Ceng Zhaolun： Observing the global vision of the world anti-fascist battlefield

Ceng Zhaolun is one of the pioneers of China’s introduction of modern western chemistry, the founder of organic chemistry in China, one of the main founders of chinese chemical society, a famous national defense chemistry expert and military critic of the Anti-Japanese War. During the Anti-Japanese War, Ceng Zhaolun published a large number of military discourses, so as to sum up the past, evaluate the present situation and look forward to the future, inspire Chinese people’s fighting spirit in the war of resistance against Japan, and thus establish his position and influence as a critic of military issues in the intellectual circles.

曾昭抡（1937年1月27日摄）

曾昭抡1899年5月25日生于湖南湘乡，为曾国藩胞弟曾国潢的曾孙，1915年考入清华留美预备学校（清华大学前身），1920年毕业赴美留学，进入美国麻省理工学院学习化学化工，1926年获该院科学博士学位。同年夏天回国，先后任广州兵工试验厂技师、南京中央大学化学系副教授兼化工科主任，1931年任北京大学化学系教授、系主任。1937年”七七”事变爆发，北大、清华、南开三校南迁，至长沙组成临时大学，后再迁昆明改称”国立西南联合大学”。曾昭抡任西南联大化学系教授，直至抗战胜利。1945年11月，曾昭抡返北平接收北大化学系，1946年赴美国考察原子弹，1949年回到北平。新中国建立后，曾昭抡的主要任职有北京大学教务长兼化学系主任，教育部副部长兼高教司司长，高教部副部长，全国高等学校招生委员会副主任，全国科联副主席，中国科学院学部委员兼化学研究所所长，全国人大代表，全国政协委员，民盟中央常委等。1958年任武汉大学化学系教授，”文革”中不幸逝世。

1. Training anti-chemical cadres for the PLA.

At the end of 1950, the People’s Liberation Army began to establish anti-chemical arms. In 1951, the Chemical Corps School was established in Beijing (the predecessor of the Anti-chemical Command Engineering College of the People’s Liberation Army). It is urgent to train a group of technical cadres to enrich teaching and command positions. At that time, the Training Director Department of the Military Commission sent Zhao Guohui and other cadres to contact the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Education put Ceng Zhaolun in charge of reception, which was very supportive of Ceng Zhaolun. After active contact, Ceng Zhaolun entrusted four universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, to set up special training courses to train the first batch of cadres for anti-chemical warfare schools. Not only that, Ceng Zhaolun also took time out of his busy Ministry to personally teach the main courses of national defense chemistry for these cadres and guide them to do relevant experiments. From 1951 to 1953, Peking University held three training courses for chemical defense soldiers, and Ceng Zhaolun continued to teach them three courses. Since then, these students have become the backbone of teaching and scientific research in the Institute of Chemical Defense of the People’s Liberation Army and the technical cadres of the chemical defense forces. This is Ceng Zhaolun’s important contribution to the construction of the people’s army. Zhao Guohui said: "All this should be thanks to Professor Ceng Zhaolun’s great help and support for our study and further study."

Peking University Department of Chemistry, 1954 Class Anti-chemical Soldiers (originally published in "Hundred Years of Peking University Chemistry")