'Monte Cristo' anonymous letter case - Yan Weibing, wife of Lu Dingyi

Lin Biao, an anonymous messenger from "Mt. Kittu", is restless

From March 1960 to January 1966, Yan Weibing wrote 40 letters to Lin Biao and Ye Qun under a pseudonym such as "Mt. Chito" (taken from the French writer Alexandre Dumas' "The Story of Mt. Chito"). A letter like a dagger. These letters caused a strong earthquake of magnitude 8 or 9 in Maojiawan where Lin Biao lived. Lin Biao was furious, and Ye Qun was in a state of panic. Lin Biao went to Shanghai for a meeting, and the letter from "Kidu Mountain" was sent to Shanghai; he and Ye Qun "recuperate" in Suzhou, and the letter was sent directly from Beijing to Suzhou...

Lin Biao was furious and urgently ordered the Ministry of Public Security to track down "Kidu Mountain" as an "important case". Lin Biao said, "Grab this 'Kidu Mountain', and I will chop this person into meat sauce!"... In order to keep secrets, the Ministry of Public Security called this "important case" the "502 case".

Yan Weibing is Mrs. Lu Dingyi. At that time, Lu Dingyi held the following important positions: alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, vice premier of the State Council, head of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Ministry of Culture. Yan Weibing was arrested on April 28, 1966, becoming the first "current counter-revolutionary" arrested during the "Cultural Revolution", known as "the first case of the Cultural Revolution".

I started to interview "the first case of the Cultural Revolution" because Yan Zhao, Yan Weibing's sister, was my friend for many years.

I met Yan Zhao in November 1979. At that time, I was attending the Fourth Congress of Chinese Literature and Art Workers in Beijing. Suddenly, an old lady came to me, saying that she was a staff member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and asked me to write a reportage for Professor Fu Ying who had just passed away. Fu Ying was a member of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (academician), and the vice president of Peking University. He passed away on September 7, 1979. This old lady is Yan Zhao. She knew in advance that I graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Peking University in 1963, and Professor Fu Ying was my teacher, so she asked me to write Fu Ying's reportage. Yan Zhao also opened a letter of introduction to Peking University from the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Yan Zhao's enthusiasm and sincerity left an unforgettable impression on me. At that time, I didn't know her background, let alone that she was Yan Weibing's younger sister.

Mr. Zheng Gongdun is a senior cadre, and he was the head of the literary and art group of "Red Flag" magazine. Once, he told me that Yan Zhao used to be Premier Zhou Enlai's foreign affairs secretary and Yan Weibing's sister. As I am working on writing a long documentary about the "Cultural Revolution", I plan to interview Yan Zhao and interview Yan Weibing through Yan Zhao. On July 10, 1986, Yan Zhao wrote me a letter. The letter said:

I received a call from Comrade Zheng Gongdun, saying that you want to know my address.

I haven't seen you for many years, and I sincerely thank you for not forgetting the past. I suffered the greatest misfortune, my sister Yan Weibing unfortunately passed away in the early morning of March 15th this year! I'm broken in five! She was killed by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four"! She had a rough life.

I heard that you have materials from her "Cultural Revolution", I would like to see if possible, because my friends urged me to write a biography of my sister. I am suffering from insufficient material. Please send letters to Beijing ×××××× (in Dongdan). If you come to Beijing for a meeting, please bow your feet! This is Wei Bing's home (that is, Lu Ding's family - the author's note), because I am now handling the aftermath and sorting out her manuscripts.

It is a pity that I am one step behind, Yan Weibing passed away 4 months ago and cannot interview her in person. Fortunately, I got in touch with Yan Zhao. Among Yan Weibing's three younger sisters, Yan Zhao is the one who knows Yan Weibing the most, because she once lived in Zhongnanhai Zengfutang for a long time - the homes of Lu Dingyi and Yan Weibing, and has a deep relationship with Yan Weibing. In this way, I got in touch with Yan Zhao again.

She read my new book "Fu Lei Family" and wrote to me on September 26, 1988, suggesting that I write "Yan Pu Family":

I was in Nanjing in the spring and summer of this year because of writing a biography of my sister. It is a pity that I lost the chance to meet each other.

What are you creating now? begging. If I have time, I very much hope to use your rafters to write a book "Yan Pu Family" (or any other name). Now Wuxi will publish a "Wuxi Celebrity Dictionary", which collects ancient and modern Wuxi celebrities. My family was lucky enough to have four people included. Namely: father Yan Pu, mother Guo Ying, eldest sister Yan Weibing, and sister-in-law Lu Dingyi. This book can be written as a big picture scroll from the 1911 Revolution to the "Cultural Revolution" as the historical background, especially a picture scroll of the ups and downs of Chinese intellectuals' participation in the revolution during this period. I remember there was a novel in the Soviet Union: "The Zhuerbin Family" is about shipbuilders; "The Fu Lei Family" you wrote is about intellectuals, and this "Yan Pu Family" can write about a family of revolutionaries!

If I am fortunate enough to promise, I will provide you with 300,000 words of written information.

You can let go as much as you can and make the most of it.

After carefully reading a batch of written materials sent by Yan Zhao, I was still most interested in Yan Weibing. I decided to write about Yan Weibing first, and then about her parents and Yan Weibing's husband, Lu Dingyi.

