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

Chapter 595 Small Court

Li Yu knew in his heart that many Manchu aristocrats were not very fond of the Republic of China government. On the contrary, many people had a good impression of Japan and hoped to use the power of the Japanese to cause trouble.

It's a pity that they have no idea what the Japanese are thinking.

What you want is interest, but what others are looking at is your principal.

Li Yu called Lu Bicheng to Yan Fu's mansion and asked him if he had any good ideas.

Yan Fu always welcomed them both. He happily welcomed them in and ordered everyone to prepare tea.

There was also a German in the hall. Yan Fu introduced Li Yu: "Mr. Wei Xiqin is a doctor of music and has always admired Chinese culture."

Wei Xiqin had naturally heard of Li Yu, shook hands and said, "Hello, Mr. Academician!"

"Hello." Li Yu said.

At this time, Germans were quite rare in China, especially in the capital.

Naturally, the Japanese wanted to take advantage of Yuan Shikai's desire for restoration, express their support, and induce him to agree.

Li Yu thought to himself that Yuan Shikai understood the most basic principles and did not dare to directly become a traitor.

Li Yu naturally knew these terms. The little Japanese was so eager that he almost showed his bayonet and made it clear that he wanted to force the Chinese side to sign.

Wei Xiqin said angrily: "I also know a Chinese saying, don't agree if you don't agree! Mr. Yan Fu, I'll take my leave first!"

"Mr. Wei Xiqin, I think you don't understand Chinese culture well enough. The Chinese have a saying: take the essence and discard the dross. This is also Chinese culture. The biggest feature of Chinese culture is tolerance, not a label." Li The edict said sonorously and forcefully.

"Why, do you know?" Yan Fu asked.

-

"I, I don't know..." Li Yu said quickly.

Li Yu asked curiously: "Mr. Wei Xiqin, what do you think China's inherent spirit and culture should be?"

Li Yu asked: "What is the attitude of the presidential office?"

When the European and American Alumni Association was established, Li Yu met Sun Baoqi.

Li Yu said: "If you feel it is difficult to handle, you can 'secretly' publish it in the newspapers and let the Japanese face the pressure of public opinion."

Yan Fu said: "By the way, President Sun and a group of officials are going to the Forbidden City to meet Emperor Xuantong in the next two days. I heard that King Chun will also be here. Maybe you can see him. It is really not easy to meet King Chun at other times."

Li Yu could only say: "Now everyone must know what the Japanese think."

Li Yu said: "You mean that China deserves to be left behind and should not move forward, but should keep what you think it is?"

"Japanese?" Yan Fu became serious, "We really need to pay attention to it. Not long ago, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sun Baoqi told me that Japan suddenly submitted a document through the new minister Riki Yi, listing as many as 21 demands, each of which can be called It’s arrogant and has no bottom line.”

"Attitude?" Yan Fu snorted coldly, "The entire presidential palace was furious. Foreign Affairs Minister Sun Baoqi and Army Chief Duan Qirui almost wanted to beat people. President Yuan even expressed his displeasure with Banishi, a Japanese adviser who had followed him since the Beiyang era. Rihachiro angrily said, 'Japan should treat China as an equal friend, but why does it always treat China like a pig or a dog!'"

This book is Yan Fu's last translation.

"Why are you meeting him?" Yan Fu felt a little strange.

Li Yu said: "The steward of Prince Chun's Mansion wants to sell several calligraphy and paintings from the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, all from "Shiqu Baoji", which are extremely valuable. The most unpleasant thing is that he wants to sell them to the Japanese."

Sun Baoqi also respected Li Yu.

——It was because the Japanese were smart enough to skip Congress and go directly to Yuan Shikai that Gu Weijun and others were able to point out at the peace conference that it was coerced by the Japanese and was not recognized by Congress, and the successor government would no longer recognize it.

Li Yu said, "I'm thinking about how to meet King Chun."

But he may not know it yet, but Rihachiro Banishi is the teacher of Japan's second-generation spy chief, Kenji Doihara.

Li Yu's words were surprising, and Wei Xiqin was slightly startled, "But isn't abandoning history the same as abandoning oneself?"

"Twenty-one?!" Li Yu said in shock.

Yan Fu said: "Mr. Wei Xiqin came here specifically to explore Chinese culture. He spent some time in Shanghai before and found that the Chinese were blindly imitating the West in everything from clothing and architecture to education and music. China's inherent culture and spirit were nowhere to be found. There was no one to ask. He left Shanghai for Japan in great disappointment and just recently came to the capital again."

Li Yu spread his hands and said, "Put it off as long as possible."

"You are the only person I have ever seen who dares to rebuke foreigners like this," Yan Fu sighed, "That's all, why did you come to me?"

