Chen Yidan and his colleagues are at the farmer's house.

20 18 12, Chen Yidan (fourth from the right) and the winners and judges.

Chen Yidan is in Shenzhen Mingde Experimental School.

We have heard too many stories about being lost in the illusion of money, but Chen Yidan's story seems to be an exception: as one of the five founders of Tencent, he realized financial freedom very early-21years ago, he started a business in partnership with five young people, including Ma, but six years later, Tencent went public, and the speed at which he gained wealth can only be described as dizzying. "I know that one number will continue to grow."

No one expected that after stepping down from the peak of the wave of scientific and technological entrepreneurship, his next life would start like this: first, he donated 2 billion yuan to the private Wuhan College in stages; Then, it donated HK$ 2.5 billion to set up the world's highest award-the One Dan Award: a single award of HK$ 30 million, more than three times that of the Nobel Prize. His recent donation to education is worth as much as HK$ 4 billion. So far, he has donated more than 9 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Speaking of him, a professor at Columbia University told us that even in the United States, educators are not so valued-"They think we are dealing with children." And a rich man in China is willing to set up such an education prize all over the world, which makes him feel that "someone should have done this a long time ago".

He has never heard of the name Chen Yidan before.

In May this year, at a forum, David Figo, dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, was even a little excited. "We have never been so recognized. Because of you, Mr. Eden, you believe that education can change the world. "

He said in his speech, "I salute you."

In the past few years, many educators all over the world wanted to meet this China native. There are both curiosity and doubt; Almost every scholar invited to be a judge of this award-all the top international education scholars-also asked to meet him. They want to see what kind of China people would do such a thing.

One day at the end of May, we witnessed a series of such meetings. It was in Chicago. Chen Yidan had just arrived here, and the meeting had already started before the time difference was reversed. First the president of the University of Chicago, and then James heckman, the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics, all wore gold ties. Even after flying for 13 hours, Chen Yidan was very tired, but his shoes were shiny, his suit was straight and his tie was meticulous.

The next day, more people saw him. Chen Yidan sat in the front row at the education forum jointly organized by the Yidan Prize Foundation and Northwest University. Before the start, David Figo called 15 professors from the Institute of Education to meet Chen Yidan, and everyone took turns to introduce their research results to the China visitor. The dean's concern comes from his own reasons-last year, the winner of the Yidan Education Research Award came from his college.

Chen Yidan is thin and handsome. He is 48 years old, but his hair is already white. He is very good at making things clear one by one. When talking about the establishment of this international award, his statement is surprisingly simple-"The solution of all social problems can eventually return to education. With the progress of education, society will also develop. " He hopes to improve human welfare through education.

At first, no one wanted to trust him easily, which sounded like a childish joke-for a scholar, it meant betting his reputation. Cheng commented: Not many people in China are willing to set up such an award. "or some of them later became jokes."

Zheng is the chief professor of the School of Education of the University of Hong Kong and the former vice-president of the University of Hong Kong. He never met Chen Yidan, but he finally chose to believe him. Unlike ordinary entrepreneurs, he didn't have any extra politeness, but just expressed his thoughts. "The worse his eloquence, the better he feels."

stable

Even Chen Yidan himself, it seems hard to tell at which node he started making decisions. After retiring from Tencent, his life stood at a watershed: before that, he was mainly an entrepreneur; After that, he is mainly a philanthropist and may even become an educator.

After retiring, Chen Yidan studied at Stanford University for half a year. Recalling those days, he seems to have returned to his college days-he refused to live in a luxury apartment, but moved into a student dormitory and took classes tirelessly in the loud music of his roommates and the smell of smelly socks. He cares about the canteen and the library.

Outsiders were surprised at his decision at that time. At that time, Tencent won and the company became a real giant. No one expected that he would step down at this time. But people who are familiar with him are not surprised. He has been preparing for this for two years-still on 20 1 1, and he wrote an email to the person in charge of Tencent, expressing his resignation. This is in line with Chen Yidan's style, and it is very steady. The whole thing seems to have happened naturally.

Looking back today, his entrepreneurial story is undoubtedly one of the most exciting stories in China. According to the script of China Internet Victory-anyone who has worked on the Internet will know many such scripts-needless to say, the protagonist often has a turbulent legend and needs a huge setback, full of adventure, ups and downs and ambitions. But Chen Yidan looks very different. If you want to put his story on the stage, it will probably be disappointing: he is anti-drama.

