The teacher opened Hua's math homework and found that many places had been altered and were not neat at all. The teacher was very dissatisfied at first. Later, he found that Hua was constantly improving and simplifying his solutions. After his talent in mathematics was discovered by the teacher, he devoted himself to cultivating him. After graduating from junior high school, Hua was admitted to Shanghai China Vocational School. After last semester, his family couldn't afford 50 yuan's room and board, so he had to drop out of school, so he only had a junior high school diploma for life. After coming home from school, he taught himself mathematics while helping his father manage the shop. When China comes to math problems, it seems that there is no one's business. He either forgot to receive the guests or drove them away. I just miscalculated and gave me too much change. My father was very angry. Once, he burned Hua's math book, and Hua fainted in love.
1930 One day, Xiong Qinglai, head of the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, was sitting in his office reading a magazine Science. Looking at it, I can't help but exclaim: "Which country is this China from?" Everyone around shook their heads. "Which university does he teach at?" People looked at each other. Finally, a Jiangsu-born teacher thought for a long time before slowly saying, "My brother has a classmate named Hua. Which university did he teach at? " ! He only went to junior high school and heard that he worked as a clerk in Jintan Middle School. "
Xiong qinglai was surprised. A person who graduated from junior high school must be a genius to write such a profound mathematical paper. He immediately decided to invite Hua to Tsinghua University.
Since then, Hua has become a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University. Here, he is like a duck to water, swimming in the ocean of mathematics every day, leaving only five or six hours of sleep for himself. It's hard to believe that flowers have developed the habit of reading books after turning off the lights. Of course, he has no special function, just a logical thinking activity in his mind. He took a book and put it under the lamp, looked at the topic and thought for a while, then turned off the lamp and lay in bed, closed his eyes and meditated, and began to do the problems in his mind. Turn over and get out of bed when you encounter difficulties, and open your books for a while. In this way, a book that took ten days and a half months to finish, he finished it in one night and two nights. Hua is regarded as a rare assistant.
The following year, his papers began to be published in famous foreign mathematical magazines. Tsinghua University broke the precedent and decided to promote Huawei teaching assistants with only junior high school education.
A few years later, Hua was sent to Cambridge University in England to study. However, he doesn't want to study for a doctorate, but only wants to be a visiting scholar. Because being a visiting scholar can break through the shackles and learn seven or eight subjects at the same time. He said, "I came to study in England, not to get a degree."
Hua didn't get a doctorate. During his two years in Cambridge, he wrote 20 papers. On the level, every article can get a doctorate. In one of the studies on "the problem in the tower", his theory was named "Fahrenheit theorem" by the mathematical community.
Hua devoted himself to his favorite mathematical research with the spirit of loving science, being diligent in research and not seeking fame and fortune. He abandoned the money, fame and position that the world sought. In the end, his career succeeded.
China closely combines scientific research with practical application. Hua applied mathematics to industrial and agricultural production and made outstanding contributions to China's modernization.
Hua was born in a poor family in Jintan County, Jiangsu Province. This was a very closed county at that time.
When he was a child, he wanted to ride a horse most. He tied the small wooden stool to the rope, led it as a horse, and shouted, "Ma DuDu, Ma DuDu." Now this small stool is still displayed in the "Hua Memorial Hall" in Jintan. When he was a little older, he used the counter of his small grocery store as a horse, jumped up and down, and learned to ride like an adult from time to time, feeling very proud.
Hua especially likes thinking. He often shows great interest in something that others think is normal and asks some seemingly strange questions. Once, he went to the suburbs to play with others and saw a stone man and a horse beside an abandoned grave. He asked his older companion, "How heavy are these stone men and horses?" The companion replied, "How do you know?" Unwilling, Hua thought for a moment and said, "There will always be a way to know."
