Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T08:24:00.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fang Lizhi's Expanding Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

During an interview in September 1986, some three years prior to seeking political asylum with his wife at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Fang Lizhi was asked how he felt about the progress of political reform in China. Fang responded, “I must start with cosmology in answering this question.”

Fang's linkage of politics with cosmology – a branch of astrophysics concerned with the origins of the universe – must seem peculiar to those who know him only as a human rights advocate and critic of the Chinese Communist Party. Yet this was no idiosyncrasy on Fang's part. Fang's life and published work from the early 1970s to the present leave no doubt that his emergence as the symbolic leader of China's democracy movement is deeply rooted in his experiences and outlook as a scientist.

Fang's personal universe began to expand in 1972, when he and his colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) published a paper in Physica entitled “A Solution of the cosmological equations in scalar-tensor theory, with mass and blackbody radiation.” This innocuous-sounding article met with a furious response from leading theoretical circles of the Party. Fang et al. had broken a long-standing taboo by introducing the Big Bang theory to the Chinese physics world. Insofar as the Big Bang contradicted Engels's declaration that the universe must be infinite in space and time, Fang's paper was tantamount to heresy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 “Yiwei ziran kexuejia kan gaige: Fang Lizhi jiaoshou dawen lu” (“A natural scientist views the reforms: An interview with Professor Fang Lizhi”), Shehui bao, 28 October 1986, quoted in Williams, James H. (ed. and trans.), “The expanding universe of Fang Lizhi: astrophysics and ideology in People's China,” Chinese Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 19, No. 4 (1988), p. 75.Google Scholar

2 Fang Lizhi et al., “Guanyu biaoliang-zhangliang lilun zhong han wuzhi ji heiti fushe de yuzhou jie” (“A solution of the cosmological equations in scalar-tensor theory, with mass and blackbody radiation”), Wuli (Physica), No. 1 (1972), p. 163.

3 The bulk of Fang's writing has been reprinted in two volumes from Singapore: Zanmei wozhu zhi hou (After Praising the Lord): Selected Speeches and Writings by Fang Lizhi, Vol. 1 (Singapore: World Scientific, 1988);Weijigan xia de zeren (Responsibility Under Crisis): Selected Speeches and Writings by Fang Lizhi, Vol. 2 (Singapore: World Scientific, 1989). Additional material appears in Fang Lizhi, Zhexue shi wulixue de gongju (Philosophy Is a Tool of Physics) (Hunan: Kexue jishu chubanshe, 1988).

4 Guosheng, Wu, “Fang Lizhi-gongheguo xuyao zheyang de xuezhe” (“Fang Lizhi – Our republic needs this kind of scholar”), Ziran bianzhengfa tongxun (Journal of Dialectics of Nature), No. 6 (1986) p. 51Google Scholar and in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 88.

5 The physics department was the epicentre of Hundred Flowers activity on the Beida campus. See Goldman, Rene, “The rectification campaign at Peking University: May-June 1957,” in Roderick, MacFarquhar (ed.), China Under Mao: Politics Takes Command (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1966), p. 255.Google Scholar

6 Fang was labelled a “quasi-rightist” and not formally “capped” at the time, Williams. “Expanding Universe,” p. 90; Wu Guosheng, “Fang Lizhi,” p. 52.

7 “The University of Science and Technology was created in 1958 out of the College of Science and Technology. In order to improve the teaching faculty, the two first Party secretaries, Yu Wen and Liu Ta-k'ai, decided to have 30 or more intellectuals who had been labelled Rightists … transferred to the university.” See Chang-Chin, Ch'en, “Fang Li-chih: Theorist of the Mainland Chinese Democratic Movement,” Issues and Studies Vol. 23, No. 11 (1987), p. 50.Google Scholar

8 Yung-Jan, Wang (pseudonym of Fang Lizhi), “A calculation of the nucleon charge radius using a modified propagator,” Wuli xuebao (Acta Physica Sinica), Vol. 17 (1961), p. 51.Google Scholar

9 Fang's official designation was “slipped through the net rightist” (lou wang you pai), referring to the fact that he had not been “capped” in Anti-Rightist campaign, see Wu Guosheng, “Fang Lizhi,” p. 53, and Williams, “Expanding Universe,” p. 91.

10 “I had only one book with me, the Soviet physicist Landau's Theory of Fields …. For six months I did nothing but read this book over and over again. It was this curious happenstance alone that caused me to switch fields from solid state physics to cosmology.” Schell, Orville, Discos and Democracy (New York: Doubleday, 1988), p. 124.Google Scholar

11 A brief sketch might illuminate some of the background and terminology of the cosmology debate, as well as Fang's interest in the subject. Cosmological questions have figured centrally in the development of physics since Aristotle's time. Modern cosmology, however, emerged only in the 20th century, with the publication of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity in 1916. General Relativity is the major theoretical treatment of gravity, which is to our knowledge the dominant force of the universe at very large scales. In the 1920s, Friedmann and Lemaitre solved the highly complicated field equations of General Relativity – the “cosmological equations” of Fang Lizhi's 1972 paper. Their solutions indicated that the universe as a whole is expanding.

