Text | Wang Shen and Lu Lingfeng
Changyin Buddha (1931-2024)
On April 27, 2024, Chang Yinfo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a famous geologist of mineral deposits, passed away in Hefei at the age of 93.
Chang Yinfo has been engaged in mineral geological exploration and research for a long time, and has participated in and presided over a number of large-scale exploration and scientific research projects, and has made contributions to geological science and technology management and policy formulation. He has always been concerned about the country's geological work, and as long as his health permits, he personally rushes to various places for meetings and investigations. He once used a poem to clarify his ambition: "This body Xu Guo has nothing to ask for, and he is happy in the mountains and rivers of books." ”
The following is an article published on May 30, 2014 in the special edition of China Science News, in memory of Mr. Chang Yinfo.
Even after being elected as an academician, he still went to the field in person whenever he had the opportunity, and he would always carry a magnifying glass with him, and he would use it to carefully examine the rocks everywhere he went. He uses the field as a classroom and a laboratory from which to discover real problems and from where to capture clues to solve them.
Although he is now in his old age, Changyin Buddha is still sparing no effort to uncover the secrets of the underground and search for treasures.
"He's very plain, he doesn't have much interesting things, but he blends with each other in the ordinary, and he subtly transmits wisdom to everyone, without being condescending. He wrote very few articles, but more about words and deeds, inspiring many people to do ......," Dong Shuwen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said of Changyin Buddha.
Science to save the country's dream
On July 6, 1931, in Taixing County, Jiangsu Province, where the river was flowing, a baby boy fell to the ground in a family with the common surname of Gengyu. The Chang family has been passed down for three generations, and the father gave the child the meaningful name "Yin Buddha", hoping that he can have a certain realm of Buddhism in his mind.
Little Buddha's childhood was both happy and suffering. His parents doted on the only child in the family, especially his mother, who graduated from the normal school, not only gave him the initial enlightenment education, but also helped him develop a good character and living habits with strict family education. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the society was in turmoil, and the little Buddha stayed at home to study with his mother for four years. In 1940, when his father died of dysentery in the aftermath of the Anti-Japanese War, he lived with his mother and elderly grandmother. In the same year, Taixing fell.
Chang Yinfo spent his primary and junior high school years under the rule of the Japanese invaders, and he witnessed the deep suffering of the Chinese compatriots who were bullied and oppressed, and he still recalls the situation with great sadness: "Politically, it was a crowd of demons dancing wildly, and there was no daylight; economically, all industries were withering and the people were struggling to make a living; and culturally, it was a desert." He realized that the country's poverty would lead to aggression, so he secretly resolved to change the status quo and make the country rich and strong. At that time, fortunately, he had a rich collection of books to read, both classical and modern, from which he drew a wide range of nourishment, including a book called "The Biography of the World's Scientists", from which he realized the wonder of the scientific world and the greatness of scientists, and developed a yearning for science.
The power of example is endless, and Chang Yin Buddha knew about two local celebrities in Taixing, Ding Wenjiang and Yan Shuang, from the mouths of elders and teachers very early. Ding Wenjiang was one of the founders of the mainland's geological undertakings, leading China's early geological surveys and research, while Yan Shuang was a well-known expert in mining and petroleum engineering. They have made contributions to the search for the treasures of the motherland, are all practitioners of the ideal of saving the country through science, and are also heroes known to local women and children in Taixing. The Chang family still had some marital relations with the Ding and Yan families, and his mother often taught him to learn from the two village sages.
Changyinfo High School studied in the ace middle school in East China, the high school affiliated to Nanjing "Central University". There he not only learned knowledge, but also learned more about the idea of scientific salvation. At that time, his ideal was to follow the example of Ding Wenjiang and Yan Shuang, to be a geologist, to mine the underground resources of the motherland, and to make the country rich and strong, so when he filled in the college entrance examination, the first and second choices were the Department of Geology of Tsinghua University and the Department of Geology of Peking University respectively, and he was finally admitted to the former. As he summarized in his later years, the "dream of a strong country" and the "dream of science" were important driving forces in his life.
