To Shout Is My Duty
© Jiang Ping/Dictation © Chen Jie/Writing
The first thing I did when I sat down was to peek at Jiang Ping's legs. He was sitting very peacefully, and it was impossible to tell that he had only one leg. He once rode a bicycle to a meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC), and the doorman couldn't tell that this fat old man was a member of the NPC Standing Committee, so he wouldn't let him in. My "can't see" and the guard's "can't see", perhaps were not all because of poor eyesight?
Jiang Ping should be a very honorable person. The piano in the living room with some small ornaments, look closely to see that there are words on it. A small gold trophy obtained for a certain honor, and his 70, 75 birthday gifts: a crystal seat, a porcelain plate with his picture, a few photographs, things are not expensive, but there is respect and love in it. Small things stood, all proud and upright, all because it is "Jiang Ping's prize". Jiang Ping sat in front of the shelf full of life prizes, detailing the three ups and two downs of his life, every time he issued a thick and magnetic laugh.
The house is decorated in a Western style, and the owner's manner is also Westernized: he let me pour my own water, apologized before answering the phone, and asked for an article as long as I didn’t think it infringed on his right to reputation. But at the end of the interview, he got up with great difficulty and went to his bedroom to change his clothes, just to have his picture taken. Among the people I have interviewed, only the most old-fashioned gentlemen have this kind of strict etiquette.
A professor at the China University of Political Science and Law privately and unkindly commented that Jiang Ping's historical value is greater than his factual value. When I told Jiang Ping this, he laughed out loud and said, "That's right," and added that the historical value was just fine. The collection of his speeches at the Law Press is called "To Shout Is My Duty". His autobiography, which is in the process of being "slowly written". He said, in fact, there is nothing to say, just a few words: The process of democracy and the rule of law in China is irreversible, and he can shout a few times to speed up the process, but he can't do anything else.
Jiang Ping in his own words
1. A fall, go to the country with worries
I was born in Dalian, grew up in Beijing, and Ningbo is only my hometown. In the past, when I talked about my family's origin and composition, I put "senior staff". Because my father was a bank clerk, in the Northeast, equivalent to the Bank of China accounting office director or something.
In 1937, the whole family went to Beijing, and I studied at Chongde Middle School, a Church of England school. At that time, there were eight Christian church schools in Beijing, all of which were relatively free-thinking, and they were closely related to Yenching University, so they could guarantee admission. So, after graduating from secondary school, I went to Yenching University and studied journalism. I wanted to be a journalist, interviewing and asking questions just like you (laughs).
There were many student clubs at Yenching University, political, literary, academic, and social, and the social clubs were what we call volunteers nowadays, doing volunteer and social service work. I participated in all kinds of clubs and joined the Democratic Youth League, which was a peripheral organization of the party. I was also a member of the Democratic Youth League, which was a peripheral organization of the Party. Also engaged in artistic performances.
In fact, after only half a year of college, China was liberated. Schools were closed and we were busy doing propaganda work, so I count March 1949 as the year I joined the organization. At that time, I couldn't say I knew much about communism or what the Communist Party stood for. But judging from the corruption of the Kuomintang, a considerable number of our classmates were still inclined towards the Communist Party.
Initially, I signed up for the Fourth Field Army's southward working group. All the formalities were completed, even the luggage was packed. But the night before I was to leave, an order came down to leave me behind to work on the municipal committee of the regiment. At that time, Beijing organised a youth training class and set up the Beiping Preparatory Committee for the New Democratic Youth League. I was in charge of the Cultural and Labour Troupe in the Youth League Municipal Committee, and I also worked for some time in the Ministry of Military Physical Education and Sports in the field of physical education and sports.
The first turning point in my life was in 1951, when my country sent me abroad to study for the first time after the liberation. At that time, there was no such thing as self-funded study, it was a public programme, and very few people went there. The North China Bureau came to select people to send, and there was only one place in the whole of Beijing, and I was chosen. I was a "young revolutionary intellectual" and now a Party cadre, I had studied English at Chongde and had also studied at the university, so I was considered to be educated, and I fulfilled all the conditions. It was a rare opportunity and a great honour.
When I went there, I decided to study law, which I knew nothing about. I had a passion for journalism, and then I started playing sports in the regiment, and I thought it would be great if I could study sports. However, it was wrong to think so, everything had to obey the organization’s allocation and arrangement, and you had to study whatever the country sent you to study.
There were only a few of us, and we went to Kazan University first. Kazan University is very famous, Lenin studied there, and in the classroom where we had our lessons there was a reserved seat with the inscription "Lenin's seat". Gorky also spent a lot of time there.
