After eating, in Chang'anjun's tent, the palace maid Qi was waiting, under the not-so-bright lamps and candles, Chang'an Jun and Gongsun Long sat opposite each other, and between them was a smooth wooden slab. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In this regard, Nuqi is no longer surprised, every time the convoy stops to rest, Gongsun Long has to run to find Chang'an Jun to "ask for advice", although an elderly man over fifty years old to ask for advice from a fifteen-year-old weak crown boy makes people feel a little incredible, but it is true.

Chang Anjun changed out of his sweaty clothes, and after drinking enough water, he said slowly: "Mr. Gongsun, in your opinion, it is easier to make a simple thing complicated and confusing; Or is it easier to make a complex thing simple and understandable at a glance? ”

Gongsun Long thought for a while and said, "As far as I'm concerned, the former is easy and the latter is difficult. ”

His grandson Long is a famous debater in the world, but otherwise, he can't; Trapped in the knowledge of hundreds of schools, the debate of the poor people, just like that day in the Pingyuan Monarch's Mansion, a few words will be confused, making simple things complicated, making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false, which is his specialty.

However, logical issues such as white horses and non-horses, the theory of change, and the theory of solidity, which are not difficult in the eyes of their famous experts, are very difficult to explain to others.

Gongsun Long's answer was expected by Mingyue, and he smiled: "So Mr. thinks that as long as he wins the debate, others will be able to accept this statement?" It's a pity, you can convince people's mouths, but you can't convince people's hearts, why? Because Mr. in the process of debate, the use of others can not be convinced, the more eloquent it is, the more people can not believe Mr., this is a paradox, white horses and non-horses and other issues, if you don't argue, you don't know, but for other people, the more you argue with the famous people, the more you feel that the famous is arguing, so everything the famous said is dismissed as a fallacy. ”

"That's true." Gongsun Long was also very distressed, which was also a problem that had been bothering him for nearly ten years, until that day he had a small argument with Chang'an Jun and listened to what he said, and then he woke up suddenly.

One of the reasons why he wanted to join this trip to Qi was that he hoped to communicate with Chang'anjun again, and Gongsun Long was very eager to get some inspiration from Chang'anjun.

Chang Anjun did not disappoint him, and said: "In fact, in the final analysis, it is because the words we use in daily life are too vague. ”

He pinched the brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote the word "non" on the wooden slip.

"A white horse is not a horse, and this non can be 'not' or 'not equal'."

The same words have different meanings due to the different people and the stage. Therefore, it is easy for Mr. Gongsun to use this specious word, it is easy to make people stunned, but it is a little difficult to rely on them to accurately express the intentions of famous artists. ”

Gongsun Long said with a bitter face: "What Chang Anjun said is reasonable, but how to solve this problem?" ”

Mingyue smiled: "Actually, it's very simple, that is, to replace the relationship between things with strictly prescribed symbols!" ”

Just do it, Mingyue immediately gave Gongsun Long a science popularization of the "collection" problem at the level of junior high school students.

"A white horse is a subset, a horse is a collection, and a white horse belongs to a horse, but a white horse is not equal to a horse."

Equal signs, unequal signs, belonging, contained in, and included in, are respectively written on the wooden slabs by the way of mathematical symbols of the bright moon and later generations.

Therefore, the proposition that a white horse is not a horse becomes a white horse≠ a horse and a white horse ∈ a horse.

Gongsun Long looked at Chang'an Jun in amazement, and showed the relationship between the white horse and the non-horse that their famous masters had tried to explain clearly in hundreds of words, but it became more and more unclear.

"Even if you replace the white horse with a black horse or a yellow horse, it's all the same. Even if it is a Zhao and a Qi person, the language expression habits are different, relying on this symbol with unified meaning, you can also understand the relationship between the two well. ”

Then, Mingyue taught Gongsun Long some of the simplest mathematical logical symbols such as greater than and less than signs.

Looking at the dense symbols on the wooden scum, Gongsun Long was extremely excited, these unfamiliar symbols are simply the hope of the famous artist!

Although it is not omnipotent, the issues raised by many people can be simply expressed with symbols, so that his trip to the Jixia School Palace can put forward something new.

In Mingyue's view, by doing so, he was equivalent to pulling Gongsun Long back from the dead alley of metaphysical sophistry, and using these logical symbols to lure him to continue to follow the right path of simple dialectics.

