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In "Hundred Family Names", the surname Qian ranks second, second only to Zhao. That's because "Hundred Family Names" was produced in the Song Dynasty, and some people speculated that it was written by Lao Ru in the Wuyue region, so the national surname Zhao was put first, and the surname of Qian Hao, the king of Wuyue, was put second. In fact, there are not many people with the surname Qian in China, and now they only rank 89th, after the dragon (85th), wan (86th) duan (87th) and Lei (88th) that we usually have relatively rare. The reason why we sometimes think that there are more people with the surname Qian is because there are more celebrities with the surname Qian.
In people's impressions, there are many scientists with the surname Qian. However, among the 745 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences today, there is only one academician surnamed Qian, Qian Yitai of the Ministry of Chemistry. Among the 500 academicians who have passed away, the number of academicians surnamed Qian has reached as many as 11.
These are two very asymmetrical data, one is 1/745 and the other is 11/500, which is 16.4 times different from each other. Although the sample is small, perhaps special, this is, after all, at least qualitatively illustrating the fact that the proportion of scientists surnamed Qian among famous Chinese scientists has dropped significantly.
We have to ask, what is the reason for this fact?
A very interesting thing is that all of the above academicians surnamed Qian are all from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and without exception, they are all from the Yangtze River Delta region.
Let's take a look at the 11 academicians who died:
Qian Baogong, polymer chemistry and polymer physicist, born on March 18, 1916, is a native of Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province.
Qian Chongshu, botanist, born on November 11, 1883, is a native of Haining, Zhejiang.
Qian Linzhao, a physicist, was born on August 28, 1906, from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
Qian Lingxi, a mechanician, was born on July 16, 1916, from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. ,
Channing, an expert in sediment movement and riverbed evolution, was born on December 4, 1922 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.
Qian Renyuan, physical chemist, polymer physicist, born in September 19, 1917, Changshu, Jiangsu,
Qian Sanqiang, a physicist, was born on October 16, 1913, from Huzhou, Zhejiang.
Qian Weichang, physicist, born in October 9, 1912, from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
Qian Xuesen, a physicist, was born in Shanghai on December 11, 1911, with his ancestral home in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.
Qian Zhidao, a chemical expert, was born on November 3, 1910 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang.
Qian Zhonghan, an expert in engineering thermophysics and automation, was born on June 2, 1911 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
Academician Qian Yitai, who is still working today, was born on January 3, 1941, from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
In fact, people surnamed Qian are mainly distributed in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui account for 62% of the total population of Qian. Jiangsu province alone accounts for 24%.
Among the 11 academicians surnamed Qian who died, the latest born was Mr. Channing, born in 1922. That is to say, the primary and higher education received by these academicians was completed in the 1940s and before. Academician Qian Yitai, who was born in 1941, graduated from Shandong University in 1962, and his education was mainly in the 1950s.
The proportion of academicians surnamed Qian among deceased academicians is 11/500 (2.2%), which is greatly disproportionate to the proportion of the qian surnamed population in the total population of the country (0.18%). This illustrates the overwhelming advantage of education levels in the Yangtze River Delta region over most other regions before the 1940s. I believe that an analysis of the provenance of the deceased academicians should lead to roughly the same conclusions.
The level of education in a region is closely related to the educational resources of that region. The so-called educational resources are related to the economic development of various places, especially primary and secondary education. In economically developed areas, the penetration rate and education level of primary and secondary education are relatively high, and more people go to college, which is the case in history.
Since the 1950s, the state has paid attention to the balanced allocation of educational resources and paid attention to the gradual popularization of primary and secondary schools. In this way, the population with higher education in each region is gradually becoming more balanced. Today, the sharp reduction of academicians surnamed Qian is a sign that the educational resources in various regions are moving towards a balance, and the overwhelming advantage of the education level in the Yangtze River Delta region relative to most other regions has basically disappeared. Of course, from the number of academicians to make a comparison, it is only a small sample of samples, if you can see the information of the experts of the Ministry of Education's expert database over the years, and analyze it from this, I believe that you can get more convincing conclusions.
Today, whether on a national scale or on a local scale, the problem of uneven educational resources still exists quite seriously. Striving for a balance of educational resources is a big problem that needs to be solved with great efforts. However, we should also realize that the imbalance of economic development will still exist in a fairly long historical stage, which is the basic national condition of our country. Due to the economic imbalance, the imbalance in educational resources, especially in primary and secondary schools, will also exist for a long time. But we have made great, fundamental progress compared to a few decades ago, and we must see this. If we can't see progress, if we can't see the direction we are making progress, we will only be angry, and nothing problem can be solved just by being angry.
This article is from the Science Network Feng Dacheng blog