Examination record
Flower King Gongji is the earliest handicraft technical document in China at present, which contains a lot of handicraft production technology and arts and crafts materials in the pre-Qin period, records a series of production management and construction systems, and reflects the ideas at that time to some extent. This book occupies an important position in the history of science and technology, arts and crafts and culture in China.
For a long time, there have been different views on the author and the completion time of Kao Gong Ji in academic circles. At present, most scholars believe that Kao Gong Ji is an official book of Qi State (a book formulated by the Qi government to guide, supervise and examine the official handicraft industry and craftsman labor system), and the author is a scholar of Xia Xue Palace. The main contents of this book were compiled from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period, and some contents were supplemented in the middle and late Warring States Period.
Today's Kao Gong Ji is a part of Zhou Li. Zhou Li, formerly known as Zhou Guan, consists of six chapters: Tianguan, Diguan, Guan Chun, Xiaguan, Qiu Guan and Dongguan. In the Western Han Dynasty, when the title of "Winter Official" was missing, Liu De, the king of Hejian, took Gong Ji as a supplement. When Liu Xin collated this book, he changed Zhou Guan to Zhou Li, so Kao Gong Ji was also called Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji (or Li Zhoudong Guan Kao Gong Ji).
"Kao Gong Ji" is not long, but it contains a lot of scientific and technological information, involving handicraft technologies such as making cars, weapons, ritual vessels, chimes, printing and dyeing, architecture, water conservancy and so on. In the pre-Qin period, there were also natural science knowledge such as astronomy, biology, mathematics, physics and chemistry. Because of this, notes and studies on Kao Gong Ji are also emerging one after another. Among them, Zheng Xuan in the early Han Dynasty, Jia in the middle Tang Dynasty, Dai Zhen, Cheng and Sun Yirang in the late Qing Dynasty were all outstanding scholars.
In the 20th century, with the introduction of western science and technology and the development of scientific archaeology, the study of Kao Gong Ji entered a new stage. Using scientific means and thinking methods, combined with archaeological objects and simulated experimental data, the researchers made a special study on ancient technology, scientific knowledge and social science involved in the examination, and published many papers, which promoted the examination research to a new level as a whole.