1. Who doesn’t know Pipilu?

If you are under 50 years old and over 5 years old, then there is a high probability that you will know a majestic boy: Pipilu. Piru.

Pipilu is not good at studies, but he is extremely smart and has many weird ideas in his mind. He loves adventure and often encounters strange encounters. He has friends all over the world, such as Shuke who drives a plane, Beta who drives a tank, Rock, the big bad wolf who has countless careers, and Pipiru also has a lovely twin sister named Lu Xixi.

Pipiru and Lu Xixi have a magical home, a music city in the red sofa, five little people living in the can, and a secret passage in the big closet that leads to the unknown world. Their parents are gentle and teach their children well. But the one who really created all this is the fairy tale king Zheng Yuanjie.

In fact, not everyone can afford a house in Beijing that cost 1,200 yuan per square meter 30 years ago. You must have this vision and the strength. You must know that the average monthly salary in Beijing at that time was only 221 yuan. . But Zheng Yuanjie had founded the "Fairy Tale King" magazine as early as 1985, which only published his works. Sales soared. By the mid-1980s, he had a monthly income of over 10,000 yuan.

His fairy tales are both fantastic and real, with wild imagination and vivid and interesting language. Once you read them, you won’t be able to put them down. However, Zheng Yuanjie, who has brought spiritual feast to generations, has not even graduated from elementary school.

Zheng Yuanjie, who was born in 1955, is the son of a soldier. His father is very liberal. He was so liberal that when he was expelled from school in the fourth grade, he cheerfully said: "It's okay, Dad will teach you."

As a child, Zheng Yuanjie had already shown extraordinary literary talent, and his thinking was clear and unconventional. The teacher assigned the essay "The early bird catches the worm". He thought about it and wrote the essay "The early bird catches the worm", but was criticized by the teacher.

The unconvinced young man made an astonishing move. He put his hand into his trouser pocket and fired the cannon hidden inside with a "boom", which also marked the beginning of his unique and wonderful life.

2. A life more wonderful than fairy tales

Zheng Yuanjie’s fairy tales are full of the idea that "poor students can also be good and outstanding". He combines his childhood experiences and exam-oriented education His dissatisfaction and doubts are projected into the work, and the naughty Pipilu seems to be his incarnation.

Zheng Yuanjie also did well in self-study at home. He loved reading and dabbled in a wide range of topics. He grows freely like a weed, greedily devouring the rain, dew and sunshine of knowledge.

In 1970, at the age of 15, Zheng Yuanjie developed a keen interest in airplanes and went to the army to serve in the army. Although he had an unfortunate incident of bringing a sparrow into an airplane, he was still able to successfully become an airplane six years later. After demobilization, he was assigned to work in an instrument factory in Beijing.

His job was to look after the water pump, which was a leisurely and stable income. When he started working, he also captured the heart of a beautiful girl.

At that time, the country was undergoing tremendous changes, and the college entrance examination, which had been suspended for ten years, was on the agenda. Young people like Zheng Yuanjie were all studying hard with books in hand to prepare for the exam. When my girlfriend's parents heard that Zheng Yuanjie had not graduated from elementary school, they immediately frowned and issued an order: If you want to marry my daughter, you must go to college.

Originally, Zheng Yuanjie did not object to the college entrance examination, but when others disliked his academic qualifications, he became unconvinced again. What's so great about college? He wasn't willing to take the exam anymore because he wanted to prove to them whether he had any potential without a diploma!

But what proof should he use? After much thought, he realized that the road to repairing airplanes had been cut off. Apart from knowing the traffic lights on water pumps, his best thing was writing.

Zheng Yuanjie plunged into the ocean of words and chose fairy tales among many literary genres. At the beginning, he contributed articles to magazines, from sporadic articles to regular serialization. In February 1981, the charming brother and sister Pipilu and Lu Xixi were born.

Because of the publication of Zheng Yuanjie's fairy tales, the magazine's subscriptions increased rapidly, but the magazine refused to give him an extra cent for the manuscript fee. Zheng Yuanjie was determined to create his own magazine and write it.

In 1985, "The King of Fairy Tales" came out, and only published the works of Zheng Yuanjie. At that time, a university professor ridiculed him: "Writing a monthly magazine alone is an idiot's dream." But Zheng Yuanjie insisted on writing "The Fairy Tale King" for more than thirty years. His wonderful stories have entered thousands of households and accompanied the colorful childhoods of generations of people.

Every morning from 4:30 to 6:30, Zheng Yuanjie would get up and write, which he did every day for thirty years. How many people can persist with such perseverance and perseverance? How many people can have this kind of endless inspiration and creativity?

3. Who can decide what books children should read

In 2001, when Pipiru was 20 years old, Zheng Yuanjie truthfully wrote about his physical changes during adolescence, but was thought to be included in CCTV's " "Today's Statement" column called the name, and the young host Sa Beining criticized it with a serious face, "Zheng Yuanjie's fairy tales contain content that is not suitable for children."

This comment brought Zheng Yuanjie a lot of trouble. Many parents followed the trend and criticized his works, viewing his works as a scourge. Zheng Yuanjie was so angry that he stopped publishing new works in "The Fairy Tale King" and publicly said: "I will never go to a place with Sa Beining from now on."

Zheng Yuanjie has always had a clear distinction between love and hate, and she was afraid of holding grudges. She explained with a smile: "I just read the manuscript." The two met on the "Let's Talk" program 14 years later China shakes hands and makes peace. But Zheng Yuanjie is not so easy to talk to her old rival Cao Wenxuan.

Who is Cao Wenxuan? Maybe you are not familiar with his name, but you must have bought his books, either for your own school days or for your children, because his works are definitely on the recommended book lists of primary and secondary schools.

Zheng Yuanjie did not graduate from elementary school, while Cao Wenxuan was a top student at Peking University and stayed at the school to teach; Zheng Yuanjie disdained the Writers Association and voluntarily quit the Writers Association, while Cao Wenxuan was a core figure in the Writers Association; Zheng Yuanjie was a self-proclaimed or privately-appointed fairy tale king, and Cao Wenxuan In 2016, he won the International Andersen Award, the highest honor for children's literature.

In Jin Yong's novels, Cao Wenxuan is an upright person from a famous family, and Zheng Yuanjie is Linghu Chong who was expelled from his master's family and wandered around the world; in "Journey to the West", Cao Wenxuan was ranked among the immortals, and Zheng Yuanjie was He is the Sun Wukong who jumped out of a stone; in today's cross talk circle, Cao Wenxuan is Jiang Kun and Zheng Yuanjie is Guo Degang.

It is said that the university professor who mocked Zheng Yuanjie for his inability to write "The Fairy Tale King" was Cao Wenxuan. Although as early as 2009, Zheng Yuanjie's royalties income had exceeded 20 million yuan, ranking first on the list of China's richest people, the bad breath in his heart has not yet been exhausted.

Zheng Yuanjie was extremely ashamed of Cao Wenxuan’s behavior of giving lectures and selling books at the school. Starting from 2010, he held high a banner and publicly criticized Cao Wenxuan. Zheng Yuanjie believes that children should be allowed to choose what books they want to buy and buy what they like, instead of going to schools to force-sell them in the name of voluntariness.

Some people made fun of Zheng Yuanjie for falling out of the list of children's book writers. Zheng Yuanjie bluntly said that he did not want to be on the list at all. He also wrote a special slogan, denounced the works of Cao Wenxuan and others as "zombie best-selling children's books."

In June 2020, a publishing house was preparing to launch a children's book and sent a text message to Zheng Yuanjie, asking him to agree to authorize the inclusion of the work. This touched Zheng Yuanjie's back. It didn't matter that the other party was rude. The editor-in-chief was still Cao Wenxuan, whom he had never dealt with all his life. So what if he won the International Andersen Award? Zheng Yuanjie responded with one sentence: "Uncle, who are you?"

The publishing house was also surprised that Zheng Yuanjie did not authorize this matter. Instead of apologizing to Zheng Yuanjie, they apologized to Cao Wenxuan. Zheng Yuanjie became furious and insisted that Cao Wenxuan produce tax payment certificates for his huge royalties.

Zheng Yuanjie has always been very fierce and has been protecting intellectual property rights over the years. Because of the influence of the Fairy Tale King, the infringement of his trademarks and trade names was too serious. Zheng Yuanjie arrested and sued one by one and fought hard to the end. .

In 2018, the National Trademark Review and Adjudication Board declared the trademarks of Zhengzhou “Pipilu Western Restaurant”, Beijing “Lu Xixi” Food, and Hefei “Shuke and Beta” Company invalid.

Zheng Yuanjie has two children. His son Zheng Yaqi graduated from elementary school and could not adapt to school life, so Zheng Yuanjie took him home and wrote his own textbooks to teach. Now Zheng Yaqi is the CEO with an annual income of over 100 million. But her daughter Zheng Yafei was born to love school, so Zheng Yuanjie asked her to study hard. Zheng Yafei became a super academic and was admitted to six prestigious schools in the United States when she graduated from high school.

It can be seen that what the Fairy Tale King insists on is to return the initiative in life to children and dedicate to them what is most suitable for them.

Today, Zheng Yuanjie is 65 years old, and Pipilu and Lu Xixi are also in their forties, but those fairy tales we love deeply will never go away.