This prediction was corroborated by Hubble's discovery of the extragalactic redshift in 1929. Shifts toward the red end of the spectrum in light emitted by galaxies outside our own indicate that all galaxies are receding from each other. A quantitative relationship can be derived between redshift, speed of recession, and distance. Based on General Relativity and the rates of expansion indicated by redshift data, expanding universe theorists extrapolated backwards to conclude that the universe must have begun in a primordial fireball, or Big Bang. This theory met with indifferent success for several decades, largely because its initial prediction of the cosmic birthday was in conflict with geological dating, due to errors in astronomical measurements at the time. A major rival, the Steady-State Universe theory, held that matter was being constantly created in situ to replace the receding galaxies, and thus that no Big Bang was required. Both Steady-State and Big Bang theories had serious difficulties, and were considered rather speculative through the 1950s.

The deadlock between these competing theories was broken by the advent of radiotelescopes in the 1960s. A crucial development was the discovery of the microwave background radiation by Penzias and Wilson in 1965. This radiation comes to earth uniformly from all parts of the sky, and is consistent with the thermal radiation that would be found in the universe as a whole if it began in a cosmic fireball and expanded at the rates suggested by the redshift. A second landmark was the discovery of quasars in 1963. These highly energetic objects all exhibit very large redshifts, and therefore seem to exist only in very distant reaches of the universe, suggesting early artifacts of the Big Bang.

Radio astronomy revolutionized astrophysics and produced a profusion of new data begging for theoretical analysis. Intrinsic interest aside, no doubt Fang Lizhi was attracted to a wide-open field in which a theorist could still make important contributions with a pencil and paper, so that China's lack of advanced equipment need not be a major drawback.

12 Graham, Loren, Science, Philosophy and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), p. 357.Google Scholar

13 See Laurence, Schneider (ed.), Lysenkoism in China (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1988).Google Scholar

14 Bowen, Liu, “‘Yuzhou youxian’ de weixinlun guandian bixu pipan,” Wuli xuebao (Acta Physica Sinica), Vol. 25, No. 4, (1976), p. 282,Google Scholar quoted in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 80.

15 Ziran bianzhengfa zazhi (Magazine of Natural Dialectics), No. 1 (1973). The essence of the Li Ke arguments is tautological: if the universe is infinite, then generalizations about the universe as a whole cannot be based on observations, which necessarily involve only a finite part. The question of whether the universe is infinite is therefore scientifically unanswerable. However, since belief in a finite universe promotes theological interpretations, materialists must advocate infinitude. Another consideration is that infinitude is seen as a corollary of the principle of infinite divisibility, and by extension of the law of unity of opposites. In this sense fundamental tenets of Marxism, and the Maoist justification for continuous class struggle on the basis of “one divides into two,” were thought to be imperiled by belief in a finite universe.

16 Friedmann, Edward, “Mao and Einstein: metaphors of revolution,” China Quarterly, No. 93 (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Lizhi, Fanget al., “Hewai tianti hongyi shi keyi renshi de” (“The extragalactic redshift can be understood”), Magazine of Natural Dialectics, No. 4 (1975), p. 53.Google Scholar

18 Li Ke, “Hongyi xianxiang shuomingle shemme?”, ibid. p. 34.

19 USTC, Institute for Astrophysics, “A tentative history of the origins and development of modern cosmology,” Wuli xuebao (Ada Physica Sinica), No. 6 (1976), pp. 273–281.

20 Xiaoping, Deng, “Speech at the opening ceremony of the National Conference on Science,” 18 March 1978, Deng Xiaoping: the Leader of Post-Mao China, Speeches and Writings (Oxford: Pergamon, 1984), p. 41.Google Scholar

21 Wu Guosheng, “Fang Lizhi,” p. 56. Translated in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 95.

22 Physics Abstracts contains about 80 titles for Fang in the period 1976–87. Prior to 1976 there are no listings for China. Fang was first noted outside China for his statistical analysis of the distribution of quasar redshifts, in T. Kiang, Nature No. 270, 17 November 1977, p. 205.

