Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty Chapter 1173 Postscript Twenty-nine The academic world of the Ming Dynasty is full of vitality and everything is competing for success
Chapter 1173 Postscript Twenty-nine The academic world of the Ming Dynasty is full of vitality and everything is competing for success
Chapter 1173 Postscript 29: The academic world of the Ming Dynasty is full of vitality and everything is competing for success
The next day, various meetings were officially held.
He didn't receive any invitation today, so he had to go and get a seat by himself.
Since I got up late for dinner, the popular academic seminars were already full, so I wandered around looking for an empty seat.
Soon we found a hall, which was about four-fifths full.
There were more than a dozen Tai students lying at the door and outside the window. They could only listen outside.
Xie Yan showed his bachelor's degree badge and walked in swaggering. The students outside the room were extremely envious.
The speaker is a middle-aged man who is sorting things out.
He looked at the clock and finally spoke: "I, Feng Sui, thank you all for being willing to listen to my lecture. When Taizu founded agriculture, he began to classify things in the world. We all know that living things can be divided into animals and
Plants and animals are divided into vertebrates and invertebrates..."
"We once discovered some snakes and lizards, which are very special ovoviviparous, but they cannot lactate after all. When I was in Australia, I found two animals that are both oviparous and lactating. Please see the picture, too far back
My friends can take a closer look."
After the speaker finished speaking, he began to hang pictures on the blackboard.
Many scholars in the audience began to talk in low voices, obviously shocked by the egg-laying mammals.
Xie Yan and a few scholars in the back row walked forward along the aisle. When he saw the picture hanging on the blackboard clearly, he suddenly laughed silently. Isn't this a platypus?
The speaker said: "Some scholars have discovered this animal before and named it duck-billed civet, but they did not notice that it actually lays eggs."
The speaker then hung up another picture: "This kind was also found in Australia. The local Han people thought it was a relative of the hedgehog and called it the long-billed hedgehog. It is even more peculiar, it is a marsupial egg-laying mammal.
The eggs are laid in their own pouch, the eggs are hatched in the pouch, and the young continue to live in the pouch and suck milk.”
As soon as this statement came out, the whole place was in an uproar.
Even the imperial students outside the room burst into exclamations.
Next, the speaker described in detail the various habits of the platypus and echidna.
After talking about it, Habit suddenly threw out a point:
"By long-term observation of certain insects or birds, we can find that the color of their body surfaces also changes according to changes in their living environment. We can also find local changes in some animals through some animal fossils."
"This is even more obvious for plants. Many plants are annual in the north and can become perennial in the south. After many generations of exotic plants that have grown in a certain place for a long time, the characteristics of the entire community will change together."
"If the same animal is separated by natural disasters, assuming half of them live on Island A and the other half live on Island B, and the living environments of the two islands are very different. Then after millions of years, after countless generations of reproduction, will they change?
into two completely different animals?”
"Australia is a natural testing ground. It is vast enough and completely isolated from the outside world."
"I suspect that this kind of long-billed hedgehog (echidna) had the same ancestors as hedgehogs a long time ago. They somehow arrived in Australia and became oviparous due to changes in the environment. They also had a pouch, but they retained
Breastfeeding habit."
"The same is true for this duck-billed platypus. After it came to Australia, it not only became egg-laying, but also grew a duck's mouth."
"Although I don't know why, the environment in Australia was probably more suitable for egg laying, and the large number of snake lizards forced the animals to grow pouches."
"Both animals and plants can change with the environment. I call it biological derivation. And the same environment forces different animals to evolve in the same direction, such as the marsupials in Australia."
The scholars present were talking a lot.
Xie Yan also returned to his seat.
He was startled just now, thinking that the person in front of him was going to talk about the theory of evolution, but in the end he just proposed the idea of "convergence and evolution".
The speaker continued, and he suggested that future scholars should pay more attention to the similarities and differences between animals and plants in the same environment and their close relatives in different environments.
"Snap, snap, snap!"
Thunderous applause.
At this time, in the Ming Dynasty, although there were also zoologists, botanists, and mineralogists, in fact, all of them were naturalists!
Countless unknown animals, plants, and minerals are waiting for them to discover, and since it is not easy to conduct an inspection in the deep mountains and dense forests, they study whatever they catch every time they go out for inspections.
It is possible to study plants today, suddenly study minerals tomorrow, and go directly to study geology the day after tomorrow.
Including today's agriculturists, most are naturalists.
Because there is a bottleneck in the development of agricultural technology, it is difficult to achieve results in this field, so we might as well open up a new track and sprint towards the direction of zoologist and botanist. In the meantime, we started to study minerals, astronomy, geography,
Anyway, these things are related to agriculture.
There are not many people who concentrate on agriculture and animal husbandry. Their main direction is to cultivate improved seeds.
Even the system of agricultural advisors was downsized by the imperial court.
Because most of the agricultural officials have become senior officials and rarely deal directly with farmers and herdsmen. Moreover, their professional quality is also worrying, and many of them are recruited through connections.
The imperial court did not abolish all the agricultural officials because it was purely for Taizu's sake!
Getting to this point has something to do with the performance evaluation of the agricultural officials.
You said you have helped many farmers increase their production, how can you prove yourself? I also said it is because the weather has been good this year.
In the same way, because favorable weather conditions increase production, those agricultural officials with connections can also be promoted as their own merit.
