What happened to the doubters who put forward the theory of subversion in modern China?

The American magazine Nature is a very academic magazine. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific magazines in the world. Although there are many theories published by China people in this magazine, who would have thought that in the Qing Dynasty, which we thought was backward, a China person actually published an article on it, and even built the first warship and science and technology school in China, and then translated the periodic table of elements and created a large number of Chinese characters?

His name is Xu Shou, No.,from Wuxi, Jiangsu. When he was a child, he was very clever, liked some crafts and loved reading. He likes reading all kinds of books and often has some very original opinions. His neighbors praised him as a scholar since he was a child, and he will become a great scholar in the future. So at the age of the imperial examination, he took part in the imperial examination, and then no matter how he took the exam, the scholar failed. And the reason he gave was: "How can stereotyped writing be used for jade?" (Wuxi dialect is probably like this? ) I won't learn! "

At that time, the imperial examination was king, but he gave up the opportunity of imperial examination and being an official and began to study the way to apply for the world. But at that time, there were four books and five classics everywhere, and other books were hard to find. However, when others were studying The Book of Songs and The Spring and Autumn Annals, he began to study mountains and rivers, water conservancy, natural products, astronomy and other knowledge. As long as he thinks it is useful, he will learn everything.

Sometimes he has to test some of his learning achievements, so he often makes some simple machines based on what he has learned, such as compasses, quadrants, chimes and so on. He made all these by himself. But what really makes him a great god is not these homemade things, but various musical instruments. Yes, this great god's research on musical instruments is different from that of ordinary people, and he can also make many ancient musical instruments.

Once, he repaired the lyre in the city, and it didn't look like a simple repairman when he repaired it. He is generous in speech and skilled, and he is a typical craftsman in others' eyes, and the way he repaired it was seen by Hua Yilun, a juren who was looking for a playmate and teacher for his son at that time. His usual job is nothing more than reading and playing with children. So Xu Shou was invited to visit. He is 65,438+05 years older than Hua Yilong's son. However, after they met, they found that they had the same interests and hobbies, and they both met for a short time, so they began to explore together on the road of science.

Later, they went to Shanghai and saw a book, A New Collection of Natural History, which was the first book in which western science and technology entered China. It contains many sciences and technologies that they have never seen before, such as physical chemistry, astronomy, biology and so on. For the Qing dynasty, which was hundreds of years behind, this book is like a science fiction movie we are watching now, driving a flying car to work on the moon. They want nothing. After these two books were bought home, they began to study them again and again, and even began to restore them according to the schematic diagram inside.

However, these advanced technologies not only did not exist in the Qing dynasty, but even made nothing, so Xu Shou said that we made nothing ourselves, so we used a crystal seal to grind out a prism. He didn't understand the principle of steam engine and ran to the foreigner's boat to follow. To put it bluntly, the Qing Dynasty was still an agricultural civilization. At that time, everyone was a man plowing and a woman knitting. Only he works at home all day, occasionally catching fire and exploding. So those who praised him now feel, "This man is hopeless, wait for death."

With the recommendation of time, the Qing court also learned about such a group of people. It is as difficult for them to know whether they want to know or not as it is to engage in terrorist attacks every day. Shortly after the defeat of the Opium War, the Westernization School said it would learn from foreigners, run factories and run new schools, but the officials were all stereotyped Party writing and didn't know these advanced things. At this time, everyone thought of Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Zuo, Zeng Guofan and Xu Shou. The first four bosses said, "We don't know much. Let Xu Shou come."

So in March of 1862, Xu Shou, Hua and Xu Shou's son Xu began to work here. The first thing they decided to make was a steamboat. After all, at this time, foreigners drive steamboats across our river every day, while we only use small boats with paddles, and we are humbled to think about it. So Xu Shou followed the drawings he saw in New Natural History, and then went to a foreigner's boat to study for a day. Three months later, he built a steam engine.

1864, ordnance institute moved to Nanjing. Two years later, Xu Shou and Hua Jian built the first steam-powered ship "Huanggu" in China. You know, they don't have parts and tools, they do everything by themselves, and all unqualified products are rejected by one file. On the day when the ship was launched, Emperor Tongzhi also wrote a plaque: The best craftsman in the world. As a result, Xu Shou was so angry that he immediately removed the plaque (after all, he dared not smash it). He said: "Others have been sailing outside for more than half a century! You are not afraid of foreigners' jokes! "

1866, at the request of Li Hongzhang, the first warship "Huiji" in China in modern times was built, and then the warships "Jiang Cao" and "Deep Sea" were built. But at this time, he proposed to learn advanced foreign language books, and Zeng Guofan flatly refused, so he decided that I would not wait on him, and I would translate myself and not learn which line! But when translating some books, Zeng Guofan said, "Boss, I'll build a translation hall for you, so you can do more."

So the translation hall of Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration was born, and Xu Shou was appointed as the general manager. He still invited his good friend and his son, and invited two foreigners to help him. In 17, he translated 13 works, including most of the chemical theories and knowledge we are studying now, and he also constantly translated the periodic table from Romance. In order to show these elements well, he also created many new Chinese characters himself. These Chinese characters have been used to this day. To tell the truth, without his powerful translation ability, we would still recite romaji's periodic table, which is more than three times more difficult.

188 1 year, one of his Textual Research on Laws and Lyrics corrected Bernoulli's Law and was published in the top American journal Nature. This is the first article published by China, which shocked the whole editorial department and gave Americans a very contradictory understanding of the beginning of that year. After his death, his son began to help him complete his unfinished mission. No matter he developed sulfuric acid, he also helped Beiyang Navy buy Dingyuan and Zhenyuan and organized a gunpowder bureau. But in the end, his son died in a factory accident.

Xu Shou, though not admitted as a scholar at that time, held up half the sky of modern science and technology in China. His inventions with his old friends and his son helped China survive the modern war, and his ideas and the school he founded still benefit us today. Such a god was born in the Qing Dynasty, which made many people wonder if he was a modern man.