In Refutation of the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of In Refutation of the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• Preface and Editor's Notes to «Material on the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique», in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 5, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1977.
• In Refutation of «Uniformity of Public Opinion», in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 5, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1977.
• Preface and Editor's Notes to «Material on the Hu Feng Counter-Revolutionary Clique», in The Writings of Mao Zedong, 1949-76, First English Edition, Vol. 1, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 1986.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

These are Comrade Mao Zedong's preface and editor's notes to the collection Material on the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique, written between the 13th of May and 15th of June, 1955. They were first published in Material on the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique in 1955.

In this work, Comrade Mao Zedong sharply exposes and sums up the various strategies and tactics employed by hidden counter-revolutionaries in their attempts at wrecking, sabotage, and double-dealing, in contrast to the Communist attitude of disdaining to conceal our views and aims. Thus, this preface and these editor's notes are extremely valuable educational material for learning how to uncover such hidden counter-revolutionaries within the revolutionary ranks.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#PREFACE TO MATERIAL ON THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY HU FENG CLIQUE

#Mao Zedong

#15th of June, 1955

#★

To meet the needs of the broad reading public, we have made a compilation of the material on the counter-revolutionary Hu Feng clique which appeared in three instalments in the Renmin Ribao [People's Daily] between the 13th of May and 10th of June, 1955 and also the People's Daily editorial of the 10th of June, and are having it issued by the People's Publishing House under the title Material on the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique. In this book, we have also reprinted Hu Feng's My Self-Criticism as source material, but in an appendix coming after the material supplied by Shu Wu,¹ so that readers can study this double-dealing counter-revolutionary. We have made a few verbal changes in the editor's notes and the footnotes to the three instalments of the material. We have revised some footnotes, added others, and inserted two more editor's notes in the second instalment. For the sake of consistency, the term «anti-Party clique» in the title of the first and second instalments has been changed to «counter-revolutionary clique», as in the third instalment. Otherwise, the text is unchanged.

It may be expected that, as with the publication of the material in the People's Daily, the publication of this book will attract the attention of two kinds of people. On the one hand, counter-revolutionaries will pay attention to it. On the other, the masses of the people will give it even more attention.

Counter-revolutionaries and those with certain counter-revolutionary sentiments will find that the correspondence of the Hu Feng elements strikes a sympathetic chord. Hu Feng and his clique are indeed spokespersons for all counter-revolutionary classes, groups, and individuals, and the curses they hurl at the revolution and the tactics they use in their activities will be appreciated by all those counter-revolutionaries who can get hold of this book, from which they can derive some counter-revolutionary education about class struggle. Nevertheless, this will in no way save them from their doom. Like all the counter-revolutionary writings of their backers, the imperialists and Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Party of China, which were directed against the Chinese people, these writings of the Hu Feng elements are records, not of success, but of failure. They did not save their own clique from destruction.

The masses of the people are very much in need of this material. How do counter-revolutionaries employ their double-dealing tactics? How do they succeed in deceiving us by their false appearances, while furtively doing the things we least expect? All this is a blank to thousands upon thousands of well-intentioned people. On this account, many counter-revolutionaries have wormed their way into our ranks. The eyes of our people are not keen, they are not adept at distinguishing good people from bad types. When people operate in normal conditions, we know how to tell the bad from the good, but we are not adept at seeing through those who operate in unusual conditions. The Hu Feng elements are counter-revolutionaries who put on a disguise to hide their true features and to give a false impression. But since they oppose the revolution, it is impossible for them to cover up their true features entirely. As for the leading spirits of the Hu Feng clique, they have had disputes with us on many occasions before and since Liberation. They are different in word and deed, not only from Communists, but also from vast numbers of non-Party revolutionaries and democrats. They were recently exposed to the full simply because we got hold of a mass of solid evidence against them. As for many of the individuals in the Hu Feng clique, they were able to deceive us because our Party organizations, State bodies, people's organizations, cultural and educational institutions, or enterprises failed to make a strict examination of their records before admitting them. It was also because we were in a stormy period of revolution in the recent past, and people of all sorts tried to get close to us as we emerged the victors; so inevitably, the waters were muddied, the bad became mixed with the good, and we have not yet got around to sifting them thoroughly. Furthermore, success in spotting and clearing out bad elements depends on a combination of correct guidance from the leading bodies with a high degree of political consciousness on the part of the masses, but in this regard, our work in the past was not without shortcomings. These are all lessons for us.

We attach importance to the Hu Feng case because we want to use it to educate the masses of the people, and first those cadres who can read and also the intellectuals; to them we recommend this Material for raising their level of political consciousness. The Material is striking for its extreme sharpness and clarity. Counter-revolutionaries will naturally pay attention to it and revolutionary people even more so. If the masses of the revolutionary people learn something from this case and this material and thereby increase their revolutionary ardour and their ability to discriminate, we shall have all sorts of hidden counter-revolutionaries gradually uncovered.

