In March 2023, in my article “Starting with the Story of Kuang Qingtian,” I noted that in Chinese history, the three most beloved figures among the people, honest officials who upheld the law impartially, were the “Three Great Qing Officials”: Bao Zheng of the Northern Song Dynasty, Hai Rui of the Ming Dynasty, and Kuang Zhong. I have already written about Bao Zheng and Kuang Zhong. Today, I’m picking up my pen to write about memories related to the Peking Opera “Hai Rui’s Dismissal.”
The Life of Hai Rui
Hai Rui was born in January 1514 in Qiongzhou, Guangdong (now Haikou, Hainan Province), and died in office in 1587 at the age of 73. His ancestral home was in Panyu, Guangdong. He was a juren (provincial examination graduate) during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty and a statesman. He lived a frugal life and served as an upright official, earning the reverent title “Hai Qingtian” (Hai the Blue Sky) from the common people. Hai Rui served under three successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty. He began his career as an instructor in Nanping, Fujian, and later served as magistrate of Chun’an in Zhejiang and Xingguo in Jiangxi. His administrative achievements were remarkable, particularly in the construction of irrigation projects that benefited the nation and its people. His incorruptible integrity and relentless crackdown on corrupt officials won him the deep affection of the people. Toward the end of the Jiajing reign, he submitted a memorial offering his initial counsel, in which he sharply criticized the ills of the time. As a result, he was arrested and imprisoned. After Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, he was released and promoted to Provincial Commissioner of Yingtian and Left and Right Vice-Chancellors of the Supreme Court of Justice. During the reign of Emperor Wanli, he served as Right Censor-in-Chief of the Southern Censorate.
Mao Zedong’s use of Hai Rui
Hai Rui was an upright and incorruptible official, known for his integrity and unwavering principles, and was revered by the common people of his time as well as by later generations. However, the attitude of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, toward Hai Rui was marked by inconsistency between his words and actions. He went back on his word, which gives pause for thought.
In April 1959, Mao Zedong delivered a speech at a meeting in Shanghai, advocating that cadres learn from Hai Rui’s spirit and dare to speak the truth.
In June of that year, historian Wu Han, then serving as Deputy Mayor of Beijing, responded to Mao Zedong’s call and began writing articles about Hai Rui based on his own historical knowledge. His original intention was to impart historical and cultural knowledge to future generations. It is worth noting that the article “Hai Rui Rebukes the Emperor” was commissioned by Hu Qiaomu, Mao Zedong’s secretary. It was published in the People’s Daily on June 18, 1959. Other articles included “Hai Rui, the Honest Official,” “The Story of Hai Rui,” and “On Hai Rui.”
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As is well known, 1958 was an extraordinarily eventful year in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. That year, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai advocated for China’s march toward communism and put forward the General Line for the Transition Period. They called for a nationwide mobilization, the “Great Leap Forward,” the “Great Steel Campaign” to “surpass Britain and catch up with the U.S.,” and the establishment of people’s communes. They raised the slogan: “Hold high the three red banners of the General Line, the Great Leap Forward, and the people’s communes.” This nationwide movement, fueled by political slogans and utopian socialism, was in essence an ultra-leftist trend. By 1959, it had already begun to reveal the disastrous consequences it had brought to China’s socio-economic landscape. From 1959 to 1962, due to shortages of daily necessities, the entire population was subject to grain rationing, and essential goods were distributed via ration tickets. People were unfortunately unable to eat their fill. Because the nationwide “Great Leap Forward” in steel production had caused a neglect of other priorities, the agricultural economy fell into decline.
Based on his field research, Marshal Peng Dehuai submitted a memorandum to Mao Zedong on July 14 at Lushan, outlining his personal views on the trends of reckless advancement and exaggeration. Mao Zedong, in response to Peng Dehuai’s courage in speaking the truth in his letter, labeled him a “rightist opportunist.” He also remarked, “Peng Dehuai is a fake Hai Rui.” At the Lushan Conference, Huang Kecheng, Zhang Wentian, and Zhou Xiaozhou supported Peng Dehuai, so Mao turned the meeting into a session of criticism and struggle, labeling them an “anti-Party clique.” Lin Biao also called Peng Dehuai an “ambitious schemer and a hypocrite.” Following the Lushan Conference came the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC. After the session, Peng Dehuai and others were removed from their posts by official CPC documents.