This is not without setbacks. The "3Q War" between Tencent and Qihoo 360 once made him deeply reflect. But as a hero, it is difficult to find those dramatic tears and conflicts in his stories.

When he was most nervous about starting a business, he described his body as particularly busy. "My mind has been jumping, jumping, pounding, pounding", but my heart is safe.

When he retired, someone once asked, would you like to? He still replied: "I am very happy and at ease." He said seriously, "I'm really happy."

Guo, senior vice president of Tencent, feels amazing. In his view, the personalities of several founders of Tencent are particularly rare. They give people the impression that "their personalities are very stable, as if they were formed very early." Although everyone is very different-Ma's keenness and foresight, Zhang Zhidong's truthfulness and objectivity, Xu's detachment and wisdom, and different personalities, they can all see things from more angles.

In the whole team, Chen Yidan's role is like a stabilizer-he is good at "balancing everyone's balance and synthesizing them." In his language, it is difficult to find sudden changes and changes, and everything comes together smoothly.

Guo Kai and Chen Yidan have known each other for more than ten years. He is the employee Tencent 100 recruited by Chen Yidan. At that time, he thought Chen Yidan was a little young and mature. "He was like this, fat and thin. His hair was white that year. " Even now, it has been six years since Chen Yidan retired from Tencent, but little has changed.

He is "super stable", Guo commented.

This sense of balance and stability runs through his every aspect-first of all, his family. He is very busy, but even when he was studying at Stanford, he went back to China once a month to spend time with his family.

In daily work, he seldom loses his temper because of anything, and his mood will not be ups and downs, and he will not be embarrassed. If someone is incompetent, he will not point it out directly, but remind "you should consider other factors." His assistant recalled that when he was most angry, "the lines of his whole face went down", and he looked worried, but he would not be angry. "He cares about others and doesn't want to make others unhappy."

Therefore, when he began to devote himself to education, this sense of stability made everything seem logical-leaving the familiar track meant an adventure for anyone; But what happened to him seems nothing special.

At first, he planned to donate 2 billion yuan to Wuhan College in stages-in others' eyes, this is astronomical, but Chen Yidan obviously had bigger ideas: he had thought about it for a year or two when preparing to set up an education award.

model

One day on 20 15, Chen Yidan's assistant was called to the office and said that she wanted to discuss something with her. The assistant found the atmosphere a little mysterious. "He has been laying the groundwork for a long time and has been thinking about how to do education." She even thinks the boss is a little nervous. She said Chen Yidan had a habit. If he says an ordinary thing, he will naturally say, "Sometimes he can dance". If he is saying something very important, he habitually doesn't look into each other's eyes and stares at a point in the air.

She realized that what the boss was going to say might be "a little big".

"I want to hold a global education award." Chen Yidan said.

This decision "seems to know where it is, but I don't know where it is." At that time, he had invested a lot of money to run Wuhan College. "I always thought he just wanted to run a school." The assistant said-she didn't understand the boss's thoughts more deeply until the 20 16 first prize was announced-but before that, she admitted that she didn't get it: maybe it was because she thought things would fall on the ultimate beneficiaries, and "I couldn't think of advocacy and influence at once."

The assistant recalled the conversation, and her understanding of the decision was that running a school was still too narrow, but setting up an education award could affect more people.

As early as Tencent's pioneering period, Guo discovered some characteristics of Chen Yidan's personality: he had "social feelings". He majored in chemistry, while his graduate student majored in law. He firmly believes in the value of the rule of law to society.

This sentiment is mainly reflected in the management of the company. Now Tencent's management culture was founded when he was here-"First of all, it is very free. Emphasize that employees' happiness at work is related to their personality, such as Chen Yidan and Pony. "

Guo said: "Maybe the law is too specific to satisfy his further universal feelings." This may explain why he devoted himself to education-education is shaping people and will not change in any era.

Zhai Hongxin's evaluation of Chen Yidan is: the pattern is large, wise and has a big picture. She is the Secretary-General of Tencent Charity Foundation, and Chen Yidan has been an old colleague of 10 for many years. Her memory of Chen Yidan can be traced back to the time when Tencent was just founded. At that time, when users complained, Chen Yidan, a law major, would pull a female colleague-because, in probability, customers would not get angry with women, and everyone would be easy to calm down.

