Meteorological observation, as the most core project of the Northwest Scientific Expedition, is also the largest combination of members in the Scientific Expedition. Mr. Liu Bannong (1891-1934), the executive director of the Northwest China Scientific Expedition Group, asked the four of them several times to promote a long talk, caring and high hopes: "After we go out, we must record in detail what we see and hear, and some things may not be useful at the time, but they may be of great use in the future." ”
Rong Xinjiang (Professor, Department of History, Peking University): Compared with the dozens of volumes of the "Reports of the Sino-Swiss Northwest Scientific Expedition" published in Sweden, the current situation in China after the 1930s has prevented many Chinese works from being published in time. Ninety years later, the "Silk Road Storm: Liu Yanhuai's Diary of Northwest Expedition (1927-1930)" is a detailed record of the author's scientific expedition and precious meteorological records, and also allows readers to appreciate the natural features of the Great Northwest and the arduous work spirit of the expedition team.
Huang Jisu (Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): Nearly a hundred years ago, a branch of the Northwest China Science Expedition was established, and the expedition recruited a university preparatory student studying meteorology. Traveling westward, camel bells leisurely, he not only used his frozen fingers to remember the weather and draw routes, but also used his youthful eyes to photograph many interesting details and vivid scenes of social life, which have now become a precious memory and a rare historical material of young China.
Wang Zijin (Professor, National College, Chinese Min University): Meteorology is of great significance to historical research. Zhu Kezhen's discussion on climate change over the past five thousand years has added a background to the vicissitudes of the ancient history process. As a meteorological record of the Northwest Examination, the Silk Road Provides Valuable Information for both the History of the Northwest and the History of the Silk Road.
Liu Yanhuai on the way to the northwest of China (Photographed by Li Boleng in October 1927)
In the spring of 1927, in the bulletin board of the Third Academy of Peking University, Liu Yanhuai (1908-1982), a second-year student of the Science Preparatory Department, saw a notice on the recruitment of meteorological students by the Northwest Science Expedition. At this time, the influence of democracy and science since the New Culture Movement had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people; as far as Liu Yanhuai was concerned, his yearning for the Great Northwest had once taken the form of a childhood dream, in which he traveled all the way west from Shanhaiguan and along the Great Wall to Jiayuguan.
After a rigorous examination, he and his classmates Cui Hefeng, Ma Yeqian, and Li Xianzhi (1904-2001) won the competition, and at the age of 19, they won the opportunity to go out of Yangguan in the west and became the youngest member of the scientific expedition team. In the next three years, he not only came true of his dreams, traveled through the desert and the Tianshan Mountains, but also "never returned", after the end of the meteorological observation work, continued to travel west, and studied in Germany with Li Xianzhi, laying the foundation for his life journey towards Chinese meteorology and meteorological education.
Pioneer of the Northwest Scientific Expedition
A generation of masters of meteorology and meteorological education in China
Liu Yanhuai, also spelled Chunfang, was born on July 18, 1908 in Pingyin, Shandong Province, to a family that had been farming for generations, and successively studied at Pingyin County Model Primary School and Jinan Private Yuying Middle School. In 1925, he was admitted to the Science Preparatory Department of National Peking University and went to Beijing to study. In 1927, he joined the Northwest Expedition and, after the expedition, arrived in Germany via the Soviet Union in April 1930, and under the recommendation of the geographer Sven Hedin (1865-1952) and the meteorologist Waldemar Haude, he entered the University of Berlin (now Humboldt University of Berlin) to study meteorology, geography and oceanography. In 1934, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree with a German thesis "Research on Climate and Weather along the Southeast Coast of China". After returning from his studies, he was appointed as a professor and researcher of the Department of Geography of Peking Normal University, a lecturer of the Department of Geosciences of Tsinghua University, and the director of the meteorological station of the department. In 1936, on the recommendation of Zhu Kezhen, he went to Hangzhou Central Aviation School as a meteorological instructor and concurrently served as the director of the meteorological station, becoming a titan of aviation meteorology in the Chinese Air Force. Later, it was broadcast to Kunming and Chengdu, and composed a triumphant song for the Chinese Air Force to win more victories with fewer victories and the final victory during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In December 1949, he moved to Taiwan and served in the Okayama Air Force Meteorological Training Course. In July 1960, he was appointed as the director and professor of the Department of History and Geography (later renamed the Department of Geography) of National Taiwan Normal University, and later founded the Institute of Geography, where he served as the founding director and professor. After retiring in 1978, he became an adjunct professor and served as the chairman of the "Chinese Geographical Society" in Taiwan. On October 5, 1982, he died at the age of 75 at the Age of 75 at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei.
