Tiangong Kaiwu was first published by Song Yu 1637 (Ding Chou in the tenth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty), with a total of 18 articles in three volumes. The book contains the production techniques of agriculture and handicrafts, such as machinery, bricks, ceramics, sulfur, candles, paper, weapons, gunpowder, textiles, printing and dyeing, salt making, coal mining and oil extraction.
Heavenly Creations is the first comprehensive work on agriculture and handicraft production in the world. It is a comprehensive scientific and technological work in ancient China. Others call it an encyclopedic work. The writer is Song, a scientist in Ming Dynasty. Foreign scholars call it "China17th century craft encyclopedia".
In the book, the author emphasizes that human beings should live in harmony with nature and human resources should cooperate with natural forces. It is the most abundant historical data of science and technology in China. It focuses more on handicrafts and reflects the productive forces of capitalism in China in the late Ming Dynasty.
In April 2020, it was listed in the Reading Guidance Catalogue for Primary and Secondary School Students (2020 Edition) of the Basic Education Curriculum and Textbook Development Center of the Ministry of Education.
brief Introduction of the content
Wu Kai in the Heavenly Palace records various technologies in ancient China before the middle of Ming Dynasty. Wu Kai in the Heavenly Palace was first published on 1637 (the tenth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty). Heavenly Creations is the first comprehensive work on agriculture and handicraft production in the world. It is a comprehensive scientific and technological work in ancient China. Others call it an encyclopedic work. The writer is Song, a scientist in Ming Dynasty. Foreign scholars call it "China17th century craft encyclopedia".
In the book, the author emphasizes that human beings should live in harmony with nature and human resources should cooperate with natural forces. It is the most abundant historical data of science and technology in China. It pays more attention to handicraft industry, which reflects the capitalist production in China in the late Ming Dynasty.
The book is divided into three volumes, 18. Attached are 123 illustrations depicting the names, shapes and processes of 130 kinds of production technologies and tools. The title of the book is taken from Shangshu Hao Tao Mo, Heavenly Substitution and Easy Cohesion, and the author says it is "Building People to Create Foreign Things" (Hardware). According to the meaning of "valuing five grains over precious stones", the book is divided into Nali (grain), Naifu (textile), Zhang Shi (printing and dyeing), Jing (grain processing), Zuo Xian (salt making), Gan (sugar) and Gao (preface).
The book "Heavenly Creations" describes in detail the types of raw materials, places of origin, production technology and equipment of various crops and handicrafts, as well as some production organization experiences. The first volume records the planting and processing methods of grain, beans and hemp, the spinning and dyeing techniques of silk cotton and ramie, and the production process of salt and sugar. The contents of the book include the production of bricks and ceramics, the construction of vehicles and boats, the casting and forging of metals, the mining and firing of coal, lime, sulfur and alum, and the methods of oil extraction and paper making. The second volume describes the mining and smelting of metal minerals, the manufacture of weapons, the production of pigments and koji, and the collection and processing of jade beads.
China's ancient physical knowledge is scattered in the Wu Kai of Tiangong, such as water lifting tools (trucks, beaches, windmills), rudder, pouring steel, clay casting kettle, lost wax casting, methods of removing coal mine gas, brine absorber (pump) in salt wells, melting extraction methods and so on. It is clearly pointed out in the hardware that zinc is a new metal and its smelting method is recorded for the first time.
"Tiangong Kaiwu" records the case of farmers cultivating new varieties of rice and barley, studies the influence of soil, climate and cultivation methods on crop variety changes, and notes the variation caused by the hybridization of different varieties of silkworm moths, which shows that the variety characteristics of animals and plants can be changed through human efforts, and draws a scientific opinion that "soil veins change with time, and plants are divided into water and soil".
Creation background
subjective factor
Song was born in a scholar-bureaucrat family and had a good learning atmosphere. In addition, I am studious and have a high cultural accomplishment. The fierce competition in the examination room left him a shadow that tried and tested. After that, his official career did not reach a prominent position in the decision-making circle, but his pursuit of knowledge never slackened.
The greatest feature of Song dynasty's scholarship is "novelty" and "difference", and its main way of scholarship is to get out of the study and get in touch with society. His travels and the professional experience of lower-level officials have given him more opportunities to understand the technological processes in the production field of grassroots people.