During the “Cultural Revolution,” on Aug. 15, 1966, Mao Zedong received the Red Guards at Tiananmen Square. Chen Boda declared Mao to be “the great mentor, the great leader, the great commander-in-chief, and the great helmsman.” Lin Biao echoed this sentiment. Mao Zedong also promoted him, selecting Lin Biao as his successor during the Cultural Revolution. These words praising Mao’s “Four Greats” were included in the “Quotations from Lin Biao.” These “Four Greats” thus became a political slogan for the entire nation to study. Did this not further fuel Mao Zedong’s self-righteousness and his tendency to exclude dissenters? In fact, the concept of the “Four Greats” was also a form of exaggeration.
Hu Qiaomu asked Wu Han to write “Hai Rui Rebukes the Emperor.” During the Cultural Revolution, Wu Han was consequently criticized and charged with “vicious attacks on the Great Leader.” This inevitably brings to mind the year 1957, when Mao Zedong called on everyone to offer suggestions to the Party and assist in the Rectification Campaign, only to end up branding nearly all the intellectual elite as “rightists” and class enemies.
The origin of the Peking Opera script
In 1960, the renowned Peking Opera artist Ma Lianliang read an article written by Wu Han about Hai Rui. He was deeply impressed by Wu Han’s extensive knowledge and sound perspectives. He therefore paid a personal visit to Wu Han and asked him to write a stage script about Hai Rui. Earlier, while studying and teaching at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Wu Han had never studied Peking Opera. He told Ma Lianliang, “I’m a complete layman when it comes to Peking Opera.” Ma Lianliang replied, “You understand history, and I understand Peking Opera. Let’s work on this together. There’s no need to rush it.” Unable to refuse such a warm invitation, Wu Han agreed.
After the first draft of the script was completed and titled “Hai Rui,” Wu Han and Ma Lianliang sought feedback from others. The public felt that since Hai Rui’s life was full of twists and turns, and the script primarily focused on his integrity and his efforts to rid the people of evils, the title was not entirely appropriate. Wu Han and Ma Lianliang then revised the script. At the same time, the script was also sent to leading figures in the theater world at the time, such as Qi Yanming and Lao She, for their input. The script underwent a total of seven revisions. After reading the script, Wu Han’s friend, the botanist Cai Xitao, picked up a pen in front of Wu Han and added the two characters “dismissed from office” after the title “Hai Rui.” Upon seeing this, Wu Han clapped his hands repeatedly and praised, “That’s the right addition, a brilliant touch.”
“Hai Rui’s Dismissal” was brought to the Peking Opera stage in 1961 by Ma Lianliang and others. At the time, the production was staged by the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe. The program listed Wu Han as the playwright, Wang Yan as the director, Wang Yuanxin as the choreography designer, and Li Muliang as the jinghu player. The cast list featured Ma Lianliang as Hai Rui, Qiu Shengrong as Xu Jie, Li Duokui as Madame Xie, Li Yufang as Madame Wang, Ci Shaoquan as Wang Mingyou, and Zhou Hetong as Dai Fengxiang.
After watching the performance, Mao Zedong praised it, saying, “The play is excellent. Hai Rui is a good man, and the script for “The Dismissal of Hai Rui” is well-written. This is Wu Han’s first attempt at writing a Peking Opera, and he has succeeded.”
Plot summary
Chancellor Xu Jie retires to his hometown, where his son, Xu Ying, seizes farmers’ fields and, on Qingming Festival, abducts a peasant girl named Xiao Lan. Xiao Lan’s mother, Madame Hong, filed a complaint at the county magistrate’s office. Xu Ying bribed County Magistrate Wang Mingyou, who then ordered Xiao Lan’s father, Zhao Yushan, to be beaten to death, expelled Madame Hong, and hastily closed the case.
