In ancient times, when the average life expectancy was not high, Emperor Yuan Chengzong specially issued an edict prohibiting the 73-year-old Guo Shoujing from retiring until he died in office at the age of 86 and was buried in his hometown.
It's not that the emperor is so bad, and if you're the emperor, you probably won't let him retire either.
In the vast and brilliant starry sky above the human head, between Mars and Jupiter, there is a "Guo Shoujing asteroid" running day and night.
"Looking up at the bright moon" brings us endless nostalgia and reverie, and on the back of the moon, there is a "Guo Shoujing Crater Mountain" standing quietly.
In the fertile east of China, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is listed as a world cultural heritage, runs from north to south, and Guo Shoujing is the most famous planner and designer in the history of the development of the Grand Canal.
Guo Shoujing (1231-1316)
Zi Ruosi, a native of Xingtai, Hebei Province, was a great erudite scientist of the Yuan Dynasty who made outstanding contributions in the fields of astronomy, water conservancy, surveying, calendar, arithmetic, and astronomical instrument manufacturing. Guo Shoujing has devoted his life to invention and creation, and in the history of ancient science and technology in the world, he can be called an admirable mountain and a dazzling superstar. The Grand Canal, for which he had worked so hard, became a common cultural heritage of all mankind for seven hundred years after his death.
Guo Shoujing has been different since he was a child and does not play greedily. In addition to being gifted, it is not unrelated to family education. His grandfather Guo Rong (郭荣), who was "proficient in the Five Classics, good at arithmetic and water conservancy", was a famous scholar who was proficient in Confucian classics and astronomy and water conservancy in the late Jin dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. Guo Shoujing was enlightened by his grandfather and laid a solid foundation for his future success.
15-year-old Guo Shoujing saw the hun yi pictures on ancient books and imitated them with "bamboo as an instrument and soil as a platform". Armillary instruments are prepared from thin sheets of bamboo and placed on a high platform made of mud to try to measure the sky.
Armillary instrument, also known as armillary celestial instrument, is used to simulate the position of the sun, moon and stars, and observe the operation of celestial bodies. As early as the Warring States period, China has invented the armillary instrument.
At the age of 16, Guo Shoujing obeyed his grandfather's orders to worship under Liu Bingzhong, one of the "Five Masters of the Purple Mountain", until he was 27 years old.
Liu Bingzhong (1216-1274)
Zi Zhongqian (字仲晦), courtesy name Zang Chunshanren, was a native of Xingzhou (present-day Xingtai), a politician and writer of the Yuan Dynasty. He assisted Kublai Khan for nearly 30 years, serving as a courtier, fixing the official system, and presiding over the planning and construction of the capital city.
During his time at the academy, Guo Shoujing's hometown fell into disrepair due to the war at the end of the Jin Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the river flooded, and the stone bridge was buried by sediment, he was invited by the officials to survey the river channel, implement the treatment, only 400 people were requisitioned, and in more than 40 days, the river dredging project was completed, and pointed out that the location of the bridge should be set up, and found the stone bridge that had been missing for 30 years and rebuilt it, so that the road was restored and the farmland was irrigated. That year, Guo Shoujing was only 21 years old.
Three years after leaving the academy, Guo Shoujing accompanied Zhang Wenqian as an emissary of the imperial court to inspect the Daimyo, Zhangde and other roads, and in his spare time, he deeply understood the principle of the lotus leak (a kind of timing instrument) made by Yansu in the Northern Song Dynasty, led the craftsmen to improve the copper leak pot, changed the lotus decoration into the shape of Baoshan, named "Baoshan Leak", and was sent to Yanjing to become the timing tool of Sitiantai (National Astronomical Observatory).
The 32-year-old Guo Shoujing, after the recommendation of Zhongshu Zuo Cheng Zhang Wenqian, proposed to Kublai Khan in Shangdu six water conservancy projects for the construction of Yanjing and the North China Plain, the first of which was to introduce jade spring water to the old Cao River in Zhongdu. His ideas were greatly appreciated, and he was appointed to lift the roads and canals and be responsible for the water conservancy of the rivers in various places.
Two years later, Guo Shoujing was ordered to go to the former Western Xia territory to control the diversion canal destroyed by the war, summarize the traditional experience and seek innovation, redesign the gate and dam, preside over the restoration of the ancient canal, and in only 5 months, the scene of the southern part of the Saibei River was reproduced. The local people of all ethnic groups built a shrine for him and remembered his deeds for the benefit of the people.
On October 10, 2017, at the executive meeting of the World Irrigation and Drainage Committee held in Mexico City, three ancient water conservancy projects in Ningxia Yinhuang Ancient Irrigation District, Shaanxi Hanzhong Sanyan and Fujian Huangju Irrigation Project were confirmed to be successfully declared as World Irrigation Engineering Heritage.
For another two years, Guo Shoujing presided over the reopening of the abandoned Jinkou River in the Jin Dynasty, and diverted the water of Lugou to transport timber and stone materials from Xishan to supply the needs of dadu city construction.
In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, Jin Dading's twenty-year "Reconstruction of the Great Ming Calendar" was used, and the accumulation of errors in the past hundred years led to the discrepancy between the astronomical predictions and the actual situation, and it was urgent to revise and recompile. Guo Shoujing used the "Four Seas Test" conducted by the newly made instrumentation to obtain a large amount of accurate data. Based on this, together with Xu Heng, Wang Ke and so on, a new calendar was made. Kublai Khan gave the name "Chronological Calendar" and promulgated it to the whole world. At that time, Guo Shoujing was 50 years old.
Chronological Calendar
The chronological calendar proposes a length of 365.2425 days, which is comparable to the accuracy of the Gregorian calendar, which was later used in the world, but was promulgated 300 years earlier.
Later, the 62-year-old Guo Shoujing suggested to Kublai Khan that a canal from Tongzhou to Dadu be dug to solve the problem of water transport. The project began in 1292, the total length of the construction route was 164 miles and 104 steps (Yuan system); it took more than a year to complete, and Kublai Khan gave the name "Tonghui River". Since then, the boats from the south can enter Dadu through the Tonghui River, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal that runs through the whole line has a waterhole as the northern terminal pier, which has greatly promoted the economic and cultural exchanges between the north and the south and the urban development of the Yuan Dadu.
Throughout Guo Shoujing's life, he was an astronomical hydraulic scientist who was born in the world, and the construction of Dadu Water Conservancy showed a high degree of wisdom, and he was the first hero of the construction of the Grand Canal in the Yuan Dynasty! He has no honor and has left a precious historical legacy.
Worldwide, Guo Shoujing is arguably the greatest scientist of the mid-13th to early 14th centuries. His outstanding achievements in the fields of water conservancy, astronomy, calendar, mathematics and other fields have won high respect from ancient and modern China and abroad; his scientific spirit and thinking methods of deep exploration and courage to innovate shine with the brilliant light of human wisdom. Although Guo Shoujing's emergence is due to his own natural talents, it is also inseparable from the background of the great unification of the country in a specific era of elite gatherings and unprecedented extensive foreign exchanges, coupled with his scientific research and urban planning and construction, agricultural production and development, people's daily life, and the integration of north and south economic culture, thus creating a world-renowned scientific superstar in Chinese history. Guo Shoujing's legendary scientific life and leading scientific and technological achievements inspire the Chinese nation to continue to forge ahead and innovate with full self-confidence and pride!