Chapter 296: The Yongle Encyclopedia: Powering the Great Ming's Scientific Takeoff~

After the reports from the Agriculture, Metallurgy, and Medicine sections were finished, Xiong Mingyu did not call anyone else to step forward.

He drew a deep breath and advanced one step:

"Your Majesty."

"Beyond the three sections already described, the Academy of Sciences, in its initial establishment, also includes the sections of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geography, Drawing, and others." "But due to the pressing time, and this subject's own shallow knowledge, for these disciplines I have still not found men capable of shouldering sole responsibility to lead them. For now… I can only place them temporarily under my own name to manage."

A faint stir of murmuring rippled from the surrounding crowd.

This Academy of Sciences appeared to be a "place for seeking the Dao," but at this moment, it was in truth still more a "place for seeking advancement."

Agriculture could till the land, Medicine could cure illness, Metallurgy could forge military equipment — these were all solid, tangible achievements for one's record.

As for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry?

At present, apart from the "air pump" and the "telescope," one truly could not see much practical accomplishment in them.

— Surely no one could earn a count's title from the Mathematics section alone?

Thus the failure to find men for these disciplines on short notice was partly due to a genuine scarcity of matching talent, but their lack of appeal was also an important factor. Zhu Youjian swept his gaze across the faces before him.

The thoughts of these first officials and craftsmen of the Academy — he saw through them with perfect clarity.

Those who sought the Dao were, he feared, exceedingly few; the majority were men who sought achievement, men who sought fame.

Yet he was not angry. He did not even feel the slightest impulse to mock them.

All the world hustles and bustles for gain; all the world bustles and hustles for profit.

This was the truth the Grand Historian had spoken plain a thousand years ago.

In an age governed by Confucian learning, to expect the scholar-officials to suddenly change their nature and pursue truth even without an official post to gain — that was not realistic. That was myth, not history.

So long as they were willing to come — even if they came for the sake of office, even if they came for fame and profit — that was still a good thing.

As for the true "seekers of the Dao," the true "geniuses of the Dao" — once scientific concepts gradually spread, once the fruits of scientific endeavor slowly showed themselves, such men would naturally bubble forth in an endless stream.

— Even without pushing universal education, merely carrying out a bit of scientific literacy work aimed at the elite stratum of the Great Ming was already enough to give birth to a very sizable "inventor class," given the literacy rate.

By that time, among these present "seekers of achievement and fame," who knew — a few might even manage to stay.

The rest might be promoted to other posts, or they might be eliminated by the examination and selection process.

After all, in other disciplines one might still manage by compiling experiments or grinding out exhaustive-trial research.

But as for Mathematics… if you don't know it, you simply don't know it. It is not a discipline that mediocre men can bluff their way through.

Do not misunderstand — Zhu Youjian was not being arrogant, for he himself was one of those mediocre men…

After working for over a decade in his previous life, of higher mathematics he remembered only one thing: "taking the derivative."

But as for what method this "derivative" actually was, he had long since forgotten it completely and utterly.

Yet this was not the moment to dwell on such things.

At this juncture, he absolutely had to give his subordinate full-throated support.

To shore up the authority with which the man carried out his work.

Zhu Youjian took a few steps forward, reached out, and grasped Xiong Mingyu by the arm, lifting him up.

"Minister Xiong, why do you speak so?"

Zhu Youjian's voice was steady and forceful, pressing down the faint restlessness.

"The Academy of Sciences was founded on the very day of the Magdeburg hemisphere experiment in the capital, earlier this month. Reckoned to the fullest, it has been no more than twenty-five days."

He released his grip and turned to face the assembly:

"Twenty-five days! In less than a single month, Minister Xiong has established numerous disciplines, defined the regulations for examination and selection, sorted out feasible projects, and still had to arrange quarters, experiments, and a host of other miscellaneous affairs."

"A task so vast and complex — even if you put Xiao He himself to it, he could not have done better than Minister Xiong has done." "With such ability, with such toil, if he still must feel ashamed, then would not We and the entire civil and military court be shamed to death?"

