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夢溪筆談

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Text ID
KR3j0092
Date
1086–1095
Dynasty
宋

Mèngxī bǐ tán 夢溪筆談

Brush Conversations from Dream Brook

by 沈括 (Shěn Kuò, zì Cúnzhōng 存中, hào Mèngxī wēng 夢溪翁, 1031–1095; Northern Sòng polymath; Hànlín xuéshì, Sān sīshǐ, Lóngtú gé xuéshì)

About the work

The principal scientific-encyclopedic bǐjì of the Sòng dynasty and one of the most famous works in premodern Chinese intellectual history — Shěn Kuò’s 26-juan record of his observations and reflections in retirement at his Mèngxī 夢溪 estate at Rùnzhōu 潤州 (Zhènjiāng, Jiāngsū). The book covers an astonishingly broad range of fields: court precedent (juan 1–2 Gù shì), evidential investigation (juan 3–4 Biàn zhèng), music-and-mathematical theory (juan 5–6 Yuè lǜ), astronomy and divinatory mathematics (juan 7–8 Xiàng shù), human affairs (juan 9–10 Rén shì), official politics (juan 11–12 Guān zhèng), strategic intelligence (juan 13 Quán zhì), literature (juan 14–16 Yì wén), painting and calligraphy (juan 17 Shū huà), technical skills including the famous movable-type printing entry (juan 18 Jì yì), instruments and apparatus (juan 19 Qì yòng), marvels and natural anomalies (juan 20 Shén qí), unusual events (juan 21 Yì shì), errors and corrections (juan 22 Miù wù), satirical anecdotes (juan 23 Jī xuè), miscellany (juan 24–25 Zá zhì), and the closing pharmacological-medical juan (26 Yào yì). The total work — 609 entries — is the single richest premodern Chinese encyclopedic bǐjì. The author’s prefatory note explains the title: in retirement at Mèngxī, in solitude, the brush-and-inkstone became his only conversation-partners — bǐ tán (brush conversation).

Composed in retirement after Shěn Kuò’s enforced removal from office following the Yǒnglèchéng 永樂城 military disaster of 1082, the book was written between c. 1086 (when Shěn settled at Mèngxī) and his death in 1095. It was first printed in Yuánfēng (Northern Sòng late period, posthumously) and went through multiple major editions in the Sòng, Yuán, Míng, and Qīng. The standard modern critical edition is Hú Dàojìng 胡道靜, Mèngxī bǐ tán jiào zhèng 夢溪筆談校證, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1956; revised reprint 1987.

Tiyao

Shěn Kuò’s autograph prefatory note:

I have withdrawn to the woods, dwelling apart and refusing visits. My thoughts of the conversations I held in former days with guests I sometimes record one matter at a time with the brush — and I feel as if speaking with them once again, the whole day quietly passing. The only ones I converse with are now the brush and inkstone — therefore I call this “Brush Conversations.”

On imperial counsel, state government, and matters concerning the inner palace I dare not record privately. As to what bears on the praise-and-blame of contemporary literati — although the matter be good, I do not write it; not only do I refrain from speaking the bad of others. What I record is only the careless conversation of woodside and mountain-shade, leisurely things that do not bear on people’s interests — down to neighborhood and alleyway talk, of which not a word is excluded. There are also things gained from hearsay, in which there will inevitably be gaps and slips. As speech, this is most modest. If you take me to have no intention of speech, that is acceptable.

Abstract

Shěn Kuò 沈括 (1031–1095), zì Cúnzhōng 存中, hào Mèngxī wēng 夢溪翁, of Qiántáng 錢塘 (Hángzhōu). One of the most significant Northern Sòng scholar-officials and arguably the leading premodern Chinese natural-philosophical observer. The biographical record is Sòng shǐ j. 331 (列傳 90). A jǔrén of 1063 (with the jìnshì by bóxué track) and protégé of Wáng Ānshí — Shěn was actively associated with the Xīníng (1068–1077) reforms, including supervisory roles on the Cáo yùn (transport-canal) reform and the silver-currency reform. Major positions: Hànlín xuéshì; Sānsīshǐ (Commissioner of the Three Departments — i.e. principal fiscal head); various provincial governorships including Yánzhōu 延州 (Yánān 延安) during the Yánzhōu frontier campaigns; eventual Yánzhōu jīnglüèshǐ during the Tangut wars. The 1082 Yǒnglèchéng military catastrophe (in which a fortress Shěn had been instructed by Wáng’s faction to construct against more cautious advice was overrun by the Xixia, with over 20,000 Sòng troops killed) led to Shěn’s demotion to a regional sinecure and eventual full retirement to his Mèngxī estate at Rùnzhōu by c. 1086.