On October 5, 1988, Yan Zhao wrote to me:

I am in Beijing in late October. Please call ××××× first, and we will meet you at that time.

In the meantime, I will prepare some necessary materials for you. Only part of it is currently collected.

In this way, on October 30 and 31, 1988, I was able to have a long talk with Yan Zhao at the Lu Ding family in Beijing and conduct a recorded interview. She also handed me a batch of materials, especially the manuscript "Zhongzhao Hand Notes of Weibing Disease Zhongzhao", which recorded the diary of Yan Weibing's serious illness, which was extremely precious. After I returned to Shanghai, I wrote "The Beginning and End of the "Mt. Jidu" Case, and sent the manuscript to Yan Zhao for review (I didn't use a computer to write at that time). After she finished reading, she wrote to me on December 9, 1988:

I read it with tears in my eyes. Tears soaked the front of my padded jacket! I once again shed tears for all the hardships in the past and for my lost eldest sister!

After being examined and approved by Yan Zhao, I gave "The Beginning and End of the "Jitu Mountain" Case" to "Chinese Writers", a large bimonthly literature magazine of the China Writers Association, which was published in the fifth issue of 1989. After I received the magazine, I immediately sent it to Yan Zhao. On October 2, 1989, she wrote me a warm and encouraging letter again -

Once again I am moved to tears by your writing! Thank you for your wonderful writing, especially the layout of the article is very attractive. I went to the post office to buy 10 copies and distributed them to relatives and friends.

Yan Zhao passed away in May 2008.

Recently, I re-read the letters and materials that Yan Zhao gave me, re-listened to the interview recordings from that year, and made a lot of revisions and additions to "The Beginning and End of the "Mt. Kittu" Case. Considering that Yan Zhao and Lu Dingyi are both deceased , here I can reveal some of Yan Zhao's conversations and conduct new discussions on the Yan Weibing case——

All kinds of "supposedly" about solving the case

These letters from Yan Weibing are often called "anonymous letters". The author consulted friends in the public security department, and they said that since these letters were signed—although they signed a pseudonym, they were not “anonymous letters”, but should be called “pseudonymous letters”.

However, the Yan Weibing case has been used to be an "anonymous letter case" for many years, so this article involves the so-called "anonymous letter" in the original words of many parties.

Regarding how the Yan Weibing case was detected, there have been various "supposedly" stories in recent years.

In 2006, Mr. Huang Zheng from the Literature Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in the book "Interviews with Wang Guangmei" (Central Literature Publishing House, 2006 edition), had such a "supposedly":

The anonymous letter was unsolved for many years. The process of solving the case was a coincidence. It is said that one afternoon in the spring of 1966, Yan Weibing and Ye Qun were both shopping at the Overseas Personnel Service Department of the Wangfujing Department Store. Comrade Yan Weibing was short-sighted with glasses and accidentally stepped on someone's foot. The man lost his temper and cursed incessantly. The two quarreled. Yan Weibing took a look and saw that it was Ye Qun. In a fit of rage, Yan Weibing went straight to the General Political Department of the Military Commission, and reported Ye Qun’s arrogant and unreasonable attitude to the responsible comrade in charge of the general administration. Yan Weibing is a Shanghainese, speaks with an accent, and speaks quickly in a fit of anger. The responsible comrade really could not understand her, so he Ask her to write down what happened. Yan Weibing wrote it. Afterwards, the responsible comrade really took what Yan Weibing wrote and reported it to Lin Biao. When Lin Biao and Ye Qun saw it, they felt that the word was familiar, so they handed it over to the Ministry of Public Security. The Ministry of Public Security determined Yan Weibing to be the author of the anonymous letter after handwriting identification.

This story seems bizarre: Yan Weibing and Ye Qun appeared at the same time in the Overseas Personnel Service Department of Wangfujing Department Store, and Yan Weibing stepped on Ye Qun? Such a "probability" is really small. Because of this, Mr. Huang Zheng used "it is said".

There is another version of this story, which puts the cause of the incident as Yan Weibing was stolen. In the book "My Grandpa Lu Dingyi" published by Guangdong People's Publishing House in 2004, Huang Ping wrote:

One day, Yan Weibing went to the Wangfujing Building to buy something, but his wallet was taken out by a thief. She found the manager of the building, and the manager learned that she was Mrs. Lu Dingyi, and told her that there was an internal department store on the opposite side at No. 98, where people going abroad and the family members of the chief executive shop, where she could buy things.

Yan Weibing entered the No. 98 store and collided with an oncoming person due to his blurred vision. The man immediately screamed angrily: "Don't you have eyes?"

"I didn't see it." Yan Weibing was about to apologize, but after a closer look, it was really an enemy with a narrow road, and the person who collided with her was actually Ye Qun!

Since Lin Biao replaced Peng Dehuai, Ye Qun has become even more arrogant. At this moment, she looked like a noble lady and said arrogantly, "What's so amazing!"

Yan Weibing didn't take her cue, and replied, "What's so great about you? Who doesn't know who!"

Ye Qun was contradicted, so he uttered vicious words and cursed.

