Li Siguang, (1889-1971), Mongolian, named Zhonggong, formerly known as Li Zhongkui, was born on October 26, 1889 in a poor family in Huanggang County, Hubei Province. He attended a private school taught by his father Li Zhuohou since he was a child. When he was 14 years old, he said goodbye to his parents and came to Wuchang alone to apply for a higher primary school. When filling out the registration form, he mistakenly mistook the name column for the age column and wrote the word "fourteen". Then he had an idea and changed "ten" to "Li", followed by the word "光". He became famous as "Li Siguang".
In 1904, Li Siguang was selected to study in Japan because of his excellent academic performance. In Japan, he accepted the influence of anti-Manchu revolutionary ideas with Han nationalism, became the youngest member of the Tongmenghui led by Sun Yat-sen, and took "driving out the Tartars and restoring China" as his own mission. Sun Yat-sen appreciated Li Siguang's ambition: "You want to be revolutionary at such a young age. It is good and you are ambitious." He also gave him eight words: "Study hard and become a national servant."
1910 , Li Siguang returned to China after studying in Japan. After the Wuchang Uprising, he was appointed as a counselor in the Financial Management Department of the Hubei Military Government, and was later elected as the Minister of Industry. After Yuan Shikai came to power, the revolutionaries were marginalized, and Li Siguang left his motherland again to study at the University of Birmingham in England. In 1918, Li Siguang, who received his master's degree, decided to return to serve in China. On the way, in order to understand Russia after the October Revolution, we also stopped by Moscow.
From 1920, Li Siguang served as professor and director of the Department of Geology at Peking University. In 1928, he went to Nanjing to serve as director of the Institute of Geology, Academia Sinica, and was later elected president of the Geological Society of China. He leads students and researchers to travel to the field all year round, traveling through mountains and rivers, and has traveled all over the mountains and rivers of the motherland. He went to Europe and the United States several times to give lectures, attend academic conferences and inspect geological structures.
In the autumn of 1949, when New China was about to be founded, Li Siguang, who was abroad, was invited to serve as a member of the CPPCC. After getting the news, he immediately made preparations to return home. At this time, a friend in London called and told him that the Kuomintang government's ambassador to the UK had received a secret order asking him to make a public statement refusing to accept the position of CPPCC member, otherwise he would be detained. Li Siguang made a quick decision and left London alone for France. Two weeks later, Mrs. Li Xu Shubin received a letter from Li Siguang, saying that he had arrived in Basel, the border between Switzerland and Germany. The couple bought a ferry ticket from Italy to Hong Kong in Basel, and set off secretly to return to China in December 1949.
Li Siguang, who returned to the embrace of New China, was entrusted with important responsibilities and successively served as Minister of Geology, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the National Federation of Science and Technology, and Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Although he is old, he is still fighting on the front line of scientific research and national construction, and has made great contributions to my country's geology, oil exploration and construction. In 1958, Li Siguang was introduced to the Communist Party of China by He Changgong and Zhang Jinfu, and became a communist fighter from a national democrat. After the 1960s, Li Siguang's health became worse and worse due to overwork, but he still devoted himself with great enthusiasm and energy to earthquake prediction, forecasting and geothermal utilization. On April 29, 1971, Li Siguang died of illness at the age of 82.
Li Siguang’s greatest contribution was the creation of geomechanics, and he studied the phenomenon of crustal movement from a mechanical point of view, explored the laws of geological movement and mineral distribution, and analyzed the characteristics of the New Cathay tectonic system. The geological conditions of our country show that there must be oil in China’s land. It theoretically overturns the conclusion that China is poor in oil and affirms that China has good oil storage conditions. After listening to the report carefully, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai supported his views, and based on his suggestions, began a large-scale oil survey in the Songliao Plain and the North China Plain. In 1956, he personally presided over the oil survey and exploration work. In a short period of time, he successively discovered Daqing, Shengli, Dagang, Huabei, Jianghan and other oil fields, making immortal contributions to China's petroleum industry. From the late 1950s to the 1960s, the exploration department successively discovered large oil fields such as Daqing Oilfield, Dagang Oilfield, Shengli Oilfield, and Huabei Oilfield. When the country was in urgent need of energy for national construction, rolling oil came out. In this way, it not only removes the label of "China is poor in oil", but also provides the most powerful proof for Li Siguang's original geomechanics theory.
