Due to the research by such famous scholars as J. Needham and the well-known Chinese scholar, Hu Daojin, in recent decades its status in the history of Chinese science and technology has come to be recognized. Its numerous and jumbled contents were classified and its scientific value made clear especially by J. Needham’s use of the Western scientific method of analysis and induction. His conclusion that this book is a "milestone in the history of Chinese science" has been broadly accepted. Its essence was revealed by the efforts of Hu who wrote the books To Correct and Criticize Meng Xi Notes and Introduction to Meng Xi Notes, which discard the dross and select the essential, eliminate the false and retain what is true.

It should be noted that since Shen Gua’s profound learning covered not only philosophy, culture and arts, but also morality and so on, his work reflects the basic features of Chinese philosophy in a manner consistent with the Chinese cultural tradition. As a milestone in the history of Chinese science and technology, (1) it is one of the most important representations of the science and technology in Chinese history; and (2) it is a summary of the scientific thinking of ancient China. In the light of these two factors, the ideas concerning the humanization of technology in Meng Xi Notes typically inherit the past and usher in the future. It is a true epitome of the technological humanization of the ancient China.

These two points, i.e. too close an affinity between man and nature, and failure to develop theoretical scientific knowledge, can be seen in Meng Xi Notes. Let us examine two examples.

Case A: A reflected picture behind a small hole and a reflected reverse picture through a concave lens. The first to describe this phenomenon was Mu Tse. We read in Mu Jing: "The light which is reflected shines like a shooting arrow. In the picture formed by the light, the bottom of the real figure goes to the top of the picture, and vice versa." We read again from Mu Jing, Vol. 2, "In mirroring a figure, when the real thing is far from the concave mirror the reflected picture will be changed, but it will be proper when the real thing is near the concave mirror. This depends on whether it is inside or outside the focus." Shen Gua described and explained the phenomenon in even greater detail. He pointed out that when the bird flies from the West to the East its shadow on the ground moves along to the East. But if the light shining upon the bird is reflected through the small hole of a window, then the shadow inside the window will not move toward the East, but toward the West. Similarly, the shadow outside the window is inverted because it is formed by the light through the small hole of the window. He gave the same reason for the reverse picture reflected by the concave lens, pointing out that the sunlight reflected from the concave lens is focused one or two inches in front of the concave lens, where it can even start a fire (article 44).

Though Shen Gua’s explanation of the picture formed through the small hole and the reverse image reflected through a concave lens was on the level of only superficial description and concrete metaphor without an explication on the theoretical level, he was aware that the key points for the above phenomena were the small hole through which the light passes and the focus where the light is concentrated. The small hole and focus were called by him obstacles. "The reason is that there is an obstacle between them" (the real thing and the picture formed). He could not go deeply into the principles of optics, but only made an analogical deduction in view of an association of the two; this is a useful way of thinking in Chinese tradition.

This is not only for things, but also for man, for there is hardly anything which does not contain an obstacle. A small obstacle inverts gains and losses, and substitutes the correct by the erroneous. A large obstacle even causes one to treat oneself as a thing and things as oneself (article 44).

 

Here two points are to be noted: (1) Such analogical deduction, without including the object as such in the problem and without analysis of the essence of the phenomena, cannot reveal the causality and rule involved. How can the phenomena, a picture formed through a hole and the focus of a concave lens, be traced to the same cause, namely, an obstacle which causes gains and losses, truth and error. An obstacle in social life is only a metaphor to explain a phenomena in optics. Such explanation cannot reach the truth but can lead only to confusion. Lack of a deep scientific analysis of phenomena was one of the main reasons that science could not develop successfully in China.

(2) There is an inclination, not only for Shen Gua, but also for many other scholars to make analogical deductions among nature, human society and daily life. Though sometimes metaphors can help us to understand something, e.g., since steel is harder than iron, Shen Gua took gluten-making as a metaphor for steel-making: "Wash the soft ingredients from flour, then gluten results. It is the same for making steel out of iron" (article 56). Here the metaphor and analogy indeed make sense. But any metaphor limps it is not exact and cannot be taken as a scientific investigation of the object.

