In the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese sports had begun to lead the world, and Zhuang Zedong, a Chinese table tennis athlete, was one of the leaders.
It can be said that from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s to the early 1980s, Zhuang Zedong led the Chinese sports and even diplomatic circles for 20 years.
However, it is such a rare sports star, after knowing that he will soon die, he indifferently asked himself not to engage in a farewell ceremony and not to hold any memorial service after he left.
Farewell ceremony of Zhuang Zedong's body
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > generation of Tianjiao led the world table tennis for 20 years</h1>
Zhuang Zedong was born in Niqu Lane, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, which is known as a paradise on earth, and his grandfather was once a Yangzhou pen official, and now he is a military staff officer.
Later, after Zhuang Zedong's grandfather retired, in order to earn money to support the family, his father Zhuang Tishen taught at Cangjie Middle School, which can only be regarded as being able to support the family.
This Cangjie Middle School is a private school, founded by Hartung, a Jew known as the "richest man in the Far East". It is also a coincidence that on the way to work on this day, Zhuang Tishen inadvertently picked up a horse ticket in the middle of the road, probably like the current lottery. Unexpectedly, the next day when the lottery was drawn, the horse ticket that Zhuang Tishen picked up actually won the first prize.
It is said that although This Hartung is a foreigner, he is also very superstitious. In his opinion, Zhuang Tishen's winning the lottery shows that this person is a blessed general, although there will be no great achievements in his generation, but Zhuang Tishen's descendants will definitely have the fate of The Champion.
Zhuang Zedong
The Jews always acted on their own, so Hartung gave his adopted daughter Luo Fuzhen to Zhuang Tishen. Not only that, Hartung even helped the horse to send a ride, and enthusiastically bought a dowry for Luo Fuzhen in Beijing, which was not cheap, and it was actually an old residence of a royal palace in the former Qing Dynasty.
This is what later people called "Beijing Hartung Garden", which shows the importance of Hartung to Zhuang Tishen and his wife.
It's just that man is not counted by heaven. Although Zhuang Tishen and his wife were very affectionate after marriage, they were helpless in terms of heirs. Zhuang Tishen and Luo Fuzhen had three pregnancies, and there were also a man and two women, but both unfortunately died.
Also in order to continue the Zhuang family's incense, perhaps to fulfill Hartung's prophecy, zhuang Tishen married Lei Zhongru as a partial house in Yangzhou. If Lei Zhong lived up to the expectations of the public, he gave birth to a man and a woman for Zhuang Tishen. This boy is Zhuang Zedong, a generation of famous players who later became famous in the world table tennis world.
Perhaps out of hobby, perhaps out of talent, Zhuang Zedong has been very passionate about table tennis since he was a child, and at the age of 14, he was admitted to the Beijing Children's Palace Amateur Sports School, specializing in table tennis skills.
Two years later, in 1957, Zhuang Zedong was selected for the Beijing Table Tennis Team, and participated in the national competition in the same year, which was also a brilliant debut.
It was this time that Zhuang Zedong won the mixed doubles championship, which began his magnificent and legendary table tennis career.
Sometimes acquired effort is important, but there's no denying that innate genes are sometimes more positive than effort. In Zhuang Zedong's career, we once again experienced such a magical rhythm.
Since 1959, Zhuang Zedong has begun a journey full of blood. First selected for the national youth team, or in this year, at the Scandinavian International Table Tennis Competition, Zhuang Zedong won the men's singles championship and became the men's team and men's doubles trinity champion.
In 1961, Zhuang Zedong lived up to expectations and became the main player of the Chinese table tennis team. In particular, he participated in the 26th, 27th, 28th and World Table Tennis Championships in five years, becoming the men's singles champion of this event for three consecutive times.
At that time, Zhuang Zedong was able to win three consecutive championships at the World Table Tennis Championships, and Zhuang Zedong was the first person in China.
Not only that, Zhuang Zedong also won the men's doubles championship at the 28th World Championships.
Zhuang Zedong is guiding the children
In the domestic arena, Zhuang Zedong also achieved remarkable results.
Not only did it set a three-time national table tennis championship in men's singles, but even in the national team, it was a three-game triple crown, especially in more than 100 games without a single defeat, which was a new record at the time.
In the year of 1961-1971, Zhuang Zedong won more championship titles than all his teammates combined, a record that no one has been able to break.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > the legendary ball turns the big ball</h1>
Zhuang Zedong is undoubtedly a legend in the world table tennis arena, but also a milestone in the history of Chinese sports, and even a topic that cannot be avoided in the Chinese sports industry.
