Yang Zhenning believes that the Book of Changes influenced the emergence of ancient science in China. Do you agree?

In 2004, Mr. Yang Zhenning, a world-famous scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, attended the forum "The Influence of China Traditional Culture on the Development of Science and Technology in China" held in the Great Hall of the People, and gave a report entitled "The Influence of the Book of Changes on China Culture".

In his report, he pointed out: "The Book of Changes has influenced the way of thinking in China culture, which is one of the important reasons why modern science has not sprouted in China."

Lao Yang believes that a major feature of China's traditional culture is induction, but no deduction. The source of induction is the Book of Changes. It is the spirit that runs through the Book of Changes, and it is the method of seeking the whole image upwards, that is, induction. Deduction and induction are two necessary conditions for the emergence of science, and both are indispensable.

What's the difference between induction and deduction? Here is a brief introduction.

Induction is a way of thinking that generalizes general principles through observation, experiment and investigation of individual facts.

For example: A gets old, B gets old, C gets old ... All the people we observe will eventually get old, so we come to the conclusion that everyone will get old.

Deduction is to draw conclusions from known parts according to objective laws such as concepts, formulas and theorems.

For example, the major premise: everyone will get old, and the minor premise: A is human, so the conclusion: A will get old.

It can be seen that inductive reasoning is a cognitive process from special to general, and deductive reasoning is a cognitive process from general to special. Because induction is judged by experience, the conclusion may not be correct, but deduction must be correct as long as the major premise is correct.

The premise of deduction comes from the generalization and summary of induction, and every specific case observation conclusion of induction comes from deduction, which complement each other and are indispensable.

In addition, Lao Yang pointed out that the concept of "harmony between man and nature" in the Book of Changes confused the harmony between man and nature, and thought that the law between man and nature was the same thing, which was another factor that prevented the modern scientific thought from coming into being, because the laws of nature and the laws of human operation were different.

Teacher Yang Zhenning is a famous scientist in the world. At that time, as soon as his views were published, they immediately caused a sensation. People talk about it in succession, some agree with it, and a large proportion are against it and have reservations. To this day, they are still arguing.

In fact, Bian Xiao also has reservations about Lao Yang's remarks.

One of the reasons why I have reservations about Lao Yang's views is that I exaggerated the influence of the Book of Changes.

The main contents of the Book of Changes are 64 hexagrams and 384 hexagrams, which were originally used for divination. Because ancient ancestors failed to fully understand natural and biological phenomena, such as lightning, animals and plants, human sources and so on. They believe that there are mysterious forces behind all this. Therefore, whenever something important happens, people are accustomed to the mysterious power of "asking for instructions" and "consulting" in order to avoid disadvantages and protect themselves. The Book of Changes was born under this background.

With the continuous annotation of later generations, The Book of Changes is not only a divination book of folk witchcraft, but also gradually evolved into China's traditional natural philosophy, which is called "the source of Tao". Although it has far-reaching influence on later generations, it is not enough to affect the birth of the whole Chinese civilization science. In fact, the scientific and technological development of an ancient civilization cannot be delayed by a book!

Second, China was not completely devoid of scientific thinking in ancient times.

As early as the Zhou Dynasty, the mathematician Shang Gao put forward the theorem of "hooking three strands, four chords and five" in Zhou Kuai Shu Jing. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhao Shuang made a detailed derivation and demonstration of Shang Gao's Pythagorean theorem, which was recorded in Nine Chapters of Arithmetic. Mozi in the Spring and Autumn Period made the world's first experiment of hole inversion, and made a judgment that light propagates along a straight line, which is the first scientific explanation of light propagating along a straight line. In addition, there is the indefinite equation of mathematician Liu Hui and Zu Chongzhi's pi.

Third, China's ancient experience and technology have long been ahead of the world.

As we all know, China had brilliant "Four Great Inventions", which profoundly changed the development process of human civilization, and British philosophers Francis Bacon and Marx all spoke highly of him. In fact, until the15th century, China's scientific and technological level was first-class in the world, and it was far ahead of other countries.

According to statistics, from the 6th century A.D. to the beginning of the 7th century A.D./KLOC-0, the proportion of China in the world's major scientific and technological achievements has been above 54%. If the Book of Changes really influenced the scientific thinking of China people, how could there be four great inventions? Although the four great inventions belong to empirical technology, not science, they at least show that China is not a desert of science and technology.