I am Yang Guilin, and I write under the pen name Hengxing (‘Fixed Star’). I was born in 1941 in Sanxing, Jianyang, in Sichuan. In 1960 I went to Lanzhou University to read physical chemistry, and when I graduated in 1965 I was posted to Beijing. There I worked in turn at the Beijing Pencil Factory, the Beijing No. 2 Watch Factory and the research institute of the Beijing Railway Bureau — on electroplating, surface treatment and antifreeze — became a senior engineer, and published more than twenty papers. Since I retired in 2001 I have travelled widely with my wife, taken photographs and made videos, and written my life down in poems and essays. My collected poems and prose, Hengxing Wenji, came out in 2025.
Born on 29 September in Sanxing, Jianyang County, Sichuan.
据《岁月》：「1941年9月29日，我出生在……三星场」
1948
Starts at Sanxing Primary School, aged seven.
据《恒星文集》序言「7岁念三星小学」，年份按岁数推算
1953–1957
Hefeng Middle School, after failing the entrance exam for Sanxing in 1953 and studying for another half-year.
据《岁月》
1957–1960
Jianyang High School, Sichuan.
据《岁月》：「一九五七年，我考上的《简阳中学》」
1960–1965
Lanzhou University, Department of Chemistry, reading physical chemistry. The year he arrived, Jiang Longji had just come from Peking University to lead the university.
据《岁月》：「1960年，考上兰州大学，物理化学专业，1965年毕业」
1965
Assigned on graduation — the slip said Shanghai, and after ten days’ wait he learned the post was in Beijing: the Beijing Pencil Factory, to install and run a high-vacuum coating machine imported from Britain. Also a year’s manual labour at a sewing-machine works.
据《岁月》
1970–1990
Beijing No. 2 Watch Factory — later head of the surface-finishing workshop and party branch secretary, and among the first in the Beijing watch industry to be certified engineer and then senior engineer. Replaced toxic cyanide copper plating and stripping with an ammonium-citrate process.
据献给兰大《我的工作经历》（1970–1990）；《岁月》记该厂 1972 年由三厂合并成立
1972
Marries Wu Ximing, a senior teacher at Leifeng Primary School, on 19 December. They have two sons.
据《岁月》
1978
Joins the Party, gets a rise and is named an advanced worker — ‘three pieces of good luck at once’, as he put it. The watch company sends its advanced workers on a trip to Guilin.
据《岁月》：「那年，我《入党》，《涨工资》，评为《先进生产者》，《三喜临门》」
1986–1996
More than twenty papers in journals including Watch & Clock, Environmental Chemistry and Solar Energy — see Papers. A patent application for his hydrogen-peroxide–ammonium-citrate copper-stripping process was filed in 1986 (no. 86107960); his Environmental Chemistry paper drew a postcard from the chemistry department of Universiti Putra Malaysia.
据「论著」所收原刊（专利号见《电镀与环保》1988 年原刊注）；明信片据《恒星文集》序言
1990–2001
Research institute of the Beijing Railway Bureau: antifreeze for coal wagons, spending each winter at the Pingshuo open-cast mine in Shanxi; then the SW1 and SW2 freezing-point regulators for engine coolant, in production from 1999 across the Beijing railway system.
据《岁月》与《萃英》（见「论著」册首）
1999
Attends Lanzhou University’s 90th anniversary with his wife.
据献给兰大献词
2001
Retires in November, though he is called back for a while to promote the antifreeze.
据《岁月》序言；献给兰大《我的工作经历》作「2001年10月」
2001 年后
Travels widely with his wife; takes photographs and makes videos set to music; writes his life down in poems and essays.
据《岁月》序言、《恒星文集》序言
2019
Flies to Lanzhou on 14 September for the university’s 110th anniversary.
据献给兰大《兰州大学110周年庆典》
2022–2024
Enters writing competitions: second prize in a quarterly contest run by ‘China’s Good Writing’ (his ‘Watching the Lotus at the Old Summer Palace’); an honourable mention in a literary prize in May 2022; the Huaxia Poetry Prize in October 2024.
据《恒星文集》「中华诗词应承传」「诗词争霸要争先」；二等奖的年份原文未写
2025
September: his collected poems and prose, Hengxing Wenji (240,000 characters), published by Modern Culture Press, ISBN 979-8-89349-710-6.
据《恒星文集》版权页
至今
Still writing — now assembling a trilogy, Years, Treasury and Cuiying, for a second book.
