Double-faced prince and concubine

The ministers looked at the strange symbols on the white paper held up high by the eunuch Gao Yuanqing, and guessed that it might be related to the number of words, but none of them recognized it.

If you can't recognize it, you have to admit it honestly: "I am so stupid!"

"Haha!" The emperor laughed loudly, "My dear friends, I only saw these interesting numbers today. Let me teach you to recognize them. These are all numbers, called Arabic numerals. Starting from this circle, they are zero, one, Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine."

The emperor took the opportunity to list the combination of numbers, such as 10, 12, 165, there are 48036 characters in the "Font Library", etc. All the ministers shouted: "The emperor is wise!"

"Dear ladies, do you know who wrote this set of figures?" The emperor asked again.

It was the first time for the ministers to see these so-called "Arabic numerals", so how could they know who wrote them.

The emperor kept a secret, and continued: "This is a set of numbers listed by Princess Rui."

The ministers suddenly realized again: "Oh, these numbers were originally created by Princess Rui who can write simplified characters! That Princess Rui is really a strange woman!"

The emperor had had enough fun, so he called Cheng Ziyi out of the queue and asked him to demonstrate the magic of Arabic numerals learned yesterday.

Cheng Ziyi picked up a pen and paper, wrote down the multiplication table, and calculated the formulas of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which made the ministers dumbfounded.It turns out that these numbers are really useful.

After the calculation, Cheng Ziyi said modestly: "Your Majesty, what I have learned is less than one-tenth of Princess Rui's. Princess Rui is really a wonderful woman of knowledge."

After Cheng Ziyi returned, the emperor asked the ministers for their opinions on how to implement these Arabic numerals throughout the country?The ministers no longer had many concerns, support and opposition as they did when they wanted to promote simplified characters, but this time they unanimously expressed: "Your Majesty is wise!"

After coming down to court, the emperor took Cheng Ziyi's memorial and wrote Arabic numerals over and over again in the imperial study, studying the magic of these numbers, the more he wrote, the more miraculous he felt, and he repeatedly praised Princess Rui as a talented woman.

Remembering that Jing Er and the three princes were studying in Shangwen Academy together, the emperor wandered to Shangwen Academy and asked them to give them a riddle to see who could guess the answer.

The three princes saw that the emperor wrote "1+1=" on the paper, but they had never seen it before. Their brows were frowned, and they couldn't guess what it was. Even the teacher who taught him didn't know what it was.

"Your Majesty, I know!" Jing'er said loudly.

The emperor looked at Jing'er in surprise, and considering that Jing'er was Princess Rui's daughter, it was reasonable for her to know the answer.

Seeing that no one else could answer, the emperor asked Jing Er: "Zhao Le, tell me, what is the answer?"

"Mr. Gang also taught us arithmetic. This is not a riddle, this is an arithmetic problem. One plus one equals two. Mother taught us a long time ago!"

Jing Er said, picked up the pen, and wrote a "2" after the equal sign.

The three princes all screamed, and even the gentlemen were amazed again and again. No wonder when teaching them arithmetic, Jing'er showed a lack of interest, and knew the answer quickly without counting fingers.

The Emperor's Longyan was very happy, praised Jing'er for being smart, and asked her what reward she wanted, Jing'er thought about it, and said: "Your Majesty, Jing'er, can I invite the prince's elder brother and younger brother to play at my house? There is a playground in Prince Rui's mansion. Lots of fun, including a pirate ship and a carousel!"

"Zhao Le, think it over clearly, this is the reward you want?" The emperor never thought that the reward that Jing'er wanted was to invite the princes to visit Prince Rui's mansion.

Jing Er nodded affirmatively: "Yeah!"

She told the princes that the playground is very fun, but the princes have never seen it before. Although they want to go, they have to study, and they can't go without the emperor's consent.

"If that's the case, I'll agree!" The emperor liked Jing'er, who was different from ordinary girls, and thought, if only he had such a smart and lovely woman.

Afterwards, the emperor wrote out ten Arabic numerals and asked Jing Er if he knew them all. Jing Er proudly replied, "I know them all with my eyes closed."

That's all right, the emperor simply asked Jing'er to teach the three princes how to learn numbers, so that several gentlemen would also learn together.

Jing'er is very proud now, she came to study, but she became a teacher and taught others.

And those teachers looked embarrassed. They are hundreds of years old together, and they actually want a five-year-old girl to teach.

***

Cheng Ziyi and four assistants came to Prince Rui's mansion again, and told Zhongli Ruixuan and Xia Yueer about the emperor's plan to implement Arabic numerals.

Xia Yue'er didn't think there was anything wrong with it. It's good to promote such a practical number. Zhongli Ruixuan was happy for Xia Yueer. The second-hand theoretical knowledge in her mind was finally widely recognized: "Lady , you are a celebrity now!"

"Uh, no way!" Xia Yue'er was really embarrassed, because she didn't invent this number, she just wrote it down.

Finally officially started writing simplified characters, Xia Yueer opened the "Font Library", starting from the first character, if you need to write simplified characters, use a pen to circle the word, and the civil servant is responsible for writing the traditional characters on the manuscript paper, and then Xia Yue Then write the corresponding simplified characters.

"Master Cheng, what word is this?"

Circled and circled, Xia Yue'er came across a character she didn't recognize.

Cheng Ziyi explained to her how to pronounce that word and what it meant, and Xia Yueer suddenly realized: "Oh, so it's this word!" She could only read the simplified Chinese character, not the traditional Chinese character, so she put pinyin on the traditional character.

Cheng Ziyi saw Xia Yueer write strange symbols again, and asked her again: "Princess Rui, what are you writing?"

Seeing Cheng Ziyi's finger pointing at Pinyin, Xia Yueer wiped her forehead, and replied, "Uh, this is Pinyin. It is used to mark the pronunciation of this word."

"What is pinyin?" Although Cheng Ziyi is over 40 years old, he is still like a primary school student, diligent in learning and asking questions.

"That, pinyin, is..."

Xia Yue'er couldn't explain it, it couldn't be explained clearly in a few words.

So, she gritted her teeth, wrote out 26 letters, initials and finals, split them into a pinyin alphabet, and told them that these letter combinations can be used to mark the pronunciation of each word.

Cheng Ziyi admired Princess Rui so much that he knelt down again and asked Princess Rui to teach them the alphabet.

Xia Yue'er is one head and two big. This pinyin table cannot be taught in a day or two. If it is to be taught, it is also a big project!

"Bachelor Cheng, Master Cheng, it's not that I don't want to teach you, it's just that it's not easy to learn pinyin. You have to memorize 26 letters, and you have to memorize the initials and finals. It's not a few days a day to learn their correct pronunciation. things that can be done.”