1916 - I was born in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province on June 12th of the lunar calendar. My first name “Zhengyi” was given by my grandfather, while I later styled myself “Bai Jian¹” and used the pseudonym “Bai Jian²”. With the ancestral home of the Wu family in She county, Anhui province, I lived in Yangzhou with a registered hometown in Yizheng, Jiangsu province.

¹ In Chinese as “白兼”.

² In Chinese as “白坚’.

1917 - Upon my “One-Year-Old Catch”, we moved back to Yangzhou in December because my grandfather Wu Junsun(1860-1917)died during his journey to assume an official position in Xunyang, Jiangxi province.

1922-24 - From the age of four to six, my mother taught me how to read. I later began my education at the family school. When the Beiyang government was generating high debts, my father resigned as the minster of the department of agriculture and commerce, and when he came back to Yangzhou, our family moved into Wu Dao Tai residence.

1925-28 - From the age of 9-12. During spare time free from my studies at family school, I would read books, including Chih-wu ming-shih t'u kao³ and Illustrations of Japanese Flora, ⁴ which had been brought back by my father, and I began to have an embryonic understanding of assorted floras by reading pictures in Wu Yuan. I took to reading the essays of Liang Qichao and had my first contact with vernacular Chinese.

³ Chih-wu ming-shih t'u kao: 《植物名实图考》

⁴ Illustrations of Japanese Flora: 《日本植物图鉴》

1929 - I turned 13. I was enrolled into Jiangdu County High School for middle high education. Under the teaching of Mr. Tang Shou(styled Shu Mei), I learned to dissect flowers and fruits and make specimens while picking different kinds of specimens on field trips.

1931 - In the summer of my 15th year, I skipped a grade and entered Yangzhou High School for a high school education. Following the aftermath of the Mukden Incident, I wrote a poem Jiu Wang Ge, ⁵ in imitation of ancient Chinese writing. As Tang Zhuo(styled Shu Dong)encouraged me to study biology, I resolved to pursue this discipline. My mentality and thinking was greatly advanced under the influence of my friends Sun Ke(styled Qing Kai)and Hu Guangshi(styled Jing Bo).

⁵ Jiu Wang Ge: A poem was written to encourage people to salvage one's motherland.

1933 - I was 17. I graduated in the summer and was admitted into the department of biology at National Tsinghua University. My scope of knowledge broadened, benefitting from liberal study taught by teachers like Wu Wenzhen, ⁶ Li Jitong⁷ and Chen Zhen.

⁶ Wu Wenzhen: (Simplified Chinese: 吴韫珍) (1899-1942) He was one of the most prestigious botanist in China (specializing in taxonomy) and he once studied agriculture in Nanking University under the instruction of Qian Chongshu. (Simplified Chinese: 钱崇澍).

⁷ Li Jitong: (Simplified Chinese:李继侗) (1897.8.24-1961.12.12). He was one of the pioneers of phytogeography and plant ecology. He created the first research team of plant phytogeography at Peking University in China.

1935 - I was 19. I made acquaintances with several upperclassmen, including Wang Qiwu, Xu Ren and Gu Changdong, and through Gu Changdong I met my townsmen Ma Liuquan who studied in the Department of Biology at Peking University. I also participated in the December 9th Movement⁸ and the December 16th Movement.⁹

⁸ The December 9th Movement: (Simplified Chinese: 一二·九运动) It was a mass protest led by students in Beiping (present-day Beijing) on December 9, 1935 to demand that the Chinese government actively resist Japanese aggression.

⁹ The December 16th Movement: (Simplified Chinese: 一二·一六运动) It was a mass protest led by students and citizens in Beipeing (present-day Beijing) on December 16, 1935 to again demand Chinese government actively resist Japan aggression and it was the second mass protest that ensued December 9th Movement and spread to other cities in then China.

1936 - I was 20. Following Wu Wenzhen and Yang Chengyuan, the teaching assistant, on a field trip to Xiaowutai Mountain and Zijing Pass in Yi County, Imade Zhou Jiazhi's first acquaintance. With the financial aid frommy fifth older brotherWu Zhengkai¹⁰ and Qing Han scholarships, ¹¹ I was able to follow through four years'courses.

¹⁰ Wu Zhengkai: (Simplified Chinese: 吴征铠) (1913.8.8-2007.6.27) He was a renowned physician, radiochemist and one of the pioneers of radiochemistry, molecular spectroscopy and the cause of uranium enrichment and diffusion. He is the fifth elder brother of Wu Zhengyi.

¹¹ Qing Han scholarships: The literal meaning of Qinghan (清寒) is being in a state of financially changellened and difficult.

1937 - I was 21. I graduated with a bachelor's degree from the grade 9 of the Department of Biology at Tsing Hua University and remained in the department as a teaching assistant. I joined the northwest scientific research team organized by Duan Wushen at my own expense from July to August. On the 6th July, I left Peiping for Inner Mongolia and Ning Xia(宁夏)to study local plants. On the 7th, Japanese invaders took Lugou Bridge and Peiping fell to their siege on August 23rd. We were forced to change our route and travelled from Ding Yuanying(present-day Bayanhaote), through Ningxia(Yinchuang), Baotou, Datong, Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang to Yangzhou. When I started to teach at Aurora Middle and High School, my teacher, Li Jitong wired me to report to Changsha Temporary University along with Zhang Lanqing, Wang Jian and others. We traversed through Nanjing and Wuhan to Changsha. From October to December, I took the position of research assistant in the university during which time we conducted an investigation and field trip to Zoujia Long behind Yuelushan Mountain and to Hengshan Mountain with Zhou Jiazhi. After the fall of Nanjing, I met with my eldest brother Wu Baitao¹²(styled Zhengzhu)and my aunt's seventh son, who fled for Changsha.

¹² Wu Baitao: (Simplified Chinese 吴白陶) (1906-1992) He was the eldest brother of Wu Zhengyi. He studied history in Nanking University and graduated in 1931. He taught history in many famous universities in China and returned to Nanking University in 1973.

1938 - I was 22. I joined Xiang Qian Dian.¹³ Tour of Changsha Temporary University to walk from Changsha to Kunming. In between, I metWen Yiduo, ¹⁴Zeng Zhaolun¹⁵ and other teachers while continuing to journal on the trip. Later I became the assistant in the Department of Biology of the National Southwest Associated University and helped my teacher Wu Wenzhen in identifying local plants through pictures of holotypes. In June, Xiong Bingxina and I went on a research tour around Kunming. In August and September, I followedmy teacher Zhang Jingyue on a research trip to Cangshan Mount in Dali and Jizushan Mountain in Binchuang. During the same months, I climbed Ximatang with Yang Chengyuan and Yao Hesheng for the first time. In October, I scaled Ximatang for the second time with Li Jitong and Songdaquan. Then, my teacher and I went on field trips to Dehong and Wanding for scientific research and collected more than four thousand specimens.

¹³ Xiang Qian Dian: Names of three provinces in China and are referred in Chinese as”湘黔滇”.

¹⁴ Wen Yiduo: (Simplified Chinese: 闻一多) (1899.11.24-1946.7.15.). He was a famous poet and scholar.

¹⁵ Zeng Zhaolun: (Simplified Chinese: 曾昭抡) He was a famous chemist and academician in Chinese Academy of Sciences.

1939 - I was 23. I contracted falciparum malaria in Kaiyuan in the summer and recovered thanks to intermittent care from Zhou Jiazhi. Afterwards, I came back to Kunming when a planned field trip to Hekou was canceled.

1940-41 - At the age of 24 and 25, Iwas obliged to lead students to collect specimens in the wild due to a lack of funds. In June, I was admitted to Peking University as a graduate student andmy advisor was Zhang Jingyue.¹⁶ My father, Wu Qixian(styled Youren)(1884-1940), died at 56 in the Yangzhou house. The work of revising holotype pictures and making data cards there from was rolled off when I moved to Dapuji. Meanwhile, I also attended reading classes where I studied On Protracted War, On United Government and others. Along with Tao Guang and Zhang Zong, I also joined the Kun Opera Society where I met Zhu Dexi and Wang Zengqi for the first time. Together with them, I read works of Russian literature andmy understanding on many things was greatly improved.

¹⁶ Zhang Jingyue: (Simplified Chinese: 张景钺) (1895e1975) Zhang was a renowned Plant Morphologist and educator. He graduated from Tsinghua University in 1920, acquired a Doctor degree from The University of Chicago USA in 1926 and was engaged as academician in Academia Sinica in 1948. He made enormous contribution to the development of Botany in China.

1942-43 - My 26th and 27th years. In the spring, my second older brother Wu Zhengjian, fled to Kunming with a kala-azar investigation team; my fifth brother returned to Kunming from overseas study in Britain; and, my third older brotherWu Zhengkai came from Guiyang to Kunming. In June, my teacher Wu Wenzhen died in poverty and I attended his funeral. Later, Iwas transferred to be one of the faculties in the Department of Biology at the National Southwest Associated University. FromJuly to August, Liu Deyi and I went to Dali for the compilation of local county annals and climbed the Ximatang in Cangshan Mountain for the third time. Traveling through Dengchuan and Heqing to Lijiang, we had the chance to scale 4500 m on Yulongxueshan Mountain while having collected more than 2000 specimens. In Lijiang we paid a visit to Mr. Qin Renchang and his wife and met J. Rock. We also made our first acquaintance with Feng Guomei and Liu Ying, and welcomed Jiang Ying and Liu Huilin on their visits. The work of making pictures of holotypes of Chinese plants and data cards was then resumed.

1944 - I was 28. I came to know Wang Yao and Ji Zhenhuai when I joined “Eleven One Society” headed by Pan Guangdan, Wen Yiduo, Wu Han and others.

1945 - I was 29. I joined the Chinese Democratic League on the recommendation ofWen Yiduo andWu Han. My induction into the New Poem Society and the Drama Society acquainted me with Guo Liangfu, Xiao Di, Huang Hai, Wen Shan and many other friends. In May, in cooperation with Jing Libin, Kuang Keren and Cai Dehui, I compiled Illustration on Herbs in Yunnan Province: Volume One and published a new genus of Caryophyllaceae on behalf of my teacher Wu Wenzhen. Also, I wrote papers on the year and introduced the names of plants Hu, Fan and Yang¹⁷ into China, and penned essays for the December 1st Movement.¹⁸ Together with Tian Fangzeng, Yangjie and Xu Dade, I initiated a reading Association and along with Li Xibi, Zhang Lanqing and Wang Jian, a private school called Wu Hua High School. During that time, as a way to struggle out of poverty, I also worked as one of the teaching staff in the Department of Biology at Yunnan University and Institute Franco-Chinois, as well as a researcher at the National Research Institute on Chinese Medicine founded by the Ministry of Education.

¹⁷ Hu Fan Yang: Part of names of Chinese vegetables and in Chinese are written as “胡蕃洋”.

¹⁸ The December 1st Movement: Simplified Chinese: It was a protest led by students in Kunming that demanded peace between parties and democracy in China and was echoed across the nation.

1946 - I was 30. I wrote a paper called “Preliminary Research into Vegetation in Ruili region(with Plants Collection Inventory affixed)” for West China Border Society Paper. In February, Yin Rutangwas inducted into the Party of the Republic of China and held a position in the Kunming Municipal Party Committee along with Yang Ming and Xu Dade. On 15th, September, my teacherWen Yiduo was assassinated. I wept and wrote five pieces of Wuyan Lvshi¹⁹ in memory of his death. In August, together with Zhang Lanqing, Zheng Yao, Tu Shoue, Lu Ci and others, I travelled through Guiyang, Shaoyang, Changsha and Wuhan to Nanjing. Later I came back to Yangzhou where I had a family reunion with mother and brothers. Then, Mr. Wang Zhihua, his wife and I took the ship to Tianjin and I became a teacher at Tsinghua University. Fromthat August to the fall of 1948, I joined the Peiping Municipal committee of the Democratic League along with Chen Dingwen and Guan Shixiong. Oftentimes, Meng Shaonong, Mr. Yu Lulin and his wife, QianWeichang and I paid visits to the house ofWu Han. Meanwhile, I became a member of the Science Era Association founded by people including Huang Zongzhen and Hu Yongchang, and contributed several popular science papers to its magazine.

¹⁹ Wuyan Lvshi: A piece of quatrain-based poem with fixed-length of five characters that was popular in ancient China.

