Three scientists, one writer, how powerful are the "Wu Brothers"?

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Over the past one hundred years, under the leadership and care of the Communist Party of China, generations of Chinese scientists have embraced the patriotic feelings of dedication to serving the country, and with profound academic attainments and broad scientific perspectives, they have integrated their scientific pursuit with the great cause of building a modern socialist country.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the "Chinese Scientists" WeChat public account set up a column of "Century-old Science and Technology Dream", focusing on the major scientific and technological events in China since the centenary of the founding of the Party and carrying forward the spirit of scientists.

In September 1977, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a notice to the whole Party and decided to convene a national science conference in the spring of 1978. After more than half a year of preparations, on March 18, 1978, the National Science Conference was grandly opened in Beijing, experiencing a turbulent period of ten years of the Cultural Revolution.

Wu Zhengjian of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Wu Zhengjiao of the Second Machine Department and the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Wu Zhengyi of the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were invited to attend the National Science Conference and gathered in Beijing. Then the eldest brother Wu Baizhu (Wu Zhengzhu) came to Beijing on business, and the four brothers were finally reunited, leaving such a picture of the scientific spring.

Group photo of the four Wu brothers in "Spring of Science" in March 1978 (from left: Wu Zhengjiao, Wu Baizao, Wu Zhengjian, Wu Zhengyi)

The four brothers are all national heroes: the eldest brother Wu Baizao previously taught in the department of Chinese of Nanjing University, and has a high degree of achievement in literature, art history, cultural relics, etc., specializing in the creation and collation of opera and songwriting, and making great efforts in collecting and sorting out the endangered dramas and scripts. The second brother, Wu Zhengjian, was an expert in the prevention and treatment of schistosomiasis and black fever, and was the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences at the time. The fifth brother, Wu Zhengjiao, immersed in the country's atomic energy cause, anonymity, silent dedication, wax torch spring silkworm, a lifetime without regrets. Wu Zhengyi is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, rooted in the southwestern frontier and dedicated himself to science. Some reporters said that he holds the key to the development and utilization of plant resources in his hands and makes forward-looking and strategic contributions to the rational utilization of national plant resources and biodiversity conservation.

In the spring of science, the four brothers actively responded to the call of the state, devoted themselves to scientific research, and devoted themselves to socialist modernization.

Wu Baizuo was a professor in the Department of Chinese and The Deputy Director of the Theater Research Office of Nanjing University from 1978 until his retirement in 1987.

Wu Zhengjian devoted himself to the organization and management of medical research and the cultivation of talents, and in 1978, when he was nearly a rare man, he served as the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. He worked day and night for the scientific research work of the whole hospital with enthusiasm and energy, and during his bedridden period of serious illness, he also conceived the prospects for the development of the Medical Academy of Sciences all day long.

Since 1978, Wu Zhengjiao has served as the chief engineer of the Science and Technology Bureau of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry and a permanent member of the Science and Technology Committee of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry, during which time he participated in the technical demonstration of important scientific research projects such as the development of laser method separation of uranium isotopes in China. In 1981, Wu Zhengjiao was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in 1987, he won the first prize of the National Invention Award.

In order to regain the lost time, Wu Zhengyi, who was already in the year of HuaJia, still radiated infinite enthusiasm and creativity, seized the opportunity to go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau twice to conduct scientific investigations, spent his 60th birthday in Nyingchi, Tibet; he entered Xinjiang for the second time, and then went to the northeast; he went deep into Fanjing Mountain, Zhangjiajie, Tianping Mountain, and Shennongjia in central China, Wolong, Jiuzhaigou, and Huanglong Temple in Guanxian County, West China, Wuyi Mountain, Tianmu Mountain, and Qiandao Lake in the southeast, and then entered the Guangdong Sea, summed up the artificial community work, and traveled all over the treasure island and Taiwan from north to south.

Wu Zhengyi not only visited China, but also traveled all over the world. He visited England four times, France and Germany twice, Russia twice, Australia twice, Japan five times, traversed the islands, and visited North America four times, including the three countries of South America (Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina), and climbed to the end of the Andes. After traveling through thousands of mountains and rivers, he finally had more practical understanding of the temporal and spatial distribution of plants around the world. In January 2008, Wu Zhengyi won the 2007 National Supreme Science and Technology Award.

The "spring of science" has moistened the land of Shenzhou and brought about a comprehensive recovery of Science and Technology in China. On the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping earnestly hopes that scientific workers will make new and greater contributions in facing the forefront of science and technology in the world, facing the major needs of the country, facing the main battlefield of economic construction and facing the lives and health of the people. This has greatly boosted the morale of scientific and technological workers.

The joy of the four brothers of the Wu family is overflowing in the spring of science, and their scientific research achievements for the country and the people will always be remembered in our hearts and become the inexhaustible driving force for our scientific research and innovation.

Text: Lü Chunchao, former deputy director and researcher of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, once served as the director of the office of academician Wu Zhengyi, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Chinese Dictionary of Biology and the executive deputy editor of the Botanical Dictionary, and is currently the director of the office of the Wu Zhengyi Science Foundation.

The pictures in this article come from the academic growth data collection project of old scientists