There is a clip in the hit drama "The Age of Awakening": Li Dazhao applied for a lecture certificate for Shao Piaoping's journalism lecture meeting for Mao Zedong, who was working in the library of Peking University at the time. At a meeting, Mao Zedong, Deng Zhongxia, and Chen Junda discussed "what constitutes a qualified journalist." Mao Zedong replied: To be a good journalist, more important than knowledge is people's thinking, position and professional ethics, and the pursuit of truth is a journalist's vital character and conscience.
This is exactly what Shao Piaoping has always insisted on news. In his view, journalism is different from other undertakings, it is a "social public organ" and a "representative of national public opinion", and when the interests of the state and the nation are taken as the standard of right and wrong, it reflects the demands of the people.
Red bricks, red tiles, red ledges, at 29 Wusi Avenue, Dongcheng District, Beijing, a north-facing building reopened in June, quietly telling tourists about the red smoke clouds of history.
On the evening of May 3, 1919, the place, which came to be known as the Red House of Peking University, was brightly lit and crowded. A young man with round glasses and a Sven suit was the first to step up to the stage and begin to speak. From reporting on the history and reasons of China's diplomatic failure at the Paris Peace Conference to denouncing the ugliness of the Western powers and the weakness of the Beiyang government, his indignation overflowed into words.
More than 100 years ago, the land of China was full of wind and rain and devastation. The humiliated Chinese nation stands at a critical juncture of life and death, and he wants to awaken the people with words and declarations.
He shouted to more than a thousand young faces in the audience: Now that the national crisis is linked to one outbreak, and we wait in silence, the nation will have no way to save it, only to perish... We should stand up and mobilize the students of all schools to save lives and fight!
Seventeen hours later, the May Fourth Movement, which rewrote the history of the Chinese nation, broke out. The speaker and burner on the rostrum was Shao Piaoping, a famous newspaperman of the Republic of China, Mao Zedong's "teacher", and later a secret member of the Communist Party of China.
Shao Piaoping. Profile picture
Why did Shao Piaoping, who is known as the "iron shoulder hot hand", become a "propagandist"? How did the generation of newspapermen a hundred years ago use the pen as a gun to interpret the red faith with their lives?
"Whenever I encounter major domestic and foreign affairs, I feel the earliest, and the interview must be worked"
Before founding the Beijing Daily, Shao Piaoping was active in the Beijing press as a patriot.
In 1916, Shao Wasing was stationed in Beijing by Shi Liangcai, the director of the Shanghai "Declaration", and fought as a "commissioner" of Chinese news in the center of reactionary warlord rule.
Shao Piaoping is especially good at collecting key news clues in private conversations and meetings that ordinary people cannot break through. Once, Shao Piaoping heard that Duan Qirui had convened a meeting of important bureaucrats in the cabinet in order to borrow huge foreign debts from France, and also invited the French envoy to China to attend. Shao Piaoping was well aware of Duan Qirui's government officials and guards' admiring psychology, and he slightly disguised himself and followed the French minister into the venue, all the way unimpeded. After the meeting began, Shao Piaoping sat in the lounge outside the conference room, pretending to be waiting for the minister to arrive, and listened to the conversation in the conference room. The next day, the scandal in Duan Qirui's government was reported.
In the face of major right and wrong and key insiders, even if they may lead to the disaster of killing, he also resolutely reported. At the beginning of 1917, the contradictions between the government and the court intensified. Duan Qirui ran away from Tianjin and coerced the presidential palace, in exchange for Li Yuanhong's compromise, and Duan Qirui returned to Beijing.
Shao Piaoping heard the news in the middle of the night and immediately rushed to the Beijing Station, but she did not expect to pounce, so she changed cars and went straight to duan's official residence. When he got to the door, he took out a stack of banknotes, took out half of it and said to the doorman: "You just need to report, whether Premier Duan sees me or not, the remaining half is also yours." ”
Duan Qirui, who was full of pride, was waiting for an opportunity to talk, and immediately and happily met with Shao Piaoping, and the two chatted freely until 3 a.m.
