1900 65438+On February 9th, Joseph Needham was born in a Christian intellectual family in England, the only child in the family. He was introverted and shy since childhood, but he grew up in an environment full of knowledge. His father taught him to write when he was very young, and also taught him carpentry, bird observation, European geography, plant classification and so on. He especially liked France, and later studied in France for a semester. French is also a foreign language he is proficient in. Needham has a wide reading range. 10 years old, he swallowed the German Friedrich schlegel's philosophy of history.

Influenced by family friends and doctor Sir John Brand-Sutton, Needham became interested in science. By watching the surgery and doing my father's surgery. After realizing his talent and interest in science, he applied to study medicine and wanted to be a doctor. 19 17 10 In October, Needham entered Cambridge University, and he actively participated in various club activities of the school, especially those related to religion. Also responsible for inviting famous scholars to give humanities lectures to medical students. These lectures covered a wide range of scientific history, especially how human thought activities led to many scientific experiments, ideas and theories, which left a deep impression on Joseph Needham. However, almost as soon as he entered school, Needham gave up the idea of becoming a surgeon. In his view, surgeons are just "sawing bones", too mechanical and don't need much intelligence. The tutor advised him to study chemistry instead, and Needham also thought chemistry was more interesting than anatomy.

Needham received his bachelor's degree on 1920. At this time, Needham lost his father. At the same time, he found the famous biochemist frederick hopkins, and Hopkins immediately invited Joseph Needham to work in his laboratory. Under his guidance and care, Needham's academic level and status have been rising, and he was promoted to a senior reader in just a few years. 1923 In the spring, Joseph Needham started dating his colleague Dorothy Mary moir. Dorothy is five years older than Needham and is a biochemist who studies muscles. The following September 13, they got married.

1924 10, the defense of Dr. Joseph Needham's thesis, Case College took the honor of "academician" as a gift, which not only gave him a dormitory in the college (that is, the famous K- 1), but also enjoyed various privileges. Less than 24 years old, Needham achieved great success.

1930, Cambridge University Press published Joseph Needham's three-volume monograph "Chemical Embryology", which further established his position in academic circles and almost certainly made him more famous. Sure enough, he was elected as a member of the Royal Society at 194 1.

1937 In August, Lu Guizhen and two other China students, Wang Yinglai and Shen, came to Cambridge University in England to study. Lu Guizhen studied under Joseph Needham's wife. Needham almost fell in love with Lu Guizhen at first sight. According to Needham's diary, they ate together in an Indian restaurant or the best Italian restaurant in Cambridge; Watch the film The Good Earth adapted from Pearl Buck's novel; Walking hand in hand by the frozen river; Vacation in Evren. 1One night in February, 938, Joseph Needham and Lu Guizhen had a close relationship at the dormitory of Case College, K- 1. At that time, Needham's wife went to visit her family, and Winchester's sentence "The couple's energy is running out" left readers with unlimited imagination. Afterwards, they smoked in bed. Under the guidance of Lu Guizhen, Needham wrote down what they smoked in Chinese in his diary-"cigarettes". This is Needham's first time to write Chinese. Needham studied his masterpiece and said, "I must learn this language." So Lu Guizhen gave him a Chinese name "Needham". Needham was anti-war because of his sympathy for socialism and his relationship with Lu Guizhen. While concentrating on completing the second book, Biochemistry and Morphogenesis, which is called "one of the truly epoch-making biological works after Darwin", he wrote articles for British newspapers, took part in the parade in London and published pamphlets supporting the people of China.

194 1 In the summer of, the British Council appointed Joseph Needham as the director of the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum in Chongqing, China, with the title of Counsellor.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/942, he made a special trip to new york to visit Lu Guizhen who was working in the United States and told her that he was about to set foot in China. During the brief meeting, Needham suddenly told Lu Guizhen an idea: Why didn't science in China develop as a whole?

1943 On February 24th, after a voyage of 10 weeks, Needham took off from Kolkata, India on an American military plane and arrived in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, that afternoon.