#Editorial Department of the People's Daily

#15th of June, 1955

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#EDITOR'S NOTE TO THE FIRST COLLECTION OF MATERIAL ON THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY HU FENG CLIQUE

#Mao Zedong

#13th of May, 1955

#★

The reason for our publishing only now Hu Feng's My Self-Criticism, which he first wrote in January, revised in February, and to which he added a postface in March, along with Shu Wu's Some Material About the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique, is to prevent Hu Feng from making use of our newspapers to continue to deceive the readers. From the materials brought to light in Shu Wu's article, the readers can see how early Hu Feng and the Anti-Communist, anti-popular, counter-revolutionary clique he led showed their hostility, enmity, and hatred for the Communist and non-Communist progressive writers. Can the readers possibly detect even the slightest revolutionary flavour in Hu Feng's letters to Shu Wu? Isn't the odour emanating from these letters the same as the one we used to detect in such journals as the Shehui Xinwen [Social News] and Xinwen Tiandi [World of News], published by the Nationalist secret services? He talks about «a small-bourgeois revolutionary character and standpoint», «realist literature and art based on democratic demands and the various anti-feudal, anti-traditional tendencies», «the standpoint of sharing the fate of the people», «a spirit of revolutionary humanism», «an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, revolutionary ideology of people's liberation», «in accordance with the Party's political programme», and «if it had not been for the revolution and the Communist Party of China, I personally would not have been able to find a safe space in which to make a living for the past 20 or more years». Are all these statements believable? If he were not putting up a false signboard, but were an intellectual who truly had a «small-bourgeois revolutionary character and standpoint» (there are thousands upon thousands of such people in China, and they cooperate with the Communist Party and are willing to accept the Party's leadership), could he have adopted such a hostile, inimical, and hateful attitude toward the Party and progressive writers? What is false is false; the disguise must be peeled off. It is possible that there are still people in the counter-revolutionary Hu Feng clique who, like Shu Wu, were deceived and now do not wish to forever run along with Hu Feng. They should hand over to the government still more materials exposing Hu Feng. Concealment cannot last long; the day will inevitably come when the truth is exposed. Even the tactic of shifting from attack to defence (that is, self-criticism) cannot deceive people. Such self-criticism must be like that of Shu Wu; phoney self-criticism won't do. Lu Ling must have received even more secret letters from Hu Feng. We hope he will turn them in. Everyone who was mixed up with Hu Feng and who received secret letters from him should hand them over. Turning in the letters is so much better than holding on to them or destroying them. Hu Feng should undertake the task of peeling off his mask and not make deceitful self-criticism. The only way out for Hu Feng and everyone in his faction is to peel off their masks, expose the real situation, help the government to thoroughly clear up the whole picture of Hu Feng and his counter-revolutionary clique, and join the side of the people.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#EDITOR'S NOTES TO THE SECOND COLLECTION OF MATERIAL ON THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY HU FENG CLIQUE

#Mao Zedong

#24th of May, 1955

#★

#1

Since the publication of Shu Wu's Some Material on the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique, people have become incensed about Hu Feng's Anti-Communist, anti-popular, and counter-revolutionary evildoing. This newspaper has already received from readers in every part of the country and from all circles a large quantity of essays and letters. They unanimously demand that the evils of Hu Feng and his clique be fully exposed. This feeling of indignation cannot be suppressed. However, some people who sympathize with Hu Feng, or who say they are against Hu Feng, but in their hearts sympathize with him, are saying that those materials were mostly from before Liberation and cannot be the basis for conviction. Well, then, now take a look at a second collection of materials.

The materials we are now publishing have been excerpted from 68 secret letters Hu Feng sent to members of his reactionary clique. All this letters were written by Hu Feng since the time the entire country was liberated. In these letters, Hu Feng viciously reviles the Communist Party of China, smears the Party's policies on literature and art, slanders comrades in responsible posts in the Party, and curses Party and non-Party writers in literary and artistic circles. In these letters, Hu Feng orders the members of his reactionary clique to carry out sinister Anti-Communist, anti-popular activities and organizes them secretly and in a planned way to launch frenzied attacks against the Communist Party of China and the literary and artistic front led by the Party. In these letters, Hu Feng urges his adherents to make their way into the Communist Party and revolutionary organizations, in order to establish a basis, to expand their «power», to do intelligence work, and to steal internal Party documents. From these letters, people can clearly see that, after Liberation, Hu Feng went even further with his double-dealing tricks. Publicly, his standpoint was, «Don't clash with them» and «Go along with the Party and the people», but covertly, he intensified «sharpening his sword and maintaining a lookout» and «used the Monkey King's stratagem of crawling into the belly», that is, infiltration, in order to carry out counter-revolutionary activities. After his reckless attacks against the Party failed, he quickly directed his adherents to plan a retreat, to «find a second life in patient endurance». Everyone was to prepare a false self-examination in order to lay low for a while, awaiting an opportunity to rise up again. This is evidence of the extremely serious nature of the counter-revolutionary conspiracy of Hu Feng and his clique. We must redouble our vigilance and certainly not be taken in by their trick of feigning surrender.

