Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1173 Epilogue : The Ming Dynasty academic world is full of vitality and everything is developing
The next day, various meetings were formally held.

He didn't receive any invitation today, so he had to go and get a seat by himself.

Since I got up and had dinner late, the popular academic conferences were already full, so I strolled around looking for a place with empty seats.

We soon found a hall that was about four-fifths full.

There were more than a dozen students lying at the door and outside the window. They could only listen from outside.

Xie Yan showed his bachelor's badge and walked in with a swagger. The students outside the room were extremely envious.

The speaker was a middle-aged man who was sorting his things.

He glanced at the clock and finally began to speak: "I am Feng Sui, thank you all for listening to my report. When Taizu founded agronomy, he began to classify things in the world. We all know that organisms can be divided into animals and plants. Animals are further divided into vertebrates and invertebrates..."

"We have found some snakes and lizards that are very special and can lay eggs and live young, but they can't breastfeed. When I was in Australia, I found two animals that lay eggs and also breastfeed. Please see the picture. If you are too far back, you can take a closer look."

After the speaker finished speaking, he began to hang diagrams on the blackboard.

Many scholars in the audience began to discuss in a low voice, apparently shocked by the egg-laying mammals.

Xie Yan and a few scholars in the back row walked forward along the aisle. When he saw the picture hanging on the blackboard clearly, he laughed silently. Isn't this a platypus?
The speaker said: "Some scholars have discovered this animal before and named it the duck-billed civet catfish, but they did not notice that it actually lays eggs."

The speaker then hung up another picture: "This species was also found in Australia. The local Han people thought it was a relative of the hedgehog and called it the long-nosed hedgehog. It is even more peculiar, a marsupial egg-laying mammal. It lays eggs in its pouch, hatches the eggs in the pouch, and the young continue to live in the pouch and drink milk."

As soon as this statement came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

Even the students outside the house burst into exclamations.

Next, the speaker described in detail the various habits of the platypus and echidna.

After talking about habits, I suddenly threw out a point of view:
"By observing certain insects or birds for a long time, we can find that the color of their bodies changes according to the changes in their living environment. We can also find local changes in some animals through some animal fossils."

"For plants, it's even more obvious. Many plants that are annuals in the north can be perennials in the south. For foreign plants that grow in a certain place for a long time, after many generations of reproduction, the characteristics of the entire community will change together."

"If the same animal is separated by a natural disaster, and half of it lives on Island A and the other half lives on Island B, and the living environments on the two islands are very different. Then after millions of years, after countless generations of reproduction, will they become two completely different animals?"

"Australia is a natural experimental field. It is large enough and completely isolated from the outside world."

"I suspect that this long-nosed hedgehog (echidna) has the same ancestor as the hedgehog a long, long time ago. They somehow came to Australia and because of the change in environment, they became oviparous and had a pouch, but they still retained the habit of breastfeeding."

"The same is true for the platypus, which, after arriving in Australia, not only became oviparous, but also developed a duck's beak."

"I don't know why, but Australia's environment was probably more suitable for egg-laying, and the abundance of lizards forced animals to grow pouches."

"Animals and plants can change with the environment, which I call biological evolution. And the same environment forces different animals to evolve in the same direction, such as marsupials in Australia."

The scholars present were discussing the matter.

Xie Yan also returned to his seat.

He was startled just now, thinking that the person in front of him was going to talk about the theory of evolution, but it turned out that he only proposed the idea of ​​"convergent evolution".

The speaker continued to speak, suggesting that future scholars should observe more about the similarities and differences between plants and animals in the same environment and their close relatives in different environments.

"Clap clap clap!"

There was thunderous applause.

Although there were zoologists, botanists, and mineralogists in the Ming Dynasty at that time, in fact, they were all naturalists!
Countless unknown animals, plants, and minerals were waiting for them to discover, and since it was not easy to conduct an investigation in the deep mountains and dense forests, they studied whatever they could get every time they went out for an investigation.

It is possible that you are studying plants today, suddenly studying minerals tomorrow, and directly studying geology the day after tomorrow.

Most of the current agronomists, including today's agronomists, are also naturalists.

Because the development of agricultural technology had reached a bottleneck, it was difficult to produce results in this field, so I simply opened up a new track and sprinted towards the direction of zoologists and botanists. As I sprinted, I began to study minerals, astronomy, and geography, which were also related to agriculture.

There are not many people who concentrate on agriculture and animal husbandry, and their main focus is on breeding good varieties.

Even the system of agricultural promotion officials was severely reduced by the imperial court.

Because most of the agricultural promotion officials have become bureaucrats, rarely dealing directly with farmers and herdsmen. Moreover, their professional quality is also worrying, and many of them get in through connections.

The court did not dismiss all the agricultural promotion officials purely out of respect for Emperor Taizu!
The fact that things have come to this has something to do with the performance evaluation of the agricultural promotion officials.

You said you helped so many farmers increase their production, how do you prove it? I said it was because the weather was good this year.

Similarly, if good weather leads to increased production, those agricultural officials with connections can also claim it as their own contribution and get promoted.

It was difficult to evaluate political achievements, and as a result, the agricultural promotion officials who actually did work could not be promoted. Gradually, bad money drove out good money and no one did anything.

