Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1168 Postscript : Mathematical Research is a Little Too Ahead of Its Time
Chen Duan is already thirty-two years old.

He passed the imperial examination at the age of 20 and was very talented. After that, he failed many times and even his status as a juren has expired. He has to take the exam again this year.

In the past two years, I moved to Luoyang with my grandfather just to visit famous teachers in Beijing and see if I can improve my knowledge.

"My father, brothers, uncles and aunts are all away from the capital, so the courtyard is usually empty. You brothers are here to keep each other company," Chen Duan led them to the backyard. "My dear brother, your room has been tidied up a long time ago. You can move out your bedding and sleep there. Your four strong servants can sleep in the outer room."

Xie Yan said, "Thank you for your concern, Brother Ten."

Chen Duan smiled and said, "It was all arranged by my grandmother. How could I be so careful?"

"Then I must thank my grandmother." Xie Yan said.

Chen Duan said, "Pack your luggage and take a shower first. Your brother and I will have tea and wait for you."

Xie Hong also said: "Shilang is a warm-hearted person. You are still very young, so just treat this place as your own home."

"Hahaha, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I really like to hear it." Chen Duan laughed.

Xie Yan really wanted to take a good bath. Although the high-end carriage of the train was located at the back, he could still smell coal dust all the way after opening the window.

He said goodbye to his two brothers, asked his servant to carry the box containing the scales into the house, and then began to look for his own clothes.

Inside the bedroom, a maid was making the bed and folding the quilt.

When the maid saw Xie Yan, she immediately stopped what she was doing, bowed and said, "Greetings, my lord. My name is Yanyan, and I live in the next room. If you have anything to say, just tell me."

Xie Yan cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, sister."

Yanyan was about 17 or 18 years old, not beautiful nor ugly, but very efficient. She grabbed the edge of the bed sheet with both hands and shook it, and most of it was already made. "The kitchen is boiling water, if you want to take a bath, please wait."

"Not urgent."

Xie Yan took out the key, opened the box, and checked whether his balance was damaged.

The scales had been disassembled, and each part was wrapped in silk, and then in cotton, and then in cotton.

Repeat this process of padding with cotton until you have several layers of wrapping.

The box was also filled with cotton to protect against bumps and jolts during the train ride.

After disassembling and checking each one, and finding no damage, Xie Yan rewrapped the various parts of the balance.

After doing all this, Xie Yan stood up and turned around, and saw Yanyan standing next to him.

"My lord, what do you want me to do?" Yanyan asked.

Xie Yan said, "Go and get busy. Call me when the water is ready."

Yanyan bowed and left.

The eldest brother Xie Hong suddenly walked in and asked: "Did you bring the balance with you?"

Xie Yan said: "They are all in the box. I just checked and they are intact."

Xie Hong said: "Your molecular paper was published in the last issue of last year. I don't know about other places, but it really caused a huge controversy in the East and West Capitals. Most scholars are completely opposed to the views in the paper, and a small number of scholars agree with some and oppose some."

"It's good that a few people agree with it," Xie Yan was very satisfied. "After the invention of the long-arm damping balance, did chemists use it to verify the molecular theory?"

Xie Hong said, "I don't understand chemistry, so I can only try to find out for you. That long-arm damping balance is indeed useful. I heard that it has made breakthroughs in many physics and chemistry experiments. But if you use it to study molecules and atoms, it seems that the accuracy is still a little bit lacking."

"Once I take out this scale, they will shut up." Xie Yan was full of confidence.

Xie Hong laughed and said, “In fact, during this Spring Festival, there was another scholar who was scolded even more severely than you.”

Xie Yan asked curiously: "Are there any other experts?"

Xie Hong said: "The scholar is called Wang Daqing, who is just over 40 years old and is a professor at Nanjing Imperial College. He studies mathematics, physics and astronomy. He submitted a paper to a mathematics journal at the beginning of last year, but it was rejected many times. He was so angry that he stopped teaching and asked for leave from Nanjing to come to Luoyang."

