Song Yi

Chapter 418 The Temptation of Knowledge

Shen Kuo is definitely a well-known figure in the history of Chinese science. He has profound attainments in mathematics, astronomy, geography, chemistry, biology, medicine, engineering technology, etc., and has made quite a few scientific discoveries. He is the author of "Mengxi "Bi Tan" and other well-known scientific masterpieces at home and abroad.

Zhe Zong wondered: "Yeah, what's the matter?" He continued to count with his counting chips while talking.

"What about others?"

"Why are you asking this?"

"I want to meet you, the fortune teller."

Zhe Zong laughed and said, "That's too unfortunate. When he was in the battle of Yongle City, the army he led was defeated by Xixia, so his father ordered him to demote him and let him edit the map of the world's states and counties."

"Ah?" Du Wenhao only found out now that Shen Kuo also participated in the battle of Yongle City against Xixia.Du Wenhao felt a little sad that such a great scientist could not be seen.

Zhe Zong said with a smile: "General Shen, I'm almost done. If you haven't done anything yet, you're doomed!"

Du Wenhao laughed and said: "Okay, I'll chase you now, speed up!" After finishing speaking, he walked slowly back to the desk, picked up a pen and began to calculate this multiplication arithmetic problem.

Using Arabic numerals and simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division symbols, and using multiplication formulas to calculate this kind of problem, the speed is obviously much faster than using arithmetic chips.Therefore, Du Wenhao only took a moment to calculate the problem, and checked it step by step. After confirming that it was correct, he put the brush on the pen holder, glanced at the four people below, and was still fiddling with the calculation. raise.Especially Zhe Zong, his fingers are moving like flying, like flower arranging willows, and the calculation speed alone is really amazing.

Du Wenhao walked to him with his hands behind his back: "How is it? Your Majesty, is it all over?"

"Don't make trouble! It will be ready soon!" Zhezong didn't dare to be distracted at the last moment, without even raising his head, frowning and continuing to count.

Du Wenhao looked at each one with his hands behind his back, Zhao Ji held the counting chips with a bitter face, and slowly placed them one by one, and the little fat man Zhao Bi was sweating profusely.When she came to Niannian, Princess Xu, she also put down the counting chip with a sad face, and picked it up again, hesitating.Obviously something went wrong with the calculation.

Du Wenhao lowered his head and told her the answer in a low voice beside his ear.She turned her face to look at Du Wenhao, and nodded in surprise and joy.

Du Wenhao made another round, returned to his seat and sat down, sipping tea slowly with a cup of tea.Zhezong looked up at him with a look of surprise: "Have you finished the calculation?"

"It's over long ago! Such a simple question takes so long? Alas!"

"Simple? Huh! Don't brag!"

"Whether you are bragging or not, the emperor will know after a while."

Zhezong lowered his head and continued to fiddle with the calculations, and after a while, he finally shouted: "It's figured out!" Turning his head and taking a look, he saw Nian Nian sitting there complacently, and asked, "Hey, follower, what are you doing?" Have you figured it out?"

"I figured it out a long time ago - you are the follower!"

"I don't believe it, show it to me!" After finishing speaking, he stepped down and walked over, took a look at the piece of paper in Nian Nian's hand, and was extremely surprised: "Impossible! Such a complicated question, you can even figure it out!" Not bad, it’s impossible to calculate faster than me!”

"I figured it out, how about it! Hee hee"

Zhezong turned his face and glanced at Du Wenhao: "Just now I saw General Du sneaking up next to you, and I must have told you the answer! ——No, how could he figure it out so quickly?"

Zhe Zong walked over quickly, took a look at the piece of paper on Du Wenhao's desk, and sure enough the answer was exactly the same as his own!He exclaimed in surprise, "No way? You don't even need to do the math? Did you do it in your head?"

"No, didn't you see the calculation process written on it?"

Zhezong looked up and saw all kinds of strange symbols written crookedly on it. He couldn't understand what they were, and asked, "What are you?"

"Arabic numerals, multiplication formula. Hehe"

"what?"

"It's just a kind of symbol specially used for calculation. It's much simpler than your calculations, isn't it?"

Zhezong couldn't believe it, he turned his head to stare at Fu Yaoyu, and said viciously, "You helped him cheat? You told him the question beforehand, didn't you?"

Fu Yaoyu hurriedly fell to his knees and kowtowed: "No, your majesty, I would never dare to commit the crime of deceiving the emperor. This question was indeed thought of by my minister just now. I didn't tell General Du."

"I don't believe it!"

Du Wenhao said coldly: "If you don't believe me, how about this, you come up with a question yourself, and let's compare it again."

"Okay!" Zhezong thought for a while, and said a multiplication problem of two six-digit numbers.Then he counted like a shuttle.

This time Du Wenhao wanted to frustrate him, so he picked up a pen to calculate, and soon he finished the calculation. He checked it, wrote down the answer, put it upside down on the table, and clapped his hands: "I'm done!"

Zhe Zong was dumbfounded: "Impossible!"

