Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 281 An unexpected hoe
According to Zhu Changluo's request, one must wear Ming Dynasty clothes when appearing in front of him.

It is possible to preach in the Ming Dynasty, but one must be a subject of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The reason why Zhu Changluo lifted the ban on Matteo Ricci was that, on the one hand, in the first few years he did obey orders and worked with Xu Guangqi to translate a large amount of Western books. Of course, exchanges are beneficial to scientific progress.

The more important reason was to stimulate the Taichang Temple: if Confucianism did not speed up its evolution, the academic situation would become more and more complicated.

It is no secret that Zhu Changluo "prefers" natural philosophy, and all great scholars know it.

When the missionaries dealt with Ming officials and gentry, most people were not interested in their religious teachings at first, so they often used clever means to pave the way.

The leader of the western missionaries has already become a devotee of the Academy of Scientific Research, and now he has been ordered to recruit further people from the West. The great Confucian scholars of the Taichang Temple must consider the emperor's request: among the Confucianists, more attention must be paid to the encyclopedia represented by the Baijia Garden, and they cannot all serve as officials based only on the classics, history, and literature as in the past.

Zhu Changluo needs to further observe the effect of the stimulation.

At present, we will first examine the short-term results of this line: The Eastern Emperor has this hobby, and when faced with a breakthrough, what is the quality of the people that Matteo Ricci has brought in?

The person who answered first was still very young, but he spoke fluently and behaved in a very professional manner, as if he had successfully assimilated into Chinese.

Zhu Changluo was very surprised. He looked at Matteo Ricci and said, "It took only a little over a year for Ricci to write a letter to you and for you to come all the way here. You are quite eloquent. Did you learn it before, or did you learn it on the road?"

"Your Majesty," Matteo Ricci answered, "His original name was John Schreck, and he was already proficient in many languages. Although learning the Ming language was a little difficult for him, it was not too difficult. He learned it all the way from Guangzhou to Beijing."

"…Great." Zhu Changluo praised first. Regardless of whether it was true or not, some people did have a talent for language. "Can you write this name and surname?"

"...I can write my name, even with an Oriental brush..." Deng Yuhan was a little embarrassed, "I can't write many characters now."

When they met the Eastern Emperor, the first thing they saw was the Emperor arranging research topics here.

This was quite unexpected for Deng Yuhan.

Not only was what Matteo Ricci said true, but the Eastern emperors paid more attention to research and were more willing to invest money and time than they had imagined.

I just heard that the emperor directly allocated 10,000 taels of silver to the topic that the oriental alchemists want to study, because it involves many rare and precious minerals and so on. If it is not enough, we can discuss it later.

Ten thousand taels of silver is not a small sum of money, whether in the East or the West, and the emperor did not hesitate at all.

"Adapt slowly." The emperor encouraged him gently and began to ask about his experience and academic expertise.

Matteo Ricci looked very confident.

Deng Yuhan was sent here solemnly by the church.

Although missionary work was allowed, the Ming Emperor also had specific requirements: they were not allowed to teach Western characters to ordinary Ming gentry and people.

For Matteo Ricci, this was a dilemma.

On the one hand, the church currently does not allow them to translate the Bible into Ming characters or hold mass and other activities in other languages, perhaps because they are worried that they will tamper with the doctrine.

On the other hand, if preaching is done solely through oral storytelling, then the efficiency is too low.

This time, Matteo Ricci sent people back to report on his achievements in the East, and also requested that they be allowed to hold masses and translate the Bible in Chinese in Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Deng Yuhan, who had an outstanding talent for languages, was accepted into the Jesuit Order, granted a teaching position, and shouldered important responsibilities.

Moreover, he met the requirements of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Although he was only 32 years old, he was extremely knowledgeable and proficient in medicine, natural history, philosophy, and mathematics. He was a young scholar who had already made a name for himself.

Zhu Changluo listened to his self-narration and nodded occasionally.

In this era, Deng Yuhan was considered a "professionally trained" person in Europe. It is said that he first studied medicine at the University of Altdorf near Nuremberg, and then went to the University of Padua in Italy to study mathematics, geometry and astronomy.

The gap was a bit big, Zhu Changluo asked specifically, and then felt speechless.

Because in the West today, medical students have to learn astronomy so that they can use astrology in their medical practice - after all, they still serve the great nobles.

To study astronomy, one must learn some geometry in order to observe and calculate.

"I am only a young scholar, but I believe I can meet the requirements of His Majesty the Emperor. Even if I cannot do so for the time being, my teacher is here. He is a very prestigious scholar. He was once the dean of the mathematics department at the University of Pisa and is also my professor of geometry and astronomy at the University of Padua. He is Mr. Galileo Galilei. Please forgive me, Your Majesty, for not being able to fully master oriental languages ​​yet."

Zhu Changluo was stunned for a moment and looked at the middle-aged man.

……ah?

"Galileo?" he couldn't help but ask first.

Is he the real owner? Can this hoe dig him out?

Zhu Changluo actually didn’t remember when those early Western scientists were alive. Of course there were some alive at this time, but it was just a surprise.

