[0:31]Hello, and welcome to New Frontiers on CCTV International. I'm Ji Xiaojun in Beijing. In today's program, we are continuing with our major series about Chinese civilization. In it, we are attempting to illustrate the evolution of Chinese civilization through an investigation of archaeological discoveries, historical sites, and cultural relics. And today, we're going back 1000 years to the Song Dynasty. This was a time when China experienced quite remarkable development in the field of science and technology. Take as an example, the Four Great Inventions of ancient China, namely, paper, printing, the compass, and gun powder. Well, it was under the Song Dynasty that they really came to the fore and their use flourished. All in all, Song with its advanced technology, combined with the prosperous economy and rich culture was another golden age in Chinese history, following on from the Tang Dynasty.
[2:07]After the glories of the Han and Tang Dynasties, China entered the Song Dynasty, which lasted from the year 960 to the year 1279. The Song Dynasty is considered a high point in Chinese history, a time when China led the world in science and technology. The Song Dynasty saw the rise of numerous scholars in many fields, and through their efforts, science and technology in China reached a level that makes today's Chinese still feel proud.
[3:04]This is Kaifeng City in Henan Province. Under the name Bianliang, it was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. During the summer of the seventh year of the reign of Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Shenzong, the year AD 1074, the city suffered a devastating drought.
[3:25]Hope that there would be an end to the drought was rekindled when for a number of days dense dark clouds appeared over the city and the people heard sounds that carried the promise of rain. However, no rain came and the drought continued. Emperor Shenzong, more disheartened than ever, waited anxiously for the arrival of a man by the name of Shen Kuo. When the Emperor asked Shen when it would rain, he replied, it will rain heavily tomorrow. His answer astonished all the other officials present, but Shen Kuo understood that over the summer a considerable amount of water vapor had accumulated, and that the continuous cloudy days implied that the water vapor had already gathered. Shen Kuo knew that when the ground was again exposed to the heat of the burning sun, the interaction between the water vapor and the ground heat would make rainfall a certainty.
[4:31]This instance of a successful prediction of the weather is recorded in a famous book written by Shen Kuo, called Dream Pool Essays.
[4:48]Shen Kuo was born in Qiantang, in what is now the city of Hangzhou. During the reign of Song Dynasty Emperor Shenzong, he was appointed head official of the Bureau of Astronomy, an important department of the Song Dynasty responsible for the observation of astronomical phenomena and the design of calendars. In effect, it was rather like a national astronomical observatory. The Song Dynasty is considered a great period in ancient China. Compared to the dynasties that preceded it, there were great developments in the areas of society, science and technology and schools of thought and so on. According to the famous historian Chen Yunque, when Chinese civilization entered the Song Dynasty, it developed to a splendid pinnacle and had a great influence on later generations. A striking feature of Song politics was the way greater importance was attached to civil administration than to military art, and education and meritocracy were encouraged and the imperial examination system was greatly improved. The Song Dynasty was a golden age in which people of talent were pursued and promoted. People in China, as elsewhere, were unable to explain the mysteries of solar and lunar eclipses, and so they conceived of a universe in which the Sun and Moon could be eaten by a monster called the Sky Dog. We now know that 3,000 years before, during the Shang Dynasty, ancient Chinese inscribed the world's earliest records concerning solar eclipses on animal bones and tortoise shells. During those early eras of human history in which man set out on his earliest attempts at scientific exploration, ancient Chinese produced significant achievements that laid a solid foundation for the scientific development that characterizes the Song Dynasty, especially in the area of astronomy. On a morning in July of the year 1054, an unknown nova appeared in the eastern sky of Bianliang City. Observers named it, the Visiting Star. The sudden appearance of this nova alarmed the Song Dynasty's Bureau of Astronomy as this was, after all, an era in which people mystically connected happenings in the secular world with celestial events. What then, did the sudden arrival of this nova portend? A year later, the Visiting Star suddenly vanished, but by that time, astronomy officials at Kaifeng Stellar Observatory had made records of their observations of the nova in daylight hours 23 times. In so doing, they provided significant scientific clues for later generations.
[7:23]Why is this nova important to us? Because modern astronomers discovered the Crab Nebula near Taurus. The Crab Nebula is a wide expanding remnant of a supernova explosion.
