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. 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 Song dynasty Chinese contemporary
Su Song, as well as to
Gottfried Leibniz and
Mikhail Lomonosov.
Raised-relief map incense burner, showing artificial mountains as a lid decoration, which may have influenced the invention. Joseph Needham suggests that certain pottery vessels of the
Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) showing artificial mountains as lid decorations may have influenced the development of the
raised-relief map in China. Shen Kuo's largest atlas included twenty three maps of China and foreign regions that were drawn at a uniform scale of 1:900,000.
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.
Pharmacology For
pharmacology, Shen wrote of the difficulties of adequate
diagnosis and
therapy, as well as the proper selection, preparation, and administration of drugs. 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. For example, Shen noted that the mineral
orpiment was used to quickly erase writing errors on paper.
Civil engineering for canals, invented in China in the 10th century and described by Shen. '' of 1103. The writing of Shen Kuo is the only source for the date when the
drydock was first used in China. Shen also wrote about the effectiveness of the new invention (i.e. by the 10th century engineer
Qiao Weiyue) of the
pound lock to replace the old
flash lock design used in canals. If it were not for Shen Kuo's analysis and quoting in his
Dream Pool Essays of the writings of the
architect Yu Hao (
fl. 970), the latter's work would have been lost to history. Yu designed a famous wooden
pagoda that burned down in 1044 and was replaced in 1049 by a brick pagoda (the '
Iron Pagoda') of similar height, but not of his design. From Shen's quotation—or perhaps Shen's own paraphrasing of Yu Hao's
Timberwork Manual (;
Mujing)—shows that already in the 10th century there was a graded system of building unit proportions, a system which Shen states had become more precise in his time but stating no one could possibly reproduce such a sound work. However, he did not anticipate the more complex and matured system of unit proportions embodied in the extensive written work by scholar-official Li Jie (1065–1110), the
Treatise on Architectural Methods (;
Yingzao Fashi) of 1103. Klaas Ruitenbeek states that the version of the
Timberwork Manual quoted by Shen is most likely Shen's summarization of Yu's work or a corrupted passage of the original by Yu Hao, as Shen writes: "According to some, the work was written by Yu Hao."
Anatomy The Chinese had long taken an interest in examining the human body. For example, in 16 AD, the
Xin dynasty usurper
Wang Mang called for the dissection of an executed man, to examine his arteries and viscera in order to discover cures for illnesses. Shen also took interest in human
anatomy, dispelling the long-held Chinese theory that the throat contained three valves, writing, "When liquid and solid are imbibed together, how can it be that in one's mouth they sort themselves into two throat channels?" Shen maintained that the
larynx was the beginning of a system that distributed vital
qi from the air throughout the body, and that the
esophagus was a simple tube that dropped food into the stomach. Following Shen's reasoning and correcting the findings of the
dissection of executed bandits in 1045, an early 12th-century Chinese account of a bodily dissection finally supported Shen's belief in two throat valves, not three. Also, the later Song dynasty judge and early
forensic expert
Song Ci (1186–1249) would promote the use of
autopsy in order to solve
homicide cases, as written in his
Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified.
Mathematics triangle (
Pascal's triangle) using
rod numerals, from a book by mathematician
Zhu Shijie, 1303 In the broad field of
mathematics, Shen Kuo mastered many practical mathematical problems, including many complex formulas for
geometry,
circle packing, and chords and arcs problems employing
trigonometry. Shen addressed problems of writing out very large numbers, as large as (104)43. Sal Restivo writes that Shen used summation of higher series to ascertain the number of kegs which could be piled in layers in a space shaped like the
frustum of a rectangular pyramid. In his formula "technique of intersecting circles", he created an approximation of the arc of a circle
s given the diameter
d,
sagitta v, and length of the chord
c subtending the arc, the length of which he approximated as
s =
c + 2v2/d.
Victor J. Katz asserts that Shen's method of "dividing by 9, increase by 1; dividing by 8, increase by 2," was a direct forerunner to the rhyme scheme method of repeated addition "9, 1, bottom add 1; 9, 2, bottom add 2". Shen wrote extensively about what he had learned while working for the state treasury, including mathematical problems posed by computing
land tax, estimating requirements,
currency issues,
metrology, and so forth. Shen once computed the amount of
terrain space required for battle formations in
military strategy, and also computed the longest possible military campaign given the limits of human carriers who would bring their own food and food for other soldiers. Shen wrote about the earlier
Yi Xing (672–717), a Buddhist monk who applied an early
escapement mechanism to a water-powered
celestial globe. By using mathematical
permutations, Shen described Yi Xing's calculation of possible positions on a
go board game. Shen calculated the total number for this using up to five rows and twenty five game pieces, which yielded the number 847,288,609,443.
