Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 357 059 How can you come to Weimar and not meet Goethe? (Down)

However, when it comes to literary content, Goethe is also interested in those related to the mysterious East.

"Sir, I think I have found the right person this time. Misha is one of the few experts in the Petersburg court, and there must be something he has not told me."

Well, Maria was always very thorough when selling out her teammates.

"Your Highness, even though I say this, in front of Mr. Goethe, I am nothing more than a firefly compared to the moonlight."

When Solovyov said this, Goethe smiled and said: "But I have no connection with astronomy. Mr. Gauss is more familiar with the movement of celestial bodies. On the contrary, I prefer to study natural sciences other than mathematics."

Goethe did have this hobby, and he also preferred people who had a wide range of knowledge.

"Then what you like is content that can be touched, so that you can fully perceive it. It is not the celestial bodies moving in the starry sky, but the universe. Sorry, if I mention this, it will affect personal thinking and consciousness."

Speaking of which, Solovyov himself is not very good at describing illusory philosophical views. He still prefers to do it.

"Then, young man, you should also be very pragmatic in your work."

However, Solovyov heard that Goethe was opposed to the more popular optical theory. In the early 19th century, it was inevitable that there would be a certain degree of deviation due to issues of knowledge.

Gauss gave Solovyov a wink, but the client did not understand what he meant because it was the first time he met Gauss.

Fortunately, Goethe himself was educated in arts and sciences, so the atmosphere of the topic was relatively relaxed.

Maria was a little confused. It wasn't that she was really stupid after giving birth, but that she couldn't keep up with the rhythm.

Goethe usually admired her highly, but in terms of literature and art, as long as science was discussed, she still had relatively little knowledge in this area.

Most of these princesses who were raised in the palace received an education that had little to do with natural sciences.

Those who are interested in philosophy, history and geography like Louisa are considered to be relatively outliers. As for her being inexplicably led astray to like machinery and ancient creatures because she was with her lover, that's another matter.

Of course, Goethe mentioned a problem inadvertently.

"Have you studied anatomy?"

"Ah, although I have killed people on the battlefield, I have also participated in some medical research, and even..."

When Solovyov said this, he thought that he couldn't talk about delivering Louisa, nor could he talk about delivering his stepmother and "taking out" his younger brother.

So, he changed his words: "But anatomy is not what I am good at. In medicine, I only do some research on disinfection and herbalism. Of course, herbalism must be based on botany."

"That's true, but animals and plants should all have 'original organisms'."

Speaking of which, this seems to be a simple understanding of evolution. Solovyov heard something new from Goethe.

"There is indeed such an idea. After all, plants of the same family and genus always have similar structures."

"So, where does this origin come from? The study of embryos. Although anatomy sometimes has some taboos, this is also an era of science, and we need to do research at some point."

What Solovyov heard from Goethe was probably that among animals, mainly through the dissection of various stillborn fetuses, it was possible to find similar structures among animals.

Of course, Goethe's choice of words was very subtle considering Maria in the deck chair.

What's more, German is a rigorous and verbose language. Although it is not suitable for military orders and will always cause trouble, in scientific research, sometimes it is useful to collage a bunch of vocabulary, at least it can be clearly defined. .

And this kind of understanding, the theory of evolution will still be popular in the future, after all, we already have a simple understanding.

"It's just a pity that I am a soldier and rarely have this kind of leisure. Most of the time, I have to be in the army. Moreover, I am not an artilleryman or an engineer, so I can have this kind of leisure."

"You can do it as a hobby, Colonel, and you're so young."

"Yeah, I'm only 24 years old, and my life is still long."

"Young man, it is unlikely that you will always be in the army."

There are still a lot of Russian nobles who retire in their thirties.

But Solovyov thinks about what he has done. He may not have this opportunity before he is fifty, and now he is one step away from becoming a general.

Of course, Goethe's discussion quickly shifted from science back to literature and customs.

Especially for the mysterious East, many European nobles are still interested.

Solovyov also produced some relatively new results, but the "Dialogues" of Shandong Confucius were always very short, unlike the Greek philosophers who often had long speeches.

After listening to several "Confucius said", Goethe also discovered this problem.

"Obviously, Chinese philosophers always speak so briefly. Why is this?"

"This may have something to do with the carrier of the text, sir."

"If I remember correctly, papermaking came from China, and printing, from what I understand, is the same."

"Before the emergence of paper, Chinese writing carriers, including bronzes and bamboo slips, obviously had to use simple words to write on them, which could not occupy too much content. The chronicle style history books that have been handed down also have this problem. In the early days The text is simple and notes need to be added later, which is also a kind of knowledge. "

"Then there should also be inscriptions, like the ones the Austrian envoys saw when they were on a mission to Persia, as well as the unidentified writings in Egypt."

"But there are also parchments and papyrus, and to this day, there are still such books. But the history we see is generally not officially revised. It is always based on the scholars' own accounts, and there will inevitably be some deviations. At the same time, It is true that there are always some long discussions on the techniques of ancient philosophers’ remarks, and future scribes may have to cover these contents.”

Four thousand years have passed since the emergence of the scribe profession in Egypt, and it still existed in Europe in the 19th century. When Goethe was writing, as he grew older, he also needed secretaries and scribes to help him complete some content.

At least there is no need for the poet. He is busy between documents and reflecting his thoughts, and he always needs someone to help him.

"Ah, it seems you still have some research."

"Yes, there are always people who do it after all."

