【内容简介】 Catalogued according to different scientific fields, the book draws wisdom from authoritative experts in the institute of the History of Natural Sciences (IHNS) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and comprehensively introduces ancient Chinas scientific and technological achieve- ments in such fields as astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, agriculture, medicine, printing, spinning and weaving, metal-lurgy and foundry, machinery, architecture, ship-building and navigation, and military technology, etc. This book is Of high academic quality yet writ- ten in the simplest language possible, and thus is a very readable popular science collection.
【目录】 PREFACE RECORDS OF ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS ASTROMETRY AND ASTROMETRIC INSTRUMENTS CHINESE CALENDARS MATHEMATICAL CLASSICS THE DECIMAL PLACE-VALUE NUMERATION AND THE ROD AND BEAD ARITHMETICS THE OUT-IN COMPLEMENTARY PRINCIPLE METHOD FOR DETERMINING SEGMENT AREAS AND EVALUA- TION OF THE CHINESE REMAINDER THEOREM THE NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF HIGHER EQUATIDNS ANDTHE TIANYUAN METHOD MECHANICS ACOUSTICS MAGNETISM AND THE COMPASS OPTICS THE INVENTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAPERMAKING GUNPOWDER AND FIREARMS PORCELAIN LACQUER AND LACQUER TECHNIQUE ALCHEMY IN ANCIENT CHINA PHENOLOGICAL CALENDARS AND KNOWLEDGE OF PHE- NOLOGY WATER CONSERVANCY PROJECTS AND KNOWLEDGE OFHYDROLOGY MAPS 2,000 YEARS AGO AND ANCIENT CARTOGRAPHICAL RULES ROCKS, MINERALOGY AND MINING EARTHQUAKE FORECASTING,PRECAUTIONS AGAINST EARTHQUAKES AND ANTI-SEISMIC MEASURES RESEARCHES IN HEREDITY AND BREEDING SOME OUTSTANDING WORKS ON AGRICULTURE SERICULTURE HORTICULTURE TEA TWO CELEBRATED MEDICAL WORKS ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION ACHIEVEMENTS IN ANCIENT CHINESE PHARMACOLOGY DIAGNOSIS BY PULSE FEELING IN CHINESE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE ……
【文摘】 Between the 5th and 3rd century B.C. when the quarter-remainder calendar was in use, the winter solstice point was set at the entrance to the lunar mansion Qianniu or the region approaching Giedi(β Capricorni). The Zhuanxu Calendar of 221 B.C. did the same, and this may be accepted as China's earliest such datum obtained through actual observations. As it was impossible to ascertain the sun's relative position by direct observation, the ancient astronomers resorted to indirect means. They identified the day of the winter solstice, ascertained its midnight by using the clepsydra and found out the distance of the star at the zenith to the nearest lunar-mansion determinative star. They could thus tell the location of the sun, which stood directly opposite that star. The data obtained were inevitably inaccurate because the clepsydra was hardly a satisfactory chronometer. The Chinese astronomers were ignorant of the precession until the 3rd century. Before that they thought the sun made an exact round trip along its orbit in the celestial sphere between winter solstices. That was why they fixed the tropical year at 365.25 days and divided the natural celestial sphere into as many degrees. As far as they knew the winter solstice point was fixed, and the notion that the point was in the region approaching Giedi remained. Makers of the Taichu Calendar of 104 B.C. virtually based themselves on the same data. In A.D. 7 Liu Yin noted, if vaguely, the wavering of the winter solstice point.
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