A Salute to the “QIAN Xuesen School”of Systems Engineering

XUE Huifeng

China Aerospace Academy of Systems Science and Engineering, Beijing 100048

Abstract: QIAN Xuesen published the article Technology of Organization and Management: Systems Engineering on September 27, 1978, pointing out that systems engineering is the technology of organization and management system that can be applied in all systems. The origin, formation and evolution of the systems engineering theory accompanied QIAN Xuesen’s whole life. The systems engineering theory is the concentrated reflection of QIAN’s achievements and theory in all aspects.

Key words: QIAN Xuesen, systems engineering, systematics

September 27, 1978, a seemingly ordinary day, became unforgettable because of one man, QIAN Xuesen. His epochmarking articleTechnology of Organization and Management:Systems Engineeringwas published. The “Chinese School” (also called the “QIAN Xuesen School”) of systems engineering,which was created accordingly, like the Prometheus fire, ignited the flames of truth in the turbulent world, dispelled the mist of doubts in reductionism and awoke the people’s awareness in knowing and changing the objective world.

During 40 years, systems engineering, as a science, has been penetrating through the 21st century with many extensive academic branches as a product of the previous century. It was created in China and has greatly in fluenced the development of China as well as the whole world and humankind.

Tens of thousands of people spend their entire life in studying systems science. The researches of hundreds of thousands of people are based on the philosophical origin of the open complex giant system (OCGS). Tens of millions of people explore the collision between the reductionism and holism until they find the solution. Hundreds of millions of people in the 21st century, consciously or unconsciously, are practicing the dream of the second Renaissance caused by systematics. There are researchers, successors and practitioners of QIAN Xuesen and the systems engineering that he created in all language of civilizations, resembling a beacon that has never been extinguished and continuously shines brightly.

Chinese President XI Jinping pointed out on many occasions that the world is undertaking unprecedented tremendous changes in over 100 years. The world is at a new “crossroad” in this new era.

To straighten up the “chaotic situation” in today’s world, and open up a new page for human civilization urges us to seek the fundamental solution from the source of modern civilization,reductionism. Western Civilization has been established based on reductionism, which constantly breaks down complicated objects into simpler ones and breaks down the problems of the global situation into smaller ones in order to solve them one by one. This approach works well, and particularly has made great success in the field of natural science. However, the shortcomings become increasingly evident, i.e. the progress of individuals impair the whole interest, while the rationality of individuals causes the irrationality of the entirety. In terms of science and technology, specifically, the clear knowledge about each part does not necessarily mean the clear knowledge of the entirety.In terms of socioeconomic development, individuals are regarded as tools or machines, or a component of a giant machine by the impersonalized organization form. People are increasingly aware that depending on reductionism is impossible to solve these contradictions or eliminate the con flicts.

40 years ago, the establishment of the “Chinese School” of systems engineering is the key that QIAN Xuesen founded for humankind sustained development and sustained progress of civilizations. QIAN Xuesen’s personal experience and spirit embodied the combination of Eastern and Western cultures.

Undoubtedly, QIAN Xuesen was deeply in fluenced by his family tradition and inherited the cultural essences of the Chinese nation, and he incisively and vividly displayed the spirit of idealization, consciousness of elite and patriotism. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, many things were waiting to be done. QIAN Xuesen resolutely declined the lucrative offer from the United States, saying: “I am a Chinese,and I came to the US for learning the science and technology.My motherland needs me, and I will go back to my country one day.” Shouldering the tasks given by China and the party firmly,QIAN Xuesen explained: “I, as a member of the Chinese people, can do nothing but follow the footprints of martyrs to press ahead in my journey no matter how hard the process would be.”

