Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 258 Popular Science
Some things depend on where you are and what kind of thoughts you have.

Just like Zhu Yuanzhang, if he was so poor that he was begging for food, how could he think about what he would do when he died?
But after he became the emperor and saw what the previous emperor had done, if there were no accidents, of course he wanted to do it!

It was popular in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty to bury the dead with the living so that the dead would not be alone after death. Zhu Yuanzhang also followed this practice.

But at this time, before he could use it, he heard Zhang Yifan's criticism, and of course it was impossible to accept it immediately.

No, he frowned and then said a little unhappy: "How do you know what will happen after death? Are you just talking nonsense?"

Zhu Biao heard that his father was a little unhappy, so he quickly persuaded Zhang Yifan, "Yifan, let's go back to the new school, and tell you what you know."

However, since Zhang Yifan said it, of course he couldn't just give up. He directly answered Zhu Yuanzhang: "Excuse me, father, starting from Qin Shihuang, there have been so many emperors in China. Have you ever seen any emperor come back to life?" And so on? How many dynasties have been destroyed, and the founding emperor has never come to save their dynasty. Do you think so?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment, but he immediately replied: "That doesn't mean that there is nothing after death. Not to mention, there is also the theory of six paths of reincarnation. Have you heard of this?"

Zhang Yifan listened and continued without hesitation: "The six paths of reincarnation are just to persuade people to do good and accumulate good deeds. If an emperor is cruel and has no virtue, even if he builds a very good mausoleum for himself before his death, how many people will he be buried with?" Treasure, how many followers have been buried, what will happen when he dies?"

Having said this, he paused and began to give examples: "Also, the tombs of emperors in the past dynasties have always been the places that tomb robbers most wanted to visit. When there was no money, even the legendary Cao Cao dug into the graves of dead people to dig out wealth. After death, the body will be trampled by them, so what?"

"Even if you make a fake tomb like Temujin, it will be buried in the ground after all. Someone will find it one day, and then the grave will still be dug up and the body will be dug up. Why bother?"

"If I die in the future, at least I don't want it to be like this. My body will be cremated and scattered in the rivers. If you want to be remembered by the world, then preach and educate people, and future generations will naturally remember me. Qing Shiliu A name is enough!"

Zhang Yifan's thinking is really a bit ahead of people in this era.Even in later generations, there are still many people who want to find a very good tomb for burial.The popularization of cremation has also encountered many obstacles.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang is obviously a smart person and he can think.

No, after hearing Zhang Yifan's words, he didn't get angry immediately. Instead, his face looked a little ugly, but he was deep in thought.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the speaker is Zhang Yifan.

If the person who said these words is some kind of cat or dog, then no matter how correct he is, probably no one will pay attention to him, let alone think about it seriously.

But the person who is speaking now is a person who is sought after by everyone in the Ming Dynasty for his knowledge, and the things he has done are huge things.In this way, his words carry more weight. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang is the founding emperor, he will still take it seriously.

The same goes for Zhu Biao next to him.Just because Zhang Yifan was talking to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao recovered quickly and asked with some surprise: "Yifan, do you think there are no ghosts and gods in this world?"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan turned to look at him, shook his head and said, "I don't know if there are ghosts and gods. But I know that many things in myths and legends, such as clouds and rain, are actually natural phenomena. It exists objectively. You can know it by studying things, and if you know the principle, you will know that it has nothing to do with ghosts and gods."

Until later generations, there are still many places where rain is required.Even the emperor took the lead, the squire took the lead, and so on.

Regarding whether it will rain or not, what is going on, at least in this era, no one knows what is going on.

Therefore, Zhu Biao was very surprised when he heard this, and immediately asked: "Yifan, is it possible that you know the principle of clouds and rain?"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang who was attracted by this topic, then looked at Zhu Biao again and said: "Then I will tell you, do you think I am right?"

"Okay!" Zhu Biao was a little excited after hearing this, and immediately nodded in response.

