September 22, 2021, is mr. Yang Zhenning's 99th birthday. According to the folk custom of "passing nine but not ten", this is the centenary birthday, and the Commercial Press specially published an updated version of the "Morning Dawn Collection" as a birthday gift for Mr. Yang. The first edition of the Morning Dawn Collection was published in 2018, and this time it was updated, adding 13 articles, about 100,000 words, and nearly 40 photos.
Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan by the sea in Sai Kung, Hong Kong (2005)
It is still edited by Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan, but the articles added are mainly Yang Zhenning's own and friends' memories of Yang Zhenning's works. In the process of editing, I suggested several times that Weng Fan write more articles, because in my opinion, she and Mr. Yang have been with each other for 17 spring and autumn years, and they can always observe Mr. Yang closely, which no one can do. I hope she can leave as precious a record as possible. However, because Weng Fan is very low-key, she likes to retreat behind the scenes, and for many years she not only never gave media interviews alone, but also rarely wrote articles about Mr. Yang. This time, in order to compile the book, she said that she would write it, but in the end she still provided only a very short article and an afterword. Together with a thousand-word essay and an afterword included in the original edition, the works signed by Weng Fan are only 4 in the updated version, a total of about 5,000 words.
However, these 5,000 words seem to me to have a lot of weight. Although the article is short, it is all said, and she has said everything she wants to say, and it is to grasp the main points. Because the author is like gold, the average reader, may not be able to see the famous, here I try to do a little interpretation.
<h3>1． Mr. Yang Zhenning's "fine" and "stupid"</h3>
"Mr. Yang Zhenning's "Fine" and "Stupid" included in the book was originally published in the "China Reading Daily" on April 19, 2017. Weng Fan wrote this article purely with feeling. At that time, in order for Mr. Yang Zhenning to renounce his American citizenship and re-enter the Chinese nationality, there was a lot of discussion on the Internet, and many people said strange things. Phoenix Satellite TV even made a three-person talk specifically for this purpose, the main point of view is affirmative, but there is also an opinion, that Yang Zhenning is very "fine", which means that when he can give him benefits in the United States, he chooses American nationality, and when China can give him benefits, he chooses Chinese nationality, which is a kind of self-interested shrewdness.
Weng Fan believes that this understanding is different from the Yang Zhenning she knows, so she gave four small examples in the article.
Cover of Yang Zhenning's speech transcript in 1971.
The first two examples are that Yang Zhenning visited Chinese mainland family in the summer of 1971. After returning to the United States, he gave lectures on New China in many places, including many universities and several Chinatowns, introducing "China's earth-shaking changes", which caused a sensation. His actions also allowed the CIA to "talk" to him many times and put pressure on him. The second is to say that Yang Zhenning did not care about political risks, and since then devoted himself to communicating Sino-US relations, and in the late 1970s he became the president of the All-American Chinese Association, introducing New China to American society and emphasizing the necessity of establishing diplomatic relations between China and the United States, which was insulted by the Kuomintang agency in the United States.
What is concentrated here is Yang Zhenning's feelings of home and country. People familiar with the situation know that although Mr. Yang had to join the United States because of the pressure of reality and special circumstances, his Chinese heart has never changed. Further, I think this Chinese heart was also lit up and shined by his first trip back to China. The revised edition of the "Morning Dawn Collection" discloses the full text of Yang Zhenning's 1971 speech, titled "For the Sacrifice of Great Ambition, Dare to Call the Sun and Moon for a New Heaven -- Mr. Yang Zhenning Talks about the Impression of the Trip to the People's Republic of China", this speech, the words are full of Yang Zhenning's deep feelings for New China. Although, under the special historical conditions of the late "Cultural Revolution," Yang Zhenning, like most of us at that time, had a certain limitation in his understanding of the left-leaning ideological trend, he was indeed optimistic about New China from the bottom of his heart and strongly supported New China. It can be said that this speech has also changed Yang Zhenning's life to some extent. Before that, he was a pure natural scientist; after that, he was also a social activist. Not only did he give speeches everywhere, he even participated in leading the "fishing" movement in the field of studying in the aesthetic community. With the charisma and appeal of an outstanding Chinese scientist, he quickly became a leading figure of the Chinese people in the United States, and his thoughts and remarks awakened the patriotic feelings of an entire generation of Chinese people in the United States and changed the impression of many Americans on new China. Everyone knows that the "thaw" of Sino-US relations began with "ping-pong diplomacy", but it is not necessarily understood the significance of Yang Zhenning's speech for Americans to re-understand China. I believe that if someone writes a history of Sino-US relations in the future, this is a historical material that absolutely cannot be ignored.
