On the eleventh day of the eighth lunar month in 1922, in the Courtyard of the Yang Family's house in the fourth ancient lane of West Avenue in Hefei, Anhui Province, there was a cry of a baby falling to the ground. Born was a baby boy, according to the family tree, the father Yang Wuzhi named the eldest son Yang Zhenning.
The father's heart is full of warmth and joy, when he was a child, he lacked the warmth of home, and now that he has children, he is equivalent to having a complete home. The mother caressed the baby in her arms, and the natural motherly tenderness surged into her heart. As a new parent, the expectation is that the child is healthy and safe, and perhaps the greater expectation is that the child will have a future appearance. They may not have imagined that years later their children would become world-famous physicists. And Yang Zhenning's achievements have a lot to do with the parents who gave birth to him, raised him, and taught him.
Yang Zhenning's father, Yang Wuzhi, had already achieved academic success at a young age, was the first generation of doctors studying in the United States, a pioneer in mathematics, and became a famous mathematics educator in China.
Yang Wuzhi was born into a traditional family of readers, he was born in 1896 (the first two days of March in the 22nd year of Qing Guangxu), and was the eldest son of the family. The life of ordinary people in that era can be said to be difficult, and his father has been a staff member to support his family for many years with the status of a talent in the late Qing Dynasty.
His mother, Wang, and his younger brother guarded the family for their lives. Just when Yang Wuzhi was 9 years old, his mother left her two underage children to die because of long-term lung disease, and when her husband who was wandering away got the news and rushed back, he was already separated from his wife's yin and yang. Yang Wuzhi's father took care of his wife's affairs, entrusted his two sons to the care of their uncle Yang Bangrui and aunt Fan Shi, and instructed them to work hard in their studies, and once again went out to serve as an official's staff.
Yang Wuzhi was well aware of his father's hardships and never dared to slack off in his studies. Unfortunately, when he was 12 years old, his wandering father died in an inn on his way to Fengtian to seek a job as a plague victim.
Yang Wuzhi and his brother became children without parents, but fortunately, their uncle and aunt regarded the two children as their own. In this situation, Yang Wuzhi read indignantly and read hard, and became self-reliant and self-reliant.
In 1918, at the age of 22, Yang Wuzhi succeeded in his studies and graduated from Beijing Normal University with a bachelor's degree. Later, he returned to his hometown and worked in Anhui Provincial No. 2 Middle School before transferring to Anqing City, the provincial capital, to become a mathematics teacher at the Provincial First Girls' Normal School.
After his job was stable, his uncle thought that Yang Wuzhi should start a family. Yang Wuzhi's uncle Liu Zhijiang had a friend named Luo Zhuquan, and his daughter Luo Menghua was in the middle of the word, so she was decided by the adults, and the two families of Yang Luo were married. Luo Menghua knows a few words, has not received a new education, Yang Wuzhi has a face and talent, marrying such a man, for Luo Menghua is impeccable. In 1919, the 23-year-old Yang Wuzhi married Luo Menghua, who was the same age.
After marriage, Yang Wuzhi continued to teach in Anqing, more than 100 kilometers from home, while Luo Menghua stayed in the Yang family's mansion in Sigu Lane, West Avenue, Hefei County. After becoming a family, Yang Wuzhi worked tirelessly to study scholarship, and when Yang Zhenning was less than one year old, Yang Wuzhi was admitted as a publicly-funded student in Anhui Province.
In 1923, Yang Wuzhi hurried back to his hometown in Hefei, bid farewell to his wife and children, and embarked on the road to study in the United States. His wife, Luo Menghua, is an old-fashioned woman with a simple outlook on life and a spiritual attitude of dedication like most women in old China. In those turbulent years, during the long years when her husband was studying in another country, Luo Menghua poured his whole body and mind into his son. In her view, her husband and son are her life, her whole being. The husband is far away, then the son becomes her spiritual pillar, mother and son rely on each other, living a hard life, that kind of feeling is the deepest and irreplaceable.
In the mid-1920s, China was in the midst of warlord wars, and ordinary people were constantly fleeing for refuge, then called "running away", or running to the countryside or running to church-run hospitals. Before the age of four or five, Yang Zhenning often "ran backwards" with his mother. He later recalled: "The first memory I remember most was when I was three years old, when I returned to my home in Sigu Lane after a 'run backwards', and I saw a bullet hole in the corner of the house. ”
Even in this turbulent, sinister and difficult life, Luo Menghua did not relax his early education for his children. Luo Menghua herself is indeed an old-fashioned woman, but she has her own wisdom and reason. The husband left his wife and children to cross the ocean in order to seek knowledge, which made her feel the importance of educating her son. The son grew up day by day in the warmth of the mother's love, and when the son was four years old, Luo Menghua used his limited knowledge to teach his son to read, and at the same time invited him Mr. Private School, mr. Church word, the mother took her son one by one to consolidate the review, and did not dare to relax.
