He was a laid-off worker with only a high school education, a stall and a tricycle driver. However, at the age of 38, he ushered in a counterattack in his life.
Under the joint recommendation of three professors from Peking University, Fudan University and other famous universities, he was admitted to Fudan University as a doctoral student, which caused a sensation.
In the face of doubts from the outside world, Mr. Qiu Xigui, a paleographer, personally supported him, "Whether he is good or not, everyone will know when the academic results come out in the future." ”
He is known by the media as "the first person in the history of Fudan to be admitted to a doctorate with high Chinese", Cai Wei.
So, what is so special about him, and what is the story behind it, from a coachman to a doctor?
Get to know the Titans
In 1993, a batch of bamboo slips and wooden slips were unearthed from the Yinwan Han Tomb in Donghai County, Lianyungang, including a vulgar fu called "Shen Wu Fu".
The Fu, also known as "Shenwu Fu", tells the tragic story of a pair of male and female crows who were attacked by "bird thieves" when they built their nests, and the female crow died unyieldingly.
The richness of the imagery and ideas contained in the content, as well as the multifaceted theme, have great research value in the history of literature, so they have attracted wide attention from the academic community.
In January 1997, Mr. Qiu Xigui, a well-known paleographer and now a professor at Fudan University, published an article entitled "A Preliminary Study of Shenwu Fu" in the archaeological academic journal Cultural Relics.
The whole article has two parts, the first of which is the annotation of this translation. However, Professor Qiu did not give a clear explanation for the word "Sako" in it, saying that its meaning needs to be studied.
The day after that, he received a letter from Jinzhou, Liaoning Province. The letter, a young man named Cai Wei, mentioned his understanding of the word "Zuozi" in the letter.
He felt that "Sako" should be pronounced "嗟子", or "嗟嗞", an exclamation to express sadness or regret.
After reading the letter, Professor Qiu suddenly opened his mind, and combined with the story told in "Shen Wu Fu", he thought that this explanation was quite reasonable.
So, the following year, in the third issue of the journal "Cultural Relics", he adopted Cai Wei's explanation and called it very credible.
In fact, according to Professor Qiu, Cai Wei has inspired him much more than that. For example, in the bamboo slip "Lao Tzu" unearthed from the tomb of Guodian Chu, there is such a sentence, "Mo Zhiqi".
This "亘" is generally considered to be a fake word, Tong "Heng", but what its meaning is is difficult to explain. And Cai Wei proposed that Chu Jian often wrote "亘" as "extreme" and translated it as "ultimate".
Professor Qiu was so inspired by this statement that he later bluntly said: "Many professors are not as good as him." In some places, I don't have his level either. ”
This can't help but make people wonder, could it be that this Cai Wei is a hidden boss in the ancient literary world? His academic attainments are quite profound, but this is not the case.
At that time, he was just a laid-off worker with only a high school education, an ordinary person who worked hard for food and clothing. The reason why he was able to put forward those unique insights was all due to his love for paleography and his assiduous self-study.
Self-taught
This love seems to be born with deep roots.
Cai Wei has been fond of calligraphy since he was a child, and when he was in elementary school, he practiced calligraphy for several years. During this period, as long as he saw traditional Chinese characters that he didn't understand, he would look back and forth with a heavy dictionary, which also became the enlightenment stage for him to fall in love with ancient characters.
It wasn't until his sophomore year of high school that he accidentally saw an article by Professor Qiu in the quarterly magazine "Literature and History", and he was completely fascinated by ancient literature.
In order to read ancient books, he longed to live in the library, and once spent a year reading more than 300 obscure books.
But this also caused him to be seriously biased, and his Chinese scores have been far ahead, while other subjects have been a mess. The result can be imagined, he failed the college entrance examination, and he missed the university.
After that, he had to work as a laborer in a rubber factory. Outside of work, he still spends his days reading in the library.
At that time, in Jinzhou, these books were not available on the market at all, only libraries could find them, and under normal circumstances, they were not borrowed. In order to be able to study repeatedly, Cai Wei began to copy books.
For example, he copied the Yangtze dialect, the first book to record dialects in China, and the world's earliest surviving single-language dictionary, Erya.
In 1994, due to the poor efficiency of the factory, Cai Wei was laid off. For him, who has no background and no skills, the way to support his family at the moment is nothing more than to continue to sell his labor.
He worked as a temporary worker in the back kitchen of the canteen for a year, with a monthly salary of 100 yuan, mainly to make steamed buns. After saving money, he bought a tricycle, did a small business, and went to the mall to set up a stall every day.
When it's hot, they sell ice cream and cold drinks. When the weather is cold, he sells fried melon seeds, and the business is not good, and the money he earns is only enough to solve the problem of food and clothing.
In the more than ten years of setting up a stall, he rarely added new clothes, Jinzhou winter is more than ten degrees below zero, the family has never paid the heating bill, the room is as cold as an ice cellar, and it is common to be awakened by freezing at night.
