Chapter 41 Section 2 Disagreement in Majors

The same enemy Chen Mengjia drifted away with his beautiful wife Zhao Luorui, but Wen Yiduo stayed behind and began to transform from a pure liberal intellectual to a "fighter". The Wen family brothers lived in the Yao family compound for about half a year. Because Kunming Xiaoximen, Panjiawan and other places were bombed by Japanese planes, Wen Jiasi was hit by bricks and injured in the face during the bombing. Unsafe, began to relocate to the suburbs and countryside.Not long after, Wen Jiasi moved to No. 13 Jiexiao Lane, Xiaodongmen, which is the side yard of Zhou Zhongyue's mansion in Kunming.Wen Yiduo evacuated to Jinning with his family, and moved back to Kunming a year later to live in Wen Jiasi's home. In October 1940, the scale of bombing by Japanese planes intensified, and the Wen brothers moved again. Wen Yiduo moved to Chenjiaying Village, Da Phuket in the suburbs, and rented a side house in the Yang family's courtyard.The many so-called "battalions" in the suburbs of Kunming were all composed of barracks guarding Kunming in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. With the change of history, the barracks were withdrawn and gradually evolved into villages. Chenjiaying is one example.

The side house that Wen Yiduo rents is made of adobe. It was originally used by the landlord to store bacon and firewood. The room is very simple and has no real windows. It is only on the side of the yard, with a small hole dug in half of the adobe wall. , some uneven firewood sticks support it, it is unclear whether it is a window or a shed.The yard is small and there is only a damp patio. Before the sun sets, the small earthen house is shrouded in blackness, and people feel extremely oppressed and aggrieved in the house.Even in such a dark space, it is rare for the Wen family to have it all to themselves.At the beginning of the following year, Hua Luogeng, a professor of the Mathematics Department of Lianhe University, was suddenly bombed by an enemy plane at Kunhua Agricultural School. Fahrenheit almost died. In a panic, the family of six wandered around the city for a day without finding a place to stay. When they were desperate, After Wen Yiduo heard the news, he made a special trip to invite Hua Shi and his family to live in his residence temporarily.Therefore, a total of 14 people from the two families (6 from the Hua family) lived in a small black room of about 16 square meters separated by a curtain, and the crowding was unbearable.Back then, Wen Yiduo lived in a single courtyard in Tsinghua Garden with 14 houses, complete with all kinds of facilities. The courtyard was lined with trees, lush flowers and trees, the air flowed freely, and the occupants felt refreshed.At this time and at that time, the two comparisons are completely different.What the world admires is that in such a simple and cramped environment, Wen and Hua still kept on writing, and with amazing perseverance, they achieved fruitful results in their respective fields.Wen Yiduo completed the sensational and famous monograph on mythology "Fu Xi Kao", and Hua Luogeng completed the immortal work "Theory of Heaping Prime Numbers", which is well-known in the world of mathematics.