In this regard, the newspaperman Zhang Jiluan praised Shao Piaoping's keen sense of news and unique interview skills: "Whenever I encounter major domestic and foreign affairs, I feel the earliest, and the interview must be worked." The great official of Beijing, who had evil views of the news reporters, piaoping alone could make him have to see, see and have to talk, knock on the side, and the number of words had already been grasped. ”
During the period of the eerie warlords, the 32-year-old Shao Piaoping felt bitterly that foreign news agencies "arbitrarily influenced the political news of our country" and that there was no "organ for the people of the whole country to express their opinions" in the vast country, so she resigned from the post of special correspondent of the "Declaration" in Beijing and founded the "Beijing Daily."
Influenced by Shao Piaoping, the Beijing Daily once represented a new trend, not only paying attention to the timeliness of news, but also making fruitful improvements in news interviews, layout settings, printing and distribution. More importantly, "Beijing Daily" has the courage to face the social reality caused by the warlord melee, and has won social prestige with the sharp brushstrokes of the times.
Only a few days after the opening of the newspaper, Shao Piaoping had a series of articles such as "Investigating and Handling Wu Peifu", "Warriors and Politicians", "Paying Tribute to So-and-So factions", and "Bandits and Overseers" appeared in the newspaper one after another. This centralized publication method strengthens the content of the report, lengthens the time of people's attention to the topic, and forms a strong public opinion influence.
In just one month of running the newspaper, the circulation of the Beijing Daily increased from 300 to 4,000 copies, with a maximum daily circulation of 6,000 copies, making it the largest circulation newspaper in Beijing at that time. For a time, the Beijing News Pavilion became a revolutionary public opinion position that exposed political corruption, shouted for the people, and made the reactionary warlords fearful.
This is the former site of the Beijing News Pavilion (Shao Piaoping's former residence) photographed on June 1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chenlin
Shao Piaoping hung the handwritten words "Iron Shoulder Hot Hand" in the editorial department, encouraging herself and her colleagues to shoulder social responsibility. In the moment of chaos and external and internal troubles, he always firmly believed that "iron shoulders are hot, and the pen is as fast as a knife" to save China.
After 60 years of sacrifice, his "secret identity" surfaced
No. 30 Wei dye hutong in Xicheng District, Beijing, a blue-gray two-story brick building that combines Chinese and Western styles, and the "Beijing News Pavilion" with Shao Piaoping's handwritten handwriting still remains on the lintel. After two years of retreat and repairs, in June this year, the renovated Beijing News Museum reopened, and groups of people came here with admiration.
Exterior view of the former site of the Beijing News Pavilion (Shao Piaoping's former residence) taken on June 24. Photo by Peng Ziyang, Xinhua News Agency
Standing at the south entrance of Wei Dye Hutong, Shao Piaoping's grandson Shao Cheng told reporters that on April 24, 1926, his grandfather was arrested here.
After Shao Piaoping was escorted to the police station, the Beijing News Office was surrounded. The investigation team found from the Beijing News Museum the letter of appointment that Feng Yuxiang had hired as a military adviser, the codebook of military telegrams, and so-called evidence of his "propaganda of redization," as physical evidence of Shao Piaoping's crime.
Just as Shao Piaoping's relatives and friends were looking for a way to rescue him, the General Law Enforcement Department of the Allied Forces hastily raised Shao Piaoping to the Supervision and Law Enforcement Department, tortured and interrogated, and broke his tibia, and secretly sentenced him to death.
At the Kyopaokan, a calendar and a stopping grandfather clock froze the time at 4 a.m. on April 26, 1926. Before dawn, a dull gunshot pierced the night sky of Beijing. Shao Piaoping, who was escorted to the East Execution Ground of Tianqiao, martyred the country with her body, ending his short but brilliant life.
Shao Cheng said that before the execution, Shao Piaoping looked calm. He bowed his hand to the prison officer and said, "You are exempt from sending," and then laughed a few times, generously and righteously.
A year later, in April 1927, his party introduction, Li Dazhao, the forerunner of the prophecy that "if you look at the world in the future, it will be the world of the Red Flag", died on the gallows at the age of 38.
On June 1, students who came to visit Li Dazhao's former residence presented flowers for Li Dazhao's statue. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chenlin
In April 1949, on the eve of the founding of New China, Mao Zedong personally approved the posthumous recognition of Shao Piaoping as a revolutionary martyr.
Shao Cheng said: "I think my grandfather is using the Beijing Daily as a tool of public opinion in a special way to publicize Marxism and the communist party's policy ideas and awaken the people. ”
Because of Shao Piaoping's secret identity during his lifetime, he sacrificed a full 60 years before he was officially recognized as a member of the Communist Party of China. "I think my grandfather deserves this glorious title." Shao Cheng said.
