Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1131 1126 [Royal Society and Royal Finances]

Zhu Guoxiang does not interfere with scientific researchers.

For example, when Zhang Lixiu talked about the interaction between yin and yang, Zhu Guoxiang did not refute his point of view, but simply interrupted the topic and asked him to talk about something else first.

why?
Because in the mainstream concept of the ancients, the theories of the two Zhu emperors sounded more like nonsense, and the interaction of yin and yang and the creation of heaven and earth were more in line with cognition.

We cannot discourage the enthusiasm of explorers!
So after the lecture, Zhu Guoxiang affirmed some of Zhang Lixiu's achievements and tried to avoid talking about his scientific Yin-Yang hypothesis.

As long as Zhang Lixiu is not stupid, he will understand what the emperor means.

At the same time, Zhu Guoxiang also guided: "Your discovery is very useful. The existing barometers are not sensitive enough. Can you make a more sensitive barometer and use the phenomenon of different air pressures above and below the mountain to measure the actual height of a mountain?"

Zhang Lixiu's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he drew inferences from one example: "Water flows downwards, and all rivers flow into the sea, so the sea surface is the lowest. With the sea surface height as a benchmark, we can use air pressure to measure the relative heights of different regions to the sea surface. Of course, the barometer must be improved to be accurate enough, otherwise it will be difficult to measure the height difference of dozens of feet."

Zhu Guoxiang was extremely pleased. Zhang Lixiu was so creative.

In fact, Zhang Lixiu is not a genius.

Not only was he not good at one subject when he was studying, but his grades in the subjects he was good at were not the best.

One of the important prerequisites for his current academic achievements is that his family is rich!
His father hired the best teachers to teach him and spent money to send him to the best academy, but he was mediocre among the students in the academy.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, natural sciences were introduced into the imperial examinations. His father spent money to send him to the official school as a self-funded student, and also hired teachers to teach mathematics, physics, and astronomy at a high price.

Despite all the effort, Zhang Lixiu's grades are still mediocre.

Then, his father continued to spend money to send him to the Imperial College as a self-funded student, but his grades were still mediocre.

This is very strange. Whether it was the academy of the early Song Dynasty or the Kaifeng Prefecture School and Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Lixiu was able to achieve mediocre results, neither up to par nor down to earth.

It’s like a chess player who has mixed wins and losses in the amateur level, and will still have mixed wins and losses when he becomes a professional.

You can't figure out where his lower limit is, nor how high his upper limit is.

Fortunately, the Imperial College was not that competitive at that time, otherwise Zhang Lixiu would not have been able to graduate successfully.

After that, he failed all the normal imperial examinations. Thanks to Zhu Ming's reform of the imperial examination system, Zhang Lixiu passed the imperial examination and became a court artist.

Even after he joined the Ministry of Industry, Zhang Lixiu was still mediocre. He was transferred to participate in the research and development of steam coin minting machines and steam water pumping machines, but he still performed mediocrely.

I can keep up with the progress of my colleagues, but I am never outstanding.

So much so that even though Zhu Guoxiang had met this person twice, he had no impression of him at all.

The emperor borrowed a sword from the guards and drew a picture on the compacted mud with the sword in front of everyone: "This is the sea surface. Due to many factors such as tides and waves, the sea level has fluctuations and errors. We can take an average value and call it sea level, or sea level height."

Zhu Guoxiang drew another mountain: "The vertical height of this mountain from the sea level is called the altitude."

Zhang Lixiu clapped his hands and praised: "Your Majesty's use of the words sea level and altitude are accurate and appropriate."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "You go to Luoyang Imperial College, give lectures to the teachers and students there, and then write a paper to publish."

The teachers, students and officials present all looked at Zhang Lixiu with envy.

He was recognized by the emperor and was appointed by him to give lectures at the Imperial Academy. With such an honor, even if he cannot be called a great scholar, he can be regarded as a famous scholar.

Well, people nowadays also call famous scientists great scholars or famous scholars.

