Source: Taiwan Straits Network
Chen Jingrun attended the 60th anniversary celebration of Xiamen University. (Infographic)
According to Xiamen Daily, yesterday, after the plane landed in Xiamen, Chen Youwei, a Beijinger, posted in the WeChat circle of friends that "I am going home!" His "home" is xiamen university, and he is the son of Chen Jingrun, a famous mathematician and alumnus of xiamen university. This year's centennial celebration of Xiamen University, he and his mother were invited by Kun to participate.
Yesterday evening, Yu Kun and Chen Youwei were interviewed by this newspaper.
About the school celebration
Yu Kun attends the school celebration and sits in the position where her husband once sat
By Kun
This is the fifth time that Yu Kun has participated in the xiamen university celebration, she said, in fact, it can be the sixth time.
In 1980, the 29-year-old doctor Yu Kun married the 47-year-old mathematician Chen Jingrun. The following year, the 60th anniversary of Xiamen University, Chen Jingrun was invited to return to the school, and he was already a household name "star" at that time. When Chen Jingrun's train stopped at Xiamen Station, the leaders of Xiamen University and a large number of news reporters rushed to the soft sleeping car to look for it, and the result was empty: Chen Jingrun stepped down from the hard sleeping car. Why not sit in a soft sleeper? He said that this is very good, soft sleeper spends a lot of money, to save money for the country. A Xiamen University alumnus who came with him said that he still had to sit on a hard seat, and that sitting on a hard bed was still hard pulled by everyone.
Yu Kun told reporters yesterday: "At that time, Xiamen University invited us to participate together as a couple, but Sir said that you are not an alumnus of Xiamen University, and if you go like this, you will cause trouble for the school."
Chen Jingrun died in 1996. Since 2001, every five or ten school celebrations, Xiamen Metropolis has invited Yu Kun to participate in the celebration activities. The most recent was the 95th anniversary of Xiamen University in 2016, when the host, Zhang Yan, the party secretary of Xiamen University, read out the list of guests seated on the rostrum, and "Anmin Notice" in advance: Please applaud all the guests after introducing their names. However, there was one person who was made an exception, and she was made by Kun.
When Zhang Yan introduced: Xiamen University alumnus Professor Chen Jingrun's wife, Ms. You Kun, the audience immediately broke out into warm applause, and Yu Kun had to stand up and greet everyone.
Yu Kun said yesterday that there was a story behind it, that day, she was told to sit on the school day, but she did not find her seat in the back rows, and when she was about to leave, the staff told her: Your seat is the second on the right side of the first row.
Yu Kun later learned that Zhu Chongshi, then president of Xiamen University, had seen the venue the night before and found that Yu Kun's seat was placed in the back rows, and immediately asked her to be transferred to the second seat in the first row.
This seat has a deep meaning - 35 years ago, Chen Jingrun was invited to participate in the celebration of Xiamen University, and he also sat in that position.
Yukun said that on that day, she sat in the same position that her husband had sat in 35 years ago, and she had been holding back tears.
About Xiamen University
Chen Jingrun's most difficult time was when Xiamen University helped him
Yu Kun said that in 1981, after Chen Jingrun returned to Beijing after attending the Xiamen University celebration, he was very happy and showed off to his wife: You will not see a university more beautiful than it, only Xiamen University is so beautiful.
After learning about her husband's path to study, Yu Kun has always told people that it was Xiamen University that made Chen Jingrun.
Chen Jingrun graduated from university in 1953 and was assigned to a middle school in Beijing, but his expression ability was poor and he was unable to do his job, and he returned to his hometown in Fuzhou a year later.
At first, the school would pay salaries, but after a few months it was gone. Without money, Chen Jingrun had to set up a book stall. Later, Chen Jingrun's relatives told Yu Kun that he placed the book on the ground and read it himself.
Yu Kun said that at that time, the stall needed a certificate similar to the business license, and if mr. Did not, he put out a certificate of graduating from Xiamen University. At that time, the college students were all treasures, causing a sensation, and were known by a teacher of the Youth League Committee of Xiamen University and reported to the school.
Fang Dezhi, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Xiamen University, recalled that Wang Yanan found him after returning to school, told him that "your student Chen Jingrun is unemployed and can't find a job in Fuzhou", and asked him what suitable position he had to accommodate Chen Jingrun. Fang Dezhi suggested that Chen Jingrun return to the Mathematics Department as an assistant and reference room clerk.
Chen Jingrun was thus transferred to Xiamen University. Li Wenqing, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Xiamen University, said in an interview with this newspaper before his death that Chen Jingrun, who returned to Xiamen University, asked for his opinion: What books do I want to read? So Li Wenqing introduced him to hua Luogeng's "Theory of Stacked Prime Numbers".
