October 26 is the 133rd year of the birth of Li Siguang. He helped China get rid of its "poor oil" hat and also made outstanding contributions to the " two bombs ". His family's "one family and three academicians" were praised as a good story, and listened to his granddaughter's narration.
compilation/Reporter Li Hui Picture and text editor/Chen Yongjie
Image provided/Zou Zongping
October 26 is the 133rd year of Li Siguang’s birth. "Geological Light" is a household name that Li Siguang is well-known. As the founder of my country's modern earth science and geology, he founded the theory of geological mechanics and made outstanding contributions to the development of China's petroleum industry and the construction of the New China. His family has successively produced three academicians. The legendary story of "one school of physics" and "three academicians" in .
▲Three academicians in one school: the left one in the back row is Li Siguang, the right one is his wife Xu Shubin; the left one in the front row is his daughter Li Lin, and the right one is his son-in-law Zou Chenglu.
Recently, the Beijing Science and Technology Association held the "Inheriting the Spirit of Scientists - Telling the Story of Chinese Scientists" Science Communication Salon. Li Siguang Memorial Hall Senior consultant and special assistant to the director and granddaughter of Li Siguang, Zou Zongping, tells Li Siguang's magnificent life from a new perspective, leading the audience to recall the glorious years, follow Li Siguang's ideal footprint of "saving the country through science", and jointly understand his great patriotism and scientific spirit.
▲In March 1971, Li Siguang talked about the arrangements for geothermal work in the office (this is the last photo of Li Siguang during his lifetime)
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Li Siguang's name comes from a typo
Li Siguang was born on October 26, 1889 in Huanggang, Hubei. His father was a private school teacher and his mother was a farmer, so he was also a scientist who came out of the countryside. Li Siguang was the second child in the family, so his father named him Zhongkui, which means the second child.
▲Li Siguang applied to Wuchang Higher Elementary School at the age of fourteen. The picture shows a photo of Wuchang Higher Elementary School
When Li Siguang was 5 years old, a major event that affected his life in China - China-Japan Sino-Japanese Naval Battle . At that time, Li Siguang believed that China could not defeat Japan and that it was China's ships, so he wanted to learn how to build ships when he grew up and build strong ships and cannons to make a strong country.
html When he was 214 years old, Li Siguang knew that Wuchang had a new study. He not only taught the Four Books and Five Classics, but also taught some modern physics and chemistry knowledge. He told his father that he wanted to apply for the exam and his family was very supportive. He applied for Wuchang Higher Elementary School and bought an application form for a piece of copper . When he was too nervous when filling out the form, he wrote the age "Fourteen" in his name column. After discovering it, it was too late and his family's financial situation was not particularly good. After thinking about it, he added a few strokes, changed the word "Ten" to "Li", and the name became Li Si. Li Si was not a serious name, so he was in a dilemma. When he looked up, he saw a plaque hanging on the temple rented by the school, which read "Light is four tables", so he picked the word "Light" and put it behind it, thinking that "Light is shining on all sides" is also a good meaning. Therefore, after the age of 14, Zhong Kui became the Four Lights.
▲Li Siguang's original name is Li Zhongkui. When he was fourteen years old, he changed his name to Li Siguang when he applied for Wuchang Higher Elementary School. He was renamed Li Siguang
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. Two Yi majors, scientifically save the country
5 years old, Li Siguang was selected to study in Japan for his excellent grades. In order to realize his dream of building strong ships and powerful guns when he was a child, he applied for the ship manufacturing major at Osaka Higher Industrial School. After arriving in Japan, he met revolutionary students such as Song Jiaoren and Ma Junwu , and under their introduction, he met Sun Yat-sen. Influenced by the idea of democratic revolution, he gradually realized that the main reason why China is always bullied by the great powers is that the Qing government was too corrupt. If we want to make China stronger, the first thing we have to do is to overthrow the corrupt Qing government. So he actively participated in various activities of these students in Japan.