Half a century later, looking back on this past, Yang Zhenning sighed: "That was the initial stage when my mother laid a solid foundation for my life, when I was 4 years old, my mother taught me to recognize square characters, and it took more than a year to teach me a total of 3,000 words." Now, the words I know add up to no more than twice that number. ”
Yang Wuzhi studied abroad for 5 years and received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the Department of Mathematics at Stanford University and the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago. At that time, the May Fourth New Trend of Thought was impacting positively, the literati who were ideologically progressive put freedom first, and many people who returned from overseas ruined the marriage contracts made by their parents when they were young. When Yang Wuzhi was in the United States, his wife Luo Menghua had some concerns in her heart in addition to her worries. In fact, Yang Wuzhi did not abandon his wife and children for such free thoughts.
In the summer of 1928, Yang Wuzhi, who had been studying for five years, returned home. The wife took her son to Shanghai to welcome his return, and the family of three was finally reunited in Shanghai. The son of Yaya Xueyu is already a literate child, and seeing his father again, 6-year-old Yang Zhenning feels strange and familiar. The meet and greet present given to him by his father was a fountain pen. Yang Wuzhi lovingly held his son in his arms, which was the first embrace that Yang Zhenning had received from his father since he remembered.
Yang Wuzhi's return to China after completing his studies was a great turning point for their family's life thereafter. They are no longer returning to their hometowns, and Yang Wuzhi has been recruited as a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Xiamen University. Although Luo Menghua is still a housewife, she no longer has the sun and moon that is difficult to support alone to raise her youngest son. Yang Zhenning entered a primary school to study, and his eyes showed a new world.
Yang Wuzhi began to implement a step-by-step indoctrination of natural knowledge and culture for his son, explaining the operation of the sun, the earth and the moon with large and small balls; teaching his son the order of Chinese historical dynasties: "Tang Yu Xia Shang Zhou..."; ...··", Bagua: "Qian Sanlian, Kun Liu Duan, Zhen Yang Lu, Gong Cover Bowl, Away from the Middle Void, Kan Zhongman, Redeeming the Lack, Different And Broken..." and so on.
After teaching at Xiamen University for a year, Yang Wuzhi became a professor at Tsinghua University in Beiping. In the autumn of 1929, the family of three moved into No. 19, Tsinghuayuan West Courtyard, which was a courtyard in the northeast corner of the West Courtyard.
In Tsinghua Garden, the family spent 8 years, when Chinese society was very turbulent, with internal and external troubles and many difficulties. Living in the walls of Tsinghua Garden, with little contact with the outside world, Yang Zhenning spent his childhood in such a protected environment.
Yang Wuzhi cultivated Chen Shengshen, Hua Luogeng and others in the Tsinghua Garden and became a professor. In Tsinghua Garden, most of the wives of colleagues are new-style women who graduated from college, and some of them have stayed in the West. Luo Menghua does not make comparisons for this, she tries her best to manage the family well, less social, not to play cards. A year or two later, she had a reputation for being clean and tidy in Tsinghua Garden. Luo Menghua gave birth to zhenping, zhenhan, and zhenyu (female) children.
In the late summer and early autumn of 1933, 11-year-old Yang Zhenning was promoted to Chongde Middle School in Beiping's West Shanrong Line Hutong. Inheriting his father's high IQ, Yang Zhenning is not only intelligent and studious, but also has a wide range of interests, excellent results in various subjects, especially in mathematics, talent and talent have begun to show.
Yang Zhenning wrote when recalling his father: "When I entered junior high school at the age of eleven, my ability in this area was more fully demonstrated. In retrospect, if he had taught me analytic geometry and calculus, I would have learned it very quickly, and it would have made him very happy. But he didn't. ”
There were many mathematical books in English and German on his father's shelves, and Yang Zhenning often looked through them. When he encountered details he did not understand, he asked his father many times, and his father always said: "Take your time, don't worry." Only occasionally explained to him one or two basic concepts.
The warmest way for fathers and sons to get along is to walk together on the path of Tsinghua Garden. From the east of their own homes, to the Ancient Moon Hall or the Science Museum, after passing through the bushes, there is a large section of the road on the left is farmland and lotus pond, on the right is the small earth mountain, although the scenery of spring, summer, autumn and winter is different, the quiet atmosphere is the same, on the trail Father and he walk together those times are the closest years for father and son to get along alone.
