From the end to the "article" business experience of "Mr. Bai Yun"

Screenshot of the page where the official account of Dao Xue Gong was banned.

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Yao Yuxiang (left), founder of Zhidao Academy, Mr. Bai Yun. Photo courtesy of interviewees

  May 27, to the office location of the Daoxue Palace team, an office building in Qixia District, Nanjing. Photo courtesy of interviewees

  On May 22, the WeChat public account "Zhi Dao Xue Gong" was banned, causing widespread concern. The WeChat team told the Beijing News reporter that the ban on the Daoxue Palace was due to its “publishing multiple rumors articles that fabricated and integrated false information, incited public sentiment, and were highly misleading. . '"

  A reporter from the Beijing News found that “the horror rumors such as making corpses into hamburgers” refers to an article titled “Death: American Sink” published by the Taoist Palace in early May. The article said, "A very likely guess is that the United States made these corpses (of patients with new coronary pneumonia) into frozen meat ... which can solve the problem of food shortage in the economic crisis and the disposal of corpses."

  Zhidao Xuegong was founded in October 2015 and published more than 200 original articles. The content has undergone a transition from preaching traditional culture to time-reviewed articles. The main author is "Mr. Bai Yun". According to previous reports from the Beijing News, Mr. Bai Yun is actually Yao Yuxiang, the major shareholder and legal representative of the company behind Zhidao Academy and Shanghai Dianze Cultural Development Co., Ltd.

  The Beijing News reporter found that Yao Yuxiang was a business manager of a futures company in Nanjing, and once led a futures software company; after the founding of the Daoxue Palace, from the personal publication of the article to the start of corporate operation, the Daoxue Palace accumulated a large Fans have also gained a lot of economic benefits; with the continuous expansion of their business, Yao Yuxiang tried to develop offline activities, recruit resourced collaborators, and establish an education system from "kindergarten to university", but this project did not success.

  On June 1, a reporter from the Beijing News once again called Yao Yuxiang, whom he had previously contacted, but the phone reminded that the phone was turned off.

  The founder used to be a business manager of a futures company and a startup software company

  After being banned, Zhidao Xuegong called on readers to scan the code to add their WeChat enterprise number in a statement issued to obtain the latest articles. The Beijing News reporter found that the company's WeChat registration agency is "Jiangsu Hualou Xipan Cultural Media Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as Hualou Xipan), and its business scope is cultural and art exchange planning, film and television planning, and agency publishing various domestic advertisements. Wait.

  According to the information of Tianyancha, the west side of the painting building is 100% owned by Jiangsu Youtong Cultural Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jiangsu Youtong), while Jiangsu Youtong is owned by Shanghai Code Cultural Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Code) 100 % Holdings. In Shanghai Code, the major shareholder and legal representative is Yao Yuxiang, with a 99% shareholding ratio.

  The registered addresses of the west bank of the painting tower and Jiangsu Youtong are both in Nanjing. Yao Yuxiang worked in this city before the founding of the Taoist palace. A number of people familiar with the matter told reporters in the Beijing News that Yao Yuxiang had worked for a futures company in Nanjing and was mainly responsible for developing customers. Liu Bin (pseudonym) is a "big man" in the Nanjing Futures Circle. He told the Beijing News reporter that in 2011, Yao Yuxiang, a regular salesman, came to the door to persuade him to open an account with his company.

  Liu Bin said that he had to meet dozens of hundreds of salesmen every year, but Yao Yuxiang in his 20s left a deep impression on him, because Yao Yuxiang did not talk about business, but talked about life philosophy and traditional culture. Later, he opened an account with China Southern Futures where he worked for Yao Yuxiang.

  Liu Yue (pseudonym) who worked with Yao Yuxiang at the time also said that once, she and Yao Yuxiang went to Suzhou to visit a big customer. Yao Yuxiang still did not talk about investment, but talked about traditional culture, and proposed to sign a contract when he was very happy, and finally won the customer.

