Xu Tianxi

Xu Tianxi

Xu Tianxi was born on October 8, 1907 in a wealthy family in Shanghai. His grandfather Xu Jialu, a native of Chongming, Jiangsu Province, was an agricultural educator and crop cultivator. He advocated "planting in the north and breeding in the South" of spring sowing crops in the north to speed up the breeding process; put forward the cultivation method of ridging after flat planting in Northeast China, which is conducive to mechanized operation; and from the teaching practice, he summarized and established a teaching system of crop cultivation specialty with certain characteristics.

Life of the characters

Early experience

Xu Tianxi was born on October 8, 1907 in a wealthy family in Shanghai. His grandfather, Xu Jialu, was born in Chongming, Jiangsu Province. When he was young, he went to Shanghai alone, started business and set up many industries. Xu Tianxi, a teenager, is intelligent and diligent. At the beginning of 1925, he just turned 18 years old and graduated from Shanghai Youth Association middle school with excellent results. In the autumn of the same year, he was admitted to the Agricultural College of Nanjing Jinling University. In January 1929, it took only three and a half years to finish the four-year course of horticulture and agronomy. After graduation, at the invitation of Zhao Lianfang, director of Guangxi Provincial Bureau of agriculture, he went to Liuzhou as a technician in the Department of agronomy. After less than half a year's work, war broke out in Guangxi, and the Bureau of agriculture was dissolved. In September of the same year, Xu Tianxi was introduced by his alma mater Jinling University as botany teacher and farm director of Guichi provincial rural normal school. In February 1930, he was transferred to Peking Xinhua agricultural school as a teacher and farm director. Half a year later, he was hired by Shen Shouquan, director of the crop improvement experimental farm of Yanjing University, to work as a technician in the farm, specializing in crop research. From August 1930 to August 1934, Xu Tianxi was mainly engaged in sorghum breeding, and helped with the experimental research of corn, millet, wheat and other crops. Xu Tianxi went to the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota in September 1934. He took the time to devote himself to his studies and got a master's degree in Agronomy and plant genetics in just one year. In September of the next year, he returned to China. After being introduced by his classmate Ma Baozhi, he went to Liuzhou of Guangxi for the second time and served as the technical principal of the provincial government and the technical principal and director of the agronomic group of the provincial agricultural experimental farm. During this period, he mainly engaged in Rice Research in Shatang, Liuzhou. After only one year's work, due to overwork, stomach disease, and increasingly serious, had to leave the heavy work, to teaching work. Recommended by Xiao Fu, a classmate friend, he became a professor in the Department of agronomy of Hangzhou Zhejiang University in September 1936 and began his teaching career.

educational background

In July 1937, Zhejiang University moved from Hangzhou to Jiande. Due to the further tense situation, the school authorities intend to relocate to Taihe, Jiangxi Province. At this time, Xu Tianxi and some professors from the Agricultural College of Zhejiang University, such as Huang Ruilun, Lu Dajing, Zhou Mingyao, Liu Zhiying, Xiao Fu and Cheng Shifu, went to Guangxi. From February to July 1938, Xu Tianxi taught in the Agricultural College of Liuzhou Guangxi University; from August 1938, he transferred to the technical director of Guangxi agricultural experimental farm and the director of rice supervision of the provincial government, until November 1940. He devoted all his energy to rice experimental research and promotion, and often guided or inspected agricultural production in Guangxi. Because of many jobs, extremely unstable life, chronic fatigue, physical weakness, had to leave Guangxi, back to Shanghai for medical treatment. During his stay in Shanghai, he and his younger brother Xu tianqiang jointly operated "Johnson chemical plant" and founded a private Xinhua agricultural college. In the spring of 1944, he and his classmate Xu Zhengjian from Jinling University set up an agricultural college in St. John's University. After enrollment, he served as a professor and director of the Department of plant production, later acting president. This agricultural college lasted for three years and was closed in July 1947. Xu Tianxi was transferred to the Garden Management Office of Works Bureau of Shanghai municipal government as technician and director at that time. After March 1948, he served as the deputy director and acting director of the mechanical reclamation Department of the aftercare Commission. In September 1949, Xu Tianxi was employed as a professor in the Department of agronomy of Fudan University. In September 1952, when the departments of colleges and universities across the country were adjusted, Xu Tianxi, together with the teachers and students of the Agricultural College of Fudan University, came to Shenyang Agricultural College in Northeast China as a professor of the Department of agronomy. He also served as the director of the crop cultivation teaching and research section, the director of the crop cultivation principle teaching and research section, and the deputy director of the Department of agronomy. after the founding of the people's Republic of China, due to the concern of the party and the government for the production and construction and the cause of science and education, Xu Tianxi had a stable life, a happy mood and made continuous achievements in teaching and scientific research. Especially after he came to Shenyang Agricultural University, he carried out teaching and scientific research according to the natural conditions and agricultural production in Northeast China, and cultivated a large number of agricultural science talents for Northeast China. In the professional field, especially in the field of crop cultivation and cultivation research, he actively explored and innovated, guided the crop scientific research in Northeast China to develop at a deeper level, along the direction of combining theory and practice, and made contributions to agricultural production. During the "Cultural Revolution", Xu Tianxi moved down with the school and suffered from hypertension. In the spring of 1971, when I returned to Shenyang Dongling for recuperation, I unexpectedly had a sudden myocardial infarction and left us prematurely. Xu Tianxi's achievements have been praised by the party and the people. Before his death, he was repeatedly rated as an advanced worker of the Institute, and has been the vice president of Liaoning agricultural society and the president of crop society. In 1964, Xu Tianxi was elected deputy to the National People's Congress and attended the third National People's Congress.