Liu Yanhuai is the forerunner of China's scientific investigation in northwest China, and he is also a pioneer in China's meteorological undertakings and the founder of meteorological education. Liu Yanhuai has opened courses in meteorology, climatology, geography, topography, oceanography, mathematical geography, cartography, regional geography, earth sciences, geophysics and other courses in related academic fields, and his meteorological and geographical research fields are mainly concentrated in northwest China and Taiwan, which is related to his early northwest expeditions and his teaching and scientific research in Taiwan in his later years. From the publication of "The Rain on the South Tianshan Road" in 1931, until his later years, he wrote a large number of articles on the scientific expedition to the northwest and the academic history of the scientific expedition, including "Sven Hedin's Last Expedition in Northwest China 1933-1935" and "The Northwest China Scientific Expedition (1927-1933) organized by China and Sweden" on the year of his death, reflecting his distant nostalgia for the beginning of his meteorological career in his life.
As meteorological students of the Northwest Scientific Expedition Group, Liu Yanhuai and Li Xianzhi taught in colleges and universities in Taiwan and the mainland respectively after middle age, and became a generation of masters of Chinese meteorology and meteorological education on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
A scientific expedition group with a worldwide reputation
The eight-year-long expedition is a miracle in the history of world exploration
The starting point that influenced Liu Yanhuai's life's career was to join the Northwest China Science Expedition. The "China Northwest Scientific Expedition", also known as the "Sino-Swedish Scientific Expedition to the North-Western Provinces of China", is a scientific expedition group with equal cooperation between Chinese and foreign scientists and a worldwide reputation. Since the 19th century, the hinterland of Central Asia, including Xinjiang, has become the last exploration zone for human beings to conquer the global geographical blind spot, and expeditions from all over the world have flocked to it. In this process of modernization, which marks mankind's understanding of the world, China has been absent. Until 1926, when the Swedish geographer and explorer Sven Hedin came to Beijing with Luft Hansa on a meteorological expedition to open up eurasian air routes, the Chinese academic community objected to the agreement to ignore China's sovereignty; after fierce negotiations, a scientific expedition composed of Chinese and foreign members cooperating on an equal footing was finally established, and on May 9, 1927, it made its first trip to the vast Northwest.
On May 9, 1927, before the departure of the Northwest China Science Expedition
Group photo at Xizhimen Railway Station (front row right 3: Liu Yanhuai)
The eight-year-long expedition is a miracle in the history of world exploration; the organization of such a large expedition group is the only one in the history of Sven Hedin's personal expeditions. It involves a wide range of disciplines, including meteorology, geology, paleontology, geography, botany, anthropology, archaeology, etc.; the areas of investigation are also very extensive, covering Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet provinces. In the harsh natural conditions and the turbulent political situation in the northwest, the members of the scientific expedition team overcame many difficulties and carried out scientific work with a rigorous attitude, and achieved many remarkable achievements.
For China, this unprecedented scientific expedition has also left us with an important experience of working together to innovate and go global, enhanced our own more comprehensive and scientific understanding of the human and geographical environment in northwest China, contributed to the introduction of advanced scientific and technological knowledge and scientific ideas in modern Times, and also cultivated outstanding professionals in China during the transition period between the old and the new, which is of far-reaching significance in the history of China's modern scientific development.
Liu Bannong's Yin Yin entrustment: Detailed records will be of great use
11 precious diaries, 1077 days without interruption
Meteorological observation, as the most core project of the Northwest Scientific Expedition, is also the largest combination of members in the scientific expedition: the German side sent an excellent meteorological expert Dr. Hao De to preside over various meteorological surveys, and in the first expedition, Lufthansa sent eight excellent flight personnel to assist in the survey, and the four students of Peking University also stood out from the enthusiastic registration of JijiBai and won the work of meteorological observation students with the group. Mr. Li Xianzhi recalled that after they were admitted, Mr. Liu Bannong (1891-1934), the executive director of the Northwest China Scientific Expedition Group, asked the four of them several times to promote a long talk, caring for them, and pinning high hopes: "After we go out, we must record in detail what we see and hear, and some things may not be useful at the time, but they may be of great use in the future." Ninety years later, when the Northwest China Scientific Expedition Group is more and more reflecting its importance in the history of human civilization, these diaries entrusted by Mr. Liu Bannong's Yin Yin yin will be a precious heritage for exploring the traces of the Northwest Scientific Expedition Group or understanding the appearance of Peking University students since the New Culture Movement, so they are also full of reading expectations.
