Author: Ni Sijie
Xi Zezong
▲On August 17, 2007, at the naming ceremony of "Xi Ze ZongXing", Cao Xiaoye (right), then deputy secretary general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, issued the orbit map of "Xi Ze ZongXing".
▲In August 2007, Xi Zezong (third from left) and Jiang Xiaoyuan (second from left), Niu Weixing (first from left) and Li Hui took a group photo in Nanning.
In the list of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi Zezong is one of the few academicians in the history of science and technology. In the course of his 82-year life, he left behind his own writings. He once remembered a sentence of his teacher Ye Qisun: "Writing an article must stand the test of time, and an article can still stand up after 30 years. ”
In October 2021, 13 years after Xi Zezong's departure, Science Publishing House officially published the "Xi Zezong Anthology" (a total of six volumes) edited by Chen Jiujin, which recorded the most brilliant scientific research achievements and the most tortuous life journey in Xi Zezong's life. Not long ago, the symposium on the publication of anthologies was held at the Institute of Natural Science History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where Xi Zezong once worked. At the symposium, The twists and turns and tenacity of Xi Zezong's life shone in people's memories...
Fate and struggle
"This book is 32 folio, not thick, but it determines the path of my life"
On June 9, 1927, a family surnamed Xi in Yuanqu County, Shanxi Province, welcomed its tenth child. Before that, all nine of the family's children had died prematurely. Following the habit of naming the boy with the word "Zong", they named the child Xi Zezong.
As the only son in the family, the ten years after The birth of Xi Zezong were a decade of ease and peace. He learned Mandarin and arithmetic in a private school, and every night after dinner, he helped his father Xi Wenli reconcile the accounts. As he read, his father drew circles on the account with a red pen. It was not until January 1941, when his father's death allowed the 14-year-old Sizetzong to take over the responsibility of steward early, and the comfort and calm of the past was ended by the arrival of Japanese airborne troops.
On May 30, 1941, during the Dragon Boat Festival, Xi Zezong was escorted from his home by armed Japanese soldiers to become a civilian husband, and because he was walking in the last one, he slipped into the wheat field halfway and fled back to his residence. Overjoyed, Xi Mu endured the pain and sent him out of the occupied area. In his oral autobiography, Xi Zezong said: "This arrest of the people is the key to changing my fate. If this had not happened, I might have lived my landlord life in Yuanqu County for a long time. ”
Xi Zezong, who left home, came to the rear area of the Anti-Japanese War to study and live, and studied at the Attached Middle School of northwest normal college that moved to Lanzhou. It was a school with a strong reading atmosphere, and in addition to doing their homework, students also competed for a variety of extracurricular books. "The book that interests me the most is Zhang Yuzhe's "Cosmic Series". This book is a 32-folio book, and it is not thick, but it determines the path of my life. Under its influence, I found more astronomical books to read... I plan to study astronomy after graduating from high school. Xi Zezong said this in his oral autobiography.
In 1947, after graduating from high school, Xi Zezong was admitted to the Astronomy Department of Sun Yat-sen University despite the opposition of his family members. There, he received professional training in astronomy. Without financial resources, he earned money by working hard and writing popular science articles. In the summer of 1950, commissioned by the Science Popularization Bureau of the Central Ministry of Culture, Xi Zezong began to write his first popular science book, "Stars". The book was published by the Commercial Press in 1952 with about 50,000 words and more than 3,000 copies sold.
Choices and fame
"I didn't expect these reactions and comments at first"
After graduating from the Department of Astronomy, Xi Zezong did not expect that he did not study astrophysics, but studied the history of astronomy. It was an experience that was both accidental and inevitable.
In 1953, the Chinese Academy of Sciences sent a delegation to the Soviet Union, when Professor Shklovsky of the Sternborough Institute of Astronomy of Moscow University proposed that the Chinese Academy of Sciences would help investigate the information on ancient Chinese novae and supernovae. He then asked Kulikovsky, chairman of the Committee on the History of Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, to write to the Cassia again raising this hope. Zhu Kezhen, then vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in charge of the Compilation Bureau, received the letter, but he was too busy to do it himself. He gave the job to a young man who had been assigned to the Compilation Bureau after graduation and had a background in astronomical studies.
