Flintlock guns are called self-generated fire guns in China, and they appeared as early as the "Illustrated Description of Military Weapons" published in the eighth year of Chongzhen Emperor's reign. When Zhu Cihong took power, Foshan in Guangdong and Anping in Fujian were already able to produce small quantities of self-generating fire guns and rotating fire guns.
However, the Ming Dynasty's self-generated firecrackers and revolving firecrackers were not mature equipment - the flintlock gun was invented by the French craftsman Mahan at the end of the 16th century, and by the end of the Thirty Years' War, the flintlock gun was The time has just come.
In other words, it took almost half a century from invention to perfection and then to popularization!
Zhu Cixiang didn't have the patience for half a century, and he didn't know how to design and manufacture a really useful flintlock gun, so he decided to buy and imitate it.
Because of the samples and craftsmen Li Shaoyou brought from Europe, the progress of imitating flintlock guns was very smooth. Now the Nanjing Gun Factory of the Royal Chamber of Commerce, Shenyang Steel in Shanghai, Zhengtie Iron Works in Anping, Fujian, and Foshan Iron Works have all produced samples with reliable quality.
However, Emperor Zhu did not immediately give them a large order, but issued a "design order" - what he wanted was a standard flintlock gun with excellent quality, powerful power, and ease of production and use!
On the one hand, he did this to give these factories some time to train more skilled workers and purchase more equipment.
On the one hand, it is also to cultivate the design capabilities of these factories - only if you can truly design a standard flintlock gun can you truly "copy" it.
There is no shame in copying technology these days. In fact, Europeans are also copying Zhu Cixiang's "Golden Finger"!
For example, Prince Condé copied the ideas of sleeve bayonets and custom-loaded paper shell ammunition, without any intention of paying patent fees!
This kind of technology is “knowable at a glance”, and Emperor Zhu couldn’t keep it a secret!
In addition, "Zi Lun Ge Wu Chapter" "unearthed in Qufu" has been brought to Europe by Tang Ruowang! It is estimated that many European philosophers are already studying it - all scholars in the Ming Dynasty who want to take this exam will have a copy, and it is impossible to prevent proliferation!
And the "Advanced Arithmetic" that Zhu Cixi just finished compiling will soon be exported to the West.
There are good things in both "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian" and "Advanced Arithmetic"! Zhu Cixiang's knowledge of philosophy and mathematics surpassed that of European academic circles in the 17th century in many aspects - Zhu Cixiang did not know to what extent Europeans' natural philosophy had developed in this era? Therefore, many of the things he produced can be used for research by Western academic circles.
Science and technology actually know no national boundaries. Those who have national boundaries are scientists! Even if science has national boundaries, the one who suffers is not the one who copies, but the one who is copied!
The biggest negative impact caused by the Ming Dynasty's isolation was its impact on technological exchanges between the East and the West.
After Zhu Cihong came to power, he has been working hard to promote this kind of exchange - of course, the main thing is to learn other people's technology. When it comes to technical exchanges, it is not good to be a teacher.
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang will not promote the outflow of science and technology. He has no choice but to speed up the process of learning and introduction.
Under his promotion, Ming's science and technology had begun to advance by leaps and bounds, and it was time to start producing results.
While the Northern Qing Dynasty was busy with the civil war, the Ming Dynasty's first "Taixue College Entrance Examination" had been completed - this was actually an examination to select smart people. He had to be self-taught without a teacher or any reference books, and he had to develop and conduct in-depth analysis of some simplified and condensed philosophies in "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian".
In order to make this examination look more like an imperial examination, Emperor Zhu also adopted a two-step examination method of "convention examination" and "palace examination".
The examination will test "Classics", "Calculation" and "Theory". The "Classic" is the "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian" written silently. "Calculation" means doing math questions - Zhu Cixiang personally set the questions for assessment. He was a top math student back then, and he still remembers many difficult questions now! "Lun" is the most difficult. You have to write your own analysis and understanding of a "Lun Ge Wu Yan".
