Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1217 Epilogue Chemical Standards and the Two Horses of Cangzhou
Night, study.

Xie Yan is reading the latest chemistry journal.

Daiyu and Baochai, who had officially moved in, sat obediently nearby practicing calligraphy, and were ready to take Xie Yan's orders at any time.

Zhu Tangxi brought Qingluan and brought lotus seed soup. Daiyu and Baochai hurriedly put down their pens and greeted them.

"Is there anything good in this issue?" Zhu Tangxi asked.

Xie Yan said: "Two consecutive issues of the Chemistry Journal have published many results. In this issue, there is an article that compares the known relative atomic masses with the periodic table of elements left by Taizu to try to find some new rules."

"Is it feasible?" Zhu Tangxi asked.

Xie Yan shook his head: "This method is too tricky, I'm afraid it won't work."

The periodic table left by Zhu Guoxiang did not mark any information related to electrons, nor did it mark the relative atomic mass. It just arranged the various elements.

At present, the chemists of the Ming Dynasty set the relative mass of the hydrogen atom to 1. They also calculated the relative masses of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other atoms through experiments.

The three elements helium, lithium and beryllium have not yet been discovered by chemists.

Boron was discovered a long time ago, and elemental boron was obtained by electrolytic oxidation of boron. Because this thing is related to borax, it was naturally identified as boron when compared with the Taizu element table.

Now, some people have discovered what they believe to be correct wrong laws based on the measured relative atomic masses.

They have not even found the specific elements, but they claimed that in Taizu's periodic table, except for hydrogen, the relative mass of the atoms of the other adjacent elements differ by 2.

Therefore, they speculated that the relative atomic masses of the first few elements that had not yet been discovered were: helium 2, lithium 4, and beryllium 6.

Because of the accuracy of the experiment, they measured the relative mass of boron atoms with errors, so they concluded that: boron 10, carbon 12, nitrogen 14, oxygen 16.

There is still a missing element with a relative atomic mass of 8, so the authors of the paper concluded that when Taizu wrote the periodic table, he missed an element between beryllium and boron.

This paper caused great controversy, firstly because it questioned what Taizu had missed, and secondly because the entire paper was purely conjecture by the author.

But there are also many chemists who support this paper because this speculation is so mathematically beautiful.

Even for sodium, silicon, and phosphorus, whose relative atomic masses have been measured, this speculation is barely valid. The reason why I say "barely" is that the data are approximate, not completely identical.

This unequal approximation is considered to be an error caused by insufficient experimental and balance precision.

While drinking lotus seed soup, Xie Yan finished reading a chemistry journal, and then started writing his paper: "Several Chemical Definitions, Conjectures and Chemical Formula Expressions."

Zhu Tangxi sat beside him and watched, only to see Xie Yan write:

Definition 1: Atoms are fundamental particles that cannot be divided in chemical reactions.

Definition 2: A molecule is the smallest particle that retains the chemical properties of a substance.

Definition 3: Chemical conservation is not only the previously proposed mass of a substance remaining constant. Its essence is that atoms are recombined through chemical reactions, and the number of atoms that make up the substance remains unchanged before and after the reaction.

Particle hypothesis: Atoms are not the smallest particles that make up matter, and they can be further divided by non-chemical means. The periodic table of elements left by Taizu may be arranged by the number of smaller particles.

Molecular formula: Balabala.

Chemical equation: blah blah.

Chemical reaction type: blah blah.

After finishing the outline, Xie Yan began to write the details.

He did not conduct experiments himself, but instead cited these two issues of chemical journals and supplements, and summarized the experimental results of others.

Xie Yan is setting industry standards...ah, setting academic standards for the chemistry community.

Before this, even molecules and atoms were not understood, so there were naturally no molecular formulas or chemical equations. Chemists could only use words, arrows, and plus signs to express chemical reactions.

Combination reactions and decomposition reactions have been defined by Ming chemists. The rest are called complex reactions, which Xie Yan further subdivided into replacement reactions and double decomposition reactions.

