During the writing of the middle and lower volumes, Nanjing University experienced the Nanjing Incident. Some counter-revolutionary elements from Nanjing University took to the streets to incite counter-revolutionary riots, which certainly affected the teaching work.
Nanjing University’s own record of this:
Under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, efforts to correct the “left” deviation were welcomed by the broad masses, but they touched the sore spot of the “Gang of Four.” They, under the banner of Chairman Mao, inverted black and white, called a deer a horse, and claimed that the essence of Lin Biao’s line was extreme right, turning the criticism of “left” into a critique of extreme right; then they added criticism of Confucius during the campaign against Lin Biao and the “Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius, Criticize Zhou Gong” campaign, subtly attacking Zhou Enlai. The teachers and students of Nanjing University had long been aware of the malicious intentions and retrogressive actions of the “Gang of Four.” At that time, relevant authorities in Jiangsu Province had conducted a pilot project at the History Department of Nanjing University to criticize Lin and Confucius, but the teachers and students responded with indifference, causing them to retreat in defeat. Later, some people, disregarding the “Gang of Four”'s tyranny, risked being imprisoned or executed, and submitted petitions to the Party Central Committee and veteran proletarian revolutionaries, reflecting the issues of the “Gang of Four” and calling for the elimination of harm to the country, demonstrating high revolutionary courage and sense of responsibility.
In 1974, Nanjing University began to expose, criticize, and investigate the serious errors of the “May 16” movement, which involved forced confessions and escalation. In March, the Jiangsu Provincial Committee sent Zhang De Ren, the former First Secretary of the Changzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC, to serve as the first deputy secretary of the CPC Nanjing University Party Committee and deputy director of the school revolutionary committee, strengthening the leadership. (On November 27, a formal document was issued, also appointing He Ping and Xu Fuki as members of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and deputy directors of the revolutionary committee, and Tong Hongjiang as deputy director.) At the end of the year, the provincial investigation team led by Zhou Tefu (head of the Provincial Cultural and Education Bureau) was stationed at Nanjing University to assist in the campaign against Lin and chaos, clarify the line right and wrong, implement policies, and promote unity. Finally, in April 1975, a rectification conference was held regarding the “May 16” issue, publicly announcing the exoneration of 218 people (due to historical reasons, the exoneration was not thorough at that time).
In February 1975, due to Zhou Enlai’s serious illness, Deng Xiaoping, who had just resumed work, presided over the daily work of the Central Committee. In response to the destruction and chaos caused by the eight-year Cultural Revolution, he proposed to fully implement Mao Zedong’s three directives: oppose revisionism, maintain stability and unity, and develop the national economy, and carry out comprehensive rectification. Comrades such as Zhang De and others in Nanjing University diligently implemented Deng Xiaoping’s governance and rectification policies, resisted various pressures, and carried out activities such as “learning” (studying proletarian dictatorship theory), “three criticisms” (criticizing capitalist tendencies, bourgeois factionalism, and bourgeois legal rights ideas), and “five major discussions” (discussing line, overall situation, party spirit, discipline, and unity), focusing on criticizing bourgeois factionalism, which greatly enhanced the school’s righteous atmosphere.
By the end of 1975, Zhou Lin, the former First Secretary of Guizhou Provincial Committee, was transferred to Nanjing University, replacing Wang Yong as the Party Committee Secretary and head of the revolutionary committee.
1976 was a year of dawn and darkness. At the beginning of the year, the so-called “Criticize Deng” and “Counterattack the Rightist Revisionist Wind” campaigns launched by the “Gang of Four” reached their climax, casting a shadow over the land. On January 8, Premier Zhou Enlai passed away. The news plunged the entire university into deep grief. The “Gang of Four” ordered no black veils or white flowers, and no wreaths. However, teachers and students broke through the ban, all wearing black veils and white flowers, and many went to the Memorial Hall of the CPC Delegation in Meiyuan Xincun to pay tribute. On January 13, teachers and students spontaneously held a grand memorial ceremony on the sports field. A couplet was hung on either side of Zhou Enlai’s memorial hall on the podium: “Thunderbolt from the clear sky, tears shed in the vast sky, the whole country mourns the pillar of heaven; lifelong revolutionary, great achievements, shining forever on future generations.” The memorial service was conducted in a solemn and mournful atmosphere. Teachers and students mourned Premier Zhou and hated the “Gang of Four” even more.