"I don't understand what you're saying," Li Yu said. "According to your point of view, don't you also abandon history? In the Middle Ages, under the rule of the Holy See, women were casually regarded as witches and put on the stake. Am I the same? Do you think you have to remain ignorant?"

"That's right, you can accompany me to the inner court," Sun Baoqi said. "This place is different from the former dynasty that was owned by the Republic of China. It is more difficult to enter than the three main halls. It is already regarded as the emperor's harem."

But blessings and misfortunes are sometimes unpredictable.

Li Yu said: "If you want to develop Chinese education, you have to be Chinese yourself. I think Mr. Cai Yuanpei will know better than a German after he returns from Germany."

Wei Xiqin said: "The Tao of Confucius and Mencius, the sound of silk and bamboo, the braid hanging down from the waist, are classical and mysterious."

Yan Fu was a little embarrassed. After sending him out of the gate, he came back and said to Li Yu: "Sucai, Mr. Wei really likes Chinese culture. He even wrote a special book "China Education Discussion" and asked me to translate it."

"It doesn't matter, we will all know sooner or later," Yan Fu said. "The Japanese's demands are too excessive. The Twenty-one Articles are roughly divided into five numbers. The first four numbers put forward many more stringent requirements for Manchuria, Mongolia, Shandong and enterprises in China; and No. 5 is even more outrageous. It actually requires the Republic of China government to hire Japanese as consultants for various important departments, and requires co-organizing the police, etc., treating the sovereignty of our country as nothing."

Yan Fu said: "General Manager Sun has the same idea, and I only hope that Britain and the United States can mediate by then."

"Mr. Academician, your words are too strong!" Wei Xiqin was a little unhappy.

"It's too clear," Yan Fu said, "but the Japanese are so cunning. They skipped Congress and directly faced the president."

Yuan Shikai's most of his life's work was in vain because of the "Twenty-One Measures" and the restoration, but then Gu Weijun and others discovered the secrets of the Japanese.

Li Yu said: "Thank you Master Yan for informing me."

"What a blessing." Li Yu said.

I thought to myself that I had been there many times in my previous life.

But this time is indeed different from that time. There are a large number of genuine treasures placed everywhere in the inner court, so many that even eunuchs can steal them without anyone noticing.

Now the inner court is an independent small court. As the foreign minister of the Republic of China, Sun Baoqi has to keep in touch with each other from time to time. In any case, Emperor Xun still has influence on Manchuria.

Since the north side of the Hall of Preservation and Preservation is blocked by a high wall, everyone enters through the north gate of the Forbidden City, which is the Shenwu Gate.

This way of entering the palace has no impact on Li Yu and the others, but it is like an insult to the royal relatives, so they will not go in or out if they can.

They were greeted by Minister of the Interior Shixu: "Everyone, the emperor is studying in Yuqing Palace. Come with me."

After arriving at Yuqing Palace, Sun Baoqi went in first and bowed to Puyi and said: "May the emperor be blessed with peace and prosperity."

Liang Dingfen on the side suddenly jumped out, pointed at Sun Baoqi's nose and cursed: "Who are you? Which country are you from?" Sun Baoqi was stunned and did not answer.

Liang Dingfen continued: "You have forgotten that you are Sun Yijing's son! You have been an official in the Qing Dynasty. You are wearing these clothes and performing such a ceremony to see the emperor today. Do you have any shame? What kind of thing are you!" "

"That's a good question! What are you!" Lao Naixuan, another widower, also became excited.

Sun Baoqi opened his mouth and said calmly: "Yes, yes, I am not a thing! I am not a thing!"

I am really speechless. I am angry with the Japanese outside, and I am still angry with the old man in the inner court of the Forbidden City.

Sure enough, the most difficult type of politician to be a politician during the Republic of China was a diplomat.

Li Yu and Liang Dingfen met several times. Liang Dingfen was an important staff member of Zhang Zhidong before, but after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he was determined to be a "lone minister".

A few years later, Liang Dingfen became Puyi's teacher.

He is now the "Minister of Tree Planting in Chongling" of the small court, specifically responsible for planting trees in Chongling of Guangxu. This official sounds interesting, but Liang Dingfen worked for three years and actually planted tens of thousands of trees.

Lao Naixuan was an example of the old man who swore not to be an official in the Republic of China. He danced extremely happily when Zhang Xun was restored.

When Li Yu came in, he quickly smiled at the two of them and said, "No need to ask, I'm Chinese."

After all, Li Yu had been the emperor's master, and the two of them were quite polite to him.

Liang Dingfen said: "You also come to see the emperor's homework."

Li Yu saw a small cloisonne jar placed on the table in the room, containing thirty-six one-inch-long hay sticks, which was very inconsistent with the precious jar.