At the end of the paper, Xie Yan advocated not to rush to find new elements, but to understand the molecular formulas of various compounds of known elements. This is a research direction that can produce results faster than finding new elements.

The paper was not long, and Zhu Tangxi finished reading it quickly. He smiled and said, "I can easily understand the way Liu Lang writes papers. It is profound and easy to understand, much better than those scholars' profound papers with twists and turns. After reading this paper, I feel like I have become a chemist."

Xie Yan said: "They are like blind men groping in the dark, exploring bit by bit. I am taking advantage of this, summarizing their achievements and helping them point out the direction of exploration."

Zhu Tangxi said with emotion: "This requires sufficient wisdom. Could it be that Liu Lang is a gifted talent?"

Xie Yan packed up his papers and turned from a chemist into a little puppy. He asked with a serious smile, "The genius can't sleep alone. Sister, are you willing to sleep with the genius?"

"Genius young man, please~~~come~~~~" Zhu Tangxi sang in an operatic voice.

Xie Yan grabbed her around the waist and carried her horizontally, leaving the study amid the princess' laughter.

The two returned to the bedroom.

Zhu Tangxi said while lying on the bed: "I have vacated two rooms in the library and am converting them into laboratories. There is a fireproof design there, so there is no need to worry about accidents. When the laboratory is built, I will be your assistant at home."

"My dear, you can be an assistant in the human creation experiment now." Xie Yan had taken off his coat.

Zhu Tangxi's eyes were as charming as silk: "What new ideas do you have for today's experiment of creating a human being?"

Xie Yan's head slipped under her skirt. Zhu Tangxi was shocked, but soon she felt both shy and happy about the experiment.

Daiyu and Baochai were still tidying up the study.

Seeing that there was no one else in the room, Baochai muttered, "I haven't been intimate with my husband since I moved in."

"What intimacy? Don't talk nonsense." Daiyu looked outside nervously.

Baochai recalls the time in the Li family courtyard: "My husband held me from behind and taught me how to write. I really liked practicing calligraphy that way, and my husband smelled really good."

"That's you. I have never been hugged by a man." Daiyu was a little jealous.

Baochai continued to sigh.

Daiyu reminded him, "I will work hard to learn to read and write, so that I can be your assistant in the future. If you don't work hard, you will only be cleaning the study all the time."

Baochai said she didn't care: "Then I will keep cleaning the study for my husband. After all, someone has to clean the study. Why don't you leave?" "You go back to sleep. I still have to continue reading and practicing calligraphy." After Daiyu moved into the princess's house, she became even more curly than before.

Baochai sighed: "You should study slowly and see if you can become a female scholar one day."

Not only them moved into the princess's mansion, but also Xie Yan's four male followers' wives and children.

Their families followed Xie Yiqun to Beijing, and now all of them have changed their employment contracts and become servants of the princess.

My friend Wang Sheng will also come to Beijing. He failed the examination for the scholar degree this year and ranked relatively low, so he has almost given up the thought of taking the imperial examination.

This was also the choice of most book boys, because the imperial court allowed servants to take the imperial examinations, and they had always accompanied their masters to study, so they chose to take the examinations once or twice to try their luck.

After failing an exam once or twice, he immediately gave up and became a good servant.

After his elder brother Xie Hong finishes the provincial examination and attends the "wedding banquet" held in his hometown, Wang Sheng will go to Beijing with Xie Hong.

……

Let’s talk about Baoding City.

When the Ming Dynasty was first founded, this place was divided into Baozhou and Dingzhou.

The official name of Baozhou City is "Baosai", the only city named after "Sai" in the entire Northern Song Dynasty border. It is conceivable how high its military status is.

The Ming Dynasty originally established Baoding as the capital of Hebei Province in order to confront the Jin soldiers in Youzhou.

Outside the Gongyuan.

Xie Hong read the first list carefully and soon became even more nervous. He was not on the last list of the provincial examination.

