All the members of the "five-member group" have now settled overseas.
The author express his interest in report on mathematical science and figures in China. The "five-person group" introduced in this paper is a drop in the ocean of science in China. The study, life, thoughts and work of China people who are engaged in mathematics all over the world are the subjects that the author cares about.
I want to send this document to those who persist in optimistic struggle despite difficulties and hardships!
Response 30 years ago
1On July 20th, 969, the American Apollo moon landing program was successful. People all over the world are sitting in front of the TV with excitement and expectation, eagerly watching people walk on the moon. US President Nixon delivered a speech: "The whole world cheered for it, and only 654.38 billion China people remained silent." In fact, under the care of Premier Zhou Enlai, many research institutions, such as the Beijing Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have been ordered to follow this unprecedented experimental plan of the United States. As a member of this research team, Han Nianguo, a young mathematician under Director Cheng Maolan, completed the orbit calculation of the American Apollo spacecraft in a very short time, becoming a leader in several different calculation schemes and surpassing the computer, enabling relevant scientists in China to effectively observe and take photos in real time.
At that time, this important event was not made public in China. However, five "Grade Three" middle school students who came from Beijing to settle in rural areas got the news through their friend Han Nianguo, and formally set up a research group on modern mathematics for middle school students on July 20, 1969, in response to Nixon's speech; They also decided to publish the publication Middle School Students as a medium to connect people's thoughts, study and research. The five middle school students are Cheng Hansheng, Wang Ming, Tao Qian, Zhang Baohuan and Wang Shilin. Mr. Han Nianguo, a young mathematician, was invited by them as a consultant.
Thirty years have passed since 1969. This little-known, deliberately silent folk science group was dubbed "Five-person Group" by a few old-timers in Beijing's mathematics field in the late 1970s. The Mathematics Department of Beijing Normal University has also adopted a very tolerant and understanding attitude towards the activities of this group.
Thirty years later, five "middle school students" who didn't complete their undergraduate education all got doctoral degrees in mathematics; When they study abroad, they all apply for scholarships such as teaching assistants, research assistants and lectures based on their personal scientific literacy. Nowadays, the "five-person group" who has settled overseas has begun to look for new challenges in the fields of modern mathematics research, teaching and high-tech computers.
"Underground learning" began with the sound of gunfire.
September 1967 to June 10 was an important turning point of the cultural revolution in Beijing's middle schools. Amid the rumbling sound of guns from two factions across the country, a large number of clever middle school students began to study underground theory. They not only learn the classic works of Marx and Engels, but also learn the classic works of German Hegel and French Enlightenment Masters, British classical political economy and so on. After this "underground secret reading movement" lasted for nearly 10 years, China has produced a new generation of social scientists, historians, writers and economists. At the same time, quite a few middle school students turned to study modern mathematics and theoretical physics.
1968 in the spring and summer, the eight colleges in the northwest corner of Beijing are still filled with the smell of factional struggle. In the southeast corner of Beijing University of Technology, several college students came forward to organize a folk seminar on dialectics of nature, advocating the study and research of natural science. In fact, six or seven middle school students participated in the discussion and submitted their papers at the meeting. Among them, Tao Qian of Beijing No.4 Middle School and Zhang Baohuan of Beijing No.13 Middle School, a member of the "Five-Person Group", wrote Examples of Transformation in Mathematics and Others, which were highly praised by the college students who organized the seminar. It is a general method to solve scientific problems. Another middle school student's anti-traditional theory of nuclear physical structure also surprised college students.
During this period, Cheng Hansheng of Beijing No.4 Middle School was very interested in Einstein's theory of relativity, and he was trying to explore the physical significance of imaginary numbers in relativity and theoretical physics.
In the second day of junior high school, Cheng Hansheng showed great interest in mathematics and the nature of a researcher who was not satisfied with the status quo. He found a very popular "Engineering Calculus" written by Fan Yingchuan, read it carefully and did a lot of exercises. This windfall opened his door to modern physics. Soon after he entered high school, he began to do research independently. He studied the book Nonlinear Wave Mechanics written by De Broglie, which is written for experts who study theoretical physics. Only 65,438+0,600 copies were printed in Chinese, and the author was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. When he was a sophomore, he once recommended the Theory of Complex Variable Functions compiled by the Department of Mathematics of Peking University to his classmate Wang Shilin, and he thought it was the best book on complex variable functions.
Wang Shilin and Cheng Hansheng are old classmates and partners in the first year of high school. They have long been tired of the slow teaching method of cultivating problem-solving machines step by step and in an orderly way in middle schools, and began to read mathematics and physics works in universities and graduate students. It is their daily routine to go to the nearby Beijing Library for self-study immediately after class. At that time, there were no personal secrets, and people were paying attention everywhere. What they did really attracted people's attention.