Studying in the Department of Geology of Tsinghua University laid a solid foundation for Chang Yinfo's lifelong career. Tsinghua University has the best students from all over the country, and there are also unique teachers, among the teachers who teach Changyin Buddhism, 10 were later elected as members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such as Yuan Fuli, Zhang Xichu, Feng Jinglan, Meng Xianmin, Yang Zunyi, Chi Jishang, Tu Guangchi, and so on. At that time, Tsinghua University still had a general education ethos, and Chang Yin and Buddha dabbled in a wide range of books, and audited some courses offered by the departments of physics, chemistry, meteorology, etc., and also learned independent thinking and critical spirit. After three years of study, he graduated in 1952 and was assigned to the 321 geological team of Tongling, Anhui Province. Tsinghua is the place where Changyin Buddha put wings on the dream of saving the country through science, and it is also the starting point for him to set sail.
Changyin Buddha works in the field.
Practice makes sense
Li Siguang once famously said: "The source of geological science is in the field." Here, and only here, can real scientific problems and theories be generated!" The axiomatic degree of geology is weaker than that of other natural sciences, and many regular understandings need to be summarized from a large number of geological phenomena, which requires geologists to have strong field work ability. In the first three years, he worked on almost all types of geological work: taking care of drilling rigs, core cataloging, area surveying, geological survey and exploration, assisting the team leader in writing exploration reports, etc. He spent nearly half of his time in the field, and successively went to Qingshi Mountain, Guichi Tongshan, Hubei Fanchang and other places to do geological survey and mapping, and grew rapidly, exercising the ability to work independently in the field.
From 1955, Chang Yinfo was transferred to the Nonferrous Metals Office of the East China Geological Bureau to work for one year, and then returned to the field line in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, serving as the technical leader and chief engineer in the 374 team and the 321 team until the end of 1964. If counted from graduation, Chang Yinfo has been engaged in field front-line geological work in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River for nearly 12 years. During this period, he participated in the exploration and peripheral survey of Tongguanshan Copper Mine, and discovered (partly participated in the discovery) and proved a number of large and medium-sized deposits and mineral areas such as Lion Mountain Copper Mine, Fenghuangshan Copper Mine, Guichi Tongshan Copper Mine, Huangshanling Lead and Zinc Mine, etc., which provided resource guarantee for the establishment of Tongling Nonferrous Metals Base and the "Industrial Corridor" in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. He also took the lead in organizing and implementing the earliest 1:50,000 geological survey (Tongling width) in the mainland, which not only greatly improved the geological research degree of this metallogenic prospect area, but also set up a technical model for large-scale geological survey work. By the age of 30, he had a thorough understanding of the geology and landforms, various types and distribution of mineral deposits in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and accumulated rich experience, which laid a solid practical foundation for theoretical research.
"Watching a thousand swords and then recognizing the instrument, practicing a thousand songs and then dawning", Chang Yinfo's academic research and discovery originate from a large number of practical experience in prospecting, reflecting a strong interaction between practice and theory. In terms of metallogenic theory research, he studied the skarn deposits containing copper, iron, gold, lead-zinc, tungsten, molybdenum, and phosphate rocks developed in different eras strata in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River as a system, introduced the concept of stratigraphic metallogenic and proposed a new type of "strata-controlled skarn deposits", which enriched and developed the theory of skarn metallization. In terms of regional metallogenesis, he took the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River as an example to carry out systematic regional metallogenic research, creatively put forward a new understanding of the metallogenic structure and ore control law in the region, systematically summarized the metallogenic model of the metallogenic belt, and laid the foundation for the construction of the continental metallogenic theory. These theoretical achievements originated from practice, which in turn promoted practice, and played a key guiding role in a series of prospecting discoveries in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Chang Yinfo is a geologist who came out of the wilderness, and he has not written much in his life, about a dozen purely academic articles, and two monographs, but they are all extremely weighty. Strong practicality has become the biggest characteristic of his academics. He has not studied in graduate school, has no experience of studying abroad, nor has he entered universities and research institutes, and has been in the production system all his life, from the chief engineer of the 321 team to the chief engineer of the Anhui Provincial Geological Bureau, his work is closely related to the practice of geological prospecting. Zhang Zhaofeng, a colleague of Team 321, thinks that he is a chief engineer who "can do research and has the quality of a scholar", while fellow scholar Academician Zhai Yusheng thinks that he is a rare scholar with "excellent science and engineering" in the academic world. In essence, it is because his knowledge comes from prospecting practice and perennial field work. Therefore, at the academician selection meeting, a senior academician in the field of geography spoke after listening to the introduction of Chang Yinfo: "Most of the members of the Faculty of the Academy of Sciences are engaged in theoretical research, and now the Faculty of Geosciences is in need of such scientists who have both theoretical contributions and practical ability. ”
