China's famous bridge expert

Mao Yisheng (1896-1989), a Chinese bridge expert, was a native of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, and graduated from the Civil Engineering Department of Tangshan Industrial Specialized School in 1916, and received a master's degree in civil engineering from Cornell University in the following year. In 1916, he graduated from the Civil Engineering Department of Tangshan Industrial College, and in the following year, he received a master's degree in civil engineering from Cornell University, and a doctorate degree in engineering from Galician Polytechnic Institute in the United States in 1921. After returning to China, he served as a professor at Tangshan School of the University of Transportation (Tangshan Jiaotong University), director of the engineering department of Southeast University, president of Hohai University of Technology, dean of Beiyang College of Technology, director of Hangzhou Qiantang River Bridge Engineering Department, dean of Tangshan College of Technology of the University of Transportation, and director of the Bridge Design and Engineering Department of the Ministry of Transportation of the Kuomintang Government. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the president of Northern Jiaotong University, the director of the Railway Research Institute of the Ministry of Railway, the director of the Railway Research Institute, the second vice-chairman of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology and honorary chairman, the chairman of the Beijing Municipal Association for Science and Technology, a member of the Department of Technical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the third chairman of the Chinese Society of Civil Engineers, a senior member of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering in the fifth to seventh sessions of the Jiu San Society, and a member of the International Association of Civil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. In 1982, he was awarded the title of foreign academician by the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. In 1933, he led the design and construction of Hangzhou Qiantang River Bridge, and participated in the structural review of the Great Hall of the People in 1959.

Mao Yisheng grew up as a studious young man, good at independent thinking. When he was 10 years old, during the Dragon Boat Festival, a dragon boat race was held in his hometown, and the people watching the race stood on the Wende Bridge, which collapsed due to too many people, killing and drowning many. This unfortunate event weighed heavily on Mao Yisheng's heart. He made up his mind: when he grows up, he must build the strongest bridge. From then on, Mao Yisheng as long as he saw the bridge, regardless of whether it is a stone bridge or a wooden bridge, he always from the bridge to the bridge columns to see enough. After Mao Yisheng went to school, he saw the articles and passages about bridges from books, copied them into this book, and cut and pasted the pictures about bridges for a long time, and saved up several large thick books.

Mao Yisheng graduated from high school, first enrolled in the Tangshan Industrial Specialized School, Department of Civil Engineering. 1916 after graduation, by the Tangshan Road Mining to the first place, by the Tsinghua School official fee guaranteed to stay in the U.S. as a postgraduate student, September departure to the U.S. Cornell University to report to. Who knows that the school's registrar arrogantly said: "China Tangshan this school never heard of, must be examined, qualified to register". After the examination, Mao Yisheng's results were excellent, and he was registered as a bridge graduate student. From then on, graduates of the Tangshan Road and Mining School were guaranteed admission to Cornell University as graduate students, and were no longer required to pass the examination. Mao Yisheng in 1917 by Cornell University Institute of professional master's degree, in 1919 by the United States of America, California Institute of Technology doctoral degree in engineering. Doctoral thesis entitled "bridge mechanics second stress", this thesis, at the time of the world level, and thus won the Gold Research Medal issued by the Polytechnic Institute of Galicki. 1919 December, 24-year-old Mao Yisheng resolutely returned to China, in the University of Transportation and Communications, Tangshan School, as a professor. Mao Yisheng said, "Looking back on my study life, these 14 years of hard work are like building a bridge, building a solid abutment for my life's work." After Mao Yisheng returned to China, he successively served as a professor of Tangshan Industrial Specialized School, a professor and director of the engineering department of Southeast University in Nanjing, the president of Hehai University of Technology, the dean and professor of Beiyang Institute of Technology in Tianjin, the director of the Water Conservancy Bureau of Jiangsu Province, the general manager and chief engineer of China Bridge Company of the Ministry of Transportation, and the president of the Northern Jiaotong University, among other positions.

Between 1933 and 1937, Mao Yisheng was the director of the Qiantang River Bridge Engineering Department and presided over the construction of China's first modernized bridge for road and railroad --- "Qiantang River Bridge". He adopted the "water injection method", "caisson method", "floating far method" and so on, solving one technical problem in the construction of the bridge. From then on, Mao Yisheng's footprints spread all over the country, and his name stayed in all parts of the motherland together with the newly built bridges. After five years of hard work, Mao Yisheng finally completed the modernized Qiantang River Bridge.

1955 to 1957, Mao Yisheng also served as Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge Technical Advisory Committee Chairman, he accepted the construction of China's first bridge across the Yangtze River --- Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge task. 1955 September, the bridge officially started, to 1957, the bridge was completed on September 25, more than the original bridge. On September 25, 1957, the bridge was completed two years earlier than the original plan. Mao Yisheng designed the bridge, which is a double-deck steel truss bridge for railroad and highway. The upper deck is a highway bridge, 22.5 meters wide, of which the carriageway is 18 meters wide; the lower deck is a railroad bridge, 18 meters wide. The main bridge is 1,155.5 meters long, and together with the highway approach bridges at both ends, the total length is 1,670.4 meters. The bridge connects the Beijing-Hankan Railway and the Guangdong-Hankan Railway, becoming a major transportation artery running through the north and south of China, and linking the three towns of Wuhan together, ensuring that the railroad and highway networks of China's north and south regions are linked together.

When the Great Hall of the People was being built in Beijing in 1958, Premier Zhou Enlai, in reviewing the engineering design, pointed out, "It has to be guaranteed by Mao Yisheng's signature." The party and state leaders had great trust in Mao Yisheng, who was also extremely responsible for the party's work, and he made a comprehensive review and accounting of the structural design of the Great Hall of the People, and finally signed his name.

