24 UNCOWED OPPONENT POISONED
24 给王明下毒
(1941–45 AGE 47–51)
1941～1945 年 47～51 岁
WHILE USING terror to turn ordinary Party members into cogs for his machine, Mao also went to work on his top colleagues. His aim was to break them and make them kowtow, with the ultimate goal of establishing himself as their undisputed leader, so that he would never have to rely on Moscow's blessing again. He picked the time when Stalin was preoccupied with the war against Germany.
在延安整风中，毛的另一个目标是叫整个中共领导层匍匐称臣，使他永远不再需要莫斯科的认可。
In autumn 1941, Mao convened a series of Politburo meetings at which all those who had opposed him in the past in any way had to make groveling self-condemnations and pledge loyalty to him. Most did so meekly, including nominal Party chief Lo Fu, and former Party No. 1 Po Ku, the man who had reduced Mao to a figurehead before the Long March.* (Chou En-lai was away in Chongqing.) But one top figure in Yenan refused to crawl: this was Wang Ming, the man who had been the main threat to Mao since his return from Moscow late in 1937.
德国入侵苏联不久的一九四一年秋，毛召开一系列政治局会议，要所有过去反对过他的人，引起过他不快的人，都卑躬屈膝地谴责自已，唱他的颂歌。大多数人，如张闻天、博古，都乖乖照办。* 周恩来当时在重庆。只有一个人拒绝从命，他就是王明。
* 博古在一九四六年死于飞机失事。
After the German invasion of Russia, Wang Ming figured that Stalin was bound to be displeased with Mao's refusal to take action against Japan to help the Soviet Union. In October 1941 he caught sight of a cable from Comintern chief Dimitrov to Mao posing fifteen extremely stern questions, including: What measures is the CCP adopting to strike at the Japanese army so that Japan cannot open up a second front against the Soviet Union? Armed with this hard evidence of Moscow's vexation with Mao, Wang Ming pounced on the chance to reverse his personal and political fortunes. He declined to perform self-flagellation, and criticized Mao's policy vis-à-vis both Chiang and the Japanese. He also demanded that Mao debate with him in a large Party forum, declaring that he was prepared to take the issue all the way up to the Comintern.
王明一直在毛的股掌中过着小媳妇的日子。十月，他有幸看见季米特洛夫给毛的电报，里面问了十五个严厉的问题，包括：中共准备采取什么实际行动打击日本，以阻止日本与德国夹攻苏联？手上有了莫斯科对毛不满的证据，王明胆子壮了，抓住这个机会打算东山再起。政治局会议上，他拒绝表态说毛一贯正确，反而批评毛的抗日政策，说在这个问题上正确的不是毛，而是他。他要求跟毛在党的大会上辩论，说他决心与毛争论到底，到共产国际去打官司。
Mao's original plan had been to nail down absolute and unconditional submission from his colleagues and then call the long-delayed Party congress and mount the Party throne. He had been de facto Party No. 1 for nearly seven years, but with no commensurate post or title. However, Wang Ming's challenge wrecked Mao's plan. If the stubborn challenger managed to open up a debate about Mao's war policies at the congress, the conclave could well take his side. Mao had to shelve the congress.
毛本来计划在政治局所有人都表态臣服后，召开已延迟多年的“七大”，名正言顺地当党的领袖。毛做事实上的中共领袖已近七年，但一直还没有正式头衔。王明这么一闹，毛的如意算盘便散了架。如果倔强的王明在“七大”上挑起论战，辩论抗战政策，输的准是毛。毛不敢在这时开“七大”。
Mao was infuriated at this unexpected turn of events, and his wrath gushed forth from his pen. In this period, he wrote and rewrote nine ranting articles, cursing Wang Ming and his past allies, including Chou En-lai, even though Chou had since switched allegiance. These articles are still a closely guarded secret today. According to Mao's secretary they were a “huge release of emotions, with much shrill excessive language.” One passage referred to his colleagues as “most pitiful little worms”; “inside these people, there is not even half a real Marx, living Marx, fragrant Marx … there is nothing but fake Marx, dead Marx, stinking Marx …”
事态发展出乎毛的意料，他又气又急，一腔怒火从笔尖宣泄而出。这段时间，他写了九篇骂人的文章，痛骂王明和王明从前的盟友，包括周恩来，哪怕周早已倒戈成了毛的忠实助手。这些迄今尚未公诸于世的文章，据毛的秘书胡乔木说，“的确写得很尖锐”，“咄咄逼人、锋芒毕露”，“用词辛辣、尖刻”，是毛的“郁闷情绪的大宣泄，刺人的过头话不少”。有一节称王明等人为“最可怜的小虫”，说他们“尽是些假马克思，或死马克思，或臭马克思，连半个真马克思，活马克思，香马克思也没有”。
Mao reworked these articles repeatedly, and then put them away. He remained obsessively attached to them right up to the end of his life three and a half decades later. In June 1974, after Wang Ming had died in exile in Moscow, and while Chou En-lai had terminal cancer of the bladder, Mao had the articles taken out of the archives and had them read out to him (Mao then was almost blind). And only one month before he died in 1976, he had them read to him yet again.
毛把这些文章改了又改，然后收了起来。这些他花了大量心血的心爱之作，三十多年后仍念念不舍，心头痛恨他的同事时，用读它们来发泄。一九七四年六月，王明在莫斯科刚去世不久，周恩来身患膀胱癌而毛又不得不让他动手术，这时眼睛几乎失明的毛叫人把文章找出来读给他听。一九七六年他死前一个月，还让人又给他读了一遍。
MEANWHILE, JUST AFTER he had challenged Mao in October 1941, Wang Ming collapsed from a sudden illness, and was hospitalized. He claimed he had been poisoned by Mao—which may or may not have been true on this occasion. What is certain is that Mao attempted to have him poisoned the following March, when Wang Ming was just about to be discharged from the hospital. Wang Ming remained defiant: “I will not bow my head even if all others are fawning,” he vowed. In private, he had written poems calling Mao “anti-the Soviet Union, and anti-the Chinese Communist Party.” Furthermore, he said, Mao was “setting up his personal dictatorship”; “Everything he does is for himself, and he does not care about anything else.” Mao could expect the highly articulate Wang Ming to speak out against him.
