The Paper's reporter Xu Xiao
In the early morning of February 11, 2022, Cao Jingxing, a well-known media person, died of illness in Shanghai at the age of 75.
Media people are the most prominent identity of Cao Jingxing, and they are also the most talked about in the reports and commemorative articles of these two days. But in the view of Jin Guangyao, a professor of history at Fudan University, Cao Jingxing is first and foremost a reader, which is his background. Under the care of family affairs and state affairs, he read a lot of books, which made him a cultural person with a world in mind. Being a media is a concrete way for him to practice these two identities and serve the society.
"The choices he made at every stage of his life were closely related to the background of his readers." Jin Guangyao said.
Jin Guangyao and Cao Jingxing have been in a relationship for more than 40 years, and the two have a deep friendship. They are not only college classmates and roommates, but also young people who work on the same farm. In addition, after graduating from work, although the two worked in the news media industry and the history major in colleges and universities, they still maintained close exchanges and carried out in-depth cooperation in the field of oral history.
On the morning of February 12, Jin Guangyao fondly recalled Cao Jingxing's years of going to the countryside and studying to the surging news reporter. In his view, these two experiences have laid a solid foundation for Cao Jingxing to gallop in the news media industry in the future.
In October 2020, Cao Jingxing went to Fudan University to do a program. This was also the last time he returned to his alma mater. Image courtesy of Jin Guangyao.
One place cuts in line, one college entrance examination together, and one failed physical examination is brushed off
In 1971, Jin Guangyao, who had just graduated from junior high school, responded to the call and voluntarily went to the mountains and countryside to work as a farmer in the Huangshan Tea Forest Farm in Anhui Province. There, Cao Jingxing has been staying for three years, working from carrying wood, picking up burdens, planting rice, to going down to the workshop.
"From the busy days of farming from spring to summer, every morning, before dawn, I was woken up by the radio horn, and it took a long time after dark to return to the dormitory, and I collapsed on the bed and couldn't get up, often I didn't even have the strength to wash my face, I couldn't sleep for several hours, and I was woken up by the radio speaker. Seven days a week, without a single day of rest for weeks in a row. In an article written for the book "Zhiqing Tribe", Cao Jingxing once described that period of time.
Jin Guangyao shared this experience: get up at 6:30 in the morning, leave work at 7:00, and at noon someone delivers food to the field, and they will eat outside and then work. I leave work at 5 p.m., and it's already seven or eight o'clock in the evening after eating and washing.
However, in the tea forest farm, Jin Guangyao and Cao Jingxing did not have much interaction, "understanding each other, but not very familiar", but instead had more contact with Cai Jinlian, who became Cao Jingxing's wife, because Cai Jinlian was the head of the political propaganda team of the field department at that time.
In 1978, when Zhiqing, who was admitted to college at Huangshan Tea Forest Farm, left the farm, he took a group photo with the leaders of the field. Jin Guangyao (fourth from right in the third row), Cao Jingxing (third from right in the second row), and Cai Jinlian (third from right in the first row) were all admitted to Fudan University. Image courtesy of Jin Guangyao.
Until October 21, 1977, a news item on the radio changed the fate of the two men, and also changed the fate of millions or even tens of millions of people. On that day, China decided to resume the gaokao.
The news of the resumption of the college entrance examination made Jin Guangyao see hope. Of course, Cao Jingxing was also very excited, but he was relatively "indifferent", and did not take the university entrance examination as an opportunity to change his destiny, but felt that if he had a chance to read, he would try it.
But they also grasped every opportunity to prepare for the review. At that time, Cao Jingxing was already the director of an agricultural machinery factory, busy every day until after 10 p.m., reading a book or two in a mosquito net. During the day, Jin Guangyao gathered with the people who were preparing for the exam and asked each other questions. After turning off the lights at 10 p.m., continue to review under the oil lamp until late. After a month of review, both of them passed the score line and obtained the qualification for the physical examination.
In the ice and snow, they took a bus to the county town for a physical examination. The doctor asked Cao Jingxing what kind of illness he had suffered in the past year, and he honestly said of hepatitis, "A failing stamp went up." Jin Guangyao was also squeezed out because his blood pressure was slightly higher.
"I'm in good health, I'm strong and strong, I never thought I'd have high blood pressure, and I didn't have the concept of blood pressure at all." Jin Guangyao also did not understand very well, it was no problem to do heavy physical work, why mental work was not good.
In fact, the number of applicants for the 77th level is far beyond expectations, and the relevant departments have to pass the preliminary examination, physical examination and other checkpoints, which are too strict to be repeated. Despite this, the low acceptance rate is unimaginable.
But the second opportunity soon arrived. In September 1978, Cao Jingxing, Jin Guangyao, and Cai Jinlian received an acceptance letter from Fudan University, Cao and Jin were admitted to the Department of History, and Cai entered the Department of Chemistry.