On the day of the establishment of Tongmenghui , Li Siguang became the youngest founding member of Tongmenghui. At that time, Sun Yat-sen led everyone to ask about Li Siguang's age after the oath was over. Li Siguang replied, "I am 16 years old this year." Sun Yat-sen said very happily that Li Siguang from Hubei yearned for revolution at the age of 16, which is very good! So I gave him eight words - to study hard, and it is a national ownership. Li Siguang used his life to practice these eight words.
▲Sun Yat-sen gave Li Siguang eight words - strive to learn, Wei is a state-owned
910, after Li Siguang graduated, he returned to an industrial school in Wuhan to teach. In the summer of 1911, he received a notice from the Qing government to go to Beijing to take the international student exam. After the results were announced, he was awarded the Jinshi of Engineering. While waiting for the results to be released in Beijing, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. After hearing the news, Li Siguang was extremely excited and immediately rushed back to Wuchang to participate in the uprising. Due to his performance in the Wuchang Uprising, he was elected as the director of the Hubei Provincial Industrial Department by a high vote.
After Li Siguang served as director for more than a month, he found that although the Qing government collapsed, the bad habits in the officialdom did not change at all. At the same time, Yuan Shikai usurped the results of the revolution and became the president of the Republic of China. Like many students participating in , Xinhai Revolution, Li Siguang was very angry and disappointed by this result. He thought to himself, we sacrificed so many people and spent so much effort to finally overthrow an emperor and another warlord came. Where is the future of our revolution? If the revolution fails to make you angry, you are not too old, so you might as well go out and learn something.
At that time, Li Siguang returned from studying in Japan and found that China could not build ships at all. It required steel to build ships, and China did not even have iron ore to make steel. So he once again chose the path of saving the country by science and went to the UK to study mining major. After studying mining for a year, he found that China could not mine mines at that time because China did not have systematic geology and did not know where the mine was, so naturally there was no way to mine. So he changed to geology.
▲In 1913, Li Siguang (right) went to the UK to study mining
After Li Siguang studied geology, he gradually discovered that geology at the beginning of the last century was not a complete science, but a purely descriptive science. He believes that if a science wants to develop, it must go through a process of directed to quantitative, which requires some tools. So he went to the physics department to study, and then took advanced mathematics , and studied German and French by himself, which were of great help to his future research work.
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responded to the call of the motherland
919, Li Siguang obtained his master's degree from Birmingham University and received an invitation from Cai Yuanpei, then president of Peking University to teach at Peking University . From 1921 to 1936, he served as a professor and director of the Department of Geology at Peking University. Among the students he taught, more than 20 students later became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and were a leader in geological science research in New China.
▲ From 1921 to 1936, Li Siguang (middle school) taught at Peking University. More than 20 of his students later became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
922, Li Siguang and Zhang Hongzhao , Ding Wenjiang , Weng Wenhao , etc. jointly initiated the establishment of Chinese Geological Society , and was elected as the first vice president and served as the president of the Chinese Geological Society 10 times. In 1927, he accepted the invitation of Mr. Cai Yuanpei again and came to Nanjing to establish the Institute of Geology, the newly established Central Research Institute, and served as the director for 22 years.
▲In 1927, Li Siguang went to Nanjing to establish the Institute of Geology of the Central Academy of Research and served as director for 22 years. The picture shows a photo of the Institute of Geology, Central Research Institute
During the Anti-Japanese War, Li Siguang moved the Institute of Geology to Guilin, Guangxi. In the arduous war environment, he insisted on doing geological research in southwestern China, searching for coal mines for the local area, and founded the Guilin Science Museum to popularize scientific knowledge.
