Simply asking for a painting back is not a big deal, but it shows Li Yu's attitude. In the future, when the report comes out, it will arouse some people's shame. Maybe one or two pieces will be returned on his own initiative. After all, time has only passed. several years.
If hundreds of years had passed before Li Yu traveled through time, and the lost cultural relics had been passed down abroad for several generations, they would really have to be auctioned.
Moreover, Italy was not very powerful in combat. Although he was in the Eight-Nation Allied Forces back then, Italy, like Austria-Hungary, was just there to make soy sauce.
You can only use soy sauce.
It is not without reason that Italy is called Italy among the European powers.
Ten years ago, Italy had dreamed of conquering Ethiopia like other powers. At first, they didn't dare to fight, so they played a very cheap and ridiculous word game: the treaty given to the King of Ethiopia was inconsistent with the content of the treaty written in Italian.
The treaty that the King of Ethiopia got said that we are all good brothers, but the Italian text said that I am your father.
As for the subsequent battle, it was even more of a mess, and Italy suffered a disastrous defeat.
So after the Qing court found out about it through the French minister, it didn't pay much attention to Italy. No matter how weak I am, I can't be weaker than Ethiopia.
At first, Italy also wanted to scare Li Hongzhang, saying that we were the orthodox and spiritual center of the world's Catholic empire. But Li Hongzhang is not interested at all. Does the huge Roman Empire have anything to do with me? When it comes to ancestors, I'm not bad at all.
Diplomacy was very funny. The Italian minister wanted to imitate others and bullied the weak Qing Dynasty, but he did not realize that he was actually softer. He sent a note to the Qing court to forcibly lease a piece of land. Unexpectedly, the Qing court did not even look at it. He looked at it and backed away.
The Italian minister immediately became angry and told the country.
Then two telegrams were sent from Italy. The first one was to send an ultimatum to the Qing court, and the second one was that it was not appropriate to issue an ultimatum at the moment and not to use force for the time being.
But this minister actually got the order wrong! Wrong order!
An ultimatum was sent to the Qing court.
As a result, the whole world was in an uproar and sat back to watch the show.
The Italian government could not come to Taiwan, so it was extremely embarrassed and forced the minister to withdraw the ultimatum and return to China to report on his duties.
The new minister also wanted to regain some face, so he wanted the right to build roads. After all, even the small country of Belgium could do it. He may not know that Zhang Zhidong deliberately found a neutral country.
The Qing court refused again.
The new minister was so embarrassed when he first took office. He asked for a coal refueling station as the next best thing. Undoubtedly, he received the Qing court's three-button message: No negotiation! disagree! impossible!
It can be regarded as one of the few times when the Qing Dynasty was tough.
The key point is that Italy is really interested in military and diplomatic affairs, and this kind of thing will happen more often in the future.
Therefore, all this has led to Italy and the Qing court now having relatively equal diplomatic relations.
Pius X felt that everyone was not good at military matters, but they all had something to say about culture. Even Pius X said: "In the future, if Mr. Academician can publish an article in our name, any article will do, and he can give it as a gift." You have an Italian painting from the Holy See’s collection.”
The Holy See is very rich and has enjoyed a free life for nearly a thousand years. It has collected countless precious cultural relics. There are too many masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and other great figures in the Vatican Museum of the Holy See.
As the first academician of the Vatican Academy of Sciences, Pius X very diligently conducted the investiture ceremony one by one. The certificates and medals were very exquisite and more artistic than anything Li Yu had received before.
Then Pius X took everyone to visit a famous painting in the Vatican, and planned to make a copy and place it in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Holy See.
Li Yu also really wanted to see this painting - Raphael's "School of Athens", a giant mural depicting a group of Greek sages.
The prototype of the academy in the painting is the Academy founded by Plato, which later became the word "academy" in English.
There are Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates, Ptolemy, Archimedes, Euclid, Diogenes, etc., as well as the Emperor Alexander. A total of six to seven hundred characters were put into one painting.
By analogy, it is equivalent to Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Qin Shihuang, Dong Zhongshu, and Zhang Heng debating in a room. The person who painted the painting was Tang Bohu (Tang Bohu was about the same time as Raphael).
Li Yu almost wanted to have Li Shutong or Wu Changshuo paint a painting after returning to China. It was very exciting to think about it.
Let a hundred schools of thought contend, so as to enhance cultural confidence and let those people who clamored for the abolition of Chinese characters and traditional Chinese medicine in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China take a closer look.
Planck saw Democritus in the lower left corner and said: "It is difficult to imagine that someone proposed atomic theory in the Greek period."