  In the memories of former colleagues, Yao Yuxiang repeatedly expressed his admiration for the Chinese civilization and showed contempt for other countries. He once said that people in a certain country are "all monkeys" and people in a certain country are "all kangaroos." I think that Chinese civilization is very great, and foreign civilizations are wild and violent. "

  Liu Yue said that due to the good performance, Yao Yuxiang was promoted to department manager in 2013 and led a small team responsible for customer development, with a high income.

  However, after the promotion, Yao Yuxiang was not at ease with his original job in a futures company. The Beijing News reporter searched and found that Yao Yuxiang had posted online in 2013 and called on investment circles to discuss quantitative investment and programmatic trading techniques.

  In the same year, Yao Yuxiang, together with several other partners, founded a quantitative trading company. Tianyanzhan revealed that in May 2013, Nanjing Xinliang Software Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xinliang Software) was established, and Yao Yuxiang and other five shareholders served as shareholders. Its business scope includes software development and sales, information system integration, and computer technology consulting.

  Li Yang (pseudonym), a partner of Xinliang Software, told the Beijing News reporter that the company was established under the advice of Yao Yuxiang. Its main business is the production of futures trading software, and Yao Yuxiang is responsible for personnel and sales.

  When starting his own business, Yao Yuxiang had not yet left his position from China Southern Futures. Liu Yue remembers that Yao Yuxiang used the office of Nanfang Futures as the office space of the startup. "The startup ’s hydropower cost is all in the head of Nanzheng Futures. Yao Yuxiang has no new performance and was reduced to an ordinary salesperson."

  In the second half of 2013, Yao Yuxiang resigned from China Southern Futures. Li Yang remembers that Yao Yuxiang once said to him, "I love culture, I don't want to participate in the 'customs' of starting a company or doing business", but want to spread the Chinese traditional culture through my own strength and maintain my life by writing articles. .

  At that time, Li Yang also persuaded Yao Yuxiang that the probability of success in writing was too low, but Yao Yuxiang insisted. In the end, Yao Yuxiang took out a share repurchase fee and exited Xinliang Software. According to the data of Tianyanchao, in July 2014, Yao Yuxiang withdrew from Xinliang Software's shareholder list.

  Founded to the Taoist Palace, and made a lot of violent speeches

  After leaving the securities and futures industry, Yao Yuxiang suspected of having a "cultivation" experience. Li Yang remembers that Yao Yuxiang told him that after he left the company, he did not look for his next job, but instead "become a Taoist or something in the mountains."

  Chen Shuhua (pseudonym), a staff member of Zhidao Academy, also said that Yao Yuxiang had spoken publicly in a group. After resigning, he went to a Zhenqi Institute to study Taoism and Qigong. Later, Chen Shuhua had the opportunity to come into contact with this research The teacher of the institute, "The teacher said that Yao Yuxiang was quite sensible and was the class leader of that session." On May 31, a reporter from the Beijing News contacted the admissions staff of the institute.

  A copy of the enrollment materials for the "Rehabilitation Journey" of the Qiqi Research Institute obtained by a reporter from the Beijing News shows that the "Refinery Journey" will visit the remains of Taoist Taoist Chen Tuan, who was a famous Taoist scholar and regimen in the Northern Song Dynasty. It has a great influence on Song agent. It is worth noting that Chen Tuan was given the title of "Mr. Bai Yun" by Song Taizong and Zhao Guangyi.

  This may have had an impact on Yao Yuxiang after he founded the Taoist Palace and took the pen name "Mr. Bai Yun". On January 1, 2017, Yao Yuxiang said in an article entitled "The Road to Fire and Fire" that the reason for the pseudonym is because what you want to do is very similar to what Chen Tuan did that year.

  He once described the experience of monasticism in an article on "How to Get Started in Taoist Cultivation", saying that "Daode Jing", "Zhuangzi", "Yellow Emperor's Internal Classics" and "Yellow Emperor's Yin Fu Jing" had a great influence on himself. He once tried "refining qi", "True qi will start on its own. Walking and lying down, and the governor's cycle, are all turning. Later, I felt that such an old turn is not right. He forced to suppress the true qi and not let it practice on his own. ."

