Wu Lisong
Abstract:In 1977, China's college entrance examination system, which had been interrupted for 10 years due to the Cultural Revolution, was restored, and a large number of young people saw hope. In December, 5.7 million people flocked to the gaokao exam room, and the following spring, 273,000 new students stepped onto university campuses. In July 1978, a new round of college entrance examination kicked off again, and more than 10 million candidates rekindled their passion for mastering their lives. More than 40 years have passed, and the former teenagers are now gray, but they have always been connected with the progress of society; The author of this article interviewed many scholars of the older generation at Nanjing University and listened to their personal experiences of the 1977 and 1978 college entrance examinations.
Study life in the "Ten Years of Catastrophe".
The composition of the 77 and 78 college entrance examination students can be described as a great spectacle in the history of education, among which there are not only fresh graduates, but also junior and senior high school students who graduated before and during the "Cultural Revolution". In 1966, the college entrance examination came to an abrupt end, and there was a massive accumulation of secondary school graduates due to the lack of adequate access to higher education. Most of them have become educated youths in the countryside, and although some of them have changed from peasants to workers or cadres through recruitment, this is very different from their expected life.
Tong Xing (a professor at Nanjing University's School of Government) is a "third-year", and unlike those who graduated from high school during the Cultural Revolution, he was ready to take the college entrance examination before the Cultural Revolution, but the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution delayed his plans for further education for 11 years. Tong Xing recalled: "I went to the countryside as an educated youth to join the queue. At first, he worked as a farmer for three years, and then he worked as a temporary worker in the supply and marketing cooperatives of the commune. Three years later, he was officially recruited and became a worker. Later, he was seconded by the county party committee and the county government, called 'work instead of work', that is, the worker establishment became a cadre, and he worked for another 3 years. At the end of 1977, he was admitted to NTU and enrolled in February 1978. "The child star took root in the countryside," married a local, and gave birth to three children before going to college. After a few years of staying at NTU, I managed to transfer my wife from the rural areas where I was in the queue."
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Gong Fang (former director of the Institute of Higher Education at Nanjing University) was in his first year of high school at Changzhou High School in Jiangsu. As a graduate of the class of 68, Gong Fang was enthusiastic because of the rumors that he was going to Inner Mongolia to form a "construction corps" to fight against the "Soviet Xiu Invasion Army", but being sent to a farm in northern Jiangsu made him depressed. He listened to the advice of several "rebel comrades-in-arms" and went to Liyang to settle down. He recalled his life at that time: "Although Liyang Tangqiao belongs to southern Jiangsu, it is close to Langxi and Guangde in Anhui Province, and its development is relatively backward, and life is relatively difficult. We grit our teeth and treat labor as a hard but steely process. On rainy days, I sweat on sunny days, learn to plant seedlings, learn to carry burdens, learn to kneel in the rice fields between the rows of seedlings, and support the duck boat to hold the pond mud. After four and a half years in the production team, I was transferred to the Tangqiao Commune Broadcasting Amplification Station as a line maintenance worker. In fact, I have two jobs: one is a line maintenance worker who is registered and paid but still has a household registration in the production team, and the other is to help the commune office write materials and newsletters. Although sometimes it takes overtime to rewrite the manuscript, compared with cutting wheat and planting seedlings in the production team, after all, the labor intensity is much lower, and there is more time to read books. While experiencing the hardships of life, he also "really missed the preciousness of reading and learning in school and in the classroom."
Pan Yi (former vice president of Nanjing University) graduated from high school during the Cultural Revolution and was recommended to go to university in 1976 by the leader of the poor peasant group, but ultimately missed out on the university. Fortunately, he laid a solid foundation in high school and seized the opportunity to take the college entrance examination in 1977. "I graduated from high school in '74, and our class was a group of people who were 'lucky in misfortune', and we entered high school in 1972, when Deng Xiaoping came back as vice premier, and there was a period of so-called 'resurgence' in education. Although we also study engineering and agriculture every day, the school still attaches great importance to curriculum teaching, and we are at this stage, and the foundation is okay. ”
Chen Qianping (a professor at the School of History at Nanjing University) was fortunate enough to stay in the city after graduating from high school and was assigned to the Nanjing Metal Craft Factory (now the time-honored Baoqing Silver Building). He recalled: "Our group of three or four hundred young workers entered at once, and after nearly a week of training, each young worker made a ring, and each of the 10 masters selected a big apprentice. I was fortunate to be favored by Master Yu Songxin and became one of the first batch of top ten apprentices. The main reason why I was photographed was that I had a foundation in painting, and the jewelry I made was more exquisite. ”
Sudden joy and trepidation
When I recall that when I learned the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination, the teachers would describe it as "incredible" and "unbelievable". Zhang Lixin (a senior engineer at Nanjing University's School of Life Sciences) was skeptical of the reliability of the news, saying: "At that time, we couldn't believe it, because there was an unwritten rule at that time, that is, only educated youths who had been sent down for two years were eligible to be recommended to factories, the army, or to universities." Chen Zhongdan (professor at the School of History, Nanjing University) recalled: "In the second half of 1977, I was working as a private teacher and visited the nearby Guangyang Middle School. I was sitting on the boat, and suddenly there was a broadcast, and when I heard the news of the 'resumption of the college entrance examination', I was stunned for a moment, just like in the movie "College Entrance Examination 1977". Pan Yi learned the news of the college entrance examination while doing farm work: "I knew exactly that I was going to take the college entrance examination, it should be in September of that year, when I was planting wheat in the field after harvesting rice, and a high school classmate was also from our production team, and he came to me and said that he was sure that he was going to take the college entrance examination soon." ”
The resumption of the college entrance examination is gratifying, but candidates have many doubts about their qualifications, and many people are worried about their origins. He Yunao (director of the Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage of Nanjing University) was forced to give up many opportunities because of his "ingredients": "When I graduated from high school, I had some opportunities, such as joining the army. Later, our local cadres said no, 'he can't join the army', 'his family composition is not good'. Therefore, during the college entrance examination, I am particularly worried about the political trial, and the political trial is like a tight spell. And at that time, there was still controversy in the society about the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination. But in the end, the government resisted the pressure and provided a relaxed political examination environment for the candidates, so that most candidates could successfully register for the exam.