王明在一九四一年十月向毛挑战之后，突然病倒了，住進医院。王明说是毛泽东给他下了毒。这有待查证。确有证据证明毛给王明下毒的，是第二年三月，王明准备出院时。那时王明仍不屈服，在医院里还做诗说：“自是凛然争气节，独逢乱谄不低头。”说毛“一切为个人，其他都不管。”“反对苏共和苏联、反对中国共产党”， 甚至直点其名：“毛泽东制造毛泽东主义，建立个人党内专制和个人军事独裁。”这样一个敢于反抗的王明，出院后准会给毛带来无穷的麻烦。毛决心除掉他。
The agent for Mao's poisoning operation was a doctor called Jin Mao-yue, who had originally come to Yenan as part of a Nationalist medical team, at the height of the cooperation between the Nationalists and the CCP. He was a qualified gynecologist and obstetrician, and so the Communists kept him in Yenan. When Wang Ming was admitted to the hospital, Jin was assigned as his chief doctor. That he poisoned Wang Ming was established by an official inquiry involving Yenan's leading doctors in mid-1943. Its findings, which we obtained, remain a well-kept secret.
替毛下毒的是一位姓金的大夫。他最初跟红十字会的医疗队来延安，因为是妇产科和小儿科专家，共产党把他留下了。王明住院后，他被派任主治大夫。他给王明下毒的事实，有一九四三年七月延安医生会诊总结(“对于王明同志病过去诊断与治疗的总结”)白纸黑字为证。这份会诊总结是中共捂得最严实的秘密之一。
As of the beginning of March 1942, Wang Ming was described as “ready to be discharged.” Dr. Jin had been trying to keep him in the hospital by advocating a whole string of operations—“having his teeth taken out, piles excised and tonsils removed.” These operations were dropped after another doctor objected. The inquiry found that the operations for both the tonsils and the piles (which were “large”) “would have been dangerous.”
会诊总结说：三月初，王明病好转，准备出院。但金要把他留在医院里，“金主任主张拔牙、割痔疮、割扁桃腺”，这后两个手术在当时的条件下都是“大手术”，“是危险的”。由于别的医生反对而作罢。
But just as Wang Ming was about to leave the hospital on the 13th, Dr. Jin gave him some pills, after which Wang Ming collapsed. The inquiry recorded that: “On 13 March, after taking one pill, [Wang Ming] felt a headache. On 14 March, he took two, and started vomiting, his liver was in severe pain, his spleen was swollen, there was pain in the area of his heart.” After more pills from Dr. Jin, Wang Ming “was diagnosed as having acute cholecystitis [of the gallbladder] and … hepatomegaly [enlarged liver].”
十三日，王明出院那天，金大夫给他吃了一片药，吃下去王明就出不了院了。会诊总结说：“三月十三服一片即头晕，三月十四服二片，即呕吐头晕、肝剧痛、脾肿大、心区痛”。金“三月十五日又叫病人吃一片”， “第二天的诊断就发现急性胆囊炎及肝炎，肝肿大”。
The inquiry never found out what the pills were, as there was no prescription. Under questioning, Dr. Jin gave “very vague answers” about the type of drug, and the amount. But the inquiry established that after taking the pills, Wang Ming showed “symptoms of poisoning.”
会诊医生始终没从金那里问出他给王明的是什么药。药“是由金主任直接拿给王明同志的，没有第三人证明，也没有药方。”“金主任的答覆是模糊的，一会说是Streptocide， 一会又说是Sulfamilamid，一会说是0·三一片的，一会又说是0·五一片的。药是什么形状大小也都谈不清楚”。但会诊确定：“服此药后病人的中毒症状与某些其他药品中毒症状是相同的，例如砒制剂”。
Dr. Jin then prescribed further pills: large doses of calomel and soda—two medicines which, when taken in combination, produce poison in the form of corrosive mercury chloride. The inquiry found that these prescriptions were “enough to kill several people.” The report detailed many “symptoms of mercury poisoning,” and concluded: “It is a fact that he was poisoned.”
王明滞留在医院后，金大夫给他开大剂量的甘汞加小苏打。这样的配合是有名的禁忌品，因为它会产生升汞，使服用者汞中毒。会诊总结列举了王明一系列“汞中毒现象”，说金给王明吃的汞“超过极量”，“足以引起数人中毒或致死”。
Wang Ming would have died if he had taken all Dr. Jin's poisonous prescriptions. But he grew suspicious and stopped. In June, Dr. Jin halted his murderous treatment. The reason was that a new and very senior Russian liaison man, Pyotr Vladimirov, had just arrived in Yenan. Vladimirov, who held the rank of general, had worked in northwest China, spoke fluent Chinese and knew some of the CCP leaders personally. His reports went to Stalin. He also brought with him a GRU surgeon, Andrei Orlov, who also held the rank of general, plus an extra radio operator.
王明自然开始怀疑金了，停止了吃药，否则他早死了。六月，金大夫不再给王明毒药，原因是延安来了新的苏联联络员孙平(Pyotr Vladimirov)。孙曾在东北工作过，说一口流利的中文，又跟好些中共领导认识。他的级别很高，是个将军，报告直达斯大林。跟他同来的还有苏军情报局大夫阿洛夫(Andrei Orlov)，外加一个电台报务员，直接给莫斯科发电报。
On 16 July, shortly after Vladimirov and Orlov arrived, Moscow was informed, for the first time, that Wang Ming “after nine months of treatment is at death's door.” At this stage it seems Wang Ming did not tell the Russians that he suspected he was being poisoned. Not only was he in Mao's hands, but he had no proof. He first tried to drive a wedge between Stalin and Mao by telling Vladimirov that Mao had no intention of helping Russia out militarily. Wang Ming, Vladimirov recorded on 18 July, “says that if Japan attacks [Russia] … the Soviet Union ought not to count on the [CCP].”
七月十六日，孙平、阿洛夫向莫斯科报告，王明“治疗九个月后濒于死亡”。王明没有告诉他们他怀疑自己被下毒，他既没有证据，又身在毛的掌心里。
Vladimirov quickly became very critical of Mao. “Spies watch our every step,” he noted. “These last few days [Kang Sheng] has been foisting upon me a teacher of Russian whom I am supposed to accept as a pupil. I have never seen a Chinese girl of such striking beauty. The girl doesn't give us a day's peace …” Within weeks, Vladimirov had fired the cook who he was convinced was “a Kang Sheng informer.”
