This year I visited Italy twice, at various times visiting some ten astrophysical research institutes in ten different cities. Since returning home, colleagues have been asking me about the state of astrophysics research in Italy, wanting to know especially about the ways in which Italy is more advanced than us, so that our own work can benefit from the comparison and example.

Arashiyama is the most beautiful spot in Kyoto. Cherry trees blossom there in spring, and in the autumn the maples display their fiery leaves. On the Great Weir River in front of the Moon Crossing Bridge, the water is pure, the mountain colors exquisite, the air still, and the clouds elemental. These can make one feel as if standing on the banks of the Fuchun River, near Donglu,1 and not in a strange land at all. Only the sea gulls that (...) have accidentally wandered up the river serve as reminders that one is not on ancestral soil at all, but on a foreign island. (shrink)

Fang Lizhi, member the Academic Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China , on an invitation from the Chinese Press Association, gave a talk to the Beijing press corps entitled "Starting from Cosmology…." He also responded to questions from reporters about his views on reforms of the political structure.

History increasingly shows us that modern civilization owes much to the work of a few great physicists. The most representative of these are Newton and Galileo, the founders of classical dynamics, and Einstein, the founder of special and general relativity.

In late summer-early fall of 1983, some Italian theologian friends accompanied our group of twenty or so Chinese on a tour of Naples. One evening, our host led us hurriedly down the bustling Corso Umberto, turning into the dark St. Dominic's Cathedral. This Gothic structure, built during the Holy Roman Empire, has been damaged repeatedly over the ages; with its walls yellowed and its wooden doors blackened, it has long since lost its former lustre. In a ruined courtyard there was (...) still a thirteenth-century image of the Crucifixion. Our host excitedly turned to us and explained, "This is the place where Thomas Aquinas taught theology for half of his life." When he had finished talking, he waited for his guests to respond or ask questions, but most of our party were nonplused, for this name "Thomas Aquinas" was just too unfamiliar. (shrink)

I am quite unqualified to write prefaces for other people's books, particularly a book like the present devoted to the words of wiser people than myself. Yin and Zhang, two of the book's editors, were bent on getting me to write for them, I think perhaps because, influenced by what used to be the accepted thing, they felt they had to find a "youth" of less than fifty years of age to provide some "decoration"! But "decoration" is by no means (...) the method of a scientist. I would prefer to make use of the opportunity to frankly air an opinion. (shrink)

Cosmology is a field riddled with controversy. With regard to cosmology itself, there are several different schools of thought. Some think that there is basically no such thing as scientific cosmology, and that cosmology is just a pseudoscience. Or as the French physicist Brillouin put it, cosmology is "pure fantasy." A second school says that the value of cosmology is undeniable. Astronomical observations and measurements have already encountered large-scale problems, and these problems have an objective existence; they are not fabricated. (...) This school holds, however, that because at present observational results are still scant, we should therefore emphasize the accumulation of observations and the organization of data and speculate less about theories or models of the universe. Some observational astronomers hold this view. And then there are still other people who believe that we want not only to emphasize observational facts, but also to make a serious effort to analyze the underlying mechanisms. We should look not only at the universe of the present, but also explore cosmic evolution, developing our cosmology based on the mutual interplay of theory and observation. (shrink)

Today I'll be acting in my capacity as a scientist, in order to evaluate traditional Chinese culture from the perspective of modern cosmology. First let me briefly introduce cosmology.

Between the spring and summer of 1973, the "Gang of Four" began to interfere publicly with the field of astrophysics, launching a critique of modern cosmology under the lead of the Magazine of Natural Dialectics, which they directly controlled. All of modern astrophysical cosmology was proclaimed to be a "new theology," and those studying cosmological models were denounced for "letting their intellects run wild." An endless litany of transgressions was attributed to Big-Bang cosmology in various "criticisms" and "recriticisms."1 Pseudoscience masqueraded (...) as science; idealism went under the guise of materialism; metaphysics and sophistry posed as dialectics. Under this torrent of abuse the study of the universe became a crime, and anyone showing the slightest interest in or concern for cosmological questions could not be free of suspicion. This was a massive obstacle to the growth of modern astrophysical cosmology in our country. (shrink)

It has been said that certain scientific workers are not particularly interested in the fashionable topics of human potential studies, science of science, and futurology. I am one such worker.