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Chapter 933: The Beginning of Science Continued

Yunxi must break the rule that prohibits folk study of astronomy. As the origin of modern science, astronomy, if this cannot be broken, how can it develop? If astronomy cannot develop, geology, mechanics, and geometry will not be able to develop. The science of Ming Dynasty You will always fall behind until outsiders come knocking on your door.

"Secretary Qing, after I return to the palace, I will prepare an edict and announce that from tomorrow onwards, the strict prohibition on the practice of astronomy and horoscopes set by the late emperor in the "Da Ming Code" will be abolished." Yunxi ordered Song Qingshu again.

Cao Zheng and Zhou Wei suddenly became excited. Because Zhu Yuanzhang strictly prohibited the study of astronomy and stars, and they killed many people because of this, they could only study in secret. If their family members found out, they would be beaten easily. Now the emperor actually wants to abolish the prohibition. After studying the rules of astronomy, they finally no longer have to hide.

"I (student) thank your Majesty for your kindness." The two of them knelt down again and said.

"Pingshen." Yunxi said.

After they stood up, Yunxi asked them to sit down and asked: "I am also interested in astronomy. I wonder how your studies are going now? Maybe you can talk to me about it."

"Your Majesty, I have carefully studied the astronomy and stars, and I am quite puzzled. There are many omissions in the Gaitian theory that may be falsified, so ignore them; but there are also many problems in the Huntian theory."

Cao Zheng said: "If the sun and the moon are attached to the celestial sphere, then why is there a solar eclipse? A solar eclipse is because the moon covers the sun. If the moon can cover the sun, it means that the moon is under the sun. If the moon is under the sun, the moon must not be attached to the celestial sphere. , and is contrary to the theory of Hun Tian.”

"But if there is no celestial sphere as Gaitian said, how can the sun, moon and stars rise in the east and set in the west in unison? This is something I cannot understand."

‘Huh? Hasn’t China’s current astronomy proposed the multi-sky theory?’ Yunxi was a little surprised. He had never communicated with others about astronomy before, so he didn’t know how the astronomical theory was developing at this time.

Yunxi opened his mouth to mention his theory of multiple heavens, but he swallowed the words again after opening his mouth. If Qin Tianjian already had the theory of multiple heavens at this time, then it would be bad for him to say it as original. ."It would be great if there was an official from Qintian Prison at this time." He murmured in a low voice.

But at this moment, Li Bo suddenly whispered in Yun He's ear: "Your Majesty, I just saw Deputy Sichengtang of Qintian Supervisor walking on the street outside the inn." Li Bo happened to be standing just now. Beside the window, he turned his eyes and saw Sichengtang walking on the street. He happened to hear Yunxi whispering softly again, so he whispered this into his ear,

"Sichengtang?" Yunxi was overjoyed. This was really a pillow for him when he was dozing off: "Bring him up quickly."

Li Bo took the order and came down. After a while, he pulled a middle-aged man in his forties up. When the man saw Yunxi, he immediately knelt down and said: "Chen Qintian Supervisor Deputy Sichengtang has seen your Majesty." .”

Sichengtang knelt on the ground with some uneasiness. This year, one of his nephews passed the Jinshi examination. Although he was only a top three Jinshi, his family was very happy, so he left work early today and went home to celebrate, not wanting to be caught by the emperor on the way. Discovered. 'The Emperor couldn't have called me here because of this matter.' He thought.

Yunxi never thought that his appearance here at this time would show his value before time. He ignored him and said to Cao Zheng without turning his head: "Tell what you just said to Deputy Si Jian again." Once again.”

Cao Zheng immediately repeated it. Yunxi turned to Sichengtang and said, "Did you hear clearly? Is there any possible answer to this question?"

"Your Majesty, there is no answer to this matter. However, there was a Semu man named Zamarudin from Persia in the Yuan Dynasty who came to the Central Plains around the time of Meng Ge's reign. After the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty became emperor, he joined Si Tiantai."

"This person once said that hundreds of years ago, some Tianfang people deduced that the sky is divided into eleven levels, namely the Moon Sky, the Mercury Sky, the Venus Sky, the Sun Sky, the Mars Sky, the Jupiter Sky, the Saturn Sky, the Star Sky, and the Crystal Sky. , the highest sky and the pure fire sky, as the names suggest, each layer of the sky wraps a sun, moon or stars."

"As to why the sun, moon and stars do not rotate in a circle around the earth, he believed that all the sun, moon and stars are constantly moving around a smaller circle, and the center of this circle and the center of each circle are at The person moves on a circle with the earth in the middle. This person calls the circle that revolves around the earth a deferent wheel, and the small circle is called an epicycle. He also says that the earth is not in the center of the deferent wheel, but slightly off. In addition to moving as above, the sun, moon and five stars also Together with the stars, it orbits the earth once a day."

"During the Yuan Dynasty BC, Han and Mongolian people were thinking about this, so it was difficult to prove whether it was true, so the Qintian Prison kept it in mind and ignored it."

Sichengtang gave a very detailed answer on the theory of multiple heavens.

After hearing this, Yunxi said to Cao Zheng: "Do you understand?"

