Meng Xi's written language includes three parts: written language, supplementary language and continuation language. Twenty-six volumes, divided into seventeen chapters, are stories, dialectics, music and rhythm, figures and graphics, personnel, government affairs, wit, art, calligraphy and painting, skills, utensils, magic, wonders, fallacies, banter, magazines and medicine. Three volumes and eleven doors. Get out, regardless of the door.
There are 609 books, covering astronomy, calendar, meteorology, geology, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, agriculture, water conservancy, architecture, medicine, history, literature, art, personnel, military, law and many other fields. Among these entries, they belong to humanities such as anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and music. About18% of all entries; It belongs to natural science, accounting for about 36% of the book, and the rest are personnel information, military affairs, law and anecdotes, accounting for about 46% of the book.
In nature, written language belongs to the category of notes. From the content point of view, it accounts for more than one-third of the space, expounding the knowledge of natural science, which is rare in notebook works. Because Shen Kuo himself has a high scientific literacy, the scientific knowledge he described has a high value, which basically reflects the scientific development level of the Northern Song Dynasty and his own research experience, so he is praised by modern people as the coordinate in the history of science in China.
For example, Supplementary Notes correctly and in detail records the clay movable type printing invented by Bi Sheng, a Buyi nationality, which is the earliest reliable historical data about movable type printing in the world and has been highly valued by the international literary and historical circles. In addition, other important scientific and technological inventions and figures in the Northern Song Dynasty were handed down from generation to generation because of the records in this book. For example, Yu Bi Tan Lu and its architectural achievements, the method of skillfully closing the dragon gate in Three Sections of Water Conservancy Project, the mastery of Huainan Calendar, the release of Sun Sigong's Rainbow and Lu Longjuan in Dengzhou, the steel pouring technology in Tuangang, Hebei Province, and the production of scorpions of the Qiang nationality in the United States by cold melting and dipping copper are all precious historical materials in the history of science and technology.
brief Introduction of the content
It records the outstanding contributions of the working people in science and technology and his own research results in detail, and reflects the brilliant achievements of natural science in ancient China, especially in the Northern Song Dynasty. The author said that Shen Kuo was knowledgeable and well-written, and he was proficient in astronomy, local chronicles, calendars, music, medicine and divination. Joseph Needham, a British historian of science, commented that Meng Xi's written speech was a milestone in the history of science in China.
1 July, 9791day, an asteroid discovered by Purple Mountain Observatory of China Academy of Sciences in 1964 was named Shen Kuo 2027. In a word, Shen Kuo and Meng Xi's Eighteen Techniques of Bi Tan is an important document in the history of science and technology in China, and it is an encyclopedic work.
astronomy
It shows that Shen Kuo put forward his own ideas on the development of astronomical instruments such as the armillary sphere, the clepsydra and the sundial, described his important discovery that his day was full of surplus and contraction, and made suggestions on the implementation of the twelve solar calendars. This book also accurately describes the five-star trajectory, calculates the more accurate monthly regression value of the ecliptic intersection of the moon, correctly explains the profit and loss of the lunar phenomenon, invents a method to accurately determine the position of the polar star, records and describes the characteristics and falling process of meteorites in detail, and points out the existence of iron meteorites. These are all important achievements worth mentioning in the history of astronomy.
Shen Kuo onc
The so-called computer lattice technology is described. Shen Kuo used it to explain the imaging of pinhole and concave mirror, and opened up a new optical field of lattice optics. Shen Kuo's research on transparent mirrors is thoughtful and has many advantages. In addition, Shen Kuo also discussed the different installation methods of the compass, recorded the artificial magnetization method of grinding the compass with a magnet and the phenomenon that the compass always leans slightly to the east, but not all to the south, thus affirming the existence of geomagnetic declination. Acoustically, the invention of sticking a small paper figure on a string to verify the sound vibration phenomenon described in Shen Kuo Wood Scripture was about 700 years earlier than the similar invention in Europe.
acoustics
Shen Kuo and Meng Xi carefully designed an acoustic vibration experiment in Bi Tan. He cut a paper figure and fixed it on a rope. When playing a string with a simple integer ratio, it vibrates to make the paper man jump, and when playing other strings, the paper man does not move. Shen Kuo called this phenomenon reaction. Shen Kuo took the initiative to show the voice of * * * in this way. In the west, it was not until15th century that Italy began to do * * * vibration experiments. So far, teachers from some countries and regions have demonstrated the vibration phenomenon to students in middle school physics classes.
optics
The linear propagation of bxl light was recorded, and Shen Kuo got a deeper understanding on the basis of predecessors. To illustrate this property, light travels in a straight line. He made a small hole in the paper window, so that the shadows of birds and towers outside the window could be imaged on the paper screen indoors for experiments. According to the experimental results, he vividly pointed out the linear relationship among objects, holes and images. In addition, Shen Kuo also used the principle of straight-line propagation of light to vividly explain the changing law of the moon phase and the cause of the solar eclipse. In the biography of Shen Kuo in the Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo also made a popular and vivid discussion on the imaging of concave mirror and the magnifying and narrowing effect of the concave-convex mirror. He also made some scientific explanations for the light transmission reasons of the so-called transparent mirror handed down from ancient China, which promoted the later research on transparent mirrors.
mathematics
Meng Xi Bitan discussed the stacking problem, developed the arithmetic progression since Meng Xi Bitan, and established the gap product technique, which essentially solved the summation problem of higher-order arithmetic progression. The book also discusses the skills of knowing the circle. Based on the calculation of the field, Shen Kuo studied the relationship among the arc, chord and arrow of a circular bow, and obtained a new approximate formula of the bow area. The establishment of product technology and circulation technology has opened up a new direction for the development of ancient mathematics in China. Because of this, Japanese mathematician Yoshio Mishima once gave Shen Kuo a very high evaluation.
geography
Description Shen Kuo inspected the landforms and geology of Yandang Mountain in Zhejiang and Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, and clearly put forward the theory of water erosion. The book also demonstrates the ancient and modern climate change through the discussion of fossils, and also involves mineral resources. It is pointed out that there are gallstones in the stream of lead mountain in Jiangxi Province, which can be used for copper smelting. The oil found in northern Shaanxi can be used for lighting and ink making. In the aspect of map making, the invention of making three-dimensional maps with melted wax and sawdust in Shen Kuo is described, which is about 700 years earlier than that in Europe. In the book, the description of the relative position of Fuxian in map making is increased from the traditional 8 positions to 24 positions, and special attention is paid to the measurement of the linear distance between the two places-the number of birds flying, which makes the relative position of Fuxian more reliable.
Biomedical science
There are also many descriptions of biomedical knowledge, and most of them are accurate and detailed, which can distinguish authenticity and correct the shortcomings of ancient books.