List. The tutor is Mr. Qiu Xigui, a master of ancient philology in China.
It is not uncommon to study for a doctorate at the age of 38. What is rare is that Cai Wei has only a high school education and has been laid off for more than ten years-eight months ago, he was riding a tricycle to support his family in Jinzhou, Liaoning. It never occurred to him that the biggest turning point in his life was coming.
A 38-year-old high school graduate, from a tricycle driver to a doctoral student at Fudan University, is not a simple inspirational story. Behind the epic anecdote is not only a young man's persistence in learning, but also the infinite charm of a subject, a scholar's eye for talents and an open mind of a university. ...
Because of "Sasuke", he met Mr. Qiu Xigui.
How can a laid-off worker with high school education and a former tricycle driver be admitted to Fudan's doctoral program? What's special about him?
As the main recommender of Dr. Cai Wei, Mr. Qiu Xigui did not directly answer the reporter's questions, but stressed that he did not advocate that Cai Wei be exposed to the spotlight of the media. "There is a question of how to cultivate Cai Wei. If he is really good, everyone will naturally know whether there will be academic achievements in the future. "
In academic circles, Mr. Qiu is famous for his preciseness and pragmatism. He and Cai Wei have known each other for more than ten years. 1995 wrote a letter to Mr. Qiu when he was still studying by himself. Mr. Qiu wrote back and praised: "I admire his hard work, regardless of utility."
The representative work 1997 65438+ 10, Mr. Qiu published an article "A Preliminary Study of SHEN WOO Fu" in Cultural Relics, in which he mentioned the bamboo slips and fragments unearthed from the Han Tomb in Yinwan, and the meaning of "Zuo Zi" was unknown. Cai Wei wrote to inform that "Zuo Zi" should be pronounced as "Zi Zi", that is, "Zi", which is an exclamation. Later, Mr. Qiu published "Zuo Zi should be pronounced as" meson "in the third issue of 1998" Cultural Relics ",calling it" very reasonable ".
After 2003, Cai Wei published some articles about Sinology. "He writes very little and is very cautious. What is rare is that he can combine unearthed documents with handed down documents. " Mr. Qiu said that some of his views are very insightful. "For example, there is a saying in Laozi that the bamboo slips of Guodian Chu Tomb are usually considered as' Heng', which is not easy to understand in meaning. Cai Wei believes that the "pole" in Chu bamboo slips is often written as "root", which is of ultimate significance. This is very inspiring to me. "
"I once suggested that Cai Wei take an examination of graduate students. He said that his English foundation was too poor, and he was afraid that he would fail the exam. After about 2006, I think Cai Wei is a little quiet. Later, I heard that he made a living by three rounds, and his reading time was much less. I thought at that time, it would be a pity if Cai Wei gave up like this because of the bad environment. To tell the truth, many people who engage in ancient Chinese characters are nominally professors, but in fact they are not as good as him. I don't have his level in some places. " Mr. Qiu told reporters.
"The study of ancient Chinese characters can't be done without sitting on the bench for ten or twenty years." Liu Zhao, director of the Research Center for Unearthed Documents and Ancient Chinese Characters of Fudan University, said that Cai Wei had no professional academic training and had no chance to read many newly unearthed documents, but he taught himself a lot of classics handed down from generation to generation, many of which were memorized. "Cai Wei was not distracted. He is familiar with the words, syntax and ancient language habits of ancient books, even more familiar than many professional researchers. He is more easily integrated into the ancient language environment than ordinary people, and he can empathize with the actions and ideas of the ancients. After a long time, he has the ability to learn from ancient books. "
In Guo Xue. His screen name is "Bao Xiao"
Ability is on the one hand, and perhaps what impressed Mr. Qiu more is his sincere love for ancient books and philology.
Cai Wei's screen name in Sinology is "Embrace Small", which means "aspire to a small country". "Primary school" is a general term for philology, phonology and exegetics in ancient China, which was later renamed as "the study of language and writing" by Zhang Taiyan. As a specialized knowledge, "primary school" can be traced back to the Qin and Han dynasties at the earliest, but it may be unfamiliar to most contemporary people. Mr. Qiu told reporters: "China's thousands of years of civilization, most of our understanding of the past comes from ancient books, but some of them have been handed down, some have been lost, and some have been tampered with by future generations. To understand the whole history, we need to constantly discover and revise it, such as Mawangdui silk book, Guodian Chu bamboo slips and Champo Chu bamboo slips unearthed in recent years, which contain many things that were not known before. Read these documents to understand what the real ancient times were like and where our thoughts, habits and lives were rooted. The study of ancient Chinese characters is the foundation. "
Cai Wei didn't think deeply about this meaning. He comes from an ordinary family, his parents are workers, and his love for ancient books is out of natural interest. He loved calligraphy since he was a child, and he was fascinated by Tang poetry and Song poetry when he was a student. When I was a sophomore, I happened to see a paper on literature and history by Mr. Qiu, and I was attracted by the traditional "primary school" from then on.
Cai Wei showed the reporter two masterpieces, Dialect and Erya, which he copied. Yellow pages, faded pen handwriting, and the time on the title page showed 1993. At that time, Cai Wei had graduated from high school for two years. In high school, he was seriously biased. Except for Chinese, his grades in other subjects are a mess. In the end, he failed to enter the university, but worked as a worker in a hose factory. "In Jinzhou, these books are only available in the library. The copying fee is too expensive for me, so I can only copy them." Cai Wei said.
1994, the benefit of rubber hose factory was not good, so Cai Wei was laid off and set up a stall in front of a shopping mall. Cai Wei has no ambition for material life. He earns only enough food and clothing. He spends all his spare time reading books. "My family doesn't understand what I'm reading and doesn't interfere. It doesn't cost money anyway. " Cai Wei said that his parents and wife are ordinary people, and they didn't ask him to succeed in his career. "I just feel lonely occasionally, and there is no one around to communicate with you."
In 2007, his wife fell ill, and in order to earn more money, Cai Wei began to pedal three rounds. "When I have more money, I can earn 30 yuan every day, which is better than setting up a stall, but I spend less and less time reading," he wrote to Dong Shan, a young scholar in Peking University. Dong Shan told his teacher Professor Liu Zhao about it. As it happens, Fudan Research Center for Unearthed Documents and Ancient Characters will jointly compile the Integration of Bamboo Slips and Silk of Mawangdui Han Tomb with Zhonghua Book Company and Hunan Provincial Museum. After consultation with Mr. Qiu, the center decided to hire temporarily.
Last September, Cai Wei came to Shanghai. This year, at the recommendation of Mr. Qiu, at the age of 38, he got the opportunity to take the exam.