【龙腾网】 中国发明的历史。过去现在和未来。中国艺术创新的现状
正文翻译
LARRY ROMANOFF · OCTOBER 24, 2019
China as a nation has the longest and by far the most vast record of inventions in the history of the world. It is now reliably estimated that more than 60% of all the knowledge existing in the world today originated in China, a fact swept under the carpet by the West.
Joseph Needham, a British biochemist, scientific historian, and professor at Cambridge University, is widely rated as one of the most outstanding intellectuals of the 20th century. Chinese students visiting at Cambridge repeatedly informed him that Western scientific methods and discoveries discussed in his classes originated in China centuries before. Needham was so intrigued that he became fully fluent in Chinese, then travelled to China to investigate. He discovered voluminous evidence of the truth of those claims and decided to remain in China to write a book to document what he deemed a discovery of great importance to the world. Needham never completed his task of cataloguing the history of Chinese invention. His one book became 26 books and he died in 1995, with his work still continued today by his students. One good introduction to this topic is Robert Temple’s summary of Needham’s work.[1]
中国是一个拥有世界历史上最长迄今为止最为广博的发明记录的国家。据可靠的估计，当今世界现有的知识中有60%以上起源于中国，而这一事实被西方掩盖了。
约瑟夫·尼德汗（译者注：在中国广为人知的是他的汉名李约瑟，所著《中国科学技术史》对西方了解中国及交流产生重要影响），英国生物化学家、科学历史学家、剑桥大学教授，被公认为20世纪最杰出的知识分子之一。访问剑桥的中国学生反复告诉他，他课堂上讨论的西方科学方法和发现起源于几个世纪前的中国。李约瑟对此非常感兴趣，以至于他能说一口流利的中文，然后前往中国进行考察。他发现了大量证据证明这些说法的真实性，并决定留在中国写一本书，记录他认为对世界具有重大意义的发现。李约瑟从未完成编目中国发明史的任务。他的一本书变成了26本书，他于1995年去世，他的学生仍然在继续他的工作。罗伯特·坦普尔(Robert Temple)（译者注：著名科学哲学家，所著《天狼星之谜》最为著名，著有《中国的一百个世界第一》对李约瑟的著作进行了提炼浓缩）对李约瑟著作的总结是对这一主题的一个很好的介绍。
We were all taught in school that the printing press with movable type was invented in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg in about the year 1550. Not so. China not only invented paper but also the printing press with movable set type, which was in common use in China 1,000 years before Gutenberg was born. Similarly, we were taught that Englishman James Watt invented the steam engine. He did not. Steam engines were in widespread use in China 600 years before Watt was born. There are dated ancient texts and drawings to illustrate and prove the Chinese discovered and documented “Pascal’s Triangle” 600 years before Pascal copied it, and the Chinese enunciated Newton’s First Law of Motion 2,000 years before Newton.
The same is true for thousands of inventions that the West now claim as theirs but where conclusive documentation exists to prove that they originated in China hundreds and sometimes thousands of years before the West copied them. It was not for nothing that Marco Polo is described in China as “Europe’s great thief”. The next few paragraphs are adapted mainly from information in Temple’s book, which I strongly recommend.
