Computers ＂accept＂ Chinese characters, always thanks to a glorious name.
In the 11th century, Bi Sheng in the Northern Song Dynasty invented movable type printing, which made great contributions to promoting the development of world civilization.
More than 900 years later, a sick scientist led the team to create and apply the world’s first "Chinese character information processing and laser phototypesetting system", which once again set off a "photoelectric revolution" in the printing industry, making ancient Chinese characters glow with youthful brilliance in the information age.
Before the National Day this year, he was awarded the title of "the most beautiful struggler". Thirteen years after his death, people still deeply miss this respectable scientist and teacher — — Wang Xuan.
"One step for 40 years"
Dare to be the first in scientific research.
On October 22nd, in order to commemorate Academician Wang Xuan and inherit Wang Xuan’s spirit, Peking University Institute of Computer Science and Technology (referred to as Peking University Computer Research Institute) was officially renamed as "Peking University Wang Xuan Computer Research Institute".
In warm applause, Oscar Chan, a professor at the Computer Research Institute who is over 80 years old? ? Walking slowly to the podium, with her consistent low-key and humility, she told people about the years when she fought side by side with her husband Wang Xuan.
Naming ceremony of Peking University Wangxuan Computer Research Institute. The pictures are provided by the interviewees.
In China in the 1970s, typography was still used, which was "melting lead with fire and casting words with lead". In the typesetting workshop, word pickers need to walk back and forth between the type racks to find out the type needed for the manuscript one by one. A skilled worker has to walk back and forth for more than ten miles with a lead plate every day, and his hands will always become dark because of picking up words.
This method has the advantages of high energy consumption, high labor intensity, serious environmental pollution, and extremely low publishing and printing ability, and it usually takes about one year to publish a book in a publishing house.
According to incomplete statistics, at that time, China consumed 200,000 tons of lead alloy and more than 2 million copper molds, worth 6 billion yuan. At that time, the west had taken the lead in adopting "electronic phototypesetting technology", that is, using computer control to realize phototypesetting.
To keep pace with the development of world informatization, Chinese characters must be combined with computers, otherwise it will be difficult for China to enter the information age.
In order to change this backward situation, in 1974, China established the "Chinese character information processing system project", that is, the "748 project". This made Wang Xuan, who was then a teaching assistant in the Department of Radio Science of Peking University and had been ill for more than 10 years, find the direction of struggle.
At that time, the second-generation and third-generation imagesetters were popular abroad, but through repeated analysis and comparison, Wang Xuan thought that they had no future and there were huge technical difficulties in China at that time. He decided to directly develop the fourth-generation laser phototypesetting system, which is not finished in the world, that is, under the control of computer, digitally stored fonts are exposed to laser beams on the negative and printed.
This important decision made the printing industry in China directly step into the stage of laser phototypesetting from lead printing in the future, which spanned the development history of foreign phototypesetters for 40 years.
The primary problem in studying the laser phototypesetting system of Chinese characters is to store the huge font information of Chinese characters into the computer. However, it is easier said than done to make computers accept Chinese characters.
There are only 26 letters in English, but there are thousands of commonly used Chinese characters, and there are many fonts and font sizes in printing. If you want to establish a Chinese character library in a computer, the storage capacity is huge, which is completely inconsistent with the computer level at that time.
How to describe Chinese character strokes with the least information? In 1975, based on the research background of computational mathematics, Wang Xuan racked his brains and finally thought of using the mathematical method of "contour plus parameters" to describe glyphs. This method can compress the font information by 500 times to 1000 times, and realize high speed and high fidelity in variable magnification restoration. The worldwide problem of computer storage and recovery of Chinese font information has been overcome.
In 1976, Wang Xuan’s technical scheme was supported by the state, and the development task of "Chinese character precision phototypesetting system" was assigned to Peking University, and Wang Xuan became the chief technical officer.
Now, in the spoon garden near the west gate of Peking University, in the past, it seems that you can still see 38-year-old Wang Xuan sitting under a persimmon tree, holding a magnifying glass, studying the strokes of Chinese characters over and over again, looking for the secret of letting Chinese characters enter the computer. Few young students in the past knew that an invention that shocked the world and refreshed the history of China’s publishing industry was born here.
"At that time, it was hard for people to imagine that the third generation of Japan had not yet passed the customs. Suddenly, a small teaching assistant from Peking University wanted to engage in the fourth generation, and he had to use mathematical methods to describe glyphs and compress glyph information. It was ironic that I was playing a deceptive mathematical game."
Many years later, recalling the beginning, Wang Xuan was still very emotional. However, he always firmly believes that "to engage in applied research, we must focus on the future direction of scientific and technological development, otherwise the results will fall behind the times and can only follow the advanced foreign technology."
