At 13:25 on June 24, 2022, the old man Zhang Sizhi finally left.

Let’s go, let’s go, he didn’t have many personal regrets in his life, it was even wonderful, and he lived to be 95 years old. Even if he spent more than 10 years in the right-wing reform through labor, although the good times of his life were wasted, the benefits of achieving the glory of his life are probably indescribable, not to mention that there is a saying “hard work, hard work, hungry body and skin” long ago. Zhang Sizhi’s regret should be the regret of the country, the regret of the system, the regret of the rule of law, and the regret of justice and conscience.

In my opinion, Si Zhi’s biggest personal regret is a mild stroke in 2014. This affected his quality of life for the next eight years. He can’t be eloquent, enthusiastic and generous, and gags, but he can drink wine. Every time I drink, Fu Kexin will stop me from drinking more, and I will express my dissatisfaction, always saying, don’t worry, I’m at this age, every minute I live is happy every minute, unhappy, what’s the point of living? Finally, I have to add a sentence on the top line – you are so anti-authoritarian, but authoritarian thinking has penetrated into your bones. Si Zhi Lao raised his thumb high and said loudly, “Okay!” correct! I confidently continued to fill up the wine. The old man called Xiaofu a “leader”.

For the past few days, I have been thinking “Sizhi Lao, let’s go, don’t suffer anymore”, and I told Xiaofu this. My biggest regret is that during the vigorous anti-epidemic campaign in China, I couldn’t kneel by the hospital bed and hold his hand to send him on the road. I’ll keep resenting them for taking this opportunity unreasonably from me. I heard that only 20 people can enter Babaoshan’s farewell. It seems that the old man can only go on the road alone. I curse these Chinese viruses, and I will not forgive them if they die.

Sizhi is in critical condition, and Teacher Zheng Zhongbing is unbearable. I sent him a WeChat message: “If my will can reach, I will work hard; if my consciousness can’t reach, try not to think about it, and don’t let it affect my mood. – Zheng Zhongbing recounted in Yu Guangyuan.” I said that what you said to me many years ago was very enlightening to me. You are the transmitter of these words. If you can’t practice it yourself, you are deceiving me. Mr. Zheng is the matchmaker that I met Si Zhi . He is in his 80s and has been fighting cancer for nearly 20 years. (I stopped writing at this point and went to Zheng’s house to convey the bad news and drag him out of his grief as soon as possible).

Zhang Sizhi and Zheng Zhongbing in Shandong in 2010

I accompanied Mr. Zheng for more than 4 hours, and took him to eat mutton. Afterwards, I sent Sizhi’s portrait to his residence, and Xiaofu asked me for the arrangement of the funeral home. I said, we can consider keeping it simple but have some characteristics, even hanging the elegiac couplet on the wall without a lot of wreaths. If Sizhi is around Zhu Houze Such flower beds should not be all white chrysanthemums, but should be mixed with colorful flowers. They should be natural and beautiful. Since these flowers are accompanying the living Mr.Zhang Sizhi, the most important thing is not to cover them with red cloth. Since 1989, he has not paid the fee.

Mr. Zhang Sizhi is one of the core members of the “elderly gang” that I am close to, and is also the most active member. As long as he is present, he will gag frequently, and the whole room will laugh constantly. At the dinner table, no one can suppress his aura, but he will not give others a chance to speak like some junior scholars who are good at talking. He will spend a long time. Listen and speak at the right time. If Mr. Shao Yanxiang, Si Zhi’s “big enemy”, was also present, they would have had more wits. Si Zhi  reacts extremely quickly and is articulate, while Yan Xiang is gentle, calm and soft-spoken. But every time they confronted, Si Zhi fell into the trap in Shao’s brief “greeting”. In the roar of laughter, Si Zhi could only laugh and shout: “Bad guy! Bad guy! Everyone see who is the bad guy!” never fails.

Sizhi once again fell into Yanxiang’s trap, photographed in Beijing in 2017

Yan Xiang is a poet, but Si Zhi’s romantic temperament is far superior to him. This is why Mr. Zhang Sizhi’s arguments are concise, clear, passionate and poetic. When I got his 1999 foreign edition of “My Arguments and Dreams”, I only read the “preface”, and I admired the old man’s words, which are simply poetic prose.

