In the Star Gazing Hall, in the large star-watching platform (observatory), Yuwen Weixing, who visited here, was amazed at the huge star-watching mirror (astronomical telescope), and circled around this large device, touched here, and looked there.

Compared with the star-gazing mirror he used in the palace, the toothpick and bamboo tube comparison.

Yuwen Wen did not care about his son, but looked through the maintenance records of the star-watching mirror on the side.

The Star Gazing Academy is affiliated to the Taishi Department and has all kinds of astronomical instruments. There are five large-scale stargazing platforms located in Chang'an City, each with a large-scale stargazing mirror.

The cost of each star-watching mirror and supporting devices is more than 100,000 jin, which is extremely expensive.

So Yuwen Wen came here today not to see the astronomical phenomena, but to see how these five star-watching mirrors with a total value of more than 500,000 yuan were maintained.

The maintenance of instruments and equipment depends on the maintenance records. Whether the regular maintenance is in place depends on whether the recording content is the same. Yu Wen Wen looked through it carefully for a while and found that the maintenance records of this star-watching mirror were very "rich". It can be seen that the maintenance staff was careful.

First of all, the temperature and humidity during maintenance (the word "warm" cannot be avoided), and then the situation of oiling the moving parts, the replacement of dry bags in the star-watching mirror, the maintenance of the eyepieces, and the maintenance of the objective lenses are clearly recorded.

The handwriting on the maintenance records is very different, with different colors and shades. It can be seen that it was written by several people at different time periods, not to be filled in at one time to deal with the inspection.

Yuwen Wen was very satisfied with this and started talking to Liu Hui, the Grand Historian who accompanied the inspection.

As an optical instrument, the most important component of a star-gazing mirror is the huge objective lens. According to the current production process, such a large glass lens is made, and the yield rate is very low, about 10%.

That is, for every ten finished products, only one piece is qualified.

It is very difficult to make large glass lenses, so the cost is very high. In addition, the yield rate is low, which naturally makes the glass lenses used for stargazing mirrors expensive, and their cost accounts for 60% of the cost of the entire stargazing mirror. Yu Wenwen couldn't help but care.

Just like the observatory in later generations, the observatory equipped with a stargazing mirror equipped with a movable semicircular structure on the top. The semicircular ceiling can rotate in all directions, with long slots (can be opened and closed) on it to facilitate the stargazing mirror to observe the starry sky through the slots.

These five observatory platforms are busy every night. The officials and astronomers of the Taishishi Department stayed asleep all night and used star-watching mirrors to observe the starry sky. Over the past ten years, a large number of observation results have been accumulated, providing enriching theoretical data for further calibration of the calendar and time.

Yuwen Wen is very concerned about whether the calendar and time are accurate. First of all, for a dynasty, the calendar is closely related to the orthodoxy of the dynasty, and agricultural production also requires accurate calendars to guide it, which is not unimportant.

Secondly, the level of astronomy determines whether a country's time is accurate, which has no great significance to the common people, because many people work from sunrise to sunset, but accurate time measurement is also one of the gorgeous feathers that demonstrate the majesty of the Celestial Empire for the court.

Then, astronomy is one of the engines of the development of basic science. For this era, the most important value of astronomy is navigation and positioning.

Observation of latitude can be obtained by measuring sun shadows, while observation of longitude can only be obtained by time difference between regions. The booming sea trade has huge demands for precise positioning on the vast ocean, and the precise drawing of navigation charts and even topographic maps also requires accurate latitude and longitude.

This requires more accurate mapping tools (latitude) and time (longitude).

For example, the territory map of the Zhou Kingdom needs to be drawn using a new scale drawing method, which requires surveying and mapping across the country, determining the longitude and latitude, and then making it into a grid map, and then painting all the mountains, rivers, cities and towns.

This work will take about ten years or even decades to complete, and the basis of all this, including the exact time, requires the Taishishi to "teach the time" on the observatory in various places.

The task is very arduous, so Yuwen Wen attaches great importance to it, but another reason why he cares about the Star Gazing Academy is that the contradiction between scientific development and political needs has begun to become prominent.

The emperor was granted the power of heaven, and the emperor was the son of heaven. In the Han Dynasty, there was also a saying that Dong Zhongshu had "resonance between heaven and man". Therefore, the changes in celestial phenomena are often associated with the emperor.

The most obvious example is a solar eclipse. Once a solar eclipse occurs, it is said that a certain policy of the court is not good, which leads to changes in the celestial phenomena. To put it more seriously, it is that a treacherous and slanderous people appear in the court, which leads to a solar eclipse.

At this time, the priest had to express his guilt and wait for the emperor to deal with it. Then the emperor sent someone to sacrifice to heaven and prayed to heaven to calm his anger.

What's more, the emperor issued an edict to punish himself, changed his mind and followed the will of heaven.

Therefore, in later generations, it was just a solar eclipse of normal astronomical phenomena. In ancient times, political turmoils could be triggered. The emergence of solar eclipse was either a loss of the emperor's virtue or a traitor in charge of the cause.

This is the case for solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, even comets, and meteor showers. Any "change" of the celestial phenomena will be explained by people as a warning to the son (the emperor), which has been a certain rule for thousands of years.