At the beginning of 1943, Wang Ming's condition took a sharp turn for the worse. Doctors, who now had the Russian surgeon Orlov in their ranks, recommended treatment in the Nationalist area or Russia. Mao refused to let Wang Ming go.
一九四三年初，王明病情恶化。延安的医生们跟阿洛夫大夫一致建议送他到国民党地区或者苏联去治病。毛拒绝放王明走。为了能去莫斯科，王明一月八日向孙平口授了一份直呈斯大林的长电，里面列举了毛“许多反苏反共的罪行”，最后“请求是否可能派飞机接我去莫斯科治病，届时我将向共产国际领导汇报毛泽东罪恶的详情。”
To save his life and get himself to Moscow, Wang Ming knew he had to make Stalin feel that he was politically useful. On 8 January, he dictated a long cable to Vladimirov, addressed to Stalin by name. According to his own account, it detailed Mao's “many crimes,” which he called “anti-Soviet and anti-Party.” At the end, he “inquired if it was possible to send a plane for me and have me treated in Moscow, where I would also give the Comintern leadership particulars about Mao's crimes.”
王明的尖锐的话被孙平去掉些锋芒后发往莫斯科，二月一日到了季米特洛夫手上。毛显然得知王明的这封告状电报，马上也给季米特洛夫发了封电报，反告王明。尽管如此，季米特洛夫答覆王明说：“我们将派飞机接你来莫斯科。”
Wang Ming's message, much watered down by Vladimirov, reached Comintern chief Dimitrov on 1 February. Mao obviously found out that Wang Ming had got a dangerous message out to Russia, as he immediately cabled Dimitrov with counter-accusations against Wang Ming. Still, Dimitrov promised Wang Ming: “We'll have you flown to Moscow.”
At this point Dr. Jin made another attempt on Wang Ming's life. On 12 February, right after Dimitrov's message, Jin prescribed the deadly combination of calomel and soda again. A week later, he prescribed tannic acid as an enema at a strength that would have been fatal. This time, Wang Ming not only did not follow the prescriptions, he kept them carefully.
二月十二日，金大夫又一次给王明开致命的甘汞加小苏打。一星期后，他给王明开单宁酸灌肠，开的浓度高到“有严重危险” (据会诊总结)。王明既没有吃药也没有灌肠，将处方留了起来。
Mao clearly felt a sense of acute urgency, as he now made a startling move. On 20 March, in total secrecy, he convened the Politburo—minus Wang Ming—and got himself made supreme leader of the Party, becoming chairman of both the Politburo and the Secretariat. The resolution gave Mao absolute power, and actually spelled out: “On all issues … the Chairman has the power to make final decisions.” Wang Ming was dropped from the core group, the Secretariat.
毛感到危机在即，采取紧急措施。三月二十日，他秘密召开排除王明在外的政治局会议，把自己正式任命为政治局兼书记处主席。决议给毛绝对权力，说中央的任何问题“主席有最后决定之权”。王明被赶出书记处。
This was the first time Mao became Party No. 1 on paper, as well as in fact. And yet this was a deeply surreptitious affair, which was kept entirely secret from his own Party, and from Moscow—and was to stay secret throughout Mao's life, probably known to no more than a handful of people.
毛就这样第一次当上了中共主席。然而，他当得鬼鬼祟祟，没有向全党宣布，也对莫斯科保密。这件大事在毛一生中都是国家机密，知道的人寥寥无几。
Wang Ming may have got wind of Mao's maneuver, as he now, for the first time, exposed the poisoning attempt to the Russians. On 22 March he showed Orlov one of Dr. Jin's prescriptions, which Vladimirov cabled to Moscow. Moscow wired back immediately, saying that the prescription “causes slow poisoning” and “in grave cases—death.” Wang Ming then showed the prescription to Yenan medical chief Dr. Nelson Fu, and this led to an inquiry, which found beyond doubt that Wang Ming had been poisoned.
三月二十二日，王明第一次告诉俄国人他被下毒。他把金大夫开的处方交给阿洛大大夫，孙平随即电报莫斯科。莫斯科马上回电说处方“导致慢性中毒”，“严重时死亡”。王明这时又把处方给延安的医疗负责人傅连暲看，这样有了会诊。
But Mao, the ace schemer, turned the inquiry to his advantage. Whilst the inquiry did establish that attempts had been made on Wang Ming's life, Mao used the fact that it was still sitting as an excuse to stall Wang Ming's trip.
毛泽东的伎俩是取之不尽，用之不竭。他不便阻止会诊，就利用它为自己服务：会诊期间，王明是不可以离开延安的。
And for Mao, scapegoats were always to hand—in this case Dr. Jin. On 28 March, Mme Mao “came to see me quite unexpectedly,” Vladimirov noted. “She talked at length about ‘the unreliability of Doctor Jin who [she said] is probably a [Nationalist] agent …' ”
毛也早预备下了替罪羊，就是金大夫。孙平记载道：三月二十八日，江青“突然来拜访我”，“她长篇大论地对我谈金大夫如何不可靠，说他也许是个特务”。
FIFTY-SIX YEARS LATER, in a drab concrete building in dusty Peking, the only surviving member of the medical panel of fifteen that drew up the official findings in Yenan, Dr. Y, a physically energetic and mentally alert 87-year-old, gave us a tape-recorded interview.
五十六年后，在北京城一幢千篇一律的水泥楼房里，当年延安会诊的十五个医生中唯一活着的Y大夫接受了我们的采访。这是一九九九年，大夫高龄八十七岁，但头脑仍然敏捷，动作毫无老态。他静静地端坐着等我们摆弄好录音机，然后庄重地开始他显然准备好的为历史留下纪录的叙述。
Once the decision was taken to carry out a medical inquiry, Dr. Y was assigned to establish whether Wang Ming had indeed been poisoned. He “stayed with Wang Ming for a month, sleeping in his study,” heating up his urine each day and then dipping a sliver of gold into it and examining it under a microscope. It proved to contain mercury: “He was being poisoned slowly,” Dr. Y reported to his medical superior. But nothing was done for weeks.