“…I was born on the banks of the Yellow River and grew up on the banks of the Yangtze River, and I am familiar with Gu’an Tracker’s heartwarming chants: firm, confident, and powerful. These words of mine also seem to convey the voice of my progress, which is “Sound of Injustice” “But in comparison, despite the harmony of those in the same boat, it is so weak after all, which is far inferior to the trumpet that resounds through the sky. ”, or there may be arguments but not “hero”. This is especially prominent in such highly political cases. Lawyers cannot be separated from the law and naturally cannot escape from politics. Because of my long-term work, I have been working in Beijing, the center of the political whirlpool. , is the opportunity to participate in some political lawsuits that the world pays attention to. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is really difficult to say. What I want to explain here is that my defenses in such cases are almost all based on objective requirements and even regulations. The limit is passed by. How can outsiders expect that our lawyers make a certain (for example, “not guilty”) defense in a certain case, which needs to be reviewed and approved in advance. Needless to say…

“However, I also have an unwavering principle that is not easy to turn around: never tell lies. People allow lawyers to say wrong things, but they should not agree with lawyers telling lies! For lawyers, it is important that nothing transcends morality. The limit of conscience. The arguments compiled here, because they are true, may be called good, but it is not reasonable to measure the beauty. I have self-knowledge about this…

“…There are also people who like to use the word “vase” to belittle the role of lawyers. Well, you have the right to make such comments, but I also have the right to declare to the world: we will put a Bouquet of white roses – with crystal dewdrops showing straight thorns. We don’t allow a few foxtails to be added at will.

“I am eager to cultivate the dazzling cold dew roses that reflect all things. But if unfortunately this bouquet of roses is neither elegant nor fragrant, and has changed, I will also leave the thorns on the branch as “Broom” , allow me to cherish myself, because it not only retains my sweat and hard work, but also has been watered by many friends from south to north, from east to west, this is a long list of names, I keep them (her) In the depths of my heart…” (from the “Foreword” of “My Arguments and Dreams”)

Having spent decades in the unique pit of Chinese judiciary, coupled with a keen talent, Sizhi has a sharp vision and the ability to see through. He gave people the impression of being open-minded and free, and he saw everyone and everything clearly. An old man like them would be surrounded by all kinds of people, and he was very clear about who was what kind of person. In their circle of old men, it is inevitable that people with special identities will be mixed in, and Sizhi will see it at a glance. At this point, he is definitely the number one in the “Elderly Gang”, and no one can match him. Mr. Sizhi is a two-faced person who is open-minded, free and easy, sharp and profound. At the dinner table, he is always the source of everyone’s joy, but it is difficult for people to feel the back of his joy.

After the stroke, I asked him privately, “Are you afraid of death?” He said quietly, what’s the point of living like this, it’s better to die. However, in front of everyone, he is full of fun, relaxed and happy look. I know that the arrival of my friend, he is half really happy, half is performing. He didn’t want to convey a trace of sadness and negativity to his friends, and he regarded gloomy, lonely, aging and depression as shame. He has always been passionate, active, free and easy, and pays close attention to reality. He has various parties. He sits alone at home all day long, with language barriers, and is mostly accompanied by a nanny. It is not difficult to imagine the pain in his heart. Well understood. The four of us, Xiao Fu, Liu Ruizhong, and Zheng Zhongbing, are a basic group. We often go to his Maotai to drink, and we want to bring him some vitality. When I said he “go away quickly” and “leave at last”, first of all, I didn’t want him to suffer the sin of dying, but also meant to free him from the suffering of loneliness and loneliness.

