Can the four great inventions prove the existence of science in ancient China? Should we have this confidence?
The technology of ancient China has indeed led the world for a long time, and the four great inventions have indeed made great contributions to human civilization, but there was no science in ancient China.
In order to dismantle this issue, I will split the content to be argued below into several sub-headings and explain each one in detail.
Do the four great inventions contribute? We need to know technology ≠ science. What exactly is science? Does Chinese science need to "revise genealogy"?
Okay, let's get started!
Did the four great inventions contribute?
Many supporters of Zheng Wenfeng believe that the four great inventions are not only unadvanced, but also meaningless. The gunpowder or paper used in modern times are completely different from the inventions of China back then. I am on the right side of this proposition. Not only do I have it, but I have made a considerable contribution.
The opponents’ ideas are quite extreme and one-sided, as if they said: “Because we have now entered the new media era, people no longer read paper newspapers, so the century-old newspaper distribution is both backward and useless. No contribution.” You must know that without newspapers, a cheap and relatively timely cultural communication medium, how could an illiterate or semi-literate society, accounting for more than 70% of the population, give birth to the so-called “new media”?
Let us take a look one by one, how the four major inventions have contributed to the progress of human civilization.
Papermaking The greatest significance of papermaking lies not in "being able to write", but in being "cheap and easy to use". Man has never been without a medium for writing. There are murals dating from about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago in the Lascaux cave in France. The Sumerians about 5,500 years ago recorded tax accounts on clay tablets. In 1698 BC, the ancient Babylonian king Hammurabi promulgated the well-known "Code of Hammurabi", which was engraved on a piece of black basalt.
Common materials are too bulky, what about lightweight ones? It’s all too expensive! The ancient Egyptians began to make and use papyrus about 5,000 years ago. Although this thing has the word "paper" in its name, it is actually something like an ultra-thin mat. First of all, it is very brittle and cannot be folded; Secondly, it is complicated to make and the raw materials are only produced in the Nile Delta, making it expensive. The parchment paper used in Europe before was actually made of sheepskin! You can imagine what the price will be. There is also Chinese silk. Its quality can be said to be the best among the "pre-paper" eras. Of course, the price is also the best. Only emperors and nobles can afford it.
Murals, clay tablets, papyrus, silk
What materials are used in Chinese papermaking? Bark, hemp, rags, and broken fishing nets are all garbage, but the quality of the paper produced is quite good. Whether it is preservation or writing, it is no worse than the previous "fake paper". The most important thing is that the price is very low. , simply an artifact! If there is no such thing as a carrier of culture, the progress of human civilization will definitely slow down a lot.
There is almost no possibility of dispute over the right to invent gunpowder, because there are almost no explosive things in nature. Whoever comes up with it first will be certified as the inventor. There is no dispute that black powder appeared in China: in 1044, Zeng Gongliang and others in the Northern Song Dynasty recorded three types of gunpowder in detail in the official military encyclopedia "Wu Jing Zong Yao" - artillery gunpowder, tribulus fireball gunpowder, and poison smoke ball. The methods and recipes for making gunpowder are quite complicated, and there are at least ten kinds of ingredients.
Opponents could not start with the invention rights, so they started with the effect, pointing out that the commonly used yellow explosive in modern times is trinitrotoluene, and the power of black gunpowder is too weak, so it is basically meaningless.
"Martial Arts Summary", black gunpowder, yellow explosives
Such human brain circuits are also quite strange. They don't seem to understand how big the difference is between 0 and 1. It is precisely because of the availability and use of black gunpowder that Europeans will improve it and research better formulas. Yellow explosive was only invented in 1863. Before that, black powder had been used in wars for three to four hundred years. There is a saying that "the biggest secret in making an atomic bomb is that it can be made."
"If black gunpowder has never been widely used, who will improve its formula with clear goals?
Compass "Mengxi Bi Tan" by Shen Kuo (1031-1095) of the Northern Song Dynasty, the book is like this It is recorded: "The Fang family uses magnets to sharpen their needles, and they can guide the needle; however, it is often slightly to the east, not completely south." The water floats and sways a lot. You can do it with your fingers and claws or on the lip of the bowl. It works very quickly, but it is slippery and easy to fall. It is best not to hang like a thread. The method is as follows: take a single cocoon strand from a new paper, garnish it with mustard seeds and wax on the waist of the needle, hang it in a windless place, and the needle will always guide the needle. Among them, there is one that points to the north. Yujia guide and the north are all available. "The compass points to the west, and the cypress points to the west, which cannot be understood"
There are several points worth noting in this document: 1. The compass is a needle, not a spoon. 2. The magnetic deflection is recorded 3. Also listed four uses of the compass:
Modern recovery, compass, compass, and compass fish
This document was earlier than the first mention of the compass phenomenon by Europeans. A century later, the magnetic declination was four hundred years earlier than Columbus. It was only recorded in the Arabic book "The Merchant's Collection of Gems" two hundred years later that it was related to the "Wu Jing Zong Yao" in 1044 (the one above that made gunpowder. ) are highly similar to the "magnetic iron fish fillet", so scholars believe that the compass was introduced to Arabia through China and then to Europe.
