BIRTH OF A GOVERNMENT
他们亲眼看到村子的统治者从宝座上滚下来，政府对于他们来说不再是不可抗拒的势力，不再是高踞于上的、遥远的、不可驾驭的东西。
另一事件是游击战。由于打游击，共产党干部常常要在农民家里寻求掩护，这样，农民便渐渐对政府产生了亲近的感情。政府成了在地上的东西，农民伸手就能摸着，能与它握手，甚至能打它的耳光。政府堂皇的外表，官员身上唬人的制服和绸面皮袍，以及在威严的衙门口持枪站岗的卫兵统统都不见了。
在农村里，官员们像农民一样穿着棉布衣裤，像农民一样说话，像农民一样生活。他们基本上就是农民。从他们身上看不出他们与普通人有什么两样。他们也不称作“长官”、“老爷”，甚至也不称作“先生”。干么要称他们这些？他们都是农民自己推选出来的嘛。
Two revolutionary phenomena have had profound effects on village government in the Communist areas. Land reform by turning the landlords out of village office has killed the peasant's ancient dread of government. He no longer regards it with the terror and dismay of the old days.
Before his very eyes the peasant has seen village rulers topple from their thrones. Government to him is no longer an invincible force, above, aloof and beyond control.
On the other hand, guerrilla warfare, which often brought the Communist cadre into the peasant's hut seeking refuge, has developed in the farmer a new sense of nearness and familiarity with government. Government has become something close to earth that the peasant can touch, shake by the hand or even slap in the face. Gone are its external trappings, the awe-inspiring uniforms, the fur-lined silk gowns of the officials, the men bearing arms before austere yamen gates. In the villages, the officials dress in cotton jackets and pants like peasants, they talk like peasants, live like peasants. They are mainly peasants. There is nothing about them to distinguish them from anyone else. Nor are they any longer addressed as Officer, Old Master or even Elder Born. Why should they be? They were elevated to office by the votes of the peasants themselves.
可是，“新式民主”是件多么新奇的事情！民主的工具突然塞到落后的农民手中，他们一时还不知如何运用。农村的选举办法形形色色，有时简直很滑稽。可是在共产党控制的农村地区，还是统统进行了选举。
共产党从国民党手里接管一个村庄的时候，并不马上举行选举，一般也不触动村里的头目。可是土改结束不久，局面安定之后，就对所有的村民进行登记，审查选举资格。十八岁以上的男女，只要没有神经病，抗日时没有当过汉奸，都有资格参加选举。全部登记名单就张贴在村里街道旁的布告牌上。有选举资格者，名字用黑笔写出；无选举资格者，名字用红笔写出。
选举委员会把村子按方位分成几片，每一片推举出一组候选人和一两个预备候选人。选举前的一星期用于竞选活动。候选人一级不以党派纲领进行竞选，而是以个人政见进行竞选。
When the Communists take over a village from the Kuomintang, they do not immediately start elections and generally do not disturb the village chiefs. But shortly after the land reform and as soon as conditions have settled down, every villager is registered and examined on his right to vote. Any man or woman over eighteen, not insane and not a traitor during the Japanese war, is qualified to vote. The list of all those registered is placed on the bulletin board on the village street. The names of qualified voters are written in black; those unqualified, in red.
An election committee then divides the village into sections according to the points of the compass and each section elects a set of candidates and one or two reserves. The week before election is utilized for campaigning. Candidates generally do not campaign on party platforms, but on individual platforms.
一、我保证带头抗日，为全村报仇。
二、我要带头生产，让大家丰衣足食。
三、我保证搞好儿童保健。
四、我要组织民兵，维护治安。
今天，在内战时期，竞选诺言就变成另一个样子
一、我要保卫翻身果实。
二、我要带领大家狠狠地打蒋介石。
三、我要办好冬学。
1. I promise to lead you in the fight against the Japanese and get revenge against our village.
2. I shall lead you in production so that we will be well fed and clothed.
3. I promise to make your children healthy.
4. I will organize the militia and guarantee public, safety.
Today in the civil war, a campaign promise goes like this:
1. I will protect the results of the overturning movement.
2. I will help us fight effectively against Chiang Kai-shek.
3. I will establish good winter schools.
支持一位旧日地主的人却这样说：“咱的候选人虽说是地主，可是个好人哪。过去他借给大伙儿钱，利息都少要。他要是选上了，还能好呢。”竞选演说家们拿着话筒招来听众，他们挨家挨户地拉选票，他们在村里的布告牌上张贴赞扬自己候选人的宣传词。街头演说家倒不太多，村民们有时站在场院的石碾子上，这样，谁都能看清演说家，也能听见他的演说。竞选大会并不激烈，不过在辩论中也可以听到这样的话：“你们的候选人不好”，“你是地主的走狗”，“你是二流子”，等等。
"If our man is elected," said an old woman in a Shantung village, "there will be more equal distribution of the burden of the village. Our man will maintain public safety, get education for the children and get us profits from production."
