Before leaving, Li Yu sent a telegram to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Since Zhang Deyi still wanted to go to London, he still took the British cruise ship.
Markov and Lyapunov came to the pier to see him off in person. Markov said reluctantly: "Your arrival has really brought a splash of color as brilliant as the aurora to my mathematics in St. Petersburg."
Li Yu said: "It is an honor for me to be invited to the Royal University of St. Petersburg. If there is an opportunity in the future, I will also invite you to visit my country."
"That would be a great honor for me as well."
Markov actually knew very little about the Qing Dynasty, only that it was very backward, but what he valued was not the strength of the country.
Lyapunov also said: "We have left Mr.
Li Yuzheng had this request and said happily: "That's great. If there are any problems in the future, I will inevitably disturb you two."
Although the two are not that famous, their mathematical skills were definitely among the best at the beginning of the 20th century.
Lyapunov smiled and said: "Why bother? From now on we will be academic friends forever!"
The whistle sounded melodiously, and Li Yu waved goodbye to the two of them.
Stockholm is very close to St. Petersburg, only more than 700 kilometers away. According to the current speed of passenger ships of 20 to 30 knots, it can be reached in a day and night.
Although I spent 4 days in St. Petersburg, it was still only about 20 days in total. If we take the sea route, we may still be drifting in the Indian Ocean at this time.
The captain was very experienced and deliberately extended the trip for a few hours, landing on time at nine o'clock in the morning.
Of course he did it on purpose. Sweden is so close to the Arctic Circle, and there is a certain polar night phenomenon. The sunrise is almost 8:30, which is too early to see anything.
Of course the sunset time is also early, and there are only less than 7 hours of sunlight every day.
If not for the fact that Russians and Nordic people like to think, there is really no way. When the electric light network was not popularized, it was really boring for everyone to live in the dark.
Fortunately, Li Yu stayed in St. Petersburg for four days and was more or less accustomed to the polar night. There was always power and lights at St. Petersburg University. Otherwise, a modern person who has grown up in a fast-paced life will really go crazy if he is faced with 17 hours of darkness every day!
He was so depressed that if someone really came to kidnap him, he might be cured of Stockholm Syndrome.
Fortunately, Stockholm has many islands and beautiful scenery. It can be called the Venice of the North. Going sailing during the day is one of the joys of life.
Li Yu disembarked at the port of Stockholm, while Zhang Deyi continued to sail west to England. The two said goodbye for the time being.
There was someone picking up the boat at the pier, but Li Yu couldn't really recognize it, and couldn't tell his location, so he had to use the same strategy he had when he first arrived at the St. Petersburg train station: wait and see!
At least Li Yu's height is still okay, 1.8 meters, just the average height of Sweden, so that he won't be invisible.
As we all know, the average height of countries in the Nordic circle is very high, especially the Netherlands, which reaches an astonishing 1.85 meters (adult males). I don’t know how it grows. Isn’t it said that you can supplement calcium by basking in the sun...
Li Yu's strategy was very successful. Not long after, he saw someone approaching him.
"Excuse me, are you Chinese?" The person asking was an old scholar in his fifties.
Li Yu replied: "Yes."
The other party said: "Are you Yu Li, oh, Li Yu?"
"Yes, I am Li Yu." Li Yu said.
"Great, luckily it's not hard to recognize you! I'm Levler, Royal Mathematical Advisor."
Li Yu immediately shook hands with him and said, "Nice to meet you. Please come and greet me in person."
In addition to their native Swedish, Swedes generally speak English very well. So Li Yu could speak English to him directly.
Sweden later produced many big bands that became popular around the world, such as ABBA, which was the only top band of its generation that could rival the Beatles. They can become popular all over the world, so naturally they sing in English.
Levler said: "I was very surprised when I received your telegram yesterday. Why was it sent from St. Petersburg?"
Li Yu explained: "I was invited by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and St. Petersburg University. It happens that I can take the railway. This can save about ten days of flight. Wouldn't it be better to arrive earlier?"
"I didn't expect you to persuade the Russians. It's really not easy." Levler said.
"Thanks to you for helping me publish the books, otherwise I wouldn't have such good treatment." Li Yu said frankly.
Levler said: "It's all your own credit! Recently we have received letters from many mathematical institutions from various places, all of them highly praised your "Fractals and Chaos". The 1,000 copies we published have long been sold out. When you came last time, I was about to discuss with you the printing of the second edition."