会诊决定一作出，Y大夫就领到任务去观察王明的病情。他说：我在王明家里住了一个月，住在他隔壁房间的书房，我为他熬了一个月的尿。拿很薄的金片子丢進尿里，再夹出来，放在显微镜下看，看金片如果有红的颜色，那就是汞沾在上面，说明尿里有汞。”“里面有几次阳性。他是慢性中毒。” Y大夫把他的发现报告给上级。若干星期没有下文。
The medical inquiry finally opened on 30 June, more than three months after the poisoning was exposed. The findings, drawn up on 20 July, stated that Wang Ming had definitely been poisoned by Dr. Jin, and were signed by Jin himself. After his signature, he wrote in brackets: “Will make separate statement about several of the points.” But he never did. In the middle of one meeting, in front of his colleagues, he threw himself at the feet of Wang Ming's wife, weeping. Dr. Y was present. He told us that Dr. Jin “went down on his knees, begged for forgiveness, saying he was wrong.” “He admitted mistakes. Of course, he wouldn't admit it was deliberate.” In fact, Dr. Jin had been carrying a pocket medical manual, which stated specifically that it was taboo to use calomel in combination with soda, and he had underlined these words. Dr. Y had actually confronted him on this: “Look, it's written here: taboo prescription, great harm. You have even underlined it!” Jin was silent.
六月三十日，会诊终于开始。七月二十日结论作出：金大夫给王明吃了毒药。金本人也在结论上签了字。他在旁边打括弧写道：“其中数点另外声明。”但他从未发表任何声明。一次开会时，当着一屋子医生，大夫亲眼看见金“跪在孟庆树(王明的夫人)面前，哭了很久，又哭又求，求谅解他，说他是错了，但不是故意。”王明夫妇和医生们都知道，金身上常揣着国民党军队编的小辞典，叫《军医必携》，里面明明写着甘汞不能跟小苏打配用，而且金还在下面用红笔画了线。Y大夫质问他说：“你看你那里面都有写着，禁忌药，危害又大，你还划了杠子！”金哑口无言。
Far from getting into trouble, however, Jin was protected by being taken to the haunt of the security apparatus, Date Garden, where he lived with the security elite. He continued to be one of the doctors for Mao and other leaders, which would have been inconceivable if Mao had had the slightest doubt about either his competence or his trustworthiness.*
金不但没有受惩罚，反而被保护在枣园，跟特工人员吃、住在一起。他继续做毛跟其他中共领导人的医生。江青的流产和结扎手术是他做的。中共掌权后，他当上了北京医院院长，负责给中共领导人和他们的家人看病。毛的大儿媳妇患阑尾炎送進北京医院，做手术要家人签字，岸英不在场，是金代签的。这一切都说明，毒害王明根本不可能是金个人的决定，或医术问题。
The inquiry did not mention Mao, of course, but the Russians had no doubt: “Wang Ming was being poisoned and … Mao Tse-tung and Kang Sheng were involved.”
王明的会诊报告自然只字未提毛。但苏联人毫不怀疑毛是后台：“王明被下了毒。毛泽东和康生参与其事。”
MAO'S KEY ACCOMPLICE in preventing Wang Ming from making it to Moscow was, once again, Chou En-lai, his liaison in Chongqing. Chiang Kai-shek's permission was needed for Russian planes to come to Yenan so Mao hypocritically asked Chou to obtain permission from Chiang for a Russian plane to come and collect Wang Ming, while making it clear to Chou that he did not want Wang Ming to leave. Chou duly told the Russians that “the Nationalists would not allow cde. Wang Ming to leave Yenan.” In fact, Lin Biao, who was in Chongqing at the time, told Soviet ambassador Panyushkin that Chou never raised the issue with the Nationalists, because of “instructions” from “Yenan.”
助毛下毒的是金大夫，帮毛阻止王明去莫斯科的是周恩来。那时苏联飞机来往延安，得请蒋介石点头。周对潘友新大使说：“国民党不让王明同志离开延安。”当时也在重庆的林彪告诉潘友新，周根本没向国民党提出王明去苏联的事，原因是毛的指示。
At this very time, Chou got Chiang's clearance for a Russian plane to bring Mao's son An-ying back from Russia. An-ying, who had been in Russia since 1937, was now a 21-year-old gung-ho enthusiast at a military academy where he had joined the Soviet Communist Party. He had written three letters to Stalin asking to be assigned to the German front.
周提出的要求，是要苏联飞机送岸英回延安。蒋介石一口答应。这一年，岸英在军事学校学习，已加入苏联共产党。他热情积极，给斯大林写了三封信要求去苏德前线。他不仅是毛泽东的长子，也是毛唯一可能的继承人，因为次子岸青精神有问题。
As he was not sent to the front, An-ying asked permission to return to China after graduation on 1 May 1943. He was not only Mao's eldest son, but also the only probable male heir, as Mao's other son, An-ching, was mentally handicapped. An-ying cabled his father (via Dimitrov), and Mao replied saying that Chiang had cleared the plane trip. An-ying got ready to go home, and asked the head of the International Communist School to look after his brother: “Don't let him out of your sight … He is an honest person, only he has hearing ailments and his nerves are wrecked.”
岸英要求毕业后返回祖国。他通过季米特洛夫打电报告诉父亲，毛很快回电说蒋介石已同意飞机送他回来。岸英收拾好行装，又给国际儿童保育院院长写了信，请他照看岸青：“请多关照我的兄弟……他是一个诚实的人。只是听力不好，神经有问题，这一直在折磨着他。”
On 19 August, a Russian plane left for Yenan to collect Wang Ming, and An-ying was supposed to be on it. But that day he was called in to see Dimitrov. When the plane arrived in Yenan, there was no An-ying on board. This was Moscow saying to Mao that it wanted Wang Ming first before releasing his son.
可是岸英未能成行。八月十九日，他正待起程，突然被叫去见季米特洛夫。飞机到延安时，下来的人中没有岸英。这是莫斯科暗示毛：你放王明，我们才放岸英。
But Mao held on to Wang Ming. Vladimirov recorded: “doctors were … told to say Wang Ming … couldn't stand the strain of the flight … [The] crew kept delaying the flight as long as they could, but [Mao] got his way.”
