In April 1936, Feng Xuefeng was sent to Shanghai by the Party Central Committee. Liu Ying, Zhang Wentian’s wife, made the following recollections and comments on the background, process and tasks of sending Feng Xuefeng to Shanghai.
The victory of the Red Army's Eastern Expedition indeed aroused strong responses across the country. The pace of alliance with the Northeastern Army and the Seventeenth Route Army has accelerated. Many celebrities in Shanghai also supported the Red Army's Eastern Expedition. In particular, the leading comrades of the central government were particularly happy to receive letters from Soong Ching Ling, Lu Xun, Mao Dun, and Qin Zhen. During the Eastern Expedition , people from the Shanghai underground party also came. I have long wanted to restore contact with the Shanghai Party, but now I can take action. Who is the right person to send? Wen Tian thought of Feng Xuefeng.
When Wen Tian was the Propaganda Minister of the Provisional Central Committee of Shanghai in the early 1930s, Xuefeng was his assistant. When Xuefeng came to our house, he talked about Lu Xun with great interest. He was full of respect for Lu Xun. Wen Tian felt that Feng Xuefeng was the most suitable candidate to go to Shanghai and restore the organization. He could find out the situation through the relationships between Lu Xun, Mao Dun, etc., and then restore and sort out the party's relationships. Comrade Enlai also thought Xuefeng was suitable. In early April, Wen Tian and Enlai returned to Wayaobao from Hedong. Comrade Feng Xuefeng was one of the members of the local working committee and was still working in Hedong. He was transferred back and Enlai and Wentian handed over the tasks respectively. I remember that before we left, we treated Xuefeng to a meal in our cave. Wen Tian told Xuefeng: "When you arrive in Shanghai, go to Lu Xun and Mao Dun first. They are reliable." He also told him to be cautious and stay hidden. Xuefeng is very capable, familiar with Shanghai's intellectuals and has many connections. After he arrived in Shanghai, he quickly established a communication line from Shanghai to Xi'an to northern Shaanxi. Later, he set up a secret radio station to communicate with northern Shaanxi. At that time, Wen Tian, En Lai and other central leading comrades talked about Li Yunsheng (pseudonym of Feng Xuefeng) and his work in Shanghai. They all felt that he had done a good job and were satisfied with him.
Feng Xuefeng wrote "Reminiscences of Lu Xun" in the early 1950s (first published in the bimonthly issue of "New Observation" and published as a separate volume in 1952), and "About 1936" published in the 1980 issue of "New Literature Historical Materials" "The actions of Zhou Yang and others and the process of Lu Xun's promulgation of the slogan "Popular Literature of the National Revolutionary War"" also recalled the background, process and tasks of being sent to Shanghai. However, the most important mission he undertook and its motivations were not disclosed, probably because it was highly confidential.
Feng Xuefeng was sent to Shanghai. The general background was to implement the resolutions of the Wayaobu Conference and the spirit of the Shanxi Conference. One of the direct motivations was the beginning of secret contacts between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Therefore, his most important secret mission was to contact Nanjing, which was called "diplomacy" at the time. This can be seen from Mao Zedong’s letter of instructions to Feng Xuefeng on August 14, 1936, asking him to do the upper-level united front work in Nanjing. Mao Zedong asked Feng Xuefeng: First, carry out united front work with various factions of the Kuomintang: "Song Kong's European and American faction, Feng Yuxiang faction, Qin Zhen faction, especially Chen Cheng and Hu Zongnan of the Huangpu faction, must find ways to directly Contact someone indirectly, and report to me as soon as you have any clues." He told him to "write a report on various matters related to contact with higher-ups." Secondly, he was responsible for liaising with representatives of powerful factions in North China who were engaged in united front work, especially those working on the united front. "We need to have a very good relationship with Liu Qingshan, the commander of the 29th Army, Song Zheyuan, the representative of , so that he can concentrate on traveling to North China for us." The third is to understand the representatives of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Consortium, Yu Qiaqing, Mu Ouchu, etc. The characters’ movements and trying to contact them.