Lin Qimo, an associate researcher at the Research Office of the History Museum of Peking University, said: "Shao Piaoping's death is to save the dying Chinese nation, and to achieve national rejuvenation can be said to be heavier than Mount Tai. His wind and bones and bloodiness, his mission of using his pen as a gun and sacrificing his life and forgetting his death, are not only the integrity of a Republic of China newspaperman, but also the temperament of a Communist Party member. ”
He accepted a "secret mission"
Nearly a hundred years later, when visiting the old site of the Beijing News Museum, Wu Qiancheng, a student of Peking University, had a thought in his mind: "A hundred years ago, what was Mr. Shao doing here?" Do you receive visitors in the hall, or do you write a book in front of a desk? ”
The former site of the Beijing News Pavilion (Shao Piaoping's former residence) photographed on June 1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chenlin
Wu Wencheng believes that Shao Piaoping's ability to make outstanding contributions is inseparable from his diligent study and practice, "He has the honor to link his ability and expertise with the needs of the nation and become a symbol worth remembering in the history of the Chinese nation." We should inherit his legacy and spirit."
From Hangzhou's "Hanmin Daily" to the "Declaration" special correspondent in Beijing, to the independent establishment of the "Beijing Daily", from the Xinhai Revolution, the May Fourth Movement, to the May Thirtieth Massacre, the March 18 Massacre... In the industry for more than ten years, Shao Piaoping used the pen as a gun, needled the evils of the times, and ruthlessly attacked and lashed out at ugly phenomena, and Feng Yuxiang praised him for "Piaoping's pen against 100,000 troops."
His voice pierced through the darkness of the times, and his commentaries on correspondence became powerful testimonies of that era.
At noon on May 4, 1919, Peking University students gathered on the road in front of the Red Chamber and went to Tiananmen Square in a mighty way to meet with students from various colleges and universities in Beijing, and the earth-shaking May Fourth Movement began. This road is now May Fourth Avenue.
On June 29, visitors took a group photo outside the Red House of Peking University. Photo by Ju Huanzong, Xinhua News Agency
"Grandfather was very concerned about the dynamics of the Paris Peace Conference, and pointed out sharply that this so-called 'peace conference' manipulated by the imperialist powers will only plunge China into deep trouble. On April 30, 1919, he published a commentary entitled "Drawing attention to fundamental diplomatic problems", calling on the people to seize the fundamentals of national salvation and abrogate all coerced treaties between China and Japan. Shao Cheng said that as a tutor of the Peking University Journalism Research Association and an advisor of the "National" magazine at that time, Shao Piaoping was inextricably linked with many student leaders and progressive students, and always supported the students' progressive ideas. Therefore, it is inevitable that Shao Piaoping will be deeply involved in this patriotic movement.
After the outbreak of the May Thirtieth Movement in 1925, the anti-imperialist patriotic movement became another nationwide climax of anti-imperialist struggle after the May Fourth Movement. Shao Piaoping and the Beijing Daily had a profound impact on this.
The next day, Shao Piaoping reported on the massacre, and for the next two months, the Beijing Daily often published the progress of the May Thirtieth Movement throughout the country in full page. Shao Piaoping also continuously published commentaries in the "Beijing Daily," suggesting that "the people of our country should unanimously use uncooperative means to resign from all posts, big or small, and persist to the end, so as to promote the consciousness of outsiders." In this movement, Shao Piaoping devoted almost all her efforts to the anti-imperialist struggle of the Chinese people. It is said that at that time, the Beijing News Pavilion had been printing secret documents for the Communist Party organization, and for this reason, Shao Piaoping also set up a secret printing room in her own printing factory.
However, while promoting the awakening of the people's intellect, his remarks also laid a tragic foreshadowing for his own fate.
After the February 7 Massacre in 1923, the CCP's power in the north was greatly weakened, and the revolution fell into a low ebb. In order to meet the arrival of the climax of the Great Revolution, the CCP specifically discussed topics such as "absorbing a large number of revolutionary intellectuals." In July 1924, the Beijing Youth League Prefectural Committee stopped its activities and carried out rectification, re-registered the members of the Regiment, and after resuming its work in November of the same year, He Shu, Luo Zhanglong, Fan Hongjie and others successively served as secretaries or members of the prefectural party committee. Most of them are students of Peking University and other schools, and some are still students of Shao Piaoping. At this time, the understanding between Shao Piaoping and Li Dazhao, Gao Junyu, Chen Qiaonian, Zhao Shiyan, and other important figures in the northern region of the CPC was deepening, and they were getting closer and closer to the Communist Party organization.
