101-610: Fang Lizhi ( Chinese : 方励之 ; pinyin : Fāng Lìzhī ; February 12, 1936 – April 6, 2012) was a Chinese astrophysicist , vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China , and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro- democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 . Fang was considered as one of the leaders of the New Enlightenment in
202-487: A Hilbert space , which is also treated in quantum field theory . Following the convention of particle physicists, the term elementary particles is applied to those particles that are, according to current understanding, presumed to be indivisible and not composed of other particles. Ordinary matter is made from first- generation quarks ( up , down ) and leptons ( electron , electron neutrino ). Collectively, quarks and leptons are called fermions , because they have
303-402: A microsecond . They occur after collisions between particles made of quarks, such as fast-moving protons and neutrons in cosmic rays . Mesons are also produced in cyclotrons or other particle accelerators . Particles have corresponding antiparticles with the same mass but with opposite electric charges . For example, the antiparticle of the electron is the positron . The electron has
404-502: A quantum spin of half-integers (−1/2, 1/2, 3/2, etc.). This causes the fermions to obey the Pauli exclusion principle , where no two particles may occupy the same quantum state . Quarks have fractional elementary electric charge (−1/3 or 2/3) and leptons have whole-numbered electric charge (0 or 1). Quarks also have color charge , which is labeled arbitrarily with no correlation to actual light color as red, green and blue. Because
505-1058: A " Theory of Everything ", or "TOE". There are also other areas of work in theoretical particle physics ranging from particle cosmology to loop quantum gravity . In principle, all physics (and practical applications developed therefrom) can be derived from the study of fundamental particles. In practice, even if "particle physics" is taken to mean only "high-energy atom smashers", many technologies have been developed during these pioneering investigations that later find wide uses in society. Particle accelerators are used to produce medical isotopes for research and treatment (for example, isotopes used in PET imaging ), or used directly in external beam radiotherapy . The development of superconductors has been pushed forward by their use in particle physics. The World Wide Web and touchscreen technology were initially developed at CERN . Additional applications are found in medicine, national security, industry, computing, science, and workforce development, illustrating
606-705: A central component of the Communist Party's ideology. According to the dialectical materialism philosophy, both time and space must be infinite, while the Big Bang theory allows the possibility of the finiteness of space and time. During the Cultural Revolution, campaigns were waged against Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity in Beijing and Shanghai. Once Fang published his theory, some of
707-562: A classic by many teachers and students, although few students are aware of it in recent years. Fang was also the first scientist in China to write popular accounts of contemporary astrophysical developments, such as cosmology and black holes. Fang's book, "Creation of the Universe" (Yuzhou de chuangsheng in Chinese) which was published in 1987, introduced basic cosmological ideas, and influenced
808-434: A conversion table. While exercising such derivation, the following rules should be observed: Sample Derivations : The Series One List of Variant Characters reduces the number of total standard characters. First, amongst each set of variant characters sharing identical pronunciation and meaning, one character (usually the simplest in form) is elevated to the standard character set, and the rest are made obsolete. Then amongst
909-452: A fourth generation of fermions does not exist. Bosons are the mediators or carriers of fundamental interactions, such as electromagnetism , the weak interaction , and the strong interaction . Electromagnetism is mediated by the photon , the quanta of light . The weak interaction is mediated by the W and Z bosons . The strong interaction is mediated by the gluon , which can link quarks together to form composite particles. Due to
1010-605: A large number of physics and astronomy students growing up in the 1980s in China. During the Anti-Rightist Campaign , Fang was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for his "reactionary activities", viz. publishing an article critical of the government's policies on science education. He was rehabilitated after the reform of China in late 1970s, and resumed his party membership. During this time, he held many academic positions, including
1111-430: A negative electric charge, the positron has a positive charge. These antiparticles can theoretically form a corresponding form of matter called antimatter . Some particles, such as the photon , are their own antiparticle. These elementary particles are excitations of the quantum fields that also govern their interactions. The dominant theory explaining these fundamental particles and fields, along with their dynamics,
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#17327721369131212-610: A newly coined phono-semantic compound : Removing radicals Only retaining single radicals Replacing with ancient forms or variants : Adopting ancient vulgar variants : Readopting abandoned phonetic-loan characters : Copying and modifying another traditional character : Based on 132 characters and 14 components listed in Chart 2 of the Complete List , the 1,753 derived characters found in Chart 3 can be created by systematically simplifying components using Chart 2 as
