There are Weng Like Picturesque and More Poetic - Mr. Yang Zhenning talks about poetry and beauty

Mr. Yang Zhenning and I talked about a poem he wrote, entitled "Praise for the Chen Class":

The clothes are seamless and the ingenuity is cut.

Unity and splendor.

Creation of love geometry, four force fiber energy.

Thousands of years of thoughts, Oh Gao Li Jia Chen.

"Chen's" index scholar Chen Shengsheng. In 1944, Professor Chen Published a paper at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which introduced differential geometry and topology to a new realm, and derived the Concept of Chern Class in the Fibre Bundle theory, which was very beautifully conceived: "A complete manifold (Manifold) is cut open, and then cleverly connected, seamlessly reduced to the form." Mr. Yang Zhenning introduced that there are four kinds of "forces" in the natural world of modern physics research: nuclear force, electromagnetic force, weak force and gravitational force, these four "forces" and their energies (Energy) are normative fields, and the equations of the normative field are derived by physicists from the electromagnetic equations of the 19th century. In 1974, when Mr. Yang discovered the relationship between these equations and the Chen class, he was amazed and expressed his poetry; he believed that Professor Chen had the ability of a master and had epoch-making contributions. "Zanchen Class" is very interestingly written, and the pen breaks down an idiom into a question sentence "Is the heavenly clothes seamless"--how come the clothes in the sky have no traces of sewing? "Seamless" comes from the "Collection of Spirit Monsters" quoted in the "Taiping Guangji", which tells that Guo Han, a scholar from Taiyuan, met a fairy and asked her why there were no traces of sewing in her clothes, and the fairy replied, "Tianyi is not needle and thread"--the clothes in heaven were not originally sewn with needle and thread. Mr. Yang cleverly used this code to set up a question, a pun. Immediately afterward, Mr. Yang replied to himself, "Ingeniously cut", which was originally cut by a skilled person; the third and fourth sentences inherited the meaning of the first and second sentences, and highly praised the Chen level as a wonderful theory of "broad and profound". Although the fifth and sixth sentences are almost vernacular summaries, they are the voices of the two masters - "the mathematical concept of 'natural and real', loved by creation", which reminds people of Du Fu's famous sentence "Creation Of Zhong Shenxiu". I think Mr. Yang likes the works of "Shi Sheng", and the seventh sentence "Thousands of Ancient Hearts" also integrates the poetry of his "Even Title", and the first four sentences of the original work are "Articles are ancient and ancient, gaining and losing every inch of knowledge." The authors are all different, and the reputation is hanging down." Mr. Yang said that Professor Chen once told a story, and when he and his wife visited the Luohan Pagoda in a certain place, they were very emotional: "No matter how good the mathematics is, at most it is to be an Arhat." "The world may have heard the honorific titles of Guanyin Bodhisattva, Puxian Bodhisattva, Manjushri Bodhisattva, Jizo Bodhisattva, and the number of arhats is too much, sixteen arhats, eighteen arhats, five hundred arhats... How many people remember the name of the Arhat? Professor Chen is very modest, probably feeling that his academic achievements can only be equivalent to those of an arhat, and he is not called a bodhisattva. Mr. Ke Yang believes that Professor Chen's achievements in the field of geometry are directly similar to Euclid, Gauss, Riemann and Caraman, so he positioned Professor Chen as "Eucalyptus Jiachen" in the concluding sentence, and all five of them are "great bodhisattvas" in the field of mathematics. Over a thousand years, each has its own place, and the bodhisattva arhats are listed one by one, and the orders are clear.

Mr. Yang Zhenning said that when he was a child, he did not learn phonology, could not compose grammatical poems, and only read some ancient poems, but he had an understanding of the rhyme and momentum of poetry, he said: "Poetry is meaningful, and the heart has understanding, and only then can there be good poetry." "I read several poems in the "Collected Works of Yang Zhenning" and "The Beauty of Norms and Symmetry - The Biography of Yang Zhenning" that Mr. Yang gave me, such as "Space and Time":

Exquisite crystals, snow casting mountains and ice carved rivers.

The eyes are boundless, and the depth is silent for hundreds of millions of years.

The dust is turbulent for two hundred generations, and the clouds, water, wind and thunder are changing rapidly.

If you ask about the future of the mountain, the heavens and the earth will be in a race against the sky.

This was done by Mr. Yang Zhenning on July 21, 1978, when he flew over Mount Balva on his way to Lhasa, Tibet.

Another example is "Return to the Roots":

Former negative Qianxun quality, high up to jiuling peak.

Delve into symmetry and be bold.

The new heavens of Shenzhou have changed, and the mission of the old garden is heavy.

Student Ling Yunzhi, I should be the guide pine.

Three melodies through the ages, talking and laughing.

Old new business, east fence back to gen ong.

The poem was written in November 2003, a month before Mr. Yang Zhenyun moved his family from New York to Beijing. The first and second sentences of "Guigen" are from the Tang Dynasty Luo Bin Wang's "Floating Cha", and the first four sentences of the original work are "Former negative Qianxun quality, high up to jiuling peak." True heart Ling Wangui, jinjie cover up the cold pine", the intention of using the ancient poetry can be seen here. Mr. Yang's residence in Tsinghua Park is named "Guigenju".

