The videos I watched became popular in ancient times

As we all know, the pentatonic scale of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu was invented by the Chinese.

However, few people know that the twelve semitone scale of modern music was also first invented by the Chinese.

As the twelve-tone equal temperament was brought to the West by missionaries through the Silk Road, Bach, the father of modern music, created the world's first twelve-tone equal temperament piano.

The person who solved the academic problem in the field of music that had remained for more than a thousand years in one fell swoop was Zhu Zaiyu, the famous music saint in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zaiyu's great achievements in the two major fields of natural science and art science have had a great influence in the Western world, and he is revered as a saint of the Eastern Renaissance.

Even the great man once praised three scientists in Chinese history who made outstanding contributions to mankind, one of whom was the Ming Dynasty prince Zhu Zaiyu.

"Zhu Zaiyu, courtesy name Boqin, called himself a madman when he was young."

"Zhu Zaiyu was born in the 15th year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. He is the ninth-generation grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

"Zhu Zaiyu himself was the crown prince of the Ming dynasty's vassal state of Zheng, and could be described as a legitimate royal noble."

"He has a great intelligence and has had the opportunity to get a good education."

"Influenced by his father, Prince Zheng Gong Zhu Houwan, Zhu Zaiyu loved music since he was a child."

"Although he was the crown prince, Zhu Zaiyu experienced the hardships of the imperial family when he was young, and he also advocated a simple and frugal life."

"At that time, Emperor Shizong Zhu Houcong was in power, and Jiajing himself was a Taoist, which delayed state affairs and wasted money and labor."

"Zhu Zaiyu's father, Zhu Houwan, was a man who dared to speak out. Once he made a petition and offended Emperor Jiajing."

"Emperor Jiajing was dissatisfied and was looking for an opportunity to take revenge."

"At this time, someone wrote a letter to frame Zhu Houwan."

"Jiajing was furious and stripped Zhu Houwan of his title, removed his official position, and threw him into prison."

"Zhu Zaiyu witnessed the disaster himself, and he hated this place full of intrigue and deception."

"So he resolutely moved out of the palace, built a thatched hut outside the palace gate, and lived in it."

"Life has changed a lot from the past to the present. In the past, life was like delicious food and beautiful jade, but today, people suffer from hunger and cold."

"Zhu Zaiyu swore that he would not return to the palace until his father came back."

"He didn't get depressed, nor did he give in to his fate."

"In the thatched hut, Zhu Zaiyu slept on a straw mat, ate bran and vegetables, and devoted all his energy to reading."

"He overcame unimaginable difficulties and finished reading all kinds of history books and scriptures."

"In addition, Zhu Zaiyu also focused on the study of music theory and read a lot of books on music and dance."

"Zhu Zaiyu stayed in the thatched cottage for 19 years and studied hard for 19 years."

"He has acquired a wealth of knowledge, which has laid a solid foundation for his future academic research."

"In this way, Zhu Zaiyu lived in that mud house for 19 years."

"After the death of Emperor Jiajing, Longqing succeeded to the throne, and the new emperor pardoned his uncle Zhu Houwan's crimes."

"Zhu Zaiyu's family returned to the aristocratic class. At this time, Zhu Zaiyu was already over 30 years old."

"Although, Zhu Zaiyu's living standard has returned to its peak."

"But Zhu Zaiyu was no longer the ignorant boy at that time. Nearly twenty years of hardship had made him develop alternative values."

Zhang Juzheng: Zhu Zaiyu resigned from the throne seven times, was indifferent to fame and fortune and retired to the mountains, becoming a commoner prince who will be remembered forever.

Zhu Zaiyu's originally luxurious life was completely changed when his father Zhu Houwan was innocently implicated.

Zhu Zaiyu's childhood was overshadowed by the fact that his father Zhu Houwan was stripped of his title for no reason.

Faced with the sudden change, Zhu Zaiyu did not become depressed.

Instead, he turned his resentment and the injustice of fate into motivation to study hard, and devoted all his energy to the pursuit of science and art.

It was this special experience that tempered Zhu Zaiyu's will.

This allowed Zhu Zaiyu to see through worldly vanity early on and gain a deeper understanding of fame, wealth and power.