Although the number of publications was not large, mathematics books were always selling out, which was a rare spectacle in the early 20th century.
The reason is of course that Li Yu's chaos theory combined with the easy-to-understand and magical "carp effect" is famous all over the world.
Li Yu smiled and said: "It just so happens that I am planning to add some content this time. I have already written the manuscript on the way and can polish it for the second edition."
Levler said excitedly: "That's great! It's really great that you have the manuscript. Now there are constant letters from all over the place urging the book. Even many social science institutions and even literary groups are asking to buy this book. It's really difficult for us. I believe that the publishing house can hardly resist the pressure."
"Well, if you're in a hurry, why don't you just print it?"
Li Yu did not expect that he would be so popular. In his imagination at the time, the publication of mathematics papers would not cause the same sensation as astronomy and physics.
In fact, it is thanks to the press releases of Pu Lande, Shi Liangcai and others. They are all well versed in the essence of mass communication. They excerpted the simple and explosive parts of the paper and reported them vigorously. In addition, chaos theory itself is counter-intuitive. , very eye-catching, the "carp effect" is easy to understand, and the principles explained are extremely profound, and can be used in many other disciplines. Several waves of operations by newspapers and news agencies actually made Li Yu popular again.
It seems that it is really useful to know communication talents like them, otherwise Li Yu would not be able to achieve such a public effect.
Levler shook his head and said, "No, the first edition was published by ourselves in the name of our Royal Academy of Sciences. It was mainly for purely academic organizations. It was originally planned to be published within a year, but I didn't expect that it would be published in less than a month." Sold out. But from now on, the second edition will be signed by only you, and the number of copies will be greatly increased. According to the publisher's estimates, it will be at least thirty times that of the first edition, which is 30,000 copies. That’s all.”
Boy, that's a pretty incredible number for an early twentieth-century scholarly work.
However, considering that at St. Petersburg University, students from other majors cannot buy this book and can only hand-copy it, it does show that there is quite a market for it.
Levler continued: "We have invited several mathematicians to come here this time. We will review your new manuscript as soon as possible and then publish it. Everyone can't wait."
Li Yu said: "That would be great!"
Levler said: "Because the second edition is published by a special publishing house, it involves royalties. They will negotiate with you personally. Let's go to the palace first. The king is still waiting for us."
The two of them got on the carriage and wandered in the lazy and comfortable sunshine of Sweden. The driver was not too hasty and leisurely. Anyway, Northern Europe is in this slow pace of enjoying life.
Levler added: "You came a little later. Not long ago, the king personally awarded the Nobel Prize. The scene was a grand occasion."
"What a pity," Li Yu said regretfully, "Should Professor Lorenz and Professor Zeeman be the winners in physics this time?"
Levler said: "Yes, they are all from the Netherlands, not far away. Mr. Lorenz even spent Christmas in Stockholm before leaving."
Li Yu said: "When you say that, I feel even more regretful. It would have been better if I had come earlier."
Levler said: "It is indeed a pity, a lot of interesting things happened during this period. You know, the chemistry prize was awarded to Professor Fisher, the physiology prize and the medicine prize were awarded to Dr. Ross, there is no controversy. "
Li Yu nodded. He had heard the names of all these people, not to mention Lorenz and Zeeman. Lorenz's contribution to the transformation of relativity was too great. This time he won the Nobel Prize in Physics together with Zeeman for the Zeeman effect, which paved the way for the subsequent development of quantum mechanics.
Fisher was engaged in the synthesis of sugars and purines, and was an early researcher in the synthesis of proteins from amino acids.
Ross discovered that the source of malaria infection is mosquitoes and made great contributions to the study of infectious diseases.
The Nobel Prize was the biggest event in Sweden during this period, and was hotly discussed in the streets. Leffler and Li Yu naturally chatted more, and he continued: "I don't think you can guess the winner of the Literature Prize."
Li Yu frowned: "I really can't think of it."
Levler said: "If the awards hadn't ended, I would never have imagined that the winner of the literature award would be a historian, Monson! I don't know if you felt it when you were in St. Petersburg. Many people wrote to us to complain. Secondly, Why was the 2019 Literature Prize not awarded to Mr. Tolstoy?”