"We all want to apply for science, and everyone thinks that studying liberal arts is still a bit risky, and we all want to avoid it." Cao Jingxing felt that it was too late to review physical chemistry, so he had to apply for liberal arts. In the liberal arts, Cao Jingxing is more identified with history, and feels that no matter what he does in the future, history is the most basic. As for me, I only have the level of the fifth grade of primary school, the science examination is not realistic, thinking that there is a school on the line, just look at which of the scores is the most likely, and which one is reported. Jin Guangyao said.
Cao Jingxing once said that the journey from the tea forest farm to the university is a "climb" and a growth. Through the college entrance examination, these young people embarked on another path of life. "If Deng Xiaoping hadn't made a comeback at that time, if no one had proposed reforming the examination system until the last day of the symposium, if there hadn't been so much contingency, our lives would have been completely different."
"Those of us who went to college are really lucky and lucky. It just so happened that the times gave it that we seized it. If you don't catch it, you really don't dare to think about it. Looking back on the past, Jin Guangyao was full of emotion.
Jokingly calling him "old dog" is actually a model of reading
In the 1978 college entrance examination, more than a dozen Shanghai Zhiqing in Huangshan Tea Forest Farm were admitted to the university, and only they were admitted to Fudan University. Coincidentally, after reporting to the school and moving into the dormitory, Jin Guangyao found that he and Cao Jingxing were separated again.
That year, Cao Jingxing was 31 years old, the oldest in the class, and Zhang Guowei in the same dormitory was more than ten years younger than him. Therefore, everyone calls him "Lao Cao", and behind the naughtiness, he will also be called "Old Guy".
"There's also the one that people call him 'old dog' when they joke, because he learned English, from the 'old dog.'" Jin Guangyao said.
Jokes aside, the students actually have great admiration for Cao Jingxing. First, Cao Jingxing is a big brother, but also the class leader, very concerned about everyone, and second, his knowledge, experience, and vision are outstanding among the students, and everyone really has a bit of him as his name, "Jingxing stops".
The students who came from the farm were paid at the time. Cao Jingxing can receive a salary of more than 40 yuan per month from the farm, which is a "rich man" in the eyes of his classmates. Deducting the expenses of eating and household, the balance of more than 20 yuan, Cao Jingxing used all to buy books.
Jin Guangyao also remembered that because he was on the way, the task of receiving a salary was undertaken by him. Many times, he rode Cao Jingxing's bicycle to the Shanghai office of the tea forest farm on Liyang Road in Hongkou District to collect the salaries of three people, first to the Cao family on Nanjing West Road, and then back to his own home in Jing'an Temple.
If you have money to buy books, of course, you must also be able to buy and read, and Cao Jingxing belongs to those who can buy and read. He was an "old high school student" who was able to read a lot of books because of his family education. In the tea forest farm, "all the books that can be read have been read", he read "Mao Xuan" and "Marxist-Leninist Anthology", and a lot of knowledge was learned from the annotations inside. Therefore, Cao Jingxing's starting point is not comparable to ordinary students, many books have just been contacted by other students, but he has already finished reading.
"After we enrolled in school, the textbooks were Zhai Bozan's Outline of Chinese History and Guo Moruo's Manuscript of Chinese History. In Jin Guangyao's view, at that time, Cao Jingxing had his own rhythm and method of reading, consciously and systematically reading the original classics, "starting from the first four histories, and then the "General Commentary". ”
Therefore, cao Jingxing said that what books are good, the students followed to buy, in Zhang Guowei's words, it was simply "where to fight.". Soon after enrolling, Cao Jingxing bought 20 copies of the Zizhi Tongjian and could not release the volumes almost every day. Zhang Guowei "also followed the gourd painting scoop, specially rushed to the Shanghai Bookstore on Fuzhou Road, and spent thirty yuan to memorize the entire set of "Zizhi Tongjian"." Jin Guangyao felt that it was too expensive, but he also felt good, so he bought three volumes of the "Tongjian Chronicle", "It is cheaper, but it can also be linked to the "Tongjian"." ”
Soon Jin Guangyao found that it was not easy to read with Cao Jingxing, first, he read fast, second, he had too many things to make up, many literary masterpieces had not been read, and such a sensational new work as "Scars" made them flock to it.
Another example of "JingxingXing" is his love of classical music, often reading books in his dormitory. Over time, many students in the dormitory also fell in love with symphony. Zhang Guowei, who later became a veteran media person, recalled that in March 1979, Seiji Ozawa led the Boston Symphony Orchestra to perform in Shanghai, "That night, a few of our classmates did not go anywhere, they guarded a broken radio and enjoyed the live broadcast. Later, when we graduated, we all became symphony fans, often meeting unexpectedly in concert halls. ”
Learning English is the same. Before entering Fudan, Cao Jingxing spent half a month and re-read his middle school English textbook, which made him the only two people in the class who scored more than 60 points in the English mapping test after admission, and could skip the basic class and directly take professional English.
Although the foundation is better, English is also a huge challenge for Cao Jingxing. He still had his own method: instead of learning grammar like everyone else, he first nibbled on the English-Chinese Dictionary and then went straight to the original Edition of Wells's Outline of World History. Under his influence, everyone else in the dormitory also went to look for the Outline of World History, but the library had only a few copies. Jin Guangyao really couldn't find it, and Cao Jingxing said to him, "Just find a general history, no matter what it is, it will be helpful to you from the beginning to the end." After doing so, Jin Guangyao found that his English level had indeed risen.
