A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 132 Remnants
"Ta Kung Pao" directly opened an opening for Lu Bicheng to express her literary talents, and many of her poems were published in various newspapers.

Nowadays, the rarity of good female literati is not much different from that of outstanding scientific workers. In addition, Lu Bicheng's works are indeed vivid. All of a sudden, "Lu Bicheng is rumored" all over Tianjin.

No matter what era or who you are, getting the approval of others is a very happy thing.

Lu Bicheng couldn't hide his smile: "It turns out that not everyone is so pedantic, and no one scolds me."

Li Yu smiled and said, "Could it be that someone scolds you to be happy?"

Lu Bicheng said: "I thought everyone thought that a woman's lack of talent is virtue."

Li Yu said: "How is that possible! This is just the beginning, and talented women will emerge in endlessly in the future."

"It will definitely!" Lu Bicheng said, "Women are just like men."

"Of course." Li Yu said with emotion, "It would be great if everyone could understand scientific content like reading articles and poems."

Lu Bicheng shook his head: "What you wrote is too difficult, how many people can understand it."

Li Yu smiled: "Yes, it's too difficult."

But the "difficulty" that Li Yu had in mind was the popularization of basic science.

No matter in what era or country, the popularization of science is not an easy task, as long as the difficulty increases a little, it will be a huge threshold for the public.

To give an inappropriate example: in his previous life, every year after the college entrance examination, the topic of Chinese composition would be on the hot searches of major websites on the same day, and everyone could comment on it, and even wanted to write it himself.

But when did I see everyone discussing the last finale of mathematics or physics?

As for mathematics, high school mathematics is just an introduction. After all, high school only learned the introduction to calculus.

Of course, there is no need for the general public to understand such profound scientific knowledge.

But he deeply understands that at least the scientific content of the nine-year compulsory internal studies should be popularized and extremely useful.

Even though you may feel that you don’t need much mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology in your work, it is a kind of scientific thinking after all, which is very inspiring to people and can prevent you from being deceived in many cases.

It is difficult for later generations to popularize it, and it is even more difficult in the era of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

After all, looking at the whole country, there are not even a few decent books on science.

The reason why Li Yu still used blackboard writing in the Beiyang Armed Forces Crash School, and then Wu Peifu sorted out the notes was also because there were no Chinese textbooks.

All science and engineering textbooks in China are now in foreign languages.

After all, there are too few good translations nowadays, and even literary works are not well translated, let alone advanced mathematical works.

And this situation will be the norm for the next few decades.

Therefore, scientists in modern China are surprisingly good at English (or other foreign languages), and they are really forced.

Of course, in the era of Li Yu, English was also an essential tool for science and engineering students.

There is still a long way to go!

Tianjin has the advantage of being close to the port, and the speed of receiving overseas mail is also the fastest.

On this day, Fu Zengxiang found Li Yu again, "According to Tang Shaoyi Daotai's entrustment, I happened to see one of your overseas packages from the port, so I intercepted it and brought it specially."

Li Yu looked at the delivery address and found that it was sent from Stockholm. After opening it, there were more than two dozen thick copies of the second edition of "Fractal and Chaos".

These books traveled across the ocean, and the shipping cost was much higher than the book itself, so Leeffler simply sent as many as possible at once.

Fu Zengxiang saw that there were books in the package, and asked curiously, "This is the academic work that shocked the West?"

Li Yu said, "I wrote it."

Fu Zengxiang said: "I am a super bookworm, can I exchange an ancient book with my husband for one?"

Li Yu knew that he was a great bibliophile, and said with a smile, "I'll just give you a copy."

Fu Zengxiang shook his head: "In our book collection circle, mutual gifts and exchanges are common. How can I take Mr.'s book for nothing, let alone a book that promotes the spirit of our country."

Li Yu said: "It's a pity that this book is in English, or else I'll find a bookstore to print a batch of Chinese editions for you."

Fu Zengxiang said: "It doesn't matter! To be honest, firstly, there are no original books in foreign languages ​​in my Shuangjianlou; secondly, even if there are Chinese versions, I can't understand them at all."

"That's right," Li Yu took out a book and gave it to him, "Then I'll give you the original English version."

Fu Zengxiang took the book, but he couldn't understand the content anyway, so he didn't rush to read it, but looked at the book itself, he said: "It's strange, the spine of this book is so thin, it seems that there is no line."

Li Yu said: "This is the latest glue binding technology in the West, and it can be made into a book without wires."

"So amazing!"

The more Fu Zengxiang played with it, the more he couldn't put it down, and he wanted to take apart the spine of the book to see how it was bound together.

Of course, Li Yu has long been accustomed to glue-bound books.

But it is true that now, regardless of whether it is Chinese or foreign, the vast majority of books are bound by thread, not the glue binding of later generations.

This is also one of the reasons why books are more expensive today than in later generations.Plastic binding can use a large-scale assembly line, but the speed of line binding is much slower and the cost is much higher.

The perfect binding technology was just born eight years ago, and it was not widely promoted until 30 years later.

However, as a scientific research institution, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is obviously more interested in emerging technologies, so it specifically asked the publisher to adopt the glue binding method.

It's just that the price of the hardcover book at this time is still not that cheap.And the sense of grade is also slightly weaker than the thread-bound book.

The promotion of new technologies always takes time!

Fu Zengxiang felt that he found a treasure: "I must appreciate it with my book friends when I go back!"

