Dream Pool Essays

Author: Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features:▼Complete Content▼Sandalwood Aroma▼Compact and Portable▼Original Illustrations▼Easy to Carry——Among the countless literary notes in Chinese history, none are more renowned, influential, and widely disseminated than the Dream Pool Essays.——Shen Kuo, styled Cunzhong, was a native of Qiantang, Hangzhou, in the Northern Song Dynasty. He participated in Wang Anshi's reforms and rose to the position of Hanlin Academician. Later, he went to Yanzhou (now Yan'an, Shaanxi) to strengthen defenses against the Western Xia. After the failure of the reforms, he was exiled. In his later years, he resided in Runzhou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), where he built the Dream Pool Garden and wrote this work based on his lifelong experiences. He was a man of great learning and numerous outstanding achievements: In astronomy, he created the "Twelve Qi Calendar," the world's first calendar to combine the solar and lunar calendars; in mathematics, he developed the "Gap Accumulation Method" and the "Circle Joining Method"; in geography, he recognized the erosive power of water by observing the terrain of mountains like Yandang; from marine life fossils in Taihang Mountain rocks...