1966, the ten-year special period began. On May 25 of this year, Nie Yuanzi, secretary of the Party Branch of the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, posted a big-character poster in the canteen of Peking University. This big-character poster was later reprinted by " People's Daily " and was called "The First Marxist-Leninist Big-character Poster in the Country". The special period in the following ten years gradually reached its climax and had a profound impact on history.
Many people know that the first big-character poster in the country was posted by Nie Yuanzi. So, is there any mastermind behind this incident? There is really, this person is Cao Yiou, who was the director of Kang Sheng's office at the time (referred to as "Kang Office"). She has another identity: Kang Sheng's wife. It was under Cao Yiou's instructions that Nie Yuanzi and others posted the first big-character poster in the country, pushing the ten-year special period to a climax. Today we will talk about Cao Yiou's story.
Cao Yiou's most famous identity is Kang Sheng's wife. She was born in a wealthy family. Although her family was in decline later, her habit of attaching importance to education did not change. Cao Yiou was also a senior intellectual in that era. He was admitted to Shanghai University and was also during her studies at Shanghai University. She met Kang Sheng, and the two became husband and wife in 1927.
After the founding of New China, Cao Yiou has been teaching at the Central Party School for a long time. At the same time, she has another identity, that is, she serves as the director of the "Kangsheng Office" and takes care of her husband's daily life. In 1966, before the official issuance of the May 16th Notice, Kang Sheng specially established a group with Cao Yiou as the team leader, Liu Yangqiao as the deputy team leader, Zhang Enci and others as team members, and settled in Peking University for squatting.
The investigation team entered Peking University on May 14. Cao Yiou first talked to the then president of Peking University, Lu Ping, and informed him of the main purpose and work content of the group. After that, the group began to talk to leaders at all levels of Peking University and mobilized them to carry out the exorcist movement. At that time, Cao Yiou attached great importance to Nie Yuanzi and had talked with her several times alone, and mobilized Nie Yuanzi to exorcist the principal Lu Ping and other Peking University leadership.
After talking to Nie Yuanzi several times, Cao Yiou found Zhang Enci, a member of the group, and she instructed Zhang Enci to guide Nie Yuanzi to write a big-character poster. After that, Zhang Enci informed Nie Yuanzi of his specific ideas about writing a big-character poster and encouraged Nie Yuanzi to join other professors to write a big-character poster. On May 25, Nie Yuanzi posted the written big-character poster in the canteen of Peking University. This is the first big-character poster in the country, and it naturally attracted a lot of attention. However, it is said that Nie Yuanzi has a bad reputation in Peking University, and she is the first person to sign the big-character poster. Many people have also begun to criticize the big-character poster, which makes Zhang Enci particularly upset.
Although Zhang Enci was upset, Cao Yiou instructed Zhang Enci to support Nie Yuanzi's philosophy department, and told Zhang Enci to "not be too obvious, and to avoid some occasions." Later, Kang Sheng also learned about this, and Kang Sheng even supported Nie Yuanzi. Under the operation of Kang Sheng and Cao Yiou, this big-character poster was sent to Chairman Mao. On June 2, the People's Daily published Nie Yuanzi's big-character poster under the title "The First Marxist-Leninist Big-character Poster". From then on, the ten-year special period reached its climax, and many innocent cadres were persecuted.
As the mastermind behind the first big-character poster in the country, Cao Yiou also persecuted many cadres during the special period of ten years, especially many faculty and staff of the Central Party School, who were persecuted by Cao Yiou. In addition, Cao Yiou also has a sister named Su Mei. After she jumped off the building and committed suicide, Cao Yiou chased the case and insisted that his sister was killed by him. Under Cao Yiou's interference, many grassroots cadres in the public security department were also persecuted by her.
In the early 1980s, the central government reviewed the "two cases". Kang Sheng was found to have created many unjust, false and wrong cases during that special period, and Cao Yiou also participated. Because of this reason, in 1981, Cao Yiou was removed from all positions. Since then, Cao Yiou mainly lived in Beijing, lived a dull life, and died of illness in 1989.
