Water element: Thales, the first western philosopher (about 625-547 BC), believed that everything in the universe was made up of water, the basic element. Air element: Thales' student anaximander (about 665438 BC+00-546 BC) thought that the basic element could not be water, but an indefinite infinite substance. Anaximenes, a student in anaximander (about 585-525 BC), further analyzed that the basic element is gas, which is diluted into fire and condensed into wind, which condenses into clouds, clouds into water and water into stones, and then all this constitutes everything. Fire element: Heraclitus (about 535-475 BC) believed that everything originated from fire, so it was always changing. Earth element and the formation of four-element theory: empedocles (about 490-430 BC) integrated the views of predecessors and added "earth", so there were four elements of water, air, fire and earth. Visualization of the four elements (like mathematical school): Plato (427-347 BC) visualized the four elements, and viewed them from a geometric point of view. He thought that the atomic shapes of the four elements were regular polyhedrons: fire atoms were the sharpest regular tetrahedrons, gas atoms were almost imperceptible regular octahedrons, water was a smooth regular icosahedron like a ball, and soil was a cube that could be stacked. There are five regular polyhedrons and one regular dodecahedron with no corresponding elements. Plato said that God arranged the constellations in the sky. The development of the theory of four elements: Plato's student Aristotle (384-322 BC) thought that the elements that make up celestial bodies are different from the earth, which are pure "ether" and the fifth element, corresponding to regular dodecahedron. On the basis of his teacher's four-element geometry, Aristotle developed the four-element theory into a system: soil is the heaviest and constitutes the core of the earth; Water is light and covers the earth's surface; Gas and fire are lighter, covering the earth or flying upwards; The lightest ether is located in the sky and orbits the earth. This ideology effectively supports the geocentric theory.
Historical origin
From about the 6th century BC in Greece, there have been discussions and debates about the origin of things. Four-element theory
First of all, Thales, the first Greek philosopher, put forward that water is the primitive substance of the universe through inference and observation. He believes that water can be turned into a solid as hard as a stone, or it can be turned into an invisible, intangible, but ubiquitous gas, so its changes include the existing state of all substances (solid, liquid, gas); Moreover, many creatures live in water, and all creatures cannot live without water, so all substances may be produced by water. But Thales thought his conclusion was not true, and told the students: "This is my opinion, my idea, and you should try to improve my teaching." Anaximander Anasi Ruande, a military strategist and philosopher, thinks that everything comes from a simple primitive substance, but it is not water proposed by Thales, nor is it any other essence we know. It is infinite, eternal and endless, and it surrounds all the worlds-because he thinks our world is just one of many. Meta-quality can be transformed into various familiar essences, and all of them can be transformed into each other. In this regard, he made an important and extremely striking exposition: everything is born, and everything will return after it is destroyed, which is stipulated by fate, because everything compensates each other for their injustice in time order. This argument is derived from the soul element at the top of the five-pointed star; In alchemy, it is also pointed out that the origin of all things comes from materials. Under the primitive material, he inherited the Babylonian and Egyptian arguments that water, air and soil were the main elements in the world, and added the fourth element fire to form the predecessor of the four elements theory. After the four elements are formed by this primitive substance, they are divided into four layers according to the order of soil, water, gas and fire. Fire makes water evaporate, producing land, and water vapor rises to surround the fire with circular tubular clouds. What people see in their eyes is like a celestial body, which is the hole of these pipes, so that we can see the fire inside from the hole. Later, Anasi Anaximenes, another military philosopher and a critical student trained by Thales, believed that air was the primary element of the universe. His argument is that air is hot when it comes out of the mouth, but it feels cold when it comes out under pressure. Similarly, through the process of condensation, gas first becomes water and then becomes soil. The difference between these elements is only the result of quantitative change, and the elements are only air condensation or thinning to varying degrees. Heraclitus, a poet and philosopher, expressed contempt for the materialistic tendencies of anaximander and anaximander. In his view, ether fire is the basic element or reality, and it is a kind of soul substance. Everything is made of it and must be returned to it. In this world, the constant alternation of opposites such as sleeping and waking, death and life constitutes the never-ending rhythm of this never-ending fire. Everything is going on in an orderly way, and everything is in a state of flow-Xavtaoei. It has also been suggested that soil is the original material of the universe, but its source data seems to be impossible to verify. Pythagoras, a famous Greek mathematician and philosopher, and his school abandoned the concept of single element and put forward an original four-element theory. They think that matter is composed of soil, water, gas and fire, and these four basic physical properties are combined in pairs. For example, water is a combination of cold and wet, and fire is a combination of heat and dry. Pythagoras also believes that everything in the universe obeys a rule, and the law of numbers is the center of this rule. This statement was later transformed into numerology. Ember Dorcus Empedocles put forward a clearer concept of four elements after sorting out the opinions of predecessors. He continued Pythagoras' theory of four elements, thinking that these four elements are combined in different proportions under the influence of two opposing divine powers in the whole universe; The so-called two opposing divine powers, one is gravity and the other is repulsion, that is, the role of "love" and "hate" makes elements mix and separate from each other. The theory of "four elements" was developed by Aristotle before the system was established. He opposed Demok Park Jung Su's atomism (that is, matter is composed of the smallest indivisible particles) and strongly advocated the four-element theory. It is believed that all