Four great inventions: papermaking, compass, gunpowder, and movable type printing
Papermaking:
Inventor of papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The name is Jingzhong. A native of Guiyang (now Chenzhou City, Hunan Province). In the 18th year of Emperor Yongping's reign (75), he entered the palace as an eunuch. In the first year of Zhanghe of the Eastern Han Dynasty (87), he was appointed Shang Fangling. Papermaking was invented in the first year of Yuanxing (105). He summarized the experience of his predecessors and discovered that bark, hemp heads, rags, old fishing nets and other raw materials were used to make paper through processes such as beating, pounding, copying and drying. It was called "Caihou Paper" and made great contributions to the reform and promotion of papermaking. , later generations passed down as the inventor of papermaking.
Movable type printing:
my country is the first country to invent printing. The early printing method was to engrave pictures and texts on wooden boards and print them with ink. Today's wooden watermarks are still This method is collectively called "engraving printing". The predecessors of block printing are seal printing, which was popular in BC, and stone rubbing, which appeared in the fifth century. After the emergence of production technologies such as paper making and ink making, stereotype printing was gradually invented. By the Tang Dynasty, stereotype printing had become very popular in my country, and had spread to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Iran and other countries, affecting Africa and Europe. After the eleventh century AD, with the development of social production, many major reforms and inventions occurred in printing. During the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty (AD 1041), Bi Sheng pioneered the clay movable type plate, which made book printing more convenient. According to Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan", Bi Sheng invented the method of carving characters on clay sheets, printing each character one by one, and burning them hard to make movable characters. Before typesetting, first apply a layer of rosin wax mixed with paper ash on the iron plate with the iron frame. The movable type is arranged on top of it in turn. Heat it to melt the wax slightly. Use a flat plate to flatten the characters. On the iron plate, it can be printed like an engraving plate. In addition, he also studied wooden typesetting. Movable type can be used multiple times and is more economical and convenient than full-page engraving.
Gunpowder: Gunpowder was invented by ancient Chinese alchemists during the alchemy process. Ge Hong, the famous alchemist in ancient my country, all stayed in Luoyang for a long time. The great medical scientist Sun Simiao lived in the Sui Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty and was a native of Jingzhao Huayuan (today's Yaoxian County, Shaanxi Province). He was well versed in hundreds of schools of thought in classics and history, and had access to Taoist scriptures and Buddhist scriptures. He summarized clinical treatment theories before the Tang Dynasty, collected prescriptions, acupuncture and other contents, and compiled them into books such as "Qian Jin Yao Fang" and "Qian Jin Yi Fang". He made great contributions and was honored as the "King of Medicine" by later generations. He was not only a great medical scientist, but also a famous alchemist, calling himself "Sun Zhenren". He summarized the experience of previous alchemists and collected formulas from alchemists in the Heluo and Guanzhong areas, and finally proposed a more effective formula, the sulfur fire method. In short, the invention and spread of gunpowder are inextricably linked to Sun Simiao.
Compass:
As early as the Warring States Period, there are records of using natural magnets to make "Sinan" to indicate directions. By the Song Dynasty, the Chinese had made significant progress in this area of ??technology. "Mengxi Bi Tan" said that at that time, the alchemists who were engaged in Feng Shui and medical treatment first ground the compass spoon and compass fish into a more sensitive magnetic needle, and placed it on the compass divided by Bagua and heavenly stems and earthly branches. It is very convenient to use. Navigators of the Song Dynasty first installed compasses on ships. By the second half of the Song Dynasty, primitive compass navigation "pins" were commonly installed on ships. This is an unprecedented progress in the history of world shipping. It marks that mankind has gained the ability to sail all-weather and long distances in the ocean. It has played a huge role in developing maritime transportation and promoting exchanges between people around the world. The Arabs, who had frequent sea trade with China, installed compasses on their ships in the 1280s. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Europeans learned from the Arabs and installed compasses on ships. This made a series of voyages and geographical discoveries by modern European navigators possible.
Four masterpieces:
Wu Chengen's Journey to the West
Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber
Shi Naian's Water Margin
Journey to the West: Its story mainly describes a group of personified animals escorting a Buddhist monk to West India to obtain scriptures. It also has some fairy tale interest.
