1. Tencent's main founder, Chen Yidan, donated nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars for education; set up the world's highest prize for education——the Yidan Award.

2. A sense of balance and stability permeates all aspects of Chen Yidan.

3. Money is just a tool, education is the most important.

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

5. What he values is whether these good education can finally be implemented and applied. More importantly, can it land in China.
 

Written by Zhang Xiaobai

Editor 丨 Jin He

Produced by Tencent News Gu Yu x Story Hardcore

Prize higher than Nobel Prize

We have heard too many stories lost in the illusion of money——often money will multiply people's arrogance: chasing stars, buying top luxury goods, and pursuing worldly pleasures. These are blameless. But the story of Chen Yidan seems to be an exception: as one of Tencent ’s five founders, he achieved financial freedom very early——21 years ago, he and Ma Huateng and other five young people started a partnership, but Tencent went public in six years. The speed at which he gained wealth can only be described by dizziness, "I know there is a number that will grow."

 No one expected that after coming down from the top of the wave of technology entrepreneurship, his next life would be opened in this way: First, he would donate 2 billion yuan to run Wuhan College; then, donate 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars to set up the world ’s highest bonus Education Award-Yidan Award: The winner will receive 30 million Hong Kong dollars, more than three times the Nobel Prize. And the latest donation on education is as high as 4 billion Hong Kong dollars. This includes 75 million yuan, which rewards outstanding teachers and students in China.

 It is amazing to have donated nearly HK $ 10 billion in a row.
 

Speaking of him, a professor at Columbia University told me that even in the United States, education scholars are not so valued——"They think we are dealing with children." And a Chinese rich is willing to set up education for the whole world Such a grand prize gives him a sense of "someone should have done this". Before that, he had never heard of the name Chen Yidan.

In May 2019, at a forum, Dean David Figo, Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, was even a little bit excited, "We have never received such recognition. Because you, Mr. Yidan, you believe that education can Change the world. "

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

In the past few years, educational scholars from all corners of the world have wanted to meet this Chinese. There are both curiosity and suspicion; almost every scholar who was invited to serve as a judge for this award-they are all the top international education scholars, and they all asked to meet him. They wanted to see what to do. What exactly is a Chinese?

One day at the end of May, I was fortunate to witness a series of such meetings. It was in Chicago. Chen Yidan had just arrived here. The jet lag had not been reversed. The meeting had already begun. First, the president of the University of Chicago, and then James Heckman in a golden tie. 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics Winner-After a 13——hour flight, Chen Yidan's leather shoes were shiny, his suit was straight and his tie was meticulous despite his exhaustion.

 The next day, more people saw him. At the education forum jointly organized by the Yidan Prize Foundation and Northwestern University, Chen Yidan sat in the first row. Before starting, David Figo called fifteen professors from the College of Education to meet Chen Yidan. Each person took turns to introduce his research results to the Chinese guest. The scene was a bit like an academic defense meeting. The dean's attention comes from it-last year, the winner of the Yidan Education Research Award came from his college.

 Chen Yidan was thin, and his face was clean. Sitting in front of you, you will feel that he is too old——he is 48 years old, but his hair is already gray. When he starts talking, you will miss his enthusiasm without observing his gestures. He is very good at making things clear one by one, maybe too rational, as if all the twists and turns have been ironed out.

 When talking about the establishment of this international award, Chen Yidan's statement was unexpectedly simple——"All social problems can be resolved, and eventually they can return to education. Education has progressed and society has developed." He hopes to improve human well-being through education .

 At first, no one wanted to believe him easily, which sounded like a naive joke——devoting himself to such a grand matter meant for a scholar to bet on his reputation. Cheng Jieming commented that he is willing to set up such an award. There are not many people like this in China, "or some of them will become jokes later."

 Cheng Jieming 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. They haven't seen them before, but finally chose to believe him——he is not like an ordinary entrepreneur, he doesn't have extra politeness, but just puts out his own ideas and criticism. "The more he speaks badly, the more he thinks this person is good."

 Chen Yidan finally proved himself with his actions: in a world where learning and popularization is successful today, a simple heart also exists.