Following Zhang Wentian's instructions, Feng Xuefeng first went to find Lu Xun after arriving in Shanghai. He introduced to Lu Xun many things about the Soviet Area, the Communist Party of China, the Red Army's Long March, the political situation and the new strategy of the Communist Party of China's Anti-Japanese National United Front. From Feng Xuefeng, Lu Xun deepened his understanding of the Party and the Red Army and Mao Zedong. , understanding of the new strategy, dispelled the doubts that had existed, and enthusiastically supported the Anti-Japanese National United Front of the Communist Party of China.He expressed his willingness to "use a pen" to be "a small soldier" of the Chinese Communist Party, and stated in the "Letter to the Trotskyists": "Those who have stepped on the ground and shed their blood for the current survival of the Chinese people" I must consider myself as a comrade who strives for glory." In "On Our Current Literary Movement," he proposed the "general slogan" of "popular literature for the national revolutionary war" and demanded that "all struggles should be integrated. merge into the general stream of the anti-Japanese and anti-traitor struggle", requiring proletarian revolutionary literature to "make its responsibilities heavier and more amplified, so heavy and big that the entire nation, regardless of class or party, should unite to face this. The standpoint of the nation is truly the standpoint of the class.” The two articles on June 9 and 10 were dictated by Lu Xun and transcribed by Feng Xuefeng.
At this time, the internal divisions and contradictions in the left-wing revolutionary literary camp were quite serious, which were mainly reflected in the sectarian sentiments of some leading comrades of the party in the literary and art circles and their wrong attitudes towards Lu Xun. Feng Xuefeng promptly reported to the Party Central Committee. He sent a traffic officer (Zhou Wen) to deliver three reports: 1. On May 28, Feng gave Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai a written report on the situation in Shanghai for more than a month. 2. In mid-June, Feng sent a letter to the central government to talk about the Guangdong and Guangxi incident and so on. 3. Around June 25, after meeting with Pan Hannian in Hong Kong and returning to Shanghai, Feng sent a traffic officer (Zhou Wen) to deliver a report to the Xi'an office for transfer to the central government. The main contents were: first, requesting instructions from the central government on the issue of Snow going to northern Shaanxi; 2. It was to report to the Central Committee that Pan Hannian had returned to China. Feng went to Hong Kong to get in touch with Pan. Pan would go to northern Shaanxi after arriving in Shanghai.
After the leaders of the Party Central Committee received three letters from Feng Xuefeng, Liu Ding, the CCP representative who came to Ansai, northern Shaanxi to attend a meeting to discuss the work of the Northeast Army, was about to return to Nanjing and Shanghai. On July 6, Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai jointly issued an urgent letter. A reply letter asked Liu Ding to take it to Shanghai to meet "Brother Li" (ie Feng Xuefeng).
In this letter, Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai expressed their deep longing for Lu Xun (and Mao Dun): "How are your teacher and Brother Shen? I miss you very much." Regarding the things Lu Xun "sent" to the leaders of the Party Central Committee , "Although it has not yet been received due to transportation problems," he said that "we are all very grateful" (Note: It was Feng Xuefeng's initiative to use Lu Xun's royalties to send ham to the leaders of the Party Central Committee). He expressed his gratitude to Lu Xun (and Mao Dun ) "for his efforts to resist Japan and save the country", expressed that "we all admire him" and asked Feng Xuefeng to "transfer our respect". The letter also expressed the party's full trust in Lu Xun, saying: "We do not believe any doubts about your teacher." and asked Feng Xuefeng to tell Lu Xun: "Please don't get angry over some frivolous comments. "In Lu Xun's later years, it had never been seen before that leaders of the Party Central Committee expressed their gratitude, admiration, trust and concern for him so directly. What a huge comfort and encouragement to Lu Xun, who was misunderstood and even attacked by people on the same front during his illness!