In September 1924, the Second Zhifeng War broke out. Soon, Feng Yuxiang suddenly defected, launched a coup d'état in Beijing, put Cao Kun under house arrest and bribery of the election of president, sent a telegram calling for peace, and invited Sun Yat-sen and others to go north. Shao Piaoping paid great attention to this, and the Beijing News especially helped it. Feng Yuxiang lamented the lack of political talent within the Overseer and secretly looked for someone who could cooperate with him. Just at this moment, Shao Piaoping entered his sight, and Feng Yuxiang personally hired him as a senior consultant.
Shao joined the Communist Party of China in 1925, although his identity was unknown to the outside world at the time. One of his introducers to the party was Li Dazhao, one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China. But unlike ordinary party members, he is a secret party member – maintaining only one-line contact with individual leaders and generally not participating in local party activities. This special party member was given a "special task": first, propaganda, and second, intelligence.
Tourists visit the former site of the Beijing News Pavilion (Shao Piaoping's former residence) on June 24. Photo by Peng Ziyang, Xinhua News Agency
The turmoil of the times once again pushed Shao Piaoping to the cusp of the storm. On March 18, 1926, people from all walks of life in Beijing gathered in front of Tiananmen Square to protest the unreasonable demand of the Japanese side to remove the defense of Jingu and went to petition in front of the executive government. Unexpectedly, the executive government guards opened fire and chased and slashed the people with large knives and iron rods, killing 47 people and injuring nearly 200 people - Lu Xun said that "the darkest day since the Republic of China" came.
After the tragedy, the Beijing Daily quickly stepped in and reported in two full-page reports for two consecutive days. Shao Piaoping rushed to various places for interviews and used pungent words to show off the "list of achievements" of Duan Qirui's government: Taking the State Council as a small battlefield, there were no false bullets, and the corpses were strewn across the courtyard, and she also issued an appeal to "arrest the most important criminals, try them in public, and make the criminals fall to the law," pointing directly at Duan Qirui, the culprit.
In the following 12 days, The Beijing News published 113 relevant news, comments, telegrams, and articles, an average of 9 per day. Shao Piaoping specially published an article entitled "The Cockroach Thief who Cursed Mankind" to "awaken all parties and factions to rise up in unison to curry favor with thieves."
On April 15, 1926, the Nationalist Army was defeated and the Fengzhi warlords entered Beijing, and Zhang Zuolin threatened to kill Shao Piaoping.
The reason why Zhang Zuolin must get rid of Shao Piaoping is from a year ago. Shao Piaoping had indirectly contributed to the defection of the Siberian Tigers to Guo Songling, instigated the Luanzhou Incident, and joined forces with Feng Yuxiang to attack Zhang Zuolin. Shao Piaoping continued to publish reports and commentaries, counting Zhang Zuolin's crimes and calling him "a tyrant of the first life who has left the crowd and rebelled."
When the newspaper reached the front, the military was shaken. Zhang Zuolin panicked and immediately sent 300,000 yuan to Shao Piaoping in an attempt to block his mouth. At that time, a family of four in Beijing could maintain a basic life for only 12 yuan a month. After Receiving the remittance, Shao Piaoping immediately returned it, saying: "Zhang Zuolin paid 300,000 yuan to buy me, I don't want this kind of money, I don't want to shoot me!" ”
Shao Piaoping understood that this time Zhang Zuolin's troops were in the city, and she was doomed. Several warlords have conspired to put him in a desperate situation.
When the stars shine, the "Awakening Heavenly Group" gathers here
On the "sleepless night" before May Fourth, why did the president of the newspaper appear at the patriotic rally of Peking University students and give a speech first?
It is not difficult to find the answer in the historical data. One of Shao Piaoping's identities in the rally is that she is a "lecturer at the Peking University Journalism Research Association". Before the rally, Shao Piaoping came to Classroom 34 or Classroom 16 of the Red House on the Beach every Sunday to teach interview classes, which has been more than half a year. He is not from Peking University, but he is very compatible with the spirit of Peking University. Shao Piaoping not only let the seed of truth thrive in her own heart, but also sowed it into the vast world of society.