Chen Jingrun read Hua Luogeng's book nearly 30 times, calculated it repeatedly, and wrote his first paper, "The Taley Problem." Li Wenqing recommended the paper to Hua Luogeng, then director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which attracted Hua Luogeng's attention. At his suggestion, Chen Jingrun was transferred to the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In Beijing, Chen Jingrun used a pen and a passion for science to expend several sacks of scratch paper to prove a classical mathematical problem, the "Goldbach conjecture", the best result to date, that is, "1+2".
Yu Kun said that mr. Xiamen University has the deepest feelings, because in his most difficult time, it was Xiamen University that helped him. She said the help was "unforgettable" throughout her husband's life.
About the son
Halfway out of the house to study mathematics, it seems to have a conversation with my father
Chen Youwei
Chen Jingrun died of Parkinson's syndrome in 1996 at the age of 63. That year, Chen Youwei was 15 years old, and he was Chen Jingrun's only child.
Chen Youwei said that when he was a child, the most annoying people asked him: You are Chen Jingrun's son, you should be very good at mathematics? Do you like math? When he was in the second grade, he enrolled in the art class, and the principal was surprised: How can Chen Jingrun's son not read mathematics? So I took him back to the math interest group. Chen Youwei went to the principal alone, made his position clear, and returned to the art class.
Yu Kun said that in fact, Mr. Yu was looking forward to his son reading mathematics, but he was not angry about his son's "betrayal", but said that the child had a child's idea and should follow him. No one could build him, except himself.
Yu Kun also said that Xiao Youwei was the "king of destruction" and was keen to dismantle things, and the remote control cars that were very rare at that time also dared to dismantle! She decided to teach her son a lesson, but Chen Jingrun advised her: "He wants to see what is inside, and he will put it back."
Chen Youwei laughed and said yesterday that the key is that most of the time it cannot be put back.
Chen Youwei later went to Canada to study and chose business. However, after a year of studying, he suddenly wanted to transfer to mathematics.
He believes that the reason why he chose the liberal arts before was out of rebellion: since everyone thinks you have to learn mathematics, I will not learn it!
Chen Youwei went halfway to study mathematics, and at the beginning, he took the most stupid method: brushing problems. When there was no class, he soaked in the library, and when he wanted to take the exam, he went to find a copy of "Number Theory" and put it aside, because it had his father's "Chen's Theorem" on it. He would whisper to his father in his heart: Bless me to pass the exam.
Chen Youwei said that there are some things that are destined for you, and you can't escape them. He felt that by studying mathematics, he seemed to be able to have a conversation with his father over the air.
About the current situation
The relationship between Xiamen University as a family is even closer
According to Kun yesterday, in 2011, she retired from the position of director of the Radiology Department of Beijing 301 Hospital, was immediately rehired, and is currently working in the Radiological Diagnostic Center of the Eighth Medical Center of Beijing 309 Hospital.
Chen Youwei returned to China in 2012 after completing a master's program in mathematics, first working in a bank, once starting his own business, and now working for a financial company, he is 40 years old.
In 2019, Xiamen University's Class of 88 alumni held an alumni festival and invited Chen Youwei to return to the big family of Xiamen University. Since then, he has become more closely related to Xiamen University, he regards Xiamen University as his home, and Xiamen University regards him as his own child.
Tomorrow, Yu Kun and Chen Youwei will participate in the centennial celebration party of Xiamen University, Chen Jingrun is one of the representatives of one of the four spirits of Xiamen University, Chen Youwei said that he is ready to tell everyone that my father Chen Jingrun loved Xiamen University deeply all his life, and here he has his most beautiful memories of growing up, and it is the place where his mathematical dream took off.
Chen Jingrun and Xiamen University
In the 1980s, Chen Jingrun influenced a generation.
In that era, when the tribulations of science were in ruins, Chen Jingrun represented a hope that science, truth and goodness would triumph over superstition, error and barbarism.
Chen Jingrun once inspired the most beautiful feelings of that generation of young people for science, and took becoming a scientist as his life ideal to struggle, when the first choice of the best high school graduates in the college entrance examination was to apply for the mathematics department. It seems that the people of the whole country are talking about Chen Jingrun, and even the movies are trying to portray Chen Jingrun-like youth, who read books while walking, hit a telephone pole and don't forget to say sorry to it.
The reputation of Xiamen University also reached a peak at that time, especially after the publication of Xu Chi's "Goldbach Conjecture", in the eyes of many people, Xiamen University is Chen Jingrun, and the Department of Mathematics of Xiamen University has also become an academic temple in the minds of countless young people.
However, Xiamen University should be eligible to accept this attention ceremony – no matter when, xiamen university's key role in Chen Jingrun's "1+2" cannot be erased.
Now, Chen Jingrun has become one of the representatives of the scientific spirit of Xiamen University. The useful wealth he left for the university and for those who are alive is that only in this way can he gain something in a career, an ideal, regardless of fame and fortune and selfless investment.