  While training, Yao Yuxiang began to write articles about traditional culture. A screenshot from Zhihu shows that as of April 2015, Yao Yuxiang has answered 321 questions and wrote 62 articles on Zhihu, covering religion and traditional culture. Currently, Yao Yuxiang's account in Zhihu has been banned.

  In October 2015, Yao Yuxiang switched to the WeChat platform and established the official account of the Taoist Academy. In a later article, he stated that the establishment of Zhixue Palace was to "remain the original and clear the source, revive and promote the orthodox Chinese thought and culture." Zhidao Xuegong will mainly focus on the pre-Qin Zhuzi theory, "After finishing the Taoist Confucianism, and then talk about the seven books of military strategists, military strategists, and Wu Jing." "What" series of articles.

  At the end of 2015, Cheng Hong (a pseudonym), a fan of traditional culture, saw an article on Zhidao Xuegong's interpretation of Dao De Jing on WeChat. He was very interested and paid attention. Through the entrance of "same heritage" at the bottom of the public account page, Cheng Hong added the WeChat friend of Mr. Bai Yun's assistant, and was subsequently pulled into a reader QQ group.

  Many readers are attracted like Cheng Hong. From the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016, the number of fans to Daoxue Palace quickly accumulated. Two or three months after Cheng Hong joined the fan group, the first QQ group was full, and then opened two groups and three groups. Finally, the fan base was transferred to WeChat.

  Cheng Hong applied to join the group management team. At most, he managed 4 WeChat groups. He said that the management team's work includes developing more group members, forwarding Yao Yuxiang's articles, and sometimes complaining or grouping attacks on articles and chat groups that have different opinions from Zhidao Xuegong.

  Yao Yuxiang often makes some personal remarks in the group. A group of friends sorted out some records of Yao Yuxiang's speeches in 2016. Yao Yuxiang once said that if people do not spread their own genes, "it is against the virtue of heaven and earth." He also claimed that keeping pets and treating them as family members "puts human relationships under the beasts." He believes that if all the pets raised by people in the city are killed and the money is spent on children in the countryside, "then nutrition problems and education problems are all solved."

  From 2016, the content of articles to Dao Xue Gong has changed. In February of that year, Yao Yuxiang said in an article that the style of writing will change next. "Jingxue's writings will be put aside for the time being. In reality, more attention and observation will be given to what is happening."

  Since then, Dao Xue Gong began to turn to time-reviewed articles. In the following year, Zhidao Xuegong published "Japan's disease is cancerous, Japan has become an incurable sick man in East Asia", "China-U.S. Dispute has actually lost its suspense", "The United States has become the largest zombie economy Body, from falling down and only waiting for the last blow "," G20, at the crossroads of tearing and rebirth "and many other articles with fierce language and extreme style.

  These contents have brought extensive attention and great benefits to Zhidao Academy. On New Year's Day in 2017, Yao Yuxiang said in an annual review article that in December 2016, the number of public accounts had reached 4.5 million, and it is estimated that the number of articles in 2016 will reach tens of millions.

  Li Yang had met Yao Yuxiang in 2016. At that time, Yao Yuxiang, who was wearing a robe and wearing hair buns with hairpins on his head, told him that he now has an average reward of more than 10,000 yuan per article and an annual income of more than one million yuan. In response to this statement, the Beijing News reporter has not interviewed other sources to corroborate.

  However, in January of this year, after WeChat opened the payment function of the public account article, according to the statistics of the new list, Zhidao Xuegong only received an income of 71,648 yuan with the article "Forecasts and Prospects of the New World System". From January 15 to Ranked second in the February 5 time period, far above the average of 3064 yuan.

  Started corporate operation, colleagues called each other, no air conditioning in summer

  In 2018, Zhidao Xuegong officially started its corporate operation. In April 2018, Shanghai Code, with 99% of shares held by Yao Yuxiang, was established. In August of the same year, Jiangsu Code, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Code, was established.

  An internal document obtained by a reporter from the Beijing News shows that in 2018, Jiangsu Youtong had a total of 4 departments, namely a resource center, content center, operation center, and Beijing subsidiary, with a total of 17 employees.

