Chronicle of two deaths retold as a message

It's tragic to see two luminous stars of the academic world stop shining on the same day over the weekend. Surprisingly, the mourning and eulogies for Ji Xianlin and Ren Jiyu were not restricted to the academic circle.

"We are now lonely children in an era of no masters," one journalist has written in Qianjiang Evening News. The journalist is not alone. Thousands of people have permeated the Chinese media and blogs with their lavish praises. Many other commentators wondered how the vacuum created by their deaths would be filled. The Qianjiang journalist provides the answer: "But new masters will surely be born." And, she is not alone in this expectation.

We have to think of the most befitting way to respect, and uphold, the memory of Ji and Ren. Pretending to know everything we could possibly know about the two masters is certainly not one of them. Ji's achievements, for instance, were mainly in ancient Indian languages and Sanskrit literature. Ren was a giant in the field of philosophy and religion. Most of us don't understand much about these subjects.