Shen Kuo was an outstanding scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was learned all his life. He has his own unique views in mathematics, astronomy, physics, geology, geography, medicine and other scientific fields. Shen Kuo was born in Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province) into a noble family and served as an official for generations. His father Shen Zhou was an official in Quanzhou, Kaifeng and Jiangning (now Nanjing, Jiangsu). Shen Kuo followed his father to work and traveled all over the country, gaining a lot of knowledge. This laid a certain foundation for his later scientific research. Although he came from an official family, his father was very strict with his study, and he was not allowed to do nothing and run amok like other official children. So Shen Kuo received a good family education from an early age. Shen Kuo is brilliant and has an excellent memory. After reading the book, he can remember it seven or eight times. /kloc-by the time he was 0/4 years old, he had read a wealth of books at home, and his talent for writing poems and lyrics was also revealed. At the age of 23, his father died unfortunately, so he had to find a job as a mastermind in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province to make a living. 1063, Shen Kuo became a scholar and entered the official career. 1072, Shen Kuo was appointed as the court supervisor by the court. Tianjian is an institution specializing in astronomical calendars. After taking office, Shen Kuo dared to break the old tradition and innovate. He personally observes the astronomical phenomena every day and makes detailed records. In order to improve the accuracy of astronomical observation, he put forward an improved method for the errors caused by three main observation instruments at that time-armillary sphere, standard meter and floating leakage and their causes. Later, in order to cooperate with Wang Anshi's political reform, he actively advocated amending the calendar to make it more scientific and accurate. Not only that, he also reformed the decadent personnel system at that time, dismissed incompetent personnel and absorbed talented fresh blood. Among them, Wei Pu, an astronomer from a civilian background, presided over the revision of the calendar, which was handed down as a beautiful talk by later generations. Wei Pu is a native of Chuzhou (now Huai 'an, Jiangsu) and was born in poverty. But I have studied hard since I was a child and have a strong interest in astronomy. The person I admire most is Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He insists on reading until late at night every night. In order to save oil, I often read books in dim light. Over time, my eyesight was severely damaged and I became blind in my thirties. However, he exercised his extraordinary memory with tenacious perseverance, and he also developed unusual manual calculation ability. Wei Pu has a deep research on astronomical calendars. Even after he lost his sight, he didn't forget to study the calendar and let people read it to him every day. At that time, his knowledge of astronomy could surpass that of his country, and it was difficult to find a second person. At that time, he could infer the dates of solar and lunar eclipses by mental arithmetic. According to the old almanac, there will be an eclipse on July 1068+05, but Wei Pu found it impossible to have an eclipse on this day after calculation, and reported his conclusion to the official of the company. Officials in Sri Lanka didn't believe it at that time, but it was later proved that there was no solar eclipse in July of 15, and Wei Pu became famous in Sri Lanka. After Shen Kuo took office, he heard about Wei Pu's talent in astronomy, and decided to visit him personally and inspect him face to face to determine the candidate for revising the calendar. After the meeting, Shen Kuo cut to the chase and asked Wei Pu to talk about his views on the old calendar and how to improve astronomical observation. Wei Pu recited some contents of the old almanac, then commented on these contents, pointed out their shortcomings and explained how to improve them. Shen Kuo was surprised and secretly pleased, and Weipu was so familiar with the almanac. But he is worried about Wei Pu's computing ability, because Wei Pu is only blind. In order to examine Wei Pu's computing ability, the next day, Shen Kuo held a public examination in the yamen. Shen Kuo had such a question: How to use the solar eclipse recorded in Chunqiu to verify the mistakes of the old almanac? Wei Pu said: "There are 37 eclipses recorded in Spring and Autumn Annals, of which 33 are reliable. It was confirmed 27 times by other calendars and 29 times by a group of great monks in the Tang Dynasty. I confirmed it 35 times with my own algorithm. " Shen Kuo nodded again and again after hearing this, and further asked, "How did you prove it?" Shen Kuo's main purpose is to examine Wei Pu's calculation ability, so he quickly sent someone to do the calculation for Wei Pu's calculus. What a whip! I saw him juggling with calculations quickly and accurately, and Shen Kuo was deeply impressed. He thinks that the person who presided over the revision of the calendar is Wei Pu. However, Wei Pu is blind after all. At that time, it was difficult to appoint a blind person to take charge of astronomical calendar work. But in the end, Shen Kuo persuaded other officials seriously. With the support of Wang Anshi, he promoted Wei Pu to do the work of the company and appointed him to preside over the revision of Feng. With the support of Shen Kuo, Wei Pu worked hard and gave full play to his talent in astronomical calendar. In less than three years, the revision of the school calendar was completed. 1075 In April, the imperial court issued a new Fengyuan Calendar nationwide.

After the failure of Wang Anshi's political reform, Shen Kuo was also implicated. 1089, 58-year-old Shen Kuo went to Runzhou to spend his old age with his family.

In Runzhou, Shen Kuo used his savings for many years to build a Meng Xi Park. In Meng Xi Park, there are bamboo trees and pavilions. Every spring and summer, the garden is full of flowers and butterflies, just like a fairyland on earth. In the beautiful Meng Xi Park, Shen Kuo summed up what he had seen and heard in the past five years and wrote "Talk about Meng Xi". Meng Qian Bi Tan is a comprehensive scientific work with a wide range of contents, involving astronomy, calendar, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, medicine, archaeology, history, music, art and so on. To this day, this scientific work still exudes wisdom. Many of Meng Qian Bitan's ideas are very creative, and some of them are even hundreds of years ahead of western countries. Dr Joseph Needham, a British expert on the history of Chinese science, once called Shen Kuo "the most peculiar figure in the history of science in China" and "the coordinate in the history of science in China".