Some people once said that there seems to be a spell, the people of northern Shaanxi have courage and courage, but they are not suitable for being officials, from Gao Gang to Zhang Weiying to Bai Yongxiu, almost nothing can be done.
He is the most well-known and learned figure in northern Shaanxi today!
From the village of Wubao in Yulin, the smallest county in Yulin, to Oxford University, the world's top university, he studied under The Nobel Laureate in Economics James Morris.
He founded the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, "China's most valuable business school", and later served as the dean of the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University. He offended a group of Peking University leaders, professors, and polarized comments on him in Yanyuan.
He and "real estate philosopher" Feng Lun are college classmates, but he has embarrassed his old classmates in public, he has intimidated Alibaba's Ma Yun, and brokered the marriage of Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, who is "ghostly and ghostly".
Sticking to market economicism, he was the first in China to put forward and systematically demonstrate the idea of dual-track price reform, and he was the "China Economic Person of the Year" in 2002. He has been at odds with Lin Yifu, an "economist who smuggled Taiwan to the mainland," for more than 20 years.
The people of northern Shaanxi are straight and stubborn, and he has played it to the fullest.
Wubao, a "pocket county town" with a total of 40,000 people, is not a celebrity, and Liu Qing, the author of "History of Entrepreneurship", counts one, and he later came to the top.
He is Zhang Weiying.
From the villages on the banks of the Yellow River in Wubao to Northwest University, from Oxford University to Peking University Yanyuan... After stepping down as dean of Peking University's Guanghua School of Management for 10 years, he returned to northern Shaanxi to start classes in the small village of Wubao.
On May 27, 2020, the "Xinzhuang Classroom" held the groundbreaking ceremony and the opening ceremony of the first class in Xinzhuang, Wubao County, northern Shaanxi, and the "Xinzhuang Classroom" is the place where Zhang Weiying gave training to entrepreneurs.
▲ The foundation stone of Xinzhuang classroom was laid
The Wubao County Government was very supportive, and Zhang Weiying's idea of being born only 1 year ago was successfully launched. This means that in the future, a large number of China's best entrepreneurs will rush to this remote village on the banks of the Yellow River to receive the most international vision and experience training in the low-key ancient caves by the Yellow River.
Zhang Weiying, come back to lecture!
College students who have been "fished" back
In September 2020, Zhang Weiying and entrepreneur Huang Nubo went to Xinzhuang.
At that time, a new square had just been built on the potholed ground of Xinzhuang, and the whole village was immersed in the joy of celebration. However, Huo Dongzheng, the village director, felt that the square was only used to twist the song and was a bit "condescending" and "should have a bit of cultural atmosphere".
Huang Nubo, who once bought an island in Iceland, had very sharp eyes, and immediately said to Zhang Weiying, "the hope of the whole village": "Let's build a 'Xinzhuang Classroom' here, and you will teach your entrepreneurial theory to the best entrepreneurs." ”
The two hit it off right away. A month later, Huang Nubo's Danzeng Culture Company signed a contract with the Wubao County Government.
This is a poor mountainous area on the bank of the Yellow River, and there are really the best entrepreneurs to listen to the lectures? But in less than a year, the first batch of entrepreneur trainees will be welcomed here.
▲ Renderings of Xinzhuang classroom
"Looking at the stars on the yellow land, cave culture hitting the entrepreneurial spirit" - Zhang Weiying's intention is revealed in the logen of "Xinzhuang Classroom". It was a reshaping of his entrepreneurial spirit from an economic point of view, this time from the cave culture of his hometown.
When it comes to China's economy and reform, Zhang Weiying is a name that can't be jumped. This economist, who advocates independence and freedom, is linked to the proposal and advancement of several major reforms in China. Against a special background, his open and bold views have repeatedly stood in the whirlpool of public opinion and launched a decades-long confrontation with traditional economic theory.
