What are the overall characteristics of ancient Chinese science?

Ancient China did not only have the literary sentiment of "leaning on the sky with a sword to watch the sea, leaning on the hibiscus to get drunk on the Yao Tai", nor did it only have calligraphy, paintings, porcelains, and embroideries, but also had science and technology in the ancient times of China! Turn over the "history of Chinese science and technology", every page, every brilliant achievement has made the world attention, marvel: complete and accurate celestial records, world-class mathematical achievements, the profound Chinese medicine, the world-renowned four great inventions ...... British philosopher, the originator of modern experimental science Bacon once pointed out that: printing, gunpowder and the compass "have changed the face of the world," and that "no empire, no religious sect, and no hefty figure, can produce greater power and influence in the cause of mankind than these three inventions." Marx was even more eloquent in pointing out that "gunpowder, the compass needle, and the printing press - these are the three great inventions that foretell the coming of bourgeois society." Our ancient civilization, science and technology, represented by the Four Great Inventions, have made great contributions to human civilization. China's ancient science and technology has long been ahead of the world. However, the development of science and technology has been sluggish and outdated in modern times.

The outstanding scientific and technological achievements of ancient China were nourished by the specific economic, social and cultural environment of ancient China.

During the Warring States period, with the fierce changes and frequent wars, whoever had enough food would have the magic weapon to defeat their opponents, and so the idea of "agriculture" became the ruler's idea of governing the world. Since then, successive rulers have taken agriculture as the world's fundamental: Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty issued an imperial edict saying: "agriculture, the world's basic services are not great", Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty said: "agriculture is the most urgent, can not be lost." Agriculture is the root of the country's wealth, agricultural development is good or bad, sustaining the fate of the country, the dynasty. So agronomy developed, with a sense of protecting the ecological environment and resources. Therefore, astronomy and calendar science, which is closely related to agriculture, also developed.

Feudal emperors believed that the heavenly phenomenon is directly related to the fate of the king Chaoyang, "Yi" said: "Tian Dangxiang, see the good and bad ...... "The rise and fall of the royal family is the reflection of the heavenly phenomenon on earth," "Heavenly Inductions ", "the divine right of kings", so the accuracy of the calendar or not, is seen as a sign of whether the dynasty complies with the will of heaven. Farmers under natural economic conditions have accumulated rich experience in the long-term labor of planting by the sky. This is the reason why the ancient astronomical calendar had an early start and remarkable achievements.

To develop a precise calendar, we need to accurately measure the sky, we need to be adept at calculating, so mathematics accompanied the development of astronomy; China has a vast land, a large population, the central government for the effective management of the country, the development of geography. The spiral development of natural economy in ancient times, the increase of agricultural productivity, the improvement of handicraft technology, and the prosperity of commerce and cities created important conditions for the development of science, technology and culture.

The political system and measures that are in line with the law have contributed to the development of science and technology. The rulers of the Warring States period, the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Northern Song Dynasty and other periods emphasized culture. The Warring States period, as the early Qing Dynasty thinker Wang Fuzhi said, is "a major change in the past and present". Many contradictions and complexity, the ideological community is unprecedentedly active, the monarchs of various countries in order to defeat their own enemies, recruiting talent, there is a "hundred schools of thought" situation, in such a cultural atmosphere, agriculture, water conservancy, science and technology, astronomy and calendars, medicine and so on, have been considerable development.

The Sui and Tang dynasties is the prosperity of feudal society, the feudal economy is highly developed, the rulers adopted a series of policies to protect the country, the emergence of political clarity, social stability, the people happy to work in the "rule of Zhen Guan," "the flourishing era of the Kai Yuan". Fruitful achievements were made in various fields of science and technology: the world's oldest stone arch bridge, Zhaozhou Bridge, which has been preserved to this day; the world's first pharmacopoeia compiled and promulgated by the state, the Tang Materia Medica; the astronomical accomplishments of the monk monk and his line of work; and the invention of engraving and printing, which was completed in 868 (the ninth year of the reign of Xian Tong). 868 (Xian Tong nine years) engraved and printed "Diamond Sutra" scroll, is the world's earliest preserved engraved prints with pictures, this volume is beautifully carved, knife skill, simple and heavy font, ink color uniformity, has reached a fairly high level of craftsmanship.

