PART SIX UNSWEET REVENGE
47 A HORSE-TRADE SECURES THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
47 发动文革的一场讨价还价
(1965–66 AGE 71–72)
1965～1966 年 71～72 岁
IN NOVEMBER 1965, Mao was finally ready to launch the Great Purge he had long been planning, to “punish this Party of ours,” as he put it.
一九六五年十一月，毛泽东终于开始了策划多年的大复仇、大清洗：“整我们这个党”。
Mao proceeded in stages. He decided to fire his first shot at culture, and this is why the Great Purge was called the Cultural Revolution. Mme Mao spearheaded the assault. She was an ex-actress who actually loved culture, but cared nothing about denying it to other Chinese. And she enjoyed the chance to vent her venom, which she possessed in abundance. “Jiang Qing is as deadly poisonous as a scorpion,” Mao once observed to a family member, wiggling his little finger, like a scorpion's tail. Mao knew exactly how to exploit her potential as a persecution zealot. In 1963 he had assigned her to the Ministry of Culture as his private supervisor to try to get operas and films condemned. Officials there had largely ignored her. She was already paranoid, and had been accusing her nurses of trying to poison her with sleeping pills and scald her when she took a bath. Now, she claimed that the officials she dealt with “suppressed and bullied” her—and she began revenging herself on them mercilessly. Mao made her his police chief for stamping out culture nationwide.
由于工程浩大，毛决定一步步来，首先从文化领域人手。这就是为什么大清洗名为“文化大革命”。毛用江青打头阵。毛看中她是个心狠手辣的人，曾对家里人说：“江青这个人很毒，比蝎子还毒。”说着毛伸出小指头勾了一勾，作出蝎子尾巴的样子。
One of her tasks was to draw up a manifesto denouncing every form of culture, on the grounds that they had all been run by officials who were following a “black line opposed to Mao Tse-tung Thought.” Mao told her to do this in collaboration with Lin Biao, the army chief. On the night of 26 November, Mme Mao telephoned Mrs. Lin Biao, who usually took her husband's calls, and acted as his chief assistant. Lin Biao pledged his help for the undertaking.
毛要江青准备一份纲领性的文件，指责文艺界在中共掌权后，被一条“反党反社会主义的黑线”统治。这份文件后来简称为《纪要》。毛需要林彪合作，以军队名义搞《纪要》，表示有枪杆子支持。十一月二十六日，江青打电话给林彪夫人叶群，把毛的意思告诉林彪。林答应全力协助。
Mao and Lin Biao actually rarely met socially, but their collaboration went back nearly four decades—to 1929, when the two struck up an alliance to sabotage Zhu De, whom Lin Biao loathed and Mao was bent on dominating. From then on, a special crony relationship evolved between Mao and Lin. Mao tolerated an extraordinary degree of independence on Lin's part. For example, when Lin was in Russia during the Sino-Japanese War, he had spoken his mind to the Russians about Mao's unwillingness to fight the Japanese and how eager Mao was to turn on Chiang Kai-shek—an act Mao would never have swallowed from anyone else. During the Yenan Terror, Lin again did what no one else was allowed to: he simply removed his wife from detention and refused to let her be interrogated. Under Mao, everyone had to do humiliating “self-criticisms” in public, but not Lin. In return for giving Lin this degree of license, Mao expected him to come through for him in times of need, which Lin always did.
毛跟林的近四十年的搭挡关系，在中共内绝无仅有。毛容忍了林的我行我素。在毛统治下，人人都得公开自掴耳光，美其名曰“自我批评”，但自尊心极强的林彪从来不做这类事。对毛的宽容，林投桃报李，每当毛需要时，总是召之即来，为毛效力。林取代彭德怀任国防部长后，发明了《毛主席语录》，在军队大搞对毛的个人崇拜，使军队在饿死几千万人的大饥荒中，仍然对毛唯命是从。林还在七千人大会上化解了毛的危机。
When Mao was launching the Great Leap Forward in 1958, he promoted Lin to be one of the Party's vice-chairmen, as a counter-weight to his other colleagues. When former defense minister Peng De-huai challenged Mao over the famine in 1959, Lin's staunch backing for Mao ensured that few dared to take Peng's side. Mao then moved Lin in to replace Peng as defense minister. Throughout the famine, Lin propped up Mao's image by promoting the cult of Mao's personality, especially in the army. He invented the Little Red Book, a collection of very short quotations by Mao, as a mechanism of indoctrination. At the Conference of the Seven Thousand in 1962, Lin saved Mao's skin by championing the equivalent of papal infallibility for him. Afterwards, when Mao was laying the ground for his Great Purge, Lin continued to build the army into the bastion of the cult of Mao.
Lin lauded Mao to the skies in public, although he felt no true devotion to Mao, and at home would often make disparaging and even disdainful remarks about him, some of which he entered in his diary. It was out of pure ambition that Lin stood by Mao and boosted him—the ambition to be Mao's No. 2 and successor. He told his wife that he wanted to be “Engels to Marx, Stalin to Lenin, and Chiang Kai-shek to Sun Yat-sen.” With the Great Purge, which had Liu, the president, as its primary target, Lin Biao could expect his advancement.
