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I am shocked to learn that the famous economist and professor of Peking University Mr. Li Yining has passed away, and I am deeply saddened. Scenes of past events emerged in my mind. Although time flies and many years have passed, the picture is still very clear.
The first time the author knew the name Li Yining was around the early 1980s. When I went to the book fair in Beijing that year, readers and tourists were in a hurry, and they seemed to be rushing to the next book booth. I saw that many people were holding a copy of “Introduction to Modern Western Economics”. I don’t know what economics is, but I am just curious that so many people have bought the same book, do they all study economics? Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was this book that brought me into the field of economics. Later, when I took the postgraduate entrance examination, this book was mentioned in the bibliographies recommended by many schools. In this way, in order to prepare for the exam, the author read this book seriously.
In the early 1990s, the author entered Tsinghua University to study for a master’s degree. Since Tsinghua University and Peking University are very close, in about a year or so, whenever I have time, I will go to Peking University by bicycle. During this period, I completely audited two courses taught by Mr. Li: “National Economic Management” and “National Economic Operation Topics”. The motivation for listening to the lectures is that he has been famous for a long time, and he wants to get a chance to learn from him. Second, many people around him say that his lectures are very exciting. If there is a chance, it would be a pity not to listen to him. Therefore, the author found out the time and place of teacher Li’s class, and came to the classroom on time every week.
Looking back now, this is the most impressive course I have heard in my student days, and it is also the course that has benefited the most. The amount of information in Teacher Li’s class is very large, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as “suddenly enlightened”. He mentioned the current situation of China’s economy for a while, and then mentioned the situation in Europe, including ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and Byzantium, etc., where China and the West intersect and intersect. The examples at your fingertips are not only vivid, but also help to understand related concepts and integrate knowledge. Sometimes he would change his previous clothes and suddenly appear in the classroom wearing a suit and tie, saying that he had just been interviewed by foreign media before class, and sometimes he mentioned that he went to a certain place for inspection last week, which immediately attracted a lot of laughter. Some associations with the word “inspection”. It was later learned that Mr. Li was working at the National People’s Congress at the time, and needed to conduct on-the-spot investigations across the country frequently to obtain real economic conditions. Because of this, his classes always contain a lot of first-hand information, some of which are even unheard of, and are definitely not things nagged by the media. Occasionally, he will reveal some proposed “big move” in class. For example, shortly after the establishment of the Hainan Special Economic Zone, he suggested that in order to encourage the development of Hainan, special monetary policies could be tried in Hainan, including the introduction of “Hainan Yuan”. Although “Hainan Yuan” ended up being nothing, and there was no more content, many students who attended the class were surprised by this bold idea.
I remember that Mr. Li’s class was held in a lecture theater with a sense of age, and it was crowded with students every time. It is best to reserve a seat in advance, otherwise you will have to sit on the steps or find an inconspicuous place. Standing in the corner and listening to the class. During class breaks, I would squeeze into Teacher Li with other students and ask questions by myself or listen to the teacher answering questions. Soon, I found that the students who listened to his class came from all over the world, with a big age gap. Some students looked more like teachers. Not only that, but the education levels of the students were also different. There were undergraduates, postgraduates, and national teachers. There are advanced students from all over the world, and I am not the only one who come to attend lectures from other schools. Once, Teacher Li answered the question of how to take the exam in the future when faced with so many different students. He said that the exam will be the same paper, but the requirements are different. This is really a wonderful answer and a clever arrangement.
Anyone who knows Mr. Li will admire his vigorous energy. You know (allow me to use the three most common words in Teacher Li’s writings), balancing the relationship between academics, teaching, administration and social activities is easier said than done. Mr. Li holds several positions inside and outside the school, and has a lot of social activities. For example, when working in the National People’s Congress, he actively promoted the drafting and review of many laws related to the economic field, including the “Securities Law”. These activities undoubtedly took up a lot of time and energy of Mr. Li, but the publication and publication of Mr. Li’s writings did not seem to decrease during this period.
