Walking into the High-Confidence Software Laboratory at the National University of Defense Technology, I came to understand the most moving dialectic of struggle embodied by Wang Ji: true striving to strengthen the military is not about blindly chasing heat and fame, but about giving everything in the charge forward, and actively cooling down and dissipating heat (散热) when it comes to making choices.
Previously, Wang Ji led his team to win top prizes at international software verification competitions for three consecutive years, drawing the attention of the industry and the admiration of academia, with everyone expecting him to reach the summit again and create another legend. At the very peak of that acclaim, he resolutely and on his own initiative called a halt to competition participation, in order to "reduce hollow fever and strip away superficiality (降虚热、祛浮华)" — for his team, for his research, and for his own academic pursuits.
Faced with students who could not understand, Wang Ji said firmly: "In military scientific research, mission comes first — not rankings. No matter how impressive a trophy looks, it cannot buy equipment safety, and it cannot buy battlefield victory." In his view, international competitions lean toward general academic evaluation and are removed from the actual combat needs of the troops. Rather than expending enormous energy chasing the glory of the competition arena, it is better to actively "dissipate heat" from a restless mindset, withdrawing all one's energy from the pursuit of honors and popularity and directing it toward what national defense urgently needs and what the battlefield immediately demands. In that single act of choosing, the supreme pursuit of the military researcher — "combat first, victory paramount (打仗为先、打赢为要)" — is fully revealed.
Both legs amputated at a high level, dialysis three times a week — fate gave him the lowest physical configuration, yet it could not stop him from upholding the highest standard of devotion to his country. Others urged him to rest more and travel less; he always replied with a smile: "As long as my mind can still think and my hands can still move, I will not stop charging forward."
Year after year he moved between project front lines, review sites, and teaching classrooms. After dialysis, with only a brief rest, he would immediately bend over his desk to revise diagrams, work through models, and guide students, his schedule perpetually running at overload. The more physically and mentally depleted he became, the more he understood the need to actively dissipate heat and make precise choices. Faced with a steady stream of requests for academic appearances, pointless social engagements, and redundant reviews, he declined them all and cleared them away entirely. Instead, he used the time freed up in the laboratory, and in accompanying his students.
He said candidly: "This life that the organization fought to save does not belong to me personally — it belongs to the cause of national defense. Limited energy must be used where it matters most."
Under the overall support of the institute's Party organization, he streamlined ineffective travel, optimized the rhythm of field work, and retained only those tasks with direct operational necessity. Last year he traveled on assignment across eleven cities, not to build a reputation or add luster to a halo, but solely to break through the chokepoint problems (卡脖子难题) in equipment development. In the choices made, the wasteful exhaustion of constant travel was shed, so that every unit of life's energy could be precisely applied to the cutting edge of military strengthening.
Carrying the triple mission of soldier, discipline leader, and doctoral supervisor, Wang Ji holds to this principle: "The body may have limitations; the mission absolutely has no shortcomings."
He long subjected himself to self-imposed pressure, but later grew ever more clear-minded: true responsibility is not burning oneself out in solitary struggle, but building a strong team, cultivating a strong succession echelon (梯队), and keeping the cause evergreen.
So he relied on the Party organization and the collective strength of his team, building platforms, assigning burdens, and letting go to develop talent. When honors were recommended for him, he twice voluntarily deferred: "My physical condition is limited; young people have greater potential — the stage should be left for those who come after." When students came seeking to train under him by reputation, he proactively engaged them and encouraged them to pursue national defense research: "Every step of your growth is paving the road toward the goal of strengthening the military."
From burning alone to relay succession, from individual breakthroughs to collective concentration of effort — this "dissipation of heat" at the level of responsibility is not a weakening of commitment, but an elevation of pursuit. He shed the weight of his own obsessions, let the young take up the baton of hard struggle, and allowed the cause of military strengthening to continue without end, achieving results that endure.
Half a lifetime of burning perseverance, a lifetime of clear-headed choices. Wang Ji's "dissipating heat" is a three-level self-purification: cooling the hollow fever of awards, to guard the true heart of research; reducing the overload of travel, to focus on the main business of achieving victory; releasing the pressure of responsibility's obsessions, to lift up the future of the cause.
He made me truly understand: the best kind of striving is knowing how to dispel hollow fire (祛虚火), guard one's original heart, and know what to choose and what to relinquish. Measured "dissipation of heat" — shedding superficiality, settling and concentrating strength — reveals the sincere original aspiration of a soldier, burning always and only for the strengthening of the military and service to the country.