On June 3rd, 1985, Professor Hua, a world-renowned mathematician, led an applied mathematics assistant from Beijing to Tokyo by flight 782 for a two-week academic exchange and friendly visit at the invitation of Japan Asian Cultural Exchange Association. However, no one expected that this was the last journey of his life.
Hua struggled for science all his life.
A19101012. Hua was born at the eastern end of the bridge in Jintan County, Jiangsu Province. Father Hua Xiangfa made a living by running a small grocery store, and named his son, which was a good omen of "going into the basket to ward off evil spirits and being as old as Geng". When Hua was 6 years old, she followed her sister Lian Qing to Renlai Primary School in Xiaonanmen, Jintan. Young Hua, playful and curious, loves to catch up with the excitement, forgets his studies and often fails his homework.
/kloc-in the autumn of 0/922, Hua entered Jintan County Junior High School founded by Mr. Han Dashou. At first, he didn't study hard, his homework was altered and his handwriting was scrawled, which often made the teacher angry. One day in the second day of junior high school, when Wang Weike, a math teacher, was correcting his homework, he found that Hua's homework was smeared and altered, which made him unhappy for a while. However, finding those changed places is precisely his various ideas to solve the problem. The teacher in heaven called Hua to his side to encourage him, which made Hua interested in learning mathematics. Since then, under the training of teachers such as Wang Weike and Li, he has formed an indissoluble bond with mathematics.
After graduating from junior high school, Hua was admitted to Shanghai China Vocational School, and his interest in mathematics increased day by day. But the math teacher was disgusted that he didn't solve problems according to his own rules, and accused him in public, with some sarcasm and contempt in his words. Unwilling to be humiliated, Hua raised his hand and asked the teacher to test him. The teacher deliberately chose a difficult problem and asked him to do calculus on the blackboard. The whole class looked at the difficult problem and looked at each other. The teacher is waiting to see China make a fool of itself. Who knows that Hua calmly took the stage, calculating one by one, correctly and neatly, which amazed the teachers and students in the class. Since then, the teacher's opinion of him has changed, and the students admire him more. However, poverty pulled him out of school mercilessly, and he failed to get his diploma, and returned to Jintan to help his father manage the small grocery store, which led to the rope of life.
Hua dropped out of school, but he was not discouraged, but stubbornly embarked on the road of self-study; He was deeply attracted by the ever-changing numbers and symbols. Because my mind is focused on books, I often answer irrelevant questions to customers who enter the door. The neighbor didn't understand and called him "a bookworm who reads gobbledygook". Seeing that he is crazy about books, his mother earnestly advised him: "Lolo, we are here to wear wooden skirts (referring to the counter), not scholarly families." You'd better save the lighting oil and be too lazy to eat. " When a father sees his son, he often ignores his customers because of his studies, avoids business and loses his temper.
Later, the headmaster of his alma mater, Jintan County Junior High School, sympathized with Hua's situation and asked him to work as a clerk in the school. Hua is busy at school from morning till night every day. In the evening, he helped clean up the accounts of the small shop and plunged into the mathematics kingdom ... so from spring to autumn, from winter to summer, there was no interruption. As he read more books and solved more and more problems, he learned a clear and concise way of thinking, so that he could grasp the core from the beginning and take fewer detours. This formed his unique mathematical style in the future, which was praised by foreign scholars as "direct method".
Secondly, in the practice of self-study, Hua has an impulse, that is, if he doesn't write out his ideas and learning experience, he will have an unpleasant feeling and start writing. However, write fast, send fast, and retreat fast. Rejection letters often say that a problem you solved has been solved by a mathematician in a certain country. In this regard, Hua was not discouraged, but strengthened his self-confidence. He feels that although he has not read the literature of celebrities in detail, it can be solved. If he works harder, he can compete with some celebrities. 1929, his first novel Sturm Theorem was finally published.
"The development of the thinking world, in a sense, is to constantly get rid of surprises" (Einstein's words). One day, Hua read an article by Su Jiaju, a famous math professor, in a magazine. Su claimed that he found a "solvable method" for the "algebraic quintic equation" which was regarded as a dead problem in modern mathematics. China was first "surprised" and then had the desire to "get rid of". He found that the famous professor's conclusion was wrong, so he spent a month analyzing and studying, wrote out the reasons why Su Jiaju's algebraic quintic equation solution could not be established, and posted it in Shanghai Science magazine.
