[閒聊] 中印邊界《毛語錄》vs.《費曼物理學講義》

無意間看到這則算趣事？

來源是傳記作家 拉夫．雷頓（Ralph Leighton） （註1）
為《費曼物理學訣竅》Feynman's Tips on Physics 一書所寫的序言

https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010843981 博客來

1962年，偏遠的喜馬拉雅山區的中印未定邊界上發生了糾紛，鬧到雙方互相開火射擊，之後形成對峙，雙方一觸即發的緊張情勢持續了多年。有座孤零零設立在高坡頂上的印度軍隊前哨站，站內有一名被徵召入伍的士兵，叫做伯拉蘇不拉曼寧（Ramaswamy
Balasubramanian），透過一具雙筒望遠鏡觀察對面駐守在西藏境內的人民解放軍的動靜，他看到對方也在用望遠鏡朝著這邊觀望。出乎伯拉蘇不拉曼寧跟他同袍們的意外，那些解放軍居然拿著紅色封面的袖珍版《毛語錄》，西方人多稱之為「毛澤東的小紅書」，高高舉在手中，面向著印度前哨站揮舞示威。

　　伯拉蘇不拉曼寧當時常趁著閒暇自修物理學，他很快的就對解放軍的嘲弄覺得很厭煩，於是有一天，他有備而來的到前哨站服勤，在解放軍循例拿起小紅書揮舞時，他跟另兩位袍澤馬上各自抓起一本他帶去的三大冊，同樣是大紅封面的《費曼物理學講義》，高舉過頭，向對方揮舞。 （註2）

　　有一天，我收到當事人伯拉蘇不拉曼寧先生寄來的一封信。過去許多年裡面，我收到數百封類似的信件，都是描述費曼對人們的生命所產生的長遠衝擊。他在描述了於中印邊界所發生的「紅皮書」事件之後，寫道：「二十年之後，究竟是誰的紅皮書，仍然還有人在閱讀呢？」

　　他說得真是一針見血。《費曼物理學講義》從發行以來，已經超過了四十寒暑，現在仍然有許多人在讀，並且繼續啟發全球各地的讀者，我相信甚至連西藏地區也不例外。

　　這兒我得特別記上一筆：數年前我在一個派對上遇到麥可．高利伯，當天派對主人利用電腦螢幕，展示了圖瓦喉音歌手於現場表演所唱歌聲的諧泛音（harmonic overtone），這類活動讓舊金山附近的生活有趣了起來。高利伯原本是數學科班出身，並對物理學非常有興趣，於是我建議他閱讀《費曼物理學講義》。大約一年後，他特地騰出了六個月的時間，專心一志的把這套講義從頭到尾仔細的讀過一遍。正如高利伯所寫的本書〈初版序〉中所描述，他那一讀，最後促成了本書，跟《費曼物理學講義》新千禧年版的誕生。

所以我很高興現在全世界對於物理有興趣的人，可以研讀一套更正確、更完整的《費曼物理學講義》，而且還有本冊書做為補充讀本。看來《費曼物理學講義》這套不朽巨著在未來數十年，仍將繼續教導與啟發學生，無論他們是在紐約曼哈坦鬧區或是在喜馬拉雅高山上。

拉夫．雷頓（Ralph Leighton）

註1：拉夫．雷頓 Ralph Leighton（1949～）

美國傳記作家，也是《費曼物理學講義》作者之一
羅伯．雷頓（Robert Leighton）的兒子。

註2：《費曼物理學講義》The Feynman Lectures on Physics

由物理學家 理察．費曼（Richard Feynman 1918～1988）
羅伯．雷頓（Robert Leighton 1919～1997）
瑪修．桑茲（Matthew Sands 1919～2014）

三人合著的物理學教科書，廣為世人所知。

　　　 https://i.imgur.com/6C2RvWD.jpg　

原文：

https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/TIPS_90.html

At a lonely border post high on the Himalayan frontier, Ramaswamy
Balasubramanian peered through his binoculars at the People's Liberation
Army soldiers stationed in Tibet—who were peering through their scopes back
at him. Tensions between India and China had been high for several years
since 1962, when the two countries traded shots across their disputed border.The PLA soldiers, knowing they were being watched, taunted Balasubramanian
and his fellow Indian soldiers by shaking, defiantly, high in the air, their
pocket-sized, bright-red copies of Quotations from Chairman Mao—better known
in the West as “Mao's Little Red Book.”

Balasubramanian, then a conscript studying physics in his spare time, soon
grew tired of these taunts. So one day, he came to his observation post
prepared with a suitable rejoinder. As soon as the PLA soldiers started
waving Mao's Little Red Book in the air again, he and two fellow Indian
soldiers picked up and held aloft the three big, bright-red volumes of The
Feynman Lectures on Physics.

One day I received a letter from Mr. Balasubramanian. His was among hundreds
of letters I have received over the years that describe the lasting impact
Richard Feynman has had on people's lives. After recounting the“red-books”
incident on the Sino-Indian frontier, he wrote:“Now, twenty years later,
whose red books are still being read?”

Indeed. Today, more than forty years after they were delivered, The Feynman
Lectures on Physics are still being read—and still inspire—even in Tibet, I
suspect.

A special case in point: several years ago I met Michael Gottlieb at a party
where the host was displaying on a computer screen the harmonic overtones of
a live Tuvan throat-singer—the kind of event that makes living in San
Francisco such fun. Gottlieb had studied math and was very interested in
physics, so I suggested he read The Feynman Lectures on Physics—and about a
year later, he devoted six months of his life to reading The Lectures very
carefully from beginning to end. As Gottlieb describes in his introduction,
this led, eventually, to the book you are reading now, as well as to a new,
“Definitive Edition”of The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

Thus I am pleased that people interested in physics all over the world can
now study, with the addition of this supplemental volume, a more correct and
complete edition of The Feynman Lectures on Physics—a monumental work that
will continue to inform and inspire students for decades to come, whether in
midtown Manhattan or high in the Himalayas.

Ralph Leighton
May 11, 2005

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