Diary of the first day of departure (May 9, 1927)
On April 18, 2018, Mr. Liu Yanhuai's daughters, Meimei and Annie sisters, came to Beijing on behalf of the whole family to donate the precious cultural relics and documents that had been transferred to the other side of the ocean (Editor's note: This refers to Mr. Liu Yanhuai's diary) and donated them to the Huang Wenbi Center of Xinjiang Normal University free of charge. Ninety years later, 11 volumes of diary manuscripts that completely record the course of the nearly three-year expedition are impressively presented before our eyes.
Liu Yanhuai's northwest expedition diary
Liu Yanhuai's Northwest Scientific Expedition Diary was written on 11 blank notebooks that had been yellowed, some with longitudinal columns printed on them, and the height and width were 150×205 mm. With the exception of Book 6, which has nearly 100 pages and Volume 11, which has just over 30 pages, each of the remaining books is 50 pages up and down. The diary is written on one side, and each page is written in blue and black ink with about 20 lines, ranging from 27-35 words per line. The nearly 600-page, 350,000-word diary records the journey from Beijing on May 9, 1927, to Berlin on April 19, 1930. Nearly three years of inspection years, without a single day's interruption. According to his diaries, in addition to these neat Chinese texts, he also wrote German diaries as practice foreign languages (see the records of 1929.20, 4.26, 4.29, 5.3, 7.23, 7.24), which unfortunately have not been preserved. In addition to his busy travel and expedition work, being able to write so diligently and persistently is enough to show his extraordinary perseverance.
Silk Road: A timeless ballad with more than 200 precious pictures
Entrusted by the Huang Wenbi Center, the author and others engaged in the collation and publication of this diary, so I was given the opportunity to get a sneak peek at this precious historical material, and was impressed by its huge information capacity and rich old news and new knowledge. Liu Bannong's exhortation to meteorological students to "record in detail what they see and hear" before the departure of the scientific expedition was remembered by Li Xianzhi for a lifetime, and now it has been fully confirmed by Liu Yanhuai's diary. The teaching that "some things may not seem useful at the time, but may be of great use later" was indeed fulfilled more than ninety years later.
From our limited insights, we can at least summarize the following aspects to get a glimpse of the academic value of the rich content of the diary.
1. Observational records of meteorological expeditions
Liu Yanhuai assumed the role of a meteorological observer in the Northwest Scientific Expedition, so this diary is first and foremost a work log, showing us all aspects of meteorological observation in the Northwest Scientific Expedition.
Liu Yanhuai arrived in Baotou on May 10, and began to contact the barometric pressure gauge and the cold and summer meter on May 14, and also turned out the German lecture notes of Peking University before and began to study German. After gathering and assembling the camels in Baotou, the expedition began the long-distance expedition to the west on May 20. On the second day of camp on May 21, he "helped Haode to set up instruments and measure the weather." On May 25, the record of the climate along the way began. Since May 29, the four Chinese meteorological students have been arranged to be on the Hugartu River north of Baotou, where Hao De has taught observation methods, guided the reading of German meteorological books, and tested the actual measurement record book, and began the actual combat training of meteorological surveying. They take turns on duty, recording the weather every hour. His diary also no longer "copied" Haud's records, but instead recorded the data he participated in observing. At the same time, the daily diary also forms a program that inevitably records the meteorological conditions of the day. The work of Chinese meteorologists apparently won haode's praise, and on July 22, the large army was dispatched, and Liu Yanhuai was left behind in the Hugartu River to start independent operations, until August 2, when the work here was completed.
On June 15, 1927, Hao De supervised four Chinese meteorologists
(From left: Ma Yeqian, Hao De, Liu Yanhuai, Cui Hefeng, Li Xianzhi, Li Boleng)
Liu Yanhuai later published "Rain on Tianshan South Road" and "Comparison of Spring Weather in Dihua and Boguda Mountain", which is not only the most important achievement in his meteorological work in Bogda and Kuqa in Tianshan Mountain, but also the earliest batch of achievements in meteorological research in his life. The publication of the diary today shows his work process of obtaining these results and growing into the earliest training records of meteorologists.
2. The progressive footprint of the mobile university
The Northwest China Science Expedition was once called an "A wandering university" by Sven Hedin. From Liu Yanhuai's diary, it does show the scene of his diligent study in three years of constantly moving time and space, which has become a wonderful text of the mobile university.
For Liu Yanhuai of the preparatory class of Peking University, in addition to the specialization of meteorology, there are many teachers with expertise among the Chinese and foreign members of the scientific research team.