After experiencing doubts and struggles, the candidates signed up with hope, but with only a month or two left before the exam, many candidates were anxious and didn't even know where to start. The first problem that the candidates faced was that because of several years of labor, a lot of knowledge had been forgotten, and there were few review materials at that time. Huang Weihua (professor of mathematics at Nanjing University) recalled: "Although I have always been a teacher, I have forgotten a lot of knowledge, so I participated in the review class held by my old high school and mastered some knowledge through review. Although I am a math teacher, there are some things, such as plane geometry, solid geometry, and factorization, that I used to learn very easily. Like cross multiplication, I learned it when I was a teacher when I took out my sister's book and read it. She went to junior high school before the 'Cultural Revolution', and the content was relatively complete. I won't do it, but if you want to teach others, you have to see for yourself. In fact, I learned a lot of mathematics by myself and at the teacher training school of the county bureau of culture and education. ”
In addition to self-study, there are also a large number of teachers who spontaneously open cram classes to help candidates free of charge. Zhang Jie (Director of the Institute of Tourism Studies at Nanjing University) recalled: "The teachers in our cram school were very kind. In the evening, we listened to the class in the classroom, and some students who were not students in the formal cram school were listening outside the classroom through the window, and Mr. Zhou Xiangchang saw it and said, 'That classmate, you come in and listen, it's okay if you come in'. ”
Another major difficulty for candidates is that they have to allocate a large part of the insufficient revision time to the work they are doing. Wu Zhiwei (professor at Nanjing University School of Medicine) expressed some of the labor requirements for reference students at that time: "In order to take the college entrance examination, educated youths must earn enough work, and the work score is a point accumulated by participating in labor in the countryside, so we work in the fields during the day and review at night. ”
Despite the difficulties, the candidates made the final sprint in extremely difficult conditions. Wu Zhiwei recalled: "There was no electricity in the countryside, so we had to use kerosene lamps. There is a young intellectual, who is taking the music class and clarinet, and he is very noisy when he practices his musical instrument, and the three of us can't review it properly. So the three of us used a kerosene lamp and another one for him to take to the kitchen to practice the clarinet. Gong Fang was in the commune's office to study, digging a bucket of well water and soaking his feet in the water, which could relieve the heat and prevent mosquitoes.
A fateful exam
After a short revision, the candidates walked into the exam room with confidence or trepidation. Zhou Pei (a professor at the School of Government and Management, Nanjing University) recalled the scene before entering the examination room: "Some of the candidates were elated, some were panicked, and some were dizzy. There are also people who forget to bring their admission tickets and ride back to get them. At that time, I was still relatively old as a candidate, because I had been a soldier for 5 years, and I was in my 20s. Some fresh graduates outside were memorizing essays, history, and geography, and they thought they were really amazing, so they stupidly entered the examination room. Chen Hongmin (professor of history at Zhejiang University) recalled his experience of forgetting to bring his admission ticket: "When I arrived at the examination room on the afternoon of the second day of the exam, I suddenly found that I did not have the admission ticket. The examination room is in Ninghai Middle School, not far from my home, so it is too late to ride back to get it. But rushing to and fro, it definitely affects the mood. I made a very calm decision, first went to the office to find the invigilator, explained the situation, and asked for permission for me to send her the admission ticket for review after the exam. The female teacher said very happily: "No problem, I know you, after the first three subjects, I think you have done well in this examination room." I remembered that she used to look at my answers when she was visiting the examination room. This not only saved me from rushing home to get my admission ticket, but also gave me great confidence. In geography that afternoon, I actually scored 92.5, which was the highest among all subjects. ”
Since 1977 was the first year of the resumption of the college entrance examination, the college entrance examination and enrollment work were a little rushed, and the candidates did not know about the professional settings of colleges and universities, and there were many "historical accidents".
