world of difference.

Compared with directly learning from the West, the Chinese expect more from Japan, which is also located in East Asia and has been influenced by a large number of Chinese civilizations, to learn the secret of strengthening its national strength. In fact, it is very understandable and quite normal. It was only later that Japan invaded China and hated the country and family, so that this period of history was almost hidden.

The situation of social thought in Japan at that time may be even more ignored by the Chinese public today.

Looking back at the source, since Japan learned of the Opium War in the 1840s, the defeat of the Qing court to the United Kingdom, and the "black ship incident" in the 1850s when the U.S. fleet docked in port and forced Japan to found a country, the overall social cognition has undergone severe shocks. They suddenly realized that Western civilization was far superior and stronger than the Chinese Confucian civilization they had been studying. After that, the Meiji Restoration began in the 1860s, and by the beginning of the 20th century, in just a few decades, Japanese society was flooded with ideas from various Western factions. From the "Lanology" that I initially learned with the Netherlands, to the German and French influences that the army is mainly influenced by, and the British influence that the navy is influenced by, to the civil servants, intellectuals, ronin class, and the public, various types such as communism, anarchy, etc. ideology, liberalism, social Darwinism, racism, nationalism, etc. Japanese society at that time was also full of disputes and divisions .

In 1909, the elder of the Meiji Restoration, the then Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi, was assassinated by North Korean patriots. In the 1920s and 1930s, there were Mr. Inuyo Takeshi, who had a good relationship with Sun Yat-sen during his stay in Japan, as well as Hamaguchi Yuyuki and Hara The three prime ministers were assassinated by Japan's right-wing political opponents. This social disintegration can be said to be extremely violent .

It is not difficult to know from history that after that, Japan was completely dominated by militarism and embarked on the road of foreign war and aggression. After being bombed by atomic bombs, Japan became the last "axis country" to surrender in World War II. The countries it invaded and attacked, as well as itself, paid extremely painful mottled blood and tears.

At a time when China's economy, scientific research and military strength are all developing, it can be seen that many people in the torn society are very proud that China has become stronger, and hope that this strength can be used in further struggles. Even if the struggle is bloody and savage. They often make a fanatical nationalist voice, and cannot tolerate all doubts from the outside world or at home.

Although the general public has forgotten that since the end of the Qing Dynasty, China has been influenced by Japan in the process of learning from the West. But in today's society, I am afraid there is still the shadow of Japan's tearing of society before World War II.

Will China repeat the same mistakes as Japan?

I think that Mu Qiang itself is a word that is close to neutral, but once it loses its limit and breeds in society, it may eventually develop in the direction of ignoring all costs and annihilating all humanity in order to be strong. This point, Japan's precedent for example. When dealing with "Mu Qiang", we should always remain vigilant.

What I want to discuss more is the "sublime" type of thinking such as freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Their fate with China also began in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, when China studied Western learning and was influenced by the Japanese perspective.

To this day, when many people talk about concepts such as freedom, human rights, democracy, republic, constitutional government, legal system, and civil society, they will be summed up as human civilization, or the excellent crystallization of Western civilization. Among them, the admiration of excellence, high quality, superiority and superiority is beyond words. For example, Mr. Tao Jie, a talented Hong Kong scholar, said that he does not advocate blindly worshipping foreign countries, but is willing to "respect for excellence" by absorbing high-quality parts from Western literature, music, film and other arts and cultures, political systems, and social conditions.

But what I have to say bluntly is that there is a very limited difference between the admiration and love for quality and excellence, and the enthusiasm for Qiangsheng and Yousheng . There is no clear distinction between "Chongyou" and "Muqiang". demarcation line .

If we should always be vigilant about the breeding of "Muqiang" in society, then perhaps the same should be true of everything that "Chongyou" covers.

In the actual Chinese discussions, many people promote ideas such as freedom and democracy, and they will use this as a universal value, which is recognized by the vast majority of civilized countries in the world, as an important reason. This kind of argument that freedom and democracy is reasonable and worth promoting based on the fact that there are many and strong countries that choose them can only show that sometimes there is no difference between "Muqiang" and "Chongyou", and it is unreasonable in itself - because this ignores every It differs from country to country, and ignores countries where democratic transitions have not been successful.