▲During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Siguang carried out geological surveys in the southwest. The picture shows Li Siguang taking a photo with geological investigators
948, Li Siguang went to the UK on behalf of the Chinese Geological Society to attend the 18th International Geological Conference, and stayed in the UK for some geological investigations after the meeting. In September 1949, the first CPPCC meeting was held, and major newspapers published a list of CPPCC members, including Li Siguang. The Taiwanese authorities were very angry when they saw this and instructed the ambassador to the UK to find Li Siguang, asking him to issue a statement to refuse to accept the position of CPPCC member and ask him to promise that he would not return to China.
▲In 1948, Li Siguang went to the UK to attend the 18th International Geological Conference. He was the only Asian among them, which shows that Chinese geological science has occupied a place in the world's geological sciences (the thirteenth from the right of the second row is Li Siguang)
After Li Siguang learned the news, he called him in advance and told him that if he wanted to leave, he had to leave immediately, otherwise he would not be able to leave if he was detained. Li Siguang carried a small box that night and crossed the English Channel by himself. After arriving in France, he went to Switzerland , and finally went to Hong Kong through Italy and went back to his motherland for several months.
▲The official document box that Li Siguang carried with him when he left the UK
The second week after returning to Beijing, Premier Zhou Enlai talked with him for more than three hours. The founding of New China There are a lot to be done. To carry out large-scale construction, construction requires resources, and we need to find out the resources ourselves. administrative management work is not Li Siguang's interest or his expertise, but the country needs it, so he accepted the task of organizing geologists across the country. He served as the first director of the Ministry of Geology of the new government, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, chairman of the National Federation of Science and Technology, and vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1958, Li Siguang honorably joined the Communist Party of China. After joining the party, he said, "I am nearly seventy years old and finally found the destination of my life."
▲Planning photo of Premier Zhou and Li Siguang (left)
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Don't believe in the judgment of foreign authorities
Many people understand that Li Siguang is through oil. In the last century, the mainstream view in the scientific community believed that China was a poor country, but Li Siguang did not think so.
When the first "Five-Year Plan" began in 1953, the central government was very anxious and consulted many geologists, including Soviet experts, on the prospects of China's oil. Is China really oil? If there is really no oil, we will take the path of artificial fuel. Only Li Siguang gave a positive answer. He said that China does not need to take the path of artificial fuel. We have rich oil and gas resources, but we must carry out a large-scale oil census immediately.
▲Li Siguang led geological personnel to carry out exploration work, found oil for China, and took off the hat of "China's oil-poor" in one fell swoop
From 1953 to 1959, after six years of arduous exploration work, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, we finally drilled an oil well with industrial oil flow on Songliao Plain , confirming that there are large oil fields in eastern China to exploit. Then the Daqing Oilfield Battle was launched, which quickly solved the problem of oil self-sufficiency at that time. Under the theoretical guidance of Li Siguang, the exploration team discovered the oil fields such as Daqing , Shengli, Dagang, North China , Jianghan in a very short time, and took off the label of "China's oil-poor" in one fell swoop.
Similarly, since the 19th century, geologists from Germany, the United States, France, Sweden, and other countries have come to China to explore minerals and investigate geology. However, they have never discovered Quaternary glaciers in China, so without doing detailed work, they arbitrarily believe that there is no Quaternary glacier in China.
921, Li Siguang and his students were internships at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain and in the Datong Basin of , and found a large number of glacier relics similar to those during their inspection in the Alps.He thought to himself, was it because China's climate is different from Europe that the glaciers are neglected? In 1922, he wrote these discoveries into an article and published them in the Cambridge Geology Journal. He thought they would cause major controversy, but in the end no one cared about them. After watching the famous Swedish geologist Antesen , he snorted contemptuously; some people also said sarcastic words and joked that Li Siguang had been a Peking University professor for a year and challenged the world master. Li Siguang was very depressed after hearing this, but he thought that his discovery was not taken seriously, because he had not done enough work and not enough evidence.
