Chapter 391 - Subtle Influence

Constantijn Huygens was taken aback. Christiaan was his youngest son, born in 1629, and was now only a three-year-old toddler. No one except his close friends and relatives knew about this child. He hadn’t even mentioned him to Mr. Banckert and the others. How did this Dr. Zhong, thousands of miles away, know his name?

He felt a little strange and said, “He is well.”

“And Mr. Descartes?”

The philosopher and physicist Descartes was currently conducting research in the Netherlands. Since 1629, Descartes had been a guest in the Netherlands for more than twenty years, dedicating himself to writing and research. He was also a friend of Constantijn Huygens. Christiaan would become a physicist, and Descartes’s influence on him should be significant.

“He is also well,” Constantijn Huygens said, becoming a little wary. How did this gentleman know everything? Although Descartes was not a minor figure, he was not a household name throughout Europe, let alone in this East Asian region where they couldn’t even get European names right.

Dr. Zhong smiled faintly, “Actually, I have long admired Mr. Descartes. I heard he has done a lot of research on optics?”

“Indeed, but he is more interested in mathematical problems.”

Although Constantijn Huygens had no great achievements, he was a learned scientist and was certainly not unfamiliar with mathematics. The two of them began to discuss the problems of analytic geometry that Descartes had been studying recently by the roast duck oven. Once they started talking, they were engrossed. Three minutes later, Mr. Huygens was completely in awe of Dr. Zhong.

“You are truly a great mathematician!” he said excitedly. “You have easily come up with solutions to problems that Mr. Descartes has been struggling with!” He was so excited that he had already forgotten about the previous matter. “Do you have any works that I can read?”

Dr. Zhong smiled and said, “Works…”

Suddenly, Zhong Xiaoying cried out, “The duck! The duck is smoking!”

Hearing this, Dr. Zhong hurriedly fumbled for a fork to turn the roast duck. In this emergency, he did not forget his “abduction” plan and quickly said to Huygens, “I will give you a duck… no, a pamphlet for you to take back to Mr. Descartes—it is my thoughts on some mathematical and optical problems.”

“That’s wonderful,” Huygens nodded repeatedly and said, “Your duck seems to be almost ready…”

Before long, Kretia’s fish was ready, and Zhong Lishi’s duck was also roasted. With a sharp steel knife in one hand and an iron fork in the other, Zhong Lishi personally sliced the first roasted duck into neat rows. He said to Huygens, “Slicing roast duck is also an art. Each slice must have skin and meat… then roll the duck meat in a lotus leaf pancake, add some scallions and sweet bean sauce… come! Have a taste…”

The flour and sweet bean sauce were brought by Dr. Zhong, and the scallions were from the local vegetable garden. Of course, they were all of the best quality.

This time, not only Huygens but also Kretia came to watch with great interest. This way of eating was quite novel for Europeans, not to mention that the Dutch at this time were famous for their poor food.

Huygens’s eyes suddenly bulged out, and he was speechless for a long time.

“How does it taste?”

“It tastes good! Excellent!” Huygens exclaimed sincerely. “It’s much better than roast goose! Hmm, it’s a complex flavor.”

The banquet was held in the customs house hall. The windows on all four sides of the hall were open, covered with iron mesh screens, which could both let in the cool sea breeze and prevent the abundant insects here from flying into the flames.

The gas lamps illuminated the entire hall brightly. Kretia quietly came in to have a look. Seeing the dense swarms of insects on the windows on all four sides, she couldn’t help but feel a shiver and quickly turned her head away. She curiously looked at the tableware and cutlery on the long table covered with a white tablecloth. Although most of the dishes were Chinese in flavor, the format was still a buffet. All the tableware on the white tablecloth was porcelain and silver—Wei Bachi attached great importance to the grandeur of the “Taiwan Governor’s Mansion” and wanted to display the “majesty of the highest representative of the Yuanlao Senate” in every aspect.

“So many knives, forks, and porcelain… so grand…” Kretia whispered to her brother.

At that time, the use of knives and forks was not yet common in Europe. As for chopsticks, she did not find them strange: she had already become accustomed to the Chinese tableware in Batavia and had once been eager to try them.

Westerly was also wearing formal attire—he and his sister had also received a formal invitation. He was feeling a little hot at the moment—Europeans, especially those of some status, did not take off their woolen clothes even in the hot Southeast Asia. Their already ruddy skin became even redder, like a plate of grilled prawns.

“The Australians are said to be very extravagant,” Westerly said with feigned composure. “Father said that the Australians are rich in resources and have endless wealth…”

He pointed to a mahogany grandfather clock at the end of the banquet hall—like the one in the Zhiminglou, it was a product of modern mechanism and contemporary casing.

