The story of Ding Zhaozhong's ancestral home has deep roots

【China Story】

Author: Ye Mei (Former Editor-in-Chief of Ethnic Literature)

When he came to old age, Ding Zhaozhong was still tall, and the moment he pushed open the door, he tilted his head sideways, opened his eyes and looked into the courtyard with a curious look. In fact, he had returned more than once, but every time he stepped into this gate, he seemed to suddenly become younger, as if he were still the teenager.

Illustration: Guo Hongsong

This is his ancestral home. Ding Zhaozhong, who once won the Nobel Prize in Physics, this world-famous scientist with Chinese blood flowing on his body, has his roots here.

In the early summer sun, in a small town called Tao Luo in Rizhao, Shandong, I stood in front of the clean doorway and looked at the Ding family compound built in the twenty-fourth year of the Qing Dynasty (1898). The open door was flanked by a pair of dark red paper letters: "Poetry book inherited from generation to generation, loyal to the family", and then looked up, the black background gilded plaque hanging on the lintel was dignified and dignified, and the five big words were written: Ding Zhaozhong Ancestral Residence.

The town of Taoluo, Luo is Luo, Luoshui also, Taoluo can be described as the shore of the Yellow Sea, the wave of Luoshui. Tao Luo's Ding family has continued here for generations. According to legend, in the Han Dynasty, a salt official was established here, and during the Song and Jin Dynasties, Taoluo Town was set up to communicate with Japan, South Korea and other places. During the Kangxi Dynasty, Jinshi Ding Taisuo asked the imperial court to agree to expand the scale of shipping, and for a time The Tao Luo merchants gathered, the cargo voyage was frequent, and nearly a hundred large and small businesses were opened in the town at its peak, and there were official offices such as "East Customs" and "Lijin Bureau", which soon became a commercial town in the south of Rizhao, named after "the first light of the sunrise". The Ding family is a famous family from Tao Luo to Rizhao, the ancestors have repeatedly entered the army and raised people, Ding Zhaozhong's grandfather and maternal grandfather are full of poetry books, his father Ding Guanhai is a civil engineer who knows about gewuzhi, his mother Wang Junying is a professor of psychology of Xiaoda intellectuality, and the family science and family style of the Ding family's ancestral home are famous.

Tile brick floor, breeze passing, childhood footprints picked up by him one by one, a pair of large hands that have been doing experiments for many years with his wife and children, through the gate, the second door, the third door of the compound, looking left and right, where to see enough? I could faintly hear the crying of the babies in the west room, the mother's kind words, the aunts under the jujube tree in the courtyard calling, the brothers around the father's knees, and the sound of reading under the green shade... The white colt crossed the gap, the feet were still the solid earth, the wind was still in the clouds in the trees, but the people were far away, how could they not help but sprinkle a handful of hot tears on this ancestral home? With his sideburns fading, he stood in front of the tomb of his grandfather Ding Luxun, and on the black tombstone was engraved the inscription he had personally written: "Remembering my grandfather, a man who encouraged his family to contribute to the world." He turned his head, stared at his tall, muscular son, and said slowly, "Yourrootishere (your roots are here). ”

Roots in China. Their parents named their brother Ding Zhaozhong, Ding Zhaohua, and Ding Zhaomin, which means ardently, such as the name of the accompanying. The will left by their mother to their brothers is more clear: "Love the motherland, love science, double love and double glory."

Ding Zhaozhong was deeply grateful to his parents, saying: "In my life, the one who has influenced me the most is my mother. He also wrote in the article "Remembrance": "My father's greatest influence on me was that he guided me to the work and achievements of great scientists when I was a teenager, and always gave great support to everything I did, so it should be said that he was my enlightenment teacher." ”

The teachings of his parents influenced Ding Zhaozhong's life.

He became the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics, and in his speech at the award ceremony, he insisted on using Chinese despite many dissatisfactions and obstructions. This is the first time in the history of the Nobel Prize ceremony. When Ding Zhaozhong's Chinese speech echoed in the award hall, his scientific achievements for all mankind and his infinite affection for the motherland won a long warm applause from the audience.

