In the autumn of 1957, on a warship in Shandong, there was such a scene:
A thin old lady, accompanied by a group of young people, boarded one of our warships. The captain was surprised, and he asked the comrades around him: "How come a skinny old lady came up?" ”
The reason why the captain asked this question was because he had received a notice earlier that there would be experts in the field of naval engineering who would bring students to intern, so he came out early to greet him, but he did not expect that this expert would be such an unassuming old lady. At that time, this was definitely unimaginable to ordinary people.
The captain was in a daze, and the comrade accompanying him on board saw his confusion and quickly reported the old lady's name. As soon as the captain heard the other's name, he welcomed the old lady in on the spot. At that time, there was not even a women's dormitory on the ship, and I didn't know where to let her live, so the captain quickly vacated the conference room, and brought a simple military bed to personally put on the old lady.
Who the hell is this old lady? Why was a captain allowed to free up the conference room for her?
Photo: Liu Enlan
Her name is Liu Enlan, and her life is legendary:
When she was born as a girl, she was rejected by her elders and almost died; at the age of 24, she became the first Chinese female master in the field of physical geography, and then appeared in the New York Post as the "Petite Woman of the Earth"; after the beacon years, she resolutely returned to China, but lost her temper in front of Premier Zhou at the first meeting of the Academy of Sciences. With many titles on her body and countless suitors, she never married.
What I want to tell you in this issue is the extraordinary life of the legendary woman Liu Enlan. The length is long, I believe that everyone will understand the meaning of the 4 words of "hero of the towel" after reading it.
Liu Enlan was born in 1905 in a small mountain village in Shandong, which is a traditional family of books. She had just landed, and when my grandfather heard that she was a baby girl, she was so angry that she didn't speak. Her mother carried her to the kang and wanted her grandfather to take a look, but the old man said: Girls' family, put her on the grass pile in the corner!
This kind of treatment was actually quite common in that era, and Liu Enlan grew up in such an environment. When she was sick, Grandpa did not let her mother take care of her, leaving her to fend for herself, and almost died; when she was hungry, her brothers could have something to eat, and she could only stand and watch and wait for them to finish eating. Since then, Little Liu Enlan has thought of one day being a person who is more powerful than a male doll.
Later, after her father, who was teaching in Guangzhou, returned home, he really couldn't see it anymore, so he took her away from her hometown and stayed by his side to educate. His father, Liu Guangzhao, was different from his grandfather, he was a progressively educated reader. By chance, he discovered his daughter's talent.
That day, my father proposed a geometry theorem problem, and several younger brothers who usually went to school every day could not answer it, while Liu Enlan, who had never been to school but had only overheard his brother's class, quickly answered it. The father taught so many students that he concluded at a glance that his daughter was a piece of reading material, and since then he has begun to teach his daughter himself.
Mathematics, geography, English, his father taught the most difficult knowledge, Liu Enlan will listen to it, the neighbors say that the Liu family has a "prodigy". In 1919, Liu Enlan was already 14 years old, and her father knew that he could no longer teach her, so he pooled his money to send her to Nanjing.
In the city of Nanjing in 1919, various warlords and celebrities gathered, and the rich families received Chinese and Western education here. Therefore, when Liu Enlan, a poor little girl who had never been serious about schooling, stood at the door of Huiwen Girls' Middle School, everyone thought that she was a little girl who accompanied her.
The entrance exam results came out, and the teacher was embarrassed. This child's level, reading the first year of high school, is too stressful for other children. But you can't let her go directly to the third year of high school, that's not graduating right away. In the end, the teachers unanimously decided: let her go to the second year of high school! Later, in 3 years of high school classes, Liu Enlan only read for one and a half years.
Since then, she has been admitted to Peking Union University for Women. At that time, this famous school had a rule that it was necessary to study for two years of preparatory courses before it could read undergraduate. Liu Enlan was an acute child, and she said to her father: "There is no need to go to Beijing to study, it is better to wait so long than to be in Nanjing!" In this way, she gave up the university in Beijing and enrolled in Nanjing Jinling Women's University. 4 years later, she graduated.
