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

Chapter 336 Opera Master
Uchida Yasuya said to Zai Zhen again: "Master Beizi, you know art, what's your judgment?"

Zai Zhen didn't dare to express any opinions, he hesitated and said: "I, I don't know Western paintings. Master Di, Master Di, you take the paintings, you tell me!"

Zai Zhen hurriedly pushed Li Yu out.

Li Yu is also a little tired of Tsarist Russia's "Yellow Peril Theory". He understands that these foreign politicians will do anything for their own interests, and have never considered the Chinese people. They are all dressed in bright clothes and talking like flies on a cake, which is particularly disgusting.

Li Yu said bluntly: "Although art is sometimes not easy to judge, but it is also a work of the same grade. The so-called 'yellow peril' in front of us has completely lost its conception from the point of view of our Chinese painting. The conception is low. In any case, the work is not elegant. Looking at this painting by Mr. Repin, who dares to say that the standard is not enough?"

Thanks to the fact that Repin is also a Russian painter, the Russian Minister Resal said: "Mr. Repin is of course unquestionable. But you said that the painting 'Yellow Peril' has a low intention. Where is the low point?"

Li Yu snorted: "The so-called 'yellow peril theory' is based on the standpoint of Europeans. Since there is a 'yellow peril' theory, for Asians and Native Americans, the 'white peril' is the real disaster! As the author said, isn’t it an insult to your own knowledge to put forward such absurd views with purely one-sided words?”

Li Yu's words are deafening. Europe and the United States have always discussed the world from their own standpoint, and even the great discovery of voyages is from their own perspective. The American continent was there hundreds of millions of years ago, so what is the use of your so-called "discovery"?
In his previous life, Li Yu hated the self-righteous appearance of Europe and the United States. They have the right to speak and say what they say. They even have to define beauty and ugliness. It's really annoying.

Uchida Yasuya saw that Li Yu dared to say such a thing, and thought to himself that Konoe Zhaoyuki's report was correct, and Li Yu really hoped that Russia would lose.

He immediately shouted to Li Yu: "Well said! Mister is worthy of being a scientific giant! He is also an excellent novelist who can write best-selling science fiction novels. His artistic level is really high! It is many times higher than some people!"

U.S. Minister Connor quickly changed the topic: "Scientific culture is the most important culture today. As a supernova in science, Mr. Li Yu, I think what he said is worth pondering. As for Ambassador Resal and Minister Uchida, don't... ..."

Before Connor finished speaking, Russian Minister Resal interrupted him, dissatisfied: "This is not an absurd point of view. Mr. Malthus's "On Population" has long said that population increases according to geometric progression. And the means of subsistence can only increase in arithmetic progression. The oppression of food producing areas, hunger and uncontrollable population will eat up everything. As we all know, the population of Asia far exceeds the population of Europe, so the root of the yellow peril lies here! "

Li Yu sighed, afraid of such half-knowledge and forced interpretation.It's the same thing as that crap "social Darwinism".

Li Yu said: "I don't know if you have read "On Population" completely, or if you understand what is called geometric progression and arithmetic progression, but I have proposed many models in my chaos theory, among which There’s the population growth model.”

There is indeed a population growth model in the chaotic model, which is the famous "logistic equation".Its period-doubling bifurcation diagram is very ingenious, and it is a perfect combination of chaos and fractal.

A simple understanding is that chaos is order in chaos, not a mess.

The deduction of the logistic equation is not complicated. Just looking at the mathematics part, it is a very simple iterative equation of a geometric sequence, which can be understood at the mathematics level of junior high school or even junior high school.

But Li Yu was able to draw it so early because he relied entirely on the calculator in his hand, otherwise he could have killed his own by relying solely on his hands.

Anyway, it hides chaos.

In short, it is a typical example of fractal and chaos, explaining the phrase "fractal is the description of chaos in space, and chaos is the embodiment of fractal in time".

This sentence is quite important, and Li Yu plans to show it to Einstein in the future, he will definitely like it.

Resalle asked, "So can you explain the difference between the Malthusian disaster and the yellow peril?"

Li Yu sneered and said, "Mr. Ambassador, I don't know if you are pretending to understand, or are you confusing concepts here on purpose? What is the difference between a 'Malthusian trap' and a 'Malthusian disaster'? You should figure it out yourself before talking about it, otherwise it will make you laugh. "

Ambassador Resal's face flushed red. He didn't expect Li Yu to be a sensible person, and he even knew something about population theory.

In fact, the Chinese really know a little bit...

Moreover, Li Yu has studied the chaotic model of population growth, and it is impossible for Resal and the others to argue with themselves in this regard.

Resal was a little speechless, and if he was alone with Li Yu, he could still get away with sophistry.

But now that the ministers of various countries are present, it is a bit inappropriate to argue sophistry on such an occasion. Others will laugh at themselves behind their backs, which will damage the face of a country.

Because sophistry is only useful when the situation is evenly matched or when it is absolutely superior.

When evenly matched, you can disrupt the opponent's thinking through sophistry;

In the case of absolute advantage, black can be directly described as white.

Li Yu had seen too many such things in his previous life.

Although Li Yu doesn't understand diplomatic means, how can he be inferior to anyone in terms of knowledge? Otherwise, as a time traveler, the development of human beings in the past 100 years would have been in vain.

"Ahem!" American Minister Connor coughed twice, drawing the attention of the audience. As the owner of the salon, he said loudly, "Let's skip the free discussion stage and enjoy an opera performance brought by the Italian ambassador."