But at that time, she just thought Chen Yidan was smart. It was not until he retired from the peak of his career and devoted himself to charity that she discovered his wise side. Zhai Hongxin said, "If he doesn't have this trait, it will be difficult to persist and it will be difficult to push this matter forward step by step."

The purpose of setting up this award is that Chen Yidan wrote it in his notebook four years ago-"encouraging and advocating human understanding and contribution to the life of the universe." Initially, the bonus was set at HK$ 6,543,800+million, but Chen Yidan later insisted on multiplying this figure by 3.

It's not that no one has challenged it, even by the highest standards, this number is too large; Education cannot be immediate. Chen Yidan is very clear-he told us: "Slow, slow, the slowest." In fact, everything else changes quickly: Chen Yidan experienced a critical period of China's Internet take-off, which was the rosy dawn of the information revolution, which changed business, media and charity-between people and functions, everything was based on information.

Chen Yidan has been thinking about this issue since he retired. Today, there is no network and no substantial change, only education. Because it is a complex system, "there are too many stakeholders and shareholders". His conclusion is that it is getting closer and closer to that grand goal: the education system is bound to change, and the whole information revolution determines that it will change sooner or later. So, what is his role at this moment? —— He successfully led the Internet public welfare in China, and quickly improved the efficiency and enthusiasm of donation, leading the world. Now it is education.

He thought it over. "Education is the most important thing, and you deserve such a high bonus."

In Chen Yidan's plan, HK$ 30 million: half will be awarded to individuals, and the other half will be used as project funds for the winners to promote research. However, after the improvement, the original planned fund pool of HK$ 1 100 million is no longer enough-like the Nobel Prize, Chen Yidan has set up a special foundation in Hong Kong. Through calculation, it is found that in order to ensure that the prize can be distributed year by year, it is necessary to donate 2.5 billion.

In Chen Yidan's position, money is just a tool, and his attention is no longer on it. He doesn't mind the rise and fall of the stock price. The assistant even wondered whether the boss knew how much money he had.

tradition

Even, Chen Yidan will be at a loss because the donation is known: when he graduated from college, he donated money to Hope Primary School, and he felt it was natural to do it because no one saw it. Later, he felt great pressure and donated a scholarship to his alma mater, Shenzhen University. "This pressure is not to donate money, but to donate money to be known."

In May of this year, he announced at a conference that the value of stock donation exceeded HK$ 4 billion-if the stock decline was not caught up at that time, the planned donation amount would be HK$ 5 billion. However, if it falls, it will fall. The fact is that the money was donated as early as last year, but it has never been announced. The reason is that he doesn't know how to say it.

He attaches importance to honor, but not this, but something bigger: he names his own education award after himself; The library donated to Wuhan College was named "Mr. and Mrs. Chen Yidan Library". "One Dan" has the meaning of loving heart, while "Mr. and Mrs. Chen Yidan" commemorates the day when he and his wife studied and fell in love in the university library.

This is an ambivalent emotion. But what happened to him, like his decision when he retired, made everything seem logical. Anyone who knows him well thinks that Chen Yidan is greatly influenced by tradition.

The influence of tradition on him is all-round. Once, he talked with a western scholar about education. From the perspective of brain science, the other party said that 0 to 3 years old is particularly important in the process of growing up. Chen Yidan happily took it. "Yes, there is an old saying in China. At the age of three, you will be eighty. "

He seems to have caught a rabbit. It's like finding the coordinates of culture in a new system. Looking back on his boyhood, Chen Yidan was born in a traditional family. In those distant memories, what impressed me most was his grandmother, an uneducated old man, who liked to help others even though she had little money. This is her nature, and this simple feeling can give people strength and have a great influence on him.

When chatting with him, you will unconsciously bring him into the traditional world. The words that make up this world are very strange today. He likes to talk about Confucianism and Taoism, and he also likes to talk about the education of Buddhism. He read the original book, and the Analects of Confucius, University and The Doctrine of the Mean are on the bookshelf. He also read Buddhist classics, not only the Diamond Sutra, but also the Five Classics of Pure Land and Pure land three.

Talking about his idea of donating money to education, he summed it up as: "I think I have simple feelings, but I haven't sorted them out systematically." What he said most was fate-"a person's life can't be taken away, only a career can take it away."

This sentence is too old-the internet has increased the dimension of language and we have been divided into tribes. When a person comes with a very classical attitude, it often seems inappropriate-just like observing him through layers of gauze-which may increase the difficulty of understanding.