If it is required by "shrewd" standards, Yang Zhenning is actually very "stupid" to devote himself to the patriotic cause in this way, first, social activities occupy a lot of energy and delay his scientific research, and second, he is politically hated by hostile forces in the United States and Taiwan. With the CIA warning him at the time, he could even feel the danger of being assassinated, and the Taiwan authorities pulled and beat him up, and the pressure on him was also very great. After he won the Nobel Prize in 1957, the Taiwan authorities awarded him an academician of the Academia Sinica the following year, and since then he has invited him to visit Taiwan many times, but he has refused. Later, because he called on the United States to establish diplomatic relations with New China, he was falsely accused by the Taiwan authorities of being a "Yang bandit." But if Yang Zhenning does not change his political choice, he may not have thought about whether he is "fine" or "stupid"?
The third and fourth examples Weng Fan cites are both about Yang Zhenning's attitude toward building large-scale high-energy accelerators in China. It is said that he has been adhering to a very unflattering academic point of view for 40 years.
In 1978, the central leadership asked Yang Zhenning for advice on the construction of high-energy accelerators. Weng Fan said that Mr. Yang knew that the leading comrades were eagerly waiting for him to express his support, but he believed that China's "Cultural Revolution" had just ended, everything was in ruins, there were many things that could be done, and large-scale accelerator projects were not a top priority. He expressed his opposition and did not agree with anyone.2
In 2016, a number of foreign Nobel laureates suggested that China build a super-large collider, and domestic scientific research institutions also echoed the voice, Yang Zhenning published an article on the Internet in early September "China is not suitable for building a super-large collider today", or from the perspective of cost-effectiveness to make a negative choice, which caused many peers to be dissatisfied. Weng Fan said Mr. Yang knew that writing such an article would offend people, but he had to tell the truth.
As far as I know, there are indeed people on this issue who doubt Yang Zhenning's motives, which is a self-interested consideration. For example, some people say that because he and Li Zhengdao have contradictions, everyone who supports Li Zhengdao is opposed, and some people say that Yang Zhenning is afraid of more high-energy physicists in China, and his scientific research achievements exceed his own. All this can only be said to be narrow-minded.
In fact, this problem has been clearly explained in the humble article "From Several Photos of Yang Zhenning" included in the revised edition of the "Morning Dawn Collection". Whether Yang Zhenning is for public or private, the most convincing evidence is a sentence by Yau Chengtong.
As we all know, in the debate about the super-large collider in recent years, Yau Chengtong and Yang Zhenning's views are tit-for-tat. Yau enthusiastically supported the construction while Yang strenuously opposed it. But Yau Chengtong said that the oversized collider was carried out
"The basic theory behind these experiments all uses Mr. Yang's theory. After each breakthrough, we admire Mr. Yang's knowledge even more."
Speaking of selfishness, what scientist does not want his research results to be affirmed and praised all the time? If Yang Zhenning is considering personal interests, then he really should not be so "stupid", but should not hesitate to support the launch of the super collider project.
Weng Fan's thousand-word short article, using only 4 small examples, not only wrote out Mr. Yang Zhenning's feelings of home and country, but also wrote his spirit of truth-seeking. A few words, personality prominent.
<h3>2． The Yang-Lee controversy</h3>
When editing the new edition of the "Morning Dawn Collection", Weng Fan added the article "Yang Zhenning's "Slush And Red Claw"", which is shorter, only more than 500 words. But it is about a major event related to Yang Zhenning's reputation.
Mr. Yang Zhenning in 1956
Readers should have heard of the "Yang-Li Controversy", which is the story of Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao parting ways.
Yang and Lee, who had an enviable close collaboration for 16 years, won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics together. However, in 1962, they broke up completely, which was an extremely painful thing for both of them, and Yang Zhenning even said that this pain was far more than a divorce.
The reason for the breakup was that in the discovery of the theory of "cosmology under weak action" that once brought them Nobel Prize honors, the two had a disagreement about who contributed the most.