Case B: Scale and temperament. Shen Gua recorded and commented on scale and temperament in a considerable part of his Meng Xi Notes. To facilitate discussion some preliminary information is needed. Since ancient times, in China music has been an important field of art and has had great development. In the Western Zhou period (770 B.C.) orchestras comprised up to 1400 musicians. Twenty-nine kinds of musical instruments are mentioned in Classic Poems. Such ample musical activities provided favorable conditions for discovering temperament, and in this period incomplete five-note and twelve-note scales were discovered.

Scale and temperament give definite norms for musical activities, but also are objects of scientific research because they are related to physics and mathematics. As there is an inseparable connection between scale and temperament, both come under the name of "tone systems" in some classical writings. The notes of the Chinese scale were designated by Gong, Shang Kiao, Zhi Yu, which are basically equivalent to the notes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in contemporary notation. With the addition of "variant Zhi" and "variant Gong", a seven-tone 7 note scale is formed:

Gong Shang Jiao Variant Zhi Yu Variant

Zhi Gong

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The spaces of the five-note scale are constant. For example, the space between Gong and Shang is always an "entire tone". The pitch of four notes depends on that of Gong. Every tone can become the start of a scale, thus forming five modes of different tonics.

The quantitative relation of scale and temperament are determined by means of above method. The twelve temperaments are as follows:

1. Wang Zhong; 3. Tai Cu; 5. Gu Xi; 7. Rui Bin; 9. Yi Ze; 11. Wu She;

2. Pa Lu; 4. Jia Zhong; 6. Zhong Lu; 8. Lin Zhong; 10. Nan Lu; 12. Ying Zhong.

In this series, the six odd temperaments are called "solar temperaments" or "six temperaments"; the six even temperaments are called "lunar temperaments" or "six lu". Together they are called "temperament and lu". In their historical development, scale and temperament were improved through scientific study.

Shen Gua reexamined these historical studies from the view point of mathematics and proposed the "Four Numbers of Temperament": "Temperament has the number of real volume, the number of length, the number of diameter and the number of acute and obtuse."

On the other hand, scale and temperament were humanized within the framework of the Chinese cultural tradition which included two main facets: the ethical and the aesthetic. Scale and temperament are not only combined with the doctrine of the "five elements" philosophized in terms of the "union of heaven and human", but also obtained an ethical connotation in the ritual interpretation of the moral union of heaven and human. "The Book of Music" which incorporated the musical theories of the pre-Qin Dynasty treated music as an art generated by mind and also connected it with society and politics. It wrote: "Gong is king, Shang is officer, Jiao is people, Zhi is affair, Yu is thing." If the relation among the five tones is out of order, not only can melody not be generated, but the state is led to destruction. Hence, Shen Gua emphasized that the hierarchy among the five tones must not be violated.

On the aesthetic side, Shen Gua pointed out that sound is generated by chords which should be divided into sections according to a twelve-tone system. Only in this way could "right tone" be generated. He thought that pitch can approach infinity in both high and low directions, and has its respective twelve-tone system in either direction. But in order to render sound a musical tone, "It is imperative to seek the moderate tone." Musical instruments are possible only if a right tone is obtained; musical tones are possible only if a moderate tone is obtained." This view of "moderate tone as musical tone" can be traced to Dong Zhong Shu (179-104 B.C.). But in contrast to Dong Zhong Shu, Shen Gua considered musical tone as starting from the internal law of temperament. He claimed that sounds too high or too low in pitch not only could not become melody, but even the "tone of high harmony" favored in the China cultural tradition.

Technology is the means and method of production based on natural law; science is the system of knowledge in terms of categories, theorems and laws of the essence and law of movement in the actual world. Science and technology are determined by natural laws, and hence possess natural attributes; on the other hand, being generated in certain social contexts they possess social attributes. In the relation between humans and nature, science and technology are not only the premises and conditions of material production, but also the effective means for regulating the mutual relation between humans and nature. Therefore, science and technology mediate between humans and nature forming a structure, human : science :: technology : nature.