然而，林彪在家里，经常发些对毛不恭不敬的议论，如说毛“言行不一”，“爱玩权术”。林的公开拥毛、捧毛，为的是自己的野心：要当中国的第二号人物。据叶群笔记，林对她说，他要做“恩[格斯]之于马[克思]，斯[大林]之于列[宁]，蒋[介石]之于孙[中山]”。为此，他要“把大拥，大顺作为总诀”，“要一步一趋，得一人而得天下。”
The man who was about to rise to the top suffered from many phobias and looked like a drug addict. His most extreme phobias were about water and air. His hydrophobia was so acute that he had not taken a bath for years, and would only be wiped with a dry towel. He could not stand the sight of the sea, which kept his contact with the navy to zero. He had a villa by the seaside, but it was located among hills, so that he would not actually see the sea. His residences had numerous wind-sensitive devices hanging from the ceilings. One visitor was told by Mrs. Lin to walk slowly in Lin's presence in case the stir of air when he moved triggered her husband's breeze phobia.
这位未来中国的第二号人物是个怕这怕那、忌东忌西、奄奄如瘾君子的怪人。他怕水怕到多年不洗澡，由工作人员用干毛巾擦身。连山水画他都不敢看，大海就更不必说了。他在北戴河海滨的别墅坐落在山上，四下林石密布，确保看不见海。海军与国防部长因此绝缘。林又怕风，来访者走路，叶群要不时提醒：“慢点走。走快了会带出风，他怕风。”
Lin was a man, as his own wife observed in her diary, “who specialises in hate, in contempt (friendship, children, father and brother—all mean nothing to him), in thinking the worst and basest of people, in selfish calculation … and in scheming and doing other people down.”
林是一个心地不善的人。叶群在笔记里说他是“一个专门仇恨人，轻视(友情、子女、父兄 -- 无意趣)人，把人想得最坏最无情，终日计算利害，专好推过于人们，勾心斗角互相倾轧的人”。
The man Lin particularly hated as of 1965 was the army chief of staff, Luo Rui-qing, one of Mao's long-time favorites, whom Mao fondly called Luo the Tall. Mao often routed his orders to the army via Luo the Tall, even orders to Lin himself, which was partly the result of Lin often being out of action nursing his phobias. Luo the Tall was super-energetic as well as able—and had incomparable access to Mao. He had been Mao's top security man for years, and Mao had enormous confidence in him. “As soon as Luo the Tall steps closer, I feel very safe,” Mao said. These were words not spoken lightly.
林的死敌是总参谋长罗瑞卿，毛最宠信的人。罗精力充沛，能力过人，毛诸事都通过他。因为林总是处在养病之中，毛给军队下的命令，也常常交给罗办。罗多年负责保卫毛的安全，毛对他完全信任，亲切地叫他“罗长子”，说：“罗长子在我身边，天塌下来，有他顶着。”“罗长子往我身边一站，我就感到十分放心。”这样的话毛是不轻易说的。
Lin felt overshadowed, and had been plotting to get rid of the chief of staff for some time. When he received Mme Mao's call in November 1965, which signaled that Mao needed him for a major task, Lin Biao seized his chance. Four days later, he dispatched his wife to see Mao in Hangzhou (the Lins were staying nearby in the garden city of Suzhou), with a letter in his own hand, enclosing some extremely flimsy charges against Luo the Tall. Lin was asking Mao to sacrifice a highly valued retainer.
林彪对罗的嫉妒逐渐加深，一九六五年初打主意搞掉罗。十一月，他接到江青的电话，知道毛需要他了，他的机会到了。三十日，他派妻子到杭州见毛。当时他住在离杭州不远的苏州。叶群带去林彪一封亲笔信，还有十一份“揭发”罗瑞卿的材料。这是林正式要求毛为他牺牲罗。
Mao had Lin Biao himself brought to Hangzhou, and on the night of 1 December the two men had an ultra-secret talk. Mao told Lin about his plans for the Great Purge, and promised to make Lin his No. 2 and successor. He told Lin he must make sure the army was fully under control—and be ready to assume a completely new role: to step in and take over the jobs of the huge number of Party officials Mao intended to purge.
十二月一日夜里，毛把林彪接到住处，许诺林取代刘少奇做他的第二号人物。毛还要林在大批清洗共产党干部后，统领军队出面把中国管起来。
Lin insisted that Luo the Tall must be purged as well. The fact that Lin drove such a hard bargain shows that both he and Mao understood his unique value. Without Lin, Mao could not bring off his Purge.
林彪提出要先除掉罗瑞卿：“不解决罗瑞卿的问题，军队可能发生分裂。”林彪跟毛这样讨价还价，表明他很清楚，毛要搞文化大革命，只能依靠他。其他元帅一个也靠不住。
MAO HAD BEEN trying hard, without success, to have one particular period opera condemned. This was called Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, and was based on a traditional story of a mandarin who was punished by the emperor for having spoken up for the peasants. Mao accused it of being a veiled attack on what he (the “emperor”) had done to the purged defense minister Peng De-huai, and ordered it to be denounced, along with Marshal Peng himself. An article to this effect was written with Mao's sponsorship, and published in Shanghai on 10 November 1965.