"Your Majesty, Professor Galileo has not yet mastered the oriental language and has not made a final decision on whether to stay here forever, so he has not yet been given an oriental name. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Matteo Ricci was only worried about this, and then he quickly said: "But don't worry, Your Majesty, Professor Galileo's knowledge is the most outstanding in the West, and he will definitely be able to help Your Majesty with your research."

Zhu Changluo looked at him strangely: "Can you speak Chinese?"

"... a little bit..." Galileo started to speak, and Zhu Changluo was still very confused: "You think... the earth is not the center of the universe?"

Galileo was also stunned for a moment, then looked at Matteo Ricci warily, as if he didn't understand.

Listening to Matteo Ricci's gibberish and replying to Zhu Changluo that he did not have such an opinion, Zhu Changluo looked at Galileo meaningfully.

Then he looked at Deng Yuhan and asked, "Did you invite your teacher to come along?"

Zhu Changluo thought that it was naturally because of his student Deng Yuhan.

From the impression I have, this guy was ostracized by the church in his later years. The current conflict shouldn't be that big, right?
Being able to be a professor in a European university in this era should have a decent social status and salary.

Zhu Changluo couldn't even speak clearly. He really didn't expect that this guy would be willing to take the risk and travel thousands of miles to come to the Ming Dynasty.

This reason, other than the fact that the heliocentric theory comes with a burning debuff, made him very curious.

Deng Yuhan spoke fluently and quickly narrated the process.

As he listened, Zhu Changluo felt strange and looked at Xu Guangqi.

"…Since I know that Your Majesty is eager for talents, I should naturally try my best. Before receiving Your Majesty's special favor, there were many people in the Ming Dynasty who were talented but not appreciated, and were burdened by money. I thought that there might be such people in the West, so I gave Li a lot of silver to let him do what he wanted."

"……well done."

Zhu Changluo gave him a thumbs up.

Deng Yuhan was talking about how Galileo's father had died fifteen years earlier, and his salary as the head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pisa was not enough for him to support his family, as he had two younger sisters and a younger brother who were still young.

Not only did his father leave no property, he also owed a lot of debts.

Zhu Changluo already knew that it was the same in Europe at that time, where the big names were still professors of theology and philosophy. The head of the mathematics department before Galileo sounded good, but it was just a "temporary job" with a salary. After all, mathematics at that time in Europe seemed to be at the "bottom" of the academic circle.

His annual salary was sixty florins, which was just over one hundred taels of silver.

In comparison, it is said that the philosophy professor at the University of Pisa earns more than ten times his salary.

Galileo went to the less prestigious University of Padua because it offered him three times the salary.

In order to support his family, this guy had to teach at a university and open a "training class" to make money. He finally married off his sisters, but his younger brother was obsessed with music and still relied on him for financial support.

He was already quite old, had a lover, and had given birth to two daughters and a son, but he refused to formally marry the other person and even refused to pay child support at one point.

His current annual income is actually pretty good, which is about three or four hundred taels of silver a year.

But his younger brother is still a bottomless pit, and he also needs to spend money if he wants to do research himself.

[The unimaginably wealthy Eastern emperor is willing to fund scholars’ research with a huge sum of money. Scholars willing to go to the East can at least receive an adventure reward of 600 pesetas!]

This peseta is a newly minted silver coin after the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, and a small amount of it has already flowed into the Ming Dynasty.

Deng Yuhan exposed his teacher's past and came here just for the equivalent of three years' salary of more than one thousand taels of silver?
Even if you are just running an errand to "cheat" the adventure fee, the risk of dying on the way is quite high.

Unless Matteo Ricci and others promised otherwise.

What's more, Matteo Ricci might have "deceived" some people: after all, Zhu Changluo asked not to leave once he came.

After asking again, Zhu Changluo was even more speechless: It turned out that due to the development of the silver mines in America, a large amount of Spanish silver coins flowed back to Europe. In recent years, there has been inflation in Europe, and prices in Italy where Galileo lived have more than doubled.

"…Is it just because of money?" Zhu Changluo asked.

Galileo hesitated after hearing this, and finally said after a while: "Ichizhong... Kyoko?"

Zhu Changluo looked at Deng Yuhan in confusion.

"It is a mirror, Your Majesty. The teacher has spent most of his income in recent years on making this mirror. He wants to use this mirror to see far away and observe the stars in the sky."

"...Can't find anyone to support you?" Zhu Changluo's heart moved, knowing that he was talking about the telescope. "Or do you want to prove the result of observation, but are afraid of causing disaster?"

Galileo understood and his eyes narrowed.

Like you, I accepted the Copernican position several years ago, and have found the causes of many natural phenomena which are undoubtedly inexplicable by existing theories. I have written down my reasoning and arguments on this subject, but I have not dared to publish them until now, having learned a lesson from the fate of our master Copernicus himself.

He suddenly remembered the letter he had written to Kepler ten years ago, and also remembered Giordano Bruno who was burned to death in Campo de' Fiori in Rome seven years ago.

For some reason, the Eastern Emperor was too curious about the reason why he came here, and seemed to know very well something that he was still hiding.

The earth is not the center of the universe... Why did he suddenly ask this after hearing his own name?
Is there something like the Inquisition in the East?

Suddenly I felt a little regretful...

(End of this chapter)