双语：“稻”念袁爷爷

5月22日，巨星陨落，举国同悲。深切缅怀，国之伟人。

伟大的人在守护生活的不同侧面。作为普通人，我们每个人都能切身体会到他们的贡献带来的福祉。他们在用学识维护我们生活的底线，并努力提高上限。

以前我对袁爷爷的了解仅限于教科书上的描述。在看了许多描写袁爷爷的推文、读完《袁隆平自传》后，我开心地发现，袁爷爷，a great man of our time，原来如此有趣！而且我在他身上发现许多共同点：他喜欢自由散漫的生活方式，凭兴趣学习，他讨厌数学，喜欢英语。距离一下子拉近了好多！

袁爷爷生活经历丰富，爱好广泛。他在中学时英文电影就能听懂八九十，他喜欢球类运动，擅长游泳，会拉小提琴，在大学通过了选拔飞行员的考试，差点被选拔进国家游泳队。他毕业后当过俄语代课老师，教专业课时经常带学生去户外实践，一起和学生编教材、做实验，和学生打得一片火热。他还打趣自己“政治思想水平低”，在做班主任时会把思想工作都推给班委做，而自己则组织学生搞各种各样的课余活动和体育活动，还把花了一个月工资买来的小提琴送给了班上喜欢作曲的文体委员…

这本自传的叙事话语平实又有力，看书时，我仿佛看到眼角带着笑的袁爷爷就坐在我面前，手里摩挲着充满回忆的老照片，娓娓道来他的一生。自传既融合了他的科研工作经历，也记录了他的人生感悟。读完，他平民科学家的形象由此在我心中变得更加鲜活、立体、饱满。我深深被袁爷爷打动了。我想把这份感动保存下来，以自己的方式纪念、缅怀这位伟大的科学家，下面会摘录袁爷爷的一些小故事（some anecdotes），简单介绍他的成就。袁爷爷是我们的榜样，向袁爷爷学习！

   深情

Yuan loved his wife deeply. Back when Yuan's family used charcoal to heat water for bathing, he would call his wife's name every two minutes for fear that she would succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning. When his wife finally learned to drive late in life, he wouldn't let her for fear that she would hurt herself.

   善良

Yuan loved to help others. He instructed many PhD students. One student was quite poor, and there was this time when he called Yuan to ask for a bit of money to treat his sick father. Yuan gave the student 2,000 yuan, half of his salary.

   奉献

The pioneering scientist would donate most of the proceeds from international rewards he received and research centers he set up to the fund established in his name which encourage innovation in agricultural technologies.

   简单

Yuan liked shopping for bargains. One day, he and his wife Deng Zhe found a shirt that sold for 10 yuan while shopping, so he bought 10 of them, saying this way he'd be able to wear shirts in farmland without worrying about getting one dirty.

   淡泊

When it comes to wealth, Yuan was even less sophisticated. He never took making money seriously, despite encountering countless opportunities to do so. "I don't like being a politician, and I'm not a businessman," he once said.

1964年，袁爷爷正式开始杂交水稻优势利用的探索，取得了全球瞩目的成就。

下面用简单的语言给袁爷爷的研究做个介绍。

大家都知道，水稻是自花授粉植物 (self-pollinated plant)

要培育杂交水稻，就要避免水稻自交。

避免水稻自交方法之一是人工去雄（emasculation）

但是水稻是雌雄同花，花又很小，人工去雄成本大。

毕竟水稻要用于大田生产，需要很多种子，人工去雄可不是长久之计。

所以袁爷爷开始寻找雄性不育株（male-sterile grain），也就是“雌水稻“，这种稻株可以帮助免去人工去雄工作、节省劳力。

那么问题来了，水稻不是自花授粉吗？不是可以自己繁殖吗？为什么会出现不育株？

因为它变态基因突变！

按照袁爷爷的构想，杂交水稻的育种可分为三个发展阶段，“三系法→两系法→一系法”，程序由繁到简。

三系法，不育系、保持系和恢复系“三系“配套。（当时七八十年代，杂交水稻研究还处于方兴未艾的时期，当时只能用这种方法。袁爷爷在1987年发表的论文《杂交水稻的育种战略构想》中写道，“三系法迟早要被淘汰，这是杂交水稻育种科学发展的必然趋势。”）

两系法，只需要光、温敏核不育系和恢复系。（目前两系法技术已经成熟）

一系法，利用无融合生殖于水稻杂种优势育种（理想，难度较大）

袁爷爷认为，要实现三系配套计划，首先要寻找培育不育系的材料。

1964-1969年，在观察了几十万个稻穗后，团队只找到了6株雄性不育株。经过一年又一年的实验，始终没有育成理想的不育系。

1969年冬，袁爷爷总结经验，发现如果要突破瓶颈，就必须跳出栽培稻的小圈子。因为这几年实验的材料都是以矮杆为主的栽培稻，它们亲缘关系近，基因突变的可能性不大。

By 1970, Mr. Yuan was growing frustrated with his halting progress in creating more productive rice crops. He hit upon a shift in strategy: Search for wild varieties across remote areas of China for more promising genetic material.