"Ah...this!" Li Yu was a little surprised. He had indeed never heard of Monson, but Tolstoy's name had long been known to his ears. He immediately asked: "Why?"
Levler seemed to have guessed Li Yu's reaction and shrugged: "The Academy of Literature awards the award. Who knows what they are thinking. It cannot be said that they cannot understand Russian. I also just learned recently that the literary award judges Mr. Wilson, the permanent chairman of the committee, appears to be very prejudiced against Mr. Tolstoy.”
Li Yu asked: "What do you think? Who should win the award?"
Levler said: "Although I don't like many of the aggressive policies of the Winter Palace, I have read 'War and Peace', 'Anna Karenina' and 'Resurrection' many times, and I definitely vote for it in my heart." Vote for Mr. Tolstoy."
It is common for scientists nowadays to like literary works. Reading famous works and poems is a regular activity in various academic salons, even if they are not literary salons.
Even Nobel himself was a lover of literature, so he wrote in his will the creation of a literary prize, which is a very romantic story from a chemist.
Of course, as an inventor of dynamite, he made a will to establish the Peace Prize, which is also a reflection of a scientist's extremely high scientific literacy.
It's just that Mr. Nobel has long since fallen asleep, and it is unknown how he will be used in future generations.
In Li Yu's era, it was normal for men in science and engineering to love literature and art. Even when one of his classmates from the physics department took the postgraduate entrance examination, the interviewer saw that he mentioned "reading many literary books" in his introduction, and he was immediately interested. The entire interview process was asking him about literature-related topics.
He was also very strange, and what was even more strange was that he passed. The reason given by the tutor is: "He has read thousands of literary works and can provide inspiration and aesthetic help for future scientific research and experimental exploration."
Well, it turns out that their structure is too big.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the re-examination is often just a process. His classmate ranked first in the postgraduate entrance examination...
Literary awards are a matter of opinion. There are still a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people.
Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature and no second in martial arts.
It can be basically consistent when applied to science. It is relatively easy to judge the size of achievements in scientific research, but it is really difficult to judge literature. It is even difficult to say the criteria for judging.
Li Yu asked curiously: "Is there a concluding report from the judges of this literary award?"
Levler just picked up his pipe and took out a portion from his bag: "See for yourself."
Li Yu turned to the report section of the Literature Award. Hey, he couldn't help laughing after reading it. The content turned out to be:
“Even those who have great admiration for many of Tolstoy’s works may ask this question: How can such a writer embody the ideal of purity? His greatest work, War and Peace, believes that blindness Opportunity plays a decisive role in major historical events in the world... He even denies religion in many works..."
The summary report reads: "Tolstoy unscrupulously tampered with the New Testament in a semi-rationalist, semi-mystical spirit, even though he was extremely ignorant of the Bible."
Li Yu was really speechless. No matter how hard he looked at it, he was just making excuses!
He even rejected Tolstoy on the subject of religion.
Tolstoy himself indeed no longer believed in religion and some absurd knowledge in his later years, and formed his own unique belief - self-improvement. Therefore, on February 22, 1901, the Russian Bishops' Conference officially announced its decision to excommunicate Tolstoy.
However, the criteria of Wilson, the permanent chairman of the Swedish Academy Literature Prize Jury, are based on religious principles and religious emotions, which denies the possibility of Tolstoy winning the prize. I wonder if he is in line with the spirit of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In fact, as early as 1901, when the first Literature Prize was held, Tolstoy was a favorite, but unfortunately he failed to win.
Once the results were announced, there was an uproar in Sweden that year. Many newspapers published articles by well-known figures in the country criticizing the Academy of Arts and supporting Tolstoy.
The famous Swedish writer Strindberg even published an article in Svenska Dagbladet saying:
"The vast majority of the members of the Swedish Academy are ill-intentioned, legalistic, and uninformed people, but for some reason they have become judges. These gentlemen's artistic concepts are as childish as children. They think that only poetry can be used, It is best if something written in the form of a rhyming poem can be considered poetry. Tolstoy has always been famous for describing the fate of characters. Since he is a painter of historical pictures, they will not think of Tolstoy as a poet. No. The reason why he won the award is: he never writes poetry!"
Hey, Li Yu didn't know what to say.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Tolstoy and Mendeleev were both undisputed top masters in the literary world, but neither could win the prize. It is really a great regret for the Nobel Prize itself.