A solar eclipse indicates that the emperor is "unethical"; a lunar eclipse indicates that the national criminal law is in chaos.

In order to deal with these so-called changes in the sky, the emperor must take measures to correct his own faults, namely, "solar eclipse to cultivate virtue and lunar eclipse to repair punishment", otherwise he will be punished by God.

This is the characteristic of the times. Astronomy and politics are entangled together, and divine and divine are tragic.

Now, once a solar eclipse occurs, someone will definitely express their feelings, saying that the low grain price will cause low grain to hurt farmers. If this continues, the country will be out of state, so God warns him, "I would like to ask Your Majesty to make plans for the country and the country."

What's more, it will evolve into an attack on the queen and the prince: the sun (the emperor) is eroded, isn't it because of the Tiangou (the remnant of the Yuchi family)?

This is not impossible, but it is really going to happen. Yuwen Wen cannot argue back in person, saying, "This is an astronomical phenomenon, the bullshit day of the dog food", and can only find a way to resolve it and find a scapegoat.

In order to fool you, you can only send someone to sacrifice to heaven with shame, so as to avoid a few slaughtermen to make up the numbers, and then do your own things.

But once such a thing happens, it is always bad, and the people are easily incited by people with ulterior motives. If Yuwen Wen allows astronomy to develop normally, he will face a very serious ideological problem in the future:

It turns out that the sky is round and the place is fake. It turns out that the earth is around the sun, so the sun rises and sets in the east and west is actually fake. The stars in the sky are composed of distant stars. The so-called twenty-eight constellations are all attached to people, so...

When you watch the astrological signs at night, you can calculate the good and bad luck by counting them at the fingertips, probably just fake...

Is there really a God of Haotian? If heaven is just nothingness, then where does the son of heaven come from?

Emperor, do you really have a destiny?

When astronomy develops to the future, it will inevitably shake the theoretical basis of imperial power and heavenly authority.

It is precisely because of this consequence that with the concentration of imperial power in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the astronomy of the Central Plains fell into a trough, and the court did not allow folk scholars to learn astronomy without authorization. However, the officials of the Imperial Heaven and Heaven Supervisory Office gradually became hereditary.

Astronomy knowledge has become a home-learning taught by father and son, and there is no new blood injected. Not to mention development, the original knowledge has gradually been lost through generations of father and son.

The emperor did not want astronomy to become a public school, nor did he want various astronomical phenomena to be used to attack the government, so he simply adopted a policy of fooling the people. The consequence of this was that the development of astronomy was seriously lagging behind.

Therefore, during the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Central Plains astronomy was still at the forefront of the world. In the Ming Dynasty, the court had to rely on Semu astronomers to participate in the revision of the calendar. Later, even the revision of the calendar could only be carried out by foreign missionaries in Xiyang for technical guidance.

The development of science and technology has stopped moving forward and even made great regressions. This is a tragedy of civilization, but it is a demand for political reality.

Once astronomy develops to a certain stage, it will shake the theoretical basis of "imperial power and heavenly grants". So what will be the way out in this era?

Now Yu Wen Wen needs to make a choice. His choice is to strengthen astronomical observations and strive to accurately predict solar and lunar eclipses (it is best to be accurate to a certain day and at a certain time), so as to avoid being caught off guard when abnormal astronomical phenomena occur.

Then Liu Hui, the most capable as an astronomer, was appointed as the Grand Historian, to manage the Star Gazing Academy, and compile a set of rhetoric based on the prediction results at any time to bring the sudden celestial phenomena to the best of their benefits.

If you can be an official, your subtext means you will be able to meet the best. Liu Hui's astronomical and calendar achievements are not the best, at least they are first-class, but they do not have the habit of being a scientist who is sleek and flexible.

Therefore, once the Star Gazing Academy predicts a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse is about to occur, Liu Hui can cooperate with the preparation and then lead the blame from heaven abroad.

For example, Goguryeo's wolf ambitions try to attack Liaodong, or the sea monster "mirrors" are about to appear in the world to cause chaos, so the heavens and heaven use celestial phenomena to warn. Anyway, it is not because the emperor's messes that the world is dark.

At the same time, scholars are still encouraged to engage in astronomy study, but if you want to conduct in-depth research, you have to major in "Astronomy" or "Mathematics" in the journals of top-notch prefectures such as Imperial College or Huangzhou Prefecture.

Large-scale stargazing mirrors can only be available by official institutions.

The court will take various measures to avoid the openness of astronomy academic discussions and limit the development results of astronomy within the system. The astronomical observation results can be recorded, communicated within the system, and cannot be publicly issued.

Ordinary students will not understand the latest discoveries in astronomy, but for ordinary officials and the common people, they only need to know that the calendar and "time teaching" formulated by the Taishishishi are very accurate.

This is the solution that Yu Wen Wen came up with, so that astronomy can continue to develop without causing political trouble as much as possible. As for many years, when the conflict between the two can no longer be stopped, how should we resolve it?

Yuwen Wen feels that if we continue to develop according to the current situation, perhaps a hundred years later, with the development of social productivity, science and technology, and economy, even a constitutional monarchy may appear, so...
Chapter completed!