He built archives for Chinese plants (son of nature)

Fig. ① ②: Specimens studied by Wang Wencai. Photographed by our reporter Zhang Wenhao

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He traveled all over the country to collect specimens. At the age of 94, he still insisted on taking the bus twice a week to work. During more than 10 years of blindness in his right eye, he still published many books and completed dozens of papers... Wang Wencai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, devoted his life to building archives for Chinese plants.

He never gave up even when he was in the most dangerous situation and in the most difficult time.

Biographies

Wang Wencai was born in Ye County, Shandong Province in 1926. He graduated from university in 1949 and was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1950.

Wang Wencai has been engaged in the research of plant taxonomy, plant systematics and plant geography. He has participated in the compilation of the Atlas of Higher Plants of China and Flora of China, won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award twice, and was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993.

I met Academician Wang Wencai (see photo, our reporter Zhang Wenhao) at his home in Zhongguancun, Beijing. Although he has no scientific research task for a long time, the 94 year old still insists on going to the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the western suburbs of Beijing two days a week to study his favorite plant specimens. When it came to plant taxonomy, which he devoted his whole life to, the old man was in high spirits.

"I heard that you are very interested in plant taxonomy. How about compiling a Chinese Botanical Atlas for me?"

"It was the early winter of 1949. Mr. Hu came to me and said, 'I heard that you are very interested in plant taxonomy. How about compiling a book of Chinese Plant Illustrated Books for me?' I was very happy and agreed." Wang Wencai still remembers the scene when he met Hu Xiansu for the first time.

Wang Wencai's plant taxonomy is related to two people: Lin Rong and Hu Xiansu.

In his junior year, the Department of Biology of Peking Normal University, where Wang Wencai studied, offered a course in plant taxonomy. Lin Rong, a researcher at the Institute of Botany of Peking Research Institute, taught the course.

Wang Wencai clearly remembered that in early May 1948, Lin Rong took the whole class to collect specimens at Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs of Beijing for the first time. Since then, Wang Wencai often went to the suburbs to collect plant specimens during the holidays, sometimes with his classmates, sometimes alone. When you come back, dissect the flowers and draw pictures yourself.

If Lin Rong led Wang Wencai into the door of plant taxonomy, Hu Xiansu really led him to the road of plant taxonomy research. After graduating from the University, Wang Wencai stayed in the Biology Department of Beiping Normal University as an assistant teacher of three courses, namely, animal taxonomy, biotechnology and general biology. In 1948, Hu Xiansu, the director of the Institute of Jingsheng Biology, began to serve as a part-time professor in the Biology Department of Beiping Normal University. This is the reason why Hu Xiansu found the young Wang Wencai and sought to edit the Chinese Plant Atlas.

Under the strong recommendation of Hu Xiansu, Wang Wencai was transferred from Beiping Normal University to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and began his research career in plant taxonomy.

The study of modern plant taxonomy in China began in the 1920s. Over the past century, Chinese plant taxonomists have made many important achievements. After more than 40 years and four generations, the 80 volume masterpiece Flora of China and the reference book of science popularization and research value, Atlas of Higher Plants of China, have all won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award. In these two works, Wang Wencai has made important contributions.

"Engaging in plant classification and protection makes people feel more harvest and happiness"

"Classifying and collecting specimens is the first step." Wang Wencai said that the research on plant taxonomy cannot be done without two basic conditions - specimens and literature.

Wang Wencai introduced that China is rich in plant species. From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, foreigners began to come to China to collect specimens. More than 200 people successively came to China to collect a large number of precious specimens. Unfortunately, at that time, the research on plant taxonomy in China had not yet started. After engaging in plant taxonomic research, Wang Wencai has been committed to field investigation, and has successively gone to Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan and other places to collect specimens in many places that are rarely visited by people.

Field trips are often very dangerous. In November 1958, Wang Wencai returned to Kunming and was hospitalized after suffering from falciparum malaria during an investigation in the tropical rainforest of Mengla, Yunnan. By December, his illness had become more and more serious. He had a high fever for several consecutive days and did not take medicine. At this critical moment, four young comrades from Kunming Institute of Botany volunteered to donate 1600ml of blood to Wang Wen.

"After the blood was transfused into my body, my body temperature gradually dropped, which also pulled me back from the edge of death." Wang Wencai said, "Although collecting specimens will encounter various dangers, engaging in plant classification and protection work makes people feel more harvest and happiness."

Since the spring of 1950, Wang Wencai and his colleagues have traveled all over the country to collect a large number of plant specimens and obtain rich first-hand research data. "At present, the herbarium of our Institute of Botany is the largest in China and Asia, but there is still a big gap between the number of specimens and that of several world-famous herbariums. We can only study the flora of China, but the flora of the world is still impossible to study." This has always made Wang Wencai feel some regret.

"While I can still work with the help of a magnifying glass, I have to finish the manuscript of the Chinese Delphine plant as soon as possible."

Entering Wang Wencai's office, many people will be surprised at its simplicity: about 15 square meters, there is a desk, a chair, a bookshelf, and a small sofa, and there is no decoration. For more than 60 years, in spring, summer, autumn and winter, Wang Wencai worked here silently and never gave up even in the most difficult times.

At the beginning of 1965, 10 people were selected from the Institute of Botany, and Wang Wencai was responsible for the preparation of the Atlas of Higher Plants in China. One year later, more than half of the first and second volumes were completed, but for some historical reasons, the preparation of the following volumes was forced to stop.

"At that time, all the staff of the publishing house were sent to Hunan, and I had to proofread them myself. The publishing house factory was in Tongxian County, Beijing, and I stayed there for half a year." Wang Wencai recalled that it was his most tiring time, and the workload of proofreading was very heavy. The two books were more than 2000 pages in total, and the pictures and texts should be matched one by one without deviation, It takes much time, effort and eyes. With Wang Wencai's persistence and efforts, the proofreading work was successfully completed, and he finally waited until the day when the compilation of the Atlas of Higher Plants of China was resumed.

"Why are there so many history books in Europe? It is because they have revised them one by one for more than 200 years, and they have made progress one by one. Now, we have just completed the first step of the Long March, and there is still a lot of work to do in depth." Now, Wang Wencai, who has passed the age of mackerel's back, insists on his work, and recently completed the supplement of Anemone species in Ranunculaceae, "There are more than 50 species in Flora of China, and I now add 83."

Years of studying plant specimens and drawing on the desk have caused great damage to Wang Wencai's eyesight. After the Lantern Festival last year, as soon as he entered the office, he said to his assistant, "My eyes don't work very well recently, which is a bit bad." The assistant was very worried, and quickly drove him to the hospital for inspection. That day, the assistant learned that this time it was the left eye, and the old man had lost his sight in the right eye 10 years ago. The assistant was full of tears. He only knew that during the past 10 years, the teacher had watched the microscope in the laboratory to do research, published many books, completed dozens of papers, and wrote prefaces for others' works for many times, but did not know that he had done it with one eye.

On the way back, the assistant drove silently without saying a word. Wang Wencai sat in the back and said, "I have to finish the manuscript of Chinese Delphine Plant as soon as I can work with the help of a magnifying glass, and I will trouble you with the rest."

Although he has written many books, Wang Wencai is still modest and always introspects himself. "The research of plant taxonomy in China started late, and there are still many deficiencies." Wang Wencai said that he hoped that young people could continue to relay and make greater contributions to the country's plant taxonomy.