Why was there no mechanics in ancient China?

In the last article we mentioned that there was no mechanics in ancient China. Mechanics is the earliest precise subject in natural science, and modern natural science can be said to start from mechanics. Moreover, until the end of 19, the accurate natural science can be said to be mainly mechanics. In a sense, there was no precise natural science in ancient China. Therefore, the British philosopher A.N. Whitehead said: "From the perspective of the history and influence of civilization, China's civilization is the greatest civilization in the world since ancient times. As far as China people are concerned, there is no doubt that they have the talent for research, but China's science is insignificant after all. If China is so laissez-faire, we have no reason to think that it can achieve something in science. " 〔 1〕

Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, why China's science and technology has lagged behind the West for a long time has been an endless topic for intellectuals in modern China. In fact, before the Yuan Dynasty, China's so-called advanced science and technology mainly referred to advanced technology. In the history of China until now, science and technology have never been distinguished, and they are generally called science and technology. In fact, any nation with underdeveloped science had technology in ancient times. Therefore, China scholar Gu Zhun (19 15 1974) said: "China thought has only moral precepts. China has neither logic nor philosophy. There is a Zhou Bi suan Jing, but it can't be published on the stage. Just like China has many good crafts but can't develop precision science. " 〔2〕

Einstein said: "The development of western science is based on two great achievements, that is, the Greek philosophers invented the formal logic system (in Euclidean geometry) and it was possible to find out the causal relationship through systematic experiments (in the Renaissance). [3] Whitehead said, "Greece is, after all, the mother of Europe. "Generally speaking, from a global perspective, the origin of today's natural science is considered to come from ancient Greece, especially the logic of ancient Greece. In order to find out why there was no mechanics in ancient China, so there was no exact science, we should review the natural science in ancient Greece.

Why science in ancient Greece occupied the most brilliant page in human history is fundamentally because of the existence of aristocratic democracy in ancient Greece for hundreds of years.

Ancient Greece was composed of many independent city-states. From about 800 BC to 100 BC, Greece practiced the aristocratic democratic political system politically. The military leader of the polis is the king, but the power of the king is weakened or restricted by the strengthened Presbyterian church. Occasionally, some careerists (tyrants) conquered other city-states and established autocracy. Therefore, ancient Greece was actually a politics in which democracy and tyranny alternated. Even if there is tyrant politics, the tyrant's power can't compare with the later monarchs in Europe and the emperors in China. Because, first of all, the title of tyrant is a derogatory term, indicating that his power was illegally obtained, but it was stolen. Second, this power cannot be naturally inherited by his descendants. Third, most of them cannot be replaced by aristocratic oligarchs or democratic politics for a long time.

Because ancient Greece practiced politics based on aristocratic democracy, when making decisions and deciding things, it mainly relied on debate to persuade decision makers to obtain a majority. In the 700-year-long democratic political atmosphere, many debaters have emerged. Because of the popularity of debate, the laws that must be followed in debate and the knowledge of how to win in debate have all developed. This is logic. Aristotle's Theory of Tools is a masterpiece of ancient Greek logic. Due to the development of logic, the mathematics of reasoning came into being in ancient Greece. All ancient civilizations in the world have their own mathematical traditions, including Egyptian ancient mathematics, Indian ancient mathematics and China ancient mathematics. However, the only place that produced inferential mathematics was ancient Greece. Euclid's Elements of Geometry is a masterpiece of ancient Greek reasoning. Archimedes' work in mechanics is a model of the combination of reasoning mathematics and mechanics in ancient Greece, which led to the germination of modern precision science. /kloc-the modern natural science that started with mechanics in Europe in the 0/7th century is the result of inheriting and carrying forward the scientific tradition of ancient Greece represented by Archimedes. After the destruction of ancient Greece by Rome, thanks to the translation and preservation of ancient Greek scientific documents by Arabs, the European Renaissance resumed its function.

Why was there no mechanics in ancient China, so there was no accurate natural science? Fundamentally speaking, it is because of thousands of years of feudal centralized rule in China.

