Riding the wind of rebirth

Zhou Zhi smiled. In his heart, he actually agreed with Mai Xiaomiao, but he couldn't express his support now. He just said, "Many of the stories in the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars are feudal dregs. Looking back from the perspective of modern people, they are indeed somewhat foolish and ridiculous."

Then he continued to tell the story: "When Min Ziqian grew up, he became a disciple of Confucius. He was as virtuous as Yan Hui. Confucius praised him as 'a man who does not speak, but always speaks to the point.' Ji Shi of Lu State once invited him to be the governor of Fei, but Min Ziqian flatly refused because he did not respect the king of Lu and had no virtue."

"All the stories Elbow tells are very interesting." Mai Xiaomiao said, "I have heard many of them from him."

Mai Mingdong felt that his granddaughter's knowledge of Chinese history and culture was quite lacking. Now it seemed that it was not a bad idea for her to follow Zhou Zhi to Daliang Mountain: "Elbow has a strong knowledge of history and literature. Xiao Miao, you should also learn more."

"In fact, there is a loophole in this story in the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars." Zhou Zhi laughed and said, "Cotton itself is an imported product. Before the Tang Dynasty, it was an ornamental crop. That's why Du Fu wrote the poem 'I don't know whether peach blossoms are as red as brocade, I hate willow catkins as white as cotton.'"

"Cotton was first planted in Jiangnan during the Song and Yuan dynasties, but it was not until the Ming dynasty that it became popular."

"Before this, tree cotton was a product of tropical and subtropical regions. It was generally distributed in central Yunnan and Guangnan in China. The local natives wove it into cloth, which was called 'jibei'. Therefore, the Central Plains region in the Spring and Autumn Period did not have the cotton that we commonly see today."

"There is another kind, which is silk floss. The best silk floss is made directly from cocoons. The second-best is made from the leftovers of cocoons, so the character has the radical of twisted silk. Later, people found that the fluff of cotton is very similar to silk floss, so they borrowed the pronunciation of this character and changed the radical to wood to distinguish it. The Guangyun specifically mentioned the explanation of the word 'cotton': 'Wu Lu says: In fact, it is like a wine cup, with cotton like silk inside, which can be made into cloth'. This is the origin of this character."

"Although families with cars in the Spring and Autumn Period were considered middle class, historical books all mention that Min Ziqian's family was poor, and that car was his father's production tool, which was hired to pull things for others to support the family. It seems too exaggerated to say that two children in the family could afford to wear silk cotton jackets."

"So this story is very likely to have been added to and modified by people throughout the ages, and it was not until the Ming Dynasty that the final version we see today was formed."

“It’s really interesting to study Chinese history.” Mai Xiaomiao listened carefully: “There are so many angles and materials to study…”

"That's right." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Take my aunt's hometown Fei County for example. It was near the fiefdom of Emperor Shaohao, the eldest son of the emperor. From the archaeological findings, it is the Dawenkou cultural sites distributed in southern and northern Shandong, as well as the later Longshan cultural heritage. These are the 'main veins' of Chinese civilization, which can be traced and verified, and have been around for six or seven thousand years."

"Civilization has continued for so many years, and there are many things to study."

“But how do you know so much?” Although Mai Xiaomiao was used to Zhou Zhi’s erudition, he still couldn’t help but express his surprise and admiration: “It seems like you know almost everything about literature and history.”

"That's too exaggerated. I only know a little more about Chinese literature and history." Zhou Zhi said modestly, "I know nothing about overseas. The humanities and sciences are different. The sciences are more about depth, just like you, you need to dig deep in one direction; while the humanities actually study humanities and social issues. The humanities and social issues of different eras are definitely complex, multi-layered and closely related, so they are more about breadth." "So I can't compare with you in professional depth, and you can't compare with me in knowledge. We are called specialized in our professions."

"Are there people in history who are both broad-minded and profound?" asked Mai Xiaomiao.