Teacher Li’s writings can be roughly divided into three categories: one is professional papers published in academic journals and academic monographs published by publishing houses; the other is writing many influential textbooks; the third is countless translations. As early as 1985, the “Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire” co-translated by Mr. Li and others was published by the Commercial Press and included in the “Chinese Translation of World Academic Masterpieces Series”. In addition to translating such voluminous foreign masterpieces, Mr. Li also translated some popular works and a large number of academic papers, which were scattered in academic journals and collections of theses at that time. These works played a vital role in the popularization of Western economics knowledge at that time.
The author has always been full of respect for those who write excellent textbooks, and I always feel that they know a lot and are encyclopedic figures. Because the textbook covers all aspects of content, it is not easy to give a balanced and clear presentation. As a researcher or an expert, you usually only write texts in the field you are familiar with, and the content of the textbooks far exceeds any academic papers in terms of breadth. If the content balance cannot be maintained, what is finally written is not a textbook but a monograph. In the author’s humble opinion, the ideal situation is to be able to create both professional academic papers and professional teaching materials. It’s no easy feat in both fields. As an ordinary person, with limited energy and driven by subconscious interests, as time goes by, it is very likely to know more and more about fewer and fewer things, and this is the path to becoming an expert. Perhaps it is for this reason that the current economics textbooks are generally completed by several people with complementary knowledge. They each complete the chapters they are good at, and then draft all the manuscripts, and the work is basically done.
Whether the teaching material is excellent or not is generally judged by two aspects: one is the usage, whether there are enough schools and teachers and students to choose it; the other is timeliness. In addition to the Western economics textbooks mentioned above, Teacher Li also wrote at least two textbooks related to the Chinese economy, which were very popular among Chinese economics departments at that time. One is “Socialist Political Economy” published by the Commercial Press in 1986, and the other is “National Economic Management” first published by Hebei People’s Publishing House in 1987. Both textbooks originated from the use of Teacher Li at Peking University. Years of handouts. Especially the first one, which broke the previous dominance of the two political and economic textbooks. I remember that at that time, the two colleges and universities in the north and the south of China took the lead, organized elite troops and strong generals, and set up their own “collective political economics writing teams”, and each of them published textbooks one after another. The reason may be that political economics is a compulsory course for many economics-related majors, and there is a huge demand for teaching materials. Some universities with strong teachers will not voluntarily give up this academic position. Different from these textbooks completed by a group, Mr. Li’s textbooks are all completed by him alone. Such a thing is rare in economics today. In addition, the two textbooks have been printed many times, especially “Socialist Political Economy”, and a new edition was released a few years ago.
Since papers and textbooks have different missions, it is not meaningful to compare the two. In fact, both textbooks and papers are very important. From a broad perspective, the relationship between the two is complementary, not a relationship of substitution and competition. A simple logical reasoning is that excellent textbooks can nourish more excellent students. When this group becomes larger, more valuable academic papers will emerge as a matter of course.
In the early 1950s, the adjustment of Chinese colleges and universities made the economics departments of some colleges and universities merged into Peking University. For example, Mr. Chen Daisun from Tsinghua University joined Peking University. For a time, the Department of Economics of Peking University was full of stars. In addition to many famous scholars, there were also many young scholars who obtained doctoral degrees overseas. They were accomplished and energetic, and they should be at the most creative stage of their academic career , But the subsequent political movements, devolution of labor, etc., almost ruined their academic life.
Teacher Li was smart and eager to learn since he was a child. After graduating from the Department of Economics of Peking University, he has been compiling books in the reference room for 20 years. During this period, he immersed himself in his work, learned from his predecessors humbly, and wrote a lot of reading notes. This job gave Mr. Li the opportunity to come into contact with a large number of newly purchased foreign academic works and academic journals in his youth. Sorting, classifying and compiling them is his daily work. After the reform and opening up, Mr. Li successively published many economic histories of European countries in the Commercial Press. In the preface of these books, Mr. Li specifically mentioned that these monographs were actually first formed when he was a librarian.