Academic background
With the determination of stereotyped writing, Neo-Confucianism gradually became a rigid imperial examination dogma, which seriously hindered the development of science and technology. After Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, Wang Yangming's theory of mind swept the country, and Jiangxi became an important position for Wang Xue's spread and development. Different from the mainstream ideological trend based on the theory of human nature and Taoism, Taizhou School, which inherited Yangming's theory, and other minority thoughts that are promising for the world and pragmatic against space also developed during this period. Taizhou school has a great influence in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially in areas with developed commodity economy, such as the Yangtze River Delta and Ganjiang River Basin. Founded in Wang Gen, Li Zhi has the greatest influence. They put forward the proposition that "the daily life of the people is the Tao", which embodies the progressive thought of advocating practical application, reflects the requirements and aspirations of the people, cloth and other classes, and gradually becomes a prominent scholar. The spread of western learning to the east in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties also had a great response to China's traditional culture.
Time background
The Ming Dynasty was a relatively developed stage of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce in ancient China. Due to the development of commodity economy, capitalism sprouted in some areas and many industries after the mid-Ming Dynasty.
In agriculture, the area of cultivated land has been expanded, the variety of crops has been improved, and the output per unit area and total output of grain crops and cash crops have been significantly improved. Specialized management has appeared in some areas.
There are many kinds of handicrafts in Ming dynasty, which have reached a certain scale, especially metallurgy, ceramics, textiles and other industries closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood. The cotton textile industry has become the main household sideline, the porcelain industry is well-known at home and abroad, the metallurgical industry has developed from government to private, and the shipbuilding industry has developed.
In the Ming dynasty, commerce and transportation were also developed, and silver became the main currency in circulation. Some giant businessmen often make a fortune thousands of miles away, and some famous business gangs have appeared; Commercial centers and emerging towns in coastal areas have further developed.
works appreciation
Scholarship level
Heavenly Creations is the first comprehensive work on agriculture and handicraft production in the world, and it is also a great scientific and technological work in the history of China. Its characteristics are illustrated with pictures and texts, and it pays attention to reality and practice. It systematically summarizes the ancient technology in China and constitutes a complete scientific and technological system. Summarized rich agricultural experience and fully reflected the scientific and technological achievements at that time.
The value of Heavenly Creations lies in its description of many advanced scientific and technological achievements in industrial and agricultural production. The book quantifies technical data, reveals advanced scientific ideas and theoretical explanations, and focuses on introducing theoretical concepts rather than purely technical descriptions. In agriculture, Neri pointed out that rice should be pulled up and sown 30 days after seedling raising, and 25 acres of paddy field can be transplanted, that is, the ratio of paddy field to Honda is 1: 25. It is also said that upland rice eats three buckets of water and late rice eats five buckets of water. If it loses moisture, it will dry up. These technical data have a guiding role in agricultural production and are the theoretical basis for seedling raising, transplanting and irrigation, which have never been mentioned in previous agricultural books.
"Heavenly Creations" also reflects western learning to a certain extent, such as "where the method of welding iron is used, western countries have different magic drugs. China uses white copper powder for small welding, and tries to combine it with a hammer for large welding. It will not be strong after a long time. " Therefore, some cannons were forged in the West, and China only relied on smelting and casting.
Wu Kai in Tiangong's "Theory of Species Development and Variation" is earlier than Carver Wolff's "Provenance Theory" in Germany 100 years. "Animal crossbreeding to cultivate excellent varieties" is more than 200 years earlier than the theory of French Bill West Bisilliat. The gas drainage, roadway support and chemical changes in coal mining were much more advanced than those in foreign science at that time. In particular, the research results such as "ashes dipped in seedling roots" and "planting with water and soil" are important breakthroughs in agricultural history.
Wu Kai in Tiangong describes in detail the cultivation of new silkworm varieties: yellow cocoon silkworm and white cocoon silkworm are hybridized to cultivate brown cocoon silkworm, and "early male" and "late female" are hybridized to cultivate "fine variety", which is more than 200 years earlier than similar records in France.
In terms of hardware, Song is the first scientist in the world to discuss zinc and copper-zinc alloy (brass) scientifically. He clearly pointed out that zinc is a new metal and recorded its smelting method for the first time. This is one of the important achievements in the history of ancient metal smelting in China, making China the only country in the world that can smelt zinc on a large scale for a long time. The method of extracting brass with zinc instead of zinc compound (calamine) in Song Dynasty is the earliest record of obtaining brass by direct melting of copper and zinc in human history. It is concluded that pig iron can be directly fried into wrought iron by series use of ironmaking and blast furnace, which has the important characteristics of modern metallurgical technology. This method was not available in Europe in the17th century.