The opportunity to study was not easy to come by, so the students at that time cherished it. Zhang Guowei said that the 50 classmates in the class, everyone buried their heads in reading, only after 10 o'clock in the evening, there was no way, they opened a "lying talk", "other times almost all read books, even when washing feet are also reading." ”
"After ten years of abandonment in the countryside and four years of university, I had no other ideas than to study." Cao Jingxing has said. So although he is the class leader, in addition to the activities that must be organized, he never takes the initiative to hold activities, does not participate in clubs himself, and does not participate in external activities. In this way, in four years, he took more than fifty credits more than the school required, such as international politics and the world economy.
Cao Jingxing himself once said that the knowledge accumulated in college is very useful for his future news, and the foundation for news commentary is laid in college. "If I had only studied a single major at that time, my knowledge would have been narrower."
Media people, cultural people, the background is a book reader
After graduating from university, Cao Jingxing entered the Institute of World Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences to conduct research on the current economic situation in the United States and the Asia-Pacific region. Later, in Hong Kong, he successively served as the deputy editor-in-chief of Asia Weekly, the chief writer of Ming Pao, the editor-in-chief of Zhongtian News Channel, the deputy director of Phoenix Information Station and the director of the speech department, and hosted programs such as "Current Affairs Lecture" and "Oral History".
Jin Guangyao originally wanted to do such a text service work as an editor and a reporter, but was assigned to the Party School of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Chemical Industry, and he was very reluctant and immediately decided to go to graduate school. In 1983, he was admitted to the Department of History of Fudan University with a master's degree in modern and contemporary Chinese history, where he studied modern Chinese history under Yu Zidao, and his master's thesis was Chennault and the U.S. Air Force. After graduating with a master's degree, he stayed in the history department of the university to teach, and since then he has embarked on an academic path.
Although the two have different development paths after graduation, because of their roommates and the same farm zhiqing, Cao Jingxing may be the closest among his classmates, Jin Guangyao. Jin Guangyao's master's thesis to do Chennault and the US Air Force, exchange views with him, Cao Jingxing felt that this topic was very good.
In the autumn of 2001, the people who had joined the queue at the Huangshan Tea Forest farm in Anhui Province met and discussed compiling a collection for the farm to record the history of that era. This task was entrusted to Jin Guangyao and Zhu Zhenghui, two people who made history. In the middle of the compilation process, Cao Jingxing also actively participated in the discussion. Finally, "Zhiqing Tribe: 10,000 Shanghai Zhiqing at the Foot of Huangshan Mountain" was published in 2004 by shanghai ancient books publishing house in the form of a photo collection, and Cao Jingxing specially wrote an article.
Later, after Cao Jingxing returned to Shanghai from Hong Kong, the two met more and more, and also did oral history together, and established the Oral History Research Center at Fudan University, with Cao Jingxing and Jin Guangyao as the double directors. In 2008, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of reform and opening up, they jointly planned and presided over the publication of "Personal Experience", an oral history of Shanghai's reform and opening up.
"He worked first as a print media, then he went to television, he went around, and finally he settled on history." In Jin Guangyao's view, history and news are closely related, "news is the history of the future", and Cao Jingxing always carries a historical vision when doing news, "it will be deeper than those who do not have (this vision)." ”
On July 25, 2020, Cao Jingxing and Jin Guangyao made a series of lectures on the Daxia Reading Club Libao, focusing on the unforgettable youth years, with the theme of "1978 · Youth Climbing - From Tea Farm to University". Originally, five phases were going to be done, but because Cao Jingxing was in poor physical condition, he could not continue in the end.
In July 2020, Cao Jingxing and Jin Guangyao gave a series of lectures on the Daxia Book Club Libao.
During his illness, Jin Guangyao went to visit Cao Jingxing at home several times, "I went to see him at the beginning of this year, and at that time he felt that he was OK, and I also felt that he (state) was OK. After talking for more than an hour, I also said that you used to help people do dictation, and now I help you do it, and after a while, when you feel better, I will bring the students together and make an oral record of what you have said. He nodded and smiled as he listened. Talking about this last meeting, Jin Guangyao was very sighing, "It was still very sudden." ”
Although the news reports and commemorative articles of these two days have focused more on Cao Jingxing's identity as a media person, in the golden dazzling, Cao Jingxing is first and foremost a reader, "a reader who cares about family affairs, state affairs, and everything, a reader who has a particularly strong desire for knowledge, wants to read any book, and absorbs all knowledge." ”
"Then he read so many books, so he has a very strong book, a very broad mind, a wide range of interests, and in this sense, he is a cultural person." Jin Guangyao said that on this basis, being a news media has become a specific way for him to practice these two identities and serve the society.
"At different stages of his life, every choice is closely related to his identity as a reader. This is his background. Jin Guangyao said.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Ding Xiao