substances are composed of soil; Water; Air and fire. They are considered dry; Humidity; Combination of cooling and heating functions. Dry and cold produce soil, while water is wet and cold. Aristotle thinks that light is a mixture of warmth and humidity; Warm, dry and make a fire! According to the theory of four elements, plants that break through the ground are the combination of stone (soil), water and fire under the sun. When trees are cut down and dried, they lose water, so they can be burned. But after burning, it becomes stone (that is, ash) and fire. This explanation is easier to understand than Demok Park Jung Su's invisible atom hypothesis. So in the next few centuries, the four elements became the conclusion of the original entity. In the Middle Ages, the theory of four elements was used as the theoretical basis of alchemy. Alchemists believe that ordinary metals can be turned into gold by changing the proportion of these four primitive properties in matter. Compared with the theory of five elements in the East, the theory of four elements is also the basis of western metaphysics. The four-element theory recognizes the materiality of the world, which is its progressive side. But it has hindered the development of chemistry for a long time. It was not until robert boyle denied the mistake of the four-element theory that chemistry developed rapidly. Later, after more than 300 years of development, it was not until the development of modern physics in the early 20th century that we gradually saw the true face of matter.
Dispute 1
The theory of four elements has penetrated into all aspects of western traditional knowledge, and the most far-reaching one is the theory of four body fluids put forward by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine (about 460~370 BC). It is considered that there are four kinds of body fluids corresponding to four elements: liver hematopoiesis (qi), lung mucus (water), gallbladder jaundice (fire) and spleen black gallbladder (earth). People get sick because of the imbalance of four kinds of body fluids, and the treatment is to restore the balance of body fluids, so therapies such as bloodletting, sweating, vomiting and excretion are derived. Western traditional medicine treats the human body and diseases with a holistic concept, mainly using herbs as medicine. It is considered that different drugs have different characteristics of cold, heat and dryness and wetness, and can be used to restore the balance of body fluids. Prescriptions often use multiple drugs at the same time, and pay attention to the mutual collocation between different drugs. These concepts and practices are very similar to traditional medicine in China. The first scholar who seriously questioned the theory of four elements was British chemist Boyle (A.D. 1627~ 169 1). 166 1 year, he published The Sceptical Chemist, which criticized the ancient elemental theories and thought that they were not real elements. He proposed that elements should refer to primitive and simple things that can neither be generated by other substances, nor be transformed into each other, nor can they be decomposed again. He also pointed out that there are many kinds of elements, and what can be regarded as elements should be determined through experiments. The negation of ancient elemental theory can be regarded as a symbol of the creation of chemistry. Four-body fluid theory has a longer life. Until19th century, many doctors thought that with the rise of modern medicine, it was completely denied. In fact, no one in western academic circles still believes in the four elements theory, but some people still believe in it. Astrology, for example, is still regarded as one of the theoretical foundations. In fact, the four elements theory is not very outrageous. It can be regarded as a symbol of four forms of matter: soil, water, gas and fire correspond to solid, liquid, gas and plasma respectively. However, this is only an imaginative and simple view of the origin of the world by the ancients. No matter how extensive and profound its system is, it was mercilessly abandoned in the west after the rise of modern science. Modern empirical science also has many disadvantages, because it needs to list all the laws of the universe in order to be perfect and correct, and human practice is far from enough! The empirical scientific view formed in hundreds of years has caused profound harm to the earth, and the new human values formed at the same time have shocked the world and even human resources. The harmony of the world has been destroyed by the new ignorance of mankind! Although the simple concept of elements is very rough, the idea of harmonious coexistence between man and nature is still worth following. Man belongs to this universe, not the master of it. This is the way of human preservation! Controversy 2 In recent years, many people in China advocate that some contents of China's traditional culture (such as divination, geomantic omen and traditional Chinese medicine) should be established as "oriental science" to oppose modern science called "western science". The main feature of "Oriental Science" is based on Yin-Yang and Five Elements. It is said that the reason why "Oriental Science" has not been recognized internationally is because westerners can't understand Yin-Yang and Five Elements. In fact, in western history, there is a popular theory similar to Yin-Yang and Five Elements, which has ruled the western ideological circle for two thousand years, that is, the four elements theory originated from ancient Greek philosophy. This ideological system is exquisite, ingenious and complex, and its "extensive and profound" degree is no less than that of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. This idea can be traced back to Thales, the first western philosopher (about 625~547 BC). He was the first person who tried to completely explain natural phenomena with natural factors, and raised such a big question: What is matter made of in the final analysis? He guessed that everything in the universe is composed of the same basic element, that is, water. Other ancient Greek philosophers followed this question, but gave their own answers, and even teachers and students would argue about it. It is really "I love my teacher, and I love the truth more". For example, Thales' student anaximander (about 6 10~546 BC) thought that the basic element could not be water, but an uncertain infinite substance. Anaximenes, a student in anaximander (about 585-525 BC), thinks that the basic element is gas, which is diluted into fire and concentrated into wind, and the wind is concentrated into clouds, clouds into water and water into stones, and then everything is made up of all these. Heraclitus (about 535~475 BC) left a famous saying that "people can't walk into the same river twice". He thought that everything was born of fire, so it was always changing.