  Many of these employees came because they admired "Mr. Bai Yun" Yao Yuxiang. Lu Hao (pseudonym), who used to be the person in charge of content, told the Beijing News that he saw an article from Zhidao Xue Gong at the end of 2017, thinking that he interpreted traditional culture very well and "respected him in his heart". Later he saw Zhi The Taoist palace recruited people and then submitted their resumes.

  Although he is the person in charge of content, Lu Hao did not come into contact with the articles published in the Taoist palace. A number of interviewees from Jiangsu Youtong said that the official account of Zhidao Academy was controlled by Yao Yuxiang alone, and others could not log in. The article was also written by Yao Yuxiang, "Yao Yuxiang can't look down on what others have written," Lu Hao said.

  Lu Hao is responsible for making the media matrix, including Taoluo School and Taoluo Academy, which were both closed at the same time as Zhidao Academy, as well as building the matrix of each number's headline and Weibo, "mainly doing some expansion The peripheral work of these is mainly based on forwarding Yao Yuxiang's historical articles. "

  Li Hua (pseudonym) who worked in Youtong, Jiangsu then told the Beijing News reporter that during her work, she was mainly responsible for accessing traditional culture-related materials online. In addition, after Yao Yuxiang has written the article, she will be asked to carry out segmentation, proofreading and other work, and then give it to Yao Yuxiang for publication.

  In the company, Yao Yuxiang has established many rules. A number of employees said that Yao Yuxiang stipulated that employees should not call him the boss, but "Mr."; employees should not call each other by names, but "Tongdao".

  What puzzled the staff most was that in the office space they rented at the time, Yao Yuxiang refused to install air conditioning, saying that the ancients used ice to relieve the heat. In the hottest summer in Nanjing, Yao Yuxiang asked people to pull big ice cubes to relieve the heat, but the effect was not good.

  This special habit can be found in a question and answer article by Yao Yuxiang. He stated in the article that the air conditioner is a "false evil thief wind." "Summer does not raise the sun and blows the thief wind to hurt the yang. Such a life does not last long. Don't blow the electric fan, the electric fan is more evil.

  Although many rules are weird, many employees in the company are convinced by Yao Yuxiang. Li Hua said that some colleagues follow Yao Yuxiang, “all feel that they are saving the world, take the world as their own responsibility, have a blind worship of traditional Chinese culture, and regard Mr. Bai Yun as a faith.”

  Li Hua once tentatively asked a colleague if he felt that the content written by Yao Yuxiang was a bit extreme, but "he said, sir said that in times of trouble, you should use heavy codes, and not writing extreme points can't cause people to wake up."

  After starting the corporatization operation, the Zhidao Academy system was expanded. In addition to the establishment of a public account matrix, a classic reading app was also developed. Lu Hao needs to be responsible for the content of the canonical reading. He said that the canonical reading app is aimed at people who are interested in traditional culture. The content is relatively mild compared to the Zhidao Academy. "We will evade some of the more contradictory and sharp issues. "

  Li Hua also participated in the content production of the classic reading app, including stories of ancient sages, health care of traditional Chinese medicine, etc. "Let us write some short stories about the treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, but where do we understand medicine, (have to) fight together. I When I thought about the cures that those people saw afterwards were written by people like me who didn't understand anything, I felt uneasy and felt that things on the Internet were too untrustworthy. "After working for a month or two, Li Hua left .

  Later, the content produced by Li Hua will be recorded as audio, and will be launched in the classic reading app. The software focuses on the output of audio content of Chinese classic books, including four categories: daily study, classic study, cultural knowledge and life compulsory. Ordinary users can only read free books. Only after the membership is opened at the price of 448 yuan / year, can they read the members' exclusive books. An employee recalled that there were probably thousands of people who bought members.

  Not only that, Zhidao Academy also opened up more income channels. By scanning the QR code to the end of the Taoist palace, the reporter from the Beijing News entered a product page called the Taolu course. The course was conducted in the form of audio reading. According to the introduction, the Taolu course focuses on "Sushu", "Guiguzi" and "Sunzi Art of War", with a subscription price of 200 yuan per issue. There is also a new media writing training camp course with a subscription price of 999 yuan.