1313-571: A number of well-known "Rightists" from the 1957 Anti-Rightist campaign, suggesting a meeting in memory of that event. In December 1986, college students demonstrated in over a dozen Chinese cities in demanding greater economic and political freedoms. Fang was against the student demonstration, believing it would be suppressed by the CCP; he tried to persuade the USTC students not to go off-campus. After two straight weeks of student demonstrations, believing that
1414-469: A practice which has always been present as a part of the Chinese writing system. The official name tends to refer to the specific, systematic set published by the Chinese government, which includes not only simplifications of individual characters, but also a substantial reduction in the total number of characters through the merger of formerly distinct forms. According to Chinese palaeographer Qiu Xigui ,
1515-462: A rightist he was not entitled to publish research papers. Later, on the recommendation of Qian Linzhao , he became an associated member of a research group led by Li Yinyuan at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences . Since Li's group was at a different institute, this arrangement took advantage of a loophole in management rules, allowing him to publish papers under his own name. In
1616-404: A single standardized character, usually the simplest among all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. The Chinese government has never officially announced the completion of the simplification process after the bulk of characters were introduced by the 1960s. In the wake of
1717-499: A wide range of exotic particles . All particles and their interactions observed to date can be described almost entirely by the Standard Model. Dynamics of particles are also governed by quantum mechanics ; they exhibit wave–particle duality , displaying particle-like behaviour under certain experimental conditions and wave -like behaviour in others. In more technical terms, they are described by quantum state vectors in
1818-638: A year before the People's Liberation Army took over the city, as a student of the Beijing No. 4 High School , he joined an underground youth organization that was associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One of his extracurricular activities was assembling radio receivers from used parts. In 1952, he enrolled in the Physics Department at Peking University , where he met his future wife, Li Shuxian ( 李淑娴 ). Both Fang and Li were among
1919-425: Is a particle physics theory suggesting that systems with higher energy have a smaller number of dimensions. A third major effort in theoretical particle physics is string theory . String theorists attempt to construct a unified description of quantum mechanics and general relativity by building a theory based on small strings, and branes rather than particles. If the theory is successful, it may be considered
2020-440: Is actually more complex than eliminated ones. An example is the character 搾 which is eliminated in favor of the variant form 榨 . The 扌 'HAND' with three strokes on the left of the eliminated 搾 is now seen as more complex, appearing as the ⽊ 'TREE' radical 木 , with four strokes, in the chosen variant 榨 . Not all characters standardised in the simplified set consist of fewer strokes. For instance,
2121-554: Is called the Standard Model . The reconciliation of gravity to the current particle physics theory is not solved; many theories have addressed this problem, such as loop quantum gravity , string theory and supersymmetry theory . Practical particle physics is the study of these particles in radioactive processes and in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider . Theoretical particle physics
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#17327721369132222-454: Is derived. Merging homophonous characters: Adapting cursive shapes ( 草書楷化 ): Replacing a component with a simple arbitrary symbol (such as 又 and 乂 ): Omitting entire components : Omitting components, then applying further alterations : Structural changes that preserve the basic shape Replacing the phonetic component of phono-semantic compounds : Replacing an uncommon phonetic component : Replacing entirely with
2323-532: Is explained by the Standard Model , which gained widespread acceptance in the mid-1970s after experimental confirmation of the existence of quarks . It describes the strong , weak , and electromagnetic fundamental interactions , using mediating gauge bosons . The species of gauge bosons are eight gluons , W , W and Z bosons , and the photon . The Standard Model also contains 24 fundamental fermions (12 particles and their associated anti-particles), which are
2424-595: Is in model building where model builders develop ideas for what physics may lie beyond the Standard Model (at higher energies or smaller distances). This work is often motivated by the hierarchy problem and is constrained by existing experimental data. It may involve work on supersymmetry , alternatives to the Higgs mechanism , extra spatial dimensions (such as the Randall–Sundrum models ), Preon theory, combinations of these, or other ideas. Vanishing-dimensions theory
2525-813: Is now discouraged. A State Language Commission official cited "oversimplification" as the reason for restoring some characters. The language authority declared an open comment period until 31 August 2009, for feedback from the public. In 2013, the List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters was published as a revision of the 1988 lists; it included a total of 8105 characters. It included 45 newly recognized standard characters that were previously considered variant forms, as well as official approval of 226 characters that had been simplified by analogy and had seen wide use but were not explicitly given in previous lists or documents. Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification , eventually arriving at
