In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 513: It turns out that the Song Dynasty was the pioneer of clocks?
Zhao Yurui did not have to attend court in the afternoon, so he summoned Lai Wenjun, the Grand Historian of the Bureau of Astronomy, Yan Yuanfeng, the Lingtai Lang, Zhou He, the Baozhang Zheng, and Lin Youen, the Qihu Zheng, as well as Tang Zheng from the Science and Technology Department.

In the Song Dynasty, the person who managed astronomy was called Si Tiantai at first, and later it was changed to Si Tianjian. When Yuanfeng was restructured, it was changed to Taishi Bureau.

This department handles quite big things, but the officials are very small. The top leader, Taishi Bureau Chief, is from the seventh rank, and currently Lai Buyi is doing it. Then there are the Taishi Bureau Chief, who is the eighth rank, and the Taishi Bureau Cheng, who is from the eighth rank. There is also an eight-level facial features doctor. (i.e., Chunguan Dafu, Xiaguan Dafu, Zhongguan Dafu, Qiuguan Dafu, Dongguan Dafu), as well as Lingtai Lang of the eighth rank, Baozhangzheng of the eighth rank, Qi Huzheng of the ninth rank, and several others. A student who is from the ninth grade or is not in the stream (including Lisheng, Lisheng, Examination Officer, Notes Officer, Engraving Officer, Supervisor of Students, Escort Officer, Section Level, Direct Officer, Chicken Singer, etc.).

There are not many people in the Taishi Bureau, there are only about twenty people in total, and the officials are all quite small.

Among them, Ling Tailang of the eighth grade is in charge of teaching students and observing the astronomical phenomena, Baozhang Zhengzhouhe of the eighth grade is in charge of the calendar, testing the sundial shadow, and accurate points, and Lin Youen, the puller of the ninth grade, is in charge of the time.

In other words, these people are in charge of calendar time.

Of course, the Taishi Bureau was considered an unpopular department in ancient times. Another characteristic of officials in this department was that they were promoted very slowly. They basically stayed in the department for a lifetime, and they only moved up to the seventh rank when they reached the top.

This was not only the case in the Song Dynasty, but also in the Tang, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It had no future.

But in fact, they were all technical officials of the Song Dynasty, and they were talented people who understood technology. Maybe they were not good at reading, and their education was heretical, so basically no one could become a high official.

Especially the Cui Huzheng of the ninth rank. Before Yuanfeng's reform, it was still from the eighth rank, and later it was changed to the ninth rank. The official became smaller and smaller as it changed.

Cheng Ji said to Zhu Yunwen, Emperor, you can lock me up first, and if there is no rebellion in the north next year, you can kill me.

Cheng Ji's conclusion proved to be correct. Xiao Zhu did not kill him and promoted him, but then ignored him and made him an editor of the Hanlin Academy.

Then the imperial court went crazy and immediately sent people to arrest him. Many people even asked the emperor to kill him directly.

Most emperors in ancient times did not value them. They were just like toilet paper in later generations. They were used to wipe their buttocks and thrown away after use.

Just like toilet paper, you can throw it away after use.

Cheng Ji is still pretty good, I feel he is on a higher level than Yao Guangxiao. In the end, Xiao Zhu disappeared, which must have been his idea.

After all, in the eyes of the emperor and ministers, this kind of person is similar to a warlock and a liar. He plays with clever silver skills and is looked down upon by everyone.

After Zhao Yurui said this, not only Lai Wenjun, but also several other officials at the scene were overjoyed.

But such people are destined not to be valued in the court, and the seventh-rank official is usually the ceiling of their lives.

The officials at the scene immediately became upset again, and then Lai Wenjun took the lead and knelt down one after another to thank His Majesty for long live his Majesty.

The most famous one is Cheng Ji who was in trouble during the Ming Dynasty.

Now Zhao Yurui plans to reuse them, not for feudal superstition, but for science.

"Your Majesty is wise." Taishi Bureau's order Lai Wenjun was the first to be overjoyed.

In later generations, the Taishi Bureau was equivalent to several departments such as the Earthquake Bureau, the Holiday Office, and the Meteorological Bureau. In total, there were only more than 20 people. The annual expenses, including salaries and expenses, were just over 10,000 yuan, and less than 20,000 yuan. This was after Zhao Yurui added money to them.

He was originally a Feng Shui expert, and the emperor appointed him as the Taishi Bureau Order. The officials in the court even blamed him for encouraging the emperor to move the imperial mausoleum. In recent years, the emperor also valued him very much. He was fully responsible for the move of the imperial mausoleum.

Looking at the officials, Zhao Yurui said slowly: "In the eyes of outsiders, the Taishi Bureau is just an inconspicuous small department with not many officials, but it is in charge of the astronomical time of the Song Dynasty. I think we Before the human race learned to write, in the age when they did not understand calligraphy and painting, they had already begun to study astronomy, geography, and seasons, so they could later surpass beasts and animals and rule the world. However, these technologies are actually regarded as heresy in the eyes of some people today. I I think this must be regarded as an ancient inheritance and deserves to be promoted and valued.”

