Chapter 32 The product of high-ranking officials and Hemingway-style "tough guy" education

For a long time, Qin Xiaoying was mistaken for one of the children of high-ranking cadres.The reason for this was his family origin and his close association with this group. Qin Xiaoying was born on September 23, 1948 in a family of senior cadres.His father joined the Communist Party in his early years, experienced the baptism of war and artillery, and made great contributions to the founding of New China. In the early 1960s, my father left the motherland due to work needs and went to work abroad. He was a leader among the cadres of the Communist Party. Although his father devoted most of his life to the country's liberation and diplomacy, and won praise from the party and state leaders many times, the old man has always influenced Qin Xiaoying with the simple character of an ordinary cadre, so that Qin Xiaoying understood since childhood There are many principles of life.

Qin Xiaoying first studied in Beijing Yucai Primary School.This is a boarding school with good conditions, and most of the parents of the students are supply system cadres.At that time, the social atmosphere was good, and the school spirit of the boarding school was also very decent.In addition, the predecessor of Yucai was Yan'an Conservation Primary School, which was full of the intimate atmosphere of the big revolutionary family in the early years.Qin Xiaoying was deeply influenced. He first became obsessed with all kinds of ancient and modern novels, and even saved up his monthly pocket money of 5 cents, and went to the bookstore to buy books and read them back on weekends.In the second grade of junior high school, he began to read the four-volume vertical typesetting "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", which was the only property left to him by his father before he went to work abroad.This huge spiritual wealth made up for his lack of spirituality at that time, and also laid the foundation for his future theoretical research.

From elementary school to middle school, Qin Xiaoying's academic performance has always been impressive, and she scored 5 points in all subjects. She was called "Golden Eagle" and "talented man" by schoolmates. In 1964, he was admitted to Beijing No. 101 Middle School with excellent grades. In this school, which also gathered a large number of children of senior cadres and senior intellectuals, Qin Xiaoying did not rest on Lao Tzu's credit book like some classmates did. The descendants of nobles claim to be themselves, but study hard. When Qin Xiaoying was in middle school, he had already understood the "Shi Guangrong" style of heroism from his father, and learned to calmly face no matter what difficulties he encountered.It was when he was in the middle school track and field team. During a training session, he accidentally broke his ankle and passed out from the pain. When he woke up, he declined the kindness of his classmates and refused to take the bus. Gritting his teeth, he walked home from the suburb 30 miles away step by step.When he got home, his feet were so swollen that he couldn't even take off his shoes, so his mother had to cut the upper of the shoes with scissors.When his mother went to get the potion and bandages, his father happily patted him on the shoulder and said, "Silly boy, good job!"

Later, when Qin Xiaoying recalled his father's encouragement to him, he said: "Later, I finally realized that this is not just a compliment, but an intangible legacy. I got into a cornfield under the scorching sun, and my whole body was scratched." When I saw bloodstains, I understood the preciousness of this inheritance; when I was thrown into a private prison by the minions of the "Gang of Four" and my legs festered, and I was lonely every day, I understood the connotation of this inheritance; When I could only eat radish, sweet potato seedlings, and elm leaves for a month, I understood the rich nutrition of this inheritance; on the tortuous road of being falsely accused, framed, and beaten, I understood the weight of this inheritance .”

Qin Xiaoying joined the Communist Youth League at the age of 16 and became the secretary of the Youth League branch. At the age of 17, he had already become a party member who was mainly trained by the school's party branch. But before the storm of the "Cultural Revolution", the strong political atmosphere in the school still made him feel confused like never before. Not far from No. 101 Middle School, there is a garden of Wu's family surrounded by a fence.Qin Xiaoying often saw an old man with a firm face working in the vegetable field.Only later did he know that this old man was Marshal Peng Dehuai who was accused of "having the potential to blow up Mount Lu and stop the rotation of the earth."At that time, Qin Xiaoying was very puzzled, not knowing why such a highly accomplished general was "imprisoned".

Just as he was searching for answers with his mind full of questions, a "self-revolution" movement was vigorously launched in the school.The political teacher told him that everyone has bourgeois thoughts, the key depends on whether you dare to dig them out.And bourgeois thinking has been corrupting you since you were five years old.This "revolutionary" language really surprised Qin Xiaoying.However, Qin Xiaoying, who was "unwilling to be left behind" and feeling confused, began to dig deep into the "rotten things of the bourgeoisie" that might be in his thoughts.In a composition entitled "Saccharin and Boiled Water", he revealed the fact that he drank with his family during the festival.He thought he had dug out the "bourgeois hedonism" deeply rooted in their family.Unexpectedly, the problems he dug up were reported to his father's unit by the school through organizational channels.His father was furious because of this, and the young Qin Xiaoying also understood for the first time that there was only one step between "leftism" and framing.

On a cold day in December 1968, his family began to fall apart: his mother was sent to Jiangxi, his elder brother went to Qinghai, his younger brother went to Shaanxi, his older sister went to Anhui, and his brother-in-law Li Zhaoxing went to Lishi in Shanxi and Niu in Guangdong successively. Tian Yang. Not long after his family left Beijing one after another, Qin Xiaoying, the former "young genius" carried an old suitcase that his father had when he was studying in Beijing when he was a student, and boarded the train to Shanxi. Five or six years of life as an educated youth was hard and boring, but Qin Xiaoying did not relax his demands on himself, and maintained the good habit of loving reading and thinking diligently in middle school.On the kangs of poor farmers, in the huts of breeders, in the sorghum field under the scorching sun, on the construction site of the reservoir where the water is dripping into ice, in the joy of delivering "public grain", the corpses of villagers who were killed by explosives while repairing water conservancy Before, in the diary where a day's work was only worth a dime, in the sad poems of urban youths, and in the quiet humming of Soviet songs to vent a little feeling of first love, he felt the pulse of China and heard the people's aspirations and Moaning, and for the first time felt that his feet were standing on the solid earth.

Qin Xiaoying entered the History Department of Nankai University in Tianjin to study in 1973, and then grew into an outstanding journalist and scholar in China. His achievements and ideas attracted the attention of high-level officials from time to time, and gradually became one of the idols of young intellectuals.His reputation is growing, and his positions are getting more and more. More than 30 years have passed, and after the ups and downs of life and experience, the "disciples of senior cadres" who played with him back then and are now middle-aged and elderly lamented: "Among our group of people, the only one who is still really learning is Qin Xiaoying; and among the social elites who became active in the 1980s, the one who has not been eliminated in mainland China is Wang Qishan in politics, and the academic circle is Qin Xiaoying."

They all remembered Qin's nickname in primary school - "Golden Eagle".