Twenty-seven years ago, UNESCO declared World Book Day on 23 April.
That year, Yang Changhui, a junior high school student, met a Chinese teacher. This teacher opened a window for Yang Changhui to love reading. Since then, Yang Changhui has plunged headlong into the world of books.
When reading becomes a way of life, every day is Yang Changhui's "reading day". In the past 27 years, Yang Changhui has read nearly a thousand books, which are crammed into at least 3 walls. He recorded more than 60 notebooks, stacked up to half an adult height.
Today, Yang Changhui has grown into a political commissar of a certain air force station. Talking about the reading experience of so many years, the air force colonel sincerely sighed: "Only by constantly reading and thinking can you appreciate the deep things of life and expand the breadth and depth of life." ”
Looking at what kind of book a person reads, you can roughly know what kind of person it is. When he was a teenager, Yang Changhui liked Zheng Yuanjie's "Fairy Tale King"; when he grew up, Yang Changhui preferred to read military books.
In the book, Yang Changhui's eyes are locked on the world coordinate system, and he completes his self-growth in curiosity and sobriety. Outside the book, he uses the continuous improvement of his skills to fight against the "skill panic" and defeats the "ability anxiety" with the continuous reshaping of his ability.
Dialogue with Yang Changhui and examine the book wall behind him, we can see the vision and feelings, mission and responsibility of a republican soldier.
Book Wall
"There is a wall of books behind me that gives me courage, and the books I have read are the confidence of communication"
In Yang Changhui's office, in addition to a huge map, the most eye-catching thing is a set of 2-meter-high bookcases. Hundreds of political, military, and scientific and technological books fill the six partitions.
The bookcase is at the same height as the shoulder, which is a book with the theme of intelligent warfare, which is the field of Yang Changhui's recent attention; the two oldest books are "The Science of War" and "Theory of War Engineering", which he has read 3 times each; the lowest level of the bookcase is a full set of "Sparks burning in the plains", he asked these 20 books to always supervise and remind himself: What are you busy with every day?
A warplane takes off in the desert. Yang Changhui, political commissar of a certain air force station, often said a sentence with his comrades-in-arms: "Flight must rely on aerodynamics, and transformation must rely on ideological engines." "Photo by Yang Jun."
A certain air force station where Yang Changhui is located is a veritable technology-intensive unit. Dealing with highly educated talents all day long, Yang Changhui did not feel too much intellectual oppression. These young science and technology workers who are immersed in tackling key problems like to chat with him.
In this unit, whether it is talking about data mining, talking about algorithmic tactics, or engaging in military modeling, Yang Changhui can always talk to everyone and get together. "There is a wall of books behind me that gives me courage, and the books I have read are the basis for communication." Yang Changhui said.
Some comrades-in-arms are curious, how many books has Commissar Yang read?
"At least 3 walls of books." Yang Changhui answered.
In 2009, after Yang Changhui and his wife Huang Jing bought a house, they first selected a group of dark walnut-colored bookcases. It was their first piece of serious furniture, "a 2.5-centimeter-thick panel that cost the two of them nearly a month's salary and covered an entire wall of the living room."
Huang Jing, who is also a soldier, also likes to read, and Yang Changhui believes that they are "door-to-door" because the two read equally. It didn't take long for the huge bookcase to fill with their books. They bought another set of bookcases, the same style, different colors, placed opposite the old bookcase, covering the other wall of the living room. So the living room became a study.
The two walls of books were used until the first two years of moving. Because the new house was too small to fit the bookcase, Yang Changhui gave them to his old classmates. The old classmate is a doctor of materials science and lives in Tsinghua University, which is the school that Yang Changhui aspires to. "Since you can't go by yourself, let the bookcase go." Yang Changhui said.
Without the bookcase, Yang Changhui always felt empty in his heart. To him, the bookcase was like a vessel for his soul. So he built a third wall of books for himself in his office.
Today, the elements in the bookcase have become richer, more like a window that carries a military career and records important moments. The most conspicuous are some photos - there are photos of Yang Changhui and air force experts and professors in the Gobi desert, there are photos of him and his military school classmates receiving a new type of equipment for the first time, there are photos of him with the test pilot who completed the "Cobra maneuver"... Whenever comrades-in-arms came to Yang Changhui's office, they would always stop involuntarily in front of the bookcase.