1947-48 - My 31st and 32nd years. Having been selected from the Tsinghua faculty and staff, I became one member of the Party Branch Committee and took charge of public affairs. I took the initiative to establish an association for teaching assistants, lecturers and staff. Together with Guan Zhaozhi, Xu Lizhi, Chen Guangyuan and others, I wrote short essays and editorials for Peiping Newborn and papers on the novels of Shu Hu in the supplement. I got to know Mr. Wang Yuanhua and his wife, and together we went on a trip to Yuquanshan Mountain. In September, I went from Tianjin to Botou Town in Jizhong Liberation Zone to report to Liu Renhui on ideological thinking of professors in Peiping. In October, I attended the reporting of Ye Jianying and Pengzhen in Fangshan. Following the leadership of Zhang Zonglin, the head of military regulation committee in Beijing, I took over relevant affairs in Tsinghua University and Yenching University.

1949 - I was 33. From February to June, I became a member of the Culture and Education Committee of the Military Regulation Committee in Beijing, and along withWang Yue, Yang Minhua, Han Fang, Sun Fu and others, took over work in tertiary institutions in Beijing, research institutes in each system and the Cultural Relic Units. I held the position as deputy director in the Higher Education Department at its founding. In May, I attended the first representative meeting of the national youth union, during which time I received a warm welcome from Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and others, and Liu Shaoqi reported on the experience acquired from Tianjin. In June, I was hospitalized for half a year due to an electrical accident and later went back to the Department of Biology at Tsinghua University where I first met Duan Jinyu. In December, having being transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Zhihua and I became members of the party group of the institute and we respectively assumed the position as secretary and deputy secretary in the Party Branch.

1950 - I was 34. In January, I was appointed as deputy director of committee at the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology and when Fan Memorial Institute of Biology and the Institute of Botany of Peiping Academy of Science were integrated into the Institute of Botany Taxomony, Chinese Academy of Sciences, I was a researcher and associate deputy director. In April, I came to Qingdao together with Zhangxi and Wang Jiaqi to open the discussion on research plans on marine and aquatic biology. I met Tong Dizhou and Zeng Chengkui for the first time and old friends, Liu Deyi and Huangzhe. Also, I met Wu Zhonglun in Laoshan and went on a tour of Shandong University. In May, on a trip to investigate science and technological institutions and natural resources in the Northeast regions, Zhu Hongfu and I joined the investigation group headed by vice president of the institute, Zhu Kezhen and visited Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin and many places. Among the group were other Party members including Zhuang Changgong and Zhou Ren. Zhu Hongfu and I went to Yichun City to conduct research on deciduous and broad-leaved primitive Korean pine forests in the Xiao Hinggan Mountains. Then, Wu Heng became one of the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the summer, I travelled to Tianjin in an effort to learn of the specimens' collection by Priest Licent, who was working at the Haongho-Paiho Museum. I attended the First Extended Meeting on Affairs in the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 20th to 26th of June. I attended the first National Representative Meeting of Natural Scientists in Tsinghua University and helped to draft the closing speech of the President Liang Xi. Chinese Academy of Sciences, the association of Chinese scientists and Science Time and China Association of Technology were united into China Association of Science and Technology. In October, I was appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China and Ministry of Higher Education to lead a 14-members team to investigate Letianyu Shijian²⁰ at Beijing Agriculture University.

²⁰ Letianyu Shijian: Le Tianyu is the name of a famous educator and biologist on agriculture and forestry. He launched strong criticism on Morgan Genetics and cancelled relevant courses at the University that had bad consequences. Later he was under inspection and was dismissed of his position as the director of the committee of school affairs.

1951 - I was 35. I went on an official trip to attend the Symposium on Distribution and Origin of Cultivated Plants in South Asia held in New Deli in India on a team with Chen Huanyong, Hou Xueyu and Xu Ren, and after the meeting, we toured around the country with the support and arrangement of Yin Hongzhang, who worked at UNESCO in India. The report of our trip was made upon our arrival to the homeland. On one Sunday in April, I wed Duan Jinyu in building No. 3 Wenjinjie Street in a ceremony presided by Vice Mayor Wang Han and witnessed by then Dean Guo Moruo. In July, I attended the meeting on flora in Heibei and it committed us to focusing attention on compiling a plant key of families and genera as well as illustrations for plants for the sake of future use. I attended the First Representative Meeting of the Association of Botany in China after the War of Liberation. In August, I led Cui Youwen and Jia Shenxiu to follow the Tibet working team of culture and education committee of central government to Tibet and picked over 700 specimens in the Changdu area. From August to September, under the leadership of Chen Yu, then vice-premier, we made a plan to investigate rubber root, rubber plant production and wild rubber plants, and met with He Kang for the first time. In the same year I also participated in the alterations of departments and schools in higher education institutions.

1952 - Iwas 36. From March to June, Iwas on assignment by the ministry of agriculture to escort Ivanov, the president of the Institute of Agriculture in the Soviet Union to investigate institutions and Chinese agriculture in North China, Southeast China, East China, Central and South China. I saw first intensive agriculture in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang province and Mulberry-based Fish Pond recyclable agriculture in Shunde in Guangdong province. I met Guo Xingxian in Jianqiao County in Hangzhou for the first time. I joined the investigation on Issues of Intellectuals led by Premier Zhou upon my return to the institute. Since the beginning of the war to resist US aggression and to aid Korea, together with Qian, Hu Xiansu and others, I examined two leaves that were dropped by American air force in Northeast China and later sent over by Liu Shene and made a report to help combat bacteriological warfare. My son Wu Jing was born on April 13th. Zhang Jiafu was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to join the leading team; Ding Zanwas evicted from the Party because of historic issues and Huang Zengzhen was persuaded into quitting the Party(the cases of Ding and Huang were redressed in 80s). In October, I participated in altering the Genetic Experiment Building into Genetic Cultivation Research Room at the Institute of Botany that was developed into the Genetic Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, the mycology part of the Agriculture Science Research Institute, formerly owned by Tsinghua University, was handed over by Beijing Agricultural University to the Institute of Botany and was expanded into the Institute of Micro-organisms, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Within the same month, I met my eldest brother in Beijing and it was the first time that we had met since the War of Liberation.²¹ The first culture and arts performance festival was held in between.

²¹ The War of Liberation: Also known as Chinese Liberation War or Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was a civil war in China fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China, and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China (CPC).

1953 - I was 37. In January, I began the work of compiling China's Plant Keys of Family and Genus and published it in Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica under a collective name. From February to June, I joined a 20-member team led by Qian Sanqiang and Zhang Jiafu on a tour to Soviet Union and we travelled by Siberia Railway to Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad and through Novosibirsk to Tashkent. We took the return tour to Changchun and stay for one month to draft the report. Following the trip, I published papers including “Work on Nature Transformation and Utilization of Natural Resources and Work on Botanical Research in Soviet Union.” In August, Yu Dejun, Zhong Buqiu and Hou Xueyu returned from overseas study and Wang Fuxiong, Duan Xuchuang and Yu Chengming from the Institute of Botany of the central government returned. The Institute of Botany Taxonomy was extended and the name was changed to the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After the movement to suppress counter-revolutionaries, Yang Sen was transferred to form the Party Branch with the Institute council held in work stations in Huadong, Lushan mountain, Wugong and Kunming. In June, I led a team to follow the Tibetan working team of Culture and Education Committee of the Central government to Tibet with the aim of making an on-the-spot investigation of plants and geology in Tibet. In April, 1954, we returned to Beijing with over 2000 specimens in collection. In September, my daughter Wu Yu was born. In the fall, Luo Zongluo, Ma Rongzhi, Li Qingkui and I were appointed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to survey the rubber cultivation in the southern Guangdong province and Hainan province, and this laid a preliminary foundation for the large-scale cultivation of rubber tree in regions from lat 18°-24° North. In the latter half of the year, I made proposals to conduct a comprehensive survey in Greater China Region at the Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. In December, I went to Guangzhou to take over the Institute of Botany and Forest at Sun Yat-sen University and Chen Huanyong was the head of the institute. Meanwhile, the location of South China Botanical Gardenwas set in Longyangdong. From 1953 to 1955, the Institute of Botany was committed in the comprehensive investigation on certain regions headed by the deputy director, Zhu Kezhen. The investigation focused on the water and soil conservation in Huanghe River Valley and tropical botanical resources development in South China. I was assigned to be the leader in the trip to Hainan province with the participation of Zhu Taiping, Huang Chengjiu and Chen Jie. From March to May, we emphatically conducted investigations in Hainan province and Leizhou Peninsular. In 1955 I travelled to Xinyi in southern Guangdong province, Beihai, in Guangdong province, and Longzhou, passing Nanning to Guilin, and made a report on land suitable for growing rubber trees in South China.

1954 - I was 38. In response to a request for collaboration from East German, a China-German investigation teamwas organized to go on a tour to Southeast China and I met H. Hanelt for the first time. In the same year, V. N. Sukachev from the Institute of Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union paid a visit to the Beijing Institute of Botany. A revision committee of scientific terms was established in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Names of Seed Plants in China was compiled after discussion with the Honorable Mr. Qian and Hu Xiansu. Qin Lisheng was then transferred to be the associate secretary and director of the general office and positioned to lead the movement to cleanse the middle management team. I joined the study group after the movement. Afterwards I visited North China Pharmaceutical Factory and cine-film factory and in between I toured around the Agriculture College in Hebei where I visited Professor Xu Jinzhi and consulted him regarding issues in Tibet. I also went to the place in Xibaipo, Pingxian County where the Party resided before moving to Peiping and the place was moved to the slope when it became obstruction for the building of a reservoir. In December, I was elected to be one member of the Department of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

1955 - I was 39. Earlier in the year, I was appointed to select the location for Beijing Botanical Garden and joined the negotiation of issues on building Beijing Botanical Garden. At that time, then professor of Tsinghua University Wang Mingzhi was made director of construction, Xu Jingqi deputy director andWang Juyuan director of Garden Bureau. Recommended sites included the Ming Tombs²²(whose location was too far), Yuanming Yuan²³(too much water), Zizhuyuan Park²⁴(too close)and Nanxincun in Xiangshan Mountain. Yu Dejun decided on Nanxincun in Xiangshan Mountain to be the location. The exact location was Wofo Temple which was altered later. In March, Tang Yancheng, Zheng Sixu, Zhang Jintan, Jian Zhuobo were appointed to study or be engaged in future education. Fu Shuxia was appointed to pursue the study on the classification of fern plants under the instruction of Professor Qin Renchang; Chen Shouliang, Guo Benzhao, Liu Liang and others were selected to study the taxonomy of gramineous plants under the instruction of Professor Geng Yili in Nanjing University. Those decisions were efforts made to cultivate talents in the field of botanic taxonomy. In April, the First Meeting of Botanical Gardenwas held in Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden(the Central China work station). In June, I attended the Initiation Meeting of Departments in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The investigation on botanical resources in South China, natural zoning and economic zoning were listed on the ten key tasks in the report given by Guo, the director of the institute. In August, I attended Symposium on Botany Taxonomy and China's Soil, and found that the zoning of soil and botanical resources were consistent. In September, I was officially induced to be the member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and later attended the 100th anniversary of the birth of Michurin(Full name: Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin). Following instructions from Deputy President of the Institute Zhu Kezhen, Lin Rong and I talked with Hu Xiansu on some viewpoints in the Compendium of Botanical Taxonomy but we made no direct criticism. Guo Xingxian and I attended Symposium on Genetics in Qingdao. In the winter, my mother, Zhong Xuan(styled Qinxian)(1885-1995)died at 70 in Changzhou. From February to September, I went to Ximatang for the fourth time along with the Sino-Soviet investigation team among which is three botanists from Soviet Union. We climbed to Jinding on Emei Mountain after the Yunnan investigation had been finished.

²² The Ming Tombs: Also known as Thirteen Tombs of Ming Dynasty. Since 1409 when Zhu Di, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, built his Changling Tomb here, the succeeding twelve emperors had their resting places built around Changling during the next 230 years, covering a total area of over 120 square kilometers (46.3 square miles). This is the best preserved mausoleum area with the most emperors buried. Every year millions of tourists come to the site to appreciate its long history and palatial architecture.

²³ Yuanming Yuan: The Old Summer Palace, known in Chinese as Yuanming Yuan (圆明园; 圓明園; Yuánmíng Yuán; “Gardens of Perfect Brightness”), and originally called the Imperial Gardens (御园; 御園; Yù Yuán), was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China.