"Saving the Nation through Science"
To the east of the Institute of Geology and Mechanics in the western suburbs of Beijing, there is a long and narrow road, known as "Li Siguang Road" because Li Siguang walked every day during his lifetime. It was named after a walk on this path.
Today, this path has been widened and become more lively, but Li Siguang’s image will always remain in people’s memory. The long and tortuous road he traveled throughout his life still gives people a lot of inspiration. Enlightenment...
On October 26, 1889, Li Siguang was born in a poor family in Zhangjiawan, Huangfeng County, Hubei Province. His original name was Li Zhongkui.
Li Siguang has lived in rural areas for nearly 14 years. From the age of five or six, he studied in a private school where his father taught, and also helped his mother collect firewood, pound rice, grind mills, and carry water... The hard life cultivated his spirit of hard work and stubborn character.
After the Taiping Revolutionary Movement and the rise of Westernization, many new schools were opened in Hubei to teach new learning and be innovative. Li Siguang was deeply attracted. He went to apply for the exam alone and was admitted with excellent results.
In the new school, he eagerly learned new knowledge. Because he ranked first in every exam, he was selected by the province as an official-funded overseas student and sent to Japan to learn shipbuilding.
Li Siguang spent 7 years in Japan, where he participated in the China Alliance led by Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
The Revolution of 1911 broke out in the second year after Li Siguang returned to China. He participated in the defense of Hankou. As the newly appointed counselor of the Financial Management Department of the Hubei Military Government, he personally organized dock workers and rickshaw pullers to transport arms and supplies to the city. front. Subsequently, he was elected as the Minister of Industry of the Hubei Military Government. Just when Li Siguang was preparing to do something big, the Revolution of 1911 failed. He devoted himself to the research of science and technology and took the road of "saving the country through science". He went to England to study, first studying mining and then switching to geology. He prayed that one day he would see an era of political clarity and contribute his youth and blood to the motherland.
Studying abroad is not an easy life. In order to maintain the rising tuition fees, Li Siguang went to work in the mines during holidays. During his 6 years at the University of Birmingham, he not only had excellent professional academic performance, but also mastered English proficiently and obtained a bachelor's degree and a doctorate. After graduation, he politely declined a high-paying job offer from a mining company and accepted Mr. Cai Yuanpei's invitation to return to his motherland and serve as a professor in the Geology Department of Peking University.
The discovery of Quaternary glaciers
After Li Siguang arrived at the Department of Geology at Peking University, he taught two courses: petrology and advanced petrology. He won the respect of students with his rigorous metallurgical style. . He often takes students to the wild for field teaching, watching and lecturing at the same time. He doesn't miss a hilltop, a ravine, a pile of rocks, or a row of cracks. The school had insufficient funds, so he led the students to build it from scratch and made the learning environment very elegant and quiet.
While teaching, he also did not relax in his research work. His major contributions to geology during his life include the identification method of paleontology, the discovery of Quaternary glaciers in China, and the discovery of geomechanics. The establishment all started during this period. In the process of research, he was never bound by existing views and doctrines, but followed the laws of nature to find truths that had not yet been recognized and mastered by people. Therefore, he can constantly come up with creative insights and dare to challenge some old views.
For example, since the 19th century, geologists from Germany, the United States, France, Sweden and other countries have been coming to China to explore minerals and inspect geology. However, none of them have discovered glacial phenomena in China. Therefore, in the geological community, "there are no Quaternary glaciers in China" has become a conclusion. However, while Li Siguang was studying the fossils of the family Antoinaceae, he discovered some stones that looked like glacial streak stones in the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains. He continued to conduct investigations in the Datong Basin and became more and more convinced of his judgment. Therefore, he boldly proposed the idea of ??the existence of Quaternary glaciers in China at the third general meeting of the Geological Society of China. Andersen, a Swedish geologist and consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce who was present at the meeting, dismissed it with a contemptuous smile.
