China knows everything for 5000 years

Chapter 58

It took Li Shizhen 30 years to write the famous medical book "Compendium of Materia Medica", a total of 50 volumes and 190 million words.In this book, a total of 1892 kinds of medicines are recorded, 11091 prescriptions are collected, and the origin, shape, cultivation, collection, etc. A rare medical classic, known as the "Great Book of Oriental Medicine". The classification of drugs in "Compendium of Materia Medica" is minerals first, plants second, and animals last.The arrangement order of various medicines is roughly first simple and then complex, which reflects the process of natural development history from inorganic to organic, and from low to high. More than 200 years later, when Darwin saw Li Shizhen made such a classified scientific masterpiece, he also admired it!

When Li Shizhen was 61 years old, he had already compiled this giant medicine book. It is regrettable that after more than ten years of travel, he found a bookstore willing to engrave it. Unable to see engraved copies of his own works.It is worth consoling the spirit of this medicine king that the first edition came out 76 years after his death.After another ten years, it was introduced to Japan and North Korea.Later, it was translated into Latin, French, Russian, German, English and other languages, and spread all over the world.At present, there are more than a dozen English versions only.His brainchild is still contributing to the health and happiness of people all over the world.

●"Jin Ping Mei" published nationwide

The Ming Dynasty novel "Jin Ping Mei" was written around the period from Longqing to Wanli in Ming Dynasty.The author is "Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng", whose real name cannot be tested.

"Jin Ping Mei" borrows a short story from "Water Margin", that is, the relationship between Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian, and develops it into a [-]-episode novel that uses characters and stories from the Song Dynasty to show the social reality in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.The whole book centers on the rise and fall of Ximenqing's family of wealthy businessmen, bullies, and bureaucrats, and depicts a world of rampant crimes, from treacherous officials in the feudal imperial court to local bureaucrats and tyrants, and even market rogues and gangsters. It shows the state of the world and exposes the dark social reality. Most of the artistic achievements of "Jin Ping Mei" are groundbreaking. First of all, "Jin Ping Mei" pays attention to the description of characters, making them complicated and three-dimensional.The key character Pan Jinlian is lewd, jealous, and ruthless, leaving a clear impression on people, and the character of the character is vivid on paper.Secondly, "Jin Ping Mei" uses daily spoken language to narrate objects, which is vivid and vivid. The style is plain, simple, sharp and hearty, and the language of the characters is fully personalized.Furthermore, "Jin Ping Mei" combines the single-line structure of "Journey to the West" with the combined structure of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" to form a network structure, which integrates the scattered world and human feelings through the history of the rise and fall of Ximen Qing's family. Linking them together will form a broad picture of social life that is connected and integrated.In addition, "Jin Ping Mei" describes many scenes of daily life, including food, clothing, utensils and daily life at that time. The authenticity of these details makes the novel have a strong flavor of life.

●Three words and two actions have high achievements

During the Song Dynasty, with the development of the city's economy, "Goulan Houses" (similar to today's mixture of teahouses, entertainment centers and nightclubs) appeared.In Goulan Washeri, some storytellers make a living by lecturing on book reviews and history.Most of what they told were stories from the Three Kingdoms period, and there were also some stories about people's lives in the world or ghosts and ghosts.By the time of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, the city's economy was prosperous, and the social life of the citizen class was increasingly rich, which promoted the improvement of the level of literary and artistic creation.Not only are storytellers able to tell more and more stories, but also some people edit them into books, publish and sell them.Among them, Feng Menglong's three books, "Yu Shi Ming Yan", "Jing Shi Tong Yan" and "Xing Shi Heng Yan" and Ling Mochu's "First Moment Surprise" and "Second Moment Surprise" are the most famous. His book is called "Sanyan" for short, and Ling Mochu's book is called "Erpai" for short. "San Yan Er Pai" represents the highest achievement of short vernacular novels in Ming Dynasty.

