101-year-old Yang Zhenning's monthly salary is amazing! Why? When he is old, he returns to China to support his retirement, but he dedicates his youth to other countries.
Yang Zhenning, this name, I believe many people are familiar with it. He is a giant of contemporary physics, who once cooperated with Tsung-Dao Lee to put forward the Yang-Lee theory, broke the common sense of physics, made significant contributions to mankind's exploration of the mysteries of the natural world, and won numerous honors such as the Nobel Prize in Physics. Such a great scientist has also been criticized a lot. Some people say that he is a "thief", some people say that he is "an old cow eats tender grass", and some people say that he is an "unfilial son". Are these accusations justified? Let's take a look at Yang Zhenning's life and see what kind of person he is.
Yang Zhenning was born into a mathematical family, his father Yang Wuzhi was a famous mathematician, who was the head of the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, and cultivated many outstanding talents. Yang Zhenning has shown outstanding wisdom and love for mathematics since he was a child, and he was able to independently solve the problems of advanced mathematics in middle school, and was known as a "child prodigy". In 1937, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Yang Zhenning fled Nanjing with his father, came to the Northwest, and was admitted to the Department of Physics of Northwest Associated University. There, he received a systematic education in physics and met many like-minded classmates and teachers, including Lee Tsung-do, who later became his collaborator and friend.
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Yang Zhenning received a scholarship from the National Academy of Sciences and went to the University of Chicago for further study. On the way to the United States, he met his old acquaintance Du Zhili in Shanghai, and the two fell in love at first sight and got married soon after. A beautiful and intelligent woman, Du Zhili is also a physicist who was once a classmate and teaching assistant of Yang Zhenning. The two are happily married, have four children, study physics together, support each other, and love each other.
In the United States, Yang Zhenning's scientific research career has achieved rapid development. He successively taught at the University of Chicago, Princeton University, California Institute of Technology and other prestigious universities, and cooperated with Tsung-Dao Lee and others to put forward the Yang-Lee theory, that is, the theory of non-conservation of universal symmetry, which subverted the understanding of elementary particles in the physics community and caused a sensation. In 1957, the Yang-Lee theory was experimentally confirmed, and Yang Chenning and Lee Tsung-Dao won the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first Chinese Nobel laureates. Later, Yang Zhenning proposed the Yang-Mills theory, that is, gauge field theory, which laid the foundation for the later establishment of the electroweak unified theory and quantum chromodynamics, and is considered one of the most important physical theories of the 20th century.
Although Yang Zhenning has made great achievements in the United States, his feelings for the motherland have never changed. He has always paid close attention to China's scientific and technological development and hopes to contribute to the construction of the motherland. His father, Yang Wuzhi, also urged him to return to China many times to serve, but Yang Zhenning could only stay in the United States temporarily in order to take care of the safety and interests of his wife and children, which made his father very disappointed, and even broke with him and no longer corresponded with him. Yang Zhenning was very sad about this, but he did not give up his love for the motherland. He visited China many times and cooperated with Chinese physicists, which led to the upsurge of many scholars returning from the United States to work. He also raised billions of dollars for Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other colleges, introduced advanced instruments and talents, and made great contributions to China's physics cause.
Yang Zhenning's later years were not peaceful. In 1982, his wife, Du Zhili, died of cancer, which was a heavy blow to him. In his grief, he found a new partner, that is, his student Weng Fan. Weng Fan is a young and beautiful woman, she met Yang Zhenning in 1983, when she was Yang Zhenning's doctoral student, and the two developed feelings in study and life. In 1986, Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan got married, and the age difference between the two was 54 years, which caused an uproar in the outside world. Many people accuse Yang Zhenning of being an "old cow eating tender grass", a "teacher-student relationship", and "disregarding the morality of family and society". Yang Zhenning and Weng Fan don't care about this, they think that their marriage is true love, legal, and happy. They have been with each other and supported each other until now.
Yang Zhenning's life is full of legends and controversies. He was a great scientist and a man of affection and righteousness. His affection for the motherland has never wavered, and he has made indelible contributions to China's scientific and technological undertakings. His feelings for his family and country have been unanimously praised by scholars and witnesses. His love, although unreasonable, is also sincere. His life is worthy of our respect. We should respect his choices, tolerate his private life, and not be overly harsh on his mistakes. He's a man and a legend.