Shen Kuo · Science
Shen Kuo was not only an observer of nature but a working statesman - reforming the calendar, rebuilding the armillary sphere, measuring the true pole star, casting the first raised-relief maps, managing finance and rivers - before disgrace sent him to a garden to write it all down.
You learned that Shen Kuo reformed the calendar (with Wei Pu), rebuilt the armillary sphere and found the pole star lay more than three degrees from the true pole, proposed a purely-solar calendar centuries ahead of its time, invented the raised-relief map, and served across finance, defence, and hydraulics - then wro…
Leads to Zhang Heng.
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