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Shen Kuo noted that the process was tedious if one only wanted to print a few copies of a book, but if one desired to make hundreds or thousands of copies, the process was incredibly fast and efficient. [116] Beyond Shen Kuo's writing, however, nothing is known of Bi Sheng's life or the influence of movable type in his lifetime. [118]
Geomorphology: In his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, Shen Kuo (1031–1095) wrote about a landslide (near modern Yan'an) where petrified bamboos were discovered in a preserved state underground, in the dry northern climate zone of Shanbei, Shaanxi; Shen reasoned that since bamboo was known only to grow in damp and humid conditions, the climate of ...
In his political discourse, Xi Jinping often cites the four great inventions as a source of national pride for China and its historic contributions to humanity. [39]: 32–33 In 2017, the term "four great new inventions" became popularized in China in reference to high-speed rail, mobile payment, e-commerce, and bike-sharing.
Shen Kuo was a renowned government official and military general during the Northern Song period of China. However, he was impeached from office by chancellor Cai Que (蔡確; 1036–1093), who wrongly held him responsible for a Song Chinese military defeat by the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty in 1081 during the Song–Xia wars. [6]
Shen Kuo's written work of 1088 also contains the first written description of the magnetic needle compass, the first description in China of experiments with camera obscura, the invention of movable type printing by the artisan Bi Sheng (990–1051), a method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast similar to the modern Bessemer ...
The Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the Song dynasty (960–1279) was the first to accurately describe both magnetic declination (in discerning true north) and the magnetic needle compass in his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, and the Song dynasty writer Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) was the first to mention use of the compass specifically ...
Under the Mongols, the practice of Chinese medicine spread to other parts of the empire. Ethnic Han physicians were brought along military campaigns by the Mongols as they expanded towards the west. Chinese medical techniques such as acupuncture , moxibustion , pulse diagnosis , and various herbal drugs and elixirs were transmitted westward to ...
The scientist and statesman Shen Kuo's 1088 Dream Pool Essays suggested that mercury compounds might be medicinally valuable and needed further study—foreshadowing the use of metallic compounds in modern medicine, such as mercury in salvarsan for syphilis or antimony for visceral leishmaniasis. Shen says his cousin once transformed cinnabar ...