The Great Industrial Ming Dynasty Started from Beiping

Chapter 660 The Starting Point of Science

Starting from the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to promote their own doctrines, ancient sages would give speeches in public places to gain people's recognition and attract followers. Young people learned new knowledge, joined the school, and worked hard for the growth of the school. .

The imperial examinations rose in the Tang and Song Dynasties, but the development of knowledge did not lag behind. On the contrary, as more and more groups participated, giving lectures was no longer a rare feat. Even today, the Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty, the highest university in the world, has become a holy place for lectures.

Pursuing the truth and summarizing social experience has always been the dream of ancient Chinese scholars.

"Since the birth of Chinese characters, sages have laid the foundation for scientific research methods. However, the civilization of that era included great sages such as Confucius and Mencius. Their application of scientific methods was spontaneous, not conscious."

"The ancestors even had a vague understanding of what science was and what was not science. It was an era when a hundred flowers were blooming, full of era fog and superstitious irrationality."

"Cao Duan's new learning thought is a milestone in dividing superstition and science, irrationality and rationality. Before him, Mozi led his students to conduct small hole imaging experiments of light, and Zu Chongzhi of the Southern and Northern Dynasties designed and manufactured copper parts With his compass and timer, Shen Kuo conducted in-depth research on the problem of summation of arithmetic series, and advanced to a new stage of summation of high-order arithmetic series, pioneering the study of stacking techniques in our country."

"Many sages have laid the foundation for the development of natural science in our Chinese civilization, provided sufficient nutrients, and played an important role in the qualitative change of civilization. Even today, they have created an epoch-making scientific era for mankind."

"They not only made significant contributions to science itself, but more importantly, established scientific methods. With these scientific methods, human beings can continue to make progress."

"In terms of establishing scientific methods, the first person to mention is Shen Kuo, who laid the foundation for Cao Duan's work. Today we cannot determine whether Shen Kuo was first a mathematician or a philosopher. We studied analytic geometry in middle school. It was summed up and invented by Shen Kuo."

"He used algebraic methods to solve geometry problems, and analytic geometry was also the basis of later advanced mathematics. At the same time, Shen Kuo was also a very influential philosopher in history. If he were to select the fifty most influential people in history, of philosophers, he should be among them.”

"He is also the first scholar in the history of Chinese mathematics to propose the "comprehension of circles" method for calculating arc length. His method not only promoted the development of plane geometry, but was also widely used in astronomical calculations."

"When Guo Shoujing, a scientist who was a survivor of the former Song Dynasty, was conducting astronomical research, he often solved research problems through the method of "Hui Yuan Shu"."

"In terms of physics, Shen Kuo conducted in-depth research on the compass. He was the first scholar in the world to experimentally prove that the magnetic needle can guide the guide, but it always deviates eastward. This conclusion means that the magnetic north and south poles and the geographical north and south The poles are not completely coincident, which means there is a magnetic declination.”

"In terms of astronomy, he improved the armillary sphere and improved the observation efficiency and accuracy. Guo Shoujing, a survivor of the former Song Dynasty, created a simple instrument based on the armillary sphere."

"In terms of geography, it provided the earliest scientific explanation of the Central Plains. It was inferred that Yandang Mountain was formed by the erosion of flowing water, and scientifically explained the cause of the formation of tornadoes."

"It took twelve years to complete the Map of Prefectures and Counties in the World. The detailed content is rarely seen in the world. In addition, Shen Kuo also made outstanding achievements in economics, military, politics, water conservancy, medicine, music, literature, etc., which can be called The founder of China’s scientific era.”

"Based on historical research and sorting out the development of science, I have come to the conclusion that human cognition is divided into three categories. The first category is the concepts that are born with it. For example, children know how to suck milk when they are born."

"Haha."

"Clap clap clap."

In the hall, the audience laughed and clapped.

The scholar who gave the speech smiled, and after the applause quieted down, he continued: "The second category is concepts learned from the outside world, such as the knowledge students learn in school."

The scholar's ideas are recognized by many people and are easy to understand.

"The third category is self-created concepts. Then the acquisition of the second category of concepts is the learning process that we are familiar with, and the third category of cognition belongs to the category of scientific research and invention."

"These are three development paths for us to understand natural science. So what methods should we use to continue? On the basis of the third category, we should continue to go forward."

The scholar asked seriously.

The audience in the audience showed serious expressions, and everyone was thinking carefully.

The non-agricultural population in the Ming Dynasty is increasing, people are getting richer and richer, and the expansion of the school has led to the birth of more scholars, and scholars who can give lectures in the Imperial College are definitely not just trying to get this opportunity.

At least in the fifteenth century Ming Dynasty, learning was still noble.

