Gao Lu's Early Practice About Popularization Of Astronomy

Gao Lu is the founder of Chinese modern astronomy career.In addition to sponsoring and organizing the Chinese Astronomical Society,creating the Institute of Astronomy,he initiated Guanxiang Congbao which was the first periodical of astronomy,meteorology and geomagnetism in modern China.The Guanxiang Congbao has made a certain contribution to the scientific knowledge,thoughts,and methods in modern China,and it has also become the epitome of Gao Lu's early astronomical practice.The thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction.It introduces the significance and status of the research,the problems to be solved in the study,the research methods,ideas and innovations.The second chapter introduces Gao Lu and Guanxiang Congbao.It mainly explores Gao Lu's knowledge background and educational experience,and analyzes the founding,development,and authorship of Guanxiang Congbao.The third chapter mainly analyzes the contents of the articles published by Guanxiang Congbao,and divides it into three parts: part of theory,part of information and part of science of literature and art.The fourth and fifth chapters are two case studies selected from Guanxiang Congbao.The first case is the Gao Lu's series of popular astronomy articles Xiaochuang Suibi published in the Guanxiang Congbao,which started from the beginning of Guanxiang Congbao to 1919,totaled of 34 periods and 134 pages.The second case is some articles about Gregorian calendar published on Guanxiang Congbao.There are a total of 26 articles,including several serialized articles.The final part summarized the main work of the research and reexamined Gao Lu's astronomy science practice under the background of his time.The research mainly solves two issues,which are also the key.The first question is to analyze Gao Lu how to use of traditional knowledge resources to explain western science in the context of the social and knowledge environment in the early years of the Republic of China? It mainly focuses on the case study in the fourth chapter in which explores Xiaochuang Suibi explains western science with traditional knowledge.This part studyed the main contents of Xiaochuang Suibi,analyzed the traditional knowledge resources in the list,and selected case studies of Rizhilu and Rizhilu Jishi which were cited the most.Through analysis on the text,it was found that Gao Lu had two selection criteria for the traditional knowledge resources.The first is to link traditional knowledge resources with the current world astronomy,and the second is to compare and verify traditional knowledge resources.Finally,it is concluded that using traditional knowledge to explain western science is another popular science model that is different from translation.The second question is that after the founding of the Republic of China,the government formally enacted the Gregorian calendar,but the lunar calendar is still widely used in the private sector,thus forming "dualistic society" on the calendar(Zuo Yuhe).In this background,how did Gao Lu and Guanxiang Congbao popularize the relevant knowledge of the Gregorian calendar and promote the calendar reform? This problem is mainly focused on the case study in chapter 5 which explores the Gregorian Calendar's promotion strategy in the background of calendar reform”.Through the study on the 26 articles published by Guanxiang Congbao to promote the Gregorian calendar,the thesis got the results that Guanxiang Congbao used a total of three strategies.Through textual analysis,it is illustrated that the first strategy is to popularize the Gregorian calendar combined with current events,the second strategy is to popularize the Gregorian calendar according to the audience level,and the third strategy is to invoke the history of the calendar to explain the shortcomings of the old calendar.The thesis also studied Gao Lu's practice of the Gregorian calendar.First,during the process of compiling the almanac,two reforms were made to the almanac.Second,from analyzing the articles written by Gao Lu that are related to the reform,Gao Lu's calendar reform ideas could be gotten.The overall value of the research is:1.The knowledge background and educational experience of Gao Lu himself,the authors of Guanxiang Congbao and the two case studies have not been mentioned in the previous studies.These are all very important contents for the study of Gao Lu and Guanxiang Congbao.The research has been greatly promoted in this thesis.2.The research object is reviewed in the social and historical background in which it is located,and compared with the popular science atmosphere and the overall situation at that time.This also makes the case studies around Gao Lu and Guanxiang Congbao become a perspective to observe the history of science communication during the Republic of China.3.In addition to a large number of first-hand documents,I also went to Gao Lu's hometown to conduct field visits and interviewed his relatives,thus accumulating material for relevant research.The research is helpful for understanding the role that Gao Lu played in promoting the development of modern astronomy.It provides a clue to explore the relationship between western astronomy and popular science practice in astronomy and modern Chinese society and culture.It can also provide a new way of discussing of the spread of western science and the changes in modern China.In the background that scientific communication is getting more and more attention,the scientific communication activities during the period of the Republic of China,regardless of their success or failure,have got important reference functions for today.