The centralization of authority in China not only lasted for a long time, but also became stronger and stronger. If we say that in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the decision of major events depends on divination, the opinions of ministers and the will of the emperor, and is decided by the majority. Although the emperor is the supreme ruler, he still has some restrictions.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many small countries in China, but due to military annexation, the Qin Dynasty was unified and centralized. Then Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, and Han Wudi ousted Confucianism. The emperor could act arbitrarily, and feudal centralization lasted for thousands of years.

Under the feudal centralized rule, all words and deeds are based on the "three cardinal guides" (that is, the monarch is the minister's cardinal guide, the father is the child's cardinal guide, and the husband is the wife's cardinal guide). Even if your "big principle" is unreasonable, you must obey it absolutely, and there is no room for refutation. What's more, there are a series of dogmas such as "three years without changing the father system is filial piety".

If the Renaissance in Europe is the revival of democracy and science in ancient Greece. From the beginning, literature praised humanism and despised theocracy, to the 14 and 15 centuries, theocracy and monarchy in Europe were tottering. Thus ushered in the scientific prosperity of the17th century. In contrast, China in the same period happened to be the Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang came to power, feudal centralization of authority was brutally strengthened. 1380, Zhu Yuanzhang killed the prime minister Hu for treason, implicating fifteen thousand people, and took the opportunity to cancel the prime minister, and the power was monopolized by the emperor. Literary inquisition is a way for feudal rulers to persecute intellectuals for thousands of years. Hundreds of years from Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Yuanzhang, the literary inquisition developed to the most cruel degree. Zhu Yuanzhang strengthened spy politics, organized a Royal Guards, was directly under the command of the emperor, was responsible for monitoring and disposing of ministers, and insulted and punished ministers for opening "imperial aides". As a characteristic of slave society, China's martyrdom system gradually disappeared after Qin and Han Dynasties, but Zhu Yuanzhang resumed the barbaric martyrdom system. 1397 (thirty years of Hongwu), Zhu Yuanzhang died and 46 concubines were martyred.

The first evil consequence of centralization made China unable to produce the logic needed by precision science, so there would be no reasoning mathematics.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China also had a period of cultural prosperity, when the wind of tongue discrimination was also very popular. Corresponding to this short debate atmosphere, the logical sprout described in Mo Jing also appeared. Mo Jing's logic is different from that of instrumentalism. The latter is so complete that in 1787, the German philosopher Kant said in the preface of his Critique of Pure Reason that "since Aristotle, logic has not progressed, so it seems that logic is complete and over." Under the centralized system, all important decisions are made by the emperor. There is no room for refutation and debate of "I am the truth", and there is no need for "axiom", "definition" and "inference".

The importance of logic to precision science can be seen from Yan Fu's Introduction to Logic that "learning is the law of all laws and the study of all knowledge". Fei Zhengqing, an American sinologist, believes that China's failure to develop science is related to China's failure to formulate a more perfect logic. Without logic, China's mathematics always stays in calculation, so China has called mathematics arithmetic since ancient times. China's mathematics lacks reasoning and argumentation. Reasoning and argumentation are very important for precision science. Newton must use the concepts of acceleration and conic curve to explain planetary motion with gravity. In the west, as early as in ancient Greece, there was apollonius (262 BC? 190), which contains more than 400 propositions about conic curves, and discusses various properties of conic curves in detail. There is no conic curve in China's traditional mathematics. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that western missionaries brought in the concept of conic curve.

Second, feudal centralization of authority could not create the external demand conditions for the development of modern science and technology, that is, there was no and it was impossible to form a market economy. Because there is no market demand, many of China's inventions can't be paid attention to by the whole society, and quite a few inventions are only to meet the needs of imperial power and court. For example, inventions related to mechanics have been lost successively by incense burners, water carriers and drum cars in memory. Gunpowder, one of China's four great inventions, has long been used in fireworks, not as a weapon to expand the market. In addition, due to the need of imperial power, some research fields are listed as forbidden areas, and ordinary people are not allowed to dabble. Astronomy, for example, after Qin and Han Dynasties, folk research, astronomical works and folk engraving and possession were forbidden, so many astronomical works in ancient China were lost. So Joseph Needham, a British scholar, said, "Whoever wants to explain why China society has not developed modern science, he'd better start by explaining why China society has not developed commerce and later industrial capitalism." [5]

