What has changed in love is not only Wu Mengchao's application for the exam, but also his life trajectory.
| Author: Feng Qunxing
| Editor: Xu Ye
| Editor: Ling Yun
On January 20th, the memorial and burial ceremony of Academician Wu Mengchao and his wife Professor Wu Peiyu, the "Father of Liver Surgery in China", was held in Shanghai.
Both Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu graduated from the Medical School of National Tongji University and are both lovers and peers. From adolescence to old age, they have always helped each other and forged ahead together, one becoming an expert in hepatobiliary surgery and the other becoming an expert in obstetrics and gynecology.
No matter how busy and tired, the first thing Wu Mengchao did when he arrived home was to see if Wu Peiyu was there. If so, he may not say anything; if not, his first words are to look for his wife: "Where has it gone?" ”
In August 2011 and May 2021, Wu Peiyu and Wu Mengchao passed away. Now, after 60 years of being together, they are "together" again.
"On the one hand, studying together,
On the one hand, we are in love."
Wu Mengchao was born in 1922 and was originally from Minqing County, Fujian Province. At that time, Wu Mengchao's father "went to Nanyang" to find an opportunity and temporarily left his wife and children in his hometown. When Wu Mengchao was 5 years old, the family was reunited in Malaysia.
Life in the Wu family is not easy. When he was a teenager, Wu Mengchao had been reading while helping his family sell rice noodles and cut rubber. It was also at this time that his talent was quietly revealed in an inconspicuous way: he had a pair of skillful hands, the tapping was fast and accurate, the three brothers in the family competed, and the younger brothers always cut out less rubber juice than he did.
After the "July 7 Incident", the domestic anti-war situation has always touched Wu Mengchao's heart. In the spring of 1939, he graduated from the local Guanghua Junior High School and resolutely decided to return to China. Several of his peers, first by water and then by land, arrived in Kunming in the summer of 1940.
Wu Mengchao originally wanted to go to Yan'an to join the army, but the road from Kunming to Yan'an was far away, and it was difficult to break through the heavy blockade of the Japanese army. He decided to "study to save the country" and was admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of Tongji University.
When Wu Mengchao returned to China, a letter of introduction issued by Guanghua Junior High School.
At the Affiliated Middle School of Tongji University, Wu Mengchao met a classmate named Wu Peiyu. Wu Peiyu's parents, both railway workers, moved from Zhejiang to Kunming to participate in the construction of the Yunnan-Burma Railway. Wu Peiyu was admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of Tongji University with excellent results.
In order to avoid the bombing of the Japanese army, the affiliated middle school was once moved to Sichuan with Tongji University. Along the way, Wu Mengchao took care of Wu Peiyu. As a result, Wu Peiyu learned more about this poor student who was poor but had an excellent study and a warm personality. She found that although the two grew up in different environments, they had a lot of common interests. Both sides left a good impression on each other, and in the subsequent learning process, the friendship between the two was also sublimated into love.
After graduating from middle school, Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu disagreed on their intentions to apply for the university examination. Wu Mengchao wanted to study engineering, to build houses, build railways, and engage in engineering. But Wu Peiyu resolutely studied medicine and advised Wu Mengchao to also study medicine. In the end, Wu Mengchao followed Wu Peiyu's advice, and the two were both admitted to the medical school of Tongji University.
Experimental class at Tongji University School of Medicine in the 1940s.
As the war has spread to Southeast Asia, Wu Mengchao has lost contact with his family and has no financial resources. In order to maintain his life and education, he applied for relief, sold newspapers, worked as a tutor, and helped draw pictures in Liang Sicheng's home.
At that time, there were many tea houses in Kunming, and people often gathered in the tea houses to discuss current affairs and debate, and those who lost the debate had to invite customers to drink tea. Wu Mengchao often went to the tea house with Wu Peiyu to study, so that he could not have to eat and sleep in the wind, but also read with peace of mind.
Wu Mengchao studied medicine, both to serve the country and for love. "I studied medicine mainly because I was with my girlfriend, my wife, my classmates, her family is in Kunming, and she wants to study medicine. In fact, two people study together on the one hand, and fall in love on the other hand. Wu Mengchao recalled in an interview in his later years.
In 1945, the War of Resistance Against Japan was finally victorious. That day, Wu Mengchao drank for the first time in his life, and he was very drunk. It is said that he was drunk only twice in his life, once this time and once when Shanghai was liberated four years later.