The importance of this letter also lies in its timely and correct guidance on the anti-tendency struggle. Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai instructed Feng Xuefeng in their letters: "Fight resolutely against closed-doorism." He pointed out that "this closed-door tendency is often expressed even in some left-leaning publications" and hoped that he would "pay close attention". Here, Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai severely criticized closed-doorism in their letters, saying that "closed-doorism is indeed a sin at present, and often plays the same role as a traitor." This is obviously not just a general comment, but also the same as Lu Xun's at that time. The understanding comes from thinking in connection with the situation. Because the "some frivolous discussions" for which Lu Xun was "angry" and the "suspiciousness" of Lu Xun mostly came from within the party and the left; Lu Xun, who emphasized the need to adhere to the proletarian position in the united front, "closed the door." Reading the letters and articles written by Lu Xun when he was seriously ill in May and June, it is not an exaggeration at all to say that closed-doorism is a "evil". Of course, saying "often playing the same role as a traitor" is based on the seriousness of its objective impact.Whether to oppose closed-doorism or to resolve conflicts and differences within the same front, Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai’s letters clearly stated the nature and methods of fighting closed-doorism: “But these people are different from traitors, and the solutions are completely different. Explanation is still the first priority."
Feng Xuefeng promptly conveyed the deep friendship of the leading comrades of the Party Central Committee to Lu Xun and Mao Dun, and actively implemented the instructions of the Party Central Committee.
First of all, Feng Xuefeng assisted Lu Xun in writing "Reply to Xu Maoyong and Concerning the Issues of the Anti-Japanese United Front" from August 3 to 6, which was published in the monthly "Writer" published that month. Lu Xun said: "I have seen the anti-Japanese united front policy proposed to the people of the country by the current revolutionary political party in China, I support it, and I join this front unconditionally." (The text with emphasis in the original text, this article uses Bold indicates, the same below) Regarding the debate between "popular literature of national revolutionary war" and "national defense literature," Lu Xun advocated "the coexistence of these two slogans." As for the alliance between writers and artists on the anti-Japanese issue, Lu Xun believed that "it is unconditional. As long as he is not a traitor and is willing or in favor of resisting Japan, it doesn't matter whether he is called brother or sister, whatever, or he is a mandarin duck or a butterfly."
At the same time, Feng Xuefeng wrote "Opinions on Several Issues in the Literary Movement" on August 27 under the pen name "Lv Keyu" and published it in the monthly "Writer". The article sharply criticizes the closed-doorism of left-wing critics represented by Zhou Yang, their mechanical views on literary theory issues, and their attitudes and style problems. The article requires, "Critics should maintain a comradely and loving attitude towards writers." Feng Xuefeng also mentioned the "Goth" article in November 1932 and said: "Three years ago, a Mr. Codd once said However, we should cherish writers; he also said, "Marx's loving attitude toward Heine and Lenin's attitude towards Gorky should give us good examples." Therefore, I think some people treat Lu Xun as such. Mr. Mao Dun’s attitude is not a good example for us.” This passage can be seen as Feng Xuefeng’s message to the leading comrades of the Party Central Committee on July 6. Its intention is obviously to remind those criticized that what "Lv Keyu" said in this article is not his personal opinion.
After that, with the support of Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, etc., the debate on the "two slogans" was contained, which led to the "Literary and Art Circles Fans" signed by 21 widely representative writers from all walks of life on October 1, 1936. "Declaration of Unity to Defend Insult and Freedom of Expression" was issued, and the anti-Japanese united front in the literary and artistic circles was finally formed.
Feng Xuefeng's exchange with Lu Xun in Shanghai in 1936, and his report to the Party Central Committee triggered the July 6 letters from Zhang Wentian and Zhou Enlai. The positive impact on Lu Xun's life and fighting in his final years is inestimable. One of the factors that played a decisive role in Lu Xun's spiritual happiness and cheerfulness, his optimistic confidence and high emotions from time to time in the months before his death was the Party's trust and respect for Lu Xun and Lu Xun's understanding and understanding of the Party. confidence. And Feng Xuefeng, in this era of great historical changes, once again played an outstanding role as a bridge between the Party and Lu Xun.