Afterwards, Yan Weibing found Ye Qun's leader and reflected Ye Qun's bullying words and deeds. The leader she was looking for was from Jiangxi, and Yan Weibing spoke Shanghai dialect. Yan Weibing wrote the quarrel on the paper. The leader took this piece of paper to Lin Biao to report the situation. Lin Biao saw the handwriting and felt familiar, so he thought of those anonymous letters...

Under the instruction of Lin Biao, the Ministry of Public Security sent the director of the Sixth Bureau to Yan Weibing's work unit, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to obtain Yan Weibing's files, check the handwriting, and finally concluded that the anonymous letter was written by Yan Weibing.

In 2006, Chen Qingquan's "50 Years at the High Level of the Communist Party: The Legendary Life of Lu Dingyi", published by the People's Publishing House, also adopted this story:

One day in early 1966, Yan Weibing and Ye Qun met by chance in a store in Wangfujing, Beijing and had a quarrel. Yan Weibing sued the General Political Department of the PLA. It was familiar, so I thought of the anonymous letter, so I told the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Public Security determined that these anonymous letters were written by Yan Weibing.

In fact, Yan Weibing's case was not solved in "an afternoon in the spring of 1966". According to Yan Zhao, as early as March 1963, the Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security had already solved the case and knew that "Mount Jidu" was Yan Weibing.

Since March 1960 Lin Biao received a letter from Yan Weibing under a pseudonym, and he ordered the Ministry of Public Security to investigate "Mount Kitu". The Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security undertakes this task. They analyzed "Mount Keto":

First, knowing Ye Qun's ugly history shows that this person is a high-level political figure.

Second, wherever Lin Biao went, the anonymous letter followed, which further showed that this person was from the central government.

Third, the letter writer is obviously full of deep hatred for Lin Biao and Ye Qun.

Lin Biao and Ye Qun secretly turned their fingers and counted the names of their political enemies and enemies. After all, they have too many grievances, and the list of suspects for "Mt. Chidu" is actually a long list...

Ye Qun has the most heart and eyes. The object of her initial suspicion was Wang Guangmei.

Ye Qun is very confident, because one of the letters is signed "Huang Mei", and the envelope indicates that the letter is sent from "Beijing Press Court Hutong" - this "Huang Mei" is similar to "Wang Guangmei", not to mention Wang Guangmei's mother Dong Jieru's Jieru The nursery is located in Beijing's Press Court Hutong. Wang Guangmei's home was originally in the Sanjin Quadrangle at No. 32, Jiu Xingbu Street, Beijing. Wang Guangmei's mother, Dong Jieru, was a representative of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. She saw that in the early days of liberation, the children of many female cadres in the CCP, especially the PLA, had no reliable place for foster care, and her family was very large, so she could set up a nursery to solve this difficulty. This nursery is called Jieru Nursery. Later, in order to support the urban planning and construction of Beijing, Wang Guangmei's mother donated the old courtyard house at No. 32 Xingbu Street and moved it to Beijing's Press Court Hutong.

Ye Qun also has one most important reason that he did not say: Lin Biao is replacing Liu Shaoqi as the number two person. Therefore, Wang Guangmei's "Mt. Chidu" has "class roots".

Helpless, after checking the handwriting, there is nothing in common.

Suddenly, Shao Hua, Mao Zedong's daughter-in-law, became the suspect again! why? Ye Qun pointed to a letter under the pseudonym "Zhang Shaohua" and said, "This 'Shaohua' has the same pronunciation as 'Shao Hua'!"

However, what "class roots" does Shao Hua have? Shao Hua's handwriting was secretly transferred to check, but was denied by the police again. In this way, "Kidu Mountain" has become an "X" that is difficult to solve.

Ye Qun carefully read the letters under the pseudonym, and there was a sentence accusing Ye Qun of being a "lady". Suddenly, Ye Qun remembered Yan'an's Central Hospital and Yan Weibing.

It was in 1943, when Yan Weibing fell ill and was admitted to the Central Hospital, Ye Qun was also hospitalized there. A violent storm hit northern Shaanxi. The torrent was surging, the tree fell and the house collapsed. Lin Biao, who lived on the other side of the river, actually ordered the guards to swim across the Yanhe River in the rough sea. The guards have jars over their heads that hold chicken soup. When the wet guard appeared in the Central Hospital and brought the jar to Ye Qun's bed, the nurses and sick patients in the hospital were shocked, and Yan Weibing was furious! "Become a 'dame'!" Yan Weibing sneered at Ye Qun...

According to Yan Zhao, in March 1963, Xia Yin, director of the Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, came to Yan Weibing's unit, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and obtained Yan Weibing's files through Zhao Jin and Liu Min. Looking at the handwriting, it was immediately determined that "Mt. Jidu" was Yan Weibing.

At that time, the Ministry of Public Security asked Zhao Jin and Liu Min to report the case to Zhang Ziyi, the vice minister in charge of personnel in the Central Propaganda Department.

Lin Biao gritted his teeth and said, " Don't disturb Lu Dingyi! His wife must have done it under his instigation. If you want to do it, you will have to do it. It's not the time to kill Lu Dingyi now... We will do it later. , put people to death! "

In Lin Biao's view, it was easy to get rid of Yan Weibing, but Lu Dingyi was his important political enemy, and he lacked the right to get rid of it.