This kind of practice will even be shown under scientific instruments in the future. Some original contents will be overwritten, and important documents will be overwritten by useless account books. This kind of thing has not happened before.

When Goethe heard this, he roughly understood why the "Confucius Dialogues" were so brief, and fables usually use short words.

"This is really interesting. If you didn't still have a mission, I think I should keep you in Weimar for a while."

Goethe was interested in learning something related to the East. He was a poet, an enthusiast and a third-rate researcher in the field of science. He was thirsty for knowledge - he had even read the Koran and was quite familiar with the popular beliefs in the Middle East. Out of respect, he actually knew that hadith.

What's more, this is a language that is relatively poorly understood in Europe. Although there have been Chinese believers who have arrived in France, such people are extremely rare.

Solovyov was more worried about whether Goethe would make a joke if he could recognize words after he learned Chinese.

Confucius from Shandong really liked to use force. For example, when Qi State and Lu State were in alliance, he really cut the Lai people into pieces. Qi Jinggong even brought Yan Zi here.

If you do this, the Analects of Confucius will really become a slang language, but Goethe is more interested in the content translated by Solovyov, and thinks that what Confucius said is very reasonable.

As for Mencius, the only one among the four books with a large number of fables, Goethe actually nodded after listening to several of Solovyov's translations.

Especially for Chu people learning Qi language, it is obvious that Solovyov has a purpose when he speaks.

Moreover, there was a scribe beside Maria who recorded what Solovyov said in French.

"This article is interesting. Nowadays, Europeans are using French to communicate, but they must not forget their own country's language."

After hearing Goethe's comments, Maria remembered that when she was in Petersburg, some Russian aristocrats, even authentic Russians, might not speak Russian very well. They might as well marry into Russia and learn on their own like her grandmother and sister-in-law did. Successful.

Even my mother, who has lived in Russia for a long time, still has the accent of her hometown in Württemberg.

But since everyone came to Weimar, she obviously couldn't say anything about this kind of thing, but after someone recorded it, it would be convenient to bind it into a book later.

Maria still has some thoughts about Solovyov. It would be better if he could come to Weimar often.

Unfortunately, the war in Europe continues, and peace is a luxury.

Goethe did not make any comments about the current situation. Although he was a patriot, he had to take into account the actual situation of the German princes. Saxony-Weimar was a small country dependent on the big princes. Although the title was not low, there were many things All are dependent on Prussia.

Of course, Goethe also had a fan. Although Napoleon himself had never met Goethe, he always admired him and even wanted to find a suitable time to meet this literary giant.

But Napoleon's literature was really... If we discuss it, although Goethe was very interested in natural science, mathematics, which Napoleon was best at, was not within his scope.

At the same time, Napoleon himself paid more attention to Goethe's works, mainly in "Werther". In addition, he paid more attention to the story transformation dramas in the classical era.

While Solovyov was sitting here, he was actually able to discuss some philosophical issues.

This was an advantage. Goethe had visited Petersburg, coincidentally during the time of Paul's assassination, and soon returned to Weimar.

Now if he visits Russia again, he will receive a warm welcome from Alexander, and he will also make many young friends.

"I think that when the time is right, you can go to Petersburg again. After all, your main work is done there."

"If you are willing to visit my humble home, I will also take out some of the contents of the manuscript to communicate with you, and it will also facilitate cultural exchange and dissemination."

"Now the East does not seem to be as mysterious as it was in the time of Marco Polo. We should know more about it, such as the visit of Macartney's mission."

"But although the British are allies, I have to say that in diplomatic occasions, we must respect the diplomatic etiquette of the visiting country. Macartney must have knelt there, but his publications did not say so. In order to avoid this problem, our mission has always been at the government level, not at the monarch level, so that conflicts in diplomatic etiquette can be avoided, and negotiations between the two sides can be carried out under equal conditions."

However, Golovkin's visit this time had already caused trouble in Uliastai, but because the journey to Siberia was too far, the news had not been reported back.

"That can only be said to be a kind of arrogance of the British in diplomatic occasions. This is not good. We must respect customs, especially the great emperor of China, who also ruled a vast country, not these European countries."

"Yes, the great emperor of China ruled a territory larger than the area of ​​the European continent, and he was indeed a great country."

I can't continue to talk about it. After all, the British always do things that destroy the rules of diplomatic occasions. This is a kind of arrogance of a maritime colonial country. It seems that there is nothing wrong with calling them "British barbarians".

Obviously, this is not a British salon, and the topic quickly changed.

It only mentioned Macartney. His mission did fail because of unrealistic requirements.

The same reason should be used for Golovkin. The Polish Czartoryski obviously did not understand the mentality of the Qing emperor. Even if Golovkin understood the rules and did it according to the requirements of the Qing officials, he could not complete the task.

Jiaqing was not Qianlong. In some places, he could relax the etiquette requirements of foreign missions that did not understand the rules a little bit beyond the core issues.

Otherwise, there would not be little Si Dangdong kneeling on one knee to recite in front of Emperor Qianlong. Well, it can be said that Emperor Qianlong was more tolerant of children, but the envoys still had to kneel.

Therefore, if European countries send a delegation, they must always learn from the Dutch and Portuguese. When meeting the Qing emperor, etiquette cannot be avoided.

As for the previous dynasty? Using the sword of the previous dynasty to behead the officials of the current dynasty, this is indeed unheard of.

However, the Russian delegation once encountered this and almost caused a diplomatic incident.