When evaluating himself, the concept he uses is also traditional. The best state is to transcend good and evil and be as calm as water. But he is a mortal and can't do it. "We can only enlarge the proportion of Confucianism, do a little bit after joining the WTO and taking the right path, correct mistakes and do more good things."

In fact, it is very difficult to join education. When Chen Yidan recalled that he planned to donate 2 billion yuan to run a school in stages, he was still guilty: education is endless, just like a bottomless pit. But he had thought about it at that time, hoping to have a heart of exploration.

He told his wife this simple idea. He feels that his wife is the source of his strength. The wife's answer is simple, "You know, I support everything you do. As long as the children at home have a bowl of rice with me. "

"Of course I can't let her only eat!" Chen Yidan said.

purely

In the eyes of scholars, he is probably the least like a businessman. Very simple, very pure. Wu, former president of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, commented on this. He has met people who made a fortune overnight and many big-name entrepreneurs. "As a scholar, it is not easy for me to say that an entrepreneur is excellent", but Chen Yidan is an exception.

They don't meet much, but they are always impressed. On one occasion, in the process of running Wuhan College, Chen Yidan wanted to ask for his advice and called him. Wuhan University was once a private university run by Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. The meeting place is located in a teahouse in Shenzhen. A few years later, Wu recalled that moment: Chen Yidan looked a little depressed. He said that as an entrepreneur, I am very successful, and as a philanthropist, I have great ideals. However, "as an educator, why not do it well?"

Wu seldom sees this side of entrepreneurs. His ideals and feelings for education moved him very much-he felt that their ideals were the same and they hit it off very well. However, running a university is different from running an enterprise. A century-old prestigious school can't be done in one or two steps. "There are twists and turns to make progress." Even Wu Shuo and Chen Yidan were surprised by their patience and perseverance in running schools. And that chat, Chen Yidan like a child, at first very lost, then relieved, excited, emotions are on his face.

"When I met Chen Yidan, he showed me the image of a philanthropist and a future educator. I have never seen his all-round entrepreneur image." Wu Shuo, but without the once all-powerful entrepreneur Chen Yidan, there would be no Chen Yidan today.

"So he was the first to create wealth, and I believe it is also difficult. He represents the positive factors of social development in this era. It is my judgment to create wealth by knowledge, not by policy, nor by power to plunder wealth. " Wu commented, "The difference between him and ordinary entrepreneurs is that he spent the rest of his life in public welfare undertakings. I am very sure of these two points. Of course, not all China entrepreneurs have to devote themselves to education. "

This characteristic of Chen Yidan has attracted many people. Li Zhongyun, the current president of Wuhan University, was the Party Secretary of Huazhong Agricultural University before his retirement. When Chen Yidan invited him to join Wuhan College, he thought twice and refused. For him, retirement is retirement, and there is no need to take any more risks. Chen Yidan never gave up and made a special trip to Wuhan to talk to him again. The banquet was held in the Stanford hall of a hotel. There are many photos of Stanford University in the hall.

He stood up, pointed to these photos and talked to Kan Kan: Private education in China is still relatively backward, and he believes that private education, like private enterprises, will surely develop by leaps and bounds in the future. He hopes that Wuhan College will be like Stanford in the future.

Li Zhongyun said that he was too moved to refuse.

In order to hire a headmaster, Chen Yidan visited the hut. His personality tells him to look forward. When encountering difficulties, he will sing "fishing boat sings late" alone-this is the traditional "prescription".

Some people think so. As a billionaire, he made his retirement life too hard. The fact is that there is something in his character that can be called optimism. He attributed his choice to "pure feelings". In fact, he also understands more truth: as long as he participates in education, he will make progress little by little, and the process is the biggest. "It doesn't mean there must be any result."

Occasionally there will be confusion. Are you a realistic idealist or an ideal realist? He asked himself, "The result of our discussion is that there are no ideal realists, only realistic idealists."

Establishing an authoritative international award is as difficult as running a university, and it is impossible without spending money-even Nobel Prize in Literature was caught in a scandal in 20 18, and even delayed the award.

Pure and authoritative. This is something that Chen Yidan must insist on. The most important thing is to establish an advisory committee and an independent review committee.

Chen Yidan believes in the mechanism, and he hopes to establish it, which requires very detailed work. Tencent's experience in the entrepreneurial period helped, and his control over the details was in place. The assistant thinks that Chen Yidan will find those neglected details in the schedule work. "It looked small at the time, but in the end it was decisive in the process of moving forward."

