In modern times, the five elements are far away from reality. In ancient times, the yin and yang and the five elements were ubiquitous in daily life. The five elements could correspond to the four directions, the four seasons, the sky, the earth, and even the court departments.
Five colors, five tones, etc.
Therefore, there are rules for what color corresponds to a certain department. If it is not mentioned, forget it. When you need to use it, you will generally use this color. It is almost common sense.
What He Xi did was obviously uneducated in the eyes of the ancients.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care much about these things and asked calmly: "Have you eaten?"
He Xi said: "I just ate."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Then let's get to work." Zhu Yuanzhang had already eaten his breakfast in a hurry when he came back from the next court.
Zhu Yuanzhang sat in his seat and asked everyone around him to go out. He asked He Xi to bring over all the memorials behind the red sign.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the abbreviation above and compared it with the content inside. He suddenly said: "What you talked about yesterday about eunuchs having power. Is this it?"
He Xi didn't react at first. After thinking about it, he realized that indeed, what He Xi was doing now was actually what the eunuch, the eunuch, was doing. He Xi said, "I don't know. Look at what it says in the literature.
Probably."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "What should we do according to the cabinet system?"
He Xi said: "These memorials should be sent to the cabinet, and let the academicians formulate a handling opinion. Then send them back to Zhu for approval."
Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was slightly louder and he said: "Someone, please send these memorials to the great scholar of the Song Dynasty and ask him to formulate an opinion."
Xu Zheng came in immediately and took these memorials away with several young eunuchs.
The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang did this was that on the one hand, he was a little confused. From the time he saw He Xi to now, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have not changed at all. But inside, he was extremely confused. He was somewhat uninterested in government affairs. On the other hand, he also wanted to watch
Look, what does the cabinet system used by his descendants look like?
Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the throne and said: "Tell me what technology is today?"
He Xi couldn't help but yawned and said: "Technology, in the ancient context, is the investigation of things."
"Gewu?" Zhu Yuanzhang said.
"Yes." He Xi said: "Through research and experiments, we can obtain the basic laws of the real world, and then use these laws to create items that can achieve certain effects. The former is science, and the latter is technology."
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were a little confused. He seemed to understand, but he seemed not to understand.
He Xi thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, you may have read Xunzi's works and used them to control the way of heaven."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Of course I have read it."
He Xi said: "Understanding the way of heaven itself is scientific research, and using it to control the way of heaven is specific technology."
Zhu Yuanzhang was trembling in his heart and thought to himself: "Have future generations reached this point?"
This is caused by different understandings of the way of heaven. In He Xi's view, the way of heaven and the basic laws of physics can be drawn together. But in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, the way of heaven expresses the will of God, and there are too many illusory aspects.
.
From the way of tomorrow to the way of controlling heaven, what a great power it is. It is simply unbelievable.
Zhu Yuanzhang became serious and said: "How to understand the way of heaven? How to control the way of heaven and use it?"
He Xi said: "First of all, we must determine the premise of science, that is, the world is real, the world has laws, the world has causal relationships, and the world can be understood and recognized. After having these premises, use reason to understand and explain.
"
Zhu Yuanzhang listened very hard.
On the one hand, it is difficult because these things are inherently difficult. On the other hand, He Xi's choice of words and sentences is different from that of this era. Zhu Yuanzhang had obstacles in understanding.
"Does rationality refer to Neo-Confucianism?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.
He Xi said: "Of course it is not the concept of rationality. It should correspond to logic."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Logic?"
He Xi said: "It is similar to the theories of famous scholars, but it is deeper in deduction. It is also the foundation of all Western theories."
It took a while for He Xi to explain clearly to Zhu Yuanzhang what logic and a syllogism were. However, He Xi also found that Zhu Yuanzhang was not happy to listen.
It's hard on both sides.
For He Xi, science has become something that is taken for granted. It is something that can be used at any time, and it is the premise of many judgments. It is something that is done without thinking. Now let He Xi explain in detail what science is and what science is? This is a bit difficult.
Why Xi.
Even some of the premises of science are things that are known to women and children in later generations. But Zhu Yuanzhang had to reinterpret them here.
But it won’t work if you don’t explain it. If you don’t explain the premise clearly, the so-called science behind it will not be established.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was fifty years old, and it was no longer time to learn things. It was even more difficult to understand these conceptual and abstract things. After all, the various schools of thought that Zhu Yuanzhang had studied before had not much in common with science. Zhu Yuanzhang
The previous accumulation could not help him understand what He Xi said. Instead, it added many obstacles.