2626-471: Is the study of these particles in the context of cosmology and quantum theory . The two are closely interrelated: the Higgs boson was postulated by theoretical particle physicists and its presence confirmed by practical experiments. The idea that all matter is fundamentally composed of elementary particles dates from at least the 6th century BC. In the 19th century, John Dalton , through his work on stoichiometry , concluded that each element of nature
2727-547: Is used instead of 叠 in regions using traditional characters. The Chinese government stated that it wished to keep Chinese orthography stable. The Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese was published in 1988 and included 7000 simplified and unsimplified characters. Of these, half were also included in the revised List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese , which specified 2500 common characters and 1000 less common characters. In 2009,
2828-600: Is used to extract the parameters of the Standard Model with less uncertainty. This work probes the limits of the Standard Model and therefore expands scientific understanding of nature's building blocks. Those efforts are made challenging by the difficulty of calculating high precision quantities in quantum chromodynamics . Some theorists working in this area use the tools of perturbative quantum field theory and effective field theory , referring to themselves as phenomenologists . Others make use of lattice field theory and call themselves lattice theorists . Another major effort
2929-473: The ⼓ ' WRAP ' radical used in the traditional character 沒 is simplified to ⼏ ' TABLE ' to form the simplified character 没 . By systematically simplifying radicals, large swaths of the character set are altered. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms that embody graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. In addition, variant characters with identical pronunciation and meaning were reduced to
3030-479: The Chinese Communist Party 's repression of human rights and the outside world's turning a blind eye to it. Fang's continued presence in the US Embassy following the protests became, according to U.S. Ambassador James Lilley , "a living symbol of our [US] conflict with China over human rights." Fang and his wife remained in the US Embassy until 25 June 1990, when they were allowed by Chinese authorities to leave
3131-499: The Cultural Revolution , a second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977—largely composed of entirely new variants intended to artificially lower the stroke count, in contrast to the first round—but was massively unpopular and never saw consistent use. The second round of simplifications was ultimately retracted officially in 1986, well after they had largely ceased to be used due to their unpopularity and
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3232-502: The Haidian District where Peking University is located. Fang and his wife had exchanged ideas about Chinese politics with some students of Peking University, including Wang Dan and Liu Gang. Some of those students became student leaders during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 , though Fang and Li did not actively participate in the protest itself. During U.S. President George H.W. Bush 's February 1989 visit to China,
3333-494: The International Astronomical Union conference IAU-124 on "Observational Cosmology" in Beijing in 1986. Fang also trained many younger colleagues and students in the field of astrophysics and cosmology; he was considered an excellent teacher. Fang and Li coauthored "Introduction to Mechanics", an introductory book on Newtonian mechanics and special theory of relativity. This book has been considered
3434-558: The Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the State Department , used very strong language to order the embassy to reverse their decision. That night, Fang and his family were smuggled into the embassy in the back of a van. The Chinese government put Fang and Li at the top of the "wanted" list of the people involved in the protest. During his time in the U.S. embassy, Fang wrote an essay titled The Chinese Amnesia , criticizing
3535-554: The Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) the character meaning 'bright' was written as either 明 or 朙 —with either 日 'Sun' or 囧 'window' on the left, with the 月 'Moon' component on the right. Li Si ( d. 208 BC ), the Chancellor of Qin, attempted to universalize the Qin small seal script across China following the wars that had politically unified the country for
3636-578: The Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 . He helped promote international academic exchange in China. Together with Remo Ruffini , he organized the first major international scientific conference in China: the 3rd Marcel Grossmann meeting in 1982. During this meeting, Tsvi Piran and T.G. Horowitz became the first two Israeli scientists to enter the People's Republic of China ; at the time, there were no diplomatic relations between China and Israel. He invited Stephen Hawking to visit China in 1985, and organized
3737-488: The University of Arizona . In campus speeches, Fang spoke on topics such as human rights and democracy as matters of social responsibility . He also served as a board member and co-chair of the New York-based organization Human Rights in China . Fang continued to do research in astrophysics and cosmology. He published research papers even during his stay in the US Embassy in Beijing. His later research includes