毛就是不放王明。孙平写道：“医生们受命说王明的病使他受不了坐飞机”。“机组人员在延安等了又等，最后还是[毛]胜利了，他们等不及走了。”
Another Soviet plane came on 20 October and stayed four days, before leaving with some Russian intelligence men—but again not Wang Ming. “On seeing [Dr Orlov],” Vladimirov recorded, “Wang Ming burst into tears … he is … still unable to walk … [his] friends have abandoned him … He is all alone in the full sense of the word …” It was two years now since his health crisis had begun, and a good nineteen months since the start of the poisoning. In those long and agonizing days, his wife looked after him devotedly, presenting a strong calm face to him. But occasionally she would lock the door and try to release her anguish. Her son told us that as a young boy he once caught her rolling and kicking on the earthen floor, muffling her sobbing and screaming with a towel. The son was too young to comprehend, but the traumatic scene was etched into his memory.
十月二十日，又一架苏联飞机来了，等了四天，带走了几个苏联情报人员，还是没有王明。王明一看见阿洛大大夫就哭了起来。他依旧卧床不起，人们都躲着他。他患病住院已整整两年，从吃毒药到现在也十九个月有余。在这段漫长艰难的日子里，只有妻子忠实地看护他。当着他的面，孟庆树总是显得镇定安宁，但她的儿子告诉我们，有一次，他看见母亲关上门在屋里土地上又踢又滚，一面用布堵住嘴，不让自己哭出声来。这个痛苦的场面深深地烙印在年幼孩子的脑子里。
In Yenan, Dr. Y said, “many people knew that Wang Ming had been poisoned by mercury, and that someone was trying to murder him … Word got around.” And not only among senior officials, but also among ordinary Party members who had connections to medical staff. So many people suspected the truth that Mao felt he had to flush out the undercurrent of suspicion and kill it off. That meant getting the Wang Mings to make a public denial.
Y大夫说，在延安，“好多人传说王明汞中毒，是有人要害他。”不光是高级干部知道，一般党员跟医院有关系的也听说了。私下议论多了，毛想出个“辟谣”的办法，让不敢得罪他的王明家人自己当众否认。
On 1 November, a week after the second Russian plane had left, Mao convened a large meeting for senior officials. He himself sat on the platform. Wang Ming was kept away. The star witness was a veteran commander who was trotted out, from detention, to say that over a year before, Mrs. Wang Ming had told him her husband was being poisoned—and had strongly hinted that Mao was responsible. Mrs. Wang Ming then made a vehement denial onstage. On 15 November she wrote to Mao and the Politburo, vowing that she and her husband had not even harbored such a thought, and felt nothing but gratitude to Mao. The poisoning case was formally closed.
十一月一日，第二架苏联飞机离境一个星期后，毛召开延安高干大会，自己坐在主席台上。没让王明参加，只由孟庆树代表。会上一个叫李国华的干部被从关押中弄到台上，揭发说，孟庆树头一年曾对他说“王明同志之中毒是中央某某人所为”， 意思就是毛泽东。孟庆树接着登台坚决否认她说过此话。十五日，她又给毛和中央写信，说李是“撒谎”“造谣”，表示“再一次以十万分的热忱感谢毛主席”。给王明下毒这桩案子就这样画上了句号。
MAO HAD DEFIED Stalin's will to an astonishing degree, as Moscow would not send a plane all the way to Yenan for nothing. Furthermore, strange things happened to the Russians in Yenan around now. Their radio station was wrecked, apparently sabotaged. Their dogs, which they had brought to provide security and an alarm system—as well as protection against wolves—were shot. Mao dared to do all this because he knew he was the victor, and that Stalin needed him and was committed to him. It was during this same period that Stalin told the Americans, on 30 October 1943, he would eventually enter the war against Japan. Russian arms supplies to Mao were greatly stepped up.
莫斯科两次派飞机，都空机而返。在延安的苏联人也受到粗暴对待。他们的电台被损坏，专门带来防狼报警的狼狗被打死。毛敢于这样跟莫斯科对抗，因为他知道斯大林需要他，无法不要他。这段时间，苏联给中共的武器大大增加了。
When Dimitrov cabled Mao again on 17 November about getting Wang Ming to Russia, Mao did not respond. And when Dimitrov wrote to Wang Ming on 13 December it was in an unmistakably sad tone. After saying that Wang Ming's daughter, whom the Dimitrovs had adopted, was well, Dimitrov went on resignedly: “As regards your Party matters, try to settle them yourselves. It is not expedient to intervene from here for now.”
当季米特洛夫十一月十七日再次要毛放王明去苏联时，毛根本就不理他。季只好在十二月十三日给王明发电报，无可奈何地说：“至于你们党内的事，你们自己去解决吧，我这儿一时鞭长莫及。”季提起王明过继给他的女儿很好，要王明勿念。
But Stalin clearly decided that Mao should be served a warning. Shortly afterwards, on 22 December, he authorized Dimitrov to send a most unusual telegram, in which he told Mao:
但斯大林显然又决定不能让毛太为所欲为。九天后，他授权季米特洛夫发给毛一封极不寻常的电报。电报说：
Needless to say, after the disbanding of the Comintern,* its leaders … can no longer intervene in the internal affairs of the CCP. But … I cannot help offering a few words about my worries caused by the situation in the CCP … I think the policy of curtailing the struggle against the foreign occupiers is politically wrong, and the current action to depart from the national united front is also wrong …
“不言而喻，共产国际解散以后，* 它的领导人不能干预中共内部事务。但是从私人友好的角度我不能不向您谈谈我对中共党内状况的不安。”“我认为不打外国占领者的政策在政治上是错误的，目前脱离民族统一战线的步骤也是错误的。”他说康生“很可疑”，在“为敌人效劳”。还说正在延安开展的整王明附带整周恩来的运动“在政治上是错误的”。
* 共产国际于一九四三年五月二十日解散，这不过是个幌子，以安抚斯大林的西方盟国。
Saying that he had “suspicions” about Mao's intelligence chief, Kang Sheng, whom he described as “helping the enemy,” Dimitrov told Mao that “the campaign conducted to incriminate” Wang Ming (and Chou En-lai) was “wrong.”
