1. Application of movable type printing, compass and gunpowder
1. Bi Sheng of the Northern Song Dynasty invented movable type printing and its dissemination (blackboard writing) engraving printing is the basis of movable type printing. Woodblock printing in ancient my country appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and in the Song Dynasty, printing technology became increasingly perfect. However, the shortcomings of time-consuming and labor-intensive engraving were also exposed. For example, during the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty, officials presided over the engraving of the Tripitaka in Chengdu, which took 12 years and involved as many as 130,000 carved panels. Therefore, replacing engraving printing with movable type printing has become an inevitable trend in the development of the printing industry. During the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty, commoner Bi Sheng invented movable type printing. The specific method is as follows: carve movable type with clay, burn it to make it hard, then arrange the movable type one by one on an iron plate with rosin and wax, heat it to melt the wax, use a flat plate to flatten the characters, and after cooling, the movable type is fixed on the iron plate. superior. Inked printing. After printing, the iron plate is heated again, the wax melts, and the movable type is removed for reuse. Bi Sheng's movable type printing technology laid the foundation for the basic process of modern movable type printing.
(1) The wooden movable type wheel typesetting tray invented by Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty. (2) Uighur wooden movable type of the Yuan Dynasty discovered in Dunhuang. Spread: Movable type printing later spread to Korea, Japan, Egypt and Europe. Europe did not have movable type plates until the 15th century, 400 years after Bi Sheng's invention.
2． The compass in the Northern Song Dynasty began to be used for navigation and communication. During the Warring States Period, our people had used the polarity of magnets to make "Sinan" (see picture). It consists of a smooth magnetic spoon and a copper plate engraved with directions. Turn the spoon by hand. When the spoon stops, the direction the spoon handle points is south. During the Northern Song Dynasty, people continued to experiment, explore, and improve, and finally discovered that steel could become magnetized after being ground on a magnet, and its magnetism was more stable than natural magnets. Based on this discovery, a compass was made. Later, he learned to fix the compass in the azimuth plate and made a compass needle. This greatly improves the stability of the pointing. This form of compass needle is still popular in countries around the world. During the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the unprecedented development of foreign trade, the compass was used in the navigation industry as an accurate and reliable navigation instrument. During the Southern Song Dynasty, compass needles were commonly installed on Chinese ships. Spread: During the Southern Song Dynasty, it was spread to Europe by Arabs.
3? The widespread use and spread of gunpowder in military affairs. Gunpowder was used in military affairs in the late Tang Dynasty, and was more widely used in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. After the founding of the Song Dynasty, in order to resist the attacks of the Liao, Xixia and Jin, the Song Dynasty stepped up the production and research of weapons, and gunpowder weapons were continuously improved. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a new breakthrough, and a tubular firearm appeared, called a sudden fire gun (see picture). It used a giant bamboo as a tube and contained primitive bullets. It was the most primitive gun in the world. Its invention greatly Improved firearm firing accuracy. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, large-scale tubular firearms made of copper or iron appeared, collectively known as "fire guns". They were filled with iron projectiles (see the picture of Yuan Dynasty copper fire guns). The tails of the guns had eyes for lighting. It already has the basic structure of modern artillery. The widespread use of gunpowder and gunpowder weapons is an epoch-making progress in the history of world weapons, which has brought about major changes in the way humans fight. Spread: During the Southern Song Dynasty, gunpowder spread to Arabia. During the Mongols' Western Expedition, firearms were also introduced to Arabia. In the early 14th century, when Islamic countries attacked Spain, they used gunpowder weapons. At this time, European countries began to come into contact with gunpowder weapons and manufacture them. Printing, compass, gunpowder and papermaking are the four great inventions of ancient my country, and they are also important symbols of my country becoming an ancient civilization in the world. Question: What is the great historical significance of the invention of movable type printing, compass and gunpowder?
2. Scientists Shen Kuo and Guo Shoujing
1. Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty created the "Twelve Qi Calendar" and wrote "Mengxi Bi Tan". Shen Kuo was a scientist who occupied an important position in the history of world science. He was called "the most peculiar figure in the history of Chinese science" by Dr. Joseph Needham, a British science history expert. (Look at the picture) He has many achievements. Ask a classmate to answer, in what two aspects are his outstanding achievements? The classmate answered: (1) The "Twelve Qi Calendar" he created is an advanced and reasonable calendar. .