The head of the foreign delegation, Sven Hedin, was a well-known explorer at home and abroad, and the rich knowledge he accumulated during his expeditions to Central Asia became the source of Liu Yanhuai's endless benefits. For example, by calculating the pace of the camel's walk to draw the route of the day, it is the technique taught by Sven Hedin himself (August 29, 1927), and the author has since become obsessed with this, constantly exchanging records with Hedin on the way, from a difference of two kilometers per day to only a few tens of meters (September 19, 1927) and 10 meters (September 23, 1927), which shows that he basically mastered the measurement technology of this desert journey. ...... In addition, Hedin taught him techniques such as measuring well water temperature (September 14, 1927). Hedin's scientific spirit of insisting on recording the situation on the way, humbly seeking advice from others (such as August 28, 1927), and measuring the route on a stretcher when he was seriously ill (December 13, 1927) also affected Liu Yanhuai's work perseverance and diary habits to a certain extent.
Group photo at Dihua Weather Station in January 1930
(From left: Bai Wanyu, Gong Yuanzhong, Li Xianzhi, Yuan Fuli, Huang Wenbi, Liu Yanhuai)
The head of the Chinese delegation, Xu Bingchang, is a doctor of philosophy who returned from studying in France. On the way from Baotou to Xinjiang, Liu Yanhuai and he moved forward in a group, so the two talked the most. As an elder, Xu Bingchang's encouragement to Liu Yanhuai along the way (1927.11.9 and 1928.1.11) undoubtedly contributed to the growth of young student Liu Yanhuai. According to Liu Yanhuai's later records, he was able to complete his four-year study in Germany with relative ease, which was also partly due to Xu Bingchang's financial support. After returning from Xinjiang, Xu Bingchang served as the president of the Women's Normal University (and later Beiping Normal University), hired Liu Yanhuai as a researcher at the school, and advanced his salary for two years.
Yuan Fuli, a member of the scientific expedition team, was also a geological and archaeologist who returned from his studies in the United States and participated in the excavation of the Yangshao site at the China Geological Survey. As they traveled along the way, Liu Yanhuai also followed Yuan Fuli to learn about geology, and followed him to find fossils (1927.5.27); how to combine the route map along the way into a standard map at latitude and longitude was originally carried out under the guidance of Yuan Fuli (1928.1.28). Beginning in the winter of 1928, after Yuan Fuli served as the acting head of the scientific expedition group, he became the direct contact of Liu Yanhuai, who was independently inspecting Kucha, and constantly gave him work guidance through round-trip communications.
3. The spiritual outlook of the May Fourth youth
Liu Yanhuai's diary of the Northwest Expedition is also a portrayal of his ideological and cognitive growth in the past three years. Many records make us truly feel the new style of young students of Peking University who have been baptized by the May Fourth New Culture Movement. This spiritual outlook, which represents patriotism and progress, democracy and science, is filled with the breath of youth in the course of the northwest scientific expedition, in sharp contrast with the backward and turbulent inland society, allowing us to see the hope of China in that period.
For example, the embodiment of patriotic feelings is always revealed between the lines. On the occasion of the National Day of the Republic of China, the author cannot help but think of a thousand thoughts: "The Double Tenth Festival, only seven or eight days, remembering that although the Republic of China has reached the age of sixteen, it is still fragile, civil strife is still frequent, external troubles are pressing day by day, warlords are doing evil, imperialism is oppressive, the people are not happy, and the country will not be a country." The martyrs could not be blinded, and the heroes should still work hard. (1927.10.2) The worry about the fate of China, which is troubled at home and abroad, is not copied from some political textbook, but caused by the author's most personal feelings in the most sensitive political center and the most sincere youth in the previous two years of study and life at Peking University. This sentiment was shared by all Members of China, so a celebration was celebrated in the woods on the banks of the Ejina River (October 10, 1927). This activity was also respected and participated in by foreign league members, and eventually became an important part of the common struggle to enhance friendship.
For example, on May 9, 1929, the author wrote a diary of a thousand words to record the national humiliation anniversary of Yuan Shikai's government's acceptance of Japan's "Twenty-One Articles" in 1915; May 30, the anniversary of the "May 30 Massacre" in 1925, the author specially included the "Shanghai Massacre Memorial" after the date. In these places, we can see the heavy heart of young student Liu Yanhuai for the oppression of the country, and it is also the driving force for him to take the road of scientific salvation in the future.