Since leaving his hometown of Wubao Xinzhuang in 1978 after going to university, this is a major move for him to return to his hometown again. In fact, when he was admitted to college and left his hometown, it was purely "picking up leaks".
In 1977, the college entrance examination was resumed, and Zhang Weiying took the exam. Before that, he had no idea that there were also arts and sciences. Science had no hope, he had reported Chinese, history, radio, television editing, but there was no economics. At that time, you could fill in four volunteers for college, Zhang Weiying's first volunteer was Northwest University, the second volunteer was Yan'an University, and the third volunteer was Beijing Broadcasting College (now Communication University of China). After applying for three majors, there was still an empty box, and he wanted to be empty, so he filled in a Peking University. As a result, he was not admitted at all, but before he could be sad, things changed. Some of the older thirds who had good grades but were not admitted sent a letter to Deng Gong, and then the central government expanded enrollment, and Zhang Weiying hitched a free ride and was admitted to Northwest University, majoring in political economy that had never been exposed to before.
"My profession is definitely not designed or accidental. If Northwestern University hadn't expanded its enrollment, or hadn't set up this new major, or hadn't picked me in, I wouldn't have been able to go to college, and I probably wouldn't be doing economics today. "Creation makes man.
It wasn't until zhang Weiying learned that the 50 classmates in the same class were all "fished" back by He Liancheng, and they had the honor of becoming "Kaipai disciples" of the Department of Economics of Northwest University.
"This major was led by eight teachers led by He Liancheng (known as the "Eight Great Kongs") who took the opportunity to expand enrollment to apply for a new office... They brought in thousands of candidate files that had been abandoned by other departments... Repeated selection, the legs are numb, afraid of missing any excellent candidates. ”
In this way, Zhang Weiying's life trajectory ushered in a big turn.
▲ Zhang Weiying in college
Many well-known scholars in China are from He Liancheng, who and 7 other entrepreneurs founded the Department of Economics of Northwest University in a low bungalow, growing from only 18 faculty members to equal to the power of the Beijing circle. Some people praised the School of Economics and Management of Northwest University as the "cradle of young economists" and He Liancheng as "the northwest king of the economics community".
"Mr. He's first class made me like economics." Zhang Weiying said in the article "Teacher He Liancheng" that he always encourages students to think independently and have their own unique insights.
Facts have proved that Zhang Weiying's future behavior and style are all affected by this academic freedom.
"Deviant" scholar
In 1982, the first national annual conference on quantitative economics was held in Xi'an.
This was a milestone in the Chinese economic community breaking through the shackles of traditional economics and achieving important development, and Zhang Weiying, who was still in the first year of graduate school at the time, attracted the attention of academic predecessors with an article entitled "Several Theoretical Issues of Marxist Economics and Quantitative Economics". The conference had a great influence on Zhang Weiying, and after the meeting, he began to teach himself modern economics.
A year later, Zhang Weiying published an article in China Youth Daily entitled "Justifying Qian's Name." The article was deleted a lot, but the basic idea is there. The idea that "in a normal and orderly society, you can make more money, indicating that you contribute more to society" immediately triggered a national critique.
Not long after, a nationwide critical movement against spiritual pollution began, and Zhang's article was included in the typical articles of liberal elements. He was one of the eight major liberals in Shaanxi Province at that time, and the director of the graduate school department asked: "Wei Ying, we are all children of poor and lower-middle peasants, and it is not easy for the party to train us to go to college. ”
Mao Yushi, who was in Beijing, wrote to encourage him: "Any slight progress in ideas will encounter great resistance; new ideas in reform will always be regarded as a great rebellion by old ideas that they think are always correct." He wrote back: "I will wait until the day when they apologize to me." ”
▲ Zhang Weiying
In April 1984, the 25-year-old Zhang Weiying wrote the article "Promoting the Reform of the Entire Economic System with Price Reform as the Center", which systematically demonstrated the "dual-track system" of prices for the first time, becoming one of the most important articles in the history of reform in the past 30 years.