Yang Changhui participated in the reading exchange activities organized by the station's technical room at the "Desert Book Bar". Photo by Xu Guanglan
There are also some honorary certificates in the bookcase: the first prize for excellent papers in the first "National Defense and Army Development Forum in the New Era" of the National Defense University, the second prize for outstanding achievements in political theory research of the Air Force, and the third prize for outstanding achievements in political theory research of the whole army. In Yang Changhui's view, these honorary certificates are "both an affirmation of the past and an inspiration for the future."
This year's Spring Festival, in the camp light exhibition organized by the superior, Liu Jinglin, a private soldier, made an exhibit with a "climbing tiger" pattern. Yang Changhui felt very meaningful, so he framed a small sample of the light exhibition, a stick figure of "Climbing the Tiger", and put it into the bookcase. He pondered a sentence next to the "tiger": chasing dreams and empty skies, like a tiger adding wings to the future.
Although the bookcase has become smaller, Yang Changhui still continues to choose books and hoard books. "As long as you feel that there is nutrition, you will not necessarily read it immediately, but it must be convenient to read and read when you read."
Not long ago, the library of the unit arrived with a new batch of books. Yang Changhui deliberately took a picture with those books. He squeezed into the unopened pile of books and said happily: "Finally, I have achieved 'deep into the book'!" ”
Notes
"If a person can stick to writing 100 reading notes, that must be a cool thing"
Deputy station manager Zhao Jiangfeng came to Yang Changhui's office to visit the door and saw a stack of half-height notes. He flipped through it curiously and found that it was the political commissar's reading notes, spanning 20 years.
Zhao Jiangfeng was shocked: it is easy to maintain the state of reading for a while, and it is rare to be able to do the same for 20 years.
Yang Changhui's habit of taking notes was influenced by his wife, Huang Jing. After reading a book, he would use a notebook to record the title, author (translator), time of reading, publication information, etc.; the other would extract the essence of the book—words, data, examples, table of contents, and important ideas.
"Flight must be aerodynamic, and transformation depends on the engine of thought." In Yang Changhui's view, taking notes is a gesture for him to keep moving forward. When he was an instructor, he once made a statistic that separated the study notes written after graduating from military school and the honorary certificates obtained by year, and found that they were directly proportional to the number, "which year has more study notes, which year has more honors."
When he began to take notes, Yang Changhui pondered that according to the speed of 4 books per year, it would take 25 years to write 100 notes, and he should be almost 50 years old at that time. "If a person can keep writing 100 book notes, that must be a cool thing!" From taking notes, Yang Changhui understood the power of persistence.
Reading has become a way of life for Yang Changhui, and every day is his "reading day". Photo by Duan Wenbin
In 2002, Yang Changhui graduated from the military academy and came to the army, and he always had an idea in his mind: to apply for graduate school. However, the front-line combat readiness task at the grass-roots level is heavy, and he has never had the opportunity to study for graduate school. So Yang Changhui decided to be his mentor and began to read graduate textbooks.
The desire to learn made him pick up books, and also allowed him to live a kind of reading life that squeezed time in a sponge for more than 10 years.
On weekends, comrades-in-arms chatted in the dormitory, Yang Changhui moved a maza to read at the door; when the troops went to the beach for training, he read books by the tent, and the wind blew sand on the books, and it seemed that he was always shaking clean; he went to the plateau to perform tasks, and he could not sleep at night, so he calmed himself down by reading; when he took the transport plane, the comrades-in-arms rested with earplugs, and he still used reading to fight against noise...
This state of affairs lasted for 14 years. In 2016, the 36-year-old Yang Changhui was admitted to the National Defense University with a master's degree in military command.
Opening the half-height notebook, the earliest records can be traced back to Yang Changhui's military academy period. If the time is moved further, Yang Changhui will definitely add books such as "Fairy Tale King". It was the book that had the deepest influence on him as a teenager, and it inadvertently sowed the seeds of his military service for him.
In middle school, Yang Changhui attended the junior class of Xi'an No. 1 Middle School. Because he liked to play football, he encouraged his friends to go to Kunming to watch men's football training, and then ran to Beijing by mistake. When I came back, the school was fried – not only the school, the family, but also the police.
After experiencing this incident, Yang Changhui realized that perhaps under the influence of "Fairy Tale King", his thinking was too fanciful. The reason for choosing a military school is that I feel that I am subject to certain constraints in order to make my mind more mature and my actions more powerful.
When he first entered the military academy, Yang Changhui read any type of book. Over time, he gradually understood his duties and began to read a lot of military books. At the same time, Yang Changhui set a reading guideline for himself: what a republican soldier should think, learn, and do.
