The story of the national seal 100 fake seals has emerged
The British scientist Joseph Needham asked the question: Although ancient China made many important contributions to the development of human science and technology, why did the scientific and industrial revolution not take place in modern China?
In the preface to the first volume of The History of Science and Technology in China, he also asks: "Why does Chinese science continue to stay in the empirical stage?" …… What are the factors hindering the birth of modern science in Europe after the sixteenth century, which has been proven to be one of the fundamental factors in the formation of the modern world order, and the failure of Chinese civilization to produce a similar modern science in Asia? ”
Some scholars have made statistics that during the period from the 6th century to the early 17th century AD, more than 54% of the scientific discoveries and inventions that had a significant impact on the development of human civilization on the earth were contributed by Chinese civilization. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, this figure was reduced to 0.4%.
In 1976, an American scholar called this question the "Needham problem": why did the germination of modern science occur in Europe, and not in China or other civilizations? Why is there no great scientist like Albert Einstein in China, that is, the famous "Qian Xuesen's question: "Why do our schools always fail to produce outstanding talents?"
On April 23, 1953, Einstein wrote to J.S. Switzer about his understanding of the problem: "The development of Western science was based on two great achievements: the invention of the system of formal logic by the Greek philosophers (in Euclidean geometry) and the discovery (in the Renaissance) of the possibility of finding causal relationships through systematic experiments. It seems to me that it is not surprising that the sages of China did not take these two steps. It's amazing to make these discoveries. (The text in parentheses is the original text of the letter)
Six years after Einstein's death, Joseph Needham learned of the exact contents of Einstein's letter. At the 1961 Oxford Symposium on the History of Science, the letter was accepted by most of the historians of science present, but it aroused Needham's displeasure, at which he criticized Einstein: "It is a great pity that this George Bernard Shaw letter, with all its frivolous strokes, is now being used to help to belittle the scientific achievements of non-European civilizations." Einstein himself should have been the first to admit that he knew almost nothing about the scientific development of Chinese, Sanskrit, and Arabic cultures (except for the fact that they did not develop modern science), and therefore his high reputation should not be brought up as a witness in this court. ”
Why did China's feudal society stagnate for a long time? From the perspective of Zhu Yuanzhang's ruling technique to change the national character of the Chinese, first of all, we must understand the "Zhiding Law".
In the "Continuation of the Great Message: Mutual Acquaintance Ding Ye III", the state stipulates that citizens can only engage in four kinds of livelihoods: Shinong, industry and commerce, otherwise they are "Yifu" and "homeless".
For this reason, the government requires the people to "know each other's neighbors" to their neighbors, and if there are "Shaw" and "Wanderer" in the neighborhood, if there are "Shaw" and "Wanderer" in the neighborhood, they will be executed, and Lijia and the entire family in the neighborhood will be exiled. In conjunction with the "Zhiding Law", the state also has a "road guidance system". The people have no "road guide", and they are not allowed to leave their homes within a radius of one mile every day.
In the third year of Wanli, that is, in 1575 AD, Zhang Juzheng reaffirmed the "ancestral system": "It is not allowed to establish a college, gather party members and call on others to talk about the abolition of business...... Wanderers, etc., Xu each Fu according to the yamen to visit and take the hair".
In the seventh year of Wanli, in 1579 AD, Zhang Juzheng ordered to follow the "Emperor's Decree" and destroy the world's academies.
After the Qing army entered the customs, Xiao Gui Cao followed, and in the ninth year of Shunzhi, that is, in 1652 AD, it was stipulated that "the students are not allowed to correct the party and form alliances", and "the words made are not allowed to be engraved in vain".
In the forty-seventh year of Qianlong, that is, in 1782, the "Siku Quanshu" was compiled, and the emperor ordered the Ming Dynasty to die at the portal, and "the portal began with the pundang, and the pundang began with lecturing".
In this way, scientific research and scientific and technological inventions are characterized as unprofessional, and those engaged in it have neither status nor economic space to support themselves.
From a historical point of view, China has been reduced to backwardness in modern times, and it is completely attributed to the Qing Dynasty, which will be unwilling.
Before and after the May Fourth Movement, Chinese scholars and scholars wrote a great deal of great works, including many insightful articles, arguing that Western civilization was based on "science" and "democracy" and advocated the supremacy of individual happiness.
The author also believes that the major defect of Chinese culture is the lack of thinking, that is, scientific methodology, so Confucius advocated "moderation", which is impartial and the highest methodology, and it is a pity that future generations cannot follow its path, either left or right, often go to extremes, which is a chronic disease in Chinese thinking. Since Xu Guangqi translated "Geometric Original" in the Ming Dynasty and Li Zhizao translated "Talking Heaven", Western culture was imported into China, and by the time of Kangqian in the Qing Dynasty, Westerners continued to import astronomy and mathematics, and Chinese people viewed it with thaumaturgy.
The reason why the Chinese think like this has a long history!