Dimitrov opened the telegram with a very pointed passage about An-ying:
最意味深长的是电报的开篇第一段，特别提到毛的儿子岸英：
Regarding your son. I have arranged for him to be enrolled in the Military-Political Academy … He is a talented young man, so I have no doubt that you will find in him a reliable and good assistant. He sends his regards.
“关于您的儿子，我刚把他送進了军政学院……这个小伙子很有才干，我相信他会成为您的一个可信赖的好助手，他问您好。
Dimitrov did not say a word about An-ying's long-overdue return to China. And mentioning him in one breath with Wang Ming was the clearest possible way of saying to Mao that his own son was a hostage, just as Chiang Kai-shek's had been.
岸英本来决定要回国的，怎么忽然又留在苏联了？回国的事就不提了？而且把他跟王明的事相提并论。季米特洛夫的含义很明显：跟从前蒋介石的儿子一样，毛的儿子也成了人质。
WHEN VLADIMIROV translated Dimitrov's cable to him on 2 January 1944, Mao's immediate reaction was one of defiance. He wrote an answer there and then. It was a blunt, point-by-point retort:
一九四四年一月二日，孙平把季米特洛夫的电报翻译给毛听了以后，毛当场大怒，拿过纸笔当着孙平一挥而就，写了封回电，针锋相对一条条反驳。
To Comrade Dimitrov,
致季米特洛夫同志：
1. We have not curtailed the anti-Japanese struggle. On the contrary …
一，我们并没有削弱对日斗争。恰恰相反……
2. Our line as regards collaboration with the [Nationalists] remains unchanged …
二、我们与国民党合作的路线没有任何改变……
3. Our relations with Chou En-lai are good. We are not going to cut him off from the Party at all. Chou En-lai has made great progress.
三、我们跟周恩来的关系是好的，我们毫无把他开除出党 的意思，周恩来已经取得很大的進步。
4. Wang Ming has been engaged in various anti-Party activities …
四、王明一直在从事各种反党活动……
5. I assure you and can guarantee that the Chinese Communist Party loves and highly respects Comrade Stalin and the Soviet Union …
五、我向您保证并且可以担保，中国共产党热爱并深深地 崇敬斯大林同志和苏联……
6.… Wang Ming is not trustworthy. He was once arrested in Shanghai. Several people have said that when he was in prison he admitted to being a member of the Communist Party. He was released after this.* There has also been talk about his suspicious connections with Mif [purged in Russia] …
六、王明人不可靠，他在上海时被捕过，好几个人说他在监狱里承认了自己的党员身分，这之后才被释放。也有人谈到他与米夫的关系可疑……
Kang Sheng is a trustworthy man …
康生是可靠的……
Mao Tse-tung
毛泽东
Mao was an impulsive man, but he usually held his impulses at bay. He once told staff who commented on his “unruffled calm” and “impeccable self-control”: “It's not that I am not angry. Sometimes I am so angry I feel my lungs are bursting. But I know I must control myself, and not show anything.”
毛是个感情冲动的人，但通常他能控制住自己的脾气。一次助手师哲说佩服他“沉着冷静，有涵养”， 他回答道：“我不是不生气，有时气炸了肺。但我知道应该尽量克制容忍，勿现于辞色。”
Mao's hair-trigger reaction on this occasion was uncharacteristic. The reason he exploded was not that he cared so much for his son, but because this was the first time Moscow tried to blackmail him. But he instantly regretted his eruption. He could not afford to offend Moscow, especially now that the tide had turned against Germany, and Russia was likely to move against Japan soon—and sweep him to power.
毛这次却一触即发，原因是莫斯科头一次这样吓唬他。但毛马上就后悔了，他得罪不起莫斯科，特别是眼下苏德战争局势正朝苏联胜利的方向发展，苏联不久就会進入中国，帮助他夺权。
Next day, Mao told Vladimirov he “had given much thought” to Dimitrov's telegram, and asked if his answer had been sent. If not, “he certainly would change its content.”
第二天毛找到孙平，说他“反覆考虑了”给季米特洛夫的回电，说要是电报还没有发出，他“一定要改变里面的内容”。
But the cable had gone off, and over the following days a visibly anxious Mao set out to woo Vladimirov. On 4 January, he invited Vladimirov to an operatic show, and “immediately began speaking of his respect for the Soviet Union … and I. V. Stalin … Mao said he sincerely respected the Chinese comrades who had received education or worked in the USSR …” Next day, Mao called on Vladimirov again: “apparently he understands,” Vladimirov noted, “that the telegram he sent to Dimitrov on January 2 was rude and ill-considered.” On the 6th, Mao threw a dinner for the Russians: “Everything was ceremonious, friendly and … servile.” The following day, Mao came alone to Vladimirov's place at 9:00 AM—for him, the middle of the night. “Suddenly,” Mao “began to speak of Wang Ming—in an entirely different, almost friendly tone!” At the end, Mao sat down and wrote another telegram to Dimitrov, and asked Vladimirov to “tick it out” at once. “Mao looked perturbed, his gestures betraying tension and nervousness … He looked extremely tired, as if he hadn't had a minute's sleep.”
但电报已经发出。此后几天，孙平注意到毛明显地惴惴不安，努力向他表示友好。一月四日，毛破例请孙平看京戏，“见面后他一句客套话也没讲就马上谈起他对苏联、对斯大林的尊重。毛说他真诚地尊重在苏联受过教育或工作过的中国同志。” 五日，毛又来拜访孙平，“显然他明白他一月二日给季米特洛夫的电报是粗鲁欠考虑的。”六日，毛设宴招待在延安的苏联人，席间“一切都礼仪周全，友好备至，甚至带巴结性。”七日早上九点，毛通常睡觉的时候，毛随员也不带，一个人来见孙平，“突然说起王明--口气迥然不同，几乎可以说是友善！”说完后他坐下来，给季米特洛夫写了另一封电报，请孙平“立刻发出去”。“毛显得心情烦乱，举动里透着紧张不安。他看来疲惫不堪，好像一夜没合眼。”
The tone of the second telegram was groveling:
毛这封电报是恭顺奉承：
I sincerely thank you for the instructions you gave me. I shall study them thoroughly … and take measures according to them … Regarding inner-Party questions, our policy is aimed at unity. The same policy will be conducted towards Wang Ming … I ask you to rest assured. All your thoughts, all your feelings are close to my heart …
“我真诚地感谢您给我的指示。我将深入地研究，坚决贯彻执行。”“关于党内问题，我们的目标是团结。对王明也是这个政策。”“我请求您放心。您的一切思想、一切感情都紧贴着我的心”。
Mao then paid Wang Ming two long visits.