On March 5, 1976, the “Wenhui Bao” published a news report from Xinhua News Agency, completely deleting Zhou Enlai’s inscription on studying Lei Feng. On March 25, “Wenhui Bao” published an article titled “The Capitalist Roaders Are Still Walking, We Must Fight Them,” which stated: “Confucius, who caused the fall of a nation, died out, and the party’s internal capitalist roaders want to restore the defeated capitalist roaders who have not yet repented.” This openly branded Zhou Enlai as a capitalist roader. These two articles aroused great resentment and anger among the people towards the “Gang of Four.”
On March 25, more than 70 third-year students from the History Department of Nanjing University, wearing black veils and carrying their self-made wreaths, broke through the “Gang of Four”'s ban and went to Meiyuan Xincun, which had been closed to the outside, to mourn Premier Zhou. On March 28, over 400 teachers and students from the entire university, led by young teachers from the Mathematics Department, Party branch secretary Qin Feng from the Computer Science Department, and others, carried Zhou Enlai’s large portrait and big wreaths, circled through Xinjiekou and Daxinggong to Meiyuan Xincun, with traffic police opening green lights and vehicles giving way. Many people spontaneously joined the mourning procession, and countless citizens stood silently on the streets to show support. This was the first demonstration by the people of Nanjing against the “Gang of Four.”
Starting March 29, the Nanjing campus ignited fierce flames of opposition against the “Gang of Four.” Teachers and students from the Mathematics Department posted large slogans such as “Beware of personal ambitions and conspirators seizing the highest leadership of the Party and the state,” and “Countless revolutionary martyrs and elders have fought with blood to establish the red country, and we will defend it with blood.” The campus was filled with big-character posters and slogans targeting the “Gang of Four,” attracting continuous viewers.
Meanwhile, many students rushed out of campus into the streets, posting and writing slogans in busy areas such as Drum Tower, Xinjiekou, and at stations and docks: “The anti-party articles in ‘Wenhui Bao’ are signals for usurping the Party and power,” “We will not rest until the black backstage of ‘Wenhui Bao’ is exposed,” “Down with the great ambitious and scheming Zhang Chunqiao.” Their actions received responses from Nanjing citizens and other colleges and universities. Students from the Mathematics, Geology, and Chemistry Departments, with the support of station workers, even pasted slogans on trains. When they learned that the slogans were washed off after the trains departed, students united with others from different universities to use small chlorinated lime paint and asphalt provided by station workers to write slogans, so that trains traveling north and south carried these indelible slogans, spreading Nanjing University and Nanjing citizens’ condemnation and criticism of the “Gang of Four” everywhere.
On March 30, after learning about the situation in Nanjing, the “Gang of Four” boasted that “the Nanjing incident is directed against the Central Committee,” and that “those big-character posters are creating public opinion for counterrevolutionary restoration.” On April 1, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting to discuss the mourning activities in Nanjing and other places. On the same day, the Central Committee issued a notice on the “Nanjing Incident,” stating: “In recent days, big-character posters and slogans targeting the central leadership have appeared in Nanjing. This is a political event aimed at splitting the Party led by Mao Zedong and reversing the line of criticizing Deng.” It demanded immediate measures to cover all posters and slogans and called for investigating the “behind-the-scenes planners” and “rumor-mongers,” attempting to suppress the revolutionary actions of the masses.
Subsequently, the “Gang of Four” and their agents in Jiangsu intensified their investigation into the participants and “behind-the-scenes planners” of the “Nanjing Incident” at Nanjing University. The atmosphere in the school was extremely tense. Hundreds of people were labeled as “connected,” a batch of cadres were branded as “counter-revolutionaries,” and many department leaders were accused of being “behind-the-scenes planners.” Teachers like Li Xining, Qin Feng, Kang Yuyi, and others were arrested and imprisoned. Deputy Party Secretary Zhang De was also scrutinized on suspicion of being a “behind-the-scenes planner.”
