What happened to ancient China, where natural science developed very slowly but philosophy and literature and art were fruitful?

First of all, it should be noted that before the Qing Dynasty, the development of natural sciences in ancient China did not lag behind that of the rest of the world at the same time, and was even far ahead for quite a long time. Unfortunately, however, the strong demand for science and technology caused by the rapid economic development of the West led to the explosive development of natural sciences in the West after the 16th century, while China at this time did not keep up with it, and therefore appeared to be very backward.

Secondly, there is no denying that the Chinese natural sciences were not fast in their development, and could even be described as slow. The main reason here is that the demand is not strong, small-scale agricultural economy does not require developed science and technology, so ancient China for science and technology itself is not important, or not the mainstream needs of society. For example, the Southwest salt well technology was very good in terms of results in digging into the land and transferring fluids, but this is only a special case, more often than not, due to economic pressures generated by the demand for more productivity is not through the enhancement of technology but rather violent social upheaval to alleviate the demand, such as the decline in productivity caused by land annexation led to peasant revolts, at the expense of a large reduction in population to soothe the demand for productivity.

That is to say, in times of peace and turmoil, the natural sciences in ancient China were more of a very permissive development than a strong demand.

Thirdly, there is also a material reason when culture is traced back to before the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. As we all know, in ancient China, the earliest carriers of writing were tortoise and animal armor and bronze, then bamboo slips, then mixed with cotton and silk, and finally only after the Han Dynasty did they gradually begin to use paper in large quantities. In natural science research, the use of diagrams is important, such as Mozi's description of the theory of small hole imaging, if the diagrams to describe is simple to understand, but if only the text description is difficult. If it is purely geometric research, no diagram is even more inconceivable, and geometry is the basis for the development of mathematics, mathematics is the foundation of the progress of natural science, it can be said that, in the early development of natural science, no diagram is a very bad thing, for the progress of the basic theory and the dissemination of a kind of disaster.

Reviewing the early Chinese writing carriers, whether it is oracle bone bronze or bamboo slips, want to draw on it is very difficult, especially as the foundation of Chinese culture in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period used bamboo slips, drawing a picture is an impossible thing. This in itself limited the healthy development of natural science in the early days, but also formed a kind of restriction on the way of thinking in ancient China, when everyone was used to illustrate things with words rather than diagrams, the development of diagrams and geometry was even more unhealthy, which can be regarded as a material reason for the slow development of natural science in China

Fourth, the development of philosophy and culture and art is the result of the richness of the material life of the society. The development of philosophy and culture and art is a result of the rich material life of the society. Maybe a certain philosopher and artist can develop in poverty, but the development of philosophy and culture and art in an era depends on a relatively stable and rich society, for example, although there were wars during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a great stride in economic development; for example, in the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the philosophy and art of the Han Dynasty basically inherited the Eastern Zhou Dynasty completely without its own innovations and development until after the rule of the Han Dynasty, the popular literary form of the fugue developed only after the rule of the Han Dynasty, which is the most popular literary form of the Han Dynasty. popular literary style at that time was only developed. And ancient China pure social scribbling period is not too much, a few times the Great Schism is considered, the Yuan Dynasty is considered, the rest of the time are guaranteed to develop.

In short, China did not have the internal (social needs) and external (research conditions, geometry, mathematics) factors for the rapid development of the natural sciences in the early period, and although the civilization remained a world leader until the Ming and Qing dynasties due to its long and continuous inheritance, the overall development of the natural sciences was out of the state of diffusion and indulgence. Philosophy and literature on the other hand, due to the vast majority of cases still maintain the development of fruitfulness is still normal