►Chinese geologist Ding Wenjiang (1887-1936)
Written by | Zhou Zhonghe (Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Li Jingshu (Ph.D., Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Responsible editor| Li Xiaoming
Intellectuals for a Better Intellectual Life ID: The-Intellectual
●●●
Chinese intellectuals during the Republic of China period were generally divided into two categories: one was the literati who studied both Chinese and Western, such as Hu Shi, Lu Xun... They set off ideological movements and expressed political propositions through the barrel of their pens to realize their patriotic aspirations of "actively joining the WTO"; the other is the scientific scientists who have studied Western scientific knowledge, and they mostly hold the attitude of "not discussing and participating in politics", and they are silently doing scientific research at home and abroad.
But in fact, during the Republic of China, there was another type of intellectual: they retained the traditional Confucian virtues of feudal society, believing that "the poor are good at their own, and the poor are good at both", not only can they "actively join the WTO" in the form of pen and writing, but also promote reform as officials directly involved in politics; at the same time, they are also scientists and have made outstanding contributions in their research fields. Among such intellectuals, Ding Wenjiang is a well-deserved representative figure.
Who is Ding Wenjiang?
Cai Yuanpei called him "a rare modern figure in our country, a talent who is proficient in science and good at doing things"; Hu Shi praised him as "the most glorious and capable good person, a great person who was born to do things, lead, train talents, and establish scholarship", and published his only biography for others in the 1950s, "The Biography of Ding Wenjiang"; Russell even called him "the most talented and capable person I have seen in the Chinese". Fu Sinian's evaluation of him is the most comprehensive: "He is the representative of the most benign and useful Chinese in the new era; he is the highest elite produced in the process of Europeanizing China; he is a high-horsepower machine that uses scientific knowledge as fuel; he is a person who obliterates subjectivity, serves the society for scholarship, serves the progress and happiness of the public; and Ding Wenjiang's personality should leave a deep impression on the hearts of the Chinese people."
He can not only use words to pin down the shortcomings of the times and offer suggestions, but also a first-class scientist and organizer. He once wrote a blue thread for the scientific cause of the motherland, and also practiced the industrial construction of the motherland. As an intellectual, Ding Wenjiang is really a model for the Republic of China and a model for the world.
<h1>Geoscience Guru</h1>
Ding Wenjiang (Zi Zaijun) was born in the thirteenth year of the Reign of Emperor Dezong of the Qing Dynasty (1887), and entered a private school at the age of three to begin a traditional Confucian education. In 1902, Ding Wenjiang, who was "determined to learn in ten years", believed that "it is very important to do learning, and to save the country, you must first learn"[1], so he embarked on the road of studying abroad, and finally obtained a double bachelor's degree in geology and zoology from Grass University in the United Kingdom with excellent results. During his study abroad, Ding Wenjiang was deeply influenced by Scientists such as Darwin and Huxley, and realized the importance of the spirit of scientific practice. Thus, unlike the "lazy and lazy" Chinese Confucian scholars described by Richthofen, Ding Wenjiang energetically traveled through Europe and accumulated rich experience and refined field practice ability.
► In 1913 Ding Wenjiang (first from right) and Solge in Hebei.
After returning to China after completing his studies, he raised funds himself to conduct geological surveys in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, "climbing the mountain must reach the peak, moving must be walking", "short road does not go far, flat road does not take mountain road"... He obtained a lot of scientific data in this survey, including maps, diaries and fossils, which found the first pot of gold for Chinese geological science research, opened the road of independent field investigation by Chinese scholars, and laid the foundation for future Chinese geological research to focus on "scientific practice". Before 1922, Ding Wenjiang was the geologist in China who engaged in field investigations in the most extensive areas, spent the most time, and achieved the most achievements. The famous geologist Huang Jiqing once compared him to "Xu Xiake of the 20th century" and praised his actual achievements far more than Xu Xiake.
In the early years of the Republic of China, China had just broken free from the shackles of the feudal system, and had fallen into a chaotic situation of warlord division and smoke, the country was poor and weak, and it was difficult to obtain academic funds; Chinese scholars were in a "aphasia" position in the world's academic circles, and scientific research and academic internationalization could be described as empty talk. At that time, when thousands of compatriots were still living in the present and had no idea of China's future direction, Ding Wenjiang, who had not yet reached the age of establishment, resolutely undertook the heavy responsibility of a discipline planner for scientific salvation of the country. He was good at organizing and governing, and played the role of "politician in academia". Although he, along with Zhang Hongzhao and Weng Wenhao, was a pioneer in pioneering The Cause of Geology in China, the other two gentlemen both promoted Ding Gong as the number one leader in china's early geology.
►Group photo of the opening ceremony of the Library and Exhibition Hall of the Geological Survey institute on July 17, 1922. Ding Wenjiang (second row seated fifth from the left)
He participated in the preparation of the Geological Survey (also the earliest national scientific research institution in China) and served as its director, working hard from both "funding" and "talent" aspects, and built it into China's first complete scientific research institution in less than ten years, which played a vital role in the development of Chinese geoscience.