23 Lizhi, Fang and Humitaka, Sato, “Is periodicity in the distribution of quasar redshift evidence of a multiply connected universe?”, General Relativity and Gravitation (U.K.), Vol. 17, No. 11 (1985), p. 1117.Google Scholar

24 Hawking wrote in 1985 that Fang's Institute for Astrophysics was at “the state of the art in astrophysics and cosmology.” Wu Guosheng, “Fang Lizhi,” p. 56. Translated in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 95. Fang, edited a volume of collected talks from Wheeler's trip to China, Wulixue he zhipuxing (Physics and Austerity) (Anhui: Kexue jishu chubanshe, 1981).Google Scholar Fang's introduction contains an interesting observation on the role of Taoist metaphysics in the development of quantum mechanics.

25 Lizhi, Fang and Dengxiang, Yin, “Weiraozhe xiandai yuzhouxue de yichang kexue yu jia kexiue de lunzheng,” Zhexue yanjiu (Philosophical Research), No. 1 (1978), p. 86.Google Scholar Also Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 14.

26 Lizhi, Fang, “Xiandai yuzhouxue ji qi zhexue wenti” (“Philosophical problems of modern cosmology”) (hereafter “Modern cosmology”), in Xiandai ziran kexue di zhexue wenti (The Philosophical Problems of Modern Natural Science) (Jilin: Renmin chubanshe, 1985), p. 50.Google Scholar See Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 62.

27 Trained in physics at Qinghua, Yu Guangyuan has been an important and seemingly ubiquitous patron of free expression in Chinese academia. In 1977 Yu told a conference on dialectics that “Marxism is a science, and science allows people to study: it is not a law that commands people's obedience, and it is not a religion that calls upon people to worship it.” See Yu's, biography in Zhongguo dangdai jingjixuejia zhuanlue (Biographical Sketches of Chinese Economists) (Liaoning: Renmin chubanshe, 1986), pp. 462517.Google Scholar

28 Miller, Lyman, Ideology, Science, and Authority in Dengist China, unpublished manuscript, 1989.Google Scholar Miller's study includes a thoughtful and detailed analysis of the revamping of natural dialectics and the “guiding role” debate.

29 Kelly, David, “Chinese controversies over the guiding role of philosophy over science,” Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 14 (1985), pp. 2134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Fang Lizhi, “Modern cosmology,” p. 56. In Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 58.

31 Ibid. p. 61. Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 62.

32 This has occurred to some extent in the Soviet Union, according to Graham, Loren in Science, Philosophy and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), p. 6.Google Scholar

33 Ruqiang, Zha, Zhongguo shehui kexue (Chinese Social Sciences), No. 4 (1982).Google Scholar

34 Fang Lizhi, “Cong bu cunzai zhong renzhi cunzai” (“Perceiving what exists on the basis of what does not”), in Philosophy is a Tool of Physics, pp. 107–112.

35 “Philosophy is a Tool of Physics” was published as the preface to Zhou, Lin, Yin, Dengxiang, Zhang, Yongqian (eds.), Kexuejia lun fangfa (Scientists on Method) (Nei Menggu: Renmin chubanshe, 1983).Google Scholar Reprinted in Philosophy is a Tool of Physics, pp. 143–45.

36 Ibid. p. 145. Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 44.

37 Miller, Ideology, Science and Authority, p. 179ff.

38 Lizhi, Fang, “Yiding maozi, yikuai jindi, yige wenti” (“A hat, a forbidden zone, a question”), Beijing keji bao (Beijing Science and Technology News), 19 October 1979,Google Scholar in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 30 and Fang Lizhi, Philosophy is a Tool of Physics, p. 60.

39 Lizhi, Fang, Foreword, , in Lizhi, Fang and Yaoquan, Chu, Cong Niudun dinglu dao Aiensitan xiangduilun (From Newton's Laws to Einstein's Theory of Relativity) (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1981), in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 27.Google Scholar

40 For this and other insightful observations on Fang I am indebted to David Kelly. See Kelly, David, “Fang Lizhi: Democrat on the Road to Class Power,” Contemporary China Centre, Australian National University, unpublished, 1988.Google Scholar

41 Fang Lizhi, “Hat, forbidden zone,” in Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 30 and Fang Lizhi Philosophy is a Tool of Physics, p. 61.

42 Fang Lizhi, After Praising the Lord, p. 5.

43 Fang Lizhi, “From Newton,” in Williams, p. 27.

44 Lizhi, Fang, “Tuodiao jiu sixiang cai neng jinru weilai” (“To enter the future, we must cast off old ways of thinking”), an address to the Second National Conference on the Science of Science, Hefei, Anhui, December 1980.Google Scholar In Responsibility under Crisis, p. 5, and Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 32.

45 Ibid. p. 6. Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 33.

46 Schell, Discos and Democracy, p. 128; “Zhongguo yao jiesan? Zhuanfang Fang Lizhi” (“Will China disintegrate? An interview with Fang Lizhi”), Jiushi niandai (The Nineties), October 1988, p. 71.