So he did not publish any articles on glaciers in the next 10 years, but he has never stopped researching glaciers. It was not until the summer of 1931 that he and his students discovered more glacier relics while internship in Lushan ... After that, he worked in Lushan for many years and completed the book "Lushan in the Ice Age" in early 1937. After the manuscript of this book was completed, Anti-Japanese War broke out. In order not to lose the manuscript in the war, he entrusted the manuscript to the British "Natural" impurities for preservation. In 1947, the book was officially published in both Chinese and English.
▲ "Astronomy, Geology, Paleobiology" is a popular science book written by Li Siguang to Chairman Mao. In the book, he mentioned that in order to develop systematic science, not only to study geology and the earth, but also to study celestial bodies
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A lifelong obsessed with stones
There is a big stone in the back mountain of Li Siguang's family. He has been curious about this stone since he was a child. After learning geology, he returned to his hometown in 1933. After careful investigation, he concluded that this stone was carried by a glacier from the distant Qinling Mountains to his hometown Huanggang . This is an evidence of the existence of glaciers in China.
▲The large stone on the back mountain of Li Siguang's family
A family is a microbial paleontology that first appeared in the early Carboniferous period and has always been an important fossil to divide geological ages. Through his research on fossils of the Ali family, Li Siguang found that the Carboniferous Permian in southern China was dominant in marine strata, while the Carboniferous Permian strata in the north was mainly composed of terrestrial strata. Li Siguang believes that this is a major issue that cannot be ignored. In order to study and solve this problem, after decades of continuous exploration, he finally founded a new theory - geological mechanics. The word "南" was created by Li Siguang. Generally, fossils are named in Latin, and you can give a name if you translate it into Chinese. In my country, people are used to calling spindle "玉", and this little insect looks like a weaving shuttle , and the name is not very accurate with the word "玉", so he simply added the word "玉" next to it, and the word "玉" was created like this.
One day in 1955, Li Siguang took out a piece of black and yellow ore brought back from the field and handed it to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other leaders to pass it on. This ore was the uranium ore that the Ministry of Geology led by Li Siguang had been looking for. It was discovered by the uranium ore geological exploration team after a large number of hard-working on-site surveys. Starting from uranium ore , China's nuclear industry embarked on a journey of development.
▲The first uranium ore collected by Li Siguang
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A kind and respectable grandfather
My grandfather passed away early, and I always called my grandfather Li Siguang "grandfather". We are more than 60 years apart. In his eyes, I am a little brat, so he spoils me very much. At that time, all the elderly in the Ministry of Geology knew that there was a small follower behind the old minister.
When he was a child, he often told stories to make me happy. I still remember the limerick poem "Snow Poem" he taught me: The country is in general, with a black hole in the well, a white yellow dog's body, and a swollen white dog's body. I kept kicking the quilt at night, so he made me a sleeping bag and tied me inside. When I was a child, I didn’t eat well and ran around, so he took a piece of bread and said, “Come here, let’s play the game of hiding cats.” As he said that, he picked up a piece of bread and put it in my mouth.When I grew up, my mother said, didn’t you eat cats when you were a child?
So, Li Siguang is actually not much different from other grandpas. Grandpa loves my mother very much and is also a very good husband. People say that my grandma is so lucky. Some people think that scientists are doing scientific research day and night, and their families don’t care about it. I don’t think so. Grandpa was very busy, but he spent all his free time on his family and gave all his love. I often joke that he is using quality to replace quantity, so we never feel that he is ignoring family.
▲Hi violin song " hard to walk " created by Li Siguang is verified to be the first violin
At that time, my father Zou Chenglu (Li Siguang's son-in-law, famous biochemist, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) worked in Shanghai, and his mother Li Lin (Li Siguang's daughter, famous physicist, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) came back once a week in the institute. Someone asked me, when you were a child, you always stayed with your grandparents, and your parents didn’t care about you, were you particularly sad? I said no, I was very happy because the old couple didn’t care about my studies, and I was just a “three-point student”. My mother came back on Saturday night and left on Sunday night, and I started to get nervous on Saturday morning because she knew I had another three points as soon as she arrived. She also always told my grandma that our family’s living conditions are so good, there are drivers, chefs, and nannies, which made her spoiled, so I planned to send her to boarding school. My grandma replied angrily, "You don't come back all day long, and you finally have her with us. You still want to bring her to the boarding school, so you are not allowed to go!"
