During the Zhengde period, there were no academies in the capital because they were not needed!
Children went directly to social sciences or private schools, and then to official schools. There was no room for private academies to survive. It was not until more and more scholars began to question Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and non-mainstream schools of teaching became commonplace, that private academies began to appear in Jiajing, Wanzhou, etc.
The capital cities of all dynasties appeared.
The School of Physics is currently the only private academy in Beijing.
Before and after the examination last year, the School of Physics was very lively, with countless scholars coming to observe and visit. But it soon became deserted again. Some students were scared away by the "difficult" knowledge, some students were quickly transferred to other places to serve as officials, and some students gradually lost their freshness.
feel.
Up to now, there are only twelve rotating lecturers and more than sixty regular students left in the School of Physics. There are still dozens of students who come and go sometimes, and they are the kind of people who spend three days fishing and two days drying nets.
In the inner courtyard, seven or eight people gathered around a large pot.
The Zhizhen Taoist priest stood beside the pot, holding up a stick and stirring and stirring. After boiling to a certain level, he filtered it with gauze and waited until it gradually cooled and crystallized. Then he boiled it again and allowed it to crystallize again.
Everyone immediately gathered around and asked, half convinced and half doubtful: "Can this really boil out the saltpeter?"
The Zhizhen Taoist said: "I don't know either, let's have a taste."
The Taoist priest took out a piece of crystal, which was in the shape of a block and white and translucent. He gently broke it and broke it immediately, and the cross section glowed with glass luster. He brought it to his nose and smelled it, and then licked it with his tongue. He was basically sure that it was hair salt.
Eh~~~
Everyone gave them disgusted looks. This thing is extracted from feces. Is it appropriate to lick it directly?
One of them came over, picked up the crystal and observed it carefully, then smelled it, tasted the saltiness, and finally nodded and said, "It must be saltpetre. I own a medicine shop and I am very familiar with this stuff."
Everyone was very excited: "If this is true, wouldn't it be a great achievement!"
"You can present it to the emperor!"
"We can also open a factory. The academy will provide some money, and we will provide some money to make saltpeter and sell it to the pharmacy!"
"Yes, yes, sir, you have said that physics must be studied, and more importantly, used in practice. Wouldn't the new loom developed by the Mechanical Branch be sold to the Tianjin factory to make money?"
"..."
More than a year after Wang Yuan left the capital, the School of Physics had been divided into three factions.
One faction is dominated by Fang Kai and focuses on astronomy, optics and meteorology.
One group, led by Wang Xian, focuses on mechanics, thermal science and machinery.
One faction is dominated by Zhizhen Taoist priests and focuses on chemistry.
Of course, they themselves do not have such a clear definition. For example, the Supreme Taoist priest, this guy used to practice lead and mercury, but now he has directly changed into Western alchemy.
When Wang Yuan left the capital, he said to the Zhizhen Taoist priest: "Nowadays, to prepare saltpetre, you need to scrape the saltpeter soil. Why is the saltpeter soil formed near the latrine? Is it related to excrement? Can nitrate soil be obtained by using excrement?"
Inspired by this, the Zhizhen Taoist mixed human and animal excrement with other substances, piled it up, covered it with tarpaulin and left it for more than half a year.
There were a total of fifteen dung piles, fourteen of which failed, and only the dung pile with lime succeeded.
Use the dung pile that has been fermented with lime for half a year, mix it with plant ash and pour it with water. Take the juice and boil it to get a potassium nitrate solution. One cubic meter of the solution can produce ten kilograms of gross saltpetre.
This is definitely a huge improvement!
To produce gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty, the required saltpeter had to be scraped slowly. The floating soil next to old houses and toilets would produce salt crystals, which were scraped off and refined to make fire saltpeter. There was a special saltpeter camp in Tongzhou that did this.
However, the yield of this method is too low. As the saying goes: "A thousand days of boiling saltwater is not worth a general's shot." Countless people worked hard for two or three years, and the gunpowder produced was gone after one shot.
There are also saltpeter mines, mostly in mountainous areas in the south. For example, there is a large saltpeter cave in Guizhou, which can be mined to make gunpowder. However, it is too far from the capital and long-distance transportation is not easy, so it can only be used in the southwest region.
Hearing the cheers inside, Wang Yan said to his disciples: "Go and see what they have done again."
The disciple quickly inquired back: "Sir, they made saltpeter out of feces!"
Wang Yan felt a little nauseous for a moment. He had been constipated a while ago, and the doctor asked him to take nitrate. Now he always feels like eating shit.
"We also need to speed up the progress!" Wang Yan said.