"I understand." This point of view was clearer and clearer than all the points he had known before. To him, it was like rain after a long drought. Therefore, Cao Zheng scratched his head with joy and wanted to record these words immediately. Not only The same goes for him and Zhou Wei.

Yunxi felt bad in his heart. It was clear that there had been a theory to explain the solar eclipse phenomenon before, but only the people in Qin Tianjian knew about it, and no one else knew about it. Even if there were one or two like Cao Zheng who liked astronomy and were not afraid of being It is impossible for people who are arrested and beheaded to deduce astronomical theories from scratch, and many theories of the Qintianjian have not been studied, which has led to Chinese astronomy stagnating. 'The Qintianjian system must be changed.' He thought to himself. .

After a while, Yunxi came back to his senses. Seeing Cao Zheng behaving like this, he smiled and ordered Song Qingshu: "Did you bring a pen and paper? If so, take it out and give it to Cao Aiqing and Zhou Jinshi."

Song Qingshu, of course, brought a pen and paper with him. Yunxi often had some unusual ideas to write down, so among the people who followed Yunxi out there would always be someone with a pen and paper. Today, no eunuch followed him, so Song Qingshu brought a pen and paper with him. .At this time, he took out the white paper and pencil and handed them to Cao Zheng and Zhou Wei.

The two of them took the pencil without any surprise and started writing on the white paper. It has been two years since the invention of the pencil. Although it is still difficult to see in local places, it has become popular in Beijing because of the convenience of writing. It is sold in many places.

When the two of them stopped writing, Yunxi asked again: "Do you two have any other doubts?"

"Your Majesty," Zhou Wei said, "Students still have some doubts."

"The student has just listened to the theory of many heavens. It is indeed better than the theory of Hun Tian, ​​but the student has another doubt."

"If according to the Huntian theory, all the sun, moon and stars are embedded in the same celestial sphere, then it is very clear that all the stars circle the earth in one day. But if there are multiple celestial layers or celestial spheres, then why are there so many suns, moons and stars? Is it possible to circle the earth in exactly one day?"

Although Zhou Wei had just heard about this theory, he immediately grasped the core problem of the multi-sky theory: Why can the sun, moon and many stars revolve around the earth in the same time?

The ancient Greek scholars who first proposed the multi-heaven theory had of course also wondered about this problem, and later proposed the small wheel theory, that is, there is a small wheel that revolves around the epicycle, and the movement of the planets is affected by the small wheel. However,

This makes the astronomical system too complex. Some planets have as many as 80 auxiliary wheels, making calculations impossible. In the end, Copernicus came up with the only correct answer: the earth rotates in one day.

, it is not the sun, moon and stars that are revolving around the earth.

However, Yunxi looked at Sichengtang. He wanted to know if China had any idea that could reasonably explain it at this time.

But as expected, Sichengtang thought for a long time and said to Yunxi: "Your Majesty, I have never heard of any explanation for this problem." Although Sichengtang is not under pressure when working in Qintian Prison, he is still relatively

As a conscientious person, he had read all the books on astronomical and star theory stored in the Qintian Prison, but he did not remember seeing any statement that could explain this problem. If so, he should have had an impression even if he could not remember them all.

Yunxi turned his head, looked at Cao Zheng in front of him, and then looked at the floor, silent. He was thinking about whether to talk about the concept of the earth's rotation.

It is easy to propose a concept or theory, but what Yunxi wants is more than just a theory. A single very correct and world-leading theory does not mean much to him or to Ming Dynasty. What he wants is a scientific method. To put it simply,

It is necessary to be able to use mathematical models to support the proposed theory and corroborate it with actual observed astronomical phenomena. This is not what Yunxi can propose.

The earth's rotation theory is okay. The reason why ancient people denied the earth's rotation was because they could not explain why an arrow shot into the sky directly above would eventually return to the same place on the ground. This view is easy to explain because of inertia. Even if Yunxi cannot be perfect

The answer to the inertia question can at least fool you.

But the theory of rotation has a prerequisite, which is that the earth is a sphere by default. This is something Yunxi cannot explain.

It may not be that no one in ancient China proposed the theory of a round earth. But the people who proposed the theory of a round earth faced a huge problem: why would people living on the opposite side of the planet not fall? Even if there is no one on the other side, the theory of a round earth means that,

Except for a very small number of people, the rest of the people were not directly above the enemy and should have stood crookedly, but in fact everyone would not stand like this when standing, so in the end the theory of a round earth was rejected.

After the ancient Greeks around A.D. 1 proposed the theory of a round earth, they put forward a point of view on why people stand on the ground, which is very common and does not need explanation: gravity or gravitation (not universal gravity), the reason why people can

Standing on the ground is because of gravity, and pointed out that the direction of gravity is not vertically downward, but pointing to the center of the earth. This solves the biggest problem of the round earth theory and makes the round earth theory become a completely unverifiable situation.

The mainstream theory laid the foundation for geocentric theory.

Yunxi knew the theory of gravity, but he didn’t know how the theory of gravity was proposed, let alone the correctness of the theory of gravity. This is a complex mathematical problem, and no one who is not a professional in this would know, so even if he was facing the problem in front of him,

Several people have said that the theory of gravity does not make much sense.

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