Sun Yousheng seemed very happy about Sun Qinian's arrival.
On the one hand, although Sun Qinian's blood relationship with him is relatively distant, they are still relatives after all. There is no problem in calling him nephew. He is also happy to see Sun Qinian succeed in his career.
On the other hand, it's also for himself.
Sun Yousheng also hoped that his distant nephew would be able to bring him some help in the future after becoming an official in the Chu Empire.
As a native of Suzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, Sun Yousheng is a veritable minority in today's officialdom of the Chu Empire.
Because the Great Chu Empire prospered in Henan and grew stronger than Northern Chu, most of the civil and military officials in the Great Chu Empire were from Henan and Northern Chu, especially Ruzhou and Nanyang Prefecture. And many of them have reached high positions.
After all, when the Chu Empire rose in this area, it was natural to recruit talents locally. It was impossible to say that it would be a remote recruitment elsewhere.
This also led to the fact that in the officialdom of the Great Chu Empire, quite a few middle- and high-level officials were from these two houses.
Subsequently, after the Chu army continued to move south and occupied northern Chu, they also recruited a large number of talents from various prefectures in northern Chu.
During this process, although there were some outsiders recruited, they were generally relatively small. They were mainly officials, military generals, and soldiers who had surrendered from the Ming court.
Sun Yousheng is such a person.
But overall, there are still relatively few outsiders.
There were even fewer people from the Jiangnan area. Anyway, looking around, Sun Yousheng was stunned not to see even one of his fellow Suzhou residents.
Relationships such as fellow villagers and classmates are especially important in traditional officialdom.
Therefore, in the past year and a half as a lieutenant in the Chu Empire, Sun Yousheng felt deeply that he was alone and weak.
Therefore, he still valued Sun Qinian, his distant nephew, and expected him to assist him in the officialdom of the Chu Empire in the future.
Not only his distant nephew, he also paid great attention to several other people from Suzhou.
Through his nephew, he invited more than a dozen people from Suzhou to have a meal, established a relationship, and encouraged them as senior officials, asking them to work hard, strive for the mid-level examination, and think that they would be admitted to the university. An official in the Chu Empire.
Later, a batch of books were sent to these fellow villagers.
The names of these books are different from traditional books. They all have titles such as "Elementary Mathematics", "Elementary Geometry", "Elementary Physics", "Elementary Chemistry", "Elementary Mechanics", "Elementary Astronomy and Geography".
The compilers of these books are unified as: Education Department of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs.
"If you read these books later, they will be helpful to your career!"
Sun Qinian took it and looked through it for a while, then asked with doubts: "Could it be that these books are all used by Gewu Ke?"
Sun Yousheng nodded and said: "Yes, the content in this basic book is all the content tested in the Gewu subject. If you learn it thoroughly, you will definitely have great hope in the Gewu subject."
Sun Qinian said: "It's just that in terms of Gewu Ke..."
Sun Qinian and several of his fellow villagers all looked puzzled.
They all knew about Gewu Ke, but they had never paid attention to it before.
Mainly influenced by tradition, they believe that the Jinshi major is the best background. As for the two subjects of Legal Affairs and Gewu, they think they are minor subjects, and they will not be taken seriously even if they pass the exam.
I only heard Sun Yousheng say: "You all know that our country's imperial examinations have Jinshi subjects, legal affairs subjects, and Gwu subjects. You all know that the Jinshi subjects have always been the correct way of the imperial examinations, let's not talk about it; as for the legal affairs subjects, how many of you You should also understand that this is the selection of talents who are proficient in the law, and they can later work in yamen such as inspectors, patrolmen, legal affairs, etc. Among them, the censors in the inspectorate are the most noble."
"As for the Gewu subject, do you know why it appears in the imperial examination? And it is ranked among the three subjects?"
Sun Qinian immediately said: "Please let me know clearly!"
Sun Yousheng touched his beard and then said: "The Emperor has said that in addition to being proficient in articles and quick in thinking, officials also need to know astronomy, geography, physics and chemistry. Only in this way can they know everything in the world and be able to shepherd thousands of people."
“Officials in our country, from the highest level to the ministries and down to the department staff, all need to understand things and know everything.”
