Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1157 Postscript 13: Uncovering the roots of Ming Dynasty’s chemical industry

"Journal of the Royal Society of the Ming Dynasty·Chemistry" is a bimonthly magazine, with only six issues in total throughout the year.

Xie Yan started reading journals from ten years ago. After becoming familiar with various symbols, he could read as fast as flipping through a book. Because there are many papers, if you just look at the title and introduction, you will know that the research direction has gone into a misunderstanding.

Xie Yan browsed through the chemistry journals of the past ten years, and then looked at the ones from the previous ten years.

Next, select some important papers and read them carefully.

During this period, Wang Sheng came upstairs and asked if he wanted to eat first since it was almost noon.

How can Xie Yan be in the mood to eat?

After a while, my mother came upstairs in person. Seeing Xie Yan reading a book seriously, she turned around and left without saying a word.

"Send him steamed buns and water." Wang Yitong warned.

Wang Sheng said: "It's better to send meat buns."

Wang Yitong said: "The stuffed ones have a peculiar smell, and eating them in the library will affect others."

"My lady is very considerate." Wang Sheng hurriedly went out to buy steamed buns.

In the afternoon, Xie Yan continued to read the paper while chewing steamed buns.

He selected some older papers from the citation notes of some papers and looked at them. The oldest ones were even as far back as forty years ago.

From time to time, scholars would pass by Xie Yan, glance at him curiously, and then walk away.

Because the contents of the journals are very cutting-edge, they are not tested in the imperial examinations at all. Only relevant scholars and Tai students will study them.

Scholars from Huangzhou Prefecture, who cares about this thing?

Academic journals have been sitting here, neglected for decades, and most of them are still brand new.

Towards evening, Wang Sheng was ordered to come again.

"Leave now."

Xie Yan responded, picked up more than a dozen selected journals, and walked to the borrowing counter on the third floor: "I want to borrow them home to read. Please register."

This librarian is a temporary employee employed by the government school, and he has the status of a civil servant. He is a part-time job, which not only allows him to receive a salary, but also allows him to study on weekdays, and he is also decent when speaking out.

The administrator obviously knew Xie Yan and was extremely surprised: "Xie Liulangjun is actually proficient in chemistry?"

Xie Yan smiled and replied: "I do some research occasionally. Do I need to pay a deposit to borrow it?"

The administrator said: "No need, just register."

It doesn't matter if a journal that has not been read for decades is lost, not to mention that the man in front of him is the son of the Tongpan family.

Carrying more than a dozen academic journals downstairs, the carriage was already waiting on the street.

As soon as Xie Yan climbed into the carriage, the things in his hand were immediately snatched away by his mother.

Wang Yitong flipped through it and checked it a few times, with a puzzled expression on his face: "Do you really understand?"

Xie Yan could only find reasons for himself: "I have become more and more awake these days and found that mathematics, physics and chemistry are easy to learn. I seem to have been enlightened."

Wang Yitong obviously didn't believe it, but it was a good thing for his son to read serious books, so there was no need to continue to dig deeper.

That night, my father didn't come home for dinner, and he didn't know what he was busy with. Anyway, he had lost a lot of weight these days.

After eating two bowls of dinner, Xie Yan went back to his bedroom and continued to read through the borrowed journals to make summaries.

He wrote:

First, Emperor Taizu left behind the periodic table of elements, proposed the particle theory, and gave the terms molecules and atoms.

Second, Ming Dynasty chemists have proposed "Dalton's Law of Partial Pressure" and optimized the particle theory on this basis to explain molecules and atoms in a semi-wrong and semi-correct manner.

Third, based on the results of the previous chemist, people began to question the distinction between molecules and atoms given by Taizu. It is believed that there is only one kind of particle, which can be called a molecule or an atom. But it is better to call it an atom, because the particles cannot be divided further.

Fourth, there are still chemists who believe that there are two different kinds of particles, molecules and atoms.

Fifth, chemists have proposed the law of multiple ratios. In the past two decades, chemists have been trying to determine the atomic mass.

Sixth, chemists do not believe that gas atoms (molecules are mistaken for atoms) have the same volume because this statement is counter-intuitive.

Seventh, chemists believe that elemental gases are single atoms, because the consensus among various schools is that atoms are combined by electrostatic forces, so it is impossible for identical atoms to be combined together.

Note: The seventh point is very fatal. It led the chemists of Ming Dynasty to collectively reach a dead end. Now there is an academic authority who proposes to measure the density ratio of elemental gases of different elements, so that the relative mass of atoms can be measured. This method of measurement can never yield a correct answer, and the periodic table of elements cannot be verified.

eighth……

Xie Yan listed seventeen items in total, and then immersed himself in writing his thesis.

This is a paper of pure theoretical conjecture. Before the advent of high-precision balances, it could not be confirmed by experiments.

In another time and space, more than 70 years after the "molecular theory" was proposed, someone verified it with a high-precision balance. For most of these 70 years, chemists dismissed molecular theory.

Does the Ming Dynasty have high-precision balances now?

Probably not.

Xie Yan is too lazy to care about this. He is only responsible for writing the paper. No matter how many people believe it, just let it go.

The first draft of the paper was written that night.

The next day, additional modifications were made.

On the third day, I copied it and sent it out.

Next, Xie Yan had to read in great pain - studying the Four Books and Six Classics!

