Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1247 Epilogue : Finally it became a modern piano

It's early spring and the cold has not yet gone away.

Zi Feng felt a chill on her waist and back, as if the quilt was not covered properly and cold air was blowing in.

She subconsciously pulled at the quilt several times, but failed to move it. So she drowsily squeezed towards a warmer place, half of her body lying on Xie Laoliu.

Suddenly there was a noise outside the house. Due to the habit developed as a maid over the years, Zifeng woke up with her eyes suddenly open.

Qingluan just happened to wake up.

The two looked at each other across the prince consort's chest, each recalling the absurdity of last night.

Qingluan was much more generous, sticking out her tongue and smiling playfully.

Zifeng was so embarrassed that she quickly turned over to avoid it, but she found that there was no quilt next to her - in her dream last night, Qingluan pressed down the other side of the quilt and rolled Zifeng's quilt over.

No wonder she felt cold just now. Zifeng immediately sat up and put on her clothes.

"Boom boom boom!"

"My dear, it's time to wash up."

There was a maid knocking on the door outside. It was they who made the noise before.

Xie Yan yawned and opened his eyes. He wanted to sit up and put on his clothes, but he suddenly felt his arms aching. It turned out that he had slept on Qingluan Zifeng's pillow for half the night.

Who made him hug left and right before falling asleep?

"What's wrong with Liulang?" Qingluan asked while she was getting dressed.

Xie Yan looked a little uncomfortable: "Maybe the blood circulation in my arms is not smooth. I need to relax for a while."

Qingluan and Zifeng understood immediately and glared at each other, blaming each other for crushing their husbands.

They quickly put on their clothes, then lay on both sides to massage Xie Laoliu to activate his blood circulation. After massaging for a while, they helped Xie Laoliu sit up and helped him get dressed.

Xie Yan's arm had recovered a long time ago, and at this moment he closed his eyes and enjoyed the tenderness, experiencing the decadent yet comfortable life.

Finally, Qingluan went to open the door.

The maids outside the house came in one after another, and when they saw Zifeng was also here, they all showed surprised expressions.

Zi Feng was so embarrassed that she forced herself to remain calm and said, "I got up early today and came here to serve you."

The maids did not expose her, but just tried to hold back their laughter.

After washing up, Xie Yan ran to greet the princess, but the princess was still sleeping in, so he lay down next to her to catch up.

After a while, Zhu Tangxi woke up and asked: "Why is Liu Lang here?"

Xie Yan smiled and said, "I miss my sister."

"I'm glad that you still remember me." Zhu Tangxi was in a good mood and called the maid from outside to serve her.

After breakfast, the couple came to the front house and called two male servants to tell them to do something: one went to invite a carpenter to come home, and the other went to buy steel wires of various thicknesses.

In the afternoon, the carpenter started working, but the steel wire had not been purchased yet.

Iron wire is easy to buy, but steel wire is not common because there is no demand for it among the public.

There is no choice but to order.

And we have to place orders with military factories.

"What do you want the steel wire for?" Empress Dowager Ye asked curiously.

Xie Yan said: "Do an experiment."

Zhu Tangxi said: "You can only buy iron wire on the market."

Queen Mother Ye was too lazy to ask more questions. Anyway, it was not contraband. The reason why he came to her was just to contact the military factory. It was quite troublesome to follow the normal procedures.

After calling an official from the Tongzhengyuan, Empress Dowager Ye asked Xie Yan to state his specific needs and directly issued an imperial decree ordering the Luoyang Military Factory to produce it.

"Uncle-in-law, do you have any more of that candy? I've finished mine." The little emperor ran over after finishing his homework.

Xie Yan smiled and said, "We have to wait until the fleet returns from America."

The little emperor was a little disappointed, but still pulled Xie Yan to play Cuju.

Empress Dowager Ye watched them leave and said to Zhu Tangxi with a smile, "The emperor is thirteen years old this year. I have selected three child prodigies to be his study companions. They will be brought to the palace in a few days and a courtyard will be specially arranged for them to live in."

"It would be nice to have a few playmates," Zhu Tangxi asked, "When are you getting married?"

Queen Mother Ye sighed, "About fifteen years old."

The crown prince of the Ming Dynasty usually got married at the age of sixteen.

In ancient China, the prince usually got married at the age of 13 to 17.

But the little emperor is not the prince.

He is the emperor.

This was the first underage emperor since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

From the empress dowager to the ministers, everyone was afraid of accidents, such as the sudden death of the little emperor.

For the ministers, although they could choose another royal family member to ascend the throne, there were too many variables involved. Therefore, everyone hoped that the little emperor would get married and have children as soon as possible.

As the little emperor turned thirteen, some officials had already requested to consider his marriage.

The ministers meant that the selection should be this year and the marriage should be next year.

In the Ming Dynasty of this time and space, the empress's family background was between the Song and Ming dynasties: offerings were forbidden. Those with low cultural level were not accepted. Those with close relatives of the third rank or marquis or above were not accepted.

The ban on tribute was a lesson learned from the Song Dynasty.

The custom of offering maids to the emperor in the Song Dynasty began when Liu E came to power. After Song Renzong took power, he dismissed the practice for a time, but soon carried it forward. From that time on, royal family members, nobles, officials, and generals of the Song Dynasty would offer women to the palace from time to time.

Even ordinary people, if their daughters were pretty, would be sent to the outside of Donghua Gate in a horse-drawn carriage.

