On April 2, 2022, Yuan Longping's wife Deng Ze presented flowers for the bronze statue of Yuan Longping, and the mask she wore wrote "People are like a seed, to be a good seed." China News Network Photo
"Man is like a seed, to be a good seed."
On April 2, 2022, the bronze statue of Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice", an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the recipient of the "Order of the Republic", was unveiled at the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. On the same day, Yuan Longping's wife Deng presented flowers for the bronze statue of Yuan Longping, and wrote the above sentence on the mask she wore.
And this sentence is also the portrayal of Yuan Longping's career, the perception of life, and the immortal spiritual coordinates and life guidance he left to the world.
A year ago, at 13:07 on May 22, 2021, Yuan Longping died in Changsha, Hunan Province, at the age of 91. He is the pioneer of the research and development of hybrid rice in mainland China, and the first scientist in the world to successfully use the advantages of rice hybrids, known as the "father of hybrid rice". Until the beginning of 2021, he also insisted on carrying out scientific research work in the Nanfan Base in Sanya, Hainan.
On November 15, 2021, the burial ceremony of Yuan Longping's ashes was held at the Tang Dynasty Wanshouyuan Mausoleum in Changsha County. On the boulder behind Yuan Longping's portrait, engraved is exactly the sentence he wrote before he died: "People are like seeds, and they must be a good seed." ”
On April 1, 2022, Deng slowly placed the rice spike in front of Yuan Longping's tombstone. Xiaoxiang Morning News Photo
This year, during the first Qingming festival after Yuan Longping's departure, people came to the Tang Dynasty Wanshou Garden in Changsha County with rice ears in their hands to mourn.
At about 9:00 a.m. on April 1, 2022, Yuan Longping's family, former colleagues, students, etc. held a simple but warm memorial service at the Tang Dynasty Wanshou Garden in Changsha County.
After a minute of silence, the guests bowed three times to the tombstone and presented the ears of rice in order of queue. Deng Ze, supported by Yuan Longping's fifth brother Yuan Longxiang and his sister-in-law, walked up the steps, staggered to Yuan Longping's tomb, and slowly placed the rice spike in front of the tombstone. The stage was piled with chrysanthemums, fruits, and food offered by others.
Xin Yeyun, Yuan Longping's former secretary and winner of the Yuan Longping Science and Technology Award, delivered a speech to send thoughts, and Yuan Xuejiao, the granddaughter of Yuan's old niece and university student representative, wrote a poem and recited "A Seed, an Old Man".
Yuan Longping's family and friends sent the letter to the "Tang Paradise Mailbox". Xiaoxiang Morning News Photo
After the ceremony, Yuan Longping's family and friends spread rice in the Meritorious Square and delivered the letters to the "Tang Paradise Postbox". According to the person in charge of the cemetery, people who come to the shrine can stuff letters into mailboxes, and the cemetery will collect and store them uniformly.
On the morning of April 2, the statue of Academician Yuan Longping was inaugurated at the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Hunan Daily photo
On the morning of April 2, the statue of Academician Yuan Longping was unveiled at the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Bai Lianyang and Shan Yang unveiled red silk cloth for the bronze statue to commemorate Academician Yuan Longping.
The base of the bronze statue is engraved with Yuan Longping's handwriting - "May everyone in the world have a full meal to eat", the base is surrounded by yellow and white chrysanthemums, and the stone behind the left side of the bronze statue is engraved with the two big characters of "Daosheng".
The ceremony team presented flower baskets, Yuan Longping's wife Deng Ze, son Yuan Dingyang, academician Bai Lianyang and academician Shan Yang were arranged with ribbons for two flower baskets. The participants held flowers in front of the bronze statue in turn, bowed, and walked around the bronze statue for a week. Many people followed the gaze of Elder Yuan on the bronze statue and looked at the test field.
In the experimental field with an area of about 50 acres, Academician Yuan Longping led the team to cultivate the representative variety Y Liangyou No. 2 of the third phase of super rice, the representative variety of the fourth phase of super rice, Y Liangyou 900 and the Xiangliangyou 900 (super excellent thousand), and the annual yield of double-cropping rice was 3,000 jin per mu of the third generation of hybrid rice representative varieties "Sanyou No. 1". Every july and August, when the test field is pumping, Yuan Longping will come to see it every day, and he always says that it is uncomfortable to not go to the field for a day.
According to reports, this bust bronze statue was carved by Jiangxi sculpture artist Qian Haiyuan for academician Yuan Longping in May 1992. For 30 years, the bronze statue has been placed in the office building of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and today's "relocation" is to allow Yuan Lao, who has devoted his life to cultivating the fields and writing scientific and technological papers on the land of the motherland, and return to the place where he has his heart and mind.
Design: Yu Fei