Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 528: The Powerful Nation in the Universe
In fact, Zhang Shou didn't see Mr. Song at all. It was wishful thinking to find someone he knew among the nearly 1,000 people, unless he knew the other person's position completely, like Lu Sanlang and the Third Prince who sat next to him before.
This was because not all the students of the Imperial College were gathered here today. Except for the Ruxing Hall, the other halls were closed for the time being. Otherwise, if all of them were gathered together, plus the candidates, there would be no less than 3,000 to 5,000 people. Considering that if there were more people, a stampede would easily occur, so the students of the other five halls gave up their seats.
But the compensation for those students who missed the lectures was even simpler - Zhou Jijiu conveyed the emperor's promise and asked the four principals and Dr. Zhang to give a few more lectures in each hall. For the emperor, this was just a matter of lip service.
The four mountain masters would only think it was a great honor... except Zhang Shou, who would think it was a huge chore. Because they couldn't say the same thing every time, it would be too troublesome!
Regardless of what he thought, standing in this spot where everyone was paying attention, Zhang Shou had mixed feelings, but he was not too scared. After all, he was not a 17-year-old boy from the countryside. He was used to big scenes and could naturally handle the situation well. So after looking around at everyone, he nodded and smiled kindly.
Not to mention that Mr. Song thought that Zhang Shou was smiling at him, many people mistakenly believed that this doctor of the Imperial College was looking at them and nodding and smiling at them specifically.
Only a very few experienced people like Dean Yue, Dean Xiao and Dean Xu know that this kind of gaze and smile that others think is paying special attention to them requires long-term practice to reach this level.
As for Director Hong Shan, he was sulking as soon as he stepped down from the stage and didn't notice Zhang Shou's actions after he came on stage at all.
After greeting, Zhang Shou said with a smile: "Just now the four deans have talked a lot to you. I didn't want to show off my skills in front of the seniors, but now that I'm here, I can't just say hello and leave. As everyone knows, I'm now the director of the Jiuzhang Hall of the Imperial College. I wanted to talk to you about the arithmetic classics, but once I start talking about those abstruse things, it's easy to go too far."
"Since the reopening of Jiuzhang Hall, some people have often asked, what is the use of mathematics? In a small sense, it is just to check the accounts and spend within the income. In a big sense, it is just to unify the taxes and land of the world. But is it really just that?"
He paused, his voice becoming sonorous and powerful: "In the era of tribes that ate raw meat and drank blood, if you didn't know how to count, you couldn't calculate how many days the prey could keep you full, and you couldn't survive the long winter. In the era of barter, it seems that there was no currency that is now regarded as a copper-smelling thing. Everyone was self-sufficient and the surplus was used for exchange, but people still needed to use numbers to estimate the value of goods."
"After the Hundred Schools of Thought, the Qin and Han dynasties unified the country. Whether it was standardizing the wheel gauge, writing system, building bridges, roads, and ships, or controlling floods, building cities, measuring fields, or the calendar, all of them were inseparable from mathematics, and all of them were inseparable from those simple numbers. It was these simple numbers that helped people solve many practical problems."
After saying all these rules and regulations which sounded very convincing but were actually very boring, Zhang Shou changed the subject and began to tell a story with a smile.
"In the early years of our dynasty, Taizu's ambition was not just to drive out the Mongols and restore the world, but to conquer the four seas. Therefore, before he could unify the world, he sent a large ship carrying envoys and merchants to the west, hoping not only to draw a map of China, but also to survey the world and look at the universe."
"During the journey westward, the ship arrived at countless countries, large and small. Some were only as big as a prefecture in our dynasty, some were only as big as a province in our dynasty, some were once vast and glorious for thousands of years, and some were once just wild lands, but later gradually became civilized. Some were as religious as the Buddhists in our dynasty, and even the kings respected the Pope of the Papal States and needed someone to crown them..."
Zhang Shou casually introduced the various countries in the west, and finally said: "Among the countries that the big ship passed, there was once an ancient country called Egypt, located in the far west, on the banks of a big river. This ancient country once prospered because it relied on the Nile River. Therefore, most of the people lived on the banks of the Nile River and cultivated the fertile land after the flood waters receded."
