Wanli Xinming

Chapter 356
The collection of the Medici family was a treasure trove, and Florence was an even bigger surprise for the mission.

The biggest surprise came from the discovery of new documents—a large number of records about the former celestial kingdom of Andalus in southern Spain, that is, the province of Andalusia in Spain was once a kingdom of celestial religion.The name of Gibraltar comes from the "Gibral Tarek" mountain where the celestial general Tariq Ziad assembled his troops to invade Europa.

After the mission found these documents at the Academy of Florence, they immediately solved the puzzle that had long plagued Xu Guangqi, Wang Jiaping and others: since the ancient Greek civilization was so splendid, why did the Europa people get rid of ignorance until the Renaissance.

The answer lies in Al-Andalus. 400 years ago, the Christian scholar Awei Roy began to study the copies of Greek philosophy preserved in the world of heaven—the works of Aristotle are the most, which shocked the entire Christian world.

A large number of Christian scholars began to translate Greek classical philosophy on a large scale—Xu Guangqi is sure that before Andalus was established in the second year of Emperor Dezong of Tang Dynasty, the ancient Greek civilization was almost extinct in Europa, and they had almost no credible words history.And a large number of works of so-called Greek sages were retranslated in Al-Andalus around 100 and [-] years ago in the Julian calendar.

That is to say, Andalus can almost be regarded as the mother of the new civilization of Europa. It not only provided Christian scholars with a large number of ancient Greek documents and sowed the seeds of science and logic, but also in eight centuries of exchanges, It provided Europa with new agricultural tools, rice, silkworms and sugarcane and other tools and agricultural resources to increase productivity, which provided both ideological and material preparations for the Renaissance.

Columbus's journey to discover the Americas set sail in Huelva, Andalusia; the town of Sanluga in Andalusia was the starting point and end point of the first human voyage around the world - until now, Andalusia is still the whole of Europe The source of gold and silver currency, the heart of the financial industry.

Xu Guangqi, who found this batch of documents, is very happy, because it fully proves his world view: only communication can bring forth new ideas, and any civilization that works behind closed doors can only end up in a stagnant pool - Andalus, as a communication between the two civilizations of heaven and Christianity Bridges and ties, what a fruitful fruit in Europa!And in this world, how many civilizations are still waiting for China to discover, preserve and even learn from?
It stands to reason that since Andalus from hundreds of years ago is so important, Spain should have the most such documents.But it is a pity that despite the "discovery" of so many Aristotle's works that shook the Christian world, the missionary schools of Europa and the universities on the rise are still madly chasing this knowledge - but according to Xu Guangqi's observation, no Forget where you come from, the virtue of drinking water and thinking of the source seems to be possessed only by Chinese people.

For the current Spaniards, as the capital of the caliphate, Ancalus, which had perished as the center of the entire Europa civilization, has long since disappeared, and now Andalusia, for them and the entire Europa people, is nothing but a A place with a slightly Ottoman style.Xu Guangqi regretted that he did not visit the province of Andalusia when he was in Spain, where he listened to the remnants of the receding tide of civilization.

In Florence, similar documents were harvested, and the embassies were eager to collect and organize them.

Not only art, but also artists.Introduced by Francesco I, Xu Guangqi met with Montaigne, a famous European thinker who revisited the place in the old palace where he stayed.

Montaigne was born in 1533, at the age of 51.His father was a small nobleman near Bordeaux, France, so he received a good education since he was a child, and once served in the court of Charles IX of France.

At the age of thirty-seven, he inherited his father's estate in the country and lived in seclusion.With his special sensitivity to life, he recorded his own intellectual and spiritual development, and successively wrote the great work "Essay Collection", leaving precious spiritual wealth for later generations.

This posterity is almost considered to be an immortal "master" of Europa like Shakespeare, Socrates, and Michelangelo, and is now beginning to gain a big name in Europe.Because the first two volumes of his "Essays" were published four years ago and have been reprinted several times in just a few years, Montaigne, who is now the mayor of Bordeaux, has become a real top-notch in European society. It can even be said— - Montaigne used his essays to change the way later Europeans view life.

In the year when "Essays" was first published, Montaigne traveled from Alsace via Switzerland to the Apennine Peninsula and traveled in various countries for nearly a year. Later, when he learned that he had been elected mayor by the Bordeaux Parliament, he left Florence and returned to his country to take office. went.

