What are the great deeds of Gao Shiqi?

Gao Shiqi, an outstanding popular science writer

Gao Shiqi (1905—— 1988) is a famous popular science writer in China. Born in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, he graduated from Tsinghua Preparatory School in Beijing at the age of 20 and studied at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago. Unfortunately, he was infected with Japanese encephalitis virus in an experiment and gradually became paralyzed. In the following decades, although he was "imprisoned in a chair by the devil who endangered human health", he still dedicated millions of words of exquisite popular science literature to people.

1928. Institute of Medicine, University of Chicago, USA.

Gao Shiqi, like every day, was the first to come to the laboratory of the Department of Bacteriology. He will inject Japanese encephalitis virus into guinea pigs in cages and then take out their brains for further observation. I can't say why. His left ear canal has been inflamed these days, and his pain has intensified, and he feels very tired. "If only I could rest for a few days!" Gao Shiqi thinks so. But no, the experiment in his hand can't stop.

"bang!" While Gao Shiqi was absorbed in his work, a test tube filled with Japanese encephalitis virus burst in his hand, and the venom spilled all over him, leaving only one hand. After seeing it, my roommate cried in panic. Gao Shiqi is not afraid, he wants to conquer these poisonous bacteria. A few days ago, he studied a kind of food poisonous bacteria. He swallowed some attenuated poisonous bacteria to carry out his own infection test, which surprised teachers and classmates. Gao Shiqi quickly disposed of the broken test tube, and then put it into continuing the experiment. He didn't expect that this time he planted a curse that would affect his life.

After more than half a month, he couldn't hear clearly in his left ear and had difficulty turning his neck. Worst of all, my agile hands often shake, and I don't listen to them. What's going on here? After all, Gao Shiqi is ambitious and is studying for a doctorate in medicine. He suspected that he had Japanese encephalitis. The doctor's diagnosis confirmed his hypothesis. The cause of the disease is that the virus in the ruptured test tube invades the cerebellum along his inflamed left eardrum, thus destroying the motor center of the cerebellum. The doctor predicted that he would live for five years at most, so make good arrangements for the funeral!

Gao Shiqi was sentenced to death, which was really a heavy blow. When he came out of the hospital, he felt very dizzy, as if he were sinking into a dark abyss, sinking deeper and deeper. "Is this all over?" Gao Shiqi thoughtfully, painfully wandering. He came to America with the hope of saving the country through science. He first studied chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, and later transferred to the University of Chicago. Just before graduation, there was the bad news that my sister died of cholera. "Germs are hateful germs!" Gao Shiqi thought of his brother who died of diphtheria, and his eyes were ablaze with anger. "I must destroy these harmful little devils!" "So, he gave up his favorite chemistry major and entered the Medical Research Institute of the University of Chicago, determined to become a bacteriologist. But now, the battle with the "little devil" has just begun, and he has been hit again.

The doctor advised Gao Shiqi to stop studying and go back to China to recuperate immediately. After fierce ideological struggle, Gao Shiqi had his own plan. Although I have to get sick once a week, my neck is hard when I get sick; Look up, eyeball up; Trembling, he still insisted on studying viruses and bacteria, and finally completed all the courses of his doctor of medicine.

In the autumn of 1930, Gao Shiqi returned to the motherland after five years' absence. The overseas traveler came back with great enthusiasm. Hunger and unemployment await him. He once got a job as the director of the laboratory department of Nanjing Central Hospital, but even his application to buy a microscope was not approved. How can this work? He left. Later, I went to Shanghai, lived in a small pavilion, and made a living as a translator and tutor. Due to financial difficulties and malnutrition, his condition worsened. At this time, he had contacts with such progressive cultural figures as Dong Chuncai, Zhang Tianyi and Ai Siqi. Wen Siqi introduced some Marxist works to him, which made him see the light and hope in his difficulties. He gradually understood a truth: to eliminate the "little devil" that harms people, we must first eliminate the "big devil" in society. From then on, he picked up a pen with trembling hands and used it as a weapon to rush to the battlefield to catch "demons" of all sizes. 1933 published his first popular science work "Three Little Water Ghosts". 1935 published the first scientific essay "Food, clothing, housing and transportation of bacteria". Since then, he has become an instant hit, and in just a few years, he has written hundreds of popular science works and papers, making pioneering contributions to the birth of China's scientific and literary works. It is worth mentioning that he changed his name during this period. It turned out that his grandfather named him Shi, and "Shi" reflected his scholarly family, but "Qi" is now found in Kangxi dictionary, because the fortune teller said he was. When he used the name "Gao Shiqi" seriously, his friends didn't understand why the radical of the word "official chess" was removed. He explained very seriously: "If you remove people, you will not be an official. If you remove gold, you will not need money."

1937 One day in early summer, Wen Siqi came to say goodbye to Gao Shiqi. "Where are you going?" "Yanan!" Aisiqi whispered in his ear. Gao Shiqi was so excited that he grabbed Vince's hand and begged to go with him. At this time, his movements are very difficult, but his mood is quite urgent: "I must go to Yan' an, I must get to Yan' an, even if I climb, I will climb to Yan' an!" "Soon, he received a letter from Ai Siqi from Yan 'an, and left Shanghai for Yan 'an with the rumble of" August 13th ". He is physically disabled. How difficult it is to get to Yan 'an in the era of war! Two months later-1937+01,he finally miraculously came to Baota shan. When Comrade Mao Zedong held Gao Shiqi's hand tightly and said loudly, "Welcome, China Reddit", he felt a warm current coming to his heart. That night, he couldn't sleep. He wrote this poem:

Oh, I am a person who can't walk.