In most of the letters between Hu Feng and the members of his clique, devious and covert devices were used. Hu Feng made arrangements with them for the use of codes and secret allusions in their letters. Whenever comrades in responsible posts in the Communist Party of China and in literary and artistic circles and Party writers were referred to in the letters, code names were used for them. The names of the addressees and Hu Feng's own signature were also very inconsistent; the name on the envelope was often that of the spouse of the person who was supposed to receive the letter, or someone else entirely; the signature at the end of the letter was often changed or absent altogether. Many of Hu Feng's letters were written on People's Daily or Jiefang Ribao [Liberation Daily] stationery. Many of the envelopes carried return addresses such as «Luo of the Shanghai New Literature and Art Publishing House», «Luo of the Qingnian Bao [Youth News], Shanghai», «Zhang of the Beijing Central Drama School», or the names of some other organizations.

The following are materials excerpted from these secret letters. They are divided into three categories according to content. Within each category, they are arranged, on the whole, chronologically, with necessary explanations added. All the emphasis in the letters is in the originals.

#2

What Hu Feng calls «uniformity of public opinion» actually means that counter-revolutionaries are not allowed to express counter-revolutionary views. Indeed, this is true, our system does deprive all counter-revolutionaries of freedom of speech and allows this freedom only among the people. We allow opinions to be varied among the people, that is, there is freedom to criticize, to express different views, and to advocate theism or atheism (that is, materialism). In any society and at any time, there are always two kinds of people and views, the advanced and the backward, that exist as opposites struggling with each other, with the advanced views invariably prevailing over the backward ones; it is neither possible nor right to have «uniformity of public opinion». Society can progress only if what is advanced is given full play and prevails over what is backward. But in an era in which classes and class struggle still exist both at home and abroad, the working class and the masses who have seized State power must suppress the resistance to the revolution put up by all counter-revolutionary classes, groups, and individuals, thwart their activities aimed at restoration, and prohibit them from exploiting freedom of speech for counter-revolutionary purposes. Thus, Hu Feng and counter-revolutionaries of his kind find «uniformity of public opinion» inconvenient for them. Their inconvenience is exactly what we want and is exactly what is convenient for us. Public opinion in our country is at once uniform and non-uniform. Among the people, both the advanced and the backward are free to use our newspapers, periodicals, forums, and so on, to compete with each other, so that the former can educate the latter by the democratic method of persuasion and backward ideas and systems can be overcome. When a contradiction is resolved, new contradictions emerge, and competition takes place again. In this way, society constantly progresses. The existence of contradictions means non-uniformity. The resolution of contradictions results in temporary uniformity, but new contradictions soon emerge, which means non-uniformity, and they, in turn, have to be resolved. As for the contradiction between the people and the counter-revolutionaries, that is a matter of dictatorship over the counter-revolutionaries by the people under the leadership of the working class and the Communist Party. Here, the dictatorial, not the democratic, method is used; in other words, the counter-revolutionaries must behave themselves and are not allowed to be unruly in word or deed. In this respect, it is not only public opinion that is uniform, but the law, too. On this question, the arguments of Hu Feng and other counter-revolutionaries may seem plausible, and on hearing such counter-revolutionary remarks some muddleheads feel themselves somewhat in the wrong. Well, you see, «uniformity of public opinion», or «absence of public opinion», or «suppression of freedom» — don't they sound awful? These people cannot distinguish clearly between two different categories, between what is inside the ranks of the people and what is outside. Within the ranks of the people, it is criminal to suppress freedom, to suppress the people's criticism of the shortcomings and mistakes of the Party and the government, or to suppress free discussion in academic circles. This is our system. However, all this is legitimate in capitalist countries. Outside the ranks of the people, it is criminal to allow counter-revolutionaries to be unruly in word or deed, and it is legitimate to exercise dictatorship over them. This is our system. The opposite is true of capitalist countries, where the bourgeoisie exercises a dictatorship under which revolutionary people are not allowed to be «unruly in word or deed», but must «behave themselves». Exploiters and counter-revolutionaries are always and everywhere in the minority, while the exploited and revolutionaries are invariably in the majority. Therefore, dictatorship by the latter is perfectly right, while dictatorship by the former is invariably wrong. Hu Feng also said: «The great majority of readers belong to some organization where the atmosphere is coercive.» Among the people, we reject the coercive method of commandism and adhere to the democratic method of persuasion; here, the atmosphere should be free, «coercion» is wrong. «The great majority of readers belong to some organization» — this is excellent. In thousands of years, nothing like this had ever happened. It was only after the Communist Party led the people in waging a long and arduous struggle that they were able to change to being united from being like loose sand, a condition which favoured the reactionaries' exploitation and oppression, and that the people achieved this great unity among themselves within a few years after victory in the revolution. By «coercion», Hu Feng means our coercing those on the side of counter-revolution. Yes, they tremble with fear, feeling «like a dog always afraid of being beaten», or worrying that «a mere cough is being recorded». We consider this excellent, too. Nothing like this had ever happened in thousands of years either. Only after the Communist Party led the people through a long and arduous struggle were these scoundrels made to feel so uncomfortable. In a word, the day of joy for the people is a day of woe for the counter-revolutionaries. This, above all, is what we celebrate each year when National Day comes around. Hu Feng also said: «When it comes to literature and art, mechanism is really the easiest thing.» Here, «mechanism» is a derogatory term for dialectical materialism, and to call it «the easiest thing» is sheer nonsense. Idealism and metaphysics are the easiest things in the world, because, being neither based on objective reality nor submitted to its test, they permit people to talk as much nonsense as they like. Materialism and dialectics, on the other hand, demand effort. They must be based on and submitted to the test of objective reality. Unless one makes the effort, one is liable to drift into idealism and metaphysics. In his letter,² Hu Feng raised three questions of principle, which we have deemed it necessary to repudiate at some length. In addition, Hu Feng wrote in the letter: «At present, there is a desire to resist everywhere, there are further demands everywhere»; this was in 1950. At the time, the bulk of Jiang Jieshi's military forces had just been wiped out on the mainland, many of the counter-revolutionary armed forces who had turned into bandits were yet to be eliminated, the large-scale Land Reform Movement and Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries had not yet begun, nor had the work of readjustment in the fields of culture and education. What Hu Feng said did reflect the situation then, but he left something unsaid. To spell it out, it should have read: At present, there is a desire on the part of counter-revolutionaries to resist the revolution everywhere, there are further demands of all sorts from counter-revolutionaries everywhere seeking to make trouble for the revolution.