"At that time, almost no one in the printing industry believed that he could make it. All kinds of cynicism, a small teaching assistant, was still sick. Isn’t this a fable? Some people say that if you want to engage in the fourth generation, I will engage in the eighth generation! " Oscar Chan? ? Laugh and say.
Now, in the busy Zhongguancun Street, in the memorial exhibition room of Wang Xuan in Founder Building, people can still see Wang Xuan’s handwriting when he checked and corrected the font information, and the symbols on A4 paper are dense. And such a manuscript has more than 2,200 pages in his home.
of indomitable spirit
"Say goodbye to lead and fire, welcome light and electricity"
Coming in from the west gate of Peking University and bypassing the Huabiao, a magnificent ancient building is hidden in the forest. This is the Peking University Archives, where the former "748 Project" battle group was located.
In July 1979, Wang Xuan led the team to fight day and night here. After dozens of experiments, he finally output the first newspaper sample with the domestic Chinese character laser phototypesetting system.
Wang Xuan is looking at the newspaper film output by laser phototypesetting system (photo taken in 1991).
Next to the huge prototype, he picked up a magnifying glass, carefully examined every word on the newspaper sample, and immediately announced with a smile: "Success, perfect! Print immediately! "
After the prototype was completed, Wang Xuan was advised: "You have succeeded, you don’t need to do it any more." However, Wang Xuan believes that applied scientific and technological achievements must stand the test of the market in order to have a practical effect on society. "You can’t take the state’s money, just do an experiment." He made a decisive decision: to get out of the laboratory and compete with international manufacturers.
However, what he faced was internal and external troubles.
In the early 1980s, the import climax struck, and laser imagesetters from the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries came to China in succession to grab the market cake. However, China almost overwhelmingly advocates the introduction, and major newspapers, publishing houses and printing houses are using foreign phototypesetting systems.
The development conditions of Wang Xuan’s team are also extremely boring and arduous. The team only has one domestic computer for all to use in turn. Because of the poor stability of the machine, every time it is turned on and off, components will be damaged, so we can only work day and night without turning it off.
"At that time, there was no monitor or floppy disk on the domestic mainframe. The input of programs and data was manually typed on the perforated paper tape, word by word, and then input into the computer. If you make a mistake, you have to fill the hole in the paper tape, which is very slow and very difficult." Oscar Chan? ? Memories
Is it cold feet or decisive battle in the market?
"High-tech industries should stand tall." Wang Xuan told the team researchers, "If the market is occupied by foreign products in the future, our achievements will only be equal to zero."
With last stand’s determination, Wang Xuan, who claimed to be "growing up in the midst of abuse", led more than 100 business backbones mobilized from all over the country to jointly tackle key problems with a number of cooperative units, overcome difficulties and make continuous innovations.
At first, various problems emerged in the process of users and cooperative units trying out the domestic system, which was alarming. Oscar Chan? ? I remember that even one imagesetter broke down eight times a day when it was tried in a certain unit. Under great pressure, Wang Xuan works hard every day without any holiday weekends.
In the end, with the support of the state and Peking University, and with the hard work of scientific research teams, cooperative units and users for many years, generations of domestic laser phototypesetting systems have broken ground, been continuously optimized, popularized and applied, and finally gained a good reputation at home and abroad.
The curse was finally replaced by praise. For more than 20 years, Wang Xuan led the team to develop eight generations of laser phototypesetting system products. A printing revolution "bid farewell to lead and fire, welcome light and electricity" swept through. By the early 1990s, 99% of newspapers, more than 90% of book publishing houses and printing houses in China had got rid of lead operation and all used laser phototypesetting system. Previously, foreign companies selling imagesetter systems in China withdrew from the China market one after another, and domestic systems won a great victory. However, the average publishing cycle of books and periodicals in China has been shortened from more than 300 days to about 100 days, and the typesetting ability of the whole newspaper industry has increased hundreds of times.
In 2001, China Academy of Engineering awarded the results of "China’s major engineering and technological achievements in the 20th century", and "Chinese character information processing and printing revolution" was only one vote behind "two bombs and one satellite". In 2002, 65-year-old Wang Xuan won the highest national science and technology award.
"In the 18 years from 1975 to 1993, I always had a kind of ‘ Go against the tide ’ I feel that this process is a narrow escape, and even if I breathe a sigh of relief, I will not have today’s success. " In an article, Wang Xuan once wrote, "We firmly believe that bidding farewell to lead and fire is a revolution and a social need, so we are not satisfied with the existing results and pursue the spirit of Excellence and perseverance, and we will continue to work no matter how hard and hard we work."
Willing to be a ladder
A "warm-hearted" teacher who loves talents like life
"Seeing young people shine" is the happiest thing for Wang Xuan. He once proudly said, "My students will surpass me in many aspects, but only ‘ Love is like life ’ In terms of aspects, I am afraid it is difficult to surpass me. "
At the age of 56, Wang Xuan, then director of the Computer Research Institute of Peking University, announced that his creation peak had passed, he withdrew from the front line of scientific research and began to fully support and train the younger generation.