这时，毛搞文革刚起步，就已经遇到强大的抵制。毛要公开批判新编历史剧《海瑞罢官》，这出戏讲的是明朝大臣海瑞为民请命，被皇帝罢官的故事。毛说皇帝是影射他，海瑞指的是彭德怀。可是中共管文艺的一直不肯批判这出戏。最后，在毛安排下，江青找上海善打棍子的评论家姚文元写了篇批判文章，十一月十日在上海发表。
To Mao's fury, the article was not carried anywhere else in China. Province after province, even the capital, Peking, ignored it. They were able to do this because the culture overlord at the time, Peng Zhen (no relative of Peng De-huai), blocked it from being reprinted. Peng Zhen was a loyal long-time follower, trusted enough to hold the vital strategic job of mayor of the capital, and few men were closer to Mao. But while his allegiance does not seem to have been in question, Mayor Peng, who had been made national overseer of culture in 1964, was strongly averse to Mao's demands to annihilate culture. And being at the heart of things, he realized that this time Mao intended to use the field of culture to start a purge that would engulf the whole Party.
《海瑞罢官》的作者是北京市副市长吴晗。中共领导们当然明白，这篇批判文章有来头，没有毛点头决不可能出现。但是《人民日报》拒不转载。江青在上海的联系人张春桥说：“我们天天等北京消息，天天看，天天盼，北京就是不理睬。”全国大多数省的报纸也不转载。人们厌烦整天批这批那，在没有毛明确指示的情况下，用装糊涂的办法抵制这篇文章。
Mayor Peng cared about the Party. He was also gutsy. He even complained to foreigners about Mao, something quite amazing among the tight-lipped CCP leadership. When a Japanese Communist asked him about the Hai Rui opera, Mayor Peng replied that: “It is not a political issue, but a historical play. Chairman Mao says it is a political issue. How troublesome!” This was unbelievably outspoken language for someone in the inner circle to use to an outsider.
北京、全国敢于这样做，是因为负责文化事务的彭真给他们撑腰。彭真在上海与毛力辩，说《海瑞罢官》跟彭德怀没有关系，不是影射毛。彭真是毛长期忠实的追随者，毛信赖他，让他管北京，也管中共日常事务。由于他所处的地位，彭真能感到毛这次要整的，决不只是一个吴晗，恐怕要祸及全党。彭真忠于他的党，不希望这个党被毁掉。
彭真又是个不怕事的人。当时日本共产党人问他关于《海瑞罢官》的事，彭真答道：“这本来不是个政治问题，是个历史剧。可是毛主席说它是政治问题，真麻烦！” 在外国人面前抱怨毛，这简直是不可思议。
With Mayor Peng taking the responsibility for blocking the Mao-sponsored article, even the People's Daily refused to reprint it. The editor, one Wu Leng-xi, knew that he was crossing Mao, as an eyewitness at a small meeting with him and Mao saw. Mao asked smokers to hold up cigarettes, and then said: “It seems on this point too I am in the minority.” “At that remark,” the witness recalled, “I saw Wu Leng-xi … turn chalky white, stop taking notes and go rigid. Something about what Mao had just said had frightened [him].”
《人民日报》总编辑吴冷西明白他是在抗拒毛。在一次聚会上，毛要吸烟的把烟举起来，然后说：“看来在这个问题上我也是少数。”在场的美国人李敦白注意到：“这句话说了以后，我看见吴冷西脸色变得惨白，身体一硬，停止了做笔记。毛刚才说的话中有什么东西吓坏了他。”
And yet the editor held out for a week more, until Chou En-lai stepped in and ordered him to run the article, citing instructions from Mao. But the editor still managed to half-bury the article way back on page 5, in a section called “Academic Discussions,” which meant that it was not a Party order to start a persecution campaign. The editor ended up in prison. To his successor Mao said menacingly: “Wu Leng-xi disobeyed me. And I wonder how you would behave.” The successor was so panic-stricken that he could not stammer out what he wanted to say: “I will definitely obey Chairman Mao.”
吴又拖了一个星期，直到周恩来通知他，这是毛的指示，吴才于十一月三十日转载了姚文。但他把文章登在第五版“学术讨论”专栏，以示这不是党在号召开展整人的政治运动。吴不久便铍铛入狱。毛对他的继任者唐平铸说：“吴冷西不听话，不知你唐平铸听不听话？”唐紧张得要死，连“一定听毛主席的话”也忘了说。
The fact that an article so overtly sponsored by Mao was treated in this way showed the degree of resistance he was facing from very powerful forces in the Party. Mao needed a system to carry out his will, and that made Lin Biao's instant help essential. Lin knew it, and he knew what he wanted in return: Chief of Staff Luo must suffer. So Mao conceded, even though Luo the Tall had been ultra-loyal, and Mao needed such men more than ever at this of all times. But Lin was the man he could not do without: there was no one with comparable clout who would do Mao's bidding. Luo the Tall was able and loyal, but he was not a marshal, and did not have long-established prestige in the army, and so he was sacrificed.
一篇按毛的意思写的文章，要发表出来如此艰难，可见中共这部贯彻毛命令的机器，已不再按毛的意图运转。毛亟需林彪出场相助。就是在十一月三十日这一天，林彪派叶群去见毛，提出要整罗瑞卿。第二天毛、林会面后，毛忍痛割爱，答应了林彪。
On 8 December, Mrs. Lin Biao addressed a Politburo meeting chaired by Mao, and spoke for a full ten hours about the alleged crimes of Luo the Tall, accusing him of having “bottomless” ambitions, starting with coveting Lin's job as defense minister. For Lin's wife to play such a role at a Politburo meeting was unheard-of, as she was neither a Politburo member nor even a high official, and wives of the top leaders had till now been kept very much in the background.