#3

A faction — called «coterie» by our ancestors and «ring» or «outfit» by people today — is something quite familiar to us. To attain their political ends, people who pursue factional activities often accuse others of being factional, and being factional, they say, is not upright; for themselves, they claim to be upright, and upright people just don't have anything to do with factions. Those who followed Hu Feng's lead were said to be «young writers» and «revolutionary writers» «hated» and «persecuted» by the Communist Party, the faction that had «bourgeois theories» and «formed an independent kingdom»; therefore, Hu Feng and company wanted revenge. The question of the Wenyi Bao³ [Literary and Artistic News] was «merely a breach that has been seized upon» and was «by no means an isolated one», it was most necessary to «extend and generalize» it and «show that the question was one of factionalist rule», and «factionalist and warlord rule» at that. The matter was so serious that they «fired off» a lot of ammunition to mop us up. In so doing, Hu Feng and company attracted attention. After careful investigation of many of these persons, this clique was found to be of some size. Previously, they were known as «a small group». No, that's not so, there are quite a few of them. Previously, they were known simply as a group of scholars. No, that's not so, they have wormed their way into political, military, economic, cultural, and educational departments. Previously, they seemed to be a group of revolutionaries operating in broad daylight. No, that's not so, most of them have a very shady background. The main force of the clique consists of imperialist and Nationalist secret agents, Trotskijites, reactionary army officers, or renegades from the Communist Party; with these persons serving as the backbone, a counter-revolutionary faction hidden in the revolutionary camp, an underground independent kingdom, was formed. This counter-revolutionary faction, this underground kingdom, has set itself the task of overthrowing the People's Republic of China and restoring imperialist and Nationalist rule. Whenever and wherever possible, they go nosing around for our shortcomings which they use as pretexts for sabotage. Wherever they have their people, strange things happen. After Liberation, this counter-revolutionary clique expanded and, if unchecked, would go on expanding. Now that the truth about Hu Feng and company has come to light, many phenomena can be satisfactorily explained and their activities stopped.

#4

From the above materials, we can see the following:

First, since Liberation, the Anti-Communist, anti-popular, conspiratorial activities of the Hu Feng clique have become better organized and have further expanded. Their attacks on the Communist Party and on the battlefront of literature and art under the Party's leadership have been increasingly frenzied.

Second, like all counter-revolutionary cliques, they always adopt covert or double-dealing tactics to carry out their destructive activities.

Third, because their plot has been exposed, the Hu Feng clique cannot avoid being forced to turn from attack to retreat; but this reactionary clique, whose hatred for the Communist Party, the people, and the revolution has reached insane proportions, is by no means really laying down its arms. Rather, they are planning to continue to use double-dealing tactics to preserve their «strength» and await opportunities to stage a comeback. Hu Feng's use of such expressions as «find a second life in patient endurance» and «all is for the cause, for an even brighter future» to encourage the members of his clique is clear proof of this. The counter-revolutionary Hu Feng elements are the same as other open or hidden counter-revolutionaries. They place their hopes in a restoration of counter-revolutionary political power and in the collapse of the people's revolutionary political power. They believe this is the opportunity they are waiting for.

We must learn a thorough lesson from this experience with the conspiratorial activities of the Hu Feng clique. We must maintain a high level of vigilance in every sphere of our work. We must be adept at recognizing elements who feign support for the revolution, but are actually opposed to the revolution, and purge them on all fronts, so as to preserve the great victories we have already won and those still to come.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#EDITOR'S NOTES TO THE THIRD COLLECTION OF MATERIAL ON THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY HU FENG CLIQUE

#Mao Zedong

#10th of June, 1955

#★

#1

The publication of the first and second collections of Material on the Counter-Revolutionary Hu Feng Clique stirred up the extreme anger of the broad masses of the people throughout the country against the counter-revolutionary elements. The people demand to investigate the political background of the Hu Feng clique. They ask: «Who is really behind Hu Feng?» With regard to this question, the People's Government has already obtained a great deal of material. We are now publishing part of it in this third collection. Hu Feng and many backbone elements in the Hu Feng clique have, since long ago, been loyal lackeys of imperialism and Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Party of China. They have close connections with the imperialist and Nationalist secret services. For a long period of time, they disguised themselves as revolutionaries and concealed themselves among progressives to carry out counter-revolutionary schemes.

