Map 7 Communes of Qingxi District
Qingxi District (Map 7) lies in Daoxian’s eastern region, straddling the Xiaoshui and Lingshui (Ningyuan) Rivers. Here the famous Bajieda Mountains cross into Daoxian from Ningyuan and stretch southward, forming the eastern fringe of the Daozhou basin. The Xiaoshui River passes through the district’s Dongmen, Qingxi, and Qingkou Communes to flow into Shuangpai County’s Zijin (Purple) Mountain. The Lingshui River, originating in Ningyuan County’s Jiuyi Mountain, pierces the Bajieda Mountains to enter Daoxian then follows the foothills of the Bajieda Mountains northward until it converges with two tributaries from Ningyuan and turns west to empty into the Xiaoshui (Shuangpai Reservoir) at Wujiatan. During the Cultural Revolution, this district was a major disaster area in terms of killings, with 617 fatalities (including 51 suicides)1 and 24 households completely obliterated.
Understanding how the killings began and progressed in Qingxi District starts with the district’s People’s Armed Forces Department (PAFD) commander, Jiang Youyuan. Jiang was a straight-laced person with an explosive temper; unlike Zhong Changyou, a born political commissar, Jiang was born for battle. As the saying goes, there are no weak soldiers under a strong general; under Jiang Youyuan, the Qingxi People’s Militia Self-Defense Corps made its presence felt wherever it went.
As a district PAFD leader, Jiang Youyuan was obliged to make frequent trips to Yingjiang, but he kept the district’s leaders apprised of developments elsewhere in the county and closely monitored local operations, which he entrusted to district secretary Zuo Changyun and public-security deputy Nie Gaochun.
Qingkou Commune took the lead in the district’s killings after commune PAFD commander Li Jingxue returned from accompanying Jiang Youyuan to the August 15 PAFD cadre meeting on August 15. At a “five chiefs” meeting back at the commune on August 17, Li exaggerated the “enemy situation” and instigated killings. After Jiang Youyun expressed his enthusiastic approval of the killings, Zuo Changyun telephoned the Qingxi, Qingkou, Ganziyuan, Youxiang, and Baimangpu Communes to transmit Commander Jiang’s instructions to “do away with one or two troublemakers” and to notify the main leaders of each commune to attend a meeting for administrative cadres at the district headquarters on August 23.
Map 7 Communes of Qingxi District
Killing proceeded apace. Meanwhile, Jiang Youyuan acted with his usual speed and resolve to assemble the People’s Militia that same day, and on the evening of August 23 he led the militia to Pingtang to block off the Lingdao Highway in preparation for an attack on the No. 2 High School. However, since the Gongba District militia didn’t arrive in time, the attack on the Revolutionary Alliance headquarters was temporarily postponed. Qingxi District held its second killing-mobilization meeting that same day, and in short order a total of six people were killed in Qingkou and Baimangpu Communes. The other communes were somewhat slower to act but commenced their killings from August 25 onward.
The various levels of meetings and orchestration of killings in Qingxi District were virtually identical to the process in Qingtang and Gongba Districts. What made Qingxi distinctive was the active participation of Jiang Youyuan, the only district PAFD commander on the frontline of Daoxian’s Cultural Revolution killings; all the others kept a discreet distance. Jiang Youyuan had his own take on this phenomenon: “I’m one of those ramrod-straight people. During the destructiveness of the Cultural Revolution, I was the tiger that didn’t kill but looked the part. I wasn’t like some people who hid themselves in the background concocting evil schemes and using me as their hatchet man.”
So how was this hatchet man put to use?
After the attack on the No. 2 High School was postponed, District 1 PAFD commander Liu Houshan came to borrow guns from Jiang, because District 1 (Shangguan) had decided to hold a killing rally at Longjiangqiao on August 24 to execute a miscreant (six actually ended up being killed).2 Fearing attempted sabotage by the Revolutionary Alliance, District 1 requested the support of the Qingxi militia.
Jiang Youyuan said, “It’s no problem to send you men and guns, but we’re short on bullets.”
Liu Houshan said, “Leave the ammunition to me. Just make sure your troops turn up.”
