Can earthquakes be predicted in ancient times?

So far, human beings have not mastered the law of earthquake occurrence, and it is still difficult to accurately predict it. However, China is the first country on earth to make earthquake prediction and put forward relevant theories. For example, in the second year of Zhou Youwang (780 BC), a major earthquake occurred. According to Zhou Benji, Zhou Yangfu once said, "You can't get out, the shade can't be steamed, so there is an earthquake." He believes that the earthquake is caused by the imbalance between yin and yang. The so-called "yin" is the earth and "yang" is the sky. He discovered some relationship between earthquakes and celestial bodies and nature.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, Yan Zi put forward a conjecture about the relationship between celestial bodies and earthquakes. According to Yanzi Chunqiu, Yanzi once said to Taibu, "Yesterday I saw Crookedstar shaking in the middle of four hearts." This probably means that I saw a hooked star in the middle of the house last night, and I'm afraid there will be an earthquake. Although Yan Zi's conjecture is unreliable and superstitious, it shows that the ancients in China made earthquake prediction very early.

Later, China predicted earthquakes even better in ancient times. Readers know that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng also invented the first instrument for earthquake prediction-the seismograph. According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Zhang Hengchuan recorded that once in Luoyang, the capital, the seismograph reported the northwest earthquake. At that time, no one felt it or believed it. A few days later, someone came from Gansu to report that there was an earthquake there.

The ancients in our country discovered the relationship between water changes and earthquakes long ago, and there are many summaries, such as "water movement causes earthquakes", "drought causes earthquakes", "rainstorm causes earthquakes" and "water level changes cause earthquakes". Pingkoulue, an anonymous edition in Qing Dynasty, is more specific, saying that there are "six ends" before the earthquake, and predicting the earthquake from six aspects: well water, pool water, wind and waves, light, clouds and temperature.

In addition to natural signs, the ancients in China were also good at using the abnormal behaviors of animals such as chickens, dogs and snakes to predict earthquakes. These prediction methods have been proved to be correct and effective by modern earthquake science.