In 1930, Zhong Guanguang left Zhejiang University with Tan Xihong and went to the Museum of Natural History of Academia Sinica in Nanjing as a research professor and a member of the Chinese Scientific Nomenclature Review Committee to review plant names. In the autumn of the same year, Zhong Guanguang was invited by Liu Shen'e, director of the Institute of Botany of the Peking Academy, to serve as a full-time researcher at the institute.
Although Zhong Guanguang is over sixty years old, he is still young and ambitious. He still seizes every time and opportunity, and uses the spirit of dripping water to penetrate stone to collect literature and materials bit by bit, and compile the "Book of Songs", "The Book of Songs" and "The Book of Songs". Plants in ancient books such as "The Book of Changes", "Qi Min Yao Shu", "Mengxi Bi Tan", "Illustrated Research on Plant Names and Facts" and other ancient books are classified according to the methods of agronomy, gardening, forestry, sericulture and medicine according to the original foreign botanical works. Search by species and genus, and also verify, revise, supplement and annotate literature citations, geographical distribution and ecological environment one by one, organize and compile them into volumes, and write "Explanation of Plants in Modern Mao's Poems", "Plants in the Classic of Mountains and Seas", There are 52 volumes of calligraphy manuscripts with more than 1.5 million words, including "Preface to Beishan Painting Book", "Wu Gong Minutes", "Explanations and Annotated Bibliography of Ancient Books on Plants", and "Records of Famous and Real Pictures". They embody Zhong Guanguang's lifelong efforts. . He also conducted detailed research on the higher plants and lower plants of 146 families recorded in "Mao Shi", "Erya" and "Li Sao", and wrote the manuscript of the book "Text on the Names of Plants". There are a total of 14 volumes (volumes) with more than 2,700 pages for botanists to study, refer to and learn from.
In addition, Zhong Guanguang also used scientific methods to organize the "Compendium of Materia Medica" written by Li Shizhen. In the two volumes of "Shuowen Plant Classification" written by him, he revised and verified 54 families and 199 species of plants in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", which was highly praised by Li Yuying, director of the Peking Research Institute. At that time, Jing Libin, director of the Institute of Physiology of the Peking Research Institute, often asked Zhong Guanguang for advice. He always exchanged the information and valuable experiences he had collected without reservation. Because he also has profound knowledge in pharmacology, Tongrentang Pharmacy often invites him to study and experiment with the properties and effects of traditional Chinese medicine. Accompanied by Jing Libin and others, Zhong Guanguang once went to the famous drugstore in the country. Pharmaceutical Market - Qizhou (now Anguo, Hebei Province) conducted an inspection of crude drugs.
After many years of investigation, Zhong Guanguang believes that although China has many economically valuable forests, they cannot be cut down and reclaimed blindly. They must pay attention to protecting the vegetation and exploiting them correctly. In 1936, Zhong Guanguang, who was nearly seventy years old, went to the mountainous areas of Hunan to inspect economic forests, and wrote a comprehensive paper "Hunan Forest Survey Report" from the relationship between plants and the environment, forest species structure and layout.
Zhong Guanguang devoted many years to editing the masterpiece "Compendium of Materia Medica", and in his later years he devoted all his efforts to the compilation of the book. A plant research institution in the United States decided to spend a huge sum of money to purchase the copyright of this book, but he flatly refused. However, when the Japanese invaded Peking, the manuscripts and materials of this masterpiece, which took him a lifetime of energy and effort, were used as straw mats by the Kuomintang troops in the bunker. Two days before the "July 7th Incident", Zhong Guangguang was forced to leave Peking and return to his hometown due to his old age. In order to make up for this heartbreaking loss, Zhong Guanguang continued to write furiously based on his memory and outline. After two years, when the first draft was completed and awaiting proofreading, Hangzhou fell again and Ningbo was in danger. This highly respected man, The old man, full of patriotic enthusiasm and determined to explore science as his lifelong career, passed away in sorrow and anger on September 30, 1940. When the sad news came out, Chen Lifu, Minister of Education of the National Government, and Zhu Jiahua, among others, sent letters of condolence. His close friends, disciples and disciples also gathered and wrote articles to express their condolences.
Zhong Guanguang has studied both old and new knowledge. He is a person who carries forward the past and opens up the future in the plant world. Liu Shen'e and Hao Jingsheng, directors of the Institute of Botany of the Peking Academy, once called him "the last person of the old era and the first person of the new era." one person".
Zhong Guanguang was honest throughout his life. He only dedicated his life without asking for anything. He spared no effort to establish education. He never entered a higher education institution or studied abroad for further study, but in order to revitalize China, he studied hard and became self-taught. He is rigorous in his studies and has not avoided hardships and dangers for many years. He has been engaged in botanical collection, inspection and research, and has accumulated rich knowledge and experience. But he was always modest and prudent, studied seriously, and always repeatedly verified newly discovered plants. Due to historical objective conditions and limited data, he wrote many articles in his life, but the officially published articles were compared to what he had done. Not much for work.
Zhong Guanguang worked hard all his life to develop my country's scientific education and research botany, and made important contributions to the pioneering and development of modern botany in my country. Zhong Guanguang's life was a glorious one. He did a lot of solid work in botanical investigation and research. His rigorous style of study and strong national integrity will always inspire future generations to contribute to the prosperity of the motherland and the advancement of scientific undertakings. Work hard to reach the top.
(Author: Chen Jinzheng Zhong Renjian)