editorial comment/note
2016 is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Qian Xuesen, a "National Outstanding Contribution Scientist". As an outstanding scientist and thinker, Qian Xuesen is not only the "two bombs and one satellite" founder of China, but also has made great achievements in the space industry, and initiated the "China School" of systems engineering, which is unique and stands tall compared with foreign counterparts. On April 24, 2016, when China’s first space day is coming, it is particularly necessary to commemorate Qian Xuesen and explore the driving force of innovation from his long-term practical experience in major engineering and colorful artistic thinking.
Create an immortal space monument
Some people say that a great man and a master come out once in hundreds or even thousands of years. As an outstanding scientist and thinker, Qian Xuesen is really a great master. Facing the needs of the country, Qian Xuesen has made five major choices in his life, and made irreplaceable contributions to the world anti-fascist war during his stay in the United States. As the founder of China’s "two bombs and one satellite", his great achievements in the aerospace industry are a monument in the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the idea of system engineering and general design department he pursued all his life has promoted the development of human science and technology. Compared with foreign counterparts, China School of Systems Engineering initiated by Qian Xuesen is unique and stands tall. All these are inseparable from Qian Xuesen’s firm Marxist belief, solid theoretical foundation, rich scientific and technical knowledge, long-term practical experience in major projects and colorful artistic thinking. Today, the trend of world multipolarization and economic globalization is deepening, and the information society is developing rapidly. We feel the brilliance of Qian Xuesen’s philosophy more and more, and see the strong vitality of system engineering.
Qian Xuesen always combined his personal ideal with the destiny of the motherland, and he transferred from railway engineering to aviation engineering interdisciplinary; Cross-regional travel from China to the United States to study; Transfer aviation theory from aviation engineering across disciplines; Cross-domain entry into new and cutting-edge fields such as rockets, missiles and engineering control. These rich experiences enabled him to gradually improve his ideological system in the process of continuous integration and transformation, laying the foundation for presiding over China’s space industry.
Qian Xuesen shoulders a special mission in the struggle of the space industry. He is both a planner and an implementer. He is both a leader and a teacher. He led the astronauts to make the impossible possible, shaping another milestone in his life, and it was China’s space industry that provided a practical soil for Qian Xuesen’s system engineering thought. As Yu Jingyuan, a researcher at the former 710 Institute of Space, said: "Qian Xuesen pioneered China’s space industry, but also created a set of systems engineering management methods and technologies with both China characteristics and universal scientific significance."
Qian Xuesen applied the method of "large-scale corps fighting" of the People’s Liberation Army to the construction of national defense projects, and applied the unique democratic centralism of our party to the whole process of development, uniting all the forces that can be United to use in the cause of "two bombs and one satellite", and finally achieved success. Qian Xuesen realized that in order to engage in cutting-edge national defense technology and command such a large social labor, it is necessary to set up a department composed of high-tech scientific and technological teams with many disciplines, complete specialties and rich research experience to provide technical staff for leaders. This department is the embryonic form of the current aerospace system general design department, where an interactive and flexible management model combining unified leadership and two command and support systems has been realized.
In February 1962, with the approval of Marshal Nie Rongzhen, the Science and Technology Committee of the Fifth Research Institute of the Ministry of National Defense was established, with Qian Xuesen as its chairman. The establishment of the science and technology commission has enabled the party and government leaders to be alert and clear-sighted, and has an effective way to make scientific and democratic decisions. The organization form of the Science and Technology Committee has been used up to now. Not only the national defense science and technology industry system, the military scientific research and experimental units, but also government departments and companies have gradually established this organization.
In the late 1970s, Qian Xuesen once again returned to academic theoretical research. On the basis of in-depth summary and refinement of early space career practice, he published "The Technology of Organization and Management — — System Engineering, for the first time, clearly defined the early understanding of China’s system engineering, and system engineering began to develop rapidly in China. In order to further develop systematics, with Qian Xuesen’s personal initiative and participation, a seminar on systematics has been held in 710 Institute of the former Ministry of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 1986 (it was resumed in China Institute of Aerospace Systems Science and Engineering in 2013), and a "comprehensive integration method from qualitative to quantitative" and its realization form "comprehensive integration seminar hall system from qualitative to quantitative" have been creatively put forward, which is a concrete embodiment of Qian Xuesen’s system engineering thought in methodology. The holding of the seminar has made a solid contribution to the development of systems engineering in China. It is known as the "cradle of systems engineering in China" and shoulders the banner of systems engineering in China.
System engineering serves the country.
Qian Xuesen’s process of pioneering and establishing system science and system engineering has always been closely linked with China’s socialist modernization and the development of science and technology at home and abroad, and focused on solving major problems that some countries must solve. Therefore, Qian Xuesen’s system engineering thought not only has important theoretical innovation, but also has extremely important practical guiding significance and has made great contributions to national construction.
