Talk Starting from Society's "Qualitative Change,

Zong Da's "Confession," and Qu Qiubai's "Superfluous Words"

By Lao Tian，2024

When reading Teacher Liu Jiming's book, I felt a very intimate connection because many of the personal and place names mentioned in the book are familiar to me. Although the names in the book are not the original ones, I can find historical or real-life prototypes. For example, with the character Zong Da, I can imagine Qu Qiubai, Wang Ming, and even the character "Da" reminds me of our old principal Li Da—this is a concrete representation of a very familiar group. The book mentions many place names like Fengyuan and Guiyuan that feel very close to me. My residence Meiyuan wasn't mentioned, which is a small regret.

Looking at it overall, reading this book was extremely shocking. From the title "Black and White," even if precise interpretation is difficult—this is where literature's richness as art lies—there's one point I believe everyone shares the same feeling about: the title speaks of the "two worlds" of old and new society that we used to talk about, and how this reversal and transformation occurred—through the typical environments, typical characters, their encounters, thoughts, and observations depicted in the book, people can clearly see how the opposing black and white worlds are re-enacted.

Due to time constraints, I'll discuss several points that particularly moved me.

The first particularly moving point is the social "qualitative change" we personally experienced. Teacher Liu and I are contemporaries, both post-60s generation, following the reform and opening-up history, personally witnessing the qualitative change of the era. The stories in the book gave me very deep feelings. Fundamental changes in people's worldviews are interrelated with the qualitative changes of the entire world. After the same world undergoes fundamental qualitative changes, people's views of the world will change accordingly. If they cannot change in time, they may be eliminated. The book describes some such people, including those who to a certain extent earn our sympathy and admiration and would receive high moral evaluation—people like Tian Fang, the old principal, and Wang Shengli. In many eras, they were positive figures, but the book presents how their hopes and paths were gradually cut off. A good society should create conditions for good people to accomplish good things, thereby achieving progress and development. In the social mechanisms of Mao's era, people like the old principal would be very prominent, becoming pillars of the times. They could not only do their own duties well but also play exemplary and demonstrative roles. The experiences they created could be promoted to help other places and people solve difficulties and problems, just like the Wang Jinxi and Chen Yonggui we're familiar with, who were known and learned from by people nationwide. Then their contributions to social progress would be even greater. Good institutions should reward good people, help them accomplish more good things, elevate and praise these people. Various resources should tilt toward these people, and publicity should serve them, so that the direction they represent becomes the mainstream direction, the direction guiding progress, the direction everyone follows. But in an era of black and white reversal, we sadly see the opposite trend—good people's paths are all cut off.

On the other hand, those affirmed by the new era thrive everywhere. The characters Teacher Liu shaped in "Black and White" are also very typical and profound. For example, Wu Bozhong as a successful quack doctor, and his actual biological son Du Wei, as well as someone who straddles both official and academic worlds (Lang Tao)—the glamorous success of such character images provides a stark contrast, telling us how great the scope of era change has been.

Choosing what kind of characters to develop what kind of lives is like choosing evidence when we write papers—what kind of evidence we choose, what typicality the evidence will have, what explanatory value it will provide. Behind this choice are deep-level standards and rules that differ greatly. At the same time, the weight distribution of evidence explaining conclusions, and the reasoning logic applied from evidence to conclusions, are also very different in practice. The novel is like an unconsciously unfolded paper, where characters and events in the story, according to different logics revealed by era transformations, consciously or unconsciously: perform themselves, serving as evidence to the end, letting us see the conclusions given by the era. Thus, reading good works can better help us understand this world and its changes.

There's a particularly striking political change—how people politically diagnose conditions and prescribe remedies reflects massive changes in philosophy or epistemology. For example, there's a popular saying online: "Don't solve problems, solve the people who raise problems." The book has such a plot where conflicts between university students and the cafeteria trigger student unrest, and in the handling process, they first look for people with ulterior motives who exploit our individual shortcomings to cause trouble. This should be after complete negation, when this way of diagnosing problems and prescribing remedies gradually became popular. Obviously, this became a new convention for diagnosing official-citizen contradictions. Common people actually dare to find fault with government officials, but who holds the power to find fault first—this cannot be mistaken. Previous famous sayings and proverbs could gain universal acceptance to become popular, and "solving the people who raise problems" gained universal acceptance online obviously corresponds to the new era's government cognition and handling methods for contradictions as well as common strategies. The reason such contradictions and their handling strategies appeared is to some extent of course because of bidding farewell to revolution and completely negating the Cultural Revolution. In 1980s propaganda, the criticism and supervision process of mass movements was completely smeared as manipulation by careerists. This way, the related evidence and reasoning logic became: the masses have no eyes or brains of their own, their political participation behavior can only be the result of being deceived, and the careerists who deceive common people all have bad intentions. Then, logically, order and justice are monopolized by the system and powerful figures, and then people who raise problems have ulterior motives—even if they themselves don't, someone else does.