The Northern Song Dynasty was established in 979 AD, basically unified the Central Plains and the South, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms split the situation. Based on the Sui and Tang economies, the Northern Song Dynasty commodity economy developed. The development of the paper industry in the Northern Song Dynasty created the necessary conditions for the prosperity of the printing industry. The engraving and printing industry in the Song Dynasty entered into full bloom. Some laborers rich in practical experience to try to reform, Bisheng created the movable type printing, the development of the world's printing, cultural dissemination has an important impact.

The Tang Dynasty invented gunpowder, and the Northern Song Dynasty applied gunpowder to the military, and gunpowder weapons showed great power in war. Engels said, "At the beginning of the fourteenth century, gunpowder was introduced into Western Europe from the Arabs, and it revolutionized the whole method of warfare, as every schoolboy knows."

During the Northern Song Dynasty, foreign trade was more prosperous than in previous generations, and at this time the shipbuilding industry was quite developed, overseas trade was expanding, and because of the need for navigation, one of our country's important inventions, the compass, was commonly used on sea vessels from this time onwards. Northern Song Dynasty "Pingzhou can talk" records, 1098-1106 years in Guangzhou, "boatmen know geography, night is to watch the stars, the day is to watch the sun, yin and hui view compass." Soon after, the Arabs learned to use the compass from the Chinese, and it was introduced to the Europeans. Marx said, "Whereas gunpowder blew the chivalric class to pieces, and the compass needle opened up the world market and established colonies, the printing press became the instrument of Protestantism and, in general, the means of the revival of science, and the most powerful impulse for the manufacture of the necessary prerequisites for the development of the spirit."

In ancient times, especially in the Tang and Song dynasties, intellectuals could truly function as the brains of society. Beginning in the Sui Dynasty, the imperial examination system, perfected in the Tang Dynasty, created a certain social mobility for bureaucrats. During the Wei, Jin, and Northern Dynasties, the scholarly class was already corrupt, and the commoner landlord class, which was of humble origin and had real talent, gradually took the place of the scholarly class. The imperial examination system gave the people of that time certain opportunities to compete for higher needs. When the imperial examination system was first established, it provided a broad stage for intellectuals to actively participate in political affairs, give full play to their expertise, and concentrate on research, so the Tang and Song dynasties were characterized by brilliant scientific and technological achievements.

In ancient times, Chinese people were more liberal than Westerners. During the Warring States period, there was a "hundred schools of thought"; during the Wei-Jin period, people had a style of free expression; and before the implementation of the imperial examination system, the competition was fairer. Although Chinese feudal society was highly centralized, people in a natural economy (based on the family unit) were much freer than those in the West under the rule of medieval religious theology. It is precisely because of the freedom of human beings and the space for creativity that it is possible to have a consciousness that transcends existence and materializes it into existence.

In medieval Western Europe, the dominance of religious theological ideology stifled human nature and creativity, giving rise to the "one-sided moral personality" of medieval Western Europe. Engels said, "The history of the Middle Ages has known only one form of ideology, that of religion and theology." This single ideology, the "one-sided moral personality", made the Middle Ages in Western Europe a gloomy time for scientific and technological development. As a result, it also made the scientific and technological achievements of ancient China stand out and shine.