十二月八日，毛突然召开政治局会议，叶群讲了十个小时的话，说罗是“野心家”， 要林彪“把国防部长的位置让给他”， 野心大得像个“无底洞”。叶群不是政治局委员，连老资格的高干也不是，如此以夫人身分，在政治局会议上大讲特讲，实在是破了共产党的规矩。
Luo the Tall was not present at the meeting. When he learned about his downfall, his legs turned to jelly. This powerfully built man was unable to walk upstairs. He was put under house arrest.
罗瑞卿没有出席此会，几天后他接到大祸临头的通知。这个身材高大、生龙活虎的人，腿一下子软到没力气走上楼梯。
For his family, a nightmare began. One day very soon after this, his daughter, who attended a boarding school and had not heard the news about her father, was cycling home across Beihai Bridge opposite Zhongnanhai. The arch was flanked by elegant carved white marble balustrades. Through the dense dust borne by the cold wind from Siberia, she noticed three boys riding after her, close friends whose parents were also friends with hers. As they passed by her, they turned round and fixed her with a look of such coldness and disdain that it nearly knocked her off her bicycle. They knew something which she did not—that her father was now an enemy. That look, chilling, cruel, intended to hurt and break, from people whom only yesterday one had assumed to be friends, was to become a hallmark of the forthcoming years.
But Lin Biao was still not satisfied with the level of pain inflicted on Luo the Tall. He asked Mao to have Luo condemned for the equivalent of high treason: “wanting to usurp the Party and state.” Mao was reluctant to allow this, as to do so would mean casting his old stalwart away irrevocably. So, for a few months, Luo the Tall was not charged with treason.
罗被软禁起来。但林彪还是不满意，他要置罗于死地，要毛给罗定“篡党篡军” 的大罪。毛没有满足林的愿望，说罗“还没有反对我”。
Lin therefore held back about helping Mao. When Mme Mao came to see him on 21 January 1966 about writing the planned “manifesto” against the arts in the name of the army, he made a show of willingness, and assigned a few writers from the army, but behind her back he told them: “Jiang Qing is sick … and paranoid … Just listen to what she says and say as little as you can … Don't make any criticisms about how the arts are run …” As a result, when their draft was submitted to Mme Mao in February, she called it “totally useless.”
于是林对毛来了个按兵不动。一九六六年一月二十一日，江青来找林，商量写那份《纪要》。林表面上答应，可背后通过总政治部主任萧华对为江青组织的写作班子交代：“江青同志是个病人……疑心重，脾气大，对她讲话，要多听少说”，“对地方文艺工作情况，不要随便表态。”结果二月份写出来的稿子被江青认为“根本不行”。
MEANWHILE, MAO WAS getting desperate. That same February, with the backing of Liu Shao-chi, Mayor Peng issued a national “guideline” forbidding the use of political accusations to trample on culture and the custodians of culture. Moreover, he went further, and actually suppressed Mao's instructions aimed at starting a persecution campaign. The obstruction from the Party was being highly effective.
在毛林僵持期间，国内外发生了一系列事情。二月，刘少奇支持彭真，向全国发出“二月提纲”， 中心是不要用政治罪名整文化人。彭真还把毛特别强调的“《海瑞罢官》的要害是罢官，是为一九五九年被我们罢了官的彭德怀张目的，彭德怀也自称是海瑞”这一段话，在形成文件时删去了，没有往下传达。毛看到这份文件时，勃然大怒，觉得自己被架空了。
Nor was this all. As soon as he issued the guideline, Mayor Peng flew to Sichuan, ostensibly to inspect arms industries relocated in this mountainous province. There he did something truly astonishing. He had a secret tête-à-tête with Marshal Peng who had been banished there the previous November when Mao began clearing the decks for the Great Purge. What the two Pengs talked about has never been revealed, but judging from the timing, and the colossal risk Mayor Peng took in visiting a major foe of Mao's, without permission, in secret, it is highly likely that they discussed the feasibility of using the army to stop Mao.
“二月提纲”发出后，彭真飞到四川，说是去视察三线工程。到省会成都的当天夜里，他却干了一件惊人的事：秘密去见两个月前被毛泽东遣送到这里的彭德怀。二彭到底谈了些什么已无从知晓，但瞒着毛来见彭德怀，又只有他们两人在场，他们很可能谈到能否动用军队制止毛 --“兵谏”。虽然彭德怀处在软禁之中，没有权力，但他在军队里仍享有极高的声誉，有一批对他依然忠心耿耿的老部下。他软禁在北京时，好几个人曾冒着风险偷偷去看他，还有一位公安部副部长。
Although Marshal Peng was under virtual house arrest and was powerless, he still commanded great respect and loyalty in the army, especially among his old subordinates. While he was under house arrest in Peking, a few of them, including one man high up in Mao's security apparatus, had risked a lot to see him.
News of the clandestine visit by Mayor Peng to the marshal may not have reached Mao's ears, but he certainly suspected Mayor Peng was up to something in Sichuan, and his suspicions deepened when Marshal Ho Lung, the man to whom Soviet defense minister Malinovsky had said “Get rid of Mao,” soon also went to Sichuan, also in the name of inspecting the arms industries. Mao suspected a conspiracy was being cooked up down there, and soon accused his opponents of hatching a plot, dubbed “the February military coup.”* Mao's state of mind was shown by the dosage of sleeping pills he was now taking, which rose to ten times his normal, to a level that could kill an average man.