In the spring of 1918, Shao Piaoping heard that Cai Yuanpei planned to set up a "press lecture meeting" and thought that this would help cultivate talents for the domestic press, so she wrote to Cai Yuanpei to promote this matter. On October 14, the Peking University Journalism Research Association was established, filling the gap in China's journalism education and research.
On June 29, visitors visited the Red House of Peking University. Photo by Ju Huanzong, Xinhua News Agency
Unexpectedly, this research meeting gathered a "circle of friends" with shining stars. Among the first members of the Journalism Research Association, Mao Zedong, Gao Junyu, Tan Pingshan, Luo Zhanglong, etc., all later became early members of the Chinese Communist Party.
At that time, the office of the Journalism Research Association was located in the Daily Journal Office of the Red Building of Peking University, and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 to 9 p.m., all members gathered in the 16th room of the Science Department to listen to lectures, research and deliberations. Shao Piaoping has one or two classes a week, teaching the basics of journalism, the method of collecting news materials, and the cultivation requirements for journalists.
His view of journalism was very early on full of "people's consciousness." At the Journalism Research Association, Shao Piaoping not only taught theoretical research, but also hoped to train a group of capable journalists to report on the sufferings of working people and strike struggles. Therefore, in addition to teaching the basics of journalism, he pays special attention to political, economic and labor reporting. In addition to the lectures, students are also organized to go out to visit and practice in the newspaper hall, encouraging students to get close to society and speak out for the people. In particular, he stressed that journalists should "take character as the first element" and "not deceiving readers as the first creed."
Mao Zedong, who was working in the Peking University Library at the time, was also a member of the Peking University Journalism Research Association. Lin Qimo introduced that the formation of the young Mao Zedong's concept of journalism was closely related to Shao Piaoping. On February 19, 1919, Mao Zedong attended the reorganization meeting of the Journalism Research Association of Peking University and listened to Shao Piaoping's lecture on "The Theory and Practice of Journalism Work", "Mao Zedong visited Shao Piaoping many times and also received economic assistance from Shao." At Peking University, he listened to Shao Piaoping's lectures for several months and was touched and influenced by Shao Piaoping's views that "journalists should uphold justice and are not afraid of sacrifice" and "chivalrous, brave, honest, and diligent". After returning to Changsha, he founded newspapers and periodicals such as the Xiangjiang Review, and his reputation rose to prominence.
In 1936, Mao Zedong talked to the American journalist Snow about his days at Peking University in northern Shaanxi, and still fondly recalled Shao Piaoping: "A person with enthusiastic ideals and excellent qualities." In his later years, he still said: "I am a student of Shao Piaoping." ”
This is the former site of the Beijing News Pavilion (Shao Piaoping's former residence) photographed on June 24. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Zhonghao
The common interest also led to a partnership between Li Dazhao, then director of peking university libraries and professor of economics, and Shao Piaoping. They jointly opposed the "Twenty-One Articles", unveiled one after another, and set off the "Overthrow yuan to protect the country" movement. In the May Fourth Movement, they were both the leaders of public opinion and the direct initiators and supporters of the movement. In the history of the spread of Marxism-Leninism, both of them are the forerunners of the unyielding.
Also closely related to Shao Piaoping was Lu Xun. From 1924 to 1927 alone, Lu Xun published more than 40 essays in the Beijing News Supplement, leaving behind many popular masterpieces such as "So Red" and "Not Gossip". Later, Lu Xun also founded the magazine Mangyuan at the urging of Shao Piaoping. After the March 18 Massacre, Shao Piaoping and Lu Xun even jointly "fought" to profoundly expose and ruthlessly criticize the tyranny of the Duan Qirui government, thus making the "Beijing Daily," the "Beijing Daily Supplement," and "Mangyuan" a strong position for the crusade against the Duan Qirui government. Shao Piaoping, who was "hot with iron shoulders", and Lu Xun, who was "cold with horizontal eyebrows", seemed to have become the main generals in this position.
There is a Lingyun pen in the vertical and horizontal direction. China's modern history, in a sense, is also a history of modern intellectuals using pens as guns to resist power. In the darkness, Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Shao Piaoping... And those progressives who have been lost in the long river of history and have not left their names, have used their own pens to explore the way for the light of this nation.
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph public account
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