A handful of rice, soothing the hunger of stomachs across the world

A single blade, removing the ailments of livers and gallbladders across the world

May 22, 2021

Academician Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice"

Academician Wu Mengchao, the "Father of Chinese Hepatobiliary Surgery"

passed away

Two stars have fallen, and the whole nation mourns together

Three years since we parted

How we miss you both

When the wind blows across the rice fields, I think of you

Almost every Chinese person

has seen such a picture in a textbook

The caption reads—

"Father of Hybrid Rice — Yuan Longping"

Yuan Longping

was the pioneer of hybrid rice research and development in China

and the world's first

scientist to successfully exploit the heterosis of rice

He was a true cultivator

His lifelong dream

was to free all people from hunger

Yuan Longping.China News ServicePhoto by Yu Fangping. Image source: CNSPHOTO

"Many people have reservations about studying agriculture,

but I have never regretted it."

Yuan Longping studied for four years

in the Department of Agronomy at Southwest Agricultural College

After graduation

while teaching and educating students

he also conducted agricultural research

He had seen the bodies of the starved

and heard countless times that "gold ingots are not worth two steamed buns"

He made up his mind

to use his expertise to develop high-yield rice

so that his compatriots would be spared the suffering of hunger

Yuan Longping often said he had two dreams:

one was to rest in the shade of rice plants

the other was for hybrid rice to cover the globe

In 2020, at the age of 90

he made a third wish: "To conquer China's saline-alkali land, thoroughly eliminate China's worries about food, and let the Chinese people eat their fill and eat well!"

For these dreams

Yuan Longping never stopped moving forward

and became a faithful guardian of the rice fields

Today

all three of his dreams have been surpassed

File photo: October 22, 2019, Yuan Longping leading guests on a field inspection.China News ServicePhoto by reporter Yang Huafeng

Yuan Longping often shared these words with young students

"Someone asked me,

what is the secret to your success?

I think I have no secret,

but in my experience on the path through the rice fields,

I have eight words:

knowledge, sweat, inspiration, opportunity."

He was also a "post-90s meme king" in the eyes of young people

No clocking in at work; happiest in the fields

Hobby — freedom; specialty — being laid-back

He poured out his grievances about revising students' papers

He disliked fame and carried an "idol's burden"

From having enough to eat at every meal

to securing the Chinese people's rice bowl

this road is marked with Mr. Yuan's footprints

Today

he has taken the "seeds" of his dreams to a distant place

yet he left the seeds of grain

and the "seeds" of innovation and struggle

to those who came after

Asteroid 8117, "Yuan Longping"

continues to watch over the land he loved so deeply

A scalpel, held firmly for a lifetime

Wu Mengchao

was the pioneer and founder of hepatobiliary surgery in China

Over more than 70 years of medical practice

he advanced China's liver disease medicine

from nothing to something, and from something to excellence

pulling more than 16,000 patients back from the brink of death

Until he announced his retirement

at over ninety years of age

he never put down the scalpel in his hand

Wu Mengchao. Photo by Yin Liqin

Under Wu Mengchao's dedicated research

in the 1960s and 1970s

he personally performed many "firsts in China"

and even "firsts in the world" surgeries

raising the success rate of liver cancer surgery in China

from less than 50% to over 90%

stunning the world at the time

Wu Mengchao once compared himself to a soldier

"As long as I live one more day, I will fight liver cancer one more day"

He once said

"As long as I can still hold a scalpel,

I will stand at the operating table

If one day I truly fall at the operating table,

that might be my greatest happiness

But if I cannot guarantee completing the surgery,

I will never step up to the operating table again

because I cannot gamble with a patient's life to prove myself"

File photo: Wu Mengchao performing surgery on a patient.China News ServicePhoto by reporter Yin Liqin

Spread open Wu Mengchao's palm

if the fingers are not deliberately held together

the first joints of the index and middle fingers form

a small "V" shape

An interviewer once asked curiously:

"Is this innate?"

Wu Mengchao replied with a smile

"Every day I have to operate, suture, and use surgical forceps

Over time, it has become like this."

About his hands

Wu Mengchao once said humorously

"These hands are more important than my face!

It doesn't matter if the face grows old

but the feeling in the hands must be protected"

A head nurse who worked with Wu Mengchao for decades once said

"Opening an abdominal cavity full of blood,

Mr. Wu's hands are 'like they have eyes'

One touch, one pinch, and the bleeding stops

and the patient's life is saved"

It was with these hands

that Wu Mengchao fought at the operating table all his life

only formally retiring in 2019 at the age of 97

He pulled more than 16,000 patients

back from the brink of death

writing a brilliant chronicle of hepatobiliary surgery

Today, Wu Mengchao is gone

but many, many

of the patients he saved

still carry on their lives in this world

The students he trained

still shine on the front lines of hepatobiliary surgery

And between Mars and Jupiter

Asteroid 17606, "Wu Mengchao"

also keeps orbiting day after day

High as the mountains, long as the rivers — your faces and voices remain

May the world be as you wished

with no worries about medicine or food

Today

we pay tribute to Yuan Longping and Wu Mengchao!