The Medici collection was a treasure trove, but Florence was an even greater surprise for the mission.
The biggest surprise comes from the discovery of new documents - a large number of records about Al-Andalus, the former Celestial Kingdom in southern Spain, that is, the current Spanish province of Andalusia was once the country of Celestialism. The name of Gibraltar comes from the "Gibul Tarik" mountain where the Tianfang general Tariq Ziad gathered his forces to invade Europa.
After the mission found this batch of documents at the Florence Academy, they immediately solved a mystery that had long troubled Xu Guangqi, Wang Jiaping and others: since ancient Greek civilization was so brilliant, why did the Europeans not escape ignorance until the Renaissance.
The answer lies in Al-Andalus. Four hundred years ago, the Christian scholar Avi Roy began to study the copies of Greek philosophy preserved in the heavenly world-mostly the works of Aristotle, which shocked the entire Christian world.
A large number of Christian scholars began to translate Greek classical philosophy on a large scale - Xu Guangqi is certain that before Al-Andalus was founded in the second year of Emperor Dezong's founding in the Tang Dynasty, ancient Greek civilization was almost extinct in Europe, and they had almost no credible writing history. A large number of the so-called works of Greek sages were re-translated in Al-Andalus around the year 1100 of the Julian calendar.
In other words, Al-Andalus can almost be regarded as the mother of Europe's new civilization. It not only provided Christian scholars with a large number of ancient Greek documents and sowed the seeds of science and logic, but also, during eight centuries of exchanges, It provided Europe with new agricultural tools, rice, silkworms, sugar cane and other tools and agricultural resources that improved productivity, providing both ideological and material preparation for the Renaissance.
Columbus's voyage to discover America set sail in Huelva, Andalusia; the small town of Samluga in Andalusia was the starting point and end point of mankind's first circumnavigation of the world - until now, Andalusia is the whole of Europe The source of gold and silver currency and the heart of the financial industry.
Xu Guangqi was very happy to find this batch of documents, because it fully proved his world view: only communication can bring forth the new, and any civilization built behind closed doors can only end up in a pool of stagnant water - Al-Andalus serves as a bridge between the two civilizations of Heaven and Christianity. Bridges and ties, what fruitful fruits they bear in Europe! And in this world, how many civilizations are there waiting for China to discover, preserve and even learn from them?
It stands to reason that since Al-Andalus was so important hundreds of years ago, Spain should have the greatest number of such documents. But unfortunately, even though the "discovery" of so many Aristotle's works shocked the Christian world, the church schools and rising universities in Europe are still frantically pursuing this knowledge - but according to Xu Guangqi's observation, no The virtue of forgetting where one comes from and remembering the source when drinking water seems to be possessed only by Chinese people.
For the current Spaniards, as the capital of the Caliphate, the status of the extinct Ancalus as the center of the entire European civilization has long been gone. For them and the entire European people, Andalusia is just a A place with a slight Ottoman style. Xu Guangqi regretted not visiting the province of Andalusia when he was in Spain, where he could listen to the lingering sounds of the convergence of civilizations as the tide receded.
...
In Florence, there were many similar documents, and the mission eagerly collected and organized them.
There is not only art here, but also artists. After being introduced by Francisco I, Xu Guangqi met at the Old Palace where he was staying, the famous European thinker Montaigne who was revisiting this place.
Montaigne was born in 1533 and was already fifty-one years old. His father was a small nobleman near Bordeaux, France, so he received a good education from an early age and once served in the court of Charles IX of France.
At the age of thirty-seven, he inherited his father's territory in the countryside and lived a secluded life. With his special sensitivity to life, he recorded his intellectual and spiritual development, and successively wrote the masterpiece "Collection of Essays", leaving precious spiritual wealth for future generations.
This later generation is almost considered to be an immortal "master" of Europe like Shakespeare, Socrates, and Michelangelo, and now he has begun to enjoy a great reputation in Europe. Because the first two volumes of his "Collected Essays" were published four years ago and have been reprinted several times in just a few years, Montaigne, who is now the mayor of Bordeaux, has become a real top figure in European society. It can even be said that - - Montaigne used his essays to change later generations of Europeans' views on life.
In the year when "Collected Essays" was first published, Montaigne traveled from Alsace to the Apennine Peninsula via Switzerland and traveled around the world for nearly a year. Later, he learned that he had been elected mayor by the Bordeaux Assembly, so he left Florence and returned to his country to take office. went.
