Revolutionary Wind and Rain

9.2. Revolutionary Wind and Rain

≪ 9.1. The Golden Age of My Career | Table of Contents

When the Cultural Revolution in Panzhihua kicked off in 1966, it was still relatively calm and peaceful. It wasn’t until the Red Guards arrived that the revolution really grew and accelerated. At first, there were many small and independent military units. At the time, I was struck by Chairman Mao’s nation-wide call to arms, and to chase the honour of being a revolutionary, I became a lieutenant in one of these military units.

1. Petitioning in Beijing

In the early January of 1967, a rebel leader named Li Qingyun Chinese: 李青云 led several other men to ransack a municipal comittee member’s home. Some of them had once served as Governor Yu Qiuli Chinese: 余秋里
A general of the People’s Liberation Army who later occupied political roles of power. ’s private bodyguards; following the raid, they were branded as counter-revolutionaries. After that, the public security bureau These are units of the local government that function like police stations in the West. caught and jailed each and every one of the rebels. They even held a city-wide denunciation rally, and they weren’t released until a confession was pressured out of them.

The day they captured Li Qingyun, his wife Huang Qun Chinese: 黄群 found me and asked me to run away with her on an overnight journey. We drove to Chengdu for three days and nights, and we travelled from Chengdu to Beijing by train to file a formal complaint.

At that time, the Cultural Revolution had slithered from city to city like a ravenous snake, and the train station was buried under mountains and seas of people. With great effort, we barely squeezed our way onto a train, only to realise that the compartment had long since been overcrowded. People even filled up the restrooms. We endured two days and two nights of standing before arriving in Beijing. It was the dead of night, accompanied with a snowy and bone-chilling wind. We had no choice but to aimlessly wander to keep our blood flowing.

The next day, we found the capital’s rebel red guards, who arranged for us to stay in a middle school classroom. They advised us to look for the Cultural Revolution Reception Centre Chinese: 文革接待站, pinyin: wén gé jiē dài zhàn
This was a governmental organisation created during the Cultural Revolution. I believe its primary purpose was to receive and address formal complaints and use this information to advise national and regional policy. .

Given our chaotic circumstances, nobody really knew who we were, and we didn’t look like typical “wandering revolutionaries Chinese: 文革散兵, pinyin: wén gé sǎn bīng
”. Our complaint thus concluded the way we knew it would: we received a few words of comfort, but ultimately, nothing came of it.

After suffering for 20 days on the outside, we returned to Panzhihua. Just a few hours prior, the rebels had all been released by the public security bureau, and we thought we would have a peaceful trip home. Much to my surprise, the conservatives in Panzhihua took the opportunity to capture me and jail me in a cowshed Chinese: 牛棚, pinyin: niú péng
I cannot tell if this is slang for “jail”, or if she was literally locked in a cowshed. where I was to await a denunciation rally.

That day, a part of me was ready to face death. I kept my head up and maintained my innocence. I said, what crime is there in following Chairman Mao’s call to action? Henceforth, I found fame as a hero amongst the rebels of Panzhihua.

2. Combating Political Factionalism and Rescuing the Old Cadres

After the early days of the revolution, Panzhihua’s rebels formed three main factions. These factions were generally comprised of companies and organisations, and thus the era of factionalism began.

The faction Li Qingyun belonged to was the least populous, and all of its members were from the forestry industry. Since they adopted revolutionary activities on January 20, they were called “Faction 120 Chinese: 一二零派, pinyin: yī èr líng pài
Literally “faction one two zero”. ”.

Zheng Liuchuan Chinese: 郑流川, pinyin: zhèng liú chuān. and Mi Xianming Chinese: 米贤明, pinyin: mǐ xián míng. belonged to the Three Red Lines Chinese: 红三线, pinyin: hóng sān xiàn. faction, and it was comprised of the steel processing and iron mining systems.

Our faction had the administrative, business, communications, coal mining, construction, and electrical systems, among others, making us the most populous. We were officially the “Workers' Federation of Dukou City Chinese: 渡口市工人联合会, pinyin: dù kǒu shì gōng rén lián hé hùi.
Dukou and Panzhihua are two names for the same city. The city had gone through several different names; it was changed to Dukou in 1965, then changed to Panzhihua in 1987. ”, or “Du Gonglian Chinese: 渡工联, pinyin: dù gōng lián.
This is a shortening of the full Chinese name, and there’s not a great English shortening. ” for short. We were headquartered in the top floor of the city marketplace.

