Two years ago today, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a letter to congratulate the first National Reading Conference, in which he pointed out that reading is an important way for human beings to acquire knowledge, enlighten wisdom, and cultivate morality. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has advocated reading, paid attention to learning from things, sincerity and integrity, inherited the endless spirit of the Chinese nation, and shaped the self-confidence and self-improvement character of the Chinese people.
If you want to know the road, you must first read history.
Today is the 29th World Book Day, let us open the book "The Accumulation of Civilization: Ancient Chinese Science and Technology" to understand ancient Chinese science and technology from the perspective of civilization.
The Chinese civilization has a long and profound history, which is the unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation, the foundation of contemporary Chinese culture, the spiritual bond that maintains the Chinese people all over the world, and the ideological source of Chinese cultural innovation. Science and technology are an important part of the treasure of Chinese civilization and have made important contributions to the progress of Chinese civilization and even world civilization. Science and technology are the force for the progress of human civilization, and science and technology have played a decisive role in human civilization to this day. In today's era, science and technology have become the dominant force of the country and society. Therefore, understanding the development process of the history of science and technology in ancient China can not only help us understand the Chinese civilization, but also help us understand the positioning of Chinese civilization in the world civilization and enhance cultural self-confidence.
Tracing the history of China's science and technology development
All the great civilizations in the world have made important contributions to the development of science and technology. The long river of history is turbulent, but only the Chinese civilization has never been interrupted after thousands of years of catastrophe. Egypt, the Middle East, and the Indus Valley have also established ancient civilizations in the world, but these three ancient civilizations outside of China died out more than 2,000 years ago. There is no civilization like China, which has been passed down from its origins to the present. The civilization of ancient Egypt gradually declined after the Persians entered Egypt, and basically died out by the Hellenistic period. The ancient Egyptian civilization was re-understood and recognized, after European scholars interpreted the surviving ancient Egyptian texts in the early 19th century, and thus established the history of ancient Egypt including the Pre-Kingdom, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. The ancient Mesopotamian civilization of the Two Rivers Valley has long since declined, and it is only through the interpretation of the cuneiform clay tablets found by archaeology that its ancient and complex history can be understood. The civilization that arose in ancient India around the third millennium BC disappeared after the Indo-European peoples entered India during the Hellenistic period. Only our Chinese civilization, with its glorious history, has been handed down. China's "10,000-year cultural history" and "5,000-year civilization history" are supported by solid archaeological and historical evidence. China's prehistoric civilization, although there is no written record, but from the archaeological discovery of physical materials, prehistory has a wealth of experience in the use of science and technology, pottery production, textile invention, agricultural invention and animal domestication, etc., these Neolithic inventions have made human beings move towards the process of civilization. Chinese civilization also came from the Neolithic Age more than 10,000 years ago, and created a splendid scientific and technological civilization on the land of China.
The armillary sphere is now stored in the Purple Mountain Observatory
Examine the history of Chinese science and technology from the perspective of global civilization
Modern science is the result of the exchange and integration of Eastern and Western civilizations. Although the West rediscovered the ancient Greek tradition in the Renaissance movement, it also absorbed new technologies and ideas in its exchanges with the Eastern world, which provided a stimulating factor for the emergence of modern science. China's "four great inventions" that everyone is familiar with have played an important role in the rise of the world's modern scientific and technological civilization. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, even in the process of the introduction of Western science to China, China has not been a completely passive recipient, but has invented and innovated in the process of acceptance. As a result, China has in fact become a participant in modern science in the world.
"The Book of Books and Illustrated Explanations" ordered officials to give time charts
Chinese civilization is a great river of civilization. As Joseph Needham demonstrated, China has contributed a great deal of scientific thought and achievements to the vast ocean of modern science in the world. But it is not enough to see this, we need to approach the great river and look at the "riverside scenery" of the great river of Chinese civilization, that is, to explore how scientific and technological knowledge was created in ancient civilizations, and what are the characteristics of the way of thinking. We must see that the principles and truths of science are universal, borderless, and the common achievements and wealth of human civilization, which transcend the boundaries of various cultures and will be shared by more and more people. At the same time, it is important to recognize that each country has unique cultural traditions, values, ways of thinking and behaving, which constitute a unique aspect of its scientific culture.