Science students also have to learn this stuff, but when it comes to exams, it's much easier than liberal arts students.

Anyone with a normal brain can pass it and can understand ancient Chinese, history and politics.

After finally getting familiar with "The Analects of Confucius", the second brother Xie Kan came in with a newspaper: "The imperial court has made another big move."

"What big move?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Kan said:

"Split Zhejiang. Separate Pingjiang Prefecture from Zhejiang Province, and put Wuxian, Wujiang, Kunshan, Changshu, and Jiading counties under the jurisdiction of Jinling Prefecture in Nanjing."

"Split Huainan. Separate Anqing Prefecture from Huainan Province, and place Huaining, Taihu, Susong, Wangjiang, Anhui, and Tongcheng counties under the jurisdiction of Hubei Province."

"The Imperial College was established in Kunming, and students from Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiaozhi, Guangxi, and Guangdong all went to Kunming to study at the Imperial College."

"Students from Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Nanyang study in Jinling Prefecture, Nanjing."

"The Jinling Prefect of Nanjing will be called the Jinling Prefect from now on. Increase the number of forbidden troops in Nanjing and raise the military rank of the Nanjing General Soldier by half a level."

"In many governor-general offices in Southeast Asia, the governor-general's rank was reduced by half a rank."

“All existing railways across the country that contain private shares will be redeemed and confiscated by the imperial court.”

"Restore the prefectural and county immigration orders. Local officials must report the number of immigrants every year. If the death rate of immigrants exceeds the limit, they will be dismissed from office. All local immigration finances that were diverted for other purposes in the early years must be restored and used exclusively for immigration."

"Do you understand?"

Xie Yan nodded and said: "Zhejiang and Huainan provinces are too wealthy, and a piece of land was taken away from each. Scholars in the south were feared by the imperial court. Some imperial students were thrown to Kunming, and some were thrown to Nanjing. At the same time, the imperial court strengthened its control over Nanjing. Control, strengthen control over the overseas governor's office. The imperial court fully controls all railways through redemption. There are too many local unemployed people, which can easily lead to civil unrest, and a group of people immigrate out every year."

Xie Kan praised: "You are so young, but you can actually understand that you will make great achievements as an official in the future."

"Isn't everything written clearly?" Xie Yan didn't find it difficult to understand.

Xie Kan clapped his hands and said: "The ban on child labor and the reduction of non-staff personnel are just appetizers. The real reform has only begun now. The princes of the court are really courageous!"

Xie Yan smiled and said: "Immigration is the prefect's responsibility, right?"

"Hahahaha, that's right," Xie Kan also laughed, "This time it's the prefect's turn to have a headache, and our dad can stand by and watch the fun."

Xie Yan reminded: "But our father is in charge of money."

Xie Kan was startled: "That's right. Dad has to scrape together the funds to organize immigration. Alas, our dad is going to be worried to death."

"Are those officials obedient?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Kan said: "How dare you disobey? The superiors have temporarily delegated power, and the government can quickly fire the staff. One-third of them were fired at once, and the original non-staff staff were asked to take exams. Those who passed the exam were transferred to I started to investigate the Zhong family's tax evasion, and even announced that they would send people to investigate, so as to scare the rich people. All the officials suddenly became motivated!"

Xie Yan smiled and said: "It's quite a loss."

Directly fire one-third of the civil servants, and then let temporary workers take a test. As long as they pass the test, they can be regularized.

Doesn’t this scare civil servants silly?

Doesn’t this make the temporary workers crazy?

…

More than a month has passed in the blink of an eye, and the summer vacation is coming to an end.

Luoyang.

Royal Society of Ming Dynasty, Chemical Society.

A young chemist in his forties walked into the vice president's office with a paper: "Teacher, this paper seems to be nonsense, but it seems to have some truth. The students are really not sure."

The vice president was an old man. He put on glasses and read carefully. He frowned after just reading the introduction. After he patiently finished reading the paper, he sneered: "Nonsense!"

The young chemist hesitated to speak, but finally did not speak again and silently left with the paper.

In another time and space, the molecular theory was proposed for half a century before people gradually paid attention to it, and it took another twenty years before it was confirmed.

Because for mainstream chemists at the time, molecular theory was counterintuitive and counterintuitive, and conflicted with their years of research results.

This old man, the vice president, is the Taishan Beidou in today’s chemical industry.

Once the molecular theory is established, it will overturn most of his research results!

The young chemist returned to his office, and the more he looked at it, the more he realized it made sense.

Although this article overturned the basic consensus of all current schools of thought in chemistry - atoms are combined by electrostatic forces.

But it does raise a possibility and research direction.

The young chemist scratched his head. The molecular hypothesis of this paper was too scary. It was equivalent to digging into the theoretical foundation of all current schools of chemistry.

If this paper is confirmed, all chemists in recent decades will become fools!

Fortunately, it cannot be proven.

With the physical and chemical tools available at this time, it was simply impossible to obtain accurate experimental data.

But for this kind of paper, someone will definitely work for it.

The young chemist returned home and tossed and turned unable to sleep that night. He simply stopped sleeping, took out various experimental records he had done before, and made comparative calculations based on the ideas of molecular theory.

Still no results could be calculated, because the measuring tools at this time were too inaccurate, and the experimental gas inevitably contained impurities.

After staying up all night, he didn't sleep until dawn, and started writing letters to friends with dark circles under his eyes.