Sense of stability

Even for Chen Yidan himself, it seems difficult to make it clear where he started to make a decision. Since Tencent's retirement, his life has stood on a watershed: before that, he was mainly an entrepreneur; after that, he was mainly a philanthropist, and may become an educator in the future.

  After retiring, Chen Yidan first went to Stanford University to study for half a year. He likes Stanford, and when he recalled those days, he seemed to be back to the university era-he refused to live in the arranged luxury apartment, but moved into the student dormitory alone, between the loud music of the roommate and the smelly socks Have fun to experience course selection and class. He cares about the cafeteria and the library. The president, the five-star general, and the chief justice came to give lectures. When he went late, he often didn't have a seat, just like a freshman.
 

 
 

Outsiders were surprised by his decision at the time. That was when Tencent sang forward, and the company became a real giant. No one expected that he would retreat at this time. But those who are familiar with him are not surprised. Chen Yidan has been preparing for two years-still in 2011, he wrote an e-mail to the person in charge of the General Office to indicate his withdrawal. This is in line with Chen Yidan's style, very stable, the whole thing seems to happen naturally, almost without any fluctuation.

 Looking back today, his entrepreneurial story is undoubtedly one of the most exciting stories in China at that time. According to the script of the Chinese Internet's vigorous advancement-anyone who knows a lot of such scripts as long as he has worked on the Internet-needless to say, the protagonist often has a turbulent legend and needs a huge setback, full of adventure, ups and downs Ambition. But Chen Yidan looked very different. If you want to put his story on the stage, it may be disappointing: he is anti-drama.

 Not without setbacks, the 3Q war once made him fall into deep reflection. But as a protagonist, in his story, it is difficult to find those dramatic tears and conflicts. His logic of life hardly fluctuates--

When he was most nervous about starting a business, he described that at that time his body was very busy. "Thoughts are always jumping, always jumping, always very intense and intense", but he was very at ease.
 When he stepped back, someone asked him if he wanted to be reconciled? He replied in this way, "I am very happy and at ease." He said seriously, "I am really happy."

Guo Kaitian, senior vice president of Tencent, feels very magical. In his view, the personalities of several Tencent founders are particularly rare. They give people the impression that "personalities are very stable and seem to have formed very early." Although everyone is different-Ma Huateng's keenness and forward-looking, Zhang Zhidong's truthfulness and objectivity, Xu Chenye's detachment and wisdom, but different personalities promote They can see the problem from more angles.

 And in the entire team, Chen Yidan acts like a stabilizer-what he is good at is, "Balance everyone's balance, all integrated." In his language, it is difficult to find sudden changes, changes, everything They are brought together smoothly.

 Guo Kaitian and Chen Yidan have known each other for more than ten years. He is the Tencent No. 100 employee recruited by Chen Yidan. At that time, he felt that Chen Yidan was a bit young and mature. "He looked the same as he used to be, and he was also fat and thin. His hair was white." Even now, Chen Yidan has been retiring from Tencent for 6 years, but there has been little change.

 He is super stable, Guo Kaitian said so.
 

This sense of balance and stability permeates all aspects of him-first of all, family. He was busy, but even when he was studying at Stanford, he had to return home once a month to accompany his family. And in April 2019, when we met in Beijing, his itinerary was packed with various arrangements-including going to the National Museum of Classical Books, exchanges with Peking University, Beijing Normal University and Tsinghua University. But the night before the trip, he did not forget to make time to eat with both parents at his home in Shenzhen, and celebrate Mother's Day ahead of schedule.

 In his daily work, he seldom loses his temper because of anything. His emotions are not fluctuating and will not be embarrassing. If someone does not do well, he will not directly point it out, but remind "you should consider another factor". His assistant recalled that when he was most angry, "that is, the lines on the entire face are going down," he looked very sad, but he didn't get angry. "The person he cares for, he doesn't want to make him unhappy."

 Therefore, when he began to devote himself to education, this sense of stability made everything seem natural-this is a departure from the track he is familiar with, and it means an adventure for anyone. But what happened to him seemed nothing special.

