Ming Liji, I Have Been Engaged in Electricity in Both My Lifetimes.

Ye Han, a doctor of science and engineering, transformed into a scholar from a poor family in ancient times, and his family borrowed money to finance his scientific examination. The provincial examination was about to take place. He looked at the Four Books and Five Classics with a blank look, but he awakened to the system of "studying things to gain knowledge". The examiner asked the question "On Thunder", and everyone talked about it. He took up his pen and wrote "The Principle of Thunder and Lightning Rod Design"; The exam question was "Water Control Strategies", and the classmate talked about benevolent politics and moral governance. He presented "Fluid Mechanics and Mathematical Model of Flood Control Dams". During the palace examination, the emperor angrily rebuked: "You are talking nonsense about strange skills and tricks. Is this the way of the sages?" Ye Han cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, if I can let the beacon tower at the border pass the message ten miles away, is it considered a sage's way?" Amid the uproar, he took out a hand-cranked generator and a model telegraph machine.