Controversy 3
Empedocles (about 490~430 BC) came to this all-encompassing, integrated these views of predecessors, and added "earth", which has four elements: water, gas, fire and earth. Plato (427~347 BC), who paid special attention to geometry, regarded four elements as regular polyhedrons in geometry: fire atom is the sharpest regular tetrahedron, gas atom is an almost imperceptible octahedron, water is an icosahedron as smooth as a ball, and soil is a cube that can be piled up. There are five regular polyhedrons and one regular dodecahedron with no corresponding elements. Plato said that God arranged the constellations in the sky. Plato's student Aristotle (384~322 BC) thought that the elements that make up celestial bodies are different from the earth and are pure "ether". With this fifth element, various elements can correspond to various regular polyhedrons one by one. However, Aristotle is not as obsessed with geometry as his teacher and is not interested in this practice. Aristotle developed the four-element theory into a self-evident system, which looks very attractive. For example, this theory can explain why the universe is centered on the earth and orderly: soil is the heaviest and constitutes the core of the earth; Water is light and covers the earth's surface; Gas and fire are lighter, covering the earth or flying upwards; The lightest ether is located in the sky and orbits the earth. Aristotle believes that four primitive properties that are opposite to each other are the origin of everything in the world: cold-hot, dry-wet. Different elements are composed of these properties in different proportions. Fire is hot and dry, gas is hot and humid, water is cold and wet, and soil is dry and cold. So elements can be transformed into each other. For example, when water is heated, the cold in water is replaced by heat, and water becomes gas.
social influence
The four-element theory has had a far-reaching impact on western traditional academics, especially western traditional medicine. Western traditional medicine is similar to traditional Chinese medicine, which treats the human body and diseases with a holistic concept. In terms of symptoms, Hippocrates, the father of western medicine (about 460-370 BC), put forward the theory of four body fluids, arguing that there are four kinds of body fluids corresponding to four elements: liver making blood (qi), lung making mucus (water), gallbladder making jaundice (fire) and spleen making black gallbladder (earth). People get sick because of the imbalance of four kinds of body fluids, and the treatment is to restore the balance of body fluids, so therapies such as bloodletting, sweating, vomiting and excretion are derived. The preparation method of prescription is similar to that of traditional Chinese medicine, mainly taking herbs as medicine. It is believed that different herbs have different properties of cold, heat and dryness and wetness, and they can be used to restore the balance of body fluids. Prescriptions often use multiple drugs at the same time, and pay attention to the mutual collocation between different drugs. With the progress of the times and the prosperity of science, people began to seriously question the four elements theory. British chemist Boyle (1627- 169 1) published "Skeptical Chemist" in 166 1 year, criticizing the ancient elemental theories and thinking that they are not real elements. He proposed that elements should refer to primitive and simple things that can neither be generated by other substances, nor be transformed into each other, nor can they be decomposed again. He also pointed out that there are many kinds of elements, and what can be regarded as elements should be determined through experiments. The negation of ancient elemental theory is regarded as the symbol of the establishment of modern chemistry. However, the four-element theory is still regarded as one of the theoretical foundations by astrology. In the view of modern science, there are still views that the symbols of the four forms of matter, soil, water, gas and fire, correspond to solid, liquid, gas and plasma respectively.
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