In addition, China's vast land and people, frequent interactions among various ethnic groups, and the unique cultural qualities of the Chinese people have led to a long history of Chinese culture, which has continued to develop and create on the basis of its predecessors. Chinese culture is the only unbroken culture in the world. Furthermore, the open-door policy of successive dynasties, while spreading the achievements of Chinese culture, paid attention to absorbing foreign cultures, forming the Chinese cultural circle which is profound and profound, and which is enshrined in the East and the West. In the West, although there was once a brilliant ancient Greek civilization, Roman civilization, however, due to geological changes, foreign invasion, the influx of the Germans tide people, destroyed everything. Western Europe in the Middle Ages was rebuilt on the ruins of culture and lacked a solid cultural foundation. That is why ancient Chinese technology was at the forefront of the world.

Yet while the West was vibrantly developing science and technology at the end of the Middle Ages, at the dawn of the New Age, and throughout its modern history, China's scientific and technological development was stagnant.

In the mid- to late-Ming Dynasty, due to the active commodity economy, the sprout of capitalism in Suzhou and other places was being "nurtured", but the successive rulers still advocated the ideology of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce", which stifled the development of the commodity economy, and the sprout of capitalism was very weak. The sprout of capitalism is very weak. "These idyllic rural communes, however harmless they may appear to be, have always been the firm foundation of Oriental despotism; they have confined the human mind to a very small area, made it the tame instrument of superstition, the slave of traditional rules, and incapable of any greatness or historical originality." The decaying feudal system that was coming to an end severely hindered the development of new productive forces and became a shackle that bound them.

The extreme imperial and cultural authoritarian policies under the super-stable system of feudal society imprisoned people's minds. From the Sui and Tang dynasties, the imperial examination system, to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the eight-legged scholar, the emergence of extreme barbaric prison of words, but also make the intellectuals can only "give up the present and seek the ancient, give up the human affairs of the nature of the sky." Lu Xun once said: "In the Qianlong period, people were even more afraid to use articles to speak. The so-called scholars could only hide and read the scriptures, proofread ancient books, and do some ancient articles, articles that had nothing to do with the time." A deadly academic style emerged. Feudal culture under the dictatorship of intellectuals, become tame tools, has no creativity to speak of, has not been able to play the role of the social mind.

In the period of the rise of feudal society, the practicality of the Chinese people's behavioral orientation greatly contributed to the development of ancient science and technology, but too much attention to the practicality of the study of the theory is ignored. After a certain period of development, it was difficult to leap into a new stage of development due to the lack of a strong foundation in theory. The ruling class possessed the fruits of science and technology, which made the study of science and technology fall into the orbit of political science and failed to enter the hall of philosophical reasoning and scientific abstraction. Although philosophical theories such as the doctrine of heaven and man and the doctrine of yin and yang and the five elements appeared in ancient China, these theories were universal and were applied to everything in heaven, earth and the earth, which explained some natural phenomena in a general and vague way, emphasized ****ness and lacked specific, individual and analytical exploration of natural phenomena. Traditional science was good at synthesis, grasping things from the totality and connection, and was full of simple dialectic. However, it neglects the independent study of individual material entities and the deep internal structure of matter, tolerates the haziness of thought and the imprecision of understanding, and lacks the basic method of scientific empirical evidence and analysis, which ultimately becomes an obstacle to people's deep understanding of the nature of things and the formation of scientific specialized theories. The traditional Chinese science and technology emphasizes practical application, not theoretical exploration; the research method and thinking method that emphasizes overall synthesis, not case-by-case analysis, which restricts the creative transformation of Chinese science and technology from the traditional form to the modern form.

Feudal society in China utilized the Confucian class to form a bureaucracy to manage the country, making the political and ideological structures integrated. So China became a country with a very strong tendency to politicize its culture. The intellectuals under the influence of Confucian culture read the scriptures, took the imperial examinations, and regarded the career path and the dragon gate as the best choice, which in fact was also the most promising. This cultural orientation, so that intellectuals tend to serve as if they were in a hurry, all kinds of learning with no direct relationship between the state and ruling the country, are regarded as useless discernment, not the emergency of the study, abandoned without treatment, thus resulting in a lot of important scientific works unattended, tied up on the shelves or lost. The concept of focusing on politics and technology has hindered the progress of science and technology.