It is difficult to evaluate political performance, which makes it impossible for agricultural officers who really do things to get promoted. Gradually, bad money drives out good money and no one does anything.
But cultivating improved seeds is very intuitive. This is the easiest way to achieve political achievements. Once the results are achieved, it is easier to apply for funds, so all agricultural officials who are willing to do things are encouraged to do this.
Over time, the imperial court threw agriculturists who cultivated improved seeds into the Royal Society system.
There are improved plant varieties and improved animal varieties, and Ming Dynasty has developed steadily in the field of breeding.
…
On this day, Xie Yan attended four academic seminars, covering all fields.
The next morning, Xie Yan was invited to attend Nie Qi's report meeting.
Nie Qi was very enthusiastic about Xie Yan and even wanted Xie Yan to be his assistant to help him operate the scale at the report meeting.
Xie Yan politely refused and revealed that he also made a scale.
Nie Qi didn't take it seriously. In his opinion, the long-armed scale had reached its limit, and it was impossible for Xie Yan's scale to increase its arm length.
This report on the long-arm damping balance was very successful, and countless physicists and chemists responded with excited applause.
Although it cannot yet verify molecules and atoms, long-arm damping balances have already enabled many experimental breakthroughs.
The next afternoon, Xie Yan was invited by Wang Daqing.
Wang Daqing introduced Xie Yan very solemnly: "You must have heard about this young Bachelor of Jasper. But I'm afraid you don't know it yet, because the ideas provided by Little Bachelor Xie allowed me to complete the new geometry I discovered.
!”
"Ha ha ha ha!"
There was a burst of laughter from the audience. Xie Yan and Wang Daqing seemed to be able to be merged into similar projects.
Although he was still laughed at, Wang Daqing was no longer as anxious as before because Xie Yan shared it with him.
Just like being in a haunted old house, even if you can't exorcise the ghosts, it's good to have one more person scared.
I am not alone in my ways.
After the report began, Wang Daqing elaborated on his derivation process and talked about academic achievements that were counter-intuitive.
The reaction from the audience was lukewarm.
Finally, after the academic report was finished, most of the people stood up in an instant and left the venue without looking back.
The remaining half believed that mathematics would not deceive people, but could not understand why. They asked Wang Daqing questions, but Wang Daqing could not explain clearly, and in the end they were all stunned.
"It will definitely be useful in the future!" Wang Daqing said firmly.
The scholars who stayed and did not leave also believed that it would be useful in the future, but they did not know what the use would be or when it would be useful. So they also left.
However, there were two mathematicians who were very interested in Wang Daqing's new geometry and left their mailing addresses willing to contact them frequently.
This was enough to make Wang Daqing ecstatic. He had two more people with whom he could communicate.
On the morning of the third day, it was Xie Yan’s turn to give an academic report.
One attendant entered the venue carrying a box, and three attendants were responsible for separating the crowd, for fear of damaging the things in the box.
Several audience members came early, including Zhu Shirong and Cao An.
Zhu Shirong came over to greet him: "I didn't expect Bachelor Xie to be so young. I thought he was middle-aged. I, Zhu Shirong, have sent two letters to Bachelor Xie."
When Xie Yan met his pen pal, he quickly returned the courtesy and said, "It turns out to be Professor Zhu. Thank you very much for your support in writing."
Zhu Shirong said: "Then you should thank Bachelor Cao. He was the first to review your paper and recommended it to me."
It was another pen pal, Xie Yan quickly greeted him.
Cao An replied with a smile: "God makes friends, so there is no need to be polite."
Xie Yan opened the box while chatting.
Zhu Shirong and Cao An thought it was some kind of experimental equipment, so they returned to their seats and waited for the report to begin.
Gradually, they realized something was wrong and quickly ran to the stage to observe what Xie Yan was doing up close.
I saw Xie Yan taking apart the outer layer of cotton cloth, peeling off the cotton wrapped in the cotton cloth, and then taking apart another layer of cotton cloth, which was still wrapped in cotton.
It was opened layer by layer, and the innermost part was wrapped in silk. It turned out to be a small tray for a balance.
Just like this, layer by layer was dismantled, and strange parts were quickly removed. It seemed to be a balance arm, but it was too short.
Continue to unpack, and even the weights are wrapped in layers.
How many pieces of glass are there?
Xie Yan first assembled a glass box with wooden frames on all sides and small doors on the left and right that can be opened.
Zhu Shirong pointed to a small cloth bag and asked: "What's in it?"
Xie Yan said: "Charcoal. Whether it is kept for daily storage or used for experiments, the balance must be placed in a glass box. The charcoal can maintain a dry air environment."
More and more scholars came in and were attracted by this strange scale, and people gradually formed a circle around the podium.
"The old president is here!"
Most of the scholars ran to greet the old president, but there were still some left, who were restrained by the balance and unable to move.
Seeing people surrounding the podium, the old president was curious and was helped over.
At this time, the balance has been assembled and Xie Yan is debugging it through multiple knobs.
After a while.
"The eldest princess is here!"
The eldest princess walked over slowly, the steps on her bun swaying very rhythmically.
"What are they doing around here?" the eldest princess asked curiously.
A scholar said: "Bachelor Xie is assembling and debugging a balance. The arms of the balance are very short and are placed in a glass box, which makes it hard to understand."
As a result, the eldest princess also gathered around, and the scholars made room one after another.
After that, more scholars arrived one after another and saw that the three floors inside and outside the podium were surrounded. They were confused and didn't know what was going on.