In the following materials, the people can see the true face of A Long, who was touted by Hu Feng as «a revolutionary writer in pursuit of the interests of the revolution for a dozen or more years», and of Hu Feng himself, who also claimed to have pursued the revolution for some 20 years. A Long, in a letter to Hu Feng, said he was «full of optimism» about the nationwide counter-revolutionary civil war launched by Jiang Jieshi in July 1946. He thought that the «main force» of the Chinese People's Liberation Army «could be defeated in three months» and «would be wiped out in one year». Moreover, he shamelessly exaggerated the importance of the bandit Jiang's «instructions», and talked about «[Jiang's] self-confidence, which is inspiring to everyone». A Long regarded the revolutionary strength of the people as «pus» that «has to be squeezed out» and felt that the attack on the people's revolutionary forces had to be determined and thorough: «A thing once begun will not be put off until done!»

Why were they so determined? The truth is that Hu Feng, A Long, and others were people with a particular history behind them. A Long, whose real name is Chen Yimen, also known as Chen Shoumei, is from Zhejiang. Originally, he was a Nationalist military officer. At the start of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he wormed his way into the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College in Yan'an, where he studied for a few months. He didn't go to the front; instead, he went to Hu Zongnan's «Wartime Cadres' Fourth Corps» to serve as a military instructor with the rank of major. One of the letters published here was written by him in July 1946 from the Army College in Shandong in Chongqing to which he had already been transferred from Hu Zongnan's staff for training. After graduation, he became an instructor in military tactics. Shandong was the site of Jiang Jieshi's Army College and was also Jiang Jieshi's personal home during the Chongqing period.

Hu Feng, whose real name is Zhang Guangren, also known as Gu Fei, is from Hubei. During the period of the First Revolutionary Civil War, he joined the Communist Youth League. In 1925, he was in Beijing; the White terror at the time of Duan Qirui's rule scared him out of his wits, and he determinedly sought the Party's permission to withdraw from the League. Later, he did Anti-Communist political work with the Jiangxi army to «suppress the Communists». Afterward, he went to Japan, where he muddled around for a time and engaged in some shady «deals». After he returned to China, he found his way into the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai and from the inside carried on all kinds of splittist and destructive activities. During the Fuhan and Chongqing periods, he had contact with many bigshots in the Nationalist secret service. From one of Hu Feng's letters to A Long published here, one can see Hu Feng's relationship with one of the directors in the Nationalist secret service, Chen Zuo. This brief history of Hu Feng has been brought to light only recently. Because he covered things up so skilfully, everyone was deceived by him.

Before Liberation, the Hu Feng clique fervently placed its hopes on a victory for Jiang Jieshi in the civil war against the people, and on a defeat for the people's revolutionary forces. After Jiang Jieshi was defeated and Liberation came, they took cover on the mainland and used even more insidious double-dealing tactics to continue to carry on counter-revolutionary activities.

They expressed their deeply ingrained hatred for the new post-Liberation society and for the people's revolutionary political power. They said: «I despise this social order.» They cursed the people's revolutionary political power, predicting its «doom» and «perdition».

After this newspaper published the first and second collections of materials exposing the Hu Feng clique, there were still a number of people who said that the Hu Feng clique was nothing but a small clique made up of a handful of power-hungry elements in literary circles, and that they didn't necessarily have any reactionary political background. Those who say this sort of thing may do so either because their class instincts put them in wholehearted sympathy with them, or perhaps because their political senses are not very sharp and they look at things to innocently. There is also a group who are secret reactionaries or actually members of the Hu Feng clique, such as Lu Ying in Beijing.

Now, the time has come when the face of Hu Feng's black gang of counter-revolutionaries is to be thoroughly exposed. The Chinese people will no longer permit them to continue to play their deceitful tricks! The entire people must heighten their vigilance! All secret counter-revolutionary elements must be exposed! They must receive the punishment that they deserve for their counter-revolutionary crimes!

#2

From letters of this sort, it can be seen that the Hu Feng clique is not simply a «literary and artistic» clique, but a counter-revolutionary political clique using the signboard of «literature and art». They hate all the people's revolutionary forces. Zhang Zhongxiao of the Hu Feng clique said he «hated almost everyone». Many people think: «Hu Feng is no more than a literary figure, and the Hu Feng affair is no more than a cultural affair, with no connection to other circles.» After reading this sort of material, they should wake up!

#3

From the above two letters, the true face of Lu Yuan, a backbone member of the Hu Feng clique, can be seen. The backbone of the Hu Feng clique was composed of just this sort of people. In May 1944, Lu Yuan «was transferred» «to work» «in the Sino-US Cooperation Organization». The «Sino-US Cooperation Organization» is the abbreviated name for the «Sino-US Special Technical Services Cooperation Organization», a black and sinister secret service organization run jointly by US imperialism and Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Party of China, in which the United States trained and dispatched secret agents, as well as engaged directly in terrorist activities both for the United States itself and for Jiang Jieshi. It was notorious for its brutal torture and murder of Communists and progressives. Who could have had Lu Yuan «transferred to» this secret service organization? And who could be «transferred» by the secret service to do its «work»? The answer goes without saying. In the second letter, written in September 1947, Lu Yuan was still cursing the Communist Party of China and the people's revolutionary forces as «the damn evil Communist bandits». And yet, in the beginning of 1948, he was recommended to be a member of the Communist Party by Zeng Zuo, another backbone member of the Hu Feng clique, and he wormed his way into an underground Party organization. Later, Lu Yuan suddenly took off in secret. At the time of the liberation of Wuhan, he unexpectedly returned to Wuhan and, together with Zeng Zuo, claimed to «represent the Communist Party» and usurped the local organization. In 1950, he once again wormed his way into the Party. This, then, was the way the Hu Feng elements «pursued the revolution» and wormed their way into the Communist Party.

