Thoughts on the Character "Song Qiankun"

—Notes After Reading "Black and White"

By Hong Bei

In teacher Liu Jiming's novel "Black and White," there is a character named Song Qiankun. Song Qiankun participated in the revolution during the New Democratic Revolution period and had suspicions of being a traitor while doing underground Party work before liberation. After liberation, this suspicion of being a traitor was never clarified. More importantly, although Song Qiankun participated in the revolution, his individualistic thinking was quite serious. After liberation, he coveted enjoyment and was single-minded about promotion, seeking higher positions. Although Song Qiankun was a veteran cadre who participated in the revolution before liberation, he lacked communist ideals and lived a corrupt life after liberation, being very improper in male-female relationships. During the Cultural Revolution, Song Qiankun naturally faced liquidation and criticism. However, after "reform and opening up," Song Qiankun was rehabilitated and became a "reformist." Not only that, but Song Qiankun after "reform and opening up" also became involved in economic corruption.

Looking at Song Qiankun's entire life, he is quite similar to certain veteran cadres. Of course, teacher Liu Jiming took characteristics from different veteran cadres, processed them through literary fiction, and concentrated them in the character Song Qiankun, giving him symbolic meaning. This symbolic meaning reminds people to reflect. Reflect on what? Just as Chairman Mao said in his "Important Instructions" at the beginning of 1976: "Some comrades, mainly old comrades, have their thinking still stuck in the stage of bourgeois democratic revolution, not understanding socialist revolution, having resistance to it, even opposing it... After the democratic revolution, workers and poor peasants did not stop, they wanted revolution. But some Party members no longer wanted to advance, some retreated and opposed revolution. Why? Because they became big officials and wanted to protect the interests of big officials. They had good houses, cars, high salaries, and attendants, even more powerful than capitalists. When socialist revolution came to their own heads, some Party members opposed it during collectivization, and they resented criticism of bourgeois legal rights."

During the Cultural Revolution, many veteran cadres who had worked in white areas were accused of having historical problems, and some were directly suspected of being traitors. In the later period of the Cultural Revolution, most veteran cadres were cleared of suspicion. Actually, during the democratic revolution period, the discipline of the CCP's white area underground Party was very strict. At that time, some traitors did appear, including some in important positions who caused much damage to Party organizations. But overall, most Party members of the white area underground Party during the democratic revolution were good people who risked their lives for revolution with loyal hearts. Precisely because the underground Party discipline was very strict at that time, once traitors appeared, they were quickly discovered and eliminated, without causing long-term concealment of large numbers of traitors and spies within the underground Party.

Looking at history, the reason why some veteran cadres from the democratic revolution became backward after entering the new society and the socialist revolution period was probably not related to their pre-liberation experiences, but to their incomplete ideological and worldview transformation. In 1972, a certain person wrote to Chairman Mao expressing "never to reverse verdicts," and Chairman Mao noted on his letter that this person "had no historical problems and never surrendered to the enemy." Actually, looking back now, just because he had no historical problems, does that mean his thinking wouldn't degenerate? Does that mean he wouldn't worship capitalism?

The Chinese Communist Party, whether in the white area underground Party during the democratic revolution period or in preventing imperialist infiltration after liberation, always did excellent work in "anti-spy and anti-traitor" activities. However, many veteran cadres did not keep up with the pace of socialist revolution ideologically, transforming from heroes who risked their lives for revolution during the revolutionary war era into mediocre people who were complacent, unwilling to reform, and did not pursue independent thinking ideologically. Ideological betrayal is more terrifying than direct surrender to the enemy. The collapse of the Soviet Union, changes in Eastern Europe, and changes in various socialist countries are all closely related to this problem.

In reality, many people like Song Qiankun participated in revolution during the democratic revolution period, relaxed their study and reform ideologically after liberation, became detached from the masses as their official positions grew larger, plus their craving for comfort in personal life and unwillingness to continue struggling hard, finally degenerating into capitalist roaders, or at least becoming supporters of capitalist roaders even if not consciously so. We should acknowledge that many veteran cadres took this path. If not for this, after Chairman Mao's death, it wouldn't have been so easy to change the Party and state, nor would social atmosphere have regressed so quickly, nor would privatization, polarization, rampant corruption, and oppression of the masses with "new three mountains" have occurred later.

In 1956, at the Party's Eighth Congress Second Plenary Session, when talking about the events in Poland and Hungary at the time, Chairman Mao said: "Our Party has millions of experienced cadres. Most of these cadres are good, they are home-grown, connected to the masses, and tested through long struggle. We have such a set of cadres: from the Party founding period, the Northern Expedition period, the Agrarian Revolutionary War period, the Anti-Japanese War period, the Liberation War period, and after national liberation. They are all precious assets of our country. One important reason why some Eastern European countries are not very stable is that they don't have such a set of cadres. With such a set of cadres tested in different revolutionary periods, we can 'remain calm regardless of wind and waves.'" Later history proved that a considerable portion of the veteran cadres disappointed Chairman Mao.

Looking back at history now, in the Soviet Union and originally socialist countries in Eastern Europe, whether during Khrushchev's revisionist rampage or the "color revolution" fever at the end of the 20th century, not many people stood up, not many dared to "go against the tide." In our China, many veteran cadres also "followed the crowd" for a long time, without independent thinking ideologically. In our China, after "reform and opening up," only a few people dared to stand up. For example, when some people used the so-called "discussion on the criterion of truth" to try to bring down Chairman Mao's banner, Comrade Wu Lengxi stood up in opposition. Another example: at the end of the 20th century, Wei Wei, Yu Quanyu and other veteran cadres made the magazines "Zhongliu" and "Zhenli de Zhuiqiu" into old leftist strongholds, resisting and criticizing the bourgeois liberalization and privatization wave in society at that time. Another example: at the beginning of the 21st century, when a certain big figure in the Party openly proposed to "expand the class base of the Party," Wei Wei, Zheng Tianxiang and other veteran comrades dared to stand up and criticize, not fearing retaliation. However, looking at the 47 years of history since Chairman Mao's death, old leftists were only a very small minority among veteran cadres, and most had degenerated into political "deaf-mutes" and "tide-watchers." Additionally, among veteran cadres, there were also a few extreme rightists, like former Deputy Director of the Organization Department Li Rui and former Vice President of People's University Xie Tao, who became vanguards of anti-Mao and anti-Marxist activities.