These animals are all fairy fetuses with magical powers. In order to escort the pilgrims, they deal with gods and demons. The fantasy world created by the author Wu Cheng'en appears lifelike amidst absurdity, hinting at different aspects of human nature. Sun Wukong was originally a stone monkey, with the dexterity and mischief of a monkey, powerful magic, and good at subduing demons. Zhu Bajie had the clumsy and straightforward character of a pig, and often made fools of himself, creating a lot of jokes. Since Buddhist scripture seekers must pass eighty-one difficulties and overcome the challenges of monsters such as the Bull Demon King, Spider Spirit, and White Bone Demon one by one before they can complete the mission of scripture acquisition, this also symbolizes that everyone must meet all kinds of challenges in the journey of pursuing their ideals. difficulties and challenges. Journey to the West is loved by both ancient and modern readers, mainly because of its successful character creation. In addition to enjoying the comic effect, readers can also have a profound understanding of human nature and life.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" describes the historical events of nearly a hundred years from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty. The whole book reflects the political and military struggles of the Three Kingdoms era, reflects the penetration and transformation of various social contradictions in the Three Kingdoms era, summarizes the great historical changes of this era, and creates a group of powerful heroes. In terms of grasping the history of the Three Kingdoms, the author showed an obvious tendency to support Liu and oppose Cao. He took the Liu Bei Group as the center of the description, praised the main figures of the Liu Bei Group, and tried his best to expose and criticize Cao Cao. Today we should have a dialectical understanding of the author's tendency to support Liu and oppose Cao. Respecting Liu and rebelling against Cao was the main trend in folklore, which during Luo Guanzhong's time implied the people's hope for the rejuvenation of the Han nation. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" depicts nearly 200 characters, among which the most successful ones include Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, Liu Bei and others. Zhuge Liang is the incarnation of a "virtuous prime minister" in the author's mind. He has the noble character of "devoting his whole life to the end of his life" and his ambition to help the people in modern times and recreate a peaceful and prosperous age. The author also endows him with the magical ability to control the wind and rain and make miraculous calculations. Cao Cao was a treacherous hero. His creed in life was "I would rather teach me to betray the world than teach the world to betray me." He was both talented and strategic, cruel and cunning. He was a political careerist and conspirator. This is different from the real Cao Cao in history. Not to be confused with. Guan Yu is "mighty and resolute" and "righteous as heavy as a mountain". But his loyalty is based on personal grievances, not the great justice of the country and the nation. Liu Bei is portrayed by the author as a model of a benevolent king who loves people and things, values ??virtuous people, and knows people well. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" describes wars, large and small, with grand ideas and diverse techniques, allowing us to clearly see war scenes of swords, light, blood and shadow. Among them, the descriptions of battles such as the Battle of Guandu and the Battle of Chibi are ups and downs, making it thrilling to read. The text of the whole book is not very profound, the language is not very vulgar, it is concise and lively, full of momentum and lively.
Water Margin:
"Water Margin" tells the story of Song Jiang and others who gathered for an uprising during the Xuanhe period of the Northern Song Dynasty (around 1119---1121). The story is recorded in "History of the Song Dynasty" and There are various records in the Song Dynasty people's notes. Although they are inconsistent, they all say that they were powerful, threatening the court, and had a profound influence on the people. Gong Shengyu, a person from the Southern Song Dynasty, said: "Song Jiang's affairs can be seen in street talks." Song Jiang and others are also mentioned in the story books. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the storybooks and dramas were widely spoken, and some of them have survived to the present, such as the storybook "The Legacy of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty" and the Yuan Dynasty Zajus. Shi Naian compiled the history books, legends, storybooks and dramas since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Zaju and other "Water Margin" stories were collected, selected, processed and created to write "Water Margin". It narrates the occurrence, development and failure of the peasants' anti-feudal struggle through the Liangbo uprising. It uses profound thoughts and extensive content
The book "A Dream of Red Mansions" takes the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai as the main line, and shows the broad social life through the description of the rise and fall of the four major families of "Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue" The vision is all-encompassing, encompassing a variety of worldly human feelings. People say that "A Dream of Red Mansions" contains the historical capacity of an era and is an encyclopedia of the end of feudalism.