Collation And Research Of Xixia’s Technology Archives

Xixia’s technology archives record science and technology movements and achievements in the Xixia Dynasty (1038-1227AD), providing firsthand materials about people’s technology activities and theories. As an essential part of Xixia’s Archives, Xixia’s Technology Archives is also indispensible to China’s ancient technology files. The sheer diversity and abundance of the records, which are the Xixia Dynasty’s precious historical materials, mirror the science and technology conditions in that period and reflect the people’s technical thoughts and cultural distinctiveness. Research currently being conducted on Xixia’s technology archives mainly focus on specific technology activities or documents, while systematic research on Xixia’s technology archives is rare.This thesis utilizes research methods including data sorting, induction, deduction and analysis to deliver an in-depth systematic research on Xixia’s technology archives and discuss the content and features of such archives. Particularly, the thesis will focus on Xixia’s astronomy archives and medicine archives while briefly involve research on archives in map archives.Xixia’s astronomy archives are composed of Xixia’s astrology archives and Xixia’s calendar archives. Specifically, Xixia’s astrology archives indicate Xixia people’s knowledge about astronomy, the dynasty’s political activities and even the rulers’ military attitudes; the Xixia’s calendar archives, though not in huge numbers, contain a wide variety of content and represents high technology levels. Xixia’s medicine archives mainly consist of prescriptions and medicine books of various kinds, from which we can learn Xixia’s people’s ideas about medication, drug use and medical technologies.