Feng Menglong, courtesy name Youlong, was born in Changzhou (now Suzhou).Feng Menglong loved reading since he was a child, but he often had some ideas that did not conform to traditional ethics.He took the imperial examination many times, but failed repeatedly, which laid the foundation for his future creation. The description of the love and marriage stories of men and women in the "Three Words" is an important content, such as "The Oil Seller Monopolizes the Oiran", "A Rare Husband in the Spring Fall of Yutang", "Du Shiniang Sinks the Treasure Box in Anger", etc. are all famous through the ages. In the "Three Words", there are also stories about exposing the cunning and greed of feudal bureaucrats, flogging the ungrateful behavior among friends, praising sincere friendship, and praising hard work to get rich.

Ling Mochu, styled Xuanfang and nicknamed Chucheng, was born in Wucheng (now Huzhou, Zhejiang).He was smart and eager to learn since he was a child, but he failed many times in the exams, and it was difficult for him to enter the court as an official.In a fit of anger, he gave up the idea of ​​taking the exam and retired to the mountains.Influenced by Feng Menglong's "Three Words", Ling Mochu exposed the greed, despicability, insidiousness and viciousness of the feudal ruling class, created the image of a chivalrous chivalrous man, and praised the behavior of robbing the rich and helping the poor. His ideological and artistic value is also very high .

●Wu Chengen wrote "Journey to the West"

Wu Chengen, styled Ruzhong, nicknamed Sheyangshanren, was a novelist in the Ming Dynasty.Wu Chengen created many poems, words and articles in his life, but unfortunately most of them do not survive. Later, people searched for the manuscripts and compiled them into four volumes of "Mr. Sheyang's Existing Manuscripts".He loves unofficial history and anecdotes, and once imitated Tang legends to create "Yu Dingzhi", which is a short ghost story with reference significance.The most famous and influential work in his life is the long mythological novel "Journey to the West".

Many of the stories in "Journey to the West" have been circulated among the people as early as. Wu Chengen re-created on the basis of storytellers and unknown authors, integrated his own perception of real life, and wrote this great and realistic novel. novel. The artistic achievement of "Journey to the West" is very high. It uses the combination of divinity, humanity and materiality (naturalness) to shape the characters.The image of Sun Wukong is even more unique in the history of Chinese literature. It has the power of a god but flashes the habits of people and animals in the real society, which is very rare in similar ancient novels.Through rich and bold artistic imagination, the novel creates a mythical world full of magical colors. The story plot is full of twists and turns, vivid, exciting and compact, and full of strong artistic charm.The language of the novel is processed and refined on the basis of spoken language, which is vivid, smooth and expressive.The language of the characters is distinctive, has a strong breath of life, and is humorous.In terms of structure, the novel takes the activities of the characters who learn from scriptures as the main line, and unfolds the plot one by one, with distinct branches and branches, which is quite ingenious.

●Xu Guangqi learned both Chinese and Western
Xu Guangqi, courtesy name Zixian and nickname Xuanhu, was born in a poor merchant family in 1562 AD.In 1581 A.D., Xu Guangqi passed the examination in Jinshanwei (now Jinshan, Shanghai). In the spring of the second year, he was hired as a teacher by the village school. He wrote agricultural books such as Yaoshu, Nongsang Collection, and Convenience Picture Compilation, and tried to grow kohlrabi in his hometown, which was successful.

