A few people agreed to let Zou Rong enter the Patriotic Society first, follow Cai Yuanpei and Zhang Shizhao, they are all progressive people anyway, chat with each other, and then find an opportunity to travel east to Japan.
By the time Li Yu returned to Nanjing Road, Xie Yuxi had already returned from the west of Jing'an Temple. Hartong's face was full of glory and he was very happy: "Madam, you are really generous. You want to buy such a large piece of land for education." Li Yu asked Xie Yuxi: "Have you chosen a place?" Xie Yuxi said: "I don't like procrastination. After looking at the map, ha Mr. Tong drove me around again, and it seems that the best place is next to the 20 acres of land you bought." Well, her choice can be regarded as helping her show the way.
Li Yu asked: "How much do you want to buy?" Xie Yuxi said: "It's about 300 acres in the west. I want it all together." Li Yu said with a smile: "You are really ruthless. Buying land is like going to the wet market to buy vegetables." Xie Yuxi is not stupid: "I have inquired about the land price, and it is already very low." Hartong said: "The price I gave Ms. After deducting the fractions, the land price totals 130,000 taels." It is indeed much more expensive than in Tianjin.
On such a large piece of land, a primary and secondary school can be built, and then an elementary-sized university can be built. As for the more than 20 acres of land that Li Yu bought before, Li Yu plans to build a small scientific research base for his own use, and private space is still needed.
Of course Hartung was happy. For 130,000 taels, the taxes and fees alone would be almost 50,000 to 60,000 taels. Adding in the cost of supporting packages and hidden rules, the amount that would simply go into his pocket would be close to 20,000 taels.
So the actual cost will be more than 250,000 taels, which is close to 500,000 US dollars. It can be said to be the largest expenditure.
The procedures required for such a large investment are cumbersome. While Xie Yuxi was running through the initial procedures, Li Yu was going to the Commercial Press to find Zhang Yuanji, whose textbook was about to be printed.
Zhang Yuanji saw Li Yu and said happily: "I sent sample books to almost all the new schools I could contact, and they loved it! In less than half a month, I had received orders from dozens of schools. , there will definitely be more in the future." Li Yu said with a smile: "It is so popular that when it is reprinted in the future, it will definitely be for children or people who are new to science. No matter what their absorptive capacity is, at least they can't go astray. In the room When one of the people heard that the person in front of him was Li Yu, he immediately stepped forward and said, "Are you Mr. Li Yu, the emperor's master and scientific giant? Li Yu asked: "Who is your Excellency?" "
"I am Wang Jilie, courtesy name Jinyu. I am currently compiling a university book on physics. After hearing about Mr. Wang's writings before, I was really shocked!" Wang Jilie's most significant contribution is to the dissemination of modern physics in China. Many things happened.
Although Wang Jilie was not a major in physics, he had a sufficient understanding of the importance of science very early, so after winning the imperial examination, he began to translate physics books.
Five years ago, in 1898, Wang Jilie and the Englishman Fryer translated a physics book published in the United States: "X-ray, or Invisible Ray Photography and Its Importance in Surgery".
This is a modern translation method. Wang Jilie's Chinese translation at this time was actually "Physical Electrification". The book's introduction to x-rays is relatively comprehensive.
It introduces in detail the history of the discovery of X-rays, the characteristics of circuits and electrical components required to produce There are more than 30 X-ray photos of other objects.
But what’s really interesting is that Wang Jilie points out in the book,
"Aikes is the word 'Heaven' used in Chinese algebraic formulas. Because the word 'Tianguang' is too obscure, the translation was changed to 'Tongwu Dianguang'." In fact, this reflects the translation science at this time. One problem with books: lack of scientific terminology.
So Wang Jilie could only put the letters
"x" is directly transliterated into
"X-ray"; X-ray is translated as "X-ray" according to my own understanding.
"Electrical light connects everything". Fortunately, no matter what
"X"
"Tianguang" is still
"Through everything, electric light" has not really been used. Although this aspect is a bit different from later generations, Wang Jilie still truly understood
The word "Gezhi" is translated into the more common
"Physics" people. China's first university physics textbook "Physics" was also written by him.
This "Physics" is translated from Japan. The original editor was a lecturer at the University of Tokyo named Teizo Imorori. He compiled this book based on German physics books, which were also his lecture notes.
