Wen | Martial Arts
How should the word "crosser" be understood? It is probably a person who shows remarks, behaviors or objects that are contrary to the background of the times at that time, just like everyone says that Wang Mang is a crosser, he implemented a social system that will be popular after a thousand years, not only stated the land, but also proposed the income tax system that is only used by society now, and he also invented the advanced 1700-year-old vernier caliper and so on.
It is precisely because he has done so many things that are contrary to the times that only the identity of the "crosser" can explain his behavior.
However, there are many people suspected of crossing in history, today we will talk about another person who resembles a "crosser", this person was born poor, even Xiucai could not pass the examination, but he was able to create a steam engine, and then on this basis, he created China's first steam-powered ship, and his various behaviors beyond the times have always been suspected of being "crossers".
Extraordinary growth
This man's name was Xu Shou, born in 1818 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, to a very poor peasant family, but his birth brought a turnaround to the family, his grandfather began to change careers, the days gradually became richer, and his father also began to study, hoping to become an official in the future.
However, the good times did not last long, not long after the death of the grandfather, then the death of the father, the family that had been laughing and laughing suddenly became heavy, xu Shou was still young at the time, and there were two younger sisters below, all the burden fell on the mother.
Fortunately, Xu's mother was a strong woman, and not only raised the three brothers and sisters, but also married Xu Shou.
As the saying goes, "marry a wife and have children", Xu Shou did not live up to his mother's expectations, and the next year he gave birth to a big fat boy, the family was lively and lively, the laughter was more and more, and the days were getting more and more hopeful.
However, bad luck once again came, Xu Shou's mother died of illness due to years of fatigue, and Xu Shou was only 17 years old at this time.
At the age of 17, although it is already a bit rebellious, it is still inseparable from the care of parents. Xu Shou, on the other hand, has both parents dead, and he has no one to take care of him, but also to take care of his wife and children and two younger sisters.
In desperation, Xu Shou could only return to his old business and learn from his grandfather to do business. Because his hometown was rich in grain production, he began to traffic grain to Shanghai. But when it was unexpected, in the case of great pressure in life and the failure of several xiucai exams, Xu Shou still kept learning without interruption. However, he had abandoned the Eight Strands of Writing and turned to Western studies. Every time he went to Shanghai to deliver goods, he would search everywhere for translations of Western studies materials for easy study.
Because Xu Shou liked handicrafts since he was a child, when he came into contact with Western science, he could explain the artifacts of various tools through the principles described in Western science, and over time, he became interested in it, and he became more and more fond of Western science, and also made many strange things through scientific principles.
For example, after he polished a crystal stamp into a triangle, he could simulate the original seven-color spectrum, which made many people feel novel, and his fame became more and more famous.
The pride of the "crosser"
There is an old Chinese saying
"Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared"
Xu Shou was like this, saying that he was prepared was actually not appropriate, it was better to say that he was thick and thin, and his knowledge was recognized by some progressive people in the imperial court at that time, among which Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang were the most appreciated.
So in 1861, Zeng Li invited him to develop Western weapons. When Xu Shou arrived at the Ordnance Institute, he heard and saw the arrogance of Western steamships, so he secretly decided that he must build a large iron ship that belonged to the Qing Dynasty.
This idea was too "absurd" at the time, not to mention the manufacturing process, let alone the steam engine, which was enough to overwhelm most countries in the world, let alone the Zero-based Qing Dynasty.
But Xu Shou did not seem to think so, he calmly and unhurriedly first inspected, secretly wrote down all the information that could be collected, and then searched for information through this information, and those who did not have it in China tried their best to go abroad.
After sorting it out, he found that the core technology of the iron steamship lay in the steam engine, and he immediately remembered that he had read a book called "Naturalist New Edition", which contained a sketch of the steam engine, he immediately found this book, and then it took only three months to manufacture the first domestic steam engine in Chinese history.
With the "heart" of the ship, immediately start to build the ship, but this big guy is not neat, and there are many problems that need to be overcome. In the end, Xu Shou and several other colleagues overcame the problems one by one after repeated research and experiments, and it took 1 year to design the manufacturing drawings of the ship, and after another 3 years, The first ship in China was launched, and the name of the ship was called "Yellow Crane".
As soon as this news came out, the whole country was excited, and even the foreigners were very surprised, and some people even turned over the words that Napoleon once said, "China is a sleeping lion", believing that the lion is about to awaken.
Not only that, Xu Shou also invented chemical agents such as mercury razor acid through his own efforts, and also translated the chemical element table, which greatly alleviated many problems in the follow-up research of chemistry by the Chinese people. Japan, which is also a native speaker, immediately sent experts to the Qing Dynasty to study after learning this news.
brief summary
In the closed Qing Dynasty, he did many unimaginable things without any help, and his deeds have been passed down to this day, which is also an important reason why many people suspect that he is a "crosser".
But there is no shortage of hard-working people in China, and nowadays we often talk about someone abroad who has done something surprising, saying how rich they are in the "spirit of craftsmanship".
In fact, when it comes to the "spirit of craftsmen", China has not lacked such people since ancient times, and Xu Shou is only one of them. For example, after the founding of New China, China also relied on this spirit to create "two bombs and one satellite" in the case of extremely scarce information.
This also explains from the side why China has been able to stand for more than 5,000 years and continue to layer, what do you think?
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, New Edition of The Naturalist