Over the years, he has systematically studied Marxist works, read nearly 30 master's degree textbooks of the Academy of Military Sciences, as well as a large number of books on strategy and tactics, combat examples, weapons and equipment, cutting-edge science and technology, and passed the national second-level psychological counselor examination.
Many people think that Yang Changhui is obsessed with reading because he loves to read. But he admits that reading is more due to ability anxiety. Yang Changhui's office had a camp bed, but he rarely used it. During his lunch break, he spent almost all of his time reading. "Sometimes, after reading a lot of books, I know the strength of my opponent, often in a cold sweat, and I can still sleep!" Yang Changhui said.
Casually opening an old notebook and looking at the title of the line, Yang Changhui sighed: "Oh, old friend." These titles are like beacons on the sea, illuminating the footprints of the future and guiding the way forward. ”
At the beginning of this year, when he learned the news that "Fairy Tale King" had stopped publishing, Yang Changhui was a little sad. More than 20 years later, the original wild ideas still exist in the mind.
Looking at a group of sparrows "chirping" outside the window, Yang Changhui thought to himself: Will there be a bionic finch? How do the finches communicate and coordinate? There are swarms of bees fighting, so is there a flock of finches fighting? What is the difference and advantage between the two?
On the altar
"Research small problems, do specific things, and illuminate the 0.5 square meters around you"
After reading "Soldiers Born to Be Victorious" and "The Far East: The Korean War," Yang Changhui wrote in his university's graduation message book that he had never changed in the next 20 years: "I hope that one day in the future, we can face the veterans who are buried in the ground with respect and pride." ”
In 2020, Yang Changhui came to a certain air force station as a political commissar. Looking at the Qilian Snow Mountain, the endless desert and the thousand-year-old immortal poplar, he had a lot of thoughts: What did he come here for? How can the original dream be realized?
Although the camp is in the middle of the desert, there are more than 10 large and small artificial lakes. Among them, the favorite of the officers and soldiers is Red Willow Lake. They said: "One side of the water and soil nourishes the other, and the desert water is precious and nourishes everyone here." ”
Walking around Hongliu Lake, Yang Changhui realized that to realize his dream, he wanted books to nourish more people like desert water. He set himself a goal: "Study small problems, do specific things, and illuminate the 0.5 square meters around you." ”
Yang Changhui founded a forum with the theme of "Forward-looking Pride, Walking with Innovation" and gave it a poetic name: Red Willow LakeSide Climbing Forum.
At first, only a few people around the forum exchanged reading experiences. Gradually, more and more people participated. The content of the forum and the setting of the venue have begun to penetrate and expand: they talk about the experience of party history study and education in the library, conduct war film guides in the lecture hall, share their growth feelings in the difficult environment in the club, and also have a spiritual monologue in the desert Gobi...
Yang Changhui has slowly changed from a creative, a pusher, and occasionally a host to an audience or audience. More and more people are starting to take the stage, start reading, and start sharing.
Not long after, Yang Changhui took advantage of the victory and began to find ways to invite experts and professors from various fields to the forum for exchanges.
During a dinner, Yang Changhui and Xie Yang, director of a certain technical office, talked about the scientific research project, and Xie Yang mentioned that Professor Wu Yun of the Air Force Engineering University had recently come here to train. Therefore, they agreed at the dinner table to invite Professor Wu Yun to give a lecture at the "Red Willow Lake Climbing Forum".
The dinner table has become another "forum" for Yang Changhui to influence the people around him.
For some time, Yang Changhui would eat at the same table with the same technical room. He will learn about the recent research progress in this room in advance, look through the relevant materials, study the relevant theories, and then seemingly inadvertently, but in fact have a deep meaning to eat and communicate with everyone. From Gödel's incompleteness and Heisenberg's uncertainty to the entropy of the second law of thermodynamics. They often finished their meals and the discussion was quite lively. There are 6 large tables in the canteen, and Yang Changhui sits at each table for two or three months, almost once a year.
After one dinner, Yang Changhui was preparing to go home to the courtyard. Dr. Han Haiyan approached him and said that he wanted to apply for a whole-army project, but there were two research points that could not be determined.
What excites Yang Changhui is that these two research points are one of his long-term focus areas. He had read a lot of materials before, and he had just a few of the latest collections of papers on hand, and he also had some preliminary thinking and analysis. Back at the workstation, the two men talked for more than an hour and finally determined the main points of the study.
