bookcurios Chapter 77 Sundial
Chapter 77 Sundial
It suddenly occurred to me that not only are all the books from this era written in traditional Chinese characters, but they are also written in classical Chinese. I get dizzy after reading just a couple of pages.
Another point is that the steaming process takes time, and I wonder if there's anything that can be used to time it. We can't exactly light incense every time.
Song Jiaojiao kept thinking about how to keep track of time, and even at the dinner table, she ate her food half-heartedly. Everyone could tell that Song Jiaojiao was preoccupied, and Mu Qing and Mu Xue exchanged a glance.
"Mother, what's wrong?" Mu Qing asked, noticing that Song Jiaojiao seemed distracted and hadn't eaten much.
"Ah, what's wrong?" Hearing the voice, Song Jiaojiao suddenly came to her senses and looked at the two children in front of her with confusion.
Mu Qing looked at Song Jiaojiao with concern, "Mother, you seem to have something on your mind. Has something happened?"
"Oh? It's nothing, Mother just has a question that I can't figure out," Song Jiaojiao said with a gentle smile.
"What's wrong? Maybe we can help." Mu Qing thought that although her mother was very smart and knew things that they didn't, no one is perfect and there would always be times when she didn't understand something.
Yes, I was being narrow-minded. I could ask the locals. "Sister, how do you usually keep track of time?"
"Timekeeping? I don't know about timekeeping, but most people just look at the sun to tell the time." Mu Qing had hardly ever left the village and had no idea how time was kept outside.
At this moment, Bai Shuqin, who was eating nearby, spoke up, "Madam, perhaps I know this."
Upon hearing this, Song Jiaojiao quickly urged her to tell her what happened.
"Most people use incense to tell time, with one stick of incense burning for about half an hour. However, larger places use sundials to tell time, but you can't tell time without the sun."
Bai Shuqin put down her chopsticks and slowly spoke, saying that there was a sundial in the place where she used to live, and she had seen it before.
"A sundial?" Song Jiaojiao didn't expect that sundials already existed in this dynasty. She had seen the principles of sundials while watching videos in her previous life, but they were far too complicated for her to make, especially finding the right angle. Aiming at the North Star was easy enough, but she really didn't know how to find the lines of latitude and longitude.
"Are there any other methods of telling time besides using incense?" Song Jiaojiao asked persistently.
Bai Shuqin pondered for a long time before saying, "I did hear my father mention before that a water clock could be used to tell time, with a bucket of water being about a third of a quarter of a quarter. But I've never seen one, and I don't know how big the bucket was. As for anything else, I haven't heard of it."
After hearing this, Song Jiaojiao instantly lost her spirit. A water clock? She'd never even heard of it. How was she supposed to find it?
Suddenly! Song Jiaojiao stood up excitedly.
A water clock. Isn't it just like an hourglass?
We can weave two triangular pyramids from bamboo to make a simple hourglass. Although we don't have glass, we can use translucent tarpaulin from greenhouses to cover the inside. While we might not be able to see very clearly, we can still see it when held up to the light. We can also buy some incense and do experiments. Maybe we'll succeed. Once we succeed, many things that require timing will be much easier to solve.
Mu Qing and the others were startled by Song Jiaojiao's sudden outburst. Before they could react, they saw her shoveling food into her bowl and finishing it in no time before hurriedly leaving.
Song Jiaojiao first went to her room to draw up the blueprints, and then went to find Xu Da to ask him to help her weave the pattern according to the blueprints. After instructing Xu Da, she took the rice sieve and bucket and went to the river.
There is a shallow shoal in the Qingshui River with a gentle current and a lot of silt, which is exactly what Song Jiaojiao needs.
Song Jiaojiao filled a small bucket with the top layer of dried sand, as this was the only way to sift it. After a while, she had about half a bucket full. Thinking that was enough, Song Jiaojiao went back home under the blazing sun.
There were many villagers fishing for crayfish by the river. When they saw Song Jiaojiao playing with the sand, they didn't know what she was doing. They thought it was some new trick, and many of them followed suit.
When Song Jiaojiao got home, she realized that there was no incense at home, and her excited heart calmed down instantly. No rush, winter is still a long way off, there is no need to be in such a hurry.
Song Jiaojiao poured the sand into a corner of the yard to dry, then went to check on the back hill. The two rabbits from before had now grown to about twenty. Song Jiaojiao noticed that several of the female rabbits looked listless, so they probably had kittens again.
The chickens have grown quite a bit; they'll probably be laying eggs in about a month. The persimmon trees on the mountain have already sprouted new buds, and even some of the apricot trees transplanted later have large blossoms. The honeysuckle that Song Jiaojiao brought back yesterday has been planted by the pond, and there are still some small buds on it.
Sitting in the pavilion and looking into the distance, all you see is a lush green landscape; spring is the season when all things come back to life.
Song Jiaojiao sat on the recliner, swaying gently. A gentle breeze blew, taking away the afternoon heat and calming her mind. Smelling the fragrance of flowers, she slowly fell asleep.
In her dream, Song Jiaojiao saw herself gradually building up her workshop. Wang Hefan also set up his own caravan according to her ideas, selling the products produced in her workshop to distant places. He also brought back many rare species for Song Jiaojiao. Suddenly, a man appeared and said that he was her husband, asking Song Jiaojiao to go with him, which startled Song Jiaojiao awake.
Phew! Thank goodness it was just a dream.
Still shaken, Song Jiaojiao patted her chest. Seeing that the sun was about to set and feeling a bit chilly, she rubbed her arms and went home.
Spring mornings and evenings are still chilly. Although it's almost the end of spring and the beginning of summer, we can't be careless. After dinner, Song Jiaojiao felt her nose was a little stuffy. She didn't know if it was because she caught a chill or because she was scared by a dream.
I had no choice but to get up and go to the kitchen to boil ginger water, otherwise a minor cold would turn into a major one by tomorrow.
After drinking the ginger water, Song Jiaojiao went back to bed and wrapped herself up. She thought she wouldn't sleep well after sleeping for so long in the afternoon, but she didn't expect to fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Song Jiaojiao, who had sweated a lot the night before, didn't feel her cold getting worse when she woke up in the morning. She just felt sticky and uncomfortable all over. She fetched some hot water, wiped herself down, and planned to take a shower later that night.
With nothing else to do, Song Jiaojiao wandered around the village. After breakfast, when everyone was mostly free, they would go to the big tree in the center of the village to chat about gossip.
But today was strange; there wasn't a single person around. The villagers who passed by just greeted Song Jiaojiao briefly and left.
Full of doubt, he went to ask the village elders under the tree. These were all grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the village, and it was impossible to let them do any work. Staying at home all day was too boring. Most of them would choose to come here to chat and sit for a while.
Before Song Jiaojiao could even get close, he heard someone calling out to him.
"Jiaojiao, come here." An elderly woman with a full head of white hair and a kind smile called out to Song Jiaojiao.
The original owner rarely went out and had no idea who this old man was or how to address him.