On May 4, 1919, the May Fourth Movement broke out in Beijing, China.
At 15:00 on October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb exploded with an earth-shattering noise.
The wheel of history rumbles over this land of suffering, and the Chinese youth's pursuit of "patriotism, progress, democracy, and science" has been going forward and following for a hundred years.
On the occasion of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, we especially recall the self-disciplined revolutionary old man Xu Deheng, who called himself a "May Fourth youth" all his life, and his son-in-law Deng Jiaxian, who was proud of his life, so as to fondly remember the glorious and brilliant lives of the two ancestors. Although the two ancestors had different life experiences, they both had a patriotic heart and a heart of love for the people, and both made outstanding contributions to the country. The choices they make at the critical juncture of life, the spirit of never giving up on science and studying hard, the attitude of being serious and responsible for work, and the heart of the country and the nation are always worth learning.
They carried forward the May Fourth spirit and the spirit of "two bombs and one satellite" with their lives
In China's modern and contemporary history, Xu Deheng is a legendary figure: he was a student leader in the May Fourth Movement and the drafter of the May Fourth Declaration; he served as secretary general of the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army, and after the founding of New China, he served as vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He personally founded the Jiusan Society, re-elected as the first to seventh chairman of the Central Committee of the Jiusan Society, and joined the Communist Party of China in his personal capacity at the age of 89.
Throughout Xu Lao's life, the May Fourth Movement was the starting point of his career, and Peking University was his eternal spiritual home. No matter what the circumstances, the May Fourth Wind Bone on Elder Xu's body has never changed, he is one of the initiators of the May Fourth Movement, and he is also the most loyal inheritor of the May Fourth spirit.
Among the leaders of the various democratic parties, Mr. Xu Deheng is a relatively special one: from studying at Peking University until 1979, although he was a non-partisan or the leader of the democratic parties, he was always a new democrat. In various forms of struggle, Mr. Xu Deheng firmly sided with the Communist Party of China.
Xu Deheng's daughter Xu Luxi studied at Peking University School of Medicine and has been teaching at Beijing Medical College since graduation. Her husband is Deng Jiaxian, a well-known nuclear weapons expert in China and the founder of the two bombs.
The Deng family and the Xu family are family friends. In the 1930s, Deng Jiaxian's father, Deng Yijing, and Xu Deheng taught at Peking University together, and they were good friends. At that time, Deng Jia was a naughty child. When Xu Deheng and his wife Lao Junzhan visited Deng's house, Deng Jiaxian grabbed the door frame with both hands and swung his body on the swing while informing his parents that the guests had arrived. Xu Deheng said to his wife, Lao Junzhan, "The children of the Deng family are so naughty!"
In August 1950, Deng Jiaxian returned to his homeland on the 9th day after receiving his doctorate from Purdue University in the United States. In 1951, Deng Jiaxian, then an assistant researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, joined the Jiusan Society. At that time, Xu Deheng served as the chairman of the Central Council of the Jiusan Society. In 1953, Deng Jiaxian married Xu Deheng's daughter Xu Luxi, and Xu Deheng and his wife Lao Junzhan regarded him as their own.
One evening in the early summer of 1956, when the whole family was chilling in the courtyard after dinner, Xu Deheng talked about his participation in the May Fourth Movement, and Deng Jiaxian couldn't help but ask his father-in-law: "You finished Peking University with the help of President Cai Yuanpei, and you graduated in two months." But in order to save the country, you will not hesitate to give up everything you have. Do you do this without thinking about your future? Xu Deheng replied: "On the evening of May 3, 1919, all the students of Peking University held a meeting with the representatives of various schools. The students were indignant and shouted loudly: 'China has failed at the Paris Peace Conference!' Jiaozhou is going to die, China is going to die! We must bear the rise and fall of the country on our own shoulders. Save China or die! The rise and fall of nations is the responsibility of the puppeteer!'"
This remark of his father-in-law aroused strong resonance in Deng Jiaxian's heart.
A year later, Deng Jiaxian accepted the task of developing nuclear weapons for the motherland, and he was appointed director of the theoretical department of the national atomic bomb project. In order to accomplish this glorious task brilliantly, he finally gave his life.
On the evening of October 16, 1964, after the news of the successful explosion of the first atomic bomb in our country was released, people jumped and jumped and were very happy. That year, Mr. Xu Deheng was 74 years old, he was on crutches in one hand, and he was holding a trumpet in the other, and he stood in the living room and said happily: "Great! Great!" Instead, he asked his old friend Yan Keats, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who was visiting at home: "Who has such a great ability to get the atomic bomb out?" Mr. Yan Keats immediately laughed and said, "Hey! You still ask me? Ask your son-in-law!" Tianji said a word, Xu Deheng suddenly realized, the two old friends laughed loudly...
