袁莉2025年6月4日One June evening in 1976 when a neighbor visited Xi Zhongxun, a former vice premier who had been exiled to a factory in central China, he found the old man drinking cheap liquor and crying alone in the dark. Mr. Xi explained that it was his son Xi Jinping’s birthday. The old man felt guilty that Jinping and the family suffered so much during the Cultural Revolution.1976年6月的一个晚上，一位邻居去习仲勋家探望，只见老人坐在黑暗中，正喝着廉价的白酒独自垂泪。习仲勋曾任副总理，被打倒后下放到中国中部的一家工厂。他向来者解释说，那天是儿子习近平的生日。老人对近平和其他家人在文化大革命期间吃了那么多苦感到内疚。A month later, Xi Jinping, who had just turned 23, visited his father, who made him recite two of Mao Zedong’s famous speeches from memory: “On Contradiction” and “On Practice.”一个月后，刚过23岁生日的习近平去看望父亲。父亲让他背诵了毛泽东的两篇著名讲话：《矛盾论》和《实践论》。The Cultural Revolution ended that fall with Mao’s death. Xi Zhongxun would go on to become a national leader in the 1980s with a reputation as a reformer. His son Xi Jinping would become China’s top leader in 2012 and chart a more authoritarian course than any leader since Mao.那年秋天，随着毛泽东去世，文革结束了。后来，习仲勋在20世纪80年代再次担任国家领导人，以改革派形象著称。他的儿子习近平在2012年成为中国最高领导人，制定了自毛泽东以来最专制的路线。One of the most enduring debates — and, for many people, deepest disappointments — in contemporary China is why Xi Jinping did not live up to his father’s image. After both were persecuted under Mao’s autocratic rule, why has Xi Jinping’s reign come to echo Mao’s cult of personality rather than the more open, institutionalized governance that his father most likely would have preferred?当代中国最持久的争论之一（对许多人来说，也是最大的失望之一）是，习近平为什么没有成为像他父亲那样的人。虽然父子俩都在毛泽东的专制统治下受过迫害，但为什么习近平成了统治者后效仿的是毛泽东的个人崇拜，而不是他父亲可能更偏爱的那种更为开放、更为制度化的方式治理国家呢？In a new biography of Xi Zhongxun, the China scholar Joseph Torigian addresses this question and contributes greatly to our understanding of China. The book, deeply researched, tells the story of a man torn between his humanity and his loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, offering insights into the party’s workings and the human suffering that shaped his son’s governing style and conception of power.中国问题学者唐志学(Joseph Torigian)在他新出版的习仲勋传中探讨了这个问题，为我们了解中国做出重要贡献。这部考据严谨的著作讲述了一位在人性与党性间挣扎的人的故事，同时还揭示了中共运作的深层机制，以及塑造习仲勋之子执政风格和权力观念的人类苦难。“Some may wonder why Xi Jinping would remain so devoted to an organization that severely persecuted his father,” writes Mr. Torigian, an associate professor at American University and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. “Perhaps the better question is, How could Xi Jinping betray the party for which his father sacrificed so much?”“有些人也许想知道，习近平为什么会对一个曾经严厉迫害父亲的组织如此之忠诚，”美国大学副教授、胡佛研究所研究员唐志学写道。“更好的问题可能是：习近平怎么可能背叛父亲为之付出如此巨大牺牲的党呢？”习近平与父亲、妻子彭丽媛和女儿习明泽，拍摄日期不详。 Imago/Alamy Stock PhotoThe book, “The Party’s Interests Come First,” is a portrait of the inherent contradictions within the party, where top leaders lived distorted lives. In an unforgiving system, they are destined to be both perpetrators and victims.新书的名字是《党的利益在第一位》（The Party’s Interests Come First），书中描绘了党内固有的矛盾，党的高层领导人过着扭曲的生活。在一个严苛的体制下，他们命中注定既是加害者，也是受害者。Mr. Torigian writes that the book, set to be published on Tuesday, is not intended to be a psychological analysis of Xi Jinping. But understanding Xi Zhongxun’s life illuminates the path that led to the China that his son now rules. The complexity of the father’s career, marked by idealism and trauma, ambition and restraint, lives on in his son’s governance, both as legacy and warning.唐志学写道，写这本书（将在周二出版）不是要对习近平进行心理分析。但了解习仲勋的一生有助于揭示其子如今统治的中国所走过的道路。这位父亲的职业生涯充满矛盾，其中既有理想主义与精神创伤的交织，又含抱负与克制的角力，这在其子的治国之道中得以传承，既成为政治遗产，亦化作警示。Throughout Xi Jinping’s life, Mr. Torigian writes, he has remained loyal to two institutions that demanded absolute obedience: party and family. His father, by multiple accounts, was a “ferocious disciplinarian.” As a child, Xi Jinping was required to kowtow to his father during the Lunar New Year — an incorrect gesture would earn him a spanking. The New Year tradition continued into adulthood. Even after he rose to prominence, he would stand respectfully to one side and wait for his father’s signal before sitting.