(2) Author of "Mengxi Bi Tan", which describes many scientific and technological achievements in ancient my country, including many of Shen Kuo's own scientific innovations.
(2) In the Yuan Dynasty, Guo Shoujing compiled the "Time Calendar" and presided over the excavation of Tonghui River. (Writing on the blackboard) Guo Shoujing was a great astronomer who created a calendar - the "Time Giving Calendar". This calendar uses 365.2425 days as a tropical year. The modern tropical year is 365.2419, and the difference between the two is only 26 seconds. The current world-wide Gregorian calendar also uses 365.2425 days as a year, but it was only promulgated in 1582, 300 years later than the "Time Calendar", which was last implemented for 364 years. It is the most sophisticated and longest-used calendar in ancient my country. Guo Shoujing was also a water conservancy expert. He led the construction of the Tonghui River between Dadu and Tongzhou, so that grain transport ships could sail into Jishuitan in Dadu, which greatly facilitated transportation.
3. Agriculture and Medicine (blackboard writing) 1. The "Agricultural Book" by Wang Zhen, an agriculturist of the Yuan Dynasty (blackboard writing) 2. The achievements of acupuncture and forensic medicine in the Song Dynasty (blackboard writing) This part should be read by the students themselves. It needs to be clarified: Wang Zhen was a famous agriculturist in the Yuan Dynasty, and his "Agricultural Book" was the first systematic study of agriculture in my country. The emergence of acupuncture practitioners in the Northern Song Dynasty and medical works in the Southern Song Dynasty reflected the new development of medicine in the Song Dynasty.
4. Mature ancient architecture (blackboard writing) "Zhuo Fa Shi" (blackboard writing) written by Li Jie, an architect in the Northern Song Dynasty. Several architectural monographs appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty, among which Li Jie's "Zhuo Fa Shi" is the most famous. It concentratedly illustrates that ancient my country's architectural technology has entered a mature stage. It is the most comprehensive and scientific architectural manual in ancient my country, and is also the earliest and most complete architectural work in the world. Summary: The highly prosperous culture of the Song and Yuan Dynasties makes us feel proud and proud, but we cannot be arrogant and complacent because of this. Let us be brave and adept at absorbing all the outstanding achievements of world civilization and create a more splendid socialist culture.
By around 1300 AD, the "Lv Lu Cheng Shu" written by Liu Jin of the Yuan Dynasty had begun to use decimal notation, but Stalin in the West did not have the concept of decimals until 1585, and his expression The method is far less advanced than China
Iron balls to dredge meridians and activate qi and blood
In our country, people have long used wooden balls, stone balls and walnut balls to exercise finger strength. Later, some wealthy nobles developed it into glass balls and jade balls, and gradually evolved into solid iron balls. These balls with different materials and played between fingers gradually formed the early fitness balls in my country. Since iron ball plays an important role in the development of my country's long-standing iron ball culture, people are accustomed to calling "fitness ball sports" "iron ball sports".
To be specific, the iron ball began in the Song Dynasty. It was originally a solid ball, also known as an iron ball. It was both a fitness and self-defense weapon. According to data verification, during the Jiaqing period of the Ming Dynasty, the solid ball was changed to a hollow ball, and it became popular during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Its function of dredging meridians and revitalizing qi and blood by stimulating acupuncture points on the hands has gradually been recognized by people.
The Baoding area of ??my country is currently the main production base of iron balls in China. Today's iron balls are developed through improvements and innovations based on the ancient production techniques of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The craftsmanship is more refined and the structure is more scientific. The materials of the balls are becoming more diverse and the surface patterns are richer. The internal structure is also becoming increasingly complex. There are balls inside the balls and soundboards installed. There are two in a pair, commonly known as "one male and one female". Hold it in your hand and run it, the sound will be different, high and low, crisp and sweet. It can not only regulate the body and mind, but also cultivate your character in the crisp and sweet sound of the iron ball.
Watertight compartments to increase the safety of long voyages:
This ship structure was probably invented in the Tang Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, it was widely used in sea-going ships and some inland river ships. The so-called watertight compartment is to use bulkheads to divide the cabin into separate compartments. There are 13 cabins and some 8 cabins. This ship structure is a major invention of China in shipbuilding, and it has advantages in many aspects.