3838-544: The atomic nuclei are baryons – the neutron is composed of two down quarks and one up quark, and the proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark. A baryon is composed of three quarks, and a meson is composed of two quarks (one normal, one anti). Baryons and mesons are collectively called hadrons . Quarks inside hadrons are governed by the strong interaction, thus are subjected to quantum chromodynamics (color charges). The bounded quarks must have their color charge to be neutral, or "white" for analogy with mixing
3939-531: The states of ancient China , with his chief chronicler having "[written] fifteen chapters describing" what is referred to as the " big seal script ". The traditional narrative, as also attested in the Shuowen Jiezi dictionary ( c. 100 AD ), is that the Qin small seal script that would later be imposed across China was originally derived from the Zhou big seal script with few modifications. However,
4040-401: The weak interaction , and the strong interaction . Quarks cannot exist on their own but form hadrons . Hadrons that contain an odd number of quarks are called baryons and those that contain an even number are called mesons . Two baryons, the proton and the neutron , make up most of the mass of ordinary matter. Mesons are unstable and the longest-lived last for only a few hundredths of
4141-403: The "Dot" stroke : The traditional components ⺥ and 爫 become ⺈ : The traditional component 奐 becomes 奂 : Particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation . The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons , while
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4242-469: The 1919 May Fourth Movement —many anti-imperialist intellectuals throughout China began to see the country's writing system as a serious impediment to its modernization. In 1916, a multi-part English-language article entitled "The Problem of the Chinese Language" co-authored by the Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982) and poet Hu Shih (1891–1962) has been identified as a turning point in
4343-644: The 1980s. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in January 1987. For his work, Fang was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, but his position was revoked after 1989. Fang was born on 12 February 1936 in Beijing . His father worked on the railway. In 1948,
4444-482: The 1986 General List of Simplified Chinese Characters , hereafter the General List . All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Chart 1 and Chart 2 in the 1986 Complete List . Characters in both charts are structurally simplified based on similar set of principles. They are separated into two charts to clearly mark those in Chart 2 as 'usable as simplified character components', based on which Chart 3
4545-520: The 1986 mainland China revisions. Unlike in mainland China, Singapore parents have the option of registering their children's names in traditional characters. Malaysia also promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, though completely identical to the mainland Chinese set. They are used in Chinese-language schools. All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Charts 1 and 2 of
4646-483: The Chinese Communist Party and distributed to many of its regional offices, with the directive to its members to criticize the essays. In February 1989, Fang mobilized a number of well known intellectuals to write an open letter to Deng Xiaoping , requesting amnesty for the human right activist Wei Jingsheng who was then in prison. His wife, Li, was elected to become the people's representative of
4747-470: The Chinese government published a major revision to the list which included a total of 8300 characters. No new simplifications were introduced. In addition, slight modifications to the orthography of 44 characters to fit traditional calligraphic rules were initially proposed, but were not implemented due to negative public response. Also, the practice of unrestricted simplification of rare and archaic characters by analogy using simplified radicals or components
4848-635: The Chinese government. Fang was again expelled from Chinese Communist Party in January 1987, and removed from his position as the vice president of the university. He was moved to Beijing as a research scientist at the Beijing Astronomical Observatory, now a part of the National Astronomical Observatory of China , and reunited with his wife, Li Shuxian, a professor at Peking University . He gained fame and notoriety after his essays were collected by
4949-717: The PRC in return for the resolution of "the Fang Lizhi problem." In 1989, he was a recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award . In 1991, he gave a conference on the issue of Tibet in New York, one of the first open dialogues between Chinese and Tibetans. He also was an advisor for the International Campaign for Tibet . After some time at Cambridge University and Princeton , Fang later moved to Tucson, Arizona , where he worked as Professor of Physics at
5050-546: The People's Republic, the idea of a mass simplification of character forms first gained traction in China during the early 20th century. In 1909, the educator and linguist Lufei Kui formally proposed the use of simplified characters in education for the first time. Over the following years—marked by the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty , followed by growing social and political discontent that further erupted into
5151-408: The Standard Model during the 1970s, physicists clarified the origin of the particle zoo. The large number of particles was explained as combinations of a (relatively) small number of more fundamental particles and framed in the context of quantum field theories . This reclassification marked the beginning of modern particle physics. The current state of the classification of all elementary particles