The compass is a hard condition for ocean navigation. Without it, there would be no Age of Discovery. , it is still unknown whether modern science can still be developed.
The invention of movable type printing has the same meaning as papermaking. It has a great promotion effect on the spread of culture and makes the price of books change. It is very close to the people. Before the invention of printing, books were copied by hand. Some monks in temples kept copying scriptures throughout their lives. There were not many literate people, and some people had to devote their time to it. Spending on this boring and repetitive work, the price of the "purely handmade" books created in this way can be imagined.
Clay movable type, wooden movable type, copper movable type, and woodblock printing
The opponents' attack is based on China's poor application of movable type printing. This technology was only applied on a large scale after the industrial revolution in Europe. This is actually quite ridiculous, because the characteristics of Chinese language lead to movable type printing. Printing is actually not as easy to use and cheap as engraving printing. However, European Latin languages are composed of only thirty letters at most, so movable type is much more convenient.
Whether it is engraving or movable type, it is much more convenient. A Chinese invention, but due to the characteristics of writing and the limitations of the technology at the time (relying on manpower), the theoretically more advanced movable type is actually not as practical as carved boards. This is not a reason to deny the significance of the invention of movable type printing!
We have to know that technology ≠ science. We have heard about "technology and technology" since we were young. It seems that science and technology are inherently bound together. In fact, this is an inaccurate concept. Science and technology are of course inseparable today. Administrative tasks such as company management are now also created with science. But just about a hundred years ago, science had not risen to such a high level. People's attitude towards scientists was more like how people now face sports stars or famous artists. Same: I respect your outstanding abilities, but you are just an ordinary person.
A war is meaningless, stupid and unjust
There is a genius at the University of Manchester in the UK. Physicist and chemist Henry Moseley enlisted in the army during World War I and died in the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. He was only 27 years old. Meaning, had he not enlisted in the army, he might have been the Nobel Prize winner in 1916. After this incident, the British government introduced a policy that prohibited young scientists with outstanding achievements or promising prospects from being arrested and sent to death.
Henry Moseley (1887~1915)
I didn’t expect that even though science has been developing for hundreds of years, one would still be “used” in this way during World War I. Scientists, you must know what the Americans said about Qian Xuesen back then: "No matter where Qian Xuesen goes, he is worth the strength of 3 to 5 divisions. He must never be allowed to leave the United States."
In fact, Mr. Qian’s contribution to our new China is more than five divisions?
So how did people view science and technology before this? Science can derive technology, but technology does not necessarily rely on science. Technology can also be a summary of the experience and skills that humans have developed over a long period of production and life. For example, using fire is a technology that other animals do not possess and cannot be obtained from innate instincts. But our human ancestors and our extinct relatives also used fire, which can be traced back to 800,000 years ago, and it was quite common 300,000 years ago. We must know that it is only 150,000 years since the emergence of Homo sapiens!
Relics of ancient humans’ use of fire
Most improvements in production tools in ancient times only relied on the accumulation of experience. For example, textile looms, from simple structures in the Qin and Han Dynasties to complex structures in the Qing Dynasty, have undergone numerous improvements, but their main manufacturing materials have remained the same, which are all wood. There was no detailed science applied to the improvement, it was just that the weavers continued to fine-tune it over many years of use, and it became more and more complex. Experience is the most basic way for animals to understand the world. Even a flea knows how to protect itself by adjusting its height after hitting a wall continuously. This is very different from science.
Now let us return to the four great inventions. The invention of gunpowder originated from the mistake of an alchemist. The compass is used by alchemists to read Feng Shui for people. Printing and papermaking are indeed invented technologies, but they still have little to do with science. They are a kind of accumulation and transformation of experience. For example, papermaking is derived from the flocculation method used in the sericulture industry to produce silk floss. Some silk scraps will be suspended in the water. After being filtered multiple times through bamboo mats, they will accumulate into a layer of fiber sheets. After drying, they can be used as paper. Cai Lun's improvement was to replace silk with other fiber materials. Movable type printing is even simpler, an improved version of engraving printing.
The predecessor of paper
What exactly is science?
A friend once left me a message. She believed that as long as human beings make efforts to live a better life, it must be regarded as science. Well, in fact, science does have a broader definition. Under this definition, many ancient civilizations have rich scientific results, and our ancient China is certainly no exception. But when it comes to the spirit of "narrow science" that is making human civilization highly developed, it can only be found in ancient Greece and post-Renaissance Europe.