Therefore, Zhang Yifan said to Zhu Biao: "Brother should know about boiling water in the kettle, right? After the water is boiled, it will be transformed into gas rising, so I want to open the lid of the kettle..."

Zhang Yifan used the example of boiling water in a kettle to talk about his new learning, and said that this has a very great effect.When the news came back to Nanjing, no matter whether it was Zhu Yuanzhang or Zhu Biao, of course they had been burnt, seen and thought about.

At this time, hearing that Zhang Yifan still used the kettle burning thing as an example, they were both a little curious and didn't know how to connect it, but they still nodded in response and listened to the explanation attentively.

"...If this water vapor encounters cold, it will condense back into water. This is the principle used in high-level alcohol distillation. In nature, when the sun shines, the water in rivers and seas will Some of it turns into gas and rises, and when it reaches the sky, it turns into clouds. This cloud is actually water vapor. When the water vapor becomes thick enough and turns into water again, it will fall down, and it is raining. Clouds and rain are probably just such a process."

Zhu Biao heard this for the first time, and he was very surprised and said: "What about cloudy days? The sky is filled with water vapor that is about to fall but not enough to rain?"

"Yes, I think so." Zhang Yifan listened and added, "Look, if the mountain is high, you can see clouds and mist halfway up the mountain. If you are interested, brother, you can try climbing the mountain. The higher you go, the better. You will feel more moisture. Also, if there is dew in the morning, it is because it is cold at night, and the moisture will condense into water."

When he said this, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly interjected and asked: "What about hot and cold? Is it just related to the sun?" After hearing this, Zhang Yifan turned to look at him, nodded seriously and said: "Yes, it is the sun that provides the temperature. Father, you should still remember what your son thought before, that this thing under our feet is actually a round ball, right? Father, you can imagine that if the sun shines over, the center of the circle is closest to the sun, and the upper and lower ends are farthest from the sun. Therefore, according to From this statement, I dare to conclude that the middle of the ball should be the hottest place, and then the two ends of the ball are the coldest places. This can also explain why it is hotter in the south and colder in the north."

These remarks were all explanations that Zhu Yuanzhang had never heard before.People have a natural curiosity to understand this kind of unknown and fresh knowledge, and Zhu Yuanzhang is no exception.

So, I heard him ask: "In that case, we are both in the capital, why do we have spring, summer, autumn and winter?"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan reached out and put the tea cup in the middle of the coffee table, and then said at the same time: "Father, I think so. For example, this tea cup is the sun, and this tea lid is the place where we live. I call it Earth. Therefore, this earth should revolve around the sun like this. Because this orbit has distance, it is divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter. At the same time, our earth is autobiographical, so it is divided into day and night."

Zhu Yuanzhang was very surprised when he heard this. He stared at the teacup and tea lid for a while, and then asked: "Why does our earth revolve around this sun?"

Although he could explain spring, summer, autumn, winter, day and night, he was more puzzled.

Zhang Yifan, without thinking about it, replied smoothly: "Because of the existence of gravity. That is to say, there is a gravitational force between any objects. This gravitational force should be related to weight. A simple example is the things in the sky Why does it fall to the ground instead of to the sky? It’s because the earth under our feet has the greatest weight, so the earth has the greatest gravity, so it will only fall to the ground.”

It is accurate to use quality to describe here, but since he is talking about Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, there is no need to distinguish between quality and weight.

When Zhu Biao heard this, he remained very shocked, but he still had doubts: "If it is what you said, then we are going to hit the sun, but it has been so many years, and it has not happened. ! By the way, according to you, our earth still revolves around the sun!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he nodded immediately and said seriously: "Yifan, your new learning is still not good. This is an obvious problem!"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan immediately laughed and said: "Father, brother, you should have seen the stars in the sky on weekdays. Those are actually very big. They have the same gravity as our earth. The current location of our earth is Because it is the result of maintaining balance under various gravitational forces. In fact, the same is true for the moon. It should revolve around our earth, just like we revolve around the sun."

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao couldn't help but fell silent after hearing this.