Hai Rui was transferred to serve as Governor of Yingtian and learned of the people’s grievances. Upon taking office, he exposed Xu Ying’s misdeeds, punished corrupt officials, and sought to sentence Xu Ying to death. Xu Jie, boasting of the favor he had once shown Hai Rui, pleaded for mercy on behalf of his son, but Hai Rui adjudicated the case impartially. Xu Jie then incited court officials to impeach Hai Rui. Just as the new Governor-General arrived to take over the seal of office, Hai Rui first ordered the beheading of Xu Ying and Wang Mingyou. The play ends here.
The misfortune of the screenwriters and actors of The Dismissal of Hai Rui during the Cultural Revolution
In 1965, Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing, went to Shanghai to “work on the front lines,” assisted by Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan. At that time, Liu Shaoqi’s wife, Wang Guangmei, was “working on the front lines” with the “Four Cleans” work team in Taoyuan; she even summarized the “Taoyuan Experience” and distributed it to “Four Cleans” work teams across the country for study.
From 1964 to 1966, the Chinese Communist Party carried out the Socialist Education Movement in rural areas, known as the “Four Cleans.” During the 1965 “Four Cleans” campaign, two sets of “Ten Points” appeared in the Central Committee’s guiding documents, exposing the differences between Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi. At that time, Mao had already resolved to launch a larger-scale mass movement, seizing the opportunity to eliminate Liu Shaoqi. In his mind, Mao had already labeled Liu as the party’s foremost ruling faction member taking the capitalist road. Even before drafting the “May 16 Notice”, which launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Mao had already regarded the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, led by Peng Zhen, as an “impervious independent kingdom” that could neither be penetrated by a needle nor penetrated by water.
Before the “Cultural Revolution,” Wu Han, Deng Tuo (then Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Secretariat), and Liao Mosha (Director of the Municipal United Front Work Department) jointly used the pen name “Wu Nanxing” to launch the column “Notes from Sanjiacun” in Frontline magazine. I had read all their articles at the time, and I believed their original intention was to discuss the past and present, extol what was upright and noble, and at the same time correct the ills of the time. Unfortunately, however, the authors of “Notes from Sanjiacun” and Peng Zhen all became obstacles to Mao Zedong’s launch of the Cultural Revolution.
In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. He incited the masses to seize power from the ruling faction within the Party that was taking the capitalist road. He also used the Red Guards and ultra-leftist ideologies to plunge China into a decade of turmoil.
As soon as the Cultural Revolution began, Wu Han was subjected to public criticism and detained. In November 1966, the Shanghai “Wen Hui Bao” published Yao Wenyuan’s “A Critique of the Newly Adapted Historical Play *Hai Rui Dismissed from Office*,” which was subsequently reprinted by the “People’s Daily.” Yao Wenyuan characterized “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” as a “highly toxic weed” that was anti-Party and anti-socialist. During the Cultural Revolution, the “Three-Family Village” group was “falsely accused” of being anti-Party and anti-socialist. In March 1968, with the approval of Kang Sheng and Xie Fuzhi, Wu Han was arrested and imprisoned. In November 1969, he died in prison while still innocent. His wife passed away from illness in a “re-education through labor” camp. It was not until 1979 that the “Sanjia Village Anti-Party Clique” was exonerated and Wu Han’s reputation was restored.
Famous Peking Opera performers who had staged “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” before the “Cultural Revolution” also suffered persecution during the movement, and many have since passed away. In “A Brief Discussion on Peking Opera Knowledge” (Part III), published in February 2017, the author listed the names of more than ten performers, as well as drummers and qin players from the stage and orchestra pits, who were persecuted to death. Among them were Ma Lianliang (died 1966), Li Duokui (died 1974), Qiu Shengrong (died 1971), as well as Xu Lanyuan (died 1967), Li Muliang’s master and Mei Lanfang’s qin player.
The enduring consequences of communist ideology
As is well known, the core of Marxism is the theory of class struggle and the promotion of communism. As soon as the Chinese Communist Party seized power, Mao Zedong declared, “The core force leading our cause is the Communist Party of China, and the theoretical foundation guiding our thinking is Marxism.”
The CCP regime has consistently promoted communism and put the theory of class struggle into practice, deceiving the people into fighting for their cause. During the Cultural Revolution, CCP leader Mao Zedong exploited the theory of class struggle to incite the masses to revolt and eliminate dissenters, taking this to the extreme. The CCP regime has already persecuted over 100 million people in contemporary China.
Original article
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