Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1169 Epilogue : The Legend of the Grand Princess
In a teacher's dormitory of Luoyang Imperial College, Wang Daqing was working at his desk with great concentration.

This dormitory is rented temporarily.

There is an obvious chain of contempt among the various administrative regions of the Ming Dynasty.

The Korea Province where Wang Daqing was born was at the lower end of the contempt chain, only slightly better than those Governor-General's Offices and Protectorate-General's Offices.

He has repeatedly publicly emphasized that his ancestors were pure Han Chinese and were Shandong military officers transferred to Pyongyang during the Hongwu period of Emperor Taizu.

But his strange accent when he was young was still often made fun of by his colleagues.

For this purpose, Wang Daqing took in a concubine from Luoyang, and talking to her every day was a good opportunity to practice the correct Central Plains pronunciation.

"Dong dong dong."

"Please come in."

A servant pushed open the door and said, "Erlang, Mr. Tang from the Mathematical Society is here to visit."

Mr. Tang had already entered the room. He clasped his fists and said with a smile, "I have good news for you, my dear brother."

Wang Daqing asked expectantly, "Which scholar agrees with my new geometry?"

Mr. Tang shook his head: "You printed the paper and distributed it everywhere, even to literary gatherings. The influence is really too bad. People who understand mathematics will naturally know that your paper is too ridiculous. But what do those scholars know? They think that our mathematics society will not tolerate different opinions!"

"The news has reached the old president's ears. Although the old president does not agree with your paper, he has given the go-ahead to allow your paper to be published. During the academic event in early summer, a hall will be reserved for you. You will have half a day to present your academic achievements in public."

Wang Daqing couldn't help but feel happy: "It is indeed good news. Do I need to go to the old president's house to thank him?"

Mr. Tang said, "The old president is not in good health, so don't bother him."

Wang Daqing asked again: "It's been two months, and still no mathematician agrees with my paper?"

Mr. Tang patted Wang Daqing on the shoulder and said, "I have also carefully verified your paper. The deduction process is all correct, and the conclusions are more ridiculous than each other. What's the point of studying these?"

Wang Daqing said: "Eyes can deceive people, thoughts can deceive people, but mathematics will not deceive people. Since it exists, it has its own value, and maybe it will be used someday."

It can indeed be used, but it will probably take hundreds of years.

In another time and space, Lobachevsky, the founder of Lobachevsky geometry, was known as the "Bruno of Geometry". From this nickname, we can know what kind of situation he was facing at that time.

Although he was not burned to death, he was never recognized and was even rejected by the academic community. He died of depression in his later years.

Gauss was also doing similar research at the time, but he never dared to publicly support Lobachevsky. He only privately praised Lobachevsky as the best mathematician in Russia.

Wang Daqing's research into this thing meant that he was destined to be disapproved of for the rest of his life.

"Take care of yourself." Mr. Tang bowed and said goodbye.

Wang Daqing hurriedly escorted him downstairs and stood under the eaves in silence for a long time. Only after Mr. Tang completely disappeared from his sight did he sigh and return to the temporary dormitory.

Sitting on the chair, Wang Daqing took out the tobacco, held the pipe in his mouth and puffed out smoke, his thoughts drifting away.

He is very irritable!

Ever since he came up with the new geometry system, Wang Daqing has been feeling very irritated. Even his students, who were impressed by his ideas on the surface, secretly did not believe them at all.

He seemed to be standing against the whole world.

He was isolated.

"Dong dong dong."

There was another knock on the door, bringing Wang Daqing, who was daydreaming, back to reality.

Without waiting for Wang Daqing to agree to open the door, the servant happily pushed the door open and said, "Erlang, a young scholar came to visit. He said he agrees with Erlang's knowledge of geometry!"

Agree with me?
Wang Daqing stood up and walked quickly to the door, only to see a young man standing outside.

The boy's face was too childish, Wang Daqing looked at his waist.

Jasper Scholar.

"Please come in, young friend." Wang Daqing was very enthusiastic.

Xie Yan bowed and said, "I am Xie Yan, a junior student, and I am here to meet Professor Wang."

Wang Daqing suddenly realized: "Xie Yan, who discovered the damping phenomenon and caused controversy with his molecular theory?"

"That's right." Xie Yan replied.

"Hahahaha!"

Wang Daqing burst into laughter: "You were scolded badly, and I was scolded badly too. We are in the same boat."

Xie Yan also smiled: "The doubts about me will soon disappear. But the criticisms about you may not disappear even after decades."

Wang Daqing dragged a chair over and asked Xie Yan to sit down and talk: "Can you prove yourself?"

Xie Yan said: "I have made a balance that is more accurate than the long-arm damping balance that came out some time ago."

"What a young genius." Wang Daqing praised.

