Deng Jiaxian was one of the 23 recipients of the "Two Bombs and One Star Meritorious Service Medal", and he took the needs of the motherland as his first choice. "The monarch regards fame and fortune as dung, and the mighty rivers and mountains of the country are promised." In him, he epitomized the spirit of "two bombs and one satellite" of "loving the motherland, selfless dedication, self-reliance, hard struggle, vigorous coordination, and courage to climb".
Deng Jiaxian (1924.6.25-1986.7.29) was a famous nuclear physicist and one of the pioneers and founders of China's nuclear weapons development work. In 1941, he was admitted to the Department of Physics of Southwest Union University. From 1948 to 1950, he studied at Purdue University in the United States, obtained a doctorate in physics, and resolutely returned to China after graduation. Since 1958, he has successively served as the director of the Theory Department of the Ninth Research Institute of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry, the deputy director and director of the 901 Institute of the Ninth Academy, and the vice president and president of the Ninth Academy of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry. In 1980, he was elected as a member (academician) of the Faculty of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1982, he won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award. In 1985, he won two special prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1986, he was awarded the title of National Model Worker. In 1987 and 1989, he won a special prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1999, he was posthumously awarded the "Medal of Merit for Two Bombs and One Star". On September 10, 2009, he was selected into the list of 100 Chinese that have touched since the founding of New China.
Seek the country of study
Deng Jiaxian was born on June 25, 1924 in Huaining County, Anhui Province, a scholar, the great calligrapher Deng Shiru of the Qing Dynasty was his sixth ancestor, and his father Deng Yijing studied at Waseda University in Japan and Columbia University in the United States, and taught at Peking University, Tsinghua University and other universities after returning to China, and was a famous aesthetician and art theorist. Deng Yijing named his son "Jiaxian" in the meaning that the "Jiaxian" of Hezhixiu is actually known as "Jia", which indicates that it is rooted, beautiful and mature in the land of China, and benefits the people. From the age of 5, Deng Jiaxian followed his father to primary school in Beiping, and was later admitted to Beiping Chongde Middle School. In addition to the primary school curriculum, he also read the Four Books and Five Classics, memorized ancient poems every day, and later studied English hard and specialized in mathematics. His father's strict education laid a comprehensive cultural foundation for Deng Jiaxian's later study and research.
After the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Japanese invaders forced Chinese students to raise flags in the streets to celebrate the victory of the "Imperial Army.", and Deng Jiaxian, who was studying in high school, was furious, tearing the Japanese flag to pieces and stepping on his feet. Worried that Deng Jiaxian would be persecuted, his father arranged for him to go to Kunming, and when he was leaving, he instructed: "We must study science, don't be like me, don't study literature." Learning science is useful to the country. Deng Jia first remembered his father's entrustment and was determined to serve the country scientifically. In 1941, he was admitted to the Department of Physics of Southwest Union University and studied under well-known professors such as Wang Zhuxi and Zheng Huachi. In the academic environment where the masters gathered, in the exciting school song of "Thousand Autumn Shame, Final Snow, Zhongxingye, And Xu Renjie", Deng Jiaxian benefited a lot academically and ideologically. After graduating from university in 1945, he taught mathematics at Kunming Wenzheng Middle School and Peiwen Middle School, and joined the Communist Party's peripheral organization "Minqing", joining the democratic movement and opposing the dictatorship of the Kuomintang. In the summer of 1946, he was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics of Peking University and the chairman of the Peking University Faculty and Staff Federation.
In order to realize his long-cherished wish of becoming a scientific and technological power, Deng Jiaxian was admitted to graduate school in the United States, and in October 1948, he went to the Department of Physics of Purdue University in the United States for further study. He said: "In the future, the construction of the motherland will need talents, and I will definitely come back after I have finished my studies." Because of Deng Jiaxian's talent and diligence, in less than two years he completed the credits and passed the thesis defense, and after receiving his doctorate for 9 days, he boarded the President Wilson ship and returned to the embrace of the motherland. Obeying the organizational arrangement, he came to the newly established Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to engage in nuclear theoretical research. He devoted himself to his work with enthusiasm, made pioneering work in the study of Chinese nuclear theory, and honorably joined the Communist Party of China in 1956.