If you want to annoy Zou Chenglu in one sentence, you can say that he is Li Siguang's son-in-law. He felt that one study geology and the other studied biochemistry, and the other studied it had nothing to do with it. People always felt that he had taken advantage of Li Siguang. In fact, they both didn't talk much at home, they were all doing their own things. In my later years, I once chatted with my father and asked him that there were so many people doing geological research at that time, and who had a higher level. He said, your grandpa is much better than them.
Our grandfather, father and mother are all academicians, and I am the most unpromising person in our family. But I have no regrets. Because my grandfather taught me to be an honest, useful and happy person, I am very grateful for his cultivation and teachings to me.
Postscript:
On the same day, the group of people also visited the Li Siguang Memorial Hall under the guidance of Ms. Zou Zongping. The memorial hall is the 2022 Scientist Spiritual Education Base, and was selected into the first batch of national science popularization education bases. It was originally the residence of geologist Li Siguang. The collection in the museum traces important life clips such as Li Siguang studying in Japan and the UK, participating in the Revolution of 1911, resolutely returning to China to develop education and science, and devote himself to the construction of New China. The visitors deeply understood the sincere patriotism of Mr.
Li Siguang's life vividly practiced the scientist spirit of "patriotism, innovation, realistic, dedication, collaboration, and education", and inspired generations of young people. Zou Zongping said that her greatest wish now is to promote Li Siguang's scientific and innovative spirit, and hope that more people will follow the same path as him, work hard to learn, and make a national use.
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5On the day of the establishment of Tongmenghui , Li Siguang became the youngest founding member of Tongmenghui. At that time, Sun Yat-sen led everyone to ask about Li Siguang's age after the oath was over. Li Siguang replied, "I am 16 years old this year." Sun Yat-sen said very happily that Li Siguang from Hubei yearned for revolution at the age of 16, which is very good! So I gave him eight words - to study hard, and it is a national ownership. Li Siguang used his life to practice these eight words.
▲Sun Yat-sen gave Li Siguang eight words - strive to learn, Wei is a state-owned
910, after Li Siguang graduated, he returned to an industrial school in Wuhan to teach. In the summer of 1911, he received a notice from the Qing government to go to Beijing to take the international student exam. After the results were announced, he was awarded the Jinshi of Engineering. While waiting for the results to be released in Beijing, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. After hearing the news, Li Siguang was extremely excited and immediately rushed back to Wuchang to participate in the uprising. Due to his performance in the Wuchang Uprising, he was elected as the director of the Hubei Provincial Industrial Department by a high vote.
After Li Siguang served as director for more than a month, he found that although the Qing government collapsed, the bad habits in the officialdom did not change at all. At the same time, Yuan Shikai usurped the results of the revolution and became the president of the Republic of China. Like many students participating in , Xinhai Revolution, Li Siguang was very angry and disappointed by this result. He thought to himself, we sacrificed so many people and spent so much effort to finally overthrow an emperor and another warlord came. Where is the future of our revolution? If the revolution fails to make you angry, you are not too old, so you might as well go out and learn something.
At that time, Li Siguang returned from studying in Japan and found that China could not build ships at all. It required steel to build ships, and China did not even have iron ore to make steel. So he once again chose the path of saving the country by science and went to the UK to study mining major. After studying mining for a year, he found that China could not mine mines at that time because China did not have systematic geology and did not know where the mine was, so naturally there was no way to mine. So he changed to geology.