彭真刚离开四川，贺龙又去了，也说是视察三线。苏联国防部长马利诺夫斯基曾要这位元帅搞掉毛。毛疑心他们到四川去商量发动政变，后来指控他们搞“二月兵变”。*
* 毛的疑心决定了四川负责人李井泉的命运。李本来是毛喜欢的人，毛把彭德怀弄到四川就是让李把彭管起来。文革中，李受到监禁，妻子也因绝望而自杀。
这段时间，毛吃的安眠药量，据他身边人说，足以杀死一个正常的人。就是醒着的时候，他也要服大量的镇静剂。
And there was more that was gnawing at Mao's mind. It seems that Mayor Peng was contemplating getting in touch with the Russians, and may have thought of seeking Russian help to avert Mao's Purge. The Kremlin had invited the CCP to attend the next Soviet Party congress (the 23rd) in April 1966. Mao's colleagues knew that ever since Malinovsky's remarks in November 1964, Mao did not want any of them to go to Russia, in case they colluded with the Kremlin against him, and so they had recommended declining the invitation.
一波未平，一波又起，彭真似乎还想跟苏联取得联系。克里姆林宫邀请中共派代表团出席即将召开的苏共“二十三大”。自从马利诺夫斯基事件以来，毛不要任何领导人去苏联。
But in early March 1966, after his secret meeting with Marshal Peng in Sichuan, Mayor Peng revised this position, with the agreement of President Liu Shao-chi, and suggested to Mao that the Party should consider accepting the invitation. This was an extraordinary shift, and undoubtedly deepened Mao's suspicions. Mayor Peng was soon accused of trying to “liaise with a foreign country” and “attempt a coup.” Mao's anxiety can hardly have been assuaged when the new Soviet ambassador, Sergei Lapin, with whom President Liu had earlier had an unusually frank talk, contrived an unscripted encounter with Liu on the tarmac at Peking airport on 24 February 1966 as they were awaiting the arrival of Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah (who had been overthrown in a coup that same day). Lapin said he had an invitation for the Chinese to the Soviet congress. “Give me the document,” Liu replied. Lapin said it was at the embassy; but all subsequent efforts to get it to Liu failed.
三月初讨论这个问题时，大家都说不接受苏联邀请。几天后，彭真却要刘少奇再开一次会复议，在会上他力主派人赴苏，说：上次会议讨论时认为不宜参加，现在可考虑从另一角度看，可以参加。刘少奇审慎地说：上次会议已有定论，并且已报告毛主席：现在从另一角度来考虑，议一下是可以的。会后，刘同意了彭真的建议。彭真接着几次打电话给秘书班子，要他们起草报告给毛。没人敢起草，最后彭真自己写了一份报告。也许，彭真是想借用苏联的力量来制止毛。毛收到报告后不久，就指控彭真企图“搞政变”，“里通外国”。
Mao was already suspicious that there might be a vast conspiracy between his colleagues and Moscow against him. The previous November, in the opening stage of the Purge, one of his first moves had been to fire the man who handled the leadership's communications with Moscow, the Russian-speaking director of the Central Secretaries' Office, Yang Shang-kun, and exile him to Canton, in the far south. Later, Yang was grilled intensely in prison about contacts with Moscow, as were the leadership's Russian-language interpreters.
毛泽东早就在怀疑他的同事们想伙同苏联搞掉他。上年十一月，当他发动文化大革命时，他首先采取的步骤之一，是解除熟悉俄语的中央办公厅主任杨尚昆的职务，把杨调到千里之外的广东去。作为中办主任，杨的职责包括负责中共同莫斯科的联系。后来，杨被关進监狱，要他交代他和其他中共领导人同莫斯科的关系。同样身陷囹圄受到反复审讯的，还有中共高层的俄语翻译们。
There was one thing in Yang's past that especially roused Mao's suspicion. Yang's office had tape-recorded Mao. Mao did not want any record kept of what he said and did, unless it was carefully sanitized. In the old days, he would light a match to telegrams once they were sent. After he came to power, he would constantly ask his listeners not to take notes. But this caused insoluble problems, as Mao's words were commands, and the absence of written records made it hard for subordinates to know what he had really said and thus, at times, to carry out his orders. So he had to allow some of what he said to be noted down or taped. With Mao's approval, Yang's office began installing recording systems in the late 1950s. But a couple of years later, the tape operator unwisely teased a girlfriend of Mao's about overhearing her with Mao on his train. “I heard everything,” he claimed, though in fact he had not. The girlfriend told Mao, who instantly ordered the systems dismantled and the tapes destroyed.* All Mao's houses and cars were combed for bugs. Although none was found, Mao was not convinced. He suspected the taping was part of a plot linked with President Liu and the Russians. All those involved would in time be interrogated, quite a few meeting gruesome deaths.
