Academician Dai, fellow students and teachers,
Today, I am very glad to come to the third opening ceremony of Qiuzhen College and welcome our first graduate students. I think this is a very important moment because the most important thing for a college is to produce the most cutting-edge research results. At the same time, our undergraduate study is also very important, the important reason is to prepare for our research work so that we can continue to create. If a university has no research and creativity, the university cannot remain in history.
When I was in the United States, I went to all the major universities. I graduated from Berkeley and then went to Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard University, which are the most important universities in the world. Looking back at the history of American universities, no school became an important university before 1870. After 1870, American schools began to participate in scientific research, and ethos soon spread to Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Yale University, and Princeton University, the rise of a large number of important universities changed American science and society, I think we want to know this is their science began to create and development began to accelerate. At the same time, European culture and technology have also taken their path.
Today in Qiuzhen, our three sessions of students began to mature, also saw the first batch of graduate students come in, this was an important moment when we began to do research, our teachers and graduate students with Tsinghua visiting scholars and BIMSA scholars together, to construct an important place with a strong research atmosphere, let us walk out of a predecessors have no road.
In 1979, I returned to the Chinese mainland for the first time and saw backward countries. However, in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, we have learned from the West and taken a very important path. Our study has reached the point of being able to go out and create ourselves by ourselves. But we still have to work hard, now sitting in the classroom students, you have to know that you will shoulder the responsibility.
I hope you can do your research happily. Research is an interesting thing that will make you happy throughout your life. But the middle road is not simple, we will experience a lot of seemingly painful roads, but the real meaningful creation can not be unhappy, it is because of the painful experience will know where the cause of happiness is. If everything is easy for you to complete, I don't think you will be happy. It's like playing chess. If you play a novice child, you find it interesting; if you play a good player, you lose, but it is meaningful. This is a challenge in life, a challenge in science. We need to find a path that no one has ever gone through, and we need to find the right path that makes important contributions to the whole of science, this is the path that we need to take. This road is not to be innovative, but to rely on knowledge, through reading and communication of different knowledge learned, slowly accumulated down the experience, will be out of a meaningful road out. The road we want to take is not easy, but it is very meaningful. From your age, younger than you, I hope to walk out of such a road. I have walked for 60 years, and more and more meaningful, but it is not simple.
The first thing I want to emphasize is self-discipline. Many students feel true colleges for students are very good, Tsinghua university also feels very good, very care for you, don't think this is acceptable for you, you want to know why to accept the benefits, and many other students do not, you should cherish this opportunity, make good use of this opportunity to go forward. Qiuzhen College has great expectations from you, so it has invested a lot in you, but you must be self-disciplined.
Let me give you an example. When I was your age, in my first year of college, I read a lot of books, and I read a lot of extracurricular books every year, and I brought a book in my hands on every occasion, until I did not do so more than 10 years ago. Because reading is good, I think whatever book is important to me to read. Now our students' reading atmosphere and reading culture are not strong, I hope each of you spend time reading some books, not the books needed in class, but some important, meaningful extracurricular books, that will be of great help to you. At least 25% of the knowledge I have gained in my life is seen from the library, not taught by others. I went through the library and wrote a lot about the ideas I saw in the books. That's how my doctoral thesis was made. This doctoral thesis is not a great article, but more than 50 years later, it still looks a little interesting. Therefore, first of all, I hope that students should understand that reading is very important self-discipline, you should force yourself to read and listen to speeches is also a very important thing, you should develop a habit, do not listen because you have credits. Now I have found a very important problem. Our students think that they will not listen to a subject without credit. However, even if many subjects have no credit, they may have the most benefit from it. We saw several important speeches and important subjects, we invited international masters to give lectures, a lecture for two or three months, many students kept listening, and benefited a lot. And some students think they don't want to listen to it until they get the credits, I think this is a wrong mistake. You should cultivate your interest, feel that a subject is good for you, and at the same time can arouse your interest, you must spend time listening to, learning, and learning casually, to take notes carefully. In July this year, I was glad to see our classmates listening to the basic science conference, many of them took out their notebooks to take notes, which is very important. At the same time, there are also many students lazy to take a mobile phone to take a picture, consciously very satisfied, but I expect you to write it. For half a century in my life, I've talked to the greatest mathematicians. These great mathematicians take notes during lectures, and they are the top scientists, and they take notes. So, I hope you know that taking notes is a very important thing for you.
