How much did the ancients in China know about lightning?

The lightning phenomenon in nature has long attracted the attention and research of our ancestors, and has been recorded, thus greatly enriching people's understanding of electricity and having a far-reaching impact on future generations.

China's understanding of electric phenomena in ancient times began with the lightning phenomenon. Subsequently, many lightning protection devices were installed on the building, which not only had the artistic charm of traditional buildings, but also was a pioneering work in the electrical field.

Lei Gong and Dian Mu are a pair of gods in myths and legends. The two of them are in charge of lightning in the sky. Legend has it that Lei Gong has poor eyesight and it is difficult to distinguish between black and white. Mrs. Dian Mu never leaves her pocket, holding a mirror, exploring the way first, and distinguishing right from wrong, good and evil, so that Lei Gong can be thunderous.

Dian Mu and tripterygium wilfordii are a perfect couple. Leigong Ugly, Dian Mu Show. Lei Gong holds a hammer wedge, and Dian Mu holds a pair of mirrors. Once they do this, the clouds are gathering, the wind is blowing, and sand and stones are flying.

When Lei Gong throws a thunder, there will be a loud noise and the wicked will be beheaded.

Legend has it that Lei Gong lives in Leize. He has a faucet and a big belly. He often pats his belly for entertainment. Every time you clap it, there will be thunder rumbling.

Raytheon was taken fancy to by the Yellow Emperor because of the uniqueness of his belly, so he was taken to make a big drum. But it is impossible without Thor, so the Yellow Emperor found a relative of Thor to play his role.

The new Thor's skin is like cinnabar, his eyes burn like lightning, his hair and horns are 3 feet long and shaped like a macaque. Therefore, in later legends, the most prominent features of Lei Gong are monkey face and sharp mouth, commonly known as "Lei Gong face".

In this myth, on the one hand, it embodies the ancients' most primitive understanding of natural phenomena; On the other hand, it expresses people's desire to punish evil and promote good. China ancient scholars' understanding of electricity began with the lightning phenomenon.

The knowledge of lightning in ancient China has a long history. As early as the Shang Dynasty, the word "lei" appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The top horizontal line of the word "thunder" represents the sky, the longest vertical line represents rain, and the point inside is also rain; The word "Tian" below represents a field, which was written as "Tian" because of the "well-field system" at that time. The word "thunder" means thunder over the fields when it rains. The word "electricity" has also appeared on the bronzes of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The traditional word "electricity" has the word "rain" above it and the word "electricity" below it. The whole word "electricity" not only shows the shape of the intense flash that people see over the field, but also shows that this flash can only be seen when it rains.

Although the word "electricity" here refers specifically to lightning, it conveys such a scientific and technological information to us: ancient ancestors not only vividly described lightning in the form of words, but also clearly indicated that its appearance was related to rainfall.

In ancient times, there was also an understanding of the reasons for the formation of lightning. Many lightning phenomena have been recorded in books before the Han Dynasty, and the causes and essence of their formation have been discussed, and many different explanations have been put forward.

Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote in Lun Heng? Similar viewpoints are also used to explain the causes of lightning in Xu Lei. He clearly pointed out that in summer, Yang is dominant and Yin competes with it, so there are collisions, frictions, explosions and lasers, thus forming lightning.

Wang Chong also used concrete examples to illustrate that lightning is fire, refuting the popular theory that lightning was "the wrath of God". In particular, he can link the observation and thinking of various material phenomena, make a summary, refute fallacies, and reflect the thinking and judgment of an atheist.

After the Tang Dynasty, people had a new understanding of the causes of lightning. Confucius in the Tang Dynasty wrote Zuo Zhuan? Shu said, "Electricity is".

Zhu, a Neo-Confucianist in Song Dynasty, explained the great power of lightning more interestingly. He said that lightning is "the qi of yin and yang, which is extremely closed and suddenly comes out." In today's physical language, this means that when the energy accumulation of Yin and Yang reaches a certain limit, these energies will explode in a very short time, so we see lightning and hear thunder.

Liu Bowen, a thinker in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, said in his book Stephen Liu Gongji, "What is thunder?" ? Those who say thunder, the weather is gloomy and exciting, Yin Qi will be forced, forced and exploded in the sun, and then the sound is thunder, just electricity. "This passage is basically a summary of a series of explanations about the causes of lightning.

Scholars in ancient China also recorded some phenomena in the process of lightning strike in detail, and put forward their analysis results after careful observation.

From the mid-Northern and Southern Dynasties to the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, this aspect of the record is not uncommon. For example, The Book of Southern Qi compiled in 490? There is a record in "Five Elements": "Lei Zhen Huiji Yinshan Hengshan Baolin Temple, the brake was broken four times, and the stupa under the Buddha's face was burned by electricity, but the window did not work."

According to today's electrical knowledge, when lightning strikes, there is a discharge between the clouds and the ground, and the Buddha's face is generally coated with gold powder, which is a layer of conductor. When strong electricity flows, it will produce high temperature, which will heat it up and melt it.

