The second person to stand up was a European with a lot of white hair. His expression was obviously more respectful to Emperor Chongzhen. First, he introduced himself, and then introduced his areas of expertise.
Dezag, a Frenchman, has rich experience. He has worked as a military engineer and architect. His most accomplished achievement is in projective geometry. In his early years, he published "On Perspective Intersections", which began to discuss the perspective problem and proposed two theorems of triangular perspective. Just a few years ago, he published the foundational work of projective geometry theory, "A Manuscript on Trying to Deal with the Intersection of a Cone and a Plane."
This man is much less famous than Fermat. Not only was the projective geometry he created unattractive, but more importantly, his paper borrowed many botanical terms, making it difficult for people to understand. This was why he made up his mind to come to Ming Dynasty when he heard that the Ming Empire in the Far East was recruiting talents.
It was not until 1845 that mathematics historian Schaller accidentally discovered the manuscript of "A Manuscript Attempting to Treat the Intersection of a Cone and a Plane" and then publicized it, which attracted widespread attention. Eventually, the book was ranked as one of the classics of pure geometry.
At this time, he was talking eloquently. To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen also had a headache. Although he has the knowledge of later generations as a basis and can understand some things, in many places, he doesn't know what the nouns mean.
However, Emperor Chongzhen was still very patient about these. Although they are not Ming Dynasty people, at least not yet, their scientific exploration spirit is still worthy of admiration. Not to mention, this European had worked as a military engineer and architect, and this resume also interested him very much.
Other Europeans don't really understand Dezag's knowledge, but at least he has published books and no one can question or deny him, so he has become one of the three most knowledgeable people.
At this time, they couldn't help but feel happy when they heard him talking about those dry and difficult things again, and saw the frowning and thoughtful look on Emperor Ming's face from time to time. Did they stump the Ming Emperor now?
It was not until noon that Dezag finally ended his story, perhaps because he was hungry.
Emperor Chongzhen heard the stomachs of many people below him growling, and Fang Zhenghua also reminded him that it was time to eat.
So, he issued an order to entertain these Europeans and continue chatting while eating.
What was a little different from the past was that the reception this time was a buffet, allowing these Europeans to choose the food they liked, and of course he himself could not be with these Europeans.
The buffet was set up in the courtyard outside the lobby. Emperor Chongzhen ate in the lobby. Those who Fermat and Dezag had already interviewed were allowed to dine in the courtyard. Others were in the courtyard without permission. The Jin Yiwei will not let them come over.
This differential treatment can also reflect the difference between those who have passed the interview and those who have not.
What Dezag didn't expect was that after Emperor Chongzhen had a simple meal, he began to ask him questions, asking him some of the questions he told.
Upon hearing this, Dezag immediately stood up respectfully and answered seriously.
In his opinion, he is most afraid that his knowledge will not be understood by outsiders. Now that someone is asking questions, that is the greatest respect for him, and he naturally wants to explain clearly. Not to mention, the person asking him questions now is still the emperor of the Ming Empire. His status is noble, and he is now the first person in the world.
Fermat sat across from him and listened with open ears at first, but in the end he couldn't understand, so he had to continue eating: Oriental delicacies are well-deserved!
The door is open, and people outside the courtyard can also see what's going on in the lobby. The Emperor Ming was sitting there, which naturally attracted their attention, and he would take a peek from time to time. So, they discovered that Emperor Ming was talking to Dezag.
It looked like the Ming Emperor was asking questions, and then Dezag was answering. It can be seen from his expression that it seems that the Ming Emperor was asking for advice, and Dezag answered easily.
After asking more questions, Emperor Chongzhen gradually understood that what Dezag was talking about was probably a branch of geometry that was more commonly used in drawing and architecture. He didn't say he was proficient in this, but he could explain some of the principles and rules in it.
Therefore, after the question was asked, he gradually moved from asking to discussing. In the end, some of the questions he asked stumped Dezag even more, and Dezag didn't know how to explain or answer for a while.
Of course, some questions or explanations from Emperor Chongzhen also gave Dezag a feeling of enlightenment, giving him a deeper understanding of projective geometry, which made him feel overjoyed.
Unconsciously, Dezag became more and more respectful to Emperor Chongzhen, and he always used the attitude of asking for advice during conversations.
Regarding this change in his attitude, Fermat felt the most intuitively. However, he was not surprised at all. Because he had already experienced the erudition of the Ming Emperor, and had experienced similar feelings himself.