At the well-known "Moganshan Conference" in September, price reform became the most hotly debated topic, and eventually Zhang Weiying's "dual-track price system" became the official policy.
In 2016, Zhang Weiying launched a debate in public for the last time.
His opponent was Mr. Lin, who had crossed the river from Taiwan's Kinmen, to an economist who also studied under Nobel laureates but whose views on the economy were far apart.
The "Shaanxi Pu" and "Taipu" chess players meet the opponent, and the debate is set in the Langrun Garden of Peking University.
The two have been "old enemies" for many years, and in 1995, the two national think tank-level scholars met for the first time and conducted a sensational debate on the reform of state-owned enterprises, which was jokingly called the "Peking University Firefight Incident" by the outside world.
This is the fourth debate between the duo. The debate is whether the government should formulate industrial policies to intervene in the market. Lin Yifu believes that industrial policy is the state to help enterprises solve problems that they cannot solve on their own.
But Zhang Weiying, a Wubao man, was even more ruthless: Yifu cited the example of other countries to say that industrial policy will not fail, then all long-lived people have been sick, is it the reason for his longevity?
Such reticent refutations are common. The two people argued 4 times, from the Peking University campus to the cocktail party, and then from the cocktail party to the academic conference, no one obeyed anyone. The 20-year-long "line-up" has led the media to call the debate a "debate of the century." When the reporter who went to interview arrived at the scene an hour early, Langrun Park was already crowded, and the organizers had to set up another venue for broadcasting.
He is committed to a market economy. In June 2000, at the "Xi'an Conference of the 50-Member Forum," Zhang Weiying even suggested that government officials should have a copy of "The Wealth of Nations" written by Adam Smith more than two hundred years ago to understand the significance of the transition from a planned economy to a market economy.
After the article "Justifying the Name of The Money", the school was under pressure. Zhang Weiying could hardly finish his career. Later, Zhang Weiying said that his grievances were no greater than this time.
From today's point of view, Zhang Weiying's view that "in a normal and orderly society, money is a medal of society, and the fact that you can make more money shows that you have contributed more to society and should not avoid money as a bad thing" is not entirely unreasonable.
This "dare" may be seen as the purity of Zhang Weiying's academic research. He once said: "For scholars, what really needs to be done is to transcend and have an independent academic personality." However, when this academic personality encounters hard barriers to social management, the results are often unsatisfactory.
In September 2006, the 47-year-old Zhang Wei welcomed Li Yining as the dean of Guanghua. However, four years later, he was elected at the time of the change of dean.
▲ Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
Zou Hengfu, a professor whom he offended, called him a "famous peasant in northern Shaanxi" and said, "Zhang Weiying has no academic future in this life, and can only mess around in society in the future." ”
This is a common problem encountered by most scholars when turning to administration, which is too principled and too idealistic. Zhang Weiying has always been a practitioner of educational reform, and the pure academic freedom he followed has failed here, and hastily stepped down to declare failure. As early as 2003, when Zhang Weiying was not yet the dean, the measures he advocated such as "retiring without rising" and "lifelong teaching chair" caused controversy and anger.
However, his predecessor Li Yining said: "I am very satisfied with Wei Ying's appointment as dean, and we should encourage him." However, at the same time, it was pointed out that Zhang Weiying's experience in running schools and management was insufficient. ”
There seems to be a spell here: a person from the old Organization Department once said that the people of northern Shaanxi have courage, but they seem to be unfit to be officials, from Gao Gang to Zhang Weiying to Bai Yongxiu, almost nothing can be done.
Placing himself on the opposite side of the majority like this, Zhang Weiying has met many times.
In 2004, he was involved in the "Lang Gu Controversy", and an article in his hometown "Xi'an Evening News" was ugly, with the headline "Zhang Weiying's sheep's head and dog meat".
