We stayed in a village and went to the farm field to work together with peasants at those times. In general, villagers would cook porridge as breakfast for the students but the students would cook lunches and dinners themselves. As a result, there were a few girls in every class left at the village to cook the food for their classmates. At that time, it was very rare to use coal to do cooking in the countryside. Villagers used various kinds of dry crop-stalks to cook the food. In one particular village where that class stayed, girls were using dry beanstalks to cook the food. Those beanstalks were supposed to be clean or empty with all the beans having been taken out before being used for cooking the food. However, it was generally not that easy to get each and every bean out of the beanstalks. What happened in this story was that those girls who used the beanstalks to cook the food carefully checked those dry beanstalks again and took out the leftover beans before using them to cook the food. After about two weeks of hard work, they accumulated four pounds of beans and they were planning to cook those beans and share with their classmates as snack food that evening. Then somehow, suddenly, great leader Chairman Mao’s instructions echoed around the ears of one girl. I have described before about this kind of transition in people’s mood or thinking associated with the “echoes of Chairman Mao’s instructions”:

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关于颜色的唯物主义和唯心主义观
http://blog.hjenglish.com/coolboy/archive/2005/09/05/125980.html

“This sentence of ‘Suddenly, great leader Chairman Mao’s instructions echoed around my ears’ was one of the most frequently used sentences in that period. In certain extent, it reflected the reality that ordinary people would ask for helps from Chairman Mao’s thoughts for any problem or any thing they encountered in their daily lives, which, of course, should also include my puzzle on color. The solution to the problem, whether it was useful or not, was almost always guaranteed. At the time, the most frequently used Chairman Mao’s thoughts would be coming from a well-known red book: “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung”. This situation is similar to the one that if you encounter new words in reading, you most likely will go looking up a dictionary for the help. The only difference is that the dictionary will not echo or echo around your ears.”
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Based on the instructions echoed around that girl’s ears, they should not consume those beans but should return those beans to the villagers. Other girls had different opinions on the issue. Those girls then had discussions and arguments but they still cannot resolve the issue. They brought the issue to the class head/teacher who was a worker coming from a factory in response to Chairman Mao’s call to spread the proletarian revolutionary ideas (驻校工宣队员). The class head thought that it was an interesting topic to let the entire class discuss, study and decide. Finally, everyone in the class agreed that they should return the beans to the villagers and they were greatly appraised by the village head.

The story of “Four pounds of beans (四斤黄豆)” that was first published in the school blackboards was later changed into a small play by a school teacher Mr. Zhang (张云南) who was also in charge of student affairs. The play was performed by the school propaganda team and was well received in various occasions from the school, district, city, county and all the way to the province (学校、区、市、专区、省文艺汇演). It was well received and highly appraised at the time mainly because it was an original article based on an interesting true story, which was very unusual at the time.

However, there was a tiny but significant change of the play after it was performed in the district’s school art convention. The title and contents of the play were changed into “Four ounces of beans (四两黄豆)”. The district head in charge of propaganda pointed out that ......

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(To be continued)

The district head in charge of propaganda pointed out that four pounds of beans were too much for being left over in those bean-stalks for ordinary people. The story actually meant that those peasants were not serious in doing their work because they were too wasteful. Peasants were supposed to set good examples for us to follow and to learn from them at the first place, which was also the original purpose of our going to the countryside. However, it was a very good story anyway. The only thing one needs to do to make the story perfect (锦上添花，画龙点睛) was to change “pounds” everywhere in the story into “ounces”. Everybody seemed agreed at the moment and coolboy thought that was a great idea too.

Later, and much later, coolboy became a physicist and started to realize the problems of the change by the district head in charge of propaganda. First, those beans were supposed to be shared by the whole class which had about 50 students. If it were only four ounces of beans, then on average, every student would have received only about 10 beans. [Yes! As a physicist, I actually weighted and counted the beans.] Under a normal condition, those girls would not have had the idea of sharing the beans with the whole class in the first place or their classmates would laugh at them. Second, the play was supposed to be based on a true story, which was also the main reason that made the play popular. Different people can tell the same true story in different ways but the critical facts and numbers reflecting the essential truths should not be changed or changed significantly.

What the district head in charge of propaganda did was to say that, basically, the most important principle of the propaganda was political correctness rather than truthfulness. This really bothered me quite a lot. After a while, coolboy was probably one of a few who still knew and remembered the true story behind “Four ounces of beans (四两黄豆)” that was once widely spread. What about many other well-known stories that had been widely spread? For example, one can often read something like 钱学森的脑袋足以抵得上二个师。Here, the essential part is also related to the number. Why 二个师 rather than 二个集团军 or 二个营? It is a legitimate question to ask whether the number was based on truth or political correctness.

Now, returning to my assistant, as I said at beginning that she was beautiful and good at literature. More importantly, she was really a very good assistant to me or to the job for she can always finish the task of copying the articles to the classroom blackboard in a high quality and timely fashion. However, there was one special character about her: we were often in disagreement and she liked to argue or debate with me on various social and political issues.

It was true that in those years it was the best and the worst of times, it was also the era of fighting and argument (战斗的年代，辩论的年代). But we were supposed to fight against bad guys with our good reasoning and she, as my assistant, was supposed to be always in the same trench as me to fight together (同一条战壕里的战友). Other classmates usually always followed my arguments and agreed with me on various issues whereas she often liked to propose her counter arguments to debate with me.

I tried my best to raise my reasoning to convince her in debates. One effective way of doing so was to write down my logical arguments on a piece of paper, which usually also gave me an opportunity to reflect. Often, good ideas came to my mind while we were still in class. I could not debate to her right away but I can write down my new ideas on a piece of paper. Well, her desk was right behind me. Therefore, once I felt that I gathered enough logical arguments, I would pass my notes to her to let her know that she was wrong. Apparently, she can always propose her counter arguments and pass back her notes. We had quite a few this kind of notes exchanges in those two years to debate various issues. Gradually, I realized that it was impossible or hopeless to let girls, especially this particular girl, admit their mistakes. So, finally, I quit debating with her.

What happened to all those notes passed to me in classes that carried her counter arguments? I do not know. I guess I threw them away after reading those notes. Then, what was the fate of all my notes to her that carried my arguments? Well, I do not know either and never think about a question like this. I do not know the fate of my notes until very recently, after about 36 years of those notes being created.

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(To be continued)

It is generally believed that boys like playing a lot when they are very young such as in the elementary school so boys generally lag girls in their studies in their early ages. However, girls become mature much earlier in their youthful ages than boys do. People also suggest that this is the major reason that girls in general start lagging boys in middle and high schools in their studies because they are not as focused as boys do. The general consensus also suggests that girls are more susceptible to love than boys (女孩多情，女孩深情). I, as a physicist, now also start believing this kind of common sense.

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(To be continued)