The Absurdity of Crimes During the Cultural Revolution: Writing Letters to Mao and Taiwan is Also a Crime

Left: Mao Zedong, Right: Lin Biao (Dajiyuan composite)

[People News] Many elderly individuals who experienced the Cultural Revolution still feel a lingering sense of dread when they reflect on those absurd years and events. During that period, anyone could be unjustly accused of bizarre crimes, arrested, and sentenced. This article continues to share several stories of fellow inmates described by the late Wang Xuetai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in his book "Prison Notes," which recounts his experiences around 1976 at Beijing's First Prison.

Sentenced to 20 Years for Writing Letters to Mao with Suggestions

One individual mentioned in these stories is not named by Wang Xuetai, likely because he is the son of a high-ranking official. We will refer to him as X. X graduated from the History Department of Peking University in the 1950s, and his father was a senior official responsible for finance at the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. Consequently, he had access to internal documents regarding the national economy, which detailed the decline in production and the economy's near collapse during the Cultural Revolution. This situation greatly concerned him as a patriotic citizen, prompting him to write more than twenty letters to Mao Zedong, accusing the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China of making leftist errors and expressing his worries and suggestions.

This case was regarded as significant at the time, primarily because his father was a high-ranking official in Beijing and had previously served as an aide to the former mayor, Peng Zhen. After Peng was ousted, he too faced repercussions and criticism. Later in the Cultural Revolution, he became a leader within the Beijing Municipal Committee. It remains unclear which political faction aimed to target him to undermine his father, resulting in a highly intense interrogation. On one occasion, X quietly confided to Wang Xuetai, 'It's incredibly frightening, with nearly a hundred pre-trial officers all in black, just like attending one of my lectures. I focused on one point. I wrote to Mao XX, asking how it reached you. Was it forwarded by Mao XX? Is there any directive from Mao XX regarding this? No! Then you are infringing on Mao XX's right to receive letters. You are the real criminals. Later, they beat me...'

The public security officers of the Communist Party had likely never encountered someone so resolute and confrontational, which understandably enraged them, leading to increased pressure on him. During that time, interrogation tactics included fatigue strategies, such as denying sleep, and human wave tactics, which involved increasing the number of pre-trial officers to heighten psychological pressure on the detainee. Clearly, having a hundred pre-trial officers was quite excessive, indicating that the public security officers were genuinely at a loss on how to handle him.

As a result of his defiance, X endured significant physical suffering; his waist was injured and made a noise whenever he turned. He became a model of 'strictness' and was sentenced to twenty years in prison, with his father also facing consequences due to his son's actions.

However, a year later, just a few months after the arrest of the 'Gang of Four,' X was granted medical parole.

Sentenced to 15 years for writing a letter to Taiwan

If X was imprisoned for criticizing the Mao central government, then the case of another nearly sixty-year-old man surnamed Zhang is almost absurd.

Zhang Mou, a resident of Miyun in Beijing, came from a wealthy family before 1949, which fostered a spoiled attitude in him. He was unable to carry burdens or lift baskets, and although he had some medical training, he was not skilled. After 1949, he managed to sustain himself by practicing medicine, but when the Cultural Revolution began, private medical practice was outlawed. Additionally, due to his background, he struggled to find employment, leading to significant hardships in his life.

In a state of desperation, Zhang Mou wrote to the Central 'Cultural Revolution' Group and sent a letter to Jiang Qing, but received no response. During this time, he occasionally listened to broadcasts from Taiwan, which informed him that the Republic of China government was supporting anti-communists on the mainland. Following the instructions from the broadcasts, he wrote to Taiwan, claiming to be part of an anti-communist underground organization and urgently requesting financial assistance.

The letter was sent, but while the money from Taiwan never arrived, the Communist Party police came and arrested him. Initially, they believed he was part of a larger organization, but after several rounds of questioning, they discovered that Zhang Mou struggled to express himself. The police then realized that he had become desperate due to poverty, which drove him to such extreme actions. As a result, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In prison, Zhang Mou had difficulty with basic tasks like eating and dressing, and he appeared quite disheveled, which led to disdain from other inmates. Eventually, as his health worsened, he was transferred to the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled unit in Yanqing. What happened to him afterward remains unknown.

He was sentenced to 10 years for discussing the Cultural Revolution.

Wang Xuetai shared a cell with a man named Dong Qingmin, who was in his thirties, had a very fair complexion, and somewhat feminine features. He was quite skilled with his hands, often crafting small items, and was adept at paper cutting and artistic lettering. Dong was a graduate of a vocational school that specialized in printing and binding, which later evolved into the Beijing Printing Institute. This institution was originally located next to the Confucius Temple at Guozijian inside Andingmen.

Dong Qingmin was sentenced to ten years in prison for 'current counter-revolutionary crimes' due to his discussions about the Cultural Revolution. He recounted to Wang Xuetai several instances of the events that took place in front of the Dacheng Hall at the Confucius Temple during the early days of the Cultural Revolution, where members of the Beijing literary and artistic community were denounced as a 'gang', and the 'Four Olds' were being destroyed.