"Love the motherland, love science, double love and double glory", the heaviest entrustment left by a mother to her children, how can Ding Zhaozhong not work hard?

In the Ding family's ancestral home, I remembered that a few years ago, during the interview and writing of the long-form reportage "The Great Collision - The Beginning and End of the Construction of the Beijing Positron-Electron Collider", I heard several famous high-energy physicists talk about Mr. Ding Zhaozhong's patriotic deeds.

In the summer of 1977, Ding Zhaozhong, who had just won the Nobel Prize in Physics, returned to China and was personally received by Deng Xiaoping. During his visit to China, he suggested to Deng Xiaoping that the Chinese Academy of Sciences send physicists to participate in his MARK-J experiment in Hamburg, Germany, which was immediately recognized. The following year, the first batch of high-energy physics visiting scholars Tang Xiaowei, Zheng Zhipeng and 10 other people went to Hamburg, Germany, and participated in research work in the laboratory led by Professor Ding for nearly two years.

In September 1979, Ding Zhaozhong returned to China to visit china again, this time with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to determine that a group of young scholars are sent to his laboratory every year to study and train, commonly known as "Ding Training Class". After examination and selection, 25 fresh graduate students such as Chen Hesheng were admitted that year. The "Ding Training Class" has trained a large number of high-energy physics experimental talents for China, and people call them "Ding Zhaozhong Scholars". The China Institute of High Energy Physics later had three directors, Zheng Zhipeng, Chen Hesheng, and Wang Yifang, all of whom were students of Ding Zhaozhong.

Zheng Zhipeng, the first selected, was working at the Synchrotron Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, under the leadership of Ding Zhaozhong, and was in charge of a sub-detector in the experiment. Zheng Zhipeng remembers that Mr. Ding paid close attention to the study and experiments of these 10 young Chinese scientists, and every day at about ten o'clock in the morning, Tie Would definitely call the laboratory to ask: Is there any problem, how is the experiment going? If there is a problem, he will rush over immediately and solve it with everyone himself.

Zheng Zhipeng they have been successful in China, but the work in Mr. Ding is to start from plugging in cables, the detector has tens of thousands of cables, can not insert a wrong one, each time inserted, you have to repeat two verbal reports, saying "plugged in right", and then repeat "plugged in right", two people must be inserted at the same time, mutual response, repeated inspection. Mr. Ding watched from the sidelines, pointed out from time to time, and said many times: "Those of us who are engaged in experimental physics must be hard, hardworking, and serious. He also said, "You must practice, you must do your work and study at the same time, so that you can remember." The lab can go with books, but you can't just read books and do experiments. ”

Zheng Zhipeng studied and experimented with Ding Zhaozhong for two years, benefiting him for life.

At the Institute of High Energy Physics, I also interviewed two other students of Ding Zhaozhong, one is Chen Hesheng, The first postdoctoral fellow in China, and the other is the current director Wang Yifang, who are full of gratitude when they talk about their mentor Ding Zhaozhong, saying that Mr. Ding has taught them the best training. Wang Yifang has worked in Mr. Ding for 11 years and has a deep and tacit understanding. As soon as he walked out of the university, he came to work next to Mr. Ding, came into contact with the working methods and research environment of this world-class scientist, felt his dedication to his work and pursuit of science, and felt particularly deeply.

Wang Yifang said that Mr. Ding often held meetings of twenty or thirty people, and the scope was not particularly large — the effect of large meetings was limited. At the meeting, he would issue a series of questions, sometimes making it almost impossible for people to get off the stage, but the participants benefited a lot and could observe his way of thinking. The average person is often prone to getting caught up in the details and not being able to come out, and for him, although the details are important - he will ensure that the details are not problematic, but at any time he will not forget the main line. Mr. Ding treats people with measure. People who are closer to him tend to be "tortured" by him, but he is more tolerant of older or too young students. The most demanding he demands is his associate professor, because the associate professor has matured. He can always ask you down, the way he asks, the angle and the way of thinking are not the same as the average person, he thinks deeper and farther, and he will always put the most fundamental physical problems first. Mr. Ding made them understand, "You must always have that main string in your head." ”