The Topographic Map unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Hunan Province in 1973 is the earliest surviving map of China's coastline
Why has Chinese civilization endured, and what role has science and technology played in it? The British historian Toynbee studied world history and listed 21 civilizations in the world from ancient times to the present, most of which have either long since died out or have declined. However, the Chinese civilization has endured for thousands of years, and the key factor in this is that the Chinese civilization is good at using the environment and applying knowledge about nature to meet human needs. This is manifested in the remains of the Neolithic period. In the historical era, Chinese civilization paid more attention to national governance, and used science and technology for the country, applied it to the world, and put people first, so that it could flourish.
Human civilization has both identity and plurality, and civilizations are constantly exchanging, learning from each other, and learning from each other, and the same scientific and technological inventions have different forms, different applications, and different social effects in different civilizations. Understanding these is conducive to us to elaborate on the significance of a community with a shared future for mankind from the perspective of the history of science and technology. In the history of exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations, technology has always been a connecting force.
Modern Enlightenment of Ancient Chinese Science
Looking at ancient Chinese science and technology from the perspective of civilization, we should not only talk about the achievements of ancient science and technology, but also talk about the historical and cultural background of the development of science and technology, and talk about scientific thinking and scientific traditions. The achievements of ancient China's scientific and technological achievements are inseparable from the unique traditions, epistemologies, methodologies, and value orientations of Chinese science and culture. Sorting out these and explaining them with modern science and culture has important enlightenment and reference significance for the development of contemporary science and technology.
Traditional Chinese culture also contains science, and science is in our culture, and the key depends on how we excavate, organize and understand. When we look at ancient Chinese science and technology from the perspective of civilization, we must first have a correct attitude towards understanding scientific and technological civilization. We cannot be arrogant, but we must also not engage in national nihilism. In fact, civilizations are symbiotic and mutually influential. Civilizations sometimes become each other's imaginary worlds, and creativity is stimulated in their respective civilizations. And sometimes there is a direct exchange and collision between civilizations. In the era of globalization, civilization is the common civilization of mankind, and China naturally needs to have responsibility and self-confidence in it. And this self-confidence comes from the foundation and accumulation of our own civilization.
History contains spirit. The Chinese nation stands on its own feet among the nations of the world, and it must require the modernization of China's traditional culture and spirit. In the transformation of natural and technological civilizations, a "philosophy of the future" is needed. "The Mean" says: "All things are nurtured and not harmed, and the Tao is parallel but not contradictory." "Yi Zhi Ci" said: "The world has the same end but different paths, the same and all considerations." "The science of the future will not always follow the lines laid down in the 17th century. The American scholar Sal Restivo predicted in 1979 that "new sciences as we know them in the 21st century may emerge in China, not in the United States or elsewhere." "Of course, this new science is not only a new achievement, but also a methodological innovation. The scientific spirit in traditional Chinese culture deserves to be taken seriously and written about.
Chinese-style modernization requires the establishment of a scientific culture, and culture is a kind of tradition. If we fail to treat traditional culture correctly, the construction of science and culture will be lame. To build a real scientific civilization in contemporary times, we should and must seek support from traditional culture, use traditional culture to build cultural self-confidence, and enhance the diversity of science and culture. The system of modern science has been established in China, and we already have a rational and scientific discourse system. However, what is really needed is to combine the spirit of science with the soul of the Chinese nation and shape the Chinese heart of science, so that we can have the ability to innovate and better face the future.
Written by Sun Xiaochun
ISBN:978-7-5236–0276-8
Published by China Science and Technology Press
Source: Voice of China Association for Science and Technology