Quite different from the Tsinghua-US-Tsinghua Trinity experience experienced by most Tsinghua professors such as Wen Yiduo, Fahrenheit belongs to a typical figure who dropped out of school and became a self-taught young man. Hua Luogeng was born in Jintan County, Jiangsu Province in 1910. His father supported a large family by opening a grocery store, and his life was difficult.Like most teenagers with special talents, Hua Luogeng loved to use his brain when he was young, and was often dubbed "Luo idiot" by his peers because he was too focused on thinking about problems.After entering Jintan County Junior High School, Luo's mathematical talent was discovered by his teacher Wang Weike, who was also talented in mathematics, and he devoted himself to cultivating it.After graduating from junior high school, Hua Luogeng attended Shanghai Zhonghua Vocational School, but dropped out of school because he could not pay the tuition fees, so he only had a junior high school diploma in his life.After dropping out of school, because of his obsession with mathematics, Hua Luogeng began to study by himself at home, more than 10 hours a day, and completed all mathematics courses in high school and junior college in 5 years. In 1928, Fahrenheit unfortunately contracted typhoid fever. With the care of his new wife, he was able to save his life, but his left leg became disabled.For the sake of the family, Hua Luogeng was introduced to work as an accountant in Jintan Middle School, and he still did not forget to study mathematics in his spare time.At that time, there were two journals with great influence in the world. One was initiated by students studying in Japan Chen Qixiu, Wang Zhaorong, Wu Yongquan, Zhou Changshou, Fu Shishuo, Zheng Zhenwen, etc. in 1916, and was established in Tokyo, Japan. Established a comprehensive Chinese academic journal "Xueyi" (moved to Shanghai in 1920); the first was established by the American students Ren Hongjun, Zhao Yuanren, Bingzhi, Hu Mingfu, Zhou Ren, etc., the location of Cornell University - Yisejia Township in the United States The "Science" magazine run by the Chinese Science Society (the first issue was issued in Shanghai in 1915).When Hua Luogeng was an accountant at Jintan Middle School, he used the money he saved to subscribe to these two publications in order to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of mathematics. In 1926, the 10th issue of volume 7 of "Xueyi" published the paper "Solutions of Algebraic Quintic Equations" by mathematician Su Jiaju.This math problem was proved to be unsolvable by the young Norwegian mathematician Abel as early as 1816. The Soviet-style solution contradicted Abel’s theory, and there must be crux.At that time, Xiong Qinglai, the director of the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University, had already seen the flaw, but he was unable to write an article to refute it in time due to the entanglement of affairs.Hua Luogeng, who was only 19 years old, realized that Su Jiaju's solution was unreliable when he was reading a magazine. After checking and calculating, he was convinced of his own judgment, so he wrote to "Xueyi" magazine to point out Su Wen's mistake. "Xueyi" published a brief statement in Volume 9, No. 7, published in May 1929:

...The first half is consistent with the theory, but from the fifteenth line on the third page "If P3 is written as a binomial...", the meaning of the following is ambiguous, and it is obviously contradictory to the next paragraph on the next page. To check this question, NHAbel (NHAbel) He proved that it cannot be solved algebraically.Hastily went to press, without time for detailed scrutiny.Jin Chenghua Luo Gengjun sent a letter to question, thank you very much, hereby declare. In December 1930, Hua Luogeng's article "The Reasons Why Su Jiaju's Algebraic Quintic Equation Cannot Be Established" was published in "Science" Volume 15, Issue 2. This article quickly fell into the eyes of Xiong Qinglai. Xiong was shocked and told his colleagues May I ask which university Hua Luogeng is a professor?Nobody knows.It happened that Tang Peijing, a teacher in the Mathematics Department of Tsinghua University, was from Jintan. He knew a little about Hua Luogeng’s situation. A young dropout with only a junior high school education.When Xiong Qinglai learned of this situation, he felt pity for Hua Luogeng's experience and outstanding talent, so he discussed with his colleague Yang Wuzhi and other professors to transfer Hua Luogeng to Tsinghua University for cultivation.With the approval of Ye Qisun, the dean of the Tsinghua School of Science at the time, Xiong Qinglai, who was eager for talent, felt that writing letters was too slow, so he asked Tang Peijing to send a telegram to Hua Luogeng, briefly explaining the reasons and asking him to send a photo to Tang quickly, and at the same time agreed to go north. The time and number of trains for pick-up. In August 1931, Tang Peijing rushed to Qianmen Railway Station to pick up Hua Luogeng with a photo according to the agreed time. After waiting for a long time, there was no sign of Hua. Walking out staggeringly, Tang Pei looked at the photos and found that the young man whose left leg kept drawing circles on the ground was the one he was going to pick up. He couldn't help being surprised.After Hua Luogeng arrived at Tsinghua University, he was warmly received by Xiong Qinglai. Although Hua's legs were disabled, he was clear-headed, quick-witted, and able to answer questions. In the future, he will become a rising scientific star."Under the care of professors such as Xiong Shi and Ye Qisun, Hua Luogeng was allowed to stay in Tsinghua University as an assistant in the Department of Mathematics, managing the distribution of letters, typing, and keeping books and materials, with a monthly salary of 40 yuan.Faced with the kindness of the seniors, Fahrenheit was grateful, knowing how to go on and create a new situation as much as possible.Since then, Hua Luogeng has studied while working, and completed all the courses of the university's mathematics department in just one year. At the same time, he taught himself English, French, and German to prepare for expanding a larger academic area.