Pledge yourself to the country
"Why should we not do anything to promise the country by ourselves?" With the body of the country, why dare not do anything? For the sake of the motherland's prosperity and the development of China's national defense scientific research cause, Deng Jiaxian pledged himself to the country with his own body and was determined to dedicate everything to the country, "doing earth-shattering things, and doing anonymity and burying celebrities." One day in August 1958, Qian Sanqiang approached Deng Jiaxian and said, "The state wants to put a 'cannon battle,'" and asked him if he would like to participate in this work that must be kept strictly confidential. Deng Jiaxian knew what this "cannon battle" meant, and he just turned 34 years old and gladly accepted this glorious task and became the director of the theory department of the Ninth Research Institute of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry. On the night of the day when he accepted the historical responsibility of developing a nuclear bomb, he told his wife Xu Luxi that I would not be able to take care of the affairs of my family in the future, and my life would be dedicated to my future work. If I do this well, my life will be very meaningful, and it is worth dying for it! He became the person in charge of the theoretical design of China's first atomic bomb, and he told the mobilization of young college students that to do our work, we must be willing to be unsung heroes, one is not famous, the other is not profitable, and we must suffer hardships; the scientific results we have made cannot publish papers.
For the next 28 years, Deng Jiaxian hid deeply in his name, devoted himself to the development of nuclear weapons, and lived an ascetic life, either exhausting his efforts in scientific research institutes or braving the sweltering heat and cold to the desert Gobi, where he traveled from place to place, eating and sleeping in the wind, and spent a full decade on the test field. The wind knife and frost sword of the desert stained his sideburns, and the wheels of time rolled over the Gobi, leaving a deep mark on his face.
Although Deng Jiaxian has long served as the leader of nuclear tests, he always appears on the front line at the most critical time, taking the lead, fighting hard and bravely taking risks. Of the first 32 nuclear tests conducted by our country, he commanded a total of 15. In dangerous moments such as nuclear weapons insertion detonators and uranium ball processing, Deng Jiaxian has always insisted on working with the operators. This fearless spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice and not afraid of risks has deeply infected every scientific researcher. In a hydrogen bomb test in 1979, the aircraft dropped the hydrogen bomb in the air, but the parachute did not open, and the hydrogen bomb fell directly from a high altitude to the ground. Deng Jiaxian, then president of the Ninth Academy, who was directing at the scene, ignored the obstacles, "None of you should go, this is what I did, I know." You go and you are polluted in vain. He rushed into the proving ground, hoping to find the reason as soon as possible. He understood how powerful the radiation of plutonium-239 in the warhead was, but he also knew how high the cost of this warhead was and how much the state invested. He has no personal safety in his heart, only the interests of the country, and regards the cause of the country as more important than his own life.
His wife, a medical professor, knew that he had "hugged" the broken hydrogen bomb and forced him to check on deng Jia when he returned to Beijing first. It turned out that almost all the laboratory indicators were abnormal, with radioactive material in his urine, and the chromosomes in the white blood cells were already powdered. But Deng Jiaxian still insisted on his work and returned to the base to continue to direct the nuclear weapons test.
Forge swords to protect the country
Poverty, without limiting his imagination. The blockade did not limit his strategic vision for the future layout of national defense. Deng Jiaxian established the belief and goal that "one is not for the name, the other is not for profit, but the goal of work should run to the world's advanced level."
Solving the problem of theoretical calculation data is a prerequisite for conducting nuclear bomb detonation tests. In June 1959, the Soviet government unilaterally tore up the agreement signed between China and the Soviet Union on new defense technologies, refused to provide China with atomic bomb samples and technical information on the production of atomic bombs, and asserted, "Without the help of the outside world, China will not be able to produce an atomic bomb in 20 years!" In the absence of data, lack of test conditions, and harsh natural environment, Deng Jiaxian carried forward the spirit of independence, self-reliance, hard struggle, and indignation and strength, and provoked the heavy task of exploring the theory of the atomic bomb. Liu Jie, former director of the Second Machine Department, once made an analogy: "The leader of China's development of nuclear weapons is in the Second Machine Department, the leader of the Second Machine Department is in the Ninth Academy, and the leader of the Ninth Machine Department is in the Theory Department." Deng Jiaxian can be said to be the "leader" of China's atomic bomb theoretical design. Deng Jiaxian selected the three aspects of neutron physics, fluid mechanics and the properties of matter under high temperature and high pressure as the main direction of attack, and together with other young researchers, he used the most primitive tools such as hand cranks and electric computers, abacuses and pens to carry out heavy mathematical calculations day and night. Choosing the right direction of attack and raising the "dragon head" is the most important contribution deng Jiaxian made to China's atomic bomb theoretical design work.
