57 ENFEEBLED MAO HEDGES HIS BETS
57 邓小平迫毛让步
(1973–76 AGE 79–82)
1973～1976 年 79～82 岁
IN THE LAST two years of Mao's life a formidable “opposition” to his policies emerged, in the shape of an alliance that centered on Deng Xiao-ping, the man who later dismantled much of Mao's legacy after Mao died. Mao had purged Deng in 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, but brought him back to the top in 1973.
毛泽东生命的最后两年中，中共领导中出现了一个强有力的“反对派”，核心人物是邓小平。他在毛死后实行改革开放，改变了中国的航向。
Born in Sichuan in 1904, and thus eleven years Mao's junior, Deng went to France in 1920 on a work-and-study program at the age of sixteen, and there became a Communist, working under Chou En-lai. Five years in France left him with a lifelong fondness for many things French: wine, cheese, croissants, coffee and cafés—all, it would seem, to do with food. Late in life, he would often compare French cafés nostalgically with the teahouses in his home province of Sichuan, reminiscing about a little café he had frequented in the Place d'Italie in Paris.
邓是四川人，比毛小十一岁。一九二0年十六岁时，他飘洋渡海去法国动工俭学，在那里成为共产党人，受周恩来领导。法国的五年使他爱上了牛角面包、葡萄酒、奶酪等法国食品。若干年后，他还多次把巴黎咖啡馆跟家乡四川的茶馆相提并论，特别提起意大利广场旁边的一个小咖啡馆，他常去那里喝咖啡。
His fellow Chinese in France remembered Deng, who was just over 5 feet tall, as a plump ball of energy, full of jokes. Since then, decades of life in the Party had caused him to metamorphose into a man of deep reserve and few words. One advantage of this reticence was that he kept meetings brief. The first session of the committee in charge of southwest China after the Communist takeover lasted a mere nine minutes, in contrast with those under the long-winded Chou En-lai, who once talked for nine hours. Deng was decisive, with the ability to cut straight through complicated matters, which he sometimes did while playing bridge, for which he developed a passion.
同在法国的中国人形容他是个“四川小孩子，矮矮的，胖胖的……总是跳跳蹦蹦，走到这一角同人说笑话，又走到那一角同人开玩笑。”数十年的共产党生涯把他演变为喜怒哀乐不形于色的寡言的人。寡言的一个好处是他喜欢开短会，中共夺取大陆后他负责大西南，开的第一次军政委员会全体会议只花了九分钟，与一次开会讲了九个钟头话的周恩来迥然相异。有人说，周的风格是举轻若重，邓是举重若轻。邓处事果断，不少复杂的政务是在桥牌桌上解决的。
Deng had joined the Communists in France, but his grounding was in Russia, where he spent a year after being kicked out of France, and where he received Party training. When the Long March started in 1934, he was already chief secretary of the Party leadership, and he was a top army commander during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45. In the civil war after 1945 he became chief of the half of the Communist army which won the decisive Huai–Hai Campaign that clinched the Red victory and then took much of China south of the Yangtze. Afterwards, he was in charge of several provinces, including his native Sichuan, before Mao promoted him to the core leadership in Peking in the early 1950s.
从法国邓被驱逐出境，到了苏联。长征时，他是中央秘书长；抗战中，他是八路军最高指挥之一；国共内战期间，他前后任淮海战役和渡江战役总前委书记，管辖两个野战军。这两个战役开始前，毛泽东对他简短而信任地说：“交给你指挥了。” 从五十年代中期起，他是中共的“总书记”。
He was deeply loyal to Mao, and during the suppression of intellectuals in the anti-Rightist campaign in 1957–58 he was Mao's chief lieutenant. But he had a breaking-point, and supported Liu Shao-chi's efforts to stop the famine in the early 1960s. He tried to keep at arm's length from Mao—a fact that Mao took note of, remarking that Deng was “keeping a respectful distance from me as though I were a devil or a deity.”
对毛的政策，邓卖力地执行。反右运动，他是毛的主要臂膀。但在大跃進时，邓转而反对毛导致大饥荒的政策，支持刘少奇。毛注意到他回避自己，说：“邓小平从来不找我，从五九年到现在，什么事情不找我。”“邓小平耳朵聋，一开会就在我很远的地方坐着。五九年以来六年不向我汇报工作。”邓小平对我敬而远之。”
When Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, he tried all kinds of inducements to keep Deng on board, but failed. Deng was branded “the second-biggest capitalist-roader,” after Liu, and put under house arrest in 1967, and his children and stepmother were evicted from their home. He was subjected to denunciation meetings, though with much less physical abuse than Liu. Mao calibrated the punishment of his foes meticulously. He did not hate Deng the way he hated Liu, so he ordered that Deng “must be denounced … but differentiate him from Liu.” Unlike Liu, Deng was not separated from his wife, which gave him the companionship that often made the difference between life and death.
毛发动文革时，曾一度考虑过要邓做他的左右手。可是邓不赞成毛搞文革，不为所动。毛把他打成“第二号最大的走资派”，软禁在家，孩子和继母被赶出家门。邓被批斗抄家，但不像刘少奇被整得那样惨，他一直有夫人陪伴。毛整人整到什么程度是经过精心安排的，根据他仇恨的程度。毛说：“邓小平要批”，但“要把他同刘少奇区别一下”。毛欣赏邓的能力，留着邓以备不时之需。
But even Mao's “better” treatment was hell. In May 1968, Deng's eldest son and a daughter were taken, blindfolded, to Peking University, and told to “expose” their father. Over sixty other people who had been imprisoned there had committed suicide or been tortured to death. Deng's 24-year-old son, Pu-fang, soon threw himself out of an upstairs window, and was permanently paralyzed from the chest down. Deng and his wife were not told about this until a year later, when they were briefly allowed to see their other children shortly before being exiled from Peking in October 1969. In exile, Deng worked on the factory floor in a tractor plant in Jiangxi province, living under house arrest, with armed guards.
即使是有“区别”也还是灾难。一九六八年五月，邓的大儿子朴方跟一个女儿被用黑布蒙上眼睛，抓到北京大学去，逼他们揭发邓小平。在这所中国着名的最高学府，六十多个遭到监禁的人被拷问致死，或自杀。朴方不堪凌辱而跳楼，造成终身残废，从胸部以下全部失去知觉。邓和妻子一年以后才得到消息。几天几夜，邓的妻子不住地哭，后来对邓的继母说，她觉得活着真是不如死了好。
Mrs. Deng wept for days when she heard about Pu-fang. She later told Deng's stepmother that she almost lost the will to live. Deng was forbidden to see his paralyzed son, and was deeply affected by what happened to his children. Once, after his youngest son, who had turned up starving and in rags, had to leave for his own place of exile, Deng collapsed on the factory floor. In June 1971, when the paralyzed Pu-fang arrived, Deng was visibly shaken. His son had been a buoyant young man. Deng nursed Pu-fang devotedly, helping him to turn every two hours to prevent bedsores, which was no light work (Pu-fang was big), and wiping his body several times a day, as the climate in Jiangxi was hot and humid.