Even after being elected as an academician, he still went to the field in person whenever he had the opportunity, and he would always carry a magnifying glass with him, and he would use it to carefully examine the rocks everywhere he went. He uses the field as a classroom and a laboratory from which to discover real problems and from where to capture clues to solve them. He has a deep understanding of the benefits of field work, and has a deep message to young geologists: "Field work is very important, and for those recent college graduates, I actively encourage them to go to the field, at least five to ten years in the field, and then choose research institutions, schools, teaching, and scientific research, but the most basic qualities must be cultivated in the field." ”
In 2011, academicians such as Chen Yuchuan, Song Ruixiang, Chang Yinfo, Pei Rongfu, and Tang Zhongli (from left to right) conducted field investigations in the Qinling Mountains.
Overseas miraculous achievements
Fortunately for Chang, he spent most of the decade of the Cultural Revolution abroad, when he was sent to Vietnam and then Albania to do geological aid work.
Seconded by the Ministry of Geology, Chang Yinfo served as the leader of the geological expert group for aid to Vietnam, looking for copper deposits in the Lao Cai area, and was directly responsible for the exploration of the Xinquan copper deposit and the survey of the periphery. After research, he rejected the original view that the deposits in the area were silica deposits and clarified the actual metallogenic process. The expert group guided the exploration work with new understanding, which greatly increased the reserves and prospects.
The geological report has been highly recognized by the Vietnamese government and contributed to Vietnam's mineral development and economic construction. As the head of the expert group on the geological aid to Vietnam, Chang Yinfo made great contributions, and was awarded the second-class labor medal by the National Assembly of Vietnam the year after the end of the project.
The aid work lasted more than three years, and the expert group returned to China after completing the assistance mission, when the "Cultural Revolution" was raging in China, and Chang Yinfo was soon seconded to Albania by the Ministry of Geology as the technical director of the geological aid project.
In Albania, Chang Yinfo, as the chief engineer of the Geological Brigade of Albania, is responsible for the geological and technical management and guidance of the entire project in the whole region, and is also directly responsible for the study of the regional metallogenic geological conditions and distribution of copper deposits in the copper-chrome ore belt in Mirdita. In the metallogenic belt he was responsible for, after actual investigation, the original understanding of topographic structure was overturned, the actual ore control law was found, and the mineral reserves were expanded.
After more than four years of hard work, the China-aided Geological Brigade has successfully completed the task of the aid project, and the work done by the director of the General Administration of Geology of Afghanistan has been praised as "exemplary work". Before returning to China, the Supreme Leader of Albania, First Secretary of the Albanian Labor Party and Prime Minister Enver Hoxha (1908~1985), led the members of the government to hold a banquet to give thanks. The following year, Chang Yinfo was awarded the Order of Labor by the Albanian Government of the First Class in recognition of his contribution to the geological work in Afghanistan.
It was 1974 when Chang Yinfo returned to China, and nearly ten years of foreign aid experience made him fortunate to avoid the impact of domestic political storms, and he was still able to continue to engage in business work, and have further accumulation and promotion. Although the geological metallogenic characteristics of Vietnam and Albania are different from those in China, he has broadened his horizons and gained in terms of work ideas and methods.
Both houses won laurels
After the reform and opening up, Chang Yinfo successively served as deputy chief engineer, chief engineer and deputy director of Anhui Provincial Geological Bureau. This is the summary stage of his scholarship, and it is also the pioneering stage. On the basis of summarizing many years of work experience, he raised his understanding to a theoretical level and wrote academic papers for publication. On the other hand, he also began to preside over many large-scale scientific research projects, including the first batch of cross-provincial and regional projects in China, and two rounds of scientific and technological research projects on the prediction of hidden deposits in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River carried out by the Ministry of Science and Technology during the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" and "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period. These geological research efforts have achieved high-level research results.