Mr. Ding is fond of students, he does not stick to the wine, but he likes to invite students to dinner, and does not talk about work when eating, only small talk. He mentioned many times, "Over the past four thousand years, China has made many important contributions to the history of human natural development, and it will certainly make greater contributions in the future." I hope to cultivate more talents for China within the time I can work." After returning to China, his students did a good job: they successfully built China's first large scientific device, the Beijing Positron-Positron Collider, pioneered China's neutrino experimental research, proposed the daya Bay reactor neutrino experimental scheme and led the team to complete design, development, operation and physical research, made outstanding contributions in the field of particle physics experiments, won many international and domestic awards, and so on.

One by one, "Ding Zhaozhong scholars" shined on the scientific stage.

All this is enough to comfort the ancestors.

History has left amazing memories, and the story of the Ding family's ancestral home has deep roots. As the head of the Rizhao Wang clan, the Tao Luo Ding family style was reflected in the "Eight Repairs [Rizhao Ding Clan Family Ride] Proposal": "All my Rizhao Ding clan people, whether in the mainland, Taiwan or overseas, have made outstanding contributions to their hometown for the motherland, and are currently under the great goal of realizing the four modernizations, building a harmonious society, and promoting the reunification of the motherland, they are of one heart and one mind, do their best, and contribute their respective strengths." ”

Ding Zhaozhong returned to the motherland again and again, and also returned to the ancestral home of Rizhao Taoluo again and again.

Once, he said to his son, who came with him: "Americans like to go to Europe, that is, to find their ancestors; and when you come to China, you also look for your own ancestors." ”

Blue sky, blue sea, golden beach, he walked on the land of Rizhao with great interest, feeling that since he was a child, he listened to his father and aunts talk about the good of Rizhao hometown, it turned out that the air was really fresh, the scenery was beautiful, and it was constantly developing and progressing. He participated in the construction of Rizhao in a variety of ways, personally participated in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Rizhao Science and Technology Museum, and presented the world's only full-size "magnetic spectrometer on the black hole" model to the Science and Technology Museum, and a large number of ding Zhaozhong's scientific report materials were also preserved in the Science and Technology Museum. He hoped that "young Rizhao people will understand what science is, why science is done, and the significance of science to the development of future society, so as to turn Rizhao into an advanced science city."

In 2011, Ding Zhaozhong presided over the construction of the second Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), which was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and began its mission on the International Space Station - to find antimatter and dark matter. At 5:00 p.m. Geneva time on April 3, 2013, Ding Zhaozhong announced for the first time the results of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Project in 18 years – the 400,000 positrons that have been discovered may come from a common source, that is, pulsars or dark matter that people have been looking for. A few years later, AMS has collected more than 100 billion cosmic rays in space, and these major discoveries have once again changed humanity's understanding of the universe.

Ding Zhaozhong, as his grandfather wished, became a person who contributed to the world. The people of Rizhao are enthusiastically recording what he has done, the newly built Rizhao Science and Technology Museum, the main shape is from Ding Zhaozhong to explore the concept of alpha magnetic spectrometer of the origin of the universe, the shape is like a high-speed rotating particle, the building structure is five arches, six circles, seven channels and a dome, respectively, showing Ding Zhaozhong's five representative experiments that have a huge impact on the development of world physics, expressing the scientific concepts of exploration, discovery, experimentation and truth-seeking.

It is very interesting that the wonderful cosmic phenomenon "sunrise first light" and dark matter converge here. And Ding Zhaozhong, who came out of the ancestral home of Rizhao Taoluo, also always watched his hometown in this way, just like the message he and his family wrote together in the Ding family's ancestral home that year: "The tree is thousands of feet high, and the leaves fall back to the roots." ”

Guangming Daily ( 2021-09-17 edition 14)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily