In his later years, the most satisfying photo of Cao Martian was a profile photo of him. This photo only captured the right half of his face, making it impossible to see his broken left side. Eye.

Cao Xingxing is not very tall, just over 1.7 meters tall, with an oval face and a delicate appearance when he was young. In 1938, 14-year-old Cao Martian joined the Iron Blood Drama Club and became a fighter to promote the anti-Japanese war. Initially, there were no actresses in the drama club, and the female role was played by Cao Martian. In order to achieve a realistic effect, Cao Xingxing deliberately grew long hair.

In addition to being an outstanding actor, Cao Martian's main identity is also a composer. His lyrics and music "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" has lasted nearly 80 years and is still in use today. It is still widely sung.

Starting from the first song "Going to the Battlefield", Cao Martian has composed more than 1,600 songs in his life, some of which he wrote the lyrics himself. In different historical periods, in line with the party's policies, Cao Martian created a series of songs that were easily accepted and sung by the common people. During the war, when people were busy with party propaganda work during the day, these songs were mostly written under kerosene lamps. After the founding of New China, Cao Martian was engaged in administrative leadership and could only create at night. In order to refresh himself, he often soaked his feet in a basin of cold water. During this period, Cao Martian also created or collectively participated in the creation of large-scale operas "The Great Wall of the South China Sea" and dance dramas "Shi Yi Chops Firewood" and "Tears of Colorful Clothes".

Due to excessive use of his eyes and suffering from diabetes, when he was in his 60s, Cao Mars became blind in his left eye and had a visual acuity of only 0.6 in his right eye. Even so, he continued to create with a magnifying glass in hand and one eye.

Cao Martian once said: "The party trained me from an ignorant boy. Since I have the name of a composer, I should write for the people. This is my responsibility. No matter how busy I am at work, We must not forget our responsibilities."

The pen in my hand is also a gun

In 1924, Cao Martian was born in Gangnan Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province. He was shy since childhood and loved reading. In 1937, 13-year-old Cao Mars was admitted to three middle schools, including Baoding Middle School. The whole family is very happy. With six yuan given by his father, Cao Martian planned to go to Baoding to study. However, he did not expect that the "July 7th Incident" broke out and Cao Martian was forced to drop out of school.

After his dream of "saving the country through reading" was shattered, Cao Martian joined the Youth Anti-Japanese Salvation Association led by the Communist Party of China and became the director of the village Youth Rescue Association, helping the militia collect food and taking the children's league members to stand guard. Watch out.

In early 1938, young Cao Martian secretly ran out late one night without telling his family and went to the Pingshan County Peasants' Association to participate in the revolution. In April, the Pingshan County Youth Anti-Japanese Salvation Association established a propaganda team, the Iron Blood Drama Club (later known as the Mass Drama Club), and 14-year-old Cao Martian also became a member of it.

Cao Martian’s original name was Cao Zhi. In 1940, the drama club collectively went to the North China United University to study. In order to show that they were not afraid of sacrifice in the war of resistance, many young people changed their names. Zhang Xuexin, a fellow fellow and member of the drama club, changed his name to "Zhang Xuexing", and Cao Zhi changed his name to "Cao Mars". "Fire" and "blood" are both red, which expresses the young people's desire to become a red star and a proletarian warrior.

Cao Xingxing has loved music since he was a child. He likes to listen to the villagers playing the flute, playing the huqin, and beating the gongs and drums. When he was in elementary school, he was interested in the organ played by his music teacher. Later, during the school holidays, he borrowed a zither and played it every day, and learned to read simplified musical notation. As the only person in the drama club who could read simplified musical notation, Cao Martian was assigned to the music department after entering the North China Associated University.

When he first entered school, Cao Xingxing was a little depressed. "He only wanted to go to the battlefield with a gun and destroy the Japanese invaders. He thought that was revolution," said his daughter Cao Hongwen. Lu Su was Cao Martian's teacher and the composer of "Unity is Strength". He was keenly aware of the young man's thoughts and said to him: "The pen in your hand is also a gun. You use it to write good songs. Encouraging everyone to fight can also destroy the enemy." After hearing this, Cao Xingxing felt a lot more relieved. Soon, he wrote his debut novel "Entering the Battlefield". After Lu Su read it, he thought it was good and encouraged him to publish it. The song was published in the school publication.

In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek published the pamphlet "The Destiny of China", which preached that "in order to resist foreign aggression, we must first pacify the interior", undermined the anti-Japanese united front, and advocated that China's destiny rested entirely on the Chinese Kuomintang. Yan'an's " Liberation Daily promptly published an editorial "Without the Communist Party, there would be no China" to fight back.