This kind of college entrance examination can be said to be the fairest or the most unfair. The fairest aspect is competing for IQ!
Who can't recite "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian"? If you can't remember this, why should you take the exam? As for arithmetic exams and essays, it’s all about hard IQ.
But if you don't have a strong IQ, no matter how hard you try, you won't even be able to get into the examination room!
Because there is a preliminary examination before the general examination, which is conducted by each state. There is no essay in the preliminary exam, but you have to rely on mathematics! It was also a question asked by Emperor Zhu... After the exam, there was a lot of tears outside the exam room!
Those who are dumber, or those who are old and have inflexible minds, or those who are too liberal arts-oriented, are all embarrassed to cry!
The imperial examination is so difficult. It seems that everyone has no hope of learning too much...
Those who are not embarrassed will come to Nanjing to take the National Examination. Of course, the National Examination is also difficult - so much so that later, scholars in the Ming Dynasty called Nanjing "the difficult capital" because it was so difficult!
The number of people who can take the examination is 400, and they are divided into first-class, second-class, third-class and fourth-class students according to their performance.
Among them, the top fifty can participate in the palace examination, and Zhu Cixiang will preside over the thesis defense. Select the first-class bachelor's degree and the second-class doctorate... Needless to say, these are geniuses with IQs above 150!
Among these geniuses, Emperor Zhu finally selected seven bachelor-level geniuses!
The number one winner is Fang Yizhi from Anqing Prefecture. This is the smartest of the four young masters of Fushe. At the age of 41, he achieved a perfect score in the essay - his essay is "The Lunzi on the Investigation of Things", which is very important. "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian" has been organized into categories and summarized into several categories such as "argumentation", "dialectics", "asking" and "nature".
The second place on the list is Zhu Yongchun from Jiangnan. He conducted an in-depth analysis of the content of "Heaven" in "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian" and proposed two research methods: "observation of heaven" and "discussing heaven".
Tanhua's name is Mei Wending. She is very young, only 19 years old. She comes from Ningguofu in Jiangnan Province. She has a mediocre paper but is extremely accomplished in arithmetic. She is the only genius with a perfect score in arithmetic.
In addition, there are four other people in the first class, namely He Tianran from Zhejiang, Liu Hao from Jiangbei, Wu Xiang from Huguang, and Sun Yucheng from Guangdong.
Now these seven talented bachelors are sitting in the garden of the Western Building in the Forbidden City, eating moon cakes and watching the moon with Emperor Zhu.
The mooncakes are puff pastry mooncakes with pork, mutton, beef, ham and five-nut fillings. They are all freshly baked "hot mooncakes" and taste very good.
But everyone’s attention is not on the mooncakes, but on the moon!
Today's moon looks different from previous moons, especially big and clear - because Emperor Zhu placed several Kepler telescopes in the back garden of the Western Building.
Seeing the "seven bachelors", they were all a little fascinated. Emperor Zhu, who had been eating mooncakes alone for a while, finally coughed and interrupted the seven people's astronomical observation.
The seven bachelors knew that Emperor Zhu had something to say, so they all turned to look at him.
Zhu Cixiang waved to everyone, "Sit down, everyone, sit down!"
Seeing that several people were sitting firmly in their respective chairs, Emperor Zhu continued: "You are all the first-class talents of our Ming Dynasty, and you should all be educated! Now the "Zi Lun Ge Wu Chapter" has been published, As Western learning spreads eastward, it is a time when scholars have great potential. However, it has become a common practice in the past dynasties to become an official if you are good at learning. I don't think it will be easier, so I will confer seven of you as bachelors... ...However, this bachelor is no longer a cabinet minister, but a real scholar, but his official rank and salary are the same as those of a cabinet minister!
The Imperial Academy will also honor seven... Zhuangyuan Gong's method of organizing "Zi Lun Ge Wu Chapter" is very good. You can discuss it later and see if it can be divided into seven subjects. Each of you can take charge of one. Department, and then select doctorates in seven subjects from among the second-class Jinshi to serve as your assistants in your studies. "
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