Since Iimori was not up to standard in mathematics, he mainly focused on physical concepts and less on mathematical deductions when compiling lecture notes.
But it is precisely because of this that the difficulty of the book is greatly reduced, and he added a lot of illustrations, so it is very popular in Japan.
Toyohachi Fujita, a Japanese who later taught in China, recommended this book and collaborated with Wang Jilie to translate the book into Chinese.
Fujita Toyohachi originally wanted to use
"Gezhixue" was used as the title of the book, but Wang Jilie advocated using the translation that existed in ancient China and was already adopted in Japanese.
The word "physics". This term was indeed quickly accepted by Chinese academic circles.
"Gezhi" as a translation of physics has also withdrawn from the stage of history. If you go to see it, you will definitely feel your scalp numb as if you were reading the Qing Dynasty calculus textbook.
Because although the length of the second volume of three volumes and 200,000 words does not sound like much, it is actually written in classical Chinese, and the symbol system still uses Li Shanlan's set of heavenly stems and earthly branches instead of abcd.
Even a person like Li Yu, who is highly scientifically educated, looks very miserable. In fact, it increases the reading threshold.
Li Yu saw Wang Jilie's version of "Physics" that had already translated the first and second volumes on the table, and said: "Brother Jin Yu's perseverance is admirable." - Let a person with no scientific foundation at all translate this kind of university Physics textbooks are somewhat difficult to read.
Wang Jilie said: "I have been deeply worried since I saw the Western symbol system used in the introductory textbook compiled by the Imperial Master. If so, wouldn't it be incompatible with the textbook "Physics" I wrote for the university hall?" Li Yu He smiled and said, "If you want to go out into the world, it is inevitable to use this new symbol system." Wang Jilie shook his head and said, "No, no, it's so radical, I'm afraid students won't be able to accept it." Li Yu certainly couldn't. He changed the correct method back and said: "Sir, it seems that he has never done physics problems. If you want to do calculations, it is much easier to use letters and numbers." Wang Jilie said: "I can also do math, so I don't find it difficult. "Li Yu asked: "Then if you solve an equation and do a force analysis?" Wang Jilie really didn't understand in-depth physics, and Han Hu said: "I think it's okay." Li Yu said: "If Mr. You wouldn't say that if you were solving a mechanics problem." Toyohachi Fujita, who was behind Wang Jilie, said: "Mr. Li Yu is right. I also said before that we should use a Western-style symbol system. After all, students who study physics must Learning English will not be an obstacle." Wang Jilie was a little hesitant. He felt that his awareness of progress was enough, but it was still difficult to accept at this point.
"Isn't this a complete Westernization route? How can we embody the idea of Chinese learning as the body and Western learning as the application." Wang Jilie was Zhang Zhidong's staff after all, and he couldn't get rid of this set of educational ideas.
Li Yu said: "Since it is for Western learning, it is natural to use it more comfortably. It is precisely this system of symbols that is the most comfortable in scientific calculations. And you must understand that this set of "Physics" is just a textbook. If you want Going a step further, there are still more things to learn. At that time, what you have to read are Western first-hand documents, and you have to come into contact with letters after all.”
"It seems... there is that,
"The Imperial Master is the most knowledgeable person in science in China. Do you mean to just use foreign letters?" Li Yu said firmly: "That must be the case!" Li Yu made a decision for him. Wang Jilie said: "The Imperial Master Being so determined, I had no choice but to go back and revise it again." The identity of Imperial Master is really useful!
Although Li Yu disdains this title, it has to be said that it is very useful in many cases and saves a lot of unnecessary trouble.
If we promote it forcefully, we don’t know how big the resistance will be. And as a time traveler, he truly understands what is meant by
"Chinese learning is the essence, Western learning is the application" is different from the understanding in the late Qing Dynasty. As a unique isolated language in the world, Chinese itself has a strong compatibility, far surpassing languages such as Japanese, and is not afraid of various foreign words at all.
Li Yu found the introduction to mathematical symbols that he had compiled and written, and handed it to Wang Jilie: "Sir, you can learn from it." Wang Jilie flipped through it. It was a thin book, but the order was very clear.
Li Yu is indeed at this level. As a man of science and engineering, he doesn't talk much. If he didn't write a Star Wars, he wouldn't ask Lu Bicheng to polish it.