A supporter of an ex-landlord, however, spoke in this manner.
"Although our candidate was a landlord, he is a good man. In the
past he lent you money at low interest. If he is elected, he will do even
better."
Campaign speakers used hand megaphones to draw crowds, went from house to house soliciting votes and published favorable comments on their candidate on the village bulletin board. Although they had few soap box orators, sometimes villagers mounted rollers on the threshing grounds so that everyone could see and hear them. The campaign meetings were not violent, but there were arguments in which words like the following might be distinguished: "Your candidate is no good." "You are a running dog of the landlords." "You are a loafer." And so on.
到了选举那一天，老百姓就聚集在投票场所，这一般是学堂或是当地的寺庙。由于许多投票人不会写字，投票的方式也是五花八门的。
有一种方式是用几只颜色不同的碗，每一只碗代表一个候选人。投票人要选谁，就往谁的碗里投一粒豆子。豆子由选举委员会发，不许私带自家的豆子。还有一种用碗的投票方式保密性更强。用这种方式投票，发给投票人几粒颜色不同的豆子，每一个候选人面前都倒扣着一只碗，投票人在每只碗下都塞进一粒豆子。只有一粒豆子是代表赞成票的，比如红豆子代表赞成票，那么谁得到红豆子最多，谁就当选。
还有这样一种投票方式：把几张大纸贴在墙上，每一大张纸上写着一个候选人的名字。投票人举着一根点着了的香，要选谁就把香头往谁的纸上戳，那姿势简直有点像瞄靶投标，一戳就把纸烧出一个洞。这样，谁的香洞多，谁就当选。
还有一种投票方式是用一张大纸把所有候选人的名字都写上，投票人要选谁就在谁的名字下画一个圆圈。
也有用选票选举的。有一种选票只是一张盖着村公所公章的空白纸。投票人把要选的人的名字写在选票上，投进票箱。还有一种选票是把所有候选人的名字都列出来，投票人要选谁就在谁的名字旁画一个记号。
One method was to use bowls of different colors, each bowl representing a candidate. Into the bowl representing his choice, the voter put a bean given him by the election committee. In this kind of election, all voters were warned not to bring their own beans. There was a variation of the bow1 voting which was more secret. In this type the voter was handed a number of different colored beans, which he placed one by one under overturned bowls set before each candidate. Only one of the beans - say the red one however - counted as a vote. The candidate with the most red beans won.
Another method was to put large pieces of paper on a wall with one candidate's name on each paper. The voter, armed with a burning incense stick, approached the papers and, like someone aiming a dart at a target, burned a hole in the paper bearing the name of the candidate of his choice. The candidate with the most holes won in this kind of election.
In another system, all the candidates' names were put on one huge piece of paper and the voters came and drew a circle under their choice.
There was also voting by ballot. One type of ballot was merely a blank piece of paper with the seal of The village office chopped on it. The voter wrote his candidate's name on this ballot and put it in a box. The other kind of ballot gave all names and the voter put a mark beside the one of his choice.
投票一结束选举委员会就开始唱票，把当选者的名单贴在墙上。
选出了村长，村民们就给他献上一朵红纸花，人们还到他家门口敲锣打鼓。当村长走出门向庆贺的人群致意时，人们常常用一根竹杠子把他抬起来，到街上游行一周。这棍竹杠子叫做“独龙杠”，意味着当选者是村里的独龙，是头头了。
When a village head is elected, the villagers present him with a wreath of red paper flowers. A troop with gongs and drums serenades him at home. When he steps out of doors to greet his well-wishers, he is often placed on a bamboo pole and carried around the town. This pole is known as the Solitary Dragon Pole, signifying that the candidate is the only dragon, or the big noise, in the village now.
农民们没有长期的民主传统，因而选举一结束，他们就认为万事大吉，不再去监督他们的官员。而且，缺乏受过训练的人员也是进行地方行政工作的一个障碍，边区的行政人员中，多数都没有工作经验，他们只能在干中学习。
在山西的一个专区，有个县长想要发动人民搞土改，又不知道如何着手。他就把部属召集在一起，命令几个人分别扮作地主、中农、放债的和贫农等等。然后这几个人就演了一场假戏，以试验如何同人民联系。
Because villagers had no long traditions of democracy, they often thought their duty finished when the election was over, and didn't supervise their officials. Also, the lack of trained personnel was a handicap in carrying on local government, for the majority of those governing the Border Region had no past experience in administrative affairs. The officials could only learn through doing.
