Wanli Xinming

Chapter 149
The incident of Li Chaodou, the deputy director of the Ministry of Rites and Guest Division, shook the officialdom in the capital.The subsequent continuous reports of the capital newspaper, on the one hand, diluted the taste of Ding Youzhi's argument, and on the other hand, it also attracted the attention of tens of thousands of capital officials.

"Huangming Jingshi Daily" was half a beat slower and did not grab the hot spot.However, as a court minister, the British public is still no problem finding a pen to write some in-depth editorials.

Therefore, before the end of the fourth year of Wanli, "Xinmin Daily" called on the court to raise the salary of Beijing officials; "Huangming Jingshi Daily" published an in-depth article to analyze the deep-seated reasons behind the Beijing official diving incident.

The deputy director of the host and guest department is a sixth-rank official. Normally, it should not be a problem to support a family of five with a salary.However, Li Chaodou had a strange illness in the summer. He sought medical treatment in every possible way but failed to improve. In desperation, he went to Huangming Medical College for treatment, which cost a lot of money.

After the illness was cured and the money was spent, Li Chaodou's old wife became ill from overwork and could not afford it when she fell ill. Later, the old mother in the family fell ill and had to spend money to treat the disease - no choice, Li Chaodou had to pawn first, then borrowed debt, and finally developed into borrowing usury.

Behind the pawnbrokers in the capital are the families of royal relatives and relatives. Although Li Chaodou cured his family's illness, his monthly salary was taken away before he got home, and most of the principal and interest of the usury were paid off. The two children in the family were hungry every day.

After the winter, Li Chaodou's life became more and more difficult, and the cost of charcoal salary was completely blinded because all the ministries stopped the "charcoal respect" in local filial piety.

The so-called "charcoal reverence" refers to the official practice that officials above the prefectural level send people to the capital to give gifts every winter.It has been a practice for more than a hundred years, and when the local filial piety eats meat, it is necessary to leak some soup in the cracks so that the department can distribute the fat from top to bottom.

As a result, the Inspectorate issued a notice that the usual warehouse losses of various ministries, and local Bingjing and Tanjing became the focus of the four-year inspection of Wanli.In the summer, a bunch of "Bing Jing" models were found, and after dealing with some officials - many local officials were so relaxed that they no longer sent "Bing Jing", and those who continued to send them would also change their honor from light to dark.

And the bosses who received filial piety in the dark did not dare to share the spoils in the open - so the fourth year of Wanli was a very hard year for Beijing officials.

Li Chaodou couldn't afford good charcoal, so he could only buy some inferior coal to burn the stove at home for heating.There are too many impurities in the bad coal, and the black smoke is surging, and the smoke is so bad that all the neighbors will scold it.

The old mother recovered from a serious illness and was in a bad mood.For trivial matters, Li Chaodou's mother scolded him heavily, which made Li Chaodou, who was overwhelmed and depressed by life, a little confused.

Until a few years ago, the ministers of the various ministries issued another message. Before the Spring Festival in the fifth year of Wanli, the annual rewards of the ministries that relied on the small treasury were gone. This last blow completely collapsed Li Chaodou, who was unable to celebrate the New Year. After getting the news, he returned from the Ministry of Rites. Jumped into the river on the way home.

The two daily newspapers in the capital used the incident of Li Chaodou jumping into a river to deeply expose the problem of usury in the capital, the treatment of the lower-level Beijing officials, the price of the capital, the fees of the medical school, and the high price of coal in the capital and the high heating cost of the poor.

For the problems exposed by these reports, all the emperor needs is to ask the court or Shuntian Prefecture to make appropriate responses; for the various ministries of the court, it is necessary to implement different policies in terms of court revenue, mining development, medical resources, etc., and make adjustments. solve.

But for those who came to Beijing in advance to participate in the Spring Festival of the fifth year of Wanli, reading the newspapers not only felt eye-opening, but also beat the snare in the face of next year's Spring Festival.

The various questions reflected in this newspaper have never had any answers in the book of sages.Don't say there is no answer, even if you give them a pen now, and ask them to write such a manuscript without investigation and research, they can't write it.

Lifting his heels and thinking, next year's Ding Chouchun's question will definitely not be as simple as the second year of Wanli.In the spring palace examination in the second year of Wanli, the epidemic prevention questions asked by the emperor have made the whole world work hard for the past three years.But after reading the newspaper after entering Beijing, the candidate's heart was half cold. ——There are those who are sober, take the initiative to find newspapers for free help, and also see how the articles in these newspapers are concocted.

In addition to the strangeness of these moves to a country that has begun to change, the shock of their gradually distorted and shattering worldview.A strange man in the Ming clan, after Zhu Yijun's decree, entered Beijing to see him in the first month of the fifth year of Wanli.

Because it was a clan and was divided into Zhu Yijun's "uncles", Zhu Yijun summoned Zhu Zaiyu, the ninth grandson of Taizu and the sixth-generation son of Zheng Fan, in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

As soon as the two met, Zhu Yijun felt a little jealous in his heart - this Zhu Zaiyu is not good-looking, he is a super handsome guy, described in one sentence as "as bright as a jade tree in front of the wind."

