Monument of Shiing-Shen Chern and His Wife

Nestled at the tree-shaded land of the slope next to Shiing-Shen building, Shiing- Shen Chern and his wife’s monument is located there just facing the Weijin River. The front side of the monument is a piece of black granite on a white marble like a blackboard. On it writes the Shiing-Shen Chern’s handwriting of testifying “Gauss– Bonnet–Chern Theorem” as well as the couple’s birth and death years. The cross section of the monument is a curved line triangle, symbolizing the simplest manifestation of “Gauss–Bonnet–Chern Theorem”. Like an open-air classroom, the cemetery is solemn and serene but also full of free and active academic atmosphere.

Shiing-Shen Chern and His Wife’s Monument

From 1926 when Shiing-Shen Chern started to study at Nankai University to 1937 when he taught at National Southwest Associated University; from 1985 when he was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to establish Nankai Mathematical Research Institute to 2000 when he returned to settle down at Nankai University, till 2004 when he passed away in Nankai University, during nearly a century time, Chern’s life was bound together with Nankai University for three quarters of a century.

In the fall of 1926, 15-year-old Shiing-Shen Chern was successfully admitted to the Department of Physics of Nankai University. The life of his freshman year was smooth and comfortable. During that year, he chose calculus, mechanics, Chinese, English and physics to study; meanwhile, he read a wide range of novels and books of all themes. One year later, his attitude towards study and life changed greatly. That year, the director of the Department of Mathematical Sciences – Jiang Lifu came back after giving lectures at Xiamen University. The rigorous scholarship and excellent teaching art of Pro.Jiang triggered Chern’s natural and infinite interest in mathematics which he held a promising attitude to. After 6 decades, he recalled: “It is my teacher Dr. Jiang Lifu’s guidance that leads me to the geometry.” At the same time, Jiang thought highly of this student, offering courses like linear algebra, complex analysis, differential geometry and noneuclidean geometry, which were considered enigmatic at that time.

However, Chern enjoyed studying these courses a lot, and he said all his basic knowledge about maths was taught by Mr. Jiang in person.

Shiing-Shen Chern’s college life was rich and joyful. Here he met his classmate Wu Daren and became sincere friends, even inseparable from the second year to graduation. Both of them were the top students in Department of Mathematical Sciences. Jiang Lifu attached importance to the construction of books and reference materials. Under his management, the books and reference materials became more and more abundant, which benefited Chern a lot, since he had a hobby of broad reading so that he frequently went to library to read. What’s more, he learned German and French from Duan Maolan and even could read mathematical books in German and French. When he graduated in 1930, he also had read several papers in journals. In 1929, Chern was nominated as the member of Nankai University Science Committee, and at the same time, he was the key member of the Nankai Weekly academic group. Six decades passing by, when Chern went back and saw the massive changes in Nankai University and Tianjin, he said with full emotion: “My best years were spent at Nankai University in Tianjin, which left me so many wonderful memories…Although I was at abroad before, I still constantly missed my alma mater, Nankai University who inspired my wisdom, taught me knowledge, and nurtured me to grow.”

In 1929, group photo of members of Nankai University Science Committee

(Shiing-Shen Chern was standing in the back line, the first from the left; Wu Dayou was sitting in the front line, the second from the left)

Shiing-Shen Chern has made hard decisions, striven for advancement and finally made huge success in the field of mathematics. In 1930, Chern entered Tsinghua University through examination and studied projective differential geometry from Sun Guangyuan after graduation from Nankai University. In 1932 he published academic papers and made a figure in the field of mathematics. Then he went to Germany first, studying under the guidance of famous mathematician Blaschke, and soon he acquired Doctor’s degree. Later, he followed the greatest geometrist Carten in the 20th century to do his post-doctoral research. The one year in Paris has seen Chern’s hard work day and night, and he got the essence of the Carten differential geometry, advancing in the skills of mathematics by leaps and bounds.

He taught at National Southwest Associated University after the Anti-Japanese War breaking out. During his teaching period, he set up some difficult courses mainly to give lectures about Carten’s core ideas; he also held discussions with Loo-keng Hua and Wang Zhuxi, which was high-level even in the international scale. Chern was surrounded by a group of good students such as Yan Zhida, Wang Xianzhong, Wu Guanglei, Wanghao and Zhong Kailai, who all became famous mathematicians in the future. Even Chen-ning Franklin Yang listened to his class when Yang was studying in Department of Physics. When recalling his teaching period in National Southwest Associated University, Chern once said: “I was so lucky to gather talents in China and teach them. What I appreciate most is that it was the student’s high expectation and urges that forced me to go deeper into the course.”