Teacher Chen Zhongdan shared his story of filling in the volunteers: "At that time, the volunteers were copied on the wall of the commune with a brush, and our liberal arts departments were the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Chinese, the Department of Foreign Languages, and the Department of History. Of course, I won't go to a foreign language department because foreign languages have to be tested; I don't want to go to philosophy because I can't understand it; so history and Chinese are left. Originally, I wanted to go to the Chinese, and I was sure to be able to go to it, but the person who copied the volunteer copied it wrong, and the Chinese department was a major in Chinese language and literature, and if I copied two points less, it became Chinese language and writing, and as soon as I saw that I was studying writing, it was very boring, so I chose the history department. Xiao Min (professor at the School of Physics of Nanjing University) recalled: "That year, the preparation time for the college entrance examination was very short and chaotic. When I was admitted, I heard that various colleges and universities were 'grabbing' files in the admissions office, and whoever grabbed them was counted. Local schools may be more robbed, so they robbed some local candidates. The admission time for the 77th grade is tight, and there are not too many rules, but there are many rules when the 78th grade is admitted, according to the first choice and the second choice. I was admitted to Xuzhou Medical College, but I didn't apply to medical school at all, it got my file and asked me if I would like to go to medical school, I didn't want to study medicine, so I didn't go. ”
The NTU campus after the resumption of college entrance examination admissions
In 1978, Nanjing University ushered in a new blood that had not been seen for a long time. Class of '77 students will register in February, followed by Class of '78 students in September of the same year.
There is a big age difference between the 77 and 78 students. Some of the students who graduated from high school before the Cultural Revolution were over 30 years old and even married and had children, while others were fresh high school graduates, the youngest of whom was only 16 years old. Qin Yiqiang (professor at the School of Modern Engineering and Applied Science at Nanjing University) talked about his mentality as a fresh graduate: "There are many 'old three' at our level, the oldest one is in 1946, and there are more from 1946 to 1949. Their age with us is basically a two-generation relationship. Our fresh graduates have a different attitude towards learning than their 'old three'. The 'old three' and those who have worked have regained the opportunity to learn, because it is rare, they are very engaged. And our group of people, who went to college at the age of 16, if they didn't grasp it well in school, they would lose themselves and feel that learning was not so urgent, because it was not so hard-won, so they didn't work very hard. At that time, if there was a class teacher or counselor to guide you, the result would be different. ”
When you enter university, learning is a crucial thing. Zhang Hongxia recalled: "When I was queuing up to eat, I was very neat and in a row, and I was also a 'bowing family', bowing my head and memorizing English words, and then raising my head when I was in line. We got up at 6 o'clock, and in the morning the horn sounded, and we had to get up and run, and after half an hour of running around the house, we all read aloud in English, and in the winter we read aloud under the street lamp. ”
In the seventies and eighties, the material conditions of the Gulou Campus of Nanjing University were still relatively poor. Pan Yi said: "At that time, a dormitory for 10 people was arranged, which was the smallest room at the top of the dormitory building, with 5 double beds, bunk beds, and very narrow aisles, so it was difficult for people who were a little fat to enter and exit. Ding Baiquan (professor at NTU's School of Journalism and Communication) recalled: "The summer of 1978 was particularly hot, above 40 degrees Celsius, and this hot weather lasted for many days. We all slept on the basketball court at night, and each of us took a mat to put on the floor as a bed, because there was no air conditioning or electric fan in the dormitory, so it was too hot to sleep. Later, the school released the summer vacation early, and the exam was temporarily suspended, and the exam was taken again at the beginning of the next semester. ”
The cafeteria is also an important place for students' daily activities, with 8 students per table, and only when everyone comes can they eat. There is a lack of chairs, and most of the students eat standing up. The food fee for Grade A households is 14.7 yuan, and students from rural families can also get family grants. Due to the difficult living conditions and the various expenses required to go to school, it is particularly important to be frugal in eating. He Yunao received the highest scholarship in his class of 18 yuan, half of which was used to buy books, and because the price was too expensive, he never bought fruit in 4 years of college.
More than 40 years later, let's look at the "resumption of the college entrance examination"
The reform of the college entrance examination has not only completely changed the fate of many people, but also has a profound impact on the development of the country. Pan Yi said: "During the Cultural Revolution, university education was suspended, and there was a special shortage of talents. The resumption of the college entrance examination to select talents is too important for the subsequent reform and opening up and the development of the whole country. Personally, being able to take the college entrance examination is the luckiest thing in my life. We are fortunate because we have gone to university because of the resumption of the college entrance examination, and the country is fortunate because the resumption of the college entrance examination has cultivated a large number of talents for the country. ”
In The Ancien Régime and the Revolution, Tocqueville said that when a revolution succeeds, all previous reasons for revolution cease to exist. Nowadays, the college entrance examination has become the only way for most Chinese young people to live, we will question the content of the college entrance examination, question the alienation of exam-oriented education, but people of insight will not question the form of the college entrance examination itself, it is not an ordinary selection examination, it carries social mobility and social fairness, it gives countless people the belief that God rewards hard work, it allows countless people to realize their dreams.