Many recent names of aerospace technologies in my country are related to traditional cultural symbols.
For example, the lunar exploration project has "Chang'e" and "Jade Rabbit", the sun exploration project has "Xihe", my country's self-built navigation system is called "Beidou", my country's self-built space station is named "Tiangong", and my country's planetary exploration mission is named For the "Tianwen series", the first Mars exploration mission was named "Tianwen-1", the first Mars rover was named "Zhu Rong", and the dark matter particle detection satellite launched by my country was named "Wukong".
The names of these technological things sound very "appropriate".
Because behind these symbols lies the magnificent and romantic imagination of the ancient Chinese about the world and the universe.
"Tianwen" comes from Qu Yuan's work "Tianwen".
In this work, Qu Yuan is like roaming in space in a spaceship, sending out a series of "heavenly questions" about the vast universe of Hongmeng: "There are nine layers in the circle, who should guard it?" Legend has it that there are nine layers in the sky. Who designed the plan?
"What is the merit of this, who did it in the first place?" Who was the first to carry out the construction of such a large project in Jiuzhongtian?
"On the occasion of the Nine Heavens, where is the genus placed?" How big is the Nine Heavens on the plane, where did it reach, and where did it connect?
Furthermore, before the formation of heaven and earth, what was it like?
How did people first identify the chaotic celestial phenomena in the sky?
Stellar objects that don't move, where are the ropes that tie them?
Where did their light go?
Where are the eight pillars that support the sky?
Why does the sky lean to the northwest and the ground sinks to the southeast?
Where is the place where heaven and earth meet?
How do the sun and moon move, and how are the stars displayed?
How far does the sun go in a day?
How are the zodiac signs divided?
Why does the moon have rounds and gaps, and what are the black spots in the moon?
Why is it dark when the gate of heaven is closed?
Why is it dawn when the gate of heaven opens?
According to Qu Yuan's description of the problem, it can be seen that this Jiuzhong Tiangong has a gate of heaven. One of the twenty-eight stars, Spica, has two stars. The sun, moon and planets often pass near these two stars, so these two stars regarded as the gate of heaven.
In addition, there seem to be countless corners and corners in this Jiuzhong Tiangong, and these places are also full of unknowns, "There are many Yukuma, who knows how many?"
"Heavenly Palace" originated from the ancients' imagination of the heavenly world.
The pre-Qin classic "Lushi Spring and Autumn" divides the sky into nine parts like the earth.
The "nine days" are also divided vertically, with a total of nine floors from low to high.
The reason why it is "nine" may be related to the worship of "nine" in ancient China.
"Nine" in "Book of Changes" is the extreme number of yang.
Later, under the influence of the thirty-three days of Buddhism, we had the imagination of the "Thirty-Three Palaces" in the sky.
In "Journey to the West", the first time Sun Wukong went to heaven, the author described the environment of the heavenly palace from the perspective of Sun Wukong: "When you first entered the world, you first entered heaven. See that Nantianmen, blue and deep, made of colored glaze; bright guo, made of precious jade.... There are thirty-three heavenly palaces in this sky, including the Cloud Palace, Bisha Palace, Wuming Palace, Taiyang Palace, Huale Palace... ... One palace palace ridge swallows golden stable beasts; there are seventy-two treasure halls, which are Chaohui Hall, Lingxu Hall, Baoguang Hall, Tianwang Hall, Lingguan Hall... One hall is lined with jade unicorns."
According to the description of the novel, there are seventy-two treasure halls on this "space station" composed of thirty-three palaces, and the purpose of the treasure halls is different.
The main body, Lingxiao Palace, is equivalent to the "core warehouse" of the space station.
The Tongming Hall is equivalent to the "node warehouse" of the space station.
The node warehouse is mainly responsible for the docking of visiting spacecraft.
In the Tiangong world imagined by the ancients, the Tongming Hall is such a docking waiting area.
