第十五节

第四章一个政府的诞生

CHAPTER IV

BIRTH OF A GOVERNMENT

第十五节边区的官员

15. Border Region Bureaucrats

　　杨教授来到山西不久，华北各地五百名代表会聚于太行山。其中有不少人来自游击队，大家几乎那是穿过日军重重防线，经过几个星期的艰险旅程而来的。他们成立了一个参议会，杨秀峰当选为参议会主席，戎伍胜为副主席。关于戎伍胜，我们以后还要谈到他。

　　会议开了四十天，代表们在会上正式成立了晋冀鲁豫边区政府，制定了基本纲领。在我去访问的时候，这个纲领仍然是晋冀鲁豫边区的根本法。其主要之点是对于土地改革、按收入征税、武装民众、通过新婚姻法、发展生产以及制定雇工法作了规定。

SHORTLY after Professor Yang's journey into Shansi, five hundred delegates from North China, many of whom had come out of guerrilla bands and most all of whom had made perilous trips of many weeks through the Japanese lines, met in the Taihang Mountains and formed a People's Political Council. Yang was elected chairman of this council and Jung Wu-sheng, of whom we shall hear more later, was made vice-chairman.

　　At this meeting, which lasted forty days, the delegates formally founded the Shansi-Hopei-Shantung-Honan Border Region government and drew up a basic program. This program up to the time of my visit was still the fundamental law of the Border Region. Its main points provided for land reform, taxation according to income, arming of the people, the passage of new marriage regulations, expansion of production and regulations concerning the employment of labor.

　　按照杨秀峰的说法，这个纲领在当时的意义是制定了一系列措施，以便充分有效地进行抗日斗争。杨主席说，武装民众是为旧法所禁止的，但是“我们认为这是民主的最高发展”。

　　“实行男女婚姻平等，我们就打碎了在家庭生活上的封建桎梏。

　　“通过减租，我们吸引了农民来参加抗日，但是不同意他们分土地的要求，这样也就避免了地主富农的叛离。

　　“最后，我们改善了工人的生活，同时又鼓励发展贸易，发展工商业，于是，抗战就有了坚实的经济基础，现在打仗还是依靠这个基础。”

　　According to Yang, the significance of this program at the time lay in the passing of measures that would enable the fight against the Japanese to be carried out most effectively. The arming of the people was forbidden by old law, but "we considered it the highest development of democracy," said Chairman Yang.

　　"By establishing the equality of man and woman in marriage we broke the hold of feudalism on family life.

　　"By reducing the rents, we drew the farmers into the fight, but in refusing to meet their demands to divide the land we also prevented the certain alienation of the landlords and the rich farmers.

　　"Finally, by improving the lot of the workers and at the same time encouraging the development of trade, commercial and industrial capital, we put the war on a sound economic base on which it still exists."

　　我认为对杨主席的话需要作几点修正。共产党改善了其所辖地区人民的生活，我对此没有什么怀疑；他们使妇女在婚姻平等方面取得了巨大的进步，这更是毫无疑问的。但是，虽然杨秀峰声称不分土地是边区的根本法，然而在一九四六年年中，共产党发出了没收地主土地的指示，这个纲领就被完全废除了。显然，边区政府是服从共产党的政策的，并不代表地主。这样，本来是为进行民族战争而组成的政府，现在却开始进行阶级战争了。

　　不过，这个纲领的关键之处在于武装民众。民众在抗日战争中被武装起来，在今日的内战中仍然掌握着武器。可以说，这是他们民主自由的最可靠的保障。将来打败蒋介石以后，是否还允许民众拥有武装，那就不得而知了。

　　我在那里的时候，参议会是边区的最高政治机关，边区政府官员就是由参议会选出的，而参议会又是由各省代表大会选举产生的。参议会的政治成份和其他边区一样，是由法律规定的。共产党员的席位不超过三分之一，“进步分子”的代表占三分之一，“中间阶级”占三分之一。

　　这种制度称为“三三制”。在这种制度中，共产党被认为是工人和贫苦农民的代表，“进步分子”代表小商人、中农、自由职业者和知识分子，“中间阶级”代表小地主、商人和民族资本家。

　　I think Chairman Yang's remarks need several qualifications. There is little doubt in my mind that the Communists have improved the lot of the people in their areas and no doubt at all that they have made tremendous forward strides in giving women equality in marriage. However, though Yang claims it is the fundamental law of the Border Region that and not be divided, this program was entirely abrogated in the middle of 1946 when the Communist party gave directions that landlords' land should be confiscated. It is therefore quite obvious that the government follows Communist policy and that it does not represent the landlords. Therefore, the government which was originally founded to fight a national war has now lent itself to fighting a class war.