In order to express his dissatisfaction with his father's experience and to escape the constraints of the court, the young and energetic Zhu Zaiyu made a surprising move.

He built a simple mud house outside the palace gate and began a secluded life that lasted for 19 years.

During this period, Zhu Zaiyu was away from the life of luxury.

He devoted all his body and soul to academic research to express his unruly heart and yearning for freedom.

Without the strict court etiquette, Zhu Zaiyu could interact freely with common people.

From farmers, teachers, doctors, fortune tellers, to artists playing musical instruments and singing, and street vendors, all became Zhu Zaiyu's close friends.

Zhu Zaiyu ate and lived with them, understood their joys and sorrows, and felt their wisdom in life. These experiences also provided valuable material for future academic research.

Although Zhu Zaiyu was the prince of a vassal state, he did not act high and mighty, but was always concerned about the suffering of the people.

When Henan Province suffered a major earthquake and people were displaced.

Zhu Zaiyu, regardless of his personal safety, resolutely opened the granary of the palace to provide relief to the victims and help them overcome the difficulties.

In addition, Zhu Zaiyu also went deep into the grassroots to promote the planting of economic crops such as persimmon trees, helping farmers increase their income and become rich.

They even created many easy-to-understand ditties, using music, a form of music that the people loved, to spread propaganda and educate the people.

He advised the people to work hard to get rich and not to pursue pleasure, which shows his deep love for the people.

After Zhu Zaiyu's father died, according to the rules and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zaiyu should inherit the throne.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Zaiyu wrote to the emperor seven times, resolutely resigning the hereditary throne.

After his first petition was rejected, Zhu Zaiyu resolutely left the magnificent palace.

He moved to Jiufeng Mountain outside the city and lived a simple and poor life in seclusion.

Therefore, Zhu Zaiyu was respected by the people as the Commoner Prince.

Many people expressed their confusion about Zhu Zaiyu's choice, believing it to be too pedantic.

But he understood Zhu Zaiyu's intention. Fame, wealth and power are nothing but passing clouds. Only by devoting oneself to academic studies and benefiting the people can one realize the true value of life.

In the end, the emperor was moved by Zhu Zaiyu's indifference to fame and fortune and granted him permission to continue using the title of Prince Zheng.

A memorial archway was built for Zhu Zaiyu to commend his noble character.

"The rising Zhu Zaiyu did not return to the life of a crown prince, but instead devoted himself to his studies."

"Later, he moved back to the palace with his family, which had a rich collection of books."

"Zhu Zaiyu read voraciously, focusing on the knowledge of music theory."

"He is not ashamed to ask questions, is humble and eager to learn, and his knowledge has been further improved."

"At this time, his father fell ill and died."

"According to the rules, he should inherit the title."

"But Zhu Zaiyu, who was devoted to academic research, wrote several letters to decline the title that he should inherit."

"He is determined to stay away from government service in the future and make achievements in academia."

"After years of unremitting efforts, he finally wrote the masterpiece "The Essence of Lvlü"."

"Writing poems was not enough to relieve his depression, so Zhu Zaiyu played the zither on windy and moonlit nights to express his resentment."

"Who knew that while playing, Zhu Zaiyu discovered a problem."

"A piece of music is made up of notes of different heights, and the arrangement from high to low is called a scale."

"So, what is the optimal distance between two adjacent notes in the scale?"

"Zhu Zaiyu studied music and mathematics at the same time."

"After several calculations and reasonings, he created the twelve-tone equal temperament, and used it to make the world's first tuned musical instrument - the string tuner."

"And even today, the twelve-tone equal temperament still deeply influences every music lover and can be said to be the cornerstone of modern music."

"Zhu Zaiyu's pioneering work in calculating the twelve-tone equal temperament was half a century ahead of Europe."

"With the exchanges between the East and the West, the theory of equal temperament was also brought to Europe by missionaries."

"Today, modern musical instruments are tuned according to this theory."

"It is widely used in keyboard instruments such as the piano, which also makes Zhu Zaiyu known as the originator of piano theory." "After Zhu Zaiyu resigned from the title of the crown prince of Zheng State, he lived in seclusion at the foot of Jiufeng Mountain beside the Dan River and wrote books."