The impact of dropping out of school brought by social unrest made Wang Shilin and Cheng Hansheng give up any illusion of going to college, thinking that they were members of a social university, taking math and physics courses freely and enjoying it. What they really don't understand is endless arguments, warfare, personal attacks and so on. 1967 In the spring, there was a brief "class resumption revolution" in Beijing middle school, and each class had to choose a class leading group composed of various factions. The only students who do not belong to any faction are Cheng Hansheng and Wang Shilin. They were considered as the most acceptable candidates and were elected as the executive chairman of the election to ensure fair elections. This incident can be regarded as an episode in the history of the Cultural Revolution in the Fourth Middle School, and it can also be regarded as an important experience of their "politics".
Wang Ming, a member of the "five-person group", was set as an example for the whole school by the headmaster of No.4 Middle School before the Cultural Revolution because of his rather orthodox image and his nature of never deviating from the norm. He and Cheng Hansheng are classmates of Beijing Experimental No.2 Primary School. Before the Cultural Revolution, Bin Yang, the headmaster of No.4 Middle School, once wrapped his eight sets of math deduction homework with HongLing and took it home to educate his daughter to study hard. Wang Ming and Cheng Hansheng are the only two high school students who have been approved by the school to be exempted from taking math exams.
Tao Qian, another member of the "Group of Five", was originally named Shi Qian, because he was particularly sensitive to mathematics in middle school; He is called "the king of mathematics" by his classmates. This is the laurel awarded to Gauss, a famous German mathematical physics genius, in the history of mathematics. In that star-studded school, he was a representative of trigonometry in his class in his freshman year and was elected as a study committee member in his sophomore year. However, he lost his title in senior three. Because the "four clean-ups" movement of students began. His father is a famous surgeon and his mother is a dentist. At that time, it was a congenital defect and needed to be "reformed" seriously. In order to win the league, he contacted the cleaning team in Xicheng District of Beijing alone and dug excrement with the cleaning team every Sunday morning. However, he still missed the Youth League and never joined.
In that turbulent middle school era, Tao Qian had practically completed the self-study of several college mathematics textbooks. As a test of his study, he also answered the exercises attached to the book. The turmoil of the next few years left him and his family in trouble. But Newton's law of inertia, the physics in his mind, finally pushed him to the mathematical world he loved. Those who once accused him of wanting to become famous can no longer explain what Tao Qian did in the special historical environment of 1967. Because the possibility of fame and family has been completely destroyed, and the opportunity of going to college has completely disappeared, why is Tao Qian still intoxicated in the paradise of mathematics?
Crisis under High Pressure and Mathematical Support
From the end of 1967 to 1968, "cleaning up the class ranks" was in full swing. This is the most vicious and extensive lynching that China people have ever experienced: physically, mentally and even physically. The whole political atmosphere is full of blood. Many parents of these "five-person group" who "turn a deaf ear to things outside the window and concentrate on mathematics" have entered the "bullpen" and are not allowed to go home to reunite with their relatives for at least half a year or a year. No one has counted how many people are insane or even commit suicide in the "bullpen". Who can imagine how much pressure this has brought to the learning process of these middle school students?
Significantly, we might as well make a personal reaction contrast under great mental pressure:1When a large number of "capitalist roaders" Gao Qian were overthrown at the end of 1966, some princelings' children responded by forming a "linkage" rebellion and gathering people to attack the Ministry of Public Security. The stress response of the "five-person group" under the family crisis is to continue to study advanced courses in mathematics and physics. Because the joy of their victory in conquering this most difficult field of human knowledge is enough to make up for the sorrow of the world. If someone calls this the crisis and elegance under high pressure advocated by Hemingway, we can only say that the life like purgatory makes teenagers mature prematurely.
1968 In May, Zhang Baohuan and his party of five found the Chinese translation of Wiener's classic book Cybernetics, the second edition 1962. Wiener is a world-famous mathematician and the main founder of cybernetics in the 20th century. The first edition of Cybernetics 1948 is of epoch-making significance. Wiener's elegant and simple writing and profound thoughts strongly attracted Zhang Baohuan's full attention and he couldn't put it down for several weeks. He immediately recommended this book to Tao Qian and Cheng Hansheng, which also aroused their great interest.
However, it is not the specific cybernetics topics and complicated mathematical arguments discussed in this book that sublimate their thoughts to the realm of being suddenly enlightened, but Weiner vividly describes the academic activities and methods of western scientists in this book, especially their unrestrained free discussion spirit. The first chapter of Wiener's Cybernetics answers in detail a series of questions that have puzzled middle school students in China for many years: How did modern western science develop and grow? Why can modern western scientists constantly ask and solve problems and lead the progress of the whole science and technology? What can we do to integrate into the mainstream of modern science and become a research force that cannot be ignored? Why didn't many foreign students in the 1950s make scientific research contributions after returning to China? How can science and technology really take root, sprout and blossom in China?
I just found these materials, and I wonder if they will be useful to you. Celebrities during the Cultural Revolution.