Mai Jia - Decoded

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Rong Jinzhwen, perhaps one of the great code-breakers in the world is a semi-autistic mathematical genius recruited to the cryptography department of China's secret services, Unit 701, and assigned to break the elusive 'Code Purple'. He rises to be China's greatest and most celebrated code-breaker, until he makes a mistake and descends into madness. The author, pseudonym of Jiang Benhu, worked for decades in Chinese secret security.

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Master Rong told me that to conceal the truth from those closest to you for a long time, even for a lifetime, is unfair. But if they didn’t maintain such secrecy, it is possible that our country might not even exist today, or at least it would be under threat of disaster. It’s unfair, but the fact is that it has to be that way.

That was how Master Rong allowed me to appreciate my father anew, to permit the love and respect I felt for him to grow.

Returning to our story: the fact that the Director was satisfied that my notebook didn’t reveal any secrets left me feeling pleased, especially since had it not, it wouldn’t have been mine any longer. But his second remark made me feel as though I had been pushed into the Cold Palace — *

He said: ‘I believe that more than half the details that you have learnt have been acquired through hearsay. This is quite regrettable.’

‘Do you mean to say the details aren’t accurate?’ I asked anxiously.

‘No,’ he shook his head, ‘what’s real is real, it’s just that. . hmm, how should I put it, I feel that you don’t really understand Rong Jinzhen. Yes, that’s it: your understanding is rather deficient.’

Having reached this point, he paused to light a cigarette. Taking a long drag, he seemed to be mulling things over; then he raised his head and intoned seriously: ‘Looking at your notebook, it is rather scattered and fragmentary, with more than half of it based purely on word of mouth. But it has evoked within me many memories of Rong Jinzhen. I understood him the most, or at least — out of all of us — I understood him the best. Would you be interested in hearing me speak of him?’

I was floored. This was simply too good to be true. I couldn’t have asked for better!

It was in this manner that my book received a new vitality.

I met with the Director many times while I was staying at Unit 701. My understanding and grasp of Rong Jinzhen’s history expanded immensely, providing me with the ‘Transcript of the interview with Director Zheng’ sections in the earlier chapters. Of course, his purpose was not solely to provide me with material for this work; that was not his real aim. Before I got to know Director Zheng, Rong Jinzhen was something of a mystery to me, a legend. But now, after having talked with Director Zheng, he had become real, unquestionably a part of history. What is more, the man primarily responsible for putting Rong Jinzhen on this path, for changing the course of his life, was none other than Director Zheng. Not only did he not mind sharing his reminiscences with me, but he also provided me with a long list of names of people who were also familiar with Rong Jinzhen and his past, even though quite a few of them had already died.

I have only a single regret concerning my time spent at Unit 701. All the while I was there I had repeatedly referred to him as Director. I never thought to ask him his name and even now I still do not know it. As a member of a secret organization, one’s name is, as a rule, of no value; it is usually hidden behind a serial number and one’s official designation. For Director Zheng, his position in history was thoroughly identifiable by his lame foot. But covering up one’s name doesn’t mean that the name disappears; it just means that it has been buried. I truly believe that had I asked him — in a professional capacity — what his name was, he would have told me, but I was too enthralled by the image he projected and so I forgot to ask. As a result, I’m still confused as to what to call him — the Gimp, Zheng the Gimp, Section Chief Zheng, the Crippled Director, Director Zheng, Sir, and so on. Most people from N University referred to him as the Gimp or as Section Chief Zheng. He usually referred to himself as the Crippled Director. I generally addressed him as Sir or Director Zheng.

* Translators’ note : The Cold Palace refers to the area within the Forbidden City to which members of the imperial family would be confined if they displeased the emperor.

3

Director Zheng told me the following –

His connection to Rong Jinzhen had begun with his maternal grandfather. In the second year after the Xinhai Revolution, his maternal grandfather had got to know Old Lillie at the theatre and the two had become quite friendly thereafter. Since Director Zheng had grown up in his maternal grandfather’s residence, he had come to know Old Lillie from a very early stage. Later on, when Old Lillie died, his maternal grandfather had taken him along to N University to attend the memorial service and so he had met Young Lillie. He was fourteen at the time, in his second year of middle school, and the beauty of the campus left a deep impression on him. Once he graduated from middle school, he took his school transcripts in hand and went off to see Young Lillie to request that he be allowed to enrol in the high school attached to N University. And that was that, as they say. While a pupil at the affiliated high school, his language teacher was a member of the Communist Party, who would later recruit him. Once the War of Resistance against Japan broke out, teacher and student left the school and made their way to Yan’an. This was the beginning of his long revolutionary career.

I should say, once he set foot in N University, the foundation was laid for his path to cross that of Rong Jinzhen. But as he said himself, the sequence of events that ensured that they would meet wasn’t immediately set in motion. Fifteen years would pass before he was sent to N University to recruit talent for the cryptography division in Unit 701. It was mere coincidence that in paying a visit to the former chancellor and speaking of his mission to find people of talent that the latter would recommend Rong Jinzhen.

The Director said, ‘Although I couldn’t tell Young Lillie what kind of work I would be getting this person to do — only that they had to possess certain abilities — I was very clear about what abilities were needed. I was therefore very surprised and happy when the old man told me of Rong Jinzhen, especially since I had complete faith in his ability to discern another person’s character. The former chancellor was not someone given to making wisecracks, so when he made his joke, I was sure that Rong Jinzhen was precisely the kind of person I was looking for.’

It turned out to be true. Once Director Zheng had met Rong Jinzhen, he decided he was indeed the man they needed.

‘When you think about it,’ the Director said, ‘a mathematical genius, a man who since he was small had been intimate contact with the interpretation of dreams, who had studied both Chinese and Western thought, who had come to explore the intricacies of the human mind — he simply must have been put on this earth to be a cryptographer. Could I have been anything but startled?’

As to how they had come to agree to letting Director Zheng take Rong Jinzhen away, he said that this would remain a secret between himself and Young Lillie, a secret he wouldn’t divulge to anyone. On the whole, I thought this must be true, for at the time he must have been so eager to get the old man’s consent that he most likely violated the rules of his profession and told him the truth about why he wanted Rong Jinzhen. Otherwise, why would he still be so tightlipped about the whole affair?

Several times during our interviews he reiterated that his discovery of Rong Jinzhen was his single greatest contribution to the work done at Unit 701. But he never once thought that things would end up the way they did; he never foresaw the disaster that awaited Rong. Every time this was mentioned, he would shake his head in grief, sigh deeply, and then shout out Rong Jinzhen’s name several times in succession: ‘Rong Jinzhen! Rong Jinzhen! Rong Jinzhen!’ [Transcript of the interview with Director Zheng]

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