People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 130 You Became an Immortal
In the blink of an eye, more than ten days passed. During these ten days, Zhang Zhongjing buried himself in the room and hardly took a step out. He ignored everything and focused on the microscope, either observing things or recording the observation results.

When he finally stepped out of the room, Xu Chen saw a contradictory state of being exhausted and haggard, but with eyes still sparkling with excitement.

Zhang Zhongjing really couldn't help but be excited. What he saw under the microscope was a whole new world, and he experienced countless mysteries in this world. Every day and every moment, he could discover new surprises. When the veil of the microscopic world was lifted, his understanding of this world was thoroughly reconstructed.

This is not a change in cognition due to words such as debate, but a tangible result seen with the eyes.

"Now I think of what the Taoist said, and I am even more amazed. A drop of water can give birth to all things. I saw all kinds of micro-worms, and they survive and reproduce in the water. So when people drink a mouthful of water, they swallow countless insects. Maybe this is one of the causes of certain diseases. However, to explore the specific connection, it still requires long-term and detailed research."

When he found Xu Chen, he started talking incessantly, treating Xu Chen as a person with whom to exchange academic ideas.

This was Zhang Zhongjing's frustration. For the time being, he could not find anyone else to discuss this new knowledge with except Xu Chen. Only Xu Chen, the founder of natural science, could understand many of his research results and even give him many suggestions.

This talk started from the insects in the water and talked about the cells he observed.

These days he observed a wide variety of things, whether they were animal tissues, plant tissues, or all kinds of moldy and rotten things, he left nothing out.

Even when he had nothing to do, he would catch mosquitoes, flies and insects to observe the fine structures of these small creatures.

This enabled Zhang Zhongjing to make many discoveries, including the conjecture that aquatic insects caused diseases, and the discovery of biological cells.

He discovered that whether it was plants or animals, the basic structures that made them up were cells with various different functions.

The discovery of cell theory immediately brought the explanation of life into a more concrete system.

What makes Zhang Zhongjing very regretful is that until now he has not actually seen what Xu Chen called bacteria. This is because the magnification of the microscope is not enough and needs to be further improved.

He was still full of expectations for this. Since there had been a breakthrough from nothing to something, the emergence of microscopes with higher magnification and more sophisticated features would only be a natural thing.

Xu Chen took over several articles from Zhang Zhongjing, the titles of which were "Cell Theory" and "Microorganism Theory", etc.

After sitting down, Xu Chen took another look at the content of the article. It was also in accordance with his requirements, discussing the research results in straightforward and clear words. This was actually a biological research paper by Zhang Zhongjing.

Although the content here seems very simple now, Xu Chen feels that it is far more meaningful than directly instilling the results himself. It means that people of that era have spontaneously tried to explore the world of natural science.

After all, what I gave Zhang Zhongjing was just an instrument and a methodology, but the result was discovered by Zhang Zhongjing himself.

Of course, we can now talk about more advanced and very correct scientific achievements of later generations, but such scientific theories are just castles in the air. What is really important is the method and process of studying natural theories, and this can only be accumulated and explored by people of the times themselves.

"With this discovery, even if Zhongjing does nothing else for the rest of his life, his name will be recorded in history. According to our religion, this is the same as becoming an immortal. If people in the future can reveal the secrets of life and eliminate diseases and illnesses based on these discoveries, their starting point will be today."

Xu Chen slowly put down the papers, then smiled and said: "I will include these papers in the Natural History, and divide them into natural sciences such as physics, alchemy, biology, mathematics, etc. under the Mingshi chapter. Zhongjing's achievements are in the pathology section under biology."

Zhang Zhongjing felt very complicated when he heard this.

When Xu Chen first proposed to include his research results, he was reluctant. As a Confucian scholar, he did not want to be too closely associated with the so-called naturalism.

But today, his thoughts have changed. At least in terms of understanding the world, Xu Chen has fully demonstrated his excellence in physiology.

Now when he sees his results included, he feels inexplicably excited and honored. He has completely recognized natural science.

He even had a secret desire in his heart, which was to hope that naturalism could develop and grow stronger, so that the concept of natural science could be spread more widely and his own achievements could be known to more people.

This desire is not just for personal honor. He hopes more that people can gain a clearer understanding of this corner of the mysterious world through his research results. If he can accomplish this small thing, he will have no regrets in his life.

