Tu Yuanji, who has been Secretary General of Qian Xuesen for 27 years and is also the main editor of Qian Xuesen's letters, said that Qian Xuesen's letters are grand and "involve 11 major categories, including natural sciences, social sciences, mathematical sciences, systems science, thinking science, human science, military science, behavioral science, geographical science, architectural science, and literary and art theory... It also involves a great deal of empirical knowledge that cannot yet enter Qian Xuesen's scientific system, as well as the theories that have finally refined and risen to the philosophical level of all this scientific knowledge, namely Marxist philosophy and the 11 bridges that have transitioned to Marxist philosophy, namely, natural dialectics, materialist view of history, mathematical philosophy, systems theory, epistemology, humanity, military philosophy, anthropology (formerly known as 'socialism'), geographical philosophy, architectural philosophy and aesthetics. There are also a large number of contents that reflect Qian Lao's scientific spirit and scientific morality, ideological realm and moral sentiments, and even his insights and philosophies on life."
Letters in China are said to have sprouted in the Yin Shang era, and the oracle bones excavated from the Yin Ruins appeared in the "side reports" that reported the invasion of the "Fang State" to the capital. "The flames last for three months, and the family letter arrives at ten thousand gold", a history of letters, is actually the history of life and development of The sons and daughters of China who can sing and cry. Literati take writing as a profession, and there are obviously more letters than ordinary people, and several masters in the history of modern Chinese literature are also masters of letters. Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Shen Congwen, Fu Lei, etc., are all writers who write many letters. Here in Qian Xuesen, it is the great scientist who writes letters.
From August 1935 to the United States and leaving in September 1955, his letters for 20 years in the United States were later published in a centralized manner (namely, a letter from June 7, 1938 to the Office of the President of Tsinghua University and a letter from June 15, 1955 to Chen Shutong). The first reason is that at that time, letters were generally not left in the manuscript; second, it was old and difficult to preserve; third, they were in a foreign country, and things were not human; fourth, the published collection of letters did not receive English letters. In addition, Qian Xuesen was detained by the U.S. government in September 1950 and released on bail until September 1955, when he boarded the "President Cleveland" ship and returned to China, where he remained under house arrest and control for 5 years, and had to register with the local government's immigration bureau once a month to show that he had not left the area designated by the control, and if he left the area, he would be approved. Therefore, naturally, he will not write many letters or leave many letters. Even the sending of the letter to Uncle Chen that we see now is very tortuous.
Qian Xuesen when he was young
Qian Xuesen's letter to Chen Shutong was written on June 15, 1955, and was included as the first letter of the book "Letters of Qian Xuesen", expressing Qian Xuesen's eager desire to return to China, "without a day, a moment, or a moment without thinking about returning to China to participate in the great climax of construction." Qian Xuesen was ready to return to China in 1950, but at the moment of departure, he was unjustifiably placed under house arrest by the US government, and he was both "expelled" and not allowed to leave the country. Qian Xuesen was waiting for the opportunity to come, and this wait was in 1955. Qian Xuesen saw in the newspapers news such as "Sino-US exchange of detainees" and "Chinese students willing to return to China have been released", which not only shows that there is a glimmer of life in returning to China, but also makes him worry that behind it may be hidden the false statements and real obstructions of the US government. One day, in a Chinese pictorial with a basket of vegetables delivered, Qian Xuesen saw a report celebrating Labor Day in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. In the photo taken with the central leader on the viewing platform, he and his wife Jiang Ying saw a familiar person——— Chen Shutong. This is the "too teacher" they have long known. Qian Xuesen wrote a letter to Chen Shutong in a vertical arrangement in traditional Chinese characters, informing him of the real situation, "My government must not trust their words," and attached a Report by the New York Times. Then write the envelope, the address is the father's address in Shanghai. However, it was impossible to send the letter directly, so Jiang Ying wrote a letter to his sister Jiang Hua in Belgium, and sandwiched the letter to Chen Shutong in it. Jiang Ying used her left hand to imitate the handwriting of a child and wrote the address given to Jiang Huaxin. In order to get rid of the tracking, when they went to a crowded café, they threw the letter into the mailbox when the stalker was not ready. After Jiang Hua received the letter, he sent it from Belgium to Qian Junfu (Qian Xuesen's father) in Shanghai. For Qian Xuesen's return to China, Zhou Enlai later said that the Sino-US ambassadorial talks still had one result, that is, to exchange Qian Xuesen back.