Qian Xuesen deeply felt that the overall design department played an important role in China’s "two bombs and one satellite" to achieve remarkable achievements, win glory for the country and compete for the people. Therefore, on the basis of in-depth study of the social system, Qian Xuesen combined with his extremely successful experience in the development of "two bombs and one satellite" and put forward the proposal of establishing the overall design department of the national economy in 1979 according to the design principles of system engineering. By using the method of system engineering, he comprehensively analyzed the system structure of China’s socialist construction, namely, "the construction of socialist political civilization, including democratic construction, institutional construction and legal construction; The construction of socialist material civilization, including economic construction and people’s physical construction; Socialist spiritual civilization construction, including ideological construction and cultural construction; Socialist geographical construction includes environmental protection, ecological construction and infrastructure construction. " China’s socialist construction is an open and complex giant system, which should focus on economic construction and make all aspects develop in harmony, cooperate with each other and promote each other. To this end, Qian Xuesen proposed to set up a general design department specializing in socialist construction to carry out top-level design of national construction, which was highly valued by the party and state leaders and organized special discussions. Although this proposal was not finally realized before Qian Xuesen’s death, in the new historical period, an important responsibility of the central government to set up a comprehensive deepening reform leading group is to be responsible for the overall design of the reform.
In June 1984, Qian Xuesen put forward the idea of developing agricultural knowledge-intensive industries by using system engineering thought and modern science and technology. Its main connotation is "based on grassland, making use of sunlight and creating wealth through biology". It is a new industry that uses systematic thinking, overall concept, scientific and technological achievements, industrial chain, market operation and cultural docking to manage desert resources, realize a virtuous cycle of "greening the desert, increasing farmers’ income and increasing enterprises’ efficiency", and link "blood transfusion" with "hematopoiesis" to create a great 21st century. Under the guidance of Qian Xuesen’s theories, Inner Mongolia has gradually formed sand industry series such as licorice, seabuckthorn and cistanche deserticola, and grass industry series such as cashmere, meat, milk, medicine and potato. On January 19th, 2008, when Comrade Hu Jintao visited Qian Xuesen, he said, "Not long ago, I visited Erdos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and saw that the sand industry there developed very well. The processing of psammophytes has been started, the ecology is being restored, and the people’s living standards have also been significantly improved. Qian Lao, your idea has been realized. "
Qian Xuesen’s research in his last 30 years has applied the system engineering thought to China’s social system, such as military field, social governance, ecological environment and transportation. Now, the inheritors of Qian Xuesen’s thought have extended it to all aspects of our country’s construction and become its important guiding ideology.
Learn lively and make good use of it to enrich philosophy.
Qian Xuesen’s love for national conditions and people’s hearts strengthened his belief in Marxism. He always thinks that Marxist philosophy is the source of wisdom and scientific truth. In his letter to his friends, he said: "A Marxist will never love the people and will never be unpatriotic." "A Chinese Communist party member must adhere to Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, which is ‘ Persistence ’ Is correct. "
Qian Xuesen not only used Marxist philosophy to guide research, but also treated himself with historical materialism. He believes that missile space flight is a cause of thousands of people, and no one can do it without the leadership of the party and collective efforts. He just came back to the motherland at the right time and did what he should do. He is only one thousandth, one thousandth of this collective under the leadership of the party.
Qian Xuesen always tries to guide scientific research and engineering practice with Marxist philosophy. He believes that the rapid development of science and technology has enriched and deepened Marxist philosophy in the more than 100 years since Marx and Engels laid the foundation for the establishment and improvement of Marxist philosophy system, and Marxist philosophy is in a guiding position for scientific development. In his "Methodological Problems in Technical Science" published in 1957, he wrote: "In the research of technical science, we should combine theory with practice flexibly and not act rigidly. I think this flexible combination of theory and practice is the essence of dialectical materialism. "
In the process of studying and practicing Marxist philosophy, Qian Xuesen realized the combination of science and philosophy, demonstrated the scientific nature of Marxist philosophy with the achievements of modern natural science, and enriched the scientific connotation of Marxist philosophy. At the same time, from a philosophical perspective, he pointed out that the prospects of some major scientific and technological developments will have an impact on human society. His scientific theory embodies dialectical philosophical thinking, and his philosophical thinking has profound scientific connotation.
His scientific outlook and methodology not only absorbed the essence of China’s traditional culture and the most advanced scientific and technological achievements in the contemporary world, but also condensed a deep patriotic enthusiasm and a high sense of social responsibility, all for the strength of the motherland, world peace and people’s happiness. He attributed all his achievements to the party and the collective. At the conference that the State Council and the Central Military Commission awarded Qian Xuesen the honorary title of "National Outstanding Contribution Scientist" in October 1991, he said: "I think today’s science and technology is not only natural science engineering technology, but also the whole knowledge system for people to understand and transform the objective world. The highest summary of this system is Marxist philosophy. We can completely establish a scientific system and use it to solve problems in our socialist construction. " And stressed: "I want to promote this for the rest of my life."
