Specializes in cattle people
He added salt to you for the 187th time
Add salt note: Zhang Ruimin, who recently studied Haier, is expected to take a few days to write. Today, I first sent an article about Yang Lao, in order to comfort everyone's expectations.
This article was co-written by my colleague Yang Shuo, yang shuo is the first author, and He Jiayan is the second author. We hope that the addition of new colleagues will bring something new to everyone while maintaining the original style and depth.
Yang Zhenning/Source: Baidu Encyclopedia
In October 1922, something big happened in the world: the British founded the BBC, the Red Army reoccupied Vladivostok, the Italians elected Mussolini, the Danish football goalkeeper Pol won the Nobel Prize in Physics...
But nothing is more important than one:
A Chinese child, born in Hefei, Anhui Province.
On August 11, 1922 AD, in the Yang Family Compound of Sigu Lane, West Avenue, Hefei County, a middle school teacher named Yang Wuzhi was delighted to have the eldest son.
According to the ranking of the family tree "Home, Bang, Ke, Zhen", the child should be the "Zhen" generation. Because Yang Wuzhi was teaching at a middle school in Huaining (now Part of Anqing), he took the place name "Ning" as the name of the child.
In the future, this name will forever be recorded in the annals of human history: Yang Zhenning.
1
This son seems to have a strange nature
Yang Wuzhi was born in a xiucai family, his parents died when he was young, and he was raised by his uncle. In 1915, he was admitted to Beijing Normal University, and after graduation, he first taught at his alma mater, Anhui Provincial No. 2 Middle School, and in 1918 transferred to Anqing Middle School as a mathematics teacher. The following year, he married his fiancée Luo Menghua, whose parents were married, and gave birth to his eldest son, Yang Zhenning, in 1922.
Not long after Yang Zhenning was born, Yang Wuzhi was admitted to the United States to study at public expense. In August 1923, Yang Wuzhi went to the University of Chicago to study for a doctorate in mathematics, at this time Yang Zhenning was 10 months old and could not speak; he could not see his father again until 5 years later, when he could already memorize the entire "Dragon Whip Shadow".
Yang Mu Luo Menghua is an old-fashioned woman who has only attended private school for two years, but her influence on Yang Zhenning is very large. During Yang Wuzhi's study abroad, Luo Menghua shouldered the heavy responsibility of educating his eldest son. According to Yang Zhenning' recollection:
"When I was four years old, my mother began to teach me to recognize square characters, and it took more than a year to teach me more than three thousand words. Now, the words I recognize add up to no more than twice that number. (See Records of Yang Zhenning, selected by Yang Jianye, Hainan Publishing House, 2002)
"My own personality and style are greatly influenced by my parents, and it may be said that the obvious influence (such as academic knowledge) comes from the father, and the inconspicuous influence (such as spiritual temperament) comes from the mother." (See The Collected Works of Yang Zhenning, selected by Zhang Zhou, East China Normal University Press, 1998)
Five years later, Luo Menghua received a telegram from her husband about to return to China, asking her to take her children to Shanghai for a reunion, which made Luo Menghua overjoyed and tearful.
You know, at that time, many people returned from studying abroad, abandoned their original wives and married new ones. Luo Menghua was also worried that he would also suffer the bad luck of being abandoned. But fortunately, Yang Wuzhi is not such a person.
As a doctor of mathematics at the University of Chicago, Yang Wuzhi was hired as a professor at Xiamen University after returning to China, and the family went to Xiamen to live. Young Yang Zhenning also followed his parents to Xiamen.
Here, Yang Zhenning used electricity for the first time, used a flush toilet for the first time, and began to receive a more modern education, rather than endorsing it all day as before.
Yang Zhenning's academic performance is very good, especially in Chinese and arithmetic, but the manual is very poor. Once, the teacher asked the students to pinch a chicken with mud, but after reading it, the parents praised it and said that this lotus kneading was really good. This feature also determines the direction of Yang Zhenning's scientific research path in the future.
It was also in Xiamen that his father began to discover Yang Zhenning's superiority: when the family walked by the sea, the shells yang Zhenning chose were always very small but very delicate, and Yang Wuzhi thought that his son had an unusual observation ability. He wrote a comment behind a photo of Yang Zhenning: This son seems to have a different temperament.