Handing the paper to Xu Chen was considered as fulfilling his promise. Zhang Zhongjing then sat down with Xu Chen and continued to discuss some of the conjectures and confusions that arose in his research.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw Xu Chen pick up a charcoal pencil and write something below his paper.

After a closer look, he found that he had signed his name at the bottom of the paper, but it was not his full name, but just "Zhang Mou", and below the name, the time was written. Zhang Zhongjing seemed to understand something, as if he knew Xu Chen's intention. If he signed his real name, it would be a fait accompli for him to collude with the rebels. This also made Zhang Zhongjing suddenly realize that perhaps this name would not be made public until his death.

To be honest, he felt a little regretful, but then he just smiled and shook his head to get rid of the emotion, and instead focused on the date.

"Master, what kind of calendar is this lunar year?"

Zhang Zhongjing pointed under "Zhang Mou". The time written there was not the third year of Zhongping in the Han Dynasty, but September 23rd of the third year of the Huangli calendar. This made him a little confused.

Xu Chen put down his pen, glanced at Zhang Zhongjing, and gave a brief explanation.

“Zhongjing doesn’t know that after one year of teaching, most of the students are proficient in writing and arithmetic, and their studies will naturally be advanced, and historical matters must be learned.

It's just that I have my own view of history. Books like "Spring and Autumn Annals" and "Zuo Zhuan" can only be used as documents but not as teaching materials. So I have to compile them myself, and the chronology must be innovated, so this almanac came into being.

My view of history is not to record by the reign title of the emperor, but to record the first year of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Before that, it was before the lunar calendar, and after that, it was recorded as the year. This year is the third year of the lunar calendar.

Zhang Zhongjing's expression became somewhat interesting for a moment when he heard this.

He subconsciously wanted to laugh, but when he saw Xu Chen's calm and composed look, he couldn't laugh.

He just felt that the Yellow Turbans were only occupying a corner of the country now, but the leader Xu Chen had already begun to consider the overall situation after the great cause. Isn't this a bit too ambitious? Is this something you, a rebel, should worry about now?

As an outstanding scholar, he naturally understood that Xu Chen was trying to compete with Confucianism for the right to interpret history.

If the Yellow Turbans had taken over the world today, he thought this was normal behavior, but the Han Dynasty was still strong. How could Xu Chen have the confidence to consider these things? It seemed as if he had already regarded the Central Plains as his own.

However, he was still somewhat interested and wanted to see what the naturalist view of history looked like: "I wonder if I could take a look?"

Xu Chen did not refuse, but pushed a book forward. It was the history textbook he had recently completed.

After Zhang Zhongjing took it, he began to read it silently. After reading for a while, he felt the unusualness of this so-called teaching material.

The content of this book is actually simple. After all, it is a basic history textbook. There is nothing much to say about it. What is novel is the different way of narrating history.

This history textbook actually records historical events briefly, and only roughly records important or some special historical events. The key is that after each historical period, there is Xu Chen’s summary of the corresponding historical stage.

This kind of discussion does not comment on the merits and demerits of specific historical figures, but summarizes the development of civilization and changes in productivity.

This kind of historical perspective is history as seen from the perspective of millions of people. The teachings of naturalism are smoothly integrated into it, telling the world clearly what is right and what is wrong, and also explaining how today's society has evolved from a new perspective.

The more Zhang Zhongjing read, the more frightened he became. He had an urge to throw away this history textbook, but after calming down, he had to admit that this historical view was quite just and correct.

This is scary, this is bold
This history textbook reconstructed the history of China. It contained too many of Xu Chen's personal opinions. Even the book had a completely different interpretation of the Chinese ethnic group. Under the new interpretation, almost all other ethnic groups he knew were classified as Chinese.

What he saw was Xu Chen's long-term ambition, the kind of ambition to swallow up everything.

Zhang Zhongjing put down the textbook, glanced at Xu Chen, and suddenly forgot about the microscopic research that he had just been so excited about.

Every time he saw what Xu Chen did, he felt a strong determination and desire from him, which made him sigh that this guy would not stop until he turned the world upside down.

If you don't show some strength, it will be hard to stop this guy in the future.
Before he could express his opinion, he heard footsteps outside, and then a big man pushed the door open. It was Wang Dang who came in with an excited look on his face.

"Master, there really are brothers coming to join us!"

(End of this chapter)