Wu Mengchao's drunkenness also made Wu Peiyu, who has watched him step by step through the difficult road of study over the years, very moved. She secretly resolved that in this life, she must cherish this passionate boy who has feelings and righteousness and indomitable perseverance.
Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu in their youth.
"It's rare to have time together,
No quarrels"
What has changed in love is not only Wu Mengchao's application for the exam, but also his life trajectory. Wu Peiyu did not expect that a lobbying for love would create a pioneer and founder of liver surgery in the mainland in the future.
After the liberation of Shanghai, the Chinese People's Liberation Army recruited surgeons to perform surgery on wounded soldiers, and Wu Mengchao, who was already practicing clinically, was also involved. According to the regulations, intern doctors cannot operate on patients, and Wu Mengchao can only use as a doctor's assistant to help patients suture wounds. Still, he genuinely felt the great help that a surgeon brought to his patients and hoped that he could become a surgeon as soon as possible.
In 1949, Wu Mengchao graduated from the medical school of Tongji University. He saw the recruitment notice published in the fourth place of the Military Management Office of the People's Liberation Army: The First Affiliated Hospital of the People's Medical College of the East China Military Region (now the First Affiliated Hospital of the Second Military Medical University) is recruiting surgical talents to the society.
Wu Mengchao excitedly told the news to Wu Peiyu, who was already his fiancée. Wu Peiyu was sincerely happy for Wu Mengchao and shed tears. Two young people walked and walked on Nanjing Road, went to people's park, and envisioned a better future by the lotus pond.
Two months later, the First Affiliated Hospital of the People's Medical College of the East China Military Region was officially opened, and Wu Mengchao, who successfully passed the interview, became a teaching assistant and resident doctor here. Wu Peiyu was also assigned to her favorite Shanghai First Maternity and Child Health Hospital by tongji University School of Medicine.
Both have achieved their ideals, and their only regret is that they can only see each other once a week due to their busy schedule and the distance of their units. When there is too much work, the two can only see each other once every two weeks. Every time they meet, they change cars several times and spend hours on the road.
Wu Mengchao (right) in surgery.
Wu Mengchao feels that he and Wu Peiyu have known each other for more than ten years, and have established a romantic relationship for many years, and it is time to start a family. However, he was a little hesitant: the two had just started their careers, would they be affected by marriage?
In the end, Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu decided to get married early. In 1951, they entered the palace of marriage. Also in this year, the People's Medical College of the East China Military Region was renamed the Second Military Medical University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and its affiliated hospital was changed to the current Changhai Hospital.
Speaking of the marriage process between the two, there is also a small episode: the hospital at that time had an unwritten rule that all resident doctors were not allowed to marry. Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu's marriage report was not approved by the hospital leaders, but they still went through the marriage procedures and conducted a simple and lively wedding with the help of their classmates. Zheng Baoqi, then the chief of surgery, gave Wu Mengchao a month's wedding leave. When Wu Mengchao returned to work after his vacation, the president believed that Wu Mengchao had violated the hospital regulations and got married without authorization, and decided to punish him and give him an administrative demerit. Later, with the efforts of Zheng Baoqi, the hospital canceled this punishment.
After marriage, Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu are still busy at work, basically only seeing each other twice a month. It was not until 1953, when Wu Peiyu was transferred to the Changhai Hospital affiliated to the Second Military Medical University as an obstetrician and gynecologist, that they ended their life of being in the same city but like a long journey.
Wu Peiyu recalled in her later years that she and Wu Mengchao never quarreled. "When I was young, I was very busy at work, and it was rare to have time to be together and not quarrel. When you are older, you know to understand and understand each other, and you will not quarrel. ”
Group photo of Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu when they got married.
"Without her support,
I have a hard time doing a good job."
During his studies at the School of Medicine of Tongji University, Wu Mengchao was deeply influenced by Professor Qiu Fazu, a famous medical scientist and the main pioneer of modern general surgery in China. Later, Qiu Fazu served as a visiting professor at the Second Military Medical University, and Wu Mengchao was able to study with the teacher again. At the suggestion of Qiu Fazu, Wu Mengchao began to work in the direction of liver surgery, and in 1958 translated and published China's first monograph on liver surgery, "Introduction to Liver Surgery".
At that time, liver surgery was still a "mysterious forbidden area" in medicine. The blood vessels in the human liver are dense, the bile ducts and lymphatic vessels are overlapped and crossed, and unexpected situations often occur during surgery, such as bleeding that cannot be blocked. How the internal structure of the liver, how many blood vessels there are, how to arrange them, are all difficult problems for external science.