The thermal insulation performance of wooden windows is generally good, especially painted windows. If you don't suffer from rain, you won't be struck by lightning and stay in good condition.

Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty, recorded the above similar phenomena in more detail. He wrote in Meng Qian Bi Tan? Illusion describes that after Li Shunju's house was struck by lightning, except the walls and window paper turned black, all kinds of utensils placed on the wooden frame in the house, including silver-inlaid lacquerware, melted and flowed on the ground, but the lacquerware was not burnt.

There is a handful of hard steel A, which melts into molten steel in sheath A, but sheath A remains unchanged. So Shen Kuo used Buddhism's "dragon fire" and "human fire" to explain this strange phenomenon.

The so-called "dragon fire" here actually refers to thunder fire, which means that thunder fire is more "blazing" because of water. Shen Kuo has actually described the difference between conductor and insulator through the different effects of lightning on stones and vegetation.

There are also such records in the Ming Dynasty. According to these records, Fang Yizhi, a scientist at the end of the Ming Dynasty, came to the conclusion that "thunder and fire are great, stone melts, and lacquerware does not rot". This is clearer than the last one.

Tip discharge is also a common electrical phenomenon. The weapons in ancient times were mostly spears, swords and halberds, but the sharp blades of spears and halberds often led to tip discharge, so this phenomenon was described.

As early as the Han Dynasty, people began to observe and record the phenomenon of tip discharge. Hanshu? According to the legend of the Western Regions, the spear point made of metal will discharge under certain conditions.

This record at least proves that the tip discharge phenomenon in the thunderstorm process was observed in China as late as the Eastern Dynasty, which was earlier than that in the West 1600 years ago.

As early as the Warring States Period, China probably knew that lightning strikes could be avoided. According to ancient documents, there is a "lightning protection room" built with large bluestone.

Sheng Hongzhi of Liu Song in the Northern and Southern Dynasties described this in Jingzhou Ji: "In Huyang County, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Guo Fan only focused on the country. Mother was afraid of thunder, so she built a stone room for her to prevent lightning. It is known that aragonite is used as a step and still exists today. "

Ancient people didn't know the truth of insulation and lightning protection. They built stone chambers because they thought that the big bluestone was strong and could not be easily struck by lightning. But it shows that China was able to take appropriate measures to avoid lightning strikes.

In Hanshu? There are dozens of such records in the Records of Five Elements, such as "Gui You in June of the seventh year of Emperor Wendi, the disaster of Dongque in Weiyang Palace" and "the disaster of Bailiangtai in the first year of Tai Chu". When the White Balcony was rebuilt after being struck by lightning, an alchemist proposed to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty the lightning protection method of setting a "tail" on the roof.

"Owl tail" is a device installed on the roof, with some metal tips made of copper and iron, which pierce the sky like horns.

After thousands of years of changes, the "tail" has many shapes. Some become dragons with iron tongues or whiskers, and their tails stab into the sky; There are birds, magpies or cocks. Although these decorations installed on the roof have different shapes, they all have several iron sharp weapons that stab into the sky, which is their characteristic.

In addition to the "owl tail", many buildings in ancient China were also equipped with tiles in the shape of animals, especially those kissing animals with their heads held high, their tongues sticking out upward and coated with a layer of metallic paint, which actually played a role in lightning protection.

For example, there is a "Baosheng Temple Tower" in the northwest of Gucheng Lake in Gaochun County, Jiangsu Province, which was built in 239 and has a total height of 3 1.5 meters. There is a 4-meter-high ancient iron temple at the top of the tower, which consists of a bowl, a wheel and a gourd. Although the tower was damaged many times for a long time, it was not struck by lightning. It seems that the iron gate at the top of the tower has also played a role in lightning protection.

In many high-rise buildings in ancient China, there are often so-called "Lei Gong Zhu" and other settings, and these settings usually use some materials that are easy to conduct electricity directly to the underground, which is actually the most primitive "lightning rod".

In the early Ming Dynasty, after Zhu Yuanzhang made a tripod for Jinling, he sent ministers to Beijing to destroy the old palace in Yuan Di. Xiao Xun, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry who participated in this matter, later wrote a book "The Legacy of the Forbidden City", which recorded his experience in Beijing at that time.

According to the book, he once read Jin Zhangzong's "Dragon Hard Core" beside Guanghan Hall at the top of Wanshou Mountain in Beijing.

When Jin Zhangzong spent the summer in Guanghan Temple, we had to consider the lightning protection of the buildings at the top of the mountain because of the thunder in summer. The "golden gourd" at the top of the iron bar is pointed, and the iron bar makes the golden gourd communicate with the earth; So the so-called "dragon slaying" is actually "lightning protection".

What Xiao Xun saw was the "dragon-lowering iron bar" built to protect Guanghan Temple from lightning, which can be said to be the earliest "lightning rod" in the world. It was built hundreds of years before Franklin invented the lightning rod.