Last year, Wang Yan was admitted to the Third Rank Jinshi, but unfortunately he was not admitted to the Shujishi. He was directly sent to Huguang as a county magistrate. After careful consideration, Wang Yan chose to resign and stay in the capital to continue his research. How can he study physics as an official?
interesting?
Under Wang Xun's leadership, a large-scale loom was made. It required six people to operate it, and its efficiency was more than three times higher than Wang Yuan's improved loom.
Wang Yan sold the loom to the Tianjin factory, worth 3,000 taels of silver. He received 500 taels for himself, and other R&D personnel received a total of 2,000 taels. The remaining 500 taels were donated directly to the School of Physics - similar machines,
Historically, it was born in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, but unfortunately it was quickly crushed by steam engines.
Now, the School of Physics is very rich, and so are its core students.
For example, the Zhizhen Taoist priests used to mess around, which not only cost the academy funds, but also threw a lot of their own money into it. But now they have a method of making saltpeter from excrement, and they can easily make back the money and open a factory to make wool.
Nitre can be sold to fireworks merchants and medicinal materials merchants.
Only Fang Kai's group is the poorest, because they study astronomy, meteorology and optics.
The basic theory of optics has been spread for a long time, and telescopes are not that valuable anymore. Many private workshops are imitating them. They are engaged in astronomy and have to spend their own money to make or buy telescopes. They are all very poor.
Moreover, Fang Kai is a third-ranked concubine. He is still studying. After graduation, he can only stay in the Hanlin Academy as a minor official, or he can be thrown into other departments and slowly work his way up.
Those who study astronomy are all hard-working people, and they are just as good as setting up a street stall to tell fortunes.
night.
The Zhizhen Taoist priest returned to his dormitory, checked the experimental records again, and then took out the straw paper and began to write a manuscript. The name of the manuscript was: "Nine Emperors Physics Alchemy Sutra".
Perhaps influenced by the School of Physics, the Alchemy Classic written by him is not as cloudy as the traditional one, but written in a way that ordinary readers can understand:
"To practice the great elixir, you must follow the way of heaven. Distinguish the two rituals, gather the three talents, harmonize the four images, and comprehensively integrate the five elements."
"The two instruments are Yin and Yang, Qian and Kun, heaven and earth, and the cauldron! The medicine is in the cauldron and lives within the Qian and Kun. The ridge is the moon, which is lead; the separation is the sun, which is mercury. The upper sun and lower moon combine to form
Yi, the lead and mercury were placed in the cauldron, and the sun and moon moved between heaven and earth..."
"Three talents, water, gunpowder, respond to heaven, earth and people..."
"The four images are white gold, cinnabar, black lead, and mercury! White gold corresponds to the white tiger, cinnabar corresponds to the red bird, black lead corresponds to the black dragon, and mercury corresponds to the blue dragon..."
"When the four images are in harmony, the five elements are integrated. Only when the realgar is introduced into the middle palace can the earth be obtained. All things are born from the earth, and all things are born from the earth. All things lose the earth and die, and they return to the earth..."
"The same goes for refining elixirs, and the same goes for refining things. You need to combine the two rituals, the three talents, the four images, and the five elements before you can achieve it."
"Now I want to refine Glauber's salt, how can I get it? Glauber's salt is cold in nature and is located in Xuanwu..."
The day after Wang Yuan returned to Beijing, he went to inspect the School of Physics.
Zhizhen Taoist priest presented the "Nine Emperors Physics Alchemy Sutra" and bowed his head and said: "Wang Shilang, I have some insights, please correct me."
Wang Yuan was very happy when he heard that his disciples used excrement to make saltpeter. He thought they had opened up the way of chemistry. But when he looked through the Taoist priest's manuscript, he immediately lost his ability to organize language.
Is this the Chinese version of alchemy?
The theory of the Zhizhen Taoist priest is very simple. With the two rituals, three talents, four images, and five elements, you can refine the golden elixir that belongs to Tai Chi and Heaven. Then why can't it be used to refine things?
This guy believes that hair and salt are cold in nature and belong to water in the five elements, corresponding to Xuanwu in the four elements. Therefore, other conditions need to be created. For example, gypsum belongs to earth and plant ash belongs to fire. People should stand in the position of Sunda (wood) and use Bao.
Stir the solution with an iron and wooden stick. The nitrate belongs to water, and feces also belongs to water, so the excrement is the medicine guide. The nitrate is separated from the feces according to the principles of yin and yang and the five elements.
Wang Yuan scratched his head: "Taoist Priest, have you ever tried stirring without standing in the Xun position or with a wooden stick wrapped in iron?"
"No." said the Zhizhen Taoist priest.
"You can try it, what if you can do it?" Wang Yuan suggested.