Wang Xuan believes that in order to cultivate and attract talents, it is necessary to push young people to "the forefront of demand stimulation" and let them give full play to their talents. He encouraged young people to be "whimsical", not superstitious about authority, and let them take on heavy responsibilities on major projects, and warned them: "We should not take winning prizes and publishing articles as the goal, but should have the determination to continue to struggle and innovate, and finally make high-tech products rank first in the market." In order to support young people’s research, he also set up the "Wang Xuan Science and Technology Innovation Fund".
Encouraged by Wang Xuan, Xiao Jianguo, a student of Wang Xuan and later director of the Computer Research Institute of Peking University, began to study the first large-screen newspaper typesetting system and color publishing system in China. He said: "Teacher Wang made me dare to think and do things that my predecessors dared not think and do. His encouragement accompanied me through difficulties, turned research results into productivity, and let society recognize its value. "
For young people, Wang Xuan is "as warm as a father", which not only creates a favorable research environment for them, but also cares for them in life. As soon as he has time, he goes to various computer rooms to chat with everyone and learn about everyone’s hobbies and family situation. Often buy food and nutrition for them at their own expense; Quietly solve the problems of spouse transfer and professional title promotion for them, and also raise funds to buy houses to improve accommodation conditions for everyone.
Spare no effort to support, support and encourage young people, greatly stimulating their creativity, a series of new achievements have emerged, and a number of technical backbones have also grown rapidly.
In people’s eyes, Wang Xuan is gentle, modest and simple. He doesn’t like others to call him "the father of Chinese character laser phototypesetting" and "contemporary Bi Sheng", and repeatedly declares that "this is a collective honor, not the work of one person"; Even if he later held many positions, the title on his most commonly used business card was only "Professor Wang Xuan". Someone called him "the head", and he jokingly held out his hand: "I am this palm!" "
Wang Xuan and his wife Oscar Chan? ? Check the typesetting film output by the Chinese character laser phototypesetting system together. (photo taken in 1994, information photo)
Oscar Chan? ? In the past, Wang Xuan was dressed simply and casually. After the laser phototypesetting system became famous, he was given a suit because of various reception tasks.
In the 1990s, Wang Xuan and Oscar Chan, as one of the few "academicians of the Third Academy of Sciences" in China, were the chairman of the board of directors of Founder Holdings Limited. ? I still live in a 74-square-meter flat for more than 10 years.
Ma Guangya, the driver of Wang Xuan, remembers that an old watch of Wang Xuan had its strap changed three times by his hand. Later, both scales on the dial fell off, and Wang Xuan insisted on repairing it until his death. "The pair of glasses he often wears is also very worn, and he is not willing to give up when others advise him to change a pair."
Over the years, almost all the prizes won by Wang Xuan have been invested in scientific research or various fund-raising. All kinds of souvenirs given by the organizers when they went out for meetings were donated to the unit when he came back, and he was told to give them to employees for lucky draw when they held a get-together at the end of the year.
Cong Zhongxiao, Wang Xuan’s secretary before his death, believes that noble virtue is the key to Wang Xuan’s success. "He is humorous, lovely, sincere and frank, and always makes people around him laugh. He is very wise and human, and he considers others everywhere." "Teacher Wang is a ‘ Capitalized ’ Good man, I walked all the way with him and felt as if I had lived again. "
However, years of hard work eventually dragged down Wang Xuan’s health. On February 13, 2006, after five years of tenacious struggle with the disease, 69-year-old Wang Xuan died suddenly, leaving his career and relatives forever.
Nearly 2000 days after the diagnosis of cancer, he treated the disease like a scientific research, endured severe pain, participated in more than 340 meetings, wrote 110,000-word articles and interviewed more than 500 people.
"Teacher Wang Xuan is a great scientist." At Peking University, Academician Han Qide, honorary chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, said with emotion that without the Chinese character information processing and laser phototypesetting system, Chinese characters could not enter the digital age so conveniently, and this invention had an important impact on the civilized development of China and even human beings. "Our era is an era that needs the spirit of Wang Xuan."
"Half a lifetime of hard work, a lifetime of peace of mind." Now, in books, newspapers and keyboard strokes, it seems that we can still feel the earnest hope of a sincere and sincere scientist when he leaves — —
"I am full of confidence in the future of my country. China will surely become a world power in the middle of the 21st century. I can make some contribution to this in my lifetime and die without regret … … The younger generation must ‘ Go beyond the king’s election and go to the world ’ 。” (Refer to Biography of Wang Xuan for some historical materials) (Reporter Wei Mengjia)