After Hua published three papers in first-class foreign academic journals, professors Xiong Qinglai, Yang Wuzhi and others asked Ye Qisun, dean of the Faculty of Science, to hire Hua as a teaching assistant in the Department of Computing. In the fourth year, he was promoted to a lecturer and began to teach calculus to first-year students. In 1936, Hua Luogeng received a US$1,200 Type B grant from the Chinese Literature Education Foundation to study in Cambridge, England. In two years, he published more than ten papers, which attracted the attention and admiration of the international mathematics community, and a new scientific star rose. In 1938, 28-year-old Hua Luogeng left Britain and went straight to Kunming, where he became a professor in the Department of Mathematics of Southwest Associated University.Because Hua Luogeng's life path is quite legendary, and he has a good reputation in the academic circle, some people from the Liaison University who only heard his name but didn't know him asked each other: "Who is Hua Luogeng?" What does it mean?One day, Fahrenheit came to class from the playground of the United Nations University, so some classmates pointed to Hua and said, "That's the cripple."

Because of this unique image, Fahrenheit was quickly recognized by all the teachers and students in the school, but everyone thought that the student who yelled "Cripple" was a bit reckless and arrogant, so everyone rallied to attack him. , severely taught that ignorant mad student a lesson.However, according to He Zhaowu, a student of the United Nations University, later said: "Hua Luogeng limped very badly at that time. After the Anti-Japanese War, he went to teach at the University of Illinois (Illinois). The legs are always drawing circles there." Despite being disabled, living a difficult life, and often being bombed by enemy planes, such as the air raids in the summer and autumn of 1940, Fahrenheit almost died when he fled to the narrow valley where the bombs lifted him and was buried in the soil by the bombs.However, Hua Luogeng was always smiling and full of energy during his days in Kunming. The character and life attitude of the whole character are quite similar to the typical revolutionary characters who combined heroism and romanticism described in revolutionary novels in the first half of the 20th century. This can be seen from the memories of Zhao Ruihong, a student of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of the United Nations University. Zhao said: "In the autumn of 1939, one morning, I was reading quietly in a classroom on the second floor of the agricultural school rented by the United Nations University. I opened the door and came in. I saw Mr. Hua Luogeng, a professor of the Department of Mathematics, and several young teaching assistants and students. I recognized Xu Xianxiu and Zhong Kailai. These two seniors later became professors at American universities and became famous scholars and experts ( Southern press: Xu later served as the president of Tsinghua University in Taiwan). They sat down on a few chairs in front of the blackboard, picked up chalk and calculated on the blackboard, and wrote many equations that I could not understand. While writing, I shouted, "Look, isn't it like this?..." I saw Xu Xianxiu (a Wenzhou fellow who graduated from the Department of Computing at Tsinghua University and stayed in the school as a teaching assistant, and taught differential equations and other courses at that time) stood up and shouted: "You are wrong!" Listen to me!...' He went up to talk and quickly wrote calculations on the blackboard. Afterwards, Mr. Hua limped over on crutches and said, 'Everyone, this can't work, it's not like this!...' Later they became louder and louder. I watched it very interesting. Of course I didn’t understand what they were arguing about. Finally, after arguing for about half an hour, I heard Mr. Hua say, “It’s almost twelve o’clock. Let’s go. I’m hungry. Let’s go first.” Let’s eat something, let’s go together, I’ll treat you!…” It is with such an optimistic and open-minded spirit, as well as a positive, enterprising, resolute and strong school spirit, that there are so many people who have lost their lives, especially those who have never regretted it. Only the heroes who search will announce the arrival of a great era with brilliant achievements.Hua Luogeng's "Theory of Heaping Prime Numbers", a monumental masterpiece in the field of mathematics, which Hua Luogeng completed in a half-black room in Chenjiaying, is the result of the beautiful style of study of this great era, the independent spirit of intellectuals, and the freedom of thought. Rich fruit.