"During this period, he came into contact with sedan chair bearers, who were known as the lowest class, as well as folk artists such as suona players."

"The local people have had the custom of walking on stilts and carrying sedan chairs to celebrate the New Year since ancient times."

"Zhu Zaiyu combined these two performance forms and carefully designed the performance art of walking on stilts and carrying a sedan chair."

"The form of performance has undergone rich changes as Zhu Zaiyu continued to innovate."

"The performance was changed to the night, and the bridal sedan was replaced with a fire sedan."

"Candles were placed around the sedan chair, and a dragon head that could spray colorful flames was inlaid on the top of the sedan chair."

"Zhu Zaiyu also turned the lyrics he wrote into tunes and had the artists sing them during performances."

"Today, the fire sedan chair, which has been passed down for hundreds of years, has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list."

Li Hongzhang: Zhu Zaiyu is not well-known in China, but he is very well-known abroad.

As far as he knew, many foreigners had a very high opinion of Zhu Zaiyu.

The German musician Bach highly praised Zhu Zaiyu's Well-Tempered Clavier and called him the ancestor of music.

Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is similar to Zhu Zaiyu's Well-Tempered Clavier, and it can be said that it was developed with inspiration from Zhu Zaiyu.

Scholars from other countries believe that Zhu Zaiyu was the first person to apply mathematics to music theory, and this innovation had a global impact.

Many foreign people highly recognize Zhu Zaiyu and appreciate his achievements and contributions.

This not only highlights Zhu Zaiyu's academic status and influence, but also shows that his innovations and contributions have had an important impact on the development of world culture.

But unfortunately, Zhu Zaiyu is not well-known in domestic history.

There are many reasons for this.

Zhu Zaiyu's life background and identity were special, and his achievements in music, mathematics, and dance were regarded as miscellaneous subjects, which were difficult to be recognized and valued by the mainstream social environment at that time.

In addition, Zhu Zaiyu lived in seclusion in the mountains in his later years and was not active in society like other historical celebrities, which also limited his popularity to a certain extent.

Zhu Zaiyu's works and thoughts are relatively profound, requiring certain professional knowledge to understand and appreciate, which also makes it difficult for his thoughts and works to be widely disseminated and accepted.

There have been many periods of war and political turmoil in Chinese history.

Zhu Zaiyu lived in the late Ming Dynasty, a period of social turmoil.

Therefore, his works and ideas were not widely recognized at the time.

As time went by, Zhu Zaiyu's influence and status were also affected.

Throughout China's education system, the evaluation and promotion of people are often influenced by political and cultural factors.

However, Zhu Zaiyu's thoughts and achievements were not directly related to the politics and culture of the time, which also limited his fame and influence.

Therefore, Zhu Zaiyu is not well-known in domestic history due to many factors, such as his special identity, the profoundness of his works, the unfavorable historical background, and the limitations of the education system.

"Zhu Zaiyu was the first to propose the concept of dance studies and also drew a large number of dance scores."

"The Tianxia Taiping dance score created by Zhu Zaiyu is considered to be the predecessor of large-scale group gymnastics."

“He proposed a three-step teaching method for music and dance, which is still in use today.”

"Beijing's geographical location is 116° east longitude and 39° north latitude, and Zhu Zaiyu was the first geographer to accurately locate Beijing."

"Zhu Zaiyu believed that the calendar at that time was not very accurate in calculating the length of each year."

"After careful observation and calculation, he found a formula for calculating the length of the tropical year."

"Experts in later generations used modern high-tech measurement methods to verify Zhu Zaiyu's calculation results."

"It was found that the length calculated by Zhu Zaiyu differed from the value calculated today by only 17 seconds, which is shocking to the world."

"Zhu Zaiyu was the first to use abacus to perform square root calculations and worked out the equation of a number series. He was the first person in the world to solve the first term, last term, and number of terms of a known geometric sequence."

“He solved the problem of converting decimals in different bases, and some of his calculation methods are still used today.”

"Zhu Zaiyu gradually became a cultural giant on par with Xu Xiake and Li Shizhen, and made achievements in music, physics, mathematics and other fields."

"Zhu Zaiyu went beyond the rules of his ancestors, broke old habits, and focused on practice and experimentation."

"He devoted his life to the pursuit of truth and worked hard to complete works such as the Complete Book of Temperament."

