Tiangong Kaiwu
A 1637 Chinese illustrated encyclopedia by Song Yingxing documenting technologies and production methods used in agriculture and industry.
Song Yingxing: A Chinese scholar and writer best known for compiling Tiangong Kaiwu. He authored the encyclopedia and framed its account of production as practical knowledge.
Agriculture in Ming China: The farming systems, crops, and labor practices of China during the Ming dynasty. Several sections explain cultivation, irrigation, and processing of staple crops.
Jiangxi: A province in southeastern China with a long history of scholarship, agriculture, and manufacturing. Song Yingxing came from Jiangxi, where he observed regional production practices.
Chinese science and technology history: The study of scientific ideas, technical practices, and material production in Chinese history. The encyclopedia is a major source for reconstructing late Ming technologies.
Ming dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 1368 to 1644. The encyclopedia records technologies used near the end of Ming rule.
Chinese metallurgy: The technologies and practices used to extract and work metals in China. The encyclopedia describes mining, smelting, casting, and metalworking processes.
Wang Zheng: A late Ming scholar and inventor who wrote about mechanical devices and agricultural tools. His technical writing exemplifies the practical scholarship contemporary with Song’s work.
Joseph Needham: A British biochemist and historian of science who led the multivolume study Science and Civilisation in China. Needham’s scholarship helped bring Tiangong Kaiwu to wider international attention.
Traditional Chinese bookbinding: Methods for assembling and binding books in China before modern industrial printing. Its original printed editions circulated as bound volumes of illustrated text.
Porcelain production in China: The manufacture of ceramic wares from clay, glaze, and high-temperature firing in China. Its account details materials, kiln firing, and the making of porcelain.