When was the most glorious era of science in Chinese history and what were the inventions made then?

The Song Dynasty, the most glorious historical period in the development of science and technology in ancient China. the two Song dynasties from the 10th to the 13th centuries were the golden age of ancient Chinese scientific and technological history, and the level of science at that time was beyond the reach of the West. For the scientific achievements of the two Song dynasties, we can use two figures to say:

1 scientific giant, 3 major world-changing inventions.

One scientific giant is Shen Kuo; the three world-changing inventions are movable type printing, the invention and application of the compass, and the improvement and perfection of gunpowder formula.

First, the scientific giant Shen Kuo. Of course, during this period, there are many other scientists, such as the world's advanced level of astronomer Su Song, mathematician Qin Jiushao, medical doctor Song Ci, agronomist Chen, architect Li Commandment, machine builder Yan Su and other scholars with expertise in learning to create inventions and so on. However, Shen Kuo was the most famous one at that time, but also the most comprehensive one.

Shen Kuo was probably the most versatile scientist in Chinese history, similar to Leonardo da Vinci in the West, an all-round scientific giant.

Song History? Shen Kuo biography, said: ? Learned and good at writing, in astronomy, Fangzhi, law and calendar, music, medicine, divination and computation of everything, all have a treatise?

. It is said that he also knows martial arts, and martial arts is not bad.

Shen Kuo's achievements in astronomy.

In 1066 A.D., three years after Zhiping of the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo began to dabble in astronomy, after which he attached great importance to the improvement of astronomical observation instruments. He improved astronomical instruments such as the Hunyi and Leaky Table to make them more accurate. Shen Kuo was also the author of the ? twelve qi calendar? the first advocate of the twelve qi calendars.

Look at his achievements in mathematics.

One is the creation of the gap product technology, the gap product technology is a way to solve the stacked product problem, belong to the higher-order equidistant progression of the sum of the problem. The second was the creation of the technique of a circle, which is a problem of finding the length of an arc with a known diameter and height of a bow. These two contributions predate Western mathematics by more than 600 years.

Look again at his achievements in physics.

Shen Kuo's achievements in physics were manifold.

First of all, the earliest clear record of the compass appeared in Shen Kuo's Mengxi Bianchuan, in which he not only experimented with and researched four methods of compass devices, but also discovered the existence of the earth's magnetic angle of deviation, and he was the world's first scholar to discover the existence of the earth's magnetic angle of deviation, a full 400 years before Columbus, a European, discovered this phenomenon.

In terms of optics, Shen Kuo conducted experiments on concave mirror imaging, and obtained results that were one step ahead of the Mojing. This is the first time in the history of mankind to explain the concave mirror to illuminate the image and the principle of fire to the sun. In Shen Kuo has done the concave mirror fire experiment 400 years later, the American Abecedarian did the same test.

In acoustics, Shen Kuo conducted experiments on sound **** vibration. Europeans did not discover the phenomenon until the 17th century.

Look again at his achievements in geography and geology.

Shen Kuo named oil for the first time. Shen Kuo recorded the discovery and use of oil in the Yan'an area, a name that has been used to this day. Shen Kuo's deduction that the North China Plain was formed by the alluvial deposits of sediment from the Yellow River and other rivers was the earliest scientific explanation of the cause of the North China Plain, more than 600 years before British geologist Herndon had the same idea.

And Shen Kuo's most representative work is "Mengxi Bianan", "Supplementary Bianan", "Renewal of Bianan" series, the series of writings totaling 609 notes,

basically encompasses the Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty, the whole of the life of the era of the scroll, a panoramic view reflecting the state of the Song Dynasty's social status, state of life and the state of science.

There are about 255 articles on science and technology, covering a wide range of fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, flora and fauna, medicine, engineering and architecture, metallurgy, and weaponry.

This series of books records the wisdom of the ancient Chinese laborers, such as Bisheng's movable-type printing, the three dike construction method of the water craftsmen's superbly crafted dragon gate, the technology of cold forging wart armor and steel pouring, the four methods of the magnetic needle device, the water method of copper smelting, and the restoration of the sluice gates of the canal of Huainan, and so on.

In addition, it also recorded the observation of celestial motion, the mechanism of the formation of solar and lunar eclipses and the measurement of the pole star; the relationship between the moon and the tides of the sea, the compass and its device, the use of the method of recording; the discovery of the geomagnetic declination; the mathematical gap accumulation technique, will be rounded off, the total number of variations of the game of Weiqi calculations, and so on; the principle of the stripping of the landforms, the ? The first use of the word "oil" and the first use of the term "anthracite". the first use of the term "petroleum" and the production of ink from stone smoke, and so on.

Mengxi Bianan is a milestone in the history of Chinese science and technology.

Mengxi Bianan is a milestone in the history of Chinese science and technology.

Mengxi Bianan is a milestone in the history of Chinese science and technology.

Shen Kuo is definitely a scientific giant in Chinese history.

Then there are the three world-changing inventions. Three of China's globally acclaimed Four Great Inventions were completed during the Song Dynasty, including movable type printing, the invention and application of the compass, and the improvement and refinement of the gunpowder formula.

So, the first thing we need to be sure of is, did these three major inventions change the world?

Yes. Marx said: ? Gunpowder, the compass and the printing press? These were the three great inventions that foreshadowed the coming of bourgeois society. Gunpowder blew the chivalric class to smithereens, the compass opened up world markets and established colonies, and the printing press turned into an instrument of Protestantism and a means of scientific revival, and into a powerful lever for the creation of a necessary prelude to spiritual development.?

The second thing we need to determine is whether these three major inventions were accomplished during the Song dynasty. They were.

The inventor of movable type printing was Bi Sheng, a Northern Song inventor.

As for the compass, in fact, it has been used in China for a very long time, it was called Sinan in the pre-Qin Dynasty. And the compass was called until the Song Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there are records of the use of the compass in the literature such as "General Essentials of Wu Jing", "Mengxi Bianchuan" and "Diffractions of the Materia Medica".

The invention and application of the compass is one of the greatest contributions of our people to mankind.

And gunpowder, strictly speaking, is not an invention that came about only during the Song Dynasty; gunpowder was invented very early, at least in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, when it was already formulated into a prototype gunpowder. But why do we all say Song Dynasty? Because by the Song Dynasty, the tremendous development of fire-attacking instruments and the use of gunpowder weapons drove the research and formulation of gunpowder to improve.

The three gunpowder formulas recorded in the Song Dynasty's General Summary of Martial Arts are the world's earliest and most complete gunpowder formulas ever published.

So it is said that the Song Dynasty was the most brilliant era of scientific achievements in Chinese history. Not only that, the scientific achievements of the Song Dynasty covered all branches of science and technology, ranging from the disciplines of

astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, biology, medicine and agronomy to the technological engineering of machinery, shipbuilding, navigation, printing, ceramics, construction, textiles and metallurgy. All of them had world-renowned achievements. The Song dynasty left new records in almost all fields of traditional Chinese science and technology.

The Song Dynasty was a great era in Chinese history.