It can be said that the long-term working experience in the library and reference room is the most important stage of Mr. Li’s academic accumulation. It has laid a solid foundation for his future role transformation, going to the podium, accumulating a lot, and then galloping in the academic world. When the door of reform and opening up was opened, Mr. Li’s teachers gradually faded out of the academic circle due to age and other reasons. The era of Mr. Li has finally come!
Looking back on Mr. Li Yining’s life, we are amazed by the number and scope of his academic works, but also feel sorry for the unfair treatment he has encountered. This can be perceived from Mr. Li’s own academic autobiography or other people’s memoir articles . In fact, among the scholars of Mr. Li’s generation, many people have experienced unfairness in one way or another, which is determined by the times they live in.
According to the recollection of Mr. Ding Shisun, the president of Peking University at that time, after the reform and opening up, due to various reasons, Mr. Li’s work in the Department of Economics was not satisfactory and he could not give full play to his academic expertise. , A special organization “Management Science Center” was established for Mr. Li. This center later directly contributed to the establishment of Guanghua School of Management.
Many people are always excited when they recall the 1980s, because at that time people’s pursuit of truth and desire for democracy could be freely extended. However, this decade has not been all smooth sailing. In 1989, China’s official TV station broadcast a six-episode series of political commentary “River Elegy” with a unique perspective and a sharp point of view during prime time. Li Yining’s name appeared in the general counsel that appeared in the opening title. The film and many of its contributors were later purged, allegedly for promoting bourgeois liberalization and being associated with the “turmoil” of the year. Suddenly, the wind and rain hit people, and Teacher Li was also implicated. Fortunately, Teacher Li soon returned to the public eye. It is estimated that the so-called “consultant” means not caring, and Mr. Li is just a name. A few years later, especially marked by Deng Xiaoping’s “Southern Tour Speech”, there was another wave of political summer in China. During this period, Mr. Li seemed to have regained his previous state of academic prolificacy. Papers, books, and textbooks went hand in hand, and were published one after another.
Mr. Li Yining has been teaching for decades, and his peaches and plums are all over the world. Being approachable, generous and modest, rewarding young people, and trying to help students are the general impressions of the students after contacting Mr. Li. According to the author’s observation, from the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s, when you open any economics book published in mainland China, in all likelihood, you will see the name Li Yining, either appearing on the cover in the form of an expert recommendation, or for this reason The book has a preface. When the author finished his first academic manuscript, he took the liberty to contact Mr. Li and expressed his wish to ask him to take the time to write a preface. Not long after, I received a long preface written by Mr. Li himself, which I will never forget.
The last time the author saw Teacher Li was in December 2010. That year, Peking University and the Yunnan Provincial Government jointly held the “Third Forum on Sustainable Development Strategy for Poverty-stricken Areas in China” in Zhaotong, Yunnan. Unlike many scholars who only care about the economic development of rich areas, Mr. Li has long been concerned about poverty reduction in poor areas. He not only leads the “Rural Revitalization Research Institute” at Peking University, but also takes the lead by taking students to the grassroots and working with local officials to plan poverty alleviation policies. plan. From this, we can feel the feelings of a scholar who cares about the people and takes practical actions to fight for the cause of poverty alleviation.
When reading English literature, I sometimes read in the acknowledgments that the author “owes certain people for knowledge”. This expression, which is not common in Chinese, always makes me respectful. Because you know what you owe, you know how to be grateful. Yes, when we gain knowledge from others and benefit in the long run, we should not forget those who first introduced us to the temple of knowledge.
Mr. Li Yining is eternal!
(Note: The author is an independent scholar. This article only represents the author’s personal views. The editor’s email address is [email protected])