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True accounts add to authenticity of history

By Zhu Yuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-23 07:22

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That definitely refers to the disastrous part of history, such as China's "cultural revolution" (1966-76). To avoid such nightmares from being repeated, a true account of what has happened is necessary for learning the lessons in history.

For Chinese people above 50, that decade during the "cultural revolution" was a nightmare. Yet, as far as history books on that period are concerned, there is much to be desired when it comes to the accurate facts of particular events and evaluation of particular figures who called the shots at the time. There has not been even a single authentic book by Chinese about it. With more and more witnesses passing away, it has become a pressing job to prevent those who are keeping important facts as secrets to themselves from taking them to their tombs.

The book Enquiring History and Seeking Truth by Yan Changgui and Wang Guangyu, which was published recently by the Red Flag Press, is an encouraging sign that some do have the sense of urgency and are willing to leave behind the truth they know about that part of history.

Yan Changgui used to serve as the first secretary to late Chairman Mao's wife Jiang Qing after she was appointed the deputy head of the Cultural Revolution Leading Group of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. That group was the de facto top authority only next to Mao at the time. Wang Guangyu was deputy head of a group handling daily affairs for that body.

As they witnessed the making of some important events such as the meeting to denounce late Chairman Liu Shaoqi and his wife Wang Guangmei, their accounts could be considered the first-hand material to interpret the relationship between the leading group and Mao and shed light on the causes of some events.

Despite the fact that both were persecuted and jailed by their leaders, their accounts of their leaders at the time were balanced. They told what they witnessed, read and heard about such important persons as Mao's wife, which shed light on the understanding and even objective research into such historical figures.

The two extremes of demonization and glorification in depicting and assessing historical figures are the last thing that serious historians and any responsible person leaving their accounts of what they know about historical events should do. However, it has been prevalent to simplify the country's modern history into the struggle between good people and bad people: the good ones are as kind and perfect as gods and bad ones as cruel and atrocious as demons. Such a tendency can also find expression in quite a lot of descriptions about the "cultural revolution".

Some come to the point of being ridiculous. True, some did get involved in a lot of conspiracies in persecuting other people. But they were not as bad from the very beginning and there were different causes for them to become what they were when they committed the mistake of imposing political labels on innocent people.

We need the whole truth about historical figures rather than political labels or the piling up of errors either a person or others committed on a single person just in order to portray him or her as a demon without any merit in the whole life.

It is an irresponsible manner to conclude a part of history just by politically labeling historical figures as bad or good ones. It will hardly be possible for us to learn from history so described.

The two writers have done a good job by having this book published. Hopefully, other people will follow their example and add to the truth about that part of history by telling what they know about the details of a particular event or person.

E-mail: zhuyuan@chinadaily.com.cn