In a district of Shansi a magistrate wanted to arouse, the people to carry on land reform, but did not know just how to go about it. So he called a meeting of all his staff members and ordered one to take the part of a landlord, another the part of a middle class farmer, another a usurer, another a poor farmer and so on. Then they held an informal play and carried on an experiment on how to get in touch with the people.
解放区的农村和美国的城市一样，有时也有恶霸为害。这些恶霸多为中国封建社会的残余。抗日战争时期，共产党不实行分田，地主在农村中保留了经济势力，也保留了政治势力。
这样，一个四百人的小村子里，当村长的往往仍是地主，而一个一千人的大村子，村长不是地主就是地主的代理人。
New officials also had little experience in writing official letters or documents. For example, according to old Chinese official practice, it is customary to address a superior in one way and an inferior in another. Some officials turned these around and wrote to their subordinates: "My exalted Sir," and to their superiors: "I order you."
These were some of the minor everyday difficulties in establishing
democracy in a country that has known little of it. But there were more
serious problems, too.
Just as in American cities, the villages in the Liberated Areas were
sometimes plagued with bosses. Most of these bosses were a hangover from
China's feudal society. During the Japanese war, the Communist party did
not divide the land and as a consequence the landlords, retaining the
economic power in the villages, also retained the political power. Thus
in a small village of four hundred people the village chief would continue
to be a landlord, while in a larger village of one thousand people he
might either be a landlord or one of his agents.
解放区鼎鼎有名的作家赵树理，在小说《李有才板话》中，把这种舞弊现像描写得很详细。小说的主人公李有才，是个老羊倌。多年来，他把村里的人和事编成快板，给自己和老伙计们解闷。八路军来到了李有才那个村里，告诉老乡们，现在民主了，大家应当自己选举村长，于是地主阎恒元就马上当选为村长。年年选举一次，年年阎伍元当选。对于达件事，李羊倌编了下面一段快板进行讽刺：
村长阎恒元，
一手遮住天，
自从有村长，
一当十几年。
年年要投票，
嘴说是改选，
选来又选去，
还是阎恒元。
不如弄块板，
刻个大名片，
每逢该投票，
大家按一按。
人人省得写，
年年不用换，
用他百把年，
管保用不烂。
地主被李有才的快板弄得狼狈不堪，就不再当村长了，但却设法让自己的一名亲信被选为村长。一切还是老样子，因为新村长对老村长唯命是从。为了揭露这一情况，李有才给地主及其傀儡村长又编了一段快板。
村里的穷人开心地传唱着李有才的快板。地主害怕这这羊倌的影响，就指使村长把他赶出了村子。李有才被迫避居山中，但他的歌却留在人们的心里。最后，人民终于把地主赶下了台，选上了自己的人。李有才返回了村子，又编了一段快板庆祝选举的胜利．
故事简单么？是的。宣传么？不错。不过，这是一个很有意义的宣传，是目的崇高的宣传。赵树理讲述了一个村子如何与压制民主作斗争的故事，就等于告诉别的村子，它们也能够打垮压迫者而赢得民主。赵树理还向人民指明，他们必须自己动手为平等而斗争，不能把民主当成共产党或八路军的一种恩赐。
When the elections were first introduced into the villages, the landlords got themselves voted into office merely by threatening to foreclose on peasants' land or threatening to drive sharecroppers from their estates. As the farmers grew more conscious, the landlords used more subtle methods, employing village bullies to scare the voters, placing their agents in strategic vote-counting positions or stuffing the bowls of their candidates with beans.
Such malpractices are described in much detail by Chao Hsu-li, the
most popular writer in the Liberated Areas, in his novel the Ballads of
Li Yu-tsai. The hero of the novel, Li Yu-tsai, is an old shepherd who
for years has amused himself and his cronies by making up ballads about
the people in his village. When the 8th Route Army announces to the people
in Li's village that they have democracy now and should elect their own
officers, the village landlord, Yen Heng-yuan, is immediately elected
village chief. Every year there is an election, but every year Yen is
voted into office. To lampoon these conditions, the Shepherd Li makes
up the following verse:
Hooray for Yen, our village chief,
who towers all above us;
By all the years you've been our boss,
it's plain to see you love us,
Ten autumns now,
the polling place has seen the folk in action:
And each election proves once more
that Yen's the big attraction.
