The School of Names,or School of Forms and Names,was a school of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohism during the Warring States period. Followers of the School of Names were sometimes called Logicians or Disputers. Figures associated with it include Deng Xi,Yin Wen,Hui Shi,and Gongsun Long. A contemporary of Confucius and the younger Mozi,Deng Xi,associated with litigation,is cited by Liu Xiang as the originator of the principle of xíngmíng,or ensuring that ministers' deeds (xing) harmonized with their words (ming).
Liu Hui was a Chinese mathematician who published a commentary in 263 CE on Jiu Zhang Suan Shu. He was a descendant of the Marquis of Zixiang of the Eastern Han dynasty and lived in the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China.
The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art is a Chinese mathematics book,composed by several generations of scholars from the 10th–2nd century BCE,its latest stage being from the 2nd century CE. This book is one of the earliest surviving mathematical texts from China,the first being the Suan shu shu and Zhoubi Suanjing. It lays out an approach to mathematics that centres on finding the most general methods of solving problems,which may be contrasted with the approach common to ancient Greek mathematicians,who tended to deduce propositions from an initial set of axioms.
King Ling of Zhou,personal name Ji Xiexin,was the twenty-third king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty and the eleventh of Eastern Zhou. He died in 545 BC.
The chain pump is type of a water pump in which several circular discs are positioned on an endless chain. One part of the chain dips into the water,and the chain runs through a tube,slightly bigger than the diameter of the discs. As the chain is drawn up the tube,water becomes trapped between the discs and is lifted to and discharged at the top. Chain pumps were used for centuries in the ancient Middle East,Europe,and China.
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua,courtesy name Cunzhong (存中) and pseudonym MengqiWeng (夢溪翁),was a Chinese polymath,scientist,and statesman of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Shen was a master in many fields of study including mathematics,optics,and horology. In his career as a civil servant,he became a finance minister,governmental state inspector,head official for the Bureau of Astronomy in the Song court,Assistant Minister of Imperial Hospitality,and also served as an academic chancellor. At court his political allegiance was to the Reformist faction known as the New Policies Group,headed by Chancellor Wang Anshi (1021–1085).
The Bencao gangmu,known in English as the Compendium of Materia Medica or Great Pharmacopoeia,is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine,natural history,and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the late 16th century,during the Ming dynasty. Its first draft was completed in 1578 and printed in Nanjing in 1596. The Compendium lists the materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine known at the time,including plants,animals,and minerals that were believed to have medicinal properties.
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty,being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE,as Chinese star names later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions have been found on oracle bones unearthed at Anyang,dating back to the mid-Shang dynasty. The core of the "mansion" system also took shape around this period,by the time of King Wu Ding.
Huangdi Neijing,literally the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor or Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor,is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia. The work comprises two texts—each of eighty-one chapters or treatises in a question-and-answer format between the mythical Yellow Emperor and six of his equally legendary ministers.
Shouguang is a county-level city in the north-central part of Shandong Province,China,situated on the southwest shore of Laizhou Bay. Under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Weifang,it has 1,139,454 people residing within the municipality and its surrounding towns and villages as of the 2010 Census,even though the built-up area is much smaller.
Ancient Chinese scientists and engineers made significant scientific innovations,findings and technological advances across various scientific disciplines including the natural sciences,engineering,medicine,military technology,mathematics,geology and astronomy.
Wang Zhen was a Chinese agronomist,inventor,mechanical engineer,politician,and writer of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). He was one of the early innovators of the wooden movable type printing technology. His illustrated agricultural treatise was also one of the most advanced of its day,covering a wide range of equipment and technologies available in the late 13th and early 14th century.
The Han dynasty of early imperial China,divided between the eras of Western Han,the Xin dynasty of Wang Mang,and Eastern Han,witnessed some of the most significant advancements in premodern Chinese science and technology.
Malva verticillata,also known as the Chinese mallow or cluster mallow,is a species of the mallow genus Malva in the family of Malvaceae found in East Asia from Pakistan to China. M. verticillata is an annual or biennial that grow up to 1.7 meters in high and can inhabit woodland areas of different soil types. The small,symmetrical flowers have five white,pink or red petals (0.8 cm) and thirteen or more stamens. Each flower has three narrow epicalyx bracts. The fruit is a dry,hairless nutlet. The leaves are simple and alternate.
The Nanfang caomu zhuang,attributed to the Western Jin dynasty scholar and botanist Ji Han,is a Flora describing the plants of Nanyue and Jiaozhi,present-day South China and northern Vietnam. The Nanfang caomu zhuang is the oldest work extant in any language on subtropical botany. The book contains the first descriptions of several economic plants,for instance jasmine and black pepper,as well as the earliest accounts of some agricultural techniques such as biological pest control,and the cultivation of vegetables on floating gardens.
Bowuzhi by Zhang Hua was a compendium of Chinese stories about natural wonders and marvelous phenomena. It quotes from many early Chinese classics,and diversely includes subject matter from Chinese mythology,history,geography,and folklore. The Bowuzhi,which is one of the first works in the literary genre of zhiguai "tales of anomalies;supernatural stories",records the earliest versions of several myths,such as the white yenü 野女"wild women" living south of China in a society without men. Scholars have described the Bowuzhi as "a miscellany of scientific interest" and "an important minor classic".
The Shiben or Book of Origins was an early Chinese encyclopedia which recorded imperial genealogies from the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors down to the late Spring and Autumn period,explanations of the origin of clan names,and records of legendary and historical Chinese inventors. It was written during the 2nd century BC at the time of the Han dynasty. The work was lost in the 10th century,but partially reconstructed from quotations during the Qing dynasty.
Liu Haichan was a Daoist xian who was a patriarch of the Quanzhen School,and a master of neidan "internal alchemy" techniques. Liu Haichan is associated with other Daoist transcendents,especially Zhongli Quan and LüDongbin,two of the Eight Immortals. Traditional Chinese and Japanese art frequently represents Liu with a string of square-holed cash coins and a mythical three-legged chanchu. In the present day,it is called the Jin Chan (金蟾),literally meaning "Money Toad",and Liu Haichan is considered an embodiment of Caishen,the God of Wealth.
Yu Xi,courtesy name Zhongning (仲寧),was a Chinese astronomer,politician,and writer of the Jin dynasty. He is best known for his discovery of the precession of the equinoxes,independently of the earlier ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus. He also postulated that the Earth could be spherical in shape instead of being flat and square,long before the idea became widely accepted in Chinese science with the advances in circumnavigation by Europeans from the 16th-20th centuries,especially with their arrival into the capital's imperial court in the 17th century.
