Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty was an unusual official, a scientific generalist who spanned mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, astronomy, water conservancy and other disciplines. Combing Shen Kuo's official resume, we can see an uneventful track. Renzong was a scholar in the eighth year of Jiayou (AD 1063) and became the backbone of Wang Anshi's political reform in Zongshen period. In the fifth year of Xining (A.D. 1072), he was promoted to supervisor of Tiansi, and in the ninth year of Xining (A.D. 1076), he served as a bachelor of Hanlin and was authorized as the third secretary. It can be said that Shen Kuo has neither shown us too high a peak nor too low a trough in his 20-year career. However, if we look at another trajectory of Shen Kuo's life, we will find a scientific road that shines with the light of wisdom. This official of the Great Song Dynasty did not attract much attention in politics all his life, but he stood out in the history books precisely because he was regarded as an ingenious science at that time. In feudal China, which takes "virtue, speech and merit" as the standard, the soil that can produce a scientist is very poor, and it is even more rare to have an outstanding scientist who will influence future generations. However, under such a living condition, Shen Kuo wrote a magnificent stroke for the history of China's scientific development: he was known as the "father of oil". When he saw the residents of Yanzhou, Shaanxi Province cooking with "fat water" flowing between the sand and stones, he was very excited, thinking that "this thing will surely be popular in the world" and named it "oil". Shen Kuo was also the first person in the world to discover the magnetic declination. As early as 400 years ago, when Columbus, a navigator, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to observe the position of geomagnetic declination, Shen Kuo had discovered that "Fang Jia can be guided by grinding with a magnet, but it is often slightly to the east, but not completely to the south". His contribution to mathematics is even more remarkable. The gap product number created by him has developed the arithmetic progression problem since Nine Chapters of Arithmetic, and his circle-knowing technique has not only promoted the development of plane geometry, but also made important contributions to the development of Chinese ball science. Different from many officials, Shen Kuo's "seeking politics by position" infiltrated into his more creative works. Tian Jian was the organization responsible for observing astronomical phenomena and making calendars in the Song Dynasty. As a secretary, Shen Kuo was rigorous in his studies and was not selfish. He successively dismissed six uneducated officials of the old calendar, and at the same time, regardless of his background, recommended Wei Pu, who was proficient in astronomical calendar calculation and was born in cloth, to enter Tian Jian to preside over the revision of the new calendar. Shen Kuo started by observing the astronomical phenomena, and took the measured results as the basis for revising the calendar. It is said that in order to accurately observe the astronomical phenomena, this meticulous scientist personally observed the position of the North Star with a "peephole" every night for three consecutive months, and accurately drew the position of the North Star on the map on the first night, midnight and last night, and finally calculated the distance between the North Star and the North Pole. Under his auspices, the revised Fengyuan Calendar was finally promulgated and implemented in the eighth year of JaeHee Ning (A.D. 1075). Since then, he further put forward the idea of "twelve gas calendars". He takes the twelve seasons as a year, which is divided into four seasons, namely, Bangladesh, China and Kyrgyzstan, and the months are fixed according to the solar terms. Beginning of spring day 1 month 1 day, shock calculation. The most typical example is his unique "layered weir construction method" to benefit one side of the people with his own cleverness. In the fifth year of Xining (AD 1072), Shen Kuo began to take charge of the water conservancy construction of Bianhe River, which is the only waterway from Kaifeng, Kyoto, to the south of the Yangtze River via Huaihe River. However, due to years of poor management, serious siltation has greatly affected agricultural irrigation and shipping in the basin. In order to harness the Bianhe River, Shen Kuo personally measured the topography of the 840-mile reach from Kaifeng to the bank of Huaihe River in Sizhou. In the actual survey process, he created a brand-new "layered weir construction method", that is, the Bianqu River was divided into many sections, layered into