Qi Gong in his later years took enormous fancy to toys, and, as he said, his bookshelf is "Kingdom of Toys."

Qi Gong was an associate professor at Furen University in 1949 and in 1952 he taught in the Department of Chinese Literature of Beijing Normal University (Furen), and was promoted to professor when he was 43. A professor of classic Chinese language and literature, he had served from the early 1980s up to his death as a tutor to Master's degree and Doctorate students, who are now the backbone of China's classical literature circle.

Qi Gong once accepted that what he valued the most was his work as a teacher and for that he was deeply grateful to his mentor Chen Yuan, who led him towards a life-long career as a teacher and scholar. Qi Gong passed what he had learned from Chen Yuan, as well as his own selfless love, on to his generations of students.

Qi Gong set up the Li Yun Grant in 1990 with 1.63 million yuan (US$196.904) of his own money, money raised at a sale of work in Hong Kong during which he sold out more than a hundred painting and calligraphic works of his own. .

Together with his mentor, Chen Yuan

Qi Gong was good at turning hard topics into light and easy ones. Although he was a scholar with profound knowledge, his books are always easy to read and enlightening to the mind. His classes were always popular and filled with interesting, casual talks.

"My teacher is a very qualified teacher," said Li Shan, said a former student a while back, now himself a professor at the university.

  A humorous and generous old grandpa

Despite being an acclaimed teacher, it is true that Qi Gong was more famous as an artist. People will remember him as a humorous, modest, generous, and open-minded "old grandpa."

Faced with the praise of "a living national treasure" due to his art, knowledge, and personality, Qi always joked that it sounded like he was "a giant panda."

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