In the 1980s, someone bought a copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu" at a used book market for only 1.7 yuan, and his monthly salary at that time was only 42 yuan.
According to the scientific and technological content in the book, he successfully copied the ancient tools and made accurate replica models.
For example, the windmills and water wheels of the Ming Dynasty are frequently seen in "Tiangong Kaiwu", but they have disappeared in mainland China. Instead, they were adopted and named by the Dutch.
In addition, technologies such as water drainage and blowers in the Han Dynasty are also the intellectual heritage of our nation for thousands of years.
Song Yingxing, as an outstanding scientist in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, his book "Tiangong Kaiwu" contains more than 2,000 years of scientific and technological achievements of our people. His original intention was to promote the widespread application of science and technology in China so as to better serve the country and nation. Unfortunately, with the prevalence of literary inquisition under the Qing Dynasty, this book was lost in China and spread overseas. About 300 years ago, the Western world came into contact with this book, found it like a treasure, and successfully copied our physical model more than 2,000 years ago. In fact, in terms of industrial products in the 18th century, what the West had, we already had.
Unfortunately, "Tiangong Kaiwu" was first published in the 10th year of Chongzhen, which was only seven years before Zhu Youjian hanged himself on Meishan. This also led to this book that could have benefited our country to be banned and destroyed by the Qing court, and Song Yingxing's hard work was ruined. What is the value of "Tiangong Kaiwu"? It made a huge contribution to the industrialization of the entire West! Europeans and Americans at that time almost learned from this book! However, this book, which has promoted the tremendous development of human science and technology, is hard to find in China!
In the early years of the Republic of China, someone discovered a quotation from "Tiangong Kaiwu" in "Yunnan General Chronicles", which led to the search for the complete picture of this book. He went to major libraries in Beijing to search, but found nothing. Later, he asked bibliophiles at the time, but no one knew about the book.
What is the main content of this book? For example, technology on how to eliminate gas in coal mining, zinc ore smelting technology, silkworm breeding technology, and knowledge on agriculture and industry. Song Yingxing demonstrates these techniques in the form of pictures and texts. As long as you practice according to the content in the book, you can quickly master them. It can be said that this book was the most advanced technology at the time.
After "Tiangong Kaiwu" was published in the Ming Dynasty, it was introduced to the West. Foreigners attached great importance to it and carried out a large number of translations and distributions.
Under the rule of the Qing Dynasty for nearly three hundred years, no one in China could write such a book again. From this, we can see how serious the sins of the Manchu literary inquisition and ideological and cultural imprisonment were!
The horror of the literary prison lies in its completeness. A large number of books disappear forever, and we don't even know they exist. "Tiangong Kaiwu" is relatively lucky. At least it has a translated version abroad, and the original version can still be found in Japan. The book is admired around the world and is considered a treasure by countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Japan. In fact, there were far more scientific and technological books published in the Ming Dynasty than just one "Tiangong Kaiwu". However, the countless scientific and technological and ideological works published at that time were not as lucky as "Tiangong Kaiwu". They disappeared forever and will never be seen again. Unable to retrieve. The Western world attaches great importance to "Tiangong Kaiwu", and once it was introduced to Europe, the book spread quickly. In Japan, this book promoted the great development of science and technology and gave Japan more confidence when facing the invasion of Western powers. European scholars frankly admit that "Tiangong Kaiwu" promoted the agricultural development and industrial revolution in Europe. The book records the semi-automatic explosive torpedo "Hunjianglong", more than ten kinds of mines specially used by the Ming army, including the famous "Zi Mu mine"; the earliest mine in human history "Ten Thousand Enemies", the earliest napalm bomb, and The first textile machine "Flower Machine" was nearly 200 years earlier than Jenny Textile Machine... In addition, the chemical classification of coal in the book was 200 years earlier than the West, and the record of species variation and hybridization was 122 years earlier than the West. In terms of smelting technology, there are lost wax method, continuous pouring method of large parts with group furnace confluence, steel pouring, pig iron pouring, solid carburizing method, etc. In the field of smelting, Western technology has always been relatively lacking, and they did not have it until the 17th century. the blower. The piston sealing mentioned in "Tiangong Kaiwu" has been popularized in the Song Dynasty, which fully demonstrates the wisdom of our nation.
"Tiangong Kaiwu" not only contains many achievements in physics and chemistry, these achievements were absorbed and applied by the Western world, laying a solid foundation for their industrial revolution. Without the contribution of this book, the industrial revolution and technological revolution in the West might not have come so quickly. As Newton said, he was able to achieve such high achievements because he "stands on the shoulders of giants." Similarly, the great progress of Western science and technology is also based on the scientific and technological achievements of previous generations, and "Tiangong Kaiwu" has played an indispensable role in this, and can even be said to have made a huge contribution. It is a pity that such a great scientific and technological work was destroyed in China, and countless books similar to "Tiangong Kaiwu" also suffered the same fate. When books that have been the crystallization of thousands of years of scientific and technological civilization and ideas are burned, and when countless thoughtful and courageous scholar-bureaucrats are murdered, how can China not fall behind? When summarizing the reasons for China's backwardness in modern times, some people always put forward arguments such as "the evil nature of Chinese civilization" and "Chinese culture is poisonous", but rarely accuse the Manchus of massacre of Chinese people and the destruction of the achievements of Chinese civilization. Sexual attack, this is really incredible.
Song Yingxing, the author of "Tiangong Kaiwu", is not only an outstanding scientist, but also a loyal anti-Qing fighter. When the Qing army attacked Nanchang, the Song family organized manpower to resist tenaciously against the Qing army. With the fall of Nanchang, his elder brother Song Yingsheng chose to commit suicide by taking poison, and several of his nephews also died heroically for the country. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Song Yingxing would rather endure poverty than bow to the Qing Dynasty, and eventually died in poverty. Unfortunately, in a TV program, Song Yingxing's image was wrongly presented. He even "shaved his hair and changed clothes" and took off his Hanfu. This is undoubtedly a misinterpretation of history and a blasphemy to his spirit.