Under centralization of authority, the emperor sometimes advocated the policy of "rest and recuperation" and "food is the most important thing for the people", and paid attention to the development of production. Some scholars believe that the development of production will naturally enter capitalism and form a market economy. Gu Zhun put it well: "We talked about how capitalism grows naturally from within, forgetting that capitalism is not only an economic phenomenon, but also a legal system. The legal power system is a superstructure. It is not only the economic base that determines the superstructure, but also what kind of economic structure the superstructure can grow. " 〔6〕

In fact, in the late Qing Dynasty, some big businessmen also appeared in China. However, due to the powerful and cunning feudal centralized rule, these businessmen can only be vassals of the imperial power, but can not influence the policies of the authorities, let alone shake the rule of the imperial power. These businessmen can only get a little poor management right from feudal centralization by bribery. Joseph Needham said: "Capitalism is a social system that China people are never used to, do not need and are increasingly unwilling to accept." In fact, it is not so much that people are not used to it as that it is not accommodated by the authorities or centralization of authority. Therefore, it was not until recent years that the market economy was publicly proposed in words. As for the development of market economy, it will take a long time to work hard.

Third, under the centralized rule, a tradition of despising science and technology has been formed from the theoretical understanding.

Due to the strong centralized rule, intellectuals in China have been divided into two categories since ancient times. One is to be attached to the ruler and move towards the road of "learning to be excellent and being an official". The other is to stay away from the rulers and take the road of hermit. The intellectuals of these two roads formed their own theoretical system.

Confucianism, represented by Confucius and Mencius, is the theoretical basis for taking the former road. A series of sermons, such as "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world", "those who want to achieve first", "loyalty and forgiveness" and "benevolence and righteousness", all serve this road.

In the Confucian classic Shangshu, Shang Zhouwang was criticized for "playing politics to please women". Kong Zhu said, "A strange skill is a strange skill, and a dirty skill is overworked. They are similar. However, according to people, the technical means are different ears. " Here, "pleasing women" generally refers to court entertainment. China has traditionally regarded science and technology as "fantastic skills and cunning", which is the origin of it. In fact, under the centralized rule, a group of people wanted to be an official by offering inventions for the emperor's approval. There were many inventions in ancient times, which did not meet the demand of market economy and could only be used as court entertainment. For example, inventions related to mechanics include incense burners, lanterns, boats, firecrackers, rockets, fireworks, kites, bamboo dragonflies, chimes and so on. According to the viewpoint of the above Confucian works, it is considered that the promotion method of the present invention is unworthy, not the right path of official career.

Taoism, represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, serves the hermit road. Advocate "abstinence" and "inaction".

To what extent do they advocate "inaction" There is a passage in Zhuangzi's Foreign World: "Zi Gong traveled south to Chu and opposed Jin. When crossing Hanyin, he would dig a tunnel into the well and then pour it out with an urn. However, he made great efforts, but achieved little. Zi Gong said, "With the equipment here, you can make 100 beds a day, but you can see more achievements, as easy as blowing off dust. What does the master want? " He looked up at the gardener and said, "What can I do? "yue:" cutting wood is a machine, and the weight behind is light before. If you pull the water, you can draw it. "It's like soup. It's called soup." Smiled and said to the nursery: "I heard that my teacher, if there is machinery, does things organically, and if there is organic things, there is an organic heart." If the machine is in the chest, it is pure white; Pure white is not prepared, then god is uncertain; The uncertainty of the Tao of God is not included. I don't know. I'm ashamed. "Zi Gong is ashamed and condescends."

This passage profoundly reflects the Taoist inaction attitude towards technological innovation. In order to keep the Tao "pure white", even any advanced tools are ashamed to use. Not to mention diligent scientific and technological research.

There is a saying in the Book of Changes of the Zhou Dynasty: "It is a great sage to prepare things for use and build things that are beneficial to the world." Confucius commented: "Prepare the things in the world, guide the use of the world, and build the tools of the world, thinking that only saints can get the benefits of the world." China has a strong tradition of "applying what you have learned" since ancient times, which probably started from here. Under the guidance of this understanding, the only purpose of human activities is "application", and the activities of understanding and discovering natural laws have no status. In other words, if you do something, he will ask "What's the use". If you can't answer, it is considered as "shooting at random" and is considered to be the most powerful weapon against scientific research. Moreover, the "application" here is often interpreted as promotion of professional titles, development of financial resources and so on.

