The Origins of Sciences in China: History of Science and Technology in China Volume 1 (History of Science and Technology in China, 1) 9811578524, 9789811578526

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History of Science and Technology in China

Xiaoyuan Jiang Editor

The Origins of Sciences in China History of Science and Technology in China Volume 1

History of Science and Technology in China

This is a series of handbooks with high academic values on the general history of Chinese science and technology, with contributions by top-notch scholars in this field. This 5-volume work provides an encyclopedic historical panorama of Chinese scientific and technological development. It unfolds the history of Chinese science and technology through a clarified timeline from as early as the far ancient times to the very present. This work consists of five volumes: Origins of Chinese Sciences, Ancient Chinese Studies of Heaven and Earth, High Tide of Chinese Sciences, Theoretical and Technological Development, and Western Influences. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16685

Xiaoyuan Jiang Editor

The Origins of Sciences in China History of Science and Technology in China Volume 1

With 232 Figures and 12 Tables

Editor Xiaoyuan Jiang School of History and Culture Science Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China Translated by Jie Qiao School of Foreign Languages Shanxi University Taiyuan, China

Bin Li School of Foreign Languages Shanxi University Taiyuan, China

Haiyan Tian School of Foreign Languages Shanxi University Taiyuan, China

Juan Wang Taiyuan Preschool Teachers College Taiyuan, China

Caiyun Lian Science and Technology Information Institute of Shanxi Province Taiyuan, China

Dianhua Zhao China North Industries Group Corporation Limited Datong, China

ISSN 2730-910X ISSN 2730-9118 (electronic) ISBN 978-981-15-7852-6 ISBN 978-981-15-7853-3 (eBook) ISBN 978-981-15-7854-0 (print and electronic bundle) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3 Jointly published with Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press The print edition is not for sale in The Mainland of China. Customers from The Mainland of China please order the print book from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. Translation from the language edition: 源远流长 by Xiaoyuan Jiang, © Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press 2016. Published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. All Rights Reserved. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

For a long time, appropriate books were not available for the general history of Chinese science and technology. Existing books fall into two categories: one that is academic, written for only the academic circle and not for the general public, the other that is popular, for the common interest of both scholars and general readers. The well-known one of the first type is Science and Civilization in China, written by Joseph Needham, and was published by Cambridge University Press in 1954. Due to the gradual expansion of the writing project, it finally turned into a sevenvolume book with dozens of fascicles, and the process was continued even after Joseph passed away. In the 1970s, there were some selected Chinese translations published. Since 1990, the complete translation was authorized to be published by Science Press (initially Shanghai Classics Publishing House), with very slow progress. Another important one of this type is the project initiated by the Institute for the History of Natural Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This project is similar to that of Joseph Needham’s, and the book has also been titled Science and Civilization in China, totaling 29 volumes in three categories, written by Lu Jiaxi as the principal writer and published by Science Press. Although it is a joint work of many scholars, it turned out to be a real success. As for the second type, there was only the two-volume Draft of Chinese Science and Technology History, written by Du Shiran and five other scholars, published by Science Press in 1982. Despite a few errors, the book is an appropriate book for the general public and beginners in the history of Chinese science and technology, because of its simple style, moderate length, and concentration on the main points. In 2001, Shanghai People’s Publishing House published the five-volume The Shorter Science and Civilization in China. In fact, it is a revised concise edition of Science and Civilization of China, authorized by Joseph Needham to Colin A Ronan, providing its availability to more readers. After Joseph and Colin both passed away, Shanghai People’s Publishing House bought the copyright of its Chinese translation. The translation was done by the team of teachers and students in the Department for the History of Science at Shanghai Jiaotong University. Later, the five volumes were merged into two volumes by Shanghai People’s Publishing House, reprinted twice, respectively, in 2010 and 2014. However, in only 1.3 million words and confined by the unfinished original books by Joseph, one sees some v

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imbalance in this translated version, which makes it not an ideal history book of Chinese science and technology for general readers. When I was just committed to lead the writing of this five-volume History of Science and Technology in China, I discussed with my colleagues over and over again, with the above books as the great treasure. The new book intends to strike some balance between the two types, being both of high academic value and of great appeal to the refined and popular taste. In view of this intention, some bold attempts are made as follows. Firstly, a powerful lineup of authors – the leading scholars and experts in related areas – are invited to join the writing team, to guarantee the high academic standard, so different writing styles are allowed. Professor Liu Chun and Professor Liao Yuqun, two great members in the national team of Chinese science and technology history, and also two former directors of the Institute for the History of Natural Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, took the lead in writing the parts they are mostly specialized, setting a good example. All the other authors of the team finished their own parts in the same manner. Secondly, there was no intention to cover all aspects. As a matter of fact, in view of the first consideration, some aspects of the history might not be able to find right authors. Therefore, the structure of the book is just like some large or small spots unevenly distributed on the time axis of history, each being made by a professional with good expertise. Third, in the style of “major entries” in an encyclopedia. The book, chronologically from the ancient till modern times, consists five volumes: Rich Sources and Long Stream, Masters of Heaven and Earth, At High Noon, Technology and Philosophy of Tao, and New Ideals of Ancient Philosophy. Each volume also comprises subjects of different sizes in chronological order. Fourth, a glossary with brief explanations and a list of Chinese milestones compared in parallel with Western ones are appended in the book so that some events or things not covered in the volumes but necessary for general learning of history are included there. Not enormously voluminous, this book of more than three million words is mediate in size between the above two types as well as its functions and target readers. A question might be asked like this: Since 1.3 million words of The Shorter Science and Civilization in China are too much for general readers, how can a book three times larger be accepted? This problem is considered by adopting the style of “major entries” in an encyclopedia. That is to say, if you are just interested in a certain event or concept, you may read the related subject or part instead of the whole book. Furthermore, the table of contents, glossary, and the chronology make selected reading more convenient than The Shorter Science and Civilization in China. Besides, the style of “major entries” makes the new book a kind of “Encyclopedia History of Science and Technology in China.” With all parts written by accomplished scholars, reflecting the latest research achievements in all areas of history of science and technology in China, its academic value can be easily seen. Even professional academics can use the book for learning about many new achievements

Preface

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and ideas in their respective fields, which can hardly be done through “Baidu” search. Therefore, this new book can be a very useful introduction for beginners in the history of Chinese science and technology (like the graduates majoring in this field) with its clear approach, making the profound relations easily understood. In addition, amateurs can benefit from reading it just out of interest. “All history is contemporary.” The history written nowadays is naturally different from that written in earlier times. Also, readers nowadays may have different views from those in earlier times. So it will be our (the authors and the compilers) great honor if the readers have a better view of the past and a better prospective of the future through this book. At School of History and Culture of Science Shanghai Jiaotong University

Xiaoyuan Jiang

Acknowledgments

History of Science and Technology in China is a collection of masterpieces in five volumes by leading domestic scholars in their respective research areas, representing the major cultural projects. It originated from the inquiry and proposal of the central leading comrades. The project was set up by the Bureau of Press and Publication of Shanghai, who entrusted the Institute of Science History and Scientific Culture of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press to jointly implement this project. Jiao Yang, the then director of the Bureau of Press and Publication of Shanghai, made great efforts at the beginning of the project planning. Her successors, Fang Shizhong, Xu Jiong and others, all have continued to take an interest in the development of the project. Academic scholars from various technological history research units from all over the country, affiliated to the Institute of Science History and Scientific Culture of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have been organized, with Professor Jiang Xiaoyuan, Dean of the Institute of Science History and Scientific Culture of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as the chief editor. The book has been welcomed by more than 40 top scholars from various fields of the history of science and technology in China, who joyfully joined the authors’ team. They include two former directors of the Institute for the History of Natural Science in Chinese Academy of Sciences: Professor Liu Dun, who is the current chairman of the Confederation of International Science History and Philosophy, and Professor Liao Yuqun, the former director of the Academy of Scientific and Technological History in China; academician Fu Xinian; professor Mei Jianjun (director of the Needham Research Institute of Oxford); Professor Liu Bing from Tsinghua University; Professor Zhang Daqing from Peking University; Professor Shi Yunli from the University of Science and Technology of China, and many other experienced professors from the Institute of Science History and Scientific Culture of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In order to ensure high academic standards of the History of Science and Technology in China, President Han Jianmin, president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, personally led the project team with Liu Peiying and Zhang Shantao serving as project coordinators. Many editors with a professional background in the field, in particular Dr. Bao Suo from the University of Tokyo, who

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specializes in the history of science and technology, were recruited to bolster the editorial team. We would like to express our deep gratitude to the above-mentioned parties and to Dr. Wu Hui, Dr. Mao Dan, and Dr. Sun Mengmeng for their help in reviewing the manuscripts and checking the chronology of major events, as well as providing brief interpretation of terms. We would also like to thank Li Guangliang, Vice President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, Miss Geng Shuan, and Miss Tang Zongxian for their outstanding contributions to the project organization and implementation. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press

(Translator: Haiyan Tian) (Proofreader: Caiyun Lian)

Contents

1

The Astronomy in Ancient China: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xiaoyuan Jiang

2

Pre-Qin Period: Science and Technology in Contending Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wusan Dai

39

Chinese Agronomy and the Development of Agronomy Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xiongsheng Zeng

89

4

Kaogong ji and Ancient Chinese Handicraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wusan Dai

111

5

From the Medical Books on Bamboo Slips to the Classics . . . . . . . Yuqun Liao

147

6

Literature on Bamboo Slips and Tablets and the History of Mathematics of China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dahai Zou

185

3

1

7

The Development of the Traditional Metrology in China Zengjian Guan

.......

223

8

The Outlook on the Universe of the Chinese in Ancient Period . . . Weixing Niu

253

9

The Architecture in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xinian Fu

281

10

The Angle Concept and Angle Measurement in Ancient China . . . Zengjian Guan

327

11

The Shipbuilding and Shipping Industry in Ancient China . . . . . . Longfei Xi and Hequn Shi

347

12

The Development of Bronze Casting in Pre-Qin Period . . . . . . . . . Lu Wang and Jianjun Mei

399

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Contents

..........

449

.......

471

15

Chinese Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shaorong Meng

535

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The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Liu Hui . . . . . . . . Shuchun Guo

591

Term Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

669

Chronology of Major Events in China and Western Countries . . . . . . .

867

Further Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

955

...

957

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961

13

Zenghouyi’s Bells and the Ancient Chinese Rhyming Zengjian Guan

14

Craft in Bronze Kingdom: The Ancient Chinese Casting Derui Tan

General Catalogue of History of Science and Technology in China Postscript

Contributors

Wusan Dai Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China Xinian Fu Institute of Architectural History, China Academy of Architectural Technology, Beijing, China Zengjian Guan Division for Development of Liberal Arts, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Shuchun Guo The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Xiaoyuan Jiang School of History and Culture Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Yuqun Liao The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Jianjun Mei Institute of Metallurgy and Material History, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China Shaorong Meng Philosophy Department, Guangxi University, Nanning, China Weixing Niu Department for the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China Hequn Shi Marine Design and Research Institute of China, Shanghai, China Derui Tan Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China Lu Wang Institute of Metallurgy and Material History, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China Longfei Xi Shipbuilding History Research Center, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China Xiongsheng Zeng The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Dahai Zou The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China xiii

1

The Astronomy in Ancient China: An Overview Xiaoyuan Jiang

Contents 1.1 The Special Position of the Study of Heaven in Ancient Chinese Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 Three Special Annals on Study of Heaven in Official Histories of Dynasties . . . . 1.1.2 The Special Position in Political Affairs in Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.3 The Special Position of Study of Heaven in Intellectual Pursuit in Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.4 The Special Position of Imperial Institutions on Study of Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.5 Strict Prohibitions on Privately Learning Study of Heaven in Successive Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Properties of the Study of Heaven and Its Societal Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Correspondence Between Man and Heaven and the Concept of Mandate of Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 A Political Concept: The Man Who Communicates with Heaven Is the King . . . 1.2.3 Relationship Between the Study of Heaven and the Regal Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.4 The Political Role that the Study of Heaven Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 An Outline of Astrology in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 A General Survey of Astrology in Ancient Civilizations: Two Categories . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Theory of Dividing Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.3 Things to Predict: The Main Task of Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.4 Phenomena for Divination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.5 Astrological Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.6 Celestial Phenomena: Recording and Fabricating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 A Survey on Study of Heaven Development in Successive Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 Pre-Qin Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.2 Qin and Han Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.3 The Wei, Jin, Northern, and Southern Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.4 The Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.5 The Northern and Southern Song Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 2 5 7 8 10 12 12 13 14 15 16 16 19 21 23 25 27 29 29 30 30 31 32

X. Jiang (*) School of History and Culture Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_1

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X. Jiang

1.4.6 The Yuan Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 1.4.7 The Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 1.4.8 The Qing Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Abstract

This chapter gives detail information on the special position, societal functions and properties of the study of heaven in ancient Chinese culture. It also gives an outline of astrology in ancient China as well as a survey on study of heaven development in successive dynasties. Keywords

China · Ancient · The Study of Heaven · Three special annals · Alchemy · Astrology

1.1

The Special Position of the Study of Heaven in Ancient Chinese Culture

1.1.1

Three Special Annals on Study of Heaven in Official Histories of Dynasties

In the time when Sima Qian lived, and even long before that, knowledge was well developed of mathematics, metallurgy, textile, architecture, agriculture, and physics, and some of them (e.g., metallurgy, architecture, etc.) were closely related to the national economy and the people’s livelihood. But these branches of learning did not have a place in the Eight Books of Records of the Grand Historian written by Sima Qian. Instead; he showed a special preference to astronomy (or study of heaven) and devoted more than two treatises to the subject alone, like a single flower in blossom. Why? If Sima Qian had been the only person who did so, this could have been explained as his special preference because of the profession of Taishiling (Grand Astrologer) passed down from his father. But it is hard to understand why this practice became the traditional mode in the official history throughout the two thousand years after him. Take the Book of Former Han (History of Han) for example. The Ten Treatises of the Book of Former Han correspond to the Eight Treatises of the Records of the Grand Historian. The titles of the two series are listed below for comparison in the original orders: Eight Treatises on Records of the Grand Historian Treatise on Rites Treatise on Music Treatise on Bells Treatise on Almanac Treatise on Astronomy Treatise on Religious Sacrificial Ceremonies Treatise on Rivers and Canals

Ten Treatises on the Book of Former Han Treatise on Bells and Almanac Treatise on Rites and Music Treatise on Punishment and Law Treatise on Food and Money Treatise on Sacrificial Offerings Treatise on Astronomy Treatise on Wu Xing (the Five Elements) (continued)

1

The Astronomy in Ancient China: An Overview

Eight Treatises on Records of the Grand Historian Treatise on Price Stabilization

3

Ten Treatises on the Book of Former Han Treatise on Geography Treatise on Rivers and Canals Treatise on Treatise on Literature

In the list, the Treatise on Bells and Almanac is a combination of the Treatise on Bells and the Treatise on Almanac, the Treatise on Rites and Music is a combination of the Treatise on Rites and the Treatise on Music, the Treatise on Economy and Finance is roughly equivalent to the Treatise on Price Stabilization, the Treatise on Sacrificial Offerings is equivalent to the Treatise on Worship of Heaven, the Treatise on Astronomy is another version of the Treatise on Constellations, and the Treatise on Ditches and Canals equals the Treatise on Rivers and Canals. In addition, the four annals, namely, Treatise on Punishment and Law, Wu Xing (the Five Elements), Geography, and Catalogue of Works, are newly added to the Treatise on Former Han. Obviously, the contents of the Treatise on Punishment and Law and the Treatise on Literature are clear, so we do not have to expound them. The Treatise on Geography is basically equivalent to modern human geography. What is worth the attention is the Treatise on Wu Xing – the Five Elements. That is the literature on disastrous and auspicious omens. Still, its fundamental theory is interaction between heaven and mankind for rewards for kind deeds and punishments for the evil – in times of political darkness, abnormality and disasters appear, and in times of benevolent politics, auspicious signs surface. It also contains a great deal of astrology, which roughly belongs to the scope of the ancient study of heaven. In the successive historical records compiled by later dynasties, these three annals – Astronomy, Bells and Almanac, and Wu Xing – are placed in adjoining volumes, and only the sequence is different. Among the 25 histories, 18 have annals. The three annals – Astronomy, Bells and Almanac (only Almanac is listed if Bells and Almanac are separated), and Wu Xing – in the 18 histories are listed as follows (in the original order of each history). • The Records of the Grand Historian: Book of Almanac, Book of Astronomy • History of Han: Treatise on Bells and Almanac, Treatise on Astronomy, Wu Xing (the Five Elements) • History of Eastern Han: Treatise on Bells and Almanac, Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing • History of Jin: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Bells and Almanac, Treatise on Wu Xing • History of Song: Treatise on Almanac, Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Auspiciousness, Treatise on Wu Xing • History of Southern Qi: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Auspiciousness, Treatise on Wu Xing • History of Weis: Treatise on Sky Phenomena, Treatise on Bells and Almanac, Treatise on Miraculous Omens • History of Sui: Treatise on Bells and Almanac, Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing • Old History of Tang: Treatise on Almanac, Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing

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• New History of Tang: Treatise on Almanac, Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing • Old History of the Five Dynasties: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Almanac, Treatise on Wu Xing • New History of the Five Dynasties: Investigation into Astronomical Affairs • History of Song: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing, Treatise on Bells and Almanac • History of Liao: Treatise on Almanac and Phenomena • History of Jin: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Almanac, Treatise on Wu Xing • History of Yuan: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing, Treatise on Almanac • History of Ming: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Wu Xing, Treatise on Almanac • Draft History of Qing: Treatise on Astronomy, Treatise on Natural Calamities and Abnormalities, Treatise on Shixian Almanac The treatises in these 18 histories are not entirely the same as the ten treatises in the History of Han. But they have two points in common: One is that they have no place for mathematics, physics, metallurgy, textile, architecture, agriculture, medicine, alchemy, and other practical branches of science and technology; the other is that they give eminent place, even the first place, to the three annals on study of heaven. When he wrote the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian was bearing in mind that he was to establish his own style. If you say that he has a favor on study of heaven, I may agree reluctantly. However, the successive histories were written officially, representing the most orthodox historical and cultural viewpoint. All of them followed the same mode of the Records of the Grand Historian. How come? This indicates that emphasis on the study of heaven is not because of a personal inclination of Sima Qian. Instead, there must be an underlying reason. Then what is the reason? Research on the ancient Chinese history of science and technology involves many disciplines and branches, namely, mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine, agriculture, metallurgy, textile, architecture, etc. The historical materials of these branches have to be retrieved one by one from ancient literature as vast as the open sea, except for a few private monographs. Brush Talks from Dream Brook, the book written by Shenkuo in the Song Dynasty, contains a bit more data than other works, so scholars cherish it as a priceless treasure. Only this branch considered as astronomy is out of the ordinary: Its historical data can be gotten in voluminous official histories, which are so systematic and abundant that other branches can hardly be a match. Such an astonishing fact is thought-provoking; isn’t it? At least it indicates that in the ancient Chinese culture, this branch of learning, which can be called study of heaven, possesses extraordinary properties and occupies a vital place.

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The Astronomy in Ancient China: An Overview

1.1.2

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The Special Position in Political Affairs in Ancient Times

Book of Documents is a basic classic work of Confucianism. Today it can be considered as a collection of ancient political documents or their reports/adapted versions. The first part of Book of Documents is Text of Yu. The first chapter of Text of Yu is Canon of Yao. The text of Canon of Yao records the main administrative affairs in the reign of Emperor Yao and Yao’s instructions about assessing and cultivating his successor Shun. The whole text of Canon of Yao is made up of just 440 characters, and half of it tells about Yao’s political merits, in 225 characters. Emperor Yao was named Fang Xun. He did everything dutifully and practiced strict economy. He knew the difference between right and wrong and governed the country skillfully. His demeanor was dignified and courteous. He was honest, gentle, and refined. He could recommend the worthy and give way to the capable. So his brilliance shone everywhere in the country, and his consideration includes the sky and earth. He appointed those who have both ability and political integrity to official positions. He made the people live amicably with each other. He commended benefaction of official and made all the nationalities closely united. Under the governance of Yao, civilians lived together in peace. Emperor Yao ordered Xi and He to obey heaven’s intention respectfully in formulating the calendar based on the movement of the sun, moon, and stars and with the calendar taught the people to devote themselves to productive activities. He ordered Xizhong to live at a place on the east sea named Yanggu and wait respectfully for sunrise in order to determine the time of sunrises. He decided on the Spring Equinox as the date of equating day and night, and he decided on the middle spring according to the bird star seen in the south exactly. At that time, people should labor in the field, and birds and beasts reproduce. He ordered Xishu to live at a place named Mingdu where the sun moves from north to south. It was Xi’s job to observe the sequence of the sun moving toward south, in order to stipulate what to do in summer, and wait respectfully for the sun to come. He decided on the Summer Solstice as the date of the longest daylight, and he decided on the middle summer according to Mars seen in the south exactly. At that time, people should live in higher places, and birds and beasts begin to lose hair or feather. In addition, he ordered Hezhong to live at a place in the west named Meigu, in order to respectfully measure the point of sunset when seeing the sun off. It was his job to observe the sequence of sunset to mountains. He should arrange the harvest of crops on the basis of his observation. He decided on the Autumnal Equinox as the date of equating day and night, and he decided on the middle autumn according to the virtual star seen in the south exactly. At that time, people leave highlands and live on plains to harvest, and birds and beasts grow fine hair or feather that can be used for making utensils. Finally, he ordered Heshu to live at a place in the north called Youdu where he observed the sun moving from far south to north. He decided on the Winter Solstice as the date of the shortest day, and he decided on the middle winter according to the Pleiades seen in the south exactly. At that time, people hide in their house for warmth, and birds and beasts are coated with very thick hair or feather. Yao said: “Ah! Xi and He, listen! There are 365 days in a year. We must set up a leap month to settle the four seasons and calculate the yearly calendar. Only so doing, can we

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conform to the heavenly times and stipulate the duties of officials. That way, our efforts will achieve good effects.” Of the 225 characters talking about Emperor Yao, 172 are about his engagement in heavenly affairs, accounting for 76% of the total. The first paragraph is abstract praise, while the second paragraph is concrete exposition about the heavenly affairs. The whole article Canon of Yao gives us the impression that the major and eminent merit of Emperor Yao is his arrangement for heavenly affairs. Doesn’t it seem strange? Let us ponder further and suppose that Canon of Yao was written because Emperor Yao would soon abdicate and hand over the crown to Shun. Then why doesn’t it deal with “serious matters”? The supreme ruler would soon hand over the state power to his successor, but Canon of Yao does not mention state affairs, such as internal and foreign affairs, military, economy, or whatsoever. Instead, it talks in great lengths about how to arrange heavenly affairs. Seen from the contemporary eyes, isn’t it too absurd? Circumstantial evidence can also be found to back up our question. For instance, Volume 15 of the Records of the Grand Historian, entitled Biography of Five Virtuous Emperors, records Emperor Shun acting as regent, saying: “When Emperor Yao is getting old, he tells Shun to act in capacity of the emperor so as to observe heaven’s will. Emperor Shun started using astronomical instruments so that governmental affairs could be implemented according to astronomical phenomena.. . .” As a matter of fact, this was rewritten by Sima Qian on the basis of Canon of Shun·from the Book of Documents. It is true that after “started using astronomical instruments so that governmental affairs could be implemented according to astronomical phenomena,” a few other administrative merits are mentioned. However, the first thing is still heavenly affairs, and they are directly related to the mandate of heaven! Another example: In Xi Ci (Tied Diction) ·Yi Jing (The Book of Changes), there is a simplified and idealized presupposition on the developmental history of ancient civilizations. The series of monarchs is so listed: Baoxi (Fuxi) – Shennong – Yellow Emperor, Qi, and Shun. They successively created many businesses and concepts for a civilized society. Among them, the first contribution made by the first emperor is as follows: “In the old days when Baoxi was the king of the world, he looked up into the sky to observe heavenly phenomena, and looked down onto the earth to observe natural laws. . .” The first contribution is study of heaven again! “Looking up into the sky” is the same kind of activity as “looking at the vast heaven, and observing heavenly bodies,” and “started using astronomical instruments so that governmental affairs could be implemented according to astronomical phenomena.” If this kind of activity belongs to the astronomy in a modern sense, it would be really astonishing: The first virtuous monarch of ancient Chinese has nothing to mention about his political merits except his interest in astronomy. When the second virtuous monarch begins to act as regent, he cares for nothing except devoting himself to astronomical activities. As the originator of civilization, Fuxi makes his first contribution to human society not by solving the problem of basic necessities of life, but through going in for astronomy! Was astronomy so important to ancient Chinese people? There has long been a prevalent saying that the ancient China was an agricultural country, and agriculture needs astronomy. So the ancient Chinese people attached

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great importance to astronomy. This theory sounds reasonable, but on second thought we will find it full of loopholes. Here I would like to raise a few questions: If agriculture needs astronomy, almost all nations have agriculture. Did astronomy ever occupy such an incredibly special status elsewhere as it did in the ancient Chinese culture? Agriculture needs astronomy, and yet navigation needs astronomy more. The ancient Greek had agriculture, and they relied on navigation to a great extent. Did astronomy get a special position in the ancient Greek culture as it does in the ancient Chinese culture? How much exposition of astronomy can be found in Homer’s epic poems or in Herodotus’ Histories? Agriculture needs astronomy, but to what extent? The greatest majority of farmers have no knowledge of astronomy, but what do they depend on to plant crops? Of the three annals on study of heaven in the official histories of past dynasties, the annals of astronomy are specialized to deal with astrology, and the annals of Wu Xing recount disastrous and auspicious omens. Both of them are totally unrelated to agriculture. Why do they occupy such a special position? Agriculture is related to astronomy, but it is obviously also related to manufacture of farm tools, breeding, soil improvement, field management, water conservancy, and so on, to a greater extent. However, knowledge of these areas did not get valued. Why? In the final analysis, all these questions lead to the same question: Does the study of heaven in ancient China belong to the same branch of learning as the astronomy in the contemporary sense? If not, then what is its property?

1.1.3

The Special Position of Study of Heaven in Intellectual Pursuit in Ancient Times

Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals can be considered a quasi encyclopedia. This book “covers all things in the sky and the human world, and all affairs today and in the past.” It gives study of heaven a peculiar position. The first 12 volumes, i.e., the so-called 12 almanacs, expound largely in the scope of politics, ethics, and philosophy. But the first chapter of each almanac talks about celestial phenomena and seasons. This theory prevailed in the Warring States period and the Qin and Han Dynasties. The first chapter of each of the 12 almanacs in Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals is similar to Monthly Ordinances of The Book of Rites, and Seasonal Regulations of Huainanzi. Furthermore, Xiaxiaozheng of Dadai’s Book of Rites, Youguan of Guan Zhong, the third part of the silk book of Chu unearthed in Zidanku in Changsha, and relevant sections of Book of Sun, the Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Shuihudi Yunmeng, are all literatures of the same category with the same property. Those literatures are another manifestation of the special status occupied by study of heaven in ancient political affairs. In the knowledge system of Huainanzi, there is no place for any subject of “science and technology” in the current sense. However, study of heaven is an exception: It occupies an impressive position. If we consider the study of heaven in ancient China as astronomy in the modern sense, and as parallel to physics and chemistry in nature,

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wouldn’t it be strange for the ancient Chinese people to have such a special favor on this branch of learning, which has no utility for the daily material life? In that case, this branch of learning would become a clear exception in the knowledge system of the ancient China, totally unable to harmonize with the whole system. In the three books of classification – Categories of Artistic Works, the Sea of Jades, and Collection of Books in All Times – study of heaven is put in the first place of all parts. This is not a coincidence. Actually, all the comprehensive books of classification put “study of heaven” in the first place. It is true that ancient people tended to follow the old rules as a matter of routine, but there must had been some reasons for the old rules to be made. The reason is obviously the same as for Treatise on Astronomy to stay in the first place among all the treatises of official histories. This reason was well known to the noble and virtuous in ancient times; later fewer and fewer persons knew it, but the number of them was still considerable; in modern times, however, the reason is covered by misunderstandings, and very few people know it. Unless we disclose the secret, it is really hard to know the reason.

1.1.4

The Special Position of Imperial Institutions on Study of Heaven

The special position of heavenly scientists and heavenly scientific institutions in the ancient Chinese society is first of all embodied in that the heavenly scientific institution is a department of the government and the heavenly scientists working in it are governmental officials who make up a part of the administration. They are entirely different in nature from gentleman of remedies and arts who were ordered to serve the imperial palace. The latter do not constitute a part of the administration or receive official ranking (regarding the few becoming high-rank officials because of their arts, it is completely another picture to be dealt with separately), though some of them receive official rankings or titular honors. The practice that heavenly scientists were imperially appointed ranking officials began very early. Canon of Yao in Book of Documents has the recording of Emperor Yao appointing heavenly scientists to be officials, reflecting a fact that back in remote ancient times, heavenly scientists were ranking officials of the imperial court. More evidence can be found in the book Rites of Zhou. Among various official positions listed in Rites of Zhou, Ministry of Rites, at least the following six rankings are related to study of heaven: “Minister of Rites,” “Dream Interpreter,” “Omen Reporter,” “Grand Scribe,” “Royal Astronomer,” and “Royal Astrologer.” The ranks and associates of these official posts are clearly stipulated: • Minister of Rites: minister – one person • Dream Interpreter: petty officer second class, two persons; historical recorder, two persons; apprentice, four persons • Omen Reporter: petty officer second class, two persons; historical recorder, two persons; apprentice, four persons

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• Grand Scribe: lower senior official, two persons, and petty officer first class – four persons • Royal Astronomer: petty officer second class, two persons; petty officer third class, four persons; treasury keeper, two persons; historical recorder, four persons; apprentice, eight persons • Royal Astrologer: petty officer second class, two persons; petty officer third class, four persons; treasury keeper, two persons; historical recorder, four persons; apprentice, eight persons It is not so important whether the above list of official posts reflects the real situation of the Western Zhou Dynasty or not. But it does reflect the fact that there were officials and institutions on study of heaven in ancient times. Undoubtedly, the official posts listed in the book Rites of Zhou exerted significant influence on the composition of government organizations. The system of six organs recorded in Rites of Zhou basically includes the structure of the central government in the ancient Chinese society. In the system, the Minister of Rites and his subordinates evolved into the subsequent Ministry of Rites. Throughout 2000 years, the institutions on study of heaven were under the leadership of the Ministry of Rites. Originally, the duties of the Grand Scribe included drafting documents for the imperial court, appointing high officials, recording military and national events, compiling history, supervising astrological divinations, preparing calendars, offering sacrificial ceremonies, and other affairs. Later on, these duties were assigned to different officials. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Grand Scribe became the full-time leader in charge of the institution on study of heaven, named professional officials and they are equivalent to Omen Reporter, Royal Astronomer, and Royal Astrologer in Rites of Zhou became his subordinates. The institution on study of heaven led by the Grand Scribe had had various names, such as Taishi Jian (Directorate of Astrology), Taishi Ju (Astrological Service), Sitian Tai (Bureau of Astronomy), Sitian Jian (Directorate of Astronomy), Tianwen Yuan (Academy of Astronomy), and Taishi Yuan (Astrological Commission), and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties it was renamed Qintian Jian (Imperial Directorate of Astronomy). Concerning the composition and scale of the institution on study of heaven in ancient Chinese governments, we might as well choose a typical case in point. In the first year of Qianyuan (758 AD) during reign of Emperor Suzong in the Tang Dynasty, the situation of the Sitian Tai was as follows: • • • • • • • • •

Grand Director – one person, rank 3, lower class (3b) Vice Director – two persons, rank 4, upper class (4a) Upper Aide – three persons, rank 6, upper class (6a) Recorder – three persons, rank 7, upper class, grade 1 (7a1) Secretary – two persons, rank 8, lower class, grade 2 (8a2) Director of the Five Offices – five persons, rank 5a1 Vice Director of the Five Offices – five persons, rank 6a1 Gentleman for Imperial Observatory, rank 7a2 Director of Calendric Calculations – five persons, rank 7b1

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Supervisor of Water Clocks – five persons, rank 8a1 Astronomical Observer – five persons, rank 8a2 Manager of Calendar – five persons, rank 8b1 Timekeeper – 15 persons, rank 9a2 Ritual Apprentice – 15 persons Clerkly Calligrapher – five persons Daily Recorder – five persons Erudite of Water Clock – 20 persons Bell Manager and Time Drummer – 350 persons Observer Student – 90 persons Student of Astronomy – 50 persons Student of Calendar – 55 persons Student of Water Clock – 40 persons Acting Attendant – ten persons

Though the official rank of Grand Astrologer is merely between the third and the fifth, he is the interpreter and conveyor of heaven’s will. He knows the profound mystery between heaven and mankind. He seems to be the emperor’s teacher, so at critical moments in politics, the words of Grand Astrologer of the fifth rank may hold greater sway than those of a higher official of the top rank. Sometimes outstanding scholars on study of heaven win the emperor’s favor and are appointed high-ranking official posts, other than posts in the institution on study of heaven. Their right to speak in heavenly affairs, however, is far more superior to that of Grand Astrologer and other officials. How can scholars on study of heaven occupy such a vital place in politics? On the surface, the reason seems to be because they know astrology which the emperor or monarch believes in. But actually, there are more profound reasons.

1.1.5

Strict Prohibitions on Privately Learning Study of Heaven in Successive Dynasties

Since study of heaven in ancient China had such a vital position in official histories, in the comprehensive intellectual system, in administrative affairs, in imperial official organization, and in political operation, it would naturally become a branch of learning to be promoted and encouraged. But the fact is the opposite: Study of heaven was a forbidden branch of learning to the public mass! Successive dynasties issued many strict prohibitions on collecting and studying privately the books on study of heaven. Several representative prohibitions of this kind are listed below: • (3rd year of Taishi) Study of star chart and prophecy is banned (Volume 3: Biography of Emperor Wu, History of Jin). • Utensils for mysterious phenomena, books of astronomy, books of prophecies, books of military strategies, weekly calendar, supreme unit, and Leigong shi (a divination art) – these things should not be kept in private possession. Anyone

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who violates the prohibition will be sentenced to imprisonment for 2 years. Those who learn study of heaven in private will be punished likewise (Notes and Comments on the Tang Dynasty’s Laws, Volume 9). The number of persons who are versed in astronomy and physiognomy, sent from all prefectures, is 351. On the first day of December (the 2nd year of Taipingxingguo), Emperor Taizong in the Northern Song Dynasty decreed that 68 persons of them be dispatched to Sitian Tai (Bureau of Astronomy) and the rest branded in the face and banished to sea islands (A Long Continuation of Historical Events Retold as a Mirror for Government, Volume 80). In spring of the first year of Jingde, Emperor Zhenzong in the Northern Song Dynasty decreed the following: Books illustrating and calculating the movement of celestial bodies were prohibited by old regulations already, but they are still studied privately by many people, so now the prohibition must be restated strictly. From now on, if any civilian possesses utensils for heavenly phenomena, or books of esoteric study of auguries for prophecies, he must plead guilty, hand in the item, and have it destroyed by burning on the spot. Anyone who conceals a prohibited item in his possession will be sentenced to death. We post a reward of 100,000 coppers for anyone who informs of such a crime. Persons who are skilled at astrology and calculation should be sent to imperial palace (A Long Continuation of Historical Events Retold as a Mirror for Government, Volume 56). (21st year of Zhiyuan) The following wrongdoings are crimes: Collecting or studying privately diagrams of astronomy and books of prophecies, supreme unit, Leigong shi, weekly calendar, diagrams of eclipse prediction, and calendar of Minority Director. Anyone who collects or studies these things in privacy will be considered a criminal and punished. (Chapter 10, Biography of Shizu, Volume 13, History of Yuan). In the 6th year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu decreed the following: (Directorate of Astronomy) Personnel in the directorate are not allowed to migrate. Their descendants shall learn astronomy and calendric calculation only and shall not practice any other profession. Those who refuse to obey will be exiled to the South Sea for penal servitude (Record of Laws and Systems of the Great Ming Dynasty, Volume 223). In early years of the Ming Dynasty, learning astronomy was strictly forbidden: Anyone who studied calendar would be sent to frontiers for penal servitude, and anyone who hands down an almanac would be sentenced to death. Later, Emperor Xiaozong relaxed the prohibition and ordered to enlist recluses in mountains and forests versed in calendric system for governmental recruitment. But at last, nobody showed up to accept the offer (Volume 20 Calendar, A Compilation of Stories Acquired Unofficially in Wanli Times).

The bans listed above are so rigorous that they seem to be unthinkable and unexplainable to the common sense of modern people. How should we explain these strange phenomena? Analyzing further the above seven items of records, we can find a latent regular pattern. The times of their promulgation are as follows, respectively:

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3rd year of Taishi, i.e., 267 AD, 3 years after the founding of Western Jin 2nd year of Yonghui, i.e., 651 AD, 33 years after the founding of Tang 2nd year of Taipingxingguo, i.e., 977 AD, 17 years after the founding of N. Song First year of Jingde, i.e., 1004 AD, 44 years after the founding of N. Song 21st year of Zhiyuan, i.e., 1284 AD, 5 years after Yuan exterminated S. Song 6th year of Hongwu, i.e., 1373 AD, 6 years after the founding of Ming Early years of the dynasty, that is, the early years of the Ming Dynasty

It is not hard to find that all the seven items of prohibition were issued shortly after the founding of each dynasty. That pattern brings forth another question: Why did the dynasties attach great importance to prohibiting privately collecting and studying books on the study of heaven? Take, for instance, the situation in the Ming Dynasty: “In early years of the Ming Dynasty, learning astronomy was strictly forbidden” is not an empty regulation. Let me prove it with a cogent case in point. Volume 128 – Biography of Liu Ji History of Ming says: “On arriving home, Liu Ji got seriously sick. He handed a Book of Astronomy to his son Zilian and said: It is most urgent that you submit this to the emperor and forbid our offspring to study it!” Liu Ji was a founding father who assisted Zhu Yuanzhang in winning state power, and he was Grand Astrologer (or “Astrological Commissioner” as some annals call him). His earnest warnings for his descendants against studying the Book of Astronomy can show that “learning astronomy was strictly forbidden” is truly fearful. In the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, he relaxed the prohibition and ordered to enlist recluses in mountains and forests versed in calendric system for governmental recruitment. “But at last, nobody showed up to accept the offer.” That indicates the strictness of the earlier prohibition. “Nobody showed up to accept the offer” does not necessarily mean that nobody mastered the calendric system but that actually “nobody dared to show up and accept the offer.”

1.2

Properties of the Study of Heaven and Its Societal Functions

1.2.1

Correspondence Between Man and Heaven and the Concept of Mandate of Heaven

In the traditional Chinese culture, the theory that man is an integral part of nature is a concept with a wide variety of implications. Generally speaking, heaven is used to refer to the whole nature. In the ancient Chinese mind, this nature, or heaven, is a gigantic living being that possesses will and emotion, that cannot be thoroughly understood, and whose way you must comply with and live together peacefully, instead of an object that has no will and emotion, that can be understood and transformed, just as in the objective hypothesis of the modern science. Perhaps this is the so-called organic view of nature as highly reputed by contemporary scholars in China and abroad. All the major principles of harmony of man with nature and interaction of man with nature come down to one point, that is, how could man

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coexist with heaven; how to get to know the will of heaven, the destiny; how to follow the way of heaven; how to obey the act of providence; and how to enjoy a godsend. In the mind of ancient Chinese people, heaven was personified. This conforms to the organic view of nature. Since there is heaven’s will and destiny, needless to say, heaven must be personified. Heaven’s will and destiny were sought by members of the ruling class; the personified heaven, however, was deeply rooted in the inward eye of common classes, including ordinary citizens. The concept of heaven’s will is an indispensable part of the political theory of Confucianism. The mandate of heaven has three properties: First, heaven’s will is ascertainable, for example, the Zhou Dynasty’s destiny was known upon divination when King Cheng established the dynasty. Second, heaven’s will is changeable, that is to say, “Heaven’s blessing as the highest virtue will terminate someday.” Third, heaven’s blessing belongs to someone who has morals, for instance, Xia, Shang, and Zhou – the three dynasties bear the mandate of heaven successively, and their vicissitudes are determined by virtue or by brutality.

1.2.2

A Political Concept: The Man Who Communicates with Heaven Is the King

In ancient China, a Lingtai (platform garden) was a place for observing astronomical phenomena and divination and a sacred shrine for learning about the heavenly intentions and for communication between heaven and man. So it had a significant symbolic meaning. Dong Zhongshu wrote in his book Chunqiu Fanlu (the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals), Volume 11 entitled The King Way Connects Three Hierarchies: • The creator of Chinese characters created the character 王(king) like this: Three horizontal strokes with a vertical stroke connecting the three. The three strokes stand for sky, earth, and man. The connecting stroke in the middle denotes knowledge about the way. It is the king who runs through the centers of the three hierarchies. Who else is capable of doing this? That story of creating Chinese characters is somehow reasonable, although it drew a forced analogy. The conception that Dong Zhongshu relies on is exactly the cream of the political thought in ancient times. “Knowledge about the way” means communicating between heaven, earth, man, and spirits. Only the commuter, who is capable of communicating between them, can become a king. The complete set of heavenly affairs symbolized by the Lingtai, the hall where the imperial edicts were announced, and similar structures are the most important means for communication with heaven. Why could heavenly commuters obtain qualifications for the throne? Because they had the foresight, and the heaven that they had access to was a source of knowledge. Then what mechanism did they rely on to get

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foresight? How was the knowledge of heaven embodied? The answer is simple but clear: reliance on the study of heaven. The large number of divine oracles in a bunch of astrological works is the knowledge passed down from heaven, in which there are the predictions about virtually all the military and state affairs, such as victory or defeat in wars, safety or danger of thrones, plenty or failure of harvests, disasters of floods or droughts, and so on. In the final analysis, the calendar and numerology have the same properties and functions. The wizards who mastered astrological techniques – Zhong, Li, Xihe, Wuxian, and subsequent heavenly scientists – were all prophets with foresight. Each of them served a certain king and assisted the king in acquiring the qualifications for and the right to rule. Emperor Yao has merely one political merit recorded in history, that is, he commissioned officials on study of heaven. How come? At the beginning of acting as regent, Emperor Shun ignored all the other things except using astronomical instruments so that governmental affairs could be implemented according to astronomical phenomena. Why? The reason is here: They aimed at controlling the study of heaven.

1.2.3

Relationship Between the Study of Heaven and the Regal Power

In its early stages, study of heaven became a necessary condition for establishing monarchical power, and later, it gradually evolved into a symbol of kingship. Mastery of communication with heaven is a necessary condition for obtaining monarchical power, and study of heaven is the most important and direct means of reaching heaven. Therefore, any person attempting to capture the throne must try to master the direct access to heaven so as to bear the mandate of heaven. Then, how should he declare publicly that he did bear the mandate of heaven and get confirmation from the common people? This task fell on stargazers who observe and point out omens in the sky and in the whole nature and interpret them. These omens and the corresponding interpretations are the main content of ancient astrological works. Among those omens, celestial phenomena in the narrow sense (heavenly scripts as the ancients called) occupied an outstanding place. The most popular story about transition of heaven’s will and change of dynasties is Wuwang fa Zhou, i.e., King Wu of Zhou marshalled a crusade against Emperor Zhou of Shang. People of the Zhou Dynasty formed the earliest group in history to talk about the mandate of heaven systematically. As a result, many astronomical phenomena were recorded around the time of King Wu fighting Emperor Zhou. Stories like that were not all coinages; many were probably genuine phenomena recorded by official historians with due care and respect and then handed down. More often than not, successive dynasties declare strict prohibitions on learning privately the study of heaven. This regular pattern can hardly be found by reading records independently, but it can be discovered by juxtaposing a few records. This phenomenon is not accidental. Since study of heaven is a means of direct communication with heaven, monopoly of this means is closely related to imperial power:

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Study of heaven was a source of monarchical power in ancient times, and it evolved into a symbol of kingship later on. Naturally, when a new regime replaces the old, the rising newcomer would pry about and steal the magical object, in order to smash the monopoly of the old dynasty over heavenly affairs and build his own access to heaven to reap the new political authority. And the precedent is King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty building a Lingtai. Whenever feudal lords fight for the throne, private scholars secretly learning study of heaven rise to the occasion and serve the new politicians who have the ambition to seize the state power. Surely, these scholars are considered criminals in the old dynasty, but they are meritorious statesmen in the new dynasty. Thus, the founding fathers of each dynasty have this kind of scholars to serve them. Outstanding examples include Wu Fan serving Sun Quan in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Bin supporting Yang Jian at the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, Li Chunfeng standing behind Li Shimin in the early Tang Dynasty, Liu Bowen advising Zhu Yuanzhang to establish the Ming Dynasty, and so forth. The names recorded in history are successful heroes mainly. After politicians fight for the supremacy, the winner becomes a hero, and the losers become bandits. There are far more losers than winners, but the losers also have scholars following them. Consequently, the study of heaven that the old dynasty tried to monopolize goes through a process of spreading. After seizing state power successfully, the victor follows the footsteps of the old dynasty and maintains his privilege of monopoly over study of heaven. That is why the founding rulers of a new dynasty prohibit learning privately the study of heaven. So it can be said that study of heaven is a necessity for politicians struggling for the throne, and yet it becomes his exclusive domain right after he grabs the state power. Actually, the varied measures of prohibition on learning the study of heaven are all new versions of cutting off the passage between sky and earth initiated by Emperor Zhuanxu of the remote ancient times, who ordered his grandsons Zhong and Li to cut off the passage between sky and earth so that divine beings could not come down to earth and human beings could not go up to heaven. Study of heaven is a necessity for politicians struggling for the throne, and yet it becomes his exclusive domain right after he grabs the state power. This has always been the truth throughout the long Chinese history since ancient times, and it just appeared to be more direct and obvious in early stages.

1.2.4

The Political Role that the Study of Heaven Plays

As early as in the Zhou Dynasty, the Son of Heaven (the emperor) promulgated the calendar of the following year to dukes and princes through a state ceremony, called “Bangao-Shuo,” so that dukes and princes could use the calendar issued by the Son of Heaven. Since then, “Whose calendar should we accept as the authentic one?” has become a cardinal question of right and wrong politically. The practice that China

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promulgated and granted calendars to neighboring countries symbolized that she possessed suzerainties over these countries. Ancient Chinese sages had a tradition of “designing a lesson with superstitious belief in gods.” They made use of special astronomical phenomena, solar eclipses, for example, to lend a touch of morality to some political activities (the eclipse was explained as indicating that heaven was unsatisfied with the politics in the human world). When an eclipse happens, the emperor solicits critical opinions from the subjects under his rule in the hope that heaven will relent and forgive his misconduct. Additionally, there was Shichuan-Shiyan, meaning “history conveying and event verifying,” by combining annals of astronomical phenomena, chronicles of political and military events, and astrological theories of previous dynasties. Shichuan-Shiyan not only offers specific examples of using heavenly phenomena as auspicious or ominous signs but also serves as textbooks for political moralization. Therefore, it occupies a vital place in Treatises on Astronomy and Treatises on Waxing in the official history of various dynasties. Frankly speaking, Shichuan-Shiyan has nothing magical in it. The truth is that there are many types of astronomical phenomena and a great number of historical events. When compiling such a book, you have leeway to choose from a variety of alternative cases so as to match an event with a phenomenon correspondingly. Really, the selection is not so hard. In fact, there have been numerous cases of mismatch between astronomical phenomena and event and countless political events without any astronomical phenomena as omens to foretell them. However, you can ignore those facts and write out a good book of “history conveying and event verifying” and make the examples in it conclusive and convincing to the present and future generations.

1.3

An Outline of Astrology in Ancient China

1.3.1

A General Survey of Astrology in Ancient Civilizations: Two Categories

Astrology is an eye-striking component in almost all ancient civilizations. It can be divided into two categories, and the international academic world refers to them with two terms: Judicial astrology refers to the astrological system that takes these items for practicing divination: victory or loss in war, crop harvest or failure, reign rise or fall, safety and benevolence of emperor/monarch, and so on. Horoscope astrology refers to the prediction of a person’s fortunes or misfortunes in his life by divining the heavenly phenomena when he was born. The object of the former lies in important military and government affairs, while the time of birth is a feature of the latter. The well-known ancient Babylon civilization is located in the two-river drainage area that was called Mesopotamia. This civilization can be traced back to the Sumerian people living in about 4000 BC. In the subsequent several thousand years, quite a few nationalities dominated the region successively, and these

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nationalities are referred to as the Babylon people. Up to the eighth century BC, the Ashur Empire became the ruler of the region. As far as we know, the astrology in the Babylon-Ashur period belongs to the judicial astrology. European museums now keep thousands of unearthed clay tablets with arrowheaded characters on them about astrology. It is said that none of them belongs to the horoscope astrology. The Babylon astrology pays special attention to the celestial phenomena formed by planets. The format is something like what is recorded by the following two articles in arrowheaded characters: • If Mars recedes into Scorpio, then the king should be on the alert. On this unlucky day, he should not go out of the palace. • If Mars is at a constellation to the left of Venus, the Akkadian will be ravaged. In about seventh century BC, the two-river drainage area began to be ruled by the Chaldeans. Scholars think that the horoscope astrology started developing right in the hand of the Chaldeans. It was introduced to Greece and got further developed by scholars in Alexandria City. Since then, this kind of astrology, which predicts a person’s fortunes or misfortunes in his life by divining the heavenly phenomena – mainly the position of the sun, the moon, and the five planets in the ecliptic the moment he was born – has become the standard mode of the European astrology. The astrology that prevails in Europe is exclusively the horoscope astrology. In the Renaissance period, this kind of astrology flourished unprecedentedly in European countries. Many famous astronomers, like Tycho and Kepler, were master-hands in this field. They drew up many a fortune-telling horoscope for the kings, lords, and noblemen in their times (i.e., the ecliptic sky diagram) that became precious historical literature now kept in some well-known museums (Fig. 1.1). Turning to another branch of ancient civilization – the ancient Egypt – we can see both the judicial and the horoscope astrology in the ancient Egyptian papyrus books and cultural relics. But compared to the history of ancient Egyptian civilization that can be traced back to as remote as 5000 BC, these data seem to be too recent. The two kinds of astrology, seen from these data, are thought to have been imported from Babylon. In the papyrus books, data of the judicial astrology are plentiful. Take, for example, a paragraph cited from the Cairo papyrus book No. 31222 (Fig. 1.2). • If Dog Star rises when Jupiter is positioned at Sagittarius, then the king of Egypt will rule his country as a whole. He will encounter enemies, but he will be able to extricate himself from them. Many people will betray the king. A flood will arrive in Egypt as it should.. . . Apparently, astrology in the ancient civilizations of the old world originated from Babylon, which is indeed meaningful (only the study of heaven in the ancient India might be an exception). As for the starting time, judicial astrology is older than horoscope astrology, which also is worthy of attention.

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Fig. 1.1 A fortune-telling horoscope made by Kepler for Warenstein the Czech nobleman

Fig. 1.2 Cairo papyrus book No. 31222

The situation of astrology in the old world to the west of China is roughly like that. In ancient China, however, a pure and complete system of judicial astrology stayed operative for at least 2000 years. The fortune-telling technique in ancient China proceeds from the date of birth, and the eight characters of a horoscope, that is, the year, month, date, and hour –

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chronological record of events – correspond to the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch, eight characters in all. In spite of this, the eight characters of a horoscope merely record the point of time, not a diagram of the horoscope at that time. So the date of birth and the eight characters of a horoscope are not related to the real sky phenomena, either in essence or in form. To sum up, it can be confirmed that the ancient China did not produce “a locally born” horoscope astrology. The Chinese technique of fortune-telling – which is characteristic of the date of birth and the eight characters of a horoscope – and the Western astrology of horoscope are two systems, totally different from each other. Of the Western horoscope astrology, a horoscope technique was introduced from India to China. It got popular for a while, and yet its influence was limited. From the Tang Dynasty on, if a Chinese citizen wants to know his fortune and misfortune in life, he does not care about sky phenomena – he is considered not qualified to do so, and he is afraid of relating his destiny to the sky, unless he is ambitious, casting greedy eyes on the throne.

1.3.2

Theory of Dividing Line

Since judicial astrology predicts important military and government affairs with heavenly phenomena, it will surely be faced with a problem: The world is so huge, and the situations at various places are so different from one another, but there is only one firmament. How should the good or ill luck shown on it be allocated to all the places? Any civilization on a vast land or with a vision broad enough to encompass the surrounding civilizations of other nations must solve this problem in its astrology first. The ancient Chinese solution was to create a “dividing line” theory, whereas the ancient Egyptian had their distinct solution. The fundamental idea of the dividing line theory is to divide the sky sphere into dozens of sky zones to correspond to states, princedoms, prefectures, and districts on the earth. When a certain sky zone has a phenomenon occurring, its omen aims at the corresponding prefecture or princedom. This theory was established rather early. One of the official posts listed in Rites of Zhou, Ministry of Rites, is Royal Astrologer, whose duty is: • To observe stars, planets, the sun, and the moon and record their movement, to see the variation in the world, and to identify good or ill luck there. With the star plot, all the prefectures of China can be identified. Each fief (or feud) has a group of corresponding stars, whose pattern can be seen as indicating evil or auspicious signs. Twelve good and ill signs cover all the auspicious and evil omens in the world.. . . This paragraph deals with nearly all the main points of the dividing line theory. “Each fief has a group of corresponding stars” means that each of the 28 constellations or mansions corresponds to one individual prefecture and princedom on earth. “Ten plus two years” stands for the legendary Highest God, an imagined celestial

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body that moves from east to west in the sky, once every 12 years, at the same the speed of Jupiter known to people of that time but in the opposite direction. The orbit along the Jupiter is divided into “12 times,” each having a specific name; the belt along the Highest God is divided into “twelve two-hour periods” represented by the 12 Earthly Branches. Each of the two ways of dividing has a complete set of techniques of corresponding to the 28 constellations, 12 princedoms, and 12 prefectures. Such a corresponding list appeared already in the Treatise on Constellations of the Records of the Grand Historian. The following quotation is from History of Jin, Volume 11 – Annals of Astronomy, which is a complete record of its kind. The original work is a narration in texts. Here we rewrite it in a table of five columns, named from the left to right: Names of 12 times, 12 Earthly Branches, princedoms, prefectures, and zones of the 28 constellations and degrees (in Arabic digit): Name of time Canopus Antares Kaus Australis Altair Sadalsuud Simmah Hamal Aldebaran Rigel Alhena Regulus Spica

Earthly branch Chen Mao Yin

Princedom Zheng Song Yan

Prefecture Yanzhou Yuzhou Youzhou

Zone of constellations and degrees Chariot 12, Horn Neck, Root 4 Root 5, Room, Heart, Tail 9 Tail 10, Winnowing-basket, Dipper 11

Chou Zi Hai Xu You Shen Wei Wu Si

Wuyue Qi Wei Lu Zhao Wei Qin Zhou Chu

Yangzhou Qingzhou Bingzhou Xuzhou Jizhou Yizhou Yongzhou Sanhe Jingzhou

Dipper 12, Ox, Girl 7 Girl 8, Emptiness, Rooftop 15 Rooftop 16, Encampment, Wall, Legs 4 Legs 5, Bond, Stomach 6 Stomach 7, Hairy head, Net 11 Net 12, Turtle-beak, Three Stars, Well 16 Well 16, Ghosts, Willow 8 Willow 9, Star, Extended net 16 Extended net 17, Wings, Chariot 11

The 28 constellations are now represented by a single character each, but a few of them were named with two characters in ancient times. The five constellations in the above list had two-character names: Dragging Ox (ox), Waiting Girl (girl), East Well (well), Public Ghosts (ghosts), and Seven Stars (stars). In addition, Encampment was often called Camp Room and Wall as East Wall, in ancient books. Dipper was called South Dipper, Turtle-beak Mansion as Turtle-beak Bodkin, and Three Stars Mansion – Three Punishments sometimes. Ancient China divided the great circle of the celestial sphere into 365 and 1/4 degrees (ancient Chinese degrees), differing from the Western tradition of 360 degrees from Babylon. In the coordination system of 28 constellations, each mansion covers a different number of degrees. The coverage is so uneven that the biggest mansion Well has 30 degrees, whereas the smallest mansion Turtle-beak spans merely 2 degrees. However, the 12 times divided the celestial sphere into 12 equal sections. So if we are to match the two precisely, some mansions must be cut apart. In the above list, the digit after the name of constellation indicates that the mansion is cut apart right there at that number of degrees, while a mansion without a digit to follow it indicates that the mansion entirely belongs to that time. Take this

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time Sadalsuud, for example: It occupies the zone which starts at the 8th degree of Girl, crosses the whole mansion Emptiness, and stops at the 15th degree of Rooftop. The next zone, starting from the 16th degree of Rooftop, belongs to the time Simmah. The rest can be obtained by analogy. The names of princedoms in the above list lead to projection that the dividing line system was finalized possibly in the Warring States period when “The strongest power,” i.e., the state Jin, had been divided into three states (namely: Han, Zhao, Wei). But factually, the dividing line theory existed long before this period, when the state Jin had a position in the system. A record is a proof: Remarks of Monarchs Volume 10 – Remarks of Jin – records the divination that was expounded by a senior official of Jin named Dong Yin to a prince named Zhong Er, saying “The position of Shi-Chen is now occupied by Jin.” The time of Shi-Chen was then the dividing line of state Jin, and later, it became the dividing line of state Wei. At that time, the ancestors of the state Wei were serving Zhong Er the prince of Jin loyally and devotedly. The dividing line theory is necessary for astrology. The astrological technique is nothing but use of the celestial phenomena occurring in the constellation to practice divination about the terrestrial affairs happening in the corresponding region. Astrological knowledge needs to be used flexibly somehow, but roughly speaking, it is rather simple.

1.3.3

Things to Predict: The Main Task of Astrology

The task of judicial astrology is to predict victory or loss in war, crop harvest or failure, reign rise or fall, and so on. When fighting for the throne in a war, the need for astrology is really urgent, and the war and the harvest become the main subjects. In peaceful times, the task is “pointing to the phenomenon and expounding on the disaster to warn the monarch to be on the alert,” that is, explaining to the monarch the heaven’s political warning through the celestial phenomena. As for the troubled times at the end of dynasties, the task is switched to “avoiding the misfortune,” including sustaining the life in recluse and abstaining from seeking fame and fortune and turning to the new host and assisting him in governing the country (a case in point is Zhuge Liang living in seclusion and becoming an official). All these things cannot be done without judicial astrology. Therefore, gentlemen – politicians – are consulted about state affairs, and they are committed to undertaking the task of practicing divinations. Ancient people needed to practice divinations on occasions that are mostly related to major military and political decisions. If we are to learn about the concrete affairs that the ancient Chinese astrology predicted, then the most direct method must be selecting a typical work on astrology and analyzing statistically the divine oracles in it. This job has been done previously by Liu Chaoyang on the Treatise on Constellations of the Records of the Grand Historian. The Treatise on Constellations of the Records of the Grand Historian has long been the earliest of its kind with verifiable year of completion. Though the length is not so great, its structure is complete (Fig. 1.3). In the 1970s, a book copied

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Fig. 1.3 A book on silk excavated from the Han tomb at Mawangdui

Fig. 1.4 The gnomon

on silk was excavated from the Han tomb at Mawangdui, which is dated earlier, but it is simple and incomplete in content (as shown in Fig. 1.4). Thus the Treatise on Constellations of the Records of the Grand Historian is a good choice indeed. The

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statistics that I have done are classified into 20 categories which are listed in accordance with the number of divination items as follows: Classified items War Flood and drought disasters and crop harvest or failure Reign rise and fall Safety and danger of rulers Relation between monarch and ministers Death Territory lost and reclaimed Seize state power Lucky and unlucky (abstract) Disease Conditions of the people National subjugation Civil construction Permit of conduct Is the ruler wise or not Women received or lost Sound of crying Political reform A man coming back home Prices

Number of divine oracles 93 45 23 11 10 10 8 7 7 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

Two characteristics can be seen here. First, the first three kinds of divination oracles make up 67% of all the 20 categories. This indicates that subjects such as war, crop conditions, order, and disorder are greatly emphasized. Second, all the divinations belong to the scope of military and political affairs (death refers to the death of a monarch, king, or duke; disease refers to the epidemic, and the like, not to individual affairs). The statistic results based on the Treatise on Constellations of the Records of the Grand Historian have a universal meaning. If statistics are to be done on other astrological works, these two characters will not change, though specific data may vary. It can be said that the classic judicial astrology in ancient China keeps its style.

1.3.4

Phenomena for Divination

Summing up astrological literatures passed down to the present, we know that a great number of celestial phenomena were given astrological meanings. Here we classify them into seven categories and expound them as follows:

1.3.4.1 Solar — Category One Solar eclipse itself

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Eclipse-constellation divination (solar eclipses happen when the sun runs to different mansions in the 28 constellations, with different meanings) The condition of the sun surface (including brightness, color variation, darkness, cloud and mist, jagged edges, thorn, solar halo, corona, solar prominence, hat wearing, embracing, bearing, red jade, straight, crossing, carrying, lattice, hold, and quite a few imaginations or illusions that cannot occur, totaling around 50 conditions)

1.3.4.2 Lunar — Category Two Lunar eclipse itself Eclipse-constellation divination (similar to solar eclipses) Lunar eclipses because of five planets (not referring to the moon hiding any planet, but meaning that the moon gets eclipsed when it is located in the same mansion as a planet. The astrological indications vary depending on the different planets. The condition of the lunar movement (the moving speed and the yellow belt variation) The condition of the moon surface (including brightness, color variation, darkness, cloud and mist, jagged edges, paw and foot, horn, awn, thorn, lunar halo, corona, lunar prominence, hat wearing, bearing, red jade, day sight, the improper waxing and waning, and quite a few imaginations or illusions that cannot occur, totaling dozens of conditions) The moon invading constellations (the moon approaches or hides one of the 28 constellations, with different indications) The moon invading asterisms (the moon approaches or hides an asterism beyond the 28 constellations and hides it, with different indications) The moon haloing constellations and asterisms (similar to the above two, but the moon has a halo occurring at the same time, with different indications) 1.3.4.3 Planets — Category Three The brightness, color, size, and shape of planets. A planet passes by or approaches a mansion or an asterism. The condition of a planet moving (up or down the orbit, staying or laying there, and the yellow belt variation). The mutual position of planets. 1.3.4.4 Stars — Category Four The brightness and color of stars themselves A guest star appearing (a new star or a supernova bursting out, sometimes other celestial phenomena are mistaken as a guest star) 1.3.4.5 Comets, Meteors, and Meteorites — Category Five The brightness and color of a comet. A comet approaches the sun, the moon, a mansion, or an asterism. Several comets appear at the same time Meteors. Meteorites.

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1.3.4.6 Auspicious and Demon Stars — Category Six Auspicious stars (six kinds in all, cannot be used to precisely judge the celestial pattern) Demon stars (as many as over 80 kinds, cannot be used to precisely judge the celestial pattern) 1.3.4.7 Atmospheric Phenomena — Category 7 Clouds Qi, a kind of substance forming universe (rather mysterious, many of them are optical phenomena of the atmosphere) Rainbows Winds Thunders, fogs, hazes, frosts, mists, hails, graupels, dews So many celestial phenomena are given astrological meanings. Considering possible combinations of these phenomena, the number is so tremendous that at night on any date, you can see quite a few sky phenomena which have astrological meanings. Since different phenomena have different implications, it is indeed a mysterious and abstruse matter regarding how to accept or reject, balance, explain, and reconcile these phenomena. Because there is a large leeway that allows the astrologist to operate flexibly, he is always able to achieve success one way or another, provided that he is skilful enough.

1.3.5

Astrological Methods

Astrological methods in ancient times are far from each other in gradation. The astrological phraseology in astrological works as a theoretical basis of astrology and must be read intensively. But if a stargazer is capable of predicting fortune or misfortune according to a sky phenomenon based on the relevant astrological phraseology, his proficiency will be considered as elementary. However, a masterhand in this profession ought to be very familiar with astrological phraseology and various astrological cases; in the meanwhile he ought to be proficient in calendar and good at predicting celestial phenomena; beyond that, he must make use of historical experience, social psychology, and political and military information (because he deals with great military and state affairs), and he must be able to synthesize, interpret, and even draw a far-fetched analogy. Therefore, astrological methods are used differently by different astrologists without strict stipulation. The only principle to follow is the inference made should be based on an astrological theory (if there are different sayings about the same thing, the one that is needed will be taken). A case in point is analyzed below, to show that the ancient people did not stick to one pattern in astrological method. This example is taken from Remarks of Monarchs, Volume 10 – Remarks of Jin, Chapter 4: • Dong Yin went to the Yellow River side to meet Duke Wen Gong there. Wen Gong asked him: “Can I succeed?” Dong Yin replied: “The yearly star is at the great Liang, so Your Majesty can make use of the Way of Heaven to realize your

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great cause. If you take your place in Year One, the yearly star will be at Shi-Chen. The position of Shi-Chen is now occupied by Jin. Jin prospers from here. Now Your Majesty responds right to this sky phenomenon, so you will succeed for sure. When you went into exile, the yearly star was at the Big Fire that is E-Bo’s star, called Da-Chen. We can make use of it to do good things. Hou Ji observed it in order to lead the agricultural production. Tang Shu established our country Jin when the yearly star was at Da-Chen. The historical official records: The descendants of Jin follow the footsteps of their ancestors, just as grains grow, and they will live in Jin as their great manor. I have divined and got a lucky divination, and the variant dashes form eight numerals. The explanation is that this is called heaven and earth matching each other to enjoy sacrifices offered to ancestors. Small ones go, and big ones come. Now this has come true. Who is to say you cannot succeed? Furthermore, you went abroad when the yearly star was at the Big Fire, and you come back home when the yearly star is at Shi-Chen. Both times are auspicious for Jin. As for heaven, both Big Fire and Shi-Chen are vital periods. Surely, you will succeed, you will take the state power, you will hold dominant position among the dukes, and your offspring will depend on your supremacy. Do not be afraid!” In this case, Dong Yin made a point with the help of the dividing line theory in astrology. The dividing line of the great Liang is Zhao, and that of Shi-Chen is Wei. But in fact, there were no such states as Zhao and Wei then. The land belonged to Jin as a whole. Hence there was a saying: “The position of Shi-Chen is now occupied by Jin.” It was the end of the year. According to the yearly star calendar, the year was at the great Liang. If Prince Chong Er returned to Jin to take the place, then the next year would become the first year of Jin Wen Gong. Thus it was said that “the Shi-Chen star is received in the first year.” Prince Chong Er lived in exile for 19 years, and now he was coming back home with the help of the Qin forces. Tracing back to 19 years ago, it was the year of the Big Fire. From the Big Fire through Da-Chen to Tang Shu (the founding father of Jin), and consequently, there must be the state of Jin. That is indeed a far-fetched analogy wisely drawn by Dong Yin. What is said by Dong Yin conforms to the purport of astrology. Take the astrological phraseology, for example. The book Yi-Si Divination, Volume 4 – The Yearly Star Divination – says: “In the place of the yearly star there is a benevolent duke who is blessed by heaven. Nobody can attack him. Whoever attacks him will suffer defeat and disaster. The duke can benefit from warfare, and he will overcome his enemy.” The so-called place is determined by the dividing line theory, and here it refers to Jin. Precisely, the Duke of Jin Wen Gong was aided by Qin forces in launching warfare to take power. Because of strong continuation of astrological theories in ancient China, it is not hard to deduce that there must have been similar sayings which are nearly the same as the divine conclusion in Yi-Si Divination, and they provide enough proofs for Dong Yin’s divine oracles. As a senior official of Jin, Dong Yin has enough background knowledge and political information. Price Zhong Er has always possessed a good reputation.

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Officials and officers under his leadership are elites of the time, and they all follow him loyally throughout his exile. In the 19 years living abroad, he travels to various states, enriching his political experience. Monarchs of Qi, Chu, Qin, and other major states make friends with him, predicting that he will rule the state of Jin someday in the future. Now an internal strife is happening in Jin. Taking this good chance, and with support from Qin’s forces, he returns home to take the throne. His success is a certainty. So Dong Yin’s divination is certain to lead to a prophecy of success. Even if the yearly star is not at the great Liang, Dong Yin will make another far-fetched analogy and draw the same conclusion. Of course, seen by ancient people, Prince Zhong Er comes home at the end of the year when yearly star is at the great Liang, to inherit the monarchical throne, and this is the heaven’s will for him to revive the state of Jin. If he comes in another year, he will not succeed. Thus Dong Yin’s prediction is only an explication of the heaven’s will, and later it comes true.

1.3.6

Celestial Phenomena: Recording and Fabricating

Because ancient people held the viewpoint of unity of heaven and mankind and believed that sky phenomena were all warnings or approbations for human affairs, they would give these phenomena astrological meanings, and naturally, they attached great importance to observing and recording these phenomena. Theoretically, the imperial astrological institution should assign persons to monitor the sky day and night and to record every sky phenomenon for report. Thanks to the great tradition of the state-operated study of heaven, the continuation of its activities was sustained and the needed manpower and supplies were guaranteed. As a result, a large part of the records on sky phenomena are kept well and handed down. This job of observing and recording has been continued for 2000 years or maybe even longer (but the pre-Qin record is not kept systematically). Heavenly scientists in ancient times recorded sky phenomena not because they had the scientific conscience as the modern astronomers do. Rather, they did this because they wanted to keep the astrological data and record on file every event between heaven and mankind (these events had significant meanings to them). Little could they imagine that these astrological records on file would become valuable historical data. The object of the modern astronomical research is of large scale in time and space. The several hundred years between the birth of the modern astronomy in Europe and the present days is too short a period for research in modern astronomy. Astronomers need older records, and the astrological data from ancient China meet the need for the rich variety of celestial phenomena and the long period of time it encompasses. In view of this situation, Chinese scholars have completed a huge project – collecting and collating all the astrological records in official historical records, real records of Ming and Qing Dynasties, ten general histories, local chronicles, and other old books, to compile a book entitled A Sylloge of Records of Celestial Phenomena in Ancient China. The book includes:

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Solar eclipses record, over 1,600 items Lunar eclipses record, over 1,100 items Moon hiding planets record, over 200 items New stars and supernovas record, over 100 items Comets record, over 1,000 items Meteors record, over 4,900 items Meteor showers record, over 400 items Meteorites record, over 300 items Sunspots record, over 270 items Polar lights record, over 300 items Other sky phenomena record, over 200 items

In discussion about ancient people recording sky phenomena, a question has to be dealt with, that is, the fabrication of sky phenomena. Record of sky phenomena should be astrological files, and astrology serves politics. It is well known that the political operation under a feudal autocratic ruling is full of cheating and violence. Questions and doubts are raised about the records of two kinds of sky phenomena which are significant in astrology. The first kind is called “Five planets gather in one mansion,” meaning that the five big planets appear within a small range in the sky. In the past 2000 years since the Han Dynasty, nearly 20 times of “Five planets gather in one room” happened, and ten of them could be observed clearly, but none of them are recorded. In fact, ancient people did not record these phenomena in detail, and those recorded were used to draw far-fetched conclusions to conform to auspicious or destined matters, leading to fabrication of record in some cases. The other kind is called “Mars guarding the heart” (Mars stays around the mansion of heart). Searching through all the official histories, we have found 23 records of this kind. When traced back using the methods of modern astronomy, however, only six of them are real, and the rest are coined. On the other hand, in the 2000 years from 289 BC to 1638 AD, there are 32 occurrences of “Mars stays around the mansion of heart”, but none is recorded. From the above two examples – “Five planets gather in one mansion” and “Mars stays around the mansion of heart” – we can infer that probably other kinds of records of celestial phenomena may also be fabricated or far-fetched. The problem is serious in that many celestial phenomena cannot be traced back and tested. Instances such as comets, meteors, meteorites, and sunspots belong to this category. So today people are unable to test their authenticity as we have done to “Five planets gather in one mansion” and “Mars stays around the mansion of heart.” Even for these two kinds of phenomena, ancient people dared to fabricate the data. (The technique of tracing back to these two phenomena was mastered by ancient people already in the Warring States period. Although the technique back then was not so accurate as the modern method, reverse tracing and validating those two astronomical phenomena does not require high accuracy.) Imagine that for other celestial phenomena which cannot be traced back, the probability of fabrication may be much larger. Therefore, contemporary scholars should be very cautious when they want to apply the records of celestial phenomena from ancient times to their research in modern astronomy.

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1.4

A Survey on Study of Heaven Development in Successive Dynasties

1.4.1

Pre-Qin Period

Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: The historical world assumes that the system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches for recording dates and years has never gone wrong since the Yin-Shang period. This assumption is the foundation of the chronology of Chinese history. Up to now, no evidence has been found to overthrow this assumption. Birth of the 28 lunar mansions’ system: In 600 BC or so, since then, it has long been used in ancient China as the celestial sphere coordinate system. Birth of calendar and its progress: In 600 BC at the latest, the gnomon was initially used for measuring the annual variation of the sun shadow length to determine the moments of Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice (as shown in Fig. 1.5). Beginning in 589 BC, the law of seven intercalary years out of every 19 years was mastered. There were “six ancient calendars” in the pre-Qin period, namely: Calendar of Yellow Emperor, Calendar of Zhuanxu, Calendar of Xia Dynasty, Calendar of Yin period, Calendar of Zhou Dynasty, and Calendar of Lu state. Contemporary research has shown that the “six ancient calendars” were formulated in the Warring States period and were not that old as their names indicated. Actually, all these six calendars are “quartering calendars” – a tropical year is 365 and 1/4 days long, and the difference lies in merely the time measured and the precision of measurement.

Fig. 1.5 A photo of the restored seismoscope

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Recording and predicting celestial phenomena: Professional heavenly scientists began systematical observation of celestial phenomena. For instance, during the 242 years from the 1st year of Lu Yinggong (722 BC) to the 14th year of Lu Aigong (481 BC), 37 solar eclipses are recorded in the Spring and Autumn, of which at least 31 have been proven to be exact.

1.4.2

Qin and Han Dynasties

Five Planets Divination and planetary motion: Five Planets Divination, a silk book unearthed from a Han tomb at Mawangdui, indicates that the law of planetary motion was mastered quite well then. The 24 seasonal division points: These are constituents of the solar calendar in the lunar-solar joint calendar. They are determined by the annual apparent solar motion on the ecliptic (in fact, it is the annual motion of the earth on the ecliptic). The 24 seasonal division points as a complete set appeared for the first time in Huainanzi – Instruction on Astronomy. Primordial Calendar and the rule of intercalation: The Primordial Calendar was made in the former Han Dynasty when emperor Wu reigned. That calendar set the rule of intercalation, and it has been in use ever since. Zhang Heng: Zhang Heng in the Eastern Han Dynasty was a famous astronomer and litterateur. He was appointed Grand Astrologer (in charge of the royal institution on study of heaven) twice. He wrote a book on study of heaven, Constitution of Spirit, manufactured the “sphere heavens instrument rotated by dripping water” for demonstrating celestial phenomena, and the “seismoscope” for forecasting earthquakes (as shown in Fig. 1.5). The sphere heaven theory: The sphere heaven theory became the dominating model of the universe in ancient China ever since.

1.4.3

The Wei, Jin, Northern, and Southern Dynasties

The asterism system got finalized. Chen Zhuo, a leading heavenly scientist in this period, served on officialdom in the Wu kingdom, Western Jin, and Eastern Jin Dynasties. He gathered three astrological systems, i.e., the astrological systems of the Shi’s, Gan’s, and Wuxian’s, since the Warring States period and formed a unified system of stars, which includes 283 asterisms, totaling 1464 stars. This system was used in China for over a thousand years. Continual reform of calendar and more precise mastery of the solar and lunar motion: Quite a few calendars emerged successively in the period, and some of them competed with one another, while others caught up from behind. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Yu Xi discovered the year difference. Zhang Zixin discovered the heterogeneity in the annual apparent solar motion and in the planetary motion. In the ancient Chinese theory of planets, the planetary motion was thought to be at a uniform speed. Before 600 BC, the location in China of a planet at a random time

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was determined with the following technique: Make out a table of the dynamic state of planets in a synodic period. The table might be got through observation over many years or composed with reference to data gathered from observation. Divide this synodic period into several sections of time, i.e., shun (forward), liu (staying), ni (reverse), and fu (conceal), each section with a mean speed. If you want to know the location of a planet at a certain time, mark the place of the time in the synodic period. From the table, you get to know which section the planet is moving in, and how many degrees it has passed, and you will find its location. Because of the supposition that a planet moves at a uniform speed in each section, this method of predicting its location could not be very precise. It was not until the mid-sixth century when Zhang Zixin discovered the heterogeneity in the planetary motion that the table was revised with a proper treatment of motion at uneven speeds. The Western astronomy was introduced via India and the Mid-Asia to China. In the six dynasties, Sui and Tang period, the spreading of the Western astronomy reached a climax. In the climax, knowledge of the Western astronomy was transmitted to China by way of India accompanying the Buddhism propagation. Significant relevant literatures such as Secrets for Driving off Evils by Seven Luminaries and the like were saved in the form of Buddhist scriptures.

1.4.4

The Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties

More precise calculation and prediction of eclipses: In that period, China absorbed some astronomical techniques from Babylon and India and improved the precision of calculating the movement of the sun, moon, and the five planets. The Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era: The present edition of the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era has 120 volumes in all. It was compiled by Gautama Siddha, the Indian astronomer who worked at the royal institution on study of heaven in the Tang Dynasty, from 718 to 728 AD. This book integrates the astrological theories of all schools before the Tang Dynasty and becomes the most important and complete database of the ancient Chinese astrology. The book also keeps the data of stargazing from the remote times of ancient China, including the astrological literatures of three most ancient Chinese astrological schools we have ever known – the Shi, Gan, and Wuxian schools – and it records the basic data of all the calendars known in China before the eighth century. Additionally, the book records the Chinese translation of the ancient Indian calendar Navagraha. Moreover, the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era is a gathering pool of Wei (longitudinal) books from ancient times. More than 80 Wei books are quoted, but most of the original books being cited are lost now, so it is really valuable (Fig. 1.6). Seng Yixing: A representative of heavenly scientists in the grand Tang period and an eminent monk of the Tantra Buddhism (as shown in Fig. 1.7). In the Kaiyuan years, he supervised the extensive North-South astronomical measurement and compiled the Great Derivative Calendar. This is one of the most important calendars in Chinese history. What is more, he manufactured jointly with Liang Lingzan the

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Fig. 1.6 A picture of Seng Yixing

Water-Driven Sphere Heavens (instrument for demonstrating sky phenomena) and the Ecliptic Movable Sighting Set (instrument for observing sky phenomena). Emergence of the civilian Small Almanac: The almanac, with day-to-day notes in it, reminds of “suitable or avoidable” activities and was a necessity for daily life of civilians. So book publishers printed and sold the almanac privately and called them Small Almanac. Obviously, this was driven by business motivation, competing with the government for profits. The Small Almanac was not a copy of the official calendar issued by the imperial court. Instead, it was compiled, printed, and sold by ordinary citizens who made it before the imperial court issued the official calendar. This practice did not comply with the decree that the imperial court ought to monopolize the study of heaven. Therefore, time and again, ministers reported it to the emperor and suggested that this sort of wrongdoing be prohibited. But this practice was never prohibited effectively. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has evolved into overt business activities.

1.4.5

The Northern and Southern Song Dynasties

Construction of huge instruments: The Northern Song Dynasty is considered as a climax of the traditional Chinese study of heaven. It built gigantic astronomical instruments one after another, including six large-scale armillary spheres, each

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Fig. 1.7 A reproduction of the water-driven astronomical clock tower

weighing 10 tons or so. The Northern Song Dynasty also conducted seven times of extensive measurement of stars. Those were unprecedented activities on study of heaven. The water-driven astronomical clock tower and its replication efforts in modern times: The water-driven astronomical clock tower was built in 1092 during the Northern Song Dynasty. Su Song wrote a book Principles of the New Astronomical Tower, which is passed down. The book records all the parts of the clock tower, with dimensions and drawings, which makes it possible for modern researchers to restore the instrument that we believe to have existed. A replica was made in 1958 and now it is still kept in Beijing Museum of Chinese History. In the record, the water-driven astronomical clock tower was a jumbo as high as 12 meters (as shown in Fig. 1.7); but the replica in 1958 was reduced to 1/5 of the recorded dimension. Generally, a rule of machinery is that if a mechanical device runs normally, then after its dimension is enlarged, the larger replica will not necessarily run normally; but usually, after its dimension is reduced, the smaller replica will have no trouble running. However, the down-sized copy of the tower cannot run, so it is bantered as “a model only for viewing its outer appearance.” Since then, no reproduction has been reported as capable of running normally for long.

34

1.4.6

X. Jiang

The Yuan Dynasty

Guo Shoujing: He was the last summit of the traditional Chinese study of heaven. He compiled Calendar for Time Service, the ultimate calendar in the traditional Chinese calendars; he supervised the manufacturing of quite a few instruments, such as the abridged armilla, the scaphe, the height meter, the shadow definer, the directiondetermining board, and the ingenious planetarium; and he conducted unprecedented measurements for study of heaven. The merged utilization of the Arab and traditional Chinese study of heavens: In the Yuan Dynasty, the Bureau of Astronomy was established in the summer capital. It had a kinship with the Maragha observatory of the Ilkhanate Dynasty. It was led by Jamal al-Din, a famous Islamic astronomer, specialized in the Islamic astronomical work as its task. Undoubtedly, it has a vital place in history of the Islamic astronomy. As recorded in the Annals of the Director of the Palace Library, Volume 7, “On the 18th day of the leap 6th month, 10th year of Zhiyuan (1273 AD), the Grand Guardian passed on the imperial edict: Both the Hui’s Bureau of Astronomy and the Han Bureau of Astronomy were led by the Director of the Palace Library.” It is a very rare (if not the only one) case in the world history of astronomy that two observatories belonging to entirely different astronomical systems were led by the same administrator – the Director of the Palace Library.

1.4.7

The Ming Dynasty

Relaxing the prohibition on “learning study of heaven privately”: In Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, it became a fashion for princes, lords, and officials to talk about calendar, and some of them openly wrote books and set up theories. Zhu Zaiyu, the Imperial Prince of Zheng, contributed two books, namely, the Imperial Longevity Calendar and Mastery of Calendar. Xing Yunlu, the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner of Henan Province, wrote two books, namely, A Survey of Ancient and Modern Calendars and Textual Criticism on Beginning of Spring of Wushen Year. Fan Qian, Minister of Rites, argued from time to time in favor of this sort of private learning of calendar. He suggested that the books by Zhu Zaiyu “should be sent to the Directorate of Astronomy for reference and tests. As the Imperial Prince, he is devoted to calendar learning, erudite about the past and the present, and he ought to be awarded.” The suggestion was proved by the emperor (History of Ming, Volume 31 – Annals of Calendar, Book 1). Later he presented another report: “Calendar is a state affair. Literati and masters should be allowed to pursue it. It is not a private possession of calendar officials. The decree of calendar prohibits rumors of omens only.. . . I beg the emperor to promote Yunlu to supervisor of the Directorate of Astronomy. He could lead the subordinates to measure celestial bodies carefully and complete a great calendar.” This suggestion was so bold as to propose that a private learner of calendar be promoted to leadership of the Directorate of Astronomy! This time the emperor did not make any comment, and the suggestion failed to realize (ibid). Before Zhu and Xing had their books published, in 12th year of Wanli (1584 AD), Fan Shouji, Director of Bureau of Operations, Ministry of War, manufactured an

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The Astronomy in Ancient China: An Overview

35

armillary sphere privately, violating the prohibition on private learning of astronomy. That was more serious than private learning of calendar. Fan wrote a book Corrigenda of Asterism. In the preface, he speaks in defense of his law-breaking behavior: The prohibition on private learning on study of heaven is applicable to the lowerclass masses, but not to the literati and officialdom. Generally speaking, in ancient China, before the first half of the Ming Dynasty, private learning on study of heaven was forbidden. As for the effectiveness of the prohibition, it is another question. However, in and after the middle Ming Dynasty, the prohibition was relaxed gradually. When it came to the Qing Dynasty, prohibition in this respect was virtually abandoned. Controversy about altering the calendar and the making of Chongzhen Imperial Almanac: In the Ming Dynasty, errors in the official Great Unified Calendar accumulated gradually, resulting in failure to predict celestial phenomena time and again. Propositions of altering the calendar went on for many years. In 1629, officials from the Directorate of Astronomy predicted a solar eclipse with the old method but failed once more; while Xu Guangqi predicted with the Western astronomical method and fitted the real measurement completely. So emperor Chongzhen ordered to set up a “Bureau of Calendar” led by Xu Guangqi to compile a new calendar. Xu invited Jesuit missionaries Nicholas Longobardi, Johann Terrenz Schreck, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, and Giacomo Rho to participate in work of the Bureau of Calendar. In 1629–1634, they worked jointly and completed the famous “encyclopedia of classic European astronomy” Chongzhen Imperial Almanac (as shown in Fig. 1.8).

Fig. 1.8 Chongzhen Imperial Almanac

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The Chongzhen Imperial Almanac was made up of a great number of volumes, of which the part “Methods and Principles” or the theoretical part takes up 1/3 of the total. It introduces systematically the theories and methods of the classic Western astronomy and expounds the research results of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho. Generally it didn’t surpass the level of astronomy before the three laws of planetary motion by Kepler, but there is a little advanced content. Concrete calculations and numerous tablets of astronomy are based on the Tycho system. What and whose books are adopted for the Chongzhen Imperial Almanac to introduce the astronomical doctrines and works? I have found out most of them through textual research.

1.4.8

The Qing Dynasty

The Directorate of Astronomy led by Jesuit missionaries coming to China: In March 1644, Li Zicheng’s uprising army entered Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself. Soon after, Li Zicheng was defeated by the united army of Wu Sangui and Manchu. On May 1, the Manchurian army entered Beijing, and the great Ming Dynasty was doomed. At that time, Johann Adam Schall von Bell in Beijing City decided to fully cooperate with the Manchurian power. The ill-fated Chongzhen Imperial Almanac, which had not been promulgated 10 years after its completion, now became a lavish gift of Bell to the Manchurian ruler who needed a new calendar to symbolize the transition of heaven’s will and the “re-creator of heaven and earth.” After revising, Bell submitted it to the Qing government that adopted it. Emperor Shunzhi autographed the title Almanac with the New Western Method and issued it right away for publication. Because of his contribution, and through his efforts, Johann Adam Schall von Bell was appointed Principal of the Directorate of Astronomy, which started the tradition of the Qing Dynasty appointing Jesuit missionaries to administer the Directorate of Astronomy for nearly 200 years. Bell made the best use of the situation and realized his dream of entering the imperial court with knowledge of astronomy. Personally, Bell was very skilful at mixing with the court and the noblemen. In the late Ming Dynasty after he was made Director of the Beijing Metropolitan Parish, he extensively developed Catholic believers in the Ming Palace, converting 140 royal family members, 50 noblewomen, and over 50 eunuchs. After the Qing Dynasty was established, Bell won the favor of Emperor Shunzhi, who often called him “Mafa” (meaning “grandpa” in Manchurian), because he cured the disease of Xiaozhuang the empress dowager, who respectfully called him her adoptive father. From then on, the Directorate of Astronomy in the City of Beijing has become the most important stronghold for Jesuit missionaries coming to China. The traditional study of heaven with the Western astronomy as a tool: Starting in the Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, Jesuit missionaries came to China one after another. They introduced the Western astronomy to the Chinese cause on study of heaven. They were trusted by Shunzhi, Kangxi, and other emperors and led the Directorate of Astronomy for a long time. In spite of this, study of heaven in China

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did not change its nature and position radically. Although one change was quite noticeable, that is, study of heaven was no longer the exclusive domain of the imperial court. This change can be considered as continuation of the trend in the late Ming period. However, the sacred nature and function on study of heaven at the Directorate of Astronomy did not differ from previous times. (Translator: Dianhua Zhao) (Proofreader: Weige Li)

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Pre-Qin Period: Science and Technology in Contending Schools Wusan Dai

Contents 2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

2.7

The Rise of Casting Technology and Ironware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 The New Climax for Bronze Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 Origin and Development of Iron Smelting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.3 The Softening of the Cast Iron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.4 Steel Smelting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Construction of Large-Scale Water Conservancy Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Irrigation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Dyke Building Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thought of Valuing Agriculture and the Emergence of Intensive Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Thought of Valuing Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Intensive Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 Manure-Rich Field and Soil Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kaogong Ji and the Norm of Handicraft Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Vehicle Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 Bow and Arrow Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Bell and Stone-Chime Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.4 Urban Planning and Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Practical Mathematical Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.1 Arithmetic and Fractional Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.2 Practical Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.3 Practical Concepts of Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mechanics and Optics in Mojing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.1 Mechanics in Mojing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.2 Optics in Mojing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Astronomical Observation and Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.1 Great Achievements in Astronomical Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.2 The Achievements of Gan De and Shi Shen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.3 Twenty-Eight Mansions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.4 Quarter-Remainder Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.5 Twenty-Four Solar Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

41 41 43 44 45 46 46 48 50 50 51 52 53 53 54 55 55 56 56 57 59 59 60 61 62 62 63 64 65 66

W. Dai (*) Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_2

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2.8

67 67 69 70 71 71 72 73 74 74 75 76 77 78 80 81 83 84 87

Geoscience Works and Protection of Forest Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.8.1 Geoscience Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.8.2 Ancient Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.8.3 Protection of the Forest Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9 Development of Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9.1 Classification of Animals and Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9.2 Phytoecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9.3 Distribution Boundary Between the Animals and the Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.10 Formation of Traditional Medical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.10.1 Physiology Theory of Qi and Shen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.10.2 Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.10.3 Bian Que: The Famous Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.10.4 Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.10.5 Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) . . . . . . . 2.11 View of Nature: Wuxing, Yin-Yang Theory, and Qi Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.11.1 Wuxing (The Five Elements) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.11.2 The Yin-Yang Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.11.3 The Qi Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Abstract

This chapter gives a brief introduction to the prosperous development of science and technology in pre-Qin time of China. Almost all fields are covered — from agriculture to industry, from maths to physics and biology, from geology and medicine to people’s view of nature. Keywords

Development · Science and technology · Contending schools

The pre-Qin 500 years (particularly referring to 770–221 BC, the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Warring States Period) are brilliant years in Chinese history. It was a reforming era when the powers strove for hegemony and there appeared a new political landscape. “Li(rituals), music, and punitive military actions proceed on order of the Son of Heaven” gave way to “Li, music, and punitive military action proceed on the orders of the feudal lords.” It was also an era for great productivity. With the ripening of the casting technology, iron tools are widely developed and applied, which greatly promoted productivity. Besides, because all the feudal lords awarded planting and war fairs, attached more importance to agriculture and seri-culture and encouraged industry and commerce, agriculture and handicraft were developed enormously with commerce and trade as well as the cities, becoming more prosperous. It is an era of ideological emancipation, with all schools of thoughts contending. Private schools flourished and scholars came out in great numbers. For different purposes, these scholars fell back on different political groups. They either wrote books, establish kind of theories and lobbied, or debated with each other in a tit-for-tat way. The free academic debates created favorable conditions for producing and developing scientific knowledge. Science and technology in China reached its first climax during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It not only laid foundations for the

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development of traditional Chinese science and technology but also formed, together with that of Ancient Greece, the two heights in the history of science and technology in the world, adding beauty to each other.

2.1

The Rise of Casting Technology and Ironware

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the rise of ironwares brought about the innovation of production tools and greatly promoted productivity. At the same time, the mature bronze casting technology reached a new height.

2.1.1

The New Climax for Bronze Casting

The bronze technology in the earlier Spring and Autumn Period is just a continuation of that in the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. But in late Spring and Autumn Period, a series of new technological achievements elevated the bronze casting to a new level. Ritual vessels and weapons still occupied the main position among the bronzewares during this period, but there appeared more daily utensils from the Warring States Period on. In the bronze manufacturing technology of ancient China, clay molding had been dominant. It can be proven by the cast copper relics of Eastern Zhou Dynasty discovered in Houma City, Shanxi Province. There are thousands of clay modals, clay molds, and clay cores, the exquisiteness of which is really amazing. Piece mold is the main method of the casting technology in the early Spring and Autumn Period, of which a representative is the bronzewares unearthed from the Guo State Tombs in Shangcunling Village, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province. In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the separated casting technology and welding technology gradually advanced and became dominant, especially when the stamped geometric patterns and animal mask motifs grew popular in the late Spring and Autumn Period. The bronzewares unearthed in the Large Tomb of Lijialou, Xinzheng City, Henan Province, are the symbol of these technologies. Take bronze Ding, for example, the legs, the body, the ears, and the other auxiliaries were first cast separately and then cast or welded together to achieve the complete configuration. The separated casting is a technological innovation, which can make the casting mold much simpler by both reducing the waste and expanding production. In the meantime, casting by stages can also improve the product quality. The highly developed clay mold technology during the Spring and Autumn Period is fully represented in the design and casting of Zenghouyi Chimes unearthed in Suizhou, Hubei Province. This set of chimes consist 1 Bo Zhong (bell), 45 Yong Zhong, and 19 Niu Zhong, which are hung on the try square-shaped wooden racks and are divided into 8 groups. Each bell can play two tones. The tonal range of Zenghouyi chimes spans over 5 and half octaves and all 12 half tones, performing beautiful tones through transition and modulation. Considering the casting technology, the bells especially the Yong (bells) at the bottom level were made in exquisite blazonry. According to the experts in the history of metallurgy, these bells were all

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cast with piece-mold method. Take the Yong (bells) at the middle level, for instance, they were first divided into 2 casting molds with 136-piece molds and cores in 4 levels and then cast into configuration. During the making process of casting molds, 12 molds were used, revealing the superb techniques at that time [1]. The lost-wax method of casting also reached its height in the Spring and Autumn Period. By far, the earliest lost-wax casts discovered in China are the bronze Jin and Zhan unearthed in the Chu Tombs, Xiasi, Xichuan County, Henan Province. The bronze Jin is a ritual vessel used to bear wine goblets, shaped like a square board with a flat board in the middle and hollowed-out laces around. On the 4 borders are 12 monsters with their 12 feet beneath. The laces are made up of copper sticks of various thicknesses in numerous levels, of which the inner ones are thicker and straight, the middle ones thinner and extending to the outside, and the outer ones thinnest, like a group of curled grass. All the copper sticks interconnect well with each other, looking dainty and exquisite. So do the crowns on the monsters’ heads. Inside the body of the bronze Jin, there are joint traces of wax molds, seemingly showing the casting process of the vessel: Firstly, different wax patterns were made and joined to a complete one; after being trimmed and reconditioned, they were immersed in a refractory mud; when the mud became a little dry, the second immersion, and so forth; when the mud was thick enough to make a mold, it was heated and the wax melted and went away from the reserved holes; finally, after the cast mold was baked and preheated, the vessel came into being by pouring. As to the legs and the other auxiliaries, they were always cast separately and then welded together with the body (Fig. 2.1). The representative of lost-wax method in the Warring States Period is Zenghouyi Zun and Pan. Zun consists of a body, hollowed-out auxiliaries, and four dragonshaped auxiliaries, while Pan is made up of a body, hollowed-out auxiliaries, animalshaped auxiliaries, and animal legs. All the auxiliaries of Zun and Pan are made from multiple wrapped intertwined copper sticks. According to Hua Jueming, the expert in history of metallurgy, the bodies of Zun and Pan were cast with piece-mold method; the hollowed-out auxiliaries were made into wax pattern separately, then joined together, achieved configuration by pouring with lost-wax method, and finally cast or welded together with the bodies.

Fig. 2.1 The bronze Jin of the Late Spring and Autumn Period (Xichuan, Henan Province)

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Don’t take that for granted, for whether Zenghouyi Zun and Pan were made with lost-wax method once aroused a debate. In 2006, Dong Yawei, a researcher of Ezhou Museum of Hubei Province, published an article, pointing out it is a “misjudgement on history” that Hua Jueming concluded Zenghouyi Zun and Pan were made with lostwax method, which aroused a great disturbance. Finally, after experiments and imitation, Tan Derui from Shanghai Museum proposed that “burning and lost method” tried to restore it and concluded that it is the origin of lost-wax method, which was agreed on in the whole field of cultural relics. Besides, the amateurs of the cultural relics among the people also successfully imitated the whole process of restoring the Zun and Pan with the lost-wax method. By then, the debate eventually came to an end.

2.1.2

Origin and Development of Iron Smelting

The highly developed bronze casting technology in Shang and Zhou Dynasty has provided favorable conditions for the invention of iron smelting and the development of iron founding. Due to the long history and lack of accurate records, the origin of iron smelting has to rely on some imagination: One possibility is that the ancients added too much iron ore solvent when they cast bronze in the shaft furnace and the high temperature made the iron ore restore to iron; or maybe it’s just an accident when the ancient tried smelting iron ore in a furnace and finally got iron; or it’s just the product of long history of meteoric iron processing technology in China. Anyway, various factors bred iron smelting technology. According to the literatures and the analysis of the unearthed ironwares in the latest several decades, artificial iron smelting in China appeared on the turn from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty or a little earlier. The accumulated iron smelting technology during the early Spring and Autumn Period contributed to the technological breakthrough in the middle Spring and Autumn Period. Cast iron was finally produced and cast, making the iron casting technology of China famous around the world. According to The twenty-ninth reigning year of Duke Zhao, Zuozhuan, in the seventh reigning year of Duke Jing of Zhou (i.e., 513 BC), Jin State cast and made Xing Ding (Law Tripod), on which the legal text written by Fan Xunzi was inscribed (The original reads like this: In winter, Zhao Yang and Xun Yin led the troops to build the city. They collect one gu (480 jin) of iron from the people and cast a Ding, on which they inscribed the legal text written by Fan Xunzi.) The iron used to make Xing Ding was collected from among the people as the tax for armies, which shows that there was folk iron-making workshop at that time and people were using cast iron in smelting. All the unearthed iron relics can be the proof for what Zuo Zhuan recorded. The iron shot unearthed from the Wu tombs of the late Spring and Autumn Period in Liuhecheng Bridge, Jiangsu Province, and the iron Ding of the Spring and Autumn Period unearthed in Heyao Ridge, Yangjiashan Mountain, Changsha City, Hunan Province, are both white iron castings. The melting point of iron is higher than copper, so higher temperature is needed to get cast iron, that is, the blasting strength and the proportion between carbon and iron need to be increased.

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The bronze cast technology was used in the melted iron to be poured into the wares. At the early stage of the human society, the ancients could cast with clay molds since the temperature of melted iron is higher than melted copper. It is proven that when a cast iron clay mold is to be made, more silica sand is needed to be mixed in order to increase the refractoriness of the cast. Many clay molds used for farm tools, tools, or daily utensils were unearthed from the cast iron relics of the Warring States Period in Yangcheng, Dengfeng City, Henan Province. It is found by observation that these clay molds were not only mixed in much silica sand but also coated with thick charcoal ash to increase the refractoriness. Also in 1953, 87 cast iron molds of the Warring States Period were unearthed from the tomb of King Shou in Xinglong, Hebei Province, including 1 hoe mold, 2 sickle molds, 25 pick molds, 11 axe molds, 1 chisel mold, and 1 chariot equipment mold. According to the inscriptions, these iron molds were made by the official workshop of Yan State and used to cast iron farm tools and tools. The hoe mold is made up of three pieces, two pairs of separated molds and one iron core. On the edge of the molds, there are three pairs of mortise and tenon joints for fastening and positioning. On the back of the molds, there are handles for convenient operation, and the sprue is on the top of the molds. According to the test and analysis, the carbon content of these iron molds is 4.45%, indicating the typical white cast iron [2]. Compared with the clay mold casting technology, iron mold casting technology is an innovation. It can not only improve productivity but also facilitate the tightstructured white iron castings for fast cooling speed, which is especially important for the softening of the cast iron.

2.1.3

The Softening of the Cast Iron

The cast iron in the early times were all white, hard, and fragile with less strength, so it was easy for the farm tools and tools to be broken down. It was not until the turn from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period that the softening technology of cast iron was invented in China. The so-called softening treatment is to anneal the white cast iron, decompose cementite into iron and graphite, remove large blocks of cementite, and finally turn the white cast iron into malleable cast iron. The invention of the malleable cast iron is an epoch-making event in the history of metallurgy, since it made possible the cast iron to be widely used in the productive tools. However, the modern malleablizing technology is the product of the western industrial revolution. After the mid Warring States Period, ironwares took the place of bronzewares, becoming the main productive tools. The iron smelting industry was established in most areas, becoming the most important handicraft industry related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, and the production was therefore scaled up. The iron smelting relics of the former capital of Qi State in Linzi, Shandong Province, occupied more than 400,000 square meters; the total area of the three iron smelting relics in the Lower Capital of Yan in Yicheng, Hebei Province, surpassed 300,000 square meters. Besides, there appeared many famous iron smelting centers like Wan

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(nowadays Nanyang, Henan Province), Deng (nowadays southeast of Mengxian County, Henan Province), Handan, etc. There also arose many merchant princes who made their fortunes from smelting iron like the Kongs in Wei State, the Zhuos in Zhao State, and Cheng Zheng in Qi State. In fact, the ironwares were widely used in all walks of social life. Just as the chapter Xu Xing in Mencius put it, “Does Xu plow with an ironware?” This is the definite record for the use of iron farm tools at that time. The iron farm tools excavated from the relics of Zhao State in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, accounted for the 65% of all farm tools; and those excavated from the relics of Yan State in Lianhuabao, Fushun, Liaoning Province, amounted to 85% of all farm tools. All these archeological facts showed that the iron farm tools took the leading position in the agricultural production. All the ironwares of this period excavated later are of great varieties – from weapons to artificial tools then to daily utensils, with increasing numbers and good quality. The excavated spots are located almost all over the country.

2.1.4

Steel Smelting

The synthesized mechanical properties of steel are much higher than that of cast iron. There are legends that the famous craftsman Gan Jiang and Ou Yezi of the Spring and Autumn Period made steel swords, which shows that the steel smelting technology had been grasped at that time. According to the analysis on the unearthed objects, the steel smelting in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period can be divided into two types: steel from the decarburized cast iron and steel from carburization. The steel sword unearthed in a tomb of the late Spring and Autumn Period in Yangjia Shan, Changsha City, Hunan Province, was found to be a ferrite containing globular cementite, of small crystal particles and few residual impurities. Experts concluded that it was a steel product of decarburized cast iron. The decarburized cast iron steel smelting technology was greatly developed in the Warring Stated Period. The iron pick unearthed in Yangcheng, Dengfeng City, Henan Province, was a ferrite with only 0.1% carbon content. The acicular carburized iron can be separated out from the crystal particle. An iron plate unearthed at the same time had the even lower carbon content, about only 0.08%. It was also a ferrite but with uneven crystal particles. All these facts show that these two articles are both decarburized cast iron material, similar to most of the ironwares unearthed in the Lower Capital of Yan in Yicheng, Hebei Province. The key to make the steel from the decarburized cast iron is to control the annealing temperature and time. That is to say, the process has to oxidize the carbon content of the white cast iron, removing all the properties of the white cast iron, but without graphitizing it in case it would be unable to be cast. Therefore, it can be told from the above that the type of steel smelting technology had become mature in the Warring States Period. The sponge iron made in the earlier times through reducing the iron ore under the lower temperature also had the low carbon content despite lots of impurities. But the impurities can be squeezed out after repeated forging and finally the wares were

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made. This kind of material with lower carbon content is nearly pure iron. To make it into steel, carbon content needs to be increased through carburization. One steel sword and one steel halberd unearthed in Wuyangtai, Yixian County, Hebei Province, are examples of this technology, for the carbon content in these two articles is unevenly distributed, and there are impurities of large block of iron oxide and fayalite.

2.2

Construction of Large-Scale Water Conservancy Project

For the purpose of developing agriculture, enriching the people, and strengthening the state, all the states began to pay more attention to constructing water conservancy projects, flood control, and drainage. This, to some extent, benefited from the application of iron tools.

2.2.1

Irrigation Project

Four large-scale irrigation projects were constructed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period: Quebei, Zhangshui Twelve Channels, Dujiangyan, and Zheng Guo Canal. Quebei, a reservoir for irrigation, is built around the ancient Huaihe Rivers in the sixth-century BC, under the guide of Sun Shu’ao, the Prime Minister of the Chu State. It is also known as Anfeng Pond for it is located in southeast of nowadays Anfeng Town, Shouxian County, Anhui Province. The reservoir took advantage of the terrain conditions: high in the east, south, and west; low in the north; erected the dykes around the natural pond; brought water from Pai through the east of Baique Ting; and finally formed the water pond. Just like what Shuijingzhu has put it, the dyke of Bei is 200 to 300 hundred li long, and “there are 5 doors there importing and exporting the streams,” which implies that there might be equipment like gates at that time. Actually, due to the construction of Quebei and other ponds nearby, rice farming was greatly developed there and made the place rich in agriculture. Zhangshui Twelve Channels lied in the strategic location Ye (nowadays Yezhen Town, Linzhang County, Hebei Province). Ye City was in the alluvial plain east of the Taihang Mountains where Zhangshui River flowed through. When it came to the rainy season, there always arose flood because of the blockage. Then during the reigning years of Marquess Wen of the Wei State (446–397 BC), when Li Kui implemented political reform, Ximen Bao was appointed the magistrate of Ye. To crack down the superstitious activity “Hebo marrying maidens,” Ximen Bao motivated people to cut 12 drainage channels and construct 12 lower weir dams so that the flood could be used for irrigation. Therefore the water disaster was turned into water benefits. Then during the reigning years of King Xiang of Wei, Ren Shiqi was

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appointed the magistrate of Ye, initiating the large-scale water project to introduce Zhangshui River to irrigate the land of Ye, turning large amount of saline and alkaline land into paddy field and making the inner land of Zhanghe River in the Wei State more wealthy. Dujiangyan is located in Guanxian County, Sichuan Province. During the reigning years of King Zhao of Qin (306–251BC), Li Bing was appointed governor of Shu. When he found that Minhe River is always flooded while the fertile plain in the west of Sichuan lacked in irrigation, he planned Dujiangyan irrigation project. He dug Mountain Lidui at the start point of Minhe River, making Bihe River and Liuhe River run through the city of Chengdu. This canal can not only carry boats but also irrigate when the water is abundant. Therefore, Dujiangyan is regarded as one of the famous water conservancy projects for its smart design, in situ resource utilization, and great effect. Dujiangyan consists of three-component units: Fish Scout, Flying Sands Spillway, and Cornucopia Channel. The river-diverting Fish Scout divides the Minjiang River into Inner River on the east and Outer River, its mainstream, on the west. Round the river, dykes are built. Fish Scout and the dykes are all built from the local material, made by the piled-up woven bamboo cage of the pebbles. Flying Sands Spillway regulates the volume of flow into the canal while the Cornucopia Channel functions as dykes of the Inner River to control the irrigation for the fields of Chengdu Plain. These three-component parts coordinate to form a complete irrigation project system. According to Chronicles of Huayang, Records of Shu, Li Bing also “stationed three stone figures at three different places” to measure water level, which is considered the earliest water level survey facility in historical records. Based on the measurable water level and the estimable feeding capacity, the whole project can be adjusted reasonably to realize proper irrigation, flood prevention, and the control of flood and low water levels. Actually, thanks to Dujiangyan, some 200,000 hectare fields on the Chengdu Plain are irrigated. Both irrigation and flood discharging could be controlled by people, and the area became a rich granary. Si Chuan therefore was called “Land of Abundance.” Zheng Guo Canal was built in the first year of the reign of Qin Shi Huang (246 BC). The waterway is designed by hydraulic engineer Zheng Gong, who was also in charge of construction. The canal started from the Jing River west of Mount Zhong as far as Hukou (the present Gu Kou of Shaanxi Province, 50 li northwest of Jingyang County), from where it was to go east along the Northern Mountains and flow into the Luo. It is more than 300 li long and took more than 10 years to complete. The design of Zhengguo Canal shows a higher-level knowledge of hydrology. Gukou is a gateway of the Jinghe River into Weibei Plain, with the vast plain in the east, higher in the northwest while lower in the southeast. The selection of the start point of the canal made an artesian irrigating system. The intake was allocated on the downstream of concave bank of the Jinghe River part in Gukou, for this is the fastest part of the river, which can increase the inflow of the canal and bring much fertile fine silt into the canal for colmatage in the meantime, known as “fertilizing

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Fig. 2.2 Illustration of Dujiangyan Project

irrigation.” That is to say, where the river makes a turn, there is a crosscurrent to the mainstream. The water in the upper stratum flows from the convex to the concave one, the rate of flow reaching its maximum in the mid-lower reaches close to the lower bank and directly opposite the entrance to the canal. This ensures abundant feeding into the canal water carrying large amounts of fine silt but preventing coarse materials from getting into the canal and choking it (Fig. 2.2). According to River and Waterways in Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), Zhengguo Canal “irrigated almost more than 40,000 qing (1 qing equals about 6.67 hectares) of saline-alkali wetland and got the harvest of more than one zhong per mu.” More than 10,000 qing of Qin State’s land equals about 1150,000 mu. One Zhong equals about 2.2 dan, that is more than 200 jin. From then on, “Central Shaanxi became rich land, free from drought, and Qin became so powerful as to merge all the feudatory states.” (Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian)-River and Waterways).

2.2.2

Dyke Building Technology

During the Warring States Period, the feudatory states around the Huanghe River competed to scale up dams. Qi State, to the east of Huanghe River, took the lead in

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building a dam, which caused the flood in Zhao and Wei State. So, these two states had to build dams to block the flood. With each state going in its own way and the wars now and then between each other, dykes couldn’t be built under the unifying planning, resulting in many unreasonable works and even “beggar-thy-neighbor” phenomenon. However, there’s no denying that the initiation of the Huanghe River Dyke Projects laid foundation for the dyke system building in Qin and Han Dynasties. During the process of dam building, related technologies were paid much attention to, which can be proven in Guanzi and Kaogongji. For example, the design of the dam cross section is one of the important factors in guaranteeing the stability of the dam. So any earth material must, according to its physical properties, be given the required side slope to guarantee the stability, like that Dudi in Guanzi proposed: Dam cross sections should be built in trapezoid with bigger lower base and smaller upper base. As to the gradient of the legs, Jiangren (master builders) in Kaogongji made it more specific: “The general principle applying to the construction of dykes is that the breadth and height are equal. The reduction of scale at the top is one-third. For dykes of immense size, it should be more than this.” Zhen Xuan once annotated, “Chong means the height; Fang means being equal; and Sha means making the top narrower.” (Commentaries on the Rites of Zhou, Commentaries on the thirteen classics). Therefore, most of the later generations followed Zheng’s interpretation, thinking that the breadth of the lower base should equal the height of the dam and the top should be two-thirds of the base. But the dykes described like this are neither easy to build nor firm. In recent years, academics in history of water conservancy think guang in the quotation in fact refers to the breadth of the top while “reducing one-third” means the sum of the gradients of both side slopes (That is to say, the side slope on each side should be 1:1.5: 1 is for the horizontal part and 1.5 is for the vertical part.) [3]. Season is another important factor in dam building, for different water content on earth in different seasons will affect the physical properties of the project earth material. Still in Guanzi-Dudi, time for building dams is mentioned, emphasizing the relationship between the water content of earth material and the seasons and its influence on the dam quality. As it is put in Gunazi-Dudi, “During the three months of spring, when Heaven and Earth are dry, and the water is clear. Mountain rivers will have either dried up or their water levels will have dropped. The vital force of Heaven descends and that of Earth rises. All living things interact with each other. Old undertakings will have been completed. New ones will not yet have begun. The buds of plants and trees are already edible. Cold and heat are evenly balanced and the equinox takes place. Following the equinox, the nights daily grow shorter while the days grow longer. It becomes advantageous to construct earthworks, for the earth then becomes increasingly firm.” It is pointed here that “the three months of spring” in the lunar calendar are the best season for constructing dykes, for “Heaven and Earth are dry” during this period of time and the water content in earth material is suitable to guarantee the quality of the project, which is what “the earth then becomes increasingly firm” infers. “Mountain rivers will have either dried up or their water levels will have dropped” indicates the convenience in taking earth from

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the riverbed or the beach. That is what “during the spring and winter, earth should be taken from the riverbed between the dykes; during summer and autumn, it should be taken from outside the dykes” has stated. If earth used for dyke construction is taken from the riverbed during the 3 months of spring, it can not only dredge the canal but also save the resources outside the dykes to guarantee the earth amount used in the emergency of flood during the summer and autumn. Besides, from the perspective of farming, “Old undertakings will have been completed and new ones will not yet have begun” during the 3 months of spring, so it is more advantageous during this period to construct water conservancy projects than in other seasons. “The three months of summer” is the busy farming season. Constructing water conservancy projects takes much labor and delays farming. In “the three months of autumn,” the water content of earth is high, and “it is not advantageous to construct earthworks because the dampness daily increases.” Then in “the three months of winter,” it is hard to take earth for the cold weather and frozen ground. Also, the uneven water content in the frozen earth makes it hard to tamp. Therefore, it is obvious that there were profound ideas in Guanzi-Dudi on the relationship between the features of earth and its filling quality. The filling quality can be improved by taking advantage of the water content of the earth material.

2.3

Thought of Valuing Agriculture and the Emergence of Intensive Cultivation

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the use of iron farming tools and cattle farming provided conditions for the reclamation of wasteland and improvement of farming techniques. The vassal states paid much attention to agriculture for the rich and powerful and made full use of land to increase the output per unit area, prompting agriculture to embark on the road of intensive cultivation.

2.3.1

Thought of Valuing Agriculture

In the Spring and Autumn Period, thought of valuing agriculture featuring “agriculturalism” was gradually formed, advocating essential industries but suppressing the nonessential industries. The so-called essential industries refer to farming, sericulture tilling, and weaving; and “nonessential industries” refer to business skills. Guanzi-WuFu emphasizes, “Strengthening essential production and getting rid of what is useless, thereafter the people can be enriched.” Still GuanziZhiguo pointed out, “If people abandon essential activities to perform nonessential work, the fields will be left uncultivated and the state will become impoverished.” This is the representative statements of agriculture-oriented ideology. The agriculture-based thinking formed during this period focused not only on the economy but also on political and military considerations. From the perspective of agricultural economy, “When people serve in agriculture, fields will be well

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cultivated. If fields are well cultivated, grain will become plentiful. If grain is plentiful, the state will prosper.” “If mulberries and hemps are planted in the wild, the grains are grown in suitable land, and the country will prosper.” Politically, as the Guanzi states, “To maintain good order in a state must first make the people prosperous. When the people are prosperous, they are easy to keep in order. When the people are poor, they are difficult to put in order,” because “If people are prosperous, they will feel content in their local districts and treat their homes as very important. If they are content in their districts and treat their homes as very important, they will respect their sovereign and are hesitant to commit crimes. If they respect their sovereign and are hesitant to commit crimes, they will be easy to keep in order.” Then, from the military point of view in Guanzi: “If people are poor, they will treat their homes lightly. If they treat their homes lightly, they may easily abandon them. . .and if they cannot be effective with any certainty, his excursions into battle will not necessarily be victorious and the defenses will not necessarily hold firm.” The thought of “three talents,” which regards heaven (time), land (benefit), and people (harmony) as the three major elements of agricultural production, formed gradually during the Spring and Autumn Period was applied to guide agricultural production by the thinkers of the Warring States Period. When talking about getting rich, Xunzi pointed out: “When above the natural sequence of seasons is obtained from Heaven, below there are the benefits of Earth and in the middle the concord of humanity, then goods and commodities will come as easily as a source of spring, flow forth in abundance like a river, and heap up like hills.” Otherwise, “it is as if the entire world were roasted until it was burned and scorched.” Just as Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals has put it: “It is human beings who grow and take care of the crops; it is the Earth that gives birth to them and the Heaven that breeds them.” It can be seen that in the three elements of agricultural production, the human factor is placed in the primary position.

2.3.2

Intensive Cultivation

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the use of iron farming tools and cattle farming, the intertilling level was significantly improved, and the labor method of combination of geng (plowing) and nou (weeding) gradually formed. “Plowing” mainly refers to the basic farming before planting, and “weeding” refers to the intertilling during the growth of crops, especially weeding. At that time, there were many joined-up words such as gengnou (plowing and weeding), gengyou (plowing and loosening the soil), and gengyun (plowing and weeding) in the various works of the scholars. For example, in “Han Feizi,” it is put like this: “Plowing deeply and weeding more”; in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, it states: “Five plowing and five weeding must be carefully and completely done.” These two statements both emphasize that it is necessary to carefully plow many times after basic cultivation, especially in the dry season. That is, “plowing must be done in time of drought” to loosen the soil and reduce water loss. This measure of attaching more importance to weeding during intertilling

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and strengthening field management has laid foundation for the intensive cultivation of the later generations in China. In order to facilitate the drainage during the rain and guarantee the water content of the earth during the drought, the Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals-Biantu proposed, in preparing the soil, “the ridge should be built broad and flat while the ditch should be made small and deep” so that “the crops can enjoy sunlight from the Heaven and get water content from the Earth.” In the Rendi article, “ridge tillage” applied at that time was described in much detail, that is, “no ridges in high land and no ditches in lower land.” That is to say, in the high dry land or the area with rare rain, water is insufficient, and the grain had better be planted in the ditch. This is so-called the lower ridge cultivating which can reduce the evaporation of water and prevent wind. As for the lower wet land, the grain should be planted on the higher and dry ridges in view of too much water there. This is the “high ridge cultivating.” This is reasonable allocation for the crops based on the topographical conditions, to ensure that both the “high land” and the “lower land” can be fully utilized.

2.3.3

Manure-Rich Field and Soil Improvement

Agriculture has a natural connection with land. How to improve the utilization of land and improve the fertility of the soil? The ancients continued to practice agricultural production and gradually recognized the use of fertilization. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, the application of fertilizer was not widespread, and the land capacity was mainly restored naturally by leaving it fallow. Then in the Spring and Autumn Period, the situation changed a lot. According to Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou), at that time, the lands were distinguished between “the fertile land cultivated every year,” “the land cultivated every other year,” and “the land left fallow for 2 years every 3 years.” That is to say, there are lands that can be cultivated year other year, and there are also lands that need to be left fallow for 1 or 2 years. The cultivated arable land obviously relies on artificial fertilization to maintain soil fertility. During the Warring States Period, fertilization was widely valued. In Mencius-Teng Wengong, it said “Poor harvest may lead to insufficiently fertilized land”; Xunzi proposed “More manure will fertilize fields,” and this is “the farmer’s essential affairs”; in Han Feizi, there is a saying that “If you want to put more strength on fields, manure and irrigation are the must.” Still in Biography of Li Si, Records of the Grand Historian, there is a record that after the Shangyang reforms, it was stipulated in the Qin State that “anyone who discard on roads any ash that can be used as manure will be punished,” that is, the person who scattered the ash that can be used as fertilizer on the road would be punished, which indicated the importance of fertilizer at that time. It is the recognition of the relationship between fertilizer and fields. Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annal-Rendi clearly states, “The earth can be fertilized or barren,” which means that manpower can be used to change the fertility and barrenness of the land. Fertilizers during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period were mainly wasting such as human and animal manure, humus, and ash of

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vegetation. In the primitive society, the ancestors practiced slash-and-burn, which was actually using the ash of burned natural wood or weeds as fertilizer. Later, when the ancestors realized that the rotten weeds in the field after intertillage could make the crops flourish, there appeared a farm work in the Spring and Autumn Period as recorded in The Book of Rites: Cut off the weeds during the summer season, and then dry, burn, and soak them in water. In this way, it is possible to get the dual effects of “fertilizing the fields and improving the soil.”

2.4

Kaogong Ji and the Norm of Handicraft Techniques

Kaogong ji is by far the earliest handicraft technical literature in China. It retains a large number of handicraft production technical materials in the pre-Qin Period and covers materials on the management system and urban construction system of major production departments, reflecting the technical ideas at that time. Kaogong ji was said to be the official book of the Qi State and later was added to Rites of Zhou in the name of Office of Winter. Therefore, Kaogong ji is also called Rites of Zhou·Kaogong ji. According to the Kaogong ji, there were 30 specialized production departments in the official handicraft industry at that time: “Wood-working comprises seven operations; metal-working, six; treatment of leather, five; coloring, five; polishing, five; and modeling in clay, two.” In each category, there was more detailed division of labor. This tendency of specialization in official handicraft production and the refined internal labor division is the result of the development of handicraft production at a certain stage. According to Kaogong ji, the most important production departments at that time were vehicle manufacturing, weapons manufacturing, bow and arrow production, clock production, textile printing and dyeing, and construction.

2.4.1

Vehicle Manufacturing

The vehicles in the Spring and Autumn Period, mainly the horse-drawn doublewheeled wooden carts (and also some cattle-drawn ones), were not only transportation vehicles but also important combat equipment. Therefore, vehicle manufacturing was one of the important departments in the production of handicrafts at that time. Kaogong ji detailed the regulation, material selection, and material preparation in making a wooden cart, especially the requirements for producing and testing the wheel. According to the characteristics of ancient wooden carts, the wheel consisted in three components – the hub(gu), the spokes( fu), and the felloes(ya) – each having its own function. The hollow hub assures good rotation. The straight spokes jointed properly deliver uprightness. The felloes, which firmly envelop the other pieces, are responsible for solidity. After the wheel is made, it must be strictly tested. There are six major steps:

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1. 2. 3. 4.

Use a pair of compasses (gui) to verify its roundness. Use a trueness-modulator ( ju) to verify its leveling. Use a rope to suspend the wheel to confirm that the spokes are radial and straight. Set the wheel in water (and use buoyancy) to verify that the weight of the parts of the wheel is evenly distributed. 5. Use millet grains (shu) to measure the hollow spaces in the hubs to verify that they are of the same volume. 6. Use a balance to weigh (quanzhi) the wheels to confirm that they are equal in weight.

2.4.2

Bow and Arrow Production

In the process of bow and arrow production, there are three divisions of labor, “bow makers” (gongren), “arrow maker” (shiren), and “smelting founders” (yeshi), according to Kaogong ji. To make a bow, six materials are needed – the wood (gan), the horn ( jiao), the sinew ( jin), the glue ( jiao), the silk (si), and the lacquer (qi) – each of which can be subdivided. For example, there are seven kinds of wood that one takes for making the body of a bow. “The best is thorn (zhe), taken from the wood of the silkworm. The Chinese catalpa (yi) is next best. After them are the wild mulberry (yansang), the orange wood ( ju), and the Chinese flowering quince (mugua). The wood of the bramble ( jing) is in turn degraded, while the bamboos (zhu) are the lowest in grade.” Upon examination, there is also a particular method, “the body of the bow should be of a red-blackish color and can produce a clear, sharp sound when tapped. If the color is red-blackish, the part approaches the center of the tree. If it makes a clear, sharp sound, it is far away from the root.” Obviously, it’s the summarized experience from repeated practice. It really takes some time to make a bow because different process needs to be finished in different seasons in order to guarantee the quality. According to Kaogong ji, “In winter the wood for the body is cut out and trimmed, in spring the horn is cured for use, in summer the sinews are prepared, and in autumn three materials (with the glue, the silk, and the lacquer) are all combined. In the cold season, one consolidates the shape of the bow, and in freezing time, one checks the texture of the lacquer by strung and unstrung repeatedly.” Then in the next spring, the bow is strung. So it usually takes 2 to 3 years to make a superior bow. Arrows (shi) of different functions were made with particular requirements. For example, for the warring arrow (bingshi), the hunting arrow (tianshi), and the shooting arrow (shashi), there are different regulations for the length and size of zu, the length of ding, and the proportion of the iron pipes. As to the feathers whose function is to balance and direct the flying arrow, it needs to be dealt with after testing the mass distribution by observing the floating degree of the shaft in water. The specific method is, “Place the shafts in water to ascertain and mark their Yin and Yang situs. Vertically, equally divide the Yin and Yang situs to make the nock for the bowstring. Divide equally the nock to put on the feathers.” The appropriate center-

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of-gravity position of the arrow makes for its flight. The practical effect is “although there might be a strong wind, the progress of the arrow will not be impeded.”

2.4.3

Bell and Stone-Chime Production

As the smelting of bronze developed, the ancients began to make bronze bells by copying the ceramic bell. The bronze bells have fixed pitch and can make a clear bright sound. Later, on the basis of the bronze bells, there appeared the cymbals, which have a short oblate body with a piercing handle and a bell mouth larger than an ordinary bell. In the middle of Western Zhou Dynasty, the cymbal developed further into Zhong bells, commonly known as “flat bell,” shaped like an oval closed tile. Bells in group are called chimes, specifically divided into Niuzhong, Bozhong, and Yongzhong. Among them, Yongzhong has the most complicated shape and structure and was made with the highest casting technology. From the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, the shape and structure of Yongzhong gradually became more complete and the technology more mature. In Kaogong ji, the chapter fushi has a record on Yongzhong, covering the names of its different parts, the scale ratio, the characteristics, and the acoustic effect. Fushi also has a qualitative analysis on the sound production of Yongzhong. “The high pitch and low pitch come from the difference in vibrations because of the thick or thin walls of the bell, and the rising sound and falling sound come from the difference between the open and the narrow, or constricted, mouths. Bells with thick walls produce heavy, solid sound like a stone; thin walls produce a scattered sound; bells with an open mouth produce spreading, or unimpeded, sound; and those with a narrow, constricted mouth produce stifled sound. If the handle of a bell is too long, (the sound will be) shaken.” Some academics once analyzed with mathematical acoustics the features of Zhong bells described by fushi and confirmed that they completely correspond with what is described in modern acoustical principles [4]. Stone-chime is a percussion instrument, made of jade or stone. It makes a clear sound and often matches the chime in a performance. The early stone-chime was just a rough shape with no fixed pitch. In the Shang Dynasty, the stone-chime had a curved upper limb and a nearly lined lower limb. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, it has a vertex angle on the upper part about one square ( ju) and a half (i.e., around 135°), and the bottom was curved. This kind of stone-chime was prevalent in the Warring States. There is an explicit requirement in Kaogong ji for producing the stone-chime: There is a relationship between the thickness of the stone-chime and the level of sound. The specific tuning method is as follows: If the sound of the stone-chime is too high or too low in pitch, the maker tunes by filing down the sides or ends, respectively.

2.4.4

Urban Planning and Construction

Urban planning and palace building had reached a considerable scale in the Zhou Dynasty, and the construction had formed a certain standard, which defines the

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hierarchical status. For capital city system, Kaogong ji has such records, “Masterbuilders ( jiangren) plan the site of the capital. The capital city forms a square planning having sides of nine li, with three gates on each side. In the city, three main longitudinal and three main transverse streets are marked out. Each street, which has three lanes, is nine chariot-gauges (gui) broad. On the left is the temple of ancestors, and on the right is the altar of the gods of the land and grain. In the front are the courts, and in the rear are the market places.” As for the city roads, there is a regulation: “The main streets are to carry nine chariots abreast (gui), the road compassing the city is to carry seven, and the country roads are to carry five.” “The established height of the gate ridge of the imperial palace becomes the standard for the measurement of city walls of privileged officers, and the rule for the watchtower at corners of the imperial palace becomes the measurement of city walls in the feudal kingdoms.” That is to say, the main streets of capitals are nine gui; the road compassing the capital is seven gui; and the provincial and country roads are five gui. The width of the road compassing the capital of the emperor is the model for the main streets of capitals of feudal princes, and that of the provincial and country roads is the rule for the roads in the cities of privileged officers. It is obvious that there are hierarchies in the construction system.

2.5

Practical Mathematical Knowledge

Although there wasn’t systematic mathematics during the Spring and Autumn Period, there was rich practical mathematical knowledge with the development of production and commerce.

2.5.1

Arithmetic and Fractional Arithmetic

Arithmetic was directly related to commercial activities at that time and was fully developed during the Spring and Autumn Period. The times table then began from “nine times nine equals eighty-one” to “two times two equals four,” totaling to 36 sentences. As the times table began from “nine times nine,” it was also abbreviated as “nine times nine.” According to Han Shi Wai Zhuan (The Outer Commentary to the Book of Songs by Master Han), during the reign of Duke Huan of Qi, all ordinary people think “nine times nine” is just a common ability, not magic at all, which in fact implies that multiplication and division were very popular at that time. There is also a story in Zuozhuan (The Commentary of Zuo): During the reign of Duke Xiang of Qi (543 BC), someone in the Jin State asked about the age of an elderly. The elderly did not answer but just said, “I was born on the first day of Chinese Lunar January, one of Jiazi days, and by now have experienced 445 Jiazi days, of which the last one is no more than one-third Jiazi till today.” Without knowing what that meant, the man went to ask officers. Shi Kuang told him, “The elderly is 73 years old.” Shi Zhao said, “Hai (亥) has the number of 2 (in Chinese “er” “二”) on the top and the number of 6 (in Chinese “liu” “六”) as the body.

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Now just take the number 2 down as the body, and it’s the days he lived.” Shi Wenbo continued, “and thus that’s 26,660 days.” Therefore, it can be seen that the elderly, Shi Kuang, Shi Zhao, and Shi Wenbo, were all good at multiplication and division. Still, as recorded in the Classic of Law by Li Kui, there are calculations of the income and expenses for the five family members of a farmer, in which subtraction, multiplication, and division were all applied, even the “shortfall,” the origin of the concept of “minus.” Fractions have been used in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. For example, in signifying the tropical year and the synodical month in the quarter-remainder calendar (sifen calendar) of the ancient times, there were not only integral numbers but also odds, which were represented by fractions. Also in Guanzi, not only many fractions are used, but fraction arithmetic is involved. As recorded in The Savings Policy of the State in Guanzi, “When they order the people to pay their taxes within 10 days, prices of things will be reduced by one-tenth.When they order the people to pay within 8 days, prices of things will be reduced by two-tenths. When they order the people to pay within 5 days, prices of things will be reduced to one-half.And when they order the people to pay their taxes within 1 day, prices of 9 8 5 things will be reduced by nine-tenths.” The prices are, respectively, 10 , 10 , 10 , and 1 . In Guanzi-Diyuan (Land Officials), there is a record about “pentatonic scale,” 10 which began from “divided the main chord into three equal parts, and then biquadrate it to nine times nine, thus to produce the tones of Huangzhong Xiaosu,” introducing how five tones of gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu are produced. In fact, it’s like the following five equations: • • • • •

(1
3)4 ¼ 81 ¼ 9
9 81 + 81
1 ¼ 108 108 – 108
13 ¼ 72 72 + 72
13 ¼ 96 96 – 96
13 ¼ 64

The results of 81, 108, 72, 96, and 64, respectively, represent the chord length of gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. In the latter four equations, fractions are involved.

2.5.2

Practical Units of Measurement

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there had been complete units of measurement for length, area, and volume. For example, there were different length units like li, bu, zhang, chi, cun, zhi, pi, liang, xun, ren, shi, etc., among which zhi and shi are special ones. In Guanzi-Shengma, it is put that “Thirty-three zhi of high-grade thin silk is the equivalent of one yi of gold. If silk is unavailable, plain cloth may be used. One hundred bolts (liang) of loose woven cloth made from hemp is the equivalent of one yi of gold.” Here zhi is the measure unit for high-grade thin silk; liang is the measure unit for plain

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cloth, and yi (equivalent of 24 liang at that time) is the measure unit for gold. One zhi equals 18 chi, while 1 shi equals 7 chi (Guanzi-Diyuan, “When Guanzhong was the emperor, he prescribed that seven chi equal to one shi.”). As for the square measure, there are the following units mentioned in Guanzi – bu, mu, qing, square li(li), pu, bu, ju, etc. There are always “some square li” sayings in Guanzi. For example, in Number Ding on the Degree of Seriousness of Various Issues, Guanzi asked Duke Huan, “Would you please tell me the size of the territory of the Qi State?” Duke Huan said, “It is 500 square li.” The so-called 500 square li does not mean that the land is a square but means that the area of the land equals the area of a square with the side length of 500 li. As for the volume, the third year of Duke Zhao of Lu in Zuozhuan recorded, “four measures (siliang), dou, ou, fu, and zhong. Four sheng make a dou and up to the fu; each measure is four times the preceding; and then ten fu make a zhong.” So it can be judged from the carry here that one zhong equals ten fu; one fu equals four ou; one ou equals four dou; and one dou equals four sheng. The standard measure played a very important normative role in the national economic activity. According to Kaogong ji, jialiang is used as the standard measure capacity: “They cast the standard measure of capacity fu in this way. The fu is of one chi in depth, having a circular base whose inscribed square has a side of one chi, and it holds one fu; its base is one cun deep, and it holds one dou; two handles are three cun deep, and each holds one sheng. The measure fu weighs one jun.” Fu (鬴) in the above statement is the same as fu (釜), with the capacity of six dou and four sheng. Tun is the base of fu, with the capacity of one dou, and one dou equals four sheng. Er is the small container on both sides of fu, with the capacity of one sheng. The capacity of different parts of fu is shown as below (Fig. 2.3):

Fig. 2.3 Illustration for the volume of fu

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Practical Concepts of Angles

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a practical concept of angle was developed out of the actual needs of making cars, making bows, and making clocks. Just as Kaogong ji-qingshi records: “Makers of stonechimes (qingshi) make various stone-chimes. The vertex angle is one square ju and a half. The so-called juju in the statement refers to the angle between the top of the drum. The first ju means slightly curved, equivalent to “obtuse,” while the second “ju” is equivalent to “acute.” juju means “obtuse and acute,” a term used in the Kaogong ji, referring to the angle. “The vertex angle is one square ju and a half,” referring to 135°. “Smelting founders (yeshi) make spears and halberds” in Kaogong ji says “the angle juju should equal the right angle,” which is exactly 90°. So “the angle juju is too obtuse” means that the angle is greater than 90°, being an obtuse angle. Then the chapter “Builders ( jiangren) build conduits and canals” of Kaogong ji says “When one wants to make a waterdrop on the inclined channel (yuan), the corner should be a right angle.” There are also proper names for some special angles in Kaogong ji like ju mentioned above being 90°, which is the common representation in ancient times. Also as what is said in cartwrights (cheren), “half a square ju (90°) is defined as an angle xuan (45°), one and a half xuan as an angle zhu (67° 300 ), one and a half zhu as an angle ke (101° 150 ), one and a half ke as an angle qingzhe (151° 520 3000 ).” And “The vertex angle is one square ju and a half” in qingshi (makers of stone-chimes) refers to 135°. However, with careful analysis, you will find that it is impossible in the actual operation to divide or reconcile the angles in such a complicated way. As for this problem, Dai Wusan proposed that it is very likely that the craftsman uses some values (points) on both sides of the square to make the desired angle very conveniently and quickly. For example, take the values 3 and 5 on both sides of the square, and connect this line segment with the extended segment of the square edge, the angle of which is exactly 149°, which can also be called qingzhe [5].

