指南针——开启海洋的发明

English

The compass completed the system of the Four Great Inventions. Paper provided the medium for knowledge; printing multiplied it; gunpowder changed the application of force. The compass changed direction — literally. By providing a reliable means of determining orientation regardless of weather, time, or visibility, it made sustained open-ocean navigation possible, and thereby made possible the global interconnection of civilizations that defines the modern world.

中文

指南针完成了四大发明的系统。纸张提供了知识的媒介；印刷术使其倍增；火药改变了力量的应用。指南针改变了方向——字面意义上的。通过提供一种不受天气、时间或能见度影响的可靠定向手段，它使持续的大洋航行成为可能，并由此使定义现代世界的文明间全球相互联系成为可能。

From Spoon to Needle

从勺到针

English
The Chinese discovery of the directional property of magnetite (lodestone) predates the navigational compass by more than a thousand years. The earliest magnetic instrument was not a compass but a divination tool: a spoon carved from lodestone that, on a smooth bronze plate, would rotate to point south. This was the sinan, used in geomantic practice rather than navigation. The transition to the needle compass occurred during the Tang and Song dynasties. By the 11th century, Shen Kuo (who also recorded Bi Sheng’s movable type) described a magnetized needle floating on water or suspended from a thread, capable of indicating south consistently. The navigational use of the compass in Chinese maritime practice is documented from the 12th century.

中文
中国发现磁铁矿的定向特性比导航指南针早一千多年。最早的中国磁性仪器不是指南针，而是占卜工具：一把用磁石雕刻的勺子，放置在光滑的青铜盘上，会旋转指向南方。这就是司南，用于风水实践而非导航。从司南到针式指南针的转变发生在唐宋时期。到十一世纪，沈括（也记录了毕昇的活字印刷）描述了浮在水面或用线悬挂的磁化针，能够持续指示南方。指南针在中国海上实践中的导航使用记录于十二世纪。

The Compass in European Hands

传入西方与大航海时代

English
The compass reached Europe through the Islamic world by the 12th century. European navigators, equipped with the compass, could sail through the Mediterranean in winter and poor weather, and more importantly, venture into the open Atlantic with confidence in maintaining direction. The consequences are among the most significant in history: the Portuguese rounding of Africa and the sea route to India; Columbus’s Atlantic crossing and the encounter with the Americas; Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe. Each depended on the compass — on knowing where north was in the middle of an ocean with no landmarks. The irony that the compass, developed in China, became the instrument through which European powers opened trade routes that eventually reached China from the outside, is a striking instance of a technology’s consequences exceeding its inventors’ expectations.

中文
指南针在十二世纪通过伊斯兰世界传入欧洲。配备指南针的欧洲航海者，能够在冬天和恶劣天气中在地中海航行，更重要的是，以足够的信心驶入大西洋，维持方向的能力使持续的大洋航行成为可能。其后果是人类历史上最重要的之一：葡萄牙人绕行非洲并开辟通往印度的海路；哥伦布横渡大西洋与美洲的相遇；麦哲伦环绕地球的航行。这些都依赖于指南针——在四面八方都没有地标的大洋中间知道北方在哪里。指南针，在中国发展出来，最终成为欧洲列强开辟从外部到达中国的贸易路线的工具——这种讽刺是技术后果超越其发明者预期的显著例证。

The Four Inventions as a System

四大发明：一个完整的系统

English
Francis Bacon identified printing, gunpowder, and the compass as the three inventions that most profoundly changed the world. Paper, the fourth, is the substrate on which the effects of all three depend: printing requires paper; written records of gunpowder’s chemistry and navigational charts require paper. The four inventions form a system — a set of technologies that, in combination, created the conditions for the global exchange of knowledge, force, and orientation that characterizes modernity. All four originated in China, traveled westward through the Islamic world, and were adopted by European civilization in ways that transformed the world — including the civilization that originated them. Significant technology moves beyond its context; its consequences belong to no single tradition.

中文
弗朗西斯·培根将印刷术、火药和指南针确定为最深刻改变世界的三项发明。纸张，第四项，是所有三项效果赖以存在的基底：印刷需要纸张；火药化学成分的书面记录和航海图需要纸张。四大发明形成一个系统——一套技术，结合起来，创造了定义现代性的全球知识、力量和方向交换的条件。四项全部起源于中国，通过伊斯兰世界向西传播，被欧洲文明采用并以改变世界的方式应用——包括最终改变了起源它们的文明。重要技术超越了其发明背景，其后果不属于任何单一传统。

The Compass 指南针