Yan Su

Yan Su

Yan Su (961-1040), the word Muzhi, word Zhongmu, a department on the valley, ancestral Qingzhou Yidu, settled in Caozhou (now Caoxian, Shandong). He is a famous scientist, painter and poet in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Yan Su was a rare, lonely and poor man. He was an excellent thinker. He was a Jinshi in the reign of emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty. He was an official and a Bachelor of LongTuge, and was known as "yanlongtu". He is knowledgeable and proficient in astronomy and physics. He has created and invented such instruments as guide car, Jili drum and lianhualou. He has also written on tides and drew the chart of tides to illustrate the principle of tides. He is a pioneer of literati painting.

Yan Su (961-1040) word Mu Zhi, Qingzhou Yidu (now Qingzhou) people. At the age of 40, he became a Jinshi. He once worked as a local official in Fengxiang Prefecture, kaocheng County, Henan Prefecture, Yuezhou, Mingzhou, Zizhou, Bozhou, Qingzhou, Yingzhou, Dengzhou and other places, and later promoted to a Bachelor of LongTuge and a minister of rites. He is honest and upright, erudite and versatile. He is good at painting and imitates Li Cheng. Now he has many paintings, such as qinxiu Fishing Song and Jiangshan Xueji. His achievements in science and technology are particularly outstanding, creating a new "Lotus leak", guide car and Ji Li drum car. In 1022, he wrote on the tide and drew the tide map (lost). "On tides" and "chart of tides" provided reliable data for fishery production and water transportation at that time, and promoted the development of production.

Character experience

Yan Su, Qingzhou Yidu (now Shandong Yidu) people. In order to avoid war, his father moved his family to Caozhou (now Heze, Shandong Province). Literature is governed by gentry, with natural and unrestrained mind. emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty was a Jinshi (1008-1016) in Dazhong Xiangfu. He was an official and a Bachelor of LongTuge. He served as a minister of rites and was known as "yanlongtu". Knowledgeable, proficient in astronomy and physics, create guide car, Ji Li drum, lotus leak and other instruments. He is the author of the theory of tides, drawing the chart of tides and expounding the principle of tides. He is a pioneer of literati painting. He is good at painting mountains and rivers and cold forests, and is up and down with Wang Wei. He is also good at figure, ox, horse, pine, bamboo and feather. He makes screen paintings in Taichang temple and Hanlin Academy. There are huge murals in jingningfang residence and Sui, Ying, Luo Buddhist temples. In the history of Song Dynasty, there are thousands of poems about Su Xi. Exquisite in nature, able to draw, and excellent in taste The guide to taste and manufacture, the two chariots of the drum in the book, and the utensils were presented, and the lotus leakage method was also published In Mingzhou, he wrote two chapters on tides for the chart of tides

Character works

Xuanhe Huapu records 37 Works Collected by Yufu, including the painting of fishing songs in Chunxiu, the painting of Xiaxi, the painting of Chunshan and the painting of fishing boats in Dongqing. Handed down works are "spring mountain map" volume, paper, ink, vertical 47.3 cm, horizontal 115.6 cm. Both the painting and the painting of cold forest, rock and snow are now in the Palace Museum, while the painting of Shanju, a Wanfan, is recorded in the painting style of the Song Dynasty.

academic research

Law of sea tide

Yan Su has made outstanding contributions to the study of the law of sea tide. In ancient times, people did not understand the natural phenomenon of tide, so they made many absurd explanations. In order to solve the mystery of this natural phenomenon, Yan Su made use of the opportunity of being an official in yanhaizhou county to observe, test, analyze, study and compare the tides in various places. He spent 10 years in succession and traveled all over the East and South coasts. He has been to Lianzhou (now Hepu, Guangdong), Leizhou (now Haikang, Guangdong), Huazhou (now Huazhou, Guangdong), enzhou (now Yangjiang, Guangdong), Guangzhou, Huizhou, Chaozhou (now Chaoan, Guangdong), Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), Mingzhou (now Ningbo, Zhejiang), etc. Finally, in the first year of Qianxing (1022), he wrote the famous treatise on tides. First of all, on the tides discusses the reasons for the formation of tides. He pointed out that "the sun is the mother of Yang, Yin is born in Yang, so the tide is attached to the sun; the moon is the essence of the sun, and water is Yin, so the tide depends on the moon. So it follows the sun to the moon, and follows the Yin to the Yang. " It is "full of the new moon" and "empty of the upper and lower strings". It is certainly unscientific for Yan Su to use the traditional theory of Yin Yang and five elements in our country, but he has already realized that the attraction of the sun and the moon is the reason for the formation of the tide, and pointed out that the tide of the new moon is large in January, and the tide of the upper and lower chords is small. All these are scientific and correct. Secondly, in this paper, he also calculated the tide climate, and pointed out the time of tide fluctuation every day. The data he gave is very accurate. Moreover, in his on tides, he also explained the tides of the Qiantang River. Qiantang River is known as a wonder of the world. There are many coastal rivers flowing into the sea. Why is the tide at the mouth of the Qiantang River the only one that is particularly high? The predecessors have failed to give a scientific answer. Yan Su was the first one to explain the Qiantang River tide scientifically by focusing on the key problems of sediment accumulation and bed elevation in his on tides. In addition, Yan Su also drew the tide chart according to his own tide theory.