It was only when reading this book that I deeply experienced and grasped this methodological qualitative change. Starting from completely negating the Cultural Revolution and criticizing mass participation in political supervision of officials, it brought about qualitative changes in philosophy and methodology, then catalyzed completely new political logic. Thereafter, when diagnosing and handling problems, when analyzing evidence and completing reasoning, there was no longer any consistency with the past—it became what we're familiar with today. The power of literature, and its power of reasoning, is indeed like gentle rain moistening things silently.

From here, we can see that this political logic doesn't recognize the theory of contradictions. Teacher Mao said in "On Contradiction": contradictions exist at all times and everywhere, and contradictions have primary and secondary aspects. If we recognize Teacher Mao's theory of contradictions, then specifically regarding official-citizen contradictions, officials are definitely the primary contradiction, and citizens are the secondary aspect of the contradiction. Thus when analyzing responsibility, the official aspect is definitely the primary aspect of the contradiction, its role is also decisive and primary. When pursuing accountability, it's also in the position of first responsible party, while citizens' responsibility is secondary. At most, because common people are not in management positions, they have inadequacies or partiality due to incomplete information or knowledge. The limitations of non-professional common people participating in politics are known in advance. If the people's supervision and participation are needed, then we need the correct attitude toward these inadequacies. Regarding this, Chairman Mao spoke very clearly in his speech at the Seventh Congress, with three sentences: "speak without reservation," "correct mistakes if you have made any and guard against them if you have not," "he who speaks is not guilty while he who hears should take warning," and also "learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones, cure the sickness to save the patient." Chairman Mao's words indicate the necessity of people's participation in politics and supervision of government. The various inadequacies shown in this process don't have much actual harm. The key is instead to create conditions to protect those who dare to speak out, so that those who dare to raise problems have no worries. This is of course a completely different approach from solving the people who raise problems, with completely different philosophical and political logic behind it. At that time, it was clearly recognized that in official-citizen contradictions, officials are the primary aspect and citizens are the secondary aspect. As long as the problems of officials as the primary aspect of contradictions are solved, then contradictions will naturally be resolved.

We also see that many plots and characters narrated in the novel are ultimately handled by putting all problems on the person who raised the problems, initiating new methodological and political logical practice. In the 1980s, the customs of the old era hadn't completely disappeared yet. They still verbally acknowledged many shortcomings in work, which were exploited by bad people. In the entire logic of handling affairs and explanatory wording, bad people exploiting our shortcomings became the primary driving force for contradictions and incidents. Thus, we see a new political logic presented through the unfolding of "Black and White" stories. In such reading and understanding, the "qualitative change" of the entire historical process is revealed without reservation.

The very powerful aspect of the novel is using the concrete to represent the abstract, using the individual to represent the universal. From the novel's story development, we can see how our society changed step by step from before to today's situation.

Additionally, I have another very strong feeling, a particularly deeply felt point, related to Zong Da's traitor problem. Delving deeper, it actually involves the profound and complex relationship between intellectuals and revolution and the masses. At a deeper level, it's about how intellectuals move out of traditional thinking patterns, move out of "traditional propositions" to become modern organic intellectuals. The related differences are very profound. Similar problems often occur and are continuously encountered. Not long ago I was arguing about related differences with people in a group, finally ending unpleasantly with intense conflict, and even the WeChat group was disbanded by the group owner. The revolution passed long ago, but this problem actually still hasn't been resolved. Today there are too many arguments within small leftist circles. Those old problems from before still exist today, still inspiring thinking and differences, even inspiring deep emotional opposition.

