Members of The Quintet were scattered far and wide and mostly kept in touch through correspondence. Occasionally when they returned to Beijing they would consult with their teacher Han Nianguo, a mathematician, about maths problems, but most of the time they learned on their own. For a long studying maths deep into the night by a dim oil lamp, and each morning his nose would be black from the oil. He still remembers how he worked through the Boris Pavlovich Demidovich Exercise Book of Mathematical Analysis Problems, one problem at a time. “That exercise book was from the Soviet Union, and it contained over 4,500 problems, which were very how to solve them while working, and I would write down my solutions after I returned home.” Bit by bit, he taught himself the fundamentals of universityEnglish textbook for form-1 students, one lesson a day,” says Qian Tao. “I tried to memorise the new words and pronunciations. In the second month, I picked a maths book written in English that I wanted to read, and I started from the introduction, one sentence at a time, until I understood the words and grammar. In the third month, I was already reading the whole book.” During the nine years in the countryside, Qian Tao tilled the land, grew vegetables, tended sheep, and even worked as a barefoot doctor and a worker of a drilling crew, but he never stopped learning maths. In the late of China. In August 1977, the reinstated Deng Xiaoping mentioned in an important speech the government’s plan to “resume national college entrance examination”. The news shone a welcome ray of hope into nearly a decade of suffering endured by The Quintet. Their teacher Han Nianguo encouraged them to apply directly for postgraduate studies. He told them, “The resumption of the college entrance exam and postgraduate admission 研究生，就是為了把你們這樣的人招上來」， 更鼓勵他們跳過大學本科報考研究生。同年12 月，五人小組在恢復高考後全部考入大學。錢 濤考進山西大學數學系沒半年，便向系裡提出 報考北京大學研究生，此事在校內一石激起千 層浪：校領導覺得這年青人太自滿 —— 一個 落戶農村近10年的中學生，怎麼可能跳過大 學去考北大研究生？學校安排了高等代數和 英語兩門嚴格的考試。想不到，錢濤輕取98 分（兩門課加起來滿分為100），其後再下一 城，順利考取北大數學系研究生，更成為山西 考入北大第一人，一時轟動全省。 「你必須要有一種眼光，對 社會有自己的看法。」 回首前塵，錢濤說，農村近10年艱苦歲月對 自己影響深遠，「進入北大深造當然很重要， 但插隊時期在基礎知識方面的努力學習，以及 意志鍛鍊也很重要。那段時期養成堅持自學的 習慣，後來讀研、工作，我一直喜歡學習，不 會因到了某個位置就停下來，這都是源於當年 的經歷，一直保持求知慾，保持對新鮮事物的 學習熱情。」 「堅持」兩字說來容易，但在那段非常時期， 如何能在看似一片黑暗的前路，找到繼續前 行的動力？「你問我動力來源，其實是對社 會有自己的一些看法。」錢濤中學就曾學習馬 列主義著作以及黑格爾、康德、羅素等大師的 哲學思想，「當時就覺得這個（文化大革命）是 INTERVIEW 人 物 專 訪 當年破格考上北京大學研究生，轟動一時。 Qian Tao became the talk of the town when he was exceptionally accepted by Peking University as a postgraduate student 插隊時期錢濤邊幹農活邊自學的數學手稿 Manuscripts of maths books that accompanied Qian Tao while he was in the countryside doing farm work during the Cultural Revolution 26 umagazine | issue 07
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