On November 17, 1961, Mao Zedong wrote "Seven Laws and Comrade Guo Moruo". Hua Luogeng was extremely excited when he saw the poem "The golden monkey rose up a thousand sticks, and YuYu clarified Wanlie; today he cheered Sun Dasheng, only because the demon fog returned", and he was so excited that he wrote a poem and wrote a letter to Mao Zedong.
In his letter, Hua Luogeng said that he wanted to go out of the study hall and create a road of linking mathematical theory with practice, so as to contribute to the production and construction of the motherland. Mao Zedong replied to Hua Luogeng: The poems and letters have been read, and the ambitions are soaring, and they can be congratulated and congratulated. Soon after, Hua Luogeng's work achieved outstanding results. Mao Zedong highly praised Hua Luogeng: You are now working hard and promising, serving the people not for the sake of individuals, and you are very welcome.
Advanced mathematics is at the top of the halls of science, far from the actual industrial and agricultural production, how did Hua Luogeng relate them? Hua Luogeng dropped out of school after graduating from junior high school, why did he become a world-renowned mathematician? After the founding of New China, why did Hua Luogeng give up the superior conditions abroad and call on overseas youth to return to China together? The following tells you the moving story of the patriotic mathematician Hua Luogeng.
Speaking of Hua Luogeng, a famous mathematician, everyone's first reaction will definitely be the word "genius", thinking that he has been a child prodigy since he was a child. But this is not the case, Hua Luogeng's academic performance was very poor when he was a child. In this regard, Hua Luogeng himself once recalled: In fact, I can't find any traces of this genius in me. When I was in elementary school, I didn't get a diploma because of my bad grades, and I could only get a diploma. In the first grade of junior high school, I also passed the math exam after a make-up exam.
Junior Hua Luogeng
In the second year of junior high school, 13-year-old Hua Luogeng suddenly opened his mind and made up his mind to study hard. Others only learn one hour of knowledge, Hua Luogeng often uses two hours to learn, repeatedly groping, familiar with the chest, and laying a very solid foundation. In this way, Hua Luogeng's talent was fully utilized, and a problem could be solved in several ways, which quickly attracted the attention of the teacher.
After graduating from junior high school, Hua Luogeng originally wanted to go to the provincial city to continue high school. However, because his family was too poor, he could not afford to go to high school. At that time, the famous educator Huang Yanpei founded the "China Vocational School" in Shanghai, which specially recruited students from the cold door, as long as they graduated from junior high school, they could apply for the examination, and the excellent ones could be exempted from tuition. So Hua Luogeng went to that school. There, Hua Luogeng met Zou Taofen, who taught English, and laid a good foundation in English.
However, although Hua Luogeng was exempted from tuition, the cost of room and board and tuition and miscellaneous expenses was still a considerable amount. The family could not come up with money to support Hua Luogeng's education, and he did not find a part-time job in Shanghai, and eventually dropped out of school and returned to his hometown. However, although Hua Luogeng's academic qualifications stopped in junior high school, he did not stop the road of study.
Hua Luogeng, who dropped out of school at home, only had a copy of "Great Algebra", a "Analytic Geometry" and an incomplete "Calculus". Hua Luogeng, who only had a junior high school education, had to teach himself mathematics in high school and college with his talent and diligence. The people in the hometown saw that Hua Luogeng was always in a daze, and thought that he was suffering from dementia, and called him "stupid" behind his back.
Hua Luogeng
In 1927, the 17-year-old Hua Luogeng married Wu Xiaoyun, a fellow villager. Wu Xiaoyun lost her father at the age of 5, and her family was worse than Hua Luogeng, which also made her develop a good habit of thrift and thrift from an early age. In the next half century or so, Wu Xiaoyun's godson worked hard and complained, silently accompanied Hua Luogeng through many difficult years.
Soon after the marriage, Hua Luogeng unfortunately fell ill and was unconscious for a while. Although Hua Luogeng survived with his tenacious will, his left leg fell with a lifelong disability. Since then, Hua Luogeng has walked to draw a circle on his left leg first, and then take a small step on his right leg, which he himself ridiculed as "the movement of circles and tangents". Heaven will send down a great task to the Scythians, and they will first suffer their hearts and minds. The unfortunate encounter made Hua Luogeng more determined to study mathematics.
In December 1929, at the age of 19, Hua Luogeng published his first paper in the Shanghai journal Science. A year later, Hua Luogeng published in the journal Science "Reasons why the five-dimensional equation solution of Su Jiaju's algebra cannot be established." This article made Hua Luogeng, a thousand-mile horse, recognized by Bole and had a decisive impact on Hua Luogeng's fate.