In the autumn of 1929, Yang Wuzhi changed from Xiamen to teach at Tsinghua University, and Yang Zhenning went north with his father. After that, he spent the best time of his life in Tsinghua Garden.
Perhaps the memory of his childhood was too deep and too beautiful, and a few years later, Yang Zhenning returned to his roots, and the last foothold he chose was Tsinghua University, and he never left in his life. This is a posthumous story.
2
Yang Datou of Tsinghua Garden
When he was a child, Yang Zhenning was the child king in Tsinghua Garden, nicknamed "Yang Datou". He had the most tricks, riding a bicycle, speeding down the slope of the soil, showing off his skills in the narrow gap between the rows of fish tanks in the Tsinghua Biology Department.
At that time, the little friend recalled that the Yang Zhenning brothers and several children were in the tree all day, "almost every tree we have climbed, every grass we have studied."
Among this group of friends, there was the later sculptor Xiong Bingming, Chen Shengshen's wife Zheng Shining, and a fellow villager who was two years younger than him, nicknamed "Lao Huan".
Lao Huan this baby plays behind Yang Zhenning's ass every day. They are in the same school in elementary school, after middle school, Yang Zhenning is also the senior, and when someone bullies the old man, Yang Zhenning will stand up to help him. Later, I went to college, and it was the same school; when Yang Zhenning went to the United States to study, the old man also followed in two years. Yang Zhenning also specially helped him choose a university close to the school he attended. For the first two years of his PhD, they lived in the same dormitory.
It can be seen that this old man can be called Yang Zhenning's best friend when he was young. Later, although they were far away from each other, their friendship remained unswerving and became a good story that will be passed on forever.
The big name of "Lao Huan" is Deng Jiaxian.
When he went to school, Yang Zhenning not only played, but also had excellent homework and was famous in Tsinghua Garden. Yang Wuzhi found that his son had excellent mathematical ability, but he did not strengthen the cultivation in this regard, let alone send his son to learn "Olympic numbers". Even when his son asked about some difficult mathematical knowledge, Yang Wuzhi always said, "Take your time, don't worry."
During the summer vacation of Yang Zhenning's first year, Yang Wuzhi invited a senior student from the History Department to explain "Mencius" to Yang Zhenning. This implies the concept of general education - that is, to cultivate students' understanding of different disciplines, and then integrate different knowledge to cultivate a complete personality.
This educational concept has also profoundly influenced Yang Zhenning's educational thinking. In 1990, a Chinese scholar wrote to Yang Zhenning, hoping to send his 12-year-old genius son to university for further study. Yang Zhenning said in his reply:
"During the summer vacation when I was 11 and 12 years old, he invited a history student from the university to tutor me in the ancient Chinese text, Mencius. He knew that human life was multifaceted, and he knew that his son's mathematics did not need to be rushed prematurely. I am deeply grateful for his wisdom...
...... There is a long journey in front of him, and it is especially important that at his age, he should maintain a comprehensive and balanced development in psychology and learning." (See Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016)
3
Seven years of the United Nations General Assembly
In July 1937, Yang Zhenning was about to enter his sophomore year of high school, but his peaceful campus life was shattered by the gunfire of the Japanese Kou.
In September, the Yang family evacuated to Hefei to escape the war, and Yang Zhenning also went to Luzhou Middle School in Hefei to study. However, japanese aircraft continued to bomb Hefei, and their studies were once again interrupted. In March 1938, Yang Wuzhi's family moved to Kunming. After arriving in Kunming, Yang Zhenning entered Kunhua Middle School to continue his studies.
With the encouragement and support of his father, Yang Zhenning applied for the Southwest Union University formed by the merger of Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University at the age of 16 in his second year of high school, and was admitted with the second place.
At that time, the Southwest United University shouldered the role of "safeguarding the cultural context of the national disaster", and the academic height of this temporary higher university was later created, and the number of talents gathered was extremely rare in the history of Chinese education, from which came 8 "two bombs and one star" founders, more than 170 academicians of the two academies and two Nobel Prize winners.
Yang Zhenning first applied for the chemistry major, but later became interested in nuclear physics and transferred to the department of physics.