毛随即两次拜访王明，跟他长谈。
Dimitrov wrote on 25 February saying that he was particularly pleased by Mao's second (groveling) telegram. This and subsequent missives had a we-can-work-together tone.
季米特洛夫二月二十五日来电，说他很满意毛的第二封电报。接着莫斯科又有若干电报来，口气俨然都是“我们可以合作”。
On 28 March, Mao asked Vladimirov to send a telegram to his son An-ying. It told him not to think about returning to China. Mao, it said, was “very happy about his successes in his studies.” Mao asked his son “not to worry about his [Mao's] health. He feels well.” He asked An-ying to convey “warm greetings” to Manuilsky and Dimitrov, who, Mao said, “have assisted … the Chinese revolution. It is to them that Chinese comrades and their children owe their education in [Russia], their upbringing and maintenance.”
三月二十八日，毛请孙平给岸英发封电报，要他不要还想着回中国。电报说他对儿子的“学习成绩很高兴”，要儿子不要挂念他的身体，他身体很好。毛要岸英向曼努伊尔斯基和季米特洛夫转达他“热烈的问候”，“没有他们就没有中国同志和他们的孩子的教育，抚育和成长。”
This was Mao saying to Moscow: I accept you keeping An-ying as a hostage. With this understanding, An-ying remained in Russia.
毛这番话是说给莫斯科听的，等于告诉莫斯科他并不介意他们把岸英扣下作人质。
Dimitrov meanwhile told Wang Ming to compromise. While protesting that the rift was not his fault, a helpless Wang Ming promised to work with Mao, but asked Moscow to try to restrain him.
季米特洛夫同时也要王明对毛妥协。王明虽然争辩说他跟毛的矛盾不是他的错，但还是答应努力跟毛合作。他只是孤立无助地恳求莫斯科管束毛。
The result was a stand-off, but very much in Mao's favor. Mao was allowed to keep Wang Ming in Yenan, and do what he wanted with him, including vilifying him, so long as he did not kill him. In fact, vilification of Wang Ming was a major activity in the Yenan terror campaign from 1942. Endless indoctrination sessions were held to blacken his name among Party members. At one rally denouncing him in absentia (Mao made sure that Wang Ming was kept well away from the Party cadres), Wang Ming's wife managed to get onto the stage and say the accusations were untrue. She asked for Wang Ming to be fetched to clarify the facts. As no one stirred, she threw herself at Mao, sobbing loudly, clinging to his legs and asking him to be just. Mao sat there, unmoved as a stone.
毛、王双方各自让步，归根到底是毛得胜。他把王明扣在延安，要怎么整治他就怎么整治他，只是不能毒死他。他依旧在党内攻击、丑化王明，延安整风的主要内容之一就是把王明塑造成头号坏蛋。干部们天天谴责王明，大多连王明的面都没见过。毛怕雄辩的王明在大庭广众下开口，总是不许王明出场。在一个声讨王明的大会上，孟庆树跑上台去说那些指控都是诬蔑，提出用担架把王明抬来，让他澄清事实。在座的当然没人动，孟庆树哭着扑到毛的膝盖上，要毛主持公道。毛坐在那里，任她痛哭流涕，毛像石像一样纹丝不动。
By the end of the campaign, it was established in people's minds that Wang Ming was Party Enemy No. 1, and he was in no position thereafter to challenge Mao's supremacy—even though Mao still saw him as a threat, because he remained unbroken. Five years later another attempt was made on his life.*
王明谈不上再与毛争雄了，可毛还是不放心。五年后的一九四八年，毛准备访问苏联，那时他与斯大林矛盾又起，怕王明趁他不在时作乱，于是又一次对王明下手。
王明因便秘需要灌肠，一名医生就给他开了给尿缸子消毒的、会烧坏肠子的“来舒(Lysol)”。王明痛得大叫，给他灌肠的妻子立刻停止，他才侥幸活了下来。当时的结论说这是“医疗事故”，可是这样的事故从来没有出现在中共其他领导人身上，更不用说一而再，再而三发生。那个开“来舒”处方的大夫以后一直是毛的主要医生之一，官至卫生部副部长。
WHILE EMPLOYING poisoning to tackle Wang Ming, in 1943 Mao also turned on Chou En-lai. This was in spite of the fact that Chou had collaborated in quite a bit of Mao's dirty work, not least in letting Tse-min be killed, and in preventing his old friend Wang Ming from getting out to Moscow for treatment.
一九四三年，毛在给王明下毒时，还整治了周恩来。毛不满足于周听话、忠实，还要再大大恐吓周一番，使他不敢有丝毫贰心。在整风中，毛把周领导的地下党打成特务集团，周面临当特务头子的危险。毛召他从重庆回延安时，他踯躅着不敢回去。毛六月十五日发给他暗带威胁的电报：“成都、西安两地望勿耽搁，一则求速，一则避嫌。”周七月份一到延安，毛劈头给他一顿指责，还甩出一句：“不要身在曹营心在汉！”
Mao, however, wanted more than just slavish deference. He wanted Chou thoroughly scared and broken. The terror campaign in 1942–43 threatened to condemn Chou as the big spy chief. In fact, it was partly to frame Chou that Mao invented the charge that most Communist organizations in Nationalist areas were spies for Chiang, because Chou was in charge of these organizations. In order to have Chou on the spot in Yenan and put him through the terror mill, Mao sent menacing cables ordering him back from Chongqing. One, on 15 June 1943, read: “Don't linger … to avoid people talking.” And when Chou came back in July the first thing Mao said to his face was a warning: “Don't leave your heart in the enemy camp!”
