Chapter 192: Sheng An Bai Zao
The day's classes ended quickly, and Sun Shan returned to his dormitory, where he practiced calligraphy, ate, read, washed, and slept as usual.
The next day, Hong Jian woke me up again.
After a full year at Hong's Academy, Sun Shan's studies had made a qualitative leap and his academic performance had improved dramatically.
Hong Xiucai approached Sun Shan and said gently, "Sun Shan, good job. Keep up the enthusiasm for learning."
Mr. Hong almost said: I’m optimistic about you!
Sun Shan nodded seriously and replied: "Yes, teacher, I will study hard."
After a few days, Sun Shan gradually adapted to the teaching methods of Class B.
In the morning, Hong Xiucai came to sit in the hall. If you have any questions, just ask him. If he can answer, he will answer you immediately. If he can't answer, Hong Xiucai will go back to look up the information and then carefully explain the answer to you.
In the afternoon class, Mr. Hong will talk to Class B about the questions raised by the students the day before. Everyone can listen carefully.
Of course, if you don’t want to listen, just don’t bother Mr. Hong.
In fact, this situation does not exist.
The teacher is giving a lecture at the front desk, so how dare the students act rashly or not listen?
Not only should you listen, but you should also take notes, study carefully, and be clear about how you are going to answer the questions.
Hong Xiucai would not just let students ask questions and study on their own.
He also taught some arithmetic, history, astronomy, geography, and rhythm and poetry.
I also officially started teaching poetry.
Sun Shan was best at arithmetic problems. As long as he understood the meaning of the problem, he could solve it.
The worst thing is poetry. Although I have read 300 Tang poems, I still can't compose poetry.
Even the "one piece, two pieces, three, four pieces, five pieces, six pieces, seven, eight pieces..." in Zheng Banqiao's "Ode to Snow" could not be created.
Every time when it comes to writing poetry, Sun Shan gets a headache.
After thinking for a long time, I still couldn't come up with a single word, let alone one that was neat and rhymed.
The only thing to be thankful for is that in the imperial examination, poetry and prose account for a very small proportion, so as long as you don't want to be the first, it doesn't matter if you are not a good poet.
The bell rang for the end of lunch, and Sun Shan followed Zheng Hongwen to the kitchen to get his lunch box.
Everyone sat on the stone steps and ate.
At this time, Li Sheng from Class A came over with his classmates and said with a smile: "Ashan, you are good at mathematics, can you help us solve this problem?"
It turned out that Mr. Hong gave the students in Class A a math problem this morning and asked them to solve it.
So the students in Class A worked hard to calculate, but the answers were different.
There were 6 people in a class and there were 4 different answers, and no one was convinced by anyone else.
Li Sheng chose to ask Sun Shan during lunch.
After all, Sun Shan was well-known for his math skills in Hong's School, and he always got the right answers in the monthly math exams.
Mr. Hong also secretly revealed to his classmate and good friend Mr. Huang that Sun Shan's arithmetic was better than his.
There is no wall that is impenetrable. If Mr. Huang knew it, his students would know it, and if his students knew it, the students of Hong’s School would also know it.
After a lot of twists and turns, everyone knows that Sun Shan's arithmetic skills are better than Hong Xiucai's.
Sun Shan did not hide his true feelings and said sincerely, "Brother Sheng, what is the arithmetic problem? Tell me and I will see if I can do it."
Li Sheng said today's math problem: Now someone stole a horse and rode it for 37 miles. The horse's owner realized it and chased him for 145 miles, but he returned after 23 miles. Now he doesn't chase him back. How many miles will he have to catch up with him? (Selected from Zhang Qiujian's Mathematical Classic)
Sun Shan thought about it and realized that the question meant: A thief stole a horse. After the thief ran 37 miles, the owner of the horse realized that the horse had been stolen.
So he decided to start chasing the thief, and after chasing him for a full 145 miles, he felt very tired, so he stopped.
