《张衡地动仪文献蠡读》补论——兼论文献与科技史模拟试验的关系

Additional Discussion on Selected Readings of Ancient Literature Concerning Zhang Heng's Seismograph with a Discourse on the Relation Between Literature and Simulated Test

研究表明,在复原研究地动仪时,袁宏的《后汉纪》中的相关内容应作为首选文献,而《后汉纪》提供的信息表明,张衡的地动仪很可能原理正确,但反应失灵。通过对历史上“京师地震”和“陇西地震”文献记载的分析,进一步否定了用公元143年陇西地震来测试地动仪的可能性。在科学史模拟试验和复原研究中,文献与模拟试验之间存在着一种无奈的张力关系,其可靠性与所研究问题的学科属性密切相关。

Based on the author＇s research,while studying and reproducing a seismograph, the relevant content of Yuan Hong＇s Hou Han Ji （ Record of the Later Han Dynasty） should be the first literature to be selected, and the information from the Hou Han Ji indicates that the axiom of Zhang Heng＇s seismograph is quite correct, but it fails to work effectively. Through analysis of the literature about the earthquake in West Gansu and the earthquake in the Capital in history, the possibility of using the West Gansu earthquake that occurred in AD 143 to test seismograph＇s function is denied again. In the simulated test and reproduction research of history of science,between literature and simulated test there exists the relation of unavoidable tension,whose authenticity is closely related to the disciplinary property of a problem under study.