2.6

Mechanics and Optics in Mojing

The Mohist School was an important school in the Warring States Period. The founder Mozi is named zhai, people of the Lu State, active from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the beginning of the Warring States Period (about 490 ~ 405 BC). He once worked as a senior official of the Song State and also was a famous thinker and politician at that time. In the beginning, the Mohist School focused on the “universal love,” “no wars,” and “respecting the scholars” advocated by Mozi himself, being the main school that competed with Confucianism at that time on political and academic thoughts. At the end of the Warring States Period, the

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Mohist School overcame the religious superstitions in its doctrine and made considerable studies and contributions in philosophy and science and technology. The members of the Mohist School are mainly handicraftsmen, especially known for their hard work and risking their lives in practicing their ideas. Mojing is part of the Mohist School’s classic Mozi, including “Canon I,” “Canon II,” “Exposition of Canon I,” and “Exposition of Canon II.” Regarding the authors of the Mojing and the age of the book, there have been different sayings. Generally, it is believed as the collective creation of Mozi and his disciples, summarizing the research results of the Mohist School on logic, natural science, philosophy, etc. The content items related to the natural sciences rank second only to logic.

2.6.1

Mechanics in Mojing

Mojing discusses the basic concepts of time and space, motion, and stillness. It says: “Jiu (duration) is pervasion of different times. Yu (space/extension) is pervasion of different places.” “Now, Jiu means that ‘present’ and ‘past’ combine mornings and evenings; Yu means ‘east and west’ cover ( jia) north and south.” Jia means “including (zhong).” That is to say, time includes all the different times, such as ancient and modern, morning and night, no beginning or end; space includes all the different places in the east, west, north, and south, boundless. It is further explained that time is limited in terms of specific movement processes; but in terms of time itself, it is limitless. Time is divided into two concepts: jiu (duration) and wujiu (without duration). The former means there is no time interval, while the latter means there is time intervals. The classification of their meanings is similar to “time (shijian)” and “moment (shike)” in physics. Space means domain, which can also be divided into being “limited” and “limitless.” Therefore, it can be considered that Mojing scientifically discusses the concepts of time and space and their characteristics. With regard to the movement and stillness of objects, Mojing believes that “Dong (to move) is to shift somewhere”; “Zhi (to stay/remain fixed) is to endure as it was.” That is, moving means that the object shifts its position, and remaining fixed means that the object stays at a certain position for a period of time. At the same time, it is further pointed out that the movement of an object must pass through a certain space and time, and it has its own specific place at any time, from south to north, from morning to night. The change of space is closely related to the passage of time. There is some other mechanics knowledge in Mojing, like the earliest definition of “Li (force/strength)” given in physics. “Li (force/strength) is that by which the body exerts itself” (Article 21). That is to say, force changes the motion of an object. Mojing discusses the force problem of the stone in the building, the balancing problem of the ball, and suspension problem, taking the hair suspension as an example. It points out that if the material structure is completely uniform, even if the object is extremely heavy, it will not cut off. Mojing also elaborates on the principles and functions of simple machinery such as levers, pulleys, and bevels. Through the experiments of the equivalent arm and the unequal arm lever, whether zhong (weight) and quan (force) and ben (heavy arm) and biao (force arm) are equal

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or unequal is analyzed and discussed. This indicates that Mohist had had an understanding of the principle of leverage. In addition, the floating and sinking of the object in the water is also discussed, indicating that the Mohist has been aware that the buoyancy of the object is related to the part of the object immersed in the water.

2.6.2

Optics in Mojing

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, some optical phenomena could be observed by using bronze mirrors. There are eight expositions on the content of optics in Mojing, which involve the linear travel of light, umbra, penumbra, reflection of light, and pinhole imaging. Because of its earlier discussion of geometric optics, Mojing occupied a position in the world science and technology history. Mojing is the first work that described the pinhole imaging experiment. A small hole is opened in the dark wall of a dark cabin, and a person stands outside the cabin. Under the sunlight, an inverted figure of the person appears on the opposite wall of the house. As for this, Mojing explained as follows, “The person, when the sun shines on the bottom, will be reflected on the top and vice versa.” (Mojing, Article 120). That is to say, light through small holes like an arrow takes a straight linear course into the hole. The head of the person blocks the light from above so that the shadow is formed below; and when the feet of the person block the light from below, the shadow is formed above, producing an inverted shadow (see Fig. 2.4). Mojing gives a dialectical explanation to the relationship between the movement and the immovability of the shadows of moving objects. It is pointed out that “the scenery (shadow) does not move, and the shadow motion we see resulted from the movement of the subject or the changes of the light source” (Mojing, Article 118); “Shadow: When the light comes, the shadow disappears; if the light exists forever, the shadow will never appear.” It means that at a certain moment, the shadow of the Fig. 2.4 Illustration for pinhole imaging

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moving object is not moving. The shadow seems to be moving just as the old shadow is constantly disappearing, and the new image is continuously produced. Mojing also explains the principles of plane mirror imaging, concave mirror imaging, and convex mirror imaging. For example, Mojing explained concave mirror imaging as follows: “When the object is within the heart of the mirror, the image is small and (changed) inverted; when it is beyond the heart, the image is big and in the right order. The secret lies in the heart.” Jianwa refers to a concave mirror. According to the text, there are two kinds of images formed in a concave mirror. One is a small, inverted image of the object outside the mirror sphere; the other is an enlarged, erect image of the object inside the mirror sphere. Relevant analysis shows that the description must be obtained through an intentional observational experiment.

2.7

Astronomical Observation and Theory

Out of the needs of production, astrology, and even the influence of geographical environment, China’s astronomy and calendar had made new progress in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period based on astronomical observation data in the previous dynasties.

2.7.1

Great Achievements in Astronomical Observation

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many precious records about the astronomical observation left. In the 242 years of the Lu State, from the 1st reigning year of Duke Yin (722 BC) to the 14th reigning years of Duke Ai (481BC), only the Spring and Autumn Annals recorded 37 solar eclipses, 33 of which are reliable, according to experts. In The Seventh Reigning Year of Duke Zhuang (687 BC) (Spring and Autumn Annals), it records, “In the fourth month of summer (Xinmao month), there are no fixed stars but only rain-like star meteor”; this is the world’s earliest record of the meteor shower. Then in The Fourteenth Reigning Year of Duke Wen (613 BC) (Spring and Autumn Annals), it records, “in the 7th month of autumn, the 14th reigning of Duke Wen (613 BC), a comet appeared near the Big Dipper.” This is the earliest record of the Halley (Halley Edmund, 1656~1742) comet. From the 7th year of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (240 BC) to the 2nd year of Emperor Xuantong of the Qing Dynasty (1910), Halley’s comet appeared 29 times, each of which was recorded in detail in documentaries of ancient China, providing valuable historical observations for modern astronomy. During the Warring States period, people had had rich experiences in observing comets and accumulating knowledge about the shape of comets. Twenty-nine pictures unearthed at the Han Tomb of Mawangdui, Changsha, depict comets of various shapes. The tails of comets are either wide or narrow, long or short, and straight or curved, and the numbers can be either more or less. The cometary heads are painted as a circle or a dot, and some others have a circle or small dot at the center

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Fig. 2.5 Comet figure unearthed from the Han Tomb, Mawangdui, Changsha

of the outside circle. Hence, it can be seen that the cometary head can be divided into two parts: the coma and the nucleus, of different types. These drawings are out of the Chus’ hands in the Warring States, reflecting their carefulness in observing comets (Fig. 2.5).

2.7.2

The Achievements of Gan De and Shi Shen

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, all the vassal states had astronomers engaged in the observation and research of astronomy, of whom the most famous are Gan De and Shi Shen. Gan De, also known as Duke Gan, who lived around 360 BC, citizen of Qi (also said to be citizen of Chu), is the author of the eight-volume book Tian Wen Xing Zhan (Astronomic Star Observation). Shi Shen, also known as Shi Shenfu, the official of the Wei State in charge of astrology, worked out an eight-volume book entitled Tian Wen (Astronomy) when Hui Shi was the prime minister of the Wei State. The original of the two works have long been lost, but they can also be understood from the quotations of Shiji (The Historical Records), Han Shu (History of the Han Dynasty), and Kai Yuan Zhan Jing (Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era.). Gan De and Shi Shen discovered the retrograde phenomenon of the planet. In The Astronomy Treatise of The Historical Records, it recorded “The five-star method from Gan De and Shi Shen is only the illusion of returning retrograde.” See also in The History of Han-Treatise on Astronomy: “There was no retrograde in the movement of the five stars according to the ancient calendar until Gan De and Shi Shen

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recorded that there was retrograde for Yingcai (Mars) and Taibai (Venus).” The planets going from west to east in the sky constellation is called antegrade and retrograde when vice versa. The planets move more in antegrade than in retrograde. It is hard to find the retrograde phenomenon without long-term systematic observations. According to Kai Yuan Zhan Jing, Gan De said, “When the planet goes and returns, its trace seems like a hook (gou勾); when it forms another hook, it looks like si (巳).” While Shi said: “When the planet goes from east to west, it looks like a hook and, from north to south, like si (巳).” It is very concise and vivid to describe the planetary retrograde arc as “巳.” According to Kai Yuan Zhan Jing, Gan and Shi had measured the length of the synodic period of Venus and Jupiter, and the sidereal period of Mars is 1.9 years (the current measured value is 1.88 years); and that of Jupiter is 12 years (the current measured value is 11.86 years). The silk manuscript Wuxing Zhan (Five Planets Divination) unearthed from a Han tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha, recorded the observational data of the 70-year planetary motion of Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, that is, between the first reigning year of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (246 BC) and the third reigning year of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty (177 BC). The synodic period of Venus is 584.4 days, only 0.48 days more than the present measured value, while that of Jupiter is 377 days, only 1.09 days less than the present measured value. Gan De and Shi Shen used “du (degree)” as the basic unit for the measurement, and ban, tai, shao, qiang, and ruo for the odd part. In Wuxing Zhan, the scale of one du is equal to 240 fen, which implied that there had been a great progress in the observation and prediction on the planetary motion from the middle to the end of the Warring States Period.

2.7.3

Twenty-Eight Mansions

The so-called Twenty-Eight Mansions usually refer to the 28 living quarters of the sun and the moon, just like the hotels or courier stations for travelers or postmen to rest. The names of the Twenty-Eight Mansions came from the star catalogues of Shi Shen, of which there are ten different names from that of Gan De. The Twenty-Eight Mansions are divided into four regions. The common names used until nowadays are as follows: • Azure Dragon of the east: jiao (horn), kang (neck), di (root), fang (room), xin (heart), wei (tail), ji (winnowing basket) • Black Tortoise of the north: dou (dipper), niu (ox), nü (girl), xu (emptiness), wei (rooftop), shi (encampment), bi (wall) • White Tiger of the west: kui (legs), lou (bond), wei (stomach), mao (hairy head), bi (net), zi (turtle beak), shen (three stars) • Vermilion Bird of the south: jing (well), gui (ghost), liu (willow), xing (star), zhang (extended net), yi (wings), zhen (chariot)

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Fig. 2.6 Twenty-Eight Mansions form on the lacquer box excavated from Zenghouyi tomb

The Twenty-Eight Mansions system is a special equatorial coordinates system, which takes the 28 determinative stars as the landmark points for measurement. In the celestial coordinate, the values are signified by ruxiudu and qujidu. Ruxiudu refers to a heavenly body’s angular distance to the east of the determinative star in the lunar mansion (i.e., the ascensional difference), while qujidu is the heavenly body’s angular distance to the celestial pole (i.e., the star’s complement of declination). Therefore, the location of the heavenly body (ascension and declination) can be confirmed by both of them. In 1978, a Warring States lacquer box was excavated from Zenghouyi tomb in Suixian County, Hubei Province. On its lid were painted azure dragon and white tiger, between which there is a dou (斗) with 28 Chinese characters around it. These 28 characters are the exact names of Twenty-Eight Mansions. This is the earliest written record of the complete Twenty-Eight Mansions. This figure on the daily utensil shows that the Twenty-Eight Mansions had existed in the Warring States Period. And it is the good reason to think that the Twenty-Eight Mansions take form as early as in the Spring and Autumn Period (Fig. 2.6).

2.7.4

Quarter-Remainder Calendar

There had been more progress in the Spring and Autumn Period than in the Shang and Zhou Dynasty, which is closely related to the requirements the agriculture has on the climate. In the Spring and Autumn Period, a year is divided into 12 months: The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd month belong to the spring; the 4th, 5th, and 6th month are the summer; the 7th, 8th, and 9th month are the autumn; and the 10th, 11th and the 12th month are the winter. The length of the month is calculated according to synodical month. The day of the syzygy for the sun and the moon in each month is the first day of the lunar month, called shuori; the last day is (the 29th or the 30th day) is called huiri. There are totally 354 or 355 days for the 12 synodical months, while there are 365 14 days in a tropical year. There is 11 days’ difference. So there’s a necessity for intercalation.

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After the Duke Xuan of the Lu State (608~591 BC), the principle usually goes like 7 intercalations in every 19 years. So, there are 19
12+7¼235 synodical months in every 19 years. The fraction part of the days in a tropical year is 14 ; so it is called the quarterremainder calendar. There are totally 19
365 14 ¼6939 34 days in 19 years, and one 1 synodical month ¼ 6939 34 235¼29 499 940 days. Because it is more than 29 2 days, there appear continued odd months. In the Julian Calendar used by the Romans around 43 BC in Europe, the average length of a calendar year is also 365 14. This is 433 years later than that in China. And Meton, an ancient Greek, also applied seven intercalations in every 19 years but 100 years later than that in China. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the gnomon had been used to measure the shadow of the sun to measure the time of the winter solstice and ascertain the length of a tropical year. There are two records about this measuring: One is in the fifth reigning year of Duke Xi of the Lu State (655 BC), and the other is in the 20th year of Duke Zhao of the Lu State (522 BC). This is the earliest records of observing the winter solstice. So it is obvious that the formulation of the quarter-remainder calendar was based on not only observation but also the development of mathematics.

2.7.5

Twenty-Four Solar Terms

In Chinese ancient calendar, lunar months were what always applied. Taking the solar annual motion into consideration, it was called solar-lunar calendar, which could make the months for main production roughly fixed. However, due to the intercalations, the months could not accurately reflect the seasons. So the 24 solar terms were created. That is, a year is divided into 24 equal parts, with a jieqi for every 15 days, reflecting the 24 positions of the solar apparent motion on the ecliptic in a year. In fact, the solar-lunar calendar was applied in many countries of the world, but only in China the 24 solar terms were created. Among the total of 24 solar terms, winter solstice and summer solstice are the basic, which appeared probably in the Xia Dynasty or even earlier. At that time, the Chinese ancients divided a year into two seasons – spring and summer – having known to judge winter solstice and summer solstice by observing the upward or downward pointing of the Big Dipper or the north-south motion of the sunrise and sunset. Spring equinox and autumn equinox appeared around the Shang Dynasty or later. In the fifth reigning year of Duke Xi (Zuozhuan), there is a record of fen zhi qi bi, which for most scholars means the eight important jieqi: the two solstices, the two equinoxes, and the four beginnings (beginning of spring, beginning of summer, beginning of autumn, and beginning of winter). There are also records of “eight winds” in Zuozhuan and Guoyu (Discourses of the States). It is said that after winter solstice, one wind blew after every 45 days. The eight winds in fact mean the eight jieqi. So the concepts of the eight jieqi appeared as early as in the Spring and Autumn Period.

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As for the other 16 solar terms, some also appeared in the pre-Qin documentaries. For example, there is qizhe (waking of insects) in Xia Xiao Zheng; qingming, dashu, xiaoshu, bailu, shihan, and dahan in Guanzi-Yougongtu; shuangjiang and bailu in Chuci (verses of Chu); and zhe chong shi zhen (hibernating insects awaken), shi yushui (rainwater), xiaoshu (slight heat), rushu (great heat), bailu (white dew), and shuang shijiang (frost’s descent) in The Twelve Almanacs, Lüshi Chunqiu (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals). And in Tianwen Xun (Chronometer), Huai Nan Zi (The Book of the Prince Huai Nan), the 24 solar terms recorded had been the same as those used nowadays. The calendar used in Tianwen Xun, Huai Nan Zi, is Zhuanxu Calendar (one of the six ancient calendars in the Warring States Period). Analyzed through the Shuihudi bamboo slips of the Qin Dynasty, Zhuanxu Calendar may have been used at least since Duke Zhao of the Qian Dynasty (306~251 BC). We can thus assume that the present 24 solar terms were created in the Guanzhong Area during the Warring States Period.

2.8

Geoscience Works and Protection of Forest Resources

2.8.1

Geoscience Works

In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there appeared some geoscience works like Tribute of Yu, Classic of the Mountains, Guanzi-Diyuan, etc. Tribute of Yu, a work pretended as that of the King Yu taming the flood, was in fact finished around the Spring and Autumn Period. It is composed of four parts: “Nine Prefectures,” “Directory of Mountains,” “Directory of Rivers,” and “Wu Fu (Five Fu-service).” “Nine Prefectures” gives descriptions of the nine parts divided by the natural borders between the rivers, mountains, and seas under the natural condition, namely, Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Liangzhou, and Yongzhou. For example, the region on the east of the Huanghe River between Shanxi and Shaanxi, on the north of Huanghe River of Henan, and on the west of the Huanghe River of Hebei was called Jizhou; the region between the Jishui River of Shandong and Huanghe of Hebei was called Yanzhou, and the region between the Jingshan Mountain of Hubei and Huanghe River of Henan was called Yuzhou. This regionalization has obvious geographical significance and was the sprout of the thought for natural regionalization. The book also distinguish the soils of the nine prefectures from each other according to the colors and traits: bairang (whitish soil), heifen (blackish soil), chizhife (red clayey soil), tuni (miry soil), qingli (greenish light soil), huangrang (yellow mellow soil), baifen (whitish rich soil), and fenlu (dark rich thin soil). It is of some scientific significance. “Directory of Mountains” and “Directory of Rivers,” respectively, monograph mountains and rivers, creating a model of regional and classified research in the ancient geoscience. “Directory of Mountains”, according to the north-south sequence and by listing names of the mountains, groups all the mountains into four echelons from the west to the east which are then further divided into nine segments, which are called “Directory of Nine Mountains.” “Directory of Rivers”

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deals with the sources, the flow directions, places flowing through, the tributaries, and the river mouths of nine main rivers from south to north, upstreams to downstreams and mainstreams to tributaries, which makes clear the distribution of the river system in the nine prefectures. Classic of Mountains is the earliest part of Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), probably finished around the Warring States Period. Classic of Mountains takes the mountain as the key link and divides the mountainous areas of China into five systems: south, west, north, east, and middle. The total 460 mountains are divided into 26 echelons. Each echelon is given clear indication of the direction, the distance, and the relative positions. And then it describes the rivers, lakes, marshes, flora and fauna, mineral species, and producing area of each part. That is the first time to explore the geography and reserves of the vast mountainous areas of China, among which Zhongshan Jing (Classic of Mountains: Central) on the western Henan is dealt with in the most detail. It also records many valuable natural geography knowledge, including descriptions of karst caves in the southern mountains, descriptions of seasonal or intermittent rivers in arid and semiarid regions of the north, and subsurface or underground rivers. These descriptions of the natural geography of different zones can basically reflect their characteristics. Guanzi-Diyuan is also a work of the Warring States Period. This is a geological work on the regularity on the relationship between land and plants. According to the situation of agricultural production, Diyuan divides the hilly land into 15 kinds from low to high: fenyan (hilly plains), shanzhipang (areas approaching passes), sishan (valley land), duling (earth hummock), yanling (extended hilly area), huanling (surrounding areas of the hills), manshan (extended hummock area), fushan (the affiliated hilly area), Fushan baitu (the affiliated carclazyte hilly area), zhongling (the central hilly area), qingshan (greenish mountains), Laoshan chirang (hills of red soil and rocklets), zuoshan bairang (rocky mountains of whitish soil), tushan (steep hills), and gaoling tushan (soil mountains on the high mound). The method of naming is that all the earth hummocks are titled “Ling (hills),” and the rockery hills are called “mountains.” As the terrain increases, the underground water level becomes deeper. From the middle of the hills, excavated from a hundred feet to a hundred and a few feet, the water spring is reached. If dug further down, there is hard rock and no underground water anymore. This description clearly illustrates the topography and geology of the hilly area. Diyuan also categorized five kinds of mountainous terrains: The highest part is called the xianquan, digging down two chi, one reaching the water table; the second is lulu (multiple peaks), digging down three chi, one reaching the water table; and then quanying (spring-fed ravines), digging down five chi, one reaching the water table. The fourth is the mountain cai (thickly forested area), digging down 14 chi, to reach the water table. The even lower area is called shanzhipang (areas approaching passes), digging down 21 chi, to reach the water table. The classification of hills and mountainous terrains in Diyuan is based on scientific practice especially the understanding of the geological structure far below the spring. It is necessary to overcome great difficulties in the era without advanced measuring instruments.

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The second half of Diyuan monographs “the soil of the nine prefectures,” which is much more profound and detailed than that in Yu Gong (Tribute of Yu). The soil is divided into three grades – upper soil, middle soil, and lower soil – according to the color, texture, structure, pores, organic matter, salt basicity, and fertility, combined with landform, height, slope, hydrology, and vegetation. Each grade is divided into six categories, each of which is further divided into five subcategories: red, blue, yellow, white, and black. There is a certain geographical value in this classification, which generally conforms to the reality of soil properties. It can thus be called the earliest book on ecological botany in China.

2.8.2

Ancient Maps

Chinese maps have an early origin. There are detailed records on maps and their types in Zhou Li (Rites of the Zhou Dynasty), including national administrative division maps, specialized agricultural production maps, basic topographic maps, mineral distribution maps, traffic maps, and cemetery maps. The Analects of Confucius-Townsman has the record of “national territory.” Ban means a wooden board with the border regions of a nation carved on. This kind of map is often carried by a special person. This indicates that maps had been widely used in the late spring and autumn. In the maps of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there are certain proportions except some symbols for mountains, rivers, roads, cities, forests, and properties. In Zhan Guo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States)-Strategies of Zhao, Su Qin said to Emperor Zhao: “I think if the land of the country is patterned as a map, you can see that the area of the vassal states is five times that of Qin.” It can thus be assumed from this statement that the map was graphed according to some proportional scale. In Guanzi-Ditu, it is stated, “Before a military campaign the commander must read the maps most carefully for terrain so steep or waterlogged as to hamper or damage carts, for possible valleys or passes through impassible mountain ridges, and for dense forests of bushes where enemy ambuscades threaten. He must learn all the necessary details such as the length of routes, sizes and possible strongholds of cities, and even the causes of prosperity or decline of towns. He must memorize all these geographical features and set great store of them. Only thus can he succeed in maneuvers and raids, in unfolding his every strategic or tactical step logically, and in exploiting the topographical advantages to the full.” From the above statements, it can be clearly seen that there were various symbols to indicate the contents of mountains, rivers, roads, vegetation, etc. on the map at that time. There were also scales on the map, which can be used to calculate the sizes of the mountains, rivers, and cities and the distance of the roads. In 1978, a planning map (the Zhaoyutu) 2,300 years ago, engraved on a copper plate, was unearthed at the tomb of Emperor Zhongshan of Zhongshan Kingdom in Pingshan County, Hebei Province. This is the earliest building planimetric map found in China. The scale is about 1:500, with the orientation of the upper south

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and the lower north. The lines in the figure are straight, the notes are arranged symmetrically, and the graphing is quite neat and accurate [6, 7]. In 1986, seven maps painted on pine boards were unearthed from No. 1 Qin Tomb in Tianshui, Gansu Province. This is a skeleton map about the administrative division, topography, and economy of the counties in the Qin State during the late Warring States Period. They have used a unified scale to represent places, passes, and buildings, for example, boxes of different sizes used for different levels of places; thin and straight lines for roads; curved lines thick or thin for rivers; juxtaposed semicircles for the peaks or bridges the roads pass through; the dots, triangles, and half-moon patterns for passes; and the pavilion pattern for buildings. The blank places in the map are usually used to mark the names of places, valleys, and mountains. These maps are drawn after actual measurement with fairly high accuracy. Some maps are marked with the word “below” at the bottom of the map, indicating the direction to read the map: with the north on the top and the south at the bottom and the west on the left and the east on the right, just similar with the current map. This indicates that the “six rules in map-making” summed up by Pei Xiu in the later time had been applied since the Warring States [8].

2.8.3

Protection of the Forest Resources

In ancient times, with the population reproduction and the needs of life, the scope of production and activities was continuously expanded. On the other hand, production is an intervention for the natural environment. If the development exceeds the regeneration capacity of biological resources, it will cause damage to the natural world. For example, excessive harvesting, land reclamation, fishing, and hunting will cause regional ecological damage, resulting in the lack of biological resources in local areas. In the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the biological resources such as forests were freely requested and destroyed by humans, causing some disastrous effects. By the Spring and Autumn Period, scholars have had a painful understanding, like GuanziGuozhun had stated: “King Youyu dried up the marshes and stripped the mountains bare of tress, and King Xiahou burned the nesting places of birds and animals, set fire to marshlands, and did not allow people to increase their wealth.” The same article also pointed out: “Those mountain forests, swamps, and grasslands are places where firewood is produced and livestock is raised to be used as offerings at various ceremonies. So, allow the common people to use them and levy taxes upon them; thus, both the common people and the state can be supported this way.” It is exactly based on the idea that the resources of “mountain forests, swamps, and grasslands” are closely related to people’s lives and national economy. In Guanzi-Qingzhong I, it is emphasized, “if a sovereign cannot manage to take control over the mountain forests, swamps, and grasslands of the state, he will never be able to unify the whole world and become a Son of Heaven himself.” This fully expressed the importance of the mountain forest resources and the desire to manage them properly.

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There are records of specific measures to protect forest resources in the works of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, such as Lüshi Chunqiu, Mencius, and Xunzi. For example, Lüshi Chunqiu-Shangnong proposed “formulating bans of the four seasons,” requiring that at the prescribed time no forests should be felled, no grass should be cut and burned among lakes and marshes, and no birds should be hunted or no fishing should be allowed. In Lüshi Chunqiu-12 Almanacs, specific provisions were also made for the resources that should be protected each month and the resources people can make use of at certain times. In Xunzi-Wang zhi, it is emphasized that “The mountains, forests, lakes, and fish weirs shall at certain seasons be closed and at others opened for use.” “When the plants and trees are flourishing or putting out new growth, no axes can be taken into the hills and forests, for they would destroy life and injure the growing things.” An important feature of forest resources is that they can regenerate and renew. So it is a rational way to close and open the access to the resources at certain times. In addition to effectively protecting the forest, Guanzi-Quanxiu also attaches great importance to afforestation, recognizing that planting trees is a long-term solution for the benefit of the country and the people, so it proposed that “When planning for 1 year, there is nothing better than planting grain; when planning for 10 years, there is nothing better than planting trees.” “Grain is something that is planted once and produces only a single harvest. Trees are things that are planted once but may produce ten harvests.” In Guanzi-Shanquanshu, Guan Zhong proposed to Duke Huan of the Qi State: “For those good at planting, award one jin of gold, worth eight dans of grain,” advocating higher material rewards for planting experts even those good at planting trees. This played a positive role in developing forestry at that time.

2.9

Development of Biology

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development and utilization of resources, the ancients classified animals and plants and formed a new understanding of plant ecology and geographical environment.

2.9.1

Classification of Animals and Plants

There had been thought of biological taxonomy in Guanzi-Youguan. Luoshou, yushou, maoshou, jiechong, and linshou mentioned in it roughly correspond to humans, birds, mammals, turtles, fish, and snakes. The classification of Youguan refers to the aves, mammalia, pisce, and reptilia of the vertebrate, which has had a great impact on later generations. In Kaogong ji, the animals are clearly divided into two categories: “large animals” and “little creatures.” According to KaoGong Ji-Ziren (Cabinet makers): “The terrestrial world has five species of large animals: grease animals with a horn, grease animals without a horn, the naked species (or human beings), animals that have

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feathers, and animals that have scales. . . the animals with an external skeleton or an internal skeleton; the animals walking backward, walking obliquely, walking with a single file, and walking while circumventing; and the animals making noise with their necks, or their mouths, or their dimensions, or their wings, or the thighs, or their chests. All these animals can be classified under the general species of little creatures.” The “large animals” are in fact vertebrate. The zhizhe means grease animals with a horn (such as cattle and sheep), the gaozhe refers to grease animals without a horn (such as pigs), the luozhe means human beings, and the yuzhe and the linzhe are animals with feathers and scales. The “little creatures” roughly refer to arthropods (i.e., animals that people usually call “small bugs”), and “waigu (extended bones)” are the main symbols of “bugs.” Neigu may refer to other small animals such as geckos and lizards that are not arthropods. In short, Kaogong ji-Ziren divides the animals into “large animals” and “little creatures,” equivalent to vertebrates and invertebrates, which is basically correct. In Zhouli-Diguan-Situ, vertebrates are divided into maowu (animals with or without horns), linwu (animals with scales), yuwu (animals with feathers), jiewu (animals with shells), and luowu (human beings), which is similar to the classification in Kaogong ji. Also in Zhouli-Diguan-Situ, the plants are divided into five categories: zaowu, gaowu, hewu, jiawu, and congwu. Zao in zaowu refers to the shells of the fagaceae fruits like chestnut; gaowu refers to lotus; he 覈 in hewu 覈物 is the same with he 核, referring to drupe like plums; jiawu refers to the leguminous plants with bean pod; and congwu refers to the genus of huanwei (reed). This classification is of high accuracy for being based on the reproductive organs of plants. This is because the roots, stems, leaves, and other vegetative organs of plants may vary due to external conditions such as water, fertilizer, and climate, while as reproductive organs, flowers and fruits will not change a lot. So it is scientific to classify the plants based on this kind of knowledge.

2.9.2

Phytoecology

In Guanzi-Diyuan, there is a clear discussion of the relationship between plant growth and important ecological factors, reflecting the simple understanding of phytoecology in ancient times. The chapter Diyuan clearly states the relationship between plants, soil, and topography like this: “For any combination of grass and soil, there are different trends or habitus. No matter on high or lower lands, there are different grasses and soils.” It describes the distribution of plants from high to low in a mountain, indicating the sequence of vertical distribution of mountain plants. Researchers of the history of science believe that this is the earliest record of the vertical distribution of plants in ancient China (History of Ancient Geoscience in China (Section 1, Chapter 5), compiled by the team of geoscience institute of history of natural sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Science Press, 1984). When discussing the soils in the country, Diyuan points out the differences in the distribution of plants on different terrains: “Where there are shallow waters in the mountains,

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Fig. 2.7 Vertical distribution of plants of a small region illustrated in Gunazi-Diyuan

there are aquatic plants such as long (a kind of grass) and jie (leaf mustard); on the top of the mountains, there are Campanulaceae, tallies and elm; on the middle of the mountains, there are qian (plantain herb) and yuan; on the mountainside, there is the fritillaria of the Cucurbitaceae.” As for the relationship between plants and water, Diyuan gives a description with a typical example: “The lotus (he) grows below the water chestnut ( jiaobai), and then in ascending order come the bulrush (wan), cattail, wei and huan reeds (luwei), a variety of wormwood or mugwort (louhao), broom plant, common mugwort, a dryland sedge, lion’s tail, and floss grass (baimao).” The name of the plant in brackets is what scholars got from research and is familiar to nowadays people. According to Xia Weiying, ye is the plant he (lotus) that grows in deep water, occupying the lowest position among these 12 plants. From the bottom up, on the highest position is mao (cogongrass), the grass growing in the dry land [9]. In this way, Diyuan precisely recorded different growing environments of aquatic plants, wet plants, mesophytes, and xerophytes on the land, reflecting the close relationship between the growth of plants and the water environment (Fig. 2.7).

2.9.3

Distribution Boundary Between the Animals and the Plants

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ancestors formed some understanding of the boundaries of biological distribution through long-term natural observation. As Kaogong ji records: “When tangerine is planted at the north of Huaihe River, it becomes trifoliate orange. This is what the local weather decides.” Similarly, in Yanzi Chunqiu-Neipian Zaixia, Yanzi said to Emperor of the Chu State: “I heard when tangerine grows in the south of Huaihe River, then it is tangerine, but when it grows in the north of Huaihe River, it becomes trifoliate orange. Even if the leaves look similar, the tastes are in fact different. So why? The water and soil are different!” Thus, “tangerine grows in the south of Huaihe River” as a popular proverb in the Spring and Autumn Period was a common sense of ordinary people. Now, there are different explanations for “When tangerine is planted at the north of Huaihe River, it becomes trifoliate orange.” One is that when the trifoliate orange

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was grafted to the tangerine shoot, there got a hybrid tangerine still with the features of the trifoliate orange. If it is grown again, the fruit will be trifoliate oranges. The ancients didn’t explore the exact reason but just thought tangerine will become trifoliate orange at the north of Huaihe River. Others think if a tangerine shoot is grafted to the trifoliate orange and transplanted to the north of Huaihe River, it will freeze to death. Only the trifoliate orange used as stock can survive [10]. Although there are different understandings, it can be confirmed that the ancestors had known Huaihe River as the boundary, across which from south to north the tangerine could not be transplanted. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ancestors also had known about the “boundary of animals in geographical distribution.” Just as Kaogong ji put it: “Diyu doesn’t go across Jishui. The racoon dog will die when it goes across wenshui. This is due to the different climates.” “Diyu” here is myna nowadays. “Ji” refers to “Jishui,” one of the four ancient rivers (the Yangtze River, Huanghe River, Huaihe River, and Jishui River). Also in Zuozhuan-The 25th Reigning Year of Duke Zhao, it states: “There is no record in books that diyu comes to build a nest.” It can be seen that generally diyu does not go to the north. He (raccoon dog) is a fur beast living in the north, looking like a fox. “Wen” is “wenshui,” in the south of Shandong Province. “The racoon dog will die when it goes across wenshui” means that after crossing the Wenshui River, the raccoon dog cannot survive because it does not adapt to the warmer climate in the south of Wenshui. This reflects the ancestors’ understanding of animals related to the geographical environment.

2.10

Formation of Traditional Medical Theory

The theory of traditional Chinese medicine based on physiological theory, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment was established at the end of the Warring States Period, based on a long-term exploration of the causes of the disease, the diagnosis and treatment.

2.10.1 Physiology Theory of Qi and Shen The ancients believed that all tangible things were transformed by intangible qi, and even people were produced by qi. “Qi,” also known as “vital essence,” is the theoretical basis of the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) and the entire Chinese medicine theory. But Guanzi should be the earliest literature recording the vital essence. Guanzi believes that there is vital essence in nature, and everything in nature is a product of the combination of essence and energy. At the same time, human life is also composed of vital essence, which is the material basis of human beings. As Guanzi-Neiye puts: “It is ever so in human’s life, the heaven produces his vital essence, and the earth makes his form. These combine to make the human being.

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When they are in harmony, there is life; when they are not, there will be no life.” Guanzi believes that there is not only the essence in human bodies but also a “dwelling place” to hides the essence. Guanzi-Neiye puts it as follows: “Capable of good judgment and keeping quiescence, he is able to remain stable, with a stable mind within. His ears and eyes are sharp and clear. Therefore, he can serve the vital essence as a dwelling place.” However, Guanzi did not specify what organ or which part of the human body is the “dwelling place” for the essence. The theory of the essence proposed by Guanzi was later absorbed by Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) (hereinafter referred to as Nei Jing (Inner Canon of Medicine)). Nei Jing proposed: “In the sky it is qi, while on the earth it comes into a form. When they come to each other in harmony, they can transform into everything.” The vital essence is the kernel of the body. As for the “dwelling house for the essence”, Nei Jing clearly states that the essence of human beings is hidden in the five internal organs of human beings. “The five internal organs store the essential qi, but do not discharge it.” Thus Nei Jing believes that the life span of human beings is decided by whether their five internal organs are solid. “When the five internal organs are solid . . .the man will live long.” “When the five internal organs are fragile. . .the life will end in the middle.” There is also the so-called shen (spiritual). Yi Jing–XiciI said: “That which is unfathomable in (the movement of) yin (the inactive ) and yang (active operations) is (the presence of a) spiritual (power).” Lüshi Chunqiu also states: “There is no shortage of the vital essence in the heaven or on the earth; there is spiritual all over the universe and boundless. There’s no knowing about when and where it begins or ends. It is as big as without any outer space and as small as without any inner part.” These arguments show that “spiritual” is as rich as the essence of the universe, as large as boundless, and as small as having no internal structure, governing the generation and transformation of everything in the world with its unpredictable energy. The combination of qi (essence) and shen (spiritual) is what the ancients understand life phenomena and also is the early physiological theory of China.

2.10.2 Pathology What is the cause of the disease? On the basis of the exploration of previous generations’ knowledge, a clearer discussion was formed during the Spring and Autumn Period. In 541 BC, Duke Ping of the Jin State was sick. He, the famous doctor of Qin, was called in to give a medical treatment. Zuozhuan-the First Reigning Year of Duke Zhao has a detailed record: “The Duke of Jin got sick. . . and sought a physician from Qin. The Liege of Qin sent the physician He to diagnose him. He said, “The illness cannot be cured. This is what is known as excessive indulgence to female charm. A sexual exhaustion is like a spell, not from ghost or diet, but is a bewilderment that destroys the will. . . . The duke asked: Is contact with women not permissible? He replied, ‘It is to be regulated. . . . Heaven has its six qi (essence), which descend to

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form the five flavors and are expressed in five colors and revealed in five sounds. Excess produces the known six maladies. The six qi – yin, yang, wind, rain, darkness, and light form the four periods, and they are put in order to form the five regularities. Overabundance brings calamities: An excess of yin brings illnesses of cold; an excess of yang brings illnesses of fever; an excess of wind brings illnesses of the limbs; an excess of rain brings illnesses of the abdomen; an excess of darkness brings illnesses of bewilderment; an excess of light brings illnesses of the heart. As the female draws out the yang in things and belongs to the darkness, too extended a contact with them brings illnesses of internal fever, bewilderment, and spells. Now you, Lord, have failed both to regulate yourself and to act in timely fashion. Could you have failed to come to this situation?’” According to the above text, in addition to specifically pointing out that the disease of Duke of Jin is caused by excessive indulgence in female charm and lust, it is also important to propose that improperness in four periods of time and excess of the six qi are the key causes of illnesses. Here, the concepts of climate changes such as four periods of time, five regularities, and six qi were proposed as the main causes of illnesses, laying foundation for the theory of “six sources of illnesses via excess” like wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, and fire formed by later generations. “An excess of yin brings illnesses of cold; an excess of yang brings illnesses of fever” has also become the leader of the later theory: “When the yang goes beyond necessity, it turns into fever; when the yin goes beyond necessity; it turns into cold.” Doctor He’s theory of “diseases caused by six qi” and “diseases caused by climate changes” contains an important idea of traditional Chinese medicine theory, that is, the concept of “correspondence between human being and heaven.” The ancients believed that the human being, the heaven and the earth of the natural world, all originated from qi (the essence) and all are dominated by the laws of yin and yang and that of the five elements. Therefore, the human being, the heaven, and the earth are naturally connected.

2.10.3 Bian Que: The Famous Doctor There are so many famous doctors during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, whom are usually represented by Bian Que. Bian Que, with the surname Qin, the first name Yueren, was born in Bohai of the Qi State (maybe the present Renqiu City, Hebei Province), in the fifth-century BC. When he was young, he studied medicine from Chang Sangjun and got many secret Danfang (prescription) medical books and practiced medicine among common people for a long time. The treatment of the disease changes with the local conditions: being a daixiayi (gynecologist) in the Zhao State, an ermubiyi (an ENT doctor) in Zhou, and a xiaoeryi (pediatrician) in Qin. He left his footprints throughout provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi. When Bian Que diagnosed a patient, he usually applied the four-step diagnoses of “feeling (their pulse), looking (at their tongues and their outside appearances), listening (to their voice and breathing patterns), and inquiring (about their symptoms).” He was especially good at feeling the pulse and looking at

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the appearance. It is said that Zhao Jianzi was seriously ill, unconscious for 5 days. Everyone thought that there was no cure until Bian Que felt his pulse and made the diagnosis that he would be better in no more than 3 days. Later Zhao Jianzi really recovered. Sima Qian praised: “Bian Que was the first to adopt pulse feeling in this country.” (Shiji-Bian Que Canggong Liezhuan). Bian Que is proficient in stone needle, acupuncture, massage, decoction, hot compress, surgery, ear-insufflating, guidance, and other methods and can apply comprehensive therapy for different illnesses. For example, when the prince of the Fu State got ill and suddenly “died,” Bian Que found that there was still some sound in his ear, his nose quivering, and the inner sides of both thighs still warm. He thus judged it must have been a “corpse-like syncope” (like shock, suspended animation). So Bian Que treated him with acupuncture, hot compress, and decoction. Twenty days later, the prince recovered. Bian Que advocated finding the disease as early as possible and treating it in time. He met Duke Huan of the Qi State several times. According to the changes in his qi and blood, Bian Que found the Duke got illnesses in the striate and interstitial space, in blood, in viscera, and in bone marrow. He advised the Duke to treat it in time. But the Duke did not agree, delayed the treatment, and finally died. Bian Que not only had superb medical skills but also worked out some medical books. In Book of Han-Treatise on Art and Literature, there recorded 9-volume Bian Que Nei Jing (Bian Que’s Inner Canon of Medicine) and 12-volume External Canon of Medicine. Chun Yuyi, the famous doctor at the early time of the Western Han Dynasty, said that he had received The Medical Books of the Yellow Emperor and Bian Que from his teacher. Although these works have been ruined, their influence can still be seen in some unearthed and handed-down medical books.

2.10.4 Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts During the winter of 1973 to the spring of 1974, a batch of medical silk manuscripts and bamboo scripts were unearthed at the No. 3 Tomb of the Han Dynasty in Mawangdui, Changsha. They were classified into four categories: One is the description of the 11 vessels and the model of vessels like Zubi Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm), Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels) A, and Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels) B; the second is the medical prescriptions like Wushier Bingfang (Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments); the third is about the guidance of health, such as Daoyin Tu (Drawings of Guiding and Pulling), Yangsheng Fang (Recipes for Nurturing Life), and Quegu shiqi (Eliminating Grain and Eating Qi); and the last, the others, are such as books on birth-Taichan Shu (Book of the Generation of the Fetus) and books on curses and magic – Zajin Fang (Recipes for Various Charms) and so on. With regard to the age of these medical books, experts have verified that the earliest books were written in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the latest was written from the end of the Warring States to the Qin and Han Dynasties. As far as

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the contents are concerned, Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) finished during the Qin and Han Dynasties is more primitive. Zubi Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm) is by far the earliest documents dealing with the meridian vessels. The book, starting from the foot vessels and then to the hand vessels, briefly explains the ways the 11 meridian vessels in human body work, the main diseases they dominate, and the corresponding treatments. There are similar contents in Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels) A and Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels) B. They both, starting from the Yang Vessels and then to the Yin Vessels, elaborate on the eleven vessels of Foot Great Yang Vessels, Foot Minor Yang Vessels, Foot Yang Brilliance Vessels, Shoulder Vessels and Ear Vessels, the cycling course of each vessel, and 147 diseases they dominate. There are totally 15,000 words in Wushier Bingfang (Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments), recording 52 categories (in fact 45 categories in the book) of ailments, including 103 types of internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, and the ENT, 208 existing prescriptions, and 247 types of pharmacy [11]. Daoyin Tu (Drawings of Guiding and Pulling) is the collection of illustrative plates of the ancient therapeutic physical education, including 44 guiding gestures of man and woman of different ages. They can be roughly divided into three categories: physical exercise, breathing exercise, exercise equipment. Some gestures imitate the flying, running, and jumping gestures of birds and animals, called yaobei (swinging the upper arms), longdeng (dragon ascending), shen (niaoshen, stretch), and xiongjing (bear ramble). Exercises with guidance of these gestures can stretch oneself, promoting qi and blood, strengthen the body, and prevent diseases. Yangsheng Fang (Recipes for Nurturing Life) provides methods to nourish and build up the body by medical recipes, among which there are prescriptions for black hair, vigorous walking, and treatments for hemiplegia and perineum swelling. Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts provide precious documents for transiting from empirical medicine to theoretical medicine in traditional Chinese medical research, establishing the theoretical system of channel theory and the development of acupuncture (Fig. 2.8).

2.10.5 Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) is a masterpiece of medical theory during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Although it is not out of one person nor finished in one period of time, most of it should be the works written during the Warring States Period. After being sorted, integrated, supplemented, modified by the medical scientists in the Qin and Han Dynasties, its content became more abundant.

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Fig. 2.8 DaoyinTu unearthed from No.3 Han Tomb of Mawangdui (a copy)

The popular Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) nowadays includes two parts, Su Wen and Lingshu, with totally 18 volumes and 162 articles. It focuses on the basic theories of human anatomy, physiology, pathology, etiology, diagnosis, etc. and descriptions of acupuncture and meridians, healthcare, and other aspects as well. It states that all organs and body surface of the human body are an organic whole. If a certain part of the body is sick, other parts or even the whole body may be infected, and the whole-body condition may affect pathological changes of the parts. This holistic view constitutes one of the most important features of traditional Chinese medicine. Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) makes a systematic and comprehensive discussion of the theory of visceral manifestations and the theory of meridians. The theory of visceral manifestations is based on human anatomy and systematic understanding of living organisms. The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine believes that the five internal organs (liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney) are the most important organs of the human body, the storage of spirit, qi, and blood as well as the foundation of life. In the

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five internal organs, the heart is the most important organ for life activity, the blood circulation, consciousness, and sweat. The lung is takes charge of qi, being the starting point of the qi and blood circulation. The liver has the characteristics of “storing blood” and “dispersing depression” and is in charge of eyes, anger, and veins. The spleen, together with the stomach and the intestine, is responsible for transforming the water and grains into the blood and body fluid. The kidney is the main organ for storing jing (the vital essence) and in charge of water. The stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bladder, gallbladder, and sanjiao (triple energizers) are six hollow (Fu) organs. Their main function is to transform the water and grains, conducting fluid and dregs. Among them, the stomach is the most important. Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) clearly records the courses of the 12 meridian vessels, the visceral in meridian system, and the diseases related to them, still the idea that the twelve meridians are connected to each other like an endless circle. It also discusses the 15 collaterals, the odd 8 veins, and the 12 meridians, believing that the meridians enable the outside to communicate with the inside, contact the organs, and run the blood and play an important role in the physiological and pathological processes of the human body. It is also of great significance in diagnosing and treating diseases. Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) theoretically expounded the basic problems of the occurrence, development, clinical diagnosis, and treatment of physiology, pathology, and disease with the Wuxing (the five elements) Theory of Yin-Yang popular at that time. It points out that the human body must maintain a relative balance of yin and yang. “If yin and yang are in harmony and can adjust with the four periods of time,” no illnesses will be caused. People should actively “support the heaven and the earth and master the yin and yang” as the general outline for dealing with various medical problems. Based on this, it proposed some dialectical treatments like “good doctors tell the yin and yang before looking at the appearance and feeling the pulse.” “Yang diseases should be cured from yin, and yin diseases should be cured from yang.” “The cold is treated with heat, whereas the heat should be treated with cold.” “When the mother is sick, her child is involved.” “When the child is sick, it is mother that is involved.” “The mother is virtually nourished while the child is actually treated.” Although there are inevitably nonscientific components, the achievements of Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon of Medicine) are still obvious.

2.11

View of Nature: Wuxing, Yin-Yang Theory, and Qi Theory

In the long-term production activity and life, the ancients gradually formed a simple and systematic view of the natural world, reflecting the thinking mode of the East. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a natural view represented by Wuxing (the five elements), Yin-Yang Theory, and Qi Theory was formed, which has an important impact on later generations.

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2.11.1 Wuxing (The Five Elements) Wuxing are what people nowadays call jin (metal), mu (wood), shui (water), huo (fire), and tu (earth), similar to five elements. However, this is only a presentation. With deep analysis, it shows “One creates another” and “One conquers another” and the profound ideas in these processes. Wuxing, as a term, first appeared in Shangshu-Ganshi completed in the Shang Dynasty, “The lord of Hu wildly wastes and despises the five elements (that regulate the seasons), and has idly abandoned the three acknowledged commencements of the year.” Later, it was elaborated in Shangshu-Hongfan: • Of the five elements, the first is water; the second, fire; the third, wood; the fourth, metal; and the fifth, earth. (The nature of) water is to soak and descend the fire; (the nature of) fire is to blaze and ascend the wood; (the nature of) wood is to be crooked and straight the metal; (the nature of) metal is to yield and change the earth; on the other hand, (the nature of) earth is seen in seed-sowing and in-gathering. That which soaks and descends becomes salt; that which blazes and ascends becomes bitter; that which is crooked and straight becomes sour; that which yields and changes becomes acrid; and from seed-sowing and in-gathering comes sweetness. It can be seen from the above that water, fire, wood, gold, and soil are the most common substances in people’s lives. The description of the properties of these five elements is in line with the experience of ordinary people: the water flows down; the fire rises; the wood is soft and flexible and can be straightened or curved; metal can either be soft or hard, stretched, and solid; soil is fertile and can grow grains. From the source of Chinese traditional thoughts, Hong Fan first linked water, fire, wood, metal, and soil with five flavors (salty, bitter, sour, spicy, and sweet), which is the first sign of the five elements’ compatibility. Hong Fan is a book written in the Zhou Dynasty, but according to studies, its original text was completed in the Shang Dynasty and was processed and compiled at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. It can be said then that Hong Fan marks the formation of the original five elements in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the late years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a discussion about the ontological significance of the five elements. In the ninth reigning year of King You of the Zhou Dynasty (773BC), Bo, the court historian, answered Duke Huan of the Zheng State: “So the king mixed earth with metal, water, wood, and fire to produce hundreds of things.” The original meaning of this statement is to explain the principle of “harmony among different things” but also indicates that five basic substances can be “mixed into hundreds of things.” According to Guoyu-Zhouyu, in 572 BC, Duke Xiang of the Shan State said: “There are six elements in the heaven and five elements on the earth, that’s the common sense.” “Six elements in the sky” refer to the six essences such as the yin, yang, wind, rain, darkness, and light; “five elements on the earth” refer to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, which had been summarized like a law of nature. Also in Yi Zhou Shu-

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Wushun, there is a saying, “There are five elements on the earth. It is bad if they cannot create or conquer each other.” This can also prove that the primitive theory of the five elements has got an ontological significance. Around the end of Western Zhou Dynasty and the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, the ancients had gradually realized that the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water have mutual restraints, that is, the “five elements conquer each other.” Yi Zhou Shu-Wushun records: “Among the five elements proposed, there must be cyclic conquering.” In Zuo Zhuan, there are also records. Shi Mo, the senior official of the Jin State, explained the results of the eclipse and its divination and speculated the victory of human conquest, with “fire melts metal” (the 31th year of Duke Zhao) and “water extinguishes fire”(the 9th year of Duke Ai). In Zuozhan-the 7th Year of Duke Wen, there is the earliest record of the order of the five elements’ cyclic conquering: “water, fire, metal, wood, earth, and grain, which are called the six fu.” Although it doesn’t straightforwardly present the cyclic conquering, the order has implied the relationship between the five elements. The more clear expression of the five elements’ cyclic conquering is recorded in HuainanziZhuixingxun in the Western Han Dynasty: “wood parts earth; earth dams (or muddies or absorbs) water; water extinguishes fire; fire melts metal; and metal chops wood.” The cyclic creation of the five elements is first presented in Guanzi. Guanzi is a book named after Guan Zhong, the Prime Minister of the Qi State. But it is in fact a collective work. Five elements theory is interpreted in Youguan, Sishi, Wuxing, and other articles of Guanzi, belonging to the cyclic creation system. Sishi marks the five directions of the east, the south, the middle, the west, and the north with the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Wuxing divides the year into five 72 days, matching the ganzhi (sexagenary cycle) with the 5 elements, of which the order of five seasons, respectively, match with wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, reflecting the thought of the five elements. A more explicit statement can be found in Huainanzi-Tianwenxun: “Wood feeds fire; fire creates earth; earth bears metal; metal collects water; and water nourishes wood.” In short, in the late years of the Warring States Period, the five elements theory had developed from the five substances in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties into an evolutionary theory of cyclic creation and conquering among different things. It is not only a theory of five material attributes but also a theoretical model of universal significance, satisfying the conditions that can have cyclic creation and conquering, irreversible but conformable to the simplest principles, and even penetrating into many branches of the natural sciences. The idea on classification in the five elements theory promoted the formation of many basic concepts from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties; the corresponding appearance of the five elements in medicine, astronomy, agronomy, and alchemy has become an important method for arranging empirical materials and expounding the basic principles. The cyclic conquering of the five elements has become the basic principles of traditional Chinese medicine, and the cyclic evolution theory on the five elements has been applied by traditional Chinese medicine to construct the creation-conquering theory concerning the five internal organs.

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2.11.2 The Yin-Yang Doctrine The yin-yang doctrine seems simple but is actually complicated and profound. The initial meaning of yin and yang refers to the shade and the light of the sun, and the two are usually joined together. They first appeared in the Book of Songs-Daya: “He determined the points of the heavens by means of the shadows; and then, ascending the ridges; He surveyed the light and the shade.” Later, the meaning of yin and yang was extended and changed. When King Xuan of the Zhou Dynasty ascended to the throne (827 BC), and Duke Wen of the Guo State advised Xuan Wang on farming, he denoted the spring as “the season in which Yang-qi is rising and the earth is awakening” and described the thunder and lightning as follows: “When the yin and yang are equally distributed, the thunder awakens the dormant.” (Guo Yu-Zhou YuI).① In the second year of King You of the Zhou Dynasty, earthquake happened in Jing, Wei, and the three plains of Luo (the central part of Shaanxi nowadays). Boyangfu, the court historian, explained it with the disorder of the yin and yang, “when the Yang-qi is suppressed by the Yin-qi under below and can’t break through, there is an earthquake” (Guo Yu-Zhou Yu I). In 645 BC, the meteorite fell and the “six flying birds retreated” in the Song State, Shuxing, Neishi (official of the Zhou Dynasty), explained that it was caused by the yin and yang, not by the good or ill luck (Zuozhuan-Duke of Xi). In 545 BC, Zishen, a senior official of the Lu State, explained the eclipse with the yin-yang doctrine, “When on either of the two solstices or either of the two equinoxes, there is an eclipse of the sun, it does not bring disaster. . .but because the yang force does not prevail, the disaster is regularly a flood.” (Zuozhuan-Duke of Zhao). During this time, He, a doctor of the Qin Dynasty, proposed the doctrine of six qi, “the six qi refers to yin, yang, wind, rain, darkness, and light” and thought the causes of the six illnesses in human were ‘an excess of yin brings illnesses of cold; an excess of yang brings illnesses of fever’.” (Zuozhuan-Duke of Zhao). In short, from the ninth century BC to the end of the sixth century, the ancients used the concept of yin and yang to explain various natural phenomena, including climate change, lightning, earthquakes, meteorites, eclipses, and causes of diseases. During this period, yin and yang have developed from the original common words into two kinds of natural factors that confront each other and counterbalance (Fig. 2.9). From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the concept of yin and yang was further abstracted and sublimated. Laozi thinks that “All things leave behind them the obscurity (out of which they have come) and go forward to embrace the brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonized by the breath of vacancy.” That is, everything in the universe has both yin and yang properties and is unified in conflicts. Guanzi-Sishi has “yin and yang are the laws of heaven and earth.” Xunzi-Tianlun has “The four periods of time alternate with the solar terms, while yin and yang transform to different things.” “The change of heaven and earth is the transformation of yin and yang.” So far, yin and yang have been regarded as the most basic attributes of the universe to illustrate the universal relationships of nature. Yin and yang, as philosophical concepts, are also reflected in the Yi-ology. Zhuangzi said “the yi, to show the action of the yin and

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Fig. 2.9 The cyclic creation and conquering of Wuxing

yang.” In Book of Changes-Xicizhuan compiled by Confucius and his disciples, it states, “The successive operation of yin and yang constitutes what is called the Way (in which things develop).” The author of Book of Changes regards yin and yang as the law that runs through all things in the heaven and on the earth, giving it the meaning of ontology and epistemology. Xicizhuan also states: “Qian represents what is the yang; Kun represents what is the yin. These two unite according to their qualities, and there comes the embodiment of the strong and the weak.” “The strong and the weak push themselves each into the place of the other, and hence the changes take place.” That is, the yin and yang, the strong and the weak, push each other to change, generating the law of the evolution of everything.

2.11.3 The Qi Theory The Qi theory reflects the subtlety of ancient Chinese thinking. At the low level (physical level), it is real gas (such as air and airflow); at the high level (philosophical level), it is the basic force that constitutes everything in the universe. The Qi theory originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was combined with the yin and yang theory from the beginning. See Guoyu-Zhouyu: • In the second reigning year of King You, earthquake happened in the three rivers of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Boyangfu exclaimed, “The Zhou Dynasty is going to die out! The qi of the heaven and the earth should not be disordered. If the order was broken, there would be disturbance among the people. When the yang qi was blocked inside and the yin qi was suppressed, the earthquake would happen. Now the earthquake happened in the three rivers just because the yang qi lost its position and suppressed the yin qi. When the yang qi lost its position and suppressed the yin qi, the source of the rivers would be blocked. If the source of the rivers were blocked, the nation would die out. When the soil is moistened

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by water, the people could take advantage, while if the soil is dried, the people would lose wealth. What if the nation does not die out? In the article, Boyangfu explained the cause of the earthquake as the imbalance of the Yin and Yang, of which the essence is to explain the relationship between the heaven and the human beings via the disorder of heaven and earth. The Qi theory in the Spring and Autumn Period is used to explain the order and universal connection of the world and has not yet dealt with the issue of the origin of all things. In the early Warring States Period, Laozi proposed: “The Dao produced one; one produced two; two produced three; three produced all things. All things leave behind them the obscurity (out of which they have come) and go forward to embrace the brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonized by the breath of vacancy.” Even though the academic circles have different opinions on the interpretation of specific words, the idea in Laozi that qi theory is contained in the cosmic creation system is affirmed. “All things leave behind them the obscurity (out of which they have come) and go forward to embrace the brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonized by the breath of vacancy.” It can be understood as follows: When the yin and yang qi are in harmony, they produce the three and then produce all things. This is the first time in the history of Chinese philosophy to put forward the idea that the yin and yang can transform into all things. Of course this is not the principle, because there is a supreme and absolute “Dao (way)” above it. Dao is the more fundamental thing outside the heaven and the earth. In Zhuangzi-Zhibeiyou (Knowledge Rambling the North), the concept of “one qi” is clearly put forward: • The life is due to the collecting of the qi. When that is collected, there is life; when it is dispersed, there is death. Since death and life thus attend on each other, why should I account either of them as an evil? Therefore all things go through one and the same experience. Life is accounted as beautiful because it is spirit-like and wonderful, and death is accounted as ugly because of its fetor and putridity. But the fetid and putrid is transformed again into the spirit-like and wonderful, and the spirit-like and wonderful is transformed again into the fetid and putrid. Hence it is said, “All under the sky there is one qi of life, and therefore the sages prized that unity.” The “one qi” here is derived from the “one” of “The Dao produced one” of Laozi. “All under the sky there is one qi of life” shows that the world is a continuous unity, and everything is produced through qi, which is the basic idea of Chinese philosophy of qi. There is a wealth of thoughts on the qi theory in Guanzhong School. Guanzi-Neye states: • What is Dao (the Way), the mouth cannot express, the eyes cannot see, and the ear cannot hear. . . .It is ever so abstract that Dao (the Way) has neither roots nor stalks, neither leaves nor blossoms. Yet what gives life to all things and brings them to fruition is termed Dao (the Way).

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Here, the invisible Dao is regarded as the origin of all things created in the universe, which is obviously consistent with Laozi’s thought on Dao. However, the Guanzhong School also changed Laozi’s Dao to the essence: Laozi thinks that “Who can tell the nature of Dao?. . .Profound it is, dark and obscure; Things’ essences are all there endure. Those essences are the truth enfold of what, when seen, shall then be told.” In Neye, the jing of youjing is interpreted as “the vital essence,” which is put as follows: “The vital essence is the essence of the vital force.” And on many occasions, the Dao and the qi in Guanzhong School are universal. For example, Guanzi-Neiye states: “Now Dao (the Way) is what fills the mind’s gestalt.” Guanzi-Xinshuxia states: “The qi (vital force) is what fills the self.” Here, the Dao and the qi are the same thing. In Xunzi’s view of nature, there is a qi theory that is in harmony with Guanzi and Lao Zhuang, but in an extended form. See Xunzi-Tianlun: • The ranks of stars move in progression; the sun and moon shine in turn; the four seasons succeed each other in good order; the yin and yang go through their great transformations, and the wind and rain pass over the whole land. All things obtain what is congenial to them and come to life, receive what is nourishing to them, and grow to completion. One does not see the process which has taken place. Compared with what is stated in Zhuangzi-Tian Zifang, “When the state of yin was perfect, all was cold and severe; when the state of yang was perfect, all was turbulent and agitated. . .. The two states communicating together, a harmony ensued and things were produced. Someone regulated and controlled this, but no one has seen his physical form. . . .these are brought about from day to day; but no one sees these processes”; it can be seen that Xunzi is a successor. Xunzi classified the nature on the basis of the Qi theory, as is elaborated in XunziWangzh i (Regulations of the King): • Fire and water possess energy but are without life. Grass and trees have life but no intelligence. Birds and beasts have intelligence but no sense of duty. Man possesses energy, life, intelligence, and, in addition, a sense of duty. Therefore, he is the noblest being on earth. Here, Xunzi not only divides the natural world into four categories – inorganic matter, plants, animals, and man – but proposes that the most basic material element that constitutes these four categories is qi. Xunzi changed the original Wuxing system, placing vegetation (plants) above water and fire, instead of classifying fire, wood, metal, and soil as equivalent categories, which indicates there had been an improvement in people’s ability of analyzing and inference at that time. This is also the most systematic and reasonable classification method with the development of the qi theory. The Qi theory is produced and developed on the basis of social life and production practice in China. In turn, it plays an important role in regulating the social life, production, science, and technology in ancient Chinese. The Qi theory is the main

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part of ancient Chinese philosophy and has penetrated into various disciplines, especially as a deep influence on Chinese medicine. (Translator: Jie Qiao) (Proofreader: Yunming Cheng)

References 1. Jueming, H. (1999a). Metal technology in ancient China – the civilization made by bronze and iron (p. 219). Zhengzhou: Elephant Press. 2. Jueming, H. (1999b). Metal technology in ancient China – the civilization made by bronze and iron (p. 339). Zhengzhou: Elephant Press. 3. Compiling Group. (1979). History of Chinese water conservancy (p. 110). Beijing: Water Resources and Electric Power Press. 4. Renjun, W. (1982). Mathematical Interpretation of acoustical Principles in Kaogong ji. Journal of Hangzhou University (Natural Science Edition), 9(4), 428–436. 5. Wusan, D. (2003). Illustrated Handbook of Kaogong ji (1st ed., pp. 144–150). Jinan: Shandong Pictorial Publisher House. 6. Xinian, F. (1980). On Zhaoyutu unearthed from the Zhongshan Tomb of the Warring States Period and its cemetery regulation. Journal of Archeology, (1), 97–118. 7. Yang, H. (1980). On the tomb of King Zhongshan of the Warring States Period and Zhaoyutu. Journal of Archeology, (1), 119–138. 8. Shuangquan, H. (1989). Exploration on the map unearthed from then Qin tombs at Fangmatan, Tianshui. Cultural Relics, (2). 9. Weiying, X. (1981). Collated and annotated Guanzi-Diyuan (pp. 35–38). Beijing: China Agriculture Press. 10. Yang, W. (1982). Exploration on the geological distribution of the ancient beings in China. In Collected papers on history of sciences (Vol. 10). Beijing: Geological Publishing House. 11. Yiyan, Z. (1975). The most ancient prescriptions found in China – Wushier Bingfang, the silk manuscript. Cultural Relics, (9), 49–60.

3

Chinese Agronomy and the Development of Agronomy Concepts Xiongsheng Zeng

Contents 3.1 The Developing History of Chinese Agronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 3.1.1 Pre-Qin Period (The Neolithic Age–221 BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 3.1.2 Period of Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . 92 3.1.3 Period of Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties (589–1368 AD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 3.1.4 Period of Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911 AD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 3.2 The Basic Content of Chinese Agronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 3.3 The Development of Agronomy Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Abstract

This chapter gives a detailed explanation for the developing history of ancient Chinese agronomy—from pre-Qin time to Qing Dynasty, the basic content covered in Chinese agronomy and the development of the important concepts in Chinese agronomy. Keywords

Developing history · Basic content · Agronomy concepts

3.1

The Developing History of Chinese Agronomy

Ten thousand years ago, when human beings first tried to plant the seeds of plants on the land, or to capture the young animals for captivity, they began to accumulate agricultural knowledge. However, it is late to appear as a science applied in guiding agricultural production, solving the technical problems encountered in agricultural X. Zeng (*) The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_3

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production, and even coordinating the relationship between people in the agricultural production process. According to archaeological data, China’s agriculture roughly has a history of tens of thousands of years and a written history of nearly 5,000 years. However, it was not until more than 2,000 years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (660 to 221 BC) that China began to enter the traditional agricultural stage and there appeared agronomy works on the theory and practice of agricultural production. Since then, until the end of the twentieth century, Chinese agronomy has continued to develop and evolve with a history of more than 2,000 years. During the period, there appeared hundreds of agricultural books in China. In terms of the subjects, these books are either the comprehensive ones on agricultural production and rural life or the specialized ones on a certain category. The most representative ones are four articles, namely, Lüshi Chunqiu (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals)-Shangnong (Laying Stress on Agriculture) in the Warring States Period, Fan Sheng Zhi Shu (The Book of Fan Shengzhi) in the Western Han Dynasty, Si Min Yue Ling (Monthly Ordinances for the Four Classes of People) in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Qi Min Yao Shu (Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People) in the Northern Wei Dynasty; in addition are Shan Ju Yao Lu in the Tang Dynasty; Si Shi Zuan Yao (Outline of the Four Seasons) in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties; Chen Fu Nong Shu (Chen Fu’s Agricultural Book) in the Southern Song Dynasty; Nong Sang Ji Yao (Essentials of Farming and Sericulture) in the Yuan Dynasty; Wang Zhen Nong Shu (Wang Zhen’s Agricultural Book), Nong Sang Yi Shi Cuo Yao (Essentials of Farming, Sericulture for Clothing and Food), Nong Zheng Quan Shu (Complete Treatise of Agriculture), Shen Shi Nong Shu (Agricultural Treatise of Shen’s), and Bu Nong Shu (Supplement to the Treatise of Agriculture) in the Ming Dynasty; and Shou Shi Tong Kao (Comprehensive Treatises to Instruct (the people) during All Seasons) of the Qing Dynasty. The four articles in Lüshi Chunqiu (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals) like “Shang Nong” are by far the earliest and comparatively systematic essays on agriculture. “Shang Nong” deals with the importance of agricultural production; “Ren Di” deals with the principles of land exploitation; “Bian Tu” discusses land operation and specific techniques in plant cultivation; and “Shen Shi” discusses the effects of timely cultivation on crop output and the quality of seed. Among the existing Chinese classics devoted to agriculture, Qi Min Yao Shu is the best preserved and most comprehensive. It systematically and comprehensively summarizes the vast amount of knowledge accumulated in the agricultural production technology in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in China before the sixth century and is regarded as an outstanding representative of ancient Chinese agronomic works which has a great influence on the development of Chinese agronomy. Its agronomic connotation reflects the general state of traditional Chinese agronomy. The book covers different contents “from farming to brewing and pickling,” embracing the planting industry, as well as sericulture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, and sideline product storage and processing. In the planting industry, it focuses mainly on food crops and fiber crops, oil crops, dye crops, feed crops, and horticultural crops as well. Other agricultural books after Qi Min Yao Shu also have their own merits. For example, Shan Ju Yao Shu deals with the tea planting; Chen Fu Nong Shu records the

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agricultural technology in the south; and Nong Sang Ji Yao adds the contents about ramie, cotton, watermelon, carrot, coronarium, renxian (a kind of amaranth), spinach beet, sugarcane, beekeeping, etc., as well as the local conditions. Wang Zhen Nong Shu compares agricultural technology between the North and the South and pictures the farming tools. Nong Zheng Quan Shu talks about the opening up wastelands, water conservancy, precautions against disasters and famine, and the introduction of Western technology. Shou Shi Tong Kao compiled the agronomic materials of the past. There are also a variety of “picturing” works after the Tang and Song Dynasties which expand the scope of agronomy research and explore much further some certain fields. Although Chinese agronomy has not experienced revolutionary changes such as “paradigm” breakthroughs for more than 2,000 years, it still presents a phased character. These phased features can be reflected in the overall characteristics of agricultural technology and the perfection of the technical system, as well as the content and structure of the agronomic works. According to these features, the history of Chinese agronomy is generally divided into the following stages.

3.1.1

Pre-Qin Period (The Neolithic Age–221 BC)

This is the period in China for the germination of agriculture and formation of agronomy. Elimination of the weeds and trees is the most important issue facing primitive agriculture. Almost all agricultural peoples of the world chose slash-andburn method when they were engaged in the cultivation, with stone knives and axes as the primary tools. After felling and burning, sometimes they had to process the land to a certain degree. That was why si (ancient spade-shaped farm tool) and lei (ancient fork-like farm tool) were used. To improve farming efficiency, they had to collaborate, thus creating the so-called paired tillage and coordinated tillage. Early metal tools, especially the bronze tools, like “钱” (spade), “镈” (hoe), and “铚” (sickle) recorded in The Book of Songs, might be less efficient than the stone agricultural implements in the processing of raw land and were therefore mainly used in inter-tillage and harvesting. Metal tools began to be used for land cultivation only after the emergence of iron farm tools and the use of animal power, which also made possible deep tillage, intensive tillage, and field drains. Early agriculture was also faced with an issue of choice, that is, products should be produced to meet the needs of life in certain circumstances. After a long period of exploration, by the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the content of traditional agriculture in China had been basically finalized, i.e., the “five grains,” “mulberry and hemp,” and “six domesticated animals.” The main focus was placed on the production of the “five grains,” and this practice made possible the preliminary development of cereal cultivation techniques, including soil improvement, crop distribution, breeding, farming time, disinsection and weeding, etc. The three essays of “Rendi,” “soil differentiation,” and “timing” in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals completed in the late Warring States are the summary of cereal cultivation technologies and also regarded as symbolizing the formation of Chinese traditional agronomy. The authentic authors of those essays are probably the “farm” school that appeared at the time for the purpose of “learning of Shennong.” The two traditions of

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Chinese agronomy, i.e., the official agronomy and the private agronomy, emerged at this time. The farm school originated from farming officials and was at first an official traditional. By the Spring and Autumn Period, rustics began to be engaged in it but represented a private tradition.

3.1.2

Period of Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties

Back then, the Yellow River basin in North China was the center of agriculture. Droughts, scarcity of rain, and excessive winds are the major disadvantages hampering the development of agricultural production in the northern region. Centering on fighting drought and preserving soil moisture, this period witnessed the emergence of special drought-resistant and high-yielding methods like “ridge-furrow method” and “area field method,” as well as the tillage system combining plowing-harrowing-flattening-pressuring-hoeing and supporting farm tools. Among them, louche (animal-drawn seed plough) attracted the widest attention. It is an animal-drawn agricultural implement for sowing. While stepping up the efforts to fight drought and ensure harvest, people also sought the sustainable use of the land through crop rotation, fertilization, soil improvement, etc. At the meantime, they also fostered many crop varieties adaptable to different cultivation conditions via ear selection and other relevant selection techniques. In addition to food crops, garden industry, forestry, animal husbandry, sericulture, fisheries, and processing and manufacturing also witnessed considerable progress in this period. Grafting technology had already become quite mature. Distant hybridization had been realized in domesticated animals. A large number of books on agriculture appeared in this period, including in genre both comprehensive books on agriculture and professional books on agriculture. Coverage of professional books had extended to agriculture and animal husbandry, sericulture, horticulture, fish farming, weather, and farming. The Book of Fan Shengzhi, Monthly Instructions for Four Classes of People and Qi Min Yao Shu (Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People) were representative books on agriculture of a high level, mainly describing the knowledge of the dry-land agricultural production along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River region. The Book of Fan Shengzhi was intended to encouraging farming, representing the official tradition; Monthly Instructions for Four Classes of People focused on household life and was an agricultural book of a private nature; and Qi Min Yao Shu was a comprehensive book with official background, as well as a focus on household livelihoods.

3.1.3

Period of Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties (589–1368 AD)

With China’s economic focus shifted to the south, the rice production technology in the southern became the focus of agronomy. Although many dry-land farming techniques and farm implements in the north can be copied, the particularity

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of paddy field farming should also be taken into consideration. The Jiangdong curve-beam plough emerging in the Tang Dynasty is a farm implement adapted to paddy field plowing in the south. Chao (a harrow-like implement for pulverizing soil) appearing in the Song Dynasty is a special agricultural implement designed for leveling the field surface before transplanting of seedlings. The particularities of paddy field also include nurturing of seedlings, transplanting, weeding, aeration, upland rotation, and different requirements on variety due to relatively complex and diverse natural environment. During this period, dry-land agriculture technology in the north still witnessed some development. Changes in the structure of the major food crops also required people to adjust and enrich the original planting techniques. Wheat, which has relatively weak drought-resistant capabilities, replaced millet to become the most important food crop in the north. Naturally, requirements would come along for further improvement in drought resistance. Nationally, the popularity of ramie and cotton, the rise of the rape, cultivation of sugar cane and tea, development of horticulture, shift of sericulture to the south, as well as farming of the “four fish” also required follow-up of the appropriate technologies in a timely manner. Agronomy writings of this period witnessed an unprecedented increase in number and prominent characteristics too. Firstly, the professional classifications and records on agriculture were most impressive, and they included The Classic on Tea, Silkworm Book, Classification of Orange Trees, Lichee Register Book, Peonies of Luoyang, Luoyang Flowers and Trees, Classics on Lei and Si, Classification of Mushrooms, and Classification of Icing. Secondly, seen from the authors, there were both officially compiled agricultural books such as Essentials of Farming and Sericulture and private writings such as Essentials for Living in the Mountains, and classifications and records writings were also mostly private writings. Thirdly, seen from perspective of regions, for the first time agricultural books appeared to reflect agricultural production knowledge in the Yangtze River Basin and areas to its south, or areas to the north and south of the river. Chen Fu’s Agricultural Book, Wang Zhen’s Agricultural Book, and Mulberry Farming for Food and Clothing are just a few examples.

3.1.4

Period of Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911 AD)

The rapid growth of the population forced people to adopt measures for improving land utilization and yield per unit area while doing everything possible to open up new farmland. The introduction of new crops of sweet potatoes, corn (maize) and potatoes, etc. from the Americas simultaneously helped expand the cultivated area and improve the yield per unit area. Increase in investment, especially in fertilizers, is the main way to improve the original crop yields of rice. However, it caused the problems urgently to be solved, such as the development of new manure sources and accumulation, manufacture and application of fertilizers, etc. Carving out land-use path of comprehensive utilization and sustainable development is an alternative in the face of population pressure. Comprehensive utilization of pond agriculture in some areas of the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta in the south provides a

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successful example. The development of agronomy is reflected in the appearance of a large number of regional and professional books on agriculture. These books are written for specific areas and specific production content and are a manifestation of further deepened and refined agricultural technology. At the same time, people turn their attention beyond agriculture, focusing on elements that have no direct relation to those specific areas or specific production but that have a serious impact on the development of agriculture. Those elements include water conservancy, famine administration, etc. So Complete Treatise on Agriculture and other large-scale integrated agro books emerged. Winning widespread attention from the people together with water conservancy and famine policy, there is modern agronomy which rose in the West and began to spread into China. It was also at this time that the concept of “agronomy” was put forward and become an independent branch of learning. Especially after “the First Sino-Japanese War” (1894) in the late Qing Dynasty, insightful people regarded the introduction of modern Western agronomy as a strategy for bringing strength and prosperity to the country. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many important agronomy writings with academic values, and the outstanding ones included Complete Treatise on Agriculture, Heavenly Creations-Grain, Shen’s Book on Agriculture, A Supplement to the Book on Agriculture, Knowledge Outline-Agriculture, Notes of Farming on Different Kinds of Lands, Yuan-Heng’s Complete Collection on Equine Medicine, Miscellaneous Notes on Gardening, etc. Most of these can be seen as the product of the traditional private agronomy. Regarding official agronomy traditions, Shou Shi Tong Kao and various versions of Farming and Weaving could be taken as representatives. Other books with official background included Baodi Books on Encouraging Agriculture, Album for Facilitating the People, Jiangnan Lessons for Rice Farming, Compendium of Agriculture, as well as various sericulture writings published in the Qing Dynasty via organization by governmental agencies.

3.2

The Basic Content of Chinese Agronomy

The Chinese character “农,” which originally meant “farming,” specifically, may initially meant implements for farming. The traditional form of “农” is “農”or “辳,” both of which are related to “辰”. One theory believes that “辰” refers to time, and agricultural activities must be carried out according to time; so “农” carries the meaning of “辰,” i.e., the meaning of starting with sunrise and ending with sunset, or “morning is the best time to start farming, so farming denotes morning” (On the Origins of the Six Types of Chinese Character, Volume II). This is a subsequent explanation. Initially “辰” referred to farm tools. Huainanzi-Fanlunxun said, “The ancients carved plows for farming, and honed shells for inter-tillage.” The Chinese character “蜃” is formed by adding the character “虫” to the character “辰,” which refers to stone, stone knives, and the like. “辱,” formed by adding the character “扌” (variant of 手) to the character “辰,” refers to weeding, harvesting, and other operations holding “辰” in one’s hands. When the character “虫” is added to “辰,” the resultant character “蜃” means clams; and small clams are known as “蛤” and

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giant clams as “蜃.” In coastal regions or places near the lakes, people would select large clam shells among the large number of candidates after eating the clams, honing them to form tools for weeding and harvest. Accordingly, the subsequent Chinese character “薅” has the meaning of weeding. Farming was initially meant to remove the weeds, and the purpose of weeding is to grow food crops. The ancients had used such a concept as the basis for defining farming. In Xunzi-Wealth of Nation (10), there is a statement, “marking the demarcation lines according to the areas of the arable land, removing the weeds and planting crops and enriching the fields with manure are the business of the farmers and the masses.” In Book of Han-Food and Money, there is also “Farming means reclaiming lands and planting crops.” In Shuo Wen (literally explaining the characters), there is “farming, also known as planting.” And in Shangshu-ZhoushuHongfan, there is “earnest devotion to the eight (objects of) government.” Note: “farming is what benefits livelihood. . . . It is also the style of ancient Yandi Shennong. Yandi told the people methods to plant cereals, hence he is styled Shennong by the people, to pay homage to his godly skills in agriculture. Lishan had a son named ‘农,’ who can plant various cereals.” “Plowing fields for planting cereals” is a fundamental concept of the Chinese people about agriculture, while the so-called agricultural science is also knowledge of the “plowing fields and planting cereals.” From definitions of “three types of farmer produce nine cereals” and “trusting farmers with agricultural activities and order tribute of nine cereals” in The Rites of Zhou and the juxtaposition of three farmers with gardening, sowing and reaping, and arboriculture with equal significance, we can see that back then “农” was used in the narrow sense of the word, referring to cereal farming only. Qi Min Yao Shu is the earliest extant and most complete masterwork on agriculture in China. The first chapter of the book begins with “plowing,” “collecting the seeds,” and “planting cereals.” “Although Essentials of Farming and Sericulture—the existing earliest agriculture book—has exposition in the first chapter of the origin of agriculture and the importance of agriculture, the main body still begins with “plowing fields” and “planting cereals”. This definitely proves the status of “plowing fields for planting cereals” in Chinese agronomy.” To plow the field, one must use the tools first. The meaning of the character “耕” is using farm implements in the fields. As Confucius said, “Good tools are prerequisite to the success of a job.” This cited as the purpose of “appropriateness of utensils” in the first volume of Chenfu’s Agricultural Book. Farm tools are part of the contents in the traditional Chinese agronomy. The earlier statements about farm tools are scattered in the agricultural books. For example, in Qi Min Yao Shu-Farming, it stated, “When the wastelands are being reclaimed to wet field, they must be mowed in July. When the grass withers, burn it, then dig up when the next spring comes. If the roots get rotten, it will save man power. If the tree are big and huge, cut it, when the leaves fall down, there’s no shadow, and the field can be used for cultivation. Three years later, when both the roots and the stems wither, burn them and make them absorbed into the earth. When these barren lands were cultivated into fields, harrow them all over with the iron tooth rake, spread prosomillet in, and level the filed with the leveler. In the next year, they will turn into the grain field.” Here, when

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the field is mowed, trees are cut, and land is harrowed and leveled, some special farm tools are used. But it only mentions one farm tool – iron tooth rake – without records of its shape and function. It is not until the Tang Dynasty that there appeared the work on farm tools – Classics on Lei and Si. Then in Song and Yuan Dynasties, there appeared Catalog of Farm Tools and Pictures of Farm Tools, and the latter is a masterpiece on farm tools among traditional Chinese agronomy. From the Pictures of Farm Tools, we know that the “iron tooth rake” mentioned in Qi Min Yao Shu is what the later generation called “herringbone rake” and “lao (a farm tool for levelling the fields)” is what later generation called “mo,” also “gai,” that is, the toothless cymbal, made up of flexible wooden strips on the horizontal bar of the cymbal, used to scrape the field and break the clods. “Field” (tian), composed of borders and crisscross footpaths and ditches, refers to arable land. The land is fundamental material for agricultural production. Land use and soil improvement are fundamental issues in the traditional agronomy. It is possible that initial planting was carried out on lands after animals trampled or foraged on them. Elephant fields, bird fields, and elk fields are cases in point. Later, the slash-and-burn approach was used to open up agricultural land. The opening paragraph of Qi Min Yao Shu-Farming is about reclaiming the wasteland. With the growth of the population, people adopted a variety of ways to expand arable land. So there were pitting fields, terraces, diked fields, artificial floating fields, silt fields, sand fields, stone mulch fields, and other patterns of land use, which become the main contents of agricultural books. In the process of dealing with the land, the knowledge of soil science was first to be developed. The color and texture of the soil can be directly observed through the human eyes and the hand touch, and the degree of fatness is reflected by the plants growing on the land. In the primitive agricultural period, people applied slash-andburn methods to open up land. The land selected for chopping was often based on the types of plants grown on the land. The so-called to know about the five grains, just to observe the five woods in the agricultural history literature is the reflection of the original habits. Later, people gradually linked the growth of plants (crops) to the color and texture of the soil, recognizing the relationship between color, texture, and fertility. With the broadening of the horizon, people combined the understanding of the soil with the topography and geographical location, so there were soil geography and soil zoning, as well as agricultural zoning above the soil division. Different places have different soils, and different soils grow different plants. “Sweet oranges will be sour oranges when they are move to the north of Huaihe River.” (Zhouli·Kaogong ji) Can the plant seeds be introduced between different places? This becomes a so-called “terroir” problem that is often controversial in the history of Chinese agronomy. The earliest work related to soil science, Yu Gong, is concerned with the situation between soil and property. The “three types of farmers produce nine grains” highlight the relationship between the terrain and agriculture. According to the topography, the ancients divided agriculture into the so-called three types of farmers – flat land farmers, wet land farmers, and mountain farmers. The crops planted by the three types of farmers were different, so there was a saying of

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“nine grains.” In the face of the land, the problems agronomy concerns are, first, “land appropriateness,” i.e., land planning and utilization, and “planting crops in accordance with the (appropriate) land,” and second, “adding manure to soil” to improve soil via fertilization so as to improve the production potential of the land. This also involves the problem of soil and fertilizers. Although the soil science appears early in China, it became mature late. When the real agronomic writings were produced, the content of the soil was only scattered in the agricultural books, and there was no special soil science work. People put more energy on another issue related to soil, which is manure. In the process of dealing with the land, it was found that after 3 or 5 years of planting, the yield decreased and, at the same time, in some places where animal droppings were left, the crops grew particularly well, so the concept of the original fertilizer was “manure.” The object of manure is soil, so the content of fertilizer in history is called “soil added to manure,” which means fertilizing the soil and improving the soil. The original manure is the animal’s manure, and the variety of manure is becoming more and more. In addition to the natural raw materials, there are also various artificially produced fertilizers, which are matured due to the different degrees of processing and natural fermentation decomposition. The fermented fertilizer is called mature manure. “Mature manure” was first mentioned in The Book of Fan Shengzhi. The undecomposed manure contains more harmful organisms and is harmful to people and crops. So people use it with caution. In Qi Min Yao Shu, it firstly mentions that the raw manure may cause “grass shortage,” while in Chen Fu’s Agricultural Book, the influence of raw manure on people and crops is also mentioned. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the increase in the amount of fertilizer used, the accumulation of fertilizers was more concerned, so various methods of composting were summarized, and they were scattered in various volumes of various agricultural books. The methods of using fertilizer are also different depending on the periods of fertilization, because there is a bottom (base fertilizer), a seed fertilizer (fecal seed), and a top dressing (relay). There is also a summary of the principle of fertilization of the Sanyi due to the land, the time, and the cause. In the Song Dynasty, there was also the appearance of a special fertilizing tool “manure plough.” [1] The plowing is aimed at cereal planting. Grain is the general term for cereals or food crops. Usually the most widely mentioned is the term “five grains,” referring to Proso millet, Foxtail millet, wheat, soybeans, and rice, or Proso millet, Foxtail millet, wheat, soybeans, and coarse cereals. The main difference lies in whether there existed rice or hemp. The main reason for the disagreement is that there were in fact more than five crops in all and different species in different places. As is put in Wu Li Lun (Disquisition on the Principles of Things) by Yang Quan, “Liang (fine grain) is the general name for Proso millet and Foxtail millet; Dao (rice) is the general name for nonglutinous rice; Shu is the general name for all beans; as for three grains, there are respectively 20 types for each and totally 60 types; when adding 20 types of seeds of vegetables and fruits for each to the grains, there are totally 100 types, just as is put in “The Book of Songs (Shijing), ‘to seed

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100 grains.’” “Nine grains” mentioned in the Rites of Zhou usually refer to Panicum miliaceum (shŭ), proso millet (sù), sorghum (shú), rice (dao), coarse cereals (ma), soybeans (dadou), red beans (xiaodou), barley (damai), and wheat (xiaomai); but some say there were no sorghum and barley but fine grain (liang) and mushrooms (gu). While “nine grains” in The Book Fan Shengzhi refer to rice (dao), millet (mi), Panicum miliaceum (shŭ), coarse cereals (ma), sorghum (shú), soybeans (dadou), red beans (xiaodou), barley (damai), and wheat (xiaomai), in Caomu (herbs and plants) of Gujinzhu (Notes to Things Old and New) by Cui Bao of Western Jin, “nine grains” refer to Panicum miliaceum (shŭ), proso millet (sù), rice (dao), fine grain (liang), three beans, and two wheats. The reason why “five grains” is so popular may be due to the influence of Wuxing. Therefore, generally speaking, “five grains” refer to food crops. Besides food crops, there are different plants in Chinese history like different types of vegetables, fruiters, bamboo wood, flowers, dyes, tea plants, sugarcane, beet, alfalfa, and all kinds of herbs. These plants are either native like proso millet (sù) and rice (dao) or introduced from abroad like wheat, cotton, sweet potato, corn, potato, peanut, and tobacco. More of vegetables and fruiter are introduced from abroad. From the period of two Han Dynasties to the period of two Jin Dynasties, cucumber, shallot, flax, walnuts, peppers, eggplants, alfalfa, grapes, pomegranates, and apricots were introduced from the land. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, crabapple, dates, alocasia, pittosporum, sea pine, circassian bean, lettuce, spinach, etc. were introduced via the sea. During the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, carrots, sweetsop, guava, papaya, mango, pineapple, chili, tomato, onions, cabbage, locust, Jerusalem artichoke, etc. were introduced [2]. Crop cultivation (especially food crop cultivation) constitutes the main theme of Chinese agronomy. However, the authors of agricultural books in history often have their own choices when writing agricultural books because of their different understanding of agriculture. For a long period of time, the content of flowers was excluded from the agricultural books. It was only after the Tang and Song Dynasties that the contents of ornamental plants appeared in the form of “bibliographic” genealogy works. In terms of grain cultivation, high yield and quality are always the goal, but high yield is placed in a higher priority. Therefore, just as Tiangong Kaiwu·Naili·Dao (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, Agriculture, Rice) puts it, “The kind called ‘fragrant rice’ is known for its fragrance and enjoyed by the aristocrats. With a small yield and lacking in nutritious value, this variety deserves no recommendation.” Different crops have different cultivation requirements, so to meet the cultivation requirements of crops and obtain the highest yield have become the main contents of crop cultivation in traditional agronomy. However, cultivating crops is not the whole of traditional Chinese agriculture. Grains are only able to meet people’s needs for rations. Clothing materials that are as important as rations need to be obtained by means of agriculture. At the same time, some of the physiological needs of human beings, especially the “meal cravings” that are commonly found in humans by anthropologists, cannot be satisfied simply by relying on grain cultivation. So, while people are planting crops, some animals are also selectively raised, such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, silkworms, and so

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on. This formed a unique structure of Chinese agriculture: five grains, mulberry and hemp, and six domestic animals. Mulberry and hemp are the main sources of clothing materials for Chinese people. Mulberry leaves are used to feed silkworms. The economic value of silkworms lies in silk, which is one of the main textile raw materials. China is the first country to use silk. Before people learned to grow mulberry, silkworms had been raised. Initially, it may be directly bred on mulberry trees and then transferred to indoors. Therefore, silkworms can be divided into wild silkworms and domestic silkworms. After the silkworms are bred indoors, human’s control of silkworms is increased, and silkworms were also more dependent on humans. For example, the regulation of indoor temperature, the prevention and treatment of silkworm disease, etc., have become the content of agronomy. In order to expand the scale of sericulture and promote the development of mulberry industry, various tree types and mulberry breeding techniques were developed to facilitate the picking of mulberry leaves and to increase their yield. Mulberry trees were originally arbor, but later different mulberry varieties appeared. Words on breeding the mulberry and silkworms were originally scattered in the comprehensive agricultural book. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, there appeared special works. (The King of Huainan’s Classics on Silk Breeding in Chongwen Shumu·farming school in the Northern Song Dynasty was believed to be written by the later generations.) The earliest extinct book on sericulture is Canshu (The Book of Silkworms) by Qin Guan of the Song Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such agricultural books were constantly emerging, but most of them are related to the mulberry cultivation and silkworm breeding in the south of the Yangtze River. Ma (hemp) was divided into cannabis, ramie, piemarker, and even ge, and later cotton was added. The kind mainly planted in the northern region was cannabis, a dioecious plant that played an important role in history. The grain of the female plant was one of the most important foods, and the fiber of it was the main source of the raw material for clothing. The ancient Chinese had long discovered the different genders of this plant, cultivated and utilized it according to the different characteristics. From the perspective of clothing raw materials, how to improve the yield and quality of the fiber had always been the focus of attention. The ramie originated in the south and was promoted to the north in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In the process of promotion, the key was the reproduction technology. Like ramie, cotton also encountered the so-called “terroir” problem in the process of being promoted from the north and south roads of the border areas in the Middle-earth area. The solution to the terroir problem ultimately depends on the improvement of cotton planting technology. This also made cotton cultivation one of the main contents in Chinese agronomy after the Song and Yuan Dynasties. “Six domestic animals” refer to animals such as horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and chickens, representatives of the livestock husbandry. In addition to the six domestic animals, there are many animals raised domestically in Chinese history, such as birds like geese, ducks, and quails; animals like elephants, deer, and masked civet; as well as various fish, bees, white wax insects, etc. Compared with the West, animal husbandry accounts for a very small proportion of traditional Chinese

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agriculture. People can easily find the differences between Chinese and Western agriculture from the food and clothing structure. Westerners have a higher content of meat and milk in their food structure, and most of their suits and shoes are made from animal products, such as wool, cowhide, and the like, while the clothing and food in China are mainly plant-based and are the so-called coarse clothes and simple fare. In traditional Chinese agriculture, livestock husbandry depends on the seed industry and provides animal power and fertilizer for the planting industry. The function of simply serving as an agricultural product to directly satisfy people’s food and clothing is weak. As a means of transport, horses are mainly used for aristocratic rides or marching. In the society where the state affairs are mainly sacrifice and military affairs, the horse is listed as the head of the six domestic animals. In the Preface to the Theory on the Water Buffalo by Chen Fu in the Song Dynasty, it is said, “The value of a horse can be several, tens of hundreds of, or even hundreds of thousands of times the value of an ox. Horses are for ride by the nobility and for military purposes, and are thus entitled to fine fodder, elaborate training, quality care, and tender reining. Groom, horse selecting official, driver and driving attendant are appointed for specific tasks. That is why horses are precious.” For this reason, the zoogenic and veterinary medicine related to horses has been supernormally developed. Although the treatment of cattle is not as good as horses, it is still widely used in agricultural production and transportation as the main source of animal power. At the same time, cattle is the main source of fertilizer, and “cattle contributes more than horses.” Sheep are raised mainly for the supply of meat or shearing for felt and the accumulation of manure. Pigs are raised mainly to provide fertilizer and meat. In addition, dogs are raised for house guarding, and the chickens are raised to herald the break of the day. That’s the functions of the six animals in China. In terms of livestock husbandry, different functions require different development goals, and different breeding goals require different feeding methods and measures. Take horse breeding as an example. Horses are used for war. Speed and endurance are the most important factors. What kind of horses have such characteristics? This is the focus of horse judging. How can horses be raised to be good at racing is the core of raising horses. For example, chickens are mainly raised for food. In order to improve the quality of food, fattening is the key to chicken-raising technology. Another important point is to increase the laying rate of hens. Therefore, one of the means is to prevent hens from cuddling prematurely. All of these are the contents of Chinese traditional agronomy. Since the goal of Chinese agriculture is to eat and drink, to satisfy people’s food and clothing, the content of traditional agronomy often extends to storage and processing and even cooking. Qi Min Yao Shu is such a farm book that “covers all the means of livelihood from farming to brewing and pickling.” That is to say, the content of Chinese agronomy covers the whole process “from hand to mouth,” which makes the content of Chinese agronomy more complicated. But this is not the whole content of Chinese agronomy. As Lüshi Chunqiu (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals) has put it, “in planting, human beings are the initiator, earth the lifegiver and heaven the nurturer.” Chinese agronomy extends its perspective to the day of heaven and earth.

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The ancients consider the nature as heaven. The so-called heaven in agronomy refers to the climate of agricultural production. Light, heat, water, and gas directly affect the growth and harvest of crops. While the ancients felt the warm of spring, hot of summer, cool of autumn, and cold of winter, they saw the whole process of the growth that the organism experienced: germination, flowering, and fruiting. They also observed that in the process no timely rainwater made them wither and excessive rainwater hurt them. “Water is the lifeblood of agriculture.” Before human beings were able to make big water conservancy, rainwater was the main source of agricultural irrigation. Because climate factors such as rainwater are affected by the seasons, the heaven often refers to the weather or climate, and the weather mainly refers to rainwater. “Floods or droughts, depends on the climate.” Later, people discovered that “there are different weathers in only ten li and there are four seasons in a mountain.” Floods and droughts are also affected by geographical factors in addition to seasonal influences. If the geographical location is different, the weather is different, and the crop types and their cultivation methods are different. In the theory of terroir, the wind refers to climate factors such as weather, and the earth refers to climate factors such as soil. In agronomy, the weather is also called the farming season. “When it does not disrupt the farming season, the grains are more than enough.” The farming season is a basic question related to astronomy, calendar, and phenology and discussed in Chinese agronomy. Human beings are also one of the factors to be considered in traditional agronomy. While ancient Chinese agronomists explored agricultural technology, they did not neglect the understanding of those who mastered technology. They believed that among the three forces of heaven, earth, and man, man is the most important factor in agricultural production, so there are Chinese sayings like “The time isn’t as important as the terrain; but the terrain isn’t as important as unity with the people.” and “Man can conquer the nature.” The human factor is composed of “man” and “manpower.” The unity of people needs to be maintained by morality. Manpower includes both intelligence and physical strength. Therefore, man in the three forces can be decomposed into morality, intelligence, and physique. Among all factors related to man, in addition to personal psychology and behavior, there are still the production relations between people in social production, which are all taken into consideration by traditional Chinese agronomy. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, people seemed to have found that human factors were playing an increasingly important role in agricultural production. Therefore, for today’s people, there appear concepts that seem to have nothing to do with the agronomy in agricultural books, such as “financial power (caili),” “residence ( juchu),” “savings ( jieyong),” “scrutinizing efforts ( jigong),” “long-term planning (nianlv),” and “offerings and reports to god (qibao)”; “persuasive help,” “pray,” and other articles in Wangzhen Nongshu; and statements on being thrifty, humility, employee choosing and drawing over, and tenant treatment in Complement to Book of Agriculture (Bu Nongshu) and “official regulations and taxation (Quanke)” in Shoushi Tongkao (Comprehensive treatises to instruct during all seasons). And these contents are also part of the Chinese agronomy content.

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In addition to the “three forces” theory, ancient Chinese agronomy also applied the concepts of “Yin and Yang,” “Wuxing (five elements),” and “qi” in traditional philosophy to explore the deep mechanism of agricultural activities. Qi is the basis of the existence of matter, five elements are the forms of material existence, and Yin and Yang are the basis of material changes. Everything in the world is dominated by “Yin and Yang,” “five elements,” and “qi,” as is the formation and breeding of agricultural organisms. Therefore, Chen Yu said: “All things receive qi at the right time, come up because of qi.” Theory on Agriculture (Nongshuo) by Ma Yilong of the Ming Dynasty and Zhiben Tigang by Yang Shen of the Qing Dynasty also discuss agricultural production with this theory.

3.3

The Development of Agronomy Concepts

In the Chinese literature, the earliest person known to have used the concept “agronomy” is Xu Guangqi. In Complete Treatise on Agriculture (Nong Zheng Quan Shu), Xu Guangqi comments on Wang Zhen’s Agricultural Book of the Yuan Dynasty as this, “Wang is better at poetry than agronomy, and he is not so good as Miao Haoqian and Chang Shiwen in agronomy.” Xu Guangqi believes that agronomy should be what a scholar studies. In Commentary on Resisting Enemy in Anbian (Ni Shang Anbian Yulu Shu) written in the mid-November of the first year of the Ming Dynasty (1604), Xu Guangqi proposed the basic of agronomy is “farming and value grains.” He sighed with regret, “since the Tang and Song Dynasty, the state haven’t had officials for agriculture; officials do not care about farming; scholars do not talk about agronomy, and people do not specialize in farming.” [3]. Xu Guangqi divides agriculture into four areas, namely, agricultural officials, agricultural administration, agronomy, and farming. Different groups of people should engage in their own business. The government is responsible for setting up agricultural officials, officials are responsible for formulating agricultural policy, scholars are responsible for research on agronomy, and peasants are responsible for farming. It is explicitly mentioned that agronomy is the business of a scholar (intellectual), which is very close to the content of agronomy in modern times. After Xu Guangqi, the term “agronomy” was rarely mentioned until the rise of modern agronomy in China in the late Qing Dynasty when it began to be widely used. However, before Xu Guangqi, there was neither the word “agronomy” nor the theory “agronomist” but the name of “farming school,” which originally referred to one school of the hundreds schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. They believed in Shennong, the legendary agricultural founder, who advocated that “the monarch and his subjects should plough together,” sharply opposite to Confucian thoughts and ideas (In the point of view of the Confucians, there was division of labor in society and the so-called business of the high and mighty and that of the insignificant; there is the so-called people working with their mind and undertakings requiring [physical] labor. Those who labor with minds govern others and those who labor with physical strength are governed by others. Those who labor with physical strength feed others and those who labor with

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minds are fed by others. Agriculture is the business of the insignificant people, while rulers (the so-called people who labor with their mind) do not have to get engaged in agricultural production: “If the emperor abides by the rites, then none of the people dared to disrespect him. If the emperor is righteous, then none of the people dare to disobey him. If the emperor is credible, then none of the people dare to betray him. If the emperor can fulfill the above requirements, then people would come to him from far and wide with their juniors. Why should he need to plant crops?”). Since Book of Han, the historical works of the past dynasties have been referring to the works on farming as “farming school.” The farming school is one of the most important academic schools in the ancient three religions and nine schools of thought. In Treatise on Literature and Art, Book of Han, it is put as follows: “Farming schools come from officials in charge of agricultural affairs. Illustration on planting of various cereals and encouraging farming and sericulture so as to provide adequate food and clothing—that is what they are good at.” Before Xu Guangqi used the concept of “农学” (agricultural science), books related to agriculture were called “农 家” (farming schools) in historical records, even in books written by Xu Guangqi himself. However, the definitions for “farming school” in the ancient times were broad or narrow. The development of the concept “farming school” can be traced in the historical works on agriculture. The earliest one is Treatise on Literature and Art, Book of Han. There are totally 114 pieces of nine schools’ works collected in the Chronicles of Han Dynasty: Shennong (Divine Farmer), Yelao, Zaishi (Zai’s Book), Dong Anguo Shu (Dong Anguo’s Book), Yin Duwei Shu (Book of Commander Yin), Zhaoshi (Zhao’s Book), Fan Shengzhi Shu (Book of Fan Shengzhi), Wangshi (Wang’s Book), Cai Gui (Cai Gui’s Book), etc. Though most of the above books have been lost, they mainly dealt with the field cultivation and grain production according to the introduction in the Book of Han and the existing Book of Fan Shengzhi. This is what people view “agriculture” in minds at that time. In the Treatise on Food and Money, Book of Han, “Farming means reclaiming lands and planting crops.” That is to say, in the Han Dynasty, only cultivating the field and producing the grains can be called agriculture, except that other works cannot be regarded as agricultural works. Thus, books such as Qingyu Zhiyu (Praying for rain and Stopping Rain), Taiyi Zazi Housui, Zigan Zazi Housui, Shennong Jiaotianxiang Tugengzhong, Zhaomingzi Diaozhong Shengyubie, Zhongshu Zangguo Xiangcan, etc. seemingly with titles related to agrometeorology, soil cultivation, fish farming, fruit trees, sericulture, etc. are listed in the “miscellaneous augury,” while contents like “scouting the six domestic animals” related to the shapes of livestock in modern times are listed as “the sort of forms” along with Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of the Mountains and Seas). In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the scope of agronomy in people’s minds expanded, which is fully reflected in Qi Min Yao Shu (Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People. Qi Min Yao Shu is known as “ranging from planting to sauce, encompasses all things related to subsistence,” involving farming, seed selection, sowing, crop cultivation, fruit planting, livestock and poultry breeding, food processing, etc. aspect. In some respects, it even surpasses the modern definition of agronomy.

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However, Jia Sixie still has his own choices for the content of agronomy. For example, commercial activities and ornamental plants are excluded from agronomy. He said, “Attending to trifles to the neglect of essentials is what the sages do not approve of. If one only cares about the wealth at hand, he will become poor and suffer hunger and cold, so the business of the merchants is not recorded. The flow of flowers and plants is pleasing to the eye. Those only with spring flowers but no autumn fruits just look impressive but lack real worth of storage” (Preface to Qi Min Yao Shu). The records on farming school in The Book of Sui – Treatise on Classic Books can also reflect people’s views on agronomy at that time. “Farmers’ sowing grains and planting mulberry are for food and clothing.” In addition to standard agronomic works like Book of Fan Shengzhi and Qi Min Yao Shu, Monthly Instructions for Four Classes of People by Cui Shi of the Eastern Han Dynasty were included in the farming school for the first time, as well as Jinyuan Shilu and Chunqiu Jishi Liuchang Niyi, which, judged from the title of the book, may be related to gardening and neglected affairs of the state. It is particularly noteworthy that this part also mentions the works related to animal husbandry, such as Tao Zhugong’s Fishing Methods, Bu Style Sheep Raising , Pig Raising, and Yuezheng Animal Husbandry and Farming. However, books such as Gao Tanglong’s Xiang Niu Jing, Wang Liang’s Xiang Niu Jing, Bo Le’s Xiang Ma Jing, Quezhong Copper Horse Methods, Xiang Ya Jing, Xiang Ji Jing, Xiang E Jing, and Tian Jia Li are still excluded from the farming school and are listed in the “five elements” category. At the same time, veterinary works such as The Therapy for Horses, included in the “medical prescriptions,” are also excluded. In the Old Book of Tang – Treatise on Classic Books, the farming school is defined as “recording, seeding, planting and crafting.” However, from the agricultural books it collected, this definition did not seem to have been strictly enforced. The most obvious point is that Xiang He Jing, Xiang Ma Jing, and Xiang Niu Jing were introduced and transferred to books like Eagle Jing, Sniper Record, Xiang Bei Jing, Qian Pu, etc. There are 19 books, 26 sections, and 235 volumes of farming school recorded in the New Book of Tang – Treatise on Literature. There are two points worth noting: First, it broke through the concept of agronomy defined in Qi Min Yao Shu and included horticultural works in the farming school, such as Wang Fangqing’s Yuanting Caomu Shu (Commentary on the Grass and Woods in Gardens), Li Yong’s Jingu Yuan Ji (Notes on Jingu Garden), etc. Second, the works on seasons and monthly ordinances are in high proportion. In addition to the Si Ren Yue Ling (i.e., Si Shi Yue Ling, Monthly Ordinances for the Four Classes of People), there are also Zong Lin’s Jingchu Years, Du Gongzhan’s Jingchu Years, Wang’s Four Seasons, Sun’s Qian Jin Yue Ling, Xue Deng’s Four Seasons, Yu Cheng’s Cheng Yu Yue Ling, Wang Ya Yue Ling Tu (Maps on Monthly Ordinances), Li Chuo’s Qin Zhongshi Shi Ji (Mid-Qin Years), Wei Xinggui’s Baosheng Yue Lu, Han E’s Si Shi Zuan Yao (Essential Farm Activities in All Four Seasons), and Sui Hua Ji Li. There are 107 books and 423 volumes of agricultural works collected in the History of Song – Treatise on Literature, Farming School. The scale of this record is

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unprecedented, which means the corresponding expansion of the agronomy’s scope. In The History of Song, not only the works on seasons, climates, and the gardening works were regarded as farming school but also the genealogical works were included, like book of fragrance, wine classics, and even book of brocade; also included are Shanju Yaoshu, Political Book, Jingjie Bowing Method, and other works which have extended the scope of farmhouses to the seclusion of some scholars, agricultural policies, and land surveys. However, The History of Song is the work of the Yuan people and cannot represent how Song people view farming school. The Song people wrote many directories, and they have their own views on the farming school, but the standards vary. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Chongwen Zong Mu (The General Catelogue of Chongwen) (in the first year of Song Qingli (the Reigning of Emperor Renzong, 1041), complied by Wang Yaochen, Ouyang Xiu, and others) defined the farming school very narrowly, “Farming school come from food and clothes.” The agronomic work was defined as “the craft of planting trees,” and only 8 sections and 24 volumes were in line with this definition, that is, 10 volumes of Qi Min Yao Shu, 3 volumes of Zhao Ren Ben Ye, 3 volumes of Shan Ju Yao Shu, 1 volume of Da Nong Xiao Jing, 1 volume of Nong Jia Qie Yao, 1 volume of Nong Zi, 3 volumes of Huainan Wang Can Jing, and 2 volumes of Sun’s Can Shu (Book of Silkworm) (Chongwen Zongmu (Volume V, Farming School)). However, books of seasons and climates and genealogy were all excluded from the farming school. Huo Quan Zhi Shu (Book of Currency) was classified into the “Xiao Shuo Jia” (philosophical school) (Chongwen Zongmu (Volume VI)). Then, in Chao Wugong’s Qun Zhai Du Shu Zhi (the twenty-first Shaoxing year, 1151 AD), the books of seasons, tea records, wine classics, and currency books returned to the farming school (Qun Zhai Du Shu Zhi (Volume III, Section 1 )). It deemed that the years in the historical writings and farming in the philosophical writings are “inseparable.” (Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 218)). “In the Treatise on Literature of the three Song Dynasties, the seasons and times are to make people know about the weather and the order of planting, recorded with the products and currencies, and also help the source of food and clothing. So it is recorded here.” (Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 218)). This is the reason why the seasons and climates were included in the farming school. The collecting scope of Tong Zhi (written in thirty-first Shaoxing year, 1161 AD) seems to have returned to being narrow. It only contains 12 sections and 47 volumes of works (Tong Zhi (Volume 68)). The book set up a separate part of the seasons and climates that incorporates the monthly instructions related to the farming school. In addition to works on the seasons and climates, it is more difficult to deal with books such as “genealogy,” “records,” or “classics.” Therefore, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Sui Chu Tang Shu Mu (written in Chunxi’s fifth year of Xiao Zong, 1178): “It set up a single category to collect the fragrance spectrum, stone spectrum, crab records that to no categories can be attached. That’s the best example.” This is a major innovation of the book. However, Pu Lu is only a genre. In terms of content, some works of the Pu Lu should belong to the farming school, such as Tong Pu, He Pu, Litchi Pu, and Yang Yu Jing. For this reason, people have created the genre Pu Lu for agricultural books. This category of books did not overlap with those in the

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farming school. On the contrary, the Si Min Fu Lu Lun (On Blessing and Fortune of Four Classes of People) and Jin Dai collected in Sui Chu Tang Shu Mu may be far from being related with farming. The books collected in Sui Chu Tang Shu Mu include seasonal works such as Xia Xiao Zheng. However, the Song people also have different views on whether such seasonal works should be covered in the farming school. For example, Chen Zhensun’s Zhizhai Shulu Jieti (completed in the Southern Song Dynasty, 3 years before the spring of 1262) states: “Before, seasonal books are included in the farming school of philosophical writings. Nowadays, books are either on the national ceremony or the customs, without those specialized in farming. Therefore, Zhongxing Guange Shumu set up a particular category and included it in the historical writings.” (Zhizhai Shulu Jieti (Volume VI)). It also stated, “Farm school originated from farming officials: Only hard work in farming and sericulture could make enough food and clothes. As for Shennong's words, Xu Xing did learn it. Ye Lao of the Han Dynasty is not passed on, while records in the Tang Dynasty collect the books of seasons, climates, monthly instructions, and books on observing oxen, horses, which are especially irrelevant to farming. As for the books of currency, shellfish and eagles and cranes, how could they be related to farming? Nowadays, they are included in their own category, and the flowers, fruits, and planting are still covered in the farming school and attached here. In fact, the industry and commerce are the causes of the problem.” (Zhizhai Shulu Jieti (Volume X)). Thus, in the Zhizhai Shulu Jieti, the books of seasons, climates, domestic animal observing, currencies, shellfish observing, and those of the eagles and crane are all excluded from the farming school. Its scope of collection is generally above the Chongwen Zongmu and what it believes to be related to agriculture, such as flowers’ variety, Orange records and Litchi genealogy, and the like. Ma Duanlin’s Wen Xian Tong Kao noted, “According to the History of Song– Treatise on Literature, previously all the works of the seasons and climates are included in the philosophical writings of the farming school. Only the Zhongxing Guange Shumu set it as a peculiar category and listed it as the historical writings, with the reason that the other schools are not specialized in farming. That’s also why it succeeds nowadays with totally 17 schools, 18 sections and 199 volumes.” (Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 201)). Ma Duanlin agreed to take the seasonal works out of the farming school but didn’t think that the works on medicines, cattle and horse observing, tea and wine classics should be excluded, “According to Chao and Chen, it is the historical tradition to include the works on medicines, cattle and horse observing, tea and wine classics in the miscellaneous schools and categories. Now the works on medicines, cattle and horse observing had better be attached to the medical prescription and divination, while those on tea and wine attached to the farming school, and the rest to their own category.” (Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 229)). The Qing people did not really agree with the farming school defined by Ma Duanlin. Continuation to Wen Xian Tong Kao pointed out, “To include the wine classics and book of crabs seems to be uncoordinated with the style.” (Continuation to Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 173)). Huangchao Wen Xian Tong Kao also noted,

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“Ma Duanlin compiled one series for the farming school by quoting the Song History – Treatise on Literature: products, currencies, and recorders are also helping in the food and clothing, that’s why they are listed here. However, adding Xiang Pu to the farming school is no difference to attaching Qian Tu (Map of Currencies) to the genealogy, which is like what goiter caused to the body.” (Huangchao Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 228)). In Qianqingtang Shumu compiled by Huang Yuji of the early Qing Dynasty, books like tea classics, flower genealogy, and fruit records were well excluded from the farming school. For example, the book contains the Dao Pin, Yu Jing, and Can Jing by Huang Xingzeng, but Zhong Yu Jing (Fishing classics) and Yi Ju Shu (Book of Planting chrysanthemum) which were called Nong Pu Si Shu (Four books on Agriculture and Gardening) together with Dao Pin and Can Jing were not included. Instead, Jiu Huang Ben Ca, Ye Cai Pu, and Ru Cao Bian and the like were included (Qianqingtang Shumu (Volume XII)). The Ming History –Treatise on Literature, edited by Zhang Tingyu of the Qing Dynasty, also embodies how the Qing people defined the farming school. The book contains 23 sections, 191 volumes of the farming school works, all of which were written in the Ming Dynasty. Except for Qun Fang Pu, which is not entirely about the cultivation of field crops but more about ornamental plants, the rest are all books on tree planting, famine relief, and monthly instructions. However, Zhong Yu Jing and Yi Ju Shu in the Nong Pu Si Shu by Huang Xingzeng were still excluded. The editors of the Siku Quanshu found that “the items related to farming contained in historical records were so miscellaneous that works of different schools were generally cited or pulled over from one another. Because of farming, it extends to Xiang Niu Jing; because of Xiang Niu Jing, it extends to Xiang Ma Jing, Xiang He Jing, Ying Jing, Xie Lu, and even to Xiang Bei Jing. Later, Xiang Pu and Qian Pu also came into the category. In the meantime, because of the five grains, it extends to gardening history; because of gardening history, it extends to Zhu Pu, Lizhi Pu, Ju (orange) Pu, and even to Mei Pu and Ju (chrysanthemum) Pu. And later, Yu Rui Bianzheng and Yangzhou Qionghua Pu were also included. Because of the sericulture, it extends to Cha Jing (tea classics), Jiu Shi (wine history), Tang Shuang Pu, and even to Shu Shi Pu. And later, Yi Ya Yi Yi and Yin Shan Zheng Yao were also included. If things go like this, will it extend to arithmetic and astronomy because of Si Shi Yue Ling, to wind angle and Niao Zhan (augury) because of Tian Jia Wu Xing (Tian’s Five Elements), to Su Wen (Plain Questions), and to Ling Shu (Divine Pivot) because of Jiu Huang Ben Cao? Now, only agriculture is remained by removing every miscellaneous category so that agriculture would be paid more attention and millet will be valued. That’s a great way of significance without diverting from the original intention in Bin Feng and Wu Yi. While tea business is a little closer to the farming school, the making of Long Feng Tuan Cha (tea made into the round shape with patterns of dragon and phoenix) and the magnificent tea sets (silver spoons and jade bowls) is not what farmers do. So it is put into other categories in order not to surpass the agriculture in the future.” (Siku Quanshu Zongmu (Volume 120), Zibu (XII) (farming school)). In their view, the works that really belong to the farming school only include those directly related to farming, grain, sericulture, etc. and others cannot be counted in. Therefore, in Siku Quanshu Zongmu (Complete Library

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in the Four Branches of Literature), there are only 10 sections and 195 volumes of the farming school works such as Qi Min Yao Shu and Chen Fu’s Agricultural Book. Even in Cunmu, there are only 9 sections and 68 volumes of Lei Si Jing (Classics on Lei and Si), Geng Zhi Tu Shi (Poems on the Farming and Weaving Picture), etc., putting the total at under 20. This can also be taken as the definition of agronomy by the compilers of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature. “Siku Quanshu retained only agriculture but removed all the other categories not so related to it. It especially followed the way You Mao’s Suichutang Shumu made it, that is, to set up a section of Pu Lu, to cover the wine books and tea classics, a flexible and a good choice. Xu Tong Kao in the five dynasties had followed this way as the example, which is still kept till now. Small technique though, it is advisable without diverting the original intention of Bin Feng and Wu Yi.” (Huangchao Wen Xian Tong Kao (Volume 228)). Shou Shi Tong Kao edited officially at the same period is also limited to agriculture and sericulture. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China began to imitate foreign countries by organizing agricultural associations and issuing agricultural journals. In May 1897, the Agricultural Journal founded by Luo Zhenyu and others clearly stated “to focus on the real agriculture, and also sericulture and animal husbandry, but nothing else” (Small Cases of Agricultural Journal). Obviously, in the minds of the founders of the Agricultural Journal, agronomy still refers to the cultivation of field crops represented by “the five grains.” In general, the Qing people tend to narrow the scope of the farming school and agronomy. Nowadays, agronomy is defined as the theory and practice in agricultural production, or, the science to improve the agricultural production, including crop cultivation and breeding, farming, soil and fertilizer, plant protection, agricultural product storage and preliminary processing, application and improvement of agricultural machinery, farmland water conservancy, agricultural production management and fruit trees, vegetables, flower production, etc. In a broad sense, it also includes livestock raising, sericulture, forestry, and fisheries. Westerners define it as the science, art, and business of cu1tivating the soi1, producing crops, and raising 1ivestock. In ancient times, there is no agronomic concept in the modern sense. They may refer to farmer-related content as the farming school. Although there have been differences in the past dynasties, the views on the farming school are generally similar. This is based on the basic needs of human existence. All activities related to food and clothing are called “agriculture,” and the related works are “the farming schools.” Compared to modern agronomic definitions, this definition is sometimes broad and sometimes narrow. When it is narrow, flowers and plants are not to be covered. When it is broad, all means of livelihood are not enough to be covered. Xu Guangqi, the person applying the concept of agronomy the earliest, in his book Nong Zheng Quan Shu (Complete Treatise on Agriculture), deals with not only the technical problems of agricultural production but also many issues of agricultural administration. The issue of agricultural administration is more related to rural and peasant issues. Even in the Qing Dynasty, when the scope of the farming school was

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narrowed down, the Jiu Huang Ben Cao and Ye Cai Bo Lu were included. However the two are only about the collection of wild plants, having nothing to do with planting and breeding. It can be seen that the scope of ancient agronomy is much broader than that of today. (Translator: Jie Qiao) (Proofreader: Caiyun Lian)

References 1. Xiongsheng, Z. (2005). Manure plough invented in the song dynasty. Journal of Science and Technology in China, 26(3), 246–247. 2. Hansheng, S. (1981). Outline of Chinese agriculture heritage (pp. 43–44). Beijing: The Agriculture Press. 3. Liang, J. (1981). Chronicle of Xu Guangqi’s life (Vol. 73). Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House.

Kaogong ji and Ancient Chinese Handicraft

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Contents 4.1 Overview of Kaogong ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 The Nationality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.3 Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.4 Written Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Structure and Contents of Kaogong ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 Volume I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Volume II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Academic Value of Kaogong ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Technical Monograph of “Chinese Characteristics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Textual Records Verified with Unearthed Cultural Relics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Scientific Knowledge in Kaogong ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 Mechanics Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 Astronomical Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.3 Mathematical Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.4 Chemical Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.5 Historical Material of Weights and Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Versions’ Origins and Research Works on Kaogong ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.1 Shisan jing zhushu: Zhouli by Zhonghua Book Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.2 Sibu beiyao Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.3 Sibu congkan Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.4 Siku Quanshu Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

112 112 114 115 116 117 118 122 125 125 134 136 136 137 138 139 141 142 143 143 144 144 145

Abstract

This chapter firstly gives an overview of Kaogong ji from four perspectives— nationality, nature, ideas and written time. The in the second part, structure and contents of the work are introduced. In the third and fourth part, the author gives a W. Dai (*) Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_4

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further account of the academic value of Kaogong ji and the scientific knowledge covered in it. Finally, the versions’ origins and the research work done on Kaogong ji are told of to help people know the work better. Keywords

Kaogong ji · Structure and contents · Scientific knowledge · Academic value · Version origin and research work

Kaogong ji is the earliest literature on handicraft and technology in China. The book retains a large number of materials on handicraft producing technology in the pre-Qin period and brings together many production management and construction systems, which reflect the technical views at that time. Because of this, it is necessary to study the Kaogong ji to examine the origins of ancient Chinese science and technology and explore the ancient technical traditions. Kaogong ji seen today is part of the pre-Qin classics – Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou), which is formerly known as Zhou Guan (Offices of Zhou), consisting of six pieces of writing: “Tianguan,” “Diguan,” “Chunguan,” “Xiaguan,” “Qiuguan,” and “Dongguan” (i.e., Offices of Heaven, Earth, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter). In the Western Han Dynasty, “Office of Winter” was lost, and Liu De, King Xian of Hejian, took Kaogong ji to fill in. Then when Liu Xin proofread and laid out the book, Zhou Guan was changed to Zhou Li. So Kaogong ji is also called Zhou Li-Kaogong ji. The annotations and researches on Kaogong ji in the past generations are endless. Among them, there are Zheng Xuan in the Han Dynasty at the early stage, Jia Gongyan in the Tang Dynasty in the middle, and later Dai Zhen, Cheng Yaotian, and Sun Yirang in the Qing Dynasty. Since the second half of the twentieth century, with a large number of new archaeological discoveries, the knowledge of pre-Qin cultural relics has been enriched. The research on Kaogong ji has also risen to a new level with the application of scientific methods (Fig. 4.1).

4.1

Overview of Kaogong ji

In this part, some basic information of the nationality, nature, ideas, and written time of the book will be introduced.

4.1.1

The Nationality

The pre-Qin classics, due to their long history, the authors and the compiling time are often difficult to distinguish. Kaogong ji is no exception. There is still some controversy on its authorship, compiling time, and location. Most scholars believe that the Kaogong ji was made by the Qi people during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but there are also some strong objections. Therefore, it is necessary to explain the country issues of its author.

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Fig. 4.1 Photography of Kaogong ji

Many sages believe that the Kaogong ji comes from the hands of Qi people. For example, Lin Xiyi, a scholar of the Song Dynasty, said in the Kaogong ji Jie (Notes to Kaogong ji), “Kaogong ji must have been made by the Qi people, because the words sound like Gu Liang, which confirms it an ancient book of the pre-Qin period.” Jiang Yong, a famous scholar of the Qing Dynasty, said in Zhouli Yiyi Juyao, “Kaogong ji was done by the Qi people after the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.. . . Maybe the person in Qi and Lu good at physics, crafts and writing made it.” The historian Guo Moruo insists that Kaogong ji was made by the Qi people by writing a special article on it in the 1940s. There are three main reasons [1]: First, Kaogong ji cites all the other states except the Qi State and involves Qi when citing the rivers [2]. Second, Kaogong ji uses the Qi dialect (six cases). Third, the measurement cited in Kaogong ji is of the Qi system. Guo’s view has a great influence on the academic world. In the 1960s, scholar Chen Zhi further gathered the Qi and Chu dialects involved in Kaogong ji and pointed out, “Kaogong ji was probably written by the Qi people, and supplemented by the Chu people.” During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qi State was a principal vassal state holding sway over the East. The power was not only reflected in its politics, economy, and military, but also reflected in the accumulation and development of science and technology. The Qi State not only had a developed agricultural economy and handicraft industry, but also had the active academic thinking.

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The Jixia School of the Qi State has an excellent academic environment. The Qi rulers favored the scholars all over around, encouraging them to write books and set up a theory. The Jixia school once became the famous academic center of all the countries. Many important pre-Qin classics have been affirmed by the academic circles to have some relationship with the Jixia School. For example, Guan Zi by Guan Zhong and his disciples, Yanzi Chunqiu, part of Xunzi were all written by the Jixia School. Moreover, some scholars believe that Zhou Li was also written by the Jixia School [3], because analysis of Kaogong ji has shown its similarities or connections with Zhou Li, Guanzi, and Yanzi Chunqiu. This cannot be said to be a coincidence. It can be said to be reasonable that Kaogong ji was produced by the Jixia School.

4.1.2

Nature

Kaogong ji shows the regional color and the taste of the officially managed handicraft industry in style. Because of this, Guo Moruo proposed that Kaogong ji is the official compilation of the Qi State, which is endorsed by many scholars. If you have a comprehensive understanding of the Kaogong ji, it is not enough to say that it is an official book, and it’s necessary to specify the nature of the book. It can be analyzed from the following two aspects: First, what Kaogong ji records is the official handicraft industry, not the folk handicraft industry. Kaogong ji reflects the strict organization and management of manual production at that time. It involves six technical categories of 30 majors. Those engaged in each major is called “baigong” (the hundred artisans), above whom there are full-time officials to manage production, with such professional titles as “ren,” “shì,” and “shī ”(teacher). “ren” and “shì” belong to lower-level workers, and “shī ” are senior workers. The latter has greater authority, not only with supervision but also with punishment. The civil handicraft industry was interrupted without setting up professional workers. Kaogong ji reflects that there are both a fine division of labor and technical cooperation in the handicraft industry. This is the case of large handicraft workshops. Division of labor helps to improve professional skills, and collaboration promotes productivity and meets high-volume production. According to the Kaogong ji, in certain professional divisions, when it achieves a certain level of technology, it is called “guogong,” that is, “national-level” craftsmen. This is obviously not the case of the folk handicraft industry. Most of the artifacts recorded in Kaogong ji are military products or court supplies. Military products such as military vehicles, bronze weapons (ge (daggeraxe), ji (halberd), mao (spears), jian (swords), gongshi (bows and arrows), pijia (leather armor), and so on. During the Spring and Autumn Period, wars were always on, so the production of important weapons was controlled by the state to ensure the quantity and quality of weapons. The sacrificial vessels and bells are mostly used by the ruling class, not for the needs of the common people. It can be seen that what Kaogong ji reflects is not the production content of the folk handicraft industry. Second, Kaogong ji deals more with the institutional production procedures and technical specifications, rather than the general compilation of production technology.

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The whole book of Kaogong ji mainly covers the following contents: unifying the names of the product parts, establishing the material standards and material selection methods, formulating product design standards, determining the production process specifications, specifying the product inspection system and standards, establishing the urban construction system and architectural design system, etc. This is obviously not the content of technical data, but a production technology system with national standards. Kaogong ji is not the official compilation with a general discussion of handicraft production technology, which is also fully reflected in its compiling method. Except the narrative texts that must be added for explanation, most of the texts are hard and fast rules in the article style, in which each article is titled “whatever.” Even those narrative texts are mostly elaborated around the articles. In summary, Kaogong ji is a set of technical systems formulated by the Qi government to guide, supervise, and evaluate the production of the handicraft industry. That’s also the basic nature of the book Kaogong ji.

4.1.3

Ideas

In ancient China, the concept of “hehe” (和合) (literally harmony and union) widely influenced the fields of technology, art, way of act, social psychology, etc. “he(和)” means harmony; “he(合)” means union. The use of “harmony and union” not only represents the overall system of the connecting different qualitative elements but also reflects the ideological concept of ancient Chinese culture. The idea of “harmony” runs through Kaogong ji. The clearest expression can be seen in the opening paragraphs, “The state has six kinds of official duties.” “When the seasons of heaven are favorable, the local influences of the earth also are favorable, materials have their proper virtues, and the work of skillful workers is cunning, then these four being all combined, perfection is attainable.” This is indeed a profound creation principle or value standard in ancient Chinese technical tradition. The so-called tianshi (seasons of heaven) and diqi (local influence of earth) are constrained by objective factors from nature, while “caimei (proper virtues of materials)” and “gongqiao (cunning work)” are the subjective factors from the subject. The decisiveness of these two factors is directly reflected in the production of utensils. Kaogong ji believes that weather changes and geographical factors will affect the quality of the objects. What is “tianshi (seasons of heaven)”? Kaogong ji pointed out, “Heaven has its seasons of production and destruction; trees and grasses have a time to live and a time to die. Even rocks crumble, and water freezes or flows. These are according to the natural seasons of heaven.” That is, heaven sometimes helps everything grows, sometimes causing all things to wither; sometimes the vegetation is prosperous and sometimes withered; the stone sometimes breaks with its veins; the water sometimes solidifies and sometimes becomes rain and dew. These are all seasons of heaven. It clearly shows a certain understanding of the natural laws that do not transfer depending on human will. What is “diqi (local influence of earth)”? Kaogong ji stated, “When ju (the sweet-fruited orange) is transplanted to the north of the Huaihe River, it turns into zhi (the bitter-fruited orange); quyu (the crested mynah) could not live across the Jishui River; and he (raccoon dogs or badgers) die if they pass over the

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Wenshui River. This is doubtless affected by the effects of the qi of the earth. The knives of Zheng, the axes of Song, the pen-knives of Lu, and the double-edged swords of Wu and Yue are famous for their origin. In no other places can one make these things so well. This is natural because of the qi of the earth.” From the perspective of modern science, “the qi of the earth” includes various objective factors such as geography, geology, and ecological environment. Different geographical environments will affect the variation or survival of animals and plants; the mineral composition of different places is different, and the microelements contained in water are different, all of which will cause the difference in the structure and heat treatment of metal products. This is also the internal reason for the excellent knives of Zheng, axes of Song, penknives of Lu, and double-edged swords of Wu and Yue. Under the premise of adapting to the “seasons of heaven” and “local influences of earth,” that is, people’s adaptation to and coordination with nature, Kaogong ji emphasizes “proper virtues of materials” and “cunning work.” The so-called proper virtues of materials is to affirm people’s selectivity in the material quality and nature, requiring the craftsman to actively recognize the virtue of materials (including physical and chemical properties) according to actual needs. Specifically to the production of a certain object, it involves rational selection and use of materials. If the virtue of materials requires adapting to nature, “cunning work” affirms more of people’s creativity. Kaogong ji repeatedly mentioned that “when the three materials are prepared, a skillful man assembles it” and “when the six materials are prepared, a skillful man assembles it.” The “National Workers” (i.e., National Craftsman) appeared several times in the “lunren (wheelrights)” part and “luren (weapon-handle makers)” part, assuming the highest level of skill is the national craftsman. All these statements show that the author of Kaogong ji attaches much importance to the skill and respects the skill as well. In Kaogong ji, the concept of “harmony and union” is not only reflected in there fineness of the artifact production but also in the requirements for effective cooperation of utensils. Take the cooperation between the pole and the driving horse, for example. Kaogong ji emphasizes, The pole is required to be curved without any angle (uneven points), and the grain of the wood to be continuous and unbroken. The pole should always meet the requirement from either the charioteer or horses so that the chariot has room for maneuvering as they work together. After a day’s travel, the lead horse at the far left will not be tired; after they have traveled over the several thousand li, all the horses will not be tired; and the clothes of the charioteer will not be worn out, even after a year’s travel: it is the reason that all the parts of the pole are matched to each other.

In short, starting from the concept and goal of “harmony” and achieving the realm and effect of “harmony” through the methods and means of “harmony” is what the author of Kaogong ji believes and pursues.

4.1.4

Written Time

Kaogong ji does not clarify the written time of the book. When Zheng Xuan, a scholar of the Han Dynasty, annotated Kaogong ji, he wrote only a simple sentence under the

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heading “This is the record of a man of insight in the previous dynasties in preparation for his death.” Kong Yingda, a scholar of the Tang Dynasty, thought that it was from the Western Han Dynasty. And when it came to the Qing Dynasty, with more attention to the textual research and in-depth study, Jiang Yong believed that Kaogong ji “was written by the Qi people after the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.” And today, different schools contend to form a variety of views. The main viewpoints are as follows: 1. Kaogong ji was written in the late Spring and Autumn Period Representatives of this view are Guo Moruo and He Yezju. Their arguments can be found in the “On Nature, Location and Era of Kaogong ji” (in “on the State Management System in Kaogong ji”). 2. Kaogong ji was written in the early period of the Warring States Representatives of this view are Wang Xieshan, Yang Kuan, and Wen Renjun. Among them, the materials in Wen’s argumentation are most sufficient and analyzed in depth. For details, see “The New Exploration on the Written Time of Kaogong ji” (in the 23rd Series of Wen Shi, 1984). 3. Kaogong ji was written in the late Warring States Period Representatives of this view are Liang Qichao and Shi Jingcheng. Liang’s point of view was stated in “The Authenticity of Ancient Books and Their Written Time”; Shi’s idea can be seen in “The Exploration on the Written Time of Kaogong ji” (in Shumu Jikan (Bibliography Quarterly), Vol. 5, No. 3, 1971). 4. Kaogong ji was written in the Warring States Period Representative of this view is Xia Weiying. In the book The Interpretation of Agricultural Articles in Zhou Li, Xia denied that Kaogong ji is a supplement by the Han people and believed that it was originally part of Zhou Li. The author was a Yin-Yang specialist in the Qi State during the Warring States Period. 5. Kaogong ji was written in the Qin and Han Dynasties Representatives of this view are Shen Changyun and Liu Guangding. Shen’s argument was stated in “On one ancient official-Sikong and the content and written time of Kaogong ji” (in Journal of Chinese Literature and History, 1983, No. 3); Liu’s argument can be seen in “From Zhongding to Jiansui – Exploration on related questions of Liu Ji and Kaogong ji” (Collected Papers of Chinese Art Cultural Relics Symposium, Taipei National Palace Museum, 1991). In general, Kaogong ji is not compiled by one person or a book of an era. Many chapters were finished at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (a few even earlier), and the whole book was completed not later than the early Warring States Period. However, it cannot be denied that there are some individual chapters (or sentences) supplemented in the Qin and Han Dynasties.

