Xinshun 1730

Chapter 213 It's Too Late for Western Learning
"My lord, I understand what you said. This Jinghai Palace official school is like a pond. A group of blind men want to eat fish, so there will naturally be fish in the pond. When the blind men open their eyes one day, they will eat dried shrimps, crabs, and old turtles." , there are actually some in this pond?"

Liu Yu clapped his hands and laughed loudly: "The one who knows me is Zhongxian! That's what it means."

"The difference between this practical study and the sage's study is that the sage's study lies in how to interpret it. Without a sage, there is no sage's study. And this practical study can be developed by itself and logically deduced. After studying the first few volumes of the original geometry, After pondering and pondering, a talented person can also ponder the next few volumes. Therefore, this practical study does not need a teacher like a sage, what is needed is to learn how to think."

"Naval officers who have learned a full set of mechanics and geometric differential calculus can calculate more unprecedented knowledge after retiring. Perhaps, if we set up an academy of sciences, the first local academician of this academy will be a retired naval officer. "

Kang didn't hesitate to think about what Liu Yu said before, and asked, "Didn't Your Majesty also say that you have the idea of ​​establishing a science academy?"

This made Liu Yu couldn't help laughing.

"The words are correct. But Euler is here, who can understand what he is talking about? How many people in Guochao can discuss the three-body problem and the orbit of the moon with him at this time? During civil strife, call these people over, and someone can understand."

"There is only a teacher, but no disciples. It is meaningless to ask him to teach algebra and arithmetic."

Naturally, Kang Buxiu didn't know what the three-body problem was, but he probably already understood what Liu Yu was going to do.

In the name of promoting the navy, what is actually being promoted is practical learning.

Thinking of Liu Yu's worry about not getting enough money, Kang Buxio said in relief: "Young master, you can rest assured. The money should be available. You know what Su Dongpo said about Wei Qing back then? A slave like Wei Qing is also suitable for others. Licking hemorrhoids. My lord was born in the Wude Palace. In the eyes of the courtiers, he is also a lucky minister and slave like Wei Qing. His Majesty insists on protecting it, and it is His Majesty who bears the blame. As long as His Majesty is willing, you don’t need your son to come forward for this matter, you can definitely do it It's done."

It sounds like an insult, but it's actually a relief.

Liu Yu relaxed slightly, and laughed loudly: "Maybe. It's just that no one wants to bear the reputation of being a brutal Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Everyone wants to be Song Renzong, and no one wants to be Emperor Qin Hanwu. By the way , the book I asked the French to bring me earlier, did you bring it?"

When the French delivered the warship a few years ago, Liu Yu asked the French to bring a few very important books at a high price.

Kang Buxiu didn't know Latin, so he could only know a few words, but he knew that Liu Yu valued these books, at least more than training the Qingzhou Army.

"I brought it. I kept it carefully."

Back in the room, Kang Busha dug out from a locked cabinet the third edition of "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" published in 1725, two years before Newton's death. Six or seven hundred pages.

Liu Yu asked Kang to be lazy, and if these books arrive, maybe they can find someone to try to translate them.

Xu Guangqi said that if you want to be fluent, you must first translate.

It's just that these books are too difficult to translate.

"My lord, I have often heard you talk about this book. I also heard you say that many of the contents in this book have been taught to others. For example, things like force and inertia. You have already covered the outline, now Do you want to finish translating this book?"

He weighed the heavy book in his hand, and opened a page casually, looking at the geometric figures and various extension lines inside, Liu Yuxin said that he was probably reading this book for the first time.

"Knowing why, knowing why. It's not the same thing. If you just want to know what's going on, you can just learn from the outlines I wrote. But to know why, it's best to see how Newton reasoned it out. .”

Open the title page, the first page is Halley's preface to the book.

"Look at the layout of the sky, the balance of divine matter."

"See Jupiter's calculations, and the Creator's rules."

"He made the rules when he created everything."

"After it is formulated, even he will not violate it. This is the basis of his work."

"The sun sits on his throne and commands all things to descend upon him, but the heavenly bodies do not run in a straight line."

"From this book we know at last the cause of the unequal pace of the bright moon; and from this book we also know how hard the wandering Diana pushes the tide back, leaving the weary sea behind. Drop seaweed and shells..."

Trying to translate Halley's preface to Newton, Kang listened for a while, then smiled and said, "Let me guess, is this Diana similar to Wang Shu in our story? Chang'e? The tide is because of the moon, isn’t it. You mean, let me polish it up?”

Liu Yu's translation has neither flatness nor rhythm, and is completely vernacular.After such a book is printed, I am afraid that cultural people will not take a second look.

But this is not the reason why Liu Yu asked Kang Bushao for help.

"Polishing needs to be polished, but the main thing is to replace Jupiter, Diana, etc. with gods that ordinary people can understand. There are also things like 'he made the rules when he created everything. After making it, Even he won’t violate it, this is the basis of his work’, use words like ‘Tao’ and ‘reason’ to modify it.”