The logic of the famous artist is very primitive, like what chicken has three legs and three ears of people, and they are still using special examples to quibble, at most there is some inductive reasoning. It is difficult to believe that the universality hypothesis is derived from special cases because it has only a low level of certainty.

Only by going beyond deductive reasoning, applying hypotheses such as white horses and non-horses to new examples, and opening the way for practical verification, can we get closer to the "science" of later generations.

Among them, some logical algebraic notation is naturally indispensable.

Finally, Mingyue drew the symbol "∞" on the wooden slab.

Looking at this strange thing, Gongsun Long said strangely: "Chang'anjun, this is ......"

"Mr. Gongsun, I remember Keiko once said that there is a hypothesis, the supreme is the greatest, and it is called the great one; To the small without the inside, it is called the small one, right? ”

"Yes." Gongsun Long said admiringly: "This is the first of the ten things in the Keiko calendar. ”

"I still remember that Mr. Gongsun Long also raised an issue of 'one foot of air, half of it every day, and it will never be exhausted'?"

"Yes." Gongsun Long is a little complacent, which is also his proud work.

"This symbol can explain the above two issues that cannot be separated from each other."

Tapping "∞" with her fingers, Mingyue smiled: "It's called 'infinity'!" ”

……

Sent Gongsun Long away, the night was already dark, Mingyue beat her shoulder, rode a horse for an hour, and sat down with Gongsun Long for a long time, it was already very sore.

The girl who was sewing clothes on the side was very eye-catching, and immediately came over to pinch him, there was such a maid with quick hands and feet, and it was not in vain that Mingyue ordered her to come with her.

Nu Qi's fingers are slender and the strength is appropriate, Mingyue feels very comfortable, her eyes are closed, but her mouth suddenly asks: "Nu Qi, do you understand what I said to Mr. Gongsun just now?" ”

Nu Qi shook her head: "The concubine knows the white horse and the horse, but when they are together, they don't understand it at all, and they don't know what the gentleman is doing to explore the relationship between these things." ”

She had something to say, and thought about it, only a scribe who had no worries about food and lodging, and a son who was clothed and fed, would think about these complicated things? We lowly concubines, who already have a lot to worry about every day, how can we care about these useless things?

"That's right." Mingyue opened his eyes and looked at the tightly knit felt tent top, he knew that the sky must be full of stars outside.

"Let me tell you a story, in a far, far west of the Qin Kingdom, there is also a gentleman, who likes to watch the stars at night, and after one night, he walks in the wilderness, looking up at the sky, the sky is full of stars, but there are also some dark places. So the gentleman prophesied that there would be rain the next day, and at that moment he accidentally fell into the mud pit under his feet and almost fell to his death. When they came to him, he said to them, 'Tomorrow there will be rain.' But the man who came up to him laughed at him, saying that he knew only the things of heaven, but not that there was a pit under his feet. ”

Nuqi didn't like to laugh, but she burst out laughing: "This gentleman is really stupid......"

"Ridiculous? However, the next day, it rained. ”

Nuqi was stunned: "He actually got it right?" ”

Mingyue nodded: "This is the skill of these gentlemen." Indeed, most people are looking down at the ground, and people such as Mr. Gongsun Long, as well as Mr. Xun Kuang, Mr. Zou Yan and others from Jixia School Palace, as well as the deceased Zhuangzi and Huizi, may be those who look up at the starry sky in the sky. ”

These people were widespread in the Warring States, and they had a common name: Zhuzi Baijia! Their thinking experience of looking up at the starry sky has become the saying of a hundred schools, which is the cornerstone of Chinese civilization standing tall in the world, and those theories that seem to be divorced from reality can be turned into the way of governing the country, the way of dealing with the world, and perhaps the way of scientific progress.

"What about the child? Do you look up at the sky, or look down at the ground? Nuqi asked rhetorically.

Mingyue smiled and did not answer.

He already knows what the starry sky will be like in the future, and now, he must carefully stare at the cruel world under his feet, be down-to-earth, and let himself not fall, so that he can have more opportunities to look up at the starry sky with all the sons and hundreds of schools......

……

The next day, the group crossed the Qing River, all the way east, and after passing Tobu Castle, they arrived at Pingyuanjin on the Turbid River.

At this point, more than half of the 800-mile journey from Handan to Linzi, Pingyuanjun sent someone to tell Mingyue, who was a little sleepy at this time because he stayed up all night to look at bamboo slips.

"Chang'anjun, cheer up, although the plains and Gaotang on the other side of the river are now occupied by the Zhao State, they are already counted as all the land!"