4.2

Structure and Contents of Kaogong ji

According to the popular The Four Series Books, Kaogong ji is divided into two volumes (i.e., Zhou Li, volumes XI and XII). From the existing versions of the contents, the first volume of Kaogong ji can be divided into five chapters: overview,

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woodworking craftsman (gong mu zhi gong), metalworking craftsman (gong jin zhi gong), leather-working craftsman (gong pi zhi gong), and coloring craftsman (she se zhi gong). The second volume can be divided into three chapters: polishing craftsman (gua mo zhi gong), pottery craftsman (tuan zhi zhi gong), and woodworking craftsman (gong mu zhi gong). In fact, the book can also be considered to consist of seven parts: one general introduction and six subparts. The general introduction refers to the opening paragraphs, and the other subparts refer to the contents of the six major technical categories that are discussed later. According to the modern compiling methods, there are: Overview • • • • • •

Part 1 Woodworking (gong mu, wood chopping) Part 2 Metalworking (gong jin, bronze forging) Part 3 Leather working (gong pi, tanning and leather making) Part 4 Coloring (she se, color mixing, painting, and feather dyeing) Part 5 Polishing (gua mo, raw jade and stone processing) Part 6 Pottery (tuan zhi, pottery making)

According to the six subparts (i.e., the six major technical categories), 30 types of work (25 in actual use) are explained, respectively, indicating technical responsibilities, technical procedures, technical essentials, etc. (see Table 4.1) However, considering the consistency with the ancient book compilation, here we still analyze the structure and content of the Kaogong ji according to The Four Series Books:

4.2.1

Volume I

Volume I of Kaogong ji can be divided into five chapters: overview, woodworking craftsman (gong mu zhi gong), metalworking craftsman (gong jin zhi gong), leatherworking craftsman (gong pi zhi gong), and coloring craftsman (she se zhi gong). The overview can be divided into four parts: The first part is from the “The state has six kinds of official duties” to “These are according to the natural seasons of heaven” which is the opening statement of the whole book. This section first describes the six divisions of work in a country (the king and grand dukes, scholar officials, the hundred artisans, merchants, farmers, woman workers), then transfers to the special local arts and crafts, and finally discusses the relationship between the hundred artisans and the saints, emphasizing four principles producing the quality products (seasons of heaven, local influences of earth, proper virtue of materials, and cunning work). The second part is from “Generally speaking, woodworking comprises seven operations” to “Modeling in clay includes the art of the potter (taoren) and the protoporcelain maker ( fangren).” This part lists the 30 types of work to be discussed respectively in detail, that is, generally speaking, woodworking comprises seven

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Table 4.1 Technical types and duties listed in Kaogong ji Technology categories l categoreis Woodmaking

Metalmaking

Leathermaking

Coloring

Polishing

Pottery making

Technical categories Woodworking

Metalworking

Leatherworking

Painting and dyeing

Jade stone processing

Pottery

Types Lun Yu Gong Lu Jiang

No. 1 2 3 4 5

Che Zi

6 7

Zhu Ye

8 9

Fu Li Duan Tao Han Bao Yun Wei Qiu Hua Hui Zhong Kuang Huang

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Yu Jie Diao Shi Qing Tao

24 25 26 27 28 29

Fang

30

Duties Making wheels, chariot umbrellas Making chariot bodies Making bows Making handles of weapons Building city walls, palaces, irrigation channels, and water conservancy facilities Making carriages, farming tools Making musical instrument suspension, drinking vessels, and targets Making penknives Making arrowheads, spears, and halberds Forging bells (musical instrument) Forging measuring vessels Making metal-farming tools Forging swords Making armors Making leather Making drums Making sacrificial garments Making fur coats Painting or embroidering in colors Painting or embroidering in colors Dyeing feather Dyeing cloth and silk Processing the raw silk or silk fabrics Polishing ritual jade vessels Making combs Making carved vessels Making arrows Making stone chimes Making yan (composition of zeng and li), zeng (steaming vessel), li (boiling vessel), etc. Making ceramic that contains gui and dou

Notes

Lost

Lost Lost

Lost

Lost Lost

Notes: (1) “zhou” is derived from “yu” in the later times, referring to making poles of chariots (2) Among the 30 types of work, some are called “ren,” while some are “shi,” for which Zheng Xuan annotated, “Those who are called ‘ren’ get the name from their work; while those who are called ‘shi’ get the name from their ancestors who have been meritorious officials”

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operations; metalworking, six; treatment of leather, five; coloring, five; polishing, five; and modeling in clay, two (see Table 4.1). Among them, bamboo slips about “duanshi” (agricultural implements), “weishi” (leather-maker), “qiushi” (fur-maker), “kuangren” (silk printer), “jieren” (comb maker), and “diaoren” (sculptor) have been lost, so there is only a name list in the main body but no any further statements. The third part goes from “Modeling in clay was the art most esteemed by the time of Youyushi” to “Therefore, on the chariot are the six proportional numbers.” It firstly retraces the technical development in the ancient times. Then in the Zhou Dynasty, chariot building was prevailed, which led to the regulation and classification of the chariot. The fourth part is from “When taking a general examination of the principles of chariot building” to “and the steps for getting up and down require to be in due proportion,” emphasizing the inspection of wheels, and specific regulations on the wheel diameters of the battle chariot, the hunting coach, and the royal carriage. “Wood-making craftsman” (gong mu zhi gong) is divided into four sections: Section 1 “Wheelwrights make wheels” (lun ren wei lun) deals with the shape, structure, and process requirements of the hub, spokes, and cogs and summarizes six methods for checking the quality of the wheel components (gui (compass), ju (square), shui (water), xuan (suspending), liang (measuring), and quan (weighing). Section 2 “Wheelwrights make the chariot umbrellas” (lun ren wei gai) deals with the shape, structure, and process requirements of the chariot umbrella. Section 3 “Chariot-basket makers make the chariot bodies” (yu ren wei che) deals with the shape, structure, and process requirements of the chariot body, pointing out “When assembling the parts, joining the large part together with the small one should be avoided. The small part is easy for breaking off under the big one. The pulling the large part by the small one will result in breaking the joint.” Section 4 “Pole makers make the curved horse-chariot poles” (zhou ren wei zhou). In the former part, it describes the shape and craft requirements of poles. By comparing the shortcomings of straight ox-cart poles and the advantages of curved horse-chariot poles, it emphasizes the necessity in use of moderately curved poles. While in the latter part, it involves in ancient astronomical knowledge. It mentions that “the ribs of a covering are twenty-eight numerically,” symbolizing the 28 constellations, and also the “Dahuo,” “Chunhuo,” “Fa,” “Yingshi,” “Hu,” etc., which are of important reference value for studying the origin and evolution of the 28 constellations. “Metal-making craftsman” (gong jin zhi gong) is divided into six sections: Section 1 “Metal-making craftsman” (gong jin zhi gong) gives a general introduction to the duties of six types of metal workers and records the standard formula for bronze (copper-tin) “There are six formulas (of copper and tin) for bronze alloys.” This is the earliest description of the composition proportion of bronze alloy in the world. Section 2 “Forging founders make penknives” (zhushi wei xiao) deals with the shape, size, and quality requirements of penknives.

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Section 3 “Smelting founders make shooting arrowheads” (yeshi wei shashi) deals with the shape, size, and weight of the arrowhead (shashi), the spear (ge), and the halberd (ji). It also proposes the process requirements from the perspective of optimization. Section 4 “Swordsmiths make swords” (taoshi wei jian) deals with the shape, size, and weight of the bronze sword and specifies three forms: the top form, the medium form, and the junior form. Section 5 “Bell founders make bells” ( fushi wei zhong) explains in detail the names of each part of the bell, their positions on the bell, as well as their proportional relationship. Besides, it elaborates from the qualitative perspective the acoustic effects and main disadvantages caused by the shape and size of the bell. This reflects the level of acoustic knowledge achieved in the pre-Qin period and has a certain status in the history of world science and music. Section 6 “Measure makers called make measures of capacity” (lishi wei liang) describes the casting process and shape specifications of the standard measuring device – fu – especially emphasizing the fire times in smelting, “During smelting and casting bronze from the copper and the tin, one can observe the progress of fire-times. (As the flames get hotter,) the gas will appear black, then yellow-white, and then green-white; and finally it turns into green. By now the smelting bronze is ready for casting.” truly expressing the process seen with the naked eyes that the visible light moves from the long wavelength to the short wavelength, which is really an ancient high-temperature observation. “Leather-making craftsman” is divided into three sections: Section 1 “Cuirass makers make armors” (hanren wei jia) describes the essentials in making some military armors and the examination manner with brief reasoning. Section 2 “Work of skinners” (baoren zhi shi) deals with the process requirements and testing way in skinning. Section 3 “Drum makers make drums” (yunren wei gaotao) determines the shapes of several kinds of wooden skin drums and summarizes their acoustic features. “Coloring craftsman” is divided into three sections: Section 1: “the business of painter and embroiderer” (huahui zhi shi) combines the two types of work (painting and embroidery) as a whole, which may be due to the losing of the bamboo slips. It firstly introduces five pure colors, blue, red, white, black, yellow, and their color painting order, and then, the color combinations and the symbolic representation of different colors for the earth, fire, mountain, and water. Section 2 “Feather dyers dye feathers” (zhongshi ran yu) describes how feather is repeatedly dyed with the cinnabar (zhusha) as the raw material and the red millet (danshu) as the adhesive. Section 3 “Silk cleaners clean the raw silk” (huangshi lian si), respectively, records how the raw silk and silk fabric are processed, especially the ash processing.

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Volume II

Volume II is divided into three chapters: polishing craftsman, pottery craftsman, and woodmaking craftsman. “Polishing craftsman” (gua mo zhi gong) is divided into three sections: Section 1 “Jade makers” (yuren) introduces the names, shapes, sizes, and functions of different ritual jades, which are generally divided into four categories: gui, bi, cong, and zhang. Under each category, there are still different types applied in rites of general audiences with the emperor, sacrifice, bride electing, mobilizing troops, and making a weight of balance. Due to lack of the detailed records, some shapes of jades are still unknown. Section 2 “Makers of stone chimes make various stone chimes” (qingshi wei qing) specifies shapes of different stone chimes and proportions of each part and a set of modules for making stone chimes and records the toning methods, such as “The vertex angle ( juju) is one square ju and a half,” that is, “90° + 45° ¼ 135°.” Section 3 “Arrow makers make various arrows” (shiren wei shi) records the shape, size, weight, and craftsmanship of houshi (hunting arrow), shashi (shooting arrow), bingshi (warring arrow), tianshi (hunting arrow), and boshi (light hunting arrow), pointing out the importance of setting up the feather region and proposing the proper way in making feathers and the essentials in selecting the shaft material. From this, people can know about some experience of the ancients in aerodynamics. “Pottery craftsman” is divided into two sections. Section 1 “Potters make the boiler (or the steamer with a tripod)” (taoren wei yan) describes the capacity and size of the five containers – yan (the boiler or the steamer with a tripod), pen (basin), zeng (steaming vessel with seven bottom eyelets), li (cooking tripod), and yu (earthen utensil). Section 2 “Proto-porcelain makers make the food container” ( fangren wei gui) describes the capacity and size of the two kinds of proto-porcelain containers – gui (food container) and dou (stemmed bowl) – proposing the technological requirements for making chuan (the square-shaped tool) and that the inferiorquality products made by potters and proto-porcelain makers cannot be traded in the official market. “Woodmaking craftsman” involves more contents and knowledge and is divided into 11 sections: Section 1 “Cabinet makers make the racks” (ziren wei sunju). Starting from the perspective of formative arts of decorative carvings, this section discusses the issues in making sunju (racks to hang musical instruments). Specifically, it is divided into three subparts: ① It classifies animals in the terrestrial world into two kinds: large animals and little creatures. Large animals are basically

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vertebrates and little creatures are arthropods. Large animals are further divided into five categories: grease animals with a horn (zhizhe), grease animals without a horn (gaozhe), the naked species (or human beings) (luozhe), animals that have feathers (yuzhe), and animals that have scales (linzhe); little creatures are further divided into various categories according to their external or internal skeleton, walking way, and sounder position. ② It introduces the functions of the naked species (luolei), the feathered species (yulei), and the scale species (linlei) in making sunju, based on their shape and habitus. ③ It emphasizes the craftsmanship in carving the animals that are grabbing, biting to death. As far as the content of this section is concerned, the biohistorian thinks there are important thoughts on biological classification; the art historians think it’s the theory on the ancient decoration art and carving art. Section 2 “Cabinet makers also make the drinking vessels” (ziren wei yinqi) deals with the capacity of several kinds of wine vessels and emphasizes that wine vessels need to be tested. If the vessels are tested defective, the makers would be punished. Section 3 “Cabinet makers make the targets for archery art” (ziren wei hou) introduces the shape of the targets used for rites of archery, the rite of the sacrifice to the target, and the speech made on the sacrificial ceremony. Section 4 “Weapon-handle makers make weapon handles” (luren wei luqi) specifies the length of long weapons, emphasizing weapons to attack are longer than weapons to defend, and also the reasons. It also proposes the specified requirements for the shape of gou (the weapons with hook), ci (the weapons for piercing), and ji (the striking weapons) and the technical specification for making shu (sticks of combat) and qiumao (short lances). Besides, it records three ways in examining the quality of long weapon’s handles, “planting it on the ground base, then shaking it to see the result of his movement,” “supporting it against walls to see the result of the curve of the handle,” and “transversely holding it and shaking it to see whether it is solid.” Section 5 “Master builders establish the capital” ( jiangren jian guo). This section describes how to check the level ground and determine the directions when a capital is to be built. It mentions many detailed operating steps, which show that there had been specific technical code for measuring the layout and directions of the capital by the Zhou Dynasty and the accurate measuring of directions shows that people had known and begun to apply the parallel lines in the pre-Qin period. Section 6 “Master builders plan the site of the capital” (jiangren ying guo). This section mainly deals with the construction of the imperial capital in the Zhou Dynasty, the architectural design of hereditary mansion (shishi) in the Xia Dynasty, the royal buildings (si’e zhongwu) in the Yin Dynasty, and the Hall of Expounding (mingtang) in the Zhou Dynasty. It introduces several length units popularly used in the buildings of the pre-Qin period such as “ji,” “yan,” “xun,” “bu,” and “gui” and specifies the grading system in constructing the imperial palace, the capital of feudal princes, and the capital.

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Section 7 “Builders also build conduits and canals” ( jiangren wei gouxu). This section mainly introduces the irrigation and drainage plan in the Western Zhou Dynasty – “jingtian system,” several special designs for water conservancy facilities and technical secrets for canal and dike building. It also proposes the technological requirement for mold board building and various designs for the straw roof, tile roof, the round barns (yuancang), and the wall silos (dijiao). Section 8 “The business of cartwrights” (cheren zhi shi). This section mainly introduces the set of geometric angles – ju, xuan, zhu, ke, and qingzhe, the corresponding value of which each are, respectively: 45°, 67°300 , 101°150 , 151° 520 3000 , being made by the steps of evenly dividing the angle and adding the divided angles, etc. Section 9 “Cartwrights make digging implements” (cheren wei lei). This section describes the shape and size of lei and introduces the function and features of the straight ci (digging part) and the curved ci. Section 10 “Cartwrights make the carriages” (cheren wei che). In this section, it introduces the practical unit in making carriages – ke (axe handle) – the size of different parts of a wheel, and the functions and features of the narrow hubs and wide hubs. Section 11 “Bow makers make bows” (gongren wei gong). This section occupies a larger part in Kaogong ji, nearly one sixth of the whole book. It is regarded the detailed summary of the bow-making technology in the pre-Qin period. It can be further divided into four subparts: ① from “Bow makers make bows” to “then a bow maker can make a good bow,” dealing with the selection of six raw materials in making a bow – gan (the wood), jiao (the horn), jin (the sinew), jiao (the glue), si (the silk), and qi (the lacquer) – and introducing the grades of the wood and the essentials in preparing it; ② from “Bow makers always make the bow in proper seasons” to “the bows will never be well-useable,” briefly summarizing and reasoning how to make gan, jiao, and jin in different seasons, explaining in detail the purpose and the technological requirements in making the body of bow and the horn of bow, and pointing out the adverse consequences caused by any deviation and criticizing the inferior bow makers; ③ from “In general, the little horn poles ( jun) at the ears of the bow should be square” to “are called junior form and used by those of small stature,” pointing out the requirements and the possible drawbacks of designing and producing the different parts of a bow – xiao, fu, wei, and chang – indicating the importance of the bow stem strength and the necessity to protect the body of the bow; introducing the meaning of “jiuhe” (the harmony of nine conditions) in “jiuhe zhi gong”; and specifying the shape of the bows for the emperor, the feudal lords, the senior officials, and the warriors, still all the sizes of the bows used, respectively, by the men of tallest, medium, and small stature; and ④ from “In general, each bow is formatted and made corresponding with human psychophysiological types of the user” to “one says that the bow is a perfect bow (shengong),” mainly dealing with the issues of using bows, involving some psychological knowledge and emphasizing that when a bow is being made, the bodily form and character should be considered and distinguished to combine.

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Academic Value of Kaogong ji

With its rich scientific and technological information, Kaogong ji is unique in the pre-Qin ancient books. This book provides a lot of valuable historical materials for the study of pre-Qin history, cultural relics, history of science and technology, and history of arts and crafts and has unique academic value.

4.3.1

Technical Monograph of “Chinese Characteristics”

In ancient times, for the sake of production and war, both East and West developed their own industrial technology, such as metal smelting, chariot making, and bow making. Due to the barrier of the mountains and the seas, technologies in the East and West have significant differences in shape, material selection, and performance of utensils. By analyzing Kaogong ji, we can see that the wooden cart production, bronze alloy ratio, clock-making technology, and bow and arrow technology recorded in the book have distinctive “Chinese characteristics,” being a unique contribution to the world civilization. 1. During the Spring and Autumn Period, wooden carts have become an important means of transportation and combat equipment. The production of vehicles has also become an important part of the production of handicrafts at that time. There are many direct and indirect related types of work. As Kaogong ji noted, “there was a multiplicity of workmen employed in their manufacture. Chariots were in abundance.” In the “lunren,” “cheren,” and “zhouren” chapters of Kaogong ji, the design specifications and production process of the main components (wheels, chariot umbrella, chariot-body, shafts) of the wooden cart and the method of examining wheel quality are detailed. These summarizing descriptions are of great value for studying the shape and structural characteristics of the pre-Qin wooden cart. If compared with the wooden carts of the ancient Greek period, it shows more “Chinese characteristics.” Kaogong ji introduces in great detail the regulation, material selection and material preparation of the vehicle, and especially the requirements for the production and examination of the wheel. The overall requirements of the wheel are strong and round. “The state has six duties” in Kaogong ji pointed out, “When taking a general examination of the principles of wheel making, it is desirable that the parts of the wheel should be solid, firmly joined, and well fit, and that the wheel should be exactly rounded, so that it should be light and firm with the ground.” The so-called pushu means being structurally solid; “weizhi” means the contact area between the wheel and the ground is small; “qisu” means the wheel should be accurately round to revolve quickly. There are three parts that make up the wheel: gu (hubs), fu (spokes), and ya (felloes), each with clear technical requirements. The hubs, “assures good rotation”; the spokes, “jointed properly deliver uprightness”; and the felloes, which firmly envelop the other pieces, “are responsible for solidity.”

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As for the spokes, Kaogong ji put forward specific production requirements: “Regarding the spokes, make the depth of the mortise (zaoshen) equal to the thickness of the spoke ( fuguang). Therefore, let the thickness of the spoke determine the size of its foot.” In the text, “zaoshen” refers to the depth of the mortise; “fuguang” refers to the thickness of the spoke, and “ruo” refers to the foot, the portion of the spoke end that projects into the hub. According to this text, if the width of the hub is b and the depth of the hub is h, Then, when h < b, the wheel is swaying and the vehicle is dangerous; when h > b, although the spoke is firmly coupled with the hub, the strength of the hub will be affected; only when h ¼ b, i.e., the depth of the mortise ¼ the thickness of the spoke ¼ the foot, the wheel can be strong and heavy, and the hub will not be damaged. That is the ideal ratio of depth of mortise to the thickness of the spoke. This empirical formula embodies the level of structural mechanics knowledge during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (see Fig. 4.2). For the finished wheel, Kaogong ji requires a strict test, which is divided into two types: the appearance and the internal parts examination. The test of the appearance is: • When looking at the rim of the wheel from a short distance away, it is desirable that it should continually come down upon the ground smoothly and evenly; and when examining it more closely, one requires that it should be accurately rounded, and only a very small part should touch the ground. . ..Looking at the spokes one requires that they taper down like delicate fingers. Examining them Fig. 4.2 The ratio of the mortise and the spoke

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more closely one requires that their lines should be tapering and smooth. . .Looking at the hub one requires that it appears even and smooth. Examining more closely one requires that the leather covers the wood so tightly as to see the edges and corners. . .Looking at the dish-shaped structure one requires that the spoke tongue that enters into the felloe is correctly placed. According to the analysis, the test for the appearance does not rely on any instruments, but direct judge by the visual sense of the craftsman. The inspection goes from the whole to the part, from far to near. First, check the entire wheel. Seen in the distance, the rotation of the rim should touch the ground evenly; seen from the nearer, the area between the wheel and the ground should be very small. Then check the parts of the wheel. Spokes: Observed from a distance, it should be thick and thin like a human arm and smooth and well-proportioned when viewed from a nearer position. Hubs: It should not be evenly polished seen in the distance; seen from the nearer, the corners of the wraps should be hidden. Dish-shaped structures: When observed carefully, the end with the spoke inserted into the felloes should be very neat. Such is the assessment of the wheel appearance quality. The unity of the appearance quality and internal quality of the wheel is to be both fine and beautiful, yet solid and durable. Test for the internal quality of a wheel: • • • •

Use a pair of compass to verify its roundness. Use a trueness modulator to verify its leveling. Use a rope to suspend the wheel to confirm that the spokes are radial and straight. Set the wheel in water (and use buoyancy) to verify that the weight of the parts of the wheel is evenly distributed. • Use millet grains to measure the hollow spaces in the hubs to verify that they are of the same volume. • Use a balance to weigh the wheels to confirm that they are equal in weight. Here, six major testing methods with instruments and natural materials are mentioned: The first is to check with a compass whether the rim is round; the second is to check with trueness modulator whether the planes on both sides of the wheel are flat; the third is to check with the hanging rope whether the upper and lower spokes are straight; the fourth is to check with water whether the weight of the parts of the wheel is evenly distributed; the fifth is to measure with millet grains whether the hollow spaces in the hubs are of the same volume; the sixth is to weigh with a balance whether the weight of the two wheels is equal. Since the ancient Chinese cart-making technology reached the peak as Kaogong ji records, it has not been surpassed, which is worth thinking. 2. Bronze alloy preparation rule Bronze casting has been developed during the Shang Dynasty in China. It is amazing to see a large number of exquisite bronzes in the Shang Dynasty.

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The bronze casting technology was further developed during the Spring and Autumn Period, especially in the late period of the Spring and Autumn Period, when a series of new technological achievements pushed the bronze casting to a new height. According to the research of metallurgical history scholars, the ancients used the long-term practice to explore the proportion of copper, tin, and lead, so that the performance of the bronze alloy meets the requirements of the cast objects. In the early period of the Shang Dynasty, the copper content was high, about 90%. By the end of the Shang Dynasty, the content of tin and lead in bronze had been significantly improved. Take the Simu Wuding of the Shang Dynasty, for example, it contains 84.77% of copper, 11.64% of tin, and 2.79% of lead. Experts have sampled and analyzed a large number of Shang Dynasty bronzes. The results show that the metallurgical craftsmen of Shang Dynasty have been able to select different proportions of copper, tin, and lead according to the different functions of various instruments. It is on the basis of the maturity of the bronze casting technology in Shang and Zhou Dynasties that there appears the description of “Jin You Liu Ji” (There are six formulas of copper and tin for bronze alloys) in Kaogong ji, which has become the earliest formula for the preparation of bronze alloys in the world: There are six formulas (of copper and tin) for bronze alloys. • Divide the weight of the metal (copper) by six, and use tin for one part out of the six. It is called the formula (of copper and tin used) for the bells and the food vessels. • Divide the weight of the metal by five, and use tin for one part out of the five. It is named the formula for the axes and hatchets. • Divide the weight of the metal by four, and use tin for one part out of the four. It is termed the formula for the spears and halberds. • Divide the weight of the metal by three, and use tin for one part out of the three. It is called the formula for the knives and swords. • Divide the weight of the metal by five, and use tin for two parts out of the five. It is named the formula for the penknives and arrows. • Divide the weight of the metal by two, and use tin for one part out of the two. It is termed the formula for the mirrors and the burning mirrors. In the text, “jin” refers to bronze, and “ji”(齐) of “liuji” is the interchangeable word for “ji” (剂), referring to the six formulas of bronze alloys. Regarding the understanding of “fen” (copper-tin ratio), scholars have some arguments (see Table 4.2), but they all affirm the important value of “Jin You Liu Ji” (There are six formulas of copper and tin for bronze alloys) in Kaogong ji. Judging from the knowledge of modern alloys, when the general tin content of bronze reaches 17–20%, it is solidest and sharpest. The formula for the axes and hatchets and the formula for the axes and hatchets in the six formulas are almost the same with this. As for the knives and swords and the penknives and arrows, it requires the higher hardness, so the tin content increases correspondingly, but the toughness is less than the axes and hatchets. In the six formulas, the tin content of the

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Table 4.2 Copper-tin ratio in the six formulas proposed by three scholars

Name Formula for the bells and the food vessels Formula for the axes and hatchets Formula for the spears and halberds Formula for the knives and swords Formula for the penknives and arrows For the mirrors and the burning mirrors

Liang Jin Tin content in bronze alloys 6:1 5:1 4:1 3:1 5:2 2:1

Chen Mengjia Tin content in bronze alloys 7:1 6:1 5:1 4:1 7:2 2:1

Guo Baojun Tin content in bronze alloys 7:1 6:1 5:1 4:1 7:2 3:1

Note: quoted from “Cultural Connotation of Kaogong ji,” Illustrated Book of Kaogong ji, by Dai Wusan, etc., Shandong Pictorial Publishing House, 2003, the first edition, P134

bells and food vessels was set at about 14.3% (according to 6 parts of copper and 1 part of tin). The replication study of Zeng Houyi chime bells showed that when the tin content is about 14%, the lead content is between 2% and 4%. The mechanical, craft, and acoustic performance of the musical chimes are optimal. 3. Monograph on clock technology The ancient bell was developed out of the pottery bells. With the appearance of bronze smelting, there appeared copper bells. The copper bell has a fixed pitch and can produce clear and bright music. Archaeologists have discovered copper bells more than 4000 years ago, which have handles and holes at the top and can hang bells. It is worth noting that the bell body is oblate, and as small the shape is, it has already shown the prototype of the chime in the later time. That is qualitatively different from circular chimes in the ancient Europe. On the basis of the copper bell, the big cymbals were developed, which is characterized by the hollow stalk (handle) end, the short body, the oblate shape, the curved bell lip, and the larger body than the bell. In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the big cymbals were further developed into bells (zhong). The bell is characterized by an oval shell shaped like a tile. Set bells are called chimes, and they are divided into Niuzhong, Bozhong, and Yongzhong. Among them, the shape and structure of Yongzhong is the most complicated, and the casting technology is superb. From the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the shape and structure of Yongzhong was gradually completed, and the process was improved. It is Yongzhong recorded in “Bell-founders make bells” of Kaogong ji, which covers the name of the different parts, the scale ratio, the characteristics of the bell, and the acoustic effects. Regarding the name of the parts of Yongzhong (see Fig. 4.3), Kaogong ji records: Bell founders make bells. (The different parts of the bell are named.) The two spines at the edge corners (luan) of the arched rim are called xian, and the arched rim between the corners is called yu. Above this comes the striking section called gu. Above gu the part of the bell with decorative cylindrical walls is called zheng. Above

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Fig. 4.3 Different parts of Yongzhong

this the crown zone is called wu. Above this the bell shank is called yong. The top end of the handle is called heng. On the handle, there is the hanging ring called xuan with the ring knob (guan) attached. The decorative design at the zheng is called zhuan embossed with studs (mei), also called jing. Above the yu inside are the grooves (sui). The research nowadays shows that the various parts of Yongzhong play a role in the vocalization: gu and zheng form the resonator, which is the main vocal part of the bell; wu and yong have certain influence on the vocalization; and mei is not only a decoration but also a vibration load to help the bell enter steady vibration. The chapter of “bell-founders” in Kaogong ji also has a qualitative analysis of the sound of the bell; we can know that from “The high pitch (qing) and low pitch (zhuo)” comes from the difference in vibrations because of the thick or thin walls of the bell, and the rising sound and falling sound come from the difference between the open and narrow, or constricted, mouths. For all these things, there is a special theory. Bells with thick walls produce heavy, solid sound like a stone; thin walls produce a scattered sound; bells with an open mouth produce spreading, or unimpeded, sound; and bells with a narrow, constricted mouth produce stifled sound. If the handle of a bell is too long, the sound will be shaken. “Some scholars

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have proved with the mathematical acoustic analysis that the features describes in the chapter of “bell-founders” conform to the principles of modern acoustics [4]. There are 65 bells unearthed in the tomb of Zenghou Yi (Marquis Yi) in Hubei. Each bell can make two sounds in the specified part. The sound range of the whole set bells is more than five and a half octaves, 12 complete semitones, and can transit and modulate with beautiful tones. The calibers of the bells vary in size and thickness, and the length of the handles is different, which aims to produce various tones. Some bells have traces of grinding, which is obviously due to the need of tuning. This confirms the scientific nature of records in the “Bell-founders make bells” of Kaogong ji. 4. Monograph on bow-making technique In Kaogong ji, the chapter of “bow makers” takes up a lot of space and can be considered to constitute a monograph on ancient bow-making techniques. Bow and arrow originated very early in China, which is related to the hunting activities of the ancestors. From the late Neolithic period to the Spring and Autumn Period, the bow and arrow have been continuously improved. It is on the basis of the accumulation of experience in the past generations that a detailed record of bow and arrow making was formed during the Spring and Autumn Period, which can be found in Kaogong ji, clearly defining how to make good bows. In the chapter of “bow makers” in Kaogong ji, it is pointed out that the six materials are required for bow making – “The collecting of the six materials for use in the making of the bow should be well timed” (see Table 4.3 for the requirements of the six materials, examination, and production). “Bow makers” are very critical of the choice of materials. Take the wood for example. It listed the advantages and disadvantages of the seven materials: “The best is taken from the wood of the silkworm thorn (zhe). The Chinese catalpa (yi) is next best. After them, the wild mulberry (yansang), the orange wood ( ju), the Chinese flowering quince (mugua), and the wood of the bramble ( jing) are in turn degraded, while the bamboos (zhu) are still low in grade.” There is also a set of methods for examination: “Upon examination, the body of the bow is required to be of a red blackish color and can produce a clear, sharp sound when tapped. If the color is red-blackish, the part approaches the center of the tree. If it makes a clear, sharp sound, it is far away from the root.” This is obviously a summary of the experience gained through repeated exploration and practice. It takes a long time to combine the six materials into a bow. Different processes need different seasons to ensure the quality of the bow. The chapter of “bow makers” in Kaogong ji pointed out: Bow makers always make the bow in proper seasons: in winter the wood for the body of the bow is cut out and trimmed, in spring the horn is cured ( yi) for use, in summer the sinews are prepared, and in autumn three materials (with the glue, the silk, and the lacquer) are all combined. In the cold season, one consolidates the shape of the bow (in the bow-frame), and in frost time, one checks the texture of the lacquer by strung and unstrung repeatedly.

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Table 4.3 For the requirements of the six materials, examination and production Six materials The wood

The horn The sinew

Function Ensuring long shooting range Providing shooting speed Responsible for penetration

The glue

Making joining

The silk The lacquer

For firmness Protection from frost and dew

Material source Zhe, yi, yansang, ju, etc. Horns of ox

Deer glue, horse glue, ox glue, etc.

Selection requirement Red blackish and can produce a clear, sharp sound when tapped Greenish white, and the end, or tip, being large and round Small threads being firm and long; a large bundle being glossy and elastic Vermilion, waved or streaked

Season and processing Cut out and trimmed in winter Cured in spring Processed in summer

Appear when plunged in water Being clear

In the next spring, the bow is stringed. So it takes a long time to make a bow. According to the investigation of Changxing Bow Shop in Chengdu during the antiJapanese war, it took 3 actual years (spanning 4 years) from the preparation of materials to the making of a bow. It is thus inferred that the time required to make a good bow in ancient times was not short and usually took at least 2 to 3 years. However, the bow at that time was the main long-range weapon in the war, and it was necessary to continuously supply the army in batches. Therefore, it was not made into one piece before the second one was started. The work might be staggered and in line production. In recent years, many ancient bow materials in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period have been found by archaeologists, which are mostly obtained in the Chu Tombs in Hunan or Hubei province. These specimens not only reflect the characteristics of the times but also the regional colors. So it is difficult to fully comply with the standards based on Qi products specified in Kaogong ji, but most are consistent especially the characteristics of the manufacturing process. 5. Thoughts on optimizing design The production of important artifacts in Kaogong ji reflects the idea of optimal design. Regarding the production of carts, there is a set of standards in Kaogong ji. These standards are all related to the wheel height. The determination of the wheel height is very important. Kaogong ji noted, “If the wheels are too high, persons can find difficulty in getting into the carriage. If, on the other hand, they are too low, the horses have to work hard, as in ascending a slope.” That is to say, it is unfavorable if the wheels are too high or too low. Kaogong ji proposed to take a person of eight-chi

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height for reference, and the height of the wheel is set at 6 chi and 3 cun to 6 chi to 6 cun, so that “the steps for getting up and down is in due proportion.” In the Spring and Autumn Period, long weapons such as dagger-axes, halberds, and spears were what usually used in combat. Kaogong ji fully considers the relationship between the soldiers’ height and the size of such weapons, as is stated: “In general, no weapon is three times longer than customary human stature. If a weapon exceeds this dimension, it could not be used. Not only would it serve as a useless weapon, but also soldier would injure himself.” That is to say, all weapons, including long weapons used in cart battles, cannot exceed three times the height of a person. If the weapon is too long, it will not only be detrimental to use but will also endanger the person who holds the weapon. Taking into account the situation of soldiers in actual combat, Kaogong ji pointed out, “Therefore, it is preferred that the weapons to attack a kingdom are short, but the weapons to defend a kingdom are long,” because “Short weapons are preferred for numerous soldiers who attack a kingdom; as they, with hunger and thirst, traverse distant countries and cross the difficult passes in the mountains and woods. Long weapons are desirable for the minority soldiers who defend a kingdom, as they, having enough to eat and drink, do not traverse distant countries and cross difficult passes in the mountains and woods.” The conditions of the offensive and defensive sides are different, so the length of the weapons should be different, which reflects considerations for practical combats (Fig. 4.4). For cold weapons, the beauty of the weapon must not be put under the killing effect, which involves the optimal design. Take the dagger-axe, for example. It is usually used in the war to cross-hit and hook, and the angle of yuan and hu becomes very important, as Kaogong ji noted, “If the angle juju is too obtuse, it is not easy to enter the object. If the angle juju is too acute, it is difficult to cut. If the inserting part is too long, the transverse-hooked point will be disjunctive, and if too short, the spear has a lack of overwhelming power. So the proper angle juju should be a little more than the right angle.” That is to say, if the angle between yuan and hu is too blunt, it is not easy to swear when fighting; if this angle is too sharp, it is not easy to cut the target when it is in practical use; if nei (the inserting part) is too long, yuan is easy to break; if yuan is too short, it is not convenient enough to use; therefore, yuan should Fig. 4.4 Different parts of Ge

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be horizontal and slightly oblique. According to many photos or the rubbings of ge (dagger-axe) in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and the Spring and Autumn period, it is found that the angle between yuan and hu on the early ge and the angles are mostly right angles and that of the late Spring and Autumn is between 100° to 105°. It can be seen that based on actual experience, the best standards have been determined. Leather armor is an important protective equipment in the Spring and Autumn Period. As Kaogong ji noted, “Whenever the armor is made, it is necessary to make a mold (rong) first according to the figure of the individual, and then adjust the hide to the mold. The upper part of the armor is weighed, as also is the lower.” That is to say, when the leather armor is being made, the human figure must be firstly measured to make a mold, and then the leather piece is pressed so that the weight of leather piece for both the upper part and the lower part is equal. Here, the optimal combination of the human body and protective equipment is explicitly considered. Kaogong ji also requires the leather armor to be made well. “When putting on, it is desirable that the links and joining should be without irregularities.” That is to say, the leather armor should be neatly fit and easy to move. Archaeologists have made trials based on the restored leather scorpion of the Hubei Zenghouyi tomb. The research shows that it is consistent with what Kaogong ji recorded [5]. When it comes to the issue of reasonable matching of people, bows, and arrows, the optimal design in Kaogong ji shows more elaboration. In a system consisting of a person, a bow, an arrow, and a target (di), the differences in the figure, will, temperament, etc. of the shooters will make a distinction between “weiren” and “anren.” “weiren” are resolute, quick-tempered, and the so-called A resolute, quicktempered man bursts out angering easily. “Anren” is short and stout, the so-called “A short and stout man has a slow or sluggish temperament.” According to the degree of rigidity of the bow and the arrow, there are also distinctions between “weigong” (hard bows), “weishi” (quick arrows), “angong” (soft bows), and “anshi” (slow arrows). As Kaogong ji pointed out, “If a man, bow, and arrow are all slow kinds, then he cannot shoot the goal deeply with speed. If a man, bow, and arrow are all quick kinds, then the man cannot shoot the goal in a steady way.” This is the most undesirable, because the speed of the former arrow is not fast, and it is not easy to hit the target. Even if it shoots the target, it is too weak for the latter arrows repeatedly advance and stabilize the target. According to the theory of psychology, aerodynamics, and archery, “anren” (short and stout man) should choose “weigong” and “anshi,” and “weiren” should choose “angong” and “weishi” [6].

4.3.2

Textual Records Verified with Unearthed Cultural Relics

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, archaeological excavations have discovered a large number of pre-Qin cultural relics, and the analysis of cultural relics has deepened the study of the Kaogong ji. Conversely, according to the records of Kaogong ji, the understanding of many pre-Qin cultural relics, technological features, and technical norms becomes more accurate.

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Ge (dagger-axe) and Ji (halberds) were very popular weapons during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The relevant written records in Kaogong ji were also detailed and clear. However, as the real thing was destroyed or buried and disappeared for thousands of years, later generations often misinterpreted ge, especially the shape of the halberds. In 1931, Guo Moruo published the article “on Ji,” boldly arguing that ji is the combination of ge and mao (spear) and the spear is the “ci” (the outer point) mentioned in Kaogong ji, which was proven by the ancient ji later unearthed and became a good story in the archaeological community. In recent decades, archaeological excavations have seen more of ji with double ge or triple ge. Especially since three different forms of ji (one geone spear, triple-ge, and double ge) were unearthed from the tomb of Zenghou Yi in Suixian County, Hubei Province; people have had a more comprehensive understanding of the shape of ji and made it clear that what Kaogong ji records is the ji of a single ge and spear. According to the description of the names and proportions of the various parts of the bells in Kaogong ji, combined with the physical analysis of the unearthed objects, people have got a clear understanding of the pre-Qin chimes. For example, there is a part – “sui” – on the bell. Where is it and what is its function? It has been ambiguous for a long time. According to Kaogong ji, “Above the yu inside are sui.” Zheng Xuan, a Confucian in the Han Dynasty, annotated, “Mi, a hidden place where the bell is hit. Sui is in the drum, squatting and shining like a tunnel.” According to Zheng Xuan, “sui” is on the inner wall of the bell. Later generations of annotators such as Dai Zhen and Cheng Yaotian mistakenly believe that “sui” is located in the middle of the drum outside the bell. Kaogong ji records, “When making sui, divide the wall thickness by six. Use one part of the six as a measure for the depth of the circular sui.” Zheng Xuan annotates, “Thickness, is used for the bell. Depth, is used for pit on the bell. The pit is round, so take one part of its thickness to express its depth, and the depth of the hit part is only one-sixth thickness.” Zheng Xuan is right, but does not make it very clear. Later, from Jia Gongyan, we know they all deviated from the original intention of Kaogong ji. Combining the contexts in Kaogong ji with the Zheng’s annotation and the unearthed pre-Qin chimes, we can see that “yu mi” is in the drum but not the drum, so it is said that “Above the yu inside is sui,” to distinguish it from the drum. In fact, “sui” refers to a semicircular groove formed by the inner wall grinding of the bell. The grinding area is about one sixth of the wall thickness. The craftsman grinds and tests according to the predetermined temperament until the pitch is matched. This is the origin of the “Use one part of the six as a measure for the depth of the circular sui” required in Kaogong ji [7]. In the pre-Qin period, the dyeing method of adhesives was used in silk dyeing, painting, and other processes. Many unearthed artifacts have confirmed this for decades. For example, in silk fabric of the Warring States discovered in Changsha in 1974, “brocade with red stripes against pair dragons and phoenixes” is a doubletissue organzine, a silk warp that is dyed by cinnabar, and the other next to it is dyed with light brown plant dyes. The two colored filaments are interlaced up and down, with little contamination between each other. This proves that the original cinnabar was added with an adhesive and was bonded quite firmly.

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Based on the annotations of the past, it is known that danshu is a grain characterized by stickiness. “They soak the cinnabar with the red millet (danshu) in water. After three months, they steam and sprinkle them to get the thick solution for dyeing” means that the ore pigment and sticky grain are soaked together for a long time. Through fermentation, the grain is dispersed into very fine starch particles, and then the starch is turned into a paste, showing great viscosity. Ancient dyeing workers chose sticky sorghum (shu) as a binder, which is quite ingenious ([8], p. 84).

4.4

Scientific Knowledge in Kaogong ji

In addition to the overall understanding of the academic value of the Kaogong ji, it should also be noted that the book contains many scattered knowledges of mechanics, astronomy, mathematics, weights, and measures in the pre-Qin period. Although it is not systematic, it is still the very important historical material in today’s research on history of science and technology.

4.4.1

Mechanics Knowledge

There is a lot of knowledge about mechanics in Kaogong ji, which reflects the scientific understanding of the craftsman’s production experience and technical requirements. Principle of rolling friction. Kaogong ji records, “When taking a general examination of the principles of wheel making, it is desirable that the parts of the wheel should be solid (pushu), firmly joined, and well fit, and that the wheel should be exactly rounded, so that it should be light and firm with the ground. If it is otherwise than solid and well joined, it would not be durable; and if it is not accurately rounded, it would not revolve quickly.” “pushu” in the above text refers to the solid state of the wheel; “weizhi” means that the contact area between the wheel and the ground is small; “qisu” means being fast. That is to say, if the contact area of the wheel with the ground is large, it is difficult to revolve quickly; otherwise, when the contact area is small, it is easy to revolving quickly. Here, Kaogong ji proposes that the rolling friction is proportional to the size of the contact surface of the wheel. In the following, Kaogong ji puts forward further, “If the wheels are too (yi) high (chong), persons can find difficulty in getting into the carriage. If, on the other hand, they are too (yi) low (bi), the horses have to work hard, as in ascending a slope (tuo). Here “chong” means “high”; “bi” means “low”; “yi” means “too”; “tuo” is a slope. That is to say, if the wheel is too low (the wheel diameter is too small), when the horse pulls up, it is always like going uphill (and therefore strenuous). So the text clearly reflected a mechanical principle of rolling, that is, the rolling friction is inversely proportional to the radius of the wheel. According to modern mechanics theory, when the wheel rolls on a plane, its resistance Q can be calculated by the following formula:

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Q¼k

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W R

In the formula, k is the rolling friction coefficient, and its value is related to the contact area of the wheel with the flat surface, the material of the wheel and the surface, and the degree of surface roughness. W is the weight of the wheel’s own weight and the load, and R is the radius of the wheel. The magnitude of the resistance Q is proportional to the rolling friction coefficient k and inversely proportional to the radius R of the wheel. As for the direct ratio between Q and the wheel’s own weight and the load W, it is self-evident. Therefore, it can be said that Kaogong ji reveals the mechanics of rolling friction to some extent. The inertia phenomenon. It can be said that Kaogong ji is the first ancient literature to describe the inertia phenomenon. It states, “While helping (quan) the horse to put forth his strength, the pole (zhou) can still make a gain (in the distance), when the pulling force has ceased.” “quan” here means to help; “Deng,” according to Zheng Xua’s annotation, means putting forth. “zhou” refers to the cart. This means that when the horsepower is used up (or the horse is no longer pulling up), the cart can still travel a short distance. The nature of the object keeping in its original state is called inertia. It is one of the basic properties of the matter. When not subjected to external forces, any object will attempt to maintain its original stationary state or a uniform linear motion state. So this record in Kaogong ji is a typical example of inertia.

4.4.2

Astronomical Knowledge

In Kaogong ji there involves some astronomical knowledge, especially the records of the wu xiang (five astronomical phenomena) and the 28 constellations, which have historical value for studying the astronomy of the pre-Qin period in China. See what Kaogong ji records: The bottom of the carriage body is square, and it represents the earth; the covering, or the umbrella, above is circular, and it represents the heaven. The spokes of a wheel are thirty in number, corresponding with the days of the month, and the ribs of a covering are twentyeight numerically, agreeing with the 28 lunar/solar mansions, or constellations. There is the dragon flag with nine pendant streamers to represent the constellation Dahuo; the bird flag with seven pendant streamers to represent the constellation Chunhuo; the bear flag with six pendant streamers to represent the constellation Fa; and the tortoise flag with four pendant streamers to represent the constellation Yingshi. There is the bow banner with the firing arrow to resemble the constellation Hu or the heaven-bow.

In the pre-Qin period, when people described the shape of the heavens and the earth, the image was often compared to “the sky is as round as a chariot umbrella, and the earth is as square as a chessboard.” This is also the earliest concept of the heaven and earth. This concept corresponds to the ancient chariot structure: the round umbrella above the chariot body is like a round sky, and the base of the chariot

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is square and under the feet of people, which is exactly consistent with the concept of the round sky and the square earth. The number of spokes recorded in Kaogong ji is 30, which is exactly the number of days in a solar month. There are 29 days and a half each synodical month, which is an estimate used here. The chapter “zhouren” clearly mentions the total number of stars is 28, indicating that there was a division of 28 constellations. The five flags stated in it, respectively, correspond to a star: the dragon flag, Dahuo; the bird flag, Chunhuo; the bear flag, Fa; the tortoise flag, Yingshi; and the bow flag, Hu. This actually reflected the wu xiang concept in ancient astronomy (the five astronomical phenomena correspond to five seasons of Spring, Summer, Late Summer, Autumn, and Winter), specifically speaking, in Spring, Azure Dragon of the East, with Dahuo as the main constellation; in Summer, Vermilion Bird of the South, with Chunhuo as the main constellation; in Late Summer, the wolf of the Southwest, with Hu as the main star; in Autumn, White Tiger of the West, with Fa as the main constellation; and in Winter, Black Tortoise of the North, with Yingshi as the main constellation. Kaogong ji puts Hu at the end. But on the star map, Hu is on the West side of the bird star, and the East side of the Orion, so that it can be judged between Summer and Autumn.

4.4.3

Mathematical Knowledge

Kaogong ji contains a lot of practical mathematical knowledge, such as addition, subtraction, multiples, fraction, angles, etc., especially the angle measurement, which are all of practical features. The chapter of “stone chime maker make various stone chimes” in Kaogong ji records, “Makers of stone-chimes (qingshi) make various stone-chimes. The vertex angle is one square ju and a half, (i.e. 135°).” Qing (stone chimes) is an ancient percussion instrument, generally made of stone or jade. The words “juju” in the text refers to the angle between the upper side of the drum and the upper side of the longer leg of the triangle. “ju(倨)” is equivalent to “blunt,” “ju(句)” is equivalent to “acute,” and “juju” means “blunt and acute.” In Kaogong ji, when the angle is exactly the right angle, it means the angle is exactly 90°; when the angle is greater than the right angle, that means juju is too obtuse and that less than the right angle is called “being acute.” Kaogong ji also gives some special names for special angles, such as “ju(矩)” mentioned above means 90°. Also in “the business of cartwright,” it records, “half a square ju (90°) as an angle xuan (45°), one and a half xuan as an angle zhu (67°300 ), one and a half zhu as an angle ke (101° 150 ), and one and a half ke as an angle qingzhe (151° 520 3000 ).” Generally, it is explained as follows:

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• • • • •

ju ¼ 90° xuan ¼ 21 ju ¼ 45° zhu ¼ 21 xuan ¼ 67° 300 ke ¼ zhu十 12 zhu ¼ 101° 150 qingzhe ¼ ke十 21 ke ¼ 151° 520 3000

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Besides, according to the chapter of “stone chime makers,” “The vertex angle is one square ju and a half,” it can be known that one and a half ju ¼ 135°. However, analyzed carefully, it will be found that there are some contradictions in the above expressions for the angles. After making some analysis, Mr. Qian Baocong pointed out, “In the chapter of ‘stone-chime makers’ in Kaogong ji, it clearly stipulates that the angle between the two parts of the stone-chime is “one square ju and a half”, that is, 135°, which is totally different from “one and a half ke as an angle qingzhe” mentioned in the chapter of “cartwright”. The obtuse angles around 135° are all called “the angle qingzhe”. It can be seen that the terms such as xuan, zhu, ke, and qingzhe are not very clearly defined in KaogongJi” [9]. In view of the contradiction in the past explanations, Dai Wusan believes that it is impossible to divide or combine the angles in the actual operation. It is likely that the craftsman use the carpenter’s square to operate, taking some values (points) of the two sides so that it is convenient to draw any angle quickly. For example, take the values 3 and 5, respectively, on the two sides of the square, connect the obtained line segment with the extension of the ruler edge, and the angle is exactly 149°. This can also be called “qingzhe” [10]. There is also application of cyclotomy and radian in Kaogong ji. In the chapter of “Forging founders,” it records, “Forging founders make pen-knives. It is one chi long and one cun broad. The pen-knife requires six parts to complete a circle.” In the chapter of “bow makers,” “Bow makers. . .When making the bow used by the emperor, the arc is for nine bows to complete a circle; the feudal lords, seven bows; the senior officials, five bows; and the warriors, three bows.” This is to specify the degree of bending (i.e., curvature) of the “sharp” and “bow” with the degree of the central angle. Both of the above methods are very practical.

4.4.4

Chemical Knowledge

The silk and silk-fabric processing recorded in Kaogong ji reflects the ancient chemistry knowledge. “Lian(练),” also “lian(湅)” in ancient times, is an essential preparation before dyeing for the natural fabric like silk and fiber. As for silk processing, it can be found in the chapter of “silk cleaners (huangshi)”:

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• When processing the raw silk, one makes use of the plant ash-water, in which the silk is steeped. After seven days, it is hung one chi high above the ground and exposed to the sun. For seven days, it is exposed to the sun in the daytime, and it is again submerged into a well at night. That is why it is called water processing As for “shui” in the article, Zheng Zhong of the Eastern Han Dynasty annotated it as “warm water,” while Zheng Xuan annotated it as ash water (Zhouli Zhushu: Shisanjing Zhushu, Zhonghua Book Company, 1980: 919). According to research of some scholars, it may be the warm water with lye ([8], p. 72). “ou” means long-term impregnation. According to modern chemical theory, the plant ash contains potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate, and their lixivium – lye – is an alkaline solution. The chemical process for ash water processing silk is analyzed as follows: Make degumming and refining by taking advantage of the property of sericin easy to be hydrolyzed and dissolved in an alkaline solution. “It is hung one chi high above the ground and exposed to the sun” means the bleaching process of daylight degumming. Under the action of sunlight and air, silk gel absorbs ultraviolet rays and decomposes by oxidation, some pigments also decompose, and water conditions accelerate the decomposition rate. “For seven days, it is exposed to the sun in the daytime, and it is again submerged into a well at night. That is why it is called water processing,” this means the sun exposure and water immersion degumming undertakes alternately. Every night the silk is suspended in the well water, and the products that are photochemically decomposed during the day are dissolved in the well water. Soaking in the well and a large bath ratio is beneficial to the dissolution of sericin and other impurities. In ancient times, the refining of the firstly processed fabric was called silk processing, and the refining of the later processed fabric was called silk-fabric processing. These two different methods can be found in the chapter of “silk cleaner”: • To clean the raw silk fabrics (bo), the cleaner burns the leaves of the chinaberry in ashes to prepare the ash water, with which he sprinkles and soaks the silk fabrics. The cleaner puts the silk fabrics into a smooth vat and sprinkles them with the clamshell lime. Then the cleaner lets this lime be clarified and withdraws the silk fabrics to dry them. Then the cleaner continues in turn shaking, soaking, drying the silk fabrics, impregnating them with clamshell lime, and submerging them into the well water at night. The following day the cleaner soaks the silk fabrics and dries them again. The silk fabrics are exposed to the sun in the daytime, and they are submerged into the well water at night. This alternate exposing and submerging process is repeated for seven days. That is why it is called water processing What the above words means is that after the silk is soaked in the thick ash water made from the chinaberry leaves, put it in a smooth container, and soak in a large amount of clamshell ash water, making the rotten material in the immersion liquid precipitated. Then take the silk out to be dehydrated and then coated with clamshell

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ash to stand overnight. The next day, pour water on the silk and then dehydrate it. Finally process it with water for 7 days and 7 nights. According to the analysis of textile history scholars, this complicated process of ancient times runs through the idea: Making use of the large solubility of the sericin in an alkaline solution, fully swell and dissolve the silk firstly with a thick alkaline solution (ash water from chinaberry leaves). Then wash off the sericin with a large amount of relatively thin alkali solution (ash water from chinaberry leaves) ([8], p. 74). The plant ash and clam used in silk and silk-fabric processing are both alkaline substances. Clam is a member of shellfish category. The shell contains calcium carbonate. After being calcined, it becomes calcium oxide, and its lye is alkaline. When the plant ash is used in combination with clam, calcium carbonate forms calcium carbonate precipitates with the action of calcium oxide. The permeability of the sylvite solution is better than that of the calcium salt. This is the reason why the ash water is used first and then the clam ash.

4.4.5

Historical Material of Weights and Measures

In Kaogong ji, there are some historical material of weights and measures in the pre-Qin period. The length units mentioned are xun, chang, ren, chi, cun, mei, ji, yan, bu, gui, zhi, ke, bi, etc. The capacity units are fu, dou, sheng, hu, etc. The record of the standard measure “jiang liang” (grain measure) is especially worth noting; see “measure makers make measures of capacity”: • Measure makers make measures of capacity. They purify the samples of metal (copper) and tin by successively heating them, until there is no further loss of weight. Then they weigh them. After weighing, they rectify and adjust the mold, and after that they cast and examine the capacity of the measure. They cast the standard measure of capacity fu in this way. The fu is of one chi in depth, having a circular base whose inscribed square has a side of one chi, and it holds one fu; its base is one cun deep, and it holds one dou; two handles are three cun deep, and each holds one sheng. The measure fu weighs one jun. The standard ruler of the measure of capacity is consistent with that of the pitch pipe which sounds like the tone gong in the pitch of the Huangzhong. The people use it as a pattern by which to make or check others, and no duty is levied thereon. The characters inscribed on it read: This measure of capacity was invented by a king possessing every kind of virtue, who thought deeply about the people. His inventive genius and pursuit of the truth reached the highest degree of excellence. This excellent measure (jialiang) since its completion has been given to the observation of all parts of the kingdom, perpetually making manifest for future generations as the model This is an exclusive record on the shape of the grain measure before the middle Warring States Period. It indicates that this device involves four standards of Lü, Du, Liang, and Heng:

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• Lü: “the pitch pipe which sounds like the tone gong in the pitch of the Huangzhong.” • Du: “the fu is of one chi in depth, having a circular base whose inscribed square has a side of one chi,” “its base is one cun deep,” and “two handles are three cun deep.” • Liang: “it holds one fu,”“it holds one dou,” and “each holds one sheng” • Heng: “the measure fu weighs one jun.” According to Wen Renjun’s research [11], fu (same as “kettle”) of this measure is the old measure of Jiang Qi (another name of Qi state in ancient times), one fu equals 64 l, and each liter is about 24.5375 cubic cun, which is equivalent to the one-chi Qi state at that time and about 19.7 cm today. The record in the chapter of “Measure makers make measures of capacity” in Kaogong ji has an important influence on the later creation of “LüJia Lianghu” (9 AD). Kaogong ji records some practical measures, which can be seen in the chapter of “jiangren” (master builders, builders, and carpenters): • When determining the measurement of the room, one uses ji (the stool). The yan measure is used for the hall; the xun, for the palace or hall of the audience. The bu measure is adopted for the measurement of the provinces and rural districts; and, for the public road breadth, gui (the chariot-gauge). . .According to regulation, the ridge of the gates of the imperial palace has a fixed standard height of five zhi; the watchtower at corners of the palace, seven zhi; the watchtower at corners of the city, nine zhi The measures mentioned in the text are: ji, yan, xun, bu, gui, and zhi. • • • •

Ji – the stool beside the chairs used for leaning on, 3 chi long. Yan – the straw mat laid in the room, 9 chi long. Xun – the distance between the stretched arms of a person, 8 chi long. Bu – length unit, one bu equals 8 chi in the pre-Qin period (1 chi equals about 20 cm today). • Gui – the space between two wheels, 8 chi long. • Zhi – the unit to measure the capital. In the ancient times, walls were built with beam plates, each of which is 6 chi long and 2 chi wide. Zhi is the area of five plates, that is 3 zhang long and 1 zhang wide. Although the units commonly used in pre-Qin buildings are complex, they all have a certain proportional relationship with chi, and various units have inevitable connection with the objects of measurement. It is from the practice of city building that the ancient architects summed up the general planning and scale standards of different buildings.

4.5

Versions’ Origins and Research Works on Kaogong ji

After Kaogong ji was completed, it was once circulated in the form of ancient Chinese in the Warring States Period. During the war, it was once lost. When it was found out in the Western Han Dynasty, it was already incomplete. So when it

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was selected into Zhou Guan to supplement the Dong Guan (Winter officials), the scholars at that time did some sorting, and thus, Kaogong ji is not exactly the original one. In the Han Dynasty, several scholars commented on Zhou Li (Zhou Guan), among whom the most accomplished one was Zheng Xuan. His commentaries on Zhou Li is the most complete authoritative work preserved in the early research of Zhou Li and Kaogong ji. On the basis of Commentaries on Zhou Li, many versions of the later generations have been produced. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, in addition to the annotations, there was a set of interpretations. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there arose school of “yishu” (paraphrasing). In this academic atmosphere, Jia Gongyan of the Tang Dynasty wrote Zhou Li Shu. The annotations and commentaries of Zhou Li were circulated separately. At the turn of the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties, there appeared Zhou Li Zhu Shu inscribed together. Later, there appeared different versions of Zhou Li Zhu Shu. In Zhou Li Zhu Shu, there are traces to indicate Kaogong ji was reedited in the Han Dynasty. The independent interpretation of Kaogong ji began in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, there continually appeared research works on Kaogong ji, among which the most famous ones are Lin Xiyi’s Kaogong ji Jijie in the Southern Song Dynasty, Xu Guangqi’s Kaogong ji Jie in the late Ming Dynasty, and Daizhen’s Kaogong ji Tu in the Qing Dynasty. Since the Song Dynasty, there have been hundreds of ancient books in cut blocks which contain Kaogong ji. Here are a few main origins.

4.5.1

Shisan jing zhushu: Zhouli by Zhonghua Book Company

Shisan jing zhushu revised and inscribed by Ruan Yuan, the famous scholar of the Qing Dynasty, is known as the reliable edition, of which the 42 volumes of the Fushi Yin Zhou Li Zhushu were originally written in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the 20th year of Jiaqing (1815) in the Qing Dynasty, re-inscribed Shisanjing zhushu jiaokan ji of the Song Dynasty (Collation Notes for the Thirteen Classics and the Commentaries and Subcommentaries) was engraved by the Nanchang Academy, Jiangxi Province. In 1935, the Shanghai World Book Office lithographed the compact edition based on the first edition of Nanchang Academy. In 1980, Zhonghua Book Company photoprinted the compact edition of the World Book Office, checked with several other edition, and correcting some textual errors and clipping errors. This book has been reprinted again and again and is still the most popular book at present, whose quality is consistently praised by scholars.

4.5.2

Sibu beiyao Edition

The 42 volumes of Zhou Li in the Sibu beiyao edition is the typography edition based on the Shisan Jing Guzhu (Ancient Annotations of the Thirteen Classics) (Yonghuai Tang in the Ming Dynasty) revised by Zhonghua Book Company in 1928. Sibu

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beiyao edition retains the style of Yonghuai Tang but corrects some errors. It is a relatively popular edition.

4.5.3

Sibu congkan Edition

The 12 volumes of Zhou Li in the Sibu congkan edition is the photocopy by the Shanghai Commercial Press in 1929, based on the edition of Ye Dehui Guan Gutang, the interpretation in Jiajing Years of the Ming Dynasty of the edition at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. It is also a popular book.

4.5.4

Siku Quanshu Edition

During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, when the Siku Quanshu was edited, the official edition of 42 volumes of Zhou Li Zhu Shu was adopted by the imperial storehouse. Siku Quanshu in Wenyuange (the imperial library) was photocopied and published by the Taiwan Commercial Press in 1986. Some mainland libraries bought it. With the development of electronic technology, the Sibu Congkan and Siku Quanshu have already had a CD-ROM version and a network electronic version, which brings great convenience to the popularization and personal retrieval of largescale ancient books. As for the research work of Kaogong ii, Zhou Li Zheng Yi edited by Sun Yirang, the late Qing scholar, was recommended. The book has been repeatedly drafted and finally completed and published in 1899. There are totally 86 volumes in Zhou Li Zheng Yi, in which Kaogong ji occupies 74 volumes to 86 volumes, about 300,000 words. The characteristic of Zhou Li Zheng Yi is that it proves the ancient meaning and the ancient system in great detail. So to study the Kaogong ji and understand the relevant pre-Qin system, Zhou Li Zheng Yi is an important reference book, which has a typographical version of the Zhonghua Book Company. In the 1980s, Wen Renjun made an in-depth study of Kaogong ji. He critically inherited the research achievements of the predecessors, introduced new scientific methods, combined the excavation of cultural relics for research, and formed many creative ideas. Wen Renjun’s Guide to Kaogong ji makes detailed notes on the original text and provided vernacular translations. It is suitable for beginners and those who read for general knowledge. In addition, Dai Wusan compiled the The Illustrated Book of Kaogong ji in 2003. The book reveals the cultural connotation of the book, makes the quantitative analysis of the text structure, and provides lots of pictures of cultural relics and novel layout design. It is suitable for beginners and interested parties. (Translator: Jie Qiao) (Proofreader: Caiyun Lian)

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References 1. Guo Moruo. (1947). The written time and nationality of Kaogong ji. In Tiandi Xuanhuang. Shanghai: Dafu Publishing House. 2. Chen Zhi. (1963). On ancient books. Wen Shi, Vol. 3, p. 10. 3. Yang Xiangkui. (1988). On Zhouli being written in the Qi state. Journal of Guanzi, (3), 3–9. 4. Wen Renju. (1982). Mathematical interpretation of acoustics in Kaogong ji. Journal of Hangzhou University (Natural Science), 9(4), 428–436. 5. Technique Office of Archaeological Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. (1984). On leather-armour making in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Archeology, (12), 1127–1131. 6. Wen Renjun. (1988). Guide to Kaogong ji (p. 120). Chengdu: Bashu Shushe. 7. Hua Jueming, & Jia Yunfu. (1983). Exploration on the making of stone chimes in the pre-Qin period. Research on Natural Science History, 2(1), 72–82. 8. Chen Weiji. (1984). History of textile science and technology in China (the ancient part). Beijing: Science Press. 9. Qian Baochong. (1984). Chinese mathematics history (p. 15). Beijing: Science Publishing House, reprinted. 10. Dai Wusan. (2003). Research on ‘Qingzhe’ in Kaogong ji. In Illustrated book of Kaogong ji (1st ed., pp. 144–150). Jinan: Shandong Picture Publishing House. 11. Wen Renjun. (1983). Research on ‘qichi’ in Kaogong ji. Archeology, (1), 61–65.

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From the Medical Books on Bamboo Slips to the Classics Yuqun Liao

Contents 5.1 Brief Introduction to the Medical Books on Bamboo Slips in the Han Dynasty . . . . . . . . 5.1.1 Juyan Bamboo Slips and Wuwei Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.2 Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.3 Maishu and Yinshu in Zhangjianshan and the Wooden Man in Mianyang . . . . . 5.1.4 Wanwu (All Things on Earth) in Fuyang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Special Topics in the Medical Books of Bamboo Slips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 The Meridian Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Exorcism Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.3 Transformation of Internal Medicine Dosage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 The Completion of the Classic Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 The Current Version of Huangdi Neijing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Huangdi Bashiyi Nanjing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.3 Shennong Bencao Jing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 The Completion and Being “The Classics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 The Value of “The Classics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

This chapter mainly tells of medical books on bamboo slips in ancient China. First, it gives a brief introduction to four important medical books unearthed. Second, it elaborates on three special topics in the medical books of bamboo slips―the meridian theory, exorcism therapy and transformation of internal medicine dosage. In the last part, classic works are discussed including their completion, being “the Classics” and their value. Keywords

Medical books of bamboo slips · Special topics · Classic works Y. Liao (*) The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_5

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The inheritance of knowledge and skills undoubtedly relies on “oral teaching” and “physical demonstration” in the early stage. Since then, there have been written and recorded materials, and in the medical field, there have been handed-down works such as Huangdi Neijing, Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic, and Nan Jing (Classic on Medical Problems), which are still regarded as the standard, still being learned and used today. Either for the famous names of the human ancestors Huangdi and Shennong, or because they still contain chapters titled “oral teaching,” or because of the admiration the future generations have for the ancient customs and tradition and the psychological needs to create academic idols, etc., these medical works have long been regarded as the classics of the early wisdom and sages after the era of “oral teaching and physical demonstration” in the field of research and even general historiography. Although they are not books written in the remote antiquity, they are at least the remains not burned in the Qin fire. However, with the rise of archaeological work, many medical books on bamboo slips were discovered in China in the twentieth century. As a result, several conventional ideas that have been agreed on are greatly challenged, but it also provides extremely valuable information for reorganizing and constructing the general view of the ancient Chinese medical knowledge system in the preliminary period from the pre-Qin to the Han Dynasty. In addition, there are many questions worth considering on the topics in the large number of ancient medical books. For example, “the era of writing a book” and “becoming a classic” are not the same events at the same time; how were these highly respected classics viewed in the contemporary era and so on? For those who want to know the traditional Chinese medicine more comprehensively and to outline it at the same time, the “classic works” is undoubtedly a very important aspect. That’s what this chapter is going to elaborate.

5.1

Brief Introduction to the Medical Books on Bamboo Slips in the Han Dynasty

The unearthed medical works of the Han Dynasty on the bamboo slips have the following basic characteristics: Regarding the content, the level of medical knowledge recorded in the bamboo slips is significantly lower than that of the handeddown classics; but the contents of some are closely related to the handed-down classics, so researchers often use zuben (the origin) to indicate the relationship between the two. On the other hand, as far as the time coordinates are concerned, the written era of these unearthed medical books and the era they were used are undoubtedly between “oral teaching and physical demonstration” and “the classics coming out.” However, the crux of the problem lies in the fact that these simple medical books are basically unearthed in the tombs of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, there comes out the question on the formation of several important medical classics such as the Huangdi Neijing in the pre-Qin Dynasty. There are two kinds of explanations: One is that the classic writings such as Huangdi Neijing were completed in the pre-Qin period. It infers that the simple medical books unearthed from

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the Han tomb were formed in a more ancient era. The other not only emphasizes that “unearthed from the Han tombs” is an exact time positioning but also that before and after the tomb era, this knowledge is still in use. That is, at that time, these medical works are not the “burial objects.” If we agree that the second view is more rigorous and reasonable, then compared with the long-term statement that ancient Chinese medicine had made the “system construction” in the pre-Qin period, it is necessary to amend the view that medicine was developing faster than other branches of the natural sciences in the Han Dynasty. In other words, the large number of unearthed medical books has not only provided us with firsthand valuable information on the study of certain specific conditions of early medicine but also provided the direct evidence for reconstructing the time coordinates of classic writing. From the textual criticisms and explanations to the interpretation of the content, the research on the medical works of the Han Dynasty unearthed has become one of the focuses of many scholars at home and abroad in the past decades. Recently, with the support of various research funds, some scholars have begun to search all kinds of original materials extensively and collect different researches and explanations. These great works will be of great help in understanding the full picture as much as possible and what is said here is only the focus.

5.1.1

Juyan Bamboo Slips and Wuwei Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty

The excavation of the medical books of the Han Dynasty in the twentieth century began in 1926, when the “Northwest Scientific Research Group” composed by Chinese and Swedish scholars made the exploration in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, and other places and discovered the bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty in ancient military facilities and architectural sites in the region. In 1930, Swedish scholars of the delegation excavated a large number of Han Dynasty wooden slips in the Juyan area of Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia and the Pochengzi of Jinta County in Gansu Province. In this batch of unearthed wooden slips named “Juyan Hanjian” (Juyan bamboo slips), there are some medical-related contents. In the northwestern region, there were also unearthed wooden books of the Han Dynasty, collectively known as “Wuwei Hanjian” (Wuwei bamboo slips), which include the “Liyi Jian” (Bamboo Slips on Rites) and “Wangzhang Jian” (Wooden Slips on the Wangzhang System) unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu, in 1959, and nearly 100 pieces of medical materials were unearthed in the area in 1972. Although the content of “Wangzhang Jian” is not related to medicine, it is related to the system of respecting the elderly and the old-age government in the Han Dynasty (see Figs. 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4). On the other hand, when viewed from the perspective of sociology, it also provides the rare and valuable material to observe the dual attributes of medical “benevolent practice” and “benevolent governance,” the history of the interaction and development between the two sides. Han Dynasty. Unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu. 2.1 m long with 2.3 cm diameter. Stick of turtledove is the symbol that the government to the elderly in the pension

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Fig. 5.1 Stick of colored wooden turtledove

Fig. 5.2 Wangzhang wooden slips

system of the Han Dynasty. That is “Wangzhang” called in the “Wangzhang Jian” (Atlas of Fine Cultural Relics in Gansu Museum, edited by Gansu Museum, published by Sanqin Publishing House, 2006: 139) Eastern Han Dynasty. Unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu. Wooden Slips, totally 10. It prescribed: Those who are granted Wangzhang at his 70s is equal to those officials

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Fig. 5.3 Portrait brick of a manor

Fig. 5.4 Portrait brick of providing for the aged

who receive the salary of 600 dan. They don’t need to hasten themselves when going into the feudal government. Anyone who dares to insult them should be punished for the worst offense. (Atlas of Fine Cultural Relics in Gansu Museum, edited by Gansu Museum, published by Sanqin Publishing House, 2006: 128) Eastern Han Dynasty. Unearthed from the Han tombs in Chengdu, Sichuan. The elderly man with a turtledove-ended stick in hand in front of the granary is waiting for the grains given by the government. (“Gold, Silver and Jade”, Dictionary of Chinese Art Treasures, co-published by Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House and The Commercial Press, 1996: 296)

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Fig. 5.5 Wuwei Yijian

Eastern Han Dynasty. Unearthed in Pengzhou, Sichuan. The elderly man with a turtledove-ended stick is kneeling down at the lower right corner, and a servant is putting the grains into the vessel with a measure. (Atlas of Fine Cultural Relics in Sichuan Museum, Wenwu Publishing House, 2009: 127) “The prescriptions on the bamboos slips” unearthed in Wuwei included the descriptions of the symptoms; the explanation for the names, causes, and pathology of the diseases; and the corresponding treatments (Fig. 5.5). For the large amount and rich contents of the slips, they are considered the important material to study the ancient Chinese medicine, especially that of the Han Dynasty. Early in the western or eastern Han Dynasty. Unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu, totally 92 slips. It keeps 30 kinds of prescriptions intact or almost intact, listing some 100 ingredients of Chinese medicine, recording the disease names, symptoms, medicines, dosages, processing method and treatment methods, etc. (Atlas of Fine Cultural Relics in Gansu Museum, edited by Gansu Museum, published by Sanqin Publishing House, 2006: 139)

5.1.2

Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts

Among the unearthed medical works of the Han Dynasty, the most shocking medical record in the Han Dynasty was the medical relics discovered in1973 in the cemetery of the Daihou family in the early Western Han Dynasty in Mawangdui, Changsha,

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Hunan. Since the cultural relics unearthed from the cemetery are preserved in good condition and of great numbers, it has become a sensational event in contemporary archaeological work. In terms of medicine, the most striking thing is more than ten kinds of medical works were unearthed from the Tomb No. 3 in 168 BC (see Figs. 5.6 and 5.7) and nine drugs in three categories that have been identified, including “first, the plant Hierochloe odorata, galangal, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, Rhizoma ligustici, and perrin; second, the animal oyster; and third, minerals like cinnabar, etc.” [1].

Fig. 5.6 The bamboo slips of “medical books” in the lacquer mirror case of Tomb No. 3 at Mawangdui

Fig. 5.7 Daoyin Tu

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These unearthed documents in fact were not titled until sorted out based on their contents: • Zubi Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm) • Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels) A • Mai Fa (Model of Vessels) • Yin Yang Mai Sihou (Pulse Image in Critical Conditions) • Wushier Bingfang (Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments) (The above five documents were combined into a volume of silk manuscripts.) (Hunan Museum, Hunan Institute of Archeology: No. 2 and No. 3 Tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha, volume 1, Wenwu Publishing House, 2004, Plate 52) Unearthed from the Han tombs at Mawangdui and called Daoyin Tu (Drawings of Guiding and Pulling). The restored one is as follows (Atlas of Chinese Medical Relics, edited by He Zhongjun, Wu Hongzhou, Sicuan People’s Publishing House, 2001, 147.): • Quegu shiqi (Eliminating Grain and Eating Qi) • Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing B (Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels) • Daoyin Tu (Drawings of Guiding and Pulling) • (The above three are combined into one volume of silk manuscripts.) • Yangsheng Fang (Recipes for Nurturing Life) • Zaliao Fang (Miscellaneous Treatment) • Taichan Shu (Book of the Generation of the Fetus) • (The above three are combined into one volume of silk manuscripts.) The above 11 scripts, due the similarity between Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing A and B, are reduced to 10. Moreover, in the bamboo scripts unearthed in the tombs, there are four medical books: • • • •

Shiwen (Ten Questions) (bamboo slips) He Yin Yang (bamboo slips) Zajin Fang (Recipes for Various Charms) (wooden slips) Tianxia Zhidao Tan (bamboo slips)

The unearthing of the Mawangdui medical books seems of great significance to the research of the medical history of the Qin and Han Dynasties. The reasons are as follows: First, before the Mawangdui medical books were unearthed, there was almost no other direct medical history in the Western Han Dynasty except for the life experience and 25 medical cases described in Shiji·Cang Gong Zhuan. Second,

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the Mawangdui medical books are not only numerous, providing lots of firsthand information concerning the specific details of many aspects of the medical field, but also cover the four major aspects of the “medical classics, the classical prescriptions, the coition medicine, and the immortals” in the Fangji Lue (Medical Books) of Qi Lue (Seven Fields) (Table 5.1) that Liu Xiang and Liu Xin (father and son) compiled as the catalogue when sorting out the ancient books in the late Western Han Dynasty. Just as what fangji means in Han Shu·Yi Wen Zhi: “This is a way to sustain life, and a duty of the officials.” Therefore, to be more accurate, it should be called “the study of life.” They are works concerning the “life sciences,” not just the prevention or treatment of diseases. These four aspects are the extension of the concept of fangji in this era. Third, since it is “a duty of the officials,” these works of life should not be regarded as “relics” of burial, but the carrier of knowledge that is being used in that era. Therefore, although those who think Huangdi Neijing was completed in the pre-Qin position would date the Ma Wangdui medical books back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period; the most reliable evidence is undoubtedly the age of the tomb – 168 BC. Therefore, it’s better and more reasonable to regard it as the objective manifestation of the actual level of medical development from the pre-Qin period to the early Han Dynasty. If you look at the problem from such a standpoint, it is not accidental that these medical works are consistent with the scope of the fangji in Qilue. Scholars from archaeological field criticized the collating team for violating the archaeological naming principle when naming these unearthed medical books, which is also of great value. For example, the two so-called Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels would at most be called Books on Vessels or Classics on Vessels and definitely without “eleven” and “moxibustion,” if people of that time titled the book, as such perspectives are only from those who compare them with the classic “theory of channels.” In the era when there was no classic of “twelve meridian” system and there was no treatment method to the channels, it is obvious that “only Table 5.1 Catalogue of the Mangwangdui unearthed medical books Catalogue of Fangji Lue in Hanshu·Yiwenzhi The medical classics

The classical prescriptions

The coition medicine

The immortals

The Mawangdui unearthed medical books Zubi Shiyi Mai Jiujing (silk manuscripts) Yin Yang Shiyi MaiJiujing (silk manuscripts) Mai Fa (silk manuscripts) Yin Yang Mai Si Hou (silk manuscripts) Wushier Bingfang (silk manuscripts) Taichan Shu (silk manuscripts) Zajin Fang(wooden slips) Shiwen (bamboo slips) He Yinyang (bamboo slips) Tianxia ZhidaoTan (bamboo slips) Quegu Shiqi (silk manuscripts) Daoyin Tu (silk manuscripts) Yangsheng Fang (silk manuscripts) Zaliao Fang (silk manuscripts)

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eleven meridians” and “only moxibustion” were out of the question, just as there would be “Chinese medicine” only when Western medicine was introduced and two different medical knowledge systems coexisted. Before that, “medicine” was “medicine,” and there could be no distinction between that of China and that of the West. In addition, it is also possible that Mai Fa and Yin Yang Mai Si Hou, which were written in the same roll of silk manuscripts, are in fact a coherent book. Even that all the words written on the same roll of silk manuscripts are a medical book elaborating from theory to treatment. Of course, these are still speculations and have nothing to do with the general situation. In short, the Mawangdui medical books are most significant, valuable, and reliable materials for the studies of the transition from traditional empirical medicine to theoretical medicine in the early Western Han Dynasty, the establishment of the early meridian theory system, the use of moxibustion and acupuncture, the evolution of drug therapy, and the development of healthcare.

5.1.3

Maishu and Yinshu in Zhangjianshan and the Wooden Man in Mianyang

Following the unearthing of medical books in Western Han tomb in Mawangdui, two medical works entitled Maishu [2] and Yinshu [3] were discovered in the tombs of the Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan, Hubei Province, in 1984. Because the two tombs are not far apart, and the contents have many similarities, it proves that although the content may be traced back to an era of the pre-Qin period, it is still popular medical knowledge in the early Western Han Dynasty and can be applied in examining the level of medical development in the Western Han Dynasty. According to the content, Yinshu can be divided into five parts. The second part explains 38 ways of guiding and pulling; the fourth part shows the functions of the 24 ways, but there are only same names for 6 ways in these 2 works, which shows that Yinshu is in fact an integration of ways of guiding and pulling. If compared with Daoyin Tu unearthed from Mawangdui, there are both some consisting in both pictures and texts and completely inconsistent ones. This also shows signs that the development of guiding and pulling in the Western Han Dynasty has gone along many paths. Later, in 1993, a wooden man engraved with many “lines” in the same period of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed in Mianyang, Sichuan (see Fig. 5.8). In the absence of any words to confirm the use of the wooden man and the meaning of “lines,” although it can be accepted as the expression of “human body meridian,” it cannot be agreed on that it belongs to the same system with Ma Wangdui medical books and Lingshu•Meridian: They are far apart from each other, not in the same system at all. Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Mianyang, Sichuan (Atlas of Chinese Medical Relics, edited by He Zhongjun, Wu Hongzhou, Sicuan People’s Publishing House, 2001: 70)

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Fig. 5.8 Carved lacquerware of the human body meridians

5.1.4

Wanwu (All Things on Earth) in Fuyang

In 1987, a “jade plate” was unearthed in the Neolithic tombs of Lingjiatan, Changgang Town, Hanshan County, Anhui Province. When unearthed, it was placed between the back and the plastron of the jade turtle (see Fig. 5.9), in the chest of the dead. The tomb was about 5000 years old, with a large number of unearthed objects of high specifications, showing how developed the early culture was [4]. So far, many scholars have conducted in-depth and meticulous research on them and believed that their forms and characterizations may include a variety of aspects such as ancient astronomical calendars and Yi-ology. Regrettably, since there is no text circumstantial evidence, all ideological and cultural explanations can only be said to be speculations, and it is also easy to cause “overinterpretation.” However, as an unearthed object in the Neolithic era, it is indeed very shocking: When did some important ideological content of Chinese traditional culture originate from? (Collections of fifty-year enshrined cultural relics of the Palace Museum, edited by The Palace Museum, the Palace Museum Press, 2005: 202, 203)

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Fig. 5.9 Hanshan jade plate. (a) Jade plate. (b) Jade turtle the back and the plastron

Looking from the spot in the northeast of Chaohu Lake where the Hanshan “jade plate” was unearthed, you can see the coast of the Huaihe River which was the territory of Xu State in the Spring and Autumn Period. King Yan, the monarch of the Xu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, preferred collecting the natural objects. “King Yan of the Xu State is so strange that he asked people to dive into deep waters for strange fish, into the mountains for monsters, and most of those were displayed in the court” (Li Kaizuan, Shangshi (Volume 28), Lizhuan No.6-Zhou-Luanchen Zhuan-Xuyanchen’s Quotation From Shizi). Hereby the ancient history researcher Xu Xusheng stated: • Shi Zi records his strangeness, just to describe his strange nature but not to compliment him. However, the beginning of science has something to do with curiosity. Aristotle can lay the foundations of Western biology, thanks to the collection of animals and plants of King Alexander. If the Xu State could have defended itself at that time, the collections of King Yan would have not been lost. It is hard to say that the foundation of biology in China might be earlier than that in Greece for 200 or 300 hundred years ([5], p. 188). It might be somewhat overestimated that Xu putting so much emphasis on King Yan’s collection may be overrated, but it is worth learning that he noticed the relationship between curiosity and science, rather than adhering to the “social development needs,” and keenly grasped the clues of the historical literature concerning the political subject in order to expound how people understand the natural objects. As he pointed out, “The lack of historical materials of the Xu State is not due to its low culture, but because it is different from the orthodox culture of the Central Plains, and the cultural system of Huaxia. Therefore, the history written by the orthodox culture knows little about its story and therefore only gave a very brief record” ([5], p. 195). Indeed, the so-called pharmaceutical knowledge is acquired through the gradual accumulation in understanding and exploring the use of natural goods. The case in point is the record of more than 100 kinds of animals, plants, and minerals in Shan

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Hai Jing, many of which are the knowledge of “pharmaceutical functions” in the eyes of people today. But there is no record in history on when the book was completed. It is generally believed to have been finished in the long period from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the early Han Dynasty, and the author is not just one person; it is centered on Chu and extended to Ba in the west and Qi in the east. This is conclusion from the nearly half-century study on the book [6]. It is not difficult to see the central position of the “Chu culture” at that time, though of course, this is only based on speculation of content research. However, when we turn from the territory of King Yan to the west and reach the boundary of Fuyang in Anhui Province, we can see that the real unearthed documents are very similar to those described in Shan Hai Jing. In 1977, the bamboo slips unearthed from the tomb of Xia Houzhao, Marquis of the Yin Dynasty, Fuyang, Anhui, was named Za Fang. Later, the researchers on the book took the meaning of No.001 slip “It is impossible to be indifferent to the ways in heaven, to be unaware of the nature of all things, and to ignore the transformation between Yin and Yang,” so that it is named Wanwu (see Fig. 5.10). Western Han Dynasty. Totaling 130 slips. (History of Chinese Medicine·Atlas of Cultural Relics, edited by Fu Weikang, Li Jingwei, Lin Zahogeng, People’s HealtH Publishing House, 2000: 39) It is mainly about the law of things, the nature of things, and the usage of things. There are about 30 kinds of things that can be included in the concept of “drugs” and used to treat various diseases which are divided into nine categories of jade, grass, Fig. 5.10 Fuyang bamboo slips Wan Wu

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wood, beast, poultry, insect, fruit, rice, and vegetables. However, although such expressions as “When rabbits are white, they can be used for fur coat,” and “spiders make people flee,” “things are in high-hanging mirrors,” “light bodies can travel through clouds over mountains,” etc. are also talking about “the usage of things,” they cannot find appropriate positions in the framework of modern knowledge systems. Nevertheless, it is precisely because of this that we can see how the so-called pharmacology has developed. As it was completed in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and the principle it’s based on is similar to that of Shan Hai Jing, it is considered to be the original form in the development of herbal medicine works [7].

5.2

Special Topics in the Medical Books of Bamboo Slips

The research on the medical books of bamboo slips can be roughly divided into three types. That is to say, in addition to the textual interpretation and the specific knowledge content of the medical science at that time, it also includes the revision of the historical interpretation system constructed in the past based on the integration of the history of medical science. The three aspects of research have their indispensable status and significance in the progressive relationship from the “base” to the “application.” What mentioned below are basically cases of applying the data and basic research results to correcting the old interpreting system.

5.2.1

The Meridian Theory

The meridian theory is an important part of the basic theory of ancient Chinese medicine and is still in use today. However, in order to clarify the mystery of the so-called meridian essence, I am afraid we have to rely on more scientific research. Therefore, we can only talk about the development of this system according to the literature. 1. The meridian theory in Mawangdui medical books There are two kinds of works related to the meridian theory in Mawangdui’s unearthed medical books, one of which is “first foot meridians, then the hand meridians” and the other arranged the 11 meridians on the human body in the order of “first Yin meridians and then Yang meridians,” so they were, respectively, named Zubi Shiyi Mai Jiu Jing (hereinafter referred to as Zubi) and Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiu Jing (hereinafter referred to as Yin Yang). As far as the former is concerned, since there are summary words of “For such kinds of diseases,

meridian can be applied in moxibustion” for each meridian after circulation and symptoms are discussed, it is all right to name it “Moxibustion.” However, more discussion should be made for the latter.

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Table 5.2 The writing style of Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing

Name of meridian Juyang Meridian Shaoyang Meridian Yangming Meridian Shoulder Meridian Ear Meridian Tooth Meridian Dayin Meridian

Circulation

Diseases resulting from the disorder of this meridian

Main treatment On Juyang Meridian On Shaoyang Meridian On Yangming Meridian On shoulder Meridian On ear Meridian On tooth Meridian On Juyang Meridian

Diseases of viscera connecting with the channel With hours of death

Suffix words

The writing style and the rules of treatment in Yin Yang are specifically shown in Table 5.2. It can be seen from the table that the recording for each meridian is in a certain format: name of meridian, circulation, symptoms, main treatment, and diseases. Only a paragraph of “how will it be after moxibustion is applied” appears following the Shaoyin Kidney Meridian of Foot, so it can be considered that this text is supplemented or annotated by later generations. However, in the so-called moxibustion classics, the word “moxibustion” is only seen here, so it should not be regarded as equal to Zubi and entitled “moxibustion classics.” Emphasizing this is not to focus on the “rectification of name” but to understand the source of the word “moxibustion,” so that it can be actually made clear that there is only the general principle of “the main treatment of certain meridian” in the full text but no specific ones at all. Therefore, the view might not be appropriate that the book is “still on moxibustion, no other such treatments as with needles or drugs.” This can be further proven by Maishu unearthed in Zhangjiashan, Hubei Province. In it, Yin Yang and Mai Fa and Yin Yang Mai Si Hou are totally one book. This makes it easy for us to think what “to teach students with Mai Fa” at the very beginning of Mawangdui books actually means. It is the specific content of Yin Yang. The specific application rules of moxibustion methods and meteorite listed below are also directed at these meridians. It is generally believed that Yin Yang is later than “Zubi”; then we can not only see in the development of the classic meridian works that the abstract concept of “Yin and Yang” has replaced the specific description of “zu (foot), bi (arm)” but also that the general principle stated in Yin Yang is not just limited to the specific treatment. This marks that the meridian theory has gradually become one of the theoretical ones with the development of its own system, moving toward the general principle of explaining physiology and treatment guidance.

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The second question that can be analyzed is the meaning of “Shidong Bing (diseases resulting from the disorder of this meridian)” and “Suosheng Bing (diseases of viscera connecting with the channel).” Before the excavation of the Mawangdui medical books, the words “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing” were first seen in Lingshu-Meridian (“Chan” is the same as “Sheng.” It was all written into “Suosheng Bing” after Ling Shu), which has been regarded as a classification method for diseases: Various symptoms of each meridian are divided into two categories: meridian diseases (Shidong) and viscus diseases (Suosheng) or diseases out of external factors (Shidong) and diseases out of internal factors (Suosheng). This statement is not that reliable because there is no more appropriate explanation for the words “Shidong” and “Suosheng,” but everyone has to follow it. In fact, it is difficult to see from Lingshu-Meridian the essential differences between the symptoms of “Shidong” and “Suosheng” in the articles on each meridian. Of course, it is impossible to determine the criterion of division. In clinical applications, this division does not make any sense for treatment. The reason why the doctors of the past generations tried to figure out different interpretations of “Shidong” and “Suosheng” from different angles is mainly because there have already been standardized narrating modes for each meridian in Lingshu-Meridian. They all include the following six items: • Name of Meridian!circulation route!Shidong Bing!Suosheng Bing!rules of treatment!pulse manifestation For example, in the name of “Fei Shou Tai Yin Zhi Mai” (the lung meridian of Hand-Tai Yin), these six words actually contain the name of the organ, “lung,” the pulse of “hand” or “foot,” and the specific Yin and Yang attributes. In the description of the circulation route, it includes the “starting” and “ending” points, how the meridians themselves are connected to the organ (lung), and how the collaterals and the “inside” organs (large intestines) pass through each other, as well as the detailed traveling paths and directions. The next is the disease associated with the meridian, which is called “Shidong Bing” and “Suosheng Bing.” Still take “Fei Shou Tai Yin Zhi Mai,” for example: • The invasion [of pathogenic factors into this channel causes the following] diseases: distension and fullness of the lung, cough, and panting. The diseases of the lung [dominated by this channel] include cough and adverse flow of Qi. When the Mawangdui medical scripts were unearthed, “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing” were also seen in Yin Yang. Since people have had a preconceived explanation in their minds, they are still as principles to classify the symptoms. However, because the criteria distinguishing the two are more ambiguous than that in Lingshu-Meridian, people prefer to omit it in their discussion. But the key to the problem and the entry point for the research are precisely the ambiguity. Comparing the two, it can be seen that Lingshu-Meridian has carried out a number of work on the records of “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing”:

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① 1 The repetition between the two is greatly reduced. ② A large number of supplements to “Suosheng Bing.” ④ Move the “rules of treatment” to follow “Suosheng Bing.” ⑤ In “Suosheng Bing,” the theoretical text “controls diseases from x channel” was added. (All the diseases controlled by each meridian are clearly stated to have relations with the five internal organs. Hand-Taiyin controls diseases from the lung; Zu-Taiyin controls diseases from the spleen; Shou-Shaoyin controls diseases from the heart; Zu-Shaoyin controls diseases from the kidney; and Zu-Jueyin controls diseases from the liver. There’s no mention of the six hollow organs. The diseases controlled by other meridians are as follows: ShouYangming controls diseases from the body fluid; Zu-Yangming controls diseases from the blood; Shou-Taiyang controls diseases from the fluid; Zu-Taiyang controls diseases from the tendon; Shou-Jueyin controls diseases from the pulse; Shou-Shaoyang controls diseases from the qi; Zu-Shaoyang controls diseases from the bone.) This naturally makes it necessary for future generations to use it as a classification method and make various speculations on the classification criteria. However, according to Mawangdui silk scripts, there are many repetitions in the symptoms recorded in “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing.” The typical examples are shown in Table 5.3. It can be seen from the descriptions of these examples and other veins that there are such relationships between Yin Yang and Lingshu-Meridian, “Shidong,” and “Suosheng Bing”: Table 5.3 Comparison between “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing” Shoulder meridian HandTaiyang

Shidong

Suosheng Bing

Tooth meridian HandYangming

Shidong Suosheng Bing

Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing Sore throat, submaxillary swelling, inability of the neck to move, dragging pain of the shoulder and breaking pain of the medial side of arm Chin pain, throat obstruction, arm pain、 elbow pain Tooth pain, swollen hip Tooth pain, swollen hip, yellow eyes, dry mouth, for limb pain。

Lingshu-Meridian Sore throat, submaxillary swelling, inability of the neck to move, dragging pain of the shoulder and breaking pain of the medial side of arm Deaf, yellow eyes, swollen cheek, pain in the neck, mandible, shoulder, medial side of arm, elbow and lateral side of arm. Tooth pain, swollen neck Yellow eyes, dry mouth, running nose, throat obstruction, pain of the anterior medial aspect of the arm, pain and stiffness of the index finger. Excess of qi [in this channel will lead to] warm swelling of the region through which the channel passes and deficiency [of qi in this channel will cause] prolonged chills and shivering

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① “Shingdong” in Lingshu-Meridian is copying Yin Yang. In many meridians, the text is simply the same. ② “Suosheng Bing” in Lingshu-Meridian is developed on the basis of Yin Yang. ③ Among the symptoms of “Suosheng Bing” recorded in Yin Yang, some are exactly the same as “Shidong” (Hand-Taiyang); some include “Shidong” and also supplement it (Hand-Yangming); and the others are completely different (Hand-Shaoyin). This shows that “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing” are not classifications of diseases. Referring to the writing format listed in Table 5.2, the item of “Suosheng Bing” is placed after the “main treatment.” This can easily make people think that “Suosheng Bing” is totally from the person who annotated and studied the original. For those he agreed with, he copied them; for those he thought insufficient, he supplemented; and for those completely inconsistent, he wrote down his views. Although from the transcripts that can be seen so far, i.e., the writings on Mawangdui scripts, the differences between the two cannot be spotted, but it is believed that people at that time must know the difference and different values between the two. This has been shown at least in Lingshu-Meridian. For the words “Shidong,” the author basically made a copy, but for “Suosheng Bing” he dared to do as much modifications and additions as mentioned above. The so-called rich supplements Lingshu-Meridian has made in terms of symptoms, in fact, are mainly reflected in the “Suosheng Bing” item (see Table 5.4). It can be seen from the above that in Lingshu-Meridian, “Shidong” has only been added by 6 kinds and has an average of less than one for each meridian, while “Suosheng Bing” has almost been added by nearly one time, up to 12 kinds. Such significant differences should not be ignored. The analysis of the relationship between “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing” gives us the greatest revelation: Although the Mawangdui medical scripts are fairly old-fashioned, and not easy for people to identify the words in it without the work of word experts, it is not a one-time work. Compared with Zu Bi and Yin Yang, the latter is a kind of progress. The comparison between “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing” in Yin Yang is another development; and if compared with Lingshu-Meridian, a higher level of leap forward can be seen. Table 5.4 Quantity change in “Shidong” and “Suosheng Bing”

Hand-Taiyin Hand-Yangming Foot-Yangming Foot-Taiyin Hand-Shaoyin Hand-Taiyang Foot-Taiyang Total

Shidong Bing Yin Yang 4 2 10 5 4 4 10 60

Lingshu-Meridian 5 2 11 7 4 4 9 66

Suosheng Bing Yin Yang Lingshu-Meridian 5 13 5 9 10 24 10 15 1 5 4 10 12 17 77 141

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Only through such analysis of many small problems, it is possible to gradually come to know how the content of the Huangdi Neijing came from and how it was gradually formed. Otherwise, isn’t it really “created by the saints”? “The number of meridians and the concept of divination,” by the way. In both 2 “11-meiridian” silk scripts there are 5 Yin meridians and 6 Yang meridians, so the researchers speculate that “there are signs of cooperation between the meridians and the internal organs” [8]. However, instead of speculating so boldly, it is better to look at and analyze this problem from the perspective of the concept of “Yin Yang Divination” (cooperation between digital parity and Yin and Yang). As far as the actual situation is concerned, although the descriptions of the various circulations in Yin Yang are occasionally related to the words of the viscera, this occasional connection is completely different from the classic way of the later generation represented by Lingshu-Meridian. Therefore, it is impossible to say that the eleven meridians are “not yet complete.” 2. “Meridians” on the wooden man in Mianyang There’s great difference in the Meridians between the abovementioned “Wooden Man of Human Meridians” unearthed in Mianyang, Sichuan Province, in 1993 and Mawangdui Medical Books and Nei Jing. This indicated that the meridian theory is not unified. If we talk about the so-called meridian theory, it is not necessarily a description of the existence of a certain visible organization in the human body. Therefore, in the ancient times when information exchange was extremely unsmooth, it is not surprising that different expression systems were establish based on the concept of qi and blood circulation. Throughout the early description of the “noumenon” of the human meridians, it can be said that the ancient Chinese meridian theory is mainly embodied in the unearthed medical books from Mawangdui, Hunan, Zhangjiashan, Hubei, and the wooden man unearthed in Mianyang, Sichuan – belonging to Xichu and Bayu in terms of geography. As far as the content is concerned, each of the meridians described in the text starts from the hand or the foot, with different length and the different ending points, so that the so-called ring-shaped channel of the qi-blood circulation cannot be formed. Such a “meridian theory” is also used for the diagnosis of diseases and can even be called the “method of pulse diagnosis.” But it is based on the theory that there is no meridian body. It is essentially different from “Bianque’s pulse diagnosis,” which is based on the ideal theory of “qi-blood circulation” without any specific description about the “noumenon” of the meridians. There are also some differences between the lines depicted on the wooden man unearthed in Mianyang and the description of the meridians in Mawangdui medical books. The first is the starting and ending point of each meridian. The ends of the Mianyang wooden man’s meridians are basically next to the facial senses (eyes, ears, mouth, and nose). Even the meridians at the back of the body climb over the top of the head and reach near the senses. Since there are no explanatory notes, it is impossible to judge whether it is a “starting point” or an “ending point.” If it is the

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“ending point,” the theory may be that the qi of the human body goes up along the “pulses” to the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, thus forming a “feeling function” of sight, hearing, taste, and smell. If it is the starting point, the theory might be that “the natural greatness of a soul” (qi of the nature) enters the human body as a source of energy and power. Please don’t ignore this because how is the “feeling function” formed and where does the “energy” of life come from are important issues that cannot be avoided in any kind of knowledge system aiming at explaining life and diseases. If the source of the life “energy” is based on the direct life experience that if you don’t eat, you will have no strength and starve to death, there should naturally be no such thing as collecting “the essence of the sun and the moon.” The relevant contents of two “Books of Pulses” unearthed from Mawangdui are listed in Table 5.5 for comparison. Except that the Hand-Taiyang in Yinyang Shiyimai Jiujing starts from behind the ear, all the other pulses start from the end of the hand or the foot, so it is not necessary to list the starting point one by one, and the focus is only put on the relationship between the ending points and the senses. Another characteristic of the lines on Mianyang wooden man is the “regular arrangement.” The first intuitive feeling at the first sight of Mianyang wooden man is that the distribution and arrangement of the “pulses” in it are extremely standardized. But unfortunately, researchers tend to ignore this as they are accustomed to regarding the “Meridian theory” as a unified single knowledge system. So more explanations are given here. First, there is a pulse at each middle finger tip of both hands, which meet at the top of the head along the midline of the upper limb. In other words, if the “wooden man” Table 5.5 The Relationship between the ending points and the senses in the two Books of Pulses from Mawangdui

Name of meridian Foot-Taiyang Foot-Shaoyang

Zubi Shiyimai Jiujing The end The senses point connected Head Ear, eye, nose Head Ear, eye

Foot-Yangming

Head

Mouth, nose

Foot-Shaoyin Foot-Taiyin Foot-Jueyin Hand-Taiyang (shoulder meridian) Hand-Shaoyang (ear meridian) Hand-Yangming (tooth meiridian) Hand-Shaoyin Hand-Taiyin

Head Thigh Thigh,cuo Shoulder

Tongue – – –

Yinyang Shiyimai Jiujing The end/start The senses point connected Head Eye ? (missing words) ? (missing words) ? (missing words) ? (missing words) Head Tongue Heart – Head Eye Head (start point) Ear

Head

Ear

Head

Ear

Head

Mouth

Head

Nose

Rib Heart

– –

Arm Arm

– –

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Fig. 5.11 Distribution diagram of meridians in the body and lower limbs of Mianyang wooden man

can stretch out with both hands, then from the top down, a line that traverses the tips of the middle fingers and the center of the head can be seen. Regardless of what pulse it is, the first thing to suggest is the characteristic of traversing the left and right ends, located along the midline of the upper limb and the head. Second, if looked down from the body sagittal planes, that is, the traversed body of lower limbs, the image shown in Fig. 5.11 can be seen: six meridians, respectively, two in the front and at the back, respectively, one on the left and right, normatively distributed in the body and lower limbs. If you are interested, you can buy a replica of the “wooden man” (available at the Mianyang Museum). Play with this idea and there will be more discoveries. The above are just two cases, intended to show that there are differences between the “pulse” of Hunan and the “pulse” of Bianque. As for what kind of theoretical view is hidden behind this “normative” arrangement, it is not known because there are no explanatory notes at all. In short, besides the specific “knowledge” carried by themselves, these examples provide a picture of multi-symbiosis and coexistence in the process of constructing the early meridian theory system.

5.2.2

Exorcism Therapy

When the predecessors discussed witchcraft (magic arts) including conjuring, two points are basically involved in: It’s a superstition but has psychotherapy. Obviously, whether critical or affirmative, it is based on the standpoint of “science.” According to Yamada’s (Yamada Keiji) study, Mawangdui medical books treat diseases with language, but the subjects were not those in “mental disorders.” However, he did not make it in depth but just analyzed in detail the whole process of witchcraft therapy for a specific disease found in the 52 Prescriptions [9]. Although there is a saying of

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Zhuyou (witchcraft therapy with language) in Huangdi Neijing, there is no elaboration. The unearthing of the Mawangdui medical books also made up for the blank of the witchcraft therapy in the Han Dynasty. The main gains from the research done here are as follows: First, there is no commonality in the treatment of diseases with witchcraft in specific content. But after repeated sorting with various “keywords,” the causes of diseases – “those that can receive language information” (from animals to spirits, in short, those being called the “things of life” by the ancients) – have been found. Thus, we know the language object of the conjuring operator is the “cause of the disease,” and that is the so-called Zhuyou – cursing the “cause of the disease.” Because the object of language is not a patient, the interpretation of “psychotherapy” is purely illusory. Second, the content of the spell is not a “muttering language of the wizard that no one can understand” but a variety of intimidation and threats that anyone can understand. In order to make those “causes” that receive the language information be afraid and leave quickly. Third, the curse therapy in Mawangdui’s medical books had not yet relied on “external force” (the power of God) and entirely on the operator’s language, so the scope of application can only be “the causes of diseases that can receive language objects.” However, from Qianjin Yifang·Jinjing of the Tang Dynasty, it can be seen the use of external powers – from gaining power from the gazing at lightning, swallows, and other airborne objects to calling the god. This indicates that witchcraft is also evolving, not only active, as generally described in medical history books, in primitive societies and/or the societies with underdeveloped medicine.

5.2.3

Transformation of Internal Medicine Dosage

The internal medicine dosage of traditional Chinese medicine has undergone an important change in the Han Dynasty, from powdered medicine to the decoction method. Before this transformation, the decoction method was mainly applied to food drugs. It should be pointed out that these two methods did not mean the difference of the pharmaceutical dosage forms at the time. The food medicines applying the decoction under a special guiding theory formed a special type of therapeutic drugs with proper term tangye. Since these drugs have been discarded after the Han Dynasty, the meaning of the term tangye is not known, and it is generally interpreted as a tangji for the decoction [10–12]. One of the Mawangdui unearthed medical books, with the total length of 430 cm. The method mostly used in the book is powdered medicine. (Chinese History of Cultural Relics·Qin and Han, National Museum of China, Shanxi Educational Press, 2003: 218) In today’s Huangdi Neijing, there is a “Tangye Laoli Lun,” which refers to several types of tangye, laoli, and drugs for oral administration. However, there is no specific explanation for what tangye is. With the help of a large number of original

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Fig. 5.12 52 Prescriptions

prescriptions in Fifty-two Prescriptions among Mawangdui Medical books (see Fig. 5.12), it is explored from what it is tangye, attributing to the important change in the oral medicine from “taking” to “drinking” in the Han Dynasty. There are at least the following two points in the principle and commonality of various tangye: First, since the raw materials are mainly food, they are generally nourishing to build up human body. According to Su Wen, tangye is suitable for the initial stage of the disease, and it is used to get rid of the diseases out of Bafeng and Wubi. If this method is not effective, various other drugs can be used. Perhaps this is what it focuses on. In the Mawangdui medical books like Yangsheng Fang, this method is used to treat diseases such as impotence and low sexual function and used as a supplement for tonifying. The theoretical origins can be traced back to the records of the doctors using “five flavors, five grains, five medicines, to make people recuperate from their diseases” (“Tianguanzhong Zaixia”, Zhouli Zhushu, volume 5, annotated by Zhengxuan and commented by Jia Gongyan) in Zhou Li. However, the nourishing effect of food drugs is not limited to the decocting method. If it is taken in other ways, it also has the same effect. Therefore, the real particularity of tangye with food as the main raw material lies in the second point: the sticky cooking liquor. “To nurse the qi and blood with lubricating medicine so that they can circulate smoothly” is the most important theoretical basis for the tangye treatment. In the few words in Zhou Li’s discussion of medicines, there is also a principle of “to nurse the qi and blood with lubricating medicine so that they can circulate smoothly” along with the principle of “sour food nourishing bones, pungent food nourishing tendons,

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salty food nourishing pulses, bitter food nourishing qi, and sweet food nourishing meat.” It is this principle that what appears to be a general food soup in the present day has become a special treatment at that time. Similarly, if certain drugs can be made into a sticky liquid, they can also be used as a tangye. For example, “Pinellia decoction” in Lingshu-Xieke is a typical example: • For Pinellia decoction, eight liters of river water running for over kilometres is needed. Stir it for 10,000 times. Then when it defecates, take out five liters for decoction. When being decocted, reeds should be used as firewood. And when the water boils, put into 1 liter of husked sorghum and five ge (1 deciliter) of Pinellia. Turn to slow fire. When the water evaporated to the half, filter the dregs, and drink it, a small cup each time. The principle is that, according to the medical theory at that time, insomnia was caused by obstruction of Yin and Yang and meridian channels, so Pinellia and husked sorghum were chosen. After a long period of decoction, a sticky tangye was made, so that when “the channels are open up,” “Yin and Yang are connected smoothly, and insomnia is treated.” As for the analysis of the effect principle of tangye, it is pointed out that although tangye is based on food, it is too “modernized” if it is understood as “food therapy.” The reason why tangye is specialized is that, besides the raw materials that are different from the general drugs, the processing methods, processes, materials used, etc. are all part of the effect. For example, tangye made of long-flowing water thousands of miles away and hollow firewood have a function of making Yin and Yang, blood vessels, and blood unobstructed. This is the so-called decoction of water and fire. If you don’t see how the processing materials (such as firewood) and the method involved produce the effect, you cannot fully understand how a certain tangye is used to treat a certain disease and will also confuse it with the cooking skills that pursue “taste.”

5.3

The Completion of the Classic Works

5.3.1

The Current Version of Huangdi Neijing

During the reign of Emperor Cheng in the Western Han Dynasty (from 32 BC to 6 BC), because the books were dispersed and lost, he commanded the subordinates for the lost books around the country. Therefore, there appeared the first book of classified catalogue in Chinese history – Qi Lüe. The “Medical Classics” recorded in it totally covered “7 schools, 216 volumes” (175 volumes according to the sum of the number of books listed); the detailed catalogue is as follows: • Huangdi Neijing 18 volumes • Waijing 37 volumes

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• • • • •

Bianque Neijing 9 volumes Waijing 12 volumes Baishi Neijing 38 volumes Waijing 36 volumes Pangpian 25 volumes

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Most of these medical classics have long disappeared. The only ones that have been passed down to now are the 18 volumes of Huangdi Neijing. Its authority is like what the books of Confucius and Mencius are to Confucianism and Laozi’s Wuqianyan (Five Thousand Words) to Taoism. So it is regarded as the foundation stone of the basic theory of Chinese medicine. As for the completed time of Huangdi Neijing, there are different views like in the Warring States Period, at the end of the Warring States Period to the turn of the Qin and Han Dynasties, or in the Western Han Dynasty, but as it is recorded in the Qi Lüe, it is certainly not later than in the late Western Han Dynasty. The handed-down Huangdi Neijing consists of two parts, namely, Huangdi Neijing-Suwen and Huangdi Neijing-Lingshujing. The two may be combined or separated in different versions. The authoritative overview on the development of its source is as follows: • Neijing was originally in 18 volumes. Among them, nine volumes were named Su Wen, and the other nine volumes have no title. Therefore, the doctors of Han and Jin Dynasty took Nine Volumes as the title of the book (see Zhang Zhongjing, “Preface to Shanghan Zabinglun,” and Huangfu Mi’s “Preface to Zhenjiu Jiayijing). Since at the very beginning of the book Nine Volumes, there are the words “to set up Zhenjing at first,” so it is also known as the Zhenjing . . . In the process of being copied and spread, it also incorporated some contents supplemented by later generations and produced many different versions. Su Wen and Nine Volumes were completed separately, so they gradually evolved into two early books of Neijing. Nine Volumes was called Lingshu by Wangbing, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty [13]. The above is the most common but also the most orthodox and most classic introduction to Huangdi Neijing. However, the problem is that since the handeddown Huangdi Neijing consists of two works, Huangdi Neijing-Su Wen and Huangdi Neijing-Lingshujing, why is it divided into two parts? Traced back, it was originally because Huangfu Mi, the writer, historian, and medical scientist of the Jin Dynasty, had such a passage in his preface to the Three Volumes of Huangdi Zhengjiu Jiayijing, “According to Qi Lüe and Yi Wenzhi: There are 18 volumes of Huangdi Neijing, 9 volumes of Zhengjing, 9 volumes of Su Wen, and totally 18 volumes, that is, Neijing.” The descendants thought the time Huangfu lived in was not far from Han Dynasty. The words must be based on evidence, so they are believed in until today. But according to some of the following facts, this statement may not be correct:

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1. Han Shu-Yi Wen Zhi contains four categories of medical books, such as medical classics, classic prescriptions, Fangzhong, and immortals, “totaling 36 schools, 868 volumes.” Except for the 18 volumes of Huangdi Neijing, all the others are lost. The complete loss has led to the difficulties for the medical field to find out the clues of the important terminology for thousands of years. For example, what on earth is tangye? How can this book be handed-down till now and preserved intact? 2. According to Han Shu-Yi Wen Zhi, there are the same number of “articles” and “volumes,” but no example of “volumes of integrated articles.” For example, “Thirteen articles of Shan Hai Jing” in “the Six Schools of Xing Fa, One Hundred and Twenty-Two Volumes” is counted as 13 volumes; in the 555 articles of “Li”, there are the 56 volumes of the ancient classic, being counted as 56. So these two are both evidence. Therefore, only 18 volumes in the handed-down Huangdi Neijing are impossible to cover as many articles as 162 articles in the present version 3. Compared with other medical books contained in Han Shu-Yi Wen Zhi, there are 30 volumes of Wuzang Liufubi Shier Bingfang, 40 volumes of Wuzang Lufushan Shiliu Bingfang, and 40 volumes of Wuzang Lufudan Shier Bingfang in it, which greatly exceeds the number of volumes of Huangdi Neijing. Can you believe that the number of books that only record a specific illness of bi, shan, and dan can reach twice as much as the present version of Huangdi Neijing? 4. Another example is the Shi Wen in the unearthed Mawangdui medical books. Scholars at home and abroad believe that the two sections in it, namely, “Yao asked Shun” and “King Pan Geng asked the sage,” respectively, were related to the 23-volume Yaoshun Yin Dao and the 20-volume Tang Pangeng Yin Dao of 8 Fangzhong schools in Hanshu-Yi Wenzhi. However, the section “Yao asks Shun” is only in 151 words, and the section of “King Pan Geng asked the sage” is only in 136 words. No matter how such things of Fangzhong were developed, it is impossible to reach the words of the present version of Huangdi Neijing. Obviously, the 18 volumes of Huangdi Neijing at that time were very limited in words, seemingly the same as 18 articles. In other words, it can only be about one-ninth of the present version. 5. The present version of HuangDi Neijing consists of two independent works, Su Wen and Lingshu, which is not the same as in Hanshu-Yi Wen Zhi. There are many differences between the terms and the theoretical choices in the two books. It can be clearly seen that they should be originally two independent works with no relations. 6. The names of the two books Su Wen and Ling Shu (or Nine Volumes and Zhen Jing) have been used separately in the historical books of the past (see Table 5.6). The name of Huangdi Neijing is only a speculation of Huangfu Mi in the Jin Dynasty. Wang Bing in the Tang Dynasty summarized it, and then it was spread by the later generations of doctors until now but never recognized by the bibliographies of the past dynasties.

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Table 5.6 The records of Huangdi Neijing, Su Wen, and Ling Shu in bibliographies of the past dynasties Hanshu-Yiwenzhi Shangha Zabing Lun Mai Jing Jia Yi Jing Suishu-Jingji Zhi Jiu Tangshu·Jingjizhi Tangshu-Yiwenzhi Tongzhi-Yiwenlue Songshi-Yiwenzhi Nihonkoku genzai shomokuroku

Book title recorded or quoted Huangdi Neijing 18 volumes Su Wen Su Wen Su Wen Huangdi Su Wen Huangdi Su Wen Huangdi Su Wen Huangdi Su Wen Huangdi Su Wen Huangdi Neijing-·Su Wena Huangdi Su Wen

Jiu Juan (nine volume) volumes) Zhen Jing Zhen Jing Huangdi Zhen Jing Huangdi Zhen Jing Huangdi Zhen Jing Huangdi Zhen Jing Neijing Lingshujing Huangdi Zhen Jing Neijing Lingshujing Huangdi Zhen Jing

Note: It is a noted edition of Wang Bing in the Tang Dynasty. That’s why the later generations take Huangdi Neijing-Su Wen as its title

a

Judging from these unreasonable points, we know that Su Wen and Ling Shu must not be the 18 volumes of Huangdi Neijing recorded in Han Shu-Yi Wen Zhi. Since Nei Jing which consists of two original independent works of Su Wen and Ling Shu is not the Nei Jing recorded in Qi Lüe, it’s impossible to find out the lower limit of its completed age. It is generally believed that the text of Ling Shu is easy to read and understand. When Su Wen appeared, it can be seen that there are quotations of the former in the latter. This is actually because both books refer to some contents of the same original documents. In Table 5.7, two paragraphs, respectively, of Su Wen and Ling Shu are taken as examples to illustrate how the two books interpreted differently the “deficiency and excess, reinforcing, and reducing” of acupuncture therapy in a piece of original literature. This “original classic text” appeared in the first piece of “Jiuzhen Shieryuan” in Lingshu annotated. However, even in this “original classic text” that has been elucidated, the theoretical level is obviously higher than that of the unearthed Mawangdui medical books for its mentioning of “deficiency and excess, reinforcing, and reducing,” not to mention that the unearthed Mawangdui medical books just talked about moxibustion therapy without mentioning acupuncture therapy. Since Su Wen and Ling Shu are kind of compilation, this leads to difference of the content to be ancient or modern. In this way, it seems that there is no difference from those who generally think “they are completed in the Qin and Han dynasties” or “in the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties.” In fact, the main difference

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Table 5.7 Quotations and explanations of the original texts in Su Wen and Ling Shu Original text For manipulations of needs, reinforce Xu, reduce Man, remove stagnation, attack predominance of Xie The so-called Shi and Xu means there is not much if any

Ling Shu-Xiaozhen Jie (The idea of using) reinforcing (techniques to deal with) Xu (deficiency) means to use reinforcing (techniques when the pulse over) Qikou appears weak. (The idea of using) reducing (techniques to deal with) Man (excess) means to use reducing (techniques when the pulse over) Qikou is strong. (The idea of using) removing (techniques to deal with) stagnation (of Qi and blood) means to eliminate blood stagnation in the vessels. (The idea of using) attacking (techniques to deal with) predominance of Xie (evil) means to eradicate Xie (evil) (if it) is excessive in the channels (The so-called) Shi (excess) means that there is (Qi beneath the needle) and (the so-called) Xu (deficiency) means that there is no (Qi beneath the needle)

Su Wen-Zhenjie To needle Xu (deficiency) (syndrome with the method) for enriching (healthy-Qi means to produce) heat (sensation) beneath the needle. (Only when) Qi (healthy-Qi) is enriched can heat (sensation) be produced. (To needle) fullness (syndrome with the method) for reducing (Xie (evil) means to produce) cold (sensation) beneath the needle. (Only when) Qi is reduced can cold (sensation) be produced. (To needle) prolonged stagnation of blood (with the method) of elimination means to remove blood stasis. (To needle the syndrome with) abundant Xie (evil), reducing (technique should be used and the needled acupoint) is not pressed after withdrawal of the needle The so-called Shi (excess) and Xu (deficiency) refer to the degree of cold and warm (sensation produced beneath the needle). (The arrival of Qi (needling sensation)) is subtle and not easy to sense

between the two viewpoints is “the big head and the small tail” or “the small head and the big tail.” That is, the former thinks “The basic part was completed in the pre-Qin era and was modified and supplemented by later generations,” while the latter emphasizes that “the book was completed in some late specific historical conditions, containing some long-standing knowledge.” In other words, the difference between the ancient or modern contents of the two books not only reflects the “development process” of medicine but also reflects its “written process.” In addition, denying Su Wen and Ling Shu, i.e., the 18 volumes of Huangdi Neijing recorded in Han Shu-Yi Wen Zhi, also means denying its status as the representative work of the so-called Yellow Emperor School. Because there are some contents of Bian Que Maishu, it shows that the present version of Huangdi Neijing is probably based on the various medical classics recorded in Han Shu-Yi Wen Zhi. This not only explains where much of the supplemented contents in the

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present version of Huangdi Neijing come from, but also why there’s inconsistency and disunity in its content. In short, because the books in the Warring States period were written in different characters, and the art of war, manoeuvre among various political groupings were advocated in the times of war and chaos, it is impossible for medicine or other natural sciences to have a the great leap. During this period, medicine was still at the stage of “arcane prescription” and “forbidden pulse” taught by the teacher and handed down in the family. Although the meridian theory has emerged, its theoretical level and the level of clinical treatment techniques are very limited, which should refer to what is revealed in Mawangdui medical works. It is obvious that there were both doctors and witches. Until the reign of King Wen in the Han Dynasty (179 BC to 157 BC), there still was “to have the doctor and the witch to save people from the disease” (Biography of Yuanang Chaosuo, No. 19, Book of Han, Volume 49). But when it came to the reign of King Xuan (73 BC–49 BC), there’s saying like “see a doctor, get relieved and repose yourself, then you can assist me” (Biography of Zhang Tang, No. 29, Book of Han, Volume 59). It can be seen that during the Western Han Dynasty, the witchcraft began to give way to medicine. During this period, clinical medicine developed greatly, and many “classic prescriptions” and treatment tools like Jiu Zhen and the meridian theory and the viscera theory fell into a pattern. These achievements are the foundation and important part of Su Wen and Ling Shu and also the essence of the academic value of these two works.

5.3.2

Huangdi Bashiyi Nanjing

Nanjing is not highly valued before the Tang Dynasty. When the early medical works quoted it, it was called Bashiyi Wen (Eighty-one Questions) or Bashiyi Nan (Eighty-one Queries) and has not been entitled with “Huangdi” (“Yellow Emperor”). This is because the book is written in a style of proposing “Nan” (self-answering questions), with totally 81 questions. This figure can also be used as evidence that the two books Su Wen and Ling Shu, respectively, composed of 9 volumes and 81 articles are two independent works – with the same style of the time. So far, there are two main points in the mainstream theory on Nanjing: First, the author is Bian Yu (in the Spring and Autumn Period) or person of the Qin and Yue State like Bian Que (in the Warring States Period). Second, the content is the interpretation of Neijing. While the monographic study on this book focuses on the analysis of its theoretical framework: 1. The problems discussed in Nanjing are not necessarily found in the present version of Huangdi Neijing. Therefore, the object in question actually involves a variety of the previous medical literatures, but it is not known to future generations for it is being lost. Since it is an interpretation of the various medical works led by the present version of Huangdi Neijing, its completed era is naturally later than that. Moreover, the theoretical characteristics of integrating Yin and Yang and the “five elements” theory are also the obvious characteristics

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of the Eastern Han Dynasty; and the way of writing in the style of “Nan” is typically from the influence of Buddhism. 2. The book does not focus so much on the theoretical issues in the previous medical literature but rather on making use of the subject to illustrate its own views. This led to a series of new “concepts.” For example, in order to solve the inconsistency of the Yin Yang properties of the digital parity t with the yin yang properties of the viscera in the present version of Huangdi Neijing, the two kidneys are interpreted as “left kidney and right Mingmen” into six viscera; and stated “San Jiao” (the three burners) is one with name but intangible. So there are only five viscera in fact, and the “viscera” belonging to Yin and the “viscus” belonging to Yang can be perfectly matched with the Yang odd numbers and Yin even numbers. Since then, there not only appeared the new concept of “Mingmen,” but it has also led to the tangible or intangible debate of “San Jiao,” one of the six viscera. In addition, it proposed the concept of Ba Mai (“eight pulses”) on the basis of the “Twelve Meridians” of Nei Jing and the new diagnosis method of dividing into two parts of chi and cun on “taking Cunkou alone.” 3. In theory, it changes the situation that Yin Yang theory and the five elements theory exist, respectively, in the Nei Jing by integrating them into one. This is the most typical feature of the book. Huangdi Bashiyi Nanjing has various names in the literature of the past. Whether it is simply called Bashiyi Wen and Bashiyi Nan, or be entitled with “Huangdi” or “Jing” (the classic), it never diverted from “question” and “query,” because this book, referred to as Nanjing, was written in a way of asking and answering questions. The book was originally thought coming from Bian Que, a person of the Qin and Yue State, but this statement can only be traced back to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, for example, preface to Huangdi Bashiyi Nanjing by Wang Bo, the great talent of the Tang Dynasty, and preface to Jizhu Nanjing by Yang Xuancao, a doctor. Just as the famous medical historian Okanisi Tameto summarized, the author of the book Nanjing was attached to the Yellow Emperor before the Sui Dynasty and belongs to the Qin and Yue people after the Tang Dynasty. However, at present, the academic community basically agreed that this book is completed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, on the basis that it was not recorded in the catalogue book Qi Lüe in the late Western Han Dynasty, but began to be mentioned y in the preface of Shagnhan Zabing Lun by Zhang Zhongjing in the Eastern Han Dynasty and annotated by Lü Guang in the Three Kingdoms Period. The 81 questions proposed in Nanjing cover 6 aspects: science of pulse, meridians, viscera, diseases, acupoints, and acupuncture therapy. Although it includes the pulse feeling method, properties of diseases, and acupuncture therapy, it does not belong to the diagnosis and treatment of a specific disease but some general understanding and theoretical research on these aspects. In addition to the insufficiency in length, the main differences between Nanjing and Huangdi Neijing are as follows: it is unlike Huangdi Neijing which just summarizes “Yin and Yang, the way of heaven and earth”; it’s not the separation of the Yin Yang theory and the five elements theory; it is not a collection of papers from different authors. Instead, it’s

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Table 5.8 The relationship between the “five acupoints” and Yinyang and the five elements Five acupoints Correlative with the five elements

Correlative with the five seasons

jing Yang meridian: mu (wood) Yin meidian: jin (gold) Spring

ying Huo (fire) Shui (water)

shu Tu (soil) Mu (wood)

jing Jin (gold) Huo (fire)

he Shui (water) Tu (soil)

Summer

Jixia (last month of summer)

Autumn

Winter

the combination of vitality, Yin and Yang, and the five elements theory, consistently applied to the six aspects of pulse feeling, meridians, viscera, diseases, acupoints, and acupuncture therapy, thereby constructing a more perfect theoretical framework that is free from empirical knowledge. For example, there are ten kinds of changes in the pulse, which come from the changes between the hardness and softness (Yin and Yang) influenced by the five pathogens (five elements): 5
2 ¼ 10. In the acupuncture part, each meridian only uses five acupuncture points and gives them, respectively, specific names of jing, ying, shu, jing, and he and the properties of gold, wood, water, fire, and soil, between the five acupoints of each meridian, according to the generation of the five elements; there is a restriction between the related meridians and the acupoints of the same name (see Table 5.8); when diseases are treated, the acupoints can be chosen according to the generation and restriction of the five elements theory. This is the “five acupoints” whose special attributes were valued since the beginning of the Nanjing and still holds an important position in contemporary acupuncture.

5.3.3

Shennong Bencao Jing

For a long time, Shennong Bencao Jing has been praised as the first masterpiece in China’s history that systematically summarizes the knowledge of pharmacy. As for its completed time, there are different profiles of being early (in the pre-Qin period) or late (during the two Han Dynasties). Since there is a special chapter on the development of “Bencao” (pharmacy) in this book, no more analysis would be made here. In short, the book can only be regarded as a classic work of systemized knowledge of one school, but not a masterpiece of the whole pharmacy at that time. It was basically impossible to be completed in the pre-Qin period.

5.4

The Completion and Being “The Classics”

Through the above basic introduction to the classics of Chinese medicine, it should be noted that the age of writing is not so old as what was recorded in the ancient or modern medical history books. Basically, they are based on the absorption of medical knowledge before the Western Han Dynasty and written in the Eastern

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Han Dynasty. Therefore, when the history of the development of traditional Chinese medicine is observed, the first thing that deserves special attention is the era, the two Han Dynasties which are in social stability with prosperous culture. Medicine and other fields complemented each other and developed together at that time. If you think about whether there are only a few important medical books at the time, or still a lot? The answer is of course the latter. So apart from the accidental factors, what are the inevitable factors that affect the spread of these books and eventually made them the classics? First of all, it is very important to have a certain scale. At a certain point in time, the work that achieves the scale and level of a masterpiece inevitably has a survival advantage, and at the same time, it forces those that are included in it to withdraw from the historical stage. For example, though Su Wen and Ling Shu, which constitute Huangdi Neijing, do not meet the requirements of “systemization” in terms of content, they are huge in length and rich in content and therefore can be considered to contain the works of famous doctors like Bian Que recorded in Qi Lüe, as well as the contents of the works such as Tangye Jingfa and Huangdi Shendong Shijin. What is even more obvious is that the “nine articles of Jiu Zhen,” which were repeatedly mentioned, were forgotten after being interpreted as 81 articles of Lingshu. In the same way, when Huangfu Mi in the Western Jin Dynasty combined two aspects of knowledge of the meridian theory related to acupuncture therapy in Huangdi Neijing, and Huangdi Mingtang Classic which elaborates on the location of acupoints, the function of main treatments, and the depth of acupuncture, into the first acupuncture and moxibustion monograph Zhengjiu Jiayi Jing, Huangdi Mingtang Sutra in the Eastern Han Dynasty lost the possibility of becoming a “classic.” Shennong Bencao Jing lost its independent value of existence because later generations moved it into their own “Bencao.” Looking at the problem from this standpoint, we don’t need to mourn for the demise of a large number of ancient medical books. For those that died, there must be a cause of death. Second, theoretical property and systematization are also very important. Though Nanjing is small in length, it presents many important theoretical concepts and creates a system of its own. Yin and Yang in Huangdi Neijing is the way of heaven and earth, the changing of parents, and the basis of life and death; Mingmen in Nanjing is the source of life power and so on. All these provide broad space of development for later generations. Therefore, although Huangdi Neijing and Nanjing were not written so early as imagined, it does not affect their academic value as a classic. In the past 2000 years, doctors have learned the basic theoretical knowledge of how blood and qi circulate in the meridians and what functions the vicsera have, understand the specific application of philosophical thoughts such as Yin and Yang and other elements in the study of life, analyze the causes and pathogenesis, and construct new theories on the basis of elucidating the deep meaning of the sages’ words so that the contents of traditional Chinese medicine continue to be enriched and developed. Then let’s have a look at how these works become a classic. The fundamental reason is undoubtedly their “potential.” However, the exploration and recognition of this potential is not directly related to when it was written. For example, there’s no

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mention at all of Zhang Zhongjing in volume I “Eight schools on Typhia” in Wang Shuo’s (a doctor of the Tang Dynasty) masterpiece Waitai Mishi but only makes it visible when the therapeutic prescriptions were extracted in the latter part by saying they are quoted from Zhang Zhongjing’s Theory on Tyohia. In fact it has the same status with the popular medical formulary at that time like Fan Wang, Shen Shi, Xiaopin, and Lu Yan. Sun Simiao also gave such comment on it. Therefore, in the preface to the revision of the book by the Northern Song Dynasty Correction Medical College, it said that in 800 years since its completion, only one person – Wang Shuhe – knew its value. Therefore, here is how Treatise on Febrile Diseases has become a classic: Since the Song Dynasty, with the improvement of the theoretical level of doctors, it has gradually been valued by doctors and studied from different angles. Through arranging the articles in order and annotating then, as well as exposing and elaborating the basic concepts such as Yin and Yang, exteria and interia, chills and fever, and deficiency and excess, the specific method of distinguishing the pathological process and the disease position according to Sanyin and Sanyang is made to the theoretical height of the “syndrome-differentiation of the six meridians.” Therefore, the status of Treatise on Febrile Diseases has gradually been developed from “medical formulary” to “the classics.” Zhang Zhongjing himself was finally known as the “medical sage” from the previous “second sage.” The time when the present version of Huangdi Neijing was valued by the doctors was earlier than that of Treatise on Febrile Diseases. The annotated version of Su Wen began from Quan Yuan in between the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties and became more famous for the annotation of Wang Bingci in the Tang Dynasty. The annotated version of Ling Shu did not begin until the Ming Dynasty. After Ma Shi began it, Zhang Zhicong, a doctor of the Qing Dynasty, with a group of dozens of people made discussions on them in Lushan Tang and spent 5 years completing annotations of the two books, which therefore can be called the result of collective creation. The representative works of the reedited two books in the form of lei shu (encyclopedia) were Huangdi Neijing Taisu written by Yang Shangshan before the Tang Dynasty and Lei Jing by the great doctor Zhang Jingyue of the Ming Dynasty. Both books made catalogues according to conserving health, Yin and Yang, viscera, and symptoms, showing the pursuit of the constructing a system. Deleting the redundancy and concentrating on the gist reflects the author’s courage to sublate the classics. It is also a manifestation of the fashion of the Ming Dynasty – from abundance to simplicity. Take Li Zhongzi’s Neijing Zhiyao, for example. With only two volumes, it shows the pivotal and remains its unique essence, still being a book that doctors love to read. Although there had long been annotated version for Nanjing, there were still doctors in the Sui and Tang Dynasties that called it Bashiyi Wen. It is also since the Northern Song Dynasty that its status rose sharply and became the classic like Huangdi Neijing. Later, under the influence of textology and exegesis in the Qing Dynasty, in the medical field there emerged a view that Shennong Bencao Jing was cited as an extreme example which is not necessary to exist independently. Judged from the external factors, the completion of these works and their becoming a classic have a close relationship with the “Confucian physicians.”