#4

From these letters of A Long's, we can see that the Hu Feng elements understood quite well some of the tactics of underground counter-revolutionary work. He said: «Don't fire before our battle position is secured.» Furthermore, he said: «The important thing is to prepare favourable conditions, then make a few more preparations, and, again, still more preparations!» «We must work intensely, and make sure that our mass work is done well.» He also said that they should «establish a firm mass basis», then «find a big target», which means to take aim against a vital area of the revolution, and then launch an attack. He said that, when they are about to attack, they must first have «consulted» a good deal with their «friends», and «must first have organized and thought through their arguments even more meticulously; it is best to ignore trivial matters». The counter-revolutionary elements are not so slow-witted; these tactics of theirs are very cunning and ruthless. All members of the revolutionary political parties must absolutely not take them lightly or be insensitive and careless. We must greatly elevate the people's political vigilance; only then can we deal with these counter-revolutionaries and get rid of them.

#5

Sure enough, Hu Feng subsequently acted on Lu Dian's suggestion to use offensive tactics for defence. Thus, he came to Beijing to ask for a job, requested that his case be discussed, submitted the 300'000-word memo to the Central Committee, and finally seized upon the question of the Literary and Artistic News to open fire. Generally, when things are going badly for them, all kinds of representatives of the exploiting classes use offensive tactics as a means of defence, in order to survive today and grow tomorrow. Rumours are fabricated out of thin air and lies told point-blank; certain superficial phenomena are seized on for attacking the essence of things; some people are lauded while others are condemned; and matters are distorted and exaggerated to «make a breakthrough at certain points», so as to put us in a difficult position. In short, they are assiduous in studying what tactics to use against us and «spying out the land», in order to attain their end. Sometimes, they «play possum» and wait for a chance to «spring a counter-attack». They have long years of experience in class struggle and are skilful in different forms of struggle, legal and illegal. We revolutionaries must know their tricks and study their tactics in order to defeat them. Never be so bookish and naive as to treat complex class struggle as a simple matter.

#6

It is conceit, self-complacency, lack of vigilance, and absorption in the day-to-day job to the neglect of politics on our part as revolutionaries that have made it possible for many counter-revolutionaries to «penetrate» our «liver». They are by no means confined to the people of the Hu Feng clique, many other secret agents and bad elements have also sneaked in.

#7

The members of the Hu Feng clique and many other hidden counter-revolutionary elements have in general adopted the double-dealing tactics discussed by Fang Ran in this letter, especially the second and third of the tactics. These can trick a great many people. But there is always some slip-up that people can spot; the exposure of the Hu Feng clique is proof of this. Especially after the level of consciousness and vigilance of the majority of the people was raised, their double-dealing tactics were much more easily exposed.

#8

From these letters, we can also see the importance and necessity of our struggle to criticize the Hu Shi brand of bourgeois idealism. There are some people who profess their belief in Marxism-Leninism, but who do not take seriously the struggle to criticize idealism. They say that they themselves are not idealists or that they have nothing to do with Hu Shi, and thus, the best way for them is to avoid the subject. But the Hu Feng clique in fact pays much attention to struggle, and they searched for a way of dealing with it. They concluded: «There are contradictions and difficulties.» Criticism of idealism has indeed presented the Hu Feng clique with «contradictions and difficulties» — this shows that our criticism was correct. Is it possible that, among the revolutionary ranks of the people, there are also «contradictions and difficulties»?

#9

That a large group of Hu Feng elements were able to worm their way into the Communist Party of China and obtain Party membership is a matter that should draw the attention of all Party organizations. Lu Yuan had once wormed his way into our underground Party organizations before Liberation, but later, because he took off secretly, he lost his Party membership. In 1950, this counter-revolutionary character presented to our Party organizations «three reports with the utmost sincerity, each one more thorough and sincere than the last»; except for his thinking on literature and art, he was considered «on the whole qualified in other respects», and indeed, later, he was again accepted as a «Party member». Shouldn't this matter draw the attention of Party organizations? It was after these counter-revolutionary elements had put their heart and soul into deceiving us that they were able to worm their way back into the Party. They treated this as a «struggle session», and they beat us; they came into the Party!

#10

When a Party member is criticized for their individualist tendencies, the Hu Feng elements call this «being attacked». If the Party member's «fighting will is rather weak», that is, if they do not cling to their individualist standpoint, but are willing to accept Party criticism and come over to the correct standpoint, then they are not much of a hope to the Hu Feng clique and cannot be dragged away. On the contrary, if their «fighting will» to cling to their individualist standpoint is not «rather weak», but «rather strong», they are in danger of being dragged away. The Hu Feng elements are sure to «have a go» at it, and they are already calling that person «comrade». Shouldn't this be taken as a warning? What then should be the attitude of a Party member when they are criticized for having made ideological and political mistakes? There is a choice of two courses before them: one is to correct their mistakes and be a good Party member, the other is to slide further down the path and even fall into the pit of counter-revolution. The second alternative really exists, and counter-revolutionaries may be beckoning them on.

