Here is a brief introduction to the twelve major scientific and technological achievements of the Song Dynasty.
I. Agriculture
A set of effective methods of land reclamation and utilization was formed in Song Dynasty. According to local conditions, people try their best to expand the area of cultivated land, including polder fields, silt fields, sand fields, sub-fields, frame fields, sub-fields, lake fields and terraces. The distribution of crops has also changed greatly, and rice widely planted in the south has extended to the north. Excellent varieties such as "Zhancheng Rice" and "Yellow Rice" with early maturity, drought resistance and full grain were also introduced from Vietnam, North Korea and other countries. At the same time, the planting area of buckwheat and sorghum has expanded rapidly.
The Song Dynasty was a turning point in the development of cotton planting industry in China. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the cotton-growing areas were mainly Fujian and Guangxi. During the Southern Song Dynasty, cotton planting areas gradually expanded to the Yangtze River and Huaihe River basins, and were widely planted in Jiangnan West Road, Liangzhe Road and Jiangnan East Road.
The most famous farming in Song Dynasty was Chen Fang (A.D. 1076-? ) Chen Fu agricultural book, written in 1 149. The book has 3 volumes, 22 articles and 65,438+200,000 words; The first volume discusses farmland management and rice planting, which is the focus of the book; The middle volume describes cattle raising and cattle doctors; The second volume expounds planting mulberry and raising silkworm. This is a summary of the experience of agricultural production technology accumulated by working people in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River since Sui and Tang Dynasties, which reflects the level of paddy field cultivation technology in Tang and Song Dynasties. It has been discussed in the aspects of soil preparation and seedling raising, intertillage weeding, field baking and irrigation, etc., and China's ancient traditional thought of intensive cultivation has been fully reflected here. A large number of animal and plant catalogues have appeared in the Song Dynasty, and gardening has been highly developed.
Second, astronomy.
Due to the needs of agricultural production and calendar making, the rulers have always paid more attention to the study of astronomy, and the observation level has been continuously improved. The Song Dynasty was no exception.
According to the New Image Law, there were five large-scale star position observations from 10 10 to106 in the Northern Song Dynasty. Song Shi? The results of determining the positions of 28 stars are kept in astronomical records. The Secret Garden of Lingtai contains 345 stars, which are separated from each other. The astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings made in the Southern Song Dynasty 1247, with an area of 8×2.5 feet and more than 430 carved stars 1430. At the north pole center, there are three concentric circles, representing the Arctic constant circle, the Antarctic constant circle and the equator, 28 radiation lines representing the distance of 28 nights, as well as the ecliptic and the Milky Way. All these achievements are inseparable from the highly developed astronomical observation instruments at that time. Traditional astronomical instruments in ancient China, such as clepsydra, standard watch, armillary sphere, armillary sphere, etc., were most effectively improved in technology and technology in the Song Dynasty.
For the planetarium mentioned above, Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty put forward the design of reducing the number of rings, and the armillary sphere and simple instrument are masterpieces under this design. Su Song (A.D.1020-101), Han Gonglian and others made a large-scale water transport instrument platform, which was driven by water leakage by a gear system to keep the instrument at a constant speed, consistent with the movement of celestial bodies. It can not only demonstrate the astronomical phenomena, observe them, but also tell the time.
The most representative calendar in the Song Dynasty is the Grand Unified Calendar, which was promulgated in the fourth year of Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1 198). Calendar was invented by astronomer Yang Zhongfu. It is only 26 seconds different from the modern measured value (the same as the time calendar compiled by Guo Shoujing in Yuan Dynasty), but it is the same as the data used in the current Gregorian calendar, which was published 383 years earlier than the western Gregorian calendar. However, due to the speculation that the eclipse has not been verified, the "unified calendar" only took three years. In the same year, the "Kathy Calendar" was born, replacing the unified calendar that has been used for 45 years.