毛还怀疑杨尚昆对他搞窃听。毛对他讲话的记录一向敏感，不喜欢存档，上台前，他给苏联人发了电报后常常划根火柴把底稿烧掉。掌权后，他经常叫听他讲话的人不要记笔记。但毛的话是“最高指示”，没有白纸黑字，下面的人怎么去贯彻执行？毛不得不允许笔记或录音，中央办公厅在五十年代后期开始安装录音设备。有次录音员不小心跟毛的女友开玩笑，说毛跟她在专列上的事，他“都听到了”。毛的女友大惊，报告了毛。毛当即下令拆除所有录音设备，销毁所有录音带。负责处理录音带的官员告诉我们，他认为这些宝贵的历史资料被抹掉太可惜，就大胆作主把录音内容先抄下来再抹，后来干脆不抹了，都保存了下来。他胆敢这样做，后台是彭真。彭真对他说：“看着办，能留就留，我去跟主席说，就说都毁了。”
毛的住处、开会的地方、乘坐的汽车全都都检查了，没有发现窃听器，但毛心里始终不踏实，被卷入录音事件的人后来都受到审问，有的被整死。毛怀疑录音是个大阴谋，跟苏联人有关系。
In March 1966, all the strands of Mao's suspicions meshed together. In January Brezhnev had visited Mongolia—the first Soviet leader ever to do so—and had been joined there by none other than defense minister Malinovsky, the man who had put out the feeler about ditching Mao. Brezhnev had never had dealings with Mao, but knew Liu Shao-chi, having been Liu's host when he visited Russia for a summit of the world Communist parties in 1960. Brezhnev, then No. 2 to Khrushchev, had spent more than a week with Liu traveling in Russia and to the Soviet Far East on the Trans-Siberian train, and the two had got on well. Now Brezhnev signed a military treaty with Mongolian chief Yumjaagiyn Tsedenbal. Russian units were moved into Mongolia and stationed only about 500 km from Peking, across open country, accompanied by ground-to-ground missiles, apparently armed with nuclear warheads. Tsedenbal, who had been on the receiving end of Mao's plots to overthrow him earlier in the 1960s, volunteered to carry the fight against “the Mao clique” into China itself.
苏联人此时的举动也令毛惶恐不安。一九六六年一月，苏联最高领导人有史以来第一次访问外蒙古。勃列日涅夫之后，国防部长马利诺夫斯基也去了。苏蒙签订协定，苏军开進外蒙古，在中国边境摆开重兵，苏联坦克离北京只有五百公里，而且一马平川。外蒙古领导人泽登巴尔(Yumjaagiyn Tsedenbal)因毛在前些年曾企图推翻他而格外敌视毛。他积极与苏联配合，声称要在中国开展“反对毛泽东集团的斗争”。勃列日涅夫同毛没打过交道，却在几年前刘少奇访苏时陪刘到处参观，一块坐横跨西伯利亚的火车旅行，两人相处融洽。如果刘少奇、彭真与苏联内外呼应，毛的命运的确有倒悬之危。
This was a real crisis for Mao, and he needed forceful support from Lin Biao—at once. He consented to Lin's demand to have Chief of Staff Luo condemned for “treason.” On 18 March, Luo threw himself off the roof of his house, in a failed attempt to kill himself. This was regarded, as always, as “betraying” the Party, and qualified him for the nastiest punishment. Later, he was subjected to mass denunciation meetings, and as he had broken both ankles when he jumped off the roof, he would be dragged up onto the stage in a big basket, his crippled feet dangling over the rim, oozing blood.
就是在这些背景下，毛同意了林彪的要价，让罗瑞卿问题“升级”。三月，突然召开批罗会议，气氛骤变，人们挨个发言谴责罗为“野心家”、“阴谋家”、“定时炸弹”。三月十八日，罗跳楼自杀。他没有死，但双脚粉碎性骨折。自杀成了新的罪名，使他遭到更加残酷的对待。后来开批斗会时，他无法走路，批斗者就用箩筐把他连拖带拉地弄上台，残肢搭拉在筐外。
The day after Luo's suicide attempt, Mme Mao wrote to Lin Biao asking him to endorse her “kill culture” manifesto, which Mao himself had meantime revised, writing Lin's name into the heading (“Comrade Lin Biao Has Authorized Comrade Jiang Qing to …”) so as to highlight Lin's backing. Lin endorsed it at once in writing, and before the end of the month he had presented a formal demand to the Party, in the name of the army, for a comprehensive purge.
罗瑞卿跳楼的第二天，江青给林彪写信。林该帮毛干事了。江青要求林表态支持她重新写过的《纪要》。毛对《纪要》做了十一处修改，把标题从“江青同志召集的部队文艺工作座谈会纪要”， 亲笔改为：“林彪同志委托江青同志召集--”以点明林彪的支持。林彪表态全力支持毛的文革，以自己和军队的名义要求“彻底搞掉”“文艺黑线”，“把这一场革命進行到底”。
THIS MOVE BY Lin propelled another crucial man into affirming his stand. This was Chou En-lai, who had so far managed to maintain an ambivalent position. Chou now told Mayor Peng that he, Chou, was with Mao. It was with Chou on board that the unbeatable trio of Mao, Marshal Lin and Chou was complete, thus dooming any hope of resistance.