In 1596 AD, Xu Guangqi was hired by Zhao Fengyu to work as a tutor in Shaozhou (now Shaoguan, Guangdong).There, he met Guo Jujing, an Italian missionary, and came into contact with Western civilization for the first time.In 1600 AD, Xu Guangqi met the famous missionary Matteo Ricci in Nanjing. During the conversation, he broadened his horizons and gained a new understanding of the development of science in the world.The acquaintance with Guo Jujing and Matteo Ricci had a great impact on Xu Guangqi's life.In 1604 AD, Xu Guangqi studied Western scientific knowledge such as astronomy, mathematics, surveying, and water conservancy with Matteo Ricci in Beijing.Xu Guangqi believes that this knowledge is very useful to China and should be introduced into China.He discussed with Matteo Ricci and decided to translate the "Elements of Geometry" written by Euclid first. Matteo Ricci dictated it and he recorded it.Geometry mainly uses logical reasoning. For Xu Guangqi, it is a brand-new knowledge. It is extremely difficult to translate it.In order to translate as accurately as possible, Xu Guangqi worked hard.The word "geometry" we use now is based on the pronunciation and meaning of English, and Xu Guangqi carefully considered the vocabulary of Chinese, and it took more than a year of deliberation. Xu Guangqi completed the translation of the first six volumes of "The Elements of Geometry".Later, due to the death of Matteo Ricci, the translation work of the last 6 volumes could not be completed.

Our country's calendar has been improved by the research of successive generations of scientists. By the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it was quite complete, but it was not accurate enough.The officials in charge of the calendar in the Ming Dynasty were conservative and refused to continue to revise it. A solar eclipse occurred on May 1629, 5. Qin Tianjian (the highest official in charge of astronomy) calculated according to the calendar at that time, and the predicted time did not match the actual time. Xu Guangqi used Western methods to calculate, and the result was very close to the actual time.The imperial court then established the Western Calendar Bureau, and Xu Guangqi presided over the revision of the calendar.Xu Guangqi studied the ancient Chinese calendar while referring to Western science. After three years of hard work, he finally compiled 5 volumes of "New Calendar Book".The lunar calendar that has been used in our country to the present is compiled on the basis of the "New Calendar Book".

Xu Guangqi also conducted a lot of in-depth research on agricultural science, and personally farmed and conducted scientific experiments. His contribution to agricultural science is concentrated in a book on agricultural science written in his later years - "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".Xu Guangqi started writing this book at the age of 63. After 4 years of hard work, he completed the first draft.This book has 60 volumes and more than 50 characters. It is divided into 12 chapters, including farming book, land system, farming affairs, water conservancy, agricultural equipment, arboriculture, sericulture, sericulture factory, planting, animal husbandry, manufacturing, and famine management.Because of its extensive and rich content, it was called the Agricultural Encyclopedia at that time.

●Song Yingxing Dayi wrote a book
Song Yingxing, courtesy name Changgeng, was born in Fengxin County, Nanchang Prefecture (in present-day Jiangxi).Smart and active since childhood, he loves technology. At the age of 29, he passed the same examination as his brother.Later, he went to Beijing to take the exam five times, but failed.During these five trips of tens of thousands of miles from Jiangnan to Hebei, he acquired a large amount of industrial and agricultural scientific and technological knowledge that he had never seen or heard in books.Although he failed to win the Jinshi of the imperial court, it laid the foundation for him to become an authority in the history of science and technology in China.

When Song Yingxing was 49 years old, he served as a teacher in Fenyi County, Jiangxi Province, and later served as a Tuiguan in Tingzhou, Fujian, and a magistrate in Haozhou, Nanjing.During the three-year tenure of Jiaoyu, Song Yingxing used his spare time in teaching to systematically summarize classical science and wrote "Tiangong Kaiwu". Song Yingxing was just 51 years old this year.In 1637 A.D., just after finishing his great work, he engraved and printed it with the help of his friends.This year is the tenth year of Ming Chongzhen, so the first edition of "Tiangong Kaiwu" is also called the Chongzhen edition.Later, there are very few records of Song Yingxing's deeds after the age of 51 in history.

