Li Siguang (1889-1971) was a renowned Chinese geologist and the founder of geomechanics. In the 1920s, he was the first to discover Quaternary glacial relics in China and proposed the structural theory of geomechanics. He served as the Minister of the Ministry of Geology of the People's Republic of China and the President of the China Association for Science and Technology.
A native of Huanggang, Hubei, Li Siguang was originally named Li Zhongkui. At the age of 14, due to his outstanding academic performance, he was sent to Japan for study. While filling out his passport, he accidentally entered his age, "Fourteen," into the name field. To fix this, Li Zhongkui had a sudden idea: he modified the character "Ten" (十) into "Li" (李). However, "Li Si" sounded too common, so he added the character "Guang" (光) at the end. From then on, he was known as Li Siguang.
Li Siguang grew up in a very poor family with seven siblings, and his grandfather was bedridden. With his father being a low-income teacher and his mother farming alone, life was extremely difficult. As the second child, Li Siguang was very sensible despite his young age. Seeing his mother working alone, he would always feel distressed and tried every way to help her. He would get up at dawn to fill the water jars and return from the mountains with a heavy load of firewood.
Li Siguang was clever from a young age. To help his mother pound rice, he devised a method using a rope tied to the pestle's footplate, allowing him to move the pestle by stepping down and pulling the rope simultaneously. When picking lotus roots in the pond, while other children were distracted by playing, the resourceful Li Siguang would step along the leaves and carefully probe the direction of the roots to pick them accurately.