The servant brought a kettle of boiling water from the honeycomb coal stove in the corridor.

Wang Daqing took out tea leaves and brewed tea for Xie Yan himself: "Do you agree with my new geometry?"

"Mathematics won't lie," said Xie Yan.

Hearing this, Wang Daqing's eyes lit up and he quickly grabbed Xie Yan's hand: "You know me too!"

Xie Yan said, "There are some parts of that paper that I don't understand. Can Professor Wang explain it to me in person?"

"You don't need to address me by my title. My name is Wang Daqing, my courtesy name is Shanzhi, and I'm the second child in my family. Although this is our first meeting, we are like close friends, so we can just treat each other as equals."

Wang Daqing waited so long that someone finally approached him to ask for advice on his paper: "If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I will be happy to answer your questions."

Although Xie Yan had not studied Lobachevsky's geometry, no one else in the world had studied it.

Even Wang Daqing himself had only been working on the new geometric system for over a year, and it was not yet complete.

The two sat side by side at the desk, holding paper and pen, asking and answering questions.

At noon, he asked the servants to buy some food, and continued to explain geometry problems while eating.

Time flies, and it's already mid-afternoon.

Xie Yan's attendant stood at the door and reminded: "Liu Lang, it's almost time to return to the city. If you delay too long, you may not be able to close the city gate in time."

Wang Daqing said, "Brother, why don't you stay here tonight? The Imperial College has extra dormitories. I'll go and help you borrow one."

Xie Yan stood up and said goodbye: "Thank you for your kindness, my brother is still waiting at home."

Wang Daqing once again sent the guest downstairs.

But he was in a bad mood when he saw off the guests in the morning.

At this moment, seeing off the guests, he felt happy.

When saying goodbye, Xie Yan suddenly said: "Brother Shanzhi's new geometry is derived by assuming that a straight line has multiple parallel lines. What if we assume that a straight line has no parallel lines?"

When Wang Daqing heard this, he was stunned on the spot, as if he was struck by lightning.

When he came to his senses, Xie Yan had already walked away.

Wang Daqing shouted at Xie Yan’s back: “Thank you for your reminder, brother. No matter what results we come up with, we will sign the paper together. You are the first author and I am the second author!”

Xie Yan was not good at mathematics, so it was quite difficult for him to do it, so he simply asked Wang Daqing to do the relevant research.

Lobachevsky geometry already exists, so why not come up with Riemann geometry as well? At this stage, this thing will not win any honor, but will only bring endless criticism.

It is a supporting mathematical tool for the theory of relativity.

For the next two or three months, Wang Daqing immersed himself in his research and completely ignored what was happening outside.

It's early summer already.

More and more scholars gathered in Luoyang, some even came from border areas.

The official conference has not yet begun, but some unofficial meetings are already being held.

These unofficial meetings are where scholars invite their peers to participate, pool money to rent a conference venue, and each introduce their latest academic achievements and discuss future research directions.

Many scholars who were not invited to the formal conference mainly participated in unofficial meetings if they came to Luoyang to join in the fun.

Meng Shu is one of them.

His research areas were mathematics and astronomy. He had always been a teacher in his own academy, not a public teacher in the Imperial College.

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After the short meeting, Meng Shu felt so sleepy.

The content of the communication between those scholars is either something they have seen in journals, or they are stuck on a certain problem. A large group of people discuss for a long time, and basically they are talking about the same old things. They might as well read the journal at home.

The second half of various small meetings tend to turn into tea parties for scholars, and even gradually start talking about gossip in the academic world.

A teacher from the Chengdu Imperial College said, "Have you heard? The Queen Mother and the Grand Princess will also attend the opening meeting."

Before Meng Shu could reply, the teacher from Lanzhou Imperial College asked, "Which Grand Princess?"

"That's the one the late emperor loved the most during his lifetime."

"You are courting death. The prince consort participated in the coup. Can the eldest princess mention it?"

"Now that the news has been released this time, the matter must be over."

"Hard to say."

"..."

Meng Shu smiled and said, "Don't ask around. The court has its own reasons for doing things."

The eldest princess they were talking about was the youngest daughter of Emperor Dingtai and the aunt of the current little emperor.

The son-in-law was once a young talent, but because of the forced marriage by Emperor Dingtai, his career was ruined and he could only study academics. The couple seemed to be loving and harmonious on the surface, but in fact their marriage was extremely bad. After many years of marriage, they did not even have a child.

The prince consort used cold violence against the princess.

Before the coup d'état, Prince Yong had no real power. While colluding with civil and military officials, he also secretly made friends with scholars in Luoyang.

Because the Royal Society, in addition to scientists, also has many great scholars and artists. These people also have great influence, especially in manipulating public opinion.

The son-in-law was also won over by Prince Yong, and it is estimated that he wanted to become an official through a coup.