Lu Dingyi was the top leader of the Chinese public opinion circle at the time. Since Lin Biao presided over the work of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China in September 1959, he has carried out "four firsts", "live learning and applying" and "immediate results". Lu Dingyi, an "old propaganda", dismissed it as "simplification, vulgarity, and pragmatism". Lin Biao called Mao Zedong Thought the pinnacle of contemporary Marxism-Leninism, and put forward the "peak theory". Lu Dingyi said that if it reaches the peak, Marxism-Leninism will not develop, and it will die. We should talk about "peaks", and there are peaks above the peaks. Lin Biao could not wait to swallow Lu Dingyi's "Hall of Hell" (a derogatory term for the Central Propaganda Department). When Lin Biao learned that "Mt. Jidu" turned out to be Yan Weibing, he turned from anger to joy: "Haha, God has given me a good opportunity, now Lu Ding must fall!"

Lin Biao resisted the anger in his heart and waited for the opportunity to make waves.

In early February 1966, knowing that Lin Biao was going to attack, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee entrusted Peng Zhen to talk to Lu Dingyi. Lu Dingyi came to Peng Zhen's house by appointment, and Peng Zhen showed Lu Dingyi the photo of Yan Weibing's pseudonym letter printed by the Ministry of Public Security. Lu Dingyi made a clear statement: "Yan Weibing wrote an anonymous letter, I don't know at all! How many children Lin Biao has and what their names are, I only found out after reading the anonymous letter today, but I didn't know it before. It is unimaginable to write such an anonymous letter. Some words are obviously Yan Weibing. It was written, but some words cannot be read. For confirmation, I can go and fetch Yan Weibing's words, please check with the Ministry of Public Security."

Peng Zhen also made a clear statement: "The central government knows you won't do this kind of thing. The problem of Yan Weibing will be solved by the central government." Lu Dingyi said: "This incident happened in my family, I should take the blame and resign and wait for punishment."

Peng Zhen said: "You know, the central government takes great care of veteran cadres, so don't take the blame and resign. We believe you, so we told you about this, and showed you the letter. If we don't believe you, we won't do it. .You go outside for a walk, you don't have to be burdened."

After Lin Biao found out, he sneered: " You Peng Zhen protected Lu Dingyi, I was just about to take you and Lu Dingyi away! "

As a result, Lin Biao and Ye Qun insisted that Lu Dingyi was Yan Weibing's backstage, and the pseudonym letter was the "product" of the "husband and wife shop".

Searching the guts and racking his brains, Ye Qun instructed his subordinates to concoct a "document" titled "Eight Evidences That Lu Dingyi Is the Mastermind of Yan Weibing's Counter-Revolutionary Letters". In this way, Lin Biao and Ye Qun entangled Lu Dingyi. The dark clouds rolled like ink, and there was nowhere to avoid the thunder and rain...

At this time, Mao Zedong was not in Beijing, and Liu Shaoqi presided over the work of the central government. Liu Shaoqi wanted to protect Lu Dingyi. Under the chairmanship of Liu Shaoqi, the Central Standing Committee in Beijing believed that Yan Weibing was a "dangerous person". In order to protect Lu Dingyi, Lu Dingyi was asked to leave Yan Weibing and go to the hospital. The Yan Weibing case is handled by the central government.

In this way, Peng Zhen called the Minister of Health Qian Xinzhong on February 4, 1966, saying that Yan Weibing and Lu Dingyi had "quarreled" and that Lu Dingyi could not work, and asked him to arrange for Lu Dingyi to be hospitalized. So Lu Dingyi was admitted to the hospital. Later, Lu Dingyi began to travel abroad again...

The reality of the "story"

There is no doubt that the Yan Weibing case was detected by the Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security in March 1963. Then, why did there appear all kinds of stories about Yan Weibing and Ye Qun's "collision" and even "stepping on" in the Wangfujing Department Store in March 1966?

Yan Zhao said that in March 1966, Yan Weibing and Ye Qun met in the Wangfujing Department Store, and it really happened.

When I interviewed Yan Zhao on October 30, 1988, the above book that recorded the various versions of the "story" had not been published, and I had never heard of this story. Yan Zhao took the initiative to tell me about it. Yan Weibing went to Wangfujing Department Store that day and was accompanied by Yan Zhao, so as a witness, Yan Zhao's memories are authoritative.

Yan Zhao said that after she accompanied Yan Weibing to go shopping on the second floor of Wangfujing Department Store that day, the sisters went to drink beer nearby. When paying the money, Yan Weibing couldn't find the wallet, only to realize that the wallet was lost. So, Yan Zhao accompanied Yan Weibing to go to No. 98 internal department and city department to find the manager to report that the wallet was stolen. Unexpectedly, Ye Qun was also there on the 98th (the two did not "collide", let alone "step" on their "foot"). Yan Zhao recalled that Ye Qun saw Yan Weibing and said, "You are here too?" Yan Weibing became angry when he saw Ye Qun, and said, "You can come, why can't I come?" language, there was a quarrel. Yan Zhao remembered that during the quarrel, Ye Qun scolded Yan Weibing as "crazy", which deeply angered Yan Weibing. Hearing of the quarrel between the two high-ranking ladies, Liu Min, secretary of the branch of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, rushed to persuade them.

