Monday 28 September 2009
Finding clues to the future in China’s past
I have been researching and thinking about Chinese civilisation for more than 20 years. I wrote a book on this topic, which was published by the China Social Sciences Press in January 2007, but even after many deletions were made, the book ended up being banned before its launch. So I am truly delighted that my book can now finally be published and launched overseas in its original state. I wish to thank all the people who have worked hard to make this happen.
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Finding clues to the future in China’s past
Xiao Jiansheng
28 September 2009
I have been researching and thinking about Chinese civilisation for more than 20 years. I wrote a book on this topic, which was published by the China Social Sciences Press in January 2007, but even after many deletions were made, the book ended up being banned before its launch. So I am truly delighted that my book can now finally be published and launched overseas in its original state. I wish to thank all the people who have worked hard to make this happen.
I have been asked about my motives for writing this book, and find that I cannot explain this without talking about my past.
First of all, it is because of the death of my grandfather.
I was born in a remote village in Fenghuang county called Xiangxi, in Hunan province, China. It is about 50 kilometres from the town of Fenghuang. My grandfather made a living from dyeing fabric when he was young. He worked hard and enjoyed what he did, and his business thrived. He purchased some land with the wealth that he had accumulated. During land reform, his land was categorised as “small lot operation”, but in actuality, my grandfather should have been categorised as a “wealthy farmer”. His reputation for being kind, honest and generous prevented this from happening. Instead, my grandfather was categorised as a “well-off, medium-level farmer” and so was treated with leniency.
Bad fortune, however, soon came to find my grandfather. In 1958, a people’s commune was set up in our town. Our land, cows, farming tools, and even our pots, bowls and chopsticks were all confiscated. From then on, each person had to go to the public canteen to obtain a little bit of rice. Since the canteen did not have enough food for us, we were forced to eat wild vegetation. My grandfather was enraged by this situation, and decided to end his life at 74 years by going on a hunger strike. For an entire week, my grandfather refused to consume even a mouthful of water, and he finally succumbed to starvation.
I had just turned three when my grandfather passed away, so I could not yet understand the cause of his death. My mother explained it to me when I was a bit older. She said my grandfather had commented on the situation: “If we can only go to the canteen to obtain a few mouthfuls of rice, what hope is left to us?” Grandfather was so utterly disappointed by the situation that he determined to fight back with his death.
The sad fate of my grandfather marked me for life. I could never forget what he had done. I truly admire his integrity and sense of honour. I also learned that when a person’s private property is infringed upon, his right to the pursuit of happiness is also taken away, and the consequences can be dire.
The second reason has to do with what happened to me in 1974. I graduated from First High School of Fenghuang county in 1972. As an educated youth, I was supposed to return to the production team to perform labour, but serendipity changed the course of my life. The Propaganda Division of the Prefecture Revolution Committee (“the Committee”) was scouting for journalists. Instead of returning to my hometown, a teacher recommended me for the task of reporter for the Propaganda Division. In early 1973, I was assigned to the post of editor at the broadcasting station under the Committee. My life in news reporting officially began. Compared with other young people in that era, I was very lucky. What was even more fortunate was that while working in the Propaganda Division and the broadcasting station, I had access to a trove of history and philosophy books. It was a dream come true. I read about ancient Chinese history and read the works of famous authors such as [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel and [Victor] Hugo.
It was before the end of the Cultural Revolution. I often travelled to rural areas for interviews and witnessed the poverty of many villages. Some older cadres at the Committee spoke privately to me about how [military leader] Peng Dehuai had been condemned at a Lushan meeting in 1959 [in Jiangxi province], and how many people had starved to death in Fenghuang and Xiangxi. I had the opportunity to learn of the serious consequences of the implementation of class struggle and the theories of continuous revolution advocated by Mao Zedong.
I was deeply saddened by the dire poverty I witnessed in some of the villages. I spent more than six months in a production team of the Qian Gong Ping commune in Fenghuang county where many people of the Miao ethnic minority resided. I stayed at the home of a Miao commune member named Long. The mountains were high and the river ran along the foot of the mountain. Since the village was at the top of the mountain, there was very little water and it was very cold. The person in charge from the Committee, however, decided that there should be large paddy fields on the mountain. The Miao people baulked at this idea, and as a result were made the targets of public criticism. They were driven out to drift from village to village as punishment. Consequently, food-production levels declined substantially that year. After we submitted the required portion to the commune, what remained was not even enough for half a year. When the eve of Lunar New Year arrived, we had less than half a kilogram of meat for the entire household. Life in such abject poverty drove me to think deeply about Chairman Mao’s road map of revolution and I began to have serious doubts.
In May 1974, when I was 19 years old, I wrote an article, “Commentary on China’s future and fate”. I submitted it to the office of the People’s Daily. In it, I expressed my deep antipathy for the public criticism of certain individuals, the new road map for the agricultural sector, and extreme “leftism” that insisted on continuous revolution. I wrote that such political movements brought the people nothing but poverty. People had neither food nor clothing. Basically, people had absolutely nothing. We were worse off than plantation slaves. If the situation were to continue in this way, people would be unable to survive and would have no choice but to rebel. China’s future would be filled with chaos.
That article sent me to my doom. People’s Daily and the Propaganda Division of the Revolution Reform Committee in Hunan province sent my article down to the county level. The committee secretary for Fenghuang county ordered the Public Security Bureau to have me arrested and removed from my duties. Some older cadres from the County Revolution Committee such as Xiao Dabao, Xiang Kuanliang, Teng Zhuqian and Lin Zongjin intervened to protect me, using various excuses. I was able to keep my job and was not arrested. To this day, I feel a deep gratitude towards these older friends. Their example has given me much encouragement and taught me a great deal.