Just as Hua climbed the peak of science with confidence, bad luck fell from the sky. He contracted terrible typhoid fever, stayed in bed for more than half a year, and his family was poor. Life was finally saved, and people were tortured to the bone, and the periosteum of the left leg hip joint adhered and became a rigid right angle, leaving a lifelong disability at a young age.
Hua has just recovered from illness. In the second issue of Shanghai Science (1930), volume 15, he published his article criticizing Su Jiaju, which aroused widespread concern in the mathematical field. Professor Xiong Qinglai, head of the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, read this concise and accurate article, bent on finding out which country Hua came back from studying abroad and which university he was a professor at. But colleagues around shook their heads to show that they knew nothing. When he learned from Jiangsu teacher Tang Peijing, Hua was only a junior high school clerk in Jintan County. When he graduated from junior high school, he was saddened and admired the young man who was constantly striving for self-improvement, so he took the initiative to invite Hua to work and study in Tsinghua University.
In the autumn of 193 1, Hua hobbled north with simple luggage and took a crucial step in his life. Professor Xiong Qinglai warmly received the young man with a thin face and a serious leg disease. After a short conversation, I found Hua witty, modest and sincere, and his eyes lit up: "What a pony!" " "As a result, this disabled person who only graduated from junior high school entered Tsinghua University, which has always attached great importance to academic qualifications, for the first time. In the library of the department of mathematics, he became an assistant who usually graduated from college.
In Tsinghua, Hua is difficult to adapt to, but he treats difficulties with great perseverance. He moves the steps of "circle and tangent motion" every day. First, he worked hard to finish his work: sorting out materials, keeping accounts, sending and receiving documents, printing manuscripts, collecting stationery, drawing charts and so on. Then, he took part in and studied math courses against time. It took him only one and a half years to complete all the courses of mathematics major, and his problem-solving ability greatly exceeded the level of college graduates. I spent more than four months learning English, reached the level of reading English mathematics literature and learned to write in English. After that, I taught myself German and French. At that time, China's modern mathematics was still at the starting line, and all three papers published by Hua in foreign countries were published, setting a new record for Tsinghua to publish abroad. /kloc-in the winter of 0/933, professors in Tsinghua got together to discuss a problem that they had never met before-the school wanted to teach calculus in China, but he only had a junior high school diploma and failed. There was a warm speech at the meeting, and opponents said that it was immoral and would damage Tsinghua's reputation; Supporters believe that Hua has no academic qualifications, but he has real talent and practical learning, and his knowledge even exceeds that of some professors. Ye, Dean of the School of Science, decisively concluded: "It is a good thing to have a China in Tsinghua. We cannot be limited by qualifications!" In this way, Hua once again broke the rule that the staff system inherited for many years in Tsinghua should not cross the faculty system and became a formal teaching assistant.
1936, recommended by Xiong qinglai and funded by China Cultural Education Foundation, Hua went to Cambridge University in England for two afternoons. When Hua arrived in Cambridge, it happened that Harding, a famous mathematician who was then the head of the mathematics department of the school, was traveling to the United States.
In advance, Harding learned about China from another famous Weiner. When he left, he took care of his agent: "All orientals who come to Europe for further study want to get a doctorate in a short time. You can tell Fahrenheit that he only needs two years to get here. " It usually takes three to seven years for a doctor's degree in Cambridge, which shows that Harding treats China differently. Unexpectedly, Hua replied, "I only stayed in Cambridge for two years." If I want to study for a doctorate, I can only learn from the professor. If so, my thoughts and knowledge will be bound. I want to learn as much as possible from various schools in two years, and I want to volunteer for further study in number theory and analysis. "
During his two years in Cambridge, England, Hua didn't study for a doctorate, but he solved problems such as, Rita and CheGoldbach's conjecture. He has published nearly 20 academic papers in authoritative journals in Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan and India. Even Harding praised the Fahrenheit Theorem established by him about the problem in the tower: "Great, I thought my work had been written irretrievably, but I have to change it this time!" China's research on Gaussian problem still occupies the commanding heights.
1in the summer of 938, when Hua heard the news that the motherland's comprehensive War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression had begun, he could not calm down. He resolutely crossed the ocean, boarded the Long March and returned to Kunming, the rear area of the motherland's anti-Japanese war.
Southwest United University, which was formed by the merger of Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University, warmly welcomed Hua's return. However, the school is worried about what name to hire him to teach-although Hua has become an outstanding scholar in the international mathematics field, his title is still only teaching assistant. Therefore, the Tsinghua University Professors Qualification Examination Committee held a special meeting. In the face of several high-level academic works published by China at home and abroad, the members unanimously agreed that he was directly qualified as a full professor. The 28-year-old Hua broke through the traditional system of Tsinghua three times in less than eight years, creating a "highest record" that no one has ever surpassed.
