During the period of being appointed as an imperial edict, Song compiled his usual research on agriculture and handicrafts into a book, which was published in Chongzhen for ten years with the support of his good friend Tu Shaozhuo.
Because there is a strong sense of "debate between China and foreign countries" in a large number of ancient books in China, in order to consolidate the rule as an alien and eliminate the subjective consciousness of the Han nationality, the ancient books in China were centralized, inspected, revised and destroyed, which is also commonly known as the collation of Sikuquanshu.
Stylistic rules and layout
Wu Kai in the Heavenly Palace records various ancient technologies in China before the middle of Ming Dynasty. The book is divided into three parts, 18 volumes, with 12 1 illustrations, depicting the names, shapes and processes of 130 manufacturing technologies and tools.
The first part:
Neri: Cultivation Techniques of Grain Crops
Naifu: the source and processing method of clothing raw materials
Smearing: Dyeing method of vegetable dyes
Essence: grain processing
Salt making: Introduce the production method of salt.
Addiction: methods of planting sugar cane, making sugar and keeping bees.
Medium length:
Yan Tao: Making bricks, tiles and ceramics.
Smelting: Casting of metal objects
Ship: the structure, manufacture and use of ships and vehicles.
Hammer forging: Iron and bronze are made by hammer forging.
Calcined stone: the firing technology of lime, coal, etc.
Paste: Extraction method of vegetable oil.
Immobilization: a method of papermaking
Next article:
Hardware: mining and smelting of metals.
Jia Bing: How to make weapons?
Danqing: Production of Ink and Pigment
Tillering: the method of brewing wine
Pearl jade: the source of jewelry and jade
Heavenly Creations is the world's first comprehensive work on agriculture and handicraft production, which is called "technical encyclopedia" by European scholars. It systematically summarized various technologies in ancient China and formed a complete scientific and technological system. It summarizes rich agricultural experience and comprehensively reflects scientific and technological achievements. Many of the production techniques described in the book have been used to modern times.
Wu Kai in the Heavenly Palace has been translated into many languages, but it has been lost in China for a long time. I came back from Japan in the1920s. Later, the first edition was found in Ningbo, Zhejiang.