趙紫陽之死

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The man who came too late遲來的人道
Jan 18th 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda
2005/01/18 摘錄自經濟學人全球議題

Zhao Ziyang, who was toppled as leader of China’s Communist Party for opposing the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, has died aged 85. Had he not been deposed, China might be a very different place from what it is today
享年85歲的趙紫陽, 若沒有因為反對1989年的天安門鎮壓而被罷黜共產黨總書記的職位, 或許, 中國會成為一個迥然不同的國家.

AT DAWN on May 19th 1989, when the pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square were at their height and looking like a serious threat to Chinese Communist Party rule, the party’s leader, Zhao Ziyang, suddenly appeared among the protesting students. Addressing them tearfully through a megaphone, he said he had come “too late”. He did not say what he meant but, in the coded language of Chinese political rhetoric, his message was abundantly clear. He had come too late to save the demonstrators—and he wanted them to leave the square before it was too late for them. The next day, martial law was declared in Beijing. Fifteen days later, with the protesters still ignoring Mr Zhao’s warning, soldiers from the People’s Army opened fire on them, killing hundreds.

共產黨前總書記趙紫陽在1989年5月19日的黎明現身於天安門抗議要求民主的學生之中, 儘管當時這沸沸洋洋的學運被視為對當權造成嚴重威脅. 他透過麥克風聲淚俱下的說到,他來的太遲了. 他雖然沒明說, 但就中國政治語言而言, 這句話的言外之意卻是再清楚也不過了. 過去來不及拯救那些民運人士, 現在, 他希望那些學生們能離開廣場, 不然就太遲了. 隔天, 北京發佈戒嚴令; 人民解放軍則在15天後, 對不以當時的警告為意的學生展開武力鎮壓, 數百人因此死亡.

The party’s hardliners, having brushed aside Mr Zhao’s pleas not to order the crackdown, removed him from office and put him under house arrest. He never appeared in public again. Nevertheless, the Chinese leadership remained fearful that his death might trigger fresh protests—just as the Tiananmen Square unrest had itself been triggered by the death of Hu Yaobang, another reformer. In the days leading up to his death on Monday January 17th, security was tightened in Tiananmen Square and outside Mr Zhao’s home—apparently to prevent either becoming a focal point for renewed protests. China's state media made only the briefest mention of the death of “Comrade Zhao”—or aid nothing at all.

曾忽略趙紫陽請求不要下令鎮壓的的黨內大佬進一步地將他免職且軟禁在家中.再也沒有人曾在公開的場合看過他了. 然而中國的領導心有餘悸地恐他的死亡, 會如另一位力主改革者胡耀邦之死引爆天安門動盪般, 引發新的抗議; 早在1月17日他的死亡之前, 便在天安門和趙紫陽的家, 這兩個可能變成抗議者捲土重來的引爆點嚴加戒備.中國的官方媒體只對此以’趙同志’的死亡簡短地帶過, 或甚至當作什麼都沒發生.

The authorities now face the difficult decision of whether it would cause less of a stir to grant or deny Mr Zhao a formal state funeral, and how big a ceremony to allow, if any. However, a source close to his family told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that they were prepared to forgo a high-profile public ceremony.

當權者現正面臨的難題是趙紫陽的正式公方葬禮的允許與否. 何者將造成較少的騷動?如果有可能舉辦的話, 儀式的規模又該如何呢? 據路透社在18日的內線消息指出趙家早放棄受人矚目的公開儀式的可能性.

There does not seem much chance of unrest now. The passage of time, the hardliners’ success in snuffing out the nascent democracy movement, and not least China’s considerable economic progress since 1989, have all helped the memories to fade. Indeed, a foreign ministry spokesman defended the Tiananmen Square massacres on Tuesday, saying that: “The past 15 years have shown China's decision was correct. China's stability and development are in the interest of China and in the interest of the whole world.”

目前似乎並不是動盪不安的時機: 黨內大佬撲滅民運小火苗的成功和中國經濟自1989年後的突飛猛進, 在在皆使得記憶隨著時間的流逝而褪色. 從某位外交部發言人在18日為天安門大屠殺的辯護中, 確實的傳達這樣的訊息, 內容是 : 這15年來已證明中國當時的決定是正確的. 中國的穩定和發展不僅是中國, 亦為全世界的所關注.

Nevertheless, public discussion of what happened between April and June of 1989 remains taboo. Notwithstanding the supposed power of the internet to provide uncensored information, Chinese outside Beijing, and even younger residents of the capital, often appear unaware of the scale and ruthlessness of the military action that ended the protests. The 15th anniversary of the crackdown, last June, passed almost unnoticed in mainland China, though there were demonstrations in Hong Kong.

對於1989年4月至六月間發生的事仍然是公開談論的禁忌. 儘管網際網路的假想力量能散播未經檢驗的消息, 而北京外的中國人, 甚至是住在首都的年輕人, 卻常顯露出對於終結天安門抗議所採取軍事行動的規模龐大及慘絕人寰的不知不覺. 如去年6月,也就是天安門事件的15週年, 香港的示威遊行對中國大陸的人民而言只是驚鴻一瞥罷了.

Had he not been deposed and made a “non-person”, Mr Zhao might have transformed China into a country very different from the one it is today, politically if not economically. The party prefers to believe that the course China took then was right: brutal repression followed by an explosion of capitalist energy that has propelled it into the front ranks of the world’s economic powers. Mr Zhao, by contrast, believed that capitalism was possible without terrifying the party’s critics into silence.

