If Tsinghua Park has cultivated any geniuses in the past hundred years, Gu Yuxiu is undoubtedly the first. No one beats it.
Tsinghua University History Museum.
In the first half of the twentieth century, although China was full of turmoil, carnage, and suffering, it was also full of hope—the collision of new and old learning, and the integration of middle school and Western learning. In that era, there were many masters and bright stars.
Today, the master we introduce is an honorary professor at more than a dozen well-known universities at home and abroad, such as MIT, Pennsylvania, Tsinghua University, and Peking UniversityHis teachers include Nobel Prize winner in physics Bridgeman, the "father of computers" Vanneva Bush, and legendary scientist BridgemanHis friends were Albert Einstein, Russell, von Kármán;His students include Qian Xuesen, Qian Weichang, and Wu Chien-shiung;His buddies include Wen Yiduo, Liang Shiqiu, Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, and Mei Yiqi. It can really be described as "relatives and friends are all outstanding people, and three thousand ** heroes".
His name is Gu Yuxiu, who is well-versed in the past and the present, and has studied both Chinese and Western, both arts and sciences, spanning the six worlds of "science, education, poetry, drama, and Buddhism".
He is known as a generalist, but he is a sweeping monk in "Dragon Babu".
Gu Yuxiu, whose name is Yiqiao, was born on December 24, 1902 in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Grandmother is a descendant of the Northern Song Dynasty writer Qin Guan, father Gu Gengming, the word is obscure, graduated from Baoding Political Science and Law School, open-minded, proficient in arithmetic, geography and physics, is a descendant of the Ming Dynasty thinker Gu Xiancheng, but unfortunately died young due to scarlet fever at the age of 35.
His mother, Wang Jingsu, is a descendant of the "sage of books" Wang Xizhi, who is benevolent and diligent in governing the family. After the death of her husband, she took on the responsibility of educating her children on her own. Five of the six sons and one daughter became doctors, and in Wuxi there is a good story of "five doctors in one family, Yuxiu is called the leader".
Gu Yuxiu was brilliant since childhood, entered a private school at the age of five, was admitted to the earliest new-style school in China at the age of 6 with the first place in China, and was admitted to Tsinghua School (TSINGHUA College period) at the age of thirteen.
In 1923, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering. During his study abroad, he had dinner in the research room every day and returned to his apartment at 3 o'clock in the evening. In just four and a half years, he received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, becoming the first Chinese scholar to receive a doctorate in science from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In February 1926, at the age of 24, he published the general solution of quadratic equationsAt the age of 26, he was awarded the "Lamb" Gold Medal for his research "Gu's variable", which is known as the "Nobel" Prize in the field of electrical machinery and electronics.
Proper man of science!But if you think this is the ceiling, you are very wrong.
During his studies, he studied science, but he didn't do a serious job in his spare time. Look what he's up to
From the age of 18 to 19, he translated 14 short stories and plays, including Maupassant's "Fat and Thin" and Tagore's "Victory".
Before the age of 20, he wrote the fourth novella in the history of the New Culture Movement after Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q", and published the earliest four-act drama "Lonely Hong" in the history of modern Chinese drama.
It was under such circumstances that he not only successfully graduated from the electrical engineering major, but also became a member of the "Gengzi Indemnity" international students!
Moreover, while studying abroad, he was intensively engaged in scientific research, and at the same time, he also adapted "The Pipa Story" into a drama and performed it in Boston, which was a sensation.
And it doesn't stop there!
The manuscript of the old poem left in Jinyun Mountain in May 1944.
In literature, although he began to compose poems at the age of 40, he composed more than 7,000 lyrics, songs and songs (second only to Lu You in number), and published as many as 34 poetry and song collections. In 1976, he was awarded the title of "International Poet Laureate" by the World Congress of Poets
In the field, he is the first dean of the National Academy of Tsinghua University (the predecessor of the college) and the first director of the National Symphony Orchestra, and has become the first person to translate "Ode to Joy" in China with his literary and translation foundationsHe also formulated the standard tone of Huang Zhong, and deeply cultivated the classics, published a number of classical works, and was known as the Chinese classical master by the Japanese world
In drama, he wrote a total of 12 plays, most of which were performed in various places, and was the founder of Shanghai Experimental Drama School (the predecessor of Shanghai Theater Academy).
