Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" includes three parts: "Bi Tan", "Supplementary Bi Tan" and "Continuation Bi Tan". By the time it was passed down to later generations, a lot of it had been lost.
Among them, the "Bi Tan" part has twenty-six volumes remaining, divided into seventeen categories, in order: "Stories, Dialectics, Rhythm, Symbols, Personnel, Official Affairs, Wit, Art and Literature, Calligraphy and Painting, Skills, Utensils, Miracles, and Weird Things"
, fallacies, ridicules, magazines, medical discussions." "Supplementary Bi Tan" has three volumes left, including eleven of the above contents. "Su Bi Tan" has only one volume, and it is not divided into categories. The book has a total of 609 items,
The content involves astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, geography, meteorology, medicine, agriculture, engineering technology, literature, history, music and fine arts, etc. Among these entries, belong to the humanities such as anthropology, archaeology,
Linguistics, music, etc., account for about 18% of the total entries; natural sciences, account for about 36% of the total, and the rest are personnel information, military, law, and anecdotes, accounting for about 46% of the total.
%.
In terms of content, "Mengxi Bi Tan" devotes more than one-third of its length to describing and elucidating natural science knowledge, which is rare in ancient writings. The scientific and technological knowledge recorded in the book is of extremely high value and is basically
It reflected the level of scientific development in the Northern Song Dynasty and his own research experience. Therefore, the British scholar Joseph Needham praised it as "a milestone in the history of Chinese science" and also praised Shen Kuo as "the most outstanding figure in the entire history of Chinese science".
As for the missing parts, they cannot be found in later generations.
It can be heard from what Shen Yiqiu said that what he studied was the natural science part called the art of physics in ancient times. His new work "Kuiji Bi Tan" is all natural science. Isn't it the complete science of this era?
It's my dream.
In the hundreds of years since the Song Dynasty, European countries have reached the forefront of the world through scientific revolutions one after another.
I hurriedly said: "Sir's "Kuiji Bi Tan" is the same as the words of your ancestors. It will definitely be passed down to future generations. Where is this book now? Get it for me to appreciate."
Shen Yiqiu said: "Your Majesty, this book is in the review room in the backyard. I will go and get it now."
"Wait a minute, what does the empirical room sir mean?"
Shen Yiqiu pointed at Quan Jue and said with a smile: "Quan Jue invented the term "experimental room". It has two functions. One is to verify various theories in the book, and the other is to make some small inventions and creations."
"Isn't this a laboratory?" I said with a dumb smile.
Shen Yiqiu was stunned, and asked at the same time: "Your Majesty, what is this laboratory?"
"A laboratory is a place where experiments are done, and it can also be said to be a place where science and technology are produced. Let me give you an example. You saw in a book that oil can be used for lighting, so you will do an experiment to prove it.
This place where experiments are conducted is called a laboratory, which is very close to the meaning of full awareness."
Quanjue thought for a while and praised: "The name chosen by the emperor is more appropriate. From now on, we will call it laboratory."
I nodded, stood up and said, "Sir, Quanjue, let's go. I will go with you to the backyard to see the laboratory."
"These two masters and apprentices are really talented. They were able to completely revise the natural science part of "Mengxi Bi Tan" and even built a laboratory. It seems that my trip to Kuaiji has made a lot of money.
." Thinking of this, I suddenly thought about Fang Ling again. If Fang Ling heard me talking about making a lot of money, he would definitely say that I was in business again.
Quan Jue felt flattered when he saw that I wanted to go to the examination room in person, and hurriedly led the way.
The five large rooms in the backyard are what Shen Yiqiu calls the theory room. We first entered the rightmost room. When we entered, we saw that it was messy and disorganized. There was only a small passage to pass through. There were this everywhere on the table and on the floor. Products of the times, thread-bound books are placed everywhere, glass bottles contain liquids of many different colors, wooden barrels contain kerosene, gunpowder wrapped in oil paper, small detonators, various styles of simple astronomical instruments, and sophisticated Crossbows, etc.
This is a living comprehensive laboratory for future generations.
Shen Yiqiu took out a thick stack of manuscripts from a pile of items on the table and said, "Your Majesty, please take a look."
I flipped through a few pages at random, and it was indeed all about natural science, but I only knew most of the content but didn't know why. I handed this stack of manuscripts to Xiao Qi beside me and said: "Put it away for me first, and wait for the visit. Let’s look at it after finishing this lab.”
I walked slowly along the narrow passage in the house and looked carefully at the items and manuscripts on both sides. The content here covers most subjects such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, and geography. Most of them I can’t name, nor do I know. I don’t know what they are, but my intuition tells me that these things are ahead of this era.
This Shen Yiqiu, Master and Disciple Quanjue really made me overjoyed, far exceeding my expectations. Like Shen Kuo, Shen Yiqiu was also a great scientist of his era, and he was more focused and focused on practice.
The second room is almost the same as the first one, with things placed in a mess. The largest and most eye-catching one is a large sand table stacked on a table with rivers, forests and cities on it. It is simply a three-dimensional map of the Song Dynasty. .
The sand table first originated in the Han Dynasty, but it was not until World War I that it became widely used.
Shen Yiqiu and Quan Jue followed me closely. Seeing that I was looking at it so seriously, they introduced me in detail to the production process of this three-dimensional sand table map. The geographical location marked by this sand table was the same as my memory. Basically the same, I couldn't help but secretly praise it, it's so accurate.
The other research results, as I suspected, exceeded my understanding of this era. There are also concave and convex mirrors, compasses, petroleum lighting devices, etc. In short, they are all kinds of and involve a wide range of things, maybe manpower and material resources, etc. The problem is, most of these finished products are rough, and the workmanship is obviously not up to standard. Of course, I won’t worry about this. With my support and the help of the whole country behind me, what else do you have to worry about?
These achievements will be very common in later generations, but in this era they are a big step ahead. The only shortcoming is that they are not practical. This should be the limitation of Shen Yiqiu and Quanjue's era. If you add With my knowledge, many of the results here can become practical with just a little improvement.
"Guan, it's getting late. It's already past midnight. Let's watch tomorrow." Seeing that it was late and I was still watching with gusto, Quan Jiu came forward to persuade me.
It took nearly two hours, and we had only finished half of it. I knew I couldn't finish it all, so I said, "So soon? It's too late. Go to bed and watch tomorrow."
When I returned to the house, I said to Quan Jiu: "Jiu'er, you have made a great contribution this time. I will reward you well when you go back."
Quan Jiuqi said: "The official family, Jiu'er doesn't understand, and doesn't want any reward. Jiu'er is useless. I just hope that I can accompany the official family to revive our dynasty, and I will be satisfied."
"Jiu'er, you don't know that your brother and his teacher are both great talents. If their research results are transformed, they will definitely bring about earth-shaking changes to our country. Haha, let's not talk about this first. After returning, You should move to Ningqian Palace. Ningqian Palace is too big and I feel it is too sparse to live there alone."
"Move to Ningqian Palace?" Quan Jiuleng said.
"Yeah, why, isn't Jiu'er unwilling?"
Quanjiu looked at me with her eyes wide open and said nothing. Two lines of clear tears flowed from her eyes. She threw herself into my arms and hugged me tightly.