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The ''Tiangong Kaiwu'' (天工開物), or ''The Exploitation of the Works of Nature'' was a Chinese encyclopedia compiled by Song Yingxing. It was published in May 1637 with funding provided by Song's patron Tu Shaokui.〔Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 36.〕〔Song, xiv.〕 The ''Tiangong Kaiwu'' is an encyclopedia covering a wide range of technical issues, including the use of various gunpowder weapons. Copies of the book were very scarce in China during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) (due to the government's establishment of monopolies over certain industries described in the book), but original copies of the book were preserved in Japan.〔 The technical encyclopedia of the ''Tiangong Kaiwu'' was divided into separate chapters with broad overall themes, which included # agriculture, irrigation, and hydraulic engineering,〔Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 171-172〕 # sericulture and textile technology,〔 # agriculture and milling processes,〔 # salt technology,〔 # sugar technology,〔 # ceramics industry,〔 # bronze metallurgy,〔 # transportation; ships and carts,〔 # iron metallurgy,〔 # coal, vitriol, sulfur, and arsenic,〔 # oil technology,〔 # papermaking,〔 # metallurgy of silver, lead, copper, tin, and zinc,〔 # military technology,〔 # mercury,〔 # ink,〔 # fermented beverages,〔 # pearls and jade.〔 It featured detailed illustrations that were valuable for historians in understanding many early Chinese production process. For example, illustrations for brick-making; one shows a kilnmaster checking the temperature of a furnace while an assistant stands by and douses the kiln to induce superficial glazing;〔Brook, 20.〕 another illustration shows a brick-maker filling a wooden mold with clay while he dresses the brick's surface with a finishing wire strung on a bow.〔Brook, 21.〕 As the historian Joseph Needham points out, the vast amount of accurately drawn illustrations in this encyclopedia dwarfed the amount provided in previous Chinese encyclopedias, making it a valuable written work in the history of Chinese literature.〔Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 172.〕 At the same time, the Tiangong Kaiwu broke from Chinese tradition by rarely referencing previous written work. It is instead written in a style strongly suggestive of first-hand experience. In the preface to the work, Song attributed this deviation from tradition to his poverty and low standing. ==Agriculture== In the first chapter, The Growing of Grains, Song Yingxing wrote about the great necessity of rural farmers in society, and although they were emulated by tradition, were scoffed at by aristocrats throughout time. Song Yingxing began the chapter with the context of this paragraph in mind: Song wrote about the general terms used in agriculture, saying that the "hundred grains" referred to crops in general, while the "five grains" were specifically sesamum, legumes, wheat, panicled millet, and glutinous millet (rice was not included in this, says Song, because the ancients were only used to the environment of northern China, which was devoid of rice at the time).〔Song, 3-4.〕 He wrote about the meticulous and proper cultivation of each crop, as well as how to avoid agricultural disasters in the process.〔Song, 3-31.〕 In aiding the text, he also provided many different drawn illustrations, including a man loosening the soil by ploughing with an ox,〔Song, 5.〕 soil broken into fine particles by an ox-drawn harrow,〔Song, 7.〕 men engaging in foot weeding and hand weeding of rice,〔Song, 9-10.〕 a vertical waterwheel with hollow wooden cylinders dipping water into an open woodwork tub feeding an irrigation canal,〔Song, 13.〕 a cylinder-type chain pump powered by a vertical waterwheel placed in a narrow, low-lying stream with a mounted rotating wheel placed at the top of an elevated plane, whereupon the cylinders fed water into an irrigation canal,〔Song, 15.〕 a wooden river dam correcting the flow of water around a field of crops,〔Song, 16.〕 a sluice gate controlling the flow of a water channel,〔Song, 17〕 a square-pallet chain pump powered by a horizontal waterwheel, connected by an axle to a gear-tooth wheel above, which in turn engaged a vertical gear-tooth wheel,〔Song, 18.〕 another square-pallet chain pump employing an ox-drawn set of geared wheels,〔Song, 19.〕 two different types of foot-treadle operated chain pumps,〔Song, 20-21.〕 a counterweighted lever for raising or lowering a bucket,〔Song, 22.〕 a pulley-wheel for raising or lowering a bucket,〔Song, 25.〕 an ox-drawn plough-seeder with a cone-shaped filter,〔Song, 26.〕 an ox-drawn pair of stone rollers, used for pressing seeds into the soil,〔Song, 27.〕 the simpler process of sewing seeds by hand and pressing them into the dirt by foot,〔Song, 28.〕 and finally, an illustration of men cultivating wheat with broad-headed hoes.〔Song, 30.〕 In another chapter, The Preparation of Grains, he also provided illustrations for rolling rice grains with a wooden ox-drawn roller,〔Song, 84〕 a crank-operated rotary-fan winnowing machine that separated husks,〔Song, 85.〕 a hand-operated wooden hulling mill,〔Song, 87.〕 a hand-operated earthen hulling machine,〔Song, 88.〕 a process of sieving to separate husk-free grains,〔Song, 89.〕 two types of foot-operated trip hammers,〔Song, 91-92.〕 a hydraulic-powered trip hammer powered by a waterwheel that rotated an axle of overhead cams,〔Song, 93.〕 a horse-drawn hulling mill,〔Song, 96.〕 an oxen-drawn grinding mill,〔Song, 98.〕 a grinding mill operated by a vertical waterwheel,〔Song, 99.〕 and a rolling mill operated by a horizontal waterwheel, the waterwheel placed in a rushing current found under a wooden deck that rotated the axle of the stone roller above within the interior of a building.〔Song, 103.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tiangong Kaiwu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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