Thirty-two-year-old Tao Wei is still very young, but in recent years, it is often young people who can make achievements on the road of science. The rise of new learning is not a unified school of thought.

Peking, Beijing, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places all had their own ideas for new learning. Although Cao Duan summarized the new learning and formulated more general directions, he did not complete academic unification.

"I think there are four methods and steps."

“The first step is not to follow blindly.”

"Don't accept any truth that you don't know clearly. For a proposition, you must use your own judgment to determine whether there is any doubt. Only those propositions without any doubt are the truth."

"During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius did not talk about strange powers and chaotic gods. It was because the sages could not explain the superstition at that time, but superstition was very popular in the background. It was a kind of thought that was not followed blindly, and even though it was said by Confucius, he did not dare to take it as true. The birth of the famous saying requires us not to blindly follow the truth."

"Doubt all opinions, no matter what authoritative conclusion there is, as long as you have not done your own research, you can doubt it."

"Crash."

The young people applauded excitedly. Scholar Tao Yi's speech was recognized by the princes, which can be felt through the applause in the hall.

Tao Yi continued to laugh.

"The second step is to break down complex problems into multiple simple problems to study and solve them one by one. This is what we often call analysis, or we can say that we can simplify the complex problem and reduce the whole problem into parts."

"From the advent of steam engine technology to the present, each small step of progress has brought about the new achievements that have become the power of the ship. Looking at the steam engine on the ship as a whole is a very complicated thing, but after splitting it , if you know its principles and understand the origin of each step, you can understand the principles."

"The third step is to solve these small problems step by step in the order of easier first and then more difficult. The steam engine was first used as a tool for pumping water, and later it was moved to trains, requiring higher horsepower. At this time, the craftsmen wanted to develop When it came to the method of adding a cap to the piston and then moving it onto the ship, which required higher horsepower, the craftsmen thought of making more copper tubes to increase efficiency.”

"The fourth step is to solve each small problem and then put it all together to see if the original problem has been completely solved. Just like the principle of life, you should summarize after finishing."

The reporters from the Technology News recorded Tao Yi’s speech.

In fact, not only Tao Wei's speeches, but also any speech about technology and science will be recorded by technical newspapers. Different speakers will attract the attention of different newspapers.

The circulation of the Technical Newspaper has long been inferior to that of newspapers such as social newspapers and miscellaneous newspapers, but the Technical Newspaper has the highest status. Even the Ming Dynasty Science and Technology Conference in which the Technical Newspaper participated is a grand ceremony of the Ming Dynasty.

Soon after, Tao Wei's speech was published in the new newspaper of the Technology Newspaper. Under Tao Wei's speech, the Technology Newspaper also invited several famous scholars to comment on it so that people could have a clear understanding.

"Whether it is in scientific research or when solving complex engineering problems, I think Tao Yi's four steps are very effective. If you work in an orderly manner according to this method, no matter how difficult the problem is, you can solve it."

"In the above four steps, Tao Wei emphasized the importance of critical doubt in scientific research. He believed that bold assumptions can be made in research. In fact, his assertion of doubting everything is a bold assumption."

"However, the process of verification must be very careful. In addition to having tenable evidence, any step of reasoning in the verification process must follow logic, so that correct conclusions can be drawn."

"Tao Wei summarized the law of scientific development as first asking questions, then conducting experiments, obtaining conclusions and explanations from the experiments, generalizing and generalizing the conclusions, finding new problems in practice, and repeating this cycle, which is the study of things to achieve knowledge. principle."

"Learning is inseparable from society and is closely related to society. In fact, Tao Yi's scientific ideas are easy to understand. In the traditional agricultural era, market demand was not high and small workshops could meet it."

"With the development of industrial society, market demand is getting bigger and bigger. Small workshops can no longer meet the market demand, so factories are built. However, factories still cannot break through the output based on the technology of small workshops, so there are more Craftsmen gradually solve problems by improving the technology of small workshops to meet the needs of factories. In fact, the same principle as the scientific idea proposed by Tao Yi also belongs to the study of things to achieve knowledge."

"But, I think that on the road to science, we must also record the process."

"In the development of technology, ancient craftsmen consciously or unconsciously adopted scientific methods. Many craftsmen kept detailed records of the improvements they had made, but in order to keep them secret, most of them would use methods that were not known to outsiders. Means to record.”

"Some technologies have been preserved and have even been recorded in writing by many literati and have been passed down to this day. It is precisely because of written records that these invented technologies have become popular."

"But there are also many technologies. Because the records are lost, not only are future generations unable to understand the truth, but they even don't know it. For example, the Ru porcelain of the Song Dynasty has not been imitated because there are no written records left. Such technology has not been copied to this day. I believe a lot has been lost, which is a great loss to civilization.”