唐志学写道，在习近平的一生中，他始终忠于两个要求绝对服从的制度：党和家庭。据多方记载，他父亲对子女“严厉管教”。小时候，习近平在春节聚会上要给父亲磕头——姿势不对还会被打屁股。这个新年传统一直延续到长大成人。即使在习近平出名后，他也会恭敬地站在一旁，等父亲示意后才就坐。“The party and the father, often both ‘unfairly’ disciplinarian and strict, might, perhaps counterintuitively, together have inspired a particularly potent form of zeal,” Mr. Torigian writes.“党和父亲，两者都是‘不公平’的严厉管教者，或许两者结合在一起可能激发了一种与预期相反的格外强烈的热情，”唐志学写道。Xi Zhongxun was born in 1913 in a village in a northwestern province, Shaanxi, one of China’s poorest regions. He joined the Communist movement at 13. By 32, he was head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Northwest Bureau, and by 46 a vice premier. People in the book describe him as earthy, charming, easygoing and courteous. Even the Dalai Lama, who worked with Xi Zhongxun in the 1950s before fleeing Tibet, recalled him as “pleasant.”习仲勋1913年出生在中国最贫困的省份之一陕西的一个村庄，13岁时加入共产主义运动，32岁时担任中共中央西北局书记，46岁成为副总理。书中的人们形容他质朴无华、风度翩翩、平易近人、彬彬有礼。就连达赖喇嘛对习仲勋的回忆也是“和蔼可亲”，达赖喇嘛在20世纪50年代逃离西藏之前曾与习仲勋一起共事。At times, Xi Zhongxun appeared to genuinely care about ordinary people’s lives. He believed that the Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and that Mao-style strongman rule should never be repeated. He helped establish the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, a central element of China’s early attempt to open up to the world, and was more tolerant of dissent than most Chinese leaders.有时，习仲勋似乎真诚地关心普通百姓的生活。他认为文化大革命是一场灾难，毛泽东式的强人统治绝不应该重演。他帮助成立了深圳经济特区，那是中国对外开放初期的一个核心举措，他比大多数中国领导人都更容忍异见。But as Mr. Torigian observes, “Xi’s ‘liberal’ sensibilities were only relative, and they could swiftly change.”但正如唐志学观察的那样，“习仲勋的‘自由’情怀只是相对的，而且可能很快改变。”In early 1950, Mao was not happy that only about 500 counterrevolutionaries had been executed in the northwest. Mr. Xi, overseeing the region, responded by escalating the crackdown and later pledged to “kill more to create awe and terror.”1950年初，毛泽东对西北地区只有大约500名反革命分子被处决感到不满。当时负责该地区事务的习仲勋作出的回应是加大镇压力度，后来还誓言要“杀更多的人，以制造敬畏和恐惧”。担任福建省宁德地委书记时的习近平（右），摄于1988年。Many Chinese assumed that Xi Zhongxun opposed China’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, given his reformist reputation. As vice chairman of China’s Parliament during the 1980s, he had championed the rule of law and press freedom. He had even proposed a bill to protect dissenting views.考虑到习仲勋有改革派的名声，许多中国人曾认为他对镇压1989年的天安门抗议活动持反对态度。在20世纪80年担任全国人民代表大会常务委员会副委员长期间，他一直提倡法治和新闻自由，甚至建议制定《不同意见保护法》。Yet once the party decided on a course of action, he stood by it, as he had throughout his career. Ten days after the Tiananmen massacre, he visited wounded soldiers and called the event a “glorious page” in the history of the People’s Republic of China.然而，一旦党决定了行动方针，他就会支持，在整个职业生涯中，他一直是这样做的。“六四”大屠杀发生十天后，他探望了受伤的士兵，并把那次镇压称为中华人民共和国历史上“光辉的一页”。His son Jinping was much more skeptical of the students in 1989. To him, their behavior echoed the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. “Without stability and unity, nothing is possible!” he said in a speech just weeks before the bloodshed while serving as party secretary of Ningde in Fujian Province.他的儿子习近平对学生们持更怀疑的态度。在习近平眼里，学生们的做法与文革期间的红卫兵一样。“没有安定团结，一切都无从谈起！”习近平在流血事件发生几周前的一个讲话中说。他当时是福建省宁德地委书记。To this day, Xi Jinping has remained intolerant of dissent and has emphasized stability and unity, sometimes at great human cost.直到今天，习近平仍不容忍异见，一直强调安定团结，他的维稳做法有时让一些人付出巨大代价。So politically, is he an heir to his father’s legacy or — as some suggest — the successor to Mao’s autocratic mantle?所以从政治上看，他是父亲政治遗产的继承者呢，还是像一些人认为的那样，是毛泽东专制衣钵的继承人？“Xi Jinping likely doesn’t see himself as rejecting his father’s legacy, nor as following Mao Zedong’s line — at least not the Mao of the Cultural Revolution,” Mr. Torigian told me in an interview. “He seems to view himself as forging a middle path — neither as far left as Mao nor as liberal as the reform era.”