At these words, the officials who had been entertaining all manner of private thoughts instantly straightened their expressions with awe.

"Your Majesty is sage and brilliant!"

"Minister Xiong's labors are great and his achievements high — he is truly a model for us all!"

A chorus of agreement at once rose from the crowd; though somewhat ragged and uneven, and though some of the flattery was clumsily delivered, they gave full face on the surface. Zhu Youjian raised a hand and pressed it downward in a gesture.

The square, which had been buzzing with noise, instantly fell silent again, leaving only the sound of the wind.

"Enough. Let us set aside idle talk." Zhu Youjian looked back toward Xiong Mingyu. "Minister Xiong, tell us how you have planned for these remaining disciplines at present." With the Emperor having set the tone, Xiong Mingyu visibly relaxed, and his shoulders, which had been somewhat taut, loosened as well.

He nodded and began to report on the current plans for the various disciplines under his temporary management.

"I shall first speak of Mathematics."

"The study of mathematics and calculation has fallen into particular neglect in these recent centuries."

"Its decline has two causes."

"The first is that the scholars of name and principle have treated the substantive affairs of the world as dirt. The second is that the arts of sorcery and delusion have falsely claimed that numbers possess a mystical principle."

"These two have joined together, so that the great method by which the ancient sages ordered the world and harnessed things can no longer find a place among the scholar-officials, and both technical arts and affairs of governance have fallen far behind the high antiquity of old!"

These words were spoken with extraordinary gravity.

The former charge meant that the Confucians, with their empty talk, were ruining the state, treating a "substantive affair" like mathematics as so much filth and dung.

The latter charge meant that the Great Ming's prohibition on the study of astronomy had made delving into mathematics a far less popular field of learning.

The officials below the dais showed not the slightest reaction to these utterly heretical words.

Officials who held reverence or superstition toward ancestral institutions and established precedent had, in the main, been unable to gain selection into the Academy of Sciences.

Xiong Mingyu glanced at Zhu Youjian, who was nodding with a faint smile, and could not help but exhale in relief inwardly.

Those words, in truth, had been spoken by Xu Guangqi.

Old Xu was at present caught in a strange quantum superposition state.

On the one hand, he and the Catholic missionaries had reached a state of utterly severing their ties, as though cutting off the hem of a robe.

Yet on the other hand, he still could not cast aside his faith in the Lord.

And as the New Policies surged forward with thunderous momentum, his breast full of patriotic fervor yet unable to take part in any of it — this tormented him beyond all measure.

Therefore, Xiong Mingyu's broaching of the subject this time was also meant to lay the groundwork.

If some later day brought a turn of fortune, a single sentence—the one Xu Guangqi had spoken of—would become an excellent opportunity to offer counsel.

Xiong Mingyu quietly laid down a trap card, and without flipping it over, simply continued:

"By the present day, the mathematics of antiquity has fallen into extreme decline, leaving only the practical reckoning of merchants and surveyors."

"Of the Ten Mathematical Classics, nine are no longer transmitted! Only The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art survives, and even so, those who can fully comprehend its doctrines are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns." "The celestial element method and the decimal-fraction method that Your Majesty once mentioned—these in truth existed in the Tang and Song, only they have gradually fallen into disuse now."

"Take decimal fractions, for instance: nowadays they have all been replaced by terms like liang, qian, fen, li, hao, si, and hu. For keeping accounts, this may suffice, but for precise calculation, it is truly inconvenient."

Hearing this, Zhu Youjian could not help but sigh inwardly.

This is what is called "the earthen pot sounding thunder while the yellow bell lies shattered."

When the entire intellectual resources of a society are drained dry by the single track of the civil examinations, those branches of learning that cannot be directly converted into official posts will naturally wither away.

This influence, which springs directly from interest and is directly rooted in the social system, is far greater than the influence of so-called "disdain for artisans" or contempt for "bizarre tricks and frivolous crafts."