Tianjin.

The first chemical plant of Daming Industrial Bureau.

Pantry room.

There were many technicians in the room, holding newspapers and reading while drinking tea. After lunch, the tea room became a place where they often came during their breaks.

Ordinary workers like to read social newspapers, miscellaneous newspapers, novel newspapers, etc. Because of their professional needs, their technical staff will not miss every issue of technical newspapers.

Unlike the common people's sighs, they did not find Tao Yi's speech surprising.

Their chemical factory has long implemented a strict system.

The ingredients of ammonia, experiments with various proportions, the replacement of utensils, including copper and iron, and finally it is easy to turn into transparent glass. There are detailed scales on it, coupled with the study of the table of elements, it actually looks very mysterious, but after doing This is what Taoist priests have always done.

Fire various stones to obtain new materials, study these materials, and discover their meaning and function.

The high yield of chemical fertilizers and the step-by-step technological innovation are based on this aspect. From the initial supply to Peking to the supply to the northern region, and even to the whole country, in addition to the popularization of coke refineries, it is also inseparable from the development of refining technology. .

Twenty-five-year-old Wang Yugong is a native of Tianjin. After finishing the government school, he did not continue his studies. Instead, he was recruited by the Ming Dynasty Industrial Bureau, and finally applied for the No. 1 Chemical Factory of the Ming Dynasty in Tianjin, because his father was an old worker in the chemical factory.

His father was an ordinary old worker, just a shift leader in the workshop. Because of his education, Wang Yugong eventually became a staff member in the technology research and development room of a chemical plant, specializing in "burning things" every day.

Yes.

Wang Yugong has always thought that what he does is very ordinary, not as great as his father often said and proudly said. He just burns things, and uses everything in the world to burn.

After burning for several years, Wang Yugong could only burn things.

He Hu's master discovered the weight of air. He Hu opposed his master's theory, redefined the weight of air, and proposed the theory of pressure.

A normal day.

In his house, Wang Yugong dug out the next book, "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" written in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and fired it according to the formula of the three elixirs in it, which were cinnabar, cinnabar and mercury.

Wang Yugong yawned.

It's too boring. I will record the firing process completely. If it is useful, I will conduct more research. However, after many years of work, I have not made any big discoveries so far.

Wang Yugong has long lost the passion he had when he first joined the job. He regards these things that seem mysterious to outsiders as his simple and ordinary work, waiting to go home after get off work.

But today's Wang Yugong may be in a different mood because his wife gave birth to a fat boy a few days ago, or he may be affected by the remarks he just read in the technical newspaper.

It might even be an accident.

He suddenly discovered that the light of the kerosene lamp was particularly bright today.

He couldn't help but rub his eyes, suspecting that he was wrong. To prove that he was right, he lit another kerosene lamp. Ordinary people, who would waste things like this.

Anyway, it was something from the factory, and Wang Yugong didn't feel bad about using it.

really.

The newly lit kerosene lamp was far less bright than the previous kerosene lamp. Wang Yugong became curious about the reason. He kept exploring and finally discovered that the light of the kerosene lamp would be very bright during the process of burning the three elixirs.

Wang Yugong is not a hard-working person. Surprisingly, he was particularly interested today. He even took the initiative to work overtime after get off work and continued to study in his own house.

soon.

Wang Yugong reported a new discovery to his superiors.

In my own experiment, when refining the three elixirs and heating them, a gas can be obtained. This gas not only makes the flame burn brighter, but also helps breathing, making breathing very pleasant.

Soon, other technicians also repeated Wang Yugong's experiment. According to Wang Yugong's written records, they obtained the same results, which showed that it was not accidental.

"If combustion is caused by phlogiston in the substance, then after combustion, the mass of the ash should decrease. In fact, the mass of the combustion products increases, which means that something new must be added to the combustion products."

Some technicians put forward their own opinions and used scales to make precise measurements to confirm.

Through weight measurement, people confirmed that a gas was indeed added during the combustion process, rather than the so-called phlogiston being decomposed. So they defined this gas as Wang Qi according to Wang Yugong's name.

This move was a playful move by the technicians, deliberately making fun of Wang Yugong.

However, Wang Qi's research and report soon alarmed His Royal Highness, and Zhu Gaochi understood that this was oxygen for future generations. People discovered oxygen, proposed methods for making oxygen, and proposed the role of oxygen.

Because of the attention of His Highness the Prince, the chemical plant increased its research, and finally the Technology Department submitted a report to the headquarters called "Introduction to Combustion", which explained the principles of combustion using Wang Hua's theory.

The report explains the role of Wang Qi, that is, Wang Qi must exist first before matter can burn.

