Who dares to speak about the royal secrets?

As a mixed-race child, he has obvious characteristics of alien race. Although he is extremely handsome in appearance, he is inevitably discriminated against due to his identity. This kind of discrimination is not obvious in normal times, but it is manifested in the conversation between marriage and marriage. The families of scholars and officials of the Ming Dynasty are unwilling to marry their daughter to Zhu Shengwu. Even if Mrs. Quinna is a wealthy man with a net worth of millions.

However, five years ago, Fang Yizhi married his youngest daughter to Zhu Shengwu. Although he was born as a concubine, Fang Yizhi always attached great importance to Zhu Shengwu. They were not only father-in-law and son-in-law, but also teachers and students.

“Is this important?”

Fang Yizhi smiled.

"What matters is that we get there earlier than Europeans, and that's enough."

"But... the teacher often says that you should be realistic in your studies, right?"

"To do knowledge, we must seek truth from facts, but learning is not static. The saying "the ancestors discovered the world" was not decades ago, but now it is just a hypothesis. Isn't it a bold hypothesis when doing knowledge? Today's speech is just a speech. In fact, I am very curious about the outside world, but I can't help it."

Fang Yizhi sighed helplessly.

Many people in later generations only knew that Fang Yizhi was a survivor of the Ming Dynasty. They saw his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, but most of them ignored his identity as a scientist. Compared with his literary attainments, he had deeper academic achievements. He wrote "Small Physics" and "Tongya" which are encyclopedias, covering knowledge of astronomy, physics, philosophy, medicine, geography, etc. Combined with Western astronomy, Fang Yizhi studied the geocentric theory, the Nine Heavens Theory, the Stars, the Path, and other questions, and corrected the preaching of the mission.

The view of the size of the sun and the distance between the sun and the earth. He once proposed the speculation that Mercury and Venus orbit the sun based on the phase changes of Venus. He discussed the physical problems of light reflection, refraction, dispersion, sound transmission, sound insulation and sound silencing, specific gravity, magnetic effect, etc., and proposed the theory of gas-light fluctuation, and tested it with small hole imaging. He also introduced knowledge of human skeleton and muscles from Western medicine, and has also studied traditional medicine. He even proposed the pinyinization of Chinese characters using letters.

In fact, this desire for knowledge about Western science is a "common problem" among almost all the Ming literati. They formed a sharp contrast with those literati who rejected and feared Western science in the late Qing Dynasty.

In fact, this is exactly the characteristic of the Ming Dynasty literati.

After Zhengde Dynasty, the high economic prosperity led to a comprehensive change in the politics, economy, culture, customs, etc. of the Ming society.

The prosperity of the society and economy also makes scholars want to break through the shackles of eight-legged essays.

According to Qian Qianyi and others' records, even from the Zhengde Dynasty, scholars regarded the knowledge of the Five Classics as pedantic. However, in the Wanli Dynasty, scholars were even embarrassed to say that they liked reading. They just felt that the eight-legged essays were useless, so they found another way out in their thoughts, and began to widely pursue the practical value of knowledge.

This ideological movement is actually the "cultural enlightenment" of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Yangming, Li Zhi and others are all key figures.

The relaxed social environment of the Ming Dynasty also allowed the existence of thoughts and speeches that were separated from the scriptures and judged the Tao, so of course they had to have a degree.

However, the more you think of judging the Tao, the more likely it is to be sought after by Confucian scholars. Among them, there are many famous scholars. From Wang Yangming's "mind learning" to the popularity of "real learning" in the late Ming Dynasty, it is ultimately because people want to break through the cage of old ideas.

However, many of them went astray.

Countless Confucian scholars looked down on the eight-legged essays and stopped reading the classics and books. They only memorized a few reference materials for the imperial examinations, saying that they were a talented person who was dedicated to the world and disdained to join the pedantic scholars, and they didn't even know which dynasty Sima Qian was from.

Of course, this is also the reason why the scholars of the Ming Dynasty were "crazy" when Western missionaries came to China, because there are many new sciences in Western science that are unheard of. It is precisely because of this that Matteo Ricci recorded the strong "curiosity" of the Chinese in his book. The scholars of the Ming Dynasty "seem to be crazy" and there were endless visitors, just wanting to understand Western affairs. Those who could not meet him communicated through letters, and some of them did not know them at all, but were willing to discuss topics such as Catholicism and science and technology with him in the letter.

This strong curiosity promoted the spread of Western natural sciences and social sciences in the Ming Dynasty. This curiosity did not fade during the Gansheng period, and even further developed due to the emperor's encouragement.

Just like now, the reason why they went to the Imperial College is because the Imperial College is the academic center of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, this center does not mean that it is the center of Confucianism, but the center of science. After 20 years of reform, the Imperial College has developed into a university with multiple disciplines.

For Fang Yizhi, sometimes he is more willing to engage in academic research than an official, which is a pity.

When the carriage entered the Imperial College, he glanced at his son-in-law, and thought of his involuntary self, and couldn't help but sigh.
Chapter completed!