"Zhu Zaiyu wrote many books throughout his life, covering music, astronomy, calendar, mathematics, dance, literature, etc."

“He can be said to be a heavyweight scientist of the shining era and an encyclopedic scholar.”

"Zhu Zaiyu demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in many fields throughout his life. If he were alive today, he would be considered an all-round talent in the cultural world."

"It can be said that Zhu Zaiyu's achievements shocked the world, and even Chinese and foreign scholars revered him as a saint of the Eastern Renaissance."

"Therefore, Zhu Zaiyu was listed as a world historical and cultural celebrity."

"In addition to Zhu Zaiyu's research achievements, what is even more admirable is his character."

"It was when he remained steadfast despite the great changes in his youth. It was when he could have become a well-fed and well-clothed prince."

"The carefreeness of resolutely giving up power is the indifference that transcends the times."

Lu Xun: Zhu Zaiyu's achievements have earned him the reputation of being a saint of the Eastern Renaissance, and he is one of the outstanding representatives of ancient Chinese culture and art.

Zhu Zaiyu spent his entire life studying, researching and creating tirelessly.

Zhu Zaiyu devoted his entire life to academic research and achieved outstanding achievements in many fields.

But Zhu Zaiyu's main contributions and innovations can be divided into three aspects: music theory, calendar and dance.

Zhu Zaiyu's contribution to music theory is mainly reflected in his "Complete Book of Music Theory", which is a culmination of ancient Chinese music theory and has a profound influence on later generations.

Zhu Zaiyu had extremely high attainments in music theory, especially in solving problems that had troubled ancient musicians for thousands of years, and he made groundbreaking achievements.

The method Zhu Zaiyu adopted was actually to use the abacus, which was commonly used by people in their daily lives at that time.

In order to achieve the goal of free key modulation in music, Zhu Zaiyu consulted a large amount of ancient literature.

And under the guidance of his father Zhu Houwan, he turned his attention to the Way of Heaven.

Zhu Zaiyu believed that the laws of music are closely related to the laws of the universe.

To this end, Zhu Zaiyu boldly broke with tradition.

The abacus, a tool used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, is used in the complex calculation of square root.

In the end, with his extraordinary perseverance and wisdom, Zhu Zaiyu successfully calculated the twelve-tone equal temperament.

This innovation has made an indelible contribution to the development of ancient music theory and has epoch-making significance in the history of Chinese music.

Before that, the Chinese music system was mainly based on the pentatonic scale, namely Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, and Yu.

Zhu Zaiyu's twelve-tone equal temperament made music modulation more free and laid the foundation for the development of modern music.

Zhu Zaiyu's contribution to the calendar mainly lies in his compilation of "On the Correctness of Lülü" and "New Theory of Mathematics".

In "On the Correctness of Lülü", Zhu Zaiyu elaborated on his music theory and calendar ideas in detail.

Combining music and mathematics provides a new perspective for the interdisciplinary research of ancient music and mathematics.

In addition, Zhu Zaiyu also proposed new calculation methods in "New Theory of Mathematics", which promoted the development of mathematics.

These innovations of Zhu Zaiyu had a profound impact on the development of art in the Ming Dynasty and later generations.

Zhu Zaiyu's contribution to dance studies is mainly reflected in the "Jiufeng Caowu Pu" he compiled.

This is an artistic work that integrates dance, music, and poetry, recording various dance performance forms and techniques during the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zaiyu's dance innovation mainly lies in the combination of dance with poetry and music, forming a unique dance art style.

Zhu Zaiyu's innovation had an important impact on the development of dance art in the Ming Dynasty, and also provided important reference and reference for the dance art of later generations.

Zhu Zaiyu was a prince of the Ming Dynasty with extremely high attainments in music, mathematics and dance. His innovations and contributions not only had a profound impact on the cultural development of the Ming Dynasty, but also had an important influence on the development of music, mathematics and dance in later generations.

Zhu Zaiyu's life is full of legends.

He gave up wealth and glory and chose a simple academic life, and used his actual actions to interpret what a true gentleman is.

Zhu Zaiyu's story has also inspired generations of Chinese people to keep moving forward in their pursuit of truth. (End of this chapter)