met free Page 2531
Page 2531
"The descendants of Shen Kuo and his brothers should also present their posthumous writings."
“Compile all of Shen Kuo’s books into a book and have the Academy of Astronomy and the Ministry of Works study them carefully.”
Hu Anguo cupped his hands and said, “Your Majesties, although Shen Kuo is talented, his private morality is questionable. Even if we want to study his works, we should not make a big fuss about it.”
The senior officials of the cabinet and the central government all echoed this view, believing that Shen Kuo was of poor character.
Zhao Yuan was not surprised by this, because when Shen Kuo was enshrined in the Confucian Temple, many court officials had already advised against it.
Chapter 3377 Awesome Person
Of course, it had nothing to do with reporting Su Shi. The main issue was that Shen Kuo acted recklessly during the reform movement, offending both the old and new factions.
Shen Kuo's accusations against Su Shi were entirely fabricated.
This information first appeared in Wang Zhi's "Yuan You Bu Lu", and is an isolated piece of evidence without any supporting historical materials.
Even the author Wang Zhi's son disagreed with this view.
Moreover, it was riddled with errors and omissions.
In particular, the line “Liu Shu jokingly said: I am not worried about advancing” can be said to be 100% made up.
In October of the sixth year of the Xining era, Shen Kuo left Jiangzhe and returned to the capital in November.
In the first month of the following year, Liu Shu passed through Runzhou on his way from Jiangxi. At that time, Su Shi was in Runzhou providing disaster relief.
In just one month, news of Shen Kuo's impeachment of Su Shi in the capital had already reached Zhenjiang.
Either the matter had become a major scandal, or someone had informed Su Shi.
However, both the old and new parties involved in this case are literary giants with countless students and former officials, yet none of them mentioned Shen Kuo's report.
Later, Shen Kuo offended both the old and new factions, and his reputation became as bad as a rat crossing the street, yet no one still said that he had reported Su Shi.
No one knew about it, including Su Shi himself. Only the author of "Yuan You Bu Lu" knew, and the author's son even wrote a book opposing this view.
Li Zhiyi, the author of "Bu Suanzi: I Live at the Head of the Yangtze River," was a mutual friend of Su Shi and Shen Kuo.
He carried portraits of Su Shi and Shen Kuo with him at all times and in all places.
He played with Shen Kuo and Su Shi, but never mentioned this matter.
When the "Wutai Poetry Case" broke out, Li Zhiyi asked Shen Kuo to write an epitaph for his mother while also actively trying to rescue Su Shi.
The entire case, including all the original files, impeachment memorials, interrogation records, evidence, and judgments, was lost to the public due to the Jingkang Incident.
It was even compiled and published into a book, but Shen Kuo was not mentioned anywhere.
At that time, not to mention Shen Kuo, even Wang Anshi had a bad reputation. Who would deliberately delete the negative information about Shen Kuo?
There was only one instance where Shen Kuo and Su Shi had a private conversation that can be confirmed.
That was more than ten years after the Wutai Poetry Case. Su Shi was on his way back to the capital when he passed through Runzhou, and Shen Kuo happened to be moving to Runzhou to settle down.
Shen Kuo presented Su Shi with the graphite he had made and treasured for many years, and Su Shi wrote a record of it in his book "On Shen Cunzhong's Graphite".
The article was perfectly normal, but some people with ulterior motives interpreted it as cold and indifferent, suggesting a loss of the close relationship between the two.
Intimate my foot! No one has ever recorded their past relationship.
Even the poem that Su Shi privately gave to Shen Kuo is very likely a fabrication in the "Yuan You Supplement", because there is no other source for it.
Furthermore, Su Shi wrote many articles about ink sticks, and his writing style was consistently devoid of any emotional expression, focusing solely on describing various types of ink.
Could it be that Su Shi had become estranged from all the old friends who had given him ink sticks?