First of all, due to the strict separation between cabins, during navigation, especially during ocean voyages, even if one or two cabin areas are damaged and water enters, the water will not flow to other cabin areas. From the overall perspective of the ship, it still maintains considerable buoyancy and will not sink.
If too much water enters and the ship cannot support it, as long as the cargo is abandoned and the load is reduced, it will not sink to the bottom of the sea quickly. If the damage to the ship is not serious and there is not much water ingress, the damage can be repaired by removing the cargo from the water ingress tank area without affecting the ship's continued navigation. If the water damage is serious, you can also drive to the nearest port or land for repairs. Therefore, watertight compartments not only improve the anti-sinking performance of the ship, but also increase the safety performance of long-distance voyages.
Secondly, the ship is divided into compartments, making the loading, unloading and management of cargo more convenient. Different cargo owners can load and pick up cargo in individual holds at the same time, which improves the efficiency of loading and unloading and facilitates management.
In addition, because the cabin plate is closely connected with the hull plate, it plays the role of reinforcing the hull, which not only increases the overall lateral strength of the ship, but also replaces the process of adding ribs, simplifying the shipbuilding process.
Because of these advantages, the watertight cabin structure is generally welcomed. The Southern Song Dynasty ships unearthed in Houzhu, Quanzhou Bay in 1974, the Yuan Dynasty ships discovered on the Xin'an seabed in South Korea in 1976, and the Southern Song Dynasty ships discovered in Fashi, Quanzhou in 1982, all adopted watertight compartment structures. The Xin'an ship has 8 cabin areas, and the Fashi ship also has about 8 cabin areas.
The watertight compartment structure adopted by Chinese ships has long been appreciated by foreign countries. Marco Polo, an Italian practitioner of the Yuan Dynasty, gave a detailed description of Chinese ships in his Travels.
British Bentham once inspected Chinese ship structures, improved European shipbuilding techniques, and introduced Chinese watertight compartment structures. In 1795, he was commissioned by the British Royal Navy to design and build six new ships. In the paper he wrote, he said that the ships he built "had bulkheads of increased strength, which protected the ship from taking on water and sinking, just as the Chinese do now." Later, Mrs. Bentham wrote for The biography written by her husband pointed out: "This is not an invention of General Bentham. He himself once publicly said, 'This is what the Chinese people practice today, just like the Chinese people in ancient times.'" Since then, China has advanced. The watertight compartment structure was gradually absorbed by shipbuilding technology in Europe and even around the world, and it is still an important structural form in ship design.
The keel structure, a major invention in the shipbuilding industry
The keel structure of ancient Chinese ships was a major invention in the shipbuilding industry and had a profound impact on the development of ship structures in the world. The sharp-bottomed sea-going ships of the Song Dynasty had flat decks, sharp-cut sides, and a V-shaped cross-section. There were keels running through the bow and stern under the pointed-bottomed ships, which were used to support the hull and make the ship stronger. At the same time, it had a deep draft and was able to withstand wind and waves. Very strong. European ships only began to adopt this keel structure in the early 19th century, hundreds of years later than China
Astronomical timekeeping instruments and water transport instruments
In the third year of Song Yuanyou (1088 AD) In 2001, under the initiative and leadership of the famous scientist Su Song, an outstanding astronomical timekeeping instrument, the Water Transport Instrument Tower, was built in Kaifeng, the capital at that time. The concept of the water transport instrument platform widely absorbed the advantages of various previous instruments, especially the advantages of the automatic time reporting device improved by astronomer Zhang Sixun in the early Northern Song Dynasty; in terms of mechanical structure, it adopted the water wheel and barrel wheel used by the people. Mechanical principles such as , tangerines, cams and balance beams integrate observation, demonstration and time reporting equipment into a whole, becoming an automated observatory.
In "New Yixiang Law Essentials" written by Su Song, the design and production of the water-borne yixiang platform are introduced in detail, and a number of drawings are attached. According to the "New Yixiang Law Essentials", the Water Transport Yixiang Platform is a wooden structure with a square base, a wide bottom and a narrow top. It is about twelve meters high and seven meters wide at the bottom. For three major floors.
The upper level is an open-air platform with an armillary sphere, supported by dragon pillars, and a water tank below to stabilize the level. The armillary sphere is covered with a wooden roof to protect it from the sun and rain. In order to facilitate observation, the roof can be opened and closed at will, which is a clever idea. The platform from the terrace to the instrument platform is more than seven meters high.
