Cover news reporter Zhang Jie
The great traveler Xu Xiake left more than 600,000 words of diary travelogues before his death, which was compiled by posterity into "Xu Xiake Travels". This foreign masterpiece, which recounts Xu Xiake's travels and observations during 34 years (1613-1639), is the pioneering work of systematic investigation of China's geomorphology and geology, and its beautiful text makes it a literary masterpiece. However, Xu Xiake can't draw. The beauty he depicts can only be imagined by the reader through words.
In contemporary China, there is a natural scientist named Zang Mu, although not well known to the public. But in the industry, he is known as "Xu Xiake who can paint". Because he left a 33-year (1975-2008), million-word, illustrated, and beautiful field expedition diary- "Mountains and Rivers: Journey to the Discovery of the Third Pole - Zang Mu's Scientific Expedition Notes".
This set of handwriting consists of 1 volume and 3 volumes, 840,000 words, including 664 hand-drawn sketches by Zang Mu, in the form of painting + text, recording his first-hand information in the natural, geographical, folklore, culture, architecture and other fields of the scientific expedition area dominated by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Hengduan Mountains, as well as the moving story of the field scientific expedition, which is a naturalistic diary, and also has literary value and aesthetic value. In order to allow more readers to appreciate the essence and charm of Zang Mu's field diary, the editorial board and the publishing house have compiled this set of scientific expedition diaries on the basis of three volumes, and published a single-volume "Mountain and River Chronicle - Zang Mu Wild Diary".
01
A combination of science and humanities
It's not far away
The content of "Mountains and Rivers Chronicle" is rich, involving plant taxonomy, mycotology, geography, scientific expedition notes, diaries, paintings, calligraphy, science and culture, historical materials, etc., with many categories and complex interweaving. It is the result of scientific research, but also a work of art, and also has literary colors.
He recorded many details of the vivid, lively and real scientific expeditions at that time, recording both natural scenes and inner feelings. Zang Mu personally drew and dyed, improvised poems, made a detailed text description of the morphological characteristics of the collected specimens, identified the genus species, recorded the Latin scientific name or English name, and, most importantly, recorded the inner feelings at the time of collection.
Because it was the scientist who wrote down the expedition diary late at night on the way to the scientific expedition, it was not a monograph written for publication, so it was more flexible and free. And because in addition to his solid scientific knowledge, he also has superb painting and writing talents, so this diary appears to be both rigorous and vivid. Because he not only recorded the morphological characteristics of the fungus, but also creatively made concise and accurate records of plant sketches and watercolors, and improvised poems to fill in the words. Paintings of plants, pictures of mountains and rivers, are really addictive and breathtaking. Compared with the travel accounts of young people, these diaries are more like "hard-core hand accounts", and it is no wonder that some readers think that Zang Mu is the "originator of hand accounts". It is not so much a book as it is the crystallization of decades of a person's life.
In "The Chronicle of Mountains and Rivers", hundreds of Latin scientific names of plants written down by Zang Mu "at will" can also be seen everywhere, and the degree of excitement makes Liu Huajie, a professor of philosophy at Peking University, feel "surprised", "How can it be so beautiful?" What kind of basic education helps to cultivate cultural people like Zang Mu? Is he a scientist or a man of letters? Nowadays, science and humanities seem to be only one of the two, and both are involved, usually in a superficial way. However, the organic combination of science and humanities is really an ideal. It is not far away, Zang Mu is a typical example. ”
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Who is Zang Mu?
Scientist who pioneered the comprehensive study of advanced fungi in southwest China
Zang Mu is not a popular celebrity, nor a star professor, but a natural science scholar with real talent and practical learning and low-key treatment in the world. He was born in 1930 in Yantai, Shandong Province, to a well-to-do family and received a good education from an early age. Zang Mu has loved traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting since childhood. Later, he studied biology at Soochow University. After graduation, he successively served as a teaching assistant at Jiangsu Normal University, an academic secretary of the Department of Biology of Nanjing Normal University, and a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He single-handedly founded the Hidden Flower Herbarium of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, creating a precedent for the comprehensive research of higher fungi in southwest China. Zang Mu has collected more than 13,800 fungal specimens, more than 24,500 moss specimens, and more than 1,200 lichen specimens. He has conducted in-depth research on mainland Porcinieri, Mushroom, Peritoneal and some ascomycetes, especially in the most complex, controversial and difficult taxonomic group in the world, the Porcini mushroom order.