At that time, the Mass Drama Society was divided into parts according to the development of the situation, and several small teams were formed to go deep into the Pingxi area to publicize the Communist Party's anti-Japanese propositions. In the autumn of that year, Cao Martian and his party set out from Fuping, Hebei Province, the headquarters of the border region, and walked to Tangshang Village to carry out mass work.

Tangshang Village is a remote village in Xiayunling Township, Fangshan, Beijing. There is a kang in a small room, a small table on the kang, and a lamp on the table. Kerosene lamp. This was originally a side hall of a central temple and was also the residence of Cao Xingxing.

During the day, Cao Martian participated in the work of the drama club. At night, he lit a kerosene lamp and sat on the edge of the Kang to create. At that time, the drama club composed four Anti-Japanese War songs based on folk tunes in Tangshang Village. However, they felt that the folk songs were not powerful enough to express the determination of the Communist Party and the people to resist Japan, so Cao Martian began to compose new songs.

He conceived the idea for three nights, and finally wrote "There would be no China without the Communist Party" in one night. Seeing the sky turn white, Cao Xingxing opened the door and taught this new song to a young soldier of the children's regiment who was standing guard outside. "Without the Communist Party, there would be no China. Without the Communist Party, there would be no China. The Communist Party works hard for the nation. The Communist Party is dedicated to saving China..." After that, this song was heard in the village. Widely sung. Cao Xingxing felt that the popular folk performance of Overlord Whip was very powerful, so he asked the people to sing this song while doing the Overlord Whip.

Singer Wang Wei wrote in the article "The Composer Who Mastered the Pulse of the Times—Mars": "If you carefully analyze "There Will Be No China Without the Communist Party", you will find that this song is amazing There are no fancy words in the lyrics, they are the truth in the hearts of the people, smooth and catchy. "At first, "There would be no China without the Communist Party" was sung in Xiayunling, Laishui and Yixian areas. After the lyrics and music were published in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Daily, the song flew from Xiayunling to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border area. After the Liberation War, it spread throughout China. After the founding of New China, the title of this song was changed to "Without the Communist Party, there would be no New China." In the original lyrics, "He persisted in the resistance war for more than six years", but as time changed, it eventually became "He persisted in the resistance war for more than eight years."

"The hatred of the country and the family taught me"

Cao Xingxing was pretty and fair, with a gentle personality and a thin voice. There were no actresses in the Mass Drama Club at the beginning, so Cao Xingxing was often asked to play the role. . Cao Hongwen told an interesting story about her father. Once, when the drama club went to perform for the troops, two troupe leaders sat in the audience and bet whether Cao Martian was a boy or a girl. One guessed it was a boy and the other guessed it was a girl. When asked after the performance, the one who guessed "it's a boy" won. Cao Xingxing's female costumes can often achieve the effect of being fake. In order to play the role well, he grew long hair. The drama company often had to go to various places for promotions. He had to eat and sleep in the open, and it was inconvenient to wash his hair. Later, Cao Xingxing had long hair on his head. Got lice. "He has the heart of a child and is very sincere. He feels that this is a task assigned to me by the party, and I must complete it to the letter," Cao Hongwen said. It wasn't until the drama company came to have an actress that Cao Martian stopped playing female roles and cut his long hair into short hair.

Cao Mingxing was very handy. At that time, gas lamps were needed for night performances, but the asbestos bulbs used in gas lamps were not easy to buy. During outdoor performances, the bulbs were often blown by the wind. Cao Mars always uses tweezers to patch the cracks and holes in the light bulb with pieces of used light bulb bit by bit, and then drips wax oil. In consecutive performances, a light bulb thus "rescued" can be used more than ten times. In addition to repairing light bulbs, Cao Mars also makes violins. Lift the sheep's intestines into the ditch, scrape, rinse, and dry them repeatedly to make them into piano strings. Use broken bowl pieces to thin the piano's panel and back, then use sandpaper to scrape and polish them.

In addition to composing and performing, Cao Mars is also responsible for the props, stage design and printing work of the drama club. Cao Martian and Zhang Xuexin are also responsible for engraving steel plates. Most of the drama club's scripts and songbooks are mimeographed by them. During the march, in addition to carrying a backpack, schoolbag, and musical instruments, Cao Martian also had to carry a heavy steel plate and wax paper.

In 1943, the anti-Japanese battlefield entered a period of stalemate, which was also the most difficult period.