Yan Zhao's recollections did not mention "story" such as Yan Weibing's writing of notes and the case of a pseudonym letter being solved. Ye Qun called Yan Weibing "neuropathy", which clearly showed that Ye Qun not only knew that the pseudonym letters were written by Yan Weibing, but also knew that Lu Dingyi asked a doctor to diagnose and treat Yan Weibing's "neuropathy".

Contents of Yan Weibing's pseudonym letter

There are as many as 40 letters written by Yan Weibing under pseudonyms, which were first kept in the archives of the Ministry of Public Security. I am familiar with the Ministry of Public Security, and I had checked the "002 file" about Ma Sicong in the archives of the Ministry of Public Security (the file of Ma Sicong, the president of the Central Conservatory of Music, who smuggled into Hong Kong from Guangzhou during the "Cultural Revolution"), so I went to the afternoon of November 1, 1988. Check out the "502 File" on Yan Weibing. Mr. Wang Tao from the Archives Office of the Ministry of Public Security received me and found only one copy of Yan Weibing's resume, which he immediately copied. According to the report, the "502 file" about Yan Weibing was later preserved in the Central Archives as one of the "Lin Biao and Jiang Qing Group" files. Yan Weibing's 40 pseudonymous letters are kept in the "502 file".

The 40 pseudonymous letters have never been published, but they are one of the focuses of Yan Weibing's case. I asked Yan Zhao, have you seen it? She shook her head, because these pseudonymous letters written by Yan Weibing had never been shown to her at the time, and Yan Weibing did not leave the manuscript, or destroyed the manuscript afterwards. After the letter was sent, it was forwarded by Lin Biao and Ye Qun to the "502 Task Force", and later entered the archives of the Ministry of Public Security.

Yan Zhao thought about it carefully, and she told me that Yan Weibing once told her that he wrote a limerick in a pseudonym letter. Yan Zhao spoke to my interview tape recorder. After I returned to Shanghai, I was afraid that I might make a mistake in finishing, so I asked Yan Zhao to write to me. She replied in her own hand and wrote down Yan Weibing's limericks - this became the only pseudonym letter of Yan Weibing that has been published today.

After all, it is a memory many years later, and the words written by Yan Zhao are slightly different from her dictation. The following is Yan Weibing's limericks based on oral recordings:

Hug a stinky woman,

gave birth to two puppies,

(This is the record of Yan Zhao's oral record, Yan Zhao's written draft is "Three Wishes for Appointment and Jue" - the author's note)

Afraid of light all year round,

The facial features are not straight and the eyebrows are down,

Six gods and no masters are in chaos,

Qiqiaosheng smoked opium, (Yan Zhao's manuscript only wrote "Qiqiaoshengyan" - author's note)

Pulling out (8) the hair on the head is bald,

The agency counted all the nine-headed birds,

The King of Hell in the Ten Halls summons his soul! (Yan Zhao's written draft is "The Ten Halls of Hell put a poster" - the author's note)

Contents of Yan Weibing's pseudonym letter recalled by Yan Zhao

Here, "Fountaining an official and entering a nobility jump three ranks" refers to Lin Biao's use of his power to promote Ye Qun three ranks in a row.

Yan Weibing skillfully used numbers like one, two, three...ten to "portrait" Lin Biao and Ye Qun. At the end of the poem, Yan Weibing signed the shocking words "Mt. Chidu".

I wrote about this limerick in the reportage "The Case of "Mt. Keto". All subsequent articles and books on the Yan Weibing case quoted this limerick from "The Beginning and End of the "Mt. Kittu" Case.

When Yan Zhao wrote me this limerick of Yan Weibing, he also wrote this explanatory text:

This is what Wei Bing told us personally. I couldn't think of the word "eight", so I had to use the homophonic word "pu". For this sentence, she didn't know how many times she was beaten! Because the task force forced a confession to say: "We want to overthrow Chairman Mao." In the future, unfortunately, Wei Bing just scolded Lin Bald.

Yan Weibing himself later said:

In prison, the task force forced me to admit that "pulling out the hair on my head" meant defeating my immediate boss, Chairman Mao. I don't know how many times I've been beaten for this sentence. At that time, I just wanted to say that Lin Biao was a bald donkey. It really didn't mean anything, but he suffered countless hardships. Who knows that history prefers to joke with people, and the numbers games I wrote have been verified one by one.

This letter, under the pseudonym "Kidu Mountain", was sent by Yan Weibing from Beijing on January 26, 1966. Yan Weibing knew that Lin Biao and Ye Qun were in Shanghai at the time, so he could send it to Cao Diqiu, then secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and mayor, and asked him to transfer it to Lin Biao. Lin Biao and Ye Qun already knew who sent the letter, and they hated Yan Weibing even more.