Zhang Yifan's words just now opened up their understanding of celestial bodies, could well explain the current natural phenomena, and immediately impacted their original world view.

Shock and shock are naturally inevitable.

Zhang Yifan knew that they needed to digest his statement, so he waited for a while, then looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "Father, what I said today are objective. Conclusions that can be obtained through observation and inference. Even if If I don’t say anything today, someone will definitely discover these objective facts in the future, and thus come to the conclusions that I said.”

"In fact, the ancients actually had similar ideas, but they just didn't think more about it."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao both looked at him at the same time, curious in their hearts, why didn't they know what the ancients knew?

Just listen to Zhang Yifan saying to them: "During the Warring States Period, Ximen Bao of the Wei State cracked the knot of He Bo and dug twelve channels to govern the place. He clearly understood that whether there was drought or rain, it was related to whether it was dry or rainy. It has nothing to do with the He Bo gods and immortals. You have to take action yourself so that man can conquer nature and solve actual problems."

"Similarly, Dayu's control of floods is actually based on this principle. In short, what our ancestors have always handed down is the idea that man can conquer nature. Instead of relying on illusory things, it is better to be down-to-earth and discover the objective laws of things to use for us humans. "

"This new science of Erchen is to summarize the objective laws of things and use them for our people. Also, how to discover the method of summarizing the objective laws of things. If more and more Ming people master it, then our Ming Dynasty will The national strength of the country will advance by leaps and bounds, and it will no longer be within the reach of those barbarians on the grassland, and the scourge of the barbarians will be solved once and for all!"

After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he couldn't help but suddenly raised his head and looked at him.The remnants of the Meng Yuan troops on the grassland really gave him a headache.The main reason is that the grassland is too big and it is difficult to find the main force of Meng Yuan!
It's easy to say that Ming Dynasty is stronger now.But Zhu Yuanzhang clearly realized that Meng Yuan would definitely make a comeback, and it's hard to say what would happen then!
Not to mention whether Meng Yuan will produce another figure like Temujin, even if it is just an ordinary one, with the unique advantage of cavalry on the grassland, it will give the Ming Dynasty a headache.

Now, thanks to the fourth child and this eldest son-in-law, the Liaodong Mengyuan and Goryeo were solved in a short period of time at a very small price.Zhu Yuanzhang has already decided to recruit war horses from Liaodong and Goryeo, thereby bringing the Ming Dynasty's cavalry strength to an unprecedented height. At least during his reign, he can also form an absolute advantage over the remnants of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, so as to attack .

However, what Zhu Yuanzhang was worried about was not when he was in power!
Now, according to Zhang Yifan, as long as the new learning continues to develop and the Ming Dynasty's national power becomes strong, the Meng Yuan will never have a chance to conquer the Central Plains.He was very interested in this statement.

So, he immediately asked: "Those Mongolian cavalry you saw in Liaodong are actually not their elite. If they are elite Mongolian cavalry and are commanded by famous generals, they will definitely be difficult to fight. You said you can solve the Mongols once and for all , I’m afraid it’s just an exaggeration!”

Zhang Yifan laughed when he heard this, thinking to himself, you may not know that the grassland people of later generations are the best at singing and dancing, right?
With this in mind, he said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Father, our new muskets can already use three stages to form a rain of bullets, and are assisted by car camps. So what if the Mongolian cavalry is elite? If it follows, the guns will be If we continue to improve, will the gap become wider and wider?"

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head after hearing this and said: "If I command the cavalry, of course I will avoid fighting and attack you elsewhere, what should I do?"

The biggest advantage of the cavalry is actually mobility, not impact.

When Zhang Yifan heard this, he reminded: "Father, don't forget. What I am doing now is to create a mobile power based on the principle of boiling kettles, which can replace livestock pulling carts. By then, our car camp will One day they will become as fast as the cavalry, and they will be able to wrap themselves in iron sheets and hide inside to fire muskets. Then what will the Mongolian cavalry use to fight?"

(End of this chapter)