The middle floor is a "secret room" without windows, in which the Hunxiang is placed.
Half of the celestial sphere is hidden under the "horizon" and the other half is exposed above the "horizon". It is rotated by the wheel and rotates once a day and night, truly reproducing the rise and fall of stars and other changes in celestial phenomena. There is a door opening to the south on the lower floor. There is a five-story wooden pavilion inside the door. Behind the wooden pavilion is a mechanical transmission system.
The wooden pavilion on the first floor is also known as the "Zhengya Bell and Drum Tower" and is responsible for the standard time reporting in Taiwan. The wooden pavilion has three small doors. At the beginning of each hour (in ancient times, a day was divided into twelve hours, and an hour was divided into the beginning of the hour and the right hour), there would be a wooden man in red clothes ringing a bell in the left door; There is a wooden man in purple clothes ringing the bell in the right door; every quarter of an hour, a wooden man in green clothes playing drums in the middle door.
The wooden pavilion on the second floor can tell the beginning and end of the twelve hours, which is equivalent to the hour hand dial of a modern clock. There are twenty-four Sichen wooden figures beside the wheel on this floor, holding time cards in their hands. The cards read Zichu, Zizheng, Chouchu, Chouzheng, etc. in sequence. Every time at the beginning of the year and at the right time, Sichen Muren appears in front of the wooden pavilion on time.
The wooden pavilion on the third floor is specially engraved with the time. There are ninety-six Sichen wooden figures in the ***, of which 24 wooden figures tell the beginning and the right time, and the remaining wooden figures tell the engraving. For example: Zizheng: the first moment, the second moment, the third moment; Chouchu: the first moment, the second moment, the third moment, etc. )
The wooden pavilion on the fourth floor reports the time of night. The wooden man can strike the bell to report the clock according to the different seasons.
There are thirty-eight wooden figures installed in the wooden pavilion on the fifth floor. The position of the wooden figures can change with the solar terms, reporting details such as dusk, dawn, sunrise, and the number of hours.
The wooden figures in the five-story wooden pavilion are able to perform these wonderful and accurate time-telling movements, which are driven by a complex mechanical device called the "Day and Night Turbine". The operation of the entire mechanical wheel train relies on the constant flow of water to push the water wheel to do intermittent motion and drive the instrument to rotate, hence the name "Water Transport Instrument Platform".
The Waterborne Astronomical Observatory created by Su Song is an outstanding astronomical instrument in my country at the end of the 11th century and is also the oldest astronomical clock in the world. The international community has given high praise to the design of the Waterborne Observatory. It is believed that the Waterborne Observatory designed a movable roof for the convenience of observation. This is the ancestor of the movable dome of today's observatory. The whole elephant rotates once day and night, not only It vividly demonstrates the changes in celestial phenomena and is also the ancestor of the modern observatory's tracking instrument - the rotating instrument clock. The first escapement mechanism in the water-moving instrument is a key component of later clocks, so it is also the ancestor of clocks. The water-borne instrument can reflect that the application of ancient Chinese mechanical knowledge has reached a very high level
A simple instrument of ancient Chinese astronomical instruments
Guo Shoujing created one in 1276 AD An instrument for measuring the position of celestial bodies. The structure and use of this instrument are simpler than the armillary sphere, and it has a clear view of the entire sky except near Polaris. Therefore, it is called Jianyi. The main device of the Jianyi is composed of two large rings that are perpendicular to each other. One of the rings is parallel to the equatorial plane of the earth, called the "equatorial ring"; the other is a double ring standing upright in the center of the equatorial ring, which can wrap around a metal The rotation of the axis is called "double ring of right ascension". A sight tube equipped with a crosshair device is sandwiched between the double rings, which is equivalent to a single-tube telescope and can rotate around the center of the right ascension double rings. When observing, aim the sight tube at a certain star to be measured, and then directly read the position value of the star on the dial of the equatorial ring and the right ascension double ring. There are two brackets holding the metal shafts in the north-south direction, supporting the entire observation device, so that the device maintains a shape of high in the north and low in the south. This is the first equatorial device invented in my country, about 500 years earlier than Europeans used equatorial devices.
Anti-Chinese astronomical instrument: The Yang-Yi
The Yang-Yi is an astronomical observation instrument in ancient my country. It was designed and manufactured by Guo Shoujing, an astronomer of the Yuan Dynasty.
