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Ji Xianlin, the reluctant master

By Xiao Dao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-13 09:08

Ji won affection from general public also for his unassuming personality and humility.

Twenty years ago, a freshman, busily going through enrollment procedures on his first day at Peking University, ran into an old man on campus. In a frantic rush, he asked his senior to look after his luggage.

When he remembered his luggage hours later he rushed back and found the old man sitting by his bags in the searing sun and reading a book.

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The young fellow thanked him and left, only to find the same old man sitting on the rostrum on a welcome ceremony the next day.

He realized the minder of his bags was the vice-president of Peking University.

"For a new student to Beijing, the luggage was his most precious belonging. I must treat his trust seriously," Ji recalled the story to his friend, journalist Tang Shizeng.

In his 2007 book Memories from the Hospital Bed (Bingta Zaji), he urged to remove three titles he had long been honored: master of traditional Chinese culture, academic maestro and national treasure.

In an interview with CCTV, he said it was because the titles were not "truthful" and he was not that great.

Mou Jie, editor of some of Ji's books, remembers Ji as a very modest man.

"He was never arrogant, although people call him a master," she recalls.

"He was always low key, and always believed more efforts were needed to improve the process of study."

Peking University, where Ji worked for 63 years, announced Ji's passing in a statement calling him a "senior professor" instead of "master", a title Ji urged the nation's top university to remove many times.

They remained true to his wishes.

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