"And then you published it for him?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Hong shook his head: "The Mathematical Society still refused to publish it, saying that his paper was too absurd. Wang Daqing was furious and found a printing house in Luoyang and printed the paper at his own expense. He then took it to the Royal Society and Luoyang Imperial College and gave it away to everyone he met. The content of the paper caused great controversy."

Xie Yan was even more curious: "What on earth did he write?"

Xie Hong said: "I am not good at math and I don't understand complicated things. It seems that I have proved that the fifth postulate of geometry is unprovable. On this basis, I have derived a lot of results and claimed to have established a kind of starry sky geometry."

After all, Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming, father and son, are not professionals, and they missed many basic theorems and formulas.

A large number of books were brought back from Byzantium, Fatimid (Egypt) and Seljuk, including a complete set of Euclidean geometry.

The mathematicians of the Ming Dynasty took over the entire Euclidean geometry and combined it with the mathematics of the father and son.

The five postulates of Euclidean geometry naturally spread in the Ming Dynasty.

The first four postulates are simple and clear.

Last year, Wang Daqing proved that the fifth postulate is derived from the first four communes. This is not the most outrageous thing. In the process of proving it, he derived a lot of counterintuitive content and used it to build a system, claiming to have created a new geometry.

To put it simply, it digs into the foundation of traditional geometry.

"Where can I get his paper?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Hong smiled and said, "I went to a literary gathering today, and Wang Daqing gave me one. He even stayed in Luoyang during the Spring Festival, and actually went to a literary gathering for liberal arts students to distribute papers."

Xie Yan said: "I want to take a look."

"My dear, the hot water is ready!" Yanyan shouted outside the door.

Xie Hong stood up and said, "After you take a shower, come with me to meet Minister Chen and have dinner with them. After dinner, I will give you the mathematics paper."

Xie Yan took his clothes to the bathroom. Yanyan followed him the whole time and waited outside the bathroom to help add water.

Xie Yan finished washing without adding water.

By the time he was taken to the dining room, everyone else had already arrived.

In addition to Chen Duan and Xie Hong, there was also the Minister of Works Chen Wenzhao, as well as Chen Wenzhao's old wife Xia and old concubine Zhang.

Chen Wenzhao's hometown is in Shaanxi, and none of his other children and grandchildren followed him to Beijing.

Xie Yan's deceased grandfather was a Jinshi in the same year as Chen Wenzhao, and they also observed politics and practiced in the same department. Later, because of their bold and direct criticism, they were both demoted to remote places.

This relationship seems to be very strong.

But in fact, they were not that close, because the time they spent together was only half a year in total, and after that they went their separate ways and rarely saw each other.

"Junior Xie Yan, I greet the old husband and the old lady!" Xie Yan went over and saluted the three old ladies. The two old ladies nodded with a smile.

"Hurry up and sit down to eat. There's no need to be so formal at home."

Chen Wenzhao also had a big smile on his face. He asked Xie Yan to sit down and said, "I have known your grandfather for many years. Although we didn't meet often, we kept in touch every year. If he could live a few more years and see his grandson become a Jade Scholar at the age of sixteen, he would surely be very happy and die without regrets!"

Xie Yan said modestly: "It was just luck."

Chen Wenzhao smiled heartily: "I was also a Jinshi in the past. There may be some people who are lucky enough to become a Yaoyu Bachelor, but it is not possible to become a Jade Bachelor by luck."

Chen Duan took the opportunity to cheer up the old man: "When my grandfather was young, he also published a paper in a mathematics journal."

Xie Yan quickly handed over his hands: "Disrespect, disrespect."

This was something Chen Wenzhao was very proud of. He laughed and waved his hands: "It's just an ordinary mathematics paper. It's not worth praising. I didn't even get the title of Yaoyu Bachelor."

Xie Hong said: "That's because my husband was so busy with official duties and serving the country that he had no time to study mathematics. Otherwise, he would have at least become a Rose Bachelor by now!"

Chen Wenzhao laughed even more happily, pointing at Xie Hong and saying, "You are very clever, and you have inherited a lot from your grandfather."

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Xie Yan asked: "Isn't your grandfather a serious Taoist?"

"He's not serious at all! He once dragged me to..." Chen Wenzhao suddenly stopped talking in the middle of his speech and waved his hand, "Forget it, forget it. The dead are the greatest. I won't talk about his embarrassing incident back then."