Zang Mu and Li Xingjiang were collected in Guizhou
In 1973, at the age of 43, Zang Mu was transferred from Nanjing Normal University (now Nanjing Normal University) to the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and under the advice of Academician Wu Zhengyi, he switched from bryophyte research to mycological research. In order to study fungal moss, a lot of field work must be carried out. Without field work, scientific research becomes water without a source and wood without a root. In order to obtain as much first-hand scientific research data and information as possible, in addition to collecting, recording and collating specimens, it is also necessary to have a clear understanding and record of the ecological and environmental information of the research object. Recording the information observed during the field expedition for future reference is an important task of field research. It is precisely the needs of scientific research that Zang Mu has developed the habit of writing a diary in the field, which is also the fine tradition of the older generation of scientists.
At that time, Zang Mu wanted to carry out research on fungi, but he had nothing, no peers, no assistants, no equipment, no professional information, not even a specimen, everything started from scratch. The first thing Zang Mu had to do was to get out of his house, leave the city, wade through mountains and rivers, and go deep into the inaccessible dense forest to investigate and collect. In the second half of the 20th century, field work was carried out in the southwest of the mainland, the mountains were steep and steep, the roads were narrow and muddy, there was a lack of basic transportation, the necessary field equipment was lacking, there was not even a camera, and the conditions for eating, living and traveling were very limited.
In 1982, Zang Mu made a scientific expedition in Dulongjiang, making labels and diaries recording the colors of fungi
Most of the macrophyllis taxa occur in the high temperature and rainy season, the naked eye can see the morphology of the short period, in order to obtain fungal specimens without interference, remote deep mountains and old forests, no man's land is the preferred site for investigation. Zang Mu began fungal research in the early 1970s. At that time, the conditions for fungal field expeditions were extremely difficult, the equipment was rudimentary, there was a lack of personal protective equipment for field work, it was common to eat and sleep in the wind, and it was common to endure hunger and hunger, and poisonous insect infestations followed.
He wrote about this in his diary. "One day when it was sunny and rainy, the sweat outside the clothes was rainy and the inside was sweaty, and the left toe was inflammatory, although it fell step by step, but when I saw this magnificent view of the mountains and rivers, the pain was reduced." Oxboepterces were collected, and another genus of oleanders was found on the leaves of another plant. There are many sticky bacteria along the road. The high mountain rocks are stacked in pieces, which shows the frequency of mountain streams. Sleep in the rain at night. In the mountains, there is no one inhabited, and there is no one. Only in the middle of the swamp, choose its high place, and set up tents. Smell the rain outside the tent, and the sound of the stream runs through the night. At dawn, the tent was filled with moisture. It was raining again. Rush to re-enter. On the right is the machine, the mountains are in pieces, the waterfalls and rivers are like chains"; "Overnight camp, extremely hot, mosquitoes and cattle flies are very many, when sorting out specimens, there are hundreds of cattle flies around".
From 1975 to 1982, Zang Mu went to the "Third Pole" four times to conduct investigation and research on fungi. The strange mountain vegetation and the unique resources of animals, plants and fungi greatly stimulated his enthusiasm for exploration. The wild examination diaries of this period were mainly based on fungal morphology and ecological habits and collection of information, including three-dimensional geological landforms, climatic conditions, habitat altitude and vegetation types, forest formations, rare trees, exotic flowers, snakes, birds, fish and insects, birds and animals and many other original records. It also includes the investigation of the national customs and customs of the places visited, historical allusions, celebrity anecdotes, cultural inheritance and other subtle feelings of seeing, thinking, and thinking, and the poems and texts are recorded.
