You can’t take money too seriously.

In the eyes of some people, Yuan Longping seems to be very rich, but he is a scientist receiving a national salary. His total monthly income, including salary and subsidies, totals more than 4,000 yuan. He cheerfully said that the income was not low and was enough for me to spend, so he donated almost all international awards to the Agricultural Science and Technology Award Foundation named after him to commend and support those who have contributed to agricultural scientific research. In addition, he also contributed to education.

His view on money is that he is not stingy and not extravagant. In Yuan Longping's view, the amount of money is nothing more than a number. He said, "Money is necessary, we need to live and survive. Without money, we cannot live without food." But money is enough for daily living expenses, and savings are enough. You can't take money too seriously. If you value money too much and are blinded by money, you will easily lose yourself and become a selfish person who is indifferent to society and others. If people become slaves to money, what's the point of living?

Yuan Longping has a thorough understanding of life, money, status and even family. He has always been stingy with himself, but very warm-hearted and chivalrous towards others. He will do his best to help others whenever he can. He is a doctoral supervisor and has mentored many doctoral students, one of whom is from a rural area and has a difficult family life. Once, the student called him and said that his father was seriously ill and was in the hospital and needed money urgently. He took great pity on the student and gave him two thousand dollars from his salary.

Reply to a blind child.

As a famous scientist at home and abroad, Yuan Longping has naturally become an idol in the hearts of people, especially young people, and receives many letters every year. Once, he received a letter from a blind child in Shanghai. The letter not only expressed respect for him, but also revealed the child's confusion and confusion about the future. Reading the children's sincere letters, Yuan Longping was deeply moved. He immediately spread out the paper, picked up the pen, and wrote passionately:

Life is beautiful, our world is beautiful, and it will become more and more beautiful. good. Although you can't see it, you can feel it in your heart. Grandpa, the uncles and uncles around you are caring about you and helping you. You are a child with ambitions and ideals. Study hard and you will have a brighter future than others when you grow up. I was wondering if you had heard the story of this great musician. Although blind, this great composer worked hard since he was a child and created beautiful movements on the keyboard of the piano, making music accompany mankind to an epic state of infatuation. Work hard, son. Although you are blind, you have a bright future.

It can be seen that Yuan Longping's reply to this letter is full of true feelings. Yuan Longping was able to take seriously a letter from a distant place he had never met before, and wrote an emotional and sincere letter. From this, it is not difficult for us to understand how kind-hearted this scientist is, how strong his sense of social responsibility is, and how beautiful his sentiment and personality are.

Working as a consultant for tabloids

On the afternoon of August 21, 2001, a reporter from "Getting Rich Express" walked into Yuan Longping's office. Yuan Longping warmly greeted the reporter to sit on the sofa, and asked his secretary to make tea for the visitor and hand him cigarettes. He knew that the visitor was a fellow from Jiangxi and a reporter from a practical newspaper serving rural areas and farmers. He disseminated the Party's policies that benefit farmers to farmers and provided them with information and operational technology. The direction is right, farmers like it. Only by persisting for a long time can newspapers have vitality.

He said: At present, the life of farmer friends is not very rich. Quite a few farmer friends are eager to get rid of poverty and become rich, but they cannot find a way for the time being. You senior staff have a heavy burden on your shoulders. It is said that the price of "Getting Rich Express" is less than 50 yuan a year, and less than a pack of Meique cigarettes a day. I think farmer friends can afford it. Your newspaper is for the poor and disadvantaged, so you are destined to be poor too. They are also a vulnerable group in the media. At this stage, this is normal, but not quite normal. In my opinion, we cannot underestimate the poor. Chairman Mao has a famous saying: The humble people are the smartest, because the rich and urbanites are supported by hundreds of millions of poor people.

When he realized that the reporter had traveled thousands of miles to represent the newspaper on a hot day to ask him to be a newspaper consultant and to write an inscription, he readily agreed: Okay. Anyway, I have more than 60 titles, so one more doesn’t hurt. However, having too many titles can become tiring and becomes a burden. But your newspaper is for farmer friends. I am willing to be a consultant without any military rank.

Then, he leaned on the table and wrote two words on the white paper seriously: I wish the farmer friends will get rich soon, and I wish "Wealth Express" a better future.

Subsequently, at the request of reporters, Yuan Longping and the visitors took a group photo on the steps in front of the office building.

A well-known scientist at home and abroad has resigned many times and shed many famous titles, but he happily serves as a consultant for an obscure tabloid. The story quickly spread as a legend.

The richest and poorest people in China

People close to Yuan Longping said that Yuan Longping was dressed casually and did not pay attention at all.

For a while, his desire to shop was very strong. Every Friday afternoon, he would go to the mall to shop. But he has a quirk. He only buys cheap things and is not interested in expensive things. One day, he and his wife Deng Zhe were shopping and saw shirts discounted to 10 yuan a piece in a container. He said it was too cheap. Add 2 yuan, 12 yuan each. The salesperson smiled and said, you are a strange gay. If someone wants something at a bargaining price, you just increase it, being unreasonable and unreasonable. He answered with a smile and bought more than 10 yuan in one go. This shirt is nice so it's easy to wear when going to the fields. Don't worry about getting dirty. He said to his wife with a smile. Deng Zhe, who was familiar with life habits, didn't say much and just smiled.