Yet times are getting harder now
and labor we'ld be saving,
So I suggest we have your name
cut on a wood engraving.
Each voter then,
instead of writing out the famous name,
Can simply use the chop
and the results will be the same.
Then Yen, who's always first,
can take the damn thing home and save it.
For it will be a hundred years
before we re-engrave it.
Embarrassed by Li's ballads, the landlord gives up office, but manages
to have one of his own henchmen elected. Thus things continue as before,
for the new village chief is at the beck and call of the old. To portray
these new conditions the shepherd again makes up another ballad about
the landlord and his stooge, the village chief.
Gleefully, the village poor begin to recite Li's ballads. Fearing the
shepherd's influence the landlord directs the village chief to exile him
from the village. Li is forced to take up an abode in the mountains, but
his songs remain in the hearts of the people and eventually they throw
the landlord out of office and vote their own man in. Li Yu-tsai comes
back to the village and commemorates the victorious election with another
ballad.
A simple story? Yes. Propaganda? To be sure. But it is a critical propaganda,
propaganda for a noble purpose; for in telling how one village fought
against the suppression of democracy, Chao Hsu-li has shown other villages
how they, too, can fight off their oppressors and gain democracy. And
more - he shows the people how they must fight for equality with their
own weapons; they can't just take democracy as a gift from the Communists
or the 8th Route Army.
这就极清楚地说明，共产党人的用意并不在建立乌托邦式的民主，而是在培植支持自己的力量。然而，在战争和革命期间，如果指望他们不这么行事，也是可笑的。我与之交谈过的共产党人，大都很坦白地承认，他们需要建立巩固的拥护自己的基础。不过，那些拥护共产党的所谓“开明人士”，却竭力向我说明，每个村子都是由人民所拥护的人管理。这种说法是可笑的。我发现，在不少村庄里，老百姓对当地官员是怨恨的。我见过一位农村姑娘，她非常热爱共产党，因为共产党实行婚姻自由，男女平等。但是这位姑娘与许多追求新贵的女人不同，她对我说，“我不愿意嫁给干部，他们都是些想升官发财、不管老百姓的家伙。”当然，观点相反的姑娘也有的是。
不管共产党人距离完善的民主还有多么遥远，不管他们那些糊涂的朋友为他们捧场的话有多么夸张，但是共产党毕竟唤醒了千百万中国农民，使他们认识到自己有权选举官员，从而向民主迈进了巨大的一步。如果一个五百人的村子是由一个一百五十人的农民协会发号施今进行管理，而不再是由一个有权势的地主任意统治，这当然应该看成是一个很大的进步。不管对于解放区的农村社会流传着什么样的谣言，据我所观察到的，那里政府的贤明．是国民党区的政府根本无法比拟的。
国民党、蒋介石总是说中国人民还没有准备好实行民主，必须先实行一个时期的训政。解放区的领导人嘲笑了这种理论。
“在施行民主之前，先训练人民，这是毫无用处的。”边区政府副主席戎伍胜对我说，“人民要是过上了民主生活，习惯自然会改变。只有体验民主，才能学会民主。”
Most of the Communists I talked to on this point were quite frank about their need to create a firm base of support. The so-called liberal and intellectual supporters of the Communists, however, always took great pains to assure me that every village was ruled by the men the people wanted. Such statements are ridiculous. I found not a few villages where the people hated their local officials. I met a farm girl who was very much in love with the Communist party because the party saw to it that women got freedom of marriage and equal rights with men. But this same girl, unlike many who rush to the new power, told me: "I wouldn't marry a cadre. They're all too ambitious. They don't care about the people." You could, of course, find just as many girls on the other side of the fence.
But no matter how distant they may be from a perfect democracy, no matter how exaggerated have been the claims of their misguided friends, the Communists have taken a gigantic step forward awakening millions of Chinese peasants to their rights to elect the men who shall govern them. And surely when a village of five hundred people is governed by the edicts of 150 men and women in the Farmers Association instead of by the whim of one powerful landlord, it must be considered to have taken a mighty progressive step. Despite all the rumors that were circulated about their society, certainly, as far as I saw, the villages in the Liberated Areas had achieved a form of government so far superior to that practiced in Kuomintang areas that there was no comparison.
The Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek always insisted that the people of China were not ready for democracy and that they must undergo a period of tutelage. Leaders in the Liberated Areas scoffed at that theory.
"It is utterly useless to train people for democracy beforehand," Jung Wu-sheng, vice-chairman of the Border Region government, told me. "If the people lead a democratic life, their habits will naturally be transformed. Only through the practice of democracy can you learn democracy."