Optics Shen Kuo experimented with the
pinhole camera and
burning mirror as the ancient Chinese
Mohists had done in the 4th century BC, as
Mozi of China's
Warring States period was perhaps the first to describe the concept of
camera obscura, if not his Greek contemporary
Aristotle. The
Iraqi
Muslim scientist
Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039) further experimented with camera obscura and was the first to attribute
geometrical and
quantitative properties to it, but Shen was first to note the relationship of the three separate radiation phenomena: the focal point, burning point, and pinhole. Using a fitting metaphor, Shen compared optical image inversion to an
oarlock and
waisted drum. Chinese authors from the 12th to 17th centuries would discuss the optical observations made by Shen Kuo but not advance them further, while
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) would be the first in Europe to make a similar observation about the focal point and pinhole in camera obscura. (202 BC–220 AD) ladle-and-basin
lodestone south-pointing
compass, used by ancient Chinese
geomancers, but not for navigation. However, it was not until the time of Shen Kuo that the earliest
magnetic compasses would be used for
navigation. In his written work, Shen Kuo made the first known explicit reference to the magnetic compass-needle and the concept of
true north. He wrote that steel needles were magnetized once they were rubbed with
lodestone, and that they were put in floating position or in mountings; he described the suspended compass as the best form to be used, and noted that the magnetic needle of compasses pointed either south or north. Shen Kuo asserted that the needle will point south but with a deviation, However, Zhu Yu's book recounts events back to 1086, when Shen Kuo was writing the
Dream Pool Essays; this meant that in Shen's time the compass might have already been in navigational use. Many of Shen Kuo's contemporaries were interested in
antiquarian pursuits of collecting old artworks. They were also interested in
archaeological pursuits, although for rather different reasons than why Shen Kuo held an interest in
archaeology. While Shen's educated
Confucian contemporaries were interested in obtaining ancient relics and antiques in order to revive their use in rituals, Shen was more concerned with how items from archeological finds were originally manufactured and what their functionality would have been, based on
empirical evidence. Shen Kuo criticized those in his day who reconstructed ancient ritual objects using only their imagination and not the tangible evidence from archeological digs or finds. After unearthing an ancient crossbow device from a house's garden in Haichow, Jiangsu, Shen discovered that the cross-wire grid sighting device, marked in graduated measurements on the stock, could be used to calculate the height of a distant mountain in the same way that mathematicians could apply right-angle triangles to measure height. Needham asserts Shen had discovered the survey device known as
Jacob's staff, which was not described elsewhere until the
Provençal Jewish mathematician
Levi ben Gerson (1288–1344) wrote of it in 1321. Shen wrote that while viewing the whole of a mountain, the distance on the instrument was long, but while viewing a small part of the mountainside the distance was short due to the device's cross piece that had to be pushed further away from the observer's eye, with the graduation starting on the further end.
Du Yu (222–285) a Chinese
Jin dynasty officer, believed that the land of hills would eventually be leveled into valleys and valleys would gradually rise to form hills. The Daoist alchemist
Ge Hong (284–364) wrote of the legendary immortal
Magu; in a written dialogue by Ge, Ma Gu described how what was once the Eastern Sea (i.e.
East China Sea) had transformed into solid land where
mulberry trees grew, and would one day be filled with mountains and dry, dusty lands. The later
Persian Muslim scholar
Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) hypothesized that
India was once covered by the
Indian Ocean while observing rock formations at the mouths of rivers. (1244–1320); using evidence of fossilized bamboo within China's dry northwestern climate zone, Shen Kuo hypothesized that
climates naturally shifted geographically over time. It was Shen Kuo who formulated a hypothesis about the process of land formation (
geomorphology) based upon several observations as evidence. This included his observation of
fossil shells in a
geological stratum of a mountain hundreds of miles from the ocean. He inferred that the land was reshaped and formed by
erosion of the mountains, uplift, and the deposition of
silt, after observing strange natural erosions of the
Taihang Mountains and the Yandang Mountain near
Wenzhou. He hypothesized that, with the inundation of silt, the land of the continent must have been formed over an enormous span of time. Shen proposed that the cliff was once the location of an ancient seashore that by his time had shifted hundreds of miles east. The magistrate of