Another time Mr. Xu Deheng learned about Deng Jiaxian's work was at a meeting of the Jiusan Society in the 1980s, when Academician Wang Ganchang came over to Mr. Xu Deheng and said, "Elder Xu, Jiaxian's work has been very fruitful!" Elder Xu was very happy after hearing this, and said to Elder Wang, "You should help him more." ”
During the "three years of natural disasters", many people were puffy due to hunger. The atomic bomb development theory group led by Deng Jiaxian needs to work for more than ten hours a day, and young technicians persist in their work every day by enduring hunger. In the Spring Festival of 1960, everyone wrapped dumplings together for the New Year, and there were dozens of people in the theoretical group, only one pound of cabbage and one pound of meat. Everyone did not let colleagues from the south make dumplings, for fear that they would not wrap them, and boiled precious dishes and meat into the soup.
At that time, Xu Deheng and his wife and Deng Yijing supported Deng Jiaxian with the saved food stamps, Xu Luxi saved money to buy biscuits for Deng Jiaxian, and Deng Jia first distributed the biscuits and grain stamps to everyone. In fact, this little bit of food stamps and biscuits is really a drop in the bucket for the dozens of young college students who have just graduated and have a lot of work intensity. However, Deng Jiaxian's spirit of caring for others deeply infected everyone, and everyone regarded Old Deng as a brother.
Once, when performing model calculations, Deng Jia could not sleep first, and he came to the computer room at three o'clock in the morning to check the calculation results. In order to verify a set of data, he called up his comrades who were already asleep and asked. By the time they figured out the problem, it was already light. Deng Jiaxian asked his colleagues, did you eat supper last night? Are you hungry? The colleague replied that he still didn't have enough to eat, and where there were food stamps to eat supper. At this time, Deng Jia first took out a few pounds of food stamps from his pocket and distributed them to his colleagues present in four or two.
Although more than 40 years have passed, colleagues at that time are still very excited in retrospect: "At that time, each person only had 28 pounds of food stamps per month, and there was no side food, how precious the food stamps were!" At that time, the feeling that we were holding these four or two grain stamps given by Old Deng, even if we gave me four or two gold today, I can't compare!"
Academician Hu Side, Deng Jiaxian's successor, recalled that at that time, when he went to the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense to report on his work, the time for talking was long, and by the end of the meeting, it was past the time for the canteen to open. At this time, Deng Jiaxian took out 10 yuan and invited everyone to eat a meal in the casserole house. The driver master of Deng Jiaxian's unit once asked him: "Why do you always spend money when everyone goes out to eat?" Deng Jiaxian said: "Only when I go out with 3 people, I don't have to pay, these 3 people are Qian Sanqiang, Wang Ganchang and Peng Huanwu, they are my teachers, and their status is higher than mine." ”
In 1956, Deng Jiaxian joined the Communist Party of China. Mr. Xu Deheng, who has pursued democracy and science all his life and supported the Communist Party of China all his life, joined the Communist Party of China in 1979 at the age of 89. In the last part of his memoirs, Mr. Xu Deheng wrote: "I feel infinitely honored to be able to transform from a patriotic democrat to a communist in my twilight years. I will always work for the Party, fight for the cause of communism all my life, and die after death. ”
After Deng Jiaxian's death, the living room has remained the same as before
Initially, the China Academy of Engineering Physics assigned Deng Jiaxian a two-bedroom building. Later, the unit assigned him a three-bedroom apartment, which he lived until his death.
Deng Jiaxian did not have a sofa at home, the furniture was very simple, there was no decoration except for bookshelves, tables and beds, and the only two single sofas were borrowed from the unit in 1971 when he received Dr. Yang Zhenning, who returned to China to visit his family. In the 1980s, the administrative reform of the state organs, the unit sold these two single sofas to Deng Jiaxian for a price, and has been used until now. A year before his death, Deng Jiaxian was appointed deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, at the level of vice minister. He was eligible to move to the Minister's Apartment, but he did not. Xu Luxi has been living in the old three-bedroom house.
Xu Luxi once told Professor Yang Zhenning that China spends much less on nuclear weapons than other countries. After listening, Mr. Yang said: "If you count the dedication of scientists, the calculation result is not like this." Indeed, under the circumstance that the country's economic and technological foundation is very weak and the working conditions are very difficult, China's ability to master cutting-edge technologies such as "two bombs and one satellite" in such a short period of time is inseparable from the selfless dedication of Chinese scientists.