QIAN Xuesen conducted considerable scient ific practice far ahead of his time during his 20 years in the USA. As one of the students of Theodore von Kármán, a prestigious aerodynamics expert, QIAN Xuesen became an important inheritor of the Gottingen School as well as one of the founders of the US missiles, space shuttle, physical mechanics and the modern think tank. The essence of the Gottingen School is to find out the physical properties of seemingly complex problems, solve the practical engineering problems by a simple mathematic method,and achieve the combination of the theories and practice and of science and technology. QIAN Xuesen inherited and promoted all of them going forward. In 1955 when QIAN Xuesen returned to China, Theodore von Kármán told him “you’ve already surpassed me in academic. “

After QIAN Xuesen came back to China, he spent 28 years in committing to China’s space industry and national defense technology. He was not only the planner, but also the leader and doer. He promoted China’s missile industry grow out of nothing and from weak to strong, shortening the missile development process for at least 20 years. He promoted China’s space industry from the missile age to the space age, making Chinese voice echo in the vast space for the first time. He has promoted the research and exploration of manned space flight and made the critical theoretical and technical preparation for the later success.

QIAN Xuesen summarized his 20 years’ basic research in the US, 30 years’ practice in China’s space industry and 30 years’ academic research in his later years and established an ideological framework of systematics by combining the Western reductionism and Eastern holism. This is a systems engineering ideology with both Chinese characteristics and universal scienti fic sign ificance. It has formed a complete system for systems science and technology, which encourages the research of open complex giant system (OCGS), considering application research of the social system as the main target. As QIAN Xuesen said,this sign ified a leap frog development for people knowing and changing this world. In 1991, QIAN Xuesen was awarded the title of the “National Outstanding Contribution Scientist”. At the awarding ceremony, he said: “All the programs of ‘Atomic Bomb, Missile and Satellite’ are based on the mutual theories.What I did was only to put the mutual technologies that have been proved practicable into application. I should do this as long as our country needs and it is not a big deal. Systems engineering and the overall thinking are my life pursuit. Its significance could go further beyond my contributions to China’s space industry”. He even called the systems engineering and the overall design department as the “Chinese invention”, the “unprecedented approach” and the “basis of China”.

The life of QIAN Xuesen demonstrated that systems engineering was not created all of a sudden. The implementation of space and national defense engineering in the Western world and China over the past 70 years are the practical basis of systems science. The Dialectical Materialism created by Marx and Engels for 150 years is the philosophical basis of systems science. The thought and philosophy in the Pre-Qin Period and ancient Western over the past 2500 years are the idealistic basis of systems science. The “Chinese school” of systems engineering, which witnessed tremendous historic changes, conceived the enlightening ideological breakthroughs and embodied the unprecedentedly great creations, is the fruit of wisdom we have obtained at a great cost.

40 years ago, QIAN Xuesen and another economist proposed two economic reform plans to the top decision-makers.QIAN’s proposal was chosen eventually. The concept of the overall design department was not widely recognized and accepted then. However, decades later, the reform deepening leading group of the central government made the decisions that coincide with QIAN Xuesen’s assumptions. The central government began to pay unprecedented attention to the ideology of systems engineering. The Chinese President repeated stressed that “Reform and opening up is systems engineering”,“pay more attention to the systematic, integrity and coordination of the reform”, “the implementation of the innovation-driven development is systems engineering”, and the “promotion of military-civilian integration development is systems engineering,and systems science, systems thinking and systems approaches should be well utilized to solve problems”. The “Chinese School” of systems engineering has been proved for its scientificity and truthfulness, showing openness and epochal character.

The “Chinese School” of systems engineering created by QIAN Xuesen will essentially play a winning role in the current period and take the lead in this era for the inclusive theories,pioneering theoretical insight and the epoch-marking theoretical contributions. It was originated in China but bene fits the whole world, goes beyond the past days and will have an insight into the future, bringing benefits to all the people and the future generations. A member of the foreign press said: “As a great scientist, QIAN Xuesen is a representative of the 20th century;and as a great ideologist, he belongs to the 21st century”.

The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation needs theoretical thinking. Likewise, knowing and changing the world needs strong ideological support. The application and development of systems engineering has great potential, a deep historic background and incomparable practical advantages. The “Chinese School” of systems engineering will surely play an irreplaceable role in seeking bene fits for the people, seeking the rejuvenation for the Chinese nation and seeking great harmony for the world with its unique historic logic, time-space logic, sole theoretical logic and special value logic.