Three. Earth science and mining
The development of geoscience is characterized by compiling geographical works in the form of maps and classics. Illustrations are also in transition to local chronicles. "Song history according to? According to the records of art and literature, there are more than 100 kinds of local chronicles in Song Dynasty, and the records with maps are called "local chronicles" or "local classics". The most famous National Annals is Taiping Universe, which was written in 976-984. It is compiled by the Geographical History of the Northern Song Dynasty (930-1007), with a total of 200 volumes, mainly about China and Outland. At the same time, many chapters on characters and art have been added, creating a new style of local chronicles.
Cun Wang (1023-1kloc-0/01) and others compiled the Records of Yuanfeng Nine Domains, which was written between 1068 and 1085. The book pays attention to "the present" and says little about the evolution, but gives a detailed account of the miles around, the name of the castle and the mountains and rivers in Shui Ze. There are more than 20 kinds of county local chronicles in Song Dynasty, many of which have been revised from generation to generation and gradually accumulated, forming a wealth of local chronicles.
Due to the frequent exchanges between China and foreign countries during this period, it played a positive role in the development of international trade and cultural exchanges. Many important foreign geographical documents were formed through field visits and hearsay accounts, such as The Journey to the West by Yelu Chucai, Dailing Waidai by Zhou Qufei and Zhufanzhi by Zhao. There are three existing maps of stone carvings in Song Dynasty, such as Hua Yi Tu, Yu Ji Tu, Geographical Map and Jiu Qu Shou Ling Tu, which are available in both An and Suzhou, with great value and characteristics. They are the earliest maps drawn at present, and the rivers and coastlines are accurate, representing the level of surveying and mapping maps in the Song Dynasty. The development of earth science has laid a good foundation for the development and progress of mineralogy and water conservancy construction.
With the development of mining industry in Song Dynasty and the atmosphere of on-the-spot investigation of geological phenomena, people's understanding and research on minerals and some geological phenomena have made great progress than before. Three volumes of A.D.11330,000 degrees recorded 1 16 kinds of stones. Recording the origin, mining methods, occurrence, luster and quality of various ores reflected a new level of people's understanding of minerals, which was a book on rock and mineral knowledge that appeared at that time.
Fourth, medicine.
In Song Dynasty, medicine made progress in education, theory, clinical diagnosis and treatment, materia medica and prescriptions, which made China medicine enter a new stage of all-round development.
The rulers of Song Dynasty attached importance to the revision of various medical books. In 973-974, Liu Han, Ma Zhi and others compiled "Kaibao Materia Medica" Volume 2 1, containing 983 kinds of medicines. In A.D. 1057, Su Song and others compiled two volumes of Jiayou Materia Medica, including 1082 kinds of drugs, and compiled a illustrated Materia Medica. Tang Shenwei's History-proven First Aid Materia Medica has 32 volumes, including 1700 kinds of drugs, indications of various diseases, dietary taboos when taking drugs, and fear, promotion, need and use of drugs, which makes people have a general understanding of the origin of materia medica in past dynasties and the incompatibility of drugs. Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty commented: "It is a great achievement to make herbs and prescriptions of various families last forever."
In the Song Dynasty, Chinese medicine can be divided into nine branches: big room pulse, wind point, acupuncture, small room pulse, ophthalmology, obstetrics, stomatology, sores, swelling and folding diseases, and metalworking classes. The pertinence of diagnosis has been greatly strengthened by disciplines. There are two things that must be mentioned in Song Medicine. The first is the grievance record of Song Ci (A.D. 1 186-1249), which is the first systematic forensic work in the history of China; Second, Wang (AD 987-1067)' s Illustration of Acupuncture at Tongren Acupoints' and' Tongren Acupuncture'.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) mathematics
Among the various disciplines of science and technology in the Song Dynasty, the development of mathematics is more prominent. Nine Books of Qin Dynasty (A.D. 1208-1268), Nine Chapters Algorithm of Yang Hui and Algorithm of Yang Hui came out one after another. Shen Kuo's contribution to mathematics is his "gap product technique" and "skill of meeting circle", which laid the foundation for future generations' research.
Six, gunpowder
In the chapter "Unexpected Technological Revolution: From Alchemy to Gunpowder", it has been mentioned that firearms and muskets were quite mature in the military application of the Song Dynasty, which made China's science and technology far ahead of the world.
