A brief introduction to Shi Mingsong, an important founder of two-line hybrid rice

The Pearl Picker

He----Shi Mingsong, deputy director of Xiantao Agricultural Technology Extension Center, assistant agronomist, member of China Rice Society, national-level young and middle-aged expert, Winner of the National “May 1st” Labor Medal; provincial, prefectural and municipal labor model, outstanding Communist Party member; discoverer and researcher of “Hubei Photoperiod Sensitive Nuclear Sterile Rice”.

In October 1985, during the golden autumn season, the "Photosensitive Kernel Sterile Rice" identification meeting was held in Xiantao City. Shi Mingsong, this tall, dark man, walked up to the podium. He talked eloquently, and fine beads of sweat came out from his prematurely bald head...

His report was well-received. It was highly praised by more than 30 experts, scholars and leaders who attended the meeting, and ten genetic authorities and rice experts from inside and outside the province signed the appraisal certificate of "Hubei Photoperiod Sensitive Nuclear Sterile Rice".

The appraisal certificate states: “Photoperiod-sensitive nuclear sterile rice is not only convenient for formulating hybrid combinations to take advantage of hybrid vigor; it can also be used to breed conventional varieties, making it possible to accelerate the breeding of high-yielding, high-quality, and versatile rice. New combinations and new varieties of resistance. Further research on this project will also enrich the content of rice genetic breeding, physiology and biochemistry, photoperiod theory, etc. It is the third major discovery after the success of rice dwarf breeding and hybrid rice in my country. . At present, it has not been reported abroad, but it is at an advanced level in China." More than ten newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, including "Wenhui Daily", have reported this good news.

Zhu Rong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, who came specially from Beijing to Xiantao, Hubei Province to participate in the "Photoperiod Sensitive Kernel Sterile Rice" achievement appraisal meeting, expressed congratulations to Shi Mingsong on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.

At this time, Shi Mingsong was holding Vice Minister Zhu’s hand, with tears in his eyes. Scenes of the arduous trek flashed through his mind...

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In 1959, Huang Yaoxiang of Guangdong successfully cultivated a series of dwarf rice; in 1973, Yuan Longping of Hunan used the characteristics of natural sterile strains to cultivate indica hybrid rice. However, how to use sterile strains to improve japonica rice seeds is still blank at home and abroad. Although this is a difficult problem facing experts, Shi Mingsong, an agricultural technician with only a technical secondary school education, is keeping his eyes on it.

The sterile strain, this "freak" in the rice family, is the product of natural mutation. It is very rare in number and it is difficult for many people to find a single strain for many years.

Since 1971, Shi Mingsong began to search carefully in more than 2,000 pieces of land and more than 4,000 acres of fields in the original Shahu breeding farm with the most dense longitude and latitude.

He trudged and searched in the rice fields. Looking for a sterile plant in thousands of acres of fields is like looking for a needle in a haystack! One day, two days, three days... a week passed, still no results.

He trudged and searched in the rice fields. How long is the path to Four Thousand Acres? Like a Mount Everest. However, he didn't feel tired, like a prodigal son in his hometown looking for his way home, everything was so familiar and everything was so strange.

The autumn of 1973 came belatedly, and Shi Mingsong began to "search" in a large area of ??"Nongken 58" late japonica fields. A rice plant caught his attention. He stepped forward and touched it with his hands. There were a few seeds scattered on it, but most of them did not bear fruit. Is this a sterile strain? Shi Mingsong bent down and carefully identified: the stems were tall, the leaves were large, the grains were shriveled, thin, and milky white—a typical male sterile plant. Shi Mingsong was as excited as if his father had seen a lost child, stroking it up and down with his hands, and kept nagging: "Sterile strain! Sterile strain, I, Shi Mingsong, had a hard time looking for you!"

This year, he found three sterile plants in one day, and only thirty seeds grew on the three ears.

This is a seed more precious than life! He didn't know where to put it. Put it in the cupboard for fear of becoming a good meal for the rat; put it in a clay pot for fear that the child would knock it over; put it in a pocket of clothes for fear of being rubbed during laundry... After much thought, he had no choice but to use a piece of wire to remove the seeds. Hanging on the roof beam, unexpectedly when he saw it at night, the mouse actually walked down the wire... Lao Shi had no choice but to hide the seeds in the pillowcase and let the little green life accompany him into the green dream.

