Urgent The Implications of Ancient Chinese Science and Technology for Reality

The Decline of Ancient Chinese Science and Technology and Its Implications for Today's Development

China is one of the four great ancient countries, and the only ancient country with an unbroken civilization tradition. China's culture is vast and thick, China's ideas are contending with a hundred schools of thought, China's wisdom is profound and far-reaching, and China's people are industrious and tolerant. China has enjoyed prosperity that has attracted the attention of the world, and it has also possessed scientific and technological achievements that have led the world for thousands of years. As Chinese people, we have reason to be proud of this.

However, there is a fact that we can not and can not forget: China - this once powerful country has a period of foreign invasion, the humiliation of the passive downfall of the history. It is the backwardness that makes us beaten. Backwardness is the backwardness of science and technology. When the Qing government was still dreaming of a heavenly kingdom, contemptuously calling foreign countries barbarians, the outside world has undergone a radical change. The completion of the Industrial Revolution boosted economic and military development and provided a strong backing for imperialist invasion. Chinese people did not create miracles, flesh and blood in front of foreign guns and cannons unbearable, so we began to reflect, why we are backward.

Perhaps this backwardness should be regarded as a historical necessity. Because it comes down to the Chinese people's unique way of thinking and cultural values. This is determined by China's deep history of five thousand years, the Chinese people's thinking has gone through a continuous development stage, it is y rooted in all classes. Throughout the history of the world, ideas that subvert tradition have always pushed forward technological and social progress, but alas, such a thing has never happened in China, and even if it had, it would have been absolutely unacceptable and under attack.

Nor can we simply say that such a national character is good or bad, we can only say that the character determines our destiny, determines the history of our nation. Such a character has made us strong, but it is the same character that has made us suffer a history of humiliation. Since ancient times, we have been an agrarian society. Such a social pattern has shaped the national character of the Chinese people, who are hardworking, practical, simple, patient and nature-loving. At first glance, these are all positive words, but as the Chinese saying goes, "too much is not enough". If you go too far, you'll become conservative, contrary and a blind worshipper of nature.

At the same time, the Chinese people, under the influence of Confucianism, have formed a serious official-oriented thinking. This kind of thinking from ancient times to the present have a great influence on our production. Ancient scholars study for ten years, in order to enter the dynasty as an official. This is not unreasonable. In ancient China, officials were in charge of various rights. The country's administration, military, economy and even science and technology were all in the hands of the court. Technology was controlled by the court, which is called "official technology".

"Official science and technology" created a kind of embarrassment. Because most of the court officials were elected through the imperial examination system, they were all literati, full of poetry and literature. In this way, few people must really know natural science. Since they did not understand, how could they talk about research, exploration and development? The general public could not receive enough education, nor could they intervene in the scientific and technological research monopolized by the imperial court. Moreover, the Chinese people were pragmatic, and the farming people who lived off the land cared about the practicality of science and technology. Therefore, even if they have explored science and technology, they would not care about the essence of the phenomenon, in their view, it is "useless". As a matter of fact, the court, as the supreme ruler of the country, was also concerned with how science and technology could serve its ruling activities and agricultural production. Under the guidance of the court, the practical science and technology of ancient China was highly developed and took the leading position in the world. From the mathematical chicken and rabbit cage to astronomical observation and calendars, they were all motivated by the solution of real-life problems. Looking at the history of Chinese science and technology, few people asked why such phenomena existed, what was the nature of these phenomena, and what were the laws and connections between the various phenomena. The result is the relative backwardness in natural philosophy and theoretical natural science knowledge expressed in principles and laws, so that science and technology lacks the potential for development, and when it develops to a certain height, it will naturally appear to be a kind of stagnant state. At the same time, Western scholars are focusing on the exploration of the world's origin and the depth of the theory.

Look at the four great inventions that have made countless Chinese people proud, gunpowder was made into guns by the imperialists and eventually used to invade China; the compass was used in Portugal and Spain, and became a prerequisite for exploring the overseas world and establishing maritime hegemony; paper was first invented by the Chinese, but foreign countries put paper into use in an amount that is several times that of China's; the Chinese invented the art of printing early on, but the more convenient and advanced typewriter was used to print the paper, which was the most popular form of printing. The Chinese invented printing a long time ago, but the more convenient and advanced typing technology, photocopying technology, but we do not even dare to think about. We always say that China's scientific achievements are many, many years earlier than those of foreign countries, but, in the view of the people at that time, these are some useless things, even we can't pay attention to ourselves, how can we hope to have a slight influence on the world. While recognizing the wisdom of the ancient Chinese people, there are more questions that we should reflect on. The wisdom and creativity of the Chinese originated in production, but unfortunately ended there. No one wants to theorize without clear benefits, because it is useless and not promoted by social opinion. Most of the Chinese intellectuals were concentrated in the scholarly class, a group of scholars who were well read and thought all the time about how to cultivate themselves, rule the country, and pacify the world, and who had access to the world's most advanced technologies, but regrettably gave them up. On the other hand, those who engage in purely theoretical scientific research are never supported by the government or public opinion. I am afraid that their work is more for their personal pursuits, and even they themselves are not sure of the significance of doing so, which is the mainstream of this society. On the contrary, in foreign countries, the bourgeoisie, having tasted the sweetness of industrial and technological innovation, held a supportive and encouraging attitude towards freedom of thought and research. And history has shown that these seemingly useless theories have produced great value in the future, like Einstein's theory of relativity is a good example. Didn't Hardy say, "I never do anything useful." As a great scientist, he was quite responsible. The nature of science is "useless", but you can easily feel that it can create something quite useful.

