His famous saying is:
"A human brain is just like a limb. If it is used more, it will be clever, but if it is not used, it will be useless. After mastering the memory characteristics of what you read, there is only the word diligence. "
"The real meaning of the iron rice bowl is not to eat in one place all one's life, but to eat everywhere all one's life".
Mao Yisheng (January 9, 1896—November 12, 1989) was born in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. Civil engineer, bridge expert, engineering educator, academician of China Academy of Sciences, academician of American Academy of Engineering, academician of Academia Sinica.
Mao Yisheng graduated from Southwest Jiaotong University in 1916 (called Tangshan Engineering College of the Ministry of Communications in English), obtained a master's degree from Cornell University in 1917 and a doctorate from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1919. After returning to China, he served as a professor at Tangshan Institute of Technology of Jiaotong University and a member of National Southeast University (renamed National Central University in 1928, In 1949, it was renamed Nanjing University), professor, director of engineering, president of National Hohai University of Technology, president of Tangshan University of Communications, president of Beiyang Institute of Technology, director of Jiangsu Provincial Water Resources Department, director of Qiantang River Bridge Engineering Department, acting president and dean of Tangshan Institute of Technology of Jiaotong University, general manager of China Bridge Corporation, president of Beiyang University, president of China/North Jiaotong University, and president of Railway Research Institute. In 1955, he was selected as a member of China Academy of Sciences.
Mao Yisheng has presided over the work of china academy of railway sciences for more than 3 years and made outstanding contributions to the progress of railway science and technology. Pioneers who actively advocate the application of soil mechanics in engineering.
Mao Yisheng presided over the construction of the Qiantang River Bridge, the first large modern bridge designed and built by China people themselves, which became a milestone in the history of railway bridges in China. After the founding of New China, he participated in the design of Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. In his later years, he wrote History of Chinese Bridges, Ancient Bridges and New Bridges in China and so on.