Xie Hong and Xie Yan could only smile and remain silent.

Who hasn’t been young and reckless?

Chen Wenzhao said: "The Physics Society has written to the Ministry of Industry, telling them about the damping phenomenon you discovered. This thing is very promising, especially for use on ships at sea. I have already signed and allocated research funds."

Xie Yan said: "If we build a hundred-story building in the future, especially in coastal areas with typhoons, then the towering buildings will also need dampers. Um... to prevent the building from being blown down by the wind."

"Hahaha!"

Everyone present laughed, including the two old ladies.

Old Madam Xia said, "If we build a 100-story building, the people who live there will probably be gods."

Old Madam Zhang followed up by saying, "Mortals can live there, but the floors are too high and hard to climb. If you come down from the 100th floor in the morning, it's probably time for lunch. If you climb back up to the 100th floor, it's just time for dinner and sleep."

This was a funny thing to say, and everyone laughed again.

Xie Yan also laughed.

The rest of the conversation was about family matters. Xia stared at Xie Yan from left to right and said, "He is a handsome man with extraordinary knowledge. It's a pity that my granddaughters are either married or have engagements."

Zhang said: "The Qin family has two granddaughters who are quite a good match."

Xia shook her head repeatedly: "No, no. The two granddaughters of the Qin family are both wild girls who are used to being crazy. The sixth son of the Xie family is a royal scholar, and he should be paired with a quiet and virtuous woman."

"How is the young lady from the Shao family?" Zhang asked.

"Which Shao family?"

"The Shao family of Fufeng. We visited the Shao family when we returned to Beijing more than three years ago."

"I remember now. The young lady from the Shao family is indeed a good girl, quiet and well-educated. I will write to her someday to ask if she has any engagement."

"..."

The two old ladies became more and more excited as they talked.

Chen Wenzhao was unhappy: "Women only know these. Xie Liulang has a bright future, why is he in such a hurry to get married at such a young age?"

Xia said: "No matter how good one's knowledge is, he is still a human being, and as a human being he must get married and have children. With a virtuous wife to take care of the chores at home, Xie Liulang will be able to study more smoothly."

After Xia finished speaking, she asked the three young people at the table, "Do you think this is the truth?"

"Yeah."

"It should."

"The old lady is right."

The three young men quickly agreed.

Xia then turned to her husband and said, "You see, they all think I'm right."

Chen Wenzhao was too lazy to argue: "Yes, yes, you are right. This is Xie Liulang's marriage. Maybe his family has already arranged it. Don't write to the Shao family at random. When Xie Liulang's family agrees on one, how are you going to face the Shao family?"

Xia was speechless and stopped talking.

Xie Yan found what he heard very interesting. The old couple and their three friends were very easy-going and did not treat him and his eldest brother as outsiders.

After dinner, they chatted for a while and then everyone went back to their rooms.

Xie Hong also brought the mathematical papers that Wang Daqing had printed and distributed at his own expense.

Xie Yan returned to his guest room and read carefully under the light.

He was good at advanced mathematics and his knowledge of geometry was also acceptable, but in the eyes of mathematics majors, he was just rubbish.

Wang Daqing's paper begins with a hypothesis: multiple parallel lines can be drawn through a point outside a straight line.

That is, suppose there are multiple parallel lines to a straight line.

Xie Yan was stunned on the spot, feeling that his brain was not enough.

He soon realized that this was not Euclidean geometry, but the legendary Lobachevsky geometry.

I haven't learned it!

I only came across some superficial concepts in high school geometry textbooks.

At that time, the high school math teacher was in the mood to brag, so he told a few short stories about Gauss and Lobachevsky.

The reason why Xie Yan remembered it so clearly was because his high school math teacher said that there was no mathematical tool to express Einstein's theory of relativity, and in the end he had to rely on Lobachevsky geometry to solve the problem.

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it doesn’t stop Xie Yan from thinking that the Luo family is awesome.

The academic research of the Ming Dynasty was too lame, and its mathematical research seemed a little too advanced.

(End of this chapter)