Xiong Qinglai, head of the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, saw Hua Luogeng's article and immediately realized that Hua Luogeng was a rare mathematical genius. Coincidentally, at that time, a teacher named Tang Peijing of the Mathematics Department of Tsinghua University happened to know Hua Luogeng as a person, and also learned that his life was very difficult and he still studied mathematics assiduously. After Xiong Qinglai learned about Hua Luogeng's situation from Tang Peijing, he was immediately moved by the heart of talent, so he applied to the college to hire Hua Luogeng to work at Tsinghua.
Xiong Qinglai
After Receiving Xiong Qinglai's letter, Hua Luogeng realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and immediately set off for Beijing. After the two met for a long time, Xiong Qinglai found that although Hua Luogeng was thin and disabled, his thinking was extremely agile and his mathematical foundation was very solid. Xiong Qinglai wanted to arrange a teaching assistant position for Hua Luogeng, but this was simply impossible. Don't say it's a teaching assistant, even if it's an assistant, Hua Luogeng's junior high school education is not qualified.
However, Xiong Qinglai insisted on hiring Hua Luogeng out of the ordinary and assigned him a job as an assistant in the mathematics department. The work tasks are relatively light, mainly to sort out books, send and receive documents, and comrades to meet and chores. But the treatment is good, you can get 40 yuan per month, which is higher than the graduate student allowance. After work, Hua Luogeng could also go to lectures and self-study, and soon mingled with teachers and students of the mathematics department. In this environment, Hua Luogeng's mathematical level has improved rapidly.
A year and a half later, Hua Luogeng's mathematical level was recognized by all the teachers of the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University. Xiong Qinglai wanted Hua Luogeng to be a teaching assistant and let him teach calculus. But this is very difficult to do, Hua Luogeng only has a junior high school education, and it is already a breakthrough to let him be an assistant. To this end, Tsinghua University specially held a meeting to discuss whether to hire Hua Luogeng. Some are in favor of it, and some are against it. Just when everyone was arguing, Ye Qisun, the dean of the School of Science, took the case and said bluntly that "don't be limited by qualifications."
Ye Qisun
Hua Luogeng was eventually promoted to teaching assistant professor and taught calculus for freshmen. The tradition of a person with only a junior high school degree becoming a teacher at Tsinghua University should undoubtedly be carried forward today. A genius like Hua Luogeng, if it were not for the wisdom of Bo Le to see the pearls, then it is very likely that the pearls would be dusted. After all, the determination to delve into is often defeated by the pressures of survival.
Since then, Hua Luogeng has given lessons to students on the one hand, and on the other hand, he has studied mathematics assiduously and lived the life he dreamed of. Wu Xiaoyun, the virtuous wife, has always silently supported Hua Luogeng behind her back, working hard and complaining and thriftily running the family. In 1936, Tsinghua University recommended Hua Luogeng as a visiting scholar to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom for further study. At this time, Hua Luogeng had published many papers in the world's top mathematical journals, and had a certain reputation in the world.
The famous British mathematician Hardy once said: Hua Luogeng can obtain a doctorate in two years. However, Hua Luogeng is not rare in doctorates. He felt that it was a waste of time to study for a doctorate, so it was better to use these two years to learn more things and write more articles. It is also important to pay a high tuition fee for a PhD. Although Hua Luogeng could apply to Tsinghua University, he was reluctant to add trouble to the school.
Hua Luogeng in Cambridge
As a result, Hua Luogeng never went through the admission procedures of Cambridge University, but only studied as a visiting scholar. Two years later, Hua Luogeng published more than a dozen papers, each of which was enough to earn a doctorate. However, Hua Luogeng's degree is still junior high school.
After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Nankai University moved to Kunming and jointly formed the famous Xi'an United University. Friends in England advised Hua Luogeng not to return to China for the time being, because if he stayed in Britain, he would have superior conditions, and if he returned to China, he would be in the midst of war. However, Hua Luogeng was patriotic and determined to go to the country with his compatriots and resolutely set out to return to China.
Tsinghua University deliberately held a meeting on the question of what name to hire him, and everyone agreed to let him skip lecturers and associate professors and promote him directly to full professor. It only took more than 10 years for a junior high school student to become a professor at Tsinghua University, which is an extremely rare miracle in the history of education.
At the Southwest United Congress, in order to avoid the bombing of aircraft, Hua Luogeng had to move repeatedly, but once he was still "buried alive" in the rubble. After Wen Yiduo learned of this situation, he asked Hua Luogeng's family to move to his own residence. At that time, the conditions were very difficult, wen yiduo and Hua Luogeng's family were crammed into a big house, and a piece of cloth was hung in the middle as a division, creating a good story of "hanging cloth separation".