Qian Xuesen’s spirit shines forever
From the Marxist point of view, Qian Xuesen highly summarized the development of science and technology and its great role in promoting social development, and pointed out the differences between scientific revolution, technological revolution, industrial revolution and social development, as well as their mutual connection and interaction. He believed that they were in a network and feedback relationship, and summarized the law of social development as: "Scientific revolution comes first, then leads to technological revolution, and finally industrial revolution", and industrial revolution caused a leap in social form. Qian Xuesen’s exposition on the interrelation and interaction between the four revolutions and their influence on social development enriches Marx’s viewpoint that "science and technology are revolutionary forces to promote social development".
In the mid-1980s, theories such as "post-industrial society", "the third wave society" and "information society" came out one after another. Qian Xuesen believes that these new things and situations need to be analyzed, generalized and summarized by Marxist philosophy, and the concept of Marxist social form should be developed. The fifth industrial revolution with global information network and multimedia technology has brought people into a brand-new era. This is "due to the promotion of the fifth industrial revolution, the development of market economy in the world, the trend of economic globalization is increasing day by day, and the world is gradually forming an interconnected big society, and no country can close its doors." And the invention of electronic computer has produced a new industry — — Information industry, which not only changed the traditional production tools and production relations, but also created people — The spiritual productivity of the combination of machine and machine. Qian Xuesen predicted that the information revolution will eventually lead to the elimination of the difference between physical and mental work from the perspective that electronic computers are tools to liberate mental work, and this prediction has been realized.
According to the latest progress of biological science and technology, Qian Xuesen put forward the "Sixth Industrial Revolution" in 1984, which is a great agricultural revolution with modern biotechnology as the core. By the 21st century, it will develop into a bioengineering industry with animal and plant engineering, drugs and vaccines, protein project, cell fusion and gene recombination. In his view, the Great Agricultural Revolution was caused by the industrialization of modern biotechnology. In essence, it used solar energy as energy, used biology, water and atmosphere, and formed a new knowledge-intensive industry through agriculture, forestry, grass, livestock, poultry, fungi, medicine and fish, plus industry and trade. The large-scale agriculture developed in this way, except for the different products produced, has no substantial difference with industry in production mode, and its development may eventually lead to the elimination of the differences between industry and agriculture, urban and rural areas.
Today, many of Qian Xuesen’s foresighted theories and viewpoints have come true. He is like a giant who travels through time and space. The longer he takes, the more he can appreciate the significance of his thoughts to the greatness of mankind. As time goes by, we feel the dazzling light of Qian Xuesen’s wisdom.
At present, the world economy is in the process of deep adjustment, the recovery momentum is insufficient, the geopolitical influence is aggravated, and uncertainties are increasing. The domestic reform has entered the critical period and deep water area, and the contradictions in all aspects have become increasingly prominent. We must pay more attention to the systematicness, integrity and synergy of the reform. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made a general plan for comprehensively deepening the reform, and put forward specific reform objectives in economic, political, cultural, social, ecological civilization, national defense and army building, and opening to the outside world. Deepening the reform in an all-round way and building a well-off society in an all-round way are all complex systems engineering. Escorting the China with the idea of systems engineering will help it run more stably, faster and further.
Infinite loyalty to the party and great love for the motherland are the core elements and outstanding portrayal of Qian Xuesen’s patriotic feelings. Qian Xuesen always combined his personal ideal with the destiny of the motherland all his life. During his school days, he was diligent and diligent, aiming at serving the country and establishing the lofty ideal of saving the country by aviation; During his stay in the United States, he devoted himself to studying, aiming at rejuvenating the country and returning to China to serve; After a difficult return to China, he devoted himself to national defense, aiming at strengthening the country and achieving the great cause of "two bombs and one satellite"; In his later years, he was old and eager to enrich the country and devote his mind to people’s happiness. In his later years, Qian Xuesen once recalled: "Why should I take the road of returning to the motherland? I think the reason is simple — — For nearly a hundred years since the Opium War, Chinese people have been dreaming of becoming a powerful country and fighting constantly. Revolutionary martyrs sacrificed their precious lives for the sake of rejuvenating the country and the dream of strengthening the country for the descendants of the Chinese people, and their blood flooded the land of China. Personally, as a member of the Chinese people, I can only follow the footsteps of the martyrs and explore and pursue in thousands of dangers, regardless of others. "
(Xue Huifeng, the author is Dean of the 12th Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee)