Every time you open your mouth, you can lead to a debate. His colleague and fellow Professor Song Guoqing of Peking University said: "A bald man has a lice on the top of his head, many people see it and do not squeak, Zhang is the one who will say it out loud." If someone argues that it is not a lice, Zhang will say, you are wrong, it is a lice. ”
Zhang Weiying himself heard this: "To be honest, I don't have the courage to say 'the emperor is not wearing clothes', I only dare to say that the transparency of the emperor's clothes is too high." ”
After graduating from Oxford, he really had a stubborn bull' energy, a stubborn bull's energy on the banks of the Yellow River.
The northern Shaanxi people who returned to Xinzhuang
From the academic world to the business world, there are not a few people who have been intimidated by Zhang Wei.
At the 2012 Online Business Conference, Ma Yun said: "If entrepreneurs were to listen to economists, half of these entrepreneurs would already be dead." How can Zhang Weiying show weakness: "If an entrepreneur dies because he listens to economists, it means that he is not a real entrepreneur." ”
In June last year, Wang Shi, Huang Nubo and others held a "summit dialogue" at Peking University after climbing Mount Everest. Wang Shi, who plays with feelings, talks about why people climb mountains, because people have a unique spirit of adventure and need to conquer the unknown world.
Zhang Weiying commented on stage as a guest: "Animals may also have the spirit of adventure and explore the unknown. However, animals should not engage in a peak dialogue after taking risks. ”
You say he doesn't understand human nature? How can it be. He was too lazy to perform human sophistication, too lazy to adapt to changes.
Even in the face of his college classmate Feng Lun, Zhang Weiying still did not change his style. At the Yabuli Forum in 2013, Feng Lun said: "Private enterprises should be like rural women in Shaanxi, who scrupulously abide by their duties when their husbands are not at home, cannot swing around, and sit at the door in long clothes and wait for their husbands to return." ”
The implication is that private enterprises are only in charge of operation, and the rest of the system and other issues are left to the economists and the state. Zhang Weiying immediately countered his old classmate: "But if you are looking forward to a day, looking forward to two days, and he is not going home, are you still sitting at the door?" ”
▲ Zhang Weiying and Feng Lun
For China's real estate, Zhang Weiying has a well-known statement: 30% are big scammers, 30% are medium scammers, and 30% are unconscious scammers. The remaining 10% is honest, but you don't know where he (10%) is. Then, Zhang Weiying asked Feng Lun: "General Manager Feng, from wantong, have you ever had the experience of deceiving people?" It is estimated that Feng Lun only wanted to squash this former classmate in his heart at that time, so he came up with a story that Wantong was willing to suffer losses and bear humiliations and repay debts in the early days. Zhang Weiying listened and only said: "Feng is always good at eloquence."
It is difficult to say whether such an outspoken Zhang Weiying is due to his long-term academic personality or a character bred on the Loess Plateau. But what is certain is that the imprint of the local humanities of northern Shaanxi for nearly 20 years has not been completely erased from him. This not only allows him to be attacked by others, but also becomes a magic weapon for networking.
The plan for the establishment of Wantong Six Gentlemen was made in Zhang Weiying's dormitory.
At that time, Zhang Weiying went to Oxford to study for a doctorate, under the study of the famous Nobel Laureate in Economics James Morris. Zhang Weiying left the dormitory in the Double Elm Tree, and Feng Lun lived. Without Zhang Weiying's dormitory, perhaps Pan Shiyi SOHO China would not be today's SOHO China.
He later recalled: "If I hadn't gone to Oxford to study for my PhD, I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to continue my research in economics." Many of my colleagues went to the sea to make money later, and there were a very small number of officials, but I liked academic research. ”
▲ Zhang Weiying and his teacher Nobel Laureate in Economics James Morris
When someone questioned his Oxford education, he took out a notice sent to Zhang Weiying by Ms. Macallister of Oxford University on June 22, 1992. It reads: It is a pleasure to inform you that together with Robert Shimer you have won the Oxford University Postgraduate Award for Best Paper in Economics, with a prize of £200, of which you will receive £100.