Chou panicked, and responded with fulsome fawning, singing Mao's praises at length at his “welcome” party. Then, in November, he bashed himself for five days in front of the Politburo, saying he had “committed extremely big crimes,” been “an accomplice” to Wang Ming, and had “the character of a slave”—for the wrong master, of course. He told larger Party audiences that he and other leaders had been disasters, and that it was Mao who had saved the Party from them. Thoroughly tamed, Chou became a self-abasing slave to Mao for more than three decades, until almost his last breath.
周胆战心惊，马上在“欢迎”大会上连篇累牍地歌颂毛。十一月政治局会议上，他一连骂了自己五天，说自己“犯了极大的罪过”，是王明的“帮凶”，说自己从前当领导是“篡党篡政篡军”，还称自己“猥琐”，有“奴性”。他在党内到处演讲，大讲他本人和其他领导如何给党带来灾难，毛又如何从他们手里挽救了党。自此，周恩来完全被毛驯服，以后三十多年，直到行将就木，他都是不时自掌嘴巴的毛的理想奴才。
THE LAST MAN Mao set out to de-fang was Peng De-huai, the acting commander of the 8th Route Army. Peng had opposed Mao in the 1930s. In 1940 he had defied Mao's wishes and launched the only large-scale operation by the Reds against the Japanese during the entire Sino-Japanese War. And he had done something else equally infuriating to Mao—tried to implement some of the ideals which in Mao's lexicon were to be brandished solely as propaganda. “Democracy, freedom, equality and fraternity,” Mao said, were concepts to be deployed only “for our political needs.” He berated Peng for “talking about them as genuine ideals.”
毛最后整治的人是彭德怀。彭在三十年代就反过毛，一九四0年他违背毛的意志打百团大战。他让毛恼怒还有别的原因，比方说把“自由民主”看作真正的理想，而不是宣传的口号。毛曾针对彭的一篇谈话，指责他不该“从民主、自由、平等、博爱等的定义出发”， 而应该从“政治需要出发”。彭提出奉行“己所不欲，勿施于人”的中国传统宗旨，毛说应该是“己所不欲，要施于人”。
Mao had tolerated Peng because Peng had played an extremely useful role in expanding the army and running the base areas. (The bases under Peng enjoyed a much better relationship with the local people, and a much less oppressive atmosphere than Yenan.)
毛多年容忍了彭，是看在彭卓越的治军能力上。(彭领导下的八路军根据地跟延安很不相同，少有延安那种高压气氛，跟老百姓的关系也好得多。)
In autumn 1943, Mao brought him back to Yenan, although he did not put Peng on the hit list immediately because he did not want to have to deal with too many enemies all at the same time. Peng did not mince his words over the many things that galled him in Yenan, including Mao's effort to build a cult of himself, which Peng called plain “wrong.” One day, talking to a young Party member who had just been released from Mao's prison, he said pensively: “It is hard to stand alone honorably.”
一九四三年秋，彭奉召回延安。毛一向不搞四面出击，所以没有马上打击他。彭对延安感到格格不入，对请客吃饭中的浪费看不惯。有次席间端上来一盘海参，他脸一沉，放下筷子算了一笔帐，问主人：“一盘海参要吃掉几个农民一年的劳动？！” 彭还直言不讳地反对毛正在制造的个人崇拜，说“偶像崇拜不对”，不赞成党章中提以毛泽东思想作指针。一天，刚从监狱里放出来的年轻党员李锐因公事找彭，彭问起他的境遇，然后若有所思地说：“光荣的孤立是很难的。”
From early 1945 Mao set out to tarnish Peng's credibility and reputation—and to unnerve him. In a series of long harassment meetings, Mao's henchmen bombarded him with insults and accusations—an experience he described as “being fucked for forty days.” The sessions attacking Peng went on intermittently right up to the eve of the Japanese surrender, when they stopped because Mao needed commanders of Peng's caliber to fight Chiang Kai-shek. By this point, Mao had systematically subdued all his opponents.
一九四五年初，轮到彭德怀挨整了。毛召开“华北座谈会”，旨在破坏彭的威信与声望。会上毛的钦定人物一个个朝彭身上泼污水，用彭的话说是“操”了他四十天“娘”。会一直开到日本投降前夕，停下来是因为毛急需能干的将领打蒋介石。至此，毛已经挨个儿整治了中共领导人中所有曾经反对过他的人，强使他们在不同程度上屈服了。
*Po Ku died in a plane crash in 1946.
*Dr. Jin remained particularly close to Mme Mao, on whom he had performed an induced abortion and oviduct ligation in summer 1942. When the Communists took power, he became head of the Peking Hospital, which catered for Party leaders and their families. On the night of 30 September 1950, Mao's daughter-in-law was taken to this hospital with appendicitis. The signature of the next-of-kin was needed to okay the operation. As her husband, An-ying, was not present, it was Dr. Jin who authorized the operation.
*On 20 May 1943. This was largely a formality, to mollify Stalin's Western allies, and it brought little change in the relationship between Moscow and Mao.
*This meant that Wang Ming's explanation of the way he got out of prison was unsatisfactory, and therefore suspicious.
*In 1948, when Mao planned to go to Russia, he was concerned about what Wang Ming might get up to in his absence. So Wang Ming was given Lysol, ostensibly for his chronic constipation. Lysol was a powerful disinfectant used for cleaning urinals, and would wreck the intestines. Wang Ming survived because his wife immediately stopped administering it to him after he cried out in agony. No other top CCP leader had so many “medical accidents”—or indeed any serious accidents at all. The possibility of it being an accident can be ruled out by the fact that the doctor who prescribed the Lysol remained chief physician for Mao.
A restricted official circular dated 7 July 1948 and other medical documents acknowledged this “medical accident,” but made the pharmacist the scapegoat. In September 1998, a friend of the pharmacist telephoned her for us. After greetings, the colleague said: “I have a writer here, and she would like to talk to you about the enema.” To this question out of the blue, we heard the pharmacist answer without a second of hesitation or bafflement: “I don't know. I don't know.”
“What medicine did you give?”
“I don't know what medicine I gave. I've forgotten.”
It seems that for the past fifty years, the matter had remained at the forefront of the pharmacist's mind.