Yan Weibing's "Motivation"

Yan Zhao said: "Yan Weibing is a person who can't bear to be wronged. I usually give her three points. Her character is that she can't keep something, she has to say it. She has always been rational and hard-tempered." Yan Zhao said the "motivation" of Yan Weibing:

Yan Wei Bing's letter exposing the evil deeds of Lin Biao and Ye Qun is not a fabrication but a fact. She exposes Lin Biao to excuse Ye Qun from serious historical problems; exposes that he has been promoted three times for Ye Qun; exposes that Lin Biao has personal ambitions; exposes that Lin Biao smokes opium; exposes Ye Qun's life confusion. Now these things have been confirmed by history. As for the purpose of Yan Weibing's direct letter to Lin Biao, she also made it very clear in the letter, which is to warn them "don't think that people don't know, someone knows about your conspiracy", and don't be afraid! Her weakness is that she did not use her real name to expose Lin Biao's conspiracy to the party.

For this matter, after she was released from Qincheng Prison, I asked her, "Why don't you expose it to the party?" Yan Weibing's answer was, "Lin Biao is red and purple, and there will be no results if you expose it!" I She asked again, "Why don't you use your real name to write the letter?" She replied, "I'm afraid that Lu Dingyi will be implicated." I asked again, "Why don't you let me do this for you?" She said, "I don't I am willing to implicate others. One person does things and one person is responsible. If something happens, it should be borne by me alone. If I don’t go to hell, whoever goes to hell!”

Yan Weibing himself said this:

I know that tigers want to eat people. There is a local proverb in our country, who dares to smack flies on a tiger's head? Instead of swatting flies, I'm going to fight tigers! Of course, I also hesitated. Write a letter and sue the Central Committee. Who will listen to me, a small middle-level cadre? Apparently it didn't work. If it is suspected that my husband is in charge, it will bring disaster to Lu Dingyi and my family; bear with it, but I can't take this breath. In desperation, I came up with an inadequate solution: write an anonymous letter. And this letter was sent directly to Lin Biao. This can not only avoid the accusation of intentional false accusation, but also let Lin Biao and Ye Qun know that it is impossible to cover the sky with one hand. At least someone knows their plot, give them a warning! Even if I find out, I can do things by myself, and I will never implicate others!

The Mystery of Yan Weibing's Psychosis

Another focus of the Yan Weibing case is whether Yan Weibing is mentally ill. As we all know, if Yan Weibing was determined to be mentally ill, her "crime" would have been much lighter under the circumstances.

Ling Yun, deputy minister of the Ministry of Public Security, once recalled:

One night in March 1966, Premier Zhou asked Xie Fuzhi, Liu Fuzhi and I to talk about the anonymous letter written by Lu's wife Yan Weibing. Most of these anonymous letters were postcards, which had lasted for a period from 1960, and were directed at Ye Qun and sent directly to Ye Qun and Ye's daughter. As long as you are familiar with Yan, you can tell who the letter writer is at a glance. Hai Yu, deputy director of the Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, learned from the medical records of Yan in Beijing Hospital and East China Hospital that Yan had a record of mental illness or paranoid mental illness since 1952. At that time, Xu Zirong, I, and Haiyu all thought it was a disease, not a great thing. We also reported to Peng Zhen orally, and he agreed with us. We put this matter down. (CPC Central Party History Research Office, Central Archives, "CPC History Materials" Vol. 76, 2000 Edition)

However, in my long conversation with Yan Zhao, Yan Zhao only said that Yan Weibing was extremely shrewd and extremely sensitive, and gave three examples:

First, on the tenth day after the "9.13" incident in 1971, Yan Weibing, who was detained in Qincheng Prison, concluded from the lines of the People's Daily that Lin Biao "had a major incident".

Second, Yan Weibing saw a pair of slippers at the bathroom door of Qincheng Prison and concluded that Yan Zhao was also detained in Qincheng Prison.

Third, after she was released from prison, she stayed in front of the public security department for half a month, and finally caught the thug Shao Mingzheng, who had beaten her fiercely in prison, from among the many staff who came in and out with a keen eye.

Yan Zhao said that she is far less savvy than her sister. She is the second child and is nicknamed "Er Wood".

Yan Zhao never mentioned that Yan Weibing was mentally ill. However, whether Yan Weibing is mentally ill is crucial to the case. Because once it is proved that Yan Weibing is mentally ill, the 40 pseudonymous letters are all from the mentally ill, not only Yan Weibing is "innocent", but Lu Dingyi is also exempted from being implicated.

Lu Dingyi insisted that Yan Weibing was mentally ill. He once said:

The reason why Yan Weibing wrote the anonymous letter was because she was mentally ill and could not control herself. Many people don't believe it because it's normal to deal with things other than arguing with me and writing anonymous letters. I once consulted the director of the neurology department of a hospital in Beijing and learned that there is indeed such a disease, which behaves normally in many things, and behaves very abnormally in some special events. It was this disease that Yan Weibing had. (Chen Qingquan, "50 Years at the High Level of the Communist Party: The Legendary Life of Lu Dingyi", People's Publishing House, 2006 edition)

Mr. Ding Kaiwen pointed out that from 1961 to 1966, Lu Dingyi organized six times for Yan Weibing according to the article "The Inside Story of Yan Weibing's "Consultation" Case published in the third and fourth issues of the "Health War Report" on June 13, 1967. Expert consultation, the general situation is as follows:

The first consultation: In March 1961, the Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health telegraphed the Shanghai Health Bureau, informing Xue Bangqi, the director of East China Hospital, and Su Zonghua, a psychiatrist, to report to Beijing. After Xue and Su arrived in Beijing, they flew to Guangzhou together with Shi Shuhan, Vice Minister of Health (at that time, Lu Dingyi and Yan Weibing were living in Guangzhou). Based on Yan Weibing's condition and physical examination results introduced by Xue Bangqi, as well as his own observations, Su Zonghua made a diagnosis of Yan Weibing suffering from "menopausal psychosis".