But breeding good varieties is very straightforward. It is the easiest way to achieve political achievements, and it is also easy to apply for funding if there are results. Therefore, all the agricultural officials who are willing to work on this.

Over time, the imperial court threw all the agronomists who bred good varieties into the Royal Society system.

There are both improved plant varieties and improved animal varieties, and Daming has been developing steadily in the field of breeding.

……

On that day, Xie Yan attended four academic conferences, covering a wide range of fields.

The next morning, Xie Yan was invited to attend Nie Qi's lecture.

Nie Qi was very enthusiastic about Xie Yan and even wanted Xie Yan to be his assistant to help him operate the scale at the report meeting.

Xie Yan politely declined and revealed that he also made a scale.

Nie Qi didn't take it seriously. In his opinion, the long-arm balance had reached its limit and Xie Yan's balance could not increase its arm length. This long-arm damping balance report was very successful, and countless physicists and chemists responded with excited applause.

Although it cannot yet verify molecules and atoms, the long-arm damping balance has enabled many experimental breakthroughs.

The next afternoon, Xie Yan was invited by Wang Daqing.

Wang Daqing introduced Xie Yan very solemnly: "I'm sure you have heard of this young Jade Scholar. But I'm afraid you don't know it yet, because the ideas provided by young Scholar Xie have enabled me to complete the new geometry I discovered!"

"Hahahaha!"

There was a burst of laughter from the audience. Xie Yan and Wang Daqing seemed to be lumped together as similar items.

Although he was still ridiculed, Wang Daqing was no longer as anxious as before because he had Xie Yan to share with him.

It's like being in a haunted old house. Even if you don't have the ability to exorcise the ghost, it's good to have one more person get scared.

I am not alone in my ways.

After the lecture began, Wang Daqing elaborated on his derivation process in detail and talked a lot about those academic achievements that went against common sense.

The audience reacted coldly.

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Finally, the academic report was over. Most of the people stood up instantly and left the venue without looking back.

The remaining half believed that mathematics would not deceive people, but they could not understand why it was like that. They questioned Wang Daqing, but Wang Daqing could not explain it clearly, and they just stared at each other in amazement.

"It will definitely be useful in the future!" Wang Daqing said firmly.

The scholars who stayed behind also believed that their knowledge would be useful in the future, but they did not know what it would be useful for or when it would be useful. So they left too.

However, there were two mathematicians who were very interested in Wang Daqing's new geometry and left their mailing addresses, expressing their willingness to keep in touch.

This was enough to make Wang Daqing ecstatic, as he now had two more people with whom he could communicate.

On the morning of the third day, it was Xie Yan's turn to give an academic report.

An attendant entered carrying a box, and three attendants were responsible for separating the crowd, for fear that the things in the box would be damaged.

Several listeners arrived early, including Zhu Shirong and Cao An.

Zhu Shirong came over to greet him and said, "I didn't expect that Mr. Xie was so young. I thought he was middle-aged. I am Zhu Shirong. I have exchanged two letters with Mr. Xie."

When Xie Yan met his pen pal, he quickly returned the greeting and said, "It turns out to be Professor Zhu. Thank you for your letter of support."

Zhu Shirong said: "Then you should thank Mr. Cao, because he was the first to review your paper and recommended it to me."

Another pen pal, Xie Yan quickly greeted him.

Cao An smiled in return, "We are close friends, no need to be polite."

Xie Yan opened the box while chatting.

Zhu Shirong and Cao An thought it was some experimental equipment, so they returned to their seats and waited for the lecture to begin.

Gradually, they discovered something was wrong and quickly ran to the stage to observe closely what Xie Yan was doing.

Xie Yan opened the outer layer of cotton cloth, took off the cotton wrapped in it, and then opened another layer of cotton cloth, which was still wrapped in cotton.

After opening it layer by layer, the innermost layer, wrapped in silk, turned out to be a small tray for a balance.

I took it apart layer by layer, and soon I removed another strange part. It seemed to be a balance arm, but it was too short.

I continued to unpack the package and found that even the weights were wrapped in layers.

There are several pieces of glass?
Xie Yan first assembled a glass box with wooden frames on all four sides and small doors on the left and right sides that could be opened.

Zhu Shirong pointed to a small cloth bag and asked, "What's in it?"

Xie Yan said: "Charcoal. Whether it is for daily storage or for experiments, the balance should be placed in a glass box. Charcoal can maintain a dry air environment."

More and more scholars came in, attracted by this strange balance, and people gradually formed a circle around the podium.

"The old president is here!"

Most of the scholars ran to greet the old president, but there were still some left, who were controlled by the scales and unable to move.

When the old president saw people gathered around the podium, he was also helped over curiously.

At this time, the balance had been assembled and Xie Yan was debugging it using multiple knobs.

After a while.

"The Grand Princess is here!"

The eldest princess walked over slowly, the hairpins in her hair swaying rhythmically.

"What are they doing there?" the eldest princess asked curiously.

A scholar said: "Mr. Xie is assembling and debugging a balance. The arm of the balance is very short and is placed in a glass box, which is really hard to understand."

Then, the eldest princess also came over and the scholars made way for her.

After that, more scholars arrived one after another. They saw the podium surrounded in three layers inside and outside. They were confused and didn't know what was going on.

(End of this chapter)