Characteristics and achievements of ancient Chinese and western scientific development

1. Ancient China made remarkable achievements in science and technology, while China's achievements in ancient science and technology attracted worldwide attention in originality, historical continuity and comprehensive diversity.

2. The development of ancient science and technology in China, especially the development of scientific ideas, has the characteristics of continuity and stage climax.

3. Experience, description, practicality and localization are the remarkable features of ancient science and technology in China.

4. The development of disciplines closely related to agriculture is another feature of ancient science and technology in China.

5. Government-run is another feature in the history of ancient science and technology development in China.

Second, the results:

1, many things of early science in ancient Greece, such as geometry and astronomy, were learned from the ancient river civilization. It is this long-term development and inheritance of primitive scientific and technological achievements that formed the ancient scientific and technological system of China.

Dr Joseph Needham, a famous British historian of science and technology, once made a fair evaluation of this in his preface to The History of Science and Technology in China. He said: "These inventions and discoveries in China often far exceed those in Europe at the same time, especially before the15th century (which can be easily proved)."

2. The ancient society of China lasted for 4,000 years from the Five Emperors, Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty, Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period to the end of Qing Dynasty. There is no historical tragedy like the Roman Empire, nor has it experienced the dark ages of the Middle Ages in Western Europe.

This enabled the development of ancient science and technology in China to be passed down from generation to generation, accumulated continuously, and reached its peak on this basis.

Extended data

The development process of ancient science in China;

China's science and technology began to catch up with other ancient civilizations during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and then continued to develop during the rise and fall of the "unified" feudal society, which lasted for more than 1,000 years and maintained a leading position in the world.

China is an ancient agricultural country. In order to consolidate the political power, feudal rulers of all dynasties carried out the policy of "building the country by agriculture". Daxing water conservancy project is the concentrated embodiment of this policy. Water conservancy project is not only the need of agricultural economy, but also the requirement of unifying social structure.

It is impossible to produce large-scale water conservancy projects by relying solely on the small-scale peasant economy. The promotion from the unified social structure is an important reason why China's ancient water conservancy technology has always maintained a leading position.

The Great Wall of Wan Li is the most famous architectural miracle in ancient China. It was built to meet the needs of national defense. The navigation technology produced by Zheng He's voyage to the West was developed to meet the political needs, including metallurgy, textile, porcelain making and four great inventions. They all existed and developed to meet the political, economic and military needs of feudal society. ?

Most of the ancient technologies in China developed around the need of consolidating a unified society, and finally formed a unified technical structure. The social structure of feudal unification determined the fate of ancient science and technology in China: it made brilliant achievements in feudal events that lasted for more than 1000 years, and gradually ended with the decline of feudal dynasties in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Source of reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-History of Science and Technology in China