Having spent a long time with Zhu Ying, he had heard a lot of Taizu's secrets. In addition, with the presence of Weinan Earl Zhang Kang, who was in charge of the Military Equipment Bureau and the person who kept many of Taizu's old things, when Zhang Shou talked about these things, he was not afraid of others' suspicion at all.
However, for those scholars who had traveled no further than China, they had never expected that Zhang Shou would suddenly describe ancient foreign countries and were greatly surprised for a moment.
Only a few well-read scholars who had actually read or heard the book where Zhang Shou's words came from could not help but whisper to each other at this moment.
Because of these well-read people, many people around them soon learned that this was not Zhang Shou's fabrication, but a true story. As for this record, it turned out to be a manuscript written by the envoy after he returned to China, "Journey to the West".
Because of the information brought back by the envoys and merchants in the past, the ministers only thought that they were the only one in the world, and the other small countries were just tiny places, so they had no interest in understanding those disputes. Ordinary people were also not interested in those small countries that were tens of thousands of miles away. But the students were different. After four long lectures, it was rare for someone to talk about something special, and many people became curious.
Lu Sanlang didn't expect Zhang Shou to suddenly change his tone and talk about this. But think about it, Zhang Shou had been to the Military Equipment Bureau headed by Weinan Earl Zhang Kang, and had mentioned to him the sphere made by Taizu after he dreamed of the Emperor of Heaven. What were these foreign things?
When the Third Prince asked in a low voice how the teacher knew so much, he praised Zhang Shou for reading a lot of books, but in his heart he was thinking, Zhang Shou helped Zhang Kang solve such a big problem, as long as Zhang Shou said a word, Zhang Kang would also show people the overseas information that was not in "Journey to the West". This is not a secret!
Yue Shanzhang and Xiao Shanzhang, who had just finished their stories, exchanged cautious glances. It was well known that Taizu loved to write novels. During his lifetime, many of his works were circulated all over the world. However, apart from the most famous "Journey to the West", many of the other books were absurd. As for the number of times people wrote prefaces for other ministers, it was countless. "Journey to the West" was even more unpopular among the unpopular ones!
However, even the scholars who respected Taizu the most would at most read all of his works. Who would read all the books that Taizu himself wrote prefaces for? Zhang Shou actually read such an obscure book as "Journey to the West"?
This is really to win the favor of the emperor who admires Taizu the most. A lot of homework has been done!
Zhang Shou didn't know that others already thought he was a guy who would do anything to win the emperor's favor. Of course, even if he knew, he wouldn't care.
At this moment, he said with a smile: "That ancient country once dominated the West about four or five thousand years ago. But when the envoys arrived, although they were still considered a big country in the area, the once powerful people had fallen to the point where they were dominated by slave armies."
After smilingly introducing to everyone the bizarre slave emperor system of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt at that time and the several generations of slave emperors, and most importantly, the origins of those slave emperors, Zhang Shou saw an uproar among the people below.
After all, in the Central Plains, although there have been emperors who came from the military and emperors who came from humble origins, it is unexpected that a dynasty would be crowned by a foreign slave, and these emperors could not form a stable hereditary system. They would be overthrown by the next powerful slave officer, and that slave officer would become the new emperor. What the hell is this?
The most important thing is, what kind of people are in the Mamluk Legion, the so-called cradle of the emperor?
A group of descendants of losers who were exiled because of the defeat in the war, just a group of slaves! Moreover, if you trace the origin of these slaves, you can also find a relationship with a certain grassland nation that was once powerful during the Sui and Tang dynasties, but then almost disappeared from the Central Plains.
The records in "Journey to the West" are of course not so detailed. Many of what Zhang Shou said at this time were what he had learned from reading foreign history in the past. However, he was very careful about the butterfly effect, so as to avoid selling out the emperor of another dynasty before he appeared because of his impulsiveness.
Although it didn't matter if they were sold in advance, because they were tens of thousands of miles away and couldn't speak the same language, these scholars couldn't tell who was who. Moreover, which of those slave officers who later became emperors was not powerful before they came to power?
Therefore, after talking about this strange dynasty, Zhang Shou changed his tone: "However, although the so-called Mamluk dynasty was just a strange regime controlled by a group of slaves from foreign races, when the envoys arrived in Egypt, during the most prosperous period of Egypt for thousands of years, the towers built by those rulers as mausoleums still stood in the vast desert."