"Yes, there are. For example, Zhang Heng of the Han Dynasty, Monk Yixing of the Tang Dynasty, Su Song of the Song Dynasty, Xu Guangqi of the Ming Dynasty, and Pan Jixun of the Qing Dynasty. They were not only scientists in ancient times, but also proficient in literature, politics, and religion. For example, Su Song, who held the highest position of prime minister, was also an astronomer, astronomical machinery manufacturer, and pharmacist. He was knowledgeable and versatile, and was well-versed in the nine schools of classics and history, the theories of hundreds of schools, as well as algorithms, geography, mountain classics, herbal medicine, exegesis, and musical scales. In terms of machinery, he invented something similar to the astronomical machine. Wen Zhong's water-powered astronomical observatory had the earliest escapement in the world. He drew many star maps in astronomy, conducted research on calendars, and explained the reasons for the inconsistency between the calendars of Song and Liao at that time. He compiled the "Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica" in medicine. He presided over the revision of "Records of Emperor Renzong" and "Records of Emperor Yingzong" in history. In literature, his descendants collected many of his works and compiled them into "Collected Works of Su Weigong", which includes nearly 600 poems, one of which is as long as 1,400 words, which can be called the "best regulated verse" in China.

"But I did some statistics and found that such a person usually only appears once every three to four hundred years." Zhou Zhi said with emotion: "So we don't need to compare ourselves with these chosen ones, otherwise it will be true to the old saying..."

"Comparing people will make you die, and comparing goods will make you throw them away!" Mai Xiaomiao answered again.

"That's right!" Zhou Zhi gave Mai Xiaomiao a piece of braised pork and praised her: "If you have the time, why not eat two more pieces of braised pork made by Aunt Liu?"

Mai Mingdong looked at his granddaughter smiling sweetly with Zhou Zhi and couldn't help but be secretly surprised. Elbow had a huge influence on his precious granddaughter. It had only been a short time since she went to Daliang Mountain, but she had already learned so many witty remarks!
In fact, as Mai Xiaomiao had just returned from the United States, Mai Mingdong was quite worried that his granddaughter would not stay in China. If that were the case, it would be a loss for the country in terms of information technology.

Judging from the current situation, his granddaughter should be able to stay, but Mai Mingdong's worry has changed to another kind.

Mai Mingdong admires Zhou Zhi's character and personality very much, but how young people get along with each other changes with the seasons. They can break up for no apparent reason and it's hard to explain.

Fortunately, Mai Mingdong was somewhat relieved. Elbow's influence on Xiaomiao even made herself a beneficiary. At least this time when she returned home, with Elbow's adjustment, she seemed to have shown signs of improvement towards Liu Ma and was no longer as repulsive and targeted towards her as before.

He sighed in his heart, and decided to let the young people deal with it as they wish. Thinking of this, Mai Mingdong changed the topic to the business trip tomorrow: "Are you all ready to report to the department?"

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

"There's nothing to prepare." Mai Xiaomiao listed them all: "Our lab is very well prepared for the early stages of the technology. Whether it's the Merkle-Tree data structure proposed by Merkle Ralf, or the Paxos algorithm proposed by Leslie Lamport, or the protocol that uses timestamps to ensure the security of digital files, or the POW algorithm that relies on the irreversibility of the cost function, we have been tracking and using them. After establishing the lab, we immediately bought the IP rights of these algorithms, and developed a virtual machine architecture for distributed systems based on them. At the same time, we used the characteristics of the POW algorithm that is easy to verify but difficult to crack to build a security firewall for the virtual machine architecture."

"You already knew all this." Zhou Zhi said to Mai Mingdong, "In fact, now we are discussing whether it is a two-party cooperation or a three-party co-management. In other words, in addition to our Clover Group and the Ship Power Research Institute, the question is whether the Academy of Sciences will join." (End of this chapter)