In fact, Zhuang Zedong's contribution to China and even the world table tennis is far more than this, fundamentally speaking, it is also one of the reasons why he was in a more embarrassing situation later.
It all starts with zhuang Zedong's friendship with Cohen, an American table tennis player.
Zhuang Zedong shook hands with Cohen
The acquaintance with Cohen was a misunderstanding at all, and even the accident component was very large.
To put it simply, zhuang Zedong in the Japanese event, because the American table tennis player Cohen got on the wrong car, the yin and yang mistakenly came to the Chinese team's special car. This one came up to see, and no one knew, so he had to awkwardly quit.
Probably Zhuang Zedong wanted to comfort Cohen, so he took the initiative to come forward to talk and gave Cohen a souvenir of his own red panda to appease the impetuous heart of the American team member.
Because there was no diplomatic relationship between China and the United States at that time, Cohen's recklessness may bring trouble to himself.
Cohen
Of course, Cohen still has an impression of Zhuang Zedong, after all, this is the gold lord who has won the championship for the second consecutive time.
For Zhuang Zedong's initiative to show kindness, Cohen also felt empathy, so he gave Zhuang Zedong a small gift in return, which is a souvenir with Uncle Sam to express his gratitude.
For Zhuang Zedong's contribution to the Chinese table tennis arena and his influence on the world table tennis world, the Economic Daily at the time gave a long report, which also showed a small episode of Zhuang Zedong's encounter with the American player Cohen.
Japanese media reported
There is a way for laymen to see the bustle, and insiders to see the doorway.
This long report was also seen by Premier Zhou, who immediately presented the newspaper to Chairman Mao for reading. Chairman Mao saw this newspaper and immediately called the premier to come and discuss important matters.
In fact, at that time, the international situation was fickle. The gap between China and the Soviet Union is getting bigger and bigger, and even once it was already a sword, and the Treasure Island incident also occurred during this period. In view of this change in the current situation, on the one hand, China urgently needs to solve the problem of Sino-Soviet confrontation.
On the other hand, in order to contain the scorching pressure of the Soviet Union, the United States also has the desire to ease relations with China. The crux of the matter is how to open the current impasse, for China and the United States, there must be a point of convergence in order to be able to sit together naturally.
Premier Zhou received Zhuang Zedong
So it was very natural for Zhuang Zedong to invite Cohen to convey it, and Chinese table tennis invited the American team to play.
For the football thrown by China, Nixon, who was far away from the ocean, could not ask for it. So the American table tennis team came to China, which not only opened up the deep integration of table tennis players of the two countries, but also broke the solid ice between China and the United States that has not been in contact with each other for decades.
Cohen visits China
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > Zhuang Zedong's sad old age</h1>
"Sai Weng lost his horse, and he knew that it was not a blessing", which is a classic from China, and now it is extremely appropriate to describe Zhuang Zedong's future life. In fact, Zhuang Zedong is also very sober, and the reason why Chinese table tennis has become a 'chess piece' of the national diplomatic strategy is accidental and inevitable.
On the one hand, the inevitability of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States is particularly prominent. And table tennis is only an accidental factor, especially the interaction with Cohen, which is even more accidental.
On the other hand, ping-pong diplomacy is not only its own glory, but also the glory of China's table tennis industry. As for Chairman Mao's praise for his good playing of the ball and his ability to handle diplomacy and political acumen, Zhuang Zedong only dared to admit the first point.
With Zhuang Zedong leading the Chinese table tennis delegation back to the United States, he was received by then-US President Richard Nixon. All this political capital has pushed Zhuang Zedong into the whirlpool of public opinion in China at that time, although this is not the life Zhuang Zedong wants.
Zhuang Zedong led the Chinese table tennis delegation to visit the United States
Speaking of Zhuang Zedong's second wife, in fact, Sasaki is a native Chinese except that he is Japanese.
This iron fan of Zhuang Zedong was born in northeast China and has admired Zhuang Zedong infinitely since childhood. Even after marriage, Atsuko Sasaki always honored her husband as "Mr. Chuang".
However, what makes people feel depressed is that sasaki's pursuit of Zhuang Zedong's time node is very wrong, and it can be said that this stage is the most frustrated period of Zhuang Zedong. However, Sasaki has no complaints or regrets, and has an iron heart to follow Zhuang Zedong.
So the once proud and beautiful woman of Japan turned into a housewife and lived the life of the people of Beijing Hutong with Zhuang Zedong.