It is well-documented that in August 1966, during the 'Four Olds' campaign, the Red Guards not only burned books at the Confucius Temple but also destroyed temple steles, the clay idol of Confucius, and plaques such as 'The Teacher for All Ages.' On August 23, several prominent writers and scholars, including Lao She, were forced to kneel inside the Confucius Temple, helplessly watching as books were set ablaze. Dong Qingmin was an eyewitness to these events.

He recalled that Lao She, Peking opera star Hou Xirui, and Xun Huisheng, along with about thirty to forty others, formed a circle, some kneeling and others standing with their heads bowed. In the center were Peking opera costumes, helmets, props, and books from various eras, piled high like a small mountain, which the Red Guards ignited. August was particularly hot, and while these 'gangsters' endured the scorching flames under the blazing sun, they were also subjected to beatings by the Red Guards. Lao She was struck on the head, leaving him bleeding profusely.

Dong Qingmin lamented, "These students really have some nerve. The elderly, one by one, are sweating profusely, leaving black, red (with blood), and white (the silver powder from Peking opera costumes) streaks on their faces, which is both laughable and pitiful." After the struggle session, the cypress trees in the Confucius Temple were completely covered in gold and silver powder, obscuring any green.

Dong Qingmin also recounted a strange incident. A Red Guard, feeling he still had energy to spare, fetched a ladder and an axe to chop down the plaque that reads 'The Great Sage and Teacher' above the Dacheng Hall. Unbeknownst to him, there was a wasp nest behind the plaque. When he struck with the axe, it disturbed the wasps, which swarmed out. The Red Guard was so startled that he fell off the ladder and nearly died. Could this be some form of retribution?

It was after this struggle session that the writer Lao She took his own life by drowning.

After the Cultural Revolution, Dong Qingmin was 'rehabilitated' and released from prison in 1979. He initially learned seal carving, creating seals for foreign visitors to China, and later moved to Japan after getting married, where he opened a seal carving shop. In the 1990s, he became a Japanese citizen and changed his name to 'Sima Qingmin.'

A joke resulted in a 7-year prison sentence.

There was a man named Li Zhiyuan, who was in charge of counting prisoners in the production workshop. Wang Xuetai described him as a 'very good-tempered and cultured person.' He hailed from a rural area in Yanqing, Beijing, had completed junior high school, and was imprisoned in the 1970s, receiving a 7-year sentence.

The charges against him are quite absurd. At the onset of the Cultural Revolution, he served as the head of the Cultural Revolution preparation group in his production team. On one occasion, he was drinking and chatting with some young villagers. After consuming too much alcohol, he let slip a comment. A leading young man declared, 'If I become emperor, I will appoint ministers, prime ministers, generals, and so on.' When Li Zhiyuan arrived later, he jokingly asked, 'How could you forget me? What will you make me?' The young man responded, 'With your looks, I’ll make you a dog-headed military advisor.'

What started as a joke was soon resurrected during the 'One Strike and Three Anti' campaign, which focused on thoroughly investigating class enemies. This incident of 'I want to be emperor' was unearthed, and every year, several cases related to emperors surfaced in Beijing.

The case also caught the attention of the Public Security Bureau. The young man who made the 'I want to be emperor' remark came from a wealthy peasant background. Out of fear, he confessed to having 'reactionary intentions' and wanting to restore the old regime. Seeing this, the others quickly followed suit, confessing to receive leniency. When it came to Li Zhiyuan, he believed he was a poor peasant and an official, and that it was merely a joke with no real implications. Consequently, he was imprisoned on charges of being a 'current counter-revolutionary.' He was released in 1977.

At Mao's memorial service, an elderly farmer who was eating peanuts was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Following Mao's death, a large memorial service was held in Beijing on September 18, and farmers from the rural areas surrounding Beijing were organized to participate by watching the televised broadcast. At that time, each production team had a black-and-white television set, donated by the Japanese government, as the Chinese Communist Party had waived war reparations when establishing diplomatic relations with Japan. This was because Mao was very grateful for the Japanese army's invasion of China, which ultimately enabled the CCP to seize power.

On this day, farmers from a certain brigade in the suburbs of Beijing were gathered to watch a live television broadcast. Having never encountered such a scene before, they were extremely tense and dared not make a sound, resulting in an unusually quiet atmosphere. An old farmer, finding it uninteresting, began to rummage through his pockets. At that moment, the television announced a moment of silence, and the sound of the old farmer rummaging drew the attention of the brigade secretary. The secretary fixed his gaze on him, but the old farmer remained completely oblivious.

After a while, the old farmer found a raw peanut and popped it into his mouth. The secretary immediately shouted, "So-and-so, you are disrupting the memorial service!" He then pinched the old farmer's mouth to force it open, displaying what he was eating to everyone. The secretary continued angrily, "The revolutionary masses are in deep sorrow, and you are happily eating!" This action not only terrified the old farmer but also left the others in shock.

Shortly thereafter, the old farmer was taken to the Public Security Bureau and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was subsequently sent to a labor reform farm.

Conclusion

For those involved, these historical events feel like a distant memory; for contemporary Chinese people, especially the youth, they seem utterly unimaginable, as they cannot conceive that such absurd and terrifying incidents once occurred in China. However, this painful history cannot be erased. No matter how much the Chinese Communist Party attempts to cover it up, the truth will ultimately be revealed to all Chinese people, and this evil party will eventually face accountability.

This article is reprinted from the Dajiyuan website △