Chapter 227 - 183: He Expanded the Breadth of Mathematics

"...Not bad at all!" Mentioning this, Mo Ban instantly perked up. "Right now, in major cities like Jinghai City, the Celestial Capital, and the Imperial Capital, we’ve basically completed a total reform of preschool mathematics education based on your book!"

Hearing this, Chu Bamboo’s brow furrowed, and his tone held a hint of dissatisfaction. "In other words, only in the major cities?"

"Sigh..." At this, a somewhat wistful expression crossed Mo Ban’s face. "We’re trying... But in the major cities, because of industrialization, the schools are part of a public system and the textbooks are basically standardized by the government, so it’s easy to implement..."

"But in the countryside, and even in the smaller cities, the schools are all private academies, which are completely monopolized by the disciples of Confucianism... How could it possibly be easy to implement the changes there?"

"In reality, isn’t education in the major cities monopolized by Confucianism as well? It’s just that when it comes to textbooks, the Imperial Court has the final say!"

Mo Ban gave Chu Bamboo a deep look. "Not to mention, even though I pushed hard back then to get it into the curriculum, the official civil service exams don’t have any questions from your arithmetic scriptures yet. They still use the same old classical arithmetic textbooks. So, even though discerning people in smaller places have realized certain things, they’ve still chosen to wait and see! The people of the Daqian Dynasty value education too much—so much so that they’ll remain cautious even about things that are perfectly obvious."

"So that’s how it is." Chu Bamboo was lost in thought. The position of Confucianism in the Daqian education system was undeniable, but... most of what Confucianism taught was literature, the classics, and the eight-legged essay!

Things like mathematics, or even physics, were taught by the Mo Family instead.

Overall, within the Daqian Dynasty’s education sector, one could say that the dominant power was held by Confucianism...

But when it came to the actual content being taught, the Mo Family and Confucianism effectively divided the territory between them.

This was the fundamental reason why Chu Bamboo had brought that book to the man before him in the first place.

A smile then appeared on Mo Ban’s face, his words full of enthusiasm. "However, with the recent exam results, in terms of mathematics... the students using your set of arithmetic scriptures are scoring far higher than those who haven’t studied them! The facts speak for themselves, so implementation has become much easier now..."

"At this rate, we might be able to complete the mathematics reform across the entire Daqian Dynasty within ten years!"

As Mo Ban spoke, a look of longing appeared in his eyes. "A future where everyone knows mathematics... What kind of glorious age would that be?"

Chu Bamboo remained silent. In the Dream World, the barrier to entry for mathematics was countless times higher than in the Real World.

Although Arabic numerals existed here...

...they were known to people primarily because of the numbers built into cell phones.

And that knowledge was purely superficial...

Previously, in the various schools of the Daqian Dynasty, mathematics was taught and calculated using the Dream World’s own written characters for numbers.

It was just like mathematical calculations in the ancient Divine Continent.

The Dream World’s level of mathematics wasn’t actually low. Even if it couldn’t compare to the Real World, it was at least at the level of university-stage arithmetic! Just as in the ancient Divine Continent, mathematics had actually developed to a very advanced stage.

However, they also ran into the same problem that the ancient Divine Continent of the Real World faced: it couldn’t be popularized...

Various extremely cumbersome arithmetic tools, and Arabic numerals that had appeared but could not be widely adopted—

All these things created a high barrier to entry for mathematics.

"...It’s too slow," Chu Bamboo repeated.

"I think it’s already very fast!" Mo Ban shot Chu Bamboo a strange look. He really couldn’t comprehend Chu Bamboo’s concept of time.

In fact, if the Heavenly Monarch hadn’t taken an interest in the matter—and while he didn’t reform the civil service exams, he did apply a certain amount of pressure—it would have been impossible to get this far in just three years.

"Wait a minute!" It was only at this moment that it all started to sink in for Zhang Hai. His brain, which had seemingly crashed, whirred back to life. He stared at Chu Bamboo, dumbfounded. "You’re the one? The author of the arithmetic scripture from three years ago? That mysterious... unnamable person? No! That’s impossible, right? Your age... You’re just...! I...!"

Zhang Hai was incoherent, feeling as if his entire worldview was shattering. He now seemed to understand why everyone else had been acting the way they were before.

"Yes, that’s him!" Mo Ban said with a broad smile. "To be honest, I had about the same reaction as you back then..."

He continued, his tone nostalgic, "Take a guess. Back when I asked him how on earth he managed to compile that whole system, what do you think he said?"

Chu Bamboo gave a small, wry smile. Without waiting for Mo Ban to continue, he calmly repeated his own words from back then: "These math tools were just too clunky to use, so I threw together this easier system."

Three years ago, Chu Bamboo was still in high school... He had been studying the local math books and felt like he was going to lose his mind, especially when comparing them to the system he had already learned in the Real World!

’Studying in the Real World was already enough of a pain... and now I have to struggle here, too! What’s the point of this "dreaming" then?!’

In a fit of frustration, Chu Bamboo had simply half-copied and half-adapted the mathematics textbooks from the Real World inside the Dream World, deriving a set of semi-localized mathematical tools.

And that was the Arithmetic Scripture!

It began with the multiplication table. Then came addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, followed by linear equations with two variables, and so on...

It seemed very simple! You could say it was mathematics at an elementary school level!

