In the early 1950s, there were few monographs on the history of world mathematics in China. The only two monographs were translated in 193 1 year, a brief history of mathematics in 1956, and some handouts. In 1977, the draft of mathematics subject planning was drawn up by the state, and the part of mathematics history wrote: "At present, the research of mathematics history in China is basically blank." This makes the majority of mathematics workers feel very inconvenient in teaching and scientific research. Liang Zongju had a profound understanding in the 1950s. In order to change this situation, he began to delve into the history of mathematics, consulted a large number of documents in his spare time, summarized the development and evolution of mathematics in the world, and delivered a speech on campus, which was welcomed by teachers and students. After learning about it, Dalian Mathematics Association specially invited Liang Zongju to give a special report to middle school teachers in the city, which caused great repercussions. 1In July, 955, chinese mathematical society Dalian Branch published this material as "academic report material" entitled "Overview of Mathematical Development". This is the prototype of the Outline of the History of World Mathematics.
"Overview of Mathematical Development" has more than 60,000 words. At the beginning, it explains why we should study the history of mathematics, especially the history of Chinese mathematics, and puts forward the significance of studying the history of mathematics to deeply understand mathematics, cultivate dialectical materialism, carry out mathematics education and carry forward cultural heritage. Then the mathematical history of the whole world is generally described by alternating Chinese and western methods. At this time, several events prompted him to make up his mind to continue his research in this field.
1955, Chen Zungui, curator of Beijing Planetarium, published A Brief History of Ancient Astronomy in China. In the preface, he said: On the eve of the Anti-Japanese War, the International Astronomical Society should collect historical materials of ancient astronomy in China and put Yamamoto Yiqing, director of Huashan Observatory, in charge, instead of looking for China people. Chen was very angry and thought it was a shame for China people, so he decided to write this book. This incident touched Liang Zongju very much. He believes that the mathematical achievements of the motherland should also be well summarized. However, in order to make a fair evaluation, we must strengthen the study of the history of world mathematics and know ourselves, so as to correctly understand and evaluate ourselves.
Coincidentally, the first volume of Joseph Needham's History of Science and Technology in China was published in 1954. The book is planned to be written in seven volumes, and its profundity is praised by the world. But China's ancient science and technology should be summed up by foreigners. Although academics have no national boundaries, it is a disgraceful thing for the academic circles in China.
"Overview of Mathematics Development" was well received in Dalian and attracted the attention of the Provincial Department of Education. 1955 1 1 Liaoning Provincial Department of Education, with the consent of the author and modification, issued this material to the whole province for reference by math teachers in learning and teaching. 1956 after the country called for "marching into science", scientific research received great attention. This year, Shanghai Xinzhi Publishing House (predecessor of Shanghai People's Publishing House) found Liang Zongju, saying that there was no book systematically introducing the history of world mathematics in China at that time, hoping that he could expand the general situation of mathematics development and write an academic monograph with hundreds of thousands of words. This is the greatest encouragement and support for Liang Zongju's scientific research. He readily agreed to submit the manuscript two years later.
Since then, Liang Zongju has devoted himself to writing. He spent a lot of money to order original books in foreign languages, at the same time, he extensively collected the research results of domestic scholars on the history of Chinese mathematics, actively established contacts and conducted academic exchanges. Li Yan, from the Institute of Natural Science History of Chinese Academy of Sciences, sent him precious materials many times and wrote letters to encourage him to study and write. Guan reviewed some manuscripts and put forward valuable opinions, which gave him great encouragement.
However, a year later, the anti-rightist movement began. Frequent political activities occupy a lot of academic research time. In less than a year, Liang Zongju was pulled out of the "white flag" and academic research could only be transferred to the "underground", so the plan of "publishing a book two years later" was frustrated. However, his writing continued, and some of them were written into monographs. The meridian measurement initiated by the monk and his party was completed under such circumstances.
1962, Liang Zongju was reused as a backbone teacher, but he could only write books in an amateur way. He overcame all kinds of difficulties, and by 1966, he had written 450,000 words, which will be published soon.
Unfortunately, bad luck has come again. In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, Liang Zongju was put into the bullpen. These dozens of carefully copied manuscripts were regarded as evidence of "reactionary academic authority" and were thrown into the fire one by one after their property was seized. Ten years of hard work was destroyed! Later, more and more hats were buckled, and the persecution escalated. His research on the history of mathematics was delayed during the unjust case 12 years.
From 65438 to 0978, after being rehabilitated, Liang Zongju participated in the Third National Congress of chinese mathematical society as a representative of Liaoning Province and was elected as a director. At this time, he sprouted the desire to write a monograph on the history of mathematics again. In the same year, Liaoning People's Publishing House submitted a manuscript to him, which coincided with his idea, and immediately accepted it, and said that it would speed up and make up for the loss.
