Ming Zuo

Chapter 136 Decoy
Long Huamin's reprimand seemed normal to everyone.

He is the person in charge of the church, and managing missionaries is his responsibility.

But Zuo Menggeng keenly felt the difference.

But before he could think carefully, Long Huamin launched an offensive against him again.

"Left, the Lord is omnipotent. Only when you fall into the arms of the Lord can you understand how vast the world you want to explore will be."

Long Huamin used Western knowledge to seduce him, and he felt that Zuo Menggeng would definitely fall into the trap.

But Zuo Menggeng asked back: "Mr. Jingjing, are you from Sicily?"

In the past few days, Xu Ruolin has given him a lot of make-up lessons, so that he has a certain understanding of these missionaries he knows and does not know.

Zuo Menggeng secretly complained about Long Huamin's account.

Essence...

No matter how you listen, there is a feeling of driving.

Speaking of his hometown, Long Huamin showed nostalgia.

"I come from Sicily, which is a very beautiful island. It is located in the middle of the quiet and blue sea, and it is warm like spring all year round, like a paradise."

Zuo Menggeng turned to Tang Ruowang again.

"Mr. Tang, you are from Germany, right?"

Tang Ruowang is also very proud of his hometown.

"It was a place with rigorous thinking, and many great learnings were born there. I was nurtured there and became a qualified missionary."

Zuo Menggeng rang out.

"In this case, you two can tell me why you Sicilians and Germans believe in the gods of the Hebrews?"

Long Huamin, Tang Ruowang...

￣□￣｜｜

Will you chat?
Long Huamin and Tang Ruowang were hit hard and resigned one after another, never mentioning the matter of inviting Zuo Menggeng to join the church again.

Sure enough, Deng Yuhan breathed a sigh of relief seeing the others leaving.

"Left, do you want to see my research results? I have been to many places and seen many interesting things. Unfortunately, there are too few people here who can share with me."

Without Long Huamin and Tang Ruowang on the sidelines, Deng Yuhan never mentioned any religious issues, and every word was related to academic issues.

He led Zuo Menggeng and Xu Ruolin to his residence.

It can be seen that the living conditions of these missionaries who came to China are very difficult.

Deng Yuhan's residence is very simple. The most conspicuous thing is that all kinds of books are piled up on the entire wall.

There are so many books, each of which is preserved intact, which shows how much Deng Yuhan attaches importance to it.

"When I learned that I was going to come here and communicate with this great country, I made a lot of preparations. You see, these things were all brought from Europe."

Zuo Menggeng can't see the content of the books for the time being.But one thing successfully attracted his attention.

"Mr. Deng, this is... is this an astronomical telescope?"

Zuo Menggeng didn't know that Deng Yuhan was the first person to bring an astronomical telescope into China.

Seeing that Zuo Menggeng saw the purpose of the astronomical telescope at a glance, Deng Yuhan was overjoyed.

"This is a gift from my friend Galileo. When I was about to travel far, he gave it to me, hoping that I could get different astronomical data on the other side of the earth and learn from him. .”

Zuo Menggeng was calm on the surface, but he was going crazy with excitement in his heart.

Dude, you are actually Galileo's friend...

Although Zuo Menggeng is a pure novice in astronomy, how could he not know Galileo's name?

At least in the history class, but I had a good understanding of this celebrity.

Wait, what is Galileo doing now?
He was remembering, and Deng Yuhan was talking about his connections.

"Just last year, I wrote to Galileo, hoping that he could teach me how to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to him, and he never replied to my letter."

Xu Ruolin comforted, "It's a long journey from here to Europa. Maybe your friends haven't received your letter yet."

This is a very reasonable explanation, after all, the danger of traveling in this era is too high.

It was not an accident at all that a letter was lost on the way.

But Zuo Menggeng knew that the real situation was not the case.

He recalled the material on Galileo.

There is only one reason why this mighty man did not reply to Deng Yuhan's letter.

He was in trouble, and still in big trouble.

The trouble Galileo encountered was that the church believed that his "heliocentric theory" violated the teachings and began to suppress him.

And Galileo was a scientist, and he did not intend to shrink back from scientific issues.

Ultimately, he will face the Inquisition.