In the argumentation of this great work, Hua Luogeng improved and simplified the method of the world-class mathematician Vinogradov of the Soviet Union, and showed the world Fahrenheit's "trigonometric and estimation problems of prime number variables" and its Superhuman talent on the Waring-Goldbach problem.After the manuscript was completed, Hua Luogeng sent it to Chongqing for review by first-class mathematicians organized by the Ministry of Education.When He Lu, an outstanding mathematician of the older generation, braved the scorching heat and sweated in a small building to review, he hit the case several times.Later, the Chinese mathematics circles gave high praise to Fahrenheit's monograph, and this work won the first prize (only one) in the natural science category of the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist Government in 1941 (the first session). Hua Luogeng thus became China's " Father of Number Theory".In the same year, Fahrenheit sent the manuscript to Vinogradov of the Soviet Union for personal review, and the other party replied with a high degree of surprise: "We have received your excellent monograph, and it will be printed immediately after the war is over." In 1947, the Soviet Academy of Sciences Fahrenheit's works were published in the sequence of the No. 22 monograph of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, which shocked the entire world of mathematics. The Museum of Science and Technology in Chicago, USA specially dedicated a statue to Hua Luogeng, and was listed as one of the 88 great figures in mathematics in the world.Xiong Qinglai's prophecy finally became a reality, and Hua Luogeng suddenly emerged, becoming a dazzling star in the field of mathematics in the world.

Fahrenheit, who became a star, did not stop there, and started research on matrix geometry and other aspects, and moved towards a broader and far-reaching field.Many years later, when Hua Luogeng recalled the past when he lived in the same room as Wen's family in Chenjiaying, Kunming and both achieved brilliant results, he couldn't help sighing. He once wrote a poem to express the unyielding spirit of the two professors in the midst of hardships. and deep friendship.It's not just that the two families share the ups and downs. Bu Dong is archeological and Bu Xi calculates, and the majors are not the same.

In the summer of 1941, Wen Yiduo left Chenjiaying with his family and moved to a ruined temple in Maodi Village for a while.In autumn, he moved to live in a small village called Sijiaying in the northern suburbs of Kunming. This was the place where the Wen family had lived the longest in Kunming. It took almost three years, and it was also when Wen Yiduo changed from a scholar to a "fighter" "A very critical turning point.Liang Shiqiu said in his reminiscence article that he did not know how Wen Yiduo became a "fighter", how to fight, who to fight with, to what extent, what kind of name he fought, etc. All "fighting" fates are in the It started here and left a clear historical imprint.

In 1944, the Southwest Associated University held the May 4th Literary Gala, and Wen Yiduo delivered a speech titled "New Literature and Art and Literary Heritage". important sign.Later, Wen Yiduo left Sijiaying, and brought his family to live in Kunhua Middle School where he was part-time class.Since then, the political upheaval has intensified. With his character of a poet, Wen Shi stepped forward on the top of the waves in the high wind and waves, but was finally overturned by the torrent and died, sinking under the Nine Springs.In fact, Liang Shiqiu, a member of the national government, knew a thing or two about Wen Yiduo's situation through the mouth of Yang Zhensheng and others.According to Liang Shiqiu, Mei Yiqi and others, the reason why Wen Yiduo became a "fighter" is mainly related to his poor life, and of course, the secret wooing and assistance of the CCP's underground organization, although the two cannot form a decisive causal relationship. At least the two are interdependent and indispensable.

