Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1259 Epilogue Competition for academic awards is fierce, even the cinchona tree has been discovered

Xie Yan held the princess's hand and was invited to sit in the first row.

Many scholars had already arrived and came over to greet them.

Soon, several more people came.

One of the old men and the other middle-aged man were invited to the first row and sat not far from Xie Yan.

"Who is that middle-aged scholar? I have no impression of him at all," Xie Yan asked the princess in a low voice, "He is wearing a lotus waist badge like me, and he can sit in the first row."

Zhu Tangxi said: "Wen Li, courtesy name Dizhi, was a Ningxia native and graduated from Lanzhou Imperial College. He gave up his official career at the age of 20 to focus on studying history, writing, and archaeology. He was unknown before the age of 30, but then he suddenly published a paper in which he deciphered more than 40 oracle bone inscriptions in one go. He became famous for this and was directly awarded the title of Furong Bachelor."

The study of oracle bone inscriptions began in the middle of Zhu Ming's reign.

At first, there was no active excavation, but after a flood, someone offered a "divine turtle carrying a map" as an auspicious sign.

This piece of tortoise shell did not come from Yinxu, but from Zhengzhou!

People's impression of oracle bone inscriptions is that they are carved in a very large size and are clear and distinct.

But this kind of thing is actually rare.

Most of the oracle bones are carved very small and are difficult to spot at first glance. In addition, they are covered with mud and sand when they are unearthed, so the characters cannot be seen without cleaning.

Especially the oracle bone inscriptions on tortoise shells, even after they are cleaned, the characters are often mistaken for cracks.

"What new achievements has Wen Li made? I didn't see him last year." Xie Yan said.

Zhu Tangxi said: "This person is a professor at the Imperial College in Kaifeng. He travels around with his students all year round. Even if he doesn't go out to do archaeological research, he stays at home and does research. He didn't attend last year's conference. Liu Lang doesn't read archaeological journals, so he didn't know that this person has made recent achievements."

"What results?" Xie Yan asked.

Zhu Tangxi said: "He deciphered almost all the inscriptions that Jiang Ding of the Jin Dynasty could decipher. He also pointed out the mistakes and omissions of his predecessors, including those of Liuyi Jushi (Ouyang Xiu)."

The Jin Jiang Ding was unearthed in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty and was collected in the Kaifeng Imperial Palace. In another time and space, it disappeared during the Jingkang Rebellion, but this time and space was well preserved.

Zhu Tangxi was bored during her pregnancy and confinement period, so she often spent her time reading books, including various academic journals.

Zhu Tangxi said: "While deciphering the inscription on the Jin Jiang Ding, he also combined it with the ancient swords unearthed during the reign of Emperor Taizong and went to the archaeological sites near the two Fanyang cities mentioned in the history books. He speculated that the Fanyang city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was in the Shangcai area. There has been a lot of debate in the historical community in the past two months, with scholars supporting and opposing him accounting for almost half and half."

During the reign of Zhu Ming, Crown Prince Zhu Yang was ordered to build the city of Luoyang.

While digging the sewers for the new urban area, a bunch of Zhou Dynasty tombs were unearthed - the tomb area of ​​the Eastern Zhou Dynasty royal city was dug up.

There are the tombs of nine Zhou emperors and a large number of Eastern Zhou nobles!
Unfortunately, most of the tombs have been looted. We can only judge from the size of the tomb that it belongs to the Zhou emperor, but we cannot determine the specific owner of the tomb.

In a looted mausoleum, Ming Dynasty archaeologists found a bronze sword with the inscription "緐x之金".

The "x" here is the character "木" (wood) under the character "汤" (soup).

The words "緐汤" also appear in the inscription on the Jin Dynasty Jiang Ding.

At that time, a Ming Dynasty epigrapher suggested that the inscriptions on the two unearthed cultural relics should both be the Zhou Dynasty version of "Fan Yang".

Later, when oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed, scholars used these two cultural relics to decipher the oracle bone inscription of the word "yang".

This middle-aged scholar named Wen Li became interested in "Fanyang". He took his students to Neihuang and Shangcai and dug for seven years based on historical records, specializing in excavating ancient tombs that had been dug by robbers.

Finally, a large sand tomb was discovered in Shangcai last year.

There are more than ten holes in the tomb, and dozens of corpses of tomb robbers are found inside. Judging from the remaining clothing of these tomb robbers, some are from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and some are from the Five Dynasties.

Most of the cultural relics in the tomb had been stolen, but more than 60 pieces remained, including four bronze artifacts.

Based on the inscriptions on the bronze ware, it can be concluded that it is the tomb of a Marquis of Cai.

But I don’t know who it is exactly.

Moreover, according to inscriptions, Shangcai had a large market at that time and was engaged in north-south trade.

Combined with the inscriptions on the cultural relics discovered before, Wen Li concluded that Fanyang in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was near Shangcai, which is consistent with Du Yu's annotations to Zuo Zhuan.

Wen Li speculated that

The "Fanyang Gold" bronze sword unearthed in Luoyang was made of copper materials from the Chu State that were transported to Shangcai, and then bought by the royal family of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and cast into a sword in Luoyang.

Jin Jiang Ding was the wife of Duke Wen of Jin. She transported salt from Shanxi to Shangcai to exchange for copper, and then transported the copper back to Shanxi to be cast into a tripod.

This discovery revealed an important trade route during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the trade exchanges between countries in the north and south at that time.

……

Xie Yan glanced at Wen Li and found that he was not getting along with the elderly scholar next to him.

The two men sat together without communicating with each other.

Probably another academic dispute.