But it is in this situation that the teachers and students of Southwest United University have created many miracles. Hua Luogeng also wrote more than 20 high-quality papers under the extremely difficult situation of life and the inability to know the dynamics of foreign research, and completed the book "Stacked Prime Number Theory", which has a major impact in the international mathematical community. This work comprehensively discusses the estimation of trigonometric sums and their application to the Goldbach problem, and has achieved great achievements that have amazed the world.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hua Luogeng once again went abroad as a visiting scholar to exchange ideas. He first did research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA, and then taught number theory to students in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University. Princeton was full of talent at the time, and the famous mathematicians von Neumann, Weberen and Selberg were there, but Hua Luogeng was no different from them.
A year later, the University of Illinois hired Hua Luogeng as a full professor. After his life was stable, Hua Luogeng's first thought was to reunite with his wife and children, so he asked his wife to come to the United States with her children. The University of Illinois attaches great importance to Hua Luogeng, not only allowing Hua Luogeng to have very ideal research conditions, but also ensuring that he lives a worry-free life and allowing several of his children to go to school in the United States.
The Hua Luogeng family
But Hua Luogeng never wanted to stay in the United States forever, because although the conditions here were good, it was not his motherland. The reason why he came to the United States temporarily was to make new breakthroughs in his own learning while escaping the chaos of war, which many Chinese scientists did at that time. Hua Luogeng, who is on the other side of the ocean, has always paid attention to the domestic situation and eagerly awaited the arrival of peace.
After the founding of New China, Hua Luogeng was extremely excited and immediately planned to return to China. After the University of Illinois learned of this situation, it tried to keep Hua Luogeng, and even put forward the suggestion that "you go back to see first, the three children will be cared for by Yida". Many friends also advised Hua Luogeng not to rush back, after all, although there is peace in China, but everything is in ruins, and the conditions are certainly not as good as the United States.
But Hua Luogeng did not heed the advice, but with the passion of "Chinese has stood up", quit his job in the United States, and embarked on a journey back to China with his wife and children. On his way back to China, Hua Luogeng wrote an "Open Letter to All Chinese Students Studying in the United States":
Friends! Goodbye, I went before you... Friends! Although Liang Garden is good, it is not a long-term hometown, and it is back to Xi! But maybe a friend said: I'm still young, I might as well stay here for a while. But I said: it doesn't have to be. Friends, we are all in the past years, if sooner or later we have to go back, why not go back early and use all our energy for useful places? In short, in order to choose the truth, we should go back; for the sake of the country and the nation, we should also go back; in order to serve the people, we should also go back; just for the sake of personal way out, we should also go back as soon as possible, establish the foundation of our work, and strive for the construction and development of our great motherland! Friends! Let's meet in Beijing, our capital, this year!
Hua Luogeng's open letter ignited the patriotic passion of countless international students, and many well-known scientists, including Qian Xuesen, were also deeply shaken, and immediately planned to return to China, and made up their minds to contribute their own strength to the construction of a new China. Later, many patriotic scientists who made great contributions looked back on the past when they returned to China, and they could not help but think of Hua Luogeng's letter.
At this time, although Hua Luogeng only had a junior high school education like when he first entered TsinghuaYuan more than a decade ago, he had already made world-renowned achievements and was a world-renowned mathematician. Tsinghua University did not hold a meeting to discuss his position as before, but directly hired him as a professor. Hua Luogeng happily wrote to a friend abroad: I am very happy to tell you that now I am serving my motherland. I resumed my position as a professor at Tsinghua University.
Since then, Hua Luogeng has studied mathematics assiduously on the one hand, and on the other hand, he has undertaken the heavy responsibility of cultivating a new generation of mathematicians for the motherland. He successively served as director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, chairman of the Mathematical Society, vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Once, Chairman Mao Zedong invited scientists who had returned to China to work, and Hua Luogeng was invited to attend and sit next to the chairman. Mao Zedong smiled and said to Hua Luogeng: You are a Jintan person, you are doing a good job in mathematics, I heard that you are still a person from a poor background, I hope you will train some good students for us. Hua Luogeng replied excitedly: "Definitely work hard!"
Hua Luogeng shook hands with Mao Zedong
Since 1953, Hua Luogeng has personally led two seminars, leading young students to discuss the problems of "number theory" and "Goldbach conjecture", which are discussed once a week. In addition, Hua Luogeng also advocated the holding of mathematics competitions for middle school students, so as to stimulate students' interest in studying mathematics and discover talents with mathematical talents through competitions. Chen Jingrun, who has a lonely personality, is an outstanding talent discovered by Hua Luogeng.
Hua Luogeng only had a junior high school education at that time, but fortunately he was recommended by Professors such as Xiong Qinglai, Yang Wuzhi, and Ye Qisun, and thus had great achievements later. Decades later, Hua Luogeng also transferred Chen Jingrun to work at the Institute of Mathematics like those who recommended him in those years, which achieved another good story and also enabled Chen Jingrun, a mathematical genius, to create a more lofty world.