Seven, movable type printing
The chapter "Technological Revolution: Printing" has already mentioned that Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, so I won't say much here.
Eight, compass and navigation
Shen Kuo recorded the deflection angles of the floating needle and the magnetic needle in Meng Qian's Bi Tan. The discovery of magnetic declination was discovered by Columbus in the West 1492, more than 400 years later than that of Shen Kuo. People have deeply explored the method of artificial magnetization and the use of magnetic needle, and made great progress, which led to the wide application of compass. The most direct application of compass is navigation, which enables people to sail around the clock and sail freely on the vast sea. Many new routes have been opened, and the voyage has been shortened, which has greatly promoted the cultural exchanges and trade exchanges between people of all countries. With the rapid development of shipping industry, shipbuilding technology reached its peak in the Song Dynasty, and the compass played an important role. It can be said that the compass promotes the development of navigation, and navigation also stimulates the progress of the compass.
Nine, civil engineering
In 984 AD, the transshipment in Huainan put Joe (926-100 1) in charge of the Huaihe River, turning Erdoumen into a multi-gate canal lock, which improved the river transportation capacity. This invention was also the first in the world, and then it was widely circulated. The application of compound braking is also mentioned in Shen Kuo's Meng Qian Bi Tan, and the effect after applying this technology is described in detail.
X. metal technology
Two ironmaking innovations were developed in the Song Dynasty. One method is used for casting inferior uneven steel; The other is the predecessor of modern steelmaking furnace, which achieves the purpose of decarbonization by blowing cold air and forging repeatedly. From 806 to 1078, the per capita iron output increased sixfold to 1078, and the annual output reached1270,000 kg. At the end of the 11th century, it was found that bituminous coal could replace charcoal. Robert hartwell, an American economic historian (1932-1996), pointed out that the output of iron and coal in China in the12nd century was almost the same as that in Britain during the industrial revolution in the18th century.
XI。 textile technology
The pedal silk reeling car was used in Song Dynasty. Qin Guan (A.D. 1049-1 100) recorded the structure, several key components and usage of the silk reeling machine in detail in his book Silkworm Book. The power is generated by the pedal, and the wire is wound on the spool.
The pedal spinning wheel appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty. Southern Song Dynasty Engraving Biography of Lienv? In Ludo Ying Tao's painting, a woman is using a three-axis pedal spinning wheel. A five-spindle pedal spinning wheel was found in Ma's Wind Map in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Water turned into a spinning wheel, which was invented in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. It consists of four parts: rotating spindle, adding spindle, water wheel and transmission device. It is equipped with 32 spindles, driven by two rubber ropes to make it run. It is used to process fibers with the same length as hemp yarn and silk with high efficiency. The waterwheel was an advanced spinning machine in the world at that time and a great achievement of ancient Chinese mechanical engineering.
Huang Daopo (about 1245- about 1330), an expert in cotton textile at the end of Song Dynasty and the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, played a great role in popularizing advanced textile technology in Song Dynasty. Wang Zhen, a famous agronomist in Yuan Dynasty, introduced three-spindle pedal cotton spinning wheel, three-spindle/five-spindle pedal hemp spinning wheel, big spinning wheel and water-to-water spinning wheel in his agricultural books.
Twelve, porcelain making technology
The Song Dynasty was the heyday of China porcelain, with five famous kilns: Ding kiln, Jun kiln, Guan kiln, Ge kiln and Ru kiln. Porcelain in Song Dynasty, with its simplicity, simplicity, elegance and conciseness, is also a monument admired by the working people in China in the history of world craft development. In the Sotheby's auction market in Hong Kong in 20 14, a piece of "Ding Kiln Carving in Different Directions in the Northern Song Dynasty" caused fierce competition and was finally sold at1.1.60 billion yuan.
Needham mentioned in the introduction of his book History of Science and Technology in China: "Whenever people look for a specific historical material of science and technology in China's literature, they often find that its focus is in the Song Dynasty, whether in applied science or pure science." Chen Yinque (A.D. 1890-1969), a modern historian in China, once commented: "The culture of the Chinese nation has developed for thousands of years and reached its peak in the Zhao and Song Dynasties."