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| Birth and youth | |
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Shen Kuo was born in Qiantang (modern-day Hangzhou) in the year 1031. His father Shen Zhou (沈周; 978–1052) was a somewhat lower-class gentry figure serving in official posts on the provincial level; his mother was from a family of equal status in Suzhou, with her maiden name being Xu (許).[11] Shen Kuo received his initial childhood education from his mother, which was a common practice in China during this period.[11]a[›] She was very educated herself, teaching Kuo and his brother Pi (披) the military doctrines of her own elder brother Xu Tang (許洞; 975–1016).[11] Since Shen was unable to boast of a prominent familial clan history like many of his elite peers born in the north, he was forced to rely on his wit and stern determination to achieve in his studies to enter the challenging and sophisticated life of an exam-drafted state bureaucrat.[11]
The Bencao on traditional Chinese medicine; printed with woodblock in 1249; Shen grew ill often as a child, and so developed an interest in medicinal cures.
From about 1040, Shen's family moved around Sichuan province and finally to the international seaport at Xiamen, where Shen's father accepted minor provincial posts in each new location.[12] Shen Zhou also served several years in the prestigious capital judiciary, the equivalent of a federal supreme court.[11] Shen Kuo took notice of the various towns and rural features of China as his family traveled, while he became interested during his youth in the diverse topography of the land.[12] He also observed the intriguing aspects of his father's engagement in administrative governance and the managerial problems involved; these experiences had a deep impact on him as he later became a government official.[12] Since he often became ill as a child, Shen Kuo also developed a natural curiosity about medicine and pharmaceutics.[12]
Shen Zhou died in the late winter of 1051 (or early 1052), when his son Shen Kuo was 21 years old. Shen Kuo grieved for his father, and following Confucian ethics, remained inactive in a state of mourning for three years until 1054 (or early 1055).[13] As of 1054, Shen began serving in minor local governmental posts. However, his natural abilities to plan, organize, and design were proven early in life; one example is his design and supervision of the hydraulic drainage of an embankment system, which converted some one hundred thousand acres (400 km²) of swampland into prime farmland.[13] Shen Kuo noted that the success of the silt fertilization method relied upon the effective operation of sluice gates of irrigation canals.[14]
[edit] Tags:Qiantang,Hangzhou,Xiamen,Chinese,Silt,Confucian,Gentry,Suzhou,Xu,Exam-drafted State Bureaucrat,Traditional Chinese Medicine,Printed With Woodblock,Sichuan,Seaport,Judiciary,Topography,Embankment,Which Converted,Swampland,Farmland,Fertilization,Sluice,Canals,Go,Tea, | |
| Official career | |
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Shen's confidant, Emperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067–1085), a Song era portrait painting.
In 1063 Shen Kuo successfully passed the Imperial examinations, the difficult national-level standard test that every high official was required to pass in order to enter the governmental system.[13] He not only passed the exam however, but was placed into the higher category of the best and brightest students.[13] While serving at Yangzhou, Shen's brilliance and dutiful character caught the attention of Zhang Chu (張蒭; 1015–1080), the Fiscal Intendant of the region. Shen made a lasting impression upon Zhang, who recommended Shen for a court appointment in the financial administration of the central court.[13] Shen would also eventually marry Zhang's daughter, who became his second wife.
In his career as a scholar-official for the central government, Shen Kuo was also an ambassador to the Western Xia Dynasty and Liao Dynasty,[15] a military commander, a director of hydraulic works, and the leading chancellor of the Hanlin Academy.[16] By 1072, Shen was appointed as the head official of the Bureau of Astronomy.[13] With his leadership position in the bureau, Shen was responsible for projects in improving calendrical science,[10] and proposed many reforms to the Chinese calendar alongside the work of his colleague Wei Pu.[8] With his impressive skills and aptitude for matters of economy and finance, Shen was appointed as the Finance Commissioner at the central court.[17]
As written by Li Zhiyi, a man married to Hu Wenrou (granddaughter of Hu Su, a famous minister of the Song Dynasty), Shen Kuo was Li's mentor while Shen served as an official.[18] According to Li's epitaph for his wife, Shen would sometimes relay questions via Li to Hu when he needed clarification for his mathematical work, as Hu Wenrou was esteemed by Shen as a remarkable female mathematician.[18] Shen lamented: "if only she were a man, Wenrou would be my friend."[18]
While employed by the central government, Shen Kuo was also sent out with others to inspect the granary system of the empire, investigating problems of illegal collections, negligence, ineffective disaster relief, and inadequate water-conservancy projects.[19] While Shen was appointed as the regional inspector of Zhejiang in 1073, the Emperor requested that Shen pay a visit to the famous poet Su Shi (1037–1101), then an administrator in Hangzhou.[20] Shen took advantage of this meeting to copy some of Su's poetry, which he presented to the Emperor indicating that it expressed "abusive and hateful" speech against the Song court; these poems were later politicized by Li Ding and Shu Dan in order to level a court case against Su.[20] With his demonstrations of loyalty and ability, Shen Kuo was awarded the honorary title of a State Foundation Viscount by Emperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067–1085), who placed a great amount of trust in Shen Kuo.[17] He was even made 'companion to the heir apparent' (太子中允; 'Taizi zhongyun').[1]
Portrait painting of Wang Anshi.