Jincheng, Zheng Boshun, examined the creature as well, and noted the same scale-like markings that were seen on other marine animals. Around the year 1080, Shen Kuo noted that a landslide on the bank of a large river near Yanzhou (modern
Yan'an) had revealed an open space several dozens of feet under the ground once the bank collapsed. Historian
Joseph Needham likened Shen's account to that of the
Scottish scientist
Roderick Murchison (1792–1871), who was inspired to become a geologist after observing a providential landslide. However, Shen made some observations that were not found elsewhere in
Chinese literature. For instance, Shen was the first in East Asia to describe
tornadoes, which were thought to exist only in the
Western Hemisphere until their observation in China during the first decade of the 20th century. Shen gave reasoning (earlier proposed by Sun Sikong, 1015–1076) that
rainbows were formed by the shadow of the sun in rain, occurring when the sun would shine upon it. Paul Dong writes that Shen's explanation of the rainbow as a phenomenon of
atmospheric refraction "is basically in accord with modern scientific principles." Shen hypothesized that rays of sunlight refract before reaching the surface of the Earth, hence people on Earth observing the Sun are not viewing it in its exact position, in other words, the altitude of the apparent Sun is higher than the actual altitude of the Sun. For the clepsydra he designed a new overflow-tank type, and argued for a more efficient higher-order
interpolation instead of linear interpolation in calibrating the measure of time. The astronomical phenomena of the
solar eclipse and
lunar eclipse had been observed in the 4th century BC by astronomers
Gan De and
Shi Shen; the latter gave instructions on predicting the eclipses based on the relative position of the Moon to the Sun. The philosopher Wang Chong argued against the 'radiating influence' theory of
Jing Fang's writing in the 1st century BC and that of
Zhang Heng (78–139); the latter two correctly hypothesized that the brightness of the Moon was merely light reflected from the Sun. Jing Fang had written in the 1st century BC of how it was long accepted in China that the Sun and Moon were
spherical in shape ('like a
crossbow bullet'), not flat. Shen Kuo also wrote of solar and lunar eclipses in this manner, yet expanded upon this to explain why the celestial bodies were spherical, going against the '
flat Earth' theory for celestial bodies. However, there is no evidence to suggest that Shen Kuo supported a round earth theory, which was introduced into Chinese science by
Matteo Ricci and
Xu Guangqi in the 17th century. When the Director of the Astronomical
Observatory asked Shen Kuo if the shapes of the Sun and Moon were round like balls or flat like fans, Shen Kuo explained that celestial bodies were spherical because of knowledge of waxing and waning of the Moon. 's book of 1092 showing the inner workings of his
clocktower; a
mechanically rotated armillary sphere crowns the top. Shen is also known for his
cosmological hypotheses in explaining the variations of
planetary motions, including
retrogradation. His colleague Wei Pu realized that the old calculation technique for the mean Sun was inaccurate compared to the
apparent Sun, since the latter was ahead of it in the accelerated phase of motion, and behind it in the retarded phase. Shen's hypotheses were similar to the concept of the
epicycle in the
Greco-Roman tradition, Along with his colleague
Wei Pu in the Bureau of Astronomy, Shen Kuo planned to plot out the exact coordinates of planetary and lunar movements by recording their astronomical observations three times a night for a continuum of five years. They also slandered Wei Pu, out of resentment that a commoner had expertise exceeding theirs. When Wei and Shen made a public demonstration using the gnomon to prove the doubtful wrong, the other ministers reluctantly agreed to correct the lunar and solar errors. Despite this success, they eventually dismissed Wei and Shen's tables of planetary motions. Therefore, only the worst and most obvious planetary errors were corrected, and many inaccuracies remained. Although the use of assembling individual characters to compose a piece of text had its origins in
antiquity, Bi Sheng's methodical innovation was something completely revolutionary for his time. 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. Although the details of Bi Sheng's life were scarcely known, Shen Kuo wrote: When Bi Sheng died, his
fount of type passed into the possession of my followers (i.e. one of Shen's nephews), among whom it has been kept as a precious possession until now. characters arranged primarily by rhyming scheme, from
Wang Zhen's book of agriculture published in 1313. There are a few surviving examples of books printed in the late Song dynasty using movable type printing. This includes Zhou Bida's
Notes of The Jade Hall () printed in 1193 using the method of baked-clay movable type characters outlined in the
Dream Pool Essays. Yao Shu (1201–1278), an advisor to
Kublai Khan, once persuaded a disciple Yang Gu to print
philological primers and Neo-Confucian texts by using what he termed the "movable type of Shen Kuo".
Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333), who wrote the valuable agricultural, scientific, and technological treatise of the
Nong Shu, mentioned an alternative method of baking
earthenware type with earthenware frames in order to make whole blocks. The earlier Bi Sheng had experimented with wooden movable type, but Wang's main contribution was improving the speed of typesetting with simple mechanical devices, along with the complex, systematic arrangement of wooden movable type involving the use of revolving tables. Although later metal movable type would be used in China, Wang Zhen experimented with
tin metal movable type, but found its use to be inefficient. By the 15th century, metal movable type printing was developed in
Ming dynasty China (and earlier in
Goryeo Korea, by the mid 13th century), and was widely applied in China by at least the 16th century. In
Jiangsu and
Fujian, wealthy Ming era families sponsored the use of metal type printing (mostly using
bronze). This included the printing works of
Hua Sui (1439–1513), who pioneered the first Chinese bronze-type movable printing in the year 1490. In 1718, during the mid
Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the scholar of
Tai'an known as Xu Zhiding developed movable type with
enamelware instead of earthenware. Shen also wrote about
advancements in metallurgy. While visiting the iron-producing district at Cizhou in 1075, Shen described the "partial
decarburization" method of reforging cast iron under a cold blast, which Hartwell, Needham, and
Wertime state is the predecessor of the
Bessemer process. Shen was worried about
deforestation due to the needs of the
iron industry and ink makers using pine soot in the production process, so he suggested for the latter an alternative of
petroleum, which he believed was "produced inexhaustibly within the earth". Shen used the soot from the smoke of burned petroleum fuel (
Shíyóu, "rock oil" as Shen called it) to invent a new, more durable type of writing ink; the
Ming dynasty pharmacologist
Li Shizhen (1518–1593) wrote that Shen's ink was "lustrous like
lacquer, and superior to that made from pinewood lamp-black," or the soot from pinewood.
Beliefs and philosophy deeply influenced Shen. Shen Kuo was much in favor of philosophical
Daoist notions which challenged the authority of empirical science in his day. Although much could be discerned through empirical observation and recorded study, Daoism asserted that the secrets of the universe were boundless, something that scientific investigation could merely express in fragments and partial understandings. Shen Kuo referred to the ancient Daoist
I Ching in explaining the spiritual processes and attainment of foreknowledge that cannot be attained through "crude traces", which he likens to mathematical astronomy. Shen was a firm believer in destiny and prognostication, and made rational explanations for the relations between them. Shen held a special interest in fate, mystical divination, bizarre phenomena, yet warned against the tendency to believe that all matters in life were preordained. When describing an event where
lightning had struck a house and all the wooden walls did not burn (but simply turned black) and
lacquerwares inside were fine, yet metal objects had melted into liquid, Shen Kuo wrote: Most people can only judge of things by the experiences of ordinary life, but phenomena outside the scope of this are really quite numerous. How insecure it is to investigate natural principles using only the light of common knowledge, and subjective ideas. In his commentary on the ancient Confucian philosopher
Mencius (372–289 BC), Shen wrote of the importance of choosing to follow what one knew to be a true path, yet the heart and mind could not attain full knowledge of truth through mere sensory experience. In his own unique way but using terms influenced by the ideas of Mencius, Shen wrote of an autonomous inner authority that formed the basis for one's inclination towards moral choices, a concept linked to Shen's life experiences of surviving and obtaining success through self-reliance. In the "Strange Happenings" passage of the
Dream Pool Essays, Shen offered accounts of an
unidentified flying object that occurred during the reign of Emperor Renzong (1022–1063). An object as bright as a pearl was said to occasionally hover over the city of
Yangzhou at night, and was previously described by local inhabitants of eastern
Anhui and then in
Jiangsu. A man near
Xingkai Lake observed the same object, alleging that it emitted powerful lights from its interior like sunbeams illuminating the woods over a ten-mile radius before departing at tremendous speeds. Shen recorded that Yibo, a poet of
Gaoyou, wrote a poem about this "pearl" after witnessing it and that locals around Fanliang in Yangzhou erected a "Pearl Pavilion" where spectators on boats hoped to spot the mysterious flying object again.
Art criticism , who Shen praised for his ability to portray landscapes and natural scenery in a grand but realistic style. As an
art critic, Shen criticized the paintings of
Li Cheng (919–967) for failing to observe the principle of "
seeing the small from the viewpoint of the large" in portraying buildings and the like. He praised the works of
Dong Yuan (c. 934–c. 962); he noted that although a close-up view of Dong's work would create the impression that his brush techniques were cursory, seen from afar his landscape paintings would give the impression of grand, resplendent, and realistic scenery. In addition, Shen's writing on Dong's artworks represents the earliest known reference to the
Jiangnan style of painting. In his "Song on Painting" and in his
Dream Pool Essays, Shen praised the creative artworks of the Tang painter
Wang Wei (701–761); Shen noted that Wang was unique in that he "penetrated into the mysterious reason and depth of creative activity," but was criticized by others for not conforming his paintings to reality, such as his painting with a banana tree growing in a snowy, wintry landscape. == Written works ==