Yang Xingfo has always cherished the ideal of saving the country through science and technology. After going to the United States, the advanced science of the United States was in great contrast with the backward appearance of China, which stimulated Yang Xingfo and his companions. 19 14 in the summer, several foreign students from China at Cornell University decided to start Science Monthly. They think that what China lacks most is science, and Science Monthly is a magazine devoted to introducing science to China. They kept their word and prepared quickly, which made the first issue of Science edited successfully in the United States. In June, Shanghai Commercial Press published 19 15. Science is the first comprehensive science magazine in China. Hu Mingfu, Zhao Yuanren, Yang Xingfo, Ren Hongjuan and others signed the journal Science. From the publication of Science to 192 1 year, Yang Xingfo has been an editor for 7 years, editing 6 volumes and 69 issues. He not only invites manuscripts, assembles manuscripts and reviews manuscripts, but also often writes and translates manuscripts himself.
Yang Xingfo introduced the most advanced scientific achievements to China. For example, after Scientific American published Einstein's Theory of Relativity on February 5, 192 1, Yang Xingfo immediately realized the important value of the theory of relativity. In just over a month, he translated this article into Chinese and published it in Science magazine. This is one of China's earliest articles on the theory of relativity. While propagating the scientific spirit, Yang Xingfo also paid attention to linking science with industry and saving the country, so as to arouse the patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese people. He also realized the extraordinary power of role models and attached great importance to the writing of biographies of scientists. For example, he himself has written articles such as Biography of Newton and Biography of Zhan Tianyou. At the end of Biography of Zhan Tianyou, Yang Xingfo also commented: "Master (referring to Zhan Tianyou) never left his engineering career. He is an official, but he is an alternate member of the postal department. During the Republic of China, he was only a technical director of the Ministry of Communications. He has no prominent position, hot position, his death. The whole country knows the sorrow of Xianxing people's national subjugation. Oh! How touching and depressing! With his knowledge and experience, he can make full use of it. His achievements are not only hundreds of miles from Beijing to Zhang. This is a year of frequent wars and political struggles emerge one after another. I died of ambition. I can't witness the prosperity of my country like Stephenson and Watt. This is a personal misfortune. I cherish it for China. "
With such a sigh, Yang Xingfo can certainly realize that the country needs science for its prosperity. But science alone is not enough. It also needs politics, democracy, industry, education and people's awakening. ...
Yang Xingfo has always believed: "In today's world, it is almost impossible to establish a country without science." With the ambition of saving the country through science, Yang Xingfo, Hu Mingfu, Zhao Yuanren, Ren Hongjuan and other students studying in the United States initiated the establishment of the first academic group in China-China Science Society. They published books and periodicals, established libraries and biological research institutes, and established China Book and Instrument Publishing Company ... to spread the fire of science enthusiastically.
Yang Xingfo has always had a "dream": "The future China in my dream should be a Datong society with equal emphasis on material and spiritual." He believes that his dream will come true.
With such ambitions and ideals, Yang Xingfo returned to China quickly after receiving an MBA from Harvard University on 19 18. He has served as the chief of the cost section of the accounting department of Hanyang Iron Works, a professor at Nanjing Normal University and the dean of the Institute of Technology of Southeast University. He was full of enthusiasm for serving the motherland and devoted himself to the practice of saving the country through education and industry, but the dark reality forced Yang Xingfo to ponder deeply. After a long period of observation and thinking, he realized: "Today's people engaged in the education industry are probably the best elements in a country. Their ambition is to despise politics and are unwilling to bear the responsibility of reform; Its strength is guaranteed by the education industry, which is enough to reassure people. Anyone who is afraid of military politicians knows that it can't be a disaster, and killing rebellious people is enough. The education industry has become a special society in China. The rest are leaderless people who are in dire straits and oppressed, and military and political dignitaries who are overbearing and shameless and steal political power for personal gain. One can do evil, the other knows disaster, and this neutral education and industry are on the sidelines. For example, the Qin people regarded the Vietnamese as a disaster of the Republic of China, but it was safe and did not extend to more than ten years or even decades. " In view of this grim reality, Yang Xingfo called on people from all walks of life to act bravely and shoulder the responsibility of saving the country.
1924, Sun Yat-sen presided over the reorganization of the Kuomintang in China, realizing the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Yang Xingfo, Chen Qubing and others set up an underground Kuomintang-Communist cooperation organization in Southeast University to engage in revolutionary activities. His actions were hostile to Guo Bingwen, president of Dongda University, and the engineering course was cancelled. Yang Xingfo resigned from his post in education and returned to Sun Yat-sen as his secretary. At the end of the same year, Sun Yat-sen went north to discuss the country at the invitation of Feng Yuxiang, followed by Yang Xingfo. 1In March, 925, Sun Yat-sen died of illness in Beijing. Yang Xingfo accompanied Sun Yat-sen through the last days of his life, was deeply inspired by Sun Yat-sen's spirit and won the essence of Sun Yat-sen's thought.
At this time, Yang Xingfo naturally did not forget the ambition of "saving the country through science". But he has deeply realized that in the troubled times at that time, of course, revolution was more needed. In the same year, Yang Xingfo wrote an article about science and revolution, calling for: "Only the cooperation between science and revolution is the only way to save the country. In other words, revolutionaries should have scientific knowledge, and scientists should have revolutionary spirit to jointly study social problems and all vital issues in life. Only in this way can China be saved and the world be bright. " This has become Yang Xingfo's firm belief, and he stood at the forefront of saving the country until June when 1933 was assassinated by a spy.