Zhu Kezhen and Hu Shi's "Gamble" on Health

Master's Past

The seventh of this month marks the 48th anniversary of the death of Zhu Kezhen (1890-1974), a famous meteorologist, geographer, educator and master of Chinese studies. As we all know, Zhu Kezhen developed the good habit of writing a diary every day since he was a student at Harvard University in 1917. Among them, a large amount of information about meteorological research is recorded, which is extremely valuable. After the war, only the diary from 1936 to February 6, 1974 has been preserved. Every page is written in small regular script, with a total of 38 years and 37 days, about 8 million words. The tenacious perseverance and serious spirit of studying shown by Zhu Kezhen in his diary have a lot to do with the family education he received since childhood.

Zhu Kezhen and Lu Xun were from the same hometown. Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, has a lot of rain. When Zhu Kezhen was a child, he stood under the eaves, watching and counting the dripping water drops. He observed that the water drops left small "pits" where they fell. His father told him: "This is called 'water dripping through stone'! The same principle applies to your future studies and work. As long as you persevere, you will achieve something."

Zhu Kezhen kept it in mind, and until the day before his death, he used his trembling pen to write down the temperature, wind speed and other data of the day. However, few people pay attention to a sentence he wrote in his diary three months before his death: "I have had poor health since I was a child. Now I am 83 years old. What else do I want?"

What happened? It's a long story. After graduating from elementary school at the age of 5, Zhu Kezhen went to Shanghai and was admitted to the famous "Chengzhong School". He was enthusiastic and upright, outstanding in talent and learning, self-disciplined and hardworking, and was elected as the class monitor. But such hard work also affected his physical development to a certain extent, making him relatively thin and frail. His classmate Hu Siliang, who later became a famous figure in the May Fourth literary world, even doubted that he would not live past the age of 20. So Zhu Kezhen secretly made up his mind and formulated a detailed physical exercise plan. He also wrote six big characters: "Words must be kept, and actions must be fulfilled", and posted them in the most conspicuous place in his residence. From then on, he got up early every day, ran, danced with swords, and did exercises on the campus, rain or shine. After hard work, his body became stronger and stronger, his academic performance was better, and he was qualified to study in the United States.

Interestingly, he and Hu Shi came to the United States on the same cruise ship in the same year; in 1912, he met Hu Shi again by chance, and the two talked enthusiastically. According to historical records, they even made a bet on health issues. Zhu Kezhen asked Hu Shi: "What if I live past 60?" Hu Shi, who was one year younger, answered readily: "If you live to 60, I will kowtow to you three times in front of all your relatives and friends at your 60th birthday banquet. If you live longer than me, you can kick my corpse in the ass." "Okay," Zhu Kezhen said, "You must remember what I said today!"

In real life and work, Zhu Kezhen was always smart, humorous and thoughtful. For example, in the 1930s and 1940s, Zhu Kezhen served as the president of Zhejiang University and was deeply loved by teachers and students. Once, on the program of the whole school party, there was a special item "President's lecture". When Zhu Kezhen arrived and saw the word "lecture", he felt that it was really contrary to his temperament and wishes. So, he asked at the beginning of the lecture: "Students, how do you write the word "lecture"? There is a word "言" on the left and a word "川" on the right. What does it mean?"

He paused deliberately, and the whole room was silent for a moment. Looking at the faces of his classmates, which were full of youthful brilliance, he smiled and replied, "I just speak nonsense." Immediately, there was thunderous applause and laughter in the room.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Kezhen served as the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and joined the Communist Party of China in June 1962 at the age of 72. In that era, there were no high-tech scientific research tools and technical equipment such as computers and the Internet. "Only officials who traveled were surprised by the new phenology" - Zhu Kezhen mainly used the methods of searching, reading, and excerpting to "guess the changes in ancient climate" - at the age of more than 70, he traveled back and forth between various libraries, information centers, museums, and studios, and consulted a large number of classical historical books. He explored the mysteries, indexed and dug up the past, and combined multi-language and multi-disciplinary materials from ancient and modern times, China and foreign countries, to successfully explore the ancient climate history of China and even the world. Finally, he achieved a milestone and immortal achievement. The publication of "A Preliminary Study on Climate Change in China in the Past Five Thousand Years" shocked China and the world. This paper interspersed many Chinese classical poems, lyrics, and literature to illustrate the laws and characteristics of climate change. It has become an epoch-making milestone in the fields of meteorology and phenology, and has also set a direction for the interdisciplinary cultural communication research of literature, history, and science and technology.

Looking back on the past, I miss Mr. Zhu. He adhered to the principle of "learning extensively, questioning carefully, thinking carefully, distinguishing clearly, and practicing diligently" throughout his life. Although he was weak in his youth, he insisted on physical exercise to turn weakness into strength, which laid a healthy foundation for his scientific achievements in his later years and also left us a valuable spiritual wealth.

Author: Liu Weimin

Source: Science and Technology Daily