……
Qin Hui, of course, didn't care about Shen Kuo's private morality; all he needed to do was cater to the emperor. He quickly stepped forward and said, "Pei Xiu's map only has six styles, but Shen Kuo's map has seven methods and twenty-four principles."
"That is, twelve major grids in the vertical and horizontal directions, one of which uses the Earthly Branches, and the other uses the Heavenly Stems plus four trigrams."
"It can achieve a straight-line distance, just like a bird flying straight ahead, regardless of the undulations of mountains and rivers."
"Excellent!" Zhao Yuan nodded and smiled.
The ministers watched for a while before gradually dispersing, and Qin Hui happily took his leave.
Zhao Yuan summoned a Ministry of Works official skilled in cartography to make a copy of the magnificent map of the Tang Dynasty, lest it be destroyed in a fire someday.
Shen Kuo's various works were delivered to Taiqing Tower one after another.
That day, Wen Huanzhang came to see the emperor: "Qin Hui was wrong."
"What's wrong?" Zhao Yuan didn't understand.
Wen Huanzhang said, "Qin Hui said that Shen Kuo's 'Map of the Counties and Prefectures of the World' was wrong. Qin Hui was mistaken."
“Shen Kuo’s Map of the Counties and Prefectures of the World is correct. The wrong ones are the maps from Pei Xiu onwards, including that huge map of the Tang Dynasty.”
"Even Shen Kuo's method of depicting flying birds was completely wrong by Qin Hui."
Zhao Yuan became even more curious: "Throughout history, everyone has been wrong, except for Shen Kuo, who was right?"
Wen Huanzhang nodded: "Because cartographers throughout history have treated the earth as a flat surface when drawing maps."
"Therefore, the farther away from the center point, the greater the map error."
“Shen Kuo’s method of drawing flying birds was based on drawing maps on the earth; he did not consider the earth as a flat surface.”
"Qin Hui believed that Shen Kuo's mapmaking had errors, but in fact it was a corrected map!"
"That's amazing?" Zhao Yuan exclaimed in surprise.
Wen Huanzhang pointed to the large pile of drawings on the bookshelf: "Those are astronomical charts drawn by Shen Kuo, there are more than two hundred in total."
“If you take Shen Kuo’s astronomical chart and compare it with Shen Kuo’s map, you will easily find that the two are exactly the same in format.”
"However, when Shen Kuo drew the map, he replaced the celestial constellations with the counties on the ground."
"Qin Hui read Shen Kuo's book in a haphazard manner and misunderstood all twenty-four directions of Shen Kuo's cartography."
"It's not a twelve-grid system at all. Shen Kuo's twenty-four directions represent the angular positions, and they are named using the twelve earthly branches, eight heavenly stems, and four trigrams, just like the water-floating compass of the mid-Northern Song Dynasty."
"Shen Kuo combined maps and compasses, using the twenty-four solstices to mark magnetic azimuth angles, which was a groundbreaking innovation in the history of Chinese cartography."
Chapter 3378 Descendants of the Shen Family
"With Shen Kuo's map and a compass, you can operate it in a foolproof way."
"That's why Shen Kuo said in his book that as long as you record the locations on his map, as well as the marked azimuth angles, distances, and other values."
"Even if the maps are lost in the future, we can use these values to redraw them without leaving home."
Zhao Yuan could only describe it with two words: "Awesome!"
Wen Huanzhang scoffed, "Qin Hui is too eager to claim credit. If he just carefully examines and thinks about Shen Kuo's astronomical charts and maps, he can understand these things."
"But he took the map and submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that Shen Kuo's map was inaccurate, without understanding Shen Kuo's original intention at all."
"What you need to do from now on is to fill in the blank parts of Shen Kuo's map."
“When he was making the maps, there was a lack of materials and he couldn’t send people to conduct on-site surveys, so many remote areas were left blank.”
“Especially in the southwestern barbarian lands, you need to send troops to conquer them before the Ministry of Works can conduct a more detailed survey.”
"Oh right, we also need to add latitude and longitude lines; Shen Kuo's maps don't have these."