China's traditional culture has an academic tendency to emphasize human nature over nature. Rulers emphasize virtue over talent. Cao Cao once said, "There is something to reward the function, and the rule of peace is still moral and bright." Sima Guang called those with more talent than virtue villains. Ancient Chinese academic thought also has a tradition of emphasizing "Tao" over "instrument". As far as academics are concerned, the humanities are emphasized and natural sciences are emphasized. In terms of natural sciences, the ancient Chinese sages for the natural world a lot of keen observation and novel insights, and ultimately always unanimously oriented to the enlightenment of the human heart. The tendency of intellectuals to emphasize the political and humanistic "way" and the "reason" of all things in heaven and earth, and to underestimate specific scientific knowledge and production techniques, is undoubtedly also an important reason that hinders the continued development of Chinese science and technology.

The slow development of the super-stability of feudal society in China has created a general "atrophied personality". The psychological characteristic of Chinese Confucian culture is "practical rationality". The so-called "practical rationality" is to guide and implement rationality in daily life, feelings and political concepts, without making abstract metaphysical thinking. The whole idea centered on the idea of "restoring one's self to the rites" and attempting to create an ideal society where "the world is benevolent" through the development of people's moral strength. Therefore, while moral strength was emphasized in the personality, the "independence" and "decisiveness" to fight against authority and traditions were not emphasized enough in the quality of the will, and the "competitiveness" necessary to maintain a positive and enterprising attitude was even more rarely emphasized. Competitiveness" is even more rare. The rulers emphasized virtue rather than talent and denied the individuality of human beings. At the end of feudal society, the politicization of Confucianism prompted the Chinese intellectuals to become a tame tool for the maintenance of feudal rule, stifling and curbing the spirit of creative and pioneering personalities. According to Lu Xun: Dissatisfaction is the driving force that pushes social history forward, and dissatisfaction is the wheel of upward movement. A race can only move forward if there are more dissatisfied people, otherwise it will fall. The vitality of society and culture comes from: first, the ability to criticize oneself; second, an open education. Yet the feudal rule of cultural despotism put heavy shackles on intellectuals and cultivated a material and cultural atmosphere. Engels once said, "After the dark night of the Middle Ages, science reemerged all at once with unexpected force and developed with miraculous rapidity; once again, then, we owe this miracle to production." Feudal theology, which had bound people's minds, was attacked, and the attributive "moral personality" that prevailed in the Middle Ages was transformed into a "self-respecting personality". Humanism was the guiding principle of the bourgeois Renaissance. The emerging bourgeois scholars disdained the feudal culture centered on Christian theology, and were enthusiastic about the study of man and nature, affirming man and human nature, and emphasizing the development of individuality. It was at this time that man reverted to his origin from the confusion of religious theology, returned to nature, and gained freedom. The advanced thinkers of the Enlightenment shouted the slogan "knowledge is power", impacting the traditional superstitions and beliefs, they are full of optimism and confidence in the power and role of knowledge.

With the Industrial Revolution and the development of the capitalist economy, Western culture became more and more obviously externally oriented, emphasizing external transcendence; Western scientists studied the stars, the human body, levers, and chemicals, and strongly demanded a change in the external environment, whereas traditional Chinese culture is internally oriented, emphasizing internal transcendence. Most of the Chinese readers were keen on studying the revised ancient learning of sounds and words, and were too far away from science and technology - the first productive force - to have the characteristic of changing the external world. Especially after the Opium War, China's door was opened by the Western powers, the economy was backward, the country was in decline, and the Chinese were called "the sick man of East Asia". The development of Chinese science and technology, the lack of a corresponding economic foundation and the necessary talent structure, so, at the end of feudal society until modern times, China's scientific and technological field gradually lost its dominance, vibrant style.