²⁴ Zizhuyuan Park: Also known as Purple Bamboo Park. (Chinese: 紫竹院公园; pinyin: Zǐ Zhú Yuán Gongyuán; also called Black Bamboo Park) is one of the seven largest parks in Beijing, China. It is located in the Haidian District of northwestern Beijing.

1956 - I was 40. From January to March, I attended the discussion on the long-term plan for scientific development for the next 12 years. That summer I went on a field trip to Guizhou on a team led by Zhou Guochu from the Institute of Soil Science. The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held the Study Group for Scientific Theories led by Yu Guangyuan and Gong Yuzhi in Beidahonglou. Wang Zhiyuan, Meng Qingzhe, He Zouma and I participated in the discussion and had intended to criticize the influence of idealism on scientific theories, but in vain. In the summer, Li Xiwen and Xuan Shujie, who graduated from Hebei Agricultural University and were formerly assigned to work in the Institute of Botany, were transferred to Kunming in a bid to strengthen the talent pool at Kunming work station. Also, the work station recruited Zhou Xian (who was transferred to the Institute of Botany in Kunming), the first with a post-graduation education background. In October, I proposed building a nature conservation zone at the Group Discussion on Tropical Resources in South China. In the same year the Committee on Natural Resources at the Institute of Science came into being. In November, on the First Award Ceremony for Scientists in the Institute, Hua Luogeng and Zhong Buqiu won first prize.

From February to July, after the field trip to Yunnan province, along with the Sino-Soviet united field team, I went to Qingdao. Academic committees sprouted in different local institutes of sciences and I was invited to sit on the academic committees in the Institute of Botany, the South China Botanical Garden and Institute of Soil Science in Nanjing.

1957 - I was 41. The first papers, Types of China's Vegetation by Qian Chongshu, Wu Zhengyi and Chen Changdu and the First Vegetation Map in China by Wu Zhengyi and Chen Changdu, were published since the foundation of People's Republic of China. Jiang Jiwu was transferred to be the deputy director of the Institute of Botany. In March, I accompanied Zhu Kezhen on a field trip to investigate the tropical natural resources in South China. I presided over the Meeting on Scientific Development of South China Tropical Resources and reported on the field trip.

From February to July, the Sino-Soviet field team, whose captain was Liu Chongle and whose vice-captain were Cai Xitao andmyself, went to Yunnan province to explore tropical forests and botanical resources. The field trip was dedicated to flora and fauna and vegetation with focus on lands suitable to grow rubber trees and host plants of Kerria lacca.

1958 - I was 42. In January, I attended a meeting held by the Yunnan work station where relevant parts in the National Second Five-year Plan were deliberated and the establishment of rubber tree plantations in Yunnan was merged as a part of the plan. In the spring, Luo Qingchang and I accompanied the premier Zhou Enlai to Xinhui County in Guangdong province to look into the problem regarding the utilization of wild flora. We also visited a sugar chemical factory in Jiangmen on returning to Guangzhou. In April, I pointed out the urgency and importance of research on botanical resources at the progress meeting of the Academy of Sciences. In May, the Honorable Mr. Zhu recommended me to join the scientific research committee of the Mountaineering Association and I attended the first meeting in Xiangshan in Beijing. In July, the Honorable Mr. Zhu and I called on Hou Xueyu, Qu Zhongxiang and others to join the discussion on the problemof northern movement of rubber trees plantations and the Committee for National Atlas Compilation work. In the summer, Pei Lisheng was transferred to take the post of general secretary of the Academy of Science. I was transferred to be the Director of the Kunming Institute of Botany(while I was the deputy director of the Beijing Institute of Botany until the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution₂₅). In the summer, Zhou Jun and other university graduates were assigned to the Kunming work station and the Botanical Resources Chemistry Lab was established with the help of Peng Jiamu from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry. From August to September, I accompanied Sukachiov from the Soviet Union on a field trip to Hainan province, and then went to Puwen to decide the site of a station for the biology and geology community in tropical Yunnan, and to Damenglong with A. An. Fedorov to select a site in Longshan Mountain in Manyangguang. Li Qingkui and I laid the cornerstone for the construction of the station and built a tropical botanical garden nearby. Jiang Hanqiao from the biology department of Yunnan University and Pan Ping from Yunnan Meteorological Administration drafted a plan for zoning agriculture in Yunnan province. At the end of the year, I moved the family to Kunming, Yunnan. Duan Jinyu established the Plant Physiology Lab. From December to January of 1959, I attended the meeting on the natural zoning held by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and joined the discussion on the natural zoning and vegetation zoning.

²⁵ The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: Also known as the Cultural Revolution, it was a sociopolitical movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party.

1959 - I was 43. In February, Professor Zhang Xi, the famous Oceanology and Limnology biologist and the pioneer of shellfish research, visited Kunming Institute of Botany. In the spring, I participated in the exhibition Small Harvest in the Autumn held by the Department of Commerce of the central government in Huangshan Mountain in Anhui province. In the summer, I accompanied the director of the Komarov Institute of Botany A. Baranov and others in Xishuangbanna. In September, Wang Fuxiong and I accompanied E. M. Lavrenko, A. L. Takhtajan and P. D. Sokolov from the Institute of Botany in the Soviet Union on a trip field in Yunnan and Menglun in Mengla County, and we together selected a site for the new tropical botanical garden in Xishuangbanna. Later, we received Professor Zonn and Professor Delis from the Institute of Forestry from the Soviet Union and made a plan for biological and geological community stations in tropical forests. In November, the first meeting of the editorial committee was held at the Beijing Institute of Botany and I officially joined in the work of editing the book China's Flora with my focus on labiate. I began to appraise all labiate specimens collected from all over the nation including those in the Kunming Institute of Botany. I organized a research team, including Chen Jie, Li Xiwen, Huang Shuqiong andWu Songgong, to look into economical plants in different regions in Yunnan. Since 1959, the adjustment and movement in the strategic rear area, as the decision was made by the Beijing Institute of Botany, chose Kunming as the destination and a spearhead of staff including Mr. Chen Jie and his wife, Li Xingjiang, Wang Jinwei, Mr. Li Heng and his wife, Wu Sugong and Bao Shiying came to Kunming one after another. They initially selected a site near Anning Hot Spring and then chose CatalpaWood Garden as their final decision, after which three million RMB was devoted to infrastructure and construction.

1960 - I was 44. In January, while welcoming Zhou Peiyuan, then president of Peking University and my teacher, along with his spouse and daughter on their visit to Kunming Institute of Botany, I talked about how Teacher Zhou, Chen Daisun and Teacher Li Jitong snuggled in one yard in Daoshitouxia village in Xishan after the Kunming Bombing during the resistance against Japanese invasion. I once took the instruction from Ministry of Education to persuade my teacher to assume the position as the President of Peking University at his house in Yannanyuan. From 13th to 14th in January, I attended the first meeting of the standing committee of Flora Compilation. In March, Chu Tunan came to Kunming Institute of Botany and talked about the 1st December Movement when Wen Yiduo was murdered. In April, the deputy premier Chen Yi stopped at Kunming on his return trip from Burma and inspected Kunming Institute of Botany. In the summer, we received Professor Kabanov from the Soviet Union in Beijing and the deputy director of the Beijing Institute of Botany, Jiang Jiwu accompanied the expert to visit the Botanical Resources Lab at the Kunming Institute of Botany.

1961 - I was 45. On the basis of the results of the Survey on China's Economical Flora that was led by Jiang Jiwu, I edited two volumes of Economic Plants of China that were published in the same year. In February, I accompanied the Honorable Mr. Zhu to attend the meeting on the development and utilization of tropical resources in Guangzhou. The meeting was committed to research on rubber, oil substitutes and soil and water conservation in tropical areas. From the 4th to 7th of September, I attended the extended meeting of the committee of China's Flora held in Xiyi Hotel, and the following report of the committee of natural resources in China which marked the end of an eight-year-long work of tropical resources field research. I put forward a proposal to create 24 nature reserves in Yunnan province while accompanying my teacher, Shou Zhenhuang on the visiting tour to Xiaomengyang nature reserve. In December, I travelled to Guilin to attend the Planning Meeting of Nature Reserves in Huaping district. On the 12th of the same month, my teacher Li Jitong died while serving as principal at Inner Mongolia University.

1962 - I was 46. In February, I welcomed Panchen²⁶ Qoigyi Gyaibo on his visit to the Kunming Institute of Botany. In the spring, Guo Moruo and Xia Yan on their way back from field trip to Cuba stopped in Kunming and Guo Moruo made a piece of Siyanlvshi for the Kunming Institute of Botany. From May to June, I led a team on a field trip to Cuba. We travelled via the Soviet Union(Moscow), Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia and flew to Ireland, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the northeast Canada, along with the Atlantic coast of South America to Havana, the capital city of Cuba. We toured around the country, south to the Isle of Pines and collected a small number of specimens. Li Dequa, the Minister of Health Department, brought home a large pack of plant seeds that later were planted on a trial basis in the tropical botanical garden in Hainan and south of Yunnan. From July to August, along with Professor Zhu Yancheng and others, I went on field trips to Yulongshan Mountain in Lijiang and Habaxueshan Mountain in Zhongdian for vegetation and vegetation flora.We climbed atop the Habaxueshan Mountain at a height of 5400 m the next summer. In September, the Kunming Institute of Botany ushered in Chen Shukun, the second graduate student to hold a post-graduate degree. In November, I went to Beijing to attend the First Meeting of Phytogeography in plant ecology at the Botanical Society of China and Chinese Botany was deliberated over for the first time.

²⁶Panchen: The Panchen Lama (Tibetan:, Wylie: pan chen bla ma THL Penchen Lama), or Panchen Erdeni (Tibetan:, THL Penchen Erténi), is the highest ranking lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, the lineage which controlled western Tibet from the 16th century until the Battle of Chamdo and the subsequent 1959 Tibetan uprising.

1963 - I was 47. In April, the closing meeting of four-year work at the community station of tropical biology and geology was held in Yu Jinghong in Xishuangbanna, and in the meeting a ten-year plan was drawn. Attending the meeting were Zhu Kezhen and the deputy director of Beijing Institute of Botany, Tang Peisong. The station was shut down one year after the meeting. From July to September, together with Zhou Jun, Li Heng andWang Shouzheng, I went to the southeastern Yunnan, visiting Xichou, Guangnan, Masupo and Funing, to investigate and collect specimens(more than 1000 in number). In October, I attended the thirtieth anniversary meeting of the Botanical Society of China in Beijing, and submitted three abstracts that fell into ignorance due to the Ten Years of Chaos²⁷ during the Cultural Revolution. In the same year, Fan Changjiang, the chairman of China Association of Technology and Science, honored the 80th birthday of the Honorable Mr. Qian.

²⁷ Ten Year's Chaos: The ten-year period that was filled with unrest and disruption in every walk of life during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1967.

1964 - I was 48. From January to April, Tang Chengyan, Zhang Yongtian and I went on a field trip to northern Vietnam and we were rewarded with medals from the Vietnam Commission of Science after the trip. I have to mention that when thewar between Vietnam and America broke out we had just left Hanoi. In April, Song Qingling, the vice chairmen, stopped at Kunming on her return trip from Sri Lanka and visited Kunming Institute of Botany. In early summer, Deng Xiaoping, the secretary-general and his family, Mr. Yang Shangkun and his wife, Cai Chang and Kun Sheng came to Kunming on holiday and paid a visit to Kunming Institute of Botany, accompanied by Yan Hongyan, Party provincial secretary in Yunnan. In August, I attended the Symposium on Science of Asia, Africa and South America in Beijing which was hosted by my teacher, Zhou Peiyuan. He read the Affinity between Tropical Botanical Zones in China, which was one of eight papers read at the meeting by the Chinese delegation. The abstract of the paper was published in the Chinese Science Bulletin the next year. In September, I attended the Academic Meeting on Introduction and Acclimatization of Plants at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Lushan Mountain, and along with Yu Dejun and Chen Fenghuai, I climbed Hanbokou Pass. Xiao Peigen and I went on field trips to conduct resources research in tropical botany zones in Cambodia from 16th October to the end of January in 1965.

