A Trip to Yan’an (I)延安之行（上）

In the summer of 1957 I decided to do my trip differently. I would travel as economically as possible. No VIP treatment1， no set schedules. Only a general destination of Yan’an， the “cradle of the revolution，” visiting ancient Xi’an on the way up2 and historic Luoyang on the way back. There would be no formal lectures. I would just meet people and chat.

1957年夏天，我决定来一场不同往常的旅行，尽可能少花钱，不要特殊待遇，也不事先安排日程，只有一个大致的目的地——“革命摇篮”延安，北上途中顺便游览一番古城西安，回程逛逛历史名城洛阳。我不做正式演讲，就是见见人，聊聊天。

Before the Long March culminated here， it had been a small ancient walled city on the banks of the Yanhe River with a population of 3，400. The wide river valley was surrounded by hills of yellow soil， cut by gullies and gorges. In 1937， when the Red Army， which had come to Yan’an at the conclusion of the Long March， went off to fight the Japanese， the people’s militia forces became primarily responsible for the defense of the Yan’an Prefecture.

红军长征会师延安前，这儿只是一座围有城墙的小古城，依延河而建，人口3400左右，宽阔的河谷两边是黄土丘陵，沟壑纵横。1937年，红军长征结束后进驻延安，以此为根据地抗击日寇，地方武装基本担任了延安地区的保卫工作。

As the headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party， Yan’an grew rapidly. Intellectuals flocked to it from all over the country. The population of the prefecture soared to 100，000 by 1939. The Nationalists， more afraid of the people than of the foreign invader， avoided clashes with the Japanese and imposed a blockade3 against the prefecture. Yan’an met the challenge by setting up home industries which turned out most of their daily necessities.

延安作为中共中央驻地，发展迅速，知识分子从全国各地蜂拥而来。到1939年，延安人口猛增至10万。相比于日本侵略者，国民党反动派更害怕解放区军民；他们消极抗日，对延安实行经济封锁。为应对困难，延安建立起家庭作坊，实现了大多数生活必需品的自给自足。

On the food front4 every student， cadre and Party leader guaranteed to produce 90 catties （about 100 pounds） of millet per year. In the Nanniwan5 sector outside Yan’an an Eighth Route Army brigade， composed mostly of southerners， hacked paddy fields out of the wilderness and planted rice， a crop the area had never known. They performed prodigious feats of production. Some of the men were jokingly known as qi si niu—“ox infuriators” because they could pull a plow through more acreage in a day than the average draft animal—which naturally aroused the jealousy and fury of the ox. The need for and feasibility of self-reliance became permanently impressed on communist thinking.

在粮食生产战线，无论学生、干部还是党的领导，都必须每年生产90斤小米。在延安城外的南泥湾，南方人居多的八路军某旅开荒种地，种上了当地闻所未闻的水稻。他们的生产创举令人惊叹，有的战士得了绰号“气死牛”，因为他们平均每天的开荒面积比耕牛开荒的还要多，牛自然也就会羡慕嫉妒恨了。必须自力更生而且完全可以自力更生，最终成为不可磨灭的共产主义思想。

Yan’an was the center of political and military leadership， the school in which cadres for these fields were trained. Tens of thousands passed through Yan’an for short-term courses. In Yan’an Mao wrote many of the profound articles which were to shape the destiny of China and influence the course of world history. Arts of and for the people got their start in Yan’an.6 It became the beacon， the inspiration， for millions of Chinese.

延安是政治、军事领导中心，是培养政治和军事干部的大课堂，成千上万人奔赴延安参加短期培训。毛泽东在这里撰写了很多思想深刻、决定中国命运、影响世界历史进程的文章。文艺属于人民、文艺为了人民的方针就是在延安提出的。延安，成了千百万中国人民前进的灯塔和指路明灯。

Despite the Kuomintang blockade， its fame continued to spread across China， around the world. Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune， who had served in Spain， came to serve and die in the Chinese revolution. Young American journalist Edgar Snow came to observe and talk with Mao， and ended by writing the classic Red Star Over China. Young American doctor George Hatem （Ma Haide） arrived in Yan’an and remained in China for half a century until his death， creating miracles of public health and nearly wiping out venereal disease and leprosy. Yan’an also drew American military observers， for it symbolized Chinese resistance against the common enemy.

尽管有国民党反动派的封锁，延安还是声遍全国，名扬海外。参加过西班牙反法西斯战争的加拿大外科医生白求恩到中国投身抗日革命，最终牺牲在中国。年轻的美国记者埃德加·斯诺来延安考察并与毛泽东会谈，写出了经典著作《红星照耀中国》。年轻的美国医生马海德来到延安，此后在中国生活了半个世纪，直至去世。他创造了中国公共卫生的奇迹，基本消灭了性病和麻风病。延安还吸引了美军观察团，因为延安是中国抗击两国共同的敌人日本侵略者的象征。

When we arrived the city was still in the early stages of its growth， but the old Yan’an spirit was going full blast. They had great plans： In the next five years the population would expand from 30，000 to 100，000. They would need that many for all their new projects. Irrigated land would grow from 10，000 to 50，000 acres. They would raise a lot more grain. While implementing water and soil conservation measures， they would move farming down from the hillsides to the valley floors and devote the slopes to grazing and orchards.

我们来到延安时，这里仍处于发展的初级阶段，但昔日的延安精神正在发扬光大。延安人制定了宏伟的计划：在下一个5年里，人口要从3万增加到10万，他们需要更多的人投入新建工程项目；土地灌溉面积要从6万亩增加到30万亩，以收获更多的粮食；在实施水土保持措施的同时，把农田从山坡地转移到谷地，把山坡用于放牧和果木种植。

What we were looking for were cave dwellings. Friends like Dr. George Hatem who had lived here in the old days had recommended them highly. Our hosts laughed and showed us a row of caves near the top of the bluff. Hollowed out of the yellow earth in vaulted arches fronted with a wooden frame which held a door and paper-paned windows， they were clean and surprisingly bright.7 The whitewashing probably helped. Furnishings were simple. An electric light bulb， a few wooden beds， a couple of tables and some wooden chairs.