Civilizational Canons · LC9

Sciences

Counting rods establishing algebra, seismographs remote-detecting the earth: how the classical Orient deduced the laws of nature using pure physics and physical computational hardware.

Sciences explores classical Chinese writing on the natural world, observation, and practical knowledge. From Qu Yuan's Questions to Heaven, Liu Zongyuan's Heaven Answered, and Xunzi's Discourse on Nature to Li Shizhen's preface to the Compendium of Materia Medica, these works show inquiry through observation, reasoning, and accumulated experience.

Representative works

Zhou · Qu Yuan · Chu ElegiesQuestions to HeavenAt the primordial beginning of remote antiquity, who was there to transmit the account? When Heaven and Earth had not yet taken form, how could they be examined? When light and dark were merged in chaos, who could probe their origin? Whirling formless primordial mist—how can it be comprehended? Where are the sun and moon attached? How are the arrays of stars arranged?LR10483Tang · Liu Zongyuan · Chu ElegiesHeaven Answered · ExcerptOriginally all is One Primordial Qi, generating and transforming ceaselessly without prior design. Who governs it? Who rules it? What does Heaven say? The four seasons move, the hundred things are born.LR10340Zhou · Xunzi · Pre-Qin MastersXunzi: Discourse on NatureNature operates with constant constancy: it exists not for Yao, nor perishes for Jie. Respond to it with sound governance and fortune ensues; respond with disorder and calamity results. Rather than exalting Heaven and longing for it, why not harness natural forces and master them!LR10121Ming · Li Shizhen · Letters & PrefacesPreface to the Compendium of Materia MedicaUsing major divisions as Outline and individual entries as Detail, I hope to make pharmacological knowledge shine clearly as the stars.LR10496

Read by dynasty

Zhou

1046–256 BCE3 works
  1. Xunzi: Discourse on NatureXunzi · Pre-Qin MastersNature operates with constant constancy: it exists not for Yao, nor perishes for Jie. Respond to it with sound governance and fortune ensues; respond with disorder and calamity results. Rather than exalting Heaven and longing for it, why not harness natural forces and master them!
  2. Questions to HeavenQu Yuan · Chu ElegiesAt the primordial beginning of remote antiquity, who was there to transmit the account? When Heaven and Earth had not yet taken form, how could they be examined? When light and dark were merged in chaos, who could probe their origin? Whirling formless primordial mist—how can it be comprehended? Where are the sun and moon attached? How are the arrays of stars arranged?
  3. Investigating Things to Extend KnowledgeGreat Learning · IdiomsProbing the principles of things to attain true knowledge; the first step of Confucian self-cultivation.

Tang

618–9071 works
  1. Heaven Answered · ExcerptLiu Zongyuan · Chu ElegiesOriginally all is One Primordial Qi, generating and transforming ceaselessly without prior design. Who governs it? Who rules it? What does Heaven say? The four seasons move, the hundred things are born.

Song

960–12792 works
  1. Record of Stone Bell MountainSu Shi · Travel WritingCan one draw arbitrary conclusions on whether a thing exists without personal sight and hearing? Li Daoyuan's observation was likely the same as mine, yet lacked detail; gentlemen refuse to moor a small boat under sheer cliffs at night, so they never learned; while fishermen and boatmen know, yet lack the words to write.
  2. Turning Pale at the Mention of a TigerCheng Hao and Cheng Yi · Satirical ParablesOnly knowledge gained through experience is true, deeply felt knowledge.

Ming

1368–16441 works
  1. Preface to the Compendium of Materia MedicaLi Shizhen · Letters & PrefacesUsing major divisions as Outline and individual entries as Detail, I hope to make pharmacological knowledge shine clearly as the stars.