1965 - I was 49. In January, I joined the special committee of the National Atlas of PRC and was responsible for the drawing of the vegetation map of Yunnan and Hainan. The taskwas halted because of the Ten Years of Chaos. Between the summer of 1965 and that of 1966, I began teaching phytogeography in the biology department of Yunnan University. Qian Chongshu, the teacher of my teacher, died at the end of the year.

1966-1971 - The five years between my 50th and 55th years. During the Ten Years of Chaos, scientific research was frozen and we were sent to undergo criticism and heavy labor. During this period, names of herbal specimens in the Yunnan Traditional Chinese Medicine Exhibition were revised. In 1966, I completed four volumes of plant inventories that were adapted from XIN HUA BEN CAO GANG YAO(Xinhua Outline of Herb Medicine)while living in a cowshed. In 1967, I finished Inventories of Wild Plants in Heilongtan Region that counted more than nineteen thousand words.

1972 - I was 56. The review on my history was preliminarily completed and I was appointed as the leader of production team of revolution committee. In the summer, I participated in the camp and field training in Chongming and along with Zhang Aoluo I later went to study in the party school in Caobei in Mengzi County. The wave of criticism on Lin Biao and Confucius was sweeping over the nation. In the autumn, I went to Chaotianma, Xiaocaopei in Xiliang to check the artificial cultivation of Gastrodia by Zhou Xuan.

1973 - I was 57. From 19th, February to 7th, April, I went to Guangzhou to attend the Meeting on China's Flora, China's Animals and China's Microorganisms. I was inducted as the associate editor of China's Flora with Yu Dejun as the editor-in- chief. Hou Xueyu and I visited the Honorable Mr. Zhu in Beijing and when I returned to Kunming Li Yancheng and I received Professor Joseph Needham, the famous British historian who studied Chinese history on his visit to Kunming. From 27th to 30th October I attended the first Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Editorial Committee in Beijing as the associate editor-in-chief and again on the 5th of December I attended the editorial meeting in Beijing.

1974 - I was 58. In February, Zhu Kezhen, the associate president of the Academy of Science, died. On May 3rd I attended the meeting of the editorial committee of the Institute of Botany in Beijing. In the spring, Qin Lisheng, the general-secretary, Shi Shan and I went on the trip to the Philippines, where we saw remote sensory devices and International Rice Research Institute and Sericulture Research Institute in Luzon Island(Baguio City)and observed coastal agribusiness building on coconuts. After my return to Beijing, Xu Ren, Wang Fuxiong and I paid a visit to my teacher Zhang Jingyue in the house of Yandongyuan Garden at Peking University, and at that time my teacher was deprived of the ability to walk and talk. He died in April, 1975.

1975 - I was 59. In the first ten days of April, I attended the extended meeting of the editorial committee of China's Flora that was held in Xiyuan Hotel in Beijing. From May to September, I began the field trip along Xining, Geermu to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and along the Qinghai-Tibet road to Lhasa, Rikaze, to the east to Sage and south to Shannan. On the return trip, I, along with Li Wenhua and Wu Sugong, went to the Three Gorges, ²⁸ climbed Huangshan Mountain and travelled to Xihai(or Qinghaihu Lake). In September, I was installed as the deputy director of the Committee of Science and Technology in Yunnan province until October, 1980. On October 10th I attended the meeting of the editorial committee of China's Flora held at the Beijing Institute of Botany.

²⁸ Three Gorges: The Three Gorges (Chinese: 三峡; pinyin: About this sound Sanxiá) are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the People's Republic of China. The Three Gorges have long been renowned for their spectacular scenery, and the “Three Gorges Scenic Area” is classified as an AAAAA scenic area (the highest level) by the China National Tourism Administration.29 Long March: The Long March (October 1934 to October 1935) was a mili

1976 - I was 60. From June to September, I embarked on my second field trip to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by way of the Yunnan- Tibet highway, and toured around Linzhi, the northeastern part of Tibet and Chengdu. I was shocked to hear the death of Chairman Mao in Yigong. On the return trip, I made my trip from Ya'an, passing Emei where I scaled Jinding, Erbian, Tianquan and Luding and reached Xichang, Yanyuan, Shimian, Huili, and on the way I revisited the beaten course of the Long March²⁹ in Jinshajiang. Three days aftermy arrival in Kunming, the Gang of Four³⁰ was rooted out. In August, I attended the Southern Meeting of the Editors of China's Vegetation and Illustrations of China's Vegetation. Later, I paid visits to the former residence of Chairman Mao and that of Liu Shaoqi.

²⁹ Long March: The Long March (October 1934 to October 1935) was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army.

³⁰ Gang of Four: The Gang of Four (simplified Chinese:四人帮; traditional Chinese: 四人幫; pinyin: Sìrén bang) was a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966e76) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang's leading figure was Mao Zedong's last wife Jiang Qing. The other members were Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen.[1].

1977 - I was 61. I took the honor to be the delegate of the Fifth National People's Congress where my position lasted until 1981. In April, after the National People's Congress, Iwent to Xi'an wheremy cousinWu Jingchi from Xianyang accompanied me to visit places of interests such as the Stele Forest.³¹ In response to an invitation from Wugong Association of Plant Study and Wugong Academy of Agriculture, I went to Wugong to present an academic report in a meeting hosted by Xin Shuzhi, the president of the institute and by the way visited the institute and Northwest Institute of Botany(formerly known as the Wugong Work Station). In September, I participated in the revision meeting of the Geography of Chinad- Plant Geography in Beijing. In the same year, the Labiate of the second volume of China's Flora I had edited was published for the first time since the beginning of ten-year Cultural Revolution. On August 7th I attended the work meeting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and was received by party and state leaders. I also visited the editorial committee of China's Flora at the Institute of Botany. In October, I went to Beijing to attend the symposium on Plan of National Natural Sciences and gave an introduction on the fundamentals of the international application of experimental taxonomy and experimental ecology. On the 24th I was received by party and state leaders. From 1977 to 1978, I received Xin Shuzhi in the office of the director, Sun Zhifang, who talked about the meaning of diversified economy, andWu Jiaonong, who talked with me on the source of tea flower.

³¹ Stele Forest: The Stele Forest, or Xi'an Beilin Museum (碑林; pinyin: Beilín), is a museum for steles and stone sculptures which is located in Xi'an, China. The museum is housed in a former Confucian Temple and it has housed a growing collection of Steles since 1087.

1978 - I was 62. In April, I attended the National Science Assembly in Beijing along with my second older brother and fifth older brother. The event was made special by a report by Guang Ming Daily that made quite a hit. The paper the Affinity of Tropical Botanical Zones in China earned me an award from the National Science Conference. Later my eldest brother came to Beijing and four brothers met after much ado. On the 1st of April I attended the meeting for editors from other regions as part of the Science Assembly at Beijing Institute of Botany. On April 2nd I was received by party and state leaders.

In May, I accompanied Fang Yi, the vice premier of the National Congress on his visit of Kunming Institute of Botany, and he gave directions that it is important to develop the study of botanical resources and comprehensive application. Early summer, I made acquaintance with Tang Chongshi and Yang Wenjing from Hawaii University. Later on, I received American delegates of botany in Kunming. The head of the delegation was Professor Bogorod, who worked on protein structure and function from Harvard University. I also made my first acquaintance with David William. In August, I attended the symposium on terrestrial ecological systems at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and started to select a site for subtropical and tropical board-leaved and evergreen forests. Mr. Qian Weichang and his wife came to Kunming and visited Kunming Institute of Botany. On September the 1st the extended meeting of the standing committee of editorial committee of China's Flora was held at the Beijing Institute of Botany. On the 25th the symposium of editors was held by the editorial committee of China's Flora at Cuihu Hotel in Kunming. In October, I attended the 45th anniversary of the Association of China's Botany in Kunming and was appointed as the vice president. Fang Wenpei, Shan Renhua, Li Zhengli, Yang Xianjing, Zhang Hongda, Yu Dejun and others in the botanical circle were welcomed to Kunming Institute of Botany for instructions on improvements. In December, I attended the second working meeting of the Institute of Botany at the Yunnan Institute of Tropical Botany in Menglun as the executive president while Xie Xinghe was the general-secretary.

1979 - I was 63. In February, I established the publication called Acta Botanica Yunnanica and was the chief editor. From April 15th to the end of the May, I joined the delegation formed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to visit America as the deputy head of delegation, and Tang Peisong acted as the head of the delegation with members including Yin Hongzhang, Xu Ren, Li Xingxue, and Yu Dejun. I made first acquaintances with American scholars like Peter Raven, E. H. Walke, J. Reveal. In May, Professor Wang Qiwu, my old friend and America-born forest scientist at Peking University, came to Kunming at our invitation. Early in the beginning of 40s, Wang Qi sent the Mammoth Gold tobacco seed to Cai Xitao from America for cultivation in Kunming and a book named Forests in China. Under the sponsorship of Wang Qiwu, Luo Fangshu was sent by the Institute to study in America on the experimental research on geological provenance of pine forests in Yunnan in a realization of the wish of Wang Qiwu. In August, I attended the third Yunnan congress and was elected a member of the Third Provincial Party Committee with An Pingsheng being the secretary of the Provincial Party Committee. In August, accompanied by An Pingsheng, Vice Premier Li Xiannian visited Kunming Institute of Botany and the meeting venue was set in the big lawn within the institute. In September, I led an ecological research teamon a field trip to Britain and Sweden. Ma Shijun was on this team. We visited Kew Garden and the British Museum, and on a return trip met my second older brother who was also leading a team to England. We also visited Sweden and north to Umai. In November, I gave the opening speech at the Inauguration Ceremony of the Association of China's Ecology and the symposium on ecology in Kunming. From October to December, Lu Jiaxi and I were awarded the National ModelWorker and Provincial Model Workers in our own respective provinces. When I met Lu for the first time, he was then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences while Fang Yi was the Premier.

1980 - I was 64. In March, Wataru Kimura, the head of Atagawa Botanical Garden and Ninuno Setuo, the deputy director of the Japanese Mountaineering Association paid a visit to Kunming Institute of Botany and later sent people to help the trial plantation of Dianthus caryophyllus. They also admitted advanced students from our institute. I returned a visit to Atagawa Botanical Garden and was received by Kimura Satoshi, the son of Ninuno Setuo, on my trip to Japan. In April, I attended the second national conference of the Association of Chinese Science and Technology in Beijing and was received by state and party leaders. Subsequent to the spring, I welcomed the visit of my teacher Yang Shixian who was then 85 years old but appeared to be 42, and we talked over the partnership on the establishment of the Institute of Element-organic. Afterwards, I received Huang Yusheng from Nankai University, (known by pseudonym as Zijian)the head of a travelling trip across Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, and we had ourselves photographed in a classroom that was in service in the National Southwest Associated University, which was later dissolved to be Yunnan Normal University. In April, China's Flora was completed and published in the same year.

In May, I attended the Science Symposium on the Tibetan Plateau in Beijing and made a report on the formation and development of Tibetan Botany. I was received by Deng Xiaoping, then Chairman, and Fang Yi, then vice premier, subsequent to the meeting. The work of compiling Tibetan Flora started from then. In the summer, I composed inventory of Tibetan flora and other literature during my one-month vacation. In June, Professor Hara Hiroshi, director of the Botanical Society of Japan, and his wife attended the Academic Symposium on the Tibetan Plateau in Kunming and offered academic exchanges. They were guided on the tour to Stone Forest, Qiongzhusi Temple and other scenic places. Hara Hiroshi told us that his wife was not his daughter in case of any misunderstanding because his wife looked so young. In the same month, Nakayama Houkei from Japan Broadcasting Corporation came to our institute to negotiate the joint publication of Yunnan's Flora and laid a solid foundation sealing the publication agreement. In July, I attended the editorial meeting of the first volume of Biology of China's Encyclopedia in Beijing. In August, I welcomed Peter H. Raven, the chairman of Botanical Society of America, and guided him on the trip to the Stone Forest. Min Tianlu and I accompanied him to visit plants of Emei mountain and I climbed Jingding for the third time. D. Bouford from Arnold Arboretum and B. Bartholomeo from the California Academy of Sciences went on a three-month-long field trip to Shennongjia Forestry District in the southern Hubei province, escorted by a team from the Beijing Institute of Botany, whose members included He Shanan, Zhang Ailuo, Chen Xinqi and Zhen Zhong and team leader is Tang Yancheng. In September, I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Nikko, Sendai and Sapporo in Japan at the invitation of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(JSPS)and met scholars including Shibata Shou, Maekawa Fumio, Tsushima Shang, Kitamura Shirou, Iwatsuki Mango, Ohashi Hiroshi, Oda Showa. When I returned from Japan to Shanghai, I met Wang Yuanhua again. He had been relieved of the title of Hufeng Elements(Hu Feng's counter-revolutionary proposal)and took charge of the culture and history part in China's Encyclopedia. In November, American-born Chinese Doctor Hu Xiuying came to Kunming and she wrote “the research on Yunnan's flora is a glaring beacon for future studies on southwest plants” for the book after visiting the exhibition hall. In December, Kunio Iwatsuki(expert on ferns and spore plants)from botany of the faculty of science in Kyoto University was welcomed at the institute and made an academic representation. Accompanied by Zang Mu, they went on field trips to Cangshan Mountain in Dali, and in return, Zang Mu and Wu Sugong were warmly received on their trip to Japan. In December, the 35th Anniversary of the December First Movement was held in Kunming for the first time after the liberation war, and in the same month I attended a meeting held by the academician Niu Jingyi, who was an important member on the team that succeeded in insulin synthesis and who made a speech.