Chen Yidan began to visit educators all over the world. Sometimes in Hong Kong, sometimes in Europe and America. After retirement, he seems to have become busier, which is the assistant's opinion. He flew from one place to another with little rest. Three assistants took turns to accompany him to various activities, and he felt exhausted. However, Chen Yidan, who appeared in front of people, seemed very relaxed-on June+10 19, 65438, he just finished his communication at Harvard University in the United States and flew to Qionglai, Sichuan, without rest for 20 hours. The activities are next to each other.

He has a full schedule. Distress lies in the art of not knowing how to refuse. Sometimes in the car, he would ask people around him, "Where are you going next?" This strength even surprised Guo. "I told him that I feel that you are busier than when you are at work."

After the preparation of the First Dan Award, Cheng was appointed as the convener of the advisory committee. What attracted him was this characteristic of Chen Yidan: I still believe Mr. Yidan, who doesn't talk much, and what he said is enough for us to judge. "And this money is so big, so much money, not fake."

In order to find qualified consultants, Cheng also began to make phone calls everywhere: for example, Dr. Djamil Salmi, former chief consultant in charge of education projects in the World Bank.

"Where are you now?" Cheng asked.

"On the plane." Salmi said that he has visited more than 100 countries for educational projects, and this year he flew 145 times.

When it comes to the consultants and judges of the First Dan Award, Cheng is a little proud: the consultants of the First Dan Award are all people who understand and participate in the educational status quo and educational projects in various countries, and they will check it out; The judges are scholars from all over the world who have profound attainments in the field of education.

Open draw and announce the winner.

20 17 the first One Dan award was officially launched, and candidates from more than 30 countries competed for the final award. By the second session, the number had increased to 92 countries, and the candidate projects covered 15 1 countries and regions, and nearly 1000 proposals were received. The candidates are educators from Europe and the United States, and some are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States in Africa.

Larry hedges was attending an academic conference in Colorado when he learned that he had won the prize. He is a professor at Northwest University-about him, David Figo said: "If your paper is quoted by 100 people, you have done a good job;" If you are quoted by 500 people, you have done a good job; If it is 1000 people, then you have really achieved something. Larry, oh, his paper has been cited 5000 times. "

Early in the morning, the telephone suddenly rang. He was a little surprised. "I don't usually get a call so early, and I forgot to mute my phone at the meeting that day, so you know, I was actually a little embarrassed." But I picked up the phone and found that it was from China. "

Larry hedges said, "I am very happy to win the Dan Prize because I have changed my life through education." He was born in California, but not where there are beaches and blue sky, but in central California, far from the coast. Every winter, the smoke produced by farmers' burning will cover the sky.

His father was paid the minimum wage until he retired, and his mother was a dishwasher in the university kitchen. When he was a child, he always looked at noisy college students from the window. But his mother would tell him, "People like us can't be them."

Another winner is Anant Agvald, who was born in a seaside town in India. At that time, he was still a high school student, trying to apply for the Indian Institute of Technology, the best university in India. Unlike his peers in big cities, he can receive a quality education. "There are 300 candidates who took the first round of exams, and two of them failed. I am one of them." The second time, he succeeded and changed his fate.

They are all part of the new world now. Perhaps this is also the starting point of Chen Yidan: Grandma attaches great importance to education, and it is precisely because of this that my father has the opportunity to go out of the countryside and become a college student. His generation grew up in the prosperity of Shenzhen.

The annual lottery moment is the moment that Chen Yidan looks forward to. He is outside the door, waiting for the door to open-sometimes a day, sometimes a day and a half. There are nine educators with global influence in the door. As judges, they got together specially. First, they had a brief talk with him, "How was today?" All right. Thank you ",then the door closed, everything went according to the process, and began to fall into intense discussion and voting.

The judges will have a heated debate. But no matter what they quarrel about, Chen Yidan feels happy. He sometimes walks outside the door as if he were not at home. Although the award was named after him and he was its founder, he didn't know the answer until the judges opened the door.

Just like a person waiting for the birth of a child-"the doctor opened the door. It's a boy, six pounds and eight ounces. Chen Yidan said that the result is complete and there is a clear explanation: the judges "not only give the baby in your arms, but also make it clear that there are six pounds and eight ounces: characteristics, what is in the earlobe, and black hair."

This is the moment he is looking forward to. "Every time I am outside the door, I am very happy." (Zhang Jinhe)