The Japanese army began their raids in the autumn, and the drama club wanted to break out of the encirclement and move to the Pingxi area. According to Zhang Xuexin's recollection in the article "The Motherland is in My Heart - Missing Comrade Martian", one night, Cao Martian and Zhang Xuexin led the members of the drama club through the enemy's blockade. The water in the Juma River was waist-deep. The two led the brigade in the drizzle. , traveled more than 70 miles at night and arrived at the Pingxi base area before dawn. The two of them sat on their backpacks, back to back, next to the big tree at the edge of the village, and fell asleep.

In order to carry out anti-Japanese propaganda, they had to go deep into guerrilla zones and enemy-occupied areas, and act, sing, shout and post slogans under the enemy's bunkers. Cao Hongwen recalled that her father once told her that when posting slogans in enemy-occupied areas, in order to prevent the enemy from discovering them, they would first paint the front and back of the slogan with paste, stick one side on their back, and then stick it on the wall when no one is paying attention. As soon as I leaned on it, the slogan stuck to the wall. "(The sky) is dark and midwinter, and the enemy is right in front. We are very happy to stick up."

When telling his daughter, Cao Martian regarded his experience as a joke, but in fact, the battle he experienced was cruel. On a moonless night, Cao Martian and a comrade went to the Japanese bunker in Wentang, Pingshan, to conduct a political offensive and shouted to them: "You don't have many days left, surrender quickly." The enemy fired at the place where he was shouting, and Cao Martian's comrade died in front of him.

In 1943, after a large-scale raid by the Japanese army, Cao Martian and his comrades helped the common people clean up the battlefield and found that the landlord and his grandson were stabbed to death on the roadside with bayonets by the enemy. "This shocked his soul a lot," Cao Hongwen said. At the end of the same year, a tragedy also occurred in Gangnan Village, Cao Xingxing's hometown. More than 100 people were killed by the Japanese army. Cao Xingxing's father also died in this disaster. "The hatred of the country and the family educates me, impacts my emotions, and arouses my creative impulse." Cao Hongwen quoted her father as saying in the article "Cao Martian and". In that year, Cao Mars composed many songs such as "Aiming the Gun at the Fascists", "The Front Needs More Artillery Shells", "Election Sing" and "Combat Production Cooperative".

People's Composer

Cao Martian and his wife Qi Yuzhen met in their teens and deepened their relationship during the revolutionary struggle. Qi Yuzhen was also a member of the Mass Drama Society. In order to fight against Japan, Cao Martian made an agreement with his wife and several other couples in the drama club: they would not get married unless the war of resistance was won. In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Cao Mars and Qi Yuzhen got married. The following year, their eldest daughter Cao Hongwen was born.

In Cao Hongwen's residence, there is a black-covered book with "work manuscript" written on the cover. The first page I opened was a catalog written in beautiful and powerful small characters, divided by year, from 1943 to 1965. The fonts are neat and consistent in size, just like printed ones. The manuscripts were written on thin tracing paper and pasted in notebooks. The paper had become yellow and brittle due to age. This book was originally used for accounting, and was used by Cao Xingxing to organize his works. However, the original manuscript of Cao Martian's masterpiece "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China" was not included. "During the war, there was no thought of retaining the original manuscript," Cao Martian once said to his daughter. Therefore, many of his manuscripts were lost in the war.

Cao Martian’s songs were all written in battle and at work, and many of them come from life experience and personal feelings. During the War of Liberation, Cao Martian wrote dozens of songs such as "The Poor Have One Heart" and "Bringing the Revolutionary War Deep into Chiang Kai-shek's Camp". In different historical periods, Cao Martian wrote songs based on various policies promoted by the party.

"Mars is not an artist in an ivory tower. He relies on more than just talent and skills. As Comrade Zhou Weizhi said, he 'grows through struggle and improves through hard study,'" Zhang Xuexin said of Cao Marx.

Cao Martian’s creations have the characteristics of smooth melodies and catchy songs. Although they are for publicity, they are not lecturing people with a straight face, and they are easily accepted and sung by the common people. "Support the Communist Party" written by him is a song that has been widely circulated in North China after the liberation of the country. This song adopts the fine-tuned style common in northern folk songs. The melody is like a flowing river. The lyrics and music are closely integrated, and the singing is as cordial as speaking from the heart.

Cao Hongwen revealed that her father had a habit of "never eating pears", which originated from his experience during the Anti-Japanese War. Once, he and several comrades went to the village to do mass work. On the way back, they encountered enemies and several of them ran away.