1981 - I was 65. From the 4th to 20th of January, I attended the extended editorial meeting of Flora at the Kuangquan Hotel in Guangzhou province, and later the Third Meeting of the Committee of Man and the Biosphere and the First Research Results Exchange Meeting. In February, Hu Qiaomu, member of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and his wife Gu Yu, the head of the Planning Bureau at the Chinese Academy of Sciences visited the Institute and wrote the inscription, “Hope Yunnan Institute of Botany will continue making progress and serving the nation and the people.” Hu Qiaomu had been the senior leader in the Party Group at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and informed me and Wang Zhihua of the proposal of the Double Hundred Policy. From February to April, we went on a field trip to Venezuela, where we visited the capital Caracas, as well as Brazil and Argentina in South America. The tour also included Cataratas del Iguazú, the largest conservancy in the world, which is situated on the border of Brazil and Argentina, as well as Manaus, which sits in the middle of the Amazon River, the largest river in the world. On March 9th, Cai Xitao(1911-1981)died at 70. He Puan, Zhang Aoluo, Chen Xinqi, Ying Junsheng, Zheng Zhong and others were sent for overseas study in early summer. In April, I received Professor R. J. Mitchell and his colleagues from the Royal Horticultural Society, and I went on a field trip to Dali with Feng Guomei in the same month. In May, I attended the fourth meeting of the Academic Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the standing committee of Biological Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was elected as a member of the presidium of the Academy of Sciences. In the same month, I went on a field trip to Britain, namely the nature reserves in the southeast and southwest of England and Scotland and northern oilfields in the north. The trip was a return trip of the visit of the British Queen and the Prince of Welsh to Xishuangbanna in Kunming. Xu Zaifu, Li Wenhua and Ma Desan were among the team members. We were honored to have the chance to enter Buckingham Palace and listened to the reports on nature conservation made by the Prince of Wales From the beginning of July, the joint publication of Yunnan's Flora in Japanese with NHK was rolled out and it was published in 1986. Afterwards, Professor Tanaka Osamu from Hiroshima University and Fuwa Tohru fromWakunaga Pharmaceutical Co., Sasaki Akihisa, Hiromichi Matuura and others were welcomed to visit the Institute. The cooperation with Professor Tanaka and with the company had quite a long history. In August, a team of Japanese researchers on Chinese traditional medicine, whose advisorwas TakemotoTunematu, and teamleader is Kozawa Mitugi were welcomed as a part of an academic exchange. Subsequent to the visit, I went on a tour to visit nature reserves in Brisbane with Hou Xueyu. In September, a mission to China from the House of Flowers in the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan, which was led by Ohya Isao and Yoshino Isao(the deputy leader), was welcomed to the Institute and trees were planted in memory of the event. The mission gifted us Japanese-cultivated Dendranthema indicum in return. With an order from the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Academy of Sciences, Lady Gaby Lock was admitted as a PhD. student under my instruction and the title of her research was Formation and Features of Flora Zones in cCentral Yunnan. She went to Cangshan Mountain in Dali, Xishuangbanna, Wuding(Shizishan Mountain), Luquan(Sayingpan), Yipinglang, Yimen(Dalongkou)and other places near Kunming for her field work and she returned to her country after the completion of her graduate thesis in September of 1983. In October, I received American-born Chinese Doctor Li Huilin, the famous scholar on Phytotaxonomy and Phytogeography at our institute. He had visited Kunming during the Resistance War against Japanese Invasion and I met him at his meeting withmy teacherWuWenzhen. In 1979, Iwelcomed him to Beijing. He made an academic report and visited the exhibition hall where he left the note, “Speaking as someone who studied botany, I would like to express my heartfelt admiration for your academic contribution and in-depth study and hope the momentum can be continued in the study of science and development of resources.” In October, the review on Kunming Institute of Botany began with the review team from the Biology Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The team members included Zhou Weishan, Jiang Youxu, Sun Ruyong, Zhang Hongda, Guo Xingxian and Xue Pangao. The review team leader was Xu Guanren, the director of Biology Division, the special leader was Xu Ren and the deputy team leader was Yu Dejun. The review result was made known to lower levels on October 2nd 1982. In the same month, the JapaneChina Friendship Association headed by Nobel Prize-winner Kaya Seiji was welcomed to China. In November, I went to Xujiabei in Ailaoshan Mountain in Jingdong to choose the site for an observation station of evergreen board-leaved forest ecological systems in hills, and I wrote an investigation report in 1987.

1982 - I was 66. In the spring, I was elected to be the representative of the Sixth National Congress and my position lasted for four years. After the founding of the National Science and Technology Committee, the project of “the mass Plantation of Rubber Trees at latitude 18° to 24° North” that was led by He Kang, Luo Zongluo and I, was awarded the first prize of National Technology Invention. In February, I became an editor for Illustrations of Yuanse Chinese Herbs in cooperation with Japan, and there were eight volumes until 1986. In March, Pei Shengji was sent to study abroad in East-West Center in Hawail University and he returned in December in 1985. In June, I went to Xining for the review of the Northwest Plateau Biology Institute and after the meeting travelled to Xinjiang at the invitation of the Xinjiang Plant Society. I gave a lecture, and together with Lv Chunchao went on a field trip to Qilianshan Mountain, Zhang Ye, and to Urumchi by train. The route was lined from Turpan city, Ili, Bingdaban, Xinyuan Fruit Valley, where we saworiginal Malus mill. forests to Bayinbluk Grassland. In July, I attended the Symposium on a Science Field Trip to Fanjingshan Mountain in Guizhou. From the 12th to 18th of August, I attended the meeting of the standing committee of the Flora Editorial committee held by the state council in Beijing. In September, I became a member of the committee of Central Government Scientific Work Committee of China Democratic League. On 25th of September, Xu Ren, Hou Xueyu and I were invited to attend the symposium on North American Flora in South Asia that was held at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and I presented my paper Significance of Disjunction Distribution in Pacific Ocean at the symposium. I was photographed with Peter H. Raven and Axelod, and met He Shanan, Zhang Aoluo, Chen Xinqi and others. In September, I paid a visit to Union Medical University after my second elder brother fell ill. In October, I attended Symposium on Quaternary Glaciation and Periglaciation in China in Dunxi, Anhui at the invitation of Shi Yafeng from Academic Divisions and presented On the Evolution of North Temperature Conifers at the conference while speaking about the influence of Quaternary Glaciation on Taiga. After the meeting, I visited my hometown in She county, Huizhou. In November, I received Yin Hongzhang, the president of the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology; Lou Chenghou, Shen Shanjiong and I were photographed in Dapuji. In the same month, American-born Professor Ren Zhigong and his wife, who were schoolmates at Peking University, were warmly welcomed in Dapuji. Later, I welcomed the America-born scholar Yuan Jialiu and his wife Wu Jianxiong, (a famous physicist)who graduated from the National Central University, to our institute.

1983 - I was 67. I was elected to be the Life Member of Association of American Botany. From the 8th to 18th of January, I presided over the manuscript meeting of the standing committee of the editorial committee of Flora of China. In January, PhytogeographydChinese Natural Geology(Shang), whichWang Hesheng and I edited, was published and the volume(Xia) of Vegetation Geology by Hou Xueyu. On March 19th, when I was president of the Kunming Branch Institute of CAS, Li Xun, the deputy president of CAS, the director of Northeast Branch and famous metallurgist, was welcomed to our institute. The same evening Tan Qinglin, the director of Kunming Institute of Precious Metals, treated Li Xun to Cross-The-Bridge Rice Noodles.³² Li Xun died of acute pancreatitis at night. The funeral was prepared and carried out in Kunming. In May, at the Presidium Meeting when Yu Wen was the general-secretary of CAS and when the Chinese Social Academy of Sciences was not separated from CAS, Qian Xuesen put forward the idea that humans are capable of supernatural powers. This idea met opposition from Yu Guangyuan, and I withheld my view that I was against the proposal. I published a paper to expose the falsity of human-shaped foti in the People's Daily Overseas Edition. The paper was later referenced by He Zuoxiu. In May, I visited the Northwest China Institute of Botany. On the return trip, I visited Lishan and the Terracotta Warriors and met my cousin Wu Jingchi in Xian Yang. In July, the Biology Department of Academy Division began to reviewNortheast Institute of Forestry and Soil(Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences). I visited Changbaishan Mountain and Qianshan Mountain.Wang Fuxiong and I were photographed in one mesophorbium near Tianchi. In August, accompanied by Li Heng, I went on a field trip to Fanjingshan Mountain and later to the south of Hunan province. In Fanjingshan Mountain, Li Yongkang escorted us on the trip and in southern Hunan, Professor Qi Chengjing from Central South University of Forestry and Technology kept us company. Later, we went from Jingshou, Yongshun Village, stopped at mixed mesophytic forests in Tianpingshan Mountain and reached Sangzhi and Dayong. I made the report in Zhangjiajie and Changsha and proposed to integrate tourist attractions in Cili, Sangzhi and Dayong into one national park. In September, I participated in the review ofWuhan Institute of Botany and Moshan Botanical Garden. In October, I resigned from the leading post and Zhou Jun became the acting director. In December, I accidentally fell andmy left femur was fractured. I was hospitalized in First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University and attended to by my sonWu Jing for eight months. After recovering from the accident, I had to rely on a crutches to walk.

³² Cross-The-Bridge Rice Noodles: Cross-the-bridge noodles is a rice noodle soup from Yunnan province, China. It is one of the most well-known dishes in Yunnan cuisine.