林彪的立场带动了周恩来。迄今为止，周的态度模棱两可。现在他明确告诉彭真，他要“和毛主席保持一致”。毛、林、周三位一体，毛胜券在握。
On 14 April 1966, Mme Mao's “kill culture” manifesto was made public. A month later, the Politburo met to rubber-stamp the first list of victims of the Great Purge, four big names described as an “anti-Party clique”: Mayor Peng, Chief of Staff Luo, Yang Shang-kun, the liaison with Russia and the tape-recording suspect, and old media chief Lu Ding-yi. Mao did not bother to come to the occasion, and just ordered it to pass a document he had had prepared condemning the four. A fatalistic atmosphere dominated the gathering, which included two of the four-man “clique” and was actually chaired by Liu Shao-chi, who knew he was chairing an event that was ultimately going to bring him to ruin, even though for now he was not named. For once, his steely Communist training failed him. With unwontedly visible anger, he made a protest aimed at Mao: “we are ordered to discuss this document, but no revision is allowed … Is this not dictatorial?” He then asked Mayor Peng, who was condemned by name in the document, whether he had “any complaints.” The mayor, who had acted so bravely up to now, answered: “No complaints.” Liu gave him another chance to say something by asking: “Are you for it or against it?” The mayor hung his head and was silent. Liu then asked all in favor to raise their hands. All did, including Mayor Peng and Liu himself.
四月十四日，《纪要》发到全国。一个月后，政治局开扩大会，宣布北京市长彭真、总参谋长罗瑞卿、中央办公厅主任杨尚昆、中央宣传部长陆定一为“反党集团”。毛没到会，只传令会议通过他事先准备好的打倒这四个人的《通知》。四人中有两人到会，他们跟在座的其他人一样不知所措，只能听天由命。刘少奇主持会议，尽管刘清楚毛的目标最终是自己。刘平常不动声色，这次他难以自制。当得知《通知》稿一个字也不能改，一个标点符号也不能动时，他激动地说：“开政治局扩大会议叫大家讨论，提了意见不改，连几个字都不改，这不是独断专行吗？”他接着问彭真：“对通知有什么意见？”彭真无可奈何地答道：“没有意见。”刘少奇显然希望他勇敢地站出来说点什么，再追问一句：“是赞成，还是反对？”彭真垂下头，默默无言。刘只好叫同意《通知》的举手。人人都举了手，包括彭真，包括刘少奇本人。这就是后来称为文革宣言的《五·一六通知》。“反党集团”不久便被投入监狱。
The members of the “clique” were soon hauled off and incarcerated. Mao's cynicism about his case is revealed in a conversation he had the following month with Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh. Mao claimed the four men “are with the Nationalists.” When Ho queried this absurd assertion, Mao replied, without batting an eyelid: “We still do not have firm evidence, but just a suspicion of sorts.”
毛向随后到访的北越领袖胡志明说这四个人“是国民党的人”。胡志明问他这怎么可能，毛的回答是：“我们还没有确凿的证据，只是怀疑。”
At this May Politburo gathering it was Lin Biao who acted as Mao's intimidator. Raising his clenched fist, he surveyed the audience threateningly, and announced that anyone opposing Mao must be “put to death … the whole country must call for their blood.” His speech was larded with coarse personal abuse, with foes referred to simply as “sons of bitches.”
林彪在这次会议上把毛要清洗的人骂为“王八蛋”。他宣布谁要是反对毛，就要“全党共诛之，全国共讨之”。这句杀气腾腾的话，他一连说了两遍，说时还像宣誓一样，举起右臂，握紧拳头，目光带着威胁扫视全场。
Most unusually, in the speech Lin spoke explicitly about the possibility of a coup d'état, a subject which was normally taboo. Mao had him talk in this way in order to knock any lingering dreams of a palace coup on the head. Mao had been making preparations against a coup for years, Lin disclosed, and particularly “in recent months,” when Mao had “paid special attention to the adoption of many measures toward preventing a … coup.” Mao had “deployed troops and key personnel … and made arrangements in critical departments like radio stations, the army and the police. This is what Chairman Mao has been doing in the past few months …” He also divulged that Mao had taken the possibility of a coup so seriously that he (Mao) had “lost sleep for many days.”
林的讲话里直言不讳大谈“政变”，这在讲究意识形态的共产党世界是件稀罕事。林说：“最大的问题，是防止反革命政变，防止颠覆，防止“苦跌打”。”林警告在座的，毛预防政变已经好几年了，尤其是“最近几个月”，他“调兵遣将，防止反革命政变，防止他们占领我们的要害部门、电台、广播电台。军队和公安系统都做了布置。毛主席这几个月就是做这个文章。”他还透露：“毛主席为了这件事，多少天没有睡好觉。”
Mao had indeed been making arrangements to forestall a coup. Army units officered by Lin men had been moved into the capital. “We transferred two more garrison divisions [into Peking],” Mao told Albania's defense minister. “Now in Peking we have three infantry divisions and one mechanised division, altogether four divisions. It is only because of these that you can go anywhere, and we can go anywhere.” The Praetorian Guard was drastically purged, including three deputy chiefs, one dying a terrible death, two barely surviving. The only person left unscathed was its chief, Mao's trusted chamberlain Wang Dong-xing. Likewise, in the only other organization with access to weapons, the police, chiefs of both the ministry and its Peking bureau were arrested, because they had had ties to President Liu in the past. Another victim of Mao's precautions was the ethnic Mongolian chief of Inner Mongolia, Ulanhu. This province occupied a vital position bordering on Russia's satellite Mongolia. Ulanhu was detained that fateful May.