The most expensive suit he wears will not cost more than 800 yuan; it is impossible for him to buy leather shoes that cost more than 200 yuan. He was wearing these expensive luxury goods, such as Italian old man's head and Crocodile brand, and he felt uncomfortable and uncomfortable. However, an authoritative domestic evaluation agency reported that Yuan Longping is worth more than 100 billion yuan. Therefore, in terms of personal material wealth, apart from the wisdom and knowledge in his head, Yuan Longping is indeed the richest and poorest person in China.

The richest and the poorest people are indifferent to themselves, but they are extremely generous to society and have a great sense of worry. So far, he has donated $125,000 of the World Food Prize to the Science and Technology Awards Foundation he launched to help newcomers.

Renovation costs money, so why waste it?

Due to work needs, the college decided several times to give Mr. Yuan a larger office and decorate it, but Mr. Yuan disagreed and said that this office is quite good. I'm used to it, I have feelings for it. Besides, decoration costs money, so why waste it. We couldn't beat him, so we had to forget it. He is the director of Yuan Longping's National Hybrid Rice Engineering Technology Research Center and earns tens of millions every year. Logically speaking, it is reasonable to build a larger and more decorated office for public and private purposes, but he just doesn't agree, which makes people suddenly realize it after they didn't understand it at first. This is Yuan Longping's true nature. The plum blossoms are noble and pure, and their fragrance comes from the bitter cold.

Riding a motorcycle to the experimental field

Yuan Longping has tens of millions of dollars in scientific research funding, but lives an extremely simple life.

As a long-term habit, he likes to go to the ridges of the fields. Whenever he has time, he goes to the experimental fields to observe and breathe in the atmosphere of the fields. If the success of his career has brought any changes to his life, it is that starting in the 1980s, his means of transportation to the experimental fields changed from bicycles to motorcycles. He thought it was light and fast. Unexpectedly, playing motorcycles and racing cars became a major pleasure in his life.

The seedlings in the ground are withering, heading, blooming and bearing fruit. He got on his motorcycle, rushed to the road, turned onto the path, and slid up the ridge. His vigorous figure flashed in the green or golden rice fields. Over the past ten years, he has replaced eight or nine motorcycles of different brands. Now, although he is over 70 years old, he still often rides his motorcycle around the fields.

At the end of 2001, with the persuasion of a friend, Yuan Longping bought a Sail family car. A friend told him that riding a motorcycle is like iron wrapped in meat, while driving is like iron wrapped around meat. Driving is safer. He is eager to learn to drive and feels good about it. Sometimes, he drives the car to the edge of the field. He also smiled and said that he was going to take a driver's license test.

A person who is easy to negotiate when it comes to money

One day in early December 2001, Yuan Longping had just finished his invited visit to Venezuela and flew to Hong Kong to attend the ceremony of conferring an honorary doctor of science by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. . Often, he doesn't wear a tie at all. In order to attend formal occasions, he went shopping with his peers to buy ties. His companions all suggested that he buy a piece of gold for his tie. He thought it was too expensive and refused to buy it. He took his companion to the stall and bought a 100 yuan tie. He took the tie, tried it on his chest, smiled and said:

It looks good. How about it? Full of energy. This is called high quality and low price. Not much worse than famous brands.

Come, come and buy.

No, no, of course Mr. Yuan? With different identities, even the worst things you wear have become famous brands. We can't do that, and we have to rely on famous brands to support the scene.

Seeing that his companions were unwilling to buy, he had no choice but to buy some himself. He joked, Oh, that’s it. If you don’t buy it, you won’t be willing to pay. I am a generous Lao Yuan. How about giving someone a free one?

At that time, Yuan Longping’s third son and third daughter-in-law were both studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. After hearing about this, they bought a Jinli Lai tie on the street and tied it for Dad at night at the hotel where he stayed. They asked Dad to buy this one when he attended the ceremony tomorrow, but the next day he tied the one he bought at the street stall and went to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Afterwards, he left the tie bought by his wife to his son.

Some people may say that spending your own money hurts, but spending public money is different. This is a bad statement! It should be said that he is more stingy with public money than with his own money. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. On February 25, 2006, he flew to Beijing to kick off the annual Two Sessions on March 3. Before leaving, he told the people who bought the tickets with a serious face:

Don’t buy first class, only economy class. Even if I bought first class, I still have to refund it.

It turns out that a comrade who bought a plane ticket once considered that he would work for several days and bought a first-class cabin in order to rest comfortably on the plane. Before boarding the plane, he found out that it was first class, so he forced his secretary to switch from first class to economy class. After getting on the plane, there was an empty seat in the first class cabin. The flight attendant knew him well and respected him, so she invited him to the first class cabin several times. Since it didn't cost much, he went. Afterwards, his colleagues laughed at him for flying first class for free. He said it was a pity to waste resources when they are empty.