Although he once thought about learning Hemingway's concise style and short sentence writing skills, the so-called
"No technique is the best technique." It turns out that the sword is actually invisible and cannot be learned.
But there is nothing wrong with scientific books written by Li Yu at a dry level. They are textbooks anyway and do not require vocabulary or literary skills.
Wang Jilie bowed deeply: "Mr. Dacai, you are both an imperial master and a master of science. Your suggestions must be followed." Of course, Wang Jilie is still somewhat traditional at heart, otherwise he would not take the Jinshi exam next year.
The key point is that after doing scientific translation for so many years, he actually passed the Jinshi examination again. Of course, next year's imperial examination will also be the last imperial examination in Chinese history.
Li Yu hurriedly said: "Sir, you are so kind! It is not easy to compile Western science books. I also admire your spirit." Wang Jilie said: "I will take your textbooks with you today to continue to improve my set of "Physics" "Study"." Li Yu cupped his hands and said: "Thank you sir." He could be persuaded to use alphabetic symbols, but it would be impossible to get him to change to vernacular in a short period of time.
Now through Zhang Yuanji's publicity, not only schools are placing orders, but some people in the society also hope to buy it as soon as possible, and even go to the Commercial Press directly.
When Li Yu was discussing the content of the book with Zhang Yuanji, someone came to his door.
"Seller, I want to buy a book!" Zhang Yuanji raised his head and said, "How many do you want?"
"One hundred sets, I want to display them in my scientific instrument museum," the other party said, and then he was stunned for a moment.
"Are you, Mr. Li Yu?" Li Yu said: "That's right!"
"Oops! I actually bumped into him! Great! I'm here with Zhong Guangguang, who is setting up a scientific instrument museum in Shanghai." Well, it turned out to be the great botanist Zhong Guangguang.
In the Chinese botanical community, Zhong Guanguang’s name is absolutely unavoidable. He was the first scholar to use scientific methods to extensively study plant taxonomy in China, and was also a pioneer in modern botany. He later served as a professor at Peking University and Zhejiang University.
Li Yu has heard of his name,
"Hello, Mr. Zhong!" Zhong Guanguang was very excited: "It's not easy to meet you. Our library is already full of your writings, but I admire you so much!" Li Yu was thinking about building a school building in the future. Finally, I came to the issue of purchasing scientific instruments. After talking with him for a while, I found that his scientific instrument museum can handle this matter, so it was necessary to go there.
Zhong Guanguang had been admitted as a scholar before, but after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1891, he deeply felt that the Qing court was corrupt, which led to repeated foreign invasions.
It is believed that in order to be protected from foreign aggression, science and industry must be developed to seek the revitalization of China.
So he resolutely decided to study science on his own. He bought a lot of scientific books compiled by Li Shanlan, Fu Lanya and others from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and even conducted experiments according to the instructions in the books.
In order to learn the latest scientific and technological advances, he taught himself Japanese and asked someone to buy mathematics, physics and chemistry books from Japan.
The year before last, in 1901, he co-founded the Shanghai Scientific Instrument Museum. However, it was originally a business name, not a science and technology museum like an exhibition hall in the later sense.
Because he didn't have much money to set up such a charity organization at this time. Since it is a business called the Science and Technology Museum, the products on display have nothing to do with people's daily necessities of life. The Scientific Instruments Museum sells scientific instruments imported from Japan.
At this time, there were only a few people studying science, and Zhong Guanguang didn't know how to publicize, so the instrument museum was deserted.
After being open for more than a month, there is only one customer, and the sales cost is ten yuan. It can be said that the business is miserable.
Fortunately, there is always a way out. In September of this year, the Qing government issued the "Edict on the Establishment of Schools", requiring various places to build new schools. Scientific instruments and specimen models immediately became necessities for the new schools.
In just two years, the Instrument Library has been able to supply physical and chemical instruments, measuring supplies, specimen models and stationery atlases needed by various schools.
And as the variety of supplies increased, a manufacturing workshop was set up in the museum, which could copy imported products and repair instruments.
From then on, the instrument library's business will continue to expand. Since it got rid of the difficulties at the beginning, it has begun to develop steadily with the help of policy dividends, and opened branches in Shenyang and Hankou.
So if you want to buy scientific instruments for teaching, you can definitely go through Zhong Guangguang’s Shanghai Scientific Instrument Museum.