#11

These kinds of letters ought to awaken our vigilance. We cannot let them «slip by».

#12

From letters of this sort, it can be seen that the counter-revolutionaries hidden among the ranks of the revolutionaries are very afraid of rectification, so it is evident that rectification is beneficial. Those who fear rectification are not all counter-revolutionaries. An overwhelming majority (over 90%) are people who have committed certain ideological or political errors, and our policy is to help them to correct their mistakes. But toward the counter-revolutionaries, who are afraid of rectification, our policy is to go a bit further and dig out their counter-revolutionary roots. The face of the Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique was exposed step by step during several rectification movements before and after Liberation, that is, in several ideological struggles in the past. It was these several rectification movements that produced splits within the Hu Feng clique, and only then was the Hu Feng clique forced to adopt the tactic of taking the offensive for purposes of defence — writing the 300'000-word essay — and only then was there the last big disclosure.

#13

From letters of this sort, it can be seen that, when counter-revolutionary cliques are confronted with the powerful people's revolutionary forces, that is, the people's democratic dictatorship, if this dictatorship raises the consciousness of the masses and adopts correct policies, then no matter how many underground counter-revolutionary cliques there are, no matter how strict the discipline within each counter-revolutionary clique, and no matter how strong their military alliance with each other, it is always possible to split off a number of people from the cliques. This splitting off is beneficial to the people. Shu Wu's splitting off from the Hu Feng clique, which caused the Hu Feng clique great anxiety, is an example. Recently, in every locality, many Hu Feng elements have made confessions. Either voluntarily or under pressure, they are turning over confidential documents and exposing the situation within the clique. This is a continuing development in this struggle.

#14

From letters of this sort, it can be seen that there are people in our Party and government bodies, military units, enterprises, and other organizations who steal State secrets. These people are counter-revolutionary elements who have infiltrated these bodies, military units, enterprises, or organizations. Some individualist elements are the good friends of these counter-revolutionaries. Shouldn't this situation draw the serious attention of all working personnel and the whole people?

#15

From this letter, it can be seen that the Hu Feng clique firmly opposed the policy for literature and art set by the Communist Party of China, and had extreme loathing for Comrade Mao Zedong's Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art. Because the Party and Comrade Mao Zedong called on literary and artistic workers to praise the workers, peasants, and soldiers and to expose the enemies of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and because the Hu Feng clique was precisely the mortal enemy of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, they senses that to expose the enemies of the workers, peasants, and soldiers would mean that they would not be able to continue to lead their deceptive lifestyle. They felt that this policy would «slaughter» what this counter-revolutionary gang referred to as their «human lives» and would «stifle» what they called «innovations». They didn't dare, however, to oppose this policy publicly. In fact, Hu Feng instructed his accomplices to «go along with them» on the surface and occasionally even to quote a few lines from them. These were all masks with which the Hu Feng elements disguised themselves. In this confidential letter, however, the Hu Feng elements' loathing for this policy and their true anti-Party complexion are completely exposed. Zhang Zhongxiao said: «This book [Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art] may have been of some use during the Yan'an period, but now, I think it's no longer relevant.» Are there not a few others in literary and artistic circles who have also that that «now, [...] it's no longer relevant»? People who have said this kind of thing, please read Zhang Zhongxiao's letter carefully! Of course, some of those who say this sort of thing are merely still holding a bourgeois standpoint on literature and art and therefore are unable to recognize the importance of these Talks. Zhang Zhongxiao, on the other hand, this member of the Hu Feng clique, understands profoundly on the basis of his counter-revolutionary sensitivity that, after Liberation, the Talks would influence the masses on an even larger scale and would be useful in destroying all sorts of reactionary thinking in literature and art. Therefore, they urgently wanted to obstruct and sabotage the spreading influence of these Talks. This is the reason for their saying «now, [...] it's no longer relevant».

#16

From letters of this sort, it can be seen that the attack on a small number of people by the counter-revolutionary elements was no more than a pretext, a strategy of theirs. Their actual feeling was that there was «hardly a single clean piece of ground». Owing to this situation, they «prescribed a bitter and protracted struggle». Ever since Liu Bi, Prince Wu in the Han Dynasty, discovered the famous strategy of requesting the execution of Chao Cuo (the main advisor of Emperor Jingdi of the Han Dynasty) to «purify the ranks of the Emperor's closest counselors», many ambitious careerists have held this up as an extremely valuable stratagem. The Hu Feng clique has also fallen heir to this bag of tricks. In the 300'000-word presentation, they attacked only several people: Comrades Lin Mohan, He Qifang, and Zhou Yang. They said that these people were messing everything up. Some people who, in their fundamental class instincts, sympathize with Hu Feng also accordingly aided his cause by making a lot of nonsensical noises, saying that «this is no more than an interpersonal struggle between Zhou Yang and Hu Feng for leadership». This is something to which we should pay attention in the struggle to purge the Hu Feng elements and other counter-revolutionary elements.

