Chapter 66 "Guofeng Daily": The story of the newspaper opening the skylight

In the eyes of today's media people, the opening of newspapers should be something that only happened during the Kuomintang rule.At least this is written in the textbooks of news history: During the Kuomintang rule, newspapers had to pass the news censorship of the Kuomintang government, and the news and articles that failed had to be taken down, and the editors did not fill in the news or articles that were removed. , leaving a blank space intentionally as a protest, which is called "opening the skylight".The incident of opening the skylight, which is well known to people today, was related to the Communists. It was the Xinhua Daily run in Chongqing during the Anti-Japanese War. The skylight was forced to be opened because of the Southern Anhui Incident. However, there was not a single word on the skylight. There was a handwritten letter written by Zhou Enlai on it. The first poem: "A strange injustice through the ages, a leaf in the south of the Yangtze River. The same room is fighting, why is it so urgent?"

Indeed, since news censorship only existed during the Kuomintang period, newspapers could only be opened if they failed to pass the censorship.Running a newspaper requires cost. The page, especially for an influential newspaper, is money. If the skylight is left empty, it means that the money will be gone. If it is not a deliberate protest, it will definitely not do this.Before the Kuomintang was in charge, the soldiers in Beiyang probably couldn't control the newspapers.I couldn't bear the scolding anymore, so I sent the police to seal the newspaper.They moved to another place and continued, cursing even more fiercely, and the warriors didn't move at all.The most tyrannical ones, those with beards like Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang, grabbed reporters and beheaded them.It doesn't seem to be very important.The reporter hides in a place where you can't control it. At worst, they enter the concession and continue to swear.This has been a tradition since the late Qing Dynasty. There is a saying in the newspaper industry that the newspaper office is next door to the prison.Back then when Shen Jin was executed with a cane, Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong went to prison, the reputation of the Qing government was badly damaged, and then the Qing government reformed and formulated reporting laws, but it basically had nothing to do with journalists, not only the journalists who hid in the concession, The same is true for newspapermen outside the concession. At most, they will close the newspaper, change their name, and open it in a different place.

When the Kuomintang first came to power, journalists were still used to being tough. Chiang Kai-shek said that he had a million troops.Shi Liangcai, the reporting boss, said that he has more than one million readers.Later, for no reason, Boss Shi encountered a gunshot on Shanghai-Hangzhou Road and was beaten into a sieve.Since then, the newspaper people have behaved, and the news censors have also taken up their posts. Regardless of books and newspapers, if they fail the inspection, they will not be allowed to publish.The reporter occasionally has a temper, so he opens the skylight.Back then, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po both opened skylights, and Xinhua Daily, run by the Communists, also opened skylights.

However, when looking at the matter of opening the skylight, in China, it was actually started by the Kuomintang.In the late Qing Dynasty, the Kuomintang members had many other names, but people called them the Revolutionary Party.The revolutionaries back then, since Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rongqi who ran the "Su Bao", were good at running newspapers.Zhu Zhixin, Hu Hanmin, Wang Jingwei, Dai Jitao, Zhan Dabei in the south, and Chen Bulei, who became Chiang Kai-shek's literary hero, and Yu Youren and Jing Meijiu in the north are all experts.As the Qing government loosened control over the newspaper industry, they ran more and more newspapers.The newspaper has been run at the feet of the emperor. In Beijing, the once famous "Guofeng Daily" was run by the revolutionaries.

At that time, those who ran newspapers were all involved in writing, collecting news, editing, printing, and distribution.The revolutionaries were especially poor and could not afford to hire people.Just a few people, everything is taken care of.If you really can't get any news, you will make up your own "exclusive newsletter", or you will spend all night rushing to fill in a manuscript.The most extreme example is Chen Duxiu (who was also a revolutionary party) when he ran the "Anhui Changhua Newspaper". He took care of everything from writing to publishing by himself, and he was so busy that there were so many lice that fell from his head. At the beginning, "Guofeng Daily" was also such a newspaper. It was often so poor that it couldn't get rid of it, and it needed to be tricked by friends in order to continue its operation. , such as Wu Luzhen, Lan Tianwei, Yan Xishan, etc., all became high-ranking officials in the New Army, and the revolutionaries can fight the autumn wind. Perhaps the sales of the newspapers have improved and they have made more money.Anyway, those who run newspapers are rich.Whether it is writing a manuscript or holding an editorial meeting, they all enter the Eight Great Alleys, where they can call a game, let the beauties accompany them, and talk loudly while chatting.At that time, the revolutionaries had no intention of abstinence. When they were in Japan, they often hung out in brothels.The revolution will be more vigorous if there are alcoholic women.The revolutionaries who run newspapers in Shanghai, as long as they have money in their pockets, all have good school books, Changsan, Yaoer (prostitute rank), in Beijing, they are replaced by Su prostitutes (the best prostitutes in Beijing at that time) from Suzhou).Whether it is writing or editing, I am stuck in "Suxiang" and refuse to come out.

In 1911, the Guangzhou Uprising failed, and the revolutionaries were very dispirited. The newspapers were lifeless for several months, but suddenly the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and everyone suddenly became excited as if they had taken morphine. "Guofeng Daily" immediately published the news in number two, and pushed it out of the number.The police in Beijing of the Qing Dynasty had to intervene and forbid newspapers to publish news related to Wuchang.The next day, "Guofeng Daily" opened a full-page skylight on the front page, and printed only one line: "This newspaper has received a lot of news from Wuchang. Due to police interference, all of them have been cut off. Readers are forgiven." All of a sudden, the capital became more chaotic and panicked.They all thought that the revolutionaries would definitely win and the Qing army would be finished, otherwise how could the whole page be empty.The police had no choice but to beg the newspaper to publish whatever they should, as long as it was not an obvious rumor.So the revolutionaries who ran the newspaper sent a quick telegram from the front to the left, and a message from Wuchang to the right. Between the lines, they were always publicizing the victory of the revolutionaries, and the capital was still in a state of panic.

The skylight of "Guofeng Daily" is too big, and it is fun to open. There is a pictorial in Beijing. For this purpose, a cartoon was drawn. Four people rubbed hemp on it, and one person typed a white board. The following line was written: You How to play a whiteboard?The skylight was turned into a whiteboard.However, no one thought that after more than ten or twenty years, it would be the turn of the KMT to release the blank board.