　　The crucial point of this program, however, is the arming of the people. Armed in the Japanese war, these people still possess their arms in the civil war today. This, in a way, is the surest guarantee of their democracy and freedom. Whether or not, in the event that Chiang Kai-shek is defeated, these people will be allowed to keep heir arms is a moot question.

　　The highest political organ in the Border Region, while I was there, was the People's Political Council which was elected by provincial assemblies and which in turn elected Border Region government officials. The political composition of the council, like that of Border Regions elsewhere was fixed by law. No more than one-third of the seats could be occupied by Communist party members; one-third was occupied by representatives of "progressive elements", one-third by the "middle class."

　　Under this rule, known as the Three-Thirds System, the Communist party was considered to represent laborers and poor farmers. The "progressives" represented the small merchants, middle farmers, professional people and intellectuals. The "middles" represented the small landlords, merchants and native capitalists.

　　别以为这样的政府有点像美国式的政府，请听杨主席是怎么说的：

　　“我们的政府里没有反共分子、大地主和买办阶级的位置。倒不是说法律不许他们参政、不许他们投票，而是人民根本就不选他们。国民党员的席位还是有的，我们五十一个常委里就有十个国民党员，而共产党员有十六、七个席位。如果人民选出的共产党员超过了三分之一，共产党员就得向其他党派让出所超过的席位。”

　　这种政府的弱点是显而易见的。没有高等法院，没有制约政府的机构。不过参议会可以弹劾主席、副主席或政府行政部门的任何人员，有三分之二的票数就可以将他罢免。

　　“三三制”还存在一些问题。边区官员承认，有些人退了党以便参加政府。显然，如果需要的话，还可以把秘密党员选入政府。最后，从根本上说，这个政府在边区并没有控制权，权力是在一个叫“救国会”的组织的手里，“群众”是由这个组织来控制和动员的。关于这个组织，我们以后还要谈到。这里只须指出，边区里有这么一种说法；“政府有权利，救国会有权力。”

　　Lest you get the idea that this government in any way corresponded to American-type government, listen to what Chairman Yang had to say.

　　"In this government, there is no place for anti-Communists, big landlords or the comprador class. I don't mean the law forbids their holding office or voting. I mean the people just won't elect them. There is a place for Kuomintang members and we have about ten in our standing committee of fifty-one. We have about sixteen or seventeen Communist members. If more than one-third are elected by the people, some Communists give up office to members of another group."

　　The weak points of this government were obvious. No high court existed and there was no check on the government. The council, however, could impeach the chairman, vice-chairman or any member of the executive branch of the government and cast him out of office by a two-thirds vote.

　　The Three-Thirds System was also open to question. Border Region offitials admitted that some people resigned their party membership so that they might join the government. Also, it appeared obvious that secret party members could get themselves elected to office, if there were any need. Finally, when you came down to fundamentals, this government did not have the controlling power in the Border Region. That was vested in an organization known as the National Salvation Association, which controlled and mobilized the "masses." Of this, more later. It suffices to note here that there was a saying in the Border Region: "The government has the right; the Salvation Association has the power."

　　边区政府的行政机构也许是全世界同等规模的政府中最精简的一个。边区、专区、县、乡各级政府加起来，总共只有十二万五千名男女公职人员。这个数目除了官员以外，还包括警察、职员、文书、警卫、伙夫、通讯员和饲养员等。根据我所看到的统计数字，这些政府职员中有百分之五十是来自农民和工人，百分之四十来自如识分子和商人，百分之十来自地主和民族资本家。这种比例与中国社会的阶级构成大致相当。

　　这些人员中，有百分之三十做行政土作，百分之二十做治安司法工作，百分之二十做教育工作，百分之十五做生产建设工作，百分之十做群众工作（土地改革、合作社等），百分之五做党务工作。识字的占百分之九十。

　　边区政府的精简与国民党官僚机构的臃肿适成鲜明的对照。例如，边区政府的财政局只有十六个人，而国民党山西省政府的财政厅却有二百五十个人。

　　边区政府本部的全体干部（他们不愿被称为官员）只有一百六十人。我发现其中有三分之一住在我周围的衬庄里，其余都外出到各个专区，检查土地改革和税收，并进行调查研究。

　　The organization of the executive section of the government was perhaps one of the simplest for a government of similar size anywhere in the world. Including the Border Region government, the district, county and village governments, there were only 125,000 men and women on government pay rolls. This number included police, clerks, secretaries, guards, cooks, messengers and mule men in addition to officials.