According to Zuo Menggeng's memory, five years later, he will be under house arrest and lose his freedom.He was subsequently blinded, incapacitated, and eventually died of fever and heart disease.

Zuo Menggeng felt that this was an opportunity.

The breakthrough point lies in Deng Yuhan in front of him.

From Deng Yuhan's body, Zuo Menggeng discovered that people's cognition of missionaries in this period seems to be somewhat inaccurate.

It is true that many missionaries followed the will of the church and came to the far east to spread the teachings, and at the same time fed back the situation in the east to the west.

However, a considerable number of missionaries actively and enthusiastically ran to the East, perhaps to escape religious persecution.

Many people in later generations regarded missionaries' dissemination of scientific knowledge in China as an auxiliary means of dissemination of teachings, hoping to draw closer relations with the Chinese.

But if this is the case, then when faced with science being questioned, these missionaries have no reason to fight for it, and even die for it.

Anyway, their purpose is to preach, so why should they be so realistic about scientific issues?
Just like the current calendar dispute.

Zuo Menggeng, the old man surnamed Wei who uttered nonsense in Xu Guangqi's mansion a few days ago, has now figured out his identity.

That old man was called Wei Wenkui.

When he was researching the calendar, he was very opposed to the Western learning proposed by Xu Guangqi.

There is nothing outstanding about Wei Wenkui's research results.However, his discussion of the attitudes towards science in the East and the West has been affecting hundreds of years later.

[The East pays attention to the knower who knows the world, while the West pays attention to the name of the wise man]

To put it simply, it is the science and technology of the East. After a long time, everyone will know it, and it belongs to the open type.

The West, on the other hand, pays great attention to secrecy.

If you want to know, bring money.

And then there are modern intellectual property issues!

Originally, Wei Wenkui was an unknown person, and Xu Guangqigui was a servant, so it was only a matter of one sentence to deal with this kind of person.

But Xu Guangqi is very gracious, and believes that academic disputes should be resolved with academics.

For this kind of debate, Chongzhen supported Xu Guangqi.

It only takes Xu Guangqi a word, and Wei Wenkui may be thrown into a place of eternal doom.

But Xu Guangqi said so.

"The book of Wen Kui, I haven't read it thoroughly, so I dare not say right or wrong."

It means that I haven't finished reading Wei Wenkui's theory, so I dare not draw conclusions lightly, and I don't know whether it is right or wrong.

This is a truth-seeking and pragmatic attitude.

When Chongzhen saw what Xu Guangqi said, it was not easy to take action directly.So it was ordered that Wei Wenkui set up the Eastern Calendar Bureau to compete openly with the Western Calendar Bureau in charge of Xu Guangqi to verify who was right and who was wrong.

If the disputes between east and west at this time were mild, then the calendar disputes during the Kangxi period almost killed Tang Ruowang, and many officials who believed in the church were killed.

Since it is so dangerous, why do the missionaries who should take missionary work as their mission insist on fighting for it?
How science develops in China does not affect their missionary work.

Even if they cater to the minds of the natives, maybe their missions will go more smoothly.

In fact, when any religion comes to an unfamiliar region, it will inevitably carry out a certain degree of localization.

This is also the reason why there are many sects within the religion.

Religion is, after all, a matter of thought.

You can't even communicate with the local people's thoughts, how can you let them accept your teachings?
It is impossible for these missionaries who came to China not to understand this truth.

But on scientific issues, they chose to persist.

Based on this speculation, plus what Zuo Menggeng saw with his own eyes, he realized that perhaps the real purpose of many of these missionaries who pretended to be missionaries might be to avoid religious persecution.

Scientific research is better conducted where religion does not influence.

That being the case, starting from this aspect, he may be able to gain a lot.

Based on this speculation, Zuo Menggeng decided to test it out.

He looked around and found that there were no prying eyes nearby, so he lowered his voice.

"Mr. Deng, has such a sophisticated astronomical telescope helped you find the pure land you desire?"

Deng Yuhan's enthusiastic movements stopped suddenly, and when he looked at him again, it was like seeing a ghost.

"Left, don't hurt me."

Zuo Menggeng's heart was beating wildly, his voice was lower, and at the same time, he showed his heart.

"Mr. Deng, not only will I not harm you, but I can also provide you with a pure land."

(End of this chapter)