1. The origin of science
What is the scientific spirit? This starts from 3500 BC. At that time, the most prosperous civilizations in the Mediterranean area were the Sumerians in the two river basins (the middle and lower reaches of the Euphrates River and the Tigris River) and the ancient Egyptians in the Nile River Basin, because the rivers here would flood regularly. , brought fertile soil to both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and agriculture prospered, making them the earliest ancient civilization in human history.
Nile Oasis
Regular flooding also brings some inconveniences. For example, after each flood recedes, the land becomes a blur, and everyone cannot tell what their own land is. Which piece of land was there, so they desperately needed an effective and notarized method to divide the land. The prototype of geometry was born here. Geometry (γεωμετρα) means “measuring the earth” in Greek. For thousands of years, ancient China was very good at arithmetic but poor at geometry, while the Mediterranean coast was just the opposite. They were good at geometry but terrible at arithmetic.
"Elements of Geometry"
After 3,000 years of development, geometry came to ancient Greece. After the spread and development of Thales and Pythagoras, it was introduced to the mathematician Euclid. When the time came to get (Ευκλείδη), he wrote a book called "Elements of Geometry". This book can be said to be the first embodiment of the prototype of the modern scientific spirit. At the beginning of the book, he proposed five axioms, which we studied in junior high school. We have all learned:
Two points determine a straight line. A line segment is a part of a straight line. The radii of circles are all equal. All right angles are equal. A triangle has at least two acute angles. 2. Geometry = truth
Did you still feel strange when you learned this? These five sentences are strange, and the first four sentences feel like nonsense, especially the concept that straight lines can be extended infinitely, which is simply unclear.
So why do we write these five sentences at the beginning of this book?
Because...all the theorems and laws in this book are derived from these five axioms! This is the most awesome thing about it.
Don’t understand what’s so great about it? For example, in theory, as long as you are given five materials: iron, cement, plastic, water, and stone, you can build a building. Do you need a hammer? Made of iron and plastic! Want a saw? Made of iron and plastic! Want a bucket? Made of plastic and iron! Want steel? Made of iron! Want concrete? Made of water, stones and cement!
These five materials are the five theorems, and hammers, buckets, steel bars, saws, concrete, etc. are various theorems and laws. The building is all the puzzles that geometry can prove and solve. This is the method of using very few axioms to produce all complex conclusions through logical deduction.
Democritus (460 BC ~ 370 BC)
Now let us see the power of this combination of geometry and logic: Modern science allows us to understand matter It is composed of atoms, and the name of atoms (átomos) comes from ancient Greece. This concept was proposed by the philosopher Democritus. He discovered a logical loophole: matter is a continuous whole. If it is correct , then it means that it can be divided an infinite number of times, but if you divide a substance an infinite number of times, what will you get? A bunch of tiny particles with dimensions? No, if that's the case, it can't be infinitely divided, so all that's left in the end are just points without dimensions. Now if we put these points together, one or two, three or four, how many points will they turn into matter? No matter how much you put together, it is impossible to produce matter, because the point itself has no dimensions, and things without dimensions will not have dimensions no matter how many are put together.
Not infinitely divisible
So Democritus concluded that matter must not be infinitely divisible, there must be a smallest particle that cannot be divided! Let’s call this thing “indivisible”. This is the original meaning of the Greek word átomos.
3. Why is it so easy to use?
Are you surprised? 2,500 years ago, without any advanced observation methods, the Greeks could find a method using pure logical deduction. The truth of the universe! Although humans have now discovered that atoms, protons, and even quarks are divisible, they have also found a minimum length: the Planck length, which is approximately equal to 1.6x10^-35 cubic meters, which is 10^22 minutes of the size of a proton. one. All matter cannot be between this length. Matter can only jump and flash at this size, and it is "indivisible" in the true sense.
The more knowledge, the less hair: Planck
Why is the geometric thinking mode the prototype of the scientific spirit, because only axioms cannot be proven and can only be verified through observation Get it, but it’s extremely simple and guaranteed to be absolutely correct! All conclusions derived from correct axioms and correct logic should be correct and are the part of human knowledge closest to "truth". Using this method to obtain or verify a piece of knowledge can eliminate the impact of people's subjective feelings to almost nothing.
It turns out that the way humans understand the world is through experience, and humans are not a precision instrument. There are "illusions" and other fallacies caused by brain structure or mental state, which make what we think of as the "truth" "A lot of times it doesn't have to be that way. For example, if you take a health product with unknown ingredients, will it have any effect? It is impossible to verify. The two of them can quarrel over this kind of thing, but they still have to talk about it because their personal feelings cannot convince others.