From Mr. Yang Zhenning's emphasis on "poetry and speech", I am reminded of a sentence that Mr. Yang likes: "Lyrical spirit, informal, not flowing out of his chest, refusing to write." This quotation is found in "Shu Xiao Xiu Poems", which is an article written by the Ming Dynasty literary scholar Yuan Hongdao for his younger brother Yuan Zhongdao, praising the younger brother for being able to express his personal spirit when writing poetry and composition, not falling into the clichés, and never writing without a sense of truth. I also remembered Lin Daiyu's words in "Dream of the Red Chamber": "The first intention is important. If the fun is real... Self is good. "Poetry writing is exactly like this, the intention is to be true, the expression should be natural, only in this way will the work be beautiful and loved by the years." The constraints on individuals by some backward traditional systems in China have caused individual literati to lack the spirit and motivation to seek truth and truth, and if truth and goodness are lost, where will the vitality of beauty come from? Although Mr. Yang's poems do not strictly follow the traditional rhythm and rhyme, they are widely circulated, and the reason for this should be because of the lofty intentions and true nature.

In the book "The Beauty of Norms and Symmetry - The Biography of Yang Zhenning", I also saw the generation sequence of Professor Chen Shengshen, which seems to be singing and Mr. Yang Zhenning's "Praise chen class":

Ai Weng first opened the geometric door, and Yang Zi began to open the avenue deep.

Physical geometry is a family, Yan Huang descendants of Xi Xian.

"Ion" refers to the physicist Albert Einstein, whose general theory of relativity interpreted physics as geometry. "Yangzi" refers to Mr. Yang Zhenning, which is Professor Chen's honorific title for his old friend, he praises the "normative field theory" as the avenue, the four sentences do not count the rhyme, and the words are full of truth and goodness.

I once told Mr. Yang Zhenning about my experience in studying poetry, and then sent my personal collection of old poems to Mr. Yang for criticism. After reading it, Mr. Yang said to me: "I think people who can write old style poems are very happy and can release their emotions at any time. ”

I asked Mr. Yang Zhenning, you said that the most important part of physics is related to phenomena, and poetry creation also pays attention to "speech", objects and images, so what is the relationship between poetry and science? Mr. Yang replied that at the highest stage, poetry and science are very close. For example, in Du Fu's poems, there are many words that no one has thought of before, and many people will say that it is really good to use it after reading it; when scientists do research work, they will find some very wonderful and incredible natural phenomena, thus bringing him a poetic vibration that touches the soul. In contrast, "Chinese culture develops towards the philosophical aspects of poetry and macroscopic wholes, in the direction of ambiguity, obscurity, and totality; old-style poetry is a condensed language, and its lyricism and description may not be reached by many Western poems." Western culture is moving in the direction of precision and concreteness. For example, most Western poetry is reasonable, too obvious and exhaustive, it is very boring, and there is no poetry."

From poetic beauty, Mr. Yang Zhenning and I talked about the beauty of physics and the diversity of beauty: "The architects who built gothic churches sang the praises of a sublime beauty, a soul beauty, a religious beauty, and an ultimate beauty. I think that's the beauty of physics. "Scientists often use beauty to describe feelings about the natural world, and the meaning of beauty includes fit, wonderful, good-looking, and makes people feel comfortable." For example, the beauty of symmetry, which physicists often refer to... Another example is the beauty of words, we must acknowledge the grammatical structure of the predecessors, good and concise, there are very beautiful places, if we want to inherit the development, we should support; if someone develops in a more complex direction, we do not have to oppose, we should blossom. ”

I added that in the creation of calligraphy, the performance of "symmetrical beauty" is also very subtle: first of all, if the structure of Chinese characters is asymmetrical, it will make people feel uncomfortable, and absolute symmetry, in terms of structure and chapter law, will appear dull and not vivid; only when symmetry is destroyed to a certain extent, and at the same time, harmony is not destroyed, can the font show its own characteristics, "Your 'weak interaction in the universe is not conserved' Law of application is very wide, in poetry, calligraphy and painting, architecture have different forms of embodiment, No wonder Mr. Xiong Bingming says that your physics has expanded to the metaphysical level, encompassing both poetry and beauty."

Professor Freeman Dyson, a physicist, said: "Yang Zhenning is a generation of masters who set the style for the physical sciences of the twentieth century, after Einstein and Dirac. Professor Ding Zhaozhong, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976, said: "Chinese have established immortal merits in international science, starting from Yang Zhenning. "The fair assessment among physicists is moving.

Some people may not know that the word "physics" is not foreign, and there are words in the pre-Qin "Crown of The Osprey": "I would like to smell its human nature and physics." "It has a rich meaning, referring to facts or principles and laws. On Mr. Yang Zhenning's ninetieth birthday, I wrote a pair of Yang Lian's birthday celebrations, saying: "When zhen is vibrating, it should be physical, and it is better to deal with the law innocently." "The code is derived from this. Ten years have passed, and October 1 this year is Mr. Yang's 100th birthday, "Li Ji Qu Li" Yun: "100 years old, Yi." "The gist is that 100-year-old people need to be raised, but I saw from Ms. Weng Fan's WeChat circle of friends that Mr. Yang is still engaged in research and education as in the past." While I was happy, I wrote a poem to show my respect: "There are weng like pictures and more poetry, and gentlemen are dry like the old times." Zhen Ce spring and autumn by the sea moon, Ning Xin physical run Lanzhi. "Tianxingjian, gentleman Qianqian, I wish Mr. Yang Zhenning a happy life, good faith, poetry, and cultivate more pillars for the country." (Editor-in-charge: Zhang Yiliang)