But we were more interested in Moscow, and after two years we moved to Moscow University. Moscow was, of course, very beautiful, very modern, and the living conditions were so much better than ours. We were all very excited, this is what the future of socialism and communism should be like! Actually, it's not so good now that I think about it, it's very average. After all, the USSR was not long after the war, and there were traces of the post-war period everywhere. A good number of our teachers had broken arms and legs, because everyone from associate professors down had to go to war and fight. But at that time it felt like they were so developed and advanced.
That time should be very happy, I also knew a female classmate, lower than me, young, and the relationship was good. However, just in the Soviet Union we couldn’t get married, so later we returned to the country to get married.
The universities in Soviet were five-year programs, but we had to learn Russian for one year, a total of six years, so we should have graduated in 1957. But I was so competitive, with a foundation in English, and I had learnt a bit of Russian at home, so I went to school in the USSR after only half a year of language study. I was able to make up for the first six months of the four courses one after another. In 1956, I graduated one year earlier than all my classmates and came back one year earlier than all my classmates, and in this way, I was able to catch up with the rightists.
This incident has affected me so much for the rest of my life. But hey, history can't be hypothetical, nor can the fate of any person or country. What would have happened if I hadn't come back early? Of course, I would not have been a rightist, and I would not have had my leg broken, but perhaps the Cultural Revolution would have been undermined again. Suppose the Xi'an Incident hadn't happened, what would have happened to China? Who knows? No one can make assumptions. History is a chain of different causes and effects.
I came back and went to the Beijing Academy of Political Science and Law, and was there for the rest of my life. I had been abroad for five years, and could not return in the middle of it; the People's Daily arrived only half a month later, and I could not yet see it all, so I was completely ignorant of the political movement in the country, and was not at all prepared for it, nor did I have any training in the movement. When I came back, there was a big campaign to help the Party to rectify the situation, and everyone was encouraged to give their opinions to the Party, especially as I had come back from the Soviet Union, so I should be even more active. The leaders, of course, mobilized me, and I also felt that I should cooperate and show positive progress, so I wrote a large-character poster, mentioning five elements, probably the establishment of the Rectification and Promotion Committee, the middle-level cadres should be denounced, and the trade unions should hold elections from the bottom up, and so on, five points. When the poster was put up, the school at first thought it was well written, but later it was regarded as an attack on the Party, and I was declared a rightist in 1957. It's hard to say whether I was wronged or not, I was not the only one, there were more than half a million people in the whole country, how many of them didn't live to see the day when their hats were taken off, and how many of them didn't have any meaning to be taken off their hats or not later on. I am not that miserable.
The rightists were divided into six categories, with categories 1, 2 and 3 being the extreme right and labouring outside the school, and categories 4, 5 and 6 labouring inside the school; I was in category 5, and was demoted by one level, which was a fairly lenient treatment. To put it mildly, the school was really lenient with me. When I was classified as a rightist, a special meeting was held to discuss how a young man like me could become a rightist. How could a young man like me become a rightist when historically I had no grudge against the Communist Party, was a revolutionary youth and was sent abroad by the Party to study? In the end, the result of the discussion was that I had been influenced by the democratic and liberal thinking of the United States and other Western countries. That was how it was decided.
As soon as I was classified as a rightist, I was soon divorced. We were of course very close, but only for political reasons. That year, I was sent to the outskirts of Beijing to participate in labour, lifting steel pipes across the railway, I don't know how I just didn't hear the sound, and as a result, I was hit by a train, and my whole body was swept underneath the train. The place where the accident happened was still two hours away from Mentougou, and I was immediately pulled to the nearest Mentougou hospital, but it was too late, so I lost my leg. That's not bad. I got my life back.
I was 27 years old that year, and I had been doing well since I joined the workforce, the Party sent me to study in the Soviet Union, and then, all of a sudden, I was politically classified as an enemy, divorced, and my leg was broken. It all happened in one year. It felt like the whole world had changed and my life had changed. It was very exciting.
I took off my hat in 1959, but even after that, I still couldn't be reappointed, and the rightists who took off their hats had to be inferior. And the great change in my life had already taken shape and was irrevocable. After I broke my leg, I started teaching in 1963, teaching Russian.
Then came the Cultural Revolution. For a long time, despite the continuous movements of this and that, I had always believed that the country could change for the better and there was still hope, but when it came to the Cultural Revolution, it was really rather disappointing, for it had already reached the point where China was politically so far to the left that it could not see the future.
During the Cultural Revolution, we were not the main fight, I just accompanied the fight, gently beaten a few times is normal, also took a plane ride, but the tiger is dead, there is no value of the fight. Then we were sent down to the Anhui "May Seventh Cadre School" for labour. Beijing Academy of Political Science and Law did not enroll students in 1966 at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, which lasted for several years. In 1972, the school officially announced its dissolution and we were allocated locally. However, the local community did not welcome us and asked us to find our own place to settle down, so I went back to Beijing and found a middle school in Yanqing to teach until 1978.
