Chapter 26 The flower planter drips sweat among the flowers①

--Journal of Popular Science Writer Zhou Guoxing Zhou Wenbin ① Originally contained in "The Theft That Shocked the World", Henan Science and Technology Press, 1982 edition. If scientific research results are compared to a seed, then the masses are the fertile soil for the seed to germinate and grow; if science popularization is compared to beautiful flowers, then science popularization workers are hardworking gardeners in the flower garden. In recent years, Zhou Guoxing's works have won people's attention and admiration for their simple style, profound content and rich flavor of life in the field of popular science in my country where flowers are blooming.As soon as his "How Do People Know Their Own Origin" was published, the Century Publishing House in Paris, France, immediately translated it and introduced it to French readers, thinking that it was a book that systematically clarified the origin of human beings from the perspective of Marxism. Excellent book on the history of origin studies.Then, it was translated into Uighur and Korean texts in China, which further expanded the scope of influence of this book.At the same time, Yunnan People's Publishing House published his "Story of the Origin of Human Beings". This book, with its popular and vivid content, publicized the world view of dialectical materialism, played a role in popularizing scientific knowledge and breaking religious superstition among the masses. had a better effect. In 1979, after his science sketch collection "Wolf Boy Snowman Fire Fossil" was published in Tianjin, it was well received by the popular science community and became an award-winning work in Tianjin.

"A flower appreciator only knows that the flowers are beautiful, but a flower grower drips sweat among the flowers." On the road of popular science creation, Zhou Guoxing has gone through a difficult journey.From the sowing of seeds to the cultivation of the field, from seedling cultivation and soil cultivation to fertilization and watering, all of them are permeated with the painstaking efforts and sweat of the gardeners. In 1937, Zhou Guoxing was born in an ordinary family in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province.Nantong is an elegant and beautiful city on the banks of the Yangtze River.The majestic river and the beautiful scenery of Langshan endow this river city with a magnificent and beautiful color.Nantong is another city rich in cultural traditions.The earliest natural museum in my country, Nantong Museum, is located in its urban area.Zhou Guoxing, who grew up in such an environment, has developed a passion for nature, science, and life since he was a child.When he was still a child, he often climbed the trails of Langshan Mountain with his little friends, catching butterflies and insects, collecting mountain flowers and wild fruits, listening to birds singing; or wandering on the banks of the Yangtze River , picking up shellfish of different shapes, watching Jiang Tao rolling eastward, admiring the ever-changing floating clouds...

After entering elementary school, the deserted museum became a frequent playground for him and his friends.They chased through the weeds, crawled on huge whale bones, and played various games. "The whale is so big, how big is the ocean it lives in!" Once, a little friend named Le Dechang sat on the whale bone and said with emotion. "It's a pity we haven't seen the sea!" Zhou Guoxing resonated.He yearned for the sea, just like yearning for a mythical world. A few years later, during a summer vacation, he finally invited a few young friends and walked more than 100 kilometers to the seaside of Lu Si.A veil that the natural world has hung over the mind is lifted.They were cheering, jumping for joy, rolling on the soft sand, letting the waves of the sea and the bright sunshine bathe their bodies and minds...

In this way, a seed of science silently fell into Zhou Guoxing's childish mind, and once the right time came, it would grow vigorously.This opportunity came when he was in high school.Once, he happened to read a book about Chinese ape-man by Professor Pei Wenzhong.This book aroused his desire to explore the origin of human beings.When he graduated from high school, he filled in the anthropology major in the Biology Department of Fudan University in the admission form. A dazzling palace of science finally appeared in front of the young man.Human beings evolved from animals and are the most complex and amazing of nature's creations.Human beings have both animal instincts and human sociality beyond animals.Therefore, anthropology has become an interdisciplinary subject of natural science and social science. It not only needs to grasp the law of human development and evolution from the perspective of physical form, but also studies the emergence and progress of human society from practical activities.To adapt to this requirement, Zhou Guoxing not only carefully studied the contents of the textbooks, but also extensively read many extracurricular books, such as books on geology, psychology, philosophy, sociology, archaeology, and even forensic science and literature, all of which made him develop strong interest.This knowledge seems to add a wide-angle lens to the lens of anthropology, through which he saw a broader scientific picture.

This learning method was reflected in his later work, which enabled him to break through the boundaries of disciplines and make achievements in more fields. After graduating from university in 1962, he was assigned to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.His main research topic is "ape man", and the focus is on the transformation stage from ancient ape to "ape man".This is a critical period of human evolution and the formation of human characteristics, which contains rich scientific content and profound philosophical principles.Zhou Guoxing galloped freely in this field and achieved research results one after another.

