Academically, Ten Thousand Deng Jiaxians Cannot Compare to One Yang Zhenning

Girl Who Likes Mathematics

From a patriotic standpoint, Deng Jiaxian at least in terms of the practical effects of his actions surpasses Yang Zhenning -- this point is not worth arguing. But if value judgments about people are to have any real meaning, then the standards of judgment cannot be monolithic. Whether you like it or not, from an academic standpoint, ten thousand Deng Jiaxians cannot compare to one Yang Zhenning.

Of course, one might also throw in Li Zhengdao here. Although they shared the Nobel Prize for the "parity non-conservation law," in terms of ultimate academic achievement, Li Zhengdao still falls short of Yang Zhenning. What notable achievements has Li Zhengdao produced since then? None. Yang Zhenning, however, is different. From the perspective of the development of physics, the Yang-Mills gauge field theory and the Yang-Baxter equation are absolutely more important discoveries than parity non-conservation.

Arguing about whether it was Li Zhengdao riding Yang Zhenning's coattails for the Nobel Prize or vice versa is utterly pointless. For Yang Zhenning, the Yang-Mills gauge field theory and the Yang-Baxter equation are what truly represent the pinnacle of his achievements. The two are simply not on the same level -- what is there to argue about? As for Deng Jiaxian, if being handsome counted as an academic criterion, then apart from being more handsome than Yang Zhenning, one cannot think of anything particularly noteworthy about him academically.

The evaluation of a person should be multidimensional; political evaluation is only one part. From an academic perspective, five hundred years from now, Yang Zhenning will be mentioned far more often than Li Zhengdao or Deng Jiaxian -- there is nothing to doubt about this. Take Heisenberg, for example -- the top physicist of the Nazi regime, whose political stains probably exceed Yang Zhenning's by ten thousand to the Nth power. Yet academically, who can deny that he was one of the greatest physicists of the last century?