Qian Xuesen is a great scientist known as the "father of spaceflight" and the "father of missiles" on the mainland. However, Qian Xuesen, who graduated from beijing Normal University High School, began studying railway mechanical engineering at the National Jiaotong University in Shanghai.
Towards the end of the summer vacation of his freshman year, Qian Xuesen developed a high fever of 39 ° C to 40 ° C, headaches, diarrhea, and rose rash spots on the skin. Doctors diagnosed typhoid fever. In order to treat his illness, Qian Xuesen had to take a year off from school.
For qian Xuesen, who is diligent and studious, taking a leave of absence is not only a great opportunity to recuperate his body, but also a beautiful time to recuperate his temperament. Taking advantage of the suspension time, Qian Xuesen learned to paint and learn music, laying a good artistic foundation.
After resuming school, under the mobilization of his classmate Lin Jin, Qian Xuesen joined the school brass band and learned to play the alto horn. In 1933, Jiaotong University's "List of Members of the Military Band", "List of Members of the Student Union Orchestra", "List of Members of the Song and Poetry Society", and "List of Harmonica Clubs" all have Qian Xuesen's name.
Qian Xuesen (front row, first from left) in the Jiaotong University Brass Band
The love of music did not affect Qian Xuesen's professional academic performance. Qian Xuesen's grades are always at the top of the class.
Students with good academic performance are not only professional in their eyes. Because of his good grades, Qian Xuesen received a scholarship, but he took the money to buy the Russian composer Glazunov's record "Concert Round Dance".
Because of his obsession with music, Qian Xuesen also published a music article "Music and the Content of Music" in Zhejiang Youth" "without doing business". It was 1935, and Qian Xuesen was 24 years old. Whether it is from the perspective of the mechanical engineering railway gate of Jiaotong University, where he has graduated, or from the aviation department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that he has been admitted to, Qian Xuesen and music seem to be incompatible.
But life has a main business, and a side job; there is a job, and there are hobbies. Because the things that arise from common hobbies are often wonderful and make people unable to help themselves.
Just when Qian Xuesen was preparing to go to the United States to study, Jiang Baili, a close friend of his father Qian Junfu, brought his third daughter, Jiang Ying, to visit him. Jiang Ying is 8 years younger than Qian Xuesen, which is the age of girls, and what is rare and valuable is that Jiang Ying naturally carries the charm of everyone's boudoir.
Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying had a good conversation, and the two found a common topic - music.
At that time, Jiang Ying was already able to play a good piano, and Qian Xuesen, who could blow out pleasant notes with a horn, could be described as like-minded.
Jiang Ying
In fact, Qian Xuesen and Jiang Yingxiao had a period of time together, perhaps less or less, and they did not get along well.
Qian Xuesen's father Qian Junfu and Jiang Ying's father Jiang Baili were classmates of Hangzhou Qiushi Academy (the predecessor of Zhejiang University) and were very good. After Qian Junfu got married, he only had his only son, Qian Xuesen, and Jiang Baili had a daughter of "five golden flowers" after marriage. Qian Junfu and his wife wanted to have a daughter, so they consulted with Jiang Baili and his wife and chose one of the five flowers to be the daughter of the Qian family.
Qian Junfu and his wife chose Jiang Ying, the third daughter of the Jiang family, and Zheng'er Ba'er ran a banquet and went through the succession procedure. After Jiang Ying arrived at Qian's house, he changed his name to "Qian Xueying". At that time, Qian Xuesen was 13 years old, Qian Xueying was 5 years old, and a little boy and a little girl became brother and sister. The brothers and sisters couldn't play together. The brother plays the harmonica, the sister also wants to play, the brother does not give, the sister will make trouble. Dad saw his brother bullying his sister, so he bought another harmonica for his sister.
After a while like this, Jiang Baili and his wife thought about their daughter and told the Qian family that they wanted to take Jiang Ying back. Jiang Ying was very happy after hearing about it, and felt that his home was much more lively than the Qian family.
Although the Qian family is reluctant to do so, it is not easy to force it. Qian Xuesen's mother, Zhang Lanjuan, came out to face Jiang Baili and his wife and said that the two families should make a deal:
"You old three, when you grow up, I am my daughter, and I will have to be my daughter-in-law in the future."
Since then, Jiang Ying has called Qian Xuesen's parents Gan Dad and Gan Ma, and Qian Xuesen's brother Gan.
Jiang Ying and Qian Xuesen, who called each other brothers and sisters, gradually broke off contact and became farther and farther away because of their respective studies.
Before Qian Xuesen went to the United States, Jiang Ying met with him, and the two had music as a bridge, which was very talkative. But Qian Xuesen will not give up overseas study because of music, he bid farewell to Jiang Ying and went to the United States. In the second year of Qian Xuesen's study in the United States, she was admitted to the vocal music department of the State University of Music berlin and studied Western bel canto singing in Germany.
The third daughter, Jiang Ying, studied in Germany, but her father, Jiang Baili, went to the United States to do an unexpected thing. At that time, Jiang Baili was a senior adviser to the Military Commission, and he conducted military research in Various European and American countries. Busy sneaking around, Jiang Baili took his wife to a special trip to Los Angeles and went to the California Institute of Technology to visit Qian Xuesen.
Jiang Baili
At that time, Qian Xuesen had obtained a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, transferred to the California Institute of Technology, and threw himself into the door of von Carmen, an authority on aeronautical theory research, to study aerodynamics.