  An employee interviewed said that Taolu ’s course income is very impressive. “It ’s about 1,000 courses sold. There are many fans and employees who are also helping to sell, because there is a commission of 20 to 30 yuan for selling one class.”

  Offline development was frustrated, and I wanted to use fan resources

  In mid-to-late 2018, Zhidao Xuegong was not satisfied with developing online only, and began planning offline schools and holding offline fan meetings to recruit collaborators with resources.

  In June of that year, the official account of Zhidao Xuegong released the "Announcement for Calling Schools", announcing that it would gradually open up a standardized full-time teaching institution from kindergarten to middle school in the future. "The final long-term plan also includes the establishment of a university."

  Yao Yuxiang wrote in September of that year that the first step in the industry's landing at the Taoist Academy was to run Mongolian schools and run colleges. The ultimate goal was to "let the Chinese civilization win the competition of the global cultural industry and restore the traditional culture to life", but the strength is limited, hope Get help from talents, funds, and venues.

  At that time, the fans in the reader group all saw the announcement issued by the administrator, hoping that readers who have the resources and are interested in providing help will participate in the offline meeting to discuss the project in person. Guo Song (pseudonym), a senior reader in Beijing, signed up. He was dragged into a "Beijing discussion group" and filled out an application form.

  The registration form not only counts the basic information of the readers, but also includes the graduated colleges and employment units, as well as social resources, whether there is a suitable cultural tourism project venue, whether there is management experience, and the availability of time. Chen Shuhua said that more than 900 readers from the Daoxue Palace across the country signed up for the offline meeting.

  On November 10 of that year, Guo Song held a "Tongdao Reading Club" in Beijing. He recalled that the meeting was held in a tea house, and there were about 40 or 50 people attending the meeting. Some people are dressed in Hanfu, and some claim to be business executives.

  In the morning, the staff of Zhidao Xuegong introduced the idea of ​​the project, and proposed to build a Beijing cultural hub as an offline event venue and social gathering place for Zhidao Xuegong. In the afternoon, the participating readers discussed in groups to share what resources they can bring to Zhidao Academy. Guo Song remembered that the participants were all discussing resource replacement and business models. A restaurant owner proposed that he would cooperate with Zhidao Academy to open a restaurant on the theme of Guoxue.

  After the meeting, the team at Daoxuegong began to advance the preparation work in full swing. A chat record obtained by a reporter from the Beijing News shows that on November 24, a staff member issued a notice of equity recruitment in the Beijing discussion group. It is said that the site selection of the Beijing Cultural Hub project will open 20% of the equity, raise 3 million yuan, and the minimum investment threshold is 100,000 yuan per person. This fee will be used for the rental and renovation of cultural hub projects.

  Later, Yao Yuxiang said in the group that the total number of shareholders should be limited to 50 people to avoid illegal fund-raising. Later, another staff member designed a "military merit system" reward system and awarded points based on volunteer performance. Points will be converted to the corresponding rank after the company is officially established.

  However, this assumption was not successful. A chat screenshot shows that on December 7, Yao Yuxiang announced the dismissal of two employees of the operation center. Since then, no new voices have been heard from the cultural hub project.

  Li Kai (pseudonym), a staff member involved in the Beijing project, told the Beijing News reporter that the reason for the failure of the project is that the participants lacked experience, did not know how to proceed, and the environment was not mature. No venues, no teachers. Later everyone thought it was fine. "Another reason was that someone in the project team tried to use this to collect money." Some people came in with the purpose of making money, worrying about the project being used by villains, and felt that there was no need to take risks. Stopped."

  Li Kai said that because the project was not done, no one officially contributed. The expenses incurred in the preparation process are shared by AA. Due to the setback of the Beijing project, the follow-up landing projects in other regions have not been completed.

  On June 1, a reporter from the Beijing News once again called Yao Yuxiang, whom he had previously contacted, but the phone reminded that the phone was turned off. In addition, the reporter also tried to contact the Jiangsu Youtong legal representative, executive director Yao Peng, and many other company employees who were shown by Tianyancha. The above employees did not respond to this matter.

  A10-A11 edition written / Beijing News reporter Haiyang intern Zhao Xiangzhuo Manman