The main body of the Yangyi is a copper hemisphere with a diameter of about three meters, which looks like a large pot lying on its back, hence its name. On the inner spherical surface of the altimeter, some regular grids are crisscrossed to measure the position of celestial bodies. A circle of water channels is carved on the mouth of the pot, which is used to fill in water to correct the level of the mouth of the pot and keep it horizontal. 24 lines are evenly carved on the edge of the water tank to show the direction.
On the carved line due south, two cross poles are placed, in the north-south direction, extending to the center of the Yangtai. A small square plate with a small hole in the center is installed on the north end of the pole, and the small square plate can Rotate around the center of the tilter. The upright is an observation instrument that uses direct projection method, which is very intuitive and convenient. For example, when sunlight passes through the central hole, the image of the sun will be projected on the internal spherical surface of the altimeter, and the observer can directly read the position of the sun from the grid. Especially during a total solar eclipse, the entire process of the solar eclipse can be clearly viewed using a tilt-up instrument. At each moment, the position and size of the solar loss can be measured more accurately. Therefore, the altimeter is a very popular astronomical observation instrument among ancient astronomers.
Suzhou Stone Carvings
The astronomical map of Suzhou Stone Carvings was carved in the seventh year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty (1247 AD). The original map was presented by Huang Shang. Wang Zhiyuan was responsible for the writing and inscription work. The materials are mainly based on observations from the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1078 to 1085 AD).
The stele is 216 centimeters high and 108 centimeters wide. The forehead of the stele is inscribed with the words "Astronomical Map", so it is commonly known as the "Astronomical Stele". The upper part of the stele is a circular all-sky star map. The outer circle of the star map is about 91.5 cm in diameter, and the star map itself is about 85 cm in diameter. The drawing method is based on the ancient method, with the north pole of the celestial sphere as the center of the circle, and represented by three concentric circles plus the celestial degree line. The entire astronomical map contains 1,434 stars. Below the star map is a description of more than 2,000 words, summarizing some of the astronomical knowledge known at that time. It preserves part of my country's stellar observation data in the 11th century, provides important information on the positions of ancient stars, and has extremely high scientific research value. The middle picture is a star map made using modern constellation disk observation methods and referring to the astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings.
The Stone Carvings on the Big Dipper at Wuliang Temple in Jiaxiang, Shandong
The Big Dipper on the Stone Carvings at Wuliang Temple in Jiaxiang, Shandong Province illustrates the use of the Big Dipper as the frame of the car, which represents what the "Book of Heavenly Officials" says: "The Big Dipper" It is an imperial chariot and is transported to the central government."
The star chart carved on stone in the tomb of King Wenmu of Wuyue and Yue Dynasties in the Five Dynasties
The star chart carved on stone in the tomb of King Wenmu of Wuyue and Yue Dynasty in the Five Dynasties is a "cover chart" drawn according to the "Gatetian theory". Similar to the constellation disk used in modern astronomical observations: the observer sits north and faces south (because our country is in the northern hemisphere, the sun and moon seen all year round appear in the south), looks up to the sky and observes the stars, so that it seems to be at a fixed point (near the North Star). As the top, the south is below, and the sun, moon and stars will rotate periodically from "left" to right. In the Han Dynasty, an improved cover diagram appeared, with three concentric circles of different sizes: upper gauge, inner gauge, and lower gauge. The stars in the upper circle do not fall to the ground all year round and can be seen at night, so the upper circle is also called the "perpetual display circle". The inner circle represents the "celestial equator", and the stars on the middle circle between the upper and lower circles will pass through the sky one after another. The stars outside the lower circle are below the horizon all year round and often disappear, so they are called the "permanent hidden circle". The constant display circle and the constant hidden circle are equidistant from the middle circle. This type of star chart is represented by the twenty-eight star charts on the tomb of Qian Yuan, King Wenmu of Wu and Yue in the Five Dynasties, and the astronomical chart on Suzhou stone carvings. The astrological diagram carved on the tomb stone of King Wenmu of Wuyue and Yuan Dynasties in the Five Dynasties was built between 941 and 960 AD. The astrological symbols are carved with negative lines, and the stars are connected with lines. The carving is meticulous and the positions of the stars are quite accurate. It is more than 300 years earlier than the Suzhou astronomical map carved on stone, and at the same time, its size is about twice the diameter of the Suzhou astronomical map