The poverty of the professors at the Lianda University was no longer a fresh topic, either at that time or in the years to come.Just as Liang Shiqiu said: "During the Anti-Japanese War, who was not poor except those who had means? Didn't the general public servants receive the two buckets of rice at a low price every month? But Yiduo seemed to be poorer than others, because his family He has a large population. He has eight children in total." (Note from the South: Two daughters and one son died in succession, and three sons and two daughters survived. The family of eight in Kunming refers to Wen's family of seven plus a maid.) At that time, the Chinese did not implement family planning like many years later in mainland China. They were immersed in the ancient sayings of "more children, more blessings", "there are three kinds of unfilial piety, and no offspring is the greatest", so everyone had nothing to do. , so they put all their energy into a childbirth competition, the one with the most will naturally be the winner, and the one with the few will be the loser. If a boy cannot be born, he will be called "the old bankrupt" by the people at that time, which is tantamount to a life of failure.In the troubled land of China, big families emerged one after another.However, in China, which is large but lacks resources, is poor and weak, and is in wartime with soaring prices, as the supporter of the family, one can imagine the huge economic pressure and psychological pain. . According to available data, Wen Yiduo did not seem to have much savings in the Tsinghua Garden era before the war, although his living conditions were superior, given the special historical reason of the large population.A clear proof is the fact that after the war broke out, the school decided to evacuate teachers and students from Changsha to Kunming, and Wen Yiduo took the initiative to choose to walk with the students.Most of the previous publicity said that the reason why Wen was like this back then was that he had such great ideals and morals in his heart, so he decided to go to Kunming on foot with the group, but this is not the case.Before leaving, Wen Yiduo made it clear in a letter to his brother Wen Jiaji: "The students here plan to go to Yunnan on foot, and five or six teachers, including Yang Jinfu, Huang Zijian, and Zeng Zhaolun, will join in because one can gain experience. Second, it can save money.... The school originally planned to distribute 65 yuan to the teachers for traveling from Hong Kong to Yunnan via Annan, and all expenses for pedestrians will be prepared by the school. The money can be settled.” On February 16 of the same year, Wen Yiduo wrote to his father in a letter, saying again: “Previously I went to Yunnan by car via Guilin, but now I am going to walk with my students because of the huge cost. It can be seen from the letter that gaining experience and money are the reasons for his walking, and economic considerations are even greater.At this time, it was only half a year before the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, and prices did not soar as wildly as they did later on. Chen Yinke said in his poem that "the price of rice in Huainan is shocking, and the central banknotes are empty." It was in 1940. after that.If Mrs. Wen had some savings before the war, why would she make the decision to walk a thousand miles for the 65 yuan travel expenses, and consider it an important matter to write a letter to her family? After Wen Yiduo arrived in Kunming and transferred to Mengzi Literary College to teach, he mentioned the financial problem again in his letter to his wife: "According to President Mei's report, Tsinghua received all the funds instinctively, because Peking University and Nankai only received 60% , so we have to pay 60% of the expenses (70% of the salary). We have been on the road for more than two months. We should have received two, three, and four (total) three-month salaries here, a total of more than 800 But at present, the whole school only receives one month’s salary in February. I heard that March and April will not be a problem, and sooner or later it will be made up.” At that time, Tsinghua still held part of the US indemnity fund, and was the richest among the three schools , but afraid of stimulating Peking University and Nankai University and seeking a balance between teachers and students, Tsinghua had to be cautious in these aspects. At this time, although Wen Yiduo did not have a lot of money, he was still full of confidence in life, but later, as his savings were exhausted and prices soared, the situation was quite different. In 1940, the flames of war spread further, and the coastal and eastern land populations moved southward in large numbers. The population of Kunming soared, and the price of goods soared. Wen's life fell into the most difficult period.In order to support his family, like most professors, Wen's family borrowed money and sold their clothes, and their life was almost desperate.In the winter of this year, in order to buy rice for cooking, Wen Yiduo sent a fur coat he was wearing to a pawn shop.It was cold and windy, so he had to wear a long gown and an old woolen sweater to keep out the cold, and within a week he caught a cold and fell ill. His wife Gao Xiaozhen had to borrow some money from other professors with tears in her eyes, and redeemed the coat. .A colleague from the United Nations General Assembly saw that in order to save money, Wen Yiduo led his children to wash their faces with icy cold water in a small river south of Chenjiaying Village in the twilight of the twelfth lunar month in the cold winter.In the spring of the next year, Wen’s family’s life was really unsustainable. In the predicament of selling all the clothes, Wen Yiduo gritted his teeth and decided to sell the few bound books he brought from Beiping to the Lianda Library. , to buy rice in exchange for money.For a scholar who deals with books all day long, selling his beloved books is tantamount to digging and cutting his heart, and the pain in his heart cannot be understood unless he is there.When he sent several books to the library of the United Nations University, he told the management staff with a sad face: "Be sure to take good care of the books. When I return to Peiping in the future, I must redeem them." There were tears in the eyes.What he didn't expect was that before returning to Peiping, he died in a foreign land and became a stranger.