Jiang Youyuan was a dependable man, and whatever he promised he would do in spades. Early the next morning, he brought a dozen or so guns to Longjiangqiao, handed them over, and without even waiting for a thank you from Liu Houshan, he led his men back to the district militia headquarters at Baimadu.3
When the Qingxi militiamen set up their sentry points around three o’clock the next day, August 25, they looked across the river and saw Dongmen Commune’s Gaoche brigade leading a group of class enemies to be drowned. Among the condemned was a class enemy offspring named Liang Xianyu, who suddenly jumped into the river and began swimming away. The Gaoche militiamen ran along the river hollering and chasing him. Watching from the other bank, the Qingxi militiamen joined in the chase. Militia platoon leader Li Xiancai raised his rifle, aimed it at the swimming “fugitive,” and fired two shots, which missed their mark. An enraged Jiang Youyuan berated Li Xiancai: “You’re going to pay for those two bullets you just wasted! And you claim to be a military veteran and a sharpshooter!” He went on and on until Li Xiancai blanched with shame.
I can’t help but feel sorry for Liang Xianyu. He might have made a miraculous escape if he hadn’t been unfortunate enough to encounter the Qingxi People’s Militia Self-Defense Corps. During the Daoxian killings, most drownings were carried out by tying the victim’s hands behind his back and then tying a large rock to him, or hanging a basket full of pebbles around his neck, and then throwing him into the river. Somehow Liang Xianyu had freed himself of this weight and had followed the current quite a distance downriver by the time the militiamen raised the alarm. When Li Xiancai fired his two errant shots, the cunning Liang Xianyu pretended to be hit and ducked under the water, emerging again a good 50 meters downstream.
Although still within shooting range of a rifle, Liang was far outside the range of a fowling piece, and with rifle bullets too precious to waste, the militiamen and cadres could only yell and chase after him along the river. After he’d swum for about a kilometer, an abandoned dam appeared before him, with two rows of fragmented wood posts protruding from the surface of the water. If Liang Xianyu could have beaten the militiamen to the dam, he might have survived. But a person can’t swim as fast as someone can run, and the militiamen chasing along the riverbank arrived at the dam before Liang Xianyu.
When Liang Xianyu saw the militiamen blocking his way at the ruined dam, he began swimming toward the western side of the river, but militiamen were waiting there with fowling guns and sabers, and when he turned east he saw more of the same. By now the militiamen on the riverbanks were no longer worried, and they walked casually back and forth along the riverbank, watching their quarry’s futile efforts. Exhausted and hopeless, Liang Xianyu let the current carry him to the base of the ruined dam and then struggled up the sloping embankment. A dozen fowling guns loaded with buckshot fired at once, and Liang Xianyu’s body fell backward into the water, blood fanning out into the rushing current but soon swallowed up by the white spray.
On that same day, the Baimadu brigade decided to kill five miscreants (three class enemies and two poor peasants). Brigade CCP secretary Huang Mingyou (a delegate to the CCP’s 10th Party Congress) sent public-security chief Zhu Rong’en to the Baimadu militia headquarters to request instructions from Jiang Youyuan. Jiang said, “If the masses say to kill them, then do it.” Once granted permission, the Baimadu brigade arrested its targets that night; two had gotten wind of their intentions and fled, but the other three were captured and drowned on the 27th. In order to show his full support for the “revolutionary action of the poor and lower-middle peasants,” Jiang Youyuan personally supervised the killings.
Later on August 27, Jiang Youyuan led more than 40 Qingxi militiamen to Youxiang Commune, and when cadres from the Youxiang brigade requested instructions, Jiang replied, “Go ahead and kill one or two black elements.”
The next day, Jiang Youyuan presented a report at a meeting of production brigade cadres at Youxiang Commune. He first emphasized the “impurity” of the Revolutionary Alliance: “Of its nine leaders, seven have bad class backgrounds, and 70 percent of its armed personnel are black elements or their offspring. On August 8, they snatched the PAFD’s guns for a counterrevolutionary coup d’état. If we let their scheme prevail, we poor and lower-middle peasants will suffer again under the revival of capitalism. They’ll be just like the Kuomintang, coming down to steal our money and grain, killing our pigs, and committing various other evil acts.” On the killing of class enemies, he said, “The killing of a few class enemies by poor peasants is a revolutionary act. When the Revolutionary Bandits object, it shows that they’re breathing from the same nostrils as the class enemies. … Well-behaved black elements don’t need to be killed, but it’s all right to kill one or two troublemakers.” He then told each production brigade to come up with a killing list.
