Wang Xuan: The tactical life of the "contemporary Bi Sheng"

Wang Xuan is a famous computer scientist in my country. He led his team to successfully develop the Chinese character information processing and laser typesetting system, and realized the commercialization and industrialization of the results, which set off a printing technology revolution in my country of "saying goodbye to lead and fire, and welcoming light and electricity", and created conditions for the inheritance and development of Chinese characters and Chinese culture in the information age.

Peking University Wang Xuan Memorial Exhibition Hall

The Wang Xuan Memorial Exhibition Hall of Peking University was built in 2006. It is located in the Founder Building opposite the east gate of Peking University, with a total area of ​​about 300 square meters. Professor Chen Kunqiu, wife of Wang Xuan, provided a large number of precious materials such as pictures, manuscripts, and physical objects and participated in the exhibition design. The exhibition hall is built and managed by the Wang Xuan Computer Research Institute of Peking University.

Statue of Academician Wang Xuan

The exhibition hall consists of two parts: the "Life Story Hall" and the "Innovation Process Hall", which contain more than 390 items of more than 100 kinds of physical objects, more than 160 manuscripts, and a large number of pictures related to work and life. Adhering to the principle of "reflecting achievements with popular science, showing models with innovation, summarizing life with thoughts, sublimating spirits with stories, and showing true feelings with details", it fully and three-dimensionally displays the achievements and style of Academician Wang Xuan.

Showroom interior view

In the "Life Story Hall", from densely packed scientific research manuscripts to philosophical life mottos; from simple and frugal clothing and supplies to dozens of yellowed donation receipts; from the moving will of Wang Xuan to the last article calling for support for young talents, Wang Xuan's life of selfless dedication to science is systematically displayed. In addition to a large number of pictures and texts, the "Innovation Process Hall" also uses precious objects such as the first newspaper sample and sample book printed by the Chinese character laser typesetting system, Comrade Deng Xiaoping's instructions, and uses popular science interactive devices such as the "Lead Typesetting Experience Area" and "Laser Typesetting Technology Demonstration Touch Screen", as well as the restoration of the scene of Wang Xuan and Chen Kunqi working at home, vividly showing the glorious journey of Wang Xuan leading the scientific research collective to participate in the "748 Project", successfully developing the Chinese character laser typesetting system and realizing the industrialization of scientific research results, and triggering the great revolution of Chinese character information processing and printing technology in my country.

Showroom interior display

"The positive and the odd complement each other" - only those who have both moral integrity and talent can handle important tasks

Wang Xuan was born in Shanghai in 1937. In order not to forget the national humiliation, his family gave him the nickname "Tonglu" to commemorate the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. During the days in the occupied area, Wang Xuan and his father had a "little secret", which was a small picture of Chinese soldiers. It was very dangerous at the time, but his father said, "It will be fine if you keep it here, kids." Wang Xuan kept the picture until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. This patriotic sentiment ran through Wang Xuan's life. Many years later, he rejected the invitation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the high salary temptation of Hong Kong businessmen. This was the inevitable choice he made after receiving patriotic education since childhood.

Wang Xuan's work photos

Wang Xuan always had the ability to come up with surprising ideas in his studies and career. When he was in college, he chose computational mathematics as his major. At that time, many people had never seen a computer and could not see any future for this major. However, Wang Xuan believed that the country had listed computing technology as a key development discipline in the "12-year Science and Technology Plan" and that linking personal destiny with national destiny would surely create great value. This insight also helped him decide to bypass the mainstream second-generation and third-generation machines and directly develop the fourth-generation laser typesetting system, which was not yet available in the world, when he was engaged in the research of the Chinese character typesetting system.

"Pincer Offensive" to solve the problem with a two-pronged approach

Compared with Western languages, Chinese characters are numerous and complex in shape. Problems with storage, processing and output make the introduction of Chinese characters into computers a global challenge. Some experts even assert that the computer age will be the end of Chinese characters.