In order to make people accept this fact, he continued to look for more glacial remains. Ten years later, he not only concluded that there were a large number of glacial relics in Lushan Mountain, but also believed that China's Quaternary glaciers were mainly valley glaciers and could be divided into three glacial periods.
When Li Siguang's academic point of view was published again at the National Geological Society, it triggered the famous Lushan Debate in 1934. In the semi-feudal and semi-colonial old China, Chinese scientists were inferior to others, and a considerable number of foreign scholars came to China with nationalist and racial discrimination sentiments. Therefore, despite a large number of facts before their eyes, several foreign scholars have not changed their views.
In 1936, Li Siguang visited Huangshan again and wrote a paper on "Quaternary Glacial Phenomenon in Huangshan, Anhui". This paper and several photos of glacial phenomena attracted the attention of some Chinese and foreign scholars. Germany Geology professor Feisman came back after visiting Huangshan and praised: "This is an earth-shaking discovery." Li Siguang's hard work for more than ten years has been publicly recognized by foreign scientists for the first time. However, he knew that this was not enough. He simply moved his family to Lushan Mountain and built a glacier exhibition hall at the foot of Lushan Mountain, named the "White Stone Exhibition Hall" (later bombed by the Kuomintang navy) to learn more in depth and detail. Conduct glacier research.
Li Siguang's many years of research on glaciers were fully elaborated in "Lushan in the Ice Age" completed in 1937. Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, this book was not published until 10 years later.
Returning to China to look for oil fields
In 1927, at the invitation of Cai Yuanpei, Li Siguang left Beijing and went south to preside over the preparations for the establishment of the Institute of Geology. In January 1928, the Institute of Geology was established, with Li Siguang serving as director. Engaging in geological research often involves eating wind and drinking dew, and the conditions are very difficult. Moreover, the newly established research institute had little funds, lacked equipment, and even had no fixed address. During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Siguang and his research institute suffered from travelling. At that time, he smoked cigarettes made of straw paper, wore homespun clothes, and lived a very poor life. However, he and his colleagues never gave up geological research. Due to the hardship of life and the fatigue of work, he suffered from angina pectoris and tuberculosis.
In early February 1948, Li Siguang set off from Shanghai to London to attend the 18th International Geological Society, and his wife Xu Shubin also went with him. After the meeting, they lived in the British Isles for another year, recuperating while observing the development of the current situation at home and abroad. Although Li Siguang was far away in Europe giving lectures and inspections, he still paid attention to the fate of his motherland. In early 1949, he wrote several times to Xu Jie of the Institute of Geology of Academia Sinica (a geologist, former deputy minister of the Ministry of Geology after liberation, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) and others, supporting them to stick to Nanjing and oppose the relocation of Guangzhou, in order to support the new China. The geological sciences enterprise retains a team and equipment.
In early April 1949, the Chinese delegation headed by Guo Moruo went to Prague to attend the World Peace Conference. Before leaving the country, Guo Moruo, according to Zhou Enlai's instructions, brought a letter to Li Siguang, asking him to return home as soon as possible. Li Siguang was very excited after reading the letter signed by Guo Moruo. New China will stand tall in the east of the world, its abilities can be put to use, and its ambitions can be realized. He started running actively and prepared to return to the country as soon as possible. However, due to the impact of World War II, passenger ship tickets from Britain to the Far East had to be booked a year in advance, so the return date had to be delayed. While he was recuperating his health, he was finishing up the remaining tasks in scientific research.
Li Siguang was anxiously waiting for the date of departure. One day, a friend in London called Li Siguang and told him that the Kuomintang Embassy in the UK had received a secret order asking Li Siguang to make a public statement denying the People's Republic of China and refusing to accept the National Committee membership given to him by the People's Political Consultative Conference. appointment or risk being detained.
