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In the back office of the governor's office, Qin Mu and Song Yingxing had been "quarreling" for an entire hour. At least Li Shi and Niu Wanshan, who were guarding the courtyard gate, thought the two were quarreling. Anyway, what were Qin Mu and Song Yingxing arguing about? People basically can't understand it.
Even Dong Xiaowan, who was well-read, had only a partial understanding of what Qin Mu and Song Yingxing were arguing about, which she had never dabbled in before.
At this time, Dan Wen Qin Mu said: "Sir Song, you are talking nonsense. You won't believe what I said for a moment. How about this? Let's do a few experiments and let the facts speak for themselves."
Qin Mu seemed to be prepared. He took out some soda ash and dissolved it in a basin of water. Then he took out a cotton-padded coat and soaked one sleeve of the cotton-padded coat in the basin. After soaking, he picked it up to dry. During the drying process During this period, Qin Mu was not idle either. He drew several geometric figures and asked Song Yingxing to solve them.
The Westerner Euclid wrote the "Original". During the Wanli period, the Italian Matteo Ricci went to the Ming Dynasty to preach and brought 15 volumes of "Original". At that time, Xu Guangqi, a scholar in the Hanlin Academy, was very interested in Western learning. He translated the "Elements" brought by Matteo Ricci into Chinese and named it "Elements of Geometry".
Most of Song Yingxing's geometric knowledge came from the "Elements of Geometry" translated by Xu Guangqi, but Xu Guangqi actually translated only the first 6 volumes of the 15 volumes of "Elements", which were all relatively simple geometric knowledge.
Qin Mu asked several geometry questions that were both deep and shallow. After Song Yingxing solved one question, he was stumped by the next few. The back office became quiet. When the sleeves of his cotton coat were dry, Qin Mu pulled up and was immersed in geometry. Song Yingxing, the person in question, then said to him: "Look again, now I dissolve alum into water and make it into 30% alum water."
After mixing the alum water, Qin Mu soaked the sleeve that had been soaked in soda ash water into the alum water, then picked it up and continued to dry...
After doing this, Qin Mu was not in a hurry to explain. He pulled Song Yingxing back to the stone table in the octagonal pavilion and asked him to prove the geometry questions in person. Well, they were all geometry knowledge learned in junior high school. In order to deceive Song Yingxing, Qin Mu had been preparing for many days to give him all the geometry questions he could think of. Geometry knowledge has been sorted out;
These questions put Song Yingxing's difficult geometry questions into his hands, but he wrote out the corresponding formulas with a pen and explained them in detail in simple and easy-to-understand terms, let alone Song Yingxing. Even Dong Xiaowan, who was helping to polish the ink, roughly understood.
After explaining it for a long time, the sleeves soaked in alum water were almost dry. Qin Mu put down the pen and said to Dong Xiaowan: "Come on, change clothes."
Dong Xiaowan was basically being manipulated by him like a little girl. These days, she was used to it, and she took off her outer robe for Qin Mu. Under his instructions, the cotton coat soaked in soda ash water and alum water was put on Qin Mu.
At this time, Qin Mu personally lit a prepared torch and said to Song Yingxing: "Sir Song, I will put my arm on the flame later. Take a closer look to see what will happen."
The torch burned brightly, and everyone knew it. Cotton-padded clothes can easily catch fire. Qin Mu actually had to put his arm in the cotton-padded clothes over the flames, just as soon as the cotton-padded clothes caught fire. Wouldn't that be...
Song Yingxing and Dong Xiaowan who were present were shocked and confused. Dong Xiaowan couldn't help blurting out: "Don't..." She originally wanted to persuade Qin Mu not to do such a dangerous thing, but after saying these two words, , and stopped talking again.
Qin Mu laughed and slowly moved his arm towards the torch. Song Yingxing and Dong Xiaowan both held their breaths and watched with widened eyes as his left arm got closer to the flame little by little, and finally stopped on the flame.
"Ah!" Seeing this thrilling scene, Dong Xiaowan exclaimed and couldn't help but close her eyes. She really couldn't bear to see the tragic scene that was about to happen. However, as soon as she closed her eyes, she couldn't help but open them again, and a scene that surprised her happened.
The cotton-padded clothes were not ignited by the torch as quickly as she expected. Qin Mu's arm even paused on the torch for a moment. Under normal circumstances, the cotton-padded clothes would definitely be ignited if left on the flame for such a long time;
But when Qin Mu pulled his arm away from the torch, the sleeve that had been soaked twice and dried was still intact and had not been ignited. Dong Xiaowan could not believe what he saw. Is this a magic trick?
Not only Dong Xiaowan was in disbelief, but Song Yingxing was also confused. Qin Mu chuckled and said, "Master Song, must you have seen it? This is the special effect produced by the chemical reaction between soda ash and alum solution."
The fact was there, Song Yingxing no longer argued with him, but humbly asked for advice: "Master Qin, can you explain the truth behind this?"
"Master Song, please listen to me carefully. This is how it is. The sleeves are first soaked in 30% soda ash solution, then dried, then immersed in 30% alum solution, and then dried. In this way, the sleeves There are two chemical substances in the world. Soda ash is alkaline in water, and alum is acidic in water. After their reaction, in addition to producing water, they will also produce something insoluble in water. I call this thing hydrogen Aluminum oxide, so the cotton cloth is actually surrounded by a layer of aluminum hydroxide film. When the aluminum hydroxide is heated, it turns into aluminum oxide and water. It is this thin layer of aluminum oxide wax that protects the sleeves. When I put my arm on the When placed on the flame, the sleeves will not be ignited.”