Around 1970 AD, "Song Family Genealogy" and "Song Yingxing's Travels" were discovered in Song Yingxing's hometown, as well as Song Yingxing's posthumous works "Si Lian", "Wild Discussion", "Talking about the Sky" and "Lun Qi" published in the Ming Dynasty. The only domestic copy.From then on, the world can hear the true life experience of this master of classical science and technology.After entering the Qing Dynasty, Song Yingxing did not become an official, and educated his descendants for three generations that they should not be elected in the Qing Dynasty's scientific examinations.This scientific superstar full of national integrity died at the age of about 3. After his death, he was buried in the ancestral tomb of Daijiayuan in the hometown of Fengxin Beixiang (now Songcun, Pailou Songcun, Songbu Township, southeast of Fengxin City, Jiangxi).His tomb and stone no longer exist.

After the publication of "Tiangong Kaiwu", it was popular all over the world. After Qianlong, due to political reasons, it gradually disappeared in China.However, this great work was welcomed after it was introduced to Japan, and a printed version appeared in Osaka in 1771 AD.Later, it was introduced to Europe from Japan, translated into many languages, published one edition after another, and widely circulated.Among them, the French translation is known as "The Ancient and Modern Industries of the Chinese Empire".In fact, this work not only includes ancient and modern Chinese industries, but also ancient and modern Chinese agriculture. It is a compilation of ancient and modern Chinese industry and agriculture, and a collection of ancient Chinese science and technology.Contemporary British Dr. Needham called Song Yingxing "China's Diderot".Diderot was a French scholar and editor-in-chief of the famous "Encyclopedia".Apparently, Dr. Li also regards this book as the "Complete Book of Chinese Science and Technology".In the early years of the Republic of China, Chinese scholars re-recognized the great scientific value of this ancient book. However, they searched hard and failed to find the original work in China.

After the founding of New China, the Beijing Library (now the National Library of China) announced a gratifying news: "Tiangong Kaiwu" was discovered from a batch of rare ancient books donated to the library by the former Lishi Mohai Building in Ningbo, Zhejiang. It is a book, and it is the original Chongzhen edition.It was published in photocopy in 1959 AD.The printing of this solitary edition enabled people to see the original features of Song's great work again.

"Tiangong Kaiwu" is divided into 18 volumes, and the content is vast, including the cultivation and processing of grain, wheat, bean and hemp, weaving and dyeing of silk, cotton and taro, salt production, sugar production, oil extraction, copper casting, smelting, mining and brick making. Various production techniques such as tiles, ceramics, utensils, vehicles and ships, lime, sulfur, alum, weapons, gunpowder, paper, wax, etc.The book describes in detail all the processes and methods of various products from raw materials to processing.There are also 123 exquisite illustrations in the book. The illustrations are accurate in structure, appropriate in proportion, and have a strong sense of three-dimensionality.According to the drawings and data, various machines and equipment can be re-manufactured.Among them, jacquard machines, drilling equipment, sugar cane rolling machines, large-scale casting and hammer forging jack anchors, stepped porcelain kilns, and jade processing and grinding machines are all the earliest scientific and technological catalogs in the world, which are of high value in the history of science.

"Tiangong Kaiwu" not only pays attention to summarizing traditional science and technology, but also pays attention to the research of new technologies in the current dynasty.For example, it describes the most advanced zinc smelting technology in the world at that time.This description in the book has long attracted the attention of European and American chemists. Whenever chemical literature discusses the initial smelting of metal zinc, it usually refers to "Tiangong Kaiwu".

