Ancient Chinese poetry with rich connotations always has an endless artistic conception and charm. Science plays cross-border and discovers the light of science in the beauty of poetry. Teacher Chen Zheng of Beijing Jiaotong University reinterpreted the poems from a scientific perspective, locked in this series of interesting science lessons, and discovered the scientific world in the poems together
Professor Chen Zheng of Beijing Jiaotong University
Did Du Fu study physics?
"Pushing physics must be fun, why use floating names to stumble on this body." This is a poem by Du Fu, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty. Friends who are familiar with Du Fu will find that the word "physics" is reflected in his poems, which shows Du Fu's preference for "physics". Du Fu's "physics" refers to "the truth in things", and what we call physics today is a natural science. Although the poet Saint Du Fu and other poets have not studied physics, the physics knowledge in ancient poems is everywhere!
Do you have a chemistry lab at home?
"Green ant new wine, red clay stove." The new wine is fragrant, the stove has been warmed, so leisurely, who does not praise: life is wonderful! But in the eyes of scientists, the burning of the furnace in the poem and the release of heat are chemical phenomena. Poets may not understand chemistry, but they have many poetic depictions of chemical reactions!
What biological mysteries are hidden in ancient poetry?
Birds and animals, flowers, birds, insects and fish, the ancients had a scientific thinking on the observation and recording of biological habits. From the flying geese south to the food chain in biological evolution, but was the cognition of the ancients scientific?
Were the ancient poets all geographers?
The ancients were very good at observing and summarizing. In ancient poems, poets' descriptions of geographical phenomena are quite common, and when we appreciate these poems with scientific eyes, we can't help but lament the geographical wisdom of the ancients. In an era when there were no sophisticated instruments, how did they come to these implicit scientific conclusions?
What if poets also understood astronomy?
The poet is not only an observer of life, but also a creator of aesthetic romance. Although their cosmology has great limitations, they also have a certain astronomical thinking and description. The civilization and romance of the ancients are as bright as the stars, let's go and see it together.
The perceptual text contains a vast world, from flowers, plants, insects and fish to mountains and rivers, through history, looking back at the ancient and modern, inserting scientific wings for poetry, feeling the humanistic style, and exploring the fun of science.
The "Ancient Poetry in the Eyes of Scientists" series of popular science videos is jointly planned and produced by the China Next Generation Education Foundation, Shenzhen Ping An Public Welfare Foundation and Science and Technology Daily, aiming to guide young people to cultivate scientific thinking through understanding the scientific knowledge behind ancient poetry, and use science to explore the "unknown" and "known" worlds.
The series of videos was launched on February 24 on Multiple Platforms such as Science and Technology Daily New Media Matrix, China Science and Technology Network, Science Popularization China, Tencent Video, Watermelon Video, Baidu Baijia Number, Weibo Pan Knowledge, B Station, Youth Science and Technology Literacy Improvement Plan Public Account, etc., pay attention to us to learn more fun and interesting scientific knowledge! (Zhao Weihua)
Source: Science and Technology Daily