一九六九年十月，邓小平夫妇被放逐到江西，由持枪的警卫监管，每天去拖拉机厂做工。离京前，邓跟瘫痪的朴方一面也没见上。在流放地，有一天，最小的儿子从上山下乡的地方来看父母，面黄肌瘦，穿得破破烂烂。假期结束，儿子不能不在一个小雨天离开。邓心里难受，当天面色苍白、冷汗淋漓地倒在工厂地上。
一九七一年六月，瘫痪的朴方终于获准送来江西，当邓看到他从前活蹦乱跳的儿子残废成什么样子时，他的伤心溢于言表。江西的夏天湿热难耐，怕儿子长褥疮，邓和妻子每天数次帮他翻身，替他擦澡。这是件很劳累的活，因为朴方个子大，小名“胖子”。
The Cultural Revolution years, Deng was to say later, were the most painful time of his life. The pressure crept into his sleep. One night he woke up the whole building, screaming during a nightmare. But those years also helped him rethink the system the CCP had imposed on China. As a result, he turned his back on the essence of Maoism and Stalinism, and after Mao died he changed the course of China. In exile, Deng kept his mouth shut, tried to stay healthy, and waited for a chance to return to the political center.
邓后来说，文化大革命是他一生中最痛苦的日子。一天夜里，他在恶梦中大声喊叫，把全楼都惊醒了，以为出了什么事。痛苦中他進行着反思。结果是，在毛死后，他摒弃了毛搞的那一套，改变了中国。流放中的他默默地锻练身体，等待机会回到政治中心去。
AFTER TWO YEARS, in September 1971, came a ray of hope. Deng's son Pu-fang was an electronic whiz, and had fixed up a radio that could receive short-wave broadcasts. This he did with his parents' acquiescence, even though listening to foreign radio stations was a prison offense (and, moreover, one his father had helped enforce). It was from these foreign broadcasts that the Dengs first surmised that Lin Biao was dead.
机会终于来了：“九·一三”。朴方经常用家里带短波的收音机听外国电台。这在中国当时是要坐牢的，推行这项严酷政策，邓本人也有份儿。可如今他默许儿子“收听敌台”。正是从外国电台广播中，邓一家猜到了林彪出事。
The regime carefully controlled the way it dribbled out information about Lin's death. Deng heard the news officially two months later, when a document was read out to workers in his tractor factory. The document mentioned Lin's “crimes of persecuting veteran comrades.” The official who was chairing the meeting said: “Chairman Mao would never have driven old cadres to death” (i.e., as Lin had done), and turned to Deng: “Old Deng is sitting here, he can vouch for this. Old Deng, wouldn't you say so?” Deng stolidly declined the invitation to advertise Mao's innocence, remaining totally silent, his expression not changing one flicker.
对这一消息，毛政权层层往下传达，邓两个月后同工厂工人一起听到。文件里提到“林彪迫害老干部”。念文件的说：“毛主席对老干部是不会置于死地的。老邓就坐在这里，他可以作证。老邓，你说是不是呀？”邓小平纹丝不动地坐着，面无表情，沉默不语。
When he came home that day, Deng allowed himself to show excitement and condemned Lin explicitly, which for him was really letting rip, as he never talked politics with his family. Two days later, he wrote to Mao for the first time since his downfall five years before, asking for a job. With Mao's major prop gone, he sensed that Mao might have to repeal the Cultural Revolution.
回家关上房门后，他一改往常不同家人谈政治的规矩，和他们一样兴奋激动。两天之后，他提笔给毛写了被打倒以来的第一封信，要求工作。他感到他有可能东山再起，林彪倒了，毛看来不得不否定文革了。
No reply came from Mao. To reinstate the man he had publicly condemned as “the second-biggest capitalist-roader” would be an admission of failure. Even when Chou En-lai was diagnosed with cancer in May 1972, and Mao had no one else but Deng with the caliber to run his vast kingdom, still he would not send for Deng.
没有回信。周恩来第二年五月被诊断出癌症，毛也没有召邓人京。毛尝试在文革既得利益者中培养周的接班人，选择了上海造反派头目王洪文。三十七岁的王原是某纺织厂保卫科干部，他长相英俊，有些号召力，但谈不上有治国的本领。毛派飞机把他接到北京，开始训练他，一年之后，在中共“十大”上，把王提为仅次于周的第三号人物。
Instead, Mao promoted Wang Hong-wen, the former Rebel leader in Shanghai, one of the products of the Cultural Revolution. Wang was a faceless good-looking 37-year-old, who had been a security man in a textile factory before the Purge. He was clever, and, like a lot of Rebel leaders, had a certain flair for inspiring gang allegiance. Mao brought him to Peking and began to train him up, and a year later, in August 1973, made him his No. 3, after Chou.
But the Protégé was not up to filling Chou's shoes, especially when it came to dealing with foreigners. The Australian ambassador, Stephen FitzGerald, who met him with Mao in November 1973, noted that he was extremely jumpy, and did not speak a word during the entire meeting, except at the end. The Australian prime minister, Whitlam, had mentioned the Communist “Nanchang Uprising” of 1927, and had observed that the youngish man could not have been born at the time. When the meeting was over, the Protégé piped up nervously: “Prime Minister, you said that at the time of the Nanchang Uprising I was not born. But I have been making revolution for a long time.” This was his only contribution.
王洪文显然无法替代周。澳大利亚的惠特拉姆总理访华，在毛那里见到王，发现他紧张得不得了，整个会见一个字也没说，只在最后没头没脑地蹦了一句出来。会见时惠特拉姆曾提起一九二七年的“南昌起义”，周恩来感叹说年轻的王那时还没出生。会见完毕，客人准备走了，王突然局促不安地尖声说：“总理，你说南昌起义时我还没出生，可是我也干了很长时间的革命。”
Mao felt he had to have a standby. So, when Chou's cancer worsened, Mao had Deng brought to Peking in February 1973, and made him a vice-premier, mainly to entertain visiting foreign statesmen. Although Deng lacked Chou's polish, and spat constantly during meetings, which unsettled quite a few of his interlocutors, he had stature.
这样的人自然不能教毛放心。一九七三年初，周的病势恶化。毛不起用邓不行了。他把邓接来北京，先让邓做了副总理，主要负责接待外国人。邓不像周恩来那样有风采，会见外国人时不断吐痰，令好几个政要都惴惴不安，但他毕竟有政治家的风度。
Late that year, Chou's health deteriorated drastically. Mao made the momentous decision to put Deng in charge of the army (for which Deng was restored to the Politburo). Deng was the only person who could guarantee stability in the military, where Mao's Protégé had zero influence. Marshal Yeh, the man Mao had appointed army chief after Lin Biao's death, lacked the necessary gravitas.