若不從經濟面而從另一角度來看, 趙紫陽可能使中國成為一個在政治本質上和今日迥異的國家, 如果當初並沒有被罷黜和被非人的對待. 中國共產黨傾向於相信, 當時所採取的所作所為並沒有錯: 因為血腥鎮壓隨後的經濟大躍進確實讓中國擠進世界經濟霸權之列. 相較之下, 趙紫陽則相信, 即使不迫害異議份子使其保持緘默, 資本主義仍是可行的.

That said, his behaviour during Tiananmen was never that of a hero. Students in the square did not especially admire him, and his appearance there may have been designed to further his own political ambitions. He showed no sign either before or after Tiananmen of opposing one-party rule. But in a political environment that brooked no dissent, he was undoubtedly a reformer.

消息指出他當時的行為並不是英雄的作為. 天安門的學生並不特別欽佩他, 且他的現身或許只是為了推進個人政治野心的佈局. 儘管, 他在天安門事件的前後並沒有表現出任何反對一黨獨大政策的徵兆, 但在不容許異議的政治環境中, 他卻無疑是個改革者.

The son of a landlord from Henan province, Mr Zhao was born just eight years after the end of China’s last imperial dynasty in 1911. He joined the Communist Party aged 20 and, after its victory in the civil war in 1949, he rose through the party ranks. When Mao Zedong launched his Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, Mr Zhao was among the many party officials to be purged, and was dragged through the streets in a dunce’s cap. But after a few years he regained his position in the party, and in 1975 he was made party secretary in Deng Xiaoping’s home province of Sichuan.

1919年, 僅在滿清最後一個王朝滅亡八年後, 趙紫陽出生於河南省的地主家中. 20歲時加入共產黨, 並於1949年解放戰爭的勝利後, 黨內地位獲得拔擢. 1960晚期, 毛澤東展開他獨斷的文化大革命時, 趙紫陽曾被拖著遊街, 因被貼上需要被清除的政黨官員之標籤,. 然而, 沒幾年後他又重獲黨內的地位, 甚至在1975年成為鄧小平故鄉, 四川省的黨書記.

Despite its fertile soil, Sichuan’s economy was such a mess when he took over that some peasant families were having to sell their daughters. Mr Zhao realised that the centralised and bureaucratic collective farming imposed by the party offered few incentives to boost production. So he allowed individual households to grow their own produce and sell it in markets. The province’s factories were also allowed to use their profits as they saw fit, rather than offering them up to the state. The province’s output soared, giving rise to an oft-quoted ditty, Yao chi liang, zhao Ziyang—If you want to eat grain, look for Ziyang. (Mr Zhao’s surname is a homonym of the Chinese for “look for”.)

趙紫陽接管天府之國四川時, 那邊的經濟真的是慘不忍睹, 一些小耕農甚至需要賣女兒以求取生存. 了解到共產黨所強行採用中央集權且官僚作風下的集體農場並不能鼓勵提高生產後, 他允許個體戶不僅能種植私有的作物且能在市場上販賣, 省立工廠亦能視需要運用盈餘, 而不僅是上繳國庫. 四川省的產出自此狂飆, 因此有了這首常聽見的歌謠: ”要吃糧, 找紫陽”—如果要吃米糧, 就找趙紫陽.(在中文裡, ’趙’這個字是’找’的同音異義字)

In the early 1980s Mr Zhao served as China’s prime minister, advocating for its cities the same loosening of the state’s deadening grip on the economy as he had introduced in Sichuan’s countryside. In 1987, Deng, then China’s paramount leader, promoted Mr Zhao to secretary-general of the Communist Party. He showed no sign of unwillingness to follow Deng’s desires—economic reform, plus a bit of political reform as long as it kept the party firmly in power. But Mr Zhao impressed foreigners. He appeared lively, well informed, keen on capitalist ideas—and keen to debate them with the foreign press, something unseen either before or after him.

1980年早期趙紫陽擔任中國國家主席時, 倡導都市應如當初他在四川省農村般鬆綁國家對經濟掌控的隔絕式做法. 此後, 中國至高無上的領導人鄧小平在1987年將他晉升為共產黨的總書記. 他的一言一行並沒有違背鄧小平的渴求--經濟改革加上不動搖政黨政權穩定下的’些微’政治革新. 只是他採取讓外國人雙眼為之一亮的做法. 精力充沛, 消息靈通, 熱衷於資本家的思想甚至為此和國外記者相辯論. 種種的表現, 該算是前無古人, 後無來者吧.

After his downfall, Mr Zhao never resigned from the party. He did not court the media. Yet, to many, his nuanced non-conformism with the post-Tiananmen order was an inspiration. He could have salvaged something of his political career by publicly acknowledging his “errors”, but refused to. In his guarded compound in a quiet alley close to Beijing’s main commercial district, he lived out his last years without openly challenging the party. Foreign leaders politely avoided mentioning him when visiting Beijing. Yet the party remained in fear of Mr Zhao until his dying breath.

趙紫陽並沒有在垮台後辭去黨的職位. 亦並沒有迎合任何媒體. 隨著天安門事件後的罷黜, 他那微妙, 不盲從的態度鼓勵了許多人. 他可以採取公開承認錯誤, 而多少搶救他的政治生涯, 而他卻拒絕了. 最後, 在靠近北京主要商業區的一條被監視的巷道度過餘生, 不再挑釁共產黨. 外國領袖在拜訪北京時也禮貌上避免談到他. 可是直到他死後, 共產黨對他的恐懼仍然不滅.