There are only so many clever people; when they all go off to become officials, naturally there is not enough wisdom left to do other things.

It is exactly as Shang Yang's essay "Opening the Blocked" says.

"In the earliest age, men cherished their kin and loved private gain; in the middle age, they esteemed the worthy and delighted in benevolence; in the present age, they honor rank and revere office." From the Warring States onward, official-rank-centrism has become the mainstream value rooted in China.

And the Confucian civil examinations, this instrument of feudal rule developed to its peak around official-rank-centrism, while maintaining dominion—

in the end, locked China into a trap of eternal changelessness.

"Fortunately."

At this point, Xiong Mingyu raised his voice a few degrees:

"Thanks to Your Majesty's special authorization, opening access to the duplicate copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia held in the Imperial Archives,"

"your subjects have at last been able to see the ancient mathematical texts such as the Zhoubi, the Sunzi, the Sea Island, and the Wucao."

"Therefore, the first task for mathematics must be 'recovery.' Recover the learning of the Han, Tang, Song, and Yuan, set its framework in order, fix its categories and principles, and compile anew a Great Ming Mathematical Canon!"

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and looked toward the others.

"The Yongle Encyclopedia contains more than just books of mathematics."

He began to speak slowly, his voice carrying across the hall:

"Medicine, agronomy, and the various other arts and crafts—all are collected within it."

"The Directorate of Ceremonial is already sorting through them and establishing the corresponding regulations and articles."

"In another half-month, this compendium will be opened to all you ministers of the Academy of Sciences."

"At that time, you may rely on your waist-tallies to enter the archive and borrow, read, and transcribe."

"Your subjects thank Your Majesty for his boundless grace!"

Everyone bowed in unison.

Watching them bow, Zhu Youjian felt a complex sense of absurdity in his heart.

What is actually in the Yongle Encyclopedia?

This was something he had always been curious about too.

Nuclear bombs and star destroyers—certainly not. That is merely jesting, and jesting laced with malice at that.

What about calculus and steam engines? That no longer counts as mere jesting, but a story many people deeply believe.

Naturally, those are not there either!

After Zhu Youjian had freed up some time, he specially called up the catalogue of the Yongle Encyclopedia and read through it. He was disappointed, and also not disappointed.

Ignorant fools of later ages imagine the Yongle Encyclopedia to be an all-embracing book into which all their fantasies and regrets about the Ming dynasty can be stuffed. But in reality, the Yongle Encyclopedia is a leishu—a classified compendium!

What is a classified compendium?

One could loosely compare it to a "bibliographic catalogue," but it is not entirely the same.

Comrade Judy himself stated the objective of this book:

"The affairs and things of the world, past and present, are scattered across myriad texts, their volumes vast and unwieldy, not easy to examine and review."

"I wish to gather all the matters and things recorded in each book, assemble them by category, and unify them under rhymes, so that the convenience of searching and inquiry may be like plucking an item from a bag."

In other words, the Yongle Encyclopedia does not create knowledge; it merely organizes and transports knowledge.

If the Yongle Encyclopedia contained calculus and steam engines, then that would mean the Song or Yuan had calculus—what would that have to do with the Ming?

If the Yongle Encyclopedia truly held such things, then the fact that the Ming could still be overthrown by mere Jurchen would only make the Ming look even more worthless.

People of that sort are, in truth, somewhat similar to the audience for those absurd anti-Japanese war dramas.

They infinitely magnify their own side, vilify the enemy, and immerse themselves wholly in the study of winning, until in the end they lose all respect for real history.

Under the banner of devotion, they actually stigmatize and degrade it—truly a wonder.

And the reason this book cannot truly be called a "bibliographic catalogue" is that its compilation logic is far too strange. For example, the various mathematical texts Xiong Mingyu just mentioned—by the logic of later ages,

they ought to fall under a classification heading like Mathematical Sciences > Mathematics > Classical Mathematics.

Failing that, arranging them by dynasty or grouping them by author would also work.