The difficulty of rewriting is enormous. The manuscript was burned and many materials were lost. Many original ideas have been forgotten because of more than ten years' experience and need to be rearranged. At this time, the school leaders and department leaders gave him great support and specially arranged the writing time and conditions. Friends and relatives at home and abroad also sent messages from all directions. Surprisingly, a manuscript of that year was kept secret by a student with a sense of justice. Hearing that the teacher was going to rewrite the history of mathematics, he gladly returned it. All this deeply touched Liang Zongju and turned it into a driving force for writing. He showed desperate spirit, closed the door, worked for more than ten hours every day, and finally wrote a manuscript of nearly 400 thousand words in less than a year. The publishing house regards it as "urgent" and gives full cooperation in proofreading, typesetting and proofreading, so that the manuscript can be published as soon as possible on the premise of ensuring quality. 1In August, 980, the 380,000-word Outline of the History of World Mathematics was published by Liaoning People's Publishing House. It took only two years for the book to be signed and published, making it a rare high-speed publishing industry. However, it has been 24 years since he 1956 started writing. Sweet and bitter, very emotional.
The publication of the Outline of the History of World Mathematics has aroused great repercussions in academic circles. Xinhua news agency sent a message for this, and major newspapers reprinted it one after another. Guangming Daily reported its publication and distribution twice. Readers, friends, life and other magazines have published comments and authors' introductions. Liaoning Daily recommended this book to readers in the province, praising it as "not only suitable for reference by professional mathematicians, but also a good reading for popularizing mathematical knowledge". China Publishing Yearbook (198 1) introduced it in the book review and predicted that "it will provide great convenience for the research and popularization of Chinese mathematical history". As a recommended book, the book participated in international book fairs held in Moscow, Germany, Hong Kong and other places.
After reading the Outline of the History of World Mathematics carefully, I found that it is a book with fresh style, elegant style, rigorous discussion, both academic and popular. Hundreds of references are cited in the book, aiming at obtaining evidence and providing information for readers' further research. While discussing the history of foreign mathematics, this paper introduces the achievements and contributions of ancient mathematics in China with one third of the space, so that readers can fully understand the history of the emergence, development and mutual influence of Chinese and western mathematics. The book has original opinions on many specific issues, such as the first quantitative indication of Zu Chongzhi's secret ratio.
The fourth part of the book selects seven special topics from the perspective of mathematics history teaching, which makes them show their own characteristics in similar monographs. This book has been published 14 years. Practice has proved that it has withstood the test of history and become an important reference for professional research and teaching. Liang Zongju himself said modestly: "This is an outline, which is very immature. I just want to make some preparations for the study of the history of mathematics. " He is writing a general history of world mathematics with more than one million words, in order to completely realize his ambition set more than 30 years ago in his lifetime. As a math teacher, Liang Zongju's teaching is excellent. Since 1953, it has been the teaching backbone of the department. He used to be the director of the teaching and research section of mathematical analysis, and now he is the director of the research section of mathematical history. He has taught more than 20 basic and specialized courses on the history of mathematics for undergraduates, postgraduates and teachers.
Liang Zongju adopts the policy of advancing despite difficulties in teaching and improves himself through teaching. He believes that the more unfamiliar the class, the greater the gain after careful study and preparation. Every time he attends a class, he has to make preparations several months in advance, carefully study all kinds of textbooks at home and abroad, repeatedly scrutinize the proof method of each theorem, and then take notes on the research situation and reference materials of various problems. Many articles published later are his research experience in teaching. There are more than 60 such teaching notes, which reflects his diligent study and meticulous teaching spirit.
Liang Zongju's lectures are so popular with students that every student who has listened to his lectures has left a deep impression, which is still fresh in his memory decades later. Several students who are now associate professors recalled that it was a pleasure to listen to Mr. Liang's lectures, and he could make boring mathematics knowledge lively and interesting. On one occasion, Liang Zongju had an operation because of dental disease. When he appeared at the door of the classroom after discharge, there were long cheers and applause in the classroom. Teaching is so popular, not only because he has rich and extensive professional knowledge, but also because he pays attention to teaching methods. As early as in college, he read some books on psychology and education. Later, he constantly summed up experience in teaching practice and carefully reviewed success or failure after class. Therefore, the lectures and reports were well received.
After 1979, Liang Zongju has been teaching postgraduate courses. The number of people attending classes has decreased and the teaching methods have changed, but his attitude of preparing lessons and giving lectures has not changed at all. Even if the class is repeated, there will be new content every time. He never reads the lecture notes, and all the historical events or figures involved are handy, which shows that his basic skills are solid. His class not only introduces the latest achievements, but also analyzes the existing problems, which provides great convenience for students' study and further research.