由此出发，袁爷爷提出“远缘杂交”思想。即稻株的亲缘关系越远，后代变异性越大，不育性状越明显。

原来，亲缘关系较远的野生稻才是培育不育系的理想稻株！

1970年，袁隆平及其团队在海南发现一株花粉败育的野生稻，当即把它命名为“野败”，作为培育水稻三系的材料。

A breakthrough came when Mr. Yuan’s team found a stretch of wild rice near a rail line on Hainan Island, in southernmost China.

1970-1972年，经过两年的实验培育，水稻雄性不育系和保持系培育成功。

1973年，恢复系培育成功，三系配套关攻破。

As early as 1964, Yuan theorised that a male-sterile grain could be crossed with other plants to boost yields, but it was not until 1973 that he cultivated the first hybrid rice thanks to the discovery of a wild rice species that made the breakthrough possible.

1976年，全国开始大面积推广杂交水稻种植，水稻实现大增产。中国成为世界上第一个成功利用水稻杂种优势进行水稻生产的国家。

Hybrid rice varieties typically produce 20 to 30 percent more rice per acre than nonhybrid strains when cultivated with the same transplant techniques, fertilizer and water.

1979年，我国农业部将1.5公斤杂交水稻种子赠送给美方，这是中国杂交水稻跨出国门的第一步。

1980年，中国举办杂交水稻国际培训班，袁隆平是主讲人之一，为多国专家传授杂交水稻技术。

After his discoveries in the early 1970s, Mr. Yuan became a strong advocate for sharing his breakthroughs internationally, instead of using them to achieve Chinese dominance in rice production.

1982年，袁隆平被国际同行誉为“杂交水稻之父”（Father of Hybrid Rice）

1996年，我国农业部正式启动“超级稻计划”（Super Rice program），杂交水稻要有“超级量"，也要有“超级质”。

In 1996, the Chinese agriculture ministry formally established a super rice breeding program. Four years later, the first phase of the target of reaching 10.5 tonnes per hectare was achieved. The record was shattered three more times with jumps to 12 tonnes in 2004, 13.5 tonnes in 2011 and 15 tonnes in 2014.

20世纪90年代，杂交水稻推广至全球20多个国家。截至目前杂交水稻已推广至40多个国家。

It has also been grown extensively in over 40 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Madagascar. The total planting area of the hybrid rice has reached 8 million hectares overseas, according to Xinhua News Agency.

2004年，联合国“国际水稻年”(The International Year of Rice)，袁隆平荣获“世界粮食奖”（The World Food Prize）。

His work helped transform China from “food deficiency to food security” within three decades, according to the World Food Prize.

* The International Year of Rice：Why rice? Because rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population.

2017年，袁隆平团队开始研究海水稻。

In 2017, his team started to grow seawater rice, or salt-alkali-tolerant rice, in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. The rice was designed to grow in tidal flats or saline-alkaline land and survive even after being immersed in seawater. Yuan said growing seawater rice is vital to China's food security, as the country is home to one-tenth of the world's saline-alkaline land.

2019年，袁隆平获“共和国勋章”。

In 2019, Yuan, academician with both the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, was awarded with Medal of the Republic, China's highest honor, for his groundbreaking research.

2004-2020年，我国的粮食产量实现“十七连丰”。

In 2020, hybrid rice developed by Yuan's team achieved 1,500 kilograms per mu (about 22.5 tonnes per hectare) in two growing seasons, a new world record.

袁爷爷曾说自己有两个梦想：一个是禾下乘凉梦，第二个梦是杂交稻覆盖全球梦。

Yuan once said he had two dreams – to "enjoy the cool under the rice crops taller than men" and that hybrid rice could be grown all over the world to help solve the global food scarcity.

早在1994年，美国学者布朗写了一篇名为《谁来养活中国》("Who Will Feed China?")的文章，认为中国将面临巨大的粮食缺口，不仅中国养不活自己，世界也养不活中国。这一文章引发了巨大的舆论轰动。

25年来，中国则用实际行动和数据回答了这一西方之问：中国仅依靠全球淡水资源的6%、耕地资源的7%，就养活了世界20%的人口，保持了95%的粮食自给率。

谁来养活中国？

唯有中国人民。

Grandpa Yuan, have a good journey!

参考文献：

[1]袁隆平口述. 袁隆平自传.“中国工程院院士传记”丛书[M]. 湖南教育出版社, 2015..11.

[2]袁隆平.杂交水稻的育种战略设想[J].杂交水稻,1987(01):1-3.

[3]刘合光. 回答“谁来养活中国”之问[J].环球, 2018(14).

借此文章悼念袁爷爷🕯