The environment in The National SouthWest Associated University is very difficult. Enemy planes often attack and harass, and the family has moved many times, and life is turbulent. However, Hua still insists on teaching and research. He lives in a small building of farmers in the outer suburbs of Kunming, and downstairs is a cowshed for pigs and cows. During the day, I dragged my sick leg to school to give lectures to students, and at night I went back to the small building and sat in front of the dim oil lamp to study knowledge.
In recent years, more than 20 academic papers have been published at home and abroad. As soon as the classic "On Prime Numbers of Heaps" came out in this small building, it was highly praised by the international scientific community. Einstein sent a special letter from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, USA: "This discovery will be an important source for the future development of mathematics." At the same time, Hua has also carried out pioneering research work in matrix geometry and complex variable function theory, and achieved important results.
A fellow villager once asked Hua, "How big is your math score?" Hua smiled and said to him, "You are not colleagues, so it is difficult for you to understand. But for example, ancient Greek scholars left dozens of questions to be solved, and I answered five or six questions, but there are still 1% and 2% to be clarified and cannot be completely solved. Just like today's weather is sunny, so I guess it will be sunny tomorrow. That's all, not as good as Victor Noguera, president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Although he solved one, he solved it 100%. "
In the second year after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, China paid a three-month visit to the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Soviet Foreign Cultural Association, and inspected the scientific research and education in the Soviet Union. Feeling a lot, after returning to China, he published "Visit to the Soviet Union in March" in Time and Literature magazine in four issues.
This autumn, he accepted the invitation of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies and went to the United States to be a senior researcher and visiting professor at Princeton University. 1in the spring of 947, the leg disease was treated in Hopkins Hospital, and the function of the left leg recovered well. Autumn of the same year. The wife brought the children to the United States for reunion. During this period, he made a new breakthrough in his research and mastered the commanding heights of number theory research in the twentieth century, which amazed many American scientists. 1948 In the spring, the University of Illinois hired him as a tenured professor. At this time, Hua had a small house, a car, a high salary, four teaching assistants and a typist. It can be said that the working and living conditions are quite comfortable.
When the news of the founding of New China reached the other side of the ocean, it was China in its prime that was eager to return home. Determined to give up all generous treatment, he cleverly avoided the eyes of the FBI, boarded a cruise ship and returned to Beijing, the capital of New China.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was difficult to start a business. Hua didn't hesitate. During his tenure as a professor in the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University, he shouldered the heavy responsibility of establishing a new mathematical science in China. 1952 In July, the Institute of Mathematics he was in charge of was established, and he was appointed as the director. Then some research institutes (rooms) such as basic pure mathematics, mathematical logic, mechanics, mathematical physics, applied mathematics, calculation and computer were established one after another. In 1950s, while he was busy with social work and international communication activities, his achievements in mathematical research kept coming out, such as Introduction to Number Theory, Typical Groups (co-authored with Wan Zhexian) and Harmonic Analysis of Multiple Complex Variables. 1957 won the first prize of national scientific invention. His academic creation and invention reached the peak.
Since the 1960s, Hua's work has taken a major turning point, and he devoted himself to popularizing mathematical methods applied to industrial and agricultural production. He popularized the "optimal selection method" and "overall planning method" in plain language. In the past 20 years, he has traveled all over 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, visited numerous factories, taught mathematics knowledge to the masses and solved practical problems in production and construction, which not only achieved obvious economic benefits, but also trained a large number of scientific and technological talents to serve the national economic construction.
Hua is engaged in the cause of mathematical science, with abundant writings and outstanding achievements. He is the founder and pioneer of China's analytic number theory, matrix geometry, canonical group, automorphic function theory and multiple complex variable function theory. The international achievements in mathematical research named after Fahrenheit include Fahrenheit theorem, Huai-Hua inequality, Fahrenheit inequality, Pfenwell-Catan-Hua theorem, Fahrenheit operator and Hua-Wang method. He has written 200 academic papers, including Introduction to Number Theory, Starting from the Unit Circle, Approximate Calculation of Numerical Integral, Partial Differential Equation, etc., with monograph 10, of which 8 have been translated and published abroad. The theory of heap-based prime numbers, published in the early 1940s, has been translated into Russian, Japanese, German, Hungarian and English, and is still a necessary document for this study. Some works have jumped into the ranks of mathematical classics in this century. From 65438 to 0983, Spring Publishing Company of the Federal Republic of Germany published Selected Works of China in English. In addition, Hua also wrote 10 popular science works.