1984 - Iwas 68. In January, Iwas appointed as chief-editor for the Flora volume and associate editor for the Life Science volume by Chinese Academy of Sciences for China Contemporary Series, with Wang Yinglai as the chief-editor for thewhole volume. The series was completed in 1999. In April, the Yunnan Ecological Economics Society engagedme as an advisor. In October, I received Professor P. S. Ashton, the director of Arnold Horticulture at Harvard University and an expert on Dipterocarpaceae to the institute and went to Xishuangbanna to affirm the validity of tree names, including Shorea chinensis. In November, the committee of Mountain Study in the Geological Society of China was founded and Iwas engaged as an advisor. Onmy trip to Chengdu I met Mrs. Ji Hezi, the daughter of Ji Zhenhuai, and her espouse. In the same year, Inventory of Plant Seeds in Yunnan was completed. From the 26th of November to the 2nd of December, the meeting of the standing editorial committee of China's Flora was held at Kunming Institute of Botany and I held a concurrent post as the director of branch institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

1985 - I was 69. I was engaged on the editorial committee of nature reserve map in People's Republic of China as the deputy director. In the early spring, my wife and I went back to our hometown at the invitation of the political consultative committee in Yangzhou and visited my sworn brother Jiang Zhengxin who was then teaching chemistry at Yangzhou Middle School. I revisited West Lake and Xiaojinshan Mountain, passing Yangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi to Yuantouzhu. On the way I visited my eighth younger brother in Qi Shuyan. In May, Professor Yuasa Koushi, the successor to the famous Japanese botanist Maekawa Fumio, paid a visit to our institute and gifted us one Didierea ballon from Madagascar. The same month saw my trip to Guiyang to attend the workshop on plant geology together with Sun Hang and Peng Hua. And we visited Zhang Zonghe again. In June, I went on a field trip to Shandong with Lv Chunchao being my company. Later, I went to Qufu, Tai'an, Jinan and Qingdao with Duan Yahua and others. Li Faceng accompanied me on the trip to Taishan Mountain where we traversed Riguan Peak to Stone Valley. We encountered Xu Ren in Laoshan Mountain in Qingdao. From June to July, I went to Munich, Tübingen, Heidelberg, Bonn, Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg to give lectures and that is how I met K. Kubitzki. I was received by Gaby Lock in Munich and later was invited to join the editing for five genera in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants II. I also gave lectures at the University of Bonn where I met Professor H. Barhertt for the first time and we exchanged our slides. Respectively, I went to Britain with Lu Anmin from the Beijing Institute of Botany and Lin Yourun from South China Botanical Garden, and attended the third International Symposium on Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, where I acted as the Chinese liaison and presented the fundamentals of Parashorea chinensis Wang Hsie in China. In August, the academician Wang You from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and the academician Xing Qiyi fromCollege of Chemistry from Peking University were welcomed to visit our institute where they used to be members of the academic committee of chemistry lab at our institute. On 4th September, the meeting of the editorial committee of China's Flora was held in Beijing. In the winter, I had the honor to be the honorary president of the Kunming Institute of Botany. I attended a meeting held in the United Nations Mountain Studies Center in Guanxian County in Sichuan province and was asked by Li Wenhua to deliver a speech on suggestions on overall management of small watersheds, which was sent to Intecol Bulletin. In November, I attended the Seminar on Biology Science Development Strategy by the Biological Division held by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and presented the idea that studies on biological resources are the fifth pillar for the development of Biological Sciences. In the same year, I was elected to be an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Sun Honglie, the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was received at our institute. In the winter, I taught at the workshop on Floristic Plant Geography held by the Botanical Society of Yunnan China in Shizishan Mountain. Afterwards, I participated in the manuscript meeting of the editorial committee of China's Flora in Gulangyu in Xiamen. I went to visit Yu Dejun and Xu Ren in Affiliated Hospital to Peking University Health Science Center prior to my trip to Xiamen. On the return trip, I travelled, passing through southern Fujian province, to Guangzhou and Kunming.

1986 - I was 70. In January, Wang Yinglai, the president of Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, visited the institute and talked about the editing of Biology of Contemporary China and the work on sweet caper protein. From the 3rd to 12th of March, I went to Tokyo to make the final draft for Yunnan's Flora in Japanese at the invitation of NHK. I met Hara Hiroshi who died ofmyasthenia gravis not long aftermy visit. In April, the plant chemistry lab was opened and I was a member of the first academic committee. In May, I attended the Awarding Ceremony of Technological Advancement at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the work from the Tibetan field trip was awarded the special prize. In the latter half of June, I attended the Third National Congress of China Association for Science and Technology in Beijing and was received by party and state leaders on the 27th. In July, I went on a field trip to Songpan, Huanglongsi Temple and Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan province. In September, I revisited Jiuzhaigou Valley for scientific purposes with Li Heng and others. In November, the America-born Japanese Dr. Koyama Tetuo from New York Botanical Garden was welcomed to our institute. I met his wife, who is originally from Suzhou, in 1979 when I visited America. He revisited Kunming at the commencement of the 21st century when he was compiling Burmese Flora. I attended the editorial meeting of China's Flora in the Hostel of the Academy of Military Sciences PLA China from the 22nd to 27th of October. In November, I met the academician Qian Boagong in Wuhan to embark on a field trip to Shennongjia in Fang county in southern Hubei province, and I saw hemlock and Emmenopterys henryi that had lived over one thousand years. In the same month, I attended the Thirtieth Anniversary Ceremony of the Founding of Comprehensive Survey Committee on Natural Resources. In retrospect of what happened in 1953, we talked about how Luo Zongluo, Ma Rongzhi and I supported one another in the after-rain flooding in Hainan province. As the Fortieth Anniversary Ceremony of the December First Movement in Kunming was held from the end of October to the first of December; Yuan Yongxi, Ma Qianhe(Ma Shitu), Li Xiao, Yin Lvtang and others gathered in Kunming Normal University and a ceremony was also held in Kunming Institute of Botany where I met Ma Shitu for the very first time.

1987 - I was 71. In the spring, I was elected the representative of Seventh NPC and served till 1992. In March, I received Xu Jianchang, a Japanese-born Taiwanese scholar on agrostology to our institute and he took charge of translating Yunan's Flora. On the last Sunday of April, I attended the Fifth Anniversary of Graduation of Ninth Grade and Cerebration of Founding of Tsinghua University. I metmy teachers Chen Daisun and Yu Pingbo and also schoolmates, including Ding Yanjie, Liu Cengfu and Xue Gongchuo. Meanwhile Liu Tong and I went to visit Liu's cousin Wang Jianjun who was the secretary to the president Mei Yiqi and a performer of Laosheng(a dignified older role in Kunqu³³). From the 5th to 12th of May, I attended the extended meeting of Editorial Committee of China's Flora held in Nanjing Botanical Garden and was elected the chief editor. Later, I attended the Founding Ceremony of Open Laboratory of Systematic and Revolutionary Botany at the Beijing Institute of Botany in Beijing and served as one member of the academic committee of the lab. In the first meeting that was held in the lab, I made first acquaintance with F. Ehrendorfer, the honorary director of the lab and famous Austrian scholar. In June, I attended the First Youth Botany Practitioner Symposium in Beijing. From the 24th of July to the 1st of August, I attended the Fourteenth World Plant Conference in West Berlin and was asked to read the paper “Significance of Flora in Hengduan Mountain Region” and proposed suggestions on the systematic position of Acanthochlamys bracteata and flora sources. The paper was published in Botanical Magazine Tokyo in 1988. In October, I attended the Representative Meeting of Yunnan Association of Science and Technology and was elected president of the Yunnan Association of Science and Technology. I was elected to be the liaison for the Soviet Union Association of Botany in the same year. The editorial work of volumes one through ten of Tibetan Florawas completed. From the 31st of October to the 10th November, I presided over the editorial committee of China's Flora in the Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry.

³³ Kunqu: 昆曲One kind of opera that originated from Kunming.

1988 - I was 72. I was the president of Yunnan Association of Science and Technology. I received Yang Zhenning, the Nobel Prize Laureate, and the artist Xiong Bingming, who was an overseas study returnee from France, and I presided over the academic report conference of Yang Zhengning. At the dinner party we reminisced about how we stood in the Kunming investigation and days back in the National Southwest Associated University in 1938. Later, Xiong Bingming created three copper sculptures named Goddess the True, The Good and The Beautiful to decorate the scientific exhibition hall. In May and April, Zhou Xian and I were invited by Ding Baozhan to give lectures on phytogeography at Henan Agriculture University, and later the same at Henan Normal University in Xinxiang. On the way, I took the opportunity to view the peonies in Luoyang. In the early summer, Zheng Guochang and I were invited to give lectures at the Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Subsequent to my return from Chengdu, I was on the brink of death due to gallstone-induced acute pancreatitis, which turned out to be edematous rather than necrotizing. My daughter Wu Yu attended to me through my rehabilitation. On August 28, 1987, the project A Comprehensive Study on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Uplift and Its Influence on Natural Environment and Human Activity, which I participated in, was awarded the first prize of the National Natural Science. At the same time, the magazine that I was a chief-editor was awarded the Second Prize of National Natural Science. In September, I attended the Symposium of the International Association of Botanical Gardens(IABG)in Nanjing and Vernon Heywood, the British Botanist, presided over the meeting. I read my paper that was published in the Symposium on Introduction and Acclimatization of Plants. Between the 1st and 11th of October, along with Cui Hongbin, Dai Lunkai, Chen Xinqi, Xia Zhendai and others, I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden in the USA negotiate the joint publication of Flora of China. We also attended the First Joint Editorial Meeting. In October, I presided over the Symposium of International Botanical Resources at our institute. I attended the Fifty-Fifth Anniversary of the Chinese Association of Botany in Beijing and continued my position as the deputy-president.

1989 - I was 73. At the turn of spring and summer, the cholecystectomy by doctor Lan Hu was a success. On the 3rd of June, academician Shen Yunang, my wife and I joined the review on projects for National Natural Science Foundation at Beijing Agricultural University. In September, I attended the Editorial Meeting of China's Flora in Fuzhou and went on a field trip to Gushan Mountain, Wuyishan Mountain Nature Reserve, where Professo Lin Laiguan accompanied us. I climbed atop Wuyishan Mountain, where I could see Gongqingcheng in Jiangxi. The field trip lasted for one week. From the 15th to 31st, Yang Chongren, my wife and I went to Nagasaki, Kyushu, Hiroshima, and Kyoto in Japan at the invitation of Tanaka Osamu from the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan and Hiroshima University, and reported on the 36th Annual Meeting of Pharmaceutical Society of Japan in Kumamoto. In Nagasaki I met Ohhashi Yutaka who visited our institute and gifted us Japanese shells. On November 1st, I was awarded an Honor Medal for contribution to science in our nation. My wife and I later attended the International Symposium on Rational Utilization of Tropical Artificial Communities and Soil in Tropical and Subtropical Regions in Haikou, Hainan and I made a speech at the conference. P. H. Raven and I presided over The Second Joint Editorial Meeting of Flora of China, which was held in Guangzhou. I attended the Project Initiation Meeting of Studies on Seed Plants Flora in China of National Natural Science Foundation Key Project that was presided over by academician Wu Zhonglun and the project was approved. More than ten universities and institutes, including the Beijing Institute of Botany, South China Institute of Botany, Zhongshan Univeristy, Mongolia University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, the Northeast Institute of Plateau Biology and Yunnan University were united to form a project research team. Kunming Institute of Botany was the leading research unit and I was the leading researcher of the project. At the end of the year, Lu Jiaxi, president of CAS, came to visit the institute and Zhou Jun and the director of our institute received him. Within the year, the project Basic Studies on Taxonomy and Flora of Botanical Resources was awarded the second prize of Natural Science Award by CAS. Yunnan's Vegetation, under the co-authorship of Zhu Yancheng and myself, was awarded the second prize of Progress in Science and Technology, and Inventory of Seed Plants in Yunnan, which I edited, was awarded the third prize of Progress in Science and Technology.

1990 - I was 74. In April, I went to Dinghushan in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province and presided over the Southern China Meeting on Studies of Seed Plants Flora. Subsequent to the meeting, I, accompanied by Professor Zhang Hongda, went to Heishiding Nature Reserve and visited the observation post at Zhongshan University. In June, I travelled to Lan Zhou to preside over the Southern China Meeting on Studies on Seed Plants Flora and later went to Xingrongshan Mountain and Ma Xianshan for scientific research. From the 8th to 28th of July, Qi Shuying of the Natural Science Foundation, Li Heng from Kunming Institute of Botany and I travelled to Canada. On the 8th, we flew from Vancouver on the west coast to Montreal in the east, and on the 28th, we departed to Niagara Falls. On the 27th of July, I travelled from Canada to Boston in the USA and met my wife at Harvard University. We lived at Hu Xiuying's place and I worked at the Specimens Lab for two months until the 11th of November. I attended the Third Joint Editorial Meeting of Flora of China between China and American in the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. I paid my third visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden and verified relevant specimens for the garden. Onmy return trip, Iwent to Hawaii and was received by Mr. Tang Chongshi and his wife, Tang Chongshi. On the 12th of October, I flew back to Shanghai and participated in the review of the work of Hu Jiaqi from Fudan University. Later, I headed to Hangzhou and attended the Editorial Meeting of China's Flora that was held at Hangzhou Botanical Garden. After the meeting I visited Tianmushan Mountain Nature Reserve and Kaishan Temple. My trip continued in Tonglu(where I climbed Tongjunshan Mountain), Jiande, Xinanjiang Reservoir(also known as Thousand Island Lake)and the Hai Rui Memorial Temple. On the 26th of December, I attended the Founding Ceremony of the YDPA(Yunnan Disaster Prevention Association)in Kunming.