In 1965, Chinese scientific workers discovered two fossilized teeth of ancient humans in Yuanmou, Yunnan. There was a heated debate in the academic circles about whether it was the tooth of Homo erectus and whether it was the earliest representative of ancient humans in China. .Zhou Guoxing, who participated in the excavation of the origin of Yuanmou Homo fossils and carefully studied the human fossils, came to the conclusion: Yuanmou Man is the earliest man, an early representative of the Homo erectus stage, and its age may even exceed 1 million years. The possibility of fire.Now, except for the dispute over the use of fire, all his basic points have been confirmed.When his paper "Research on Yuanmou Man's Tooth Fossils" was published in "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology" in 1979, it quickly attracted the attention of the historians and archaeologists. One of the new achievements of archaeology this year was included in the "Chinese History Yearbook" and "China Encyclopedia Yearbook".

In the 1930s, when American-Jewish scientist Wei Dunrui was studying a chimpanzee skull in my country, two false incisors on the fossil escaped the eyes of the paleontologist.After this mistake lasted for nearly half a century, it was actually pointed out by Zhou Guoxing. In 1976, on the eve of commemorating the 100th anniversary of Engels's "The Role of Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man", Zhou Guoxing published as many as five papers on natural philosophy, which were published in "Wen Shi Zhe" and "Ancient History" Two papers in the Journal of Vertebrate and Paleoanthropology have attracted widespread attention from the academic community.

It seems that the field of anthropology does have a lot to offer.However, anthropology is not a straight pole, but a big tree with luxuriant branches.When Zhou Guoxing harvested the fruits of scientific research from this tree, he had to climb between the branches.He successively discovered the Lingjing Microlithic Site in Henan and the Yuanmou Basin in Yunnan, which filled the gaps in the study of microlithic tools in the south of the Yellow River and Yunnan.However, this work is beyond the scope of physical anthropology, and some people think that he stole the "forbidden fruit" in people's homes.To be polite, say that he is "too complicated", and to be rude, simply say that his "hands are too long".To this, Zhou Guoxing always replied with a smile: "Miscellaneous and specialized are two aspects of a contradiction. Scientists must not only observe the complicated objective world through the eye of a needle!" He admired Darwin's breadth and depth, and Always regard him as a role model in his scientific research work.In fact, as a giant in the history of science, Darwin's enlightenment to people in terms of scientific methodology is not inferior to his scientific research results at all.His great theory of biological evolution was established on the basis of extensive investigation and research and mastery of a large amount of data.

In 1971, Zhou Guoxing went to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum to organize the exhibition "Labor Creates Man", which further deepened his understanding.That exhibition not only summarized the origin and development of human beings, but also involved the emergence and evolution of life.This long historical process is so intricate that it is impossible to express it in a simple pattern.If the scope of knowledge is too narrow to integrate multidisciplinary research results, it is bound to fail to complete this exhibition task.At this time, the long-term accumulation of knowledge helped him, and the hundreds of cards of Marxism-Leninism on anthropology collected during the "Cultural Revolution" provided him with a main line of thought.The exhibition was held in a simple way and had a good influence on the audience.

The success of the exhibition gave Zhou Guoxing a new idea: how to popularize the knowledge of anthropology among the masses?It was this idea that led him to the path of popular science creation.He decided to write a book.While making a comprehensive summary of the exhibition "Labor Creates Man", he quickly drew up a writing plan for the book "How Man Knows His Own Origin". Getting started is tough, and it takes perseverance to keep going.For a scientist, creating a popular science work may not be easier than writing an academic paper.Zhou Guoxing felt that the pen was extremely heavy.Like an athlete climbing in a high-altitude area, he advances with three steps and three breaths, spending all his spare time on pages of manuscripts.Two springs and autumns have passed, and there are only more than 60,000 words of the first draft accumulated on the desk.