A person who worked in Guanghua recalled that Zhang Weiying never shied away from his peasant origins. One year at the EMBA New Year's Party, there was a sheep with his back to the audience, wearing a small jacket and wearing a turban, banging a big drum. The drumming stopped, the sheep turned around, and everyone looked at it, and this sheep was Zhang Weiying.
Zhang Weiying pays special attention to his hometown. He writes articles in which most of them are from Xinzhuang, relatives, small families, classmates, or neighbors. He was very concerned about things in the village, and Zhang Weiying made a lot of efforts to find money to find people up and down the ditch written in "The Crusade or the Village Director". For the election of the village secretary, he was even more concerned than the locals.
A reporter once asked him, do you have more marks on wubao's hometown, or is oxford more? His answer is quite philosophical, growing up a lot of things are accidental, don't think about how to elaborate. Many people carefully designed it, and finally went to jail.
Perhaps "Xinzhuang Classroom" can be seen as his "sincere dedication to returning to his hometown and benefiting Sangzi" to his hometown.
This is a non-profit public welfare project, Zhang Weiying allocates 30% of the income to Xinzhuang Village, which is used for the cultural construction of the village and the welfare of the villagers. The training objects of "Xinzhuang Classroom" are mainly young and middle-aged entrepreneurs, and the training program is not less than 4 times a year, with about 30 people in each session.
More ambitious goal: committed to providing Chinese young and middle-aged entrepreneurs with unique high-quality training programs and exchange platforms, the training content is based on "entrepreneurship", supplemented by humanistic history, while focusing on the integration of "cave" culture and entrepreneurship, and focusing on shaping entrepreneurs with humanistic feelings.
He served as the chief planner of the TV series "Hanzi in Northern Shaanxi" and wrote lyrics for folk songs in northern Shaanxi. His father was the "bright voice" of northern Shaanxi folk songs, liked to sing, and liked to plant trees. When Zhang Weiying gave a lesson to his classmates at Peking University, he would also use the apricot tree in front of his house as an example. Several times "in trouble", Zhang Weiying's father knew. He once said that I would not get into trouble for the sake of my father who lived past a hundred years!
▲ Zhang Weiying and his father
At the inaugural meeting of the Beijing Wubao Chamber of Commerce in 2015, Zhang Weiying wrote lyrics for "The People Who Drive The Spirits of The Animals in Beijing", and the lyrics were earnest and sincere:
Born in cave dwellings and grown up by the Yellow River;
Facing the loess with its back to the sky, the ancestors have been thousands of years,
My parents are farmers, but I have a restless heart;
Went south and north to make money, and now I'm a businessman,
The loess slope pierces my roots, and the earthen cave holds my soul;
How many years it has been floating outside, and it can't wash away the yellow dust on the body.
Looking at the clouds in the sky, thinking of the relatives of the hometown;
No matter how many years he has been in Beijing, he is still a person who drives animals...
Zhang Weiying has a passage that may represent his character:
I speak more directly and can say whatever I want. Some people who think they are politically mature are not necessarily really mature. In 1989, Zhang Weiying went to visit one of his leaders, who said to him: "Weiying, you are all right, but there is a problem with one thing." He said, "What's the problem?" "You're politically immature." I said, "Thank you Old Chen, I will definitely pay attention to it in the future." What does it mean to be politically immature? The so-called political maturity means seeing people and talking about people, and seeing ghosts and talking about ghosts. That's how I understood it, but I kept going, including going to Oxford to go to university.
Zhang Weiying said: "For me, reading, thinking, writing, speaking, teaching is what I do best. He wrote a lot of articles about his Yulin friends, such as "atypical official" Wang Liu, village director Huo Dongzheng, his classmate Tian Feng, and commune secretary Cao Zhiqin...