From this sentence alone, Kang Bushao thinks it is not difficult.But since you want to turn the page, you need to set a tone first.

"Young Master, it's not difficult for me to polish it. What's difficult is what is the keynote, Young Master?"

"Well, the keynote is to translate the preface and make a new preface. You just try to lean in the direction of the Yongjia School's 'where things are, where the Tao is'. This book is to explain why the moon rotates so much and why the stars The reason why the water does not fall down is just a reason, and there is no such thing as water being the best."

Kang Buxiu understood, and probably understood what Liu Yu meant.

"Young master, is this book so important? You definitely don't have time. The key is that after I get this book, I will find some people who are proficient in learning and understand some Latin and try to translate it. However...they don't read it at all. don't know."

"can't read?"

Liu Yu was a little stunned. He hadn't actually read this book, but he had heard the name a lot.

Turning over the title page and the previous preface, I turned to Chapter 1. After reading it for a while, Liu Yu was also stunned.

The opening chapter, Chapter 1, is about limits, differentials, and curve tangents in geometric concepts.

Because when this book was written, calculus had not yet been formed, but the content in it must use limits, tangents, geometry, conic sections, etc.

After reading for a while, Liu Yu rubbed his head, thinking that even if this book was printed, it would not lead to any trends, because he had a headache after reading the first Chapter 1, so it is conceivable that even if this book was printed, it would not lead to any trends. Like a bible.

This is not to say that the myth of Newton was ahead of the times, but because he was ahead of the times personally, and the mathematical tools he used were still from the old age. He geniusly used the knowledge of the old age to solve the content of calculus. This kind of obscurity is really indescribable. .

I thought this book was about mechanics and gravity, but just now I was talking to Kang Bushao about knowing what it is and why it is.

After I really saw it, I thought about it and couldn't help laughing.

This book... Now that it's been translated, it's really useless.

"Come on, I don't want to translate this book for the time being. I think it's simple. It's not that it's useless after translating, but that you have the energy to translate this book. It's far better to do something else. The rate of return is too low."

"Xu Guangqi said that if you want to understand, you must first translate. I think it is not appropriate to use it at this time. If you want to understand, let's start a new one."

"Let them learn the content of practical learning since they were young. They don't need to know why, just know what it is. Don't follow the veins of Westerners. Wait for whoever has learned it in the future, and then translate it."

Throwing aside the mathematical principles of natural philosophy, rubbed his head that felt a little headache after reading it for a while, and after some calculation, he felt that the route of the compulsory education textbook in his previous life was the most suitable for Dashun now.

Don't talk about the mathematical principles of natural philosophy, just let more people know that the earth is round and gravity is common sense.

Don't talk about profound ways of thinking, as long as enough people learn these things first, there will naturally be learned to explore deeper content.

I originally thought about trying to take the route of "Broadcasting Western Learning to the East", but after reading a few pages of this book, Liu Yu has completely given up on this idea.

Technology can be learned from the west and spread to the east. If you can copy it, you can copy it, and if you can translate it, you can translate it.

It will take a hundred years for science to spread Western learning eastward.

Even if this book is translated and thrown into the south of the Yangtze River, it will not be able to make a splash.

People often think that if these books are translated, they can get rid of backwardness.But now it seems that it is really impossible.

Chapter 1 can dissuade most of the scholar-bureaucrats, because if you want to understand Chapter 1, you have to supplement geometry, conic sections, and limits. It can be circulated in small circles.

This is no wonder, even Qiu Chengtong, who won the Fields Medal, once said that Newton's book is too difficult to understand, and it is a headache to read.

Geometry was originally something nearly 2000 years ago, so it is okay to use this Western knowledge to spread eastward.

But it gradually deepened, and the imperial examination was not taken, and no one could learn so deeply.

For new knowledge, it is better not to engage in the transfer of Western learning to the East, but to start anew.

It is much easier for some people to accept a new worldview in a closed environment since they were young than to let the scholar-bureaucrats transform themselves by spreading Western learning to the east.

Originally, Liu Yu had such an idea, but after reading Newton's book, he made up his mind even more.

After thinking for a moment, I picked up my pen, stayed in my room for three or four days, and wrote some content.

After finishing writing, he handed it to Kang Bushao and said, "Brother Zhongxian, you probably haven't been exposed to this knowledge before. But just these few pages, take a look, do you think you can understand it?"

Taking those few sheets of paper curiously, Kang Bu slack read the contents above, it was indeed unprecedented knowledge.

"...everything is made of atoms...a large ball is the nucleus of the atom, and the outer ball is called the pip, just like the moon revolves around the earth..."

After reading it carefully, Kang Bulao nodded and said, "I can understand this, and I probably can understand it. Although I don't know if it's true or not, but if I learned it this way when I was young, I'll think it's natural when I grow up. It cannot be changed. If you learn it from an early age, after learning it, there is no other way to impress them and make them change their minds."

"My lord, do you want to learn from Bai Letian? Every time you compose a new poem, do you have to read it to the ignorant old woman first?"

(End of this chapter)