Chinese Political History II: Chapter 1, Exercise 3 — Possible Solution
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TASK
Choose one popular claim about this period that the chapter corrects (the
cat saying, "feeling the stones," the plenum-as-launch idea, or the date of
the special zones), say what the evidence shows, and explain why such
attributions tend to gather around one leader.

SOLUTION (worked example: the cat saying)

CLAIM
"It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice"
was Deng's reform-era slogan, announced at the Third Plenum.

EVIDENCE
- It is a Sichuan proverb, usually in the form yellow cat, black cat.
- Deng quoted it in 1962, after the Great Leap Forward famine, in a piece
  on restoring agricultural production; he reportedly took it from General
  Liu Bocheng.
- That is sixteen years before the plenum, and it was not a plenum
  statement.

WHY IT ATTACHES TO ONE LEADER
- A short, vivid line is easier to remember than a communiqué, and it gets
  credited to the person who best represents the era.
- Deng did use it, so the attribution is partly true, which makes it hard
  to dislodge.
- The same happens with "feeling the stones", which is Chen Yun's phrase
  but is often given to Deng.

HOW TO CHECK ONE YOURSELF
Find the earliest dated use and the speaker in a primary or well-sourced
account. Note whether the claim is wrong or only imprecise: here, Deng said
it, but not as a reform-era slogan.

ANSWER: The saying predates the reform era and belongs to a proverb Deng
borrowed; slogans cluster on a leader because they are memorable and
partly true.