Liang Zongju pays attention to being a teacher in teaching, with meticulous style and tireless teaching. When he checks homework or test papers for students, he never misses a wrong symbol or punctuation. Instead of simply pointing out the mistakes made by students, he tried to find out the reasons for the mistakes and cite them. It often takes a lot of time to do this, but it is of great help to students. Over the past few years, a group of young teachers have been trained around him, and the research and teaching of mathematical history have formed an echelon, which is growing stronger and stronger. Liang Zongju himself was awarded 1985 as a model teacher in Liaoning Province, 1986 as an excellent teacher in Liaoning Province, 1987 as a model educator in Dalian, 1988 as an outstanding intellectual in Dalian, and 1993 as a member of the 7th and 8th CPPCC National Committee. 1978, Liang Zongju was rehabilitated in the same year and was elected as a model worker in Dalian. After that, he won the prize almost every year, was awarded as a model worker in Dalian for six times, and was also awarded as a super model worker in 1980. Of course, he is engaged in teaching and scientific research, but there are also quite a few factors because of his contribution to the application of mathematics.
During the period of 1969, Liang Zongju participated in the research group of Dalian Port, engaged in the development and calculation of SCR charger and DC voltage regulator. The trial production was successful in the second year. After 1973, he participated in the promotion of optimization methods, overall planning methods and orthogonal experimental design in the city and achieved fruitful results. Through practice, I also wrote Fraction Method and Decomposition Method in Optimization Method and put forward a new method. 65438-0974 worked in several factories successively, such as assisting Dalian limestone mine in theoretical derivation and calculation of continuous millisecond blasting; Open a school in Dalian oil pump factory and introduce a new speed ratio method; Translate the technical data of imported machines for Dalian No.2 Electric Machinery Factory and Dalian Industrial and Mining Factory. In September of the same year, he was invited by Dalian Chemical Plant to participate in the overhaul work, and made reasonable arrangements for each working procedure of the overhaul work of the whole plant with the overall planning method. With the support and cooperation of all aspects of the factory, the total construction period was shortened from one month to four and a half days by using the original manpower and material resources, which saved a lot of money for the country and won high praise from factory cadres and the masses.
In June, 1976, 1 1, the commodity inspection bureau sent people to Liaoshi for help. At that time, China purchased wheat from Canada and stipulated various quality indicators, but Party A often failed to deliver the goods to me according to the contract specifications and refused to acknowledge our inspection results. The school sent Liang Zongju to help with the calculation. According to the international sampling inspection theory, he reviewed and improved the original method, which enabled us to have solid data and theory in the claim negotiation and saved the loss of $6,543.8+7,000 yuan for the country. He also taught regression analysis, analysis of variance, orthogonal design and other methods in Northeast Ocean Workstation of State Oceanic Administration (now Institute of Marine Environmental Protection), and calculated with practical problems, which was widely praised.
After the Haicheng and Tangshan earthquakes, the whole country set off a wave of earthquake prevention. Dalian Seismological Station established contact with Liaoshi and asked for mathematical tools for earthquake prediction. Since then, Liang Zongju has participated in the work of seismic stations for more than two years. According to the observation data provided by the seismic station, he studied and predicted the occurrence and development of earthquakes by seven or eight methods, such as abnormal wave velocity ratio and B value calculation of magnitude-frequency relationship. The small earthquake in Longwangtang area of Lushun was predicted correctly. Among them, the method of calculating the exact time of epicenter and earthquake by least square method is quite innovative. At the beginning of 1978, Dalian Jinxian seismic station showed signs similar to those before Haicheng and Tangshan earthquakes, and the municipal party Committee held a special meeting for this purpose. Liang Zongju did a week's calculation with an electronic computer and concluded that this phenomenon was the interference of meteorological factors (mainly temperature). Therefore, he put forward the opinion that there is little possibility of a major earthquake at the meeting, which contributed to the correct decision of the municipal party Committee to suspend evacuation and avoided a lot of economic losses. Since then, he has participated in many earthquake conferences in the whole city, and has also taught earthquake calculation methods and provided earthquake maps to Dalian Garrison and a certain army stationed in Fuxian for many times.