The brain has been fooling you
If we use scientific thinking to deal with this problem, we must first clarify some basic facts that everyone can recognize (such as only recognizing observable phenomena ), and then conduct experiments on this basis, repeat experiments, and eliminate all possible other interfering factors to the minimum. In the end we can get a conclusion that is closest to the truth.
It can be seen that the direction of this kind of thinking is obviously in the same vein as the core thinking of geometry, and both aim to find "a certain truth that cannot be shaken by personal will." Therefore, geometry was called "divinely given" in the Middle Ages. knowledge".
4. What is science?
Is science one or two outstanding achievements? no. Is science one or two difficult questions? no.
In my words, science is a system, an organization, and a world. The way to enter this world is to reach a basic understanding of the axioms recognized by this world, and to understand and explore the world according to the norms of this world.
The Royal Society of Science, the earliest formal scientific organization
Many people have serious misunderstandings of science, such as the common one: "Many scientists also believe in religion, so science is based on theology. "This is a typical mistake of not distinguishing parts from machines. Of course a scientist can be religious, but if there are "correct experimental results that appeared because I prayed to God" in his paper, you should not be able to reproduce them. Then he would be immediately kicked out of the scientific community.
Use an vivid metaphor: science is like a mining company, and scientists are the miners in this company. The ancients are equivalent to passers-by who encounter the mine by chance. They may come to build houses. Stones were quarried on the mountain, perhaps to pull out a ginseng root on the hillside, or to build a road to the outside world. All in all, they also accidentally obtained some treasures hidden in the mountains. Could it be said that they were a miner? No, because they don't know why there are treasures in the mountains, nor how to continue to obtain the treasures, and instead of hunting for treasures, they still have to build their own houses or send ginseng to the market to sell, which is the business. .
Excellently like scientists
Mining companies are completely different. Not only do they know there are treasures in the mountains, they also have a large amount of equipment specifically used to dig for treasures. All the miners have to do is Follow safety production regulations and use machines to dig mines. There may be some bad elements who cheat and cheat, but the workers are also sharp-eyed, and sooner or later they will be expelled and liquidated. The purpose is clear, the method is correct, methodical, and work day and night; this is the production state that a mining company should have, and this is also the operating state of modern science.
Does ancient Chinese science need to "revise genealogy"
After reading this, I believe you can already understand why I said "there was no science in ancient China".
In fact, this is not something worth talking about. Except for the corner of the Mediterranean, no other ancient or prosperous civilization has developed science, because different civilizations have different trajectories. As far as the Chinese civilization is concerned, due to its relatively superior and stable geographical environment, we have long completed the "grand unification" of Europe that has not yet been completed. This has brought Chinese civilization into an "early maturity period", and Chinese people of insight have focused their energy on seven words: "building the country, harmonizing the family, and pacifying the world."
At the same time, our ancient natural philosophy is also quite distinctive, emphasizing the harmony and unity of human beings and all things. Take Confucianism, China's main thought for two thousand years, as an example. Confucius once said, "Respect ghosts and gods and keep them at a distance." This is very representative. The Chinese people’s attitude towards incomprehensible natural phenomena has been “not interested” since ancient times. It's neither disgust nor curiosity, just simply too lazy to think too much and focus on practical things. This is also the root of the practical spirit of our people for thousands of years.
"When you are full and warm, you think about lust, and when you are precious, you want to ascend to the throne." After the reform, many people became richer and were willing to spend money to repair family trees and give themselves another wealthy ancestor. This is actually a sign of low self-esteem. Why do you want to find your ancestors? Or is it because you want to prove that you are not suddenly rich for no reason? "My ancestors are great people. I am just recreating his glory back then."
The country that went the most overboard in this regard was South Korea. Historically, they were a short-lived, weak and small vassal country that was either bullied by their overlords or bullied by Japan. Because they caught up with the good times and emerged as the Four Asian Tigers, they began to make plans to give some money to their ancestors.
But there was really nothing interesting to see or history to dig into, so I started to use crooked ideas and began to steal Chinese history. I came up with some theistic theories such as "Confucius is Korean" and "Zhu Yuanzhang is Korean", which have been dismissed. The Chinese and Japanese irony is that "the universe belongs to Korea."
This kind of behavior can only be looked down upon by others. We have been a kingdom in heaven since ancient times, and now we are about to become the most powerful country in the world again in our lifetime. Our philosophical thoughts and systems have our advantages. The only four ancient civilizations that have not been exterminated are not given away for free. "Know the shame and then be brave". It is not shameful at all to admit that our country had no science in ancient times, but it shows the courage of a great nation. We in ancient China did what the ancient West could not do, such as unification, elimination of theocracy, and making the world a commonwealth, and the modern West is proud of it. , we can keep up with the science that has allowed them to dominate for 200 years.