Chapter 107 Yelling at Liang Shuming

Journalist: “You cursed Liang Shuming at a meeting in 1953?”

Mao: “Yes, Liang Shuming and I debated the peasant issue at the meeting, and he thought I was still speaking to him as an equal and humble person as I did in Yan’an in 1938. Liang Shuming was born in 1893, a few months older than me, and I was in a bad mood when Jiang Qing said I was “picking dust” from my beloved daughter-in-law and drove her away.

I remember in 1938 when Liang came to Yan’an, I had a long talk with him for three nights, discussing rural issues, I said I wanted class struggle, overthrowing landlords and land distribution, he said he wanted to revitalize education, revitalize the economy and improve the quality of the peasants, the two paths were incompatible. 1949 when I laid the foundation of my empire, I invited him to be a member of the CPPCC and sent him to Sichuan to participate in the land reform, but he had an arrogant backbone and did not know how to behave.

In September 1953, at a meeting of the Central Committee to discuss rural work, he criticized my policy of unified purchase and sale of grain, and I heard him harshly, so I signaled Gao Gang, who was presiding over the meeting, to interrupt his speech several times. Gao Gang limited his time to speak, he had to continue, Gao Gang ordered him to withdraw from the meeting, he rushed to me and said: since he was invited to give his opinion, should be a little grace, allow me to finish it! I was furious and rebuked him: Liang Shuming had portrayed the Communist Party’s rural policy as a dark and useless mess.

He contradicted me in public and said: ‘President, the three armies can take away the command, but a man cannot take away the will! I was so angry that my face turned white and said without delay: now vote, please raise your hand if you agree with Liang Shuming to continue to speak! I was the only one who raised a hand high, the others were silent, who dared to raise their hands? I called him a murderer, a murderer with a pen, a murderer without blood, a reactionary, a murderer who portrayed himself as the world’s most beautiful, more beautiful than Shi Shi, an ambitious man, a hypocrite, a deceiver. I was so angry that I spoke for more than an hour.

In 1977, the full text of Volume 5 of Mao’s Selected Works was published, with 6,000 words listing Liang Shuming’s 15 sins, and at the end I criticized his proposal to establish a ‘colorless and transparent government.’ ‘Transparent’ is against the secret black box operation of the Communist Party, not open and undemocratic, I said in a nutshell: Liang Shuming is reactionary to the core!

I put Liang Shuming down with a stick, not only to beat him but also, and more importantly, to all intellectuals and democratic parties, to make them look at my face and submit to me completely, to take Liang Shuming demonstration, kill the chicken for the monkey to see, not hesitate to use all the bad words, sarcasm and sarcasm.

Liang Shuming did not dare to speak again, in 1957 he did not say a word against the right, and then could not catch him, the Cultural Revolution let him sweep the streets, he persevered and did not die, I died he is still here, lived to more than 90 years old, really a life.”