Yuan Longping, Father of Hybrid Rice

He was from a scholarly family， lively and energetic， a keen thinker and a quick learner. He led a nomadic life as a boy and aspired to serve his country through science and technology. He researched agriculture， and he was a hard， fearless worker full of love. He declared war on hunger and solved the problem of “food for everyone.” A modern-day divine farmer who has touched the heart of China and aided the people of this world， he was the father of hybrid rice ---" Yuan Longping.

Yuan Longping， Father of Hybrid Rice

Zhu Ziqiang （editor in chief），

Zhuang Zhixia and Zhao Qingqing （authors）

China Peace Publishing House

January 2022

25.00 （CNY）

Zhu Ziqiang

Scholar， translator， writer， Ph.D. holder in literature. Director， professor， and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Children’s Literature at Ocean University of China. Vice President of the Chinese Society for the Studies of Children’s Literature. His main academic fields are children’s literature， Chinese language education， and research in children’s education. His academic research has been awarded the Jiang Feng Prize for theoretical contributions to children’s literature and nominated for the Lu Xun Prize for theoretical literary criticism.

Zhuang Zhixia

An editor of China Youth Publishing Group， a member of the China Writers Association， and director of the Biography Society of China. Her major works include book-length biographies on Zou Taofen and Yuan Longping， and book-length biographical works such as The Story of Entrepreneurship and The Biography of Tang Youzhi， Master of National Medicine. She has won the Bingxin Children’s Literary Award， the National Bingxin Prose Award， and the Golden Brick Poetry and Prose Awards in the Great Wall Cup for Global Chinese Literature.

Zhao Qingqing

Associate Professor， Department of Foreign Languages， Nanjing University. Member of the Chinese Biographical Society， Director of China World Association for Chinese Literature， and Deputy Director of the History Committee. Her major works include A History of Chinese Canadian Literature： Diversity and Integration， The Starry Sky on the Podium， and the translated works Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stop Breathing.

On an early summer day， laughter filled a classroom in Hankou’s Fulun Elementary School in Wuhan by the Yangtze River. Led by their teacher， the first graders set out on a field trip to a horticultural farm.

The beauty of the horticultural fields had their eyes wide open. All sorts of trees and flowers seemed to be wearing colorful clothes： red peaches and prunes， luscious green grapes and plums， yellow muskmelons， purple mulberries... On the fields， tendrils spiraled from huge watermelons; in the pond， large lotus leaves unfolded like open umbrellas. Behind the lush green bamboo forest， there was an endless stretch of rice paddies...

The children from the city were stunned to find such a beautiful and fun place in the world. So different from the city with all its noisy traffic！

The teacher told the children that summer is the season with the lushest vegetation growth. You plant in spring and harvest in fall. A good yield depends on hard work...

A smart-looking boy stared at the scene with rapt attention. Suddenly， as if a question had just popped into his mind， he asked curiously， “Who planted these crops？”

The teacher pointed to an older man working under a fruit tree not far away. “The farmers planted these crops and fruit trees. Look， they are loosening the soil there.”

“I’ll go help too！” the little boy said. He quickly ran over， froze， and then asked， “Uncle farmer， could I help you loosen the soil？”

The uncle stopped his work and said kindly， “Good boy， you’re still too young. Wait till you’re a grown-up！” But the boy stubbornly tilted his head. “Let me try！” After he said this， he grabbed the handle of the farmer’s spade， taller than himself， and started to dig hard.

Looking at the serious boy， the uncle could not help but praise him before the approaching teacher. “What a good boy！ It may look fun now， but he won’t want to do this once he grows up！”

But the boy holding the spade stopped what he was doing， raised his head gravely， and retorted， “No， I want to grow crops like you when I grow up. I want to be a farmer！”

That night， the boy had a dream. In the dream， he became the owner of a horticultural farm. Just like the farmers he saw during the day， he wore a straw hat and held a hoe in his hand， walking around his estate. The breeze under the blue sky， the magpies singing on the branches， the cicadas chirping in woods， the fruit in the orchard， the undulant rice stalks in the fields... just as he was sitting relaxed in the melon field tasting the fruits of his harvest， someone suddenly shouted， “Young master， bad news！ Victims of the famine are coming after your crops！” But instead he jumped up and shouted， “That’s great！ Let them come， let them all come！ There’s too much for me to eat anyway！”

The boy， already so generous at a young age， not only realized his dream of becoming a farmer but also made the whole world share the knowledge of his wisdom. Like a true farmer， he spent the next half-century plowing his “dream” in the fields， regardless of how hot or cold it was， or how the wind raged and the rain beat. By creating hybrid rice， he enabled China and even most of the" world to gradually resolve the problem of insufficient production—too many eaters and too few fields. Eventually， he led the many saying goodbye to the hunger problem that once ravaged humankind.

The boy was Yuan Longping， who would later become the world’s leading agronomist in rice research， praised as the “Father of Hybrid Rice.”