In childhood textbooks, Sima Guang's stories of smashing jars, stealing light from the wall, armillary sphere and seismograph are all very classic stories, which make students lament the wisdom of the ancients. Among them, the seismograph invented by Zhang Heng has been regarded as a great invention for more than ten years and has been exhibited many times around the world. Recently, it was reported that it would withdraw from history textbooks. What's going on here?
Seismographs are used to predict earthquake trends. It looks like a wine jar with eight dragon pillars embedded around it, pointing in eight directions respectively. Every dragon has a bead in its mouth. If there is an earthquake precursor in a certain place, the beads in the corresponding direction will fall, and the toad on the ground will hold the beads, so as to judge which direction an earthquake will occur. This was originally the crystallization of ancient wisdom, but in recent years, many experts have jumped out to question the authenticity of the seismograph.
First of all, Zhang Heng's invention has a simple record of 196 in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, and no original instruments have been unearthed. What we are seeing now is that people later recast it according to records. Secondly, in today's advanced science, people can't accurately predict earthquakes, and even animals can only perceive them in advance. Predicting the future with seismograph obviously does not conform to scientific logical thinking. This kind of uncertainty can't "spoil" the flowers of the motherland, so experts suggest deleting the seismograph from the textbook.
This made many viewers feel a little emotional, thinking that the seismograph was a great scientific invention of the ancients, and even foreigners were amazed. The expert's move is obviously an act of worshipping foreign things and flattering foreign countries, and does not respect the precious culture of the Chinese nation. Maybe it's just that the current technology can't perfectly restore Zhang Heng's seismograph, and experts are afraid of losing face, so they hastily removed this invention from the textbook. In this regard, dear friends, do you think this bill should be deleted from history textbooks?
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