我们在学校里都学过，活字印刷机是约在1550年由德国的约翰内斯·古腾堡发明的。不是这样的。中国不仅发明了纸，还发明了活字印刷术，在古腾堡出生前1000年，活字印刷术在中国就已普遍使用。同样，我们被告知英国人詹姆斯·瓦特发明了蒸汽机。但并非如此。在瓦特出生600年前，蒸汽机就在中国广泛使用了。中国发现并记载“帕斯卡三角”的时间比帕斯卡早了600年，提出牛顿第一运动定律的时间比牛顿早了2000年。
同样的情况也发生在成千上万的发明上，西方现在声称这些发明是他们的，但有确凿的文件证明它们起源于中国，在西方复制它们之前数百年甚至数千年。马可波罗在中国被称为“欧洲大盗”并非没有道理。下面几段主要改编自坦普尔书中的信息，我强烈推荐这本书。
The Chinese invented the decimal number system, decimal fractions, negative numbers, and the zero, so far in the past that the origin is lost in the mists of time. The Chinese tracked sunspots and comets with such detail and accuracy that these ancient records are still used as the basis for their prediction and observation today. The Chinese were drilling for natural gas about 2,500 years ago, wells 4,800 feet deep, with bamboo pipelines to deliver the gas to nearby cities. The Chinese pioneered the mining and use of coal long before it was known in the West. Marco Polo and Arab traders marveled at the “black stone” that the Chinese mined from the ground, that would burn slowly during an entire night.
中国人发明了十进制数制、十进制分数、负数和零，其起源已湮没在时间的迷雾中。中国人对太阳黑子和彗星的追踪非常详细和准确，这些古老的记录至今仍被用作天文预测和观测的基础。中国人在大约2500年前就开始钻探天然气，井深4800英尺，用竹制管道将天然气输送到附近的城市。早在西方知道煤炭之前，中国人就率先开采和使用煤炭。马可波罗和阿拉伯商人对中国人从地下开采的“黑石”感到惊讶，这种“黑石”可以在整个晚上慢慢燃烧。
China had printed paper money almost 1,500 years ago, done in ways to prevent counterfeiting. Wrapping paper, paper napkins and toilet paper were all in general use in China 2,000 years before the West could produce them. They were the first to invent and develop a full mechanical clock with a true escapement, many centuries before the Swiss had done so. The Chinese invented an ingenious seismograph still in use that tells not only the severity but the direction and distance of earthquakes. The Chinese invented hot-air balloons, the parachute, manned flight with kites, the wheelbarrow and matches. They invented hermetically-sealed laboratories for scientific experiments. They invented belt and chain drives, the paddlewheel steamer, the helicopter rotor and the propeller, the segmental-arch bridge. They invented the use of water power and chain pumps, the crank handle, all the construction methods for suspension bridges, sliding calipers, the fishing reel, image projection, magic lanterns, the gimbal system of suspension. China not only invented spinning wheels, carding machines and looms, but was the world’s leader in technical innovations in textile manufacturing, more than 700 years before Britain’s 18th century textile revolution.
中国早在1500年前就开始印制纸币，目的是为了防止造假。在西方能够生产包装纸、餐巾纸和卫生纸之前，中国已经普遍使用了2000年。他们是第一个发明并研制出带有真正擒纵机构（译者注：钟表之中齿轮互相交抠运转的系统，现代机械表中普遍使用的是杠杆式擒纵）的全机械钟的人，比瑞士人早了许多世纪。中国人发明了一种精巧的地震仪，至今仍在使用，它不仅能显示地震的严重程度，还能显示地震的方向和距离。中国人发明了热气球、降落伞、载人风筝飞行、独轮手推车和火柴。他们发明了密封的实验室进行科学实验。他们发明了皮带和链传动，桨轮蒸汽机，直升机旋翼和螺旋桨，分段拱桥。他们发明了使用水力和链式泵、曲柄柄、悬索桥的所有施工方法、滑动卡尺、钓鱼卷轴、图像投影、神奇的灯笼、悬挂的万向节系统。中国不仅发明了纺车、梳理机和织布机，而且在纺织制造技术创新方面领先世界，比英国18世纪的纺织革命早了700多年。
Chinese expertise with fine porcelain was so advanced millennia ago, that even today it is admitted their ability has never even been equaled in the West, much less surpassed. The Chinese discovered not only magnetism but magnetic remanence and induction, as well as the compass. They invented gunpowder, smoke bombs, the cannon, the crossbow, plated body armor, fireworks, flamethrowers, grenades, land and sea mines, multi-stage rockets, mortars and repeating guns. China had irrigation canals that were also used for transport, and the Chinese invented the canal locks that could raise and lower boats to different levels 1,500 years before the Americans built the Panama Canal. China has earthquake-proof dams functioning today that were built around 250 BC.