Several people came to the emperor inexplicably and stood cautiously.

Zhao Yurui was looking at the roster in his hand, which showed the personnel situation and income and expenditure of the Taishi Bureau department.

"I discussed with the cabinet ministers this morning, and will issue an order tomorrow to upgrade the Taishi Bureau to the sixth rank." It's almost the same as the Firearms Bureau, only one rank and two lower.

Cheng Ji could also read the stars. In the 31st year of Hongwu, Chen Ji, who was a county professor (equivalent to the director of education) in Yuechi County, looked at the sky at night. His face changed drastically, and he wrote to the court: " There will be rebellion in the north, probably next year." It is inferred that Zhu Di will raise troops.

Now the emperor also has a new view on his Taishi Bureau.

Zhao Yurui smiled and asked him to stand up, and then said: "All the officials of the Taishi Bureau were promoted accordingly."

According to the original Taishi order, everyone was promoted from the seventh rank to the sixth rank, and each person was promoted to three ranks.

In this way, those who are in the eighth grade will be in the sixth grade, and those who are in the ninth grade will be in the seventh grade.

"I observe that many officials of the Taishi Bureau have not been promoted for many years."

"In the future, when new students come in, they will be officials for three years. They will be promoted to the ninth rank in three years. They will be promoted to the ninth rank in five years. In the next five years, they will be promoted once in five years. If there are no actual vacancies, they will also have to enjoy the corresponding salary treatment. As long as they are in the Taishi Bureau, The highest salary can be obtained at the sixth grade.”

"Long live your majesty, your majesty, long live, long live, long live." Everyone once again worshiped with joy.

Everyone still understands this, because people in the Taishi Bureau often cannot be promoted for decades, and some people work until they die of old age and are still in the ninth or eighth grade. Now Zhao Yurui allows them to be promoted every five years. Even if they don't have actual work, their salary and benefits will be the same.

In this way, most people will be able to receive a full six-level salary when they retire.

After standing up again, everyone looked at the emperor eagerly.

There must be something wrong with the emperor suddenly being so nice to them.

"How do I keep time now, and how did the ancients keep time?" Zhao Yurui asked at this time.

The timing matters are mainly managed by Baozhangzheng Zhouhe and Chuhuzheng Lin Youen. They also have a few students, such as the test officer, the recorder, the engraving officer, and even the watchman and chicken singer. A few of them are usually officials, and some are officials from the ninth rank, which is relatively rare.

Lai Wenjun glanced at Zhou He and the others.

The two of them took a step forward in unison. "Back to Your Majesty." Zhou He, who was older and more qualified, said first: "The ancients were the first to use copper kettles to drip water -"

Zhou He first gave the emperor popular science about ancient timekeeping methods.

The earliest people used timers when burning incense. In ancient times, people often used incense to time the time of burning incense, but it was not burned vertically. In ancient times, the incense was placed horizontally, and a rope with steel balls was placed on top. The space represents time.

For example, it takes five minutes for two steel balls, and ten minutes for three steel balls. Of course, this is an assumption, and the specific time varies according to different dynasties and generations.

Of course, this generally refers to the homes of ordinary people. As the center of the dynasty, they are usually relatively high-end.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng built a leaky armillary sphere. It was the first water-powered astronomical instrument in the world with clear historical records. The instrument combines the muddy image with the clepsydra by rotating machinery, and controls the muddy image with the flowing water of the clepsydra, causing it to rotate synchronously with the celestial sphere to display the diurnal motion of the starry sky. The armillary sphere also has an auxiliary mechanism, the Rui Lun Pluto, which is connected to the armillary sphere by a transmission device to realize the mechanical calendar function.

This thing rotated exactly once a day, which was quite accurate at that time. Then in the Northern Song Dynasty, in the third year of Yuanhu (1088), Su Song and Han Gonglian created the water transport instrument platform, which already used an escapement mechanism, which was even more advanced.

The Waterborne Instrument Observatory is a large-scale automated astronomical instrument that integrates astronomical observation, astronomical demonstration and time reporting systems. At that time, it also marked the peak in the history of ancient Chinese astronomical instrument manufacturing and was known as the earliest astronomical clock in the world.

In addition, there are various timekeeping methods such as sundial and engraved hourglass.

Because the water transport instrument platform is relatively large, it is usually only found in the imperial dynasty, so in other places, sundials, chronographs, etc. can be used to keep time.

Among them, the sundial appeared earlier, which uses the shadow cast by the sun to keep time. The sundial usually consists of a copper pointer and a stone disk. The copper pointer is called the "dial needle", which runs vertically through the center of the disc and plays the role of the neutral pole of the watch. Therefore, the sundial needle is also called the "dial"; the stone disc is called the "dial surface" and is placed on the The stone platform is high in the south and low in the north, so that the dial surface is parallel to the celestial equator. In this way, the upper end of the dial needle points exactly to the north celestial pole, and the lower end exactly points to the south celestial pole.