There are quite a lot of such great and famous scholars, each of whom has made groundbreaking discoveries, and more than 80% of them graduated from Imperial College.

Zhu Guoxiang added: "After the lecture, you will take the lead in improving the barometer. I will ask the Ministry of Industry to allocate funds to you and give you some manpower. When the barometer is improved to be precise and sensitive enough, you will lead people to measure altitudes all over the country."

"Yes!" Zhang Lixiu accepted the order.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "While measuring the altitude, if you have time, you can also study the local geology. Especially the cliffs are the most intuitive. The rocks and soils of many cliffs are layered, and there are also the remains of ancient creatures that you mentioned. For the time being, let's call them fossils."

Zhang Lixiu became even more excited.

In the past, he could only do research at his own expense, surrounded by his followers, and had no one to discuss problems with when he encountered them.

Especially after his father passed away, his elder brother's attitude became even worse, complaining that he didn't want to take up his official position, but wasted money running around everywhere. Not only was he of no help to the family, but he was also wasting the family's money.

Now, I have everything, and my brother will definitely welcome me with a smile.

Zhu Guoxiang took his wife and children to rest. Before they had gone far, Zhang Lixiu was surrounded by teachers and students.

Although many scholars still regarded the study of natural sciences as a minor subject and only considered mathematics, which was required for the regular imperial examinations, as a major subject, after all, the two emperors supported this, and great scientists would still be sought after.

Moreover, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the younger generation of scholars had to take mathematics and even physics for the imperial examinations. Many of these scholars had already become officials, and there were also a large number of people in their twenties and thirties who had not yet become officials. They might not be so enthusiastic about natural sciences, but they basically did not discriminate against them.

Concepts have gradually changed.

Among them, there are also the influences brought by the telegraph and the steam engine. Even academic bureaucrats like Juan Guo believe that natural sciences are very useful and cannot be simply regarded as the study of craftsmen.

In the academy's luxury dormitory, Zhu Guoxiang planned to write a letter.

Li Qingzhao helped grind the ink nearby, Shen Yourong asked the female official to make tea, and Wen Xiaomei asked the other concubines and children and grandchildren to leave so as not to disturb them.

Li Qingzhao was still thinking about the content of the lecture: "Is the earth really surrounded by layers of air, and the universe outside the air is a vacuum?"

Yu is the side of the house.

Zhou is the beam of the house. In the pre-Qin period, Yu was space and Zhou was time.

Even as early as in "Zhuangzi", the universe had the meaning of infinite time and space, and after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it completely evolved into a scientific term.

Zhu Guoxiang wrote as he wrote: "The universe is extremely vast. There must be other gases outside the earth's air. But that gas should be very far away from the earth, otherwise it would be sucked in by the earth's gravity. Therefore, it can be said that there is a vacuum outside the earth's air."

Li Qingzhao suddenly had an idea: "I have also used a telescope to look at the moon. The surface of the moon is full of pits and there are no trees, flowers or plants, and no people can be seen. Is there air on the moon? Is it because there is no air that there are no living things on the moon?"

"Maybe." said Zhu Guoxiang.

The more Li Qingzhao thought about it, the more fascinated she became. Then she was inspired to write poetry. She ran to another room, spread out paper and grind ink, and used writing to express her yearning for the mysterious universe.

Shen Yourong was not very interested in this. He sat aside and read a novel, wearing a pair of reading glasses.

Zhu Guoxiang was writing a letter to his son.

He planned to have his son formally establish the Royal Society, which would include not only natural scientists but also experts in literature, history, and art.

For example, those who study bronze and stone need to be proficient in history, inscriptions and other knowledge. The current research scope has expanded from traditional jade, tripods, mirrors to bricks and tiles, seals, military symbols, funerary objects... Zhu Guoxiang tried to guide them in the direction of archaeology.

In a letter to his son, the framework of the Royal Society of Ming Dynasty is as follows:

One president, three vice presidents, one secretary general, three deputy secretaries general, one chairman, six vice chairmen and several directors.

