Author | Pick up the suicide note
Source | Confucius old book network dynamics
There is a clip in the TV series "The Age of Awakening": In the Peking University classroom, Chen Junda, Deng Zhongxia, and mao Zedong, an auditor, discussed "what constitutes a qualified journalist", and Mao Zedong replied: To be an excellent journalist is more important than knowledge, people's thoughts, positions and professional ethics, and the pursuit of truth is a journalist's vital character and conscience.
This is the professional ethics adhered to by Mr. Shao Piaoping, the forerunner of China's journalism.
In the autumn of 2017, I visited Liulichang Hutong with my friends, stumbled to Wei Dye Hutong, and looked at a two-story small building in the distance, the building cabinet bureau was relatively old, but I saw that there was faint handwriting on the lintel, and I carefully identified it as the three big characters of "Beijing News Pavilion". The whole building looked very shabby, with wires running through the gate, clutter piled up inside the door, and there were obviously residents in the courtyard. This is a "large courtyard" with more than 30 households, with an average use area of only more than 10 square meters per house, but it is crowded with more than 100 residents, and it is really worrying that such a historic building is still inhabited.
In the summer heat, I stumbled into Wei Dye Hutong and was delighted to find that the Beijing News Pavilion had a new look and had become a patriotic education base. Originally, under the management of Xuanfang Group, this old building has been quite intact, and in 2020, the government began to repair it, properly resettling the residents inside and restoring its Republican style. The narrow gray building was cleaned neatly and solemnly, and the two colonnades were tall and upright, showing the spirit. Entering the gate of the Beijing News Hall, but seeing that the shadow wall at the entrance of the courtyard was engraved with the four big characters of "Iron Shoulder Hot Hand", Mr. Shao Piaoping wrote with a stroke of his pen ,"Iron Shoulder Bears Morality, Hot Hand Writes Articles", which is hung on the wall of the newspaper office for self-encouragement and encouragement of colleagues.
In October 1918, Shao Piaoping founded the Beijing Daily at No. 38 Sanyanjing in Beijing, which is a publication without party or faction, advocating freedom of speech and giving voice to the people. In the first year of its establishment, there are newspaper offices in the northern provinces, which shows the large circulation and wide influence. In the same year, Shao Piaoping, Cai Yuanpei and Xu Baohuang founded the Journalism Research Association at Peking University, whose purpose was to "study journalism theory, increase journalistic experience, and seek the development of journalism".
As early as 1911, Shao Piaoping ran the "Hanmin Daily" in Hangzhou, and was later arrested and imprisoned three times for opposing Yuan Shikai. In 1914, he went to Japan to study, founded the Tokyo News Agency, and published articles to domestic newspapers. In 1916, he returned to China and served as the commissioner of the Shanghai "Declaration" in Beijing, and wrote more than 200 "Beijing Special Correspondence", which was well received by readers. In July 1916, he founded a news compilation agency in Beijing and published articles to domestic newspapers and foreign correspondents in Beijing. Due to the repeated publications of the Beijing Daily exposing and criticizing the corruption of the government, in August 1918, she was shut down by the Anfu government, and Shao Piaoping fled to Japan.
Such an experience doomed Shao Piaoping to eventually become a famous newspaperman.
In 1920, Cao Kun and Wu Peifu came to power, Shao Piaoping returned from Japan, and on September 17 of the same year, the "Beijing News" resumed publication, and the site was moved to Wei Dian Hutong, which is today's patriotic education base - The Beijing News Pavilion. It is a two-storey wooden building facing east and west, with seven rooms, and the façade is decorated with Western-style brick pilasters, with a classical colonnade at the gate and a sightseeing balcony above the entrance. Directly above the door of the building is a plaque of Shao Piaoping's handwritten "Beijing News Pavilion". The east side is adjacent to Shao Piaoping's former residence, which is a two-entry courtyard with north facing south. There are three main rooms and three boxes in the first courtyard; five main rooms in the second courtyard, and one room in the east and west wings, with a compact layout.
When she was in exile in Japan, Shao Piaoping wrote "A Comprehensive Study of the Social Trends of Various Countries" and "Studies on New Russia", introducing Marxist theory and praising the October Revolution in Russia, which was in line with Mr. Li Dazhao's ideological concepts. After returning to Beijing, Shao Piaoping made contact with Li Dazhao, Deng Zhongxia, Luo Zhanglong, and others, supported the activities they organized, and launched the "Lenin Special Issue" and the "Marx Commemorative Special Issue" in the Beijing Daily.
In 1925, he was introduced by Li Dazhao and Luo Zhanglong to secretly join the Communist Party of China.
After the "March 18" massacre in 1926, Shao Piaoping rushed to various places to interview, and continuously reported more than 110 articles such as various news, comments, telegrams, and articles, which caused strong repercussions in society. Because the Beijing News was concerned about the revelation of the facts, its related reports angered the warlord, who was already on the authorities' wanted list.
Shao Piaoping already had a premonition of the dangerous situation, and just in case, he temporarily avoided the Soviet embassy in Dongjiaomin Lane. On April 24, under the deception of Zhang Hanju, the director of the Mainland Daily, who had been bribed by the warlords, Shao Piaoping was surrounded and arrested by the detective team, and that night the investigation team surrounded the Beijing News House, and the Beijing News was sealed.
In the early morning of April 26, the police department did not follow the legal procedures for a public trial, so it secretly sentenced Shao Piaoping to death on the charge of "colluding with Red Russia and publicizing Redization" and was taken to the Tianqiao execution ground. Before his execution, he looked at himself calmly and bowed his hand to the prison officer and said, "You are exempt from sending!" He looked up at the dawn and laughed, calmly and righteously, and did not betray the secrets of the party organization until his death.
Climbing up the old wooden staircase, the first room on the right hand on the second floor is Shao Piaoping's president's office. Walking indoors, the years are long, the time passes, as if seeing his figure, or concentrating on meditation, or writing a book. The two courtyards attached to the Beijing News Pavilion were the places where Shao Piaoping and her family lived, and the summer sun shone into the living room, as if Shao Piaoping was still sitting on that chair reading and reading newspapers.