There are scales on both sides of the dial, including the twelve hours of molecular, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai. Each hour is equally divided into "Shichu" and "Shizheng". , which happens to be 24 hours a day, which is relatively advanced.

The sundial not only displays the time of day, but also the solar terms and months. Of course, its shortcomings are also obvious. It is bulky and cannot be used when the sun is not visible, such as on cloudy days and at night.

Lin'an Taishi Bureau now mainly uses two methods, namely, the water-borne instrument platform passed down from the Northern Song Dynasty, and the sundial. Because the sundial cannot be used on cloudy days and at night, it must be equipped with a water-borne instrument platform.

However, Lin Youen, the leader of the pot, said that both of these things are old and the court has not allocated funds to rebuild them. Sometimes they still use engraving.

Both of these things have been used for decades, and it’s probably time to retire them.

Zhao Yurui was very interested after hearing this: "Let's go, take me to see it."

This is the first time he has been to the Taishi Bureau since he took the throne. It doesn't matter. He was too busy before, fighting the Mongols every day, but now he has time to do other things.

The Taishi Bureau Yamen is not big either. It is just to the west of Li Zhengmen. Like Dujinzouyuan, it is one of the few Yamen that can be found in the imperial city.

The water-borne observatory was relatively heavy and large, making it difficult to relocate, and it had to be placed in the imperial city to show the emperor's majesty.

Zhao Yurui was quite shocked when he came to the scene. This thing was invented in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it must have adopted the wisdom of the ancients. The entire water transport instrument platform is twelve meters high and seven meters wide. It is made of copper and wood as the main materials. Square, divided into three levels.

The bottom layer includes the timekeeping device and the power mechanism of the entire Taiwan. There is a door that opens to the south. There is a five-story wooden pavilion inside the door. Behind the wooden pavilion is a mechanical transmission system.

Zhao Yurui took a look at it. It was very advanced. It was driven by water and had mechanical transmission. If anyone sees this thing and says that the technology of the Song Dynasty was underdeveloped, I will slap him in the face.

This was a machine invented in the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhao Yurui looked at it carefully and realized that many craftsmen, including his own firearms and craftsmen, may have learned from this.

He turned around and asked Tang Zheng, the Department of Science and Technology: "Is there anyone in my Craftsmanship Bureau and Firearms Bureau who is familiar with this water transport instrument platform?"

Tang Zhengdao: "Back to Your Majesty, Xu Li's father participated in the production of this water transport instrument platform back then. He is very familiar with the use of machinery and hydraulic power."

"I'll just say it." Zhao Yurui originally thought that the Song Dynasty's technology was driven by himself. In fact, the Song Dynasty also had many related experts, but they had not been taken seriously before.

He looked at the middle again. The middle floor was a "secret room" without windows, in which the Hunxiang was placed. Half of the celestial sphere is hidden under the "horizon", and the other half is exposed above the "horizon". It is driven by the wheel to rotate. One revolution takes exactly 24 hours a day, truly reproducing the rise and fall of stars and other changes in celestial phenomena.

The upper level is an open-air platform with an armillary sphere, supported by dragon pillars, and a water tank below to stabilize the level. The armillary sphere is covered with a wooden roof to protect it from the sun and rain. In order to facilitate observation, the roof can be opened and closed at will, which is a clever idea. The platform from the terrace to the instrument platform is more than seven meters high.

Zhao Yurui then looked at the sundial again, and then found that there were scales on both sides of the sundial. The twelve hours of the numerator, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai, each hour. It is also divided into "Shichu" and "Shizheng", which are exactly 24 hours in a day.

"I have an idea." Zhao Yurui turned around and said after reading.

All the ministers hurriedly listened.

"The twelve hours of Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai have been used by our ancestors for thousands of years."

"We still need to distinguish between the beginning and the right time, and we still need to distinguish between one quarter and two quarters."

"But when we look at these things here, we can accurately distinguish them, but the people outside and the troops going out have to use other methods to judge."

"We should build a clock that can be carried around and accurately tell the time every day."

"We also need to make the time more accurate, not only to the minute, but also to the minute and second."

"For example, one breath can be counted as one second."

Zhao Yurui wants to build a clock and redetermine the time.

He called Tang Zheng from the Department of Science and Technology today. He wanted the cooperation of people from the Zhengtai History Bureau of the Department of Science and Technology, and then selected some craftsmen who had participated in the manufacture of water transport instruments and sundials to work on this together.

Because water transport instruments and sundials have transmission devices similar to mechanical gears, and clocks need such devices.

In fact, the use of gears can be pushed back more than a thousand years. From 140 to 100 BC, the ancient Greeks made an Olympic timer composed of a system of 30 to 70 gears. This instrument is called the "Antikythera Instrument". It consists of 29 interlocking copper gears and multiple dials. It is about the size of a lunch box. It was built near the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901. An ancient shipwreck was discovered, hence the name, which is now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Greece.

(End of this chapter)