几千年前，中国制作精美瓷器的技术非常先进，即使在今天，人们也承认他们的能力在西方从未被匹敌，更不用说被超越了。中国人不仅发现了磁学，还发现了剩磁和磁感应，以及指南针。他们发明了火药、烟雾弹、大炮、十字弓、镀防弹衣、烟花、火焰喷射器、手榴弹、水雷、多级火箭、迫击炮和连发炮。中国有灌溉运河，也用于运输，中国人发明了可以将船只升降到不同高度的水闸，比美国人建造巴拿马运河早了1500年。中国至今仍有建于公元前250年左右的抗震大坝。
A millennium ago, the Chinese conceived and developed the science of immunology – vaccinating people for diseases like smallpox, knowing how to extract and prepare the vaccine so as to immunise and not infect. They discovered the circadian rhythm in the human body, blood circulation and the science of endocrinology. The Chinese were using urine from pregnant women to make sex hormones 2,000 years ago, understanding how they acted on the body and how to use them. Many centuries-old Chinese medical books still exist, documenting all this and much more. Around 1550, China compiled a huge 52-volume Chinese Traditional Herbal Medicine encyclopedia that described almost 2,000 herbal sources and 10,000 medical prescxtions. Among them is chaulmoogra oil, which is still the only known treatment for leprosy.
一千年前，中国人构想并发展了免疫学科学——为人们接种天花等疾病的疫苗，知道如何提取和制备疫苗，以便免疫而不被感染。他们发现了人体的昼夜节律、血液循环和内分泌学。早在两千年前，中国人就开始用孕妇的尿液制造性激素，了解性激素对身体的作用以及如何使用。许多古老的中医书籍仍然存在，记录了所有这些和更多的东西。大约在1550年，中国编纂了一部52卷本的中草药百科全书，描述了近2000种草药来源和10000种处方。其中有一种叫chaulmoogra油（译者注：衛氏大風子油，钟花科的一种树，用于治疗皮肤病），至今仍是唯一已知的治疗麻风病的药物。
China designed and built the world’s largest commercial ships, which were many times longer and ten times larger in volume than anything the West could build at the time. In the late 1500s the largest English ships displaced 400 tons, while China’s displaced more than 3,000 tons. Western ships were small, uncontrollable and fragile, and useless for travelling any distance. Thousands of years ago, Chinese ships had watertight compartments that permitted them to continue journeys even when damaged. Moreover, Chinese ships not only had multiple masts, but China invented the luff sails which permit us to sail almost into the wind, just as sailboats do today, and were therefore not dependent on wind direction for their travel. Their luff sails contained sewn-in bamboo battens that keep the sails full and aerodynamically efficient, as racing sailboats use today. The Chinese invented the ship’s rudder – something the Europeans never managed to do, able to steer themselves only with oars, and European sails permitted them to travel only in the direction of the wind, which meant a ship would have to remain in place, sometimes for months, awaiting a favorable wind.