In 1985, at the solid mineral survey meeting held by the Ministry of Geology in Taiyuan, Chang Yinfo spoke on behalf of the Anhui Provincial Bureau of Geology. He proposed for the first time to divide the development history of the national mineral census work into three stages, and actively advocated following the geological understanding law from shallow to deep, from "point" to "surface" to "body", pointed out that under the conditions that the current technology and methods permitted, and the industrial mining capacity has made great progress, it should be prospected for deep ores, and suggested that three-dimensional geological mapping should be carried out in important metallogenic prospects. After the meeting, he took the lead in carrying out a pilot study on three-dimensional mapping in Tongling and Daye mining areas. The concept of deep prospecting was put forward in sync with the international level, which opened the prelude to the geological and mineral work of the mainland to march to the deep part.
In 1979, the State Council awarded him the title of "National Model Worker"; in the 80s, he was awarded the "First Prize of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources" (twice) and the "Special Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award"; and was awarded the title of "Young and Middle-aged Science, Technology and Management Experts with Outstanding Contributions" by the Ministry of Personnel. In 1991, he was elected as a member (academician) of the Department of Geosciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for his creative theoretical discoveries in ore deposits, regional metallogenic and prospecting and exploration, and was also the only member of the Department of Geosciences elected in the provincial bureau system that year. In 1994, the Chinese Academy of Engineering was established, and Chang Yinfo was directly selected from the Academy of Sciences as the first batch of academicians of the Academy of Engineering for his outstanding achievements in the field of engineering science and technology. There are only 30 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and only 2 people in the Department of Geosciences.
When he was elected as an academician, Chang Yinfo was 60 years old, and he was in the stage of his life with rich experience and undiminished energy. Subsequently, he continued to preside over the completion of the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" scientific and technological research projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology, presided over or participated in the guidance of the completion of a number of national key scientific research projects and scientific research projects in Anhui Province during the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" and "Tenth Five-Year Plan" periods.
From the mid-80s of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, due to the deviation in the implementation of the national mineral policy and the excessive reliance on the international market, the national solid mineral census has experienced a depression period of 15 to 20 years. In order to change this dilemma, Chang Yinfo joined other academicians in calling on the state to strengthen its support for geological work, develop its own resources, ensure national security and sustainable development, and put forward specific countermeasures and methods. With the prominence of the "resource bottleneck" of economic development, the state finally promulgated the "Decision of the State Council on Strengthening Geological Work" in 2006, which rejuvenated geological work.
At the beginning of this century, he actively advocated the development of deep prospecting, continued to select the large mineral concentration area in Tongling as the focus of research, and tried to ensure that the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were the focus of prospecting at the national prospecting work deployment meeting. In 2007, at the National Seminar on Deep Prospecting held in Hefei, Chang Yinfo once again expounded the next step of deep prospecting work from a strategic height, and proposed to do a good job in the preparation of geological exploration technology, team and talents. The prospecting practice in recent years has fully proved the forward-looking and important concept of this concept.
In recent years, the national geological work has shown a good situation of vigorous development, but there are also some problems, such as the geological system needs to be reformed urgently, the problems left by the geological depression period have not been completely solved, and the construction of geological team and personnel training also need to be improved. Chang Yinfo gave sober thought about these issues, deeply analyzed the history and current situation of the "three surveys" (exploration work, survey units and survey teams) in the country, and put forward suggestions and countermeasures.
In his later years, he was more interested in providing guidance and advice for geological work. Although he is now in old age, Chang Yinfo is still concerned about the country's geological work, and there are many good ideas and suggestions, and he will still rush to various places for meetings and investigations, and often go to the geological mountains and rivers. He is tireless and enjoys it.
Chang Yin Buddha (first from left) reads a map in the field of Xianghongdian Reservoir in Dabie Mountain.
(The author's affiliation is the Department of History of Science and Technology and Archaeology of Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China)