Liang Dingfen said to Li Yu: "This is called the inch of grass as a standard, the rule left by Emperor Kangxi."

Li Yu asked: "What do you mean?"

Liang Dingfen said: "Emperor Kangxi said that all objects in the palace, not even an inch of grass, were allowed to be lost. For this reason, he specially placed a few straws on the desks in the palace and asked people to check them once a day. One inch of grass was missing. The root is not good either, it is just an inch of grass as a mark."

"It turns out that you can go to such great lengths for a few straws. It's easy not to lose them." Li Yu looked at it and then joked, "But Emperor Kangxi didn't lose any of his hay sticks, and the land full of green grass didn't. Know how much is missing.”

Liang Dingfen and Lao Naixuan's faces turned blue and white.

Sun Baoqi secretly expressed joy and thanked him for giving him some relief.

In fact, none of the officials of the Republic of China kowtowed to Puyi, and there was no need to kowtow. Liang Dingfen and Lao Naixuan could only get angry at the leader Sun Baoqi, which had no real effect.

Puyi's desk is full of traditional Confucian classics, from "The Book of Filial Piety" to "Zhu Xi's Family Instructions", as well as "The Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" and "The Imperial Poems of Qianlong" - let's just talk about these two books. The collection of poems put together is so contrasting.

Li Yu asked: "Supposedly, we should recognize numbers, as well as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, right?"

Lao Naixuan said: "If you don't learn, don't learn! What do you do if you learn?"

"Emperor Guangxu studied science when he was in power." Li Yu said.

"So what? What has been learned, and how will it help govern the country? Isn't it still like this?" Lao Naixuan said.

Li Yu didn't know how to reply to this kind of sophistry. The main reason was that he didn't understand science and it was all in vain.

Until 1922, Puyi still had not learned addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, let alone physical chemistry.

I only took an English class when I was 14, but I only read two English books, one was "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and the other was "The Analects of Confucius" translated into English...

——He learned English well after leaving the palace.

Anyway, there was a big problem with palace education at this time, and it lagged far behind the new schools outside the palace. When Puyi was sixteen or seventeen years old, he still believed that the country was undergoing a "Tongzhi Zhongxing", where every citizen had a table of food to eat, and his arithmetic skills could not exceed 100.

Johnston, the English teacher who later entered the palace, lamented that the Chinese royal family and nobles did not need arithmetic because everything was done for him.

At the same time, he was very amazed by the Chinese abacus. In the era before calculators, it was simply amazing.

——But he found that those who seemed to be good at these technologies were all servants.

After a while, King Chun Zaifeng arrived. At this time, he seemed relaxed and in better spirits than when he was the regent.

Zaifeng came to see Puyi's homework, which happened only a few times a year.

After the family ceremony, Puyi took the book and started to read, but after reading a few words, he couldn't stop reading.

Zaifeng was also a little nervous and interrupted: "Okay, okay, Your Majesty, please read carefully. Let's study!"

After saying that, he walked out of Yuqing Palace.

The whole journey takes less than two minutes, shorter than both Li Yu and Sun Baoqi.

After leaving Yuqing Palace, his expression became relaxed again.

Zaifeng finally chose to let go.

Li Yu quickly stepped forward: "King Chun."

"Mr. Li Yu," Zaifeng said.

Li Yu said bluntly: "King Chun, your chief butler wants to sell the painting to the Japanese Yamanaka Teijiro. I wonder if I can cut off the beard and increase the price by at least 20%."

Zaifeng asked: "Why do you want to buy it?"

Li Yu said: "I just don't want the Japanese to get it."

Now that the Japanese are making things difficult for the Republic of China government and Yuan Shikai, the small court is actually quite happy to watch.

Zaifeng thought for a moment and said, "If you purchase it in the name of the American Foundation, I agree."

Li Yu heard it, but he still didn't feel comfortable enough. As a member of the royal family, he was reluctant to sell paintings to common people; fortunately, he took the initiative to give Li Yu a step forward.

Li Yu said: "Okay, it's the same anyway."

Zaifeng added: "In addition, I would like to ask you a few questions about astronomy."

"Heaven, astronomy?" Li Yu was a little surprised.

"There is also mathematics. My favorite books now are astronomy and mathematics books," Zaifeng said with a straight face, "I didn't expect that astronomy and mathematics are so closely related. I am studying Newton's laws of celestial mechanics, but I can't understand them. How he deduced it, if you teach me, I will ask the butler to sell the painting to you."

For Li Yu, this kind of problem is simply child's play: "Easy!"

Looking back at what was going on in the inner court, Li Yu shook his head, some people just couldn't see through it earlier.

(End of this chapter)