At court Shen was a political favorite of the Chancellor Wang Anshi (1021–1086), who was the leader of the political faction of Reformers, also known as the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa).[21]b[›] Shen Kuo had a previous history with Wang Anshi, since it was Wang who had composed the funerary epitaph for Shen's father, Zhou.[22] Shen Kuo soon impressed Wang Anshi with his skills and abilities as an administrator and government agent. In 1072, Shen was sent to supervise Wang's program of surveying the building of silt deposits in the Bian Canal outside the capital city. Using an original technique, Shen successfully dredged the canal and demonstrated the formidable value of the silt gathered as a fertilizer.[22] He gained further reputation at court once he was dispatched as an envoy to the Khitan Liao Dynasty in the summer of 1075.[22] The Khitans had made several aggressive negotiations of pushing their borders south, while manipulating several incompetent Chinese ambassadors who conceded to the Liao Kingdom's demands.[22] In a brilliant display of diplomacy, Shen Kuo came to the camp of the Khitan monarch at Mt. Yongan (near modern Pingquan, Hebei), armed with copies of previously archived diplomatic negotiations between the Song and Liao dynasties.[22] Shen Kuo refuted Emperor Daozong's bluffs point for point, while the Song reestablished their rightful border line.[22] In regards to the Lý Dynasty of Đại Việt (in modern northern Vietnam), Shen demonstrated in his Dream Pool Essays that he was familiar with the key players (on the Vietnamese side) in the prelude to the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1075–1077.[23] With his reputable achievements, Shen became a trusted member of Wang Anshi's elite circle of eighteen unofficial core political loyalists to the New Policies Group.[22]
Boundaries of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, and the Western Xia.
Although much of Wang Anshi's reforms outlined in the New Policies centered around state finance, land tax reform, and the Imperial examinations, there were also military concerns. This included policies of raising militias to lessen the expense of upholding a million soldiers,[24] putting government monopolies on saltpetre and sulphur production and distribution in 1076 (to ensure that gunpowder solutions would not fall into the hands of enemies),[25][26] and aggressive military policy towards China's northern rivals of the Western Xia and Liao dynasties.[27] A few years after Song Dynasty military forces had made victorious territorial gains against the Tanguts of the Western Xia, in 1080 Shen Kuo was entrusted as a military officer in defense of Yanzhou (modern-day Yan'an, Shaanxi province).[28] During the autumn months of 1081, Shen was successful in defending Song Dynasty territory while capturing several fortified towns of the Western Xia.[17] The Emperor Shenzong of Song rewarded Shen with numerous titles for his merit in these battles, and in the sixteen months of Shen's military campaign, he received 273 letters from the Emperor.[17] However, Emperor Shenzong trusted an arrogant military officer who disobeyed the emperor and Shen's proposal for strategic fortifications, instead fortifying what Shen considered useless strategic locations. Furthermore, this officer expelled Shen from his commanding post at the main citadel, so as to deny him any glory in chance of victory.[17] The result of this was nearly catastrophic, as the forces of the arrogant officer were decimated;[17] Xinzhong Yao states that the death toll was 60,000.[1] Nonetheless, Shen was successful in defending his fortifications and the only possible Tangut invasion-route to Yanzhou.[17]
[edit] Tags:Astronomy,Song Dynasty,Mathematician,Diplomat,Poet,Bureau Of Astronomy,Chancellor,Wang Anshi,Dream Pool Essays,Wei Pu,Surveying,Emperor Shenzong Of Song,Imperial Examinations,Yangzhou,Scholar-official,Western Xia,Liao Dynasty,Hanlin Academy,Chinese Calendar,Su Shi,Viscount,Epitaph,Bian Canal,Fertilizer,Khitan,Pingquan,Hebei,Emperor Daozong's,Lý Dynasty,Đại Việt,Vietnam,Northern Song Dynasty,Militias, | |
| Impeachment and later life | |
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The new Chancellor Cai Que (蔡確; 1036–1093) held Shen responsible for the disaster and loss of life.[17] Along with abandoning the territory which Shen Kuo had fought for, Cai ousted Shen from his seat of office.[17] Shen's life was now forever changed, as he lost his once reputable career in state governance and the military.[17] Shen was then put under probation in a fixed residence for the next six years. However, as he was isolated from governance, he decided to pick up the quill and dedicate himself to intensive scholarly studies. After completing two geographical atlases for a state-sponsored program, Shen was rewarded by having his sentence of probation lifted, allowing him to live in a place of his choice.[17] Shen was also pardoned by the court for any previous faults or crimes that were claimed against him.[17]
Painting of a Buddhist luohan, by Liu Songnian, painted in 1207; Shen Kuo not only listed literati painting as one of his cherished pastimes, but also Buddhist meditation.[29]
In his more idle years removed from court affairs, Shen Kuo enjoyed pastimes of the Chinese gentry and literati that would indicate his intellectual level and cultural taste to others.[30] As described in his Dream Pool Essays, Shen Kuo enjoyed the company of the "nine guests" (jiuke), a figure of speech for the Chinese zither, the older 17x17 line variant of weiqi (known today as go), Zen Buddhist meditation, ink (calligraphy and painting), tea drinking, alchemy, chanting poetry, conversation, and drinking wine.[29] These nine activities were an extension to the older so-called Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar.
