"Your Majesty, this thing is used for timekeeping. The Governor Wang named it 'watch'." Camilo explained.
Zhu Houzhao held the big pocket watch and said confusedly: "How to time it?"
Camilo pointed to the dial symbols and said: "These are Latin numerals. Now they point to eleven, not twelve. When converted to Ming Dynasty time, it is the beginning of the afternoon."
Since the Northern Song Dynasty, China has had twelve hours and twenty-four hours.
For example, noon hour, that is, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., is counted as one hour (also called the big hour). 11 a.m. is called the beginning of noon, and it is counted as one hour until 12 o'clock. 12 o'clock is called noon (also called noon, noon),
It’s another hour until 1pm.
The twenty-four-hour counting method is exactly the same as that of later generations.
Zhu Houzhao carefully observed the scale and thought: "Why is it sixty quarters?"
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "If this thing was used in the Ming Dynasty, either the dial scale should be changed, or the Ming Dynasty engraved engraved should be changed. I suggest that the Ming engraved engraved should be modified and the Taixi scale should be used."
"Why not change the Thai-Western scale?" Zhu Houzhao was a little unhappy.
Wang Yuan explained: "Because the Ming Dynasty's lugs are incompatible with the twelve hours and the twenty-four hours themselves. The Ming Dynasty's lugs, one day is one hundred quarters, and it cannot be divided into twelve hours, nor can it be divided into twenty-four hours. If it is modified
, can be changed to ninety-six quarters, which exactly divides an hour into four equal parts.”
Zhu Houzhao was a smart man. He immediately understood the convenience of modifying the oval and was not bound by old ideas. He smiled and said: "Then change it to ninety-six!"
Historically, China's reform of the engraved system began in the late Ming Dynasty.
It was also because of the introduction of Western clocks and clocks that Ming Dynasty found that its own scales were difficult to use, so they made compatibility modifications.
So China believes in pragmatism. The hundred-carving system, which has been used since the Western Zhou Dynasty, follows the traditional timekeeping method for two thousand years. If there is a problem, it will be changed as long as it does not affect the collective interests, no matter what the hell the ancestral system is!
However, due to the large size of China and the low administrative efficiency of the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to promote the reform of the cleavage system nationwide. Moreover, the opinions of the astronomical officials were not unified, and they changed back and forth along the way. Three systems were changed: 96, 108 and 120.
It was not until the early years of the Qing Dynasty that it was officially determined as 96 quarters, with one quarter being 15 minutes. This was the most convenient method.
Zhu Houzhao played with his pocket watch and asked, "If there is an error in timing, how can I adjust it?"
Camilo said: "Your Majesty, please open the dial."
This pocket watch is very primitive. The winding knob is on the back, and it can only be wound but cannot adjust the hour hand. You need to open the crystal dial and fiddle with the hour hand with your fingers to correct timing errors.
Zhu Houzhao studied it for a while, then shook his head and said: "It's too rough, not as precise as oval timing."
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "Your Majesty, why don't you ask someone to improve it and add one or two hands. In this way, not only can it time the time, but it can also record the time, and it can even be more detailed!"
"This is reasonable," Zhu Houzhao said. "If we can improve this thing, we don't need to guard the standard watch or the clepsydra. We can time it and watch it anytime and anywhere."
"Point" is also the unit of timekeeping in ancient China. One "point" is 24 minutes and is specially used for nighttime timing. For example, "two o'clock at three o'clock" means 11:48 pm, which can easily confuse modern people.
The reason for this complexity is that the sundial can only calculate the time during the day, and the clepsydra must be replaced at night. The two sets of timekeeping systems, plus the twelve hours, make three sets. If they are incompatible with each other, the mentality of the time traveler will explode.
A small clock can unify these three timing methods!
Except for a very few defenders, none of the civil and military officials in the DPRK or China would oppose the reform. Anyway, it does not affect their interests. If the emperor insists on modifying the timekeeping system, he will block it only if he is crazy - well, the Ministry of Rites will probably jump out,
But Wang Yuan was the left minister of the Ministry of Rites.
Wang Yuan suggested: "Your Majesty, this thing should be sent to the capital immediately, and the Qintian Supervisor and the Ministry of Works should be ordered to improve it together. Under the hour hand, a minute hand can be set, and then a second hand can be set. A day is still 12 hours, 24 hours, and 1 hour
One minute is 60 minutes, one minute is 60 seconds. One day is changed to 96 quarters, and one quarter is 15 minutes."