stepped dams, and water was injected into them, and then the water surface of each section was measured section by section to accumulate the differences of each section. This "layered weir building method" is undoubtedly a pioneering work in the history of world water conservancy. In just five years, the Bianhe River has "crossed the Qian Fan, and more than 17,000 hectares of water has been diverted and silted in the basin." "Upstairs is outside the palace, there is no fairy home on earth. Cold food, light smoke and fog, bright moon and pear blossoms all over the city. " Although a scientist with few words seemed so isolated in the Song Dynasty, who can ignore the existence of this diligent and sensitive scientific generalist? The fifth year of Yuanfeng (AD 1082) was the end of Shen Kuo's political career. This year, in order to resist the Xixia army, Xu Xi decided to wait and build a city in Yongle Chuan, 25 miles away from Yinzhou, the capital of Xixia. After Yongle was built, Xixia besieged this small sandbar town with soldiers from all over the country. They cut off the supply line of Song Jun and the waterway leading to the city, making a newly built new city suddenly become a dead city. Shen Kuo, who was guarding Mizhi at that time, wanted to lead an army to help him, but he had to report that a Xixia army was killing Suide, endangering Guanzhong, so he "saved first, but not Yongle". As a result, Yongle City fell and died, while Shen Kuo was dismissed as Zhou Junying's permanent envoy on the charge of "discussing Yongle City and dealing with the good side of the enemy". Being demoted to such an idle position basically declared the end of Shen Kuo's political life. 1088, just six years after being demoted as an official, with the approval of the emperor, he was reinstated as an official in Runzhou Meng Xi Park. Facts have proved that Meng Xi did not become the prison of the great scientific man's soul, nor did he become the villa where he was drunk in the nymphs, but became the starting point of a scientific masterpiece and the container for refining his soul. Shen Kuo has become more free without the shackles of politics. He began to devote himself to writing, earnestly summed up his life's scientific activities, extensively collected and described the research results of predecessors and contemporaries, and finally completed a wonderful book-On Meng Qian. I live in seclusion in the mountains, thinking about those who usually talk and laugh with guests, writing about the discipline at that time, but if I talk and laugh with them, I will be awed, and what I talk and laugh with is just a pen and ink stone, called a pen talk. "In this almost all-encompassing masterpiece, what we see is Shen Kuo's confidence in the vast field of natural science, which is his mastery of many disciplines. Meng Qian Bi Tan has 26 volumes, plus 3 volumes of Supplementary Bi Tan and 1 volume of Continued Bi Tan, with a total of 30 volumes, covering astronomy, calendar, meteorology, mathematics, geology, geography, cartography, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, architecture, metallurgy, literature, history, archaeology and so on. Thus, this invention of Hui Ze's descendants has a written carrier that can be passed down. As a scientist, without any preconceived ideas, Bi Sheng, an obscure printing mechanic, can be promoted to the rank of inventor, which shows Shen Kuo's open-minded and rigorous academic spirit. Not only domestic scholars regard it as an important basis for studying the history of Chinese science, but also foreign scholars highly value it. Masao Sanshi, a famous Japanese mathematician, praised: "Shen Kuo can't be found in the history of mathematics in the world, only China produced this person", "No Japanese mathematician can compare with Shen Kuo. Joseph Needham, a famous British scholar, said: Shen Kuo is the most peculiar figure in the history of science in China, and his Talk about Meng Xi is the coordinate of the history of science in China. Meng Qian Bi Tan records that at that time, in order to study the straight-line propagation of light, Shen Kuo made an experiment of "pinhole imaging" on the basis of summarizing predecessors. He made a small hole in the paper window, so that the birds outside the window and the shadow of the tower could be reflected on the paper curtain indoors. According to the experimental results, he vividly pointed out the linear relationship among objects, holes and images. The great scientist may not know that through the hole of Meng Qian Bitan, he presented a rich and special image to future generations. This headline number has been signed by Knight * * *, so it is forbidden to steal it, and offenders will be prosecuted; The picture came from the network and has been deleted.