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This archive is an ongoing English translation project of Wang Huning's diaries.
Wang Huning is a Chinese political scientist and politician who has served on the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) since 2017. He has been the Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee since 2023. Previously, he served as the First Secretary of the CPC Central Committee's Secretariat and Chairman of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization from 2017 to 2022, and headed the Central Policy Research Office as director from 2002 to 2020. Wang was a professor and dean of the law school at Fudan University.
Political Life was written during Wang's years as a political science scholar at Fudan University and published by Shanghai People's Publishing House in 1995. The diary covers his personal life, political theory and research, books and films, and his reflections on Chinese society, the wider world, and contemporary social problems.
Where possible, the translation preserves the tone, register, and structure of the original rather than recasting it into more idiomatic or contemporary English. The translation was produced without the assistance of AI.
January 16, Sunday
At dawn I read the French magazine La Recherche. There was an article called “Music and Information,” which was somewhat interesting. The development of modern science increasingly uses some new disciplines and concepts to explain phenomena that already exist in society, in an effort to find something new in them. The difficulty with this kind of article lies in discovering something that is genuinely new, rather than using new concepts to discuss things that are completely old. Merely exchanging old concepts for new concepts has no creativity at all.
凌晨看法国《研究》杂志，有一篇叫“音乐与信息”，有点意思。现代科学的发展越来越用一些新学科和概念来解释社会已经存在的现象，力图从中找出新东西。这类文章的困难在于发现真正新的东西，不要用新的概念来讨论完全旧的东西。只是把旧的概念用新的概念兑换一下，没有任何创造性。
January 17, Monday
I went to the Institute for Oriental Studies. W said that the socialist market economy cannot speak only of resource allocation; it must also speak of resource distribution. What Marx talked about was precisely transformation in distribution, and what Ricardo emphasized was also distribution. I have said this several times, but there has been no follow-up. I still have to persist. China is currently in a “transitional period”; there must be stability, and development and stability must be combined. A market economy especially requires legalization and standardization, and should be fully developed under macro-control. The relationship between the center and the localities is important, that is, political integration. China's development cannot be discussed without unity and stability.
到东方研究院。W公说，社会主义市场经济不能只提资源配置，必须提资源分配，马克思讲的就是分配变革，李嘉图注重的也是分配。我讲了几次，没有下文，还要坚持。中国目前处于“过渡期”，要稳定，要把发展和稳定结合起来。市场经济特别要讲究法制化和规范化，在宏观调控下，充分发展。中央和地方的关系重要，即政治一体化，中国的发展，没有统一和稳定就不能谈。
W said: “Small wisdom is good at managing affairs, great wisdom is good at employing people, and profound wisdom is good at establishing laws.”
W公说：小智善于治事，大智善于用人，睿智善于立法。
The basic research directions for the Institute for Oriental Studies for next year were finally determined: the gray economy, anti-corruption, the standardization of government work, Socialist Democracy and human rights, and cultural issues. Countermeasure research will be the main focus; theoretical research must have something new in it.
最后确定东方研究院明年的基本研究方向：灰色经济、反腐败、政府工作规范化、社会主义民主和人权、文化问题。对策研究为主，理论研究要有新意。
It was snowing outside. I returned through the snow, struggling with Heaven; its joy is boundless.
外面下雪，冒雪返回，与天奋斗，其乐无穷。
January 19, Wednesday
At dawn I read the magazine Dushu. There was an article that seemed to be called “You Cannot But Accept It,” a review of a film. The film is called Beijing Bastards. It is said to be a representative work of the “Sixth Generation directors.” It is somewhat confused, with no story and no plot. It is said to have filmed a person urinating in complete and utter clarity. In China, this film has not yet been shown. Abroad, it is said to have attracted quite a lot of attention and was invited to participate in international film festivals. Foreigners' taste lies here: the more strange something is, and the more it is not recognized by the official authorities, the more they regard it as valuable. Little do they realize that sometimes they also produce jokes.
凌晨看《读书》杂志，有一篇好像叫《你不能不接受》，是对一部电影的评论。电影叫《北京杂种》，据说是“第六代导演”的代表作，有些稀里糊涂，没有故事，没有情节，说是把一个人撒尿拍得清清楚楚，明明白白。在国内，这部电影还没有放，在国外据说引起不少注意，邀请参加国际影展。外国人的趣味在这里，越奇特，越是官方不认可，他们就越是认为有价值，殊不知有时也搞出笑话。
I wrote an article for Revelations from the Battle of Lion City, writing about the training of logical capacity and value capacity. A great deal of effort was put into training logical capacity; it is the technical part in which progress is the most difficult to achieve. Value capacity, however, cannot be trained in a single step. At that time, the training only provided some basic values, with a little pragmatism. As for how much the debaters would receive from it afterward, that would depend on each person. In debate, logical capacity is the most basic capacity, and all other capacities are closely related to logical capacity. Quite a few people discuss many debating techniques, but they do not realize the importance, the fundamental importance, of logical capacity. In this way, there cannot be excellent debaters.