Before the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a democratic system in Russia, a large number of elite intellectuals also had many beautiful ideas about social changes. Twenty years later, Russia is still struggling with the dream of a powerful country, oligarchy and authoritarian politics, and many intellectuals are also very lonely.

Taking the political system in mainland China as an example, there is clearly a constitution, a people's congress and other democratic parties, a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and corresponding supervisory agencies and law enforcement agencies. It can be said that the original intention of the establishment of this system is to go in the direction of democracy and republic. But in actual operation, serious deformation has always been unavoidable, especially in recent years, all the settings of the democratic republic have failed to prevent it from evolving towards a totalitarian autocracy.

For another example, in the implementation of national testing in Wuhan, there are also many thoughtful settings, such as two meters apart, in the order of buildings, etc., and these good reminders have been sent to individuals through various channels many times. But in reality, none of these settings worked, and you still see a more disorganized situation.

If it is as big as a republic or as small as maintaining social distance, serious deformation will occur in the social reality of China. What reason do we have to believe that everything about democracy and freedom will not be deformed. What theoretical or factual support can we have. After China has become democratized, the situation similar to Russia today will not be the upper limit that China can achieve after going through all kinds of difficulties?

When all this is too vague and makes people feel completely unconfident, does it still meet the original intention of "excellent" and beauty? Isn't the so-called "Chongyou" a scam?

There are even more worrying situations. In recent years, with the rising voice of "Muqiang" type of nationalism, a more extreme "sublime" tendency has also been bred in Chinese-speaking society. It seems that only those who believe in freedom and democracy and agree with universal values are superior civilized people, while those who do not express their support clearly are downright savage and inferior, hopeless, and even deserve to be "destroyed and judged by heaven". and many more. What is the difference between this kind of situation of deliberately dividing the "low-end population" among social groups, and even wanting to destroy humanely, and Hitler and others who promoted the Germanic nation as "superior" and could wantonly kill the "inferior" Jewish nation? ?

Taking Hong Kong as an example, I have great respect for the pursuit of justice, rights and beauty by the general public in Hong Kong. However, in everything that has happened since 2019, there are also individuals who have been oppressed just because they have different political opinions or speak Mandarin. Or bloodshed by violent siege. If Hong Kong protesters and violent institutions like the Hong Kong police will ultimately rely on who is stronger, stronger, and more determined to win, it seems to be deviating from the peaceful initiative of "Be Water".

And reflected in the entire Chinese-speaking group, whether "Chongyou" and "Mu Qiang" will eventually go to a bloody fight, the broad masses can only be forced to stand in line under the coercion of various "non-separation seats" In his violent confrontation?

In such a narrow, life-and-death struggle, the final winner, whether it is "Chongyou" or "Muqiang", can still be neutral and peaceful. They will only be transformed into a form that can pay all the price for victory. How can it be possible to uphold justice and beauty? Even if the winner is temporarily identified, is the next death battle already in the offing, and what kind of terrifying situation will the whole society show at that time?

In the French Revolution that began in 1789, there were fierce struggles among various factions, and during the "Reign of Terror" period, which took turns killing each other, in the great revolution that was originally against the old system, it repeatedly gave birth to a more authoritarian and bloody old system. And the torn Japanese society has turned towards militarism.

I sincerely hope that today's Chinese ethnic group, an extremely large complex group that used to "eat people" in history and also experienced disasters such as the Cultural Revolution, will not be divided between "Mu Qiang" and "Chongyou". Towards a more appalling tragedy.

This is why, and now I particularly agree with what Mr. Liang Qizhi said in his article:

Research has found that places where democratization is more successful usually have a relatively mature social fabric. The public is used to participating in society in an organized manner, and they know how to trust and respect each other in the process. Before democratization in a society, there are already many social groups organized from the bottom up, even if it may be just a reading club or a mountain climbing team, it can help to consolidate democracy in the future. Just like the Chinese Students' Association mentioned earlier, if it can seriously do a good job in internal governance, it is an opportunity to cultivate democracy. In this case, building a democratic China does not mean immediately overthrowing the regime, nor does it mean imitating foreign political systems to come to China. We can start from the grassroots level, for example, in environmental protection, labor, gender, culture, etc. to do more organizational work to revitalize China's civil society, and everyone should practice equal participation in life, and then we will have the conditions to discuss the upper-level politics. How to go, can really avoid the sudden violent revolution.