In Buddhism, he traveled all over the famous mountain monasteries, had contacts with many famous monks, published monographs such as "Zen Master Inheritance" and "Japanese Zen Master Inheritance", and in 1979 published in English version of "Zen History" shocked the Chinese and foreign Buddhist circles and was respected as a masterpiece;
Gu Yuxiu is also obsessed with education. He founded three top universities and continued to teach even in key positions. Bao Xinian, a student, recalled: "Teacher Gu did not bring handouts or textbooks to class, and his pronunciation was very low during the lecture, as if telling a story, which made it easy for students to understand and digest. Sometimes, when he encountered a three-digit multiplier on the blackboard, he didn't need to pull the slide rule, but just used chalk to click a few times on the blackboard, and immediately wrote out the product number. ”
While teaching, he has written articles such as "Engineering Education and China", "Current Issues in Teacher Education", "University Education and China's Future", etc., combining the experience of developed countries and the actual situation in China. Between 1926 and 1961, he published more than 60 scholarly papers.
What is even more admirable is that Mr. Gu always has the disaster-stricken motherland in his heart. During the May Fourth Movement, Gu Yuxiu led Tsinghua students to demonstrate on the streets.
In order to train more engineers for the country, Gu Yuxiu, who returned from his studies, founded China's first aeronautical research institute, and since 1929 has been a professor and head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Zhejiang University.
He said: "We want to resist foreign aggression, we want guns, ammunition, planes, transportation, and food, all of which depend on the ability of engineers." ”
That's what he said, and that's what he did.
On January 28, 1932, when the Songhu War broke out, he personally led his students to Nanjing Railway Station to see off the 19th Route ArmyIn 1933, entrusted by Zhang Xueliang, he led the teachers and students of Tsinghua University to provide 8,000 gas masks for the North China Branch of BeipingIn 1936, he made 10,000 gas masks for the famous general Fu Zuoyi.
He also eulogized the great national heroes through various forms, and successively created four costume dramas, "Yue Fei", "Xiang Yu", "Jing Ke" and "Su Wu", which attracted many readers full of patriotic enthusiasm.
At the end of 1935, the Japanese army instigated North China to declare "autonomy". Gu Yuxiu and Ye Qisun jointly undertook the difficult task of secretly transferring some important books and scientific instruments of Tsinghua University to Hankow, so that they could be easily transported to the new site in the future.
On February 29, 1936, Song Zheyuan sent 3,000 troops to surround Tsinghua Garden to suppress *** Gu Yuxiu, who learned the news, rode a bicycle from the residence of Principal Mei Yiqi to the gate, and contacted the leading officer to ask for the withdrawal of troops, but was stopped and even beaten by the military police on the way.
On January 1, 1938, Gu Yuxiu became the political secretary of the Ministry of Education, and from April 1939, he also served as the chairman of the Wartime Education Committee, serving for six years, making outstanding historical contributions to the vigorous development of China's education during the war.
In August 1944, Gu Yuxiu succeeded Chiang Kai-shek as the president of the National ** University, and Gu Yuxiu, as the president, was still responsible for the teaching of two courses: electrical analysis and electrical mathematics. In 1945, he attended the surrender ceremony of Japan as a member of the Senate.
In 1949, under political pressure, Gu Yuxiu was ordered to leave the mainland. In 1950, Gu Yuxiu went to the United States to conduct full-time scientific research and returned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting full professor and a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Although abroad, Gu Yuxiu has always paid close attention to Sino-US relations and the reunification of the motherland. Since 1973, he has returned to China eight times to visit and give lectures, and has been cordially met by Zhu Rongji and other party and state leaders. His second son, Gu Weiqing, said: "My father's only regret in his life was that he could not see the peaceful reunification of China. ”
Although famous all over the world, Gu Yuxiu is extremely self-disciplined materially, and even thrifty to the point of almost poverty. After retiring from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972, he and his wife lived on social security, but as long as they had a little savings, he used them to set up scholarships at universities at home and abroad.
The couple has set up scholarships at Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nanjing University, Southeast University, Jiaotong University, Shenyang Agricultural University and other institutions of higher learning to encourage young students to strive for the future of the country and develop in an all-round way.
It should be added that Mr. Gu is still a spoiled wife. The cover of each of his books is inscribed by his wife, Wang Wanjing, and on the title page of each book he writes "To My Beloved." He and his wife Wang Wanqing knew each other from 1929 to 2002, and they were truly a couple for life.
On September 9, 2002, 100-year-old Gu Yuxiu died in the United States, and his wife Wang Wanjing passed away in 2006.
In people's eyes, Gu Yuxiu is a perfect man. But such a god-like all-rounder is rarely seen in major textbooks. His evaluation of himself is also extremely modest: scholar, professor, poet, breeze, bright moon, and Jinsong.
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