After pondering the name Li Zicheng for a while, the Ming Son of Heaven could only set it aside for now.
Judging by the situation, he did not believe this Li Zicheng was an official from the Hongwu era. Thinking about it further would likely be pointless.
For the moment, all matters concerning the light screen were best left until after he met with Luo Guanzhong and his brother-in-arms Xu Da.
What was involved here was not merely whether the screen was real. It also concerned the future national policy of the Ming.
In the short term, the top priority remained the extermination of the remaining Northern Yuan.
Across the span of a century, the priority would be securing the maritime frontier. That meant dealing with western fleets and also planning strategy toward Wa.
And in the end, what seemed tied to the life and death of the dynasty was the management of Liaodong.
With so many problems crammed into his head, Zhu Yuanzhang completely forgot that he had originally intended to confront Marquis Huan using the rumors currently circulating about him.
---
Meanwhile, in Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin yawned.
Before him, Fang, Du, and Wei were busy using the division between righteousness and profit to interpret Neo-Confucian thought, while also discussing the later idea of the separation between political and cultural centers, the limits of public debate, and reflections on Zhang Zai's conduct.
Then he looked at the light screen. After the two lines signed Zhang Fei drifted past, it remained bare. The Hongwu Emperor said nothing.
It was terribly dull.
"Don't tell me that Hongwu Emperor really doesn't want to fight the Japanese pirates?"
Out of sheer boredom, Li Shimin threw out the guess.
"Certainly not."
At his side, Empress Zhangsun peeled a piece of fruit for him and smiled.
"When Your Majesty first told me, I also didn't believe it. Not until that day you summoned me in such haste…"
She sighed softly. If later generations' records were to be believed, she had only five years of life left. After that, the man beside her would rule alone for more than a decade, facing Chengqian, Hou Junji, Turkic assassins, the Goguryeo campaign, and countless other burdens.
Suppressing the sudden swell of tenderness in her heart, she steadied herself.
"Perhaps the Hongwu Emperor is only hesitant because this is his first time seeing such a thing. When Your Majesty first saw it, did you never hesitate?"
Li Shimin scratched his chin, remembering the sudden appearance of the screen during the reading of Soushen Ji, and shook his head.
"Hesitate? At the time I thought immortals were praising my achievements and planning to send me a couple of divine generals."
"Later, I figured maybe the immortals were stingy and only meant to show me a comedic performance. Who would have guessed…"
He shook his head again, oddly pleased.
"It was Fǔjī, Kèmíng, and Xuánlíng who thought I'd been possessed by something evil."
At this old story, the officials in Ganlu Hall burst into laughter. Zhangsun, Fang, and Du could only smile helplessly.
"The brush was right beside me back then, so I wrote quite a lot. But I rarely got replies. For all we know, that Marquis Wu of Zhuge only realized he could communicate through the screen after my example."
"Then Your Majesty has rendered merit to Marquis Wu," Empress Zhangsun replied with a smile.
Li Shimin nodded cheerfully, then suddenly looked regretful.
"Counting the years, the Emperor Zhaolie should be close to completing his restoration of Han. Pity I cannot have Marquis Wu by my side to help rebuild a flourishing Tang."
Empress Zhangsun sighed.
"No wonder Emperor Zhaolie treats Your Majesty so bluntly."
Li Shimin raised a brow in surprise.
"For something so small?"
Even Du Ruhui, still arguing with Wei Zheng, had time to look up.
"To Your Majesty it is small. To Emperor Zhaolie, it would be nothing less than shaking the foundation of his state."
The hall erupted in laughter again. Li Shimin could only sigh.
He had once believed the imperial examinations were a supreme tool. He thought that following the Song example would be enough to gather talent.
But observing the Song more closely now, even the examination system clearly needed reform.
If he wished to achieve true success, the real focus had to be on scholarship itself.
And that… would take many years.
---
[Lightscreen]
[We have already mentioned several times that the Two Song dynasties were an age of explosive technological achievement.
An open academic atmosphere, combined with a massive population boom and economic growth, allowed the Northern Song to fully absorb Tang technological achievements and build upon them with new innovations.
That said, the shortcomings of Song scientific development are equally obvious.
Scholar-officials relied too heavily on qualitative knowledge, intuition, and subjective experience. They lacked quantitative research methods and the intellectual tradition to support them.
Moreover, given the social structure of the time, scientific study could never exist independently from classical scholarship.
On one hand, these early scientific ideas drew nourishment from the Confucian tradition.
On the other hand, the untouchable authority of the classics restrained innovation, forcing science to remain subordinate to classical learning.
Even so, the technological progress of the Song deserves great recognition.
In textile production, they inherited Tang drawlooms and weaving techniques, systematized them, spread them widely, and developed new warping methods based on improved beam-frame systems.
In ceramics, they pioneered multi-stage biscuit firing and repeated glazing techniques.
In papermaking, they differentiated paper types for rituals, official orders, and printed books. As for toilet use, ancient people seemed too embarrassed to record such matters, but the earliest known example of paper used for that purpose dates to the Yuan emperor. It is reasonable to infer the practice began in the Song.
Block printing, brewing, lacquerwork, oil pressing, sugar refining, tea production, and workshop industries all flourished.
A small extra note here.
Although the Song popularized iron woks, the invention of pan-fried tea would not come until the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, our good old Zhu Baba.
Song tea cakes were still steam-fixed, and tea was consumed boiled into soup. Modern people would probably find it hard to get used to.
Because Song tea methods inherited Tang practices, matcha reached its feudal-era peak in Song times. Through Song-Wa trade, it spread again to Japan.
Since Japan lacked iron, it never transitioned to pan-frying methods. Ironically, some modern people now praise matcha as the purest form of tea culture. That is another story entirely.
Beyond handicrafts, the Song promoted agricultural tools such as the foot-plow and the dragon-bone waterwheel, improvements dating back to the Three Kingdoms period.
The foot-plow in particular required no oxen. Five days of human labor equaled one day of ox-plowing. In a society with abundant manpower, it greatly accelerated the development of the south and became one of the foundations of Song prosperity.
They also standardized official roads with stone reinforcement and drainage systems, built one of the most complete premodern firefighting organizations, and established the Taiping Huimin Bureau integrating medicine sales, treatment, and epidemic prevention.
In mathematics, the most outstanding figures were Shen Kuo of the Northern Song and Yang Hui of the Southern Song.
Compared to the prodigious genius Shen Kuo, Yang Hui's importance in his own era may have been even greater.
In advanced theory, he continued Shen Kuo's research into higher-order arithmetic series, reaching the world's leading level at the time.
In education, he dared to break from the thousand-year-old classification structure of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Arts, reorganized algorithms, and incorporated the traditional Nine-Nines multiplication mnemonic into teaching materials, lowering the barrier to learning mathematics.
Throughout his works, Yang Hui consistently emphasized practical application and widespread teaching. That alone deserves recognition.
Building on this, Southern Song writers like Zhu Shuzhen and Zhang Yan, thinkers such as Zhang Jiujiao and Deng Mu, and master painter Liu Songnian together turned Lin'an into what was arguably the earliest and largest center of information exchange in the world.
These inventions, institutions, and scholarly achievements may not have altered the course of history in their own time.
But they were the marks left by ordinary people, not so different from you and me, who poured everything they knew into the world and left traces for humanity's long journey.
By that measure, they truly deserve to be called elegant.]