Academician Yang Shuzi's Poetry campus

Cultural storm baptism Yujiashan

When HUST was still the Chinese Institute of Technology (Huazhong Institute of Technology), some students used to compare the campus, with its horizontal and vertical roads, to a piece of graph paper. 20 over the years, south China university of technology a large south China university of technology (Hua Zhong university of science and technology) and the China science and technology university, the reporter walks into the shade cover university again, like walking into an antithesis of neat poetry, because the trees in the campus are not only increased the rings around and a circle, also witnessed a meet a stretch for nearly 20 years of "humanity" storm.

On February 16, the interview was conducted for no other reason than to find out the source of the cultural storm -- Shuzi Yang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who "pays for years with poetry, but never dreams of fame".

President for four and a half years and director of the academic committee for 14 years, Uncle Yang has worked in the simple South third floor for 18 and a half years. Last year, he stepped down as dean of the academic council and moved his office to a new mechanical building. The academician, who is nearly 80 years old, made tea and water for the reporter personally, making the reporter feel like a spring breeze. "You see, my office space has doubled from about 20 square meters before. Now, the secretary and the principal are still on the south third floor, and the office is still about 20 square meters. They share the same secretary's room, which is also about 20 square meters. They have worked hard and cooperated, and played a good role in setting an example for the whole school."

As the university celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, the academician told reporters that he is planning to write a poem about Yujiashan, the South third floor, the campus forest, and the Youth Garden on campus. He also plans to write a poem about the thousands of osmanthus flowers on campus.

The teaching of scientific humanistic poetry should go first

Yang Shuzi's poetry was "discovered" after he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences (academician) in 1991 at the age of 58, and achieved "zero breakthroughs" at the University of Chinese Engineering. At the celebration, he recited the seven rules of his love: happy tears of communication, unexpectedly evening meditation 38 autumns. Towering trees begin to cultivate, high-rises everywhere pioneering; Dare to be ambitious reward book history, let the Chinese Nian regret shame? ! Drinking water should know the distant source, journey jump horse over the head.

Yang Shuzi's first poem, "The View of Rain", was completed at the age of 13: thousands of threads hanging in the air, and heavy rain obscured the endless hope. All around the castle's peak cloud cover, pedestrians vanished birds. Since then, his poems have continuously recorded unforgettable moments in his life: in January 1950, he joined the Youth League of Nanchang No.1 Middle School; In 1952, he was admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University. In the following year, he was readjusted to the Huazhong Institute of Technology. In February 1956, he joined the Communist Party of China, and in April of the same year, he became an outstanding graduate of the university. In October 1980, he was promoted to become one of the youngest professors in Wuhan.

Why does an academician with an engineering background advocate the humanistic education of "poetry teaching first"? The academician said it had something to do with his childhood experience. He was born in 1933 at the mouth of Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, where Shizhong Mountain stands on the shore. His father, Yang Gengsheng, was a famous patriotic scholar and one of the earliest Tongmenghui members in Jiangxi. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Uncle Yang was less than 5 years old and fled with his family. His father told him seriously, "We are Chinese and will never be subjugated, slaves. If the devils catch up with us, we will throw ourselves into the river." In the escape, his father dictated to him "Three hundred Tang", the first of which was Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thinking". Father said: "My son, when you see the moon, you should think of the mouth of the lake, think of the stone Zhong Mountain, think of the home being occupied by the Japanese, think of the national shame."

In primary school, Yang Shuzi's knowledge of science and technology was poor, especially mathematics became a big problem for him. It is preschool "poetry teaching", letting him know that "young do not work hard, old acts sad", and "Mo idle, white young head, empty sad". Soon, he became good at math.

The spirit of poetry is the soul of the nation

In January 1993, Uncle Yang became the president of the University. He said, the school has a strong unity, and understands the education collective, "education is to educate people, not 'machine'!" Since then, this science and engineering-oriented university has set off a well-known humanistic storm after another: all students, including science and engineering students, take the Chinese language test once a year and fail to receive a degree certificate. All undergraduates must earn two humanities credits per year or they cannot graduate. By 2007, the university had listed the Chinese Language as a compulsory course for undergraduates, who could not graduate if they failed.

In 1997, when he was about to step down as president, he began to require his doctoral students to be able to recite the first seven articles of Laozi and the Analects of Confucius. If they did not recite them, they would not accept their thesis defense. This is still his iron rule. "Science and humanities, different and harmonious." Yang repeatedly stressed to reporters, "Genes will be inherited, culture should be passed on. Without modern science and technology, a nation will fall behind and collapse at a blow. Without national culture, it will be alienated and collapse."

In humanistic culture, poetry is the diamond in the crown of Chinese national literature, "Know whether the soul of poetry is the soul of the nation", "the soul of the country is the soul of poetry". In the late 1990s, with the strong support of Uncle Yang, the Yoga Poetry Club of the University initiated the Chinese poetry Creation class of the University of Science and Engineering. He often quoted the great American poet Walt Whitman's words to encourage his students: "The highest proof of a nation is the poetry it produces."

Given the phenomenon that college students should learn to be normal when they have to go to kindergarten, Uncle Yang proposed to let Chinese poetry into primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, and thousands of families. "The river city of Wuhan is full of poetry," academician earnestly hopes that children in Wuhan should learn to feel the taste of hometown poetry from an early age: to Guqintai, taste the "high mountains and running water", the hope of friends in the world; At the Yellow Crane Tower, see the Great River north - Although the overall trend of the Yangtze River is east to the sea, the Wuhan section is not "the Great river east", but from south to north. The river flows to the east, there are reflux, twists, turns, whirlpools, mud, and sand, but "castle peak can not cover, after all, the east flow." There is both philosophy and history here.