In 1985, Deng Jiaxian was diagnosed with cancer. In March 1986, he had a hunch that his days were running out. At the hospital, he said to Xu Luxi more than once: "I have two things that I have to do, that one proposal and that book." He flipped through the books and materials piled up more than two feet high on the bedside table, and immediately called the leaders of the Ninth Academy when he thought of any problem. From hospitalization to death for 363 days, Deng Jiaxian worked in the ward for 333 days, completing the "Suggestions" and more than 200,000 words of "Group Theory". In this monograph, which was compiled by his lecture notes on "Basic Concepts and Theories of Group Theory" for the newly recruited scientific and technological workers of the Ninth Academy, Deng Jiaxian had planned to write more than 400,000 words until the last month of his life, and the torment of illness forced him to stop writing. When writing the proposal, Deng Jia first began to do chemotherapy. Chemotherapy to do a little drop of water into the blood vessels, a treatment for several hours, he can only lie or lean, while doing treatment while looking at the material, sitting next to Xu Luxi constantly gently wipe his sweat. He and his comrades discussed repeatedly, and deng Jiaxian and Yu Min jointly signed on April 2, 1986, and wrote a very important proposal to the country.
On July 29, 1986, Deng Jiaxian died at the age of 62. The last words he left behind were: "We can't let people leave us too far behind." When the central leading comrades asked Xu Luxi what difficulties and requirements he had, Xu Luxi's request was: "Please send a medical team to check the health of the comrades in the base, their lives are too hard..."
On July 29, 1996, after another successful underground nuclear test, China announced a moratorium on nuclear testing with effect from July 30, 1996. This day coincided with the tenth anniversary of Deng Jiaxian's death.
In 1986, when Deng Jiaxian died, Mr. Xu Deheng was 96 years old, and the old man who was sick and hospitalized was in tears, and he personally inscribed a large white aya: Jiaxian died, I am extremely sad!
Three years after Deng Jiaxian's death, he once again won the Special Prize of national scientific and technological progress with a prize of 1,000 yuan. Professor Xu Luxi, who donated the prize to the Youth Association for Science and Technology of the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute, wrote in her letter: "... A man can stand upright by a backbone, and a country can stand upright by an iron backbone. The work of the institute can make China stand taller and stronger, and young comrades will be proud of their work. At the same time, there are those around you who have worked with Deng Jiaxian for many years, and some of whom are still fighting ceaselessly. Therefore, young comrades will feel very happy to work in such an environment..."
For the sake of China's nuclear cause, for the sake of the motherland's strength, and for the sake of national rejuvenation, Deng Jiaxian unreservedly contributed her youth, lifelong wisdom, and precious life to the motherland; and Xu Luxi, in order to support her husband's work, in order to let him devote himself to scientific research without any worries, she let go of her husband's warm embrace, gave up her personal happiness, and dedicated her youth and her wholehearted love to that special era. "I'm 91 years old, 5 years older than me. If he were alive, he would be 96 years old..." Talking about Deng Jiaxian again today, Professor Xu Luxi is still immersed in the infinite thoughts of her husband.
In the new era, we will inherit and carry forward the May Fourth spirit and the spirit of "two bombs and one satellite"
In 1979, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, student representatives from Peking University asked Mr. Xu Deheng to write an inscription for them. Elder Xu wrote these three sentences: "Penniless, worried about the world; facing the wall for ten years, aiming to save the people; with this self-encouragement, struggle for life." ”
"Penniless and worried about the world" refers to Comrade Mao Zedong, who came from an ordinary peasant family but had great ambitions to transform China and made great contributions to China. "Facing the wall for ten years, aiming to save the people" refers to Comrade Zhou Enlai, who studied hard in order to create a happy life for the people. Elder Xu encouraged young people to establish lofty ideals and correct outlook on life, and to fulfill their responsibilities for the prosperity and strength of the motherland.
Today, as we commemorate the May Fourth Movement and remember the enthusiastic young people who lived and died for the rise and fall of the country, we should understand and study their life development process, explore the true meaning of the country, society and life from their experiences, and choose the good and follow it.
The May Fourth Movement gave birth to the great May Fourth spirit of "patriotism, progress, democracy, and science," which is a vivid portrayal of the Chinese nation's national spirit of perseverance and unremitting self-improvement, and a powerful spiritual motive force that inspires generations of aspiring young people to work hard.
Whether it is the great May Fourth spirit of "patriotism, progress, democracy, and science" or the spirit of "two bombs and one satellite" that has inspired and inspired generations of people, they all have a common source, that is, the spirit of patriotism; they all play a common role, that is, they all seek the road to save the country and save the people; and they all have a common goal, that is, to make the country rich and strong, the nation rejuvenated, and the people happy.
(This article was reviewed and revised by Professor Xu Jin, nephew of Deng Jiaxian Xu Luxi)
(Yang Xinying: Reporter and Editor of CNNC News Center Chen Xiaopeng: Senior Consultant of Science Popularization of China Nuclear Society)
![Xu Deheng A pure patriot[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)