Chapter Sixteen: Duel (Part One)

  That clever girl is not crazy, Song Jiu is about to go mad.

  Three days later, amidst great anticipation, two doctors arrived. They were not private tutors but official lecturers who specialized in teaching the children of high-ranking officials at the Imperial Academy. As doctors, they themselves held the rank of eighth or ninth grade officials. They represented the most orthodox educational institution of the Song Dynasty - the teachers of the Imperial Academy.

  He had almost arrived at the Song's house amidst the warm welcome.

  Only Song Jiu was uneasy in his heart.

  Indeed.

  How scary it is to read dead books, Song Jiuxin is very clear in his heart, so he teaches more lively, and he is only 19 years old, Zhu San is 21 years old, and the oldest student is 23 years old. During class, you have to listen carefully, otherwise, Song Jiuxin will scold you, but after class, he will laugh and encourage them to ask questions boldly when they don't understand something. Don't learn too much knowledge, including accounting, material science, just understand some superficial knowledge, but if you learn the superficial knowledge, you must understand it and be able to apply it. This is Song Jiuxin's requirement.

  Two doctors couldn't help but notice that the person hadn't arrived yet, so they started doing some hand and foot exercises in the living room. In a traditional scholar's home, there is usually a screen wall behind the main gate, and only after passing through it can one enter the main hall. However, Song Jiu's father, Song De, had risen to power due to his military achievements during the war-torn Later Zhou dynasty, so he didn't bother with such formalities. The main gate was directly connected to the living room, making the living room door the main entrance. Behind the door was a courtyard, and behind the courtyard were several main buildings, followed by a small garden that had become overgrown with weeds due to Song Jiu's laziness in maintaining it. This was where the women of the household lived. The main buildings had all been converted into classrooms, but the original houses on either side of the main building were used for storing miscellaneous items and cooking, and were connected to the living room.

  First, the storage room and kitchen were formally separated from the main hall, which didn't matter. Song Jiu was eating alone, but now Zhu San had joined in, so two people ate together. Among his four siblings, the one with the best cooking skills wasn't the eldest sister, but rather Song Jiu himself. In his past life, he was a donkey friend and also a foodie. Having seen and known much, he could whip up some dishes that didn't exist in this world, only slightly less skilled than his eldest sister. However, as a single man and a big boy, he got lazy and didn't want to cook. Sometimes he would go to his eldest sister's place to scrounge for food, sometimes buying some small eats to roughly make do. When Zhu San arrived, it became two people, so Zhu San did the prep work while Song Jiu cooked. The two bachelors partnered up to take care of meals. It was just the two of them, working in the kitchen and then setting a small table there to eat after finishing cooking. After eating, Zhu San washed the pots and dishes. That passageway door remained unused.

  The only change was the bedroom, from the front room to the back room, which had not been inhabited for a long time. It was still Eldest Sister and Seventh Sister who came over to clean up, taking an entire day to tidy up the several rooms in the back. Song Jiu's bedroom was moved from his original bedroom to what used to be Eldest Sister's bedroom. This way, the four front rooms were just right for being converted into two large classrooms.

  Don't worry, but two PhDs came one after another and hung up many couplets on both sides of the wall in the living room.

  All are excerpts from Qu Li in Li Ji.

  Like a young man planning with an elder, he must hold several canes to follow him. The elder asks, without declining or yielding in response, which is not proper etiquette.

  When consulting with elders, one must bring a gift and go forward. If the elder asks, it is impolite to answer without showing humility.

  When meeting friends of the older generation, if they don't let you get close, you can't get close; if they don't let you retreat, you can't retreat; if they don't let you ask questions, you can't ask questions. But Song Jiuxiao encourages students to dare to ask questions!

  The main content of the Book of Rites is about the etiquette and rules for treating teachers, elders, kings, parents, seniors, colleagues, wives, concubines, neighbors, and young children in terms of eating, drinking, dressing, living, marrying, mourning, sacrificing, and worshiping. It's a long and tedious book with over 8,000 characters and several hundred rules.

  The two doctors extracted dozens of etiquette for treating teachers and elders from the middle, which were hung on both sides of the wall. Fortunately, they did not reject the fifteen teacher rules too much, otherwise they would have to let the officials remove the fifteen teacher rules as well.

  If we follow these rules, will there still be a lively and inquisitive academic atmosphere?