But... the problem was precisely that it was *too* simple!

These seemingly simple introductory tools for arithmetic set off an unimaginable storm in the Dream World of that time.

Indeed, Chu Bamboo hadn’t raised the ceiling of mathematics in the Dream World, but he had drastically increased its accessibility.

This new system of mathematics directly enabled ordinary preschool children to begin learning arithmetic...

You have to understand, previously in the Dream World, students had to wait until middle school before they could even begin to tackle the extremely cumbersome math problems. And now they could start learning math in elementary school... What did that even mean?!

The mathematics education of the Real World is, in essence, a system built upon centuries of accumulated knowledge from human industrial civilization, constantly refined and ultimately forged into a near-perfect pedagogical framework...

It drastically lowered the barrier to entry for learning mathematics!

Mathematics has never been a simple subject...

One only has to look at how many people in Europe and America today can’t even handle basic arithmetic to understand the significance of the Divine Continent’s system of mathematics education.

"Now do you understand my shock?" Mo Ban spread his hands like a playful old imp. Zhang Hai nodded stiffly. He looked at Chu Bamboo, opening and closing his mouth several times, a thousand words caught in his throat, unable to be spoken.

"Most importantly, that system also deepened our understanding of the Ancient Relic: the cell phone," Mo Ban said softly.

At first, they only knew how to use the cell phones to make calls! But with the advent of Chu Bamboo’s arithmetic scripture, those who owned a phone now also understood how to use that calculator function.

In fact, he and many others suspected that the person before them had managed to create that scripture... because he had figured out part of the fundamental nature of the phone’s built-in computer through experimentation...

But even if the person before them had deciphered the algorithms of the ancient Divine Beings and grasped a part of their divine mathematical essence... that didn’t diminish his achievements in the slightest! In fact, on some level, it made him even more terrifying.

To be able to take these algorithms, which had belonged exclusively to Divine Beings, and recompile them through his own understanding, single-handedly creating a completely new, systematized, popularized, and easy-to-learn mathematics system—

His achievement was never about anything else—it was purely about lowering the barrier to entry for learning!

No matter how highly one estimated this contribution, it would not be an exaggeration. This was truly... an accomplishment that reached the heavens!

"So, shouldn’t you be world-famous? Why..." Zhang Hai’s lips moved, and he suddenly realized something. His gaze fell on Mo Ban, heavy with suspicion. He even had the subconscious urge to shield Chu Bamboo, but he quickly realized his own strength was probably no match for the old man and forcefully suppressed the impulse.

"I know what you’re thinking... But after this kid threw the book at me back then, guess what he said?" Mo Ban naturally knew Zhang Hai suspected him of stealing Chu Bamboo’s credit. He could only give a bitter laugh and start airing his grievances.

"He told me to compile it directly into the arithmetic Chapter of the Mo Family’s Mo Scripture! He even said that, if possible, I shouldn’t credit him by name!"

Zhang Hai: "???"

"Hard to believe, isn’t it!" Mo Ban said leisurely. "To be honest, I didn’t quite understand it myself at the time! It was only later that I began to speculate... I’m afraid the boy was worried the mathematics he’d created wouldn’t be accepted by the world!"

"Our Mo Family’s arithmetic Chapter is considered the foundation of mathematics in our world! Once something is added to it... it’s equivalent to the Mo Family staking all its past mathematical achievements as proof of its validity! It would gain immediate acceptance from the public and could be disseminated instantly..."

"But if this kid had stepped into the spotlight... People would take one look, just like your first reaction! Three years ago, he was just a teenager. What kind of legitimate mathematics could he possibly create? The difficulty of promoting it would have been unimaginable..."

Mo Ban’s gaze burned as he stared at Chu Bamboo, his words ringing with conviction. "But you were willing to forsake that glory for the sake of popularizing mathematics... However, we are not so despicable as to steal the achievements of a child! So, after discussing it with my senior, we made a decision!"

"If Mr. Chu is unwilling to step into the spotlight, then we will hide his name... We will record his mathematical achievements in the arithmetic Chapter! Whenever he is willing to accept this honor, we will announce it to the world..."

"Actually," Mo Wen hesitated for a moment before carefully interjecting, "if the concern is about getting it accepted, we could announce it now... After all, the fruits of the arithmetic Chapter are already gaining public recognition!"

"Let’s not worry about that for now." Chu Bamboo’s response was a polite but firm refusal.

’As for why he refused back then... How could he possibly not have refused?!’

’This reform of arithmetic was tantamount to a direct confrontation with Confucianism, the faction that controlled the education system... The Mo Family might be able to handle the backlash, but could he?’

’Not to mention, he was studying history in the Real World at the time and had just happened to learn about how Copernicus in the West announced the heliocentric model and was burned at the stake for it...’

’Faced with the consequences of such a radical change, how could he have dared to step into the spotlight?’

’It came down to the same thing: while he wasn’t afraid of dying, he wasn’t about to commit such a pointless act of suicide!’

’As for why he was still against it... that was obviously because while he had now become an Extraordinary, his power was still insufficient!’

’He was carrying quite a few sensitive secrets, after all—Nuwa, the reset, and so on...’

’If he were to become world-famous overnight, even attracting the attention of the Heavenly Monarch...’

’...the trouble that would come from any close scrutiny would be immense!’