Chapter 031: The Country and the Family

Chinese New Year's Eve Xiao Chen, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and president of the Central Party School, returned to Beijing on the first day of the first lunar month in Langliu to pay New Year's greetings to veteran comrades and workers on duty in the Economic Development Zone, and took three hours to pay respects to the tomb of his grandfather Xiao Fei at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery with his uncle Xiao Zheng, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and other family members.

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, even if the Chinese people who have never been to this place, most of them have heard of this name. On the gray gatehouse imitating the architectural style of the Western Han Dynasty, the lintel reads "Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery". On both sides of the front door are two majestic stone lions and four upright century-old cypresses. There is security guarding at the entrance, but anyone can enter as they please.

Babao Mountain, located in the east of Shijingshan District in Beijing, is an isolated remnant hill on the plain in front of the Xishan Mountain Range, named after the building material "Babao". The so-called eight treasures refer to eight kinds of clay minerals: horsetooth stone, chalk, blue ash, laterite, crucible, yellow pulp, slate, and sandstone. Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, located at the southern foot of Babaoshan, covers an area of 150 acres, the Yuan Dynasty was the former site of Lingfu Temple, the Ming Dynasty was renamed Baozhong Huguo Temple, in 1950 it was rebuilt as the Revolutionary Cemetery, in 1970 it was renamed Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, becoming the most famous and highest standard garden-style cemetery in China. The cemetery is divided into two parts: columbarium and cemetery, because the columbarium area implements closed management, so ordinary people can generally only browse in the cemetery area, but fortunately, the cemetery area is full of pine and cypress, solemn and solemn, but it is also a good place to walk and think.

Xiao Chen and others naturally came to a cemetery located at the top of the north of the entire cemetery, where the deceased party and state leaders, cadres at or above the deputy ministerial level, and leaders of democratic parties are mainly buried.

In 1950, Comrade Ren Bishi died of illness, he was the first deceased national leader after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the first national leader buried after the completion of Babaoshan, so his tomb is called "the first tomb of Babaoshan". Taking the tomb of Ren Bishi as the benchmark, the two sides parallel to each other are Politburo Standing Committee members, including: Peng Z, Yao Y, Xiao Fei, and Li XL, but Xiao Fei's historical status is higher than that of others.

Although Xiao Zheng retreated, he was in good spirits, and he talked about it very strongly today, chatting with Xiao Chen beside him while walking: "At the Zunyi meeting, Chairman Máo actually controlled the leadership of the party, but the chairman knew that he was a person who 'held extreme arguments and commented on people', and there were many controversies, and he suffered real disasters if he tried to make a name for himself, so he separated the actual control from the nominal power." At the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, through the rectification movement of 1942, the ideology and organization were unified, and for the first time, the leading position was formally established both in practice and in name. The Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China did not have a Politburo Standing Committee, but only a Secretariat, whose members were Máo, Zhou, Zhu, Liu, and Ren, who were called the 'Five Leaders' at the time, which was a combination of old, middle-aged and young people. In 1956, the Central Committee set up a Politburo Standing Committee at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, whose members were Máo, Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Xiao, and Zheng. At the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee in 1958, ** came in as a member of the Standing Committee, ranking ahead of Zheng Nanxun. These people are all members of the first generation of our party's leading collective, as Comrade Nanxun said. However, what you can see in this Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery is the tomb of Ren Lao and your grandfather. ”

In fact, Xiao Chen knew all these things, but he didn't believe that the uncle said these words just because he was old and chattering, and there should be other meanings, so he nodded and said: "Comrade Ren Bishi is one of the main members of the first generation of the central leadership collective in our party with Comrade Máo Zedong as the core, and he is a person who has made great contributions to the Chinese revolution, but unfortunately at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he died of illness at the age of 46. From the perspective of politics, he is a person with a firm stand, a clear head, and a clear-cut stand. ”

In fact, Comrade Ren Bishi was not only an early member of our party, a Marxist propagandist and organizer, and an outstanding leader of the party and the people's army, but also his major contributions to the Chinese revolution were manifold. It is particularly worth mentioning that in his early years he was not on the same line with Máo, but on the same line with the Bolsheviks at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow; Earlier, he was not convinced by Máo, always thinking that Máo was a narrow empiricist, but later, Máo himself said half-jokingly and half-seriously: Comrade Bi Shi said that I am a narrow empiricist, which means that I should read more! Later, after seeing Máo's work with his own eyes, and comparing with Wang Ming and others, he finally found out that Máo was the natural leader of Huaxia**. He was not only one of the first leaders of the Communist Party of China to advocate the study of Máo Zedong's ideas in the Party, but he also made a unique contribution to the establishment of the core and leadership position of Máo Zedong in the organizational structure of the Party Central Committee and to the process of making the Combiot recognize and support Máo Zedong as the core of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

During the Yan'an period, Comrade Ren Bishi served as Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee, participated in the formulation of major decisions of the Party, and became Comrade Máo Zedong's right-hand man. He did a great deal of fruitful work in preparing for the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, leading the rectification movement and the large-scale production movement, and participating in the drafting of the party's historical resolutions. Comrade Ren Bishi was still a straightforward person by nature, a humble person, and good at keeping in touch with the masses. He is not only a 'little fellow' who dares to have direct dialogue with Chairman Máo, or even quarrel, but also everyone who has worked or lived with Comrade Ren Bishi knows that he has 'three fears': one is afraid of less work, the second is afraid of troublesome people, and the third is afraid of using too much money. He is cool-headed, thoughtful, practical, meticulous in his work, and good at correctly solving complex and major problems. He was ill for a long time and took on heavy work, and during his serious illness, he still demanded that he 'if he could insist on walking 100 steps, he should not take 99 steps', showing the dedication of a person who never ceaselessly struggled for the revolutionary cause. This spirit of his is vividly praised as the 'camel spirit'. Comrade Ye Shuai once said: 'Comrade Bi Shi is the camel of our party and the camel of the Chinese people, carrying a heavy burden, walking a long and arduous road, without rest, without enjoyment, and without any personal considerations'. ”

So far, Xiao Chen still hasn't understood the uncle's intentions, so he has to nod his head to indicate that he is taught.