The appearance of some characters in "Black and White," including later ideological activists in the 1980s transition, is related to the era's climate of large-scale intellectual participation in revolution. In 1935, with intensive Japanese invasion, the signing of the Tanggu Truce and He-Umezu Agreement, the anti-Japanese atmosphere throughout North China greatly increased. A considerable portion of intellectuals felt the need to act on their own for anti-Japanese resistance. At this time, the Red Army had just completed the Long March to northern Shaanxi and began major development, absorbing large numbers of intellectuals into the Party. After a period of interaction, around the Yan'an Rectification in the 1940s, among the Party's worker-peasant cadres—many of whom were veterans who had experienced the Long March—a near-consensus view formed, calling this batch of petty intellectuals those "blown in by democratic winds." This was certainly not a good evaluation—implying these people didn't have preparation for ideological revolution before their bodies entered the revolutionary ranks. Those relatively knowledgeable people who also couldn't well resolve their relationship with revolution and the masses (what we'd consider relatively minor petty intellectuals today) were seen as an untrustworthy group, different from us worker-peasant rustics, viewed as an alien force.

We know that before the Yan'an Rectification, several veteran cadres in Yan'an had scolded Ding Ling and Wang Shiwei. At that time, the worker-peasant cadre group had opinions about the petty intellectual cadre group, with deep mutual estrangement. After bidding farewell to revolution in the 1980s, the intellectual group in turn fully expressed their views on revolution and revolutionary leadership teams. It should be said that both sides' worldviews were nearly incommensurable. This precisely corresponds to the historical panorama revealed in "Black and White." After another 180-degree turn, opinion expression and practical development from the other side formed a contrast and a very good test.

That group "blown in by democratic winds," in the new transition of the 1980s, the most visible group was a batch of ideological high-level officials who had the opportunity to fully express themselves. Because during the long years of revolution and construction, the worker-peasant cadre group was the dominant group within the Party, while the group blown in by democratic winds was the disadvantaged group. Psychologically, they needed to justify themselves to the dominant group. Having been looked down upon by the mainstream worker-peasant cadre group within the Party for a long time, they had pent-up frustration to release. At the same time, the transition angle was too large, requiring explanation or self-legitimizing defense, so it was necessary to respond to others' former views. As a well-considered response—they called themselves "true at both ends," as Li Pu representing the group gathered around "Yanhuang Chunqiu" said.

This group calling themselves "true at both ends" were actually part of the reason and driving force for the rapid transitions described in the novel. They later had the opportunity to become history creators, pushing history rapidly into the transition of "black and white" (like Song Qiankun). To some extent, many aspects of subsequent social development and transition results are dark and difficult to whitewash. A psychological legitimizing method or self-meaning production manifested as "Yanhuang Chunqiu" promoting someone as a representative of clean capitalism. This magazine's long-term effort direction was also to achieve self-legitimization through scapegoating—bad people rejected the good capitalist path, so we're not responsible for the current darkness. "Yanhuang Chunqiu's" effort to achieve small group legitimacy production through "scapegoating" bad people can be considered a spectacle of a bizarre era. Regardless of whether that group was conscious or unconscious about subsequent developments, their early radical postures and statements, with naive salvific gospel narratives, urged those with rigid thinking to abandon their positions, massively publishing statements that looked ahead but not behind. They belonged to those who transformed particularly quickly. The nation's historical transformation later was very fast, turning particularly sharply. To some extent, it turned more "right" than America, which had much to do with this generation mastering ideology and holding cultural and ideological policy positions.

Behind the intellectual problem is the issue of mutual reflection between theory and reality, which is also one of the most important relationships in modern society. The era transformation revealed in "Black and White" records some thinkers' thoughts and interpretations, to some extent revealing a fundamental problem: the relationship between intellectuals and revolution and the masses. The book doesn't mention whether Zong Da actually defected, mentioning he was kidnapped by enemies and that "My Confession" was forged by enemies. Returning to real people and events in history may also be instructive. When Qu Qiubai was transferring in 1935, he was captured by enemies and later wrote "Superfluous Words" in prison, which was similar to a "confession." In this text, the overall tone was quite low, as if he hadn't made ideological preparation before being deeply involved in revolution. Regarding how to interpret his "confession," during the Cultural Revolution period, mainly Premier Zhou said Qu Qiubai was a traitor, saying "Superfluous Words" could be seen as insufficient revolutionary character, thus begging enemies for mercy to survive, which could serve as evidence of being a traitor. It should be said that this revelation during the revolutionary high tide was highly endorsed by the national masses, especially many middle school students. Compared to Sister Jiang, compared to Ye Ting who wouldn't crawl through dog holes, Qu's insufficient firmness was indeed quite inferior. Recently, a Professor Wang at East China Normal University who studies modern history said that looking at what Qu Qiubai wrote before death, compared to martyr Fang Zhimin, the difference was more than one level. This was a former interpretation, belonging to external perspective, looking at problems from comparing the gap between Qu Qiubai and other firm revolutionaries.

