Chapter 134 Missionary Mathematics

The Fifth Prince stared at the Ninth Prince for a long time, and after confirming that he was in normal spirits and had not been putting on a brave face or lying to cover anything up, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the huge weight in his heart was lifted off his shoulders.

"Let's go." Patting his chest to calm his wildly beating heart, the Fifth Prince calmed down, let out a long sigh, and turned around first.

"Huh?" The turn of events was too sudden and abrupt. Yin'e and the Ninth Prince looked at the Fifth Prince with blank expressions, both of them somewhat bewildered. They unanimously felt that the Fifth Prince's thinking was too jumpy, and they couldn't grasp it.

Turning his head, the Fifth Prince, with a simple and honest smile on his chubby, round face, explained in a good-natured manner, "I'll take you to find the nanny and guards who can turn fresh milk into milk powder."

The Fifth Prince's idea was actually very simple: since his two younger brothers wanted to learn how to make milk powder, he would do his best to help them realize their wish.

The Fifth Prince felt he might not be able to help with other matters, but he was a local strongman in the Ning Shou Palace. Since there was something he could do to help Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, he naturally felt obligated to do so.

With the help of the Fifth Prince, Yinzhi and his brother quickly achieved their goal of coming to Ning Shou Palace: they found an old woman from Mongolia who came from a herding family and had made milk powder herself when she was a child, and successfully learned how to make milk powder from her.

The Palace of Tranquil Longevity had its own small kitchen, which was exclusively for the Empress Dowager's use and was never short of cattle and sheep. If she wanted fresh cow's milk or sheep's milk, the small kitchen at the Palace of Tranquil Longevity could immediately produce several buckets.

To ensure the recipe provided by the old nanny was correct, and to reinforce his memory, Yin'e had someone bring over a bucket of fresh milk from the small kitchen and asked the old nanny to demonstrate it on the spot—it was just an experiment, so the drying process was replaced by baking, saving time by increasing fuel consumption.

As for why he didn't use fresh goat milk as the raw material to make milk powder, Yin'e said that he never wanted to come into close contact with freshly squeezed raw goat milk in his life. He could tell just by looking at the Ninth Prince pinching his nose and taking three steps back.

The objective had been achieved, but Yin'e and the Ninth Prince couldn't just pack up and leave.

Since the Fifth Prince had already asked for leave from their afternoon riding and archery class, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince decided to stay and spend the afternoon chatting with the Empress Dowager, hoping to get some dinner before returning to the West Third Palace.

Yin'e did this in order to avoid the possible scolding from Emperor Kangxi: indeed, he and the Ninth Prince had asked for two days off from their riding and archery lessons, but they did not cause trouble. Instead, they did something serious and dutifully came to Ning Shou Palace to pay their respects to the Empress Dowager.

With the Empress Dowager standing in front of them, and considering the feelings of his stepmother, Kangxi wouldn't make things too difficult for Yin'e and the Ninth Prince. He had to take the old lady's feelings into account!

After resuming his normal studies in the Imperial Study, Yin'e put in some effort to find an opportunity to contact foreign missionaries working in the capital.

Emperor Kangxi began to study Western learning from a young age and was always very interested in Western natural sciences. During his youth, his science teacher was Ferdinand Verbiest, a missionary from Belgium, who taught him geometry and astronomy from morning till night for several months.

Ferdinand Verbiest was well-versed in astronomy and geography, and also had extensive knowledge of artillery. He was Emperor Kangxi's mentor in science.

He came to the Qing Dynasty during the Shunzhi era and revised the calendar with Johann Adam Schall von Bell. Later, when the Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne, he was put in charge of manufacturing astronomical instruments at the Imperial Observatory in the seventh year of Kangxi's reign. He later served as the Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and the Grand Master of the Palace, reaching the rank of second grade.

While in Beijing, Ferdinand Verbiest designed and supervised the production of many theodolites, timekeeping instruments, and celestial globes; he also compiled geographical works and drew various maps; and during the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, he was ordered to supervise the casting of cannons, designed various cannons such as the Divine Might General Cannon, and conducted systematic research on the "method of accurate cannon firing".

Ferdinand Verbiest made significant contributions to the Qing Dynasty's contact with modern Western science. Given the opportunity, Yin'e would certainly like to get to know this influential figure and meet this missionary who came to China in the early Qing Dynasty.

Unfortunately, in the 27th year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, Ferdinand Verbiest, then 66 years old, passed away in the capital. The Kangxi Emperor personally wrote a eulogy for him, held a grand funeral for him, and bestowed upon him the posthumous title "Qinmin" (勤敏).

After Ferdinand Verbiest's death, missionaries such as Xu Risheng, Zhang Cheng, Bouvet, and Ando were teaching Emperor Kangxi Western learning. They took turns going to the Hall of Mental Cultivation every day to teach the studious Emperor Kangxi about geometry, algebra, natural sciences, and other subjects.

Xu Risheng and the others were quite surprised by Yin'e's initiative to visit them, wondering why the tenth prince would suddenly contact them, the missionaries.

Although Xu Risheng and others served as Kangxi's tutors, they did not sit in the Imperial Study like the other inner attendants, and had little opportunity to interact with the princes studying there.

Emperor Kangxi himself was well-read and knowledgeable in both Chinese and Western learning, but he did not force all his princes to study Western science. In the Imperial Study, Western learning was an advanced course, similar to an extracurricular interest class. When princes reached a certain age, they could decide whether or not to study it based on their own interests.

Currently, in the Imperial Study, only the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince are old enough to be exposed to Western learning, but they have only dabbled in it and have not studied it in depth.

The Seventh Prince and the Eighth Prince are still studying the Four Books and Five Classics and other classic works by famous authors. Not to mention the Ninth Prince and the Fifth Prince, who are progressing even slower, they are far from taking advanced courses.

