“Confucius, do you know equations?” I asked.

“嗯？(What?)” He spoke in Chinese.

“你知道什么是方程吗？(Do you know what are equations?)” I repeated.

“嗯？(What?)”

“何谓方程？(What are equations?)” I repeated in traditional Chinese.

“愿闻其详。(Talk about it, please.)”

I laughed loudly without one word, and wrote “圣人？(A sage?)” on the ground.

“是礼也？(Polite?)” He said softly.

I realized my fault, and apologized to him. Then with smile, I told him something about equations. But his reaction was beyond my expectation. He nodded and asked one question, “益于民乎？(Can it promote people’s lives?)”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Silence…

I can’t remember his words clearly. Perhaps after our conversation, I was not the past one. If you are a western person, you may have the same feeling after listening my words. Some sentences he said are as follows:

If not, sorry, I am not interested in it. It’s not because we don’t have curiosity. On the contrary, the most precious property for me is knowledge, but you must want to ask why. Our people are in the war, the poverty, the hunger, the infinite work, the world with no hope. Equations may be useful 1’000 years later. But now, as an educated man, I must think and work for happiness of my people.

We all know that less than 200 years ago, China was invaded by dozens of countries and lost almost every time. Now we said that it’s because of Chinese underdeveloped science and technics. And many people think Chinese traditional culture causes it. Really? We can’t consider the disadvantages of ways as faults of ideology. Chinese people never give up any beings and any generation. Our country may be in the low ebb, but our people are always living happily.