As a new recruit in the printing industry, Wang Xuan burst out with the ambition to innovate. Without a source of funding, he saved 5 cents by taking one less bus stop, repeatedly went to the Science and Technology Information Institute to check information, and hand-copied information with few words to save on copying fees. Finally, he developed a mathematical method of "contour plus parameter" to describe the strokes of Chinese characters separately, compressing the overall storage capacity of Chinese characters to 1/500 to 1/1000 of the original; then, he designed a super-large-scale dedicated chip that can restore the shape of Chinese characters at a high speed of 710 words per second. He used a combination of software and hardware to solve the technical difficulties of Chinese character information processing and laid the foundation for the laser output solution.

Wang Xuan with young scientific and technological personnel

In July 1979, the first octave newspaper film was output from the laser typesetting prototype on the first prototype of the precision Chinese character phototypesetting system. On August 11, Guangming Daily took the lead in reporting on the successful development of the main project of the laser Chinese character editing and typesetting system on the front page, which greatly encouraged the young people who were in a difficult situation in scientific research at that time. Wang Xuan later realized that this report was a big risk. He later recalled: "So I kept this newspaper in mind and always wanted to prove it with facts."

Faced with many difficulties in the early stage, such as many product problems, loss of team members, foreign technology impact, and lack of trust from domestic users, Wang Xuan not only led the team to carry out the overall system design and undertake the design of the most critical typesetting controller and software system, but also, under the leadership and overall coordination of the state, identified Xinhua News Agency as the first user, and successively implemented cooperative manufacturers of production system hosts, typesetting controllers, laser typesetting machines, Chinese character terminals and other equipment, forming a cross-departmental, cross-regional, and cross-industry scientific research, production and application team that brings together the advantages of the country, and successively developed Type II, Type III, and Type IV systems, allowing my country's printing industry to bid farewell to the era of "lead and fire". Later, new achievements such as large-screen Chinese newspaper typesetting system, remote plate transmission technology, color Chinese laser typesetting system, and news editing process management system were launched, and my country's printing industry finally ushered in the era of "light and electricity".

In 1985, Wang Xuan and technicians checked the Xinhua News Agency news release printed by the laser typesetting system.

At that time, foreign phototypesetting manufacturers were aggressively entering the Chinese market. Wang Xuan proposed to turn scientific research results into commodities to occupy the market, which was a precursor to the "integration of industry, academia and research". In 1984, Peking University adopted Wang Xuan's suggestion and established a technology development company (the predecessor of Founder Corporation), cooperating with Wang Xuan's team to produce and sell domestic phototypesetting systems, successfully defeating products from the United States, Japan and Europe. As of 1993, domestic laser phototypesetting systems had occupied 99% of the domestic newspaper industry and 90% of the book and periodical (black and white) publishing industry, as well as 80% of the overseas Chinese newspaper market.

"Build a strong base and fight a stupid battle", be willing to be a stepping stone to build a strong team

After receiving the National Highest Science and Technology Award in 2001, Wang Xuan recalled the Moral Excellence Award he received in the fifth grade of elementary school. It was an award he would never forget, and it taught him the importance of teamwork and character in life.

In 1993, a design that Wang Xuan had worked hard on for two weeks was rejected by his graduate students. He realized that the computer age belonged to the young, so he resolutely withdrew from the front line of scientific research and turned to cultivating and recruiting outstanding talents.

He donated most of the bonuses and prizes to set up scholarships and innovation funds to encourage young students to be innovative and take on important tasks; he had extensive and in-depth exchanges with young talents and carefully recorded their life difficulties, and helped them to the best of his ability, because he believed that meeting life needs could help ambitious young people focus on scientific research; he guided young talents to develop the digital video field and enter the radio and television industry by developing computer animation production systems. Compared with his achievements, his contribution to the training and cultivation of a large number of young academic backbones in the field of computer science is no less impressive.

"A good scientist or entrepreneur should first be a good person in order to lead a team." Wang Xuan has been firmly practicing his concept of being a good person throughout his life. (Guangming Daily Omnimedia reporter Zhang Xiaohua)