But in the logic of the Yongle Encyclopedia, they are all placed under the rhyme "suan."

That seems unproblematic at first glance, does it not?

But the other rhymes alongside "suan" stretch on boundlessly without end.

Take the character "shen," for example.

The very first entry under it is "Heavenly Spirits," followed by an explanation of Heavenly Spirits—and this explanation is in turn drawn from the Records of the Grand Historian, the Guiguzi, and the two Han Histories, with their discourses excerpted and copied out.

This method of classification makes the Yongle Encyclopedia somewhat resemble a Xinhua Dictionary, and somewhat resemble an encyclopedia, yet it is neither—a complete hodgepodge.

Zhu Youjian simply could not accept this bizarre system of classification.

Later, when he had the money and the leisure, he was determined to compile a Great Ming Encyclopedia.

And it would have to follow proper taxonomy to rebuild the entire system.

(Attached image: a screenshot of the main text of the Yongle Encyclopedia under the "shen" rhyme category. It is arranged by similar rhymes — for instance, the rhymes hong, kong, dong are placed in sequence. If a rhyme happens to be a technical term, then specialized content is generally also placed under that rhyme, such as the character "yi" for medicine.)

But though the Yongle Encyclopedia contains no nuclear warheads and cannot be fired in a single blast to flatten the Jurchen, that does not mean it is useless.

After its compilation, this book was never circulated outside the court, serving solely as reading material for the Emperor's perusal.

So what did the Ming emperors use it to look up?

Certainly not to search for flintlock rifles or star destroyers.

The Hanlin Academy searched upward through the Veritable Records and at last, during the reign of Shizong, found one entry.

In the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, the Jiajing Emperor sought ambergris for several years without obtaining any.

He simply issued an edict angrily rebuking the Minister of Revenue, Gao Yao.

"This is a commonly found substance; you simply have not applied yourselves."

"In former days, Liang Cai (the previous Minister of Revenue) slandered it as something that did not exist in the world, yet We consulted the Imperial Ancestor's Yongle Encyclopedia and confirmed that this item indeed exists."

"You have previously received Our favor — how can you treat Us with such negligence?"

An emperor is not to be feared — what is to be feared is an emperor with learning.

The Jiajing Emperor directly located evidence of ambergris's existence from the Yongle Encyclopedia and routed the civil officials so thoroughly they could not regroup.

The Minister of Revenue, Gao Yao, had nothing to say in reply. He could only obediently beg forgiveness and very quickly procured one jin and eight liang to present as tribute.

After reading this entry, Zhu Youjian did not know whether to laugh or cry.

So this was a feudal emperor — this was what a feudal emperor truly was.

A monster nurtured by the strength of all under heaven.

This so-called super-encyclopedia, vast and intricate, of 22,937 juan and 11,095 volumes, in the end served the exclusive enjoyment of a single monarch.

Yet, by a happy accident, this sort of baffling imperial indulgence gave birth to such a book, which in turn happened to become a "library of civilization" — a repository for those books that had lost their market because they had nothing to do with official careers.

Those books on mathematics, on agriculture, obscure and miscellaneous works, abandoned by booksellers and no longer printed — all of them relied on this great encyclopedia to preserve a master copy. From this perspective, the Yongle Encyclopedia may contain no so-called nuclear bombs or calculus.

But how could its value possibly be small?!

Zhu Youjian handled matters with consistent objectivity and reason, looking only to benefit.

Naturally, he intended to reopen and organize it, to see whether the Song and Yuan periods had left behind any overlooked theories or technologies that could further accelerate the development of science.

"As for the second matter concerning the mathematics examination track —"

Xiong Mingyu's voice broke into Zhu Youjian's train of thought.

"— it is that we must draw upon the learning of the Far West."

I've finally managed to crank out eight thousand characters. Posting one chapter first; after midnight, there'll be another chapter, but I won't post during the day tomorrow — I'm going to pay respects to my ancestors. Not the Zhu family ancestors, of course, haha...