This meeting was followed by a new upsurge in killings at Youxiang Commune, and the “killing sputnik” launched at the Yuejin (Great Leap) brigade was a direct result of this meeting.
The Yuejin brigade recorded the largest number of killings of any brigade in Daoxian, largely due to the hands-on efforts of the brigade’s CCP secretary, He Fangqian. Since the Yuejin brigade was a focal point of our reporting, we were able to gain an in-depth understanding of He Fanqian and the way he worked.
In Daoxian, there was no tradition of men helping their wives around the house, but He Fangqian was different; while CCP secretary of the Yuejin production brigade, he also managed things at home, which to him meant fetching the water, lighting the fire, and looking after the kids. Every woman in the village was green with envy, saying He’s wife must have been outstandingly virtuous in her previous life to get such a good husband in this life.
The truth was that He Fangqian wanted to see things done right, even if it meant doing it himself. And as leader of a production brigade with such a revolutionary name, he felt all the more compelled to ensure that the brigade stood out.
After attending a meeting at Youxiang Commune on August 25, where public-security deputy Li Benyue reported on the “critical” class struggle situation, He Fangqian, deputy CCP secretary Zuo Longjiao, poor-peasant association (PPA) chairman He Juming, and other brigade cadres called a cadre meeting at the production brigade. Zuo Longjiao said, “Our production brigade has two scoundrels who are particularly unruly. One is the bad element Zuo Yongxiang, who’s been attending clandestine meetings of class enemies, killing pigs, and drinking blood liquor.4 The other is the landlord [offspring] Zuo Changyun,5 who’s preparing to assist a counterattack against the mainland by Chiang Kai-shek.6 We need to impose dictatorship on these two and puncture the arrogant bluster of the black elements.”
Zuo’s words fired up the other cadres, who unanimously agreed to impose dictatorship, and when He Fangqiang telephoned the commune to report the brigade’s decision, Li Benyue responded, “Excellent! The masses have been mobilized! Proceed with the killings.”
The next morning (August 26), following a mass rally at the Youxiang High School, Zuo Yongxiang and Zuo Changyun were shot with fowling guns and dumped into the river, and 14 more black elements were locked up in the villages of Zhouzishang and Wulidong under the close watch of the militia.
That same morning, He Fangqian attended a cadre meeting during which district PAFD commander Jiang Youyuan delivered the “keynote speech,” and Li Benyue said that given the serious situation of class struggle throughout the county, he was astonished to see Youxiang Commune so far behind, and his own Yuejin brigade behind the rest of the commune. He Fangqian was horrified. Although physically unprepossessing, he’d always held up his end of the work, and the criticism from the commune’s leader made him break out in a cold sweat. As He Fangqian and the other brigade cadres walked home from the meeting, they reached an agreement to go all out to make up for lost time.
After dinner and a cursory washing, He Fangqian rushed off to another meeting. By the time He arrived, the grain-drying yard of the Wusheng production team was foggy with mosquito-repelling smoke and crowded with cadres, CCP, and Youth League members and activist poor and lower-middle peasants. He Fangqian hurried in to take his seat and instructed the militia guards to enhance their vigilance. Taking roll call, He Fangqian found that several people from distant Wulidong had yet to arrive, but when he saw their torchlights approaching, he relaxed enough to accept a proffered pipe.
Once everyone had arrived and the “Long live!” salute and Mao quotes were dealt with, He Fangqian reported, “I have good news for you all: at today’s commune meeting, Director Li praised our brigade’s elevated awareness and quick action… . Director Li said that by doing away with the arch-criminals Yongxiang and Changyun, we resolutely attacked the aggression of the class enemy. But we can’t rest on our laurels. A lot of production brigades have surpassed us at this point, and we haven’t taken any action since the 25th. Commander Li says that as an advanced brigade, we can’t fall behind the others, and he wants us to decide what other troublemakers we can do away with.”
After some discussion, it was agreed to kill all of the brigade’s black elements, including the elderly and children. But when it came to drawing up a name list, a silence fell over the meeting; everyone bowed their heads, the scarlet embers glowing in their pipes like fireflies along a riverbank and imprinting the image of those honest and conflicted faces on the curtain of night. They all worked and lived together; of course there had been arguments and conflicts, but to kill off entire families for no reason was still a dreadful prospect. In this production brigade, most of the residents of Zhouzishang Village were surnamed He, while most in Wulidong were surnamed Zuo, and it had not escaped the attention of the Zuos that the previous killings had involved two with their surname. Was it really possible that all the bad eggs were Zuos and none were Hes?
