Lesson 16: Science, Technology, Architecture and Literature of the Ming Dynasty

Science and Technology

Li Shizhen was a medical scientist of the Ming Dynasty. He was born into a family of medicine and became interested in medicine as a child, and then practiced with his father as an adult. He studied the medical works of his predecessors and treated his patients carefully in practice, thus improving his medical skills very quickly. Through his own medical practice, Li Shizhen was deeply convinced that it was essential for doctors to identify and use drugs, and that it was necessary to compile and supplement the ancient books on pharmacology to compile a new work on medicine.

Li Shizhen collected and organized more than 800 kinds of medical books, and went deep into the society, conducted field research, and asked people for advice. He went to the mountains to collect drug specimens, and got a lot of first-hand information. After 27 years of continuous efforts, he compiled the "Compendium of Materia Medica", a pharmacological work of unprecedented scale.

The book contains more than 1.9 million words, with more than 1,800 kinds of drugs, more than 370 kinds more than those recorded by the predecessors; more than 11,000 prescriptions, four times more than those recorded by the predecessors; and more than 1,100 drawings of drug forms. The book contains new classifications of various drugs, detailed descriptions of their origins, shapes, colors, flavors, and main therapeutic effects. This masterpiece summarizes the achievements of ancient Chinese pharmacology, enriches the treasury of Chinese medicine, and occupies an important place in the history of world medicine. Since its publication, the Materia Medica has been widely circulated and was introduced to Japan and Korea in the early 17th century, and later translated into Latin, French, Russian, German and English.

It was translated into Latin, French, Russian, German and English. The author, Song Yingxing, was diligent in his studies since his childhood and read a lot of books, so his knowledge was very broad. After winning the imperial examination, he served as a magistrate and devoted himself to the study of science and technology in his spare time, compiling the techniques and experiences of agricultural and handicraft production in different places. After a long period of accumulation and unremitting inquiry, Song Yingxing wrote a book called "Tian Gong Kai Yi".

This book is very rich in content, dividing each production sector into 18 categories, covering almost all the production and processing sectors of Chinese agriculture and handicrafts at that time. Song Yingxing also illustrated more than 120 illustrations when he introduced various items, production tools and production processes, which depicted the production process and the image of working people in various industries in a vivid and visual way. The book "Tian Gong Kai Wu" is a comprehensive summary of China's ancient agricultural and handicraft production techniques, and describes the advanced science and technology of China in the world at that time. The book was later translated into Japanese, French, German, English and other languages, and is known as "China's 17th-century book on all aspects of technology".

The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration is also a famous work on science and technology related to the country's livelihood, written by Xu Guangqi, an agronomist of the Ming Dynasty. It is divided into 60 volumes with about 700,000 words, and is divided into the categories of agriculture, field system, farming, water, farming tools, arboriculture, sericulture, planting, animal husbandry, manufacturing, and desert politics. It is an important work of agricultural science in the late Ming Dynasty, summarizing the advanced experience of agricultural production, technological innovation and the author's innovative research results.

Ming Great Wall and Beijing City

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall was built 18 times to defend against the Mongolian aristocracy in the north, resulting in the Ming Great Wall, which stretches from Liaodong in the east to Jiayuguan in the west and is more than 10,000 miles long. The Ming Great Wall was built with walls as the main body, consisting of passes, platforms and beacon towers, etc., and was set up along the line. The Ming Great Wall was mainly walled and consisted of passes, platforms and beacon towers, etc. Along the route, guards were set up to guard the army, cantonment was carried out, production was carried out, and connected roads were built, forming a complete military defense system. The Ming Great Wall was built mostly of brick and stone, and was very strong. In the history of Great Wall construction, the Ming Dynasty was the largest and longest in scale, with more reasonable layout, more advanced technology, better facilities, and stronger engineering quality. The Great Wall preserved today was mainly built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall was located at the connection line between the nomadic areas in the north and the farming areas, and many farming and herding trade places were established in the multi-ethnic areas near it, making the Great Wall a link between various ethnic groups at the same time.

The city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was developed through massive expansion and renovation based on the Yuan Metropolis. After Ming Chengzu, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, gained the throne, he chose Beijing as the capital city and began to build it on a large scale in 1406, which lasted 15 years and was basically completed in 1420.

During the Ming Dynasty, Beijing consisted of the Palace City, the Imperial City, the Inner City and the Outer City. The Palace City, the Forbidden City, covers an area of 720,000 square meters and is the core of the city. The Imperial City was outside the Palace City and had a perimeter of more than 9,000 meters with six gates. The inner city and outside the Imperial City, the perimeter of about 23 km, with 9 gates. The outer city in the southern side of the inner city, with 7 gates. The entire city is "convex" in plan, with a central axis running from north to south, from the palace city to the outer city, which is symmetrically laid out in a balanced manner, forming a complete and harmonious huge architectural complex. The architecture of Beijing, with the palace as the main focus, also includes temples, palace gardens, royal residences, city walls, city towers, government offices, warehouses, temples, bridges, streets and alleys, commercial and industrial establishments, and other facilities for the livelihood of the gods. Among them, the most majestic and magnificent was the Forbidden City, with a total area of about 150,000 square meters and more than 9,000 halls of various types, which was the most magnificent and splendid royal complex in the world at that time.

Fiction and drama

During the Ming Dynasty, the development of literature and art was combined with civic culture, and popular forms of literature and art, such as novels and operas, developed prominently, especially producing a number of popular novels, the most famous of which are the long chapter-book novels "Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West".

The Three Kingdoms" was written in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties and is commonly known as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Luo Guanzhong. The novel is based on the historical facts of the Three Kingdoms and makes full use of literary devices to vividly depict the political, military and mutual conflicts among Wei, Shu and Wu, and also reflects the strong desire of the people for unification. The structure of the book is magnificent, and the plot is detailed and tumultuous. It is also one of the most popular long historical novels in China. After this novel, a large number of long novels about history emerged.

Water Margin" is another excellent long novel written by Shi Nai'an in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. The book reveals the ugly faces of corrupt officials from the emperor to all levels, and depicts the armed struggle of the Liang Shan Po against official oppression in the Song Dynasty, successfully portraying a group of heroes with distinct personalities through vivid and twisted storylines. The Water Margin uses vernacular to describe the story process and characters' personalities, which is concise, clear and vivid.

The Journey to the West" appeared in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and was written by Wu Chengen. It is a mythological novel rich in romanticism, describing the difficult journey of the Tang monk and his disciples to obtain the scriptures, and highlighting the mythical hero Sun Wukong, who is bold, artful, loving and full of wisdom. The author uses bold imagination and exaggerated writing style to draw out the magical light and strange situation and express the desire to eradicate the evil forces. The language of the novel is vivid and fluent, and the story is fascinating.

Although the themes and styles of these three novels in the Ming Dynasty were different, they were all grand in scale, neat in structure, twisted in plot, rich in imagination and vivid in language, and were widely circulated in the society after their release.

During the Ming Dynasty, drama performance became an important cultural activity for people in urban and rural areas. Many playwrights created many excellent works. Tang Xianzu was the most famous dramatist in the late Ming Dynasty. His masterpiece "The Peony Pavilion" is a beautiful piece with detailed descriptions of the inner characters.（1565words）