1991 - I was 75. In April, Hou Xueyu fell ill and died. InMay, Ma Shijun died in a car accident. When the accident occurred, I was in Beijing so I paid my condolences. In April, the Open Lab of Phytogeography was upgraded to National Key Lab and the extraction of pigment(the coupling of organic and inorganic compounds)was proposed. I attended the Meeting of Academy Division of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences for the fourth time in Beijing and was elected to be academician. In the same year, together with Zeng Chengkui and Zhu Hongfu, I wrote a paper to call for the attention on the editing of San Zhi and concrete measures to deal with difficulty in the process. Later the compilations of San Zhi had been granted a joint sponsorship from State Scientific and Technological Commission, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. In October, I attended the forth Representative Meeting of the Yunnan Association for Science and Technology, and was engaged as Honorary President of Yunnan Association for Science and Technology(YAST). Five volumes of Yunnan's Flora were completed. Three volumes(Shang/Zhong/Xia³⁴)of XIN HUA BEN CAO GANG YAO(Xinhua Outline of Herb Medicine)and Cao Xitao Festschrift were completed. In December, the biology volume of Chinese Encyclopedia was published.

³⁴ Shang/Zhong/Xia: In Chinese are 上中下. In this context, they indicate sequential names of three volumes.

1992 - I was 76. In February, the monument and bronze sculpturewere built in memory of Cai Xitao and the president Zhou Guangzhao attended the ceremony and planted a dawn redwood as the cornerstone. In April, subsequent to the Sixth Academician Assembly, Chairman Jiang Zeming received members who served in the presidium of CAS in Ziguage, Zhongnanhai upon the change of leadership. Jiang Zeming gave a five-minute speech on ecological agriculture. In May, I took a field trip to Mongolia work station, CAS at the invitation of Academician Li Bo and I had the chance to view feather grass steppe for the first time in my life. After the trip, I went back to Huhehot. In June the meeting of the fourth joint committee of Flora of China was held in Kunming and Gilbert from Kew, the Royal Botanic Gardens honored the meeting with his presence. From the 11th of July to the 1st of October, along with Li Dezhu, I went to Kew Gardens in Britain for the verification of specimens, and during my visit theWorld Symposium on Fabaceae was held at Kew Gardens. Wu Delin from South China Institute of Botany also attended the meeting. I was glad to meet H. Hanelt again. I travelled to Paris in France and passing Switzerland to Austria, where I visited Museum Quartier and the Institute of Botany in Vienne University. During the trip I met F. Ehrendorfer again. In October, the project Taxonomy Geological Distribution and Evolution of Labiate in China was awarded the second prize of State Nature Science Award CAS in 1992.

1993 - I was 77. In the early spring, my wife and I were invited to the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing and also paid visits to old friends Mr. Li Qingkui and his wife and Huang Shengbai. Afterwards we were driven by cars sent by the Institute of Soil Science on a tour around the Twenty-four Bridges and Wu Daotai Mansion in Yangzhou, and then down to Jiangyin, Changshu, Changzhou highway to the residence of my eighth younger brother in Qieshuyan where our reunion was photographed.

In June, the academician Shen Qizhen from the Health Department died days after his visitin our institute and I went to express my condolences. I met Mr. Shen for the first time in 1953 when I made my trip to the Soviet Union and in the 1980s he and my second older brother visited the institute. I wrote a poem in memory of him. In July, Wu Sugong and I attended the Mediumterm Coordination Meeting for the Study in Flora Zoning. Subsequent to the meeting, accompanied by Professor Qi Chengjing from Central South University of Forestry and Technology, I went to visit the Mausoleum of Emperor Yandi in Zhuzhou and Jinggangshan Mountain in western Ganzhou County. From the 25th of August to the 6th of September, my wife and I went to visit Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama and other cities in Japan. I attended the Symposium for Renowned Scholars from America, Britain, China and Japan, and reported on Human Ecology, Plant Resources and Modern Agriculture. Umesao Tadao accompanied me in visiting the Museum on Human Culture. I attended the Fifth International Botany Conference in Yokohama and reported on Connections and Differences between ChinaeJapan and China-Himalaya Flora at the Taxonomy Meeting. I attended the Fifth Joint Editorial Meeting of Flora of China in Sun City in Japan. Japanese scholars began to participate in the editing of FOC. Japanese scholars gifted me two Pteridophyllaceae plants of special monotypic family that I then gifted to the Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden, although they unfortunately didn't survive. In October, I attended the SixthAnniversary Conference of the Chinese Institute of Botany in Chengfu and reported at the Taxonomy Meeting. The same month saw the publication of Xinhua Outline of Herbal Medicine (Three volumes: Shang Zhong Xia), which was subsequently awarded the second prize of the Natural Science Award in Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In December, the five volumes of Flora of Yunnan I edited were awarded the First Prize of Awards for Science and Technology Progress in Yunnan Province. From the 6th to 20th of December, Wu Sugong and I went to Thailand and met Professor Phengklai at the National Herbarium in Bangkok. We continued our trip to Chiang Mai and the Golden Triangle, after which we returned to Kunming. Accompanied by Zhou Zhekun, I went to Hangzhou for the Acceptance of Flora of Zhengjiang and visited Tianyi Pavilion where I sawthe handwriting bymy father's uncle. Later I proceeded to Fenghua.

1994 - I was 78. In January, the project Taxonomy, Geological Distribution and Evolution of China's Labiate was awarded the second prize of the National Natural Science. In the spring, I reported Rational Utilization and Effective Protection of Botanical Resources to the Yunnan Party Committee at Wenquan Hotel. In March, Chinese Science Publication published The Pioneer to GreendRenown Botanist Wu Zhengyi(whose editors are Zhou Hong and Wu Yu)as part of “Outstanding Experts on Science in China”. The Seventh Academician Assembly of CAS and the Founding Ceremony Chinese Academy of Engineering were held in Beijing and began from June 3rd to 8th. I attended the Academician Assembly for the first time and my title was changed to Academician. In early June, Wu Rending(in his 58th year), the fourth son of my teacher Wu Wenzhen, and his cousin Cai Zuhuan came to visit me.Wu Rending took after his father. When the end of July was approaching, Wu Renwei, the third son of my teacher Wu, sent us a letter informing us of updates of their family.

In July, I attended the Sixth Joint Editorial Meeting of Flora of China in Nanjing. On the 2nd of September, I attended the Sixth- Eighth Anniversary Celebration of the founding of the School of Biology Tsinghua University and Tenth Anniversary of the Reestablishment of the School of Biology Tsinghua University in Beijing.

1995 - I was 79. In January, I attended the Symposium on New Year's Celebration and the Reinforcement of Science Popularization held by the Yunnan Association for Science & Technology. I spoke about Thousand-year-old Human-shaped Fo-Ti as an artificial product of molding rather a result of natural process and the necessity to unveil the phony science and redouble efforts in science popularization. I went to Edinburgh to attend the seventh joint Editorial Meeting from the 4th to 15th of April. Afterwards, I flew to Saint Petersburg to seek some answers from specimens at the Komarov Institute of Botany where I met Professor Linchevski and Professor Kirpichnikov after a separation of forty years. On the 22th of May, I returned home from the foreign field trip. In June, I attended the Sixth International Scientific Symposium on Araceae. In October, I was awarded a Life Science Award for Science and Technology Progress by Hong Kong Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation. A new post of secretary was to be introduced in the institute and Yang Yunshan was appointed to the post. On the 28th of October, I attended the Yunnan Science and Technology Conference. The project Wintry Expedition on Dulongjiang Plants and Floristic of Seed Plant in Dulongjiang, which I had participated in, was awarded the First Prize of Natural Science Award CAS in the same month.

1996 - I was 80. In the spring, I went to Xishuangbanna Tropical Bontanical Garden in Menglun for the last time. Together with Mr. Guo Xingxian and his wife, and Huang Shuqiong, I attended the Commemoration of Professor Cai Xitao and unveiled the stone sculpture for her. Later we were photographed together. I also went to P. chinensis forest in Mengla for the last field trip and walked the suspension bridge.

In February, I attended the Yunnan International Symposium on Camellia reticulata. In May, the Acceptance Meeting of Key Project Floristic of Seed Plant in China by National Natural Science Foundation was held in Beijing. I made a summary report on the project and the project was approved. On 5th, June, I attended the Eighth Academician Assembly CAS in Beijing and a group photo was taken in witness of the event. From the 28th to 29th of June, Chen Yiyu, the deputy president, and I attended the Cross-strait Symposium on Animal Ecology at the Kunming Institute of Zoology CAS. In July, the International Symposium on East Asia Floristic Features and its Evolution in Kunmingwas held in Kunming. P. H. Raven, K. Kubitzki, Kunio Iwatsuki, W. Barthlot, Pimenov and others made their presence and reported at the meeting. My 80th Birthday Ceremony was held in Kunming by CAS and the local government, and Xu Zhihong, deputy president of the institute, and other leaders attended the ceremony. In August, Biology in China was awarded Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment by the Hong Kong Qiu Shi Foundation and the awardees were Wu Zhengyi, Rao Yinzhi, Zeng Chengkui and Li Xiwen. I distributed my prize to the editing staff of Biology of China. In the same year, the project Community Ecology and Flora of Dipterocarpus spp Forests in Xishuangbanna, I had participated in, was awarded the Third Prize of the Yunnan Natural Science Award thanks to the efforts made by Zhu Huasheng.

1997 - Iwas 81. Itwas on the Mid-Autumn Festival in September that my wife and I were invited to attend the fourth award ceremony of the Hong Kong Qiushi Technology Foundation in Hangzhou. Wei Zhi gifted us a Long Quan Bao Jian(Sword made in Longquan), which I passed on to the Academician Chen Yaozu who is member of academic committee of the phytochemical laboratory. At the invitation of Cross-strait Symposium on Environment, Resource and Ecological Conservation, my wife and I went to Taiwan, and while on the way we visited the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong. In Taiwan, we were received by Hu Xiuying, Hong Deyuan and Chen Xinqi, and travelled from Taichung City, Taipei, Keelung City and Taidong County down to Tainan city and the coastal areas. It is a pity that I didn't climb the mountain. The trip ended then with fair amount of specimens collected.

1998 - I was 82. In April, my wife and I went to 100th Anniversary Ceremony of Peking University and made a report at the LS conference while highlighting East Asian - North American and East Asian - Latin American Genera. In May, Academician Li went on a field trip to Hungary and died of a car accident. I was honored to write the preface for his symposium. In June, Kunming undertook to hold the World Horticultural Expo and with a synergy of leaders in our institute two hothouses of subtropical and mountain plants and one arboretum were established. In July, at the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the Beijing Institute of Botany, I submitted a draft of Five-class System of Gymnosperm, Eight-class System of Angiosperms to the president of the conference, Hong Deyuan. Photographs were taken of Yang Sen, Zhao Xingwu and I. On the 2nd of September, I attended the Fourth Meeting of Yunnan Academic Degree Committee. In December, I attended the Twelfth Annual Meeting and Six-fifth Academic Meeting in Botanical Society of China that was held in Xianhu Botanical Garden in Shenzhen and toured around the garden. In the same month, I wrote the script YUAN BEN SHAN CHUANG, JI MING CAO MU³⁵ for the 60th Anniversary Ceremony of the Founding of Kunming Institute of Botany and also wrote articles to memorialize this event.

³⁵ Yuan Ben Shan Chuang, Ji Ming Cao Mu: In Chinese are 原本山川, 极命草木 and its meaning is that origins of Mountains and rivers lie with herbs and plants.

1999 - Iwas 83. I attended theWorld Horticultural Expo Garden Kunming and in the same year, Database of Seed Plants in China was constructed into an embryonic form by Ding Tuoya and me. The database was showcased by Ding in the Sixth World Botany that was held in St. Louis. On the 8th of August, when Premier Zhu Rongji arrived in Yunnan on his inspection tour, I ventured to propose to Premier Zhu to build a database of Germplasm Resources and the suggestion was approved. In October, I, together with my wife and my son, went to Osaka to attend the Award Ceremony of International COSMOS by the Japanese Flower Grassland Exposition Memorial Society. I took the opportunity to visit Tokyo and Kyoto and paid my third visit to the residence of Professor Kitamura Shirou. In the same year, the project Studies on Floral and Faunal Regions in the Brahmaputra Valley, which I had participated in, was awarded the second prize of National Natural Science Award CAS. My students Sun Hang and Zhou Zhekun applied for the prize for me.