This sentence immediately triggered the keyword, and Mach said dissatisfied: "Mr. Planck, please don't show your belief in atoms from time to time."
Mach deliberately used the word "faith" as a pun, not only indicating that several people were in the Vatican, but also mocking Planck's insistence on atomism as a religious metaphor.
Planck said: "Isn't the evidence enough?"
"Evidence? Now it's just a philosophical discussion! I prefer to call Democritus a philosopher more than two thousand years ago," Mach said, "If you insist so much on the existence of atoms, belief, then I have nothing more to do with my thinking about physics, and I am no longer a qualified physicist, and can even renounce all scientific reputation.”
This sentence is a bit embarrassing.
Planck was a relatively reserved person and did not like to argue with others. Pius X quickly came out to smooth things over: "Ahem! Both of them are important figures in today's scientific world. Debate seems to be an effective means for the advancement of knowledge. Just Like ancient Greece more than two thousand years ago.”
Cardinal Mariano also joined in: "Plato and Aristotle, who are at the center of the picture, represent two factions respectively, and isn't the competition between the factions the reason why sparks of wisdom can be born in Greece? .”
Mach was even more dissatisfied: "Which one of us do you think is Plato?"
Historically, Aristotle was a student of Plato.
Cardinal Mariano realized that he seemed to have said something wrong. Mach was 20 years older than Planck, but if Planck was his student, Planck would definitely not be willing to do so. Besides, the current situation is that Planck became president of the Vatican Academy of Sciences.
Conflicts arose on the first day, and Mariano was at a loss.
Piano had not spoken much before. He and Planck were in the same year. He had also heard that Planck was a relatively non-argumentative person, so he helped speak: "The cardinal must mean Plato and Aristotle." "Stotle represents thought and reality respectively, and does not emphasize the relationship between master and disciple."
Raphael put a lot of thought into painting the "School of Athens". In the picture, Plato points to the sky, which represents his philosophical thought: the ideal society existing in thought is the most perfect.
Aristotle, on the other hand, pointed his hands toward the earth. Since he paid more attention to the present world, he believed that the world that is actually touched through the physical senses is the real world. People must have concrete evidence to support their ideas, rather than having ideas first. Let the real world come closer.
Anyway, their philosophies are completely at odds with each other.
The clothes of the two people in the painting are also consistent with their ideological concepts: Plato's clothes are red and purple, symbolizing the ethereal fire and air in the Greek theory of the four elements;
Aristotle is wearing blue and brown clothes, which represent water and earth that are accessible among the four elements.
The two of them stand at position C, which splits the painting into two parts. The Plato side on the left is more idealized;
The Aristotelian side on the right is more pragmatic.
Of course there are big guys on both sides, such as Pythagoras and Socrates on the left. Because humans have always believed that mathematics was born in pure human logical thinking, which is different from physics.
As for Euclid being placed on the right, it may be because geometry has greater practical guiding significance.
Cardinal Mariano was very grateful for Piano's rescue and immediately said: "The truth does not lie in age, we are only discussing the status of the sages."
Mach was somewhat satisfied and said: "Why not, just basing the world picture on physics is a kind of prejudice. I think it is no different from religion."
Seeing that Mach had always insisted on his own point of view, Planck was reluctant to quarrel directly. He said tactfully: "If Mr. Mach wants to discuss the relationship between metaphysics and anti-metaphysics with me, it is better to wait another day. You must see that if atomic theory is confirmed, It is correct and will bring many unexpected benefits, please do not ignore this.”
Mach said: "I can't imagine any unexpected benefits. Could it be that physics can be used more to construct a satisfactory world view?"
"Of course not," Plank said. "I'm not ignoring the importance of the spiritual world."
Planck's words seemed to Mach to be a sign of weakness, so he didn't go into details further: "The reason why I readily agreed to enter the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome is because I don't want science to completely dominate the world. The spiritual world will always be indispensable!"
Planck's forehead was about to get bigger. "I never said that we would rule the world with science."
"No!" Maher said, "You all think so, you just don't want to admit it."
Mach is indeed quite special. Although he is a physicist, he seems to have always wanted to oppose physics, but he is not on the side of the Holy See.
All in all very special.
Pius X was afraid that they would continue to quarrel, and he could not say much about the scientific debate, so he quickly changed the subject: "The Holy See has prepared a sumptuous dinner to celebrate the founding of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Please come with me to dine."
After all, in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, everyone still had to show respect to the Pope, so he left the fresco room and headed to the restaurant.
Everyone is also looking forward to it, because the food in several southern European countries on the Aegean Sea is obviously more delicious than that in Western Europe and Northern Europe.