At that time, yang Zhenning was given classes, literature was Wen Yiduo, Zhu Ziqing, mathematics had Hua Luogeng, Chen Shengshen, physics was also brilliant, Zhao Zhongyao, Zhang Wenyu, Wu Youxun, Zhou Peiyuan, Ye Qisun, Rao Yutai, Wang Zhuxi, Wu Dayu and other masters gathered together, so that Yang Zhenning and his disciples Li Zhengdao, Deng Jiaxian and others were like fish in the water.
The conditions of the United Nations General Assembly at that time were quite difficult, the classroom roof was made of tin, the rain clanged, the teacher's lecture could not be heard, the windows had no glass, the paper flew in the wind when the wind blew, and even when the school's finances were tight, the tin roof could only be sold for a thatched roof.
Not only are the conditions difficult, but students also have to be wary of enemy aircraft bombing and be ready to run alarms at any time. Yang Zhenning's home was once razed to the ground, fortunately the people evacuated to the air raid shelter in time, there was no accident, but many precious books brought back from Beiping were buried under the dust.
When Yang Zhenning was a senior in college, his childhood friend Deng Jiaxian was also admitted to the physics department of the United Nations University. After that, every time Yang Zhenning ran the alarm, he would pull Deng Jiaxian along. Once when the enemy plane attacked, Yang Zhenning ran to the air raid shelter, and he couldn't find Deng Jiaxian, so he went back to look for it despite the danger, and saw that Deng Jiaxian was fascinated by reading a book, and he didn't even hear the alarm. Not long after Yang Zhenning pulled Deng Jiaxian to the air raid shelter, the place where Deng had originally read was blown flat by enemy planes.
Despite the hardships of life, Yang Zhenning has absorbed abundant academic nourishment here. He finished his undergraduate and master's degree at Southwest United University, and then taught at the Affiliated High School of the United Nations University for a total of seven years. Later, he said, these seven years "had a decisive impact on my academic career throughout my life." (See "Mr. Yang Zhenning", CCTV documentary "National Memory" series)
In 1944, Yang Zhenning was admitted to the sixth batch of public funds students studying in the United States. The Examination Committee of that year stipulated that candidates should serve at the original institution and wait for further notice. Therefore, Yang Zhenning went to southwest United University Affiliated High School to teach mathematics for one year, and then officially went to the United States to study in August of the following year.
Although the days in the attached middle school were only a short year, they laid a foreshadowing for Yang Zhenning's future. At that time, there was a female student in the class, who was the Qianjin of the anti-Japanese general Du Yuming, named Du Zhili. Yang Zhenning, 22, and Du Zhili, 17, did not know that fate would bring them together in the future.
4
From Chicago to Princeton
In January 1946, Yang Zhenning came to the University of Chicago, where his father had studied 23 years ago, and became a graduate student in the physics department of the university. His instructor was the famous physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics: Fermi.
Fermi is a top scientist in both theory and experimentation, and Yang Zhenning has poor hands-on ability from an early age, and the lack of conditions due to war in the reading era, so he believes that he urgently needs to make up for the shortcomings of experiments. Therefore, Fermi introduced Yang Zhenning to the laboratory of his colleague Professor Allison to do research. Yang Zhenning went happily, he was ambitious and wanted to become a master experimenter.
Soon, a saying circulated in Allison's laboratory: "Where the ping-pong ping-pong is blown, there is Yang Zhenning present." (Where there is a bang there is Yang) (see Chen Ning Yang, Oral History Interviews, AIP)
When the experimental instrument leaked, Yang Zhenning spent several hours unable to find the loophole, but the students could see the problem at a glance, and repaired the instrument in a few minutes, which made Yang Zhenning feel mysterious and puzzled. In the end, he had to give up the road of experimental physics and concentrate on theoretical research.
Later, some people commented: This is the luck of the experimental physics community.
So Fermi introduced Yang Zhenning to another colleague of his to study theoretical physics. This colleague is the famous "father of the hydrogen bomb" Edward Taylor. Since then, Yang Zhenning has been like a fish in the water, and soon emerged in the world physics community.
In June 1948, Dr. Yang Zhenning graduated, and first stayed on to teach as Fermi's assistant. Later, because he was attracted by the research institute of oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb", he went to Princeton to work for a period of time. Originally, he and Fermi agreed to stay in Princeton for only one year, and then return to the University of Chicago.
But unexpectedly, this is seventeen years.
The reason why Yang Zhenning's Trip to Princeton changed from the original year to the next seventeen years was not only because of Oppenheimer's retention, but because he met a special person.