Atsuko Sasaki
Later, Zhuang Zedong, a former hero, spent several years in Shanxi in a lonely life that is difficult to look back on. Later, under the care of Deng Xiaoping, Zhuang Zedong returned to Beijing from Shanxi, implemented relevant policies, and finally started his old business, first as a physical education teacher at a self-conditioned school in Beijing, and later returned to Beijing Children's Palace as a table tennis coach.
At that time, the world champion who had once been in the table tennis arena was very depressed. In the ancestral courtyard in Beijing, the Zhuang Zedong family lives with the old mother.
The economic situation is even more miserable, relying on the meager income of dozens of yuan for the children to play table tennis sparring, in addition to the three world champions who cost 30 yuan per month.
At this time, Zhuang Zedong's expenditure was to give the old mother one-third of the living expenses and one-third of the child's maintenance, while he only had 30 yuan left to barely survive.
Sho Zedong and Sasaki
Fortunately, during this very difficult period, Sasaki still shared the honor and disgrace of Zhuang Zedong, so that it was later called the happiness star of Zhuang Zedong's later years.
The path of life is actually a circle, and the end and the beginning are actually coinciding. This is like Zhuang Zedong, who started at the Beijing Children's Palace, and after more than thirty years, Zhuang Zedong, who was in his fifties, returned to the Beijing Children's Palace as a table tennis coach.
Despite decades of twists and turns, it is gratifying that Zhuang Zedong has not lost himself and still finds his self-confidence and the value of existence in his favorite career.
At the same time as a sparring partner in the Children's Palace, Zhuang Zedong began to reminisce about life and remember the ups and downs of these decades. The former world champion began to write autobiographical memoirs, regaining the feelings of life and work.
In 1986, "Breaking and Creating" was successfully published, and in this 350,000-word book, Zhuang Zedong summed up a set of technical training methods for table tennis, and there were more than 100,000 words of competition experience.
To this day, this "Breaking and Creating" is still revered as a rare treasure book for table tennis coaches.
In the summer of 2008, Zhuang Zedong unfortunately suffered from advanced rectal cancer, and unfortunately, the cancer cells spread immediately after surgical removal. In the face of the impending death, Zhuang Zedong seemed very calm.
But think about it, his life can be described as a big ups and downs, and even some waves. It's just that there are more bumps than smoothness, and hardships are better than happiness. Therefore, for life and death, Zhuang Zedong looked very thin.
Life is like a dream, even if it slides to the bottom of life, in Zhuang Zedong's view, as long as there is no despair, there is hope. Even in the most desperate times, principles and beliefs must not be lost.
Although Zhuang Zedong was once the director of the State Sports Commission, the property under his name is only the old house in Beijing inherited from his ancestors.
After retiring, Zhuang Zedong's main source of livelihood is a pension of 3,000 yuan per month. However, during the Wenchuan earthquake, Zhuang Zedong donated 200,000 yuan to the disaster area.
In fact, fundamentally, the athlete is more like a warrior, and the meaning of life is all about fighting.
Even if he couldn't compete, Zhuang Zedong still chose to learn calligraphy to enrich himself, even though he knew that he was already terminally ill.
During this time, Zhuang Zedong worshiped the great calligrapher Fan Zeng as a teacher and insisted on practicing brush writing for five or six hours a day. Later, Zhuang Zedong actually launched his own calligraphy exhibition at the National Art Museum of China, which was well received by the industry, and this move once again interpreted the new legendary story of Zhuang Zedong.
In the last five years of terminal cancer, Zhuang Zedong has experienced 20 extremely complex surgeries and more than 20 painful chemotherapy processes, but sooner or later, Zhuang Zedong's vital signs have entered the countdown.
While his mind was still clear, Zhuang Zedong drafted his will.
Zhuang Zedong calligraphy
Between the lines of this dying instruction, Zhuang Zedong expressed his gratitude to the motherland and the country for cultivating himself. In particular, I would like to thank the team at all times for helping me, and thank my friends and family for their support.
Finally, Zhuang Zedong specifically requested that for his own death, "Don't bother everyone anymore, don't say goodbye to the body." ”
On February 28, 2013, this was the beginning of a new year. And Zhuang Zedong, a former table tennis star, a former triple champion, and a hero who once turned a small ball and turned a big ball, bid farewell to life in Beijing Hospital.
Fortunately, Zhuang Zedong's two wives were snuggled up in front of his sickbed, in addition to their peers and relatives and friends who had been friends for many years, which may be the only relief zhuang Zedong had before his death.
Resources:
"Zhuang Zedong Self-Description" Zhuang Zedong
"Breaking and Creating" Zhuang Zedong
"The Motherland in My Heart" Zhuang Zedong