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#17327721369135252-683: The U.S. embassy invited Fang to a banquet that Bush was hosting at the Sheraton Great Wall Hotel in honor of Deng Xiaoping . Deng had a negative view of Fang. Public Security stopped Fang on his way to the banquet and prevented him from attending. On June 5, 1989, the day after the government cracked down on the Tiananmen Square protests, Fang and Li sought asylum at the U.S. embassy in Beijing , accompanied by U.S. academic Perry Link . Fang and Li were initially turned away, but Jeffrey A. Bader , then acting director of
5353-571: The aforementioned color confinement, gluons are never observed independently. The Higgs boson gives mass to the W and Z bosons via the Higgs mechanism – the gluon and photon are expected to be massless . All bosons have an integer quantum spin (0 and 1) and can have the same quantum state . Most aforementioned particles have corresponding antiparticles , which compose antimatter . Normal particles have positive lepton or baryon number , and antiparticles have these numbers negative. Most properties of corresponding antiparticles and particles are
5454-444: The body of epigraphic evidence comparing the character forms used by scribes gives no indication of any real consolidation in character forms prior to the founding of the Qin. The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) that inherited the Qin administration coincided with the perfection of clerical script through the process of libian . Eastward spread of Western learning Though most closely associated with
5555-447: The broadest trend in the evolution of Chinese characters over their history has been simplification, both in graphical shape ( 字形 ; zìxíng ), the "external appearances of individual graphs", and in graphical form ( 字体 ; 字體 ; zìtǐ ), "overall changes in the distinguishing features of graphic[al] shape and calligraphic style, [...] in most cases refer[ring] to rather obvious and rather substantial changes". The initiatives following
5656-480: The case to the party secretary of USTC at the time, Liu Da, who cancelled the cleansing order for Fang and other faculty members of USTC. Academic activities were interrupted when the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966. In 1969, along with other universities and research institutes, USTC was ordered to be evacuated out of Beijing, ostensibly in anticipation of an impending invasion by the Soviet Union . USTC
5757-407: The chosen variants, those that appear in the "Complete List of Simplified Characters" are also simplified in character structure accordingly. Some examples follow: Sample reduction of equivalent variants : Ancient variants with simple structure are preferred : Simpler vulgar forms are also chosen : The chosen variant was already simplified in Chart 1 : In some instances, the chosen variant
5858-595: The confusion they caused. In August 2009, China began collecting public comments for a revised list of simplified characters; the resulting List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters lists 8,105 characters, including a few revised forms, and was implemented for official use by China's State Council on 5 June 2013. In Chinese, simplified characters are referred to by their official name 简化字 ; jiǎnhuàzì , or colloquially as 简体字 ; jiǎntǐzì . The latter term refers broadly to all character variants featuring simplifications of character form or structure,
5959-597: The constituents of all matter . Finally, the Standard Model also predicted the existence of a type of boson known as the Higgs boson . On 4 July 2012, physicists with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced they had found a new particle that behaves similarly to what is expected from the Higgs boson. The Standard Model, as currently formulated, has 61 elementary particles. Those elementary particles can combine to form composite particles, accounting for
6060-656: The country. In 1935, the first official list of simplified forms was published, consisting of 324 characters collated by Peking University professor Qian Xuantong . However, fierce opposition within the KMT resulted in the list being rescinded in 1936. Work throughout the 1950s resulted in the 1956 promulgation of the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme , a draft of 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified components, whose simplifications would be present in most compound characters. Over
6161-563: The critics of the Theory of Relativity, especially a group based in Shanghai, prepared to attack Fang politically. However, by this time the "leftist" line was declining in the Chinese academia. Professor Dai Wensai, the most well-known Chinese astronomer at the time and chair of the Astronomy Department of Nanjing University , also supported Fang. Many of the members of the "Theory of Relativity Criticism Group" changed to study
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#17327721369136262-450: The development of nuclear weapons . Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, a bewildering variety of particles was found in collisions of particles from beams of increasingly high energy. It was referred to informally as the " particle zoo ". Important discoveries such as the CP violation by James Cronin and Val Fitch brought new questions to matter-antimatter imbalance . After the formulation of
6363-464: The director of the astrophysics research group of USTC , and director of the science history research group, chief editor of the USTC academic journal, chair of the Chinese society of gravity and relativistic astrophysics. In 1984, Fang was appointed as the vice president of the USTC under president Guan Weiyan. Fang was very active in this role; for example he helped to set up the telex service for USTC. He