QIAN Xuesen believed that human civilization has been at a critical point of quantitative change to qualitative change, and a new civilization transformation is coming which is the second leap that was brought by systematics. The basic process is: the bottleneck in socio-economic development forces mankind to produce a new ideological and cultural revolution, which then triggers a new scientific revolution, technological revolution,industrial revolution, and social revolution, until another bottleneck appears and a new Renaissance is induced. QIAN Xuesen believed that China will play the role of the main battle field of the second Renaissance and push forward the fifth, sixth and seventh industrial revolutions to a deeper extent, thereby eliminating the “three major differences” and realizing a “leaping forward of the whole social pattern”. He assumed that great world harmony will be achieved by about 2300. By that time, physical labor will be greatly reduced, people dedicate their effort to all mental or creative labor, human cultural development will be unprecedentedly accelerated, and the “realm of necessity” will be transformed to “realm of freedom” as Engels said more than 100 years ago. This will lead to the deeper integration of the world economy, pushing it towards the direction of political integration. This is a long process, but it must be a higher stage of the “community of shared future for mankind” and the only way to the world harmony.

QIAN Xuesen said, “Space flight is a great event in the history of science. Before that, human beings observed and studied nature on the Earth. In the future, we can study the nature and the universe from a new standpoint, which will inevitably lead to a period of grand scientific development and great creation.” It means that many of the original models will be subverted when we think about the human development from the perspective of space. From the land to the ocean, from the ocean to the sky and from the sky to the space, people are constantly extending upward the development in all fields including politics, economy, culture and ecology. Therefore, space flight is not only an industry, but also a window to overlook the world,explore the universe, and promote human civilization in a new era. The US Administration has proposed a return to the Moon as its permanent space station and a springboard for manned landings on Mars. Today’s space flight, like the voyage hundreds of years ago, is an essential historical result for human beings to explore the unknown world and expand their living space.It will definitely change the world’s political layout, geopolitical structure, social patterns, and profoundly affect the direction and process of technological development and the civilization progress.

With the publication of the articleTechnology of Organization and Management:Systems Engineering, QIAN Xuesen gradually extended the basic principles of space systems engineering to broader areas of socioeconomic development. The two most important contributions are: firstly, in the ideological and theoretical level, he promoted the dialectical unity of holism and reductionism, and created systematics; and secondly,in terms of methodology and technology, the “meta-synthesis from qualitative to quantitative” is proposed as a practice form of the overall design department for socioeconomic development. In the application of systematics, the system will be broken down as a whole, and then integrated into an entire system after research to achieve the emergence of the system as a whole, in order to study and solve problems from the whole picture ultimately. Systematics absorbs the advantages of reductionism and holism and also makes up for their respective limitations. It goes beyond the reductionism and also extends the holism. The trend of everything is to develop to its extremities if we follow the rules, but it will turn in the opposite direction after the extremities are reached. The development and application systematics will surely stop the trend of “dividing the whole system into increasingly smaller pieces”, which will provide Chinese solutions and wisdom to solve the problems of inequality,imbalance and unsustainability in today’s world.

QIAN Xuesen said, “As a scientist, I live for serving the people; people’s satisfaction with my work is the highest reward for me.” He paid close attention to the “old revolutionary base areas, areas inhabited by minority nationalities, remote and border areas and poverty-stricken areas” and was dedicated to improving the living standards of the people living there. In his letter, QIAN Xuesen said that the Western region was the potential of China’s development, and new blueprints should be developed for the development of Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other western regions, desert areas and plateau areas. He also predicted that the sixth industrial revolution, which is characterized by the subversive use of solar energy, would occur not primarily in wealthy cities, but in poorer fields, forests, grasslands, coastal areas and deserts, and he attached great importance to this revolution as he believed that it would eliminate the “differences between the agriculture and industry, cities and countryside, mental and manual labor”.“I wish that everyone on this planet has suf ficient food, clothing,and comes out of the mountains to serve the people despite the hardships.”QIAN Xuesen’s scientific thinking and scientific spirit have been closely integrated with the fate of the working people.