"In this way, our country has established the Gewu Department to select talents who are proficient in all things."
"Even for Jinshi subjects, in addition to eight-legged prose, policy theory, etc., there are also science subjects such as mathematics. Only in this way can you understand and write various articles and reports when you become an official."
"So, even if you don't plan to study the Gewu subject, you should still think more about these books. You will also need to take the Jinshi subject later."
Sun Yousheng's words made Sun Qinian and everyone else fall into deep thought.
Soon, someone bowed and said, "Thank you, Mr. Sun, for your advice."
Sun Yousheng said: "No need to thank you. These books are already on sale in the capital, and they will be distributed free of charge to the scholars who should be admitted. I just happened to have the opportunity and sent them directly to you."
Writing, printing, and then promoting books on mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geography was what Luo Zhixue started doing a long time ago.
But because he was busy and there was no one to help him sort out the corresponding books, he had never been able to do it.
After the capital was moved to Jinling City, all aspects of war also came to a slight halt. Luo Zhixue also had some private time during the winter, and was able to organize books and materials on various subjects with the teachers and students of the Royal Institute of Technology, and finally reviewed and compiled it. There are more than 20 books in total, including "Elementary Mathematics", "Elementary Geometry", "Elementary Physics", "Elementary Chemistry", "Elementary Mechanics", "Elementary Astronomy and Geography", "Elementary Agriculture" and "Elementary Medicine", covering basic textbooks in various subjects.
These more than twenty books were not written from scratch, but were based on various books handed down from ancient times. For example, in terms of mathematics, the ancient Nine Chapters of Arithmetic was used as a reference.
At the same time, it also makes great reference to various ancient science books that have been circulated from the West in recent decades, including many books translated by Ming people or Westerners, such as "Elements of Geometry" translated by Xu Guangqi.
Then there are some books that scholars discussed based on these translated books, such as Sun Yuanhua's "On Geometry", "Geometry Usage" and so on.
Finally, a large number of references were made to "Tiangong Kaiwu" and other books that had not yet been published on a large scale and were written by Song Yingxing, director of the Teaching Materials Department of the Education Department of the Ministry of Rites and Education of the Chu Empire, and written by Fenyi County, Yuanzhou Prefecture, Jiangxi Province during the original Ming Dynasty.
After the Chu Empire invaded Jiangxi last year, there were not many Ming troops stationed in Yuanzhou Prefecture. The magistrate Tongzhi ran away as soon as he saw that the momentum was not good, while the magistrate of Fenyi County hesitated for a long time, and finally decided He chose to lead the army and the people to surrender and submit to the Chu Empire to avoid the loss of life.
Of course, the most important thing is that neither Fenyi County nor the entire Yuanzhou Prefecture at that time could be defended in front of the Chu army.
The county magistrates above surrendered, and the small officials such as Song Yingxing were naturally unable to resist. Except for a few who ran away, most of them chose to surrender.
Originally, according to the arrangements for surrendered officials, county magistrates like Song Yingxing would generally not receive special treatment. Instead, they would be retained in their original posts and appointed as the chief of the newly established county education section, and would be awarded the seventh rank.
However, it didn't take long for Song Yingxing's large number of unfinished works, only a few of which had been circulated, to attract the attention of many Chu officials.
Then some of the works were sent to the Royal Institute of Technology.
The result aroused a relatively big reaction. The teachers and students of the Royal Institute of Technology thought, Damn it, there is actually a person with a lot of money hidden in this ravine.
Then with a transfer order, Song Yingxing became a section chief under the Teaching Materials Division of the Education Department of the Ministry of Ethnic Education.
And began to bring a group of officials with some scientific knowledge collected from various places by the Chu Empire to work with the Royal Institute of Technology to compile various elementary textbooks.
At the same time, they also entrusted Fenghe Trading Company to hire several scientific missionaries from the coast with high salaries and asked them to translate various Western scientific books.
The above is just a simple collation and collection of various scientific knowledge that already exists in the contemporary era.
In ordinary countries, it is estimated that they can only learn slowly, develop slowly and then study.
But the Great Chu Empire is different. The Great Chu Empire has Luo Zhixue, a time traveler.