"Distress Letter" content
The story behind is familiar to everyone, and New China's "two bombs and one satellite" cause, aerospace science and technology, and even today's manned space project have all benefited from Qian Xuesen and the seeds he sowed. The fact that a letter has had such a significant and far-reaching impact on contemporary Chinese history, and the process of the letter being produced is so circuitous, cannot help but remind people of the story of Su Wu herding sheep and passing on the book with Hongyan. The same imprisonment, the same unswerving, the same return to the heart like an arrow, the same tossing and turning. The inheritance of the thousand-year-old letter culture carries the heart of a pure child, and every time you read it, you can't help but be moved and moved.
In the work of collecting Qian Xuesen's letters, because the letter writers have been engaged in confidentiality work for a long time, some letters are confidential and cannot be made public. Another event that had a great influence on the collection of letters was the unexpected death of Mr. Wang Shouyun in 1997. He served as Qian Xuesen's secretary for 17 years, and during his tenure as secretary, because there was no photocopier, most of the letters sent by Qian Xuesen were copied and left behind. The condition of epistles at this stage became a mystery. According to such statistics, there are more than 6,000 letters from Qian Xuesen that have been collected, but it is estimated that he has written more than 7,000 letters in his lifetime. It is not uncommon for writers and politicians to be letters, but it is rare for scientists to write letters, because of course, writers and politicians often like and are good at appealing their thoughts and feelings to words, and their social visibility and crowd contact are far more extensive than those of ordinary scientists. In this sense, as a scientist, Qian Xuesen's production of so many letters is even more precious.
Comrade Mao Zedong received Qian Xuesen
Qian Xuesen has been very passionate about literature and art since he was a student, and has an in-depth exploration of image thinking. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in aeronautics and mathematics. During his stay in the United States, he studied aerodynamics, aeronautical engineering, engineering cybernetics, etc., and achieved fruitful results. His book Engineering Cybernetics has become a classic in the field of cybernetics. After returning to China, Qian Xuesen was very good at studying Marxist philosophy and devoted himself to the study of system theory, and was the pioneer of system science in China. It is precisely because Qian Xuesen has a solid theoretical foundation, rich scientific and technological knowledge, long-term experience in major engineering practice, and rich and colorful literary and artistic qualities, so his logical thinking, dialectical thinking and image thinking ability is extremely strong, and his views on the theories of various disciplines are extremely scientific, which can be said to be unique in academic thinking, and its characteristics are very distinct, which is praised by many people. Academician Wang Yuan recalled that "Qian Xuesen has a special love for mathematics" and wrote to him that "there are about 10 letters, and these letters were handed over to the Chinese Mathematical Society for preservation as historical archives." Between Ruan Xiangxin and Qian Xuesen, "academic and technical issues were discussed more than 30 times by letter." Professor Zhou Zhaoji recalled, "On November 21, 1988, Elder Qian wrote me the first letter of encouragement", "Since then, we have begun a long-term correspondence between teachers and students. I received a total of 98 handwritten letters from Elder Qian." Later, he wrote monographs such as "History of Plant Physiology in China", and believed that Qian Xuesen "also contributed" to this. Zhang Binbin, a researcher at the Yunnan Forestry Research Institute, said, "From March 1 to the end of the year alone, he (Qian Xuesen) wrote me 15 handwritten letters." Zhang Fan, a researcher at the Central Conservatory of Music, discussed topics such as aesthetics, art and technological aesthetics with Qian Lao through letters (39 letters from Qian Xuesen), and felt deeply encouraged and taught.
Qian Xuesen sent a letter to Comrade Wu Heng, then president of the China Invention Association, on January 6, 1984
In a certain sense, Qian Xuesen's scientific letters are to contribute and share the fruits of his mental labor free of charge with each other. He also spent time and energy helping many people who "never knew each other" to write books and say things, but did not ask for anything in return, and was "willing to be the wedding dress of others." Professor Yang Chunding, who studies art theory and image thinking, has received 49 letters from Qian Xuesen (according to the statistics of published letters). He said: "In the past 30 years, I have published more than 100 papers and more than 10 books in the fields of thinking science, aesthetics, literature and art, and creation science... The achievement of these results is inseparable from the long-term guidance and help of Qian Lao. "There are many more examples of this category. Qian Xuesen's letters reflect this kind of high wind and bright festival is admirable. People who use letters, which are a large-scale and direct way of giving away the fruits of ideas, to "help others for pleasure" may not be common in academia. According to the statistics of the "Letters" and "Supplements", qian Xuesen alone corresponded with more than 100 letters: Dai Ru was 200, Yu Jingyuan was 180, Qian Xuemin was 160, Chen Xin was 130, Wang Shouyun was 116, and Zhu Guangya was 106.