If this discussion continues, the taste of the salon will change again.

French Minister Luban smiled and said: "It's great, you can still hear opera in the capital. It's exciting to think about it. It's much more pleasant than worrying about politics."

Connor said, "That's right, and it's Mr. Puccini's No Sleepy Tonight! He even came to the scene!"

French Minister Lu Ban sang with him: "It's very interesting. Zai Zhenbei also brought Yang Xiaolou, an excellent Beijing opera artist. Today, I can enjoy the best stage performances of the East and the West at the same time. It's not in vain!"

The United States is rich and powerful, and this newly built embassy is not small in size, with a small auditorium dedicated to it.

Only now did Li Yu see a middle-aged man in his 40s who had been sitting silently in the corner, who seemed to be Puccini himself.

Most of Puccini's works were before 1904. After this year, he created less and less, but became more and more interested in racing cars.

The ministers and their wives began to walk towards the auditorium.

Puccini walked up to Li Yu with a smile: "As expected, you did not disappoint me. Your performance is worthy of the title of master of science."

"You are Mr. Puccini?" Li Yu asked.

Puccini said, "It's me."

Li Yu shook hands with him: "It's an honor to meet you."

"I'm honored too," Puccini said. "Let's watch the show together. I'm tired of discussing politics, so just now I saw a bear fighting a wild boar, so I chose to remain silent."

"Your choice is very wise," Li Yu said with a smile, "but I didn't expect you to come to the capital in person."

Puccini said: "I have always been very interested in oriental art, and it just so happens that I have seen the very best-selling Star Wars series, which makes me want to meet you, a magical oriental."

Li Yu smiled and said, "I think your trip will be worthwhile."

"I came to China for another purpose," Puccini said, "I once read an Arabian story called "One Thousand and One Days", and there was a story called "Kalaf and the Chinese Princess". Since then, an idea has been lingering in my mind to create a new opera with a Chinese background."

Note that "One Thousand and One Days" is not the same as the more famous "One Thousand and One Nights".

Li Yu only knew that Italian opera was of a high level, and he knew Puccini himself, but he hadn't heard it a few times, so he asked, "Is the princess's name called Turandot in the story you mentioned?"

Puccini nodded: "Yes, it's called Turandot. It's a story about the royal family of the Yuan Dynasty. It's a pity that I don't know enough about Chinese culture, so I thought I might as well come here."

Good guy, it really is "Turandot".

The content of this opera is actually the China imagined by Westerners, and many places are not so Chinese at all.

I don't know if Puccini's visit to China this time will gain anything.

The two sat side by side, and after watching the performance of Italian opera and Chinese Peking opera, it felt very audio-visual impact.

It is a typical collision of Eastern and Western cultures.

When it comes to stage performances, each has its own merits.

Puccini said: "This kind of authentic oriental costumes and novels are very helpful to my creation, but I don't know if I can be lucky enough to go to the Forbidden City to have a look?"

Li Yu said: "I'm not sure about this, but in fact, if you go to some big prince's mansions and Confucian temples, you can get a glimpse of some Chinese architecture."

Puccini asked again: "Where is the Great Wall? Can I go?"

Li Yu said: "It is possible, but the journey is very difficult."

As we all know, the Qing Dynasty basically did not repair the Great Wall anymore, because for the Qing Dynasty, the Great Wall has lost the most important defensive and early warning significance.

The national policy of the Qing Dynasty has always been to make peace with Mongolia. They have a very good relationship with Mongolia and are not worried about the northern frontier issue.

But that means the Great Wall is no longer used. After more than 200 years, the roads around the Great Wall have almost disappeared, and it has completely become a wilderness.

Puccini said: "No matter how difficult it is, I have to go and have a look, otherwise I'm afraid I won't have the chance in this life."

Li Yu thought for a while and said, "It's really worth seeing. It looks definitely more powerful than the Seven Wonders of the West."

Puccini was even more eager to try after hearing this, and planned to contact the explorer to go to the Great Wall that day.

Because in his opinion, the palace can be visited at any time, but the dangerous Great Wall is more challenging.

At this time, Westerners still have a lot of "adventure" thoughts, especially the vast and long-standing Chinese land, which is too attractive.

The performance was very successful, thanks to the top Italian opera and the performance of a famous actor like Yang Xiaolou, even the Japanese and Russian envoys almost forgot the fierce debate just now.

Afterwards, Russian Minister Resal secretly found Li Yu and said to him, "Mr. Emperor, I did not target you. I hope our future cooperation will not be affected."

Li Yu made it clear that to them, the Yellow Peril theory is just an excuse, and interests come first.

The Russian envoy still hopes to win over Li Yu, because the radio is really easy to use.

It's a pity that the Russian military and government still don't pay as much attention to radio as the Japanese.

Li Yu could see the situation clearly, not to mention that he had to rely on Russia to consume Japan as much as possible on the battlefield, so he replied: "It's just a debate, not a war."

Resal said happily: "The emperor's stomach can support a boat! Admire, admiration!"

After Resal left, Japanese Minister Yasuya Uchida naturally approached Li Yu, "Mr. Emperor, I am very moved by your speech. This is the time for us yellow races to unite."

Li Yu said, "I've already said that I don't like race theory, it's purely an academic discussion."

Uchida Yasuya said: "Then your academic level has helped me a lot under fair circumstances, I don't know how to thank you!"

Thinking that his suggestion might cause Japan to suffer a lot of casualties on the battlefield, Li Yu replied uncertainly, "You're welcome!"

(End of this chapter)