6464-447: The economic problems in China during that time. Lu Xun , one of the most prominent Chinese authors of the 20th century, stated that "if Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die" ( 漢字不滅，中國必亡 ). During the 1930s and 1940s, discussions regarding simplification took place within the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party. Many members of the Chinese intelligentsia maintained that simplification would increase literacy rates throughout
6565-472: The embassy and board a U.S. Air Force C-135 transport plane to Britain. This resolution partly came about after confidential negotiations between Henry Kissinger , acting on behalf of US President George H. W. Bush , and Deng. Other factors were a false confession by Fang, an attempted intervention by US National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft , and an offer from the Japanese government to resume loans to
6666-593: The evening. Later, in 1971, along with a number of other faculty members, he was assigned to do labour work in a brick factory, which produced the bricks for constructing the new USTC campus buildings. In 1972, the worst chaos of the Cultural Revolution was over and scientific research resumed. Fang found an opportunity to read some recent astrophysics papers in western journals, and soon wrote his first paper on cosmology, "A Cosmological Solution in Scalar-tensor Theory with Mass and Blackbody Radiation", which
6767-478: The first experimental deviations from the Standard Model, since neutrinos do not have mass in the Standard Model. Modern particle physics research is focused on subatomic particles , including atomic constituents, such as electrons , protons , and neutrons (protons and neutrons are composite particles called baryons , made of quarks ), that are produced by radioactive and scattering processes; such particles are photons , neutrinos , and muons , as well as
6868-512: The first time. Li prescribed the 朙 form of the word for 'bright', but some scribes ignored this and continued to write the character as 明 . However, the increased usage of 朙 was followed by proliferation of a third variant: 眀 , with 目 'eye' on the left—likely derived as a contraction of 朙 . Ultimately, 明 became the character's standard form. The Book of Han (111 AD) describes an earlier attempt made by King Xuan of Zhou ( d. 782 BC ) to unify character forms across
6969-475: The following decade, the Script Reform Committee deliberated on characters in the 1956 scheme, collecting public input regarding the recognizability of variants, and often approving forms in small batches. Parallel to simplification, there were also initiatives aimed at eliminating the use of characters entirely and replacing them with pinyin as an official Chinese alphabet, but this possibility
7070-430: The founding of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) to universalize the use of their small seal script across the recently conquered parts of the empire is generally seen as being the first real attempt at script reform in Chinese history. Before the 20th century, variation in character shape on the part of scribes, which would continue with the later invention of woodblock printing , was ubiquitous. For example, prior to
7171-538: The gravitational interaction, but it has not been detected or completely reconciled with current theories. Many other hypothetical particles have been proposed to address the limitations of the Standard Model. Notably, supersymmetric particles aim to solve the hierarchy problem , axions address the strong CP problem , and various other particles are proposed to explain the origins of dark matter and dark energy . The world's major particle physics laboratories are: Theoretical particle physics attempts to develop
7272-556: The history of the Chinese script—as it was one of the first clear calls for China to move away from the use of characters entirely. Instead, Chao proposed that the language be written with an alphabet, which he saw as more logical and efficient. The alphabetization and simplification campaigns would exist alongside one another among the Republican intelligentsia for the next several decades. Recent commentators have echoed some contemporary claims that Chinese characters were blamed for
7373-424: The hundreds of other species of particles that have been discovered since the 1960s. The Standard Model has been found to agree with almost all the experimental tests conducted to date. However, most particle physicists believe that it is an incomplete description of nature and that a more fundamental theory awaits discovery (See Theory of Everything ). In recent years, measurements of neutrino mass have provided
7474-433: The interactions between the quarks store energy which can convert to other particles when the quarks are far apart enough, quarks cannot be observed independently. This is called color confinement . There are three known generations of quarks (up and down, strange and charm , top and bottom ) and leptons (electron and its neutrino, muon and its neutrino , tau and its neutrino ), with strong indirect evidence that
7575-580: The late 1950s and early 1960s, Fang conducted research in particle physics , solid state physics and laser physics . By 1965, he had published 13 research papers and was considered one of the most productive physics researchers in China. That year, as part of the effort of cleansing Beijing of "undesirable elements", Fang was to be removed from the faculty of USTC and sent to work in an electronics factory in Liaoning province. Learning about this, vice president Yan Jici intervened on Fang's behalf; he pleaded
7676-533: The mainland has been encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s. They are the official forms used in mainland China and Singapore , while traditional characters are officially used in Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan . Simplification of a component—either a character or a sub-component called a radical —usually involves either a reduction in its total number of strokes , or an apparent streamlining of which strokes are chosen in what places—for example,