If she follows this development, if Liu Enlan can continue her studies after graduation, she will definitely be able to go farther and farther on the road of "genius". But at that time, her father was already old, and her younger siblings were still studying, so she could only choose to be a teacher at Jinling Women's University Affiliated High School.
At this time, Liu Enlan, who was 20 years old, had reached the age of marriage. A group of young talents at school came to pursue her, and she did not agree, she had been waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to surpass the man. After 4 years, this opportunity finally came: the school had a quota to guarantee outstanding teachers to study abroad. In this way, in 1929, the 24-year-old Liu Enlan began her path of learning to dominate.
When she first arrived in the United States, Liu Enlan was faced with a choice: which major to choose. At that time, boys had many options, they could choose physics and architecture, but girls could choose very few subjects. This is why Lin Huiyin, a talented woman who came to the United States a few years earlier than her, originally wanted to study architecture, but in the end she could only read art first.
Among the few remaining subjects, Liu Enlan chose physical geography, which few girls would choose in that era, and 3 years later she became the first Chinese female master in this field.
After that, her life was like hanging on. In order to obtain the world's first-hand geographical information, she went to Norway to investigate glaciers, traveled through more than a dozen countries, and became the first female scholar in China's history to investigate the social geography, natural environment, and customs of North America and Eurasia.
In 1941, she had already received her doctorate and returned to China. At that time, when the Japanese Kou was at its most rampant, returning to Japan was a very dangerous thing for a scientist like her. All the students and tutors abroad told her not to come back, and she said one sentence: I am a Chinese, and I know what the purpose of my study abroad is.
After that, she taught and participated in the anti-Japanese rescue work. In order to investigate the geographical structure of China, she often led her students to dig wild vegetables, set up tents, and enter the barren mountains and wild mountains. These jobs were neglected in the Beacon Years, but the information she and her students collected after the founding of the People's Republic of China became the most valuable asset in the geographical world. Because of her achievements, in 1946 the New York Times sent someone to interview her, and her photograph was placed in the newspaper, and the world's scientific community called her "the petite woman of the earth."
After the founding of new China, Liu Enlan was assigned to teach at the university as a representative in the field. In 1950, new China wanted to establish the Academy of Sciences, and Liu Enlan was also on the list of the Preparatory Committee. It was for this reason that 45-year-old Liu Enlan had a big tantrum.
On the same day, a meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the Academy of Sciences was held, which was a ten-important meeting, and many scientists from all over the country were present, in fact, including a large number of important scholars invited back from abroad. Since it was a meeting, it was inevitable that there would be various discussions, and the statements of other scientists were all aimed at work, but when it came to Liu Enlan, she couldn't look at it.
She said directly: "The work is going too slowly"! At the same time, she also directly pointed out that the preparatory work has been procrastinating until now, which is too wasteful of time. The reason why she lost her temper was because she was really anxious. At that time, international research in the same field had already led our country a lot, and if she didn't seize the time, she really didn't know when she would catch up.
After this tantrum, Liu Enlan's heart was painful. But what she didn't know was that Premier Zhou was also at the venue at the time. Liu Enlan has always had great respect for Premier Zhou, who protects these scientists, but has never had the opportunity to see him. Her temper made the staff at the venue not know what to do, and they were afraid that Premier Zhou would criticize her in a moment.
But after the meeting, Premier Zhou not only did not get angry with her, but came over to shake her hand and said to her:
Mr. Enlan, your opinion is very good, and I greatly appreciate your straightforward character, which is needed to build a new China.
This incident gave Liu Enlan a great touch, she really did not expect Premier Zhou to be so generous, and quickly apologized for the acute child he had just had. You must know that at that time, scientists like her and Qian Xuesen, if they had not been protected by Premier Zhou, would have been difficult to return to the embrace of the motherland one after another.
Since then, Premier Zhou has taken her very seriously, and has met her twice and asked her for her opinion on the formation of the Academy of Sciences. Once, she also made a joke in front of the Prime Minister's office building.