In their attempts to demonstrate their greatest devotion to the revolution, Faction 120 and the Three Red Lines would frequently and arbitrarily hold denunciation rallies for authority figures. Our faction mandated that our members adhere to their working schedules. Anybody that wanted to protest could use a big-character poster, and denunciation rallies without good reason were forbidden.

One time, the Three Red Lines captured the city leaders (18 of them total across the various sectors) and brought them to a brightly lit sports stadium (where city-wide assemblies were usually held). They were forced to kneel in the “jetliner position Chinese: 坐喷气式飞机, pinyin: zuò pēn qì shì fēi jī.
This seems to be a form of public humiliation and possibly physical torture, where the victim's arms are forcibly pulled backwards so the body resembles an aircraft. I found this image here via an image search, but the link seems to be dead. ” for a denunciation rally.

When I heard of this, I immediately called 36 young people to the stadium. I walked up to the podium and said that every rally should open with the recitation of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong. I randomly asked a few of the victims to recite some line from some page of the book, and none of them were able to recite a word. As a result, I had those 36 young people (two per victim) to take these “authorities” away and study the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, and we announced the end of the rally. This was how we rescued each and every one of those victims.

Another time, the Three Red Lines heard about Premier Zhou Chinese: 周总理, piyin: zhōu zǒng lǐ.
This refers to 周恩来 (or Zhou Enlai), a well-known Chinese diplomat who served under Chairman Mao. ’s correspondence with Xu Chi Chinese: 徐驰, pinyin: xú chí.
about returning to Beijing. They plotted to kidnap Xu Chi on his way to Chengdu and planned to hold a denunciation rally for him. Once I learned of this news, I immediately contacted Minister Xu and advised him to reroute his travels. He ended up taking a detour through Kunming before flying to Beijing, allowing him to stay safe and avoid trouble.

During this era of factionalism, despite adhering to my moral principles, I faced a lot of risk and danger. For instance, Li Qingyun asked me multiple times to either join Faction 120 or have our two factions amalgamate, and each time I refused his offer. Eventually, he unexpectedly broke into my home with several accomplices. Facing me with a handgun, he demanded that I agree to one of his requests. I told him, “If you dare so much as touch a single hair on my body, I’ll wipe your family off the face of the Earth. And that includes your six children.” Only then did he back off. I didn’t feel scared at all at the time, and it really felt like banter Chinese: 提着脑袋玩, pinyin: tí zhè nǎo dài wán.
It’s unclear to me what this is supposed to mean, and most translation services yield “hold up one’s head and play”. I think it should mean something like “to engage in cocky banter”. .

3. The Risk of Violence

Panzhihua never slowed its growth and development in the face of the revolution, let alone see the kind of violence that Chongqing and Chengdu did. However, it still came close to the precipice of revolutionary violence.

While the factions were still fighting, a Minister Kong Chinese: 孔, pinyin: kǒng relayed a message to me. He said the people in Mi Xianming and Zheng Liuchuan’s faction (the Three Red Lines) were stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and they even had six large artillery cannons. He said that we were their primary target.

We immediately held a secret emergency meeting. We debated the best course of action, and we ended up sending someone to Chengdu to buy weapons and ammunition of our own. We even bought five pistols (they gave one to me, but I never used it). We also manufactured a thousand of our own hand grenades, thus giving us a true military presence.

After waiting for a few days, our enemies ended up not engaging us in combat. Some suggested that we sieze the opportunity and strike first, but I maintained the principle of “You don't harm me, I don't harm you Chinese: 人不犯我，我不犯人, pinyin: rén bú fàn wǒ, wǒ bú fàn rén
This is not the most succinct translation, but it gets the idea across. ”. At this time, the local military noticed something was off, and the leader of the generals summoned me. After clarifying the situation, they immediately began working out a solution, and they ordered us to dispose of all our weaponry and military preparations. Just like that, the spark of a large-scale conflict was averted. If I was in favour of fighting, it would have resulted in a major loss of human life. It would have been a crime against humanity.

