There was a man who had followed Mao for many years, guarding him at his side, yet at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution Mao used him as a sacrificial offering to launch the campaign. That man was Luo Ruiqing.

After receiving the Jade Emperor’s command to meet various departed spirits, Mao constantly thought of Luo Ruiqing. He recalled how in 1965, in order to accommodate Lin Biao, he fabricated charges and removed Luo from office. Later, Luo jumped from a building in a suicide attempt, surviving with severe injuries and becoming crippled. In 1978, Luo went to West Germany for medical treatment, but died abroad. Mao felt deep guilt in his heart.

Speak of Luo, and Luo appears. Luo entered leaning on a cane; his left lower leg had already been amputated in 1969. Forty years later, the old chief and his old subordinate met again.

Luo: “You still remember me, your Luo the Eldest, even after reaching the underworld?”

Mao: “I can’t forget, can’t forget. You just couldn’t think things through. We hadn’t even done much to you—why did you suddenly jump from a building? Look at you now: one leg gone, leaning on a cane, dying abroad. What a tragedy!”

Luo: “At the Shanghai Conference in December 1965, you launched a sudden attack on me. From then on I was dismissed and detained. At the Jingxi Conference in March 1966, I was publicly accused of usurping the army and opposing the Party. I couldn’t bear such a blow. Thinking that everything was over, I figured I might as well die early and be done with it. It’s hateful that the hotel building wasn’t tall enough—I didn’t die, only suffered grievous injuries, and endured ten years of torment.”

Mao: “When Lin Biao fled in 1971, by 1973 I said that persecuting you had been a mistake.”

Luo: “Thanks to your leniency, my days were somewhat better afterward. In 1977, Deng Xiaoping restored me as Secretary-General of the Military Commission. In 1978, I was sent to West Germany to be fitted with a prosthetic leg. Who would have thought I would suffer a heart attack there and die.”

Mao: “It’s a long story. You were the first sacrifice when I launched the Cultural Revolution. You know that to launch it, Lin Biao had to come out. But Lin insisted that you be dealt with first before he would step forward. He sent Ye Qun to accuse you; she spoke for hours, fabricating many charges. I knew in my heart you were not that bad, but I couldn’t afford a standoff, so I had to accommodate him. You can consider it a contribution you made to the Cultural Revolution.”

Luo: “I followed you from Jiangxi, through the Long March, all the way into the cities—decades of loyalty and utmost respect. I never imagined that you would discard me so easily.”

Mao: “You must think from my position. I put power first. Any subordinate, no matter how loyal, is only a chess piece. For the sake of power, sometimes one must sacrifice a piece to save the king. Lin Biao had conflicts with you, and I couldn’t do without him to carry out the Cultural Revolution. For its sake, I had no choice but to sacrifice you.”

Luo: “If you didn’t want me, you could have sidelined me. You didn’t have to pin huge crimes on me and beat me down to death.”

Mao: “You knew well over those decades—internal Party struggles follow that pattern. Once someone is negated, they’re persecuted to the extreme. It wasn’t necessary to persecute you to death. If you hadn’t jumped, if you had endured the grievance, I had even thought of assigning you to work in Jiangxi Province.”

Luo: “Empty words. Didn’t you send Peng Dehuai to work in Sichuan? He survived, yet during the Cultural Revolution he was still struggled against and died.”

Mao: “Were you also struggled against during the Cultural Revolution?”

Luo: “By then your focus was on Liu Shaoqi, the big target. I was a minor figure—a dead dog—not worth mentioning. Do you know that the Red Guards put me in a basket and carried me out for public humiliation? Because my leg was ruined and I couldn’t stand.”

Mao: “Later I saw the photographs. It was inhumane indeed. But what I said at the time was that you had ‘no backbone.’ I didn’t expect you couldn’t even endure that much.”

Luo: “I followed you my whole life, and this was my end. I sought death to prove my resolve—that I was irreconcilable with Lin Biao. Do you still think Lin Biao’s flattery—calling you the ‘Four Greats,’ compiling the Little Red Book, printing hundreds of millions of copies, promoting the ‘Four Firsts’—was of any real use?”

Mao: “At the time it was useful. That’s how I became the Red Sun. Looking back forty years later, it was no longer useful. But without Lin Biao’s methods, the Cultural Revolution could not have been made so grand and sweeping; my Red Sun would not have risen so high.”

Luo: “All of Lin Biao’s methods were hollow. He was full of schemes and only knew how to curry favor with you. My loyalty to you was genuine. At the 7,000 Cadres Conference in 1962, Lin Biao, disregarding the starvation of tens of millions, praised you as a great genius. You felt elated and told me to speak like him. I said I couldn’t imitate that, and you even told me to study Marxism-Leninism.”

Mao: “It was precisely because of Lin Biao’s speech at the 7,000 Cadres Conference that I valued him to replace Liu Shaoqi. He continued down that hollow path in the army—promoting the study of Mao’s works, compiling the Little Red Book, pushing the ‘Four Firsts.’ By the eve of launching the Cultural Revolution in 1965, I had decided that Lin Biao had to step forward.”

Luo: “Lin Biao was suspicious. He thought I had ambitions to replace him. After following you for decades, do you think I was ambitious? You were also suspicious—fearing that Lin Biao would ‘seize power,’ letting rumors spread about purging him, making him wary and prompting his hasty flight. You two were both suspicious, harming others and yourselves. In the end, everyone was finished. You seem not to have failed, but in fact when you died, your policies died with you. As soon as you passed away, Deng Xiaoping stopped your class struggle campaign and implemented reform and opening up.”

Mao: “Looking back now, what I once said was true. I said if the sky were to fall, Luo the Eldest would hold it up. With you standing beside me, I felt at ease.”

Luo: “If you can reflect now, that itself is experience—leaving a lesson for later generations.”

Luo added: “Tonight, meeting you again and speaking openly, I personally feel comforted. But looking at the country today, politically they still follow your methods. Xi Jinping promotes personality cult and seeks to be a world leader like you, disregarding the people’s hardships and scattering money lavishly to Africa. In your time, tens of millions starved to death, yet people covered it up for you. You have never confessed your guilt. I believe you must thoroughly reflect.”

Mao replied perfunctorily: “You are right. I am repenting and will soon face public trial by the Jade Emperor.”

Luo: “Repentance is good. I’ll see how you fulfill it.”

Mao had no answer. Luo said nothing more. He stood up, leaned on his cane, and bid farewell to Mao. Mao supported him as they walked out. Luo then vanished without a trace.

NEXT: 51. Yang Shangkun (1907–1998)