Another aspect of the image of the "May Fourth Youth" is the new look after receiving the baptism of new culture in ideology and culture, and these problems are also reflected in Liu Yanhuai's subtle records. For example, the author's diary text has basically been written in plain and clear vernacular, as well as the use of modern punctuation, marking the right side of the book title and the name of the person, and so on. In addition to this "physical expression", what is more important is the books that the author reads outside the profession, which also reflects the depth and popularization of the new cultural movement. For example, Zhang Ziping's "Alluvial Fossils" is the first novel in the history of modern literature (May 28, 1927), which is the same as Xiang Kairan's "New History of Staying in the East" (November 3, 1929) as the content reflecting the life of Chinese students...
When Liu Yanhuai set out from Beijing in 1927, he was only a 19-year-old second-year preparatory student at Peking University. However, the positive and vigorous vitality and the spirit of striving to be strong reflected in the diaries can be seen in the image of the new May Fourth youth with mature minds and general knowledge.
4. The world of the Northwest Region
Liu Yanhuai's diary, in addition to the "examples" of scientific observations, has a lot of pages to record the political situation and social customs of the northwest in that period.
As the largest scientific activity in the history of the northwest expedition, the Northwest China Scientific Expedition Appeared in the distant northwest in the era of domestic political turmoil, which naturally aroused the high vigilance of the northwest political circles, and the exchanges between the scientific expedition group and the local government became a daily routine outside the inspection, so in Liu Yanhuai's diary, the exchange materials of local administration abounded. From the spread of the news of the assassination of Yang Zengxin, the highest governor of a province, in southern Xinjiang (July 11, 1928), to the invitation to Kuqa Township to arrange donkey hunting into the mountains (September 26, 1928), listing the observations around him, all of which became the living historical materials of the political situation and grass-roots society in the northwest during that period.
Liu Yanhuai inspected the paintings on the way
Observatory on the banks of the Ejina River (September 28, 1927)
The author's diary records the social customs along the way, and it is very realistic to leave details of that era. For example, from Suiyuan, the so-called "road guard" (August 23, 1927) divided by warlords along the way, the crops in Hetao (August 24, 1927), the trade in the Mongolian desert (August 19, 1927), the falcons of ethnic minorities (January 29, 1928), the lama temples along the way (August 20, 1927, September 1), the Taoist temple on the edge of Tianchi (April 4, 1928), the Catholic church in the countryside and the city (May 24, 1927, 8.23, May 21, 1928), Gospel Church (January 15, 1930), Orthodox Church (February 14, 1930), Andijans, Russians, Germans, Swedes, British, Poles, Dutch, Belgians, Radio outside the East Gate of Dihua (March 13, 1928), and the publication of Tianshan Daily (May 3, 1929), which diversified religious influences, diverse characters, and new things emerged during the Republic of China. The social ecology of the Mongolian-New Inland Area, which is both closed and open, is vividly expressed.
5. Personnel details of the scientific expedition team
A large number of work details belonging to the scientific research team have also become rich because of the appearance of Liu Yanhuai's diary. For example, regarding the setting and staffing of meteorological stations, it was mentioned many times in the diary before arriving in Dihua, and the four locations and personnel situations of Ongduer, Dihua, Kucha, and Wu (Ruo) Qiang were finally determined, in fact, there were many adjustments according to the social situation at that time.
As the author mentions at the beginning of the expedition, they need to receive preventive injections to avoid the invasion of epidemics (1927.5.30, 6.13), which shows that as a scientific research group, its hygiene awareness has also been very modern. He recorded that when he returned to Urumqi from Kuqa, he saw the blueprints of the museum designed by russian architects for the scientific expedition and the fundraising construction plan (November 21, 1929), which also showed that the scientific expedition team had a long-term plan to build a modern museum in Xinjiang at that time. The diary also records the information contacted with the Meteorological Institute of the Nanjing Academia Sinica many times (1929.1.1, 5.12, 10.24), which shows that meteorological observations in the border areas are valued by the National Government, and the concept of sharing resources for the Northwest Expedition.
The relationship between Chinese and foreign members of the scientific research team is one of the most concerned issues in the later research history. For example, Huang Wenbi's diary begins by mentioning the Chinese league members' northwest expedition, which has a dual mission, indicating that during the inspection, it is necessary to guard against foreign members' behavior that harms China's interests; and The Chinese league members are looked down upon by outsiders and therefore work hard in the face of adversity, which has always been the most interesting topic. In fact, through Liu Yanhuai's investigation, the Details of The real Sino-foreign cooperation are more full of sincere friendship and harmonious exchanges between the two sides under the "community of destiny".
(Excerpt from "Silk Road Storm: Liu Yanhuai's Diary of Northwest Expedition (1927-1930)", The Commercial Press, August 2021, 1st Edition, abridged)