Wang Jilie

Wang Jilie

Wang Jilie (September 7, 1873 - March 1, 1952), a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, was a translator of physics works in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. He translated and published China's first university level textbook named after physics, compiled China's first middle school physics textbook, and presided over the compilation and printing of physics vocabulary, which made an important contribution to the spread of modern physics in China. He died in Beijing on March 1, 1952 at the age of 80.

People information

brief introduction

Wang Jilie (1873-1952) was a scholar of science and a doctor of the Ministry of government and education in the Qing Dynasty. Amateur Kunqu Opera artist, in the early Republic of China, joined the music society in Tianjin. In 1927, she moved from Beijing to Dalian Culture Station (now No.9 Baiyun Street, Zhongshan District). In November 1931, Wanrong, the queen, was deposed. She once lived on the second floor of Wang Jilie's mansion. In December, she moved to Suqin's mansion in Lushun. He has lived in Dalian for 10 years, and has written two volumes of the unfinished manuscript of Yilu, the sequel of the unfinished manuscript of Yilu (published in 1937, written and postscript by sun Baotian of Jinzhou) and the remaining manuscript of Yilu. Wang Jilie studied the classics, history, poetry and prose, and was proficient in the melody. In the 1930s, he once organized the Yilu music club and wrote the Yilu Qutan.

Wang Jilie was born on September 7, 1873 in Changzhou County, Jiangsu Province (now Suzhou City). Born in a family of scholar officials in Suzhou in the late Qing Dynasty, he is the descendant of Wang Zhen, a famous politician and writer in the Ming Dynasty. His father, Wang Songwei, was a third grade official in the imperial court. He had many works on literature and history. He was Cai Yuanpei's mentor when he took part in the examination. Xie Da, Wang Jilie's mother, is a famous woman educator in modern times. She is determined to revitalize China and set up Zhenhua women's school. In her family, she is strict with her children, teaches them righteous prescriptions and encourages them to have great ambition. In this family, there are not only Wang Jitong (Xiao Xu), Wang Jidian, Wang Jixu, Wang Jiyu and other science and technology experts and educators in Wang Jilie's generation, but also Wang Shoujing, Wang Shouwu, Wang shoujue, Wang Shuzhen, he Zehui, he Yizhen and other Chinese science and technology leaders in the next generation. Wang Shouwu and he Yizhen all mentioned the good influence of Xie Da Da when recalling their own growth. Among them, eight brothers and sisters Wang Shuzhen and he Zehui were all trained by elementary education of Zhenhua girls' school (the primary school of Zhenhua girls' school recruits boys).

official career

In 1894, Wang Jilie went to Lanxi, Zhejiang Province as an aide. Two years later, he went to Shanghai Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau and translated Tongwu Dianguang with fryer. Through self-study, he studied modern physics from the west, rewritten the textbook translated by Fujita and named it "physics". The first, middle and second volumes of the book were published by Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau in 1900 and 1903 respectively.

In 1900, Wang Jilie went to Hanyang manufacturing Bureau. He was highly valued and subsidized by Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister and educator of the Westernization Movement. He was admitted to Beijing as a Jinshi. He was recommended by Zhang Zhidong to enter the academic department. He served as a special doctor and a physical and chemical teacher of the Beijing translation school. He had been a supervisor for one year. Wang Jilie supported constitutional monarchy in the late Qing Dynasty, and he was one of the elected members of the Council when it was established. During his time in the Ministry of education, he presided over the compilation and publication of physics vocabulary. At the same time, he also served as the science department of the Commercial Press, translated and compiled a variety of physics and chemistry textbooks, and founded five cities school in Beijing.

After the revolution of 1911, he opposed Yuan Shikai, refused to serve in Yuan's regime, and set up Leli agricultural reclamation company and Huachang match company in Tianjin. From 1918 to 1920, he was appointed by Ye gongchuo, the chief traffic officer of the Beiyang government, to organize children's schools for the Ministry of communications. This kind of school is called rotary. Rotary primary school is located in Beijing, Tianjin and Tang Dynasty, and rotary middle school is only located in Tianjin. When Wang Jilie was in Tianjin, he set up the amateur Kunqu Opera Troupe "Jingjing Troupe" to admire Shen Jing (a dramatist in Ming Dynasty). Wang Jilie and Liu Fucheng co authored Jiji QUPU and other works. In the 1920s and 1930s, after several political twists and turns, Wang Jilie left the field of natural science and devoted himself to the study of Kunqu Opera.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Chen Shutong invited Wang Jilie to Beijing to participate in the preparation of the Museum of culture and history. Wang Jilie went north and was paralyzed in bed soon after he went to Beijing. He died in Beijing in 1952.

Educational thought

Wang Jilie carried out Zhang Zhidong's educational thought of using western learning in Chinese. On the one hand, he advocated that the children of the ethnic group should learn western science and technology and "enter the schools set up by foreigners for higher learning" after graduating from middle school. On the other hand, he pointed out that "the material civilization of Europe and the west is indeed better than that of East Asia, while its spirit is not free from its barbaric habit. It causes all kinds of social evils because money is omnipotent, and sacrifices countless international lives because of expanding power." Those who adore foreign things "would like to see their skin bright and their eyes bright. They are generally called other people's fathers.".

resume

Born on September 7, 1873 in Changzhou County, Jiangsu Province (now Suzhou City).