 At the beginning, he planned to donate 2 billion yuan to Wuhan University in installments to prepare for the university-in the eyes of others, this is already an astronomical expenditure, but Chen Yidan obviously has a more ambitious idea: when he is going to run an education award , He has been thinking for a year or two.

Attern

One day in 2015, the assistant was called to the office by Chen Yidan and said she had something to discuss with her. The assistant felt a little mysterious. "He has been laying in front of him for a long time, that is, he has been thinking about how to do education." She even felt that the boss was a little nervous. She said that Chen Yidan has a habit. If he talks about a very ordinary thing, he will talk naturally, "sometimes dancing." If it is a very important thing, he will habitually ignore your eyes and stare hard at a point in the air.

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

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

 This decision "seems like there is no village in front, no shop in the back". At that time, he had invested a lot of money to run Wuhan College. "I always thought he just wanted to start a school." The assistant said-until the 2016 Yidan Award was officially announced, she was able to understand the boss more deeply Ideas-but before that, she admitted that she did n’t figure it out: maybe because I felt that doing things would fall to a final beneficiary. ".

 Chen Yidan insisted very much that he wanted to raise the banner of education. The assistant recalled the conversation, and her understanding of the decision was that it was too narrow to run a school. But setting up an education award foundation can affect more people.

 Chen Yidan is the only liberal arts student among the founders of Tencent. As early as Tencent's entrepreneurial period, Guo Kaitian discovered some characteristics of his personality: more social emotions. He majored in chemistry and undergraduate studies in law. He firmly believed in the value of the rule of law to society.

 The main manifestation of this emotion is the company's management. Now Tencent ’s management culture was founded by him at the time— “First of all, it ’s very free. Emphasizing the happiness of employees’ work is related to Charles (Chen Yidan) and Pony (Ma Huateng) and their personalities. ”

Guo Kaitian said: "Maybe the law is a too specific job, and it can not satisfy his further universal feelings." This may understand why he devoted himself to education-education is to shape people, no era will change.

 Zhai Hongxin's evaluation of Chen Yidan is: The pattern is very big, smart, and has a big picture. She is the Secretary-General of Tencent Charity Foundation, and Chen Yidan has been an old colleague for more than ten years. The memories of Chen Yidan can be traced back to when Tencent was first established. At that time, when a user came to complain, Chen Yidan, a legal professional, would immediately pull in a female colleague-the reason is that, in terms of probability, customers will not be angry with girls, and everyone is easy to calm down.

 But at that time she just thought that Chen Yidan was very clever. Until he retired from the peak of his career, full-time charity and charity, she only discovered his wise side. Zhai Hongxin said, "If he doesn't have this trait, it is difficult to persevere, or push this thing forward step by step."

The purpose of the establishment of this award, four years ago, Chen Yidan wrote in the book-"Break through the restrictions of religion, race, and country, aimed at encouraging the promotion of human understanding and contribution to the life of the universe." Initially, his bonus was set at 10 million Hong Kong dollars . But Chen Yidan insisted that this number should be increased to 3 times.

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

 Change permeates every detail of life. A person living in the last century is separated from us by a heavy curtain of numbers. Looking at our newsletter, it has only three points-the sender, the mailer, and the receiver. Many years ago, the email arrived at once. To complicate matters a little bit more, news, providers, media, receivers-(via) satellites are sent on TV and then online. Business is more complicated, requiring origin, purchase, advertising, rent selection, salesperson recruitment, and delivery, but e-commerce has also come out.

 From the beginning of retirement, even earlier, Chen Yidan was thinking about this issue. As of today, there is no Internet, and no substantial changes, only education. Because it is a complex system, "stake-holders, too many stakeholders". His conclusion is getting closer and closer to that ambitious goal: the education system will definitely change, and the entire information revolution determines that it will change sooner or later. So, at this moment, what is his role? ——He successfully helped China's public welfare to be internetized, and the efficiency and enthusiasm of donation increased rapidly, leading the world. Now it ’s education, it ’s like a person who is ready to leverage and wants to pry a whole planet.