The reason why he appeared in front of Xu Guangqi was rather funny. When Xu Guangqi completely disclosed the method of preventing and controlling smallpox in Madrid, the citizens of Bordeaux were experiencing the massacre of plague.

At this time, the medical level of Europa only knew that it was a severe infectious disease similar to the "Black Death", and it was almost ignorant of its pathogenic mechanism and prevention methods.

When the plague first broke out, the mayor of Bordeaux disappeared from the city, ignoring the epidemic.The angry Bordeaux nobles kept sending letters to let him go back to preside over the overall situation, which made his reputation become very bad - this fully reflects the fragility of human nature, although Montaigne in "Essays" seems to have seen through life and looked down on life and death. , but the mayor of Meng outside the book still fled from his heart without hesitation.

The appearance of Xu Guangqi gave the mayor Meng, whose reputation was almost bankrupt, a powerful reason. He wrote back to the Bordeaux Parliament, claiming that he would follow in the footsteps of the mission and seek a way to prevent and treat infectious diseases from the mysterious oriental visitor—a holy country that can cure smallpox , Is there any way to do this infectious disease that is breaking out in Bordeaux?
In fact, when the smallpox control method from Serris reached France, Montaigne, while feeling genuine awe, did have a new hope: he would have been embarrassed to escape from the city of Bordeaux, if he could get the information about the infectious disease in Bordeaux. The prevention method is really worth the effort.

Montaigne's tutor only spoke Latin, so he used Latin as his native language all his life, and he had no obstacle in direct communication with Xu Guangqi.Xu Guangqi listened to his intention and learned that he came from the epidemic area, so he directly accused him of changing his clothes.When he came out, he was already wearing a gauze mask on his face. When Wang Jiaping and other members of the mission saw it, they all accused him of wearing a mask. Awkward.

When Xu Guangqi listened to the symptoms of the infectious disease described by Montaigne, he knew that the pathogenic mechanism of this severe infectious disease had already been discovered by Daming - although the Beijing Medical College did not find out the method for culturing and staining Yersinia pestis, but using a microscope, it has been The oval-shaped bacteria were found in the blood of patients, and a paper was written about it.

Xu Guangqi pondered: "When I left China, the disease you mentioned was spreading on the grasslands of our country, and the imperial court dispatched epidemic prevention experts and doctors to control it. In fact, as long as you understand the basic principles of epidemic prevention, almost every An infectious disease can be prevented."

The Grand Duke of Tuscany and the nobles accompanied by Cardinal Ferdinando Medici immediately held their breath when they heard the words - from 1347 to 1353 in the Julian calendar, the so-called "black" that swept the entire Europa The plague of "death disease" killed 2500 million Europeans, accounting for one-third of the total European population at the time.

The Black Death had a severe impact on the economy, politics, culture, religion, technology and other aspects of medieval European society, and had a huge impact.After experiencing the Black Death, some elites in Europe found that the autocracy of Catholicism was a kind of shackles, which had an important impact on the Renaissance, the Reformation and even the Enlightenment, thus changing the direction of the development of Europa civilization - it can be said that how big the world is, Europa How big is the psychological shadow of people on infectious diseases.

Then, Xu Guangqi introduced some of Daming's discoveries in infectious disease research - although these discoveries were made after the invention of the microscope, but as a control technology that Daming banned the export of, Xu Guangqi intentionally did not elaborate; as for "sanitation", Xu Jue, who was "indoctrinated" along the way, finally couldn't hold back his sense of superiority, and made a fierce attack on the current situation in Europe:

"Gentlemen, for Europa, I and the embassy have great admiration for the civilization you created, and even some respect for the sages who opened the era of great voyages - although the history of voyages in the Ming Dynasty is earlier than you. But say something. To be honest, the habits of life throughout Europe, from kings to commoners, are extremely unhealthy, even barbaric and very backward!"

"Civilized people should know how to dispose of their own feces to differentiate themselves from domestic animals and wild animals!"

"Civilized people should know how to cleanse their bodies from disease and parasites!"

"Civilized people should know how to clean their homes so that they can live in a clean and tidy environment!"

"civilized man"

　To be honest, this chapter took three days to write.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)