7777-497: The models, theoretical framework, and mathematical tools to understand current experiments and make predictions for future experiments (see also theoretical physics ). There are several major interrelated efforts being made in theoretical particle physics today. One important branch attempts to better understand the Standard Model and its tests. Theorists make quantitative predictions of observables at collider and astronomical experiments, which along with experimental measurements
7878-483: The photon or gluon, have no antiparticles. Quarks and gluons additionally have color charges, which influences the strong interaction. Quark's color charges are called red, green and blue (though the particle itself have no physical color), and in antiquarks are called antired, antigreen and antiblue. The gluon can have eight color charges , which are the result of quarks' interactions to form composite particles (gauge symmetry SU(3) ). The neutrons and protons in
7979-544: The physics department planned to write a letter to the party to offer their suggestions on education. This letter was still unfinished by the time the Hundred Flowers Campaign abruptly came to an end and the Anti-Rightist Campaign started. The opinions and criticisms solicited during the earlier campaign were then interpreted as "attacks on the party", and those who had expressed such opinions were labelled "rightist" and persecuted. Although no one knew about
8080-426: The primary colors . More exotic hadrons can have other types, arrangement or number of quarks ( tetraquark , pentaquark ). An atom is made from protons, neutrons and electrons. By modifying the particles inside a normal atom, exotic atoms can be formed. A simple example would be the hydrogen-4.1 , which has one of its electrons replaced with a muon. The graviton is a hypothetical particle that can mediate
8181-430: The public and quickly fell out of official use. It was ultimately formally rescinded in 1986. The second-round simplifications were unpopular in large part because most of the forms were completely new, in contrast to the familiar variants comprising the majority of the first round. With the rescission of the second round, work toward further character simplification largely came to an end. In 1986, authorities retracted
8282-487: The punishment was particularly severe. However, he was removed from the nuclear program and sent to do hard labour in Zanhuang , Hebei province from December 1957 to August 1958. Out of political pressure, Li and Fang put their relationship on hold until early 1959, when Fang was also expelled from the CCP. In August 1958, Fang was reassigned to the faculty of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), which
8383-481: The same set of simplified characters as mainland China. The first round was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969, consisting of 498 simplified characters derived from 502 traditional characters. A second round of 2287 simplified characters was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the mainland China system; these were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted
8484-444: The same, with a few gets reversed; the electron's antiparticle, positron, has an opposite charge. To differentiate between antiparticles and particles, a plus or negative sign is added in superscript . For example, the electron and the positron are denoted e and e . When a particle and an antiparticle interact with each other, they are annihilated and convert to other particles. Some particles, such as
8585-467: The second round completely, though they had been largely fallen out of use within a year of their initial introduction. That year, the authorities also promulgated a final version of the General List of Simplified Chinese Characters . It was identical to the 1964 list save for 6 changes—including the restoration of 3 characters that had been simplified in the first round: 叠 , 覆 , 像 ; the form 疊
8686-480: The student movement was a result of "bourgeois liberalization", Deng Xiaoping named three Communist Party members to be expelled: Fang, Liu Binyan and Wang Ruowang . Deng directed then- CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang to expel them from the Party, but Hu refused. Because of his refusal, Hu Yaobang was dismissed from his position as General Secretary in January 1987, effectively ending his period of influence within
8787-577: The study of combination of protons and neutrons is called nuclear physics . The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and bosons (force-carrying particles). There are three generations of fermions, although ordinary matter is made only from the first fermion generation. The first generation consists of up and down quarks which form protons and neutrons , and electrons and electron neutrinos . The three fundamental interactions known to be mediated by bosons are electromagnetism ,
8888-612: The study of non-Gaussianity in the cosmic microwave background anisotropy, Lyman alpha forest , application of wavelet in cosmology, turbulence in intergalactic medium, and the 21cm radiation during the Reionization . He continued to train students and younger scientists who visited him from China and was very active in research to the end of his life, publishing multiple research papers each year. He died in his home in Tucson on April 6, 2012, aged 76, from undisclosed causes. He