47 Ibid. See also “Fang Lizhi's Biography,” China Spring Digest, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1987), p. 2, Ch'en, “Fang Li-chih,” p. 58.

48 Wu Guosheng, “Fang Lizhi,” p. 60. Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 103.

49 Ibid. p. 61. Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 103.

50 Ibid. p. 59. Williams, “Expanding universe.” p. 101.

51 “Zhishifenzi de shehui zeren” (“The social responsibility of intellectuals”). Speech at Beijing University, 4 November 1985. In Responsibility Under Crisis, p. 73ff.

52 “Will China disintegrate?”, in Jiushi niandai, p. 71.

53 Lin, Jin, “Renhe kexue dou buneng qudai Makesi zhuyi zhexue,” Beijing ribao (Beijing Daily), 5 May 1986. See Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 87.Google Scholar

54 Fang, Lu, “Minzhu ban xue zai Zhongguo keji daxue” (“Running education democratically at USTC”), Renmin ribao (People's Daily), 22, 26, 31 October 1986;Google Scholar 4, 14 November 1986.

55 Fang Lizhi, interview, in Shehui bao; in Responsibility Under Crisis, p. 105 and Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 75.

56 David Kelly discusses the “culture fever” that began in the mid 1980s in “Chinese Intellectuals in the 1989 Democracy Movement”, in George Hicks (ed.), The Broken Mirror: China After Tiananmen (forthcoming 1990).

57 Lizhi, Fang, “Cong xiandai kexue jiaodu fanxing Zhongguo chuantong wenhua.” Speech to Qingdao Conference on Chinese and Western Culture, 4 August 1986. In After Praising the Lord, p. 131Google Scholar and Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 65.

58 Fang Lizhi, Interview, in Responsibility Under Crisis, p. 110 and Williams, p. 79.

59 Ibid. p. 109. Williams, “Expanding universe,” p. 78.

60 Lizhi, Fang, “Minzhu, gaige, xiandaihua” (“Democracy, reform, and modernization”) Speech at Tongji University, 18 November 1986. In Responsibility Under Crisis, p. 231.Google Scholar

61 Ibid. p. 197.

62 Ibid. p. 199.

63 >Ibid. p. 203. Fang speaks approvingly of the fundamental goals of socialism, and of social democracy in Europe. His primary concern in the economic arena, however, is that political monopoly in China has led to a monopoly over economic resources as well. Whether a system is called “socialist” or “capitalist” – and Fang holds that modern economies are increasingly a mixture of both (see e.g., “Democracy,” p. 218ff.) – mismanagement and corruption can only be prevented when power-holders are held accountable to the public. (On the question of Fang's relationship to Marxism, see David Kelly, “The ironic Marxism of Jin Guantao,” unpub., 1988.)

64 Ibid. p. 201.

65 Ibid. p. 206.

66 Ibid. p. 21 Off.

67 Ibid. p. 211.

68 Ibid. p. 206.

69 “Zhishifenzi wei bei chengren wei shehui jinbu zhudao liliang” (“Intellectuals have not been recognized as a leading force for progress”), Shijiejingji daobao (World Economic Herald), 24 November 1986.

70 Fang Lizhi, “Democracy,” in Responsibility Under Crisis, p. 212.

71 Ibid, p. 212.

72 Ibid. p. 215.

73 “Zhonggong Anhui sheng jilu jiancha weiyuanhui guanyu kaichu Fang Lizhi dangjie de jueding” (“Decision to expel Fang Lizhi from the Communist Party, by the Anhui Communist Party Discipline Inspection Committee”) 17 January 1987.

74 Fang Lizhi, Interview, in Jiushi niandai, p. 72.

75 See Beijing Review, 9, 23 March 1987.

76 Zhengming, July 1987, p. 20.

77 Southerland, Daniel, “Sakharov appeals to Beijing: China asked to lift ban on dissident,” Washington Post, 15 December 1988.Google Scholar

78 Jiushi niandai (The Nineties), April 1989, pp. 20–28.

79 Fang Lizhi, “Patriotism and world citizenship,” in George Hicks (ed.), The Broken Mirror: China After Tiananmen (1990, forthcoming).

80 Fang Lizhi, “xuyan” (“Foreword”), After Praising the Lord.

81 Jowitt, Kenneth, The Leninist Response to National Dependency (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1978).Google Scholar

82 Fang Lizhi, “Democracy,” in Responsibility Under Crisis, p. 226.

83 Barme, Geremie, “The Chinese velvet prison: Culture in the new age, 1976–89,” Issues and Studies, Vol. 25, No. 8 (1989).Google Scholar