Lee Jung-do once compared their collaboration to a modern fable:
One dark and foggy day, two small children were playing on the beach, and one of them said, "Hey, did you see that flickering light?" The other replied, "See, let's get a little closer." The two children were very curious, and they ran shoulder to shoulder toward the light. Sometimes one is in front, sometimes the other is in front. Like a race, they did their best and ran faster and faster. Their effort and speed made the two of them very excited and forgot everything. The first child to reach the door said, "Found it!" He opened the door. The other rushed in, dazzled by the unusual beauty inside, and exclaimed, "How wonderful! How splendid! As a result, they discovered the treasure trove of the Yellow Empire. This feat of theirs earned them a heavy prize and was deeply envied by the people. They are famous all over the world. How many years passed, they got old and became quarrelsome. Memories are blurred and life is monotonous. One of them decided to engrave his epitaph in gold: "Here lies the man who first discovered the treasure." The other then said, "But I opened the door." ”
This story very vividly shows the scene of the two people from the union to the point. Their collaboration is a successful argument for a scientific hypothesis. In the argument, the two had many discussions and exchanges, and there were also two weeks of calculation and verification. Throughout the process, the two have highly consistent memories, as mentioned in the story above, they are running as hard as they can towards the same goal. The feeling of running is happy, beautiful, and exciting. However, when they needed to introduce this collaboration to others, they encountered two questions: First, who proposed the scientific hypothesis? Whose idea was this? Or rather, who is the child in the fable who found the flickering dot of light? Li Zhengdao said that it was him, which had nothing to do with Yang Zhenning. Second, who wrote the first draft of the paper? That is, who is the child who opens the door in that fable? Logically, this person should be the lead author of the paper. Mr. Lee said it was he who wrote the paper and handed it to the secretary of Columbia's physics department for printing.
However, Yang Zhenning has a completely different memory. He believes that the scientific hypothesis of "non-conservation of cosmology under weak action" requires inspiration, and the stimulation of this inspiration depends on a certain theoretical basis. The so-called theoretical basis refers to the principle of symmetry, Yang Zhenning said, since 1948, he has been committed to the study of the principle of symmetry, and by 1956, when he cooperated with Li Zhengdao to write the article "Cosmic Non-Conservation", he was already a well-known expert in the field of symmetry, and Li Zhengdao was gradually brought into this field by him. So for whose idea this scientific discovery is, although neither of them can provide "ironclad evidence" today, we will tend to think that the probability of this idea coming from Yang Zhenning in the first place rather than Li Zhengdao is greater. However, there is no solution to this problem at present, and can only be like Wu Dayu said, "Do not fight in front of the world, let the truth slowly show." ”
As for who wrote the paper, the two of them each insisted on one, but they could judge it by checking the original manuscript. Mr. Lee said mr. Yang suffered from low back pain at the time, so he wrote his own papers and printed them at his school. But Yang Zhenning recalled that he did suffer from waist disease, but this article was dictated by him lying on the bed and recorded by His wife Du Zhili. After writing it, Li Zhengdao was consulted, Li made a small revision and returned it, and Yang asked professionals to type and print.
What should be said here is the role of the new edition of the Morning Dawn Collection in publishing Weng Fan's article "Yang Zhenning's Slushy Claw". The article does not have a bit of a polemic color, but calmly recounts the origin of some photos. Originally, several of the illustrated photographs in the text were taken of Yang Zhenning's manuscripts (that is, copies of the original manuscripts at that time) that exist in the archives of the University of Chinese in Hong Kong, and the content of the manuscripts was two of his most important papers during the Princeton period, one on the "normative field" theory, and the other on "the non-conservation of cosmology under weak action", that is, the Nobel Prize-winning paper. Both texts were given to a typist at Brookhaven National Laboratory by Yang Zhenning to print, and there are numbers on them to prove it. And there were several mathematical formulas in both texts, and the typewriter at that time could not type it, because there was no computer at that time, and the English typewriter used by the typist did not have Greek letters in it. So Yang Zhenning personally wrote the formula on the paper. For this reason, Weng Fan sighed and said to Mr. Yang: "Well, you have left the 'slush claw'", which means that Yang has left a handwriting. This trace has no special significance for the "normative field" theory, but for the "cosmological non-conservation theory", it has become evidence of the Yang-Li controversy. Weng Fan did not say more than one word, and spoke with materials, indicating that the original manuscript was written by Yang Zhenning and not By Li Zhengdao.
Manuscript left with Yang Zhenning's handwriting.
<h3>3． Yang Zhenning's luck</h3>
The other two articles written by Weng Fan in the "Morning Dawn Collection" (revised edition) are both postscripts to this book.
When the original edition of the book was published, Weng Fan wrote an extremely brief epilogue, only half a page. There is only one important point in it, Mr. Yang Zhenning is a lucky person. She said:
After more than ten years with my husband, I gradually understood that a person who was so lucky, he must care about things beyond the individual. In the same way, a man who is so fortunate is naturally straightforward, upright, and selfless, because he never needs to calculate gains and losses for himself.
This is Weng Fan's interpretation of Yang Zhenning's "luck". She said it very subtly, without saying why he was lucky, where did this luck come from? As I understand it, this luck must have something to do with his spiritual realm.