It is no accident that Liang Zongju can make some achievements in the application of mathematics. He is good at finding problems, likes to get to the bottom of them, and can connect things in daily life with what he has learned. For example, he summed up a simple method of making regular pentagons, and then improved it with continued fraction theory, which greatly reduced the error. This enterprising spirit of striving for perfection has enabled him to make continuous achievements in applying mathematical knowledge. The publication of the Outline of the History of World Mathematics has improved Liang Zongju's reputation in academic circles. 198 1 year, with Liang Zongju's suggestion and efforts, the Chinese Mathematical Society and chinese society of history of science and technology jointly held the first national academic seminar on the history of mathematics in Dalian. At the meeting, the branch of mathematical history was established, and Liang Zongju was a member of the preparatory group (later Council). This has enabled the vast number of mathematical history workers to have their own organizations and promoted the development of the research on the history of national mathematics. 1982 The Ministry of Education approved the granting of a master's degree in the research direction of the history of world mathematics in the Department of Mathematics of Liaoning Normal University, and Liang Zongju became the first postgraduate tutor in this direction in China. From then on, he devoted all his energy to the teaching and scientific research of the history of mathematics.
During the period of 1984, Liang Zongju served as the editorial board of China Encyclopedia of Mathematics and the deputy editor of the volume of History of Mathematics. In addition to writing dozens of entries, he also actively assisted in sorting out manuscripts, reviewing other related entries, providing a large number of photos of mathematicians, and making systematic comments on the translations of foreign mathematicians.
The history of mathematics is inseparable from mathematicians, and the building of mathematics was built by thousands of mathematicians in Qian Qian. It is Liang Zongju's long-cherished wish to compile a mathematician dictionary. 1983, the editor of Shandong Education Publishing House came to Dalian to discuss this matter, which coincided with his idea. He gave full play to the enthusiasm of all the staff in the research room of mathematical history. After five years of hard work, the Dictionary of Mathematicians edited by Liang Zongju was finally published. The book contains more than 2200 mathematicians and lists the original titles of mathematicians' works.
Liang Zongju often said: He can never be a nominal editor-in-chief; As long as you leave your name, you must do practical things; If you don't get what you deserve, you will feel guilty. Some publishers or authors want to use his reputation to publish books or cooperate, but he thinks he can't participate in the work, so he politely refuses. As long as he accepts the task, he goes all out to work, often paying several times more labor than others. In the process of compiling the Dictionary of Mathematicians, he reviewed and revised the manuscripts of nearly one million words word by word for many times, and checked and selected hundreds of photos of mathematicians one by one. So is the compilation of another practical dictionary of middle school mathematics. After Liang Zongju became editor-in-chief, every link from manuscript collection to editing and proofreading was not relaxed. The 760,000-word book is also corrected word by word, and the figures are convenient for drafting. After the publication of 1987, it won provincial and municipal awards year after year, and 1989 won the third national excellent book award.
Liang Zongju pays attention to simple explanations when writing a book. His comprehensive comments on the development of mathematics in China are self-contained, and his analysis and research on specific issues such as "zero history" are incisive. He has no problem with the portal, and he can collect the strengths of a hundred schools for his own use. But don't steal the beauty of others, and be sure to indicate the source when quoting; He does not blindly follow authority, and his doubts will be explored. He is honest and enthusiastic, strict with himself academically and tolerant of others, so he is respected by academic circles. Many historians of mathematics have received his help or advice. Some workers and farmers also benefited from his support. Liang Peiji's story has already spread through newspapers and magazines, and it has been reported in 1984, 1987 and 1990 three times. On the recommendation of 1982 Liang Zongju, this ordinary farmer in fengqiu county, Henan Province, published his research results of double magic squares in Mathematical Research and Review, making him the only farmer representative at the 1985 Combinatorial Mathematics Conference, and made a special report, from then on, based on the academic circles. Liang Zongju spent several days verifying Liang Peiji's calculation results and helping to rewrite the paper, but refused to add his name when he published it.
Liang Zongju's achievement is inseparable from the help of his wife Chen Shanhui. Chen Shanhui was the high flyers of the Department of Foreign Languages in college. After graduation, he gave up the opportunity to go to England for further study. He and Liang Zongju have been in the same boat for more than 40 years. In order to support her husband's career, she took on all the housework and worked as an assistant: copying articles, collecting materials, handling letters, sorting books and so on. It saves a lot of time for Liang Zongju's teaching and research. Life care and spiritual encouragement are meticulous.
Liang Zongju, who is over 70 years old, deeply feels the preciousness of time. He still works at his desk for more than ten hours every day. Completed the presiding judge, preface and introduction of Euclid's New Translation of Geometry, and wrote the book Historical Allusions of Mathematics, which expounded the origin and evolution of some basic concepts in elementary mathematics with rich historical materials. He also participated in the compilation of the Dictionary of Biographies of Scientists organized by Science Press and China Academy of Sciences, and served as the deputy editor of Mathematicians. He also participated in scientific research projects organized by Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House and Institute of Natural Science History of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In addition, there is a million-word general history of world mathematics that he has already planned. He made a plan of at least 15 for himself and was determined to devote his life to the cause of mathematical history.