"Among them, the envoys visited a tower that was said to be the largest and tallest in Egypt. The Egyptian towers were not built with huge wood beams like the towers in our country. Instead, they were built with huge stones, without mortar. It is said that even a hair could not be inserted into the gaps."
"These towers are stacked into four-sided cones, which look like golden characters, so Taizu called them pyramids in the preface. Those who don't know what a four-sided cone means can go back and read the third volume of Ge's New Compilation of Mathematics. The tallest tower has nearly 250 steps on each side, and a circle around the tower is 1,000 steps. Standing at the bottom of the tower and looking up, you can see that it blocks out the sky and the sun, majestic and magnificent."
At this point, Zhang Shou smiled and said, "When the envoy from our dynasty quietly landed and led his men to this pyramid, he met a slave officer from the Mamluk Legion. The officer, who was born a slave, had long forgotten his ancestors. Seeing that the envoy with a guide was dressed differently and behaved differently, he arrogantly asked the envoy, "Which country are you from? Have you seen such a tall tower in your country?"
Such a question immediately aroused the curiosity of many people present. Most importantly, even those who had read the extremely unpopular book "Journey to the West" had never seen this passage. Only Lu Sanlang vaguely remembered that Zhang Kang had told him this story. However, he did not know about Zhang Shou's previous passage about the strange history of the Mamluk dynasty.
At this moment, someone in the audience suddenly asked, "Dr. Zhang, what did the Chinese envoy say?"
"The envoy of our dynasty said calmly that he came from China, a country in the east that is larger and more prosperous than Egypt. Because it is located in the center of the world, it has this elegant name and is even revered as the Celestial Empire by neighboring countries. He then said that although this tower is high, there was a book called "Records of Buddhist Monasteries in Luoyang" during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in our country, which recorded a tower in our country that was taller than this one 900 years ago."
At this point, Zhang Shou recited the passage about the height of the Yongning Temple Pagoda from the Luoyang Monastery Record, and then continued calmly, "Many of you must have read the Luoyang Monastery Record. Although the description of the nine-story building plus the golden stupa as a hundred feet high is a bit exaggerated, referring to the descriptions of the Yongning Temple Pagoda in other books, it is at least forty or fifty feet high."
"After all, two mountain masters who are experts in construction just mentioned today that this tower is soaring into the clouds and is magnificent."
After Zhang Shou's retelling, many people felt that the envoy was indeed a great country, and they praised him endlessly. However, when Zhang Shou told them about the next confrontation, they could no longer sit still.
"Although our envoy was well-informed and well-mannered, the officer was arrogant and didn't believe it at all. He even accused the envoy of talking nonsense, saying that there was no tower taller than theirs. Then he made unreasonable difficulties, saying that you have a tower that is a hundred feet high, but our tower goes straight into the sky. Do you know how high it is?"
Although he had been keeping the secret just now, Zhang Shou spoke without pause at this moment: "The envoy had seen the tyranny of those slave officers at the port. At this moment, the situation was stronger than the people. Although the large ships at the port were strong and powerful, they were outnumbered in a foreign country. If the other side turned hostile, it would be a loss to the country. The envoy immediately decided to win with wisdom, not with force."
"So he looked up at the sky and said with great confidence that it would be easy to determine how high the tower was. Because in China, the king he respected had solved a similar problem when he was young. There was a dilapidated tower standing in the wilderness. A rich man was curious about its height, so he posted a reward, and his king took down the notice."
"The answer is simple. As long as you measure the length of the tower's shadow at the time of day when a person's height is equal to the length of the shadow, you can know the height of the tower. The same principle applies to measuring the pyramid."
"When the slave officer heard this answer, he was still not convinced and proposed to compete with the envoy in swordsmanship. He was defeated again and finally had to personally escort the envoy back to the port to board the ship. However, when the envoy boarded the bow and prepared to set sail, he asked the guide to get off the ship and convey a message to the slave officer."
"He told the man that using shadows to measure the pyramids was not the wisdom of the king he respected, but a method that an ancient man from Egypt's neighboring country once mentioned. The king he respected knew Egypt. He once said that Egypt, which was once powerful four thousand years ago, could build such a high tower. Today, the tower is still there, but Egypt is only militaristic. China, which also has a history of about five thousand years, is still a powerful country in the world, even if the Yongning Temple Tower is no longer there, even if the wind and rain always blow it away!"