When He Fangqian saw that no one was speaking up, he felt obliged to start things off by providing some names from his own production team. At that moment, all eyes were fastened on Wulidong, and a competition arose to see who could be most revolutionary. Finally all the black-element households were listed, totaling 61 people. When He Fangqian saw the name list, he became worried: “What are we going to do with so many people?”
It was finally decided that three pits near the Shitoushan Reservoir would suit the purpose, and that a judgment rally would be held there the next day. The roundup began at dawn the next morning, August 27, with the sounding of gongs at both villages.
Before moving forward, He Fangqian took the precaution of reporting to the commune’s deputy CCP secretary, Bai Chengguang, who said, “This is a mass movement—of course you have to do whatever the poor and lower-middle peasants demand. But you should still request instructions from the two commanders [public security and PAFD] to see what they say.”
He Fangqian quickly telephoned the commune, but PAFD commander He Wenzhi7 was not there, and the person answering the phone was the commune’s Cultural Revolution Committee (CRC) chairman, Zheng Laixi. After hearing of the brigade’s plans, Zheng yelped, “Good job! That’s a lot!” He Fangqian asked Zheng to also report the brigade’s actions to public-security head Li Benyue as soon as possible.
By then, the brigade’s black elements and offspring had been gathered up and bound. They included 10 class enemies and 51 offspring, 33 of whom were minors. At a little after nine o’clock in the morning, He Fangqian led the group escorting the 61.5 targets (one was a pregnant woman, and her fetus counted as half a person) in a grand procession to the Shitoushan Reservoir. When too elderly black elements slowed down the proceedings, CCP secretary He gave the militia permission to shoot them when they reached the Hejia River. This immediately sped up the procession as the terrified victims bolted toward their doom.
When the group reached the pits, the brigade’s PPA chairman represented the peasant supreme court in handing down the death sentences, and the brigade accountant called each name in turn, after which the victims were pushed one by one into the pits. Burning rice straw was then tossed into the pits, and finally the victims were covered with dirt.
Counting the two killed on the 26th, the brigade killed a total of 63.5 people, half of the 128 people killed in Youxiang Commune during the killing wind. This campaign eliminated virtually all the “class enemies” in the Yuejin brigade; one class enemy managed to escape, and one young female landlord, who was in fact a poor peasant married to a landlord, was granted a way out through remarriage.
Looking at the fresh earth tamped down into the pits, the meticulous He Fangqian was still uneasy, and he and deputy CCP secretary Zuo Longjiao sat and smoked while they talked it over: was this thin layer of soil enough to cover so many people? What if someone wasn’t dead and managed to dig his way out? They decided to take the extra precaution of posting militiamen to watch the pits overnight.
Campfire flames flickered, and the stars out in the wilderness were especially dazzling. Fish leaped playfully from the reservoir, their splashes startling the watchmen and making their hearts thunder. One militiaman with a middle-school education suddenly felt stirred to hum a song: “Raise your heads toward the Big Dipper, think of Mao Zedong, think of Mao Zedong. …”
Afterwards, He Fangqian bragged to everyone, “I killed until I was completely covered with blood!” This blood-soaked man was later promoted to commune CCP secretary.
Another high-level leader involved in the killings in Qingxi District was Wang Ansheng, who at the time was director of the organization department of the county CCP committee. During the early stage of the Cultural Revolution, Wang came under attack for executing a “bourgeois reactionary line,” and following the “January Tempest” of 1967, Wang was one of those hung out to dry as part of Daoxian’s “erring ruling clique.” Following the August 8 gun-snatching incident and the Red Alliance’s withdrawal to Yingjiang, some leading cadres under the control (or “protection”) of the Red Alliance were dispersed to various villages throughout the countryside. Wang Ansheng was one of those cadres, and he ended up at the Tuanjie brigade of Qingxi District’s Qingkou Commune.