中国设计并建造了世界上最大的商船，比当时西方所能建造的商船长很多倍，体积大十倍。16世纪晚期，英国最大的船只排水量为400吨，而中国的排水量超过3000吨。西方的船只体积小、无法控制、脆弱不堪，无法航行任何距离。几千年前，中国船只有水密舱，即使受损也能继续航行。此外，中国船只不仅有多根桅杆，而且还发明了俯角帆，使我们几乎可以迎风航行，就像今天的帆船一样，因此航行不依赖风向。它们的俯角帆包含了缝在里面的竹板条，可以保持帆的饱满和空气动力学效率，就像今天的比赛帆船所使用的那样。中国人发明了船舵——这是欧洲人从来没有做到过的，他们只能靠桨来控制方向，而欧洲人的帆只允许他们沿着风的方向航行，这意味着一艘船必须停留在原地，有时长达数月，等待有利的风向。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Chinese maps were the best in the world, by orders of magnitude, for more than a millennium, and the precision of their maps became legendary, being far in advance of the West. The Chinese invented Mercator projections, relief maps, quantitative cartography and grid layouts. China had compasses and such extensive astronomical knowledge that they always knew where they were, could plot courses and follow them by both compass and star charts, and could sail wherever they wanted, regardless of the wind direction. As Needham pointed out, China was so far ahead of the Western world in sailing and navigation that comparisons are just embarrassing. It was only when the West managed to copy and steal China’s sailing and navigation technology that it was able to begin travelling the world and colonising it. James Petras wrote, “It is especially important to emphasize how China, the world technological power between 1100 and 1800, made the West’s emergence possible. It was only by borrowing and assimilating Chinese innovations that the West was able to make the transition to modern capitalist and imperialist economies.”[2]
一千多年来，中国地图在数量级上都是世界上最好的，其地图的精度成为传奇，远远领先于西方。中国人发明了墨卡托投影、地形图、定量制图和网格布局。中国有指南针，而且有丰富的天文知识，他们总是知道自己在哪里，可以用指南针和星图来绘制航线，并沿着航线航行，无论风向如何，他们都可以航行到任何地方。正如李约瑟所指出的，中国在航海和导航方面远远领先于西方世界，这样的比较令人尴尬。只有当西方成功地复制和窃取中国的航海和导航技术时，它才能够开始周游世界并进行殖民。詹姆斯·佩特拉斯(James Petras)写道:“特别重要的是，要强调中国这个1100年至1800年间的世界技术强国是如何使西方的出现成为可能的。只有通过借鉴和吸收中国的创新，西方才能够过渡到现代资本主义和帝国主义经济。
China was 1,000 years ahead of the West in anything to do with metals – cast iron, wrought iron, steel, carbon steel, tempered steel, welded steel. The Chinese were so skilled at metallurgy they could cast tuned bells that could produce any tone. Long before 1,000 A.D., China was the world’s major steel producer. I believe it was James Petras who noted that in about 1,000 A.D. China was producing about 125,000 tons of steel per year, while 800 years later Britain could produce only 75,000 tons.[1] The Chinese invented the blast furnace, the double-action bellows to achieve the necessary high temperatures for smelting and annealing metals. They invented the manufacture of steel from cast iron. Thy excelled in creating metallic alloys, and very early were casting and forging coins made from copper, nickel and zinc. The entire process of mining, smelting and purifying zinc, originated in China. The Chinese developed the processes of mining itself, and the concentration and extraction of metals.
中国在利用金属的任何方面也都领先西方1000年——铸铁、熟铁、钢、碳钢、回火钢、焊接钢。中国人在冶金方面技术出众，他们可以铸造出可以发出任何音调的调谐钟。早在公元1000年之前，中国就是世界上主要的钢铁生产国。我相信是詹姆斯·佩特拉斯(James Petras)指出，在公元1000年左右，中国每年生产大约12.5万吨钢铁，而800年后，英国每年只能生产7.5万吨钢铁中国人发明了高炉，采用双作用风箱来达到冶炼和退火金属所需的高温。他们发明了用铸铁炼钢。他们擅长制造金属合金，很早就铸造和锻造了用铜、镍和锌制成的硬币。整个锌的开采、冶炼和提纯过程，起源于中国。中国人发展了自己的采矿工艺，以及金属的浓缩和提取。
China was highly advanced in agriculture, having invented the winnowing fan and the seed drill, making an easy process of tilling, planting, and harvesting. Europeans and Americans were still seeding crops by scattering grain from a bag, a greatly wasteful practice that necessitated saving 50% of each year’s crop for seed. China developed scientifically efficient plows that have never been equaled and are still used all over the world today. They invented and developed animal harnesses and collars that first permitted horses to actually be used to pull loads. Europe had no efficient plow, and their only way of harnessing animals was to put a rope around their necks, which succeeded only in the animals strangling themselves. The Chinese invented saddles and the riding stirrup. China’s food production was orders of magnitude ahead of the world for more than 1,000 years, its advances in agriculture the enabling cause of Europe’s agricultural revolution that first permitted it to begin feeding itself adequately. The Chinese were wearing fine silk and cotton clothing and using toilet paper while centuries later Europeans were still wearing animal skins.