If the whole system of science and technology is compared to a tree, the theoretical foundation is its root, and the branches, leaves and fruits are its practical applications in life. Thus, we see that the tree of ancient Chinese science and technology is full of branches and leaves, and its roots are short; Western science and technology is indeed deep-rooted. The water in the upper layer of the soil will one day be sucked dry, at which time, the Chinese tree will inevitably wither. Western technology, on the other hand, has been growing rapidly, and it is rapidly realizing one leap after another.

China's economy is growing steadily and rapidly. The world has made two diametrically opposed assessments of this. One is that China is rising rapidly, returning to superpower status and posing a huge potential threat to other countries; the other is that China's development is too fast, with too many huge loopholes and flaws, and therefore this rapid development cannot be sustained for a long time, and eventually China will collapse in this unbalanced development.

But neither the threat theory nor the destruction theory is in fact the most pertinent assessment. We must clearly realize that China is indeed on the rise, yet problems do exist. Only by identifying them and solving them will we be able to achieve truly sustainable and healthy development.

China's huge population has provided the world with cheap labor, and China has gradually become an important link in the global supply chain of goods, becoming the so-called "world factory". The huge trade surplus has become a major driving force for China's economic development. For a long time in the past, we reveled in this high-speed development. It is only in recent years that we have come to realize that, although we are working for the world, we lack our own scientific and technological innovation. Our status as the world's factory is in fact helping other developed countries to reap huge economic profits. Those economically considerable figures are nothing more than an accumulation of tiny profits relying on a huge number of tiny profits.

While China is striving to become stronger, we can foresee that if China continues to emphasize the practical over the theoretical, and manufacturing over creation, it is hard to say that our economy will not wither away because of its shallow roots, just as science and technology did in the beginning. We must have our own scientific and technological innovation in order to occupy a place at the high end of the global economy, rather than making money for others at the low end, in order to be truly powerful.

It is gratifying that the government has realized this problem. That's why the concept of an innovative society has emerged, and why a better intellectual property system has been proposed.

The intellectual property system is the guarantee of innovation. Time has not changed the Chinese character. The Chinese are still pragmatic, or rather - realistic. At the same time, Chinese people still have the sequelae of official-oriented thinking - utilitarianism. From time to time, we can hear that the thesis of a professor in a certain university is found to be plagiarized, sometimes even from his students. How ironic this is. It shows at least two problems: firstly, the protection of intellectual property rights in China is still quite inadequate; secondly, it is inappropriate for China to regard theses as a condition for promotion to higher education, promotion to a higher position, and the number of theses as the number of achievements in promoting scientific and technological innovation in China. In this way, in fact, the whole quantity and quality of scientific and technological innovation is not guaranteed.

The two problems should be solved simultaneously. The first is to improve the intellectual property rights system, so that the "original" people can really enjoy the ownership of their own knowledge and innovation, and can really realize that through it to get the due benefits. Profit from knowledge should be a matter of course. Money is a necessity rather than a sin for people to survive in society. Everyone has a desire for money. Therefore, if the intellectual property system ensures that people are able to gain wealth through the intellectual property they own, then academics can be fully motivated to innovate. Some of the wealth they obtain will be used to improve their living standards, and the rest will inevitably provide financial security for the next research and innovation. Thus, a virtuous circle will be formed. Secondly, when the intellectual property system serves as an incentive for innovation, the practice of making thesis a condition for promotion to higher education and positions loses its significance. Because this mechanism itself is to force people to innovate, when another more effective way can achieve the purpose, this passive mechanism can be completely eliminated.

Also, innovation alone is not enough. What is important is that the new materials and technologies created can actually be realized to be put into production and enter the market. In the past, many of the scientific and technological achievements that can create wealth for the society, or save energy and labor, are often only known to have been realized in the laboratory, but have not appeared in the market for a long time. This is actually a waste of scientific research funds and a disrespect to the researchers who have devoted their time and energy to this. Since a lot of manpower and material resources have been invested in the early stage, why can't we realize the last step - creating value for society?

In any case, the government has realized these problems. And it is working on improving the IP system and restructuring the economy. I believe that China will not make the same mistakes, and that eventually we will be able to stand among the world's great powers.