►Group photo of founders of geological society of China
He also initiated the establishment of the Geological Society of China. Some foreign experts visited the reports, surveys and drawings, and specimens written by the first batch of fresh geological scholars he participated in training, and marveled that they were no different from european and American universities. The Southwest Geological Survey of the Geological Survey Institute, which he led, lasted two years and seven months (31 months) and covered six provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Qian, Guizhou and Yunnan, with a total of tens of thousands of kilometers traveled by the three groups and an actual working area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Such a great scale was unprecedented in China at that time, and it was also very rare in the geological history of China and foreign countries.
Take Ding Gong's contribution to paleontology, one of the branches of geology, as an example, to glimpse his talent as a leader in modern Chinese science. Ding Wenjiang was the first teacher in China to teach paleontology, and also invited paleozoologist Greep, paleobotanist Heller, paleoanthropologist Anderson to China for teaching and research. He co-founded and has long served as the editor-in-chief of "Paleontology of China", which is the earliest scientific journal with major international influence in China.
The discovery of the Peking Ape Man fossil, which caused a sensation in the world's academic circles, also benefited from his preparation and leadership of the Cenozoic Geological Survey Room (the predecessor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences). Anderson's early fossil collection plan, which discovered the Zhoukoudian site, was also approved by Ding Wenjiang. In the cooperation agreement, Ding Wenjiang made it clear that the research results of Anderson and other scholars on Chinese fossils must be published in the "Chinese Paleontology"; the fossil specimens sent to Sweden for study must be returned to China after the study is completed; and some Chinese scholars are sent to Sweden for further study... This can be described as the beginning of the standardization of Academic Cooperation between China and foreign countries.
In addition to geology, including paleontology, Ding Wenjiang has made pioneering contributions in the fields of geography, history, archaeology, and minority linguistics, and is a typical encyclopedic figure.
<h1>A capable minister of WTO accession</h1>
Most of the traditional Chinese literati have the mindset of "taking the world as their own responsibility". Like all Chinese literati who are looking forward to "joining the WTO," Ding Wenjiang also believes that "it is their natural responsibility for outstanding elements to use their wisdom, intellect, and ability to work hard toward politics"[2] after all, "if politics is not clarified, scientific work cannot be advanced" [3]. Ding Wenjiang once issued a message: "We are not a minority of outstanding elements, who are the few outstanding elements, we have no sense of responsibility, who has a sense of responsibility?" We do not have the ability to be responsible, who has the ability to be responsible" [4] the appeal, this generous responsibility of giving up oneself and others has also driven more intellectuals to participate in the political activities of saving the country and governing the country.
► In 1919, Liang Qichao, Jiang Baili, Ding Wenjiang (second from left in the back row) took photos when they participated in the Paris Peace Conference
At the same time as pioneering China's geological undertakings, Ding Wenjiang accompanied Liang Qichao to Europe to investigate and attend the Paris Peace Conference as an observer to fight for China's rights and interests. In response to the chaotic political situation in China, intellectuals headed by Ding Wenjiang formed the "Effort Association", a society to discuss politics, in 1921, and began to work hard to study politics and comment on politics. In 1922, Ding Wenjiang, as the main initiator, and Hu Shi founded the "Effort Weekly" to pinpoint the shortcomings of the times and promote their political ideas. After the outbreak of the "September 18" incident, he and Hu Shi and others founded the "Independent Review", using "Zhongyun" as a pen name, commenting on politics as "independent", widely discussing "world affairs", and really caring about academic affairs, state affairs, and everything.
►Hu Shi, Ding Wenjiang and others organized the "Effort Weekly", which was founded in Beijing on May 7, 1922.
►Group photo of the Sino-British Geng-fund committee delegation to China, from left to right, hu Shi, Anderson, Wang Jingchun, Wellington, Ding Wenjiang and Su Huilian
In "Our Political Propositions," he participated in advocating the establishment of a "government of good men" to "earnestly put out fires for the sake of the national society, rather than taking advantage of the fires and looting them"; in "If I Were Zhang Xueliang" and "A Letter to General Zhang Xueliang", he seriously designed a battle plan for Zhang Xueliang; in the article "If I Am Chiang Kai-shek", he painstakingly advised Chiang Kai-shek to "immediately complete the unity within the Kuomintang" and "immediately discuss a truce with the Communists, and the only condition for the truce is that they will not attack each other during the period of resistance against Japan."
In addition to expressing his political and military views, he did not forget to disseminate the spirit of science in the journal. In the ideological and cultural field of enlightening the people's wisdom, like Huxley, who defended the truth of science, he formed a scientific school with intellectuals such as Hu Shi and Wu Zhihui, and fought a famous controversy between the metaphysical school represented by Zhang Junjie and Liang Qichao, thus defending science and making rational thinking such as "scientific concept" deeply rooted in the hearts of ordinary people.
