My aunt is Queen Ma

Chapter 131 The Right to Reserve the Grandson's Education

While Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were praising their eldest son, Zhu Biao also left the palace and came to Ma Yu's house.

Having learned from the steward that Ma Yu was at the school, he went to find her himself.

As the reputation of the Ma Family Academy gradually grew, more and more people wanted to learn from Ma Yu.

Even though he strictly limits the admission standards, there are still more than forty people studying under him.

Therefore, he had to transform one of his family's side courtyards into a dedicated school.

He divided the students into three classes according to their age.

Children under twelve years old are in one class, children between twelve and eighteen years old are in another class, and children over eighteen years old are in yet another class.

The textbooks used in all three classes are actually the same.

The difference is the progress.

Children under twelve are young and in the foundation-building stage, so their progress is the slowest.

Those who are 18 years or older, and have already studied and have a certain foundation, will progress the fastest.

During the teaching process, he discovered a major problem: everyone's analytical thinking was very poor.

To put it simply, it means a lack of sensitivity to real-world natural phenomena.

To put it simply, I don't like asking why.

Why do things fall down instead of flying into the sky?

They would answer matter-of-factly that this is the law of nature, and that it is how we are born.

The older a person is, the more deeply ingrained this belief becomes.

Ma Yu decided to break their way of thinking.

So he would occasionally explain some simple physical and chemical phenomena.

For example, the method of scooping money out of a frying pan utilizes the principle that vinegar is heavier than oil.

This leads to the concept of density.

For the same weight, smaller volumes have higher densities; for example, gold has a higher density than silver, copper, and iron.

Then I'll tell you about the phenomena caused by density differences that are common in reality.

Occasionally, they would also assign homework.

For example, finding two items with different densities, etc.

This vivid teaching method is like opening the door to a new world for students.

It turns out that such common things contain a great deal of knowledge.

The one who was most interested in and most talented in these subjects was King Zhu Su of Zhou.

Ma Yu wasn't surprised at all.

Talent is a real thing; some people are just interested in certain things and can learn them very quickly.

The world had already proven that Zhu Su was interested in and talented in the study of natural phenomena.

However, at that time, China was so engrossed in academic research that it dismissed scientific knowledge as a lowly and trivial pursuit.

Zhu Su could only use his hobbies and talents on the research of botany and medicine.

With Ma Yu's guidance in this life, his talent was quickly realized.

However, Ma Yu did not rush to teach him more science knowledge. She wanted to lay a foundation first and then teach him other subjects after a few years.

Moreover, it's too inconvenient to teach only one person, so we should take this time to discover a few more people with talent in science.

We can teach them together then, and they can also discuss things with each other.

Another reason is that he hadn't figured out exactly how to teach.

However, there's really no need to rush. Zhu Su is still young, and there's time to nurture him.

Today, Ma Yu explained to them the principle of light dispersion using a prism.

Do you know why rainbows appear after the rain?

The students all shook their heads, indicating they didn't know, but their faces showed anticipation.

We're about to talk about a new natural phenomenon.

Zhu Biao, who happened to be outside the door, overheard this question and stopped in his tracks, also wanting to know the underlying principle.

"Let me ask you another question: What color is sunlight?"

This time, the students answered in unison: "White."

Ma Yu didn't say whether it was right or wrong, but instead said, "Okay, now let's do an experiment."

Then he first pasted a piece of white paper on the blackboard, and then took out a crystal prism and came to the door.

Just as I was about to find the right angle to adjust the light, I saw Zhu Biao standing outside the door.

He wasn't surprised; he simply nodded and then began to adjust the light.

Zhu Biao wasn't offended; on the contrary, he watched his actions with great interest.

The students in the classroom were also looking at him with curiosity.

Ma Yu adjusted the angle a few times, projecting the light reflected from the prism onto the white paper.

To everyone's astonishment, the light was not white, but was divided into seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Zhu Biao also looked surprised. How could the white light turn into seven colors?
Looking at everyone's expressions, Ma Yu smiled smugly to himself.

After everyone had clearly seen the phenomenon, he returned to the classroom with the prism and said:

"This is actually the same principle as the formation of rainbows, which is called dispersion in physics."

"The white color of sunlight is not a single color, but a mixture of seven colors of light."

Zhu Su said loudly, "When different pigments are mixed, they can become other colors. Isn't the principle the same?"

Ma Yu praised, "Brilliant! Two different colors of light can be combined to create a third color of light."

The other students suddenly realized that Ma Yu had previously explained to them the principle of color change when pigments are mixed.

