For example, Zhu Zaiyu, a famous lawyer, historian and musician in Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Zaiyu is unknown in China, but he is a mountain-like figure in the history of world music, stunning the world.
This contrast has to be embarrassing.
Zhu Zaiyu was the imperial clan of the Ming Dynasty. Born in the 14th year of Jiajing (1536), he was the ninth grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. His father, Gong Zheng Wang Zhu Houan, is good at writing and proficient in music. Influenced by it since childhood, Zhu Zaiyu likes music and math.
For academic research, after his father died, he played Emperor Wanli and gave his title to his younger brother, which caused great shock in the ruling and opposition circles.
Zhu Zaiyu's "Concentrated study is the essence". Even as a son of the imperial clan, he still focused on learning and devoted himself to writing books, leaving a wealth of works for future generations. His life works amounted to one million words, including forty volumes of Yue Fa, three volumes of Jia Jing, four volumes of Harmony between Fa and Li, one volume of Sound and Meaning, one volume of Perpetual Calendar, two volumes of Preparation for Perpetual Calendar and two volumes of New Theory of Calendars.
The research content involves music, astronomy, calendar, mathematics, dance, literature and so on. He is definitely a heavyweight scientist and an encyclopedic scholar.
Musical achievements:
His greatest contribution is his musical achievements. He founded the law of twelve averages, and thought that the interval of the unified scale could be taken as the twelfth square root of two.
This discovery is decades earlier than that of Europeans and is an important event in the history of music. The manufacture of modern musical instruments is based on the law of twelve averages.
Later, the theory of twelve equal laws was brought to the west by missionaries, which had far-reaching influence. Bach made the world's first piano on this basis, so Zhu Zaiyu is known as "the originator of piano theory".
Because of the spread of the law of twelve averages, the name of Prince Zhu Zaiyu is a household name in Europe. A foreigner once said, "Among China people, it is said that there was a prince named Zaiga who advocated the seven-tone scale in the great opposition of old-school musicians. The method of dividing octaves into twelve semitones and tone sandhi was also invented by this country with talent and skill. "
Zhu Zaiyu's achievement was later brought back to the attention of China people because of the history of science and technology in China written by the Englishman Joseph Needham. At this time, more than 300 years have passed since his death.
Math scores:
The law of twelve averages is not a single scientific research achievement, but involves music acoustics in ancient metrological science, mathematics and physics.
In mathematics, in order to create the law of twelve averages, we must first find a mathematical method to calculate the law of twelve averages-"the root number 2 is 12 power".
Therefore, Zhu Zaiyu's self-made 8 1 file double-row abacus uses square roots and square roots to find the parameters of the law of twelve averages, which is more detailed than China's ancient mathematical monographs, and the accuracy of the calculation results reaches 25 significant figures.
In Zhu Zaiyu Memorial Hall, there is an 8 1 file double-row abacus copied by later generations.
Later scholars once commented: "Zhu Zaiyu didn't invent the prescription method, whether it is a good abacus or high academic value. However, he set the effective number to 25 digits, which is probably the only most accurate and patient mathematician since ancient times. "
He was not only the first person in mathematics to calculate the square root with beads, but also worked out the equation of series, and solved the first term, the last term and the number of terms of known geometric series at the earliest time in the world.
Therefore, he is still a great mathematician. Of course, this is a sideline of learning music.
Astronomical calendar
He opened up a new field of astronomical calendar.
He is the first person in the history of China to accurately calculate the geographical location of Beijing (39 56 ′ north latitude,116 20 ′ east longitude).
After careful observation and calculation, Zhu Zaiyu came up with a formula for calculating the annual length of the tropics. 1986, experts verified the calculation results of Zhu Zaiyu 1554 and 158 1 with modern high-tech measurement methods. It is found that the length value of 1554 calculated by Zhu Zaiyu is only 17 seconds and 65438+ compared with that calculated today. This can not but shock the world, even experts and scholars in Europe and America are amazed.
In addition, he also made outstanding contributions in musical instrument manufacturing, metrology, literary Sanqu, dance theory and so on.
Zhu Zaiyu is a master who amazed the world. His research results caused a great shock in the west, but he was unknown to China for hundreds of years.
As Joseph Needham said, "This is incredible irony!"
This is a microcosm of why modern science was born in the West instead of China.