After Zhong Haiyuan withdrew, before long the Jade Emperor saw a young, gentle-looking scholar slowly approaching. Not recognizing him, the Jade Emperor asked, “Who are you?”

The young man replied, “I am Yu Luoke.”

The Jade Emperor asked again, “Do you also have some grievance?”

Yu Luoke said: “You may call it injustice, or you may not. It is unjust to say I plotted to assassinate Mao—that was a false charge. It is true that I possessed a hand grenade. Where did it come from? During the Cultural Revolution I went to Changchun. At the railway station I encountered rebels distributing grenades in preparation for armed struggle. They gave one to me as well. I thought that since I was unarmed, I might at least use it to frighten someone in self-defense if needed, so I accepted it. When I brought it back to Beijing, I did not know how to dispose of it and intended to bury it in the Western Hills. Before I had the chance, I was arrested and my home searched. The grenade was real; the accusation of plotting to kill Mao was added on. That was unjust.

“But it is not unjust in the sense that I wrote ‘On Class Origin,’ which Qi Benyu denounced as a ‘great poisonous weed.’ I also wrote three essays refuting Yao Wenyuan—‘On Honest Officials,’ ‘Is Hai Rui Necessary?—A Discussion with Yao Wenyuan,’ and ‘From Hai Rui’s Dismissal to Historical Inheritance.’ These were labeled ‘reactionary speech.’ Those two charges were true.”

Hearing this, the Jade Emperor found Yu Luoke an admirable young man. He asked, “And for this they executed you? You were so young, and talented.”

Yu Luoke said: “From elementary school through middle school, I was always outstanding in both character and scholarship. My essay ‘My Childhood’ was chosen as a model for the entire school. I placed second in Beijing youth Chinese chess. I could play two games at once without looking at the board. I was the student representative speaking at my elementary graduation.

“In the college entrance examination I scored excellently, but because my parents were both labeled Rightists, I was not admitted. The following year I scored even better, yet again was denied admission. I had no choice but to become a farmer in the suburbs. Wherever I was, I studied hard every night, reading extensively—Hegel, Rousseau, Marx. I once served as a substitute elementary teacher and in half a year turned a very poor class into one strong in discipline and academics. Yet because of my parents’ political label, I was not made permanent and was reassigned as an apprentice worker. Thus I struggled along in society.

“When the Cultural Revolution began, I wrote ‘On Class Origin,’ ‘On Purity,’ ‘On the Gap,’ and others. I was branded a criminal for reactionary speech. In prison I was interrogated eighty times and pressed to confess. I never admitted fault. I was executed. I did not cry injustice, nor did I regret it.

“On the night before my execution, I held a farewell gathering with fellow prisoners and sang all night. The next day, at the Beijing Workers’ Stadium, there was a sentencing rally of one hundred thousand people. So many came to see me off, and after the rally I was paraded through the streets, with even more lining the roads. I felt I died in the right place. I told my fellow prisoners: what is immortality? If what you write is still read by later generations, that is immortality. I lived twenty-eight years. It was worth it.”

The Jade Emperor, impressed by his fortitude, asked, “What gave you such determination—to write and persist, even at the cost of your life?”

Yu Luoke said: “Do you know how harmful the ‘bloodline theory’ was? At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, under the slogan ‘If the father is a hero, the son is a good fellow; if the father is reactionary, the son must get out,’ how many were wronged and died unjustly? The so-called ‘Red Five Categories’ spread terror, leaving the ‘Black Five Categories’ in panic and constant fear.

“In Daxing County, there were organized mass killings of the Black Five Categories. It was announced that all members of these categories were to be exterminated without exception. From late August 1966, in more than a dozen communes of Daxing, killings ran rampant. In one commune, a Poor Peasants’ Association chairman personally beheaded sixteen people with a chopper and collapsed afterward. The bodies were stuffed into a deep well until it was nearly full. In other brigades, victims were buried in reed marshes, or strangled and dragged there until dead. In just a few days, more than three hundred were killed; over twenty households were wiped out.”

The Jade Emperor said, “To create red terror, Mao mobilized the masses through movements to kill. Afterward he treated the killers leniently.”

Yu Luoke replied: “Under Mao’s ‘tolerance,’ even greater massacres followed. In Dao County, Hunan, slogans proclaimed, ‘Exterminate the Black Five Categories, forever preserve the red regime.’ From August 1967, in just two months, more than four thousand people were killed—shot, beaten, hacked, blown up, buried alive, drowned, strangled, burned, thrown off cliffs—along with their children. Over three hundred were forced to commit suicide. Thirty-six communes and more than 2,700 households were involved.

“And not only Dao County. In Ningyuan County, over a thousand were killed. In other counties across Hunan, hundreds were slain—some in their seventies, some infants only days old. The violence spread further to Guangxi. In one county, militia pushed entire families into a bottomless cave, killing seventy-six at once. In Lingshan County, thousands were beaten or driven to death; hundreds of families were exterminated.”

The Jade Emperor said, “Such brutality is shocking.”

Yu Luoke continued: “In Guangxi there was even cannibalism. After struggle sessions, victims were killed and parts of their bodies—hearts, livers, even other organs—were cut out and consumed. Some officials even organized ‘demonstration meetings’ to teach how to kill. The madness and bloodshed surpassed even the atrocities of Hitler.

“When I heard these reports, how could any person of conscience remain silent? That is why I took up my pen to criticize the ‘bloodline theory.’ I understood that the root of violence lay in Mao’s class struggle doctrine. Yet I could not comprehend why he chose such a path.”

The Jade Emperor replied: “If Mao had not stirred chaos and bloodshed, how could he have toppled Liu Shaoqi? He could not prevail by votes; he relied on mobilizing the masses and the army. Once the masses were incited, excesses followed, and he applauded them.”

Yu Luoke said: “Movement after movement—first Liu Shaoqi, then Lin Biao—how many were purged? The theory of endless class struggle justified it all. Today, those who inherited power use it to amass wealth. Without freedom of speech, without reckoning with Mao’s crimes, China will know no peace.”

The Jade Emperor said, “Mao’s crimes will one day be judged.”

Having received this assurance, Yu Luoke rose, took his leave, and vanished without a trace.

NEXT: 97. Wang Shenyou (1945–1977)