This nuanced approach is far more rational than the radical voices that preach liberal democracy. However, in my humble opinion, perhaps today's China needs to start from a more basic, more subtle , and make some more peaceful attempts.

We need to re-explore, tell, and recognize the self and the outside world from some very basic elements. How to understand people and human nature; what does family and country mean; what is economy; what is politics; what are the characteristics of human society. What is the meaning of freedom; what is love; what is beauty; what is dignity; what values are worth pursuing. Perhaps on top of this, we can really peacefully discuss what democracy, especially for the Chinese, means, what forms it might take, what difficulties exist in reality, whether the pursuit of democracy also has boundaries, and things like What Mr. Liang said is to try democracy in the subtleties, cultivate mutual trust, respect and so on.

Perhaps it is particularly ridiculous to say this; even when I typed the above paragraph, I felt uncontrollable sadness in my heart - more than 100 years have passed since the introduction of Western learning and enlightenment in China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, countless sages, their blood and tears, The hard work and the written motto are meaningless, why do we still need to start from such a basic and basic discussion?

Just like on May 4th this year, the fluent Chinese speech of American official Bo Ming made me feel extremely complicated. With the American flag on his back, Po Ming, who has a beautiful face of white elites in Europe and America, mentioned that Mr. Zhang Pengchun was also a practitioner of the spirit of the May Fourth Movement. He played a leading role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when the United Nations was established. It has played an important role in mediating disputes between all parties and has made outstanding contributions.

However, in the real Chinese discussion space, Zhang Pengchun, a master who has made great achievements in the fields of drama, education and diplomacy, and his "eclectic art" rich in the spirit of Confucian benevolence, seem to have been completely forgotten. How many people (mainly referring to the mainland, the relevant situation of Hong Kong and Taiwan are not known) have not heard the name of Zhang Pengchun since childhood. His many studies and pursuits throughout his life have all been abandoned by the masses of his motherland, the mainstream of his native language, in the pile of old papers that no one cares about.

In the tide of discourse, only the crudest, simple and powerful arguments attract people's hearts and influence people. It's not that they laugh at universal values and keep talking about "democraticism"; it's that the CCP is the root of all evil, or that freedom and democracy are the panacea. As long as the CCP is eliminated or a democratic system is adopted, China will surely usher in a better future. The whole society is completely torn apart under the extreme "Muqiang" and "Chongyou".

Perhaps, China's enlightenment has been completely crushed in history, and it is the status quo that we have to face up to. If we are willing to learn something from the life-long efforts and sufferings of those sages and lofty ideals, I am afraid that one thing we should see clearly is the enlightenment of China, which is probably not one generation, two generations, or even several generations. may be done.

In the last 100 years, too many people had to devote themselves to the desperate attempt to save the nation. Countless people with lofty ideals, all holding one or two generations of people, wanted to completely rescue China. In the end, Mao Zedong won, and the world of the Communist Party emerged. In the catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution, no matter how much Mao had political needs and enthusiasm for struggle, he also showed a kind of ambition to cut off the replacement of Chinese dynasties and to get out of the cycle of history. Blindness and arrogance have brought so much suffering to China. Up to now, the various things in the system are reappearing like the old dynasties.

At the moment, Mao and the CCP are ridiculed by many people, but I still see from it that we must deal with the CCP in the way of the CCP, and turn into an evil dragon to fight against the evil dragon.

In this "N China" essay contest, I can't speculate on Mr. Liang's psychology, but based on my personal opinion, emphasizing "N" and "more than one China" is too much to show the official "adherence to one China". "Different positions. Those who participate in this way also seem to either support or be influenced by this position. Maybe it's my villain's heart, but I think this method is too close to the potential "brainwashing" of the CCP's education and propaganda, and it is unnecessary.

Enlightenment has been fragmented so far, and we may choose to stay away from the mistakes.

This time, we do not seek strength, excellence, or even speed or perfection. Just tell, analyze and act bit by bit in the slowest, weakest, subtlest way. As far as possible, all the tears, spots, and fine marks have been disassembled and crushed, and every little detail has been found out as much as possible. If so, will it be different in the end?