Zang Mu's diary of a field expedition
In his diary dated September 19, 1982, we can feel the beauty of Zang Mu's writing: "The barley is already being harvested, and the wheat has turned yellow." The distant mountains surrounding the company are straight spruce trees and some broad-leaved trees. Pine rose is a clear tone, like the stone green sprinkled by the monk Shi Tao. From the south side of the picture, it is not a tall fir. This is a secondary seedling that has been destroyed and regenerated later, dark green, which appears noble and solemn. Their location is irregular, sparse, but beautiful. On a rare sunny day, the bright sun makes people dazzling. The blue sky, I forgot to go to the color. At the top of the distant mountain is a fir forest, which looks very pure and pure. Autumn is a delight and a joy, although there is another autumn rain in the afternoon. ”
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How did these field diaries come about?
Research during the day Draw and record at night
According to an article written by Zang Mu's students, in order to record the inspection route, Zang Mu always put the sketchbook at hand. Whenever the car turns along the road or river, he will immediately draw the route in the sketchbook. During the day, specimens were collected in the deep mountains and old forests; at night, when they arrived at the camp, Zang Mu led the students around the fire pit, picked up lamps to sort out the specimens, recorded and drew in detail, baked and made specimens. Macromycitis expeditions must be carried out during the rainy season, and rainy expeditions and collections are commonplace. The processing and production of the specimens collected in hand is extremely cumbersome, the process is complicated, and if there is a little slackness, the specimens will be mothed or moldy, and the roasted specimens will change color and deform, so Zang Mu always investigates and collects specimens while sketching and drawing. Returning to his residence at night, even if he was covered in mud and sweat, he would bake specimens when he was hungry, and while baking, he would sort out the field records under the light of kerosene lamps and candles until late at night, even when the morning light was exposed. Specimens dried during the rainy season return to moisture the next day, and must undergo a second and third baking and seal preservation to achieve the quality of the specimens used for research. In this way, from scratch, day after day, year after year, Zang Mu founded the Hidden Flower Herbarium of the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In his own article, Zang Mu also revealed how he recorded these diaries, "[I] drew live sketches with pencils, and filled in colors under candles at night." Remember every day, on the one hand, is the need to collect specimens, if you do not record, you do not know where the habitat of the specimens collected; on the other hand, the scenery of the collection place is very beautiful and charming. On the road, I rely on my brain to remember the color. So I always buy a little paint before I leave, and when I sort out the materials at night, I fill in the colors according to my memories. When I come back at night, I always sort out the specimens first, bake the specimens, that is, burn some charcoal, put an iron plate to bake, dry it and quickly wrap it up, and then write a diary and fill in the color, so generally I can sleep at one or two o'clock in the middle of the night, and I have to leave in the morning. I slept very little at that time. ”
Science masters Qian Xuesen, Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning all advocate the 'integration of science and art', believing that art is an important way to stimulate scientific research creativity. Among the older generation of Chinese intellectuals, there is really no shortage of such high-caliber talents, wizards and eccentrics who are "both liberal arts and sciences." Zang Mu is an outstanding representative of this. Liu Zengyu, former director of the Scientific Research Planning Department of the Kunming Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and senior editor, said: "Zang Mu has many innovative ideas in the study of fungi, and has a number of breakthrough achievements, which are not unrelated to his ability to integrate science and art to a certain extent. ”
Academician Wang Wencai wrote in the preface, "Zang Mu is a genius in the Chinese scientific community and a polymath, and his field diary further confirms this view of mine." I personally believe that Zang Mu's field diary "Mountains and Rivers Chronicles" calls the illustrated version of "Xu Xiake's Travels" in contemporary botany and even biology circles unique and extremely valuable cultural wealth, showing a beautiful, rich and noble spiritual world of an intellectual with noble feelings of home and country, and showing the beautiful China and magnificent rivers and mountains in the eyes of an excellent scientist. ”
Zang Mu's field expedition diary lasted up to 33 years. A person who has the opportunity and ability to do what he likes, and who can do it well, is happy. In the utilitarian real life and work, a person can still maintain a poetic soul full of exploration of the world, full of richness and enthusiasm, and it is even happier.