It consists of three major categories: investigation of things, literature and history, and art.

Select various famous people who have made outstanding achievements as the first members of the Royal Society, grant them all the title of baron, and let them vote for the president, vice president, etc. A small symbolic membership fee is collected.

A group of new members are admitted every year, but no titles are given.

A national conference is held every five years to select gold, silver and bronze medals in three categories based on academic achievements. Members who are far away do not need to attend in person, but those who are eligible to vote must write a letter to vote for the candidates (primary election).

The winner of the gold medal will be awarded the title of baron by the emperor.

If there are multiple major achievements at the same time, the emperor can give out several gold medals at his discretion, or confer titles on the silver and bronze medal winners.

If a member who holds the title of baron wins the gold medal again or makes outstanding contributions, the emperor will upgrade his title at his discretion.

These titles cannot be inherited, but they come with salaries.

When the number of members increases in the future, we will divide the members into three levels and produce different levels of waist badges (jade pendants) for them to wear.

Even if they were members without titles, as long as they wore the society badge, officials at all levels had to show respect. Moreover, they were qualified to write letters directly to the emperor, and no institution, including the cabinet, could stop them.

What Zhu Guoxiang is doing is naturally to encourage academic progress.

From then on, the Four Books, Six Classics and Mathematics were used to select administrative officials.

All other knowledge, in addition to being used to select officials with artistic talents (including Hanlin officials), must be organized through the Royal Society to give the best people full honorary status.

There are only three categories initially, which can be further divided and expanded in the future.

In addition, the society will also establish three authoritative journals, tentatively scheduled to be published once a quarter, which can be adjusted to bimonthly or monthly in the future.

The society's funding is provided by the royal family. If members have major research projects, they can also apply to the royal family for relevant funding.

Today, the Ming Dynasty’s royal finances have long been separated from the national finances.

There is absolutely no room for confusion.

The royal family had some properties in Luoyang and Kaifeng, which were considered the royal family's private land.

Zhu Ming even invested in the fleet of the treasure hunting trio, but it was not convenient to send someone to manage the accounts for the time being, because once a supervisor was sent, the fleet would not dare to explore easily in the future. The official parachuting of financial personnel would inevitably lead to risk avoidance, which violated Zhu Ming's original intention of overseas exploration.

Every year, the national treasury allocates a fixed amount of 100 million guan to the royal family. As fiscal revenue continues to increase and the number of royal family members increases, Zhu Ming plans to increase the fixed amount to 150 million guan.

How much the fixed treasury appropriation can increase in the future depends on the ability of the emperor's successor.

The tributes from the vassal states were not strictly defined, as the amount was too small, so the emperor and officials did not take it seriously.

The income from overseas territories was too high in the early stage, such as sending out troops. Therefore, the ministers did not want the court to spend money in the early stage, but the emperor would make the most money in the later stage, so they made adjustments.

It was changed to that national customs revenue, including port taxes from overseas territories, was uniformly distributed to the royal family at a rate of 5%.

Except for the salt tax, all other domestic franchise revenues went into the national treasury. Of the national salt tax, 2% went to the royal family.

The Ming Dynasty royal family is very rich!
Only when the emperor has money can he be strong and have the confidence to do things.

Of course, it can also be said that the Ming imperial family was very poor.

Because in other dynasties, the royal family and the national treasury often did not distinguish between public and private. When the emperor's private treasury was short of money, he would directly reach out to the national treasury, and the officials were resentful but dared not say anything.

In addition, since the finances of the royal family and the national treasury are separated, one should never think of asking the emperor to pay for large-scale sacrifices and rewards to the army.

The major affairs of the country are only sacrifice and military affairs.

Regardless of who paid for the large-scale sacrifices and rewards to soldiers in all dynasties, they were usually allocated from the imperial treasury. To put it bluntly, the emperor wanted to control the status of "sacrifices and wars".

Don’t even think about it from now on. The emperor doesn’t want to be a sucker. Just pay the money from the national treasury.

(End of this chapter)