Can't walk

Also came to Yan 'an.

You should also refuel on the roadside:

Get rid of the Japanese robbers!

Give me back the rivers and mountains of China!

In Yan 'an, Gao Shiqi gained new strength in his life. He writes, speaks and works tirelessly with higher morale. Moreover, the medical conditions there were very bad. Gao Shiqi's condition got worse and worse, and finally he was completely paralyzed. The organization spared no effort to save his life and sent someone to escort him to Hong Kong for treatment via Chongqing. Since then, he has been exiled to Kowloon, Guangzhou, Guilin, Shanghai and Taiwan Province Province, where he struggled with illness and persisted in writing under extremely difficult circumstances. Such as "Darkness and Light", "To a bleeding friend", "My atomic bomb is exploding" and other poems. Scientific papers such as Outline of Natural Movement, Preface of Leaping Three Hundred Years, Theory of Evolution, New Science and New Democracy all came into being during this period. These works are sharp in writing, which not only expounds the laws of natural development, but also exposes the evils of the enemy, indicating that Gao Shiqi has grown from a patriot to a Marxist.

1949 In May, on the eve of the birth of New China, Gao Shiqi came to Beijing via Hongkong. In the joyful spring, Premier Zhou Enlai personally met him and arranged for him to be admitted to Beijing Hospital. 10 year 10 month 1 day, he came to Tiananmen Square with a "rumbling" salute and attended the solemn founding ceremony. Later, he described his feelings at that time: "I can see the birth of the new China with my own eyes, and I saw the five-star red flag rising in Tiananmen Square for the first time. In the cheers of the national people's victory, all the pain brought by my illness was blown away by the wind of victory. " In an alley in Beijing, Gao Shiqi started a new creative life.

Every day as soon as the sun rises, he gets up, dresses and eats breakfast with the help of others. Then, 10 minutes to do simple medical gymnastics. Then read newspapers, first People's Daily, then Beijing Daily, Guangming Daily, Wen Wei Po and China Youth Daily. Gao Shiqi's writing style is very special. After he was paralyzed, not only his legs could not walk, his hands could not hold a pen, his lower limbs were stiff and his neck was crooked, but he also gradually lost his ability to speak and his hearing was very weak. Every time he creates a work, he must analyze, sort out and think about the important materials he has read, and form a first draft in his mind. When the secretary sat next to him, he dictated the draft word for word and the secretary took it down. He spoke in a low voice and his pronunciation was unclear, so the secretary had to concentrate all his energy to understand. Sometimes when you come across a difficult noun, you have to say it more than ten times or write more than half a word on the paper before the secretary can understand it. In the end, he couldn't speak at all. He could only make "uh-huh" and "hehe" sounds, which could only be "translated" by his secretary or wife. In this way, he writes every day, and he can only write seven or eight hundred words every day. I have to revise it again and again after writing it. In the past 40 years, Gao Shiqi has created more than 400 popular science papers, scientific sketches and more than 200 scientific poems in this unique way, and compiled more than 20 books with a total of more than 5 million words. What a fruitful achievement this is! What hard work it is!

Gao Shiqi writes with painstaking efforts and creates with life. Every word of his works is infused with scientific truth, patriotic passion and optimistic and enterprising attitude towards life. In order to collect popular science materials, he has been to Angang, Daqing, Hulunbeier grassland and Xishuangbanna jungle in a wheelchair. Even when the earth was cold and right and wrong were reversed, he never gave in to evil forces and continued his career. 1975 1 He took advantage of the opportunity of attending the fourth session of the National People's Congress to put forward suggestions for popular science work to Premier Zhou; Shortly after the downfall of the Gang of Four, he submitted a written opinion to the leading comrades of the Central Committee on strengthening the work of popular science. Sometimes, he even had to be rescued by the hospital because he kept creating sudden emergencies. However, no matter what, can't make him put down the pen of fighting, can't stop his pursuit of life, as he sang in the March of Life:

In the snow-covered Arctic and Antarctic,

On the hot equator,

At an altitude of20,000 feet,

I can find your trace.

Hunger and cold, diseases and all natural disasters,

Is your enemy.

You fight death,

Win in the competition for survival.

Life, I praise you,

You are an endless song,

You sing the land of joy,

You sing happy spring!

When the spring of the socialist motherland came, Gao Shiqi's scientific and literary creation had gone through half a century. 1984 65438+In February, people held a grand gathering in Beijing to express warm congratulations and good wishes to him. Since then, he devoted himself to the popularization of science as always until his death in 1988+02+09.

In the days of mourning for this scientific and literary writer, people praised his great personality and constantly recited his poems praising Prometheus, the fire thief in the sky. In fact, Gao Shiqi himself is a fire thief-stealing the fire of human wisdom and "spreading science and civilization all over the world". In the great journey of the Chinese nation to the peak of science and technology, people will never forget the name Gao Shiqi.