Yang Liming and Xia Peisu
01
The magic couple in the technology world
We have to come into contact with computers almost every day, but we rarely ask, who made the first computer in China?
In fact, the first computer in China was 9 years later than in the UK. Xia Peisu was an important creator. Interestingly, her husband Yang Liming is an important theoretical physicist.
Because computers were used to build nuclear weapons at that time. So there is a beautiful story about a wife building a computer and her husband using it to build nuclear weapons.
This couple spans a century and their life experience is quite legendary. Although his popularity is not as famous as Qian Xuesen and Guo Yonghuai, it is also a microcosm of intellectuals serving the country in that era.
Xia Peisu
02
Meet in Sichuan
Xia Peisu is from Chongqing and inherits the bold and honest personality of Sichuan girls. Her family was rich, which gave her the opportunity to receive a complete education, which was very rare in old China.
Xia Peisu has a strong personality and has excellent grades in middle school, surpassing the boys in the class, and successfully admitted to Central University .
At Central University, she met Yang Liming. Compared with Xia Peisu, who had a wealthy family, Yang Liming had a very bumpy early years. His father was a former scholar in Qing Dynasty, and his mother was thrifty in the family. His life was quite peaceful, and he was also diligent and studious.
But with the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the young Yang Liming had to move west along with the school and refugees, and eventually went into exile to Sichuan.
Xia Peisu
The process of moving westward is not peaceful. In addition to enduring hunger and cold, what I fear most is the bombing of enemy planes in the sky. Sichuan is not a stable place either, and his middle school teacher also died under the bombing of enemy planes.
Only students who have experienced war and witnessed death will feel the importance of the country. Yang Liming set an ambition to save the country through industry. He changed his study direction to science and finally admitted to the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Central University.
is also at Central University, and he and Xia Peisu have become good friends who can talk about everything. But during the war, romantic and love are luxury goods. But the two of them had the opportunity to study in the UK with their excellent grades.
Xia Peisu
03
Encounter in the UK
First, Yang Liming from the UK was also quite legendary. With his outstanding mechanical knowledge, he helped a large factory in the UK solve a problem, and received funding, and was able to study in University of Edinburgh , and instead studied in Theoretical Physics .
Because he keenly feels that China's future development must be rooted in basic sciences such as theoretical physics.
Two years later, Xia Peisu also entered the University of Edinburgh to pursue a doctorate degree. The two met again in a foreign land.
At this time, Xia Peisu felt another sadness abroad. in the country, she has a wealthy condition and is also a lady from a noble family. However, in the UK, the British treat Chinese like refugees.
Xia Peisu
Once the landlord's wife asked Xia Peisu that they had donated a lot of clothes to China, and she had received them. Because in the eyes of the British, this Eastern country needs Western alms to survive.
The young and strong Sichuan girl suffered a huge blow to her self-esteem, but she was unable to refute it at this time. Only by studying harder and preparing for the future of serving the country.
She pursued her PhD degree at the University of Edinburgh and also in her hometown of computers, she began to pay attention to the development of computers. She is also the first Chinese to come into contact with modern computers.
At this time, the Anti-Japanese War had ended, and in a relatively comfortable life, the two of them also tied the knot. During the years in the UK, both husband and wife have grown into outstanding talents in their respective fields.
Yang Liming
04
Return to China to build
After the founding of New China, the two of them returned to their motherland with excitement after receiving the invitation.
There is no opportunity to build a war-torn environment, and this is the most expected opportunity for returning students to serve the country.
In the following days, Yang Liming devoted himself to theoretical physics research and talent cultivation.
The theoretical physics after the founding of the People's Republic of China can be said to be blank. To cultivate talents, we must start from the basics. Yang Liming, who returned to China, has no choice but to establish one of the keynote speakers.
my country's two bombs and one satellite can be successfully completed. In addition to the contributions of experimental physicists such as Youqian Xuesen and Guo Yonghuai, the foundation of theoretical physicists is also indispensable.
For example, "the father of hydrogen bomb" Yu Min , he wrote "Lecture Notes on Nuclear Theory" with Yang Liming. Yu Min also praised Yang Liming, believing that he had filled the gap in domestic physics research.
Compared with her husband's "obscurity", her wife Xia Peisu seemed more "outstanding". After returning to China, at the suggestion of Hua Luogeng and Min Naida, Xia Peisu began to develop computers.
It is very difficult to develop computers in a poor and careless China. There is almost no part produced in China and almost all the equipment needs to be imported. Xia Peisu's work began with computer logic design.
At that time, computers were highly confidential technology, and foreign technology blockades were very tight. Although the National Nuclear Physics Research Institute has gathered talents from all over the country, not many people have truly been exposed to foreign computer data, and Xia Peisu is one of them. In terms of computer logic design, that generation could be said to be a scattered breakthrough, especially after the Soviet Union withdrew, which was even more difficult.
Xia Peisu has a lot of work pressure. It can be said that he is working overtime. He often forgets to eat or even forgets to pick up his children at school.
It is gratifying that the first computer in China developed by scientists such as Xia Peisu, No. 107, has excellent performance and its stability time is even ten times longer than that designed by the Soviet Union. At this time, it was only 9 years away from the appearance of the world's first computer. This time, China did not lag too much.
The computer upgraded thereafter has been made visible to the naked eye in China. In addition to being used in nuclear weapons research and physical experiments, it is also used in petroleum and mineral exploration.
Similarly, the two not only made great achievements in scientific research results, but also spent a lot of time on talent education.
Xia Peisu's student Li Guojie created the Shuguang series of high-performance computers, and student Hu Weiwu formed the famous Loongson team.
Xia Peisu
05
Simple life
Yang Liming and Xia Peisu both lived a long-lived old man, joined hands to enter the 21st century, and were elected as an academician of the Academy of Sciences in the same year.
Yang Liming was also a master of theoretical physics at this time. More importantly, the students he trained have long been spread across major universities across the country.
Xia Peisu is a godfather in the computer industry in China. Known as the "Mother of Chinese Computers". She once made a foreseeable suggestion to accelerate the research of domestic chips and break the foreign monopoly.
Two professors with many talents have a simple life. When he was in his 70s, Mr. Xia rode his bike to work at the computing office. After being "stopped" by the institute several times, he agreed to take the car sent in the office.
Xia Peisu
06
Whether it is Yang Liming and Xia Peisu, they are accompanied by the suffering and rise of the motherland. China has been able to reach this day because there are many such patriotic couples who are silently making contributions behind their backs.
They do not care about fame, wealth and treatment. The strength of the motherland is their greatest pride.