That time, at the invitation of the premier, she came to the main entrance of the Xinhuamen Government Council and prepared to enter. When the guards at the door saw that the 50-year-old aunt was wearing an old dress, not at all like a big professor, but like a big lady who went to the market to buy vegetables, they refused to let her in. Liu Enlan didn't know how to explain his identity, so he turned his head and left. At this time, the doorman's phone rang, and the prime minister's secretary asked Professor Liu if she had arrived, and the guards knew her identity, and quickly went to chase her back and invited her in.
Photo: Premier Zhou
With the weight of the premier, Liu Enlan did not dare to rest for a day. On the podium she taught and educated people, and her classes were full every time. She was relatively short, and each time the board book could only write the lower part of the podium, the students stood up to listen to the draw. After getting off the podium, she studied desperately and wrote a number of monographs, and later peers commented that under her leadership, China's geography has progressed for 10 years.
After making achievements in the field of geography, Liu Enlan was suddenly confused and did not know where the next target to be conquered was. It was not until 1953 that General Chen Geng chatted with her once.
In August 1953, when General Chen Geng received her, he asked her, "Professor Liu, do you like the sea?" Liu Enlan, a native of Shandong, once took a cruise ship to visit more than ten countries in the early years, and she replied very simply: "Like"!
Chen Geng then told her in a serious tone that china's navy is really difficult, and many times it is not known where to make the momentum. Liu Enlan understood the old general's meaning, and promised at the moment: We must do something for the navy!
After that, Liu Enlan gave up studying the earth for more than 20 years and began to go to the ocean. In order to better study the maritime geography and make accurate mapping for the navy's voyage, she proposed that scientists should get on warships. For this reason, she has led the sea many times, which is why she boarded the warship at the beginning of this article.
Pictured: Marshal He Long and Liu Enlan shake hands
When she boarded the warship that day, Liu Enlan was actually only in her 50s, but because of the long years of wind and rain outside, coupled with the fact that she had been in a car accident in the early years in Britain, she had injuries on her body, making her look like an old lady. Earlier, a student told her that the sea conditions were too harsh, and the students could just go for her, but she was not at ease and insisted on coming herself.
After that, Liu Enlan, who went to sea with the army many times, soon let the soldiers on the ship see the style of a female scientist. Going to sea is not an easy task for ordinary people who have not been trained. For an intellectual like her who has a wound on her body, it is even more difficult. The bumps along the way made her suffer from stomach ulcers, and she had reached the point of vomiting blood.
The captain saw that her body was exhausted and was about to return to the ship, Liu Enlan resolutely disagreed, she asked the other party: "Why do you want to go back?" Explain to The Convenience that the wind and waves are too big, and I am afraid that she will not be able to eat it. Liu Enlan said: "Comrade, don't you understand that the greater the wind and waves, the more precious materials can be obtained, and the more reference value they have for the construction of the troops. Everyone couldn't stop it, so they could only keep moving forward. On this voyage, Liu Enlan researched a large number of precious results.
After retiring, her colleagues wanted her to rest, but she refused and has been working as a consultant for the Ocean Bureau. She told everyone that she had a wish to hide for decades: to take Chinese her submarine and go to the depths of the ocean to observe the situation. As a young woman, she flew on an English submarine and gained a lot of data that impressed the British with Chinese scientists. Since then, she has calculated when we can have such a high-tech submarine.
At that time, our navy did not have the precedent of such an old woman getting off the submarine, so we did not agree to her request. But Liu Enlan did not care, she applied again and again, and finally got approval. The moment she entered our own submarine, Liu Enlan, who was over the age of flower armor, was happy like a child, and the development of the navy made her feel very pleased.
On July 15, 1986, Liu Enlan died of illness at the age of 81, and was buried in Babaoshan. Before her death, her student Bai Yongda had asked her master why she had never married in her life. She joked: "They are all married, who will do the learning?" For her view, many people may be puzzled, after all, most people will feel that marriage and career can actually be balanced. But Liu Enlan is such a stubborn woman, she dedicated her life to the geography and maritime cause of new China. When she was a child, she was rejected as a boy, and she proved with her life what a hero is. With this article, I would like to commemorate Mr. Liu Enlan.