Revelations from Wang Ji's Advanced Deeds | Treating Loss as Gain, Transforming "Subtraction" into "Addition"

Treating Loss as Gain, Transforming "Subtraction" into "Addition"

— Interpreting "Model of the Era" Wang Ji's View on Gain and Loss

■ Xiao Shuangjian, Li Zhe

"My second life was retrieved from the hands of death by everyone around me. What appears to be the loss of a calamity is in fact the gain of rebirth." This inner monologue of Wang Ji's reflects his view on gain and loss.

The year 2013 was a watershed in Wang Ji's life. Before it, he had been precocious and tireless, with a bright road ahead strewn with flowers; after the calamity, a high-level amputation left him able to move only by wheelchair. A life-and-death ordeal placed "gain" and "loss" in sharp contrast, compelling him to reexamine fate and take the measure of life.

In all things there is both gain and loss. How much is gained? How much is lost? The reckoning between gain and loss depends on a person's faith, convictions, and moral cultivation. Ordinary people weigh gain and loss by advantage and disadvantage, calculating meticulously over immediate fortune and misfortune, honor and disgrace; Communist Party members weigh what matters by Party character (党性), keeping their original aspiration and mission always in mind. What the worldly eye sees as "loss," Wang Ji, through the transformation of ideals and convictions, converts into abundant "gain."

He lost the use of his running legs, yet gained an upright spirit. For an ordinary person, physical impairment often leads to a sinking of the will, but for Wang Ji it became an opportunity for the spirit to grow taller. At the darkest moment of his life, when others lamented and grieved on his behalf, Wang Ji saw "another side": "From now on I can free up more time for research." From that point on, his steps never ceased on the road of scientific research; his mind ranged freely across the field of high-assurance software technology (高可信软件技术). Just as a green pine, though it loses a branch, does not change its uprightness, Wang Ji, though he lost his legs, has kept his soul standing upright on the road of the charge.

He shed the complexity of administrative affairs and gained the focused concentration of deep academic cultivation. In former days, balancing administrative management with scientific research meant his energy was constantly divided among multiple demands. After his grave illness, Wang Ji directed all his energy toward technical breakthroughs and talent cultivation, settling his mind to gnaw on the hardest bones. He even continually applied "subtraction" to his life, reducing the complexity of living to its minimum, solely to obtain purer academic time — reserving all his energy for academic pursuit, forging a shield for the nation, and cultivating talent for war.

He lost the comfort of ordinary life and gained a sense of mission that brooks no delay. A life-and-death ordeal taught Wang Ji to understand the preciousness of life and the value of time. "Since this life was retrieved, I have no right to waste it." Wang Ji does not avoid pain, nor does he beautify suffering, but he refuses to be defined by his deficiencies. He treats every day as a countdown and wrings the maximum value from every minute. The words "as long as my mind works and my hands can still be used, I will not stop" are his most stubborn declaration of war against time — the charge from a wheelchair is equally worthy of acclaim.

Chairman Xi has pointed out that one must correctly regard momentary success and failure, gain and loss: do not become complacent in favorable circumstances, do not lose one's ambition in the face of setbacks, and make both favorable and adverse circumstances into assets of life rather than burdens. On the road of life, there is the joy of success, but difficulties and pressures may also arrive unexpectedly. Whether in favorable or adverse circumstances, both are scenery along the way of life and can be transformed into assets of life. The key lies in what kind of mindset one brings to the world. It is precisely because Wang Ji carries within him a world far larger than himself that those sufferings did not swallow him. In prosperity, no reckless joy; in adversity, no timid despondency. Such understanding comes from identification with one's mission, and also from the vicissitudes of life. Such a spirit has always shone in generation after generation of national defense science and technology workers.

One media outlet offered this assessment: Wang Ji is one person, but he is also a group of people on the military's scientific research front, and even more so, he represents several generations of people dedicated to strengthening and revitalizing the military. Among them, some have fallen in computer rooms, some have come to rest forever on the Gobi. What they lost was personal comfort and even their precious lives; what they won in return was the absolute security of the nation's great strategic weapons (大国重器) and the solid foundation of national rejuvenation.

The charge from the wheelchair continues. Those wheel tracks imprinted in the ground record not only a physical trajectory, but also the most vivid annotation of the word "gain and loss" by a Communist Party member.