这年年底，周的癌症進一步恶化，尿里的鲜血止不胜止。毛做了一项重大决策：让邓主管军队。为此，他恢复了邓政治局委员的身分。邓是唯一可以保持军队稳定的人。王洪文在军队的影响等于零，林彪死后毛任命的军队主管人叶剑英元帅，分量又不够重。
Giving Deng this much power was a gamble, but it proved well judged. Deng never made a move against Mao's person while Mao was alive, and even after Mao's death, insisted that Mao must not be denounced personally, although he repealed much of Mao's core legacy.
给邓这样的权力对毛来说是场赌博。但毛的赌注押对了。毛活着时，邓没有对他人身造成任何威胁，就是毛死了，邓也不准公开批毛，尽管他抛弃了毛的主要遗产。
As soon as Deng assumed power, he started to push through his own program. Central to this was rolling back the Cultural Revolution. He tried to rehabilitate and re-employ more purged cadres en masse, to resurrect some culture, and to raise living standards, a concern that had been condemned as “revisionist.” Mao regarded the Cultural Revolution as his greatest achievement since taking power in 1949 and kept four remaining Cultural Revolution Rottweilers in place to counter Deng: Mme Mao, Zhang “the Cobra,” media chief Yao, and Protégé Wang—a group that Mao dubbed “the Gang of Four.” (Kang Sheng was out of action by now with terminal cancer, and was to die in 1975.) This was Mao's own gang, who represented his true policy.
毛把邓提上政坛中心，但在邓周围摆上自己的人，主要是他“命名”的“四人帮”： 王洪文、张春桥，江青、姚文元。康生当时已因癌症行将就木。“四人帮”代表着毛的政策。
FOR HIS PART, Deng formed his own counter-alliance with army chief Marshal Yeh and premier Chou En-lai soon after he returned to Peking in spring 1973. Of this trio, Deng and Yeh had been on the receiving end of the Purge, while Chou had collaborated with Mao. Chou had even changed the name of his house to “Drawn to the Sun [i.e., Mao] Courtyard.” When Mao gave the word, Chou would send anyone to their death. Chou's only adopted child, Sun Wei-shi, had been imprisoned because she had been a top-flight Russian interpreter, and met many Russian leaders, including Stalin; so Mao suspected her as he did most others who had such connections. Mme Mao also hated her because she was very beautiful, and because Mao had once taken a shine to her. Chou, who was widely thought to be in love with her, did not lift a finger to save her. She died in prison, and he kept an ignoble distance even in death.
邓回京不久便同周恩来和叶剑英建立了自己的“联盟”。这三人中，邓、叶是文革的受害者，而周是助纣为虐的人。为了奉迎毛，周甚至把自己的家“西花厅”改名为“向阳院”，意思是心向红太阳毛泽东。他唯一的养女孙维世在文革中受到监禁，原因在于她曾给中共高层做过俄语翻译，见过许多苏联领导人，包括斯大林。毛怀疑他周围所有跟苏联有来往的人，把她也抓了起来。江青落井下石，因为孙长得很美，毛对她也似曾有意。孙惨死在狱中。尽管周恩来据说对她爱慕倾心，周没有伸手救她，死后他还批示调查“是否自杀或灭口”，好像孙真的卷進了什么“阴谋”。
Deng felt fairly cool towards Chou, and after Mao died said publicly that Chou had “done many things against his heart” during the Cultural Revolution, though Deng claimed that “the people forgave him.” However, Deng decided to set personal feelings aside and form an alliance with Chou. On 9 April, shortly after getting back to Peking, he went to see him—their first meeting in nearly seven years. At first, they just sat facing each other in silence. Finally, Chou spoke. The first thing he said was: “Zhang Chun-qiao betrayed the Party, but the Chairman forbids us to investigate it.” Zhang, “the Cobra,” was a major star of the Cultural Revolution. By saying this, Chou was not just condemning the Cobra, he was complaining about Mao. This was no indiscretion from the super-prudent Chou; it was his way of conveying that he was on Deng's side, against the Cultural Revolution. This, plus the fact that Chou had become terminally ill thanks to Mao, melted the ice between him and Deng. From that moment on, the two were allies.
邓对周帮毛搞文革是不满的。毛死后他讲，周在文革中“说了好多违心的话，做了好多违心的事”， 虽然他紧接着又声称“人民原谅他”。一九七三年春回京后，邓于四月九日去看望病中的周。他们有近七年没见面了。一开头，两个人对坐无言。终于，周开口了，第一句话是：“张春桥是叛徒，但是主席不让查。”周向来谨小慎微，这次他不仅要一棍子打死毛的亲信张春桥，而且直接抱怨毛泽东。他的话是经过仔细斟酌的，目的是向邓表态：他要跟邓站在一起，反对文化大革命。此话一出口，邓便了解了周，再看到周病瘦得不成样子，原谅了周。两人开始长谈，从此成了盟友。
This was a milestone. The two most important colleagues of Mao had formed a league of a kind, which also incorporated army chief Marshal Yeh. Mao's decades-long ability to enforce a ban on his colleagues forming alliances was broken. And with it, his awesome hold over them.
这是一个转折点。毛的两个最重要的同事携手结盟。邓还常去军队的重地西山见另一个盟友叶剑英，与叶配合默契。毛的同事“串通一气”，这向来是毛的大忌，如今成了现实。
MAO WAS REDUCED to these straits because his health was ebbing fast as he entered his eighties. It was now that he had to kick his lifelong addiction to smoking. By early 1974 he was nearly blind. This, like his other ailments, was kept top-secret. Losing his sight made Mao extremely anxious about security, so his staff were given special instructions to “walk noisily to let him know someone was coming so that he would not be frightened.”
邓等人得以结盟，归根到底是由于年迈的毛病得不轻。终身的嗜好抽烟就是在此时忍痛戒掉的。眼睛半瞎，他对自己的安全比以往更加担心。身边工作人员接到规定：“走路要响一些，好让他知道有人進来了，免得他不知道吓着。”
He was also depressed because he could not read. He had ordered some banned works of classical literature to be specially printed. Two print shops, one in Peking and one in Shanghai, were purpose-built to do the printing, and each print-run was five copies, all for Mao, plus a few extra copies, which were placed under lock and key, and even the people who had been involved in annotating the texts for him were forbidden to keep a copy. As his eyesight got worse, the characters grew larger, eventually reaching a height of 12 mm. When Mao finally found he could not read at all, even with a magnifying glass, he broke down and cried. Thenceforth, he had to rely on staff to read to him, and sometimes to sign documents for him.