Of course, his "active accession to the WTO" is also reflected in his efforts to do practical things as long as there is an opportunity. He once served as the general office of the Songhu Commercial Port Supervision Office (equivalent to the mayor of Shanghai) under Sun Chuanfang, and during his 8-month term of office, he negotiated with the consuls general of Britain, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands and Norway on the revocation of the Shanghai trial office, and vigorously safeguarded national sovereignty. He also managed Shanghai's administration, finance, public health, etc., and laid the foundation for the future development of "Greater Shanghai". In addition, he served as the general manager of the Beipiao Coal Mining Company for about 5 years, and managed the coal mining company so that its daily output was comparable to that of the previous annual production.
It is worth mentioning that as a scientist with an international perspective, the concept of "joining the WTO" in traditional Chinese culture has undergone profound changes in Ding Wenjiang. The "world" in "accession" is not only a nation and a country in the general sense, but also means the entire scientific community for scientists. In "Advice to Chinese Geologists", Ding Wenjiang wrote: Scientific research has no borders, and it is the unshirkable responsibility of Chinese scholars to contribute to world scholarship. Ding Wenjiang not only encouraged other scholars to publish Chinese research in international academic journals, but also published a series of results in English, and traveled to Washington with Scholars such as Greep to attend the International Geological Society Conference to read research papers from China. In the August 1935 issue of the journal Nature, he also gave a comprehensive introduction to the international academic community on the scientific work of the Chinese Academia Sinica. Thanks to Ding Wenjiang's efforts, the world's scientific community has learned that Chinese scholars, even under the most difficult conditions, are shouldering the scientific responsibility belonging to Chinese scholars; academic internationalization is finally no longer a blank piece of paper in modern China.
<h1>A role model for future generations</h1>
As a geologist and scientific organizer, Ding Wenjiang has done a real job in the country's modern scientific cause. In its obituary published for Ding Gong, the British magazine Nature affirmed his outstanding contributions to the development of world geology and praised him as the founder of Chinese geoscience. This kind of international influence and this honor is unique even in today's china, which is already very international. The geological talents he cultivated at the China Geological Survey and Peking University have become the founders of various sub-disciplines of Chinese geological science.
As a Chinese, he also possessed the traditional virtues of traditional Chinese culture, and during his tenure as an official, he never enriched himself and left the people to succeed, but was diligent and thrifty, honest and honest, simple and unpretentious, and did not have any bureaucratic habits. Moreover, he pays attention to the style of doing things in scientific practice, has the courage to assume the responsibility of enlightening the people's wisdom and improving politics, and gives full play to the feelings of "qi family and peace in the world". He even guided and inspired other intellectuals to assume the responsibility of "a few people" "without fear of injustice, fear of not working hard," no matter how difficult the conditions. Throughout his life, it is difficult to count the practical things he has done for the country, and all his noble qualities cannot be described in detail.
At the end of 1935, Ding Wenjiang, as the director general of the Academia Sinica, personally went to Hunan to inspect the coal mines in preparation for china's war of resistance, and died of gas poisoning on January 5, 1936. Although Ding Gong has left, his personality charm is unique, pointing out the patriotic path for future generations of intellectuals. When intellectuals are faced with the ever-changing social situation and the changing needs of the country, how can they position themselves in the balance between doing scholarship and doing politics, and how can they use the spirit of scientific practice to assume the responsibility of saving the country and the world? Ding Gong has led by example and has given us the best answer.
In Ding Gong's hometown of Taixing, Jiangsu, he was also a figure in Deze Township. Since then, there have been two highly respected scholars of the earth, one is academician Changyin Buddha, the other is academician Wang Dezi, and their choice of geology path is influenced by Ding Gong. On April 13 this year, the Taixing Municipal Government chose another site to build the "Yellow Bridge Battle Memorial Hall",[5] and restored its ancestral home to the "Ding Wenjiang Memorial Hall" to commemorate the 130th anniversary of Ding Wenjiang's birth. It is hoped that in the near future, Ding Wenjiang's hometown and even the whole country will emerge more outstanding intellectuals due to the infection of Ding Gong's spirit.
<h1>bibliography</h1>
[1] Quoted from Li Yishi's "Ding Zaijun in the Era of Studying Abroad".
[2] Quoted from Ding Wenjiang's "The Responsibility of the Minority".
[3] Quoted from Li Ji's "Huai Ding Zai Jun".
[4] Quoted from Ding Wenjiang's "The Responsibility of the Minority".
[5] The headquarters of the "Yellow Bridge Campaign" of the New Fourth Army was once located in the ancestral residence of Ding Wenjiang, so Ding Wenjiang's ancestral residence was once converted into the "Yellow Bridge Battle Memorial Hall".
Plate Editor: Walnut Grove 丨
Reproduction and use of the contents of this page without written permission is prohibited
Please contact the authorization for the reproduction of official accounts, newspapers and periodicals