In order to complete this work, Xi Zezong read the Astronomical Chronicle and other relevant scientific history classics in the Twenty-Four Histories, and asked Zhu Kezhen for advice when he encountered problems that could not be solved. In the course of the research, the newly established Chinese Committee on the History of Natural Sciences plans to establish the History of Natural Sciences Group at the Second Institute of History. As a result, Xi Zezong encountered a "crossroads" in his scientific research career: should he go to the History of Natural Sciences Group to study the history of astronomy, or did he do astrophysical research? Xi Zezong recalled that at that time, Zhang Yuzhe once again had a decisive influence on him.
Zhang Yuzhe told Xi Zezong: "As long as a person chooses a professional to work hard, he will eventually achieve success in the future." Despite the importance of astrophysics, not everyone in the astronomy community can study it. As a big country, China should have someone study all branches of astronomy and make achievements. ”
In December 1955, Xi Zezong, who embarked on the road of studying the history of astronomy, published a paper "New Table of Ancient Novae" in the Astronomical Journal. The Soviet and American astronomical circles soon translated it into Russian and English. In 1965, he collaborated with his colleague Bo Shuren to publish a supplementary revision of the New Table of Ancient Stars.
The two catalogue systems collated the relevant records in ancient texts from the 14th century BC to 1700 BC, and became an important reference for the study of cosmic radio sources, pulsars, neutron stars, γ-ray sources and X-ray sources in the second half of the 20th century. Many astronomers and physicists use the two catalogues to find the correspondence between ray sources and nebulae, and to study the processes and mechanisms of stellar evolution. In particular, the correspondence between the 1054 supernova record study and the Crab Nebula is the most prominent, and Chinese historical records have found empirical evidence that stars eventually die through supernova explosions.
"I didn't expect these reactions and comments at first." Xi Zezong said in his oral autobiography. Since then, in the international astronomical world, the three words "Xi Zezong" have been associated with supernovae.
Fire and rebirth
"I was fiercely criticized for still doing business despite the orders of my superiors."
On New Year's Day 1957, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Chinese Natural Science History Research Office (later developed into the Institute of Natural Science History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, hereinafter referred to as the Institute for the History of Science), which was the first comprehensive research institution for the history of science in mainland China. Xi Zezong was one of the 8 pioneers of the first compilation. However, since then, due to the influence of political movements, scientific research has been difficult.
In his oral autobiography, Xi Zezong mentioned, "I was fiercely criticized for still doing business despite the orders of my superiors. But even after being criticized, he still maintained his love for the study of astronomical history and made dazzling achievements.
In 1963, Xi Zezong relied on strict logical reasoning to negate the "conclusive conclusion" that "Wang Xixuan was the first person in the world to prejudge the transit of Venus" and overturned the "world first" that originally belonged to China. In 1964, he published "The Current Situation of Cosmology", which became the first article in China to evaluate contemporary Western cosmology. In 1966, he attested to the dunhuang scroll S3326 with a total of 1359 stars, and the Dunhuang scroll S3326 is regarded as the oldest and most star-counted star map in the world. In 1973, when the Mawangdui Han Tomb Book in Changsha was unearthed, he immediately began to examine and study the "Five Star Astrology" in the Book of The Book, and soon published a study of the comet map in the Book of The Book, which is still a must-read document for the study of astronomical historical materials in the Book of Mawangdui.
In 1978, the National Science Congress and the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China were held one after another, and the cause of China's history of science and technology began to flourish, and Xi Zezong's career finally returned to the right track and entered a golden period.