2000 - I was 84. In February, I went to Shanghai to give lectures at the invitation of Science of Plant Physiology, SIBS, CAS and Institute of Biodiversity Science at Fudan University. I toured around skyscrapers in Pudong with my eighth younger brother and his second daughter and metWang Yuanhua for the third time. Mr. Wang assembled renowned performers, famous flutists and wellknown amateur performers to perform the last Tanci.³⁶ I attended the 10th Academician Assembly in CAS in Beijing between May and June. I met old friends Guo Liangfu and Wang Songsheng and others(all were members of Opera Society in National Southwest Associated University). Wang Songsheng died in the ensuing year. Between September and October, I was carried on the surgical bed for the treatment of cataracts, glaucoma by transplanting intraocular lenses into my eyes and it turned out to be a success.

³⁶ Tanci: (弹词) it means Singing verse portions to a pipa that is one kind of musical instrument.

2001 - I was 85. In April, my son and I went to attend 90th Anniversary Celebration of Founding of Tsinghua University in Beijing and met Yang Zhenning and Lin Jiaqiao who was an alumnus of the same class. Our meeting was joined by Guo Liangfu. After the meeting, I went to Babaoshan to mourn the death of Pu Daiying in Beijing. In May, my son and I went to Lijiang to attend the Founding Ceremony of the Lijiang Botanical Garden, which was a joint project between China and Britain. In June, I planted two Ginkgo Biloba seedlings at our institute. In August, the Joint Editorial Meeting of Flora of China was held in Kunming and the New Editorial Committee Election was presided over by Chen Yiyu, the deputy director. I applied for an exit from the front-line work of editing and the meeting decided that I should continue to carry the title of chief editor with the help from Academician Hong Deyuan. Accompanied by Li Dezhu, I went to Beijing two times to attend Project Review Meeting and Project Debate of the Database of Southwest Wild Creatures, respectively, and the project was approved. In the same year, I was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Science and Technology in Yunnan province and the Award Ceremony was held in the following year.

2002 - I was 86. I attended the medium-term inspection on the project Formation and Development of Features and Important groups in East Asia Flora by the National Foundation Committee on the 26th of February and made a speech. Attending the meeting were also academician Zhou Zhiyan from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, CAS. In May, my wife and I attended the 11th Academician Assembly CAS in Beijing. In the same year, the project Research on Quantity Dynamic of Seed Plants in Wuliangshan Mountain in Tropical and Temperate Zone, which I had participated in, was awarded the second prize of Yunnan Natural Science Award. My student Peng Hua applied for the prize for me.

2003 - I was 87. In the spring, Paleontologist Yang Zunyi, in his 95th year, and his wife came to visit me. We used to attend the same course(plant morphology)taught by my teacherWu. In May, I was hospitalized for a cold and soon recovered. In October, at the Eleventh Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Spices and Other Natural Products, I met Mr. Tang Chongshi and his wife for the third time and they paid a visit to my house. Professor Tang gifted me Flowering Plants of Hawaii(1999) on behalf of Hawaii University. In the same month, Professor Hu Zhenghai, the teacher of Lu Anmin and Chen Shukun, came to Kunming to visit me. I had known about Hu when the Academic Committee of Open Lab of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany at the Beijing Institute of Botany had been founded. In December, I was awarded the Achievement for Science and Technology by Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation and my wife accompanied me to attend the award ceremony in Beijing. The prize of 400, 000 RMB was a Third-Generation-Scholarship in the Technology Department of Tsinghua University in memory of the third generations of talent in biology after Qian Chongshu. The scholarship was established to solicit better performance from students. A Review of the Angiosperm Genera in China, which was coauthored by Lu Anmin, Tang Yancheng, Chen Zhirui, Li Dezhu and I, was published.

2004 - I was 88. In July, my 88th birthday party was celebrated with doctors and post-graduate students. In August, I was awarded Renowned Writer by China Science Publication CAS. In September, Ma Shitu(he was then 90) visited me while attending the Commemoration of Hump Course. Afterwards, Mr. Hong Deyuan and his wife came to visit me and we discussed Brief History of China's Flora and the expenditure of FOC on our side. In October, 80 volumes and 126 sets of the book were completed and the first volume was published within the month. In November, the construction of germplasm bank of wild specimens began and deputy president of CAS attended the cornerstone-laying ceremony. In the same year, academician He Zehui, the wife of Qian Sanqiang, and her eldest daughter came to Kunming to attend a meeting held at the Yunnan Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences and dropped by my home.

2005 - I was 89. In March, the Project Conclusion Meeting of Flora of China was held in Beijing and Li Dezhu attended and delivered a speech on my behalf. In September, Academic Communication Conference of Reflection on Past Hundred Year Achievement on Botany in China that was jointly sponsored by Xianhu Botanical Garden and Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica(Journal of Systematics and Evolution)was held in celebration of the 76th birthday of the renowned botanist Hu Xiuying. I wrote an article, My teacher and friend - A sketch of Doctor Hu Xiuying, as a gift to her birthday. Hearing and vision impairment rendered my efforts to attend the celebration futile. Academicians Zhang Shixin and Guan Junwei came to visit me and I was invited to preface the Vegetation Atlas of China. In October, I handed over the manuscript of Chih-wu ming-shih t'u kaoto to Tang Yancheng and Wang Jingxiu from the Institute of Botany, CAS. In December, I invitedWang Jingxiu over to discuss the true nature and classification of Huma.³⁷

³⁷ Huma: 胡麻, (Linseed in English).

2006 - I was 90. On the 14th of May, Hu Jingtao, the General Secretary of CPC and Chairman of PRC, honored the institute with his presence at the Specimens Lab on his inspection tour in Yunnan province. On the 21th of May, Mr. Zhou Changhong and his wife visited our institute. Zhou Changhongwas one of Chinese editors of Flora of China. In July, Yunnan's Flora was completed and prepared to be published in the next year. Mr. Chen was 79. On the 14th of July, the International Symposium on Biodiversity and Biological Geology of East Asian was held at our institute. In the same month, my 90th birthday party was celebrated at Kunming Hotel and was attended by Dan Zeng, Chen Yiyu, Xu Zhihong and other leaders. The Collected Stories ofWu Zhengyi was published along with Baijian Essays, which included many prose pieces.

On the 27th of July, Mr. F. Ehrendorfer and his wife from the Institute of Botany at the University of Vienna visited our institute and we exchanged gifts. On the 31st of July, Zhu Rongji, former premier of state council, and his wife Lao An visited our institute and the database of Germplasm Resources. I was honored to meet Premier Zhu at the Specimens Lab. On the 7th of August, Lu Yongxiang, the president of CAS, visited the institutes in Kunming and satisfied me with an hours-long talk at my home. In the same month, American Liaison Zhang(who comes from Shimian in Sichuan province)Libin from FOC, came to visit the institute and discussed with me the combination of volumes that were about to be completed. Zhang Libin was the successor to Zhu Guanghua. On the 17th of November, Academician Li Wenhua came to visit the institute and reminisced about how we fared in Tibet. On the 23th of December, the Acceptance Meeting of Yunnan's Florawas held in our institute and I made a speech and expressed my congratulations at the meeting.

2007 - I was 91. In January, I was invited to be the chief editor of the Biology of Zhonghua Encyclopedia and attended the Biology of the Zhonghua Encyclopedia Initiation Ceremony. In June, I attended the Botany of Biology of Zhonghua Encyclopedia in our institute and delivered a written speech. On the 27th of June, my fifth older brother died at 94 and I putmy Essays before his memorial tablet as a gesture of remembrance. On the 18th of July, Swiss scholar M. Liden came to visit our institute. He was co-author for Papapveraceae in FOC(Flora of China)and gifted us Album in Chinese Published by Swiss in Memory of 300th Anniversary of the Birthday of Carl Linnaeus. On the 27th, Feng Guomei died at 90 and I didn't have the chance to say farewell, so I wrote an article in memory of his death. Professor Pan Qilu and Professor Ruan Ating from Hanoi University in Vietnam visited our institute.

2008 - I was 92. On the 8th of Januray, I was awarded the National Highest Award for Science and Technology and in Beijing I sat in a wheelchair while receiving the prize from Hu Jingtao, the General Secretary of the Central Party and Chairman of PRC. In Kunming, I was warmly welcomed by Qin Guangrong the governor of Yunnan province, Li Jiheng, the Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Committee and others. A welcoming ceremony was held where I made a keynote speech. “Thanks for constant love and care on the side of Yunnan Provincial party committee and provincial government. Thanks for the consistent support of people in Yunnan province. I hope to contribute more to Yunnan, which is my second hometown.”

In July, in order to help my colleagues and friends to better understand classical Chinese and literature written in classical Chinese, I wrote a paper “Learn Classical Chinese and Literature in Classical Chinese and Edit the Chinese Encyclopedia” as a bid to advance the work of the compilation of Zhonghua Encyclopedia while everyone had a better understanding on classical Chinese.

2009 - I was 93. This year marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the new People's Republic of China and I was elated to witness the course of her development. Under the stewardship of the Party, 28 years of hard work and tireless toil and soil have made a new People's Republic of China. The twists and turns we met and conquered paved the path for a new era of reform and opening up. We are walking on a socialist road with Chinese characteristics, focusing on building the economy. I again am enthused to see the change.

My vision is failing and I can only read words(Points Three in Bold) possibly because of excessive reading of Caimu Dian (Vegetation Encyclopedia) and note-taking for future use. I was informed by my doctor that any more reading will render my eyes useless. Ever since, I have been kept updated by secretaries reading books and papers for me and recording and formatting my opinions. Only in this way can I communicate with people.

In the middle of May, Symposium on Evolution of the Eight- Class System of Angiospermae was held by Li Dezhu, Sun Hang, Zhou Zhekun, Peng Hua and other students. Attending the meeting were Lu Anmin and Chen Zhiduan from the Beijing Institute of Botany, Li Jianqiang from Wuhan, Xia Nianhe from Guangzhou, Tang Ya and Gao Xinfen from Chengdu. The draft of the Eight-Class System of Angiospermae was advanced by ways of addition, amendment and improvement. It is my sincere hope that this theory will be improved and perfected through communication and exchange with scholars aboard.

2010 - I was 94. Huang Qian, the son of Huang Xinmin, whowas an aluminus at Tsinghua University, visited me. Upon graduation from Tsinghua University, Huang Xinmin and Hu Shiguang joined the chemical troops. During the marching of National Southwest Associated University, I happened to meet them in Taoyuan in Hunan and camped with them for one night. Photos where I stood together with them in uniform were taken. Photos that were records of the past turned out to be problems which needed clarification in the Ten Years of Chaos during the Cultural Revolution. Huang Qian visited me at his deceased parents’ will. I was pleased about our strong bond and what made me relieved was the news of what Huang Qian had accomplished under the instruction of Qian Weichang. My heart lightened more when I learned the demonstrative grasslands restoration project that Huang Qin and the academician Ren Jizhou(the brother of old friend Ren Jiyu)initiated in the Karst region in Yunnan has been productive and fruitful. Huang Qian has authored a book and asked for my preface, which I am very glad to submit. I was entrusted to write an autobiography in response to a request from the Ministry of Science and Technology. It took me no trouble in summing up my life course, which has crossed a century. I entrust Lu Chunchao to arrange an outline, record my words and read them to me for further modification, which should serve as an answer to my task.

2011 - I was 95. This year is the 100th Anniversary of Founding of Tsinghua University. As a senior alumnus, I gave three presents to my alma mater: preface for Tsinghua -Sketches of Renowned Alumni; Script written for the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the Founding of Tsinghua University; the article(Ye JiaWeiWei)I wrote in memory of Tsinghua University Library.

Central authorities held meetings for delivering support to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and to push it to make strides in development. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct field trips to Xinjiang in 1982 and 1986 respectively. I understand that it is a vast land with the largest desert and a reservoir of most unique flora and fauna. It has every reason to be an important component of national biological resources conservation and part of a strategic plan. That is why I sent a message to Zhang Chunxian, Party Secretary of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and proposed to establish a Biological Resources Conservation and Research Center in the Desert Region in Xinjiang, and my proposal was approved. I counted that my vision for Xinjiang had been realized.

This year was the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of Ailaishan Mountain Ecological Station in Jingdong. The station sat in the place that I selected in 1980. I never had the chance to climb the mountain again so I wrote the script “Keep developing and innovating” in the hope that the station will persist and make greater contributions.

I have been a member of the Party for 65 years. This year is the 90th Anniversary of Founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Having listened to the speech given by the General Secretary Hu Jingtao, what I remembered most distinctly is, “Comrades of our Party should be constantly aware of the soundness of the Party and conscientious about their duty.”