In the courtyard outside the lobby, the Europeans slowly discovered the changes in the lobby, and for a moment, they were a little surprised. Later, people spread the word to ten people, and they had almost eaten anyway, so they all crowded at the door and watched the words and deeds of the Ming Emperor and Dezag inside. They can feel how respectful Dezag's attitude is. For the Eastern Emperor's erudition, it is really incredible!
After waiting for a while, after the food was removed and everyone entered the lobby again, Emperor Chongzhen was a little surprised to find that the invisible arrogance that seemed to exist among these European crowds was no longer felt at all. When they looked at him, there was reverence in their eyes, which they had never seen before.
In this regard, he could naturally guess what was going on.
To be honest, in terms of natural knowledge, if they had not appeared, these Europeans would indeed be proud of themselves. Otherwise, those missionaries would not be able to knock on the door of the Ming Dynasty scholar-bureaucrats with their natural knowledge.
Although he has come to this era now, he is the emperor of Ming Dynasty and has too many things to deal with. Although a lot of knowledge from later generations was recorded for Ming scholars to learn from, the logical reasoning way of thinking of natural knowledge and the understanding of natural knowledge were what Ming scholars lacked. Even if they worked hard, it would not be temporary. It can change in a while.
It is also for this reason that Emperor Chongzhen asked Portugal to bring as many Western nature books to the Ming Dynasty as possible, and to bring as many talents in this field to the Ming Dynasty as possible. This can bring a catfish to the Ming Dynasty's academic world and stir up this pond.
Next, it was the turn of the last of the three most famous men in Europe, named Kircher, who was younger than Dezag, less than fifty. Identity is a priest, but he entered the Ming Dynasty as an ordinary person.
He introduced to Emperor Chongzhen that he had relatively high attainments in physics, astronomy, mechanics, philosophy, history, and musicology, and was also very interested in the East described in Marco Polo's travels.
Regarding Kircher's introduction, Emperor Chongzhen immediately thought of Song Yingxing, who should also be an encyclopedic figure. He still welcomes this kind of talent.
Kircher began to ramble on about his achievements, deducing that disease and decay were caused by the activity of microorganisms, and inventing the slide lantern, the aeolian harp, and the microphone. In addition, he was deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs...
At the end of the sentence, he was completely trapped in his own world, forgetting that he was facing the emperor of the largest empire in the Far East, and said excitedly: "...I concluded that sound cannot spread if there is no air. Now I am thinking about how to use the air. Get rid of it..."
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was already very satisfied with this talent. Encyclopedia style is the most important thing for Ming Dynasty at present. Therefore, when I heard what he said, I said smoothly: "You are wrong. Sound must have a medium to propagate. It can propagate in air, water, etc. The clarity of its propagation is limited by the density of the medium, distance, etc. Wait, it cannot spread in a vacuum..."
Hearing him speak so definitely and in such detail, Kircher couldn't help but become even more excited, as if he had found a soulmate, and wanted to continue the discussion.
However, Emperor Chongzhen saw that there were many people behind him, and he had already made an assessment of Kircher, so before he could speak again, he said to him: "We also have a person in the Ming Dynasty who knows a lot about all walks of life. Looking back You can communicate and you will definitely gain something! Next one!"
Hearing this, Kircher was very excited and wanted to talk to the person mentioned by Emperor Ming immediately. Of course, if the person in front of him was not the Ming Emperor and he was not someone he could talk to casually, he would definitely drag Emperor Chongzhen to chat first.
During the subsequent interview process, Emperor Chongzhen discovered that the talents of the other Europeans were obviously not as good as those of the previous three. They were more based on what they learned from books and did not explore it themselves. Therefore, the subsequent interview process became faster and faster, and finally everyone was interviewed before dark.
However, these people were screened by the King of Portugal after all, and there were no useless ones. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen decided to keep everyone.
Looking at them, Emperor Chongzhen announced his decision: these people would return to the capital with him. They would first adapt to the life of the Ming Dynasty in the Imperial College of the Capital, communicate with the graduates of the Imperial College, and at the same time translate the books that came with them.
To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen was looking forward to the cultural collision between them and the supervisors of the Imperial College. Let’s see how much the Ming people of this era can learn from them.
After finishing this work, Emperor Chongzhen drove back to Beijing. The twenty years of Chongzhen have passed like this, and I don’t know if I can spend this year in the capital.
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