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Wang Chên (Zhen) and the Nung (Nong) Shu; Wang Chêng (Zheng), Johann Schreck (Terentius), and the Chu Qi Tu Shuo and the Qi Qi Tu Shuo.
Biographical Information:
The history of machines and their use is by no means limited to the European world of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. In the middle of the 14th century a Chinese scholar, Wang Chên (fl. 1330), invented a movable wooden type and a rotary type-case[1], which he used to print his treatise on agriculture, the Nung Shu. While the treatise discusses several aspects of agriculture and modifications to the tools used in farming, the most interesting part is the type-case itself. Wang Chên’s invention allowed him to sit while he set type, and didn’t require moving around the type-case to make modifications to his machine.
The tradition of mechanical and scientific advancement within Asia did not end with Wang Chên, but continued throughout the centuries, intensified by interactions with missionaries from Europe. While Matteo Ricci and his memory palace may have whetted the appetites of Chinese scholars, their curiosity and quest for knowledge was partially satisfied by the more than 7000 books, of which 1000 were about various machines, brought from Europe in the early 17th century by Nicolas Trigault (1577-1628)[2]. The tracts on agricultural machinery within these works interested both Wang Chêng and Johann Schreck.
Wang Chêng (1571-1644) was born in 1571 in the Shansi province of China, the son of Wang Ying-hsüan, who was a tutor to private Chinese families, an accomplished Confucian theorist, and a mathematician. As a youth, Chêng took a great interest in the applied sciences and designed a number of improvements to old farming equipment as well as created completely new ones. He described these modifications and creations in his 1627 text, Chu-ch’i t’u shuo (Diagrams and Explanations of A Few Machines). Not long after his conversion to Christianity (and the adoption of the name Philip), Chêng began conversing with Trigault and invited him to come to preach in Shansi, and to bring his texts with him.[3]
Johannes Schreck (also known as Johannes Terrenz or Terrentius) was born in 1576 and died in 1630. He devoted most of his life to the Jesuit order and was stationed in China from about 1618 onwards. While part of his life was devoted to converting people to Christianity, a significant portion was also devoted to the sciences. Schreck was the seventh member of the Cesi Academy,[4] elected as a member just after Galileo, and was a gifted astronomer and physicist. Schreck was also a Copernican whom was in constant contact with Galileo and Kepler, feeding them information about sun-spots learned from the Chinese and giving the Chinese parts of European scientific knowledge (ultimately presenting the emperor of China with a telescope in 1634). His treatise in 1628, Ts'e t'ien yueh shuo (Outline of Observational Astronomy), was more concerned with observation than its predecessors. [5]
While both Chêng and Schreck were fluent in each other’s languages, their reading knowledge and translation capabilities were quite limited. In order for Chêng to make the European texts on agricultural technologies available to his countrymen, he needed Schreck’s help. The result of this collaboration in 1627 was the Yüan-hsi ch’i-ch’i t’u-shuo lu-tsui (Collected Diagrams and Explanations of Wonderful Machines from the Far West), which was a compilation of several European texts that Chêng thought were most practical for the Chinese people. The Yüan-hsi ch’i-ch’i t’u-shuo lu-tsui was the first book that explained the elementary knowledge of mechanics and practical machinery in China.
In the guide to the book’s use, the authors advocated learning several disciplines, “zhongxue (the study of weight), and gewu qiongli zhi xue (a study to investigate things to attain knowledge, especially natural philosophy), surveying, mathematics, and perspective,”[6] before studying the machines themselves. “They also wrote an introduction to zhongxue, namely li yi zhi xue (study of the craft of force), including Biao Xing Yan and Biao De Yan. Biao Xing Yan discussed the nature of mechanics, while Biao De Yan explained the use of mechanics.”[7]
After the introduction, the book is broken down into three chapters, each of which discusses a different topic. The first of these chapters is divided into 61 sections that address “weight, center of gravity, geometrical center, specific gravity, buoyancy, and other topics.”[8] Chapter two has 92 sections that tackle the subjects of “the principles and calculations concerning simple machines such as the balance, steelyard, lever, pulley, wheel, screw, and others.”[9] The final chapter “consists of diagrams and explanations of 54 kinds of Western machines, including devices to hoist and move heavy objects, water-lifting devices, wind-mills, water-mills, wood-sawing machines, and so on.”[10]
Sources for more Information:
Items Owned by Cornell Library:
1. Author: Wang, Zhen
Title: Nong shu / Wang Zhen zhuan
Published: Beijing : Zhonghua shu ju, 1956
Description: Di 1 ban. 1, 1, 552 p. : ill. ; 20 cm
Location: Library Annex
Call Number: S471.C6 W243 1956
2. Author: Wang, Zheng
Title: Xin zhi zhu qi tu shuo / Wang Zheng zhuan ; [Qian Xizuo jiao]
Published: Taibei : Yi wen, [1970].
Description: 21, 1 double leaves in case : ill. ; 20 cm
Location: Library Annex
Call Number: AC149 .P14 ser.83 no.65
3. Author: Terentius, Joannes; Wang, Zheng
Title: Yuan Xi qi qi tu shuo lu zui : [3 juan] / Deng Yuhan [i.e. Joannes Terentius] kou shou, [Wang Zheng yi hui ; Qian Xizuo jiao]
Published: Taibei: Yi wen, [1970]
Description: 3 v. (double leaves) in case: ill. ; 20 cm
Location: Library Annex
Call Number: AC149 .P14 ser.83 no.64
[1] Picture obtained from http://www.honco.net/japanese/01/caption/caption-3-02.html
[2] http://station7.kgw.tu-berlin.de/english/abstracts/WangB.html
[3] Hummel, Arthur (ed). Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period. United States Government Printing Office: Washington, 1944. p. 807-9.
[4] Also known as the Lyncean Academy (Accademia dei Lincei). A very small, learned society supported by part of the Cesi family and devoted to the belief that nature should be studied directly, and not through the filter of Aristotelian philosophy.
[5] Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959. V.3: 444-6.
[6] www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/CHINA/intro_qq_ts.html
[7] ibid.
[8] ibid.
[9] ibid.
[10] ibid.
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