In short, intellectuals under centralized rule, whether in Korea or in opposition, despise science and technology. Despising technology is their common understanding. Even people who attach importance to technology only attach importance to the application of utensils, and cognitive science has no position. This is the cognitive root of neglecting science and technology under the centralized system.

Fourth, under the centralized rule, a complete education system has been formed, which is the imperial examination system. China's imperial examination system began in the Sui Dynasty and was perfected in the Tang Dynasty. It has a history of 1000 years.

The imperial examination system closely links the knowledge of reading and research with the knowledge of being an official. It's not so much education as service, training the slaves of the people under the rule of the emperor. The imperial examination system requires people to read four books and five classics from childhood, learn the art of being an official, and learn to write articles praising the emperor. In the Ming Dynasty, when centralization of authority was unprecedentedly strengthened, such articles developed into eight-part essays. Eight-part essay resulted in China's style of respecting the past but not the present, advocating the upper and restraining the lower, and being empty. In the early days of the imperial examination system, arithmetic was also included in the scientific examination in the Tang Dynasty, and the examination involving science and technology was never implemented again. All these have seriously affected the spread and development of science and technology.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Italian Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi translated the western mathematical masterpiece "The Elements of Geometry". Xu Guangqi deeply felt the necessity of popularizing this knowledge in China. In the preface, he said: "This book is extremely versatile and urgently needed at this time." It "can make scholars get rid of their frivolity and practice their carefulness;" Learners make their own decisions and make their own smart ideas, so no one in the world studies improperly. " He predicted: "After stealing for a hundred years, everyone will be interested in Xi." Unfortunately, his words were not realized in the imperial examination system under the centralized system for more than 200 years. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that Li set up an arithmetic museum in the museum that he was required to study geometry. As for geometry and physics, including Newtonian mechanics, as the content of universal education, it was after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, many reformist thinkers in modern China put forward the idea of abolishing the education of imperial examination reform. Yan Fu criticized the imperial examination system, arguing that "stereotyped writing is not enough to help the world, to help livestock, to destroy talents, and to make the country poor and weak." [7] Liang Qichao accused "stereotyped writing is incompatible with all learning, especially science." He also called for "the root of reform lies in educating talents, the prosperity of talents lies in opening schools, and the strength of schools lies in changing the imperial examination." 〔8〕

Fifth, under the feudal centralization of authority in China, the emperor was arrogant because of his supreme authority. Even a fool, once on the throne of the emperor, will become an omniscient and omnipotent generalist. His words are "good words" and people have to obey them. This cultivated the emperor to pretend to be ignorant of superiority, calling himself the son of heaven, calling the country he ruled the kingdom of heaven, and denouncing all other countries and nations as barbarians. This was clearly felt when Matteo Ricci came to China in the late Ming Dynasty. He commented: "Because we don't know the size of the earth and are arrogant, China people think that China is the only country worthy of admiration. As far as the country, political system and academic reputation are concerned, they regard other nationalities not only as barbarians, but also as irrational animals. In their view, there is no other king, dynasty or civilization in the world to boast about; This ignorance makes them more proud, and once the truth comes out, they will feel inferior. " Later historical development proved that Matteo Ricci's comments were very appropriate.

There was no mechanics in China before, but if you can learn from foreign countries with an open mind, you can still learn quickly. However, this arrogant, closed-door attitude and rejection of all foreign academics led to the backwardness of China's mechanics for hundreds of years. So far, it is hard to say that this influence has been eliminated. Didn't the Cultural Revolution criticize thermodynamics and relativity? Isn't it inciting blind xenophobia under the banner of criticizing "worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things"? Isn't it said that "2 1 century will be the century of China"? .

From what has been discussed above, we can draw a conclusion that China lacks mechanics, so precision science is closely related to China's centralized rule. In other words, ignorance is associated with autocracy. Therefore, after the Revolution of 1911, revolutionary intellectuals headed by Chen Duxiu shouted the slogan of "democracy and science". Science students come with democracy. Without democracy, modern science is impossible. It is still of practical significance for us to review these historical facts now.