While training young mathematicians, Hua Luogeng also began to try to apply mathematical theoretical research to national economic construction. Especially during the three-year period of natural disasters, the state called for mathematics to be linked to the reality of production. Hua Luogeng somewhat completely walked out of the study and explored a path of combining mathematics with production, but he still had many concerns and was always undecided.
Hua Luogeng and Chen Jingrun
At that time, "Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essence" was released, and Comrade Guo Moruo wrote a poem "Seven Laws : Look at Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essence" after reading it. After Mao Zedong saw Guo Moruo's poem, he also wrote a poem "Seven Laws and Comrade Guo Moruo":
As soon as the wind and thunder rose from the earth, there was a pile of white bones.
Monks are fools and demons, and demons will become disasters.
The Golden Monkey raised a thousand sticks, and Yu Yu clarified Wanlie.
Today, I hail Sun Dasheng, only because the demon fog has returned.
After seeing Mao Zedong's poem, Hua Luogeng, who was originally hesitant, was deeply inspired by "the golden monkey rose up a thousand sticks, and Yuyu clarified Wanlie", and immediately wrote a poem "Xi jiang yue cheng mao zedong chairman" and wrote a letter to Mao Zedong, expressing his determination to go out of the study of the Institute of Mathematics and go to the practical work of production and construction to create a road between mathematical theory and production practice.
After receiving Hua Luogeng's letter, Mao Zedong happily replied: Mr. Hua Luogeng, the poems and letters have been read, and the ambition is soaring, and it is gratifying and congratulatory. With mao Zedong's encouragement, Hua Luogeng walked out of the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and opened China's first training course on co-ordination methods at the Southwest Railway Construction Site Headquarters in Anshun, Guizhou.
Mao Zedong and Hua Luogeng and others
The overall planning method is a mathematical method for production organization and management, which makes realistic arrangements for all processes of the project by finding out the key routes that have an impact on the overall situation and the processes on the key routes. This method can achieve optimal control of human, material, time and other resources in production, and has been widely used in industrial and agricultural production, and has achieved very remarkable results.
In addition, Hua Luogeng is also committed to promoting the optimization method in the actual production. The preferred method is a scientific method that rationally arranges tests under the guidance of mathematical principles and finds the optimal solution in production with as few tests as possible. The optimal problems in practical work, that is, the optimization problem, can generally be solved by mathematical methods such as differential methods, variational methods, maximal principles and numerical methods.
On the one hand, Hua Luogeng worked tirelessly to promote the application of the overall planning method and the optimal method in industrial and agricultural production, and on the other hand, he wrote his research experience and practical experience into an article and published it, and published the book "Ordinary Talk and Supplement of the Overall Planning Method". Hua Luogeng then sent his writings to Mao Zedong. After carefully reading, Mao Zedong replied to Hua Luogeng:
Comrade Hua Luogeng, the letter and the "plain words" (that is, Hua Luogeng's writings) have been received in other places long ago, and you are now working hard and promising, not for personal purposes but for the people, very welcome, I heard that you went to the southwest to inspect and give lectures, you have gained a lot, and you are extremely fortunate. Dedicated to the restoration, praise and praise the teachings.
In his later years, Hua Luogeng
Mao Zedong's letter played a very encouraging role for Hua Luogeng. Many years later, in the face of the reporter's interview, Hua Luogeng excitedly displayed the two letters that had been treasured for many years, explaining:
This first letter was written by Chairman Mao teaching me to be ambitious, to set great ambitions, to break the old ways, and to take a new path. This great encouragement and encouragement made me change my old habits and write "Ordinary Talk on The Coordinated Method"... In the midst of his busy schedule, the chairman also gave handwritten instructions to express his great happiness for me to go to the construction site of the third line in the southwest to study and exercise, and encouraged me to work hard and serve the people not for individuals; and encouraged me to continue to move forward on the road of serving the people.
Until his death, Hua Luogeng was committed to closely linking mathematics with production practice, and made great contributions to the modernization of the motherland. Someone once said to Hua Luogeng: If anyone says that mathematics is useless in the future, then take you as an example to educate and answer them!
On the afternoon of June 12, 1985, the 75-year-old Hua Luogeng ended a wonderful speech with a warm cheer from the audience. As he stepped into his wheelchair, he suddenly fell to the ground due to a sudden acute myocardial infarction. The hospital rescued Hua Luogeng, but failed to save Hua Luogeng's life. A generation of great mathematicians has forever left the motherland and people to whom he dedicated his life.
Looking at Hua Luogeng's life, from a cold and studious young man to a titan in academia, it is rare in the world. What is even more valuable is that whenever the country rises and falls at an important juncture, he gives up his overseas future and resolutely returns to China. For the development of the motherland, he even went out of the study hall and explored a path of combining mathematics and production practice. A generation of masters, a model of all generations! It can be called "serving the people"!