After Zhu Zaiyu performed the state ceremony, Zhu Yijun gave him his seat.He smiled and said, "The prince is a scholar of heaven and man, and I have admired it for a long time. When I saw it today, it really looks like a jade or jade."

After listening to Zhu Zaiyu, he said a few words of modesty first, and then Zhu Yijun talked to him a few more homely things and asked King Zheng how he was doing.

Zhu Zaiyu replied: "My father, Wang Meng, the late emperor put things right. After returning home, I just kowtowed and thanked Heaven's grace day and night, and my body is still in good health."

After hearing this, Zhu Yijun said: "The son built an earthen chamber outside the palace gate to avenge his father's grievances. Xi Gao lived alone for 19 years, and his sincerity and filial piety are in the world." Zhu Zaiyu's face was slightly moved when the emperor mentioned this, but he was not excited. color.

Zhu Zaiyu's father, Lao Zheng Wang, was banned by Sejong because he wrote a letter to persuade Sejong not to go astray. He was vindicated and released in the first year of Longqing.

Zhu Zaiyu in front of Zhu Yijun was imprisoned because he believed that his father Zhu Houtan was innocent, and built an earthen room outside the palace gate. Xi Gao lived alone for 19 years, from the age of 15 until he was 34, and everyone praised him.

Zhu Yijun sighed twice and said, "King Zheng's father and son are both role models for the clan. I read the book of proverbs such as "Jujing", "Poor Reasons", "Self-restraint", and "Cuncheng" which were paid tribute by King Zheng during the reign of King Sejong. , to fully describe the words of the standard, but Sejong did not listen, and instead committed the crime to King Zheng—the heart of King Zheng’s boxing, and both Huang Kao and I felt it.”

Hearing this, Zhu Zaiyu replied with a smile: "My father and my minister are both fond of music, but they are not fascinated. However, although my father lives in a high wall in Fengyang, he personally handles the manuscripts and hides all the boxes. After returning to the country, there are more than ten thousand words to show to the minister."

"I have been outside the palace for 19 years. I have studied the melody and calendar calculations, and I don't think it is hard—the emperor doesn't have to think about it. My father and my ministers are all moved by the emperor's efforts to govern these years, and the state's ups and downs. It is for the world. Congratulations to Mingjun."

Zhu Yijun listened, took the conversation and said, "I came here to find the prince this time because of the matter of the prince's intensive research and calculation. I searched in every possible way, but I didn't get a mathematician, but I didn't expect to be in my home."

When Zhu Zaiyu heard the emperor's affirmation of his research, Gujing Wubo's face finally became vivid.Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "The prince may also know that I have set up a laboratory in the inner palace - now many technological bottlenecks are stuck in the calculation, and there are not many experts in the Onmyoji of the Qin Tianjian."

"I accidentally heard that the prince had invented the abacus return and Kaiping method, and the abacus merchant except the simple method of cube, only then did I know that there were great talents in the clan; just as my wedding was imminent, I also wanted to meet the princes of the world, so I ordered to let The prince has arrived in Beijing."

When Zhu Zaiyu heard it, he hurriedly agreed: "This minister does not dare to hide his secrets. The minister does have something to do with arithmetic. Wherever the emperor can use it, even if he orders it." Zhu Yijun was very happy when he saw his promise.

What Zhu Yijun didn't know was that the eloquent Zhu Zaiyu in front of him was not only a phonologist and mathematician, but also a great scientist who shook the world later.

Zhu Zaiyu was recognized by later Chinese and foreign scholars as an "Oriental Renaissance-style sage" and a "law sage". the scientist.

Zhu Zaiyu's most outstanding achievement was to prove that the interval of a well-tempered scale can be taken as the twelfth root of two - this is the famous "Twelve Well-Tempered", which sets the standard for the tuning of all modern musical instruments.

The theory of the twelve equal laws was brought to the West by missionaries and had a profound influence in Europe.The "Twelve Well-Tempered Piano Pieces" created by Bach, the father of Western music, has become a must-have piece for every piano student in China in later generations, and several children know that these twelve well-tempered pianos are "Chinese." Da Vinci" - proved by Zhu Zaiyu?
In later China, Zhu Zaiyu's name has been kept in the study of scholars, and his creation has been shelved, the reason is only his status as Zhu Ming's clan, - Joseph Needham commented on this matter as "this is really incredible. irony."

Zhu Yijun didn't know who Zhu Zaiyu was before crossing, but after Zhu Zaiyu was rehabilitated by his father in the first year of Longqing, his reputation became more and more popular, and Jin Yiwei would of course report his movements.

Zhu Yijun took a look and found that the manuscript of Zhu Zaiyu's article actually had mathematical operations that he couldn't understand at all. After asking someone from Qin Tianjian, he realized that it was the conversion between nine system and decimal system.

Since then, Zhu Yijun has been eyeing Zhu Zaiyu, and whenever there is a new work, he will have Jinyiwei copy it to read.The more I look at it, the more I think this "Uncle Emperor" is powerful.Just taking the opportunity of this big wedding, King Zheng ordered him to send his heir Zhu Zaiyu to the capital with the heirs of all the kings of the world—to attend his wedding.

During this period of time, Zhu Yijun had to choose a person to teach his limited calculus knowledge base - so that the scientists of the Ming Dynasty were the first to open the door to modern science.

(End of this chapter)