"Your Majesty," Du Wenhao took a sip of tea slowly, "Anything is possible!"

"Your answer must be wrong. Wait until I figure it out!" Zhe Zong ignored him, and continued to calculate quickly with his counting chip with a sullen face. At this time, Zhao Bi and Zhao Ji had already stopped and gathered around to watch the excitement.

The more anxious Zhezong became, the slower he got. This time it took almost a stick of incense to figure it out. He took Du Wenhao's paper and looked at the answer, but he still felt the same, and he was stunned.

This time, Zhe Zong came up with a question on the spot and calculated it on the spot. It is absolutely impossible to cheat. Only then did he believe that Du Wenhao's calculation method is really fast. He put down the paper in his hand, nodded and said: "Well, your arithmetic It is very powerful, but I want to know, what is the use of arithmetic?"

"It can solve many practical problems," Du Wenhao said, "For example, the granaries in a certain yamen are cylindrical, and there are seventy of them in total. Each of them is the same size. The diameter of the bottom of the warehouse is two feet, and the height is one foot five feet. , how many stones of rice can these seventy granaries hold?"

Zhezong had never studied geometry at all, and he didn't know how to calculate the volume of a cylinder, so he shook his head blankly: "What else can you teach me, sir?"

Du Wenhao took half a glass of clear water, put it on the table, took a brush from the pen stand, inserted it into the water upside down, and placed it in front of Zhezong and other four children: "Who can tell me why the pen in the quilt looks Is it crooked?"

This phenomenon is very common, and they have known it for a long time. However, they have to explain why it is curved, but they can't say it. They looked at him and shook their heads.

Du Wenhao said: "This is the phenomenon of refraction of light. You will understand when I tell you about light in the future."

Du Wenhao took another empty cup and said: "If the emperor is going to use gold to make such a cup, how much gold should be used at least?"

Zhezong and the other three naturally shook their heads again.

Du Wenhao then asked in one breath: "Who knows why earthquakes occur? Why does it rain? Why do thunder and lightning strike? Why does the sun always rise from the east and set in the west? Why is there a dog eclipsing the moon? Why is the moon cloudy? Roundness? Why do stars blink? Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What countries? Where are they? How can I get to them...?"

The four shook their heads in a daze.

Du Wenhao smiled and said: "These, you will know these after listening to my lecture."

The little girl applauded Niannian: "Good! I want to listen to the teacher's lecture now!"

Zhao Bi also grinned and smiled on his chubby face: "Yeah, it sounds so tempting! I really want to hear it too."

Zhezong was excited when he heard that both of them were drooling, but he was also itchy in his heart. He smiled and said: "Mr. Let you take charge of my studies."

Du Wenhao smiled and saw Zhao Ji sitting there in a blink of an eye. He was not as excited as the other three, so he was a little surprised and asked, "Eleventh Prince, what's wrong?"

"Can you teach me how to draw?" Zhao Ji asked.

Only then did Du Wenhao realize that this suave emperor is a great painter with wonderful brushstrokes, and what he is most interested in is probably painting.Painting by yourself is not very good, what should I do?
As soon as he rolled his eyes, he immediately had an idea. Didn't he have learned sketching from life? Although the skills are not yet on the table, at least he can teach him some knowledge of perspective and some knowledge of light and shadow.Because traditional Chinese painting does not pay attention to perspective, let alone light and shadow effects.I can teach him this knowledge.However, there is a problem to be paid attention to, that is, the knowledge of light and shadow cannot be used in portraiture, otherwise it will cause trouble.

On this point, there was once a little story in history.In the Qing Dynasty, there was a Western painter who was triumphant and wanted to express himself in front of Lafayette Cixi. When he was painting Lafayette Cixi, he used Western painting light and shadow effects to paint Lafayette Cixi very realistically and with a three-dimensional effect.However, when the painting was sent to Cixi, Lafayette was furious and almost pushed him to beheaded, because in the eyes of Lafayette, the so-called three-dimensional effect with shadows on the face is a very taboo "yin and yang face" in Chinese people. ", is a kind of bad luck.The Western painter was so frightened that he quickly changed it and changed Lafayette's face into a flat sunny one. Lafayette turned his anger into joy and spared his life.

Du Wenhao smiled and said to Zhao Ji: "I don't know how to draw landscapes, flowers, birds and figures with a brush, but I can teach you how to draw with charcoal, and I can also tell you some correct common sense of painting, which can make your paintings more realistic. of."

"Really?" Zhao Ji's eyes immediately flashed with excitement, "Then teach me quickly!"

The other three also clamored for Du Wenhao to immediately start teaching them the knowledge they just said.

Du Wenhao said: "It's too late now. I'm going to the Prime Minister's Mansion for a meeting. In the afternoon, the two attendants will give the emperor and the three of you a review of what you have learned before. Tomorrow. I'll teach you tomorrow."

He told the two old masters a few words, and after asking them to come up with questions for investigation, he left the Zishan Hall with his hands behind his back, and came to the Political Affairs Hall of the Chancellor's Mansion.

(End of this chapter)