"Tiangong Kaiwu" records the case of farmers cultivating new varieties of rice and barley, studies the influence of soil, climate and cultivation methods on crop variety changes, and notes the variation caused by the hybridization of different varieties of silkworm moths, which shows that through human efforts, the variety characteristics of animals and plants can be changed, and the scientific view that "soil veins change at any time, and species are separated by water and soil" is obtained, which promotes the understanding of ecological variation by ancient Chinese scientists and is a step of human work.
The piston sandblasting technology described in Tiangong Kaiwu is more advanced than the leather bag sandblasting equipment in Europe. Special chemical heat treatment processes and metal composite technologies such as copper alloy, horn forming, iron anchor forging, steel needle drawing and "pig iron shower" are also the earliest clear records. In modern times, its basic principles still apply.
In terms of mechanical dynamics, "Heavenly Creations" recorded China's many inventions in mechanical dynamics, such as jacquard machine for textile cloth, which was not available in foreign countries at that time. "Essence" introduces the water hammer device invented by China in the Han Dynasty, which connects the power machine, the transmission machine and the working machine together, which is more than 0/000 years earlier than the British trial of a water wheel to drive the double-disc mill. The drilling technology in Salt Making is more than 300 years earlier than that in Russia.
Philosophical point of view
Heavenly Creativeness is mainly rooted in China's inherent cultural tradition. Heaven's nature is based on "nature takes its place" and "nature makes things happen", which embodies a simple materialistic view of nature and is different from Neo-Confucianism, which occupied an orthodox position at that time. This heretical trend of thought reflects a new social phenomenon and the orientation of the times. But personal thoughts can be different from the mainstream, but they cannot be divorced from the times. In ancient times, agriculture was always the most important, so Song's articles also reflected the idea of valuing grain over gold and jade everywhere.
Pan Jixing, an expert in the history of science and technology in China, mentioned in a commentary on Song Yingxing that "Tiangong Wu Kai Zuo Xian" and "On Qi and Qi Wu Sheng" all said that "there are five qi in the sky, so there are five elements", and the five elements of fire, water, earth and Jin Mu are all born corresponding to Qi, not the original origin of everything. After analyzing the five elements or five qi one by one, it is considered that fire, water and qi are more basic. After analyzing the relationship between fire, water, soil and the transition level, Song further expounded the theory of the creation of everything. The creator Yan Tao pointed out: "Fire and water are auspicious, and earth is harmonious. A country with thousands of rooms lacks day jobs and thousands of people, and its civil use is also complicated. " This means that clay is sintered into ceramics through the interaction of fire and water for daily use.
Pan Jixing believes that Song discussed the generation mechanism of life and natural things, and divided organisms into two categories: plants and animals. In the development sequence of organisms from low to high, plants belong to the genus of vegetation. He divided animals into insects, fish, birds, deer, and finally the "spirit of all things". He believes that animals are evolved from plants, and plants are evolved from inorganic substances. In the final analysis, they are produced through the interaction of fire, water and civil engineering. Song wrote: "Qi urges a grain from the ground. The small seed is the crown of the tree, and the big seed is the tree that covers the cow. What is the original geometry of this grain? " The rest is dissolved by gas. "Vegetation grows by water, soil and fire (combustible organic fertilizer).
The planting of various plants described in the Song Dynasty's Heavenly Creations, such as rice, wheat, hemp, beans, mulberry, cotton, kudzu vine, herbal dyes, oil, sugar cane, bamboo, Broussonetia papyrifera and various trees, is based on this principle. He described in more detail that these plants were made into vegetable oil, sugar, clothing, dyes, paper, boats and other products through the interaction of fire, water and wood, as well as tools and daily necessities such as wood, oil press, sugar cart, textile machine, various farm tools and cookers. Although food cultivation mainly depends on water, soil and Jin Mu, it is not enough without the cooperation of fire and anger, which is manifested in the form of sunshine here. Without sunshine (sunshine, internal heat) and continuous rain (yin, water vapor), production will be reduced. As for food processing and food manufacturing, it is impossible to leave Jin Mu without water, fire and water. Due to the interaction of five qi, various plants and their processed products are produced. Like everything in the inorganic world, they are all for people's daily use. In the final analysis, they are produced by the material level of vitality → shape and qi → shape.
Pan Jixing thinks in Biography of Song Dynasty that Song described in detail the technology of making various products with animal system in Tiangong Kaiwu. According to his philosophical point of view, although the animal kingdom belongs to a more advanced stage of development than the plant kingdom, its material origin is still gradually generated and evolved from the material levels of vitality, qi, vegetation and so on, although he did not tell us how long it will take to complete these transitions. When discussing the material unity of animals, plants and minerals, he also talked about the reasons for the diversity of the material world.