The matter was urgent, and Li Siguang made a prompt decision. He picked up a small leather bag and quickly headed to Plymouth Harbor, preparing to cross the English Channel from there and go to France first. The sea in Plymouth Port is wide and windy, and it is a remote cargo channel. Most people usually do not cross the sea from here, so they can avoid being tracked by Kuomintang agents. Before leaving, he wrote a letter to the Ambassador to the UK and asked Xu Shubin to send it two days later. The next day, the Kuomintang Embassy in Britain indeed sent someone to find Li Siguang. Xu Shubin alertly told the visitor that Li Siguang had gone out for an inspection.
Two days later, Xu Shubin sent the letter left by Li Siguang, which wrote: The People's Republic of China is the ideal country that I have thought about day and night for many years. The Government Affairs Council of the Central People's Government is a government that I wholeheartedly support.
I consider it a great honor to be elected as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. I have already set off to return to my country to take up my job. He also advised the ambassador to break away from the Kuomintang government, which was causing harm to the country and the people, and return to the embrace of the bright motherland as soon as possible...
Two weeks later, Xu Shubin received a letter from Li Siguang and learned that he had arrived in Barcelona, ??the border between Switzerland and Germany. Then go and meet him immediately.
On May 6, 1950, Li Siguang finally arrived in Beijing. He is 60 years old this year, but he feels that a new life has just begun.
The birth of New China opened a new chapter in Li Siguang’s scientific career. He was appointed Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Minister of Geology and Chairman of the Federation of Science and Technology.
He carefully studied Mao Zedong's "On Practice" and "On Contradiction", Engels's "Dialectics of Nature" and other works, and strived to use dialectical materialism to guide work and scientific research; he paid attention to theoretical study and also paid attention to himself He carried out ideological transformation and "decided to throw away the baggage left over from the past and...reach a state of selflessness"; he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the geological cause of the motherland, working diligently and devoted himself to it. Under his specific leadership, my country's geological work has achieved great results; in 1958, he gloriously joined the Communist Party of China.
In the early days of the first Five-Year Plan, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou asked Li Siguang: What is the prospect of my country's natural oil?
As early as 1915 to 1917, a drilling team of Mobil Oil Company drilled 7 exploratory wells in the Fushi area of ??northern Shaanxi, spending 3 million US dollars, but left because the harvest was not great. In 1922, Blackwild, a professor at Stanford University in the United States, came to China to investigate geology and wrote the article "Petroleum Resources in China and Siberia" and concluded that "China is poor in oil". Since then, the "China is poor in oil theory" has spread. However, based on his research on geological structures, Li Siguang proposed in 1928: "The failure of Mobil does not prove that China has no oil fields to develop." Later, in his book "Chinese Geology", he once again proposed: New The subsidence zone of the Cathay tectonic system "may reveal sediments of important economic value." This sediment is about oil.
Therefore, Li Siguang answered the national leaders’ questions optimistically: “Our underground oil reserves are huge. Starting from the Northeast Plains, passing through the Bohai Bay, to the North China Plain, and then south to the Two Lakes region , can do work...".
In 1955, the census team headed to the front line. Within a few years, hundreds of possible oil storage structures were identified. In June 1958, good news came: the large-scale and highly productive Daqing Oil Field was discovered. The Department of Geology immediately moved the team to the Bohai Bay and the alluvial plains of the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Later, Dagang Oilfield, Shengli Oilfield, and other oilfields were built one after another. The Geology Department moved to other plains, basins and shallow seas to continue operations.
In December 1964, Premier Zhou pointed out in the "Government Work Report" of the Third National People's Congress: "The Daqing Oilfield built in the first five-year plan was based on the original work of our country's geological experts. "Li Siguang's work was fully recognized by the party and the country.
Li Siguang's former residence and "Li Siguang Trail"
On the south side of the Central University for Nationalities in Weigong Village, Haidian District, Beijing, there is a long and narrow path where the famous Chinese geologist Li Siguang lived during his lifetime. I always like to rest, walk and think about problems here. People habitually call it "Li Siguang Trail".
Today's Weigong Village has become a prosperous urban area, but at the beginning of liberation, it was just a small village worthy of the name with only a dozen households. "Li Siguang Trail" has been widened and become lively.