During the period of 1943-1946, Needham traveled 1 1 times, with a journey of 30,000 miles. As a diplomat, he has almost no restricted area. He wandered around Dunhuang in the Gobi Desert, sketching and photographing in caves, and accumulated enough information to write a book. He stopped at Dujiangyan, a dam built in 250 BC, and deeply admired this ancient project in China. He loved the adventurous life during the war, met many disrespectful people on the way, gained a deeper understanding of China's culture and history, and made him increasingly proficient in Chinese. It was during his stay in China that Needham found the tomb, an important assistant to the cause of science and civilization in China.

1948, Wang Ling was invited to Cambridge as the assistant editor of China Science and Civilization. Before Wang Ling was officially hired by Cambridge University Press, Needham also gave him half of his salary. At the same time, Needham also made friends including Guo Moruo and Zhu Kezhen. When Needham visited Zhejiang University moved to Zunyi, he mentioned to President Zhu Kezhen that he wanted to write a book about China's contribution to world civilization. After the Japanese surrendered and the political and military situation in China stabilized, Zhu Kezhen began to collect books and materials and shipped them to Cambridge. Among them, the most precious is the complete collection of Ancient and Modern Books, with a total volume of 654.38+100000 words.

1in March, 946, Joseph Needham received a telegram from his left-wing friend in Cambridge, biologist Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, inviting him to return to England to be the director of the newly established natural science department of UNESCO. Needham seems to be still complaining about Picken, so he chose to leave. However, Needham only worked in UNESCO in London and Paris for two years. Because the United States believes that Joseph Needham is closely related to him and creates obstacles to his work, it is not allowed to distribute the funds of the United Nations to any scientific organization that the United States considers to be left-wing. So Joseph Needham resigned and returned to Cambridge, returned to his K- 1, and immediately started his plan.

1948 On May 5th, Needham formally submitted the "Secret Writing and Publishing Plan of China Science and Civilization" to Cambridge University Press. He proposed that this book should be written to all educated people, as long as they are interested in the history of science, scientific ideas and technology; This is a general history of civilization, paying special attention to the comparative development of Asia and Europe; This book covers the history of science in China and how all sciences and civilizations have developed. Needham believes that China's contribution to world civilization far exceeds that of all other countries, but its recognition is far from enough. A week later, the publishing house wrote back and accepted Needham's plan. But a few weeks later, Needham revised the plan and expanded the number of books to 7 volumes (Volume 1, General; The second volume, China's philosophy; Volume 3, before science; Volume 4, China technology; Volume 5, "Needham Problem"; The sixth volume, the relationship between the development of China and the history of world civilization; Volume 7, looking forward to the future), completed in 10. Later, the publishing plan of China Science and Civilization was revised several times, and the project became more and more huge. 1 On August 4th, 954, Science and Civilization in China was published in Volume1. However, Needham did not stay in England. In late July, he and his wife went to Paris to meet Lu Guizhen, who is still working in UNESCO, and opened champagne to celebrate the upcoming publication. Later, Mr. and Mrs. Needham went to Budapest to attend an international conference on physiology. After the meeting, they went to the French town of powys and spent the most unforgettable day next to the house and cemetery where Leonardo spent the last three years of his life.

1959 was elected as the chairman by academicians of gonville and Case College.

Mr. and Mrs. Needham visited China from 65438 to 0964, and Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai personally received them.

197 1 was elected as an academician of the British Academy of Humanities, and he is the only scientist who is also a member of the British Academy of Humanities and the Royal Society.

1In the mid-1970s, Joseph Needham, who was over 70 years old, fell in love with a Canadian Chinese woman, Shi Huiyan, and had a short and passionate relationship. He even tried to stop his wife from remarrying. However, he and Lv Guizhen rejected the scholars with the "meeting of concubinage" and maintained a triangular relationship.

199 1 year, after Lu Guizhen's death, Needham wrote to this lady and two other ladies to propose marriage, but both were rejected.

1992, the queen of England awarded him the highest honor in the country-honorary companion, which is higher than jazz.

1At 20: 55 on March 24th, 995, Needham passed away.