Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 68: Teaching and Making Trouble
Seeing that the old lady seemed to be both sad and happy, and listening to the old story being brought up again, Mother Li hurriedly comforted her, "In short, it is because of the old lady's protective heart and the master's kindness that we have achieved the best result now."
"Over the years, I have always treated Yingying as my granddaughter, and Concubine Yu has been very kind to Princess Yongping. Fortunately, Zhang Shou is now healthy and handsome, and his mother has fought hard to give birth to him. Alas, Concubine Yu feels guilty about leaving him in the countryside, and Jiu Niang had a big fight with Jing'er and me, thinking that he should be raised in the mansion. She was annoyed that my mother and I were ruthless, so she retreated to Zhaoming Temple to practice Buddhism, and even refused to see Yingying."
"The Emperor and Jing'er have thoroughly investigated the widow Zhang's husband's family and her ancestors, and have checked the midwife, Mrs. Wu, and the entire street. There was no other pregnant woman and child on that day, so it must be a scholar's wife. If it weren't for the chaos, she should have been able to live a stable life with her child and be content with her small fortune. Alas."
At this point, the Madam suddenly became angry: "So, let alone Zhang Shou's disciple who only ranked seventh in the prefectural exam, even if he ranked first, he deserves it! The great disciple of Master Ge can't even get first place in a small prefectural exam? Those corrupt scholars are now clamoring to close the border and not allow foreign scholars to enter. They think that those outside are all foreign barbarians. God knows what they are afraid of?"
"Perhaps they were afraid that Emperor Taizu, who sailed overseas after his abdication, did not die in the shipwreck, but instead gave birth to another clan overseas!"
This time, Mother Li was silent as a cicada and dared not speak again.
In the east wing, Zhang Shou listened to Qi Liang's roughly complete retelling of several articles, and then he paced back and forth in the room, stroking his chin thoughtfully. However, what surprised him most was the math problem asked by Wang Fuyin.
The depth of the well is unknown. If the rope is folded in three parts and then thrown into the well, there will be four feet of rope left outside the well. If the rope is folded in four parts and then thrown into the well, there will be only one foot of rope left outside the well. How deep is the well?
It turns out that the rope length is used to measure the well depth!
This question is as difficult as ascending to heaven for scholars who only read books of sages, but it can be easily solved by people with a little bit of brains. It is even easier for modern people, who can write equations with one variable or two variables, and even draw pictures to solve them...
If Wang Fuyin suddenly took a different approach and added several math questions during the examination for minor officials, this could be considered a privilege of being the Fuyin of Shuntian Prefecture. However, was it appropriate to suddenly do something like this during the prefectural examination for the serious imperial examination?
Did the prefect of Wang Prefecture have this intention, or was it someone else who added the question without permission? Was this the reason why Qi Liang ranked seventh in the prefectural examination?
Thinking of this, Zhang Shou asked Deng Xiaodai again about the tax figures of previous years that he had come across after arriving at the household registration office of Shuntian Prefecture. After pondering for a long time, he looked at the uneasy Qi Liang and Deng Xiaodai, and suddenly raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"Xiao Qi, in all likelihood, rumors about the rankings of the prefectural examination will be a hot topic for a while. I will recite a few articles to you now, and you should pay attention to the notes. Xiao Dai, come here too, and I will draw a table for you to see the data you sorted out earlier."
As Zhang Shou began to dictate the article, he saw Qi Liang was stunned at first, and then hurriedly began to take notes. He went to the other side of the desk, took a piece of paper, and then took a copper paperweight lying horizontally and vertically on the side, and began to pick up the pen and dip it in ink to draw.
Deng Xiaodai, who was standing by, was stunned to see Zhang Shou reciting the article while concentrating on drawing the graph. When he found that the graphs were completely different from the plane geometry he had learned from Zhang Shou, he became confused again.
While Qi Liang was recording those long sentences, Zhang Shou whispered to Deng Xiaodai, "I taught you how to make a table before. This is a line chart. Well, this is a bar chart. It is used to reflect the tax changes in various counties and categories in Shuntian Prefecture over the past three years. It is relatively intuitive. This is called data visualization. Of course, there are more than one kind of visualization table. I am just giving an example..."
Although various complex charts have been used in all walks of life in later generations, Zhang Shou remembers very clearly that in the West, simple data tables came first, while visual charts such as line charts, pie charts, and bar charts did not gradually appear on the historical stage until William Playfair, who pioneered data visualization and designed a series of charts in the 18th century.
Even though Arabic numerals are very simple, densely packed tables of numbers can still easily make people dizzy at first glance.
In contrast, line charts and bar charts that can show the increase and decrease of values at a glance are actually very useful for court officials who often have to check various tax, land and population figures. Even without automated tabulation tools, Britain in the 18th century could use them, so there is no reason why they cannot be used now.
Zhang Shou was dictating an article to Qi Liang while instructing Deng Xiaodai on how to make a table, when he suddenly heard a loud shout from outside: "Where is Zhang Shou, the liar who claims to be my brother-in-law? Get out here!"
Young Master Zhu Er, the second brother in Zhu Ying's mouth. Because Zhang Shou didn't know his specific name, whenever he mentioned this guy to people other than Zhu Ying, he would simply call him Zhu Er.
At this moment, when he heard the angry shouting outside, he couldn't help but pick his ears with his little fingers, and then he thought helplessly - this Zhu Er is really stupid!
Of course, he would not think that the lady had deliberately invited Zhu Er here. If that was the case, she would not have kept him in her own Qing'an Hall. In such a place where she could guarantee her authority, how could she let others mess around? But now, Zhu Er brazenly broke into Qing'an Hall where his grandmother lived, and shouted at him to get out. It was so stupid!
No wonder Zhu Er, as a dignified young master of the Duke's Mansion, ended up being so poor that he often had to borrow money from Zhu Ying...
Seeing Qi Liang and Deng Xiaodai looking at each other in bewilderment, Zhang Shou shrugged and said indifferently: "Xiao Qi, continue writing. Xiao Dai, you should think about these pictures and think about where this kind of thing can be applied."
After saying this, Zhang Shou left his two disciples behind and walked towards the door in a leisurely manner, but he stopped just before the door. Although the person outside the door was Zhu Ying's "Second" Brother, he was told to get out. If he showed up like this, wouldn't it seem like he was just being manipulated? Knowing that Ah Liu was outside the door, Zhu Er couldn't get in no matter how tough he was, so he stood there quite calmly.
The next moment, he heard a light sneer coming from outside the door: "I was wondering who in the family had such great prestige, it turns out that Erlang came to my Qing'an Hall to put on airs."
As the most senior lady in the mansion, these words were already very serious. However, Zhang Shou didn't know whether Zhu Er outside was drunk, or had given up, or had some other reason to rely on, so he not only did not leave immediately, or kneel down to beg for mercy, but his voice became even louder.
"Grandfather, I know you don't like a useless grandson like me, but I still have something to say! I am jealous that Yingying is the apple of your and dad's eye and has everything she wants, but I don't have anything I want. I envy my elder brother for being able to lead troops and fight at such a young age... But I know myself well. If I don't have the ability, I will just muddle through!"
"But now my father and elder brother have been impeached, and one of them has gone to war and no one has heard from him since. At this time, what's wrong with me finding a suitable husband for Yingying? The pig-headed man from the Lu family is ugly and has no ability, but he promised to move out after getting married, so Yingying won't have to be a slave to her mother-in-law and work like a slave. Just for this, how many men in the capital would agree to this?"