The willows have sprouted tender green buds, and the season for soaking seeds has arrived. There was no incubator, and he was afraid that the seeds would be eaten by mice after they were sown, so he made three small gauze bags, filled them with more than 30 seeds, wetted them with water, and put them in his close-fitting shirt pocket. The human body became Thermostat. The seeds are sown! Sowing the hope of Lao Shi! Someone has done experiments and found that the power of a seed is a thousand times its own weight in germination. This potential tenacious vitality is more like Shi Mingsong's character.

The natural selection of living things is almost cruel. The more than thirty seeds are not pearls, and only one has maintained its sterility.

----The first step of the explorer is so difficult.

Shi Mingsong traveled through more than 300 communities and recorded tens of thousands of data. However, five years have passed, and the mystery of infertility is still like a ghost, erratic...

No one gave him this scientific research project, he chose the path himself; there was no statutory scientific research time, so he squeezed out the dewy morning, squeezed out the sultry noon, squeezed out the hanging On a starry night, whenever he had free time, he would squat in the field and work fascinated...

One night late at night, there was lightning and thunder, and it rained heavily. In just a few hours, two feet of water accumulated on the flat ground. How deep. It was just dawn, and Shi Mingsong didn't bother moving furniture, grabbed a footbath, and rushed into the rain curtain - he was thinking about his sterile plants. The seedlings have only been planted for half a month! If it is taken away by the flood, all the hard work of several years will be ruined! When he arrived at the edge of the field, he saw endless white water. Shi Mingsong almost fell into the water... Suddenly, he saw a bamboo pole tied with a blue cloth strip exposed on the water in the distance. That was the mark he made. It was his experimental field. He jumped into the paddy field with joy and touched with his hands under the water...the seedlings were still there! The seedlings are still there! Shi Mingsong carefully pulled up a bunch of seedlings and placed them in the foot basin. The water receded, and the seedlings "returned to their parents' home" smoothly, but Shi Mingsong suffered from fever and cold for several days, and circles of water bubbles appeared on his lips... After several years of experiments, explorations, failures, and again fail! Explore more! Shi Mingsong finally opened the first gate into the Green Kingdom. After many test cross experiments, he captured the genetic cause of sterility, which was the mutation of the natural sterile strain of late japonica.

What controls this self-mutation? Is it the temperature? fertilizer? Or light? Three more springs and autumns, more than a thousand days and nights, he traveled to Xiantao and Hainan Island six times, and conducted more than a hundred experiments...

After experiments, Shi Mingsong eliminated temperature, fertilizer He focused on the influence of factors such as the mutation that causes infertility on itself, focusing on light.

He and his companions rushed to Hainan Island, where there was plenty of sunshine. Breeding life in the South is very difficult. Every summer and autumn, the temperature is often 35-40°C, and people have difficulty breathing. Shi Mingsong and his companions plant rice seedlings every five days to verify the impact of light on the mutation that causes sterility... ...In order to obtain satisfactory materials, they did not care even if the leech clung to their legs and sucked blood. The mosquitoes in Hainan Island are also fierce and terrifying. There is a local folk song: "Three locusts serve as trouser belts, and a hundred mosquitoes stir up the dishes." Lao Shi was bitten by locusts and mosquitoes all over his body, and he was itching and unbearable when he lay in bed at night. Due to overwork and lack of nutrition, he fainted several times on the edge of the field. His companions carried him to the shade of a tree to rest. He sat for a while, drank water, and started working again...

Back at the original breeding field, in order to facilitate observation, Lao Shi moved alone to the experimental field. Living in a cowshed. When you are hungry, you go to the village to eat "Pengfan"; when you are dirty, you roll around in the ditch. He has an extremely weak sense of time and is extremely strict. He often misses meals due to continuous work and suffers from insomnia. However, in order to experiment and accumulate data, he races against time and day and night...

Shi Mingsong, the owner of this small farm The reason why the technician became the proud man to break into the green kingdom is because he has an indomitable spirit of exploration.

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Shi Mingsong is not only an indomitable explorer, but also a selfless person who is willing to give up everything.

In Shi Mingsong’s dormitory, there is a banner hanging, which was a gift from his teacher when he graduated from agricultural school. Over the years, he has regarded this gift as his motto: “Those who study agricultural skills should I want to make a career in agriculture."