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First of all, from the author’s point of view, the 162 papers from different authors in Huangdi Neijing, both the writing level and cultural literacy indicate that the author is not a craftsman-type physician who makes a living by practical skills but a “Confucian physician.” This is emphasized because the application and influence of Confucianism can be clearly seen in the process of medical theory development and systemization in the Han Dynasty. Although the “Confucians know about medicine” is a very common phenomenon throughout the ancient society, these Confucian authors are, after all, different from the general Confucians who understand medicine. First of all, they are not concerned with the social order (li) that constitutes Confucianism but the philosophical cosmology as a tool for “reasoning” and “talking about li (ritual).” Second, although the Confucians are generally familiar with medical theories (including physiology, pathology, treatment, pharmacology, etc.), they usually use these well-known simple principles in the cultural layer to talk about politics and state affairs. Confucian doctors, on the contrary, apply the ultimate truth of Yin and Yang, the unity of heaven and man, and even the theory of the military, to the medicine that “the gentleman disdains.” In a certain sense, it is precisely because of these Confucian doctors that all the previous “self-righteous” alchemist theory and treatment experience described in Huangdi Neijing can be integrated into a systematic theoretical system and determined the basic nature and characteristics of Chinese medicine. This feature is even more extreme in Nanjing. In the subsequent period of history, social customs and cultural pursuits were different. Therefore, in the later historical period, for the difference of the social custom and cultural pursuit, the medical field showed the main features of sorting out the classics and collecting the medical formularies. In the Song Dynasty, with the popularization of education, it was natural that the official career was crowded, so there appeared a fashion of “either to be a good prime minister or to be an excellent doctor.” Or that is in fact, when it was hopeless for a person to the official career, he had no choice but to be a Confucian physician. In the field of ideology, with the neo-Confucianism which combines the two speculative features of Taoism and Buddhism, being established, the research of medical theory also received increasing attention. Although some people think that the names with the Yellow Emperor, Bian Que, and Shen Nong also play an important role in helping these works be classics, they are actually not that important. Because there are still many books with the name of the figures, but they have not been circulated for this reason. What is worth noting is the psychological needs of the scholars’ admiration for the abstract “academic idol” hidden behind the psychology of respecting the ancients and the classics. Humans generally have the psychological need of “worship.” All fictional gods, ancient saints, clay sculptures, and living idols can satisfy the human needs of this kind. In the knowledge field of traditional medicine, the objects for worship made by later generations include not only the medical idols such as Bian Que, Hua Tuo, and Zhang Zhongjing but also the most attractive abstract idol – “ancient learning.” However, the inevitable result of the “respecting the ancients” is to annihilate the confidence of scholars. It seems that they never dare to imagine: They also have the ability to create new and better theoretical doctrines or practical skills. In their view, ancient medicine has been a perfect “completed body” since it was established, and

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there is no possibility of development; all new things are just a process of “getting enlightened.” The realization of this process is due to either the teaching of the “successful” ancestors or the “power of understanding” – understanding the “deep meanings” of the ancient sages, that is, the mysteries and specific methods in the classics. In this academic development trajectory, although new knowledge is constantly being produced, it is not regarded as a criticism of the old theory and system but merely an “elucidation.” If you understand this point thoroughly, you will see that no matter whether “respecting the ancients” or “returning to the ancient,” it is just a mental state. The result of its continuous circulation is the increase of brilliance and admiration of “ancient academics.”

5.5

The Value of “The Classics”

In Indian philosophy, the methods of cognition are summarized into four kinds. The first is xian liang, that is, the existence of objective reality, which can be understood as experience. The second is bi liang, which is the analogy. Chinese are particularly good at analogy, which has been repeatedly mentioned in the introduction. The third is yu liang, the metaphor. The fourth is shengjiao liang, that is, in line with the teachings of the saints, for example, what Sakyamuni said “Shengjiao.” In essence, this is a religious superstition, and the classic of Chinese medicine is the “Shengjiao” that ancient medical doctors uphold. Sadly, the “Shengjiao” of Chinese medicine still has an absolute authority status. Many theories still based the argument on the so-called citing classics. For example, most of the articles on arthralgia will take as the argument “the three qi of wind, cold, and wetness mixed and led to arthralgia” in Huangdi Neijing and then explained in the following how they themselves treat the joint disorder, physical pain, and other diseases according to this “Shengjiao.” The premise of this “Shengjiao” is always absolutely correct and does not need to be justified. The elements that constitute the “traditional Chinese medicine theory system” are scattered in various articles of Huangdi Neijing, showing their own classic status with their important role in guiding medical practice. For this reason, from the perspective of “practical value,” there are two problems as follows. First of all, the original form of the “collection of papers” determines that the more indispensable the “elements” are, the easier it is for them to appear repeatedly in each paper. Different authors have different interpretations and applications of the “elements.” In addition, there are a large number of unimportant texts, and some even became the classic for its attachment to the great. Secondly, with the development of medical theory and skills, it is inevitable that there appear problems for how to deal with various aspects that have been abandoned, such as the explanation of the causes, the treatments, and so on. Therefore, as early as the Huangfu Mi’s compilation of Zhengjiu Jiayi Jing in the Western Jin Dynasty, it was pointed out that there were problems such as “more statements and less practical things” and “much repetition of texts” in Huangdi Neijing. Thus, based on deleting the clichés and repetition, it was sorted out according to the catalogues. And there were selected

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readings like Huangdi Neijing Taisu, Lei Jing, and Neijing Zhiyao. In other words, there are not many really important contents in the classics. If they are refined, systematically arranged, and expressed in modern languages, they are actually in the form of Introduction to Chinese Medicine with the contents of several chapters such as “Yin and Yang and the five elements,” “viscera theory,” “meridian acupoints,” “pathogenic pathogenesis,” and “diagnosis and treatment.” Moreover, it must be noted that whether in systematicness or integrity, the Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine has surpassed Huangdi Neijing, because Chinese medicine has been constantly developed after Huangdi Neijing. In summary, traditional Chinese medicine classics are like antique porcelain that continues to have added value over time; and the reasons for the added value are not related to the “practical value.” Just as the porcelain people use in real life, which becomes more beautiful and surpassed the former by absorbing ancient techniques, what Chinese medicine learns from the classics is actually some basic philosophical thinking nutrition. When the first edition in 1958 of the new textbook Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine was revised in 1956, the original content of “introduction to the classics” in volume II was deleted. It is precisely because the essence of the classics has been refined into “introduction.” Thus, rather than saying that Chinese medicine classics are “much like” antiques, it is better to say they are antiques. Therefore, if you think that Chinese medicine is a science and practical skill, and the purpose of learning is to treat diseases, you can naturally break away from the classic original text. If you want to understand its origins and know it, you must study classics. (Translator: Jie Qiao) (Proofreader: Caiyun Lian)

References 1. Liu Lixian. (2004). Survey Report on the Unearthed Medicine from No. 3 Tomb at Mawangdui. Hunan Museum, Hunan Institute of Archeology: No. 2 and No. 3 Tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha (Vol. 1, pp. 274–280). Beijing: Wenwu Publishing House. 2. Sorting team of the bamboo slips of Zhangjiashan, Jiangling. (1989). Interpretation of Maishu in the bamboo slips of Zhangjiashan, Jiangling. Cultural Relics, (7), 72. 3. Sorting team of the bamboo slips of Zhangjiashan, Jiangling. (1990). Interpretation of Yinshu the bamboo slips of Zhangjiashan, Jiangling. Cultural Relics, (10), 82. 4. Anhui Cultural Relic and Archeology Institute. (1989). Newsletter on the excavation of the Neolithic Tomb in Lingjiatan, Hanshan, Anhui Province. Cultural Relics, (4), 1–9. 5. Xu Xusheng. (1988). Legendary era of ancient Chinese history (1st new edition). Beijing: Wenwu Publishing House. 6. Yuan Ke. (1991). Preface to the full translation of Shan Hai Jing (p. 1). Guiyang: Guizhou People’s Publishing House. 7. Hu Pingsheng, & Han Ziqiang. (1988). Brief introduction to Wanwu. Cultural Relics, (4), 48–53. 8. Research office of medical history in Academy of Chinese Medicine. (1979). On Formation and Development of the Meridian Theory from the Three Kinds of Ancient Literature on Meridians.

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In The Sorting Team of Mawangdui Silk Books (Ed.), Wushier Bingfang (p. 175). Beijing: Wenwu Publishing House. 9. Yamada Keiji. (1992). Night singing birds. In Selected translations of Japanese academic works on Chinese history (pp. 231–269). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. 10. Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (Ed.). (1984). History of Chinese medicine (p. 20). Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Press. 11. Xueyu (Ed.). (1984). Historical data of Chinese pharmacy (p. 20). Beijing: People’s Medical Publishing House. 12. Xinghuai, F. (1986). Brief history of Chinese medicine (p. 11). Beijing: Chinese Medical Classics Press. 13. Editing Committee of Encyclopedia of Chinese Medicine (Ed.). (1987). History of Chinese medicine, Encyclopedia of Chinese medicine (p. 165). Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Press.

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Contents 6.1 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 A Brief Introduction to Slip and Tablet Documents of Mathematics in Ancient China . . . 6.2.1 Suanshushu on Slips of the Han Dynasty Evacuated in Zhangjiashan . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Shu on Slips of the Qin Dynasty in Yuelu Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.3 Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) on Slips of the Han Dynasty Evacuated in Shuihudi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.4 Suanshu (The Book of Calculation) on Slips of the Qin Dynasty in Peking University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 To Examine the Authenticity of the Extant Literature with the Abundant Examples Found on Slips and Tablets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Literature on Slips and Tablets Checks the Conclusions Made in the Past Research . . . 6.4.1 Junshu Algorithm and Junshu Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.2 The Origin of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Pre-Qin Period . . . 6.5 Literature on Slips and Tablets Impels the Scholars to Reflect on the Methods Adopted in the Past Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6 Literature on Slips and Tablets Offers Important Reference for the Reconstruction of the History of Mathematics in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

In this chapter, the great significance of evacuated literature on bamboo slips and tablets for the study on the history of mathematics of China has been illustrated. Though the small amount of evacuated mathematical documents that are available at the present just cover a narrow range of mathematical study and a shorter span of time, they can be readily relied on to promote further research for more achievements.

D. Zou (*) The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_6

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Keywords

Bamboo slips and tablets · Documents of Mathematics in Ancient China · The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art · Research methods

6.1

Preface

Jian and du (bamboo or wood slips and tablets) are writing materials made of bamboo or wood. The thinner and slenderer ones are called slips; the thicker and broader ones are called tablets. There are mostly bamboo slips and wood tablets, and there are bamboo tablets and wood slips as well [1]. As writing materials, slips and tablets are carriers of Chinese characters. In studying history, we pay special attention to the characters, symbols, and few drawings on slips and tablets. So, when we talk about slips and tablets, we refer not only to the concrete slips and tablets but also to the contents on them. China probably began to use slips and tablets in the Shang Dynasty (sixteenth– eleventh century BC). Article of Duoshi in Shangshu (Book of Ancient Documents) recorded a mandate declared to the populace of the past Yin Dynasty (sixteenth– eleventh century BC) by the King of Zhou, saying “As you know, your ancestors established files and archives, and recorded the overthrow of the Xia Dynasty (twentyfirst century–sixteenth century BC) by the Yin Dynasty” ([2], pp. 428–429); Mandate of Luo in the same book recorded that “After the King appointed the Duke of Zhou, an article was written and the appointment was announced to the public”; Article of Jinteng recorded that “The official historian wrote an article and made a prayer . . ..” “When the Duke returned, he filed the article in a box fastened by a metal wire belt” ([2], pp. 421, 325, 329). In oracle bone inscriptions, the character for “volume” was written as , resembling an array of slips, and the character for “book” was written as , resembling a roll of slips held in two hands. The roll of slips was supposed to be used in conferring titles in ancient times. The earliest slips and tablets found in archaeological research are the ones used in the early time of the Warring States Period (fifth century–221 BC). Slips and tablets were widely used till the third century before replaced by paper [3]. Though there were some slips and tablets occasionally evacuated in the following period, they remain quite strange to common people for a long time. Modern people began to know slips and tablets when some were found for the first time by foreigners in Northwest China in the early twentieth century. More slips and tablets were evacuated thereafter in many places of the vast territory of China. These slips and tablets bear a definite end date of the records of the period and provide a large amount of historical materials; some of which are original ones and can be studied in cross-reference with the extant documents. They hence exert extensive and profound influence on the study of China’s culture and history in many fields. And the great value of the slips and tablets to the study of the history of mathematics of China has been discerned by the senior scholars who make research into the history of mathematics in China. After an introduction to the slips of the Han Dynasty, discovered in Northeast China, had been given by Luo Zhenyu and Wang Guowei, Mr. Li Yan made an

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explanation of the “multiplication table” recorded on the slips [4]. After The Explanation of the Records on the Juyan Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty by Lao Gan was published in 1943, Mr. Yan Dunjie made the first efforts to study the mathematical materials on the slips. In addition to an analysis of the “multiplication table” found in the book, Mr. Yan proofread and supplemented some lines on the slips, conducted a comparative study with the extant mathematical works such as The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Sun Tzu’s Calculations, and put forward some new ideas [5]. Unfortunately, only rudimentary contents in the little amount of mathematical records on the slips were available. Furthermore, there was a severe lack of slips of exclusive mathematical materials. Therefore, in the study of the history of mathematics of China, the slips were not often consulted in a long period of time. In the recent 10 years, after the publication of the full text of plentiful mathematical materials found in Suanshushu (Arithmetic Book), an ancient book evacuated from a tomb in the early Western Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan, Jiangling, Hubei Province, slips have been becoming increasingly important in the study on the history of mathematics in China. In recent years, with batches of large volumes of mathematical literature on slips discovered, the slips are becoming increasingly invaluable to the field of mathematics. Besides, even mathematics-related materials on the slips are drawing more attention than ever before. It has been a popular research field at home and abroad to study China’s ancient history of mathematics with records on slips. A general analysis on the importance of the slips to history of mathematics in ancient China will be given in this chapter. (The author once had an analysis on the functions of slips on the history of ancient mathematics of China from a macro-perspective [6] but failed to see the important mathematical literature such as Shu (Arithmetic) on slips of the Qin Dynasty in Yuelu Academy, Suanshu (The Book of Calculation) on slips of the Qin Dynasty in Peking University, Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) on slips of the Han Dynasty evacuated in Shuihudi, and other slips and tablets bearing mathematical records. In this chapter, on the basis of the article just mentioned, supported with new materials, a further analysis on the values of slips to the history of ancient mathematics of China has been given.)

6.2

A Brief Introduction to Slip and Tablet Documents of Mathematics in Ancient China

As a comprehensive subject, mathematics has found wide applications almost everywhere in daily life and academic circles and has been referred to more or less in different ways in various documents. While it is almost impossible to present all the mathematical records on the slips in this chapter, a concise discussion of the most important records will be given. So far, there are four voluminous mathematical works: Suanshushu (Arithmetic Book) on slips of the Han Dynasty evacuated in Zhangjiashan; Shu (Arithmetic) on slips of the Qin Dynasty kept in Yuelu Academy, Hunan University; Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) on slips of the Han Dynasty evacuated in Shuihudi, Yunmeng, Hunan Province; and many calculation books on slips of the Qin Dynasty kept in Peking University.

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Suanshushu on Slips of the Han Dynasty Evacuated in Zhangjiashan

At the turn of 1983 and 1984, in Zhangjiashan, Jiangling County, Hubei Province (the present-day Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City), from No. 247 tomb a batch of slips were evacuated. Of all the 1236 slips (remnants excepted), there were genealogy, Second-Year Laws and Decrees, Book of Zouyan (convictions), Book of Pulses, Suanshushu, Gailu (military strategies and tactics of Wu Zixu), Yin Shu (clinical manipulations of orthopedics), and sacrificial inventory, covering a wide range of subjects such as laws, suits, medicine, mathematics, military theories, etc. Judging by the genealogy, the host probably died in the second year of Queen lv (186 BC) or soon after. A closer examination of the utensils reveals that the host was a learned low-rank official (Compiled by the investigation team of the No. 247 tomb in Zhangjiashan, Zhangjiashan Bamboo Slips Evacuated from a Tomb in the Han Dynasty (No. 247) (preface), Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2001). A total of 190 slips remain in Suanshushu, and there are 3 characters “算术书” found on the back on one slip, which is the name of the book. This book consists of 69 entries, with a title for each on the top of a slip. Most entries are composed of a question, an answer, and a solution. Suanshushu has a rich source of materials in it; some of which can be classified into the chapters of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, an extant book compiled in the Han Dynasty. The chapters are given as follows: Fangtian (a method to solve the area of fields on given sides), Sumi (a calculation method for grain transactions), Cuifen (an arithmetic progression problem), Shaoguang (a method to solve one side of a rectangle or a cuboid with the area of a rectangle or the volume of a cuboid given), Shanggong (a method to solve volumes or labors for a project), Junshu (one algorithm to determine taxes on the amount of farmlands or the number of households, to determine transportation expenses on the distance and load of freight, to find the average for different prices), Yingbuzu (an arithmetical method for surplus or deficit problems; to find unknowns with surplus or deficit given), etc. This book also has many modern mathematical contents such as integer and fraction, arithmetic, scales, area, volume, positive and negative numbers, regula duorm falsorum, etc. Suanshushu or the original edition of it is a patchy work composed of many materials borrowed from other books. In spite of the efforts to put similar entries into one category, the author failed to establish an organic system in this book [7–9]. Nevertheless, Suanshushu is the first wellpreserved mathematical book on slips ever found; it can not only be used as a reference to and proof for the extant mathematic works such as The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Sun Tzu’s Calculations but also be viewed as a rich source of new materials and a new door to the study of history of ancient mathematics in China.

6.2.2

Shu on Slips of the Qin Dynasty in Yuelu Academy

Yuelu Academy of Hunan University purchased a batch of bamboo slips of the Qin Dynasty from Hong Kong in December 2007. These bamboo slips, packaged in

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8 plastic bags, composed a list of 2098 items; about 1300 slips of them remained intact. And there was a donation of bamboo slips from collectors in Hong Kong in August 2008, which was composed of 76 entries with 30 slips remaining contact. It was estimated that the two batches of slips were evacuated as a group. The records on these slips cover a wide range of subjects such as Zhi Ri (records given day by day), lawsuit, laws and decrees, oneiromancy, mathematics, officials’ guidance, etc. Making reference to the records of date in slips of Zhi Ri, researchers attempted to set the end date of the records on the slips at 212 BC. After a careful deciphering work, 236 mathematical slips were picked out and arranged in a list of 236 items; a total of 81 problems and 19 independent solutions were extracted out them. There was a character “数” found on the back of one slip, which is the name of the book [10, 11]. Although Shu and Suanshushu deal with similar issues, Shu has specific features to it, for example, many taxes and rents problems [12], which is a lot more than what have been found in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Suanshushu. In Shu, there are a more complete system of weights and many records of the ratios of weights to volumes of grain [13]. And there is a problem quite similar to the problems in Gougu (the study and application of right triangle or the Pythagorean theorem) chapter in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and it is an evidence of the knowledge of Gougu in pre-Qin period [14]. There are still a series of solutions to an indeterminate problem by means of Yingbuzu method (Xiao Can [15], see link at http://www.gwz.fudan.edu.cn/SrcShow.asp?Src-ID¼1460), which is the first example of this kind and therefore is invaluable. This book is the first complete mathematical work on slips ever evacuated, in which a lot of tangible materials for the study of the mathematics in pre-Qin period and the Qin Dynasty can be found.

6.2.3

Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) on Slips of the Han Dynasty Evacuated in Shuihudi

No. 77 tomb of the Han Dynasty, which was evacuated at Shuihudi, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, in November 2006, was a tomb constructed in the late years of the reign of Emperor Wen (179–157 BC) or the early years of the reign of Emperor Jing (157–141 BC). In a bamboo box evacuated from the tomb, there were some slips, consisted of 2137 entries, covering a wide range of subjects such as Zhi Ri, calendar, books, mathematics, laws, judiciary documents and account books, etc. There were a complete roll of 216 intact mathematical slips, and the name of the book Suanshu was written on the back of the No. 1 slip. This book is a collection of mathematical problems; some of the problems could also be found in Suanshushu with just a little difference in wording [16]. When evacuated, this book was found in an intact roll of slips, maintaining the original look of ancient books. Compared with Shu and Suanshushu, this book offers plenty of more authentic information for analysis, which is invaluable. Another to be noted is as follows: the slips numbered from 1 to 77 are 26 cm long and 0.4 cm wide; the slips numbered from 78 to 216 are 28.2 cm long and 0.55 cm wide ([16], p. 35); it is quite rare to have slips of two different sizes in one roll. Till now, only ten slips are released in photos, two of

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which have records of a Weishu (transportation) problem on them, and they can be held reference to the records found in Second-Year Laws and Decrees evacuated in Zhangjiashan and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and are invaluable to the study of mathematics, laws, and decrees and express delivery in the Qin and Han Dynasties [17]. Of the ten released slips, seven of which have records of weights and measures, integer multiplication, and decimal system and hence constitute an organic system which can be adopted for a comparative study with other mathematical documents to help to solve some difficult problems and to provide important materials for the study of the spread of mathematical knowledge from the second century BC to the eighth century BC [18].

6.2.4

Suanshu (The Book of Calculation) on Slips of the Qin Dynasty in Peking University

In the early 2010, Peking University accepted a batch of slips and tablets obtained from overseas, which was donated by Feng Shenjun Classical Chinese Culture Foundation in Hong Kong. Besides a bundle of slips wrapped with sludge in black plastic film, there were a clutter of 15 bamboo slips and 2 wood tablets in another container. There were altogether 762 bamboo slips (of which about 300 were written on both sides), 21 wood slips, 6 wood tablets, 4 bamboo tablets, and 1 wood cup. There were still 1 die, 61 counting rods, and some remnants of bamboo slips. It was estimated that these slips, tablets, and counting rods were originally placed in a bamboo box when evacuated from a tomb of the Qin Dynasty in Jianghan District. The slips in the bundle were held together in a roll; the fallen slips could be reasonably put back to their former positions. The records on the slips covered a wide range of subjects in the Qin Dynasty such as mathematics, politics, socioeconomics, geography, literature, medicine, calendar, magic technique, folk beliefs, etc. Two records of the 31st year (216 BC) and the 33rd year (214 BC) of the Qin Shihuang (the first emperor in China) on the Zhi Ri slips, along with the characters, helped researchers to make a tentative conclusion that these slips had been written in the reign of Qin Shihuang (246–210 BC) [19]. The mathematical slips take the largest portion, including some 400 bamboo slips and 1 wood tablet with a multiplication table on it. The mathematical slips include the third chapter, the seventh chapter, the eighth chapter, and one part of the fourth chapter. The seventh chapter and the eighth chapter are divided into two parts in layout: the upper part and lower part. In the upper part of the seventh chapter, guang (east-west), zong (north-south), and corresponding area of a piece of land measured in unit of mu (a unit of area equals 0.0667 hectare) are listed, whereas in the lower part, the number of steps and corresponding numbers of mu are listed. The eighth chapter resembles the seventh chapter in layout, with a supplement of taxable farmland, land rent rate, and amount of land rent. There are two characters “田书” (farmland book) written on the back of one slip of the eighth chapter. While many characters in the third chapter have fallen off in small pieces or bear stains of corrosion, the characters in the fourth remain legible. The third chapter and part of

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the fourth chapter, in which no titles are found, are collectively called Suanshu (The Book of Calculation). Although there are overlapped parts, the two chapters have materials peculiar to them, focusing on various mathematical calculating methods and collection of examples, in which a lot are quite similar to the examples found in Suanshushu on the slips of the Han Dynasty, in Shu on the slips of the Qin Dynasty, and in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Suanshu in the fourth chapter is arranged in two passages, in different styles and with different contents, and is mingled with other subjects. The first passage was written in the upper part on the front of more than 210 slips, taking two thirds of the area on each slip. There are approximately 40 slips in the second passage, and the lines at the bottom (partly damaged) on the front of the first several slips are continued at the top on the back. The first passage of Suanshu could be divided into four parts. At the beginning of the first part, in a paragraph of more than 800 characters, there is a question-and-answer dialogue between two men named Lu Jiuci and Chen Qi. This dialogue is similar to a dialogue between Chen Zi and Rong Fang recorded in Zhoubi Suanjing with the latter answering the former’s questions on mathematics and of great value to the study of ancient mathematical ideas. There is a multiplication table in the second part. The third part is composed of algorithms and the corresponding collection of examples, which are labeled by title slips. In the fourth part, weights are given. The second passage of Suanshu is composed of many examples given in pairs [20]. This donation of slips is exceedingly larger in number; though not totally analyzed yet, the released part has revealed its great value to the study of the history of mathematics and history of socioeconomic culture of the Qin and Han Dynasties. In addition to the four kinds of mathematical works, there are other mathematical works evacuated, for example, Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) on slips of the Han Dynasty evacuated in Yinqueshan, Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) on slips of the Han Dynasty evacuated in Fuyang, etc. But it is unfortunate that these slips are in a poor condition with little useful information left in them. Nevertheless, the slips evacuated from Shuanggudui, Fuyang, Anhui Province, are of great value. These slips are evacuated from the tomb of Xiahou Zao, the second Marquis of Ruyin, who died 15 years in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (about 165 BC). There are records of Shaoguang problems on the 30-odd mathematical broken slips; the records on two broken slips are estimated as parts of the first example (or similar problems) in Junshu Chapter of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art [21]. These records are very important to the analysis of Junshu method and the origin of Junshu problems. As is discussed above, besides some mathematical records, there are some documents with mathematical materials recorded in them. Three of the documents will be picked out for analysis: 1. Slips of the Qin Dynasty Evacuated in Shuihudi For the first time, a large number of slips and tablets of the Qin Dynasty were evacuated from the No. 11 tomb (217 BC) in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, in 1975. The harshness and triviality that were characteristic of the laws of the Qin Dynasty and many hidden truths were hence revealed to the public.

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These materials, when analyzed in conjunction with mathematical works and other relative documents, are very helpful to the study of the relationship between the early development of mathematics and the societies of the Qin Kingdom and the Qin Dynasty, particularly the laws. The management of the ratio of different grains in official warehouses brought forth Sumi problems in mathematics in the Qin and Han Dynasties [22–24]. Strict specifications of construction plans and deadlines were closely connected with Shanggong and Junshu problems in mathematics. The harshness of the laws of the Qin Dynasty was based on highly developed mathematics and, in turn, promoted and guided the development of mathematics, etc. ([25], [26], pp. 131–161, [27]). 2. Slips of Laws from the Tomb of the Han Dynasty Evacuated in Zhangjiashan With Suanshushu, many slips and tablets on other subjects were evacuated, in which Second-Year Laws and Decrees and Qin Book, legal documents, and lawsuit files were the most important. It can be inferred that the laws of the Western Han Dynasty inherited a lot from the laws of the Qin Dynasty, though with some alteration. A comparative analysis between the slips of Han Dynasty evacuated in Zhangjiashan and the slips of the Qin Dynasty evacuated in Shuihudi offers an insight into the early development of mathematics. The records in Second-Year Laws and Decrees offered a surprisingly perfect match with some mathematical documents and hence are very important to the study of the background of the mathematical problems [17, 27]. 3. Slips and Tablets in Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong The slips and tablets in the Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong are quite helpful to the study of the history of mathematics [28]. Of the slips and tablets, Account of the Food Provision for the Slaves is of great value to the study of metrological institution, which is closely connected with mathematics (Zou Dahai, A New Research on the Measure Unit 石 Shi in Early China, a report made on the 13th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, Hefei, Anhui Province. A similar discussion can be found in a report titled The Change of the Measurement Unit shi in the Period of Qin and Han: A Study on the Basis of Unearthed Documents given at 2012 RIMS research assembly “数学 史の研究” in Kyoto University in August 2012); The Slips on River Bank is of great value to the study of the mathematical problems on area and constructions.

6.3

To Examine the Authenticity of the Extant Literature with the Abundant Examples Found on Slips and Tablets

Like other ancient documents, before the block printing was invented in the Tang Dynasty, the spread of mathematical literature relied heavily on transcription, which was arbitrary. Of the extant documents, the engraved edition of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Scripture, finished in the sixth year (1200) in the reign of Qingyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) by Bao Huanzhi, was the earliest one ([29], pp. 569, 650). This edition was copied from the engraved edition The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Scripture completed by Mishusheng (an imperial library) in the seventh year (1084) of the Northern Song Dynasty,

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about 1100 years after The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been firstly completed. Many variations could occur in transcriptions in such a long period. Fortunately, the evacuated documents offer us some evidence to prove that some problems and solutions did exist at that time. For example: 1. There is a problem in Cuifen Chapter of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art: There is a lady who is skilled in weaving. She can weave twice as much cloth each day as the previous day. She weaves five chi (a unit of measure of length in ancient China, one chi is about 33.3333cm) in five days. The question is: How much cloth does she weave each day? The solution is: On the first day she weaves one and nineteen over thirty-one cun (a unit of measure of length in ancient China, one cun is one tenth of one chi); on the second day she weaves three and seven over thirty-one cun; on the third day she weaves six and fourteen over thirty-one cun; on the fourth day she weaves one chi and two and twenty-eight over thirty-one cun; on the fifth day she weaves two chi and five and twenty-five over thirty-one cun. The solution is: Take Liecui, namely the sequence of numbers, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, as ratios, add them up to be the divisor, then multiply five chi and each number of the ratios to make the dividends. When the dividends are divided by the divisor, the output of cloth for each day is got ([29], pp. 107–108).

According to Liu Hui, there was an original edition of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in pre-Qin period. After being severely damaged in the bookburning disaster at the order of Qin Shihuang, the remnants of the book were gleaned together and recompiled by making supplements or alterations to it by Zhang Cang in early Western Han Dynasty and Geng Shouchang in late Western Han Dynasty to make it the edition that we find today. But, what were the original parts in the pre-Qin period and what were the parts added later to the book are left to be discerned. Luckily, the evacuated slips and tablets offer the evidence for judgment. There is a similar problem in Suanshushu on the Han slips evacuated in Zhangjiashan: Weave Work of Ladies A female neighbor is fond of weaving. She can weave twice as much cloth each day as the previous day. She weaves five chi in five days. The Question is: How much cloth does she weave on the first day and in the following each day? The answer is: On the first day she weaves one and thirty-eight over sixty-two cun; on the second day she weaves three and fourteen over sixty-two cun; on the third day she weaves six and twentyeight over sixty-two cun; on the fourth day she weaves one chi, two and fifty-six over sixtytwo cun; on the fifth day she weaves two chi, five and fifty over sixty-two cun. The solution is: Set the sequence of numbers, namely 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 as ratios, add them up to be the divisor. Multiply five chi and each number of the ratios to make the dividends. When the dividends are divided by the divisor, the output of cloth for each day is got. If the result should be smaller than one chi, multiply it by 10 and represent it with cun; if the result should be smaller than one cun, represent it with fen (a unit of measure of length in ancient China, one fen is one-tenth of one cun, one-hundredth of one chi). (Slips in the Tomb of the Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan (No. 247 tomb), compiled by the investigation team of the No.247 tomb of the Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2001, p. 254. In the second sentence, “weave twice as much cloth each day as the previous day,” “day” is the revised word from “says,” according to the opinions of Su Yiwen et al. [30].)

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It is evident that the two problems that are called ratio distribution problem today were called Cuifen in ancient China; the ratios of the sequence of numbers were called Liecui. Besides some subtle differences in description, the difference in mathematical terms is as follows: Liecui in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was abridged, whereas it wasn’t in Suanshushu. As the two books were not two different editions of one book, this example illustrated that the problem found in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was not a problem added to the book when compiled in the Western Han Dynasty, and it further illustrated that there had been a remoter origin for The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. The records on the slip No. 0792 in Shu made it clear that these problems and solutions were definitely not later than the reign of Qin Shihuang or rather earlier. Five. The solution is: On the first day it is one; on the second day it is two; on the third day it is four. Make the sum of them, namely seven, as the divisor for each; then take ten chi to multiply all the numbers to be the dividends. When the dividends are divided by the divisor, the output is got. (Zhu Hanmin, Chen Songchang, Qin Bamboo Slips in Yuelu Academy (Second), 101. The interchangeable characters “術,” “置,” “遍” that followed up the characters “述,” “直,” “扁,” respectively, in the original explanations have been omitted from this article. The marks for variant characters on the slips were taken down and the original characters were given in brackets in the explanations; the original characters were adopted in this article, and the marks for variant characters were omitted. The same below.)

Though the top of this slip is damaged, the slip is almost of the same length as an intact slip; it is hence estimated that there had been one character on the damaged part or no character at all. But there must be one slip before this one, bearing characters like “. . . in weaving. She can weave twice as much cloth each day as the previous day. She weaves ten chi in three days. The Question is: How much cloth does she weave on the first day and the following each day? The answer is: On the first day she weaves one and three over seven chi; on the second day she weaves two and six over seven chi; on the third day she weaves five and . . . over seven chi . . ..” This problem falls in the same category with the problems found in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Suanshushu mentioned above, which means this kind of problems appeared in the Qin Dynasty or even earlier. 2. And the Passage Guanzi Qingzhongwu recorded Guanzi’s statements, saying Fuxi (the first of the three legendary sovereigns in ancient China) “composed multiplication table to go along with the natural law.” All the documents include Hanshi Waizhuan, Shuoyuan, and Strategies of the Warring States (retrieved items) recorded that the Duke of Huan of the State of Qi sought for talents and employed a man of humble origin, who boasted a multiplication skill. Zhoubi Suanjing recorded Shang Gao’s answer to the Duke of Zhou, saying “. . . derive guidelines from that nine nines is eighty-one.” There were a lot of multiplication formulae in the documents of pre-Qin period (Mr. Li Yan collected a lot of examples of multiplication table from the pre-Qin period to the Han Dynasty, with reference to An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the first

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volume), Science Press, 1958, 10–12. Zou Dahai supplemented an example of the multiplication table in the pre-Qin period and the analysis on it; see Zou Dahai [26], pp. 104–108); the extant documents offer evidence that the multiplication table was a common knowledge in pre-Qin period. (For a simple claim, see Qian Baocong [31], pp. 10–11. For a detailed analysis and demonstration, see Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, pp. 102–108.) But not one complete multiplication table can be found in the extant documents of the primitive period. Similar records evacuated in Juyan and Dunhuang belong to the Han Dynasty, a later period. In recent years, from an ancient well in Li Ye Town, Xiangxi (the western part of Hunan Province), a wood tablet was evacuated [32]; information on it is similar to that on one wood tablet kept in Peking University. Furthermore, there is a multiplication table in the eight slips of the second part in the first passage of the fourth roll in Suanshu in Peking University [33]. Besides, in Tsinghua University (The New Advancement in the Study of the Slips in Tsinghua University. Center for Research of Chinese Excavated Classics and Paleography of Fudan University, August 10th, 2010, see link at http://www.gwz.fudan.edu.cn/SrcShow.asp? ThreadID¼3522), there is a multiplication table embedded in a calculation table on the slips of the Warring States, but it is a pity that the table remains unpublished and unavailable. The records on the wood tablet evacuated from Li Ye Town have been given below: Nine nines is eighty-one, eight nines is seven ty-two, seven nines is sixty-three, six nines is forty-five, five nines is forty-five, four nines is thirty-six, three nines is twenty-seven, two nines is eighteen, eight[eights]is sixty-four, seven eights is fifty-six, six eights is forty eight, five eights is forty, four eights is thirty-two, three eights is twenty-four, two eights is sixteen, seven[sevens]is forty-nine, six sevens is forty-two, five sevens is thirty five, four sevens is twenty-eight, three sevens is twenty-one, two sevens is fourteen, six[sixes] is thirty six, five sixes is thirty, four sixes is twenty-four, three sixes is eighteen, two sixes is twelve, five fives is twenty-five, four fives is twenty, three fives is fifteen, two fives is ten, four fours is sixteen, three fours is twelve, two fours is eight, three [threes]is nine, two threes is six, two[twos]is four, one and[one]is two, two halves is one, a total of 1013 characters [32].

The characters in the boxes in the passage given above are added to the damaged slips by compilers. The characters in square brackets were originally presented by reduplication mark on the slips. The compilers think that the character “一” (one) presented with reduplication mark in the last square brackets should have been the character “二” (two). But Mr. Hu Pingsheng thinks it doesn’t matter to let the “one and one is two” stay original, meaning “one plus one is two” (Hu Pingsheng [34], see http://www.jianbo.Org/admin3/list.asp?id¼1028). The last character “字” (a Chinese character) could be a unit of counting rod. And the last sentence “凡千 一百一十三字” meant the sum of all the computation results was 1113 counting rods [35]. In the first passage on the slips of the Qin Dynasty of Suanshu (Arithmetic Book) kept in Peking University, there is a “one and one is two” record. In the multiplication table found on the slips in Peking University and the slips evacuated from Li Ye Town, there are sums of each computation (all the computations are

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multiplications except for “one and one is two,” which is an addition). All these multiplication tables are substantially identical and to a great extent reveal the original look of the multiplication table in pre-Qin period. 3. Furthermore, the volume formula for a frustum of a cone is found in Suanshushu, Shu, and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art: • Suanshushu: Frustum of a cone The top circumference of the frustum of a cone is three zhang (a unit of measure of length in ancient China; one zhang equals 10 chi, about 3.333m); the bottom circumference of it is four zhang; the height is two zhang; the volume is two thousand and fifty-five and twenty over thirty-six chi. The solution is: Multiply the bottom circumference and the top circumference, make the two circumference squared respectively; the sum is multiplied by height, and divided by thirty-six; the result is two thousand and fifty-five and twenty over thirty-six chi (Slips in the Tomb of the Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan (No. 247 tomb), compiled by the investigation team of the No.247 tomb of the Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan, 267–268 (collation)). • Shu: The solution to the frustum of a cone is: The bottom circumference is offered, the top circumference is offered, make the two circumferences squared respectively, make the bottom circumference multiplied by the top circumference, and multiplied by height, make the product divided by thirty-six [11]. • Shanggong Chapter in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art: There is a frustum of a cone; the bottom circumference of it is three zhang, the top circumference is two zhang, the height of it is one zhang. What is the volume? The answer is: Five hundred and twenty-seven and seven ninths chi. The solution is: Multiply the bottom circumference and the top circumference, make the two circumference squared respectively, make the sum multiplied by height, then divided by thirty-six ([29], pp. 569, 650). While only abstract solutions and no examples were found in Shu, abstract solutions and examples with different data were offered in Suanshushu and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. But the abstract solutions given in the three books shared the same computation method, with slight difference in wording. This is the evidence that as early as the early years of the third century BC, the method for the volume of a frustum of a cone in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been given and passed down to later generations. Therefore this formula couldn’t have been added to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art when the book was completed in the first century BC, let alone in an even later period when the formula was finally developed. What have been given above are authentic examples of ancient mathematics. As large amounts of mathematical documents have been evacuated, large quantities of examples of this kind are readily available. Till now, though no voluminous work like The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art has been evacuated, the slips reclaimed offer a lot of mathematical materials which are not found in The Nine

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Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Zhoubi Suanjing. A comparative analysis made between The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and the available documents such as Shu and Suanshushu, whose contents have been totally released, and a fraction of the mathematical materials found on slips of the Qin Dynasty in Peking University and on slips of Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) of the Han Dynasty evacuated in Shuihudi and on the remnants of slips of Suanshu evacuated from the tomb of the Han Dynasty in Fuyang, when further complemented by other evacuated documents of mathematics, will definitely confirm that the solutions in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art didn’t appear in a later period in the Western Han Dynasty, but rather, most of the solutions in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art can be traced back to the early years of the third century BC (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics) [8, 9, 36]. It’s evident that after lots of transcriptions, some variations or errors could be found in the current editions. Nevertheless, without conclusive proof of supplements and changes made in the following generations, these ancient editions can still be relied on as authentic materials for study on ancient mathematics.

6.4

Literature on Slips and Tablets Checks the Conclusions Made in the Past Research

In academic study, while some topics can easily be agreed upon, others tend to bring forth different opinions. In the study on the history of ancient mathematics of China, owing to a severe shortage of complete materials, researchers are likely to have different understandings of them and hence make put them to different applications and come to different conclusions. The materials on the evacuated slips make it possible to test many finished conclusions. Several examples have been given below.

6.4.1

Junshu Algorithm and Junshu Problems

The sixth chapter of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was named Junshu, and the first four problems of this chapter are typical Junshu problems. As to Junshu problems, with known factors such as the number of households (or number of counting rods, number of people) in some counties, the price of millet, labor price, and time and distance needed to get to the destination, on the premise of average burden for each household (or each counting rod, each person), the allotment of millet, labor, or soldiers for each county is to be solved. Mr. Qian Baocong thought the four problems arose after the first year of Taichu period (104 BC) during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty on the grounds that it was after the first year of Taichu period that officials were appointed in prefectures to deal with accounts and transportation issues and to enforce corresponding laws ([31], p. 32). Mr. Li Yan [37] and Mr. Chen Zhi [38] held that Junshu problems arose after the first

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year of Yuanfeng period (110 BC) in the reign of Emperor Wu on the grounds that it was recorded in Records of the Grand Historian-Pingzhunshu that “In the first year of Yuanfeng Period, . . ., counties tend to install officials to deal with accounts and transportation of salt and iron” [39], and Junshu laws were thus thought to have been put into force in the first year of Yuanfeng period in the reign of Emperor Wu. To sum up, the scholars used to think that only during or after the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty could Junshu problems arise. But this conclusion has been disproved by the evacuated documents. In the No. 247 tomb in Zhangjiashan from which Suanshushu was evacuated, some law documents were reclaimed together with it, in which Junshu laws were found (the scripts were lost; only a title can be found on one slip), serving as a conclusive evidence of Junshu method in an earlier period, before the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Some problems in Suanshushu share solutions with some problems attached to Junshu Chapter, and this means the problems attached to Junshu Chapter could appear even earlier. Mr. Song Jie thought there were an ancient Junshu problem in The Debates on Salt and Iron and a presentday Junshu problem; while the former resembled the Junshu problems in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, the latter got introduced to the public in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty [40]. Mr. Hu Pingsheng held similar opinions; he even examined the slip remnants evacuated from the tomb of Xiahou Zao, who died in 165 BC, in Shuanggudui, Fuyang, and found two fragments of the scripts. On one fragment, there was “□one thousand two hundred households, after a twenty-day-long journey, arrived their respective sites” (No. 28th slip); on the other fragment, there was “thousand, six hundred” (No. 20th slip). He thought this was the remains of the first problem in Junshu Chapter [21]. In The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, the same problem was given as: To arrange equal allotment of transportation of millet to the destination, a 8-day journey is allotted to the 10,000 households of County Jia, a 10-day journey is allotted to the 9,500 households of County Yi, a 13-day journey is allotted to the 12,350 households of County Bing, a 20-day journey is allotted to the 12,200 households of County Ding. The allotment should be carried out independently. The total allotment for the four counties was 250, 000 hu (a unit of a dry measure used in former times) of millet, 10, 000 wagons. If the amount of millet and the number of wagons should be arranged to the ratio of the journey and the number of households, the question is: What is the amount of millet and the number of wagons? The answer is: County Jia is allotted 83,100 hu of millet and 3,324 wagons; County Yi is allotted 63,175 hu of millet and 2,527 wagons; County Bing is allotted 63,175 hu of millet and 2,527 wagons; County Ding is allotted 40,550 hu of millet and 1,622 wagons ([29], pp. 569, 650).

When the first paragraph in Suanshu evacuated in Fuyang is checked on with the sentence “a 20-day journey is allotted to the 12,200 households of County Ding. The allotment should be carried out independently” in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, it can be inferred that the character “二” had been mistakenly written as “一” and “二旬” (20 days) shared the same meaning with “二十日.” “Thousand six hundred” in the second paragraph was probably the part of “one thousand six

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hundred and twenty-two wagons” in Ding County. All these proved the typical Junshu problems in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art existed before the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. With the evidence of the laws of the Qin Dynasty evacuated in Shuihudi, ideas of the scholars of the different schools in pre-Qin period, historical documents, and the mathematical slips evacuated in Shuanggudui, it is positively proved that Junshu methods in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art were used in pre-Qin period [9, 25] (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics).

6.4.2

The Origin of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Pre-Qin Period

Mr. Qian Baocong said: “Though none of the books on mathematics in pre-Qin period passed down to later generations, there is no doubt that the majority of the contents in the chapters of Fangtian (a method to solve the area of fields on given sides), Sumi (a calculation method for grain transactions), Cuifen (an arithmetic progression problem), Shaoguang (a method to solve one side of a rectangle or a cuboid with the area of a rectangle or the volume of a cuboid given), Shanggong (a method to solve volumes or labors for a project) originated before the Qin Dynasty”([31], p. 14). Mr. Guo Shuchun held a different opinion that in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, the part of solution-oriented application problems (took up the majority of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, present in every chapter) had been established in pre-Qin period. The part of the book that was characteristic of one-problem-one-solution pattern with figures in solutions was added by Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang in the Han Dynasty; they combined the knowledge of Gougu, developed in the Han Dynasty for right triangle problems, with Pangyao (a synonym for Gougu), a part found in the original book, and renamed the part as Gougu to substitute for the former name Pangyao ([41], pp. 87–90, [42], pp. 112–121). While Mr. Guo has conducted a more sophisticated work than Mr. Qian, their demonstrations were both proved inadequate. Judging from the records on the slips, Mr. Qian’s conclusions were correct, yet conservative. Some parts of the conclusions could be proved by such evacuated documents. As to the fundamental operations of the fractions and formulae for areas of rectangles in Fangtian Chapter, proportion and differential distribution in Sumi Chapter, Shaoguang problems in Shaoguang Chapter, and some formulae for volume or capacity in Shanggong Chapter, specific solutions were found in Suanshushu, Shu, and Suanshu on the slips of the Qin Dynasty in Peking University; there were similar explanations for some problems. The records of the last two documents stopped at the late years of the reign of Qin Shihuang (246–210 BC); the records in Suanshushu stopped as early as 186 BC. Therefore, they were produced in pre-Qin period or the Qin Dynasty; the conclusion that the first five chapters of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art were completed before the Qin Dynasty was hence authentic. The basic processes of arithmetic of factions, the formulae for areas of rectangles, and simple proportional

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methods were established methods in Suanshushu and Shu, for there were a lot of examples to be solved by them. Therefore, these established methods definitely appeared earlier than the time when the two books were finished, probably in the pre-Qin period. In Suanshushu, there were formulae for volumes that were partially composed of the formulae for areas of circle, triangle, and trapezium, which preceded the formulae for volumes a long time. And there were methods for the areas of circle, rectangle, and isosceles trapezium in Shu, indicating that these methods must have been established in pre-Qin period, quite earlier than the time when Suanshushu was finished. As has been proved that Junshu problems had existed in pre-Qin period, the presence of Yingbuzu examples and methods in Suanshushu and Shu also indicated that the solutions had been established in pre-Qin period. (Zou Dahai once asserted that Yingbuzu Method was established in pre-Qin period, which was done after a careful study on the documents of Yingbuzu in Suanshushu, in comparison with the chapter of Yingbuzu in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. See Zou Dahai [8, 9, 43]. Shu on the Records of the Qin Slips Proved This Analysis; see Xiao Can [36].) Mr. Qian’s ideas were thus proved conservative, while Mr. Guo’s ideas turned out to be more reliable. Nevertheless, the examples characteristic of one-problem-one-solution pattern with figures in solutions were not necessarily added in the Han Dynasty. For instance, there was one example in Shu that a cylinder was buried in ground, and there was still one example in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art that there was a cylinder buried in the wall – two similar examples that shared almost identical figures and solutions. This similarity demonstrated an even remoter origin of the example in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art [14]. It was by no means designed and added by the scholars in the Han Dynasty, though embellished in wording.

6.5

Literature on Slips and Tablets Impels the Scholars to Reflect on the Methods Adopted in the Past Research

Unlike the existing documents that are inevitably tampered in the course of time, the records on the evacuated slips remained untouched underground, maintaining accurate information as they were finished and bearing definite signs of end date of the records; therefore they can be relied on to reexamine conclusions made in the past research and will invoke reflections on the methods once adopted. This significance is firstly shown in the interpretation and application of the historical documents. Generally speaking, the answer to a problem can be confirmed if it is supported by enough historical documents which are logical and compatible; people tend to have different interpretations and come to different conclusions when there are scarce or disjointed historical documents. The different opinions held by Mr. Qian Baocong and Mr. Li Yan on the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art will be cited and given below to help to analyze the different attitudes to historical documents. As to the historical records on the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, researchers can only turn to the Preface to the Annotations to the

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Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art written by Liu Hui for definite information. Liu Hui clearly pointed out: “Duke of Zhou established the code of formalities with Jiushu as a part of it; when passed down on to the following generations, Jiushu was renamed The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. There was a tyrant in the Qin Dynasty who burnt books; it caused severe and extensive damage to the scripts and codes. It was not until the Han Dynasty that Zhang Cang, the Marquis of Beiping, and Geng Shouchang, who held a senior position of Da Sinong Zhongcheng (a chief officer of warehouse management and agriculture), appear. The two men, who were famous for calculation skills, edited on the remnants of the book and made supplements and abridgements to them. So there could be some differences between their edition and the former one in catalogue; they adopted their contemporary language in editing the book” (Guo Shuchun, Collation of the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Addition), 1). Liu Hui actually made an explanation of the book: In early Western Zhou Dynasty, when Duke of Zhou established the code of formalities, there was a mathematical subject called Jiushu; when passed down on to the following generations, it was renamed The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. The tyrant of Qin Shihuang set many books on fire, which caused severe and extensive damage to the scripts and codes; The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was not spared. Later, Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang collected the remnants of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art of the pre-Qin period edition and recompiled the book by making supplements and abridgements in contents, rearranging subjects, and explaining with some contemporary expressions. A new The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art of the Han edition was thus established. According to Liu Hui, The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, a classic mathematical work of remote origin, had been finished in pre-Qin period. While the original book had been damaged in the book-burning purge committed by Qin Shihuang, the present edition of the book was compiled by Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang on the remains of the pre-Qin edition. In other words, there were many people involved in the restoration work of the book in a long period from the Western Zhou Dynasty (1122–771 BC) to the Western Han Dynasty (206– 240 AD) till the book was finally completed in Geng Shouchang’s period. Geng Shouchang, who took the position of Da Sinong Zhongcheng in the reign of Emperor Xuan in the Han Dynasty, was in charge of agriculture, water management, and water transportation of grain in the middle of the first century before Christ. According to Liu Hui, the book was finished in the same period. Scholars have different opinions on Liu Hui’s statement. Qian Baocong’s opinion and Li Yan’s opinion will be given below. Mr. Qian Baocong held the opinion that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was finished between 50 AD and 100 AD for the following reasons: ① First, the first four typical Junshu problems in Junshu Chapter arose in the subsequent years of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. It was in the first year of Taichu period (104 BC) that Junshu officials were firstly installed in prefectures to manage account and transportation issues and to enforce Junshu laws.

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② Second, no records of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was found in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature – a book written by Ban Gu on the basis of Qi Lue which was written by Liu Xin. It was hence proved that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was finished after Qi Lue by Liu Xin. ③ Third, around 50 AD (during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty) when Zheng Zhong was paraphrasing Jiushu in Rites of Zhou, Gougu was not found in Jiushu. This was a positive proof that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, which had Gougu Chapter as a component of it, could not be finished before 50 AD. ④ Fourth, Biography of Ma Yuan in Book of Eastern Han recorded that Ma Xu, Ma Yuan’s grandnephew, “is capable of writing poems at 16, reads extensively, commands mathematical skills recorded in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art.” Ma Xu, Ma Yan’s son, Ma Rong’s (79–166) elder brother, was born around 70 AD and studied The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art around 90 AD. Thereafter, in the middle of the second century, Zheng Xuan (127–200) was “good at mathematical skills in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art”; in the early third century, Zhao Shuang wrote in his Annotation to Zhoubi that “When there is no way out, we have to turn to other resources, and find the solutions in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art.” So there is no doubt that after the second century, The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art did exist (Qian Baocong (editor-in-chief), The History of Mathematics of China, 28–33). The first reason given above disproved that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was finished in Zhang Cang’s period; the fourth reason put the finishing time of the book at the end of the first century, which was in agreement with Liu Hui’s statement. The second reason put the finishing time of the book at after the late years of the Western Han Dynasty; the third reason put the finishing time of the book at an earlier time of 50 AD, which was contradictory to Liu Hui’s statements. Mr. Qian Baocong didn’t point out any mistakes in Liu Hui’s statements. Instead, he argued on the fact that it was not the works of Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang but the 26th passage of Suanshu by Xu Shang and the 16th passage of Suanshu by Du Zhong that got included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature and hence concluded that the two books should be the prototype of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and Liu Hui failed to mention the two books just because of “a negligence.” (He insists that “The title of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art is the varied copy of Jiushu, one part of the code of formalities in the Zhou Dynasty,” which shows he partly acknowledges Liu Hui’s statement. But his conclusion is to a great extent denouncing or, at least, neglecting Liu Hui’s statements on the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and accordingly his arguments are based on the materials from other sources except Liu Hui’s works.) Mr. Qian Baocong also said that “Sun Wenqing, a contemporary scholar, offered an opinion that Ma Xu was the compiler of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and this opinion was probably true, though not positively proved.”

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Mr. Li Yan had a different view, arguing that the Han Dynasty was a period when the study and analysis work on The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been conducted. Based on Liu Hui’s works, Mr. Li Yan asserted that it was Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang that compiled The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art; they “edited and finished it” (Li Yan, An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the first volume), 24). Mr. Li Yan further explained: “The scholars of the Han Dynasty like Xu Shang, Du Zhong, Liu Xin, Ma Xu, Zheng Xuan, Xu Yue (Zhao Junqing), Kanze, Chen Chi of the Wu Kingdom and Wang Jie in the Wei Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms Period etc. contributed to the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art.” There had been records of the people who studied The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art except Liu Xin. For example, the records that Xu Shang and Du Zhong studied The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art were quoted from the item of calculation in the fourth passage of Guangyun (Li Yan, The History of Mathematics in China (Revision), 16–17). Mr. Li Yan also asserted that the study of Junshu problems had been initiated by Sang Hongyang, a scholar in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (Li Yan, An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the first volume), 27). Mr. Qian Baocong’s work was firstly published in 1964, after Mr. Li Yan passed away, and became highly influential, while Mr. Li Yan’s opinions were not adequately valued. The two scholars adopted historical materials in quite different ways. Mr. Li Yan valued original documents and directly related materials; he rarely dismissed records in historical documents. Mr. Qian Baocong, being influenced by skepticism of ancient documents, was more critical; he often doubted the ancient documents that put an early compilation time to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and tended to search for faults and discrepancies in historical documents. While it is necessary to be skeptical of and to check the historical documents, it has to be conducted with evidence and reasoning. It varies greatly from people to people in the choice of evidence and reasoning methods; it is quite arbitrary. 1. First, whether to be included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature, which was compiled on the basis of Qi Lue by Liu Xin, was viewed as a criterion for judging whether a book had been finished during or before the Western Han Dynasty. Mr. Qian Baocong held fast to this idea as a standard in judging the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Logically, the books included in Qi Lue had existed in the Western Han Dynasty, but not vice versa. It has always been impossible to have all the books in one certain period completely included in one catalogue. Likewise, there can be omissions in the books like Book of Han-Treatise on Literature or Qi Lue; the absence of a book in a catalogue can’t necessarily disprove the existence of the book omitted. This phenomenon had been discussed in a book titled Gushu Tongli, written by Mr. Yu Jiaxi, with one passage under the title of Omissions in the Collection of Classic Works [44] devoted to it. Illustrations will be offered later in this chapter to clarify that the absence of records in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature shouldn’t be counted as the conclusive proof, but as a collateral evidence, to disprove the existence of a book. Mr. Li Yan just ignored the absence of records of The Nine

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Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature; he asserted that “There were records from the Sui Dynasty on” (Li Yan, An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the first volume), 24), which connoted that it didn’t matter if a book should be included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature. Frankly speaking, there were forged books or plagiarized copies in history; therefore it is reasonable to suspect on the ground of the absence of records in historical materials. As a matter of fact, Mr. Qian Baocong himself failed to implement this skepticism throughout his research; he put the compilation time of Zhoubi at around 100 AD or even later, though like The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Zhoubi had not been included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature (Qian Baocong, The History of Chinese Mathematics, 29–30). 2. Second, Zheng Zhong’s (?–83) annotation to Jiushu in Rites of Zhou can be found in the quotations from the Annotations to the Rite of Zhou by Zheng Xuan, and the quotation reads: “Fangtian, Sumi, Cuifen, Shaoguang, Shanggong, Junshu, Fangcheng, Yingbuzu, Pangyao; and now there are Zhongcha, Xijie, Gougu” [45]. Mr. Qian Baocong put the time of annotation conducted by Zheng Zhong at around 50 AD, presuming Zheng Zhong conducted it in the prime of his life, which is an acceptable explanation, though not proved. About the mathematical branch named Gougu, Zheng Zhong commented that there were such words in his period, but were not found in Jiushu. Mr. Qian Baocong thought the subjects of Jiushu annotated by Zheng Zhong were a complete collection of subjects of mathematics before 50 AD when Zheng Zhong made his annotation, thus further concluded on the evidence of the absence of Gougu in Jiushu that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, with the chapter of Gougu in it, could but appear after 50 AD. Rites of Zhou was a classic that was put into the syllabus of official school during the reign of Wang Mang (6–23) at the suggestion of Liu Xin. The records in the book were esteemed as the institutions established by the Duke of Zhou and hence become a model for Wang Mang in his reform [46, 47]. Zheng Xing, father of Zheng Zhong, was valued by Liu Xin because of his excellent research job in ancient classics, in particular Zuo Zhuan and Rites of Zhou, and his mastery of calendar and mathematics [48]. In addition to study under the guidance of his father, Zheng Zhong also studied under Du Chunzi, another master of Rites of Zhou who was equally valued by Liu Xin as his disciple (Jia Gongyan, Preface to Orthodox Study on Rites of Zhou. Ruan Yuan [49]). It was evident that Zheng Zhong’s annotation to Rites of Zhou was derived from the works of Liu Xin, a master of ancient classics school. (Items of “Zheng Xing”, “Zheng Zhong”. Editorial board of Cihai, Cihai (compact edition, 1999), Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House, 2000, 1295.) In the first century, when the ancient classics school was engaged in some heated debate with the new text school, Zheng Zhong knew better than confusing his contemporary conditions with the conditions in the Western Zhou Dynasty as he understood. Therefore, the Jiushu as Zheng Zhong annotated should be a mathematical subject in the period when Rites of Zhou was compiled, which is Western Zhou Dynasty. It is evident that Mr. Qian Baocong’s opinion was poles apart from Zheng Zhong’s view; it diluted the historical evolution concepts embodied in Zheng Zhong’s annotations,

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putting the compilation time of Jiushu at a much later date and reducing Jiushu to a kind of mathematical knowledge before Zheng Zhong made his annotation. Mr. Li Yan paid less attention to Zheng Zhong’s annotation, nor adopted the time when Zheng Zhong annotated Jiushu to prove the earliest compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Instead, he gleaned the records of Jiushu from various documents to hint a remote origin of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. 3. Third, though both Mr. Qian Baocong and Mr. Li Yan drew on the records of Ma Xu’s amendment to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Book of Eastern Han to prove that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been completed before Ma Xu’s period, they had some different opinions. Mr. Li Yan drew on this record and the characters of “九章算术” in the inscriptions on the Guanghe Hu (a copper container in the form of an inverted frustum of pyramid cast in the second year of Guanghe reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty) to demonstrate that the record in Book of Sui-Records of Classic Works wasn’t the earliest one of the name of the book The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. (Li Yan, An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the first volume), 25– 26. But the records such as Ma Xu’s annotations to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Book of Eastern Han and the name of the book in the inscriptions on the Hu were not found in the printed book; they appeared in a written note given by Li Yan at the bottom of the page of 25. The book with Li Yan’s handwritten note is kept in the Li Yan Series in the Institute for the History of Natural Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.) Mr. Qian Baocong tended to put the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art at a later date, asserting that it was possible that the book had been edited by Ma Xu – a groundless assumption offered by Sun Wenqing. Mr. Qian Baocong hence seemed uncertain about his former judgment that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been completed before Ma Xu’s period. 4. Fourth, there was an item of “筭” in Guangyun that read: “The Methods of the Nine Chapters were contributed by Xu Shang, Du Zhong in the Han Dynasty, Chen Chi of the Wu Kingdom and Wang Jie of the Wei Kingdom in the Three Kingdoms Period” [50]. There was another record which read that it was not The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, but Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) written by Xu Shang and Suanshu (Arithmetic Method) written by Du Zhong had been included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature. As to the two historical records, Mr. Qian Baocong just ignored the former one in Guangyun and drew on the latter to conclude that Suanshu by Xu Shang and Suanshu by Du Zhong had been the prototype of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art on the stubborn premise that being included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature should be the criterion for proving a book’s existence in the Western Han Dynasty. Thus, The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was esteemed not to be found in the Western Han Dynasty for the absence of its name in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature, while Suanshu by Xu Shang and Suanshu by Du Zhong turned out to be the prototype of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art because they had been included in that book. However, Mr. Li Yan dismissed that criterion and

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managed to coordinate the two historical records. He once thought “The Methods of the Nine Chapters” was The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, while Suanshu by Xu Shang and Suanshu by Du Zhong were merely a study on The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Li Yan, The History of Mathematics in China (Revision), 16–17). Though he later no longer thought “The Methods of the Nine Chapters” was equivalent to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, Mr. Li Yan insisted that Xu Shang and Du Zhong amended “The Methods of the Nine Chapters,” never mentioning there could be some influence of the works of the two scholars on the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Li Yan, An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the first volume), 25–28, 31). The spirit of skepticism and the spirit of positivism are the soul of scientific research; Mr. Qian Baocong demonstrated it well. Nevertheless, maybe under the influence of a prevailing historical skepticism, he failed to keep a balance between the two spirits in dealing with some specific cases. Historical skepticism, a prerequisite for scrutinizing historical materials, can be carried to extremes in research when there was a prevailing tendency to think that a possibility could be concluded as nothing even on dubious evidence. Prior to the 1970s, in the academic circles, it was likely to pick a later date for the compilation time for an ancient book. In such a context, Mr. Qian Baocong failed to pay due attention to a direct evidence of Liu Hui’s records in his research on the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art; he instead turned to an indirect evidence like Book of Han-Treatise on Literature and Book of Eastern Han-Biography of Ma Yuan to support his some subjective research and put a quite later date to the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, which led to contradictions in his analysis on the relationship between Ma Yuan and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and distorted Zheng Zhong’s original annotations. Actually, not only the adoption but also the skepticism of historical materials should be based on evidence and reasoning. The editing work conducted by Mr. Li Yan was characteristic of a historical material-oriented attitude, which is to make a history restored upon concrete historical materials, making very limited derivations [51]. As to the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, he tended to coordinate historical materials from different sources, never refuting one with another. Yet, Mr. Li Yan was skeptical. He said Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang “edited The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art” (Li Yan, An Outline of Mathematics in China (Revision) (the First Volume), 25–28, 31); he also said: “Liu Hui annotated The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and the book was hence conclusively completed” (Li Yan, The History of Mathematics in China (Revision), 16–17), which was the proof of his opinion that though The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been finished as a complete book in the period when Geng Shouchang lived in, further revisions were added to it later. As is mentioned earlier, the evacuated materials had shown that the Junshu examples in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art were different from the

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Junshu issues in the business management in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty with the former that appeared even earlier; Suanshushu and Shu had shown that Yingbuzu Method was established in pre-Qin period. The records of the laws enforced mainly in the Qin Kingdom of the Warring States Period, evacuated from a tomb of 217 AD in Shuihudi of Yunmeng County, were testimony to a sophisticated mathematics on which the laws were based. These records, together with other historical documents like Suanshushu which was finished before 186 BC, Shu on slips of the Qin Dynasty, and Suanshu on slips of the Qin Dynasty which were kept in Peking University, conclusively proved that the main calculation methods in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had been finished in the pre-Qin period. (The research employed the laws in the Qin Dynasty and Suanshushu, see Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 126– 161, 498–508; Zou Dahai, The First Look at Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematics Book “Suanshushu”; Zou Dahai, The Application of the Measurement Manipulation: A Research Based on the Literature in the Pre-Qin Period and Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, The Spread of Literatures on Algorithmic-pattern Mathematics in Early Ancient China: A Research Based on the Investigation into the Relation between the Suanshu Shu and the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures; Zou Dahai, Two Tendencies of Mathematics in the Pre-Qin Period; Zou Dahai, Shuihudi’s Bamboo Strips of the Qin Dynasty and Mathematics in Pre-Qin Period; Zou Dahai, The Method of Excess and Deficiency in Early China: An Investigation on the Basis of the Problems of Excess and Deficiency in the Suanshushu. The research employed the laws in the Qin Dynasty, Shu, and Suanshushu, see: Xiao Can [36]; Zou Dahai, The Problem Concerning Weishu and Their Social Context in Early China – A Research Based on the Unearthed Bamboo Slips [27, 52].) A Japanese scholar, Hori Tsuyoshi, investigated the prices in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and concluded that they had mainly occurred in the Warring States Period and the Qin Dynasty (Hori Tsuyoshi [53]. Mr. Guo Shuchun made some minor revisions to the data in the book, see Guo Shuchun, Zhang Cang and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art). A Chinese scholar called Song Jie studied the economic condition, including the prices in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and proved that most of the economic phenomena appeared before the late Western Han Dynasty. These researches showed the examples in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had appeared in the period from the Warring States Period to the Western Han Period, not in the Eastern Han Dynasty. As historical materials can be adopted by scholars in later generations to write new books, these researches can just be counted as indirect evidence for an early origin of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. However, since there is no evidence to show that the contents in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art didn’t appear until the Eastern Han Dynasty, Li Hui’s records, having stood the trial of questioning, undoubtedly should be taken as the best explanation. Whether to be included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature has been viewed as the criterion for proving a book’s existence in the Western Han Dynasty, whose validity has to be examined. In fact, many faults are found in Book of Han-Treatise

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on Literature, which will be given below: First, there are some discrepancies in its records. The almanac, including Suanshu by Xu Shang and Suanshu by Du Zhong, summarized at the end of a list of book names that “There are 18 categories of you 右 (right) almanacs with 606 volumes in them” [54], but in fact in these 18 categories of almanacs, 40 passages were not found. The book also summarized that “There are 13 categories of you military tactics with 199 passages in them” ([54], pp. 1760– 1762), but in fact there were three more categories and three more passages in the list, and there were three rolls of illustrations and five rolls of books found not included in the list. Mistakes are also found in other categories like the spring and autumn books (history book). Ancient scholars had long ago found these mistakes. Yan Shigu remarked: “There are some contradictions between the list of the categories and passages and the content of the book, which could be some transcription errors made in the long course of time and the truth could never be retrieved” ([54], pp. 1702–1703). While it is impossible to know whether the transcribers should be held responsible for all the faults in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature, there is no doubt that the current edition of the book is far from being perfect. Second, ancient scholars had discovered that Book of Han-Treatise on Literature was an incomplete collection of books. Yao Zhenzong, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, added a lot to this collection in his book Additions to Book of Han Treatise on Literature [55], in which there were 16 categories and 16 volumes of almanac with Zhoubi Suanjing and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art included, approximating to the total number of almanacs in Treatise on Literature. The supplements made by Yao Zhenzong will not be adopted as evidence because there are some inaccuracies in them. So far, a random collection of the names mentioned in Book of Han yet omitted from Treatise on Literature is adequate to prove that Treatise on Literature is not a complete collection. For example, the 58th Chapter of the Scholar’s Legend in Book of Han recorded that Xu Shang “was good at mathematics; he wrote The Calendar on the Five Elements” ([56], p. 3604). Though this book was evidently a book of calendar, it was not included in Treatise on Literature, while One Passage on the Five Elements written by Xu Shang got included into the book and put into the category of the “school of works” on the list of the “outline of six classical arts,” that is, Shangshu ([56], pp. 1705–1706). It is obvious that the two books are different (though there may be overlapping parts). Another example, Book of Han-Treatise on Music and Calendar Almanac (Volume 1) recorded “In the reign of Emperor Xiaocheng, Liu Xiang summarized the complete collection of ancient almanacs, commented on them and wrote Wuji Lun. Liu Xin, son of Liu Xiang, made relentless search for the subtle and remote ancient information and successfully wrote Santong Lipu to illustrate Spring and Autumn and to explore techniques and mystic points; it is noteworthy” ([56], p. 979). The Sixth Chapter of the Biography of King Yuan in Kingdom of Chu recorded similarly that “The empress dowager retained Liu Xin and appointed him Youcao Taizhong Dafu (a high-rank official) and then promoted him to Zhonglei Xiaowei (Capital Garrison Officer), Xihe (Chief Official Astronomer), Jingzhaoyin (the Mayor of the Capital), made him in charge of Mingtang (the Imperial Ancestral Temple) Biyong (moat) with the title of Marquis Hongxiu. Liu Xin was authorized to edit almanacs with all the scholars and historian officials

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under his command; Santong Lipu (Three Sequences Calendar) was hence accomplished.” At the end of the chapter, “it was appraised that Zhongni (polite name for Confucius) acclaimed him ‘A rare genius, isn’t it?’ . . .Liu’s Hongfan Lun ushered in Dazhuan, they expounded on the interactions between nature and humans; Qi Lue analyzed literature and art, summarizing different schools of learning; Santong Lipu assessed various astronomical phenomena, aiming to explain their fundamentals” (Ban Gu and Yan Shigu, Book of Han, 1972–1973). But all these almanac works such as Wuji Lun, Santong Calendar (or Santong), and Santong Lipu just failed to be included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature. One more example, of the works of Zhang Cang, just one titled Zhang Cang’s Sixteen Chapters got included into Book of Han-Treatise on Literature in the category of Yin and Yang School on the list of schools of scholars (Ban Gu and Yan Shigu, Book of Han, 1733–1734). The Biography of Premier Zhang, the 96th volume of Records of the Grand Historian, recorded that “The almanac issues in the Han Dynasty should be attributed to Zhang Cang, who was fond of studying and was actually an omnivorous reader, an omniscient scholar; he was particularly skilled in almanacs . . ..” At the end of the sentence, it was noted that “book of annotations: Book of Han recorded: ‘wrote 18 chapters, expounding on astronomical phenomena and almanacs’” (Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, 2681). The 12th Chapter of the Biography of Zhang, Zhou, Ren, Shentu, in the 42nd volume of Book of Han, also recorded that “Zhang Cang passed away when he was more than one hundred years old, leaving an eighteen-passage collection expounding on astronomical phenomena and almanacs” (Ban Gu and Yan Shigu, Book of Han, 2100). It can be inferred from the context that these passages mainly discussed almanacs and hence should be put into the almanac category on the list of mathematics. Due to the differences in the number of chapters and types, this 18-passage collection was not Zhang Cang’s Sixteen Chapters (though there can be overlapping parts); it is evident that some pieces written by Zhang Cang had been omitted from Book of Han-Treatise on Literature. Just a limited examination has exposed at least five works finished before the Eastern Dynasty and included in Book of Han failed to be included in the almanac category for mathematical books in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature, accounting for 27.8% of the almanac category; at least three of which appeared earlier than Qi Lue by Liu Xin, accounting for one sixth of the almanac books included. Whether Book of Han-Treatise on Literature omitted the books or some parts got lost in the long passage of time, any absence of records of a book in the current edition of Book of Han-Treatise on Literature can’t be regarded a positive evidence, but a collateral evidence, to judge the existence of the book in that time. Similarly, the absence of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature can be caused by the omissions in collection processes, or some parts have got lost in passing down from ancient times. And Book of Eastern Han-Biography of Ma Yuan can also be safely regarded as reference for the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art; the records in the book are complementary, not contradictory, to the records given by Liu Hui. Besides, there has been no proof that this book was more reliable than Liu Hui’s records. In terms of time, Liu Hui annotated The Nine Chapters on the

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Mathematical Art around 263, while Fan Ye (398~445) began to write Book of Eastern Han in 432 (or 424) [57], about 170 years later than Liu Hui’s job. There is a span of about 300 years between Liu Hui’s annotation job and the conclusive editing activities of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art by Geng Shouchang as referred to by Liu Hui. And there is a span of about 340 years between Fan Ye’s writing Book of Eastern Han and Ma Yuan’s study of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. With a similar time span of about 300 years, why Liu Hui’s works which had been finished 170 years earlier are slighted, while Fan Ye’s works which were completed after three dynasties should be valued? Besides, Liu Hui specialized in mathematics in a very scrupulous manner; Fan Ye had to deal with a lot of historical characters and event in his work when he was not an expert in mathematics, so he was more likely to make errors and omissions in his study. Furthermore, there are no discrepancies between their works: While Liu Hui focused on the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, Fan Ye just referred to (did not amount to an introduction of) the spread of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art! Judging all the evidence available, Mr. Li Yan’s research was proved sound and reasonable. Nowadays, though outside mathematical history domain more people tend to adopt Mr. Qian Baocong’s viewpoint that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was completed in the first century and in mathematical history domain there are different opinions, more scholars have accepted the opinion that The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was completed in the first century BC. (For example, Mr. Peng Hao adopted Mr. Qian Baocong’s opinion of the compilation time of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and stuck to the evidence of not being included in Book of Han-Treatise on Literature. He thought that Suanshushu “exerted direct influence on the origin of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art,” “laying the foundation for the first seven chapters of the book,” “which retained the majority of Suanshushu and summarized, compiled, and supplemented and abridged it.” It is evident that Mr. Peng Hao thought the compiler of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art not only read Suanshushu but also adopted the book as the prototype in compiling The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art; so Suanshushu should have been in circulation in the period between the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty and beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty and should have been included in Treatise on Literature. But Suanshushu can never be found in the book, nor referred to in any extant literature. Mr. Peng Hao’s ideas can be found in the treatise by Peng Hao [58] and the book by Peng Hao [59].) To sum up, though it is necessary to question and review historical materials, it has to be conducted on the basis of evidence and reasoning, like winnowing historical materials. There can be fakes and errors in ancient literature so an appropriate analysis can reveal the motives of fakes and reasons of errors. While skepticism is necessary to guard against the partly or totally faked literature and errors in documents, the analysis of the reliability of the ancient literature can’t be carried to extremes – an effective discrimination is required. Generally speaking, there are no strong motives for faking when benefits (like honor, power, status,

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wealth, human relationship, etc.) are not involved. So, ancient scholars were less likely to fake in mathematics than in astronomy and medicine. When questioning or invalidating one ancient document A (or a part of it), people often turn to document B (or a part of it) for proof under the condition that document B or the derivations from it are reliable. Or, conversely, people can question or invalidate document B with a proved document A. Due to the lack of an objective criterion, people tend to be very arbitrary in discriminating among documents of different sources. An overemphasis on the differences among the documents tends to cause scholars deliberately or unknowingly to misunderstand, distort, or even exaggerate records, which is true of the second and third explanations given by Mr. Qian Baocong. Generally speaking, if several pieces of documents about one issue focus on one certain aspect, when there are contradictions among them, only one of the documents or none of them should be esteemed right, that is, at least part of the documents or all of them should be invalidated. If these documents are about different aspects of the same issue, scholars have to be more careful when they manage to invalidate document A with document B. An overemphasis of the contradictions among the documents can cause the scholars to easily leave out valuable information and make faulty inferences. Therefore, we have to use discrimination in analyzing different documents to eliminate errors and find common traits or links to reach sound and reasonable conclusions. The historical documents such as the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in Liu Hui’s work, the absence of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in the current edition of Book of Han-Treatise on Literature, and Zheng Zhong’s annotation to Jiushu of Rites of Zhou didn’t discuss the completion of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art from the same perspective. The latter two documents didn’t directly contradict the first one, but Mr. Qian Baocong went to extreme to turn suspicion into invalidation in analyzing the first document; he exaggerated the differences to make them contradictions and went further to adopt the latter two documents as evidence to invalidate the most concrete information in the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art – the historical fact that on the basis of the original edition of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in pre-Qin Dynasty had Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang compiled The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Mr. Li Yan adopted a different method. Though he didn’t give an elaborate analysis of his opinions on the compilation of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, he satisfactorily coordinated different documents to avoid any contradiction. In my opinion, as to the historical documents of unknown sources, when they didn’t go contrary to the confirmed knowledge, it is more reasonable and helpful to make them complementary to each other than to turn them into conflicting ones. After all, the affirmation or the invalidation of one ancient statement should be based on concrete historical materials, under the condition that some or all the historical materials convey authentic information, more or less. Therefore, a conclusion drawn from the largest amount of the most authentic historical materials, though not necessarily the most convincing, is most probably the best. Besides, when selecting historical materials, under the same condition, the materials that are directly related to the issues should be given priority over materials

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that are indirectly related to the issues; likewise, the opinions of professional scholars should be given priority over common people’s opinions. When a conclusion of absolute truth is not available, why not settle on the most probable one?

6.6

Literature on Slips and Tablets Offers Important Reference for the Reconstruction of the History of Mathematics in Ancient China

The traditional mathematics of China falls into two categories: a practical algorithm mathematics and a theoretical mathematical knowledge. While the former remains the consistent mainstream, the latter developed significantly in the Warring States Period and interacted with the former (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematic; Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematics Book “Suanshushu”; Zou Dahai, The Spread of Literatures on Algorithmic-pattern Mathematics in Early Ancient China: A Research Based on the Investigation into the Relation between the Suanshu Shu and the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures; Zou Dahai, Two Tendencies of Mathematics in the Pre-Qin Period) [60]. Records on slips and tablets help us to gain an insight into the mainstream of mathematics. The large amount of social, economic, and law records on the evacuated slips and tablets can be drawn on to study the background of the application and spread of mathematics during the Qin and Han Dynasties and the interaction between them (Peng Hao, Suanshu Shu, the Earliest Mathematical Work in China, 5–12, 25–32; Peng Hao, Annotations of Suanshushu on the Han Slips of Zhangjiashan, 138–161; Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 133–161) ([23, 61–64], [65], pp. 35–39, 81–187). Of the extant documents, Zhoubi Suanjing and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, which were completed not earlier than the Western Han Dynasty, are ranked as the earliest. While the former dealt with astronomical problems with mathematical methods, the latter turned out to be the epitome of traditional mathematics of China and a composite of mathematic achievements till the Western Han Dynasty. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine the proportions of the achievements in different periods. And it is more difficult to determine the similarities and differences of the knowledge contained in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art compiled in the Han Dynasty and the original edition of this book finished in pre-Qin period. The latter question is far more complex to be analyzed and has to be kept for later discussion. As to the former question, scholars used to make it the primary method to conduct a comparative study between documents obtained from other sources and Zhoubi Suanjing and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art to trace back to the compilation time of the contents in the two books, aiming to illustrate the development of mathematics before the Han Dynasty when the two books were compiled. But this kind of reverse deduction method turned out to be unsatisfactory. For example, there were faults in the statement given by Mr. Qian Baocong that the problems of Junshu Algorithm Method must have appeared after

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the first year of Taichu period (104 BC). Furthermore, on the one hand, Mr. Qian Baocong briefly analyzed from the angle of social demand that the majority of first five chapters of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had stemmed in the pre-Qin period; on the other hand, he held that the pre-Qin period was a burgeoning stage of mathematics in China (Qian Baocong (editor-in-chief), The History of Mathematics of China, 1, 14); the variances between the two opinions revealed the dilemma the scholar was facing in assessing the mathematical development of the pre-Qin period and of the Han Dynasty. Later, Mr. Guo Shuchun conducted a comparative analysis between the structure of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and the Liu Hui’s records from perspectives of social background; he concluded that the section of solution-oriented application problems in the book had been established in pre-Qin period ([41], pp. 98–102; Guo Shuchun, Zhang Cang and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art), and the basic framework of traditional mathematics of China had been established in the period from the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty [66]. Unfortunately, no systematic analysis was given by Mr. Qian Baocong and Mr. Guo Shuchun; their arguments are short of positive evidence. Evacuated slips and tablets facilitate the restoration of the early history of mathematics with evidence. If the end date of the records can be found on the evacuated slips and tablets, the information of the records is hence proved more accurate. To some specific issues, a more accurate or reasonable compilation time can be secured by a fixed definite end date of the compilation time in conjunction with other materials and an appropriate reasoning. As to the Junshu problems mentioned earlier, slip remnants of Junshu algorithm problems evacuated from Shuanggudui, Fuyang, offered proof that they appeared before the fifth year during the reign of Emperor Wen (165 BC); the records of Junshu law in the law documents on the slips evacuated from the No. 247 tomb of the Han Dynasty in Zhangjiashan also offered proof that they probably appeared before 186 BC; the same mathematical structure shared by Junshu algorithm problems and mathematical models of taxation and projects recorded in such books as Zuo Zhuan, Xun Zi, and Rites of Zhou offered proof that there had been solutions to some kind of typical Junshu problems in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period; the specifications and deadlines for projects recorded on the slips evacuated from the tomb of the Qin Dynasty in 217 BC in Shuihudi offered proof that there must have been solutions to Junshu algorithm problems in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in the Warring States Period. The further evidences such as the correspondence between the ancient Junshu problems in The Debates on Salt and Iron and the Junshu algorithm problems in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, Zheng Zhong’s arrangement of Junshu as one branch of Jiushu in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and Liu Hui’s records further proved Junshu algorithm problems had appeared in the pre-Qin period. Thus, all the documents unanimously proved that Junshu algorithm problems appeared in pre-Qin period. The problems which fell into the same category with the non-Junshu algorithm problems in Junshu Chapter of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art could be found in both Suanshushu (Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematics

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Book Suanshushu) and Shu (Xiao Can, A Study of the Mathematical Text, Shu on the Bamboo Strips Owned by the Yuelu Academy of Hunan University). An analysis of the non-Junshu algorithm problems, which were much easier than the algorithm problems, in conjunction with the price of that period can conclude that the Junshu methods in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art stemmed in the pre-Qin period (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 146–152; Zou Dahai, The First Look at Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematics Book Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, The Spread of Literatures on Algorithmic-pattern Mathematics in Early Ancient China: A Research Based on the Investigation into the Relation between the Suanshu Shu and the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures; Guo Shuchun, The Master of Mathematics in the Ancient World, 101; Guo Shuchun, Zhang Cang and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art; Guo Shuchun, On the Theoretical Contribution and Compilation of Suanshushu, 533; Guo Shuchun, The Preliminary Research of Suanshushu, 325–326). Moreover, it was found that there was one chapter in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art devoted to the analysis of different types of Yingbuzu problems. In order to track down the origin of this kind of problems, scholars could just turn to Zheng Zhong’s Jiushu and Liu Hui’s records, prices, and some clues found in other documents to infer that solutions to Yingbuzu problems might have been developed in the pre-Qin period (Guo Shuchun, The Master of Mathematics in the Ancient World, 101–102; Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 152–155). Now that Yingbuzu problems have been found in the evacuated Suanshushu, it can be convincingly proved that the solutions to Yingbuzu problems had appeared in early Han Dynasty. Focusing on the characteristics of narration of Yingbuzu problems in Suanshushu and on the connections between the Yingbuzu problems and solutions found in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Suanshushu, it can be proved that the Yingbuzu problems in Suanshushu should appear later than Yingbuzu solutions given in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. And a further research conducted on the basis of the instances given above can conclude that Yingbuzu was definitely a branch of mathematics in the pre-Qin period (Zou Dahai, The First Look at Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematics Book Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, The Method of Excess and Deficiency in Early China: An Investigation on the Basis of the Problems of Excess and Deficiency in the Suanshushu), while the presence of Yingbuzu problems in Shu on the slips of the Qin Dynasty (Xiao Can, A Study of the Mathematical Text “Shu” on the Bamboo Slips Housed in Yuelu Academy) suggests that this deduction can’t be false. What have been given above are just a small portion of many examples that demonstrate the evacuated slips and tablets proved some solutions in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art stemmed from the pre-Qin period. Liu Hui’s records and Zheng Zhong’s annotations are hence proved reasonable. The law scripts on the slips and tablets of the Qin Dynasty evacuated in Shuihudi make it clear that a lot of mathematical methods, even sophisticated ones in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, were put into

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use at that time and the harsh laws of the Qin Kingdom were established on sophisticated mathematics. As the person in the tomb died in 217 BC and it is inferred from some taboos that most laws had been put in force before the enthronement of Qin Shihuang (246 BC), a precise reference point in time is hence established for the research of the mathematics in the pre-Qin period (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 134–137, 144– 146, 150–151; Zou Dahai, Shuihudi’s Bamboo Strips of Qin Dynasty and Mathematics in Pre-Qin Period). Furthermore, Suanshushu was itself a patchwork of different books finished even earlier; though completed before 186 BC, it contained mathematical materials and solutions which might be tracked down to a remoter period in the Warring States Period [66] (Zou Dahai, The First Look at Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematics Book “Suanshushu”; Zou Dahai, The Ratios of Several Kinds of Rice in Ancient China; Zou Dahai, The Spread of Literatures on Algorithmic-pattern Mathematics in Early Ancient China: A Research Based on the Investigation into the Relation between the Suanshu Shu and the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures; Zou Dahai, Shuihudi’s Bamboo Strips of Qin Dynasty and Mathematics in Pre-Qin Period; Zou Dahai, The Method of Excess and Deficiency in Early China: An Investigation on the Basis of the Problems of Excess and Deficiency in the Suanshushu; Guo Shuchun, On the Theoretical Contribution and Compilation of Suanshushu). Shu on the slips and tablets of the Qin Dynasty kept in Yuelu Academy is not a carefully compiled monograph, either; it was probably another patchwork from various works finished probably in the Warring States Period. Taking many factors into consideration, we can find the development course of the practical algorithms in ancient time: In the Western Zhou Dynasty, mathematics, as a course in the curriculum designed for the aristocratic children, was probably composed of nine parts and was hence named Jiushu. (Jiushu offered by Zheng Zhong originally referred to a branch of mathematics in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Considering fractions and concrete mathematical knowledge were rarely discovered in the literature before the Spring and Autumn period, the items of Jiushu offered by Zheng Zhong were picked out from the Western Zhou Dynasty and put into a later period in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period as a branch of mathematics. The exact items of Jiushu in the Western Zhou Dynasty stay untraceable.) This course involved various practical algorithms based on decimal notation and Pythagorean nine nines table; counting rods were used as tools. In the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period, the mathematics which stemmed from Jiushu made great progresses and devised an instrument of counting rods and different algorithms for fractions. These algorithms for the fractions included the mathematical branches of Jiushu offered by Zheng Zhong and a dynamic mathematical work – the prototype of the extant The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art from the Han Dynasty – which was similar to the extant The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (may be thus tentatively entitled) from the Han Dynasty (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin

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Mathematics, 70–71, 81–82, 95–102, 126–161, 445–451, 498–513). This book and the similar editions from it were studied directly and indirectly by some scholars and officials, who developed various types of mathematical problems and solutions in their practical activities and in the pursuit of their personal interests. Suanshushu, Shu, and the mathematical works from which they borrowed a lot are materials of this kind of knowledge. So is at least a portion of Suanshu on the slips and tablets of the Qin Dynasty kept in Peking University. To sum up, the principal solutions and the majority of its content in the current edition of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art were available in the pre-Qin period; Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang just made minor supplements and abridgements to the book and altered the language of the book in the mode of expressions of the Western Han Dynasty (Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 126–161, 445–451, 498–513; Zou Dahai, The First Look at Suanshushu; Zou Dahai, A Preliminary Research on the Unearthed Mathematical Book “Suanshushu”). From the pre-Qin period to the Western Han Dynasty, the transition from Jiushu to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art composed a system of development of the practical algorithm mathematical literature, which could be called a classic system; its developing course could be presented as burgeoning Jiushu – developing Jiushu – original The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art – developing The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art – damaged The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art – being-improved The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art – extant The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art established in late Western Han Dynasty. There was some nonclassic, practical algorithm mathematical literature finished under the direct or indirect influence of the classic literature, which included Suanshushu, Shu, and the mathematical works from which they borrowed a lot, at least a portion of Suanshu on the slips and tablets of the Qin Dynasty kept in Peking University, and the mathematical records on the Juyan bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty. (In Suanshu on Juyan Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty, Mr. Yan Dunjie treated some materials in Juyan bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty as mathematical documents, but only a small portion of it can be counted as mathematical documents besides the multiplication table. The rest were confirmed just related to mathematics, not mathematical document.) This kind of literature, enormous in amount, was finished in different places and periods by different people and for different reasons. Having been supplemented and abridged and edited arbitrarily many times in a long period, the literature became a myriad complexity and was hence even more difficult to interpret than the classic works (though they were interrelated). Of the nonclassical works, some put emphasis on theory, some put emphasis on application, and others have both at once. In the development of the classical and nonclassical literatures, they had influences on each other, with the classical ones staying more influential (Zou Dahai, The Spread of Literatures on Algorithmic-pattern Mathematics in Early Ancient China: A Research Based on the Investigation into the Relation between the Suanshu Shu and the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures; Zou Dahai, Two Tendencies of Mathematics in the Pre-Qin Period; Zou Dahai, Shuihudi’s Bamboo Strips of Qin Dynasty and Mathematics in Pre-Qin Period).

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Suanshushu is a mathematical work on slips and tablets; it was evacuated from a tomb of the Han Dynasty that was dated 186 BC at the earliest, which was not adequate to conclude a pre-Qin origin for the contents in this book. Different thoughts produce different interpretation modes for the restoration of the history of ancient mathematics of China; Mr. Li Di held on to his old ideas that there were many sources to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and Suanshushu was just one of them. He insisted that from pre-Qin period to the Han Dynasty, some slips and tablets (called “official slips and tablets” by Li Di) were accumulated and stored by government; after edited by the scholars like Zhang Cang, Sang Hongyang, Geng Shouchang, Xu Shang, and Du Zhong, these slips and tablets were compiled by Liu Xin into The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art [67, 68]. Mr. Christopher Cullen held a different opinion [69]. Because even after Shu was published, the Shu-oriented theory on the early development of the mathematics of China hasn’t been established; the gap between the different opinions on this topic can be narrowed but not bridged. Anyway, it was widely acknowledged that most of the solutions in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art existed in pre-Qin period. There were a great many examples of the arguments and reasoning in the literature of the masters from different schools in pre-Qin period. And there were mathematical ideas (or more comprehensive ideas inclusive of mathematical concepts) and reasoning formulae in the records of the school of Mo and the school of Ming. In the records of Zhoubi Suanjing, the answers given by Shang Gao to the questions of the Duke of Zhou and the answers given by Chenzi to the questions of Rong Fang also proved that there were not only reasoning in mathematics but also records of it. (For the information of the concise discussion on the notions of the mathematics offered by the school of Mo and the school of Ming, see Qian Baocong [70]; Qian Baocong, The History of Chinese Mathematics, 16–21. For the information of the comprehensive discussion on the notions of the mathematics offered by the school of Mo and the school of Ming, and a further research coupled with mathematical works, see Zou Dahai, The Uprising of China’s Mathematics and the Pre-Qin Mathematics, 218–414, 498–508.) There were a lot of advanced, sophisticated, and universal calculation methods in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Though logical reasoning processes of these methods are indispensable, the written records to go with them are rare. Luckily, the traces of this reasoning can be found in Suanshushu ([64], [65], pp. 93–99, [71]). The diverse mathematical terms once found in Suanshushu and Shu can rarely be found in the extant edition of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (For the comparison of expressions between Suanshushu and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, see Guo Shuchun [72, 73]; The Study on the Collation and Mathematical Phraseology of the Qin Bamboo “Shu (數)”. Xiao Can: A Study of the Mathematical Text “Shu” on the Bamboo Slips Housed in Yuelu Academy), which probably resulted from the ever-enforcing totalitarian situation of political, societal, economic, and cultural issues in the 200-year-long period from the Qin Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty when Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang edited The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art.

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Conclusion

To sum up, documents on evacuated slips and tablets are of great values and special significance to the study of the history of mathematics in China. The definite finishing time of the compilation job on most of the documents offered concrete and positive evidence for a diachronic study on many subjects. The large supply of examples on mathematics in early times found in the records on the slips and tablets not only reveal the development of the mathematics in that period and check the conclusions made on the history of mathematics, which were drawn from different perspectives on the limited materials in that period, but also spur the scholars on to reflect on the methods adopted for the construction of the history of mathematics with historical records. A sustained research will definitely bring forth a more concrete and reliable reconstruction of the history of mathematics in early period of China. What should be noted is, in spite of the progress achieved, more relentless efforts are urgently demanded to search for more information that stays hidden or neglected in the evacuated literature. As is anticipated, an organic combination of mathematical materials and materials in other disciplines will not only supplement the mathematical materials but also provide abundant documents for the analysis of interactions between mathematics and other disciplines from many perspectives, which will produce surprisingly remarkable achievements. Because there is just a small amount of evacuated mathematical documents which just covers a shorter span of time and there has been no complete volume of mathematical work finished in the pre-Qin period found available, the study on mathematics in the pre-Qin period and the evolution of mathematics in the primitive ages has to rely heavily on reverse educing method. Furthermore, the narrow range of mathematical documents on the evacuated slips and tables, especially the theoretical information of the early mathematics, curbs the scholars’ research job for more achievements. (Translator: Bin Li) (Proofreader: Jiyi Yan)

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The Development of the Traditional Metrology in China Zengjian Guan

Contents 7.1 The Origin and Development of the Metrology in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 The Origin of Primitive Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.2 Promoted by Socialized Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.3 Requirement for Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 The Formation of the Traditional Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 The Theoretical Forming of the Traditional Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 The Variation and Development of the Traditional Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 The Preparation of the Conversion from the Traditional Metrology to the Modern Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6 The End of the Traditional Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7 The Establishment of the Modern Metrology in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

In this chapter, a history of the origin and the development of metrology in ancient China has been given. An analysis of the conversion from the traditional metrology to the modern metrology in China has also been conducted. Keywords

The traditional metrology · The modern metrology · Standard instruments

In recent years, the research of the metrology in China has been drawing wider and wider attention. A lot of top-quality treatises and works on the history of metrology have been published; the research activities on the history of metrology in China have been gaining voice on the stage of the International Congress of the History of Z. Guan (*) Division for Development of Liberal Arts, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_7

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Science. There were symposia focusing on the history of metrology in China in the 22nd International Congress of the History of Science held in Beijing, 2005; in the 23rd International Congress of the History of Science held in Budapest, in 2009; and in the 24th International Congress of the History of Science held in Manchester, in 2013. This is a clear testament to the great progress made in the research of the metrology in China. It is justifiable for people to pay special attention to the research of the metrology in China in that the metrology has been crucially significant to society and it was swiftly and vigorously developed in ancient China. Metrology refers to the uniformity of units, accuracy of measurement values, and the system of corresponding subjects. That is, metrology is one kind of measurement behavior, which not only aims at the best precision but also complies with socialization requirements: measurements conducted by different people on one certain object should produce the same quantitative result. All the measurements that meet this requirement fall in the category of metrology. And the system of discipline established to guarantee the aims of measurements can also be counted as metrology. Metrology is of vital importance to the national economy and the welfare of the people and of the dual properties of natural science and social science; it is the foundation of the normal operations of the state institutions and guarantees the steady development of the economy and scientific technology in a country. The forefathers of China had long realized the importance of metrology and made a lot of effective efforts to promote the technology and an effective management in metrology. Of the many disciplines in ancient China, metrology was undoubtedly one of the most fully developed which made critically important contributions to the social development in ancient China. In this treatise, a detailed depiction on the historical development of the traditional metrology in China will be given.

7.1

The Origin and Development of the Metrology in Ancient China

Metrology in China can be roughly divided into two categories: traditional metrology and modern metrology. The traditional metrology always centered on weights and measures and include temporal measurement and spatial measurement at the same time. In ancient time, the metrology activities focusing on the weights and measures were adequate to meet the simple economic needs; the ancient people were very serious about the temporal and spatial metrology activities such as making calendars. All these factors hence combined to make weights and measures, temporal measurement and spatial measurement the primary task of metrology activities in ancient China. It was not until the modern times that the metrology got enriched with many new contents added to it and gradually developed into a modern comprehensive system including 10 sectors such as geometric magnitude (length), pyrology, mechanics, electromagnetism, wireless, time frequency, acoustics, optics and ionizing radiation. In ancient China, traditional metrology went through a series of stages from sprouting to taking shape and to further development.

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7.1.1

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The Origin of Primitive Metrology

The essential prerequisite for metrology is the development of people’s thinking, especially the formation of the notion of quantity. The quantity refers to one property of phenomena, object, and substance that can be adopted for a qualitative discrimination and a quantitative analysis. The notion of quantity stemmed from people’s practice in understanding and renovating the nature and was the product of comparison and accumulation activities. The primitive notion of quantity always developed synchronously with the evolution of humanity. Humanity evolved from apes. When apes produced simple stone choppers, they accomplished the transition to “human beings.” Even making simple rough stone tools entails the notion of quantity; it is hence inferred that the notion of quantity gradually developed in the extremely long course of evolution from apes to human beings. That is to say, the primitive notion of quantity developed synchronously with the evolution of humanity. The simple notions of quantities the primitive people commanded are reflected by the stone tools they made; they are not uniform in shape and size. The existing choppers made in early Paleolithic period are unexceptionally crude, varying considerably in shape and size. Nevertheless, an intuitive comparison of the quantities of size and length must have been involved in the process in which the primitive people made the simplest stone tools or chopped branches to make sticks with these tools. The Stone Age gradually developed into its middle and late period along with the social progress, and the stone tools in this period upgraded a lot; different types of tools such as stone knife, stone axe, and stone sickle appeared. The primitive people even made composite tools by drilling a hole in an axe and fitting a handle into it. The composite tools greatly improved the productivity and indicated that humans had acquired more sophisticated knowledge of the quantity. Making composite tools involved different factors that have to work together effectively, for example, when drilling a hole in a stone axe, the position and size of the hole had to be arranged carefully to make a wooden handle neatly fixed into it. Though no measurement tools were developed, the people were definitely capable to conduct the comparison activities on size and length. The comparison activities themselves were one kind of simple measurement. The meager notions of size and amount were inadequate to establish ancient metrology. Only when people were sophisticated enough to count and make numbers and units linked to each other could they start simple metrology activities in a real sense, though measurement tools were not invented yet. Amounts were formed when numbers and units were articulated with each other. Metrology was designed to indicate size, number, etc. of different things and phenomena with amount. And numbers were a prerequisite for the purposes of metrology. It was a remarkable leap to civilization for humanity when they acquired some counting skills and understood the relationship between numbers. It was no easy. An observation of the growth process of little kids reveals that it is much easier to help them to develop the notions such as size, existence, and amount than to teach them to count. This case is similar to the early experiences in human evolution. Surveys

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indicated that before 1949, some ethnic minorities who were underdeveloped in culture just could count to 10 at most and had to refer to any number larger than 10 summarily as “many.” So it is truly a great event for humanity to learn to count. In view of procedure of development, humanity’s acquaintance with numbers should start from a notion that “there are numbers” and then proceeded to have a little knowledge on numbers; humans gradually became acquainted with more numbers in the course of social activities and practices. The legends of “tying knots to record events” or “cutting notches to keep time” in ancient China are probably descriptions of the earliest counting activities. According to some statistics, on the brims of pottery pots evacuated from the relics of Yangshao culture and the subsequent Majiayao culture, different kinds of engraved signs were found. It is inferred that these signs formed some sequence of numbers, which indicated that the ancestors of Chinese people were capable of some kind of counting activities at that time. The combination of the notions of size and amount and capacity of calculation laid the foundation for the sprouting of ancient metrology. Theoretically, units for amount can be arbitrary; once stipulated, these units could be adopted to compare kindred things and phenomena. This kind of measurements indicated the sprouting of ancient metrology.

7.1.2

Promoted by Socialized Production

The bud of metrology needs favorable climate and soil to flourish and grow into a big tree with luxuriant foliage; one of the prerequisites for the development of ancient metrology was a socialized production. As is known to all, in the development of human society from the Paleolithic period to the Neolithic period, primitive people gradually migrated to the areas along rivers, around lakes, on plains, and in forests; they became sedentary and clans began to form. The establishment of clan communes further accelerated socialization of the production activity which set higher requirements for precision and uniformity of measurements, which promoted the development of the ancient metrology. As far as we know, Banpo relics best demonstrates the matriarchal commune in the history. Banpo relics is located in the present-day Xi’an City, covering a wide range of tens of thousands of square meters; it portrays the living situations of a primitive matriarchal clan which lived more than 6000 years ago. The relics can be divided into three parts: residential area, pottery-making area, and burial ground. The residential area is the main part of the relics, covering an area of 30,000 m2; only one-fifth of it has been evacuated. In the center of the residential area, there is a large rectangular house with rounded corners covering an area of 120 m2; it is a semicellar type. Four symmetric holes for pillars can be found in the center of the house, but the pillars supposed to support the roof are missing. The four pillars are presumably of the same length, and a measurement was required to make them at that time. Dozens of smaller houses of similar structure and size are closely grouped around the central large house. And there are massive channels which are 6 m deep and 6 m wide girdling a residential area which covers a large area of 30,000 m2 to

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guard against wild beasts and alien tribes. In view of the primitive productivity at that time, only by a careful planning and a uniform measurement and with a collective collaboration of clan members could such a massive project be finished. It was the massive socialized production activities of this kind that motivated the metrology in ancient times to develop and depart away gradually from the primitive condition. Generally speaking, the development of handicraft industry that relies heavily on individual labor can also promote the upgrade of measurement skills. For example, many decorative patterns can be found on the pottery utensils of Yangshao Culture, most of which are such geometric figures as triangles, waves, petals, fish, etc. These patterns are regularly laid out to form running serial rows of petals on the pottery. No matter how many rows of patterns – three rows, four rows, five rows, etc. – can be found on the pottery utensils, the patterns are arranged solid and symmetrical. So it can be concluded that elaborate experiments and measurements must have been conducted before the patterns were made on the pots. The measurement methods could be so simple as to measure the circumference of the pot with a rope, divide the circumference into several equal parts, and fit patterns into the allotted parts to guarantee an integral and symmetrical look. Though this kind of experimental measurement is quite common, it can promote the development of measurement. However, this kind of measurement can only offer limited help because it is done at will by any person, not requiring uniform units and standards. So a true development of metrology is to be achieved in a socialized production. An awful flood occurred in the late primitive society in China. The leader of the alliance of the tribes – Yao 尧 – sent Gun 鲧 to tame the flood. Gun adopted the piling method and the blocking method to control the flood with soil but failed. When Shun 舜 succeeded to the leadership, he appointed Gun’s son, Yu 禹, to be in charge of the anti-flood activities. Drawing lessons from his father’s failures, Yu made field surveys on a wide range of land and managed to build dams; at the same time, he dredged the waterway to guide the floodwater empty itself into the ocean. The scourge of flood was finally eliminated. The successful taming of flood achieved by Yu the Great was so magnificent that there were a lot of records of his feat in different versions in the following generations. And some records had particular parts for the importance of measurement in Yu’s efforts to fight the flood. For example, Guan Zi-Qingzhong Wu recorded that Yu the Great “dredged the rivers and canalled the lakes, tamed the torrential waters and measured the height of different lands of the territory . . ..” In the sentence, the Chinese character “商” means to measure. Huainanzi-The Correlation of Geography with Tactics and The Classic of the Mountains and Seas-Haiwai Dongjing both recorded that Yu sent his two officials named Taizhang and Shuhai out to walk the stretches of mountains on foot in a measurement campaign. Records of the Grand Historian-Principal Annals of the Xia Dynasty bore a different record that Yu the Great “holding level and ink line in left hand and square ruler and compass in the right hand, conducted an extensive measurement campaign on all the lands, over the roads, lakes, mountains, etc., all year round.” Yu the Great was hence depicted as conducting a large-scale measurement on the vast lands with various measuring

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instruments in his efforts to fight the flood. From all the records, we can conclude that a field measurement had been conducted by Yu the Great. It is imaginable that the massive work of taming the rampant flood over a large territory entailed large-scale measurements. Simple measurement by comparative inspection was inadequate; a system of uniform length units was in urgent need. Records of the Grand Historian-Principal Annals of the Xia Dynasty recorded that Yu the Great “measure with the size of his body, and the standard is hence set” – Yu the Great made his height and weight the standards of length and weight. This record reflected the people’s efforts to set standards for measurement. The establishment of standards for measurement was a great event, indicating the founding of ancient metrology. The significance of this event was keenly felt by the ancient people who extolled it as legendary. Wang Jia in the Eastern Jin Dynasty had an imaginary story in his mystery novel Shiyi Ji (collection of old stories) as: Yu tunneled into the Longguan Mountain, which was also called Longmen, and found a huge cave which extended tens of li (a Chinese unit of length, half a kilometer) far; it was too dim to find the path. Yu lit a torch and moved on. A boar-shaped beast appeared, holding in its mouth a luminous pearl which gave off a candle light. Another indigo dog-shaped beast appeared, walking and barking to take the lead. Yu estimated they had walked about ten li and he got bewildered, could not tell whether it was day or night. Then it gradually became bright; the boar-shaped beast and the dog-shaped beast had taken a human form, both in black clothes. And there was a god, with human’s head and snake’s body. Yu attempted to speak to the god, and the god showed Yu the Eight Trigrams which was engraved on a gold plate. There were eight more gods standing in attendance on both sides. Yu spoke to the god: “Huaxu gave birth to a holy son, is that you?” The god answered: “Huaxu is the goddess of the mighty river, and bore me.” The god then took out a jade plate and handed it to Yu; the jade plate was one chi (a unit of measure of length in ancient China; one chi is about 33.3333 cm) and two cun (a unit of measure of length in ancient China; one cun is one tenth of one chi) in length, which corresponded to the twelve two-hour periods in a day and thus could be used as a measurement tool. Henceforth Yu took this plate to conduct an effective management on the land. The god with a human head and a snake body was the Imperial Fuxi. (Wang Jia, Shiyi Ji (Vol. 2))

Though this is undoubtedly a legendary tale, it reveals a profound truth: Measurement requires an authoritative uniform standard. It was this revelation that brought forth the ancient metrology in China.

7.1.3

Requirement for Governance

After the flood was tamed, Yu mobilized the people to advance production. The legend has it that he divided the whole territory into nine states to give differential managements according to the specific conditions in the states. Yu’s achievements were acknowledged by Shun and praised by all the tribes, and he became the chosen leader when Shun abdicated. Yu (or Yu’s son – Qi 启) founded the first Dynasty in China – the Xia Dynasty. The Xia Dynasty founded its state agents; appointed officials such as the officials in charge of the husbandry, diet, wagon, and trip; kept armed forces; and established criminal laws and constructed prisons.

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It requires enough provision and non-staple food to keep the state apparatus in operation; taxation institution was hence introduced. Shangshu (Book of Ancient Documents)-Section Xia-Yu’s Taxation Policy recorded that Yu introduced a “Tribute by Land” institution, that is, different tribute allotments were to be decided according to the circumstances of the regions. This was testimony to the establishment of one kind of taxation institution in an early time of the Xia Dynasty. As the taxes were levied by taking in material objects, measurement was urgently needed (taxes levied in nonmaterial objects were to be measured, too). As it were, the establishment of the taxation institution promoted the metrology in ancient China, which was manifested in the gradual standardization of the apparatuses for measures and weights. Taxation is to be applied to the whole society; any fault in the precision and authority of the measuring apparatus will lead to disorders and hamper the normal proceedings of the taxation. The lords knew better about this; this was shown in Shangshu-Section Xia-Pleas from Five Princes: “The uniformity of the Shi and Jun in taxation guarantees the ample supplies for the lords; mismanagement of the state leads to the decline of royal power, ruin of the ancestral temple, termination of sacrificial worships.” Shi and Jun in the records referred to weights and measures. The authorities’ jurisdiction over the weights and measures guaranteed enforcement of the taxation institution. If the governors should forsake the authorized system of weights and measures and manage recklessly, the country will collapse in a chaos. The indispensability of taxation greatly motivated the development of the metrology institution in ancient China which focused on weights and measures. Apart from taxation institution, other distribution institutions, especially the distribution of arable land, promoted the development of the traditional metrology. In China, the development of the primitive clan communes finally brought forth agriculture and husbandry; people began plowing the fields for crops. At first, the arable land belonged to the clan commune with all the members of the clan commune working collectively and the products being distributed among them evenly. Later, when the productivity improved, the clan commune began distributing the arable land evenly to the families to use with the ownership kept to the clan commune. After the harvest season, the arable land would be taken back to the clan commune and be allotted again to the families. When kingdoms were founded, the land institution changed accordingly – as it was recorded “Under the Sun, no land not belong to the King”; all the land was put under the king’s ownership. The king wouldn’t be a plowman; he just granted the land and slaves to his vassals and officials to use. The king never gave up the ownership of the land; he could take back the land and the slaves anytime or find a new master for the land and slaves. All these activities involved the distribution of land that demanded a far more complicated and extensive measurement than what had been done in the primitive society. The people were impelled to search for effective methods to conduct measurements and calculations on a large scale; in this course, the measurement techniques were improved, the measurement tools were revised, the mathematical calculation methods involved became more sophisticated, and so the metrology theory was upgraded.

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In the late primitive society, higher productivity brought about the division of social labor; surplus of products brought about the exchanges. At first, people just used a system of barter and were not strict with the accuracy of measurement. After the kingdoms were founded, commercial activities increased which brought forth a stratum of merchants who didn’t engage in production but specialized in transactions of goods. Shangshu-Section Zhou-Mandate of Liquor recorded that some people in the Yin Dynasty “began travelling far to trade on bullock carts.” In the late Shang Dynasty, copper coins appeared. And the commerce in the Western Zhou Dynasty became more prosperous than that in the Shang Dynasty; a much larger amount of money was needed; commerce became critical to the society. Kaogongji (Book of Diverse Crafts) recorded that there were special “markets” in the capital city of the Western Zhou Dynasty for exchange of goods. All these are a testament to a very highly developed commerce at that time. The prosperity in commerce boosted the development of metrology. When people were engaged in regular social activities for profits by means of currency, the former casual manner in transactions was replaced with a new critical attitude, which required accurate measurement conducted on authorized weights and measures. And the authorities also need precise weights and measures to maintain order in markets. For example, one part in Rites of Zhou-The Prime Minister-Market Manager was devoted to the introduction to the official in charge of the market – market manager. The market managers were responsible for all the matters in the market; one of the major responsibilities was to “to measure and set price,” that is, to measure the goods with apparatuses for weights and amounts to determine the value. The apparatuses used by the market managers were both the unique standard in the market and a symbol of authority. All the dynasties, including the Zhou Dynasty, unexceptionally laid great emphasis on the functions of weights and measures in the commercial transactions and the national managements: On the one hand, precise and standard apparatuses of weights and measures were deliberately produced, and on the other hand, many laws were made to impel people to abide by the weight and measure norms. This was the major driving force for the development of the institution of metrology in ancient times. To sum up, the efforts to meet the needs of the society, in which the need of management of national affairs by the rulers was the primary one, boosted the development of the metrology in ancient China. The ancient metrology institution mainly focusing on the weights and measures was hence spurred on steadily.

7.2

The Formation of the Traditional Metrology

After the Xia Dynasty, the first one in the history of China, was founded, the traditional metrology began developing. According to historical documents, in the course of leading his people to fight against the floods and dividing the whole territory into nine parts, Yu once stipulated the preliminary institution of weights and measures by the sizes and weight of his body. And that was the first step of the metrology development in China. In the Xia Dynasty, the institution of nation

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appeared on the land of China, and the daily operations of the government like taxation, salary allotment, production arrangement, and trade activities all entailed specific techniques in the system of weights and measures. The system of weights and measures initiated by Yu gained new momentum with the foundation of the Xia Dynasty and began developing steadily. In the Shang Dynasty, there was a wider application of weights and measures and a higher requirement for time measurement. In the Zhou Dynasty, a new political implication was emphasized in the system of weights and measures, making it the symbol of authority. According to the records in The Book of Rites-The Imperial Temple’s Place, the Duke of Zhou once “at the imperial temple met with the princes, made rituals and music, issued the standards on weights and measures, and made the country at his command.” This record was a testament to the symbol of authority in the decree of weights and measures. This kind of records which are easily found reflected the supreme authority of metrology in ancient society. Before legal metrology appeared, this authority promoted the development of measurement and enforced the management of the government. The advanced development of measurement was closely connected with the knowledge of social functions of measurement in ancient people. In the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the kingdoms competed intensely against each other. A better management of the domestic affairs in a kingdom would give full play to its national strength and help one kingdom to get advantage over its opponents in complicated competitions. Fully conscious of the indispensable functions of weights and measures in the management of domestic affairs, all the kingdoms established the institutions of weights and measures on their territories and managed to make it uniform and practical. This trend was manifested in the reforms administered by Shang Yang in the Qin kingdom, which had the uniformity of weights and measures as one primary issue. But the confrontations between different kingdoms made their systems of weights and measures inconsistent; the different levels of societal development in different regions of one kingdom and some other factors made it difficult to maintain uniformity in weights and measures for a long time in the kingdom. On the whole, the weights and measures were chaotic in this period. At the same time, the economic development and the ever-developing trade between the kingdoms tended to stop the chaotic trend in the kingdoms on weights and measures. When a kingdom became stronger, a better enforcement of the government power helped to make a more constant system of weights and measures. In this circumstance, weights and measures paralleled the unification of the kingdoms and gradually changed from chaotic to uniform. This process reached to its peak after Qin Shihuang (the first emperor in China) annexed other kingdoms and began a large-scale reform with weights and measures at the top of the list in the whole unified country. A uniform system of weights and measures was hence established and then enforced effectively throughout the country. In terms of the development of metrology, the most important achievement in the pre-Qin period was to theoretically emphasize the importance of weights and measures to the jurisdiction of the country, to develop the notion of standard instrument, and to put it into force.

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Even in the Zhou Dynasty, people were fully aware of the importance of weights and measures; politicians and philosophers even esteemed these issues as guarantees of government and principles of administration in a country, and they issued a lot of documents which are available today. For example, Shangshu-Section Xia-Pleas from Five Princes recorded that: “The uniformity of the Shi and Jun in taxation guarantees the ample supplies for the lords.” Guan Zi-Mingfajie recorded that “The wise monarch set up the uniformed standard for weights and measures and engraved them on posts to help to enforce them among the multitude.” The Analects of Confucius-Yaoyue recorded that “Cautiously standardize the metrological units, examine the codes and laws, reinforce the neglected official authority, and the administration of the sovereignty will be effectively implemented.” Sun Zi: The Art of War recorded: “Military tactics are: The first is to estimate the area of land, the second is to calculate the capacity of material resources, the third is to count the number of troops, the fourth is to compare the military strength of both sides, and the fifth is to judge the victory or defeat. The size of land area decides the capacity of material resources and human resources. The capacity of resources decides the number of troops that can be put into the army. The number of troops decides the judge. And the judge gives the possibility of win.” And there are many similar statements. Generally speaking, scholars of the various schools, Confucians, legalists, militarists, or Taoists, valued unanimously the importance of weights and measures. It was the elucidation of these ideologists that made the notion widespread and ingrained in people’s mind that weights and measures were the vital property of a nation, which forced the statesmen to pay special attention to weights and measures in management of national affairs. In 221 BC, after he conquered other countries, Qin Shihuang managed to set uniform standards for the characters, currency, weights, and measures with vigor and vitality. Li Si, the then prime minister, revealed the reason of these progressive decrees – “set uniform standards for measuring instruments, weights and measures, characters to establish the prestige of Qin Kingdom.” (Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian-Biography of Li Si.) As Li Si emphasized, those measures were taken to strengthen the authority of the government, which also revealed the relationship between the issues of weights and measures and the jurisdiction over the country. Qin Shihuang’s activities were typical of the statesmen’s close attention to the issues of weights and measures in that period. The notion of standard instrument is fundamental to the development of weights and measures because units are the prerequisites to actual measurements, though arbitrarily made, they have to meet the requirements of objectivity, that is, they should be constant and can be replicated, etc. Having been formulated, the units had to be stipulated on some kind of objects to ensure the preservation and the transfer of values; standard instruments were hence produced. Standard instruments enabled the values of the units to be extended to the subsequent levels for application and could be taken to check the standard instruments at the subsequent levels and the utensils for daily use to guarantee the precision of measurements. Standard instruments symbolized the advanced stage in the development of metrology.

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In the early stage of the pre-Qin period in ancient China, people began deliberately making standard instruments. Shang Yang Fangsheng (a cuboid measure for 1 l), which exists in Shanghai Museum, is a standard instrument of weights and measures made in the period when Shang Yang Reform was waged. Shang Yang, a famous reformer, was the first in the history of China to enforce a system of uniform weights and measures by means of a government authority, which occurred more than 100 years prior to similar measures conducted by Qin Shihuang. The inscriptions on Shang Yang Fangsheng are given below: The inscriptions on the left wall: The eighteenth year, aristocrats from the Qi kingdom came on a visit. In December of the winter of Yiyou year, Shang Yang, the senior official of Daliangzao, made this object. A total of sixteen and one-fifth cun (a unit of length in ancient China, one cun is one tenth of one chi) amount to one sheng (liter). The inscriptions on the front wall: Chongquan. The inscriptions on the bottom: The twenty-sixth year, the emperor annexed all the kingdoms and had all the hordes of civilians at his command. Under the title of emperor, he ordered the prime ministers respectively named Zhuang and Wan to set the specifications for length, volume, etc., correct all the faulty units and make them consistent with the specifications. The inscriptions on the right wall: Lin.

These inscriptions revealed a lot. In the 18th year during the reign of Duke of Xiao in the Qin kingdom, 344 BC, aristocrats of the Qi kingdom paid a visit to the Qin kingdom. The visit was inscribed on Fangsheng indicating discussions were held between the two kingdoms on weights and measures. In the winter of that year, Shang Yang made Fangsheng. The inscription “a total of sixteen and one-fifth cun amount to one sheng” was an explicit record that the length and volume were associated for the first time in the history of China and volume was specified by length. The inscriptions of “Chongquan” on the front wall indicated that the Fangsheng was made and allotted to the district of Chongquan to be kept as a standard instrument. The inscriptions on the bottom were about an edict on the uniformity of weights and measures after Qin Shihuang achieved unification when it conquered other kingdoms. The uniformity of weights and measures achieved by Qin Shihuang was to implement uniformity of weights and measures across the newly annexed territories of the former kingdoms, and new standard instruments would be allotted to these territories. To meet a heavy and urgent demand for the standard instruments, the standard instruments that once kept in the former regions of the Qin kingdom were taken back and engraved with characters and sent to the new places. The engraved character “临” on the right wall was the name of the new place to which the Fangsheng was sent after taken back from the former region. Through a long period of 123 years between Shang Yang Reform and the uniformity of weights and measures conducted by Qin Shihuang in 221 BC, Shang Yang Fangsheng remained intact, bearing no signs of wear, which shows it was kept as a standard instrument and not used as a common utensil. Shang Yang Fangsheng is the earliest extant real object of standard instrument. In documents, the notion of the standard instrument was first put forward in Kaogongji, a work of the pre-Qin period. The Li’s 栗 Liang item in this book

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Fig. 7.1 Shang Yang Fangsheng

offered detailed account of the techniques and specifications in making this standard instrument (Fig. 7.1): When the Li’s group made the measure utensil, they first melted down the alloy of copper and tin repeatedly to refine it. Only when there were no more impurities to remove, would the weight of it be measured. Then the volume of it would be figured out, and finally a model of a measure utensil would be cast. The main body of the measure utensil was a cylinder, one chi in depth, with a volume of one cubic chi, which was named one fu. The round bottom of fu was one cun (a unit of length in ancient China, one cun is one tenth of one chi) in depth, with a volume of one dou 豆 (an ancient unit of volume); the two ears of fu were three cun in depth, with a volume of one sheng (liter, a unit of measure, equals one tenth of one dou 斗). The weight of the measure utensil was one jun (an ancient unit of weight, equals thirty jin). The sound the measure utensil produced when knocked matched the mode of Gong of Huangzhong musical tone. When leveled by a scratch board at the brim, the volume was precisely one fu. The inscriptions read: “At that time, elegant literature could be achieved, good standard metrics could be accomplished; they could be observed in the all Kingdoms and maintained for later generations.”

The Li’s Liang (measure utensil made by the Li group) was elaborately designed and exquisitely made by strict procedures. Furthermore, it was a compound standard instrument with many functions; the length measure of chi and cun; the volume measure of fu, dou, and sheng; the weight measure of jun; and the mode of Gong of Huangzhong musical tone were totally embodied in this instrument. The inscriptions on the Li’s Liang revealed the ancient people’s knowledge on the functions of the standard instrument of weights and measures. Though the real object of Li’s Liang was lost, the inscriptions authentically demonstrated that people in the pre-Qin period had notions of standard instrument for measurement and clear visions of the functions of the standard instruments. Moreover, this short passage was the first record of the manufacture of compound standard instrument in ancient times. Besides, in the pre-Qin period, the legal metrology in China embarked on its development. Managing to put the weights and measures system of Qin kingdom into order, in the reforms Shang Yang issued a decree, “An excess of the six chi limit in the width of a tract of farm land will be punished.” According to the records on the Bamboo Slips of the Qin Dynasty unearthed in Shuihudi-Eighteen Laws in the Qin Kingdom evacuated in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, in 1975, the scope of tolerable errors in the applications of weights and measures was strictly stipulated in

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the Qin kingdom. Supervisors would be demanded to donate armors or shields as a punishment for any violation of the standard. This decree was representative of a legislation installed in the management of weights and measures. Apart from weights and measures, time metrology scored large developments in this period, too. Documents recorded that in the Shang Dynasty, a time measure system named “centum quarter” was established, which indicated a trend to a refined management in time measurement. (Clepsydra Book finished in the Liang Dynasty recorded: “The production of clepsydra probably emerged in the days of Xuanyuan Monarch and became common in the Xia and Shang Dynasties.” Yan Linshan and Quan Hejun held that centum quarter was firstly formulated on a latitude 36.6° spot, namely, the geographical latitude of Anyang, the capital city of the Shang Dynasty. As “quarter” tended to be called “shang” in ancient times, the two scholars thought that after the capital city had been transferred to Anyang, the people divided a day evenly into 100 parts, and that was the origin of centum quarter. Yan Linshan, Quan Hejun, Centum Quarter, A Measure peculiar to China, Collection of Scientific History, Vol. 6, Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers, 1980.) At the same time, measurements of the critical point in time such as year, month, and day developed steadily. With the development of the society, people tended to make the calendar political, holding the calendar reflected the climate and the divination, so the enactment of calendars was esteemed as a symbol of royalty. The politicized calendar and the necessity of the issue of official time made the calendar the focus of attention which in turn promoted its development. It is clear now that ancient people achieved a lot in the calendar formulation in the Yin 殷 Dynasty at the latest, and in the late Spring and Autumn period, they developed a more advanced calendar – Sifen (quarter) Calendar, setting the length of a tropical year at 365.25 days and 7 leap months in each of 19 years. Sifen Calendar indicated that the formulation of calendars could dispense with the astronomical observation in time service and hence achieved greater maturity in that people could make a better use of the astronomical knowledge they had mastered to help the calendar formulation with just minor variances with natural occurrences. Mencius-Second part of Lilou recorded “Though the sky is high and the stars are far away, the knowledge of the guiding principles will make it easy to predict dates even in a long future of thousands of years.” from Mencius-Second part of Lilou just portrayed this feat. By the Warring States period, a total of six calendars developed on Sifen Calendar had appeared in succession all over the feudal kingdoms on the land of China, and they were collectively named Six Ancient Calendars. They marked a boom in the formulation of calendars. Overall, from the Yin Dynasty on, there were more and more units developed for time measurement, and they tended to be practical; the instruments for time measurement such as sundial and clepsydra began being adopted widely; the calendar system matured considerably. All these achievements demonstrated that the people at that time were already capable of conducting effective time measurement. After Qin kingdom unified other kingdoms, it decreed a uniform calendar – Zhuanxu Calendar. This calendar was in essence the Sifen Calendar which had been popular in the pre-Qin period and remained in practice for about 100 years till the reign of

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Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. The uniformity of weights and measures and calendar throughout the country brought forth by the unification of the kingdoms under the Qin kingdom indicated the formation of the traditional metrology system in China.

7.3

The Theoretical Forming of the Traditional Metrology

The Western Han Dynasty inherited the whole of the metrology system from the Qin Dynasty. Then after a development in a long period of more than 400 years in the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, traditional measurement theory was finally established, and the traditional metrology reached maturity. The maturity of the traditional measurement theory was reflected on weights and measures, time measurement, and spatial measurement. The development of weights and measures in the Han Dynasty will be discussed below first. A very remarkable achievement in the theory of weights and measures was made in the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty inherited the whole of the uniform system of weights and measures of the Qin Dynasty and made further progresses such as a complete system of units for weights and measures as well as innovations in the techniques of weights and measures. During the reign of Wang Mang in particular, reforms on the weights and measures institution conducted by Liu Xin were especially noteworthy in the history of metrology in China. During the years around Yuanshi period (1 ~ 5), Wang Mang usurped the administration. In order to flaunt his power, gain popularity, and sway the public opinion for the overthrow of the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang “searched far and near and recruited more than one hundred people who were proficient at music and mechanisms” to make them work under the command of Liu Xin to conduct a systematic study on music tones and weights and measures. When the project finished, Liu Xin rendered “the Report of the Project” to Wang Mang, which gave a detailed account of the basic theories on musical tones, weights and measures, and many kinds of standard instruments developed by the group. This “report” was put into Book of Han-Treatise on Music and Almanac compiled by Ban Gu and can be adopted as a reliable historical resource for the research into the metrology theory put forward by Liu Xin. To set benchmarks for measurement was the primary goal of the metrology theory put forward by Liu Xin. In order to set the units for weights and measures, Liu Xin developed a method which was called “musical tone and millet array” by later generations. In Book of Han-Treatise on Music and Almanac, it was recorded: Du, which is referred to as fen, cun, chi, zhang, yin引, is adopted for measurement of lengths. The measurements originate from the length which conforms to Huangzhong musical tone, namely the total length of ninety adjoining medium-sized whole millet grains that are arranged side by side; the length is ninety fen, and conforms to Huangzhong musical tone. The width of one grain of millet is one fen, ten fen is one cun, ten cun is one chi, ten chi is one zhang, ten zhang is one yin – a total of five units.

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This was the method to set the length unit. Liu Xin adopted the practice of setting length by musical tone which originated in the pre-Qin period and specified that the length of the bamboo pipe that could play the Huangzhong musical tone was nine cun. As is known that there are certain principles for setting measurement units such as objectivity, constancy, being replicable, etc., Liu Xin hence set musical tone as the standard for weights and measures because he knew the length of the pipe that could play the Huangzhong musical tone was fixed. Liu Xin’s practice is scientific to an extent, as the length of one pipe is related to the pitch of the sound it produces; any change in the length of the pipe will cause a corresponding change of the pitch; these sounds are audible and people can make adjustments to maintain the length of the pipe. So this pipe can be proved objective and fixed and is qualified to help to set the standard for weights and measures. Nevertheless, people may disagree on the Huangzhong musical tone produced by the pipe, and there can be dispute over the authority of the standard. Having taken this into consideration at that time, Liu Xin adopted the whole grains of millet as a medium and arranged them in a solid line to set a second standard. In this way, the pipe for the musical Huangzhong musical tone was specified as the primary standard for weights and measures, and the array of grains of millet was specified as an auxiliary one. Once the length measurement standards were secured, the ancient scholars proceeded to set unit benchmarks for the measurements of volumes and weights by referring to the “musical tone and millet array” method. These activities were found in Book of Han-Treatise on Music and Almanac: Vessels, which are yue, ge, sheng, dou 斗, hu, are adopted to measure volumes. The measurements originate from the yue of Huangzhong musical tone; its volume is deduced from length; yue is brimful with one thousand and two hundred medium-sized whole millet grains, and the volume of it is checked by having it filled to the brim with fresh water. Two yue make one ge, ten ge make one sheng, ten sheng make one dou, ten dou make one hu – a total of five kinds of measuring vessels. ... Weights, which are zhu, liang, jin, jun, shi, are adopted to measure weights. The measurements originate from the weight of Huangzhong musical tone; one yue which is filled with one thousand and two hundred grains of millet weighs twelve zhu, namely half of one liang. Twenty-four zhu make one liang, sixteen liang make one jin, thirty jin make one jun, four jun make one shi.

It is obvious that the standards for the units of volumes and weights were also established with the “musical tone and millet array” method. Liu Xin’s statements revealed how the ancient people associated the three measurements of lengths, weights, and measures with Huangzhong musical tone. Liu Xin not only established his metrology theory with the “musical tone and millet array” method but also developed a series of standard instruments on the basis of his theory and put them into force throughout the nation. The vessel shown in Fig. 7.2 is a standard instrument for weights and measures which is developed by Liu Xin and named “Standard Weights and Measures Determined in the Xin Dynasty” by later generations. In the subsequent generations, this vessel was esteemed as the best example of standard instruments for weights and measures and was treasured.

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Fig. 7.2 The Standard Weights and Measures Determined in the Xin Dynasty developed by Liu Xin

The theories established by Liu Xin which were recorded in Book of Han-Treatise on Music and Almanac were also valued as guiding principles for theories of weights and measures in ancient China. Though there were many reforms on the system of weights and measures in the following dynasties, the theories and the standard instruments for weights and measures developed by Liu Xin could never be ignored. Even in the Qing Dynasty, when Western sciences brought about by missionaries got deep rooted in the society of China and the metrology in China began getting articulated with them, Liu Xin’s theory was still valued as the fundamental principle in the establishment of a new set of standards for weights and measures which was sponsored by Emperor Kangxi, and the traditional “musical tone and millet array” method was adopted to set benchmarks for units. In the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the emperor proceeded to make a new standard instrument which was named the Qianlong standard weights and measures. However, the new standard instrument modeled the Standard Weights and Measures Determined in the Xin Dynasty in shape and composition. The Qianlong standard weights and measures, together with an equatorial sundial, is placed in front of Taihe Temple in the Palace Museum in Beijing City as a physical evidence of the emphasis on weights and measures in ancient China. Having gone through all the vicissitudes, the Standard Weights and Measures Determined in the Xin Dynasty is treasured in Taipei Palace museum now. Liu Xin’s theory exerted a long-lasting influence on metrology practices over more than 2000 years in China; it marked the formation of the theory of the traditional metrology in China. The inscriptions on the Standard Weights and Measures Determined in the Xin Dynasty bear the data for specific measurements, and thereby it can be inferred that the value of π adopted in the design of this measure was 3.1547. This was a significant achievement in mathematics in ancient China, because the commonly used π at that time was “the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle – three to

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one.” Though it remains unknown how did Liu Xin acquired this datum, it can be concluded that it was the study on π in Liu Xin’s design work inspired the later mathematicians such as Liu Hui, Zu Chongzhi to conduct further research, which finally brought about a lot of great achievements. In time measurement, the Western Han Dynasty adopted Zhuanxu Calendar that was developed in the Qin Dynasty. In the reign of Emperor Wu, some errors in the calendar manifested; therefore Sima Qian proposed to develop a new calendar – Taichu Calendar. Being supported by Emperor Wu, the famous upgrading for Taichu Calendar commenced. A new tradition was hence made – a collaboration between official scholars and researchers recruited from the folks. But these activities were harassed by the arguments between two conflicting schools of cosmography in ancient China: Sphere-heavens school and Canopy-heavens school. The researchers from the folks represented by Lao Xiahong advocated the Sphere-heavens theory, while the official scholar represented by Sima Qian insisted on the Canopy-heavens theory. They held so heated debates over the formation of celestial bodies and the corresponding measuring methods that Sima Qian petitioned to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that “these activities were unfeasible.” Finally, Emperor Wu mediated, and the two schools developed their respective calendars to be tested by the government. In the end, Taichu Calendar developed by the scholars represented by Deng Ping was accepted. Taichu Calendar, as one significant calendar in the history of China, was complete with all major components of the calendars developed in the following generations like solar terms, hui and shuo dates (the last and the first days of a lunar month), mechanism for leap year, orbit cycles of major planets, eclipses cycles, etc. Taichu Calendar served as a template for the following calendars. In developing instruments for time measurement, clepsydra techniques improved remarkably. The one-discharger-pot clepsydra with submerged arrow was replaced by one-discharger-pot-one-receiver-pot clepsydra with floating arrow. Then in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng made a further improvement, and the one-layerone-discharger-pot-one-receiver-pot clepsydra with floating arrow was upgraded into a two-layer-clepsydra with two discharger pots arranged in series and one receiver pot. The upgraded clepsydra hence could perform precise time measurement; it paved the way for more sophisticated multilayer clepsydras in later ages. The clepsydra developed by Zhang Heng and Taichu Calendar ushered in the formation age of traditional time measurement.

