For the common good

Lu Yonggen, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, once said he thought his daughter－his only child－could support herself and so he didn't need to leave her any property or money.

"The Communist Party of China nurtured and trained me, so I returned all my property to the State to be used for society," Lu said. "It is my final contribution to the State."

Lu died at age 89 in August. He had donated his life savings, valued at more than 8.8 million yuan ($1.15 million), to South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, to set up a special education fund for excellent young teachers and for students from poor families.

It was the largest single donation from an individual in the university's 108-year history.

For Lu, it was part of a pattern: In 2014, he persuaded his brother to donate the family's two ancestral houses to Luodongcun Primary School in Guangzhou, his hometown.

Lu, a noted agricultural scientist, also donated his own body to support medical research and education.

Many teachers and students from the university were saddened when Lu succumbed to illness and died on Aug 12. No public viewing of his body was held, a desire he had expressed in his will.

Lu had always been a hard worker and lived frugally. He was dubbed the "commoner academician" by colleagues and students. He saved every penny he could, both in daily living and in his work, says professor Liu Xiangdong.

In 2003, Lu, who was then in his 70s, wanted to save on hotel costs when he traveled to a conference in Shenyang, Liaoning province, after attending a national conference on wild rice in Nanchang, Jiangxi province. He took a night train with sleeping accommodations to Beijing and then transferred to a plane bound for Shenyang.

"True scientists must be loyal patriots and take the needs of the country and the people as the driving force of their work," Lu was quoted as saying.

His colleague Dang Linxi says Lu worked like a farmer, rolling up his trousers to walk through rice paddies as he conducted field research and looked for wild rice.

"He has left footprints in many rice fields in Guangdong, Hainan, Jiangxi and other provinces and regions of the Chinese mainland," Dang says.

Wen Simei, vice-president of South China Agricultural University, says Lu's patriotism and personal charm over several decades had helped inspire many talented high-level Chinese studying abroad to return to work in their motherland. In 2017, Lu's student Liu Yaoguang was admitted to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhao Xingjuan, Lu's secretary for more than two decades, says he was a rigorous professor and scholar but very down-to-earth and courteous toward colleagues and students.

Lu had made remarkable achievements in his research of rice genetics. His work on a specific gene has significantly influenced rice-breeding research. Lu and his team developed more than 33 new varieties of rice that were planted on more than 667,000 hectares of land.

Lu was sent abroad for fact-finding and exchange visits three times in the 1980s and 1990s. But he refused three times when relatives and friends tried to persuade him to stay in the United States or other developed countries, where working and living conditions were better.

"My roots are in China, and my country needs me to go back to work," he told them.

Lu lived a simple and frugal life, despite his scientific achievements.

After retirement, he and his wife, Xu Xuebin, were often seen lining up with students to eat in the university's canteens, and Lu would often take the bus when he went out.

His house is striking for its worn wooden furniture and old-fashioned electronic appliances－items commonly used in the 1980s. His iron bed frame was rusty.

Because of his great achievements and contributions to agriculture, Lu was selected in a nationwide poll as one of the 10 people who moved China the most in 2017.

Lu was born in 1930 in Hong Kong. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1949 and became a teacher at South China Agricultural University where he graduated in 1953. Lu was appointed president of the university in 1983 and became a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993.

CHINA DAILY