According to Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks (萍洲可談; Pingzhou Ketan) of 1119, Shen Kuo had two marriages; the second wife was the daughter of Zhang Chu (張蒭), who came from Huainan. Lady Zhang was said to be overbearing and fierce, often abusive to Shen Kuo, even attempting at one time to pull off his beard. Shen Kuo's children were often upset over this, and prostrated themselves to Lady Zhang to quit this behavior. Despite this, Lady Zhang went as far as to drive out Shen Kuo's son from his first marriage, expelling him from the household. However, after Lady Zhang died, Shen Kuo fell into a deep depression and even attempted to jump into the Yangtze River to drown himself. Although this suicide attempt failed, he would die a year later.[31]
In the 1070s, Shen had purchased a lavish garden estate on the outskirts of modern-day Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, a place of great beauty which he named "Dream Brook" ("Mengxi") after he visited it for the first time in 1086.[17] Shen Kuo permanently moved to the Dream Brook Estate in 1088, and in that same year he completed his life's written work of the Dream Pool Essays, naming the book after his garden-estate property. It was there that Shen Kuo spent the last several years of his life in leisure, isolation, and illness, until his death in 1095.[17]
[edit] Tags:Zhenjiang, | |
| Scholarly achievements | |
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Shen Kuo wrote extensively on a wide range of different subjects. His written work included two geographical atlases, a treatise on music with mathematical harmonics, governmental administration, mathematical astronomy, astronomical instruments, martial defensive tactics and fortifications, painting, tea, medicine, and much poetry.[32] His scientific writings have been praised by sinologists such as Joseph Needham and Nathan Sivin, and he has been compared by Sivin to polymaths such as his contemporary Su Song, as well as Gottfried Leibniz and Mikhail Lomonosov.[33]
[edit] Tags:Music, | |
| Raised-relief map | |
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A Han Dynasty incense burner, showing artificial mountains as a lid decoration, which may have influenced the invention.[34]
If the account of Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BC) in his Records of the Grand Historian is proven correct upon the unearthing of Qin Shi Huang's (r. 221–210 BC) tomb, the raised-relief map has existed since the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC).[35] Robert Temple and Joseph Needham suggest that certain pottery vessels of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) showing artificial mountains as lid decorations may have influenced the raised-relief map.[34] The Han Dynasty general Ma Yuan (14 BC – 49 AD) made a raised-relief map of valleys and mountains in a rice-constructed model of 32 AD.[35][36] Such rice models were expounded on by the Tang Dynasty (618–907) author Jiang Fang in his Essay on the Art of Constructing Mountains with Rice (c. 845 AD).[35] A raised-relief map made of wood representing all the provinces of the empire and put together like a giant 0.93 m2 (10 ft2) jigsaw puzzle was invented by Xie Zhuang (421–466 AD) during the Liu Song Dynasty (420–479).[35]
Shen's largest atlas included twenty three maps of China and foreign regions that were drawn at a uniform scale of 1:900,000.[5] Shen also created a raised-relief map using sawdust, wood, beeswax, and wheat paste.[5][37][38] Zhu Xi (1130–1200) was inspired by the raised-relief map of Huang Shang and so made his own portable map made of wood and clay which could be folded up from eight hinged pieces.[38][39]
Further information: Raised-relief map#History, History of cartography#China, and Science and technology of the Han Dynasty#Cartography
[edit] Tags:Cartography,Raised-relief Map,General, | |
| Pharmacology | |
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Further information: Traditional Chinese medicine
For pharmacology, Shen wrote of the difficulties of adequate diagnosis and therapy, as well as the proper selection, preparation, and administration of drugs.[40] He held great concern for detail and philological accuracy in identification, use and cultivation of different types of medicinal herbs, such as in which months medicinal plants should be gathered, their exact ripening times, which parts should be used for therapy; for domesticated herbs he wrote about planting times, fertilization, and other matters of horticulture.[41] In the realms of botany, zoology, and mineralogy, Shen Kuo documented and systematically described hundreds of different plants, agricultural crops, rare vegetation, animals, and minerals found in China.[42][43][44][45] For example, Shen noted that the mineral orpiment was used to quickly erase writing errors on paper.[46]
[edit] Tags:Pharmacology,Botany,Zoology, | |
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