The harder Zhu Yuanzhang thought, the more he felt that things like logic and syllogism were just taking off his pants and farting. It was unnecessary. It was just a word game.
If so, what can it do?
Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang was a little impatient, He Xi immediately omitted the basic scientific premise. He said: "The first element is to have universal significance, the second is to be repeatable, and the third is to have quantitative standards. The most direct scientific method
, it’s the experimental method.”
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "What experiment?"
He Xi looked at the paper on hand and saw a tea cup next to it. Fill the tea cup, then cover it with a piece of paper and turn it over. The tea cup did not leak water. This is a very classic primary school student experiment. He Xi said: "This is
A very simple experiment."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "It's just a cover-up, a little trick."
He Xi said: "No, this experiment actually proves the existence of atmospheric pressure. The world we live in seems to have nothing. But there is this atmosphere. The atmosphere is everywhere. But we are like fish in the water, we can't feel it.
Just arrived."
Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out his hand, as if he wanted to touch the so-called atmosphere. But when his fingers touched it, there was nothing.
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "What's the use of this?"
This is also the pragmatism of the Chinese people. No matter what theory, the first thing to ask is whether it is useful.
He Xi said: "Now that we understand this principle, we can deduce that a ship can sail in the air. Water and the atmosphere are both media, and the ship can float on the water. That is because the ship is lighter than water. And looking for
A substance that is lighter than the atmosphere. Can't it rise in the atmosphere?"
Silent, Zhu Yuanzhang was silent again. He seemed to be thinking hard about the ship floating in the sky. He thought to himself: "Is it a Xingcha?" Xingcha is a ship in mythology that can drift into the Milky Way.
"You did it?" Zhu Yuanzhang said.
He Xi said: "Your Majesty said that it is not difficult to make a flying ship. It has been done a long time ago. Even if you give me enough conditions, I can build it in the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his temples. He felt that when he was talking to He Xi, his brain could not keep up with his thoughts. He said: "Stop talking about this. You just need to tell me. What was the most powerful weapon of your time?"
He Xi said: "In terms of weapons, the most powerful weapon should be a nuclear bomb. It only takes one to destroy the entire city of Nanjing."
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and said: "This is impossible."
He Xi said: "The development of science often exceeds people's imagination. During World War II, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, destroying two cities. A total of hundreds of thousands of people were killed. And
In the following decades, the power of nuclear bombs increased rapidly. When I came, the nuclear powers had more than 10,000 nuclear weapons, but they did not dare to use them because once used, it would destroy the world."
"And there are intercontinental missiles that can hit anywhere on the earth within an hour or two."
The shock on Zhu Yuanzhang's face could no longer be concealed.
Many people think that people's imagination can run wild. But for most people, their imagination is limited by reality. They may be able to exaggerate, distort, deform, and analogize things in reality.
Imagine it as something else. But the cornerstone of this imagination is reality.
Zhuang Zhou dreamed of butterflies when he saw them, not the other way around.
Zhu Yuanzhang could not imagine what a bomb that would destroy the world would look like.
After all, in Zhu Yuanzhang's impression, so-called firearms and so-called bombs are just primitive firearms. The ratio of gunpowder in them is no better than some firecrackers of later generations.
Not to mention, it could hit anywhere in the world within an hour or two.
The world that Zhu Yuanzhang understood was not the earth. Although He Xi had already explained to him what the earth was before, some concepts in people are deeply ingrained and difficult to change. At this time, the world that Zhu Yuanzhang first thought of was,
It was just around the Ming Dynasty, plus at most a few vassal states.
But even within two hours, hitting all places within this range was beyond Zhu Yuanzhang's imagination.
Zhu Yuanzhang then looked at He Xi with bright eyes, his eyes full of hope, and said: "Can you build this nuclear bomb and missile?"
He Xi did not dare to take this job. He said with a bit of laughter and tears: "This is a state secret. It is not something that an ordinary citizen like me can know." Although there are atomic bomb schematics on the Internet. "Now even if I knew it, it would be impossible.
Build it. What is needed behind this is the entire national system, tens of thousands of engineers, tens of millions of workers and soldiers. It is not something that one person can do. It is not a concept like building a spaceship before."