[7:40]Judging by the amount of time that has passed between now and then, we can figure out many of the physical parameters of this nova, for example, the explosion velocity of the supernova. These parameters are quite helpful for astronomers investigating the evolution of the universe, the creation of stars and the theory of stellar evolution. By the year 1072, Shen Kuo had been appointed head official of the Bureau of Astronomy, and in this capacity he took charge of the design and development of astronomical instruments. As well as this, during his tenure, he wrote three famous treatises in succession: Research on the Armillary Sphere, a skeletal celestial sphere with a model of the earth placed in the center, Research on the Clepsydra, a device that measured time through flowing water, and Research on the Sundial. These three important treatises had a profound impact on later inventions and on the nature of improvements made to important astronomical instruments. The main contributions made by Shen Kuo were not only in the summing up of previous research work, but the addition of more useful content both in the exploration of theory and practice. His thoughts on astronomy were explained in the above three treatises. For example, in "Research on the Armillary Sphere" he gave Emperor Shenzong more than 10 pieces of advice concerning improvements to the sphere. His 10 pieces of reform advice, we can for the most part see on the remaining armillary sphere and find evidence there. Shen Kuo was in fact, something of a polymath whose brilliance extended to many fields of study, other than just astronomy. Well, as a man of many talents, he was not alone in the Song Dynasty. Su Song, for example, has gone down in history as the inventor of a hydraulic powered astronomical clock tower, although he was also known as a statesman, geographer and botanist, to list just a few of his accomplishments. In the year AD 1092, famous Northern Song Dynasty astronomer Su Song invented the astonishing water-driven astronomical clock tower. Following ancient records, modern scientists have been able to produce a 1/5 scale working model of Su Song's prototype. In his invention, Su Song employed several world firsts in the design history of astronomical instruments. His clock tower is not only recognized as the forefather of the modern clock drive, which keeps the telescope synchronized with celestial motion and the Earth's rotation, but also the progenitor of the active roof of the modern telescope observatory. The water-driven astronomical clock tower invented by Su Song is an exquisite astronomical instrument. It was divided into three sections, in which the upper is an armillary sphere, the middle a Celestial Globe, and the lower a calculagraph. In this instrument, the functions of observation, demonstration and timing were perfectly integrated in an automatic water-driven system. We can conclude that in the Song Dynasty, the development of astronomical instruments reached a classical high point.
[10:50]1,500 years ago, famous mathematician Zu Chongzhi calculated that the approximate value of pi was 3.1415926. Before that time, the value of pi used in Chinese astronomical mathematics was calculated as being equal to precisely three. Zu's record would not be broken by his foreign counterparts until 1,000 years after his death. His remarkable achievement has led experts to conclude that by that time astronomy in China had been leading the world for more than a millennium.
[14:31]From the time of the introduction of the 12 solar term calendar in the Song Dynasty, agricultural production was kept in line with farming seasons. The Grand Canal had been built during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty several hundred years before, and by the time of the Song Dynasty, it had been developed into a golden waterway for goods being transported between North and South China. Paddy rice produced in South China was shipped northward to Bianliang City. During the Song Dynasty, a new type of canal lock was invented. It was not until 400 years later in the year AD 1373 that a similar lock was invented in Europe. In medieval Europe, the sowing to harvesting ratio was 1:5 to 1:10, while this proportion in Song Dynasty is 1:100. In other words, in the Song Dynasty the per unit area grain yield and grain yield was 10 times or even 20 times that of Europe. Agriculture has always been the foundation of all human civilizations, and certainly, the advanced state of the science and society of the Song Dynasty was to a great extent, the result of the advanced level of the nation's agriculture. As the most prosperous city in the world of its time, Bianliang City had a population of 1.5 million. Not surprisingly, agricultural production was the national priority. Agriculture in the Song Dynasty was advanced, especially in South China where rotational farming was already in operation. Early maturing and highly compatible paddy rice varieties also helped facilitate the efficient and full use of land. Farmland originally not suitable for crops was improved through fertilization, to the point where it could sustain high yield rice fields. Very often, two or even three harvests a year were possible. Modern experts in agriculture regard the Song Dynasty as a green revolution era in ancient Chinese agriculture.