Speaking of Weigong Village, the origin of this name is closely related to the ancient Uighur people (the predecessors of today's Uyghurs). The "Shuntian Prefecture Chronicles" compiled by officials in the Ming Dynasty also mentioned that "Dahui Temple is located in Weiwu Village." By the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to being called Weiwu Village, it was also called "Weigu Village". The "Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes" published in the 21st year of Wanli has the following record: In the northwest of (Wanping) County, one mile from Xizhimen is called Gaoliang Bridge, five miles further is called Baofang, Weigu Village, and twenty miles further is called Tatar Ziying.
Another ten miles away is called Beihaidian, and next to it is Xiaonanzhuang, Baligou, and Niulanzhuang... This not only provides us with the synonym of Weiwu Village, but also shows that the specific location of Weiwu Village is consistent with today's Weigong Village. . Until the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1881), this place was still called Weiwu Village.
After the victory of the "Revolution of 1911", with the establishment of the Republic of China and the changes in people's thinking, many old place names in Beijing were replaced with new ones. During the "Cultural Revolution" it was also called "Weigong Village", and an overpass near Weigong Village is still called "Weigong Bridge". All of these are based on the voice, with slight modifications. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Siguang lived here, adding cultural color to the Weigong Village area.
Li Siguang walked a lot, and it became the "Li Siguang Trail"
In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a small forest to the south of the main entrance of the Minzu University of China, with the forest belt and the Nationalities College Between the south walls, there is an east-west path. This road goes west for most of the time and turns south, which leads to Li Siguang's home and the Institute of Geomechanics of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.
The specific jurisdiction of these units at that time was the Fahua Temple Production Team of the Wanshou Temple Brigade of Sijiqing Commune in Beijing. Obviously, this place should have belonged to the urban-rural fringe area back then. This path is the famous "Li Siguang Trail", now called Minzu University South Road.
There is a village in the middle of a dirt road more than ten meters wide. The nearby vegetable gardens and fertile black soil are densely covered with weeds and green vines, just like the legendary Treasure Island. It is said that it was once a mass grave.
Every day after school, the children would take a tree branch with a few friends, tie their sportswear around their waists, tie a red scarf on their foreheads, and play adventure games. Passing through high walls, sand piles, scaffolding, from mass graves, water towers, chimneys to the deep air-raid shelters of civilian houses...
Many animals that have long since disappeared in Beijing, such as hibernating water snakes, small There were toads as big as washbasins, weasels that flew past without leaving a trace, large and small hedgehogs huddled together, and even foxes.
In fact, this road has no name at all. The reason why it was called "Li Siguang Trail" at that time was not because this road was built for Li Siguang's family, nor because it was the only way for Li Siguang to come in and out. , but because in his spare time after work, Li Siguang comes to this road for a walk on time every evening. Li Siguang walked a lot, and it became the "Li Siguang Trail". The starting point is under the ginkgo tree in front of my house and the end point is Baishiqiao Road. I usually walk back and forth. Sometimes I discuss work with my attendants while walking, and sometimes I take Mazar with me and sit under the ginkgo tree in front of my house to think about problems.
Back then, it was surrounded by vegetable fields, and the "Li Siguang Trail" was also a field path. At first, it was slowly called by the surrounding farmers. Later, it spread further and further, and it is said that it was even included in the traffic map of Beijing. File it with the post office. Now that small forest no longer exists, the "Li Siguang Trail" has been changed again and again, and is now called "Minzu University South Road". This road also has many institutions such as the Beijing Dance Academy.
Li Siguang’s two important works in his later years, "Introduction to Geological Mechanics" and "Abstract of Astronomical, Geological and Paleontological Data", as well as more than ten academic articles, were conceived and completed on this road and under the ginkgo tree.
Li Siguang moved here since 1962
On the famous "Li Siguang Trail" to visit the Li Siguang Memorial Hall, there were only a lot of people on the road who were confused about my inquiry, and there were no more people. Know where it is.
In early spring, when April 22, the 37th Earth Day, came, I knocked on the door I had heard about for a long time. While the public flocks to the Geological Museum, few people go to the Li Siguang Memorial Hall. The gate in front of the memorial hall is closed, which is in inverse proportion to the Geological Museum.
