A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

"In the early days of the People's Republic of China, the average grain yield per mu was about 160 kilograms, which was almost no qualitative leap compared with the Ming and Qing dynasties."

Variety bottlenecks still exist.

From 1964 to 1973, Yuan Longping's team underwent ten years of arduous research.

In 1974, the first high-yielding hybrid rice combination, "Nanyou No. 2", was developed, with a yield of about 200 to 250 kilograms per mu.

In 1976, hybrid rice began to be widely promoted throughout the country.

By the 1980s, the national average grain yield per mu had reached approximately 300 to 350 kilograms.

In the 1990s, it exceeded 400 kilograms.

On the big screen, the steep line was stretched out and divided into segments, each segment representing a breakthrough.

Shen Moyan looked at the whole class.

"Yuan Longping closely linked his research with the fate of the country and the basic needs of the people."

This was not just empty talk; he later proved it with sixty years of hard work in the fields.

This is patriotism, not just a slogan on paper, but a pain etched in the heart and a responsibility carried on the shoulders.

Let's look at the beginning of the text.

Yuan Longping squinted, gazing intently at the experimental field that covered several hundred acres, then stepped across the irrigation ditch and into the field.

He squatted down and examined the soil, his movements very light and slow.

Shen Yingjia used the word "absorbed in thought." This wasn't a scientist conducting an experiment; it was a father watching his child.

Yuan Longping's affection for this rice paddy is evident from the very first paragraph.

A black and white photo appeared on the big screen: a young Yuan Longping squatting in a rice field, holding a magnifying glass, observing a rice plant.

Shen Moyan pressed the remote control, and a line of text appeared on the big screen: "Self-pollinating crops have no advantage in hybridization."

"This was the mainstream view in the world's biological community in the 1950s and 1960s."

At that time, the theories of Soviet geneticist Lysenko held an authoritative position in the field of agricultural science, and rice was determined to be a self-pollinating crop with no hybrid vigor.

Some even ridiculed the idea that "proposing hybrid rice is a sign of ignorance of genetics."

However, Yuan Longping observed the phenotypic advantages of natural hybrid rice in the paddy fields.

There is a particularly important sentence in the text: He "respects authority but does not worship authority."

Respect means acknowledging the research findings of predecessors.

To not worship is to not regard anyone's conclusions as unquestionable dogma.

He firmly believed in the facts he had observed with his own eyes and "bravely challenged traditional ideas."

A boy wearing glasses in the back row raised his hand: "Teacher, isn't he afraid of challenging authority?"

"That's a good question."

In those days, challenging authority could come at a price that went beyond just one's research future.

But Yuan Longping did not back down.

He knew what it meant if rice production increased: it meant that hundreds of thousands of people would no longer go hungry.

So he doesn't argue with people; he lets his experiments speak for themselves.

What does it truly mean to dare to innovate? It's not about blindly rejecting predecessors, but about building upon their work and forging a new path based on facts and evidence.

"There's a sentence in the text that I'd like the whole class to read aloud together," Shen Moyan said, opening her textbook. "Scientists are servants of truth and followers of facts."

"This sentence is Yuan Longping's original words, which Shen Yingjia quoted in the text."

What does "waiter" mean? It means servant.

Scientists are servants of truth, not its masters.

What does this mean? It means that you cannot let facts conform to your theory; you must let your theory be tested by facts.

How did Yuan Longping do it?

Under the scorching sun and with his feet treading on mud, he searched for natural male-sterile plants one by one in the rice paddies, a probability of one in fifty thousand, entirely by sight.

Later, after hybrid rice was promoted, some people spread rumors that hybrid rice was "three no rice" - the rice was not fragrant, the cooked rice was not soft, and the taste was poor.

Yuan Longping did not engage in verbal battles with anyone.

He wrote a letter using facts and data to refute the rumors point by point.

This is the source of a scientist's confidence; he doesn't rely on a loud voice, he relies on facts.

She looked at the whole class.

"Students, remember this: true scientists always stand on the side of facts."

It's not about siding with authority, nor with popular opinion, but with the facts.

Shen Moyan put down his textbook and sighed softly, "Even now, there are still some people who slander hybrid rice, saying that the rice grown from it is of poor quality."

"But what is the truth? At that time, the rice variety with the largest planting area and highest yield in the country, 'Shanyou 63,' was a hybrid rice."

The annual planting area exceeds 100 million mu, with an average yield of around 500 kg per mu. It is not only high-yielding but also of excellent quality, and has been recognized as a national high-quality indica rice.

"As Mr. Yuan himself clearly stated, hybrid rice and conventional rice, like any other crop, have different varieties, and their yields and qualities vary, sometimes even significantly."

Generally speaking, most hybrid rice varieties have medium-quality rice, although some individual varieties have poor quality. However, the quality of a few varieties should not be used to generalize about the whole crop.

In this way, Yuan Longping defended the facts, which is to say, he defended the truth. (Original text)

At the foot of Mount Li, the commoner who was eating a wheat cake understood.

The female teacher on the celestial canopy said that some people in later generations slandered hybrid rice as "of poor quality".

He squatted on the edge of the field, stuffed the last piece of wheat cake into his mouth, and chewed it slowly.

The wheat cakes were mixed with bran, making them rough and scratchy on the throat.

He stretched his neck and swallowed, then stood up.

"You're complaining about how bad the food is when there's plenty to eat?"

His voice wasn't loud, but several farmers nearby heard it.

An old man turned around, holding half a dark, murky piece of bread in his hand.

"That's right," the old man said, holding the pancake towards the sky.

"The best meal I've ever had in my life was the few bushels of millet left over after paying the rent last autumn."

My wife cooked a pot of thick porridge, added a little salt, just a little salt! I ate three big bowls and thought it was the most delicious thing in the world.

What will future generations say? That the rice was of poor quality? That it didn't taste good?

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, and an unnatural red flush rose on his dark, thin face.

"Do they even know what hunger is? Do they know that when people are starving, they'll even gnaw on tree bark? When I was a child, there was a locust plague, and all the millet seedlings in the fields disappeared overnight."

My mother would peel elm bark, grind it into powder along with rice bran, and steam it to make cakes that were black and hard, so hard they would scratch your throat and make it hard to pass stool. That was truly awful!

How bad could rice be in later generations? Could it be worse than tree bark?

There was a moment of silence on the ridge of the field.

Then another, younger farmer whispered, "They've never gone hungry."

"Yes, they've never been hungry." The old man carefully gathered the crumbs of bread he had finished eating in his palm, then tilted his head back and shoved them all into his mouth. "People who have been hungry won't complain that rice isn't tasty."

An old farmer stood up and said to the sky, "Old man surnamed Yuan, don't listen to those people's nonsense. We, those of us who have been hungry and those who are still hungry, all know how great things you have done."

The sky would not answer him.

But he still spoke up.

After saying that, he picked up his hoe and went back to the field.

I haven't finished my work for today.

The sun was still high in the sky, and there were still two hours until it got dark.

Do more, earn more.

Maybe next year, we won't have to eat wheat cakes mixed with bran anymore.

-

(In the late 70s and early 80s, the first batch of hybrid rice varieties were widely promoted. Although they had high yields, some varieties did not taste good.)

The problem was quickly resolved, resulting in high output and good quality.

However, in the early stages of scientific research, in the 1970s and 80s, quantity was far more important than quality.