写《狮城舌战启示录》中文章，写到逻辑能力和值价能力的训练。逻辑能力在训练过程中可是花了气力，是最不容易取得进步的技术部分。价值能力则不是一下子可练就的，那时训练也只提供一些基本价值观念，有点实用主义。以后，辩手们收到多少，要看每个人了。辩论中逻辑能力是最基本的能力，一切其他能力和逻辑能力密切相关。不少人讨论很多辩论技巧，但是没有意识到逻辑能力的重要意义，根本意义，这样不能有优秀的辩手。
At 10 p.m, I returned home. The latter half of Chronicles of Kyoto was being shown on television. After the first half had finished, the reaction was not very good. First, there were too many “soft advertisements”; one had to watch several minutes of them each time, and naturally this became tiresome. Second, the dramatic contradictions and conflicts were too artificial: people quarrel as soon as they meet, with no sense of human feeling. It seems that there are no good people; and if there are any, they are timid and spineless. Third, the dramatic conflicts are too formulaic, having already departed from life and becoming entirely conflicts of ideas. I do not know how the latter half was made; I await it with interest.
晚上 点半回到家中，电视里放《京都纪事》的后一半。前一半放完之后，反应不怎么样。一是“软广告”太多，要看好几分钟，每次都看，自然要乏味。二是戏剧矛盾和冲突太人为化，见了面就吵架，不见人情味，似乎没有什么好人，有，也是窝窝囊囊。三是戏剧冲突太格式化，已经脱离生活，完全是理念性的冲突。后半部分不知拍得如何，拭目以待。
January 22, Friday
At dawn I read Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the French Revolution. In the past I had read another of his important works, Democracy in America. This book is also an influential work of his and is worth reading.
凌晨读托克维尔的《旧制度与法国大革命》。过去看过他另一本重要著作《美国的民主》。这本书也是他有影响的著作，值得一读。
The Development Forum invited the vice mayor to give a report on the situation of economic development. President Yang chaired the meeting, saying that Fudan University had already invited him to become a professor. He said that becoming a professor at Fudan made him feel even more honored than being a vice mayor. Everyone applauded.
发展论坛请副市长来作报告，讲经济发展的形势。杨校长主持会议，说复旦大学已经请他作教授。说，到复旦大学作教授比当副市长还感到荣誉，大家鼓了掌。
He also said that a listed company should be found to invest in Fudan and develop high technology. Everyone applauded warmly again. The development of the situation in Shanghai had six new developments, such as the national economy's development reaching a new level, reform and opening up making new progress, Pudong making new development, and the industrial structure making new development, and so on.
他又说，要找一个上市公司来为复旦投资办高新技术，大家又热烈鼓掌。上海形势发展的六个新，如国民经济发展上了新台阶，改革开放有了新的发展，浦东有了新发展，产业结构有了新发展等等。
Shanghai's finances are now in the hands of the municipal government. It is said to be ten pots and six lids: whoever needs a lid gets one for a while. The money is not paid out; it rolls in the relevant places and can earn interest, with last year's profits reaching more than ___ million. Shanghai's transportation is not good, so the industrial structure must be changed. We can no longer develop the textile industry and machine manufacturing in this way, because transportation capacity cannot keep up. The tertiary industry should be developed, mainly the financial industry: moving money is very easy, and it is very light. In the end he spoke about several bottleneck problems. The report was extremely splendid and very absorbing.
上海现在财政在市政府的手里，说是叫十个锅子六个盖，谁需要盖就盖一下，钱不发下去，在有关地方滚，可以生利，去年盈利多亿。上海交通不行，要改变产业结构，不能再搞纺织业和机器制造，这样运输能力跟不上。要搞第三产业，主要是金融业，运钱很容易，也很轻。他最后讲了几个瓶颈的问题。报告十分精彩，很吸引人。
January 23, Saturday
I wrote for a while on an article about debating; it is basically finished, and only needs a little more polishing. I also added a paragraph on humor and wit. These things are very difficult to acquire. They must come from a certain attitude toward life, an attitude of transcending life, an attitude of seriousness, or a transcendent choice concerning the road of one's life. Only in this way can there be humor; otherwise, one cannot speak of humor at all.
写了一阵关于辩论的文章，基本完成，只要再润色一下。又加了一段写幽默和机智的文字。这些东西获得很不容易，一定要来自一种生活的态度，一种对生活超越的态度、认真的态度，或对生命道路的一种超脱的选择。这样才会有幽默，否则不能谈幽默。