Now, by comparing the two, everyone will immediately understand what's going on.

Zhu Biao was very pleased. His fifth brother was indeed quick-witted; no wonder his cousin always said he had talent.

Ma Yu continued, "A rainbow is formed by the refraction of light, which redisperses white light into a single color."

"It takes advantage of the fact that different colors of light have different refractive indices."

"..."

"We talked about refraction before. When light enters a prism, it will undergo one refraction."

"When light passes through a prism and re-enters the air, it undergoes a second refraction..."

"Through two refractions, the mixed light is redispersed into seven single-color lights, which is what you just saw."

"The same goes for rainbows after the rain."

"When it rains, the air is filled with many tiny water droplets."

"Light passes through a water droplet and then enters the air, resulting in a second refraction..."

"Its principle is the same as that of a prism for beam splitting."

"Rainbows are also easily formed near waterfalls, not just after rain."

Ma Yu has tried her best to explain the principles in the simplest language, but many people are still confused.

He was not disappointed by this. If popularizing science were so easy, humanity would have already broken out of Earth and conquered the Milky Way.

He is now essentially creating an oasis in the desert; the initial stage is the most difficult.

He could finally relax a bit once the oasis began to take shape.

At this moment, Xie Zheng raised his hand and asked, "Brother Ma, it's not that I want to question you, but what's the use of these things?"

The classroom fell silent instantly upon hearing this.

Then Tang Li, Wu Gao, and others spoke up to rebuke them.

Xie Zheng realized there was something wrong with his words and quickly explained:
"No... I want to ask how this knowledge can be applied in practice."

Tang Li and the others' expressions softened, but they still rebuked them:

“What Brother Ma teaches is naturally useful, so don’t always question it.”

Ma Yu waved his hand, and waited until everyone quieted down before speaking:

"Xie Zheng asked a good question."

Tang Li and the others were somewhat surprised. He had slandered you like that, yet you still praised him?

Xie Zheng also found it hard to believe.

Ma Yu smiled and said, "I didn't mean to be sarcastic; I genuinely think you asked a good question."

"I have always emphasized that when you encounter something, you should not always take it for granted, but ask why first."

"We learn knowledge for a purpose, and it's perfectly normal and appropriate to ask what the use is before learning." Some people disagreed, some seemed thoughtful, and some were deeply moved.

Zhu Biao, standing outside the door, also looked deep in thought; the same applies to scholarship.

In the past, anyone could question the teachings of sages, and even within schools of thought, there were various voices.

The academic atmosphere back then was truly vibrant.

Gradually, Confucius's words became the only truth.

Ultimately, Confucianism degenerated into a religion, and what should have been a valuable learning discipline became an obstacle to social development.

The same applies to governance; it must be able to tolerate different voices, otherwise it will become a one-man show.

However, everyone makes mistakes, and if you don't allow others to speak out, you will only go further and further down the wrong path.

Ma Yu had no idea that her words of enlightenment to her students would provoke so many thoughts in Zhu Biao.

He felt somewhat helpless about the reactions of some students.

Changing their ingrained mindset isn't something that can be accomplished in just a few words.

Fortunately, some students have started to get used to asking 'why,' otherwise Xie Zheng wouldn't have asked that question.

This shows that his efforts were not in vain.

He then said, "Now let me talk about Xie Zheng's problem."

“Using arithmetic as an analogy, if you are only told 1234 but not 1+1=2, you will also feel that this thing is not very useful.”

"What I'm about to tell you is the most basic stuff of the study of things."

"It's like telling you what 1234 is."

"The reason you can't figure out its use is because I haven't told you how to calculate it yet."

This analogy is quite simple, and everyone understood it immediately, showing expressions of sudden realization.

They were also filled with curiosity.

If even the most basic things are this amazing, I can hardly imagine how ingenious the advanced knowledge must be.

Ma Yu thought about it and felt that she should tell them some practical applications.

This will increase their motivation to learn, so he said:

"Here's a question for you. Here's a beautifully crafted golden object, isn't it a crown?"

"How can we determine whether the craftsman has used inferior materials, such as using the same weight of brass inside, without damaging it?"

He paused for a moment and then said:

"Just a heads up, you can use the density principle."

Density? Everyone fell into deep thought, but they couldn't quite grasp the answer.

Crown? Inferior goods passed off as superior ones? Zhu Biao pondered this with interest, but he still couldn't come up with a clue.

Ma Yu was somewhat disappointed, and just as he was about to reveal the answer, Zhu Su said happily:

"I understand. When the weights are equal, the one with higher density has a smaller volume."