视力模糊不能看书，一生手不释卷的毛难以忍耐，他叫人把一些文革中禁止出版的古典文学作品印成大字本看。为了印这些大字本，北京、上海各建了一个印刷厂，每册印刷量五本上送毛。为了保险多印了几本，作为档案封存。参与注释、校点的学者一本也不许保留。随着毛的视力越来越坏，大字本的字号也越来越大。当毛发现即使用放大镜也看不清这些特大号字时，他忍不住痛哭起来。他只得靠工作人员读书给他听。
Because of his condition, Mao did not want to appear at meetings and look vulnerable, so he left the capital on 17 July 1974 and went south. Soon he was told that the trouble was cataracts, and that they could be removed by a simple operation once they matured. The news came as a huge relief, even though it meant nearly a year of hardly being able to see. Meanwhile he stayed away from Peking—for nine months altogether, on what turned out to be his last trip.
一九七四年七月十七日，毛离开北京到南方去。不久，眼疾诊断出来了，是白内障，成熟后用小手术很容易摘除。虽然等它成熟要等一年，毛也长吁了一口气。他在南方待了九个月，这是他一生最后一次出行。
There was another discovery made at the same time: that he was suffering from a rare and incurable motor neurone illness called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, sometimes known as Lou Gehrig's disease. This gradually paralyzes the muscles in the arms, legs, throat and tongue, strangling speech, preventing food going down the right way, and finally causing death by respiratory failure. The diagnosis was that he had about two years to live.
为毛检查身体的结果还发现，他患了一种极少有的运动神经元病，大脑延髓和脊髓内主宰喉、咽、舌、手、腿的神经细胞逐渐变质坏死，身体逐渐麻痹瘫痪。由于喉、咽、舌功能失调，食物和水会流入气管囤积肺中，引起肺部反覆感染。在最后阶段，不仅无法吞咽，而且无法呼吸。这是不治之症，根据毛现有的病状，他只能活两年。
The doctors did not tell Mao. Their reporting channel was to his chamberlain and chief of the Praetorian Guard, Wang Dong-xing, who told only Chou En-lai. It was now that Chou became much more daring.
医生们依汇报程序报告了毛的大总管汪东兴。汪报告了周恩来。正是在听到这个消息之后，周的胆子大壮，虽然外表上，他对毛是照常的恭顺。
Chou's allies, Deng and Marshal Yeh, were put in the picture about Mao's state of health. They decided not to tell the Gang of Four, even Mao's wife, who was anyway a walking incentive for others to keep her out of the loop. Two years before, after Mao had passed out, she had accused medical staff of being “spies” and “counter-revolutionaries.” When Chou had discussed Mao's illnesses with her, she had accused him of trying to force Mao to surrender power. But the decision to exclude her was determined by more than just the fact that she was trouble. It was politically motivated.
周的盟友邓，叶也得到这一消息。他们决定不通知“四人帮”，连毛的夫人江青也不告知。告诉江青是自找麻烦。两年前毛休克，她骂医护人员是“特务，、“反革命”。周恩来找她讨论毛的病情，她反说周要逼毛交权。可是，这次不告诉她毛的病情，不光是怕她乱指控，更重要的还是政治斗争的需要。
Mao himself was not informed. If Mao knew his days were numbered, there was no knowing what he might do. Instead, he was assured that he was in good health, and still had a long time to live. To make doubly sure he did not find out, none of his regular staff was told. One doctor who blurted out “I'm afraid the Chairman's illness is hard to treat …” was instantly removed. Mao's symptoms were passed off as harmless. This did not satisfy him, but there was nothing he could do.
毛本人也被瞒着。他要是知道自己只能活两年会怎么反应，谁也不敢说。医生们对毛说他的身体很好，还可以活很多年。有一个外来的医生说了句：“主席的病不好治啊！”马上就被送了回去。对病状的解释是上了年纪之类的话，毛半信半疑。为了保证把毛蒙在鼓里，真实病情对他贴身的工作人员一律封锁。
With the knowledge of the time frame of Mao's life, and with Chou himself in inexorable decline, the Deng-Chou-Yeh Alliance moved to press Mao to institutionalize Deng's role as Chou's stand-in and successor, and to restore to high office a large number of old cadres who had been ousted in the Purge. In December 1974, Chou left his hospital bed and flew to Changsha to see Mao with a slate of new appointments. Mao knew about the Alliance's activities from the Gang of Four, who were keeping a look-out in Peking on his behalf. Mme Mao had written to say she was “shocked and aghast” at what was going on. But Mao was in no condition to veto the Chou–Deng list. He could not hand over the country to the Gang of Four, and neither could he try to get rid of the Alliance—if he wanted to die in his bed. The Gang of Four were powerless in the army and Mao had nobody in the military who could take on the Alliance on his behalf. And he himself was physically too feeble to create a new force that could trump the Alliance.
知道了毛来日无多，再加上周恩来本人也病入膏盲，邓--周--叶联盟行动起来，要让毛指定邓做周的接班人，把一大批文革中打倒的老干部任命到关键位子上。十二月，周拖着病体飞往长沙，带着人事安排的名单去见毛。毛对这些老家伙在京城做些什么心知肚明，他有留守北京给他通风报信的“四人帮”。江青说她对看到的“咄咄怪事”，感到“触目惊心”。但是毛没有办法管束邓、周、叶等人，军队在他们手里。“四人帮”对军队毫无影响力，毛又无法在军中新建一支与邓、周，叶抗衡的力量。他力不从心。
Lou Gehrig's disease had been nibbling away at his body. At the start of his trip to the south in summer 1974, Mao could still take walks in the garden; but within a few months, all he could do was drag one leg after the other for a short distance. On 5 December he found he had to say goodbye to swimming, his lifelong passion. He had taken a few dips in his indoor pool in Changsha, but that day he nearly choked in the water, and this was to be his last swim. His bodyguard of twenty-seven years heard Mao let out a long sigh of melancholy and resignation, something he had never heard, and could not imagine coming from Mao.
怪病缠身的毛一天天衰弱下去。刚离开北京南下时，他还可以在院子里散散步。几个月后，他就只能拖着步子一点一点蹭。十二月五日，他在长沙的游泳池里只划了划水，发现手脚实在划不动，那天便成了他与终身爱好的游泳诀别的一天。游泳池边，毛发出一声长长的叹息，这是意志力极强的毛从未发出过的声音。跟他二十七年的警卫队长听到时惊呆了，不敢相信自己的耳朵。
As his muscular coordination failed, Mao's speech became increasingly slurred, and food kept getting into his lungs, causing choking and infection. He had to lie on his side to be fed. Life became excruciatingly uncomfortable.