The Reincarnation of Qi Shiying and Zhang Xueliang

In my opinion, in today's China, it is no longer a problem of one or several. It is like the egg pieces that have been scattered and formed in a heated iron pan, destined to show a torn state. The task at the moment is not to count all these pieces and how many they are divided into, but how to season this pot of eggs and how to end it.

In the end, might they still be a delicacy worth serving, or just throw away?

There is a piece of video material, I still have the impression that Mr. Qi Bangyuan described the contradiction and discord between his father Qi Shiying and Zhang Xueliang. These two people were originally from the Republic of China, their home was in the northeast, and they were from the Fengshi army. The Qi family is Zhang Zuolin's old subordinate.

Mr. Qi Shiying is a top student who studied in Japan and Germany successively and studied philosophy at Heidelberg University. When he met Zhang Xueliang, the commander of the Northeast Army, Zhang Xueliang was addicted to morphine. Qi Bangyuan mentioned that her father recalled that when he saw Zhang Xueliang's arms and even his back, there were needle holes for morphine injections. It is impossible for him to have a good impression of someone who has received a new-style elite education.

On the other side of the record, Zhang Xueliang once had a bad feeling about Qi Shiying. From his point of view, Qi Shiying was the source of the calamity who instigated Guo Songling, a general of the Feng clan, to mutiny and rebel against Zhang Zuolin. Moreover, in Japan, when Zhang Xueliang led the army into the customs, the two met for the first time in the Nationalist government, and he was "taught a lesson by someone from Qi". He deeply felt that because he avoided Zhang Zuolin's arrest, Qi Shiying, who had served in the Guannei National Government earlier, looked down on him very much, so he hated him even more.

The huge contradiction between the two was made public in the Republic of China. Even when Zhang Xueliang talked to He Yingqin and others about the cause of planning the Xi'an Incident, he also said that Qi Shiying was a major reason for his dissatisfaction with the Nationalist government.

In "Ju Liuhe", Qi Bangyuan wrote many times that Qi Shiying was the direct person in charge of the underground anti-Japanese work in the Northeast at that time. And Zhang Xueliang is well known, after Zhang Zuolin, the leader of the Northeast Army. Qi Shiying fell ill and was hospitalized in Taipei in his later years. Zhang Xueliang, also in his 80s, suddenly went to the hospital to visit him. It made him very uneasy.

(Qi Shiying in his later years) often asked himself, "If we could cooperate back then, what would the Northeast look like? What would China look like?"

Because historically, it was after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that the control of the Northeast was lost, and after the three major battles that were closely related to it, the defeat of the Kuomintang was determined and finally retreated to Taiwan. Qi Shiying, since following Guo Songlin's mutiny, was defeated on the banks of the giant stream, and finally rested on the coast of Taiwan's dumb mouth.

Since 1925 with Guo Songling and hated the giant river, until 1987, when he was buried in Taiwan, Qi Shiying brought his wife and children to the world. , My brothers and sisters filled in the birthplace of Tieling, Liaoning in their whole lives, which is just their hometown on paper.

The image of the uncrossable giant river is the portrayal of this family and even a generation, and it is also the reason why Qi Bangyuan uses this as the title of the book.

In my opinion, today's torn China, the Chinese-speaking people, and even the Chinese ethnic group, are like the reappearance of "Qi Shiying" and "Zhang Xueliang".

Today's "Qi Shiying" has received the civilized education obtained from the reflection of human society after the Second World War, with special emphasis on the dignity and value of each individual, and is convinced of universal values and respects freedom and democracy.

Today's "Zhang Xueliang" is no longer injected with morphine, but a drug similar to "Popeye Spinach". He has a vast land and resources, a large population, and relying on resources and population advantages, from the world. In exchange for a strong economy. He is full of power like he has practiced magic.

This time, "Qi Shiying" and "Zhang Xueliang" still have sufficient reasons to despise and hate each other.

Today's Chinese ethnic group is like a small cell in the huge body of the two sides. If we sincerely hope that there will be some difference, we can still do it a little bit with our best efforts.

In the last life, Qi Shiying and Zhang Xueliang, from the Juliu River to the Duokou Sea, their lives are beyond regret. And what kind of sighs will the "Qi" and "Zhang" of this life leave behind after today.

The choice is ultimately up to everyone.