During the Christmas holidays of 1949, yang Zhenning and his colleagues were eating at the Royal Tea Garden Restaurant on Princeton's Witherspoon Street, when a girl with a good look and a dignified and elegant demeanor came up to him to say hello. Yang Zhenning blurted out in surprise: "Why are you here?" This girl was his former student: Du Zhili.
At this time, she has grown from a 17-year-old flower girl to a mature girl of 22 years old. She attended a girls' college in New York, USA, and went to Princeton during the holidays to visit her brother who was in high school, so she was able to meet Yang Zhenning.
At that time, Yang Zhenning was 27 years old. For the Chinese of that era, his parents were already anxious about his marriage. Yang Wuzhi even specially commissioned Hu Shi, who was in New York, to help Yang Zhenning introduce the object. Hu Shi smiled at Yang Zhenning, your generation is much more capable than us, where you need me to help.
At that time, Yang Zhenning also had other contacts, but after seeing Du Zhili, he basically determined that Du was the one he loved in his heart. Yang Zhenning began to take frequent trains between Princeton and North New York, and later, in order to facilitate the meeting, simply bought a car, and drove an hour and a half every weekend to find her at St. Vincent Hill College, where Du Zhili was located.
Eight months later, they had their wedding in Princeton.
Image source: Baidu Encyclopedia
Since Du Zhili was still in school at this time, if Yang Zhenning returned to the University of Chicago, they would have to live apart more than a thousand kilometers apart. For this reason, Yang Zhenning stayed in Princeton. Later, all aspects of work and life were settled, and he did not return to Chicago.
5
The Jan-Mills gauge field and cosmology are not conserved
After becoming a family, Yang Zhenning's career also ushered in a golden period of development.
Before 1956, physicists believed that conservation of cosmology, like the law of conservation of energy and conservation of mass, was a universal golden rule.
What is Conservation of Cosmology? The simple explanation is that there are four basic forces in nature: strong forces, electromagnetic forces, weak forces, and universal gravity, and "each of these four forces is symmetrical to the left and right, just as everything is exactly the same as the opposite of its mirror."
But in the 1950s, a "θ-τ mystery" emerged: physicists discovered that "θ particles" would decay into two π mesons, and "τ particles" would decay into 3 π mesons. But it is strange that the properties of θ and τ particles are almost exactly the same except for the different ways of decay, and the universe of θ is called even, and the universe of τ is called odd.
This puts physicists in a dilemma, and if the law of cosmology is unshakable, it is necessary to admit that θ and τ are two different particles, and vice versa, to deny the conservation law of cosmology.
While solving the puzzle, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao began to cooperate.
In mid-June 1956, they submitted a paper to the Physical Review, and in October they published their article", "The Problem of Cosmic Conservation in Weak Interactions", which pointed out that cosmology is not perpetually conserved and proposed that new experiments were needed to test whether cosmology was conserved in weak interactions.
This view has attracted ridicule from physicists, "I don't believe God is a useless left-hander, I am willing to make a big bet, the experiment will give a conservation result", "If the universe is really not conserved, I will eat my hat", "Question it, either extremely clever or extremely stupid". (See Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016)
Despite the loud skepticism, Yang and Li were determined to prove this conclusion with experiments, and they found a Chinese female scientist: Wu Jianxiong. After 10 months, the experimental results proved that Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao were right, and under the action of weak forces, Yuzhi was indeed not conserved.
In October 1957, a year after the paper was published, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which set a staggering record. It shows that the yang and li discoveries were recognized from the outset as changing the entire frontier of physics. You know, in the 113-year history of the Nobel Prize, physicists have to wait an average of 18 years from publication to award.
For Yang Zhenning, winning the Nobel Prize at the age of 35 is not his peak.
It is now widely believed in physics that Yang Zhenning's highest achievement was not the non-conservation of cosmology, but the gauge field theory founded by Mills in 1954. When the Franklin Institute awarded Yang Zhenning the Bauer Prize, he commented that "this theoretical model has been ranked among the works of Newton, Maxwell and Eins." (See Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016)
If we change the specific statistics, we may have a more intuitive feeling: in addition to the Nobel Prize won by Yang Zhenning himself, there are 7 Nobel Prizes, which were obtained directly using the "Yang-Mills equation" proposed by Yang Zhenning; there are dozens of Nobel Prizes, which are related to the theory proposed by Yang Zhenning; in addition, there are 6 "Nobel Prizes in mathematics", that is, the objects of research of the Fields Medal, which are the "Yang Mills equation" and "Yang-Baxter equation" proposed by Yang Zhenning.
