The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 156 Arithmetic Genius
Tian An held the young master as they sat on the carriage shaft. The young master wasn't afraid of the cold at all, and his clear eyes were looking around.

The beautiful snow scenery of Guanzhong calmed this usually boisterous young master down, and he stared at the scenery without moving.

When the emperor's family members went out to stroll with their children, the scene was naturally grand, with a large army escorting them.

In winter, the Jingye Canal freezes over. If you throw a stone down, it will only break off some white ice fragments and won't actually break the ice.

Fusu led his wife and children into the county. Jingye County still does not have separate pavilions and townships; it remains a single county because the people here are accustomed to their original way of life, and the population has remained unchanged.

The papermaking and printing workshops have all stopped operating during the cold winter. Nowadays, no villagers work here, only some old carpenters are still carving woodblocks in the carpentry workshop.

When the young master arrived in the county, Shusun Tong only then learned of his arrival. He hurriedly went to greet him, only to find that the young master had already entered the workshop.

Now, Fusu is standing by the pool. There is no paper pulp in the water; the water has long been drained.

Shusun Tong walked in a hurry, his wide sleeves swaying back and forth as he moved. He quickly came up behind the young master and bowed, saying, "Young master."

Fusu walked toward the drained pool, which was about half a person's height.

Shusun Tong also carefully entered the pool and followed behind the young master.

Fusu said, "Zhang Cang wrote me a letter, so you don't need to worry that Jingye County will continue to be in deficit."

Shusun Tong bowed and said, "I am only worried that relying on Xianyang for supplies will make Jingye County a burden."

"I know what you mean, it's okay... things will get better."

Shusun Tong gave an awkward smile.

“It would be such a pity to lose such a good workshop,” Fusu said, looking up at the roof of the workshop, which was supported by a huge wooden beam and various wooden frames.

As Fusu left the pond, he added, "Even if the costs are enormous, I will continue to maintain this workshop."

Shusun Tong nodded and bowed respectfully from behind the young master.

Apart from these three huge workshops, everything else in the county is essentially the same.

Upon learning that the young master was going to Weibei, Shusun Tong stood at the village entrance to see him off.

Watching the young master's carriage drive away, Shusun Tong turned and walked back to the village. When he returned to the county government, he saw Sima Xin carrying a stack of documents back.

Shusun Tong helped Sima Xin organize the stacks of documents and said in a low voice, "The young master is not the same as before. The young master of the past would look at Weinan, but now the young master's gaze is not just here."

Sima Xin sat on one side of the county government building, annotating documents for various counties.

The position of prefect at the top is still vacant. Shusun Tong knows that Zhang Cang is only temporarily holding the position of prefect. Once the Baiqu Canal is completed, Zhang Cang will return to Xianyang to help Prince Fusu handle state affairs.

Inside the county government building, the two prefectural officials were each busy with their own affairs.

After Shusun Tong finished organizing the documents in front of him, he found that he had nothing to do, while Sima Xin was still focused on the documents.

Even after winter sets in, the children still need to go to school.

The next morning, as Shusun Tong was about to start teaching again, he opened the door and saw a eunuch standing at the door.

The eunuch handed over a rolled-up piece of paper, bowed, and said, "The young master said that he would like to ask the old master to teach the young master in the future. The young master's name is Heng."

After hearing this, Shusun Tong took the roll of paper, which was tied with a red string.

The cold wind made his beard sway. Shusun Tong untied the red string tied to the paper, and when he opened the paper, he saw a neat piece of clerical script with the young master's name written on it.

Prince Fusu asked him to teach his future son, Prince Heng, his early education. Prince Heng is only three years old now, so it's too early to start his early education.

There is an official seal stamped on the lower right of the paper; it is the seal of the Minister of the Imperial Household.

This seems to be a very sincere invitation.

After understanding, Shusun Tong went back inside and wrote a document, agreeing with Prince Fusu that four years later, the young prince Heng would come to Jingye County to study, and Shusun Tong would personally teach him.

After finishing writing, Shusun Tong handed the reply to the eunuch standing at the door.

Originally, the eunuch at the door might have also been unwilling to leave until he received a reply.

Shusun Tong naturally dared not be negligent, so he wrote a reply and respectfully handed it to the other party, after which the eunuch left.

It's one thing to teach these children, but in the future, we'll also have to teach Prince Fusu's son.

As a result, Shusun Tong felt that he might have to stay here for many, many years, and according to the agreement, he had to wait four years before he could teach the young master Heng.

It's hard to say how many years it will take to teach this young master.

Perhaps this is how Prince Fusu tried to retain people.

As a result, Shusun Tong felt that he would probably never be able to leave Guanzhong in his lifetime.

That's fine too. Anyway, Shusun Tong doesn't want to leave here, and I'm afraid no one in Qi and Lu will welcome him anymore. Actually, you don't need to do these things, sir. He doesn't want to leave this place either.

After seeing the eunuch off, Shusun Tong let out a long breath in the cold wind, and walked towards the county government in his cloth shoes on the snow.