8989-509: The theory and conduct research in it. Subsequently, Fang was regarded as the father of cosmological research in China. Fang published a large number of papers on astrophysics and cosmology. In the late 1970s, he and his group used the luminosity of selected radio quasars to measure the Hubble diagram , and with data available at the time, suggested that the universe may be closed (Fang et al. , Acta Astronomica Sinica 17, 134 (1977)). This work
9090-513: The top students in their class. After graduating, he joined the CCP, started working at the Institute of Modern Physics and became involved in China's secret atomic bomb program, while Li stayed at Peking University as a junior faculty member. In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers Campaign , people were strongly encouraged by the CCP to openly express their opinions and criticisms. As party members, Li, Fang and another person in
9191-833: The traditional character 強 , with 11 strokes is standardised as 强 , with 12 strokes, which is a variant character. Such characters do not constitute simplified characters. The new standardized character forms shown in the Characters for Publishing and revised through the Common Modern Characters list tend to adopt vulgar variant character forms. Since the new forms take vulgar variants, many characters now appear slightly simpler compared to old forms, and as such are often mistaken as structurally simplified characters. Some examples follow: The traditional component 釆 becomes 米 : The traditional component 囚 becomes 日 : The traditional "Break" stroke becomes
9292-456: The unfinished letter, out of loyalty to the party, Fang, Li and their friend confessed to writing it; Li also confessed her doubts about the party. Li was expelled from the CCP, and sentenced to hard labour in Zhaitang, a town near Beijing. Fang was not immediately expelled from the party, because he played a lesser role in writing the letter, and also because he had left Peking University, where
9393-415: Was abandoned, confirmed by a speech given by Zhou Enlai in 1958. In 1965, the PRC published the List of Commonly Used Characters for Printing [ zh ] (hereafter Characters for Printing ), which included standard printed forms for 6196 characters, including all of the forms from the 1956 scheme. A second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977, but was poorly received by
9494-514: Was buried at East Lawn Palms Mortuary & Cemetery on April 14. Simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language , with the other being traditional characters . Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy, and their use in ordinary circumstances on
9595-682: Was composed of a single, unique type of particle. The word atom , after the Greek word atomos meaning "indivisible", has since then denoted the smallest particle of a chemical element , but physicists later discovered that atoms are not, in fact, the fundamental particles of nature, but are conglomerates of even smaller particles, such as the electron . The early 20th century explorations of nuclear physics and quantum physics led to proofs of nuclear fission in 1939 by Lise Meitner (based on experiments by Otto Hahn ), and nuclear fusion by Hans Bethe in that same year; both discoveries also led to
9696-563: Was invited to international conferences outside the country. In 1985, together with H. Sato of Kyoto University, Japan, Fang won the first prize of the Gravity Research Foundation essay competition by proposing that the periodic distribution of quasars observed can be explained if the Universe is multiply-connected, i.e. has a non-trivial topology . He was elected as the youngest member of the Chinese Academy of Science in 1980. His membership was, however, revoked after
9797-557: Was located in Beijing at the time. In 1961 he married Li, who remained a faculty member of Peking University. In spite of his experience in the anti-Rightist campaign, Fang published an article in the Guangming Daily , encouraging the independent thinking of students. Fang published his first research paper on nuclear physics in Acta Physica Sinica 17 , p. 57 (1961) under the pseudonym Wang Yunran , since as
9898-481: Was moved to Hefei , the capital of Anhui Province, where it remains to this day. Upon arriving in Hefei in 1969, Fang, along with other "problematic members" of the faculty, were sent to do hard labour for "re-education by the worker class" in a coal mine. Fang secretly brought with him one physics book, the "Classical Theory of Fields" by Lev Landau and learned the theory of general relativity by reading this book in
9999-404: Was noticed by researchers outside China; a Nature article noted that it obtained similar results to, but appeared earlier than, the paper by Davidsen et al. , Nature 269, 203 (1977). Fang also carried out research on topics including neutron stars , black holes , inflation and quantum cosmology . He soon gained international recognition, and as China began to open up in the late 1970s, he
10100-464: Was published on the journal Wu Li (Physics), Vol. 1, 163 (1972). This was the first modern cosmological research paper in mainland China. Fang assembled a group of young faculty members of USTC around him to conduct astrophysics research. At the time, conducting research on relativity theory and cosmology in China was very risky politically, because these theories were considered to be "idealistic" theories in contradiction with dialectical materialism ,
10201-460: Was very popular among the students. Fang also begin to write essays for publication in popular magazines, and give lectures on a variety of topics in universities, though usually not in USTC. Many such essays and lectures expressed his liberal view on politics, reflections on history, and criticisms on CCP dogma. He also emphasized social responsibility of intellectuals. In late 1986, Fang, together with Xu Liangying and Liu Binyan , wrote letters to
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