In Luo Zhixue's previous life, although he was not a great scholar, he was just an ordinary person. Although he had almost forgotten many things he had learned when he was in school, he did not say that he had forgotten everything. He still knew more or less. .
In fact, a lot of knowledge is not forgotten, but there is no need for it in daily life, and you don’t go out of your way to recall it, so you ignore it. However, if you are exposed to these things again, you can recall some of them.
Luo Zhixue, based on the many science books compiled by the Royal Institute of Technology, then recalled, and then wrote down and organized some of the scientific knowledge that he still remembered in his mind.
And in this process, there are many things that are just common sense to Luo Zhixue, such as various chemical elements, iron, carbon, oxygen, etc.
For example, in the field of guns, steel is just an iron-carbon alloy. The amount of carbon content directly leads to various different properties of steel.
For Luo Zhixue, this is just a common sense thing, but for the scientific community in the seventeenth century, this was an absolutely unknown field. Historically, it was not until the first half of the eighteenth century that any scientists proved that iron After absorbing a certain substance, it can become steel, and this substance is carbon.
Then oxygen, almost most people in later generations know about it, but historically, it was not until the late eighteenth century that scientists discovered oxygen and explained its role in combustion.
Further, the combustion phenomenon can be explained, and the combustion phenomenon can further establish the law of conservation of mass.
Many things were attempts to Luo Zhixue and were not even considered knowledge, but in modern times, they were serious advanced science.
Standing on the shoulders of giants, Luo Zhixue corrected and supplemented various science textbooks compiled by the Royal Institute of Technology.
In the end, more than 20 science textbooks were obtained and used as teaching materials for the Royal Institute of Technology.
Based on these textbooks, the Royal Institute of Technology established seven departments, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, astronomy and geography, medicine, and agriculture and animal husbandry.
Some of the most basic books, such as elementary mathematics, elementary geometry, elementary physics, elementary chemistry, etc., were printed by the Ministry of Ethnic Education and then publicly distributed as teaching materials for other ordinary scholars in the world.
These are the textbooks that Sun Qinian and the others have now.
After returning to the inn, Sun Qinian took these books and read some of them carefully. To be honest, he personally had no interest in these science books.
It contains some very boring questions, decomposition ideas and various explanations.
It makes people want to sleep after watching it!
But my cousin has already said that even if he is applying for Jinshi, he will have to take some science questions, and it does not require advanced science attainments. At least he needs to know basic arithmetic, otherwise he will not even be included in the official documents when the time comes. I can’t understand the data...
So even though these books are boring, Sun Qinian still bites the bullet and reads them and learns them.
If that doesn't work, just memorize it by rote and then do some of the questions again and again.
Not to mention, although Sun Qinian personally has no interest in these science subjects, as a person who can fight his way through the imperial examination room.
Especially in the Ming Dynasty, he was able to pass the exam as a scholar in Suzhou, where the culture of reading was very strong and the competition was fierce. He still had a talent for reading.
At least these are pretty good in my memory.
Without sufficient memory ability, Sun Qinian would not be able to memorize numerous Four Books and Five Classics as well as a huge number of various annotations, let alone recite and memorize a huge number of various historical texts.
Rote memorization also requires talent. If you don’t have a good memory, if you memorize it today and forget it tomorrow, then why take the imperial examination?
In addition to memorizing by rote, he often held discussions and studies with several fellow villagers. A group of scholars in robes often meditated on a mathematical problem, and then engaged in various arguments, as if they were discussing the principles of heaven and earth.
Not just a few of them, but actually people from various provinces who arrived in Jinling City immediately obtained these science textbooks printed by the Ministry of Ethnic Education.
After all, everyone now knows that not only the Gewu subject, but also the Jinshi and Legal subjects require assessment of basic science knowledge such as mathematics.
If you don't learn, if someone else learns, your score will fall behind others, and your reputation will be ruined.
Under such circumstances, more than one or two thousand people from various provinces in Jinling City actually began to study elementary mathematics and elementary physics, setting off a wave of learning science subjects.
This situation makes Luo Zhixue quite comforted!
Who says that traditional scholars are all stupid?
Who says traditional scholars can’t use it for their own benefit?
In Luo Zhixue's opinion, these scholars are quite smart and can be used or even reused.