7.4

The Variation and Development of the Traditional Metrology

In late Eastern Han Dynasty, the system of weights and measures suffered severely in series of wars. Unification was reestablished when the Western Jin Dynasty founded. But this new Dynasty was weak and unstable and was forced to move to the South of China soon, retaining only a small southeastern part of its former territory; it was renamed the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Southern and Northern dynasties hence came into being. The regimes of Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen in the South of China changed

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in quick succession; the regime of Northern Wei that was founded in the North of China by the ethnic minorities of Xianbei and Tuoba soon split. The regimes in the South of China boasted them as orthodoxy of Huaxia culture and substantially inherited the system of weights and measures of the Qin and Han Dynasties. The regime of Northern Wei in the North of China which had nomadic ancestors remained culturally and economically underdeveloped even after it took control in the central plains of China. Few effective measures had been taken to enact laws to enforce governance, and the weights and measures were not guaranteed to be uniform; therefore the system of weights and measures that could have been uniform was exceedingly disrupted in its jurisdiction. The severe chaos of the system of weights and measures in this period was caused by the confrontation between the two different regimes that were occupying the northern part and the southern part of China, respectively; uniform units for weights and measures were never achieved. There could be such weird cases that “people from the South should mistake one sheng as one dou in the North.” Even in the regimes in the North of China, weights and measures were not fixed, and it was a common practice for the officials to profit by manipulating the units. The chaos in the Southern and Northern dynasties offered further testament to the relations between metrology and society: A stable society and a sound legal system will guarantee a constant metrology. There has been a mutual cause-effect relationship between the chaos in society and the confusion in metrology. Nevertheless, the metrology science kept progressing, particularly in the advancement of mathematics which is closely related to metrology. In this period, there were two great achievements in metrology: cyclotomy was developed by Liu Hui and was adopted to deduce π, and it was a scientific method to be safely adopted for π in the following generations; the value of π that was accurate to the sixth decimal places was finally provided by Zu Chongzhi with the method of cyclotomy, and the mistake in the calculation made by Liu Xin in developing the new Standard Weights and Measures Determined in the Xin Dynasty was thus corrected. Besides, new solutions to the measurement of various solid objects were developed one after another due to advancements in mathematics. One of the characteristics of ancient mathematics of China is the focus on practical problems, and these problems were mostly related to measurements. The advancement in mathematics enabled people to have more rigorous thinking, and this not only helped the design and production of instruments of weights and measures but also promoted the development of metrology. The foundation of the Sui Dynasty made it possible to make the system of weights and measures uniform again. But the specifications in the former system and the increasingly larger amounts of the units in daily life had to be coordinated, and this contradiction had to be resolved by a new dual system of larger units and smaller units: the commonly used larger units were adopted for the daily household purposes; units of the former system in the Qin and Han Dynasties were adopted in the fields of astronomy, musical instruments, and medicine. The Tang Dynasty followed the example and reinforced the dual system with a law; it imposed a stricter management on it. In late Tang Dynasty, societal turmoil made the management of weights and measures neglected; it was not until the Song Dynasty that the

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uniformity of weights and measures was finally reclaimed, when a more in-depth theoretical study was made on the system of weights and measures which was typically demonstrated by a prolonged debate over the “musical tone and millet array” theory between Sima Guang and Fan Jingren for decades of years. In this period, the manufacture of the instruments for weights and measures developed by leaps and bounds, and steelyard marked a great innovation in the development of weighing apparatuses in China in that it not only achieved an unprecedented precise measurement of very small amounts but also led to a reconstruction of the standards for the units in the system of weights and measures in the Song Dynasty. Similar cases occurred in the Yuan and the Ming Dynasties, too. In late Ming Dynasty, a scholar named Zhu Zaiyu conducted a systematic review on the systems of weights and measures in the past generations and put forward many original insights. The reviews conducted by Zhu Zaiyu marked the top level of the development in metrology in China at that time. In time measurement, in the period from the Three Kingdoms period to the late Ming Dynasty, greater achievements were scored. The research on instruments for time measurement flourished with each passing day: mechanical instruments, when combined with astrological instruments, were becoming ever larger and automatic and reached summit in the Northern Song Dynasty; sundial timer was upgraded from horizontal type to equatorial type, indicating a keener insight into the principle of time measurement; the one-layer clepsydra was upgraded into a multilayer relay clepsydra – from the two-layer relay clepsydra developed by Zhang Heng to the three-layer relay clepsydra which was depicted by Sun Chuo in the Jin Dynasty as “three barrels installed on a flight of three steps, and the drops of water pooled in the barrel” (Sun Chuo, Epigraph to Clepsydra. The Complete Works of History from the Primitive Times to the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Three Kingdoms Period, and the Subsequent Six Dynasties in the South of China-The Complete Work of History of the Jin Dynasty (Vol. 62).) and further to the four-layer clepsydra developed by Lǚ Cai in the Tang Dynasty, which was proved to be the peak of clepsydra development. And the invention of steelyard clepsydra indicated the rich variety of clepsydras in ancient China. The overflow device in Yan Su lotus clepsydra marked a great breakthrough in the mechanism for a steady flow in the development of clepsydra. A scholar named Shen Kuo made relentless efforts in the research and development of clepsydra and achieved supreme effects; he finally succeeded in developing a clepsydra to find out the heterogeneity of the diurnal motion of the sun, which was a scientific feat far ahead in the world. In the period from the Southern and Northern dynasties to the Yuan Dynasty, astronomic measurement achieved sustained development, and the calendar system progressed steadily. The important symbol in the development of astronomic measurement was the improvement of the armillary, an instrument for astronomic observation. Since the armillary sphere and the celestial globe had been invented in the Han Dynasty, they were developed as important instruments for astronomic observation and demonstration in the following dynasties. In the confrontations during the Southern and Northern dynasties, both sides developed the armillary for astronomy research. In a boom of armillary sphere innovation that appeared in the

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Tang Dynasty, Li Chunfeng invented a copper ecliptic instrument for research, and then Yixing the Monk and Liang Lingzan made improvements to it, making it better at demonstrating the motions of the sun and the moon. Yixing the Monk and Liang Lingzan also broke with the stereotyped observation function of an armillary sphere and the demonstration function of a celestial globe and invented a machine that combined the armillary sphere and the celestial globe – a water-driven celestial globe. A copper ball simulating the celestial sphere was motivated by a wheel geared to it that was driven by a stream of water. The copper ball, with 28 constellations carved on it, rotated once in 1 day and night, vividly simulating the motion of a celestial sphere. Besides, as recorded in detail in The Old Book of Tang-Treatise on Astronomy, this instrument could tell the time: Yixing, Liang Lingzan, and other scholars managed to make a new celestial globe. They made a copper ball to simulate the sphere of universe, and marked the constellations, equator, and lines of degrees on the ball. The copper ball, driven by a stream of water, rotated once in one day and night. Extra two rings were installed to circle the copper ball, and a set of simulated sun and moon were set on the rings to orbit along the ball. Each day, the copper ball rotated westward once, the sun moved eastward one degree, the moon moved thirteen and seven over nineteen degrees. When the copper ball rotated twenty-nine-odd times the sun and the moon would meet; when the copper ball rotated three hundred and sixty-five times the sun would finish one circle in its orbit. A wooden cabinet was set as the horizon, and half of the celestial globe was put into it; different phases of the moon were hence demonstrated and perfect time was also kept. Two wood figures were fixed on the surface of the cabinet with a drum and a bell in front of them to tell the time – to beat the drum automatically every ke (one-hundredth of a day) and to ring the bell every chen (a two-hour time span). All the gears, axles, cogwheels in the cabinet were precisely interlocked to ensure a perfect conformity with the natural celestial operations and this feat was acclaimed widely. When the celestial sphere was finished, it was named a top view of water-driven celestial sphere and put in front of Wucheng Temple to be admired by all the officials. (Liu Xu, Treatise on Astronomy (The First Volume), The Old Book of Tang (Vol.39))

This was the earliest large complex instrument in China that was at once an audio time-reporter and an astronomical phenomena performer. The best of this kind of instruments was produced in the Northern Song Dynasty when a civilian astronomer named Zhang Sixun made improvements on the water-driven celestial globe developed by Yixing the Monk and Liang Lingzan, making it larger and better equipped in telling time. A detailed description of the water-driven celestial globe developed by Zhang Sixun was given in the fourth volume of Yuhai (an encyclopedia): It rose up to a height more than one zhang like a multi-storied pavilion. There were seven wood figures acted as gods who were on shift of duty: to ring bell, to beat drum . . . And there were other twelve gods on duty for their respective hours; they would take turns to go out to show the time with a placard.

And the water-driven celestial globe made by Zhang Sixun was further improved into a water-driven astronomical clock tower made by the scholars named Su Song and Han Gonglian. This astronomical instrument, the largest one in ancient China for

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observation and demonstration, was about 12 m high and 7 m wide. In the threestoried tower, an armillary sphere was mounted on the top storey for astronomical observation, and a celestial globe was mounted on the second storey; driven by water stream, they rotated to simulate natural celestial operations. The ground storey was subdivided into five layers, each being installed with different numbers of wood figures who presented themselves at the window at different points of time to report time by making sounds or holding a placard. Motivated by water stream from clepsydra, the celestial globe synchronized with the time-telling equipment according to strict procedures. In the Northern Song Dynasty, apart from the typical accomplishment like the water-driven astronomical clock tower designed and made by the scholars named Su Song and Han Gonglian, Shen Kuo made great efforts to revise traditional instruments: He reversed the trend of increasingly sophisticated design of astronomical instruments which were equipped with more and more surrounding circles by removing the moon’s path that failed to accurately display the moon’s movement and hampered observation, thus setting a precedent in simplifying the instruments. Following in Shen Kuo’s footsteps, Guo Shoujing achieved a lot in remedying the deficiencies of the old armillary spheres that were fixed with so many interlaced surrounding circles that interrupted observation. Guo Shoujing took drastic measures to develop an abridged armillary sphere: The old armillary sphere was divided into two separate parts – one equatorial mounting and one azimuthal mounting. Installed on the same base, the equatorial mounting, named sighting-tube ring, was designed for the measurement of polar distance and determinative star distance (equatorial coordinate); the azimuthal mounting, named astronomical theodolite, was designed for the measurement of horizontal position and horizontal height of celestial bodies. With broader vision, these instruments were competent to fix coordinates of all the visible celestial bodies; the marked ring installed on the sighting-tube ring could be used to measure time. Guo Shoujing also developed a series of astronomical observation instruments like scaphe, square board, erected pole, star dial timer, and solar and lunar eclipse, linglong (exquisite) instrument, and calibrated shadow reader. Guo Shoujing’s achievements were a sign of the advanced development of the astronomical measurement in ancient China. A lot of great calendars such as Yuanjia Calendar and Daming Calendar appeared in the Southern and Northern dynasties. The Tang Dynasty invested heavily to revise calendar and sponsored astronomical and geodetic survey under guidance of Yixing the Monk. In the 12th year during the reign of Kaiyuan (724), the directorate of astrology named Nangong Yue and the grand astrologer named Daxiang Yuantai conducted this survey. This survey focused on the lengths of the shadow of an eightchi-tall pole at midday of the two equinoxes (the spring equinox and the autumn equinox) and the two solstices (the summer solstice and the winter solstice), elevation of north celestial sphere (the angle between the tangential direction of the horizon and the earth’s axis), the lengths of day and night, etc. over a vast territory to a north limit called Tiele (the site of the Hanhai Protectorate in the Tang Dynasty, near the present-day Kalahoring relics to the southwest of Uh Bator in Mongolia), to a south limit called Linyi (the central part of Vietnam), including altogether 13 observation spots such as Wuling of Langzhou (the present-day Changde City of Hunan

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Province), Xiangzhou (the present-day Xiangfan City), Taiyuan Prefecture (the present-day Taiyuan City), and Hengyejun of Yuzhou (a place to the northeast of the present-day Yuxian County of Hebei Province). Of these observation spots, four spots set by Nangong Yue along the Yellow River on level land were the most important. The north-south alignment of the four observation spots on the central plains was located separately at Baima of Huazhou (the present-day Huaxian County of Henan Province), Taiyue tower of Junyi in Bianzhou (the present-day Kaifeng City of Henan Province), Fugou of Xuzhou (the present-day Fugou County of Henan Province), and Wujin of Shangcai in Yuzhou (the present-day Shangcai County of Henan Province). Nangong Yue measured the lengths of the shadow of the eight-chitall poles at the four spots at midday of the two equinoxes and the two solstices, the angle between the tangential direction of the horizon and the earth’s axis, and the actual distance between the four spots. This survey was in essence the first measurement of 1° of the circumference of the globe along the meridian conducted in human history. Though no clear concept of the sphere was manifested in the research activities conducted by Yixing and Nangong Yue, the measurement conducted by them offered scientific data for the following research on the size of the earth. Besides, their measurement repudiated the tradition concept of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths in two places that are one thousand li apart” and hence promoted the development of metrology. Yixing had successors in the following generations in the astronomical and geodetic survey initiated by him. In the Northern Song Dynasty, in seven official large-scale star observations sponsored by the government, systematic measurements of the degrees between the 28 constellations and the stars in the sky were effectively made, and some old data were revised. For example, in the reign of Chongning (1102 ~ 1106), Yao Shunfu and other scholars conducted star observations for the compilation of Jiyuan Calendar; the absolute value of the error in the measurement of the degrees between the 28 constellations was only 0.15° on average, which was a very precise measurement at that time when a telescope was not invented. In the ensuing Yuan Dynasty, in order to develop a more precise calendar, Guo Shoujing not only managed to invent various astronomical instruments but also conducted large-scale astronomical and geodetic survey over vast land from a south point of 15°N latitude to a north point of 65°N latitude. The observatory tower constructed in Dengfeng City for this project can be found today; it is a symbol of the highly developed measurement technology at that time. The measurement of the average time of a tropical year in Shoushi Calendar developed by Guo Shoujing is in perfect agreement with the modern Gregorian calendar; it is a very important achievement in the history of calendar development in China. On the whole, from the Three Kingdoms period to the Ming Dynasty, uniformity and confusion in the development of weights and measures system appeared alternatively in China: the weights and measures system made some progress in theory, remarkable research activities were made in the measurement science, the measurement apparatus production upgraded steadily, and the time measurement scored great achievements, etc. It was a transition and development period in metrology of China.

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245

The Preparation of the Conversion from the Traditional Metrology to the Modern Metrology

During the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, missionaries went to China, taking with them the western scientific technologies. Their arrival encouraged new developments in metrology in the Qing Dynasty of China and paved the way for the transition into the modern metrology. This transition was firstly reflected on new concepts and new units. The introduction of the new concept of globe into China exerted obvious influence on the metrology of the country. The doctrine of sphere had been introduced into China even before the Ming Dynasty; History of Yuan-Treatise on Astronomy recorded an instrument named Kulaiyiaerzi that came to China from abroad: Kulaiyiaerzi is called a chronicle of geography in Chinese. It is a wooden sphere, seventenths of it is painted green, indicating water and three-tenths is painted white, indicating land. Rivers, lakes, seas are drawn on it, with clear lines and routes among them. The surface is divided into square grids to help to make a convenient calculation of areas and distances.

It is evident that this instrument was a globe that authentically embodied the concept of the earth as a sphere. But it exerted little influence on the astronomy in the Yuan Dynasty. In fact, the concept of the earth as a sphere failed to take root in China until the late Ming Dynasty. It was the doctrine of sphere which was ushered into China by Matthieu Ricci that made people serious with the terrestrial hypothesis. History of Ming-Treatise on Astronomy (The First Volume) had a detailed introduction to the doctrine of sphere ushered in by Matthieu Ricci: The doctrine of sphere says that the earth stays at the core of the sky as a globe, corresponding to the celestial bodies in the outer space of the sky. China is located to the north of the equator, so the northern part of the outer space is always in sight and the southern part of the outer space is always in oblivion. Walking two hundred and fifty li southward deducts one degree in northern latitude; walking two hundred and fifty li northward adds one degree in northern latitude. So does the walking to the east and to the west, that is, every two hundred and fifty li causes a change of one degree. When calculated against the celestial sphere, the circumference of the earth is ninety thousand li.

It can be inferred from this passage that the terrestrial hypothesis ushered in by Matthieu Ricci not only described the concept of sphere but also offered the relating evidence; it was the latter that made the doctrine of sphere acceptable to Chinese people. The influence of the doctrine of sphere on the metrology in China was firstly represented on the units for length, that is, the “one degree” in “every two hundred and fifty li causes a change of one degree” referred to the difference of 1° in the longitude on the earth. This statement connected the circumference of the earth and the unit of length and made people tend to stipulate the unit of length by means of the circumference of the earth. In the surveying and mapping of the country in the Qing Dynasty, influenced by this idea, Emperor Kangxi stipulated the measuring rule, and

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this was recorded by a missionary named Du Halde: “The measurement unit adopted in the whole process of the mapping had been stipulated by the emperor several years ago; it was the standard ruler of the Qing Dynasty which was used in the court . . . and one degree just equaled two hundred li, one li equaled one hundred and eighty zhang, one zhang equaled ten chi.” (J.B. Du Halde (author), Ge Jianxiong (author), The Records of the Surveying and Mapping of China. Historical Geography (The 2nd Volume), Shanghai People’s Publishing House.) As to the stipulation given by Emperor Kangxi, “although some people thought it was inconsistent with the customary practices, they didn’t dare to speak out” [1]. Nevertheless, the stipulation of the emperor was in itself praiseworthy, because it greatly facilitated the mapping project which turned out to be successful and quite scientific in that it was finished 88 years earlier than the stipulation made by French National Assembly in 1792 that the standard length of 1 m (metric) was one-40 millionth of the meridian circle which went through Paris and more than 120 years earlier than the time when the stipulation put into use (put into use in the world after 1830). It was due to many distracting factors that the stipulation failed to be accepted as the benchmark for the measurements in the Qing Dynasty, which was a pity. The importation of the doctrine of sphere exerted magnificent influence on the improvement of time measurement. People in ancient China once held that the Earth was flat with definite boundaries; therefore there must be a center for the earth, which was called the epicenter; any important astronomical measurements conducted only on the epicenter could produce authoritative results. But this idea was shattered by the terrestrial hypothesis introduced from abroad; Chinese people hence developed the concept of local time and the notion of equation of time. When making an introduction to the terrestrial hypothesis ushered in by Matthieu Ricci, History of Ming-Treatise on Astronomy (The First Volume) explained the concept of local time which was corresponding to the doctrine of sphere: The doctrine of sphere says that the earth stays at the core of the sky as a globe, corresponding to the celestial bodies in the outer space of the sky. . . . It is to be gauged by the longitudes; the difference of thirty degrees between the longitudes in two different spots causes a difference of one chen (two hours) in time. And a difference of one hundred and eighty degrees will reverse the day and the night.

More specifically, it will be depicted: Set capital meridian line as the benchmark and have the different degrees checked against it. Various solar terms and different phases of the moon are all dependent on this. People observe the sun rise and set and hence name the direction of east and west, and name the time of mao (the period of the day from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.) and you (the period of the day from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m); people also observe the sun stay high in the sky and hence name the direction of south, and name the time of wu (the period of the day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.). people observe the sun rises earlier in the east and later in the west. A difference of thirty degrees in the east-west direction causes a difference of one shi (a two-hour time span) in time. The time of wu in the east corresponds to the time of si (the period of the day from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.) in the west; the time of wu in the west corresponds to the time of wei (the

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period of the day from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.) in the east. A difference of ninety degrees causes a difference of three shi in time. The time of wu in the east corresponds to the time of mao in the west; the time of wu in the west corresponds to the time of you in the east. A difference of one hundred and eighty degrees reverses the day and the night. The time of wu in the east corresponds to the time of zi (the period of the day from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.) in the west. (History of Ming-Treatise on Astronomy (The First Volume))

This is a true concept of local time. This elaborate discussion represented the establishment of local time, which was a prerequisite for the modernization of time measurement in China. The importation of the doctrine of sphere and the astronomical knowledge from the west promoted another great project in the history of metrology in China – the ground surveying and mapping in the early Qing Dynasty. When Matthieu Ricci came to China, he introduced the doctrine of sphere and a true world map to Chinese people. The Comprehensive Map of the Earth developed by Matthieu Ricci was the first world map in the history of China, and the map was engraved and printed 12 times altogether. After the innovation at the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the thriving Qing Dynasty soon paid special attention to the ground surveying and mapping. Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong both arranged for the missionaries to conduct ground surveying and mapping over the whole territory of the country. In the two surveying and mapping projects, the knowledge of ground mapping like triangulation and the instruments like quadrant were fully employed in the measurement of the latitudes and longitudes all over the country, and very precise maps were drawn. The survey conducted in the reign of Emperor Kangxi resulted in the engraved edition of The Imperial Collection of Maps, which was the first provincial atlas developed by field survey; the survey conducted in the reign of Emperor Qianlong added the territory west to Hami region to the former The Imperial Collection of Maps, and a new Qianlong Official Territorial Map was finished. The coverage of the new map was almost twice that of the former one and thereafter served as the foundation for the compilation of national maps. It is noteworthy that when the survey of the latitude and longitude on the whole territory was finished in China, most countries in Europe that command more advanced surveying and mapping technology didn’t finish or even start geodetic surveying on their own territories. There was, in addition, one more important achievement in the survey conducted in the reign of Emperor Qianlong – two missionaries named Jean Baptiste and Pierre Jartoux found in the surveying activities that the distances between two proximate longitudinal lines were not equal. Though in Europe, at that time, some people surmised that the earth was an oblate spheroid, it was for the first time verified in the actual survey conducted in the reign of Emperor Kangxi. As far as the influence of the western scientific knowledge brought by the missionaries on metrology in ancient China is concerned, angle measurement is another area that can never be neglected. There was no concept of central angle in ancient China, and only after Xu Guangqi and Matthieu Ricci co-translated Euclid’s Elements did the common concepts of angles derived from the concept of central angle and the 360° system become popular, which paved way for the uniformity of

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the unit for the angle measurement and the alignment with the international convention. And as to the time system, it was shifted from the 100-section mode to a 96-section mode; when combined with the concept of angle, it further developed into a complete system of hour, minute, and second that was consistent with the international standard and hence paved the way for the modernization of time measurement. At the same time, a series of new measurement instruments such as thermometer, hygrometer, mechanical clock, clinometer, etc. emerged. These new instruments, when combined with the new concepts of measurement, broadened the scope of traditional measurement and contributed to the rise of new branches of metrology. These new branches were born to be articulated to the international standards and were the prerequisites for the transition from traditional metrology to modern metrology in China [2]. Throughout the Qing Dynasty, the traditional metrology was in general a matter of weights and measures. In the early Qing Dynasty, the government laid stresses on weights and measures, for example, from the reign of Emperor Shunzhi, edicts were issued demanding the official standards for weights and measures be observed all over the country. The weights and measures management in the Qing Dynasty stressed strict specifications for technical work and made special efforts to enact relevant legislation. The official regulations not only included the detailed specifications for the manufacture of measurement apparatuses but also legally specified the penalties for all the violations of weights and measures principles. The effective enforcement of these regulations ensured the constancy of values of weights and measures in the early Qing Dynasty. The reign of Emperor Kangxi is a very important phase in the history of measurement development in the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Kangxi not only issued many guidance orders for the weights and measures management but also made in-depth research into the science of measurement. Well versed in western science, while organizing a national mapping survey, Emperor Kangxi once contemplated to make the circumference of the earth the criterion for the basic length unit. But for some reasons, his idea was not adopted in the formulation of the national criterion for weights and measures. He adopted Han culture and inherited the “musical tone and millet array” principle developed by Liu Xin in formulating national benchmark for weights and measures. By integrating the contemporary measurement values that were much larger than those in Liu Xin’s period and the traditional forms of weights and measures, Emperor Kangxi made adjustments and successfully formulated a well-balanced benchmark, which was a very important contribution to the uniformity of weights and measures in the Qing Dynasty. But in the interests of convenience for civilians, Emperor Kangxi connived at the miscellaneous modes of weighing apparatuses among the populace, and this error ended up causing severe disorders of weights and measures in the late Qing Dynasty. The chaotic condition of weights and measures in the late Qing Dynasty turned out to be the worst, and any government official was forced to be serious with the problem. The government of the late Qing Dynasty was compelled to make a reform in weights and measures all over the country. Aiming to install authoritative standard instrument and set up scientific management system, the government customized instruments for length

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and weights from BIPM. But a tottering dynasty and a group of hopeless government officials were inadequate for a dynamic reform, and this reform was doomed to be a failure. On the whole, from the late Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, in spite of the impact of western sciences introduced by missionaries, fettered by traditional stereotypes, the bulk of weights and measures in China remained conservative and backward, vacillating between modern science and old stereotype. In the Qing Dynasty, the transition from the traditional metrology to the modern metrology eventually failed hopelessly in spite of many redemptive efforts. So, it was only some preparation for the transition was made during this period.

7.6

The End of the Traditional Metrology

In the period of the Republic of China, the severe disorders in the weights and measures system in the late Qing Dynasty even worsened. International exchanges in science, meanwhile, enabled the common people to be unprecedentedly familiar with the scientific principles of weights and measures, in which case the newly founded republican government was impelled to start a new reform of weights and measures. But the societal turmoil disabled the Beiyang administration and this reform turned out to be abortive. In the reign of the Beiyang administration, the weights and measures system fell into a far worse chaos. Nanjing national government, after its establishment, began waging a weights and measures reform in which reasonable weights and measures regulations and relevant legislations were enacted and effectively enforced. The newly established weights and measures system, at once inherited reasonable traditional elements and managed to achieve a simple and convenient conversion between local units and international standard units, brought forth satisfactory results. Though the reform of weights and measures conducted by the national government couldn’t and failed to be enforced throughout the country because large tracts of territory fell lost to the Japanese invaders because of the Japanese invasion of China, the newly formulated system of weights and measures definitely put an end to the ancient theory and system of weights and measures that was derived from “musical tone and millet array.” Although the new system was designed to meet civilian purposes and was effectively enforced, there were a lot of complaints about it in the scientific community due to a lack of compatibility with the international standards and the inconveniences it caused in communication. And there was a different set of terms for the standard units being formulated in the scientific community when the new weights and measures system was being enforced by the national government. The disjunction of measurement standards between the scientific aims and civil purposes wasn’t solved until the international standardized system of units was enforced in the People’s Republic of China after she was founded in 1949. Meanwhile, when the scientific activities in China were getting integrated into the mainstream of the international scientific community and modern industries were

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developing steadily from scratch, the establishment of the measurements in scientific activities and various industries was put on the agenda. The backwardness in economy and underdevelopment of science resulted from the long period of wars in China left the country barren in the establishment of many standards for measurements and pedigree systems (dissemination of values) except for weights and measures. So it was merely a transition period when the ancient measurement system was eliminated and a new one barely embarked on its course – a modern metrology was to be established in China.

7.7

The Establishment of the Modern Metrology in China

The founding of the People’s Republic of China opened a new chapter for the metrology of China – the modern age of metrology. At the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in the management of metrology, the government focused on the uniformity of weights and measures. In 1950, the Technique Management Bureau of the Financial and Economic Committee of the central government of China set up the Department of Weights and Measures to deal with the documents and apparatuses left behind in Chongqing by the Nationalist Party and to help to establish the uniformity of weights and measures. After a lot of hard work conducted by the Technique Management Bureau, The Interim Regulations of Weights and Measures Management in the People’s Republic of China (Draft) was issued; the basic system of weights and measures of China was thus established in the form of government regulations; a uniform system of weights and measures was hence guaranteed to be restored soon. Meanwhile, there was a transition from a single management of weights and measures to a general metrology in China. In August 1952, China ordered a batch of customized reference measuring instruments and standard instruments from the countries such as the Soviet Union in the name of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to set the benchmarks and standards for the measurement system. In 1955, the National Bureau of Metrology of China was set up, and it soon plunged into the systematic introduction of standard instrument of measurement and test apparatuses, the implementation of metric system, and the formulation of provisional rules and regulations of metrology system, etc. Under the auspices of the bureau, a metric system implementation committee was set up; it greatly promoted the application of international metric units and the establishment of a uniform metrology system. In 1959, the State Council issued A Uniform Metrology System Decree; it stipulated that the metric system was the fundamental metrology system in China. This decree proved to be vitally important to put a quick end to the chaos in the metrology system in China and marked the transition from a traditional metrology to a modern metrology. The metrology management in the People’s Republic of China, from the very beginning, focused on the uniformity of metrology system, metrology technology, and the establishment of national standards for measurement; the country made relentless efforts to achieve these goals. The period from the 1950s to the 1960s in the twentieth century was the first peak of the metrology development in China –

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metrology management administrations and metrology research institutions were set up in quick succession, series of national standards compatible with national criteria were formulated, and the traditional metrology in China was finally transformed into a scientific system of modern metrology. (Translator: Bin Li) (Proofreader: Jiyi Yan)

References 1. Wenhao, Weng. (1930). An investigation into the surveying and mapping in the early Qing dynasty. Geographical Magazine, 18(3), 4. 2. Zengjian, Guan. (2003). Missionaries’ contributions to Chinese metrology. Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 22(z1), 33–46. Studies on the History of Science and Technology in Modern China.

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The Outlook on the Universe of the Chinese in Ancient Period Weixing Niu

Contents 8.1 The Doctrine of the Creation of the Universe in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 The Doctrine of the Structure of the Universe in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.1 The Canopy-Heavens Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.2 The Sphere-Heavens Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.3 The Infinite Empty Space Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 The Buddhist Outlook on the Universe in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

In this chapter, an analysis of researches and achievements made on the creation, the overall structure of cosmology from mythological, religious, philosophical aspects in ancient China has been conducted. Detailed explanations of the shapes of many celestial bodies, the orbiting patterns of the sun, the moon, the planets, and some normal astronomical phenomena have been given, too. Keywords

The creation of the universe · The structure of the universe · The Buddhist outlook on the universe Cosmology is one kind of knowledge which takes the universe as a whole and explores its origin, structure, operation, and evolution. Cosmology also concerns the humankind’s position in the universe. The answers to the topics in cosmology can be offered from many aspects. In the early history of the humankind, people tended to explore the topics in cosmology from the mythological, religious, and philosophical aspects; they also developed various theories on the universe in different cultures in the following different historical periods. W. Niu (*) Department for the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_8

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Most theories on the universe in ancient times could be divided into two parts: the creation of the universe and the structure of the universe. The creation of the universe depicted how did the universe begin; the structure of the universe focused on its spatial structure, including the shapes of the celestial bodies; the orbiting patterns of the sun, the moon, and the planets; etc., and attempted to explain normal astronomical phenomena. Extant documents containing these theories developed in ancient China are available now in large quantities, enabling us to have a glimpse into the researches and meditations on topics in cosmology conducted in ancient time, helping us to have an overall idea of how the ancient people understood the universe as a whole in which we human beings have been living.

8.1

The Doctrine of the Creation of the Universe in Ancient China

Though the theories on the creation of the universe in ancient China which were mingled with mythological legends and philosophical arguments can’t be counted as a kind of scientific theories of the universe with mathematical contents in them, they undoubtedly demonstrated the people’s solemn meditation on the topic that how did the universe begin in ancient China. For example, in Tianwen (Inquiry into the Nature), Qu Yuan made a list of enquiries – “From the immemorial, how did it pass down? The sky and the earth were not formed yet; how to investigate them? Day and night were not divided yet; how to understand this chaotic state? There was a complete haze between the sky and the earth; how to find them?” – All these were typical cosmological topics. It is probable that the satisfactory answers will be given in hundreds of years or even thousands of years. A myth story which was prevailing in ancient period was that the universe was created when the sky and the earth were divided by Pangu. According to the records found in Sanwu Liji (anecdotes of the great mythological heroes and kings since the three holy imperial kings) written by Xu Zheng in the Three Kingdoms period (220–265 A.D.): The sky and the earth were merged in a chaotic mess, which was like an egg; Pangu was born in it. It stayed like that for eighteen thousand years when the sky and the earth parted: the light and clear part was the sky and the heavy and turbid part was the earth; Pangu lived amid it, transforming many times each day, free and proud. The sky rose upwards by one zhang (a unit of measure of length in ancient China; one zhang equals 10 chi, about 3.333 m) each day; the earth got thicker by one zhang each day; Pangu gained one zhang in height each day. It continued like this for eighteen thousand years, the sky becoming extremely high and the earth becoming extremely thick and Pangu becoming extremely tall; the sky and the land was finally ninety thousand li (a Chinese unit of length, half a kilometer, approximately equals 590 yards) apart from each other.

The myth story of the creation of the sky and the earth with Pangu between them appeared comparatively late compared with the documents in the preceding pre-Qin period and the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty that had some descriptions of the creation of the universe which had a strong philosophical and

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dialectical bias. It was mentioned in the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu that “All things under the sky are derived from the concrete, which arise from the void”; a founding scheme of “to create something out of nothing” was hence put forward. Lao Tzu also proposed that there was a Tao preceding the creation of the sky and the earth, which brought forth all things: There was a chaos before the origin of the sky and the earth. It was silent and void, keeping independent and circulating ceaselessly, and could be esteemed as the origin of all things. Not knowing its name, so tentatively we name it Tao. Tao, is formless. Although it is fuzzy, there are images in it; although it is hazy, there are concrete things in it; although it is deep and dark, there is a fine entity in it, which is concrete and real. Tao brought forth a unification of things, which was divided into two opposing parts; a third part was born out of the two parts, and then a multitude of things arose from it.

Lao Tzu’s ideology became the basis for the theories of the creation and evolution of the universe in the following generations. It was recorded in Huainanzi-Tianwenxun: Before the sky and the earth came into being, it was vague and void, and was named Taizhao. In the beginning, there was a Tao, from which appeared Xukuo, and from Xukuo arose the universe, then out of the universe emerged qi (elements). There were borders to qi: the light and clear rose high to become the sky; the heavy and turbid congealed to become the earth. It was easier for the light and clear to merge than the heavy and turbid, therefore the sky was formed earlier than the earth. The essences from the sky and the earth combined to form Yin and Yang, which merged to form four seasons and then dispersed to become all things. Yang accumulated and intensified into fire, whose essence composed the sun; Yin accumulated and condensed into water, whose essence composes the moon. One portion of essence of the sun and the moon that drifted away composed the stars. While the sky shrouded the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth carried water and dust particles.

It is evident that the ancient people didn’t think the sky and the earth were created at a single stroke, but in several different stages. The first stage was called Taizhao and a stage which was called Xukuo was derived from it, then the third stage which was called Yuzhou arose from Xukuo, and finally came the sky, the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars which were developed within Yuzhou. In Lingxian, a masterpiece written by Zhang Heng, there was a more specific account of this process: Before Taisu (the sky and the earth) came into being, it was deep and void, dark and silent; it was invisible and had nothing in it. It continued for eternity and was called Mingzi (a boundless state), which was probably the root of Tao. Since the root of Tao was made, something was created out of nothing. Though a trend of division was set in Taisu, it could not be discerned in a chaos. So it was recorded in Tao Te Ching that, “A chaos was there before the origin of the sky and the earth.” The form of it was beyond description, and the speed of its motion was beyond recognition. It also continued for eternity and was called Manghong (a chaotic state), which was probably the trunk of Tao. Since the root of Tao was made, something began to take shape. The elements hence could be discriminated; the void hence was divided into the tangible and the intangible; the clear and the turbid began to take different positions. The sky took form in the outer position; the earth became fixed in the inner position. The sky was Yang in property and appeared to be spherical and dynamic; the earth was Yin in property and appeared to be level and static. Dynamic changes and static

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states coexisted and had essence accumulated which finally brought forth all things; it was called Taiyuan (the primitive and fundamental), which was probably the fruit of Tao. It constituted phenomena in sky and features on earth. There were nine sections in sky and nine zones on earth; there were three celestial bodies of the sun, the moon, stars in sky and three different terrains of high land, low land, plain on earth; the phenomena in sky could be observed and the features on earth could be measured. All these multitudes of phenomena and features which were closely associated to each other were so diversified yet specific that it was extremely difficult to keep a comprehensive record of them. Eventually, the elite appeared and began making codes and exercise effective management with them. The distance between the remotest corners was two hundred million, thirty-two thousand and three hundred li; the north-south distance was a thousand shorter than this and the eastwest distance was a thousand longer than this. The distance from the earth to the sky was half of this distance, so was the depth of the earth. Viewed as a whole, it was spherical. When these data were dealt with Gougu (right triangle or the Pythagorean theorem), it was found that in sky or on earth, it was universal that there was a difference of one cun (a unit of length in ancient China, one cun is about 3.3333 cm) between the shadow lengths in two places that are one thousand li apart. We had no further knowledge besides this; the unknown was called Yuzhou: Yu 宇 meant the vastness of space and Zhou宙 meant the endlessness of time.

Lingxian, written by Zhang Heng, was nearly a 1500-character-long passage which discussed a wide scope of topics from the origin of the universe to the sequence of stars and to the motion of celestial sphere, which was proved to be a significant cosmological document in ancient China. This great work should be read in conjunction with another masterpiece of Zhang Heng – Annotations to Armillary Sphere (see below). After the Qin and Han dynasties, there were still many people engaged in the meditation of the origin of the universe. Zhu Xi once offered his ideas on this topic: At the creation of the sky and the earth, there were only Yin and Yang. Being rubbed and ground continuously, they got overheated and had some dregs squeezed out. Founding no exit available, these dregs finally settled down in the center and became the earth. The light and clear element turned into the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, rotating on the outer layer; the earth stayed fixed in the center, not at the bottom.

Though it was not definitely stated whether the earth was negligible in relation to the sky in size, Zhu Xi’s discussion was evidently suggestive of the Western geocentric theory. Wang Fuzhi of the Ming Dynasty also explicitly pointed out: “The great void was filled with Yin element and Yang element, and nothing else could be found; it was solid. All the phenomena in the sky and features on the earth were the manifestation of it” (Annotation to Zhengmeng by Zhang Zai-Taihe Passage). There were also suspicions as to the certainty of a creation of the universe in ancient China. A conversation between Confucius and Ran Qiu in Zhuangzi-Zhi’s Journey to the North Obscurity expressed the idea of the eternity of the sky and the earth: Ran Qiu consulted Zhongni (Confucius), “Is the condition before the creation of the sky and the earth within the reach of human knowledge?” Zhongni answered, “Yes, it is. The ancient world is the same as the current world.” Ran Qiu backed and left, not feeling satisfied with the answer. The second day, Ran Qiu went to consult Zhongni again, and he said, “Yesterday, I asked, ‘Is the condition before the creation of the sky and the earth within the reach of human knowledge?’ Master answered, ‘Yes, it is. The ancient world is the same as the current world.’ As to the past, I know well; as to the present, I am confused. Would you

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please tell me why?” Zhongni answered, “The reason why you have a good understanding of the past is due to the insights you acquired in your mind beforehand; doesn’t the confusion you have for the present result from a less exercise of your mind? There is no the present without the past; there is no result without cause. There are offspring before the offspring were produced, is it possible?” Ran Qiu was at a loss for words. Zhongni continued, “It is over, there is no need to answer. Do not bring the dead back to life for the sake of life; do not put the living to death for the sake of death. Are life and death dependent on something? They form an organic unity. Is there something ‘existed before the creation of the sky and the earth’? What made all things take up their various forms was not a concrete thing. While there were things, there were no preexisted concrete things.”

A scholar named Guo Xiang in the Jin Dynasty offered his explanation for this statement, “The eternity of the sky and the earth means there is no blank gap.” A scholar named Dong Gu in the Ming Dynasty made a more in-depth research into the starting point of the sky and the earth in his book Huanlong Zi: It was asked, “Is there a start of the sky and the earth?” The answer was, “There is not a start.” “Is there no start of the sky and the earth?” The answer was, “There is a start.” The meaning was not yet manifested. It was hence explained: “For a specific celestial system, there is a start; for the infinite celestial system, there is not a start.”

This fictitious conversation demonstrated a very profound cosmological idea: In terms of the plurality of universes, there is a start for one specific universe, for example, the universe in which we live; there is not a start for a system composed of many universes of this kind. In Annotations to Zhengmeng by Zhang Zai-Daxin Passage, Wang Fuzhi wrote, “There was intrinsically no start and finish for the sky and the earth, yet someone aimed to put an end to it arbitrarily, what a stupid idea!” Wang Fuzhi thus put forward that there was no start and finish, no creation and termination for the universe, which coincided with the theory of stable universe in the Western modern cosmology. Zhu Xi once put forward a different idea of a cycle of creation of the universe: “It was asked again, ‘Will the sky and the earth perish?’ The answer was, ‘It will not. Just when the humans become incorrigibly corrupted, they would be damned back to the original chaos; all things are to be destroyed to start anew.’” Zhu Xi held that the universe would eventually go back to the chaos before all things were recreated, and there would be an ethnical prerequisite for the recreation of the universe, not physical, namely, “just when the humans become incorrigibly corrupted.” Zhu Xi’s idea had parallels in a theory imported earlier from India which preached the cycle of creation of the universe including the destruction of the universe in an age of “corrupted Buddhism” and was similar to the Big Bang theory of the modern cosmology that appeared in a later period which advocated that the universe will be recreated under some physical condition.

8.2

The Doctrine of the Structure of the Universe in Ancient China

With a wider knowledge of astronomy, ancient people began putting forward various theories on structure of the sky and the earth, existence, and motion of the celestial bodies, aiming to come up with a consistent and systematic explanation for normal

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astronomical phenomena. It was recorded in Book of the Jin Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy: “There were three schools of astronomy in ancient period: the first was called the Canopy-heavens, and the second was the Infinite Empty Space, and the third was the Sphere-heavens. In the reign of the Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, a scholar named Cai Yong submitted a written report from Shuofang insisting ‘the Infinite Empty Space theory were lost, nowhere to find. The methods in Zhoubi, though available, caused many errors when adopted in astronomical research. Only the Sphere-heavens theory helped to reveal truth.’” This shows that by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there had been three theories on the structure of the universe. In On the Sphere-heavens, a scholar named Liu Zhuo wrote: “The Sphereheavens, the Canopy-heavens, the Infinite Empty Space are three leading theories; the parallel heavens, the slanting heavens, the vault of heavens, the revised edition of the Infinite Empty Space theory were other four flourishing ones.” He hence depicted a situation in which there was a heated debate going on among the three leading theories of the Sphere-heavens, the Canopy-heavens, and the Infinite Empty Space and other theories such as the parallel heavens theory of Wang Chong, the slanting heavens theory of Yao Xin, the vault of heavens theory of Yu Song, and the revised edition of the Infinite Empty Space theory of Yu Xi as well. There were further developments in the theories on the sky. A scholar named Li Chunfeng in the Tang Dynasty mentioned in The Divination in Yi-Si Year that “there are altogether eight schools that observe astronomical phenomena,” and a scholar named Zhang Junfang noted in Yun Ji Qi Jian (scriptures of Taoism) that “there are a total of eighteen schools of astronomy in history.” To sum up, all these cosmological theories fall into the three leading schools of the Sphere-heavens, the Canopyheavens, and the Infinite Empty Space, and schools of the Sphere-heavens and the Canopy-heavens went through many stages of development.

8.2.1

The Canopy-Heavens Theory

“The methods in Zhoubi are available” appeared in the report from Shuofang submitted by the scholar named Cai Yong which refers to the calculation methods and data on the astronomy recorded in Zhoubi Suanjing. The character of “周” (zhou) in Zhoubi refers to the capital city of the Zhou Dynasty and refers to the Central Plains in general. The character of “髀” (bi) refers to a gnomon, which is one kind of astronomical observation instrument. According to the inference and verification conducted by contemporary researchers, it is generally agreed upon that the book Zhoubi Suanjing was finished around 100 B.C., in which there was one theory on the structure of the universe by the name of the Canopy-heavens theory. The Canopy-heavens theory recorded in Zhoubi Suanjing was summarized in Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy as: The sky is in the shape of a bamboo hat and the earth is like an upturned plate; they are both tall in the center and low on the edge. Directly below the north celestial pole are the centers of the sky and the earth, which are the central tops. It gradually slopes down from the central

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tops to the edge; the sun, the moon, the stars rotate around ceaselessly and there is the alternation of day and night. The central top of the sky is sixty thousand li higher than the outermost circle in the sun’s orbit plane on the Winter Solstice; the central top of the earth which is directly below the north celestial pole is also sixty thousand li higher than the parts of the earth which are directly below the outermost circle in the sun’s orbit plane; the outermost circle in the sun’s orbit plane is twenty thousand li higher than the central top of the earth which is directly below the north celestial pole. The sun’s orbit plane and the surface of the earth are parallel to each other in outline and are constantly eighty thousand li apart. Rotating in the sky in a horizontal plane, the sun moves along seven orbit circles which alternate with six gaps among them.

By conducting precise mathematical calculations on the lengths of the poles erected on the ground and the shadows of them and adopting Gougu theorem and Zhongcha Method (a method for determining the distance and height of the sun), on the basis of the data obtained from the observation of the astronomical instruments like sundial and sighting-tube ring, the diameters of the concentric circles in the sun’s orbit plane are satisfactorily solved, and it is thus called Zhoubi. Though there were many opinions among scholars in different dynasties on the structure of the universe in the Canopy-heavens theory recorded in Zhoubi Suanjing, it has been substantially concluded in modern society: The sky and the earth were two parallel planes which were 80,000 li apart; directly below the north celestial pole, and in the center of the earth, stood a lofty cone-shaped peak which was 60,000 li high, and its base was 23,000 li in diameter. The sky and the earth maintained the same shape. The sun rotated around the north celestial pole in different orbits in different seasons, which was called “seven circles and six gaps”; there was a limit to the reach of sunlight, which was 67,000 li. The area in the sunlight was day and the area out of the sunlight was night. Canopy-heavens theory adopted this model to explain the alternation of day and night, the change in the length of day and night, and the cycle of the seasons. The general measures of the universe were also given in Zhoubi Suanjing: In terms of the day on the Winter Solstice and the night on the Summer Solstice, as far as the differences of the measurement and the lengths of the shadow of the sunlight are concerned, the distance between the edges was eight hundred and ten thousand li, and the circumference was two million four hundred and thirty thousand li. On the Winter Solstice, sunlight reached one hundred and sixty-seven thousand li over the north circle; the diameter of the circle was eight hundred and ten thousand li; the circumference was two million four hundred and thirty thousand li.

The north circle in this paragraph refers to the outermost circle, which was the orbit of the sun on the winter solstice when the sun was farthest from the center of the orbit, namely, the north celestial pole. The radius of the orbit was 238,000 li and the sun shone as far as 167,000 li; the two figures added up to 405,000 li, which was the radius of the universe, and the diameter of the universe was 810,000 li. The universe model in Canopy-heavens theory in Zhoubi Suanjing and some parameters offered in it composed a very self-consistent axiom system. For example, under the condition of two parallel planes of the sky and the earth and on the basis of the distance of 80,000 li between them, it could be inferred that there would be a

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difference of one cun in the length of the shadow of an eight-chi-long pole if it should be placed in two different places that were 1000 li apart in north-south direction. And this is the origin of the notion of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths in two places that are one thousand li apart” found in Zhoubi Suanjing. Then a Canopy-heavens model recorded as “Zhoubi mode” was offered in Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy: The sky is round like an open canopy; the earth is square like a checkerboard. The sky rotates leftward at a slant like a turning millstone; the sun and the moon rotate rightward. That’s why when the sun and the moon are in fact rotating to the east they are carried to the west. The ants which are crawling on a millstone can be used as a metaphor for this model: An ant is crawling on a millstone while the millstone was rotating leftward rapidly; when the ant is crawling rightward slowly it is actually carried to move leftward. The sky is sloping down from the south to the north; the sun can be seen when it rises high and can’t be found when it sinks below the ground. The sky is like a tilted canopy; the Bigger Dipper is on the north, which is the evidence. The Bigger Dipper should be in the middle, but now it is on the north, and it is clear that the sky is like a tilted canopy. The sun rises from Yin at dawn, and sets into Yin at dusk; Yin is dark and deep and nothing could be detected in it. In summer, Yang, which is glaring, reigns over Yin and radiates under the sun; that’s why the sun is easily found at daybreak with no obstructions and there are longer summer days. Whereas in winter, Yin, which is dim, reigns over Yang and obstructs the light from the sun, so the sun is difficult to find even when it rises and there are shorter winter days.

Judging by the main points of the Canopy-heavens model in “Zhoubi mode” in Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy, the model was designed mainly to demonstrate the diurnal motion and annual apparent motion of the sun. For example, in order to illustrate sunset, it is presumed that the southern part of the sky is higher than the northern part of it, and when the sky (the millstone) rotates with the sun on it to the higher southern part, it is sunrise; when the sky rotates to the lower northern part, the sun will be blocked by the ground, and it is sunset. The model also quoted Yin and Yang to explain the different lengths of day and night. The model failed to offer a clear mathematical structure; it is inferred that it appeared earlier than the Canopy-heavens theory in Zhoubi Suanjing and then was replaced by it. The Canopy-heavens theory was also subject to question. Some scholars still questioned it in the frame of the Canopy-heavens theory, for example, in Lun HengThe Sun, Wang Chong questioned the three leading theories of the Canopy-heavens, the Sphere-heavens, and the Infinite Empty Space, whereas the theory he held was nothing but a revised Canopy-heavens theory. Wang Chong insisted that the sun, the moon, and the stars were concrete entities. The sky and the earth were flat, and they were 60,000 li apart; they were just parallel to each other. The sky and the earth had limitless thickness; there was no ceiling to the sky and no floor to the earth. The sun, the moon, and the stars were on the sky, moving with the sky as it rotated; while the earth stayed fixed, the sky rotated leftward, and the sun, the moon, and the stars rotated rightward. Different velocities of them caused people to think the sun and the moon also rotated leftward. It was just an optical illusion that the sun and the moon looked like spheres.

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The “Zhoubi mode” theories were questioned in the first lines of Lun Heng-The Sun: Some scholars said: “The sun is found rising out of Yin at dawn and found sunk out of sight into Yin at dusk. Yin is dark and deep, so the sun can’t be found.” As a matter of fact, how can we demonstrate it if the sun doesn’t rise out of or sink into Yin? The night, is Yin in property; it is dark and deep. A flaming torch can be seen at night. The Yin of the night is the same as the Yin of the north. The sun at dawn is equivalent to the flaming torch. When a flaming torch can be seen at night, how can the sun be out of sight after sunset? So it should not be attributed to Yin. To observe sunrise and sunset in winter days, we can find that the sun rises out of the southeast part and sets into the southwest part. Since the southeast part and the southwest part are not Yin in position, why should it be asserted that the sun rises out of and sinks back into Yin? While smaller stars could be seen, a much larger moon could be neglected, therefore, these vulgar pedants just held groundless fallacies. Some scholars said: “There are shorter winter days and longer summer days; it is also attributed to Yin and Yang. In summer days, Yang, which is glaring under the sun, reigns over Yin and the sun radiates unimpeded after it rises. Whereas in winter days, contrary to what happens in summer days, Yin, which is dim, reigns over Yang and obstructs the sunlight, so the sun is difficult to find even after it rises, and there are shorter winter days.” As a matter of fact, how can we demonstrate it if the length of day is irrelevant to Yin and Yang? We take the stars as example one more time. The Yin of the north is the same as the Yin of winter. When the starlight can never be blocked out by the Yin of the north, how can the sunlight be blotted out by the Yin of winter? So the explanation from the perspective of Yin and Yang doesn’t conform to the reality. In fact, in summer days, the sun is at the position of Dongjing (a star in Gemini); in winter days, the sun is at the position of Qianniu (Altair). Qianniu is far from the Bigger Dipper and there is a shorter day; Dongjing is near to the Bigger Dipper and there is a longer day. The sun moves northward to Dongjing in summer and moves southward to Qianniu in winter, so the two extremes of solar terms are called solstices and the solar terms between solstices in spring and autumn are called equinoxes.

It was evident that Wang Chong upheld the ideas in Zhoubi Suanjing and thus questioned the ideas of the movement of the sun and the lengths of day and night offered in “Zhoubi mode.” Afterward, Wang Chong questioned “a tilted canopy of sky” theory offered in “Zhoubi mode”: It is said: “The sky is sloping down from the south to the north; the sun can be seen when it rises high and can’t be seen when it sinks below the ground. The sky is like a tilted canopy, so the Bigger Dipper is on the north, which is the evidence. When the Bigger Dipper should be in the middle of the sky, it is now on the north, which is a positive proof that the sky is like a tilted canopy.” I think: Since the sky is compared to a tilted canopy, it should be similar to the canopy in shape. The Bigger Dipper is on the northern part of the sky and should be the tip of the canopy; there should also be a stalk under the canopy sticking to the south, but where is it? If the canopy should be put on the ground, it wouldn’t turn; if it should be erected up, it would turn. Now the sky is rotating with its northern edge on the ground, how can it move when being impeded? Judging by it, it is clear that the sky should not be like a tilted canopy and the sunrise and sunset are irrelevant to the height of the sky.

Indeed, if the sky tilts from the south to the north with the northern edge on the ground, how can it rotate? This is undoubtedly an intrinsic fault of the Canopyheavens theory in “Zhoubi mode.”

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It was about in the late Western Han Dynasty that the Sphere-heavens theory began to form, and the advocates of this theory began waging a severe campaign against the Canopy-heavens theory on its faults. Yang Xiong, one of the advocates, wrote a famous essay To Rebut the Canopy-heavens on Eight Points. He winnowed out eight arguments that were not in conformity with the reality by referring to the fundamentals and reasoning of the Canopy-heavens theory. The eight arguments and the reasoning given by Yang Xiong were recorded in Book of the Sui DynastyTreatise on Astronomy, and the extracts are given below: ① The circumference of the celestial sphere harboring the twenty-eight constellations should be five hundred and forty du (an measurement unit on celestial bodies formulated by ancient people in China; a circle is stipulated to be composed of three hundred and sixty du), but it is held three hundred and sixty du. How to interpret it? ② On the Spring Equinox and on the Autumn Equinox, the night should be twice the daytime in length, but the night also has fifty ke (one-hundredth of a day) to it. How to interpret it? ③ The Bigger Dipper is visible in a range of six months and invisible in a range of six months, but it is always seen at night. How to interpret it? ④ To observe the milky way in contrast to the star map of the Canopy-heavens theory, the milky way should run from the Bigger Dipper to the lupus in a curve, but it is found in a straight line. How to interpret it? ⑤ To observe the sky in contrast to the star map of the Canopy-heavens theory, only a small percentage of the stars are visible and most of them should be invisible, but there is an equal number of stars which are visible and invisible. How to interpret it? ⑥ To observe sunrise from mountain top, the sun is found rising from below the water level and the length of the shadow is longer than the object. How to interpret it? ⑦ Objects tend to look larger at a shorter distance and look smaller at a longer distance. In terms of the sun and the Bigger Dipper, they look smaller at a shorter distance and look larger at a longer distance. How to interpret it? ⑧ To measure the size of the sky by the distance between different stars, there should be times longer distances between the stars which are farther away from the north celestial pole, but the stars are densely crowded. How to interpret it? While several of the eight arguments which were put forward to question the Canopy-heavens theory left room of defense for the advocates of the Canopyheavens theory, the rest took the fatal flaws of it, for example, the sixth argument: The Canopy-heavens theory held that the sun rotated around the axis of the north celestial pole on a horizontal plane, and when the sunrise was to be observed from mountain top, the sun should not be seen to rise from below the water level, but to break out of an upright mirror from a long distance instead. After Yang Xiong, scholars such as Huan Tan, Zheng Xuan, Cai Yong, and Lu Ji questioned the Canopy-heavens theory recorded in Zhoubi Suanjing, respectively,

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asserting that it was remarkably at variance with the reality. At the same time, the Sphere-heavens theory was coming into being to take a dominant position. Nevertheless, there were still some advocates of the Canopy-heavens theory and its varieties in the following centuries. It was recorded in Book of the Sui DynastyTreatise on Astronomy: “Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty presided at a symposium at Changchun temple in which the scholars aimed at developing a new celestial theory completely that was wholly consistent with the content of Zhoubi Suanjing to substitute for the Sphere-heavens theory.” The “new celestial theory” to be advocated by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty was undoubtedly derived from the Indian cosmology imported into China along with Buddhism (see details below).

8.2.2

The Sphere-Heavens Theory

It is generally believed that the Sphere-heavens theory appeared a little later than the Canopy-heavens theory. In Fayan (a collection of mottoes of the Taoism), Yang Xiong asserted: “Someone inquired the armillary sphere. I think: Lao Xiahong made research into it, which was free from random conjecture, and Geng Shouchang, the Da Sinong Zhongcheng (a chief officer of warehouse management and agriculture) made it.” The armillary sphere mentioned here referred to a celestial instrument made by the scholars like Lao Xiahong in 104 BC, when they were collecting data to formulate a new Taichu Calendar. The most complete description of the Canopy-heavens theory was The Annotations on Armillary Sphere written by Zhang Heng (about 123): The celestial sphere is like an egg. The sphere is like a ball; the earth is like the yolk in the egg; the celestial sphere is larger than the earth. There is water outside and inside the celestial sphere; the celestial sphere holds the earth in it like the eggshell holds the yolk. The celestial sphere is carried by qi (an intangible atmosphere); the earth is buoyed by water. The circumference of the celestial sphere is three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter du; when it is divided, one hundred and eighty-two and five-eighths du is over the horizon, and one hundred and eighty-two and five-eighths du is below the horizon; half of the twentyeight constellations are visible and half of them are invisible. The two ends of the sphere are called the north celestial pole and the south celestial pole. The north celestial pole is the center of the sphere; it is due north and thirty-six du above the plane of the horizon. Therefore, the arc of seventy-two du of the upper north celestial pole is always visible. The south celestial pole is the center of the sphere; it is in the south and thirty-six du below the plane of the horizon. Therefore, the arc of seventy-two du of the lower south celestial pole is always invisible. The two celestial poles are one hundred and eight-two and a half odd du apart. The sky rotates like a wheel turns on its hub, vast and endless, and is hence called the celestial sphere.

The Annotations on Armillary Sphere written by Zhang Heng and other documents on the Canopy-heavens theory can be summed up in several points: ① The sky and the earth are spheres of similar size; the earth is held in the middle of the sky.

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② The north celestial pole is the axis around which the celestial sphere rotates. ③ The movement of the sun, the moon, the planets are recorded and described in the frame of the twenty-eight constellations; the circumference of the celestial sphere is divided into three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter du ④ The armillary sphere is the primary measurement instrument. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Sphere-heavens theory had been the standard model for the universe in ancient China. It is worth noting that “the sphere is like an egg” tends to be interpreted that there is the concept of a spherical earth in the Sphere-heavens theory, which is substantially false. There was a very important point in the spherical earth concept in ancient Greece – the size of the earth was negligible in contrast to that of the vault of sky. According to the concept of the sky and the earth in ancient China, the Canopy-heavens theory and the Sphere-heavens theory, or the context of other schools of philosophy or literature, the sky and the earth were of the same size and were counterparts to each other all the time. The Annotations on Armillary Sphere was the first document that elucidated the basic programs of the Sphere-heavens theory; part of its content was given in Book of Eastern Han-Music and Calendar Almanac when Liu Zhao supplemented annotations to the book and was called “Zhang Heng’s armillary sphere.” In Kaiyuan Astrology Codes, a more complete version of this theory was ushered in with the words “according to the annotations to Zhang Heng’s armillary sphere.” Some scholars think The Annotations on Armillary Sphere was not written by Zhang Heng, but by another scholar who was a little bit after Zhang Heng. Whoever the author of The Annotations on Armillary Sphere might be, Zhang Heng was definitely not the sole advocate who made the Sphere-heavens theory a dominant cosmological theory in the period from the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the turn of the Three Kingdoms period and the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The scholars such as Cai Yong, Zheng Xuan of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Lu Ji, Wang Fan, Chen Zhuo of the authorities of the Wu 吴 Kingdom established by the Sun’s 孙 family, and Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin 晋 Dynasty all advocated the Sphere-heavens theory and made great efforts to verify it. In Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy, a different opinion was put forward by Wang Chong concerning the notion “There is water outside and inside the celestial sphere; they both rotate with the celestial sphere being carried by qi and the earth being drifted on water” which is given below: It was once held that the celestial sphere went through the ground below in its rotation. Now we can find water when we dig one zhang (a unit of measure of length in ancient China; one zhang equals 10 chi, about 3.333 m) into the ground; how can the celestial sphere move through water? It is definitely not. The sun rotates along with the celestial sphere and never goes into the ground. When humans look far into the distance, they find the sky and the earth merge ten li away on the horizon. In fact they never merge; it is just because of the long distance. And when we find the sun moves into the ground, it doesn’t move into it; it is likewise because of the long distance. While we see the sun moves below the horizon in the west, the people on the other side will call it the center. People all over the land unexceptionally call it sunrise when the sun is near and call it sunset when the sun is far.

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How to illustrate it? Just make someone go on a trip at night with a large flaming torch; the torch is out after he walks ten li away. In fact the torch is not out; the distance makes it invisible. So the invisibility of the sun after it moves to the west is just like the disappearance of the flaming torch. The sun and the moon are not spherical; the long distance of them from the people makes them look round. The sun is the essence of fire and the moon is the essence of water. When fire and water are not round on the ground, how can the sky be round?

And Ge Hong made an eloquent speech to defend against Wang Chong’s opinion: It was said in The Annotations on Armillary Sphere: “The celestial sphere is like an egg and the earth is like the yolk that stays isolated in the egg; the celestial sphere is larger than the earth. There is water outside and inside the celestial sphere. The celestial sphere is carried by qi; and the earth is buoyed by water. The circumference of the celestial sphere is three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter du; when it is divided, one half is over the horizon and the other half is below the horizon, therefore, half of the twenty-eight constellations are visible and half of them are invisible. The sky rotates like a wheel turns on its hub.” While there are many people interested in discussing the sphere, few are versed in Yin and Yang theory. The group of scholars such as Zhang Pingzi (Zhang Heng) and Lu Gongji (Lu Ji) employed the armillary sphere to calculate the orbits and numbers of du of the seven luminaries, to observe the phenomena recorded in calendar and the time of the sunrise and sunset, to compare the findings of the observations with the twenty-four solar terms, to make a research into the scale on clepsydra and the length of the shadow on the sundial; they went further to verify these changes with phenological characteristics and believed that no instrument was as precise as the armillary sphere. Zhang Pingzi made a copper armillary sphere and closeted it away in a separate room; he made it motivated by a stream of water from clepsydra and found that the armillary sphere revolved in perfect conformity to the natural happenings. Probably on the evidence of a lot of facts, Cui Ziyu wrote for the inscription on the tablets in honor of the great feat of the armillary and the seismograph made by Zhang Pingzi: “Their technology made a thorough research into the world and their masterpiece reproduced the operation of the nature. Their great technique and wonderful skill are an unusual work of genius.” If the sky is really a sphere, then it definitely can move into and out of water and travel through it as well. A quotation from Huangdi Shu (the classics of the Huang-Lao (Huangdi and Lao Tzu) school of the Taoism) read: “The sky is outside of the earth and water is outside of the sky. It’s water that carries the sky which has the earth in it.” And The Book of Changes recorded: “When six flying Chinese dragons appear on the sky, it is time to take advantage of an opportunity to do something.” Yang yao trigram is called a Chinese dragon, which is a creature living in water and is compared to the sky. The sky is Yang in property; it travels through water like a Chinese dragon does and that’s why people compare it to a Chinese dragon. The ancient sages observed the upper sky and explored the lower earth and revealed the truth. So the divinatory symbols such as the pair of an upper kun (the earth) trigram and a lower li (fire) trigram recorded in Jin indicates that the sun rises from below the ground, the pair of a lower li and an upper kun recorded in Mingyi indicates that the sun sinks below the ground, another pair of a lower qian (the sky) and an upper kan (water) recorded in Xu indicates that the celestial sphere moves into water. According to the five-element theory, the sky is metal in property and is the product of the interaction between metal and water. Is there any problem that hinders the free passage of the celestial sphere in water? In that case, there is no doubt that the celestial sphere can travel through water.

In this passage, Ge Hong made an elaborate discussion on the great mastery of Zhang Heng and the delicacy of the armillary sphere and concluded that Sphereheavens theory was the most sophisticated and precise. As to Wang Chong’s idea

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that “the celestial sphere can’t travel through water,” Ge Hong quoted some philosophical notions from The Book of Changes and argued that the celestial sphere was compatible with the water, and there would be no problem for the celestial sphere to travel through the water. Ge Hong went on to refute Wang Chong’s ideas of “the sun and the moon are not spherical” and “the sun and the moon are found to rise and set because there is a great distance between them and people”: We also observe that when the stars first appear in the east they are just a little above the horizon, and they move westward slowly, go past overhead and set in the west, never moving in other directions. The stars that appear in the west in the beginning go down a little, never going in the north direction. The sun rises and sets in the same fashion. If the millstone is used as a metaphor for the rotation of the sky, then the sun, the moon, the stars all should move along with the sky: At first, they are in the east, and move via the south, and to the west and then to the north before going back to the east; they never go across the sky. The sun is found to emerge in the east and rise slowly upward and declines a little when it reaches the west; it never deviates to the north. While it is so evident, Wang Chong just dismissed it; he made a blunder. And the sun is thousands of li in diameter, which is several dozen times of that of the smaller stars. When the sun moves very far away, though the light from it may fail to reach people, the body of the sun should still be visible and should not be totally lost. The sun is much brighter and larger than other stars. The presence of the stars north to the celestial pole and the absence of the sun there is the positive proof that the sun never moves northward. If the sun becomes out of sight as it moves far, it should look smaller when it is setting. But the sun looks larger when it is sinking below the ground, which shows that the sun isn’t moving farther away. Wang Chong made an analogy between a flaming torch and the sun; I will refute his contention with his arguments. When a man with a flaming torch walks far away, the light of the torch becomes dim; yet the sun and the moon never become dim. So Wang Chong made a false analogy with the flaming torch. Moreover, when the sun is sinking in the west, at first it is about to move with half of it over the horizon as if out of a mirror which is lying on its side, and it disappeared just in the blink of the eye. As Wang Chong said, the sun moves northward and when it sinks in the north it should look like moving out of an erected mirror, not out of a mirror lying on its side. If that is the case, isn’t the sun isolated when it is in the north? And the moonlight is much less bright than the sunlight. It would not be pitch black at night even when a full moon is blocked by thick clouds; the moonlight still can go through the clouds. So if the sun moves via the west to the north, the sunlight should be like the moonlight which goes through the clouds and there should not be a total darkness at night. Furthermore, the moon and the stars appear after the sun sets. It is known that the sun and the moon preside day and night respectively; they illuminate in turn. So if the sun stays in the sky, the moon and the stars would not appear when the sun sets. Investigations into sages’ masterpieces invariably reveal that water and fire are the residues of Yin and Yang. Since they are the residues, they can’t breed the sun and the moon; on the contrary, it is appropriate to conclude that the sun produces fire. Even if fire and water are bred from the sun and the moon, they are not guaranteed to be just as round as the sun and the moon. Fire is made out of a concave bronze mirror, but fire is not round while the mirror is. Water is collected in a square utensil, but water is not square while the utensil is. While a bronze concave mirror can help to produce fire from the sun, it proves hopeless to produce the sun from fire, so it is evident that fire is the essence of the sun. While a square utensil can help to produce water from the moon, it proves hopeless to produce the moon from water, so it is obvious that water is the essence of the moon. Wang Chong also said: “It looks round from a long distance.” Why a crescent moon or a waning moon obviously doesn’t look round? And as to the eclipse of the sun, it starts from the top, the bottom or from one side till it is reduced to a sickle curve and then vanishes. If the sun looks round from a

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long distance, the eclipse of it, in any form, can’t be found. Therefore, the celestial sphere can be authentically proved true.

What Ge Hong put forward in his discussion such as the sun rises or sets as if “out of a mirror lying on its side” rather than “from an erected mirror” and the sun or the moon in an eclipse doesn’t look round because of a long distance are all based on the observations in daily life, which is convincing. A scholar by the name of He Chengtian in the Song Dynasty founded by Liu Yu further developed the Sphere-heavens theory, too. He expounded the theory in his essay On the Phenomena and Essence of the Sphere-heavens Theory: On the basis of a thorough study on the established theories, I made a careful observation on the armillary to figure out its mechanism. I realized that the sky is a celestial sphere with water taking half of its content and the earth is higher in the middle and lower at edges with waters girdling it. As to the edges of the earth, the east is called Yanggu where the sun rises and the west is called Mengsi where the sun sets. As recorded in Zhuang Zi: “There was a gigantic fish in the deep sea of the north; it transformed into a bird and was set out to fly to the deep sea in the south”, which is an evidence from the ancient period that there are waters all around the earth. The waters around the edges of the earth are called the seas. Of all the five elements which interact with each other, water is derived from metal. So all the rivers start from mountains and flow down until empty into sea. The sun is the essence of Yang and is glaringly scorching; when it moves into water at which night begins, all the things on its path are burnt and scorched. Whereas with all the rivers being fed into the sea a balance is maintained; it never diminishes in drought and never overflows in flood.

He Chengtian quoted from Zhuang Zi to demonstrate that there were seas all around the earth and the earth was surrounded by waters. When the massive flaming ball of the sun entered water when night began, the water is evaporated; but the rivers replenished the loss and a cycle of water was hence completed. The argument given by He Chengtian is very original and enlightening as it for the first time put forward the notion of the cycle of water between the sky and the earth. The Sphere-heavens theory held that the distances between the sun, the moon, the stars, and the center of the earth remained unchanged no matter in which season or at any time of a day. A tale from Lie Zi has been given below: Confucius went on a tour eastward and found two kids arguing heatedly. He asked the reason and one kid answered: “I think the sun is closer to us when it just rises and is farther away from us at noon.” The other kid answered: “I think the sun is farther away from us when it just rises and is closer to us at noon.” The kid who held that the sun was closer at sunrise explained: “The sun is as large as a canopy when it rises but becomes as large as a plate at noon. Doesn’t it look large at a long distance and look small at a short distance?” The kid who held that the sun was farther away at sunrise explained: “The sun looks distant and watery when it rises but becomes as scalding as hot water at noon. Doesn’t it feel hotter at a short distance and feel cooler at a long distance?”

What is given above is the famous tale of “the debate over the Sun between two kids,” which put forward a paradox of the relationship between the size of the sun and the distance of the sun from the observer, and an answer was demanded from the

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Sphere-heavens theory. In Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy, there were some answers to this question, and the first one is quoted from Xinlun written by Huan Tan: Guan Ziyang, Changshui Xiaowei (a garrison officer) from Pingling in the Han Dynasty, held that the sun was farther away from people when it was right overhead and closer to people when it was on the horizon. Why did he think so? When stars emerge in the east at dusk, they are sparsely distributed with wide gaps of several zhang between them. When the stars are overhead in the sky at midnight, they become densely distributed with narrow gaps of one or two chi between them. A measurement on them further reveals this phenomenon, therefore it can be concluded that stars are farther away from people when they are overhead than when they are on the horizon. The sun is Yang found in the sky which scorches downward and fire is Yang found on the earth which flames upward. To put a fire on the ground and feel its heat from the side of it or on top of it, we have quite different feelings. At noon, the sun is right overhead and people are broiling right under the sun, so the sun feels much more scorching than it feels on the horizon at dawn when it is just new out from the depths of Yin, which makes it even cooler than it feels on the horizon at dusk. Huan Junshan (Huan Tan) commented: Did Ziyang’s words tell what it is?

The passage given above is a quotation from a scholar called Guan Ziyang in the Han Dynasty who insisted that the sun was farther away from people when it was right overhead and closer to people when it was on the horizon and offered reasons why the sun felt scorching at noon and felt cool at dawn and at dusk. But Huan Tan seemed to have different opinions on this topic. And a quotation from Lingtai written by Zhang Heng was given in Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy: When the sun is close to the horizon, the earth becomes dark. To look at the bright from within the dark, the bright looks the same and the sun hence looks large. In the daytime, the sky and the earth are equally bright, so the sun looks smaller in the bright background. Fire looks glaringly bright at night, but doesn’t look equally bright during the day. The impact of the moon on the night is what the sun on the day, with just little difference.

Here Zhang Heng offered the reason why the sun looked different in size, and in fact he explained why the sun and the moon stayed fixed in position. A Zhuzuo Lang (an official in charge of history compilation) called Shu Xi in the Jin Dynasty shared the view, holding it is equally distant from the top or from the side: To look at the sun from the side at dawn, the sun looks large. While the sun’s size is a constant, the background is a variable. And therefore the sun can look small or look large when the background varies in scale. The sun is white-hot when it first rises and it doesn’t look large; the sun is red when it rises up and it looks large. It is an optical illusion and there is no difference in distance. In a massive hall, a very large ding (a large cooking or sacrificial vessel in ancient China) which can hold a cow looks as small as a pot; in a lofty temple which is ten ren (a measure in ancient China which equals seven or eight chi; one chi is about 33.33 cm) high, a tall man who is eight chi in height looks short. Therefore, while objects are constant in shape, they may look different in size. So the shape or size of the objects can be misleading and can never be readily relied on to make judgments. When we look upward to observe the moon which is amid clouds, we may find the moon is moving while the clouds are fixed; when we travel by ship, we may find the water is running and the ship is anchored.

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Shu Xi introduced the principle of optical illusion in his explanation, which was akin to a modern theory. Jiang Ji echoed this opinion: I think Ziyang’s opinion that the sun is Yang found in the sky which broils downward and makes it scorching right under the sun and Shu Xi’s opinion that celestial bodies such as the sun is judged by human eyes and the sun may look large are fairly to the point. The size of the armillary sphere and the diameter of the circular orbits are demonstrated with the number of du of the celestial sphere and checked by the shadow on the sundial; the various theories are just subject to personal opinions. When the stars called Can and Fa first appear in the distant sky on the horizon, there are wide gaps between them; when they move to the sky overhead, there are narrow gaps between them. But a check with the armillary sphere reveals that the gaps between them have been constant. There is no variance when observed in different positions. Being made of the solid essence of Yang, the sun is glaringly bright and looks small. At sunrise, the haze of steam on the ground blurs the sunlight and the sun looks red and large. When there is no haze of steam at sunrise, the sun is white-hot and doesn’t look large. When the haze of steam on the ground doesn’t rise high, the sun looks red at dawn and at dusk and becomes white-hot at noon. When the haze of steam on the ground rises up high to the sky, the sun may look red amid the mist. The sun is akin to a fire in that a fire can be composed of a red core and yellow flames; the same is true of the sun when it looks red. A red sun is like a fire void of flame and eclipses of the sun are just an exception.

In this passage, Jiang Ji further explained optical illusions in astronomical observation and cited the phenomenon that the atmosphere of the earth scatters the light from the sun to illustrate the dim sunlight on the horizon. In view of “the internecine frenzy of conflicts between different schools,” Zu Geng in the Liang Dynasty suggested concluding on actual measurement. Zu Geng said: I noted the similarities and differences in reading classic documents; looked far and wide into the sky, in any perspective; observed the rise and fall of the sun, the moon, the stars; made a further research with the armillary sphere; checked the results of observation against the scale on clepsydra and the shadow on sundial. Finally I conclude that the Sphere-heavens theory is authentically true. . . . The past scholars who finished Kao Lingyao (investigation into the stars) calculated that the distance between the sky and the earth was one hundred and seventy-eight thousand, five hundred li, which is proved too large and wrong when checked against shadows on sundial. No specific calculation method is given, a mere estimate for the distance only proves their act ostentatious, which is contrary to lofty and honest principles. Most of those scholars just made efforts to insist their theory and never made attempts to innovate their research, were they unconscious of the guiding principles? Or did they fail to find the answer? Wang Fan made an investigation into this problem and found an answer, which reduced the original number more than half; though he failed to conduct an objective quantitative research, he managed to reason and was closer to the truth. The two planes of the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect with each other, and they are twenty-four du apart. The sun feels cold at a long distance, feels hot at a short distance, and feels warm at a medium distance. On the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox, the ecliptic plane is thirty-six du apart from the apex of the celestial sphere. The distance between the sun and the center of the earth remains constant all year round. The reason why there are four seasons is the earth radiates upward and the sun scorches downward; that’s why it feels cold when people are far below the sun and it feels hot when people are near below the sun. Similarly, it feels scorching over a fire even far away from it and feels mild even close to it by its side. And the sun looks large on the horizon and looks smaller

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high in the sky because it is difficult to look upward but easy to look straight ahead. And some specific terrains, not the distance, can cause visual differences. A pearl may look quite different in size when it is hung hundreds of ren high in the air or is put hundreds of ren ahead. The past scholars never made any field survey and just rest content with speculative and sedentary activities, what a pedantic and absurd style! The Greater Cold is the second solar term from the Winter Solstice; it is the depth of winter. The Greater Heat is the second solar term from the Summer Solstice; it is the height of summer. The balance of heat and cold appeared on the second solar term from the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox, when the heat and the cold have accumulated. This can be demonstrated by analogy with a fire which is moved into a room: at first the room doesn’t feel very warm, and it becomes hot later in it though the fire is never fueled with sticks. After the fire is taken outside, the heat lingers in the room.

Zu Geng’s proposal that the theories of the different schools should be judged by practical standards for merits showed great insight. It is the statistics acquired from field surveys at this proposal that proved the notion of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths found in two places which are one thousand li apart” in the Canopy-heavens theory untenable. Liu Zhuo in the Sui Dynasty wrote On Sphere-heavens Theory, and it was cited: It is recorded in Zhouguan (an article from Shangshu) that the length of shadow of the sunlight on the Summer Solstice is five chi. The past scholars such as Zhang Heng, Zheng Xuan, Wang Fan, Lu Ji all held the notion of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths found in two places which are one thousand li apart”. There is one place which is fifteen thousand li away in the south and is just right under the sun, where the pole and the shadow on that spot are of the equal length, the sky is of a different height. A proof with the algorithm has proven it utterly false. In the places called Jiaozhou and Aizhou, no shadow was found to the north of the pole; these places are located south to the place that is right under the sun and thousands of li away. So it can be concluded that the notion of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths found in two places which are one thousand li apart” is false.

It was mentioned in this passage that although the scholars such as Zhang Heng and Wang Fan promoted the Sphere-heavens theory, they stuck to the notion of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths found in two places which are one thousand li apart,” which was a notion of the Canopy-heavens theory. Liu Zhuo repudiated this notion with the data acquired from field survey. And this bears testimony to the long course of conversion from the Canopy-heavens theory to the Sphere-heavens theory. Then in the Tang Dynasty, an even larger scaled astronomical and geodetic survey under the guidance of Yixing the Monk and Nangong Yue authentically concluded that on the summer solstice, there was “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths found in two places that are about five hundred and twenty-six li and two hundred and seventy bu (a length measurement) apart”; the notion of “a difference of one cun between the shadow lengths found in two places which are one thousand li apart” was thus thoroughly repudiated. By then, the Sphere-heavens theory had long gained authority and was esteemed as a standard model for further astronomical research and theoretical exploration.

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The period after the Sui and Tang dynasties just witnessed a meager development in the Sphere-heavens theory. Though Ge Hong made a long and eloquent speech to refute Wang Chong’s notion that “the celestial sphere can’t move through water,” the Sphere-heavens theory, which was a corollary, was not convincing. With the development of essence ontology, Qiu Guangting of the Five-Dynasty period, Shao Yong, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, and Cheng Yi of the Song Dynasty, all made efforts to supplement the hypothesis in the Sphere-heavens theory – the earth is surrounded by water. And by Zhu Xi’s time in the Southern Song Dynasty, a new version of the Sphere-heavens theory had leaped out. In On Tides, Qiu Guangting put forward the notion that “the sky is carried by qi” and argued that the sun would not travel through water: “The moon and the stars are not luminous celestial bodies, they just reflect light from the sun; if the sun should go into water, the moon and the stars can’t stay bright.” And he continued: “The sun is in the midst of essence and illuminates the whole sky; the sky is not dark even at midnight; it can be inferred that there must be qi in the depths of the sea.” And he finally concluded: “There is an outer space beyond qi. The outer space exists by means of qi and qi exists by means of water and water exists by means of the earth, which is floating in the void and looks like an egg.” Zhang Zai pointed out in Zhengmeng-Canliang Passage that “the earth exists in qi” and “the earth can rise and fall and the day can draw in and draw out; though the earth is a solid mass, there is always a qi moving through it, ceaselessly and never slacks.” And the Cheng’s brothers pointed out in The Complete Works of the Cheng’s Brothers: “There are universally applicable guiding principles, and there should be gaps on the borders. What is the implication of the gaps? Isn’t there another sky beyond the earth? What we call as the earth at present is not unique; it is just an object in the sky, like the conglomeration of vapor or cloud, which we have taken for granted for its long persistence. Any motion of the earth is virtually the motion of qi.” They hence clearly pointed out that the earth, like the cloud in the sky, is floating in the sky. The new version of the Sphere-heavens theory which was based on essence ontology was epitomized by Zhu Xi’s masterpieces. In the third volume of The Annotations to the Songs of Chu, the third part of Tianwen, Zhu Xi commented: The celestial sphere is round in shape like a ball, and it keeps on rotating day and night on a fixed axis, which is higher at the southern end and lower at the northern end. The rotation of it leaves no trace; it just rotates like a whirl of strong wind. During the day, it rotates from the left to the right; at dusk, it falls in the front and moved to the back; at night, it rotates from the right to the left; at dawn, it rises from the back and moves to the front. It rotates ceaselessly and rises and falls repeatedly and hence called celestial body, though there is in fact no content in it. The earth is composed of dregs of qi; it is carried by a whirl of strong wind and can stay fixed in its place permanently. Huangdi (a legendary ruler) once consulted Qibo (a medical sage in time immemorial): “Is the earth being carried by something?” Qibo answered: “Being supported by qi.” The conversation virtually referred to this.

There is a dialogue recorded in The Complete Works of Zhu Xi-The First Passage of Liqi:

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Question: Does the celestial sphere have form and content? Answer: It is just a whirl of wind, with a soft top and a hard base, and is called Gang wind (strong wind in upper space) in Taoism.

There is a similar dialogue recorded in The Quotations of Zhu Xi-The Second Passage of Liqi: Question: Does the celestial sphere have form and content? Answer: It doesn’t. It is just a qi which rotates fast like a whirl of strong wind. It rotates even faster at the top or it will be pulled down by the earth.

Zhu Xi drew on essence ontology and explained why the sky is a void with an analogy between the celestial sphere and a fast-rotating qi. According to him, the rotation accelerates when it spirals upward from the base to the top and gradually becomes tough and hard until it forms an outer celestial crust. The sky and the earth are kept in position by means of this fast rotation.

8.2.3

The Infinite Empty Space Theory

As for the Infinite Empty Space theory, it was recorded in a written report from Shuofang to emperor by the scholar named Cai Yong that the Infinite Empty Space theory was lost; the ancient theory was so strange even to a leading master of humanities like Cai Yong. It was recorded in Book of the Jin Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy: The Infinite Empty Space theory is lost; the documents available on this theory are the notes kept by a Mishu Lang (an official librarian) called Xi Meng from his past teacher’s instruction: There is no content in the celestial sphere. Look up at it, we can find it is high and boundless; there is just a vastness of dark blue even if you open your eyes to gaze into it . . . The sun, the moon, the stars are floating in the void; any movement of them is carried out in qi. Therefore, the different modes of operation and various phases of the seven luminaries are caused by the fact that they are rootless and free. So the Big Dipper stays fixed in its position and never falls in the west with other stars. Both the Sheti (the name for a constellation in ancient China) and the Tianxing (Saturn) move to the east at the pace of one du each day and thirteen du every month. It is hence clearly demonstrated that the stars move in an unpredictable and unfettered free style which is impossible if they are clung to the celestial sphere.

This passage was aimed at telling that the celestial sphere was a void, with no form and content in it; the sun, the moon, and the stars were floated in the void, moving freely. Sounding fairly similar to the modern cosmology, this theory tended to be stretched a little and labeled as the most advanced cosmological theory in ancient China. Nevertheless, when the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars were described as “different modes of operation,” “various phases,” and “unpredictable and unfettered free style” in the Infinite Empty Space theory, the diversified motion of the celestial bodies was exaggerated, and the inexorable law for the movement of the celestial bodies was ignored; the theory hence failed to offer

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any quantitative description of the structure of the celestial sphere and the earth; therefore a quantitative explanation for normal astronomical phenomena could never be given on the basis of this theory. So, while the names for the Canopy-heavens theory and the Sphere-heavens theory are capable of proof, there meaning of the notion of the Infinite Empty Space is by no means explicable. The Infinite Empty Space theory was lost in the course of passing down to later generations and was a strange thing to most people. Huang Xian, a scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty who was a little bit after Xi Meng, recorded a dialogue in one passage of his work Astronomy (A Collection of Ancient and Modern BooksAstronomical phenomena Classics, Vol. 6): Question: “Then, are the sky and the earth boundless?” Answer: “The places where the sun and the moon rise and set are the boundary of the sky and the earth. And as to what it is beyond the route of the sun and the moon, I don’t know.” Question: “Are the sun and the moon clung to the sky?” Answer: “The sky is in the outside; the sun and the moon are in the inside. The inside is the scope in which the sun and the moon move, therefore there is a fixed du for the movement of the celestial bodies and the four seasons are hence made. The outside is what we call the great void. In the depths of the great void, the light from the sun and the moon is invisible, the movement of the celestial bodies such as the sun and moon is not found, the cycle of the four seasons is not noticed; the sun and the moon, movement of the stars, seasons are not found there. Everything merges into the void, and the void is boundless. So the sages tend to be baffled as to how to make calendars for the space outside the scope of the sun and the moon; the sages would find it impossible to alter the length of time in the scope of the sun and the moon. So the calendars are just made by recording the traces of the movement of the sun and the moon.” “Is the sky rotating to the left or to the right?” “The sky is clear, bright, and motionless. The movement literally refers to the rotation of the sun, the moon, and the stars! So it is a false notion that the sky rotates and it is an infeasible practice to make calendars on the measurement of the sky. It is no more than an observation of the rotations.” “What is the dividing line?” “On the land in the prehistoric times, there were no laws in any sense, and there were no institutions of tributes and taxes — the hordes just dwelt in caves in the wilderness. After a long time, sages appeared to make boundaries on the land to settle the roaming hordes, allocate the land to them, levy taxes on them, and establish institutions. It is evident that the sages’ management was conducted in response to the signs in sky, not guided by the stars. The stars in the sky are distant and vague, and there is no need to make special efforts to set them into different zones. So the sun, the moon, and the stars are signs in the sky, and the boundaries on the land are the institutions. The features in the sky and on the ground should be interpreted and finally associated, which proved to be the lofty feat of the sages. As to the dividing line which was not recorded in the classics, where can I find it?” “I heard the king of the Lu kingdom was eager to recruit the experts of the astronomy and astrology, and the experts are converging on his palace, why should you stay secluded from it?” “I prefer a free life and am obsessed by the observation of the astronomical phenomena; I often feel confused about them! I am not learned yet and not qualified for that position.”

This fictional dialogue aimed to highlight the vastness of the universe. It also advocated that the celestial sphere was stationary, and the sun and the moon didn’t rotate clung to the celestial sphere but moved independently; therefore, there was no

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point arguing whether the celestial sphere was rotating to the left or to the right. On the whole, this opinion was more speculative, which contributed nothing substantive to the study of the structure of the universe. There was another scholar by the name of Yu Xi who developed the Infinite Empty Space theory. It was recorded in Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy: During the Xiankang period in reign of the Emperor Cheng of the Jin Dynasty, Yu Xi from Kuaiji wrote On the Celestial Sphere on the basis of the Infinite Empty Space theory, insisting “The sky rises high to the vastness; the earth sinks low to the abyss. The sky definitely stays above and is stable; the earth is held below fast and is solid. The sky and the earth coexist and keep parallel to each other; they tend to change simultaneously in shape, without fail. The arrays of luminous stars revolve on their respective orbits regularly like the ebb and flow of the tides or the boom and slump of the things in the world.” On hearing this statement, Ge Hong satirized: “If the stars are not clung to the celestial sphere, the sphere will be proved to be useless and can be written off as void. Why bother to say it is a motionless entity?” So it can be seen that Ge Hong had the virtue of wisdom.

It is evident that the author of Book of the Sui Dynasty-Treatise on Astronomy disapproved of the views of the Infinite Empty Space theory. He cited the statements of Ge Hong to satirize Yu Xi, asserting that should the rotation of the sun, the moon, and the stars dispense with the celestial sphere, the celestial sphere would hence be left useless; in this case, there was no need to say there was a celestial sphere but it was motionless. So it is feasible to appraise cosmological theories from the pragmatic or empirical perspectives.

8.3

The Buddhist Outlook on the Universe in Ancient China

Besides the traditional cosmological theories which were indigenous notions of the Confucianism and the Taoism in ancient China, there were Buddhist cosmological theories introduced from India along with Buddhism. The imported theories exerted some influence on the Chinese people’s understanding of the universe. The universe is generally called shijie in Buddhism. In the fourth volume of the  Surangma Sutra, it is recorded: “Ananda, why should it be called the world of all things? Shi 世 is the running stream; jie界 is the boundary. It is known that there are boundaries in the east, the west, the south, the north, the southeast, the southwest, the northeast, the northwest, the upper part, the lower part. The past, the present, and the future are collectively called shi. There are ten boundaries and three streams.” It can be seen that shi refers to the passage and alteration of time from the past to the present and to the future; jie refers to the boundary, namely, the limit in the space. A scholar by the name of Gao You in the Han Dynasty pointed out when he annotated Huainanzi-Yuandaoxun: “The space in the four directions and the upper space and the lower space are collectively called yu, and the passing of time from the past to the present is called zhou.” The notion of yuzhou in ancient China is similar to the notion of shijie in Buddhist scriptures.

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In Buddhist scriptures, shijie can be written as shijian; jian is of the same meaning as jie, and they both refer to the different sections divided by boundaries. In Buddhism, shijie is divided into two different layers: zhongsheng shijie (the ethereal) and qi 器 shijie (the earthen). Zhongsheng shijie is also called youqing shijie (the animated); qi shijie means the earthen land on which all living creatures can dwell. It is evident that qi shijie is biased to material traits and is closer to the notion of universe in astronomy. There is an important notion for time in Buddhist cosmology – jie劫 (kalpa). The notion can be found in many idioms in Chinese language such as zaijie nantao (the penalty is sure), wanjie bufu (be damned into an irredeemable abyss), and jiehou yusheng (a narrow escape from death). The notion of jie, which came to China with Buddhism from India in a very early period, is equivalent to kalpa in Sanskrit and generally transliterated as jiebo, which is generally simplified as jie, meaning “the very remote past.” In Brahmana of India, one jiebo equals one daytime of the Brahma, namely, 4,320,000,000 years in human world. According to Brahmana doctrines, at the end of one jie, a fire will break out and devastate everything before a new world is created. The Brahmana astronomical school of Greek period in Indian astronomy divided a jiebo into 1000 mahayuga; 1 mahayuga will be subdivided into four proportionate stages of different length: Krtayuga (1,728,000 years), Tretayuga (1,296,000 years), Dvayuga (864,000 years), and Kaliyuga (432,000 years). This school holds that the present world is amid the conflicts which started at midnight between the 17th and the 18th of February in 3102 BC. The important notion of jiebo for worldview and cosmology in Buddhism was borrowed from Brahmana. The notion of jiebo has been used very frequently in Chinese version of Buddhist scriptures; it varies slightly in definition among different versions of Buddhist scriptures, for example, in the 15th part of the Ekottarogama Sutra: The Buddha thus instructed me: At that time, the Buddha was in Jetawanavihāra of Sravasti, and a Bhiksu monk came to pay a visit to the Buddha. After performing the ritual kowtow courtesy by putting his forehead on the feet of the Buddha, the Bhiksu monk took seat on one side. After a short while, the monk left his seat and moved closer to the Buddha and consulted: “As to the length of jie, is there a limit to it?” The Buddha answered: “Jie is extremely long, and I will illustrate it for you with an analogy. Listen attentively.” At that time, the Bhiksu monk was attending the lectures from the Buddha. The Buddha hence instructed the Bhiksu: “Listen, it is like a square iron city with an equal length and width of one yojana (11.2 km) which is packed solid with mustard seeds. Suppose someone should come to take one grain of seed once in a hundred years, when the last grain in the whole city stock of mustard seeds is finally taken away, it is one jie in time.”

The Buddha drew an analogy to explain to the enquiring Bhiksu monk that one jie is extremely long: To fill one city which is one yojana in length and width with mustard seeds and to take one grain of seed out of it every 100 years until no seed is left, and this is not the end of one jie yet. One yojana can cover a distance of 40 li, 20 li, or 16 li; in any case, the number of the mustard seeds which are packed solid in a city which is one yojana in length and width is extremely large.

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In the 135th part of Abhidharma Mahāvibhāsā, jie劫is more systematically and rigorously expounded: One Jie can be classified into three categories: antara-kalpa, vivarta-kalpa, maha-kalpa. One antara-kalpa can be further classified into three categories: extension kalpa, reduction kalpa, extension-reduction kalpa. The infinite human lifespan can be reduced to a short span of ten sui岁; the short span of ten sui for human life can be extended to a long span of eighty thousand sui; the short span of ten sui for human life can be extended to a long span of eighty thousand sui before reduced back to a short span of ten sui. For every group of twenty antarakalpas, there are one reduction kalpa and one extension on two ends and eighteen extensionreduction kalpas in between. It takes twenty antara-kalpas to make a founded shijian and it takes twenty antara-kalpas to make an enforced shijian, which are combined to make a foundation-kalpa. It takes twenty antara-kalpas to make a damaged shijian and it takes twenty antara-kalpas to make a ruined shijian, which are combined to make a ruin-kalpa. A total of eighty antara-kalpas compose a maha-kalpa. Of the group of twenty antara-kalpas in an enforced shijian, there are one reduction kalpa and one extension kalpa at two ends and eighteen extension-reduction kalpas in between.

It hence demonstrated that the largest jiebo in Buddhism is called maha-kalpa. Similar to the practices of Brahmana, in Buddhism, a maha-kalpa consists of some medium kalpas and minor kalpas; the division is given as follows: One maha-kalpa is divided into a foundation-kalpa and a ruin-kalpa; a foundation-kalpa is further divided into a founded shijian and an enforced shijian; a ruin-kalpa is further divided into a damaged shijian and a ruined shijian. One maha-kalpa hence consists of four parts: a founded shijian, an enforced shijian, a damaged shijian, and a ruined shijian; each of them consists of 20 antara-kalpas and 1 maha-kalpa consists of 80 antarakalpas. Twenty antara-kalpas as a group are made up of 1 reduction kalpa and 1 extension kalpa at the 2 ends and 18 extension-reduction kalpas in between. An extension kalpa is defined as “to extend a short span of ten sui for human life to a long span of eighty thousand sui”; reduction kalpa is defined as “to reduce an infinite human lifespan to a short span of ten sui”; extension-reduction kalpa is defined as “to extend a short span of ten sui for human life to a long span of eighty thousand sui and then to reduce it back to a short span of ten sui.” The terms of “infinite human lifespan” and “eighty thousand sui” refer to approximate numbers; the accurate number is 84,000 sui. The number varies by the rule that one sui equals 100 years. So it is not difficult to find the specific numbers of years for an extension kalpa, a reduction kalpa, and an extension-reduction kalpa; it will be solved that there are 1,276,648,000 years in one maha-kalpa. Buddhist worldview also holds that on the doomsday of a maha-kalpa, a fierce fire will devastate everything; “at this time, in a range of seven days, a scorching sun will make the seas dry up and the mountains empty; the whole earthly world in which the living things dwell will be devoured in the flames which will be blown high to the heaven to consume the temples there completely, leaving nothing behind it, even ashes” (Abhidharmakosa). The world thus goes through a cycle, and everything will be created anew. Buddhism holds that after the fire, before the sky and the earth come into being, there has been a realm for all living creatures. It was recorded in Shiben Yuanpin, the 22nd part of the Dirghagama Sutra:

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The Buddha instructs the Bhiksu monk: The fire is past, and when the sky and the earth are coming into being, the living creatures have squandered their fortune, career, and life. They come to an end in ābhāssara deva, and come into being in Brahmā. . . . Many of them come into being in Brahmā: They are born out of nature and feed on pleasure; they are luminous and are flying with ease in the sky; they enjoy a carefree and ample time and are blessed with an eternal life. Later, waters of flood occur and become prevailing. And in the depths of the darkness, the sun and the moon, the stars, day and night can never be discerned, nor can the age and season. . . . The differences in gender, status, rank are nonexistent and there are no names to tell them apart. All living creatures coexist in the world and are thus called the beings.

It is evident that the living creatures in the world of the being are “angels,” who feed on “pleasure” and are luminous themselves, not reflecting the light from the sun and the moon; they can fly in the sky and enjoy an eternal life. But the bliss ends too soon: “At that time, something emerges out of the ground and congeals on it like finest cream. The congealed jelly tastes sweet and delicate like honey. At the sight of this congealed jelly, some of the living creatures take a little from it with hand and taste it. To their joy, it is delicious and highly addictive. They try the jelly many times and become obsessed with it. They begin scooping it up to devour and become helpless with it. The rest of the living creatures imitate and also begin devouring it ceaselessly. Their bodies henceforth coarsen and they are no longer luminous and ethereal; they are thereafter reduced to earthbound creatures” (the 22nd part of the Dirghagama Sutra). The greed causes the fall of the living creatures. Being no longer luminous and able to fly, the living creatures have to settle down in an earthen land qi shijie. Records of the formation of the qi shijie can be found in many Buddhist scriptures. A survey of the records in several Chinese Buddhist scriptures reveals the formation of the qi shijie in Buddhist cosmology: At the beginning of jie劫, there was a gale which could destroy everything, leaving no trace. All the continents and mountains were blown away. After a very long period of time, massive dark clouds began hanging heavy over the whole world, and it began raining in torrents for millions of years. The waters pooled and deepened to form the base ocean, which was 11 laksa, 20 thousand yojana deep and 12 laksa, 3400 and half a yojana wide. The waters surged from the bottom of the base ocean to the surface and formed a gold crust like a coat on the surface of boiled milk, which was the gold ground wheel. The gold ground wheel was 3 laksa, 20 thousand yojana thick and of the same diameter as the water wheel (the base ocean); the thickness of the water wheel is a smaller number of 8 laksa yojana. The circumference of the gold ground wheel and the water wheel was three times the diameter of them, namely, 36 laksa, 20 thousand and 350 yojana. On the ground wheel, there was another ocean formed by torrential rains. Being stirred and blown by the wind wheel, the top-grade elements of this ocean were panned out to form Sumeru Mountain (also called Xumi Mountain, Miaogao Mountain); the middle-grade elements formed seven gold mountains; the low-grade elements formed Cakravāda; the left remnants formed four continents. According to the records in the scriptures, the transition from zhongsheng shijie (the ethereal) to qi shijie (the earthen) took 20 antara-kalpas in a founded shijian, namely, 319,162,100 years.

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The moment shijie came into being, it was complete with its inner structure. Of the descriptions of this inner structure found in many Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures, Abhidharma offered a more comprehensive and quantitative description, which was given below: All things in the universe dwell on a massive and endless wind wheel that is 16 laksa (1.6 million) yojana. On the wind wheel, there is a water wheel, which is 11 laksa, twenty thousand (1.12 million) yojana thick; the top coat of the water wheel composes a crust and is called gold ground wheel, which is three laksa, twenty thousand (0.32 million) yojana thick. The water wheel and the gold ground wheel are of the same diameter, which is 12 laksa, 3450 (1 203 450) yojana; the circumference of them are three times the diameter of them, namely 36 laksa, 10 350 (3 610 350) yojana.

On the gold ground wheel, Sumeru Mountain was located in the center, surrounded by a series of seven mountains: Yugamdhara, Isadhara, Khadiraka, Sudarsana, Asvakarna, Vinataka, and Nemimdhara. Sumeru Mountain was made of the “four treasures” – gold, silver, glass, and glaze. Both the part of Sumeru Mountain which was above the sea level and the part of it which was below the sea level were 84 thousand yojana in height. The surrounding seven mountains were made of gold. There were four continents located beyond the seven mountains, namely, Jambudvipa, Purva-Videha, Avaragodaniya, and Uttarakuru. There was a Cakravāda located further beyond the four continents, which was made of iron. While the submerged parts of the seven gold mountains and Cakravāda were of the same height as that of Sumeru Mountain, the height of the parts above sea level decreased by half in sequence; the width of each mountain equaled the height of the parts of them which were above sea level, respectively. There were altogether nine mountains and eight seas which located alternately. The first seven seas were inner seas with the innermost one measured 80,000 yojana in width and 240,000 yojana in circumference. And the widths of the rest six inner seas decreased by half in sequence. The eighth sea was the outer sea, which was three laksa and twenty-one thousand (321,000) yojana wide. Being boosted and blown by the winds from the wind wheel, the sun, the moon, and the stars rotated around Sumeru Mountain. The diameter of the sun was 51 yojana and the diameter of the moon was 50 yojana (or 49 yojana). The diameter of the smallest star was only 1 krosa, and the diameter of the largest star was 16 yojana. The sun and the moon rotated at half of the height of Sumeru Mountain, namely, 42,000 yojana. It should be noted that the sun and the moon rotated on a horizontal plane, on the axis of the Sumeru Mountain which stayed erected on the ground. This model was quite similar to the rotation mode of the sun and the moon given in the Canopy-heavens theory of the cosmology in ancient China. According to the cosmology in ancient India, there were 180 orbits for the sun and 15 orbits for the moon. In half a year, the sun kept shifting from one orbit to the next orbit on a daily basis until it reached the outermost one and began shifting back one by one to the innermost orbit. Thus the variation of the azimuth at sunrise, the yearly variation of the length of daylight, etc. could be more satisfactorily explained. As to the orbits of the moon, 1 orbit of the moon is equivalent to 12 orbits of the sun. The distance

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between the southernmost orbit of the sun and the northernmost orbit of the sun was 290 yojana; the sun and the moon kept shifting their orbits to and fro between them. The southernmost orbit of the sun was called the outer orbit whose diameter was 481, 380 yojana and whose circumference was 1, 444, 140 yojana. The northernmost orbit of the sun was called the inner orbit whose diameter was 480, 800 and whose circumference was 1, 442, 400 yojana. The figure three remained as π in this case; it could be easily solved that the difference between the radiuses of the outer orbit and the inner orbit was 290 yojana. The rotation of the sun around Sumeru Mountain caused the alternation of day and night and the cycle of seasons in the four continents. The sun caused different “local times” in the four continents: the midnight of Uttarakuru, the sunset of Purvavideha, the noon of Jambudvipa, and the sunrise of Avaragodaniya occurred at exactly the same time. From the ninth day of the second month of the rainy season on, the nights and days drew in; from the ninth day of the fourth month of the cold season on, the nights and the days drew out. The shifting of the sun in the scope of orbits caused the variations in the length of the day and the night; they varied by one lava each day. As for the phases of the moon, they were the shadow of the moon in the sunlight which eclipsed part of the illuminated body of the moon when it was near the sun at the beginning and end of every month. (Translator: Bin Li) (Proofreader: Caiyun Lian)

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Contents 9.1 An Outline Introduction to the Development of the Architecture in Ancient China . . . . 9.1.1 The Neolithic Age (About 10,000 to 4000 Years Earlier) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1.2 The Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties (The Twenty-First Century BC to 222 BC, Including the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1.3 The Period from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (221 BC to 581) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1.4 The Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, and the Jin 金 Dynasty (581 to 1279) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1.5 The Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties (1279 to 1840) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 The Basic Features of the Architecture in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.1 Wood Structural Components Compose the Main House Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.2 A Symmetrical Courtyard Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.3 Cities Constructed Mainly on a Grid of Streets According to Comprehensive Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3 The Planning and Designing Methods for the Architecture in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.1 Designs for Single Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.2 The Turret of the Forbidden City of Beijing City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.3 The Layout of the Large Building Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.4 The City Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4 The Societal Conditions for the Development of the Architecture in Ancient China . . .

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Abstract

In this chapter, a systematic and detailed analysis of the material, layout, structure, design, style, management, concepts, etc. found in the architecture in ancient China during its long history has been given.

X. Fu (*) Institute of Architectural History, China Academy of Architectural Technology, Beijing, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_9

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Keywords

Wood structural components · A symmetrical courtyard layout · A grid of streets · “Block-section-type” cities · “Street-lane-type” cities · Construction Code

China boasts a long history of more than 4000 years with written records; in terms of the relics already found, architectural activities can be dated back more than 7000 years. While the diversity in geography, climate, nationality, etc. caused many differences among the buildings in different places, the innovations, communications, and fusion of various architectural fashions on the vast territory of China during the long course of thousands of years successfully cultivated a peculiar architecture style, which has passed down on to the modern times. This tenacious and vigorous architectural system is of the longest history (7000 years); it is never interrupted (there were interruptions to the development of architectures in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome); it demonstrates a stable peculiar style (timbered framework and a courtyard layout on a plane surface); it is highly adaptable to environments and has become widespread (exerting remarkable influence on the neighboring regions such as Korea, Japan, Southeast countries). Throughout the history of architecture of China, although the long course of architecture can be divided into several phases with respective geographical and racial features, a survey of the rich diversity of relics reveals an increasingly obvious common character in architecture that demonstrated diversified artistic styles in different types of buildings.

9.1

An Outline Introduction to the Development of the Architecture in Ancient China

The construction activities in the 7000-year-long history of China with tangible evidence can be roughly divided into five stages: The first stage is the Neolithic period (approximately 10,000 to 4000 years earlier), which is the germinating period; the second stage is the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties (the twenty-first century BC to 222 BC to the Warring States period), when the activities began to take shape; the third stage is the period from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Southern and Northern Dynasties (221 BC to 581), when the activities become fixed in pattern; the fourth stage is the period from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Southern Song Dynasty (581 to 1279), when the activities reached maturity and its prime period; the fifth stage is the period of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties (1279 to 1840), when the activities continued steadily and gradually fell into decline. The three Dynasties of Han, Tang, and Ming in the latter three stages proved to be the uniform and powerful periods in the history of China which witnessed great developments. Accordingly, the architectures of the three dynasties reached climaxes in their respective periods; they achieved great accomplishments in scale, art, and artistic styles.

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The Neolithic Age (About 10,000 to 4000 Years Earlier)

The excavated construction relics generally fall into two categories: One can be found in the wet places or even marshy land in the South of China, where there are elevated rooms built on stilts that developed from shanties in trees. The tangible evidence can be found in Hemudu relics which can be dated back to 7000 years earlier; groups of elevated houses that were built on stilt structures were fitted together with tenons and mortises and further bound up with ropes. The other can be found on the loess land in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, where there are half-timbered aboveground houses that were composed of timber frames, daub-clad walls, and thatched roofs which developed from underground caves or semi-caves. The tangible evidence can be found in Jiangzhai relics in Lin Tong, Xi’an City, which can be dated back to 6000 years earlier, covering an area of 20,000 m2, and forming a large habitation with one large house at the center (see Fig. 9.1).

9.1.2

The Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties (The Twenty-First Century BC to 222 BC, Including the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period)

The Xia Dynasty, as legend has it, is the earliest dynasty in the history of China. The remnants of the palaces in this Dynasty have been found in Erlitou relics; it covers a large area of more than 10,000 m2. And the relics of the palaces in the Shang Dynasty have also been discovered; it covers an area of 16,000 m2. Constructed on tamped earth platforms, the remnants of the palaces were large compounds that were composed of a main palace and its peripheral galleries. The central areas of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties were unexceptionally located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, namely, a collapsible loess area, and a tamping technique was hence developed to tamp the soil compact to fight the collapsibility of the loess and lay a solid foundation for massive platforms, walls, and buildings. The simple and effective tamping technique that makes a good use of the indigenous materials is one of the fundamental construction techniques developed in ancient China which is still in use today; that’s why people in ancient China referred to a construction as “a large-scale project of timber and earth.” The Western Zhou Dynasty approximately began in the eleventh century BC, and the capital city and the palaces constructed in this period have not been excavated. Habitable compounds made up of two adjacent yards which were constructed before the Zhou Dynasty have been excavated in the relics in Qishan of Shaanxi Province. The exterior walls, namely, the main walls that were made up of tamped mass of earth or adobes, and the timber pillars inside the room jointly supported the wood beams and thatched roofs which were partly covered with tiles (see Fig. 9.2). The sites of the houses finished in the middle of the Zhou Dynasty found in Fufeng cover an area of 280 m2. The platforms and partition walls were made of temped earth and

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Fig. 9.1 Relics of habitations and buildings in the Neolithic Age in Shaanxi Province and Henan Province (① Jiangzhai, Lin Tong ② Banpo, Xi’an ③ Banpo, Xi’an ④ Dahe Village, Zhengzhou ⑤ Xiagang, Xichuan ⑥ Yingpanli, Qingjiang)

wood frames to support the round roofs of the rooms; they jointly formed a complicated structure. And on the bronze wares, there were images of architraves between pillars and dous 斗 (buckets) on the top of the pillars; they were the prototypes of dougong 斗拱 (bucket arch). Weight-sustaining wood frameworks, bucket arches employed in important buildings as sustaining components, and a courtyard layout are the peculiarities of Chinese constructions which substantially formed in the period from the Shang Dynasty to the early Zhou Dynasty (approximately around the eleventh century BC). During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period (770 BC~463 BC), the sovereignty of the imperial family of Zhou declined, and many powerful kingdoms which were collectively called “five lords” or “seven powers” appeared. In the boom

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Fig. 9.2 A site plan of the courtyard in the early Zhou Dynasty in Qishan County Fig. 9.3 The site plan of Linzi, the former capital city of the Qi Kingdom (东古城 Donggu City, 河崖头 Heyatou, 阚家寨 the Kan’s Village, 晏婴塚 Yan Ying’s tomb, 刘家寨 the Liu’s Village, 桓公台 Tower of Huangong Duke, 邵院 Shao’s Compound, 临淄城 Linzi City, 淄河 the Zihe River)

of constructing cities and palaces, the architecture developed tremendously. There were an inner city and an outer city in any capital city of the kingdoms; the inner city was the palace city and the outer city was the residential area for civilians. In the outer city, there were many enclosed compounds for residential purposes; they were equivalent to small cities in a large city and were called li, in which curfews were imposed. And there were enclosed commercial areas in the outer city, which were called shi. A larger capital city could cover an area of 20 km2 (see Fig. 9.3).

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Archaeological excavations revealed that till the Warring States period, the palaces were mostly half-timbered buildings at least two storeys high; they were constructed on tamped platforms and were composed of adobe walls, wood floors, and wood frames; the palaces were called “pavilions.” Clay-tiled roof, eaves tile with molded patterns, patterned nonslip bricks or hollow bricks, tiled indoor floor or vermilion daubed floor, murals on the blank whitewashed walls, and cornices and baseboards which were embellished with gold, copper, or jades jointly rendered luxurious and luxurious palaces. Hot stoves and bathrooms could also be constructed in the interiors of these platforms. On the surface of the tamped platforms, perfect drainage systems were installed which were made up of massive sewage pipes, far exceeding what had been constructed in the Spring and Autumn period in technique and art. The living condition of the aristocrats was recorded as “to build lofty towers, embellish grand palaces, and feel elated” at that time. In the grave of the Prince Zhongshan in the Warring States period, a copper plate was found, on which there was a rigorous central symmetric layout plan of his mausoleum with sizes marked on it. This layout plan is by far the remotest construction diagram in China and is a testament to the fact that large building complexes were being constructed according to layout plans (see Fig. 9.4).

9.1.3

The Period from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (221 BC to 581)

(1) The Qin Dynasty (221 BC to 207 BC) After the Qin Kingdom achieved unification, constructions on an unprecedented grand scale were under way: In Xianyang, palaces were constructed in the mode of the palaces once found in the former six kingdoms, and new palaces mushroomed on the southern bank of the Weihe River. The construction activities offered opportunities for the blend and further development of the various construction techniques and arts scattered all over the country. It was originally planned to construct Xianyang into the largest capital city ever produced in human history that would straddle the two banks of the Weihe River with bridges, but the Qin Dynasty collapsed before the project was accomplished. The Qin Dynasty began constructing grand imperial mausoleum in Lishan Mountain: The mausoleum park covered an area of 2 km2; the mound had a circumference of more than 350 m and was 43 m in height. Enclosed by two tiers of walls, the sites for the buildings were neatly arranged. It was a very massive project. It was recorded that the mausoleum was extremely opulent, as witnessed by the large amount of tiles with exquisite molded patterns, decorated bricks, carved paving stones, bronze lintels, sewers made of carved stones, and grand terracotta warriors pits. Another massive project in the Qin Dynasty was the Great Wall, which was designed to protect its territory against the northern nomadic tribes. The construction of the massive projects at the very finish of the unification of the country proved to be a

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Fig. 9.4 The diagram of the northern part of the excavated grave of Prince Zhongshan and the aerial view of his mausoleum (a) (b) The second conception diagram of panoramic view of the mausoleum of Prince Zhongshan

severe exploitation of the civil labor and the immediate cause of the fall of this dynasty (see Fig. 9.5). (2) The Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 BC, Including the Xin Dynasty Founded by Wang Mang) The Han Dynasty that followed the Qin Dynasty was the first unified, centralist, stable great imperial power in the history of China; it witnessed the first peak of construction in scale and achievement in ancient China.

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Fig. 9.5 The site plan of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang (园寺吏舍遗址 mausoleum clerks’ habitation site, 便殿遗 址 lounge palace site, 陪葬墓 区 graveyard for sacrifices, 临 马公路 Linma Road, 陪葬坑 pit for sacrifices, 秦陵封土 mound on the grave, 寝殿 private quarters, 车马坑 pit for sacrificial chariots and horses, 珍禽异兽坑 pit for sacrificial exotic beasts, 曲尺 形马厩坑 L-shaped pit for the stables)

Chang’an City, the capital city of the Western Han Dynasty, was constructed on the southern bank of the Weihe River; it covered a vast area of 36 km2 and had a total of 12 gates on the tamped ramparts that were at least 12 m in height and in width. In this city, there were 8 lengthwise streets and 9 widthwise streets which were about 45 m wide, and there were 9 marketplaces and 160 residential areas which were called lvli. All the marketplaces and residential areas in the capital city were smaller cities confined in compounds, and the Chang’an City was hence the first capital city with enclosed market-residence parts in the history of China. The central axis of the city was a north-south main street; the palaces were located on both sides of the southern part of the street, not in the middle part. Giant watchtowers were erected outside the gate of the palaces to serve as symbols, and the main palaces were still magnificent pavilions constructed on platforms. The administration offices, treasure houses, and residential districts were located in the northern part of the city. An arsenal which was excavated in recent years was a storehouse complex of buildings: the largest one of them, which was divided into four large rooms, was 45 m in depth and at least 190 m in length; the tamped partition walls were 4.8 m in width. The magnitude of this arsenal is astonishingly great even by modern standards; it shows the great power of the Western Han Dynasty (see Fig. 9.6). During the late Western Han Dynasty and the reign of Wang Mang, Mingtang (the Imperial Ancestral Temple) and the ancestral temple for Wang Mang were constructed according to the rites in the southern suburbs of Chang’an City. There were a total of 11 ancestral temples that were arranged in 3 tiers, staggered out of alignment, covering an area of 2.2 km2. Each ancestral temple was constructed in a square courtyard, with a door on each side and a pavilion which was 40 m2 in the

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Fig. 9.6 The site plan of Chang’an City in the Western Han Dynasty (洛城门, Luocheng Gate; 章城门, Zhangcheng Gate; 清明门, Qingming Gate; 厨城门, Chucheng Gate; 建章宫, Jianzhang Gate; 霸城门, Bacheng Gate; 横门, Heng Gate; 未央宫, Weiyang Palace; 复盎门, Fuang Gate; 东市, East Market; 武库, arsenal; 安门, An Gate; 西市, West Market; 西安, West An Gate; 北宫, North Palace; 明 光宫, Mingguang Palace; 桂 宫, Gui Palace; 长乐宫, Changle Palace; 直城门, Zhicheng Gate; 宜平门, Yiping Gate, 王莽宗庙, the ancestral temple for Wang Mang; 辟雍, Biyong (moat), 官社, official altar for the deity of land; 官稷, official altar for the deity of land)

center. The largest pavilion that was about 80 m2 was constructed on modular grids that were 4 zhang (a unit of measure of length in ancient China; 1 zhang is equal to 10 chi, about 3.333 m) square in each grid. These ancestral temples constituted the largest and the most complete temple complex of the Han Dynasty the world has ever had. And thus it can be inferred that the perfect symmetrical construction layout found in Temple of Heaven in Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the application of modular grids in construction had appeared in an early period of the Han Dynasty (see Fig. 9.7). The imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty were constructed on the elevation on the northern bank of the Weihe River, each mausoleum having one small city affiliated to it, and this small city was called Lingyi (city by the mausoleum). There were altogether seven small cities of this kind, unexceptionally constructed in lvli mode; they were designed to receive the tycoons, and the descendants of the former government officials moved out of Chang’an City to alleviate the overpopulation problem in the capital city and to promote the economic development in the bordering areas of this city. These small cities, which were

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Fig. 9.7 The site plan of the 12th relic of the ancestral temple for Wang Mang

approximately equivalent to satellite towns near a modern metropolis, were a great innovation at that time. In 25 AD, the Eastern Han Dynasty was founded, and Luoyang City was chosen as the capital city because Chang’an City had been ruined in wars. Extensions to the northern palace and the southern palace of the former Qin Dynasty which was located in the center of the city were made, and the government administration offices, storehouses, and residential districts were arranged on both sides. The construction work was conducted according to the specifications inherited from the Western Han Dynasty, but with the development of timber construction techniques, there were fewer half-timbered buildings and more timbered buildings. As can be seen on the extant sculptured reliefs on stones and burial objects of the Han Dynasty, the three principal wood structural components in ancient China, namely, the pillar-beam type, the chuan-dou (the pillar-without-beams) type, and the highdensity beam flat roof type, all appeared in that period, and the construction of large multistorey timbered buildings was no longer a problem. And the reliefs on bricks of the Han Dynasty portraying hauling salt from wells with windlasses revealed that the windlasses had been adopted as elevators in the construction of large buildings in that period. The masonry arch structure developed in the Western Han Dynasty flourished in the Eastern Han Dynasty; besides the former arches of cylindrical shell, new forms of double-curved flat shell structure and vault were developed. Comparing with the previous half-timbered structure, the masonry arch structure was limited to small spans at its early stage, and it was adopted for the construction of graves. People gradually associated the masonry arches with graves, insisting that the masonry arches were reminiscent of graves and by no

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means suitable for houses. Though in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the arch structures were adopted to build bridges and after the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the arch structures were used to build brick towers, they were never found in large-scale ground buildings till the Ming Dynasty. (3) The Three Kingdoms Period (220 BC to 265 BC) Though China was divided into three kingdoms, the construction mode in this period was the continuation and development of the architecture in the Eastern Han Dynasty. A significant development in city planning was demonstrated by the capital city of the Wei Kingdom established by the Cao’s family – the Yecheng City, which was once a small local city, far less developed than Luoyang City. Unlike the capital cities in the Han Dynasties in which the palaces and government administration offices were scattered around, when Yecheng City was reconstructed, the palaces were constructed in the northern part of the city, and the administration offices stretched out on both sides of the north-south main street that led right to the gate of the palace; a north-south axis facing directly the palace was hence formed. Yecheng City was the first capital city which was characteristic of a neat square contour, a clear function division, and a striking central axis that made the palace prominent; it offered an innovative example of capital city in layout to be modeled by the later generations. Three lofty towers such as the Bronze Bird Tower were built to the west of the palace to keep weapons or to station troops, and army camps were set at the gates of the city, which were the testimony of the vital importance of military forces in a social turmoil (see Fig. 9.8). (4) The Western and Eastern Jin 晋 Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (265 BC to 581) The Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty successively established their capital cities in Jiankang (the present-day Nanjing City) City. The Jiankang City was located on the eastern bank of the Yangtze River, overlooking the Qinhuai River which ran south of it. Busy waterways and prosperous economies finally broke through the walls of the old enclosed residential blocks and marketplaces and sprouted a lot of new smaller cities and towns around the city; they conglomerated into a huge city complex covering a broad span of 40 li (a Chinese unit of length, approximately equals 590 yards) from east to west and from north to south. As the most economically developed region in the country that had cultivated new urban trend, it was unfortunately reduced to ruins in the wars when the Chen Kingdom was conquered by the subsequent Sui Dynasty, and along with the ruin of this region, the new urban trend came to an abrupt end. In the late reign of the Northern Wei Kingdom, Luoyang City, the former capital city of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was chosen as the capital city, and an extension of an outer city was added to the old city. The outer city, stretching 20 li from east to west and 15 li from north to south, contained 320 workshops in a checkerboard grid of streets on an area of 53 km2.

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Fig. 9.8 The site plan of the Yecheng City of the Wei Kingdom established by the Cao’s family

That proved to be the prelude to the city planning of Chang’an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties (see Fig. 9.9). What was the most noteworthy as to the architecture in this period was the largescale construction of temples and pagodas when the Buddhism got adapted to China. Being an imported religion, Buddhism had to be articulated with Chinese culture to gain popularity, so the temples were transformed from Sindhu fashion to the form of palaces or government mansions in China. That is, the nobility of the Buddha and the grandeur of the Buddhist nirvana had to be portrayed in the fashions that endeared them to the Chinese people. Stupas, originally designed to be tombs, were combined with the timbered pavilions in China in structure. The course of the transformation from the Buddhist temples and statues into Chinese buildings is strikingly visible in the extant grottoes made in the Northern Dynasty. The social unrest had driven the populace in both the South and the North of China to seek for blessing of Buddha, and a boom of temple construction emerged. It was recorded that there were 480 Buddhist temples in Jiankang City of the Southern Dynasty and more than 1000 Buddhist temples in Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Kingdom, and the construction of these temples cost a great fortune and manpower and led to social upheavals which resulted in the decline of the national power. In 516, the Empress Dowager Hu of the Northern Wei Kingdom ordered to build a massive nine-storey tower in Yongning Temple which rose more than 40 m high on a solid earth base and was probably the tallest wood tower in history. The only extant tower built in the

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Fig. 9.9 The site plan of Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Kingdom (外郭 the outer city 宫城 the imperial city 内城 the inner city, 西市 West Market 洛水 the Luohe River)

period of the Northern Wei Kingdom is found in Songyue Temple in Dengfeng City, Henan Province. The 15-storey tower, which was 38 m high, was made of brick and daub with delicate parabolic curve outline and proved to be a challenging work requiring great talents and art. For a long course of 800 years in this period, the architectural style of the timbered structure and courtyard layout with its peak in the Qin and Han Dynasties was closely associated with the etiquettes and customs of the society; they matured considerably and remained stable. Therefore, the imports of Buddhism and cultures from Central Asia, including architecture, in the period from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties were just beneficial cultural elements to the mainstream culture; the principal architecture styles remained untouched. Though the north-south division that lasted for 360 years from the Three Kingdoms period to the Southern and Northern Dynasties caused widespread havocs, the merge and fusion of the different ethnic groups of people promoted the communication and the exchange of architecture concepts and techniques. The metaphysics prevailed in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and the Buddhist philosophy imported from abroad freed the people from the fetters of the Confucianism and discipline rites and laws developed in the Han Dynasties; new ideas and art fashions were being fostered in this period. Architecture also underwent changes: the magnificent and bold fashions developed in the Han Dynasties that characterized with straight lines in three dimensions gradually transformed into fluid and vigorous styles that were composed of

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curves or slightly tilted straight lines. The plain slopes once found on the roofs were replaced with the concave shape; the eaves were transformed from straight lines into slight upward curves on two ends; the straight pillars became shuttle pillars; the continuous smooth floral designs imported from the West and adapted for domestic use substituted for the regular geometric patterns – all these changes served as the prelude to a further development of architecture in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

9.1.4

The Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, and the Jin 金 Dynasty (581 to 1279)

(1) The Sui Dynasty (581 to 617) Like the Qin Dynasty, after achieved unification of the country, the desperate exploitation of the populace caused economic havoc and unrest all over the country, and the Sui Dynasty soon perished. Nevertheless, the capacity to wage a large-scale construction in a very short period of time demonstrated the bold resolve and fast accumulated economic resources after the unification of the country. The construction of the Daxing City (which was renamed Chang’an City in the Tang Dynasty) and the digging of the Grand Canal were the miracles achieved in human history. A special 12-chi-long plumb line was adopted to detect the depth of water. At the intersection with the Qiantang River, navigation lock was constructed to cope with the tide. In the sections where there were large drops, dykes were built, and the ships would be hauled over the dyke along the slope by winches that were pulled by oxen. Although the details of all these technological innovations are not found in the historical records in China, they were recorded in the travel notes written by Japanese monks by the name of Yuanren and Chengxun. The completion of the Grand Canal proved to be of great importance to the economic exchange between the North and the South of China and the consolidation of the united country. In 582, Daxing City, the new capital city of the Sui Dynasty, was built on Longshou Plain. The site plan of the new city was a horizontal rectangle and was composed of an inner city and an outer city. The outer city had 13 gates on the ramparts and had 3 widthwise and lengthwise main streets, jointly called “six streets,” intersecting with each other. The city covered an area of 84 km2 and ranked as the largest city in human history before the age of capitalism. At the northern end of the axis of the city located the inner city, which had the imperial section for the government mansions at the front and the private palace section at the back. The main street which boasted a width of 150 m and a length of 8 km unprecedented in history went right north through the outer city and the imperial section of the inner city to meet the front gate of the palace section, facing directly the main palace. Both sides of the main street were divided into 108 fang (residential block) and 2 shi (marketplace) by a crisscross of streets. Daxing City

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was at once the largest city with enclosed marketplaces and residential districts and the largest city ever produced in the world before the age of capitalism. Borrowing heavily from the construction of Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Kingdom, Daxing City was constructed; it surpassed the former capital city in the city’s orderly layout, the neat and broad streets, the integrated palaces and government mansions, and the clear division of functions. The construction work and the transfer of the capital city took just 1 year, which was a positive evidence of an extraordinary capacity for design and management. Yuwen Kai, a remarkable designer, was the architect of the city (see Fig. 9.10). In 605, Yuwen Kai directed the construction of a new Luoyang City, an eastern capital city, which took 1 year to finish, too. The designs of the two cities were centered on the width and the depth of the palace section and the imperial section of the city aiming to heighten the sovereignty of the imperial power. (According to Joseph Needham’s work Science and Civilization in China as quoted from the statistics of Mr. He Bingdi, the top 10 largest cities in the ancient world measured by the area are as follows: (1) Chang’an City in the Tang Dynasty (84.1 km2), (2) Beijing City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (60.6 km2), (3) Dadu City in the Yuan Dynasty (49.0 km2), (4) Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties (45.0 km2), (5) Chang’an City in the Han Dynasty (35.82 km2), (6) Baghdad (30.44 km2), (7) Rome (13.68 km2), (8) Byzantium (11.99 km2), (9) Luoyang

Fig. 9.10 The site plan of the Chang’an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties

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City in the Wei Kingdom of the Han Dynasty (9.58 km2), and (10) London in the Middle Ages (1.35 km2). But a recent research revealed that the area of Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Kingdom was 53 km2 and should be placed the third in the list, above Dadu City of the Yuan Dynasty.) (2) The Tang Dynasty (618 to 906) Subsequent to the Sui Dynasty, the government of the Tang Dynasty made great efforts to promote economic renewal, to consolidate the uniformity of the country, and to fight against invaders and soon rose as a unified prosperous great power out of the ashes of the war. And the architectural achievement in this dynasty proved to be the second peak in the history of China. Daxing City was renamed Chang’an City; the old ramparts were renovated; gate towers that the Sui Dynasty failed to build were finally surmounted on the ramparts in the Tang Dynasty. A series of municipal regulations were formulated and effectively imposed, and this helped Chang’an City to become a magnificent and prosperous international metropolis where merchants from many different nations intermingled. Two famous temples, respectively, called Daming Temple and Xingqing Temple, together with many other temples, were renowned for grandeur. The most magnificent building in the Tang Dynasty was Mingtang (the Imperial Ancestral Temple) in Luoyang City that finished in the reign of the Empress Wu Zetian. The building had a base which was 89 m2 and was 86 m in height. The upper two storeys of the three-storey building were round. It just took 10 months to finish this very complex and massive building, which was a testament to the sophisticated and efficient design, prefabrication, and construction managements in that period. Pulleys had been adopted in the Han Dynasty to lift heavy objects; it was recorded in the documents of the Tang Dynasty evacuated in Dunhuang that two groups of pulleys were put up to hoist in the construction of the nine-storey pavilion in Dunhuang; it can be inferred that pulleys were also employed in the construction of the massive buildings such as Mingtang. Most of the imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty were constructed by lofty mountain peaks to make them seem magnificent; the Qian mausoleum of the Emperor Gao in Qianxian County of Shaanxi Province was a typical example. In the heyday and in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the dignitaries constructed very large and luxurious court complexes with delicate furniture made of rare wood in them, which was ridiculed by the contemporary people as “wood freak”; though not available at the present time, they can still be found in the mural paintings in Dunhuang. The gardens adjacent to the large compounds also witnessed great developments – the pools and artificial hills made in the gardens, covering as large an area as a quarter of a block in the city, were collectively called “Shanchi” (miniature version of mountain and lake). Buddhism flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties – large and luxurious temples comparable to imperial palaces had rendered a perfect blend of buildings, sculptures (Buddhist), paintings (mural), gardens, and sacrificial vessels in them, which was recorded in detail in Youyang Essays· Records of Temples and Towers written by Duan Chengshi in the Tang

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Dynasty. A wood tower was built in Zhuangyan Temple in the Sui Dynasty, which was 330 chi in height, demonstrating a great development in the timberwork in that period. Only four wood buildings and some masonry towers constructed in the Tang Dynasty remain in existence today, of which the Nanchan Temple built in 782 BC in Wutai Mountain and the hall in the Foguang Temple built in 857 BC in Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province were the most important. The facade of the hall of the Nanchan Temple was composed of three sections, and the width of the general facade of the temple was three times the height of the peripheral pillars; the three sections were arranged in a ratio of 2:3:2. The height of the pillars was set as the modulus of the elevation. Though the two temples just portrayed lower or intermediate level and average attainments of the architecture in the Tang Dynasty, which could never compare with the famous temples constructed in Chang’an City, they revealed some striking facts: cai (the height of arch) had already been adopted as the fundamental modulus, and the height of pillar had been adopted as the extended modulus in designs for the wood buildings; standardized building components were available; the embellished structural components had achieved a synergy of the technology and art; the construction of the wood buildings was perfected (see Fig. 9.11). In the Tang Dynasty, there were one-storey and multistorey masonry towers, and they could be pavilions or could have dense eaves. The famous Dayan Pagoda and Xuanzang Pagoda were pavilions (became brick-clad in the Ming Dynasty), and the Xiaoyan Pagoda have dense eaves. It was evident that the pagoda originated from India had taken a native Chinese appearance. The cultural elements imported from India, Xiyu (an ancient term for the area that is now Xinjiang of China and parts of Central Asia), and Central Asia in the frequent international exchanges in the Tang Dynasty were assimilated into the Chinese culture, which was renowned as a dominant, open, inclusive, and rigorous culture. And these virtues were best demonstrated in the Chinese version of pagodas, temples, and the Persian Sassanid patterns in China. (3) The Liao Dynasty (907 to 1125) The Liao administration founded by ethnic Qidans in the North of China confronted with the Northern Song Dynasty in the South of China. The Liao Dynasty successfully took large groups of scholars and craftsman captive when it invaded the regions of the Song Dynasty, the present-day North China; it hence inherited and developed the architectural mode found in the North of Tang Dynasty. There is no obvious difference between the buildings in the Tang Dynasty and the Avalokitesvara Tower in the Dule Temple, which was finished in early Liao Dynasty, in Jixian County in 984. The extant building of the Liao Dynasty is a Sakya Pagoda of Fogong Temple in Yingxian County which was built in 1056 and is the tallest wooden building in China – 67 m high, an octagonal five-storey wooden pagoda. Two kinds of modulus were adopted in the design of this pagoda: One was the height of the peripheral pillars, which were adopted to set the height of the pagoda – the

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Fig. 9.11 The front elevation of the main hall of the Nanchan Temple built in the Tang Dynasty in the Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province (五台县 Wutai County 南禅寺大殿 the main hall of the Nanchan Temple 立面分析图 analysis elevation)

distance from the ground to the horizontal ridge for the gable and hip roof of the pagoda was 12 times the height of the peripheral pillar; the other was the width of the facade of the middle storey (the third storey of this pagoda), which was adopted to set the slenderness ratio of this pagoda. It was designed that the width of the facade of the third storey of this pagoda was 3 zhang; the height of each storey from the first to the fourth, namely, to the capital of the pillar, was 3 zhang; the distance from the capital of the pillar on the fourth storey to the cornice of the fifth storey and the distance from the cornice of the fifth storey to the upright lotus on the roof of the pagoda were, respectively, 3 zhang. The width of each side of the third storey of the pagoda was set as the modulus, and each storey had a height which equaled the modulus; the ratio of the elevation on each storey was regulated by altering the bucket arches. All these demonstrated that besides the modulus of cai (the height of arch) in the design of multistorey buildings, there were other extended moduli such as the height of the pillar and the width of the facade, which made the design more accurate. There were extra anti-seismic and torsion-proof supporting structural components added to the structure of the tower, which were the positive evidence of an advanced architectural level in that period. And the measures of the Tang Dynasty were adopted in the construction of the two buildings, which further demonstrated their close link to the architectural technologies of the Tang Dynasty. On the territory

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Fig. 9.12 The appearance of the wood pagoda in Yingxian County of the Liao Dynasty (山西 应县 Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, 佛宫寺释迦 塔 Sakya Pagoda in Fogong Temple, 立面分析图 analysis elevation, 以中间一层(三)层 面阔为模数, The width of the facade of the middle storey (the third storey of this pagoda) was set as the modulus, 1 尺 ¼ 29.4 cm, 1 chi ¼ 29.4 cm, 据 陈明达 应县木塔实测图, The measured drawing of the wood pagoda in Yingxian County by Chen Mingda)

of the Liao Dynasty, which was underdeveloped in economy compared with the Central Plains and Guanzhong area (the central Shaanxi Plain) and lagged behind the Song Dynasty in technology and culture, such splendid architectural accomplishments were achieved, and it can be inferred that an even greater achievement must have been made in the central districts of the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty (see Fig. 9.12). (4) The Song Dynasty (960 to 1279) The Song Dynasty is divided into two phases of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. Confronting with the administrations of Liao, Xixia all along the front line of Hebei, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, the Northern Song Dynasty made a greater economic achievement in a smaller territory than the Tang Dynasty. Located by the side of the Grand Canal, the capital city of Bianliang (the presentday Kaifeng City) was conveniently engaged in economic exchanges with the Jiangnan region (regions of lower reaches of the Yangtze River) and became a

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thriving economic center of business and handicraft industry. Busy economic activities that went on round the clock brought forth a new phenomenon in which the residents and shops were freed from the old enclosed fang (residential block) and shi (marketplace), and the authorities had to demolish the walls and set the shops along the street – a new system of intersecting streets in a city was born. The new mode in the institution of the city in ancient China promoted further development of and exchanges between the cities and the surrounding countryside. A stricter architectural regulation was enforced in the Northern Song Dynasty, and a Construction Code, a set of official architectural rules, was formulated to conduct acceptance test on projects, and a 7-year warranty was demanded for any newly built houses. The Construction Code systematized the large frame structure design which was developed on the modulus of cai in the Tang Dynasty, the specifications of other crafts, and the quota on labor and materials included with precision drawings. The official institution thus formulated to be the norm for the acceptance test of project was a testimony to the overall architectural development in the Song Dynasty, the earliest architectural codes, official architectural drawings in ancient China, and important technological documents for the research of the buildings in the Song Dynasty, in the preceding Tang Dynasty, and in the subsequent Jin 金 Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty (Fig. 9.13). In the 200-year-long period from the late Tang Dynasty to the late Song Dynasty, indoor furniture was transformed from small couches and small tables for kneeling or sitting on into high chairs for dangling legs and high tables. After the Northern Song Dynasty was overthrown by the Jin Dynasty, the fugitives from the ruined Dynasty renewed a new government in the area to the south of the Huaihe River in the name of Southern Song Dynasty and confronted

Fig. 9.13 The profile of the building in Construction Code in the Song Dynasty

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against the Jin Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty was vastly superior to the Jin Dynasty in economics and culture. Lin’an City (the present-day Hangzhou City) was selected as the capital city, and the government administrative mansions at the same time served as the palaces. Though the palaces were even smaller in scale than those of the Northern Song Dynasty, they portrayed exquisite local color of Zhejiang area and cultivated delicate and refined courts and gardens in them. (5) The Jin Dynasty (1115 to 1234) After they conquered the Northern Song Dynasty, the troops of the Jin Dynasty returned with loads of antiques, books, and groups of craftsmen, and the buildings in this dynasty were nothing but a continuation of those in the Northern Song Dynasty. The royal members of the Jin Dynasty lived in a very lavish lifestyle, and the decorations in the courts which were formerly exquisite gradually became exuberant and redundant. The images of palaces with red walls, yellow glazed tiles, and white marble steps that the modern people are familiar with just started with palaces in the capital city of Zhongdu in the Jin Dynasty. This period that spanned more than 660 years had its peak of architecture in the Tang Dynasty. As another unified and prosperous dynasty after the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty constructed the supreme capital city in the ancient world. All the cities in the country were classified into different levels according to the economic capacity and population (there were three levels for the prefectures, upper, medium, and lower; the counties were ranked the fourth). A lot of new cities were constructed even in the remote borders, which promoted the economic development in their neighboring regions. Diversified space arrangement in courtyards, bold and vigorous houses, and neatly arranged wood structural components manifested that the architecture of the Tang Dynasty had blazed a trail away from the archaic style found in the Han Dynasty which was characteristic of rigid and majestic buildings with straight outlines and marked a new stage. The scale of the large buildings such as Hanyuan Palace, Linde Palace, and the Imperial Temple were unequalled even in the subsequent dynasties and could be esteemed as the supreme level of the ancient wood buildings. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty was the prime time of the architecture which was perfect in terms of culture or technology. And it was on the basis of this achievement that the Northern Song Dynasty realized a more standardized and institutionalized architecture.