Mao Yisheng spent his life learning about bridges, building bridges and writing about bridges. He published more than 200 articles in Chinese and foreign newspapers and magazines. He presided over the preparation of "History of Chinese Ancient Bridge Technology" and "Chinese Bridges - Ancient to Modern Times" (with five texts in Japanese, English, French, German and Spanish). He is the author of "Qiantang River Bridge", "Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge", "Mao Yisheng's Selected Works of Popular Science Creation" (I and II), and "Mao Yisheng's Collected Writings".

Since 1954, he has been elected as a member of one to five sessions of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a delegate to the National People's Congress, and a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), and in October 1987, he was honorably admitted to the Chinese ****anufacturing Party. He made outstanding contributions to the cause of bridge construction in China and the world. died on November 12, 1989 after a long illness.

On the creation of "China's stone arch bridge" (Mao Yisheng)

The article "China's stone arch bridge" is an essay I published in the People's Daily in 1962, which was later selected as a junior high school textbook and is still in use today.

In recent years, a number of middle school teachers have written to me or visited me to reflect some of the situations in classroom lectures. Educator Prof. Ye Cangcen has also corresponded with me four times for advice on the preparation of this class. Some of the answers I gave were reproduced in publications on language teaching. The current language textbooks, with their collection of articles on various subjects, are immensely knowledgeable. From the young and middle-aged teachers whom I have come into contact with, I y feel that they have studied each model text in their lectures so carefully and meticulously. I am y moved by this spirit. Recently, the editorial board of Zhengzhou Teaching Newsletter intended to publish a book "Writers Talk about Secondary School Language Texts", and asked me to talk about the process of creation. Writer this title, I dare not be, but because of the above, take this opportunity to recall the writing of this article when the conceptualization of the activities, if the majority of language teachers required to help the effectiveness of teaching, since it is a useful move.

First of all, this article is about the stone arch bridge in China. Stone arch bridge is one of the three basic types of traditional bridges in China. Stone arch bridge this system, and is diverse. This article is written by the two bridges, is the millions of stone arch bridge in the outstanding representative works. Thousands of years, the stone arch bridge all over the motherland mountains and rivers, with the increasingly developed economy and culture and development, they are China's ancient splendid culture in a part of the world has won honor for the motherland. So far, a large number of well-preserved ancient bridges, can be a historical testimony to the superb technology of the bridge craftsmen of all generations, showing the wisdom and strength of our working people. An ancient bridge, can withstand the test of natural disasters and scourges of war, after thousands of years and not bad, not only as a monument to be preserved, but also to maintain its inherent function unchanged, can be called a miracle. Of course, should also be attributed to the hard work of successive generations of repair, such repair activities and often from the civil love of the bridge to protect the bridge, this social trend in the history of China's bridges, there are a lot of stories, is worth celebrating. China has been known as the ancient country of many bridges, this concept of history and the number of concepts, as well as physical visual intuitive impression, are for the understanding of China's stone arch bridge must be involved in the knowledge. If the abstraction of these vivid historical facts, not only the connotation of emptiness, one or two isolated shells, and can explain what the problem?

Secondly, the stone arch bridge in the history of China's bridge development, appeared later, but once it appeared, will be rapid development, even in 1880 after the modern railroad and highway bridge engineering technology into China, it still maintains its exuberant vitality, combined with modern engineering theories and new construction materials, has achieved greater development. The two bridges introduced in this article, Zhaozhou Bridge has lasted for 1,400 years, Lugou Bridge, perched on the turbulent Yongding River, has also experienced nearly seven hundred years, and they are both majestic and sturdy, and so far still maintains the initial appearance of heavy traffic, which is rare among Chinese and foreign stone bridges. Zhaozhou Bridge open-shoulder creation, seven centuries earlier than the West, they can be durable, that the design and construction is in line with scientific reasoning. Again, the shallow foundation and short abutment of the Zhaozhou Bridge, which many modern engineers have expressed amazement at because it is no accident that it has stood unscathed after many earthquakes and floods. As stated in Tang Zhang Jiazhen's Preface to the Stone Bridge Inscription, "The manufacture is so strange that people do not know why it is made." This evaluation, almost the same as the 20th century engineering scholars, the technology is superb, can be seen here. In this paper, in a large number of historical facts, with "material savings, structural ingenuity, high strength" to summarize the technical achievements of the ancient stone arch bridge, which is the ancient and modern bridges as well as any building the consistent pursuit of the goal of the beginning of the 6th century, China's skilled craftsmen and women to play intellectually, and boldly innovate to achieve the glorious achievements of the pride of place.

Once again, the bridge across the water, the beauty of the mood, carving and decorating, in a thousand different forms, is also a national tradition that reflects our aesthetic. Architecture, regardless of size, craftsmanship must strive for excellence, as a picture, not allowed to have a failure. Since the prevalence of grottoes, the ancient stone workers, have a set of hard skills, have a certain level of beauty, Zhaozhou Bridge railing, Lugou Bridge stone lions, are known for their artistic treasures, which is also a desirable tradition in the art of Chinese stone arch bridges, for the modern decoration of stone arch bridges also still exists in a profound impact.

China's stone arch bridge, in ancient times, there are certain achievements, in today's still have the prospect of development, what was useful in the past, is still playing a role today, therefore, it is a precious heritage, showing our country's laboring people hardworking and courageous and excellent talent. We are bound to achieve more in the modern bridge business.