The "science fiction" world of the ancients is magnificent and romantic

Many of the recent naming of aerospace science and technology on the mainland are related to traditional cultural symbols. For example, the lunar exploration project has "Chang'e" and "Jade Rabbit", the sun exploration project has "Xihe", the mainland's self-built navigation system is called "Beidou", the mainland's self-built space station is named "Tiangong", the mainland planetary exploration mission is named "Tianwen Series", the first Mars exploration mission is named "Tianwen-1", the first Mars rover is named "Zhu Rong", and the dark matter particle exploration satellite launched by the mainland is named "Wukong". The names of these technological things sound very "appropriate". Because behind these symbols is the magnificent and romantic imagination of the ancient Chinese people for the world and the universe.

"Tianwen" comes from Qu Yuan's work Tianwen. In this work, Qu Yuan is like traveling in space in a spaceship, and he sends out a series of "heavenly questions" for the vast universe of Hongmeng: "Circle is nine heavy, which camp is the degree?" "Legend has it that the sky has nine floors, who designed and planned it?" But what is the merit, and what is the first work? "Who first built such a large project as the Ninth Heaven?" Nine days, place the genus? "How big are the nine days of the plane, where have they arrived, and where are they connected?" Besides, what did heaven and earth look like before they were formed? How did people first identify the chaotic celestial phenomena in the sky? Where are the immovable stellar bodies, where are the ropes that tie them? Where does their light go? Where are the eight pillars that support the heavens? Why does the sky tilt to the northwest and the earth sink to the southeast? Where is the meeting place of heaven and earth? How does the sun and moon work, and how are the stars displayed? How far does solar go in a day? How are the twelve divisions of the zodiac divided? Why is the moon missing round, and what are the black dots in the moon? Why is it dark when the Gate of Heaven closes? Why does the Gate of Heaven open at dawn? Through Qu Yuan's description of the problem, it can be seen that this nine-fold heavenly palace has a heavenly gate, one of the twenty-eight stars has two stars in the corner, and the sun, moon and planets often pass near these two stars, so these two stars are regarded as heaven's gates. In addition, there seem to be countless corners and corners in this Ninth Heavenly Palace, and these places are also full of unknowns, "There are many Inuma, who knows the number?" ”

"Heavenly Palace" originated from the ancients' imagination of the heavenly world. The pre-Qin classic Lü's Spring and Autumn divides the heavens into nine parts, like the earth. It is also divided into "nine days" vertically, from low to high, for a total of nine layers. The reason why it is "nine" may be related to the worship of "nine" in ancient China. "Nine" is the pole of the yang number in "Zhou Yi". Later, under the influence of the Thirty-Three Days of Buddhism, we again had the imagination of having the "Thirty-Three Houses" in heaven. In "Journey to the West", when Sun Wukong first went to the heavenly court, the author described the environment of the heavenly palace from the perspective of Sun Wukong: "The first time you ascend to the boundary, you first enter heaven." The golden light rolled red, and the swiss qi sprayed purple mist. Only to see the South Heavenly Gate, blue and heavy, made of glass; Ming Gui, bao yu makeup. ...... There are thirty-three heavenly palaces in this heaven, naisyun palace, Bisha palace, Wuming palace, sun palace, huale palace... The first palace ridge swallows the golden and stable beasts; there are seventy-two treasure halls, which are the Hall of the Imperial Assembly, the Hall of Lingxu, the Hall of Treasure Light, the Hall of the Heavenly King, the Hall of the Spirit Officials... A temple pillar is lined with jade unicorns. ”

According to the description of the novel, there are seventy-two treasure halls on this "space station" composed of thirty-three houses, and the purpose of the treasure halls varies. The main body of the Lingxiao Treasure Hall is equivalent to the "core warehouse" of the space station. The Tongming Hall is equivalent to the "node warehouse" of the space station. The node warehouse is mainly responsible for the docking of visiting spacecraft. In the world of the Heavenly Palace imagined by the ancients, the Tongming Hall is such a docking waiting area. According to the Journey to the West, after Sun Wukong "snatched" the golden hoop stick in the East Sea, the Dragon King went to the Jade Emperor to complain, and his men said to the Jade Emperor: "Long live, outside the Tongming Hall, there is Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, who enters the table and listens to the edict of The Heavenly Emperor." It can be seen that the Dragon King's ascension to the Heavenly Palace must first be "docked" in the Tongming Hall.

We are now in space, relying on manned spacecraft. There are many ways of "going to heaven" in the imagination of the ancients, such as a "spaceship" recorded in the "Huainanzi Yuan Daoxun": "In the past, Feng Yi and Da Chengzhi Yuye rode in the cloud car and entered the clouds; they traveled to the slight fog, and they were suddenly confused; they were extremely high, and there was no trace of the sun through frost and snow; they went up with their horns, and they brokered the mountains and rivers, and they went to The Heavenly Gate; they were swept away and fell into the Gate of Heaven." "It is said that there was a lei gong car, with six clouds as horses, galloping in the vast space, can fly to infinity, the horse stepped through the frost and snow without leaving a trace, the sunlight shone on the body without a shadow, this car can fly upwards with a large whirlwind, can go to Kunlun, to the Heavenly Gate of the Heavenly Palace.

The Huainan Zi also records a sacred tree: "The construction of wood is in Duguang, and the emperors are from top to bottom." This means that in the center of the earth, there is a great tree called Jianmu, where the gods ascend to heaven by the tree of God. In the legend, the gods and men also rode all kinds of divine beasts to the heavens, such as the legend that the Yellow Emperor ascended to heaven on a dragon. Then there are all kinds of imaginations that soar through the clouds and ride the fog, such as the douyun. Unlike the Western "superman" who can fly on its own, in the "science fiction" world of the ancient Chinese, flight needs to be relied upon. Zhuangzi also said: "The sons of Fu Liezi walked against the wind, and they were good and good, and there were five days in the tenth and then they rebelled." He who is blessed is not counted. Although this is not necessary, it is still waiting for those who are waiting. "To be treated" is to "serve", that is, to have something to rely on.