There's another interpretation that doesn't look at problems from external gaps but belongs to internal perspective, proposed from the internal difficulty of the relationship between intellectuals and revolutionary cause, from the difficulty of crossing individual inner gaps.

After Qu Qiubai was rehabilitated in the 1980s, writer Ding Ling wrote an article commemorating Qu Qiubai (in the 1930s, Ding Ling had deep interactions with both Qu Qiubai and his wife Yang Zhihua). She proposed a new way of interpreting "Superfluous Words": although Qu Qiubai's "Superfluous Words" had a low tone, it was very real, actually showing the ideological transformation requirements and transformation predicament encountered by intellectuals after joining the revolution—the things they liked became ineffective, making it difficult to meet revolutionary requirements. The relationship with revolutionary cause, the individual's relationship with the revolutionary team as a whole, the individual's relationship with the masses couldn't be adjusted properly for a long time. To some extent, Ding Ling herself may have encountered such problems, having empathetic understanding. Comparing this way, Premier Zhou saying Qu Qiubai was a traitor was basically an external perspective, criticizing him from outside—he had this gap compared to others. But Ding Ling's understanding was from internal sympathetic understanding, feeling that intellectuals as a special social stratum, to participate in revolutionary cause, to deeply interact with and lead masses, indeed had many difficulties that hadn't been overcome—psychological gaps too large to cross. Qu Qiubai's "Superfluous Words," though low in tone, precisely reflected his spiritual state. He acknowledged having such gaps, but this didn't prevent him from being a very honest revolutionary. It should be said that in the new era, Ding Ling's interpretation based on internal perspective also won many people's approval.

I've read "Superfluous Words" repeatedly. One sentence particularly moved me: Qu Qiubai said that after he entered the Central Soviet Area from Shanghai, he had long heard about land revolution and very much wanted to understand it. He repeatedly sought out local peasants, but just couldn't communicate. What he wanted to say and ask, the peasants couldn't understand, and what the peasants said, he couldn't understand either. There was no way to achieve communication, remaining unclear about it. For such major social transformation, he very much hoped to understand, but he couldn't find a channel to dialogue with peasants. I found this particularly real and moving. For individuals, determining whether someone is a traitor or not merely means the survival or abolition of symbolic capital related to reputation. But for the state and revolution, if people with excessively large internal gaps remain in high positions without at least appropriate restraint, the consequences would be unpredictable.

Starting from such an internal perspective, extending outward, we can also verify and partially answer why socialism reached this stage. Even sincere revolutionaries like Qu were incompatible with understanding land revolution and the masses, while that group "blown in by democratic winds" survived and gained power. This reflects a fundamental problem: revolution or subsequent socialist cause still left a fundamental problem unsolved—how to cultivate our own administrative and technical cadre teams, as well as ideological work personnel? Sincere revolutionaries from the old society had considerable gaps in this regard. Whether finding gaps internally or externally, gaps existed. Cadre teams administratively control society's overall coordination of people, finances, and materials. Intellectual groups control organized learning systems that master production technology and concentrate mass wisdom. Daily, they educate and guide the masses. If they themselves are confused, what would the objective consequences be? "Black and White" presents enormous effects of separation between name and reality in grand social scenes—what's said differs from what's done, consequences differ too much from original propaganda. This problem cannot be cancelled through the scapegoating methods operated by magazines like "Yanhuang Chunqiu." Generation after generation of people's fates are thrown into the great tide to rise and fall, not knowing where the shore is. Because human problems themselves haven't been resolved, cognitive internal gaps and obstacles still exist, the transitional effects we see are those presented in "Black and White." If reading novels can transcend simple oppositions of good and bad people, seeking profit and suffering loss, as Teacher Liu wrote in the afterword, placing them in typical environments with typical characters, then to some extent we can see: how people reflect or become the sum of social relations, and how they themselves, through their conscious choices and actions, imagine and change these social relations and promote their transformation. This way, we can better understand "Black and White," achieving more understanding and grasp of era transformation from realistic epic records, to some extent also deepening our understanding of our own circumstances.