 He thought clearly, "Education is the most important thing, and it deserves such a high bonus."

In Chen Yidan's plan, 30 million Hong Kong dollars: half of the prize is given to individuals, and half is for project funds for the winners to promote research. But after the increase, the originally planned 1 billion Hong Kong dollar fund pool was not enough-like the Nobel Prize, Chen Yidan donated a special foundation in Hong Kong. The calculation found that if he wanted to ensure that the bonus can be paid out every year, he must donate 2.5 billion .

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

 He has his own "perspective", the assistant said.
 

Tradition

If we observe with a pair of modern people's eyes, the magnanimity and generosity of Chen Yidan's personality can sometimes be difficult to understand. He was very low-key, and even overwhelmed by the donation being known: when he graduated from college, he donated to Hope Primary School, and felt that it was natural because no one saw it. Later, his alma mater, Shenzhen University, wanted to donate scholarships. He felt a lot of pressure. "This pressure is not to donate money. It is because people know what to do if they donate money."

In May 2019, he announced at a meeting: Donated stocks, worth more than 4 billion Hong Kong dollars-if not to catch up with the stock decline at that time, the planned amount of donations is based on 5 billion. However, when it fell, it fell. The fact is that the money was donated as early as last year and a charitable trust was established, but it has not been announced. The reason is that he doesn't know what to say.

 He valued honor, but not this one, but another bigger thing: he named the education award he set up under his own name; the library donated to Wuhan College was named "Chen Yidan Lili Library". "Yidan" has a sense of heart, "Chen Yidan and Li" commemorate the days when he and his wife studied and fell in love at the university library.
 

This is a conflicting emotion. But what happened to him, just like his decision when he retired, everything seemed natural. Those who are familiar with him feel that Chen Yidan is heavily influenced by tradition. He pays attention to "mindfulness and sincerity of heart", and also pays attention to "standing up and carrying forward Tao."

 The influence of tradition on him is reflected in all aspects. Once, he talked about education with a Western scholar. From the perspective of brain science, the other side talked about that only one organ was formed after birth, that is, the brain, so 0 to 3 years old is particularly important in the growth process. Chen Yidan took it happily, "Yes, there is an old Chinese saying that if you are three years old, you will be eighty."

He seemed to have caught a rabbit. It's like finding the coordinates of culture in an up-to-date system. Looking back on his childhood, Chen Yidan was born in a traditional family, and he grew up without much ups and downs. This may explain his surprising sense of balance.

 Among those distant memories, the most impressive thing is his grandmother, who is an illiterate old man, but even if he has no money, he likes to help others. This is her nature. This simple feeling can give people strength and has a great influence on him.

 When chatting with him, he will be unconsciously brought into the traditional world. The words that make up this world are very strange today. He likes to talk about Confucianism and Taoism, and likes to talk about Buddha's education. He read the original scriptures, with "The Analects of Confucius", "University", and "Mean" on the shelf. He also read Buddhist scriptures, not only the "Vajra Sutra", but also "The Pure Land Five Classics and One Theory" and "The Pure Land Three Classics".

 The assistant once helped him to open the plastic cover of the book. Hundreds of them, "Ancient Classics" and "Shui Jing Zhu", are all a big set. Sometimes she will discuss with Chen Yidan: two sets of books, one set is very beautiful, but not complete. The other set is paperback, which is not so good-looking. Which one do you want?

"It must be in paperback, the book is not for display, I am for reading." Chen Yidan said.

 Talking about his idea of ​​donating education, he attributed it to these characteristics: "I think there is a simple feeling, but there is no system to sort it out." He said the most is that it is destiny-"People can not take anything in this life. Go, only karma is with you. "

This sentence is too old-the domestic Internet has increased the dimension of language, and we are divided into tribes. When a person comes with a very classical attitude, it often seems out of place — it is like observing him through layers of gauze — which may increase the difficulty of understanding.