Zhao Yuan laughed and said, "We can start now. Send people to survey all the areas that are already under our control."
“Especially Youzhou, which belonged to the Liao Kingdom at the time, Shen Kuo never went there and only relied on Tang Dynasty materials to draw his own map.”
Map drawing was also a civil achievement of the emperor, and it was extremely important.
……
At the second grand court assembly after Zhao Yuan ascended the throne, the official in charge of rites read the imperial edict aloud on the spot.
"The Ming Dynasty established the Imperial Academy to oversee the three institutions of national history, astronomy, and geography."
The imperial edict stated: "The Ministry of Spring has a subordinate official called the Grand Historian, who is in charge of celestial phenomena and the calendar..."
The format of imperial edicts in the new Ming Dynasty directly followed that of the Song Dynasty, and there was no such thing as "By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor".
The overall structure is in three sections:
First, the title.
Second, the content.
Third, the date and seal.
When the edict was read aloud, no one objected, because Zhao Yuan was restoring ancient rites.
Simply put, it means establishing an Imperial Observatory, with the Grand Historian as its highest official.
It oversees three museums: the National History Museum, the Astronomical Museum, and the Geographical Museum, and all related institutions have been merged into these three museums.
The Hanlin Academy was weakened once again, leaving only a group of literary artists.
Some officials specializing in astronomy and geography were directly promoted to the level of officials in the capital.
Shen Hui, the last top scholar in the imperial examination of the Northern Song Dynasty, was summoned back to the capital to serve as the Grand Astrologer.
……
"This is my compilation of Shen Kuo's methods for depicting flying birds,"
Wen Huanzhang pointed to a stack of manuscript papers,
“The scholars at the planetarium can understand it at a glance. If there are any omissions or oversights, just have them fill in the gaps; these scholars are already highly accomplished.”
Zhao Yuan curled his lip: "Really left?"
Wen Huanzhang said, "It's just a field trip to do some site visits, design the resort, and relax a bit."
the next morning.
Wen Huanzhang, accompanied by his wives, concubines, and children, and escorted by three hundred imperial guards, traveled by boat to Shaanxi.
Shen Hui was serving as the prefect of Kaide in Puyang when he received the transfer order and immediately returned to the capital.
Before the promotion procedures were completed, Shen Hui was summoned to the palace to give an audience.
Zhao Yuan asked, "Is Shen Kuo your great-uncle?"
Shen Hui replied, "My great-uncle."
Shen Kuo's birth mother was a second wife, and his father had him late in life, so he held a very high position in the Shen family.
Zhao Yuan then asked, "Was it your father who published 'Dream Pool Essays'?"
"Indeed," Shen Hui said.
Chapter 3379 Down on His Luck
Zhao Yuan asked again, "How much of your great-uncle's skill have you actually learned?"
"I have a smattering of knowledge,"
Shen Hui held a stack of manuscripts,
"These are all works written by my great-uncle during his lifetime, and some of them are also collected by the imperial academy."
Zhao Yuan had the eunuch bring the manuscript over, and after carefully reviewing it for a while, he discovered that Shen Kuo had been to the Liao Kingdom.
Furthermore, he meticulously recorded the geography of the Liao Kingdom along the route and petitioned the emperor to strengthen the border defenses in Hebei.
Closing the manuscript, Zhao Yuan praised, "Your political achievements are remarkable. In just one year, you completed the land tax reform in Kaide Prefecture."
Shen Hui said, "It is not something that can be accomplished in a year, nor by one person alone."
“At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the previous prefect measured the fields, which laid a solid foundation.”
"After I took office, I personally led people to inspect and verify the land, and corrected many mistakes made during the land survey."
“Upon receiving the imperial decree at the beginning of last year, we immediately began to implement the land tax reform and the reform of the official system.”
"What mistakes did you correct about your ex?" Zhao Yuan asked.
Shen Hui said, "In order to measure the land quickly, the officials in various counties often try to do more and do it faster."