Lotus leak

Lotus leak is a kind of timer. Before the appearance of clocks and clocks, they were mainly used for timing. As far back as the Zhou Dynasty, this kind of instrument was made in our country, and it has been made and improved continuously in later generations. Yan Su was proficient in astronomy and calendar. He felt that the instruments for calculating time were not accurate enough, and the structure was complex, and it was not convenient to use. He was eager to make new engravings, so he decided to invent a new timer. In 1030, Yan Su made a new Lotus carving after repeated research. The lotus leaker invented by Yan Su is a great improvement over the old one. It contains water from the upper pool and the lower pool. The upper pool leaks into the lower pool, and then the copper bird evenly pours into the stone pot. There is a lotus leaf cap on the stone pot, and a floating arrow engraved on the bow of an arrow is inserted into the center of the lotus leaf cap. The arrow is made of wood. Due to the buoyancy of water, it can go through the lotus heart and rise along the diameter. There is a scale on the arrow. You can see the time and solar term from the scale. According to the slight difference in the length of the day and night in the whole year, another 48 floating arrows with different length scales were made from 24 solar terms, one for each solar term day and night. This kind of engraving is simple in making, accurate in timing, exquisite in design and easy to popularize. After the experiment, song Renzong issued the National Application in 1036. After its promulgation, Lianhua was praised by all sides. Xia song, the official of the dynasty, called it "the second suddenly without error" and "all the places set up their own laws". Su Shi, a great scholar of literature, said in the preface to Xuzhou lianhualou Inscriptions: "therefore, Yan Gongsu, the Minister of rites of the direct Bachelor of LongTuge, used the wisdom of creation to make lianhualou inscriptions in the world, and the world accepted its essence. Every official must do it when he comes. Nowadays, prefectures and counties are always there, though the skillful dare not make profits and losses. " Every time he went to be an official, Yan Su introduced and spread the manufacturing method of lianhualou in the form of inscriptions, and made samples for promotion. This kind of enthusiasm for spreading science and technology is admirable.

Guide car, Ji Li drum car

The guide car and Jili drum car were used to measure the direction and record the journey in ancient China. The guide car, also known as Sinan car, is said to have been invented four or five thousand years ago in the era of the Yellow Emperor. By the Song Dynasty, the manufacturing method had been lost without any detailed information. The drum car, also known as Dazhang car, was made as far back as the Jin Dynasty, and later lost. Yan Su was good at machinery, so he decided to restore them. According to the simple literature, he redesigned them, and finally restored the guide car and Jili drum car in 1027. the guide car was made by using the principle of differential gear, which was an important invention in ancient China. It was not until the 19th century that Europe discovered and applied this principle, which was more than 1000 years later than China. Yan Su didn't invent the guide car and Ji Li drum car, but he can recover the two lost and complicated instruments based on simple written records, which shows that his mechanical manufacturing ability is very strong.

Other achievements

Yan Su has many achievements in his life, and people call him "a man of clever thinking". He is proficient in music, poetry and painting. During the reign of emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, he sentenced Taichang temple to participate in the examination of imperial instruments and the rectification of musicians. He is also good at painting, and his works have new ideas. The Hanlin screen he painted when he judged Taichang temple is known as the "last stroke". Yan Su's poems are also well written, with thousands of works, but most of them have been lost. Yan Su was not only knowledgeable and versatile, but also devoted himself to hard work and never publicized himself. Although it was engraved on a stone tablet, it did not leave a name. It was only through textual research that it was his work, which fully showed the broad mind of a great scientist.

Character evaluation

Joseph Needham, a famous historian of science and technology and British poet, said in his science and society in China and the West: "Yan Su is a Leonardo figure.".

Chinese PinYin : Yan Su