Training the Heavens

Chapter 294 Star Nine Constant

After Zhang Fuqing heard the news, he was even happier than when he first heard that Zhang Xingjiu had passed the imperial examination. The Zhang family finally had a grandson from the eldest son's family, and this was the most important thing.

So the Zhang family had a happy Spring Festival and the home was peaceful. After the eighth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Xingjiu was ready to take Ma Zongwen to Shanghai to pay New Year's greetings to Ma Xiangbo, Ma Jianzhong and others. Unexpectedly, a special guest came to the house before leaving.

When I came out of the house, I saw Zhang Fuqing talking to a man in his early thirties who was wearing glasses and had a goatee. He was very respectful in his words because the man's identity was very unusual.

Seven years ago, he passed the imperial examination and was selected as a scholar to enter the Hanlin Academy. After the academy was closed, he was appointed as an editor of the Hanlin Academy. Now he has resigned and returned to his hometown to serve as the supervisor of the Sino-Western School in Shaoxing.

Seeing Zhang Xingjiu come out, the visitor immediately stood up and bowed, saying, "Cai Yuanpei from Shanyin greets my dear brother Zhouping. I heard that you have spread China's reputation overseas. I really admire you, so I came to pay you a visit."

"It turns out to be Brother Heqing. I'm honored to meet you." He was also a celebrity in Shaoxing. Zhang Xingjiu naturally knew him and quickly returned the greeting.

The host and guest sat down and chatted for a while. Zhang Fuqing chatted for a few minutes and then left, leaving the two of them alone to chat. After a few words, Cai Heqing explained his purpose, "My humble brother is now in charge of the Sino-Western School and is preparing to promote new learning. Unfortunately, good teachers are hard to find. If you don't mind, why don't you come to the school and teach Western learning, and teach the children of Shaoxing to study new learning? I will be very grateful."

This person is very complicated, with both good and bad sides. The good side is that he attaches great importance to education and has made indelible contributions to the reform of China's education system. There is no need to talk about the bad side, as anyone who has a little knowledge of modern history knows it.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhang Xingjiu decided it would be best not to have too close a relationship with him, so he responded, "Xu Bosun had previously told me about the Sino-Western Academy and also wanted me to teach there. Unfortunately, I've already promised my father-in-law that I would work with him to establish a new university in Shanghai, so I'm afraid I don't have time to take on this important position. I'll have to let Mr. Heqing down."

Zhang Xingjiu didn't completely refuse. Educating students is always a good thing. "But if I have time, I can go to the school and give a few lectures to tell students about the current situation in Europe and the United States, and how to learn scientific knowledge."

Cai Heqing felt very sorry, but it was not easy for him to continue persuading him. Yu wanted to work with his father-in-law, and Ma Xiangbo was a nationally famous educator, and Cai Heqing admired him very much. It would be difficult to snatch him away from him.

From a public perspective, Zhang Xingjiu has profound knowledge, and it is a waste for him to teach middle school students. He can better utilize his knowledge in university.

So they had to drop the topic and talk about the details of the speech. Both parties agreed that after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, when the Sino-Western School officially opened, they would invite Zhang Xingjiu to give a speech. If there was time in the future, they could also give various special lectures to help students broaden their horizons and develop good study habits.

After seeing off Cai Heqing, Zhang Xingjiu took Ma Zongwen to Shanghai. When Ma Xiangbo heard that his daughter was pregnant, he was overjoyed and said to Ma Zongwen with a guilty conscience, "Other grandfathers always give all kinds of money and gifts to express their congratulations when they have a grandson or granddaughter, but I can't give this child anything. All my family property is intended to be used to build a school, so I can only let the child down."

"Father-in-law, that's not true. This is a righteous act. I believe that when your children grow up and become sensible, they will be proud of your actions."

After discussing personal matters, the two men turned to official business. Ma Xiangbo still felt that it would be better to let the church manage the funds, as the church had extensive experience in establishing schools, and many matters could be handled more conveniently by them than by Ma Xiangbo himself. This idea had actually been in place for two years, when Liang Qichao, who was in charge of the affairs of the Translation Bureau, petitioned to establish a translation school in the capital, intending to invite Ma Xiangbo to serve as its president.

Ma Xiangbo proposed establishing a school in Shanghai and involving the French Jesuit mission in Xujiahui in school management. The Wuxu Revolution aborted this plan, but he remained undeterred and continued his efforts to establish the school.

Zhang Xingjiu raised a question, "Many European universities were originally founded by churches, but later on all of them broke away from church influence because that was the only way to achieve independence. If we continue to cooperate with the church, we'll definitely run into all sorts of trouble in the future, so it's better not to let the church get involved from the start."

In fact, after Ma Xiangbo had worked hard to set up Aurora University, the French Catholic Jesuits tried to turn the school into a church school. When the students heard the news, they were shocked and dropped out one after another.

Ma Xiangbo then joined them in establishing another school and named it Fudan, which means "restore Aurora and revive China". This is the origin of Fudan University.

Zhang Xingjiu didn't want him to take so many detours, so he kept persuading him. However, Ma Xiangbo was too influenced by the church to change with just a few words. He had no choice but to keep persuading him and see if Ma Xiangbo would change his mind after the situation changed.

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Xingjiu took Ma Zongwen back to Shaoxing. When passing through Hangzhou, he stayed at the Qian family for one night. He also went to Qiushi Academy to give a lecture and answered questions from students.

After returning to Shaoxing, A Zhang had already reported to the school. Zhang Xingjiu fulfilled his promise and gave a lecture to the students at the Sino-Western School and performed some interesting physics experiments for them. Many students were very interested in this and perhaps some of them would become physicists in the future.

The situation was turbulent this year, so Zhang Xingjiu did not travel around. He stayed in Shaoxing most of the time, and occasionally went to Shanghai to continue discussing school matters with Ma Xiangbo.

He usually spends most of his energy on research. Now that the experimental conditions are not as good as those at the Sorbonne University, many experiments cannot be done. Fortunately, there is still a lot of work to do in the theoretical field.

A few months later, Zhang Xingjiu sent a newly completed paper to Nature magazine. He also wrote letters to friends such as Professor Lippmann, Lang Zhiwan, and the Curies, informing them of his latest research results.

In this paper, Zhang Xingjiu pointed out that in order to derive the correct radiation formula theoretically, it is necessary to assume that the energy radiated (or absorbed) by matter is not continuous, but piece by piece, and can only be an integer multiple of a certain minimum value. This minimum value is called an energy quantum, and the minimum value of energy is expressed as: E=HV.

From now on, this constant will probably be called Zhang Xingjiu Constant.

(End of this chapter)