"Warring States Policy" contains: "In the past, the emperor ordered Yi Di to make wine and beauty, enter Yu, Yu Qin and be willing, so he sparse Yi Di, and the wine was absolutely drunk, saying: 'In the future, there will be those who will die with wine'." ”
"Shangshu Tai Oath" records that in 1048 BC, King Wen of Zhou conquest of the Shang king's oath: "Chongxin traitor, depose the teacher, abandon the punishment, imprison the slaves, do not repair the suburbs, do not enjoy the temple, and do strange tricks to please the women." ”
"Zhuangzi Heaven and Earth" contains: Zigong traveled south to Chu, against Jin, through Hanyin, saw a zhang people will be a garden, dig a tunnel and enter the well, hold the urn and irrigate, and use a lot of force and see little success. Zigong said: "There is a weapon here, soak a hundred furrows a day, use very little force and see a lot of work, the master doesn't want it?" The gardener looked up and said, "What can I do?" Said: "Chiseling wood is the machine, the back is heavy and the front is light, if the water is pumped, the number is like a soup, and its name is 槔." He smiled at the gardener's anger and said: "I have heard of my teacher, those who have machines must have organic things, and those who have organic things must have organic hearts. If the heart is stored in the chest, it is pure white. If pure white is not prepared, God is uncertain, and if God is uncertain, the Tao is not carried. I don't know, I'm ashamed. ”
The "Book of Rites" stipulates: "Whoever makes obscene sounds, strange clothes, strange tricks, and strange weapons to suspect the crowd and kill." ”
Huan Kuan's "Treatise on Salt and Iron": "Industry and commerce are prosperous and the industry is scarce." And "business is long deceitful, work is decorated, and the inside is bad and not deceitful." ”
In the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Sima Yan of the Jin Dynasty, the imperial physician Sima Cheng was on the "Pheasant Head Qiu", and the Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty burned it in the palace and issued an edict: "Strange skills, different clothes, and ceremonies are forbidden." ”
"History of the Ming Dynasty: Astronomical Chronicles" contains: "Si Tianjian enters the crystal and carves the leak, and there are two puppeteers in the middle, who can hit the cymbal drum on time. Taizu was shattered by its uselessness. ”
Gu Qiyuan's "Guest Words" records that in March of the 22nd year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to "unload the feet of the round", and Long Jiangwei commanded Fu Hao and Yao Yanbao, the small banner of the guard, to commit a ban on kicking football, so they were "unloaded with their right feet and sent to Yunnan with their families".
During the Daoxian period, the Westerners invaded China with foreign guns and artillery, China did not have this technique, suffered a big loss, and was still unwilling to give up the thinking of the first in the world, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang Xinzhang Zhang Zhidong "middle school as the body, Western learning for use" said, to Wei Yuan's "master of the long skills to control the country" as a result, just like a cat learning tiger skills to eat tigers, how can it succeed?
Therefore, he founded the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau, translated books internally, trained the navy in Beiyang, built ships in Mawei, and had the Westernization movement in Tongguangshi.
To the 20th year of Guangxu First Sino-Japanese Naval War, the world's huge Beiyang fleet, died in the Japanese Army, the people of the country know that there are machines can not be strong, pay attention to its source, there is Guangxuan between the abolition of the imperial examination, the move of revitalizing the school, but the hundred-year plan, hasty can not be effective, the people are anxious, everyone thinks that it is a system problem, the first constitutional monarchy, the later generations of the parliamentary system, and finally the revolution, overthrow the monarchy, the establishment of a republic, also do not catch.
Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others also believed that the system was a branch and leaf, and there were more fundamental things, so they proposed to overthrow the Confucian family, completely negate Chinese culture, and carry out ideological reform, that is, the New Culture Movement, to Westernize, so as to create a way to live, in order to achieve Phoenix Nirvana. Messing around, there is no fixed astrolabe, and it is not as well-behaved as the Japanese.
Although it is a matter of indignation to bring down the Confucian family, it is a huge epistemological mistake to reject technology in Chinese culture.
Fan Chi learned from Confucius to grow vegetables, Confucius was angry, and among the six arts taught by Confucius, there was no such discipline, so he criticized Fan Chi. The two children distinguish the sun, Confucius can't understand, and the children ridicule him for being a saint? Confucius said: "Heaven is far away, and humanity is far away." Under its influence, among the scholars, there was "the metaphysical is the way, and the metaphysical is the instrument,"
The idea of "virtue and art" has harmed hundreds of generations.
On the other hand, Aristotle in the West divided knowledge into theoretical science, practical science, and creative science, and believed that analysis and logic were the tools of all sciences.
If China wants to stand on its own feet in the world, it must abandon the problem of not thinking left over from the authoritarian era, and there is no other way to change the way of thinking and improve thinking.
Chaos thinks about governance, poverty is thinking about change, great people come out of troubled times, want to know how to clean the room? What is the fate of China? Does anyone still care about the national seal? Who is this great man? See the next chapter, "Mystery Through the Ages".