In the Song Dynasty this viewpoint was still dominant, which had a negative influence on the development of science and technology. Firstly, the end of science and technology is ethical in nature. For Dong Zhongwronshu, Tao entails feudalistic ethical norms. Even Shen Gua drew a parallel between inter-personal conflicts and the opposition with right and wrong, on the one hand, and such optical principles as image formation through a hole and the inverted image from a concave lens, on the other. As mentioned above, he used kings, officers, people, affairs and things to explain in an ethical way the order of a scale.

Secondly, guided by the idea of the harmony of heaven and humans, Chinese thinking paid great attention to the organic connection among all things, emphasized the similarity between man and nature, and used analogy as a method of developing an image. This mode of thinking confined one to seeking the apparent similarity of things and failed to discover the difference between their appearance and essence. Thus it failed to grasp the essences and laws of things and to construct a corresponding set of categories, theorems and laws. Shen Gua did the same. For example, in order to describe image formation through the hole he appealed to the variation in projections by birds and the inverted image of an outside building formed through a hole in the window.

By comparison, as to the complex of "human-science and technology-nature", Western culture paid great care to the cognitive attitude toward nature. For Heraclitus, wisdom consists in speaking the truth, acting in accord with nature and listening to nature. Socrates emphasized the consistency between virtue and knowledge: "virtue is knowledge", so that in general knowledge is higher than morality. Aristotle in his Physics pointed out that according to their relation with nature, the arts are divided into two parts, the one part completing what cannot be completed by nature and the other imitating nature. He emphasized the imitative in human knowing and creating, and claimed that it is imperative to describe what would happen based on the law of probability or necessity, even in the imitation of nature.

Since early times Western scholars had established system-atic logico-mathematical and experimental approaches for this cognitive attitude. According to them, observation, experiment and analysis are employed to learn the essence via phenomenon, and mathematical methods are used to master the structure and law of objects. As noted by A.N. Whitehead, beginning with a "bifurcation of nature", Western science dismisses the subjective world and devotes itself to the objective world. This cognitive attitude plays a great role in the formation of systematic scientific knowledge. Based on such attitudes and methods Western scientists developed the principle of optics and photography.

It is true that formal logic and mathematical abstraction provided the foundation for modern science. However, as noted by A. Einstein, the science of ancient China provides inspiration through its brilliant accomplishments.

J. Needham, the well-known scholar of the Chinese history of science and technology, called attention to the important role of Chinese philosophy in the development of natural science. He thought it impossible that "modern" natural science be generated naturally from Chinese civilization. But it is also impossible for natural science to attain completeness without the philosophy proper to Chinese civilization. This is an historical paradox.

The inspiration derived from the humanization of ancient Chinese science and technology can be summarized as follows:

1. The idea of the harmony between heaven and humans, which emphasizes the harmony and balance of man and nature, promotes the use of science for attaining a harmony between humans and nature and for keeping the ecological balance.

2. Great care should be paid to the social attributes and ethical ends of science and technology, so that science and technology are included in the organic whole of society, and scienticism is prevented.

3. Associative and intuitive, imaginative thinking can help scientific insight and complement simple analysis.

1. This book is composed of a series of articles under the title Meng Xi Notes. Meng Xi is the name of the author’s private garden. In Chinese the title is pronounced as Meng Xi Bi Tan.

2. Feng Yan, in old China the name of a region which includes Chang-An, the capital of ancient China.

3. I.e., "Tian Ren He Ri", "Tian Ren He De".

4. Xu Fuguan is a famous Taiwan scholar. See his work, The Spirit of Chinese Arts.

5. Jiang Kung-yan, Treatise on Aesthetic Thought of Music in the Pre-Qin Dynasty (Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1986), pp. 45-46.

6. Lao Zi, ch. 25.

7. Zhuang Zi, Heaven and Earth.

8. The Confucian Analects, Book IV.