Zhu Houzhao asked: "'fen' is easy to understand. We also use 'fen' to calculate silver, and ten cents are one penny. But where does 'second' come from?"
Wang Yuan replied: "Seconds are also grain awns. Crops grow at the spring equinox, and the sundial view during the summer solstice can be measured. Crops have seconds, and seconds are fixed at the autumnal equinox. The seconds of a grain originally have a subtle meaning, and are related to the time of the four seasons, so naturally it can be
Use it to measure time. Your Majesty, you know that the second is used for measurement. Divide an inch into ten thousand parts, and each part is one second. When counting grain, ten handfuls are also one second."
"I have never heard of these claims," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile. "As Erlang said, I will immediately ask the Qintian Supervisor and the Ministry of Works to improve this thing."
Wang Yuan was really unsure whether the Ministry of Industry could successfully improve clocks. However, Wang Yuan had a student who was now the director of the Ministry of Industry and could let him take charge of this task.
Zhu Houzhao said to Camilo again: "Since you are a member of Folangji, from now on you will serve as my charioteer and teach me how to speak the words of Folangji."
"Yes!" Camilo was overjoyed.
Camilo did not seek any glory or wealth, but only wanted to turn the Chinese emperor into a Catholic. Once the emperor converted, maybe Catholicism would become the state religion of the Ming Dynasty, allowing hundreds of millions of people in the East to bask in the glory of God.
It was a beautiful thought. If he really did that, Wang Yuan would be the first to chop him to death.
In order to become the Zhengde Emperor, Zhu Houzhao was eager to understand the Western world, so he started learning from Camilo on the spot.
Camilo was quite authentic. He did not use Portuguese to fool him, but directly taught the emperor to learn Latin. This thing is common in Europe and is an "elegant" language. As for English, it is still a barbarian language.
While the emperor was learning foreign languages, Zhang Yong quietly approached Wang Yuan and said, "Shilang Wang, I have dozens of memorials here."
"Why are there dozens of memorials?" Wang Yuan asked.
Zhang Yong said in a low voice: "They are all related to the master Yangming Gong."
Since the emperor was not in the capital, and Xu Tai was asked to investigate the remaining members of Prince Ning's party, the case of Prince Ning's rebellion has not yet been concluded. Even Prince Ning himself is imprisoned in the Nanjing Prison, and the Central Court of Justice is still waiting for the case to be heard.
Various officials who contributed to the quelling of the rebellion have already sent out petitions for merit, but without the emperor's permission, the rewards could not be determined - the imperial concubine supervises the country on behalf of the prince, and regulations are not allowed to handle such important matters, and the emperor must make the decision himself.
Therefore, Wang Yangming still stayed in Jiangxi. In the name of suppressing Ning Wang's remnant party and preventing bandits from recurring, he re-demarcated the boundaries of Jiangxi's states and counties. While demarcating the boundaries, he also cleared the land and found numerous ownership issues.
of acres.
Now everyone realizes that Wang Yangming just wants to be in Qingtian, Jiangxi!
The local resistance was huge, and the central resistance was equally terrible. Jiangxi patrolled the censor and issued a memorial to impeach him. All officials in the court also impeached him frantically, saying that Wang Yangming was arrogant and had made Jiangxi people miserable.
As a result, the ministers in the DPRK were divided into three factions.
One faction had no land in Jiangxi and did not want to offend Wang Yuan, so the matter was not of their own concern and they ignored it.
One faction owns land in Jiangxi. If they want to get their property back, no matter what, they will have to put Wang Yangming in jail.
One group simply did not want to cause trouble, headed by Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu. They went to Emperor Shu and suggested that Wang Yangming be judged for his merits as soon as possible. They just wanted to transfer Wang Yangming away from Jiangxi.
These memorials were sent one after another at the end of last year, and now they are all in Zhang Yong's hands.
Zhang Yong withheld it without releasing it, and even the emperor didn't know about it. Instead, he showed it to Wang Yuan first.
After understanding the content of the memorial, Wang Yuan looked like an upright bureaucrat: "Mr. Zhang, this is a memorial before the imperial throne. I am not qualified to review it. Please leave it all to His Majesty for judgment."
"Understood." Zhang Yong smiled.
The two had worked together to defeat Xu Tai and Wei Bin before, and their relationship was already very harmonious. Zhang Yong used to befriend Yang Tinghe, and now he wants to befriend Wang Yuan. Anyway, he has friends on both sides. No matter who is in charge of the court, he, Zhang Yong, can stand firm.