In December 1957, the 35-year-old Yang Zhenning and 31-year-old Li Zhengdao attended the Nobel Prize ceremony and delivered speeches here, surrounded by flowers and aromas.
The news of the two awards spread back to China, inspiring a generation of young Chinese scholars and boosting their confidence in science.
Later, in Yang Zhenning's view, the most important contribution of his life was not to win the Nobel Prize, but to "help change Chinese I felt inferior to the psychological role of people, I think my achievements in scientific work helped Chinese's self-confidence increased, which is probably the most important contribution in my life. ”
6
Part company with
Yang and Li came to praise for their outstanding academic achievements, but unfortunately, the gap between the two gradually arose and finally broke up in 1962.
They had a golden age of unity. Oppenheimer said that when he saw Yang and Li walking on campus, he would feel full of pride, and finally saw the best example of happy cooperation in the institute.
People sometimes see two people having heated discussions, even shouting, and they often communicate with Chinese, occasionally mixing English words, and even watching or listening to their work progress, which is an exciting and exhausting experience. Yang Zhenning once said, "The relationship between the two of us is sometimes closer than the relationship between us and our wife. ”
However, the relationship between the two eventually broke down, mainly due to two differences: one is the contradiction of the signature of the paper, and the other is the dispute over the Contribution of the Nobel Prize.
According to Li Zhengdao, after the two collaborated to complete the paper, Yang Zhenning hoped to put his name in front, and Li Zhengdao reluctantly agreed for the first time, but the second time Li Zhengdao hoped to follow international practice, that is, the alphabetical order of surnames.
However, although the two disagreed on the issue of attribution, cooperation was not affected. The real contradiction comes from the Nobel Prize controversy.
In 1962, the famous media "The New Yorker" published a long article "The Problem of Cosmic Names", the author implied that the Nobel Prize was actually the idea proposed by Lee Zhengdao, and Yang Zhenning was only involved in the calculation.
Yang Zhenning initially ignored these rumors, but in 1979, when he saw Lee's History of Weak Interactions in the CERN library and found that Lee himself held this claim in the book, he could no longer sit still. The controversy between the two escalates, and you come and go.
Even who wrote the Nobel Prize-winning paper, the two had differences.
Yang Zhenning said in 1983 that he had suffered from severe low back pain at that time, had to lie in bed for several days, the thesis was dictated by himself, and his wife Du Zhili recorded it sentence by sentence, and later took the manuscript to Li Zhengdao, and he made several changes.
But in 2003, Mr. Lee said that when Mr. Yang called me because of low back pain, he couldn't come to New York to visit me, and I told him on the phone that I had not only completed the paper, but also asked my assistant to print out all the paper i had written by hand.
It wasn't until March 2010, when Yang Zhenning announced that he would no longer make any comments on the matter, that the half-century-long debate came to an end.
It is a great pity that the partners who once worked closely together ended up in this way. The common mentor of the two people, Professor Wu Dayu, once said, "The whole thing is a very unfortunate thing, and I think the truth cannot be hidden forever, so I hope that everyone will no longer fight in front of the world, but let the truth slowly unfold." ”
Now, 35 years have passed since Wu Dayu said this, and this incident is still a Rashomon. Perhaps, what the truth is, it no longer matters. Time is left for us with only a heavy sigh.
7
Thousands of miles ahead
In 2017, at the age of 95, Yang Zhenning changed his Chinese nationality and became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The news caused an uproar online.
This is a great thing, but many people have given negative evaluations, one of the most representative voices believes that when China was poor, he did not see him return to China to serve the country, but turned his head and joined the United States citizenship, and compared him with Deng Jiaxian, believing that he is now returning to China with the Status of the Nobel Prize to spend his old age. These netizens believe that this is a typical speculative behavior and a shrewd choice.
But when we really understand a real Yang Zhenning, we will find that this kind of speech is not only mean, but also ignorant. Not to mention that Yang Zhenning raised his eyebrows for the Chinese nation with his outstanding achievements in science, which made us get rid of the impression that Chinese was inferior in intelligence and intelligence, and encouraged a group of Chinese students one after another, saying that his patriotism was not inferior to anyone.
