Inquiry & Craft

The foundation of ancient mathematics, building the logic of traditional Chinese number.

Two hundred forty-six problems in nine chapters from the Han — a wellspring of mathematics standing beside Euclid.

The encyclopedia of Northern Song science: astronomy, geography, craft and letters, nothing left out.

By Shen Kuo — hailed by Joseph Needham as "a landmark in the history of Chinese science."

The encyclopedia of Chinese making: a complete record of ancient farming and industry.

By Song Yingxing — the world’s first comprehensive book of production technology.

A thousand-year treasury of agriculture: the folk wisdom of production, food and livelihood.

By Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei — the earliest and most complete extant agricultural treatise.

The official building code: the engineering-aesthetic standard of Chinese timber architecture.

Compiled by Li Jie of the Song with its material-module system — the cornerstone of Chinese architectural science.

The great synthesis of the pharmacopoeia: the life properties of plants, minerals and stones, set in order.

Li Shizhen’s twenty-seven years of labor: 1,892 substances — an Eastern encyclopedia even Darwin cited.