In 1937, just as Yang Zhenning was studying at Beijing Chongde Middle School, the "Lugou Bridge Incident" occurred, the Japanese invasion, the mountains and rivers changed color, and the Anti-Japanese War broke out. Tsinghua University, Peking University and Tianjin Nankai University retreated south to Changsha to jointly establish temporary universities.
At that time, Luo Menghua was pregnant with her fifth child and was about to give birth. Yang Wuzhi decided that the whole family would first move back to his hometown of Hefei, and after letting his wife and children settle down, he would transfer to Changsha alone to attend a temporary university class. Back in Hefei, Yang Zhenning transferred to the second grade of high school in Anhui Provincial Sixth Middle School, and his youngest brother was also born during this period, and his father named the youngest child "Zhenfu" full of hope for the victory of the War of Resistance and the restoration of the country.
The harsh reality at that time was that the iron hooves of the Japanese invaders were stepping in step by step. Soon, Shanghai and Nanjing fell one after another, and Hefei began to be bombed by enemy aircraft, and there were refugees everywhere and chaos everywhere.
Yang Wuzhi and his family were summoned from Guangzhou via sea to the vietnamese port of Haiphong, then land into Yunnan, and finally arrived in Kunming in March 1938, which was the destination of the family's long-distance migration. Because Changsha Provisional University had been moved to Kunming and renamed Southwest Union University, Yang Wu was hired as the head of the mathematics department of this humble and unusually elite university in the country.
In Kunming, another eight years. An old-fashioned house rented by a family in Kunming's Little East Point City. Although the environment is difficult, fortunately, the children are very healthy and study hard. Luo Menghua cleaned up this small family very neatly, and the family of seven stayed together, respecting and loving each other. These eight years for Yang Wu's family were not as calm and stable as the eight years in Beijing Tsinghua Garden. During the war years, the income of professors decreased, inflation increased, the limited savings of the pre-war period were exhausted, and the economic conditions of the family were very bad. Under such conditions, the food and clothing of a family of seven depended on Luo Menghua to manage and support them.
The good news is that the children are growing up healthily. In 1938, at the age of 16, Yang Zhenning was admitted to the Chemistry Department of Southwest United University with a second-year degree in high school (transferred to the Department of Physics after admission)
In 1942, at the age of 20, Yang Zhenning graduated from university and entered the research institute of Tsinghua University. Two years later, passing the examination to obtain the qualification to stay in the United States at public expense can really be said to be smooth sailing, showing the style of a top student. From the summer of 1944 to the summer of 1945, during his stay after obtaining a master's degree in science from Southwest United University, Yang Zhenning went to the Attached Middle School of Southwest United University to teach high school mathematics for a year, and also Chinese for some US officers and soldiers in Kunming, and used his salary and honorarium to supplement his mother's family.
For the younger siblings (the youngest brother Zhenfu is only in the first elementary school), it is also a little responsibility of the elder brother. The mother was very pleased to have such a well-behaved and filial son. The son is equally grateful to his mother. Recalling the past, he said: "My mother was an old-fashioned woman, a strong-willed and thrifty woman. In the special years, life was more difficult, the father's salary was far from enough, and the mother's hard work and tenacity made the five brothers and sisters grow up safely. ”
On August 28, 1945, Yang Zhenning left home to fly to India for the United States, when Yang Zhenning was not yet 23 years old. When she left home, the four younger siblings were clinging to each other, but her mother was very calm, and she did not shed tears. She was afraid that her tears would disturb her son's emotions. Even if you don't give up, you must support your son to study.
The mother was relieved: Didn't the child's father also go to the United States, and it was five years. She thought it was a big deal that the child was like his father, and he would come back in three years and five years.
His father accompanied him to the station alone. When they arrived at Tuodong Road, my father said some words of encouragement, and both of them were very calm. After saying goodbye, Yang Zhenning sat in a very crowded bus, and at first he could see his father waving at him from the window, and after a few minutes he was squeezed into the distance by the crowd.
There were more than 20 students in the car who went to the United States, and when it came to talking, Yang Zhenning's attention shifted to issues such as flight routes and climate change. After waiting for more than an hour, the car never started. Suddenly, an American next to him gestured to Yang Zhenning to look out the window, and suddenly Yang Zhenning found that his father was still waiting there! He was thin, dressed in robes, and his hair had turned white on the front of his forehead. Yang Zhenning endured the hot tears of the morning, and for a moment burst out, he couldn't help himself.