“习近平可能并不认为自己是在拒绝父亲的政治遗产，也不认为自己是在走毛泽东的路线——至少不是毛泽东的文化大革命路线，”唐志学在一次采访中对我说。“他似乎认为自己走的是一条中间道路——既不像毛泽东时代那样极左，也不像改革开放时期那样自由。”This may help explain the contradictions of Mr. Xi’s rule. He has strengthened national security and party control over ideology, priorities that have often held back the economy. Still, he has remained focused on growth. Some Chinese have termed that dual ambition “mission impossible.”这也许能帮助解释习近平统治的矛盾之处。他已加强了国家安全和党对意识形态的控制，这些优先事项往往阻碍了经济发展。尽管如此，他仍然关注经济增长。一些中国人把这种双重抱负称为“不可能完成的任务”。The most striking aspect of Mr. Torigian’s book is its unflinching portrayal of the party’s cruelty, not just toward the wider Chinese public but toward its own ranks. Its campaigns and purges left behind staggering numbers of people who were killed, imprisoned or persecuted.唐志学这本书最为引人注目的一点是，它毫不掩饰地描绘了中共的残酷，它不仅对广大的中国公众如此，对党内的人也是如此。中共的历次清洗和运动造成数量巨大的死亡、监禁或迫害。Xi Zhongxun was purged in 1962, after Mao accused him of engaging in anti-party scheming. The suffering extended far beyond his family. According to the book, some 20,000 people were persecuted as part of the “Xi Zhongxun anti-party clique.” At least 200 were beaten to death, driven insane or severely injured. For years, Xi Zhongxun’s secretary recalled, the old man couldn’t bear to hear the word “implicated.”习仲勋被清洗是在1962年，毛泽东谴责他参与了反党阴谋。受这场苦难影响的远不止他的家人。据书中的说法，约有两万人被打成“习仲勋反党集团”成员，遭受了迫害。至少有200人被打死、逼疯，或被打成重伤。习仲勋的秘书回忆说，这位老人甚至在多年时间里无法忍受听到“牵连”这个词。习仲勋在西安发表讲话，摄于1949年6月。 History/Universal Images Group, via Getty ImagesLater Xi Zhongxun, already exiled to a factory, was kidnapped by the Red Guards, humiliated and beaten at what were known as struggle sessions. He was jailed in solitary confinement and did not see his family for eight years. Xi Zhongxun seemed to have developed mental health problems, which led him to weep constantly. One of his daughters killed herself. He had three children from his first marriage and four from his second marriage, including Xi Jinping.后来，已经被下放到工厂的习仲勋又在文革中被红卫兵带走，在所谓的批斗会上遭受羞辱和殴打。他被单独监禁，八年没有见过家人。习仲勋似乎出了精神问题，导致他经常哭。他有一个女儿自杀身亡。习仲勋与第一任妻子育有三个孩子，与第二任妻子育有四个孩子，其中包括习近平。Xi Jinping was 9 when his father was purged. In the early years of the Cultural Revolution, he, too, was persecuted and humiliated at struggle rallies, and he was incarcerated twice. At 15, he left Beijing to toil in an impoverished village in Shaanxi Province and did not return until 1975 to attend Tsinghua University. He would later say he “suffered more than most people.”父亲被打倒时，习近平九岁。习近平本人也在文化大革命初期的批斗会上受到迫害和羞辱，并两次被监禁。15岁时，他离开北京，到陕西省的一个贫困农村劳动，直到1975年才回北京入读清华大学。他后来会说自己“比大多数人吃过更多的苦”。Though both father and son endured deep suffering, neither wavered in his loyalty to the party. “In the party, suffering meant ‘forging,’ or strengthening one’s willpower and dedication,” Mr. Torigian writes.尽管父子俩都经历过深重的磨难，但他们对党的忠诚从未动摇。“在党内，磨难意味着‘锤炼’或增强一个人的意志力和奉献精神，”唐志学写道。The theme of forging runs throughout the book and helps explain Xi Jinping’s strength and his blind spots.“锤炼”的主题贯穿全书，有助于解释习近平的毅力和盲点。I wrote in a previous column that President Trump launched a trade war against a leader unafraid to make his people endure hardship. When youth unemployment soared in 2023, Mr. Xi urged young people to “eat bitterness.”我不久前在一篇专栏文章中写道，特朗普总统对一个不怕让人民吃苦的领导人发动了贸易战。当中国的青年失业率2023年飙升时，习近平曾要求年轻人“自找苦吃”。In this sense he has echoed the tone and mind-set of his father, steeped in revolutionary struggle, disciplined hardship and an unwavering belief in the party’s moral authority.在这个意义上，他的腔调和思维方式与父亲如出一辙，沉浸于革命斗争、严格要求的艰苦，以及对党的道德权威坚定不移的信念。The question is whether enduring hardship holds meaning for China’s young generation. “When Xi Jinping says that every generation must fight its own battles, is it a rallying cry or a weary echo of the past?” Mr. Torigian asked. “It’s hard to say.”问题是，吃苦对中国的年轻一代是否仍有意义。“习近平说，每代人需要打自己的仗，”唐志学说。“这究竟是战斗号角，还是对过去令人厌烦的附和，实在难以断言。”袁莉为《纽约时报》撰写“新新世界”专栏，专注中国及亚洲科技、商业和政治交叉议题。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。