"Master Qin, wait a minute, what is light itch?"
Uh, what is light itch? That's not too itchy, just a little bit itchy.
Qin Mu laughed and said to Song Yingxing: "Hydrogen and oxygen are a kind of gas respectively, and water is composed of these two substances... Well, let's do this, I will make another one for Mr. Song tomorrow. Experiments are used to illustrate the existence and role of oxygen. Well, hydrogen is more troublesome. We will do it later..."
To convince those masters of Neo-Confucianism and Psychology, Qin Mu did not think he had the ability, but to convince scientists like Song Yingxing, if Qin Mu couldn't do it, he would just kill himself.
He sent Yu Laosi and his men to forcibly kidnap Song Yingxing. He had already made preparations. For a person like Song Yingxing who was keen on scientific research, some small chemistry experiments done in junior high school would be enough.
After the two of them sat down again in the Octagonal Pavilion, Qin Mu said with emotion: "Since the Han Dynasty, China has been dominated by Confucianism. Confucianism talks about the sea being open to all rivers, and tolerance is great, but in fact it has no regard for other doctrines. It's very repulsive. Like what we just did, it's even more denounced as weird tricks;
Little do they know that everything in heaven and earth has its own reasons. Confucianism’s rejection of these physics is tantamount to being divorced from reality and talking about benevolence. I agree with Mr. Zhuo Wu’s statement: dressing and eating are the physics of human ethics.
As the saying goes, if you have enough food and clothing, you will know the etiquette. Only when the people in the world are fed and clothed can we talk about benevolence and etiquette. If we want the people of the world to have enough food and keep warm clothes, we cannot do without these strange skills and tricks that Confucianism rejects. In fact, these strange skills and tricks that are rejected by Confucianism are the cornerstone of Confucianism's survival.
Without the development of various technologies, agricultural mulberry production cannot be increased. Social productivity is low and materials are in short supply. It is difficult for the entire society to escape from ignorance and barbarism. Confucian benevolence and morality are just a joke;
Therefore, it is completely wrong to dismiss these things as gimmicks and tricks, or even forget one's roots. I can be dismissive of Wu Youdao, who admires Neo-Confucianism, but I have to have great respect for Mr. Song, because without people like Mr. Song, the most basic things that promote the progress of the entire society cannot be improved. People can be devoid of Neo-Confucianism, but they cannot live without food and clothing. "
The courtesy Qin Mu gave Song Yingxing really left him speechless. Qin Mu was a governor after all, and he always treated Song Yingxing as a disciple. However, judging from the knowledge Qin Mu showed today, Qin Mu was not very knowledgeable in this kind of knowledge. He lost to Song Yingxing. This made Song Yingxing very ashamed.
Qin Mu's words gave Song Yingxing a feeling of enlightenment. He had liked studying these miscellaneous subjects since he was a child, but it was just out of personal interest and he didn't think too deeply about it, let alone Qin Mu's. This kind of statement is absolutely unacceptable to Confucianism. But when I heard what Qin Mu said today, I had to admit that what Qin Mu said made sense.
Qin Mu continued: "Confucianism needs to be promoted and developed, but I prefer the original thoughts of Confucius. The Neo-Confucianism that has been derived now has misinterpreted Confucius's teachings too much. I am too lazy to discuss this;
What I mean is that Confucianism needs to be promoted, and the knowledge that is rejected by Confucianism as strange skills must also be vigorously explored and studied to benefit all people. This time I used unreasonable means to invite Mr. Song here because our Ming Dynasty is too short of talents in this field. The only person I know is Mr. Song who can convince me, so I resorted to this method. I hope Mr. Song will forgive me. "
When Qin Mu said this, he stood up and bowed his head respectfully. Song Yingxing felt like he had met a close friend today. He was deeply impressed by Qin Mu's knowledge just now. At this time, he did not dare to be too proud and quickly stood up. Returning the courtesy, he said: "The governor is trying to offend me. There is no distinction in learning. Mr. Qin is so knowledgeable that the lower officials should be ashamed to be inferior. I am ashamed to be inferior."
Qin Mu shook his head and said sincerely: "Mr. Song is wrong. What I know... Well, it's actually only a scratch. I learned a little from a missionary, but Many of these things are known but not known, and these require Mr. Song to carefully verify;
This time when I rebuild Yuelu Academy, I will list these so-called magic skills as an important subject. All students admitted to the school must be involved in this aspect. And I invite Mr. Song here precisely because I want to invite Mr. Song. Mr. took up the position of professor;
In addition to teaching, Mr. Song is also responsible for leading students to do some practical scientific research. Mr. Song, rest assured that I will fully support Mr. Song. No matter what Mr. Song needs or how much funding he needs, I will fully provide it. Please give in to Mr. Song. "
After Qin Mu finished speaking, he bowed his head again, which could be said to be the ultimate in etiquette.
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ps: Please give me a monthly pass, please give me a monthly pass.
.(To be continued...)
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