Part III  Erudite and Outstanding Thinker

The books, red pencils and reading notes of Chen Yun unfold his passion for reading and thinking. He excelled in combining theory with practice, sought truth from facts, conducted work in an innovative way, and solved problems in persistence with fine traditions.

On his office table lays an array of long or short pencils. Some are red, some blue and some black. Yet, these pencils are different from ordinary ones for they are pencil stubs, so short and small that they can't be gripped.   Among them, there is one Chung Hwa’s six-rowed red pencil. Although it was left only 0.33 cm long, Chen Yun was reluctant to throw it away. Although new pencils were prepared for him, he still used those very pencil stubs. His staff had persuaded him into using new pencils for several times, he always said, “There is no need to replace it. It is such a pity that we throw it away before making full use of it.” Until the pencil stub was so short that he can’t hold it, he reluctantly yielded, “OK, let it ‘retire’. Put ‘retired’ pencils here (on a small office table), and they can still be used when it is necessary.” Needless to say, although these pencil stubs “retired”, they were not “laid-off” at all and were still in the “reserve services”.