Bringing the Railway to Daming

"Your Majesty, it is fitting that His Majesty the King of Zhou has come to oversee this matter. Historically, the King of Zhou was renowned for his expertise in medicine, and later even compiled several medical treatises."

"Among them, the most famous is the 'Compendium of Herbs for Famine Relief,' which was praised by later generations as the most scientific botanical work in China in the early fifteenth century."

"There's also a collection of medical prescriptions called 'Puji Fang' – it's said that Li Shizhen quoted many entries from this book when he wrote 'Compendium of Materia Medica'."

Having said that, Liu Kuan moved his lips, but ultimately did not say the rest of his words in public.

As far as he knew, in history, Prince Zhou Zhu Su was the one with the most descendants among Zhu Yuanzhang's 26 sons, but he was also the one with the least bad people. It can be said that the direct lineage of Prince Zhou had always been quite famous until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

If we consider the stability of the feudal dynasty's inheritance, it might be best to let the Zhou royal lineage sit on the throne.

But now, judging by primogeniture and ability, the throne is not in Zhu Su's hands.

So this idea was driven out of Liu Kuan's mind as soon as it appeared - at the moment, no matter from which aspect, Zhu Biao would be the best to inherit the throne.

Zhu Yuanzhang was unaware of the thoughts running through Liu Kuan's mind. After hearing Liu Kuan's slightly surprised response, he smiled and said, "Old Fifth, you're not bad. The task of supervising the compilation of medical classics is now up to you. You must do your best."

Zhu Su first glanced at Liu Kuan with a hint of gratitude, then immediately bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "I will definitely do this well and live up to your expectations!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, and then signaled Liu Kuan to play the next video.

The video was called up and the title appeared in front of everyone, similar to the title style of the previous video.

"A book titled 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' analyzing the world, a life of wandering in search of freedom—Song Yingxing, a brilliant scientific master of the Ming Dynasty!"

Seeing the title of "Scientific Master", Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao and others were cheered up.

Since Liu Kuan's arrival, the Ming Dynasty has been developing science and has clearly understood the importance of scientific talents.

It can be said that although the Ming Dynasty now has a population of more than 70 million, apart from Liu Kuan, there is still no great talent who can be called a "scientific master".

Even with the abilities of Guo Tianwen and Tao Chengdao, they can only be considered as great talents in certain aspects of science.

So Lao Zhu and others became even more excited about the content of this video.

"He took the imperial examination six times, but failed each time. He compiled 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' and created the Baidu Encyclopedia of Chinese agriculture and handicrafts, earning him the nickname 'China's Diderot.'"

"He is the great scientist of the late Ming Dynasty—Song Yingxing!"

"Song Yingxing was born in Fengxin, Jiangxi Province. His family placed great emphasis on education. His great-grandfather had passed the imperial examination and became the Left Censor-in-Chief, which made the Song family prominent for a time."

"By the time of Song Yingxing's father, the family still had hundreds of acres of land, but a fire caused heavy losses to the Song family."

"By the time Song Yingxing was born, the Song family was no longer as prosperous as before. However, this also gave Song Yingxing more opportunities to visit farms and workshops and gain on-the-ground experience, which laid the foundation for his later writing of 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature'..."

This video is still edited from several documentaries related to Song Yingxing. A well-known male actor was invited to play Song Yingxing, which makes people feel good about him when watching it.

Through the video, Lao Zhu and others learned that Song Yingxing was smart since he was a child and even had the ability to remember everything he saw.

For example, as a child, Song Yingxing once stayed in bed late and forgot to memorize his homework. However, when the teacher checked, he was able to recite it. Upon questioning, the teacher discovered that he had memorized it while half asleep and half awake, having heard his brother recite it. Song Yingxing had a wide range of interests from a young age, but social pressures and family demands forced him to pursue the imperial examinations. Even so, he continued to read a wide range of miscellaneous books, and incidentally, he passed the imperial examination.

Among the Confucian sages, Song Yingxing most admired Zhang Zai, from whose Guanxue he absorbed some of his materialistic views of nature. He also thoroughly read Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica and dabbled in music and painting.

However, Song Yingxing's luck in exams was not very good. After failing six times, he first returned to his hometown to take care of his elderly mother, and then became an official during the Chongzhen period as a county teacher.

Being a teacher was easy, and his creative work entered a period of high productivity. The Exploitation of the Works of Nature was also gradually completed during this period.

"'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' is Song Yingxing's greatest achievement, the pinnacle of his scholarship. He explained that 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' means 'to imitate the works of nature and thereby create all things.'"

"He also used 'valuing grains while despising gold and jade' as the main theme, opening with 'grains' and ending with 'pearls and jade', reflecting his emphasis on agriculture and people's livelihood."

"As it is written in the article 'Nai Li': Humans cannot live long, but grains give birth to them; grains cannot grow on their own, but human beings give birth to them. The relationship between grain and humans is interdependent."

“Although The Exploitation of the Works of Nature did not attract much attention when it was first published, it has since produced some remarkable results…”

The second half of the video mainly introduces the various achievements of "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", as well as its various influences and important significance to later generations.

Zhu Yuanzhang and others were proud of the Ming Dynasty again when they saw that a scientific giant like Song Yingxing was born in the late Ming Dynasty and wrote an encyclopedic masterpiece like "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" covering agriculture, industry and other industries.

However, the next minute, something happened that made Lao Zhu and others angry.

"Because the Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to practical technology, and the publication of 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' was at the end of the Ming Dynasty, not many people knew about it and it was almost buried."

"During the Qing Dynasty, the book was banned and burned because it contained many words like 'Eastern Tartars', 'Northern Tartars', and 'Tartars', and because Song Yingxing refused to serve the Qing Dynasty throughout his life!"

"After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese people who wanted to read 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' had to obtain the book from Japan again. This is truly ridiculous and sad!"

The entire video was not long, only twelve minutes, and Zhu Yuanzhang and the others felt like they had finished watching it in no time.

When the video ended, Zhu Yuanzhang slapped the armrest of his chair and said angrily, "The Qing Dynasty is truly despicable. Not only did they ban The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, they even burned it!"

Zhu Biao sighed, "I'm afraid the Qing court banned it not only because it contained words like 'Eastern Tartars' but also because they thought the book could enlighten the people and even contained methods for forging firearms."

Zhu Xiongying said, "It's a pity that Song Yingxing was born in the late Ming Dynasty. If it were now, we could invite him here and train him to become a great scientist of our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought of the content at the end of the video and said, "The most commendable thing about Song Yingxing is his character. His brother died alive for the Ming Dynasty, but he served the people while serving as an official. After the Ming Dynasty fell, he lived in seclusion for the rest of his life and resolutely refused to serve the Qing Dynasty. How rare!"

In this way, the Zhu family discussed and expressed their feelings about Song Yingxing and "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" for a long time before they stopped.

Seeing this, without Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions, Liu Kuan called up the last video and prepared to play it.

When they saw the title of the video, whether it was Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao, or others, they were all stunned and quite surprised.

"The real Conferred Gods are not in the cinema, but in Yinxu!" [Planetary Research Institute]

Conferred Gods? Yin Ruins?
Just looking at the title of this video, the content is a bit strange. But seeing that it is a video made by the familiar "Planet Research Institute" master, the Zhu family still watched it with anticipation. (End of this chapter)