A few days later, unexpectedly, Fu Zengxiang came to find Li Yu again. He held an ancient book in his hand: "This is a fragment of the Song Dynasty engraved edition of "Historical Records."

Li Yu knew the value of block editions in the Song Dynasty, and he was almost at the top of the pyramid in the book collection circle.Shaking his hand, he said, "It's too precious! With a difference of 1000 years of history, you are no longer reciprocating courtesy."

But Fu Zengxiang said: "No! My friends all know that I like the new and dislike the old. If I have good books and have no money, I have to exchange them for old books. Moreover, I don't think the value of Mr.'s books is low. If you always think about these old books If there are no new ideas and new books, I am afraid that these rare and rare books will not be kept. As the pillar of the country, there is nothing wrong with exchanging this book for your advanced scientific knowledge."

But Li Yu still felt that he couldn't accept it, so he repeatedly shied away.

Fu Zengxiang had no choice but to say again: "In fact, I also have selfish intentions. I gave this book to my husband, hoping that I can help you in the future."

Li Yu said: "If you need anything, Mr. Fu, it's okay to say it. Why are you being so polite?"

Fu Zengxiang looked at the remnant volume of the Song engraved "Historical Records" in his hand and said: "Actually, this book is not in my possession, but I just bought it from the Lu family in Huzhou recently. You may not know it. It is a place with the largest number of engraved books in the Song and Yuan Dynasties in the big library. Unfortunately, Mr. Lu Xinyuan passed away eight years ago, and the descendants of the Lu family used their family money to help the victims, resulting in financial constraints. The Lu family is almost unable to take care of the library. Now that the Lu family has declined, they have We are going to sell the books in the Song House to tide over the difficulties. However, the books in the Song House are too valuable to be picked up, and Tang Daotai said that they have been targeted by the Japanese.”

Li Yu asked in surprise, "Japanese?"

Fu Zengxiang sighed: "This remnant volume of the Song edition "Historical Records" was almost bought by the Japanese Shimada Kan. Fortunately, after I found out about it through my friends, I immediately borrowed money to buy it."

Historically, next year, Lu Xinyuan's son will start to seek buyers in the newspapers, planning to sell Wusong Building.As a result, Kanoshi Shimada lobbied the owner of the Jingkado Library, Yanosuke Iwasaki, who worked for him, to buy them all, and only spent 12 silver dollars.

That's right, this Iwasaki Yanosuke is now the second-generation president of the Mitsubishi Group.

It's the Mitsubishi Group again!

Today, the Jingjiatang Library is still a famous library in Japan with the most abundant collection of ancient Chinese books of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Lu Xinyuan's posthumous writings account for 36% of the total number of printed Chinese books.Among the 18 kinds of ancient books selected as "important cultural assets" in this library, the Song and Yuan editions previously collected by Lu Xinyuan accounted for as many as 16. .

Li Yu gritted his teeth and said, "No matter what you say, you can't fall into the hands of the Japanese!"

Fu Zengxiang also hated the Japanese, saying: "That's right! The Japanese took my gold and silver after the victory in the Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-], and even my territory! Now they can't use the money they paid to buy our cultural heritage again anyway! It's disgusting to think about!"

Fu Zengxiang still doesn't know that what the Japanese will do in the future is a hundred times worse than the Sino-Japanese War.

That's why Li Yu hated the Japanese even more, but he didn't understand if those officials and dignitaries were all sacks, so he asked, "Could it be that the government or the rich and powerful ministers are indifferent?"

Fu Zengxiang sighed: "Ministers in the court can't take care of themselves. How can they manage a few broken books? Even if they have money, they don't necessarily like collecting books."

Li Yu realized that he was really asking too much. At the beginning of the famine in Huzhou, the Lu family had to pay for the disaster relief. Now that the Lu family is in trouble, the Qing court can't even afford the rescue.

Li Yu already understood what Fu Zengxiang meant, and said, "Sir, I can't even ask for this book. I know what you mean. You want to gather as many people as possible to prevent the collection of books from being lost overseas."

Fu Zengxiang nodded: "Individual strength is too weak, but it is much better to be united. According to my estimation, the value of the books in the Songlou should be nearly 70 taels, which is not affordable by ordinary rich people."

Li Yu gasped, 70 taels, a total of 100 million silver dollars!
It is conceivable that four years later, the Iwasaki family of the Mitsubishi Group bought all the books in the Songlou for only 12 silver dollars, and how much money they made, let alone their value for future generations. They are really terrible businessmen.

Li Yudao: "I understand, I will try my best to help."

Fu Zengxiang clasped his fists and said, "From the feat of debunking the Americans before, I know that Mr. is a righteous man."

Naturally, Fu Zengxiang saw that Li Yu had received a lot of rewards and he was not a "poor scholar", so he mentioned this to him.

Li Yu touched his chin. It was really necessary to earn more money, otherwise he would really be just a "poor scholar" in front of the huge Mitsubishi Group.Make up for it as much as possible while these bastards haven't made a big invasion yet, but are just engaged in economic plunder.

Gentlemen don't take away people's love. After all, Li Yu still didn't ask for the fragmented copy of "Historical Records" engraved in Song Dynasty. Although Fu Zengxiang didn't say it, he must have spent a lot of money.

After the matter here is over, it seems necessary for Li Yu to find an opportunity to go to Huzhou, and also to the south.

(End of this chapter)