In the Jintan of that year, Hua's favorite places to go were Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Temple Fair and other places, where he was indispensable. There is a Qinglong Mountain in the east of the city and a temple on the mountain. Every temple fair, the "Bodhisattva:" in the temple put his feathers on his head, put on colorful clothes and rode into the city on a big horse. Along the way, people kowtowed to the Bodhisattva and prayed for happiness. Hua straightened his neck and looked at the Bodhisattva with folded hands, thinking, "Is the Bodhisattva really omnipotent?" When the temple fair broke up, people went home one after another, but Hua followed the "Bodhisattva" to Qinglong Mountain, trying to find out the truth and see the true face of the "Bodhisattva".
When he came to the temple, the Bodhisattva took off his costume. When Hua saw that "Bodhisattva" was disguised as an adult, he immediately ran home. When he got home, he happily said to his mother, "Mom, don't kowtow to the Bodhisattva in the future. Bodhisattva is deceptive. Father immediately reprimanded: "Alas, sin, what do children know?" He retorted gravely, "I went to the temple in Qinglong Mountain. The' Bodhisattva' turned out to be a fake, but a person dressed up. "
Hua's math homework is often altered, which is very untidy. The teacher was very dissatisfied at first. Later, the teacher carefully appraised and found that Hua was constantly improving and simplifying his problem-solving methods.
Hua is not only willing to use his brains for mathematics, but also is very attentive to Chinese. On one occasion, the teacher distributed his collection of books by Hu Shi, a literary master, to the students and asked them to write a review after reading them. Hua's copy is a collection of attempts, which reveals the author's pride in advocating vernacular Chinese and thinks that he is a successful experimenter, so he wrote a preface poem on the title page: "Since ancient times, attempts have never been successful, and it may not be true. I am the next topic today, and I have been trying successfully since ancient times. "
After reading it, Hua did not express the teacher's expected praise for Hu Shi, but pointedly pointed out that the concept of Hu Shi's poem was chaotic. The "attempt" in the first sentence and the "attempt" in the fourth sentence were two completely different concepts. The "try" in the first sentence refers to the first attempt, of course, the first attempt is rarely successful; The word "try" in the fourth sentence refers to a successful attempt after many attempts or failures, so they have different meanings. It makes sense to look at these two "attempts" separately, but when Hu Shi put them together, he arbitrarily denied the concept of others (Lu Fangweng) with his own concept. What a shame! He said: "Hu Shi's preface poems are confusing in logic and unsightly to read."
Although the Chinese teacher was very unhappy at that time, he said to the famous Hua 20 years later, "I have read your article for a long time."
It is precisely because he is diligent in thinking, loves innovation and does not believe in authority that Hua Cai finally became a great mathematician through hard self-study.
You can't help being "stupid" when you spend time thinking about math problems. On the counter, he did a math problem. When the customer came to ask about the price of the pen, he misreported the huge figure calculated. Under the oil lamp, he did math problems and his nose ran down without knowing it; In the cold winter, he did math problems, his hands were stiff with cold, and he continued to calculate; In the hot summer, he did math problems and sweated, regardless.
Mathematician Hua dropped out of school when he was a teenager and helped his father run a small cotton shop. In his spare time, he often solves math problems with paper wrapped in cotton.
One day, his father asked him to clean the back room. After cleaning, he went back to the counter and cried, "Where is my arithmetic draft paper?" Dad looked around. Suddenly, he pointed to the back of a person in the distance and said, "I sold my cotton bag to him." Hua caught up with him, bowed, took out his pen and copied the topic on the back of his hand. Passers-by said, "This is really a strange child." Sometimes customers come to buy things, and people ask questions and answer them, which delays business. In the evening, when the shop was closed, he taught himself until late at night. Seeing that he didn't focus on business, his father snatched the book from his hand in a rage and wanted to put it in the stove. It's a good thing his mother got it and it didn't burn.
Once, Hua read a magazine and found that a math paper was wrong. Encouraged by his teacher, he wrote a critical paper and sent it to Shanghai Science Journal, which was published soon. This article changed his path and led him to the palace of mathematics.