Bulletin Number Four 1987

Ci tation of Professor Ma L i n at the Congregation Professor Ma Lin, CBE (Hon), BSc (W. China Union), PhD (Leeds), DSc (Sus.), D L itt (E. Asia), FRSA, JP Confucius might have said, ‘It is a foolish man who praises his old master in front o f his new'; neverthe­ less, this is the task I am undertaking today, such is the lo t o f Public Orators. As a learned Sinologist, Mr. Chancellor, you w ill know that Confucius was too honourable a man t o have proffered expedient advice o f this kind; such Machiavellian pronouncements are more apt to have come from the brush o f Han Fei Tzu. But Confucius did say this in The Doctrine o f the Mean which the late Lord Fulton o f Falmer used in his citation when presenting Dr. Ma Lin for the award o f Doctor o f Science, honoris causa, at the University o f Sussex. Quoting Confucius, Lord Fulton said, 'The great exercise o f righteousness is in honouring the worthy.' ‘ 義者宜也。尊賢爲大。’ （《中庸》第二十章） He was citing James Legge's translation o f Confucius. My colleague Professor D.C. Lau renders it in a different way, thus: ‘To be right is to be fitting , and o f things that are right, the most important is the exalting o f superior talent.' As Professor Lau's publisher, I am bound to say that his is the more accurate rendering. But w ith out wishing to be drawn into an academic argument over whether ‘ 賢， is better translated as ‘the worthy' or ‘superior talent ’， let me hasten to say that the man we are honouring today is both. Born into a family o f classical Chinese scholars where ‘the fragrance of books lingers through many generations', Ma Lin is the fifth o f six children o f the late Professor Ma Kiam who held the Chair of Chinese for many years at our sister university. Growing up under the tutelage o f his scholarly father, Ma Lin had a studious childhood in a household where the great Chinese classics were a staple diet and great men o f letters frequent visitors. He showed an early fondness for swashbuckling novels like The Romance o f the Three Kingdoms, but unlike his father and elder brothers who had a literary bent, the young Ma Lin soon fell under the enchantment o f the natural sciences, in particular, o f Chemistry. And so it was natural for him to embark on the study o f Chemistry when he attended the West China Union University during the latter half o f the Second World War. Distinguishing himself as a young scientist o f early promise, Ma Lin continued his good work at the University o f Leeds after a spell o f teaching at his alma mater and was awarded the degree o f Doctor o f Philosophy in 1955. In the ten years between leaving Leeds and starting his teaching career at the Univer­ sity, the young Dr. Ma Lin did post-doctoral research at the University College Hospital in London and St. James's Hospital at Leeds and later taught Clinical Chemistry at the University o f Hong Kong. The year 1965 marked the beginning o f a long and mutually rewarding association between Dr. Ma and the University. On joining the University as Senior Lecturer in that year, his talents were quickly recognized and numerous academic and administrative duties followed. He served variously as Head o f the Department o f Chemistry, Head o f the Department o f Biochemistry, Associate Dean and then Dean of the Science Faculty. He was promoted Reader in Biochemistry in 1972 and became Professor o f Bio chemistry a year later. From 1973 to 1978, he was Chairman o f the Senate Committee on Staff-Student Relations. Mr. Chancellor, when Professor Ma Lin became Vice-Chancellor in 1978 ， fourteen years after he started his career at the University, he was well equipped for the job, although his native modesty 6