黄万里极具中国传统士大夫的风骨,敢于一而再、再而三地“犯颜死谏”。父亲黄炎培非常了解儿子棱角鲜明的个性,他曾经送给黄万里一句座右铭:“取象于钱,外圆内方”。意思是要有原则,但待人处事有回旋余地。黄万里晚年说,他一生错误在于未遵父训。重视水文是黄万里一生治河理论的灵魂。20世纪50年代中期,他反对三门峡工程,认为“高坝拦沙”违背自然规律;90年代,他反对三峡工程,也是站在自然地理的角度,认为长江大坝拦截水沙流,将阻碍下游造陆运动,淤塞河道。三门峡1957年正式上马。除黄万里外,还有温善章等水利工作者提出不同意见,但他们没有黄万里态度那么坚决,言辞那么激烈。在一次讨论会上,黄万里面对周恩来说:“你们说‘圣人出,黄河清’。我说黄河不能清,黄河清,不是功,是罪。”当年5月,黄在清华大学校刊上发表了短 Huang Wanli great Chinese traditional literati’s style of character, dare to be again and again, “guilty of death and remonstrance ”. Huang Yanpei father very aware of the distinct personality of his son, he had given Huang Wanli a motto: “take the image of the money, the inside of the circle ”. The meaning is to have principle, but there are room for maneuver. Huang Wanli said in his later years that his mistake in his life lies in failing to follow the parental guidance. Emphasis on hydrology is the soul of Huang Wanli’s life-governing theory. In the mid-1950s, he opposed the Sanmenxia Project, believing that “high dam blocking the sand” violated the laws of nature. In the 1990s, he opposed the Three Gorges Project and also stood on the perspective of natural geography. He believed that interception of water and sand flow by the dam would impede Downland land movement, silting river. Sanmenxia 1957 formally launched. Apart from Huang Wanli, water conservancy workers like Wen Shanzhang put forward different opinions. However, they are not as resolute as Huang Wanli and their rhetoric is so fierce. At a seminar, Huang Wanli confronted Zhou Enlai: “You said,” The saints are out, the Yellow River is clear. “I said that the Yellow River can not be cleared, and the Yellow River is clear. It is not a crime and a sin.” In May of the same year, Huang was in the journal of Tsinghua University Published a short