Theoretically, everyone's spiritual realm will be constrained by the actual environment, because people as a society always rely on social evaluation to confirm their own value. People's inner entanglements and troubles often stem from this. But Mr. Yang has surpassed all this, he is different from ordinary people, not only has he achieved fame at a young age, but as the most outstanding physicist in the world today, his life and achievements have been highly praised historically around the world. So he will not be dragged into the quagmire of the current reality, and people's noisy arguments and evaluations, such as derogatory remarks in the "Yang-Li Controversy" and denigrating him in the "Yang Weng's Love", are harmless to him, and he has never been troubled. He only needs to remember one sentence, that history has its own public opinion, and that is enough. This is certainly lucky.
Mr. Yang Zhenning's spiritual realm, similar to the "state of no-self" in Buddhism, eliminates personal distractions and removes earthly troubles. So as Weng Fan said, "He could have been a living immortal at the top of the scientific pyramid, but his sense of responsibility to the country and the nation made him insist on doing what he thought was important." ”
In my opinion, this is the case, and this is the result of the realm.
Before the publication of the revised edition of the Morning Dawn Collection, Weng Fan wrote another afterword. She herself said: "This year, Mr. Yang is 99 years old, and we can no longer drive everywhere like before. Writing this postscript is not only to record the newly compiled "Morning Dawn Collection", but also to record the days we have walked together. ”
This time, Weng Fan adopted a prose brushwork, recounting the bits and pieces of her and Mr. Yang's companionship. In the past, I once watched a small video recorded by them, recording their travels in the United States and Hong Kong, in which the two interacted, laughed and fell in love with each other. In this postscript, Weng Fan still chose such an angle: traveling with Mr. Yang Zhenning.
The Morning Dawn Collection (Updated Edition)
The article said that some people who met for the first time asked Weng Fan: "Are you a student of Mr. Yang?" She replied, "No, he didn't teach me physics, he taught me to drive." ”
Weng Fan writes:
Mr. Yeo always said that if you don't drive in Hong Kong, you will miss too much beauty. Indeed, Hong Kong's natural environment is blessed, and even the natural scenery along the way is always tireless. The paths and facilities in the suburbs are usually very convenient, without any damage to the beauty of nature, and all manual interventions are just right, no more, no less. Along the way, I always feel very comfortable. In those years, we traveled all over the landscape of Hong Kong.
This essay began with Mr. Yang teaching Weng Fan to drive by hand. It says that after Mr. Yang was 85 years old, he handed over the task of driving to Weng Fan. As soon as Weng Fan got his driver's license, Mr. Yang asked him to go straight to the top of Victoria Peak. That section of the road, steep and narrow, is frightening at every turn. However, when Weng Fan walked on thin ice and his palms were sweating, Yang Zhenning always looked at ease and gave her encouragement. Once in Hong Kong's highest peak, Tai Mo Shan, Weng Fan mistakenly stepped on the accelerator when he wanted to brake on the top of the mountain, and the car rushed forward, only two or three meters away from the cliff, almost causing a disaster. Since then, Weng Fan has a lingering palpitation and does not dare to go up the Big Hat Mountain again, but Mr. Yang does not take it seriously, but laughs at Weng Fan as "timid as a mouse".
They especially like the seaside scenery of Sai Kung, Hong Kong, and Weng Fan often goes hauling in the sea to paddle rubber boats all the way to distant islands. Mr. Yang sat on the shore drinking tea and reading the newspaper. Both felt very comfortable. However, once weng Fan went to the island without a mobile phone signal, and Mr. Yang broke off contact, so anxious that Mr. Yang almost called the police.
Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan in Yellowstone National Park, USA (2006)
Mr. Yang is adventurous, some unfamiliar national parks in the United States, he also wants to break through. He drove and let Weng Fan take the map to navigate, and the two worked together perfectly. It had been a week of heavy snow before going to lake Tahoe, and Weng Fan was a little timid, but Mr. Yang insisted on going. It was dark, the two braved the snow to drive, Weng Fan clutched the steering wheel, and Mr. Yang kept reminding and pointing out on the side, so there was no danger along the way. Because of Mr. Yang's curiosity, they even drove to the vicinity of the volcano in the middle of the night to see the lava erupting into the sea.
If the afterword to the original version of "Morning Dawn Collection" highlights the character and realm of Mr. Yang Zhenning, then the afterword of this updated version writes out Mr. Yang's character. He has a wide range of interests and curiosity; he is calm and determined; he is adventurous and adventurous, and these personality traits jump out of the paper.
Therefore, Weng Fan used her pen to send this vivid, kind, vivid and perceptible hundred-year-old mr. Yang Zhenning to the reader.
Li Xin