The second time I organized a family, I was introduced to her, in 1967. Her father was also a rightist, so she was in the same boat. When I arrived in Yanqing, the child was already six years old, and I took him to school in Yanqing. She had another child and other commitments. That was it for six and a half years.
The part in Yanqing was actually quite enjoyable. Life was bad, of course, but the spirit was pleasant and there was little stress. There wasn't much political discrimination down there, and there was more recognition of your character and your standard. Before the Cultural Revolution, when I taught, I was only allowed to teach Russian, not Marx and Lenin. But in Yanqing, the school let me teach political science, and when Premier Zhou died, I was able to make a presentation to the whole school, which was a political honour.
2. Two ups and two downs, fear calumny and derision
The nadir of my life was twenty-two years ago, counting from 1956, when I was classified as a rightist. The fact that I have been able to pull through is supported by two things: from a broader perspective, our country is really in a state of calamity, and I feel that I should do something for the country to make it better. On a personal level, self-improvement and not being a weakling.
My favourite saying at that time, which was engraved on my desk as a motto, was "Difficulties exist only for cowards". No matter what, I had to be a strong person in life, and I could not let people laugh at me. Even though I was discriminated against because I was classified as a rightist and had a broken leg, I was always recognized by people in my profession as a person of learning and ability. Since I was a child, I have been fond of ancient poems, and when I was in the most difficult times, I wrote some poems in the old style, among which there is one that reads: "A thousand words fill my chest, but there is no way to tell what I want to say or cry. I asked the God of Heaven with three long pushes: Why is the sun-shooter not allowed to bend his bow?" Such lines are of course a bit too arrogant when I look at them now. But at that time, I thought I still had the ability, but I could not use it at all, and that's how I motivated myself, I was born to be useful. When I was depressed, I would think about the scene when I was rolled under the train. I had earned my life! Even after this, what's there to be afraid of in life? What else can't I get through? After one has gone through all kinds of trials and tribulations, one doesn't feel pain anymore. I think I'm still optimistic about this. If you put on a prosthesis, you have to be like a normal person.
In the second half of 1978, Beijing Academy of Political Science and Law decided to resume school, so I came back. During the Cultural Revolution, everyone was deserted. But once the reform and opening up of China began, there was an urgent need for legal talents, and I was in a position to be useful, because I was able to teach Roman Law and Civil and Commercial Law of Western Countries right away. After all, I had a formal education and the advantage of two foreign languages, English and Russian. I was happy to finally be able to use my talents and intelligence.
Perhaps it is an unimportant detail that so many decades, I brought back from the Soviet Union to the country's legal professional books have been saved, and did not think much about it, that time also can not have any idea, simply do not dare to imagine the country there is what the rule of law, only that these books still have the value of the information, can not afford to lose, stealing still look at it, and now they all come in handy.
In 1983, the institution organized a new leadership team, and I became vice president. In 1984, the school was transformed into the China University of Political Science and Law, and I was vice president, and later president, and that was it. I was also a deputy to the Seventh National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and a vice-chairman of the Legal Committee of the National People's Congress.
One of the things I am most excited about in this period of time is the fact that the "rule of law" has really been written into the Constitution. For those of us who are engaged in the legal profession, the ability to make a living by the law comes second to the real realization of the rule of law is the most important thing. The Communist Party dares to put the words "rule of the country according to law" into the Constitution, indicating that its own words and activities should be within the scope of the law, which is remarkable and a big step forward. With this written in the Constitution, people can use this as a criterion for testing and a reason for us to speak.
I have always had this notion: Chinese society must move forward. The so-called moving forward and development are in fact just two items, one being the country's wealth and strength and the other being democracy and freedom, and there must be economic development and political progress. In addition, China must not be in a state of chaos. From the establishment of the Republic of China to the warlord warfare, Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army had just stabilized when the Japanese came in again. It is always unstable. If China is left unmanned, there is no telling how many years backward it will be if it is in chaos. Rationally this should be the case. These are the points I insist on.
In 1989, you say I voluntarily resigned or was removed from office. I came down from the post of President of the China University of Political Science and Law and became an ordinary professor, and I have been doing so ever since. I was leading a group abroad that day. American professors have advised me not to come back first and see, but I took the initiative to come back to China on my own. This is probably also the reason why my sin was not too great, and I led the delegation back. Already after the fact, the school party committee enlarged meeting, the secretary finished to the headmaster to speak, I said three sentences. At that time, I figured out, the big deal is that this headmaster is not inappropriate, do not believe that I will be arrested, I am still a professor, and a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. I know the consequences. However, one's political attitude must be clear and one's opinions must be expressed, otherwise one cannot be accountable to oneself and to history. This is different from the 1957 anti-rightist campaign, in which I didn't have much confrontation because I didn't yet have a completely independent political opinion, but more because I really felt that what I had done was wrong.