In June 1957, Yang Wuzhi, under the arrangement of Premier Zhou, was able to go to Geneva to meet with Yang Zhenning, who was working there briefly. When parting, Yang Wuzhi wrote a letter to his son: "Don't forget your dear love forever at every meal, and you should feel the gratitude of the country for your life."
Source: "Morning Dawn Collection": From a few photos of Yang Zhenning, Li Xin, the surging news
In December 1957, at the Nobel Prize ceremony, Yang Zhenning said to the world: I am proud of my Chinese ancestry and background.
In 1971, China and the United States had not yet established diplomatic relations, but relations between the two countries began to show signs of relaxation, Kissinger secretly visited China, and a few days later, Yang Zhenning also returned to China after many years of absence.
Yang Zhenning's return to China this time was not a momentary fever, but he had been planning for this for a long time. Years ago, he chose never to engage with nuclear weapons-related research, preventing the Americans from obstructing his return to China on the grounds that it involved security secrets.
Under premier Zhou's personal interrogation and arrangement, Yang Zhenning's application to return to China for a visit was quickly approved. On July 15, 1971, he finally boarded a plane back to China. In his memoirs a few years later, Yang Zhenning wrote: When the driver said that we had entered China's airspace, my excitement at that time could not be described.
After returning to China, he went back and forth to Shanghai and Hefei, met many of his friends and teachers, and met Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing as he wished, and talked for nearly five hours. The Prime Minister said,
"Dr. Yang's achievements overseas show that Chinese is no dumber than others, China is still lagging behind in many aspects, but it will certainly be able to catch up in the near future... We hope that Dr. Yang and many people of insight will build a bridge between the peoples of China and the United States to exchange science and enhance friendship." (See Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016)
After more than a month of inspection, Yang Zhenning returned to the United States, where he gave many public speeches to introduce the earth-shaking changes in China, causing a sensation, and even his actions made the CIA and the FBI "talk" to him many times, and some investigators went to his office with threats. Not only was there pressure from the Americans, but the Soviet authorities also attacked and slandered Yang as the head of the fifth column sent by China to the United States.
But these attacks did not change his heart. Thanks to Yang Zhenning's vigorous publicity, a large number of Chinese students began to dispel their concerns and visit their relatives in China.
Professor Zhou Peiyuan said: "Yang Zhenning is the first person of Chinese American scientists to visit China, and the first person to build a bridge of friendship and exchange between Chinese and American scientists. In this regard alone, Yang Zhenning's achievements are unmatched. (See Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016)
In addition to the above explicit results, there are some far-reaching meanings that people did not realize at the time but had far-reaching effects.
Yang Zhenning returned to China several times in the 1970s, and each time he was asked to make a "list of relatives and friends to meet." In that particular era, many of the scientists on that list were in the process of labor camps, and as long as they met, these people were no longer imprisoned and could continue to work related to science.
When he first returned to China in 1971, the first name on Yang Zhenning's meeting list was Deng Jiaxian.
According to Elder Deng's wife, Xu Luxi, a few years later, Deng Jiaxian and more than a dozen scientists recalled that it was a special era at that time, and the normal scientific research work of Deng Jiaxian and more than a dozen scientists was disturbed, and they were placed under house arrest in a certain study class of the "221 Base" in Qinghai, and it was very likely that they would be further persecuted. It was precisely because Yang Zhenning wanted to meet with this old friend that Deng Jia returned to Beijing under the prime minister's questioning and accompanied the premier to participate in the meeting with Yang Zhenning.
The so-called "workshop" was disbanded, and more than a dozen scientists were able to return to work. In addition to Deng Jiaxian, among these dozen people, there were also some names that were anonymous at the time, but would be praised nationwide in the future, such as Yu Min and Chen Nengkuan.
When Yang Zhenning and Deng Jiaxian met again in Beijing after 22 years respectively, they were full of emotions. At that time, he always had a problem in his mind: after the successful explosion of The Chinese atomic bomb, the American media said that the Chinese was not capable of building an atomic bomb at all, because an American physicist named "Han Chun" helped China to build the atomic bomb.
