Darwin

Author: Li Zunyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: We are delighted to recommend the "Giant Biographies Series" to young friends. At the turn of the century, having such a fine series accompany you is a joy in wisdom. We believe that from the footsteps of these giants and masters, you can learn how to properly handle success and failure, comfort and hardship, joy and pain, smoothness and tribulation, understand how to face life, how to learn to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, how to shape oneself, and how to shape the future.
Principal of Peking University, Secretary Zhao Yulin
Principal of Tsinghua University, Secretary Zhao Qinggang
The principal of Tianjin Nankai Middle School, Kang Xiuyan
Each great figure with global influence holds a deeply moving story within them. Their rich experiences and life journeys, their spirit of struggle and elements of success, their character for pursuing excellence and their ability to seize opportunities, undoubtedly have a tremendous enlightening and educational effect on today's youth.
Principal of Fudan University, Cao Tianren
Giant humans are the elite, they have made outstanding contributions to the progress and civilization of human society. Their spirit of struggle and extraordinary achievements are deeply admired by people, becoming models for others to learn from. Giants are human, not gods; they come from ordinary people yet surpass them. Their lofty ideals and the belief that they wish to benefit the motherland and humanity are the driving force behind their relentless efforts and fearlessness of difficulties.
Principal of Tianjin Nankai Middle School, Kang Xiuyan
Carefully reading this series of books is like seeing their appearance, speech, and actions, and feeling their ideals, beliefs, aspirations, and moral character. This will help you learn how to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, and how to build a career.
Principal of Fudan University, Cao Tianren
Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1909, in Shrewsbury, England. His grandfather and father were both renowned local physicians, and the family hoped he would inherit their profession. At the age of 16, he was sent to the University of Edinburgh by his father to study medicine. However, Darwin had always loved nature, especially hunting, collecting minerals, and gathering plant and animal specimens. Even after entering medical school, he frequently went into the field to collect specimens. His father considered him "idle" and "unproductive," and in anger, sent him to Cambridge University in 1828 to study theology, hoping he would become a "noble clergyman." Darwin grew deeply frustrated with the theological doctrines of creationism taught at the theological college. He still spent most of his time attending lectures on natural sciences, self-studying extensively on natural science books, and enthusiastically collecting specimens of insects and other plants and animals, filled with a strong interest in the mysterious natural world.
One day in 1828, in a forest outside London, a university student was walking around an old tree. Suddenly, he noticed insects moving under the peeling bark and quickly peeled it off, discovering two peculiar beetles crawling rapidly forward. The student immediately grabbed them both with both hands, excitedly examining them. Just then, another beetle leaped out from the bark, and the student, unprepared, quickly hid one in his mouth and reached for a third. Focusing on the strange beetles in his hands, he proudly admired them, completely forgetting the one in his mouth. The beetle in his mouth couldn’t stand it and released a pungent venom, stinging his tongue painfully. Only then did he remember the one in his mouth and spit it into his hand. Ignoring the pain in his mouth, he walked proudly to Cambridge University. This university student was Charles Darwin. Later, to commemorate the first beetle he discovered, it was named "Darwin."
In 1831, Darwin graduated from Cambridge University. He abandoned the lucrative clergy career and remained devoted to his natural science research. That same year, in December, the British government organized a global expedition on the HMS Beagle. Recommended by others, Darwin embarked as a "naturalist" at his own expense, beginning a long and arduous global expedition.
Whenever Darwin arrived at a new location, he conducted thorough research, interviewed local residents, sometimes hiring them as guides, and climbed mountains and rivers to collect mineral and plant specimens, dig for fossils, and discover many new species not previously recorded. He collected grain and rock specimens during the day and meticulously recorded his findings at night.
On January 1, 1832, the HMS Beagle docked at Santiago Island in the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic. The sailors went to study ocean currents, while Darwin and his assistant, with backpacks and geological hammers, climbed the mountain to collect rock specimens. During the survey, Darwin pondered a question all day: how were the strange flowers and trees in nature, and all living things, actually produced? Why did they change so much? What was the connection between them? These questions became increasingly profound in his mind, gradually leading him to doubt the theory of creationism and the doctrine of species immutability.
By late February 1832, the HMS Beagle reached Brazil. Darwin went ashore to survey and proposed to the captain that he climb the Andes Mountains in South America. When they reached an altitude of over 4,000 meters, Darwin unexpectedly discovered shell fossils on the summit. He was greatly surprised and thought, "How could shells from the sea end up on a mountain?" After deep reflection, he finally understood the concept of tectonic uplift. Darwin's mind was agitated, and his understanding of his hypothesis deepened: "Species are not unchanging but vary in response to different objective conditions!"
Later, Darwin crossed the Pacific with the ship, passing through Australia, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to England in October 1836. During the five-year global expedition, Darwin accumulated a vast amount of data. Upon returning, he organized this data, conducted further research, and consulted numerous books to find evidence for his theory of biological evolution. In 1842, he drafted a brief outline of "On the Origin of Species."
In 1859, after 20 years of research, Darwin's scientific masterpiece, "On the Origin of Species," was finally published. In this book, Darwin clearly proposed the theory of "evolution," explaining that species are constantly changing, evolving from lower to higher, from simpler to more complex. The publication of this work established biology on a completely scientific foundation, overthrowing the theories of creationism and species immutability with a new evolutionary perspective. "On the Origin of Species" is a representative work of Darwin's evolutionary theory, marking the formal establishment of the theory. The publication of "On the Origin of Species" caused a sensation in Europe and the entire world. It severely shook the foundations of theocracy, and both the reactionary church and feudal court officials flew into a rage, attacking Darwin's theory as "blasphemous" and "offending the divine right of kings," degrading human dignity.
In contrast, scholars like Thomas Huxley actively promoted and defended Darwinism, pointing out that the theory of evolution broke the chains of people's minds, liberating them from the constraints of religious superstition.
Immediately after, Darwin began writing his second major work, "On the Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication," presenting irrefutable facts and rigorous scientific arguments to further elaborate his evolutionary theory. He proposed important concepts such as the variation and inheritance of species, the struggle for survival and natural selection in biology, and published this work quickly.
In his later years, despite his frail health, Darwin persevered with astonishing determination, continuing his scientific research and writing, and successively published many works, including "The Descent of Man." Darwin himself considered his scientific writings to be "his main joy and the only work of his life." Additionally, important scientific achievements directly from his travels included his famous "Diary of a Naturalist," "Geology of the Beagle," and "Zoology of the Beagle." Among his works, "On the Origin of Species" holds special historical significance, demonstrating the gradual development of Darwin's evolutionary theory and the theory of natural selection. The publication of "On the Origin of Species" was a major event of global significance, as it marked a profound change in the views of most educated people in the 19th century regarding the biological world and humanity's place within it. The publication of "On the Origin of Species" provoked fierce attacks on Darwin's theory from creationists and scientists with teleological tendencies (who were the majority), while also sparking corresponding struggles to defend Darwinism. Apart from Darwin himself, progressive naturalists actively participated in this struggle, becoming fervent advocates of Darwinism everywhere.
On April 19, 1882, this great scientist passed away due to illness, and his remains were buried beside Isaac Newton, expressing the deep respect people had for him.