The second consultation: In the summer of 1963, the public security department had identified the person who wrote the anonymous letter to the Lin Biao family was Yan Weibing. In November of this year, Yan Weibing from Lu Ding went to Shanghai for medical treatment, and Xue Bangqi and Su Zonghua were still in charge of consulting and treating Yan Weibing. Xue Bangqi and Su Zonghua diagnosed Yan Weibing with "suspicious psychosis", and they and a doctor gave Yan Weibing 50 insulin shock treatments at Lu Dingyi's residence. Lu Dingyi also revealed to Xue that Yan Weibing attacked Lin Biao's family.

The third consultation: On February 18, 1966, Minister of Health Qian Xinzhong, Vice Minister of Health Shi Shuhan, Vice Minister of Health and Director of Beijing Hospital Huang Shuze and others consulted for Yan Weibing somewhere in the Ministry of Health. Purpose: (1) Are these manifestations of "patients" ideological problems or pathological? (2) If it is a disease, what kind of disease is it? How to solve treatment problems? (3) What is the estimate of the disease severity? (4) Treatment methods, where to treat? The patient does not admit that she is ill, how can she be treated? The doctor discussed and analyzed Yan Weibing's medical history, and they all believed that Yan Weibing suffered from suspicious (paranoid) psychosis, and suggested that he could go to Xiangshan for recuperation and drug treatment, or use electric shock.

The fourth consultation: On February 21, 1966, Qian Xinzhong and Shi Shuhan notified the Medical Department of the Ministry of Health to invite Su Zonghua from Shanghai to come to Beijing for a consultation with Yan Weibing. On February 22 and 23, there was still a consultation for Yan somewhere in the Ministry of Health. Experts agreed that Yan Weibing belonged to "a paranoid state based on a hysterical character." Some doctors "proposed whether to go to the 'Siqing' and add drug treatment", and some doctors suggested the use of insulin shock and electrotherapy.

The fifth consultation: On the evening of March 4, 1966, Shi Shuhan came forward to organize a large-scale consultation. This consultation was devoted to discussing the arrangement of Yan Weibing's "treatment". After the consultation, Shi Shuhan also personally led the doctor to the Third Hospital of Peking University to select a psychiatric ward.

The sixth consultation: According to the third and fourth consultations, the doctor advised Yan Weibing to take the drug Strakin. Due to the side effects of the drug, on April 8, 1966, the doctors consulted Yan Weibing again, inquired about his condition, and made a physical examination for Yan Weibing. No abnormality was found (according to the medical records at that time), but no previous consultations were made. Disputes and doubts about the diagnosis were raised, and the drug Strakin was still administered according to the original treatment plan.

As mentioned above, according to Ling Yun, Deputy Minister of Public Security, Hai Yu, Deputy Director of the Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, once learned from the medical records of Yan in Beijing Hospital and East China Hospital that Yan had a record of mental illness or paranoid mental illness since 1952.

Yan Weibing was originally a normal person, and was not mentally ill when he was in Yan'an. There is also no family history of mental illness. Yan Weibing went to the hospital in 1952 to check her mental illness because she was extremely irritable and quarreled with her husband Lu Dingyi at home for no reason.

Lu Dingyi once said:

Yan Weibing is a good person and a good comrade. She was not neurotic. In 1952, during the "Three Antis" and "Five Antis", they went to the Central Propaganda Department with me behind their backs to find the "big tigers". They tried to label the daughter-in-law of Yan Weibing and Xu Teli (then deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department) as "big tigers". ". They organized the materials for the two of them, held a general meeting of all staff of the Central Propaganda Department, read it out at the meeting, and asked them to explain the problem. It has been working for three years without giving them a chance to speak. The people who persecuted them were unreasonable and did not dare to let the masses hear their defenses. Such stimulation caused Yan Weibing to suffer from a neuropathy. I came back from a trip to the Soviet Union, and she often quarreled with me.

The "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" movements were political movements carried out across the country from the end of 1951 to October 1952. Yan Weibing suffered from insomnia and irritability at one time due to the unjust injustice. Doctors believed that this was due to severe mental stimulation during the political campaign, and did not think she was mentally ill. With the passage of time, insomnia and irritability left Yan Weibing, and Yan Weibing's mood returned to normal.

Lu Ding has repeatedly defended: "The reason why Yan Weibing wrote the anonymous letter is because she is mentally ill and can't control herself." It goes without saying that Lu Dingyi used Yan Weibing's "mental illness" to ease the case.

Does Lu Dingyi know?

Yan Weibing wrote a pseudonym letter, did Lu Dingyi know? This is a pointed question.

Lu Dingyi always insisted that he did not know. When the author asked Yan Zhao this question, Yan Zhao did not give a clear answer, saying that she did not know.