▲In 1913, Li Siguang (right) went to the UK to study mining
After Li Siguang studied geology, he gradually discovered that geology at the beginning of the last century was not a complete science, but a purely descriptive science. He believes that if a science wants to develop, it must go through a process of directed to quantitative, which requires some tools. So he went to the physics department to study, and then took advanced mathematics , and studied German and French by himself, which were of great help to his future research work.
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
responded to the call of the motherland
919, Li Siguang obtained his master's degree from Birmingham University and received an invitation from Cai Yuanpei, then president of Peking University to teach at Peking University . From 1921 to 1936, he served as a professor and director of the Department of Geology at Peking University. Among the students he taught, more than 20 students later became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and were a leader in geological science research in New China.
▲ From 1921 to 1936, Li Siguang (middle school) taught at Peking University. More than 20 of his students later became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
922, Li Siguang and Zhang Hongzhao , Ding Wenjiang , Weng Wenhao , etc. jointly initiated the establishment of Chinese Geological Society , and was elected as the first vice president and served as the president of the Chinese Geological Society 10 times. In 1927, he accepted the invitation of Mr. Cai Yuanpei again and came to Nanjing to establish the Institute of Geology, the newly established Central Research Institute, and served as the director for 22 years.
▲In 1927, Li Siguang went to Nanjing to establish the Institute of Geology of the Central Academy of Research and served as director for 22 years. The picture shows a photo of the Institute of Geology, Central Research Institute
During the Anti-Japanese War, Li Siguang moved the Institute of Geology to Guilin, Guangxi. In the arduous war environment, he insisted on doing geological research in southwestern China, searching for coal mines for the local area, and founded the Guilin Science Museum to popularize scientific knowledge.
▲During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Siguang carried out geological surveys in the southwest. The picture shows Li Siguang taking a photo with geological investigators
948, Li Siguang went to the UK on behalf of the Chinese Geological Society to attend the 18th International Geological Conference, and stayed in the UK for some geological investigations after the meeting. In September 1949, the first CPPCC meeting was held, and major newspapers published a list of CPPCC members, including Li Siguang. The Taiwanese authorities were very angry when they saw this and instructed the ambassador to the UK to find Li Siguang, asking him to issue a statement to refuse to accept the position of CPPCC member and ask him to promise that he would not return to China.
▲In 1948, Li Siguang went to the UK to attend the 18th International Geological Conference. He was the only Asian among them, which shows that Chinese geological science has occupied a place in the world's geological sciences (the thirteenth from the right of the second row is Li Siguang)
After Li Siguang learned the news, he called him in advance and told him that if he wanted to leave, he had to leave immediately, otherwise he would not be able to leave if he was detained. Li Siguang carried a small box that night and crossed the English Channel by himself. After arriving in France, he went to Switzerland , and finally went to Hong Kong through Italy and went back to his motherland for several months.
▲The official document box that Li Siguang carried with him when he left the UK
The second week after returning to Beijing, Premier Zhou Enlai talked with him for more than three hours. The founding of New China There are a lot to be done. To carry out large-scale construction, construction requires resources, and we need to find out the resources ourselves. administrative management work is not Li Siguang's interest or his expertise, but the country needs it, so he accepted the task of organizing geologists across the country. He served as the first director of the Ministry of Geology of the new government, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, chairman of the National Federation of Science and Technology, and vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1958, Li Siguang honorably joined the Communist Party of China. After joining the party, he said, "I am nearly seventy years old and finally found the destination of my life."
▲Planning photo of Premier Zhou and Li Siguang (left)
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
Don't believe in the judgment of foreign authorities
Many people understand that Li Siguang is through oil. In the last century, the mainstream view in the scientific community believed that China was a poor country, but Li Siguang did not think so.