When they were first sent in, most of them became palace maids, but a few were directly made concubines.

Everyone hoped that the woman they presented to the emperor would one day become a queen or a concubine.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song alone, there are a large number of records of tributes.

For example, Prime Minister Zhang Shixun, in order to consolidate his power, presented beautiful women to Emperor Renzong of Song, but was impeached by the censor Yang Kai.

There was also a member of the royal family, Zhao Congyan, who presented beautiful women to Emperor Renzong of Song.

The maternal relative Wu divorced her husband, but took her husband's niece away and sent her to the palace to present to Song Renzong.

There was also a commoner who presented his twin daughters to Emperor Renzong of Song.

In order to consolidate her favor, Empress Zhang Wencheng (who was posthumously honored) asked her grandmother (Qian of Wuyue) to send her two younger sisters to the palace. The three sisters served Song Renzong together and really made the emperor dizzy.

This is an ancestral skill of the Zhang family. The two aunts of Empress Zhang were sisters who served Emperor Zhenzong of Song together.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty now prohibits the offering of palace maids, and everything is done according to the selection process. It was really because the offering of palace maids in the Song Dynasty caused a lot of trouble.

There were even private palace maids in the Song Dynasty palace!
That is, the concubines in the harem secretly paid for women to enter the palace through private brokers. In order to circumvent the employment period, they were directly adopted as daughters.

These private palace maids only obey their adoptive mothers. They don't even have a formal organization and don't need to be supported by the royal family.

After an official was convicted, his daughter was sold to the palace by a broker, and after he was reinstated, he asked to redeem her. This kind of thing was clearly recorded at least twice in the Song Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty had requirements for the cultural level of the empress, which was also based on lessons learned from past dynasties.

Take the present as an example. If Empress Dowager Ye was illiterate, wouldn’t she be completely manipulated by her ministers?
……

The various custom-made steel wires were delivered only after the Imperial College opened.

Xie Yan got off work early and went home to assemble one of the buttons and its linkage components.

All you need is one piece of steel wire. Nail nails on both ends of the wood and wrap the steel wire around the nails to make it straight.

"Boom!"

The button is pressed and the wire is plucked.

Xie Yan took note: "The keys are too hard to touch. Leather or velvet must be added as pads."

Zhu Tangxi also pressed a few times and said, "The strings of the zither keep shaking. I need some way to control it."

"It seems that we need to add another device at the front end of the linkage lever." Xie Yan said.

What device to add?
Damper!
This is a damper that quickly stops the strings from vibrating.

Xie Yan pressed the button again and again, observing the linkage lever and said, "You can use the gravity of the front end of the lever instead of the spring to reset it."

Zhu Tangxi listened carefully at the side: "No matter who plays the piano like Liulang, it will sound the same, the only difference is the speed of playing. In the future, there will be no famous piano players or masters, everyone will become a piano playing craftsman."

"No, this is definitely not right." Xie Yan thought quietly.

He didn't know that he designed a harpsichord and always thought it was a modern piano.

Zhu Tangxi suddenly thought of something: "If it is changed to a hammered string instrument, wouldn't it be an enlarged sangqin? It just has many more keys."

The Santur, which originated from the Mesopotamian region, was introduced to the Ming Dynasty decades ago as part of the East-West exchange and was simply called "Sangqin".

If it continues to develop and evolve in China, it will eventually become the dulcimer.

Similarly, the Santur was introduced to Europe, and began to use steel strings. It continued to evolve and developed into the harpsichord and eventually into the modern piano.

The piano and the dulcimer have the same ancestor!
"Change plucking to striking the strings..." Xie Yan thought carefully for a moment, "It's not impossible. And the strength of striking the strings can be controlled by pressing the keys, so that the sound of the piano can be more varied. Then, different people can play the same song in different personal styles."

Xie Yan is really not doing his job properly.

When he went to school the next day, he even brought a bunch of wooden strips, nails, and a carpenter's saw and hand drill.

"What experiment is Mr. Xie going to do?" Assistant Teacher Zhang Chong asked curiously.

Xie Yan smiled and said, "It's an experiment, but it has nothing to do with chemistry. If the class is about to start, please let me know ten minutes in advance."

The new edition of chemistry textbooks has been distributed to students.

Moreover, all students across the country use the same chemistry textbooks, so there is no difference between Tai students and other students.

The upgraded chemistry textbook exclusively for Imperial College has not even started to be written, and even chemists are still working on experiments for many of the contents!

Zhang Chong sat nearby and watched.

I saw Prince Consort Xie picking up a saw from time to time to adjust the length of the small wooden strips. He also used a hand drill to drill holes in the small wooden strips, inserted nails into the holes, and then assembled them and pressed them together.

Zhang Chong suddenly understood: the prince consort and the princess's child was about to be born, and they were making toys for the baby.

Yes, it must be a baby's toy.

Xie Yan worked on this thing both during get off work and after work, and it took him five days to finally complete it.

What follows is more, and more professional.

The first is the selection and arrangement of the wire.

Next is the piano's speakers and soundboard, which type of wood to choose and what kind of spatial structure to make.

Xie Yan couldn't do it himself, and even the princess felt reluctant, so he had to ask a musician to help.

The musician and mathematician who calculated the twelve-tone equal temperament was naturally the first choice to help make the piano - he was the one who gave Mr. Xie some advice on how to correct the "Duliu Pu".

(End of this chapter)