He is a rare genius in the Chinese mathematics community.
He suffered from cancer and his left hand was still disabled. On his deathbed, he still dragged his body eroded by the disease to give lectures to the students.
He led my country's Olympiad players to win five world firsts in a row, bringing my country's Mathematical Olympiad strength to the top level in the world.
He wrote graduate textbooks that are still shining brightly in Peking University and enlightening countless students.
But until his death, he could not get a professional title that made him resentful.
He is Zhang Zhusheng , the first Ph.D. in mathematics from Peking University, number 001.
What legendary stories have happened to him?
He has received so many honors, why didn't he get a professional title?
Today, let’s talk about Zhang Zhusheng’s inspirational life.
In 1940, Zhang Zhusheng was born in a mountain village in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. His parents were both native farmers.
In that war-torn era, no one could expect to have a full bowl of rice, and the same was true for Zhang Zhusheng.
When he was still young, no matter how he complained to his father, his father would only cover his face and pockets and ask him to endure it.
Because he never had enough to eat, Zhang Zhusheng was frail and sickly since he was a child. He also suffered from severe meningitis when he was two years old and was on the verge of death.
Fortunately, God favored him and allowed him to save his life.
But even so, it still left very serious sequelae, causing irreversible damage to his cerebellum .
Since elementary school, Zhang Zhusheng’s intelligence has been revealed.
When he was in fifth grade, he invented a wooden man that could walk and descend independently, and won the first prize for the National Children's Invention Award.
Unfortunately, before this talented young man had time to shine in his field of expertise, an accident came first.
When he was 13 years old, he broke his left arm in an accident. During the treatment,
suffered a major medical accident, which caused neuromuscular atrophy in his left arm. From then on, he could no longer move his left hand.
Losing his left hand means that Zhang Zhusheng can no longer continue his hands-on experiments, but his desire for knowledge has never disappeared.
As the saying goes, "a blessing in disguise is a blessing in disguise."
It was this accident that brought Zhang Zhusheng into contact with mathematics and allowed him to experience another kind of fun outside of experiments.
From then on, he transferred all his love for experiments to mathematics. In 1959, he was admitted to the Department of Mathematics of Sichuan University with excellent results and officially began his cheating journey.
Zhang Zhusheng completed all four-year undergraduate mathematics courses in just two years. His talent is so high that even his teachers are full of praise for him.
"Zhang Zhusheng is a rare mathematical genius in many years!"
After graduating from college, Zhang Zhusheng was invited by Sichuan University to stay in the school to teach. He taught for fourteen years.
In the past fourteen years, Zhang Zhusheng worked hard and trained countless students, many of whom will become the pillars of the future mathematics community and shine in this field.
Sadly, Zhang Zhu was born at the wrong time.
When he reached his academic peak, he encountered a special period and suffered a great loss. Disappointed, he angrily left Sichuan University.
This is why Zhang Zhusheng is so obsessed with professional titles. For him, professional titles are not an honor, but more of a spiritual symbol and a recognition of his many years of hard work.
Time flies, and it’s 1978 in the blink of an eye.
This is the second year after resumed the college entrance examination . Major universities across the country are scrambling to recruit talents. Zhang Zhusheng, who has nothing to do at home, also took the exam and prepared to apply for the postgraduate entrance examination at Peking University. During
, an episode also occurred. It was precisely because of this episode that Zhang Zhusheng successfully attracted the attention of the famous mathematician Liao Shantao.
This also laid the foundation for his subsequent success.
In this exam, Zhang Zhusheng discovered when reviewing the questions that there was an error in one of the math questions, and there was a problem with one of the variables.
Therefore, he directly wrote "This question has no solution" on the answer sheet.
You must know that the mathematical knowledge of the teacher who set the question is definitely better than that of the students. Most of the candidates will not be able to see that there is a problem with the question.
Even if a small number of candidates can see it, they will not think that the teacher who set the question has a problem, they will only think that they did not review the question carefully.
Unless you are confident enough in your own knowledge reserves, or you see 100% that this question is wrong, otherwise, it is absolutely impossible to write the words "This question has no solution" on the answer sheet.
This already means that Zhang Zhusheng’s mathematical knowledge reserve has reached the same level as the teacher who created the question, or even slightly higher.
He also became the only candidate in this exam who saw a problem with the test questions, and successfully attracted the attention of the famous mathematician Liao Shantao.
and eventually, was accepted as a student by the other party.
At Peking University, Zhang Zhusheng began his graduate studies. Under the guidance of famous teachers, his mathematics scores improved rapidly.
In 1982, he successfully solved one of the "four major conjectures" of world-class mathematical problems by relying on his calculations, and was recognized by the teachers and students of the school.