Qian Xuesen was lecturing
In Qian Xuesen's letters, there are almost no "family letters" in the strict sense. Except for a small number of transactional letters, they are basically letters that exchange scientific ideas, research work and scholarship with scholars and department leaders from all walks of life. Its scientific content is rich, the scientific color is bright, and the scientific spirit is strong, which can be described as "scientific letters". If there were scientific works, scientific papers, and even science fantasy novels in the past, the style of "science letters" is rare in China, and today there are some, and the first letter began with Qian Xuesen's letters. The sheer number and richness of these scientific letters is astonishing.
Qian Yonggang, Qian Xuesen's eldest son, said that the thousands of Qian Xuesen's letters were "written by his father, who made copies on a computer." Only a few letters from the late 1950s and early 1960s were handwritten copies made by the secretary of the time for archiving, as there was no modern device like a photocopier. "These hand-written display pieces can basically be read directly and effortlessly. It reflects not only the personal writing history, but also reflects the social writing history through the personal writing history, especially the writing history of society in the period of rapid changes, which has more research and aesthetic value. Qian Xuesen's handwritten handwritten book, with its historical span and huge volume, is another contribution to the world.
Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying
Qian Xuesen has always had a fondness for letters. As early as the 1950s, when he was the director of the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he asked everyone to reply to letters from the masses. He said it was their trust in us and a good opportunity for scientific publicity. He followed this principle for decades afterwards, which led to the generation of letters to ordinary people. A large number of Qian Xuesen's letters were mainly produced in his advanced age. From 1983 to 2000, more than 5,100 letters were produced in 17 years, an average of more than 300 per year. Sometimes I write 10 letters in 1 day (e.g., October 19, 1992, January 2, 1995). This age should be the time when the vast majority of ordinary people are recuperating and increasing their lives, and people will naturally have questions, why did Qian Xuesen tirelessly write so many letters? Tu Yuanji recalled: "First, he did not write inscriptions; second, he did not write prefaces for people; third, he did not participate in any appraisal meetings; fourth, he did not attend any 'scene' activities, such as some opening ceremonies, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, etc.; fifth, he did not concurrently hold any honorary positions such as advisers or honorary advisers; sixth, after he was old, he did not go to meetings or academic reports in other places, but only did activities in Beijing, not even Tianjin; seventh, he did not go abroad. "No wonder the money always has the concentrated energy and a lot of time to write letters."
After returning to China, Qian Xuesen sent a warm letter of hope to Guo Yonghuai on February 2, 1956
In his later years, Qian Xuesen's main way of understanding the outside world was to read books, read newspapers, read letters, read documents, and listen to radio. Qian Yonggang recalled: "My father not only read the newspaper every day, but also listened to the radio every day, and was a 'hardcore' radio fan. "It seems that a large number of letters are not something that comes out of the head. As for televisions and computers, which take up a lot of modern people's time, "my father didn't watch them for decades, a habit he developed when he was teaching in the United States in his early years." But in his later years, "my father began to watch TV, because his hearing was declining, he couldn't hear the radio clearly, and instead watched the CCTV news program at seven o'clock every night, that is, to see the picture." Qian Yonggang said that after his father quit the front-line work, due to the rapid decline in hearing, he had to rely on hearing aids to talk to people, so he usually did not call at home, nor answered the phone, and naturally did not use a mobile phone. Visitors are rarely received, let alone chatted with them. Someone once examined what Qian Xuesen did during the Spring Festival in his later years, and the results were unexpected, from 1984 to 1999, during the 16 Spring Festival, he wrote a total of 77 letters.
The 15 volumes of the "Letters of Qian Xuesen" and the "Supplement to the Letters of Qian Xuesen" have erected an indelible monument in the history of Chinese letters with a huge production that is almost irreproducible.
(Caption: The original "distress letter" sent by Qian Xuesen and the attached American newspaper clippings The pictures in this article are partly provided by Qian Xuesen's relatives or secretaries, and some are provided by Mr. Ren Zhiping)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Wu Bin Text Editor: Wu Bin