　　Of these government functionaries, according to records I saw, 50 percent were drawn from farmers and laborers; 40 per cent from intellectuals and merchants; 10 percent from landlords and native capitalists. This was a division roughly equivalent to the division of Chinese society itself.

　　Of these men, 30 per cent were engaged in administrative work; 20 percent in the police and law courts; 20 per cent in education; 15 percent in industry and construction; 10 per cent in work among the masses (land reform, co-operatives, etc.) and 5 per cent in party work. About 90 percent of these officials could read.

　　The simple organization of the government was quite a contrast to the top-heavy Kuomintang bureaucracy. For example in the Finance Bureau of the Border Region government there were only sixteen men. Under the Kuomintang in Shansi Province, the Finance Bureau had about 250 members.

　　The whole number of cadres (they don't like to be called officials) in the central Border Region government only totaled 16o people. One-third of these I found living in the villages near me. The rest were out in the districts, looking into land reform, tax collections and carrying on research.

　　我在解放区的时候，杨主席在六个月之内就下乡三次。其中一次他骑着骡子在太岳区的穷山沟里转了两个月。他外出期间慰问部队，与农民谈话，研究土地改革，总之是想了解政府的法令是否对头，该不该改变。

　　这种出行与美国政客为拉选票而作的巡游大不相同。不过，也包含向人民宣示政府的善意这种目的。

　　“我们不能让人民把我们看成外人，”杨秀峰说。美国的政客可能会觉得他和善得有些过分，但是传教士一定会赞成的。

　　“我们出门上路，要带上粮票，自己做饭。有时我们的工作人员吃得比最苦的农民还差。”

　　While I was in the Liberated Areas, Chairman Yang himself made three trips into the countryside within a six-month period. One of these trips he made on mule for two months through the impoverished areas of the Taiyueh Mountains. On such trips Yang wandered around comforting troops, conversing with peasants, studying land reform and, in general, trying to find out whether the laws of the government were effective or should be changed.

　　These trips had little in common with the baby-kissing junkets of American politicians. Nevertheless, there seemed to be some attempt to impress the local people with the goodness of their government.

　　"We cannot let the people look on us as different from themselves," said Yang, whose attitude might appear a little too sickish sweet to American politicians, but would find favor among missionaries. "When we go out on the road, we carry grain tickets and cook our own meals. Sometimes, our officials eat worse than the poorest farmers."

　　政府官员外出，要自己背行李。人民看到这种情景，或者看到场主席穿着打补丁的褂子，就觉得边区的官与国民党的官到底有些不同。

　　政府工作人员没有固定薪金，他们每日配给二十五盎司的粮食和三个半美分的菜金，每月发三分美金的津贴费。他们两年发一套棉衣。厨师、食堂人员、饲养员和赶车的多发一套，因为这些人穿衣服费一些。

　　政府职员住房是不交房租的，一般是三四个人同住在农民的一间房里。虽然许多高级官员与妻子住在一起，但是我发现当地官员很少带家属，因为粮食有定量，养活不了这么多人。结果，妻子儿女就呆在老家。

　　在共产党地区，政府官员的生活是艰苦的，物质报酬是谈不上的。贪污勒索在中国久有传统，但在这里却没有什么机会。在通常情况下，这样是不能吸引社会才俊之士为政府工作的。但是，这些原本是为了抗日而参加政府工作的人士，对他们菲薄的薪金和艰苦的生活并不介意，因为他们希望，在战胜蒋介石之后，能够担任负责职务。

　　我发现有少数政府职员，尤其是厨师和饲养员，因为生活条件艰苦而情绪低落。高级官员就让他们学文化，开阔眼界，以克服这种情绪。

　　When traveling, a government official carried his own bedroll on his back. Seeing this or seeing the patched shoes worn by Chairman Yang, the people got the impression that Border Region officials were somehow different than Kuomintang officials.