Even though life was so difficult and difficult, Cai Wei never gave up ancient characters and insisted on learning. Because he cares more about the sufficiency of the spiritual world than the affluence of material life.
At that time, he could not afford expensive new books, so he would save money to buy old books. And every two or three days, he would go to the library to borrow books to read, and if he couldn't borrow them, he would still copy them.
When the stall is empty, he reads. Sometimes, the cigarette case discarded by passers-by can become his notebook with the tin foil inside.
These notes later became the source of material for many of his essays.
But outsiders don't understand Cai Wei's approach, and from time to time they say, "I can't eat enough, and I still have the time to read idle books, which is really not a good job." But fortunately, his family did not oppose and interfere with him too much.
After self-study without distractions, he can be said to know the words, grammar and language habits of the ancients in ancient books, and even empathize with the behavior and thoughts of the ancients.
Once, someone held an ancient painting and asked Cai Wei to identify the authenticity, and he just saw at a glance that it was a fake just by the words in the painting.
But Maxima often exists, but Bole does not often have.
As a low-level ordinary person, even if Cai Weicai is trembling, it is difficult to be useful. But luckily, he met his own Bole and changed his life because of it.
Perfect counterattack
In 1995, at the age of 24, Cai Wei tried to send a letter to Professor Qiu Xigui and other scholars for the first time, asking them for advice and putting forward his own opinions.
Later, Professor Qiu wrote back to praise him: "I admire him very much, regardless of utilitarianism, and he has cultivated hard and reached a high level." Since then, the two have often discussed and exchanged various texts through letters.
In 2003, Cai Wei scraped together money to buy a computer, and after connecting to the Internet, the first thing he did was search for ancient characters.
After that, he began to publish some academic thoughts on the Chinese Studies Network.
Although the quantity is not large, it is better than the quality. For example, Professor Dong Shan of the School of Archaeology and Museums of Peking University once said, "Cai Wei can solve a problem in one or two sentences, and it is very accurate, just look at it." ”
With this crisp and neat style, as well as a thorough knowledge of ancient books, Cai Wei was probably the only forum at that time.
Therefore, many times, even if he posts "in a vest", he will be privately messaged, "Are you Cai Wei?"
But since 2006, Cai Wei, who was once active, suddenly fell silent on the Internet. Because his wife was sick.
In order to treat his wife's illness, Cai Wei pedaled three rounds, running from morning to night, more than a dozen times a day, and did not dare to take a break in the middle, which also made him less and less time to study.
The pressure of life and the bad situation made Cai Wei feel powerless for the first time. In a correspondence with Dong Shan, he, who has always only talked about academics, couldn't help but tell about his situation.
But he is not asking for help or complaining, but expressing his feelings about life.
Dong Shan was very moved by this, so he wanted to pull him along, and after the negotiation of Professor Qiu, Cai Wei was temporarily hired to join the compilation of "Mawangdui Han Tomb Silk Collection".
One year after joining the group, Cai Wei's ability and potential in paleography are obvious to all and amazed, and his love for paleography also makes people respect.
Professor Qiu, who has the right to recruit students independently, can't bear to be buried with such a precious talent, so he wants Cai Wei to study for a doctorate.
After that, he co-authored Professor Li Jiahao of Peking University and Professor Wu Zhenwu of Jilin University to write a letter of recommendation to the Ministry of Education, requesting special approval for Cai Wei to apply for a doctorate, and was approved.
But with the qualifications, it does not mean that Cai Wei will definitely be able to go, he must pass the entrance exam. But for people who have been laid off for more than ten years, it is not easy to resume learning.
He started learning Japanese subjects from scratch, and after a period of assault, he finally passed the line smoothly.
In 2009, 38-year-old Cai Wei became the first student at Fudan University to be admitted to a doctorate with high Chinese and became a professor in Qiu. For a while, "how can a tricycle driver who graduated from high school be admitted to Fudan" became a hot topic.
In this regard, Professor Qiu said, "Whether he is really good or not, everyone will know when the academic results come out in the future." ”
During his Ph.D., Cai Wei was the oldest in the class and had the thinnest file, but he also did the most. Because he is self-taught, he does not have a systematic knowledge system, and he needs to make up the basic courses of bachelor's and master's degrees.
When you graduate, you also need to learn to adapt to standard academic expressions when writing your dissertation. Therefore, it took 3 years for others to graduate with a doctorate, while it took him a full 6 years.
In 2015, after graduating with a doctorate, Cai Wei was introduced by Anshun University to engage in paleographic research and take on certain teaching tasks.
During his work, Cai Wei was as low-key as ever, never telling others about the difficult life he had when he was self-taught.
Today, at 52 years old, he is still accompanied by ancient books, deciphering the meaning contained in ancient words. He also insists on publishing one or two papers a year. In his words, "If you don't have insight, you don't write at all." ”
epilogue
Self-improvement and hard work, life will come sooner or later to a glorious moment.
Cai Wei's success is not only due to his own efforts and persistence, but also has a lot to do with Bole like Professor Qiu Xigui and Fudan University's pattern of "reducing talents without sticking to one pattern".