Yesterday, he irresponsibly gave Lu Sanlang the one-variable equation to teach. That afternoon, Zhang Shou directly threw out the two-variable first-order equation. If he were in the future, he would be criticized by countless educators for his fast progress. But now, facing a group of students who are at least sixteen years old and the oldest is nearly forty years old, he has no burden at all.
You are all adults who have been baptized by the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. I spend half a day explaining to you what primary school students can master in half a month or a month. If you can't understand it, then you are stupid!
However, he did not simply talk about theories, but used various problems as examples, such as chickens and rabbits in the same cage, measuring the depth of a well with a long rope that Wang Jie had given in the last test in Shuntian Prefecture, and knowing the monk by the bowl, etc., to fully demonstrate to the students the flexible application of linear equations with two variables in practical problems.
Sure enough, when these students found that various problems that were once considered difficult were so easy to solve by just writing an equation, they were all very excited. However, when the two classes were about to end, Zhang Shou suddenly assigned a completely unrelated homework.
"Some of you may not have memorized the Four Books and Five Classics, but you should have read the Thousand Character Classic for enlightenment, and you should have read quite a few Tang poems, Song lyrics, and Han Dynasty folk songs. After you go back, recall what you have learned and see which sentences in poems and songs are all from the Thousand Character Classic, and then write them down. This assignment is limited to five days, and you can hand it in at any time within five days."
Other students thought that Zhang Shou was their hard work, and that his purpose was to let them review their poems and songs while studying mathematics, but Lu Sanlang didn't think so at all.
Zhang Shou did not tell him the purpose of Zhang Kang's invitation the night before, but he and Zhang Kang had known each other for a long time. Ever since he returned to Beijing and was praised by the emperor for his talent in mathematics, Zhang Kang asked him to try to open the secret box.
As a result, Lu Sanlang failed as expected. Without even a clue or lead, what a joke...
Therefore, when he followed Zhang Shou back to his dorm, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Young Master, do you have any clues about the fourteen-ring key?"
"Oh, you've tried it too?" Zhang Shou asked with a smile. When Lu Sanlang said awkwardly that he had no clue, he shrugged and said, "I don't have any clues. I'm just trying to see how many famous poems and verses can be combined with the 1,000 words in the Thousand Character Classic. Then I'll try my luck with the same algorithm that Wang Dayin asked me to decipher the secret letter."
At this point, he shrugged and said, "If it works, it works. If it doesn't, there's nothing I can do about it."
Lu Sanlang was stunned at first, then he slapped his thigh and said, "Why didn't I think of this? This is indeed a solution! Young Master, you should have told me earlier to see which words in the poems are from the Thousand Character Classic. Weinan Bo has already asked someone to do this, but because it doesn't match the fifty-six words, it was left aside. Wait, I'll go to him and get you the transcripts of those poems!"
After hearing this, Lu Sanlang started to run away. Zhang Shou's heart moved and he suddenly reached out and grabbed his shoulder.
There are over ten thousand Chinese characters in total, and the most commonly used characters are later counted as 3,500. However, statistics show that in daily data, 98% are the most commonly used 1,000 characters, and 99% are the most commonly used 2,500 characters.