　　Government functionaries had no fixed salaries. They received a ration of twenty-five ounces of grain and three and a half cents a day for vegetables plus a subsidy of three cents a month. Every two years they were given a suit of padded cotton clothing. Cooks, mess attendants, mule men and carters were given an extra suit as their clothing wore out more quickly.

　　Rent was free to government workers. Three or four functionaries generally lived together in the room of a peasant's house. Although many higher officials lived with their wives, I found that the local officials seldom lived with their families because the grain ration was insufficient to support them. As a consequence, wives and children lived in the ancestral village with in-laws.

　　Life for a government official in Communist areas was hard and material rewards nonexistent. Opportunities for the time-honored Chinese squeeze simply did not exist. Ordinarily, this might mean that the best brains in the community would not be attracted to government work. However, government members who had originally plunged into official work in order to fight the Japanese remained contented with their small salaries and hard life because they hoped to be recompensed with responsible positions after the victory over Chiang Kai-shek.

　　I found a small number of government functionaries, particularly among the cooks and mule men, depressed over their dreary living conditions. Higher officials tried to overcome this feeling by teaching them to read and write and broaden their horizons.

　　虽然边区受共产党的政策指导，但是政府的高级职务并不由工人和农民担任，而是往往被有文化的知识分子所垄断。

　　杨教授着意向我说明，在解放区，知识分子的出路要比无产阶级广的多。政府一直想从外面获得技术人员，以每年一千三百磅粮食的津贴招聘任何愿意摈弃蒋介石的人。从北平跑来的大学教授每月可以得到两百美元左右的薪金，这比国民党给的多，不必说，比一个普通边区官员或共产党干部的薪金更是多出许多倍。对知识分子如此优待，足以说明共产党是多么需要受过教育的人。

　　像我这样的外界人士过去常常不理解，一个大部由毫无经验的官员组成的政府，何以能治理边区呢？以直到四十一岁时还是教授的杨秀峰为例，他过去毫无经验，他的同僚们对行政艺术也同样是一窍不通，他如何能管理三千万人民呢？

　　杨秀峰在这个问题上给我的回答，也可以说是对国民党理论家的回答。这些理论家宣称，对于人民，必须把民主教给他们，至于谁来教导先生，则绝口不谈。

　　“我不过是个学生啊，”杨秀峰对我说，“可能还是中学一年级生呢。我们不懂做官的那一套，大概难学得很哪。国民党一开始还笑话我们行署的公文太简单，可是后来，他们也觉得还是简单一些好。我们的法院办事也是如此。法官就在纸条上书写简明扼要的判决词。

　　“我觉得我在领导工作中的最大缺点是接近人民不够，我有时还犯官僚主义哩。

　　“举个例子说吧。一九四二年我们禁止缠足，当时我们下了一道命今，提出了一个口号，叫‘解放小脚’，凡是缠足的女人都罚款；但这种官僚主义的办法行不通。后来我们撤消了那道命令，改用宣传教育的办法，结果群众就自动把小脚解放了。一九四一年，我们推行强迫教育，但这是一种书生气的、官僚主义的办法。家长都太穷了，无法送孩子上学，而且还要孩子在地里干活呢。于是我们就把这个命令也撤消了，一方面设法改善家长的生活水平，一方面取消了学费。”

　　Although Communist policies dominated the Border Regions, workers and farmers did not occupy the highest government positions which were almost solely monopolized by literate intellectuals.

　　Professor Yang was at great pains to point out to me that the intelligentsia had far greater opportunities in the Liberated Areas than the proletariat. The government was continually trying to obtain technicians from the outside world, holding out a subsidy of thirteen hundred pounds of grain a year as lure to all who might want to desert Chiang Kai-shek. University professors who came over from Peiping received a salary of about two hundred American dollars a month which was far more than the Kuomintang paid and of course many times the salary of a regular Border Region official or a Communist cadre. Such preferential treatment of the intellectual merely highlighted the Communists' desperate need for educated men.

　　An outsider like myself used to wonder how the Border Region could run a government staffed for the most part with officials who had no previous experience. Yang, who up to the age of forty-one was a professor, of course, is a case in point. How could he govern thirty million people without having had any previous experience himself and with a staff equally ignorant of the art of government?

　　The answer Yang gave me to this question is in a way an answer to those Kuomintang theoreticians who used to declare that the people must be taught democracy, but never said who was going to teach the teachers.