After the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences independently became the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he and many colleagues advocated that the Institute of the History of Science be assigned to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since 1978, Hezezong has served as the director of the Ancient History Research Office of the Institute of The History of Science, and has established the Institute's Modern and Contemporary History Research Office. From 1983 to 1988, Hezezong was director of the Institute for the History of Science. During this time, Xi Zezong, who shouldered administrative responsibilities, still diligently did research and wrote a large number of influential papers. Among them, in 1981, through reasoning and experimentation, he proved that as early as the Warring States period, the continental astronomer Gander discovered Gande, nearly 2000 years before Galileo, and this research also became the earliest experimental astronomical historiography on the mainland.
In 1984, Xi Zezong became the first doctoral supervisor in the history of Chinese astronomy. By 1991, Xi Zezong's academic activities had been carried out for a full 40 years, and this year he was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His disciple, Jiang Xiaoyuan, now a professor of the history of science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, brought him a unique congratulatory "gift" – his graduate student Niu Weixing.
In the fall of 2004, Niu Weixing, who had become an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, accepted Li Hui, a disciple of The Gatekeeper. Three years later, Xi Zezong, Jiang Xiaoyuan, Niu Weixing, and Li Hui took a precious group photo. In his oral autobiography, Xi Zezong said: "He (Jiang Xiaoyuan) has become a famous scholar in the field of astronomy history in China and has served as a doctoral supervisor for many years. Moreover, the doctoral student he supervised also brought master's degree students. ”
Later years and perseverance
"I have one more regret"
Until his later years, Xi Zezong continued his research work. As one of the chief scientists of the Xia Shang Zhou Dynasty Project, he not only led the astronomical topic, but also played a huge role in organizing and leading the multidisciplinary cooperation of the entire team.
Xi Zezong led the team to achieve many astronomical achievements in the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project: through the "Tian zai dan" to determine the first year of Yi Wang as 899 BC; according to the "Year Ding Ke Di" to determine the Wu Wang Ke Shang year as 1046 BC; through the five lunar eclipses to determine the reign of the Shang King Wu Ding from 1250 BC to 1192 BC. These research results have strongly supported the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project, pushing forward China's historical era by more than 800 years.
At the same time, with a scientific attitude of seeking truth from facts, he rejected the record of the "three-flame eclipse day" as a solar eclipse, and clarified that the "eclipse day" is a period of time from early morning to before lunch. This denial caused China to throw away the three "world champions" of "the earliest record of eclipses, the earliest records of solar eclipses, and the earliest records of eclipses and Mercury", and also forcefully countered the international slander that the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project was "nationalistic".
In Xi Zezong's oral autobiography, he simply boiled down his achievements to nine items: studying the new stars and supernovae in history, examining Gander's discovery of Muwei, delving into Wang Xixuan's astronomical work, examining dunhuang scrolls and Mawangdui Books, writing the history of scientific thought, and undertaking three major national projects in his later years- the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project, the compilation and publication of the Qing History, Astronomical Calendar, and the Natural Science Classics of the Great Chinese Classic.
On August 17, 2007, asteroid 85472, which was approved by the Small Body Naming Committee of the International Astronomical Union, was permanently designated internationally, and was named "Sidze Zong star".
Before coming to the end of his life, Xi Zezong said that he "still had one regret" - not being able to write a monograph on the history of Chinese astronomy in English. "Because of my poor eyesight, I can only use a magnifying glass to write a short article in order to cope with an errand; to do a big job, to write a long book manuscript, it is no longer possible!" 」
Xi Zezong died in Beijing on December 27, 2008, at the age of 82. In the 13th year after his departure, the Collected Writings of the Emperor Xi Zezong (in six volumes) was officially published. At the publishing symposium, with six volumes of dark green essays in hand, Xi Zezong's daughter Xi Hong sighed: "It has been thirteen years now, and I miss it very much." ”
She slowly read out the poem written for her father by her brother Xi Yunping, who was far away from home: "There is a road in the book mountain to find the essence of heaven, and Shi Hai has no end to clarify." Chaos has just begun the history of science and technology, and Gu Feng has devoted himself all the way. Fragments of Dunhuang MaWangsi, And the Nova Kao Hao Jing of Muwei. The Xia Shang discussed the universe and turned into a star in the sky. ”