Xiao Zheng stood in front of Xiao Lao's tomb, was silent for a moment, and said solemnly: "Comrade Xiao Fei is not only my father and grandfather, but also a leader I admire very much. I am now registered at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and I have read the papers of the graduate students who graduated this year, and the topic of one of the students led by a doctoral supervisor is: "Research on Comrade Xiao Fei's Thoughts on the Construction of the Cadre Team". As for myself, I also went to two social classes, and I also acted in accordance with Comrade Xiao Fei's 'bird cage theory': the small cage was released, and the big cage was locked. The small cage is not let go, it is unattractive, and the audience cannot sit still; The big cage is not locked, there is no principle, and the leader cannot sit still. In his early years, Comrade Xiao Fei was a typesetter in a printing house, but later he not only won the appreciation of comrades in the party, but also won the admiration of political opponents by learning one line of work, loving one line of work, and doing one line of fine work. If Ren Bishi is a kind of 'camel spirit', then Comrade Xiao Fei is a kind of 'bee' spirit. He can do everything he can in any given position in the organization, sucking shǔn all kinds of knowledge like honey, and he sucks in huā powder, spit out honey. Comrade Xiao Fei's life experience was difficult but rich, and he enjoyed a high reputation inside and outside the party for his completely and thoroughly realistic spirit of seeking truth from facts and his tenacious and creative spirit of exploration, and the person who had the greatest influence on his thinking and work methods was Comrade Máo Zedong.

As a son and a comrade of the later generation, I am diligent in learning and good at thinking about Comrade Xiao Fei's life, and I think there are several points to sum up: first, I have insisted on investigation and research in my work for a long time; Second, listen carefully to the opinions of experts, experts and parties; Third, people who can listen carefully to negative opinions, thinking that it is difficult to buy people who oppose their own opinions with money, and with opposing opinions, they can prompt themselves to think about problems; Fourth, dare to adhere to principles and withstand pressure from all sides; Fifth, persist in studying, persist in reading, and read newspapers for a long time, accumulating over time. It is precisely because of these characteristics that no matter whether he is director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee or vice premier in charge of economic work of the CPC Central Committee, he is always good at grasping the overall situation and general trend, striving to study new situations, learning new things, and constantly exploring and solving new problems. We engraved the essence of Xiao Fei's thoughts on both sides of this tombstone, with a total of 15 words: not only the top, not only the book, but the truth; Exchange, compare, repeat. ”

When Xiao Chen heard this, he thought that the uncle had taught him with the experience of the two elders, so he nodded and said: "I still remember the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Party's Ability to Govern the Party" adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee, which has a classic sentence: 'It is not easy for a proletarian party to seize power, and it is even more difficult to hold a good political power, especially for a long time. The ruling position of the party is not innate, nor is it once and for all. That's a good point, the skills of our party's sages in governing the party, the country, and the army are enough for future generations to learn. The party's sense of governance, governing ability, and ruling position are not something that party members, especially the party's leading cadres, think about and practice, and there is no 'camel spirit' or 'bee spirit'. ”

Xiao Zheng didn't answer, but suddenly smiled slightly, and said pointedly: "Judging from the common identities of Ren Bishi and Xiao Fei, when they entered the team, they all belonged to the 'green' in the three combinations of 'old, middle and young' of the team members. Generally speaking, people who take on this kind of role are envied by outsiders, thinking that they are people in the circle and have the right to speak; This kind of person may also be in charge of a piece of work, and naturally there is a front army that has to obey their dispatch, and belongs to the horn of 'the head of the army and the tail', but the inside of the team is different from the outside of the team. In fact, those who have had this kind of horn sè experience know that this kind of horn sè is the most difficult to be in the team, especially how to deal with the 'bosses' who have elected you into the team. Let you join the team, maybe not because you are more capable than others, but because you are more suitable than others, the connotation of ability is certain, and the connotation of suitability may not be determined. When you don't speak, the boss thinks you're too incompetent; When you don't speak, you will think that you are immature. When you don't take a stand, the boss thinks you're disloyal, and when you don't make a stand, the boss thinks you're not measured. As for how to get along with other members of the team, how to get through the 'green' in the 'old, middle and young', continue to become the 'middle' in the 'old, middle and young' in middle age, and still serve as the 'old' in the 'old, middle and young' in old age, that is to say, not out of the circle in a lifetime, this is a person's life needs to ponder, practice, and summarize. However, the older you get, the more you will be secretive, and you can only rely on the later generations to figure it out slowly, but many people have the opportunity to ponder it slowly, and they are out of the game before they can figure it out. ”

Xiao Chen suddenly realized that the meaning of what the uncle said today was to remind himself that he was just a prince, not a king.

Perhaps, those words spoken at the Central Party School reached the ears of the uncle, right?

Xiao Chen took a deep breath and nodded calmly: "I know." ”

Uncle turned his head and laughed: "That's good, Xiao Chen, I'm old, you are still young, and they are still young." You have to remind yourself at all times that your every move affects the whole country...... and home. ”