9.1.5

The Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties (1279 to 1840)

(1) The Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368) The Yuan Dynasty was originally called Mongolia and renamed Yuan when its administration was established in the regions formerly ruled by ethnic Han groups. After conquering the Jin 金 Dynasty in 1234 and the Southern Song Dynasty in 1279, the Yuan Dynasty finally unified the whole country. In 1267, on the plain to the

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northeast of the Zhongdu City of the Jin Dynasty, a new vertical capital city of Dadu (the present-day Beijing City) was constructed, covering an area of 50.9 km2. Though there were also an imperial city and a palace city in the capital city, they were located on the upper part of the axis, the sections were in the northern part with the palace city located in the imperial city, and the street of bell tower, which was the business center, was on the north of the palace section; it was different from the layout of the Chang’an City. There were three gates on the east side, the south side, and the west side of the city and two gates on the north side. Of the rectangular grid of streets, the east-west horizontal streets constituted the residential districts which were called Hutong. When water had been diverted from the west into the lake in the city, the lake was connected with the Grand Canal to the south, so the cargo ships from the south could sail directly into the lake. Subsequent to Daxing City and Zhongdu City which were constructed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties in ancient China, Dadu City was the last one that rose from the level ground by an overall design and the only capital city constructed with open streets. The areas of the palace city and the imperial garden as a whole were set as the modulus, the width of Dadu City was nine times the width of the palace city or the imperial garden, and the depth of Dadu City was five times the depths of the palace city and the imperial garden to indicate the imperial dignity (see Fig. 9.14). After the Yuan Dynasty conquered the Southern Song Dynasty, the cities in the South of China were severely damaged to prevent possible revolts. Only few houses in the imperial palaces or the official mansions of the Yuan Dynasty took the Mongolian form; the official buildings such as the palaces and the government administration buildings unexceptionally followed the traditions of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty to take an orthodox appearance. But they chose smaller building materials and made the buildings delicate, with the Yongle Palace in Ruicheng City and Dening Temple in Quyang County as typical examples. There were more local characters in the buildings of the Yuan Dynasty: in the North of China, logs were chosen as beams, and wood structural components were arranged with ease and skill, which was demonstrated by the hall of the Guangsheng Temple in Hongtong County of Shanxi Province; in the South of China, constructed by the tradition of the Southern Song Dynasty, the striking features of rigorous structure, the precise manufacture, and the delicate style of the buildings were embodied in the hall of Zhenru Temple in Shanghai City. The vast land of the Yuan Dynasty offered easy accesses for the architectural elements in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Central Asia to the Central Plains. The pagoda in Wan’an Temple (the present-day Miaoying Temple in Beijing City) in Dadu City was a Tibetan lama pagoda. The Fenghuang Temple in Hangzhou City built in 1281 and the Qingjing Temple in Quanzhou City built in 1346 were Arab monasteries. At the same time, the architectural traits of the inner land also found way into the buildings constructed by the ethnic minority groups, especially the lamaseries, for example, there were many inland elements found in the buildings in Xialu Temple in Tibet, and the wood structural components of the saddle roofs and bucket arches in this

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Fig. 9.14 The analysis site plan of Dadu City in the Yuan Dynasty (健德门 Jiande Gate 北中书省 the northern secretariat 安贞门 Anzhen Gate 钟楼 bell tower, 御史台 the Censorate 肃清门 Suqing Gate 鼓楼 drum tower 通惠河 the Tonghui River, 和义门 Heyi Gate 国子监 the imperial academy 金水河 the Jinshui River 平则门 Pingze Gate, 孔庙 the Confucian temple 枢密院 the Privy Council 光熙门 Guangxi Gate, 大都路总督府 the governor’s mansion in Dadu City 崇仁门 Chongren Gate 万宁寺 Wanning Temple, 齐化门 Qihua Gate 崇国寺 Chongguo Temple 顺承门 Shuncheng Gate兴圣宫 Xingsheng Palace, 丽正门 Lizheng Gate 太子宫 the crown prince’s palace 文明门 Wenming Gate 隆福宫 Longfu Palace, 厚载门 Houzai Gate 社稷 the altar for the deities of land and grain 崇天门 Chongtian Gate, 城隍庙 city-god temple 灵星门 Lingxing Gate 大庆寿寺 Daqingshou Temple 御苑 the imperial garden, 中书省 the central secretariat 宫城 the palace city太 庙 the imperial ancestral temple, The planned axis in Dadu City – namely, the axis of the palace city; according to The Archaeological Findings and Research in the People’s Republic of China, Fig. 103; the site plan of Dadu City in the Yuan Dynasty – the modulus of the width of the palace city A and the modulus of the total depth of the imperial garden B. The area of the capital was 9A  5B)

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temple were typical examples of the official style of the Yuan Dynasty, which indicated a close link with the Yuan government. (2) The Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) The Ming Dynasty was the only unified dynasty administration founded by the ethnic Hans after the Tang Dynasty. In the first years of the administration, great efforts were made to stipulate institutions and to enforce the uniformity of the country, architectural institutions included. The government also drew up guidelines concerning the mansions of princes, administration offices of officials of different ranks, the residences of the officials, and the houses of the civilians in terms of layout, number of rooms, patterns of roofs, color, etc. The cities in the South of China that had been damaged in wars against the Yuan Dynasty were rehabilitated in full measure. The brick-clad ramparts and bell towers were constructed in this period, too. All these activities had a profound effect on the appearance of the cities and buildings. When the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, Nanjing City was chosen as the capital city and was constructed by the craftsmen from the regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so the palaces of the Ming Dynasty was greatly influenced by the styles of the periods from the Southern Song Dynasty. When Emperor Yongle transferred the capital city to Beijing City, the architectural modes were taken along with him and became the model for the official buildings. The new capital city of Beijing that covered an area of 35 km2 was constructed in 1241, a little south to the former site of Dadu City of the Yuan Dynasty. While the layout of streets and hutongs were retained, a new imperial city, a new palace city, new palaces were constructed. In the capital city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, there was a 7-kilometer-long north-south axis which went through the imperial city, the front gate of the palace city, the main temple, and the northern wall of the imperial city and up to the bell tower. The imperial city and the palace city was located slightly south on the axis; all the tallest and largest buildings were arranged along the axis; they resembled the backbone of the whole city. The government administration buildings were in front of the imperial city; the imperial ancestral temple and the altar platform for the deity of land and the deity of grain were arranged on both sides in front of the palace city; the residential areas, temples, and warehouses were allotted to the rest of the places. Beijing City excelled Dadu City of the Yuan Dynasty in careful city planning. After a southern outer city was added to Beijing City in 1553, the total area of the city amounted to 62.5 km2. The palaces in the Forbidden City, the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and the Temple of Heaven were the best preserved building complexes, which were the finest examples of the courtyard layout. The extended modulus was also adopted in the general site plan design, which was a new progress in the design and planning with the modulus. In the Ming Dynasty, the building material of phoebe and the modulus of the span of the bucket arch made the buildings look neat; the red walls, the yellow glazed tiles, and the white marble steps adopted in all palaces and

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temples created a unified style; all these features demonstrated an even higher level of design and construction. Since the Ming Dynasty, more distinctive local characters had appeared on the buildings with the development of the economy in many regions. The extant residence complexes found in Huizhou in Anhui Province and Xiangfen in Shanxi Province at once shared the spirits of the age and manifested the delicate beauty in the South of China and the bold grandeur in the North of China. In the middle and late periods of the Ming Dynasty, in a boom of garden construction, gardens by the side of residences with a miniature version of mountains and lakes excelled and helped to render a great work on the theories and techniques of garden construction – Yuanye, which paved the way for a new summit of the garden construction in Jiangnan region in the Qing Dynasty. (3) The Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911) When the Qing Dynasty set the capital city in Beijing, it inherited the palaces of the Ming Dynasty, making minor alterations to them; the official buildings of the Qing Dynasty were virtually the continuation and development of those in the Ming Dynasty. In 1733, the government decreed The Specifications for Projects Issued by the Ministry of Engineering, which set the span of the bucket arch or the diameter of the pillar (three spans) as the modulus to facilitate computation and simplify the joint of the pillar and the beam, and the bucket arch was reduced to a decoration part. Though there were more rigorous structures and fewer types of structural components in the Qing Dynasty than in the Song Dynasty, the higher degree of standardization facilitated a large-scale prefabrication and guaranteed the uniformity in the building complex, which was fairly great in art and technique. During the reigns of Emperor Yongzheng and Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, thanks to the high degree of standardization, a large number of buildings were finished within a short time limit. One of the greatest architectural feats in the Qing Dynasty was the garden construction. From the gardens and landscape regions in the western outskirts of Beijing City and the Summer Mountain Resort in Chengde City, one can see innovative designs. Having captured the essence of the gardens in Jiangnan region, these gardens far surpassed those of the Ming Dynasty in size and art level. The spectacular private gardens all over the country, with the gardens in Suzhou as typical examples, demonstrated the best of the garden cultivation. The buildings of the ethnic minority groups also made good progresses in the Qing Dynasty. In order to promote the fraternity among the different ethnic groups, the Qing government not only encouraged different ethnic minority groups to build temples but also built about ten temples which were modeled on the famous buildings of other ethnic minority groups in China and were collectively called Wai Bamiao (Eight Outer Temples) near the Summer Mountain Resort in Chengde. On the basis of the fully developed art and technology in the

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Qing Dynasty, Wai Bamiao displayed many innovations which were a perfect fusion of architectural elements in different ethnic groups and hence added enlightening vigor to the highly standardized buildings of the Qing Dynasty; as the last wonder of architecture in ancient China, it boosted the development of the architecture in Mongolia and Tibet. To sum up, during this period of the Ming Dynasty, not only the two capital cities of Nanjing and Beijing and the palaces in them were constructed, but also many cities in different regions were repaired, renovated, or even rebuilt; a set of hierarchy standards for different kinds of buildings were stipulated; the Great Wall was extended in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with crucial sections of ramparts being fortified with bricks or stone blocks to protect the cities against the invasion from the nomadic tribes on the steppe outside; these projects marked a successful culmination of the 2000-year-long defense project. The Ming Dynasty was hence esteemed the last peak in architecture after the Han and Tang Dynasties in ancient China. In the early Qing Dynasty, though the architecture made further progress on the basis of the Ming Dynasty, the overstandardization of the official buildings since the middle Qing Dynasty produced many massive and rigid buildings with large structural components, which were satirized as “bloated beam and plump pillar.” And the once vigorous style of the buildings began assuming a reserved style; the construction work once valuing overall effect began to focus on the elaborate decoration. The construction of the official buildings in the late Qing Dynasty was on the decline along with the state power, though there was minor progress in some economically developed regions.

9.2

The Basic Features of the Architecture in Ancient China

In the long course of development, the architecture of ancient China gradually cultivated some remarkable features. Over a long period of at least 3000 years, these features took their shape in embryo in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and continued developing till the end of the Qing Dynasty, with rises and falls. The evolution of the architecture, which has never been broken, can be reduced to three aspects.

9.2.1

Wood Structural Components Compose the Main House Structure

One of the main features of the buildings in ancient China was their wood structural components. Unlike the houses in Western Asia and Europe, masonry houses were not widely found all over the country throughout the history. The weight of the roof and the floors were sustained by the wood structural components in the timbered houses; the walls were designed to enclose the house, not bearing any extra weight. There could be no partition walls in the rooms;

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windows and doors could be installed anywhere on the exterior walls; there were even open halls that were void of walls. The wood structural components fell into three categories: (1) Pillar-Beam Type A main beam was installed in the width direction to span the opposite pillars under the front and rear eaves, and a sequence of minor beams were installed right above the main beam with one shorter than the next one; they jointly formed a set of triangular frame of the roof. At the end of the different layers of beams, purlins were installed to span adjacent triangular frames of the roof; rafters were installed to span adjacent purlins; they jointly formed the integrated frame of the concave sloping twin roofs. The indoor space between the two adjacent triangular frames was called Jian, which was the basic unit of timbered houses. (2) Chuan-dou (The Pillar-Without-Beams) Type Unlike the pillar-beam type in which beams were installed to span opposite pillars and then purlins were installed to connect the ends of beams in adjacent triangular frames of the roof, in houses of chuan-dou type, the purlins were installed right on the tops of the sequence of pillars with one pillar being taller than the one before it as the roof sloped upward to the ridge, and then a set of keels, which were called chuan, were installed to go through the sequence of pillars to unite them to form a frame. The array of frames would be connected by another set of keels, which were called dou to make an integrated structure for the sloping twin roofs. Finally rafters would be applied to the purlins, which were like the pillar-beam type. (3) High-Density Beam Flat Roof Type For the construction of houses of this type, purlins would be installed right on the tops of the main exterior walls and the inner sequence of pillars; horizontal rafters would be installed to span the purlins; the flat roof was hence finished. The purlins performed as the main beams in this kind of half-timbered structures (see Fig. 9.15). The former two types were timber structures for sloping roofs with the pillarbeam type being more popular when it was adopted for the official structures in all the dynasties and for the civilian houses in the regions such as Central China, North China, Northwest China, and Northeast China. Houses of the chuan-dou type were popular in these regions like East China, South China, and Southwest China; nevertheless, the pillar-beam type was still adopted in the construction of most large temples or other important buildings in these regions. The high-density beam flat roof type was adopted for the construction of half-timbered buildings in which roofs would be supported by the horizontal wood framework surmounted on the main exterior walls and the inner sequence of pillars, which was mostly found in the regions such as Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Tibet.

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Fig. 9.15 Three types of wood structural components: pillar-beam type, chuan-dou type, and highdensity beam flat roof type (柱梁式 pillar-beam type, 穿逗式 chuan-dou (the pillar-without-beams) type, 密梁平顶式 high-density beam flat roof type)

There are some features peculiar to the timbered buildings of the houses: First, the whole structure can be divided into three sections: the top section, the middle section, and the bottom section. To make the timbered buildings moistureproof and rainproof, the bottom section of the building had to be built on platforms that rose above the ground; the middle section was the body of the building; the eaves of the top section of the buildings stuck out a lot to shelter the body of the building from the rain. The building hence was composed of the platform, the body, and the roof. Second, concave roofs with upturned tips: The pillar-beam-typed houses had level and straight roofs in the Han Dynasty. Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, by altering the height of the short pillars between two layers of beams or the height of the camel hump structural components, concave roofs were produced, which leveled out at the eave to facilitate the roof water draining and the natural lighting. Besides the sloping twin roofs, there were the pyramidal roof (pyramid), the hip roof (four slopes), and the saddle roof (the combination of the hip roof and the sloping twin roofs) for important structures. As to the three kinds of roofs, two adjacent surfaces would meet to form a ridge that was braced by a hip rafter, extending out at 45°. Before the Song Dynasty, all the hip rafters and rafters were installed on the purlins, and the hip rafters were set at elevated positions, which were about two diameters of the cross section of a rafter in height. In the Han Dynasty, the hip rafters and rafters were installed on the same plane, and the

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Fig. 9.16 The upturned tip of the roof (the hall of the Nanchan Temple) (起翘 turnup)

eaves were constructed level and straight, which was a flawed design. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people began elevating the rafters by putting wood wedges beneath them and set the rafters a little lower than the hip rafters; the tips of the roof hence became upturned. Although the upturned tips of roofs had become a universal practice in the Tang Dynasty, the tips were made more upward curved in the subsequent dynasties and became a prominent exterior feature of buildings in ancient China, which was called “flying tip” (see Fig. 9.16). Third, the adoption of bucket arches in important structures: The practice of putting wood blocks between the top of the pillars and the beams or purlins to increase the contact area dates back to the early Western Zhou Dynasty at the latest. And cantilever beams with wood blocks or wood keels inserted at the tips were installed to protrude from the pillars to help eaves stick out further to shelter the base of the buildings from the rain. The cushion blocks and wood keels and cantilevers, after tempered aesthetically, developed into the prototype of the most peculiar architectural parts in ancient China – dou (bucket) and gong (arch), which were jointly called dougong (bucket arch). The technology of bucket arch reached its peak in the Tang and Song Dynasties, when it developed from a simple and rough cushioning and supporting structural component to a grid of

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intersecting horizontal beams and vertical capital keels supported by sequences of pillars. In addition to the functions of bracing the upturned tips of the roof and supporting the indoor ceiling, the grid of beams could fix the pillars in position; it was equivalent to the ring beams found in the modern buildings, as was indispensable to large important buildings (see Fig. 9.17). In the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, major architraves and minor architraves were installed between the capitals of the pillars to make a fortified network of pillars, and the bucket arches were no longer structural components – they were reduced to decorations and cushions to indicate social status. In the period of 2000 odd years, bucket arch, as one kind of wood structural component in ancient China, was changed from a simple cushion to an important brace and to a mere decoration, illustrating the transition from simplicity to complexity and back to simplicity of wood structural components. Fourth, houses arranged in the unit of the room and a free partition of the indoor space: No supporting walls were needed in timbered houses; the indoor space could be used as an integral part and also could be partitioned at will. Wood partition walls, concrete or token, were installed between pillars arranged in length or width directions. The concrete partition walls were screens, lattices, gratings, etc.; they partitioned the indoor space of a house into several rooms

Fig. 9.17 The analysis diagram of the structures of the buildings with bucket arches in the Tang and Song Dynasties and the Ming and Qing Dynasties (屋顶车架 the frame of the roof 柱网 sequences of pillars 屋架 the frame of the house, 铺作层 the grid of intersecting horizontal beams and vertical capital keels, 斗拱层 the layer of the bucket arches 屋身柱网 the sequences of pillars for the body of the house)

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which were connected with each other with doors. The token partition walls might be floor covers, boards with hollow patterns, rail covers, floor covers with a round opening at the top, cabinets of curiosities, screens, etc., which were semiclosed, without doors, and were used to set limits in spaces without obstructing views and accesses, namely, separation without obstruction. In large buildings, there could be a massive central hall which was surrounded by two-storey buildings on the left, right, and rear sides; open spaces and closed spaces in the building were connected with each other by means of the concrete or token partition walls, for example, the Leshou Hall (Hall of Happiness and Longevity) in the Imperial Palace. Fifth, the uniformity of the structural components and decorations: Wood structural components of the timbered buildings were often deliberately tempered according to their shapes or textures to fit into certain positions of the buildings to achieve aesthetic effects, for example, to process upright pillars into octagonal or shuttleshaped forms; to carve patterns on the plinths or bases of the pillars; to make the bottom of carved angle brace installed underneath the position where architraves went into pillars bulge look resilient and forceful; to cut bevel edges on the bottom planes of the cushion blocks and on the tips of arches and hence make the wood blocks and short peels transformed and make the bucket arches look delicate; to make a straight beam curved to achieve an ease grace in sustaining heavy loads; to cut bevel edges on the tips of the rafters that stuck out from the eaves to make the rafter taper look lively and energetic; etc. Sixth, color paintings: To apply paints to the wood structural components in different patterns for antiseptic and decorative purposes, which was another exterior striking feature of the structures in ancient China, was called color painting. Since the Song Dynasty, quite a lot of patterns of the color painting had derived from kam-grain. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had been a prevalent practice in palaces and temples in the North of China to paint the pillars, doors, and windows with warm colors such as reddish brown or vermilion and to paint the architraves and bucket arches in the shade under the eaves with cool colors like turquoise to compose different patterns. Only the black color was allowed for the civilians, and maroon was also allowed in the South of China. While the official buildings in the North of China were painted with gorgeous and brilliant colors, the buildings in the South of China presented a delicate and somber mode. The most striking feature in the choice of color for the color painting in China was the adoption of the techniques such as tuiyun, duiyun, and jianse. Tuiyun referred to one band of different shades of one color arranged from dark to pale. Duiyun referred to the staggered matching of the pale shades (or dark shades) on two bands that were arranged side by side, which renders variations of shades and a three-dimensional effect. Jianse referred to the alternation of two different colors, for example, to arrange one turquoise-block-indigo-arch pair and one indigo-block-turquoise-arch pair in two adjacent groups of bucket arches or to arrange one upper-turquoise-lower-indigo pair or one upper-indigo-lower-turquoise pair in the central parts of two adjacent architraves, namely, one major

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architrave and one minor architrave; the match of one turquoise color and one indigo color will render a gorgeous effect.

9.2.2

A Symmetrical Courtyard Layout

In the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the massive palaces of princes and lords were conglomerations of multistorey structures. Since the Han Dynasty, architects were getting more skilled in constructing independent and large timbered structures and concentrated on constructing single-storey houses in enclosed courtyards instead of single massive conglomerations of many rooms of different purposes, apart from some few ethnic-minority areas. The houses were composed of some parallel rooms, and several houses would constitute an enclosed north-south courtyard with the main building, facing south and called the main house, located on the axis of symmetry. On the east and west borders of the area before the main house, an east wing house and a west wing house would be built; on the south border of the area, a south house which was facing north would be built; and a quadrangle was thus completed. All the doors in a quadrangle were designed to open to the courtyard except for the front gate, which was set to open to the street. The central courtyard was at the same time a transport hub and an outdoor open-air area for common activities. These courtyards enclosed on three sides or four sides were generally symmetrical on a north-south axis which went through the main house. The size of the quadrangles varied with the numbers of rooms in the main house and the wing houses. A large quadrangle complex could have a series of adjacent quadrangles along the north-south axis with each quadrangle called one jin 进. In an even larger quadrangle complex, there could be one or more multi-jin quadrangles on one side or on the both sides of the main quadrangle; thus there would be two or three parallel axes with the main axis called the “zhonglu” (middle branch) and the axes on both sides called “donglu” (east branch) and “xilu” (west branch). The ancient buildings, from small one-quadrangle dwellings to a magnificent palace complex or temple complex, were composed of quadrangles (see Fig. 9.18). As another feature of the quadrangle layout of important buildings, the main building was located at the geometric center of the quadrangle to make it prominent. The same was true for most palaces, mansions, temples, and monasteries. This practice was the embodiment of the “epicenter complex” passed down from the past generations. In Spring and Autumn Annals in Lv’s Clan-Discrimination, it was recorded that “the divine kings in ancient time chose to establish the kingdom in the center of the territory, to construct the palace in the center of the kingdom, and to set temple in the center of the palace,” which had gradually developed into a tradition since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties. As best typical example of this layout, the palaces in the Forbidden City in Beijing City had three major temples in the front, two palaces in the rear, six palaces on the east and the west sides, and other independent palaces. But this practice was forbidden for common civilian houses because of the rigid social hierarchy.

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Fig. 9.18 The sketch map of the composition of quadrangles (一进院 one-jin quadrangle, 二进院 two-jin quadrangle complex, 二路院 two-branch quadrangle complexes, 三路院 three-branch quadrangle complexes)

As for the buildings in ancient China, diversified forms were rarely found in a single house because the forms and the combination modes for the roofs were subject to the established ethics and hierarchy; individual houses had to be silhouetted against the courtyard to achieve some kind of aesthetic effect. In this sense, the buildings in ancient China were one kind of art form embodied in building complexes which extended along the axis on the surface and space arrangements in courtyards, which will be found in the discussions of the palaces of Beijing City below.

9.2.3

Cities Constructed Mainly on a Grid of Streets According to Comprehensive Planning

The architects in ancient China had mastered the tamping technique to construct buildings. In the period from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States period (the eleventh century BC to the third century BC), a great number of castles were constructed. The castles in that period were not the products of the gathered civilians or economic developments, but were constructed at the administrative orders of the kings and aristocrats of different ranks who wanted to maintain the control over territories and civilians for a consolidated authority, so the castles were constructed according to some strict specifications and were divided into different levels. In order to impose a stricter control on civilians, many rectangular fang 枋 enclosed in walls were orderly arranged with streets between them. The system of a grid of streets with rectangular fang between them resembled the colony cities or fortresses sponsored by military leaders or civil officials in ancient Greece and ancient Rome in appearance or purpose. The earliest planning principles for capital cities were recorded in Kaogongji-Craftsmen, a famous masterpiece in the Warring States period, in which the sizes and

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heights of the ramparts, widths of streets, etc. in the capital city of the king and the local cities of the feudal princes were strictly specified to suit their different statuses. It was specified that the capital city of the king was nine li (a Chinese unit of length, half a kilometer) square with three gates on each side; the imperial palace was located in the center of the city with the court set in the front of the palace; the imperial ancestral temple and the altar platform for the deity of land and the deity of grain were located on both sides; the marketplace was set behind the palace; the central axis of the city was hence formed. These specifications exerted profound influence on the constructions of the capital cities in the following period of more than 2000 years. There were inner cities in most large cities or medium cities in ancient China; the inner cities for palaces were called the palace city, and the inner cities for government administration offices were called the administration city or the subsidiary city. The residential districts in the city were composed of many enclosed rectangular fang which were arranged in orderly rows, with the streets between fang forming a network. One fang was divided into many sections by intersecting lanes, and there were rows of townhouses in these sections. Business activities were confined to marketplaces, open in restricted licensing hours. This kind of cities in which the residential areas and business areas were confined to enclosed smaller sections such as fang and shi for more effective management was called “block-section-type” cities in the following periods, which embodied an enclosed system under the military law (see Fig. 9.19). In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty (about the middle of the eleventh century), the authorities were impelled to demolish the enclosing walls of the fang for burgeoning business and handicraft industry, and the shops were allowed to set along the streets and the lanes once enclosed in the residential districts which were connected to main streets of the city. This kind of cities was called “streetlane-type” cities, with Dadu City in the Yuan Dynasty and Beijing City and many regional cities in the Ming and Qing Dynasties as typical examples. After the lanes were set open, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, drum towers or bell towers that were added to the center of the cities to ring the hours became the hub of civic activities, equivalent to central squares of modern cities, and could be ranked as a striking scene and the profile of the city. The orderly arranged fang, the neat grid of streets, prominent imperial inner cities, administration cities, government mansions, bell towers, etc. collectively formed the special grandeur of the cities in ancient China. But it is reasonable to infer that these cities were originally and substantially designed to impose a strict control on the residents at the sacrifice of the convenience of their daily life. Rooms were the basic components of houses; several rooms were arranged side by side to form one house; several houses to form a rectangular courtyard; several courtyards were arranged side by side to form a lane; an array of lanes to form a block; many blocks to form a rectangular fang or a larger community; the streets between the fang or larger communities were arranged in rows and columns to form

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Fig. 9.19 The layout of the fang and shi in Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties (龙光门 Longguang Gate 圆壁城 Yuanbi City 圆壁南门 south gate of Yuanbi City, 陶光园 Taoguang Garden 大内 “Danei” (the grand imperial inner quarter), 宫城 the palace inner city 皇城 the imperial inner city, 西夹城 the west strip of city 西隔城 the west buffer city 东宫 the East Palace, 东夹城 the east strip of city 应天门 Yingtian Gate 长乐门 Changle Gate, 右投门 Youtou Gate 含 嘉仓 Hanjia Granary 东城 the East City, 洛阳老城区 the old district of Luoyang City, A ¼ 1030 米 ¼ 350丈 ¼ 2里100步 B ¼ 1052米 ¼ 358丈 ¼ 2里116步, A ¼ 1030 meters ¼ 350 zhang ¼ 2 li 100 bu. B ¼ 1052 meters ¼ 358 zhang ¼ 2 li 116 bu., 全城总面积 ¼ 45.3 平方公里, the total area of the city ¼ 45.3 km2)

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a transport network; a huge city with buildings built along the axis and all civic activities centered on the important public buildings, such as imperial palaces, government mansions, and drum towers, was finally completed. This was the primary characteristics of the cities in ancient China. All cities were constructed according to planning: cities of neat contour were constructed on plains, and cities in mountainous regions or regions of rivers and lakes were constructed according to flexible plans to fit specific terrains.

9.3

The Planning and Designing Methods for the Architecture in Ancient China

The modulus-oriented planning and designing method played an important role in the formation, the continuation, and the development of the three basic characteristics in the architecture of ancient China. A practice employed modulus, an extended modulus, and the modulus grid as the standard of planning and designing had been developed in the Tang Dynasty at the latest, and the building complexes thus demonstrated an orderly and harmonious blend of uniformity and diversity, that is, a pleasant mixture of flexibility and discipline.

9.3.1

Designs for Single Buildings

The designing method with the height of arch as the modulus appeared in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties at the latest and became perfect and precise in the Song Dynasty; it was recorded in the work Construction Code, a guide to architecture edited by Li Jie in the second year of the Chongning period (1103). According to this method, the standard keels (the materials for the arches and keels at the capital of the pillars) for buildings were called cai, which were set at different levels (eight levels in the Song Dynasty); the one-fifteenth of the cai was called a fen; the height of the cai was the modulus and the fen was the fractional modulus. Then the building materials of one specific level would be allotted to the buildings of one certain nature (imperial palaces, government mansions, halls, etc.) or of one certain scale (three jian, five jian, seven jian, nine jian, single eave, double eaves) and then specify how many fen the width of the facade of buildings and the profile of structural components would be composed of; meanwhile allowances for possible expansions (it was the practical experiences gained in many years of work, and there were margins of error found in all the extant structures) were made. Once the nature, the number of jian, the level of cai, and the number of fen were fixed, well-proportioned and reasonably structured buildings could be produced. This modulus-oriented construction method which was circulated among craftsmen by means of pithy formulae enabled them to design and prefabricate structural components for buildings without making drawings and had the virtues of simplified design, convenient manufacture, and maintaining consistency in the styles of the building complexes. The modulus-

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designing method played an important role in the quick design and the construction of a great number of timbered buildings in ancient China. Measurements conducted on many buildings in recent years revealed that besides the primary modulus of the height of arch, the height of the peripheral pillars served as the extended modulus for setting the profiles and elevations of many buildings. In the Tang, Song, and Liao Dynasties, the height of the peripheral pillars of the temples was the half height of the ridge purlin of the buildings which were four rafters (five beams) in depth; in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the height of the peripheral pillars of the temples and the halls was the half height of the ridge purlin of the buildings which were six rafters (seven beams) in depth. This is a common principle for the profile design. For the profile design, the height of the lower peripheral side pillar – H or the height of the peripheral corner pillar – H1 could be adopted as the extended modulus for the width of the facade, and the number of the sets of bucket arch group could also be adopted as the modulus for some particular buildings. And this has been illustrated below: (1) Tian’anmen Gate Tower in Beijing City It was composed of nine sections, with double eaves, built on platform. The height of the peripheral pillars below the lower eave was 19 chi; the width of the four sections on the two sides was equal to the height of the peripheral pillars, namely, 19 chi; therefore there were eight squares with a side of 19 chi. The cornice of the upper eave was 38 chi in height, twice the height of the peripheral pillars below the lower eave. The top edges on the two sides of the platform were 95 chi in width, five times the height of the peripheral pillars of 19 chi; the height of the platform was 38 chi, twice the height of the peripheral pillars below the lower eave. So the front facade of the gate tower was laid in a grid pattern with the modulus of 19 chi which was the height of the peripheral pillars below the lower eave and the side of each square at once, except for the central section which was of an extended width of 27 chi and could be regarded as an insert value. Tian’anmen Gate Tower is a typical example of the modulus grid design (see Fig. 9.20).

9.3.2

The Turret of the Forbidden City of Beijing City

Square body, triple eaves, uneven protrusions on four sides, and a bevel gaugeshaped site plan. Set the zandang (midrange between two groups of bucket arches), which was 2.5 chi in width, as the extended modulus; the body of the turret was 11 zandang square; the uneven protrusions on four sides were 7 zandang in width and 2 or 5 zandang in depth; the upper eave, the middle eave, and the lower eave were 6 zandang, 9 zandang, and 13 zandang in height, respectively. The profile laid in a modulus grid was definitely demonstrated in the analysis diagram. The modulus of the height of pillars was inadequate for the complicated structures of the turrets,

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Fig. 9.20 The extended modulus of the height of the peripheral pillars below the eave in Tian’anmen Gate Tower in Beijing City (1 尺 ¼ 31.73 cm 1 chi ¼ 31.73 cm, 墩台明初建 The platform was firstly built in the early Ming Dynasty, 城楼明中期重建 The gate tower was rebuilt in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, 据 1942 年3 月实测图, According to the drawing made from actual measurement which was finished in March 1942)

and the zandang of bucket arches was adopted as the extended modulus, as a quite rare case (see Fig. 9.21).

9.3.3

The Layout of the Large Building Complexes

The different sizes in a group of buildings demanded different moduli; a uniform modulus could never be agreed upon, and therefore the architects had to negotiate for a modulus grid with some margin for error to be the benchmark of the layout to guarantee a well-balanced composition of the buildings. The overall plan layout fixed in a grid which was 10 zhang square had been found in the construction of the Mingtang (the Imperial Ancestral Temple) Biyong (moat) in the Western Han Dynasty at the latest. The practice of designing buildings in grids which was passed down to the following generations and continuously developed in the long course of application and some important quadrangles were adopted to be the area modulus in the construction of some superlarge building groups like imperial palaces. The imperial palaces in Beijing City constructed in the early fifteenth century in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are the most magnificent extant masterpieces that can demonstrate the quadrangle layout, as the most talented and skilled spatial arrangements. The three main temples for the public imperial court and the two palaces for the sovereign private apartments and other peripheral palaces were designed according to the benchmark of grids which were 10 zhang, 5 zhang, and 3 zhang square, respectively; the two palaces for the sovereign private apartments were set as the area modulus, indicating the supremacy of the imperial power (Fig. 9.22).

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Fig. 9.21 The extended modulus of the zandang between two groups of bucket arches in turrets of the Forbidden City in Beijing City (扶脊木 ridge-bracing wood component 上檐口 the cornice of the upper eave, 上檐柱顶 the capital of the middle pillar 中檐口 the cornice of the middle eave, 下 檐口 the cornice of the lower eave 地平 horizon, 17攒档 ¼ 17  2.5 ¼ 42.5 尺 17 zandang ¼ 17  2.5 ¼ 42.5 chi, 斗拱攒档 ¼ 2.5 尺 the zandang between two groups of bucket arches ¼ 2.5 chi, 1 尺 ¼ 31.73 cm 1 chi ¼ 31.73 cm, 底图及数据据1941年8月实测图, The base map and the data were derived from the drawing made from actual measurement which was finished in August 1941)

9.3.4

The City Planning

There were records of the employment of the modulus in the construction of the capital cities in The Rites of Zhou-Kaogongji. A systematic survey of Chang’an City, Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Dadu City in the Yuan Dynasty, and Beijing City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties by precise drawing maps made from actual measurement revealed that the length, the width, or the area of the imperial inner city was adopted as the modulus for the planning of the capital cities, which not only helped to render orderly arranged streets but also indicated the supremacy of the imperial power, as found in Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties: Firstly designed by Yuwen Kai in 606, its palace section was located on the north bank of the Luohe River as a square subsidiary city with an imperial inner city in the front and a palace inner city in the rear. The core area of the palace city, namely, the imperial court and the private apartments, collectively called Danei (the grand imperial inner quarter), was a square inner city, covering an area of a quarter of the total area of the imperial city and the palace city. The main residential section of the city was located on the south bank of the Luohe River and was composed of 77 fang of the same size, arranged in orderly rows. The total area of four fang was equal to the area of Danei. So it was that the total area of the imperial city and the palace city was four times as large as the area of Danei and the area of Danei was four times as large as the area of one fang – there were multiple or fractional relations between

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Fig. 9.22 The analysis site plan of the layout of the imperial palaces in the Forbidden City in Beijing City (明清紫禁城宫殿平面分析 图 – 以方十丈五丈三丈网格 为基准, The analysis site plan of the imperial palaces in the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties – the benchmark of the grids which were 10 zhang square, 5 zhang square, and 3 zhang square, 据《紫禁城建筑研究 与保护》附图, According to the attached diagram of The Research and Protection of the Buildings in the Forbidden City)

the areas, and the whole city was visibly displayed by the modulus of the area of Danei. The modulus-designing method promoted a clear and orderly city planning and guaranteed the fast construction work. Furthermore, the modulus of the area of Danei expressed some symbolic meaning – Danei symbolized the royal power, and the palace city and the imperial city symbolized the country, and fang symbolized the populace. When Danei should increase fourfold to be as large as the imperial city and the palace city as a whole, it was indicated that the imperial power would be extended to be the whole country. When Danei should be four times as large as the fang in area, it indicated that the imperial power dominated over the populace, connoting “every inch of the land was the domain of the king, and every person under the sky was a subject of the king,” politically symbolizing the imperial power that reigned. This was a typical example of the “block-sectiontype” cities developed with area modulus (see Fig. 9.19). The application of the abovementioned three characteristics and their corresponding designs in the construction of individual buildings, the building complexes, and the cities was subject to another specific social factor – the hierarchy.

9.4

The Societal Conditions for the Development of the Architecture in Ancient China

Compared with other regions in the world such as the ancient West Asia, the economic factors such as the productive force and business exchange in the Neolithic Age exerted minor effects on the origin and the development of the

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civilization in ancient China, including the emergence of cities and countries and the creation and the development of the characters and art; it was the political factors such as the patriarch system, the joint of the monarchical power and the divine authority, the annexation in wars, the plunders, and the enslavement that swayed the course of historical development. The transition from the different levels of “kingdoms on fiefdoms” in the feudal hierarchical Western Zhou Dynasty (similar to a successive order of contractions between the kings and the lords, in which the lords were granted lands and paid back tributes and military services to the kings) to the unified unitary dynasties (local authorities were put directly under the central government) was facilitated by annexing wars and other political maneuvers, and the further economic development was just brought forth from a consolidated authority and a stable society. So in ancient China, compared with the political factors like the establishment and the maintenance of the imperial power, the economic factors like the productions and economic exchanges were of secondary importance and sometimes were even despised, discriminated against, and restricted in the development; in some cases, the development of the handicraft technology, the technique, including architecture, was curbed. To put it briefly, the cultural traditions in ancient China politically put the imperial power in a supreme position to heighten the dominance of the theocracy, imperial power, clan authority, patriarchy, and husband authority in the ethnic values with the relationships between the nature and the humanity, the ruler and his subjects, father and son, husband and wife, etc. as features to keep a tight control over individuals, families, tribes, and clans in a clearly stratified society to guarantee their loyalty to the imperial power and the stability of the society (the fixed relationship between different classes and levels) and the country (the imperial power). Discipline rites and laws and their corresponding variances in ranks were the most important parts in maintaining the stability, which were established to confirm the different ranks (among the ruling aristocrats), the different status (between the lords and the subjects), and these ethnic values. Discipline rites were referred to the behavior norms, and laws were referred to the bans; they were inextricably linked to each other to reinforce the positions of the different ranks among the nobility and the distinct dividing lines between the nobility and the humble civilians and to make the authorities consolidated. The differential standards set for the daily activities in that period made the different social status quite distinctive. The hierarchy also had a profound influence on the origin and the development of the architectural system in ancient China. All the construction activities ranging from large cities, palaces, government mansions, and imperial temples to small houses of the common people were conducted not to the tastes or the financial resources of any individual but to the strict specifications of one institution or to the hierarchy, as recorded in Guanzi: “There are restrictions on the diet, the specifications for the apparel, the standards for the palaces, . . .. . . no one is allowed to wear the apparel that he is not entitled to despite his grand build and good look; no one is tolerated to spend lavishly against the standard despite his great treasure and wealth.”

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The hierarchy and the list of the ranks demonstrated by the buildings were the discipline rites and laws which were embodied in the residential environment. It had been recorded in the ancient works of the Pre-Qin period like Zuo’s Commentary on Spring and Autumn Annals and The Rites of Zhou-Kaogongji-Craftsmen that sizes of cities, shapes and structures of palaces, and ornaments on the buildings in the prince fiefdoms were strictly specified to reinforce the established power structure – which suggested an origin of a system of hierarchy. In the following dynasties, different versions of Codes on Construction, which was similar to a law, found in the orthodox historic literature indicated that the hierarchy in the architecture had appeared in the feudal Zhou Dynasty at the latest and gradually became systematized and institutionalized until it became laws in the unitary dynasties after the Qin and Han Dynasties. The hierarchical restrictions were imposed on the capital cities, regional cities, palaces, temples, mausoleums, government mansions, residences, and civilian dwellings, including procedures or rituals exclusive to the emperors; specific institutions for the size, shape, and structure of different cities; building complexes like government mansions for officials with different ranks; individual buildings for commoners; etc. All these restrictions became fixed laws and could never be violated. To sum up, according to the hierarchical systems from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the houses composed of nine sections were exclusive to the emperors, the houses composed of seven sections were allotted to the princes, the houses composed of five sections were designed for the aristocrats or officials of senior ranks, and the houses composed of three sections were designed for the officials of junior ranks or commoners. As to the forms of roof, the hip roofs were exclusive to the main temples of the imperial palaces and Buddhist temples, the saddle roofs were designed for the princes and prominent officials, temples in the Tang Dynasty but since the Song Dynasty the saddle roofs were only available to the princes, and temples and the twin-sloped suspension roofs and the gabled roofs were designed for a wide range of levels from the princes, the nobility, and the prominent officials to commoners. While the upturned tips of the roofs were beautiful and admired, they were out of the reach of the aristocrats below the princes. The same was true with the bucket arch – this kind of wood structural components that was peculiar to ancient China was exclusive to the imperial palaces, temples, and prince mansions. In terms of color painting, vermilion color was exclusive to the imperial palaces, temples, and aristocratic residences, and reddish brown color was assigned for ordinary officials, and black color was for commoners. The black paint on many old houses in small counties in the North of China that can still be found nowadays is reminiscent of the ancient architectural hierarchy. There were many levels of color painting: the dragon pattern, the most bright colored and the most heavily gold loaded, was exclusive to the main temple of the imperial palace complexes; the tangent circle pattern was designed for the minor palaces, the prince mansions, and the Buddhist temples and for local embellishment of the residences of ordinary aristocrats and officials of senior ranks, but totally forbidden to the commoners. Glazed tiles were exclusive to

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imperial palaces, Buddhist temples, and prince mansions: yellow glazed tiles were reserved for the imperial palaces and the Buddhist temples constructed at the edict, and green glazed tiles were designed for prince mansions and temples for bodhisattva. Gray pantiles were assigned to the residences of ordinary aristocrats and officials of senior ranks, and gray plate tiles were assigned to the officials of junior ranks and the commoners. With the rigid restrictions, the personal identity and social status of the house owners were glaringly revealed by the number of component sections of the building, the types of the roof, the kinds of the tile, and the types and colors of the paintings on the building. The hierarchy was also imposed on the construction of capital cities, prefecture-level cities, and county-level cities, for example, in the 1500-year-long period from the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, only the capital cities could have three gateways with the middle one reserved for the emperor; the administration inner city of the prefecture-level cities, which were called “watchtower,” could have two gateways; county-level cities could only have one gateway. There were differential sizes for the prefecture-level cities, county-level cities, and government mansions, for example, the main hall of the ministry-level government mansions could have five rooms with three flank rooms on both sides, and the main hall of the prefecture-level cities could have three rooms and flank rooms on both sides, and the main hall of the county-level cities could have three rooms but no flank rooms. The hierarchical restrictions were imposed to check the variances between different cities. The architectural hierarchy to maintain the power structure had pros and cons with respect to its influence on the development of the architecture. On the one hand, it could guarantee the uniformity and the order in the development of cities and building complexes to achieve balance and harmony and at the same time guard against social unrests that might result from the rampant constructing activities. On the other hand, it could cause a rigid system and stereotyped procedures, hindering the development of architecture and the adoption of new technologies. That is, while the buildings were being constructed to embody the social order in unitary countries and to cultivate a harmony in a city or among different buildings, the innovations in the architectural technologies were impaired and a rigid architectural institution and a sluggish architectural development would be the result. In the course of history, once the specifications, including the structures and frameworks, of these buildings were combined with the discipline rites, they tended to become stereotyped and hardly tolerated violations or alterations. (For example, from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the structural components of the wood buildings were divided into three levels – temples, halls, and peripheral houses. These houses were designed for the emperors, the nobility and the officials, and the commoners, respectively; the noble could choose to descend their level but the humble were forbidden to raise theirs.) The rigid and stereotyped system could hardly be changed unless there were severe social upheavals in which the old dynasties were replaced with new ones such as the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms or the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms when the architecture finally broke free from the fetters of the old

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tradition to score new developments. In history, the transition from the blocksection-type cities to the street-lane-type cities and the transitions from the Han style to the Tang style to the Song style and to the Ming style all occurred in this kind of transitions. So in the long course of lineal development of the architectural system in ancient China in the long period of thousands of years, there were intermittent progresses in leaps and bounds, as well as stagnant phases. Some elements of the traditional culture in ancient China also exerted remarkable influence on the architectural development. Chinese people in ancient times believed that “the virtues and the fortunes will transfer,” and even the emperors might say something like “from the ancient time till now, there is no kingdom can be spared from the fall”; therefore they tended to hasten the construction of buildings, even the important and grand buildings such as the imperial palaces and temples to meet their temporal desires, paying less heed to the eternity of these buildings. It was never found in ancient China that the construction of a palace or a church should cost a long period of several decades or several centuries, as was common in Europe; the Chinese people in ancient times even labored against the clock to complete a grotto. The timbered houses and the half-timbered houses were great time savers because they were easy to construct, to alter, and to demolish to keep pace with the latest social trend and hence became the primary forms of buildings in ancient China. Deeply influenced by the discipline rites, the layout of these buildings heightened the distinctions between the inner section and the outer section, the noble and the humble, and the aristocrats and the commoners and clung to the introverted enclosed courtyard or quadrangle complexes. In terms of city planning, the cities were not the natural products of the economic or financial development but were established and developed to consolidate the authorities by keeping a strict control on the territory and the civilians, so there were many orderly arranged rectangular blocks and grids of streets which were constructed according to the government-sponsored designs to facilitate an effective control on the residents, which proved to be the main feature of the architectural system in ancient China. Greatly influenced by the discipline rites and law system (patriarchal notions), political institutions (hierarchy), and traditional concepts (no pursuit of the eternity), the architectural system became fixed and was passed down on to the modern period. That is a prime reason why the timbered buildings remained the primary architectural form without displaying any trend toward large-scale masonry buildings though there had been comparatively mature techniques for the masonry arch buildings of different forms and sizes since the Han Dynasty, and there had been continuing influx of architectural elements of this kind since the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, and there had been very advanced brickbaking techniques in the Ming Dynasty which had made the large brick buildings possible. This is a striking proof of the restrictions imposed on the development of architecture by social and humanistic factors in ancient China. It was under the specific historical and societal conditions, during the thriving periods of the dynasties, that the ancestors of Chinese people successfully created a

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unique and spectacular architectural system in the world with remarkable feats, along with the dynastic institution in development and evolution; when the dynastic institution declined, the architectural system and the related technologies were on the wane and sometimes even went backward or became lost to the world. (Translator: Bin Li) (Proofreader: Keren Wang)

The Angle Concept and Angle Measurement in Ancient China

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Zengjian Guan

Contents 10.1 The Traditional Du Was Not Identical to an Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2 To Study Astronomy with Proportionate Gauge for Du . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.3 Discussion of Kaogongji in a Matter-of-Fact Manner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4 The Establishment of Eastern Measurement Aided by the Western Scholars . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

In this chapter, a detailed and systematic analysis of the creation of angle concepts and the transition from the traditional proportionate measurement to the measurement of angles has been given. Keywords

The 365¼-section dividing method · The division of 360 degrees · Proportionate gauge for Du · Kaogongji · Elements

Angle, as one important physical quantity, is important to scientific research, daily activities, and engineering. In the long course of development in the Chinese civilization, the ancestors of Chinese people created splendid civilization, spiritual and material; it involved a lot of angle-related subjects. In the beginning, although ancient people in China didn’t develop a specific concept of central angle and failed to develop a division system which was similar to the 360
system in the Western society, they found no trouble in dealing with all the angle-related issues. How did the ancient people solve these problems? This is what will be discussed in this chapter. Z. Guan (*) Division for Development of Liberal Arts, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_10

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The Traditional Du Was Not Identical to an Angle

In ancient scientific subjects, astronomy was the most notable one to deal with a large number of angle-related issues. As one of the fully developed subjects in ancient China, astronomy mainly concentrated on the calendar formulation and astronomical observation which involved a lot of angle-related issues, for example, the motions of the sun, the moon, and other planets, the division of sky, the positions of the constellations, etc. Nowadays, solutions to these astronomical issues entail the measurement of angles. How did ancient people deal with these issues? A basic measurement unit is an essential prerequisite to an effective measurement on celestial bodies, and ancient people in China formulated the unit – du 度. The unit of du was formulated on the yearly revolution of the sun. The ancient people thought the circuit of the sun was the movement of it along a curve path through the sky on the ecliptic plane. One circuit of the sun along the ecliptic plane through the sky takes about 3651=4 days; ancient people hence divided the ecliptic plane into 3651=4 sections; they called each section 1 du and called the speed that covers 1 du in 1 day 1 Lǜ (rate) to calculate the seasonal positions of the sun. And this was what Liu Zhi, a scholar in the Jin Dynasty, said, “The sage king once formulated calendars to arrange time, . . . divided it into three hundred and sixtyfive and a quarter to set the number of days” (Liu Zhi, On the Sky, Sun Xingyan: A Sequel to Guwenyuan (an anthology of ancient poems), Vol. 9) Because the ecliptic plane is a large circle in the sky, this practice in fact divides the circumference of the celestial sphere into 3651=4 sections; the length of each section is 1 du. This large circle can be the circle of the ecliptic plane and can also be the celestial equator (the imaginary circle vertical to the earth’s axis). And this method can be further applied to divide all the circles in the sky or even on the ground into 3651=4 sections; the length of each section is 1 du. This method of dividing circles found in ancient China was very similar to the early practice adopted in the Western civilization in which a circle was divided into 360 sections with the central angle corresponding to each section stipulated as 1
. So the scholars in this domain traditionally believed that the 3651=4 -section dividing method in ancient China was in essence identical to the division of 360
in the Western civilization; they both reflected the concept of central angle, with little difference in value. However, it has to be pointed out that the traditional 3651=4 sections in ancient China were not equivalent to degrees – they didn’t reflect the concept of central angle. The 3651=4 -section division method was established to meet the need of marking the positions of celestial bodies; the method was developed according to the yearly revolution of the sun, on the basis of the distance the sun traveled in a single day. This method intrinsically stipulated that the du was a proportional length, which was irrelevant to the central angle. Besides, in terms of philology, the du can’t be understood as an angle; it can just be literally understood as a length, which is its literal meaning. Hanshu Lvlizhi recorded: “Du, referring to fen (a unit of measure of length in ancient China, ten fen is one cun, ten cun is one chi, ten chi is one zhang, ten zhang is one yin), cun (one cun is about 3.3333 cm), chi, zhang, yin, is adopted

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for measurement of lengths.” The five different units of length are collectively called du and are adopted to measure lengths. It was recorded in Yinwen Zi-The First Volume of Dadao (the fundamentals): “People measure length with du, gauge volume with liang, and judge weight with heng.” It is evident that as a noun, du referred to a basic unit of length; as a verb, it meant to measure. As to the practice of setting weights and measures by a specified musical tone, du was taken as a unit of length. Ancient people extended the basic meaning of du to the research of the celestial bodies and formed the peculiar division system of 3651=4 sections in ancient China. From the perspective of the application of some relevant concepts in ancient China, the essence and the historical influence of this division system can be further clarified. In the Western Han Dynasty, there was a heated debate between Sphere-heavens school and Canopy-heavens school on the constitution of the universe. While Canopy-heavens school held that the sky and the ground were two parallel planes with the sky hanging over the ground, the Sphere-heavens school insisted that the sky was a sphere with the larger sky staying in the outside and the smaller ground being enclosed in the inside. The writer and astronomer named Yang Xiong at first advocated the Canopy-heavens theory; later, having realized the fallacy in the Canopy-heavens theory under the advice of one scholar named Huan Tan, he wrote an essay To Rebut the Canopy-heavens on Eight Points to refute the Canopy-heavens theory by referring to the fundamentals of the astronomy. In the essay, Yang Xiong pointed out: The sun moves to the law on the ecliptic plane day and night. Qianjiu (Altair) is to the north of the north celestial pole and they are one hundred and eleven du apart, Dongjing (a star in Gemini) is to the south of the north celestial pole and they are seventy du apart. The ratio of circumference of a circle to the diameter of it is three to one, then the circumference of the celestial sphere harboring the twenty-eight constellations should be five hundred and forty du, but it is held three hundred and sixty du, how to interpret it? (Treatise on Astronomy, The First Half, Book of the Sui Dynasty (Vol. 19))

According to the theory of the Canopy-heavens school, the sky was a flat board with the north pole in the center, and the 28 constellations were located around. Qianniu was to the north of the north pole and Dongjing was to the due south of the north pole; they were right on the opposite ends of the diameter of a circle. A measurement revealed that Qianniu was at the 111 du to the north of the north pole and Dongjing was at the 70 du to the south of the north pole; the linear distance between the two constellations was 181 du. In that period, people thought that π was “three to one.” Since the diameter of the circle was 181 du, the circumference of the circle should have been 540 du when calculated to the “three-to-one” ratio; why the result of measurement was 360 du (Yang Xiong adopted an approximate number of 360 instead of 3651=4 for convenience)? While Yang Xiong attempted to refute the Canopy-heavens theory by pointing out its inherent contradictions, we detected that the “three-to-one” ratio was adopted directly by him to deal with the relationship between different du, which indicated that in that period the scholars failed to

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develop the concept of central angle on the basis of the division of a circle into 3651=4 sections. So it is evident that du referred to length in that period. Although the Sphere-heavens theory substituted for the Canopy-heavens theory, it inherited the division practice of the Canopy-heavens theory – to divide the circumference of the celestial sphere into 3651=4 sections, with the length of one section being 1 du. One du still connoted a length, and this was reflected in the discussions on the form of the celestial bodies in the Sphere-heavens school. The refutation of the Canopy-heavens theory made by Yang Xiong was one example. And in the Three Kingdoms period, a scholar of the Sphere-heavens school named Lu Ji proposed that “the celestial sphere is like an egg,” insisting that the celestial sphere was not in the form of a perfect circle, but an ellipsoid, like an egg. But this idea was refuted by another scholar of the Sphere-heavens school named Wang Fan who said: The two planes of the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect with each other, and they are twenty-four du apart. As the measurement conducted on instruments reveals that it is likely that the circumferences of the two planes are both three hundred and sixty-five odd du, the sky is in the form of a ball. The celestial globe made by Lu Ji was like an egg, and in that case the length of circle on the ecliptic plane should be longer than the one on equatorial plane (Treatise on Astronomy, The First Half, Book of the Jin Dynasty (Vol. 11)).

That is to say, if the sky is in the form of an ellipsoid, then the length of the circle on the ecliptic plane should be longer than the one on the equatorial plane, and the ecliptic plane should cover more du than the equatorial plane. But the measurements conducted on the observatory instruments indicate that the two planes have an equal range of du, and they should have an equal circumference; therefore the sky is perfectly round. It is evident that the du can’t be anything but a length of arc, not an angle, because as for an ellipsoid, the arcs of equal central angles are not necessarily equal. Then in the Tang Dynasty, people’s knowledge of the traditional division of a circle into 3651=4 sections was no better than the proportional length of the circumference of a circle. In the annotations made to The Book of Rites by a famous scholar named Kong Yingda, some discussions on the Sphere-heavens theory were offered, and some of which has been given below: Surrounded by the celestial sphere, the ground of the Earth is flat; it stays in the center of the sky. The sky tilts from the north to the south with the north celestial pole thirty-six du above the surface of the ground, and the south celestial pole thirty-six du below the surface. . . . The south celestial pole is one hundred and twenty-one du apart from the north celestial pole. If measured along the circle, they are one hundred and eighty-one odd du apart (Yueling the Sixth (climate and phenology in a lunar month), Liji Zhengyi (annotations to The Book of Rites), (Vol. 14)).

“One hundred and eighty-one odd du” refers to the linear distance between the south celestial pole and the north celestial pole, namely, the diameter of the celestial sphere. “If measured along the circle” refers to the calculation along the circumference, which is virtually the length of the arc between the two poles. When du should be taken as an angle, this text is just beyond explanation.

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The division of a circle into 3651=4 sections in ancient China proved to be effective in locating the positions of the celestial bodies. The effectiveness in this division turned out to be a hindrance to the development of other division methods and kept the concepts of angles staying underdeveloped. The underdeveloped condition can be found in many respects: an obvious lack of a geometric system which was found in ancient Greece, a common practice to represent an angle with a length in locating positions of the celestial bodies. For example, in The History of Song-Treatise on Astronomy, there was a record of a supernova explosion that occurred in 1054: “A guest star, . . . in the first year of Zhihe period, July Yichou (the fourth), emerged about several cun to the southeast of Tianguan star (Taurus); it gradually disappeared after lingered on for more than one year” (Astronomy the Ninth, History of the Song Dynasty (Vol. 56)). The “several cun” in this record refers to some unit of length, and this kind of representing method is a concrete example of the wide application of the traditional division idea in astronomy. The influences of the traditional division, positive or negative, were very clearly found in Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in the Song Dynasty. Here was a very famous analysis given by him: The azimuth ring of the armillary sphere is set level to resemble the ground; when the armillary sphere is mounted on a tall tower to help the observation of the movements of the sun and the moon, the azimuth ring will not be perfectly consistent with the horizon. I think though the explanation sounds plausible, the great distance in the universe will never be impaired by the height of a tower. The investigations into the mysteries of the universe with the armillary sphere provide tested data and relative data. The tested data mean this datum equals that datum, and a movement, in a certain distance “赤”, of this object causes a corresponding movement of that object. And the relative data mean to measure that object with this one, and a small movement of one fen of this object equals a great distance of thousands of li (a Chinese unit of length, approximately equals 590 yards) of that object. The height of the tower is a tested datum which is a fixed number of no more than several zhang, and can only cause a corresponding movement of the same distance. Can the vastness of space in universe be measured by several zhang, the height of the tower? The numbers on the azimuth ring are relative data, and a slight movement of one inch on the azimuth ring equals an astonishing distance of thousands of li in the universe. Therefore, while numbers on the azimuth ring must be carefully read, the height of the tower can well be neglected [1].

There was one notion that in astronomical observation, when the armillary sphere was surmounted on a tower, a difference of height between the azimuth ring and the real horizon would occur, causing errors in the observation of the movements of the sun and the moon. But Shen Kuo dissented from this notion; he made the analysis given above to refute this notion. The character “赤” in the quotation, according to a scholar called Li Zhichao, was an error and should have been written as “十分” (ten fen) [2]. The analysis made by Shen Kuo definitely put forward the concepts of the absolute error and the relative error which deserved special attention in the study on the history of physics. The idea of Shen Kuo was closely related to the proportion element in the traditional division, in which the notion of du referred to the proportioned length. To different circumferences, the same 1 du can indicate different lengths; as it was quote, “one fen here” can “correspond to a distance of thousands of li there,” that is, the corresponding measurement error will be

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magnified proportionately, and the concept of the relative error was hence developed. Shen Kuo hence had every reason to pay a special attention to the improvement of the measurement accuracy; he emphasized “while the numbers on the azimuth ring must be read very carefully, the height of the tower can well be neglected,” which was innovative. But the lack of the notion of angles left him incapable of differentiating the central angle from the circumferential angle that were corresponding to one arc on meridian ring in actual observation, and he mistakenly interpreted the distance of 1.5 du between the polestar and the north celestial pole as 3 du in observation, which is a regret [3]. The stone inscription of astronomical map of the Southern Song Dynasty designed for the education of Ningzong, the crown prince, was of an attached explanation, and a quotation from which is given below: There is a round sky and a square ground. . . . The circumferences of the sky are unexceptionally three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter du; the diameters are one hundred and twenty-one and three quarters du, . . . The side of the ground is twenty-four du; the thickness is the half of the side. The ground tilts to the southeast, with the northwest one du higher at most.

In this explanation, the circumference and diameter of the celestial bodies are all represented with du, which conforms to the three-to-one ratio of circumference to diameter in a circle; the diameter, the thickness, and the tilting angle of the ground are represented with du, too. It is evident that du intrinsically refers to a length, not an angle. The presence of the applications of du in the textbooks for the emperor demonstrated the great profundity of the traditional division. Though the division of a circle into 3651=4 sections is based upon the proportionate gauge for degrees, once the division is established, any arc is bound to be corresponding to one central angle, and any observation conducted with the armillary sphere on this notion is virtually a measurement of angle. Therefore, any observation records left by ancient people can be viewed as angles in discussions of what they observed. Besides, this corresponding relationship provides foundation for the ancient people to develop concepts of angle, helping them avoid the mistakes once committed by Shen Kuo. For example, in the same research on the measurement of the position of pole star, Su Song, a scholar a little bit after Shen Kuo, found the right answer. He said: “It was believed that the Polaris was the celestial pole; it was a fixed axis of the sky on the due north. But the observations reveal that the celestial pole also rotates ceaselessly and remains stationary within section of one and a half du” (Su Song, Specifications for the Water-driven Celestial Globe (Volume Two)) Anyway, once it is concluded that the division of a circle into 3651=4 sections intrinsically refers to lengths and not to angles, many puzzles found in the ancient documents are easily solved. When a circle was divided into 3651=4 sections, although there was a one-to-one correspondence between du and the central angles, the actual imprecise division and redundant numbers in the division hindered the research on the geometry theory; it just could be adopted for practical observation. Therefore, the division was inadequate to promote the development of the geometry system in China. In history, the

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division was hardly applied outside the astronomical observation, which was a
circumstantial evidence that it didn’t reflect the concept of angle. A 360 division that was convincingly practical and beneficial to a theoretical deduction was finally introduced from the West and got accepted in China, when it was the late sixteenth century.

10.2

To Study Astronomy with Proportionate Gauge for Du

Though the traditional division of a circle into 3651=4 sections didn’t refer to angles, it did develop a system of units for astronomical measurement to be adopted to indicate the positions of the celestial bodies. How did the ancient people conduct astronomical measurement with this division system? The astronomical measurement conducted by ancient people is in fact one kind of proportionate measurement. The notion of du in ancient China is a proportional length; the celestial bodies move in circles in the sky, and the circumference of a circle is divided into 3651=4 sections with each section corresponding to 1 du. When the circle in the sky should be demonstrated on a small instrument on the ground, one of the 3651=4 sections into which every ring on the instrument was divided will be called 1 du, too. Therefore, the degrees between two celestial bodies can be represented by the marks of du on the rings of the instrument. The actual measurement of the celestial bodies in the sky was hence converted into a proportionate gauge reading: To align one circle made on the ground level with the circle in the sky, the positions of the celestial bodies on the circle in the sky were to be fixed by a reading of the du marks on the circle on the ground level. This is substantially what astronomical measurement in ancient China committed to, which is described as the proportionate gauge for du and was shared by both Sphere-heavens school and Canopy-heavens school. The earliest record of this measurement is found in an ancient work of astronomy in China – Zhoubi Suanjing. The proportionate gauge for du notion was best demonstrated in the records of “to measure the celestial sphere by setting twentyeight constellations” in this book: The solution is: First to find the due north by using Zhenggou method, then level the ground and draw a circle which is twenty-one bu (a length measurement) in diameter and sixty-three bu in circumference. Check the levelness with water surface, and the diameter is confirmed as one hundred and twenty-one chi, seven cun and five fen; multiply the diameter and three and we get the circumference of the circle, which is three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter chi and matches three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter du of the circle in the sky. The measurement and the division of the circle have to be conducted very carefully to guard against any minute error. After that, divide the circle into four congruent arcs with a horizontal straight line and a vertical straight line which intersect with each other at right angles; each arc is ninety-one and five-sixteenths du. An instrument of a circle is hence convincingly made. Erect a pole at the center of the circle, fasten a rope to the top of the pole, pull the rope taut and put the eye of the observer, the top of the pole, and the central bright star of Qianniu constellation into alignment to observe the star when it is high in the sky right overhead. Then wait to observe the marker star of Xunv constellation, which is close to

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Qianniu constellation, when it moves to the position that is high in the sky right overhead. At the moment when the marker star of Xunv constellation moves to the position overhead, pull the rope taut immediately and put the observer’s eye, the top of the pole, and the marker star into alignment to check how much has the central bright star of Qianniu constellation deviated from the vertical dividing line of the circle against an indicator-pole set on the circle. If the indicator-pole shows a deviation of an arc which is eight chi in length, Qianniu constellation has moved a range of eight du. After the rest constellations have been measured in the same way, the system is established (Zhoubi Suanjing, engraved edition of the Song Dynasty, Vol. 1).

In this way, the degrees between the 28 constellations could be demonstrated by du. In fact, the demonstrated du were the azimuths for the 28 constellations when they moved to the due south point in turn, not the right ascension difference. As to this practice, Mr. Qian Baocong once pointed out, “Although the knowledge of angles was not available in ancient China, the optical measurement method in Zhoubi Suanjing enabled people to locate the celestial bodies in the sky” [4]. The practice recorded in Zhoubi Suanjing best demonstrated the proportionate gauge for du practice developed by the ancient people. To measure the circle in the sky which had been divided into 3651=4 du, a smaller corresponding circle had to be made on the ground level. As Zhoubi Suanjing pointed out, the smaller circle was made on the ground level and had du marks made on it “to correspond to the 3651=4 sections into which a circle in the celestial sphere was divided,” that is, to make it convenient to correspond to the circle in the sky, and this is the reflection of the profound thought of proportionate calculation in this book. The mechanism of the universe in Zhoubi Suanjing depicted that the sun rotated clinging to the celestial sphere, and when it was to be demonstrated on the ground, a corresponding circle had to be made. And this thought was also applied to the measurement of the distance between the sun and the earth and the size of the sun. Nevertheless, the practice in this book proved less rigorous in that a perfect proportionate correspondence entails a measurement which is conducted right under the north celestial pole (the “center of the universe” held by the Canopy-heavens school); otherwise the ratio of 1 du in the sky to the length of the corresponding arc of 1 du on the ring on the ground level is not a constant. Because the practice of “fastening a rope to the top of a pole” or “drawing the rope to the center” can just produce angles and different observation spots will produce different lengths of arc for the same angle, a proportionate calculation is hence unfeasible. The lack of rigor in Zhoubi Suanjing might prove helpful to a development of the concept of angle which was cut short by the emergence of Sphere-heavens theory. For astronomical observation, the scholars of the Sphere-heavens school adopted the armillary sphere which simulated how the celestial bodies were functioning in the sky and followed the proportionate correspondence practice in setting marks on the rings of the armillary sphere. The explanation of the marks on the ring of the armillary sphere offered by Shen Kuo, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, is helpful to a better understanding of this practice: The stars move fast or slow, and the sun and the moon appear alternately. To observe or explore their orbiting modes, we have to turn to the sun for inspiration. . . . To study the celestial sphere, we adopt du to tell different positions of the sun.. . . . While du is invisible,

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the stars can be found. Along the route of the sun, the moon, and other stars can be found. Measured with du, a total of twenty-eight areas can be set. In these areas we measure du and with du we fix angle. Although du exists in the sky, they can be demonstrated on the armillary sphere when observed with instruments. When the movements of the sun, the moon, and other stars are demonstrated on the armillary sphere, the sky actually stays free from interference. In that case, the movements in the sky are not very difficult to know [1].

In this passage, the proportionate correspondence concept was clearly presented: According to the movement of the sun on the sky, the sky was divided into units of du, and the division could be demonstrated on instruments; the position of the sun in the sky can be located by reading the marks of du on the instrument. The statement “. . . adopt du to tell different positions of the sun” indicated that the du in it still referred to a length – the distance the sun traveled across the sky every day. Shen Kuo once conducted in-depth study on the armillary sphere and “made a comprehensive survey on all the research activities conducted with instruments before him and in his age”; therefore, his statement on the proportionate division demonstrated on the armillary sphere in ancient period should be convincing. Since the measurement of the celestial bodies with the armillary sphere is in fact a proportional magnification of the corresponding arc on a concentric circle, the armillary sphere is to be placed at the core of the celestial sphere – the so-called the center of the ground. Otherwise the proportion is false and the measurement is biased, which will lead to errors in the calendars. So the ancient people made relentless efforts to seek for “the center of the ground.” It was recorded in Book of Sui-Treatise on Astronomy that “According to The Rites of Zhou, the chief local magistrate ‘is responsible for examining the pole on the ground to measure the length of the shadow of the pole in the sunlight to locate the centre of the ground.’ And this is the orthodox doctrine of Sphere-heavens school, which set the fundamental principle for the armillary sphere” (Book of Sui-Treatise on Astronomy). And this is also the reason why Lao Xiahong managed to “study the celestial sphere by determining the centre of the ground and proceed to establish the calendar in his research activities sponsored by Emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty.” Another astronomer named Zu Geng “consulted extensively and drew cross-references to many academic works in an effort to locate the centre of the ground” (Book of Sui-Treatise on Astronomy). And then in the subsequent Tang Dynasty, Yixing the Monk conducted what is regarded as a measurement of the meridian circle in modern terms with the same aim to “examine all the sundials in the world to find the centre of the ground to make it the pivot” (The First Volume of Treatise on Astronomy, The Old Book of Tang (Vol. 30)). From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the ancient people’s relentless search for the fictional center of the ground was probably guided by the proportionate measurement practice. Anyway, the proportionate measurement practice brought forth the invention of the armillary sphere, and the measurement of the celestial sphere conducted on this instrument was in fact a measurement of angles. It was adequate to spur the development of astronomy in ancient China, which is especially noteworthy.

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Discussion of Kaogongji in a Matter-of-Fact Manner

The armillary sphere was adequate to determine the positions of the celestial bodies; how did ancient people cope with angle issues in daily life and in engineering field? Or, to put it mildly, did they command some abstract concepts of angle? The word “angle” used in modern society wasn’t found as a scientific term in ancient China; it was a polysemous word then. The meaning such as a corner was closest to the modern concept of “angle,” which never referred to an angle because it failed to indicate the precise degrees of an angle. And the notion du adopted by ancient people referred to a length, which could be derived to mean to measure. It was only after the introduction of Western mathematics into China that the two words – angle and du – were combined to refer to degrees of an angle. An absence of the word “angle” doesn’t mean an absence of the concept of angle. In daily activities, ancient people necessarily dealt with angle problems and were specific with angles, which naturally bred the concept of angle. In the beginning, people began to be familiar with some specific angles such as right angle, 12 azimuths, etc. Did the concepts of abstract arbitrary angles develop in ancient production activities? If so, did they find terms for the concepts? The answer is yes, which can be found in Kaogongji (Book of Diverse Crafts), and a quotation has been listed below: Ge (an ancient weapon consisting of a T-shaped metal top end and a long wooden handle) is two cun in diameter of the socket into which the handle is fit, the part named na is twice the length of the diameter, the part named hu is three times the length of the diameter, the part named yuan is four times the length of the diameter. If there should be an obtuse angle which is much larger than ninety degrees between yuan and hu, yuan can’t penetrate into human body with ease; if there should be an acute angle between yuan and hu, yuan can’t slash through human body with ease . . . So the angle between yuan and hu should be slightly larger than the right angle with the metal top end weighing three luo (twenty liang). Ji (an ancient weapon consisting of a metal top end with an axe blade and a pick at opposite ends which is topped by a spearhead and a long wooden shaft) is one and a half cun in diameter of the socket into which the handle is fit, the part named na is three times the length of the diameter, the part named hu is four times the length of the diameter, the part named yuan is five times the length of the diameter. The included angle between yuan and hu should be a right angle, and the metal top end, inclusive of the spearhead, weighs three luo (Kaogongji-Forgery).

This passage cautioned against some points in the forge of the weapons of ge and ji. And the terms of na, hu, yuan, etc. referred to different parts of the two weapons. In the forge of one ge, craftsmen were required to pay special attention to the angle between na and hu: When the angle was too large, as the record “yuan can’t penetrate into human body with ease” suggested, the weapon couldn’t penetrate into the human body; when the angle was too small, as the record “yuan can’t slash through human body with ease” suggested, the weapon could just inflict smaller wounds. Therefore, the appropriate angle between yuan and hu should be a little larger than the right angle. As for one ji, it was required that the included angle between yuan and hu should be the right angle. The character “矩” in the specifications was a term for the right angle in ancient times:

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To make a gaogu (a big drum), the length of it is one xun (a unit of measure of length in ancient China, one xun is eight chi) and four chi (a unit of measure of length in ancient China, one chi is about 33.3333 cm), the diameter of it is four chi, and the lengthways outline is set at a qingshe angle (Kaogongji -Tanner).

Gaogu is one kind of big drum. It was annotated by Zheng Xuan, “Gaogu is used to spur people on to engage in labor; the profile of this drum is a curve, like a bevel gauge. That’s the shape” (Ruan [5], photocopy, 918). Kong Yingda commentated that “Qingshe means to bulge in the middle” (Ruan [5], photocopy, 918). According to the two scholars, the thickest mid-upper part of this drum formed an angle which was named qingshe. As the character “矩” ( ju, a right angle) in “The included angle between yuan and hu should be a right angle” referred to a certain angle in ancient times, the term qingshe was supposed to be a certain angle, too. The meaning of qingshe will be discussed below: When the craftsmen of the qing group make a qing (a chime stone in the form of an inverted bell), they set angle at one ju and a half (Kaogongji-To Make a Chimestone).

Qing was one king of percussion instrument in ancient China, which was made of jade and was hanged up on a frame. The two upper edges by the hole to thread a string through formed a certain angle. In Kaogongji, it was specified that the angle should be “one ju and a half,” in which the word ju referred to a right angle, and in a 360
system, it is demonstrated as:





90 þ 1=2  90 ¼ 135




When the craftsmen make a lei (an ancient agricultural implement), they set the part named ci (the lower part of wooden stick of a plough to which the ploughshare is fixed) one chi and one cun long, . . . For a hardened ground, ci should be fixed straight; for a soft soil, ci should be fixed at an angle. Ci is fixed straight to help to break the ground, and ci is fixed at an angle to help to turn over the soil. Ci is fixed at a qingshe angle to deal with the land with ease (Kaogongji-To Make a Lei.).

Leisi (an ancient plough-like tool) was one kind of ancient agricultural implement for digging and turning over soil. According to Kaogongji, ci was installed in different ways to treat different land. For land of moderate hardness, ci was fixed at an angle which was equal to a qingshe angle. To sum up, the term jugou was adopted in Kaogongji to refer to an angle. That is, in Kaogongji, the word was equivalent to the word “angle” in English for an abstract concept of angle. In fact, the two terms ju and gou were both angle-related concepts, with ju generally referring to an obtuse angle and gou referring to an acute angle. It was recorded in The Book of Rites-Music that “Ju is a right angle; gou is an acute angle.” In Kaogongji, the two characters were combined to refer to the size of an angle and hence became an abstract concept of angle. In reality, the practice of adopting jugou for a general concept of angle had been found in other ancient books, for example, in The Book of Rites by Senior Dai-Exhortation to Learning, it was

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recorded: “Water, . . . meandering down to lower places, unexceptionally conforming to this law.” The meanders in water streams in the book referred to the curves and twists of a river, which were related to angles. When an abstract concept of angle – jugou – was found in Kaogongji, how were some particular angles represented in it? How were these angles specified? And what about the concept of qingshe, which was mentioned above? What has to be pointed out is that there was no such practice as referring to an angle with a numeral in ancient China. The ancient people were disposed to adopt the literal meaning of some characters to indicate some particular angles, for example, to indicate the right angle with ju and to indicate the 12 azimuths with the 12 earthly branches, etc. This practice was most definitely demonstrated in Kaogongji, in which some particular angles were produced by geometrical operations with square ruler and compass. In Kaogongji, the most frequently used angles were ju and qingshe. Ju was equivalent to the present-day right angle; qingshe was derived from ju through geometrical operations. In Kaogongji-The Production of a Tool, specific operations were given: In the production of a tool, half of a ju is called a xuan, axuan and a half is called a shu, a shu and a half is called a ke, one ke and a half is called a qingshe.

A system of angles based on the concepts of xuan, shu, ke, qingshe was hence established through geometrical operations. When represented in the present-day 360
system, they will be given in numerals: ju ¼ 90







xuan ¼ 1=2  90 ¼ 45











shu ¼ 45 þ 1=2  45 ¼ 67 300








ke ¼ 67 300 þ 1=2  67 300 ¼ 101 150








qingshe ¼ 101 150 þ 1=2  101 150 ¼ 101 520 3000 A lot of errors have been found in the annotations to this system of angles recorded in Kaogongji. In the annotations to Kaogongji given by Zheng Xuan in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the scholar offered his explanation to this passage: “Ju, is a measurement. The measurement is meant for humans. Humans, eight chi in height, are divided into three parts: head, torso, legs. If the height is to be divided by three, ju is two chi and six cun and two-thirds cun long. The shedding of the hairs that are turning gray is called xuan, which is half of a ju and is one chi and three and one-third cun long, namely the length of a human head” (Ruan [5] photocopy, 933) It is evident that the annotations given by Zheng Xuan inherently held that the system of concepts of ju, xuan, shu, ke, etc. referred to lengths. Though there is no doubt that

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the annotation given by Zheng Xuan was wrong, it reigned supreme for quite a long period in the history of China. “Since the Han Dynasty, the faulty annotation to xuan, shu, ke, qingshe by Zheng Xuan carried on through many generations until proved false by Qianjia School in the Qing Dynasty” [6]. Until in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, having made an in-depth study on Kaogongji, Cheng Yaotian, a scholar from Jiangnan region (regions of lower reaches of the Yangtze River), finally confirmed that ju, xuan, shu, ke, qingshe were definitions for angles and hence pointed out, “Craftsmen of all trades unanimously measure angles with square ruler, and the practice for measuring angles was derived from square ruler” [7]. Cheng Yaotian became fully aware that the system of concepts of angle in Kaogongji was produced through geometrical operations, which was a unique insight given by him. Why should such a system of angles be established in Kaogongji? It is thought that it was a convenient method for the craftsmen to find some specific angles such as qingshe when they were making implements. The word qingshe appeared with higher frequency in various technical specifications recorded in Kaogongji. According to a statistics made by the author, the word qingshe appeared four times in the short passage of Kaogongji, and it appeared more times in the annotations given by Zheng Xuan and commentaries given by Kong Yingda. Qingshe also found application in social daily activities, for example, it was stipulated in The Book of Rites-the Second half of Quli that when holding holy articles, it was required to “stand still and bend forward with jade pendant drooping in front of the body,” that is, to stand there, holding the pose of a bow at the angle of a qingshe, and the jade pendant hangs down in front of the body. Therefore, in Kaogongji and in ancient societies, qingshe was put into application as a technical specification. So it is necessary to find a simple method to replicate the angle of qingshe. The lack of representation of angles with numerals encouraged the development of an innovative “Yi Ju Sheng Du (developing angle from ju)” method in Kaogongji: Starting with the angle of ju, the craftsmen produced a new angle of xuan by dividing ju equally, and they produced another new angle of shu by adding half of the angle of xuan to the angle of xuan; then by repeating the same procedure with shu, an angle of ke was made, and from the angle of ke, a different angle of qingshe could also be made. In this process, just a repetition of a simple operation of dividing an angle in half and adding angles up is required. By adopting this division-and-addition method, the craftsmen could produce a qingshe angle with great ease. In this system, ju and qingshe were the most important angles, and xuan, shu, ke were used as fragments to constitute qingshe. Therefore, this system was made up of constituent components, in which every angle could be produced by geometrical operations with ju. A small collection of several specific angles of ju, xuan, shu, ke, qingshe is inadequate to constitute technical specifications for angles; it is not universal. A complementary “Yi Gui Sheng Du (producing angle with circle)” method was offered in Kaogongji to deal with some specific occasions. For example, in Kaogongji-The Production of Bows, there was a specification for the production of bows:

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To make the bows for the divine kings, nine of which are connected to form a circle. To make the bows for the feudal lords, seven of which are connected to form a circle. To make the bows for the high-rank officials, five of which are connected to form a circle. To make the bows for low-rank officials, three of which are connected to form a circle.


In this passage, the circle is named gui; it has a 360 central angle. “Nine of which are connected to form a circle” means the curvature of the back of the bows for the
king is 40 . Likewise, the curvature of the back of the bows for the feudal lords is

51.4 , and the curvature of the back of the bows for the high officials is 72 , and the
curvature of the back of the bows for the low-rank officials is 120 . Similar examples can also be found in the part of The Production of Xiao by the Zhu Group: The pieces of xiao (one kind of engraving tool) produced by the Zhu group were one chi in length and one cun in width. Six pieces of xiao form one circle.


Six pieces of xiao fit together to form a circle, and the curvature of every xiao is 60 , which is the standard set for every piece of xiao. The practice of producing specific angles through geometrical operations on circle and with ju recorded in Kaogongji suited the ancient people fine. In ancient China, people relied heavily on square rulers and compasses to conduct geometrical operations, which was recorded in Book of Han-Treatise on Music and Almanac: “Compass, is an instrument with which circles can be drawn to get these kinds of figures; square ruler, is an instrument with which squares can be fixed to set shape.” To draw circle with a compass and to set rectangles with a square ruler are a fundamental principle and are the most common geometrical operations, too. A circle and a rectangle (right angle) can be easily produced with a compass and a square ruler; geometrical operations on a circle and a rectangle can produce any angle desired. The ancient people had to make a better use of compasses and square rulers to produce some specific angles for a lack of central angle concept, and the system of angles thus developed. Though a general consensus that ju, xuan, shu, ke, qingshe constituted a set of specific angles in Kaogongji had been established in the academic field, there were some different opinions; the jugou qingshe issue the most debated. In KaogongjiThe Production of Qing by the Qing Group, it was definitely specified, “When one craftsman makes one qing, he sets the angle at one ju and a half.” The jugou of qing in this record refers to the intersection angle between the two upper edges of qing which were named, respectively, as 鼓 gu and 股 gu (see Fig. 10.1). According to the Yi Ju Sheng Du (developing angle from ju) method mentioned above, this intersec


tion angle should be 90 +1/2  90 ¼ 135 , which was inconsistent with the specification of “one ke and a half is called qingshe” in The Production of a Tool. As to this, Cheng Yaotian commented: When the craftsman makes one qing, they sets the angle at one ju and a half and named it qingshe. When this is esteemed as a criterion to be applied to other things, any angle equals one ju and a half will be named qingshe. Therefore, the name of qingshe is adopted by the

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Fig. 10.1 Sketch map of one qing (鼓上边 – upper edge of gu; 股上边 – upper edge of gu 倨 – ju; 勾 – gou 鼓博 – width of gu; 股博 – width of gu)

craftsmen when they manufacture a gaogu or fix a ci to a lei, etc. But in the transcription process of this document, due to an error committed in the reading, the character 矩 (ju) was mistakenly written as 柯 (ke) (Cheng Yaotian, Yiwen Lu (a book of art and literature). Ruan [5] photocopy, 938).

Cheng Yaotian thought that the technical specification for the production of qing was “to set the angle at one ju and a half”; any angle which met this standard would be named qingshe. The record “one ke and a half is called qingshe” in The Production of a Tool was an error made in the transcription process by the scribe who misinterpreted the context and substituted 柯 for 矩; the contradiction between the records of The Production of a Tool and The Production of Qing by the Qing Group was thus made. This statement given by Cheng Yaotian is highly subjective; it is by no means convincing. A scholar named Dai Wusan commented Cheng Yaotian’s viewpoint: “He conjectured and rewrote the sentence ‘one ke and a half is called qingshe’ as ‘one ju and a half is called qingshe’; this correction turned out to be a lapse” [6]. Mr. Qian Baocong, a forerunner of mathematical history, also noticed the contradiction between the records of The Production of a Tool and The Production of Qing by the Qing Group and commented: “Half of a ju, that is the forty-five degree, is called a xuan, . . . the degree of one hundred and fifty-one and seven over eight is called qingshe, which is larger than the obtuse angle of qingshe given in The Production of Qing by the Qing Group. The ancient deduction was cursory and crude, not precise and accurate” [8]. In the book The Mathematical History of China, whose editor-in-chief was Qian Baocong, there is a similar record: “The record of The Production of Qing by the Qing Group in Kaogongji definitely specified that the intersection between the two upper edges of one qing was ‘the angle is one ju and a
half’, namely 135 , which was strikingly different from ‘one ke and a half is named a qingshe’ in the records of The Production of a Tool. Probably any obtuse angle
which was a little larger or smaller than a 135 angle could be called ‘jugou qingshe’. Therefore, the definitions for the notions of xuan, shu, ke, qingshe in Kaogongji were not accurate.” (Qian Baocong (editor-in-chief), The History of Mathematics in China, 1964, 15). The explanation given by Mr. Qian Baocong is just one deduction, which is inadequate to solve the puzzle of this issue.

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So the author believes that the puzzle of jugou qingshe is nothing but a misunderstanding of the scholars in the subsequent generations, as no contradicting records are found in Kaogongji. Some scholars were confined to the name of qingshe and were disposed to think it must be an angle which was required in making one qing. In fact, the name qingshe was adopted as a special term for a specific angle. Just as the words such as shu and ke, which originally referred to the handle of an axe, were adopted to refer to an angle in the records of The Production of a Tool, totally irrelevant to the handle of an axe, qingshe was not a specification for the craftsmen to abide by. People in ancient China tended to address specific angles with certain names, for example, to indicate the right angle with ju and to indicate the 12 azimuths with the 12 earthly branches. Probably when the craftsmen thought the intersection angle between the two upper edges of qing which were, respectively, named gu 鼓 and gu 股 was approximately equal to a new angle described as “one ke and a half,” they adopted qingshe to name the angle. And to avoid confusion, they particularly specified that “When a craftsman makes one qing, the angle is set at one ju and a half” to be the technical specification. An examination of the excavated qings reveals that the specifications were followed to some extent. And this offers a good explanation as to why qingshe-typed qings were rarely found among the excavated qings: qingshe itself was not a technical specification for the production of qings. An examination of the records in Kaogongji from this perspective will satisfactorily solve the contradictions and difficulties found in previous explanations of qingshe. So it can be included that in Kaogongji there were proper nouns for abstract concepts of angles and some specific angles which had been adopted as specifications. And these angles were produced through operations with compasses and square rulers; they were fabricated. The so-called stubborn jugou qingshe puzzle was nonexistent. The practice of adopting the literal meaning of some characters to deal with problems is the key feature of Kaogongji.

10.4

The Establishment of Eastern Measurement Aided by the Western Scholars

In ancient China, though the practice of adopting the literal meaning of some characters to deal with problems was adequate to solve the problems in daily activities and scientific research, a fundamental deficiency of the concepts of angles hindered the development of angle measurement. Until in late Ming Dynasty, when some missionaries loaded with scientific documents went to China and imparted the Western knowledge and skills which were fundamentally different from the Chinese traditional science to Chinese people, the angle measurement was finally established in China. In this process, Elements, an important book co-translated by Matthieu Ricci, an Italian missionary, and Xu Guangqi, a Chinese scholar, played the key role. Elements is a great work in geometry; it was written by Euclid, a scholar in ancient Greece, and best demonstrated axiomatic system with a logical argument and

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a rigorous reasoning. As to writing style, some basic definitions and concepts of geometry such as point, line, straight line, surface, plane, straight angle, right angle, acute angle, obtuse angle, parallel lines, various plain figures, etc. were offered in the book; on the basis of ten self-evident axioms, new geometrical theorems were demonstrated; on the basis of the newly proven theorems, further demonstrations were given. A total of 467 propositions were demonstrated in this book. The demonstrations offered in this book were coherent, rigorous, and reasonably arranged. The demonstrated theorems were unexceptionally deducted from existing definitions, postulates, axioms, and proven theorems. It is worth noting that most of the theorems in Elements were old discoveries made in earlier time, and Euclid’s job was mainly to deduce the whole theoretical system of elementary geometry and construct the edifice of elementary geometry, step by step, on the basis of a few chosen formulas and axioms, and by means of the mathematical knowledge accumulated from the time of Thales. “Elements was neither an original book nor an elementary textbook, yet not solely on geometry; it was a glossary of an outburst of mathematical achievements in Athens from BC 430 to BC 370, including geometry, algebra, number theory, and geometric algebra; it extended further from isolated mathematical achievements and developed a universal and rigorous demonstration method” [9]. This demonstration method developed by Euclid exerted so profound influence upon the following generations that it was regarded as the canon of scientific demonstration in a long period of about 2000 years, especially in mathematics. For this reason, when Matthieu Ricci was introducing Western science to China, he adopted Elements, the traditional canon in Western science. Matthieu Ricci and Xu Guangqi decided to translate Elements into Chinese to make Western demonstrations directly accessible to Chinese scholars. Though they just finished the first six parts of the book, their translation work marked the establishment of angle measurement in China. In Elements, the angle issue was given special attention. Of the definitions and concepts of geometry in the introductory part, the first item was about the definitions of point, line, plane, solid, and how they were interrelated with each other; the second item was an account of the angle concepts, which is given below: There are two different kinds of lines: straight line and curve. When one end of two lines meet at one point with the other end of the two lines parting away, an angle is bound to be made. An angle formed by two straight lines is called a rectilinear angle; an angle formed by one straight line and one curve is called an uneven angle; an angle formed by two curves is called a curvilinear angle (Matthieu Ricci, Xu Guangqi (co-translators), Elements (Volume One, Item Two), The Essence of Mathematical Theory (Vol. 2, The First Chapter), The Si Ku Quan Shu (Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature), Wenyuan Ge Edition).

This was a comprehensive account of angles, including the intersection of straight lines, the intersection of a straight line and a curve, and the intersection of curves. There was a further analysis of the property of angles in Elements:

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Fig. 10.2 The representation of an angle (甲 jia 乙 yi 丙 bing)

The size of an angle lies in the gap between two lines. The two lines extend from one point are like the two parts of a compass: when they extend further away, the gap widens, and an angle is hence fixed. No matter how long the lines are, the gap remains the conclusive element (Matthieu Ricci, Xu Guangqi (co-translators), Elements (Volume One, Item Three), The Essence of Mathematical Theory (Vol. 2, The First Chapter), The Si Ku Quan Shu (Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature), Wenyuan Ge Edition.).

This passage discussed the essential characteristics of angles. The size of an angle is truly irrelevant to the length of its sides, but fixed by the gap between the two sides, which is the essential property of an angle found in its definition. When the concept and the essential property of an angle are given, the representation of an angle will be offered below (Fig. 10.2): To name an angle, three characters are required. As to a triangle which is named jia-yi-bing, angle jia is named angle yi-jia-bing; angle yi is named angle jia-yi-bing; angle bing is named angle jia-bing-yi. Alternatively, one single character can be singled out to name an angle with the character being identical to the angle (Matthieu Ricci, Xu Guangqi (co-translators), Elements (Vol. 1, Item Four), The Essence of Mathematical Theory (Vol. 2, The First Chapter), The Si Ku Quan Shu (Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature), Wenyuan Ge Edition.).

The representations of angles given in Elements were entirely consistent with the practices in the contemporary geometry; the minor variation is the Chinese characters were substituted with letters. Nevertheless, the concepts and the essential properties of angles don’t amount to the measurement of angles; a lack of units for angles and the corresponding measurements makes it impossible to have a quantitative measurement on the angles. Fortunately, in Elements, the research went further to offer a system of units for angles and clarified the carrying rules and detailed measurements of the units for angles (Fig. 10.3): Any circle, large or small, is stipulated to be composed of three hundred and sixty du; one du is composed of sixty fen; one fen is composed of sixty miao; one miao is composed of sixty wei; one wei is composed of sixty xian.

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Fig. 10.3 Angle measurement (甲 jia (a) 乙 yi (b) 丙 bing (c) 丁 ding 戊 wu)

The reason why a circle should be stipulated to be composed of three hundred and sixty du is that integers, void of fractions, are convenient to calculate. And this practice is consistent with the canons. The reason why a carry should be produced at sixty for the units smaller than du is that the number, namely three hundred and sixty is the product of six and sixty, which are unexceptionally integers. A segment of a circle with marks of du on it can be adopted to measure any angle, for example, to measure the degree of an angle which is named jia-yi-bing, put the center of the segment of a circle on the vertex of yi, then check how large a range of du will be matched by the gap between jia and bing. If ninety du is matched, the angle jia-yi-bing will be a right angle; if more than ninety du is matched, the angle named angle ding-yi-bing will be an obtuse angle; if less than ninety du is matched, the angle named angle bing-yi-wu will be an acute angle. The rest of angles can be settled by the analogy of the three angles (Matthieu Ricci, Xu Guangqi (co-translators), Elements (Vol. 1, Item 17), The Essence of Mathematical Theory (Vol. 2, The First Chapter), The Si Ku Quan Shu (Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature), Wenyuan Ge Edition).


A formal introduction to the division of the 360 central angle given in this passage explained the merit of convenience in this division. Furthermore, to measure with protractors is highlighted in this passage as a method to measure angles; it is still in use today in primary schools and secondary schools. The words “A segment of a circle with marks of du on it” in the passage refer to a requisite tool for the students in modern schools – protractor. The book Elements helped Chinese people get acquainted with the concepts and the fundamental traits of angles, understand how the angles are measured and represented, and found a system of units for angles; they hence established a new system of angle measurement which proved to be competent to carry out all the angle measurements thereafter. Though the system of angles in Elements was new and different in China, it was by no means totally strange to the Chinese people. In the long course of cultural communications, the Chinese were never secluded from Western concepts of angles. Moreover, the Chinese relied on armillary sphere as the primary instrument to measure the celestial bodies in a long course of time, which was in nature a measurement of angles, with few exceptions. Therefore, the system of angles in

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Elements turned out to be readily acceptable to the Chinese. While the introduction of geocentric theory aroused great disturbance in China, the introduction of the system of angles met with little resistance. The translation of Elements represented the founding of the science of angle measurement in China, which was a milestone event in scientific technology of the late sixteenth century. (Translator: Bin Li) (Proofreader: Jiyi Yan)

References 1. Kuo, S. On the armillary sphere, astronomy the first, the song history (Vol. 48). 2. Li, Z. (1989). Astronomical research given by Shen Kuo – Observation and calendar compilation. History of Physics (1). 3. Li, Z. (1980). Astronomical research given by Shen Kuo – Solar eclipse and stars. Journal of University of Science and Technology of China, 10(1). 4. Baocong, Q. (1983). A study on Zhoubi Suanjing. The collection of treatises of history of science of Qian Baocong (p. 126). Beijing: Science Press. 5. Ruan, Y. (1979). Annotations and commentaries of the thirteen Confucian classics. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. 6. Dai, W. (1998). The investigation into “Qingshe” in Kaogongji. The History of Science Newsletter (Taiwan), 17. 7. Cheng Yaotian. Notes on the Inventions in Kaogongji, royal annotations to the Confucian Canons in the Qing Dynasty (Vol. 539) 8. Baocong, Q. (1982). The six poems on Kaogongji. The Chinese Journal for the History of Science of Technology, 2. 9. Chen, F. (2011). The preliminary exploration of the different translations and fates of “elements” in different civilizations. In Bureau of Culture in Xuhui District (Ed.), Xu Guangqi and Elements (1st ed., pp. 81–98). Shanghai: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press.

The Shipbuilding and Shipping Industry in Ancient China

11

Longfei Xi and Hequn Shi

Contents 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4

From Float to Canoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Plank Boat Initiating a New Era of Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The First Peak of Shipbuilding Industry in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Invention of Shipbuilding Technology in the Three Kingdoms and the Two Jin Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5 The Achievements of the Shipbuilding in the Sui and Tang Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.6 The Development of Shipbuilding Technology in the Song and Yuan Dynasties . . . . . 11.7 The Peak of Shipbuilding Industry in Ancient China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.8 The Decline of Shipping Industry in China by Ban on Maritime Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

The chapter accounts for the rise and fall of shipping industry in ancient China. First, it explains how shipping industry in ancient China began and developed to its first peak. Second, it tells of the great inventions achievements and development of shipping industry from “the Three Kingdom” time to Yuan Dynasty. Last, it explains the decline of shipping industry in ancient China due to the ban on maritime trade. Keywords

Shipping industry · Shipbuilding technology · Inventions · Achievements · Peak · Decline

L. Xi (*) Shipbuilding History Research Center, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China H. Shi Marine Design and Research Institute of China, Shanghai, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_11

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For a long time, there has been a prejudice that ancient Chinese civilization was basically the product of farming economy and had nothing to do with marine culture. They described enterprising and adventurous marine culture as a symbol of western civilization, and arbitrarily believed that ancient Chinese people were not used to sailing. The view that “ancient Chinese are not used to sailing” is quite popular because many people do not know the history of Chinese shipbuilding and shipping. A large number of historical documents and unearthed cultural relics irrefutably proved that the ancient Chinese were not only used to sailing but also better at sailing. Ancient China had a brilliant marine culture. The oars unearthed in Hemudu, Zhejiang Province, showed that China went to the ocean as early as 700 years ago. In the long history of thousands of years, the Chinese created not only brilliant farming civilization but also extensive and profound marine culture and boat civilization. China is also one of the birthplaces of marine culture: China is a vast continental country, with the Yellow River and the Yangtze River as the mother river nurturing the Chinese nation and making China famous for her ancient civilization. China is also an ocean country with a long coastline and a vast ocean area and rich in marine culture, which is an important part of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation. [1]

In a long period of history, ancient Chinese shipbuilding and shipping technology had been of the leading level in the world. Multi-mast and multi-sail, water-capping, anti-shaking keel, anti-rolling tank, and so on were all first created in China. Especially the stern rudder, watertight bulkhead, wheel boat, and compass can be called the four great inventions in the history of Chinese shipbuilding, which is China’s great contribution to the world shipbuilding technology and has a profound impact on the world shipbuilding and shipping history.

11.1

From Float to Canoe

In ancient times, ancestors found that fallen leaves, dead wood, and other objects could float on the surface of the water. They naturally felt the floating phenomenon of some objects and used floating natural objects as swimming tools. The original water crossing tools are varied. Gourd has been used as a water transport tool for a long time because of its light body, strong moisture resistance, high buoyancy, and so on. In ancient China, gourd was called hu (瓠 a kind of edible gourd), pao (匏 a kind of gourd), hu (壶 bottle gourd), later also known as bottle gourd or calabash, and so on. The seeds of gourd found at the Neolithic site of Hemudu in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, is a strong evidence to the cultivation of gourd in China as early as 7,000 years ago [2]. In the Book of Changes, there is the phrase “Bao kang yong ping he” (he is magnanimous like a great plain and can cross great rivers), which means to cross the river with a hollow gourd. The gourd float may have been used for ten or twenty thousand years. When crossing the river, several gourds are tied to the waist called a waist boat (see Fig. 11.1). The legacy of this kind of waist boat can still be seen in some brotherly ethnic areas. When fishing or going out, the Yi compatriots will still tie several gourds to their waist on both sides of the Lishe River in Ailao Mountain, Yunnan Province [3].

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Fig. 11.1 Waist boat

Fig. 11.2 Floating bladder

In some areas, floats are also made of livestock leather. The specific method is when livestock were slaughtered, the head was firstly cut off, then the neck slightly cut open, the four hoofs were removed, and at last the whole leather was peeled off. After being processed, the holes in the neck and four hoofs were fastened, and one hole was spared for the air-filling channel. When in use, blow the skin bag drum first, and then ligate the inflatable hole; then you can use it as a floating tool alone.

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Fig. 11.3 Bamboo raft in Taiwan Strait

The bladder is used as a float and also called a floating bladder (see Fig. 11.2). Li Quan, a native of Tang dynasty, wrote in the book of Taibai Yin Sutra: “To make a floating bladder, peel off the whole skin of sheep. Inflate it to full, fasten the hole and to your underarm. You can cross the river then (Li Quan, Taibai Yin Sutra (Volume 4)).” “To peel off the sheep skin” here is a method to peel off the skin of a sheep. The skin is also known as a “yun tuo” because the skin is used as a skin bag for a long time. The area where the bladder was applied was mainly upstream of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in China. The leather bag is simple to manufacture, convenient to carry, and more resistant to shallow water, torrent, and dangerous beaches. So, in many parts of China, there has been a history of using the bladder. The raft is developed by a single float. A tree trunk is a floating tool. A raft is a floating tool made by joining a plurality of trunks and connecting them with a cane or a rope. The raft has a different name because of the size and material used. The raft is made of wood, and the bamboo raft is made of bamboo. The bamboo raft is widely used in the south of China. After burning the ends of bamboo with fire to make them raise up, then tie the bamboo together with rattans and wild hemp so that the resistance will be reduced, and when the raft floats downstream, it looks like flying. Bamboo rafts in the Taiwan Strait also carry sails (see Fig. 11.3), which are seen in their age and not long ago. When the leather bags are knitted together, they become leather rafts. The number of leather bags to make a raft is at least 6–12 and can reach 400–500 at most. Although the leather raft is a kind of original vehicle for crossing the water and transportation, it is still used in some areas because of its simple manufacture, flexible operation, safety and reliability, low cost, and no grounding. In recent years, small sheepskin rafts can also be seen on the banks of the Yellow River in Ningxia (see Fig. 11.4). In the original tools used for crossing the river, gourd and leather can only be called floating tools. Rafts cannot be regarded as boats. Only after canoes appeared, it can be said that the first kind of ship came into being. When was the canoe born? In the Chinese ancient books, many records or speculations have been made. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas – The Internal Classic of the Sea, it is said that Fanyu began to make a boat. In the Book of Changes,

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Fig. 11.4 Small sheepskin rafts in Yellow River

it is said that Huangdi, Yao, and Shun dug up wood to make a boat and cut wood to make oars. That is what is put in the Book of Changes, “They hollowed out trees to form canoes; they cut others long and thin to make oars. Thus arose the benefit of canoes and oars for the help of those who had no means of intercourse with others. They could now reach the most distant parts, and all under heaven were benefited.” The records of the inventors of the canoe and the time it appeared in ancient books either come from legends or the existing classics, not truly reliable. However, the evolution view of human culture reflected by ancient scholars is still worth cherishing. “Hollow out trees” and “cut others long and thin” in “hollowed out trees to form canoes; they cut others long and thin to make oars” in the ancient books reflected the manufacturing process of the canoe and the oar. As for the era that canoe appeared, according to the records of a variety of ancient books in China, the upper limit lied in Huangdi Xuanyuan. In practice, however, the canoe was a product of the Neolithic Age, much earlier than the legendary Yellow Emperor era. In the excavation of Hemudu Neolithic cultural site, there were six wood oars unearthed. One of the better preserved pieces was 92 cm long. The section of the shank was square and with fine workmanship. At the combining point of the shank and the blade, there were chord and oblique patterns engraved in the shade (see Fig. 11.5). Based on this, The History of Chinese Shipbuilding, published in 2000, wrote: “it is clear that such finely-made oars will never be the most primitive. The emergence of the primitive oars, of course, would have been earlier. It would have made sense if they had been pushed back to 8,000 years ago or even earlier. Archaeologists believe that oars appear with the emergence of ships. A boat may

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Fig. 11.5 Carved wood oars of 7,000 years ago unearthed in Hemudu Fig. 11.6 The plane figure and section map of the canoe unearthed at the Cross-Lake Bridge site

Fig. 11.7 Canoe of 8,000 years ago unearthed at the Cross-Lake Bridge site. (Photo by Xi Longfei)

not have an oar, but an oar must have a boat. Therefore, it could be concluded that canoes appeared 8,000 years ago or earlier in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the coastal areas [4].” Fortunately, the above corollary that canoe was formed 8,000 years ago or earlier in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and coastal areas was confirmed 2 years later in 2002. Cultural relics archaeologists in Xiaoshan District of Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou City unearthed canoes of 8,000 years ago at the Neolithic cultural site of Xiaoshan Cross-Lake Bridge in Hangzhou. Figure 11.6 shows the canoe survey (Zhejiang Institute of Cultural relics and Archaeology, Xiaoshan Museum: Cross-Lake Bridge, Wenwu Publishing House, 2004 1st Edition: 45). Figure 11.7 shows the photos taken at the scene.

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Canoes of so early time unearthed were unique in China and Asia and rare in the world. The only other example seen was the canoe of 6300 BC unearthed in the Netherlands. The two canoes were roughly of the same age [5]. The canoe was the most important means of water transportation in ancient times and used for a long time. However, before the 1940s, when canoe remains had not been found in the vast territory of China, some scholars in the West and Japan had a popular vague view that there were few or no canoes in ancient China and that Chinese boats were developed and evolved directly from bamboo rafts and rafts. The discovery of canoe at the Cross-Lake Bridge was a powerful clarification and denying to the vague and wrong idea of western and Japanese scholars. It proved that the ancestors of coastal areas in China in contact with the sea not only made full use of the ocean but also created their own marine culture.

11.2

The Plank Boat Initiating a New Era of Navigation

The canoe is superior to the raft. No matter what kind of raft, there is no freeboard or only very small freeboards, and the raft itself has a large gap. When the load of the raft increases, the people and goods on the raft will inevitably be drowned in water. The canoe has some freeboards and will not leak. It can be used to load goods and for shipping. However, canoes also have shortcomings. One is that its stability in the water is not good. The other is that the load is limited and difficult to meet the growing shipping needs. Third, the size of canoes is restricted by the size of the original trees they are made of. In order to increase the load and improve the stability of canoes, there are three possible directions and ways for their development and evolution (Dai Kaiyuan, The Origin of Canoe and wooden ship in Ancient Warring States period, Study of Ship History the founding issue of 1985: 13). First, connect two or more single canoes side by side, and the width of the canoe is doubled, which can not only increase the load but also significantly improve the stability. The catamaran canoe in Pingdu, Shandong Province, is a typical example of this evolution (see Fig. 11.8). In addition, the “double boat” in Guangdong, the “Weihu” of “uniting two into one” in the Heilongjiang drainage basin, and the “three-body dragon boat” in Qingshui River, Guizhou Province, all belong to this kind of model. The second is to expand the width of the boat by roasting, basking, and other heating methods with lateral bracing, and further add boards on the side of it to form a composite boat. The third is to set up an outboard bracket or an outboard balance object. Such examples have not yet been found in China. But in the South Ocean, for example, along the coast of the Indonesian islands, there are many small fishing boats, often using the method of outboard support. In the evolution of the canoe, there is also a unique way. That is, increase the length by the longitudinal connection of two canoes. Take the catamaran canoe

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Fig. 11.8 Catamaran canoe in Pingdu, Shandong Province

in Pingdu, Shandong Province (see Fig. 11.8), for example. Its body is composed of two components joined by tenons, which not only increases the length of the body but also facilitates the formation of the head and tail warping. In the archaeological discovery of China, there is an example of the evolution of the canoe to the plank boat. In 1975, an ancient ship was found on the ancient river course leading to the Yangtze River in Jiangjia Lane, Wansui Town, Wujin County, Jiangsu Province [6]. It has a strange structure, with the hull bottom, the breast board of the boat, wooden tenons, and wooden pins. The bottom plate is composed of three pieces of wood, and the joints are fixed with four square tenons. On both sides of the bottom are rectangular mortises for connection with the ship’s side plate. The side of the ship is made of a single wood cut into two hollowed pieces. The outer edge is still in the shape of log. The inner edge is uneven in thickness. The lower edge of the round plate also has the same mortises of the same distance as that on the bottom of the ship and was tenoned with the bottom of the ship. Because the long tenon can be inserted deeply and the joint of the tenon and cap is inlaid in the board without any shift, it is very solid (see Fig. 11.9). Although the ancient ship of Wujin in Jiangsu Province is not a very typical plank boat, it provides for contemporary people a very typical example – a form of transition from canoe to the plank boat. In 1979, during the excavation of Chuanyang River in Chuansha County, Pudong District, Shanghai, a chic ancient ship was unearthed in Beicai Town. The ancient ship was found in the soil 95 cm below the zero Wusongkou benchmark, 4.6 m away from the earth surface. It was an ancient coast in the sixth century AD. The remains of the ancient ship are very simple, with only three parts, that is, a canoe with a side plate on both sides. This is a typical canoe (Fig. 11.10) [7]. The bottom of the ship is connected by three single planks. The middle one is 11.62 m long and shaped like a canoe, but only excavated a little. The side boards are two single planks with an arc with signs of being roasted. The boards are nailed to the interface on both sides of the single plank at the bottom of the ship, and a large amount of putty was filled in the interface. And no mixed things such as hemp silk were found. The total length of the old ship restored is about 18 m.

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Fig. 11.9 The ancient ship of Han dynasty unearthed in Wansui, Wujin County, Jiangsu Province (船舷版, breast board; 船底, hull bottom; 木销子, wooden pin; 木榫, wooden tenon)

Fig. 11.10 Ancient ship of Chuanyang River, Pudong County, Shanghai

The ancient ship unearthed in Wansui Town, Wujin, Jiangsu, and the one unearthed in Yanghe, Chuanshachuan, Shanghai, are typical examples the transitional form from the canoe to the plank boat. They prove that the canoe is also the ancestor of Chinese ship, and it is the keel for the canoe evolving into the modern ships. This denies the wrong view that there is no canoe in China and there is no keel in ancient Chinese ships. The powerful evidence to the emergence of the plank boat in China is the Chinese character “舟” (boat) seen in oracle bone inscriptions and the characters with it as the side. So, it is inferred that plank boats should be the product of the Yin and Shang dynasties at the latest ([8], p. 2). That is between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, about 3,500–3,000 years ago. In the Yin and Shang dynasties, the inscriptions were mainly preserved on oracle bones and some bronze wares, among which those on the tortoise shells and animal bones were the most. As the stroke of oracle bone inscriptions has not yet been

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Fig. 11.11 “舟” in oracle bone inscriptions and the related characters

finalized, the scattered character “舟” and the related characters are written in different styles (see Fig. 11.11). From the character “舟” in oracle bone inscriptions, it can be seen that the boat represented by it is composed of longitudinal and transverse components. The horizontal line of “舟” represents the components of the ribs or bulkheads. It can not only support the longitudinal plate on both sides to strengthen the body but also separate the boat body into several compartments. More importantly, the longitudinal plate can be connected to get longer. That is, a longer ship can be made out of shorter planks. Xia dynasty is the first hereditary dynasty in the history of ancient China. Although the ruling center of Xia dynasty is in the plain area, it is also closely related to water transportation and navigation according to some legends and records. For example, Dayu, the ancestor of the Xia dynasty, is famous for being good at flood control. It is said that he “takes carts on land and takes boats on water.” The first history of ancient China, Zhushu Jinian (Bamboo Annals), says that the ninth emperor of Xia dynasty once “hunted in the east sea and got a big fish” (Shen Yue, the Chronicle of Bamboo Books (Volume, Notes). The first edition of the four series (17), the Shanghai Book Company 1989 was photocopied by the first edition of the Commercial Press in 1926). At that time, there should have been a large number of entourage following to the sea, and forming a vast fleet. The Shang dynasty was a country rising after the Xia dynasty. During the Wu Ding period of the Shang dynasty, he constantly resorted to arms on the outsiders. After getting rid of the invasion of the northwest, Wu Ding once “attacked Jingman in the south.” That is what Shijing-Shangsong records: “And vigorously did he attack Jing-Chu. Boldly he entered its dangerous passes, and brought the multitudes of Jing together.” This is the description of the great victories fought by the Shang people in the Yangtze River and Han River basins during the Wu Ding period. This shows that the power of the Shang dynasty expanded to the Yangtze River basin.

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With the continuous victory of the Shang people in foreign wars, the territory of Shang was also expanded day by day. Some experts said, “it seems that the Shang Dynasty has exceeded the coastal waters and developed maritime traffic in the east of the Bohai Sea [9].” In the decisive battle in which King Zhou, the last emperor of the Shang dynasty, was defeated by King Wu of Zhou, Zhou army used 47 ships to rescue tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of war carts when they crossed the Yellow River in Mengjin (now the north of Luoyang City). This indicates that there were already large ships supported by many oars in the late Shang dynasty. As for the Western Zhou dynasty, the most popular account related to ships was the story that King Wen of Zhou married his bride with pontoons made of boats. Shijing records, “And in person he met her on the Wei. Over it he made a bridge of boats; The glory [of the occasion] was illustrious (Cited in the “Book of songs Daya Daming”. Notes to the Thirteen Sutra, Zhonghua Book Company, 1980 1st Edition: 507).” “Made a bridge of boats” here is the earliest record of making bridge of boats in China, about 3,100 years ago. The Zhou dynasty also formulated a system of sailing according to official and identity ranks. During the Western Zhou dynasty, there were special officials in charge of boats, called “zhoumu.” The main responsibility of “zhoumu” was to ensure the safety of the ship and perform duties of ship inspection institutions and surveyors of today. The plank boat was originally used for transportation. In the Spring and Autumn period, because of the different navigation areas or different transportation requirements, there were gradually different kinds of ships with different characteristics and shapes. Among the folk there were fast light boats, flat boats, as well as the boats suitable for short-distance travel. The practice of water transportation made people realize that the boat had a large loading capacity in transportation, especially when transporting grains. The boat owned the incomparable efficiency over the vehicles. During the Spring and Autumn period, there was a record event of “fan zhou zhi yi” that the Qin State aided the Jin State with grains shipped through the Yellow River. At that time, the ship carrying grain was called “cao chuan.” The word “cao” originally meant water transportation, but later evolved into a special word for water transportation of grain. “Fan zhou zhi yi” therefore is regarded as the beginning of water transportation. During the Spring and Autumn period, the annexing wars between the vassal states were fierce and frequent, all over from the Central Plains to the rivercrisscrossed Jiangnan area. In the Central Plains, vehicles were mainly used for wars, while in Jiangnan area boats and ships were mainly used for water wars. The need of war not only promoted the development of shipping industry but also enhanced the diversification of ship types. In the Spring and Autumn period, the warship in the Warring States period was initiated by the need for water warfare. Water warfare was not only carried out on rivers but even at sea. In the ancient book Wu-Yue Chunqiu, more than 20 war cases of Wu-Chu navy were recorded. The water warfare between Wu and Yue was also very frequent. Wu’s warships had large wings, middle wings, small wings, as well as towered ships, tumao, bridge ships, and so on.

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Among the warships of the Wu State, the large wing was 12 zhang long and 1 zhang 6 chi wide, “accommodating 26 warriors, 50 privates, 3 convoys, 4 persons taking long hooks, spears and axes, one official, one servant and one boatman and one leader, totally 91 persons.” The middle wing was nine zhang six chi long and one zhang three chi wide. The small wing was nine zhang long and 1 zhang 2 chi wide. According to textual research, the measure during the Warring States period is about 0.23 m per chi. If converted to today’s metric system, the large wing is 27.6 m long and 3.68 m wide ([10], photocopy: 1450). The middle wing is 22.1 m long and 2.99 m wide. The small wing is 20.7 m long and 2.76 m wide. The hull of these three kinds of winged battleships is slender. If the boat goes down the water and works hard with 50 oars, it will go like flying (Fig. 11.12). The development of the warships in the Warring States period is lively reflected by the bronze mirrors and pots unearthed and handed down. From the lines on the copper pot, it can be seen that during the Warring States period, the warship was beautiful in shape with a tail shaped like the dragon tail of a dragon boat. It had decks, on which it was a battlefield and under which was where the privates pulled the oars. Fighting and pulling the oars were not disturbed by each other. Pulling the oars under the deck could well protect the privates from being attacked by the stones thrown by the enemies. This shows that the warships in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period in China had made a great progress. The restored model of the large-wing warship is on display in Jiaxing Shipbuilding Culture Museum, Zhejiang (see Fig. 11.13).

Fig. 11.12 A pot of the Warring States with the figure of a warship

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Fig. 11.13 The restored model of the large-wing warship

11.3

The First Peak of Shipbuilding Industry in China

The sail is the propelling tool of a ship, which, together with oars, poles, and oars, can be collectively called ship propeller. The difference is that the sails use the wind as the driving force, are no longer limited by human power, make the speed and navigating zone of the ship greatly expanded, and open up a broad prospect for the large-scale ships and the ocean-going voyage. The emergence of the sail is an important milestone in the history of ship development. There are several academic views on when the sail appeared in China. In The Brief History of Shipbuilding Development in China, Yangyi stated, “there is the character ‘凡’ much like the sail of a ship in the oracle bone inscriptions. So people of the Shang Dynasty may have installed sails on the ship and sail by making use of wind power” ([8], p. 8). This academic opinion has been endorsed by some scholars. In his article Re-exploration of Yin people sailing to America [11], Fang Zhongfu discussed from many angles the matter of the Yin people sailing to America, such as the origin of the American culture and the Shang culture, and the cultural relics of Shang dynasty discovered in Mexico. “Since there had been the character ‘帆’ in oracle bone inscriptions, there of course was a mast. It can be thought that the ancients had been able to raise sails on the mast at that time. As far as the boat sailing America alone concerned, there was already practical evidence. Since the earliest jacquard fabric in the world was woven in the Shang Dynasty, there should have been no shortage of sailing fabrics.” Among the academic discussion about when the Chinese sail appeared, “The Age of Chinese Sailing” by Wen Shangguang is worth noting [12]. First, the author finds in the Collection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions that there are 28 kinds of shapes of Chinese character “凡” in the oracle bone inscriptions in several decades since the

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Qing dynasty, but all of these don’t own the shape of “帆.” Second, there are five explanations like “fan (凡),” “ban (般),” “pan (盘),” “feng (风),” and “fan (犯)” for “凡” in the oracle inscriptions, but no explanation as “帆.” Besides, in the 856 sentences with “凡” in the 13 Chinese classics, there is no sentence in which “凡” can be explained as “帆.” According to Wen Shangguang’s study, there are no records about the sail or the mast either in the works of hundreds of schools in the pre-Qin dynasty or in the whole book of Shi Ji. In “The Exploration of Chinese Sailing” written by Lin Donghua [12], he also disagrees that the sail originated in the Yin and Shang dynasties. He said in the article, “if there was the sail in the Yin and Shang Dynasty, then there should be development of the sail in Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, but there wasn’t any evidence in the ancient classics and cultural relics for that, so this opinion isn’t believable.” Based on the analysis of the ancient literature of sailing on the sea and the research of the two cultural relics of the Warring States period(Figs. 11.14 and 11.15), Lin Donghua thinks that “the Chinese sail had appeared in Wu, Yue, Chu, Qi and other places in the Warring States Period. Of course, it was the original sail and wasn’t popular. It may be then small and simple sailing boats which lift the sail with the wind, and need paddling when it goes against the wind.” According to many scholars’ research and exploration on both literature and cultural relics, there had been the sail in Warring States period. It provided

Fig. 11.14 Rubbing of bronze yue of the Warring States period

Fig. 11.15 Figure of boat on the top of Chun

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Fig. 11.16 The restored scheme of the sailing boat Xu Fu took to Japan

technological assurance for the development of large-scale ships, speed acceleration, and broadening the navigating zones. The appearance and use of Chinese sail are later than other countries like ancient Egypt, but there is the stern helm cooperating with it, which has made the unique features of Chinese sail from the western sailing boats (Xi Longfei [13], the founding issue: 142): firstly, it uses multiple masts and sails; secondly, it uses the hard sail woven from the plant leaves; thirdly, it can use lateral wind power; fourthly, it can adjust the position of the sail and its angle, and adjust the space of sail with the wind power. At the latest from the Han dynasty, the Chinese people have got the mature technology of sailing, so that the Chinese could sail overseas, and became leading in the world. The appearance of the sail had made the shipbuilding technology greatly developed in Qin and Han dynasties, and witnessed the first peak of Chinese shipbuilding history. In 221 BC, when Qin wiped out Qi, the First Emperor of Qin unified China and built the first centralized kingdom. Emperor Qin Shihuang paid much attention to the development of overland route and waterways. He went around the country five times in the 11 years of his reigning. Emperor Qin Shihuang once asked Xu Fu, a necromancer, to set sail and find elixirs from the supernatural beings. Xu Fu took the ancient Chinese sailing boat to go on voyage (Fig. 11.16). Although there’s no record in the official documents that Xu Fu went east to Japan, there remain folklores about his voyage. Governors of Japan have always been paying attention to advocating and offering sacrifices to Xu Fu for centuries. According to a legend, Kumano Beach is Xu Fu’s landing site, which is in Wakayama prefecture, Shinomiya City, Japan. Xu Fu settled in Shinomiya City, in which there was Xu Fu’s tomb. To commemorate Xu Fu, the Japanese built a park named Xu Fu, and there was a statue of Xu Fu in that park (Fig. 11.17). In 215 BC when Emperor Qin Shihuang had just wiped out the other six countries, he ordered to demolish embankments in the old cities of all the states, excavate the dikes which block channels, and raze the places that are easy to keep guard for eliminating the terrain or architecture that anti-Qin forces may use. This is

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Fig. 11.17 Statue of Xu Fu in Xu Fu Park

recorded in Shi Ji. In the same year in Shi Ji-Qin Shihuang Ben Ji, it records that “Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered General Meng Tian to take 30000 soldiers to hit the Hu in the North and to take the land of Henan.” This strategic action took today’s Huangxian and Mouping in Shandong Province as the rear supply base, collected sea ships to cross the Bohai Sea to sends grains to soldiers in Hebei. “This large-scale transporting of grain across the Bohai Sea has been regarded by historians as the beginning of water transportation of grain in China” [14]. In the battles of Qin army, Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered Shi Lu to dredge the channels of transporting grains. Shi Lu built a channel of 33,000 km long in Xing’an County, Guangxi Province, to connect Xiang Jiang in Yangtze River system and Li Jiang in the Pearl River system. During this process, the craftsman had created two techniques: one is to choose a circuitous route to increase the length of channel and lower the gradient of the river bed; the other is to set several sluice gates in the places of high gradient, which is the guide of today’s ship lock (Fig. 11.18). When a ship goes into a high water level from a low water level, the sluice gates in the rear of the ship should be closed, and the sluice gates in front of it should be opened. When the water level is equal between the two bucket doors, the ship enters the waters of the front sluice gates. In this way, the ship can “climb” from the low water level to the high water level over and again. When the ship loaded with grain passes the channel, it will be safe to cross the “mountain” by evaluating it according to the sluice gates. This is an important route created to develop Lingnan in the Qin dynasty – Ling Qu. Such a clever project of 2,000 years ago was indeed worthy of its name. In the Han dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty made the whole maritime traffic line in the east of the Han Empire, which started from the Bohai Sea in the north and ended at the nowadays coast of Vietnam in the south, totally unimpeded. After the opening of coastal routes in the Western Han dynasty, the development of coastal shipping also promoted the opening of the Maritime Silk Road through the South Ocean to the Indian Ocean today. Although the route, the location, and the name of the countries which they’ve arrived at marked in the Maritime Silk Route Map of the Western Han dynasty (Fig. 11.19) may be doubtable, it is an indisputable fact that the Maritime Silk Road from China to India and from the Pacific Ocean into the India Ocean had been

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Fig. 11.18 Schematic diagram of crossing the gate of Ling Qu in Qin dynasty. (1) 上游 upper reaches, (2) 上游门 the sluice gate at the upper reaches, (3)上游水面 water surface of the upper reaches, (4) 下游 lower reaches close the gate, (5) 下游门 the sluice gate at the lower reaches, (6) 下 游水面 water surface of the lower reaches, (7) 升降斗 lifting bucket, (8) 开门 open the gate, (9) 关 门 close the gate, (10) 注水 water injection, (11) 关门开注水口 close the gate and open the water filling nozzle, (12) 斗门 the bucket door

opened in the Western Han dynasty. After the opening of maritime routes, overseas products enter China in a steady flow, promoting economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. According to the ancient literature, there was a boom in towered shipbuilding in the Han dynasty. Its most important feature is the multi-storied superstructure. As early as the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, all kinds of warships were equipped with decks, which not only made the cabin less affected by the wind and rain but also made the deck, bottom of the vessel, and the sides form a closed frame, improving the integral rigidity of the hull and the strength of the hull. The shape and scale of the towered ship in the Han dynasty should be like this: there is a cabin under the deck for rowing oars. The privates in the cabin are well protected from the attack of enemy’s stones. The privates on the deck took knives and swords prepared for a side battle in a close combat. The half-height protective wall on the side of bulwark is called “the parapet wall,” preventing the enemy’s stones. The second-floor building inside “the parapet wall” on the deck is called “lu,” around which there was another “parapet wall.” The privates on “lu” were armed with spears, having the advantage of commanding position overlooking the ground below. There is the third-floor building named “Fei Lu,” and the bowmen were hidden there, who are the long-distance attacking force. The scale of the towered ship army in the Han dynasty can be equal to a thousand warships. In the 18th year of Jian Wu in the Eastern Han dynasty (42), General Ma Yuan attacked Jiaozhi with 2,000 towered ships and more than 20,000 soldiers [15].

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Fig. 11.19 Maritime Silk Route Map of the Western Han dynasty

Ancient Chinese shipbuilding spots scattered around the coastal and inland sides of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. In addition to a series of shipbuilding spots in the coastal areas, there were also many shipbuilding spots in the vast inland areas. Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty opened Kunming Pool in Chang’an to build Yu Zhang Ship and train the towered ship army. Since 1949, with the development of economic construction, the wooden and pottery ship models of the Han dynasty were unearthed one after another from the ancient tombs in Changsha, Guangzhou, Jiangling of Hubei Province. They are Changsha wooden ship model in the Western Han dynasty, Guangzhou pottery ship model in the Eastern Han dynasty (Fig. 11.20), and Jiangling wooden ship model in the Western Han dynasty. For the four ship models of the Han dynasty, despite the differences in materials (wood and pottery), in dynasties (Western Han dynasty and Eastern Han dynasty), and in their usages, some basic features in ships of the Han dynasty can still be seen from the comparative analysis of the four ship models: there are both decks and superstructures, setting up an aerial view plate on both sides, that is, an extension deck on both sides; there is an outward extension in the bow and stern, which is named “the front extended stern deck” and “the rear extended stern deck.” The ships of the Han dynasty are equipped with apparels, which are indispensible in the navigation of a ship. They are gradually developed with the technological

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Fig. 11.20 Model of ceramic warship in Eastern Han dynasty, Guangzhou

progress of the ship, and each kind of apparel has one or more functions. Oars, barge poles, and sculls are all propelling tools. The mast is used for flying a flag, hanging signals, and lightening appliances such as lamps and lanterns. And fastening the cable to the top of the mast can lead the ship forward, so hanging sails on the mast makes a propelling tool for the ship. The anchorage is an ancient mooring tool, that is, to bind an unprocessed stone with a shape easy to be bound with a rope. The structure of anchorage had made a great progress in the Han dynasty. The anchorage of wood and stone with two claws appeared, because it is not enough to use anchorage to moor ships. So claws are needed. This is a qualitative leap in the principle of anchoring ships. Some ship apparels like oars and barge poles appeared and were used long before, but were only explained in the literature of the Han dynasty. Sculls can be used to propel the ship and control the direction of it. They are unique of China, and a breakthrough invention in the propelling tools of ships. This kind of fairly advanced scientific ship apparel was first recorded and described in the literature of the Han dynasty, so that it can be presumed to be the invention of the Han dynasty. As a tool for steering and controlling the course of ships, the rudder has been spread to all over the world. From the unearthed cultural relics of the Han dynasty and the literature of the Han dynasty, it can be concluded that the rudder appears at the latest in the Han dynasty. Here it can be seen that the shipbuilding technology in the Qin and Han dynasties had a great development, which made the first peak in China’s shipbuilding industry. The important invention in the history of China’s shipbuilding, such as stem rudder, watertight bulkhead, and sculls, appeared in this period, imposing a very far-reaching impact on the history of world shipbuilding and shipping industry.

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The Invention of Shipbuilding Technology in the Three Kingdoms and the Two Jin Dynasties

After the Han dynasty, here came the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, into the feudal secession situation of different political powers coexisting. As a result of the vast area of China, every regime owned quite a large territory. Due to political, economic, and military needs, the shipping industry and maritime transportation were much developed. The two world-famous major inventions, the watertight bulkhead and the wheel boat, appeared in the Jin dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan and Liu Bei formed a coalition to resist the Cao. Zhou Yu, Sun Quan’s military commander, adopted the strategy of General Huang Gai. In Chibi, they used ten Meng Chong (ancient warships protected with cowhide) and Dou Jian (fighting ships) to fire attack the linked ship of Cao’s navy. That was the Battle of Chibi in which Cao’s navy was utterly defeated, and it had created the famous war example of defeat the enemy with a force inferior in number. In fact, Dou Jian is a new type of warship that appeared in the Eastern Han dynasty. According to Liu Xi’s Shi Ming, as for its shape and structure, it is a kind of warship with the upper and lower heavy plates, and with planks around the ship to block the stones. In Li Quan’s Tai Bai Yin Jing finished in the second year of Qianyuan, the Tang dynasty, there are descriptions as follows, “The warship owns the middle wall on the sides and mortises under the wall. Inside the sides shelters are built with the same height as the parapet wall and another parapet wall was built on the shelter. There isn’t a cover, and there are flags with ivory, long narrow flags and golden drum on all sides. That is warship” [16]. In 1978, Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military Museum in Beijing invited experts in the history of shipbuilding to complete the restoration of Dou Jian [17]. The restored appearance diagram of Dou Jian is drawn after argumentation: its main yardstick is as follows: the length is 37.4 m, and waterline is 32.7 m. Ship beam is 9.0 m. Ship depth is 3.0 m. Sea gauge is 1.8–2.0 m. War shed is 2.3 m high. Poop is 2.5 m high. The podium is 2.5 m high. The length of ward shed is about 3/4 of the length of the whole ship. The shed was surrounded by crossbow windows of shooting and concealment and the opening doors in all directions. The whole ship is equipped with 2 masts, 2 sails, and 30 oars. The scale of the recovered Dou Jian is 1: 30, which is collected and displaced in the modern war pavilion of the Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military Museum in Beijing. And there are some improvements in Dou Jian made by Macau Maritime Museum (Fig. 11.21). In the Eastern Jin dynasty, the maritime transportation between China and the southern Asian countries had made a great progress. In China, there were Buddhists going west to study Buddhism, and they took a return journey by ship. Among these people the most famous one is Fa Xian in the last year of the Jin dynasty. In March, 399 AD, Fa Xian and his colleagues left Chang’an, went west and passed Hexi Corridor and present Xin Jiang, and then turned south to pass Indus River basin into the Ganges River basin. He traveled, lived, and studied in Tian Zhu (present Indus)

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Fig. 11.21 Fighting ship used in Battle of Chibi (Macau Maritime Museum)

until 409 AD when he returned to East. He first came to the Lion Kingdom (present Sri Lanka) and then sailed back to China in 1 year. He arrived at the Lao Shan of Jiao Zhou Bay in the next year. In AD 413, he returned to Jian Kang, the capital of the Eastern Jin dynasty. The greatest achievement of the shipbuilding technology in the Jin dynasty is to build a watertight bulkhead on the ship body, for example, the eight-cabin ship built in the Jin dynasty, whose characteristic is to separate the hull into eight cabins by the watertight bulkhead. Even if a cabin is broken and drowned, the ship can still keep safe. In Song Shu-Wudi Ji, when it described the event that Liu Yu suppressed Lu Xun’s navy, it mentioned Lu Xun had nine “Eight-cabin Ships,” which were up to 4 floors and was 12 zhang high [18]. In notes on Yi Xi Qi Ju Zhu, Emperor Yi Xi of the Jin dynasty made similar records. The eight-cabin ship built by Lu Xun is thought to be a ship that uses water-tight bulkhead to divide the ship into eight cabins. The watertight bulkhead of a ship is an invention of the beginning of fifth century AD in China, and its creator is Lu Xun, one of the leaders of the insurrectionary army in Jin dynasty. There is the unearthed ancient ship as proof for Chinese invention of watertight bulkhead. One is the wooden ship of the Tang dynasty discovered in Rugao, Jiangsu Province [19]. The ship is 18 m long, and is divided into 9 cabins, and there is a watertight bulkhead between every 2 cabins. The largest cabin is 25 m long and the shortest is 0.96 m. The second is the wooden ship of Tang dynasty found in Shiqiao Town, Jiangsu Province. The restored ship is 24 m long, and is divided into 5 cabins, in which the seams of the board are filled with putty, presenting good water tightness. The invention of watertight bulkhead technology has important functions: first, it can ensure that the ship does not sink. Even if a cabin of the ship is submerged when

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running against a rock, it can also restrain the flood from affecting the adjacent cabins. Second, shell plating and the deck supported by a large number of bulkheads increases the rigidity and strength of the hull. Third, the bulkhead provides a strong transverse structure for the hull, so that the masts can be closely connected to the hull, which makes it possible for the ancient Chinese sailboats to use multiple masts and sails. Western scholars praise watertight bulkheads as a great invention. They said, “Chinese got this inspiration from observing the structure of the bamboo poles. Because there aren’t bamboos in Europe, Europeans don’t have the inspiration” (Robert·K·G Temple, translated by Chen Yangzheng [20]). The wheel boat, also known as the paddle ship, is a major invention in ancient Chinese shipbuilding technology, as early as 417 AD. In the 13th year of Yixi (417) of the Jin Dynasty, the military officers under Liu Yu’s command in the Jin Dynasty “took wheel ship to pass the Yellow River, but they found there were no other person in a boat outside the ship, so they thought it was a marvel because there had never been a boat in the north [21].” It is the first record of the wheel boat in the world, and is acknowledged by historians of science and technology. There are also records of the construction of wheel boats during the Southern and Northern dynasties. Zu Chongzhi, an outstanding mathematician, astronomer, and mechanical inventor in the Southern dynasty, once made a wheel boat. In the ancient literature, it described that Zu Chongzhi made a thousand-li ship and tried it in Xin Ting River. The ship could travel more than a hundred miles a day [22]. The thousand-li ship here is a wheel boat. The wheel boat uses a wheel as a propelling tool. The so-called paddle wheel is that with blades of the paddle installed around the wheel, which makes the original oar’s straight line, intermittent, and to-and-fro motion turn to circumference, continuous, and rotating motion, because the continuous rotation of the paddle continuously paddling water not only continuously pushes forward the ship, avoiding the virtual work done of the paddling with hands, but also saves labor by pedaling with feet by means of your own weight. A lot of pedals can be installed on the same shaft, according to the width of the ship. Thus it can be paddled by many people at the same time, which improves the propelling efficiency and the speed of ship with the aid of so many people’s labor. When the wheel goes forward, the ship goes forward. When the wheel turns back, the ship moves backward. The flexibility of the wheel improves the maneuverability of the ship, which is particularly important for warships. The invention of the paddle wheel is of great significance in the history of shipbuilding. As the scholars on the history of shipbuilding have said, “the further development of the paddle promoted the appearance of the paddle wheel, i.e., the occurrence of the wheel boat. The conversion from the paddle to the paddle wheel is a major event in the history of the ship development that makes historians and engineers excited. That the paddle wheel was used so early in China and the variety and large scales of the wheel boats in the Song Dynasty is shocking enough for the world. It made a leap in manpower propelling tools of ships and reached the degree

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of semi-mechanization, and the highest level of ancient manpower propelling technology [23]”. The invention and practical use of a paddle ship or a wheel boat never stopped from the Jin dynasty, the Southern and Northern dynasties to the Tang dynasty, and the Song dynasty (Fig. 11.22). In the Song dynasty, the wheel warship was even included in the establishment of the navy. The paddle wheel was used as a propelling tool in the west which did not begin until the Industrial Revolution, 1,000 years later than that in China. Another achievement in shipbuilding of Jin dynasty is the creation of catamaran pleasure boat. In the Jin dynasty, Gu Kaizhi, the famous painter, in his painting Luoshen Fu Tu describes the happy tour of Luo Shen (the goddess of Luohe River) on a catamaran pleasure boat (Fig. 11.23). Gu Kaizhi, as a painter in the fourth century, provides with his painting the precious image material of the catamaran Fig. 11.22 The wheel boat of the navy in Southern Song dynasty

Fig. 11.23 Catamaran pleasure boat in the Jin dynasty in Luoshen Fu

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pleasure boat in the Jin dynasty. As is seen in the picture, the scale of the ship is not large, but applies the double-ship link, making the catamaran to have good stability. The catamaran was pushed by the barge poles, and there is a longitudinal oar on the stern, which is called the tip. There is a warm pavilion on the broad deck, and above the pavilion there is sun shade. The layout and design of the catamaran are reasonable, elegant, and beautiful.