4. Revolutionary Unity and Forming the Revolutionary Committee

The armed fighting, political violence, and anarchy of the Cultural Revolution was unsustainable and bound to burn out. Forming coalitions and uniting the three factions into a Revolutionary Committee therefore became a popular idea very rapidly.

As such, Panzhihua followed the central government’s lead and formed several coalitions alongside the Panzhihua City Revolutionary Committee Chinese: 攀枝花市革命委员合
Pinyin: pān zhī huā shì gé mìng wěi yuán hé
It’s hard to find an English translation (or even much information) of this organisation online. I think this is a shortened form of the committee’s official name, though multiple governmental organisations could be shortened to this. . With approval from the higher-ups, namely the chairman Xu Chi and deputy chairmen Gu Xiu Chinese: 顾秀, a veteran who later became known for his developmental work on the Three Fronts. , An Yiwen, and Gao Jixian Chinese: 高继贤 (among others), the key figures and leaders of the various factions all became members of this committee.

In addition, the various committies and coalitions were created in a random order, and this created a new situation. Many of the famous and nameless faction leaders alike weren’t party members to begin with, but now they were expected to be “civil servants Chinese: 当官
Pinyin: dāng guān
I believe this means “to serve”, either as an officer, politician, or as a civil servant. In this context, I think civil servitude makes the most sense. ” before joining. Sentiments of “a fresh start Chinese: 吐故纳新
Pinyin: tǔ gù nà xīn
A Chinese idiom that literally means “throw up the old, accept the new”. Here, I think this refers to the feeling that the old society of China had fallen, and people were at the forefront of a new world. ” also created the dynamics of hidden power struggles.

Although I had become a member of the revolutionary committee, I didn’t want to be a civil servant; I instead wanted to focus on design and planning. I did not support the ideas of “a fresh start”. One time, I took an oppositional stance and collected a bunch of signatures on a big-character board. Among the signatories were some fellow rebels (Zheng Liuchuan, Mi Xianming, Xu Changsheng Chinese: 徐长生 ; Xu was even a member of our faction), and we said we weren’t satisfied with the communist party’s level of competence. We needed to continue to “fight capitalism and criticise revisionism Chinese: 斗私批修
Pinyin: dòu sī pī xiū
斗 and 批 both mean to fight. 私 alludes to private ownership and capitalism, while 修 refers to (Marxist) revisionism. ”, to address our shortcomings and improve our party.

This really stirred the hornet’s nest. That night, we assembled several truckfulls of rebels armed with big-character boards and chanted the motto, “The municipal party committee protects raising hell and relentless oppression! Chinese: 市委机关老保翻天，坚决镇压！
Pinyin: shì wěi jī guān lǎo bǎo fān tiān, jiān jué zhèn yā
” Afterwards, only because they found out I wrote the big-character boards, they decided not to beat anyone. However, they did confront me and ask why I kept supporting counter-revolutionary parties. I told them to go home and ask me about it at the next committee meeting.

Fortunately, Xu Chi resided over the following day’s Panzhihua City Revolutionary Committee meeting, and thanks to his reconciliatory efforts, the situation quietted down.

5. From Municipal Authorities to Establishing the Academy of Urban Planning and Design

I felt that working with the revolutionary committee wasn’t a great fit for me. On one hand, I wanted to do practical and concrete work; on the other, I was many years my supervisors’ junior, and this caused many people to look down on me. I was even the butt of many jokes. Frequently, when visitors came to do business, I was mistaken for a scribe or a servant, and they refused to work with me.

Eventually, the city’s leaders let me start preparing for the establishment of the Panzhihua City Institute of Urban Planning and Design. I began recruiting the best engineers and technicians alongside their administrative and accounting staff from all over the city’s jurisdiction. We had assembled a most harmonious group.

During the recruitment process, there was a peculiar guy named Lü Shifu Chinese: 吕师傅
This 师傅 is the same as “master”, which I suppose contributes to his eccentricity. from the construction sector who wanted to do purchasing. He was originally a bricklayer, and he claimed his father was one of China’s ten best magicians. His father knew a multitude of mystifying tricks: he could split a chicken into five pieces and put it back together an hour later, and he could teleport money in and out of bank vaults. After telling these stories, He even gave a performance — he cut a piece of rope and restored it. Afterwards, he said he was reprimanded by the Municipality Public Security Bureau and was banned from performing magic. They said he was spreading feudalist superstition.