The air contains royal gas and another gas. When a substance burns in the air, it will absorb the royal gas in the air. Therefore, the mass of the combustion product increases, and the increase is the mass of the royal gas it absorbs.

In the process of studying combustion, Wang Yugong determined the importance of precise quantitative experiments and analysis in natural scientific research.

Wang Yugong also discovered that the oxides generated by non-metals after burning can turn into acids, so all acids contain Wang Qi. Metals burn and turn to ash, they are not acidic.

Through weighing and He Hu's method of measuring atmospheric pressure, people quickly came up with the approximate ratio of Wang Qi in the air.

What people need to breathe is Wang Qi.

Wang Qi is a necessary element for combustion, and any combustion is inseparable from Wang Qi.

At the report meeting, Wang Yugong stuttered in his speech and praised Tao Wei's scientific methodology. The scientific methodology introduced by Tao Wei, that is, the theory that any law of natural science must be verifiable, suddenly became popular and even began to become one of the standards in the academic world.

He Hu congratulated Wang Yugong on his achievements and also praised Tao Wei's teachings.

Based on the discovery of King Qi in the atmosphere and the measurement of weight, He Hu put forward a new hypothesis, "The ancestors believed that all things in the universe are dynamically conserved and yin and yang transform. So is there conservation of energy in the world? How to verify the conservation law proposed by the ancients? ?”

The new hypothesis has aroused the interest of many scholars. After all, "harmony" has always been one of China's core ideas. It is difficult for scholars not to care about such a high-level hypothesis.

"Where did everything in the universe come from in the first place? It came from gasification."

"What is gasification? The process of turning matter into energy is called gasification. For example, boiling water causes the evaporation of water, and the energy that is born is the process of gasification. For example, in "Ascending" by the poet Du Fu, "The sunflowers in the green garden are filled with morning dew. The description of "Waiting for the Sun" not only vividly depicts the beauty of sunflowers, but also implies the transformation of natural energy in the process of evaporation of morning dew."

"What does the vaporization of all things in the universe include?"

"Including intangible energy and tangible quality, that is, matter and energy, they all exist at the same time. "Book of Changes" talks about the mutual transformation of yin and yang, the cathode will become yang, and the anode will become yin. What does yin represent? It represents matter, and yang represents energy. One is life and the other is death, one is still and the other is moving, they are all relative, treat each other, this is the conservation of energy."

More and more people have joined the discussion. With questions, answers, and research, the law of energy conservation has become more and more sound, and people cannot raise objections.

From the time He Hu proposed this concept, people found that they could not find any examples to refute it.

Some people even shouted in surprise that there is a god in the world.

Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the ancestors proposed this theory so long ago. With the limitations of their times, how could they have such profound insights? Doesn't it mean that after repeated research in their academic circles, they have returned to the original point?

The talent allowance was increased from 50 cents to 80 cents, and from 80 cents to 1 yuan.

Scholars of the Ming Dynasty were thinking wildly and began to study the existence of gods. Many scholars already believed that there was a way of heaven in the world, otherwise many coincidences could not be explained.

Such a phenomenon left Zhu Gaochi speechless.

This is how the original superstition came about. It is indeed a cycle.

According to Wang Hua Theory and the law of conservation of energy, at the end of the 15th year of Yongle, He Hu published "Basics of Chemistry". In this academic monograph, he comprehensively elaborated his views, defined the concept of "elements", and classified the chemical substances known at the time.

According to the "Encyclopedia of Elements" formulated by the chemical factory in the early years, the thirty-three known basic elements were rearranged. Although Zhu Gaochi believes that some are actually compounds rather than real elemental elements, and the common compounds composed of them, He Hu's "Basics of Chemistry" has indeed made the previously fragmented and chaotic chemical knowledge systematic and clear.

He Hu is the posthumous son of He Kuan.

Zhu Gaochi was very pleased.

Along the way, many people were gone. Zhu Gaochi could no longer recall He Kuan's appearance, but wasn't that how the Ming Dynasty should be?

A relay from generation to generation.

Civilization continues to develop.

Various measurements across the country were unified, including standard measuring instruments for atmospheric pressure, which provided important technical support for the development of steam engines. The new generation of boiler technology greatly increased the horsepower of ships.

With the development of glass over the years, there have been more quality improvements and various types of glassware.

With the establishment of Bonidus, scholars discovered the existence of the equator in Bonidus based on temperature measurements. Nurgan's exploration to the north led to the discovery of the poles, and proposed the straight-line distance from the poles to the equator. One-tenth of a meter creates a new unit of measurement.

According to the maximum density of water at different temperatures, the area of ​​one meter has a mass of one kilogram.

Brand new units represent a new starting point for social civilization.

　There is another chapter during the day

　　

　

(End of this chapter)