11.5

The Achievements of the Shipbuilding in the Sui and Tang Dynasties

The Sui dynasty was founded in 51 AD. Although it lasted only over 20 years, the canal excavation, shipbuilding, and maritime transportation in this period made great achievements. Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty, in the war of unifying the whole country, ordered General Yang Su to build ships and train the navy in Yong’an (today’s Fengjie in Chongqing). In the eighth year of the first emperor in the Sui dynasty (588), Yang Su’s fleets with wuya warship as the main force, aided by huangong, pingcheng (large boats), zemeng (small boats), and other types of ships, fought against the defenders of the Chen dynasty on the Yangtze River. The fleet played an important historical role in eliminating the Chen dynasty and ending the division of the Southern and Northern dynasties, and unifying the whole country. An account of the wuya warship could be found in Suishu-Yang Su Zhuan: Yang Su resided in Yong’an, and he built a large-scale ship and named it wuya. It was made up of five floors, more than 100 chi high, with six paigan (paddle used as weapon) of 50 ft around. It could contain 800 warriors. A flag was usually added to it. Another ship inferior to it named huanglong could contain a hundred warriors. There also remained other types of ships like pingcheng and zemeng, different from each other. In order to defeat Chen, Yang Su, the General, led the soldiers by ships to pass the Three Gorges (Fig. 11.24) [24]. Li Pan’s Jintang Jiezhu Shierchou also provides the description of paigan and wuya warship, “Paigan, is as large as the mast, with huge stones on it and wheels below, with ropes running through and fastened to the warship. Each ship is fivestoried, a hundreds chi high, with six paigan of 50 m around, containing 800 soldiers, and a flag on it. When they met an enemy ship, paigan was used for attack t, the enemy ship would be broken at once” (Li Pan, Jintang Jiezhu Shierchou (Volume 11)) This account of the wuya warship is consistent with that in Suishu. In 1988, the academic team on the history of Chinese shipbuilding made a study on the restoration of the wuya warship for the Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military Museum in Beijing. They determined the main scale of the wuya warship: the ship is 54.6 m long, 15 m wide, and 4 m deep and has 2.2 m of waterline. Two paigan are set respectively in the front and the rear and one respectively on the left and right sides. The windlass is located under the deck, with enough space to operate. So it is safer to avoid the enemy’s stones. The power of the ship is mainly

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Fig. 11.24 Five-tooth ship

Fig. 11.25 Sketch of the wuya warship under the recovery research

on the oars. There are 40 oars in the ship, 2 big-tail sculls, and 1 tow rudder. The oars are in the big cabin below the deck. In the rapid torrents of the Chuanjiang River, the operation of the wuya warship depends on the coordination of oars, sculls, and rudders (Fig. 11.25). One of the great contributions of the Sui dynasty in the history of Chinese shipping was the construction of man-made canals. The Sui dynasty ended the 300 years of domestic division. In order to effectively control the hegemony of the separate forces in the south of the Yangtze River, the construction of man-made canals was began at the reigning time of Emperor Wen, Yang Jian, and ended at the reigning time of Emperor Yang, Yang Guang. Canals excavated in the Sui dynasty include Guangtong Qu (300 over li from Yongxing City to Tongguan), Tongji Qu (introducing the water from guhe river and luohe river to the Yellow River), and Hangou (from Shanyang (nowadays Huaiyin, Jiangsu Province) to the Yangtze River).

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Jiangnan Canal, which was constructed by the order of the Emperor Yang of Sui, starts from Jingkou (nowadays Zhenjiang) to Yuhang (nowadays Hangzhou), more than 800 li long and more than 10 Zhang (length unit: 0.33 m) wide, on which the dragon boats can travel [25]. Yongji Canal, which, based on the old canal of the Cao and Wei dynasties, was excavated on some natural river courses, with a total length of more than 2,000 li. The development of artificial canals in the Sui dynasty is inevitable in the history of China. Emperor Yang made an indelible contribution to the development of the canal. However, he was too eager for success, greedy for immediate results and benefits, which exceeded the people’s ability to bear and destroyed their happy life. Pi Rixiu, a poet of the Tang dynasty, wrote a sevencharacter quatrain to recall the old times: To remember the ancients by the bank of Bian river (Selected notes of Shang Tao and Shang Huijin [26]) It has long been believed that the Sui dynasty fell because of The Great Canal. But ever since the canal excavated, communication between the north and the south has opened. If Emperor Yang had not visited Jiangdu three times, leading to the destruction of the country. Then the credit of excavating the canal can be compared with Dayu who managed the flood.

This poem not only points out that he did not care about the life and death of people but also affirms that his achievements in excavating the canal can be compared with Dayu. It is a sin for the time being and a benefit for the future. The dragon boat fleet which Emperor Sui took to Jiangdu three times is a grand parade of shipbuilding capabilities and ship systems of the Sui dynasty. In 605, 610, and 616 AD, he led three large tourist fleets to Jiangdu, squandering people’s money and disturbing people’s livelihood to the extreme. The shape, structure, and style of dragon boats in the Sui dynasty have not been found among the surviving artifacts. Later, Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song dynasty painted The Map of the Contention at Jinming River, vividly depicting the dragon boats that the emperors took. There is also a narrative in the book Beautiful Dream in Dongjing by Meng Yuanlao of the Song dynasty. One of the structural features of the dragon boat is that it has a tall superstructure with the high gravity center. To show the image of the dragon, it has a narrow body and a narrow width. It is very important to ensure the stability of ship. How to solve the stability of a narrow ship made people worried. In his book, Meng Yuanlao wrote about the dragon boat, “Use the cast iron silver samples at the bottom of the boat to lower the center of gravity, so that the boat will not capsize” (Meng Yuanlao, annotated by Deng Zhicheng [27]). This shows that people paid attention to the importance of pressure, and the solutions were scientific (Fig. 11.26). In the Tang dynasty when the economy was prosperous, the Bianqu Canal (Tongji Canal) and Yangtze River branch became the main routes for inland shipping. The inner shipping went down from the middle of Shu (Sichuan Province) to Yangzhou, or from Jiaozhou and Guangzhou to the Xiangjiang River and the Gan River into

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Fig. 11.26 A picture of a model dragon boat (collected in Ship Culture Museum of Jiaxing)

Yangzhou, then to the Yellow River through the Bianqu Canal, and finally to Chang’an through Weihe River. “With Yangzhou as the center, it has formed a massive national water transportation network” [28]. In the Tang dynasty when inland river shipping was more developed, there were “Shangmen Tianque Chuan” (solid ships against turbulence) on the Yellow River, “Xiehuang Zhijiang Chuan” which are suitable for the Bian Shui River between Yellow River and Yangtze river and large boats called Aunt Yu Ships sailing on the Yangtze River. The so-called Aunt Yu Ship is a large ship which was used as home for crew members, on which they were born, died, and married. Its load is 8,000–9,000 dan (unit of weight: 59.2 kg), that is, 500–550 tons. A famous poem by Li Bai made it as follows: “At dawn I left the walled city of White King, Towering among the manycoloured clouds; And came down stream in a day, One thousand li to Jiangling. The screams of monkeys on either bank, Had scarcely ceased echoing in my ear. When my skiff had left behind it, Ten thousand ranges of hills.” In one way, this poem reflects the property of shipping on the Yangtze River at that time. The prosperous economy and culture, vast territory, and strong national strength of the Tang dynasty were unique in the world at that time. With the rising of the Tang Empire, a strong Arab-Muslim empire also emerged in the west Asia and the north Africa. The close economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries greatly promoted the development of maritime traffic in the Tang dynasty. In the ancient book Geography of the New Tang Dynasty, there are seven transportation routes to neighboring countries in the Tang dynasty, two of which are maritime transportation routes: “Guangzhou Tong Hai Yi Dao (a sea route to the west)” in the south and “Dengzhou Haixing Ru Gaoli Bohai Dao (a road to Korea)” in the north. The nearest route from China to Japan is Nandao (the south route), also known as the Ocean Road. It started from Mingzhou (now Ningbo), and crossed the East China Sea to the five islands of Japan. When coming back from Japan, it started sailing from Bodo, and waited at the five islands for the following wind. When the wind came, it crossed the East China Sea at one breath to Mingzhou or Yangzhou. The Ocean Road is the most convenient route between China and Japan, and Japanese

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Fig. 11.27 Japanese ambassador ship in the Tang dynasty

ambassadors in the late Tang dynasty also took it. In the ninth century, most ships sailed between China and Japan Tang government were the Tang ships. Although Japanese court ordered to build the ambassador ships in Japan, they also took lessons from Chinese shipbuilding. Most of the builders and drivers were the Chinese of the Tang dynasty (see Fig. 11.27). In the Tang dynasty, Chinese seagoing ships were famous in the Pacific and Indian oceans for their large hull, wide volume, strong structure, great ability to resist wind and waves, and skillful navigation skills of Chinese sailors. At that time, large ships were 20 zhang (length unit: 0.33 m) long, and could carry six or seven hundred people and thousands hu of goods [29]. Due to the social and economic development of the Tang dynasty and the frequent international exchanges on the sea, the shipbuilding was expanding, and the shipbuilding sites were almost all over the country. The coastal area has always been the main area for the construction of seagoing ships. The most famous shipbuilding sites are Dengzhou and Laizhou in the north and Yangzhou, Mingzhou (now Ningbo), Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Gaozhou (now Maoming of Guangdong), Qiongzhou (around Haikou City), and Jiaozhou (now Vietnam) in the south [30]. There are shipbuilding workshops in inland areas. In June 1973, a wooden boat of the Tang dynasty was found in Rugao County, Jiangsu Province (see Fig. 11.28). The existing hull is 17.32 m long, and after being restored, it is about 18 m long. The ship is 2.58 m wide and 1.6 m deep. It is slender and made of three timber tenons. This is a cargo ship sailing in the northern Jiangsu area. It is estimated that the displacement of this ship is about 33–35 tons. The advanced shipbuilding technology of Tang dynasty was seen on this wooden ship excavated in Rugao, Jiangsu Province. First, there are watertight bulkheads on the ship. On a ship about 18 m long, there are nine compartments, with watertight bulkheads between every two compartments. This guarantees the safety of the whole ship. If one compartment is damaged and drowned, the adjacent cabins won’t be

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Fig. 11.28 A wooden boat of Tang dynasty found in Rugao, Jiangsu Province

affected. These watertight bulkheads also provide strong support for the bottom, side, and deck of the ship, making the whole ship to have an integral rigidity, which increases the overall strength and local strength of the ship. Second, except that the bottom of the ship is jointed by tenons, the two sides and the bulkheads and the cover (deck) of the ship are connected with iron nails. The iron nails are divided into two rows and crossed up and down, with a distance of 6 cm between each two. This method of overlapping stitching, called Ren Zi Feng (zigzag), was advanced at that time. Third, it applies the caulking sealing technology. In the iron stitch, it is filled with lime, tung oil, and hemp thread or old products made of hemp to make it tight and strong. Not only were a variety of transportation ships but also warships developed in the Tang dynasty. The Tang people inherited all kinds of battleships and invented new technology. Li Quan, used to be Jie Du Shi of Hedong, Ci Shi of Youzhou, and Fang Wei Shi of Benzhou in the Tang dynasty, wrote the ten volumes of Tai bai yin Jing in the second year of Qian Yuan (759), and introduced a variety of warships such as the towered ships, Mengheng ships, battleships, sailing vessels, yachts, and Haihu ships. Among them, the “Haihu ship” was invented in the Tang dynasty. It has a low head and a high tail and a large front and a small rear. The floating board on the right side is shaped like a wing of accipiter. It won’t capsize even if there is a huge storm. It is surrounded by cowhide to form a siege. Equipped like a battleship with the commander’s flag and battle drum, the ship is capable of all-weather operations. The navy of the Tang dynasty thus had a mixed fleet of warships for water warfare. It should be pointed out that the wheel boat invented in the Jin dynasty and the Southern dynasty was put into practical use in the Tang dynasty. In the eighth century, Li Gao, king of the Cao kingdom in the Tang dynasty, built and led such a fleet of wheel boats. Old Tang Book-Biography of Li Gao records: Li Gao “invented battleships out of sheer ingenuity, with two wheels to drive them. The ship goes forward with the aid of the following wind, and as fast as a sail. Such a boat is stout and easy to sail. Joseph Needham, an expert in the history of science and technology, attaches great importance to Li Gao’s achievements. In “Science and China’s Impact on the World” published in 1964 he wrote, “It was clear that in the 8th century, the structure of the ship makes it able to conduct water warfare on lakes and rivers. At that time, Li Gao, king of Cao in the Tang dynasty, built and led such a fleet” (Pan Jixing [31], Fig. 11.6).

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The Development of Shipbuilding Technology in the Song and Yuan Dynasties

After the establishment of the Northern Song dynasty, the war to unify the whole country was still going on. And trade with the western regions on land was severely hindered. Therefore, China’s communication with the outside world mainly depended on maritime transportation, which made a great progress in shipbuilding technology and shipping business in the Song dynasty. In order to facilitate the management of business affairs and shipping, the Song government set up the Bureau for Foreign Shipping at major trading ports such as Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Mingzhou (now Ningbo), Quanzhou, Banqiao Town of Mizhou (now Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province), Huating County of Xiuzhou (now Songjiang County, Shanghai), Wenzhou, Jiangyin, Xiuzhou Yupu (now Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province), etc. In the Northern Song dynasty, the water transportation of grain between the north and the south also played a very important role. Among the types of ships, grain transportation ships accounts for the majority, while others are passenger ships, warships, horse ships (troop transportation ships), and so on. By the time of the Southern Song dynasty, water transportation of grain was greatly reduced, and the output of this kind of ships was decreased accordingly. Due to the outstanding tasks of defensing works along the Yangtze River and coastal defense, the output of warships gradually increased. In the Song dynasty, shipbuilding factories were scattered all over the country and major coastal port areas. There were two types of shipbuilding industry in the Song dynasty: official industries and private industries. The official industries undertook the task of building warships for defensing works along the Yangtze River and coastal defense. Although there are official industries that built grain transportation ships and passenger ships, private industries also make a large number of such ships. The official one has a feudal nature, and it affects the development of the shipyard. However, the private shipbuilding industry was developed in the prosperous domestic and foreign trade. At the beginning of the twelfth century in the Song dynasty, China was the first country in the world to use a compass for navigation. In Pingzhou Ketan, written in the first year of Xuanhe (1119), it is recorded that, “The helmsman can navigate by observing the stars at night, observing the sun during the day, or using a compass on cloudy days. Or he can scoop up the mud on the bottom of the sea with a ten-zhang rope, and by smelling the mud he could tell where they had arrived [32]. It is recorded that the helmsman in the Northern Song Dynasty used astronomical navigation combined with the terrestrial navigation technology of “mud extraction from the bottom of the sea.” The structure of the early compass with a water float needle in the Song dynasty was composed of the water float needle in the center of the disk and the azimuth plate in the outer circle (see Fig. 11.29). The achievements of shipbuilding in the Song dynasty were also reflected in the appearance of passenger ships. And the passenger ships and fleets sailing at sea appeared in the Northern Song dynasty, which is called Shenzhou and Kezhou,

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Fig. 11.29 Water float needle in the center of the disk and the azimuth plate in the outer circle

respectively. According to volume 34 of Xuan He Feng Shi Tu Jing ([33], photocopy), ships in the Song dynasty had the following technical measures to improve their maritime performance and safety: tying two bamboo bundles on both sides of the ship to increase its stability and safety in the wind and waves; using the traveling anchorage to reduce the swaying and increase the stability and safety when the ship is swaying horizontally and longitudinally in the wind and waves; and using two different rudders when navigating in different water courses. In addition to the mast made of bamboo into a hard sail (Lipeng), there are also soft sails (cloth sails) and small sails (wild sail) set on the top of the main sail for maximum wind power. In this way, the ship follows the wind in the waves of the sea, and its seakeeping ability and seaworthiness were improved. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival (about 1111–1125), painted by Zhang Zeduan, a court painter during the period of Huizong of the Northern Song dynasty, is a magnificent painting which depicts the social and economic life of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty. In this long scroll, there are 24 ships from various angles, including 11 passenger ships and 13 cargo ships. The significant differences between passenger ships and freighters in structures and forms reflect the large scale of cargo and passenger transportation on the Bianhe River at that time. This, of course, reflects the prosperity of economic life around the Bianhe River and the progress of shipbuilding industry at that time (Fig. 11.30). The passenger ship on the Bianhe River in Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is exquisite and practical. The two sides of its cabin have quite large windows, providing sufficient ventilation and lighting (see Fig. 11.31). When the ship is hit by wind and rain, the windows can be closed. At this time two rows of windows on the ceiling are available for lighting and ventilation. Freighters are boarded out in arches instead of decks (see Fig. 11.32). Loading and unloading were done through the hatch opening to both sides. For the freighter with large width, great depth, and small draft, it can carry more cargo and be easy for loading and unloading. The rudder of the Bianhe ship is quite advanced. As is seen from the picture, part of the rudder blade is in front of the rudder pole (the steering shaft), which indicates that China had begun to use balanced rudders as early as in the twelfth century. This

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Fig. 11.30 Ships in Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival (part) by Zhang Zeduan Fig. 11.31 The model of passenger ship on Bianhe River. (From Chinese Ancient Ships Atlas)

kind of balanced rudder is easy to rotate, which can not only reduce the labor intensity of the helmsman but also improve the maneuverability of the ship. The bow is equipped with a winch for raising stone piers. But when you are moored on the shore, you do not need to use an anchor if you tie your ship to a stake on the shore with a cable. Another important progress of shipbuilding technology in the Song dynasty was the great development of the ancient wheel boat. When the Song government moved south, the area between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River became the main battlefield of the confrontation, and defense works along the Yangtze River rose to an important position.

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Fig. 11.32 The model of cargo ship on Bianhe River. (From City Museum of Huaibei)

Thanks to Gao Xuan, Du Liao Jiang (carpenters, shipbuilders) at that time, the Song dynasty included a large number of wheel boats into the navy. Later, the rebel army of Yang Yao obtained the design presented by Gao Xuan. According to the picture, a Ba Che Chuan (a ship with eight wheels) was made in a few days. It is very convenient and fast when men employed or in service drove it up and down the river. Since both sides of the ship have guard plates, people couldn’t see the wheels. Thus they were amazed that a boat could go so fast. Gradually the number of wheels was increased, and the ship with 20 wheels or 23 wheels was built, which could carry two or three hundred soldiers. With the help of craftsman Gao Xuan, the rebel army of Yang Yao (Dingli Yimin, verified by Zhu Xizu [34]) began to build a large number of wheel boats. The ship can travel very fast with the help of wheels. Bump poles were placed on the side of the ship to crush the official ships. Thus the official troops were defeated over and over again. In the famous “Battle of Caishi” against Jin (a country founded by the Jurchen), the wheel boat army of the Song government had played an unprecedented and powerful role, creating a brilliant battle example of defeating 400,000 people with 18,000 people. It was attributed to the wheel boat. In the summer of 1974, at Houzhu port of Quanzhou Bay, Fujian Province, a wooden cargo ship of the Song dynasty was unearthed, which was composed of a keel, 2 or 3 layers of shell plates, 12 bulkheads, and ribs. That indicates the advanced shipbuilding technology at that time. Many historical materials indicate that the ocean-going ships in the Song dynasty had better navigation performance. Pingzhou Ketan records, “The only thing it feared in the sea was being stranded.” Xuan He Feng Shi Gao Li Tu Jing records, “It is not afraid of the depth of the sea, only afraid of stranding.” Because the bottom of the state is uneven, if the tide goes out, the boat will tip over and cannot be rescued, “a rope with plumb weights is often used to test the depth of the water.” According to the measurement, the shape diagram of the ship unearthed in Quanzhou is drawn (see Fig. 11.33). It has a waterline of 27 m, a deck of 10.5 m wide, a ship of 5 m deep, and a draft of 3.75 m. Although the width of the

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Fig. 11.33 The line sketch of restoration of the sea ship in Quanzhou of the Song dynasty

ship is large and the length-width ratio is only 2.57, this is very beneficial to the ship stability. It is extremely thin with a square coefficient of 0.44. But a small lengthwidth ratio does not affect rapidity. V-shaped cross-sectional line is helpful to improve seakeeping. The combination of sharp bottom and deep draft provides better seaworthiness. The ship type design of Quanzhou Bay in the Song dynasty was based on the requirements of stability, rapidity, seakeeping, and processing technology. From the perspective of modern ship design theory, this ship is also highly skilled [35]. In 1978, a river cargo ship of the Song dynasty was unearthed in Jinghai, Tianjin. Its hull structure was simple and reasonable and was equipped with a balanced rudder. In 1979, an ancient ship of Song dynasty was found in Ningbo. It was a threemasted outboard ship with a pointed head, pointed bottom, and square tail. This has a characteristic in structure: the “bulkhead ribs” of the ship are all made of camphor wood, and are very neat. It has an amazing discovery about the ship: it is equipped with a roll damping keel often fitted to modern marine vessels. In December 2007, the ancient sunken ship “Nanhai No.1” of the Song dynasty was salvaged and put into the Museum of Maritime Silk Road in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province. Its structure is well preserved; thus the advancement of ship technology in the Song dynasty can be seen. The discovery of ancient ships and sunken ships in the Song dynasty has brought people to see the images of ancient Chinese ships. And it also demonstrates the achievements of shipbuilding technology in the Song dynasty, some of which were significant contributions to the world’s shipbuilding technology. The war that Yuan government destroyed the Song government was helped by the naval forces. In just 3 years, the Yuan court built 7,000 warships. From the 11th year of Zhi Yuan to the 29th year of Zhi Yuan, they built a total of 9,900 ships for the purpose of sending troops overseas [36]. Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Yuan dynasty, was so ambitious that he began to prepare for sea expansion before the war on the mainland was completely over. In order to meet the needs of maritime warfare, the Wan Hu Fu (the ranks of army) of

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the navy was set up in Fujian Province to recruit sailors and practice naval warfare. In order to fight against Japan, in the year 1268, he ordered Koryo to “build a thousand ships that can wade through the sea and carry 4,000 dan of load.” “Two years later, Kublai Khan “set up Tun Tian Jing Lue Si in Korea”, and ordered Korea to arrange “soldiers, ships, supplies” for wars [37].” In 1274 and 1281, Kublai Khan led the army to attack Japan twice. In 1282, they attacked Zhancheng (now South Vietnam) from the sea. In 1287, they attacked Annan (present North Vietnam) from the sea, and in 1292, they crossed the sea to the Java. During these 5 naval campaigns, a large number of troops were employed, ranging from 5,000 to 140,000. And the number of ships ranges from 500 to 3,400. However, due to the command errors, lack of backup, and other reasons, these several cross-sea operations suffered heavy losses, and the Yuan government was defeated. Since then, their navy has been unable to recover. After Kublai Khan destroyed the Song court, he collected many talents related to navigation in the Southern Song dynasty and developed maritime transportation. Just like Song court, they set up the Bureau for Foreign Shipping at several important seaports in the country. There were mainly three bureaus at Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and Qingyuan (now Ningbo). Besides, they were also established in Shanghai, Ganfu, Wenzhou, and Hangzhou. In the Yuan dynasty, these places that set up bureaus were all in the south of the Yangtze River estuary. And in the north of the Yangtze River estuary, transportation is mainly ocean freight. The Yuan government attached great importance to foreign economic and cultural exchanges, and constantly sent envoys to overseas countries. The development of water transportation of grain by sea in the Yuan dynasty exceeded that of any previous dynasties. From the initial annual volume of more than 40,000 dan to more than 3.5 million dan, it took 47 years. The Yuan court founded its capital in Dadu (now Beijing) and relied heavily on the grain produced in the south of the Yangtze River. There are two types of grain transportation ships in the sea – the Zhe Yang ship and the Zuan Feng ship. Zhe Yang ships can carry about 400 dan grains, while Zuan Feng ships can carry about 800 dan or 1,000 dan grains. The grain transportation ships in the river of the Yuan dynasty has narrow and long hulls, and their carrying capacity is about 12 tons. So far, there are two ancient ships of Yuan dynasty that have been unearthed and studied quite a lot. One is a Chinese Yuan dynasty maritime cargo ship salvaged from the seabed of Mokpo Xin’an in the South Korean city of Gwangju. The other is a riverboat of the Yuan dynasty excavated in Heze City of Shandong Province. In 1976, a ship was discovered in Mokpo of South Korea. After 8 years of salvage, 20,691 pieces of Yuan porcelain; more than 28 tons of copper coins in the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties; and many other cultural relics have been found. According to the research, this is an ocean cargo ship built in Fujian Province of China. The shape line and the keel structure of this ship have the characteristics of Fujian ships. It is the folk custom of Fujian to insert bronze mirrors and copper coins in the keel joint. The ship is now on display in the Mokpo Maritime Museum in South Korea (see Fig. 11.34). And it is equipped with top side water tank and also

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Fig. 11.34 The unearthed ship in Xin’an at Mokpo Maritime Museum of South Korea

has three sets of upper and lower pairs of holes on both sides. The results show that this water tank is neither ballast tank nor fresh water tank, but passive anti-rolling tank. China invented it 600 years earlier than the rest of the world [38]. In September 2010 an ancient wooden wreck was found in the construction site of international trade center in Heze City, Shandong Province. Along with the ship, a number of valuable porcelain and related cultural relics of the Yuan dynasty were unearthed. According to the field survey and research, this ship is a single-masted river cargo ship of the Yuan dynasty, which has the common characteristics of traditional Chinese ships. The bottom plate and outer plate row of the ship are completely consistent with what Yi Bai Wu Shi Liao Chuan (a ship that can carry about 46 kg) recorded in South Ship Biography. Its suspended balancing rudder is a true one, which appears for the first time in our country. A special compartment is set at the bottom of the cargo area, which is used to drain water. The structure is reasonable and scientific. There are two kinds of edge joints of hull outer plate: butt joint and lap joint. Among all the riverboats, the ancient ship of the Yuan dynasty unearthed in Heze City is the first case of using lap joints. A 4-claw iron anchor and an 18-meter-long anchor chain were found near the wreck, which is another first case in China. On the basis of the comprehensive survey, the ship was restored. Its displacement is 42.8 tons, and can carry 32 tons of goods. The data provided by the ancient ship greatly enrich the history of Chinese shipbuilding and inland river shipping [39]. At present, it is being restored and assembled, and will be exhibited in the newly built Heze Museum.

11.7

The Peak of Shipbuilding Industry in Ancient China

China of the Ming dynasty was a powerful country in Asia, which had a profound influence on the other countries of Asia in politics, economy, and culture. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) was the capital and also the consumer center of the tribute rice. Grain was mainly transported to Nanjing via river. After the capital was moved to Beijing in the early Ming dynasty, sea routes were also used for grain transportation. In the ninth year of Yongle (1411), the Grand Canal was reopened, and the grain transportation was

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undertaken exclusively via river. At that time, the number of water transportation ships on the canal ranged from several thousand to more than ten thousand. The Ming court still follows the tradition of the Yuan court to carry grain to the north from the southern parts of the Yangtze River. There are five ocean routes managed by the Ming government. The Seaway Sutra, written by anonymous author in the year of Jia Jing Geng Xu (1550), describes in detail the route of “sea transportation” [40]. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, the long-distance navigation along the coast took the direct channel far away from the coast. And this requires advanced navigation skills and ships with good performance. In the early years of the Ming dynasty, China’s coastal areas began to be harassed by Japanese pirates. In order to prevent the mainland sea merchants colluding with Japanese pirates, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming dynasty, ordered that “the coastal people are forbidden to go out to sea privately” in the fourth year of Emperor Hongwu’s reigning (1731), and set a precedent for China to implement the national policy of the ban on maritime trade (Records of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 70). Zhudi, the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, promoted the friendly exchanges between China and overseas countries and all nationalities to a new prosperous stage with the support of the powerful feudal economy in the early Ming dynasty, and the basis of advanced shipbuilding and navigation technology. That is Zhenghe’s Voyage to the West – a remarkable navigation undertaking. From the third year of Yongle period (1405) to the eighth year of Xuande period (1433), the great navigator Zhenghe led more than 200 ocean-going ships and more than 27,000 officers and soldiers to the western seas 7 times, and visited more than 30 countries in Asia and Africa. In 1962, when the historian Wu Han taught the history of Ming dynasty in the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, he pointed out that Zhenghe’s Voyage to the West was unprecedented in the history before and after the Ming dynasty concerning its large scale, large number of people, and the wide range. There was no such a large-scale sailing even in the history of the world at that time. Zhenghe’s Voyage to the West was 87 years earlier than Columbus’s discovery of the new world, 83 years earlier than Dias’ discovery of Cape of Good Hope, 93 years earlier than da Gama’s discovery of the new voyage, and 116 years before Magellan arrived in the Philippines [41]. Zhenghe’s fleet was one of the largest ocean-going fleets in the fifteenth century and was also the world’s biggest task fleet at that time. It was composed of more than 200 ocean-going ships of different kinds, sizes, and types. From the handed down Zhenghe’s Nautical Chart, you can know about the situation of Zhenghe’s ocean route (see Fig. 11.35), represented by Zhenghe’s treasure ship (Baochuan), its ship size is huge with complete equipment, and strict and orderly navigation organization. The large sea ships in Zhenghe’s fleet were commonly called treasure ships, which mean “ships that transport treasures.” The word “treasure ship” first appeared in Volume 55 of Record of Emperor Chengzu in Ming Dynasty, namely, “asked Gongbu (the Ministry of Works in feudal China) to build 48 treasure ships,” which was the sixth year of Yongle period (1408). The third time that Zhenghe went abroad was in the seventh year of Yongle period. These large treasure ships were not completed and were unable to use, either. By the time Zhenghe went abroad for the 4th time in the 11th year of Yongle period (1413), a number of large treasure

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Fig. 11.35 Map of Zhenghe’s seven voyages to the west

ships (see Fig. 11.36) were completed and used for voyages to the West. Ma Huan, an interpreter who accompanied Zhenghe for the fourth voyage, recorded these treasure ships. Ma Huan wrote in Ying Ya Sheng Lan (The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores) as follows, “For treasure ship No. 63, the large one is 44 Zhang (a unit of length ¼ 3 1/3 m) 4 Chi long (about 125.6 meters) and 18 Zhang (about 50.94 m) wide. The middle one is 37 Zhang long (about 115 m) and 15 Zhang (about 46 m) wide. A total of 27,670 officials, Qijun (army in charge of water transport of grain to the capital in Ming Dynasty), the warriors, the intellectuals, the people’s guides, the compradors and the scribes were employed for the expedition” [42]. The length-width ratio of the big and the middle ones of the treasure ships is 2.466, which has been questioned by some people because of its “shortness and fatness.” However, the length-width ratio of the Song dynasty’s sea ship unearthed in Quanzhou Bay is 2.57, which can be a proof for Zhenghe’s treasure ships. In order to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zhenghe’s Voyage to the West, archaeological excavations have been carried out on the 6th Pond of Nanjing Treasure Shipyard Site since 2003 [43]. With the existence of such excavations, it is really difficult to question or deny Zhenghe’s treasure ships. After the death of Emperor Yongle, the Ming court only went abroad for the seventh time, also the last time in the sixth year of Xuande period (1431), and then adopted the national policy of ban on maritime trade and seclusion, so that China’s shipping technology and navigation fell from the peak of its development. Compared with the Song and Yuan dynasties, there were many works on ships and shipyards in Ming dynasty, such as Tian Gong Kai Wu (Heavenly Creations), Nan Chuan Ji (Historical Records of Ship Construction in Ming Dynasty), Historical Records of Longjiang Shipyard, Historical Records of Ships for Canal Transportation, Chou Hai Tu Bian, Wu Bei Zhi (Martial Arts), Chuan Zheng, Chuan Zheng Xin

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Fig. 11.36 Map of Zhenghe’s treasure ship

Shu, The Journey to Ryukyu, etc. These works describe the shapes and forms of ships in a more detailed and in-depth way, and most of them are multi-text and graphic. From these literatures, it can be seen that the shipbuilding technology has made a great progress in the Ming dynasty compared with the previous dynasties. Through the literature of the Ming dynasty, it can be seen that the ship types in ancient China had come to a clear organization in the Ming dynasty. “It was once suggested that the traditional ships in ancient China could be divided into four types: large junk, Fuchuan, Guangchuan, and Niaochuan (bird ship).” In fact, Niaochuan is only a kind of ship derived from Fuchuan, and so it cannot develop a school of its own. Large junk is an ancient ship type in China with the wide, large, flat, and shallow hull, flat bottom, square head, square stern, and low center of gravity. Due to the little superstructure and small wind resistance, the large junk can navigate smoothly and is suitable for sailing in the sea north of the Yangtze River estuary (see Fig. 11.37). Large junk uses lots of masts and sails which fly high and navigates fast. The apron flashing at the ship’s two sides are used to resist the horizontal floating when navigating with the crosswind. Nan Chuan Ji, written by Shenqi during the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty, contained a figure of “two-hundred-Liao(a unit of size) Large junk for patrol” and recorded “the so-called large junk is like ‘Chongming Sansha ship type’.” The figure and text of the large junk first appeared in Chou Hai Tu Bian, which was finished in Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty. Zhou Shide measured the sail and structure diagram of the large junk in his Research on Chinese Sand Ship [44]. Fuchuan is the general name of sharp-bottomed sea ship along the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang, which contains a wide range of ship types and usages. The shipping industry of Fujian boasts a long history. King Fu Chai of the Wu State in the Spring and Autumn period once set up a shipyard in Minjiang estuary. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Fujian’s foreign exchanges expanded. Fuzhou, Xinghua, Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou in the Song dynasty had already become important shipbuilding

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Fig. 11.37 Model of large junk. (Taken from Macau Maritime Museum)

centers. At that time, when the court sent envoys abroad, they often came to Fujian to recruit passenger boats, which laid the technical foundation for the emergence of Fuchuan in later years. The shape of the Fuchuan is characterized by its sharp head, wide stern, the warping of both ends, the wide and flat deck, the continuous hatches, the striking ship eye on the head of the ship, and lots of masts and sails. In the first year of Tianqi in the Ming dynasty (1621), Mao Yuanyi wrote Wu Bei Zhi, collecting 2,000 kinds of literature from previous dynasties, and clearly put forward the ship types of Fuchuan after the Jiajing edition of Chou Hai Tu Bian, which can be expressed by the following chart: Fuchuan No. 1 Fuchuan No. 2 Shaochuan (picket ship) Fuchuan – Dongchuan (Haicang ship) Niaochuan – Kailang ship – Chongqiao ship Kuaichuan – Cangshan ship

According to Wu Bei Zhi, a Kailang ship is a bird ship; because its sharp head is like a bird, it is known as a bird ship. Thus it can be seen that the bird ship is a kind of ship derived from the Fuchuan. Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general in the Ming dynasty, applied a series of Fuchuan when he fought against Japanese pirates along the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. The large Fuchuan Qi Jiguang used for fighting against Japanese pirates, restored by Beijing Military Museum (see Fig. 11.38), is still on display in the ancient war hall of the museum. The ship is totally 40 m long, 10 m wide, and 4.3 m deep. The model maintains all the characteristics and styles of Fuchuan. Guangchuan is a kind of folk ship in Guangdong area. Due to the need of resisting Japanese pirates along the southeast coast of the Ming dynasty, two types of ships – Dongguan’s “Wuyi” and Xinhui’s “Hengjiang” – were added to combat facilities and transformed into good warships, known as “Guangchuan.”

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Fig. 11.38 Qi Jiguang’s antiJapanese pirates large Fuchuan, displayed on Beijing Military Museum

Guangchuan is characterized by its sail shape which is like an open folding fan. In order to avoid horizontal floating and slow down swing, Guangchuan uses spiles deeper than the keel in the center line plane. For the convenience of steering, many rhombus-shaped openings were made on the rudder blade of the Guangchuan, which is also called an open-hole rudder. Guangchuan has a long dummy tip on the stern (dummy stern). Guangchuan made a contribution to the fight against the peril of Japanese pirates (see Fig. 11.39). At present, there are a number of the Ming dynasty sea ships that have been excavated and studied: a sea ship (ship No. 1) was unearthed in Penglai Shuicheng, Shandong Province, in 1984, and 3 ships (ship Nos. 2, 3, 4) were unearthed in 2005. Ship Nos. 1 and 2 were Daoyu (a water city in Penglai) warship built in Zhejiang, and ship Nos. 3 and 4 were ancient South Korean ships built on the Korean peninsula [45]. Another ship was discovered in Xiangshan County, Zhejiang Province, in 1994. The research shows that Xiangshan ship is quite similar to Penglai Nos. 1 and 2 in the ship form. From the examples of these three sea ships of the Ming dynasty, we can have a deep and vivid understanding of the progress of shipbuilding technology at that time. For Penglai ancient ship No. 1, its main keel, tail keel, and the stem are connected with the hook at the same mouth, and the head joint of the outer plate is also connected with the hook at the same mouth (see Fig. 11.40), and the joints are concentrated in the bulkhead. The shaft tube of the bulkhead plate is also made into groove shape, and the wood plug is also used to avoid the deformation of the bulkhead plate, thus ensuring the strength of the hull.

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Fig. 11.39 Model of Guangchuan. (Taken from Macau Maritime Museum)

Fig. 11.40 Hook with concave-convex joint is adopted for the outer plate of No. 1 Penglai ancient ship

The Liangshan ancient ship unearthed in 1956 is a Caochuan (ships for canal transportation) in the canal of the Ming dynasty. From the analysis of weapons found on the ship, it is more appropriate to say that the ship is a Caochuan with escort function. Liangshan ancient ship maintains the tradition of traditional wooden boat in ancient inland rivers of China: wooden ship with a large width-to-depth ratio, longitudinal flow type, flat head, and flat bottom with multiple watertight cabins. The joint of the outer plate of Liangshan ship is connected with the hook at the same mouth, double head hook with a mouth, serpentine shape with a mouth, and double head serpentine shape with a mouth [46]. The structure of Liangshan ship was very complete when unearthed, and its shape and structure are representative, which are of academic value for studying ancient ships and guiding the design and construction of antique ships.

11.8

The Decline of Shipping Industry in China by Ban on Maritime Trade

After the establishment of the Qing dynasty, in order to prevent the residents of the southeast coast and the officials of the late Ming dynasty from taking overseas bases as the bridgeheads to attack the mainland and endanger the safety of the Dynasty, in the

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12th reigning year of Emperor Shunzhi (1655), the Qing court followed the example of the Ming dynasty and renewed the ban of “even an inch of plate can’t go into the sea” (Examples of the Assemblies of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (vol. 120)). In the 18th year of Shunzhi’s period (1661), after Zheng Chenggong occupied Taiwan, the Qing court issued another order “to move far away the sea,” forcing the coastal residents of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to move into the inland 30 li (500 m), and people who crosses the boundary will be beheaded instantly. This was more strict than the ban on maritime trade of the Ming dynasty, which dealt a fatal blow to the domestic maritime merchants and the related shipbuilding industry. After the conquest of Taiwan in the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1684), Emperor Kangxi realized the numerous benefits of carrying out maritime trade, so he officially abolished the order “to move far away the sea” in 1685 and issued the order “to open up the sea,” allowing Chinese people to go abroad for business. Three generation emperors of Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong all realized the importance of carrying out overseas trade to increase tax revenue and fill the national treasury, so they did not blindly exclude foreign merchant ships from trading in China, as many monarchs in the Ming dynasty did. In 1685, when the Qing court issued the order “to open up the sea,” four customs in Yue, Min, Zhe, and Jiang were established, respectively, in Macao (now Guangzhou), Zhangzhou of Fujian Province (now Xiamen), Ningbo of Zhejiang Province, and Yuntai mountains of Jiangsu Province (now Shanghai) at the same time [47]. From the late Ming dynasty to the early Qing dynasty when China implemented the ban on maritime trade, the east neighbor Japan was in the Edo period (1603– 1867), also implementing the policy of seclusion, but it opened the Nagasaki port to carry out maritime trade with China and the Netherlands. The maritime trade between China and Japan was carried out by Chinese merchant ships (known at that time as Tang ships) between the ports of China and Nagasaki. In March 1972, Professor Ohba Osamu of Kansai University in Japan systematically introduced the “pictures of Tang ships” and the related drawings in the Journal of Kansai University [48]. There are 11 types of Chinese sailing boats in “pictures of Tang ships”: Nanjing ship, Ningbo ship (see Fig. 11.41), Ningbo ship (mooring), Nanjing sailing ship made in Fuzhou, Taiwan ship, Guangdong ship. Fig. 11.41 Pictures of Tang ships-Ningbo ship

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Guangdong ship made in Fuzhou, Guangnan ship, Xiamen ship, Siam ship, and Java ship. The size of each part of the ships was also marked in the “pictures of Tang ships,” which can roughly reflect the technical level of China’s maritime cargo ships at that time. During the Kangxi period of the Qing dynasty (1685), the battle of anti-Russian Yaksa conflicts had an important impact on the development of water transportation in Heilongjiang Province. In the Battle of Yaksa, the Qing court used a large number of ships, opening up a transportation trunk line across the Northeast China for the transportations of military grain, and opened up more than a dozen ports and wharfs along the Yangtze River. After the war, a large number of Manchu and Han officers and soldiers stationed and reclaimed wasteland along the Songhuajiang River and Heilongjiang River. According to the restoration study [49], the length of the Yaksa warship is 20 m long, with 4-meter-wide deck, 2 m depth, and 52.8 tons of displacement. The ship is designed in flat bottom, square head, and square tail, in order to adapt to the common wind and waves in the river. It is a single-mast and single-sail warship with a height of 15 and a sail area of 65 m2. It has 16 oars of 4.5 m long on both sides. People need to stand when they paddle. Two red cannons were placed at the head of the warship, and they can be fired in rotation or transported to land for use if necessary. The warship is also equipped with conventional cold weapons such as spears, hacking knives, shields, etc. (see Fig. 11.42). The shipping on the Yangtze River was quite sluggish in the early Qing dynasty, but it became increasingly prosperous from the reign of Emperor Yongzheng and was in full flourish in the reign of Emperor Qianlong. There were plenty of rice and salt in Sichuan to ship outward along the Yangtze River. Copper of Yunnan and salt of Guizhou were also transported outward via the Yangtze River via Sichuan Province. Tea, brocade, and silk of Sichuan Province were also transported a lot. Timber transport also accounted for a significant share of Yangtze River shipping. Hankou is in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, connecting Hanshui River to the Yangtze River, launching to Jiujiang, Wuhu, Nanjing, Shanghai ports, and even more to the sea. Along the Yangtze River, it can go up to Changsha, Yichang, Fig. 11.42 Battle ship of Yaksa. (Taken from Beijing Military Museum)

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and Wan County, Chongqing, Yibin, in Sichuan Province. Along the Han River, it can go up to Xiangyang, Gucheng, and Southern Shaanxi. So Hankou has always been the center of Yangtze River shipping. The photos of the large numbers of ships at Hankou port will impress people with the wooden sailing boats on China’s inland rivers. In addition to Hankou port, another shipping center in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is Jiujiang port. Grain, porcelain, and tea products are the major commodities of freight transport in Jiujiang. A considerable part of them were transported outward via the Yangtze River through Jiujiang or the outlet of Poyang Lake. According to The History of Jiujiang Port, there are more than 50 types of passenger-cargo ships mooring at Jiujiang port (see Figs. 11.43 and 11.44) [50]. To consolidate its rule, the Qing court adopted the policy of revitalizing grain transportation. With the prosperity of the canal transportation in both North and South, social and economic life is further developed. In the 14th year of Jiaqing period (1809), the number of Caochuan reached 6,242, and 624 were built every year. The most innovative ship type of Caochuan in the Grand Canal of Qing dynasty was “two-section head” (see Fig. 11.45). The ship was divided into two sections, which could be easily connected or detached by iron hinges at the joint. Because the riverway was too shallow, the only way to increase the ship’s load was to increase its width and its length, so it was 100 chi(a unit of length, 3 chi equals to a meter)long,

Fig. 11.43 Passenger ship of Jiujiang. (Taken from Chinese Galleon by Louis)

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Fig. 11.44 Cargo hold of Jiujiang. (Taken from Chinese Galleon by Louis)

Fig. 11.45 The two-section header of Caochuan on Grand Canal

11 chi wide but only 3 chi deep. The “two-section head” ship was mainly pushed forward by punting and towing, and it was equipped with 60-chi-high masts. In the Grand Canal between the north and south of the Qing dynasty, what attracted people’s attention at that time and in later generations was the imperial ships that

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Emperor Qianlong took when he went down to the south of the Yangtze River many times. In the Palace Museum in Beijing, there is a drawing of “An Fu Lu,” the imperial ship took by Emperor Qianlong. The painting was drawn by Xu Yang, a court painter of the Qing dynasty, whose another famous painting is Picture of Prosperous Gusu. The composition of “An Fu Lu” conforms to the principle of perspective, so the scheme of the ship’s hull and superstructure can be seen clearly (see Fig. 11.46). In the 23rd year of Kangxi period (1684), the ban on maritime trade was abolished, and the south and north coastal navigation routes were smooth, so large junks got a chance to grow. Large junks were originally gathered in Liuhe estuary under the jurisdiction of Suzhou. In the Qing dynasty, Shanghai became the outer port of Suzhou, so a large number of large junks began to park in Wusong estuary of Shanghai. In the reigning period of Emperor Qianlong, large junks in Shanghai were in a large number, stem touching stern, no less than Yizheng and Hankou. During the reigning period of Emperor Jiaqing, the large junks in Shanghai were depicted as “the masts are as much as combs, and it is like a metropolis” (Revised County Annals of Shanghai in the 49th Year of Qianlong Period (volume I, Customs); County Annals of Shanghai in Jiaqing Period (volume 1, Customs)). Shanghai is located in the most developed area of commodity economy in the Yangtze River Delta; it is not only the hub of Yangtze River shipping and coastal shipping but also one of the centers of coastal shipping. During the reigning period of Emperor Jiaqing, “its ships and spars were able to reach the distances of Fujian, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Liaoning, while all cargoes were concentrated there” (County Annals of Shanghai in Jiaqing Period, prologued by Lu Jun and Chen Wen.). Large junks have many advantages: first, the ship type is special, and its body is wide, large, flat, and shallow. It is not afraid of stranding, and it can sail in the sea

Fig. 11.46 “An Fu Lu,” the imperial ship took by Emperor Qianlong the south of the Yangtze River. (Taken from the Palace Museum)

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with sandy bottom. Second, the large junk has many masts and sails, which can sail against the wind. The third is its large load capacity. It was recorded that the load capacity of large junks can reach 4,000 dan (a unit of capacity in ancient China, a dan equals to 10 Dou) to 6,000 Dan (about 500–800 tons). Of course large junks also have disadvantages: first, the large water resistance from the straight bow and large catchment area resulted in the slow speed. Second, its ability of breaking waves is poor; thus the ability of ocean navigation is weak. Because of the advantages and disadvantages mentioned above, the large junks are suitable for driving in the Yangtze estuary and coastal areas. At the end of the Qing dynasty, the Qing court restarted to water transportation of grain, and large junks had played an important role. Shippers also got significant economic benefits. During the Daoguang years before the Opium War, large junks industry in Shanghai was fully developed, which benefited from the strategy of reopening the water transportation of grain in the Qing dynasty and kept 2,000 ships with a total tonnage of 18.37 million tons. Since the Emperor Kangxi officially abolished the order “to move far away the sea” in 1685 and promulgated the order “to open up the sea,” maritime transportation had been developed to a certain extent. As for coastal shipping, there are sailing ships of northern Zhili, which belong to the northern ship type with Dagu and Niuzhuang ports in Bohai Bay as its home port. This type of ship is of square head, square tip, and flat bottom. Because its route tends to be consistent with the route of large junks when they sail to north from Shanghai, the ship type has a lot in common with large junks. The ship type in the southern coastal areas of Zhejiang is Danchuan (egg ship). It is of flat bow, with inverted-trapezoid-shaped stern transom plate, and it belongs to the flat bottom ship that does not have a bottom keel. Danchuan was used to carry bittern initially, so it was also call spiced egg ship. The green eyebrow ship in Ningbo is considered to be one of the best ship types in Zhejiang coastal area, which has a long history, in a large number and a wide distribution, but mostly concentrated in Ningbo, Zhoushan, Taizhou, and Wenzhou. The ship type along the coastal areas of Fujian has Fujian Danyang boat, also known as Danzai boat, which is one of the most excellent ship types in Fujian. It existed in Fuzhou, Jinjiang, Lianjiang coastal area, south to Shantou, and north to Shanghai, with solid ship body, fast speed, flexible operation, and good safety; Fujian white bottom ship is a kind of ship which sails in Putian, Fujian, and Hui’an area in the inner gulf. The ship has a sharp bow, smooth shape line, simple superstructure, good stability, and flexible operation, which is suitable for shortdistance transportation in inland ports and coastal areas and also suitable for offshore fishing. Anchor hawser ship, mostly distributed in northeast Fujian, with deep drought, large load, economic timber, and large hatch, can carry large cargo. According to statistics, before the Opium War, Fujian Province had 1,500 seagoing ships with the tonnage of 200,000 tons. The ship type along the coastal areas of Guangdong coast and the South China Sea is Guangdong Caochuan, which can go abroad for trade and is also suitable for coastal transportation. One of the characteristics of Guangdong ship is that it is made of fine materials. Its sail is like a large folding fan, with a dummy tail at the stern. In

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the center line plane, an anti-horizontal floating and anti-swing board are designed, which plays a very important role in overcoming and slowing down the swing caused by sudden wind in the South China Sea. During the Daoguang period, there were about 1,600 ships in Guangdong with the tonnage of 200,000 tons. Guangdong ships were built in Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Qiongzhou, and Gaozhou. In the 1860s, Britain took the lead in the Industrial Revolution, with unprecedented development of science, technology, and social productivity. Europe’s shipbuilding industry has also made a considerable progress. With the eastward sailing of the western splint ships, the traditional Chinese sailing ships were facing serious challenges in the maritime trade in Southeast Asia. A “splint ship” is one that is covered with copper skin below the waterline to protect it from seawater corrosion. In the early years of the Qianlong period, the Swedish splint ship “Gothenburg” set out from the port of Gothenburg, bypassed the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, and arrived at Guangzhou port of China three times for ocean-going trade. In the early nineteenth century, clippers were built in Baltimore, a shipbuilding center on the east coast of the United States. Clippers are shaped like arrows, so they are also known as arrow-like sailing boat with fast speed. The western ships were even larger, displacing two or three thousand tons and armed with guns. The advantage of western ships is that they adopted advanced navigation technology and were equipped with heavy weapons. Chinese sailboat has lost the ability to compete with western sailboat completely. In the past 400 years, the policy of ban on maritime trade in the two dynasties has delayed the progress of sailing performance of Chinese sailboat and seriously restricted the development of Chinese sailboat industry. After the First Opium War, the western capitalist powers forced the Qing government to sign a series of unequal treaties. As a result, China’s waters have become a place for ships from all over the world. After the Second Opium War, the western powers forced the Qing government to open more treaty ports; thus they could gain more privileges. In this way, the navigation rights of foreign ships at the treaty ports were extended from the southeast coast to the northeast coast, and foreign ships began to get their hands on the Yangtze River ports. Thus, the modern foreignfunded ship repair industry came into being. In the following 20 years, many British and American businessmen successively opened modern ship repair factories in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. At the early stage, almost all of the machine factories were ship repair factories, which started their business in China. After making huge profits, some of them left immediately, and some of them established larger modern foreign-funded shipyards through mergers, and began to employ Chinese laborers, thus creating the first batch of industrial workers in China. Foreign shipbuilding industry developed rapidly in China’s coastal areas. Lin Zexu, as the representative of the Chinese people of insight, saw that the western arrow sailboats and steam-powered ships were far superior to the traditional Chinese sailboats. During the First Opium War, he put forward the strategy of “learning the advantages of yi (foreign countries) to control yi,” that is, learning modern technology from western countries to resist them. Driven by this strategy, in the 1860s, westernization movement took place in China. Advanced productivity was introduced from the west, and modern shipbuilding industry appeared in China

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such as Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau, Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Bureau, Guangdong Military Machinery Bureau, Dalian Shipbuilding Workshop and Huangpu Shipyard, Lüshun Shipyard, Dagu Shipyard, etc. The emergence of these factories, workshops, and shipyards laid a technical foundation for the modernization of China’s shipbuilding industry. In 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded, the government attached great importance to the development of modern shipbuilding. After more than 60 years of efforts, especially after the reform and opening up, China’s shipbuilding industry has grown rapidly. China has built a shipbuilding industry system capable of independent scientific research, design, assorting, and final assembly. Modern shipbuilding in China has widely served shipping, maritime development, and national defense modernization. China’s export vessels have been well received by the international shipping industry. The Chinese naval fleet, composed of nuclear submarines, guided-missile destroyers, and other vessels, has put an end to China’s history of having seas but no defense at sea. Relying on China’s modern shipbuilding industry, China’s navy is heading for a blue-water navy, and China is moving towards a “maritime power.” China has become one of the world’s largest shipbuilding countries. By 2010, China’s shipbuilding industry has reached the first place in the world in terms of annual shipbuilding completion, annual new ship orders, and handheld orders for the first time. China can be said to be a real shipbuilding power. However, there’s still a gap in shipbuilding technology level, shipbuilding production efficiency, and management level. China is not yet in a leading position in high-tech, high value-added, and high reliability products. We have to catch up with our efforts to make China a shipbuilding power and maritime power in the world. (Translator: Jie Qiao) (Proofreader: Caiyun Lian)

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38. Longfei, X. (2011). Caiwei, Anti-rolling Tank of ship in the Song dynasty and unearthed in Xin’an of South Korea, The China Maritime Museum in Shanghai. In Collection of papers of the second international symposium, July 2011, pp. 330–333. Shanghai: China Maritime Museum. 39. Changqi, L., Qilong, Z., & Longfei, X. (2011). Surveying and mapping of ancient ships of the Yuan dynasty unearthed in Heze city, Shandong province. In China Maritime Museum in Shanghai (Ed.), Navigation-trace of civilization (1st ed., pp. 62–79). Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House. 40. (1936). The Seaway Sutra. Initial series integration (1st ed., pp. 2–7). The Commercial Press. 41. Han, W. (1980). Brief history of the Ming Dynasty (1st ed., p. 74). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. 42. Longfei, X., & Guowei, H. (2005). The handwritten copy of Mahuan’s Ying Ya Sheng Lan in the Ming Dynasty by Danshengtang. Maritime History Studies, 1, 18–21. 43. Nanjing Museum. (2006). Archaeological report on the 6th Pond of Nanjing Treasure Shipyard Site in the Ming Dynasty (1st ed.). Beijing: Wenwu Publishing House. 44. Shide, Z. (1964). On Chinese large junk. In Proceedings of the 1962 annual conference of the Chinese Society of Naval Architecture and Engineering (1st ed., pp. 33–63). Beijing: National Defense Industry Press. 45. Longfei, X., & Wei, C. (Ed.). (2009). Proceedings of the international symposium on Penglai Ancient Ships (1st ed., pp. 178, 186, 236). Wuhan: Changjiang Publishing House. 46. Changqi, G., Longfei, X., Guowei, H., Jie, Z., Zihou, W. (2010). On restoration of ancient ships in the Ming dynasty in Liangshan, Shandong. In Proceedings of the first international symposium of China Maritime Museum (pp. 92–102). 47. Zeyi, P. (1984). Investigation of the location and trade of the four Turnpikes in the Qing Dynasty. Social Science Front, 3, 128–133. 48. Tingxiu, D. (1972). The data of pictures of Tang Ships-Chinese merchant ships arriving in the Japanese port during the Edo Period, collected by Hirado Songpu Historical Data Museum. Summary of East and West Academic Institutes of Kansai University (Japanese), 5, 13–49. 49. Longfei, X. (1994). The restoration of ships in the Heilongjiang Yaksa Battle of Qing dynasty. Journal of Wuhan Transportation University, 4, 371. 50. Shucheng, S. (1991). History of Jiujiang Port (p. 49). Beijing: China Communications Press.

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Contents 12.1

12.2

12.3

12.4

The Appearance of the Bronze Wares in Early China and the Rise of Bronze Casting Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.1.1 The Discovery of Bronze Wares and Smelting and Casting Relics in Northwestern Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.1.2 Discovery of Early Bronzes and Smelting Relics in the Northern Region . . . 12.1.3 Discovery of Early Bronzes and Smelting Relics in the Central Plains . . . . . . 12.1.4 The Rise of Bronze Mould Casting Technology in the Central Plains Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Development and Prosperity of Bronze Casting Industry in the Shang Dynasty . . . 12.2.1 Important Bronze Smelting Sites and Bronze Wares in the Early Shang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.2.2 Important Bronze Smelting Sites and Bronze Wares in the Late Shang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.2.3 Bronze Culture of the Surrounding Areas in the Shang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.2.4 Development of Bronze Smelting and Casting Technology in the Shang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Development and Reform of Bronze Smelting Industry in the Western Zhou Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.1 Important Bronze Smelting Sites and Bronze Ware Groups in the Western Zhou Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.2 The Reform of Bronze Smelting Technology in the Western Zhou Dynasty . . . The Diversified Evolution of Bronze Casting Industry in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty . . . 12.4.1 Important Smelting Sites and Bronze Ware Groups in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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L. Wang · J. Mei (*) Institute of Metallurgy and Material History, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_12

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12.4.2

Diversified Development of Bronze Technology in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.4.3 The Rise of Regional Bronze Crafts in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . 12.5 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abstract

This chapter will expound the discovery of the bronze wares of the early periods as well as the thrive of bronze casting technology in the central China, followed by an introduction of the evolution and development of bronze casting industry in the Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn, as well as the Warring State periods, in addition to its contribution to the history of Chinese Sci-Tech Civilization. Keywords

Bronze · Casting · Pre-Qin Period The appearance of bronze casting technology is another great technological change after the appearance of stone implements, as well as a symbol of evolution of human civilization. The use and appearance of bronze in China can date back to the late Stone Age, including the Majiayao culture in Gansu region. After entering the Bronze Age, the ancients began to make use of coppers as well as bronze alloy, including pure copper, arsenic copper, brass, and bronze, among which most of the pure copper and arsenic copper could be found in the northwest region. In addition to the copperwares, plenty of casting relics have been unearthed in the western, northern, and central China; in particular, large-scale casting sites had been found in the Erlitou site in the central China. Although the casting technologies in different regions were varied, in the late period of the Erlitou culture in central China, the leading role of bronze was prominent, and the earliest bronze ceremonial vessels had appeared. The bronze casting industry in the Shang Dynasty had been well developed, having formed a bronze culture exchange between the central China and the perimeter zones. The capital city in the Shang Dynasty was not only the political center but also the bronze casting center. Largescale casting sites as well as normalized casting system have been found in the Erligang sites, Yinxu Ruins, as well as sites (where locates Xi’an and Luoyang now) in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The unearthed bronze wares reflect then high-level casting technology and foundry technique. With the Western Zhou falling apart, there appeared the phenomenon of being too simple in form and too coarse in decorative design and inscription. However, the vassal states then were expanding their casting industry, thus bringing the transformation and innovation in technologies. Many metal crafts, such as separate casting, soldering, lost-wax casting, tin plating, gilding, inlaying, carving, etc., appeared in succession. During the late Warring States, with the development of metallurgical industry, the bronze casting industry began to decline. Generally speaking, the bronze casting industry in the pre-Qin period went through stages of infancy, thrive, prosperity, transformation, and decline, leaving a glorious chapter in the history of ancient Chinese civilization. The following part will expound

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the discovery of the bronze wares of the early periods as well as the thrive of bronze casting technology in the central China, followed by an introduction of the evolution and development of bronze casting industry in the Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn, as well as the Warring State periods, in addition to its contribution to the history of Chinese Sci-Tech Civilization.

12.1

The Appearance of the Bronze Wares in Early China and the Rise of Bronze Casting Technology

The bronze wares in early China generally refer to those before the sixteenth century BC. The bronze wares in early China were mainly discovered in three regions, namely, the northwestern China, northern China, and central China. A small amount of bronze wares were discovered in Haidai region and southern China. The majority of bronze wares were unearthed in northwestern and central China.

12.1.1 The Discovery of Bronze Wares and Smelting and Casting Relics in Northwestern Region Most of bronze wares and smelting and casting relics in northwestern region were discovered in Gansu-Qinghai region and in Xinjiang region. A large amount of bronze wares of early China have been unearthed in Gansu-Qinghai region. The bronze wares of early China were unearthed in many sites in Gansu-Qinghai region, such as Majiayao culture relics, Machang culture relics, Qijia culture relics, Siba culture relics, etc., through the period of transition from Neolithic Age to the early Bronze Age. Most of bronze wares of early China unearthed in Xinjiang, dating back to the period from 2000 BC to 1500 BC, were mainly discovered in Hami prefecture in eastern Xinjiang. The earliest bronzes discovered in the Gansu-Qinghai region belong to Majiayao culture relics and Machang culture relics, with a small number of copper tools, including copper knives and copper cones. A copper knife, discovered in Linjia site in Dongxiang County, Gansu Province, was identified as a tin-containing bronze, dating back to about 2800 BC (Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics team, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Cultural Bureau, etc., Excavation Report of Linjia site in Dongxiang, Gansu. Editorial department of Archaeology; Archaeological Collection(Series 4). China Social Sciences Press, 1984, pp. 111 161), which is the earliest bronze casting ware we have ever seen. So far, there have been more than 200 pieces of bronze wares discovered in the Qijia culture period, mainly from 15 sites such as Wuwei, Huangniangniantai, Gansu (See Gansu Provincial Museum [1, 2]), Qijiaping in Guanghe County [3], Dahezhuang in Yongjing County [4], and Huzhu Zongzai in Autonomous County in Qinghai Province [5]; they are mainly tools, ornaments, and accessories, including fu (axe), dao (knife), zhui (cone), zao (chisel), bi (dagger), zuantou (drill bit), zhihuan (ring), pao (a kind of metallic accessories), huan (ring), jing (mirror), etc., in the age from 2000 BC to 1600 BC. The bronze wares in Qijia culture have

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increased greatly in number and types, and the coverage of sites is also wider and wider. After preliminary analysis, most of the bronzes of early period unearthed from the sites of Qijia culture are red copper, while those of later periods are mainly bronze. There are two kinds of production process, forging and casting [6]. In addition, the recent discovery of arsenic copper at the site of Qijia culture relics such as Zongri site in Tongde County, Qinghai Province; Gamatai site in Guinan County, Gansu Province; Mogou site in Lintan county, Gansu Province, etc. has changed the perception of “Qijia culture do not have any arsenic copper” (See Xu et al. [7, 8]; Institute of Metallurgy and Materials History of Beijing Science and Technology University et al. [8]). The number of bronzes found in Siba culture relics has surpassed 270, mainly from 7 sites, including Huoshaogou Village in Yumen City, Gansu Province, Huishan Mountain in Ledong County, Gangu Cliff in Jiuquan City, and Yingwoshu in Anxi County, including shuqiongfu (erectical axe), huanshoudao (knife with ring handle), mao (spear), ershi (earring), zhihuan (ring), pao, lianzhuxingshi (ornament with linked pearl), siyangshou quanzhuangtou (the top of scepters of the four sheep’s heads), etc., dating back to 1900 BC to 1500 BC (The bronze wares unearthed from Siba Culture can be referred to:Shuicheng and Shui [9], An [10], Zhao and Wang [11], Gansu Provincial Museum, Department of Archaeology of Jilin University [12]). Arrowheads and scepters belong to the new classification. The top of scepters of the four sheep’s heads, 8 cm high, is decorated with a sheep head on all sides, which is a fine item in the early castings. In terms of quantity, Huoshaogou site ranks number one. After preliminary testing, the ratio of red copper to bronze is comparable. Bronzes are mainly tin bronzes, and there is also a small amount of lead bronze and lead-tin bronze, while the majority of bronzes on the Donghuishan Mountain site in Minle County are arsenic copper [13]. The southern part of the Heishui County Smelting Site in Zhangye, Gansu Province, is the earliest smelting site, whose era, according to the inference by experts, is presumed to be from the Machang period to the Siba culture period, about from 2300 BC to 1500 BC. At this site, not only small pieces of copper were found, but also more smelting remains, such as furnaces slag and copper particles. By testing, we know that the slag contains more copper particles or copper matte particles, indicating that these remains are copper smelting slag [8]. Copperwares appeared in Xinjiang no later than 2000 BC, Kumul city in eastern Xinjiang. In the ancient tombs of north piedmont of Tianshan Mountain, of which the early remains can date back to 2000 BC to 1500 BC, several hundreds of copperwares were unearthed, mainly small tools and decorations, including knives, cones, tubes, mirrors, earrings, jade tablets, linked pearl ornaments, etc. Among them Paos, pearls, and bracelets are mostly cast, while tubes, earrings, cones, and needles are mostly forged. Some jade tablets and knives are forged and some are cast [14]. Copperwares unearthed from the tombs of north piedmont of Tianshan Mountain have many similarities with the neighboring Siba culture in terms of production process. A small amount of copper ornaments was unearthed in the ancient cemetery in the lower reaches of the Kongque River in the Tarim Basin dating back to around 1800 BC. The neighboring Xiaohe cemetery was a little later, about from 1800 BC to 1400 BC, mainly small copper sheets, copper pipes, and copper arrowheads. Researchers tested 15 pieces of copperwares unearthed from the Xiaohe cemetery

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and found that 1 piece was a pure tin product and the remainders were red bronze wares and copper alloys, with the largest amount of tin bronze, and a small amount of lead-tin bronze. And a piece of copper-tin-arsenic alloy was also found (See Mei et al. [15]; Chen et al. [16]). The pure tin and gold-silver alloy products unearthed from the Xiaohe cemetery are the earliest in age in China, which is of great significance to the exploration of the development of early metal technology in northwestern China.

12.1.2 Discovery of Early Bronzes and Smelting Relics in the Northern Region The northern region is an area where many early bronzes and smelting relics were found. The so-called northern region here refers to the narrowly defined range mainly including northern and southern Yanshan, central and southern Inner Mongolia, and western Liao River Watershed. The period of the Zhukaigou site in Ikezhao League, Inner Mongolia, continued from the late Longshan culture to the early Shang Dynasty. It is divided into five phases, with the third and fourth phases corresponding to the middle and late stages of the Xia Dynasty, and the unearthed bronzes are mainly small tools and ornaments, such as chisels, cones, armlets, rings, and earrings, among which 13 pieces, by analyzing and testing, are found that their materials include red copper, tin bronze, and lead-tin bronze, and there involve two kinds of processing technologies, hot forging, and casting [17]. A large number of copper smelting wall fragments (originally called fragments of Ganguo (crucible)) were found at Niuheliang site in Lingyuan County, Liaoning Province, which, tested by thermoluminescence, belong to the Xiajiadian lower culture period, dating back to roughly 1900 BC to 1500 BC [18]. Many bronzes were found from the early stage of Xiajiadian lower culture. More than 50 pieces of bronzes were unearthed on the Dadianzi site of Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia, the main types of which were ornaments, mainly earrings and rings, as well as a small amount of tops of scepters, hats, rings, etc. [19]. Among them, 41 pieces, by testing, had been found to be tin bronze, the largest proportion, followed by lead-tin bronze, while the proportion of casting and forging pieces was very close. The earrings were mostly hot forged, while the rings were mostly cast [20]. In addition, in the Gaotaishan culture, close to the Xiajiadian lower-level culture in time, a small amount of early copperwares were found, mainly from the northern part of Liaoning. Among them, knives, axes, mirrors, and other bronze wares have been tested to be basically cast, with ternary alloy of copper, tin, and lead [8].

12.1.3 Discovery of Early Bronzes and Smelting Relics in the Central Plains The early bronzes in the Central Plains were mainly found in the western region of Henan Province and the southern Shanxi Province. A few bronzes of Longshan

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culture period have been found so far. In the period of Erlitou culture, not only the types of bronzes increased, but also the alloy ratio of the bronzes was also diversified. The increase in quantity of tin bronze and lead-tin bronze was a trend in the evolution of bronze materials in the late period of Erlitou culture. A bronze bell, a copper gear shape, a copper ring ware, and a piece of copper sheet were unearthed from the site of the late Longshan culture in the Taosi in Xiangfen County, Shanxi [21]. The copper gear was tested to be an arsenic bronze casting ware with arsenic up to 4.8%, single-sided cast. The copper ring and the copper sheet were made of red copper, and the copper ring was also cast on one side [8]. One piece of copper residue was unearthed from the Longshan mountain cultural site of Wangchenggang in Dengfeng City, Henan Province, which was analyzed to be lead-tin bronze, with cast structure [22]. Unearthed relics articles made via smelting were few. And copper slag was found at the sites of Yuanwo town in Yuci, Shanxi, and Pingliangtai in Huaiyang County, Henan Province. Copper smelting wall fragments were found both in Niuzhai Village in the western suburb of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, and in Meishan Mountain, Linru County [23]. The bronzes of the Erlitou culture period were mainly unearthed at the Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan Province. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 200 unearthed and collected bronzes, which are mainly from the third and fourth phases of Erlitou culture. According to the 14C dating data, Erlitou culture period can date back from 1900 BC to 1500 BC [24]. The bronze wares unearthed at the Erlitou relics site are abundant in categories, especially the earliest ritual container combination in China, including Ding (an ancient cooking vessel), Jue (an ancient wine vessel), Jia (an ancient bronze wine vessel), He (an ancient bronze wine vessel), etc. The rest of the categories include weapons, tools, musical instruments, and ornaments, such as Ge (dragger axe), Zu (arrowhead), Yue (battle-axe used in ancient China), Qi (battle-axe used in ancient China), knives, cones, Xiao (short knife), Ben (short axe), chisels, hooks, bells, Pao (a kind of bronze ornament and turquoise-inlaid bronze labels), etc. A cast copper workshop and a large number of smelting relics have also been found at the Erlitou site, including furnace fragments, pottery moulds and stone moulds, copper slags, etc. ([25], pp. 109–115). In Donggangou; Luoyang; Yangzhuang in Zhumadian; Wangchenggang in Dengfeng, Henan Province; and Dongxia in Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province, also found a small amount of bronze wares and smelting relics of Erlitou culture.

12.1.4 The Rise of Bronze Mould Casting Technology in the Central Plains Region Adoption of moulds for casting is a manifestation of the maturity of metallurgical technology. Early mold casting found in various regions can be divided into stone mould and pottery mould. Early stone mould was mainly found in the northern regions, including Gansu, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Liaoning, and other regions. The

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arrowhead mould of the Siba culture unearthed from the Huoshaogou site in Yumen, Gansu, is the earliest stone mould. Stone moulds of Xiajiadian lower culture and Gaotaishan culture were unearthed in Liaoning, and stone moulds used for casting weapons and tools such as arrowheads, axes, chisels, etc. were unearthed at the Dongxiafeng site in Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province [26]. Stone mould was mainly used for the production of simple shape ware such as tools, weapons, etc. Pottery mould is made of clay and quartz sand and is calcinated at a certain temperature. The Erlitou culture can be taken as the representative of the rise of early pottery mold casting techniques. A large number of pottery moulds were unearthed from the Erlitou site, which were made of fine clay, adding chaff and grass leaves to improve casting performance [27]. Pottery mould of high quality as well as the development of casting techniques made it possible to make relatively complex copper volumes such as Jue, Jia, and Ding. The manufacture of the utensils adopted the method of separate casting and alloying, and the surface decorations of some utensils were embossed nails, geometric squares, and other patterns, indicating that pottery mould could be used to make simple patterns. The appearance of copper sacrificial vessels of Erlitou culture was closely related to the development of mold casting technology. All bronze vessels were made with a combination of casting mould. The wall was thin, with a simple ornamentation, indicating that the combination of pottery mould casting techniques had taken initial shape. At the same time, the combination of ritual and royal power had formed a huge social demand in bronze sacrificial vessels, which had prompted the large-scale development of cast copper workshop and the control of copper materials by aristocrats. This early ritual characterized by bronze ritual vessels was inherited by the Shang Dynasty later and developed further (Figs. 12.1 and 12.2).

Fig. 12.1 Copper Ding of the late Xia Dynasty. (Selected from Chinese Bronze Complete Works-Xia, Shang (1))

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Fig. 12.2 Bronze Jue of the late Xia Dynasty. (Selected from Chinese Bronze Complete Works-Xia, Shang (1))

12.2

The Development and Prosperity of Bronze Casting Industry in the Shang Dynasty

In the sixteenth century BC, the Shang Dynasty rose in the Central Plains, accompanied with a growth of bronze casting technology, which gradually entered its maturity stage, exhibiting a higher level in the aspects of alloy melting, model and mould combination, decorative process, etc.

12.2.1 Important Bronze Smelting Sites and Bronze Wares in the Early Shang Dynasty The ruling center in the early Shang Dynasty was mainly located in Yiluo with Yanshishangcheng and Zhengzhoushangcheng as its core (then Zhengzhou area), its sphere of influence ranging north to Liaoning, Hebei, south to Hubei, Jiangxi. The quantity and types of bronzes and smelting relics at this time increased significantly compared with those in the Xia Dynasty, especially the combination of artifacts and smelting relics unearthed at the cheng sites of large scales were more abundant, such as Yanshishangcheng, Erligangshangcheng in Zhengzhou, Panlongcheng in Hubei, etc. The early city site of the Yanshi in the Shang Dynasty was discovered in 1983, and in the ash pit inside the wall of the northeastern city of Dacheng were discovered

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charcoal, ceramic vane, coppering slag, etc. [28]. Also, near the East Wall and Palace District of Dacheng unearthed the residual fragments with the bronze solution remaining on the inner wall, indicating that some bronze smelting activities were carried out at that time, and the smelting workshops may be more than one. Bronze brass found at the cheng sites included weapons, tools, and bronze ritual instruments, such as Zu, Ge, knife, chisel, Jue, Jia, etc. [29]. Erligangshangcheng in Zhengzhou was a major capital city in the early Shang Dynasty, where unearthed bronze sacrificial vessels as well as the casting sites represented the development level of the bronze smelting industry in the early Shang Dynasty. According to preliminary statistics, in Henan area more than 200 pieces of Erligang copperware were found, among which more than 120 pieces were complete objects, mainly out of the tombs and the craters [30]. The ritual artifacts included Ding, Jue, Jia, Gu (a kind of drinking vessel), He, Pan (dish), Lei (wooden wine vessel), You (medium-sized wine vessel), etc. Weapons include Dao, Zu, Ge, and Yue; tools included cones, chisels, hoes, hooks, etc., in addition to small ornaments such as Zan (hairpin) and copper Pao. The combination of Ding, Jue, Jia, and Gu was a common ritual combination. There were three main cellaring pits found in Zhengzhoushangcheng, distributed in Duling located in the South Street of Zhangzhai, Muslim Food Factory in Chengdong Road, and Nanshun City Street, where there were 28 pieces of bronzes unearthed, including large copper square Ding [31]. The base site of bronze casting was mainly located at the outer periphery of the Shangcheng. Base sites of bronze casting outside the Nanguan pass and in the north of Zijing Mountain have been found where there were relics including foundations, cellars, bronze casting sites, baking kiln, and other such ruins as copper ore, slag, and pottery mould [32]. In addition to the two cheng ruins of Yanshishangcheng and Zhengzhoushangcheng, there were also some other general city sites found in Panlongcheng of Huangpi in Hubei, Yuanqushangcheng, Xiaqiyuanshangcheng, etc. A copper arrowhead was unearthed at the site of Xiaqiyuan of the early Shang Dynasty, and molten copper crucibles were found in the middle period culture layer [33]. There were more than 300 pieces of bronze wares unearthed at the site of Panlongcheng in Hubei, and they were similar to Erligang bronzes in shape and process, especially Ding, Gu, Jue, Jia, Li, Gui, etc. [34]. There were also smelting relics such as malachite, charcoal, crucible, and braised earth at the site. Some scholars have found that they were related to local native soil and pottery tablets by analyzing the residual mud core of bronze from Panlongcheng. There is a high similarity in chemical composition, indicating that this batch of bronzes should be cast locally [35]. Ruins and relics related to copper casting were also found in other areas such as Dongxiafengsahngcheng and Nanyang Shilimiao Temple. Xiaoshuangqiao site in Zhengzhou and Huanbeishangcheng in Anyang were two large-scale sites in the middle age of the Shang Dynasty. The bronzes in the Huanbeishangcheng were mainly found in Huayuan Village, Dongwangdu, Sanjiazhuang, etc. in the northwest of the site. Ritual vessels included Ding, Yan, Jue, and Jia; weapons have Zu, Ge, and Kui; tools include Jue [36, 37]. In Zhengzhou, the bronzes unearthed from Xiaoshuangqiao site were mostly

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fragments, and the identifiable ones included Ding, Yan, Zu, Zan, round Pao, building components, etc., in which building components were the first to be discovered, with unique shape and complicated ornamentation. At the Xiaoshuangqiao site were also found a large number of remains related to bronze smelting, mainly malachite, slag, furnace, burning earth, etc. [38]. Compared with the Xia Dynasty, not only the scope of the Shang Dynasty expanded rapidly, but even in the Yangtze River, a large number of exquisite bronzes similar to Erligang bronzes were also unearthed in Panlongcheng, Hubei Province. Bronze smelting industry was booming, mainly in two aspects: first, the number of copper casting base site in the city of Erligang had increased and the scale had become larger; second, the emergence of multiple smelting locations in the surrounding areas of Zhengzhoushangcheng showed that the demand for bronzes in the Shang Dynasty was constantly increasing.

12.2.2 Important Bronze Smelting Sites and Bronze Wares in the Late Shang Dynasty The distribution of Shang culture in the late Shang Dynasty was quite different from that in the early Shang Dynasty. The governance center of the late Shang Dynasty was the Yinxu Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, and many bronze cultures with regional characteristics had emerged in the surrounding areas, such as the local cultures Subutong type, Qianzhangda type, Anqiu type, Tianhu type, Laoniupo type, etc. ([25], pp. 305–319). The shape of the bronzes was the same as that of the Yinxu Ruins. The combination of vessels, weapons, and tools was also similar to that of the Yinxu Ruins. The ritual combination was still centered on the Gu and Jue, greatly influenced by the Yinxu Ruins. Yinxu Ruins in Anyang was the largest site of the bronze smelting industry in the late Shang Dynasty, where thousands of pieces of the bronze sacrificial vessels were unearthed, in addition to tens of thousands of objects of weapons, tools, chariot horses, and other implements, showing that Yin capital had a large scale in bronze smelting and a high capacity in smelting and casting. Compared with the previous period of the Shang Dynasty, many new shapes appeared in the Yinxu Ruins period, such as pot-shaped tripods, dome-shaped tripods, pot-shaped He, etc. The tomb of Fuhao, the wife of Wu Ding, one of emperors in the Shang Dynasty discovered in 1975, was relatively complete with varieties of its unearthed artifacts. Nearly 500 pieces of bronze wares were unearthed, among which triple Yan, square Dai, steam column Zeng vessel, Hao Zun, etc. were the first types to be discovered [39]. Chariot horses and implements also appeared in a great quantity during the Yinxu Ruins period. The common ritual wares include Ding, Gu, Jue, Jia, Zun, Yi, Gui, etc.; weapons are dominated by Zu, Ge, Mao (spear), and Yue. In terms of quality and quantity, the ritual vessels and weapons reflected the ruling idea of the late Shang Dynasty, “great affairs of the country lying in the sacrifice and army.” The bronzes found in the Yinxu Ruins were mostly from the tombs. The identity of the tomb was echoed by the status and class of the tomb owner (Fig. 12.3).

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Fig. 12.3 Square Dai from Fuhao tomb in the late Shang Dynasty. (Selected from the Chinese Bronze Complete Works-Shang Dynasty (3))

There was at least four or five copper casting workshops discovered in Yinxu Ruins, which were generally distributed in the north of Miaopu, Xiaomintun Village, and Xuejiazhuan Village and in the northeast of Xiaotun Village. The copper casting workshop in the Northland of Miaopu was located in the southeast of the Palace District of ancestral temple in the Xiaotun Village. There was a clear division of work fields, such as molding field and pattern-making field which were generally round or oval, where pottery moulds and clay used for pottery moulds were unearthed. Burned clay hard surface and loess-doll powder hard surface might be the molten copper site at that time [40]. A large number of relics, copper melting tools, smelting furnace, and the matching air-blast nozzle related to copper casting have also been found in the Northland of Miaopu. The copper casting tools included a variety of moulds, with the ceremonial moulds most, as well as wares for the use of making moulds and polishing copperwares such as copper knives, copper cones, bone cones, etc. [41]. At the copper casting site of Xiaomintun Village found mould clay material preparation pits, mould dry pits, large bronze casting sites, etc. And the cemetery of the copper casting craftsmen was also found. There were two kinds of furnaces, the grass mud furnace and sand furnace. Copper casting tools included moulds, and cores, which covered rituals, weapons, tools and chariot horses, and implements [42]. In Xuejiazhuang Village and northeastern Xiaotun Village, copper casting workshops also unearthed a large number of pottery mould, furnace residues, copper slag, charcoal, and other smelting relics, with the largest number of ceremonial moulds. And there were also some weapons and tool moulds. Several of the copper casting workshops near the Palace District of Yinxu Ruins and within the scope of capital city served the royal family, and should under direct management of the royal family. Both smelting and casting had respective venues. A large number of moulds and diverse producing tools provided foundation for the production of large bronze ritual vessels. The famous Simuwu Rectangle Ding in the

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Fig. 12.4 Copper owl Zun from Fuhao tomb in the late Shang Dynasty. (Selected from Chinese Bronze Complete Works-Shang Dynasty (3))

late Shang Dynasty, weighing more than 800 kg, could be called the king of ancient Chinese bronze. Except for large heavy vessels, exquisite shape and the luxuriant ornamentation also became the characteristics of bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty, for example, copper square Zun from Fuhao tomb and copper owl Zun from Fuhao tomb were all exquisite works of this period (Fig. 12.4).

12.2.3 Bronze Culture of the Surrounding Areas in the Shang Dynasty The ruling center of the Shang Dynasty was in the Central Plains Region. Starting from the early Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty culture, marked by the bronze culture of the Central Plains, had an influence on the surrounding areas. Some bronze cultures with local characteristics and corresponding bronze groups formed in the late Shang Dynasty and the surrounding areas of the Shang Dynasty. These bronze groups were mainly distributed in the north of China, Hanzhong of Shaanxi, and Chengdu of Sichuan and in the South. The northern region mainly referred to the area along the Shanxi-Shaanxi Plateau, the north of the Shang Dynasty’s ruling center. The location of unearthing bronzes was mainly distributed in the plateau mountains on both sides of the Yellow River, including Shilou County, Baode County in Shanxi, Suide County, Qingjian County in Shaanxi, etc. Bronzes unearthed in Hourenjiagou of Suide, Jiejiagou of Qingjian in Shaanxi [43], Taohuazhuang [44], Erlangpo [45], Hejiaping [46], and Houlanjiagou [47] of Shilou were mainly wares of the Shang Dynasty, such as Ding, Gui, Gu, Jue, Jia, Bu, You, Pan, Ge, Yue, and other containers, and weapons

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were typical wares of the Shang Dynasty; most bronzes were unearthed in Caojiayu of Shilou [48], Linzheyu of Baode [49], Gaohong of Liulin [50] in Shanxi with local characteristics, such as Qiongnei Yue, Qiongnei Ge, Guanqiong Qi, and other weapons, as well as bows, falchion, knives with the beasts’ head, hairpin with the frogs’ head as well as the short swords with the head of beasts, the rings, and the bells, which were typical features of northern bronzes. The discovery of the Jingjie tomb of the Shang Dynasty in Lingshi County, Shanxi Province, provided the clues for the exchange of two bronze cultures [51]. In the burial bronzes, there were both round decoration bronze Ding and bronze Ge with openwork feather-shaped triangular bronze dagger-axe and more animal head knives, Qiongnei Ge, Qiongnei Yue, and other common bronze wares in Shanxi and Shaanxi. There was also a popular ritual combination in Yinxu Ruins such as Ding, Yi, Jue, Jia, Zun, Zhi, and You, which were centered on Gu and Jue. The 14 pieces of bronzes unearthed in the Jingjie tomb of Lingshi were tested, and the materials were mainly tin bronze, followed by lead-tin bronze. One piece of copper tripod was made of red copper, which was cast into shapes. Compared with the Yinxu Ruins, bronzes in the same period, the lead, and tin content were lower [52]. A large number of bronzes have been unearthed since the 1950s in Chenggu County and Yangxian County of Hanzhong in Shaanxi Province. It is mainly distributed in the vicinity of the Xushui River in the eastern Hanzhong Basin and along both sides of the Hanjiang River, dating back from the middle to late Shang Dynasty period. The bronzes mainly were in the Longtou, Wulang Temple, Xushui, Sucun Village of Chenggu County and Fanba, Machanganzhong of Yang County, etc. [53]. There were over 20 types of utensils, including Ding, Gui, Li, Zun, Gu, Jue, Jia, Hu, Pan, Bu, Tiliang You, Ge, Yue, Qi, Mao, Zu, Dao, sickle-shaped weapon, human-face mask, bronze animal mask, etc., which were called “Bronze Group in Chengyang” [54]. Some of the objects in the bronze group were typical Shang Dynasty culture style of the Central Plains, mostly containers, such as You Stepping Ding, Jue, Jia, Gui, You, Bu, Zun, Lei, You, Pan, Gongji Ge, Qi, Zu, etc. The shape and decoration of the objects were similar to those of the same types in the Central Plains. However, the artifacts with the bronze culture characteristics of the Hanzhong area still accounted for the majority, and some artifacts such as the three-legged pot and the triangular straight dagger-axe were similar to those of the Central Plains, but the characteristics of the three legs and short triangular were different. The jade wares, the sickle-shaped wares, the human-face or the animal face masks, the apex Yang, and the through-hole Yang (metal ornament front of the horse) all which had geographical features, in a large amount. The jade wares and the sickle-shaped wares might be two of the main ritual wares in the Hanzhong region, but they were rarely used in the Central Plains. Hanzhong bronzes were rich in materials, among which lead-tin bronze was the most, followed by tin bronze, while red copper was less in quantity. There were also lead bronze, arsenic copper, antimony copper, and nickel arsenic copper included [55, 56]. The type and material of the vessels had a certain corresponding relationship. The main ingredient of containers was lead-tin bronze, with red copper accounting for a certain proportion. The main ingredient of weapons was tin bronze,

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while the ceremonial vessels were mainly made of red copper. Special alloys such as arsenic copper, beryllium copper, and nickel arsenic copper also presented an exact correspondence with the types of the vessels, which showed that the craftsmen had certain understanding of the ratio and the performance of these copper alloys. Bronze wares were cast by pottery moulds. The production level of different utensils was uneven. The sacrificial vessels and weapons were mostly finely made and produced by meticulous post-casting, while the ceremonial utensils were simple in shape and roughly made [57]. Sanxingdui culture was an early bronze culture that rose in the Bashu region. It was mainly found in Chengdu, Sichuan, and in neighboring counties, with the Sanxingdui and 12 Bridges sites group as its center, and there were also other remains, such as Shifang, Shuiguanyin, and Fuqin Neighborhood [58]. The Sanxingdui site was the most typical one, and its era was roughly equivalent to the period from late Erlitou culture to the Shang Dynasty of the Central Plains. Among them, the bronzes were unearthed from the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial pits totaling to thousands of pieces, including bronze wares, gold wares, jade wares, potteries, and stone wares [59]. The bronze wares were unique in shape. Its typical artifacts included statues and masks. And statues included large standing statues, statues sitting on heels, small statues holding Zhang, human head statues, etc. The size of large statues was generally big, with the average height of 2.6 m and wearing crowns, and the ornamentation of the clothes was exquisite and complicated, reflecting a mysterious and solemn feeling. Masks included human masks and animal masks. Large bronze masks were 0.6 m high and 1.34 m wide, with their eyeballs protruding from the eyelids, as well as big ears. Other various shapes of bronzes also included eye-shaped wares; dragon cylinder wares; tiger-shaped wares; bird-shaped ornaments; snake-shaped ornaments; models of god trees, temples, altars, and various animals; and plant-shaped wares and ornaments. Weapons included Ge, Yue, Zu, Ge-shaped wares, etc. Ritual wares had many similarities with bronze ritual wares of Yinxu Ruins. But its combination of ritual wares and ornamentation styles centering on Lei and Zun was different from those of Yinxu Ruins. The Sanxingdui Sacrifice Pit was also accompanied by a large number of mud cores and slag, and the bronze wares should be cast with split mould method, and adopted various casting processes such as whole casting, separate casting, and set casting (For the casting process, see Zeng [60]; Su [61]. Sun and Su [61]). The material of bronze wares was rich in lead, mainly lead-tin bronze, followed by lead bronze (For the analysis of alloy composition, see Zeng [62]; Shuyun and Cai [63]; Yuan [63]). The bronzes of the Shang Dynasty discovered in the southern region were mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the Ningbo and Zhenjiang area on the downstream of the Yangtze River, the Xiangjiang River basin in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Ganjiang River basin, and the surrounding Dongting Lake. The bronze culture in the southern Ningbo and Zhenjiang area in Jiangsu had a long time span, which mainly throve from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. Only a few bronze wares of the Shang Dynasty were unearthed, and those

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discovered in the early Shang Dynasty were only small pieces, such as Zu, knives, drills, etc. From the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, pottery moulds, which were used for bronze vessels casting, had appeared, with patterns of clouds and lighting on them [64]. Most of the bronze wares unearthed in the Xiangjiang River, and the lower reaches of the Zijiang River were the same as those of the late Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains. The most famous ones were those unearthed in Ningxiang. In Zhaizishan Mountain, Lishan Mountain, Wangjiafenshan Mountain, and Getengmubangzishan Mountain of Huangcai in Ningxiang and other places, ritual wares and weapons had sporadically been discovered, such as human-face square Ding, Fendang Ding, You, Bu, Gu, Lei, Zun, Ge, Mao, Zu, etc. ([65], pp. 102–160). One piece of Bu unearthed in Zhaizishan contained 224 pieces of copper axes, which may be connected with local sacrificial vessels. In Laoliangcang, Chenjiawan in Tangshi, and other places, many bronze plaques were also found, decorated with moiré, beast face designs, and so on. Bronze wares unearthed in other areas such as Yueyang, Xiangyin, Wangcheng, Yiyang, and other places were similar to those of Ningxiang in type. In addition to You and Zun, ritual wares also included Ding, He, Jue, Gu, Zhi, Gong, Gui, Jia, etc. Musical instruments included Nao, Yong (bell), and Bo, which had many similarities with those of the Central Plains. Many bronze wares of the Shang Dynasty were unearthed around the Lancang River basin and Dongting Lake, with Wucheng culture as the representative. The typical sites included Wucheng Site in Zhangshu and the Dayangzhou Tomb in Xingan. The bronze wares unearthed at Wucheng site in the early Shang Dynasty were mainly small pieces of copper tools such as hoes and chisels. Some smelting relics and tools such as copper slag, charcoal, stone tools, and ceramic tools were unearthed from a certain pit. And stone moulds were mainly weapons and tool moulds [66]. In 1989, a big Shang Dynasty tomb was discovered in Dayangzhou of Xingan in Jiangxi, and more than 480 bronze wares were unearthed. Most of them belong to the middle and late Shang Dynasty, including ritual wares, musical instruments, weapons, tools, household appliances, etc. [67]. The ritual and musical instruments were finely made, including tripod Ding, Li, Yan, Hu, You, Gui, Lei, and Gu with handles, Bo (a large bell), Nao (big cymbals), etc., among which Ding, Li, and Yan were larger. Large square tripods, round tripods, and flatfeet tripods were similar to the same artifacts in Erligang period, but the style of the ornamentation was different. Most Dayangzhou copper tripods had a tiger-shaped decoration on the ears. The weapons were mainly Ge and Mao as well as Zu, Yue, Ji, Dao (saber), Zhou (helmet), etc. There were many types of agricultural tools and living utensils. Copperwares unearthed from Dayangzhou, Xingan, were not inferior to those from Erligang and Yinxu Ruins in terms of smelting technology and production process. The sacrificial vessels, weapons, and tools were all cast in the block method, and the general use of copper core support was a major feature of the casting process of the copper group, while only a small amount of wares used copper core support in the Central Plains from the Erligang period to the late Yinxu Ruins period; mostly mud core support

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was used, reflecting the local casting process characteristics [68, 69]. In addition, a few copper containers also had a changing trend, such as the bronze three-legged You and the Bu-shaped Ding, which were originally circle foot device, and the feet were removed later, and were changed into 3 ft at the bottom [70, 71]. The material of the bronze was mainly lead-tin bronze, while the tin content was higher than 20% and the lead content was less than 10%, which belongs to the typical copper-tin-lead ternary alloy system of the Shang Dynasty. But the tin content was less than those from Fuhao Tomb of the Yinxu Ruins. The composition was close to those from the cemetery of the west district of the Yinxu Ruins. But there was still a certain gap from bronzes of royal family in the Yinxu Ruins [72]. The discovery of these bronzes represented a high level of bronze casting techniques in this area. It showed that the Lancang River basin may be one of the bronze smelting and casting centers in the southern part of the Shang Dynasty. The bronze groups represented by the North, Hanzhong, Sanxingdui, and the southern regions in the Shang Dynasty had distinctive local characteristics. Weapons such as the knives with ring-shaped handle, short sword, Qiongnei Ge, and Qiongnei Yue unearthed in the northern region had the grassland culture style. And the ritual combination was deeply influenced by the cultures of the Central Plains in the Shang Dynasty, but the ornamentation style was different, which was also reflected in the ritual combination in the Hanzhong area, but the bronze culture in Hanzhong area didn’t seem to have much connection with the northern region. Its typical artifacts sickle-shaped wares and Zhang-shaped wares manifested local characteristics. A substantial amount of human-face ornaments unearthed here were similar to the masks and statues of Sanxingdui culture in the Bashu area in cultural style. Bashu and southern areas had high smelting and casting level. Its casting process had local characteristics, which was as good as that of the Yinxu Ruins, and the copper ritual combination was different from that of the Central Plains. In the region, the material of copperwares was mainly lead-tin bronze, but the Sanxingdui bronzes were rich in lead. The lead content was lower in the southern area, and the difference in alloy composition may be in accordance with the use of different mineral materials. In short, at least in the late Shang Dynasty, the bronze culture of the region with its own smelting style in the North, Hanzhong, Bashu, and the South, centering on the Central Plains, had been developed, and had much interaction with the Central Plains Region, laying the foundation for the diversified evolution of the bronze smelting industry in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.

12.2.4 Development of Bronze Smelting and Casting Technology in the Shang Dynasty The ancient Chinese bronze smelting and casting technology entered its prosperous development stage in the Shang Dynasty, mainly embodied in the progress in mould casting techniques and alloy technology. First, let’s look at the development of the

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mould casting process, mainly including making moulds, copper melting, casting, and post-casting processing. Casting moulds included pottery moulds and stone moulds. Most of the stone moulds in the Shang Dynasty were found at the Wucheng site in Jiangxi, where the main wares cast were small pieces of bronze wares and the identifiable ones were axe moulds, Yue moulds, Ben moulds, Xiao moulds, Ge moulds, spear moulds, Zu moulds and chariot horses, implement moulds, etc. The mould combination was mostly double-combined moulds, rarely single moulds, and multi-moulds. Some consumable weapons such as Zu had started to use double moulds or multi-moulds [73]. But the stone mould was not suitable for making complex shapes, so it never took up an important position. The bronze smelting and casting of the Shang Dynasty were dominated by the use of pottery moulds. The materials used to make pottery moulds were generally taken on the spot after screening and processing. Studies had shown that the composition of the pottery moulds unearthed from Zhengzhoushangcheng and Yinxu Ruins in Anyang was similar to the chemical composition of the local native soil, but the content of SiO2 in pottery moulds was very high [74]. The material was mainly clay and quartz sand, and a small amount of plants such as plant ash were added to improve air permeability of the pottery moulds and to obtain better mold filling capacity. The bronze casting methods of the Shang Dynasty mainly included the separate casting method and the whole casting method. The whole casting method was to combine the separate moulds into a whole one and cast the wares into shape once for all. Researches showed that the casting method of bronzes in the Erligang period of the Shang Dynasty was mainly the whole casting method ([75], pp. 103–110), such as the M2:4 Ding unearthed from Minggong Road in Zhengzhou, the moulds of which consisted of three belly moulds and one belly core. The production of square tripods was more complicated, such as the H1:8 square tripod unearthed from the Hui Nationality Food Factory in Xiangyang, Zhengzhou, the body of which was made up of four outside moulds of corner walls, four moulds of middle walls, one belly bottom mould, and one inside belly mould [76]. Yinxu Ruins period was also dominated by the whole casting method and combined the horizontal and vertical casting methods, embodying the diversification of mould casting technology [77]. Separate mould casting method had appeared in the early Shang Dynasty. The craftsmen of the Yinxu Ruins period had been able to use a variety of forms of separate casting process. The ways of casting methods can be divided into first casting and post-casting (For the separate casting and connecting process, see Jueming [78]). First casting referred to the method that placed the attachments in advance into pottery moulds and then cast with the body of wares, and most of them were cast in the form of mortise and tenon joint, such as the middle pillar jar unearthed from Fuhao tomb. In its casting process, first cast the middle pillar into shape and then put it in the core mould. Then connect it to the body of the jar while casting. In the process of post-casting, first cast the body of the wares, and then connect with the adjoining attachments. Wares of the thin wall were generally riveted, while those with thicker walls were jointed with mortise and tenon. The

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handles of some wares, such as Lei, Zun, and Yu (a kind of liquid jar), or some decoration parts were mostly cast with this method. The bronze casting in the Shang Dynasty has some standardized features, among which the belly moulds of round containers generally adopted a three-equal-part method. Outside moulds of largescale Lei and pots were mostly divided into three parts neck, belly, and ring foot. The containers were usually cast upside down, so that the casting defects were concentrated on the bottom of the wares (Fig. 12.5). The decoration and inscriptions on the bronze wares of the Shang Dynasty appeared with the perfection of mould casting technology. The production of decorative patterns went through the process from being simple to being complex. The decoration on the surface of bronze wares of the Shang Dynasty was mainly made by compression molding. After the middle age of the Shang Dynasty, it began to use the compression molding or engraving combined with pile-mould technology to make the ornamentation, forming the main decorative patterns, ground decorative patterns, and internal patterns on the main body. Three-layer patterns were popular in the late Shang Dynasty (For the production of three-layer ornamentation, see Dong et al. [79]; Chen and Liu [80]). The way of inscription’s production was similar. First internal patterns were carved into the mud mould, and then copied it with the mud plate into relief, embedded in the core mould. By casting, the internal pattern inscription took form [81]. The prosperity of the bronze technology of the Shang Dynasty was also reflected in the advancement of alloy technology. There were fewer bronze objects of the early and middle period of Shang Dynasty which had been detected and analyzed, mainly from Zhengzhou bronze warehousing [82, 83]; Panlongcheng, Hubei Province [84, 85]; etc. The 13 pieces of ritual wares in Zhengzhou had been tested to include 7 pieces of lead-tin bronze wares, 5 pieces of tin bronze wares, and 1 piece of lead bronze ware. The 23 pieces of ritual wares unearthed from Panlongcheng had been tested, 22 of which were lead-tin bronze wares and 1 piece was tin bronze ware. Among the other Fig. 12.5 Middle pillar jar of the Shang Dynasty from Fuhao tomb (Zeng-shaped ware). (Selected from Chinese Bronze Complete Works-the Shang Dynasty (II))

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four pieces of Zu and horse-face decorations, there were three pieces of leadtin bronze wares and one piece of tin bronze ware. This showed that lead-tin bronze wares had a dominant position, followed by tin bronze wares. Overall, the content of tin was relatively stable, mostly between 5% and 15%. The content of lead was quite different, and the lead content of individual utensils could reach more than 20%. The trend of increasing lead-tin bronze began in the late Erlitou period, and this kind of alloy technology continued after the establishment of the Shang Dynasty. In the late Shang Dynasty, the bronze wares unearthed from the Yinxu Ruins were the representative of this period, and nearly 300 pieces were scientifically analyzed (For the composition of the bronze alloy in Yinxu Ruins, see Laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences [86]; Li et al. [87]; Zhao [88]; Zhao et al. [89]; Liu et al. [90]; Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences [90]; Ji [91]). The types of bronze wares were relatively complete, and the containers such as Ding, Jue, Gu, and Yan were the majority, and the number of weapons was small, mainly Ge, Mao, Zu, as well as a small number of musical instruments, chariots and horses, and other wares. Various utensils were mainly lead-tin bronze wares and tin bronze wares, as well as a small amount of lead bronze wares and red bronze wares. On the whole, the first and second phases of the Yinxu Ruins contained more wares with the lead content mostly below 10%. The number of wares with high lead ratio was small, and the tin content of the copper containers was high and stable, generally between 15% and 20%. However, after the third phase of Yinxu Ruins, the lead content presented an increasing trend, and even lead wares appeared. There were many factors affecting the ratio of the alloys of the Yinxu Ruins bronze wares, including the use of mineral materials, the class of tombs, the types of utensils, etc. For example, the general use of tin in the second phase of Yinxu Ruins may be related to the sufficient supply of tin at that time, and the high lead content in the third and fourth phases may reflect the lack of tin. The wares from Fuhao tomb of high level were mainly tin bronze wares, and the tin content was high, while in the civilian tombs of lower ranks were mainly lead bronze wares and lead-tin bronze wares, in which tin content was relatively low, and this indicated that precious tin materials were mainly used by nobles. Alloy ratio of bronze wars of the Shang Dynasty was also different between the capital and the local. The lead content of Zhengzhoushangcheng and Yinxu Ruins was lower than that of Panlongcheng, which may be related to the supply priority that the royal family enjoyed.

12.3

Development and Reform of Bronze Smelting Industry in the Western Zhou Dynasty

In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the bronze smelting and casting industry inherited the prosperity of the late Shang Dynasty, and the bronze wares were diversified and exquisitely made. The mining and smelting of copper mine, bronze

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casting process, ornaments, and inscription production presented new developments in many aspects, but in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the production of bronzes was diversified, but was getting rough and simplistic.

12.3.1 Important Bronze Smelting Sites and Bronze Ware Groups in the Western Zhou Dynasty People in the Zhou Dynasty had developed their own bronze smelting industry before overthrowing the Shang Dynasty. For example, in Zhangjiapo, Changan, Shaanxi Province [92], Hejiacun Village in Qishan [93], Fengxiangxi Village [94], Nianzipo in Changwu, and other Guanzhong areas, a small amount of cultural heritage in the pre-Zhou cultural relics were unearthed, such as Ding, Bu, Gui, Ge, Pao, etc., whose types were similar to those of the early Western Zhou Dynasty [95]. The Fenghao area of Xi’an, Shaanxi, and the Luoyang area in Western Zhou belong to the political centers of the Zhou Dynasty as well as the smelting and casting center of the Western Zhou Dynasty. A large number of bronze wares have been unearthed over the years, as well as bronze smelting sites. Fenghao of the Western Zhou Dynasty was located on the banks of the Banghe River in Xi’an. The living sites and tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty were found in Zhangjiapo and Luoshui Village, and many bronze wares were found in Zhangjiapo, Mawangcun Village, Xinwang Village, and other places [96]. In Zhangjiapo cemetery in Bangxi, Changan, were excavated a large amount of bronze ritual wares in the 1960s, including Ding, Gui, Jue, Gu, Zhi, You, Zun, Yu, etc. [97, 98]. The inner walls, handles, and inside of the ring foot were always made with a clan insignia inscription. Most of weapons were Ge, while others included Zu, Mao, Bishou (dagger), Dao (knife), etc. The number of tools was small. Most of the chariots and horses were unearthed from pits of chariots and horses of the burial funeral, most of which were small objects such as Xia, Wei, Zhong, E, Biao, Danglu, Pao, etc. The highlevel pits of chariots and horses of the burial funeral were also common in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the chariots and horses were mostly bronze wares. Most of the ritual combinations were food combination of Ding and Gui, which was different from those of the Shang Dynasty, whose major wares were a wine combination of Gu and Jue. Another notable feature was the presence of a large number of inscriptions on the bronze wares, which was an important symbol of judging the age, such as the discovery of 53 bronzes in the cellaring pit of Western Zhou in Zhangjiapo, Changan, in 1961, including Ding, Gui, He, Hu, Pan, etc., all of which were decorated with long or short inscriptions. And through interpretation, it proved that the wares were not produced in the same period. Some were made at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, while some others were made after the middle phase of the Western Zhou Dynasty, recording events such as intermarriage of different surnames, rewarding military power, etc. (Edited by Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Sciences [99]). In addition to the Fenghao sites, in Baoji, Zhouyuan, and other places, more bronze wares were found, mainly from bronze ware cellaring, and many with long inscriptions. For example, 103 pieces of

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bronze wares unearthed from No. 1 bronze cellar of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Zhuang Bai, Baoji, including Ding, Li, Xu, Pan, Dou, Gu, Hu, etc., of which 74 pieces had inscriptions, especially Shi Qiang pan, inscriptions of which were up to 284 words, praising the contributions of kings of the Western Zhou DynastyKing Wen, Wu, Cheng, Kang, Zhao, and Mu, and recorded the achievements and deeds of the history of Weishi family (Fig. 12.6) [100]. The bronzes of the Western Zhou Dynasty unearthed in Luoyang were concentrated in the eastern part of the old city, especially the discovery in the Beiyao area, Luoyang, being the most important discovery. From 1964 to 1972, in the west Pangjiagou of Beiyao Village to the northern Old Town of Luoyang, more than 370 noble tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty were excavated, and 59 pieces of bronze wares were unearthed with inscriptions, including ritual wares, weapons, chariots, and horses of Ding, Gui, Jue, Zun, Zhi, Yi, Ge, Ji, Dang Lu, and Xia [101]. The discovery of the bronze casting site in the North Kiln of Luoyang was the representative of the casting level of Luoyi, eastern capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, where ash pits, burning stoves, and kiln related to smelting and casting were found, and remains and relics included pottery moulds, mostly broken pieces. Identifiable ones included containers, chariots and horses, and weapons. Most of them were container moulds, including Ding, Gui, You, Zun, Gu, Jue, etc., and the chariot and horse moulds included linchpin, horse bells, Pao ornaments, etc. The weapons were mainly Ge and Zu. Except for the moulds of Pao ornaments, Ge, and Zu, which were double moulds, the rest were multi-moulds. There were thousands of residual blocks of the walls of the molten copper furnace, which were made by the method of clay-strip winding technique. By measuring, the diameter was between 0.9 and 1.1 m or so. The maximum could reach 1.6 1.7 m, and the minimum was about 0.5 0.6 m, and the inner wall was “burnt by flowing trace.” Some were attached with charcoal and copper particles, and many blower nozzle remains were found, and thus there might be blast-related Fig. 12.6 Shi Qiang pan of the Western Zhou period. (Selected from Chinese Bronze Wares Complete Works-Western Zhou (I))

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equipments at that time [102]. Small pieces of copper and bone tools unearthed were mainly cone-shaped wares, chisel-shaped wares, and scraper wares, possibly used for the modification and production of pottery moulds. In addition to the North Kiln of Luoyang, the copper casting sites of the Western Zhou Dynasty were mainly found in Fenghao Site, Zhouyuan Site, Zhougongmiao Site, and Kongtougou Site in the Zhouyuan district. Copper casting workshops at the Zhouyuan site included Zhuangli Village, Qijia Village, and Qizhen Village in Fufeng. Just from Zhuangli Village, a large amount of casting relics had been dug up via large-scale excavation [103, 104]. Pottery moulds were mainly chariots and horses, including tiger-shaped linchpins, yokes, Danglu, horse bridle, etc., followed by containers such as knives with ring handle, Ge, Ding, Yong bells, etc. as well as weapons, tools, and other vessels. Pottery moulds were mainly combined moulds with inside and outside moulds. The flat plate moulds were rare, and the groove or marks used for connecting mould pats on the back were available. Ornamentations included cloud patterns, bird patterns, beast face patterns, vertical ripple patterns, etc. The residual walls of the furnaces were made by the method of clay-strip winding technique. And inner walls were partially “burnt by flowing trace”; according to the large block that could be connected, the furnace diameter should be above 80 cm. Ceramic umbrella-shaped tubes, mould holders, copper blocks, copper bars, copper slag, braised soil, and a large number of bone tools were also found in the strata and ash pits. This was a cast copper site that lasted from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the late stage. In Qizhen Village copper furnaces were found [105], which consisted of a furnace body, a slag pit, and an operating pit. The furnace was in the pit with half body. The furnace wall was hard with a narrow pit to the east of the furnace, which was connected to the gap of the east wall of the furnace. The surface of the pit was hard and smooth, so it should be a slag pit, and its eastern end was connected to the ground of the operating pit. The Zhougongmiao temple site was located in the south of Fenghuangshan Mountain in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province, to the east of which pottery kilns, housing sites, ash pits, and a large number of copper casting relics were found, so it should be a copper casting workshop [106], the structure of which was different from that of the pottery kilns, and might be related to baking moulds. Pottery moulds unearthed were severely broken. By identification, container moulds included Ding, Gui, etc., and weapons included knives, Zu, etc., as well as chariots and horses such as gag bits, Pao, horse bells, etc. Other related copper casting relics included ceramic pipes, grinder, etc. The copper casting workshop can date back to the early period of the Western Zhou Dynasty or late period of pre-Zhou, which was the earliest copper casting workshop in the Zhouyuan area. Kongtougou Site Copper Casting Workshop was located in Huatusi temple in Kongtougou, Qishan County, which belonged to the middle or late Western Zhou Dynasty. And a large number of pottery moulds, walls of molten copper furnaces, gravels, and umbrellashaped pottery tubes were found [107], including some ritual and musical ware moulds such as Ding, Gui, and Zhong and chariot and horse moulds such as horse bit (of a bridle), linchpin, etc.

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The relics were associated with cast copper found at Fengsong site, such as copper casting outer mould, internal mould, and sprue of early Western Zhou Dynasty in Zhangjiapo, Chang’an [97], as well as pottery moulds found in the ash pits of the early Zhou Dynasty from Mawangcun, Chang’an, including a piece of identified outer moulds of Gui, with thunder patterns as ground patterns and Kui dragon patterns as main patterns [108]. The Western Zhou Dynasty began to implement the system of enfeoffment, and established a number of vassal states in the surrounding areas of capital to defend the royal family. The bronze wares of the various vassal states were mostly from the tombs, and they were similar to those of the Zhou royal family in terms of shape and ornamentation. From the noble tomb of Yan State of the early Western Zhou Dynasty located in Liulihe in Fangshan County, Beijing, a number of wares were unearthed, including ritual wares, weapons, tools, chariot and horse devices, and others (For bronze wares of the Yan State, see Beijing Institute of Cultural Relics [109]; Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences [110]), among which the ritual wares included Ding, Gui, Li, Jue, Zun, Hu, Pan, Lei, Yan, You, etc., and weapons mainly included Ge, Ji, and Mao. The tools and chariot and horse devices were similar to those of Zongzhou. Unearthed from the early cemetery of the Wei State in Xin Village, Xuxian County, Henan Province, the bronze wares had much in common with those of Yan State [111]. For example, Mu Zun unearthed from M60 in Xincun Village was similar to Fu Zun of Yan State; the “Gou Ji” of combination of Dao and Ge unearthed from Xincun Village were also found at the Liulihe site. Tianma-Qucun Village in Shanxi Province, the location of the capital of Jin State, the tombs of Marquis Jin and his wife, was located in the center of it, where subordinate chariot and horse pits and bombs were found, which was the evidence of high-level tombs. The bronze wares unearthed there could be called as the representatives of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the tombs of Marquis Jin, the commonly found combination of bronze ritual wares included Ding, Gui (or Xu), Hu, Pan, Yi (or He), Yan, etc. [112]. And the musical instruments included sets of chimes. And the bronze ritual wares included many uniquely shaped wares, especially many animal-shaped bronze wares, such as bird-shaped Zun, pig-shaped Zun, and rabbit-shaped Zun. There were also some pottery-imitating bronze wares, which was completely different from those of the Central Plains, such as a double-ear pot with rope patterns unearthed from M113, the structure of which was similar to the potteries of early Qijia culture in district and may be related to Qiangrong nationality in the northwest [113]. The tombs of Guo State were located in the Shangcunling in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, among which there existed outstanding high-level noble tombs. M2001 and M2009 were king tombs of the highest level [114]. According to the inscriptions on the bronze wares, we could know that the owners of them were relatively kings of Guo State “Guo Ji” and “Guo Zhong.” The period of them belonged to the late Western Dynasty. The ritual bronze wares unearthed there mainly included Ding, Gui, Li, Xu, Hu-pot, Fu, Pan, He, Yan, etc. The bronze musical instruments included sets of Niu bells and Yong bells. Weapons included Ge, Mao, Yue, Dun, etc. Xu and Fu ritual wares were popular in the middle and late

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period of the Western Zhou. Shangyang, which was the capital of the Guo State and situated opposite to the cemetery of the Guo State, was located in the Lijiayao Village, Sanmenxia City, in the northeast of which were found copper melting workshop [115], indicating that the Guo State might have had their own bronze casting industry. Belonging to the Central Plains, unearthed from the Ying State cemetery of Pingdingshan City, Henan Province [116], the bronze wares were similar to those of the Guo State in the combination and ornamentation. The common ritual instruments of the early Western Zhou Dynasty were Ding, Gui, Gu, Jue, Zhi, etc. In the middle and late period of the Western Zhou Dynasty, except Ding, Gui, and Gu, the number of water trays and Yi began to increase, and in both Ying State and Guo State were found many copper fish decorations and other ornaments, reflecting a burial custom at that time. Qufu in Shandong Province was where the Lu State was located in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The bronze wares unearthed were mostly in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. The discovery of the ritual wares of Ding, Hu, Pan, Yi, Xu, Fu, the combination and shape of the objects were the same as those from the capital area [117]. A small number of bronze wares of Ji State were unearthed in Laiyang, Shandong Province [118], mainly ritual wares such as Ding, Yan, Hu, Pan, and Yi, the shape of which was similar to those of the Central Plains and Guanzhong area, but the combination of wares did not include the common wares of the Central Plains such as Gui, Fu, Xu, etc. The staggered triangle patterns of the pot’s abdomen were also found in the similar artifacts of Lu State, with strong regional characteristics. The Yu State cemetery in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, consisted of three cemeteries, i.e., Rujiazhuang cemetery [119], Zhuyuangou cemetery, and Zhifangtou cemetery. The bronze ritual wares unearthed included Ding, Gui, Li, Yan, Dou, and other food utensils, and wine utensils such as Zun, Jue, Zhi, Gu, and You. Wares of the tombs of the middle and late Western Zhou also had water Pans and pots and other water containers. The musical instruments include chimes, Nao (similar to bells), and large brass bells. In addition to these common Western Zhou copper rituals in Guanzhong, there are also some typical cultural artifacts of Yu State that were not found in the Central Plains, such as sharp-bottomed pots, flat-bottomed pots, cups with crank, etc. Judging from the unearthed objects, there was a certain cultural exchange between the area and the Bashu area and Gansu-Qinghai area. The bronze short swords unearthed from the Rujiazhuang and Zhuyuangou cemeteries in Baoji were flat and long, with the shape of willow, which were almost the same as the shape of those swords once popular in Bashu area in the Spring and Autumn period, providing clues to the source of the Bashu swords [120]. Bronze wares of Zeng State were concentrated in the Suizhou and Zaoyang areas of Hubei Province. In 1966, a group of bronze wares [121], 97 pieces in total, from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn period were found in Sujialong village, Pingba town, Jingshan county in Hubei province. In the inner abdomen of Ding, there was an inscription of “Zenghou,” mainly rituals and chariots and horses. The ritual combinations included Ding, Li, Yan, Gui, Dou, Hu, He, Pan, and Yi, which included nine pieces of Ding, nine pieces of Li, and seven pieces of Gui, belonging to the highest level of the system. The nine Dings of the same shape

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were orderly arranged by different sizes, all with the ears and beast feet. The Yan was a square Yan with separate Zeng and Li. The pot was a square pot with the beast ears biting a ring. The patterns included Qiequ patterns, wave patterns, vertical ripple patterns, beast head patterns, beast patterns, and tile-shaped patterns, with the characteristics of late Western Zhou Dynasty. Excavated in the Western Zhou Dynasty cemetery of Yejiashan in Suizhou in 2011 [122], there were more than 300 pieces of bronze wares, belonging to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Some bronzes had the inscriptions of “Zenghou” or “Zenghoujian.” The unearthed bronzes were divided into rituals, weapons, chariots and horses, and tools. Rituals included Ding, Gui, Yan, Yi, Zun, You, Jia, Jue, Gu, Zhi, Bi, etc. Patterns included whirling patterns, animal face patterns, cloud thunder patterns, bird and beast patterns, etc. Weapons included Ge, Jian, and Xi. Chariot and horse devices included linchpins, horse bells, Jieyue, gag bit, buckle ornaments, bow-shaped wares, etc. A western Zhou Dynasty cemetery was found in Yangzishan Mountain in Suizhou. It was earlier than the late Western Zhou Dynasty. There were inscriptions of “E’hou” on the utensils, so they should be bronze wares of the E State. The 20 pieces of bronzes, the pictures of which had been published, included Ding, Yan, Gui, Jue, Jia, Zhi, You, Gu-shaped Zun, Lei, Pan, and He [123]. The patterns were mainly animal patterns. There were also three pieces of wares with God-face patterns, which were the imagined animal patterns and similar to animal face patterns, generally on the abdomen of Zun, Lei, You, Gui, and other utensils. The bronze wares of Zeng and E States were similar to those of the Central Plains and Guanzhong areas in terms of combination, shape, and decoration of the objects. However, from the rich shapes and complex decorations, the development of bronze smelting technology in Southern Xinjiang in the Zhou Dynasty should be advanced. Tunxi in Anhui was a concentrated area of mound tombs in the south. The unearthed bronze wares there were unique in style. It was another important bronze group in the Yangtze River basin ([65], pp. 235–249). The era was not later than the middle Western Zhou Dynasty. Among the combination of utensils, Ding and Gui accounted for most, and Zun also occupied an important position. The You and Yu were also prominent. The rest were Pan, He, Hu, Shao (spoon), five-column wares, single-column wares, etc. In addition to rituals, there were also sitting figures and bird-shaped ornaments. Common rituals included Zun, You, and Yu, but there were not Gu, Jue, Jia, and other wine vessels, which were different from those of the Central Plains. Some artifacts had their own distinctive features, such as folding shoulders and belly outwards, decorated with dragon patterns, animal-shaped patterns, zigzag patterns, etc., and there were also unique objects such as five-column wares and single-column wares, which were not common in the Central Plains. The bronze wares of the early Western Zhou Dynasty inherited the style of the Shang Dynasty, which was beautifully crafted and decorated with traditional styles. The three layers of the semi-relief and the cloud thunder pattern were also popular in the important rituals such as Ding and Gui, and they were developed with the advanced Fei ridge patterns. Some animal face patterns without ground patterns were more prominent in the progress of the relief technique. In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the animal face patterns appeared the trend of being rough

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and simplified, and the newly emerged Qiequ lines and vertical ripple patterns were not complex and mysterious art styles. In the late period, the heavy style of the Shang Dynasty was rare, and turned to a simple and clear style, and the popular patterns included ring patterns, Qiequ lines, vertical ripple patterns, heavy ring lines, and so on. In addition to the ornamentation, many bronze wares in the Western Zhou Dynasty also had a Shang Dynasty style. Some artifacts might be made by the Yin adherents. For example, the bronze wares unearthed from the tomb of Changzikou belonged to the combination of heavy food and heavy wines [124], with Ding, Gui, Gu, and Jue as the center, and there were many square copper rituals. The wine combination with Gu and Jue as the core was a typical combination of Shang Dynasty. The shape and ornamentation were more like the characteristic of the late Shang Dynasty. You, Hu, and Zun had the characteristics of the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Wine vessels such as Jia and Gu had rarely been seen in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty. Some new wares such as Hu, Xu, Fu, and Yi began to become popular from the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty. At the end of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, more clan insignia inscriptions and other inscriptions appeared on the bronze wares. The long inscriptions accounted for the vast majority in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. For example, Mao Gong ding in the King Xuan period, the inscriptions of which had 499 characters, recording the story of King Xuan conferring title on Mao Gong. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou royal family and the vassal states were in a unified political and cultural system. Therefore, the bronze cultures must have more connections, reflecting the strong momentum of the bronze smelting industry based on the enfeoffment system in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

12.3.2 The Reform of Bronze Smelting Technology in the Western Zhou Dynasty The bronze smelting industry in the Western Zhou Dynasty inherited the prosperity trend of the late Shang Dynasty. From the shape, type, quantity, and decoration of bronze wares, there were different degrees of development and change, which mainly benefited from the mining and utilization of copper resources of the Shang Dynasty. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the management of copper resources in the Zhou royal family was relatively strict. In the Rites of Zhou-Di Guan, it was recorded that “the government institutes are in charge of the gold, jade and tinstone, and they strictly guard them,” and “two mineral officers, two sergeants, four corporals, two governors, two official historians, four petty officials, forty guardians,” from which we could recognize a special organization for the supervision of copper mines. Large-scale mining and smelting sites included Tonglu Mountain in Daye and Gangxia in Yangxin, Hubei Province; Tongling in Ruichang, Jiangxi Province; Muyushan Mountain in Tongling, Anhui Province; Dajing in Linxi, Inner Mongolia, etc. [125]. The casting process of bronze wares in the early Western Zhou Dynasty inherited that of the late Shang Dynasty, and the shape and structure of its bronze wares

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presented a trend of simplification in the middle and late stages. The group of bronze wares appearing in the tomb of the Guo State was a typical example. The casting methods continued the trend of the whole casting method and the main method at the end of the Shang Dynasty. The overall effect of the separate casting method was not as good as that of the whole casting method, and the attachment parts was easy to loosen and fall off. Therefore, in the heyday of the Shang Dynasty, the whole bronze casting method was mainly used. The complex shape wares also utilized the loose pieces of moulds to achieve an approximate whole casting effect, as seen on the utensils made by the separate casting method found in the cemetery of the Yu State, such as the common self-connecting structure and others. For the casting of ears of the four-ear Gui, first reserve the holes in the “self-connecting” parts, and when the body was cast, open up the two reserved holes, and then inject the copper liquid into the ear cavity through the body to strengthen the connection between the attachment parts and the body [126]. The bronze wares unearthed from the Shangcunling Guo State cemetery also mainly adopted the whole casting methods, especially the important rituals such as Ding, Li, and Gui. And for some more complicated accessories such as the ring of the pot and the animal-shaped ears of the pots, the whole casting method was also adopted [127]. As for the separate casting method, in addition to the common mortise-tenon joint method and mortise-tenon-bolt joint method at the end of the Shang Dynasty, the mortise and tenon joint melting method had also appeared. There were two bulges on the belly of the phoenix-shaped square pot M2012:16 unearthed in the cemetery of the Guo State. A residual solder on the bulge, which was detected as a low-melting-point lead solder containing 90 96% of lead [128], was confirmed by the use of a separate casting method, but this kind of technique was still rare, and further research was needed to verify its origin (Fig. 12.7).

Fig. 12.7 Yubo Gui of the early Western Zhou Dynasty. (Selected from the Chinese Bronze Wares Complete Works-Western Zhou (II))

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Bronze wares used a large amount of mud and copper core support in the casting process. The use of the core support ensured the specification and stability of the mold, especially the copper ritual wares with complex shape and thick walls. The use of the core support was beneficial to the formation of the object. The 18 pieces of copper rituals unearthed from the Liulihe in Fangshan, Beijing, were tested to have used core supports in 16 pieces of them [129]. The typical practice was to place 3 core supports in the center of the bottom of the device, and 1 core support at the joint of the foot and the bottom, but at the bottom of Ding and You, 9 12 core supports were placed. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the copper core supports were widely used in containers ([75], pp. 181–182). For example, the bottom of the Gu, You, Ding, and Gui from the cemetery of the Baoji Yu State, copper core supports were commonly used. The bronze rituals with long inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty were popular, and they were mostly on the inner bottom or inner walls of the utensils. The inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty were mostly cast into Yin or Yang characters with the method of mud molds. The short inscriptions in the Western Zhou Dynasty still used this method. As for the production of the long inscriptions, scholars had discussed various methods, for example, the part of the inscriptions must be placed in advance when casting, and the Yang characters could be directly engraved into intaglio on the moulds or the cores, mostly reversely written. The Yin characters were made with separate blocks, making the inscription moulds into separate blocks and inlaying the casting moulds. This speculation could be supported by the mud moulds with inscriptions unearthed from the bronze ruins of the North Kiln in Luoyang ([75], p. 157). The alloy technology of bronze wares in the Western Zhou Dynasty had changed significantly compared with the Yin and Shang period. 25 pieces of bronzes from the Western Zhou cemetery of Luoyang North Kiln of the capital area had been tested [130], and the copper materials were divided into tin bronze and lead-tin bronze. The ratio of wares from the early to the late Western Zhou Dynasty was relatively steady. The lead content, except for one Ge with lead content above 20%, and the content of lead tin of the remaining bronze wares were in the range of 3 10%. The tin content was less than 20%, which was lower than that of the Yinxu Ruins. The composition of the chariots and horses appeared to be of a low lead content but a high-tin content. The alloying technology in the vassal areas was different due to different regions and differences in the casting process. The 34 pieces of bronze wares from the Liulihe cemetery in Fangshan County, Beijing, have been tested [131], and the results showed that lead-tin bronze wares occupied the main position, followed by tin bronze wares. There was relatively one lead bronze ware, and one arseniccontaining lead-based copper alloy ware, and lead arsenic samples were the fragments of horse bells. Tin bronze wares were mainly weapons, with tin content between 11% and 17%, and overall content was slightly lower than that of the North Kiln cemetery. The chariots and horses were all lead-tin bronze, the lead content of which was less than 15%. The test results of some bronze wares of the Yu State cemetery of the early Western Zhou Dynasty unearthed from Baoji indicated that lead-containing wares were common, and the lead content of weapons was less than 10% [126]. The lead content of chariots and horses and other tools was higher,

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and some were higher than 20%. Similar to that of the Liulihe cemetery, there were fewer copper-tin binary alloys. The 32 pieces of bronze wares unearthed from the tomb of the Guo State in Sanmenxia have been tested, indicating that lead-tin bronze wares accounted for a high proportion, including most of the rituals and a small number of chariots and horses and weapons [132]. The lead content of rituals had a slightly higher lead content, and the weapons were mainly tin bronze wares, and the tin content was higher than 20%. In short, the alloy technology of the late Western Zhou Dynasty was quite mature. The copper-tin-lead ternary alloys occupied the dominate position, and the performance of the utensils had a clear correspondence with the alloy ratio.

12.4

The Diversified Evolution of Bronze Casting Industry in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty was a period of dramatic changes in ancient Chinese society. From the Spring and Autumn period, the Zhou royal family became increasingly weak, and the war between the vassal states was frequent, and the situation of the seven Warring States standing side by side was formed. The bronze smelting industry in this period had been characterized by diversification, and many innovations had also appeared in the casting process and alloy technology.