#17

In the 300'000-word presentation and in other public pronouncements, the Hu Feng clique appears to be primarily opposed only to Communist Party writers and not to others. Of course, they have never opposed Jiang Jieshi and other people in the Nationalist Party (except that, on occasion, they have scolded them lightly in a few sentences, so as to put up a front, but this is truly what is meant by «small scoldings, but big help»). It is not true, however, that they did not oppose others. We have proof of this from the numerous confidential letters of the Hu Feng clique. In fact, they despised, cursed, and opposed without exception such revolutionaries and democrats as Lu Xun, Wen Yiduo, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Huang Yaomian, Cao Yu, and Lao She. Is not this kind of style of work of rejecting anyone outside one's own clique the style of work of Jiang Jieshi's Fascist Nationalist Party?

#18

Just as we constantly appraise the balance of forces in the international and domestic class struggle, so does the enemy. But, being backward and decadent reactionaries, our enemies are doomed; they are ignorant of the laws of the objective world, are subjective and metaphysical in their thinking, and thus are invariably wrong in their judgments. They are inexorably driven by their class instinct to believe that they are very superior and that the revolutionary forces can never amount to much. They invariably overestimate their own strength and underestimate ours. We have witnessed many counter-revolutionaries toppled one by one — the Qing Dynasty government, the Northern Warlords, the Japanese militarists, Mussolini, Hitler, and Jiang Jieshi; they made mistakes in thought and deed and could not do otherwise. All contemporary imperialists are bound to repeat such mistakes. Isn't it ludicrous? According to the Hu Feng elements, the Chinese people's revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party are «doomed», and they are nothing but «the sere, the yellow leaf» and «a rotting corpse». And how about the counter-revolutionary forces represented by the Hu Feng elements? Although «some fragile sprouts may be smothered», large numbers of sprouts «are breaking through» and will «grow sturdily». If to this day, Royalist representatives are found in the bourgeois French National Assembly, then it is highly probable that some representatives of the Jiang Jieshi Dynasty will remain active here and there years after the complete elimination of all exploiting classes from the face of the Earth. The worst Right-wingers among them will never admit defeat. That's because they need to deceive themselves as well as others, or else they could not carry on.

#19

This Hu Feng element is somewhat more pessimistic. He says that «perhaps» «it will take a few decades» to «bring about a situation where there are no contradictions among the people». That is to say, it will take decades for the Jiang Jieshi Dynasty to have hope of a restoration. After several decades, when the Jiang Jieshi Dynasty returns, when all the people's revolutionary forces are crushed — that is what he meant by «no contradictions among the people» — «then, a person's dignity and integrity will not be impaired». This «person» here refers to all counter-revolutionaries, including the Hu Feng elements, but it doesn't include a single revolutionary. «In today's China, people still don't respect other people [...].» The former «people» refers to the revolutionaries, and the latter «people» refers to the counter-revolutionaries. The Hu Feng elements do not express themselves clearly in their writing, not even in confidential letters. This, too, is determined by their fundamental class nature. They are unable to put forward their ideas clearly in the way we do when we write editor's notes for them.

#20

In this letter, the phrase «those veiled feudal forces are madly killing people» indicates that the counter-revolutionary Hu Feng clique is terror-stricken by the great struggle of our people's revolutionary forces to suppress the counter-revolutionary forces, and this feeling is typical of all counter-revolutionary classes, groups, and individuals. What strikes terror into their hearts is precisely what makes the revolutionary masses jubilant. «Unprecedented in history» — that's correct, too. Except for the revolution which replaced the primitive-communal system by the slave system, that is, a system of non-exploitation by one of exploitation, all revolutions in the past ended in the replacement of one system of exploitation by another, and it was neither imperative nor possible to do a thorough job of suppressing counter-revolutionaries. Only our revolution, the revolution of the masses of the people led by the proletariat and the Communist Party, aims at the final elimination of all systems of exploitation and all classes; therefore, the exploiting classes which are being eliminated are bound to come out and put up resistance through their counter-revolutionary political parties and groups or through certain individuals, and the masses of the people on their part must unite and suppress these forces of resistance resolutely, thoroughly, wholly, and completely. Only at this time is such suppression imperative and possible. «The struggle has inevitably deepened» — this is quite correct, too. The expression «veiled feudal forces», however, is wrong; it is a derogatory expression for «the people's democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and the Communist Party and based on the worker-peasant alliance», just as the word «mechanism» used by this clique is a derogatory term for «dialectical materialism».

#21

Here again, we come across this Zhang Zhongxiao. He has a pretty good counter-revolutionary nose and outmatches many in our revolutionary ranks, including a number of Communists, in level of class-consciousness and keenness of political sense of smell. Compared with people of the Hu Feng clique, many of our own people are vastly inferior in these respects. We must study and heighten our class vigilance and make our political sense of smell keener. If there is anything positive the Hu Feng clique can offer, it is that, through the present soul-stirring struggle, we shall raise our own political consciousness and sensitivity much higher, firmly suppress all counter-revolutionaries, and greatly strengthen our revolutionary dictatorship; we shall thus carry the revolution through to the end and achieve the objective of building a great socialist country.