At this time, it happened that the magazine "Fossil" was launched.The first chapter of the manuscript was published in this journal.With the help of Comrade Liu Houyi, the person in charge of "Fossil" magazine and popular science writer, all the manuscripts were recommended to China Youth Publishing House. "This book is very meaningful, but the content is not substantial enough. It should be expanded more." Comrade Wang Youyu, a senior editor of China Youth Publishing House, made a suggestion after reading the manuscript with only more than 60,000 words. Zhou Guoxing accepted this suggestion.Soon, he brought the manuscripts and materials to the excavation site of the Yuanmou Man Site, where he was revising and supplementing the manuscripts in addition to intense field work. When someone asked him to write a book on this topic for the frontier ethnic minorities in Yunnan, he readily accepted.In his view, this is an inescapable responsibility.Therefore, while supplementing and revising "How Man Knows His Own Origin", he added a new task to himself: based on the business summary of Zhejiang Exhibition, he wrote a book "The Story of Human Origin". Just as he was full of hope and confidence towards his goal, an unexpected disaster suddenly happened to him.It was December 1973. During an investigation in the Yuanmou Basin, he fell while moving a large stone anvil and sprained his lumbar spine.After returning to Beijing, the injury appeared to be more and more serious.The protruding intervertebral disc was pressing on the nerves, like a sharp knife piercing his waist. The unbearable pain made him lose the ability to stand up. He was lying on the hospital bed, many unresolvable thoughts, like a windmill, endlessly turning in circles in his mind: Is he really paralyzed?Is the anthropological research work that I love so much, is it over?Did the pen of science popularization that I just picked up just stop waving?No, none of this is possible and should never be possible!But where is the hope and where is the way out?He stared at the gradually thicker spring scenery outside the window, and his eye sockets often became moist. When summer came, the Institute sent him to Qingdao to recuperate.Comrades from Yunnan People's Publishing House also specially sent him precious medicinal materials such as Baiyao and Panax notoginseng.After a period of treatment, the condition is still not relieved.Later, the nursing home implemented a near-torture treatment for him: the patient was tied on a traction bed, his body was stretched by 8 centimeters, and the herniated intervertebral disc was beaten hard with a rubber hammer without any analgesic measures.The weight of each hammer and the pain caused to the patient can only be experienced by the tortured on the tiger bench.Beads of sweat dripped from Zhou Guoxing's head, and his muscles twitched involuntarily.But he gritted his teeth and endured without a word. After beating more than a dozen hammers, Zhou Guoxing was so painful that he almost lost consciousness.But when the treatment was over, his paralyzed body was still unable to move at all.It was later found on X-rays that his vertebrae had been knocked over the head and protruded to the ventral side. A shadow hung over all his thoughts! The doctor came to his bed and explained to him in as gentle a tone as possible: "We have repeatedly analyzed your condition, and it seems that there is only the last way to go: to perform an operation as soon as possible. This may become a third-degree disability, but It's better than what's happening now." "No!" Zhou Guoxing tried his best to sit up from the bed, but he just felt a burst of pain in vain.He had no choice but to lie on the spot and express his inner passion: "Doctor, you know, I am a scientific worker, and I need to climb mountains, swing my head, look for fossils, and collect specimens, which is beyond what a disabled person can do." thing!" The doctor pondered, and slowly flipped through the medical records in his hand: "Six years ago, you suffered from hypercalciuria. This is an extremely rare and difficult case. Its direct consequence is easy to cause comminuted fractures. Even if There is nothing wrong with the lumbar spine, and field work is not suitable for you." "No," Zhou Guoxing argued, "comminuted fractures are just a hypothetical consequence, but loss of freedom of movement is reality! Hypothesis can be avoided, changing reality is the most urgent task!" The doctor was persuaded by the patient--or rather, she was helpless in the presence of this stubborn young man.A few days later, she invited some workers who knew martial arts and asked them if they had any treatment options. After touching Zhou Guoxing's waist, the martial artists nodded: "It seems that there is still hope." However, they then shook their heads: "However, we cannot treat intellectuals because they I can't stand the pain." Zhou Guoxing is like a drowning man seeing a rescue ship.He took the martial artist's hand and begged: "Comrade, you can treat it with confidence and courage, I can withstand no matter how much pain you suffer!" In this way, the new treatment plan began to be implemented under the close cooperation of the martial artist and the patient.After more than a week, Zhou Guoxing was able to sit up and stand up.Then, he was able to walk downstairs again.So, leaning on crutches, he began to exercise his leg strength along the hillside. He regained the condition to write.At first, he was lying on the bed revising the manuscript, and later, he was able to sit and work.He used day and night efforts to recover the lost time, and practiced his ideals and wishes with will and perseverance. In October, when he returned to Beijing from Qingdao, the completed "The Story of the Origin of Human Beings" had already been put into the mailbox and sent to Yunnan People's Publishing House.The revised draft of another 200,000-word "How Man Knows His Own Origin" was also sent to the editors of China Youth Publishing House. He finally continued to muster his wings to fly towards his ideal goal! In the second half of 1975, he spent more than 4 months traveling to more than 20 ancient human sites in Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces, with a journey of more than 10,000 kilometers , together with the photographer to collect materials and take photos for the "Chinese Ancient Human Album". In 1976, during the so-called "counter-revolutionary trend of right-leaning overturning verdicts", Zhou Guoxing actually put on a political hat for "opposing the working class to the superstructure stage" because of his popular science articles, and was deprived of the right to publish popular science works .But he did not give in.With the support of his comrades, he finally withstood the pressure and continued to promote the truth of science. In 1977, when the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized an investigation of "savages" in the mountainous areas of western Hubei, Zhou Guoxing was active in the mountains of Shennongjia again. Ten years have passed.Looking back on the past, Zhou Guoxing felt fulfilled and gratified.The flowing years have brought him more than a dozen scientific papers and 700,000 to 800,000 words of popular science works; his enthusiasm like a wave has made him take a decisive step on the road of scientific research and popularization of science. Today, the land of the motherland is resounding with a triumphant song of revitalizing China, and people's thirst for science is burning like a raging fire.The spring is thick and the flowers are bright; the road is long and the ambition is strong.Zhou Guoxing, in the future journey, what kind of flowers will you present to our motherland and people?