Outsiders are still confused about what happened at that time.

All we know is that Prince Yong and his husband were executed together, but the eldest princess was not hurt at all. The young emperor even gave the eldest princess the title of "Jing".

For the academic community, "Grand Princess" is a sensitive word.

Because before the coup, the couple often held private academic gatherings, and many scholars attended their salons. At that time, the eldest princess was the dream goddess of countless scholars, and she would brag about being invited once for several months.

A large number of scholars followed the prince consort and joined the rebellion, especially those in the humanities.

These people may not be good at coups, but they are good at creating public opinion. After Prince Yong forged the imperial edict to succeed to the throne, scholars flocked to help build momentum, saying that Prince Yong was open-minded and kind, and had always been known as a wise king. If he became emperor, he could catch up with Taizu.

When the Queen Mother returned with the little emperor, those scholars instantly changed their stance and wrote articles to denounce Prince Yong for his wolfish ambitions and said that they had been deceived by his disguise.

Empress Dowager Ye and Prime Minister Deng did not tolerate this, and any scholar who sang praises for Prince Yong was labeled a traitor!

Three people were beheaded, 3 were exiled, 25 were imprisoned, and he was permanently expelled from the Royal Society.

Among them were seven scientists.

Over the past three years, many scholars have been restless because they were also close to the prince consort, but they did not openly support Prince Yong's succession to the throne. They were afraid that the court would bring up the old matter again one day and treat them as rebellious remnants.

Although the prince consort was executed, the eldest princess is still alive.

Moreover, the eldest princess can serve as a witness and prove that they once had friendship with the prince consort.

The goddess of my dreams has now turned into a soul-catcher and a murderer!
After discussing the Grand Princess for a while, the people around Meng Shu gradually started talking about Xie Yan.

"Does anyone know where Xie Yan came from? The sixteen-year-old Jade Scholar is too eye-catching."

"I heard that he is the son of the magistrate of Huangzhou Prefecture."

"His damping paper is indeed a major discovery. But the damping phenomenon is very common, and he has not conducted in-depth research on it. I think it is a bit too much to give it to Jade Maester. It is not a good thing to force the issue."

"That's right. The last Jade Scholar, who was sixteen years old, died young at the age of twenty. Young people should still suppress their emotions. It will also help their long-term development."

"From his molecular thesis, we know that he is an uneducated person. His discovery of the damping phenomenon was purely accidental. He actually said that homogeneous atoms can form molecules. He didn't even understand the basic knowledge of chemistry. He said that two oxygen atoms form an oxygen molecule. Do you dare to believe such nonsense?"

"Alas, the academic atmosphere has become worse in recent years."

"..."

Meng Shu listened silently without saying a word the whole time.

Those who came to participate in this informal meeting were all low-level scholars who were not qualified to participate in formal meetings. They had few academic achievements, but their academic prejudices were very deep, and they especially liked to rank people based on seniority.

They worked hard for half their lives, but they were only low-level bachelors.

And Xie Yan, with just one damping paper, could be on the same level as them, or even one level higher than some of them. How could they accept this?
What's more, Xie Yan also published a controversial molecular paper, which provided them with more topics for criticism.

Meng Shu glanced at the scholar on his left. He was over fifty years old before he became a Yaoyu scholar, and now he is over sixty years old and still standing still. It would be strange if such a person could get used to Xie Yancai!

"Please stop talking," Meng Shu couldn't bear to hear any more, so he reminded them, "Xie Yan is currently living in the residence of the Minister of Works."

As soon as these words were spoken, the small circle suddenly became quiet.

Many of the project grants for science scholars are allocated by the Ministry of Industry.

The Yaoyu scholar who was in his sixties, who had just been madly criticizing Xie Yan, asked cautiously, "Young Master Meng, do you know that Xie Yan?"

Meng Shu said: "We met on the train a while ago, and we had a very pleasant conversation. He became a Jade Scholar at a young age, but he was not carried away by his own ideas. He was very polite when interacting with others."

Another scholar in his fifties asked, "Is Xie Yan a junior of Minister Chen?"

Meng Shu said, "I don't know about that. When we got off the ship and said goodbye, the address he left me was the residence of the Minister of Works."

"Haha, the damping phenomenon can be widely used. I think it is just right for a jade scholar." Suddenly someone changed his mind.

"Yes, yes, I actually want to add dampers to the carriage as well."

"Since Scholar Meng knows Xie Yan, why not invite him out for a get-together? Young people may not be mature enough, but they can always come up with new ideas that will amaze us."

"I agree with part of the molecular paper, but we can still discuss the controversial parts."

"..."

Meng Shu stopped talking again and ran away under the pretext of going to the toilet.

What am I doing attending this little gathering?
waste time!

(End of this chapter)