12.4.1 Important Smelting Sites and Bronze Ware Groups in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty During the Spring and Autumn period, the transformation of social politics promoted the rise of smelting and casting industry in the vassal states. The development of bronze wares was no longer limited by the unified norms of the ritual and music system of the Western Zhou Dynasty. There appeared more bronze wares with local characteristics and novel features. Discovered in Jinsheng Village, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, in 1988, in the tomb of Zhaoqing of the late Spring and Autumn period, the burial of bronze vessels reached more than 1600 pieces [133], including ritual instruments, musical instruments, weapons, tools, chariot and horse devices, decorations, components, and ornaments, and more than 20 pieces of Ding, Dou, Hu, Li, Yan, Jian, He, Lei, Xu, Zhou, Pan, Yi, Zhao-cooking range, Bo-earthen bowl, Bi, etc. Musical instruments included two sets of chimes, decorated with patterns of dragons, phoenixes, etc. There were a large number of weapons, such as Jian, Mao, Ge, Biaoqiang dart, Yue, Fu, etc. The decorations included the inlaying gold and silver hooks, dragons, tigers, and trinkets. The copper components were mostly hinges, coffin rings, chain of rings, and other small objects. Two large-scale copper casting sites were discovered in the south of Ancient City of Niu Village, Houma City, Shanxi Province [134], dating back from the late Spring and Autumn period to the early Warring States period. According to the literature,

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during the Spring and Autumn period, the Houma area was the location of Xintian, the capital of the Jin State. Jin State was likely to use the copper mine of Zhongtiaoshan Mountain in Shanxi to carry out copper casting activities at the Houma site. The smelting and casting sites found there included mould-baking kiln, housing site, ash pit, the pit kiln, and the relics of the smelting and casting discovered included the furnace residue, the refining slag, the blast pipe, and the pottery moulds. More than 50,000 pieces of pottery and pottery moulds had been unearthed. The casting types included rituals, weapons, chariot and horse devices, tools, living utensils, musical instruments, Kongshoubu (ancient coins), as well as four pieces of moulds used to make inscriptions. The types of pottery moulds unearthed from different sites were different, varying in quantity, indicating that there was a relatively complete division of labor system, and many new types of moulds had emerged, such as the discovery of the moulds of Kongshoubu (ancient coins), indicating that the country had begun to use copper currency. The Fenshuiling cemetery in Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, was an aristocratic cemetery of Han State [135]. Most of them belonged to the Warring States period. The cemetery had a high specification, and the large tombs accounted for one third. The main rituals included Ding, Li, Yi, Dun, Hu, Jian, Lei, He, Zhou, Pan, etc. The musical instruments included Niu bells and Fu bells. More than 300 pieces of bronze wares of the late Spring and Autumn were unearthed in the M269 and M270 [136]. There were two kinds of containers, one with lid and the other without lid, all with deep belly, the sphere bottom, and the animal hoof-shaped feet. There were three animal hoof-shaped feet commonly found on the containers such as Li, Yan, and He. The musical instruments included chimes and Niu bells with the same shape and structure, and the size was different, decorated with Panchi dragon patterns, Panhui snake patterns, and elephant head patterns. The west section of the Zhongzhou Road cemetery in Luoyang was located in the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and 260 cemeteries of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were discovered there [137], dating back from the early Spring and Autumn period to the late Warring States period. Bronze wares were mainly from large-scale tombs, which included containers, weapons, chariot and horse devices, tools, cloth ornaments, and other miscellaneous devices. Most of the containers were burial objects, including Ding, Yan, Gui, Dou, Lei, Pan, Yi, Zhou, Hu, etc. Weapons included Jian, Mao, Ge, Ji, Zu, etc., and the cloth ornaments included hooks, bronze mirrors, and piercing engraving bronze ornaments. From small- and medium-sized tombs, only Dao, Jian, Zu, hooks, and other small utensils had been unearthed. The rituals were not so practical and were rarely seen in small- and medium-sized tombs, which showed the significant decline of the ritual system in the capital area of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The Houchuan cemetery in Shanxian County, Henan Province, was dominated by the tombs of the Warring States. Among them, the M2040 had the largest scale and the largest quantity of funerary objects [138]. There were more than 80 pieces of large bronze wares. The rituals included Ding, Dou, Hu, Gui, Yan, You, Dun, Pan, Yi, Jian, Zhou, etc. Musical instruments included chimes and Fu bells. Weapons included Ge, Ji, Jian, and so on. The shape and patterns of most of the objects

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were similar to those of Shanbiao Town, Jixian County, Zhaogu, Hui County and Fenshuiling, Changzhi. Many of them were decorated with Tao patterns, which were obvious characteristics of the Warring States. The Wei cemetery of the Warring States period was discovered in Shanbiao Town, Jixian County, Henan Province [139]. Among them, M1 was a large-scale tomb of the early Warring States period, where sets of copper rituals, chimes, Bian bells and Fu bells, and multiple weapons were unearthed. There were two pieces of copper Jians decorated with patterns of the scene on the land and water attack, the walls of which were thin, and there were two pieces of Ge with gold inscriptions, one of which was a bird-and-insect script. In the 1920s, in Lijialou Village in Xinzheng, Henan Province, bronze wares of the middle and late Spring and Autumn period unearthed from the tomb of the king of Zheng State. There was a lotus crane square pot unearthed in the tomb, the top cover of which was hollowed out in the shape of a petal, with a winged crane standing in the center, and the body was covered with Panchi dragon patterns, showing the magnificent and fresh artistic style of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. From 1996 to 1998, at the site of Zheng State were discovered 17 musical instrument pits of the Spring and Autumn period, and 348 bronze wares were unearthed [140]. The ceremonial combination included Ding, Gui, Li, square pots, round pots, Dou, Jian, etc. The musical instruments included Fu bells and Niu bells, and the common patterns embossed included Tao patterns, Panhui snake patterns, Panlong dragon patterns, and patterns of cloudscape, which were popular in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The specification of the ritual combination was relatively high. As for the amount of Ding, five sets of combination of nine Dings unearthed were equivalent to the highest level of the Ding system, which was rare for archaeological discoveries. With the power of the vassal states growing bigger and bigger, the arrogation of rituals had gradually become common phenomena. At the smelting and casting site of Zheng Han’s old city, so far, four sites have currently been found [141]. The Dawulou copper casting workshop was located in the eastern part of Dongcheng. It was mainly used for smelting and casting copper, which a large amount of copper slag, charcoal, pottery moulds, copper melting furnace, and remnants of blast pipes were discovered. Pottery moulds were mainly shovel, sickle, hoe, chisel, and other tools, as well as hooks, bronze mirrors and other daily necessities, components, and currency moulds. Currency moulds belonged to the late Warring States period, including sharp-angle coins and the surface of the round coins, the back moulds. And the shape of coin casting was also found in Zhao and Wei States. In the old cities of Zheng and Han States were also unearthed the imitation of Chu State’s “Shuqiandangxin,” and “Siqiandangxi” coins, indicating that Han State traded frequently with Chu State, Zhao State, Wei State, and other countries [142]. A smelting and casting site was found near the ruins of the Zheng State. It was found that these were walls of bronze casting furnace, slag, remains of pottery, and other relics of Ding, Yan, square pot, Dou, and chimes of the middle and late Spring and Autumn period. The “Dressing Table” ruins were located in the northern part of Xicheng. They were the ruins of bronze casting workshops of Han State, mainly producing bronze ritual instruments. There was also a smelting site in the south of Cangcheng Village, mainly casting iron tools (Fig. 12.8).

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Fig. 12.8 Lotus and crane square pot in mid-period of the Spring and Autumn. (Selected from Chinese Bronze Wares Complete WorkEastern Zhou (I))

The old city of the Lu State in Shandong Province was located in Qufu City and its surrounding areas. More than 30 tombs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were discovered [117], where the unearthed bronze wares were similar to those of the Central Plains. The period of M48 was equivalent to the early Spring and Autumn period, with a large scale, and the combination of objects included Ding, You, Gui, Yan, Hu, Pan, Yi, etc. The cemetery of the old city of Qi State in Linyi was concentrated in the northeast and southeast of the city. In 1984, an early Spring and Autumn tomb was discovered in Donggucheng Village in the northeast of the city [143]. The burial bronze wares were relatively complete, and the rituals included Ding, Gui, Pan, Yi, Hu, etc. There were also weapons, tools, and chariot and horse devices such as Ge, Zu, Mao, Ben, Wei part of carriage, Xia, Biao, Xie gag bit, etc. The shape of the pots had local characteristics, and judged from the cross section, the pots were flat in body and round in the middle part, with a thick neck and shoulders. The Zhongshan State cemetery was located in Pingshan County, Hebei Province. The largest-scale M1 was the tomb of Zhongshan King [144]. The bronze rituals unearthed there included Ding, Li, Yan, Hu, He, Pan, Yii, Dou, Fu, etc. The musical instruments had Niu bells. Many beautifully shaped objects were decorated with the silver and gold plating, or only with the gold plating or silver plating, such as the square table with the gold and silver plating of four deer, four dragons, and four phoenixes and beasts with double wings of silver plating. Most of the bronze wares were engraved with inscriptions, and there were long inscriptions on the round pots,

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square pots, big Dings with iron feet, and other objects. M6 was a tomb in the late Warring States period. The W-shaped bronze wares unearthed reflected the cultural characteristics of Zhongshan State. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, bronze wares of Yan State were found in Beijing, Hebei, Liaoning, and other places [145], mainly including food utensils such as Ding, Gui, Dou, Dun, Bi and wine utensils and water utensils such as Hu, elephantshaped Zun, Bu, Fou, Pan, Yi, and Jian. And other bronze wares included bronze tomb figures unearthed in Gaomo Village; the bronze animal head unearthed from Laomutai; the ornaments of the figures, birds, and beasts unearthed in Dongcheng City; etc. Some of the objects had the characteristics of swallows, such as the typical Yan-style copper tripods, which had an upright 3 ft under the round belly. It looked like an oval-shaped “watermelon” seen from the mouth of the tripod, and there were three common buttons on the lid, including sacrifice buttons, animal head buttons, and bird head buttons. The bronze wares of Chu State were found most in Hubei, Hunan, Henan, and Anhui. They were deeply affected by the Central Plains from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn period, and gradually formed their own style in the late Spring and Autumn period. The bronze rituals unearthed from the Chu Tombs in Zhaojiahu, Dangyang, Hubei Province, included Ding, Gui, Zhan, Dun, Zhou, Pan, etc. The shape of the Ding and Gui in the early and middle Spring and Autumn period was quite similar to those of the Central Plains. The weapons included Jian (sword), Bishou (dagger), Ge (dagger-axe), Mao (spear), Zu (shaft sleeve), etc. Chariot and horse devices included Wei, bow-shaped cover, horse gag bit, horse ornaments, etc., as well as a large number of tools, cloth ornaments, and miscellaneous devices [146]. The age of the bronze wares excavated from the Chu Tombs in the Xiachuan Temple was generally from the late middle period of the Spring and Autumn to the late Spring and Autumn period. The rituals included Ding, Fu, Fou, Pan, Yi, Gui, Hu, Pen, Jian, and so on. The patterns were overelaborated, and the multiple patterns, high relief, and openwork carving showed the unique decorative style of the Chu wares. And the utensils such as Gui and He were mainly composed of Panhui snake patterns, Qiequ curving patterns, Kui dragon patterns, and other patterns [147]. In the Zeng State close to the Chu State, a large number of bronze wares had been discovered during the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the Zeng State had a close relationship with the Chu State. The bronze wares unearthed in the Zeng State were in a certain Chu style. In 1977, at the tomb of Zenghouyi the king of the Zeng State, which was found near the Leigudun in Suizhou City, Hubei Province, in the early Warring States period, 177 pieces of bronze rituals were unearthed [148], and the shapes included Ding, Li, Gui, Fu, Dou, Hu, Fou, Jian, Pan, Yi, etc., of which there were 9 pieces of Ding without lids and 8 pieces of Gui. This ritual combination of nine Dings and eight Guis followed the King level of the Ding system of the rites of Zhou in the central plains; many utensils were unique in shape. Some were decorated with ornaments with the techniques of relief, hollow out, and inlay. There were many types of musical instruments. Among them, a set of 65 bronze bells were well preserved, and the bells were decorated with the gold seal script.

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They were quite precious. The weapons included Ge, Ji, Shu, Mao, Gong, Jian, Dun-shield, Jiazhou (armor), etc., among which two Ge Ji and three Ge Ji were discovered for the first time, and the rest of the chariot and horse devices, cloth ornaments, and miscellaneous tools were also very exquisite. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, large-scale smelting and casting sites were found in the Houma, and the sites of Capital of Zheng and Han States in Shanxi. The bronze wares with regional characteristics of vassal states also gradually emerged, and the arrogation of the rituals of the Ding system of the rites of Zhou was more common. In addition to the Western Zhou Dynasty, some new shapes, such as Fu, He, and Dun, had become popular. The shape and ornamentation were different from those of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and they were more vivid. In the Warring States period, with the decline of the ritual and music system, the copper rituals were replaced by pottery wares imitating copperwares, which reflected the realistic image of social life, for example, amphibious warfare, hunting, and daily utensils were mostly plain. In the middle and late Warring States period, with the prosperity of the iron and steel industry, the bronze casting industry began to retreat to the second place.

12.4.2 Diversified Development of Bronze Technology in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, with the rise of the casting industry of the vassal states, new changes took place in the casting and decoration process. Some of the utensils used by the nobility were even more exquisite than the previous generations. In the casting process, the application of the whole casting method and the separate casting method in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was very mature. Bronze wares in this period presented more three-dimensional relief, openwork carving, and multiple patterns on the ornamentation and decoration. In addition to traditional casting, splicing, riveting, and other methods, the new popular casting-welding process and lost-wax casting method greatly improved the complexity of copperware production. The separate casting-welding process had appeared in the cemetery of the Guo State, using a low-melting lead solder. There were many forms of low-melting welding in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period (For the welding process, see Hua Jueming [149].). In the early cemetery of the Guo State, the ears of the Hu, the handles of Yi first adopted the method that first cast tenons on the wall, and the molten solder was poured into the attachment cavity to connect with the body. Later, the lotus and crane rectangular pot from Zhenggong’s tomb was cast with the method that welded the ears and the beast-shaped feet to the tenons of the kettle body. Lead-tin alloys were mainly used as solder and first precast mushroomshaped tenons at the bottom of the wares when welding the ears and the feet of the wares. Many scholars believe that the lost-wax casting method had appeared in the Central Plains area in the late Spring and Autumn period. The bronze Jin and the bronze Zhan from the tomb of Zenghouyi, Pan, and others of the Xia Temple in

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Xichuan were all considered to be cast by the lost-wax casing method. The so-called lost-wax casting method was to use a wax material to make a wax mold, apply paint on wax molds, and then perform roasting. The wax material was heated and melted to flow out the mold. The wares produced by this method were not left with the seams like that of the casting method, and make the shape of complex objects smoothing [150]. The progress of the casting process during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period was mainly reflected in the reproduction of the moulds. Judging from the large number of moulds, and cores unearthed from Houma Casting Copper Site, it was common to see the seams left on the surface of the moulds by the casting method [134], which met the demand for further expansion of the production scale of the bronze smelting industry during the Spring and Autumn period, and production efficiency was improved. In terms of making patterns, the impression method was also becoming more and more popular, and it was often used for the fine patterns such as snake patterns and dragon patterns. For example, the dragon patterns on the chimes unearthed from the Cai Hou Tomb in Shou County, Anhui Province, had obvious imprints [151]. The method was as convenient as the casting methods with moulds in order to adapt to the increase in demand for bronze wares. In addition, the progress of mold casting technology was also reflected in the application of the metal moulds. Copper and iron were used as model casting. This type of moulds could be reused, which reflected the standardization of the casting process (Fig. 12.9). In terms of decoration technology, the decoration of the bronze ware surface during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period mainly included gold gilding, gold filling, red bronze inlay, inlaying gold and silver, tinning, etc. These techniques were common in rituals, weapons, and decorations. Gold gilding and gold filling methods made use of the good ductility of the gold, hammering it into gold foil, wrapping, or attaching to the surface of the bronze wares. This kind of process appeared early. The gold foil with cloud-ray pattern was found at the site of the Shang Dynasty in the west of Gaochengtai in Hebei Province. The thickness was

Fig. 12.9 Bronze Jin with openwork carving cloud patterns of the Late Spring and Autumn period from Xiasi Temple in Xichuan. (Selected from the Chinese Bronze Complete Work-East Zhou (IV))

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less than 1 mm [152]. Gold foil was found in Dasikong Village of Anyang, Henan Province, and Sanxingdui site in Sichuan, and gold foil was attached to the copper mask and heads of the figures unearthed from Sanxingdui site, which adopted the gold filling technology. The spears, beams of the chariots, animal face ornaments, and bronze Pao unearthed from the Wei State cemetery of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Xin Village, Xun County, Henan Province, all adopted the gold gilding process [153]. The gilding gold pieces included strip-shaped, triangular, round, herringbone, etc. The gold gilding level was thin and even and with detailed patterns. In the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the gold gilding technique was used more widely, and it was mostly used for small ornaments. For example, there were many gold-plated copper shells found in Huixian Pavilion in Huixian County of Henan Province and Qufu in Shandong Province. Copper-clad copper Paos were found in Linyi, Shandong, and Houchuan, Shaan County, etc. ([154], pp. 265–266). The inlaid red copper was also called the red copper plating. It had the same principle as the gold and silver plating. It used the good ductility of gold, silver, and red copper, forged into slices and gold thread for decoration. The red bronze inlay became popular in the middle and late Spring and Autumn period, such as the bronze Fou unearthed from the Chu Tomb of Xiasi Temple in Xichuan [147], whose ears and the covers were decorated with dragon patterns and cloud patterns. And it became even more prevalent in the Warring States period, with the themes of the ornamentation increasing, including bird and animal patterns, geometric cloud and thunder patterns, and realistic scene patterns such as fishing and hunting, banquet music, water and land battle warfare, etc. For example, the Jian (water container) of the water and land attack from Shanbiao Town of Jixian County, and the chimes from the tomb of Zenghouyi, etc. The plating gold and silver was also called gold and silver plating. The plating gold technique had appeared in the middle and late Spring and Autumn period. It was mainly used to add simple inscriptions or patterns. Wu, Yue, Chu, and other states used the plating gold to make “birds and insects Zhuan (the seal script)” on weapons, such as birds and insects Zhuan on the Yue King Goujian’s sword, which was made with the plating gold, rich in decoration (Fig. 12.10). After the mid-war period, the inlaying gold and silver crafts became popular. For example, the Zhongshan King Tomb of Pingshan unearthed a large number of unique gold and silver plating bronze wares [144], including the square table with four deer, four dragons, and four phoenixes of the gold and silver plating, the inlaying gold and silver double Qiongs with patterns of tiger swallowing deer, and so on. The main method of gold and silver plating and red copper inlay was to pre-cast the groove and concave surface with the method of replicated molding in the plating part of the object. After the copperware casting was done, the groove was processed and chiseled, and then the prepared gold and silver or red copper wires were inlaid, and finally polished. Some scholars have proposed different methods, for example, the method of red copper inlay may also use the casting process in which the copper pieces were placed in advance in the mold of the object, but this method had certain difficulty [155].

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Fig. 12.10 The left is the Ding with plating gold cloud pattern of the middle of the Warring States period, and the right is the flat pot with plating silver geometric patterns of the middle of the Warring States period. (Selected from the Chinese Bronze Complete Work-East Zhou (I))

The gold-plated process was rare in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. Gold and mercury were synthesized into gold amalgam, applied to the surface of the object, and then heated to evaporate the mercury and gold adhered to the surface of the object. The gold amalgam replaced by silver amalgam according to this method was the silver-plated process, such as the goldplated hooks unearthed from the Chu Tomb in Changtaiguan in Xinyang, Henan, and the silver-plated horse decoration unearthed from Zhongzhou Road in Luoyang ([154], pp. 266–272). Tin plating made the surface of the bronze silver appearing silvery white and had a certain corrosion resistance. The earliest bronze wares with a silvery white luster on the surface in China were the tiger-shaped bronze Yue (a battle-axe used in ancient China) of the early Western Zhou Dynasty unearthed from the tomb in Baicaopo in Lingtai, Gansu [156]. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, tin-plated bronze wares were found in the northern grassland area, Bashu area, Sichuan, and Yunnan area. Most of them used the hot tin plating process. The tin-plated bronze wares from northern grassland were mainly buckles, belt ornaments, spear ornaments, and the handles of swords. The objects from the Bashu region were mainly weapons of swords, Ge, Yue with silver or white patterns, and the ones from Yunnan which included shell-storage tankers, bronze drums, kneeling figures, weapons, etc., but the skills of the three regions were different. In the northern region, the whole object was tinned, and the patterns on the weapons of Bashu area were partially tinned. The objects from Yunnan area had the characteristics of thin tin plating and without high temperature annealing after hot tin plating [157].

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12.4.3 The Rise of Regional Bronze Crafts in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, bronze culture with strong regional characteristics was formed in the more remote areas of Bashu, Yunnan, Wuyue, and Erdos, whose casting technology and decoration process were different from those of the Central Plains bronze culture system, highlighting the regional feature and diversity of bronze crafts in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The bronze culture style of the Bashu area in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was mainly embodied in weapons, such as the flat willow-leaved sword, the triangle Ge, the tongue-shaped Yue, the bow-eared spear, the bowing Yue, etc., and the weapons were often decorated with tiger patterns, mostly five pieces a group. The weapon decoration of the Bashu culture was very unique, divided into two types [158], one was casting patterns, such as tigers and birds, and the other was called “tiger stripes,” silvery or black, and the analysis showed that it was a high-tin copper-tin alloy. It was likely that artificial hot tin plating was formed on the surface of the weapon [159] (Fig. 12.11). The decorative arts of bronze wares in Yunnan were rich in subject matter, and the shape of the objects also had strong regional characteristics. It had been discovered in the late Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period, and it had gradually prospered in the Qin and Han Dynasties. There were many kinds of unearthed objects. The unearthed time of the wares from the tombs of Wanjiaba, Chuxiong City [160], and Dabona, Xiangyun County [161], was relatively early, which was about the late Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. There were agricultural tools such as hoes, axes, chisels, and other tools and the weapons such as swords, spears, Yue, Zu, and ornaments of arm shields. Musical instruments included drums, bell sheep-horns chimes, cucurbit flute, etc., as well as

Fig. 12.11 The left is the tiger-striped wooden handle sword in the Warring States period, and the right is the round-striped triangle Ge in the Warring States period. (Selected from the Chinese bronze ware complete work-Bashu)

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copper axes and bronze bracelets, bronze coffin, railing-house models and other living utensils, as well as decorations and miscellaneous. The subject matter of social life involved field hunting, singing and dancing, and sacrifices, and the animal patterns were mostly cattle, tigers, peacocks, etc., which were exquisite and complicated. The surface of some bronze wares was tin-plated, gold-plated, etc. The surface of some wares was silver-white, such as shell-storage tankers, bronze drums, kneeling figures, etc. Some of the bronzes were tested to indicate that they were tin-plated [162]. It was generally believed that the complex castings on the bronze wares in Yunnan used the lost-wax casting method, such as the vivid threedimensional casting figures on the storage device, which was combined with the method of lost-wax casting, welding, splicing, and the like [163] (Fig. 12.12). The Erdos area was adjacent to the Eurasian steppe. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, a bronze culture with strong grassland culture was formed. A large number of bronze wares featuring animal patterns were unearthed, including weapons, tools, decorations, living utensils, and chariot and horse devices [164]. And tools included short swords, knives, dagger-axe, spears, Zu, pickaxes, chisels, etc. Decorations included headwear, necklaces, belt ornaments, and accessories, as well as bronze mirrors, copper Fu (big pot), vehicle devices, horse devices, etc. The animal patterns decorated on the copper knives were mostly simple images drawn by the intaglio. Other artifacts were often embossed and opencut, with separate expressions of sheep, deer, birds, tigers, horses, and illusory animals, as well as animal combinations or the combinations of animals and human figures, such as the pattern of tiger biting goat, the two tigers fighting for the deer, and the samurai riding horse in battle on the bronze openwork belt [165], both of which had a nomadic style. Some bronze

Fig. 12.12 The shell-storage tanker with the figures of tiger, ox, and deer. (Selected from Chinese Bronze Wares Complete Work-Dian, Kunming)

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Fig. 12.13 Tiger eating goat buckle of the Warring States period. (Selected from Chinese bronze Complete Works-Northern People)

wares in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period in Erdos have been tested to indicate tin bronze and lead tin as the main alloy type [166]. The tin content of most utensils was not high. There were certain differences in the types of alloys with different performances. For example, the average tin content of the knife was higher than that of lead, and that of the jewelry was the opposite. In addition, some long copper Paos and animal plate ornaments were gold-plated, and the surface of many copperwares was tin-plated. Single-side plating adopted the method of hot rubbing, while double-side plating adopted hot dipping, and the coated metal was pure tin or lead-tin alloy [167]. The surface of the bronze had a silvery white luster, which was an important feature of bronze technology in this region (Fig. 12.13). The Wuyue culture in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was mainly distributed in the southeast and Lingnan areas. Many bronzes with typical Wuyue characteristics were unearthed, such as Yue-style Ding, sword, Yue, Nao, Yong bell, shovel, Chan (scoop), drawknife, etc., as well as bronze wares with typical regional characteristics were distributed in small areas, such as swallowtail spears, slender Zu, cylinder wares, human-face arched swords, etc. [168]. The bronze weapons’ production level in Wuyue area was relatively high, especially represented by techniques of diamondshaped dark plaid, pommel with thin-walled concentric ribbed, and compound swords [169].

12.5

Overview

As early as in the Neolithic Age, China had found a small amount of bronze wares and smelting relics, but the bronze smelting industry with a certain scale really started from the Erlitou culture period, and the rise of mould casting technology based on pottery moulds provided the possibility for producing copper containers such as Ding, Jue, and Jia. The casting technique of this period was characterized by simple casting and simple decoration. The wall of the objects was thinner and the shape was simpler.

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The Shang Dynasty was a period of great development in the bronze smelting industry. In the royal reigning center, a number of smelting and casting sites were concentrated. The mould casting technology was more mature, mainly including the separate casting method and the whole casting method. These two methods, with the complexity of ritual containers’ shape and decoration, had appeared and developed. It could be seen that the patterns of the Shang Dynasty were more and more complicated, and it was not limited just to the body but also was decorated on the shoulders, abdomen, and handles. The use of the core support ensured the regularity of the shape and the thickness of walls, making the bronze wares of the Shang Dynasty presented a solemn and mysterious style, which continued until the Western Zhou Dynasty. From the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, it was the heyday of bronze wares. The period from the late Shang late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty was of great prosperity, when the complex decoration of three-layer patterns were popular, but it then came to be simplistic and roughened in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the bronze smelting industry of Shang Dynasty was inherited. The whole casting method was popular, and the copper core support was widely used. The movable models and moulds were also applied. The casting of the long inscription reflected the progress of the reprint method of mud print. The alloy technology was more stable, and the popular copper-tin or copper-lead binary alloys in the Shang Dynasty were no longer dominant, and copper-tin-lead ternary alloys were commonly used. The casting process of bronzes in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty had undergone new changes. With the rise of the casting and smelting industry in the vassal states, the bronze wares had shown a smart and fresh artistic style. The shape and decoration of the objects were more complicated, and the process of lost-wax casting, casting, welding, etc. had had a further development. It showed technical advantages in the production of openwork decoration and other aspects. The decorative technology of the copper surface had been diversified, and processes such as tin plating, gold plating, gold inlaying and silver inlaying, and copper inlay had emerged and became popular. The bronze smelting industry in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty had been standardized, and the application of methods such as models and mould duplication and pattern printing had promoted the improvement of production efficiency. Starting from the Erlitou culture, the bronze culture system with the Central Plains as the main body had been formed. By the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, The regional bronze culture with local characteristics had gradually emerged. On the one hand, it had followed the main components and forms of the Central Plains, and on the other hand, it had also produced many unique utensil shapes and decoration process, and formed its own bronze culture system. Especially in the Warring States period, the bronze wares in the Central Plains gradually relegated to the second place, while the bronze smelting industry in the remote areas prospered, such as the Bashu bronze wares, the Erdos Bronze wares, the Wuyue Bronze wares, and the Yunnan Bronze wares. Generally speaking, the development of bronze smelting industry and technology in China during the pre-Qin period was in the same line, and many diversified factors were added during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The casting technology and

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decoration process were developed with the changes of the shape and decoration of the objects. And the surrounding areas showed a certain lag compared with the Central Plains and Guanzhong. However, in terms of craft tradition and unique bronze culture style, the remote areas together with the Central Plains and Guanzhong areas had jointly created the glory of the bronze casting industry of the Chinese Bronze Age! (Translator: Juan Wang) (Proofreader: Yunming Cheng)

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Zenghouyi’s Bells and the Ancient Chinese Rhyming

13

Zengjian Guan

Contents 13.1 The Ancient Zhong and Qing Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2 Zenghouyi Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.3 The Ancient Rhyming Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.4 The 12-Tone Equal Temperament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

450 456 461 465 470

Abstract

In this article, the physics knowledge involved in ancient music is to be discussed, mainly physical connotation and temperament knowledge in musical instrument production, including four parts: The Ancient Zhong and Qing Production, Zenghouyi Bells, The Ancient Rhyming Theory, The 12-Tone Equal Temperament.

Keywords

Ancient China · Zenghouyi Bells · Rhyming Theory · Ancient Zhong and Qing Production · The 12-Tone Equal Temperament

In ancient China, people paid more attention to music than the imagination of today’s people. The ancients attached importance to music because they believed that music had the function of educating the people and guiding the society. It had an irreplaceable role in building the concept of the king governing the kingdom. This is the so-called ritual guides people’s hearts, music guides people’s voices, politics guides people’s deeds, and law guides people’s behaviors. The ritual, music, politics and law, all of which are advanced and then the king’s ruling is steady (Book of RitesZ. Guan (*) Division for Development of Liberal Arts, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_13

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Music). It is precisely because of this understanding that the dynasties of different time set up very high-status institutions to manage music matters and guide the development of music. Any music will contain both art and physics. In this article, the physics knowledge involved in ancient music is to be discussed, mainly physical connotation and temperament knowledge in musical instrument production.

13.1

The Ancient Zhong and Qing Production

Ancient instruments include eight types of musical instruments. In the Han Book-Lv Li Zhi, it writes “Music tones, namely Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu. So the musicians, with eight types of musical instruments, drives away the evil spirits of the people and builds positive attitude, and it’s easy to change the customs for better. Eight types of musical instruments: Sun, Sheng, Gu,Guan, Xian, Qin and Zhu. Five tones combine, and eight types of musical instruments keep harmonious, and then a piece of music is done.” What is involved here is the traditional so-called five-tone and eight-musical instruments. Five tones refer to five scales, which need to combine a harmonious rhythm through the eight types of musical instruments. This can “drive away the evil spirits of the people and build positive attitude, and it’s easy to change the customs for better.” Obviously, the so-called eight-musical instruments refer to musical instruments made of eight different kinds of materials, namely, Sun, Sheng, Gu, Guan, Xian, Qin, and Zhu. These instruments, in the ancient music, because of their different status and functions, caused the difference in the number of being passed down, and because of the different nature of the materials, the ancient instruments unearthed were different more or less. As far as the existing music relics are concerned, Zhong and Qing (chimes and bells) account for the vast majority. The discussion in this article is aimed at chimes and bells. Zhong and Qing are two important percussion instruments in ancient times, each with different shapes and textures. Zhong is usually cast in bronze, while Qing is made of jade or stone. Here we first discuss the shape of Qing and the physical mechanism of its vocalization. Most of the Qings are made of stone. The origin of Qings can date back to the Stone Age. In the practice of grinding stone tools, people noticed that different stones would make different sounds when they were hit, and people were inspired to start grinding stones. Originally people ground with stone, but the shape is less standardized (see Fig. 13.1). Such a Qing was difficult to determine the pitch, and the tone is not guaranteed. To roughly determine the pitch of a Qing, you need to explore its shape to make it relatively normalized; to get a good timbre, you need to choose a stone or jade of a certain texture. Moreover, a single Qing can’t be used to play music. After a long period of exploration, people gradually found a way to make a variety of fixed tones using some special stones (or jade), and the shape of the Qing was fixed accordingly. Later, it developed into a composition of several to a series of fixed tones. The dynasty of the emergence of Bian Qing was no later than the Shang Dynasty. In 1935, in the Yin dynasty tomb in the northwest of Houjiazhuang, Anyang, a group of jade-made

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Fig. 13.1 Longshan culture stone Qing of the Neolithic Age (30 cm high, 95 cm long, unearthed from tombs of Taosi temple of Xiangfen, Shanxi, in 1979) Fig. 13.2 Bian Qing of the Warring States unearthed from the tomb of Zenghouyi in Sui County, Hubei Province

Bian Qing was unearthed, 13 pieces in all, which proved this point. By the time of the Warring States period, the scale of the Bian Qing was even greater. In 1978, a set of 32 stone Qings was unearthed in the tomb of Zenghouyi in Sui County, Hubei Province. Each Qing had the same shape and different sizes. There were many numbers and musical inscriptions on it. The two tiers are hung on the copper frame. The height of the Bian Qing was 109 cm and the width was 215 cm. By the restoration study, it is known that its sound range spans 8°, 12 semitones are complete, and the sound is crisp and bright and unique. Figure 13.2 shows the set of Bian Qings. It fully reflects the development level of Chu State in the temperament [1]. The regularity and fixation of the shape of the Qing mean that the ancients have already understood the shape and vocal relationship and tuning methods. Ancient books have recorded this. Among the existing early literature describing the techniques of the ancients, “Kaogongji-the Qings” is the most famous one. In addition to specifying the shape of the Qing, a method of adjusting the pitch of the Qing has been specifically proposed, that is, “grind on the side if the pitch is too high, and grind the bottom if the pitch is too low.” Here, “high” and “low” refer to the level of the sound, and it actually refers to the frequency of the Qing’s sound frequency. According to this method, when the pitch of the Qing is too high, the sides of the

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body are ground to make it thin, which can lower the pitch; when the sound is too low, the two ends are ground to make the body relatively thicker, and thus you can raise the pitch. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, China’s early rhyming had been formed. As a musical instrument, its pitch must conform to the musical temperament to meet the practical needs of music performance. The record of “Kaogongji” is an effective way to adjust the shape of Qing to make its sound conform to the temperament. The record of “Kaogongji” conforms to the principle of acoustics. We know that the sound of Qing belongs to plate vibration and the frequency of plate vibration is proportional to the thickness. Therefore, if the Qing’s sound is high, it means the frequency is too high, indicating that the body is too thick and it needs to “grind the side.” “Low” indicates that the frequency is low and the relative thickness needs to be increased, so it is necessary to “grind the ends.” In the Tang Dynasty, Jia Gongyan proposed in the passage of the “Kaogongji”: Where the instrument is thick, the sound is clear, and where the body is thin, the sound is murmur.

The words “high” and “low” as used in “Kaogongji” are similar to the so-called clear and murmur here. The latter may also have a measure of tones. The ancients did not have the physics concept of frequency, and could sum up the law of “thickness as to be clear, thin as to be turbidity.” In the scope of ancient science, the essential characteristics of plate vibration have been mastered. In ancient instruments, the status of Zhong is more important than Qing. The eight types of musical instruments were performed at the same time, and Zhong was the head of the musical instruments. “Performing with Zhong and eating with Ding” had become a symbol of power and status. The scale and rhyming of Zhong were closely related to the calendar and measurement. Zhong was also an indispensable musical instrument for ancient ceremonies such as Chaopin (visiting emperor) and worship, and was highly valued by the ancients. Zhong evolved from the development of Nao. Nao is made of bronze, usually hold by hand with a tap or supported with a bracket, and the mouth is upside, as shown in Fig. 13.3. Later, because Nao became bigger, the hand holding and the support of the bracket were inconvenient, so it was hung up and the mouth was designed downside, which became Zhong. This conversion probably began in the Shang Dynasty. From the unearthed relics of Shang Dynasty, we have been able to glimpse the use of Zhong in music and dance in the Shang Dynasty. Figure 13.4 shows a Zhong with designs of the animal face and ox-head unearthed in the tomb of Shang Dynasty in the Dayangzhou in Xingan, Jiangxi, in 1989. The center of Zhong has a rectangular hole that is connected with the cavity. It has a button ring that can be hung and is now kept in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum. For musicology, turning from Nao into Zhong is a huge improvement. As for the Zhong hung on the shelf, the players can play freely, and the playing skills can be developed. And it also promotes the development of Zhong production system, so that more colorful music can be played with Zhong.

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Fig. 13.3 Nao with patterns of crouching tiger and animal face of the Shang Dynasty

Fig. 13.4 Zhong with patterns of animal face and ox-head

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Zhong has a unique sound structure, and generally can play a fixed frequency sound. So, how did the ancients ensure the sound effects of music with Zhong? There are many factors involved here. From the perspective of shape, the ancient Chinese music Zhong has obvious national characteristics. The Zhongs of Europe and India are round in cross section, but the Chinese Zhongs are tile-shaped. The so-called tile-shaped style means that the Zhong’s body is composed of two small semicircles, instead of the elliptical shape. Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote the book Meng Xi Bi Tan. Chapter I of Bu Bi Tan analyzed the difference between the sound of the flat Zhong and the round Zhong, saying, “The ancient music Zhongs are flat and with the shape of being like two tiles attached together.” The round Zhong has a long sound and the flat one has a short sound. The feature he pointed out is correct. The round clock has a strong residual effect, which is used for fixed sounds and the effect is good, but if it is used for performance, the long residual sound interferes with each other, making it difficult for people to hear the rhythm, so Shen Kuo said, “There is a lot of irritability, making it difficult to tell the sounds.” As for the flat Zhong, because of its edge with arris, it has a restrictive effect on the acoustic vibration, and the attenuation is fast with the residual sound moderate, so it can be grouped and used as a melody instrument. There are protrusions on the body of Zhongs called Zhongmei, which also plays a role in improving the sound effect of Zhong. According to volume 23 of Wang Fu’s “Antique Pictures,” Li Zhao of the Song Dynasty was called an expert in music, and he said that the protrusions were used to keep the effect of the sound. “If there is no restriction to the sound, then it will produce a mixed and disorderly sound.” Li Zhao’s analysis is correct. As a component on the body, the protrusions are a kind of vibration load that accelerates the attenuation of the Zhong’s sound. It has the function of consuming vibration energy, so it can control the residual sound to improve the sound of Zhongs. In particular, these kinds of Zhongs also have a double-tone structure that can make two different pitches. This type of Zhong is marked with a tapping point in the middle of the body, and the corresponding sound is called a front sound; the side of the body is sometimes marked with another tapping point, called a side sound. On good-quality Zhongs, not only the two phonemes are clear, but also the frequency ratio of the two tones is also consistent, about 1:1.2, which is equivalent to the three-degree relationship in the interval. It can be seen that the sound design of the ancient Zhong is very good. In terms of materials, the Zhongs were cast with bronze. When playing the bass, the tone is deep and rich; when playing the treble, the tone is crisp and exciting, and the effect of performance is excellent. This is one of the reasons why the music Zhongs can achieve a good sound. Bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Since the Zhong is made of bronze, there must be a copper-tin ratio problem. “Kaogongji (The Artificer’s Record)” had strict regulations on various bronze alloy compositions, and its famous “metal has six kinds of components” article says: Metal has six kinds of components: six kinds of metal are included and tin accounts for one part, which is called Zhong and Ding consist of these six kinks of metals.

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Here, “metal” refers to copper. Copper and tin are fused to form a bronze alloy. As for the ratio of copper and tin, there has always been a different understanding. Some think that “six kinds of metal are included and tin accounts for the biggest part” means six copper and one tin, and the tin content is 14.3%. Another opinion is that tin is one-sixth of the weight of the entire bronze, that is, the tin content is 16.7%. Judging from the chemical analysis of the pre-Qin music Zhong, the former opinion is the right one. The level of tin content has a direct impact on the sound effect, and many people have done experimental analysis on it. For example, sand samples were cast with different tin content samples, and the elastic modulus was tested. When the tin was changed from 123% to 16%, the fundamental frequency was lower, and the elastic modulus and frequency were more consistent. The acoustic spectrum analysis also showed that when tin is higher than 13%, the fundamental and the third and fifth note formants appear, and the remaining partial sounds are weakened, and the tone is better. From the relationship curve between the composition of tin bronze and mechanical properties, the strength is better when the tin content is 12–16%. If the tin content is too high, it will become brittle and will not be resistant to knocking. According to these analyses, it is appropriate to select a tin content slightly higher than 14%. The records and physical analysis of “Kaogongji” indicate that the pre-Qin casters had a deeper understanding of the relationship between the composition of the chime alloy and the casting properties, acoustic properties, and the strength of Zhong ([2], the 1st issue). This is an important condition to ensure that the music Zhong can obtain good acoustic effects. In the practice of casting and using music Zhongs, the ancients attached great importance to their geometry. The section of “Xiaoshi” in the “Kaogongji” specifies the names of the various parts of the Yong Zhong and the corresponding scale ratios. This shows that the ancients have formed relatively stable technical specifications when designing and manufacturing the music Zhongs. Unearthed cultural relics show that this norm is basically obeyed. After the Zhong is cast, it needs to be carefully tuned to get the desired pitch and sound. In this regard, the ancients honed the specific part of the Zhong cavity with thick and fine meteorites. In practice, the ancients gradually accumulated some understanding of the relationship between the structure of Zhong and the effect of sound. For example, section “Xiaoshi” of the “Kaogongji” said, “The vibration of thin and thick parts is the origin of clearness and turbidity.” This is the relationship between the thickness of the bell and the pitch. He also said, “If Zhong is thick, the sound will be muffled, but if it is thin, the sound will be dull.” These two words talk about the tone of the Zhong affected by the thickness factor. If the Zhong is too thick, the sound is stuffy, lack of expressiveness; if it is too thin, the tone is monotonous, not rich enough. The section also mentions, “If the Zhong is big and short, its sound is fast and short; when it is small and long, its sound is comfortable and far-reaching.” This is an empirical understanding of the relationship between the body and the loudness and spreading distance. It is precisely because of the guidance of these empirical theories, coupled with the accumulation of craftsmen in practice, that the ancients can gradually explore some sensitive areas on the body that affect

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the audio changes, thus achieving fine tuning of the Zhong and achieving the desired sound effect.

13.2

Zenghouyi Bells

Like Qing – a single Qing can’t play music, and it needs to compose a compilation, a single Zhong also can’t play music, and it needs bells of different sizes to meet the requirements of playing music. The Bianzhong (chimes) appeared at a very early age. At the beginning, the form of the chimes was relatively simple. In the past, people thought that there had appeared chimes in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Now, archaeological practice tells us that there had been chimes in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It is due to the excavation of the Western Zhou Dynasty tombs of Yejiashan in Suizhou, Hubei Province. The tomb has an area of about 40,000 m2 and can date back to the early Western Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago. It was discovered by local farmers at the end of 2010. In January of 2011, archaeologists began to explore the tomb. On July 4, 2013, archaeologists discovered one Fu Zhong and four chimes on the second floor of the tomb wall in the tomb numbered M111. The tomb is 13 m long and 10 m wide and is the largest tomb found in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Professor Li Boqian, director of the Center for Ancient Civilization Studies of Peking University, believes that this is the earliest chimes known to China. This discovery has an important academic value for the study of the origin of the chimes and how single bells evolved into chimes. It provides a very important study of music history and may change the understanding of the origin of the bells. He introduced that the bells found this time belong to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It is expected that there are 5–6 chimes, the number and scale of which have exceeded the chimes that have been discovered in the same period, belonging to a higher grade at that time. It is a major archaeological discovery of the Western Zhou ([3], the 13th edition). The advent of these chimes shows the appearance of the earliest known chimes in China. The early chimes were only 3–4 in one group and add up to 9 in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, indicating that it gradually evolved from a rhythm instrument to a melody instrument. By the Spring and Autumn Period, the number of chimes had increased further. In 1957, 13 sets of chimes were unearthed in Changtaiguan, Xinyang, Henan. By the audio test, the casting of the bronze bells of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period had been quite improved. Figure 13.5 is the exhibition diagram of this set of chimes. By the time of the Warring States period, the chime technology had been further improved. As far as the unearthed situation is concerned, not only the quantity but also the distribution range is wide. The most famous one is the rare large chime unearthed in the tomb of Zenghouyi in the early Warring States Period in Sui County (now Suizhou City) in Hubei Province in 1978, which is now called Zenghouyi

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Fig. 13.5 Chimes of the late Spring and Autumn Period unearthed in Xinyang, Henan

chimes. The unearthing of this set of chimes is a blessing for Chinese archaeology and a major event in the history of Chinese music and science and technology. The tomb of Zenghouyi is located in the southern suburb of Suizhou City, Hubei Province. The tomb owner is the monarch of Zeng State in the early Warring States Period. In September of 1977, station troops of the People’s Liberation Army in the Leigudun in Suizhou accidentally discovered the tomb during the expansion of the barracks. At this time, the shot hole in the construction site was only 80 cm away from the top floor of the tomb. As long as one shot was placed, the tomb would be destroyed, and the ancient treasures in the tomb would cease to exist. Thus, the discovery and complete excavation of the tomb are indeed a blessing for archaeology. Under the leadership of the Hubei Provincial Government and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Hubei Province formed the “Leading Group of the Ancient Tombs of the Leigudun of the Sui County” and the archaeological team. It was officially started on May 11, 1978. As a result of the excavation, nearly 100 pieces of musical instruments were unearthed from the tomb of Zenghouyi. The most famous one was Zenghouyi’s bells. This set of bells consists of 8 groups, 65 pieces in total, which are hung on the bell frame in 3 layers, which is magnificent (see Fig. 13.6). The length of the frame is about 10 m, and it is arranged in a curved shape, with the height of 2.73 m, and is divided into 3 layers of upper and lower. The uppermost layer is the Niu bells, divided into 3 groups, with a total of 19 pieces. The smallest Niu bell weighs 2.4 kg and the largest weighs 11.4 kg. There are 45 pieces in the middle and lower layers, which are Yong bells, the smallest of which is 8.3 kg and the largest is 153.4 cm high and weighs 203.6 kg. The shape and weight are unprecedented in the chimes. The whole set of bells weighs 2,567 kg. There are inscriptions on the Niu bells and the Yong bells, having the words “Zenghouyi,” which is the direct evidence for the archaeological community to name it “Zenghouyi bells.” The other contents of the inscription are all about music. For example, there are 22 different names of pitch such as Gong, Yu, etc., and there are also the names of the rhythm, the tone, and the high pitch, as

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Fig. 13.6 Zenghouyi bells

well as the correspondence between the rhythm names and the scale names of Zeng Guo, Chu, Zhou, Qi, and Jin States. At the same time, the unearthed Fu bells was cast in the 59th year of the king of Chu Hui (433BC), which provided a clear evidence for the age of the cast bells. The most striking thing about Zenghouyi’s bells is its good acoustic effect. The bells have a two-tone structure, and each bell can make two tones, that is, a positive sound and a side sound, which happens to form a three-degree interval. The upper layer of the Niu bells plays the part of fixing sound, and there are two tones on each Niu bell. The middle Niu bells have three half octaves, and each group of Yong bells can be played alone. The lower layer of the bells is big and heavy with deep and grand sound, and it plays the role of foiling atmosphere and harmony during the performance. The whole set of chimes has a range of 5 half octaves, and the center range has complete 12 semitones, which is the earliest known instrument with 12 semitones in the world. The chimes have the feature of transition and modulation, playing all kinds of music, and the temperament is harmonious, the tone is beautiful, the sound is crisp and bright, and the sound effect is amazing. In the early days of the Warring States more than 2,400 years ago, there were already such large-scale chime groups with such excellent casting and good sound effects. It is indeed a miracle in the history of Chinese ancient culture. It is an immortal example of Chinese music history, history of smelting, history of archaeology, and world temperament. Because of this, the excavation of Zenghouyi’s chimes has caused great sensation at home and abroad. The bell body has a unique structure. The lower end of the bell chamber of the side sound portion is equipped with four sound ridges of symmetrical distribution, upper narrow and lower wide, which acts like a sound groove of a modern steel drum, which is not recorded in the “Kaogongji.” Through this special design, the

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body of bells is divided into four sound zones, and there are six tapping points (usually only two of them), which can produce two clearly separated three-tone musical sound. That is, when the drum is hit in the middle of the drum, the pitch line is located at the sound ridge or the near ridge to obtain the first fundamental frequency; and when the side drum portion is struck, the pitch line is located in the middle of the drum portion to obtain the second fundamental frequency. The phonological principle of this chime double tone has been confirmed by laser holographic interferometer ([2], the 1st issue, pp. 72–82). It is not easy to make the chimes achieve the above sound effects. It requires both superb casting skills and precise master of temperament knowledge. As far as casting is concerned, the casting of Zenghouyi’s bells has the characteristics of large scale and great difficulty. The total weight of the bells is 2,567 kg, plus the loss of the bracket beam and the casting, the amount of copper used will exceed 5 tons, which is unique for the history of music world. In addition, the largest Yong bell reaches 203.6 kg. This kind of large single bell has special technical requirements and it is not easy to cast. The casting of Zenghouyi’s chimes is perfect, which has been recognized by the academic circles. So how did the ancients achieve this? The ancient Chinese have been having the tradition of casting beautiful objects with the method of losing wax. Is the chime a masterpiece of the losing wax method? In this regard, Mr. Hua Juemin and others have proved it through research that “the pre-Qin music bells have all been cast with composite pottery moulds. So far, no examples of losing wax casting bells have been found. In the case of not using the losing wax method, the whole casting process is used to cast bells of a highly complex shape, extremely fine decoration, and quite accurate size. The key is to use the skillful technique of combining separate moulds into whole piece. This technique first appeared in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, and was used for the whole casting of the scorpion button of Jue and Jia. The animal head of the bronze Gui from Fuhao’s Tomb of the Yin Site (M5: 848) and the ears of some bronze wares in the Western Zhou Dynasty were also cast with the method of separate moulds. This results in a complex shape that maintains its integrity. This latter feature in particular is suitable for the acoustic performance requirements of the music bells. Therefore, it has been widely used in the bell casting process. It can be said that it can maximize the potential of this casting method and achieve amazing skill levels” ([2], the 1st issue, pp. 72–82). Zenghouyi’s bells are the outstanding result of the ancients’ skillful use of the method of separate casting. In terms of shape, the bell body presents a tile shape (not an ellipse) that is joined by two large semicircles, and the so-called milling edge has a protruding edge. This shape can ensure that the sound vibration generated by the bell body after being struck is effectively restrained and attenuated relatively quickly, so that other bells are not disturbed by the residual sounds. They can be grouped into melody instruments. The analysis of the acoustic characteristics of such tile-shaped bells has been described in the previous section and will not be described here again.

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In terms of composition, Zenghouyi’s bells are made of a bronze alloy, the main component is copper, and a certain proportion of tin is added. “Kaogongji” has a clear record of the proportion of such bronze alloy of copper and tin. For this, please refer to the discussion in the previous section. It should be pointed out that the metal component test indicates that Zenghouyi’s bells’ composition has a small amount of lead in addition to copper and tin. For bronze alloys, the presence of tin can increase the hardness of bronze. However, if the tin content is too high, the bronze will become brittle and resistant to being knocked. The addition of lead not only reduces the melting point of bronze and facilitates casting but also can reduce the brittleness caused by adding tin and improve the acoustic effect. “Lead is present in the metal structure in an independent state. Metallographic examination, backscattered electron phase and X-ray surface scanning indicate that most lead exist in the crystal, and split α matrix, thus actuating the damping effect on the sound wave transmission, speeding up the attenuation of the bell sound, which is conducive to performance” ([2], the 1st issue, pp. 72–82). However, if the lead is too much added, the tone of the bells will be dull without rhyme. There was also the presence of lead in the early bronze wares, but that was because people at that time did not know enough about lead and tin, and they did not understand the refining technique and mixed some in the casting process. The content of copper, tin, and lead in Zenghouyi’s chimes reached a reasonable proportion. It is obvious that the lead is intentionally added. This shows that people at that time have a precise understanding of the relationship between alloy composition and musical instrument performance, which is the fundamental guarantee of good acoustic effect of Houyi bells. Any instrument that is successfully cast is unlikely to reach its design pitch, which requires tuning. The principle of tuning for Qings has been recorded in the “Kaogongji.” The original text says, “When the Qing is smashed, it should be honed to the side if the pitch is too high, and the bottom has to be honed if the pitch is too low.” That is, by adjusting the relative thickness of the Qings, the pitches are adjusted. The adjustment of the bell pitch also follows the same principle, which is achieved by successive honing with the thick and thin ochre in a specific part of the bell cavity. The examination of the pre-Qin chimes shows that the ancients had a gradual process of understanding the tuning principles of the bells. The honing marks in the bells gradually decreased, and the choice of parts became more and more accurate. They have been able to find the sensitive areas of the tuning of the bells and even the sensitive points, thus achieving fine tuning of the tone of the bells. The accurate tone relationship of Zenghouyi’s bells proves that the ancients have reached a level of precision in tuning the bells. Hua Jueming and Jia Yunfu started from the study of Zenghouyi’s bells and other pre-Qin chimes and examined the origin and development of chimes and bell production. According to pottery mold’s craft and modern precision casting in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, people copy the Niu bells of Zenghouyi, and the approximate formula of the chimes’ frequency was also proposed. Their research shows that “the bell production is indeed profound, but not mysterious. Just like the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids with superb skills and good techniques to solve complex technical problems, the ancient Chinese craftsmen, based on the same

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craft principle that we call it using simple methods to master complicated matters, cast their own pyramids with bronze - large groups of bells. It is a great invention of the predecessors and the musicians of the Pre-Qin Dynasty, which deserves our cherishing, inheritance and development. The ages have changed, and time has flies, the performance of the ancestors stands as a model for the inferiors, and will exist forever in the world” ([2], the 1st issue, pp. 72–82).

13.3

The Ancient Rhyming Theory

The brilliant achievements of the ancients in the practice of music are inseparable from their mastery of the theory of temperament. Ancient China has a long tradition of attaching importance to music. Under the influence of this tradition, the temperament has been fully developed and constitutes an important part of ancient acoustics. When the ancients talked about music, they often mentioned 5 tones, 8 musical instruments, and 12 temperaments. The “Han Book-Lv Li Zhi” explained: Tones, namely Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu. . . . Eight types of musical instruments: Sun, Sheng, Gu,Guan, Xian, Qin and Zhu. Five tones combines, and eight types of musical instruments keep harmonious, and then a piece of music is done.

Obviously, the so-called eight-musical instruments refer to the eight types of musical instruments of the ancient time, which are called “Tu, Pao, Ge, Zu, Si, Shi, Jin, Mu,” which, respectively, refer to Xun, Sheng, Gu, Guan and Xiao, Qin and Se, Qing, Zhong and Bo, Chu, and Yu. They work with five tones to form music. The five tones are called Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu, sometimes called the five sounds, which is roughly equivalent to 1(do)2(re)3(mi)5(sol)6(la) on the modern music notation. From Gong to Yu, according to the level of the tones, they form a pentatonic level. The Gong, Shang, Jiao, Hui, and Yu are the five sound levels on the pentatonic level: Gong 1

Shang 2

Jue 3

Zhi 5

Yu 6

Gong is the starting point of this scale, which is reflected by the saying in “Huainanzi-Yuandaoxun” that “The tones, Once Gong sets and the five tones shape.” Later, it was added to the Changed Gong and Changed Zhi, called the seven sounds. Changed Gong and Changed Zhi are generally considered to be roughly equivalent to 7(si) and #4(fis) on the modern notation, thus forming a seven-level scale: Gong 1

Shang 2

Jue 3

changed Zhi #4

Zhi 5

Yu 6

Changed Gong 7

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Judging from the development of ancient temperament, the five tones are earlier than seven sounds. The complete form of the ancient seven-sound scale first appeared in the book Huainanzi-Tianwenxun of the Western Han Dynasty, where the Changed Gong was called He and the Changed Zhi was called Miu. Later generations sometimes called the Changed Gong Run. So the ancients thought, “Before the Yin Dynasty, there had been five tones” (Du You, “Five notes and twelve temperaments can act the role of Gong in turn.” Tongdian (Column 134)). Compared with the seven sounds, the five tones reflected in the ancient literature are much earlier. The Book of Rites said, “In the past, Shun, an ancient emperor, made the five-stringed piano to sing about the south wind. Kui, a famous ancient musician, started to make music to reward the feudal princes” (The Book of Rites (Column eleven)). The five strings refer to the Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu. Thus, the time when the five tones appeared can date back to the era of the Emperor Shun. In fact, the ancient scales appeared in China earlier than the legendary era of Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun. In the mid-1980s, archaeologists discovered some bone flutes dating back to 8,000 years ago in the early Neolithic sites in Jiahu, Wuyang, Henan. These bone flutes have seven holes. Through the study of the pitch and the scale structure of one hole, some scholars believe that the scale structure of the flute use C as Gong, with “two changed tones” – Changed Zhi and Changed Gong, with the traditional hexatone scale, which is based on the pentatonic scale taking the four phonological steps of Yu, Gong, Shang, and Jue as the core. Some scholars believe that it is impossible to rule out the seven-sound ancient minus- Zhi grading scale. Anyway, the unearthing of Jiahu’s bone flute indicates that the initial formation time of the ancient scale is much earlier than people have traditionally imagined, and this is not a simple pentatonic scale. The position of the holes on the Jiahu bone flute indicates that the distance between the holes is carefully calculated. Some bone flutes still have a mark indicating the position of the opening before opening the holes. But how did people at that time calculate it? There can be no literature on this. We can only reverse it by measuring its scale structure. Although this method is the only feasible one, different people have different understanding of its scale structure, which lead to different opinions. It is the pre-Qin classics “Guanzi-Diyaun,” which details the calculation method of the pentatonic scale: Where the holes of five-tones will be opened, first set the length of a string as keynote, and then divide it into three parts. Then times four threes and get eighty-one. So the string of the Shenghuangzhong pipe will be set as Gong. Add one third, and get one hundred and eight, forming Zhi. Reduce one third and get Shang. Then add one third again, and get Yu. Reduce one third again, and get Jue.

This is the famous one-third gains and losses method in the history of temperament. It takes the length of a string that is fixed as the pitch, divides it into three equal parts, and then adds one-third (gaining one, i.e., multiplied by 4/3) or subtracts one-third (losing one, i.e., multiplied by 2/3) to determine the corresponding chord length for other scales. According to the description of Guanzi, the pentatonic scale here is calculated as follows.

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Let the Huangzhong Gong tone strings be as long as (one divided into three parts, four threes multiplied and get nine times nine): 1*3*3*3*3¼81 Then the length of the Hui: 81*4/3¼108 Shang tone string length: 108*2/3¼72 Yu tone string length: 72 * 4/3 ¼ 96 Jiao tone string length: 96*2/3¼64

Arranging these five tones according to the length of the strings, that is: Zhi 108

Yu 96

Gong 81

Shang 72

Jue 64

That is to say, the scale of the five-tone is calculated out. Its roughly corresponding relationship with modern notation is: Zhi 5

Yu 6

Gong 1

Shang 2

Jue 3

This scale uses Zhi as the main tone at the core of the temperament of the music, and is one of the many pentatonic scales. The one-third gains and losses method is simple, is easy to master and apply, and using the scales produced by it to perform can give people a harmonious and pleasant sound, so this method is widely used in ancient Chinese music practice, which is important in the history of temperament invention. The pentatonic scale reflects the change in tone height. That is to say, it represents the relative pitch, and the distance between adjacent two tones is fixed, but the absolute pitch is shifted with the transfer of the tones. In this way, when playing, you must set a pitch as the starting point of the scale. To this end, the ancients invented the 12 temperaments, which were used as 12 standard sounds of different heights to determine the level of the music. The specific age of the invention of the 12 temperaments is now difficult to test. Guoyu-Zhouyu records a passage by Lingzhoujiu of the period of Emperor Jin of Zhou Dynasty, which mentions the full name of the 12 laws. Obviously, the time when the 12 laws were born must be earlier than this period. The 12 temperaments have their specific names and fixed pitches, and it is generally believed that their correspondence with modern music is roughly: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Huangzhong Dalv Taicu Jiazhong Guxi Zhonglv Ruibin

C #C D #D E F #F (continued)

464 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Z. Guan Linzhong Yize Nanlv Wuyi Yingzhong

G #G A #A B

The 12 temperaments are divided into 2 categories; the odd 6 temperaments are Yang, which is called the 6 temperaments; the even 6 temperaments are Yin, which is called Liulv, and they are called Lvlv as a whole. The 6 temperaments mentioned in the ancient books are usually the 12 temperaments that cover the 6 Yin and Yang. The realization of the 12 temperaments is usually by the use of a tube, the earliest use being bamboo tubes. Lv’s Spring and Autumn Annals-Ji Xia-Ancient Music says, “The Yellow Emperor ordered the Lin Lun to produce temperaments, and the Lin Lun went to the west of Daxia, and it was the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountain, taking the bamboo from the valley of the bamboo creek, to select the empty inside and even ones. Get the part between the two joints with a length of three inches and nine points and blow it, setting it as the Gong of the Huangzhong pipe.” Whether the detailed description here is true is still a question, but this record reflects that the fact that people used bamboo pipes to make temperaments is credible. Taking the pipe to make the temperaments is called the pipe temperaments. Later, the bell or string was also used to fix temperaments, which is called the bell temperament and the string temperament. The most widely used one is the pipe temperaments. Because the bells are difficult to make and debug, the string is easily affected by changes of air temperature and humidity and deviates from the specific determination of the 12 temperaments, while pipe temperaments don’t exist such problems. When fixing the specific 12 temperaments, the ancients generally first selected the Huangzhong temperament, using the length of the tube (or string) as the benchmark and using the three-point gains and losses method to calculate the remaining temperaments. Lv’s Spring and Autumn Annals-Ji Xia-Temperament is a detailed description of the calculation of the 12 temperaments: Huang Zhong produces Lin Zhong, Lin Zhongsheng too cluster, Tai Cunsheng Nan Lu, Nan Lu Shengu wash, Gu wash life should be bell, Ying Zhongsheng Yubin, Yu Binsheng Da Lu, Da Lu Sheng Yi, Yi Zesheng clip clock, clip Zhongsheng no shot, no Shooting Zhong Lu. The three-point office is born, the benefit is one point, the above life; the three-point student is born, and one point is given to the next student. Huang Zhong, Da Lu, Tai Cui, Jia Zhong, Gu Biao, Zhong Lu *, Yu Bin as the upper, Lin Zhong, Yi Ze, Nan Lu, no shot, Ying Zhong is the next.

The so-called one-third method is based on the length of a string (or tube) that is considered to be a pitch, and is divided into three equal parts. “Up” is to lengthen one-third; “down” is to subtract one-third. This is exactly the same as calculating the pentatonic scale’s one-third gains and losses method. Specifically, it is based on the Huangzhong bell, reducing one-third of the length of the Huangzhong bell, and Lin Zhong is born; Lin Zhong will be increased one-third, and Taicu is born; Taicu is

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reduced one-third and Nanlv is born. The following are the Guxi, Yingzhong, Ruibin, Dalv, Yize, Jiazhong, Wuyi, and Zhonglv. In addition to Yingzhong to Ruibin, from Ruibin to Dalv, they are all produced by adding one-third, while the rest are produced by adding one-third and then reducing one-third. With this final result, you can get a sound that is slightly lower or higher than the pitch on the tube (or string), which completes the calculation of the 12 temperaments in a scale. The ancients paid attention to the temperament, not all from the music itself. They gave the temperament a special social meaning. For example, they think that the five sounds match the four seasons, five orientations, and five elements: Pentatonic: Four seasons: Five orientations: Five elements:

Jue Spring South Wood

Zhi Summer east fire

Gong late Summer middle part earth

Shang Fall north metal

Yu Winter west water

That is, pentatonic reflects the different nature of different places in time and space. According to the understanding of the ancients, these differences are even related to social personnel, and certainly cannot be underestimated. As for the 12 temperaments, the ancients believed that it showed the change of the heaven and earth, and corresponded with the 12 months of the year. According to the Book of Rites-Yueling, this correspondence is: Early Spring Taicu Early Fall Yize

middle Spring Jiazhong middle Fall Nanlv

late Spring Guxi late Fall Wuyi

early Summer Zhonglv early Winter Yingzhong

middle Summer Ruibin middle Winter Huangzhong

late Summer Linzhong late Winter Dalv

Because the 12 temperaments are determined by the change of the yin and yang of the heavens and the earth, and the ancients believed that the formation of the 24 solar terms of the year is also determined by this, so that the 12 temperaments have a close relationship with the ancient calendar, and it has become a factor talked frequently in the process of making calendar. Of course, the practice of applying the 12 temperaments to make the calendar used by the ancients is unsuccessful, because the 2 actually have little to do with each other. It is self-evident that the theory of temperament arises from the musical practice of the ancients and can only be developed in their musical practice.

13.4

The 12-Tone Equal Temperament

In ancient China, the theory of temperament, for a long time, used the one-third gains and losses method as its mathematical operation tool. This has many advantages and has an indelible historical status in the history of temperament, but it also has its shortcomings. The shortcomings are mainly manifested in 2 aspects: first, the 12 tones derived from the one-third loss law have different intervals, and the

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Z. Guan

difference between adjacent 2 cents is not equal. They are related to the current 12-equal law. The deviation of the corresponding pitch difference is about 13 cents on average, which is an inhomogeneous law; second when a certain temperament is octave higher (or lower) than the pitch, the corresponding string length is not exactly equal to half (or twice) of the length of the pitch. We know that the so-called pitch rise of octave means that the ratio of the tone to the pitch is 2:1, and according to physics, the frequency is inversely proportional to the string length, so that the string length corresponding to the high octave also should be equal to half the length of the pitch string. However, the result based on the one-third loss law is not the case. For example, if the pitch length is 9 ft, according to the one-third gains and losses method, the string length is 4.44 ft of the high-octave sound instead of 4.50 ft. In other words, the high-octave sound of the one-third gains and losses is actually not an accurate high octave. These defects make it unsuitable for transition and modulation. The so-called transition and modulation is based on the combination of 5 sounds (or 7 sounds) and 12 temperaments. In the pentatonic scale, among Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu, the ancients usually used Gong as the first-order sound of the scale, but in fact, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu can also be used as the first-order sound, and they can be used as the most important vocal role in the core position (seven-level situation is similar) in the melody of the music. The difference in the first level of the scale means the difference in the mode. Thus, the pentatonic scale has five different tones. We know that the five tones only reflect the relative pitch. In actual music, their pitch is determined by the temperament. The 12 temperaments provide them with 12 absolute pitches, and any of these 12 pitches can be used as the firstorder tones of the pentatonic scale. Once the first level of sound is determined, which of the remaining sounds to be used is also determined. For example, in the Huangzhong Gong, where Huangzhong is the Gong sound, the correspondence between the sounds and the temperaments is as follows (Table 13.1). The Qinghuangzhong in the table stands for the sound octave higher than Huangzhong. In turn, you can also have Qingdalv, Qingtaicu, etc. This is the Huangzhong Gong, and you can also use Dalv as the Gong sound, called Dalv Gong. In theory, all of the 12 temperaments can be used to determine the pitch of the Gong, that is, they can take turns to be Gong, which is called change of Gongs. As a result of the change of Gongs, there are 12 different pitches of Gong. The situation of the modes of Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu is similar. In this way, the combination of the 12 temperaments and the 5 tones can obtain 60 sorts of modes (combined with 7 tones and obtain 84 sorts of modes). The ancients referred to the conversion between these different modes of actual music as a transition and modulation. In layman’s terms, the transition is a change in pitch. Obviously, the 12 temperaments obtained by the one-third gains and losses method are not suitable for the transition and modulation. Aiming at the shortcomings of one-third gains and losses method, the dynasty scholars have done a lot of exploration. For example, according to one-third gains and losses method, after the birth of the 12th temperament, you cannot return to the one of departure, so that the 12 temperaments cannot be repeated. In this regard,

Names of the 12 temperaments Pentatonic scale Heptatonic scale

Shang

Gong

Taicu

Shang

DaLv

Gong

Huangzhong

Jiazhong

Jue

Jue

Guxi

Zhonglv

Changed Zhi

Ruibin

Table 13.1 Correspondence table between Huangzhong Gong sound and temperament

Zhi

Zhi

Linzhong

Yize

Yu

Yu

Nanlv

Wuyi

Changed Gong

Yingzhong

Qing Gong

Qing Gong

Qinghuangzhong

13 Zenghouyi’s Bells and the Ancient Chinese Rhyming 467

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Jingfang, a scholar of Western Han Dynasty, solved it by increasing the number of temperaments. In accordance with one-third gains and losses method, he began from Huangzhong and produced 11 times and got Zhonglv, and continued to produce from Zhonglv until the birth of 60 temperaments. In fact, when this is pushed to the 53rd temperament, it is already very similar to the starting one. If it is pushed down again, there will be a mistake. Because the pitch of the 54th sound is higher than the original 4 sounds of the original sound, it is almost the same. In order to combine the number of temperaments with the number of calendars, Jingfang managed to produce 60 temperaments. He had to treat each of the 60 temperaments, representing 1 day to 8 days, and 60 temperaments are 365 days a year. Such a far-fetched meeting made this method inevitably embarks on the road from the actual reality of music. Later, Qian Lezhi of the Southern Song Dynasty and Sheng Zhong of the Liang Dynasty pushed it to the 360 temperaments, and wanted to use the number of temperaments to attach 360 days a year. This kind of cumbersomeness makes this temperament difficult to use both in practice and in the manufacture of musical instruments, and thus have no practical value. He Chengtian in the Southern and Northern Dynasties took a different approach. He opposed the practice of increasing the number of temperaments by Jingfang and Qian Lezhi, but adjusted within the 12 laws. The idea of his reform is that when the interval is set to octaves, the corresponding chord length must be an integer multiple. For example, the chord length of the pitch is 9.00 ft, and the chord length of the octave is 4.50 ft. The octave of the higher octave is 2.25 ft, and so on. On the basis of this setting, the chord lengths obtained by one-third gains and losses method are appropriately adjusted. The adjustment method is to divide the difference that does not reach the chord length (or tube length) into 12 parts, and add them to the corresponding chord lengths. This ensures that the last 1 of the 12 temperaments can return to the 1 of departure. The result of his doing this, although different from the exact averaging temperament obtained from the frequency ratio, is not much different. From the perspective of listening effects, it is not easy for the human ear to distinguish the difference between the two. Later, during the Five Dynasties, Wang Pu made further improvements on the basis of He Chengtian’s ideas. He broke the method of He Chengtian’s average distribution of chord length differences, which made the results more accurate. However, neither He Chengtian nor Wang Pu solved the problem completely. They only worked hard to allocate the difference according to the length of the temperament, instead of assigning the difference according to the frequency, which made the interval between the temperaments disorder, and the transfer more difficult and more inconvenient. However, their efforts broke the stereotypes of one-third gains and losses method, and prepared for the future to completely solve this problem. There is only one way out in the end, and the 12 equal temperaments are chosen. The so-called 12-average temperament is a temperament system that strictly divides the octave into 12 semitones with equal intervals. Obviously, in order to completely solve the problem of transition and modulation, the temperament system is required to satisfy at least two points. First, it must be very strict and accurate in

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terms of octave intervals; second, each semitone interval must be equal. Otherwise, for a certain melody, it can only start from a fixed tone of octave, which limits the scope and development of the tune. The one-third gains and losses method does not meet these two requirements. He Chengtian and Wang Pu’s work solved the first problem, but the latter’s attempt could not be considered successful. Only 12 equal temperaments meet these requirements. Therefore, in modern music practice, the 12-average temperament has been widely used. The key to achieving the 12-average temperaments is to assign the corresponding chord lengths according to the geometric ratio. Because the 12-average temperaments require that each semitone interval be equal, the equal intervals mean that the adjacent audio ratios are equal, thus naturally forming the corresponding chord lengths that exhibit the equal-ratio distribution. Obviously, the crux of the problem lies in finding out the ratio of this series. Let the frequency of the main sound be m and the frequency of its octave 2 m, and divide the two tones into 12 equal-length semitones, so that the ratio of the adjacent 2 semitones is t, then 2m ¼ mt12 Therefore t ¼

12

√2

The reciprocal of t is the ratio of the geometric ratios used to calculate the chord length distribution. That is, if the pitch length of the pitch is 1, the corresponding chord lengths of the following temperaments are 21/12, 21/12,. . ., 21/12; the law thus determined is the 12-average temperament, which fully satisfies the requirements of the transition and modulation, performance, and harmony in the practice of music. In the history of temperament, it was the Ming Dynasty scientist Zhu Zaiyu who first invented the 12 equal temperaments. In his book New Theory of Temperament in 1584, Zhu Zaiyu first elaborated on the theory of the 12 equal temperaments, and further discussed it later in his Lv Lv Jing Yi (written in 1596). In his mathematical work Jia Liang Suan jing, the detailed mathematical calculations about the 12-average temperaments are described, leaving a precious cultural heritage for future generations. Zhu Zaiyu did not have the modern concepts of frequency and interval. How could he invent the 12 averaging temperaments? In fact, these concepts are not necessary conditions for the invention of the 12 temperaments. Before Zhu Zaiyu, the pursuit of the transition and modulation of the melody in the performance of music was a dream that many phonologists had dreamt of. Their pursuit is the foundation of the work of Zhu Zaiyu. For example, Zhu Zaiyu’s father Zhu Houwan might have some glimpses of some of the mysteries of the 12-average temperaments. He once said to Zhu Zaiyu, “Zhonglv is produced after Huangzhong, returning to the origin; Huang Zhong’s reversal of Zhonglu, the cycle is unwarranted. There is no reason not to return. If you learn from each other, you will know that the law of gains and losses is not the gist” (Lv Lv Jing Yi-Xu). These words indicate that he might have initially found a tuning method that could achieve the circadian rhythm. What

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is needed is an accurate mathematical representation. This is of course very helpful to Zhu Zaiyu’s work. As far as Zhu Zaiyu was concerned, he knew that the chord length ratio of two octaves is 2, and the 12 temperaments in the middle cannot be changed, so that the possibility of realizing the transition is the key is to use some mathematical method to identify the 12 temperaments. Zhu Zaiyu had a high degree of mathematics and had a strong foundation in music practice. Through a large number of mathematical calculations and acoustic experiments, he finally found that the 12 temperaments are geometric progression taking 12√2 as ratio and found the known first and last terms of the geometric progression, how to solve the middle term method, and applied it to the 12 averaging temperaments, thus providing the world with a complete 12-average temperament calculation method. After Zhu Zaiyu invented the 12-average temperament, he did not get much response from other people. Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty once opposed this theory. However, after the doctrine was passed abroad, it caused a lot of shock and was warmly praised. Western scholars have found the 12-average temperaments, which may be affected by Zhu Zaiyu’s theory of rhythm. This temperament is generally accepted in both theory and practice. It occurred in the west and spread throughout the world. In the whole process, Zhu Zaiyu was at the forefront. (Translator: Juan Wang) (Proofreader: Ermao Yan)

References 1. Shi Shuqing. (1994). Chinese cultural relics encyclopedia-gold, silver and jade volume (p. 277). Hong Kong: Commercial Press/Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House. 2. Hua Jueming, Jia Yunfu. (1983). Discussion on the design and Production of the Pre-Qin Bells. Studies in the History of Natural Sciences. Beijing. 3. The Chimes of Yejiashan Tomb is Expected to Rewrite the History of Music. Oriental Morning Post, July 6, 2013.

Craft in Bronze Kingdom: The Ancient Chinese Casting

14

Derui Tan

Contents 14.1 14.2

14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6

Historical Stages of Ancient Chinese Casting Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Bronze Technology from the Initial Stage to the Update Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.1 The Initial Period (the Thirtieth Century BC to the Sixteenth Century BC) . . . 14.2.2 Breeding Period (Sixteenth Century BC to Thirteenth Century BC) . . . . . . . . . 14.2.3 Peak Period (Thirteenth Century BC to the Tenth Century BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.4 Transition Period (Tenth Century BC to Sixth Century BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.5 Update Period (the Sixth Century BC to 221 BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Foundry Technology of the Early Iron Age (the Turn of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States to the Middle of the Western Han Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Foundry Technology in the Complete Iron Age (From the Late Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comprehensive Developments of Metal Technology and the Era of Getting into Shape (From the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Middle of the Ming Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Era of Slow Development of Traditional Metal Technology (Mid-Ming Dynasty to 1840) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

472 473 473 475 475 477 478 499 506 508 524

Abstract

This chapter first gives a brief introduction of historical stages of ancient Chinese casting technology. And then it expounds the bronze technology from the initial stage to the update period, the foundry technology of the early Iron Age (the turn of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States to the middle of the Western Han Dynasty), the foundry technology in the complete Iron Age (from the late Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties), comprehensive developments of metal technology and the era of getting into shape (from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the middle of the Ming Dynasty) and the era of slow development of traditional metal technology (mid-Ming Dynasty to 1840). D. Tan (*) Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 X. Jiang (ed.), The Origins of Sciences in China, History of Science and Technology in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7853-3_14

471

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Keywords

Ancient China · Casting technology · Historical stages

14.1

Historical Stages of Ancient Chinese Casting Technology

The historical process of casting technology in ancient China can be divided into four stages: the initiation period, the copper and stone era, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. The earliest unearthed metal objects were original brass pieces and tubes, which were unearthed about 6700 years ago. About 2500 years later, utensils with early technical characteristics were also found such as crucible attached with copper slag simple copper rings and bronze knives, indicating that the ancestors have begun to use copper ore to make and shape them, which is called the initiation period. The combined use of copper and stone is about the third millennium BC. Artificial smelting of red copper, tin bronze, lead-tin bronze, and original brass has begun. Metal processes such as casting, forging, and heat treatment (annealing) have begun to be applied, which means that China gradually began the transition to a civilized society. The sign of the beginning of the Bronze Age should be the emergence of a special metal handicraft production department-bronze smelting and casting workshop, and it has a considerable technical level, which has indeed laid a foundational role in the Chinese bronze technology tradition. Located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, a group of bronze rituals and accurate shape bronze tools and weapons unearthed from the second dynasty of the second division of the Yellow River in Henan Province, and the related plaques and pottery. China has entered the Bronze Age during the Erlitou culture period. As far as the development of bronze technology is concerned, Chinese bronze technology is divided into the initial stage (the first thirtieth century BC to the first sixteenth century BC, from the copper-stone combination period to the late Xia Dynasty) and the breeding period (the first sixteenth century BC to the first thirteenth century BC, i.e., from the late Xia period to the early and middle of the Shang), the peak period (the thirteenth century BC to the tenth century BC, i.e., the late commercial period to the early Western Zhou Dynasty), the transition period (the tenth century BC to the first sixth century BC, i.e., the middle to late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn period), and the renewal period (from the sixth century BC to the 221 BC, i.e., the middle and late period of the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period), five stages in all. In the early stage of the initial period, the period of copper and stone is used together, and began to bear the Bronze Age. Until the late stage of the initial stage, the Erlitou smelting technology that laid a foundation for the Chinese bronze technology was finally born. The five stages are not only the stages of the Chinese Bronze Age. It spans more than the Bronze Age. The jade iron sword unearthed from the tomb of the Guo State in the late Western Zhou Dynasty was an artificial smelting block iron, which proved that the Chinese

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iron smelting process was produced in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. Prior to this, the razor iron was used to make the blade of the forged weapon, which laid the foundation for the invention of artificial iron. In the Spring and Autumn period, there were many new materials in the archaeological excavation era, but there is still no conclusion. China has invented the pig iron smelting technology for casting production of tools and weapons. At this time, China entered the Iron Age. The Iron Age can be divided into the early iron age (from the Spring and Autumn period to the middle of the Western Han Dynasty), the complete Iron Age (the late Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties), the all-round development of metal technology and the age of stereotypes (the middle of the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the middle of the Ming Dynasty), and the slow development of traditional metal technology (mid-Ming Dynasty to 1840).

14.2

The Bronze Technology from the Initial Stage to the Update Period

14.2.1 The Initial Period (the Thirtieth Century BC to the Sixteenth Century BC) The late period of the Erlitou culture period, the initial period of bronze technology, was equivalent to the late Xia Dynasty. The unearthed bronze vessels were thin (see Fig. 14.1). Technically, it not only reflected that the ceramics and the standard technology of Tao pottery foundry were quite accurate. It also reflected the technical formula of pottery moulds, preventing and reducing the deformation of pottery

Fig. 14.1 Jue with Ruding pattern. (From the late period of Erlitou culture, the height is 22.5 cm, the tail is 31.5 cm long, and bronze. The wall thickness is less than 1 mm, which shows that the ancestors of the Bronze Age had an excellent control over the deformation and filling ability of pottery moulds)

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moulds and ensuring the good filling of pottery moulds. The formula and its processing technology, which had been basically determined during the Erlitou culture period, laid the technical foundation for the highly developed bronze technology of the Bronze Age. The Erlitou cultural site also unearthed the gorgeous bronze ornaments inlaid with turquoise (see Fig. 14.2), creating a precedent for the diversification of Chinese metal ware decoration materials and decorative techniques. The Shilifan (stone axe mould) (see Fig. 14.3), which can be repeatedly used for many times, was unearthed at the Dongxiafeng site of Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province, showing that it had applied “one-mould multi-casting” mass production of agricultural tools, which was an important factor in improving labor productivity in ancient times. Fig. 14.2 Animal face tablet (From the late period of Erlitou culture, it was a 16.5-cm-long bronze; delicately dimensioned in turquoise embedded into animal face pattern, colorful)

Fig. 14.3 Shiben mould (the Erlitou culture period)

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14.2.2 Breeding Period (Sixteenth Century BC to Thirteenth Century BC) The casting technique appeared in the breeding period, which laid a solid technical foundation for the use of pottery mould casting technology to produce complex shapes (see Fig. 14.4). In the early and middle of the Shang Dynasty, models with flammable materials (hemp rope, wicker, and pseudo-dough) were used to make three-dimensional distortions that could not be divided. For example, ropelike loop handle can only be used to make an overall appearance. After baking, the model can be discharged into ash, which can be cast into a “bake and loss” casting with no joint lines (see Fig. 14.5). This technology had been used until the Spring and Autumn period. The bake and loss process has laid the foundation for the overall lost-wax casting process.

14.2.3 Peak Period (Thirteenth Century BC to the Tenth Century BC) The peak period is a mature period when pottery mould casting’s techniques such as whole casting, compound mould, loose block mould, split casting, and casting and welding are highly skilled and proficiently used, creating a large number of castings, some with deep and delicate ornamentation, some with exquisite and complex ornamentation, and some with thick ornamentation (see Figs. 14.6, 14.7, 14.8, 14.9, 14.10, and 14.11).

Fig. 14.4 Big square Ding. (From the early days of Shang Dynasty, 1-m-high bronze. Using a complex casting technology, it is cast one piece after another). (凹卯槽, mortise groove; 凸榫, tenon; 卡槽, neck; 内卡圈, retainer ring; 合范缝, joint mould gap)

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Fig. 14.5 Schematic diagrams of the animal face pot and lifting handle. (From the middle of the Shang Dynasty, bronze. Using the split casting technology, the girders and the cover and the body are both interconnected and nondetachable. No joint line one the handle, cast by the bake and loss method)

Fig. 14.6 Liu Ding. (Late Shang Dynasty, 22.9-cm-high bronze. The whole body is cast with the whole casting method. The delicate and deep pattern on the abdomen reflects pottery mould’s excellent engraving performance, filling performance, and sculptor’s exquisite skills)

In the middle of the Shang Dynasty, gold foil technology had appeared. The thickness of the gold foil was less than 1 mm. In the late Shang Dynasty, the gold foil unearthed from the Yinxu Ruins was less than 0.01 mm thick, and the foil technology level was very high. Gold plating and gold-plating decorations appeared on the bronze wares of Sanxingdui, Guanghan, Sichuan (see Fig. 14.12). There have been quite large casting workshops during the peak period. A large number of pottery moulds, copper slag, and furnace remnants were unearthed from the Yinxu Ruins casting workshop in the late Shang Dynasty in Anyang, Henan.

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Fig. 14.7 Simuxin square Ding and its pottery mould assembly diagram. (Late Shang Dynasty; the height was 80.1 cm, bronze. This square Ding consists of 4 groups of 20 loose block moulds, forming 4 groups of composite moulds, which combination forms the ornamentation and edges of the body and the feet)

Anyang also unearthed an 875-kg-old Simuwu square Ding, which was the heaviest bronze of the Shang Dynasty (see Fig. 14.11). The characters on the oracle bones of the Yinxu Ruins indicate that there were officials in the late Shang Dynasty who specialized in handicraft industry, and the handicraft industry has a professional division of labor. After the founding of the Western Zhou Dynasty, both political and economic centers in the Zhou Dynasty had their own royal casting workshops. The early Luoyang Western Zhou casting site covers the area of 140,000 m2. After the founding of the Western Zhou Dynasty, people attached great importance to technology, and the division of labor was professional and meticulous. The bronze technology of the early Western Zhou Dynasty inherited the fine tradition of sophisticated and sophisticated styles of the late Shang Dynasty (see Figs. 14.8 and 14.9).

14.2.4 Transition Period (Tenth Century BC to Sixth Century BC) In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the situation of national strength changed from prosperity to decline, which was also reflected in the bronze technology. The decoration turned from fine to extensive, and the casting technique of most utensils was relatively rough. During this period, the design of the bronze bell had a big step forward. Although the intonation of chimes of the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty was poor, after the appearance of the double-tone bell (see Fig. 14.13), the design of the two-tone bell according to the tone series of chimes began to take shape. This is the transition period (see Fig. 14.14).

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Fig. 14.8 Boge You and schematic diagram of the loose block mould of the beast and its handle. (In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, 33.6-cm-high bronze. If there is no exquisite loose block mould technology, the small warped animal corner cannot be formed)

14.2.5 Update Period (the Sixth Century BC to 221 BC) The period from the middle and late Spring and Autumn to the Warring States period is an update period. Ancient slavery gradually disintegrated. With the rise of the emerging landlord class, ironwares began to be used widely, and the rapid development of social productive forces, the emergence of a variety of literary movements in the various vassal states, and the emergence of “a hundred schools of contention” in the academic field lead to unprecedented prosperity in cultural science and technology. During this period, an important work, Kaogongji, which described the design and production experience of various artifacts in the pre-Qin Dynasty, appeared. The viewpoints of “complying with the seasons and the natural laws, making good use of materials and the techniques, and the outcome will be good.” It is very insightful to take the seasons, the environment, materials, and skills as a prerequisite for the design and production of excellent utensils. The six copper-tin alloy formulations

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Fig. 14.9 Yubo Gui and schematic diagram of its loose block forming a warped horn and pottery mould of base of Gui with a loose block mould. (In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the height was 31 cm, bronze. The use of superb loose block technology makes 3D high relief forming feasible)

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Fig. 14.10 Four-sheep Square Zun. (From the late Shang Dynasty, 58.3-cm-high bronze. The spiral horn is first cast and placed in the pottery mould of the casting body. After the body is cast, the horn is very precisely joined with the horns, and the traces of the split casting are difficult to find. Thus, some scholars mistakenly thought that the device was cast with lost-wax method)

Fig. 14.11 (continued)

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Fig. 14.11 Schematic diagram of the Houmuwu ding and the ears of Ding with split casting and the scene of pouring described in the book of Heavenly Creations of the Ming Dynasty. (From the late Shang Dynasty, the height was 133 cm, the length was 111 cm, the width was 79 cm, and the mass was 875 kg. It was the thickest bronze in the Bronze Age. The body is first whole cast in one

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Fig. 14.12 Gold mask person avatar. (From the late Shang Dynasty, 42.5-cm-high gold-plated bronze. Applying raw lacquer and lime as a bonding agent and sticking the gold foil on the copper head)

described in the book according to different usage requirements, namely, the famous “metal has six kinds of components,” are the world’s first description of alloy formulations. In the book, there is also a record of determining the heat according to the color of the flame when casting tin bronze. The figure illustrates the names of the various parts of the bronze Yong bell (see Fig. 14.15) and the scale ratios, indicating that the bell’s body design has been standardized. Comparing the records of the various parts of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty compared with the records in the book, the fluctuation is not large. The name of each part of the recorded Yong bell is based on the milling length, and the dimensions of other parts are determined by the ratio of them to milling. In the last years of the Warring States period (before and after 239), Lv’s Spring and Autumn Annals (《吕氏春秋》) talked about “pure copper is soft and pure tin is soft. But combine them together, and the alloy will be hard,” which is a regular understanding of ä Fig. 14.11 (continued) piece with the legs, and the ears are cast later. For such heavy castings, it was necessary to construct a plurality of crucible furnaces and blast the bronzes at the same time. The air was ignited by a conductor, and the copper furnaces were successively discharged from the furnaces, and poured into the molds through the uninterrupted flow. As seen in Heavenly Creations, it is even in the late Ming Dynasty, the scene of casting heavy castings is also like this. With the production of large-scale pottery, a large amount of copper water is simultaneously smelted and continuously injected into the ceramic cavity, reflecting the high level of production management and technology of the late bronze casting workshop). (天工开物, Tian Gong Kai Wu; 中卷, middle column)

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Fig. 14.13 Schematic diagram of a double-tone, closed-tile smashing Yong bell. (正鼓, Zhenggu tonic; 侧 鼓, Cegu tonic; 左鼓, left Cegu; 右鼓, right Cegu; 打点, striking point)

the function of copper and tin in tin bronze. Based on this understanding, bronze composite swords had been designed and cast as early as the Spring and Autumn period. The ridge of this kind of bronze sword had a low-tin content, red and yellow in color, with good toughness and not easy to break; the Jiancong-slope parts beside the ridge had a high-tin content and yellowish white color, which is hard and sharp, also known as “two-color swords.” Using the sub-casting technique to cast a bronze composite sword of rigid and soft (see Fig. 14.16a, b, c), before the emergence of iron weapons, this kind of bronze swords became the most advanced weapon of the time. The smelting and casting sites of the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period have been found in many places. The most famous one is the smelting ruins of the Capital of Jin State located in Houma, Shanxi, where tens of thousands of pottery moulds, pottery moulds, the raw materials and auxiliary materials related to the finishing and smelting, tools and enamel, etc. have been unearthed. Some of the ceramic sculptures are exquisite and delicate (see Fig. 14.17). Even the cast ceramics are clearly decorated and accurately combined (see Fig. 14.18). In order to adapt to large-scale production, some ritual accessories (such as ears of tripods) had been standardized and had reserves; new technologies such as separate block modeling had appeared; pottery mould’s ingredients, processing, and its performance were the most reasonable and superior in casting sites in the Bronze Age. The excavation of Zenghouyi’s bells in the early Warring States period represented the unprecedented achievements of ancient Chinese acoustics, temperament, and casting technology. The bells are accurate in temperament, and each piece can knock out two tones with a difference of three degrees. The total range includes five octaves, which can change the note and tones. The range is wide, the series of sound is full, and the sound is beautiful. It is a miracle of the world musical instrument history (see Fig. 14.19).

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Fig. 14.14 (a, b) Rongsheng chimes. (From the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn period, bronze. A set of 8 pieces, the maximum piece is 51.7 cm high and the mass is 15.4 kg; the smallest piece is 21.4 cm high and the mass is 2.2 kg). (c, d) The sound tunnel in the third bell of the Rongsheng chime and the sectional view of and the third chime. (There are six sound tunnels with curved grooves, located on the two positive drums and four side drums, with honing marks left after tone tuning. This chime produces a clearly separated two to three-tone intervals)

The casting process and the surface decoration process of castings from the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period have emerged in an endless stream. (1) Newly Emerging Casting Process On the basis of inheriting the techniques of whole casting, spilt casting, and compound pottery moulds, the combination of split casting technology and casting

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Fig. 14.15 Kaogong Ji ·Fushiwei bell

welding (hard soldering and copper brazing) has resulted in the casting of the block method and producing castings with very complex shapes (see Fig. 14.20). In addition, a series of new casting techniques have emerged. ① Lost-Wax Casting Because of the romantic and decorative design of the artworks of the vassal countries such as Chu State in this period, it was difficult to form a ceramic casting with the combination of the block method. So on the basis of the principle of the lost casting process invented by the Shang Dynasty, the wax mold which could be melted from the whole ceramics after heating was obtained by using a mixture of beeswax, rosin, oil, and the like, thereby creating a lost-wax casting method which did not need to be divided. So far, the earliest lost-wax castings are accessory of Yunerzhan produced by the Chu State in the middle of the Spring and Autumn period (570 BC) (see Fig. 14.21); after which are the transparent accessories of Chu’s King Zhan (560 BC or earlier), bronze transparent accessories unearthed from the tomb of Xugongning, and the three-dimensional transparent accessory decoration on the bronze Jin with engraved cloud pattern (see Fig. 14.22a, b, c).

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Fig. 14.16 (a) Bronze compound sword (Warring States, 69 cm high); (b) photograph of the bronze compound sword stub and its cross section (the sword body with a high-tin content is white, while the color of the sword ridge with a low-tin content is reddish). (c) Low-metallographic structure of the cross section of the bronze composite sword (the first cast sword ridge is homogenized and annealed, and the post-cast sword is solidified faster)

During the middle and late period of the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the lost-wax casting treasures emerged in an endless stream, including the Zenghouyi plate of Zeng State; the early vassal state located in Suizhou, Hubei Province (see Fig. 14.23); and the Chenzhang round pot produced by Yan State, which is located in the north (see Fig. 14.24). Chenzhang round pots of the middle of the Warring States period, with complex and exquisite engraved accessories and the superb casting skills, are among the few treasures in the world’s bronze cultural heritage. ② Stack Casting The multiple pottery moulds are horizontally stacked, and the layers are connected by sprues. After casting, a series of castings are obtained (see Fig. 14.25a, b). The stack casting process greatly improves the casting production efficiency and metal recovery rate. The horizontally divided stacking technique of

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Fig. 14.17 The pottery mould (size 20*18.5 cm) unearthed from the foundry of Jin State in Houma and its pattern restoration map

Fig. 14.18 Pottery mould (size 8*7.3 cm) unearthed from the foundry of Jin State in Houma and its combination schematic diagram

the Warring States period has begun to be applied to coin (see Fig. 14.25c, d) mass production. This technology has played an important role in improving social productivity and the development of the commodity economy. ③ Metal Mould Casting Copper has been used to cast bronze currency during the Spring and Autumn period (see Fig. 14.26). During the Warring States period, iron was used to cast metal tools such as agricultural tools and horses and chariots. From the whole process of metal casting (see Fig. 14.39), it is known that the technical requirements for dimensional accuracy are quite strict. The metal is a “permanent” mold, which

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Fig. 14.19 (a–d) Zenghouyi bells. (From the early Warring States, bronze. There are a total of 64 Yone bells and Niu bells, plus 1 Fu bell given as a gift by the king of Chu State, which is suspended in the middle of the lower layer, totaling 65 pieces. It is suspended in three layers and arranged in a square shape. The main beam is 748 cm long and 265 cm high. The side beam is 335 cm long and 273 cm high. The beams and columns are gorgeously decorated). (e) The largest cuckoo of Zenghouyi Yong bell hanging at the lower level (152.3 cm in height). (f) A Yong bell needs to be cast once for all from a mould of 136 moulds. (Pottery mould’s dimensional accuracy requirements are quite accurate, and the requirements for copper, tin, and lead are accurate, so that the sound can be accurately pronounced, and the casting technology is extremely demanding)

avoids the drawbacks that pottery moulds can only be used once. It can be “one mould and multiple cast,” and the solidification speed of the casting in the metal mould is much faster than that of pottery moulds, which greatly promoted the rapid increase in productivity of the early feudal society. ④ Forming of Extremely Thin-Walled Parts During the middle and late Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period, many walls and patterns had developed to a relatively thin degree. The walls and textures of individual objects were thin even in the contemporary; special casting methods such as pressurization, vacuum, and negative pressure must be used. This is a remarkable achievement in the history of casting technology, reflecting that pottery mould’s ingredients, its processing technology, and standard technology are both scientific and reasonable, and the technical skills are also highly skilled. The geometric pattern Zun (see Fig. 14.27) and the concentric circles on the pommel of the sword of King Goujian (see Fig. 14.28) are representative works among them.

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Fig. 14.20 Jian drum pedestal. (From the early Warring States period, the height was 54 cm and the bottom diameter was 80 cm bronze. In the middle of the conical base, there is a hollow cylinder that supports the drum column. Around the 16 dragons and dozens of dragons clinging to the head, body, and tail of the dragon, they form a cross-tangled but well-ordered dragon group. The dragon group is cast by 22 divided castings, which are connected with each other and other components by cast welding to form an extremely complicated piece of work)

Fig. 14.21 The three legs and the handle of top lid of the Yunerzhan are first cast out by the lostwax method, and then integrated with the body and the lid

(2) New Metal Surface Decoration Process The decoration of other materials on the surface of bronzes had also been greatly developed during the renewal period. Both decorative materials and decorative

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Fig. 14.22 (a) Jin with engraved cloud pattern. (From the late Spring and Autumn period, it is 28.8 cm high, 131 cm long, and 67.6 cm wide). (b) The four edges and four sides of the Jin are entangled with three layers of uneven copper stalks to form a transparent cloud pattern. (c) The inside of the side block of the Jin’s body when unearthed (the structure is complicated, and it cannot be formed without using the lost-wax method)

techniques were the most colorful in the Bronze Age, which had a profound impact on traditional metal craftsmanship. It is still being circulated today. ① Inlay Inlaid with gold, silver, red copper or precious stones, shells, and other materials on the surface of the bronze, all are available in the renewal period. Inlaying colorful stone on the surface of utensils had already appeared in the Erlitou period (see Fig. 14.2). Inlaid metal process, in addition to the metal foil and filaments glued or pressed into the groove, there was also a process of pre-cast red copper pattern placed in the object, cast into a whole piece (see Fig. 14.29). In the update period, there are thousands of bronze statues inlaid with gold and silver. The gold and silver inlaying decoration is smooth or natural, or as thin as hair. Many works of art are inlaid with gold and silver, as well as turquoise, glaze or jade, and jewels (see Fig. 14.30), which constitute a colorful artistic effect.

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Fig. 14.23 (a) Zenghouyi Zun (from the early Warring States, 30.1-cm-high bronze); (b) a threelayer engraved accessory decoration around the mouth of the Zun (constructed by four pieces of hollow parts previously cast in lost wax and then cast on the body). (c) Schematic diagram of the structure of the engraved accessory of Zenghouyi Zun; (d) Zenghouyi plate (from the early Warring States, 23.5-cm-high bronze. Four rectangular three-layer engraved accessories higher than the mouth are cast by lost-wax method)

② Gold Coating, Inlaying Gold, and Gilding At the turn of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there was a gold coating process. Gold coating is, namely, inlaying gold, gilding, which is also known as yellow coating or fire gold plating. Shuowen Jiezi (Chinese characters in paraphrasing texts and words): “inlaying, namely gold coating.” Ji Yun: “Gold coating is namely inlaying.” Obviously, “inlaying” is not a mechanical setting.

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Fig. 14.24 (a) Chenzhang round pot (from the middle of the Warring States period, 24 cm high, caliber 12.8 cm, bronze); (b) the body of the inlaying silver is divided into the upper and lower two parts of the copper dragon network and are connected with copper hoop of inlaying gold and silver in the middle. (c) The network of bronze dragon consists of a surface layer formed by 48 dragons and 576 plum nails on the upper and lower sides, the middle layer formed by the dragon body, and the inner layer formed by the dragon’s body, a total of 3 layers of transparent network (d) X-ray photo of the network of bronze dragon

Gold or silver gilding is to dissolve gold or silver into heated mercury to form a gold amalgam or amalgam. After coating it on the surface of the copper, heat the copper and compact the mercury to drive the mercury to make gold or silver adheres to the surface of the bronze, creating a bright, moisturizing gold or silver finishing surface (see Fig. 14.31). ③ Tin Rich on the Surface Since the silver-white copper helmet is unearthed from the Yinxu Ruins in the late Shang Dynasty, the bronzes with a silvery white surface and a high-tin content have appeared constantly, so there is the saying of tin plating. Through scientific test and research, the silver-white color on the surface of northern bronzes, such as the Erdos bronze medals, is tinned. In other areas, the silvery white surface of the bronze, except for those formed due to the loss of copper-rich ɑ because of the corrosion and

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Fig. 14.25 (a, b) Stack casting diagram and stacking mould (multilayer mud moulds superimposed assembly with outer surface attached paste and mud and forming stack mould. After being baked, it was ready to be used for casting). (c, d) Copper mould of knife coin of Qi State as well as its rubbings. (From the Warring States, 21.5-cm-long bronze. At the bottom of the mould, two knife-coin models with relief characters “qifahua, 齐法化” are arranged; one is the top side while another is the bottom side. The height of the round tenon in the middle is equal to the frame height of the mould box. The round tenon and the four branches are formed into the straight sprue and the inside sprue, respectively. The geometrical concave and convex on both sides of the knife model are the models of the positioning points of the mould slices. With this kind of mould boxes, every two pieces are just made up of a set of pottery mould, which can cast into two knife coins. This type of styling method that can be used to make all the stacking moulds with only one mould box has realized the principle of interchangeability in industrial production. The design and casting requirements are precise, and the process concept is very clever. The high level of development laid the foundation for technology of stack casting in the Warring States period.)

thus the increase of (α + δ) eutectoids, mostly forms due to an infiltration of the tin-rich phase of the bronze matrix on the surface of the bronze. This surface alloying technology, which is bright and corrosion-resistant, had been invented more than 2500 years before in China, and had produced three kinds

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Fig. 14.26 (a, b) Copper mould and its rubbings for casting ant-nose coins. (From the Spring and Autumn period, 32.4-cm-high bronze. A pair of copper moulds can cast out 77 pieces of copper ant-nose coins at a time, and after solidification, the casting can be taken out. The casting can be made after the combination of moulds. The production efficiency is extremely high)

Fig. 14.27 (a, b) The geometric pattern Zun and schematic diagram of its belly pattern. (From the Warring States period, 20-cm-high bronze. The wall is very thin, the two vertical mould lines symmetrically distributed on the belly are thin and uniform, the abdomen is full of deformed geometric patterns, and the protruding lines are decorated between the two parallel convex lines of the thin blade; the distance between the three protruding lines is only 0.3–0.8 mm. It can be seen that pottery mould’s shrinkage deformation is extremely small, the carving ability is excellent, the filling performance is good, and the molding skill is superb)

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Fig. 14.28 (a) The sword of King Goujian of the Yue State. (From the late Spring and Autumn period, 55.7-cm-long, 4.6-cm-wide bronze). (b) The top of the sword of King Goujian of the Yue State. (Its outer diameter is 37.5 millimeters, in which are cast 11 circles of thin and uniform concentric round protrusions. The bottom is cast with raised string patterns; modern turning technology cannot produce such parts.) (c) Schematic diagram of the concentric circle of the top of another bronze sword. (d) After research and experiment, masters of sword casting of Wu and Yue States are skillfully applying the scraper technology (d-1) to make the concentric sword head pottery moulds (d-2)

of copper surface tin-rich technologies such as paste-coated tin, rubbed tin, and liquid tin, which had been used until the Ming Dynasty. This is a remarkable achievement in the history of Chinese metal surface decoration technology.

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Fig. 14.29 Pot inlaid with red bronze of bird and beast pattern. (From the Warring States, 46.6 cm high, bronze. The red copper piece is first cast with a tenon on the back of the decoration. The tenon is placed in the pottery mould used for casting the body and the cover, and the red copper piece is exposed in the cavity, and is embedded in the body when casting. The surface is ground, and then appears a red copper pattern with excellent decorative effect)

At present, the earliest surface tin-rich utensils are found to be the so-called “diamond-shaped dark plaid” decorations appearing on the Wu and Yue bronze weapons in the middle and late Spring and Autumn period (see Fig. 14.32a, b). It is heated and diffused by the tin-rich coating to form a white tin-rich fine-grained phase on the surface of the bronze weapon (see Fig. 14.32c), which protects the bronze matrix from corrosion and forms a yellow-white effect with the base bronze. The other two are one that is used for the surface of the mirror surface to infiltrate tin (using a “grinding mirror drug” with tin-copper alloy powder to make it tin-rich on the mirror surface; see Fig. 14.57) and the other for forming tin-rich patterns by using a liquid tin-rich agent on the surface of the utensils. ④ Engraving The technique of carving points, lines, and planes on bronzes began in the late Spring and Autumn period when steel tools were used to a certain extent, and became popular during the Warring States period. Before the artificial iron smelting process was invented, what kind of tool could be used to engrave the inscription on the bronze of the as-cast high-tin bronze? Scholars have proposed two kinds of speculation: either using a samarium iron tool or formulating a high-tin bronze casting tool, which is heat-treated to produce a hard and tough structure, being able to be used as a chiseling tool.

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Fig. 14.30 (a) Shaft ornaments of beast-head shape inlaid with gold, silver, and bronze. (From the Warring States, 8.8-cm-high, 13.7-cm-long bronze. Inserting filigree or flake into the groove of the

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In the late Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the engraved bronzes, most are thin-walled devices, and the wall thicknesses of many such devices are even less than 1 mm. Applying the engraving on it, the pattern formed is close to life, and the engraving is smooth and vivid, as thin as a hair (see Fig. 14.33). ⑤ Rough Pattern It is more common in the Bashu bronze weapons of the Warring States period, also known as “tiger patterns.” The rough pattern is decorated on the sword and is uneven (see Fig. 14.34). The production technology of rough pattern has not been studied and explored. In summary, the mainstream technology of metal forming in ancient China the various methods in casting, namely, pottery mould casting, lost-wax casting, metal mould casting, stack casting, etc. has not only created inventions but also developed to a fairly high level in the pre-Qin period. Many metal surface decoration techniques were also produced during the pre-Qin period, and the skills were quite high.

14.3

The Foundry Technology of the Early Iron Age (the Turn of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States to the Middle of the Western Han Dynasty)

The use of iron in ancient civilizations began with an understanding of the strength and toughness of aerosiderite. As far as China is concerned, the earliest bismuth ironware is the iron blade copper Yue in the middle of the Shang Dynasty (see Fig. 14.35). It is the part of the sharp edge that is heated and forged into bismuth, and the rest is cast with bronze. This copper-iron bimetallic weapon is the earliest composite product in China. Many pieces have been found so far in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. According to archaeological data, the age of iron smelting in China could date back to about the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and the invention of pig ä Fig. 14.30 (continued) object, and then grind the surface of the object, and the surface of the object will produce the artistic effect of different metallic colors.) (b) Cloud pattern box embedded with gold and silver. (From the late Warring States period, the mouth is 18.2 cm, bronze. The cover and the body are inlaid with cloud patterns of filigree and pieces, and the texture is fine and delicate.) (c) Zenghouyi Dou. (From the early Warring States period, the caliber is 20.6 cm, bronze. The whole body is inlaid with pattern decoration of turquoise, smooth and elegant, with white or brown fillings on the off-line and slender lines, whose uses have not been known.) (d) Silver belt hook inlaid with gold, jade, and glaze. (From the Warring States period, 18.4-cm-long bronze. Silver belt hook inlaid with gold forms two dragons and two parrots. The dragon claws and parrot claws are used to hold the jade, and the jade is embedded with glaze beads, which is extremely luxurious.)

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Fig. 14.31 (a, b) Zun with inlaying silver cloud patterns. (From the middle of the Warring States period, the caliber is 24.5 cm, bronze. The cover and the device are decorated with 36 dragons and 24 phoenixes in an inlaying silver process, and the composition of the ornament is harmonious and beautiful.) (c–e) Copper square table inlaying gold and silver dragon and phoenix. (From the Warring States period, 37.5-cm-high bronze. The four deer support the base; the four dragons

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iron smelting technology could date back to about the Spring and Autumn period. In the history of human material civilization, China’s invention of pig iron and the technology of using pig iron to produce steel have played a decisive role in the widespread application of iron tools, other tools, and weapons, greatly improving labor productivity and bringing a series of huge and profound changes to ancient Chinese society. Its technology spread to the West, which promoted the development of the European economy in the late Middle Ages and laid the material foundation for the industrial revolution. Different from Europe, in ancient China, there was white cast iron (cast iron matrix is iron carbide), followed by ductile cast iron (a group of flocculent graphite distributed in the cast iron matrix) and then gray cast iron (flaky graphite distributed in the cast iron matrix). This is because the strength and hardness of white cast iron are better than that of high-tin bronze, which can be applied to casting tools and other tools, while the white cast iron is brittle and easy to break. As early as the third and fourth centuries BC, China had invented the technology that white-mouth casting blanks with appropriate chemical composition, and through the longtime high-temperature annealing, the hardbrittle iron carbide in white cast iron was graphitized or decarburized and obtain black-hearted ductile cast iron (see Fig. 14.36) or incompletely de-carbonized white-heart ductile cast iron (see Fig. 14.37), its mechanical properties are greatly improved, laying a technical foundation for the wide application of iron tools and other tools. This cast iron softening technique promotes the productivity of ancient Chinese society and has a huge effect on the development of ancient society. During the Warring States period to the Qin and Han Dynasties, the iron and steel tools and hand tools were replaced by bronze and stone tools in the middle of the Warring States period due to two major inventions of cast iron softening and iron casting (see Figs. 14.38 and 14.39), which have greatly promoted the development of social productivity. Gray cast iron and cast iron with spheroidal graphite in the matrix have appeared during the Warring States period. It has been found that there are many cast irons with spheroidal graphite in the iron ruins of the Han Dynasty, which is a significant achievement of cast iron softening technique. Modern ductile iron was invented in the 1940s by British scholar Morrogh and American scholar Williams. It is gained in the way molten iron of low-sulfur and low-carbon is spheroidized with magnesium, rare earth, or rare earth spheroidizing agent, and the inoculant is used as a gestation treatment and then ä Fig. 14.31 (continued) stand on the base; tou-kung is on the top and the tou-kung supports the frame of the table. The four dragons are to fly with the four phoenixes, and each part is inlaying gold and silver. Each part is separately cast and then riveted into one whole body. The structure is complex, and decoration is gorgeous)

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Fig. 14.32 (a, b) Sword of King Goujian of the Yue State and diamond-shaped dark plaid on the spear of the King Fuchai of the Wu State diamond-shaped dark plaid. (The dark diamond pattern is formed for matrix of the copper sword, and the copper spear is partially exposed without the protection of the tin-rich layer, and after being buried, it is caused by the corrosion of the humic acid aqueous solution in the soil for a long time; the protective layer of the tin-rich layer is lightly corroded, so it has a color difference of shallow or dark.) (c) Metallic phase diagram of dark plaid and tin-rich fine-grained areas on the surface of bronze weapons [Left (80 times) The lower part is

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obtained by heat treatment. Since the spheroidal graphite has much smaller shrinkage and nicking effect on the cast iron matrix than the flake graphite and the pulverized graphite, its mechanical properties are quite superior. So it is still widely used in the world now. However, as early as 2000 years ago, China used pure copper, low-sulfur, low-sulfur, and low-phosphorus charcoal pig iron, which was cast in iron or ceramics with a large degree of supercooling, and was annealed to obtain cast iron with spheroidal graphite. The spheroidization rate, the shape and size of the spheroidal ink, and the dispersion distribution are even in line with current national standards (see Fig. 14.40a, b). The extraordinary achievements of this ancient cast iron provide meaningful implications for contemporary cast iron spheroidization theory and spheroidization process. Although the Qin and Han Dynasties have entered the Iron Age, the farm tools, other tools, and weapons have gradually changed to be made of iron. The bronze rituals were no longer the mainstream of cast copper art, but in the field of practical handicrafts such as stoves, horses, lamps, and bronze mirrors, copper castings were widely used, and the technique of casting copper had been improved on the basis of the solid Bronze Age. From the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum unearthed two bronze chariots and horses. Although they are only half of real people, real chariots, and real horses in size, their structures are extremely complicated and its production is very delicate and accurate. Kaogongji: “Most devices which reflect multiple techniques are chariots and horses.” The bronze chariots and horses in the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum reflect the extremely high level of metal craftsmanship in the Qin Dynasty and the pre-Qin countries (see Fig. 14.41). The bronze artifacts from the Han Dynasty tombs in Mancheng, Hebei, and from the Han Dynasty ruins in Yunnan Province are representative of the bronzes, indicating that the techniques of gold coating, inlaying, lacquering, casting, and other techniques in the Han Dynasty are more consummate (see Figs. 14.42, 14.43, 14.44, 14.45, 14.46, 14.47, and 14.48). From the Spring and Autumn period, ethnic minorities in the southwestern region could cast vivid and thin-walled

ä Fig. 14.32 (continued) bronze cast structure, the upper part of the left is the dark plaid section, and the black part is a cavity formed from the loss of copper-rich ɑ phase after being corroded; the surface layer indicated by the upper right arrow is not corroded, the metallographic structure is clearly different from the coarse dendrites of the matric, and the underlying matric is protected from etch. The matrix is tin bronze with 19% Sn] [Right (1000 times) The surface layer indicated by the upper right arrow of the figure is magnified 1000 times, showing that it is composed of the dendrites much smaller than the matrix structure and the crystallite of (ɡ + ɑ) eutectoid, and the fine crystal morphology is distinct from the matrix and integrated with the matrix, indicating that it is alloyed rather than mechanically embedded. Fine-grained zone contains tin 30.6%, much higher than the matrix]

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Fig. 14.33 (a, b) Pot with the drawing of feast, fishing, and hunting scenes. (From the Warring States period, 31.6-cm-high bronze. The body is engraved with rich scenes, such as mulberry, competition, courtship, hunting, banquet, music and dance, siege, boat battle, melee, etc., which are presented in vivid and concise images.) (c, d) Bronze gardebras with carved patterns. (From the Warring States, 23 cm high, bronze, unearthed from ancient Dian State in Yunnan. The armor of the state is often forged with a thin piece of copper. The gardebras has rich engravings, including more than ten kinds of patterns, such as tigers, leopards, bears, snakes, deer, monkeys, chickens, fish, shrimps, etc., and there are scenes such as chicken eating lizards and foxes eating chicken. The carving is exquisite and smooth)

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Fig. 14.34 A bronze sword with tiger patterns. (From the Warring States period, 37.6 cm long, bronze. Both sides of the blade are decorated with natural and irregular plaques. How to form to be solved)

Fig. 14.35 Photographs of the iron blade copper Yue and that of the electron probe of its nickel content. (From the middle of the Shang Dynasty, the residual length is 11.1 cm and the width is 8.5 cm. After X-ray inspection, about 1 cm in the back section of the iron blade was joined by a bronze body and integrated as a whole. The electron probe diagram shows that the iron blade is forged from a high-nickel yttrium iron)

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Fig. 14.36 Shovel unearthed in Changsha and its metallographic map (*100). (From the Warring States period. The shovel base is ferrite, and parts are ferrite-pearlite, and the floc graphite is distributed on the matrix, which belongs to black-hearted ductile cast iron) Fig. 14.37 Metallographic map of iron shovel unearthed in Luoyang (*200). (From the Warring States period. The shovel consists of a transitional structure of ferrite, hypoeutectic, eutectoid, and hypereutectic, and the interior is still white-mouthed structure, which is a ductile cast iron with incomplete decarburization)

bronze drums (see Fig. 14.49). The bronze drum culture had been popular for a long time.

14.4

The Foundry Technology in the Complete Iron Age (From the Late Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties)

After the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, it entered a complete Iron Age. The key is that steel-making technology has made a major breakthrough. The iron was decarburized into steel and then forged into a device. It is a unique decarburization steel technology in ancient China. This kind of technology had appeared in the Warring States period or earlier, and it had developed greatly during the Western Han Dynasty. Taking the Northern Wei Iron Kiln unearthed in Dianchi Lake as an example, among a total of about 4195 iron devices, the iron materials included white iron,

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Fig. 14.38 Schematic diagrams of Xinglong Tiefan Fan and its combination. (From the Warring States period, consisting of two pieces of iron moulds and one piece of iron core. In the modern casting technology, iron mould belongs to a kind of metal casting, which can be reused. With “Onemould multi-casting,” compared with pottery mould casting, the production efficiency is greatly improved, and the finished product specifications are neat, which indicates that the pig iron casting industry in the Warring States period has been quite well developed. This iron mould’s profile is similar to the shape of the casting the wall thickness is uniform, the heat can be uniformly dissipated, and the deformation is not easy to be seen; setting the iron core to form the cavity for installing the shovel handle, which is also a very difficult casting process in modern times; casting handles on the back of the mould may also play the role of clamping mechanism between two moulds, and can increase the rigidity of the iron to prevent deformation)

sputum iron, white-heart ductile iron, black-hearted ductile iron, cast iron with spherical graphite, cast iron decarburized steel, gray iron, and forged iron. China’s advanced metal technology has had a huge impact on the surrounding areas. During the Western Han Dynasty, pig iron smelting technology was transmitted to Central Asia. China’s sword technology spread to Japan during the Three Kingdoms period and later developed into a superior Wo knife forging technology. Chinese steel had been passed from Iran to Rome in the Han Dynasty. Although bronze was not used as a production tool in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was considerable development in artistic imagery. The famous bronze sculptures a heavenly steed soaring across the skies in the Eastern Han Dynasty (see Fig. 14.50) and the bronze chariots and horses (see Fig. 14.51) are not only the masterpieces of romanticism and realism sculpture but also the thin-walled casting technology and the technology of the collection of ceramic casting, lost-wax casting, forging, welding, riveting, pliers, and other techniques in one body, as well as the copper chariots and horses of Qin Imperial Mausoleum are the representative works of Chinese metal craft history. Buddhism, which was introduced from India in the Han Dynasty, was widely spread to the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, five high-rise, one zhang, and six-feet-high gold bronze statues were built in Datong,

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Fig. 14.39 Schematic diagram of plowshare of the Han Dynasty unearthed from Nanyang, showing the process of casting the iron mould from the pottery mould and then casting iron plowshare with iron mould (1–4 cast 2 pieces of iron moulds with 2 pottery moulds; 5–8 cast another piece of iron mould; 9–12 cast iron core; 13 combination of moulds (2 pieces of iron mould, 1 iron core); 14 off the mould after casting and get the iron plowshare)

Shanxi Province. This opened up a wide range of trend of building Buddhist statues. The small- and medium-sized Buddha statues were most cast with a lost-wax method, and the gold coating process was also widely used in the Buddha statues (see Fig. 14.52). In the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasties had 1.2 million statues of Buddha statues. As for the bronze Buddha statues that the believers used to carry indoors or could carry them, the number is countless.

14.5

Comprehensive Developments of Metal Technology and the Era of Getting into Shape (From the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Middle of the Ming Dynasty)

From the Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was a period of comprehensive development and stereotypes of traditional metal technology centered on steel technology.

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Fig. 14.40 (ɑ) Cast iron tools with spheroidal graphite unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty iron casting ruins in Tieshenggou, Gong County, Henan Province (16.4 cm long, 0.8 cm wide upside, 4.8 cm wide left or right side). (b) The metallographic structure (400*) of this tool is ferritepearlite matrix and spheroidal graphite. The diameter of a part of the graphite sphere is less than 50 microns. The spheroidization grade is equivalent to the current I A-Level rare earth magnesium ductile iron

Fig. 14.41 No. 1 copper chariots and horses in Qin Shihuang Mausoleum. (Qin Dynasty, 152-cmhigh, 225-cm-long bronze. On the chariot, there is a royal official, driving four horses, single squat, two-wheeled, and long square sedan chair with a high-handle umbrella, and the chariot is equipped with crossbows, arrows, shields, etc. The royal official is wearing a sword and holding reins and bridle. The horse head is wearing a gold silk bridle and has a silver dart, and there is gold Danglu on the forehead. It is decorated with painted drawings on the horse, cymbal, and under umbrella cover. Bronze objects such as umbrella covers are extremely thin. Doors and windows can be opened and closed, and the axle can be rotated. The whole device is assembled by extremely precise assembly of more than 7000 parts)

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Fig. 14.42 The inlaying gold and silver Zun with cloud patterns and the schematic diagram of its ornamentation. (In the early Western Han Dynasty, it was 34.4-cm-high and 58.1-cm-long bronze. The rhinoceros stands erect; the eyes are inlaid with black and bright beads, looking rather bright. The muscles are solid and seem to be wrapped in thick leather. The whole body is decorated with bas-relief flow cloud patterns, and the contours and soft hair of rhinoceros are drawn with extremely fine gold and silver, vivid and clear.)

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty strongly advocated Buddhism in the context of national economic development. The prosperity of the statue is far more than the Southern and Northern Dynasties (see Fig. 14.53). With the all-round development of steel technology, the world-famous large-scale iron castings emerged such as the Cangzhou Iron Lion (see Fig. 14.54), the Pujin Iron Bull (see Fig. 14.55), and the Dangyang Iron Tower (see Fig. 14.63); the double-acting piston bellows of the wind were invented; after a long period of exploration and selection, it has formed a process system based on pig iron smelting and traditional Chinese steel production with Chinese characteristics, which is the most important technical achievement of this period. The Tang Dynasty handicraft production was divided into two groups, government sector and the private sector, and later formed production centers in different industries. The Tang Dynasty’s national strength was strong, and large-scale art castings appeared in large numbers. At the end of the twentieth century, a group of large-scale art castings from the Tang Dynasty were unearthed on the east bank of the Yellow River in Yongji County, Shanxi Province iron bulls and iron men of the Kai Yuan period of Tang Dynasty, each with four pieces, and two iron mountains, which was

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Fig. 14.43 Chariot accessories inlaying gold and silver hunting patterns. (In the early Western Han Dynasty, it was 26.5 cm long and 3.6 cm in outer diameter, bronze. The whole body is decorated with the inlaying gold and black lacquer. It is divided into four sections. Each section is based on hunting topic. It depicts three people riding elephants, a knight shooting a tiger, riding a camel, a tiger eating a pig, and a tiger hunting a bull, among which are some patterns of horses, deer, rabbits, bears, cranes, geese, hawks, antelopes, bison, apes, baboons, cranes, peacocks and other birds, and beasts. The composition of the drawing is smooth stretch, and turquoise and ruby are inlaid among them. The decoration is extremely gorgeous. Such a colorful image is placed on a very small surface, which shows that the techniques of gold inlaying and silver and lacquer painting of the Han Dynasty are gorgeous.)

an extra-large casting cast under the order of Emperor Tang Xuanzong. The iron bulls, the iron mountains, and the iron pillars are fixed on both banks, and the iron cable pontoon is placed on the rushing Yellow River. They are so majestic that it can be called the classic of practical sculpture art (see Fig. 14.55). The art castings of the Tang Dynasty were mostly made up of religious statues and bronze mirrors. During the Emperor of Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty, “Yangzhou made a square mirror. . . Every time the emperor riding a horse looks into the mirror, both the emperor and the horse are in the mirror.” It can be seen that it was able to cast a large plane mirror with high technical difficulty. The exquisite copper mirror decoration and the craftsmanship are superb (see Fig. 14.56). Only the decoration and processing skills on the mirror back included “mercury bright” (the surface is tin-white treated with tin-rich color) (see Fig. 14.57), precious stone decoration (see Fig. 14.58), inlaying with precious stones (see Fig. 14.59), gold and silver inlaying combined with lacquer painting (see Fig. 14.60), gold and silver coating, gold gilding, gold and silver inlaying, colored drawing, etc.

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Fig. 14.44 Zhenshi pot inlaid with gold. (From the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, it was 45 cm high and 14.2 cm in diameter, bronze. The whole body is decorated with gold or enamel silver and the diagonal plaid. And the intersections of the plaid are inlaid with silver nails, while the internal are embedded with green glaze. It is magnificent. The inscriptions are carved on the cover and the bottom of the device, indicating that the pot is a royal object)

Fig. 14.45 Gilded bronze figurine with a lamp and the schematic diagram of its structure. (In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, 48 cm high, bronze and inlaying gold. The palace lantern is in the shape of a maid sitting holding the lamp. It consists of components such as the head, body, right arm, lamp holder, lamp panel, and lampshade. The lampshade can be rotated to adjust the direction of the candlelight; the smoke of candles can enter the body through the right arm of the maid to keep the room clean. In the Han Dynasty, there were many such eco-friendly lighting lamps.)

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Fig. 14.46 Tube painted with figure and beast patterns. (From the early Western Han Dynasty, 42 cm high and caliber is 14 cm, bronze). The tubes were painted fairy tales with black lacquers, figures, animals, mountains, clouds, flowers, etc., and the lines were smooth

The existing earliest towers in China are the twin towers of Guangxiao Temple, in Guangzhou which were cast by emperor respectively in the sixth year and tenth year (963) of the Dabao period in the Southern Han Dynasty of Five Dynasties. In such a city that is as hot and humid as Guangzhou, after more than a thousand years, there is very little rust (see Fig. 14.61). The fuel for smelting pig iron is charcoal, so the iron gained is low-sulfur medium-phosphorus hypoeutectic white cast iron, which is, compared with using coke as fuel in modern times, low in sulfur content and middle-p eutectic of white-mouth texture, and thus is resistant to corrosion. The handicraft industry and commodity economy in the Song Dynasty were very developed, and the mining and metallurgy industry also showed an unprecedented prosperity. It has become quite common to prepare brass from the zinc ore as furnace burden. The hydrometallurgical technology started in the Western Han Dynasty the method of iron dipping in blue vitriol water had greatly developed in the Song Dynasty. Zhang Qian, a writer from the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote the Strategy of Dipping Iron to Produce Copper, summing up the experience of dipping iron in blue vitriol water to produce copper. This work has also become the earliest hydrometallurgical work in the world. White copper (copper-nickel alloy) was first seen in the Record of Huayangguo in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the actual application may be earlier. After the Tang

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Fig. 14.47 Five-button rectangular mirror with dragon and phoenix patterns. (From the western Han Dynasty, 115.1-cm-long, 57.7-cm-wide, high-tin bronze. The main back of the mirror is decorated with a dragon pattern, the dragon’s head is high, and the dragon body stretches freely. This is the largest copper mirror ever seen. Bronze mirrors are used for admiring oneself, so the mirror must be bright and flat. Such a large flat casting is extremely difficult to control the mirror surface without warping deformation, and let alone that the Chinese mirrors are high tin with about 25% tin in the bronze, and (ɑ + ɡ) is fragile and can’t be reshaped again. The unearthed of this mirror is enough to prove the level of casting skill in the Western Han Dynasty)

Dynasty, Persia and Arabia called it “Chinese Stone.” After the Ming Dynasty, this white, bright, and corrosion-resistant white copper (see Fig. 14.62) was exported to Europe. “Packtong” was from the Chinese words “white copper.” The United States and Germany succeeded in imitation in the 1920s. The Song Dynasty has exported casting technology to the outside world. Japan’s Gushileiyuan and Records of Dongda Temple recorded that in 1183, a total of 7 people, including Chen Heqin, the casting master of the Southern Song Dynasty, as well as his brother Chen Foshou and other 5 people, were employed to Japan, and cooperated with 14 Japanese molders to repair the Lushena Great Buddha, namely, the famous existing Nara Great Buddha in the eastern Nara Temple, which was destroyed in the war. During the Song and Liao periods, religious sculpture was still one of the main contents of metal crafts. In the fourth year of Kai Bao (971) of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhang Kuangyin, the first Emperor of the Song Dynasty, ordered to build a bronze statue of a thousand-handed Guanyin Bodhisattva, which was enshrined in Zhengding, Hebei Province. It is a 22.5-m-long masterpiece of early metal statue that has survived the history of Chinese Buddhism. There are many cast iron works in the Song Dynasty that have survived so far, such as the Dangyang Iron Tower in Hubei (see Fig. 14.63) and the Arhat Sitting Statue in the Shanxi Provincial Museum (see Fig. 14.64).

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Fig. 14.48 Shell storage device with the design of sacrificial scene. (From the Western Han Dynasty, cover diameter 32 cm, 50-cm-high bronze. The storage tanker is the money box of the slave owners of the ancient Dian Kingdom. Decorated with various themes, the statue is realistic and vivid. This device is a sacrifice scene for the ancient Dian Kingdom with prisoners of war as a sacrifice. There are as many as 127 figures remaining on the device, and there are tigers, cows, horses, snakes, and other animals and houses, bronze drums, etc. The scene is tragic and magnificent. The characters, animals, buildings, and utensils are pre-cast with the lost-wax method, and then connected to the cover)

Fig. 14.49 Bronze drums with boat race patterns. (From the early Western Han Dynasty, 36.8-cmhigh bronze. The surface of the drum is decorated with the image of a flying heron with a fish in the beak. The main body of the drum is decorated with six ships, each with six persons wearing hats, and there are deer, herons, and tortoises between the boats. The waist is decorated with the drawing of a crested dancer, and there is a heron with a fish in the beak on the top. The ornamentation is simple and natural. The thin-walled castings’ wall thickness is controlled by the copper gasket between the inner and outer moulds)

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Fig. 14.50 A heavenly steed soaring across the skies. (From the Eastern Han Dynasty, 34.5-cmhigh, 45-cm-long bronze. Also known as horse stepping swallows. A flying Yan under the horse hoof is reviewing; the horse’ head is slightly downward, vividly showing the speed of the heavenly steed, a masterpiece of romantic sculpture, and becomes a symbol of China’s national tourist attractions. The horse’s foot is provided with an iron core for reinforcement, and the flying swallow is filled with copper liquid and is cast and integrated with the hollow horse’s foot.)

Fig. 14.51 Copper ceremonial figurines with chariots and horses. (From the Eastern Han Dynasty, the main chariots and the horse are 40-cm-high bronze. The guard of honor of the General of the Eastern Han Dynasty includes 126 horseback figurines, warrior figurines, slave figurines, maid figurines, horses, chariots, etc., which are vivid and spectacular with the scene of people roaring and horses neighing. They are the treasures of ancient Chinese bronze sculptures. Collect casting, forging, welding, riveting, pliers, and other metal processes in one)

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Fig. 14.52 Gilding two Buddhas sitting side by side. (From the Northern Wei Dynasty, 26-cm-high bronze and gold gilding. The two Buddhas are slender, the pleats of the vestments are rich in layers, and the backlit textures are smooth and sleek. It is the popular style of Buddhas in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Cast with the lostwax casting method, full body is gilded and looks brilliant.)

The famous Dong Tian Qing Lu Ji by Zhao Xizhen of the Song Dynasty described a unique process of the lost-wax casting method, which may be a process technology used in the imitating or pseudo Shang and Zhou bronzes. In addition to the traditional pottery mould casting and lost-wax casting method, sand casting had also appeared in the Song Dynasty. In You Huan Ji Wen, it is mentioned that Qichun (now Qichun County, Hubei Province) has a sand mould in coin offices. Some scholars believe that the Xinmang period had used the sand casting process to cast copper coins. The Yuan government had set up a large-scale institution management handicraft industry, and its division of labor was also very fine. To a certain extent, it had stimulated the development of certain aspects of the metal technology of the Yuan Dynasty, such as religious statues and the manufacture of gold and silverware. The royal aristocrats of the Yuan Dynasty especially liked the exquisite and exquisite crafts and art, so the gold and silver crafts developed, and the four famous workers of the gold and silver craftsmanship appeared, who were “experts in crafts.” Zhu Bishan was the leading craftsman of the four famous workers and was the

518 Fig. 14.53 Gold gilding and bronze Buddha altar made by Dong Qin. (From the Sui Dynasty, 41-cm-high bronze and gold gilding. This is the worship of the believer Dong Qin in the private house. The lotus seat is inserted into the base of the Buddhist altar, and the Buddha is seated on it. The two bodhisattvas and the two guardians are arranged on each side, and in front of the lotus seat is placed a smoker furnace, which is separately cast by the lost-wax method and then inserted into the base. A pair of guardian lions is placed in front of the base. The whole body is gilded with a beautiful shape and evenly proportioned)

Fig. 14.54 Zhangzhou Iron Lion. (From the later Zhou Dynasty, the third year of Guangshun period (953), 5.3 m long and 3 m wide, 5.4 m high, 49 t in quality, iron cast. Such a huge casting is cast from the bottom up with a pottery mould. The outer mould includes 409 blocks, and the inner mould is 1 block. The iron furnace was built along the section of pottery mould, and it was repeated 15 times. It is the earliest large castings that survived)

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Fig. 14.55 Yellow River Iron Bull and the location map of the iron bull painted in the Record of Puzhou in the Qing Dynasty. (Cast in the 12th year of the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the iron bull is 3.3 m long and 2.5 m high. Each light one is about 55 t and the heavy one is about 75 t. The iron bull is sturdy. The lower part is cast with a 0.7-m-thick iron seat. The seat is cast with 6 iron pillars with a length of 3 m and a diameter of 0.4 m as the foundation of the iron bull. Both ends of the buttocks are extended to a diameter of 0.5 m and a total length of 3.3 m. It is used to maintain the connection of the pontoon chain on both sides of the Yellow River. Such a heavy casting should be made in place, which has many difficulties and shows the development of the casting industry in the Tang Dynasty.)

master of the lost-wax casting method and artistic creation, and the silver enamel cup produced by him (see Fig. 14.65) is like a three-dimensional Chinese painting, very poetic. With the development of the social commodity economy, the handicraft industry in the Ming Dynasty has become increasingly developed. Zheng He led the seven voyages of the huge fleet and expanded the exchanges between China and foreign countries. Tin wares and copper irons (such as bronze drums, iron pots, etc.) and

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Fig. 14.56 Mirror with patterns of beast and grape and its rubbings. (From the Tang Dynasty, diameter 23.9 cm, 2.25 kg. The back of the mirror is embossed with ornament, which is clear and exquisite, bright as silver)

Fig. 14.57 Four-celestial being mirror. (From the Tang Dynasty, diameter 12.3 cm, 0.468 kg. The mirror is processed with rich-tin method and becomes bright, which will not rust for a thousand years)

their smelting technology were also introduced to Southeast Asia and South Sea countries in the Ming Dynasty or earlier. The metal crafts of Yongle and Xuande of Ming Dynasty had made extraordinary achievements and occupied an important position in the history of Chinese metal crafts.

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Fig. 14.58 Mirror decorated with precious stones and lotus patterns. (From the Tang Dynasty, diameter 27.4 cm, high-tin bronze. A bronze mirror with jewels embedded in a shell mirror is called a precious stone mirror. This mirror is made up of shells to form lotus and bird images. Inlaid with amber, lapis lazuli, and red coral on the flowers and petals of the lotus flower, it looks gorgeous)

Fig. 14.59 Ryoka mirror decorated with precious stones and gold beads. (From the Tang Dynasty, diameter 8.8 cm, high-tin bronze. The outline of the pattern is made of gold wires, welded to the wall, and then inlayed with jewelry, which is called inlaying precious stones. If you put a small gold bead on the outside of the pattern, it is called a golden basket inlaying precious stones. This mirror is made of gold silk to form a flower outline, and turquoise and amber are the materials of the flowers, and the amber is surrounded by gold beads. The color is gorgeous and graceful.)

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Fig. 14.60 Sunflower mirror with the patterns of flowers and birds by the technique of gold and silver glazing. (From the Tang Dynasty, diameter 28.5 cm, high-tin bronze. The gold and silver sheets are cut and formed in shape, and then pasted on the surface of the painted object, and then painted several times. After the large paint is solidified, the paint surface is polished and the gold and silver images are flattened, so that the gold and silver appear. This mirror is decorated with buds surrounded by flowers, and there are four birds flying in the flowers. The outer area is decorated with four flowers and phoenixes. The gold and silver lines are slender and smooth, the colors are gorgeous, and the composition is harmonious and beautiful, showing the grace and luxury of the Tang Dynasty luxury art)

Fig. 14.61 West Tower of the Twin Towers of Guangxiaosi Temple in Guangzhou (residue). (Cast in the sixth year and tenth year (963) of the Dabao period in the Southern Han Dynasty of Five Dynasties. The iron east tower still exists, 7.7 m high, and there are 1204 statues of Buddha statues on each side of the tower, divided into 17 layers 1 layer after another. Chemical composition includes carbon 3.4%, silicon