Therefore, Xu Zhimo's unique yearning for the freedom realm of "flying to the sky" and "flying to the sky" is reflected in his poems, which is manifested in a brand-new sense of time and space based on relativity and a series of dynamic aesthetic feelings conveyed by "flying" images. Xu Zhimo died in an air crash. Lin published "Mourning for Zhimo" in the Beijing Morning Post, saying that he "has always liked astronomy and knows a lot about the names and components of the stars in the sky. He likes to look at the stars on summer nights. He has taken the train several times, and he always carries scientific books about the universe with him. Because "Sky" is the first "primitive" human science laboratory, one of its great achievements is the birth of the original image of "flying" of all ethnic groups: scientific, literary, philosopher, poet, ancient, modern and so on. In Xu Zhimo's short life, there is a unique "contribution" to keep pace with the times, that is, the application of Einstein's "theory of relativity" in time and space and scientific thinking mode has updated the poetic image of "flying" in China and even in different times.
Less than a year after the publication of "The Theory of Relativity of Sintin" (the Great Revolution of Physics), Xu Zhimo wrote a prose poem "Night", which began with the following words: "Night is an all-encompassing night". Then, he described the tenderness of the night and listened attentively. In this quiet temperature, he heard the silence of the universe and he also heard the poet's own fantasy. Finally, "flying out of time and space: the present is the grand view of the universe!" " /Millions of suns,/Big and small, red and yellow, like flowers and bamboo/churning and spinning in infinity. "The meaning here is brand-new, beyond the secular. In front of these "millions of suns", it is neither Qu Yuan's poetic wings nor Li Bai's immortal thoughts, including Goddess and The Flying Sun written by Guo Moruo and Wen Yiduo, which cannot be compared here.
To accurately understand Xu Zhimo's "flying", we must contact Xu Zhimo's clear explanation in "Hinstein's Theory of Relativity (the Great Revolution of Physics)": "If you must" see with your own eyes ",unless you leave one eye between your eyebrows and your nose and the other eye flies around almost as fast with the same light, you won't believe it ... In short, your eyes can only see three things, that is. If your whole body is flying in space, and the speed often changes, sometimes approaching the speed of light, then you can see the phenomenon of four quantities. Here, according to his own understanding of Einstein's theory of relativity, Xu Zhimo expresses scientific concepts such as the speed of light and four-dimensional space-time in the theory of relativity with image metaphors such as "flying", "flying eyes" and "the whole body flying in space", which is simple, vivid and intuitive, and implies rigorous thinking logic. No wonder Lin said that Liang Qichao read a lot of Einstein's Philosophy until he read this article by Xu Zhimo.
Similarly, Xu Zhimo's "flying" can only be explained clearly if it is related to the concept and metaphor of this theory of relativity. In the face of the cosmic spectacle of "millions of suns" stirring and rotating infinitely, we can only "witness" if we have what Xu Zhimo called "flying eyes", and only "flying all over the space" and "approaching the speed of light" can we fly out of the "time and space jam". In short, "flying" should break through the traditional time and space; This is also Xu Zhimo's life pursuit. When he first tried the feeling of "traveling in the clouds" by plane, he said excitedly: "My hope at that time was to fly out of this air cage and enter the whole universe! I fantasize that I can fly between the king star of the earth and Uranus in the next moment to see this earth that people think is not big. "
Shortly before his death, Xu Zhimo told his students: "Reading some simple astronomy books in my spare time" "can make our souls not run according to the earth every day, but also fly far away to see the mystery of this cosmic star." It can be said that "Fei", whether as Xu Zhimo's life ideal or a typical poetic image, as one of the personality characteristics with great significance of the times, is deeply influenced by the thought of relativity; It also marks the aesthetic value orientation of modern literature and poetry masters to accept new scientific knowledge.
Audit: Wang Fei
Final review: Chen Lei
& lt wechat official account ID: Keping >