China Aerospace Academy of Systems Science and Engineering (CAASSE) is a research institute named after systems engineering, which QIAN Xuesen expected 30 years ago. It is an important inheritor of the “Chinese School” of systems engineering and the first practitioner of QIAN Xuesen Think Tank. More than 30 years ago, QIAN Xuesen created the “Systematics Seminar” for a long time in the Institute 710, one of the predecessors of CAASSE, exploring the establishment of systematics. Under the guidance of QIAN Xuesen, Institute 710 created many first records in Chinese history. It was the supporting institute of Huafeng Computing Center, the first largescale computing center in China. It was the first connected to the international Internet in China, Beijing-Vienna Satellite Data Line, and built China’s first nationally linked computer network.The experimental communications satellite and the microwave measurement and control system successfully developed by the institute have won the special prize for national scientific and technological progress. A number of significant decisions and recommendations were proposed, including manned spacecraft programs and macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. In the 1980s, the Premier of the State Council gave instructions on the results of the “forecast annual economic development achievements” by the Institute 710: “we fully af firmed the work of Institute 710 and comrades involved in economic models,and the relevant parties should give strong support to them in the future.” The glorious historical achievements have firmed up the position of the CAASSE as the base of systems engineering theory, practice and innovation as well as the development pacesetter.

In this new era, the central government, with ambitious visions, has further upgraded the strategic position of systems engineering in the national governance system and entrusted CAASSE with the responsibility to construct the QIAN Xuesen Think Tank, to support the space industry and serve national development, and to promote the construction of the civilmilitary integration industry platform as a system integrator.Its primary mission is to “construct the QIAN Xuesen Think Tank”. We should firmly uphold the systems engineering, the“basis project” of the country, build an overall system integrator think tank and play a key role in the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity. CAASSE is developing through inheritance and making innovations in practice,and has established the most significant-ever position for the“Chinese School” of systems engineering by “consolidating the soul, grasping the outline and tracing back to the origin and the source”.

CAASSE firmly keeps attached to “integrated emergence”,the soul of the systems engineering, that is, when individuals interact and form a whole, some new attributes or laws are born in a “bursting’ and “fusion” manner at a higher level through the distributed, self-organized and adaptable selection and elimination. In terms of scienti fic and technological innovation, it is necessary to present the characteristics of factor emergence -system emergence - pattern emergence, and shift the concept of “meeting the demand” to “designing the demand” and the“overtaking at bends” to “overtaking in another lane”.

When talking about the theoretical guidance of socialist modernization construction, QIAN Xuesen said: “Feeling the stones to cross the river does not always work. To make fewer mistakes and avoid major mistakes, we must have foresight,which is backed up by the systems engineering.” This has to rely on the overall design department to carry out the overall planning, overall deployment, overall coordination and overall integration, and integrate logical thinking advantages of machines with the imaginative thinking and creative thinking advantages of humans. In other words, the systems engineering will summon the mental resources from all aspects, reconcile all kinds of contradictions, and ultimately realizing the comprehensive promotion from un-satisfaction to satisfaction.

The key for systems engineering to obtain the capability of“building up the optimal whole with the parts which are not optimal” is the wisdom. This requires the cross-domain, crossindustry, cross-department, cross-system and cross-hierarchy integration, the active absorbance of all the outstanding achievements of civilization created by the mankind, learning the fruits from the outside world while never neglecting the home origin and creating the best system by holding firmly to the true self and making innovations.

The so-called overall integrator think tank is to create methods and tools for supporting all kinds of think tanks. China still lags behind in adequacy of scienti fic and effective methods or tools. The “six systems and two platforms” of QIAN Xuesen Think Tank constructed by CAASSE, i.e. think-tank system, data intelligence system, network and information system, model system, expert system, decision-making support system, machine platform and command and control platform, enable the multi-level escalation of data – information –knowledge – intelligence – wisdom, solve open complex giant system (OCGS) problems, answer “Chinese questions” with“Chinese theory” and provide the “Chinese solutions” with“Chinese wisdom”.

The theoretical system, technical tools and practical knowledge of systems engineering will surely promote the passing down of wisdom from generation to generation, guarantee the endless development power sources and ignite the brilliance of civilization. Let us unit all possible forces, apply systems engineering to observe, interpret and guide the times, make more innovations while holding firmly to true self in the reform, learn the advanced experiences by opening up and ceaselessly promote the “Chinese School” of systems engineering towards a new height.