From the father's return to China in 1928 to his son's departure from the country in 1945, these seventeen years were the days when his father Yang Wuzhi and his son stayed together, and it was Yang Zhenning's stage from childhood to adulthood.
Yang Zhenning's departure was such a long and long separation between him and his parents.
Since then, the family has also moved from Kunming to Shanghai, and Yang Wuzhi was hired by Tongji University, and has since settled in Shanghai and is no longer in exile.
In 1957, the news that Yang Zhenning won the Nobel Prize spread all over the world, and Yang Wuzhi and his wife were proud and proud of their son. The newspaper only briefly mentioned Yang Zhenning's award, and did not make any publicity about his experience and family lineage. For parents, these do not need to be publicized, and it is enough to know the good news of their sons.
After proper arrangements from relevant parties, Luo Menghua and her husband arrived in Geneva, Switzerland in early July 1957, while his son Yang Zhenning and daughter-in-law Du Zhili made a special trip from the United States to visit the two elderly people. The parents finally met their eldest son, who had been separated for a long time.
In the summer of 1960 and the summer of 1962, Yang Wuzhi and his wife were reunited with their sons in Geneva twice.
At the end of 1964 in Hong Kong, the parents and Yang Zhenning were reunited again.
Every time Yang Wuzhi saw his son, he had a sense of mission, and he felt that he should persuade his son to return to China, which was the deep wish of his father's own soul. On the occasion of his parting, he gave his son a poem cloud: "Don't forget your dear love and eternal love at every meal, and you should feel the country's thinking about hong." ”
In 1971, under the direct care of Premier Zhou, Yang Zhenning realized his wish to return to China to visit his relatives and returned to the motherland after 26 years of absence. In Shanghai, his mother and siblings greeted him at the airport. Then they went to Huashan Hospital to visit their father. Yang Wuzhi has been hospitalized for half a year.
The last time their father and son met, Yang Wuzhi was sixty-eight years old and still very healthy. In the middle of these six and a half years, he suffered some quarantine and censorship, and he was old and thinner, and he could no longer stand and walk on his own. I was still very excited when I saw my son, and I talked a lot with my son. He repeatedly asked his son to look far ahead and see the trend of historical evolution.
In the summer of 1972, Yang Zhenning returned to China for the second time to visit his family. My father was still in the hospital and was even weaker. Yang Wuzhi died in Shanghai in the early morning of May 12, 1973, at the age of 77.
In his eulogy to his father, Yang Zhenning wrote: In the past two years, his father's health has declined. He himself realizes this and thinks a lot about all our thoughts and actions. I think that the great historical fact of the realization of New China and its significance for the future of the world is exactly what my father asked me to grasp clearly.
Luo Menghua painfully lost his wife who had lived together for more than 50 years, and Yang Zhenning understood his mother's mood and loneliness. Yang Zhenning, who has a long-term office at Chinese University in Hong Kong, took his mother to Hong Kong and took time out of time to accompany her from time to time. Until 1987, her mother died in Hong Kong at the age of 91.
Yang Zhenning said in his recollection: "My mother wrapped her feet when she was a child, and then let go when she arrived in the Republic of China, but her feet have been deformed and are called 'liberation feet'. Women who grew up in China's old society were often stronger-willed than men. Yang Zhenning looked at his mother's life with great reverence. In his later years, Yang Wuzhi also said on his sickbed: "Your mother is diligent and thrifty in running the family, and dedicates her life to her husband and children." This is a sincere evaluation of a wife and mother by a father and son.
In the summer of 1992, on the occasion of Mr. Yang Zhenning's seventieth birthday at Nankai University in Tianjin, speaking of family, Yang Zhenning said: "My own personality and style, such as academic knowledge, came from my father; and the inconspicuous influence, such as spiritual temperament, came from my mother. ”
Speaking of the details of getting along with his mother, Yang Zhenning was momentarily sad and choked up. By this time, his mother had been dead for 5 years. He said: "My relationship with my mother is simple, there is no complicated component, because I know how she thinks, she knows how I think, and I have a tacit understanding of life with my mother. Only those who understand this can understand this, and the communication of hearts between mother and child is caused by blood. The mother knows what he wants and does, and he knows what the mother wants.
Finally, to borrow a passage from Mr. Yang Zhenning's "Review and Prospect of Modern Science Entering China", the full text ends: "Confucian culture pays attention to loyalty, pays attention to family and human relations, pays attention to diligence and patience, and pays attention to the education of children, and these cultural characteristics have and will continue to cultivate generations of diligent and disciplined youth." ”
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