Jiang Baili saw Qian Xuesen and gave Qian Xuesen a special gift - a photo of his third daughter Jiang Ying.
For his father's strange and unsurprising behavior, Jiang Ying said: "For Xuesen, my father has some ideas. He went to the United States to investigate, went to xuesen's school, and gave him my picture. ”
Jiang Baili's help to Qian Xuesen is not only in this regard, in Qian Xuesen's academic choices, Jiang Baili is also a meritorious minister. Qian Junfu did not approve of his son Qian Xuesen's change from aeronautical engineering to aviation theory, believing that the country had reached an important juncture of critical survival, and his son should delve deeply into aeronautical engineering and should not embark on the road of theory alone.
Qian Xuesen took the opportunity of his father's friend coming to his side and told Jiang Baili in detail about his ideas.
After Jiang Baili returned to China, he saw Qian Junfu and said to Qian Junfu: "Xuesen's turn is right, but your idea is outdated." The aviation trend in European and American countries has entered the unity of engineering and theory, and engineering has followed the theory. Moreover, the United States is a rich country, China is a poor country, the United States builds an airplane, if there is a new discovery in theory, it can be dismantled and transformed immediately, we in China can not do it. Therefore Chinese it makes sense to study aviation and process it in theory. ”
After Qian Junfu listened, he no longer opposed Qian Xuesen. The effect of this matter can be said to be immediate, but Jiang Baili sent the photo of his third daughter to Qian Xuesen, but there was no news.
Qian Xuesen saw Jiang Ying again, 11 years later, in 1947. In 1947, Qian Xuesen, who had just become the youngest tenured professor at MIT, returned to China during the summer vacation of that year to visit his relatives.
After the 36-year-old Qian Xuesen returned home, the topic that the Qian family was most concerned about was whether Jiang Ying had a boyfriend.
Jiang Ying, who returned to China a year earlier than Qian Xuesen, held his first solo concert after returning to China at the Shanghai Lyceum Theater, becoming a rookie in the Shanghai music scene in one fell swoop. There are naturally not a few people chasing Jiang Ying, and there may not be one that Jiang Ying looks up to.
Jiang Ying in singing
Similar to Jiang Baili's photo of Qian Xuesen, Qian Junfu sent Hangzhou snacks to the Jiang family every week. Qian Xuesen did not know how to send things, but it did not prevent him from often going to Jiang's house to play.
There were enthusiastic people who asked the Jiang family to introduce a girlfriend to Qian Xuesen, and Jiang Ying and his sister really introduced one to Qian Xuesen. Qian Xuesen was embarrassed to look at the girl and blindly chatted with Jiang Ying.
Chatting and chatting, Qian Xuesen finally plucked up enough courage to say a word to Jiang Ying: "You go to the United States with me!" Jiang Ying asked rhetorically, "Why did you go to the United States with you?" I'm going to be alone for a while, so let's communicate first! Qian Xuesen replied to Jiang Ying with only one sentence: "No, go now, follow me to the United States." ”
In the face of Qian Xuesen's repeated and accurate attacks, Jiang Ying surrendered. What Jiang Ying embraced was the love that Qian Xuesen gave her that could not be more simple.
The younger sister is not optimistic about Jiang Ying's love, and thinks that her sister will not be happy when she marries Qian Xuesen, on the grounds that someone has introduced a girlfriend to Qian Xuesen in the United States, and as a result, Qian Xuesen lost the object on the road.
Perhaps it is the lover's eyes that are out of the west, Jiang Ying's criteria for judging Qian Xuesen are different, she believes that learned people are good people.
On September 17, 1947, Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying, two brothers and sisters who had been reunited for only 6 weeks, entered the marriage hall and held a wedding ceremony.
Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying at the wedding
Less than 10 days after the marriage, Qian Xuesen flew to the United States on September 26 to return to MIT. More than a month later, Jiang Ying went to the United States to meet with Qian Xuesen, and Qian Xuesen gave Jiang Ying a black grand piano.
Mentor von Carmen commented that the newly married Qian Xuesen "changed a person,
Jiang Ying was really a cute girl, and Qian Xuesen was completely fascinated by him.
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Outsiders can only see the outside, and only the inside can see the inside. Jiang Ying recalled the first day she went to the United States to meet her husband: Qian Xuesen settled Jiang Ying and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for classes. In the evening, Qian Xuesen returned and took Jiang Ying out to dinner. After returning home from eating, at more than eight o'clock, Qian Xuesen made a cup of tea, said "see you back" to Jiang Ying, and then went into the study alone and closed the door, and was busy in the study until 12 o'clock at night.
This habit, Qian Xuesen maintained for more than 60 years. In 1955, after Qian Xuesen's family returned to China, they engaged in missiles, and when they became the "rocket king," the work presided over by Qian Xuesen was even more important, and Qian Xuesen's time was even more precious.
Elderly Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying
The more important the work, the greater the pressure. "How blessed I am!" Qian Xuesen said:
"When I encounter difficulties in a job and can't figure it out, it is often Jiang Ying's singing that makes me suddenly enlightened and enlightened."
What about Jiang Ying, what did she feel from her marriage to Qian Xuesen?
"Our spare time is always full of art. Somehow, what I like, he likes too. ”
The wife supports the husband's work, the husband likes the wife's hobbies, such a couple, what a happy couple!