肌肉萎缩器官失调的结果，毛说出的话越来越不清楚，饭菜也不断掉進肺里，他不断地呛着，肺部不断地感染。毛只能侧躺在床上由人喂饭。
In this condition, Mao had to endorse Chou's slate, especially the promotion of Deng to first vice-premier and stand-in for Chou. But Mao promoted one of the Gang of Four, the Cobra, and made him second to Deng in the military and the government. He also insisted that the media remain in the hands of the Gang, so that only his message could reach the country at large.
在这样的状况下，毛只能认可周恩来送上的人事名单，特别是任命邓小平为第一副总理，代行周恩来之职。毛没有完全示弱，他把张春桥提拔为不论在政府还是在军队都仅次于邓的人物，而且把媒体让“四人帮”牢牢把持，使他能够直接向全国发号施令。
The Alliance's strategy was to dislodge the Cobra and Mme Mao, exploiting their less than spotless pasts. On 26 December, Mao's eighty-first birthday, Chou told Mao that these two had had connections with Nationalist intelligence in the 1930s. Mao's reply was that he had known about their pasts all along, and he effectively said that he could not care less.
邓、周、叶的策略是先利用张春桥、江青历史上的污点打击他们，把他们搞掉，以架空毛。十二月二十六日毛八十一岁生日那天，周以严肃的神情对毛讲这两位有“严重政治历史问题”。毛说他早就知道了，意思是有问题又怎么样？
Telling Mao to his face that his wife and one of his top acolytes were suspected enemy agents was startling behavior on Chou's part. Mao could see that battle had been well and truly joined, with himself and the Gang of Four pitted against the Deng–Chou–Yeh Alliance and the old cadres who were now being re-employed en masse.
一向俯首帖耳的周，竟然胆大包天地当面把毛的妻子和亲信打成敌人。毛知道他面临一番恶战，他和“四人帮”一边，同邓、周、叶以及重新任职的老干部对阵。
Mao tried to regain some ground by getting the Gang of Four to start a media campaign in March 1975 to smear the authority of the reinstated cadres. In April, after Mao returned to Peking, Deng gave Mao a piece of his mind and asked him to call a halt. Mao was forced to yield, and blamed the Gang of Four. On 3 May, in front of the Politburo, Mao ordered the campaign stopped and said he had “made a mistake.” This was an unprecedented climb-down, brought about by the fact that he was patently vulnerable. As everyone at the meeting could see, he was extremely frail, completely blind, and his speech was barely intelligible. It was his last appearance at a Politburo meeting.
此时邓在全国大批起用文革中被“打倒”的老干部。毛指示，四人帮在一九七五年三月透过媒体发起一场针对这批人的“批经验主义”运动。四月，毛回北京后，邓当面向毛表示反对这场运动。毛被迫说同意邓的意见，把运动怪到“四人帮”头上，叫江青做检讨。五月三日，当着整个政治局，毛停止了批经验主义的运动，说：“我犯了错误，春桥的文章，我没有看出来。”这样带表白性的认错在毛是破天荒。毛明白自己的虚弱，到会的人都看得到，他眼睛几乎全瞎，说话嘟嘟嚷嚷，一副日薄西山、气息奄奄的样子。这是毛最后一次主持政治局会议。
On this occasion, for the first time since he had come to power, Mao all but threw himself on the mercy of his colleagues by asking them not to contemplate a coup. Again and again, he implored them: “Don't practice revisionism; don't split; don't plot.” The first point meant: Stick with the Cultural Revolution. The rest meant: Don't plot against me. Several times during this period, he recounted a historical tale to Deng and his allies, whose implicit, but unmistakable, message was: If you are thinking of a coup, do it to my wife and the Gang, after I die.
会上，毛反复讲“三要三不要”：“要搞马克思主义，不要搞修正主义；要团结，不要分裂；要光明正大，不要搞阴谋诡计。”他的意思是：不要否定文化大革命，不要跟我分裂，不要搞阴谋害我。这是毛对中共最上层的老家伙们提出的请求。那段时间，毛三番五次对他们讲“周勃安刘”的故事：在刘邦死后，军事长官周勃与丞相陈平合谋，铲除掌握了政权的吕后一党，使汉室重新成为刘家天下。当时，人人皆知江青以吕后自诩。毛讲的故事给老家伙们一个信息：你们不妨也像周勃、陈平一样，搞掉江青一党--等我死了以后。
MAO HAD TO beg like this because he had virtually lost control of the army. The Alliance had rehabilitated many generals who had been victims of Mao's, and put them in high office. If it came to a showdown, Mao would have no top men in the army on his side. He had tried to insert his own men, two members of the Gang of Four, into leading army jobs, but they had been frozen out.
听毛讲故事的有军队将帅，他们在文革中吃足了苦头，现在由邓周叶联盟委以重任。他们不跟毛翻脸则罢，要是翻脸，毛就岌岌可危了。尽管张春桥、王洪文被安插進军队，也无济于事。
In June 1975 the army made a powerful gesture of defiance towards Mao. The occasion was the sixth anniversary of the death of Marshal Ho Lung, the man to whom Russian defense minister Malinovsky had said “get rid of Mao” a decade before. As a result of Mao's suspicions, Marshal Ho had died in incarceration in appalling circumstances in 1969. The army now decided to hold a memorial service for him, which was both a sign of the changing times and a huge snub to Mao. Mao could not prevent the service taking place, but he ordered that it be extremely low-key—without even wreaths or speeches. With the support of the top brass, Ho's family wrote to Mao, threatening to boycott the service if these restrictions were not lifted, and making a point of saying that Ho had many loyal comrades alive. Mao had to give in. The most he could salvage was to keep the news of the service out of the media.
一九七五年六月，军队对毛進行了一次示威。那是贺龙元帅去世六周年纪念日。贺龙因为不幸听见了苏联国防部长马利诺夫斯基说要“搞掉毛”的话，成为毛疑心的焦点，惨死在监管中。军方决定为贺龙举行“骨灰安放仪式”。毛无法阻止，只能规定“不治丧，不致悼词，不献花圈，不报导，不宣传”。在军方支持下，贺龙长女给毛写信，指出贺龙一案牵连了一大批军队的人，对贺龙后事的这种做法在军队行不通。毛只好答应安放仪式怎么搞由周恩来安排，但强调一点：“不登报”。
The service was dominated by bitter emotions, and the atmosphere was heightened by the extraordinarily demonstrative sorrow exhibited by Chou En-lai, who got up from what was manifestly his deathbed to attend, and delivered the eulogy. He entered the hall crying out the name of the marshal's widow, sobbed loudly while hugging her shoulders, and told her he felt “very sorry” for “not having been able to protect” her husband.
仪式笼罩在一派悲痛的气氛中，周恩来以体重仅三十来公斤的垂危之躯，挣扎着前来参加，并且感情冲动地致了悼词。他一進会场就喊着贺龙遗孀的名字，扶着她的肩膀，声泪俱下地说“我很难过”，“我没有保住他啊！”
Chou had been in charge of the investigation into Ho during the Cultural Revolution, which had resulted in Ho's death, and a host of Ho's subordinates being imprisoned and tortured, some to death. There were strong feelings against Chou, which he was aware of, and his apology to Ho's widow was partly an attempt to exonerate himself and put the blame on Mao. This, and the fact he turned up when he himself was dying—which he made a point of telling the congregation—dissipated much of the anger people felt towards him and redirected it towards Mao.
周措辞很巧妙，“保”而没“保住”，根子在他的上峰：毛。周需要洗刷自己，他是贺龙专案的负责人，贺的死，以及贺部下的入狱、受刑、死亡，他都有责任。人们对他有气，他很清楚。他缓缓对在场的人说：“我的时间也不长了。”就这样，他争取了同情，把人们的不满导向了毛。
Mao, who was used to passing the buck, did not like having the blame laid on himself, and he hit back at Chou—as soon as he recovered his eyesight. On 23 July, Mao had the cataract removed from his left eye. To accompany the seven-minute operation, he chose a piece of soaring music to give himself a boost. He was delighted by the ease of the operation, and asked the surgeon to perform it on his right eye the following year. In the meantime, he consented to have special glasses made. They were made in two pairs, one with only a left arm, the other with only a right arm, which were swapped around by an attendant when Mao turned over in bed, so that the side of his face would never be resting on an arm.
毛从来是拿别人做替罪羊的，不习惯别人把责任赠还给他。他非得要报复周不可。七月二十三日，他在岳飞《满江红》的激昂曲子陪伴下，做了左眼白内障摘除手术。手术只花了七分钟，结果完满，毛十分高兴。
Being able to see again gave Mao a renewed sense of confidence. Within two weeks he had initiated a new media campaign against Chou. Mao announced that one of the most famous classic Chinese novels, The Water Margin, was really all about “capitulationists,” who deserved to be condemned. “Capitulationists” was an allusion to the fake 1932 “recantation notice” that bore Chou's name. Chou was so worried that Mao might blacken his name, particularly after his death, that at the very last moment before a big operation for his cancer, after he had been given the pre-op medication, just as he was about to be wheeled into the operating theater, he insisted on devoting an hour to go over his self-defense about the notice. He only got on the waiting trolley after he had signed the document, in a shaky hand, and passed it to his wife.
眼睛复明使毛信心大增，两个星期后他便搞了个评《水浒》、批“投降派”运动，说：“《水浒》这部书，好就好在投降。做反面教材，使人民都知道投降派。”这是毛影射周恩来。周心里明白，几十年过去了，《伍豪启事》这一纸谎言还可能会在他死后败坏他的名声。九月二十日，在做一个大手术之前，术前镇静剂用过了，医生都等着周，他仍花了一个小时反覆斟酌他就《伍豪启事》做的自我辩护，用颤抖的手签上字，交给他夫人，才放心地躺上了手术车。進手术室前一刻，他对周围的人大声说：“我是忠于党、忠于人民的！我不是投降派！”
Deng confronted Mao about the campaign the next time he saw him, and Mao had to back down, again. He tried to blame it on his wife, using his characteristic language: “Shit!” he said of her. “Barking up the wrong tree!” The campaign petered out.
几天后，邓见到毛，对批《水浒》运动明确表示不满。毛又把过失推到江青身上，用他喜爱的辞藻骂道：“放屁！文不对题！”运动不了了之。
ALL THE WHILE, Deng was trying to undo the practices of the Cultural Revolution and improve standards of living. In this, the twenty-fifth year of Mao's reign, most of the population were living in dire poverty and misery. In the urban areas, which were privileged, extremely severe rationing of food, clothing and virtually all daily essentials was still in force. Families of three generations were often crammed into one small room, as the urban population had increased by 100 million under Mao and yet very little housing had been built, and maintenance was nonexistent. Mao's priorities—and the quality of life—may be gauged from the fact that total investment in urban upkeep (including water, electricity, transport, sewage, etc.) in the eleven years 1965–75 was less than 4 percent of that in arms-centered industries. Health and education were getting well under half of the already tiny percentage of investment that they had been receiving at the outset of Mao's rule. In the countryside, most people were still living on the verge of starvation. In places, there were adult women who had no clothes to cover themselves and had to go stark naked. In Mao's old capital, Yenan city, people were poorer than when the Communists had first arrived four decades before. The city was teeming with hungry beggars, who would be roped up and shoved into detention when foreigners came to admire Mao's old base, and then deported back to their villages.
邓有了权后干的一件重要的事，是把提高人民生活水准摆上议事日程。文革中，谁提生活水准谁就是搞“修正主义”。在毛统治中国四分之一世纪后，绝大多数人的生活仍困苦不堪。即使在相对优越的城市里，衣食等必需品都处于严格定量之下。说到“住”，三代同室的情况比比皆是。城市人口增加了一亿，但盖的新房子寥寥无几，老房维修几乎不存在。一九六五到一九七五年的十一年间，整个城市建设的投资，包括水、电、交通、排污等，不到同期以军工为核心的重工业投资的百分之四。这些年中，对医疗、教育的投资，比中共上台初期本来就小得可怜的比例，还少了一半多。农村更是一贫如洗，大多数农民吃不饱饭，有的地方成年大姑娘没有衣服穿只得赤身裸体。“革命圣地”延安，老百姓比四十年前共产党刚到时还穷。延安城里满是饥饿的乞丐，有外国人来瞻仰圣地时，官方便把他们“收容”起来，遣送回乡。
Mao knew beyond a doubt how bad things were. He kept himself extremely well informed by reading (or having read to him) daily reports from a network of feedback channels he had installed. In September 1975 he told Le Duan, the Party chief of Vietnam, which had just been through thirty years of nonstop war, including devastating US bombing: “Now the poorest nation in the world is not you, but us.” And yet he directed the media to attack Deng's efforts to raise living standards with absurd slogans like: “The weeds of socialism are better than the crops of capitalism.”
毛泽东对他的“子民”的境况知道得清清楚楚。从收集下情的管道来的文件，毛每天都读，或是让人念给他听。一九七五年九月，他对越共领导人黎笋说：“现在天下最穷的不是你们，而是我们。”哪怕越南燃烧了三十年不停的战火，经历了美国的狂轰滥炸，中国人还是穷过越南人。然而，当邓小平设法发展经济，改善人民生活时，毛的“四人帮”却说：“宁长社会主义的草，不要资本主义的苗。”
Deng also tried to lift the virtual blanket ban on books, arts and entertainment that had lasted for nearly a decade. Most immediately, he tried to release a few feature films to give the population some entertainment. Though all of these kept well within the bounds of socialist realism, Mme Mao, acting on Mao's behalf, tried to get them withdrawn, accusing them of “crimes” such as using pretty actresses.
邓干的另一件事，是使荒芜的文化领域有了点生机。这时上演了几部剧情片。尽管它们无一不是歌颂共产党的，江青仍然对它们横加攻击，用漂亮女演员也成为罪名。
Mao himself had plenty of entertainment. One was to watch his favorite Peking operas in the comfort of his home. For this, opera stars were summoned back from their camps to be filmed in the now empty Peking TV Studio by crews who had also been recalled from exile. After years in the backwoods they were rusty, so they were first kept isolated for months and told to recover their lost art, and ask no questions. As no one would explain to them why they were to perform these still banned—and therefore extremely dangerous—“poisonous weeds,” most spent these months in a state of great apprehension. The films were then broadcast for Mao from a TV van parked next to his house. He also watched films from pre-Communist days, from Hong Kong, and from the West.
老百姓看不到电影，毛却想看什么就看什么，“解放后”的，“解放前”的，香港的，西方的。他特别喜欢坐在家里欣赏戏曲。名角儿们便从流放地被召回，在空荡荡的北京电影厂、电视台摄影棚里，专为毛录音拍戏。没人对他们解释为何来演唱这些早就被禁的“反动黄色”的东西，只有人警告他们不许问问题，不许交谈，不许向任何人提起。录像由电视转播车从毛的住宅外，直接发送给毛独家欣赏。
But Mao refused to let the population savor so much as a drop of what he himself enjoyed. Deng often fought with Mao's wife, sometimes shouting at her and banging on the table—not treatment she was used to from anyone except her husband. Deng also denounced Jiang Qing's action to Mao's face, and encouraged people like film directors to write letters to Mao complaining about her. Mao wanted to stop Deng's initiatives by getting him to put on paper a pledge to stick to Cultural Revolution practices. In November 1975 he demanded that Deng draw up a Party resolution that would set the Cultural Revolution in stone.
因为他的政策，邓小平不时同江青发生争执，有时拍桌子骂她，成了除她丈夫外这样对待她的第一人。邓也当面对毛谴责江青，并鼓励电影导演和其他文化人给毛写信告她的状。邓的做法就是否定文革，而毛把文革看作他一生做的两件大事之一(另一件是把蒋介石赶到台湾)。毛不能让邓得逞。一九七五年十一月，他要邓主持做一个肯定文革的决议，等于要邓自己把自己限制起来。
Deng not only declined, he did so point-blank in front of some 130 senior cadres, thus defying Mao in no uncertain terms. Mao had to give up on the resolution. For him, this was the last straw. He made up his mind to discard Deng.
邓拒绝做这个决议，说：“由我主持写这个决议不适宜，我是桃花源中人，“不知有汉，无论魏晋。””他是当着一百三十名高级干部的面说这番话的，态度强硬。毛只好放弃做决议一事。但他同时也决心再次打倒邓小平。
Chou and Yeh had been urging Deng not to be too confrontational with Mao: just to pay lip-service and wait for him to die. But Deng would not wait. He calculated that he could force Mao to swallow what he was doing, provided that he did not harm Mao personally.
周恩来、叶剑英都曾劝邓不要操之过急，等毛死了再说。但是邓不愿意等，他估计他可以逼毛让步。
Mao was fading fast. The muscular paralysis had invaded his vital organs, including his throat, severely affecting his ability to eat. But beneath this crumbling shell, he preserved his phenomenal determination not to be beaten.
邓看到的是毛的极度衰弱，但他见不到的是，在这衰朽的躯壳下，毛保持着不可摧毁的意志和惯有的老谋深算。
MAO'S MOMENT CAME on 8 January 1976, when Deng's chief ally Chou En-lai died, at the age of seventy-eight. Mao moved at once. He fired Deng, put him under house arrest, and publicly denounced him by name. Simultaneously, he suspended Marshal Yeh, the third key member of the Alliance, claiming that Yeh was ill. To succeed Chou, Mao appointed a hitherto unknown middle-level disciple called Hua Guo-feng. An equally unknown low-ranking general called Chen Xi-lian was appointed to run the army. Mao chose these relatively neutral new faces, rather than members of the Gang of Four, to minimize adverse reactions from the Party and the army, most of whom loathed the Gang.
一九七六年一月八日，七十八岁的周恩来去世。邓的主要盟友一死，毛马上行动，把邓的职务实质上解除，将他软禁在家，在全国搞“批邓”。对叶剑英，毛也同时下手，以“生病”为名拿掉了他的军职。毛指定“老实”不起眼的华国锋接替周恩来，同样不知名的陈锡联代换叶剑英。毛用他们而不用“四人帮”是因为“四人帮”太不得人心，毛希望尽量减小对他决策的阻力。
However, Chou's death detonated something that hitherto had not existed in Mao's China: public opinion. In the previous year, under Deng, information about who stood for what at the top had been made available for the first time through the networks of reinstated Communist officials and their children, and had circulated around the country. The public came to have some idea that Chou had been persecuted (while learning nothing about his squalid role in the Cultural Revolution). The news of Chou's death triggered off an unprecedented outpouring of public grief, especially as the media played it down. On the day when his body was taken from the hospital to the crematorium, over a million people lined the streets of Peking. This was the first time under Mao that anything remotely resembling this number of people had gathered without being organized. On the day of Chou's memorial service, even Mao's extremely prudent nurse-cum-secretary suggested that perhaps he should attend, an idea Mao rejected. People took Mao's absence as a snub to Chou, and when firecrackers were set off some days later at Mao's residence in Zhongnanhai for Chinese New Year, staff started whispering that he was celebrating Chou's death.
周恩来的死成为导火线，点燃了举国上下长期压抑的对文革，乃至对毛的奔腾怒火。头一年，邓在台上时，“谣言满天飞”，把周塑造成一个为老百姓呕心沥血，跟“四人帮”斗争，受“四人帮”迫害的悲剧英雄。人们对他的死表现了真诚的悲伤。媒体受命低调宣传，大家更加愤慨。当周的遗体从医院运到八宝山公墓火化时，北京一百多万人自发肃立几十里长街两侧为周送行，形成了毛政权下从未有过的壮观景象。追悼会那天，就连毛谨慎寡言的秘书张玉凤也问他：“主席你是不是去参加总理的追悼会？”毛翘了翘他半瘫的腿，说他走不动。可人们把毛不出席看作是他故意贬周。不久后是春节，毛的住宅放了鞭炮，中南海里的人悄悄传说，这是毛在庆祝周的死亡。
Popular protests broke out all over China, using the breach blown open by Chou's death to express loathing for Mao's policies. In early April the volcano erupted during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, when the Chinese traditionally pay respects to their dead. Spontaneous crowds filled Tiananmen Square to mourn Chou with wreaths and poems and to denounce the Cultural Revolution. Even more amazing, in the heart of the capital crowds destroyed police vehicles broadcasting orders for them to clear the square, and set fire to the headquarters of the militia, who were organized by the Gang of Four and were trying to disperse the demonstrators violently. This defiance of Mao's rule took place a stone's throw from his house.
四月初，火山终于在清明扫墓时分爆发。人群汇集在天安门广场，用花圈与诗歌悼念周恩来，声讨文化大革命。同样闻所未闻的是，人群捣毁了企图清场的警车，放火烧了“四人帮”组织的民兵指挥部。这场暴动，就发生在离中南海咫尺之遥的地方。
The regime suppressed the protests with much bloodshed. Mme Mao toasted this as a victory, and Mao wrote: “Great morale-booster. Good. Good. Good.” A crackdown followed on across the country, but Mao was unable to crank up great terror like before.
毛政权用血腥手段恢复了天安门广场的“秩序”。江青喝茅台以资庆祝，毛批示：“士气大振，好，好，好。”镇压在全国進行，不过已是强弩之末。
Although Deng had nothing to do with organizing the demonstrations, a single device announced his popularity: the assortment of little bottles that hung from the pine trees around Tiananmen Square. Deng's given name, Xiao-ping, is pronounced the same as “little bottles.” Mao felt extremely threatened by this sign. For the public to join hands with his Party opponents was an act without precedent. Mao had Deng hauled off from house arrest at home to detention in another part of Peking.
虽然邓小平并不是天安门抗议活动的后台，可是广场四周松树上挂的许多与“小平”同音的小瓶子，叮叮当当地响着人群对他的拥戴。毛害怕邓同人民结合起来，下令把邓从软禁的家中抓走，关在北京的另一个地方。
But instead of punishing Deng by the same cruel methods he had inflicted on other foes, Mao left him unharmed. This was not because he was fond of Deng. He simply could not take the risk of creating a situation where Deng's many supporters in the army might feel forced to take action. Although Mao had had Deng's ally Marshal Yeh suspended, Yeh continued to exercise virtual control over the military. At his home in the exclusive army compound in the Western Hills, he received a stream of generals and top officers, telling them defiantly that he was not ill at all, as Mao had been claiming. Among friends, Yeh now referred to Mao not as “the Chairman,” which was the de rigueur respectful norm, but as na-mo-wen, the Chinese transliteration of the English “number one,” which was irreverent.
毛没有用残酷的方式来对付邓，相反地，他发话要保护邓。这并不是因为毛对邓念念不舍，他是怕邓在军队的追随者愤而采取激烈措施，威胁到自己的权力和生命。军队实际上仍在叶剑英的掌握中。叶在西山住地，每天接见川流不息的军队将领，直接针对毛的话，说他没有病“谁也休想赶我走”。在朋友中间，叶对毛的称呼已不再是尊称“主席”而是“拿摩温”，英文number one(“一号人物”)的音译。虽无贬义，也是不恭。
Army chiefs were discussing semi-openly what to do. One, nicknamed the “Bearded General,” urged Yeh to act at once and “simply grab” the Gang of Four. Not speaking out loud, for fear of bugs, Yeh stuck his thumb upwards, shook it a couple of times and then turned it downwards, meaning: Wait for Mao to die. The “Bearded General” then had a word with the head of the Praetorian Guard, Wang Dong-xing, who was a former subordinate of his, to say that Deng must be well protected.
在叶的住处，将帅们半公开地讨论他们应该采取什么行动。外号“胡子”的王震将军对叶说：把“四人帮”“弄起来不就解决问题了吗？”因为怕窃听器，叶打着哑谜，先伸出右手，握紧拳头，竖起大拇指，向上晃两晃，然后把大拇指倒过来，往下按了按。“胡子”将军猜明白了：大拇指指的是毛，他在世时不宜轻举妄动，等去世以后再说。“胡子”将军找到他从前的下级汪东兴，代表军方嘱咐他要保护好邓小平。
Mao knew what was going on in the Western Hills, but his new enforcers in the army were in no position to take on the veterans, and he himself was too ill to act. He had to lump it. It was in this frustrated state of mind that he had a massive heart attack at the beginning of June 1976, which left him at death's door.
毛清楚西山里出出進進在搞什么名堂，但他在军队新任命的人完全无力抗衡，他本人命在旦夕，无回天之力。他只好听之、任之。就在这样焦躁无奈的情绪下，他的心脏病六月初大发作，把他搁在死亡的门口。
THE POLITBURO AND Mao's leading doctors were told. Another person who was instantly informed, by a sympathetic doctor, was Deng's wife, who was in Hospital 301, a special hospital for top leaders, even those in disgrace. It was a sign of Mao's slackening grip that top-secret news like this about his condition could leak to his political foes. Once Deng himself heard, he wrote to Mao on 10 June, asking to be allowed to go home; in effect, demanding to be released.
毛的病危通知发给了政治局和主要大夫。当时邓的夫人因眼疾住在专给高层--包括被打倒的高层--看病的三0一医院，一位跟她亲近的医生把毛病危的消息告诉了她。这样一个绝密消息马上被透露给主要政敌，标志着毛的铁腕已松弛到何等地步。邓一得知这个消息，就在六月十日给毛写信要求回家，等于是要求释放。
Mao had to say “Yes,” which he did after his condition stabilized at the end of the month; but Deng's release was delayed for some days because of another event that made Mao feel insecure. On 6 July, Marshal Zhu De, the most senior army leader, who enjoyed considerable respect, died, at the age of ninety. Mao feared that Zhu's death might touch off mass protests similar to those that followed Chou's death earlier in the year—and that Deng might get involved. Zhu had been Mao's earliest opponent, back in the late 1920s. Mao had made him suffer in the Cultural Revolution, but had refrained from purging him. Eventually, as unrest did not materialize after Zhu's death, Deng was allowed to go home on 19 July—driven through deserted streets in the dead of night.
毛不敢拒绝，在月底病情好转时答覆：“可以同意”。邓的归期被延迟了几天，因为朱德元帅在七月六日以九十高龄去世。朱德在文革中受了不少罪，毛怕他的死也像周一样引起全国抗议浪潮，怕邓卷進里面去。抗议浪潮没有出现，毛才在七月十九日放邓回家。邓在深夜被一辆汽车悄悄接走。
Deng's detention had lasted only three months. Although he was still under house arrest, he was among his family. Mao had failed to destroy him, and Deng was very much around to fight another day.
这一次邓只关了三个月。虽然放出来后仍是软禁，毕竟邓是跟一大家子亲人住在一起。毛奈何不了他。