I was not subjected to 10 years of imprisonment like Yang Xiaokai, who had written Where Is China Heading? However, despite my excellent scores at the senior high examinations in 1977, that article caused me to fail political screening. I almost made it into Peking University, but in the end, I did not. In fact, I never got to attend any university at all. The Cultural Revolution was already over, but in a small town like mine, people’s way of thinking had not yet changed. Nevertheless, I never regretted what I had done.
In 1978, China began to open up politically. That year I went to Hunan People’s Radio to learn about editing. In April 1979, they had me transferred from Fenghuang county to work for them. I was given the conditions to start working on something I really loved: historical studies. I chose Xiong Xiling as the subject of my research because he was also from Fenghuang county. According to the massive amounts of historical material that I found, Xiong Xiling pursued a constitutional monarchy when he was young, and then, later in life, pursued a constitutional republic. He spent his whole life fighting for a modern civilisation.
The same Xiong Xiling, however, took up the position of head of the State Council in 1913, and under threat from [president] Yuan Shikai signed an order to dismiss the Congress and dissolve the Kuomintang. This act dealt an irreparable blow to the establishment of constitutional democracy in China. I was shocked to learn of this incident, and felt the horror of traditional Chinese autocracy and the culture of conspiracy. The completion of my book on Xiong Xiling gave me a deeper understanding of the contemporary history of constitutional democracy in China.
In 1985, I began to collect historical material and reflect on the history of China’s civilisation. In June 1988, China Central Television broadcast a political commentary called River Elegy. It offered reflections on the history of China’s civilisation and strongly condemned the conservative agricultural culture represented by the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, the closed-door policy established since the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and our culture of admiring the dragon, which symbolises power and violence. It left me with a profound impression.
The failure of the June 4th Movement in 1989 drove me into a long and deep reflection. Under the historical conditions available at that time, political reform in China had already begun. Public commentary and news reporting were very liberal. During the 1989 movement, the students were peaceful and reasonable. They pushed for further political reform, punishment of corrupt government officials and a fair re-evaluation of [ex-party general secretary] Hu Yaobang . It is fair to say that such voices calling for reform came from within the system and received support throughout the nation. So why was it dealt the fate of a military suppression? I was stunned by the nobility of Zhao Ziyang , who chose to give up his position as leader of the nation rather than issue an order to crack down on the students. Why did Zhao meet with such a fate? Why was there a crackdown on a peaceful democratic movement organised by students? What can we learn from this? What do we need to do to prevent something similar from ever happening again?
In 1993, I was transferred to the Hunan Daily to take up a job as a news editor. There I learned that most of the editors had been condemned as “rightists” during the 1957 anti-rightist campaign. The area had been hit hard during the national anti-rightist propaganda war. Many people who were sent off to rural villages received terrible treatment. I was impressed by the courage of my predecessors in insisting on press freedom back in those days. I truly admired their noble spirit. Why had this anti-rightist tragedy taken place? Why did those who spoke a few words of truth have to endure such a sad fate? Why are individual rights stipulated in the constitution, such as freedom of expression and freedom of the press, not protected?
We cannot avoid considering these issues on the institutional level. I began to believe strongly in the need for China to move towards a modern civilisation. I believed even more strongly in the realisation of progress in Chinese civilisation through the establishment of political and legal systems. I came to understand how religious faith had been a decisive factor in laying down the foundations of a modem civilisation. I began to explore these areas in more depth. I was greatly influenced by Yang Xiaokai’s articles “Some thoughts on Chinese politics” and “Christianity and constitutional politics”. I gathered large amounts of historical material and tried to analyse them based on established historical facts.
In early 2006, when I finished my book Chinese Civilisation Revisited, I contacted many publishers in China to discuss the matter of having it published. Not one single publishing agency dared to publish a book like this. Later, I found the website of China Social Sciences Press and saw the name of Chen Biao, its editor. I read about his philosophy on editing and decided to contact him by e-mail. I did not expect Chen to respond so quickly, but soon after reading the draft of my book, he decided to publish it. However, in January 2007, when the book had already been printed but was not yet launched, we were notified that the book required another round of censorship. After this, my book was banned from distribution.
My book had been banned, but still I had faith that it would be published one day. I believe that Chinese society and civilisation are progressing after all. No one can stop the footsteps of history from moving forward. It is the trend of our era to see that governments are restrained and individuals’ rights and freedoms protected. Modern civilisation will one day arrive in China.
Now Chinese Civilisation Revisited can finally see readers. I have revised the content of my book at least 20 times. Looking back at the difficult process of research and writing of the past 20 years, I cannot suppress a welling up of emotion that I am unable to put into words. During this long process, it was my sense of responsibility towards history that allowed me to turn down earthly temptations of money and power and persist in writing this book, without complaints or regret. At the same time, the very sad fate of my grandfather, and the spirit of his choice of death over life as less than a human being, continued to give me encouragement. Today, I can finally use this book as a proper memorial to comfort my grandfather’s soul in heaven, where I hope he rests in peace. I would also like to express gratitude to my mother, who, as an uneducated village girl, taught me to live according to my conscience at all times and that there is nothing to fear if you have done no wrong. It was because of her teaching that I was able to adhere to what my conscience dictated in the course of writing this book.
It is a very difficult task systematically and comprehensively to re-evaluate the history of Chinese civilisation by adopting the values of modern civilisation. In the process of writing this book, I have adhered to one basic principle, which is to use objective, vernacular and compelling language to express difficult academic perspectives. I hope this book inspires people to think on another level.
Because of the limitations in my analysis and knowledge, there may be many inadequacies and imperfections. I welcome criticism and guidance.
Xiao Jiansheng
04 September 2009, Changsha, China
Translated by Helena Chung
Edited by Renee Chiang
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