After translating "Introduction to Liver Surgery", Wu Mengchao, with the support of the hospital, and two other colleagues formed a "three-person research team" aimed at tackling liver surgery. In the process of making liver specimens, they tried to perfuse the liver blood vessels with plastic materials, and then corroded off the standard tissue with a corrosive agent, so as to observe the liver structure through the plastic material left behind. However, after the liver is put into a caustic agent, the perfusion material is often corroded to a mess.
After countless failures, specimen making still has no progress. One day, Wu Mengchao got up early for morning exercise and heard the news from the radio that Chinese table tennis player Rong Guotuan had won the world championship at the World Championships in Japan. After returning home, Wu Mengchao told his wife the good news. Wu Peiyu smiled and said, "Really! Then you can buy a few table tennis for your three daughters tomorrow and come back, so that they don't always borrow balls from others when they play. ”
Wu Mengchao took his wife's words to heart. After buying table tennis, he suddenly had an epiphany: the white celluloid used to make table tennis is a nitrocellulose plastic that should also act as a perfusion!
The three-member team immediately began experimenting, and finally in 1959 successfully produced the continent's first structurally intact liver corrosion specimen using celluloid materials. By the end of the year, they had produced 108 liver specimens and 60 liver-fixed specimens. Through the production of specimens, Wu Mengchao was familiar with the internal structure of the liver and the direction of blood vessels, which laid a solid foundation for his future liver surgery.
Liver specimens made by Wu Mengchao and colleagues.
In 1960, Wu Mengchao successfully removed the liver cancer foci for a patient, becoming the first successful liver surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of the Second Military Medical University, and inventing the "intermittent hepatic hilar occlusion method at room temperature" in the same year. In 1963, he broke through the forbidden area of the "middle lobe" surgery. In 1975, he removed the largest hepatic cavernous hemangioma that had been removed at home and abroad so far, weighing 18 kg. In 1976, he took the lead in conducting 180,000 liver cancer screenings in Shanghai, and carried out research on the early diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer...
In 2005, Wu Mengchao won the first national highest science and technology award in the field of medicine and health. Until the end of his 90s, he was still fighting on the front line of surgery.
In his later years, Wu Mengchao still insisted on working in the front line.
For years, in order to solve the unsolved problems in liver surgery, Wu Mengchao spent a lot of time at work. After Wu Peiyu was transferred to the Second Military Medical University, although the couple had more time to spend together, three daughters were born one after another, and since then, romance has become a luxury.
In order to let her husband devote himself to his career, Wu Peiyu, who knew his husband Moruo's wife, gave up almost all his hobbies and tried to arrange family life without complaint.
Every night, as long as Wu Mengchao's desk lamp is not extinguished, Wu Peiyu cannot sleep. Sometimes he fell asleep when he was busy, with a book in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other. "I just gently took the book off like a magnifying glass, and then I flattened his pillow and covered him with a quilt." Wu Peiyu said.
"After living together for so many years, we both knew each other so well that a lot of times we knew what the other was thinking without talking. Without her support, it would be difficult for me to do a good job, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart. "Wu Mengchao said that he can still work wholeheartedly in his 80s, and his physical and mental condition is very good, mainly due to Wu Peiyu's care, care and support." She is half to blame for my success. ”
In August 2011, Wu Peiyu died of illness at the age of 89. In the impression of Wu Mengchao's student Zhou Weiping, the teacher only shed tears twice, once when his colleague and friend Chen Han died, and once when his wife Wu Peiyu died. He remembered that when he bid farewell to Wu Peiyu, Wu Mengchao had been sobbing.
Wu Mengchao's home has always been hung with a cross-stitch of a pair of puppies — he and his wife were also born in 1922 and are dogs. In May 2021, nearly 10 years after Wu Peiyu's death, 99-year-old Wu Mengchao also passed away.
Daughter Wu Ling said that burying together is the wish of the two old people, and it is also the wish of the daughters. "It's a very cozy place, and I believe that my father, who has worked hard all his life, will be able to rest here!"
At the burial site in Shanghai's Fushou Garden, the commemorative bronze statues of Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu stand majestically. Wu Mengchao on the bronze statue is wearing a military uniform, and Wu Peiyu is standing at his side, holding his right arm tightly. The two looked into the distance, their smiles as tacit and warm as ever.
Bronze statues of Wu Mengchao and Wu Peiyu.
Source: Xinhua News Agency, "Medical Ben Renshu: Wu Mengchao Biography", "Wu Mengchao Biography"