In history, there are often some people whose behavior and thoughts are far beyond the limitations of the times at that time, showing a kind of cross-era thinking, which makes people exclaim that he is a "crosser", for example, after the fall of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang climbed to the position of emperor through some proverbs and his own disguise, which is called:
"Zhou Gong feared rumors on the day, when Wang Mang was humble and did not usurp"
However, Wang Mang, who came to power, really wanted to do something, such as he wanted to nationalize all the land, and most of the land was in the hands of private clans at that time, and his move was enough to kill him, but wasn't this exactly the land reform carried out in China in the 20th century? He also wanted those rich families to release all the slaves in the family - this original intention was also very good, but at that time, it was difficult for the slaves who had no money and no land to survive, but this also reflected Wang Mang's modern humanism.
Although Wang Mang's reforms were "modernized" and acted like a "crosser", they ultimately failed because they were unrealistic. However, we are going to talk about another "crosser" today, who has wisdom and ability that people at that time could not understand at that time, and has done many great things with these wisdom and abilities, although he did not become emperor like Wang Mang, but his influence is definitely not smaller than that of Wang Mang, and we can still touch the traces he left in our daily lives. So, who is this person?
This person is Xu Shou, Xu Shou was born in 1818, at this time the "old empire" of the Qing Dynasty was already in decline, but people still regarded Kaokeju as the best way out in life. Although the Xu family is a peasant family, the Xu family still does not forget to study while cultivating the land, and Xu Shou's father even once took the meritorious name. When Xu Shou was a child, he was influenced by his father, and he was also familiar with the subset of the history of the Scriptures, and he had different views on them, which was praised by the people of the times.
However, Xu Shou's remarks were unusual, and he often had a special interest in the specific learning that was called "Gewu Zhizhi" at that time, which made people suspect that he was a modern science and engineering man who crossed back to the Qing Dynasty.
However, at that time, the scientific expedition had long been a great trend of going through the back door, and although Xu Shou had a full of knowledge, he still fell behind Sun Shan during the imperial examination. After several failures, Xu Shou also understood the situation and felt that there was no future for the imperial examination to continue, so he followed the example of Song Yingxing of the previous dynasty, found another way, and devoted himself to scientific research. You know, in the eyes of many people at that time, science and technology was "strange tricks", which was contrary to the way of the saints, and Xu Shou, as a literati, did need a lot of courage and boldness to change his career to scientific research.
Unexpectedly, once the industry was changed, Xu Shou actually rejuvenated, although China's own scientific focus was relatively small at that time, he still seriously read these books, and at the same time he studied a large number of foreign science books at that time, or other books related to science and technology, and he bought them back as much as possible for study and research.
At the same time, he also actively learned from the more famous scientists at that time, such as Li Shanlan, a famous Expert in Western Studies in China at that time, Xu Shou modestly learned from Li Shanlan, and got a lot of books from him, such as "New Edition of Naturalism" and so on. Xu Shou not only attaches importance to theoretical study, but also attaches special importance to practice, the chemical experiments and physical experiments in the book, he does not believe, he has to buy simple experimental equipment to verify, in order to deepen his understanding of scientific principles.
Under the accumulation of thick and thin hair, Xu Shou's scientific and technological ability soon spread throughout the Chinese people of insight at that time. And because the foreigners' ship guns also gave the Qing government at that time a very profound stimulus, they decided to engage in the foreign affairs movement. During the foreign affairs movement, China prepared a large number of ships, after all, foreigners were known for their navy, and the Qing government, which did not have advanced ships, suffered at sea. At that time, Chinese ships were powered by sails, steam engines Chinese would not do it at all, and foreigners did not give technology.
What to do? Everyone handed this question to Xu Shou. Xu Shou also had no information, the only information was a sketch of the "New Edition of the Museum" as a schematic diagram, and then the boss also won Xu Shou an opportunity - he could go to a foreign ship to observe the appearance of the steam engine for a while. Such a simple condition is no less than letting Xu Shou reinvent the steam engine himself.
However, Xu Shou still did it, and it took only 3 months to invent the steam engine with China's independent intellectual property rights. Such a groundbreaking invention was made in such a short period of time, and it is no wonder that there are still people who are convinced that he is a crosser.
With the steam engine, but also shipbuilding, this task was also completed by Xu Shou. However, ships in China have had this technology since ancient times, plus the steam engine he has built, so Xu Shou soon built China's first steam-powered ship, which surprised foreigners at that time. To celebrate this joy, he named China's first steam-powered vessel "Yellow Crane", meaning "Yellow Crane, Big Bird, Thousand Miles in One Fell Swoop".
There is also a list of modern chemical elements, which was nothing at all at the time, and it was very inconvenient to learn directly from the English name. So from 1868, he began to study how to make a Chinese version of the chemical element table. He combined some of the original Elements and Characters in China to actually make a Chinese version of the chemical element table. This made the Japanese, who were more advanced than China at the time, very envious, and they also hated the string of English names, so they ran to learn from Xu Shou.
Xu Shou also had many inventions, which seemed to be very remarkable at the time, such as nitrified cotton and mercury. Although Xu Shou did not do any great official, his creative inventions in science and technology, each of which is an extraordinary achievement that can only be made by the "crosser", still affects us today. There are still many people who are convinced that perhaps Xu Shou is a modern crosser who has traveled back!