The old man was chatting with others, but Wen Li sat there quietly, looking very unsociable. Moreover, Wen Li was a bit ugly, with a big mole on his face. Years of archaeological research outside made his skin rough and dark. If he put on cloth clothes, he would probably be mistaken for an old farmer.

Suddenly, a few more people came in, and many scholars stood up and bowed to them.

Xie Yan also stood up, because these people were all famous doctors!
Song Zhengfang, who played the konghou at the opening performance last year, kept bowing and returning the greetings and finally came to sit next to Xie Yan, the dean of Lingnan Medical College, who is particularly good at preventing and treating various infectious diseases.

Xie Yan took the initiative to strike up a conversation: "I have long heard of Mr. Song's name. I wanted to ask him for advice in person last year, but unfortunately he left Beijing soon."

Song Zhifang smiled and said, "I have long heard of Mr. Xie's great name."

A scholar in the back row said, "I heard that Mr. Song has found a new drug to treat malaria?"

Song Zhifang said: "It's all thanks to the exploration team that came back from America. Every time they come back, they bring back a bunch of medicinal herbs that are commonly used by Native Americans. Last year, they brought back more than 20 boxes, one of which was a medicinal herb that was used by Native Americans to treat fever."

"Can that kind of fever medicine cure malaria?" Xie Yan asked.

Song Zhifang said: "It is a kind of tree bark. Native Americans use it to boil juice and drink it to treat fever and other symptoms. Last year, a patient was sent to the hospital too late, and the Jiemala powder was useless. He had a severe fever, and the commonly used antipyretic decoctions were ineffective. I remembered that the bark of the American tree could reduce fever, so I tried it as a last resort, and it actually worked."

The scholar in the back row asked: "Can it just reduce fever, or can it specifically treat malaria?"

Song Zhifang said: "It is specially used to treat malaria. I went to Southeast Asia to conduct experiments in places with the most malaria patients. This bark is quite interesting. It is not very effective in the early and middle stages of malaria. Even if you take it, the symptoms will always recur. But in the late stage of the disease, it is very effective and the effect is particularly fast."

Zhu Tangxi asked, "What is this kind of bark called?"

Song Zhifang said: "The sea exploration team marked the stickers with 'Ke Yina'. They often write names randomly according to the pronunciation of the natives. I renamed it 'Ke Malaria Tree'. The Ke Malaria tree bark has been used up. Let the sea exploration team bring more back next year. It would be best if they could bring back saplings or seeds and plant them in Daming."

The Cinchona tree has been discovered!

When Xie Yan heard the word "malaria", he basically guessed that it was cinchona.

This is a frequent guest in historical time-travel novels. As the Ming Dynasty continues to expand outward, this item will surely be able to show its power.

There are so many scientific achievements, and the competition for the awards this year is so fierce.

Song Zhifang said: "I heard that the exploration team has discovered coal mines in America. As long as the coal station is built, the trip will be much faster in the future. There are many good things in America. Many medicinal herbs with excellent curative effects have been brought back. There is also a kind of analgesic, which is very useful for surgery."

Steam locomotives have existed since the Ming Dynasty.

At first they were all inland river steamships, and later there were also offshore steamships.

However, due to insufficient steam pressure, steam engines could only be used as auxiliary engines, and sailing was mainly dependent on sails. At the same time, coal had to be added frequently. Before the coal station system was improved, most civilian merchant ships did not use steam engines at all.

In another time and space, it took a full eighty years from the invention of the steamship by Fulton to the appearance of the triple-boom steamship.

The Ming Dynasty will probably be here soon too.

Decades ago, most of the navies that defected to Northwest Africa were pure sailing warships, with only one ship equipped with a steam engine, which was used only in combat.

Now, there are more than 20 coal stations of various sizes along the route from the coast of China to the east coast of India. Even some merchant ships use a combination of sail and steam.

Now that coal mines have been discovered in America, coal stations will certainly need to be built.

As a few people were chatting, the old president was escorted in and all the scholars stood up to greet him.

The old president's health condition is obviously much worse than last year.

Last year he could still walk on his own with a cane, but this year he had to be supported the whole time.

Xie Yan and the princess also hurried over and invited the old president to sit in the middle seat of the first row - the middle seat was reserved for Empress Dowager Ye and the little emperor.

"What is Chaozong studying recently?" the old president asked as he sat down.

Xie Yan said: "Research on naming the child."

"Hahahaha!"

The old president laughed when he heard this: "You should study hard. But don't give up your academic studies. I heard that you and Yang Linzhi invented a piano. Music can cultivate one's sentiments, but as a chemist, you should focus on chemistry. No, you are not just a chemist. In addition to improving cement, you also invented a ball mill."

"They are just minor fights." Xie Yan said modestly.

The old chairman shook his head and said, "Ball mills are very useful. I heard that many mines and factories are placing orders with machine manufacturers. Especially in the steel, ceramics, glass, cement and other industries, all of them need your ball mills. Jingdezhen is going crazy. I heard that they sent special people to guard the machine factory day and night, insisting that ball mills be made for them first."

Xie Yan joked, "The Ministry of Industry is good at business. They bought my ball mill patent for more than 100,000 strings of cash. They will probably get their money back in a year or two, and then it will be all profit."

The old president laughed and said, "More than 100,000 guan in patent fees is the first time since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Don't be ungrateful."

The scholars around were all amazed. More than 100,000 strings of cash was beyond their imagination.

No one can sell patents for so much!
It seems that Prince Consort Xie doesn't need to rely on others for money anymore, as he is very rich.

"The emperor has arrived!"

"The Queen Mother is here!"

(End of this chapter)