In 1983, he became the first doctorate from Peking University, with doctorate number 001. He was also recommended by the school and got the opportunity to study abroad.
When he returned from his studies in 1986, he was given the arduous task of writing new textbooks.
This task is completely thankless for him. With his ability,
can rely on the excellent resources provided by Peking University to continue in-depth research in the field of mathematics.
With his intelligence, it is only a matter of time before he reaches the top.
At that time, it was not difficult for him to judge professional titles.
But Zhang Zhusheng did not do this. He adhered to the principle of "willing to be a brick and move it wherever needed."
sacrificed his own interests, resolutely took over the task of writing teaching materials, and quickly got into work.
The book " Mathematical Analysis New Lecture on " is the foundation of advanced mathematics . There are many textbooks explaining this aspect.
Therefore it is not easy to write new ideas and have enough depth. It took him five years to write the book
. Finally, in 1991, Zhang Zhusheng completed the compilation of his own textbook.
The book "New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis" will continue to shine in major universities in the next ten years, enlightening countless students who are interested in mathematics. Zhang Zhusheng deserves the title of "Contemporary Chen Jingrun".
Unfortunately, God will not give Zhang Zhusheng preferential treatment just because he is doing well. In this year, Zhang Zhusheng was diagnosed with serious nasopharyngeal cancer.
After that, he began a 12-year journey against cancer.
Even though he was terminally ill, Zhang Zhusheng still did not give up his beloved mathematics.
In 1995, Zhang Zhusheng was appointed as the head coach of the national team of the Olympic Mathematics Competition, and began to lead middle school students to compete on the world stage.
This task is very difficult, and it is also a hard job for Zhang Zhusheng.
Like writing textbooks, this is a thankless job.
If students do not get good results internationally, the first one to stand up and take the blame will always be the head coach, followed by the students.
Even if he leads his students to win awards internationally, they will only be the ones to win the honor. The best Zhang Zhusheng can do is follow suit.
In addition, Zhang Zhusheng also bears huge responsibilities.
Mathematics competition questions are difficult to answer, and even more difficult to formulate.
Every question must complete the conversion from advanced mathematics to junior high school mathematics, that is, reverse reasoning. When
sets the questions, it is necessary to ensure that the questions are both novel and difficult, which is quite time-consuming and labor-intensive.
For ordinary coaches, one question a week is already the limit. Only a handful of them can answer 20 questions 12 months a year.
But Zhang Zhusheng can produce dozens of innovative questions in a year. Under his leadership, the mathematical abilities of the students on the national team began to improve by leaps and bounds.
has frequently won awards internationally, ranking first in the world for five consecutive years and winning multiple Grand Slams.
Every time a student takes part in the competition, there must be a student who will win the gold medal.
While the students were flexing their muscles on the international stage, Zhang Zhusheng's situation was not optimistic, and his condition began to deteriorate further.
In addition to suffering from nasopharyngeal cancer, Zhang Zhusheng also suffered from severe colitis , and the inflammation had transferred to the liver.
But even so, he still refused to stop moving forward.
In the summer of 2001, Zhang Zhusheng's body was already overwhelmed by the long-term effects of chemotherapy, but even so, he still dragged his disease-ridden body to school to teach his classmates.
He once gave questions and answered questions for more than 200 students for seven consecutive days.
During these seven days, there was no part of his body that was not in pain.
In order to offset the pain, he only drank a little milk every day and relied on glucose to maintain his physical condition. As long as he stood on the podium, there was the gold medal lecturer who was full of energy and infected countless people with his knowledge.
Unfortunately, no matter how strong Zhang Zhusheng is, his body will not lie.
In the second half of 2001, his life entered a countdown.
Due to colitis, he suffered from diarrhea more than ten times a day and became skinny and skinny.
In order not to run to the toilet frequently during class, he would go on a diet the day before class. At the cost of consuming his life, he would pass on knowledge to more students. He believed that this was the meaning of his life.
Finally, on February 6, 2002, Zhang Zhusheng’s body could no longer bear the burden and he left this world forever at the age of 62.
Until the last moment of his life, he still failed to get a professional title.
In life, there are things to do and things not to do.
With Professor Zhang Zhusheng's ability, as long as he wants to, the professional title is within reach for him, and he can touch it with a little stretch of his hand.
But he did not do this. He chose to devote all the most precious time in his life to his students, allowing them to use the knowledge they have learned and continue to shine in the field of mathematics.
In his eyes, professional titles are important because they symbolize his dignity.
But in his eyes, there is something more important than dignity, and that is inheritance.
As long as the knowledge of Professor Zhang Zhusheng is passed down, even though he has fallen, his spirit will always accompany his students and continue to walk on the broad road of mathematics.
