Sleeping on the bench of the great scientist Tu Yuanji

"Enough is enough"

Qian turned 80 in 1991, the same year that the China Association for Science and Technology would change its leadership, Qian would quit all frontline science and technology work. To recognize his contribution to Chinese science and technology, the central government is considering awarding him the honorary title of "National Outstanding Contribution Scientist". But Qian knew nothing about the whole process, and the award ceremony was held on Oct. 16.

When everything was ready, on October 10, the person concerned reported to him. Qian is calm about such a high accolade and is not getting carried away. After the award ceremony, the news media appeared with a propaganda Qian Xuesen, learn Qian Xuesen climax.

Those days, Tu Yuanji's secretary is also very busy. One morning, Qian called him to his office. The first sentence is: "Why are you still busy? Everything we do, we should have a limit, and this (referring to the publicity about him) should be enough. The newspapers have been saying nice things about me these days, and I'm upset about it. Aren't there different opinions, different voices?"

Tu Yuanji answered frankly and heard some different opinions. "Some young people say, how come the Party's intellectual policy has been applied to Qian Xuesen?"

Old Qian immediately said, "The situation you mentioned is very important. It shows that this matter involves the party's intellectual policy. The country has given me such a high honor, the reward is not me, but I represent the collective, that generation. So the name 'Qian Xuesen' is not entirely my own anymore, and I have to be very careful. In today's science and technology industry, there are people older than me, some of my peers, and much younger than me. Everyone is making contributions to the national science and technology cause in their respective posts. Do not GO too far in publicizing Qian Xuesen, hurting others' feelings and affecting their enthusiasm. That is not Qian Xuesen's problem, but it will involve the comprehensive implementation of the Party's intellectual policy. So enough is enough, and it's time to draw a full stop. Please call some newspapers and magazines immediately and ask them to take down all the articles promoting Qian Xuesen. Starting tomorrow, no more propaganda."

Secretary Tu returned to his office and did as he was told. "Guangming Daily", "science and technology daily" and so on, have expressed respect for Qian Lao's own opinion, tomorrow no longer see the newspaper. There is a magazine, that also said to respect the old opinions of money, but the next issue of the manuscript has been set up in the factory, there are two memories and money in the old communication by the article, it is not easy to withdraw.

After hearing the news, Qian said, "Such reminiscence articles are published only after a person has died. I'm not dead yet. What's their rush?" The secretary quickly called the chief editor of the magazine and told him, "Mr. Qian has talked about this. You should try to overcome the great difficulties, but the manuscript must be withdrawn."

At Mr. Qian's unceremonious insistence, his campaign came to an end.

Since then, all requests to publish Qian's biography have been rejected by Qian's office.

A strict teacher makes a good student

Qian is very strict with his students. Professor W.R. Sears once visited a star professor at MIT who had been Qian's best student in the United States. "Professor Qian's exams are very difficult," he said. "He may give four or five questions and you can only hope to solve one or give A good start to more than one of them. If you do that and do it well, you will get an A from Professor Qian."

Interestingly, Qian brought his successful teaching methods back to China. When he WAS HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICS AT THE University OF SCIENCE and Technology of China (USTC), he GAVE THE FIRST STUDENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICS AT THE UNIVERSITY of Science and Technology (HKUST) a meal of "Kill the WITch-STICK". His open-book exam had only two questions, the first concept question, which was worth 30 points; The second question, the real test, was, "To launch a rocket from the Earth, go around the sun and return to the Earth, write down the equations to solve." The problem puzzled the whole class. If you usually only dead reading will not use, do not come out.

The exam began at 8:30 a.m., and no one turned in their papers until noon. Two students fainted during the exam and were carried out. Old Qian announced, "Have lunch, and then take the test." They could not do it until the evening, so they had to hand in their papers. When the results came out, 95% of them failed.

Of course, the old money exam is not deliberately difficult for students, in the "lesson" their purpose to achieve, also have to let most of the students pass! So he thought of a "strange trick": each student's test paper score square root multiplied by 10, the final score of the test. So if you get 36 points, the square root is 6, and times 10 is 60 points. So anyone with a score above 36 can pass; If you are a top student, 100 points out of 100, 100 is equal to 10, multiply by 10 or 100 points. So anyone who gets a 100 is not hurt. No one could fault the reasonableness of his strange trick, and the result was that 80% of the people passed, and everyone was happy.

Pass TO PASS, BUT who admit their mathematical foundation is not enough, then money old decision, the graduate OF FORCE DEPARTMENT delays half a year graduation, special REMEDIAL MATHEMATICS, USED TEACHING MATERIAL IS California INSTITUTE of TECHNOLOGY "ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS". In half a year, each student did more than 3,000 math problems alone. Thanks to a solid foundation in mathematics, the students benefited a lot, and they became the top talents among their peers in their later work. Some of them played important roles in the "two bombs and one satellite" work, and several academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering were selected.

Sleeping on the bench

Great scientists

In the mid-1960s, the Central Military Commission decided to build a new launch test base in Shanxi to carry out the full test of the DF-3 and other test missions. The base began to survey and select sites in early 1966, and the main projects of the first phase of the project were completed by the end of 1968, after which it was put into the launch test mission. It is conceivable that in this case, in addition to the basic launch positions, technical positions, and other acceptance, even communications command, and supporting works are very simple, not to mention a variety of supporting facilities.

Shortly after the base was completed, Qian went to the Taiyuan Launch Center in Shanxi Province to organize and command missile launch missions. Qian was accompanied by Yu Longhuai of the China Academy of Rocket Technology, who organized and coordinated the mission and was on duty with Qian at the command center.

The missile was originally scheduled to be launched at 5 p.m., but due to problems with preparations, the launch was postponed to midnight and then to early the next morning. After a sleepless night, some young people could not hold on any longer. Everyone advised Qian Xuesen, who was nearly 60 at that time, to leave the command hall and have a rest, but Qian insisted on staying in his command post. The command hall was very basic, except for a few tables and benches, not even a sofa chair. Like everyone else, Qian Xuesen moved two wooden benches together and lay down to rest in his clothes.

Looking at Qian Xuesen lying down wearing an old military uniform, in the heart of Longhua uneasy and respect oil, however. He thought: such a scientist, if stay in the United States, the working and living conditions do not know how many times better than back home, but he resolutely came back. For the prosperity of the motherland, he and I now lie together on the cold and hard bench, I am a young man, and he is an old man nearly 60 years old! Thinking of thinking, Yu Longhuai's eyes wet, and tears blurred his eyes......