I knocked on the big iron door and asked... Mr. Bai, the person in charge of Li Siguang Memorial Hall, led me into this world that I had longed for.
Li Siguang spent his last ten years (1962 to 1971) in a house specially built for him by the state. Decades later, the courtyard still exists, and it was opened as the Li Siguang Memorial Hall on the 100th anniversary of Li Siguang's birth (1989). Li Xiannian, then chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, inscribed the name of the museum. Li Siguang's former residence is a two-story building with a total construction area of ??989.1 square meters. It is surrounded by a courtyard wall, with the courtyard door facing north (previously facing south) and the building door facing west. The winding paths in the courtyard are secluded and lined with rockeries, fountains and fruit trees.
I saw the TV sets, radios, cameras, and violins used by Li Siguang...his desk, his bookcases, and the thousands of stones he liked...It was like chatting with a senior across time and space. .
After Li Siguang returned to China after liberation, he moved several times and once settled in Elephant Trunk Valley near Xiangshan. In the 1960s, they moved to prepare for war. Relevant parties invited him to see a house owned by Li Jishen in Dongdan, the city. Li Siguang felt that the house was too luxurious and inconsistent with his usual life interests, so he gave up.
After that, he personally selected the site, designed it, and the state built the small building. Many mature trees in the yard today were planted by Mrs. Li Xu Shubin and others, and Li Siguang also planted several of them himself.
Li Siguang moved here in 1962 and lived there until his death in 1971. He lives, works and studies here. Some small meetings chaired by him or attended by him were often held at home; He Changgong, Liu Jingfan and other former heads of the Ministry of Geology often came to the home to report on matters. Therefore, the larger living room on the right hand side of the door actually doubled as a meeting place. It has the function of a living room, surrounded by bookcases and sofas, with a long table and several chairs in the middle. Now, many geological specimens of fourth-quarter glacial sediments are displayed on the window side, most of which were harvested by Li Siguang during his field expedition.
Other furniture is left over from that era. The armrests of an old leather sofa have cracked, revealing the cotton wadding inside. These sofas were bargains that Li Siguang bought at the flea market when he returned to China in 1950. They seem to be older. Next door to the living room is the office, which has not been restored to its original state, but a large desk was used by Li Siguang.
There is a glass blackboard on the wall at one end of the office. When the geological team returned from field operations and reported to Li Siguang, he often used the blackboard to do some explanations or arrangements. He also used this blackboard to teach geomechanics to scientific and technical personnel. , this is probably a habit developed over many years of coaching. It is worth mentioning that there are four big chalk characters written on the blackboard: "Fight against private affairs and criticize repairs."
Li Siguang has a profound foundation in Chinese studies. He not only writes well in prose but also in old-style poetry. Even his geology papers are also written "vividly and vividly". He also has profound musical attainments, especially the violin. A violin piece he wrote in Paris, "It's Difficult to Travel," was the first violin piece composed by a Chinese. After Li returned to China, he asked musician Xiao Youmei to review it and provide comments. This violin piece was written in 1920 and was performed publicly for the first time nearly eighty years later at the Peking University Centenary Gala. Its appearance corrects the view that Ma Sicong is China's earliest violin composer. Now this piece of music and the violin that Li Siguang often played abroad are displayed in the memorial hall.
In his later years, Li Siguang lived a very simple life and was not particular about his clothes. He just muddle along, even wearing patches upon patches. After Li Siguang passed away, the staff wanted to find a few relics to keep, but they couldn't find anything decent worth preserving.
When Li Siguang and his wife were alive, only the two of them lived in this small building. After their death, their daughter Li Lin's family moved here. Li Lin passed away three years ago, and her husband Zou Chenglu was also ill. There are three academicians in one subject, which has become a legend.
More than forty years ago, the small building of Li Siguang’s family, the thousand-year-old ginkgo tree outside the south gate of Li’s family, and the tombstones of historical figures such as Liu Jin, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, were all eye-catching surroundings. sign. Nowadays, there are many high-rise buildings, and Li Siguang's former residence is sandwiched among them. The small building is in disrepair for many years and looks somewhat dilapidated.