In the July of 1943, Chern was invited to go to the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies, where he accomplished the most proud work in his life: providing the intrinsic proof of Gauss–Bonnet theorem on high dimensional Riemann manifolds, and discovering “Shiing-Shen Chern Characteristic Class”, thus ushering in a new epoch of global differential geometry, and influencing the development of mathematics and physics deeply. Afterwards, he founded three mathematical science institutes: Former Central Mathematical Research Institute, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Nankai Institute of Mathematics, training a batch of world-renowned mathematicians. Due to his extraordinary contribution to global differential geometry, American President Ford awarded him National Medal of Science. In 1984, he won the Wolf Prize in Mathematics which can be comparable with the Nobel Prize given by the presidents of Israel. Chern was the only Chinese who had won this highest award in the world of mathematics. In 2004, Chern won the Shaw Prize that is often called Oriental Nobel Prize.

With the improvement of Sino-U.S. relations, Chern began returning to China to give lectures. In one of his poems Coming Back Home he wrote: “Wandering abroad, I spent my life on teaching and researching. All the honors and prizes past and got forgotten just like a dream. If you see the motherland clearly you will find a paradise that will be next to none in the 21th century.” Since 1978, when Chen was communicated with his friends such as Wu Daren, he expressed his desire to establish a Nankai Mathematics Institute. In the joint efforts of Wu Daren, Hu Dingguo and other people, approved by Deng Xiaoping personally, the Ministry of Education hired Chen Shengshen as director of Nankai Mathematics Institute in 1984. From that on, Chern has devoted himself to the development of Nankai Mathematics Institute and China’s mathematics. Now in the archives room of Nankai Mathematics Institute lies more than 200 letters that traveled across the Pacific Ocean, written by Shiing-Shen Chern and Hu Dingguo 30 years ago. The content varied from the introduction of famous mathematicians to the enrollment of talents, and then to raising donations, no matter how big or trivial. After preparation, the Nankai Mathematics Institute opened on October 17, 1985 in Nankai University, the same day as the decoration day of the University. Chern once said affectionately: “I made a wish to contribute the last of my wisdom and effort to my motherland and to my alma mater. My last undertaking is in China. I will work heart and soul for the development of China’s Mathematics.”

Shiing-Shen Chern at Nankai Institute of Mathematics

Shiing-Shen Chern attached great significance on Nankai Institute of Mathematics. In the beginning era, he donated all his more than 10,000 collections of books and the $50,000 dollars from Wolf Prize to Nankai Institute of Mathematics. In 1998, he again gave out $1 million dollars to establish the Shiing-Shen Chern fund. To promote the rapid development of mathematics in Nankai, Chen Shengshen proposed to Mr. Runrun Shaw to build a mathematical library in Nankai and got immediate support and help. He even wrote a letter to Jiang Zemin, the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee at that time, and expressed his hope to establish a mathematical research center building at Nankai University, which received strong support and funding from the state leaders and relevant ministries and commissions. He said Nankai Institute of Mathematics was his third child besides Chen Bolong and Chen Pu.

At the beginning of the establishment, Nankai Institute of Mathematics held the purpose of “being based in Nankai, facing the whole nation, and keeping a view of the world”. Under the guidance of Shiing-Shen Chern, Nankai Institute of Mathematics organized academic year activities. Each year, it invited well-known mathematicians from home and abroad to give speeches. In 1988, it organized a symposium on “Mathematics Outlook of the 21st Century China”. Chern put forward an idea that China should become a great state in mathematics in the 21st Century, which was then named “Shiing-Shen Chern Guess”. To fulfill this goal, our country set up a special fund called “Mathematics Tianyuan Fund” to fuel the successful development of Mathematics. With the active struggle of Shiing-Shen Chern and the Chinese Mathematical Association, the International Mathematicians Conference, which also has the reputation of “International Olympics in mathematics”, was held in China in 2002. Shiing-Shen Chern was elected honorary chairman of the conference and gave speech at the opening ceremony.

Shiing-Shen Chern gave lectures to students

In memory of the contribution Chern has made to mathematics, an asteroid with permanent number 1998CS2 was named “Chern Star”. On the 3rd December, 2004, Shiing-Shen Chern passed away. Thousands of Nankai students spontaneously held mourning, holding candles in their hands, gathering in Xinkai Lake to pray silently for the great mathematician. At the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Nankai University in 2009, Chern’s statue was completed and set in front of Xingshen building. His statue shows his deep eyes as if he is thinking about mathematical problems. In 2010, the 26th International Mathematicians Congress presented Shiing-Shen Chern Medal for the first time to commemorate this outstanding mathematician who devoted his life to mathematics research and education. On June 18, 2011, on the occasion of Chern’s 100th birthday, the monument of Shiing-Shen Chern and his wife was unveiled next to the Xingshen building of Nankai University. In accordance with the wishes of Shiing-Shen Chern, part of the couple's ashes was placed here, accompanying the Nankai Institute of Mathematics and the country he deeply loved.

Campus Life

Monument of Shiing-Shen Chern and His Wife