毛的确做了许多准备。他对阿尔巴尼亚的国防部长说：“我们增加了两个卫戍师。现在北京有三个陆军师、一个机械化师，一共有四个师。所以，你们才能到处走，我们也才能到处走。”中央警卫局遭到清洗，一个副局长被整死，两个侥幸活了下来，唯一剩下没挨整的是毛的大总管汪东兴。同样彻底换班的是公安部门。公安部的副部长们(部长是毛信得过的谢富治)，北京市公安局的局长，都被抓起来，原因是他们在历史上同刘少奇有关系。内蒙古自治区负责人、蒙古族的乌兰夫也成了阶下囚。苏联在外蒙古陈兵百万，毛怕边境这边有内应。
WHILE SHORING UP Mao, Lin Biao also attended to some personal business. Apart from Chief of Staff Luo, there was another member of the four-man “clique” he hated: media chief Lu Ding-yi, and for a rather unusual reason. Lu Ding-yi's wife was a schizophrenic who was fixated on Mrs. Lin, and had written the Lins over fifty scabrous anonymous letters claiming that Mrs. Lin had had a string of affairs, including one with Wang Shi-wei, the dissident leader of the young volunteers in Yenan, and that Lin might not be the father of their children. Some of the letters were addressed to the Lins' children, with lewd descriptions of their mother's alleged sex life, some signed with the name of Dumas' avenger, “Monte Cristo.” Instead of receiving mental treatment, which was what she clearly needed, Mrs. Lu was arrested on 28 April 1966, and went through hell for the next twelve years.
林彪一边为毛护驾，一边处理了点个人的事情。四人“反党集团”里，除罗瑞卿以外，他还憎恨另一个人：中宣部长陆定一。陆的夫人严慰冰几年内往林家写了五十多封匿名信，骂叶群性生活乱，是延安着名“托派”王实味的情妇，说林的孩子不是林的。有的信寄给林的孩子们，描写叶群如何做爱。信上署名有时用大仲马(Alexandre Dumas Pere)《基度山恩仇记》(The Count of Monte Cristo)中的“基度山”。严慰冰其实是个精神病患者，本来该送医院，却被林彪送進了监牢，在那里度过了九死一生的十二年。
At one session of the May Politburo gathering, Lin had a document placed in front of the participants. It read:
在大谈“政变”的政治局会议上，林彪把一张纸放在每个出席者的面前。瞠目结舌的高官们看到：
I solemnly declare:
我证明：
1. Ye Qun [Mrs. Lin] was a pure virgin when she married me. Since then, she has always been proper;
一、叶群在与我结婚时是纯洁的处女，婚后一贯正派；
2. Ye Qun had no love relationship whatsoever with Wang Shi-wei;
二、叶群与王实味根本没有恋爱过；
3. Tiger and Dodo are blood son and daughter of mine with Ye Qun;
三、老虎、豆豆是我和叶群的亲生子女；
4. Everything written in the counter-revolutionary letters by [Mrs. Lu] is rubbish.
四、严慰冰的反革命信，所谈一切全系造谣。
Lin Biao
林彪
14 May 1966.
一九六六年五月十四日
It was the first time such a colorful text had ever come before the Politburo.
一本正经的政治局里，还从来没有遇到过如此教人尴尬的场面。
Although this behavior seems ludicrous, it had a practical aim. Lin was clearing his wife's name, as she was now to be a fixture on the political scene, acting as his representative. He himself disliked attending meetings, or seeing people.
林彪的行为看起来荒唐，其实有很实际的目的。他就要在中国政治舞台上叱吒风云了，然而他最不喜欢开会、见人，得靠妻子替他办事。叶群的名誉不洗干净不行。林彪是在为叶群“正名”。
Mrs. Lin was a rather batty woman, a bundle of energy who received little love from the marshal and lived in a state of unremitting sexual frustration. She grew to be erratic, and managed to drive her own daughter, Dodo, to attempt suicide more than once, the first time in 1964. Like Mme Mao, who was also hysterical from frustration, Mrs. Lin now sought compensation and fulfillment in political scheming and persecution, although she was less awful than Mme Mao. She acted as her husband's assistant, and issued orders on his behalf.
充满活力的叶群性欲旺盛，但从林彪那里她既得不到性满足，又得不到爱情。林彪对她冷冰冰的，让她觉得像“小媳妇受气”，“如同伴着僵尸”。她对林彪还不得不装出一副顺从温情的样子。生理上寂寞难耐，精神上充满痛苦，她性情变得乖僻反常，毒打女儿林豆豆，逼得豆豆两次自杀未遂。在长期压抑的环境里，叶群跟江青一样变得歇斯底里，如今要从搞政治阴谋和政治迫害中寻找释放 -- 尽管她整人不像江青那样恶毒。她的主要作用是做林彪的助手。
Mao's Great Purge was rolling thanks to a horse-trade with his crony Lin Biao.
毛泽东同林彪的讨价还价完成了，文化大革命的浩劫降临了。
*This suspicion sealed the fate of Sichuan chief Li Jing-quan, who was supposed to be Peng De-huai's minder. Li, who had been one of Mao's favorites, suffered greatly in the years ahead, and his wife committed suicide.
*Although most were kept, and the man in charge told us that he privately saw to it that the ones destroyed were first transcribed. This was accomplished with the approval of his superior, who, it so happened, was Mayor Peng Zhen, who said: “I'll just tell the Chairman they are all destroyed.”