Although it was sudden and somewhat strange, Xu Risheng and the other lecturers warmly welcomed Yin'e's visit.

After Xu Risheng and his companions arrived in the capital, although their main job was to teach Western learning to Emperor Kangxi and spread Western natural science in the Qing Dynasty, their true profession was actually that of missionaries.

Whether serving as Kangxi's tutor or imparting Western knowledge, these were merely means for missionaries to win Kangxi's favor. Their ultimate goal was to obtain permission to preach in the Qing Dynasty.

Yin'e was the son of Emperor Kangxi and a prince. Even without considering the possibility of his succession, missionaries were very willing to contact him simply because of his status as a member of the royal family, hoping to cultivate a member of the royal family who was interested in Western learning and even converted to Christianity.

However, when they encountered Yin'e, the missionaries had run into a brick wall. They had tried to win him over, but he was blind—Yin'e was a modern man at heart and had absolutely no interest in their doctrines.

Yin'e came to see Xu Risheng and other missionaries this time simply to obtain a batch of experimental equipment. If he could also get some chemical knowledge for free, that would be even better. Yin'e also has many money-making ideas that need technical support!

After exchanging a few words with Xu Risheng and the others, Yin E was somewhat disappointed to find that these missionaries did not meet his expectations: most of them were proficient in algebra, trigonometric geometry and practical geometry, and had profound knowledge in mathematics, art and philosophy, possessing a very rich reserve of knowledge.

However, Yin'e was not interested in any of the subjects they excelled in, whether it was philosophy, mathematics, music, or art, and they were of no use to Yin'e's current needs.

It's rare to find someone like Bai Jin who is so different; his greatest talent outside of mathematics and physics is actually physics!

Of all these missionaries, not a single one was an expert in chemistry or had any achievements in the field of chemical engineering; they were all talents in mathematics and physics. Yin'e was absolutely furious.

Mathematics is something you either don't know or you don't know. Yin'e, having been hung high in a tree in his past life, doesn't want to suffer that torment again in this one, and resolutely says no to advanced mathematics!

However, Yin'e soon realized that the blame for these missionaries' "unbalanced studies" should fall on Kangxi and Ferdinand Verbiest.

Ferdinand Verbiest had resigned from his post a few years earlier when he was in poor health. At the same time, he sent letters to the West, hoping that several more missionaries would come to the Qing Dynasty to take over his work.

Perhaps Ferdinand Verbiest hinted at something in his letter back to the West, because the missionaries who arrived in Qing China this time were clearly carefully selected. In order to cater to Emperor Kangxi's preferences, they were all proficient in mathematics and physics, and had considerable expertise in algebra and geometry.

Kangxi was pleased, but Yin'e's expectations were completely dashed. In a fit of anger... well, he was only angry for a moment.

There was no other way; besides these missionaries, Yin'e could find no one else. At that time, the mainstream scholarship in the Qing Dynasty was still traditional Confucianism. Knowledge such as chemistry and physics had not yet formed a systematic academic theory. In the eyes of Confucian scholars, it was nothing more than strange and whimsical skills, and it was not worthy of being considered refined.

Let out a long breath, Yin'e calmed down, and patiently continued to inquire whether Bai Jin and his group had studied chemistry, what their basic knowledge was like in this area, and most importantly, whether Bai Jin and his group had brought any experimental equipment with them when they crossed the ocean from the West to the Qing Dynasty!

If there were no ready-made ones, Yin'e could only find craftsmen to handcraft a set of experimental equipment, which would take an unpredictable amount of time, perhaps a year or two.

Upon further investigation, the French missionary Joachim Bouvet surprised Yin'e.

Although Joachim Bouvet particularly loved mathematics and physics, he received a comprehensive education that included theology, linguistics, philosophy, and natural sciences. He had a certain foundation in chemistry, at least some knowledge of metallurgical chemistry and mineral chemistry.

Because there were so many missionaries proficient in mathematics and physics, Joachim Bouvet was mainly responsible for teaching Emperor Kangxi Western scientific knowledge such as astronomy, calendar systems, medicine, chemistry, and pharmacology. For this reason, Bouvet was quite busy, and since no one could take turns with him, Yin'e didn't have many opportunities to learn from him.

However, after the initial surprise came the regret. Bai Jin was only interested in mathematics and physics, but not chemistry. When he came to the Qing Dynasty, he did not bring any chemical experimental equipment with him, but he did bring a lot of physics experimental equipment, which shows that he really loved physics.

"Tenth Brother, what's wrong?" Seeing Yin'e walk into the study with his head drooping and his whole demeanor listless, the Ninth Prince stood up abruptly. His elegant phoenix eyes widened, and his face was so ugly that he looked like he was about to start a fight.

Dragging his heavy steps, Yin'e sat down next to the Ninth Prince, dejected and listless, shaking his head: "Ninth Brother, I'm fine, it's just a wasted trip."

After a moment of stunned silence, the bristling hair on the Ninth Prince's body slowly subsided.

He knew what Yin'e was looking for from those missionaries, but he didn't care that he hadn't gotten the experimental equipment. He just patted Yin'e on the shoulder and comforted him, "So what if we don't have it? We can have a craftsman make a set. It'll just take a little more time."

Yin'e sighed: "That's all we can do."

Still feeling resentful and unwilling to accept it, Yin'e pouted and muttered under his breath, "It's all Father's fault. Why did he have to like math of all things? Is he the only one who's good at math in high school?"

Yin'e spoke very softly, so much so that even the Ninth Prince sitting next to him couldn't hear him: "Tenth Brother, what did you say?"

"No, I didn't say anything." Yin'e shook his head violently, vehemently denying it.