The director of the center, Yuan Longping, is very stingy about spending money on flights, and the approval fees are even more stingy. When the center was renovating and laying floor tiles for the molecular laboratory building, the manager submitted a shopping list to him. When he saw that a 600x600 floor tile cost 50 yuan, which was too expensive, he asked carefully what was going on. The manager replied that chemical solutions are often used in experiments in the molecular laboratory building, and this kind of floor tiles are acid-resistant, alkali-resistant, corrosion-resistant, anti-slip and made of different materials, so they are expensive. Yuan Longping agreed to purchase.

Farmer Mi Bodhisattva

Cao, born in 1960, is a farmer in Tashui Village, Huatang Town, Beihu District, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province. He suffered a lot as a child because he was born in an era of food famine. Since the spring breeze of reform and opening up warmed the earth, Cao, who has an active mind, took the lead in planting hybrid rice in the village. The grain output of his family's responsible fields has been bumper every year. In addition, his vegetables and fruits were better than others, and he cultivated new varieties of seedless bitter melon. After the 1990s, he left the farm work to his wife and switched to beekeeping, and his pocket gradually bulged. Soon, he was commended by the Chenzhou Prefectural Committee as a model of getting rich through science and technology.

With gratitude and respect for Yuan Longping, he came up with the idea of ????carving a white marble statue for Yuan Longping at his own expense. In order to get Yuan Longping's photo, he wrote a letter to Yuan Longping. After receiving Cao's personal letter, Yuan Longping asked his colleagues to reply. Yuan Longping said in his reply that in my opinion, the wishes of you and the farmers are more glorious than the Nobel Prize. I appreciate your kindness, but I should also make some contribution to the people and the country. So please don't waste your money on carving any stone statues for me. I really can't stand your kind of love. Please respect my opinion and forgive me for not sending you a photo.

Later, in order to show his respect for the Rice Bodhisattva, Cao spent 50,000 yuan of his savings and asked Yuan Longping to carve a life-size white marble statue. When the project was completed, the villagers set off firecrackers, danced Yangko and presented peaches symbolizing longevity and blessings in front of the statue. In the eyes of the villagers, Yuan Longping is the rice Buddha of Enze Village. Yuan Longping was very unhappy after hearing this. But later, when I heard that the Cao family was in trouble due to natural disasters, Yuan Longping quickly found someone to send him 20,000 yuan. Due to the sun and rain, Cao was unable to maintain the statue, so the honest farmer had to come to Changsha again, hoping that Yuan Longping could give it some support, but this time he hit a wall. When Yuan Longping heard that money was needed to maintain the statue, he refused to pay a penny.

The honor does not belong to me personally, but to the whole of China.

After Yuan Longping came back with many awards, a media reporter asked him: What do you think of your contribution?

He said calmly: This is not my personal honor, but China’s honor. I am just a leader and a representative of a discipline.

Let me tell you a story: In August 1997, I went to Mexico to participate in the International Symposium on Crop Genetics and Hybrid Vigor Utilization, and was awarded the honorary title of Pioneer Scientist. More than 600 scientists from more than 60 countries participated in the meeting, including 12 from China. Due to visa reasons, I arrived two days late and arrived in the afternoon of the first day of the ceremony. When I arrived, 12 people from China were ecstatic and said: Miss Yuan, you are finally here. We are anxious. After you came, our status improved. Because among the five people who were awarded the title of pioneer scientists, the remaining four are Americans. At that moment, I deeply realized that the honor does not belong to me personally, but to the whole of China.

A frank and forthright scientist.

On the afternoon of October 2004, Yuan Longping was invited to give a speech to the teachers and students of the University of Iowa

An international student from China asked: "Although we are abroad, how can we Always pay attention to domestic news. We have long heard that you have made outstanding contributions to our country, and we also know some background information about you. "We would like to know, have you been interested in agriculture since you were a child?

Yuan Longping answered cheerfully: When I was a child, I was very playful and had many hobbies. I study, listen carefully to the courses I am interested in, and get high scores in the exam; if I am not interested in the courses, I only need three good points to pass. When I graduated from college, my classmates commented on me - Hobbies: freedom; Specialties: Slowness. Take a walk, just by myself. As for learning agriculture, it started by chance. In the first grade of elementary school, during an outing, the teacher took us to visit a private gardening field. I saw red peaches on the trees, clusters of grapes, and beautiful flowers. What I was watching at the time was Chaplin's movie "Modern Times," which was being staged. There is a scene in the film where there are grapes outside the window, and the impressions of the two are superimposed. It feels really pastoral, and I want to study agriculture when I grow up. If the teacher had taken us to a real rural area that was miserable, poor and dirty, then I would definitely not have studied agriculture.

The audience burst into laughter and applauded this great scientist for his frankness and frankness. He made no secret of the strengths and weaknesses of his personality, making Chinese and foreign college students feel more respectable and amiable, and completely and truly demonstrated the perfect unity of great and ordinary scientists.

In this way, his academic report ended in a relaxed and warm atmosphere.