Cao Xingxing ran to the mountains and stayed for three days. He had no dry food and could only eat pears from the trees to satisfy his hunger. At that time, he had a high fever, his body was like a pendulum, and he couldn't find his center of gravity. Finally, he fainted in the mountains. He was discovered by a common man and rescued him. Since then, Cao Martian has never eaten pears again.

After the founding of New China, restoring the national economy became the country’s new focus. Cao Martian composed "Song of Exploration Workers" and other songs that reflected the people's devotion to socialist construction. In order to write "Song of Exploration Workers", he went to Inner Mongolia to live with the workers of the exploration team for a month. He said that only in this way can the created things be close to people's lives.

Cao Martian once said: "My life and all my current achievements are the result of the cultivation of the party and the people."

"To today's people, this is 'mandarin', but it is what he said in his heart. He has experienced this kind of life, so he has this understanding," Cao Hongwen said.

Gentle, stern

Not long after Cao Hongwen was born, because her parents wanted to continue their revolutionary work, she was placed in a fellow villager's home to be raised. It wasn't until Tianjin was liberated that she and other children from the old revolutionary base area were sent to a Tianjin nursery. When she first arrived in Tianjin, she had sores on her head. There was a lack of water in the old revolutionary base area and she had to move as soon as the enemy arrived, making it difficult to take a bath.

There are four siblings, Cao Hongwen, and the eldest brother was also sent to a fellow villager's home. When his father went to pick him up, his ignorant eldest brother was playing by the well. Cao Martian slowly held his son in his arms and shed tears.

In Cao Hongwen's eyes, her mother has a rough and enthusiastic personality and can make a lot of friends wherever she goes. Dad is reserved and not good at words, but he is gentle and meticulous. They have been together since the revolutionary years, have deep feelings, and have very complementary personalities. They have a sewing machine at home, which dad always uses to make clothes for their siblings. My younger brother is growing up quickly, and my father has to use cloth to patch his trouser legs every now and then.

When they arrived in Tianjin, Cao Martian and his family first reunited, they lived in a house with a cabinet in the middle. The children live on one side and he and his wife live on the other. After that, Cao Martian served as the deputy director of the Tianjin Music Troupe, and later the deputy director and director of the Tianjin Song and Dance Theater. He was busy with business during the day, and at night, he wrote songs under the electric light. Afraid that the light would affect his wife and children's sleep, he often covered the lamp with a piece of paper.

Cao Martian attaches great importance to children's music education. Every child in his family must learn an instrument when they are young. "He does not want you to be a pianist, but he wants to use music to enlighten us about beauty. It will be useful in the future," Cao Hongwen said.

Cao Xingxing is very democratic when dealing with children. "He would carefully observe the differences of each child and would not let you circle around his baton." Cao Hongwen recalled that when she was a child, she nailed a few strings to a small piece of wood and made a dulcimer percussion. After seeing it, my father said, "I have some musical talent." Among the children, Cao Hongwen is the only one who is engaged in music-related professions and works as a music editor in a music publishing house.

Sometimes, a gentle father also has a harsh side. Cao Hongwen recalled that one time, the whole family went to watch a performance together, and the theater sent a car to pick them up at home. Cao Mars refused to let the children follow the car, "you go on your legs (walking)."

"Don't let me take advantage of it," Cao Hongwen said. Their father always told them: "You are just children from ordinary families, there is nothing special about you." When she was in kindergarten, Cao Hongwen learned to sing "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" for the first time. The teacher asked her: "Do you know who wrote this song?" She said: "I don't know." After the teacher told her, Cao Hongwen learned that this song was composed by her father.

After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Cao Martian served as director of the Tianjin Municipal Culture Bureau and had more administrative work. Cao Hongwen remembers that there were always people at home until after ten o'clock in the evening. Cao Martian can only write songs in his spare time, so he joked: "I am not a professional composer, I am an amateur composer."

In the article "Missing You - Comrade Martian", Xiao Yunxiang, Cao Xingxing's friend for decades, recalled that on weekdays, Cao Xingxing was always quiet, approachable and approachable towards his colleagues, and there was always a sense of intimacy when in contact with him. At work, when encountering differences of opinion with his comrades, it is rare to see him quarreling or losing his temper. After taking office as the director of the Tianjin Municipal Cultural Bureau, he remained the same, unlike some people who have a "big official and bad temper".

