Chapter 80 Removing pants and cutting off tails 1942-1943

Journalist: “The phrase ‘drop their pants and cut off their tails’ was coined by you, right?”

Mao: “Yes. From writing self-reflection notes to filling out ‘Little Broadcasting Investigation Forms,’ and then repeatedly writing personal autobiographies, the ideological and mental pressure on Party members and cadres escalated step by step. With a combination of indoctrination and violent deterrence, along with strong organizational measures, I created a powerful pressure field that caused them to shed their ‘old selves’ and embrace a completely new soul.

This set of ideological transformation techniques, as described by Xie Juezai, brings people to follow my teachings with a ‘pure heart,’ eliminating all distractions and doubts from their minds. They undergo a complete transformation, a total metamorphosis. Xie Lao compared it to raw meat being cooked into well-done meat, a complete rebirth: Boiling in high heat, steaming in low heat, Both boiling and steaming require deep effort. Learning from Sun Wukong in the steamer, Boiling is temporary, but steaming takes time.”

Journalist: “Did Xie Lao summarize your whole set of methods?”

Mao: “Yes, Party members and cadres are required to confess on their own, but collective assistance is also necessary. There are two forms of assistance: one is a compassionate approach, and the other is a struggle- oriented approach, alternating between the two. If you remain stubborn and refuse to engage in profound self-reflection, then we have to treat you and save you. In the form of group criticism sessions, we engage in face-to-face exposure and ‘comrade-style struggle.’ Your ‘wrong words and actions’ are criticized, and with the unanimous voices of the masses pointing at you, you are left isolated and defenseless, unable to argue your case, and can only completely surrender.

Under the dual pressure of self-imposed and collective pressure, everyone generally loses their appetite and suffers from sleepless nights. Excessive worries, headaches, insomnia, yellowish complexion, weakened spirit, anxiety, tension—we fear that our self-exploration and criticism are not thorough enough, making it difficult to pass the test. One trainee even confessed more than 800 incidents of ‘little broadcasting’ for organizational review. Some self-reflection materials were ‘revised three to five times,’ some took ‘eight revisions to complete,’ and there were even cases where they were ‘revised 13 times.’”

Journalist: “In short, you want to torture people repeatedly, so that they are on the verge of a nervous breakdown?”

Mao: “Yes, the party school students, the writer Liu Baiyu said: ‘in those difficult days and nights, fear and anxiety, sleepless nights, a sense of disillusionment, I wrote hundreds of thousands of words of autobiographical information, only to feel from the lonely hanging ten thousand feet high, down to the plain ground. But I again wrote a second draft from beginning to end, or could not pass, and finally wrote a third draft before the leaders nodded their approval.’

Liu Baiyu’s narrative provides a picture of the spiritual purgatory, which can be seen in the harshness of the trial stem back then. The battle for the soul was so intense that it produced the effect I expected, and Liu Baiyu was baptized by the trial and became an outstanding party writer.”

Journalist: “Party writers like Liu Baiyu came out of your mental purgatory?”

Mao: “Yes, similar to Liu Baiyu, Ding Ling also went through an ideological transformation. She wrote down two books of study: one titled ‘Transformation of the Bone’, and the other called ‘The Reformation of the Heart’. Experiencing the pain of self-battle, correcting herself and reforming herself.”

Journalist: “Haha, Ding Ling has also been transformed under your lustful authority?”

Mao: “Yes, whether it was Liu Baiyu or Ding Ling, to be ‘saved’, one must pay the price, completely bury the ‘old self ’ and go to the new life, which is towards me. Ding Ling to the 1950s into Beijing, I still suspect that her Sufi Diary, ‘March 8 have feelings,’ the tail is not cut off, or sent him to the northern wilderness, the Cultural Revolution into the Qincheng prison, this is an afterthought.”