Young Lillie Establishes a Computer Research Unit and Recruits Jinzhen

Young Lillie’s establishment of a computer research unit at N University brought Rong Jinzhen into a new scientific project and overturned the strict hiring principle that had defined Young Lillie’s years as a university leader. The unit’s founding was both an institutional decision and a personal reversal: Jinzhen’s thesis convinced Young Lillie that a contribution to science was still possible, while his ability made him the project’s first recruit and, in practice, its indispensable center.

The Beijing Trip and the Three Decisions

Not long after Jinzhen’s thesis was published, Young Lillie left suddenly for Beijing without telling those around him what he intended to do. The purpose became clear about a month later, when someone arrived at N University carrying three decisions from the central authorities. Young Lillie was permitted to resign as chancellor, the government allocated the money needed to establish a computer research unit at the university, and Young Lillie was assigned responsibility for setting it up. The sequence joined a departure from university office to the creation of a new research role: Young Lillie gave up the chancellorship but was entrusted with building the facility.

The account does not portray the project as an abstract administrative plan. Young Lillie had once hoped to make a concrete contribution to science, but had come to believe that this ambition might be out of reach. The research unit gave that old aspiration a practical form. Its official authorization and funding supplied the means; the question of whom to recruit, and whether any candidate could make the venture viable, became decisive.

A Hiring Principle Reversed

The recruitment decision carried unusual weight because Young Lillie had consistently refused to use university authority to advance relatives. The Rong family had founded N University, and members of the clan had worked there over generations, yet Young Lillie hired no family member while serving as chancellor. The account distinguishes two periods in that record: at first Young Lillie held office without real power; later, with both position and power, Young Lillie still chose not to help relatives obtain university jobs.

The rule had affected the family in specific ways. Master Rong’s department recommended her for promotion to assistant dean more than once, but Young Lillie rejected the recommendations, marking each refusal as decisively as an error on an examination paper. A brother who returned from abroad with a doctorate in physics was also told to seek work elsewhere, despite being a strong candidate for N University. He found a post at the Normal University in C City, where working conditions and student level were inferior, and moved to a university in Shanghai the following year. Master Rong’s mother was furious, believing that Young Lillie was deliberately forcing the family apart.

Against that history, recruiting Jinzhen was not a routine exception. When candidates came forward for the new unit, Young Lillie interviewed them and judged that none met Jinzhen’s standard. Jinzhen became the facility’s first recruit; as the work developed, he was also the only person considered capable of carrying it out, while the other hires chiefly assisted with day-to-day tasks. The concentration of the unit’s work around one member of the Rong family fueled gossip that an international-standard research facility had effectively been monopolized by the clan. The criticism had an apparent basis in the staffing pattern, but it obscured the distinction between family preference and Young Lillie’s assessment of Jinzhen’s ability.

Why Jinzhen Was Chosen

Master Rong explains the reversal through two influences, but gives them different weight. Liseiwicz’s letter tempted Young Lillie toward the project; seeing Jinzhen’s graduation thesis supplied the decisive confidence to proceed. Before reading it, Young Lillie thought the undertaking might be impossible. The thesis showed that Jinzhen had done the work independently: Young Lillie had recommended a couple of reference books and written the introduction, but had not contributed to the thesis’s contents. That distinction mattered because the work offered evidence of Jinzhen’s capacity, rather than merely the promise of a relative.

The thesis had also been framed as an answer to Georg Weinacht’s theories. In its introduction, Young Lillie presented the work as a way to confront Weinacht’s influence in scientific research. Master Rong’s account makes clear, however, that Young Lillie did not claim authorship of Jinzhen’s argument: the intellectual achievement belonged to Jinzhen. What the thesis changed was Young Lillie’s estimate of what the two might accomplish together. Jinzhen’s demonstrated ability gave Young Lillie confidence to risk beginning a scientific project late in life, and Young Lillie believed that without him the undertaking had little prospect of success.

Consequences and Significance

The new unit gave Jinzhen a place in research at N University, but its staffing structure also made the enterprise unusually dependent on him. Other recruits served mainly as assistants, and the resulting concentration of work reinforced public suspicion of favoritism. The decision therefore carried two consequences at once: it created an opportunity for Jinzhen to demonstrate his abilities, and it exposed Young Lillie to criticism for abandoning a principle previously applied even to close relatives.

Master Rong’s retrospective account interprets the choice as more than a hiring exception. Jinzhen changed the final years of Young Lillie’s life, revived an early dream of contributing to science, and altered a long-standing principle; the account goes further, saying that he changed Young Lillie’s faith in humankind. The episode turns on a striking reversal: a leader who had refused family members advancement chose a relative because the work convinced him that no other candidate could serve the project in the same way. The unit’s founding thus begins not with institutional confidence, but with Young Lillie’s recognition of Jinzhen’s talent and a willingness to stake a renewed ambition on it.