I comforted Mr. Zheng, Mr. Zhang, let them go, don’t we all have to go? Besides, Houze, Ruoshui, Hong Lin, Dai Huang, Yanxiang, He Fang, Fang Cheng, Zong Jiang, Yonghou, Haocheng, Shahe, Li Ye and Li yufeng … There were so many people waiting for him there, and when he got there, It’s not necessarily less fun than being in this world, and aren’t we going to be reunited with them soon? The dinner there will definitely be better and more lively. yes! Almost all of them were gone. Only Zheng Zhongbing and Qian Liqun were left here. Lan Yingnian couldn’t get out of the house, but Grandma Zhang Gu was still alive and kicking. Her thorns in her body often scratched her friends. How interesting is it to have only these three old gentlemen’s dinner parties in the future? Call Zhang Qianfan, Guo Yuhua and others? With them, they are really all the way, and they are not old friends of wine and meat. Thinking that he will never see Zhang Sizhi alive again, no matter how rational he is, he still feels sad and feels like he is in mourning.

Happy From left Shao Yanxiang, Zhang Sizhi, Qian Liqun, Jiang Yanyong, photographed in Beijing in 2013

After spending many years with these old people, I have gained indescribable benefits. This is God’s great love for me. These people have washed my soul, changed the color of my life, and established goals I had never known before.

These old gentlemen are certainly neither gods nor perfect men, but they have the benevolence and fraternity of saints, the purity and transcendence of real people, the piety and inspiration of apostles, and the bravery and fearlessness of warriors… They are the backbone and conscience of the Chinese nation. He is the hero of the Chinese generation. If I don’t hang out with them, how can I know that there are such people in the world, and how can I see such a realm of life with my own eyes. Just because they are not afraid of power, contempt for the powerful, and contempt for fame and fortune, they have left this era far behind. The top Chinese scholars after them can surpass them in terms of learning, but I have not seen one who wants to be on par with them in terms of personality, education, and structure. An important factor is that people around the age of 70 are born under the red flag and grow up under the red flag. Mr. Sizhi’s generation has passed away one by one, and the lingering fire of a wonderful era in the Chinese spiritual world has been completely extinguished, and the most exciting part of my soul social and spiritual communication has also died. It’s not that I’m too lazy to expand, but that there are no successors. My least favorite is probably the red colors.

When I talked about the topic of the country in my car, Sizhi said, I basically have no concept of a country, I am a person from the world, and I am a villager in the global village. This casual sentence also strengthened my belief in “borderless”. This is not only an important basis for my thinking about many issues, and therefore does not care about the harassment of nationalism, new populism, patriotism and the like.

From left, Zhang Danqing, Liu Ruizhong, Zhang Sizhi, Zhu Houze, and Fu Kexin were photographed in Beijing in 2008

I remember a case in the back of Sizhi, which was a drug attack by a southern businessman. This person has been detained for more than ten years because of the confession of a drug smuggler. Si Zhilao told me some details of the handling of the case, and also said that the death sentence was sentenced to death based on only one confession without any real evidence. He talked about the difficulty of handling cases on the spot, and in the end he could only pin his hopes on the death penalty approval link of the Supreme Court. Later, when I asked about the result, he said it was dead, and he also talked about the weirdness of the program. He said it easily because he had seen so much that I couldn’t forget it. In addition to my resentment, I seem to have seen through something, and I have a better understanding of the nature and depth of water, and I have become more aware of the boundaries of my behavior in the water. The tens of millions of the businessman who executed the death sentence have long been gone. If this case is overturned, who will give the money?

There are thousands of anecdotes and emotions, and the articles should be short. I still want to use a bunch of adjectives to outline Mr. Zhang Sizhi:

Clean and neat, free and easy romantic; clear logic, concise and comprehensive; passionate, generous, sensitive and sharp; sympathetic and sympathetic, as careful as silk; just and dignified, acting in moderation; courageous and light weight; humorous, deep and thoughtful; full of grief and anger, sincere and happy; contempt for power, Defend human rights…

I asked Mr. Zheng Zhongbing to summarize the greatest contribution of Mr. Sizhi in one sentence. He was silent for a moment: “Defend the justice of the law”.

Mr. Zhang Sizhi is gone, and the flag of the Chinese legal circle has been dropped. We hope that his spirit can inspire future generations, and that his spirit can be passed on and live forever.

Dou Haijun / Figure 2022-6-24

Zhang Sizhi teasing Li Yufeng in Shandong in 2010