Zhu Kezhen: The weather is always changing, but your heart remains unchanged

Liu Qian and Zhang Yingxian

Editor's Note

Recently, the Publicity and Culture Department of the China Association for Science and Technology and the Department of Supervision of Extracurricular Education and Training of the Ministry of Education issued the "2024 Tasks for the Scientist Story Maker Space", aiming to vigorously promote the spirit of scientists, tell good stories about scientists, and promote science education in primary and secondary schools. Not long ago, at a "Scientist Story Maker Space" event in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, Yang Shufeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at the School of Earth Sciences of Zhejiang University, took the children to review the story of Zhu Kezhen, a Chinese meteorologist, geographer, and educator.

Zhu Kezhen was an outstanding scientist. When he was admitted to the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program in the United States, he chose agronomy for the benefit of the country and the people. No matter where he was, his sincere patriotism never changed.

To strengthen education, we must first strengthen teachers. Zhu Kezhen left us valuable spiritual wealth in education. He carefully cultivated talents and cared about the country. Zhu Kezhen hoped that the talents cultivated by the university would not only be knowledgeable after graduation, but also have a clear mind, a habit of not blindly following others, and a spirit of serving the society and working hard for the public. This educational philosophy has also inspired generations of people.

——Academician Yang Shufeng

Zhu Kezhen is one of the most famous scientists in China. He was diligent, knowledgeable, and patriotic, and his students and friends admired him very much. He laid the foundation for Chinese meteorology, pioneered the study of ancient meteorology, and single-handedly turned Zhejiang University into the "Cambridge of the East".

Lifelong learning

"A drop of water wears away a stone. Perseverance is needed for everything. Who can tell the truth from heaven? You can seek truth from it. Every day, we should consider family and country, and use science and education to save the nation. The weather is always changing, but your heart remains unchanged." This poem is very suitable to describe Zhu Kezhen.

Zhu Kezhen was born in a well-educated rice merchant family in Shaoxing on March 7, 1890. He began to learn to read at the age of 2 and loved reading.

Once when it was raining, Zhu Kezhen found small pits made by raindrops on the stone slabs. His father told him: "This is called 'water drops wear away the stone'." From then on, Zhu Kezhen remembered that only perseverance and persistence can lead to success. Once, because the article he wrote was not good enough, young Zhu Kezhen revised it over and over again until he was satisfied and went to bed. At this time, the sky was already bright.

Zhu Kezhen was a sickly child. A classmate named Hu Hongxian said in a casual conversation: "Zhu Kezhen will not live past 20 years old." This Hu Hongxian was the initiator of the New Culture Movement - Hu Shi. After hearing this, Zhu Kezhen was determined to keep fit.

When he traveled to various parts of China to measure the weather, he was already in good health. In his old age, Zhu Kezhen still went to the field to conduct research. From the Songhua River to Lingnan, from the Tengger Desert to the south of the Yangtze River, his footprints were left all over the country.

Zhu Kezhen developed the habit of writing a diary since he was a child, and later he compiled and published five volumes. He kept a diary all his life, without missing a single day. The diaries before 1936 were lost due to the war, but the diaries after that were all available. On February 6, 1974, the day before his death, Zhu Kezhen wrote in his diary, "The weather report is sunny to cloudy, the lowest temperature is -7℃, the highest temperature is -1℃, and the east wind is 1-2 levels."

"Seeking truth" spirit, contributing to society

When Zhu Kezhen studied in the United States, he chose agronomy as his major. At that time, "China was founded on agriculture", but Zhu Kezhen found that American agronomy was not suitable for China, so he transferred to Harvard University in 1913 to study meteorology.

In 1918, Zhu Kezhen received a doctorate in meteorology from Harvard University and returned to China. At that time, most of China's meteorological observatories were established by foreign churches. Zhu Kezhen reflected and wrote: "Making weather maps is the responsibility of a country's government, and it is shameful to ask foreign churches to help us."

In 1921, citizens in Nanjing, Jiangsu, beat gongs and drums in the city to drive away the heavenly dog. Seeing this scene, Zhu Kezhen was very sad. He built a weather station in the school, hoping to use scientific forecasts to drive away superstition. In 1928, at the invitation of Cai Yuanpei, Zhu Kezhen became the director of the Institute of Meteorology of the Academia Sinica, creating a new situation for my country to independently carry out weather forecasts.

In 1936, the 46-year-old Zhu Kezhen was invited to serve as the president of Zhejiang University. At first, he was reluctant to take the position. But his wife Zhang Xiahun said that China needed to change the situation of higher education, and he was persuaded. Zhu Kezhen recruited talents widely. Shu Xingbei was highly educated and had a bad temper. He once overturned the dining table of a staff member. Some people advised him not to use such a "troublemaker". But Zhu Kezhen still hired Shu Xingbei and made him a shining star in physics.

In 1937, Zhu Kezhen was about to resign when the "July 7 Incident" broke out. In November of that year, he led all the teachers and students of the university to embark on the road of westward migration, traveling through the mountains in the south. In February 1939, after Zhejiang University moved to Yishan, Guangxi, it encountered a massive bombing of 118 bombs. Facing the freshmen sitting on the grass, Zhu Kezhen gave a speech on "the spirit of seeking truth and the spirit of sacrifice." He said that we should "overcome all difficulties and risk a hundred deaths to seek true knowledge." In addition, he also said, "First, do not blindly follow, do not echo, only ask right and wrong, regardless of interests; second, do not be arbitrary, do not be arrogant; third, be focused and seek truth from facts... The spirit of seeking truth is first of all a scientific spirit, but at the same time it is also a spirit of sacrifice, a spirit of struggle, and a revolutionary spirit."

Under the leadership of Zhu Kezhen, Zhejiang University rose from the difficulties and was praised by Joseph Needham as the "Cambridge of the East".

Proficient in both arts and sciences, classical renovation

What is amazing about Zhu Kezhen is that he still made remarkable innovations in his later years. Generally speaking, scientists’ peak innovation period is from their 20s to their 50s. However, Zhu Kezhen’s paper on the pioneering of Chinese paleoclimatology, “A Preliminary Study of Climate Change in China over the Past Five Thousand Years,” was published when he was 82 years old.

Among the vast historical records of China, there are many records of weather and phenology. Zhu Kezhen was the first to analyze these data to infer the ancient climate. Zhu Kezhen's paper not only contains professional knowledge on climate, but also verifies a large amount of literary and historical materials, which shows his familiarity with ancient books.

Zhu Kezhen gave an example, saying that bamboo in the south had grown extensively in the Yellow River Basin in the early Zhou Dynasty. In the Han Wudi period, there were still a lot of bamboo in Guanzhong. The "Three Kingdoms Wei Shu" once recorded that in the sixth year of Huangchu (225 AD), "it was very cold, the waterways were frozen, and boats could not enter the river, so they were turned back." Zhu Kezhen analyzed that this was the first time that the Huai River was recorded to have frozen; later, bamboo gradually retreated to the south.

Similar detailed research has created a wonderful chapter in paleoclimatology.

Zhu Kezhen was keenly aware that China's climate change over the past several thousand years should be understood in the context of global climate change. A later scholar commented: "I can still remember the shock I felt when I read that Mr. Zhu used the synchronous changes in Chinese historical records and Greenland ice core records to assert that this was a global climate change... Mr. Zhu's ability to blend knowledge from multiple disciplines such as literature, history, philosophy, biology, geography, and astronomy so effortlessly and freely expressed his views on the Dao is admirable."