The stage of "illuminating the 0.5 square meters around" not only has forums and dinner tables, but also WeChat circle of friends.
Late one night, Xie Yang clicked on the WeChat circle of friends after the overtime. Soon, a photo came into view. It was a book that Yang Changhui had just finished reading, the title of the book was "Knowledge Graph: Method Practice and Application", and the caption was "Read and Sent".
Judging by the title, this is a book that introduces the knowledge architecture. Xie Yang immediately became interested and began to look for clues from the picture: the book was placed on his desk and published in less than 10 minutes.
"The book should not have been sent yet!" Xie Yang immediately rushed to the political commissar's office. As he wished, Yang Changhui gave him the book. Recently, Xie Yang "snatched" a book from the political commissar, "Intelligence Analysis: Thinking Methods in Complex Environments", which is the 32nd book sent by Yang Changhui.
In Xie Yang's eyes, Commissar Yang is sometimes particularly like a graduate tutor, the difference is that "the tutor trains several students at a time, and the political commissar leads hundreds of technical cadres."
In Yang Changhui's view, the study of a certain field may cause the limitation of knowledge structure, lack of macro thinking, high-end position and awareness of the overall situation. He specially invited a large aircraft captain to communicate with everyone around "the survival and competition of organisms in complex environments", entitled "Open Source Breaking barriers".
"Through the sharing of forums, dinner tables and WeChat circle of friends, many comrades-in-arms have expanded the information interface and broadened their thinking horizons, and feel that it is meaningful and interesting to stick to the depths of the desert." Yang Changhui said: In ideological and political work, "we must not only properly explain the great truth of where the contingent should go, but also the hard truth of where the profession should go deep."
Once, Yang Changhui liked to store books, one after another into the bookcase, which was his most solid backer; now, he likes to give books to people. For the most time, he took out more than 200 books he had read and gave them to the new pioneer books in the camp.
"Everyone has a useful 'wall of books' in their heads, and our team can easily forge a copper wall." Yang Changhui said.
Good books grew up with me
■ Yang Changhui
I grew up reading Zheng Yuanjie's fairy tales, and I still remember Shuk and Beta, Pipilu and Rusisi. Until now, from time to time, some strange ideas that surprise me have popped up in my head, which should be related to the fairy tales I used to read.
My parents, like most parents, valued my studies from an early age. When I was in elementary school, my family subscribed to "Chinese Calligraphy" and "China Youth Daily". "Chinese Calligraphy" is too theoretical and has only been booked for one year; "China Youth Daily" has been ordered for a long time, which has helped to broaden my horizons.
After attending military school, I began to dabble in military books extensively. The first thing that became my clue was the book Click on Future Wars, which introduced many people who were at the forefront of preparations for military struggle. With this as a clue, I found many books of interest. With the accumulation of reading, "what a revolutionary soldier in the new era should think, learn, and do" has become my reading guideline.
Being able to fight and win wars is closely related to the accumulation of knowledge. I have long paid attention to and systematically read military science and technology books published by the People's Liberation Army Publishing House, the Military Science Press, and the National Defense University Press. A series of magnificent and eerie war scenes appeared in front of me, which made me deeply feel that the great changes unprecedented in a hundred years were accelerating and evolving, and the new military revolution had already swept in, and our generation of republican soldiers would certainly have great potential.
Growing up, I found that many books had a subtle impact on the way I thought. The basic science and engineering books and professional books I studied in college have established a rigorous thinking model for me, that is, the solution to problems, and now I am more and more aware of the importance of scientific spirit and engineering thinking. The laws, regulations, ordinances and books on party building that I came into contact with in my work are of great significance to my understanding of the concepts of discipline, order, and management. Now it seems that a thorough reading upgrade is necessary. When I was studying in an educational college, I looked at chaos theory, quantum mechanics, and relativity with a hard head, which made me lament the rapid change of human understanding and the limited energy of individuals, and reading nature became more and more focused: looking for a way to win, seeking a strong military strategy, and reading for war.
I've always thought of sports and reading as two important indicators of a high quality of life. People always have to have some hobbies, reading and sports unconsciously enrich our minds, strengthen our bodies, why not enjoy it? After graduating to the army for more than 20 years, I am glad that I am still studying. I'm busy at work, but I don't read a few pages a day, and I always feel that something is missing. For myself: I don't know what else to give me more strength and courage than to read.