  Song Jiuxing watched as the three bailiffs hung up the couplet under the guidance of the two doctors, and didn't know how to refute it. "Ask you, Little Nine, don't you even respect Confucius?" Song Jiuxing was furious, and a second conflict ensued. The two classrooms were going to be expanded for the students, which made the people in the riverside village cheer and jump with joy. Song Jiuxing was also happy, as he liked doing good deeds without harming his own interests. Moreover, it was the neighbors who would benefit from this.

  Two doctors are obviously more welcome than Song Jiu, they are court doctors, and Song Jiu is just a scholar. The two cannot be compared, and in terms of age, the other party has no beard, but is not sloppy in handling matters. They are nearly fifty years old, and whether from their age or attire, one can tell at a glance that they are dignified, elegant, and knowledgeable individuals. Many people from neighboring streets brought their children to sign up. Zhang Doctor and Yan Doctor stroked their long beards as they inquired, but it was impossible to accept all of them, so they had to select disciples. Those who did business at home were not accepted, those whose families were artisans were not accepted, those whose family members had committed crimes were not accepted, those whose family members worked as prostitutes were not accepted, those whose family members slaughtered pigs or dogs were not accepted, those with physical disabilities were not accepted, and those who were unattractive were not accepted. Being unattractive did not mean being unhandsome, but rather having an attitude that was not dignified, respectful, or elegant, or wearing clothes that were too shabby...

  It's actually a test of vision, but in this era, it can be said that it is a selection of the truly good family!

  But what about those young people who didn't get selected? What do their neighbors think?

  The two doctors had never considered it at all.

  Song Jiuzhe saw many young people crying and running away, couldn't bear to look at them, pulled them aside and said: "Draw lots! Before Han Gaozu rose to prominence, he was just a rogue in the countryside. Zhou Chu was a bully before he learned well. Fan Kuai was a dog meat seller, and Lord Liu Bei was a grass shoe weaver."

  "Jiulang, you're right too, but have you ever thought about why the imperial court repeatedly allocated funds to support this book house of yours? And also spared no effort in having me rush back and forth every day to come to your home to teach?"

  "Why?"

  "These students are prepared for the imperial court."

  "Dr. Yan, can you make it clearer?" Song Jiu suddenly realized that Liu Yue's visit this time was not with good intentions, and he was either a thief or a robber.

  "Indeed," said Dr. Yan with a shrug, "I must be strict in selecting my disciples, not for myself, but for the imperial court."

  Song Jiuyi had no choice but to endure it.

  The class began, and everyone was well-prepared. The teacher used chalk to write on the blackboard. Soft pen calligraphy and hard pen calligraphy are two completely different concepts. The two doctors wrote cursive script with a brush quite well, and their chalk writing was also neat and tidy, obviously having practiced at home before coming to class.

  But it was unbearable for Song Jiu.

  That's what I'm teaching!

  The ancient Chinese arithmetic is very strange. To illustrate, in the Tang Dynasty's "Korean Arithmetic", there was a question about calculating taxes for each household. The formula was: 2.45 * (number of households) = total tax. For example, if there were 1877 households, the calculation would be 1877 * 2.45. Song Jiuzhen taught abacus arithmetic, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. He gradually improved his methods while teaching students. If one mastered the multiplication formula on the abacus, they could quickly get the answer with just a few beads. If not, they could use a simple multiplication formula to calculate the answer, which is only elementary school-level math knowledge, not a difficult problem at all.

  In the Tang Dynasty, it would be a sad thing if one's brain was not enough to use, this question can be solved with an abacus by officials in one or two hours. Han Yan thought of a good method, changing the formula, so-called "placing seven and seven", retreating one level and folding in half, becoming the formula X×7×7÷10÷2, no decimal point, no three-digit multiplication, and it came out quickly. But what if we change to another question? For example, 74.492×2.951869, I estimate Han Yan would also be sad. However, is it difficult or not? It's still just a fourth-grade elementary school student's knowledge, which means an average ten-year-old child in later generations can solve this arithmetic problem, but in this era, it would make countless people fall down.

  However, it cannot be said that ancient Chinese mathematics was backward. Zu Chongzhi's value of pi, if a university student today were to calculate up to six or seven decimal places, could he do it? In the Song Dynasty, high-order powers and roots, Tianyuan Shu, Dayan Qiyijiu Shu, Xieji Shu, and Huizhu Shu all appeared in mathematics.

