Analysis Of Causes And Revelation On The Republication Of "Heavenly Creations" During Republican Period

Yingxing Song, who is respected as the "Chinese Diderot", is one of the brightest star of the Chinese technology history. His work, "Heavenly Creations", summaries the applied technologies and the manufacturing experiences of the ancient agricultural and industrial manufacture in China, and reflects the application of technologies in the late Ming Dynasty, and is respected as "the typically technical work in China" by Japanese scholar, Hiroto Saigusa.. However, this crucial technical work was not paid enough attention by the feudal rulers and scholars in the Ming and Qing Dynasty after publication. So, it did not spread widely in China at that time. In contrast, as soon as the "Heavenly Creations" was early introduced abroad, it was accepted and spread in Japanese, French and Britain academics. Until the Republican Period, the value of "Heavenly Creations" was realized by modern intellectuals gradually in China, and it received attention with the significant mark of the republication of "Heavenly Creations". So, why was "Heavenly Creations" ignored after publication in the late Ming Dynasty? Why did it receive attention during the Republican Period as the same work in the same country as before? The answers to these questions are helpful for us to get deep knowledge of "Heavenly Creations" and the value of Chinese traditional technical culture heritage and to realize the Chinese education, technology and intellectual migration influenced by Western Learning during Republican Period. According to the common logic, this paper is described with the publication of "Heavenly Creations" and its spread situations as the background, and then reproduces the republishing situation during Republican Period, and finally analyzes the reasons. The main contents are as follows:In the introduction, the research background, research value, research status, methodology, the innovation and shortcomings are illustrated and the outline of the whole paper is shown.In the first chapter, the composition of "Heavenly Creations" is demonstrated, in terms of the social background, academic background and the experience of authors.In the second chapter, the domestic and abroad spreading situations of "Heavenly Creations" in Ming and Qing Dynasties is reflected. And then, the reasons of this phenomenon are analyzed.In the third chapter, the republishing process of "Heavenly Creations" during Republican Period is shown. With the contribution of scholars and publishers, "Heavenly Creations" had four editions during Republican Period which did this work the favor to step into the Chinese horizon..In the fourth chapter, focusing on the appearance of modern technical intellectuals, the reason why "Heavenly Creations" received great attention during Republican Period is emphasize. In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic period, Chinese education began to turn from the tradition to the modern. With the change of the knowledge structure, Chinese traditional gentry started transforming to modern intellectual and enabled to find the technical and other values of "Heavenly Creations" in a new view, laying the foundation of its republication.In summary, all the contents are concluded, the history of "Heavenly Creations" is thought over, as well as some revelations are extracted.