“Master,” a county resident reported, “the people from Neishi Commandery have received the grain and are asking if we need manpower.” Neishi Commandery is not far from Weinan, and to the north of Neishi Commandery is Weibei, where the Baiqu Canal is under construction. Shusun Tong instructed, “Have them arrange some manpower to go to Weibei to build the canal.”

"Yes."

The other party rode away again. There are only a few counties in Guanzhong. The counties that are close to each other are neighbors. Counties always have to help each other when they come and go.

Neishi County was short of food, so Shusun Tong was willing to give them some first so they could support the people in the county.

When Weinan Prefecture lacked manpower, the other party could also provide some manpower assistance to Weinan.

During the cold winter, people in Guanzhong stay indoors all winter, and there is no one in the workshops. Only Zhang Cang, who is digging a canal, is short of manpower.

Shusun Tong then ordered the Neishi Commandery to send people to Weibei to help Zhang Cang.

They weren't worried about the other side sending only two or three people to fob them off. They were all from Guanzhong, and they would see each other all the time. They should help each other and knew how to maintain proper boundaries in their interactions.

Weinan Commandery would not ask Neishi Commandery for grain. People in Guanzhong all know that Weinan is the richest commandery in Guanzhong, and Weinan Commandery doesn't care about such a small amount of money.

After giving these instructions, Shusun Tong was about to begin his teaching for the day. The workshop did not need to be open, and the freezing weather would not affect his teaching.

Shusun Tong was to teach three hundred older boys, who were divided into classes of sixty and took turns attending classes each day.

These three hundred young people are the next batch of teachers who will go east to teach in rural areas.

Since the beginning of eight hundred years of warring states, Prince Fusu once said that there are already enough books in the world.

According to Prince Fusu, it is now necessary to collect these books for his own use, rewrite them on paper, and then teach them to the world.

In the prince's words, books are inherent, but teachers are different; he cares more about the kind of person the teacher is than the books.

Therefore, from the very beginning of children's education, we should teach them moral values ​​and establish a better moral outlook.

Shusun Tong knew that the prince valued this aspect highly, which is why there was the story of the old Qin man.

Today's lesson is about the story of King Goujian of Yue.

Shusun Tong has told this story many times, and he is telling it again today.

After the children finished their lesson and left, someone delivered a letter from the Northwest.

The disciple that Shusun Tong valued most was Gongzi Gao.

For the past year, Prince Gao has been compiling history books.

Prince Gao hoped to use bamboo slips and stone inscriptions to write history books. Paper was good, but bamboo slips and stone inscriptions could preserve books better.

Gongzi Gao was a conservative child; he still wrote in small seal script.

Years of teaching instilled in Shusun Tong a habit: he would drink a bowl of tea before each lecture.

The emperor went to Mount Li for the winter, while Fusu stayed in Xianyang to continue presiding over state affairs.

In his spare time, Fusu would think about creating an armillary sphere.

Ancient people have been contemplating the starry sky for thousands of years, and the armillary sphere is the biggest turning point in the history of human astronomy.

In the past, Zou Yan, a scholar of Yin-Yang philosophy, used a fragment of Guanzi's work, "Zhou He," to explain the relationship between heaven and earth. In that year, the State of Qi built an observatory and developed the theory of seven celestial bodies and six inter-satellites.

Fusu wanted to expand the current astronomical theory to include the sun, moon, and five planets, and to add the meridian.

The Jade Balance component brought from the State of Qi is preserved in Xianyang Palace, but Fusu dislikes the cumbersome calculation process of using the Jade Balance component.

Ideally, we should use the existing bronze artifacts to rebuild an armillary sphere.

The third year after the Northern Expedition, this year has passed peacefully. According to the twenty-four solar terms implemented by Prince Fusu, the winter solstice has passed and it should be the Lesser Cold.

The climate in Guanzhong remains frigid, and another heavy snowfall has covered the entire city of Xianyang.

Young Master Heng sat beside his father, his eyes fixed on the book before him. He couldn't read yet, only knowing that it was a book. His gaze was full of curiosity, wondering why his father was so engrossed in reading.

Two books were placed in front of Fusu: the Qin Dynasty's Book of Arithmetic and the Zhoubi Suanjing.

After watching for a long time, Fusu rubbed his brows to relax his eyes. Zhang Cang didn't need to use the armillary sphere; he simply used arithmetic to calculate that the sun rotates one degree every 365 days, and the moon travels 13.19 degrees every day.

According to the calculation based on the armillary sphere algorithm, the error is only 0.1 degrees.

Fusu knew the answer to this, and he could work backward from the answer.

However, Zhang Cang was able to calculate astronomical phenomena to such an extent without using a celestial globe or similar calculating tool. His mathematical level was outrageously high.

This Zhang Cang is truly an extraordinary genius.

Fusu wrote two characters on the outer cover of a book, which were "Nine Chapters".

When Fusu first saw the Nine Chapters of Mathematics, it was many, many years ago. At that time, the Nine Chapters of Mathematics were already quite advanced, and it should have been further improved.

(End of this chapter)