  This strange phenomenon is similar to Chinese painting and Chinese-style flower arrangement, which emphasizes the unity of heaven and man, beautiful meaning, chaotic beauty, and blurry beauty.

  This kind of beauty that is not beautiful when looking at mountains, but becomes beautiful in art and music, undoubtedly has a elegant and refined atmosphere. In the eyes of Song Yu, Chinese painting is the most beautiful form of art. Western painting is like Western-style flower arrangement - although lively, it destroys the rhythm of beauty.

  But is it feasible for rigorous data in mathematical modeling?

  The same is true of traditional Chinese medicine, which cannot be said to be bad. In later generations, some knowledge within it still has to make people acknowledge its effectiveness. However, can the properties of the five zang organs, the meridians and collaterals, yin qi and yang qi be explained by science?

  There are arithmetic books: Sunzi, Wu Cao, Jiuzhang, Hai Dao, Zhang Qiu Jian, Xia Hou Yang, Zhou Bi, Wu Jing Suan, Zuo Shu, Jie Gu, Ji Yi, San Deng Shu. These books are all arithmetic textbooks and were also the content of the Tang Dynasty examination.

  But like the arithmetic problem of Han Yenna, it's all about looking at the mountain but not seeing the mountain. Song Jiuxiao used to learn some in the past, but now he has abandoned them and replaced them with elementary school knowledge from later generations. In junior high school, even if you don't teach for several months, as long as you can pass the exam with junior high school arithmetic, you are absolutely a first-class arithmetic master in the Song Dynasty. If you have a rough understanding of accounting knowledge, you can make a living anywhere, unless you want to be a big landlord like Song Jiuxiao.

  Two doctors brought these old arithmetic textbooks again and taught them in class.

  Not only did he teach these antiquities, but also taught Song Dynasty law.

  Human energy is limited, Song Jiuxi has five courses, each course serves for practical use, now let the students go to learn Song Dynasty law with a lot of heart, what's the point? Are they going to be lawyers who are hated by thousands and scolded by tens of thousands in the future? Or can they become officials appointed by the imperial court in the future?

  Song Jiuyi listened for a while, temporarily gave the two doctors some face, and secretly called them to one side after class: "Dr. Zhang, Dr. Yan, these students have learned law and mathematics in vain, you'd better not teach them, it's really useless, just teach them to recognize a few more characters."

  "Zhang Doctor said: 'Jiulang, what do you mean by saying that the law is useless? The current emperor treats certain people with courtesy and etiquette, yet you say that studying the law has no use!'"

  Dr. Yan's face turned even darker, saying: "Jiulang, so you're saying that you are more brilliant than those arithmetic sages of the past? Or is this foreign learning of yours even more brilliant than Chinese learning?"

  "What's an outsider? It's just a simplified code for convenience of calculation."

  "You think we don't know it's a foreign devil number!"

  Arabic numerals were not created by Arabs, but originated from India. After the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate, they saw how useful it was and adopted it, gradually promoting it to all parts of the world. However, Chinese civilization was too advanced, and it was easy for water to flow downhill, but difficult to pump uphill, so it appeared in China very slowly. But during the Song Dynasty, some Jewish people who had come to the capital city for various reasons recognized 1234, while Zhao Kuangyi did not.

  As for the English letters, they are still being searched for, so Dr. Yan is one by one foreigner. This debate was fruitless, and not only that, but they also spread some rumors in class, these students are not a few years old children, some are around 20 years old, and they all understand, Song Jiu teaches foreign mathematics, and the two doctors come to teach them is the meaning of the imperial court, it is possible that in the future the imperial court will select some people from this batch of students to serve the imperial court, what to do with them, the two are tight-lipped. Then Song Jiu is always making things difficult for them!

  Rumors spread beforehand, countless big moms and aunts surrounded Song Jiu. "Song Jiu, you can't be disrespectful to your elders." "Song Jiu, he's a doctoral scholar from the imperial court, his learning is better than yours." "Song Jiu..."

  Even two PhDs mobilized students to tidy up the small garden behind, sometimes inviting a few good friends to sit in the small pavilion of the small garden to eat and chat, isn't it delightful? If this continues, the whole thing will be like a magpie occupying a dove's nest.

  There are still two doctoral theses, and sometimes listening to them talk about scriptures, including Zhu San and Song Jiu, also feel benefited. But thinking about what they taught, not thinking about what they didn't teach, but teaching with great pleasure. Song Jiu couldn't bear it anymore and finally made a counterattack.