Wang Ansheng had been assigned to the Tuanjie brigade during the Socialist Education movement, so he and the local cadres and villagers were very familiar with each other. During an exceptional period such as the Cultural Revolution, finding this kind of port in the storm was immensely consoling, and while Wang arrived in Qingkou at a much lower status than on the previous occasion, the local cadres and villagers still regarded him as a paternalistic official in the most positive sense. A folk song popular during the Cultural Revolution went: “Molting, a phoenix is less than a chicken, but when its feathers grow back, a chicken is still a chicken and a phoenix is a phoenix!” To the villagers, Wang was just a phoenix temporarily without feathers.
When Wang Ansheng arrived at the Tuanjie brigade in mid-August 1967, he initially spent three days in the home of PPA chairman Jiang Xianfu and then shared a room with the deputy CCP secretary of Qingkou Commune, Zhou Shu, in the home of an elderly poor peasant named He Wenrao at Miaotou Village. At the time of Wang Ansheng’s arrival, there had not yet been any killings in the Tuanjie brigade, but two rounds of killings occurred while Wang was staying in the home of He Wenrao.
Wang Ansheng and Zhou Shu were enjoying tea, cigarettes, and melon seeds at the home of Meihua Commune head He Changjin on August 23 when militia chief He Changkun and others hurried over and reported, “Director Wang, our production brigade wants to kill two miscreants today.” In his usual fashion, Wang Ansheng nodded and smiled and said, “Great! That’s great!” He Changjin invited He Changkun and the others to have a cup of tea first, but He Changkun waved him off, saying, “Next time!” Before the tea had time to cool, He Changkun and the others returned with a new report: “We’ve done away with the two bad guys.” Wang Ansheng once again nodded and smiled and said, “Great! That’s great!”
On September 4, Zhou Shu and Wang Ansheng presided over a meeting of CCP and Youth League members and cadres at the Tuanjie brigade, and Zhou led a recitation of quotes by Chairman Mao relating to struggle against the enemy. Militiaman and PPA chairman Jiang Xianfu was then asked to describe the experience of class struggle elsewhere, after which the attendees unanimously agreed that their brigade was too conservative and needed to catch up with the others. Some Youth League members in particular cried out for class enemies to be killed, and public-security head Zheng Sanxi and brigade leader Wei Zaihua expressed the view that all black elements should be killed. Wang Ansheng sat beside the door smiling and smoking, delighted to see the poor and lower-middle peasants so thoroughly galvanized. Nineteen people were killed the next day.
When Wang Ansheng encountered Zheng Sanxi on the way to Wangjiatan the next day, Zheng asked, “Director Wang, how do you feel we did?” Wang replied, “Your meeting was well run, and you did well! The problem is that if we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us.”
After Wang Ansheng returned from Wangjiatan to his lodgings in Miaotou, his host, He Wenrao, asked, “Can we kill offspring?” He Wenrao asked this because some of the more softhearted poor peasants objected to offspring being killed the day before. Wang replied, “If it’s not necessary to kill offspring, of course it’s better not to. The problem is that this is a struggle between the two roads, and if we don’t kill the enemy, they’ll kill us.”
A grassroots cadre from Qingkou Commune’s Yishanping brigade (where seven were killed) also revealed that brigade CCP secretary Tang Fangming requested instructions from Wang Ansheng before killings had begun in the immediate vicinity, and Wang Ansheng replied, “Ha! Can’t you see? If the masses demand killings, people should be killed. But you’ll have to move fast; if you wait much longer it may not be possible.” The next day, four people were killed.
This incident was uncovered during the “exposure study sessions” conducted by the 47th Army’s 6950 Unit in 1968. Accused to his face, Wang Ansheng bowed his head and admitted his guilt, but when the Task Force investigated in 1984, Wang Ansheng denied everything. On instructions from the upper levels, the Task Force formed a “Special Investigation Group on the Comrade Wang Ansheng Problem” and carried out an in-depth and detailed investigation that confirmed some issues but left others unresolved due to the deaths of some of the persons involved.
It might appear that what I’ve recorded here breaches my basic principle of using only content corroborated by collateral evidence or the admission or confession of persons concerned. How can I include it when Wang Ansheng steadfastly refused to admit to it? However, I have in hand an informant’s report from the 1968 “exposure study session,” which in black and white records that Wang Ansheng and others admitted their guilt when confronted with the accusations. Can this be considered a confession by Wang? At the very least, it casts doubt on his subsequent retraction.