In his early years as a humble assistant professor, he had already gathered the courage and energy to challenge some of the world’s most difficult scientific problems. By the time he became an academician, renowned in the academic world, he still humbly worked in rice fields and factories. In the fast-moving train of the times, he never grew weary, always climbing until the very last moment of his life.
He was Mr. Jiang Yiyuan, a well-known agricultural machinery expert, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a professor at Northeast Agricultural University. He made groundbreaking contributions to the research of grain harvesting machines with pre-harvest threshing, achieving success ahead of others and driving the innovation and development of China’s grain harvesting machinery. His work on mechanical design theory and model experimental methods led to major revisions of traditional theories, making the application of similar principles easier to popularize. Furthermore, he made great efforts in reforming the agricultural engineering education system, dedicating himself to education and training a large number of specialized agricultural machinery professionals.
Born in 1928 in Changzhou, Jiang Yiyuan held a strong belief in “science saving the country.” At the age of 18, he enrolled in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering at Nanjing Jinling University. In his freshman year, he saw many advanced American agricultural machines on campus and was taught by American professors, which led him to the idea of transferring to study agricultural mechanization. However, since the electrical engineering department and the
agricultural machinery department were under different faculties, transferring would mean having to retake the entrance exams. Failing would result in being unable to continue at the university. Undeterred by this risk, Jiang Yiyuan decided to pursue his passion and transferred to the agricultural machinery department, making the bold decision to connect his future with agricultural mechanization.
In 1946, Jiang Yiyuan graduated from high school and entered Jinling University, where he studied electrical engineering. In his freshman year, he first encountered the advanced agricultural machinery from the United States and was inspired by the professors. After hearing about a report from Zhang Kewei, the Dean of Shenyang Agricultural College, about the vast fertile land in Northeast China, Jiang Yiyuan’s excitement led him to join the agricultural mechanization cause. This decision was influenced by his strong love for agricultural mechanization. “A grain of rice, ten drops of sweat,” he often said, explaining his deep commitment to this field.
By the 1960s, rice had become China’s primary staple crop. For years, farmers had been bending their backs, holding sickles to manually harvest rice and then thresh it by machine. This labor-intensive process had low efficiency, and the traditional “harvest and then thresh” combined harvester, even the most advanced foreign models, couldn’t solve issues such as significant grain loss, inefficiency, or the inability to harvest lodged crops. Determined to alleviate farmers’ burdens, Jiang Yiyuan set his sights on solving the world’s most challenging problem—developing a pre-harvest threshing machine for rice.
Rice, being China’s most important grain crop, has long been harvested by first cutting the rice stalks and then separating the grains, a process that was both time-consuming and laborious. To reduce farmers’ burdens, Jiang Yiyuan overcame many difficulties and dedicated himself to developing the pre-harvest threshing technology, from concept to design, calculation, and testing. Some ideas took months or even years of continuous thinking before being finalized. At the research farm,
everyone knew that Mr. Jiang was passionately working on his invention. In fact, he was known for being incredibly focused on his work, using all his time to improve rice harvesting machinery. There were even times when he was cooking dinner but found himself deep in thought, and accidentally threw a shovel of coal into the pot of noodles.
Jiang Yiyuan’s dedication was evident in his relentless commitment to precision. He could often be seen walking in and out of the farm’s machine repair shop, personally crafting many of the parts for the harvesting machines. He had exceptional skills in metalworking, ensuring the accuracy of every machine part. Often, to observe how the machines worked, he would lie in muddy rice fields, covered in dirt and oil, watching the machines operate. His rough, dark face, with only his glasses shining, made it hard to distinguish him from the farmers working around him. The harvesting machines were constantly being tested and improved. Sometimes, experiments failed, but Jiang Yiyuan never gave up. Instead, he intensified his efforts, working day and night. He often said, “I don’t mind failure. Even if I fail, I’ll keep going.”
“Pre-harvest threshing” wasn’t a completely new idea. Many countries, including Australia, Japan, the Soviet Union, Italy, the UK, France, the Philippines, and over ten institutions in China, had researched it since the mid-19th century but had failed to make any breakthroughs. When Jiang Yiyuan first started, he was in a remote area, lacking resources and equipment, with only a few like-minded colleagues by his side. But despite the challenges, he was determined to succeed.
“Foreigners couldn’t do it. Why couldn’t we?” Jiang Yiyuan asked. Together with a few young faculty members, they formed a research team. From concept to design, calculations, drawings, and testing, Jiang Yiyuan was involved in every step of the process. To closely observe the machine’s operation, he would lie in wet fields, working alongside the machines, covered in mud and grease, indistinguishable from the workers.
In 1976, after four years of research and development, the first generation of rice pre-harvest threshing machines was completed, becoming not only the first in China but also the first in the world to successfully achieve rice pre-harvest threshing. It broke the silence that had persisted in the research for many years. The renowned American agricultural machinery professor Hunter praised the invention, stating, “I am sure it will be a groundbreaking invention that will benefit rice farmers.” Through successive generations of improvements, the pre-harvest threshing machine reached international standards and won three national invention awards.
“Pre-harvest threshing is a global challenge. Although I made some breakthroughs during its development, it still hasn’t become a stable, mass-producible product. Therefore, I have no reason to stop,” said Jiang Yiyuan.
Throughout his career, Jiang Yiyuan fearlessly challenged authority, and his contributions are widely recognized. After 33 years of dedication, Jiang Yiyuan broke through the internationally recognized bottleneck in agricultural machinery, inventing the world’s first pre-harvest rice and wheat combined harvester system. He once told students at his alma mater, “You must view your life as a whole and not be swayed by short-term gains and losses. Today, we are enjoying the fruits of yesterday’s hard work. Looking back on my life, I say, ‘If a person can see their life as a whole, they can tap into their potential courage and ability, make the right choices at crossroads, and take control of their own destiny.’”