Pan Jixing believes in the Biography of Song Dynasty that the interaction between fire, water, soil and water is ever-changing, so many things are produced. As Song said in "Heavenly Creations", many natural objects have produced countless things that nature itself does not have through artificial action. In his words, it is "either artificial or natural" (Salt Making).
Pan Jixing mentioned in the Review of the Song Dynasty that when talking about the diversity of things in the material world, Song wrote in the Preface of Heavenly Creations: "There are countless things in the sky, and things don't fall because of them. What manpower is there? " The general idea is that everything between the earth is strange, and it is probably impossible for human beings to form a perfect world through various changes. His philosophical proposition of "infinite change" can now be understood as the diversity of the material world formed by finite element atoms in their infinite combination. Modern material structure theory also proves that the concept of matter is correct, because everything in the universe is ultimately made up of atoms.
Pan Jixing believes that when developing the natural philosophy of the generation and evolution of all things, Song closely combined his philosophy with science and technology, and took 30 technological processes described in Tiangong Kaiwu as examples to prove and explain his philosophical thoughts. This is not only beyond the reach of other philosophers in the history of China, but also beyond the reach of a great scientist like Li Shizhen.
When he expounded the gradual transition from the most fundamental vitality to the inorganic world and the living nature, he provided us with a picture of the generation and evolution of all things. The basic transition level is: vitality → fire and water → soil → Jin Mu → inanimate → vegetation (biology) → animals (advanced biology). The most crucial step is the transition from inanimate to biological.
Ideological enlightenment
Heavenly Creations is one of the most brilliant masterpieces of China's feudal social science in its active period. It is not only an effective inheritance of ancient scientific tradition, but also closely related to all kinds of enlightenment consciousness of anti-authority, practical learning and people's livelihood.
Since the Song and Ming Dynasties, capitalist relations of production have existed sparsely and developed weakly. Social existence plays a decisive role in social consciousness, and the new social reality reawakens people's interest in nature, society and life.
From empty talk to practice, it was the reflection of people of insight at that time, and this trend of thought began to exude a modern atmosphere in the way of thinking.
The influence of later generations
Ming and Qing dynasties
Wu Kai in the Heavenly Palace, published in the first ten years of Chongzhen, quickly attracted the attention of academic circles and book engraving circles. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Fang Yizhi's Little Knowledge of Physics quoted an earlier exposition of Wu Kai in Tiangong.
After the second edition of Shunzhi Yearbook was published in the early Qing Dynasty, Tiangong Wu Kai spread all over the country and became one of the books exported abroad. The integration of ancient and modern books published in Kang Yong years and the large-scale agricultural book Timing General Examination published in Qianlong years quoted a large number of chapters from Tiangong Wu Kai. Wu Qi, a famous scientist in the Qing Dynasty, cited the idea of heaven in his works such as A Brief Introduction to Mining and Metallurgical Plants in Southern Yunnan and Textual Research on Plants, Zhu Rong Zuo Zhi Zhen Quan, Yunnan Tongzhi Mining Bureau and Extracts of Silkworm and Mulberry. In the ninth year of Tongzhi, Liu Yueyun published the book "The Method of Learning Things", which extracted almost all the main contents of Tiangong Wu Kai, then classified them, wrote notes, and made supplementary explanations and comments.
Affect the world
The content of "Heavenly Creativeness" was first introduced to Japan in the 7th century/KLOC-0. In A.D. 1694, Japanese herbalist Yi Xuan Sanyuan (1630- 17 14) listed Wu Kai in Huapu Bibliography and cookbooks written in A.D. 1704. In A.D. 177 1 year, Japanese bookseller Sasuke Shibuya (the owner of Kantang King) published a woodcut of Wu Kai in Tiangong, which was the first reprint of Wu Kai in Tiangong in Japan and the first foreign woodcut. According to Song's thought of opening ports, Shin-won Sato, a practical scholar, put forward the "learning of opening ports" to enrich the country and strengthen the people.
"Heavenly Creativeness" was introduced to Korea in the18th century, which attracted the attention of intellectuals in the late Li Dynasty, especially practical scholars. 1783, Park Ji-won (1892- 19 10), a writer and thinker of North Korea, paid attention to it. Xu Youxi, an important cabinet minister who was born as a scholar in North Korea, wrote 1 13 volumes of Sixteen Chapters of Garden Economy, and Li's Textual Research on Wuzhou (1834) and Three Drafts of Wuzhou Changjian (about 188).