Recently, the "meta-universe" has become popular, and there is also a story similar to the "meta-universe" in "Liezi": Zheng Guo has a man cutting firewood in the wild and encounters a deer that is frightened by being chased by hunters. The woodcutter ran over and killed it and got the deer. Fearing that the hunters would come to grab him, the woodcutter hid the deer and continued chopping wood. After a while, he went to look for the deer again, and suddenly forgot where he was hiding. Trance suspected that he might have just had a dream, maybe he wanted to get a deer too much, and the plot of getting a deer and hiding a deer was just his own fantasy. The woodcutter talked to himself as he thought about it. His words happened to be heard by a passerby, who searched according to his words and sure enough found a deer. After taking the deer home, he told his wife about it. The wife said, did you dream that a woodcutter got a deer? Is there really a woodcutter? My husband said, anyway, I really have a deer now, whether he is a woodcutter dreaming, or I dreaming of a woodcutter! When the woodcutter returned, he was unwilling to lose the deer. Dreaming at night, he actually dreamed of the place where the deer was hidden, and also dreamed that the deer was eventually taken by a passerby. After dawn, he followed the clues in his dream and actually found the person who took the deer. The two men quarreled over the deer, and finally went to court.

For the science fiction imagination of space, the West has a kind of earth hollow theory, that the earth's interior is empty, and there is another world. The movie Godzilla vs. King Kong probably based on this theory, envisioning a space in the earth's crust. In fact, the ancient Chinese people had a similar imagination. Of course, it does not refer to the prefectural government. The Tang Dynasty's "Bo Yizhi" records that there was a worker digging a well in the backyard, and as a result, he hit it for two years, hit more than a thousand feet without water, and fought for more than a month, the worker suddenly heard the sound of chickens and dogs chirping in the ground, and continued to chisel down a few feet, and a stone hole appeared on the wall of the well. The worker went through the mouth of the cave, and at the end of the cave there was a mountain peak, and the worker came down from the mouth of the cave, stood up straight, and looked at it, and came to another world. Inside there was a palace made of gold and silver, a lot of big trees, leaves like banana leaves, purple flowers as big as plates, and many five-colored butterflies with wings as big as fans flying between the flowers.

There are also many "science fiction" themes such as "time and space travel" in ancient China, such as many such stories in "The Complete Biography of The Immortals" and "Youminglu". The TV series "In Search of Qin" tells the story of a modern person who crossed over to the Qin Dynasty. In fact, when it was in the Tang Dynasty, there was a novel about the Tang Dynasty people crossing over to the Qin Dynasty, which was "Qin Dream". In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, a man named Shen Yazhi had a dream in the guest house and dreamed of returning to the Qin Dynasty. Qin Mugong asked for a good strategy for strengthening the country, and he responded with Kun Peng (referring to the xianjun of the ancient kingdoms of Kunwu and Dapeng in the Xia and Shang dynasties) and Qi Huan (referring to qi Huan, the head of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period), so that he was appreciated by Qin Mugong and was ordered to cut down Hexi. Shen Yazhi lived up to expectations and captured five cities in the Jin Dynasty. Duke Mu of Qin married the princess to him, and from then on he entered and exited the palace and walked in and out of the palace. Suddenly, the princess made a jade storm, and Shen Yazhi bid farewell to Qin Mugong in order to leave the sad place. Duke Mu of Qin ordered his men to send him outside Hangu Pass. After leaving the customs, the official who sent us off said that the Duke of Qin ordered us to be sent here, and we would go back. Yazhi said goodbye to them, and before the goodbye was over, he woke up and found himself still lying in the guest house. In ancient literary works, in addition to "crossing" to the past, there are also "crossing" to the future, such as the story of Wang Zhiluoke, the story of Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao's entry into Tiantai Mountain, the "Immortal Island" and "West Lake Lord" in "Liaozhai Zhiyi", and so on.

There are many more ancient "science fiction" recorded in the classics. For example, the self-driving vehicle recorded in the Han Dynasty's "Huainanzi" is "the car does not move and lifts itself, and the horse does not make it go by itself." The Ming Dynasty's "Five Miscellaneous Groups" recorded a lot of mirrors: it is said that the Zhou Dynasty had a fire mirror, "secret vision is like day", in the dark place, the mirror is the same as what is seen during the day, equivalent to the current night vision goggles, speaking to the mirror, the shadow in the mirror will also answer, which is equivalent to the voice function on the mobile phone; the Qin Dynasty has a Qin square mirror, which is said to be able to illuminate people's hearts and guts, and Ye Fashan of the Tang Dynasty has an iron mirror that can illuminate people's illness, which is equivalent to the current CT. In the Story of the Eight Immortals in the Ming Dynasty, it is said that Lü Dongbin had a sword, and as long as the enemy's name was pronounced against the sword, the sword could find the enemy itself and kill it, which was equivalent to the current precision-guided missile. There is a bamboo pipe recorded in "Zi Zi Mu Shu", you speak to it, the voice can be recorded, and then you can send it to a distant place and put it to a friend in the distance, which can be said to be the "prototype" of the tape recorder or WeChat.

These spiritual treasures left by the ancients have had different echoes in different eras. Today, traditional cultural symbols are used as the names of various scientific and technological things, which reflects the strong charm and vitality of our traditional culture.

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