When the first "Five-Year Plan" began in 1953, the central government was very anxious and consulted many geologists, including Soviet experts, on the prospects of China's oil. Is China really oil? If there is really no oil, we will take the path of artificial fuel. Only Li Siguang gave a positive answer. He said that China does not need to take the path of artificial fuel. We have rich oil and gas resources, but we must carry out a large-scale oil census immediately.
▲Li Siguang led geological personnel to carry out exploration work, found oil for China, and took off the hat of "China's oil-poor" in one fell swoop
From 1953 to 1959, after six years of arduous exploration work, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, we finally drilled an oil well with industrial oil flow on Songliao Plain , confirming that there are large oil fields in eastern China to exploit. Then the Daqing Oilfield Battle was launched, which quickly solved the problem of oil self-sufficiency at that time. Under the theoretical guidance of Li Siguang, the exploration team discovered the oil fields such as Daqing , Shengli, Dagang, North China , Jianghan in a very short time, and took off the label of "China's oil-poor" in one fell swoop.
Similarly, since the 19th century, geologists from Germany, the United States, France, Sweden, and other countries have come to China to explore minerals and investigate geology. However, they have never discovered Quaternary glaciers in China, so without doing detailed work, they arbitrarily believe that there is no Quaternary glacier in China.
921, Li Siguang and his students were internships at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain and in the Datong Basin of , and found a large number of glacier relics similar to those during their inspection in the Alps.He thought to himself, was it because China's climate is different from Europe that the glaciers are neglected? In 1922, he wrote these discoveries into an article and published them in the Cambridge Geology Journal. He thought they would cause major controversy, but in the end no one cared about them. After watching the famous Swedish geologist Antesen , he snorted contemptuously; some people also said sarcastic words and joked that Li Siguang had been a Peking University professor for a year and challenged the world master. Li Siguang was very depressed after hearing this, but he thought that his discovery was not taken seriously, because he had not done enough work and not enough evidence.
So he did not publish any articles on glaciers in the next 10 years, but he has never stopped researching glaciers. It was not until the summer of 1931 that he and his students discovered more glacier relics while internship in Lushan ... After that, he worked in Lushan for many years and completed the book "Lushan in the Ice Age" in early 1937. After the manuscript of this book was completed, Anti-Japanese War broke out. In order not to lose the manuscript in the war, he entrusted the manuscript to the British "Natural" impurities for preservation. In 1947, the book was officially published in both Chinese and English.
▲ "Astronomy, Geology, Paleobiology" is a popular science book written by Li Siguang to Chairman Mao. In the book, he mentioned that in order to develop systematic science, not only to study geology and the earth, but also to study celestial bodies
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
A lifelong obsessed with stones
There is a big stone in the back mountain of Li Siguang's family. He has been curious about this stone since he was a child. After learning geology, he returned to his hometown in 1933. After careful investigation, he concluded that this stone was carried by a glacier from the distant Qinling Mountains to his hometown Huanggang . This is an evidence of the existence of glaciers in China.
▲The large stone on the back mountain of Li Siguang's family
A family is a microbial paleontology that first appeared in the early Carboniferous period and has always been an important fossil to divide geological ages. Through his research on fossils of the Ali family, Li Siguang found that the Carboniferous Permian in southern China was dominant in marine strata, while the Carboniferous Permian strata in the north was mainly composed of terrestrial strata. Li Siguang believes that this is a major issue that cannot be ignored. In order to study and solve this problem, after decades of continuous exploration, he finally founded a new theory - geological mechanics. The word "南" was created by Li Siguang. Generally, fossils are named in Latin, and you can give a name if you translate it into Chinese. In my country, people are used to calling spindle "玉", and this little insect looks like a weaving shuttle , and the name is not very accurate with the word "玉", so he simply added the word "玉" next to it, and the word "玉" was created like this.
One day in 1955, Li Siguang took out a piece of black and yellow ore brought back from the field and handed it to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other leaders to pass it on. This ore was the uranium ore that the Ministry of Geology led by Li Siguang had been looking for. It was discovered by the uranium ore geological exploration team after a large number of hard-working on-site surveys. Starting from uranium ore , China's nuclear industry embarked on a journey of development.