From Yang Zhenning's heart, he very much hoped that this news was fake, he said:
"I don't know if today's young people understand it, but when I grew up, when my father and his generation grew up, China was bullied by foreigners, because China did not have modern (advanced) weapons, so I hope that China's first atomic bomb was only made by Chinese." (See "Mr. Yang Zhenning", CCTV documentary "National Memory" series)
One day, Yang Zhenning couldn't help but throw his doubts to Deng Jiaxian, and Deng Jiaxian replied that I didn't think so, but I needed to verify this matter with the organization.
At the banquet the next night, a staff member sent Yang Zhenning a letter written by Deng Jiaxian, saying:
Regarding the matter you want to inquire about, I have learned from the organization that Han Chun has indeed not participated in any matter related to the manufacture of nuclear weapons in our country, and I am writing this letter to tell you.
After Yang Zhenning read the letter, he immediately left the table and hid in the bathroom, tears welling up.
In that letter, Deng Jiaxian also wrote:
"After sending you away this time, I naturally felt a little sorry for my heart." When I meet you a few times, I always feel as if there are shortcomings or something in my heart, and when I think about it, I always have the feeling of "friends and worries" in my heart. Therefore, I always look forward to "I hope that people will be long-lasting, and the common way will be thousands of miles."
At that time, Yang Zhenning did not understand why his friend changed "Thousand Miles of Common Chanjuan" to "Thousands of Miles of Common Way", and fifty years later, Yang Zhenning had fully understood. He said in his arms on his 100th birthday:
"Jiaxian, I understand the meaning of your 'common way', and I can confidently tell you that I will be in line with your 'common way' for the next 50 years, and I believe you will be satisfied."
At the end of 2003, Yang Zhenning returned to China to teach, settled in Tsinghua Garden, where he left the best memories of his childhood, and named his residence "Guigenju".
For the return of this time, yang Zhenning specially wrote a poem "Returning to the Roots" to record his feelings:
Former negative thousand-looking quality,
High above jiuling peak.
Delve into symmetry,
Courage soars.
Shenzhou New Heaven Change,
The mission of the old garden is heavy.
Student Ling Yunzhi,
I should be the guide pine.
Three melodies of the ages,
Talk and laugh.
Old new business,
The East Hedge is attributed to Gen Ong.
8
Spend a good spring breeze
When Yang Zhenning "returned to the roots of the Eastern Fence", he came back alone, just as he went alone when he took a boat to the East Ferry in 1945.
Two months before his return, Du Zhili, who had accompanied him for 53 years, unfortunately died of illness. Therefore, when I returned to Tsinghua to attend the old classmates' party, the other students were in pairs, and only Yang Zhenning was alone.
However, this state did not last long. At the end of 2004, on the first anniversary of his return to China, 82-year-old Yang Zhenning received his second marriage certificate in Shantou, Guangdong Province. The newlywed wife, named Weng Fan, was 28 years old at the time.
This marriage, with an age gap of 54 years, caused an uproar in public opinion. The Internet is full of questioning and mocking voices. The man is considered to be old and disrespectful, and even morally degraded, while the woman is deliberate and sinister.
In fact, Weng Fan and Yang Zhenning met as early as 1995, when Shantou University held an overseas Chinese physics conference, and 19-year-old first-year student Weng Fan was responsible for receiving Yang Zhenning and his wife, leaving a good impression on Yang Zhenning and Du Zhili. After that meeting, although the two did not interact much, they occasionally corresponded.
After graduating from college, Weng Fan had a marriage, but the relationship was not harmonious, and it ended hastily in just two years. Later, she was admitted to Guangdong University of Foreign Studies to study translation.
After Du Zhili left, Yang Zhenning was very sad. We don't know what kind of time he spent, only that he once said later: "I am very afraid of the loneliness of an old man."
In this loneliness, he accidentally received a letter from Weng Fan, perhaps some ripples in his heart, and the two people began to slowly connect again, and soon after, they officially began to "talk about friends". Later, Yang Zhenning successfully proposed on the phone, so, 9 months after re-meeting, they sent an email to their friends announcing their engagement.