The reason why he appeared in front of Xu Guangqi was quite funny - when Xu Guangqi completely disclosed the method of preventing and controlling smallpox in Madrid, the citizens of Bordeaux were experiencing the massacre of the plague.
Based on the level of European medicine at this time, they only knew that this was a severe infectious disease similar to the "Black Death", and they knew almost nothing about its pathogenic mechanism and prevention and treatment methods.
When the plague first broke out, the mayor of Bordeaux disappeared from the city and ignored the epidemic. The angry Bordeaux nobles kept sending letters to him to return to take charge of the overall situation, which made his reputation very bad - this fully reflects the fragility of human nature, although Montaigne in "Essays" seems to have seen through life and looks down on life and death. , but Mayor Meng outside the book still ran away from his heart without hesitation.
The appearance of Xu Guangqi gave Mayor Meng, whose reputation was almost bankrupt, a strong reason. He wrote back to the Bordeaux Parliament, declaring that he would follow in the footsteps of the mission and seek ways to prevent and cure infectious diseases from the mysterious Eastern visitors - the holy country that can cure smallpox. , is there anything we can do about this infectious disease that is breaking out in Bordeaux?
In fact, when the smallpox prevention method from Serris was introduced to France, Montaigne felt sincerely in awe, and at the same time he did have new hopes: he was embarrassed to escape from Bordeaux, if he could get the cure for Bordeaux infectious diseases Prevention and treatment methods are really a waste of merit.
Montaigne's tutor only spoke Latin, so he used Latin as his native language throughout his life, and there was no obstacle to direct communication with Xu Guangqi. Xu Guangqi heard his purpose and learned that he came from an epidemic area, so he directly complained and changed his clothes. When he came out, he had already put on a gauze mask on his face. When Wang Jiaping and other members of the mission saw it, they all accused him of wearing masks, which made Montaigne blush with embarrassment. The Grand Duke and others accompanying him also felt a little bit. Awkward.
After Xu Guangqi listened to the symptoms of infectious diseases described by Montaigne, he knew that the pathogenic mechanism of this severe infectious disease had already been discovered by the Ming Dynasty. Although the Capital Medical College did not find out the cultivation and staining methods of Yersinia pestis, using a microscope, it has been This oval-shaped bacterium was found in the patient's blood, and a paper was written about it.
Xu Guangqi pondered for a moment and said: "When I left China, the disease you mentioned was prevalent on the grasslands of our country. The imperial court sent epidemic prevention experts and doctors to control it. In fact, as long as we understand the basic principles of epidemic prevention, almost every Every infectious disease can be prevented."
The Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cardinal Ferdinando Medici and other nobles who were present here immediately held their breath after hearing this - from 1347 to 1353 in the Julian calendar, the so-called "black epidemic" swept across Europe. The "deadly disease" plague killed 25 million Europeans, accounting for one-third of the total population of Europe at that time.
The Black Death had a severe impact on the economy, politics, culture, religion, technology and other aspects of medieval European society and had a huge impact. After experiencing the Black Death, some European elites discovered that Catholic autocracy was a shackles, which had an important impact on the Renaissance, the Reformation and even the Enlightenment, thereby changing the direction of the development of European civilization - it can be said that no matter how big the world is, Europa How great is the psychological shadow that people have on infectious diseases.
Then, Xu Guangqi introduced some of the Ming Dynasty's discoveries in infectious disease research - although these discoveries were all made after the invention of the microscope, as a controlled technology that was prohibited from export during the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi deliberately left it unclear; as for "hygiene", Lord Xu, who was "educated" along the way and was very angry, finally couldn't restrain his sense of superiority and fiercely criticized the current situation in Europe:
"Gentlemen, regarding Europa, I and the envoys have great admiration for the civilization you have created, and even have some respect for the sages who started the Age of Discovery - although the Ming Dynasty's navigation history is earlier than yours. But let me say a few words To be honest, the living habits of the entire Europe, from kings to commoners, are extremely unhealthy, even barbaric and very backward!”
"Civilized people should know how to dispose of their own feces to distinguish themselves from domestic animals and wild animals!"
"Civilized people should know how to clean their bodies to protect themselves from diseases and parasites!"
"Civilized people should know how to clean their homes so that they can live in a clean and tidy environment!"
"Civilized people..."