"Find a piece of gold of the same weight, measure their volumes to see if they are the same, and you'll know whether it's fake or not."

Upon reflection, everyone realized it was true, and they couldn't help but look at him with admiration.

This made Zhu Su even happier.

Zhu Biao nodded repeatedly, "The fifth brother is indeed talented."

To everyone's surprise, Ma Yu laughed and said, "Here's the problem: the volume of a gold nugget is easy to measure, but how do you measure the volume of a crown?"

Huh? Everyone was stunned for a moment before they realized what was happening.

The crown is very complicated to make, with gold wire weaving and various openwork structures, so it seems impossible to measure its volume.

Just as everyone was in a dilemma, Xie Zheng raised his hand and said:

"You can put the crown and gold nuggets into the water and see how much water comes out."

"If the water volume is equal, it means there is no problem with the crown; otherwise, it means there is a problem."

Ma Yu was very pleased, which is why he wanted to train more students.

One person is short-term, many people are short-term.

Often, when people discuss and work together, they find the answer to some difficult problems.

Do you all think this method is feasible?

Everyone naturally understood the relationship between drainage volume and volume, and they all nodded in agreement that it was feasible.

Ma Yu continued, "See, this is the use of the knowledge I taught you."

"But what I want to tell you is that this is the significance of daring to ask questions."

"If you have any questions in the future, don't be afraid to ask them."

"Especially in the classroom, we must dare to ask questions."

"Don't be afraid of others laughing at you; the school is a place for learning knowledge."

"It's not shameful to not know, but it's truly shameful to not know and yet be unwilling to ask."

"Conversely, when you represent authority, you must also allow others to raise questions."

"This is what they mean by humility leading to progress, while pride leading to downfall."

Taking the opportunity to explain some principles, Ma Yu finally ended his lecture for the day.

The students were very happy and felt they had learned a lot today.

On the way back to the main courtyard, Zhu Biao exclaimed in admiration:
"That's really amazing! No wonder everyone likes to learn from you."

"No wonder everyone who has heard your lectures likes you so much."

Ma Yu laughed and said, "It's not as complicated as you think. I just consider them friends."

Zhu Biao sighed, "To treat students as friends, this magnanimity already surpasses that of most people."

Ma Yu shook her head and said, "I'm not as good as you say. I do consider them friends."

"But a teacher is a teacher, and they must give me enough respect."

"If anyone dares to call me by my name directly, I'll beat them to death."

Zhu Biao said, "This kind of person really deserves to be beaten. There can be no order without rules. Being friends and abiding by the rules are not contradictory."

The two then talked about educating their children.

Ma Yu was the main speaker, and Zhu Biao was the listener.

Seeing Zhu Biao nodding repeatedly, Ma Yu's heart stirred, and he said half-jokingly:

"How about I take your and Sister Chang's first son as my disciple and let him inherit my mantle of political science?"

Zhu Biao laughed loudly, "Haha, that's great, that's exactly what I was thinking too."

“I was worried about how to bring it up, but now you’ve come to me on your own initiative.”

Ma Yu said meaningfully, "Aren't you afraid I'll mold him into someone you don't like?"

Zhu Biao chuckled and said, "My father and I are completely different in terms of personality and views on politics, but I am still the Crown Prince."

Ma Yu couldn't help but praise, "Although I have many opinions about His Majesty, in this respect, he surpasses most emperors."

How many tragedies have been caused by a single phrase like "like me" or "not like me"?

Zhu Yuanzhang was a rare emperor who, despite knowing that his crown prince was completely different from his own temperament, still insisted on making him crown prince.

They even frequently say things like, "If you were emperor, you could do whatever you want, but now I am the emperor."

Unfortunately, fate always likes to play tricks on people.

The crown prince he had carefully nurtured died young, directly altering the course of Ming Dynasty history.

It also changed the fate of countless people.

In this lifetime, we must prevent this tragedy from happening.

Zheng Liangqi had always wanted to learn some medical skills from me, but because of the 'misdiagnosis' incident, he was too embarrassed to ask for my help.

So much time has passed, it's time to teach him some basic biology.

If we start researching now, medical technology should see a qualitative leap in twenty years.

I don't believe Zhu Biao can't be saved.

Oh, and there's also my future disciple, Zhu Xiong Ying.

How did he die?

It doesn't seem to be mentioned in historical records, but some people say it was smallpox.

Although the possibility of it being smallpox is almost zero, it would still be a great deed to take care of it while it's happening.

We'll take out the smallpox vaccine later and give the world a little biological shock.

(End of this chapter)