▲The first uranium ore collected by Li Siguang
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A kind and respectable grandfather
My grandfather passed away early, and I always called my grandfather Li Siguang "grandfather". We are more than 60 years apart. In his eyes, I am a little brat, so he spoils me very much. At that time, all the elderly in the Ministry of Geology knew that there was a small follower behind the old minister.
When he was a child, he often told stories to make me happy. I still remember the limerick poem "Snow Poem" he taught me: The country is in general, with a black hole in the well, a white yellow dog's body, and a swollen white dog's body. I kept kicking the quilt at night, so he made me a sleeping bag and tied me inside. When I was a child, I didn’t eat well and ran around, so he took a piece of bread and said, “Come here, let’s play the game of hiding cats.” As he said that, he picked up a piece of bread and put it in my mouth.When I grew up, my mother said, didn’t you eat cats when you were a child?
So, Li Siguang is actually not much different from other grandpas. Grandpa loves my mother very much and is also a very good husband. People say that my grandma is so lucky. Some people think that scientists are doing scientific research day and night, and their families don’t care about it. I don’t think so. Grandpa was very busy, but he spent all his free time on his family and gave all his love. I often joke that he is using quality to replace quantity, so we never feel that he is ignoring family.
▲Hi violin song " hard to walk " created by Li Siguang is verified to be the first violin
At that time, my father Zou Chenglu (Li Siguang's son-in-law, famous biochemist, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) worked in Shanghai, and his mother Li Lin (Li Siguang's daughter, famous physicist, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) came back once a week in the institute. Someone asked me, when you were a child, you always stayed with your grandparents, and your parents didn’t care about you, were you particularly sad? I said no, I was very happy because the old couple didn’t care about my studies, and I was just a “three-point student”. My mother came back on Saturday night and left on Sunday night, and I started to get nervous on Saturday morning because she knew I had another three points as soon as she arrived. She also always told my grandma that our family’s living conditions are so good, there are drivers, chefs, and nannies, which made her spoiled, so I planned to send her to boarding school. My grandma replied angrily, "You don't come back all day long, and you finally have her with us. You still want to bring her to the boarding school, so you are not allowed to go!"
If you want to annoy Zou Chenglu in one sentence, you can say that he is Li Siguang's son-in-law. He felt that one study geology and the other studied biochemistry, and the other studied it had nothing to do with it. People always felt that he had taken advantage of Li Siguang. In fact, they both didn't talk much at home, they were all doing their own things. In my later years, I once chatted with my father and asked him that there were so many people doing geological research at that time, and who had a higher level. He said, your grandpa is much better than them.
Our grandfather, father and mother are all academicians, and I am the most unpromising person in our family. But I have no regrets. Because my grandfather taught me to be an honest, useful and happy person, I am very grateful for his cultivation and teachings to me.
Postscript:
On the same day, the group of people also visited the Li Siguang Memorial Hall under the guidance of Ms. Zou Zongping. The memorial hall is the 2022 Scientist Spiritual Education Base, and was selected into the first batch of national science popularization education bases. It was originally the residence of geologist Li Siguang. The collection in the museum traces important life clips such as Li Siguang studying in Japan and the UK, participating in the Revolution of 1911, resolutely returning to China to develop education and science, and devote himself to the construction of New China. The visitors deeply understood the sincere patriotism of Mr.
Li Siguang's life vividly practiced the scientist spirit of "patriotism, innovation, realistic, dedication, collaboration, and education", and inspired generations of young people. Zou Zongping said that her greatest wish now is to promote Li Siguang's scientific and innovative spirit, and hope that more people will follow the same path as him, work hard to learn, and make a national use.
Produced by: Science Popularization Central Kitchen
Producer: Beijing Science and Technology News | Beike Media
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