The earliest record of oil discovery originated from the Book of Changes: "There is fire in the Ze" and "Fire leads to Ze". Ze refers to lakes and ponds. "There is a fire in the river" is a description of the fire phenomenon of oil vapor on the water surface of lakes and ponds. This book was written in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1 1 century BC to 77 1 year BC), more than 3,000 years ago.
The earliest ancient book that knows the properties of petroleum and records its origin is the Geography of Hanshu written by Ban Gu, a writer and historian in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 32-92) 1,900 years ago. The book says: "There is flammable water in Gaonu County". Gaonu County refers to the present Yan 'an area in Shaanxi, and Weishui is a tributary of Yanhe River. This book clearly records the origin of oil and shows that oil is liquid like water and can be burned.
The earliest record of oil collection and utilization is the County Records written by Ye Fan in the Southern Dynasties (420-589 AD). This book was downloaded in Yanshou County (referring to Yanshou County of Jiuquan County at that time, that is, today's Yumen area of Gansu Province): "There are mountains in the south of the county, and the stone springs are out, which is huge and burning extremely vigorously, so it is inedible. The county people call it stone paint. " At that time, "stone paint" meant oil. Zhang Hua's Natural History in Jin Dynasty (AD 265-420) and Li Daoyuan, a geographer in Northern Wei Dynasty, have similar records. The book Natural History not only mentions the "stone paint" in Yumen, Gansu Province, but also points out that this stone paint can be used as lubricating oil to "paste the car" (lubricate the axle). These records show that people in ancient China not only had a better understanding of the characteristics of oil, but also began to collect and use oil.
In ancient China, oil was used not only for mechanical lubrication, but also for lighting and fuel. In the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 6 18-907), Duan Chengwu wrote Youyang Miscellany, which called oil "grease water": "The grease water in Gaonu County is greasy and as smooth as paint, and it is very bright to burn a lamp with a cream truck." It can be seen that China had used petroleum as lighting oil at that time. With the development of production practice, people in ancient China gradually deepened their understanding of oil and used it more and more widely. In the Song Dynasty, petroleum could be processed into solid products-stone candles, which took a long time to ignite, and one stone candle could hold three candles. Lu You (A.D. 1 125- 1209), a famous patriotic poet in the Song Dynasty, used "stone candle" to describe lighting in Notes of Old Learning Temple.
Petroleum is also one of the earliest drugs used in ancient China. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty (1522- 1596) once recorded that petroleum can "mainly treat infantile convulsion, and can be mixed with other drugs to make pills, dispel sores and tinea, and treat iron arrow and human flesh".
As early as 1400 years ago, people in ancient China saw the military importance of oil and began to use it in wars. There is a historical fact in Yuanhe County Records: During the Tang Dynasty (AD 578), the Turkish rulers sent troops to surround and attack Jiuquan, Gansu, and the local soldiers and civilians lit "fire oil" and burned the enemy's siege tools, repelling the enemy and defending Jiuquan City. The use of oil in the war greatly changed the course of the war. Therefore, during the Five Dynasties (907-960), oil was widely used in the military. In Hou Liang (AD 9 19), there was an example where "kerosene" was put in a tin can and sent out to burn enemy ships. Many ancient documents in China, such as Wu Jing by Ceng Gongliang in the Northern Song Dynasty, have quite specific records on how to make a powerful offensive weapon-"fierce fire oil" from oil. In the Northern Period, a military weapon supervisor was set up in the capital city of Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Song Shenzong), which was in charge of the manufacture of military weapons, including workshops specializing in processing "fierce fire oil". According to Kang's Dream of Yesterday, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the northwest frontier "dug up the ground to make a big pool to store fierce fire oil" to resist the intrusion of foreign rulers.
In addition, China used petroleum product asphalt to control the burning speed of gunpowder in ancient times. This technology is nearly a thousand years earlier than foreign countries.
Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in Song Dynasty (103 1 ~ 1095, a native of Qiantang, Zhejiang) first gave petroleum a scientific name. In his encyclopedia Meng Qian Bi Tan, he named the stone paint, petroleum water, kerosene and fierce fire oil used in history as petroleum, and made a very detailed discussion on petroleum. "There is oil on Yan's site ... I suspect that its cigarettes can be bought. Try to sweep its coal and think it is ink. Black as paint, scattered ink is better. ..... This thing will be popular in the world from beginning to end. At most, it is covered with oil, born in endless land, and sometimes it is exhausted. " The word "oil" was first used here and is still in use today. 1080- 1082, Shen Kuo was appointed as the general envoy of the roadshow, and personally inspected the oil resources in Yan 'an, Yanchang and xian county. He also made petroleum carbon black (black pigment) from petroleum for the first time, and suggested using petroleum carbon black instead of pine and tung charcoal black to make ink to save forestry resources. His first ink made of petroleum carbon black has a long reputation and is known as "Yanzhou Stone Liquid". Facts have proved that China has a large amount of oil reserves. Petroleum and petroleum products are not only self-sufficient, but also exported to dozens of countries and regions. They are indeed "born in infinity" and "popular in the world". Nine hundred years ago, our people had such an evaluation of oil, which is rare in the world, especially for the prediction of future oil potential. It is even more commendable.