Personal resume

Born in Shanghai on October 8, 1907. From 1925 to 1929, he was a technician in the Department of Agronomy (Liuzhou) of Guangxi Provincial Bureau of agriculture, a teacher and farm director of Anhui Provincial Rural normal school. From 1930 to 1934, he worked as a teacher and farm director of the new agricultural school of Beiping, and a technician of the crop improvement experimental farm of Yanjing University. From 1934 to 1935, he studied in the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota and obtained a master's degree in Agronomy and plant genetics. From 1935 to 1936, he served as the technical director of Guangxi provincial government and the director of the agronomic group of the provincial agricultural experimental farm (Liuzhou). From 1936 to 1937, he was a professor in the Agricultural College of Zhejiang University (Hangzhou). From 1938 to 1940, he was professor of Agricultural College of Guangxi University (Liuzhou), technical director of provincial agricultural experimental farm and director of rice supervision of provincial government. From 1944 to 1947, he was professor and director of the Department of plant production of the Agricultural College of Shanghai private St. John's University. From 1947 to 1948, he was the technician and director of the park management office of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of works. From 1948 to 1949, he served as the deputy director and acting director of the mechanical reclamation (Shanghai) Department of the care and Rehabilitation Commission. from 1949 to 1952, he was professor of Agricultural College of Fudan University in Shanghai. 1952-1971, Professor of Department of Agronomy, Shenyang Agricultural College, and director of Crop Cultivation teaching and research section and crop cultivation principle teaching and research section. died in Shenyang in May 1971.

Lead the project

In the early days of the founding of the people's Republic of China, most of the northeast rural areas used the old farming and cultivation methods, and the productivity level was low. Based on the investigation of the natural conditions and agricultural production in Northeast China, especially in Liaoning Province, Xu Tianxi carried out research on some cultivation techniques of field crops at that time. In 1959, he, together with several professors in the Department, led the young teachers to carry out high-yield cultivation experiments on major food crops and soybeans. He also personally presided over the sorghum project. In 1959 and 1960, he presided over the high-yield cultivation experiment of sorghum, and obtained 664.5 kg and 659.0 kg per mu respectively. This was unprecedented in the local area at that time and rare at home and abroad. while carrying out high-yield cultivation experiments, Xu Tianxi paid attention to summing up the ways to obtain high yield. He thinks: the high yield of crops is the result of the comprehensive effect of varieties, cultivation and natural conditions, in which the production potential of varieties is very important. However, the only criterion to measure the productivity of a crop variety is grain yield, which is easy to ignore the role of other good traits and potential productivity. Therefore, he pointed out that the productivity of crops should not only be considered from the grain yield, but also pay attention to the selection of varieties with high production efficiency and large proportion of grain and straw. At that time, his sorghum high-yield cultivation experiment and selection of "eight branches" varieties, its comprehensive characteristics relatively meet this requirement. In the early 1950s, Xu Tianxi had noticed that there was a tendency of blind and super early sowing in production, so he studied the problem of suitable sowing time for middle and early maturing varieties of field crops. He used corn, sorghum and other crop varieties with different maturity stages to explore the suitable sowing date for high yield. The results of five years' experiment from 1957 to 1961 showed that the productivity of varieties mainly depended on the external environmental conditions during the growing period, especially the temperature. If the middle and early maturing varieties are properly delayed to grow and develop in the appropriate temperature range, and the planting density is reasonably increased, the yield can be close to that of late maturing varieties. Therefore, he disagreed with the view that "early sowing can prolong growth period and increase accumulated temperature and light", and put forward the view that "middle and early maturing varieties are suitable for late sowing and close planting for high yield". In this way, timely sowing can be insisted on in production to avoid the loss caused by blind super early sowing.

Correction technique

Changing ridge as flat planting

When Xu Tianxi first came to Northeast China, he noticed that there was a unique farming method in Northeast China -- ridge planting. He believes that this farming method will affect the development of agricultural mechanization. At that time, there were controversies about ridge farming and flat farming in agricultural production and scientific research. Xu Tianxi carefully studied the history and current situation of agricultural production in Northeast China, as well as the natural conditions of light, heat, water and gas

Chinese PinYin : Xu Tian Xi