"If I believe in its feasibility, the difficulty of moving mountains and reclaiming the sea will eventually lead to success." In September 1962, Deng Jiaxian led the completion of the atomic bomb theory design plan, which solved the key problem of the success of China's atomic bomb test, which was called "the result of the world's mathematical problems" by the mathematician Hua Luogeng. Two years later, on October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully detonated, which was celebrated by the whole country and attracted the attention of the whole world. Subsequently, he devoted himself to the development of hydrogen bombs. According to his and Yu Min's proposal, China's first hydrogen bomb exploded on June 17, 1967. Deng Jiaxian summed up the research results of a hundred scientists and co-wrote "Summary of Theoretical Research on China's First Atomic Bomb" with Zhou Guangzhao, which is a pioneering work on the theoretical design of nuclear weapons, which not only plays a guiding role in future theoretical design, but also serves as a textbook for training scientific researchers to get started.
Many people feel incredulous that China was able to develop "two bombs and one satellite" in such a short period of time and under such poor conditions, and question whether it was developed with the help of foreign scientists. In August 1971, when Yang Zhenning learned from Deng Jiaxian's letter that "both atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs were developed by Chinese themselves, and no foreigners participated", he could not control his shocked and moved mood for a while, and immediately burst into tears, which can be described as "ignoring the news that the world had been ambushed by tigers, and the tears flew into a downpour."
Dan Heart Shines
In his evaluation of Marie Curie, Albert Einstein said: "The significance of first-rate figures to the epoch and the course of history may be greater in their moral character than in the mere achievement of intellect." This evaluation is also suitable for Deng Jiaxian.
Deng Jiaxian was loyal and pure, his work style was democratic, his words were sensitive and his deeds were simple, and he was "the scientist with the simplest temperament of a peasant." Deng Jiaxian's style is democratic; he holds a leading post, but he never regards himself as a leader, so that comrades call him "Old Deng," are good at listening to the opinions of others, are concerned about the growth and improvement of young people, and cultivate and lead a scientific and technological contingent with a high degree of dedication, rigorous work style, unity and cooperation, and courage to tackle key problems. Deng Jiaxian was modest and low-key, "The cause of nuclear weapons has been successfully achieved through the efforts of thousands of people, and I have only done a small part of the work that should be done." "Deng Jiaxian was indifferent to fame and fortune, and he worked hard for the interests of the motherland and the people, but he never asked for anything in life, and he was honest in taking names and paying attention to himself. Deng Jiaxian was simple and unpretentious, usually wearing a gray zhongshan suit, riding a bicycle to and from work every day, giving him a special car, except for work needs, never used.
Long-term nuclear test work caused Deng Jiaxian's body to be severely exposed to radiation. In July 1985, when he was diagnosed with rectal cancer, he said calmly: "I knew this day would come, but I didn't expect it to come so quickly." "He went to the hospital, never got out, was hospitalized for 363 days, had 3 surgeries, and kept on the pain. Even so, in the last days of his life, deng Jiaxian's mind was still occupied by China's nuclear cause, and he endured the pain of illness and nuclear physicist Yu Min jointly wrote the "Proposal for China's Nuclear Weapons Development Plan", which made China's nuclear weapons development reach the level of laboratory simulation before the total ban on nuclear tests. Before dying, Deng Jiaxian's last words were: "Don't let people leave us too far." On July 29, 1986, Deng Jiaxian, who had become ill with overwork, was killed by cancer. It was in the last month of his life that his 28 years of secret experience were revealed.
"Even though he died nine times, he still did not regret it." Deng Jiaxian had the choice of dying without remorse and the feeling of infinite loyalty to the motherland: "Choosing nuclear weapons means choosing sacrifice and paying. However, I have no regrets about my choice for the rest of my life. "If I can regenerate after the end of my life, then I still choose China, choose the nuclear cause."
"The mountains are safe and reliable, and the qingfen is in vain." Deng Jiaxian was "born like a bolt of lightning", and he turned his love for his parents, wife and children into great love for the country and the nation. The spirit of scientists represented by Deng Jiaxian has been cast as an integral part of Chinese culture. His immortal name will always shine in the sky of history; his outstanding deeds will always be remembered in the hearts of the people; and his lofty character will always inspire scientific researchers to struggle unremittingly.
Source: Learning to power the country
Edit: Wei Lan