After hearing the good news of Yang Zhenning, his old friend Professor Xu Yuanchong also specially sent them a poem:
"Zhenning is not old, and the sails are small." The cold is hotter, and the flowers are good to stay in the spring wind." (See Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016)
In February 2005, Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan were in Guangzhou. Source: "Morning Dawn Collection": From a few photos of Yang Zhenning, Li Xin, the surging news
For Yang Zhenning, this marriage was not a whim, he once admitted that if he did not marry Weng Fan, he might also marry another lady, because he did not want to live that kind of old age and loneliness, even like "the British mathematician Hamilton after the death of his wife, lived a rather long lonely life, and even the pages of the book have the stains of food."
The marriage caused an uproar at the time, but the parties concerned were very calm. On the day the news spread, many reporters called Weng Fan, and she turned off her mobile phone and slept well.
Although the outside world believes that such a large age gap, marriage must not be successful, but Yang Zhenning believes that "they have some understanding of each other, some understanding of each other's way of handling things", he called Weng Fan the last gift god gave himself.
In Weng Fan's view, a woman worships a man, and this man likes her or loves her, and the woman will unconsciously like this man, and she regards Yang Zhenning as her own leader.
In the program of Phoenix Satellite TV's March 2, 2017", some people said that Yang Zhenning gave up his American citizenship to be very "fine", and Weng Fan, who has always been low-key, wrote an article in the "China Reading Newspaper" to refute this statement, maintaining Yang Zhenning's reputation, saying that "the Mr. Yang I saw was not very 'fine', but very 'stupid'".
Yang Zhenning firmly believes that when looking back at this marriage in the future, this must be a romance.
He said:
"Marrying a very young man, it is very deeply felt that this marriage has extended its life in some way. If I hadn't married Weng Fan, I would have felt that what happened thirty or forty years from now had nothing to do with me; now I know that thirty or forty years later, through Weng Fan's life, I have a close relationship. ”。 (See "Dawn collection", by Yang Zhenning, Life, Reading and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2018)
9
From dawn to dawn
Yang Zhenning has entered the hundredth year of his life.
He has had great brilliance and endless controversy. But in recent years, we are pleased to see that his contributions to the world and his position in the scientific community are becoming more and more recognized by the Chinese people; his choice of love and marriage is more and more understood by the Chinese people; and what he has done for the country over the years and his patriotic heart are more and more perceived by the Chinese people.
In 2008, in the preface to the Shuguang Collection compiled by Yang Zhenning and compiled by Weng Fan, Yang Zhenning wrote:
"The era of Lu Xun, Wang Guowei and Chen Yinke was a long night in the history of the Chinese nation. My classmates and I grew up in this long, seemingly endless night. Fortunately, the Chinese nation finally completed this long night and saw the dawn. I'm eighty-five years old, and I can't see the light of day..."
Ten years later, in 2018, in the preface to the "Morning Dawn Collection" co-edited by Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan, Yang Zhenning said:
"Unexpectedly, in the next 10 years, the country and the world have undergone amazing changes. Today, although the sky has not yet brightened, the dawn has turned to the morning light, so this new book is called "Morning Dawn Collection". And, it seems that if I am lucky, I myself may see the light of day! ”
In fact, in this piece of heaven, isn't it precisely because of Mr. Yang Zhenning, his father Yang Wuzhi, his close friend Deng Jiaxian, and thousands of enthusiastic people who love science, the motherland, and the people like them, who are constantly working hard and dedicating their wisdom and strength, that they have become brighter and brighter?
This piece of heaven will also become brighter because behind Mr. Zhenning, there will be countless enthusiastic young people, inspired and inspired by the older generation of scientists, who devote themselves to exploring the boundaries of science and dedicate themselves to the motherland and the people.
I believe that Mr. Yang Zhenning will definitely see the dawn.
We, too, will surely see the dawn.
---end---
Key References:
[1] Yang Zhenning's Collected Writings, Selected by Yang Jianye, Hainan Publishing House, 2002
[2] Yang Zhenning's Collected Writings, Selected by Zhang Zhou, East China Normal University Press, 1998
[3] Biography of Yang Zhenning, by Yang Jianye, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2016
[4] Shuguang Collection, Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan, Sanlian Bookstore, 2008
[5] Chen Xi Ji, Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan, The Commercial Press, 2018
【6】Chen Ning Yang，interviewd by John Isreal and Larry Schneider, Oral History Interviews，AIP
[7] Video "Interview with Yang Lan as a Guest of Yang Zhenning Weng Fan", Yang Lan interview record, June 6, 2015
[8] Video "Mr. Yang Zhenning", CCTV documentary "National Memory" series