[16:53]During the Song Dynasty, the population of China first exceeded 100 million. That is to say, agricultural production in the Song Dynasty was able to support what was at that time the world's largest population. The four great inventions had initially an enormous influence on the development of Chinese civilization, and later a far-ranging global impact. All four were invented prior to the Song Dynasty, but it was under Song that their full potential began to be realized. Over the long period of the evolution of Chinese civilization, we can trace the lives of numerous great historical figures. Through their wisdom, intelligence and remarkable achievements, the Chinese nation was able to stand proudly at the pinnacle of the science and technology of the ancient world. Among those geniuses were the Duke of Zhou who observed the sun shadows in front of the gnomon. There was Lu Ban who made scaling letters for the state of Chu. There was the profound and brilliant philosopher Mozi. There was Li Bing who constructed the great water conservancy project known as the Dujiangyan Weirs, and then there was Zhang Heng who invented the first seismograph and succeeded in locating the epicenters of earthquakes. There were also many skilled craftsmen such as Bi Sheng who invented movable type printing. These greats of the ancient world laid the cultural and scientific foundations for the appearance of China's Four Great Inventions during the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was, without doubt, the most important age for the development of science and technology in ancient China, and it was during this age that the Four Great Inventions of China made their mark: papermaking, the large-scale application of printing, the compass and gunpowder. At an intersection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the beautiful city of Zhenjiang. In order to commemorate the famous Chinese ancient scientist Shen Kuo, in 1985, the people of Zhenjiang rebuilt Dream Brook Garden, the place where Shen Kuo spent the last few years of his life. It was in this garden that Shen Kuo completed his famous work Dream Pool Essays.
[19:28]According to Dr. Joseph Needham who was well versed in the history of Chinese science and technology, the encyclopedia Dream Pool Essays is an extremely important landmark in the history of Chinese science and technology. In this work recorded in great detail, are the scientific thoughts and technological breakthroughs of the Song Dynasty. Dr. Needham enthusiastically praised Shen Kuo as the most outstanding scientist in the history of Chinese science. Shen Kuo was indeed a genius. When he was made a military officer in Yanan in Shanxi Province, he discovered the region had an abundance of petroleum. After carrying out a few experiments, he found that soot made from the smoke of burnt petroleum could be used to make writing ink. He then concluded, it would be an excellent substitute for pine soot and that using the substitute would reduce deforestation. He then ordered that his new writing ink made from the soot of burnt petroleum be produced in batches, and he rightly predicted that petroleum would be used greatly in the future.
[20:41]But as well as that, Shen Kuo was the most direct participant and and chronicler of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China. Originally, gunpowder was used as a kind of medicine to dispel plague and treat ringworm. Earlier in the Tang Dynasty, Taoist alchemists had discovered that when sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal were heated together, the result was a chemical reaction that caused fire. From then on, this medicine that could be set on fire was known in Chinese as Huoyao, or fire medicine.
[21:26]It was during the Song Dynasty that people discovered how to harness the force generated by the discharge of burning gunpowder and invent the fire rocket, the predecessor of all modern rockets.
[21:42]According to ancient Chinese legends, the Yellow Emperor invented a device that was known as the south-pointing chariot, the instrument that gradually evolved into the modern compass. The earliest documentation concerning the compass can be traced back to before the Qin Dynasty, well over 2,000 years ago. During the Han Dynasty that followed, the famous philosopher Wang Chong recorded that when a piece of lodestone carved in the shape of a ladle was balanced on a round bronze plate, the handle of the ladle would point to the North entirely by itself. Before the Song Dynasty, this compass known as the south-pointer was not particularly accurate. But while trying to improve the precision of the compass, Shen Kuo made a great discovery regarding the globe's magnetic declination angle. Although the compass had already been invented before the Song Dynasty, it was not until the time of the Song Dynasty that the earliest magnetic compass could be used for navigation. After the magnetic declination problem had been solved, the compass went on to be highly important for navigation at sea. With Shen Kuo's new improved compass, a large boat in the Song Dynasty could travel much further, and over time, the compass invented by the ancient Chinese was exported and used in ships across the world. Several hundred years later, when the American continent was discovered, it was thanks to the compass. By that time, the compass, an invention of the Chinese had written a truly magnificent page in the history of world civilization.
[23:32]The adoption of the compass in navigation, of course, meant that ships were less likely to get lost at sea. Ultimately, it also made it possible for ships to travel further away from China. Well, it wasn't long before other countries were making use of compasses. Thank you for staying with us on today's New Frontiers and join me again next time when we'll bring you more about the development of Chinese civilization and the Song Dynasty.