My sixth brother first became a scholar at Furong University and then became a royal consort. It would be really embarrassing if I didn’t pass the imperial examination again.

The competition in Hebei's provincial examinations is not as fierce as that in the south.

But the number of admissions is also small, with only 96 people admitted at a time in the whole Hebei Province. This is the great Hebei Province that includes Linhuang Prefecture!

Soon, the second list was posted.

Xie Hong was stunned for a moment, because his name was written third.

Third place in the second list means eighth place in the overall list.

I won, I won, and I’m ranked eighth in Hebei!

"Where is Mr. Xie?"

"Where is Mr. Xie?"

"Master, Mr. Xie is over there, let's go over and catch him!"

"..."

Ever since the news that Xie Yan was recruited as a royal consort reached Hebei, the brothers Xie Hong and Xie Kan have been targeted.

Especially Xie Hong, who was going to take part in the provincial examination. He was in his twenties and had not yet married. He must have been waiting to talk about marriage after passing the examination.

"Don't push, don't shove, this is our Wang family's nephew!" Baoding Wang had already sent people to protect him.

The Wang family has a legitimate daughter who is fourteen years old. She will be of marriageable age next year, so a marriage contract can be arranged first.

The "Ming Dynasty Code: Etiquette Code" stipulates that women can only get married at the age of fifteen.

Seeing the servants of the Wang family surrounding Xie Hong, the other people who were on the list of candidates for the title of son-in-law sighed.

When cousins ​​get married, they are closer relatives. How can other families compete with them?

One scholar after another came to congratulate Xie Hong on passing the imperial examination.

Those who failed the exam put on a forced smile, while those who passed the exam were very proud. Although they only passed the exam to become a Juren, they took another step towards becoming a Jinshi!

Those who passed the exam this time were all from the same year as the provincial examination, and they invited each other to have fun.

Xie Hong got drunk that night and slept with the singing girl in the singing house. After years of studying for the exam, he finally passed. He drank one glass after another without anyone urging him to drink.

I don’t know how the show ended, and I don’t know who paid for it. I just got drunk, sang loudly, and then fell asleep in a daze.

You can’t go crazy the next day because you have to attend the Lu Ming Banquet on the third day.

When they returned to the Wang family residence, the uncles came to congratulate them and mentioned Xie Hong's marriage.

The Wang family's adult daughter has already been married, so the fourteen-year-old cousin of my fifth uncle is the most suitable candidate.

"Congratulations, cousin!"

The cousin bowed and blushed with embarrassment. She knew what the elders were going to talk about.

Xie Hong had never thought much about it before, but now that he looked at his cousin again, she seemed even prettier. He said to his uncles, "Marriage is a matter of parents' orders and matchmakers' words. I have no objection, but you must inform your parents first."

The uncles and aunts all laughed. As long as Xie Hong agreed, the matter would basically be settled, and Xie Yiqun and his wife would not object.

The next day, at the Lu Ming Banquet, the most popular person was naturally the top scorer in the provincial examination, followed by Xie Hong who ranked eighth.

The Education Commissioner said to the scholars: "We now have a seventeen-year-old scholar named Furong, and his elder brother has passed the imperial examination. This shows that the literary style in Hebei has flourished. The Xie brothers can be called the two steeds of Cangzhou!"

"I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it." Xie Hong said repeatedly.

Regardless of whether he dares to take the title or not, the title of “Two Horses of Cangzhou” has been established.

Even Xie Yan's second brother Xie Kan, who failed the provincial examination this year, still had many matchmakers.

The Xie family plans to choose again, at least until Xie Kan passes the imperial examination.

The Chemical Branch of the Royal Society did not dare to criticize Xie Yan's new paper and directly convened a meeting of all the chemists in Luoyang!
Because the definitions, conjectures, molecular formulas, etc. in Xie Yan's papers are intended to set standards for the chemical community and must be recognized by many chemists.

(End of this chapter)