Lu Dingyi emphasized that Yan Weibing was mentally ill, after she wrote a pseudonym letter in March 1960. From the 6 expert consultations that Lu Dingyi organized for Yan Weibing from 1961 to 1966, as disclosed in the "Health War Report" on June 13, 1967, it can be seen that it coincides with the time when Yan Weibing "committed the crime". In particular, the next four consultations were intensively arranged from mid-February to early April 1966, and during this period of wind and rain, it was the time when Lu Dingyi was about to fall.

In the author's opinion, Lu Ding asked the doctor time and time again to consult Yan Weibing for mental illness. The closer he was to downfall, the more frequent the consultations. Needless to say, this proves that Lu Dingyi was in the know .

There is no doubt that Lu Dingyi never participated in or encouraged Yan Weibing to write a pseudonymous letter. At the beginning, Lu Dingyi might not know.

On May 24, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a statement on the mistake of Comrade Lu Dingyi and Comrade Yang Shangkun [Zhongfa (66) No. 278], stating:

A large number of materials prove that Lu Ding and Yan Weibing's counter-revolutionary case are closely involved. On the desk in Yan Weibing's bedroom were the four-page manuscript of an anonymous letter written on February 15, 1965 and the envelope addressed to Comrade Ye Qun, which lasted one year and two months. Lu Dingyi Impossible not to know. Moreover, Yan Weibing has been writing anonymous letters of counter-revolution for six years. When writing, Lu Dingyi was almost all at home. When Lu Dingyi was told that Yan Weibing had committed a counter-revolutionary crime, Lu not only did not express his indignation, but also wanted to excuse Yan by saying that Yan suffered from neurological paranoia. What role Lu Dingyi played in this counter-revolutionary case will be thoroughly investigated by the special review committee.

This document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was issued when Lin Biao was in power. Whether its content is true or not remains to be checked .

Lu Dingyi repeatedly emphasized two points: firstly, Yan Weibing was mentally ill, and secondly, he did not know it. It is understandable that Lu Dingyi had to adopt a self-protection strategy in the face of Lin Biao's strong attack in those special years.

Lu Dingyi categorically declared that he did not know, in order to save his political life. History has finally turned that bitter page. Today, the Yan Weibing case is re-examined, and the question of whether Lu Dingyi knew about it at the time can be re-discussed.

Disadvantages of Yan Weibing

Yan Weibing is an upright person and dares to speak out in anger, which is precious. But Yan Weibing also has shortcomings, especially her alias "Huang Mei", alluding to Liu Shaoqi's wife Wang Guangmei.

How does Wang Guangmei view the Yan Weibing case?

Wang Guangmei talked about the case of Yan Weibing in an interview with Huang Zheng of the Literature Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In Huang Zheng's "Interview with Wang Guangmei", the conversation between Wang Guangmei and Liu Shaoqi's son Liu Yuan about the case of Yan Weibing was recorded——

Huang Zheng: Comrade Guangmei, could you please tell me by the way what you know about Comrade Yan Weibing's anonymous letter (as mentioned above, it should be a pseudonymous letter, not an anonymous letter - the author's note).

Wang Guangmei: I didn't know anything about the anonymous letter written by Comrade Yan Weibing. Ye Qun is very bad, but I think it is really bad for Comrade Yan Weibing to adopt this method. If there is any problem, you can report it to the organization! Moreover, she opposes Ye Qun, but she wants to put this matter on someone else's head. Isn't this provocation? She signed "Wang Guang" on some anonymous letters, in which she said, "We are classmates, and no one knows who", and also deliberately wrote the address of the letter as "According to the courtyard alley". According to the courtyard alley is the address of the Jieru Nursery run by my mother. Isn't this intended to make people think that the letter writer is Wang Guangmei? I was completely in the dark at first and didn't know about it for several years, until the case was solved and I was surprised.

Liu Yuan: There are other letters signed "Huang Mei". The pronunciation of Huang and Wang from the south is indistinguishable, and it is also intended to make people associate with Wang Guangmei. The anonymous letter also provokes the relationship between Ye Qun and his daughter Doudou, saying that Doudou is not Ye Qun’s biological child. That's fine, but in an anonymous letter to Doudou, he said: Didn't you find that you and the Liu family's Pingping look very similar? It made Doudou suspicious, often running to our house, seeing Pingping's appearance, and crying and committing suicide in his arms. One year in Beidaihe, I was playing ping-pong and talking with Tiger. Minister Luo Ruiqing of the Ministry of Public Security came over with a very serious expression and said to Tiger: "Go back and tell your parents, I found two more letters, and the case has not yet been solved." Tiger Go back right away. Tiger is the nickname of Lin Liguo, the son of Lin Biao. I had no idea what was going on at the time.

It is not advisable to write anonymous letters, pseudonymous letters. Regarding the shortcomings of her elder sister Yan Weibing, Yan Zhao also said truth from facts:

Yan Weibing has paid a high price for this shortcoming. He has been imprisoned for 13 years, his hair has been pulled, his ears have been beaten, and his teeth have been knocked out. While in prison, he died from nine deaths. When he was released from prison, he suffered a fatal disease... …

This shortcoming of Yan Weibing also led to the imprisonment of many of her relatives, doctors and related personnel, and once made Wang Guangmei a suspect