After this, my attitude was once more antagonistic. It was only after comrade Xiaoping's speech on his southern tour, in which he said that he would continue to insist on reform and opening up, that my attitude was eased. It is right to insist on reform and opening up.
The two big changes in my thinking after the Reform and Rehabilitation were one, and the inclusion of the rule of law in the Constitution was the other.
3. Three ups, no downs, no favourites
When you talk about the new generation of identity cards, it is certainly a problem that on the front of the card it says "citizen" and on the back of the card it says "resident". It is not clear what the identity card is supposed to indicate. "Citizen" is a constitutional concept, and the ID card is supposed to be for "residents". What is the identity card of a citizen of the People's Republic of China? This involves a complex background. In the past, we used to talk about great and honourable citizenship, and people who were sentenced to prison were not considered citizens and were deprived of their citizenship, but sentencing could not deprive them of their status as a resident, and from this point of view, it would be more appropriate to refer to the identity card as a resident.
Civic education is another issue. It is a gradual process of legalization of the Chinese people from subjects, to nationals, to people, to citizens, and it is good that some people are now advocating civic education.
As for the property law ...... it protects private property. The scope of the concept of private property is very broad, personal savings, means of subsistence, personal property, private entrepreneurs' businesses, farmers' land are all counted, and the right to contract management goes to the farmers.
The enactment of a property rights law is of course of great significance. One of the most important things in the advancement of democracy is the right to privacy. Democracy, freedom and human rights are inseparable. The right to property is a very important part of human rights. Human rights are not only political rights, but also economic rights. If a person's property is not guaranteed and can be taken away at any time, he will lose the basis for his foothold and existence in society. We have a long history of private property being taken away at any time.
I like to talk about the spirit of private law. Originally, I said "the revival of Roman law in China", but later I revised it to "the revival of the spirit of Roman law in China". The so-called spirit of Roman law is actually the spirit of private law. The private law of Rome was the most developed. That is why, under the influence of Roman law, there were civil law countries, civil codes and the German Civil Code.
The so-called private law, that is, civil law, means that everyone is equal in status and can be self-governing with regard to his or her own personal private affairs (family, marriage, economic life), which are entirely up to him or her, and that the State does not intervene at all, or minimally, or as little as possible. Since the establishment of New China, the State has interfered in every way: personal life, housing, marriage, divorce and birth of children, all have to be approved by the leadership, and for a period of time, the State has to control the food, and must eat in the canteen. And to build a democratic society, you have to grant private law autonomy. Yes, that's what you call negative freedom.
Since our country's reform and opening up, we have been advocating the revival of the spirit of Roman law. To advocate a market economy is to reduce State intervention. China's current market economy is still relatively over-regulated by the State. We have to deal with the relationship between the hand of the State and the hand of the market, that is, the relationship between liberalism and State interventionism in the economic field. When the market fails, the state intervenes, and this is Keynesianism. But in China, the market hand is still relatively soft.
I often say that the rule of law in China is now two steps forward and one step back. Compared with the period of the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution, democracy and the rule of law in China are still moving forward after all, but the process is very tortuous. This leader may appear faster, that leader a little slower, the performance of that matter may be promoted, and the emergence of this matter may be regressed. This shows that China has not yet realized the true rule of law, and the true rule of law should not be like this. From this point of view, I also think that the process of democracy and the rule of law in China is still slow, and it should be able to be a bit faster. We can only hope that the Communist Party itself can learn a lesson and become more enlightened and cleaner internally.
Democracy is best in supervision. We are always talking about perfecting the monitoring mechanism, and the best monitoring mechanism is freedom of the press and public opinion monitoring, which is what you are doing now (laughs), you can say whatever you have, and the leaders can't suppress it. Freedom of speech is the fundamental issue.
As I said, I am not a jurist in the true sense of the word, I am an honorary doctor and visiting professor of many famous universities, and I have a lot of part-time jobs in society, but I have not seriously read many famous works of jurisprudence, and I have not written any decent monographs, and there are certainly historical reasons here.
To be precise, I'm a legal educator, I'm still more of a lecturer, speaker and populariser of the law. You mentioned that I socialize too much, which is true, but it's not without reason, I'm a university professor, but don't want to limit myself to my stage. I'm not what you call enlightened thinker, don't say that, but I want to think of this role, as far as possible for the propaganda of jurisprudence, China is different from the West, in the West, the knowledge of the rule of law has been popularized in the minds of the people, we all have the legal concept of such a criterion, our country is different from the leaders of the state, entrepreneurs to the general public, the basic concept of law, the basic norms are still not familiar with the lack of a basic understanding. It is important to establish the concept of legal system in people's mind. For example, the enactment of the property law is a great popularization of legal property rights.