中国的农业非常发达，发明了扬子扇和播种机，使耕作、种植和收获变得很容易。欧洲人和美国人还在用袋装谷物播种，这是一种非常浪费的做法，每年必须节省50%的作物用于种子。中国开发了科学高效的犁，无人能及，至今仍在世界各地使用。他们发明并开发了动物挽具和项圈，第一次让马真正被用来拉东西。欧洲没有有效的犁，他们驾驭动物的唯一方法是在它们的脖子上套上一根绳子，这只能使动物勒死自己。中国人发明了马鞍和马镫。一千多年来，中国的粮食产量一直领先世界几个数量级，中国在农业方面的进步推动了欧洲的农业革命，使欧洲第一次开始实现自给自足。中国人穿着丝绸和棉质的衣服，使用卫生纸，而几个世纪后的欧洲人仍然穿着动物皮。
Few people in the West are familiar with China’s Armillary Spheres. These wonders of the world, cast in bronze several meters in diameter and beautifully decorated with dragons and phoenixes, are some of the oldest and most accurate astronomical observatory instruments in existence, some created more than 3,500 years ago when the Western countries had no knowledge of such things. They determine and measure the positions and equatorial ecliptic and horizontal coordinates of celestial bodies, the positions and daily motions of 1,500 stars and constellations, and much more. When the Western Forces invaded China in the late 1800s, they were so captivated that they plundered most of these treasures and the centuries of data from the ancient observatories, disassembling the instruments and removing them to Europe, returning some to China as part of the Treaties after the First World War.
西方很少有人熟悉中国的浑天仪。这些世界奇观由直径数米的青铜铸造而成，精美的龙和凤凰装饰，是现存最古老、最精确的天文观测仪器之一，有些是在3500多年前制造的，当时西方国家还不知道这些东西。它们可以确定和测量天体的位置、赤道黄道坐标和水平坐标，以及1500颗恒星和星座的位置和日常运动等等。当西方军队在19世纪晚期入侵中国时，他们被迷住了，他们从古代天文台掠夺了大部分珍宝和数百年的数据，将仪器拆解并运回欧洲，并在第一次世界大战后根据条约将部分仪器归还给中国。
It leaves one speechless to learn the vast extent of Chinese inventions that existed hundreds of years and often millennia, before they appeared in the West. Needham published not only ancient Chinese texts that can be accurately dated, but photos of old drawings that clearly depict all of these items. This isn’t a simple matter of gunpowder and fireworks, but of discovery that encompasses the entire range of human knowledge, all of which has been consciously hidden from the Western world. Needham made his discoveries in the 1940s, but neither Western education nor the media have ever referenced or acknowledged them. These are not mere claims; the evidence is conclusive and available for examination but the West has thoroughly erased China from the world’s historical memory.
在西方出现之前，中国发明已经存在了数百年甚至数千年，这让人哑口无言。李约瑟不仅发表了可以准确确定年代的中国古代文献，而且还发表了清楚描绘所有这些物品的旧绘画照片。这不是一个简单的火药和烟火的问题，而是一个包含人类整个知识领域的发现，所有这些都被有意识地对西方世界隐藏起来。李约瑟在20世纪40年代做出了他的发现，但无论是西方教育届还是媒体都从未提及或承认过这些发现。这些不仅仅是观点主张；证据确凿，可供检验，但西方已经将中国从世界历史记忆中彻底抹去。