In order to "make a career", Shi Mingsong gave up his comfortable job at the Jingzhou Agricultural Exhibition Center the year he graduated, carried his luggage and walked here. He worked as an agricultural technician at Lianheyuan Farm.

In order to "do a career", Shi Mingsong became a person who forgot his family and himself.

One day, he was sorting out experimental materials at home, and his wife left her three-year-old child in his care before leaving for work. He only remembered the child when his wife came home at noon. The two of them hurriedly started searching. There was nothing in front of the house, nothing behind the house, and nothing in the neighbor's house... Now the couple became anxious. Suddenly, the cry of a child came from the haystack on the field. They followed the sound and saw two big buffaloes fighting desperately. The three-year-old child was at the feet of one of the buffaloes. When his wife saw him, she collapsed on the field, and Shi Mingsong was helpless. Thanks to a strong young man, he quickly rescued the child... The wife fell ill and was bedridden. He was thinking about his experiment and was afraid that the last danger would happen again, so with tears in his eyes, he locked his children and wife at home and walked to the fields

...

Crush" In the third year after the "Gang of Four", he selected a series of short-stem materials at the original breeding farm in Shahu and conducted research on hybrid transformation into new sterile lines. However, progress was slow. When he needed courage and energy to overcome the plateau phenomenon in scientific research, his liver disease recurred. At some point, schistosomiasis got into his body and quietly destroyed his liver. Shi Mingsong's face was sallow, dizzy and weak, he couldn't swallow his food, and his tea was tasteless... His wife advised him to be hospitalized for treatment. He shook his head, dragged his heavy body, and walked towards the field where the snails were hidden.

The Agricultural Technology Station reported Shi Mingsong’s situation to the field party committee, and the field party committee immediately made three decisions: Shi Mingsong was immediately hospitalized; a monthly subsidy of 30 kilograms of grain for the Shi family; Experienced technicians followed Shi Mingsong's experiments.

Shi Mingsong was lying on the hospital bed, thinking of the care of the party organization, how could he treat his illness with peace of mind. In the ward, while sorting out experimental data, he reviewed the "Biological Genetics", "Biostatistics", "Genetic Breeding", "Plant Physiology" and "Crop Cultivation" that he had learned in the past. He also studied with great concentration Books such as "Genetics", "Rice Cropping Science" and "Rice Cropping Physiology" have made theoretical preparations for extensive applied research on hybrid breeding.

With this spirit of "drilling and squeezing", Shi Mingsong systematically completed the university's genetics and breeding, plant physiology, crop cultivation, etc. under a small kerosene lamp in a few years. For courses such as biostatistics, I systematically studied dozens of domestic and foreign rice monographs and magazines, and wrote more than three million words of reading notes.

On the road to breaking into the green kingdom, there are "red lights" hanging almost everywhere.

If there is no scientific research conditions, create it yourself; if there is no emasculating clip for experiment, make it yourself; if there is no hybrid bag, use an old envelope instead; if there is no light-shielding room, use a kerosene barrel to block the light; if the kerosene barrel is broken and leaks light, just Paste it with mud and use it again;

There is no seed storage room, so the whole family of five squeezed into a small room of ten square meters, freeing up one room to store seeds...

Ten In October, it was a rainy October. Shi Mingsong looked at a batch of individual seeds selected from the field and felt troubled. If it rained for a few more days, the seeds would not be able to dry, or in a few days, they would all become moldy... If there were What a great oven! He thought of using a pot to "warm"... This is a delicate job. If the fire is high, it must be "warmed" to cook; if the fire is low, "warm" will not work... He woke up his sleeping wife...

"You have a fever, can you do it?" "It doesn't matter! I can't read, so I can only help you with this little help." The fire lit up the faces of Shi Mingsong and his wife. The couple who was born in Rugao, Jiangsu, stood beside "Warm" seeds, while telling the story of Liang Hongyu, her hometown, beating drums to cheer for her husband Han Shizong on Jinshan Mountain. Shi Mingsong became emotional and said excitedly to his wife: "You are the 'Liang Hongyu' who cheers for me!"

With no scientific research funds, he squeezed out his family income; he squeezed out his pocket money and lived a normal life. I have to be very frugal, but I am willing to spend money to buy test supplies.

One day, the ignorant child pointed to the grain seeds stored at home and said, "Dad, there are so many grains, why don't you exchange them for money?" "That's grain seeds, grain seeds, dad's life." Roots cannot be sold! "Dad is bad! Dad is bad! Dad only wants seeds, not his son!"