“Sister, look, that’s an Australian clock. Isn’t it beautiful?” Westerly said with great relish. “It’s very different from a Dutch clock. It’s said to be from the hands of Dr. Zhong—I would very much like to learn from him.”

As the two were whispering, the grandfather clock rang out with a loud chime, striking six times in a row. Then, music suddenly filled the empty banquet hall—it was the official welcoming music of the Yuanlao Senate: “Beautiful Australia.”

Led by Wei Bachi, Zhong Lishi, Hong Laojun, Shi Dafu, and other Yuanlao, all in formal attire, took their seats one by one to the sound of the music. Wei Bachi and Huygens each gave a speech, followed by the orchestra playing a symphony. The banquet then began.

Faced with a table full of Chinese and Western delicacies, the Yuanlao and Huygens’s Dutch companions ate with gusto, their juices dripping. But Zhong Lishi and Huygens seemed a little reserved. Although they didn’t eat much, they kept burping. Wei Bachi found it strange and asked Huygens, “Mr. Huygens, is the food not to your taste?”

“Oh, it’s very delicious! Very delicious!”

Seeing this, Zhong Xiaoying whispered a few words to Kretia, and the two couldn’t help but giggle. Westerly hurried over to inquire, and Kretia whispered to her brother, “The two of them were eating while cooking in the kitchen. Each of them ate almost half a duck and two fish…”

The day after the banquet, Wei Bachi had someone take the Banckert siblings to the Kaohsiung Health Center, where they had a physical examination and were then vaccinated with cowpox.

The reaction to the cowpox vaccine was very mild, and basically did not require much care. To be on the safe side, they rested for a few days as instructed by the doctor, and only came out to move around again after the vaccination site had basically scabbed over. Zhong Lishi sent them a few popular science pictorials published by the Great Library to pass the time. According to the report of the maid who took care of them, Westerly was very engrossed in reading and kept trying to understand the Chinese characters in the explanations. He even specifically asked the maid for a Dutch-Australian dictionary.

Dr. Zhong thought to himself, “I do have a Dutch-Chinese dictionary, but I can’t give it to him. I’m sure there’s a ready-made one in the Great Library, but the demand is too small, so it’s probably difficult to publish it specially.”

“Knowledge is power,” he thought to himself. “As long as you have power, people will naturally want to understand you and learn from you, to learn your language. Teaching language is also an effective means of cultural dissemination—I should suggest that the Great Library publish some dictionaries and language textbooks.”

He thought for a moment and called Zhong Xiaoying over—he found that his adopted daughter seemed to get along well with these two children. At the banquet, they had been gesturing and talking and laughing all the time.

“Is Father asking me how Kretia’s Cantonese is?” Zhong Xiaoying made a face. “Her Cantonese is as good as Father’s…”

“Ahem, ahem,” Dr. Zhong coughed a few times, and Zhong Xiaoying obediently replied, “She can have simple conversations, but for more complex ones, she has to gesture. But Miss Kretia is a very fast language learner. She says she can speak several languages…”

“In that case, you should teach her Mandarin properly,” Zhong Lishi said. “This is the task I’m giving you. And her brother too.”

“Yes, Father,” Zhong Xiaoying said. “But they probably won’t be here for long?”

“They will be here for at least half a month,” Zhong Lishi had already inquired with Huygens: they planned to stay in Taiwan for a month. They had originally planned to stay at Fort Zeelandia, but yesterday Huygens had informed him that they wished to stay at the more comfortable and hygienic Kaohsiung trading post—of course, they would pay for their board and lodging.

“I also want to discuss mathematics, astronomy, and physics with you day and night,” Huygens showed great enthusiasm.

A few days later, the siblings’ scabs had healed. Since Banckert had company business to attend to in Dayuan, he returned first, leaving the siblings in Kaohsiung under Huygens’s care.

“Excuse me, where is the Church of St. Anthony?” Westerly and Kretia came out of the main gate—this was the first time they had gone out alone in these few days, and they were not used to the sunlight at first.

“It’s on the hillside over there…” a servant at the trading post pointed. On a small hill by the street stood a wooden Jesuit church.

This was the first time Westerly and Kretia had gone out freely without an escort—and this was a completely unfamiliar area, so they were inevitably a little timid. They had heard that there was a Catholic church here with European missionaries, so they decided to go and have a look—Kretia could also speak a little Italian.

The Frans van Banckert family were not citizens of the Seven Provinces Republic. They were Germans serving the Dutch East India Company, from the old Hanseatic League cities in the northwestern region of Germany. Many Germans from this region served as merchants and sailors. The Banckert family were actually Catholics.