Song Yingxing's comprehensive research on Chinese science and technology has enabled him to actively explore many unknown areas of science and put forward many valuable scientific insights.For example, in terms of biology, Song Yingxing, based on the fact that crop varieties often cause differences due to environmental differences, and silkworm moths also cause variation in offspring due to hybridization of varieties with different traits, etc., proposed that "soil veins vary with age, and species are divided with water and soil." the opinion of.This is a great progress in human understanding of the ecological variation of animals and plants.Later, when Darwin talked about biological evolution and variation, he also quoted Song Yingxing's view.In terms of physics, Song Yingxing studied the propagation of sound. He used throwing stones to hit water to induce water waves to spread from the center to the outside. He deduced that the principle of sound propagation in the air is similar. This put forward the concept that sound is an air wave. It is also the earliest in the world.In terms of chemistry, Song Yingxing took the chemical process and result of the combination of mercury and sulfur to produce cinnabar as an example, and initially had a view of mass conservation.At the same time, Song Yingxing also used the metaphor of iron loss (wear, weathering, corrosion) and turning into soil. Is there any matter that is immortal?idea.In terms of philosophy, Song Yingxing mentioned in the article "Talking about the Sky" that the sun is not static but also constantly changing, thus proposing the philosophical proposition that "today's day is not yesterday's day".It is believed that the ancients said "the shape of the old moon will remain unchanged forever", which is "carving a boat to seek a sword".Song Yingxing's idea of ​​"old day new" was later accepted and greatly developed by Wang Fuzhi, a philosopher in the early Qing Dynasty.

Song Yingxing's scientific thinking is commendable, and the materialist view as the basis of his philosophy is even inferior to that of the philosophical masters at that time, both Chinese and foreign.His philosophical thoughts permeate the discussion of the whole book, and are concentrated in the title he added to his book, namely "Heavenly Creation".

What is "heavenly work"?Song Yingxing believes that the resources in the world are created by nature, which can also be called "natural workmanship", so they are called "heavenly workmanship".What is "opening things"?Natural resources cannot be natural objects, they must be developed and processed by human beings before they can become the material materials needed by human beings, so they are called "opening things".Obviously, in terms of the relationship between people and things, Song Yingxing's views are both materialistic and dialectical, emphasizing both the foundation of "heavenly craftsmanship" and the subjective role of people. Only when resources are "opened" can they produce " Things" come.This is the essence of Song's philosophy, the essence of the history of Chinese philosophy, and the earliest philosophy of science in the world!
●Xu Xiake travels with his mother
Xu Xiake, named Hongzu, styled Zhenzhi and named Xiake, is a Chinese classical geomorphologist, the originator of world karst cave studies, a geographer, and a great traveler.

Confucius has an old saying: "When parents are alive, don't travel far away." During the Wanli period, Xu Xiake's gray-haired and virtuous mother encouraged her only son to travel far away, teaching her son that "a man with aspirations is everywhere", and specially sewed a travel crown for his son. Use strong color.The Yuanyou crown looks like a majestic crown, and there is a cirrus-shaped cylindrical decoration in front of the crown, so it is also called the rolling stone crown.It is a custom of the Han nationality that one must be crowned when traveling far.Since the Han Dynasty, it has not declined in successive dynasties.Only Yuan and Ming dynasties had different fashions, and they were discarded instead of used.Xu Xiake's 80-year-old virtuous mother, in order to encourage him, forced her son to accompany her on a trip to Jingxi and Gouqu's mountains and rivers near her hometown, regardless of her age.Every time I walk in front to show that I am healthy and not old.Xu Xiake finally lived up to the expectations of his virtuous mother. From the age of 22, he traveled with a bamboo stick and a crown on his head. Throughout his life, he never stopped walking for 34 years, and his footprints covered most of China.Xu Xiake's travels initially had the idea of ​​watching wonders and sightseeing, but later it was a real scientific investigation.Xu Xiake inspected mountains, rivers, caves, customs and customs everywhere, and wrote several million words of travel notes.Later generations compiled the surviving parts into a book, which became a famous book of Chinese classical geomorphology and world karst cave study-"Xu Xiake's Travel Notes".

Xu Xiake inspected more than 100 caves in southwest China and made detailed inspection records.Taking his investigation of Qixingyan on the west side of Putuo Mountain in Guilin, Guangxi as an example, although the various data recorded by him are visual steps, they are generally consistent with the results measured by scientific instruments at the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the 20s.At the same time, his explanation of the formation of caves, stalagmites, and stalactites is also consistent with modern science.His scientific attitude is evident.

(End of this chapter)