　　"I am just like a student," Yang told me, "maybe in his first year of middle school. We have no bureaucratic skill. Maybe that is damn hard to learn. The Kuomintang used to laugh at the simple documents of my Director's Bureau. But after a while they thought their simplicity was pretty good. In our courts we go on the same way. Our judges write out simple decisions on slips of paper.

　　"I feel that the greatest obstruction to my governing well is that I can't get as close to the people as necessary. Sometimes I am too bureaucratic.

　　"For example, in 1942 we abolished foot binding. We issued an order and adopted a slogan: 'Emancipate feet.' The family of any woman with bound feet was fined. Such bureaucratic methods were not effective. So we canceled the order and adopted propaganda methods and the people emancipated their feet by themselves.

　　"In 1941, we carried out compulsory education, but this was an intellectual, bureaucratic approach. Parents were too poor to send their children to school and needed their children's labor in the fields. So we abolished that order, too, and tried to better the living of the parents while doing away with the school fee."

　　近十年来，杨秀峰不但学会了行政管理，而且他的整个人生观也改变了。

　　“从旧社会过来的知识分子要在新社会工作，可不是那么容易呀。”他对我说。

　　“我打游击那阵子，还以为政府最好是设在大衙门里。现在我感到，住在这座简陋的房子里办事更便当，因为这样更接近人民。

　　“抗战前，我不愿搞政治。现在我认识到，没有政治工作，什么事也办不成。

　　“我早年留学法国的时候，很喜欢去卢浮宫欣赏油画。现在我变了，我不再相信‘为艺术而艺术’了。”

　　这话听起来有些马克思学说的味道，于是我就问杨秀峰为什么还不加入共产党。

　　“如果你要说我还不够格做一名共产党员，我无话可说；可是你要问我想不想入党，我只能说我要争取。你可以把我看作是党外布尔什维克吧。”

　　“那么，”我问杨秀峰，“你的政府真是共产党的傀儡吗？”

　　杨秀峰面有怒色。“谁要说我们是共产党的傀儡，那就请他亲自来看看。如果他的意思是说我们在各个主要问题上在实行共产党的纲领，如果他的意思是说我们欢迎资本家，支持土地改革，相信民主，那还讲得过去。

　　“但是，看问题应当看共产党的政策是否对人民有好处。判断任何一个纲领，只有一个标准，就是看它是否有利于人民。我们的政府是为人民服务的。不愿意为人民服务的人，不必来这里。”如果要正确回答你的问题的话，”杨秀峰最后说，“那么就说我们是人民的傀儡吧。”

　　In these last ten years, Yang has not only learned something about government, but his whole personal philosophy of life has begun to change.

　　"An intellectual from an old society finds it hard to work in a new one, he told me.

　　"When I was fighting guerrilla warfare I thought it better for the government to live in big yamens. Now I find it much more effective to live in this simple house because I am closer to the people that way.

　　"Before the Japanese war I did not wish to engage in politics. But now I think without political work nothing else is possible.

　　"A long time ago I was a student in France and I used to enjoy looking at the pictures in the Louvre. But now I've changed. I no longer believe in 'art for art's sake.'"

　　As this sounded like Marxist doctrine, I asked Yang why he did not join the Communist party.

　　"If you say I am not good enough to be a Communist, I have no words with which to answer you. But if you say do you want to be a Communist, I can only say I want to try. You can call me a non-party Bolshevik."

　　"Then is it true," I asked Yang, "that your government is a puppet of the Communist party?"

　　Yang looked up angrily. "We invite anyone who says that we are puppets of the Communists to come here and see for themselves. If they mean that we are carrying out the program of the Communist party in every major sphere, if they mean we welcome capitalists (1), back up the land reform and believe in democracy, then they may say we are puppets.

　　"But the proper way to put the question is whether the Communist party's policy is right for the people. The only way to evaluate any program is on its worth to the people. Our government stands for service to the people. Any visitor who does not like such service need not come here.

　　"If you want a proper answer to your question," concluded Yang, "you may say we are puppets of the people."

原注一：当时的共产党政策是消灭封建主义，鼓励资本主义。地主被无情消灭，商人和民族资产阶级则可以发家致富。还没有取消私人财产。

(1) Present Chinese Communist policy is to eliminate feudalism, encourage capitalism. Landlords are treated ruthlessly, merchants, traders, businessmen and "native capitalists" are encouraged to expand their holdings and get rich. There is, as yet, no abolition of private property.