/kloc-During the 0/8-20th century, Tiangong Kaiwu was circulated in some European and American countries, and libraries in France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia and other European countries and the United States collected Chinese versions of the book in different periods. Among them, the Royal Library of Paris (now the predecessor of the National Library) entered the Wu Kaiming edition of Tiangong in the18th century. 1830, stanislav Julien, a sinologist at the French Academy, translated the chapter "Danqing" into French, which was the beginning of the translation of this book into western languages. 1832 was translated into English and published in the Journal of the Asian Society of Bengal, India. 1833, he published some translations of this book about ink-making and copper alloys in French authoritative publications "Chemical Yearbook" and "Journal of Chinese Academy of Sciences", and then translated them into English and German.
1837, stanislav Julien was ordered by the Minister of Industry, Agriculture and Commerce to translate the sericulture parts of Wu Kai in Tiangong and Silkworm Gate (1742) into French, and the official versions were published by the Royal Paris Printing House. French translation is called Silkworm Collection. At that time, the sericulture technology in Europe had a certain development, but due to the lack of experience in preventing and treating diseases, the output of raw silk was greatly reduced. "Heavenly Creations" provides a complete set of experience in sericulture and prevention of silkworm diseases, which has had a great impact on the European silk industry.
/kloc-Europe has started the industrial revolution in the 0/8th century, but agricultural production is still very backward, and artificial sowing is still used. This sowing method is very random in seed density and soil covering depth, which directly affects the emergence rate. China, on the other hand, has been using the seeder. European plows are relatively simple and primitive in design, and the operation is very laborious, while China's plows are more efficient and labor-saving. The introduction of Nature in Heaven directly promoted the agricultural revolution in Europe.
Europe began to learn to make paper from the 12 century, but it has always used rags to produce hemp paper. /kloc-after the 0/8th century, the consumption of paper increased sharply, but the supply of rags was limited, so the raw material crisis appeared in the paper industry. 1840, stanislas julien translated the papermaking chapter of Tiangong Wu Kai into French and published it in the Journal of Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is mentioned that wild bark fiber and bamboo fiber can be used instead of rags to make paper, and various raw materials can also be mixed to make pulp. This information was quickly fed back, and people in France, Britain and Germany successfully used other raw materials to make paper, which finally eased the raw material crisis.
British biologist Darwin (1809-1882) called it an "authoritative work" after reading the part about silkworms translated by stanislav Julian. In the first volume of Variation of Animals and Plants at Home (1868), Darwin wrote: "The situation of sericulture in ancient China can be found in the authoritative works of stanislav Julian". Taking the technical measures of sericulture in ancient China as an example, he demonstrated artificial selection and artificial variation.
1869, stanislav Julien and French chemist Jean-Claude Jean-Claude Jean-Claude translated the chapters on handicrafts into French, and included them in the book past lives of Imperial China Industry, which was published in Paris. 1964, German scholar Tiru translated the first four chapters of Wu Kai in Tiangong, Neri, Naifu, Zhang Shi and Jing Ke into German with annotations, entitled: The First Four Chapters Written by Song Dynasty. 1966, Dr. Yidu from the University of Pennsylvania translated the full text of Heavenly Creations into English, and added a translation annotation entitled Song China17th Century Technical Book, which was published in London and Pennsylvania at the same time. This is the first European translation of Heavenly Creations.
In April 2020, it was listed in the Reading Guidance Catalogue for Primary and Secondary School Students (2020 Edition) of the Basic Education Curriculum and Textbook Development Center of the Ministry of Education.
be under an embargo
/kloc-In the second half of the 8th century, when Qianlong set up Sikuquanshu, it was discovered that Wu Kai in Tiangong had anti-Qing characters such as "Northern Land" and "Northeast Yi". However, in the books presented in Jiangxi, it is found that the Complete Works of Fang Yutang by Song Yingsheng, the brother of Song Dynasty, and some works by Song Zhiyou have anti-Qing thoughts and advocate "the distinction between Chinese and foreigners", so Tiangong is not included in the Complete Works of Sikuquanshu. It's hard to see the singles of Wu Kai in the Heavenly Palace, but we can still see almost all the contents in the book from the book integration and timing general examination. From the last years of Qianlong to the years of Jiaqing and Daoguang, there was a tendency to gradually lift the ban, so the works of Wu Kai in Tiangong were gradually cited by the Qing people.