Not long after Li Jiulian departed, Zhong Haiyuan followed and came before the Jade Emperor to present her grievance.

The Jade Emperor asked, “Who are you?”

Zhong Haiyuan said, “I am the Zhong Haiyuan Li Jiulian mentioned. Because I supported her rehabilitation, I too was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually executed. They even removed my kidney while I was still alive.”

The Jade Emperor asked, “How did things come to such a pass? Tell me from the beginning.”

Zhong Haiyuan said: “I was an elementary school teacher. Like countless people in Ganzhou, I spoke up for Li Jiulian. People said I truly stood up for her without hesitation. In fact, I did not even know her personally. On one of her big-character posters I wrote: ‘You are the pride of us women.’ I voluntarily went to the Investigation Committee, asking to do something to help clear her name. The committee members asked me, ‘Do you know? Commander Chen has issued five directives. Aren’t you afraid of the consequences?’ I said, ‘So many people in Ganzhou are speaking for Li Jiulian. If they are not afraid, why should I be?’

“I had originally been an announcer at the regional broadcasting station, but they removed me from that post and transferred me to Jingfengshan Elementary School as a teacher. After my repeated insistence, the Investigation Committee agreed to let me serve again as a broadcaster. Every day I worked from morning until 10:30 at night. Besides broadcasting, whenever I had spare time I helped engrave printing stencils and copy big-character posters.

“The local Party committee instructed: ‘Anyone working for the Investigation Committee shall have their salary suspended by their original unit.’ Many people were forced to leave. But I continued to come every day, bringing along my two-year-old daughter.

“In May 1975, the Ministry of Public Security ruled that the ‘Ganzhou Li Jiulian Issue Investigation Committee’ was a counterrevolutionary organization. Its principal members were arrested one by one. A climate of terror descended over Ganzhou. The committee disappeared; ordinary people were forced into silence. Only I, in my own home, drafted leaflets such as ‘Most Urgent Appeal,’ ‘Strong Protest,’ and ‘Emergency Letter to the Citizens.’ I carved the stencils myself, printed them myself, and distributed them at the Gannan Theater.

“The authorities considered that I was a woman with a two-year-old child and did not arrest me immediately. Instead, they placed me in a study session and ordered me to write self-criticisms.

“My attitude remained unyielding. I insisted Li Jiulian was innocent and refused to confess. So they arrested me. After the April Fifth Incident in 1976, I openly said in prison, ‘Hua Guofeng is not as good as Deng Xiaoping.’ As a result, I was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment.

“In prison, I continued to declare that Li Jiulian was innocent and that the Investigation Committee was innocent. I debated the interrogating officers dozens of times. Each time I was subjected to severe beatings—my mouth was beaten until it bled, large clumps of my hair were torn out—yet I did not change my words. The officer in charge said, ‘This woman is formidable! Among the female prisoners in Ganzhou, we’ve never seen one like her.’

“In the end, they broke my lower leg bone. Yet I still managed to stand up, dragging my heavy shackles, and wrote on the prison wall: ‘Down with Hua Guofeng!’ Because the Ministry of Public Security had assisted the Jiangxi Provincial Committee in suppressing the people of Ganzhou who had spoken out for Li Jiulian, I instinctively hated Hua Guofeng, who had once been Minister of Public Security—even though he later became Chairman and Premier.

“Four months after Li Jiulian was executed, on April 30, 1978, I too was sentenced to death and executed immediately, on the charge of ‘viciously attacking Chairman Hua.’”

The Jade Emperor said, “Your only crime was supporting Li Jiulian? Nothing else? If that is so, it is excessive. But the Communist Party tends to treat associated people as one group, so you were regarded as accomplices.”

Zhong Haiyuan said: “Yes, the sole reason was my unyielding support for Li Jiulian. The difference was that when I heard the death sentence, I signed it without hesitation, tossed down the pen, and turned to leave. Court officials called me back and asked whether I had any last words. I calmly replied, ‘There’s no use speaking with you—we have different beliefs.’ Then I walked away with my head held high.

“On the morning of April 30, 1978, in my death cell, I calmly finished my last meal: four small steamed buns, a bowl of porridge, and a dish of pickled vegetables. Sitting on the floor, I ate slowly, chewing carefully, finishing everything cleanly. I took out a comb, arranged my long hair into a bun at the back of my head, put on a fairly new plaid wool coat, and stood up peacefully.

“Again I was tightly bound, subjected to denunciation in prison—hair pulled, head forced down—again paraded through the streets with a large placard on my back and a wooden execution tag inserted behind it, a rope tightened around my throat, followed by a long, imposing convoy of vehicles. The spectacle was even grander than executions by the Japanese invaders.

“At the Nanchang military hospital there was the son of a high-ranking cadre who urgently needed a kidney transplant, and it had to be taken from a living body. They could not shoot me dead with a single bullet; I had to remain alive for the kidney removal. During the parade, guards restrained me and injected long, thick needles beneath my ribs on both sides, piercing directly into my kidneys. My mouth was stuffed shut, and my whole body trembled violently.

“At the execution ground, they first shot me in the right side of my back. Then they lifted me into a canvas-covered military truck, where—while I was still alive—they surgically removed my kidney. Blood filled the vehicle. Only afterward did they shoot me dead. My body was taken away by the military hospital for dissection.”

The Jade Emperor said, “So this is how your kidney was taken while you were alive? It is unbearably cruel.”

Zhong Haiyuan said: “The cruelty was carried out below, but its roots lay above. The ultimate root was at the very top—Mao Zedong. He was the principal architect of the disaster. I opposed Hua Guofeng for refusing to rehabilitate Li Jiulian, and he had me executed. But Hua was Mao’s successor, continuing Mao’s erroneous line. The ultimate root lies with Mao Zedong.

“Like Li Jiulian, even in death my soul cannot rest. Because the chief culprit, Mao Zedong, has not fully acknowledged guilt, my case cannot be closed. As long as the case is not closed, I cannot rest. That is why tonight I followed Li Jiulian to seek justice from you.”

The Jade Emperor said, “I understand. The root lies with Mao; he was the principal instigator and influenced his successors. Wait for my judgment upon him.”

Having received the Jade Emperor’s assurance, Zhong Haiyuan said no more. She rose, took her leave, and gradually withdrew into the distance.

NEXT: 96. Yu Luoke (1942–1970)