"Journey to the West" records that after Sun Wukong "snatched" the golden hoop stick in the East China Sea, the Dragon King went to the Jade Emperor to file a complaint, and his subordinates said to the Jade Emperor: "Long live, outside the Tongming Hall, there is the Dragon King of the East China Sea, Ao Guang, who enters the watch, and listens to Tianzun. Announcement." It can be seen that when the Dragon King ascends to the Heavenly Palace, he must first "connect" in the Tongming Hall.
We are now entering space, relying on manned spacecraft.
There are various ways of "going to the sky" in the imagination of the ancients. For example, "Huainanzi: Yuan Daoxun" records a "spaceship": "In the past, Feng Yi and Da Bing Zhi Yu also took a cloud car and entered the cloud. neon; wandering in the mist, oblivious to the past; passing through the frost and snow without a trace, shining with sunlight but without sight; swaying up the horns, brokering the mountains and rivers, walking through the Kunlun Mountains; rowing and closing the gate of heaven ." It was said that there was a Lei Gong car that used six clouds as horses, galloping in the vast space, and it could fly to infinity, the horse would walk through frost and snow without leaving a trace, and the sun would shine on the body without shadows. You can fly up with the big whirlwind, you can go to Kunlun, and you can go to the Tianmen of Tiangong.
"Huainanzi" also records a sacred tree: "Jianmu is in Duguang, and all the emperors go up and down." This means that in the center of the earth, there is a big tree called Jianmu, and the gods rely on the gods here. The tree rises to the sky.
In legends, there are gods who ride various mythical beasts to the sky. For example, it is said that the Yellow Emperor ascended to the sky on a dragon.
Then there are all kinds of imaginations, such as somersaults.
Unlike the Western "Superman" who can fly by himself, in the "science fiction" world of the ancients of China, flying is required.
Zhuangzi also said: "Fu Liezi walks against the wind, and it is good. He will turn back after five days in ten days. Those who bring blessings are not counted. Although this is avoided, there are still people who are treated." Waiting for something" means "serving something", that is, having something to rely on.
"Metaverse" has become popular recently. There is also a story similar to "Metaverse" in "Liezi": a man in the state of Zheng was chopping firewood in the wild and encountered a frightened deer being chased by a hunter.
The woodcutter ran over and killed it and got the deer.
The woodcutter was worried that the hunters would come and snatch him, so he hid the deer and continued to chop wood.
After a while, he looked for the deer again, suddenly forgetting where he was hiding.
In a trance, I suspected that I might have had a dream just now, that I might have wanted to get a deer too much, and the plots of catching a deer and hiding a deer were just my own fantasy.
The woodcutter muttered to himself as he thought.
His words happened to be heard by a passerby, and the passerby searched according to his words and found a deer.
After taking the deer home, he told his wife about it.
The wife said, did you dream that a woodcutter got a deer?
Are there really woodcutters?
Husband said, anyway, I really have a deer now, it doesn't matter if he is a woodcutter or I dream of a woodcutter!
After the woodcutter returned, he was unwilling to lose the deer.
In a dream at night, I actually dreamed of the place where the deer were hidden, and I also dreamed that the deer was finally taken away by a passerby.
After dawn, according to the clues in the dream, he actually found the person who took the deer.
The two quarreled over the deer and ended up in court.
For the sci-fi imagination of space, there is a kind of empty earth in the West, which believes that the interior of the earth is empty and there is another world.
The movie "Godzilla vs. Kong" was presumably based on this theory, envisioning a space in the earth's crust.
In fact, the ancient Chinese had a similar imagination.
Of course, not the underworld.
"Bo Yizhi" in the Tang Dynasty recorded that a worker was digging a well in the backyard. As a result, after two years of digging, there was no water for more than a thousand feet, and after more than a month, the worker suddenly heard cocks and dogs barking in the ground. With a sound, he continued to dig a few feet down, and a stone hole appeared on the wall of the well.