In 1894, he took part in the local examination and won the examination.

From 1895 to 1896, he served as an aide in Lanxi, Zhejiang Province.

From 1897 to 1898, he worked as an assistant of Journal of Mongolia in Shanghai.

From 1898 to 1900, he took part in translation work in Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau, Shanghai.

From 1900 to 1904, he went to Hanyang manufacturing Bureau and worked in Zhang Zhidong's shogunate as well as school. In 1904, he went to Beijing to test for Jinshi.

From 1905 to 1911, he served as a doctor in charge of the Ministry of education, a supervisor of the Beijing Institute of translation studies, a science textbook of the Commercial Press, and an elected member of the Council in the late Qing Dynasty.

From 1911 to 1926, he established Leli agricultural reclamation company and Huachang match company in Tianjin. Organizing rotary primary school and rotary secondary school for the Department of transportation.

From 1927 to 1930, he worked as an apartment in Dalian and concurrently engaged in real estate business.

From 1931 to 1933, he served as "adviser to the Imperial Palace" of Manchuria.

He lived in Dalian and Suzhou from 1933 to 1949 and studied Kunqu Opera.

At the end of 1949, he went to Beijing to take part in the work of the Museum of literature and history.

He died in Beijing on March 1, 1952.

Main works

Translation and compilation of Physics Textbooks

Wang Jilie cooperated with J. fryer, a famous British translator employed by Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau, to translate W. J. Morton and E. hammer's "X-ray or invisible ray photography and its importance in surgery", which was published in 1898 as the Chinese translation of "Tong Wu Dian Guang". This book introduces in detail the discovery history of X-ray, the characteristics of the circuit and electrical components needed to produce X-ray, the structure, installation and operation of X-ray machine, the principle of X-ray photography and its application in medicine, and more than 30 X-ray photos of human hands, fish bones and other objects. Interestingly, the translator points out in the book that "AIX is the word" Tian "used in Chinese algebra. Because the meaning of the word "Tian Guang" is too obscure, it was changed to "Tong Wu Dian Guang" in the translation This shows the difficulties of translators in translating western scientific terms at that time. Although the translation of X-ray as "Tongwu Dianguang" did not come into common use later, at that time, it could reflect the characteristics of X-ray and was more meaningful for popularizing new achievements. At least, it was not as mysterious as "X-ray", so it was easy to be accepted. Tongwu Dianguang was published only four years later than Roentgen's discovery of X-ray (1895), so Dai Nianzu, an expert in the history of Chinese Physics, called it the most timely translation of all the books at that time.

The spread of modern physics in China began in the mid-19th century. In addition to some books called "Gezhi", Chinese versions of various branches of physics, such as mechanics, electricity and optics, appeared one after another. The first university level physics textbook, which is called "physics", was translated from Japanese and published by Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau in 1900. The Japanese editor of the book, Inamori tingzao, compiled the book according to German Physics textbooks when he was teaching in the Department of medicine of Tokyo University. The Japanese version was first published in 1874. The book is rich in content, less mathematical deduction and more in-depth explanation of physical concepts. Various instruments are illustrated as much as possible. It is quite popular in Japan. It has been reprinted many times and constantly revised and supplemented. For example, in the 22nd edition of 1900, more than ten pages were used to introduce X-ray, which was just invented. The Chinese translator of this book is Fujita fengba, who teaches in Dongwen society run by Luo Zhenyu and often translates agricultural science works for Agronomy journal. Fujita intended to use Gezhi, which was commonly used in China at that time, as the title of the book. However, Wang Jilie, who participated in the Chinese translation of the book, polished the text and reorganized it, advocated using the term "physics", which had existed in ancient China and had been used in Japanese. The term "Gezhi" was quickly accepted by Chinese academic circles, and as a translation of physics, it withdrew from the stage of history.

When Wang Jilie redrafted the book, the Chinese version was divided into three volumes as the Japanese version. The first volume consists of four volumes: general theory, solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and gas mechanics; the second volume consists of four volumes: general theory of wave, acoustics, optics and heat; and the second volume consists of three volumes: magnetism, electricity and atmospheric physics. The Chinese version of the whole book is about 200000 words, which is in classical Chinese. There are only some individual changes in the chapters. For example, Section 2 of Chapter 1, Chapter 3 of Volume I of the Japanese text "the properties of gases and the comparison between gases and solids" is divided into two sections in the Chinese text, and so on. In Japanese translation of physics terms, some of them are borrowed directly, and some of them have been changed into the existing Chinese translations, such as acoustics translated into acoustics; phonograph translated into gramophone, レソス translated into transparent mirror, ュテル translated into ether, and so on. The physical formula and calculation formula were replaced by the symbol system of Li Shanlan's type, which was commonly used in China at that time, that is, a and B were used to represent x, y, and Fen

Chinese PinYin : Wang Ji Lie