Yes! In Shi Mingsong's heart, seeds are more valuable than his son.

There are no assistants, so mobilize the whole family. Because of this, his family has earned the reputation of a “scientific research home”. After the experimental area was expanded, Shi Mingsong was too busy for one person, so he took his frail wife and three children to the fields. The eldest and second eldest son engage in artificial pollination; the younger son, who is six or seven years old, carries a bamboo pole and runs around chasing sparrows; the wife is responsible for drying and selecting seeds.

Shi Mingsong’s eldest son, Xinhua, failed to enter college after graduating from high school in 1981. His son wanted to repeat his studies and then jump to the "Dragon Gate". At this time, Shi Mingsong's research on "photoperiod-sensitive nuclear sterile rice" had entered an intense stage. He mobilized his son to give up the opportunity to repeat his studies and take the college entrance examination and became his assistant. The son understood his father. He built a small shack next to the experimental field and took on the task of helping his father make observations and records...

Thinking of all this, Shi Mingsong felt a little sorry for his wife and children. In front of his wife, he is an unqualified husband; in front of his children, he is an unqualified father; and in front of the motherland, he is a worthy son.

Shi Mingsong, this tough guy has the ability to endure the hardships during the journey and enter a state of selflessness. Similarly, he also uses a hundred times the endurance to withstand the cynicism from all sides. In 1978, when he applied to the relevant departments for a scientific research project on the "Late Japonica Dual-Purpose System", he was rejected on the grounds that he had "never seen it in the book." There are also people around who say that he "doesn't do his job properly", "want to become famous and start a family", and that he is a "stone expert". Appraising model workers and assigning professional titles were all out of his reach. Of course you can’t blame anyone else! Intellectuals are all wearing the hat of "stinky old nine", no one dares to ask about their scientific research. Lao Shi couldn't care about this. He only had one belief, "My career and life are maintained on nuclear sterile rice. There is nothing else."

Just as Shi Mingsong climbed to the top of the mountain, it was the party that The organization extended a warm hand to him. This warm hand pulled him towards the top of the mountain. In the bright spring of 1980, his scientific research project received the attention and support of the superior authorities. The Provincial Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries sent 3,000 yuan in scientific research funds, a Seagull camera and an electronic calculator. Looking at the scientific research funds and scientific research equipment sent by the party organization, Shi Mingsong, a tough guy who has endured countless hardships, shed tears of excitement for the first time... Then, the Municipal Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau, the Regional Science and Technology Commission, and the Provincial Science and Technology Commission The committee also sent "reinforcements" one after another... Soon, a collaboration group was established with the participation of Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan University, Huazhong Agricultural College and other units.

Collaboration forms the "crutch" for Akira Ishimatsu to climb to the top...

Yes! Without the Party’s good policies, without the encouragement and support of the Party organization, I, Shi Mingsong, would not be able to hammer out a few rivets even though I am made of iron!

Shi Mingsong, an agricultural technician with only a technical secondary school diploma, was able to break through national scientific research projects because

----He has the selfless spirit to give up everything. .

With an indomitable spirit of exploration and a spirit of selflessness, Shi Mingsong wrote "Recessive Male Sterility Rice Sensitive to Light Length" based on the accumulation of more than 200,000 words of experimental materials. "Discovery and Preliminary Research" and many other papers have caused a sensation in the agricultural academic circles and attracted the attention of party organizations and governments at all levels.

With the indomitable spirit of exploration and selfless spirit of giving up everything, Shi Mingsong, with the help and support of the collaboration group, successively overcome the four major difficulties of "photoperiod-sensitive nuclear sterile rice". Shi Mingsong finally broke into the palace of the Green Kingdom...

Thirteen years have passed since he started looking for the late japonica sterile strain. In the past thirteen years, Shi Mingsong has traveled a long and difficult road and left a series of solid footprints on his journey to explore the secret of "photoperiod-sensitive nuclear sterile rice". This footprint records his hard work and selfless dedication; this footprint shows an intellectual's sincerity to the party.

（1987.12）

(On February 10, 1988, I received the "Party Life" magazine with this article and was shocked to hear that 50-year-old Comrade Shi Mingsong died on that day. Comrade Qin Mingxing, the other author of this article, and I laid wreaths to express our condolences and burned the magazine to express our condolences.

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