 When evaluating himself, the concepts he uses are also traditional. Confucianism and Buddhism, regarding these two, he seems to have a balance that can accurately adjust the weights, adjust their proportions little by little, to maintain balance-the best state is to transcend good and evil, calm as water. But he is a mortal and can't do it. "Only Confucianism can be scaled up a little bit. Enter the WTO and do the right way. If you make a mistake, you can change it. If you do something good, you can do more."

 This simple feeling seemed to have the ability to reverse time and space, and soon tilted reality towards him. It is actually difficult to get involved in education. Chen Yidan recalled that when he planned to donate 2 billion yuan to run a school in phases, he was still guilty: education is unfinished, like a bottomless hole. But he had already thought about it at the time, hoping to have a heart to explore.

 He told his wife this idea. He felt that his wife was 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 meals with me."

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

Law of Attraction

In the eyes of scholars, he is probably the least like a businessman. Very simple and pure. Wu Handong, former president of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, commented this way. He has met people who have become rich overnight, and big-name entrepreneurs have also met a lot. "It is not easy to let me be a scholar to say that an entrepreneur is good", but Chen Yidan is an exception.

 They didn't meet much, but they were impressed every time. On one occasion, in the process of running Wuhan College, Chen Yidan wanted to seek his opinion and called him. The meeting place is located in a tea room in Shenzhen. A few years later, Wu Handong recalled the moment: Chen Yidan looked a bit depressed at the time. He said that I was very successful as an entrepreneur and ideal as a philanthropist. However, "As an educator, why can't it work well?"

Wu Handong rarely sees this aspect of an internationally renowned entrepreneur. His ideals and feelings for education made him very touched-he felt that their ideals were the same and they hit it off. However, running a university is not the same as running an enterprise. A century-old prestigious school cannot be achieved in one or two steps. "There are twists and turns to advance." Wu Handong said that Chen Yidan was patient and determined in running the school, and even surprised him. In that chat, Chen Yidan was like a child. He was very lost at first. After the talk, he was relieved, very excited, and his emotions were all on his face.

"When I met Chen Yidan, the image he showed to me was a philanthropist and a future educator. I don't see much of his flamboyant entrepreneur image." Wu Handong said, but there was no surplus entrepreneur Chen Yidan. , There will not be Chen Yidan now.

"So he is the first to create wealth. I believe it is also difficult. He represents the positive factors of social development in this era. It depends on knowledge to create wealth, not policy to gain wealth, not power to plunder wealth. This is one of mine. Judgment. "Wu Handong commented," The difference between him and ordinary entrepreneurs is that he put his second half of his life in public welfare. I am very sure of these two points. Of course, not all Chinese entrepreneurs should devote themselves to education.
 

Chen Yidan's characteristics attracted many people. Before his retirement, Li Zhongyun was the secretary of the Party Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University. At that time, Chen Yidan invited him to join Wuhan University, he considered repeatedly and refused. For him, retirement means retiring, and there is no need to take risks. Chen Yidan did not give up, so he went to Wuhan and asked him to talk again. The place for the banquet was selected in a hotel's Stanford Hall. There are many photos of Stanford University in the hall.

 He stood up, pointed at these photos, and talked eloquently: China ’s private education is still relatively backward. He believes that private education in the future, like private enterprises, must have great development. He hopes that Wuhan University will be like Stanford in the future.

 Li Zhongyun said that he was a little moved and refused to embarrass him.

 For most people, devoting themselves to one thing is like pouring water into shochu, and the enthusiasm will soon be diluted. Chen Yidan understood this very early on, and in order to invite a principal, he looked at Maolu. His personality tells him to look forward. When in trouble, he sang "Fishing Boat Singing Evening" alone-this is a traditional recipe. But it was only for a while, and soon I stopped singing, but continued to persevere.

 Like a dose of Chinese medicine. Some people think that as a billionaire, he made his retirement too bitter. The fact is that there is something in his character that can be called optimism, and he attributed his choice to "pure feelings." The fact is that he also understands more truth: as long as you are involved in education, you will progress little by little. The process is the biggest.

 Occasionally, there is confusion. Are you a real idealist or an ideal realist? He asked himself, "Our discussion is that there are no ideal realists, only realistic idealists."