The Mèngxī bǐ tán — written in retirement at Mèngxī between c. 1086 and 1095 — is the principal monument of premodern Chinese natural-philosophical and technical observation. Its most-cited individual entries include:

  • The Bì Shēng 畢昇 movable-type printing entry (juan 18) — the standard premodern Chinese description of movable-type printing technology, predating Gutenberg by four centuries.
  • The magnetic-compass entries (juan 24) — the earliest substantive description of magnetic declination in the world (correctly noting that the magnetic needle does not exactly point south).
  • The yáng suì 陽燧 (sun-gathering) lens entries (juan 19) — observations on concave mirrors and image-formation.
  • The Xīníng zhèngyuán lì 熙寧正元曆 calendar reform discussions (juan 7–8) — Shěn’s astronomical observations underpinning the proposed Shīlíng lì 十二氣曆 fully-solar calendar.
  • The yán (salt) and tiě (iron) policy entries (juan 11–12) — primary source for Northern Sòng fiscal-economic history.
  • The petroleum entry (juan 24, Zá zhì) — the earliest Chinese description of petroleum (“fú huǒ shí 石油”), with Shěn’s prediction that it would in the future be of widespread use.

The book’s content covers nearly every field of premodern Chinese knowledge. It is the single most studied premodern Chinese bǐjì in modern world historiography of science — much more attention in English-language scholarship than any other Chinese pre-Qīng bǐjì. The work has been authoritatively studied by Joseph Needham (in multiple volumes of Science and Civilisation in China), by Nathan Sivin, by Hú Dàojìng 胡道靜, and by an extensive lineage of Chinese-language scholars.

The companion works Bǔ bǐ tán 補筆談 (Supplementary Brush Conversations, 3 juan) and Xù bǐ tán 續筆談 (Continuation, 1 juan) are usually transmitted alongside the main work — both also Shěn’s, gathered after his death.

Dating. The work was composed between c. 1086 (Shěn’s retirement to Mèngxī) and 1095 (his death). The notBefore of 1086 and notAfter of 1095 bracket these. The standard modern bibliographic consensus is that most of the work was complete by c. 1091, with continuous revisions until Shěn’s death.

The standard text is the SKQS recension; the kanripo source is the SBCK printing of the Sòng-imperial recension. The standard critical edition is Hú Dàojìng 胡道靜, Mèngxī bǐ tán jiào zhèng (1956, rev. 1987).

Translations and research

The Mèng-xī bǐ tán has been the subject of major Western and Japanese sinological scholarship and is one of the very few premodern Chinese bǐjì with extensive English-language treatment. Major works:

  • Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, multiple volumes (Cambridge UP, 1954–2008), with extensive analysis of Mèng-xī bǐ tán on movable-type printing (Vol. 5.1), magnetic compass (Vol. 4.1), astronomy and mathematics (Vol. 3), pharmacology (Vol. 6.1), and many other topics.
  • Nathan Sivin, “Shen Kua,” Dictionary of Scientific Biography 12 (1975), pp. 369–393. The standard English-language biographical survey, with extensive treatment of the Mèng-xī bǐ tán. Reprinted in Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections (Variorum, 1995).
  • Yáng Xìnhé 楊新和, Mèng-xī bǐ tán xuǎn yì 夢溪筆談選譯 (Chéng-dū: Bā-Shǔ shū-shè, 1989).
  • Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Mèng-xī bǐ tán jiào zhèng 夢溪筆談校證, Shàng-hǎi gǔjí chū-bǎn-shè, 1956; rev. 1987. The standard critical edition.
  • Hú Dào-jìng, Mèng-xī bǐ tán bǔ zhèng zhèng-shì 夢溪筆談補正釋世 (1980s, multiple editions). Critical apparatus.
  • Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §§16.5 and elsewhere on Shěn Kuò.
  • Brian E. McKnight, The Quality of Mercy: Amnesties and Traditional Chinese Justice (Hawaii, 1981), passim.

Other points of interest

The Mèngxī bǐ tán is regularly invoked as the principal premodern Chinese pre-modern-science text and as evidence for premodern Chinese intellectual achievement in fields ranging from astronomy to printing to magnetism to optics to economic policy to musical theory. The book’s status in modern Chinese cultural memory is exceptional: it is read in middle-school textbooks and is one of the small handful of premodern Chinese works regularly assigned in non-specialist Chinese university curricula.

Shěn Kuò’s biography — the trajectory from Wáng Ānshí’s protégé and reformist senior official to Yǒnglèchéng disgrace and retirement-to-Mèng-xī — gives the book a tragic-reflective character. The closing pharmacological juan (Yào yì 藥議) reflects Shěn’s late-life interest in medicine and pharmacology, partly tied to his collaborative work with Su Shi 蘇軾 on the Sū Shěn liáng fāng 蘇沈良方 (a collaborative medical-prescription anthology).

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