The worker went in through the entrance of the cave. There was a mountain at the end of the cave. The worker went down from the entrance of the cave, stood up straight and saw that he came to another world.
There are palaces made of gold and silver, many big trees with leaves like banana leaves, purple flowers as big as plates, and many colorful butterflies with wings as big as fans flying among the flowers.
There are also many "science fiction" themes of "time and space travel" in ancient China. For example, there are many such stories in "The Complete Biography of the Immortals" and "You Ming Lu".
The TV series "Looking for Qin Ji" tells the story of a modern person who travels to the Qin Dynasty.
In fact, during the Tang Dynasty, there was a novel about people from the Tang Dynasty who traveled to the Qin Dynasty. This is "Qin Meng Ji".
In the early years of Taihe in the Tang Dynasty, a man named Shen Yazhi had a dream in the guest house, dreaming of returning to the Qin Dynasty.
Duke Mu of Qin asked about the best way to strengthen the country, and he responded with the methods of Kun Peng (referring to the virtuous rulers of Kunwu and Dapeng in the ancient state of Xia and Shang) and Qi Huan (referring to Duke Huan of Qi, the leader of the five hegemons in the Spring and Autumn Period). Cut Hexi.
Shen Yazhi lived up to expectations and captured five cities in Jin.
Duke Mu of Qin was very happy and married the princess Nongyu to him. From then on, he entered and exited the palace and walked steadily.
Suddenly, the princess made a violent death, and Shen Yazhi said goodbye to Duke Mu of Qin in order to leave the sad place.
Duke Mu of Qin ordered someone to send him outside Hangu Pass.
After exiting the customs, the officials who saw him off said, Duke Qin ordered us to stay here until now, and we will go back now.
Yazhi said goodbye to them, and before the farewell was over, he woke up and found himself still lying in the guest house.
In ancient literary works, in addition to "traversing" to the past, there are also "travelling" to the future, such as the story of Wang Zhilanke, the story of Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao entering the Tiantai Mountains, and the fairy tale in "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai" Island", "Lord of the West Lake", etc.
There are many ancient "science fiction" recorded in the classics.
For example, the self-driving vehicle recorded in the "Huainanzi" of the Han Dynasty, "the car does not move but lifts itself, and the horse does not make it and moves on its own."
The "Five Miscellaneous Groups" of the Ming Dynasty recorded many mirrors: it is said that in the Zhou Dynasty, there was a fire and a mirror, "in the dark, it is like the day", in a dark place, the reflection in the mirror is the same as what you see in the daytime, which is equivalent to today's night vision Mirror, when you speak to the mirror, the shadow in the mirror will answer, which is equivalent to the voice function on the mobile phone; the Qin Dynasty had the Qin Fang Mirror, which is said to be able to see people's hearts, and Ye Fashan of the Tang Dynasty had an iron mirror that could Seeing people's sick places is equivalent to the current CT.
In the story about the Eight Immortals in the Ming Dynasty, it was said that Lu Dongbin had a sword. As long as he read the name of the enemy to the sword, the sword could find and kill the enemy by himself, which is equivalent to the current precision-guided missile.
There is a bamboo pipe recorded in Xuzibuyu, you speak to it, the voice can be recorded, and then can be sent to a distant place and played to distant friends. This can be said to be the "prototype of tape recorder or WeChat ".
For ancient books, people of each era have different concerns and aesthetic orientations.
For the ancient books, the predecessors may have paid more attention to their educational function and social significance, but when I read these books now, I pay more attention to the brain holes opened by the ancients.
These stories are very interesting, and I wrote some of them into a book "China in Symbols", which has been published by Zhonghua Book Company.
These spiritual treasures left by the ancients have different echoes in different times.
Today, traditional cultural symbols are used as the names of various technological things, which reflects the strong charm and vitality of our traditional culture.
(Author: Zhao Yuntao Unit: School of Chinese, University of International Business and Economics)