At this time, the distance between the thief and the owner was only 23 miles.
If the horse owner has enough perseverance and persistence, how far does he have to run to catch up?
It turned out to be a proportion problem involving a linear equation of one variable.
Sun Shan knew the answer without much thought.
Assuming we need to chase X miles, then (37-23):145=23:X
Through simple calculation, we can get X=238 and 3/14.
But you can't express it like this, otherwise everyone will be confused.
Sun Shan tried hard to express the process using the expression used in current arithmetic problems.
I wrote down this answer to my seniors in Class A:
That is, if the mileage is less than 23, then multiply the mileage the owner has caught up with (145) by (23x145), and the result is (numerator = 3335).
即不及里数(23)，减已行里数(37)，余(37-23=14)，为法(14为分母）
That is, it is actually one as per the Dharma, (numerator divided by denominator): two hundred and thirty-eight li and fourteen-tenths of a li.
But some people in Class A still didn't understand, so Sun Shan simply explained it again using his own computational thinking, calling the unknown number X "Tianyuan" and calculating it again.
Please bear with me in this chapter. I don’t know how to express the mathematics. This chapter was so painful to write.
When the seniors in Class A heard this, their eyes lit up and they said admiringly, "Ashan, you are really smart and good at calculating. I know what you mean when you say that."
Sun Shan kindly explained: "Brother, if we encounter such a problem in the future, we should treat the unknown as "heaven element, earth element, human element, and object element" and calculate according to the rules. This way, our thinking will not be confused."
In fact, there is the "Four Elements Technique" here, "Heavenly Element, Earthly Element, Human Element, and Material Element" to represent unknown numbers, which are the corresponding XYZ...etc.
Afterwards, Sun Shan discussed some arithmetic problems with the students in Class A.
Sun Shan found that the arithmetic questions in the examination for the scholar were not difficult, but he did not know what the examination for the juren would be like.
After lunch, there are self-study classes in the afternoon.
Sun Shan now studies the Four Books and Five Classics completely on his own, but it is not enough to just read the textbooks without reading the annotations.
And read more annotations by famous people.
Sun Shan once asked Hong Jian whether the "Jinbangtiming" bookstore had any annotations.
Hong Jian replied that there were, and they were very expensive. If you didn't want to buy them, you could go to the second floor of the bookstore to read them.
But it costs money.
Hong Jian would go to the bookstore to read after class every afternoon, and come back in time for dinner.
Sun Shan looked at his small body. He was obviously one year older, but he was still not tall. He didn't know if he had grown 5 centimeters in a year. Anyway, the clothes he wore the year before last and the year before last still fit him.
Thinking about leaving the school, I wondered if I could guarantee my personal safety and not be kidnapped.
Sun Shan thought about it and decided to go to the bookstore. When he reached the door of the dormitory, Uncle Hong tried his best to stop him and refused to let him go.
Sun Shan suddenly felt powerless. That year, when Sun Bomin gave a festival gift to Hong Xiucai, he also gave one to Uncle Hong, using sugar-coated bullets to win over Uncle Hong and make him stare at Sun Shan.
What's even worse is that when Sun Bomin came out to pick him up, Uncle Hong still complained that Sun Shan was always thinking about going out and was not studying hard in school.
One time, Sun Shan's monthly test score was a little lower than the previous one. Uncle Hong attributed the poor result to Sun Shan's bad mood and wanted to make trouble for him.
This is simply a far-fetched move, like putting the blame on Sun Shan.
When Sun Bomin found out, he didn't say anything at the time. He waited until he got home to tell everyone about it. Starting from Huang's family and ending with Hanlu, he earnestly advised Sun Shan not to learn from De Ge'er and play around everywhere.
Doing this will make the family feel uneasy.
If outsiders saw this, they would think Sun Shan had done something extremely treasonous.
Finally, Sun Shan patted his chest and promised not to go out, and the family let him go.