Cao Hongwen said that Cao Xingxing was not conspicuous in the crowd. There were often patches on his clothes. He wore a custom-made suit when he performed abroad in the 1950s and wore it until the 1980s. His favorite things to eat are sweet potatoes and cob dough. Cao Xingxing also made a sock board for Cao Hongwen to darn her socks. When the socks were torn, he put the torn socks on the sock board, then sewed them on with cloth ends and then wore them again.

Never forget your responsibilities

Cao Martian always feels that he has little composition knowledge. In 1951, while on an inspection trip to Europe with the China Youth Art Troupe, Cao Martian watched more than 180 performances, was exposed to a large amount of Western music, and took three entire notebooks. In 1956, Cao Martian began to study composition in the expert class of the Central Conservatory of Music, and systematically studied composition, harmony, polyphony, orchestration and other courses. Because he was still busy with administrative work, Cao Martian studied as an auditor. Every day, he rides his bicycle to class. Once, his bicycle broke down and he was running to class while pushing the bicycle. He was late and was almost blocked by Soviet experts.

After professional studies, Cao Martian's creative enthusiasm became even higher, and his tunes and styles became more diverse. During the first five-year plan, "Our Motherland Is Spring" written by Cao Mars was widely sung by the people and was printed and released on records. In 1958, Cao Martian wrote and composed the large-scale national dance drama "Shi Yi Chopping Firewood" based on the Chinese folk tale "Shi Yi Chopping Firewood", which toured more than 200 performances across the country.

Cao Hongwen remembers that during that period, her father would sit on the table and compose every night. The next morning, wiping the red circles under his eyes, he would immediately go to the theater to organize the music with the warm and freshly written music. Actors rehearse. In order to wake up, he often brought a basin of cold water and soaked his feet in the cold water. She and her sister often used pencils and rulers to help their father mark the music scores on the paper.

When Cao Hongwen first started working at the music publishing house, her father told her to work hard and not to be picky. Once, a publishing house wanted to raise wages for its employees, but at that time only one-third of its outstanding employees could get a wage increase. During the mass selection, Cao Hongwen ranked first, but she was not among those who received a salary increase in the end. She felt particularly uncomfortable, fearing that her father would blame her for smearing her face. After returning home, Cao Xingxing said to her: "Don't worry, I know you are good. The country is in difficulty now and you are short of money. Dad will give it to you."

"He will stand on the side of the party." Do your job with the angle,” Cao Hongwen said.

In 1994, 70-year-old Cao Mars returned to Tangshang Village. Li Zengjun, the village party secretary at the time, helped him get off National Highway 108, walked along a stone path, crossed a stream, and came to the east wing of the Zhongtang Temple where he lived. Pushing open the ajar door, Cao Martian took a look and confirmed that this was the place where he created "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China". Several members of the children's troupe where he taught singing also came. The children at that time all had gray hair, but they jumped up and down with joy when they saw him.

A few months later, in order to prepare for the construction of Cao Mars’ memorial hall in Tangshang Village, Li Zengjun and several others went to Tianjin to collect information from Cao Mars. In the office of the Tianjin Music Association, Li Zengjun asked a question, "What were you thinking when you were doing this work in Tangshang Village?"

Cao Martian said: "We were thinking about every Chinese The sons and daughters of the nation have responsibilities and obligations. They must persist in the revolution, persist in the war of resistance, and drive the Japanese out of China as soon as possible." His tone was gentle but firm.

Among the more than 1,600 songs he created, most of them were written for the party and the people. He has also composed songs about love, but due to the limitations of the times, his love songs are relatively subtle and the characters are ideal. "Red Flowers Waiting for Your Victory" is a song he composed in 1948, which expresses a certain A rural girl who has just begun to fall in love has an ignorant yet naked and passionate love for her sweetheart who joins the army.

In 1994, Cao Mars retired. In the last years of his life, Cao Martian always stayed in his study, sitting by the piano, holding a magnifying glass in his left hand and a pen in his right hand to continue writing songs. He wrote lyrical songs such as "Jiangnan Willow" and "Water Country". "Whatever young people like, he will adapt to the changes and write some novel works," Cao Hongwen said. But he still did not forget his responsibilities. During his hospitalization, he also composed songs for the return of Hong Kong and Macau to the motherland. In 1999, Cao Mars died of illness at the age of 75.

A few days before his death, he wrote the song "Ah, My Name is China!" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of New China.

Reference materials:

"The Motherland is in My Heart - Missing Comrade Martian" Zhang Xuexin

"Missing You - Comrade Martian" Xiao Yunxiang

"Unforgettable years, unforgettable friendship" Wang Xin

"Cao Mars and" Cao Hongwen

Edited by Hu Jie and proofread by Wang Xin