1984, Shanghai Education Publishing House published the selected works of Huake Puwen. At the same time, Hua trained, influenced and educated the heroic algebraists in New China, and made outstanding contributions to the development of mathematics in China. Aitel Selberg, a famous American mathematician, put it this way after careful consideration: "If China had stayed in the United States after World War II, like many of his compatriots, there is no doubt that he would have made greater contributions to mathematics. On the other hand, I think his return to China is very important for China's mathematics. It is hard to imagine what China's mathematics would be like if he had not returned to China. "
After 1979, Hua gave lectures and visited many universities and scientific research institutions in Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Hong Kong and Macao, made friends with scientists from all over the world and intellectuals from China, and carried out scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges. Because of his outstanding achievements in scientific research, he was selected by the American Academy of Sciences as the first academician from China, the Third World Academy of Sciences and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in the Federal Republic of Germany since 120. Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Illinois, Nancy University, and Chinese University of Hong Kong. The famous scientist Bateman wrote that Hua is China's Einstein, enough to be an academician of all the famous academies in the world. Hua's name has entered the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, USA, and is listed as one of the 88 great mathematicians in the Chicago Museum of Science and Technology.
1963, Huawei teenagers wrote an article "Talking from the" coup d' é tat "in Sun Tzu's Art of War", with a poem as the preface: "coup d' tat is an old saying, which was used by predecessors. There is no need to mention magic. Clever tricks also come from clumsiness, and foolish old men and wise old men are always separated: after a long time, foolish old men and wise old men appear, and when they are white, they know that they are slow. Practice first, practice makes perfect. Diligence is a good training, and an inch of hard work is one point. "This poem is not only the crystallization of Chinese academic experience, but also the motto of young people marching into science. 1In August, 979, Liang Yusheng, a Hong Kong writer, praised China with Cao Cao's poem, "Old Ma Qianli rides, aiming at a thousand miles, and the martyrs are courageous in their twilight years." Hua improvised a poem: "An old horse is ashamed to go a long way, and a swift horse will follow." . A strong man breaks his wrist, and his efforts are never empty. "Expressed his determination to fight for science all his life.
1In July, 984, Hua ended his lecture and visit in the United States ahead of schedule and returned to Beijing with his newly completed important treatise "Mathematical Theory of Large-scale Optimization of Planned Economy". Then he went to various places to carry out the research and promotion activities of economic mathematics. From July 1984 to May 1985, I have been to Changsha, Harbin, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xuzhou, Guangzhou and other places, and the speed and efficiency are amazing.
91On April 27th, 985, Hua met with Hong Kong and Macao journalists while attending the meeting of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. A young Hong Kong reporter asked, "What is your greatest hope?" Hua pondered for a while and replied decisively, "My greatest hope is to work until the last moment of my life." Who knows that it's only been a month and a half, and this last day is unfortunate.
June 12 is the tenth day of China's visit to Japan. At 2 pm, I visited the Japanese Bachelor's College (equivalent to the China Academy of Sciences), visited the office of the Emperor and the Dean of the Academy of Earth Sciences, the meeting place of the Academician's Association and the Tuzi stuffing hall, and wrote an inscription on the guest book of the Bachelor's College: "It is a great honor to visit the Japanese Bachelor's College and wish the scientific exchanges between the two countries become increasingly prosperous." At four o'clock in the afternoon, he gave a speech entitled "Pure Mathematics and its Application" to the Japanese mathematics community in the lecture hall of the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Tokyo. His speech was interrupted by warm applause from time to time. At five o'clock in the afternoon, Hua finished his last sentence at the Japan forum. Just as he was about to accept flowers from a Japanese mathematician, he suddenly fell down! At 0: 09 p.m./kloc-0: 09 p.m., Professor Hua, a great mathematician, died of acute myocardial infarction and finished the last leg at the age of 74. On June 2 1, representatives from all walks of life in the country and the capital held a grand memorial service for him in the auditorium of Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing.
1986, the people's government of Jintan County established the "China Memorial Hall" in Zhongshan Park, the county seat, and Jintan County, the alma mater of Houzhongshan Park and China, was also named after him, inspiring future generations and educating the people with the spirit of "diligence, self-improvement and determination to serve the motherland" throughout his life.