Let me tell you one more thing. Since I've been famous since your age, I've heard many speeches, some of which aren't in my profession. I studied geometry, but I listened to a lot of analytics, physics, and engineering lectures. I listen to physics sometimes do not understand it, but after listening to it many times, I am gradually familiar with the language of the physicist and slowly understand a lot. There are not many physics researchers in mathematicians, and I am one of them. How did I learn it? Just listen to more speeches, to more lectures. Many of my friends think it is very strange. For example, when I am busy, I leave before listening to the speech. Sometimes I ask my friends what they said in the speech. Because I feel very owe, always want to listen to the speech, hope to know interesting ideas. I always hoped to be able to listen, but sometimes for various reasons did not listen, and I always regret it. I think that's what we have to do with the discipline.
There are many important things in life that we must accomplish to be ready to become a master. You can't be bare-handed, completely without learning a knowledge, and expect to complete a university ask, never happened in the world that things, later will not appear. I listened to the students just said a lot of volunteer, very good! Great! You all have ambition in your heart, we "gold and iron horse, swallow like a tiger", but without gold and iron horse is no way to swallow like a tiger. How can we have a gold horse and an iron horse? To rely on their ability, their learning content, without these is not complete. Therefore, I hope you know that our study is a must learn well.
In addition, I also have some communication with many students and found that some students lacked confidence, felt that they were not good enough, and some things did not happen. I told you frankly that I never felt that I could not accomplish something at your age. I want to do something, and I always feel that I must finish it. I do not want to exaggerate the completion but spent a lot of effort to study and finally succeed. As I said just now, no master in the world gets something for nothing and must work hard to accomplish it. You should take the initiative to learn, listen to the lectures, listen to the speeches of many different masters, and learn their lessons. At the same time, you should think deeply, so that you can go out of your way. The process of thinking is very important for you. We have seen many famous mathematicians in China. Although they have done a lot of good work, they still never follow the road created by themselves. They still have a long distance from the big mathematicians overseas, and they still follow them.
If we want to go out of our way, we must think and learn, think about our knowledge, keep learning, and then create, creation is to ask questions, to communicate with scholars in different places. Therefore, on important occasions, such as the International Conference of Basic Science in July this year, you should listen carefully and study hard. You should not think that you do not want to listen to or learn far beyond your ability. There is no knowledge in the world that is far more than you learn, you understand things, and as long as you have confidence, and listen slowly, finally will understand.
As I said just now, when I listened to physics at first, I did not understand physics, but after more than ten or twenty times, I began to understand their language. So we must spend more effort to listen, to adhere to the habit of watching and listening, adhere to ten years, eight years later, you will find that nothing to do, you can complete. Even if you can't do a big topic, you can find an important breakthrough near the big topic, which is also an important thing. As long as you work hard, as long as the direction is right, there must be a harvest, this is what I can tell you.
Our current graduate students should think, about going in an important direction, to find a good mentor, so they can study well. No matter in what circumstances there are still to learn, do not learn the words will never progress, to today I am still learning. Recently I studied their biological research with Professor Wu. Learning different knowledge from different teachers, I can see different methods. I have a lot of communication with theoretical physics people, such as general relativity and gravitational field communication. After each study, I feel very interested and can go out in a new direction. I hope that the students will work hard, and at the same time, to draw some experience from the process of hard work.
Today, what I want to talk about is that I hope you will start a new path in your graduate years and change the situation that China has not been able to create a new path in the past 40 years. I think it's time since 1870, when the United States began to introduce research, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, 40 years later, after 1915, the whole country changed and began to lead the world. I think it is almost time for us to start walking like this. The burden is on our classmates. I hope that three or five years from now, we will start to see a batch of important papers. I will do my best to help you.
Thank you!
Typography | Gong Wei
Review | Wang Xiaofang, Zhou Zhi
Translation | Gao Xudong
